The Rally
Posted on 05 Mar 2021 @ 3:12pm by Staff Sergeant Kyle Zebrov & Corporal Syimmi & Corporal Eric Minton & Corporal Pax
Edited on on 06 Apr 2021 @ 11:24am
Mission:
M1 - Emergence
Location: Engineering Corridors
Timeline: shortly after "Combat Engineering"
1373 words - 2.7 OF Standard Post Measure
After a half hour of intense firefights and the sometimes confusing and conflicting actions of a hot conflict, Pax’s nerves were worn to a fray; Syimmi could tell by the way the half-grazerite’s nose and lip twitched intermittently. Pax sported the standard humanoid formed EVA suit, except for the helmet, which had been fitted for her horns. Pax wasn’t the typical peace loving Grazerite despite her name — or maybe in line with it, considering how the Romans of old had taken to the idea of peace through strength— but she still had a thread of the prey species dna that wound tightly in her, pulling on her flight instinct against her hell bent determination. At the moment, Pax was leaned against a wall, counting her charges left on her phase rifle. She’d spent her last pressure grenade trying to take out as many of the members of one of the boarding parties as she could in a bottle neck. Once she was out of phaser power? Hell, she’d be down to her vibro blade.
Syimmi— who was one of a six legged bug-like species called the Orul— had a unique perspective on her fire team while gripping the ceiling and silently moving ahead on point to try to clear this corridor. They had been helter skelter dealing with the dozen or so heavily laden transports that had breached the station, but as the boarding parties advanced, they actually made it more difficult for themselves, because the Marine forces became more concentrated on the central defense of Main Engineering.
Syimmi hated working in EVA. Even though her specialized suit was perfectly flexible, what it limited was her sense of smell. She almost could rely exclusively on that well honed sense, and being without it felt frustratingly limiting.
Two other figures moved below Syimmi, like a well practiced game of leapfrog, one around the other, opening and clearing doorways and regressed portions of the passages just outside of Engineering. As the chief Engineer had set out to lend aid, the atmosphere in the corridors surrounding Engineering had been vented a few minutes ago, and so the horde had been thinned down to just those foresightful enough to have attended the boarding party in the right attire. Some of those best prepared boarders even proved to be wearing personal cloaking devices and energy shields. Unfortunately those who came the most outfitted, also came best trained. The tension of not knowing where their enemy might be nested now was wearying. Neither the broader man nor the younger one spoke, as they advanced, interested as they were in keeping stealthy. They all moved with lights off, working from built in EVA suit night vision and thermal imaging.
Syimmi paused, and so did the rest of her team in turn. She saw a slight motion at the juncture, maybe of a figure ducking back, and waved one of her secondary arms to indicate such. It was Sergeant Kyle Zebrov’s call as team lead if they should take up a defensive stance or move in.
Zebrov had a different intuition though and, putting an arm across Pax to keep her from jumping the gun, he then waved Syimmi over.
The younger Marine, one Corporal Eric Minton, had his rifle ready and was set for a repeat performance of their continuing string of engagements. He listened to his own heavy breathing inside the helmet. What the blazes was Zebrov waiting for? If Minton had been team lead, he would have already gotten the jump. In all likelihood their narrow window of advantage was already closed as the enemy target was likely on to them as well and now they’d be stuck in a waiting game and a flat face off. What was Zebrov doing?
Thinking was what he was doing. Some heavy thinking under his thick brow. Up until now they’d been confronting everything they were met with. But Zebrov had the sense that everything had just been quiet for too long. Like his wife always said when their twin preschool daughters hadn’t been disruptive for a couple of hours— if things were too quiet, it was a very bad sign of trouble brewing. Likely as not daddy’s little spitfires were conspiring some place. It had been more than ten minutes of clearing halls now and his team had come across nothing. Which meant either they’d run outta strays to pick off, or the strays had all been moving steadily away this whole time, maybe even regrouping. If that was the case, he could be walking his team into some bad business.
He needed a better picture.
When Syimmi moved in, Zebrov linked displays with her and then, with the assisted optics of the HUD displays, looked her in the alien, faceted compound eyes. It was difficult to read from those eyes if she understood, except that she blinked slowly, with a kind of human-like comprehension that Zebrov had learned she did when something was processing.
She discerned that she was being told to scout.
Nothing if not unquestioningly obedient, she moved ahead, re-ascending the ceiling. The paneling had many seams and fixtures to accommodate her grippy feet; she wore no boots as such, just her six specially articulated gloves responding to each extension and allowing for her intuitive adhesion and release with assisted magnetics. It being dark as it was, she soon disappeared from view.
Zebrov’s HUD displayed Syimmi’s point of view and he adapted to the inverted perspective. The signal flickered, but was relevant enough. Around the corner the corridor widened at a sizable engineering staging outlet beside some oversized maintenance lifts. His heart jumped as the thermals on the scans started glowing and the place was lit with bodies, multiplying as they shimmied out of the shafts like so many rats pouring out of the sewers. Zebrov typed a single letter onto the shared display.
“R”
Corporal Syimmi beat feet, all six of them, full reverse.
When Zebrov motioned for the team to move back the way they came, Minton and Pax took a moment to recover from disbelief. They literally didn’t get the picture, but whatever it was, it spooked Zebrov into complete backtrack, and Minton wasn’t going to question orders. Just try to put it together as they went.
Pax took up the end of the recessional through the corridor and kept an eye over their shoulders for whatever it was that had spooked the leader.
Zebrov stopped them and Pax felt herself collide into Minton as she was backpedaling to cover their tail.
She swallowed a swear. The hell was Zebrov stopping for now?
Zebrov pointed Syimmi in another direction and when she came back, Zebrov lead down a narrow passage into a maintenance overlook connecting back to Main Engineering from whence they had initially come. The lights here were on a dull emergency setting and their HUDs readjusted automatically.
“Get on the shortwave with Captain Finn.” Zebrov told Minton.
“And tell him what, Sir?”
“The incursion force is regrouping in both the maintenance lift lobbies outside of section Gamma-six, maybe others on the same deck. They’re going to make one big bum rush on Engineering.”
“That is front assault. These cannot hope of making through it.” Syimmi said to Pax, her strangely irrhythmic wording (faster and slower in all the wrong places) and soft voice (so rarely used as it was) always carried a line of clicking under it. Syimmi was sure that this rag tag force would be cut down by the Marines far more organized efforts. Minton was already on the radio, transmitting the message to Captain Finn.
“What choice have we left them?” Pax shrugged. “Commander Quinn has the passages back to their transports sealed off. The only hope they have out again is what they came for— winning Engineering. Don’t underestimate cornered animals. They’re going to be desperate mofos instead of just throwing in the towel and taking three squares in a windowless cell.”
When Minton had finished on the radio, Zebrov started the team moving again. They would rejoin the perimeter guard and start preparing for the inevitable.
