Divine Intervention
Posted on 05 Mar 2021 @ 4:27pm by Major Declan Finn & Corporal Syimmi
Edited on on 05 Mar 2021 @ 4:37pm
Mission:
M1 - Emergence
Location: Outside of Main Engineering
Timeline: Following "Green Shield"
1450 words - 2.9 OF Standard Post Measure
“Kaplan, do you copy?!”
“Copy, Finn. What the hell’s happening?!” Staff Sergeant Kaplan answered from within Main Engineering. If Finn had a guess, the Marine was drawn in tight on the main entrance wondering what all the commotion was.
“Full-scale counteroffensive. Seal yourself in, Staff Sergeant. We’ll hold the perimeter!”
“Copy, Finn. You heard him Takahashi, seal the damn hatch!” Kaplan’s feed faded out as Finn surged forward, glancing to his left at Syimmi.
Syimmi was scaling a ladder backwards while aiming two pistols, her head steady as she fired in completely different directions simultaneously, a trick only possible with her compound vision. One of her marks flew backwards with the impact of the shot in the helmet, the other, demarcated with more red lines in the ranking stripes, was lit up by every shot, but not affected. The way the phaser fire deflected in planar shapes, the technology had obviously been adapted from the borg in some kind of reverse karma of the universe. The ranked mercenary began firing back and Syimmi rolled to the right before the ladder was cut down. Holstering her sidearms, she leapt off the wall and yanked a steam hose loose with her gloved foot; the effect of the steam didn’t penetrate their EVA suits so much as blind the target as Syimmi got close enough to grab him by the head with her top most arms and counter twist by the shoulders with her secondary arms to drop him. Before the body hit the deck, she fell back to Finn, redrawing her side arms.
Finn waved for Syimmi to withdraw behind him as he plucked a plasma grenade off his armor and pulled the pin. “Fall back to second posi-,” he started to yell at the moment a Klingon mercenary that seemed far larger than should have been possible plowed into Finn at the same time his companion charged at Syimmi, who scrambled backwards faster than he’d expected. The grenade in Finn’s hand hit the deck a foot away. Meanwhile, the Klingon mercenary lifted Finn up by his webgear, snarling through the glass of his helm. But Finn’s attention wasn’t on him, it was on the grenade rolling live on the deck. In a fit of desperation, he kicked out with his feet right between the Klingon’s legs. His boot thunked uselessly against his lower armor. The Klingon looked down at his foot at the same time Finn did, their gazes coming up to meet one anothers at the same time. Snarling the Klingon threw Declan bodily across the deck towards Syimmi. Finn hit the deck and immediately turned and tucked into a ball seconds before the plasma grenade detonated. The blast sent the Klingon into the bulkhead behind him but, incredibly, he was still alive though his suit was venting atmosphere.
No doubt realizing that he was dead already, he turned to Finn laying prostrate on the ground and drew the disruptor on his leg with a flourish, savoring the moment. Declan shuffled quickly forward on his butt and slammed his heel into the Klingon’s knee. It gave him enough time to get back to his feet and draw his own sidearm, pointing it at him the same moment he recovered and pointed his disruptor at Finn. They stared at each other for the tiniest of moments, the shorter Finn looking up at the hulking Klingon venting atmosphere from his EVA suit. It was that brief moment before an action that seemed to last an eternity, both waiting for the other to act. For Finn, it was the knowledge that holding him here like this kept his fellows from advancing down the corridor, giving his Marines a chance to settle in. He had no idea why the Klingon hadn’t shot yet. At this range, his shot would bore right through his helmet.
The Klingon seemed to be relishing it once again and finally surged his hand up to shoot, but as he did he seemed to phase out of existence for a moment like he was being transported, and then was put right back where he’d been. Only now, the weapon was gone. Finn looked at the Klingon’s hand, cocking his head curiously. The Klingon looked at his hand, confused and then they looked at one another.
Finn smirked and fired his pistol right through the middle of the Klingon’s helmet and turned on his heel, hurrying to get behind cover before the body hit the deck.
Syimmi, having unfortunately so jostled Finn earlier while successfully side stepping the lurch of an Orion mercenary, had latched onto the back of her would-be attacker and ridden piggy back briefly while trying to find the catch on his suit helmet to expose him. He twisted, and tried to crunch his new rider against a wall, which had no affect on her carapace underneath. She loosed his helmet and yanked it away like she’d wrested a ball in play from him; while he fell to his knees gasping, Syimmi stood over him from behind. She looked up in time to see the explosion of the grenade, however, which propelled part of the plating— a twisted blade of which was left standing embedded through Syimmi’s chest.
Although the shrapnel did penetrate the exoskeleton, she had no vital organ in her upper chest with which to be concerned, though the feeling was somewhat shocking. She looked down at it while her suit alerted her to the danger of exposure. While she was so distracted, she failed to witness the Captain’s peril and unexpected break. When she looked up again, she was encircled on three sides and she expected no mercy.
“In dying, life giving.” She recited the last line of a much beloved Orul nursery rhyme.
Only the rifles they leveled never fired, and the forms began to shimmer. She blinked one slow blink and realized that someone, somewhere, was giving her a new advantage. She bounded past their frozen forms as their weapons dematerialized, returning faithfully to the Captain.
Captain Finn waved Syimmi on past him to where 1st squad had fallen back to their secondary positions, shooting out from his brief cover to get Corporal Ingstrom’s attention across from him. He rapped on the man’s EVA helm to get him to turn, “Tell all positions to prepare to fallback to emergency positions,” he ordered. The man didn’t reply, just kept his attention on the long gun he was trying to aim down the corridor. “Ingstrom, you hear me?” Finn rapped again on him. This time though, it was enough to dislodge the man from his spot and his body fell back on the deck to show the gaping hole through the front glass of his helmet.
Finn sighed, aware that he had no time to spare to mourn the Corporal. Instead he matter-of-factly grabbed his rifle off his chest and the long-gun from the spot he’d been taking aim from and hurried down the corridor to 1st squads position. He tossed the long-gun to Private Bigelow and found cover behind more storage crates with Syimmi, who was busy with some spray foam around her new chest ornament.
“Our guardian transport angel out there just bought us some time,” Finn said, taking a moment to catch his breath. Looking down the way he’d come he could see their enemy retreating in earnest. “Lafell, Corinth,” he waved forward, “Get to 3rd and 4th squad. Pass the word. Dig in tight. They’ll get inhibitors up and we’ll be back to defending these positions soon enough. Grab every spare bit of kit you can on your way. We may need it,” he ordered. Both Marines nodded and hurried out of cover to go and carry the word. Finn shuffled over to where Corinth had been behind a spent fusion core and a series of heavy looking crates. Watching them go, he saw Lafell stop by the Klingon he’d killed and take a few plasma charges off his belt.
“You ok?” he asked, looking back to Syimmi repairing her EVA suit.
“I think, maybe, yes. If this holds.” She was unable to see over the bottom rim of her suit helmet to observe her own chest plate and tell if the rubberized spray was setting properly. There was no air for it to react with and she was unsure if that was a problem. “Is sticking, yes?”
“Looks good from here, if your levels are holding, you’re good. Least of our problems right now,” Finn answered, nervously looking back down the passage.
