New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!
“HOSTILE BOARDING PARTIES DETECTED!”
The words were louder even than the blaring sirens, as Iago rushed towards the armory.
His team was not meant for combat, he knew. But they could fight – and the breaching pod had smashed into the ship near their area of operation.
Two of his people had been killed.
As soon as word had come that pods were inbound, he’d given orders to pull his team out. But Conrad and Pavlov had been too slow, dragging between them an injured crewman.
It had been brave to try and save him. But it had cost them their lives.
And now he was seeing red.
They had no weapons, but an armory was near, and as he reached it, he saw it was locked. He sent his command codes – and the door did not open.
He looked at his system – the room was empty. There was no Armorer.
“Blast your eyes!” he yelled. “Who the hell abandons their post!?” He pounded on the door, all his confusion, anxiety, and fear pouring into his words.
“I’m here!” he heard a rumbling voice, and turned back to see a large Abmon trundling as fast as it could. “I’m sorry, I was helping another team-“
“Just open the fiscing doors!” Iago screamed at him. “We have enemy espatiers boarding!”
The Abmon got the doors open, and Iago rushed in. He tried his codes, but found that they’d been shut down, and had to wait as the Abmon unlocked the weapons safes.
Kessissiin was right behind him, and Iago tossed him a rifle. “Pass these out to the rest of the team!”
His comm blasted in his ear.
“We have contact with enemy boarders,” the voice said. It was Pirra.
Her breathing was so loud in her ears.
She was only aware of it in moments when she was not yelling orders or the fire was not so loud, but there was never a moment of silence.
Chemicals pumped through her veins, putting her in a state more heightened than even adrenaline in a human. Her heart rate per minute was almost 250, high for her kind but not so high she was in danger.
It was to be expected in combat.
And she could think icily clearly.
All ordinary thoughts were gone; as alien to her as any being from another planet.
She just commanded, because that was her job.
“Fire team two left!” she barked, her throat hurting from the shouting – not even necessary through helmets connected by radio, but it was automatic.
The Hev were driving straight for Reactor Five, counting on speed to succeed. But their moves were obvious, the goal predictable, and both her own mind and the tactical simulators did not see any significant likelihood of them altering that.
Her Fire Team One would block them. Fire Team Two would come around from behind them.
Pincer, destroy, move on. Fire Team Three was in reserve.
Alarms rose from her drone cloud ahead of her; contact.
It was not even combat yet, at the smallest level their drone squad were essentially just floating sensors, no intelligence or ability to fight. They encountered the Hev advance drones seconds later.
Technologically, the P’G’Maig were so far behind them. The had simple and crude firearms, their drones large and clunky in comparison.
But at close range a bullet could still hit a lucky spot and kill any one of them.
The firing drone lines engaged; hers fired first, quicker to get target lock. Their drones firing back. This was their assault wave, ready to burst through a defensive line and clear a path. For each shot of her drones, they fired seven. Yet hers outnumbered theirs.
They still managed to force the first wave, but it cost them valuable ammo. Her side had more, and if they could bring it to bear, then the Hev would lose.
At least with this wave. If there was a second, a twentieth, a two hundredth, then eventually they’d fire every single bullet on the Craton, every potential bullet would have been made, and they’d lose.
No time to think on that, and she shoved the thought aside.
“Contact!” Kiseleva yelled. The Hev had come around a corner, firing.
Bullets were intercepted by guardian drones, their own shots intercepting those that would have killed her. A veritable wall of fire from each side met, grinding against each other.
Small bits of shrapnel from shattered bullets pinged off her armor. A dusting of it began to cover the walls and floor.
No one needed the order to fire. They already were.
Her rifle was in her shoulder without a thought and she was aiming, firing. Where the Hev drones were focused on offense, their Guardian drones were few in number. After her first couple bursts were intercepted, she saw her next punch through the armor of the opposing squad leader, and he slumped to the floor without drama.
She took fresh aim and fired. Another Hev, this one recklessly charging, took it and fell forward. The third took several bursts to stop. Others fell.
She heard “I’m hit!” from her team, but she was the point of the lance of battle and the medic drones were already indicating they were moving in.
She kept firing. A round somehow got through her guardian fire and pinged her shoulder, but she shrugged it off.
More Hev fell. Fire Team Two was taking them out from behind, as planned.
In a few moments her sensors were blaring an all-clear.
“Hold fire!” she ordered, raising a hand.
Her breathing was so loud in her helmet.
“Confirmed Hev vanguard down in Layer 1, Section 5,” she signalled to command. It was acknowledged, and she received further orders.
“Regroup,” she said. “Fire Team Two, advance to Hev breaching pod to disable and disarm.”
It was expected that when the drop pod detected all its soldiers as being down it would detonate. It was what she would expect, at least. Not only was it some consolation, but would rip a larger gash into the hull that further waves of boarders could exploit.
Right now she knew the Craton’s powerful computer system had probably breached their security and was mimicking that their espatiers were still alive.
Fire Team Two acknowledged and moved closer. She gathered her fire team and moved forward, sending Team Three instructions of where to go for support.
Other Terrestrial 
One thought on “Episode 6 – Diplomatic Maneuvers, part 42”
Comments are closed.