Once Mira and Eric cleared the passageway together, they formed back on Corporal Hauer and began their wedge. The fire team made it about fifteen feet when they came upon a doorway on their left. After Eric used his helmet cameras to worm the door, Corporal Hauer sent in a combat drone in a search and destroy pattern. Once the drone reported back to the section team leader, the fire team followed in.
“Corporal Hauer, we need to secure our rear,” said Eric when he realized nobody had manned the door to stop someone from following them into the room or trapping them there. How many more have to die before Blythe starts acting like a seasoned Marine and not some frakking Cadet? Didn’t losing half of her section wake her up? This is what happens when Jotuns pick yes men over competency.
“Roger, Thalberg, you’ve got the rear. Understood, Aux Candidate.”
Corporal Hauer sounded angrier than he’d ever heard her, pissed that she’d forgotten something and that it’d needed Eric to point it out to her. She thinks being out by myself, guarding the rear, will improve my attitude. Eric constantly saw Blythe being paranoid about others challenging her for her rank. Eric, however, wasn’t one looking to start a competition for Blythe’s hard-won stripes. But damn it, can’t she act like she earned them?
As the rest of the fire team cleared the room, a space whose purpose had yet to be determined, Eric knelt down and scanned the hallway, looking for targets. Unfortunately, he scanned from his ‘ground’ perspective and missed the armored monster kneeling on the ceiling above him. Before his AI had a chance to react, notify Eric of his error, or update his fire team leader, Eric’s life was over. The monster reached down and severed his head, repeating its signature kill strike.
— Chapter 25 —
Deck 7 Sierra: Thrydwulf win Krigaren
After hearing the distinctive sound of these changelings coming out of the tweener, Thrydwulf knew he had to get back to the Kor-Lir command post to protect his signal blocker. The honor of the Clan Krigaren depended on his being the first to successfully defeat the Kor-Lir minions. These monsters couldn’t be allowed to continually thwart the will of Jumalatar without paying for it with their lives.
Thrydwulf knew that this foe wanted to operate from the ‘ground’, which he saw as further proof of their inferiority. Every Ravanac cub knew that the devils fought in the float, where up was down and down was up, and every other variation you could imagine. You had to fight them with the totality of your soul, because these creatures didn’t have one. It was your only advantage. When Thrydwulf found the center of his soul, deep within himself, he had a moment of the divine. Jumalatar guided him to the wisdom that if he fought on the ‘up’ as his ‘down’ he would wade in their impure blood.
After his revelation, Thrydwulf made a quick ward to the Great Good, and took position on the ‘ceiling’ of this evil contraption. Sure enough, the changelings walked above him and he knew that these four monsters were as already dead, though they still had a pulse. When they went into the first room they came to off the main hallway, he thought he might get them all, but they played it smart. However, they did leave the changeling with the spitting stick tied to the string guarding the door.
While the guard began to look around, clearly viewing his area of coverage, Thrydwulf watched and waited. Exactly as had been revealed to him, the changeling didn’t look up when inspecting, so Thrydwulf made his move. With the efficiency born of a life cycle of practice, he reached out with his karau, the short obsidian-bladed weapon, and swiftly cut the head off the devil. He took glee in watching his decapitated head float around, trailing the globules of his life’s fluids in its wake.
Thrydwulf knew that Jumalatar was indeed with him, for another of Kor-Lir’s monsters had died at his blade. He again looked up and saw his body floating there, with hundreds of gelatinous blobs floating around him. He almost laughed at this changeling, whose metal-encased head was floating out into the passageway, leaving a string of dark blood in its wake. With a brief thanks to the Great Good, Thrydwulf vowed to treasure these small moments of his victory over the demons of Kor-Lir.
He knew that fate was on his side, for these pathetic creatures died so easily. In fact, he took a heightened level of pride at the knowledge that he’d dispatched five of these devils already, and he was still able to jam these electronic manifestations of Kor-Lir. Without making a sound, he disappeared around the corner, heading towards the coolant system. It seemed that even the devils’ tools were hotter than the sun and needed special care to exist on the mortal plane.
— Chapter 26 —
Deck 7 Sierra: Alpha Team, 2nd Section
Marine Mira Jones was nervous; she’d watched her friends disappear from the TacScreen one by one without ever seeing an enemy soldier. Despite having her AI update her on what 1st Section had encountered, she was convinced that the station was haunted by some sort of ghoul, like the ones she could vaguely remember her mother telling her about in the crèche. No sooner had she pinged Jason de Wit and passed that fear over, then her private comms were filled with a belly laugh. Apparently, Jason didn’t believe her, in fact he told her she was crazier than a hungry guinshrike.
Mira was pissed, and she began looking around trying to distract herself when she made the horrifying discover of Eric’s body floating amid a slew of gelatinous blood drops. She quickly told her team leader over the LBNet, and began looking for the source of this recently acquired threat. Like automatons, Grenadier de Wit and Corporal Hauer came back together, searching for the threat. Before Mira could fully process what had happened, Blythe came over the fire team network and ordered them to proceed with all haste to secure the most likely source of the jamming device, the CIC. Upon her order, Mira released all the hunter drones she had to robotically clear the rest of the deck.
With surprising haste, the shattered and shaken remnants of 2nd Section made it to the Comms Station room that served as de facto check point for entrance into the CIC. After quickly clearing the room, though not necessarily thoroughly, they proceeded into the hardened and fortified CIC. They searched quickly, as much for the source of the jamming as for the intruder, which was picking them off one by one.
——
Grenadier de Wit was the first to notice the large metal box clamped to the side of one of the communication stations. While not communications experts, they could tell that its construction didn’t appear to match the rest of what was in the CIC. After his AI quickly determined that it was the source of the jammed signal, he loaded an EMP grenade into his tube and fired at it without forethought or warning. In the brief moments of darkness that always followed an EMP grenade’s detonation, their combat suits protected them from the unleashed electromagnetic hell by temporarily shutting off all of their sensors, and shielding them from the blast to protect their eyes.
While de Wit was blind, an unknown assailant snuck up behind him. Before de Wit could react to the presence, an obsidian blade forcefully removed his head and left arm in a slashing movement that was as much a testament to physics as to the skill of the bladesman.
——
As Mudra, her AI, darkened her visor to protect her from the EMP grenade, Mira muttered a curse over the fire team battle net at Jason for not warning them. When visibility finally returned, she began to scan her sector, and out of the corner of her eye noticed a void where a Marine should be. She suddenly became more fully engaged and noticed the floating corpse of de Wit trailing blood. She quickly had Mudra send a burst of all of the mission data into the LBNet, while she scanned for a target.
After sending up an illumination round into the CIC, Mira noticed a figure approaching Corporal Hauer from behind. Not surprisingly, this strange creature still wasn’t registering on her sensors, something that ran counter to all her years of training, but she opened fire on it anyway. The sabots fired from the railgun feature on her SA-71 seemed to simply bounce off the creature, so Mira activated her assault cutters and charged the creature while firing. Unfortunately, the
creature had gotten to Blythe before her vocal warning, or her carbine fire could alert her to the threat behind her. The result was that the doomed corporal had her throat slashed, leaving Mira to fight this beast on her own, another uncomfortable abnormality to a Marine trained to fight as part of a team. Get it together, Marine, can’t panic now. Adapt and overcome like they taught us, she repeated to herself.
While the creature was distracted by its effort to remove its blade from Blythe’s corpse, Mira continued her assault cutter charge, firing the entire way. Given the thruster capabilities built into the combat armor, Mira was able to quickly reach the creature and slash at it with her modern bayonet, the assault cutter. As her momentum propelled her forward, she essentially became a living kinetic weapon, with all of her weight behind the cutters as she slashed at the monster in front of her. She tried not to think about what it looked like, forcing herself to ignore its glowing eyes, as she rolled out of her charge. As she spiraled into another turn, trying to again bring her weapon back to bear on this creature, she was grabbed from behind with surprising force. Drent me, this thing is as strong as a hungry guinshrike.
Before Mira could react to the assailant grabbing her from behind, she too died at the end of its obsidian blade. As her life sprayed, rather than drizzled, into the gravity-free environment, she sent one last emergency data burst straight to Lance Sergeant Acheron Nourse, in the hopes that he might avenge them. Her last conscious thought, as her world faded, was regret that she couldn’t take that creature out with her.
— Chapter 27 —
Deck 7 Sierra: Thrydwulf win Krigaren
After dispatching another changeling monster, Thrydwulf became convinced that he couldn’t lose. These creatures die too easily; it must be the time of the Kin-Tama Prophecies that were foretold long ago. He felt instantly proud that his karau had been chosen to usher in the time of merger and change. Again, Jumalatar was on his side, for as he checked to ensure he was safely secured to the ceiling of the facility, the changeling set off some sort of super nova in the room. While the devils were briefly incapacitated by their own weapon, Thrydwulf took the opportunity to cleanse the float of one more of Kor-Lir’s minions.
Even the weapons of the changelings seem to recognize the majesty of Jumalatar and his faithful servants, for they have turned against them. He finished this thought as he stole behind another one before either of the remaining two could react. These two seem smaller than the one with the spitting stick, he thought, could they be female Kor-Lir? Do Kor-Lir changelings have gender?
As Thrydwulf moved to sever the head of another changeling, its companion sent another nova bomb into the room, searing it with hellish light and causing him to recognize this other devil as a threat. Maybe it really is a she, he thought, as it began hitting him with the spitting stick it carried. Under Jumalatar’s protection these proved to be mere annoyances, bouncing off his armor plating. Realizing he was safe under the watchful eye of the Great Good, he carried out his mission and made short work of the smaller creature in front of him.
The final devil, seeing that its stick was ineffective, began to charge at him through the float while it activated some glowing, spinning tool on the tip of its spitting stick. Thrydwulf was impressed with the potential of this spitting stick – the spitter he thought he’d name it – and made a note to tell his chieftain to look into creating a purer version for the Ravanac people. In the end, whatever was at the end of the spitter, couldn’t penetrate the Beetle Shell he wore, blessed as it was by Jumalatar’s sacred priesthood.
The tool employed by the devil caused only a glancing blow to Thrydwulf, and the momentum of the creature carried it past him. Realizing its tool couldn’t beat the will of God, the minion of Kor-Lir tried to reverse itself, abandoned its spitter and charged him with two blades it pulled from sheathes on its side. The minion never got the chance to test the blades, for Thrydwulf quickly grabbed it from behind and ended its existence on this plane.
Once the demons were dispatched, Thrydwulf went to check on the status of the jamming signal blocker. It quickly became clear that its insides were defiled beyond his ability to affect repair. As a warrior of the float, he was mostly trained to breach the confines of Ravanac, but he had been given just enough training to hook up the system by the priests of the science class. Although he had hated every minute, he had pushed his mind to acquire the scientific lore needed to carry out his Sacred Duty.
This ruined jammer box made one thing become abundantly clear to Thrydwulf: he had a decision to make. He could return to his home having failed, or he could hunt down the demons that Kor-Lir would send to check on those he had already killed. If he managed to kill enough of them, maybe his people might regain this station and block the signal anew. I will have to send my Clan a message detailing what happened here, that Jumalatar’s will be affirmed and avenged.
With that decision made, Thrydwulf began to prepare himself for his jubilant meeting with Jumalatar. He resolved to pray, waiting for the rest of the minions who would surely follow, seeking their kin.
— Chapter 28 —
Wren Shuttle Outside QEP 16
The instant BattleNet was free from jamming, Veteran Sergeant Fontaine began to quickly review the data that came in. She felt a moment of pride as she watched Mira, one of the Marines she had such high hopes for, fight valiantly to the end. She watched the videos gleaned from the helmet cameras of the Spacers that were lost onboard and all the other data about the total loss of 2nd Section, before she reached out to her senior Marine on the station.
“Lance Sergeant Nourse, come in, over,” demanded Fontaine. It was probably a good thing for the lance sergeant that he didn’t keep her waiting because she was in no mood to be understanding. Like every soldier knows, shit runs downhill, and Fontaine was currently catching an earful from Captain Grimgerde over how she could’ve lost an entire section to one enemy aggressor.
Surely recognizing the anger and frustration in her voice, Lance Sergeant Nourse didn’t keep her waiting. “Roger, Sergeant, Nourse here, how copy?”
After receiving the response from her subordinate, and strangely angered by the adherence to strict radio protocols, Fontaine paused to consider her reply. “Nourse, your squad has made a mess of things, and now 2nd Section is dead and gone to Hordenville, the land of the incompetents. You need to expedite clearing Zone Papa and get your arses over to investigate and eliminate whatever is over there––”.
Always one to get straight to the point, Captain Grimgerde cut off her senior NCO and contacted the junior sergeants onboard the station. “Lance Sergeant Nourse, you are to focus on recording whatever you can on this creature so it can be sent up with our final mission report. Lance Corporal Scipio, you are to follow standard protocol in regards to the remains of our downed Marines. How copy?”
Knowing that keeping their cadre of Jotun officers waiting was a death sentence, both NCOs answered in the affirmative seconds after the captain finished her orders.
After taking a deep breath, knowing that she couldn’t show her frustration at being so rudely cut off by her superior, Fontaine again addressed the anemic remains of her squad. “Right, Marines, you know the drill. Follow your orders, stay alert, and avenge our fallen at the first opportunity. Remember to stay together, unity is your strength, and utilize your visual sensors over the rest since this thing is evading the more sophisticated technology. Fontaine out.”
— Chapter 29 —
Deck 13 Papa: Alpha Team, 1st Section
“1st Section, we just received an update,” said Lance Sergeant Nourse. “It looks like whatever was jamming comms has been dealt with. Our SitRep, it looks bad.” The emotions layered in those sentences were alarming coming from a Marine known for his stalwart demeanor.
Nourse was finally beginning to get scared, given the Jotun tendency to eradicate problem companies and regiments, but he wondered was it too late? “We’ve cleared our half, and we are now heading over to repeat the pr
ocess over in 2nd Section’s Zone Sierra. It’s time to stay frosty, because shite just got serious. It looks like the entire 2nd Section was forced into a permanent furlough, or incapacitated waiting for us to rescue them. Lance Corporal Scipio, yes it’s official, will supervise the grabbing up of all of the AIs from our dead under the direct orders from Captain Grimgerde. Once we secure the rest of the QEP, the Auxies can come police up the physical remains of our dead and the naval techs can get to work. Move out to the elevator, Fire Team Wedge, Section File now.”
— Chapter 30 —
Deck 3 Sierra: Beta Team, 1st Section
When 1st Section cleared the elevator, Lance knew he should expect trouble at any moment. The now-working TacScreen and WBNet System allowed communication to flow among the Human Marine Corps leadership. The LBNet System was fully operational, and finally Lance Sergeant Nourse looked like he might get how serious things were, so frakked up that their officer corps might cull their entire company if things soured further. Beta Team had been tasked with verifying the location and securing the AIs of Marines Pearl Hansen and Andrew Winkel, while Alpha Team went after the AIs and bodies of Freidman and Tremblay.
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