“At least I save the vids of my kids. You want to see them --ZZZZAPPP --uggh! ”
The Late PFC LaVonne Jone, Dunkelheim, 2302
As the Uranus APC went up in flames, the squad tried to sort itself out. They were receiving incoming fire from some of the Kafer sentries but mostly from a Kafer armored walker that had been immobilized from the explosion when the train hit the large tower. Fortunately, there was plenty of cover from the fire.
As the squad examined what equipment they had managed to grab from the APC, PFC Jones chirped up, “At least I save the vids of my kids. You want to see them --.” His words were cut short as a pulse laser from the walked hit him in the head, killing him instantly.
The rest of the squad scrambled further into the surrounding cover, most small structures and debris and then began a cautious advance towards the main entrance to Site Beta. They managed to kill or run off several Kafer hold outs as they encountered them.
Off to their left, the huge horde of mutated camel-insects, attracted by Korand and the Noob, charging toward the hole in fenceline that Korand had cut with his plasma rifle. Fortunately, the bugs seemed to more interested in the Kafers who were pouring fire into their ranks than the handful of Marines creeping through the ruins.
Korand and the Noob could not be seen but their comm links indicated they had made it in one piece into the tunnels running under Site Beta. They did spot the police rover driven by Jutta rolling toward the fence line, the mob of Texans hanging out of the windows and blasting away wildly with their assault rifles. They also saw the humans in the prison compound running or cover in their shacks. The bugs ignored them also, moving through to gap in the fence toward their Kafer tormentors.
The bugs proved to be an excellent distraction to most of the Kafer defenders. Almost all their fire was directed toward the chittering masses. Despite huge losses, the bugs managed to reach the fence line and charged through, heading to the main bunker that guarded the inner compound of the Site. The bugs soon over ran a small barricade, slaughtering the Kafers manning it. They clawed their way onto the roof of the bunker, slaughtering the crew of the large gun mounted there.
Soon, however, Kafer reserves rushed to counter attack. Two Death Sleds moved up to engage the attackers. One, joined by an infantry group struck back and bugs on the bunker, beating them back after a fierce fight. The Death Sled then took a position in front of the bunker, blasting the following waives of bugs.
The other death sled turned its attention to the human attackers, firing several heavy rounds that narrowly missed the caroming police rover. Jutta punch the rover forward, driving directly under the hovering Death Sled. The Texans fired madly into the bottom of the sled with assault rifles and grenade launchers. The light rounds penetrated the hull and succeeded in immobilizing the Sled but it still managed to keep itself in hover and its weapons still.
The rover continued deeper into compound. The damaged Death Sled let it go and turned its fire onto the advancing Marine squad. The squad again went to ground but one of the heavy rounds landed in their midst, hitting CPL Kusmanno in her leg. Biff applied its remarkable Sung medical skils to the wound and mended her leg in a few moments. While Kusmanno gritted her teeth while Biff her wound, it said to her, “You good now. Why humans have so much methane gas inside them?”
Meanwhile, the police rover was approaching a line of barricades that flanked the bunkers. Beyond this, Jutta spotted a large group of eviscerators charging toward them. She also noticed that a large gun in the smaller of two bunkers was being turned away from the attacking camel-insects toward the rover.
Jutta again hit the accelerator, trying to build up enough speed to jump the barricades and move past the advancing eviscerators. However, the rover was caught up on multiple lines of strung barbed wire and hung up on the barricade itself. Jutta and the rest of crew leapt from the rover to avoid the cannon fire from the bunker.
The Texans had leapt out just near the smaller bunker. They raced towards it and tossed several grenades through the narrow firing slit. Unfortunately, one of the granades missed and bounced back to the rover, blowing it up apart. The remaining grenades exploded inside the bunker, killing all the Kafers within.
Jutta and Naci had advanced to the barricade and began firing at the eviscerators and were soon joined by Texans. After killing half the eviscerators’ number, they began taking fire from a nearby observation tower. They all leapt through the firing slit into the bunker. Although they thought they were protected by the thick bunker walls, a ricochet hit Naci in back, killing him instantly.
At the main entry to the inner compound, hordes of bugs were still coming forward but the Kafers were holding the line against them. With the bugs now at a distance, the Kafers lobbing artillery at the bugs with great effect.
Recovering from the death of her last comrade, Jutta discovered an entrance plate in floor of bunker to lower level, and she and the Texans all headed down into the tunnels below.
By this time, LT Boomer and the squad had advanced into sand-bagged emplacement. There, they captured a small Kafer-portable light artillery piece from it’s single crewmember. Lenny discovered it he could lift the gun fairly easily but that there were only a few rounds left for it.
One round was enough to take out the damaged death sled, clearing the way for the squad to move into the compound. At this point, they discovered that the large tower that had been hit by the train must have been the main garrison building. Scores of dead Kafers lay inside. No wonder the Kafer resistance was relatively light.
Boomer also noticed that the door to a stairway leading downward had been blasted open. Checking the facility diagram that Ms. White had provided, he saw that it led to a tunnel near the main laboratory. They moved through the ruined tower towards this entrance.
While of this had been transpiring, Korand and the Noob had leapt down in the hole Korand had created with his plasma rifle. They found themselves inside the tunnels that ran under complex. Despite the sound of the fighting above, they could hear an emergency claxon going off. Oddly, it was a human not Kafer one.
They were in a long narrow corridor. The moved towards along towards the interior of the facility and came to a large electronically locked door. The Noob fiddled with it for a moment and slide open in a moment. With a flourish, he motioned for Korand to lead with way.
They found themselves in a large run, empty except for several large machines and storage units. Just as they entered, the door on the opposite side of the room slid open and small armed drone flew in. The Noob fired two shots from his assault rifle, knocking it from air. “Just like shooting ice skeeters at home,” he said with a smile.
They advanced into the corridor beyond. They stopped abruptly when they saw a large, heavily armed combot was activated and turned toward them. The Noob fired again, and got a lucky shot, hitting the machine in a weak point and causing its guidance system to short out momentarily. Korand finished the machine off with a blast from his plasma rifle.
In this corridor were two doors, one of which was marked on the diagram as leading to the control center. Just as they were about to open it, they heard over their com link that the two other parties were entering the facility from two other entrances.
As the squad and Jutta and the Texans descended into the tunnels, they were confronted with large groups humans, some apparently armed. Shockingly, these appeared to be animated corpses. Large mechanisms were inplanted in their chests, remarkably like the one Biff had placed in Ms. White’s chest.
Biff said “Oh, yeess, that is my work. Pretty good, yeess!”
No comments:
Post a Comment