Engineer’s Log Day 217.3
Turns out they don’t make blast doors like they used to. Why back in my day, when a blast door closed it could actually withstand a little melting and by golly it sure didn’t crumple like a tin can when you hit it with a mech. Utter hog wash and whippersnapperin’ and I’m running out of old timey phrases to pull out from the top of my head. Needless to say, we’ve made very good progress and have only just had to pull out our high grade explosives. This one was actually reinforced so it’s taking a bit longer than I’d like due to the fact that we need to cut the locking mechanisms without blowing up everyone in the room. Once those suckers have been dealt with, I’m going to be knocking the whole thing in. We played with the idea of going through one of the walls but the whole area is pretty heavily reinforced which kinda makes sense since I can’t imagine they want the “merchandise” to arrive damaged in the event a fight breaks out.
Speaking of, I’m currently responsible for holding one of the hallways while the rest of the xythans cut through. The inins have made a few incursions to try and stop us but their attacks have suspiciously dropped off. Drones have them moving towards some of the other choke points and weapons so I’m suspecting we’ll be getting into more fights on the way back. Fortunately, the folks back on the shuttle have kept things locked down so at the very least we’ll have some breathing room.
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Darana watched as the bombshell RC car hybrid continued to zoom around distracting a few of the inins. All attempts to capture the car had failed and all but the most persistent of her captors had given up. That wasn’t to say they tolerated it, taking the occasional shot or tentacle swipe, but generally they seemed to be more focused on creating their barricade.
Speaking of, that thing was an insult to barricades everywhere. It looked like they had stolen it from a child’s play, Darana mused as she watched one of the pieces flex and bend.
Leaning back, Darana attempted to feign disinterest unfolded before her. Between the roving drone, the poor barricade, and the speed at which things were moving, Darana found it difficult to muster any emotions as increasingly pounding headache was beginning. Rubbing her head, she darkly chuckled at how fast her fear had been put into the backseat when she hear the sound of heavy metal hitting the entryway door.
Ding da da ding ding – Ding Ding
Quickly clamping her hands over both ears, Darana barely in time to protect her hearing from both the horrific screeching of metal as the sealed door was knocked off its hinges and the sound of gunfire as a fight erupted in the room. The inins began firing a hodgepodge of plasma and small explosives at yet unseen invaders as they hid behind their barriers.
After watching a judicious application of plasma melt one of the nearby barricades, Darana decided that watching could be better done farther back as she scooted as deep as she could into her cell. Even with the reduced field of view, she was in the perfect position to see the little bombshell RC zoom past the front of her cell playing a cheery song followed by a flash and explosion. A few moments later, a stream of scorched inins ran past her cell, blasts of energy rushing after them in hot pursuit. After a few moments, the room had gone quiet.
Tentatively removing her hands from her ears, Darana slowly began to creep forward to check what was happening when the sound of screeching metal began again. Slamming her hands back into position just in case, she leaned a bit to the side against the wall to spot xythan soldiers piling to the room. The horrific screeching stopped for a moment as a crumpled sheet of metal was thrown into the now very melted barricade. Squinting, Darana felt her ears perk up as she realized the crumpled metal was a disfigured door to one of the other cells. Pushing against the door as much as she could Darana spotted the ever familiar war machine Henry had freeing the others in record time. Pressing herself against the small window,Darana called out, waving best she could through the door
“Hey! Over here! More people over here!”
One of the xythan soldiers spotted her and trotted over, “We’ll be with you in a moment ma’am. Please move to the back of the cell so we can get you out safely. Do you need any medical attention?”
Darana nodded and retreated a bit, “No but my neighbor does, could you make sure to check them? Also is that Henry? Why is he here? I thought he was supposed to be staying away from things like this!”.
“Henry… oh the human,” the guard nodded half listening as she waved a few others over, ”Listen I don’t like male civilians here anymore than you do but apparently that war machine of his specialized for this sort of stuff. Don’t worry he’ll be out of here soon enough. You know him?”
“Yeah, I was the xenobiologist that was working with him.”
The soldier turned to an unseen entity,, “Ahh, please step back. He’s here.”
“Which one do I need to open?”
“Both. Be careful with the right one, they need medical attention.”
“Gotcha“
The soldier disappeared from the window only to be replaced by grey metal. A loud thump saw the edges of the door give to robotic fingers that quickly grasped the thing and yanked. For a brief moment, the door remained in place, groaning from the pressure exerted on it, before folding in on itself entirely and falling off the frame. Darana watched as what remained of the door was tossed haphazardly into the middle as the HARP continued its march towards other doors. A soldier with medic markings quickly rushed past into the adjacent cell.
Darana stepped out of the cell to see the familiar hulking suit a few cells over ripping another door off its hinges. Looking around, the soldier that had helped her seemed to have joined the medic and everyone else was gathering near the entrance.
A loud, slightly metallic sigh sounded from behind Darana, “Is that the last of them?”
Turning around, she saw Henry talking to a soldier who just nodded, “All civilians accounted for. ”
“All the xythan ones yeah... Let’s get out of here.”
The soldier saluted, turned, and jogged off to help herd the increasingly large group of civilians as the war machine lumbered over towards Darana, rambling all the while, “I’m so glad you’re ok. Bayfur is safe down planetside and now there’s this whole dealio and… ”
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Darana stepped forward and gave the metallic leg a hug, “How do you sound so stressed through a voice modifier?”
The war machine froze as the cockpit leaned down to face her, “I’d say it’s natural talent but unfortunately I fear it might be practice.”
Darana could only laugh as she felt much of the pressure she’d carried since getting kidnapped ease, “It's good to see you again.”
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Looking around the bay as the others boarded the transport, Darana couldn’t quite shake the feeling of nervousness. It felt like the quiet before the storm. The trip back to the transport had gone mercifully uninterrupted thanks to a few detours and excessive scouting. She’d known that any fighting along the way would have resulted in massive casualties and while she was thankful, Darana was a realist and knew there should have been at least some. The military folks seemed to be feeling very much the same, nervously herding the civilians with a quiet urgency. Henry had taken patrolling the various entrances, the HARP constantly swivelling as he checked each.
Darana felt a gentle tug on her shoulder and turned to see Glysia gesturing for her follow, “You need to get moving. Leave the worrying to the professionals”
Turning her attention back to the immediate surroundings, Darana realized she was alone in the bay, the rest of the civilians already having entered the shuttle. Climbing in herself, Darana joined her contemporaries as several soldiers in heavy, black armor pushed past, hauling a large box with several colorful markings on the side indicating danger. Taking a few moments to decipher the markings, Darana felt her stomach drop as she realized that was a rather large bomb.
The bomb squad, as she now recognized them, broke into a flurry of activity as they began preparations, each taking pieces out and assembling. In short order, they’d finished and were beginning to run diagnostics. A large metallic clanking sounded as the mech lumbered over towards the bomb, “Yeah… I’d thought as much. Anyone care to tell me why I wasn’t brought up to speed on this?”
One of the bomb technicians paused for a moment, glancing at his comrades, before speaking, “It’s ahh.. well… Commander Sarlunt didn’t want you to be to close. Just in case you got shot while out of your war machine.”
“I see…well… where are you at now?”
The technician fidgeted nervously, “Wrapping up the last of the prep.”
Darna frowned, that one clearly wasn’t telling the truth, and was displaying a number of telltale signs of lying. Henry seemed to believe it though as he nodded, ” Fine. Once you have everything wired correctly let me give it a once over. Wouldn’t want anyone to get caught in the radius”
The bomb tech shook his head, “Ahh shouldn’t you… uhhh….” the xythan withered under as the HARP stared down at him silently.
“I’ll survive in the HARP but you won’t have that luxury. Go.”
The bomb technicians seemed uncomfortable, looking back at a few of the soldiers who were preparing near the door. They nodded their accent and the bomb technician quickly jumped back onto the shuttle
Darana felt herself pulled deeper into the shuttle as Glysia and a handful of other military personnel pushed towards the exit, each brandishing several heavy weapons, their eyes locked onto the human as he began taking a look at the bomb.
“Ma’am please. Move further to the back.”
“I’m far enough back already aren’t I? What’s going on?”
“Please ma’am.”
Henry’s voice echoed from outside and over a few of the communicators, ”We might have an issue. I need to make a quick fix. Can you disconnect the shuttle for just a second?”
Glysia picked up her communicator and shot a meaningful glance towards the other heavily armed soldiers who began creeping forward, “What’s wrong? We’ve got people to fix that.”
“I’ve got it, just stay inside for now.”
“Henry, we’re coming out now. Step away from the bomb.”
Darana heard a long-suffering sigh come through the communicators before the human answered, “Yeah, I don’t think so.”
In quick succession, several shields sprung to life in the entryway of the shuttle, blocking any further view of the bay and an explosion could be heard.
Darana felt her heart heave in fear until Henry’s voice sounded over the radio a bit frantic. “Well that went a bit better than I expected. Consequently for you lot, I’ve now put a sizable hole in the opposite side of the docking bay so you lot aren’t getting out of there until that’s fixed. Guess I’ll just have to go and deliver this bomb myself now!”
Darana’s mouth dried as Glysia snarled into her communicator, “Henry what the fuck are you doing!”
Clear peals of nervous laughter sounded through the communicator that seemed to echo through the shuttle itself, “They didn’t have any humans.”
“HENRY!”
The human’s voice roared back over the intercom, “THEY KILLED THEM ALL DAMN IT. They killed my friends and family for the last 3 years for fucking money. This is my goddamn fight and I’m not about to let my new friends pay the price for that.”
“Under Colony agreement 1.23.4 you wil-”
“I’m sorry I can’t hear you communication’s breaking up. You’d better start getting ready to get out of here because I’m not lettin’ you in! I’ll let you know when the guns are down! Oh and by the way, maybe don’t make plans for a suicide run behind your friend’s back. See you all planetside.”
A faint click sounded over the radio as Glysia screamed in frustration and Darana felt all the stress from earlier return.
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Engineer’s Log Day 217.4
Well that’s done and my fate is sealed one way or another. I’m pretty sure I can still get out of here alive though if I hurry up and get this bomb packed. Honestly, I’m kinda annoyed that they really just went and tried to hold a secret meeting in the base I built like oh yeah I’m totally not going to notice or find out. Also I’m integrated into communications thanks to the time I spent getting the defense arrays set up so that’s another mark against them.
Their plan though… man it’s just bad. Outside of the ship is well insulated so any bomb they set has to be manually activated. Now technically speaking, they can set a timer and run off but practically speaking the inins can try and stop that meaning they need to guard it to a degree. Now perhaps they could plant it somewhere opportune if they had the right gear, read HARP here, but like they had planned to set it up then clear out tunnels to an escape pod in what basically amounts to a suicide mission.
In all reality, they needed the HARP for this sort of environment but as the de facto diplomat for everyone I was going to be forced back planetside. Maybe it's honor or something I’m overlooking but… I’m not going to sit to the side while my new friends die to someone who killed my old ones. It's just not happening. If they would have let me along, I’d have no complaints but they didn’t and had every intention to kick me outta here which was just not in the cards.
The short of my job I’ve now signed up for is to dismantle the ship to ship weapons so our shuttle can slip back into our defenses. Our turrets aren’t exactly the brightest bulbs in the closet so we can’t rely on them to get us safely planetside.
Storming the weapons bay would likely be a suicide mission for me even with the HARP but fortunately I’ve got other plans. I’ve a working seal on my suit which means I don’t need to worry about little things like holes in the side of the ship which does mean most of my ballistics are free to be used again. Odds are more in favor for me than it ever was for the xythans.
I’ve got a good idea about where my opponents are thanks to the scouts and an even better idea about important locations to hit. I think it's time to introduce even more chaos into this clusterfuck.