Raptor One – Chapter 82
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With no atmosphere on the moon the descent was very simple, but as soon as I reached surface altitude the Erchius Zombies started to spit volatile erchius fuel my way forcing the need to evade the shots which I did with no effort the problem was speeding up while evading, Selket gets very wild at high planetary speed but the time I had with her wasn’t for nothing as I get enough speed to just fly ahead with no danger of being shot in the face.
Looking at the side view I see that despite Lunar Base three being overwhelmed and completely infected the Erchius zombie population don’t seem to be the same as the population that inhabits the base, that being over two thousand as the base was one of the major mining bases for erchius crystals and fuel, the survivors must have evacuated when shit hit the fan.
When I finally arrived on Lunar base five, what I saw was surprising, the base was being bombarded from all sides, but the north wall is having it the worst as I'm already seeing cracks in it as erchius zombies keep pilling up and spiting volatile erchius at the wall, each explosion damaging the wall more.
I give the base a look for a good drop off spot, and I find the best spot.
Slowing down my circling and landing on the main building of the base which have a central hangar deck I wait as Selket is lowered down to the deck, and as I thought it’s the best spot as it have easy access to the four sides of the base so I unlock the drop module and fly back up in the direction of the north wall.
I can see the faces of pain from the soldiers and militia as parts of their body sizzle in reaction to the contact of the volatile compound that reach their skin.
Not liking the state of the situation I got Selket back into Combat mode, the sound of the pistons and it’s high temperature fluid as it let out a jet of white hot coolant smoke due to the strength of the landing, I opened fire the moment Selket landed, blasting the head of a erchius zombie and giving holes to a lot of other zombies in the process as I keep firing trying to make the usual kill zone, which I managed to make with success as their volatile blood burst into flames or blow up due to the high temperature machinegun laser fire.
I grin at the look of awe as the soldiers and militia look at Selket, my Viking, her black graphene flags flowing with the low gravity of the moon, the image of a red scorpion walking forward looking very realistic due to the way the flag mas made, the scorpions eyes and stinger giving a dangerous glow every time my laser machinegun open fire.
I chuckle as the erchius zombies fail to breach the kill zone, I don’t pay much attention to that though as I use my eyes and scanner to get a better picture and diagnosis of the enemy before giving my fuel counter a look.
Fuel - (604/620[L.E.F{0.6x}])
Just firing four bursts of laser machinegun drew a lot of fuel, at least it’s... Who am I kidding? This fuel type is as bad as fucking Oil!
A light growl leave my mouth due to the irritation that the fuel situation is giving me, the erchius zombies that manage to pass the kill zone are killed by the soldiers and militia that are now mostly idle on this side of the wall.
As another wave reach my kill zone it start burning back into inorganic matter, my pack finally manage to reach where I am, the Li sisters came with a container each, a glance tell me it’s R.Supply, missy is bringing a container with A.Supply, while Zu and the Su sisters got ready in the wall for the occasional kill zone failure.
As another wave comes and burns down into nothing again I call the girls on the radio.
“Hey girls, how’s the vacation?” I ask with a chuckle.
“Looking fine love.” Zu reply with a smile.
“Meh, I have seen tougher enemies.” Su’zu reply.
“Those things are just balls of liquid with a hard surface, easy.” Su’ra reply.
I chuckle at their comments before talking with the Li sisters.
“How's the confetti sprayer going so far?” I ask the Li sisters.
“I’m done with the first, going for the second one.” Li’luk reply with a laugh.
“Also done here with the first turret, getting the second one ready.” Li’lak also say while focusing on the turret.
“*Huff* First turret loaded!” I hear missy reply and watch her sprint down the wall for the big container with A.Supply.
I almost get distracted by all the moving around but manage to kill another wave of erchius zombies, a person got my attention as I was dealing with the Erchius zombies, by his clothes he’s a commander as the guy is not stopping his mouth as soldiers run left and right along with militia as they liberate the space on the wall, injured personnel are carried to the center of the base for treatment while the others are sent to reinforce the rest of the base leaving I, the girls, and the primal wolfs for defense of this wall.
“Turret two complete!” Li’luk say.
“Turret four complete!” Li’lak also reply.
“Turret three loaded!” Missy say while panting.
“Good job girls, Li’luk and Li’lak, you two are going to reinforce this wall back into combat status, Missy, get those two turrets loaded as fast as you can please, we may need it earlier than expected.” I say with a chuckle.
“Okay Captain!” Li’luk say with her peppy voice.
“On it Captain.” Li’lak say with her serious yet shy voice.
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“Don’t hurry me! I’m trying my best here! *Huff*” Missy yell back making me chuckle again.
I smirk but keep silent as I watch the field of dead zombies, purple blood all over the place, the consequences of having liquid erchius for blood, the absence of flesh in any form say that the zombies are all artificial, and giving a better look as I shot upon the new wave of infected I detect three types of infected.
The normal infected, it likes to spit volatile liquid erchius, don’t have much defense as the lack of glowing rocks is replaced by glowing veins, their death normally brings a wave of fire, burning anything close by, and by the looks the fire also corrodes anything it touch due to the erchius content it have.
Another type of erchius zombie is the armored version, as the name say, it has rocks protecting most of it’s body but well placed shots can still down it easily, this type tend to spit crystalized erchius shards that tend to pierce as deep as it can before exploding, something the normal erchius crystals do only with the proper reagent, their deaths tend to send deadly shrapnel that normal armors can’t defend.
The last one I’m seeing are the hunch-back zombies, but more accurately called boomers, sacks of very hard to kill walking explosives, you meet one face to face? Good luck surviving that explosion... Because even a power armor will falter by it’s strength.
I sigh as my fuel counter continue to drop too quick to my liking, I already wasted half of a fuel canister by just using my laser machineguns, god forbid me if I start using my laser cannons.
“Turret two loaded!” Missy cuts my thoughts off with her huffing words.
“Hey boss! We got the wall somewhat back into working order!” Li’luk say with a yelp as she evades a falling piece of wall.
“Not enough to last a long siege, but enough to not fall on top of us at the first enemy ram.” Li’lak also say.
“How many repair parts used for that?” I ask the Li sisters back.
“Huh...” Li’luk was trying to talk before being cut by the sound of laser machinegun bursts.
“Izvinyayus’, what did you say?” I ask again.
“I said we used twenty entire fucking units of repair supply!” Li’luk yell over the bursts of laser machinegun surprising me.
“How many cracks did that wall have!? It must have more holes than a frickin pin cussion!” I say while laughing.
My laugh is cut short by the appearance of three Erchius Warriors, all carrying big and dense stone swords, to make things harder, another wave of erchius zombies rush my kill zone.
I manage to kill the rushing erchius zombies but don’t get time to aim at the three rushing Erchius Warriors, the three loaded turrets start spewing slugs their direction but most slugs end hitting their giant swords, one of the turrets get lucky and hit one of the Erchius Warriors left leg blasting it into pieces and making the Erchius Warrior fall face first, another slug to the face from the turret ending it’s menace.
Now with two erchius warriors rushing in while using the last surviving zombies as cover the erchius warriors get into range of Zu and the Su sisters as they fire at the quick arriving erchius warriors, Su’ra’s shot from her high powered kinetic rifle goes wide as the leading erchius warrior dodges out of the slug trajectory as it kills a zombie in the process, Zu burst fire gets blocked by the other erchius warrior but that lapse of attention was enough for Su’zu to hit it’s left leg so hard that a mix of red and purple blood started to gush as it’s left leg barely managed to keep attached to the erchius warrior.
The leading erchius warrior sustain his charge, and despite the heavy fire he’s getting he not only manage to block it all but also hit the wall with force, luckily the reinforcements on the wall was enough to keep it standing despite the heavy shoulder whack the erchius warrior gave the wall, a big depression mark was left on the wall.
As the turrets lost the erchius warrior they where shooting at, they redirect their efforts at the wounded erchius warrior, despite it’s wounded left leg it defended itself for a long time before being poked with so many holes that it was hard to think of it as humanoid, it’s body falling down limp as the unlife leaves it’s body.
With the erchius warrior so close to the wall it slammed the wall so hard that some of the reinforcements came flying my way three pieces of it hit my armor so hard that it screamed, a look at my display show that the plating of the engines and left leg got light damage.
As I was distracted with deflecting the damage that Selket got Su’ra, Zu and Su’zu shot at the erchius warrior, Su’ra hit his right arm, Zu gave a burst into its face and Su’zu shot his left leg, but all the shots only shaved his heavy stone skin.
Angry at the damage Selket received I jumped high with the help of my engines and descended with extra wrath and burning engines at the erchius warrior, it tried defending itself but still became a splat on the ground as the heavy legs of my Viking smashed it into meat paste with erchius toping.
“I wanna see who dares to fight me now...” I growl out in anger, my mask giving out hisses as I get ready to open fire with all my weapons.
I’m met with another wave of erchius zombies and a warrior, two bursts from both laser machineguns and laser cannons decimate the entire horde.
“Attention Raptor One...” I hear the voice of the Lastree Admiral and give a angry growl in response alarming her in the process.
“GRRR What? Need help with the Erchius Horror? I’ll gladly help! *HISS*” I say with a heavy growling voice as my mask releases hisses at my anger.
“Eh? No! Sorry for that. Hehem, the erchius horror was exterminated with success, congratulations for the successful defense of Lunar Base Five, I heard a lot about your squad and saw how efficient you all dealt with the outbreak, thanks for the assistance or we may have lost yet another Lunar base, your payment have already been sent, please check for erchius infection before leaving or your leave from orbit will be denied, that's standard outbreak protocol.” the Lastree admiral said before ending the contact.
“You hear the big horn, let’s go, we are done, regroup at the hangar deck of the base, I'll be waiting for you all there.” I say with a heavy growl before changing to flight mode and flying back to the hangar deck.
On the way I managed to ease my anger a little before landing on the elevator pad, I take a deep breath as I wait for the elevator pad to lower me down enough for me to reattach the drop module on Selket.
After getting Selket ready for take off with the drop module I get off Selket with a jump, easily landing on the hangar deck I start to check myself for erchius infection knowing it’s not necessary.
After a series of diagnosis using my D.C.O.K I get the medical log that I'm healthy, so I get back to waiting after nodding to myself.
Giving the place a once over I see that there’s enough medics to treat everyone, so I won’t need to worry about needing to intervene, so I just try to relax while leaning on the side of my drop module.
Soon my pack arrives with my primal wolfs escorting the pack... And missy.
I sigh and wave at my pack, receiving another wave back.
“So? How’s the vacation.” I say with a lot calmer mood.
“Interesting.” Zu say with a smile.
“Got to know better about my rifle.” Su’ra say with a nod and Su’zu also nod.
“Is this how a war feels like?” Li’lak ask me.
“Yeah, it was a little hectic.” Li’luk say with a smile.
“This is just half the feeling of a battlefield, and in field operation is worse.” I say while shaking my head. “Get in line, I need to get everyone checked for erchius infection.” I say with a sigh and get in front of Zu.
They get in formation and I start to check each one.
“Zu. Clear.” I say and stop in front of Li’luk. “Li’luk. Clear.” I nod and walk to Li’lak. “Li’lak. Clear.” I chuckle and stop in front of Su’ra. “Su’ra. Clear.” I nod as she salutes me. “Su’zu. Clear.” I sigh and call missy over.
“Missy... Infected?” I say with confusion and give her a better diagnosis... “After a through scan and diagnosis I found out that your lungs have traces of Erchius infection... Let me look at your rebreather system...” I say and forcefully rotate missy to check her rebreather...
“I found the issue, your rebreather collected erchius particles when you swapped your filter, let me run a decontamination protocol... Done, just need to get that thing out of your lungs...” I say while swiping at my holographic screen as I make a simple lung cleaning medicine.
“I’ll say this... This will be gross.” I say with a grimace and missy nods hurriedly as the fear of dying is talking louder.
“Take off the helmet or it will become a biohazard cleaning problem.” I say with a sigh and she quickly take off her helmet.
“Stay still...” I say before easily injecting the liquid medicine on her lungs, missy started to choke almost immediately as I take my hands back and wait, after thirty seconds of choking later she vomits her lunch along with the contents in her lungs, a glowing purple puddle with bits and pieces of non digested food expands while making the soldiers close by raise their weapons in alarm, but seeing that she stopped puking and is now heaving for air makes their tense nerves relax once more.
“Missy. Clear... Check, now we can return to the ship and be done with all this.” I say with a sigh and jump back on Selket.
“Awaiting personnel.” I say on the radio and seconds later I get a response.
“Everything is loaded.” Zu reply.
“Sending medical log to big horn... We are lifting off.” I say and slowly leave the hangar deck back to Tenacity...