Hancock comes to in a weightless drift. It’s surreal, at first, and it takes him several seconds to make sense of his surroundings. He can only hear his regulator and his own body noises. Shrapnel floats in his field of view, and he can see the seats of the cockpit ahead of him.
However, he is no longer in an enclosed ship. He is partially enclosed, but the hard vacuum of space is nearby. The only reason he is even close to the ship is the fact his boots magnetized to a wall after he was ragdolled. The young marine flexes, checking his aching body carefully for breaks. Fortunately, his suit seems to have held, as well as his bones –if only barely-.
Hancock regains his bearings, standing up carefully. He looks around what remains of the ship. Neither Dr. Lopez nor Sergeant Marvoni are in sight. Hancock checks for his rifle. The standard issue assault rifle is nowhere to be found, but he does find his grenade launcher floating lazily against his back. Its sling is still tethering it to him.
The young marine carefully walks the wall of the lazily spinning wreckage. His magnetized boots and inertial controls are holding up for now, which are good. Once at the opening, he cautiously peers out.
Hancock recoils instantly from uncontrollable vertigo, as well as a sudden fear of ‘heights’ as it dawns on him. He is nearly infinitely high up in virtually EVERY possible direction. As in, if he loses his footing and slips free of the wreckage he’s on now, he will float helplessly potentially forever in the unforgivingly dark voids of space. His only respite in that thought is his limited air supply –or rather, recycling time-, which means he’ll asphyxiate long before eternity.
Alone.
In the cold empty void of space.
Falling endlessly.
Just before he gives up and slumps against the floor, he spots the other half of the stolen transport ship. In it, he can see two human figures; Sergeant Marvoni, lazily floating and anchored only by his boots, and Dr. Lopez, huddled into a corner with her head tightly to her knees. She’s already at the stage Hancock was just about to enter. Helplessness and fear have taken over.
Hancock suddenly remembers Little Bird’s terrified expression once more as she was snatched from the bridge. Hancock made one choice that day, which is the only reason he is alive now. He can’t save the whole of humanity. He can barely even protect himself. But, he would rather die trying to help someone else than live with an expression like Little Bird’s burned upon his soul.
Hancock looks intently at the other wreckage. It’s 100 feet of open space littered with debris. A lot can happen across 100 feet. He’ll be almost helpless the whole time. Many, MANY variables separate him from reaching the other…
Hancock jumps. He’s done thinking so hard. The greatest things to ever happen to him in his life have been on leaps of faith. He tries to steady his breathing, watching carefully ahead for anything that can stop his momentum. A flash below him draws his attention. Another artillery shot fired from the Polonia slams the alien battleship. However, the alien ship doesn’t return fire. In fact, it’s simply turning to align more directly with the Polonia. Hancock turns his attention back on his path. All three of them have only one chance at survival.
Dr. Lopez nearly springs clear up to the ceiling when a body tumbles suddenly into her half of the ship. Hancock scrambles to magnetize his feet to any surface, managing to grip the ceiling from an awkward crouch. He pants, asking over the short range radio in his helmet, “Can you hear me, Doc?”
She stares at him silently. He asks again, knowing she’s probably hearing him, but scared. “Doc?”
She suddenly shakes her head clear, nodding. He adds, “Good. Your short range radio is activated by an ocular tracker. Simply look at the right side of your screen and blink 3 times quickly.” There’s a pause.
“C… Can you hear me?” asks a voice at a near whisper.
“Yes, Ma’am. Are you okay?”
She nods nervously. Hancock does his best to keep his shaky voice under control. If she panics, he might too. But, if they work together, they’ll survive. He replies, “Good.” He carefully walks over towards Marvoni, pushing off carefully and flipping over to land on the floor. He checks on Marvoni, tapping his helmet to see if he’s unconscious. Hancock knows there’s a vital sign check in his heads up display somewhere, but he can’t remember where to add new squadmates. He can see the rest of his own squad members are alive, though, so that’s good news.
Hancock warns Lopez, “Sorry in advance.” He presses his helmet’s visor to Marvoni’s, listening for a moment while he holds his breath. The great thing about metals; sound travels through them. And, he can hear the faint clicks and hisses of Marvoni’s regulator. He’s alive and breathing. A good start. Hancock keeps their helmets pressed together and yells as loudly as his lungs can muster. Marvoni doesn’t respond.
Hancock sighs. That complicates his working plan a little, but it’s not unexpected. Fortunately, Lopez is conscious and unhurt. And, given the weightlessness, Marvoni will be easy to move. Hancock takes a few calming breaths. It’s requiring effort for him to stay focused. If he thinks too hard, especially about his odds of success, he’ll shut down, meaning he’s killing two others. And, he will NOT allow that.
Hancock exhales slowly, which maintains pressure in his helmet, keeping his regulator from cycling. He says calmly, “Okay, Doc. The alien ship is turning to pursue the Polonia, but they haven’t fired yet. Either way, our only chance is to get back to the alien ship.”
Hancock is surprised he can see Lopez trembling, even in her suit. She nervously replies, still quietly, “H-… How…?”
Hancock smirks, replying as confidently as he can, “How do you think? We have to jump.”
This time, her voice is more frantic, and she complains, “Are you crazy!? Do you know how many ways it could g-…” He cuts her off, shouting, “I know!” He says more gently, “I know. But we don’t have a lot of options. And, we only need one of us to catch. Three pairs of boots sound like pretty good odds to me.”
Lopez motions to speak out again, but pauses. Instead, she nervously asks, “H-How does he… count?”
“His boots will still be active.” Hancock offers his hand. Because they’re weightless, it’s almost a useless gesture. But, not a meaningless one. Lopez hesitates, but she takes his hand, clinging to her computer.
The young marine pulls a bootlace and his knife out of pouches on his belt. Sergeant Grey is an absolute stickler for his marines carrying bootlaces in their kit. He says the benefits of having even one don’t stop at repairing boots. Hancock is thankful for crazy old marines like Grey.
Just before he cuts it, though, Lopez squeaks, “Wait!” He halts just in time, looking at her. She explains, “I… don’t know your plan, but if you tie all three of our wrists –right or left-, you can still use the full length later, right? Plus… Plus both of us can maneuver him.” She nods at Marvoni.
Hancock nods, sheathing his knife. He draws his grenade launcher to his front so it’s ready. He notices Lopez flinching a little. Not surprising, since she’s probably of similar beliefs to Mr. Right.
The two carefully help each other tie Lopez’s right hand to Hancock’s left, with Marvoni’s left tied in a way that keeps him floating over their shoulders –after Hancock remembers to deactivate Marvoni’s boots momentarily-. They move as quickly as possible. Once they jump, they can’t alter speed or course. They MUST get to the alien battleship before it accelerates away.
The two ready at the edge of the wreckage. The alien ship is almost 500 feet ‘below’ them, and it is moving toward the Polonia. Hancock points ahead of it a little. This will have the ship move into their path, as well as reduce its relative speed as they reach it. This is still likely to hurt, though.
They both take a deep breath and exhale. Just before Hancock counts, Lopez’s hand shifts to deliberately hold his. Hancock returns the grip, and he counts, “Three. Two. One. Go!”
The two jump as one. Now, they can only pray.
********
Of the twelve marines, two scientists, and one officer that launched the mission, 20% have already been lost. 3 people at the very beginning of the mission –one from each squad- have been snuffed out. Sergeant Grey has lost many more at outsets in the past, but never was his mission so vital. And, critical to this vital mission was one of the two scientists, who joined Private Hancock and Sergeant Marvoni in a one way ticket to the void.
Sergeant Grey fires his alien rifle around a corner as PFC Coulson cuts the next door open. Sergeant Tachibana fires over his head with her own newly acquired alien gun. They quickly found out that the shock troopers can’t hold up under fire from their own weapons, and it doesn’t matter how fast their regenerators work; a dead alien stays dead.
And, Grey owes God himself a drink for that.
Lieutenant Kane got separated from the squad when an airlock door closed to isolate the hull breach, with Kane on the other side. HM1 Brown managed to lift one of the deck plates, and the marines hefted it up together. It took a couple tries, but the vacuum sealed the hole most of the way. One of the Coulsons almost joined the other three after losing her footing, nearly pulled out of the breach by the vacuum. But, Fisher managed to snag her, aided by Moody and Fredericks.
Separated from Kane, the marines pressed on their own path. Staying wasn’t an option, and Prof. Caldaren didn’t hesitate to start his readings. With Lopez gone, they have to resort to plan ‘B’.
Grey calls over the radio, “Thing Three!?”
The Coulson with the cutting torch barks back, “Thirty sec’s, Sarge!”
Fredericks, losing his mind to insanity apparently, jokes, “Dirty sex? Now?”
“Shut up, Freddy!” They all keep firing. Grey notices Caldaren peeking out from his little cubby spot, shaking with the rifle given to him by Moody. Grey snaps, “Professor! If I see your head peek out again, I’LL shoot it off!”
Tachibana shouts back at Grey, “You’re not helping, Sergeant!”
“This mission ends pretty friggin’ quick if we lose BOTH scientists!”
Grey flinches when a blast from incoming fire hits inches from his own face. Tachibana says sassily from behind him, “Ends pretty quick if we all die, too.”
Grey retorts, “Fair!” as Tachibana clips an alien trooper, stumbling it out into the walkway. All of the marines defending that direction; Grey, Tachibana, Fisher, and Pazna focus fire on it, dropping it quickly. Fredericks, Dumas, Moody, and rifle-Coulson are firing the other direction. Brown is protecting cutter-Coulson as she works on the door. Rifle-Coulson, Thing Four, fires her rifle intermittently. Its report thunders the hallways. But, it’s wearing out her body with every shot.
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Thing Three calls out, “CUT! I need help!” She and Brown push with all their might. Fredericks and Dumas quickly join her. The cut piece, about four feet tall and two feet wide in a rough oval, gongs when it hits the floor. “Mind the slag!”
Tachibana barks, “Shooter through first!”
Fredericks reacts. He peeks quickly through, and then squeezes through after. He checks the next hallway at the end of the small hallway he just entered. He calls, “Clear!” as Dumas squeezes through next. The marines squeeze through one at a time, ensuring Prof. Caldaren is through when more marines are on the new side than the old. The last two marines defending are Sergeant Tachibana and Sergeant Grey.
Tachibana orders, “Go! I’ll cover you!”
“You go!”
“THIS IS NO TIME FOR MACHO CRAP, SERGEANT!”
Grey withdraws as she keeps firing. He extracts his prized tool; one of the dodgeball-sized alien grenades. He retorts, “No! But it IS time for this!” She glances at it and nods. His plan is sound. She fires a few more times, keeping the aliens back.
Grey primes the grenade like Kane showed him. He then nods at Tachibana. She fires once more, shouting, “Yours!” Grey whirls back around her, lobbing the hefty device as far down the hall as he can. She, in turn, scrambles through the hole, and he dives in behind her. The blast thunders the hallway, and they jog to catch up to the others.
Zane is reading with his instrument, trying to follow the increasing signals as best as he can guess. Given the ships seem to make their FTL jumps using some kind of electrical-like field, they’re banking on the jump drive being the strongest source of electromagnetic radiation.
An alien strolls out into the hall ahead of them, seemingly on normal business. Fredericks and Dumas dive to the floor as Fredericks yells, “Thing Four!”
Coulson is already halfway into a kneel, and she plants, aiming quickly. The alien halts at Fredericks’s voice and the sudden movement. It seems surprised to see them.
Coulson’s rifle thunders, causing Fredericks and Dumas to flinch from the pressure wave. The alien flops back and lands clumsily on the floor. Dumas and Fredericks scramble to their feet, sprinting down the hallway. The alien is recovering from the headshot, but they don’t give it time to regain consciousness. They both fire repeatedly as they get close, finishing it off. They quickly check the way it came from, finding nothing yet.
The squad catches up, cautiously checking doors and hallways the two sprinted past. A deep growling voice says something over the intercom.
Fisher asks, “Think that was about us?”
Grey retorts sarcastically, “No, Fisher. I’m sure he said,” Grey switches to a deep mocking voice, “‘Dear crew members. We will be holding an ugly pageant in the cafeteria in one hour. Ice cream and human feet will be served at intermission.’”
Fredericks bursts into laughter, and Thing Three unsuccessfully suppresses giggles, particularly under Tachibana’s stern gaze. Dumas takes a turn, though, saying sternly, “Come on Sarge. Ice cream? In this climate?” Fredericks starts gasping as he laughs, leaning against Dumas.
Sergeant Tachibana snaps at Grey, “THAT IS ENOUGH! HOW CAN YOU ALLOW THIS!? We are on a hostile ALIEN ship in the depths of fricking space, nowhere to run, fighting for the fate of the ENTIRETY of humanity! How can you joke!? Not to mention our own squadmates we lost!”
Grey turns to Zane, who is carefully taking measurements a few feet away. He asks, “Professor?”
Zane replies without looking up, “Just confirming direction, sir. Uh, Sarge! Sorry! Just another moment or so. We’re getting close.”
Grey gestures at Zane as he looks back at Tachibana. “Until he tells us where to go, we’re basically useless to humanity. Two, if you think you’ll survive the next week, let alone years we have left, trying to save the whole of humanity, you’re going to kiss your sidearm goodbye before it sends you off. I’m here to save four marines, the love of my life, and my little fifth marine. Fredericks lost everything. Tell me; when WILL a good time to lighten the mood be?”
Tachibana is silent for a moment. The unintelligible announcement is made again. After another moment, Tachibana says softly, “I’m sorry. Just… make sure you aren’t distracted please.”
Grey nods. He asks calmly, “Fisher; finished policing the body?”
Fisher replies, “He had what we think is a gun, Sarge.” Fisher tosses the new device. It shares passing similarities with the shock trooper guns the marines have obtained so far, but is smaller. Grey nods after inspecting it, and he hands it off to Thing Three, who until now, had only conventional weapons. He states, “Coulson.”
She smirks, teasing, “Awe, Sarge! My birthday isn’t until next month!”
He chuckles, retorting, “Don’t tell your sister. I didn’t get her anything.”
Thing Four retorts, “Very funny, Sarge.”
He feigns whispering to Thing Three, “I don’t really like that Mina character.” Everyone laughs, before Mina –Thing Three and the twin he just gave the alien weapon to- says, “But wait… I’m Mina, Sarge.”
He grins and winks at her. Zane finally says, “This doesn’t make sense. We’re on top of it. We should be literally seeing it.”
Grey sighs, wishing he had a case of cigars and whiskey waiting for him. He pulls Zane a few steps away and says calmly, “Coulson?”
Both Coulsons reply, “Yes?”
“The useful one.”
Again, they both playfully reply, “Yes? What is it Sarge?”
He smirks, pointing at the floor. The twins giggle as Thing Three steps up, priming her cutting torch.
Tachibana orders, “Alright team, take cover. Mina, head on a swivel. You even think you see movement, take cover. We’ll do our best to clear the halls.”
Thing Three nods, beginning her cut. Tachibana adds loudly, “Same as before, marines. No gators within a hundred meters!”
They all cheer together, “Oorah!”
Mina cuts the floor plating diligently. Even when the shooting starts, she tries to keep her torch to the deckplates. Their position will only get more crowded the longer it takes, and the aliens KNOW they’re not invincible while the marines have the aliens’ own weapons.
Prof. Caldaren tries to instruct Mina, “If you see any conduits, pleas-…” He is cut off by a round that skirts past his face, causing him to flinch back. Grey starts to bark, “I FRICKIN’-…!” He halts when the scientist collapses into Moody’s surprised arms. The superheated bolt definitely singed flesh. Grey booms, “MEDIC! BROWN GET TO ZANE!”
“MOVING SERGEANT!” The corpsman scrambles low under everyone’s lines of fire as he makes for Moody and Zane. Grey fires up the hall, keeping the aliens gathering suppressed along with the other marines firing. Rena’s rifle thunders the hall, shattering something glass-like from the percussion. Two aliens collapse from her shot, but she flexes her shoulder. The weapon is taking its toll. There are at least 3 more hostiles down the hall.
Grey sighs. Where’s his idiot heroic rookie when he needs him? The sergeant dives to the floor next to Rena, “MARINE! TRADE!”
She pauses only a second before fluidly shifting to take his alien blaster while he takes the rifle. She shouts, “FOUR MAG, ONE HOT!”
“FOUR BY ONE! GOT IT! UNKNOWN CHARGE!”
“GOT IT!” She instantly starts firing as Grey shoulders the heavy rifle. He trained on heavy rifles in his younger marine days, but he washed out of sniper school. His instructor and Grey had a ‘disagreement’ about the instructor’s wife, among other things. Grey’s actually rather lucky to still be in the Marine Corps.
He spots his target, though. One of the aliens is getting clever and is priming a grenade. Grey levels the rifle with where the alien’s chest will be as it turns out of cover to throw.
A sudden hiss beside him and Rena cursing distracts him at that crucial moment. Just as he realizes his error, the grenade is already airborne with incredible speed.
Grey yells, “GRENADE!”
None of them can really do anything except dive away. Grey is about to cover his head, but he glances at Mina, still fearlessly cutting. Or rather, she’s pushing through her fear to continue. Her hands are shaking, and the torch is popping and crackling from her trying to move too fast. She’s trying to finish with her last seconds alive.
Grey closes his eyes, but the blast doesn’t seem to come. He looks up, realizing he had instinctively tried to shield Rena with his body. That pales in comparison to the best discovery to be made.
Once more, with impeccable timing, the mysterious stranger-turned-officer has appeared. In his hand rests the primed grenade, somehow caught so delicately, it didn’t trigger the fuse. This has the aliens surprised, too, suggesting such a feat shouldn’t be possible. The powerful supersoldier shoves the grenade back the way it came, and it streaks even faster than the alien threw it. The blast causes the crocs to cry out.
Tachibana squeaks, “L-Lieutenant?”
Kane replies, “Wait one.” He looks down at Grey, “Sergeant, would you?”
Grey snaps out of his surprise. He shoulders the rifle and aims. One of the aliens is dragging its cohort away wearily. Grey finishes it with the shot. He cycles the bolt, and Rena says warmly, “Nice shot, Sarge.”
Grey grumbles as he massages his shoulder. The rifle kicks like an actual kick, and he says, “I’m getting too old for this.”
Kane asks, “Where’s Lopez? And, Marvoni and the Rookie?”
Dumas shakes his head solemnly.
Kane pauses. He sighs. The lieutenant looks at Caldaren. Rena helps Grey to his feet, as Mina finishes her cut, kicking the slug inwards. The lieutenant remarks, “We’re already down two plans.”
Tachibana replies hopefully, “Plan B still has a chance, sir. Before he was hit, Caldaren found the source of the EMF. It’s through there.” She points at the hole.
Kane replies solemnly, “Yes, but now we don’t have a way to identify the useful information we need. Plan B still relied on either of our two scientists being at normal capacity this far in.” He glances at Zane and Brown. The corpsman is doing his best, but Zane will be unconscious for a while, most likely. Assuming his body doesn’t shut down from going into shock.
Kane says more confidently, “Sergeants, we’re going to plan ‘C’. You’ll fight your way to the hangar, and I will go down and access their FTL drive.”
“What for?” asks Grey. “Better yet, why not just cleanse the whole ship?”
Kane sighs. “I can’t. This device,” He gestures at his forearm, continuing, “seems to have some semblance of limits… or something. Like it just spontaneously runs out of charge. Without understanding my connection to it, I’d likely only make things much worse. For now, everything I’ve done are basic Mary Sue moments. We can’t rely on them forever.”
Grey nods, “Fair enough. So why the FT… whatever?”
“FTL. I’m going to send the ship into jump. If the Polonia hit all the hard points designated, this ship should be blind and mute, with exception of GPS. They’ll jump elsewhere. They haven’t been here long, so I’m hoping the rest of their fleet will follow, assuming the first landing was erroneous or caused by some phenomena. Worst case, they won’t know which direction specifically we’re going.”
Tachibana asks, “Doesn’t this only buy us days at best, sir? The next ship to ping us down will be right back on us.”
Kane smirks, “A problem for tomorrow. We have only this, now. We need-…”
A strange voice suddenly crackles into the ship’s intercom, sounding nothing like the growling voice of the aliens. This voice is distinctly male, young, and HUMAN. He says somewhat dryly and mockingly in a deep voice, imitating the stereotypical airplane pilot voice, “Attention all hands, uh, this is the captain speaking. Uh, to any of the, uh, filthy hoomeens out there, we’re holed up in an, uh, escape pod we think, somewhere near the engines. Uh, I mean…”
As the voice rambles, Fisher excitedly barks, “That’s Rookie! Sarge, he made it!”
Grey chuckles, replying, “Frickin’ Rookie.”
Rena remarks, “He said ‘we’. Does that mean Sergeant Marvoni…? And Dr. Lopez…?”
Tachibana looks from Rena to Grey, “Engines. That’s this way.” She points down the hallway the way they’ve yet to go. “Let’s…”
Grey grabs her arm gently, halting her. “Apologies, Sergeant. Our boy’s smarter than that. He’s not at the engine room.”
Kane adds, “He’s right, Sergeant. And, none of the three have a cutting torch.”
Mina asks, “You don’t think they climbed in the hangar, do you, sir? That would be a straight fall.”
Dumas remarks, “Maybe not. It’s definitely a big open door -and probably the only one right now-.”
Tachibana looks at Kane, “So, back to plan A, sir?”
Kane nods. “Most of the troops patrolling the ship aren’t their shock troopers. Expect heavy resistance near the hangar. They likely know it’s our only real exit.”
Hancock’s voice says jokingly over the intercom, “Oh man, trying to sound like these idiot crocs is hard. I MEAN, I’m the captain. Rawr rawr gr-gllr rawr!”
The marines chuckle, excluding Tachibana and Moody. Kane adds, “Get to those three and protect Dr. Lopez at all costs.”
Tachibana replies confidently, “Sir yes sir!” She then orders, “Let’s move marines! We can’t lose our squadmates now!”
The marines cheer, “Oorah!”
********