|Viraliv|[20-14]Sliue-Ececs|Ora’s Eye|Tepi|Tepi-3|
11,163,955,738cy
Terraformer Station ‘Favala’, Low Tepi-3 Orbit
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Many people think that battles are a quick affair, and they can be, but most battles have a large build-up time. Like the engines of a starcraft spooling up, it takes time till they hit the critical point and reach intensity. Most battles are like that, this one’s no different.
#Point of View, Random Soldier Under the Captain’s Faction, Outside of the Third Shutter
Five hours, that’s how long it’s taken for the team of plasma-cutter wielding combat engineers to cut through the shutters. Five long hours waiting with utterly nothing to distract us. The adrenaline that was flooding through our bodies at the sound of the klaxon alarms so long ago in the morning has long since disappeared and replaced by hunger. The officers allowed us to eat our fill before battle, for some this will be their last meal and for others this will become the strength that allows them to overcome our enemies. I’ve heard that our enemies are soldiers like us, following someone else's orders, but ultimately they have the same equipment. For some of us, these enemies will be their friends as well, perhaps even bunk-mates. Only we can’t treat them as such, we use the same equipment so we know how deadly it will be. Only more so by the fact that we can’t use heavy equipment and they can. They also hold a fortified position, and while that means that they are surrounded, it’ll only make them fight harder.
Killing us is their only way to survive, our side doesn’t have as strong an impetus. Normally this isn’t something that I would be thinking about. Maybe it’s because there’s nothing to do, the officers don’t even want us talking to each other, or maybe it’s because I’m in the vanguard. Even I know that those who enter first will simply die to the onslaught of weapons fire targeting the small tunnels the engineers are making. I can’t say that’s something that I’m happy about, but those behind me would never let me vacate my position in this battle, lest they be the ones to replace me. While our army doesn’t normally employ wave tactics, in a case like this it’s unavoidable. A foothold needs to be secured before we can do anything else. Luckily for us, well the ones behind me anyway, the armories weren’t ransacked very much. The various defensive and offensive armaments contained within will relieve the pressure for those that rush in after me. It’s the, mostly, Thelsk vanguard that needs to create that foot hold however.
The big guys are my only hope of making it out of this alive, some might call me a coward but I would consider myself a realist. I’ve seen what our guns can do to people, even ones with armor like myself. If I can just hug myself around one of the Thelsk then I might survive some shots fired in my direction. Even if one of the giants go down I can just pretend dead and hope the enemies don’t throw any explosives my way.
While I’ve been thinking, the engineers have undoubtedly come close to cutting through the shutter completely. They’ve stopped using the cutters and are using some other tools, I’ve got no idea what they could be but a gaggle of officers are hovering around so it’s probably something important.
After some discussion the officers scatter and return to their positions, a few of the engineers grab something from a box while the others back off. The tip of the spear for the vanguard are told to ready themselves. I can feel my mouth dry up and my ears twitch ceaselessly, it’s time. My body starts to heat up and the world slows slightly. I see the engineers put something into the hole that they were previously cutting; a reddish hue speaks of the still present heat. They stand back while some heavily armored, even more so than usual, Thelsk line up near the hole. The sound of an explosion is the sound that releases our charge. Like an arrow we throw ourselves into the smoke filled hole, our allies behind us will only know our fate from the sounds they hear coming from the other side.
Light flashes, luminescent enough to be seen even beyond the veil of smoke, lighting finding a home in someone's body while the thunder finds a home in my ears. The final plunge before no return. I push through the black smog.
#Point of View of Saroxis Ghej, alias of “Tiny”
A jolt of force crawls up my arm and a flare of light in my eyes. The singing of Biggie can be heard in a sharp but low pulsing noise as I continue to fire at the little bug-holes the enemies are crawling from. Gave us a good surprise when they blasted a bunch of holes through the shutters, all at the same time too. Then they came flooding in, a few seconds passed before we reacted. A good tactic, but it’s not something that matters now. Perhaps a bit more on edge than we should’ve been, the first ones to react kept firing until the Thelsk vanguard of the enemy were shot to smithereens and burnt to crisp. A hard feat to accomplish given their heavy armor.
It didn’t stop the enemy though, they kept rushing out like bugs when you step on their hives. Of course, comparing these guys to bugs is a little mean. Well, I don’t think they really care, I don’t either. All I’m feeling right now is the pulse of my gun running throughout my body, nothing like regret like many talk about. This is the stuff I live for.
I hear a clunking noise as something hard hits the back of my helmet. I throw myself to the ground thinking it’s a grenade or something, nasty things would fuck up my suit that’s for sure. I wait for a few seconds and nothing happens then I hear laughing in my comm unit. I grumble a little while Jayx’s profile lights up on the display.
“Calm down, Tiny, just a scrap ball. You were getting too far out of formation, reel it back.”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“Oh, right, thanks. Next time don’t throw any rocks at me though.” I rub the back of my helmet out of some embarrassment. Sometimes I just sort of zone out in battle.
“Ha, had to, you weren’t responding before. You’re lucky I spotted you before Polva did.”
I notice how far I’ve gone out of line by now. It’s an easy move back into position but it’s not something that should be allowed to happen. Not do I put myself in danger but also my brothers. Looking at the choke-point, it’s piling up with bodies now, enough to provide some cover for the troops slowly flooding in. It’s not enough to shelter them from our guns though. Some soldiers can even be seen slipping on whatever blood and guts mark the floor. Regardless of who loses the battle, the janitors will surely have lost the most.
Of course while this has been a slaughter so far, it’s not like the enemy isn’t giving a fight. Casualties can be seen on our side as well, though few in number. Mostly just lucky shots hitting people who were peeking their heads out of cover for just a little too long. Still, hundreds have likely died trying to vie some kind of foothold into this chamber. It’s certainly becoming harder to hit them, they keep popping smoke near the entrances. Might save a few seconds, but their soldiers on the other side of that thick fog are probably pissing their pants right now. Nobody wants to be the target for this shooting range.
All across the area these same events are happening at every shutter. Many of the shutter holes are as darkened with the smoke as they are with the mixed blood of Tarmon and Thelsk. Bodies are stacking ever higher, providing some cover and time to those next in line. The pressure will instantly decline once they get the first actual fortification down. However, even those can’t last forever, especially not against heavy arms. The Captain’s faction’s only hope is that once the first mobile fortification shield is set-up, the second, third, and so on fall in line shortly after it. Of course, it’s our job to stop that until the special teams can capture the Captain.
#Point of View, Random Member of Echo-02, One of the Teams Selected to Capture Enemy #VIPs
My comm buzzed out the commands, “Echo-02, begin your operation.”
Me and my team have been hiding in a small compartment used for holding basic maintenance tools. Upon the command, we put the helmets to our suits on. These suits capture the image behind us and display it on intensely small reflectors, effectively allowing for limited invisibility so long as one doesn’t look too closely. It’s best used in the dark though because it’s nowhere near perfect. Even further we have to be silent and know how to hack our way past the various sensors that can be found nearly everywhere in the ship. Getting these suits wasn’t easy but I’m sure we’ll prove ourselves once we capture the Head Officer of Intelligence, our target. Of course any other important officers, especially the Captain himself, we see are also targets but it’s unlikely that we’ll cross their paths.
The compartment that we were hiding in was near one of the CIC, the one that we suspect our target to be in. Doing this as quickly as possible is our goal, we don’t want more soldiers to die than necessary. Afterall, once this is over they will be taken into our fold, or at least exiled to live in the colony. I shake my head clear, unnecessary thoughts can lead to one's death in this kind of mission. I motion to my men that the first obstacle is up ahead. A door that has a tricky set of sensors set up before the entrance. Trying to get access to the panel will activate the sensors before you even reach it. The hacking specialist steps up, they will have a very limited amount of time, after we fire a small-scale emp tag at the multiple sensor manifolds, to hack through the system. After that he can cross over the threshold and hack the door from the other side to allow us through. This all depends on the team making several precise shots all at the same time, and that no enemy randomly makes a detour to this position.
Our hacker steps up to the door right before the area where the sensor’s beam starts, ready to rush in and get to work. Once he’s in position I motion for the others to move into position. We all have our assigned target, one extra person is there to make sure that everyone has hit their target. If someone misses then it’s their job to hit it, otherwise the sensor alarms will go off. That would not only doom our team but also tip the enemy off about this operation’s existence, endangering the other teams. In this case, I’m the extra person. I hold a position behind everyone else.
Once I see everyone in position I make a low grunting noise so all of them know to line up their shots. I grunt again once everyone has lined up. After exactly one second everyone fires, I quickly run through all of the targets trying to spot once missing. All are accounted for but one looks a little off, a surge of strength goes through the arm holding the tagger and I press the trigger hitting that area again. At that same time the hacker rushes forward and begins their work. We make no noise and, without orders, move into positions covering the door and begin acting as lookouts. While this was only the first of many obstacles in the path to our target, it’s good luck that we didn’t trigger the alarms.
#Point of View of Saroxis Ghej, alias of “Tiny”
“Gah, when will these little crits stop charging to their deaths!“ I yell to no-one in particular. Rather than stopping they’ve only created more openings to come through. The bodies have stacked up to half the height of the average Thelsk by now and a thin layer of blood is slowly making its way to our position. They’ve been able to place a few fortifications but they never made it much farther than that before the shields were blown to bits by concentrated fire. Whatever officers are pushing these guys along definitely deserve raises. They’ll probably make fortifications out of the masses of flesh before they’re able to deploy any significant amount of shields.
Well the longer it takes them the better it is for us. If they deploy too many shields not only would they be able to actually counter attack but they would also start to deploy the more defensible prehabs. None of the combat engineers that work on those can be seen so it’s safe to say that the officers don’t have the confidence that it’ll work yet. It’ll eventually get there though, we’ve lost more troops and while it’s only a small amount it does matter. Every person killed is one less shot being discharged at the enemy, enough of us get killed and the enemy will get their opportunity that they’ve been vying and dying so hard for.
Due to that it’s easy to see why the medics are sweating their asses off trying to save as many of our guys as possible. Although most of the guys going down are wearing a light armored kit and the disparity between our weapons tech and the defensive tech that infantry can wear is so large that most hits leave fatal wounds. Good thing those medics don’t assume that though, they’re life-savers, literally. It seems that the enemies aren’t so lucky though. The enemy officers, wisely, aren’t pushing the medics into our firing lines. It sucks to suffer but I’m sure there are troops over there lying in the blood, guts, and shit of their allies still gasping out their shallow and painful breaths. I’ve got no hard feelings even if they are their enemies. Really if they just surrender to us then we’d all just be fine, but I doubt their leaders, nor ours, see it that way. Guess that’s just the lot that a soldier draws, they're trained to be followers so it’s hard for them to draw out their own destiny. Well, that’s what one of my mommas back home would say anyway.