Sergeant Grays
Man, I wish I had some popcorn for this boarding action. The way that they breached and cleared every single door that they came across was like poetry, and these soldiers were like master poets. All the marines in both teams, excluding the ones watching the entrances to our neck of the vents, had their eyes glued to their HUDs where they were watching a play by play of everything that was going down, courtesy of Private Collins. Every time that there was a particularly nasty and gruesome execution, a cheer went up, and if I were worried at all about the aliens finding us, I would have told them to shut the hell up. But as of right now, they were having the time of their lives.
“Coming up to the second bulkhead,” came the word from Major Morrow.
“Nothing on cams,” I said, switching to the bulkhead that they were at. All the doors in the hallway were closed and there were no signs of traps. “I would still recommend standard breaching protocol, however.”
“Acknowledged Sargent,” came the curt reply.
I turned from my radio. “Collins, get those vents open!” I shouted.
“Already on it Sarge!” came the reply from Collins. If he doesn’t get a job at the IT department after this, then that’s the biggest waste of good talent that I have ever seen.
I turned back to the radio. “Vent opening in three, two, one.” And with that the Major threw another smart flashbang into the vent system. It was only a second later when the flashbang went off and they stormed into the hallway. There was nothing, no explosions, or incoming fire, so they started clearing out each room. It was going fine until the first door was breached, and a hail of fire came from the doorway, shredding the mech before it could react.
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Major Morrow
“Shit!” I shouted as the hail of gunfire first dented and then shredded the armor of Private Roger’s mech, bringing him down to his knees and then to his back. His battle buddy threw in a grenade as he dragged the now ruined mech from the doorway. The grenade exploded only a moment later, eliciting screams from the room. “What’s his status?” I shouted as we all warily watched all the other doorways in the hallway that we were in.
I watched as the mech’s finger turned into a data jack and plugged into the somehow still operational data port on the destroyed mech. “All systems except for life support are down, but he’s still alive.”
I nodded. “Get him out of there, we still have two bulkheads to go through, we can’t leave him here.” He nodded before focusing back on the destroyed mech. A second later, the mech opened and Rogers climbed out of it and into the open hand of his battle buddy. He was then deposited into a specialized compartment in the chest of the mech of his battle buddy. It was a design choice for this exact scenario, and while I was glad it was getting some field testing, I would rather it not have gotten that on my op.
“Sorry about that sir, I got a bit careless there. It won’t happen again, I swear.” Rogers said sheepishly over coms.
“It sure as shit won’t happen again, and thanks to you, we’re down a man.” I gave a heavy sigh. “Strip it for parts, and from now on, all breaching will be preceded with a micro drone, but just be careful with those, they don’t exactly grow on trees quite yet.” After a round of yes sir’s, we got back to room clearing. As it turned out, the room the ambush happened in was the only one in this hallway and we made good time, despite having to drone out every room that we came across.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
And while I’m on the subject, the microdrone was as much a marvel of engineering as the mechs were. While the mechs were an exercise in scaling up what we already knew and making it work at that size, the microdrone was an exercise in the opposite direction. What it essentially is, is a conventional quadcopter drone that had its rotors replaced with highly efficient thrusters like those on spaceships from two centuries ago. They are whisper quiet and small enough to fit a couple on the tip of a human’s pinky finger. Thanks to the sheer size that humanity was operating these days, they were perfect for scoping out a room without any aliens being any wiser about it. Sure, it was safer for room clearing, but that didn’t change the fact that we were on a time crunch. I may have not liked it, but it did save several of my men from the likes of several failed ambushes on the way to the third bulkhead.
We continued going like this for some time before we finally made it to the third bulkhead, thankfully not losing any more mechs in the process. “Sergeant, we made it to the third bulkhead, what’s it looking like over there?”
“Well, it’s looking like a group of about forty-five hostiles are on the other side of that bulkhead with an overwhelming desire to have their minds literally blown, so happy hunting.”
“Copy that, Sergeant.” I turned to one of my men. “Get a smart flashbang in there!” He nodded and pulled out a flashbang. As the vent opened, he threw it through the vent, and not too long after, we heard the telltale sound of the flashbang going off and stormed the other side of the bulkhead. Forty-six confirmed kills later, we were well on our way to the final bulkhead, where our prize lay, the bridge, and to some extent, its commander.
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High Commander Tussus
There was only one bulkhead separating the bridge from those monsters that were coming for us. Thankfully for us, however, we were the closest to the armory, and therefore had access to the best equipment that the ship had to offer. And after observing them breach three different bulkheads, we had more knowledge than we needed to stop them in their tracks. We had lined an entire hallway with enough explosives to destroy the entire hallway and then some. And if that didn’t work, we had also piled up anything that wasn’t bolted down in front of the bulkhead in such a way that it would fall on any would be aggressors and we could take them out easily with the weapons that we had.
Wait a second, when they breached the other three bulkheads, they always seemed to know where the defenders were. How could they know that? I mulled it over before I made a realization. “They’ve got access to the cameras!” I turned to the camera we had in the room and shot it out. Everyone in the bridge flinched and turned to me. “Worst case scenario, they didn’t have access, and a new camera will have to be installed.” I pointed over to the security officer. “What’s their progress?” I demanded.
“They are nearing the trap High Commander.” I turned my attention back over to the security feed. I watched in rapt attention as one of the Terrans started to round the corner before suddenly stopping.
“What in the name of the ancestors is it doing? Just walk forward!” I couldn’t help but say out loud.
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Major Morrow
The closer to the bridge that we got, the less rooms that we had to check, and I thought our luck was starting to get better, especially after the fiasco that was Rodgers no longer being in the fight. Regardless, we were just two more hallways away from the final bulkhead. I was about to round the corner when I suddenly heard the Sergeant shouting in my ear, “WAIT DON’T GO THAT WAY, THEY RIGGED IT TO BLOW!”
I suddenly paused. “Repeat your last?”
A moment of silence, before, “That hallway is rigged to blow, and even the slightest disturbance will set it off.”
I peeked my head around the corner and scanned the hallway with the mech’s sensor suite. It was a crisscrossing of various detectors and wires that would make any bomb enthusiast need to change their pants. “What do you suggest?”
Another pause. “Well, a microdrone could possibly set off the charges, you’d just have to detonate it far enough away that you don’t get caught.”
I nodded. “Understood. I hope you’re not in any of the vents around here.”
A bark of laughter came from the Sergeant. “One hell of a time to be a fly on the wall. You’re good.”
I chuckled. “Well, if that isn’t the truth. Get ready for some fireworks.”