Major Morrow
Light, and heat. That was all any of us could feel as the third explosion rocked the ship. Despite the advanced armor and cooling systems of our mechs, we could all still feel the sheer power of the explosives that were brought to bear against us in the Yalayans attempt to get us off their ship. “Everyone good?” I shouted over coms as we all sat in the aftermath of the explosion. It was eerily quiet because the speakers in the area were destroyed in the blast. It felt like being in a theme park after hours.
“These bastards are crazy, detonating that many explosives just to get to us!” shouted one of my men.
“I’m inclined to agree,” I said as I ran the diagnostics program of my mech. Being out of the immediate danger zone of the blast prevented my mech from being completely destroyed, but there was still significant damage over the whole thing, especially to the parts that were more exposed to the explosion. I’d be surprised if command would even try and salvage these suckers after this was all over. I turned on my radio. “Command, explosives planted by hostiles have reduced the effectiveness of armor by seventy-five percent, uh, other than that, mechs are still operational. Please advise.” I couldn’t keep the tremor out of my voice.
I heard the crackle of static before getting a response. “Understood Major, proceed with the mission, taking the bridge is your only priority.”
“Wilco, command,” I responded, turning to my men. “Alright boys, stop complaining, we still have a job to do.” With an oohrah from the men, we turned back into the now completely ruined hallway. There was so much damage to the hallway that that was completely unrecognizable. It created a gaping hole in what used to be the hallway large enough to see into two decks, both above and below. They must have REALLY wanted to get rid of us if they were willing to let that much damage come to their ship. Not even the nukes that we brought could do this much damage. The only bright side that I managed to see is that at least now, we didn’t have to clear any more rooms before we could get to the bridge.
It was at this moment that I spotted it, our prize. Thanks to the damage the Yalayans did to their ship, we could now see the bulkhead to the bridge, and perhaps best of all, there was nobody in our way. We did our best to navigate over the ruins of the hallway and found ourselves standing in front of the final bulkhead. I turned on my radio. “Sergeant, we’re at the final bulkhead, what’s it looking like in there?”
“Holy shit Major, that was one hell of an explosion!” the Sergeant shouted in my ear. He paused a moment before he regained composure. “Uh, sorry about that Major, let me get that information for you.” There was another pause. “Shit! They shot out the camera in that room. Unless you want to go in there blind, I’d suggest getting a microdrone in there.”
“Copy that Sergeant,” I said as I released a microdrone over to the vent that was still sealed. “Can I get the vent open?”
“Yes, sir. Opening in three, two, one.”
The vent slid open with a metallic hiss, and I watched as the drone went up and through the vent before disappearing. It was only a moment later before we had eyes in the room, barricaded to hell and back. My men, who were also viewing the stream from the drone started prepping breaching charges and putting them on the door. One last push.
---------------
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
High Commander Tussus
Perhaps we put those charges a little too close to the bridge. I thought to myself as I felt my ship rock from explosives for the third time today. At least this one wasn’t a fission one. Small blessings from the Ancestors. We can only hope that it did the job. I turned to my security officer. “Did we get them?” I shouted over the music that was still, against all odds, playing.
The officer clicked their mandibles in an unsure fashion. “I am not sure, the blast took out all of the cameras in the vicinity, including the ones that we were watching their movements from, High Commander.”
“We must make sure,” I stated. “Send a team over there to confirm the kills.”
“At your command, High Commander,” replied the officer.
I was content to relax for a bit, knowing that we had at the very least delayed them when, in my peripheral vision, a vent access panel on the ceiling slid open. It was a mad dash to get our weapons trained on the now open vent, everyone expecting another one of the Terran’s flashbangs to fly in and completely blind us. Instead, there was nothing. The only thing that we could see was the dust particles floating in the air, moving in and out of the vent.
I was about to breathe a sigh of relief when suddenly, the bulkhead was blown apart in such a way that caused our meager defenses to fly back on us. I screamed as I shamefully dropped my plasma gun and hid behind my commander’s chair.
--------------
Major Morrow
As it turns out, we didn’t even need to throw a smart flashbang into the room, as just opening the vent was more than enough to get the entire bridge crew distracted enough for us to breach. The explosives rocked the already damaged hallway as we stormed into the room, dispatching hostiles as needed. A few stray shots managed to hit a few of us, but luckily our armor was just thick enough from it doing serious damage. It was only after we did a proper sweep of the bridge that we saw the pitiful excuse for the High Commander, hiding behind his chair in a pool of its own excretions. I pulled it roughly up and forced him over to where the communications console was. “Tell your crew to stand down, or I will relieve you of your head in the most painful way that I know how.”
It nodded slowly, shivering violently as it opened the PA system. “A-attention all c-crew, t-this is High Commander Tussus. S-stand down and comply with the Terrans demands.”
“Good choice," I said as I nodded before knocking out the bug with a well-placed punch to its face and dropping it into the pile of what I could only assume was shit.
I switched on the radio. “Command, be advised, all objectives complete, and the High Commander is in our custody.”
“Copy Morrow, the Failure to Communicate is on its way, ETA two minutes.”
I heard a cheer go through the Sergeant’s teams as they started to celebrate a job well done. “Oh, you think that it’s time to celebrate, do you?” the Sergeant asked. “Don’t think that I’ve forgotten about the three hundred pushups you all owe me for being late to the briefing!” I chuckled as I heard a groan go up from the marines. Marines will be marines.
---------------
Aeva
I must admit, the last couple of hours were some extremely stressful ones. From helping Alex getting his mech back into some semblance of working order, to worrying about how the Terrans were going to fare in this war with the Yalayans, to thinking about the Terran representative’s threats to the Galactic Community.
“Damn,” Alex said as we finally got the battery in place and hooked up to the rest of the mech. “I have a whole new respect for the autofabs that we have on our ships, they make this crap look easy.”
I looked down at the tiny Terran. “Your people are at war, and that’s what you’re thinking about? You know that there are Yalayans on this ship, right?”
He flashed me a signature smile, and said, “I will admit, that last bit does worry me, but the rest?” He shrugged. “There’s no point in worrying about something that I can’t change, as I’ve said probably ten times at this point, so why worry?” I was about to say something when Alex’s phone vibrated once again. He pulled it out and looked at it a moment before finally turning back to me. “It’s from the ambassador, he says to turn on the news and watch it, something’s about to go down.”
I involuntarily felt my feathers puff up in nervousness. “Hopefully it’s good news!” I said as optimistically as I could.