Aidan glanced around the corner before taking cover in the gunner’s nest. The split second was enough for his targeting helmet to flood him with new information. He saw a few more members of the boarding party exiting other rooms spattered in the blood of Aidan’s fellow humans.
Further down the corridor, he could see more aliens moving further down the hall and away from his position. Amazingly, his helmet highlighted the frames of his enemies in red and started pointing out weak points on their profiles. He noticed their positions were marked on his mini-map as soon as he spotted them. The System rewarded him with more detailed descriptions of his foes.
Lvl 12 Ornychus Technician
Lvl 14 Ornychus Soldier
Lvl 13 Ornychus Soldier
The soldiers were massive brutes that had to have been at least ten feet tall. The tops of their helmets almost brushed the corridor ceiling, and they had to lean down to enter and exit the rooms they were clearing. They had none of the lithe grace of their smaller counterparts. Instead, they were bulking monstrosities with far shorter tails. They wore more encompassing armor and carried large melee weapons glowing with purple light.
Aidan could pick up a faint barking and chattering language the aliens used to speak to one another. Unfortunately, he couldn’t understand a single word of it. The veteran heard one of the aliens ask what may have been a question before turning in his direction. He didn’t risk exposing himself, but he saw the red dot on his map make its way toward him while the other two moved to catch up with the Ornychi further down the corridor.
The Marine quickly realized that one of the Ornychi was searching for the compatriot that Aidan had already downed. That wasn’t good. If one of the hulking soldiers found him, Aidan wasn’t confident he could take it down without a fight. Worse, the gunner’s pit wasn’t large enough for a protracted melee battle, and if the others realized that he was following them, they could easily trap him in a room while they continued to the bridge. That was assuming they didn’t just hunt him down and kill him.
Gauging the situation, Aidan decided he needed to lure his enemy into the room before engaging with them. He used what little time he had to drag the dead Ornychi further into the corner of the room. Hopefully, that would buy him a precious few seconds to get the drop on his enemy. He sidled further to the side of the door and stowed his rifle in his inventory. With a thought, he summoned the psionic sword from his inventory and held it in his left hand. After that, he switched the pistol from his left thigh to his right. If he needed to draw it, he wanted to be able to do so with his offhand.
Finally, he used his last few seconds to study the sword itself. Now that he had a helmet with better analysis abilities, he was hoping the use of the blade would be revealed. Sure enough, the text appeared.
Calibrating…
Calibration complete. Activate? Y/N
Aidan grimly smiled as he selected yes. A ghostly blue aura surrounded the blade, and a small blue bar appeared at the bottom of his display. He saw the bar slowly decrease alongside more text.
Success! Psionics unlocked. Mana available: ???
Aidan didn’t have any more time to study the phenomena as the Ornychus Technician crossed the threshold. He heard a chirp as the alien moved forward to check his downed comrade. That second of distraction was all the time its ambusher needed.
Aidan’s helmet identified a weak point where a human’s kidney would reside. Without hesitating, Aidan lunged forward and stabbed the blade near the designated spot. The sword slid through the alien’s protective clothing and punched through its torso. It caught for a fraction of a second against the creature’s protective front armor before piercing entirely through it.
The creature stumbled and fell, pulling Aidan’s sword down to the ground with it. As soon as the blade left his grasp, the psionic field surrounding the weapon disengaged. He wasn’t bothered, though. It was as clean a kill the Marine could hope for.
Lvl 12 Ornychus Technician slain. Experience gained: ???
Aidan smiled as he pressed a boot to the alien corpse and pulled his sword free. The smile wasn’t from pleasure at killing another living creature. It was a celebration of a plan well-executed. He was running off the battle high that made the rest of his life seem dim in comparison. He swung the sword to dislodge the blood running its length and then dismissed it to his inventory. Another thought, and his trusty rifle was back in his hands.
The red markers on his map were already at the end of the corridor, so Aidan exited the room stealthily and slowly crept toward their position. When he was close enough for his helmet to tag their posts and levels, he slipped into an alcove to the right of him. There were six more aliens on this portion of the ship made up of the alien’s larger warrior class. It looked like none of the technicians had survived the boarding operation.
Aidan wondered why they had brought the technicians if the soldiers were doing most of the wet work. He peeked around the corner to get another look at what the soldiers were doing. A couple of them were pounding on a sealed door while the others were taking turns smashing gauntleted fists into an overhead hatch that led to the upper level. They hadn’t had trouble getting into any other doors, so Aidan assumed the technicians were there to open locked doors and bypass whatever automated defenses the ship was sure to possess.
Curiosity sated, the Marine slipped back into his alcove and thought about his next steps. The technicians behind their soldier counterparts were an apparent weakness of the boarding party. If Aidan could eliminate this group of soldiers and then pick off the technicians in the other group of enemies, they wouldn’t be able to infiltrate further into the ship. That accomplished, he could reach the bridge himself and see what defenses could be marshaled.
Now he just needed to figure out how to take down half a dozen hulking alien soldiers. Aidan checked his inventory to see what else he could use to even the odds. He had a couple of frag grenades, energy grenades, his sword, rations, water, and ammunition.
He took out the ration bar and held it in his hand’s palm while watching his mana bar fill up. Once it was fully recovered, he decided to see if he could do anything else useful with his newly discovered abilities. Concentrating on the ration bar, he willed the bar to levitate. Besides looking foolish, nothing happened.
Aidan frowned at the bar and then dismissed his rifle to his inventory. Hand free, he drew out the psionic sword. The veteran carefully observed the weapon’s operation as he engaged the psionic field on the blade. He disengaged and re-engaged it a few times to get a sense of the feeling. After a few minutes, he felt a tangible feeling in his mind when the blade activated. It was like an itch in his mind that couldn’t be scratched or an open wound trickling blood.
He stored his blade and held his ration bar in the same hand. He tried to summon the same feeling while imagining the ration lifting from the top of his hand.
Success! Telekinesis unlocked. Channeling skill that consumes ??? Mana/sec. Available mana: ???
The lack of data was annoying, but it didn’t matter. As the ration bar levitated in his palm, Aidan could track mana usage by the rapidly depleting blue bar at the bottom of his sight. He canceled his telekinesis and put away the packaged food. A plan was starting to come into focus.
He glanced around the corner again to confirm the positions of his enemies. They still hadn’t progressed on the last door, but the hatch looked a little misshapen from the continuous beating. It was a matter of time before the Ornychi could reach their destination. After confirming his targets, Aidan used his helmet to paint them with weak spots. There were a frighteningly small number of them compared to the more frail technicians. It looked like neck, and knee shots where the armor was the thinnest were the only sure ways to bring them down. Even then, a knee shot wasn’t fatal, and with alien physiology, he couldn’t be sure the neck was either.
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Thankfully, he had something more explosive in mind. Aidan pulled a grenade from his inventory while still studying his enemies. This time, more of their bodies appeared vulnerable after a short delay. Energy weapons would largely be ablated by their armor, while fragmentation weaponry had a better chance of punching through their defenses.
The Marine knew it was now or never. He still had the element of surprise, and he couldn’t be sure how long the advantage would last. It would only take a moment for the brutes to realize that their technicians weren’t coming over to assist them.
With a plan in mind, Aidan dismissed his rifle and drew the second grenade. Now he was holding a fragmentation grenade in either palm. He looked down at them at pressed his thumbs against the small circular indents. The circles flashed blue and then shifted to yellow. Just as they were changing color again to orange, he threw them down the hallway with an extra push of telekinetic force. His mana bar drained to nothing, and the projectiles rocketed down the corridor like a strike-out pitch from the team closer.
Explosive away, Aidan ducked back into his alcove and drew his rifle. Moments later, a resounding detonation shook the hallway. Tremors shook the bulkheads, and the Marine was tossed from his feet. Luckily his helmet had dampened most of the sound, and Aidan was spared the ringing in his ears that he hoped the Ornychi suffered from. The veteran quickly got to his feet with his rifle at the ready. He turned around the corner and started firing indiscriminately in the direction of his enemies.
As Aidan turned the corner, most of the aliens had become nothing but a wet paste smeared against the walls and deck. Only two of the soldiers had been shielded from the worst of the blast by their fellows. They were still limping as they roared in anguish from behind their helmets. A shot from Aidan’s rifle silenced the closest one—evidently, neck shots were fatal—but the second one ambled into a strained sprint.
Aidan held his ground as that alien rapidly closed the thirty or forty yards that separated them. He continued trying to ping the alien’s neck, but the tiny target was difficult to hit as the Ornychus’ lumbering gait caused his armored plates to shift and block some of the veteran’s shots.
Changing strategies, Aidan started aiming at the alien’s exposed knees. Although it was a smaller target, he didn’t have to worry about armored plates obstructing the shot. Instead, this was purely about accuracy. As the soldier neared the halfway point, Aidan was able to sear a hole through the alien’s knee.
The resulting crash shook the ship’s deck, and only a reflexive activation of his mag boots kept Aidan from losing his footing. He disengaged the lock a fraction of a second later, tossed his rifle into his inventory, and drew his pistol and sword instead. His mana hadn’t had time to recover but a fraction, so he didn’t activate the blade right away. Instead, he closed the remaining distance between himself and the alien while firing blindly with his pistol. He didn’t expect to inflict any damage, but he wanted to keep the pressure up.
The alien tried to rise to its feet, but the pistol had the desired effect, as it covered its head with his hands instead of engaging with Aidan. The delay allowed the veteran to close this distance and toss his pistol at the creature’s head for another half second of distraction. As soon as the gun left his hand, Aidan raised his sword in an overhead, two-handed grip. He activated the psionic field just as he stabbed the blade into the Ornychus’ skull. It only slid a fraction before plunging through the armored helmet and down the alien’s spine. It finally stopped when it pierced a couple of inches into the deck and pinned the alien like a nightmarish science experiment.
Aiden drew back from the downed enemy and pulled his rifle from his inventory. When he was sure his flailing adversary couldn’t reach him, he sighted down on his rifle and started putting laser rounds into the alien’s skull. It took six shots before the armor helmet gave away, and the Ornychus’ head was reduced to a smoking ruin. As the danger settled, notifications started pouring in.
Lvl 14 Ornychus Soldier slain. Experience gained: ???
Lvl 13 Ornychus Soldier slain. Experience gained: ???
Lvl 15 Ornychus Soldier slain. Experience gained: ???
Lvl 12 Ornychus Soldier slain. Experience gained: ???
Lvl 13 Ornychus Soldier slain. Experience gained: ???
Lvl 14 Ornychus Soldier slain. Experience gained: ???
He dismissed the notification with a thought and mechanically went through his post-battle routine. He picked up his pistol and attached the weapon to his thigh. Then, he pulled the sword from its macabre scabbard, and after wiping the blade on his foe’s protective clothing, Aidan also stored it in his inventory.
He quickly glanced around for any other grenades he could salvage but didn’t find any. It was a disappointing realization since the Marine knew the only way he could defeat the Ornychi had been because of a little application of explosive overkill.
With a sigh, he headed toward the last door on the left. He couldn’t tell if it was a maintenance shop or another gunner’s emplacement, but he hoped he would be able to find a survivor inside. Although Aidan wanted to open the door, he wasn’t quick to disengage the barrier. If the veteran had been on the other side of things, he would be waiting with a weapon in hand, and he wouldn’t be particularly discriminating about who he would fire on.
The Marine veteran moved to the side of the door and placed a weary palm on the access pad. Sure enough, a stream of laser fire poured from the opening as soon as the door opened.
“I’m human!” Aidan shouted.
The fire abruptly cut off, and a man and a woman sheepishly exited the engineering space. They wore gray coveralls, boots, and black gauntlets on their arms, similar to Aidan’s own. They weren’t wearing helmets but had their pistols drawn.
Aidan stood with one hand raised, and his rifle pointed at the ground. He tried to present as little threat to the terrified mechanics as possible.
“Oh, thank god,” the man said, sounding relieved.
The woman merely nodded her agreement before asking. “Are you one of our Marines?”
Aidan realized that he wasn’t sure how to answer the question. This whole thing was supposed to be a virtual scenario, but he had long stopped treating it as such.
“Something like that,” he answered vaguely. “I’m just here to help.”
The two techs seemed to accept that answer and didn’t probe further. Instead, they looked past Aidan at the carnage beyond.
“Christ,” the awed woman commented. “We weren’t expecting to be raided so early.”
Aidan’s ears perked up at the chance to learn more about the situation.
“What happened?” He asked.
“This is the UNS Vanguard’s maiden voyage,” the man answered. “She had just left the Ceres shipyard, and we were taking her out with a skeleton crew to get some training done and verify everything was working.”
Aidan nodded. That explained the lack of personnel. There had only been about a squad of defenders in the first hallway, and he hadn’t seen much of anyone else. He might’ve found more in the crew quarters, but he had doubted it. By his count, the boarders had been able to subdue much of the ship with little more than a couple dozen warriors.
“There’s still one more boarding party, at least,” Aidan informed the two techs. He was surprised to see both of their eyes widen in fear.
“W-well, you should probably go take care of that then,” the man stuttered.
“We’ll stay here and try and clean up the mess,” the woman agreed.
Aidan frowned behind his helmet. They acted like it wasn’t every crew member’s responsibility to repel boarders. It was a drill that every naval vessel practiced when they were out at sea. It couldn’t be that different in space. He decided to act like he hadn’t heard them.
“We must get to the bridge and make sure we have control over the ship. I don’t think I have the appropriate access to the ship’s secure spaces.”
The man shared a glance with the woman. “We don’t have access to the bridge either. The best we can do is get you to the next level. The bridge is still one more deck above that. It’s accessible through a single ladder well in the aft of the ship.”
Aidan rolled his eyes at the pair. “Does the ship have a friend or foe system?”
“Yeah,” the woman answered before checking the screen on her gauntlet. She made a flicking motion from her gauntlet to Aidan’s. “Here you go. You should be able to see who’s left now. Certain people, like the Captain, won’t show up on your mini-map for security reasons.”
Aidan nodded as he checked his own map. Now he could see six green markers on his map on the deck above. It looked like they were facing off against a dozen red enemies. Clearly, the other boarding party had faced fewer losses than the one Aidan engaged. He was thankful that he chose the route he did. He wasn’t confident he could take on that many enemies alone.
“Your crew members are outnumbered and outgunned,” Aidan noted.
The male tech shifted his feet, and the woman looked away.
“We’re just propulsion techs,” the man tried to explain. “We grabbed our weapons just like everyone else, but we’re not equipped to handle an alien boarding party.”
Rage filled Aidan, and he had to take a few calming breaths. As much as he would like to threaten the two techs, he wouldn’t want such unreliable partners watching his back. He needed to motivate them differently.
“Listen, I know you two are afraid of what might happen, but if the three of us help the rest of the crew, we’ll have largely made up the difference between them and the aliens. I got here wearing nothing but a skin suit, but I was able to take out these bastards.” Aidan pointed a thumb at the dead bodies sprawled behind him.
“We might get there too late for it to matter. The crew might have already dispatched the boarding party, but we must at least show up and do our part. If not, we could get strung up for treason or worse.”
Aidan subtly included himself alongside them. If he acted like he wasn’t scared or not a part of their crew, then they would be less likely to help. But if he included himself in their group, he became a voting member instead of a source of outside pressure.
The woman sighed. “He’s right, Chance. If the Captain finds out we didn’t try to help, we’ll find ourselves mining palladium on an asteroid in the ass end of nowhere.”
The man looked down at his pistol, clearly thinking. “Yeah, okay.” He finally answered.
Neither of them sounded particularly enthusiastic, but Aidan preferred this version over the cowering selves they were before.
“Great, let’s get up there and get this over with,” The veteran tried to sound optimistic.
“By the way, do either of you have any fragmentation grenades?”
Both of the techs gave him a look like he was an idiot.
“What would propulsion techs be doing with grenades,” the man said slowly.
The extra emphasis on propulsion wasn’t lost on Aidan.
“Yeah, never mind.” Aidan shrugged.