|Viraliv|[20-14]Sliue-Ececs|Ora’s Eye|Tepi|Tepi-3|
11,163,955,738cy
Terraformer Station ‘Favala’, Low Tebi-3 Orbit
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#A Few Hours Later
Heavy boots sound off on the metal flooring of the station, as far down the hall as the eye of even a tarmon can see. Walking through the halls of the ship puts not-included people on edge. I can sense it. A bunch of people without official orders walking the halls of the ship with their full gear on, ya that might just do it. The teams sent to rid the Captain have their gear hidden away for later but it doesn’t matter for us since we’re the distraction team anyway. The random people going about their business start to quickly walk away once they notice more and more of us, it’s probably best that way. Less of these civilians and cowards the better, I’m all for killing myself but these people have no bet in the game so there’s no point. Me and my brothers are at the front of the throng, of course our destination for this little field trip is the main reactor room.
After quite a long walk we finally arive at the entrance to the reactor room. Large metal doors, suitable to be blast shielding for the station's hangers close off the area. Though a simple button is all it takes to open it, given that the station isn’t in lockdown that is. There’s only a handful of guards, lax too, they act more like checkpoint nannies than soldiers. They seem to mill around a bit before one of them notices this huge crowd of people that stands before them. They ask us to halt, and to provide reasonings for entry. Obviously these people don’t know what’s going on, Polva motions to us. Iskin, Jayx, and Yinik fire at them after receiving Polva’s signal, Iskin kills the guard in the control tower. That was the most dangerous one, the one nearest to the button that sends an alert straight to the CIC. The other guards have their personnel comm but that doesn’t go all the way up the chain of command, only to their boss who was in the control tower.
Bullets fly, blood splatters, bodies drop, and the surrounding people run away, you know how it is. Some people simply go into shock though, no harm in taking them as hostages. With the gate secure all it takes is for someone to press the button to open the shutters. Once they do it’s a rather long process until the door fully opens, this is the riskiest part of the plan. If an enemy with a comm unit capable of reaching one of the CICs on board then the shutter will go into lockdown mode. The only way to undo it would be to disable the lockdown which only the head officers or the Captain himself can do. That or we melt through the shutter but we plan on using it to buy time so that’s like, backup plan Z or something. Either way, we’d be out in the open with very little cover, not an ideal situation I’d say.
The people following us are given the command to disperse, until we can get the door open they will congregate around the area but act like normal. Some teams are assigned to be the clean-up crews, those who hide bodies, hide the hostages, or capture those running away. Still you obviously can’t get them all, it’s just about buying as much time as possible that’s all there is to it. Some are gathering ammo, weapons, or random bits of scrap for later.
Some time passes, a few officers come by looking around for the guards we got rid of, silenced ‘em. Some of the people running away were able to get in contact with them and they came to investigate, fewer communicated the situation with a higher command. Ultimately most people didn’t take it seriously, the soldiers have grown soft without any conflict here. Years on a world that just needs a good spit-shine will do that to you, if you let it anyway. In the end we get the shutter open with little trouble, all through luck no doubt. Well, it doesn't matter now. Polva communicates higher up the chain that the reactor is open, as do a few other officers. More workers can be found inside but we don’t let these ones escape, we need them here in case the reactor gets hit badly, can’t have the station blowing up now can we? Afterall, whoever runs this faction needs the station to cement their authority.
Everyone that was meandering around all get the same order at the same time. They begin concentrating in the direction of the reactor room. The workers notice something in the air and begin running out, we catch the ones heading for our door. Other doors exist but they won’t be able to open them quickly enough, even if they get to the other side the other teams are there to catch them too. Three doors in total, we plan to seal them up, buying more time really. Not only to serve as a distraction but also to give us time to dig in. Really, the reactor room is only good because it means the enemy can’t blast the shit out of us with the heavier armaments. Other than that it’s rather bad, almost no cover, flat terrain, and three entry ways. Well, whatever, we can definitely scrap together something. Something that at leasts the small arms won’t be able to pierce through. They might not get here in time but some of the squads were sent to “requisition” whatever vehicles they could get their hands on. The bigger the better really, even better if they can get some with guns on them. We can’t put too much hope on them though, it’s full of risks.
After securing the engineers we head in first, only a small group of guards should be in here. Though they’re alerted they are lightly armed and sparse in number, easy pickings. A soft pulse from Biggie, the soldier I was aiming at has their central region obliterated. Biggie isn’t really meant to take out the soft targets but it’s good to get it heated up some before the real fight starts. The others around us take care of the left-over guards with small arms fire. I got called a soft-headed idiot for firing my weapon in here against a soft-body. They might be my brothers but they don’t understand what it’s like to have your cold blood shift into high gear. If I don’t use this energy then it becomes a poison in my body, well I didn’t really pay attention to the educators when they were talking about it. Has to do with stress on the body, whatever, it just means that I need to fight more; heh, I’m okay with that.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The Captain’s probably already gotten the message that something is going on by now. The size of the station is to our advantage in this case, and the general confusion. Some teams, along with those captured engineers, are already sealing all of the shutters. Usually the military would use some artillery-grade shells to bust through the shutters but that isn’t an option with the reactor. Their only option would be to cut a small hole into the shutters with some plasma cutters. That takes time, and it only leaves a small entry point, something that’s easy for us to make into a choke point. I don’t know who the soft-scales behind this operation are but they sure know how to hit the Captain the hardest.
Only a few hundred have specific duties to do. The rest, including me and my brothers, get started with digging in. Turning over random workbenches and various pieces of scrap, plus whatever the other squads brought in from the outside. It’s not a terribly large amount of things but unless the squads sent to hijack the vehicles get here it will have to do. While there are little fortifications in the reactor there are a few. Giant pillars that stick out of the ground, I’m told that they are used for the reactor, some sort of auxiliary connective systems. Regardless, they're built out of sturdy stuff. Probably the reason why the important places are being built around them. Things like the field officers camp and the infirmary are being built in the cover of these monoliths.
Even so, the fortification is pretty rough. The captured engineers help but they can’t poof materials into existence. This area is pretty large and we don’t have a lot of scrap to put together. Plus it’s not like we can dig some holes or trenches. That’s a little worrisome, hopefully the vehicles will get here before we complete the seals. Otherwise, the fortifications will have to be made out of the corpses of our enemies and allies. A macabre though to many but with little else, we’ll have to use what we can. These are the kinds of things that those war-reporters cut out in their videos.
Polva walks up to me and asks, “You ready Tinny?”
I let out a gruph laugh, “I was ready even before I cracked my egg!”
“I can only imagine the size of the egg you crawled out of, your poor mother probably stopped laying after you.”
“Ha, lay off. My mothers strong, not like your Tarmon ninny-makers. Last time I checked I have seventy-eight siblings out there.”
“Oh right, you guys always have big families. Family gatherings must cost a fortune.”
“Not really, we hunt for our food.”
“Of course you do, can’t be too civilized.”
Just some small talk, mostly to cool our nerves. Polva does his job well, and unlike other leads he actually cares for us. Outsiders might see our jobs as real but we know it’s all fun. He leaves after a while and moves to the others. Especially Jayx, he’s the most worried about all of this. Suppose he has some goals in life and can’t afford to die here. I don’t mind though, as long as I go down surrounded by my brothers nothing else matters. Even better if I take down some enemies along the way. Well, if my brothers want to live that just means that it’s my duty to help them. Even if the mission ends poorly I could probably rush my brothers through the ship to the nearest escape pod. We might be able to blend into the colony or at least get arrested, we can plan after that.
Of course, that’s just in case. Just in case I feel the battlefield shifting in the enemies favor too much, and if my brothers want to leave. That’s my dedication and responsibility as everyone's big brother, something that goes beyond any military hierarchy. I know my brothers joined the faction for their beliefs but I hope it won’t get in the way of the loyalty they owe themselves and each other.
We’ve spent a long time fortifying what we could while the Captain gets his confused army in order. Almost every scrap that could be used has been, most fortifications are focused around the pillars and some connecting trenches. At the end only three vehicles were able to make it in time. The rest either got killed before they got here or were locked out when we finished sealing the last shutter. Two of the vehicles are simple cargo vessels, lots of storage on the inside so high command saw fit to turn them into infirmaries. The last vehicle was a civilian hull but it was a heavy duty construction vehicle. Big and heavily armored, perfect to serve as a rapid reinforcement. Some metal scraps were welded onto it in order to provide more protection for those riding the beast. The enemy will probably go after its wheels first to immobilize it, at that point it will probably become a good sniper nest giving them a full view of the field, aside from what’s behind the pillars anyway.
It’s not great, specifically it would've been great to have more scrap metal at least, I guess high command didn’t have many contacts in the armories with access to the actual defensive equipment. Well whatever, no use whining when battle is about to be served.
A few minutes later and the Tarmon closest to my team's shutter perk their ears up. Some garbling noise can be heard from their equipment. Tarmon ears are exceptional at hearing, much like our noses. I see them relay a message up to command, you can see the commotion each one makes upon hearing whatever it is they’re saying. Eventually it reaches the top of the hierarchy, and then back down to the squad members. Like others, Polva fills us in on the details. I can hear his heartbeat elevate. I already know though, it’s something that even I can guess, they’re here. Still it’ll take some time for them to get through the shutter, twelve feet of the same stuff they make battleships out of. Some type of titanium if I remember. Ya, it’ll take them a while. The only question is, what to do to pass the time?