Chapter 6 - Termination of MarsH2-3(6) - Orbital Strike Inbound
Gaius woke up with a start and saw the boy across from him inside some kind of vehicle. Around him were twelve or so normal civilians in basic body suits with pistols. Gaius started to try to stand up before a hand forced him to sit back down.
“Easy their gramps. We can’t have you running wild like a decade ago.”
Gaius swiveled his head around to look at a young man’s face, “Who’re you?”
David laughed, “You already forgot me? You probably remember me as that bastard that stole your pistol a while ago.”
Gaius sat back and picked his brain to recall and chuckled, “That’s happened too many times for me to know at this point.”
David looked him up and down, “So why’s the oh so great Gaius out here? Military intelligence said you retired to the belt.”
Gaius smiled sadly, “The scientist asked me to come out.”
David laughed, “Lucky man! Dr. Fritz never asks for favors!”
Gaius fidgeted in awkward silence.
He looked around and realized they were on a transportation walker, “Where’s Xavier?”
David pointed up.
Xavier sat on top of the walker as he scanned the surroundings for survivors. David poked his head up through the hatch, “Gaius just woke up.”
“I heard, get him up here quickly.”
Gaius slowly pulled himself up on top of the metal cabin with a grunt. The soft stomping of the six mechanical legs below him surprised him as they smoothly passed the broken trolly terminal. He glanced over towards where Xavier was sitting, “What’re you up to?”
Xavier mumbled, “Trying to… hack into the… CCTV.”
Gaius grumbled, “Why?”
Xavier stammered, “To find survivors obviously!”
Gaius rolled his eyes, “Why not call support and get a scan like a normal person?”
Xavier shot Gaius a dirty look, “Not another word.”
David laughed at the two of them as the boy snoozed away with the other civilians.
“Hey! Wake up little guy! We’re almost there.”
The boy opened his eyes and saw a black helmet with sky blue tracers in the eye slits staring at him, “Huh?”
David chuckled, “How you doing?”
The boy’s eyes took in the scene of the buildings zooming past them and the tens of other civilians slumped on benches sleeping. He sat up, nearly bumping into David. The boy’s lips started quivering as a faint green light shined from his eyes.
Gaius poked his head down the hatch and tossed a round flat disk that landed in the boy’s lap.
The boy’s eyes lit up as he saw the glowing cookie resting on his lap and started eating it.
Gaius looked over to Xavier, “Since when did they arm the civilians with second generation power suits?”
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Xavier chuckled, “Ever since the terrorist attacks started in the Forge.”
“How is Deimos?”
“It’s the Forge.”
“How’s the Forge?”
Xavier frowned, “Almost every month we get hit with something.”
Gaius pulled up the news article he had read the day before, “I saw this thing about a crash.”
“Prophesy didn’t pick it up because it was an inter district transport.
Gaius’s eyebrows shot up, “Inter district?”
“They hijacked a transport two minutes before landing using black market rifles. The citizens aboard the transport couldn’t fight back in time to regain control of the transport.”
“What about the security?”
Xavier pointed down the road, “We pulled seventy percent of all Mars personnel to track spores. We can’t just vaporize sections of the forge like we can on the habitats.”
“How’s the surface doing?”
“That’s outside Punisher’s jurisdiction.”
Gaius leaned back on the top of the moving crawler as the gate for the military base came into view. Loud popping noises could be heard as membranes exploded in the middle of the habitat section. Humanoid figures reaching ten meters tall walked in unison making the ground quake. Gaius frowned, “Orcs.”
Xavier stood up and unclipped a grenade launcher pistol from his belt, “We got this.”
“Ha, I see.”
The large metal doors at the military base between MarsH2-2 and MarsH2-3 came into view with a large letter B above the door. An artificial voice greeted them, “Welcome to border control base B of MarsH2.”
Xavier tapped the side of his helmet, “This is site B, we are ready for detachment.”
A voice on the other side of the communication responded, “C, detachment status confirmed. Brace for Torque in 5 minutes.”
Xavier looked out the window at a large humanoid figure lumbering down the street.
“David! There’s an ork! Prepare a charge!”
The figure was over 10 meters tall with large thick fibrous muscles for limbs that looked like a tangle of sickly tangled vines. Two burning orange dots floated around the middle of a grey ball on top of the figure’s shoulders.
David handed Xavier a baseball like a metal object. Xavier snatched it and threw it at the end of the pistol that he detached from his waist. Clicking a button, he broadcasted, “Mothership, prepare for beacon broadcast.”
“Affirmative.”
Xavier yanked back a large bolt on the side of the pistol and held the trigger with both hands, “David! Are we clear?”
“Yeah! Fire it!”
*Plup- Boom*
The sparkling sphere spiraled towards the Orc that was slowly making its way towards the wall. Xavier yelled, “Activating beacon!”
Everyone in the base knelt as a large red light filled the artificial sky. A simulated hologram appeared on the displays in their helmets while a voice played over the broadcast, “Orbital strike in your area of operations. 10 seconds. Stand clear in-”
5
4
3
2
1
A pilar of red light vaporized the orc. Red hot globs of metal flew off into the air as the laser dug into the metal structure of the ring. A small explosion followed in a chain reaction down the road as a volatile pipe ignited.
Pieces of debris flew out as the machines that usually maintained the habitat jumped into the red column in grey puffs of ash and vapor.
“This is away team; we need live ether signature scans. Over.”
“Affirmative.”
Seconds later, light grey dots appeared. Gaius looked over at Xavier, “Drop capsule one.”
A few seconds later, a silver sphere the size of a car rolled behind him from the space elevator. Gaius smirked as a long metal rod and a strange box like a contraption came out of a small compartment. He stuck the rod into a hole in the box and flicked a switch.
The box transformed into a large firing mechanism of a bolt action rifle with a filtered scope on the side. Gaius lay down on the ground as the first clusters of grey dots resolved into singular signatures.
Xavier raised his fist in the air, “All units! Open fire!”
Shots rang out as each of the marines shot at the signatures. Each bolt crushed the steel and cement in its path to pierce the feral wyrms that had caused the infestation.
Each wyrm exploded in a shower of ether and grey blood as a hail of bolts rained down on them.
“This is C, we are detaching, prepare to counter torque.”
Xavier looked at a panel in front of him, the habitat would break apart if they missed the timing by even a millisecond. Unless…
David grinned, “Five should do the trick.”
Xavier gave an evil grin, “It should.”
“All clear?”
A series of yells responded. Xavier proceeded to launch five beacons in quick succession into the section.
“C will detach in 30 seconds.”
Xavier mentally counted down in his head when he heard, “T minus 20 seconds.”
“Beacon is active! Prepare to detach on the signal!”
Five red dots shined in the sky as a countdown proceeded.
“Five orbital strikes in your vicinity. Stand clear. In 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”
A loud clunk reverberated across the base as the locks holding section three in place released. A pillar of red light blasted the now free-floating section off away from the habitat. Xavier quickly stood up and checked a panel, “Mars Habitat two control, this is base B. Fire all thrusters in section 1. I repeat, full throttle in section 1. Prophesy will send trajectories to stabilize orbit.”
A series of flashes filled the empty space as the mothership fired high explosive missiles to guide the large section away from the habitat.
Xavier let out a sigh of relief, “We did it boys. Pack up and get ready to go.”