“Fifty.” He replied.
“Aoki, how many storage pods are down there?”
“Must be close to one-hundred.”
“Check the contents of the pods.” She looked at Davi. “Check the pods on this level.”
It took a moment for Davi to reply, while she waited, Vaz scrolled through the list of patients and was surprised to see that they were referred to by numbers, and not by name, and that’s when she started to realise that they were standing in the middle of an illegal cryostasis facility and that their cargo was inside the pods that were spread over the ground and first floors.
“Fire in the hole!” Lovia shouted onto the comms net as the breaching charge detonated.
The explosion itself was muffled but powerful enough to create a circular hole a metre across in the ceiling, allowing the natural light to cast a spotlight on the floor.
Standish moved under the opening and crouched down for a few seconds then shot up using her suits enhanced capabilities, and landed on the roof, quickly getting her bearings. “Top cover in place.”
Lovia joined her quickly. “Take the rear.” She ordered.
Standish moved to the rear of the roof and was able to get a view to the horizon, and more importantly, to the landing strip that was to the back of the building, and the treeline that was thirty metres beyond that.
Looking towards the sky, Standish noted how there was a wide variety of creatures flying around of all different sizes, even a few that looked like they could carry her off if she weren’t on guard. “Rear secure.” She reported.
“Jae and Fix, assist Aoki and Skrill getting the pods out to the transport.” Vaz ordered. “Gue and Avi, get down here once you’ve grabbed everything of value off deck two.” There was another pause. “Lovia and Standish, maintain your positions.”
Standish keyed her mic once to acknowledge the instructions and continued to scan the horizon.
“Ground force, Snatch Five. We have hostile warships entering the sector. We are moving off to engage. Prepare for a possible incursion.” The line went dead.
“Drog, is that medical transport jump capable?” Vaz asked.
“That’s a negative.” He replied.
Standish looked skyward and used her enhanced optical suite to scan for anything but detected nothing within range of her sensors. She knew that if the Snatch Five were destroyed, they’d be stuck on the surface.
Looking back down to the ground, she could see that one of her teammates was already pushing one of the storage pods across the neatly manicured grass towards the medical ship. The pods all had built-in hover devices, allowing the operators to drive them at close to four-five kilometres an hour across the short distance to the vessel where Steed and Drog met them and started loading the pods.
“Aoki, what’s your time estimate?” Vaz asked over the net.
“Eighty-two pods with patients, total load time of more than ten minutes.” He replied.
“I am detecting a pair of shuttles dropping down.” Lovia reported.
“Standish and Lovia, maintain top-cover, everyone else, focus on getting the pods to the medical transport.” Vaz ordered.
Standish looked skyward and utilising her optics, was able to find the two shuttles that were making a direct approach to the medical facility. The helmets systems quickly determined that the shuttles were unarmed standard transports, and she quickly made sure the information was disseminated among the rest of the team.
“I’m guessing thirty pax per shuttle max.” Standish said over the net.
“Understood.” Vaz replied.
Standish knew that even if there were only ten soldiers on each shuttle, the Rescue Techs weren’t ready for a stand-up fight against ground forces. That wasn’t their job, and it wasn’t what they were trained for.
“If your tracking is right, those shuttles will be down in two minutes.” Vaz said over the comms. “I’m going out front to meet them. Standish and Lovia give me cover, Davi, post-up inside the main entrance. Everyone else keeps getting those pods onto the medical transport.”
“You sure that’s a wise idea?” Drog asked over the net.
Before Vaz or anyone else could add to the conversation, a screeching noise pierced Standish’s ears. Cutting off the network, she quickly rebooted her communications systems, and looked over at Lovia, and activated her suits external speakers. “Are your comms down?”
Lovia flipped up the blast shield on her helmet and walked towards Standish. “Yes.”
“If they’re jamming our comms, that can’t be good.” Standish said, quickly checking that her rifle was ready to fire.
Looking over the side of the building, Standish could see Vaz as she exited the structure and started to make her way down the long ramp towards the lush grass that surrounded the facility. Checking skywards, Standish could clearly see the two shuttles as they continued their descent, heading right to the same spot where the Rescue Tech team had been deposited.
“If this goes loud, we’re going to be in trouble.” Lovia commented before dropping her blast shield back down into place.
Standish didn’t say a word; instead she lowered herself into a prone firing position and made sure she had a proper firing angle on the bottom of the ramp. If things were going to kick-off, she wanted to make sure she was ready to provide cover fire for Vaz. Looking up, she spotted the two shuttles that were only a few hundred metres away and could see that they had red markings, and while they may have been unarmed, soldiers could be clearly seen standing at the rear ramp of both ships, weapons pointed towards the medical facility.
When the two ships finally landed, the infantry didn’t spill out in tactical order, but in a fashion that was found on the parade ground. From each ship thirty-three troops marched out in good order and formed two separate blocks in between the shuttles and the facility. At the head of each block a single figure, and at the head of it all, a figure with a long red cape that danced in the wind.
Checking on Vaz, Standish could see that she had stopped at the bottom of the ramp, about ten yards from the character wearing the long cape. Her rifle was in her hands, and for some unknown reason the comms came back online, and suddenly brought Vaz’s conversation with the newly arrived forces onto the net.
“Medical facility.”
That was all Standish caught before the figure with the cape on took a few steps to his right, then addressed her team leader.
“The Pohjois is here to safely escort our citizens back to Pohjois territory.” The figure said calmly. “I cannot allow you to take our citizens hostage.”
“All the patients of this facility are citizens of the Empire.” Vaz said calmly.
The figure let out a laugh. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, and his deep voice carried. “The Empire, as you know it, is gone.” He started walking back to his left. “Prince Salrugina has taken control of what was once the Empire, so if anything, you are now a citizen of his regime, and you will surrender the patients of this facility to me. Now.”
A message on Standish’s heads-up-display caught her eye. It was from Vaz. When you get my signal, fire. It was transmitted to all the Rescue Techs, but it was clear that the order to fire was given to Standish.
“So, are you going to give me the patients, and control of the facility?” The commander from the Pohjois forces inquired.
“Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. Maybe, go fuck yourself.”
The energy rifle didn’t kick when Standish fired. The charged bolt of energy cut through the air to the soldier’s head in a matter of milliseconds and vaporised it on contact. All that was left was a momentary puff of red as the entire skull was blown into tiny pieces.
As soon as her first target was down, Standish opened fire on the block of troops on the right-hand side, dropping several before they could react. Lovia targeted the group on the left, but after a few seconds, the much larger infantry force came to their senses and opened an intense barrage of return fire towards the medical fa
cility.
The wall of laser fire directed at the roof was such that it forced Standish to push herself back from the edge, and out of a direct line of sight from the ground. Standish quickly checked her map in her HUD but couldn’t tell if Vaz was alive or dead in front of the building. Knowing that she needed to reassess their position, Standish pulled her smoke grenade from her armour’s left thigh, primed it, and tossed it off the roof.
“We need to get off the roof.” She said, looking at Lovia.
Lovia nodded, and the pair started to crawl towards the hole they had blasted in the ceiling of the second floor, but before they could reach it, one of the shuttles took off and came into view, a few soldiers visible inside the craft. Rolling onto her side to get a better firing position, Standish shot off a quick volley at the ship, then scampered forward and dropped headfirst into the hole in the roof.
Hitting the ground head first, Standish lay on her back, momentarily stunned, until Lovia grabbed her by the shoulder, and pulled her to her feet.
“You good?” Lovia asked.
“Yeah. We need to get down to the front and help Davi.” Standish checked the power-cell on her rifle and started to move down the stairs to the first floor, where she could hear heavy weapons fire.
“What’s our status on the transport?” Jae asked.
“60 loaded on the transport.” Steed replied. “But there is no point in taking off if the enemy is in control of the system.” He added.
Standish rechecked her map. It was clear that Steed and Drog were loading the pods onto the transport, with Jae, Fix, Aoki and Skrill taking the pods out to the transport, while Gue and Avi had both taken up a position at the rear of the building on its corners in a defensive position.
“Movement on the roof.” Lovia said, stopping at the bottom of the stairs on the first floor. “Help Davi, I’ll see if I can hold them here.”
Standish didn’t reply, she turned and ran down the stairs to the main level of the building and immediately spotted Davi knelt down, mostly concealed behind the front wall of the building. He was firing, but slowly. Running up to him, Standish could see that he had been hit in the upper chest, but for some reason, his suit hadn’t sent a distress signal to the rest of the detachment.
Grabbing him from behind, Standish dragged his body away from the door and flipped up his blast shield. Inside the helmet, the once tranquil face of Davi was replaced by the image of someone who was on the verge of death.
“Is Vaz still alive?” She asked.
Davi didn’t respond. Assuming the worst, Standish grabbed the high-explosive grenade that was attached to her armour, took the one from Davi’s armour, primed both of them, and without looking, threw them as hard as she could out the door, then quickly slammed the door shut. Five seconds later, a massive eruption shook the door, followed by silence.
Before she could try and get her head around the tactical situation, Jae came over the net. “I’m taking command. Everyone needs to collapse to the transport, we’re going to bounce to another section of the planet, try and find a place to hold up.”
Drog came over the net quickly. “We don’t have all the pods.”
“It’s too late.” Jae replied.
“We have hostiles inside the structure.” Lovia reported in a low whisper.
Standish looked up the flight of stairs where she could see Lovia’s legs. She knew that getting cornered on the lower levels of the structure was not an ideal situation. Rechecking Davi, she could tell he was dead. Without thinking, she instinctively removed his extra power cells for his energy weapon, attached them to her armour, then moved back to the staircase to support Lovia.
When Standish reached the bottom of the stairs, she could see that Lovia was pouring fire upwards at the top level of the building to keep the assaulting Pohjois troops at bay. Taking up a firing position at the bottom of the steps, Standish started firing off some well placed suppressing shots up the stairs, but she knew that the weight of the enemy advance was going to be too much for them, and her fears were confirmed when a pair of flash grenades were tossed down the stairs.
The blinding light and nose of the grenades were defeated by her helmets systems, and once the bright flash had dissipated, Standish could see a mob of infantry start to spill down the stairs towards their position. Increasing her weapons fire, she dropped a few of them, but the oncoming blaster fire was too much.
“We need to bounce!” She shouted, but before Lovia could back up, she caught a blaster shot to her chest, which sent her tumbling down the stairs backwards.
“Lovia!” Standish switched her weapon to maximum power and fired off the rest of the energy cell, blasting through four more infantry as they continued to race down the stairs. Dropping her empty clip, she slapped in a fresh one, then ran over to Lovia who was laying on her back, feet on the stairs, still firing upwards.
Firing up the stairs with one hand, Standish grabbed the hold on the back of Lovia’s armour, and yanked her out of the firing line, and started pulling her down the set of stairs that led to the bottom level.
“Falling back to lower level!” She shouted over the net. “Need help!”
“Coming inside!” Jae shouted.
Standish stopped at the top of the of stairs that led to the lower level, pulled another high-explosive grenade, set a thirty-second timer, placed it on the ground, then proceeded down. Once she was out of the blast radius, she looked down at Lovia’s armour and could tell that the energy blast had gone clear through her and her suit.
Reaching the bottom of the steps, she found Gue and Avi setting up a defensive position in the middle of the large hold which had housed the cryo-status pods. Dragging Lovia’s body as quickly as possible over to the barricade they were setting up, Standish moved past them, and gave a quick glance to the rear exit. The medical shuttle that was visible in the distance, and she considered making a run for it, but changed her mind, and propped Lovia up against the side of the room.
The explosion from her grenade finally rung out, and trusting that Gue and Avi were set, she checked on her friend and teammate.
“Lovia.”
“Huh?” Was the only response she got.
Pushing Lovia’s head back, she flipped up the blast shield to reveal her face. Standish could quickly tell that she was drowsy and barely aware of her surroundings.
Why isn’t her med system healing her? Standish thought to herself, and pulled a cable from her wrist data-pad, and plugged it into Lovia’s and ran an emergency diagnostic. The news wasn’t encouraging. The blast she had taken had pierced her heart and the AI for the nano-bot system in the suit. Toggling through her options, Standish manually activated the suits medical systems, but it was too late.
“Val.” Lovia’s voice was faint, barely more than a whisper.
Standish looked up from the data-pad.
“Good luck.” Lovia said, trying to smile.
“Lovia!” Standish screamed as her friend closed her eyes.
It was too late. She was dead.
“How is she?” Jae asked, kneeling next to Standish.
“She’s dead.” Standish replied.
“Contact rear!” Fix shouted from the back landing field.
Five seconds later the medical transport exploded in a giant ball of fire and debris, sending flames and wreckage skywards.
Standish snapped her head around just in time to see Aoki run inside the building, then collapse face down a metre inside the entrance. Getting to her feet, she sprinted over to her teammate and flipped him over. He was dead. A giant piece of shrapnel had pierced their armour all the way through.
“Contact front!” Gue shouted from the improvised barricade.
Tightening her grip on her rifle, Standish turned towards the front of the building just in time to see the first shots fired from the approaching Pohjois forces. Knowing that now was the time for vengeance, she rose to her feet, and calmly walked, hunched over slightly, towards the barricade, and joined the fi
ght.
It was all over fifteen minutes later. Steed and Drog had been killed when the medical transport had been hit, while Fix and Skrill had fought to the end at the rear of the building. Gue, Avi and Standish had held off the attackers until a friendly infantry unit arrived on site, but not before Gue had been killed. When the fighting had stopped, Standish was exhausted physically and mentally.
“How many of the eighty-two patients were already loaded on the medical transport when it was destroyed?” The Ship Master asked via the digital monitor that was in the hands of the infantry team leader.
“I think sixty-something, Sir.” Standish answered.
“So, that means there are still some patients to recover from the facility itself.” He said.
“Unless they were destroyed during the fighting.” Standish replied. “We made our final stand in the lower level storage area.”
The ground force commander shifted the monitor so that he was looking at the Ship Master. “Sir, my troops are inspecting the building now, and I have been inside. The fighting was intense. I doubt anything will be recovered other than the data-files that the Rescue Techs retrieved from the memory banks.”
The Ship Master took a few moments to consider his options. “Confirm the status of all patients at the facility, once you’re certain of their fate, evacuate the planet.” There was a long pause. “What remains of your RT unit?”
“Three.” Standish replied.
“When the infantry force comes off-world, accompany them to the Orion.” The Ship Master said.
“But what about all our kit and gear on the Snatch Five?” She asked.
“It will be transferred to the Orion, Snatch Five has other duties to attend to, and you have orders to accompany the Orion to the marshalling yards at Tro Vaco IX. There you will be given further orders. Good luck.”
Standish took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She gave a quick glance at the ground commander, then looked over to the medical facility, it’s once off-white colouring now blackened by fire, weapons blasts and heavily damaged from where one of the Pohjois shuttles had crashed into it.
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