Emilia have finally received the delivery from the ESRD. Tactical explosive she need to solve the problem of admiral Knight and make situation even more fearsome and chaotic. She's opening vent channel close to the door or Knight's living rooms. Hopefully she will gain a trust with the main Liberty Navy and will be able to get away in time. However, deployment of the explosive device is taking a bit longer than she expected. Of course she choose a spot without working cameras, but time is working against her.
Albey had just pass another dead drop point in her Bering patrol. Coupling with an asteroid, she killed all of her systems, even the life support and was breathing through her own suit oxygen reserve. Zero emissions. Zero power on all ship systems. Picking up the short burst comm buoy signal, her personal datapad beeped with a new message. Reading it, Albey's face turned from serious to angry. She quickly replied and turned her systems back online. The Guardian latched off the asteroid and the engines went full power, heading to the Harmony's new hidden position in Bering.
Running through the corridors, Albey entered her quarters and closed it behind her, locking it. Removing one of her room small panels, she pulled off a small hardwired console, hidden in the middle of all the wiring. Switching it on, it showed several small displays of cameras, hidden ones, that she placed in key points of the ship. She used the rewind factor in it and managed to identify Young walking through a hallway near Knight's quarters, in the deck above. She disappeared into a small maintenance room and hasn't left until now. Breathing in, she steeled herself and started preparing her quarters. Video logs. Proofs. And allowed the hardwired console to sit on top of her bed. Still in her flightsuit and helmet, she looked like she had just landed. Perfect for protection and very little questions asked, since she would appear to be on her way to debrief as she walked through the battleship corridors.
Exiting her quarters, she closed the door and head to the top deck. Guns were out of the question, since Knights deck was easily the most secure, with a security checkpoint on each entrance. One could bypass it, given enough time that she did not had. Saluting to the guards as she exited the elevator, they scanned her and allowed her passage. Cracking her knuckles, she had already decided on the how. Mud grunt style, hard, heavy and unstoppable. Finally, she arrived at the small maintenance room and looked around the corridor before stopping to head in. No one around.
She grit her teeth and breathed in. Young could be infected. Young was the one that first alerted Knight to a possible bombing. That just happened after Young came into the ship. Witnesses places her as one of the Iota pilots. Her speeches. Too many coincidences. But then again, same could be said about half of the Harmony people. But going into a fist fight with an infected... It could go bad in so many ways. No words. No parley. The moment she would come into view, Albey would do her best to put her down.
Finally, Young have managed to deploy the explosive. Timer is set and everything is ready. She's just taking a picture for ESRD before packing up her small beg and preparing to leave. Seems like she will succeed even this time, proving her loyalty to the primary Navy forces is the most important thing she can do. There is not a lot she can do with Knight anymore, her role is played and enough of damage has been done. At this point further infiltration inside the Liberty Navy seemed to be way more important.
Young somehow became more calm and even fixing her uniform before she will walk back into the public. Any bright emotions will make people suspicious and will bring unwanted attention. Everyone is paranoid by now and it can work in both ways. Exhausted by the alien parasite former LSF agent is now trying to leave. Looking around, she carefully slipped into the corridor and few moments later she starting to walk daily. Only heavy breathing is obviously showing that something just happened.
The sound of footsteps warned Albey that Young was leaving the small maintenance room. Quickly, she ran towards the nearest room, the common unisex bathrooms of that level. Peeking through the closed door, she spotted Young leaving. A minute decision was needed and it was taken. Security was high, and being caught with the explosive while following Young would be suicide, as well put the spotlight of suspicion on Albey. Disconnecting the explosive and leaving it in place, however, would not. Young would investigate if the explosive would fail to ignite. The bait for the trap. Albey inspected the corridor once again, and after it being clear, she entered the maintenance room and quickly went to work. Being liberty military-make, the explosive was easy to handle after the five minute timer was disconnected. And then she waited. The timer was set for five minutes. She would wait the double of that.
Positioned in the dark corner behind the door, Albey kept tabs on the sounds in the corridor, waiting. Her eyes trailed the small blast window that was the only point of interest in that darkness. And there it came. Footsteps. Hurried ones. Bait taken, time to reel it in. The door opened slowly and a heavy breathing was heard in the darkness. Slowly she entered, door closing behind her. Taking note of her figure ascertain that it was truly Young, Albey prepared to lunge. With a body tackle that would make any linebacker back in Liberty Football flinch, Young was thrown against the wall like she was hit by a truck.
Albey cracked her knuckles while Young was still trying to realize what had happened. "Who sent you?" She said while preparing a kick to the stomach. It connected, and all the air Young had in her lungs came out forcibly.
And something bad still happens, it's not something very critical, but potential levels of risks are quite high. She taking a kick silently, trying to recover a breath. Her hands start to shake and tears are gathering in her eyes, as she looks at Eris. Faked worrying is suppose to look very naturally. Young is avoiding to look in her eyes. "A-admiral Reaser." She only said and then started to cry. "Please don't give me to them, s-" She paused and then halfway screamed. "Some of them is infected!"
Albey's eyebrows signalled anger and inquiry. Reaser was the one that was to blame for breaking cover? And.. Young was her agent? The crying wimp in her front. Albey didn't hit that hard, in her mind. This was not a soldier. Or an agent. She bent too easily, too fast. Someone devoted to their objective would rather break than bend. Her nose twitched. And it smelled wrong. She placed her boot on top of Young's mouth and signalled to be silent with a raised finger.
"And how do you know I'm not one, Young?" She slightly pressed the boot over her mouth. "Pitty we don't have the time." She removed her boot from Young's mouth and offered her hand to help her up. Teary eyed Young was afraid for the first couple of seconds, but Albey did her best to reassure her with a welcoming hand gesture.
As Young took her hand and rose to her feet, Albey locked her arm behind her back and covered her mouth, before she could scream. Young was somewhat strong for someone so scrawny. Albey just grinned in the struggle and shoved a knee in her back, hitting the kidneys full on. The sudden loss of strength allowed her to grapple as she was taught back in the Ground Forces, her hands and forearms starting pressing the jugular veins. Young still struggled some more, but the hold was firm, allowing the air to freely flow to her lungs, but cutting off the blood to the brain. Twenty seconds later, Young was on the floor, her lights out but still breathing, hipoxia clearly set in her brain.
Taking her time to bind her properly, she gagged the unconscious woman, and breathed in when it was done. Young would wake up in just a couple of minutes, with a splitting headache. Yet Albey's issued exfiltration didn't took in account a plus one. "Well... Sh**." She couldn't leave Young alive here. Albey's cover would be exposed, and all of this would had been for naught. The intel she had was even more important, she reminded herself as she placed her hand in her chest, where the datastick was. She looked at the room, absently minded, shaking her head at the situation. Her eyes suddenly fixated in a small hazmat container. Big enough for a human. Built to endure outer space for a couple of hours. Perfect. Eyeing the unconscious Young up and down, a small grin couldn't be avoided. She walked towards the small safety cabinet, common in warships, where a couple of oxygen masks were, with more than enough air for twenty minutes.
Young eyes groggily opened, with a headache pounding her sides. She couldn't move her arms or legs. Or talk. She tried to move and look around. Albey's grinning face showed up over her. "Hi. You're in a box. Have some breathers." Two oxygen masks fell over her without ceremony. "Now, you and me, we're going for a ride. Outside." Albeys eyes narrowed, carrying an implied threat. "This box will protect you from freezin' your ass and exploding like a bag of meat, so keep your hands to yourself." Young's eyes opened in fear. What was this woman planning?
Albey reached down and removed the wrist restraints. Winking at Young, she said while closing the lid of the box. "Buckle up." Darkness filled the box, and Young removed the gag. Breathing heavily, she hurriedly caught the oxygen masks and placed one in her face, preparing herself for whatever Albey was planning.
Exhaling slowly, Albey looked at the small blast window that now sported the LA-78M synced to a small trigger in her hand. Her plan didn't placed Knight in danger but only the two occupants in the room. She placed all the contents that weren't stuck to the walls between them and the window, but the relatively close distance to the explosive could dictate a blasting finale to her life. Albey shook her head. She was commited, impossible to turn back now. Grabbing her helmet, the small suit hud flared to life. "Fu**". Her oxygen reserve was at 27%. Estimated time: 13 minutes worth of air. She resigned herself and locked it on, hiding behind the hazmat container. One extra layer of protection between her and the blowout. If Young would die in this, it wouldn't be a big loss in her eyes. Albey could try and pin herself to the wall and wait out the exit of the loose debris, but the security systems would bring down the blast walls to stop the depressurization of this section of the Harmony. One second was all she had, and the speed she would be sucked out to space almost guaranteed success on that end. The force of it and bumping into the walls and debris however dictated an almost certain death on the other.
Steeling herself, she rose the remote trigger in her hand, and smirked to herself. Mud grunts lived for these moments. "Well Harmony, been a blast." Albey clicked it and her world flipped upside down.
Her brain didn't even registered the explosion and the consequential force push. All she saw was everything being sucked by the hole that now resided on the side of the Harmony. Like a black hole, engulfing everything with a speed that reminded how dangerous space is. In her front, what should have been deadly shrapnel was sucked by the god-like force of depressurization, and tumbling the hazmat cannister to the outside. Her suit kicked in the safety protocols and slightly inflated to compensate the change in pressure, and the oxygen was already deployed into her helmet.
And finally cold. Not unbearable cold. But if a word could pin that cold, it would be dead. Sound disappeared without a trace, her visor polarized to deal with the intense glare of the solar light that was now bathing her. And speed. Everything in the maintenance room was expelled forcibly and floating aimlessly at plus 250Km/h. Slightly freeing, but terrifying to be completely without a hold. Her suit had a couple of very weak manoeuvring thrusters. But it could mean nothing, in Bering of all places.
Her breathing was all she heard. And her eyes scanned the surroundings. There it was the cannister, slightly ahead and spinning after hitting a chunk of metal. Albey smirked, since after all, she said to buckle up. She clicked her thrusters managing to speed ever so slightly her travel through zero inertia. Almost at the side of the cannister, she reached out a hand, not grabbing but with an open palm, trying to stop it's spinning, while forcing her path with the already 65% manoeuvring thrusters. Some seconds later, the canister and her were one in their path and spin. Turning around, while now grabbing it, she forced the thrusters, spending all that they had, and her speed slowed to an almost still. They floated, the Harmony farther away every minute. The only sound, her breathing and the small warning beep of low oxygen. 20%.. 15%.. 10%... And there she heard.
A click in her comms. She turned around and saw nothing. Suddenly, like a mirror opening, a small entrance in the view of the system sun, while she drifted towards it with the cannister. She breathed in relief. Not because they were here. Because they had not forgotten her. A net was shot and grappled her and the cannister, that reeled her and her charge in. When they were finally in the small space, the bay door shut. Some red klaxons were seen, and the space was pressurized and gravity came to.
The cannister hit the ground with a loud thump, while Albey landed on her feet, like it wasn't her first rodeo. EVA operations were a mainstay of the One Four One, and everyone in it knew the particulars, details and quirks to heart. A camera glinted in the corner, and she signalled the all clear. The wall closest wall opened up and a group of four MARSOC marines jogged in, weapons risen, trailing her and the cannister. After they signalled her to remove the helmet, she breathed in. Her suit only had 2% oxygen left. Close. "Nightmare." She spoke, her arms raised.
The marines lowered their guns hearing the word. The other two opened the crate, and a sickly Young, dressing her own vomit, rose from the crate. The closest marine raised his weapon at her, and she didn't resisted the urge to puke, once again. Her eyes flared and more of it came out, filling the floor with a miscellania of bodily fluids and the contents of her stomach.
As she finished her latest and wiped her mouth with her own hand, she rose up looking at a smirking Albey. "Told ya to buckle up." Albey's smirk faded and she walked towards Young, who was still feeling if her innards were deciding if she was due to another round of regurgitation. Her feet stopped right in front of Young, eyeing her up. Her nose twitched. Not the smell of the puke. Not the exfil. It was the whole situation. Young was in it since the beginning.
If it stinks, kiddo, trust no one. The voice of her sister trailed through her mind. "Arrest her. Possible infected." The marines looked at Young and trailed their weapons at her with speed. Yet it was not enough, as Young was faster in removing the sidearm from the closest marine. As her head turned towards Albey, their eyes met. Albey's hand was already hitting hard, shoved in her throat and smashing Young's trachea. With the shock, her hand lost the grip of the sidearm, and she clutched at her throat. Stumbling, she tripped over the cannister and fell once again within. She couldn't breathe, her lungs protesting in panic for air, and slowly conscience was fading. Her fingernails started to scratch the skin, looking for a way out. Despair and fear filled her mind. But not only her own. The incubi as well.
The last sight that her brain recorded was the four barrels looking down at her, and Albey's eyes sizing her one last time, as the lid of the cannister was once again closed.