Derelict Trading Hub
Approaching the Command Center
The squad that was making its way down to the reactor, decided to take things a lot slower as the gravity field picked up, though they pushed onwards without much resistance. That was until a door suddenly began closing, the weight of the door and the gravity itself caused the door to collapse rather quickly, separating the squad on either side of the door. There was some slight panic, but when no ambush came they got their wits together and began communicating with each other and the bridge of the Royale DeFrance that was lurking just outside of the station. They were well equipped for a mission that only involved sweeping the station from any intruders, and a bit under-equipped for dealing with a bulkhead door being slammed suddenly in their faces. It would take a decent amount of time for this squad to begin working its way through or around the door itself.
However the real meat of the action was located with Catherine and her squad in particular, Alpha. The action was merely limited in its current frame as nothing more than an inconvenience of the gravity, though that wouldn’t last long.
Catherine took a slight pause as two of her marines slowly pressed forwards towards what would essentially be the bulkhead door that lead into the central command station, and it was quite likely that they would find their problem child located inside. She looked up slightly to see the camera that was on, probably filming their approach. "Just a heads up…" Something caused her to stop mid-sentence as a very familiar and distinct ping echoed through the quiet corridor.
The world around her slowed, and a flood of memories of being deployed on Leeds rushed through her thoughts. The same imagery that played out then… began playing out again. The very sound sent a chill down her spine as the world around her slowed. The marine to her right also froze, realizing what was happening in the split second that it took.
"Elania! Chance! Get back now!" She screamed, but her words were drowned out as a fiery blaze erupted ahead of her, engulfing the two marines who had carelessly rushed ahead to secure the door. She and her remaining marine were thrusted off of their feet and thrown against the floor from the shockwave of the blast itself in the narrow corridor. The shellshock quickly set in as she laid on her back staring up at the ceiling, embers falling around her. Though her helmet was on, the memories that she had flooding through her thoughts brought the smell of burnt flesh to her nostrils, a smell she was all too familiar with.
Realizing now she was in more danger than she was seconds earlier, she slowly snapped herself out of it, coming to the voice of Jacques literally screaming into her ear. "Catherine! Catherine, what the hell is going on. We just read a massive energy spike in your area, and suddenly Sous-Lieutenant Chance and Elania’s vitals just disappeared! Catherine!"
"Shut the hell up, Belot. Our damn friend set up a trap that was triggered when they approached." She coughed into the headset, sitting herself up for a moment as she looked over to see the status of the other marine. She let out a groan of anger, seeing that her third fireteam member was pinned to the floor from a pipe that had apparently been torn off in the blast itself, and his vitals were quickly dropping too. She mustered whatever strength she had left and forced herself to her feet, and then she made her way over to her pinned comrade, kneeling down next to him as she looked him over. She didn’t have a trauma kit, as that was left with Charlie squad, and the man was gurgling blood as he tried to speak. He wasn’t going to make it, and she wasn’t going to sit here in the open waiting for back-up to get here. She slowly removed his helmet and the man reached up with a shaky hand, grasping her arm tightly. "You’ll be remembered, and the person who did this to you will pay. Long live the Prince." She said quietly to him before closing her eyes. It was pointless to try to stabilize him, as he was clearly drowning in his own blood. So… a single shot suddenly rang out, and the tightly gripped hand loosened around her arm before it dropped with a thud to the ground.
She withdrew the pistol from the side of her former comrade’s head, and slowly got back to her feet, "Jacques, have Charlie begin moving up to reinforce my position. If you don’t hear back from me have them and Bravo withdraw, and then destroy this damn station. I’m going to deal with this problem myself."
"You should wait for reinforcements, Catherine."
"Non. This needs to end now, without anymore damn deaths. Whoever this is, is killing our own and I’m not going to stand for it."
"You had orders to do the same damn thing."
"Yeah, and I’m going to fulfill my orders if it’s the last thing I do. So if you don’t hear from me, destroy this blasted station, as requested by the Prince. That’s an order, Capitaine."