Planet Manhattan,
Central District Spaceport,
Libertonian Space. Unknown Date
The first thing she felt as she regained consciousness was cold, an absolutely frigid cold washing over her entire body -- even her mind.
Then, as she struggled to roll off her stomach and onto her side, she became aware of a moist, and...almost comfortable sensation of warmth covering her abdomen. She had felt this before.
"You're losing blood." The thought cut through her, jarring her eyes open.
Propping herself up with her left hand, she looked down toward her stomach with a grimace, using her right hand to press the wound, blood quickly escaping through the space between her fingers.
"Guess that was pointless..." She shook her head, shrugging weakly, and even laughing to herself before she cast her gaze toward the iconic Manhattan skyline.
The Sleeper Ship Liberty, and other buildings surrounding the spaceport for all to see, testaments to the greatness of the Libertonian way of life...but there was nothing to be proud of this day. Half of the buildings were burning fiercely, others -- including the Sleeper Ship, lay in complete ruin, the sky, thick with black smoke and fire.
"Couldn't even make it to your ship, Rach...you're so-"
Her thoughts were interrupted as a single black-painted Guardian dropped through the lowest of the clouds, diving straight toward the streets below with a deafening roar -- though it's pilot quickly pulled out of the dive and leveled out, two Gallic Lynx fighters dropping in behind it, plasma bursts firing wildly, mostly missing and serving only to cause further damage to the civilian structures.
She watched the ships dance around in the sky for a long moment before desperately grabbing her personal communicator, shouting into it with all the vigor she could muster.
"Roy?!....what the hell did you come back here for!? Get the hell out, we're all done, there's no damned point!"
Static. No reply came, The pilot of the black guardian hadn't received her message.
"He won't even know that I was here...that I called out to him at the end...tried to save him.."
She winced, exhaling a jagged breath as the pain from her wound finally hit her. There was nothing she could do though, save for watch the fighters dancing in the sky.
The Black Guardian twisted and rolled around, almost gracefully avoiding the continued burst fire being thrown in it's direction by the pursuing Lynxes. After coming out of a violent roll, the Black Guardian shot straight upward once again, it's pursuers close behind.
"They're almost right above me now..." She sighed weakly, finally allowing her fatigue to put her on her back...she didn't mind though, she could still see the dancers.
The Black Guardian was flying perfectly straight up, dropping what appeared to be mines, despite the fact that they were flying in an environment where gravity mattered. As the mines fell in free-fall the Black Guardian finally stalled out, nearly hovering for a moment before flipping end over end and dropping straight down toward the pursuing Gallic fighters, brilliant golden beams tearing into the Lynxes before it -- and the rain of mines slammed into the lead Gallic ship.
This brazen action by the Guardian pilot resulted in an incredibly violent explosion that incinerated the Black Guardian and the lead Gallic fighter, forcing the second Gallic ship into a stall and throwing it toward the surface, along with a rain of burning debris and twisted metal.
Rachel lay there virtually paralyzed, watching the debris fall toward her, there was nowhere she could go, nothing left to do. Manhattan ruined, Roy dead, herself dying. Tears began to drown her eyes as she held her wound and glanced toward a single exposed patch of blue sky that had managed to show itself through all the madness.
That blue sky, calm and unchanging, was the last thing Rachel saw as her world faded from view.
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Libertonian Carrier L.N.S Anchorage,
Leeds Defense AO Grid E-4,
Bretonian Space. Current Date (Early 821AS)
Rachel opened her eyes, glancing left and right quickly, scanning her surroundings for any abnormality. She had been laying in her bunk asleep, her shirt and hair were drenched in sweat.
"It was just a dream..?"
She yawned loudly, stretching out before rubbing her face groggily and reaching for the comm-receiver next to her bunk, holding it to her ear for a moment before pressing the key and speaking into it.
"CO, CIC..."
She exhaled softly, waiting for a response.
"CIC, Ma'am?.." '
Came the reply from the softly accented Lieutenant Commander Pierson.
"Pierson...what's the status of the CAP?"
Rachel rubbed her eyes again, swiftly moving to the metal chair at her desk, still trying to shake off the sleep.
"Ma'am, all ships on CAP are reporting green status, zero problems, zero hostile contact...it's 00:32, is there something particular you're concerned about...if you don't mind my asking, I mean."
Came the soft-spoken reply.
Rachel shook her head, even though the Lieutenant Commander couldn't see the gesture.
"No, Commander...it's nothing...I was awake so I figured I would check on my pilots.If that's okay with you. CO, Out."
She growled, pressing the comm-receiver hard into it's holder before relaxing into her chair to slouch against her desk.
Meanwhile Lieutenant Commander Pierson stood in the CIC with a half-bewildered look on her face, biting her tongue at her mistake in questioning the Admiral.
Libertonian Carrier L.N.S Anchorage,
Magellan system,
Naval Station FP4,
Resupply & Border Security Operation.
1720 Hours Current Date: +82 Days on Patrol.
Rachel stood quietly on the Command Platform, a small slightly elevated platform with railings on three sides, where the Commanding Officer on a ship like the Anchorage could stand and overlook all the officers working different stations on the Bridge. She had a serious look about her as she listened to the different officers going about their duties, tracking ships, communicating with the engineering crews, monitoring the supply shuttles from "Freeport Four", and other traffic in the area. Everything seemed to be normal, and her people were carrying out their tasks efficiently. Rachel felt good, they had gone 82 days without a major incident aboard the ship.
One of the Lieutenant's who had been monitoring supply operations turned and looked up to Rachel, declaring their progress excitedly."Ma'am, our food ration stock is full up, we've loaded half the armaments and fuel supplies that we require, we'll only be here another few hours if things keep going like this"
Rachel merely nodded to the young man, her relaxed mood having been disrupted by his declaration.
"Admiral..." Came a nervous sounding voice from behind the Command Platform, prompting her to turn toward it's source. "Speak, Pierson."
The Lieutenant Commander nodded quickly, looking down at her computer screen and then back up to the Admiral. "Ma'am we...there's an IFF-less Bison class transport approaching our Port side at high speed, it's not responding to our radio hails and it appears to be spooling up it's cruise drive...if it cont-"
Rachel stepped off the Command Platform, putting a hand on Pierson's shoulder and giving her a look that said "Stop and listen". "Pierson, tell the CAP to get spaceborne, have them cripple that damned ship so we can find out what's what."
Pierson shook her head, frowning at Rachel. "Admiral I...we pulled the CAP in 20 minutes ago so we could refuel and rearm them..."
Rachel sighed loudly, glaring at Pierson. "You should've said something sooner, Commander!" She growled as she stepped back to the Command platform, grabbing the radio piece attached to the console above her. "Weapons, unidentified target approaching from the Port side, lock and fire a pair of CIDO missiles."
After a moment of static, the reply came back. "Can't do it, Ma'am, we're still loading new ordnance belts down here!"
Rachel exhaled deeply, a scowl visible on her face as she reset the channel on the radio receiver before speaking into it again. "Set condition one throughout the ship, all hands battlestations, prepare for collision!"
"Ma'am, there's a radio message coming from the ship!" Came a shout from Pierson which caused Rachel to turn and scowl at her. "Play it on the overhead, Now!"
A message began to play, audible by all on the Bridge "...Cap-...-erson...hijacked by X..." What followed through the static was what sounded like a gunshot, followed by the message ending.
In the moments following the transmission, a dull explosion rocked the CIC, followed by a series of smaller explosions and the faint sound of screeching metal, meanwhile Rachel remained on the command platform, gripping the rails tightly, gazing upward as if listening for further noises. After a few moments everything went completely silent, people on the bridge began to look around, recovering their composures and resuming their stations.
Rachel shook her head, standing up straight and barking orders into the radio receiver again. "Bridge, All sectors, sitrep!"
After a few moments, the replies began to come in, things weren't good. "Engineering -- There's a small fire in one of the reactors, we've got a crew repairing it, but we're gonna have to keep the engines offline!"
"Flight Operations -- Port Flightdecks 7-10 breached, casualty count incomplete, fire on the decks...the ah...the Bison appears to have made it's way -inside- the Anchorage...we need Marines here -now-"
"Weapons -- Port side CIDO launchers destroyed, one of the ordnance belts exploded during loading...numerous casualties, number unknown, fire in the ammo storage area!"
After hearing the first few reports Rachel just sort of drowned things out as she began to plan a course of action. As she stood there thinking, the XO of the ship, Commodore Aleksandr Melnikov came up and put his hand on her shoulder firmly.
"Admiral, we need to do something about that damned ship, the Flight deck crews need help, and we need to get things locked down, send me with a MARSEC detachment, lets get this under control.."
Rachel looked at Melnikov for a long moment, he was a career Marine and she trusted his judgement almost implicitly. "Yeah...right, okay..." She nodded to him, turning back toward her radio receiver and giving orders to the Marine Security teams, as she did so, Melnikov left the CIC, presumably headed for the armory where he'd meet with the Marines.
There were twelve of them, heavily armed and armored Marines, spread out in a long half circle weapons at the ready, as they formed a perimeter around the only exposed hatch of the ship that had so rudely burst through the hull of the Anchorage.
"Alright Marines, listen up!" Came the harsh, raspy voice of Commodore Melnikov. "If they don't come to us, we're gonna go to them. All we know right now is that that ship was hijacked and that this little party was no accident, we don't know who, we don't know why." Melnikov walked through the formation, looking over his men, nodding to them as they prepared themselves. "That doesn't matter though, the defense of our ship and it's crew is our top priority. Anything on that Bison that ain't already on the ground, dies, do you get me, Marines? This ain't a goddamn game!"
"We get you, Sir!" came the uniform response, even if some of the Marines didn't look so sure of themselves. After a long moment of silence, the entry hatch of the Bison literally exploded away from the ship, nearly hitting one of the Marines during it's short but violent flight across the deck. Shortly after this, two men carrying small sub-machine guns attempted to blitz out of the Bison, firing wildly toward the Marines nearby, the pair of gunmen was quickly put down, dozens of gauss projectiles (super heated metal spikes firing at high speeds) literally shredded the body parts that they impacted, leaving the two gunmen in a bloody mess between the Bison's door and the Marine squad.
"Alright that's it, stack up Marines, we're going i-" Melnikov's orders were interrupted by the appearance of a seemingly unarmed man in the open doorway, as the Marines noticed him he stepped down onto the deck, hands raised above his head.
Two marines quickly moved toward him with the intent to detain him, shouting orders and not accounting for the vest the man was clad in, at first glance it had appeared to be ballistic plating, though Melnikov knew better.
"Bomb! Marines get back!" His shout was drowned out by a bright flash of light as an explosion of metal ball bearings and other debris ripped through the Marine squad, instantly killing the two men who had been closest to the bomber, injuring and maiming several others, and knocking everyone, including Melnikov, who had been behind the other Marines, violently to the ground.
They had all heard it, the dull sounds of small arms fire, followed by another dull explosion and then silence. Most of the personnel on the Bridge seemed semi-frozen, unsure of what to do, many of them had never been exposed to an incident like this before.
"A-Admiral Baker, ma'am...do you want me to try reaching MARSEC-1 again?" Came Pierson's clearly shaken voice as Rachel glanced back at her, the scowl from earlier having been replaced with a look of genuine concern. "Do so, Pierson, find out what the hell is going on down there.."
The young blonde tech officer nodded eagerly, speaking into her radio headset, trying several times for a response, before finally her facial expression changed to one of near panic as she glanced wordlessly toward Rachel again.
"What is it, Pierson?" Rachel asked, looking to Pierson as she waited for an answer. "I...I...Admiral..." Pierson shook her head, biting down on her lip.
"You tell me what the hell is going on on my ship, Pierson!" Rachel barked, stepping toward the young officer in a swift motion. Still unable to say anything, Pierson merely disconnected her headset from the communications console, allowing the message she was hearing to be heard by all on the Bridge.
"We have your Marines...and we have your Hangar bay, now you will play by our rules, and you will do as -I- say, or they will all die..." The message was clear, though the voice was unfamiliar to Rachel or anyone else.
All Rachel could do was stand there, a look of shock visible on her face as she hit the repeat button on Pierson's console, listening to the message several times over. "How the hell did this happen..." she thought to herself.
Control Center,
Naval Forward Fleet Operations Base "FP4",
Magellan System. 1805 Hours
The atmosphere inside the Naval Command Center at Freeport Four was one of utter chaos, junior and mid-level officers were running all over the place screaming orders and trying to relay information, watching from the viewports as dozens of "small" explosions erupted from within the hull of the Anchorage, propelling fire and debris out into space in a silent display of violence and destruction.
In the midst of all this, the Acting Commander of FP4 stood quietly, staring intensely into the scene unfolding just outside his station. After a long moment, he leaned forward, shouting into the ear of the radio operator seated in front of him. "Keep trying to open a goddamn channel to that ship, Lieutenant, I wanna know what the hell is going on out there!"
With fresh "incentive", the young Lieutenant continued speaking into his radio piece, trying to raise the bridge of the Anchorage. After repeating himself several times, he looked toward the base commander with a defeated expression, shaking his head. "Goddamnit, Lieutenant!...switch channels, order the first and second Station Defense Wings to get out there, we need eyes up close!" The commander barked, only looking away after he noted the Lieutenant nodding agreement.
His head felt like it was on fire and he couldn't hear anything except the ringing in his ears as he began to regain consciousness. Despite the pain, it wasn't until a clearly discernible gun shot rang out next to him that his eyes shot open, bringing him back into the world, though at a sidewards angle.
"Frak...what the h-..." He started to think, interrupted as the recollection of what had happened came back to him. As he lay there on his side, his sight limited to just one eye, he could start to make out the shapes and colors of things in front of him.
First he noticed the blood, red splatters against the metal floor plates, then he noticed man-shaped blue and black figures scattered across the room, Marines, his men, some of the finest soldiers in Liberty, now silent and still. He wanted to move, to go to his people, but it was all he could do to choke and cough up blood as he roll onto his side. The front-plate of his helmet choosing to crack and fall away from him at that moment, forcing Melnikov to realize just how bad a state he was in.
"Regarder!...Regarder! that one is alive!"Somebody unseen called out, the ones responsible for decimating the ship, and Melnikov's men, had noticed him coming around. "This will be good..." Melnikov thought, shortly before a booted foot drove into his chest, knocking the air out of him and forcing him onto his back, bringing him face to face with a long-haired, bearded man, clad in what looked loosely like Gallic military attire. "But that couldn't be right...they don't do things like this..." He thought, while offering a defiant smirk to the man glaring down at him.
"Y-You know..." He coughed, clearing his throat. "This is...the worst thing you could've done." The smirk returned, blood visible in his mouth. "She'll see you tried and...executed, for what you've done here!" He glared at the man standing over him, his eyes desperately searching for some sign of weakness, or fear, anything that might hint at what kind of man was leading these...terrorists.
The bearded man simply shook his head, pushing back some of his hair as he offered his own cold smirk to Melnikov. "It is a shame then, monsieur, that you will not live to see it." With that, he winked, laughing harshly as he brought his rifle around, smashing the buttstock into Melnikov's exposed face.
Admiral Baker was shouting again, Pierson was used to this by now, as it seemed to be the normal state of their "relationship"."Pierson, I'm gonna link up with MARSEC Two at the foredeck armory. We've gotta take that damn hangar bay back and get these terrorists off MY ship!" She nodded to the Lieutenant Commander, pulling her sidearm from it's holster as she headed for the CIC entryway "You have Command, try to keep me updated as things change!" With that, the Fleet Admiral was gone from the bridge, and Pierson was left alone, presumably in command.
"You lads keep at your current tasks, I've work to do!" she spoke in her best "authoritive tone" as she briefly addressed the CIC staff before disappearing beneath her console, popping open one of the panels.
"Good...she's gone, hope this thing still works.."Ashleigh begun to dig around through the maze of wires and circuits inside her console, which was responsible for communications within the ship, and to points outside of it as well. "A-ha!" She thought, grinning somewhat proudly as she found the small, speaker-like device that had been jerryrigged into the circuitry by none-other than herself, several days earlier.
After gently moving some things around, she pulled the 'speaker' outward a bit, revealing it's back-panel, which was lit up green, indicating that it was still powered, and working properly. "Good..." She whispered quietly. "Then they'll be here soon enough.."
"Commander..?" Came the curious tone of a young bridge officer, startling Pierson and causing her to nearly whack her head off the inside of the console as she quickly shoved the speaker back down into the maze of wires and turned to see who was there. "W-What!? What is it.." She searched for a rank on the man's uniform. "Ensign, what could you possibly want that's worth disturbing intricate repairs on our ship's main communications system!?"
"O-Oh..I was just wondering what you were doing, ma'am, but now I know." The Ensign nodded, returning to his post. "Hmp..." She shook her head, sighing to herself."You'll probably be dead soon anyway, Ensign."
Distant bursts of gunfire could be heard once again, as Rachel and her squad of Marines had pushed into the hangar bay to engage the enemy and take it back, but Pierson wasn't worried, all the better that the Admiral stay away, in fact.
"Come on...they better get here soon or this is all for nothing." She thought to herself, letting out a soft sigh as she reached for the holster fastened to her side.
"Right, here it goes.." She whispered.
Quietly, she unhooked the strap and drew her sidearm, and since her position was to the rear of the other duty stations, none of the other officers even noticed until she began firing, her first shot struck the ship's targeting officer in the back of his head, killing him instantly, while her following shots struck the navigator and radar operators.
"Everybody else, move away from your stations now, or you die too!" Pierson shouted from the command platform, passing the barrel of her gun over the surviving officers on the bridge who naturally complied with her demands very quickly.
"Keep firing! Don't let them get their heads up!" Rachel shouted into her headset, from underneath the wing of an Li-117 Upholder bomber she was using for cover, while her Marines continued to slowly spread out and push forward on either flank of the hangar. Firing as they moved, the Marines quickly dispatched most of the enemy fighters, while being careful not to let errant rounds hit the devastated remnants of MARSEC-1 that were strewn across the deck.
From her position Rachel could see as one of the last remaining enemy fighters stood up from behind a shipping container and pointed a handgun at one of the downed MARSEC-1 troops and fired before she had a chance to intervene.
"No! You goddamned animal, die!" She screamed, bolting out from cover toward the gunman, rifle at the ready, tightly pulled back into her shoulder. In that same moment, the bearded gunman threw his arms out to his sides with his palms out, letting the handgun fall to the floor as he dropped to his knees. Rachel stopped just short of arms length from the man, the muzzle of her rifle only inches from his face as she glared down at him for a long moment until the man began laughing.
"Kill me if you want, it doesn't matter anymore...don't you understand, Libertonian?" The bearded man continued to laugh, only being interrupted by Rachel kicking him square in the chest, knocking the air out of him and putting him on his back before she moved to look over the Marine the man had shot.
The sound of a ragged breath jolted him awake, he wasn't sure if it was his or someone else's, but it didn't really matter, at least not as much as his awareness that he couldn't feel anything except a deep and thorough coldness all the way to his bones. He could tell that there wasn't anymore fighting going on, and he knew someone was talking next to him, but he couldn't understand what they were saying, his senses were still too dull for that.
"Alex please...please don't do this!" It was Rachel's voice that finally broke through the static, he could never mistake that voice, or the sound of it when she'd let her emotions get the better of her.
"Stop that, Baker, everything is fine" He thought to himself, he always hated it when she was emotional.
Finally he opened his eyes, only to find Rachel staring down at him with tears in her eyes, her hands apparently tucked under his head; her arms and chest stained purple from the blood mixing with the blue of her uniform.
"Oh...I-I see." He coughed, barely managing to speak, and as he looked up at her, he could tell she was losing her composure.
"I'm sorry...Rachel" He took another shaky breath, lifting his arm to take hold of her wrist, although she had looked away from him and was shouting to someone he couldn't see.
"We need the goddamn medics, CO to CIC, Pierson respond goddamn you!" Rachel was shouting near hysterically into her headset, switching through the channels and repeating herself only to be met with static each time.
Rachel looked back down at Melnikov, placing her hand over his, tears soaking her face as she spoke to him. "I'll kill them, I'll kill every last one of them! Please just don't die!"
"Don't, Rachel, take care...like I taught you.." His voice trailed off as he took his final breaths.
Rachel's head was throbbing as she knelt there on the deck, clinging to Melnikov's hand, his upper body rested across her legs, her mind racing. "Alex..Melnikov please." Sobbing, she begged, she knew he was gone, she couldn't help herself. "No no no no...please don't fucking go!" She doubled over, now holding Melnikov's shoulders, her face buried against his chest, his blood smearing the faceplate of her armor as she held him and wept like a child, ignoring everything else around her.
In the background, the Marines of Security Detachment 2 were gathering up the survivors from MARSEC-1, moving them to casualty collection points, while also rounding up the survivors from the Bison, five of them, along with the bearded executioner, such a small crew for pulling off something like this.
The heavy footfalls of armored boots got her attention, now visible in the corner of her eyes, she looked up.
"Ma'am, we have to go. This deck is compromised, we're not sure how long it'll last." The Marine, fully armored, face obscured by a tinted visor , held their hand out for Rachel, and in that moment she saw in them the image of an avenging archangel.
Corporal Wade pulled the Admiral to her feet, almost in one motion thanks to the servos in her armor. Their eyes met, but only for a moment, enough to make a shiver run down her spine. Rachel's expression was disconnected, and somehow full of rage all at once, with makeup stains running down her cheeks. "Eesh...thank God my outer visor's down." She thought, she'd never seen a look like that on someone's face before. "Admiral, Lieutenant Anderson says he can't reach the CIC on comms, but we had reports of gunfire and we-."
Kara paused when Rachel turned toward her and grabbed the carry handle of her rifle, looking coldly up at her. "...give me your rifle".
Kara felt her whole body tense up, "Okay, what the shit?" She thought, her grip on the rifle tightened. "Ma'am? You know they train us-"
Rachel's free hand was now gripping the upper handguard. "Give me the FUCKING gun, Marine!". Startled, Kara let go of her rifle and took a step back, putting her hands out to her sides. The Admiral performed a swift about-face, and made a beeline for the group captured from the Bison, stopping in front of the bearded man, holding the gauss rifle low, barrel pointed at his chest. It looked like they were speaking to each other, but Kara couldn't hear the conversation, the bearded man was shrugging and smirking up at the Admiral. Rachel's body language shifted and she took a step back, her footing changing to a supportive posture.
Kara took a few steps toward them. There was a bright blue flash, and Kara flinched when the audible report of the Gauss Rifle firing registered on her helmet's headset. "No fucking way, no goddamn way, what the fuck!" She shouted, watching as the bearded man fell over sideways, his blood spilling onto the deck. The Admiral ignored Kara's shouting, as well as the prisoners screaming, while she continued to fire into the group, only stopping once they were all flat on the deck and silent.
Kara looked around the bay, internally panicking and weaponless. She saw Lieutenant Anderson, the platoon leader of MARSEC-2 running toward the Admiral, cursing and waving his arms.
Rachel was breathing heavily, her eyes were burning from the tears, her mind ablaze with the realization of what she'd done. "Easy...easy, get it together Rache." She thought, trying to slow her breathing as she stood there before the consequences of her actions.
"...Marine, hey Marine!" A shout from behind her. "What the fuck are you doing! drop that fucking weapon!" She lowered the rifle and turned toward the voice, a man with a Lieutenant's insignia on his helmet, he kept running toward her, and when he saw the star cluster on her helmet, stopped short, so quickly that he almost tripped over himself as his demeanor changed. "A-Admiral...what...did you do?!" The shock on his face visible, as his visor plate was retracted.
She dropped the rifle to the floor, looking the Lieutenant in his eyes before glancing around the room at the Marines and Sailors whose eyes were glued to her, before she spoke coldly. "Terrorists and spies are not protected by the laws of war. Our ship has been attacked by spies, aided by infiltrators already aboard. We need to take back our ship. Do you get me?!" She glanced around the bay again, locking eyes with each person there. She was shaking, but she hoped nobody could see it.
A dead silence filled the room, Rachel's gaze continuing to wander over the group, meanwhile, Corporal Wade was taking nervous steps in her direction, intending to retrieve her rifle now that it was on the ground, as any good Marine would.
Finally, a Marine whose chest armor was dented, and blackened with burn marks, a survivor from MARSEC-1, stepped forward from the CCP at the back of the bay, removed his helmet, and looked directly at her before belting out "We get you, ma'am!", "oorah!" came the cry in unison from further behind him, his injured comrades from MARSEC-1 agreed.
"MARSEC-2, form up!" It was Lieutenant Anderson, turning away from her to face his men, watching as the 13 Marine team, including Kara Wade, lined up quickly in front of them. "We're gonna take back this fucking ship like the Admiral said, do you get me, Marines?!" The Lieutenant exhaled deeply. "OORAH!" came the cry in unison from the Marines before him.
"Fireteams two and three, stay here and help MARSEC-1 and the deck crew evacuate the wounded to the medbay, fireteam one, you're with the Admiral and I, we're going to the CIC."
Rachel lowered her helmet's outer visor, finally hiding her face. She closed her eyes, trying to find her center again before they were on the move.
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