Silently, a Jinkusu and Conference vessel made their way through this desolate region of space. The jump hole they'd came through swirled and pulsed angrily, they were trespassers. On board the Jinkusu, the reason they were here waited patiently in an airlock, suited with a vac-suit, a pulse rifle resting against his chest by it's strap. He'd just pulled down his skullie balaclava, a blacked out visor over his eyes to be placed quickly after. The monitor in the airlock flickered to life, his attention caught by it as he hooked a grenade onto his suit's vest.
"We're closing in on the Nomad gate, its got a gravitational field that will pull you into the center. The exoskeleton will give you the strength to get into their airlock. The vessel is inside the gate itself, and once you're out of the airlock, you're on your own, the Pendulum and Viaticum will hold off the Wild vessels. They shouldn't see you going in." The face on the monitor said his piece, then it flickered off.
"Should be interesting." He turned on the head's up display on his visor. Hurrying over to the exoskeleton on the other side of the airlock, he quickly strapped himself into it. The suit begun powering up as the heavier, robotic hands on it clenched and it's bulky feet took a few steps. He could see the transport ship inside the gate, the ships outside zipping around wildly as explosions flared. The Pendulum's lighter gunners fired a few rounds to deactivate the shield around the ship.
He punched the airlock switch, and immediately the door flung open, shutting behind him. He was pulled out immediately at a low speed, drifting slowly towards the Wild's transport vessel. He curled up into a ball as he neared it's hull, slamming into the side roughly as the metal skeleton of a suit around him took the impact. He could feel that old rush, his breaths were quickening, his heart thumping in his chest. Setting up the suit at the airlock of the transport, he wrenched open the airlock, squeezing himself inside before it slammed shut behind him. The next door he gripped into with the suit, pulling with all it's might, the door slid open, air rushing into the lock as he locked the exo-skeleton in position, holding the door open. He dropped out, hitting the floor of the ship as he raised his rifle.
The goal was simple, in and out, in and out, and he kept thinking that. Even when a Wild in his old Rheinland military suit came out of a sliding door. Two shots rang out, the rifle's barrel expelling two white streaks that pierced the infested man's chest. He stepped over the body as he climbed up to the next deck of the ship, rushing up it's stairs as he felt gravity shift within the ship.
"Nnngh!" He grunted, stumbling to the side. He noticed the same from a second infested man who stumbled towards him with a laser pistol in hand. Hitting a knee, he held down his trigger as white bolts of energy slammed into the infested man, sending him tumbling. A second came from the hall and fired off a round from his pistol, scorching the wall next to the man. The infested's chest exploded into fizzles of white energy as he crumpled into a pile on the floor.
Rushing through the control room, he did a circle sweep, checking all the sides. The object had to be here, he thought to himself. It was then a serpentine, blue figure leapt at him, his rifle used as a bar between him and it. A Nomad incubus, the thing that infests humans. He tossed the creature off as it hissed, his rifle tumbling along with it. He flipped out his combat knife, the engravings on it flickering of a single, open eye. He leapt at the incubus, gripping it's serpentine 'neck' if it were, and stabbing into it's body repeatedly. Inky blue covering his knife before he tossed it's limp body away.
Pulling out a pulse pistol on his leg, he crept along into the captain's quarters. There it sat, hovering inside a clear tube as it fed energy throughought the ship, and into the portal gate around them. He hesitated, it was too easy, no one was here. It was then a Wild captain showed himself, aiming a plasma rifle over a desk in the room. Several shots ringing out as the man ducked to the side of the door. He patted himself over, checking to be sure he wasn't hit as rounds splashed over the doorway and walls.
His knife slid away, the hand gripping a grenade on his vest. He tossed it high into the room. A bright flash came from within the room and a deafening bang. He swiveled around the door and entered the room. The captain waved his rifle aimlessly, trying to see as he would pop a few rounds off blindly. Keeping low, the man fired a single shot, scoring a clean hit to the infested man's head. He fell to the floor and made no more sounds. It was quiet now, aside from the hum of the white orb, floating inside the clear tube.
Approaching the container, he fired a shot into the glass, shattering it. Immediately the ship lost gravity, his feet drifting from the floor. He spun for just a moment as he reached for the orb. Finally grabbing it, he planted his feet into the shattered container and shoved away towards the door. The ship rocked violently. He scrambled to get a grip on anything that would lend him help, pulling himself along the floor to the lower decks, back to his exo-skeleton in the airlock. He had to hurry, no doubt they knew he was stealing the orb. Stuffing the object into his vest's bag, he cinched it shut, drifting along the floor towards his exo-skeletal suit. He pulled his weightless body up into it, shoving his legs into the bandstraps, and strapping himself in before he gripped the hand motors.
He released the airlock door, the metal plate slamming shut as he spun around. As he did he could see a missile headed for the airlock door. He lifted the arms of the suit to shield himself. The explosion rocked the entire ship, the air was sucked out, and for a moment he thanked the fact he was wearing a vac-suit. Leaping out of the vessel, he drifted towards the Pendulum, which was being pelted by vessels, the Viaticum gunboat toiling away at destroying the enemy bombers. He extended the big, robotic hand as he neared the Pendulum's hull, he'd land away from the airlock. Taking careful aim, he armed the harpoon rig on the suit, firing the shot into the airlock door. The cord attached pulled snug as the round silently hit the door. He reeled himself in, finally detatching the gripper harpoon, tossing it away as the door slid open.
Tumbling inside, the door shut behind him as the room hissed noisily. Atmosphere filling the vacuum of the room. He peeled out of the exo-skeleton, landing onto the floor as he placed a hand to his headset, saying proudly.
"We have the artifact, lets pull out." He looked back out the porthole of the airlock as they drifted away. The inert gate would remain inert for now, for a long while hopefully. The Pendulum and Viaticum engaged cruise, and the scene left behind was to be picked through by the Wild, no doubt, they no longer needed to remain. He pulled the now dimmed orb from his pouch on his vest, and looked at it discerningly. He set it into a container on the wall of the airlock, slamming it shut as the lable on the box read 'Biohazard'.
My honest reaction upon reading the forums, whenever I rarely do. Joe Kucan, he's the man.
The murky green nebula around the planet of Toledo lent it an awe-inspiring green sky, the planet itself getting a mild amount of daylight and modest warmth. The night side, though, was a terrible and cruel monster. Many times Order ground troops are trained in night operations, and nights on Toledo are cold, hard, and deadly. It wasn't just the wildlife that was killer, it was the weather itself. A wild blizzard could stir up and blanket an area with pieces of blown up ice, razor sharp and big enough to sever limbs. Thankfully, none were forecast on this run.
Jester, all suited in an environmental combat suit, crawled over a fresh ridge of snow. His helmet flickered as his two coin-shaped eye ports flickered green. He could see in this perfect darkness of night, indeed. The Order ground command had scheduled a night run to break in some new recruits. The objective, capture at least one Blanc Wolf dead or alive. Alive preferably, at least the eggheads want. The solitary predators, Blanc Wolves, a hide that blends in perfectly with snow, thick and muscled like it was made out of whipcords. The beast held a deadly defensive mesh of concealed spikes of clear, ice-like formations within that powdery fur. Not to mention it's teeth, a snarling maw that could only be seen before it's blackened eyes. Sunken pits that gave one advantage over it, a sheer tunnel vision advantage.
He pulled his pulse carbine onto his back, lifting a heavy set of nightvision binocks onto his viewports. He had their target in sight, it was rutting it's fat, stubbed nose into the snow, looking for something to chow on no doubt. A trio of recruits on his back, they practically held their breath, stories about these wolves did well to keep them in line. Jester lifted a hand just slightly, and motioned for the sharpshooter recruit to come close. A large-caliber stun rifle shouldered and ready.
The recruit sighted in one of the few weak spots on the creature, and choosing the most useful one, it's bald butt. Still snowy white like it's fur, but thinner on spikes, an easy shot if the marksman recruit was on par. Waiting for the signal, the recruit did his training proud, his finger eased down to feather-touch the trigger. He held his breath as if to signal he was ready. Jester pushed his fist foreward to signal the attack. The round flew, and the wolf vanished from sight, snow flurrying wildly around it as the ground shook.
Without more warning, even Jester wasn't prepared for the next sight, a large tower of white skyrocketted into the air. In it's pincers, in front of an open maw of teeth, a worm-like creature rose a clean twenty feet. It bellowed a roar before stuffing the wolf into it's open gullet. The creature made a hideous gurgling sound and then slinked back into it's hole. The ground rumbling and snow displacing. Jester rose up to his knees and shouted into his helmet's commlink.
"Get the hell out of here! Get back to the bunker, now, now!" He jerked the stunned sniper recruit by his shoulder, all four of the soldiers rose and took into a full run away from the scene. All that could be heard over the comm links was heavy breathing. The ground shook and rumbled as they ran. He rocked, stumbled, and tripped to save himself with a quick hand. He sacrificed the binoculars for it though, dropping them behind him.
It was that glance back that he saw what caused the rumbling. Like a serpent powering into the curves, the beast plunged up and down through the snow and ice, powering towards them. Jester knew they had little chance to make it together, the bunker outpost was another two kilometers, and this thing was scraping at their heels. He fumbled at his vest as he peeled out a brick of thermal explosives from his kit - in case of avalanches, the perfect way to send a signal is a large bang of heat for the sensors to get.
"Left, take the ridge, use the ice bridge!" He waved them left as he broke towards that direction.
"We aren't supposed to cross that anymore, it's not safe!" A recruit piped, though followed along behind his heels.
"Bloody hell, just do it, or we'll die here!" He shouted, it was close, and a do or die moment. He crossed first, the ice creaking and popping already as he ran across a one-man-wide sheet of ice over a deep ravine. Just as he reached hard ice, he spun and slid to a stop. The recruits kept running. "Go, go! Don't stop, go!" He waved the first and second by, the third huffing by just as he saw it.
The bloated body of the worm beast plunged through the gap of the ravine. He reared back the brick of explosives and lobbed the sticky-side of the package at the creature. It bounced along it's hide just one tumble before sticking onto it. Just as it disappeared into the snow below them, he turned to run, his other hand gripping the detonator on his vest and giving the trigger a full-power squeeze. A thump came at first, the ground pounded and heaved upwards as Jester was launched into the air a good ten feet. Sent tumbling through the air, he pounded against soft snow as disgusting bits flew into the air, a fireball reaching upwards out of the snow.
The rumbling ceased, and the ground no longer shook at their heels. The recruits stopped and stood in awe for a moment. Only then they saw Jester rolling onto his back in the snow, the group rushing over. The marksman slung his rifle and checked Jester for any wounds. "Sir, you're one lucky bastard, you know that right?" He grabbed Jester's hand and pulled him to his feet.
Jester's chest pounded as he looked back at the brightly lit fireball driving upwards. The crater with the dead segment of worm in it. He shook his head. "You can tell those bloody scientists, they can look inside that thing for their damned wolf." He grunted as he bent over to place his hands on his thighs, panting lightly. The recruits burst into a short laugh as the comm link crackled to life.
"Good grief, Jester? We picked up an explosion in your area, we're sending an evac team immediately." A voice from the base rang out.
"Tell them to send a science team as well, they'll never believe it." He placed a hand up to his ear as he looked at the smoldering carcass of the new "Ice Worm" as he saw it, the sounds of headquarters grew distant as he sighed. A brush with death he didn't care to have, at least this time.
My honest reaction upon reading the forums, whenever I rarely do. Joe Kucan, he's the man.