Starship Troopers: Transfer
Rated pg for low level violence.
Summary: Gregory "Viper" Hans is recovering in an isolated SICON base. Unfortunately the Bugs have the place surrounded, cutting his potential rest time short.
Dark. The metallic air stuck to a tongue as oil to a cloth. Not a pleasant experience to wake up to.
A figure groaned quietly as he stood; quickly shrouded by blankets of darkness. Blinked a couple of times. Bright blue eyes were blind to the world.
"Sonnova---ah! Curse it!" He hissed and clutched rounded fingers to his bruised ribs. For a moment he had forgotten about his condition. His hands experimented, feeling up his abdomen. Bandages laced his ribs. Stitches closed up claw marks along his shoulders. Something heavy clung to his head. From the blurred clarity of thoughts it was most likely from a head injury he had received earlier. His short ragged hair was normally blond and swayed around his head though from the bandages it came out in chaotic tufts. Some of it was still caked in blood, though he could only feel it, not actually see it.
He took an experimental step forward. A smooth fake table met his hands.
"Blind...no." He glanced over at a pinpoint of light.
"Wait..." The man smiled in the darkness as he headed towards it. His muscles twitched from the cold. His body protested their movements, aching and moaning from their sudden summons from rest. The cold steel assured him that he was in civilian attire. And barefoot.
The invading silence started to put him on edge. Normally there was light; and the noise of people bustling around wherever he was would by now have manifested itself. But it was almost like a horror movie. Silent. Dead silent. He scoffed as he entered the halls. The light was a certain improvement. The man's slightly tanned skin stood out against the dull greys and whites of his surrounding environment, especially with the tribal tattoos of snakes tracing along his back and arms. Other than wearing bandages along his body and boxers reserved for medical patients he didn't appear to have any clothes.
Cursing again quietly he ripped off the name tag around his wrist. 'Gregory Hans, Corporal, Medic' it wrote as it floated down to the ground.
'Nice of them to write my life story' he thought in distaste.
He crept along the halls of the unfamiliar place, keeping quiet. He had the sense to know something was seriously wrong. Though why he was alone mystified him. Paper, supplies, litter trailed the floor in orderly chaos.
"Jeez; work must've followed me home this time." He breathed in a laugh. Chittering stopped Hans in his tracks. Around the corner silhouettes bayed to each other. Six legs. Scissor-like bladed appendages. Giant crushing mandibles. Definitely not Human. The Arachnids had breached the halls. And not just any Arachnids either.
Warrior Bugs.
And they were angry.
He crouched low and back peddled to a supply table. As they waddled towards him he hid under the bulky appliance.
They stopped, waving their tiny antennae in the air. Voices filled Hans' mind over their garbled cries.
/Smell food near.../ Bayed one.
/Human fodder? The rest missed one/ Bayed the other.
Hans leaned back into the wall as their thoughts bled into him. Pictures of the Bug colony flashed through. There were so many of them. Of all castes. United in their efforts to obey their Queen. And destroy the Human race. His eyes rolled back into his head as the Hive Mind pulled him in deeper, trying to kill him and capture him at the same time. He fought back violently. It hurt and soothed him in a jagged caress.
Sometimes it was a pain being Psychic.
Hans felt something loud clang over him. Followed by a surprised alien roar. Something rough and rigid dragged him out carefully.
/Mind-reader!/ One exclaimed as it bit down hard on his ankle. Hans groaned as he fought to regain consciousness.
/Take this back where it can be used/ The other clicked. It prodded him towards the first one.
The first one snorted in distaste but complied.
Hans moaned as he came to. The Hive's hold on him was for now gone.
He blinked.
The ground slid past him in a casual trotting pace. A leg appeared every now and again but was gone just as quickly.
It took the medic a while to register that he was currently being carried by the Bug's jaws.
'Just one bite.' The thought sobered him up somewhat, 'and it could snap me in two...'
He honestly didn't know what would happen if he was taken back to the colony. But he knew it would be bad if he allowed himself to be taken.
He kicked at the Warrior Bug's leg, and with a satisfying thwack it found home, causing a startled cry from the Bug. It was forced to drop him as it tumbled onto its back. With a wicked grin Hans forced his body to curl into a commando roll before lunging to his feet. He yelped in pain from the sudden exertion but it worked. He simply ran as the Bug roared in rage, warning the others of its kind to seize him.
Hans didn't have to hear its thoughts to know what it was saying. The Medic just kept running as fast as his injured body would allow. Bullets whistled past his head and he dove towards the source of it in instinct.
Cursing.
Fists.
Bodies flailed as they collided, tumbling down the hall into a nearby locker room. An audible clang resounded as the suited man banged into a locker, denting it with a vengeance. With a groan Hans propped himself over the suited marine. The young man beneath him was out for the moment. His skin was somewhat darker with brownish hair.
After a second Hans fully realised just how lucky he really was. If the marine had landed on him he would have been squashed due to the Power Suit he wore. The medic spotted the gun nearby on the ground; during the scuffle the marine must have lost grip of his weapon.
With a soft growl the man awoke, revealing brown eyes.
A snicker drew both their gazes towards the noise. A young woman with lighter skin and amber eyes chuckled at them. Her Power Suit matching the man Hans had below him.
"If only Higgins had his camera here." She announced in good spirits, sporting a North American accent.
"Dizzy what are you---!" The man shoved Hans off of him suddenly, bringing a loud pained growl from the unsuited man. "Your timing was always rotten." He added as he hopped up onto his feet.
"Oh come on Rico!" Dizzy laughed, slapping the man's back joyfully. "The way he tackled you reminded me of that game you played earlier. High-form tackle and you know it." She snickered again.
Hans rolled his eyes and stood to his feet.
"You guys are the Roughnecks right?" He asked. It wasn't hard to recognise their unique Power Suit colour of deep forest green. As far as he knew they were tough eggs to crack. They fought hard and broke every rule in the book. But seeing them in person; even joking around in the midst of an infestation humanised them from the merciless killing machines he had known them as.
"Yeah. Who's askin'?" Dizzy asked back. Her voice kept an amused tone one might use to something interesting.
"Hans, Gregory." He replied, adopting a semi-formal stance.
"Your rank and status?" Rico half-growled, quite enjoying the fact he was in a Power Suit and the younger man wasn't.
"Corporal. Medic." Hans replied with a shrug in his voice. "I'm better known as a 'Rescuer' though."
Rico wasn't amused.
Two more Roughnecks jogged into the room before he could ask anything else.
"Rico. Flores. We have to..." The first soldier trailed off in mid-sentence.
"Hey Jenkins!" Dizzy smirked at the pale blond man who entered the room. "We found a survivor."
The second man didn't talk. He was young; probably younger than even Hans himself. His eye and hand was attached to a camera which blinked ominously at the group in front of him, scanning over Hans' ragged appearance. The Medic put two and two together from what he heard earlier. The mousy-brown haired youth with the camera had to be Higgins. Someone who didn't seem to fit into the Roughneck's reputation at all. But appearances were often deceiving...
"Now we definitely have to go." Rico snapped Hans from his thought. "If we're late Brutto's gonna go into a yelling fit again."
Higgins put away his camera and holstered his rifle. He didn't look like he was at peace holding it.
"Just one problem..." He spoke up. "We need a Power Suit."
"Way ahead of you." Jenkins replied, turning back the way he came and jogging onward. With questioning glances the others followed, with Hans in the middle. He felt ridiculous being surrounded like a civilian but there was no choice in the matter. He wasn't protected and unless he grew a thick hide he couldn't afford to be unescorted.
With a growing concern Hans regarded the man in front of the group. He knew something wasn't right with Jenkins. He just didn't think the Roughnecks would have a Psychic in their ranks. And such a powerful one too. He hoped the other man didn't look into his own gift.
'Not likely' he thought to himself. Psychics often considered him impaired in that regard, as his own powers weren't easy to detect. That and his tests had yielded ill-desired results.
Eventually the group made it into a small room. A few discarded Power Suits were stored within it.
"Suit up." The Psychic advised.
Hans didn't really have to be told; he walked in and suited up while the others took watch.
The Power Suit he chose was a drab reddish colour but he couldn't complain. His other suit was far too damaged from an earlier battle. It was a pain putting it on but he remained silent throughout the ordeal. As it slid over his skin and attire he felt it begin to move on his command. It would make him faster, stronger and resistant to damage that would normally kill a man. Though it was by no means perfect; it was quite heavy. Luckily they weren't in water...otherwise they would sink faster than a rock.
"Incoming!" Dizzy yelled as she fired at the wailing Warrior Bugs on the other side of the hall.
Rico and the others followed suit, firing their own rifles.
Hans looked around furiously for a weapon. Any weapon. But none presented itself. For now he couldn't do anything without a rifle of his own.
When the last withering Bug had died the marines sprung into action, darting into the halls, Hans taking up the rear as he was unarmed. If he had to he would bludgeon the Bugs to death with his fists.
Soon something drew his attention. He halted.
"Stop!" He hissed at the others. "Can't you feel that!?" Vibrations resounded all along the halls, coming from where they were heading. All of them gave him an odd look but he ignored it.
"You sure it's not your head?" Dizzy asked, more in a scowl of distaste. Hans couldn't figure out if she hated their location or if she just hated waiting.
Rico was about to add something but Jenkins hushed them with a forced wave of an arm.
"A large group of Arachnids are heading this way...Ripplers among them."
This certainly shut them up. Rico breathed out in frustration and led them through a conjoining hall. Hans watched from behind as a large swarm careened past where they were not even thirty seconds ago. He thought he caught a glimpse of Higgins watching him, though the camera was trained on the swarm.
The medic shrugged it off. He could wonder what the young man was thinking later.
It didn't take long for the distant echo of fire to draw their attention. The swarm had been fleeing from it.
The Roughnecks ran towards the gunfire with Hans in tow.
The owners of the rifle fire seemed to be in their element. Killing any Arachnid that was too slow or too brash. More Roughnecks. And one of them was cursing up a storm as he brutally cut off the screaming of a dying Bug with a pull of the trigger.
It was pretty obvious that the other Roughnecks had been outside, as they were wearing helmets unlike their comrades.
The one cursing had the name "Brutto" on his helmet.
The one in the front; the one that stood tall and in charge; was "Razak".
The one by his side was "Gossard". By the look of him he didn't seem nearly as harsh or arrogant like Brutto.
The last one---
---shone something sharp into his eyes. Hans struggled as he tried to figure out exactly what was going on.
"---he's strong!"
"Hold him still---"
"Godda---ow!"
"I told you to keep your arm out of the way!"
"Shut it Flores!" Brutto's voice cut in as Hans quietened.
The soft rumbling of an engine told him he was moving. The light danced from one side of his vision to the other before it ceased all together.
The hands that had restrained him took their time in letting him go, though at the moment he was in too much pain to bother moving. The medic blinked as he tried to glance around the room. It wasn't a room...
While his thoughts gathered one thing clung to him with a pang of annoyance.
'Sonnova---'
"He's conscious..." Jenkins winced from the sheer volume of Hans' mental scream.
"You think!?" Someone replied in an annoyed quip.
"You know where you are?" The last one, a dark skinned man with even darker eyes, asked with a casual air. He ignored the bickering of his colleagues like an uncle would ignore the bickering of children.
"In a drop ship?" Hans answered. 'I feel kinda stupid for passing out like a drop-out' his gaze added.
The man chuckled from his expression.
"Doc?" The man called Razak peered back from his lofty position near the pilot door. That one word carried a multitude of questions, most of which were beyond Hans at the moment.
"I'm surprised he could stay upright for as long as he did." The dark man answered. "Nothing substantial but he won't be fighting for a while."
Hans glanced around at the others without having to move so much. Whatever had been in his system had gone, and now his body was making sure to make him suffer for pushing it so hard.
The ship tumbled as something exploded nearby.
"Plasma Bugs?" Rico mused. "You missed one Dizz-ow!"
"Not funny." Dizzy frowned as she plonked herself next to him.
"Alright Apes buckle up!" Razak ordered as the ship lurched once again.
A series of 'yes sirs' were uttered as the Roughnecks sat down and buckled up. Doc helped Hans sit up. The red-suited medic stifled a groan as his ribs protested. Thankfully he was able to secure himself with minimal aid; at least he wasn't totally useless.
"This is gonna be a long trip..." He murmured to himself as Doc secured himself close by.
The rest of the trip was quiet apart from the ship tumbling every now and again due to turbulence. And if you had a keen ear you could hear a faint curse from Hans, whose muscles jolted each and every time the ship bounced. He couldn't wait to get back.
