Ok so this one is a bit of a short one, Agent Davies again. Not really a lot happening here but important to put in before we get all out of time cohesion or something.
Just in case there's a lack of clarity this is an approximate timeline:
day 1: Overlord appears.
day 15: Patrick gets kidnapped.
day 113: Patrick wakes up.
day 125: Hunter-killer wakes up.
day 128: Incident with miners.
day 141: Current Chapter.
Also I will try to keep my zerg units up to date. Because this is supposed to be set between Brood War and SC2 there may be a few things that seem a tad odd, just assume they're halfway in between or something.
Disclaimer: You know what I own.
Battle on a New Front
Chapter 9: Tentative Investigation
Agent Davies was in over his head.
It wasn't that he was failing to achieve what he was being paid to do. It was that suddenly he was being required to do something he absolutely was not trained for and was certainly not being paid enough to do.
Maybe it was the smug smile he'd had on his face when he spoke to his boss. Or maybe the boss just wanted to get rid of him. Somehow though, he had been landed with the senior position of organising and leading the investigation into his zerg claims, despite hardly being qualified. Sure he wanted a promotion but this had the ring of his superiors simply not taking him seriously. Shouldn't they have taken this away from him and assigned it to someone more senior if they really believed it could be the zerg? They didn't know much but they knew enough to be extremely cautious if it were the zerg.
Yet here he was, strapped into a seat in a drop ship along with a full squad of combat marines with firebat compliment, a marine recon squad including ghost spotter, a xeno-anthropologist and four maintenance and management personnel to ensure the portable command hub they had with them would function smoothly.
Why was -he- here though? What sick joke was the universe playing on him that he, who was afraid of crowds and large open spaces, was leading the operation that would take place in an area that was essentially open savannah?
The dropship had risen quickly above the atmosphere and was hurtling towards its target location, the journey a measly three hours to go halfway around the world. The marines had joked, talked, so on. They were bored, not much happened here on earth and this was a bit of excitement, though most were sceptical. The anthropologist had talked with the management crew. Only the ghost had remained silent, face unreadable behind the goggles and breathing mask that it seemed was never taken off, at least in public.
Thin as a rake the ghost nevertheless had the deadly aura that some people carry which sets them aside as being able to snap some vital part of your body if you irritated them too much. He'd actually tried talking to the ghost, directly opposite him in the seating arrangement, but the soldier had remained stoically silent, barely shifting his head to indicate he'd heard Davies' words. Ultimately he'd given up.
The ghost's call-sign was printed in grey on the black left breast of the outfit: Reaper.
He had no way to confirm it but Davies secretly suspected that "Reaper", whoever he or she may be" was the person really in charge of this operation, and that he was there to distract people from the focus of power.
Nevertheless he was here, and as the dropship punched back into the atmosphere, shuddering as it tore through the boundary layers and entered the stratosphere he couldn't help but feel a little bit of excitement. He was really here and in charge, at least officially. It scared the living crap out of him too but at least he would see first hand if he was right… for better or worse.
The intercom squealed momentarily before subsiding to a crackle. For the first time in the whole flight Davies saw the ghost make an uncontrolled movement, it flinched. No time to dwell though as the pilot's voice started speaking, "Right people, we're descending fast now, please ensure all items are properly attached to whatever they should be properly attached to and double check your harnesses."
There was some laughing as marine's picked up helmets and resealed them and so forth before the pilot's voice came through again, "Prepare for extreme deceleration in ten…"
Davies gripped his harness in a sudden bout of nervousness. What if they crashed? What if they blew up? Quashing the voice in his head he focused on sitting straight and holding the harness, "…six, five, four…"
One of the recon marines laughed and pointed a finger at him, commenting on the whiteness of his knuckles to his companion. Davies would have said something in response but then the pilot said, "… one."
The entire ship lurched as the descent thrusters fired, ties creaked, helmets and suits clanked against safety harnesses and bulkheads.
After a moment the g-force subsided and a clunk indicated they had landed. The pilot's cheery voice issued out over the intercom again, "Tactical insertion drop complete. You may now disembark from the vehicle, thankyou for flying UED airlines."
Sourly Davies thought the pilot was enjoying this far too much as harnesses were unclasped and people started to move. They were here.
As always please review, just because it's awesome when you do.
It's Friday here so no public transport till Monday, don't expect an update tomorrow. :)