Chapter 8
A Spark, then a Flame
The six walked out of the room through the door then they could feel air getting sucked out so they went the opposite way because it would maybe be a bit safer for traversing the ship. They entered another barrack and checked the room, nobody was in there so they kept going around looking for any survivors.
As they kept going they couldn't find anyone in the barracks wing, so that meant everyone was either in the front of the ship or were on duty right now. There were a few entry ways into the barracks one was the emergency exit which led to the hangar which was probably closed, and the other way which led to hole in the ship in which they probably knew it was sealed off from the main ship. First they checked for the emergency doorway, they looked at the map on the wall looking for the emergency door. Jacob found it then marked it on his personal map on his wrist device then he led the way to the emergency exit.
Though as they got close, there were emergency doorway signs pointing towards the emergency exit so they followed the signs then it led to the exit. As they got there it was covered with small debris, they cleared it out of the way, then they opened the door. It was a long straight corridor. To their surprise it was well maintained, then they heard muffled gunfire from the other side of the corridor so they ran to the other side of the corridor to aid their comrades. They reached the other side and what they saw was two sides, one was theirs while the other one was odd to the others except Jacob. Jacob knows what the opposing side is, from what they look like, how they fight, and the mark on all of them was the Banished. Jacob noticed it was a losing fight and the Banished are winning then,
"Hey Jacob, Who and what are those people?" Asked Matoi
"Those are the Banished, a Mercenary group just like ours but they have a different view than we do as a mercenary group," Jacob explained
"The Banished? Sounds like a dumb name for a group like that," Matoi jokingly said
"You may think that, but the name is fitting for what they did before they joined"
"How do you know they are called the banished?" Asked E. Young
"I fought with them once after I joined this PMC force,"
"What?!" They all shouted
"Anyways we don't have time to sit our asses down and talk, come on get ready for a firefight!"
"Yes sir," they yelled back
So they planned out a quick battle plan since this is a fight that they are extremely outnumbered from 3/1, from what Jacob's motion sensor could pick up there were about roughly 58 enemy troops and roughly 22 allied troops left. The banished were pushing Jacob allies back into the ship so they go intervene and support their allies, as they push into battle Jacob grabs an assault rifle from one of fallen comrades dead body then grabs his pistol as well as the extra mags too, then he grabs Matoi's and Natsu's arms
"Natsu, Matoi use these instead," Jacob lets go of there hands then pulls out his knife and grabs a nearby knife as well, then hands them both two 14-inch/36cm combat knives
"I won't need these, I already got my flames!" Natsu said proudly pounding his hands together
"That's the point Natsu your flames, once you activate them you'll just blow up this entire ship so that's why I'm you this knife," Jacob explained then as Jacob said that Matoi examined the knife she was given then said,
"Hold on, this one is infused with life fibers?" she questioned
"Perspective, that one is mine. Custom made," Jacob said impressed
"WHAT?! That's impossible though! How were you able to do that?!" she yelled
"Hey quiet down, I'll explain it later or more of our soldiers will die because we are just idling around so let's get going" Jacob said but Matoi is full of suspicion so she bites her lips then listens to Jacob and quiets.
They all rush in much in plan but because they didn't have enough time to think of a solid one they improvised a bit, so Natsu was the first to charge in only with his combat knife feeling overconfident. But with his high agility that he has, he dodges most of the incoming rounds from the enemy forces, meanwhile Matoi and E. Young teams up and sneak behind on distracted enemy forces then Matoi signal to E. Young that she is going. She sneaks her way towards them then stabs one of the enemy's in the side gut, then a followed up shot by E. young shooting them in the head. Once they noticed Matoi she retrieved her knife from the body and ran to the nearest cover to hide from the gunfire from the enemies in which they also noticed E. Young then she took cover.
Jacob is in the back and sees them somewhat working together like E. Young and Ryuko while Natsu on his lonesome while also being the center of attention while Mira is to be seen assisting the soldiers while Alice is right next to Jacob
"So what do I do sir?" asked Alice
"Tsk, Hold on……. Oh do you have any type of magic or anything?" Jacob questioned
"Oh yes I do! But I can only do it three times though"
"That might be enough to change the tides maybe, but what are they?"
"I have Minor heal, Protection, and Holy Light,"
"Protection and Holy Light might be useful in this situation, so I need you to use these when I say okay?"
"Yes sir"
Then Jacob gets up and gestures to Alice to follow him then she gets up and follows. As Jacob and Alice get closer to the firefight they see Natsu on a wall exhausted and a bit wounded though he still looks fine, while Ryuko and E. Young were pinned down while the enemy forces were closing in, and with Mira protecting the soldiers while they were protecting her. So Jacob takes off his wrist device then he equips his wrist blade, and grabs his personal handgun is a M6F chambered in .45 ACP (a newer and modified variant, for better performance and better concealment overall while still having the somewhat iconic look to it from the old one). Jacob tells Alice to use holy light once he vaults over the cover they are on, then from a countdown from 3.
Jacob jumps into action by jumping onto the hanger floor then he shoots at one of the enemies in the head killing them. Just by himself he draws all enemies' attention towards him. Alice starts chanting holy light as fast as she could then a bright light fills a part of the hanger while that happens Natsu took the chance to rush up to one and stabbed them. Next Ryuko follows up with Natsu as well stabbing another one next Natsu, then Jacob rushes up too with his blade and gun while E. young supports them with covering fire pinning the enemy troops.
Jacob goes up to a blinded brute and stabs them in the chest, then shoots them in the head under the jaw. Then he moves to the next his next targets by shooting them with his handgun to their chest killing or incapacitating them. Jacob moves towards some cover then to reload his gun, then a brute finds him onto his right side. Jacob moves swiftly by punching them in their gut with his left fist, the brute stumbles in pain then Jacob grabs the brute's head then stabs them with his wrist blade. More enemy soldiers came then Jacob asked for a rifle from Mira. Mira grabs a nearby saddlepack then stuffed it with extra mags, then grabs a nearby MA41 Rifle. She starts jumping towards Jacob, then swiftly hands them to Jacob. Jacob grabs the rifle and pack, he grabs the mags and puts it in his pouches. Mira jumps back to the soldier after she delivers the rifle then Jacob jumps back into action.
The remaining soldiers were still dazed from the attack but they got up and fixed themself up, then started to assist the battle as well. From a 3-1 to an even battle. Jacob and his team killed about half of the enemy troops while having minimum damage to the ship and his squad mate. All the remaining enemies pulled out of the ship and escaped while leaving only a few stragglers left to die. As Jacob and his team of other worlders kill off the remaining troops left behind, and the soldiers that were with them send out a message to the bridge of the ship that they had the situation under control and that they fended off the enemy forces with the help of Jacob and his team.
As Jacob and his team were helping of a few soldiers cleaning up the dead corpses of the enemies and comrades, Jacob realized that he never made a real solid plan to take them out and only did it out of instinct also he almost got his team killed if he had been a bit more thoughtless, as well as him not giving much orders to his squad mate except for Alice.
As Jacob and his team finished cleaning up the hanger and finding the stragglers left behind, they went to help the remaining survivors of the attack.
"Hey you good there?" Jacob asked a shocked soldier
"N-no not really," the survivor replied back
"Oh… well you'll get back on your feet in no time, soldier. Also I would like to ask you some questions about the attack. Is that fine with you?"
"Yeah sure, of course," the soldier replied back
"First thing I'd like to ask is what were you doing before the attack?" Jacob asked
"I was part of the mechanic group and uhh, and I was grabbing some spare parts for the pelican that came on board,"
"Which one?"
"Pelican 24768, why sir?"
"So the one that I came on, but why did it need repairs?"
"The reason? because when the Pelican entered the astrosphere some of the part were overheated from the re-entering,"
"Okay then when did you do after that?"
"When I was coming back I heard the part of the ship blow up then a large crash afterwards,"
"I see, keep going,"
"After that I heard on the speakers that all combatants crew were needed at the hangar bay 3, then that's when I was given a rifle by one of the soldiers on board,"
"I see, then what happened next?"
"I-I don't know it just happened so damn fast,"
"Hm… okay then, Alice get over here!" Jacob yelled over the entire hanger
Alice was sitting on a box when she heard Jacob call her so she jumps off the box and starts running over to Jacob's location, then Matoi notices her then runs up to Alice calling her,
"Hey! Wait up!" Matoi yells to Alice
Alice waits for Matoi to catch up as she's waiting. She looks around for a bit then Matoi reaches her. Matoi is a bit out of breath and also catching it as well.
"*Huu* *Haah* *Huu* How do you run so fast?" asked Matoi while a bit out of breath
"I'm not sure myself to be honest?" Alice replied back nonchalantly
"Anyways where are you going right now?"
"I'm going to captain, why?"
"Oh… well I'll just say be careful okay,"
"Oh okay then," but before Matoi could say anything Alice was already off.
