AN: Thanks to the two of you who reviewed. I'm not gonna beg, I'm not gonna
say 'OMG wtf no1 reveweed!!! omfg RR plz or I wil sh00t myslf'
I'm not like that, I hope. Whatever. If you want to review, do so.
2nd AN: Yes, I know Raynor didn't have any medics, but he's more like a marine who's had some basic medical training. Don't bug me about "OMG wtf Raynur hadd no medix u r a stupid ..." etc. Just don't. You waste everyone's time.
Chapter Two – Exploration
The dropship set down against the floor of the hangar with the slightest of bumps. The doors opened quietly, a small hiss escaping from the edges of the doors, and the squad stepped out, several crouched around the edges of the door aiming their guns around, the flashlights attached to the bottoms of their rifles sending beams of white lights around the pitch-dark hangar.
Alexander looked around, shining his light around the hangar, then thumbing his headset to a different frequency. "Jules," he said, talking to the pilot of the dropship.
"Yeah?"
"A little light around here?"
Jules flicked a switch, and lights around the top of the dropship switched on, illuminating half of the hangar in a dull light. Alexander looked around. The hangar was empty. Completely empty. No dropships, Wraiths, or anything. Even the smaller craft that usually accompanied the battlecruisers were missing. There were no crates or cargo or anything around. The hangar was completely barren.
"All right, that's just weird," Hendricks commented. "There's supposed to be stuff around."
"Doesn't matter," Alexander sighed. "Right now, we've got bigger priorities. We have to get somebody to the reactor and power up the lifts so we can get to the bridge. Whoever goes will power up the lifts and the communications. And nothing else, got it? Who'll go?"
Black was the first to raise his hand. "Sir, I'm familiar with the battlecruiser reactors. If I go, I can get the lifts and comm powered up. And turning on the comms and talking to the Hyperion isn't that hard. Somebody else can do that."
Alexander nodded. "Right. Two more. Who's going?"
Master Corporal Bruce Robins raised his hand. "I'll go. I'm quiet."
Alexander thought for a moment. Robins was good. He was an excellent combat commander, and a good friend. He didn't say much, but he would take care of whoever was assigned to him. Alexander nodded. "All right, you're in. Who else?"
"I'm in," Adams said, nodding her head. Don't see why not. I know the layout of this place."
Antekk gave her a strange look. "Why?"
"I read, Rat," Adams replied scathingly. "You'd learn a surprising amount if you ever picked up a book."
Rat looked down at the floor, grumbling.
Alexander nodded. "Adams, Robins, Black. Robins, you take command of the group, and you guys go. But hurry up. You need to be fast, because the longer we spend on this ship, the longer we're not helping fight on the surface. Let's rock and roll."
Robins nodded. "Team, let's go." He picked up his rifle, walking away, his silenced marine armour making almost no noise as he walked along the metal deck of the hangar. The other two followed him, their rifles and carbines sweeping along sideways, shining lights attached to the bottoms of their rifles along the deck, except in the case of Adams. Her light was on the side, and a grenade launcher was stuck underneath.
Alexander watched them until they faded into the darkness, still seeing the spots of light from their lights occasionally, then turned back to the eight remaining people. "All right, guys," he said. "Establish a perimeter here. Make sure the hangar is really empty, then get ready. Slammer, Day," The machine gunner and sniper raised their heads, "you guys are gonna stay here and guard the ship. The rest of us are gonna split into two teams of three and get to the bridge."
He looked around. "I'll lead one team. Hendricks, you'll get the other. I'll take Sawyer and Williams." Jake Williams, the team medic, looked up.
"Sir."
Alexander continued. "O'Connell, Rat, you're with Hendricks. Don't get killed. If you encounter anything out of the ordinary, or any signs of life, contact me immediately. And if you get to the bridge before me, contact me and wait up."
Hendricks nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Now, spread out, team," Alexander ordered. "Check out the hangar. If you find anything, bring it back."
He gestured to Hendricks to stay. "Tom."
Hendricks nodded. "Yeah?"
"Look, Tom, I need you to hold onto these guys. Rat doesn't like this mission. He won't be happy. Just keep them alive. And if you can ... try to calm him down some. This mission is important, despite what Rat and Slammer think."
Hendricks nodded. "All right, Chris. I'll do my best."
-
Robins paused. A long, dark corridor loomed ahead of them. They had descended several flights of stairs, and gone through a room filled with pipes. According to Adams, this corridor was a food travelling passage from the cargo holds to the lifts which would take it to the kitchens. The cargo holds were in the back of the ship, and the reactor room was just past it. Robins turned to Adams, and whispered, "Sara."
Adams turned back towards him. "Yes, corporal?" she responded quietly.
"I'm gonna need to douse the lights. They won't work to see down this passage, but they would give away the fact we're here. I need you to take your NVGs and scout down the corridor. If you find anything, get behind cover and radio back."
She nodded and smiled. "Roger that, sir."
Robins held his hand out flat parallel to the floor, out from the right side of his body, and moved it in a motion downwards and back up a slight amount twice, as if pushing something down, the signal for 'Douse lights and shut the fuck up.' Adams reached into a pouch on her belt, pulling out a long narrow metal tube about afoot long, screwing it on the front of her carbine, suppressing it. She pulled out her sidearm and did the same, before reaching up and sliding a set of night-vision goggles onto her head. After receiving the signal from Robins, she stepped out silently into the corridor and began moving down it, crouched over.
She moved down about eighty metres before stopping and taking cover in a doorway, her carbine pointed down the hallway, and whispering into her headset, "Corporal."
She got an immediate, "Yes?"
"I can see some light. Smoke is filling the hallway, that's why we couldn't see the light before. Nothing in the hallway but a couple of doors and they're all locked. Recommend you join me. Over."
"Copy that. We're moving up to your position. How far away are you?"
"About eighty metres down the passage, ten or so from the light. This passage runs a good quarter of the ship. Over."
"Copy that. On our way. Lights dead. Over and out."
Adams, crouched there with her gun pointed at the light, stayed for about two minutes, maybe three, before the other two joined her. Robins looked at the light. "Looks like an open door. How far from the back of the ship are we?"
Adams shrugged. "Forty, fifty metres?"
Robins looked around. "No signs of life. We're close to the reactor, though. We have to keep moving. How are the cargo holds shaped?"
"It's one big hold for food and fuel, that's what we're walking into. It's a big room that takes up about a hundred metres long, the entire width of the ship, for three decks. This corridor cuts down the middle, goes about ninety metres in. We're most of the way through the hold already, I'd guess."
Robins looked up, realization dawning. "So you're saying the lights in the hold are on?"
"It looks like it, as long as that's the door to the hold up there," Adams replied.
"From what you've said, it is. That means the doors on the sides were going to different parts of the hold. Where's the reactor room?" Robins asked.
"Should be through a door past the hold," Adams replied.
"You said there's about ten metres of hold through that door, it spreads out into two big rectangles on either sides of the ten metre stretch, and these rectangles go back on either side of the hallway and stretch all the way to the sides of the ship and the reactor room's twenty metres away from us right now."
"Yeah."
"That's one fucking huge cargo hold."
"No kidding."
Robins looked up at the light again. "All right. We're gonna move up and check it out. Adams, you go first and investigate to see what's ahead. Black, you and I'll go next after she says it's clear, or if she's fired upon or attacked. Got it?"
"Sir," Black replied.
"Got it," Adams told him.
"Right. Adams, go."
She stood up, hunched over, and moved up towards the door, crouching down on the right side and moving her carbine around, checking left and right, and the ceiling, three decks up. "Clear," she informed the others.
"Right. Move up," Robins told them, moving up to meet her, Black following him. They6 looked out into the cargo hold, spreading out on either side, and ten metres across it, was the door to the reactor room. Robins looked at it longingly.
"All right. Adams, I hate to send you out ahead again, but ..."
"It's my job, corporal. I don't care."
"Good," Robins replied. "Move to the door and cover from there. Black, you're gonna have to hack open the door. Access panel on the side, see? We'll cover you while you do. Don't worry."
"Got it," Black replied.
"Adams, go."
Adams stood up quickly, running across the passage, then turning around and crouching on the other side of the door, looking around. "Clear."
"Right. Go, Black," Robins told him, giving him a small shove to show him it was time.
Black ran across the passage, slinging his rifle down at his side and opening the access panel, his fingers, thick in his gloves, dashing across the panel. Robins crossed the passage more slowly, looking around with his rifle. Every light in the hold was on.
"Got it, corporal," Black told him. "You want me to open it?"
"Not yet." Robins stationed himself beside the door, his rifle at the ready. Adams took the other side. "Now."
The door slid open with a hiss, and the two jumped out, aiming their guns into the room.
-
Alexander was sitting at the edge of the door to the dropship, the visor on his helmet open. His rifle was sitting beside him, and he was letting his body rest. Command was tiring. Rat and Slammer had stopped to have cigarettes, the rest were covering. "Rat, Slammer," Alexander called out as they removed the cigarette packages from their armour. They ran over to him.
"Yeah, sir?"
"What if there's Zerg on this ship, and you bring every god damned one of them down on our heads with the smoke from those things? No smoking on missions. You should know that by now."
Rat grumbled, Slammer shrugged, but they both put the cigarettes away.
Suddenly Alexander's headset crackled into life. "Sir, we're in the reactor room." It was Robins' voice. Alexander sat up, reaching out to grab his rifle.
"Get Black working. Report?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary. Lights on in the cargo holds, smoke in the food passage, and there's a dead guy in the reactor room."
"What?" Alexander sat straight up.
"He's laying beside the reactor shut-down switch. I'd guess he turned it off before he got killed."
"Cause of death?"
"Looks like he got slashes by a large number of sharp objects. He's got cuts everywhere on his back, and he collapsed on his front. I'd say he got killed from behind, and fell forward, of course."
"Good. How's Black doing?" Alexander asked.
"He's done," Robins replied.
"Damn, that boy's good," Alexander grumbled. "Good work, corporal. Wait three minutes, then report back to the hangar. You'll join Slammer and Day there, guarding the transport, while we make our way to the bridge."
"Roger, sir."
Robins signed off. Alexander turned to the rest of the squad. "Listen up!" They turned to face him. "We've got lifts and comms up. Teams, separate, and go by your routes. Hendricks, you know where you're going?' His answer was a nod. "Good. Move out."
Sawyer and Williams followed Alexander as he moved out of the hangar through one of the main corridors, getting in a lift that would take them most of the way to the bridge. The lights were dim, but the lift worked. The three leaned against the walls in silence, waiting, as the lift moved upwards, finally stopping several decks below the bridge. "Out," Alexander hissed, and the three moved out, Sawyer and Williams covering. Alexander walked down the passage, followed by the other two, turning corners, and finally Alexander pointed up ahead. "The lift should be right there. Stay here and cover."
The other two crouched down, hiding behind small outlets in the wall, about five metres apart, and Alexander walked up, his rifle shouldered. Suddenly, h9owever, about ten metres ahead, he stopped. A dim light was shining down here, with no visible source. Alexander lowered his rifle, holding it in one hand, looking into the pitch darkness ahead of him. His piercing glare cut through the darkness, but not well enough.
With no prior warning, a Zergling about five feet long leapt out of the darkness straight at his chest, uttering a scream as it jumped.
AN: I know I shouldn't leave you on cliffhangers, but whatever.
I'm not like that, I hope. Whatever. If you want to review, do so.
2nd AN: Yes, I know Raynor didn't have any medics, but he's more like a marine who's had some basic medical training. Don't bug me about "OMG wtf Raynur hadd no medix u r a stupid ..." etc. Just don't. You waste everyone's time.
Chapter Two – Exploration
The dropship set down against the floor of the hangar with the slightest of bumps. The doors opened quietly, a small hiss escaping from the edges of the doors, and the squad stepped out, several crouched around the edges of the door aiming their guns around, the flashlights attached to the bottoms of their rifles sending beams of white lights around the pitch-dark hangar.
Alexander looked around, shining his light around the hangar, then thumbing his headset to a different frequency. "Jules," he said, talking to the pilot of the dropship.
"Yeah?"
"A little light around here?"
Jules flicked a switch, and lights around the top of the dropship switched on, illuminating half of the hangar in a dull light. Alexander looked around. The hangar was empty. Completely empty. No dropships, Wraiths, or anything. Even the smaller craft that usually accompanied the battlecruisers were missing. There were no crates or cargo or anything around. The hangar was completely barren.
"All right, that's just weird," Hendricks commented. "There's supposed to be stuff around."
"Doesn't matter," Alexander sighed. "Right now, we've got bigger priorities. We have to get somebody to the reactor and power up the lifts so we can get to the bridge. Whoever goes will power up the lifts and the communications. And nothing else, got it? Who'll go?"
Black was the first to raise his hand. "Sir, I'm familiar with the battlecruiser reactors. If I go, I can get the lifts and comm powered up. And turning on the comms and talking to the Hyperion isn't that hard. Somebody else can do that."
Alexander nodded. "Right. Two more. Who's going?"
Master Corporal Bruce Robins raised his hand. "I'll go. I'm quiet."
Alexander thought for a moment. Robins was good. He was an excellent combat commander, and a good friend. He didn't say much, but he would take care of whoever was assigned to him. Alexander nodded. "All right, you're in. Who else?"
"I'm in," Adams said, nodding her head. Don't see why not. I know the layout of this place."
Antekk gave her a strange look. "Why?"
"I read, Rat," Adams replied scathingly. "You'd learn a surprising amount if you ever picked up a book."
Rat looked down at the floor, grumbling.
Alexander nodded. "Adams, Robins, Black. Robins, you take command of the group, and you guys go. But hurry up. You need to be fast, because the longer we spend on this ship, the longer we're not helping fight on the surface. Let's rock and roll."
Robins nodded. "Team, let's go." He picked up his rifle, walking away, his silenced marine armour making almost no noise as he walked along the metal deck of the hangar. The other two followed him, their rifles and carbines sweeping along sideways, shining lights attached to the bottoms of their rifles along the deck, except in the case of Adams. Her light was on the side, and a grenade launcher was stuck underneath.
Alexander watched them until they faded into the darkness, still seeing the spots of light from their lights occasionally, then turned back to the eight remaining people. "All right, guys," he said. "Establish a perimeter here. Make sure the hangar is really empty, then get ready. Slammer, Day," The machine gunner and sniper raised their heads, "you guys are gonna stay here and guard the ship. The rest of us are gonna split into two teams of three and get to the bridge."
He looked around. "I'll lead one team. Hendricks, you'll get the other. I'll take Sawyer and Williams." Jake Williams, the team medic, looked up.
"Sir."
Alexander continued. "O'Connell, Rat, you're with Hendricks. Don't get killed. If you encounter anything out of the ordinary, or any signs of life, contact me immediately. And if you get to the bridge before me, contact me and wait up."
Hendricks nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Now, spread out, team," Alexander ordered. "Check out the hangar. If you find anything, bring it back."
He gestured to Hendricks to stay. "Tom."
Hendricks nodded. "Yeah?"
"Look, Tom, I need you to hold onto these guys. Rat doesn't like this mission. He won't be happy. Just keep them alive. And if you can ... try to calm him down some. This mission is important, despite what Rat and Slammer think."
Hendricks nodded. "All right, Chris. I'll do my best."
-
Robins paused. A long, dark corridor loomed ahead of them. They had descended several flights of stairs, and gone through a room filled with pipes. According to Adams, this corridor was a food travelling passage from the cargo holds to the lifts which would take it to the kitchens. The cargo holds were in the back of the ship, and the reactor room was just past it. Robins turned to Adams, and whispered, "Sara."
Adams turned back towards him. "Yes, corporal?" she responded quietly.
"I'm gonna need to douse the lights. They won't work to see down this passage, but they would give away the fact we're here. I need you to take your NVGs and scout down the corridor. If you find anything, get behind cover and radio back."
She nodded and smiled. "Roger that, sir."
Robins held his hand out flat parallel to the floor, out from the right side of his body, and moved it in a motion downwards and back up a slight amount twice, as if pushing something down, the signal for 'Douse lights and shut the fuck up.' Adams reached into a pouch on her belt, pulling out a long narrow metal tube about afoot long, screwing it on the front of her carbine, suppressing it. She pulled out her sidearm and did the same, before reaching up and sliding a set of night-vision goggles onto her head. After receiving the signal from Robins, she stepped out silently into the corridor and began moving down it, crouched over.
She moved down about eighty metres before stopping and taking cover in a doorway, her carbine pointed down the hallway, and whispering into her headset, "Corporal."
She got an immediate, "Yes?"
"I can see some light. Smoke is filling the hallway, that's why we couldn't see the light before. Nothing in the hallway but a couple of doors and they're all locked. Recommend you join me. Over."
"Copy that. We're moving up to your position. How far away are you?"
"About eighty metres down the passage, ten or so from the light. This passage runs a good quarter of the ship. Over."
"Copy that. On our way. Lights dead. Over and out."
Adams, crouched there with her gun pointed at the light, stayed for about two minutes, maybe three, before the other two joined her. Robins looked at the light. "Looks like an open door. How far from the back of the ship are we?"
Adams shrugged. "Forty, fifty metres?"
Robins looked around. "No signs of life. We're close to the reactor, though. We have to keep moving. How are the cargo holds shaped?"
"It's one big hold for food and fuel, that's what we're walking into. It's a big room that takes up about a hundred metres long, the entire width of the ship, for three decks. This corridor cuts down the middle, goes about ninety metres in. We're most of the way through the hold already, I'd guess."
Robins looked up, realization dawning. "So you're saying the lights in the hold are on?"
"It looks like it, as long as that's the door to the hold up there," Adams replied.
"From what you've said, it is. That means the doors on the sides were going to different parts of the hold. Where's the reactor room?" Robins asked.
"Should be through a door past the hold," Adams replied.
"You said there's about ten metres of hold through that door, it spreads out into two big rectangles on either sides of the ten metre stretch, and these rectangles go back on either side of the hallway and stretch all the way to the sides of the ship and the reactor room's twenty metres away from us right now."
"Yeah."
"That's one fucking huge cargo hold."
"No kidding."
Robins looked up at the light again. "All right. We're gonna move up and check it out. Adams, you go first and investigate to see what's ahead. Black, you and I'll go next after she says it's clear, or if she's fired upon or attacked. Got it?"
"Sir," Black replied.
"Got it," Adams told him.
"Right. Adams, go."
She stood up, hunched over, and moved up towards the door, crouching down on the right side and moving her carbine around, checking left and right, and the ceiling, three decks up. "Clear," she informed the others.
"Right. Move up," Robins told them, moving up to meet her, Black following him. They6 looked out into the cargo hold, spreading out on either side, and ten metres across it, was the door to the reactor room. Robins looked at it longingly.
"All right. Adams, I hate to send you out ahead again, but ..."
"It's my job, corporal. I don't care."
"Good," Robins replied. "Move to the door and cover from there. Black, you're gonna have to hack open the door. Access panel on the side, see? We'll cover you while you do. Don't worry."
"Got it," Black replied.
"Adams, go."
Adams stood up quickly, running across the passage, then turning around and crouching on the other side of the door, looking around. "Clear."
"Right. Go, Black," Robins told him, giving him a small shove to show him it was time.
Black ran across the passage, slinging his rifle down at his side and opening the access panel, his fingers, thick in his gloves, dashing across the panel. Robins crossed the passage more slowly, looking around with his rifle. Every light in the hold was on.
"Got it, corporal," Black told him. "You want me to open it?"
"Not yet." Robins stationed himself beside the door, his rifle at the ready. Adams took the other side. "Now."
The door slid open with a hiss, and the two jumped out, aiming their guns into the room.
-
Alexander was sitting at the edge of the door to the dropship, the visor on his helmet open. His rifle was sitting beside him, and he was letting his body rest. Command was tiring. Rat and Slammer had stopped to have cigarettes, the rest were covering. "Rat, Slammer," Alexander called out as they removed the cigarette packages from their armour. They ran over to him.
"Yeah, sir?"
"What if there's Zerg on this ship, and you bring every god damned one of them down on our heads with the smoke from those things? No smoking on missions. You should know that by now."
Rat grumbled, Slammer shrugged, but they both put the cigarettes away.
Suddenly Alexander's headset crackled into life. "Sir, we're in the reactor room." It was Robins' voice. Alexander sat up, reaching out to grab his rifle.
"Get Black working. Report?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary. Lights on in the cargo holds, smoke in the food passage, and there's a dead guy in the reactor room."
"What?" Alexander sat straight up.
"He's laying beside the reactor shut-down switch. I'd guess he turned it off before he got killed."
"Cause of death?"
"Looks like he got slashes by a large number of sharp objects. He's got cuts everywhere on his back, and he collapsed on his front. I'd say he got killed from behind, and fell forward, of course."
"Good. How's Black doing?" Alexander asked.
"He's done," Robins replied.
"Damn, that boy's good," Alexander grumbled. "Good work, corporal. Wait three minutes, then report back to the hangar. You'll join Slammer and Day there, guarding the transport, while we make our way to the bridge."
"Roger, sir."
Robins signed off. Alexander turned to the rest of the squad. "Listen up!" They turned to face him. "We've got lifts and comms up. Teams, separate, and go by your routes. Hendricks, you know where you're going?' His answer was a nod. "Good. Move out."
Sawyer and Williams followed Alexander as he moved out of the hangar through one of the main corridors, getting in a lift that would take them most of the way to the bridge. The lights were dim, but the lift worked. The three leaned against the walls in silence, waiting, as the lift moved upwards, finally stopping several decks below the bridge. "Out," Alexander hissed, and the three moved out, Sawyer and Williams covering. Alexander walked down the passage, followed by the other two, turning corners, and finally Alexander pointed up ahead. "The lift should be right there. Stay here and cover."
The other two crouched down, hiding behind small outlets in the wall, about five metres apart, and Alexander walked up, his rifle shouldered. Suddenly, h9owever, about ten metres ahead, he stopped. A dim light was shining down here, with no visible source. Alexander lowered his rifle, holding it in one hand, looking into the pitch darkness ahead of him. His piercing glare cut through the darkness, but not well enough.
With no prior warning, a Zergling about five feet long leapt out of the darkness straight at his chest, uttering a scream as it jumped.
AN: I know I shouldn't leave you on cliffhangers, but whatever.