Chapter 7

A flash appeared in the televator on deck one then Captain Steinbeck, Bruce, and Selina stepped out and continued onto the bridge where they were greeted by Admiral Roberts and another officer who was dressed in some sort of HAZMAT suit.

"I hope we're not late for the briefing sir."

"No worries Captain, you three are right on time. Kids, allow to introduce you to Major William Gordon. He's the leader of my onboard marine contingent."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Major," Bruce said as he shook his hand.

"Same here Mister Wayne, Selina."

"Usually I prefer Cat, but I'll make an exception this time around."

"Admiral, what's our current status?" Bruce asked.

Roberts gave a nod to Womack who pressed a button on her console which brought up the digital HUD on the viewscreen along with the image of a planet and few other photos.

"We are currently thirty minutes out from MW-877. Upon dropping out of hyperspace we will establish orbit and beam down a ten man team led by Major Gordon who will proceed to this building where we believe the Ethel Marie's crew got the virus from."

"I can barely see it, the exterior looks completely covered by undergrowth," Bruce said.

"Looks like whoever was in charge of grounds keeping forgot their day job," Selina commented.

"Or maybe their grounds keeper isn't around anymore, Cat," Gordon replied then asked Roberts how far from the objective would they be beamed down from.

"You'll be beamed down a half a mile from it and our guests here will be tagging along as observers."

"Thank you for letting us have the opportunity to check out an alien planet, Admiral," Bruce said.

"We'll have to secure the LZ first before you two can join us. If you're cleared to come down, you stay with us from start to finish and do what I say when I say it, understood?"

"Yes sir," Bruce said.

"Got it," Selina replied.

"Now since we're investigating a potential viral storage site, CBRN suits will be required. We got two of them ready for you in the armory on deck four along with some facemask, vests, and helmets. You can suit up after the briefing."

"Where do I chip in sir?" Steinbeck asked.

"You'll be leading an eight-ship flight of Space Hornets to watch over the ground team and provide CAS in necessary. Now if the search of the building turns up empty, we'll leave it be and head home. If it turns out to be some sort of alien house of horrors, we'll shove a nuke into it and never have to worry about anyone stumbling across it again."

"Isn't that a bit much for one building, Sir?" Bruce asked "Why not just fry it with normal incendiaries. That's the best method for dealing with chemical and biological weapon stockpiles."

"I asked the Pentagon the same question when an Arrowhead-N was beamed up into my weapons bay and they told me that given the nature of this threat, they and the president wanted a little extra assurance that it would be contained."

"Well your superiors will get their assurance alright if we find what they think we'll find, Admiral," Selina said then asked where they got the photos of the building from.

"The Hades found them in the Ethel Marie's flight logs when it extracted them then relayed them to SFC who in turn gave them to us."

"Well I'm about to get some of my pilots ready for the mission. I'll see you guys later," Steinbeck said then left the bridge as the HUD closed down.

Gordon was also about to leave, but Selina wanted to have a word with him.

"What is it, Cat?"

"I know you and your men will be going down to the planet heavily armed, but I just want to let you know that I can handle a gun too."

"And what's the biggest weapon you've ever handled?"

"A shotgun, Major. Let me have a go on your range and I'll show you."

"Gordon thought about for moment then decided to give Selina a chance to prove herself.

"The shooting range is on deck ten, meet me there after you and Bruce gear up."

A few minutes later, Bruce and Selina arrived at the shooting range where Major Gordon was waiting with a target and weapon already set.

"Alright Cat, step on up and let's see what you got," Gordon said.

Selina walks up station three where she takes a second to look weapon over before picking it up.

"Hmm, what kind of gun is this?"

"This is called an AA-22 combat shotgun. It has the look and feel of an assault rifle, but it fires shotgun ammunition from its forty round drum magazine and has an impressive rate of fire three-hundred rounds per-minute.

"Awesome," Selina said then flipped the safety off and took aim at the target which looked like a hostile alien.

"Fire when ready. Short steady burst."

Selina fired off a five round burst and watched as the target was literality blown to bits.

"Very impressive. Now let's how good you are at hitting a moving target," Gordon said the pressed the clicker in his and another pop target appeared.

Selina tightened her focus on the sights and right when it was about to slide into view, she fired off five more rounds and caught it dead center.

"Damn, Selina. How did you do that?"

"It was just a matter of timing, Major."

"Indeed. Now the finial target will be protected by a personal shield. press the blue button on the right side to activate the special ability of the bullets."

She presses the button and announced that she was ready.

Gordon brought up the target and cleared her to fire.

Another five round burst erupted from her gun and she saw that despite being covered by a shield, it didn't make much of a difference.

"Whoa, how was I able to defeat a target with a personal shield?"

"By pressing the blue button, you set the bullets to shield capper mode. It makes us extremely effective against shielded infantry."

"How does it work exactly?"

"I'm sorry Bruce, but the science behind this wonder method is classified which is fine by me. I'm just glad to have something that works against the shields. As are the other grunts," Gordon replied as Selina put the weapon back on safety

Afterwards, Gordon showed her two more important things about the gun. How to reload it and how to clear it in the event of a jam which hopefully wouldn't happen.

"Well Bruce, it appears that the marines won't be the only ones covering your ass."

Bruce couldn't help but smile. The idea of being covered by marines plus Selina was very awesome to him.

"If only Alfred could be here. I hope he isn't too worried about my absence," Bruce thought to himself.