A/N: I'd advise anyone that wants actual number to just check out the Space Battles thread Space Marine vs Alcatraz, it has accurate numbers and excellent sources, and it won't waste both our time. If you want to know about anything not mentionned on that thread, feel free to ask, however.
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"Sir!" Whiskers is the third of twenty men I bring along, he's now jogging up to me with his hand full of pipes or straws… Arrows.
I don't have a quiver or anything, but there's an autoloader on the bow, so I sling the Gauss Rifle and draw the folded up weapon on my lower back, fitting six arrows in the loader and hanging on to the remaining four.
All monomolecular carbide tipped arrows. Fired from a bow that requires Power Mode active to fully draw, these things could punch through two centimeters of titanium easily. Then again, if I end up facing something with two centimeters-thick titanium plating, I'll most likely use the Gauss on it, or have some of the boys use alien guns or something.
Speaking of which, I got six men, including Ven, carrying MOAC; cold based weapons that either flash-freeze their targets or hurl icicles at them and have only a short effective range. I could put three of them up front and two in the back. Ven staying next to me, as she's my XO, after all.
Then, I have four boys with X-43 MIKEs, microwave guns; I put them right behind our front line so they can cook whatever doesn't freeze…
No, that won't work; I can't fit more than three men side by side, corridors are too tight, and I'd rather we don't all get killed in a single burst, so I'll send three of my Marksmen with bows or Gauss rifles with the first line –composed of three MOACs, two X-43 and three Gausses- and let them move draw attention while the rest of us follow at a safe distance and flank anything that cause trouble.
Only issue here is how long we'll take to maneuver into other corridors to reach flanking positions; see, the station is bee hive shaped, with hallways, rooms and cells clustered tightly together and separated by thin but vacuum-worthy walls.
I have twenty soldiers at my disposal for this, not a single more as every soldier I pull from patrol and blockade duty is one soldier that won't keep these aliens from flanking us, so I'll send the eight boys in the obvious and easy way to our target –the nav point- while two teams of six, led by Vendetta and I, will sneak in the adjacent rooms and hallways. First sign of trouble, they'll tear a hole in the ceiling, walls, floor or whatever's convenient, and provide support to the main force.
Most of my men are ex-special forces, they wouldn't have been sent to PHS program if they were average grunts, so I reveal my plan and listen to every input they have for me.
First output comes from an ex-Navy SEAL, Snowman, leaning on a bulkhead and performing a quick check up on his Gauss rifle. Snowman thinks I should pull the bowmen from the main force and replace them with Gauss guys, as the secondary teams will need to be silent and a bow is much less noticeable.
Second idea comes from a Chinese Lieutenant two levels lower –or higher, doesn't really matter in space- who suggests we coordinate that push with theirs. They don't know for sure if there are actually any aliens between them and the elevator shaft –neither do we- but they made it their motto to always expect shit to go south, so they'd rather we make this a coordinated effort. I don't mind, this will keep some of the pressure off my boys should the aliens try to keep us from moving forward.
Next input comes from Fulcrum, my best pilot and worst shot. He's packing a K-Volt SMG, his idea is that those would be much more effective in a firefight against machines than the MOACs and the freeze guns should be kept for the secondary team, as they fill a more supportive purpose and need to be at hugging range to be effective, making them better used when flanking.
A good point. I do just that, but still leave one trooper with a high-tech freezer, in case the K-Volts don't do shit and the X-43 take too long to cook their targets.
And that's about it. The Chinese are ready when we are, the guys are checking each other's gear one last time and I'm running a full diagnostic of all their suits.
Nanosuits have so much integrated systems and hardware they usually need a full support crew to provide real-time logistical support, but we don't have that crew now, so I'm taking the whole shit upon myself and linking their data feeds to my SECOND.
Instead of having a full-time squad status displayed on my HUD, I make it so their life signs, suit status and relevant data feed access all appear over their heads. If I select one of them, a live camera feed from their helmets pops in the lower corner of my HUD and relevant medical and technical stuff is voiced by second.
I try it with Vendetta;
Operative VENDETTA is showing signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, light malnutrition, sleep deprivation and advanced dehydration. Severe occular damages detected. Condition yellow. Combat capable. Evacuation for rest and recovery advised.
Her helmet feed shows a gray wall and nothing else. She doesn't see like I do, so she doesn't need to look around. At time, this makes her look more machine than human, as she just stands there, taking in everything but never reacting to it.
She's earned some R&R, we all did, I'll make sure everyone gets some once we're out of trouble.
"Let's do this!" I then bark, "Main force is led by Sergeant Snowman," I nod to the old SEAL and he raises his thumb in agreement, "codenamed Blue team," Usually, in the Rangers, the SEALS, the S.A.S. or the Marines, teams are already assembled, but PHSs are meant to operate on their own or in small, task oriented teams, so we don't have pre-established units, "Vendetta's group will be Red team and mine is Yellow."
SECOND highlights four paths that will keep us as close to Blue team as possible, but there's a catch. There's always a catch; the first one involves crawling in a maintenance conduit that runs parallel to the corridor all the way to the elevator shaft, but provides very little maneuverability and cover.
Yeah, crawling on all four isn't the best tactical position.
Next path is to the left of the main group and has only two rooms along its length, meaning very tight spaces and no room to maneuver.
Third one, also to the left, gets us through a few rooms controlled by the Chinese or Koreans, but has about four hundred meters, spread along its length at various spots, where we won't be in contact with the main corridor.
Last one, on the right, stays in contact all along, but the Koreans lost three men when scouting it.
I'm many things, but I'm not a hero and I'm not brave; I choose the third option while Vendetta picks the conduit. Crazy bitch.
See, many people think I train hard and focus solely on the mission because I love to fight. I don't. I hate fighting, I hated my time as a soldier and if I could go back, I'd never enlist, but soldiering is all I'm good at now, especially with the suit, so I'm stuck as a warfighter and an officer, and if I botch my job or try to get away from it, people I care about die. Me included. Not many people I care about more than myself, truth be told.
Enough bullshit. Let's move.
Twenty meters down the hall and to the left is our way into the first room of the set. We make our way there quickly and Whiskers opens the way in, his freezer gun held ready.
I follow, along with another archer, arrow ready to sting whatever doesn't look friendly.
Four Korean PHSs are not exactly friendly looking, but they're easy to recognize, so I hold fire and look around the room.
Eight square meters of nothing but gray metal with a heavy duty bulkhead to the right.
They use this section as a staging area and the four Nanosuit soldiers before me act as technical support for their brethren, same way I do for my team.
Two are just sitting on the floor, completely caught up in their duties, one is keeping an eye on the hatch we just crossed and another is inspecting a stockpile of K-Volts and reloading batteries with suit energy.
The guy guarding the hatch lower his gun and nods, sending me a simplified data feed that highlights the positions of his team mates on my HUD.
Eight checkpoints, all set up in rooms such as this one. Two checkpoints are reporting contact and one, halfway between those two, has gone silent.
Can mean about anything, Koreans are far behind Crynet in their understanding of Ceph technology and their suits utterly suck, it's possible they just suffered coms malfunction.
Whiskers open the bulkhead and the thing lowers into the floor slowly, revealing the dark hallway beyond. Koreans cut the cables powering the neons and jacked them in their suit's power supply to increase the efficiency of their armor mode. I couldn't do that; my suit's electronics would fry.
Nanovision Enabled.
Everything becomes shades of gray and colorful spots. Mostly just shades of gray though.
Thirty meters to the next bulkhead and first checkpoint, all clear, let's speed this up.
Maximum Power.
The walls blur and the bulkhead jumps to meet me and I stop ten steps away to aim my bow at the sealed entrance while Whiskers, MOAC in hands, punches the green button to the right.
Golem, a very tall and muscular operator, takes the left, bow in hand, while the rest go prone on my flanks.
That checkpoint is one of the two that reported contact, so we're all expecting trouble.
I kind of hope I get to see what we're up against, because not knowing is driving me nuts.
The bulkhead hisses down and the telltale sound of a K-Volt burst reaches us. A single gun. Either this fight is going well, or it's going very bad.