Salvation Identified? Trouble at Iraxon Lane
06 Jun 2022Cayce Luther
"I don't need the Scorpion. I can hoof it."-------------------------------------------------
"Shyanne drop that Scorpion NOW!"
"And just WHERE do you want me to do that?!"
Gunfire erupted at the abandoned INRA base 'Iraxon Lane,' Cayce had taken cover inside the multistory office building near the edge of the grounds. From around a hall corner he pulled the pin on one of his grenades and hucked it down the hall. The grenade banged and Cayce rolled, levelling his AR50 and opening fire. His shield pinged with gunfire but the three assailants who had their shields knocked out dropped almost instantly and Cayce rolled back behind cover.
"What do you mean where?! Just drop it already!"
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The day had started out with Shyanne waking him aboard the Folly as they entered the star system. It only took a few hours to reach the system, but enough to give Cayce much needed rest. He took over and immediately scanned for anything. Upon scan they immediately found the signal of a DBX belonging to Phoenix hanging in orbit around planet A 4 A so Cayce set course, the Anaconda responding quickly to her pilot's controls.
The second they were in range, Cayce put the Anaconda in Analysis mode and quickly scanned out the planet. Once they found the base Cayce put the Folly on entry. It did not take long for them to find the old INRA base, and immediately Cayce set the ship down, switched into his Dominator suit and started to make for the airlock.
"Stay with the ship. If we need air support you're it."
"Are you sure you want to do this on foot?"
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"Brilliant leaving the SRV behind, dumbass..." Cayce mutters to himself as he opens fire with his laser smg, popping shields before swapping to his pistol and headshotting another assailant. "This would have been way easier..." He grumbled, ducking back around cover to swap all his magazines. He reached for a grenade and found none left. "Fucking...YOU GUYS HAD ENOUGH YET?!"
The chorus of gunfire hitting around his position told him different. He growled and injected an energy cell. His last one, he picks up a pair from the desk he found to resupply and turns his shields back on. "Fucking thought not..." He clicks on his shields and swirls, spraying with his smg to knock a few more shields out. "HOW MUCH IS SALVATION PAYING YOU?!-"
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"-BECAUSE IT'S NOT ENOUGH!"
Cayce walked around the base, using a small map scanned by the Anaconda as they came in, as he walked. The site was similar to other sites he had come across in the past in layout and technology, so he knew what to look for, and it did not take him long to retrieve the logs from the access points, the longest part was walking across the base to reach each point. At the last one, nearest the office building, he just leaned against the base of the tower and queued up the logs, listening to them one after the other. As he listened on, his eyes went wide as the realization set in...Not only do the logs pinpoint the identity of 'The Witch'...the person behind the assault on the Alexandria, it also hints that they may also be Salvation himself, and also from the same era as Commander Jameson; the crates of progenitor cells noted in one of them pointing to this.
Cayce's fist clenched slowly as he sits there and listens on, his worst fears confirmed. He muttered, anger dripping from his words "Wycherly, huh...good to know" Cayce opens his comms and beams the logs aboard the Folly, "Shyanne shoot those off to the squadron. Make sure they get to Cemiess and Achenar."
"Copy sir, any sign of Phoenix?"
"None; SRV tracks, footprints; the lo-" Something in the back of Cayce's mind clicked as he realized something. He was in enemy territory, and immediately drew his sidearm as the feeling of being watched took over, and he began scanning the area holding his weapon at the ready. As his eyes looked for anything, he clicked on his shields just in time for a *bang* to be heard and a round impacts the shields. The force knocks him backward over the railing he was leaning on and flipped him onto his stomach. He groans for a second and rushed to his feet again as he clicked rounds off in the direction the shot came from before ducking behind the post. "Shyanne get that ship in the air NOW!"
"What about you Commander?!" Shyanne's hands outstripped her questioning as the Folly began to fire up and lift off, it too taking gunfire from the ground
Gunshots whizzed past Cayce as he looked around to see more gunmen converging on his position. "Forget it! I'll keep them busy! Find their ship and engage it!"
The Folly lifts off the ground, boosting around in a circle as it began to cover the area. Cayce running for the office building spraying behind him as he looked for cover.
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Cayce growled and dumped an AR50 magazine down the hallway. "ANY TIME SHYANNE!"
"Okay okay! Incoming! Get clear!"
"Get clear what the fuck do you me-" Cayce's eyes went wide as he looked left, out the office window and he immediately booked it to the other side of the office, barely clearing as the wall caved in, sending a shower of dust and debris across the office he had hunkered down in. He groaned and got up, looking at the dust cloud before quickly making his way into it. "Of course that's what you meant..."
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The dust cloud blew down the hallway, where another three mercenaries sat, holding their weapons and waiting for any sign of movement. After a moment, they stood and started walking towards the end of the hallway, slowly.
They only made it halfway down the hall before a spotlight pierced the dust cloud. The sounds of swiveling machinery fill the area until the dust clears enough, revealing a midnight black Scorpion, the number '382' painted beneath a triple Elite emblem. "Should have asked for that raise." Cayce ripped back on the trigger of the SRV, an Arceus rocket catching right in the middle of the group, sending the remaining assailants inside the building flying back, crashing against the wall at the end, knocking all of them out, if they weren't killed by the point blank rocket blast. The wheels on the Scorpion found traction and it quickly reversed out of the hole it had created, leaping a little bit as it exited the abandoned structure. Cayce balanced all the power distributor and raced into the complex again.
The second he came back onto the grounds, repeater fire lit up the shields as Cayce caught eyes on another SRV, a scarab, around the corner. Cayce levelled the turret and took off in pursuit. Soon as the rocket launcher pinged with a lock he fired. The rocket impacted the shields, knocking them down, and Cayce used the repeater to take it the rest of the way, ripping apart two of the starboard side wheels, and sending it spinning off, a final rocket taking it out and leaving a burning wreck as the remains of its oxygen vented. Cayce whipped by only to come face to face with a pair of scorpions, their turrets locked on Cayce as he came to a halt. "...Well, shit..."
To be continued...
