Spectres Act 9 - Marines, We Are Leaving!
17 Jun 2020NeLs0n RaD
If you want to catch up, look here!12.06.3306 / Aboard: Krait MkII 'Antares' SSF-R7 / Ops Region: Harma / Ops System: Harma / Contract: OPSEC Classified / Status: OPSEC Classified
After we had tracked down where our target was, we decided it would be best for me to head into the station dive she was holed up in to get an exact location inside, mostly because the two Marines and Rick looked like Imperial military, and Maggie... well, she just looked like she was wearing a disguise.
I passed by the bouncer with a nod, and stopped just inside the entrance, as if scanning for a good place to sit,
“Recon target”, I murmured. Immediately my tele-glasses began to scan the area for the pre-programmed Jordanna Frost. In just a couple of seconds I got a positive lock. I walked by and took an empty booth off to the side of them and the bar. From my vantage point I could see both Jordanna, the guy with her, and the main door. A dolly little server came by to take an order for a drink and/or “anything else you might have in mind”, with a sweet smile. I ordered a dark beer and took a sip, kicking back to look as if I didn't have a care in the universe.
“Send target”, I murmured again. Now my recon information was being transmitted back to Maggie and her team...
The plan was simple. Locate Jordanna Frost, then, by whatever means necessary, convince her to one – give up Hong's EBU; and two – spill her guts on whatever other intel she could provide. If the latter happened to get literal... well, I reckoned that's where the 'extreme prejudice' part of my mission would come in. Still, it surely would be a waste, this woman had proven her worth against the Thargoids, and certainly the galaxy would be short one more pleasure to behold were she to leave it.
I saw Maggie and the team come into the bar, looking like somebody looking for someone, but at least they managed not to zero on Jordanna right out of the gate. They took a table off to other side of the bar... good, now we had them between us... Jock managed to get himself slapped, but I could tell by the server's giggles and Jock's smile it was all in good fun. And then... Maggie gets up and starts to stroll right on over toward Jordanna!
And that's when our simple plan went all to hell...
I heard a burst of automatic weapons fire from the door, the bouncer staggering back and falling as he was run over by some mau-mau with what looked to be an explosive suicide vest making a bee-line for Jordanna's table. Time slowed as combat reflexes started kicking in, I saw would-be heroes pulling weapons of all sorts and taking shots in vain attempts to stop what was coming next... me?.. I'm no hero, I'm a survivor, I took a dive under the table, stuffing my fingers into my ears... then... KA BOOOMMM!!! The smell of cordite and burnt flesh filled the room along with the smoke from the blast as pieces of everything rained down on the table top above me.
"Do you copy Mar'm?" came Jock's voice through my earpiece.
"Jock I copy, get the team, get Nelson and get back to the ship. I'll get the mark and meet you there. Try to clear a path for me, there's a cordon outside and they are gunning down any who flee", I heard Maggie reply.
"Roger Mar'm. Will do. Ye be careful though ..... I still wan' that fufty quid", Jock came back.
“Combat”, I cued my tele-glasses, as I pulled my .44 AMT Auto Mag from the shoulder rig inside my flight jacket. A targeting reticle appeared in the vision of my right eye and an area 'radar' in my left. In the 'radar' were four green solid triangles, Maggie and the team, and one yellow, our bunny. As automatic weapons fire rang out small red triangles appeared as the tele-glasses estimated the location from which the shots had come from. Once the glasses had locked a target they then used various electronic and biological signals to keep track of its movements.
“Zoom thirty”, I said, the glasses zoomed to a circle area 30 meters around me. I counted 8 hostile targets in the immediate corridors outside the bar.
“Cap, ya oop?” Jock's voice came quietly through my earpiece now.
“Affirmative, what's our status?” I replied.
“Sandi's ou', but looks li' she's star'in' ta come aroond... Rick's good.”
“Rick?.. need ya to find us a way outta here, buddy”, I spoke with quiet urgency.
“Copy, Cap... working on it now”, Rick replied, his calm demeanor over the comms was reassuring.
Sandi's voice came up on the net now, “I'm up Cap, where do you need us?”
I backed out from under the table into the bar now and crouched behind the bench couch there surveying the layout. The 'front' of the club had opened into multiple exits to either side of the entryway hall into the main corridor. At each end of the corridor was an intersection, it had been at these intersections that the 8 mercs had split into two fire-teams and had been indiscriminately gunning down all that tried to pass there. I saw the fire-teams beginning to move toward us.
“You guys gittin' this?” I asked, “Cover the emergency exits, wait for my signal.”
“We see them, Cap... in position now”, Rick came back.
I moved to the front and took a position behind the bulkhead next to the last emergency exit on my side of the club. The four man team on my end shuffled past and took up positions at the small sections of bulkheads between the exits, as did the other fire-team on the other end. Apparently their plan was to pepper the entire interior of the club in a clearing action. On signal they came around the bulkheads.
As the barrel of the merc's weapon came into my view, I stepped from around the bulkhead, gripping the weapon with my left hand and pointing it up, I shoved the Auto Mag under his chin,
“Hey! Lookin' for me?” I grinned as his eyes grew wide. I pulled the trigger, snatching his weapon as he sagged to his knees, then fell face first at my feet. I turned my aim to my right and fired again, the self-guiding round seeking and finding a center of mass chest hit and exploding as it bored in. The rest of their team were turning now to bring their weapons to bear on me when I heard two sets of three round bursts and watched as the rest of the now six man squad fall over dead, brains and blood oozing out all over the place. Well now, that is a precision piece of work...
“Clear!” I called out loud now.
“Clear!” came the replies in unison as the team made their way toward me.
I holstered my weapon and began to search the first merc I had put down, taking some extra clips of ammo and... a bandoleer of 30mm auto-tracking grenades! I took a good look at the weapon I had snatched from the merc, an HK10A with an XM30 pump-action grenade launcher attachment. Mmmhmm... firing 10mm caseless rounds with tele-glasses paired tracking and 30mm fire-and-forget auto-tracking grenades with five round magazine... I almost got a hard-on!
I glanced over to Rick, who was kneeling next to the merc squad-leader. He had quickly hacked and synced the dead woman's combat tele-glasses with his data-pad. Now we had their info and intel as well.
“Gotta say, that was a nice bit of shooting there, if I hadn't known better I would have thought it was one weapon shooting twice.” I complimented them.
“Harder for the enemy to discern our numbers”, Rick said with a look of satisfaction.
“Ooo now, wha' I wanna knoo is where I kin ge' one of thoos han' canons ye'r carryin' in ye po'kit, Cap!” Jock said with a grin.
I patted the Auto Mag in its holster with a smile, “I'll turn ya on to my dealer when we're outta here.”
Sandi piped up, “So now what's our plan?”
I looked to Rick, who tapped his data-pad bringing up a holo-view of our area of the station and the corridor we were in,
“We need to clear a path for Maggie to either make for the Antares or Odysseus as she may need”, Rick briefed, “so I suggest corridor 12, its relatively free of activity and is about equal distance to either ship. Uploading to everyone's glasses now.”
I checked my glasses again, Maggie's target triangle was now right on top of Jordanna's back in the kitchen area according to the layout now superimposed on my 'radar'. Well, this was her play, what I needed to do was make sure we could get off this station when the time came.
“Good enough, let's move out...”
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Commander Irina Damerov shook her head as she made her way carefully into the wreckage of the club, taking a quick survey with night vision enabled on her tele-glasses, she could see right away they had missed their target... unless we got lucky and she was blown to bits... she shook her head again... no, the table where we marked the target is overturned and there are no signs of a body...
Damerov half-turned to the two mercs with her and motioned toward the back of the club, “Check it out.” They nodded and headed off toward the kitchen area.
She made her way out now to survey the scene in the corridor, where eight of her unit lay dead. She looked to her left, two of the team there looked as though they'd been hit with a hand canon, one with most of his head missing, the other with a gaping hole where his chest used to be that she could see the corridor deck through. 'Headless' was missing his weapon. She walked slowly now down the line of them, taking a knee over the squad-leader, checking her head wounds.
“Dammit Lea, how did you let this happen?” she whispered softly to the corpse. She looked back up the line of her fallen... shooter one was close, caught my 'headless' by surprise, then shot the second before he could react...she looked again at how the rest had fallen and their head wounds... then the rest turned toward the one, and two, no... at least three... more opened up on these from inside... with precision... she stood as the two returned from their search inside, one giving her a head shake to indicate they had come up empty.
“All units, be advised, we have an OPFOR in the area, at least four shooters, possible Imperial military”, as she spoke her tele-glasses transmitted. She frowned... this is starting to become a really bad day...
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“We've been made”, Rick said quietly as we made our way out of the airlock and started for the Antares.
“Was bound to happen”, I replied, “How many of 'em are left?”
Rick thought for just a second. We had put down eight to start, then another four on the way...
“Ten, including their commander”, he answered.
I sighed, “Better 'n twenty I reckon.”
"Jock, it's Maggie, have you cleared a path?" we heard over our net.
"Aye Mar'm come by corridor 12, it should be clear", Jock replied.
I zoomed my 'radar' out to 200 meters. I could see Maggie and Jordanna's markers moving down the corridor toward the airlock, and then...
“Sh*t!” I exclaimed. Three mercs had moved up from a side tunnel and were manning the airlock. Jock and Sandi saw too on their combat glasses.
“We gotta go back!” Sandi said and started to move back toward the airlock.
“No, wait!” I called out, “Something's happening.” We watched as the two moved up on the mercs, then all were together for a moment...
"Jock we're at the airlock, we're going to make a run for Jordanna's ship", Maggie called on the comm.
"Aye Mar'm we'll keep you covered”, Jock replied, “who's Jordanna?"
"The mark you twit!"
"Oh, so yer friends noo?"
"Ummmm... It's a work in progress", her comm switched off.
We saw the airlock open up and the two women launching themselves toward the Odysseus. I raised 'Lys on the comms,
“'Lys, got the coffee on?” I asked.
“Coffee? What coffee?” she came back.
“Oh for f*ck's sake, ya got eyes on us, girl?!”
'Lys laughed out over the comm, “Yeah, Cap, where do ya need me?”
“We're on our way to you, prep for dust off”, I directed her.
“Ohhhh... that coffee... yeah, Cap.. its hot”, I could almost see her grinning over the comm... everybody likes a little ass, but nobody likes...
“Incoming!” I heard Jock yell, as rounds started pinging off nearby objects. I dove for cover behind a jet blast shield, then cued my glasses for combat again. I saw four mercs exit the airlock and split into two teams in an attempt to flank us on both sides. Their buddies were laying down hard suppressing fire from inside the airlock. I cued the XM30 for a detonation 1.5 meters inside the airlock and let one fly. The weapons fire from there stopped for the moment.
“'Lys, scratch that last, need you here, now!” I called back to Antares.
“Copy that, Cap, on my way”, there was no smile in her voice now.
“They've committed everything they've got left here, Cap!” I heard Rick call out.
“Then we finish it here!” I yelled back.
“Oorah!” I heard Jock and Sandi yell out in unison.
I sent a burst of automatic 10mm fire at the flanking unit coming around to my side, one of them broke cover, I heard a three round burst from my right and saw the merc drifting free of the dock's low g, not moving. I glanced over and saw Sandi with a look of grim satisfaction on her face. I looked over to the right where the other unit had been trying to move up, they were drifting aimlessly like their fellow. I sent another grenade to where the last one was cowering, there was a bit of a yip at the explosion, then nothing more.
The weapons fire from the airlock started up again, though on a much lower scale. I could tell from where the rounds were hitting it wasn't really directed either. I heard the sound of thrusters behind me, sensing the Antares' arrival I knew the reversing thrusters would be firing momentarily as 'Lys brought the ship in close. A crazy idea popped into my head...
I'm no hero... but I will freely admit, I am an opportunist... I slipped the grenade bandoleer from my shoulder and broke cover taking a couple of long low grav strides toward the airlock, hoping I was in 'Lys' line of sight. I swung the bandoleer over my head and let it fly seeing it make a bee-line for the airlock entrance. I glanced back over my shoulder and made an exaggerated pointing motion toward the airlock, then hollered out,
“Light 'em up 'Lys!”
As if we'd planned it, I watched as 'Lys brought the ship's nose down and yawed right as she lined up the port braking thruster with the airlock and applied reverse thrust with a vengeance. The airlock was filled with the flames and I could hear screams of agony as flesh was instantly burnt to bone. A series of detonations began then as the first of the grenades cooked off, finishing with a deafening BOOM! as the last rounds exploded together. There was nothing but silence then, only broken by Antares maneuvering thrusters. In fact the whole dock had gone quiet...
“Nice work, Pilot Boyle!” I exclaimed over the comm.
There was a long moment of silence, then she came back, “You really shouldn't f*ck me up like that... you ready to go?”
I chuckled, then called out to the team, “Marines, we are leaving!”
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Damerov looked down from the controller's tower overlooking the airlock in horror as the scene unfolded below. In less than five minutes she had watched what was left of her team be incinerated and destroyed completely. Three of the opposing force were obviously Imperials, but the one who had obviously orchestrated the incineration of her team, he was... something else. And then came the insult to the injury...
The three Imperials boarded the ship hovering before her, then that one got on the boarding lift, but didn't ascend into the ship. Instead he remained on the boarding lift as the ship rose to come level with the tower... it stopped when he was level with her, he looked straight at her then and smiled, ever so politely... then lifted his right hand and showed her his middle finger! As he did so, he mouthed the words... F*CK YOU! Then he laughed as the ship turned away and headed for the Odysseus...
Her rage exploded, “I vill destroy you, you f*cking dog!.. I vill rip your head off and sh*t down your throat after I boil your balls in oil, I svear it!”
She stormed from the tower, cursing in Russian all the way to her Cobra Mk III.
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We made for the Odysseus with me still on the boarding lift. I saw Maggie taking long low grav strides coming toward us. 'Lys dropped us down close and Maggie sprang up to the lift. The Odysseus lifted off and left in a hurry. I hit the ascend button,
“Did ya git what ya came for?” I asked hopefully.
“I did!” Maggie exclaimed happily, “And what you're looking for as well, I think.”
“Do tell? I can't wait”, I said as we stepped off the lift and the team gathered around greeting each other and chattering.
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Damerov climbed into the right seat in the cockpit of the Cobra Mk III. She pointed toward where the Antares was and ordered her pilot,
“Block that ship from leaving!”
The pilot looked over to her startled, “What?! How?!”
“Block the exit if you have to, I don't care how!”
“I can't do that ma'am!” the pilot protested, “the station...”
Damerov drew her plasma pistol and put it to the pilot's head.
“Pl.. Please ma'am” he stammered.
“Oh, get out!” she said in disgust, nearly tossing him from his seat as she took his spot.
The pilot scrambled for the exit and bolted from the ship.
It had been a long time since she had piloted a ship, but Irina Damerov was a woman on a mission. She managed to get the Cobra into the air and moved to keep him from leaving.
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“We're on board, 'Lys, get us outta here”, I called out to the bridge.
“We got a problem up here, Cap!” 'Lys called back.
I headed for the bridge, hearing the whole team now coming up behind me. Taking in the scene as I made my way to my seat, I saw a Cobra Mk III had taken up a position just inside the station's 'mail slot' to block our exit.
I chuckled a bit, “Oh this won't be a problem”, and started moving the Antares forward.
“How is this not a problem?!” Maggie asked with a bit of alarm.
I looked at my targeting info panel, “'Cause she's not system security, and blocking an entrance to a star port is a capital offense”, I explained as I kept the ship moving toward her. I pointed to the target info on the panel and called to Rick,
“Recognize the name?” I asked
“Damerov, the merc team leader?!” he answered.
“Right you are”, I confirmed.
I continued to press forward and she finally made her fatal mistake, she deployed her hard-points inside the dock.
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“You vill not pass!” Irina spoke with quiet determination as the Krait Mk II continued to advance on her. Finally it occurred to her that he meant to push her out through the station airlock and make good his escape,
“No! That vill not happen!” she pressed the hard-point deploy button...
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Immediately an alarm klaxon sounded throughout the docking area and red beacons began lighting everywhere. I gave the Antares a burst of down thrust, wanting to clear the ship of what was coming next. In only a second later a thunderclap sounded throughout the dock as the station's 'IW' beam laser fired and literally incinerated the ill-fated Cobra on the spot. I put on a burst of thrusters to align to the station air-lock, then throttled through. As soon as we cleared the station I hit the boosters, getting us out of mass lock in a matter of seconds. I charged the FSD and jumped to supercruise.
I looked to where Maggie and the rest of the team were standing agape.
“Where to, M'Lady?”