Henderson Applied Genetics: Call of the Valkyries -6
10 Sep 2023Wild Jim Gruden
Part 5: Hell InboundGulati and I hauled ass back to the facility. Well, we hauled as much ass as the scarabs would allow. Luckily, the terrain was mostly flat with only a few broken areas of scattered rocks, allowing us to push the scarabs to the limit.
We knew something was wrong. Control said they saw no incoming hostiles. Some jackass refused to sound the alarm until contact was confirmed. When they had visual on the hostiles the defense cannon on the command center failed to open fire. The last we heard before we lost contact with control was that hostiles were on the ground.
Gulati and I were still six minutes away. We got spotty contacts on the fire team channels that did not rely on Control for the com relays. They were mostly garbled and of no help until we were four minutes out and we found Hashimoto’s channel.
“Hashi,” shouted Gulati. “What the hell is going on!"
“Hostile kill squads. At least four.” Hashimoto shouted at one of her team to cover a catwalk. “There are three of us on the Command Center roof. So far we’ve kept them from breaching, but we are pinned down. Power and ammo are low.”
“We’re on the way,” I said. “ETA 4 minutes.”
“Roger that. Approach from the east. Python landed to west. No idea where the krait went.”
Gulati maintained contact with Hashimoto. I scanned the other fire team channels. No reply from the two other mercenary teams. No reply from Smith. Nothing but confusion from the Henderson corp fire teams, and panic from civ researchers on the open channels. The hostiles were clearing buildings in a well-coordinated wetwork operation.
Gulati and I stopped the scarabs outside the east wall, exited, and boosted to the top of the wall. An enemy team along the wall was keeping Hashimoto’s team pinned down and we had to eliminate them. Gulati took the lead with his TK, I slightly behind and to his left with my AR. Using the kinks in the wall’s catwalk as cover, we rolled the first few enemy before they knew we were there, with Gulati burning down their shields using his TK and me zippering them crotch to crown with the AR.
With each burst the Valkyrie calls increased. They were coming to take the worthy fallen and sing the battle praises of the victors. Their songs, though clear to me, were distant and that is when I spotted Hashimoto on the command center roof, maybe 25 meters ahead. Her shield blinked off, suit power finally drained. One of her team was dead, the other bleeding out. Yet she stood her ground, firing her last rounds at two charging enemy. Using her rifle like a club she knocked the first attacker aside and spun to face the other. A flash of plasma exited between her shoulder blades and she fell back.
Valkyrie cries rose like a rushing wave over the battle; they had chosen Hashimoto and for that I was glad, but also angry. I had not reached her in time. I rushed forward, toggled my suit’s full boost, and jumped the twenty meters to where Hashimoto had fallen. The last I remember before waking up after the battle was roar of my weapon firing down at the enemy and my enraged scream mixing with that of the Valkyries.
Part 7: Professional Courtesy