KMC Forums - +++Hammerfall+++

(Chapter 8 Cont.)

A scraping noise snapped us back to reality, the scopes had a limited view in the pitched darkness giving us only about thirty meters of sight, leaving a further twenty still enshrouded and we still weren't sure if these Jyyk'Tiir or Talankas could see in the dark.

I was in the lead right behind Flecher and so I had to be extremely alert, each step was carefully placed as no to make a sound but we froze again as yet another scrape sounded from up ahead.
Pressing onwards, we came to the end of this section which ended up in a crossroads, two of the other passages had collapsed leaving only one obvious route, Flecher suddenly tensed as he could've sworn he had seen a shape moving off down the passage. We finally came to what was making the noise, loose and frayed wiring hung in front of an air vent that was still recycling the air, it made the cords swing back and forth, every now and then finding a torn metal object to spark upon.

Next to the vent another civilian lay there, she seemed to have died only hours before as the wounds appeared fresh, a pulse pistol lay in her lap and there was an creepy look of satisfaction on her face, staring down at the bodies of three Jyyk'Tiir who had apparently attacked her.

A piercing screech cut through the air, followed by the unmistakable sound of small arms fire and energy discharges, forgetting all need for stealth, we formed up and advanced rapidly, down the end of this corridor, about two hundred meters or so there was light coming from a crack in a doorway up ahead. Six of us positioned on each side, twelve in front ready to burst through at the next sign of weapons fire, surely enough further gunshots opened up followed by another ear-piercing screech. With one resounding kick, Flecher broke the damaged doors and we poured through the breach, scopes off and weapons ready only to find a group of seven or so surviving civilians holding off a small band of Jyyk'Tiir, the floor was littered with fresh kills of both alien and humans, many dozens of each slumped on one another, I always found the bodies of children to be gut-wrenching, and there were a lot here.

Around the survivors, they had placed a makeshift barrier of cafeteria benches and tables and were holding them off here in this abandoned public mess hall, the look of relief on their faces at the sight of us was a small comfort despite the obvious nature of the scene around me. I found one of the enemy, trying to crawl away on only one working limb, these up-habbers had gone to work on it and I felt no pity as I slammed my boot down on its injured neck, crushing it with a single blow yet rewarding me by smothering my boot with purple sludge.

�Thank Bloody Christ you're here, we've been holed up for three days, obviously this is the last of them, ay?� a tall Anglishman walked up and shook Adler's hand, proceeding through most of us to do the same, I noticed Alder wiping her paw on her pants.

�Most of the power to this section is offline, Intelligence indicates that there are far more of them than this number here, We need you to stay put until the power is back on, I will leave you one squad to help with the injured and to guard you while we get main hab-operations back online.� Alder said bluntly, not expecting a reply from the survivors. He merely nodded, taking one of the now-orphaned Eserian children in his arms Sergeant Flecher was one of those to stay behind and he gave me a nod of confidence as I turned to leave.

I looked up before I left the hall, there were three large air-scrubber vents and all had been torn out, a slumped body of a Jyyk'Tiir warrior indicated that this was how they had gotten in whilst the doors were inoperable, I caught Flecher's attention and averted it to the vents, he gave me another nod before telling his squad to cover it.

Once again it took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the blue tone of the LES scope, the passage continued off to the left, another in front though this also had collapsed due to the initial bombardments. Our first priority was to restore power as Alder had mentioned, but clearing out Jyyk'Tiir also sat high on our list to allow continued evacuations for them any civilians speculated to be still trapped up here. The three privates from earlier, the ones who had emptied their stomachs after we had found the lifepods were staying uncomfortably close to me, all three of them Eserian Looking to be in their late teens. Flecher had originally speculated that these three young women had a thing for me, either that or they stuck to the one who seemed most likely to keep them from getting themselves killed, He always had a way with words...

I could see even through the scope that they were on the edge of their nerves, Private Maylind's hands were shaking as she tried to keep her rifles steady, Private Alaskevitch's heavy breathing was getting a little annoying and Private Timorell was chewing her lip, she seemed to be the most clinging of the group.

Much further up my platoon came to a larger chamber, leading upwards with further stairs and a balcony on either side for three floors upwards, it was the perfect place for an ambush and with the scopes barely able to clear the distance we needed a scout drone.

Alder moved up to me and turned me around, as it were I was in charge of keeping the Platoon's scouter. It was a little ball of metal, seemingly lifeless until Corporal Meskal poked it a few times, I think he knew what he was doing or he just made it appear so, and as our engineer this didn't leave me with a lot of faith in his ability. It sprung from Alder's palms and looked at all of us in turn, seeing that there was no immediate threat it stayed put until Meskal gave out its instructions.

With a small palm pad, he punched in a list of objectives based on the glimpse of the area and a set of floor plans he brought up on screen. A few soft chimes sounded as it hovered away happily, Alder Myself and Meskal stood around the pad as we watched the telemetry the little AI sent us.
From back where we came, raised voices and sporadic gunfire echoed down the hall, Alder commed-in for Flecher but there was nothing but static, possibly from the array of metal structure between us and them. Another screech came from the hall as Meskal announced the death of our little hovering friend.

�Fall back to reinforce, Go!� the Lieutenant ordered, we wasted no time and sprinted off down the hall, retracing our steps back to the mess hall. At about half way the shouts and gunfire seemed to stop, yet Alder still couldn't raise them on the line, I felt a pain in my stomach as to what we might find and sure enough, the doors lay wide open and there was no sign of Flecher, his squad or the civilians. The floor was littered with their shells and the first thing I noticed was discarded equipment, including a rail rifle and Flecher's gun spattered with fresh human blood.

�Up high!� Meskal shouted, opening up on the air vents and dropping three of the enemy that poured out. I was about to do the same until my visor's readout changed from 'Proceed with caution' to 'Code Indigo Retreat Order Received'

�Fall back, fall back!� Alder shouted over the sounds of our weapons and the howling of the enemy, we managed to cut enough of them down to get out of the hall, only to find a further wave of them pouring from the stair-chamber were the scouter had been destroyed. Meskal was last to leave and before he cleared the door, I looked back to see claws sinking into his neck, piercing his flesh and spraying blood everywhere. Private Timorell covered me as I ran to the right, the sheer number of them overwhelmed her quickly and I heard her gurgling scream choking on her own blood though I didn't dare to look back this time.

�Don't stop, go-go-go!� Alder kept up the pace, I was second to last in line. A Sergeant Emervitch from the original 6-Delta was next to go behind me, he had tripped on the body of the smiling civilian we spotted before, I didn't hear his footsteps behind me anymore and I nearly tripped myself as the entire building shook from a nearby explosion. We cleared into the lobby section to find that it had been opened up by Tigerhawks, at least that explained the explosion and to my relief there was a series of lift-ropes dangling down from a hovering dropship.

Thankfully we lost no one else as the ropes pulled us up, mainly because myself and a few others turned to fire on the encroaching wave of Coalition Soldiers, I strapped in as our savior began to fire it's thrusters, Private Maylind was leaning on me and apparently ready to go to tears.
As we cleared the building, the rear hatch was yet to close, granting us a clear view of the barrier we defended early this morning to be completely overrun, the enemy were finally able to press their hovering war machines through the breach, granting them an unopposed path to the command and evacuation district. Smoldering wrecks of the hover tanks from earlier indicated that a last stand had failed, and I'm sure that as soon as this line fell the Indigo Retreat order was sounded...

__________________
Mal: "Well, if anyone gets nosey... You know... Shoot em' "

Zoe: "Shoot them sir?"

Mal: "...Politely"