[h1]Tar 'Mdalak[/h1]
[i]Paxopolis Simulated Training Centre[/i]
[hr]

“Take cover right!” Tar shouted, assuming control just as a barrage of plasma fire erupted from several points around the large room. They waded through the flames into a partitioned area with a semi-circle of holo consoles. Tar took several hits to her shield from the Stalkers guarding the stairway before leaping behind one of the consoles. The Brute weapons punched holes in the plastic room dividers as they lost line of sight on her.

Tar peeked over the top of her cover. She counted at least four Stalkers slowly approaching their position, plus the two guarding the stairway. Their camouflage slipped every time they fired their weapons, revealing a cautious, calculated advance. Tar estimated they were each twenty feet apart, progressing down the open spaces between work areas.

In this case, not a single recruit so much as hesitated in following Tar’s order. The Major broke straight through the partition, with the others following just behind. Each moved into whatever cover they could find, as quickly as they could. The room dividers could break line of sight, though there was no weapon they would actually stop. Plasma fire and spikers ripped through them with ease, just without as much accuracy.

Ryssa, with his shields already damaged from his brush with the flames and few stray plasma rounds, dove behind the holo-consoles. They were at least somewhat more sturdy than most of the other parts of the office. His response to being pinned was actually reasonably effective, considering his options, even if it was a strategy one might have learned from an Unggoy. He did not peer out from cover to return fire, but rather grabbed his needler and lifted it up just high enough to fire over the console, roughly in the direction that one of the Brutes was firing from. He did not need to be accurate; as long as the needler was pointing in mostly the right direction, its needles would find a target.

When the attack had began, Jurna had fired four shots with surprisingly good accuracy. He tracked the shimmer he had seen and, out of his four shots, hit three to break the Brute’s powered armor. However, once his own shields started taking damage, he did not follow through to make the kill. He ran with the others into the side room and, like Ryssa, took cover behind the consoles. Though, unlike the other recruit, he did not return fire from his position. He hid as best as he could, and intended to continue doing so until his shields were fully recharged.

With the partitions at least stopping [i]accurate[/i] fire, the Major took a moment to scan the room they had hastily entered. Given how quickly they had been forced to move, there was no reason to believe they had moved to safety. And indeed, at this range, his eyes were sharp enough to spot at least two shimmers moving carefully closer to Jurna and Tar. Drawing his energy sword, the Major sprinted for the nearest stalker. “Brutes behind us!” He shouted.

Reacting instantly, Tar jumped up, grabbed her energy sword from its mount on her left thigh, activated it and blindly slashed it through the air behind her in one fluid motion. The dual tips of her sword grazed the armour of a Stalker; the room lit up with blue light as his shield protected his neck from being slit.

Regaining her balance, Tar raised her right hand and fired a round from her Mauler into the same shield, breaking it completely. At the same time, she watched the Stalker fire their Mauler at her face. She was momentarily blinded as the slug exploded right in front of her eyes, and she felt her shield go offline with a jolt.

Tar let out an angry roar and leapt forward, sword poised. She made impact with…[i]something[/i], and clattered to the floor with it before stabbing it with her weapon multiple times.

The Major’s blade quickly found its mark on the nearest stalker. The Brute’s active camouflage may have rendered it only a shimmer in the air, but a wide arc with his blade in front of him could reach easily over two and a half meters in front of him, and the sword itself could cut through even a starship’s armor with ease. The Brute was quite simply bisected.

There had only been two of the cloaked Brutes in the room they had ran into, but the Major had no intent of staying put and holding out. Though his shields were damaged, he still preferred aggression. “Attack with me! These mongrels are nothing to us!” He shouted. Off on their right flank, on the other side of a thin wall, he could hear movement, which was all he needed to strike. With a frenzied roar as his battle cry, he broke straight through the wall in a charge. A diagonal swing of his sword and another stalker was cut in two. This time, however, the Brute was not without assistance. Just to his left, another Brute fired his mauler, both revealing himself, and stripping away the Major’s shields. He was close enough that the Major could react quickly and impale him through the chest with his blade, but there were still more Brutes farther away, and the Major was now clearly in their line of sight.

Ryssa had intended to follow the Major’s instruction. Based on the sound of a supercombine explosion beyond the wall he had been firing through, his needles had found a target, but the Brutes were not unintelligent. Though they could not see him, they could roughly determine where he was firing from when they saw the needles, so Ryssa found himself pinned by a volley of plasma and spiker fire. His shields took a stray hit, so they were not yet recharging, and he could not move to assist the Major. 

Jurna had an angle from which he could help at range, but his shields were charging and he still had no intention of revealing himself until they were full. 

Daha was the farthest from the Major, and the closest to Tar, and it was she who he intended to help. He charged his plasma pistol, firing the overcharged bolt at a stalker who had a clear line of sight onto Tar. The shot broke the Brute’s powered armor immediately, allowing his follow-up shots from his plasma rifle to deal potentially deadly damage.

Ultimately, there was no help that would come for the Major in time to save him. A burst of spiker fire from a more distant stalker struck his unshielded chest and neck, and his armor was not enough to protect against the volley. The red plating of his armor was stained purple by his blood. Simulated as it might have been, his death was still convincing. The Major had successfully relieved most of the pressure from their right flank, but at the cost of his life.