Cath

The Cradle

Thebes jumped back to his feet, shield recharging after that hit from the ballista. “You heard the lady - fold back to the caves. Lets go!” The Sacred Band didn’t need telling twice. They’d done this sort of thing a thousand times before in the simulator, and it showed. Using their innate awareness of each other’s position and sophisticated battle mapping, four of the team gathered just outside the deployable cover, and another two fell back to protect a line heading into the cave system.

Half a dozen of the creatures mounted the ridge, but sustained fire from all angles kept them from advancing too quickly. Some attempted twistering through to the deployable cover, but were quickly picked apart by a laser focused barrage from the entire group.

“Ok, we’re good to go!” Dr Wetherall called, gently nudging past 595 as she fired into the melee to give the bots instructions. They began moving slowly out of the shield bubble and towards the cave system. 595 looked back to check where they were headed and then followed alongside, firing and walking. “Ngata, grab the deployable cover, quickly!” The elderly scientist snapped, clearly stressed.

Just then, a bloodcurdling roar issued from somewhere close by in the valley. It sounded like metal girders being bent and ripped. It was quickly followed by a sharp *crack* and the ground shifting under their feet. “Everyone move! Double time!” Thebes shouted. He stepped back into the deployable cover and grabbed Dr Ngata as he stooped to deactivate the first module. “Leave it, there’s no time. The whole shelf is going, get into the caves now!”

The Cradle

Saddam and Knossos, who were either side of Rareth, turned and opened fire on her. The team’s second in command tried edging closer, but razor sharp appendages jabbed back and forth in all directions, clashing with his shields. “Fall back from the ridge! We’ve kicked the hornet’s nest.” Thebes hollered, grabbing Athena and hauling her to a standing position right after she took one last shot at another newly formed ballista. “We have to move; how long until we’re mobile?”

“Nearly done here! Ready to move in sixty seconds!” Dr Wetherall gasped, desperately collapsing the transit station down with the help of the two other civilians. The transit station was now packed and hitched to one of the cargo bots. Thebes detected another bolt on the Sacred Band’s sensory net and pushed Athena out of the way. It hit him square in the chest and sent him flying backwards. Another creature exploded over the top of the ridge and vortexed toward Athena. She fired her railgun through it at point blank range, evaporating most of its body and spraying her with black ichor.

595 was staring into space. Despite the dust and low light, she could feel the beating heart of this valley wake from its slumber, emerge from the nest and tear across the marshy plains toward them. The agent was disturbed from her reverie when Carthage palm-tapped her on the back of her helmet. “Wakey wakey! Fire your weapon!” 595 blinked, the sounds of the battlefield draining away from her. She raised her weapon, although it felt like it weighed a thousand tonnes, and sent a solid laser beam blasting into the net of tendrils emerging over the ridge in front of Memnon.

“Take this trolley to the cargo bots, I’ll cover you!” Carthage shouted from over her shoulder, her voice echoing as if she were down a well. 595 nodded dumbly, getting up, turning and nearly stumbling straight into the mobile armoury behind her.

The Cradle

“Sent.” Memnon boomed, just as another creature mounted the ridge right next to him. Jump jets on the front of the gunner’s armour righted him in an instant as the thing clambered onto his back and shoulders like a malign, shapeshifting growth. Memnon hoisted his cannon and fired above his head into the creature’s face as it pounded his weak points with vines. Sparks flew.

“Carthage!” Thebes roared, standing up to fire directly down the cliff face at more of the beasts. “On it. Hold still, Mem!” Carthage called, running past 595 as she shakily threw weapons, ammo & batteries back onto the weapons trolley. The CQC expert was newly re-armoured in a very similar suit, save with ‘Cuidado’ printed on her front in white block letters.

Carthage emptied her shotgun’s magazine into the nest of vipers before grabbing hold of as many vines as she could lay hands on and ripping it off Memnon’s back. It instantly latched onto her face, driving her back toward the weapons trolley. 595 grabbed her beam rifle milliseconds before Carthage fell over her, landing a savage tornado of angry vines right in the middle of all the weapons.

Memnon strode over, put one foot on Carthage’s chestplate and then ripped the diminished creature off with both hands. He promptly hefted the wriggling, screaming mass off the edge of the cliff. “Stop fooling around and get back in the fight!” He rumbled, in what sounded to 595 like some sadistic running joke.

“Ok, you’re free!” Dr Wetherall closed Nirann’s body panel up and kicked the mess of wiring away from the droid. “Do you want to get those cargo drones operational and hooked up with as much as they can carry? Ngata and I will close down the comms mast and get that ready for transport first.

“Ballista down! But I think they’re building more!” Athena reported, shoving the small piles of tungsten remains off the cliff and grabbing another round. The first conglomeration of vine creatures fell apart under its own weight, the constituent creatures motionless and spent. But two more shapeless mergers were taking place in the valley below. Athena fired at one and it peeled apart momentarily.

Has it really been 3 years?

Welcome home

GoodPick Intergalactic Mining! (62% fatality rate)

I LOVE this idea! Would we all be together as a team, or is the plan for each of us to have our own crew?

The Cradle

“That’s alright, old chap. Just stay put for a couple more minutes and we’ll get you out of there.” Dr Wetheall assured Nirann, patting the top of his head as he whirled around the droid. “There are too many of them. Pack everything up and get ready for transit now!” Thebes ordered them, firing fully auto down into the valley. The creatures were close now, rapidly approaching the clusters of rocks and other defilades leading up to the cliff face.

“But i just finished deploying the cover!” Dr Ngata moaned. “Move it, now!” Both the Human scientists raced to free Nirann from the mess of cabling. With them back up to full strength, they could focus all their efforts on sorting through their new supplies and getting everything ready for transit.

595 rattled the weapons trolley over the ridge’s uneven ground toward the edge. She planned to resupply left from right, starting with Memnon who was laying down heavy fire with his double handed energy cannon. She parked the trolley behind his prone form and hefted a fresh, calibrated cannon from the bottom shelf. “Memnon - swap with me!” 595 shouted over the din. The heavy gunner rose to his knees and chucked his old weapon to the floor next to her. “Yes, ma’am.” He boomed.

“Look out, they’re merging!” Athena warned, sending a tungsten round straight through an amorphous blob of creatures behind a cluster of boulders. They roared in anger at the big new hole in their midriff, but it quickly closed up and recombinated into a shape vaguely reminiscent of a giant ballista from antiquity. A spiky bolt wound up and then thwapped at the cliff face at lightning speeds. The bolt struck the exposed Memnon in the back as he was taking his new energy cannon.

The force of the blow popped Memnon’s shields and sent the giant clattering into 595 and the weapons trolley. Armaments skittered all over the floor. “Target that ballista! Memnon, status!” Thebes bellowed. “I’m operational, just got the wind knocked out of me.” Memnon replied, carefully untangling himself from 595. “Sorry ma’am.” He crawled back to the cliff’s edge with his updated weaponry. 595 gritted her teeth and crawled over to the upturned trolley.

The ballista fired again, and again. Some bolts smashed great divots in the cliffside and other whizzed over their heads. Other creatures used the cover to move from hiding, twistering over open ground like big obsidian tornadoes. The air was now full of this dry rattling sound, presumably from the creature’s vine features rustling over each other.

The Cradle

The antimatter explosions momentarily filled the valley with light. Fragments of rock skittered around their feet and down the cliff face. Distant wails wafted over on the shockwave. Athena fired again. "Theres's more appearing from their nest. Something must be getting them all riled up." She reported coolly.

Just then, the transit station began humming loudly. It built to a crescendo before exhorting a loud VUM. "Insert successful!" Dr Wetherall called. 595 immediately approached the mobile weapons trolley and grabbed a beam rifle capable of suppressing fire. "My spare suit!" Carthage gushed, backing up to the slate just as one unified, spine tingling scream electrified the valley.

"Hey, what if its our camp that's antagonising them?" Dr Ngata hypothesized, holding the last third of the deployable in his hands. Other members of the Sacred Band began firing at the creatures as they raced into range.

The Cradle

“I don’t like that plan.” Thebes responded, magnifying his vision to the maximum his suit would allow in the low-light conditions. All he could make out was a flurry of darkly-coloured material tearing it’s way toward them across a dozen different trails. “They could easily cut you off; who knows what they’re capable of. There’s no guarantee we could lay down enough suppressing fire to get you out.”

The soldier paused for a moment, feeling his team’s eyes on him. They were stuck here, at least until the supplies came through; they had to dig in and hold position. “Athena - begin your engagement sequence, see if you can funnel them. Saddam, Memnon, Knossos - fan out and take firing positions along the cliff edge.” Thebes got up and moved carefully back from the exposed cliff edge to the transit station. “Carthage, watch our six. Dr Ngata, can you set up the deployable cover on your own?” The xenobiologist, who was feverishly studying Athena’s scope feed to build up a profile of the oncoming creatures, nodded eagerly and set to it.

Finally, Thebes turned to 595, who was fiddling with her weapon. “Are you alright?” She looked up. “Yeah. It’s just my pistol got crushed earlier; I think it’s busted up pretty good inside.” Thebes took the pistol from her, examined it closely, then chucked it to one side. “That’s alright. There’ll be new weapons when the supplies come through. Stay back for now, help the guys if you can.”
“Insert in thirty seconds!” Dr Wetherall shouted, quickly hopping up on the transit plate to kick a stray stone off the surface. Thebes hefted his energy rifle and returned to the cliff edge, just as Athena fired her first shot. A cloud mushroomed from the barrel of her railgun, a deafening crack echoed off the mountain sides and a plume of water erupted from the marsh below. “No joy. Firing again.” Athena murmured to herself. She ejected the remains of her round from the side of her rifle and retrieved a fresh one from the dispenser on her thigh.

A faint wave of rattling & snapping sounds rolled across the valley, as the things drew closer.

The Cradle

Dr Wetherall peered up at the Datius like a bespectacled professor would to chastise a very tall, interrupting student. He was still plugged into the comms mast to speak with the real world team. “Well, we’ve made good progress with translation for synthetics. Nirann and I have narrowed the divergence in languages from about fifteen percent to around two percent. However, organics are proving to be a totally different kettle of fish.”

He waved his holopad around dramatically as he explained. “While the simulation appears content with simply trying to take control of synthetic materials, it actually assimilates organic matter while it’s in the simulation. So getting a pure translation back out again looks messy at this point. Freyr has told me poor Dr Dlamini will need therapy for a few weeks to recover. We’ll do what we can to separate us from the sim, and then it’s up to you whether it’s worth the risk of having more bodies in here.”

Dr Wetherall held up a hand, listening to something on a private channel. Then he clicked at Nirann to catch the droid’s attention. “They have everything. Power up for insert in two minutes, please.”

“I have movement down in the valley.” Athena reported soon after, laying down on the edge of the cliff with her railgun cradled in her arms. “Coming this way.” Thebes motioned for everyone to get down before quickly crawling over to where she lay. Athena marked targets for him. They were still very far away across the valley, but approaching fast.

The Cradle

“Understood. What is your risk assessment of this place? Knowing what you know.” Andersen asked. 595 licked blood from her lips. “It’s pretty risky. But we need more experts here to figure out what’s going on. They’ll be solidly protected; this ‘Datius’ is formidable and surprisingly altruistic.” A wave of what could only be described as static washed over the line, followed by a short tone. 595 lost the Captain for a few seconds. “-to Doctor Wetherall.”

“Copy that.” 595 guessed, unplugging the interface cable from her wrist. “Hey doc!” She called over regular short-range comms, standing still as she was well aware Knossos was connected to her. Dr Wetherall looked around at her from a jumble of wires protruding from the side of the transit station. “Bring it over here, please.” He replied distractedly, lost in thought. “Oh for fuck’s sake. Thebes, would you mind?” 595 asked, wiggling the loose cable in her hand.

The team leader plucked it from her and carefully wound the cable over to the huddle of scientists and droids. 595 turned slightly so she could watch Knossos tap away at a holopad. “Well? Everything ok?” She asked privately after a little while.” The soldier’s tinted green visor looked down at her. “What are you, lady?” 595’s jaw tightened. “Am I combat effective, yes or no?” Knossos checked the readout one more time, then nodded slowly. “You need fluids, but otherwise you’re good to go.”

“Good. Delete that and pass me some tissues with my fluids. I got a nose bleed.”