Cath

The Cradle

Most of the warriors still present instinctively aimed their weapons at Rareth as she stopped rolling. Thebes, who was closest, tapped her with his boot. “How’d you get in here?” He asked.

595 studied the Datius closely from a few metres away. Without looking, she dropped the battery out of her beam rifle and grabbed another from the mobile armoury. “Are you operational?” Thebes continued.

“Get off me!” Saddam growled, wriggling furiously until Knossos released him from his vice-like grip. The sanguine coloured rifleman stood up and went to inspect the wall of boulders. The seal seemed complete, and although they could get through, it would take time. Water from the stream was bottlenecking against the rocks, filling the cavern with water past ankle depth. Knossos checked his readout of the Sacred Band’s suits. “He’s gone.” He murmured.

More rock dust fluttered down onto them and the waiting cargo bots. “We need to keep moving - get out of this cave system.” 595 asserted, looking up at the ceiling to search for cracks.

The Cradle

The whole shelf seemed to explode at once. Not least from inside the swarm of tendrils, with six huge gouts of superheated energy emerging at once. These merged with the bandolier of grenades that detonated underneath the cloud. The creature let out a thunderous screech, which was quickly followed by another earth-shattering crack from underneath it.

The whole shelf began crumbling, with huge slabs falling away from the main formation and sliding down into the valley below in a massive avalanche. This was compounded by boulders falling down the mountain above the caverns as well. A rock the size of a small car bounced off Memnon’s armour while he was providing cover fire. The hit staggered him and cracked his shields. “Get back in here Mem, haul ass!” Saddam, his fire and move partner, yelled, standing just inside the cave.

The heavy gunner was just outside the cave entrance, having moved back out to cover Rareth. He turned and found he was running uphill, as the shelf slowly crashed into the valley below. He dodged another boulder, but abruptly found he could run no longer when a razor vine protruded through his stomach and his feet left the floor. The creature had spiked him with one of it’s longest tendrils as it fell, broken, down the side of the shelf. “MEM!” Saddam hollered raggedly, dropping his rifle and running forward until Knossos tackled him to the floor. The cave entrance was quickly becoming inaccessible due to falling boulders - if they went outside now they wouldn’t get back in.

“I guess it’s just you and me.” Memnon gurgled over comms, as his suit began flashing red. The vine with him attached scraped against the falling rock face, seemingly trying to find purchase as the swarm got buried under the shelf. “Good luck, everyone.” With that, the gunner shut off his comms and the cave entrance collapsed entirely. The surviving team were on their own again, with just tremors from the mountainside to keep them company. After a few seconds, another massive shockwave shook the cavern, dislodging dust onto all their heads.

Halo: Aegis Team

“Got it.” Tar grunted over comms, stopping the incoming Spiker with her foot. She quickly picked it up with her free hand and straight-arm fired it at the Brute Chieftain. She couldn’t get a clear shot, as the pillars were in the way, but she saw when it activated its invincibility module.

Bullets sprayed against the crates and walls around her, with a couple popping her recharging shield. Tar chucked her empty pistol away, holstered her Mauler, gripped her Spiker with both hands and fired downrange at the slowly advancing Human rebels. They dived behind cover, giving her a couple of seconds to think about the last remaining Brute that she could see.

“Don’t commit and stay back!” Tar urged, just as a blow from the gravity hammer scattered boxes everywhere. One crashed into her, knocking her backward and out of cover. She returned fire as a tsunami of bullets popped her shield again. A couple even clanged off her armour before she ducked behind a pillar - right in the path of the Chieftain. Tar swore and assumed an open stance, ready to move in any direction.

The Cradle

The Sacred Band fell back in quick time. They worked in fire and movement pairs where one person ran while the other provided cover and vice versa. 595 reached the cave entrance first and scanned for hostiles inside before sending the bots further into the complex. She stayed near the entrance, clambering onto a rock to shoot at creatures further back as they scrambled over each other to reach the front.

Another ear-shattering scream filled the valley, and a sickly green will-o-wisp emerged over the top of the cliff. It was contained within a massive swarm of vines that seemed to collect up the smaller creatures as it crashed forward like a wave. Razor vines extended ahead of it as another series of sharp cracks came from underneath them. “MOVE!” Thebes ordered, activating one of the grenades on his bandolier then unclipping it from his armour and dropping it on the floor.

The front half of the Sacred Band turned to sprint. Carthage fired an incendiary rocket at the swarm, setting a section of it on fire. 595’s beam rifle splayed over it’s frontage. A small hole appeared where Athena blasted it with her railgun.

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.