The Walkers, updated 9-28-03

[chewy027]

2406.1 – 2406.2 ~ Boarding Action

“Troops, we are the Last hope of saving Alpha Leo Prime,” began Major Evon, the commanding officer of the boarding unit aboard Overtaker Eighteen. “If we fail, then the colony falls, and all fifty-six million colonists with it.” He paused dramatically and then continued, “That is why we can not fail.” Another pause, “You all know how this works, we get in our pods, three troops to a pod, and launch over to the Rebel battle cruiser. I know none of you have ever done this live before, hell I’ve only done it live once myself and that was against a colony ship. But that doesn’t matter. We have to rely on our training and ability to make quick, wise decisions to get us through this. Unfortunately, this ain’t no colony ship; this means we will encounter fierce resistance aboard the vessel once we cut through the exterior hull. I expect all thirty of you to perform as one cohesive unit, and to come out of this alive. Keep in contact at all times, be aware of everyone’s position and situation in your individual squad, and always think before acting; following these laws will save your life.” He stopped and looked at his unit as if determining who was going to live and die and then went on, “Once you’re aboard, secure your area and link up with your counter squad to continue on. Once you have done this, make your way to the bridge and take control of the ship. Only one of the five bi-squads has to accomplish this to win the ship, but remember…it is not a race.” He dwelled on this Last statement for a bit and then continued. “From there, the remaining bi-squads will systematically move through the ship clearing out any other resistance…Any questions?” The room was silent, and then suddenly the battle claxons began blaring, “Ah, just in time…let’s move out.”

The Rebel battle cruiser and the Vandron frigate silently crept towards each other as if playing a giant game of chicken, except the Vandron Captain knew he was going to flinch first.
“All troops are positioned and ready sir,” said the Com Officer to the captain. “They only await your command to lift off.”
The captain knew that this was the most essential portion of the maneuver, if he couldn’t manage to get his ship close enough then he’d have to come around for another pass, if they survived. They had practiced and simulated thousands of times, but nothing was the same as the real thing. Ideally, you wanted to be no more than a few miles apart, any further then that and the boarding pods risked missing their mark. However, the closer they got the higher the probability their own ship would be destroyed.
“How is our heading?” asked the captain.
“We are heading straight at them sir,” came the reply.
“How many miles separate us?”
“About a thousand sir, we will be within range of launching the pods in twenty seconds.”
“Major Evon, you have twenty seconds before launch,” the captain said into the com. “May the Almighty bless you this day.”
As the time slipped away, every person aboard the Overtaker unknowingly held their breath and waited to see if this would work, they all knew exactly what was at stake. Then, unexpectedly, the Rebel vessel increased its speed and closed the distance much quicker then they had anticipated opening up a volley of DUC and Meson fire as it did.
“Launch the pods now!” screamed the Captain; those would be the Last words he would ever say.
As Major Evon’s pod broke away from the ship, he could see that it had been heavily damaged by the initial volley. There were gaping holes in the hull, and small explosions spreading throughout the ship. There was also a massive breach were the bridge had been.
“How many of our pods made it off the ship?” asked Evon to his second in command, Lieutenant Danon.
“Eight of ten sir; pods eight and five were caught in the initial volley,” replied the lieutenant.
“Amend the bi-squads to pair squads that lost their partner.”
“Already done sir,” came the swift response.
“How is our trajectory?”
Viton, the pilot responded, “We’ll make contact in five…” and few seconds later there was a loud thud as they came in contact with the hull of the Rebel Battle Cruiser.
“Sir, Pod three missed the ship!” cried out Danon.
“Those unlucky bastards,” thought Evon, “hopefully the Rebels‘ll destroy them so they won’t go crazy in that pod.”
“Ten seconds until we’re through the hull sir,” yelled out Viton over the whir of the laser cutters.
“Almighty be with us,” and with that Major Evon leaped through the opening into the Rebel vessel.
He landed on the floor and immediately went into a roll against the opposite bulkhead, dropping a Rebel trooper in the process. Lieutenant Danon and Viton came next as Evon laid down cover fire for them, narrowly missing being hit with return fire himself; two more rebel troops went down.
“This hallway is secured sir, which way do we go now?” asked Viton.
“Where did we land on the ship?” asked Evon.
“We got lucky sir; we landed near the fore of the ship, close to the bridge.”
“Good work Viton, but we’re not out of this yet.”
“Our partner squad, Four, is a level below us sir,” said Danon as he referenced his holo-projector on his wrist. “They initially encountered resistance but quickly neutralized it sir. In fact, we haven’t lost any other troops in the initial docking phase.”
“Excellent, now let’s meet up with them. Danon, where is Ten?”
“Not far from us sir, on this level.”
“Have them meet up with us then, we’ll go in as a tri-squad since three missed the mark.”
Just then, bLaster fire ripped out a chunk of the bulkhead above him. Instantly, Viton cut down the attacker in a return volley that caught the trooper full in the face.
“Let’s move out,” ordered Evon.
They made their way forward encountering light resistance along the way.
“All squads reporting advancement sir, we have taken out a total thirty-two Rebels so far sir,” reported Danon.
The sound of bLaster fire could be heard coming from below and in front of them. They turned the corner to find squad ten pinned down behind a bulkhead with five Rebel troops laying down heavy fire in their direction. Immediately, Evon and Danon dove for the opposite bulkhead dodging fire as they did. Viton pulled a grenade from her belt and hurled it in the direction of the Rebel’s as she dove in behind squad ten. The bLast took out two of them and wounded another. Then, Evon rolled across the floor, as Danon and Ten laid down cover fire. He loosed a steady burst of searing energy that cut down the injured Rebel and maimed another while the cover fire picked off the third. The maimed Rebel lay there moaning lightly for help as Major Evon approached him cautiously.
“You Rebel scum,” he sneered, “which way to the bridge?”
The Rebel said nothing, but sat up and tried to lift his weapon. In an instant he was dead as Danon seared a hole through his heart.
“Thanks for your help Major; they had us pinned down pretty tight.”
“Don’t mention it…Danon, where is Four now?” asked Evon.
“They’ve made it up to our level sir; they’re moving to meet with us now.”
They continued on down the hallway toward the designated meeting point on their holo-projectors. The noise of bLaster fire had slowly dwindled as the minutes wore on. Finally, they met up with squad Four after downing two more Rebel troops along the way.
“Sir, bi-squad Two just encountered a pocket of heavy resistance. It appears they were ambushed sir,” exclaimed Danon. “They burnt through a door and met heavy fire upon its collapse; two of our troopers have been killed.”
“So we’re down to nineteen then; alright, lets be aware of what’s on the other sides of doors from now on,” Evon said with a bit of sarcasm.
They continued on toward the bridge encountering no Rebel resistance until they came to just such a door.
“Sir,” spoke up Danon, “the schematic says that this is the antechamber before the bridge.”
“Excellent, Seven begin burning through. Viton and Four, position yourselves on either side of the door but do not go through until I do. Danon you will be behind me. I want you to throw two grenades in front of me as I dive through before you follow. Next will come Viton and Four as Seven covers them. Let’s move people”
After two minutes of melting through the door, it fell to the ground with a loud clank. Instantly Evon dove through and to the left going into a roll and coming out of it in a crouch and opening up fire on the fifteen Rebel troops that lay in wait for them. The grenades exploded and filled the room with smoke as Danon landed with a thud next to him, blood draining from his arm, though he continued to fire. The smoke actually worked to their advantage as their visors switched over to infrared and allowed them to continue to see through the haze. Evon could see three Rebel bodies strewn on the floor where the grenades had exploded. Suddenly Viton came rushing through the door and rolled in right behind the other bulkhead to the right. Evon continued pouring on the cover fire as Viton and Four came through. He caught a Rebel in the gut, and then in the top of the head as he slumped over in agony. Danon continued to shoot, though it didn’t seem to have any particular effect other then to keep the Rebels down. Viton advanced up to the next bulkhead and picked up one of the Rebel guns as one of the members of squad Four took a laser to the chest and fell down beside her. Viton knew that their body armor could ward off a glancing blow, but if a direct hit was taken there wasn’t much that the armor could do. She readjusted herself against the bulkhead to get out of the line of fire that had taken down her cover man, and called out to Evon to cover her. Evon then rolled out in front of Seven as they made their way through the door and with them laid down a barrage that cut down two more rebels. Viton then leaped from her position unleashing fire from both of her guns as she hit the floor and went into a roll. Her fire caught the leg of a Rebel trooper and separated it from his body below the knee. He fell over screaming in agony clutching the trigger of his own weapon and accidentally blew the head off of the trooper standing next to him. Viton came to a stop and threw two more grenades down the hall as she realized her own calf had been hit, though not too seriously. The explosion of the two grenades sent the wounded Rebel and two others flying and again filled the room with a haze. Evon ordered Seven to move up and take position in front of Viton while he and the Last two members of Four laid down cover fire. Seven quickly moved up and mowed down another Rebel, though the lead in that squad took a hit to the head which dropped him on the spot. That brought the total to four remaining Rebels in the antechamber to seven Vandron troopers. Viton got down onto her belly and crawled out into the haze between the two remaining members of Seven and put a laser through the throat of one more Rebel as bLaster fire whizzed over her head. Seven then took the arm off of another before catching him in the chest and putting him out of his misery. The two remaining Rebels retreated down the hall through the door that lead to the control room. As one of the troopers in Four stepped out from behind her bulkhead to follow the fleeing Rebels, she was shot from behind in the leg. As she fell she twisted and was able to pick off one of the Rebels that had come from behind them to attack her before she caught another round on the chest and fell dead. Danon rolled over onto his bad arm and unloaded a full clip of energy rounds into the remaining three Rebels that had attacked them from behind. He slowly got up and peered around the melted doorway to make sure there were no more enemies and found himself staring at three members of bi-squad three.
“Report!” yelled out Evon.
“Sir, bi- squad two has eliminated all resistance on levels four and five. They didn’t loose any more troopers after the initial ambush, and have four remaining,” replied Danon.
The leader of bi-squad three spoke up, “We cleared out levels three and two and chased these Last four troops up here, which the Lieutenant quickly dispatched. We have three troops left.”
“Danon, order the remaining members of bi-squad two up here on the double. In the meantime take an inventory of what we have available.”
They waited about fifteen minutes for the Last four troopers to rendezvous with them. After taking their inventory they had enough rounds of energy fire left, but only three grenades which were given to Viton. Just then a strange alarm began blaring and what sounded like a countdown commenced.
“Damnit,” screamed Evon, “Everyone, quickly to the bridge.” He gave orders as he ran, “Danon, Viton and Seven lay down cover fire for the members of bi-squad two and three. Four, you will follow me in after Two and Three.”
Two and Three rushed through the door and met a wave of energy fire. They estimated that there were about 12 remaining Rebels holed up in the bridge. Two Rebels were immediately felled by fire from Two and Three, but two of the members of Three and one of Two also met their deaths. The surviving troopers scattered against the bulkheads laying down cover fire as Evon and Four came through. Evon took off the head of what must have been the captain of the ship, and hit another in the shoulder. He dove to the floor as he watched two grenades sail over his head and land in the midst of the Rebels. They exploded with a tremendous boom and sent Rebel’s body parts flying everywhere. The Last members of Two and Three then jumped out and finished off the surviving Rebels.
“Now where in the name of the Almighty is the off switch for this damn self-destruct sequence?” screamed Evon to no one in particular.
Viton came running up to the control panel and tried frantically to shut it off, but she did not know what to do. This ship was slightly different then the schematics that they had been briefed on, and so they didn’t know exactly how to turn the device off. Then Danon came up and affixed his holo to the computer. He punched in a few commands and all of a sudden the alarm stopped.
“What the Hell did you do?” asked Evon in shock.
“I uploaded a virus into the computer’s mainframe” replied Danon sounding as shocked as Evon did. “Nothing in the ship will function right now, but at least it won’t blow us up.”
A loud cheer went up from the remaining ten troopers, they had made it.

“Sir,” exclaimed Defcon, “the Rebel vessel has stopped.”
“What,” said Chagnon in disbelief “has the boarding attempt succeeded?”
“It appears so my Lord. Alpha Leo Prime is reporting that the vessel is within range to open fire, but is doing nothing.”
“Praise be to the Almighty this day,” said Chagnon. “Have that vessel and the hull of the Overtaker towed into the space yard on Alpha Leo Prime immediately. Give all survivors a hero’s welcome on that world.”
“Gladly,” obeyed Defcon.
“My lord,” stepped in Junon, “what will we now do with this prize ship?”
“Well, we have two options, we may service it and add it to our own navy, or we may deconstruct it as we did to the colony ship and see what we may learn from it. I think I know which way you are leaning on this issue Junon. What do you think Defcon?”
“I would agree with Junon that it should be deconstructed. Perhaps we will learn how to build larger ships from its design. That would more than make up for the loss of one such ship.”
“See to it that it is done right away then,” ordered Chagnon.
“Yes sir,” answered Defcon.
And with that the members of the High Command went off to celebrate this small victory among the many losses that would surely come.

[ September 12, 2003, 15:41: Message edited by: chewy027 ]