Lyonria Travel Hub, Tropical Rain forest
SA-139, Sirius A system
May 22, 2050, 19:13 SST (Sol Standard Time)
The Hammerhead forces stood little chance versus what came through the wormhole within the cube-shaped room on the top spire of the Lyonria hub. The deadly subzero air from within Tiamat’s tomb blew through the opened wormhole gate, shrouding its presence with white mist as it clashed with the warm humid air within the hub. The white mist eventually crystallized into tiny snowflakes as more cold air traversed through the gate. It created a blanket that gave temporary cover to the legions of Marduk’s troops that passed through with their weapons blazing.
The utter chaos that ensued forced all medical personnel that had built a makeshift camp to flee along with their Poniga survivors who had escaped from Marduk’s ship days ago. The Hammerheads acted heroically using their bodies to shield the fleeing medical staff and their Poniga patients as they ran across the bridge into the teleportation alcove at the end. The Hammerheads that fell as their shield power shattered were dragged backward by their brothers- and sisters-in-arms as they made a tactical retreat to join up with those that fled before them.
In a matter of minutes, the room became overrun with hostile forces that meandered about within the blinding veil of white mist and snow still spewing out from the opened gate. Unknown to them and the Hammerheads, there was an unexpected trio slipping out from the gate, Chevallier, Mavron, and Eisila. They kept low and used the mist around them to sneak past Marduk’s forces as they continued to fan out and make plans to charge across the bridge and capture the rest of the Lyonria hub.
Like hell they will, Chevallier thought, and looked back to ensure Mavron and Eisila were still with her.
They edged closer toward the rim of the mist, a good pair of eyes would quickly reveal to Marduk’s soldiers who they really were. Chevallier saw the long rail-less bridge in the distance, she did her best to quickly recall the intel she learnt about this place from Williams and Rivera’s report. The teleportation alcove at the end was where all the UNE forces had likely run too. Her HUD reported that her shield power was in the green along with Mavron and Eisila.
She spun around and made hand gestures suggesting to the two siblings that they were going to make a run for it. No access to EVE meant no access to instant translations, she hoped they got the message. There was no way for Chevallier to double back after them once the push started.
Chevallier gripped onto her rifle, entered a no fear trance, and started her sprint across the bridge. Laser cannon fire erupted.
98%
94%
89%
Her shields were dropping quickly.
86%
84%
Her shields held at that number.
She looked backward and saw the reason why. The duo of Mavron and Eisila were lagging behind, laser fire focused on them as they were easy prey, she was not. Fuck.
Chevallier halted her sprint midway across the bridge and pivoted to spray her rifle’s high velocity slugs in between the two as they ran past her. She fired repeatedly from the hip in hopes her exposed presence and blazing rifle raging was enough to provoke Marduk’s forces onto her.
34%
That did it, and quite possibly would do her in unless she made it to the alcove.
Her heavily armored feet created a symphony of clangs while she ran away, her rifle sang along to the beat with its pulsing battle cry. Low shields alarms reminded her of the critical situation she was in as she inched closer to the alcove in which Mavron and Eisila had just leaped into and vanished with two pulses of blue light.
She made it through the teleportation alcove, triggering swirling blue waves of psionic power to dematerialize and rematerialize her body elsewhere within the ancient alien structure. The first hurdle was complete. Her appearance made three Hammerhead members draw their rifles at her, Mavron, and Eisila, half-expecting them to be an enemy combatant.
“Who’s in charge here?” Chevallier asked as they lowered their rifles realizing they were friendly.
A heavily-armored Hammerhead stepped forward, his bearded face appeared before a small holographic overlay within Chevallier’s helmet, Petty Officer first class Hudson. “I am,” he said.
“OK, long story short, there’s a whole lot more of them than us, let’s keep moving.”
Hudson nodded and addressed the rest of his team and the medical staff. “All right folks, you heard the Chief, let’s move!”
“I need someone to link up with base camp,” Chevallier said. “Tell them to send every fucking Hammerhead out here on the double.”
“Might be SOL for that ma’am.” Hudson directed Chevallier to an entrance down the hallways, their feet splashed across sizeable puddles during the trek that took them outside onto a small balcony overhanging the battered tropical rain forest below. Hudson pointed at the skies and the thick dark-grey clouds that were moving in fast.
That’s when Chevallier was reminded of the start of the Williams report. “I’m guessing that hurricane isn’t through yet . . .”
“We’re in the eye of the storm ma’am. The rest of it will be on top of us again soon.”
“The transports will have to fly up and over the storm and through the eye then.”
“The eye will have moved behind us at that point. We have a few shield-modified transports that could travel through the storm, but most of them are parked here.”
Two teleportation alcoves later, the fleeing group arrived at the main lower entrance to the Lyonria hub. There was a second makeshift camp in front of the main entrance where other Hammerheads had garrisoned themselves. Beyond the camp was the entrance outside where the modified transports that were capable of flying through the storm were being loaded with the medical staff and injured Poniga.
“Let’s jam as many noncombatants onto the transports,” Chevallier said to Hudson. “Get them to the colony and then swap up with our forces there.”
“And the rest of us?”
Chevallier stepped outside and eyed the exotic alien tropical trees as their stringy green leaves rustled in the winds, winds that grew stronger with each passing minute. “If Marduk wants this hub he can have it. If his forces want everything else outside.” Chevallier smiled at the storm clouds rolling in, “then they’ll have to deal with our new ally.”
She began to give Hudson and his team the rundown on what she learnt about fighting Marduk’s soldiers. The importance of killing the overlords first as the grunts were nothing more than mind-controlled undead fighters, the dead don’t fear death. Chevallier guided Mavron and Eisila to a transport mostly filled with Poniga as a means of showing them they’ll be safer there. She was back with Hammerhead soldiers, and while she appreciated their bravery in coming with her, she would rather not have to deal with liabilities during the heat of battle.
Mavron and Eisila looked at the half-filled transport, shook their heads and climbed aboard. And then did the unthinkable. They went out of their way to pull several Poniga off the transports, mostly those that received mild injuries. At first everyone thought the two were helping with triage, ensuring that the severely injured were taken to safety over the lightly injured. Mavron and Eisila along with their hand-selected Poniga stood shoulder to shoulder next to the Hammerheads. Their intent became crystal clear.
“Looks like they want to stay and fight,” Hudson said, gazing at them.
Fine . . . just don’t get in my way. Chevallier grinned and crossed her arms. “Hudson, got any extra guns and armor lying around?”
TROPICAL RAIN FOREST