“Great we get to die first.” Anton “Killgrave” Maksimov said.
“Oh no, no, no. Don’t you dare start with this pessimism of yours again!” Leah “Red Fury” Smith said.
“We are entering an alien station about to fight mindless killer octopus drones that are controlled by an alien race we have never laid eyes on but have basically been at war with for thirty years. Not to mention that our friends Nel here have been at war with them for about a century, and lived alongside them for about another century. And they too didn’t know anything about them.” Anton retorted.
“Well, at least if they are mindlessly charging in your direction you won’t have any trouble aiming at them.” Dson “Rock” said in his usual calm Nel tone.
“Ha, ha. That stopped being funny after the first ten times you brought it up.” Anton said humorlessly.
“Perhaps to you, for us it is a source of endless amusement. And if my knowledge of Earth animals is correct, octopuses have eight limbs. These mindless drones only have seven.” Dson added.
Anton grumbled some choice words too low for the rest of the squad to hear.
“Don’t worry Anton, I’ll guard your back.” Toferami “Laas’tra” said, and then she slapped Anton on the back.
“Yeah because that will make him feel better. You can’t keep yourself out of trouble for more than fifteen minutes “blade chick”.” Adam “Lazy” Freeman said, using the standard version of Toferami’s Nel nickname, which he knew she hated.
“Ha, ha.” Toferami responded in the same exact tone as Anton.
“Alright guys, let’s just focus on the Sowir, the hatch will open any minute now.” Rasofari “Fig” said.
Just then the light above their heads turned green.
“That’s our go signal. Everybody move!” Zhu announced over the comms.
The seven soldiers stood and got in line with Zhu taking the rear. The hatch opened and they rushed into the station, prepared to fire. As soon as Zhu entered the station he noticed something strange.
“Uh… They must know that we are coming through here right?” Anton asked as they looked around the empty hallway. “I mean they still have sensors on the hull.”
“Be alert, they must be planning something. Keep moving towards checkpoint A.” Zhu ordered.
His squad got in formation and moved slowly. The inside of the Sowir ship was dimly lit, and the walls were rounded which made it seem like they were walking through a tunnel. As they didn’t encounter any sign of the Sowir they started moving faster, keeping watch on their HUD for any early warnings from their suits sensors.
The Sowir must have known that they were here, but they chose to let them come inside unopposed, and that made Zhu feel uneasy. If there was one word that described Sowir perfectly it was sneaky.
Then as they reached a three way branch in the hallway Zhu signaled his squad to stop. His HUD was showing strange reading from their rear.
“Fig, Fury move back a bit and check our rear. The rest take up positions here until they get back.”
They remained there waiting until the comm came back from Fig.
“There is nothing here SL.” Fig said.
“Okay, come back.” Just as Zhu finished speaking the sensors on his suit went off, and then Fig yelled out over the comm.
“Oh fuck me! We got hostiles incoming!”
“SL!” Killgrave yelled out at the same moment, “Hostiles from the front.”
“Get ready!” Zhu said as he watched Sowir mindlessly charging their positions from three hallways. “The two of you pull back right now.” Zhu told Fig over the comm.
His squad got into position, and waited for the hostiles to get into range. The weapon kits they were using now were specially made for fighting on ships or stations. They couldn’t use their weapons on their most powerful settings for fear of puncturing the hulls or damaging something they weren’t supposed to. Zhu carried a CF-13 light assault rifle, which was a smaller and less powerful version of the CFG-02 heavy assault rifle that fired bullets using a centrifugal force.
Zhu liked the rifle, although no recoil did take some getting used to. As the enemy forces approached, Zhu was the first to open fire. His rifle sending hundreds of bullets in a span of couple seconds, punching through the enemy nonexistent armor. Most of the Sowir “agents” had no weapons mounted on their back, only melee weapons on their limbs. And they simply ran at them to get into melee range where they could use their seven powerful limbs to their maximum potential. But a few of them had the small laser turrets mounted on the backs, similar to what they used thirty years ago.
But their lasers were too weak to inflict any kind of serious damage before one of Zhu’s squad mates turned his or her weapons on them. Zhu’s squad was killing them quickly, but still there was so many of them that eventually four managed to get into melee range. Laas’tra and Killgrave were at the front of their formation and immediately dropped their weapons. Then blades extended from their forearms and the two started fighting the four hostiles that managed to reach them.
Laas’tra dropped into a roll as one of the aliens jumped towards her body swiping with a blade like attachment on its limb. As she dropped Zhu had a clear shot and he fired at the alien, killing it before it even touched the ground. Laas’tra got up from her roll in front of an enemy and swiped with her two monomolecular blades cutting it in three pieces.
Killgrave wasn’t as lucky, one of them managed to jump and attach itself to his suit and was hacking at his shoulder with one of its free limbs. Zhu tried to get a shot off, but Killgrave was moving constantly. Then Killgrave managed to free one of his hands and slice one of the limbs holding him. After that he stabbed with his blade into its middle section and swiped out spilling blood and gore over the walls. The thing still held on so he repeated the move until it finally let go and dropped to the floor in a mangled mess.
While Killgrave was dealing with his opponent Laas’tra had killed the last of the hostiles. Then she turned to Killgrave with blood splattered all over her suit, standing in the middle of three dead bodies.
“See, I told you that I got your back!” She said.
Zhu turned to Lazy, “Go check up on Fig and Fury.” As Lazy turned and ran back to help their squad mates, Zhu checked in with his imp and got an update from the command.
“Other squads have arrived on station, and they are reporting being attacked from ambushes.” Zhu said.
“There is about thirty of them here, if they attacked the other squads with the same numbers they still have much more troops. A station of this size usually held a large number of Sowir – their agents.” Dson said.
“Probably.” Zhu responded, as the three from the rear returned. Fig and Furry too were covered in gore.
“All ok?” Zhu asked.
“Yes. About ten of them were on their way to attack us from the back.” Fig responded.
Zhu check the map on his HUD and decided to take the fastest and the most direct route to their target. “Alright squad, the station’s command center is about a kilometer that way. We are going fast and alert, keep watch for more ambushes.” Zhu said pointing at the far left hallway.
In a brisk pace they covered ground quickly. The enemy attempted two more ambushes but both times the Empire soldiers prevailed. Finally they arrived at the door to the command center, in front of it eight of the hostiles stood guard. But these were fully dressed in combat armor with double barreled weapons on their backs.