Collab between me and Yen.-----
Norma Expanse
Deep SpaceFor six decades, they've been left to rot, to be forever forgotten in the cold embrace of the void. Although the Expanse War had long been over and done with, the scars and signs left behind still lingered, moving aimlessly through the void. A large graveyard of starship wreckage had accumulated over the years, warships of Aurolian, Astranan and even Volkadian designs were slowly melding together to form this vast graveyard, an ever present and sore reminder of a conflict long ago, and of past sins.
The crackling sound of the comms unit on the Valkyrie vessel emitted across the entirety of its halls, and rooms. “All personnel prepare for docking with a MVDA. Attachment crews ready yourselves at airlocks.” The science vessel drifted closer to the wreckage graveyard, normally they’d explore these sorts of space anomalies simply for the chance to possibly develop new technology, but this time they’d been paid to do so.
As the vessel reached the optimal range it’s thrust rotated so that it brought its port to the combination of warship remnants. Doors opened across the port side of the ship, hissing as the airlock released. Women wearing thrusters on their backs traversed the space between the wreckage and the science vessel, trailing behind them thick cables with self welding pads. The women attached the pads to the wreckage, and immediately the pads turned a bright orange as steel bubbled and melted together.
A voice came over the comms once more as one of the women involved in the attachment gave the all clear to reel themselves in safely to the dead vessel. Captain Viola stepped to the long range communications console and tapped in several passcodes and finally a frequency. “This is Science Lab Vessel Alpha of the Starburst Valkyrie Corporation, we are in contact with the MVDA, requesting final mission parameters from the URAS.”
Several moments passed before they received a response. "This is Seventh Fleet Command." Spoke a masculine voice. "Your recovery teams are to thoroughly search the ARS
Vanquisher for the aforementioned object, once the weapon as has been retrieved and is secured, you are to immediately link up with the Seventh Fleet to the assigned rendezvous point." There was a brief pause before the voice spoke up. "Good Luck."
The long range communicator was switched off and Viola returned to her Captain’s seat on the bridge. She ran her fingers along the console on the arm of her seat and opened up communications to her own ship once more. “I need four retrieval teams to head over to the MVDA, Carlyle, Sanchez, Baily, and Davis you will lead the teams. Ten security troopers, and an engineer each. Midfield, i want security details at every airlock in case we run into any nasties and they try to get on board with us. Be careful ladies.” Viola closed the comms and gave a sigh as she stared at her screen. “We’re supposed to be researchers, not field operatives.”
The four teams had already suited up, wearing the traditional combat gear for void troopers. Using the cables they pulled themselves to the void wreckage, and activated their magnetic boots and worked their way inside either using holes already available, or by using magna cutters to remove door shaped plates. Flashlights on their helmets illuminated the areas, the troopers taking point as their HUDs fed information to them on their surroundings, and their current firearms condition.
Once the light pushed away the darkness within the corridors of the derelict vessel, the troopers witnessed a rather troublesome sight, a horde of
Void Leeches latching onto nearly every corner of the hall, the flashlights disturbing the beasts as a number of the leeches detached themselves from the walls and begun angrily floating towards the intruders.
“We have void leeches.”
“We do too”
Confirmation from all four teams down came about the void leeches, though this was quickly followed by shooting, the weaponry of the teams tearing through the creatures in the hall, using the funneling effect there to make quick work of the ones before them. “Clear!” Came from Alpha team and was echoed by the rest along with a report of no casualties. The teams continued down the halls clearing any side rooms as they went.
Once the excitement of the skirmish had died down, and as the troopers moved deeper into the insides of the
Vanquishers, the atmosphere slowly grew more...isolated, the recovery teams passing by floating corpses of the long dead crew, their bodies disturbingly preserved in the dark void, their faces frozen in anguish, their final painful moments on display for all to see. It was an unsettling sight to behold. In one section of the ship, a trooper had begun to notice...shadows moving on the corner of her eye.
Alpha team stopped as the comms opened up, and apparently Davis team had located the target. Davis began to punch codes into the container for the bomb slowly working through its passwords, and pins so that she could get the core removed. Meanwhile the rest of the troops had begun setting up to leave, Alpha team being the first to start heading for the exit. “Returning to homeship Captain eta ten minutes” Sanchez reported over the comms. Everyone though was on edge, still looking around for whatever those fleeting shadows were.
The "shadows" that had briefly stalked the halls, following the recovery teams had soon made themselves known, old, rusted Republic Warbots had emerged from darkened halls, several entering the same room as the recovery team that had found the bomb. One of the old warbots raised its rifle towards one of the troops, discharging its weapon as chemrails shot through the nozzle, tearing through one of the troopers, the other bots follow suit as they fired their weapons. "In the name of the Republic! Stand down!" the warbots chanted through the comm channels.
.
“Son of a bitch we have malfunction droids!” Suddenly flooded the channel, Davis moved down behind the bomb to keep some cover as she fired her pistol from around the corner. The rest of the troopers taking covered behind what they could returning fire and knocking down a few of the rusted robots. The rest of the teams began moving towards Davis position tactically, shooting through whatever warbots were in their way as they went. However Bailey’s team got pinned up in the cafeteria, where there seemed to be a large amount of the warbots.
“We’re pinned we can’t make it to Davis team, we’ll be fine though we can hold them off!” Bailey shouted over the comms as two of her troopers now lay dead on the floor having been shot through by the chemrail guns.
Several squads of the malfunctioning warbots continued their advance on the pinned mercenaries, weapons fire peppering the walls of the kitchen. "In the name of the Republic! s-ssxzsddzzzs" The voice box of the robot begun to screech over the comm channel as it broke down from the wear and tear.
Bravo and charlie teams began to tear through the Robots attacking Davis position burning through them as she was finally able to remove the bomb core. “Let’s go! Everyone out!” She yelled over the comm system. Alpha team remained quiet for a moment as they continued to fire at the Robots piling in the room.
“We aren’t going to get out of here! Complete the mission!” Another trooper fell, that was four so far, plus the engineer had gone down in the hallway. Bailey stood up and threw a chaff grenade, it distorted the troopers heads up displays, but also played with the Robots targeting systems. Though it wasn’t enough as a shot made it through her chest and sent her to the floor gasping for a few fleeting moments as the vacuum collapsed her lungs and crushed her heart.
The rest of the teams were rushing towards the exit, and began using their thrusters to clear the space between the wreckage and the science vessel. Any robots that followed were torn apart by Midfield’s teams waiting at the airlocks.
More and more of the warbots had converged on the retreating mercenaries, fruitlessly assault the airlocks in waves, their wreaked bodies piling up to the point of blockage. "sZZZZHHHHH" Was all that could be heard now, the warbots overworking themselves to fend off the intruders, but to no avail.
As the last of Bravo, Charlie, and Delta teams got inside the science vessel, and Midfield shut the airlocks, they could hear the cries of the remaining troopers in the wreckage as they were murdered. Viola growled. “Fire broadside turrets I don’t want those piles of junk getting on my ship!” The Science vessel using what little firepower it had began to fire into the openings the robots were coming out of, it wasn’t strong enough to destroy a ship but it was easily enough to destroy the robots.
The warbot bodies poured out from the hole made upon their forceful entry, those warbots that still functioned floated out, making themselves easy targets as the Science Vessel's guns begun tearing through them into scrap metal until they stopped their advance all together.
The science vessel veered away and put distance between itself and the wreckage, already an officer tallying up the dead, and placing price markers next to their names as assets lost. Viola gave a sigh. “Plot a course for the Seventh Fleet, we have a package to deliver.” The nav officer tapped into the console plotting the course, and finally the FTL drive kick into life and with a small popping sound the science vessel was moving as quickly as possible to rendezvous with Seventh fleet.
Aurolian Border
Corona SystemSome hours had passed since the mission, the Science vessel closing in on the rendezvous point as it emerged from a Warp Gate, met with oncoming space traffic, ships lining up for Warp Gate travel. The Seventh Fleet however, was not too far behind, as over a hundred warships cluttered together, circling around the Corona Warp Gate as they awaited for the arrival of their package.
As the Science vessel got closer a shuttle release from it’s bay. Within was Midfield and a small security team along with the bomb core. Rather gracefully it docked with the flagship of the Seventh Fleet, Midfield and the security team walking down the shuttle’s ramp with the package in tow on a hover cart. “Release package into your custody as requested.”
A rather imposing Scorpine dressed in an Admiral's uniform approached Valkyrie with several marine guards. The Scorpine made an attempt to "smile" to show his appreciation for this dire task. "Excellent work." The Scropine spoke. "And as agreed, you will be paid handsomely for your troubles and further compensated for any casualties and damages taken." The Admiral motioned to the marines to take the core, without a word spoken, the marines walked over, the security team moving out of their way to as they took the core elsewhere within the dreadnought. "A pleasure doing business, as always." The Admiral said as he took his leave. He hesitated for a moment, turning to face Midfield. “And I trust this stays between us?”
Midfield gave a nod, handing over the device without even a word. “What stays between us Admiral?” She says with a nod and steps back into the shuttle followed by the security detail. They were off and back to the science vessel in seconds flat.
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