Gamma Asteroid

[Michael Hobbar]

Admin Post
08/12/3358
0603 hours
Gamma Asteroid


"Don't Move! DON'T MOVE!" Staff Sergeant Dwain Jones yelled through the speaker in his helmet. The battle was over, there was only one ARM trooper who had his hands in the air, surrounded by numerous SDC troopers who were walking towards him slowly with weapons raised. The closest person to him was Staff Sergeant Jones who was now slowly stepping over the barricade. As he approached the enemy soldier, he realized that there was a gernade on his belt that had been pulled. "Shit!" he said before the ARM trooper exploded, killing himself and Staff Sergeant Jones with him. The blast shook the bay a little and then there was pure silence. "Secure the area." Captain Jones said over the net. Third and Fourth platoons then secured the control tower, which had no occupants inside. All that was inside were the sounds of a looped recording that could now be heard all across the bay. It was the voice of General Sneer. “The Republic has betrayed you. Don’t believe their lies my soldiers. The ones we fight now are brainwashed told by Human Corporation what to do! When we open the portal, all will be saved. We will save our star nation!” The ranting continued, but only a few troopers actually listened.


After a few minutes, Kilo Company then moved on to it’s next objective. “First and Second Platoons, proceed down to the lower level and secure the living area. Move out in ten mikes.” The HUD on everyone’s helmet showed the hallway, the door to the far left of the room was leading to a stairwell. Mike Company had already gone down a level, and were currently fighting to secure the maintenance bay. Third and Fourth platoons got the same orders. However Hobbar over saw the bodies of Godfred and Corporal Kennedy, he watched in scilence as the medics zipped up the bodies. With Lima Company evaced, the next regiment would arrive in twenty mikes to give them all much needed reinforcements. Staff Sergeant Silva nodded when Lamond told him what had happened. He could see it for himself and the visor didn’t look like it’d hold. “Good thing we’re near the Sparrows. Lamond head on over quickly to our Sparrow and get a replacement helmet, the Sparrows have a emergency hatch on the floor of the troop compartment, it has five sets of body armor, and medical items, however due to the navy being paranoied it dosen’t have ammo for your weapon. You’ll just have to get that off of a dead ARM trooper. The loud speaker continued “Don’t be frightened my sons and daughters. We will prevail in our goal, we will be victorious! The portal shall be opened! The government see our ways and join us in a crusade against this….vile corporation!” The loud speakers continued to blare throughout the entire station. Lieutenant Hobbar said on the platoon wide net “First platoon, we are now moving out….Galloway, your on point. Vinigan, stay next to me.” He said. The platoon followed Galloway down the darkened stairwell. Second Platoon was already down there in the area, the stairwell was not a good place to be shot at, it was very narrow. The cold gray metal was almost…….like a scene out of a horror flick, like it would fall and break any moment. Once Galloway had gotten down to the destination however she found herself seeing that the passage way was blocked. Second Platoon’s demolitions expert was already placing an explosive onto the barricade. The door itself was closed but in addition were metal that had been welded on. Someone must of used the time while they were fighting above to weld metal onto the door. And the door itself could barely even be seen. “Zhour, Galloway, join her.” Hobbar ordered.


Lisa Blake tried to out run her opponent. Her cockpit had sirens going off. After saving the Sparrows, the ARM Starfury’s had gotten her lower right engine and she was in a lower nose dive heading fast for the base. “Pull up…Pull up….” The automatic female voice came on. Why was it always a female voice? She cursed under her breath and pulled the leaver to eject , a second later she was thrown forward from smaller jets, and sped away from her Starfury. Behind her she felt a explosion, her Starfury was no more. She didn’t know how fast she was going but she couldn’t control where she was going with the cockpit being ejected this close to the base. She closed her eyes as the cockpit slammed into the base itself and only stopped fifty feet inside the base. Her body lunged forward and as it slammed her a few bones in her left rib cage broke. And so did her left wrist. “AHHHHHHHH!!!!” she screamed. She had immense pain. Trying to see where she was she figured that she was in the middle of a large corridor where four hallways met. The ejection seat automatically sent a emergency IFF to any friendly units near by…… She grabbed her pistol and cocked it, the ARM would come looking for her. It didn’t help that she had to aim with her right hand…as she was left handed.. … She tried to hit the button to open the canopy but the device had broken when she landed……….


On the other side of the corridor, the platoons of Kilo got a message that a Starfury cockpit had crash landed right into the middle of the hallway of the area where they were supposed to secure. "Members of the UCHD, put down your weapons and join us. We will teach you the truth about the Republic you so kindly serve! Do not fight us, we are helping humanity reach it's highest potential. When the Portal is opened, all will be made well. We shall save humanity!"

[Berlioz Lamond]

That wasn't exactly what Berlioz had wanted to hear. Being told to scurry back to the dropship to swap out his helmet seemed unnecessary but disobeying direct orders in the middle of a combat zone was something he didn't want to become too much of a habit despite the orders he usually refused being completely nonsensical and backed up by other soldiers in his squad. He simply replied "Yes Sergeant" and pushed off the crate towards their Sparrow roughly 20 metres away from them.

As he slowly drifted over the speaker system continued to blare out ARM propaganda, “Don’t be frightened my sons and daughters. We will prevail in our goal, we will be victorious! The portal shall be opened! The government see our ways and join us in a crusade against this… vile corporation!” He sighed, he knew part of him agreed, the Human Corporation was flawed, quite badly, there were politicians with too many knives aimed at each other's backs, too much money exchanging hands that it probably shouldn't, not to mention the clear acts of war crimes committed by the SS and their armoured troopers. While the conflict between ARM and the UCHD was clearly inevitable, the fact that General Sneer had made this a personal crusade against the Human Corporation and its allies meant that there was no way this would end peacefully. Either the UCHD stood down and allowed ARM to dismantle the Human Corporation, or General Sneer was removed of his life, as there was obviously no situation where the General would allow himself to be seen surrendering.

Flicking the safety on his rifle on, he let it drift along on its sling as he bumped into the side of the Sparrow. Maneuvering around using the edges of the craft he slowly brought himself into the hold and orientated himself correctly using the bars and handles dotted around the hold. He looked through the open hatch between the hold and the cockpit to see the pilot missing but the co-pilot still there, now looking around the back of his seat at Berlioz. He opened a com-channel with him, feeling somewhat bad that with his HUD out of commission and being unable to see any indication of rank or name he couldn't address him properly, ["Co-Pilot, could you seal and pressurise the hold, I need to swap out my helmet."] He didn't get a response but the pilot did reach up and flick a pair of switches to his left. The large ramp behind him lifted until it closed and the hiss of the seal resounded through the somewhat cramped space. Then the locally generated gravity kicked in with the seal and everything suddenly had weight again as his feet quickly came back into contact with the ground.

The pilot gave him a thumbs up, indicating that the seal was complete. Berlioz unclipped the helmet from the body armour, a tiny hiss as the atmosphere in the suit balanced out with that of the Sparrow. Lifting it completely off his head, he took a moment to enjoy being able to breathe without the sense that he had a completely enclosing helmet on. Sitting in one of the seats that was next to the floor hatch containing the spare armour sets, he spun the helmet round in his hands until the visor was facing him, the strange random spider web of cracks glinting somewhat in the dull light that made it though the hatch. That crack was really something, had he been a few millimetres in a different direction or looking in a different way, that would have been it. He scowled at the helmet, then let it fall out of his hands onto the floor of the hold, rolling a short distance away.

Reaching down he opened the hatch, picking out a new helmet from the small row. Spinning it round so he was looking at the back. He shook his hair out to try and clear off some of the sweat that had built up while wearing the previous one before putting the new one on, shifting it till his hair was back above the foam layer that went across his brow. Standing up again he clipped it into place and nodded at the co-pilot and he flicked the same pair of switches. Gravity disappeared and the short lived atmosphere vented out as the ramp lowered. He pushed himself out and moved around the edge of the open hatch, drifting back towards where the Platoon had moved to, his new HUD highlighting their current position.

[Michael Hobbar]

As Hobbar watched the bodies being plaed into body bags, he couldn't help but feel well, like it was his fault some how. The chaos of the battle was extremely intense, close quarter's combat was always the worst. It wasn't his fault at all. But he owed it to all of them, he owed it to the platoon to some how make it matter. They had to go further into the station, and whatever the ARM had planned for them was going to be worse! He hated his job sometimes, especially when in a few hours, they'd all return to the Dauntless Fury. He would have to write of course an after action report on the mission. But writing a death notice was and would always be hard. He shook his head inside his helmet and took a deep breath. God ...if there was such a thing was probably laughing right now at him. He wasn't any particular religion, he was what had been called agnostic. Someone who believed in a god but not a specific god, not Christian, Jewish, Muslim, buddhist or the latter. Just someone who believed that somewhere out there was an all powerful being.

Turning around he saw the platoon near the crates that the enemy had taken cover in. Bodies floating very low he slowly walked in the now zero g environment. Why didn't the corps have magnetic boots with the space suit? Some idiotic bureaucrat had decided they didn't need them. It'd help much in this kind of environment. As he joined the platoon, he noticed that Lamond was rushing back towards the Sparrows. Well he'd better hurry up, knowing Captain Jones he'd want to move out in a few minutes. Than after Lamond had returned to the platoon, he said over the platoon link “First platoon, we are now moving out….Galloway, your on point. Vinigan, stay next to me.” He said. He'd have a serious talking to with Vinigan after the mission, you just don't say somethings on the platoon wide net. As they moved down the stairwell, the yellow lights illuminated the armor that they were wearing. Passing by the next level he could barely hear the sounds of gunfire inside. The door had been closed shut, probably by the platoon who entered it. Hopefully the station still had oxygen he wouldn't dare open it here with the blast doors two levels above them still open leading to space. You had to be very stupid to open your helmet right now.


Coming to their destination, which was in fact the end of the stairwell, he spotted Second Platoon. Two of the demolition expert was currently setting demo packs on the door.“Zhour, Galloway, join her.” . Second Platoon's lieutenant Franks was very quiet, and rightly so he just saw his Staff Sergeant killed. Suddenly something shook the station, and he floated a little to the right. He wondered what the hell had happened when a friendly beacon placed itself on his HUD's map. Some pilot had just ejected right into the middle of the corridor. Well this had just turned a sweep and clean mission into a rescue mission. "First platoon, when the door is breached, watch your fire, a pilot has ejected him or herself into the middle of the corridor. I want the rooms cleared out, and keep that pilot safe from any enemy troops." he told them.

[Christopher Reed]

Reed ducked down by one of the crates as soon as the ARM trooper exploded, not knowing what else to expect. Staying down he waited and listened for anything else to occur. After a few moments, he stood back up slowly scanning the room for any kind of movement and saw that the area was right now at least clear. He walked forward slowly as other platoons went into the control bay room and cleared it out. In a few moments, it was clear, the rest of the platoon gathered together but he couldn't help but listen to the loud speakers. “Don’t be frightened my sons and daughters. We will prevail in our goal, we will be victorious! The portal shall be opened! The government see our ways and join us in a crusade against this…vile corporation!” Portal? What was he talking about? A portal? Really he must have gone completely insane, so now he wanted to open a portal that would do something. He chuckled a little and shook his head walking towards the platoon.

He wondered where the lieutenant was as he walked up to everyone. Staff Sergeant was silent, no one really said anything. Well what was there to say? Oh we just got done killing some terrorists, how about a cigar! How could anyone follow these....maniacs? It was unreal to him, these people must have no lives to join this lunatic. Then killing yourself ......it was just. He couldn't describe what he felt at the moment, pity, sadness maybe something else would describe what he felt. Reed was happy that he wasn't on point who knew what the bastards would pull this time! Walking in that very narrow corridor was unsettling to him. It was a perfect place to ambush the platoon.


When they reached the end of the stairwell, he saw that the door had been barricaded and the platoon that had arrived before them was already working on blowing it up. Well that was just dandy! Looking around, he saw other troopers not talking either. Seeing your Staff Sergeant killed a few minutes ago dropped morale among them. that was understandable. Saying on the platoon wide net "I wonder if they'll just surrender this time. There's no way off the station. Why not just give up." he said out loud. A second later he dropped to his knees as the station shook, what the hell? As he got back up he saw the friendly IFF beacon on his HUD. Then the lieutenant barked orders. This was about to get very interesting.

[Wei Zhour]

The battle finally ended...for now at least. Zhour walked or rather hopped around one of the crates towards the platoon gathering around the staff sergeant. The Staff Sergeant was talking to Lamond at the moment. His visor was cracked, and that wasn't good, it might and most likely break and then killing him. As he stood there he said "I'd get a new helmet if I were you, it might kill you." he said. The Staff Sergeant looked at him before looking away. He then checked his rife, and took out his clip. He only had four bullets left, not to mention the little icon on the side of his rifle telling him. Almost most of the time he didn't look at that, only a few people actually did. He then took it out, and it floated away in the zero g. He watched it slowly float upwards. He always hated it when the brass would destroy a gravity well.


But then again he wasn't in charge so it wasn't his decision. If he was in charge..well it'd be different. The lieutenant gave the order to move out, and he grunted. It'd be a long while before they were all back on the Dauntless Fury. Walking into the stair well seemed pleasing to him. He liked these cramped dark places they were comforting to him. But he also realized that the Arm could ambush them here which wouldn't take that much, just set some booby traps. Finally they reached the bottom of the stairwell. There was another platoon and were currently blocked. Hobbar ordered him to help out the other demolition expert who was placing a demo pack in the center of the welded items. How the hell did they manage this? He got out his pack and found four demolition packs. The packs would use nanotech to attach themselves to whatever object they were placed on and then would go off at a determined time by the operator. The demo pack was a dark green with a large screen with numbers that currently said zero. He found a piece of sheet metal on the surface near the far left side. Placing it on the object, it released the nanobots that then attached themselves to the object and couldn’t be moved. Taking another one, he placed it a few feet below the one that he had just previously set.


Then he stood back looking for other areas to place his remaining two and decided to do on the other side, in the exact same places. Walking around Galloway, he moved to the other side. Placing the charges in the exact same place, he nodded to Hobbar who leered a little to the left. Something shook the station rather hard. He lost his balance a little and leaned backwards before he stood back up straight. Then on his HUD the friendly IFF signal came on. Great. The lieutenant gave them an update on the mission. Saving the pilot was now part of the objective. Hopefully those bastards hadn’t gotten to her yet. “Lieutenant, I’ll set the charge for three mikes, so we can get away safely. Not wise to be inside the stairwell when it goes off.” He said.

[Jorge Silva]

Silva still couldn't believe what he saw. One moment, Staff Sergeant Jones was there, and the next he was completely gone in an explosion. The ARM bastard must of twerked his smart gernade and changed the IFF some how. Gernades rarely blew up near a friendly unit,unless there was a malfunction or in this case, the person changed the IFF signal. Slowly getting up from where he was he stood there waiting as the other platoons cleared out the control tower. Within a few moments the area was declared secure by the company commander Todd Jones. He walked over towards the crates where the ARM made their last stand. He then saw Lamond who had a cracked visor and told him “Good thing we’re near the Sparrows. Lamond head on over quickly to our Sparrow and get a replacement helmet, the Sparrows have a emergency hatch on the floor of the troop compartment, it has five sets of body armor, and medical items, however due to the navy being paranoied it dosen’t have ammo for your weapon. You’ll just have to get that off of a dead ARM trooper. As Lamond then left he said on the platoon net. "First, on me." and looked where the ARM troopers had made a last stand. It was always like this, he'd been on a few other missions with the ARM, but they always made a last stand literally.


As the troopers arrived he said "Make sure your weapons are working , get ready to move out, it'll come at any time." he said. Which was true and knowing the Captain it'd be soon. He saw in the distance Hobbar standing near the medics as they zipped up the bodies of Godfred and Kennedy. He knew that it was hard for the lieutenant, it was also hard on Silva. But Hobbar was the kind to dwell and think of better ways to protect the platoon. He couldn't stand loosing anyone in the platoon. He hoped that they didn't loose anyone else while on the mission. Members of the platoon were quiet for some reason, but then again what was there to really say at the moment? Then the announcement came from the lieutenant “First platoon, we are now moving out….Galloway, your on point. Vinigan, stay next to me.”


"Alright move it like you got a purpose people." Silva walked behind Reed and as they made their way down he said "Check those corners.". The enemy could right now be waiting around anywhere, and the stairwell was perfect for an ambush. At last they made their way to the bottom of the stairwell where Second Platoon was starting to place explosives to destroy the barricade. "Keep your eyes peeled." he told the platoon. As Zhour placed explosives, something struck the station, he couldn't really feel the vibration but he did feel a slight jolt. His HUD showed a friendly IFF signal in the cooridoor of where they were about to enter, and Hobbar barked out orders. "Check your targets when we enter and don't hit the pilot. " He couldn't say much more until they breached the door.

[Michael Hobbar]

Admin Post
08/12/3358
0616 hours
Gamma Asteroid

"First Platoon, head back up the stairs to the landing bay." Lieutenant Hobbar said over the platoon mike. The platoon quickly ran back up the stairs to the bay. Upon entering the bay they could now see the Sparrows were leaving the station. It'd be another fifteen minutes before the other regiment was about to arrive. Mike Company had left one platoon here to make sure the area stayed clear of any enemy troops. After five minutes a small and tightly packed explosion destroyed the barricade, and the door as well. The door broke apart shattering into medium size pieces and floated around the entrance of the hallway. The items that had made up the barricade were now specs of flating debries, small items, the size of sand, not to mention the nanobots in the space. The nanobots were now deactivated and wouldn't harm anyone or anything. Lieutenant Franks said to Hobbar. "If you'll clear out the rooms we'll make sure the hallway stays clear and keep the pilot safe.” Hobbar then nodded and Franks’s platoon headed down first. “Alright everyone, change of plans. Second is going to clear out the hallway. We are going to clear out the rooms. Staff Sergeant Silva, you take Lamond , Zhour and Amberson. Vinigan, Galloway, and Reed your with me. We’ll clear out the rooms. I don’t want anyone doing anything heroic, keep yourselves safe.” He told them all.


Lisa saw from where she was that a door was opening in the hallway, or rather blown out. Good lord what had happened?! Then as if on que, other doors around her began to open with numerous ARM troops coming out, quickly putting up other barricades on each side of the hallway. There were a total of she assumed four rooms in this hallway? She tried to estimate the number of ARM troops that she saw but they were moving around too much for her to count. At least they had to float to get anywhere. Then one of the troopers suddenly spotted her and told another trooper. They both then came over to her. One of them then raised their arm toward her while another then shook his head in an obvious no. Lisa had hid her weapon behind her back with her right hand on the trigger. Her right hand behind her back she waited for what they were gong to do. Another ARM trooper came this time with his pistol and gestured to her. One of them nodded in agreement. She’d shoot them but the glass was bullet proof. And what were they arguing about?! Another explosion arrived this time from the other side of the hallway, and the ARM troopers who were in front of her quickly were trying to pry open her cockpit.


Second Platoon arrived shortly after third platoon began to flood into the area. Almost in unison the two platoons entered and began to fire at the enemy. The ARM troopers got behind the tables that they had set up in the hallways taking cover and returning fire when they could. There were a total of sixty ARM troopers in this part of the station, most of them however were out here. With a few inside the rooms most likely waiting for the assault.

Four ARM troopers went down where Franks’s platoon was coming from. Hobbar quickly followed and highlighted on everyone’s HUD where to go. Silva would take the one on the right while he’d take the one on the left. Opening the door on his side ,Hobbar quickly glanced inside. Bunk beds were around the outer walls, while a large table was in the center and at least twelve ARM troopers. They were behind overturned bunk beds. He fired four shots into the room, hitting only one in the chest.

Silva fared no better when he opened his room, it had scarcely any furniture, only tables and chairs with a few posters on the wall. And there were eight ARM troopers behind over turned tables who fired in his direction. Jorge grabbed his rifle and blindly fired ten shots into the room, hoping to hit one of them. He only hit one of them in the left hand instead.

[Wei Zhour]

Wei grunted. He hated close quarters' combat. But especially in situations such as these where no matter what you tried to do, it would never be easy nor would it be simple. But he would do his best, after all that's what the SDC trained him to do. Do your best under the pressure. Zhour was right behind the other side of the door, across from Silva who was also kneeling at the moment. Well not exactly kneeling, he was trying to squat but being in the zero g made it very difficult, he was holding onto the wall pushing himself down. Knowing from his HUD that there were eight troopers it'd be quick and easy to throw a grenade. But throwing grenades in weightless environments were never easy. The grenade could go only half way to it's target and then explode without killing them...and sending shrapnel everywhere. Even though the debris from the earlier explosion wouldn't puncture their suits it still made it hard to find and track a target. So he'd have to fire his shotgun...which luckily for him would spread out amongst the ARM troopers.


Gripping his shotgun, Zhour knew that it'd be stupid to try and lean in there to stand in front of the doorway and fire. Instead, he quickly glanced inside and fired a round at two soldiers who happened to be standing up. Before he saw the effects he went back behind cover. On his HUD, one of the eight bright red dots turned a dark maroon, indicting that the enemy was no longer alive or wounded and not moving. Either way, he hit someone. Pumping the shotgun again he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He leaned his head inside and spotted one target, which he fired at before going back behind cover. The round either missed the target completely or he was only wounded to where he could still move around. The red dots confirmed seven active targets were still inside the room. Dammit. Bullets went past him, as he saw a unlucky trooper across the hall one of the members of Frank's platoon get hit by the gunfire. He was hit in the leg and collapsed before being peppered with more rounds. Blood began to float around the hallway, not just from him but from both sides. Zhour got enraged by this and once more looked inside the room spotting three targets close to each other. This time he fired two rounds right after another not getting behind cover. Two of the targets fell back and slowly floated , their chestplates having holes inside them and the other target had his or her left arm wounded very severely. Zhour got back behind cover

[Christopher Reed]

Bullets pinged against the metal and Reed gritted his teeth. Twelve contacts inside the room?! And for that matter in a weightless environment it made it even more challenging. He could throw a grenade in there....but it'd float and wouldn't really explode where he wanted it to explode. But perhaps he could actually work that to his advantage. If a grenade and himself were weightless than throwing it down at an angle would then cause the grenade to go up higher and maybe even reach where all or a majority of them were taking cover. Well if that happened even the explosion would cause a lot of shrapnel in that room, not to mention the size of the room would be greatly effected. Screw it. Grabbing one of his grenades, he shouted on the platoon comm "Fire in the hole!" and as he shouted that he unpinned the grenade and threw it in a downward motion in the door opening, down toward the enemy.


The grenade bounced off of the floor and slowly went upwards fast as it did, only three ARM members had gotten up to shoot suddenly saw the grenade coming towards them. Before any of them could of had a chance to say anything, the grenade exploded only five feet from where all of them were taking cover. It had drifted to the left but the explosion that followed killed the two who were taking cover the force of the blast killed them instantly. The third who came up got killed instantly his helmet's visor shattering and his face becoming indescribable. A fourth member had just started to stand up when he was hit in the back with multiple pieces of shrapnel that shattered his armor and was bleeding heavily,floating. Three others were disoriented by the explosion while the others were not effected that much. Reed looked at his HUD and saw that the twelve bright red dots had now become only eight dots. Whether the others were killed or severly wounded didn't matter right now. He just helped thin the numbers of the enemy. He had however hoped that it'd kill more of them but he'd take what he could get.


But there were still many enemies in the room. At least the grenade got rid of a few of them. When he was about to look into the room and fire at the enemy a very sharp pain in his lower left abdoman came to his senses and it burned. Another sharp pain came this time from his upper left chest he looked and saw that he had been hit twice. Once near his stomach and another near his lung or rather left lung. He had trouble breathing and rapid breaths only made it even worse. He closed his eyes very sharply as he suddenly realized that he had been shot...twice but how? He slowly slumped down as best as one could in a zero gravity environment and looked towards the center of the corridor. The SDC platoons were going over the barricade, and the defenders had bunched up in a circle firing. Two of the bullets had hit him. Reed then slowly blacked out, his vision became fuzzy before all he saw was black...blood was coming from his body, and the droplets of blood turned into streams as he was bleeding extremely fast......

[Berlioz Lamond]

The situation that Berlioz and his other squad mates had found themselves in could only be described as a goddamn nightmare. Another burst of rounds slammed into the doorway he was trying to fire around, forcing him to lose his grip. He drifted upwards into the open, the last place he wanted to be. The moment the ceiling was within reaching distance, he rolled over and kicked off towards the floor, grabbing onto a piece of the destroyed barricade that was still attached to the wall, Berlioz was able to actually put some leverage into his movement and pinned himself against the wall.

Now that he wasn't a free floating target for all to take potshots at, he took a moment to think. These rooms need clearing, they've got to be some of the last pockets of resistance on this station but actually GETTING in the rooms to clear them out is nearly impossible because of some idiot that took out the gravity! Berlioz could feel himself getting more and more stressed at the rather unavoidable problem they faced. This is where he should be excelling, where he should be the most useful. Close-Quarters Combat was his specialty, he should be clearing these rooms with mechanical precision but the lack of gravity meant that he was completely ineffective in his best role.

Breathing in and out, he did his best to calm down and look at the situation again, If we can clear at least one room, we can use it as a staging point to push in further, perha- A dull thud resounded from inside the room that was part of the wall he was pressed up against. Did someone use a grenade?! The thought that someone would be both brave and stupid enough to use a fragmentation based weapon in a zero-G environment wasn't beyond him but still. Shifting so that he was locked in with the barricade, he shouldered his rifle and began taking aimed shots down the hallway at some of the soldiers that were filtering out of rooms further down.

He'd barely fired the 4th round when he finally paid attention to the object that was drifting in front of him. A body in SDC body armour, red floating lazily along side it. Berlioz mentally slapped himself for not noticing earlier as his HUD identified him as PFC Reed, the soldier that'd helped him back in the Hangar earlier. Crap, he's hit! He flicked on his radio and said with a measured but shaky tone, "Corpsman! I have a man down in the lower corridor, it's PFC Reed and it looks like he's losing blood!" He needed to get Reed out of the line of fire, he was basically target practice if he drifted too high, not to mention he would be losing pressure and air fast through the holes in his armour. If the corpsman wasn't close by, he'd have to try and pull Reed to cover, if he took another hit in his state, that'd be it.

[Ted Manning]

The initial "landing" had brought Lance Corporal Theodore Manning back to the battlefield he had left behind months earlier. He had been wounded in an engagement with ARM forces a few months back and went back to Earth to recover from the wounds he sustained. Now, all patched up, he was back with 1st squad ready to get back in the fight and save just as many lives as taking. The beginning of the fighting was rather uneventful in the medical field. Ted watched as several bullets pinged off of the armor of the marines but every once in a while a body would fall to the ground. Manning would then go over to check on them and it would just be another dog tag to collect. He had counted three dog tags in his cargo pouch already, not a number he wanted to have just minutes into a battle that looked as if it would rage on for hours.

It wasn't until the gravity turned off that Manning, as a combat medic, felt truly helpless. He knew how to stabilize and fight in zero g's but trying to save a life was another story. He bent his knees and kicked over into the hallway that the platoon was now entering, asking some of the men along the way if they needed any help with most them shaking their heads or verbally saying "no". More explosions and gunfire rocked and echoed through the hallways as combat erupted all around him. It all looked more like an aerial ballet recital than a fight of life and death. Bright tracers streaked across the steel walls, some finding their marks and some harmlessly bouncing until it burned out. A larger explosion ripped through the room to his right which was unexpected and caused Ted to lose his footing and float a little bit in front of the door. He briefly saw a glimpse of a soldier slowly falling and then hovering above the ground, definitely hurt but he wasn't able to make out who it was. He did; however, notice Lamond nearby and then received confirmation on a downed individual within the room when he heard Lamond yell "Corpsman."

Manning looked down to his medical pack and then pressed off the ground floating towards the hovering body in the room as dust began to settle. As soon as he entered through the doorway; however, bullets began slamming into the wall around him. There were still enemies alive in the cluttered room but if Ted engaged the recoil of his rifle would throw off his trajectory. So he kept floating on towards the body which he now saw on his HUD as PFC Reed. Finally his body slid behind a metal pillar right behind Reed, “Cover Me!” he said over the comms. It wasn't a yell or a scream, just a very assertive shout to get the attention of soldiers in his area. After a few seconds he stepped out from behind the pillar, planted his feet, and fired off a few rounds as well. The rounds were meant to be suppressive fire but an unlucky ARM soldier caught a round to the head sending a mist of red into the air which then hung there as a morbid reminder to the rest.


He found his opening and made his way over until his hand grasped onto Reed’s armor. He then slid his arms around him until he had him in a bear hug and then launched the both of them through the doorway again. Manning took the brunt of the force with his back against the wall but it allowed them to slow to a stop as Manning then took Reed’s body to the floor. Assessing the situation he became a slight distressed. No gravity meant no oxygen therefore he would have to not only stop the bleeding and stabilize him but also plug the holes so his oxygen levels in his suit could go back to normal. “You’re not necessarily making this easy on me, Reed” Manning grunted as he got to work.

First he noticed the hole that was around where Reed’s lung was. Not good. He plugged up his suits vital chord to Reed’s and all of his information began to fill Ted’s helmet visor HUD. Two bullet’s found their mark on Reed. One had collapsed his left lung and one had harmlessly passed through without hitting anything vital near his stomach. Both rounds were through in through. Ted disconnected the chord which shot back into his own armor and then removed several items from his medpack which floated in the small vicinity around him. First was biological cement foam that would plug the hole and keep him from bleeding long enough until they got him back to the ship. Grabbing Reed’s right arm and leg he pulled him onto his side and sealed the two holes in the back of his armor. Setting him back down he then sealed the third hole in his stomach area. He then placed the bottle to the side and removed a tiny black metal clamp the size of a 21st century quarter. “Reed, if you can hear me grab onto my left arm this is going to hurt very much.” He said calmly.

Placing the quarter sized object at the top of the lung wound he clicked the top of it and it glowed blue. It then shot and dug inside the wound until finding the hole in the soft tissue of the lung. Grabbing a hold of the side it locked on and sealed the hole in place. Another small method to hold until he was back in a medical bay. Removing the vital chord he plugged it in again and found his vitals were stable and oxygen levels returned to normal.

[Creator]

Admin Post
08/12/3358
0627 hours
Gamma Asteroid

The corridor had become a slaughter more so for the ARM troopers who had decided to barricade themselves inside. Whomever thought of this defense hadn't thought this far through....or it was just desperation on their part. The SDC troopers while in a hallway that most people would have a hard time going through used it to their advantage. If the hall was small for them…it was also small for the enemy. The remaining ARM troopers in the corridor didn’t stop fighting, even as their comrades fell around them. They kept fighting to the very end. On the other side of the hallway, across from First and Second Platoons’, Third and Fourth Platoon had secured their area of the hallway with both rooms cleared out. Members of Fourth platoon then set up in those rooms and fired across to the other rooms. Those were the rooms in which First was trying to clear out. ARM troopers inside those rooms were now caught in the crossfire and were gunned down. In a matter of what seemed like a life time but had only been a few minutes the short firefight was over. As expected the few remaining ARM troopers who were there either were so badly wounded died as corpsmen tried to revive them, or they killed themselves.

“Well hopefully this thing won’t break. Private Ruiz. See if you can get her out of there.” Lieutenant Franks said as the troopers cleared out and secured the cooridoor. Engineer Ruiz went over towards the cockpit and began to unjam the device, telling Lisa the right commands. Captain Jones who had been with Third Platoon then went to issue new orders. He’d been with the company on their way down and had seen the fighting himself “Kilo One, Kilo Two will stay on site until the pilot is away. Kilo One I am giving you a new set of orders. Secure your sector of hostile forces. We are expecting light resistance on the remainder of this level. Wounded will be taken to the hanger and transported back to Dauntless Fury. You have Ten mikes lieutnenant.” He told Hobbar. Hobbar lightly floating over the battle scene which was covered now with bits of blood only nodded. He then went over towards Manning who was currently trying to treat Reed. “Manning, take Reed to the hanger bay, We’ll wait five mikes and wait while you get back. Staff Sergeant Silva!” he then said over the platoon radio. “Yes lieutenant?” Silva said as he looked at another propaganda poster, he then hopped over towards the lieutenant. “Staff Sergeant we move out in five mikes. Get ready to move out.” He said. “Yes lieutenant Hobbar.”

Ten mikes later……..


The door opened and the members of First platoon had their weapons at the ready. What they saw was a long….dark hallway with no lighting on inside. Behind them Second platoon had almost gotten the pilot out of the Starfury. And Third and Fourth Platoons were securing another part of the station. By either thermal imaging or night vision one could see that this hallway was larger than the one that they had been in before. At least twenty people across could be in the hall at any given time. On either side of the hall every few feet were small rooms and there were a total of sixty rooms. Each side had thirty of these rooms. When Hobbar gave the orders to search and clear he was surprised to find that these rooms were for one occupant solely. Each room had a bed with it’s own head and sink. Single occupancy rooms for officers. He found an empty one. The map on the HUD showed that at the end of the hallway there was a very large room that had been closed shut. Well they’d have to search the rooms for now. And he didn’t see any signs of any enemy troops. Well if there were enemy troops…than they were laying a perfect ambush. “Search rooms by twos.” He ordered the platoon.

As they searched the rooms however, the speakers continued to play the message that General Sneer had recorded. "Don't become the Pawns of Human Corporation my fellow Republican citizens. Stand up for yourselves and take your star nation back! Our star nation was founded on liberty, unity and most of all. Freedom! Our government was founded on a federalist style of government! A loose federation of planets combined made up our glorious star nation. But: It has fallen, fallen into the wilderness and has become a puppet of the Corporation. A Corporation which shall and will over time upsurp the government! Be forewarned. Special Security is not loyal to our Republic! With the help of the ARM we will destroy Special Security and liberate our glorious Republic. The Jankul virus was started and released on Hadamarad by the Corporation to keep those members of the outer colones in the Senate silent about the weapons program. They are now scattered , lost and have no strength to speak up for the citizens our our Republic.

I shall create a new Republic one based on the original constitution. Our council members, judges and senators are all puppets! They are all puppets and must be silenced forever. We shall cleanse the worlds of their....foul contempt. Their actions have placed every human into grave danger. They speak of freedom when they take money from the Corporation. They speak of Justice when they allow the workers to be beaten and killed by SS goons. A revolution must occur, rise. Rise and take your star nation back ! I give you my word: I shall and I will change the course of humanity. That is my promise to all of you. The key is the portal and the portal is the key! We shall open the portal and all shall be saved!

Ooc: this is a chance for you all to describe the world around you. What do we see in the rooms? Have at it guys/gals.

[Michael Hobbar]

Immediately after Hobbar gave the order he moved with Zhour who stood next to him, and he nodded towards the door that they were closest to. He got on the left side of the door while Zhour got onto the right. Hobbar pushed the button for it to open, there was a console that was to his right. Along every door there was a small console to open the door. It was a small console with a green and red button, the red opened it while green closed it. Hobbar opened it and raised his rifle, there could be a wounded enemy inside waiting to ambush him and the platoon. The door opened up and revealed a small room with a bed, a personal head with a sink and a personal locker. He figured this must of been a officer's quarters. Or this was the standard for everyone on the station. He doubted the later. The room was a dark cold grey and the light flickered on and off. Hobbar had his night vision on. He moved into the room and looked around but didn't see any blood. Turning to his right he opened up the cabnit and found various personal items. Small holographic projectors were on the shelves...or rather floating.


A small copy of the Qur'an was also seen floating inside the cabnit. He closed the cabinet and then went to the next one. Zhour nodded to Hobbar who repeated the process. This time when the door opened there were two dead bodies floating in there. Two what looked like low ranking officers had outed themselves as both had large holes in their heads. Blood was floating everywhere. They were also in their skin suits, not their pressurized suits. Any guess could come to mind as to why they decided to off themselves. To take one's own life.....was just about the saddest any human could perform on themselves at least in Hobbar's mind. The room was the same as before but he decided to investigate it with rigor. Perhaps they had some sort of intelligence on them. Hobbar hopped towards the closest one, a man who looked like he was in his thirties. Hobbar emptied the man's pockets and didn't find anything. He then searched the other man and found some sort of key card. It said LEVEL 2-A PASS. Well whatever it did was important, it could lead to some area of the station that had not yet been cleared out. Opening up the cabinet he found a sole hologram recording that was stopped.


It showed a young woman perhaps early teen years giving someone she knew a video of herself it only showed her face. Hobbar rewound the hologram and let it play "Eric..I know that you joined the ARM last year to fight for us. But how can you follow this....General? Last week some of your so called "Friends" assassinated four local assemblymen and destroyed a medical research facility killing over seventy eight people and wounded a hundred. You say you want to liberate us....but from what? Please tell me, what are you liberating me from? From where I see it your band of friends are doing more harm than good. If....if...if you don't want to be with me than I understand." the message was on a loop. Hobbar nodded slowly in his helmet. Yes the propaganda stated that the ARM would liberate humanity...but from what exactly? By killing innocent civilians was the act of a coward. Sneer while a general could of chosen more military targets but opted for soft targets and claimed he had to kill innocents because of how vile Human Corporation was. How could anyone justify killing innocents? They couldn't. Slowly he then floated out of the room and stacked up again for the next one........

[Berlioz Lamond]

The moment the door opened to reveal an empty room, Berlioz knew the first thing he should have done was sweep it with his weapon and then leave. But curiosity got the better of him, the various floating items dotted around the room reflected someone's life. Trinkets and highlights that someone had found enough worth in to bring here and try to make a piece of home on this rock in space. Berlioz could relate to that, he missed home on his first deployment, wanted to take some small part of it with him wherever he went so he'd always know where he was going back to. That stopped the next time he was sent out. Home became whichever ditch he crawled into to take cover in.

He shook his head slightly, dispelling the thought as he pushed himself slowly inside, bumping a classic picture frame aside and what looked like a toy car of some sort. He reached out as he past it by, grabbing it before he drifted into the far wall, holding onto some exposed piping as his rifle lazily floated next to him on his sling. He turned the car over in his hands, it was small, perhaps from a young child? Maybe the child of this room's owner? Berlioz instantly regretted that thought, as the usually delayed response to killing suddenly kicked in. They trained him for it, they train them all to deal with the idea that you are taking someone's life. But sometimes all that does is bury the guilt until it surfaces later like some hideous thing.

Being far away from the fighting would help. When you were back in a bunk several miles away from the body of the man or woman you just shot, it was easier to try and forgot, it didn't stick as hard and you could get on with your day. Ready to go do the same thing again the next day.

He let the car drift away from him. He felt sick. Was the body of this man up in the hangar? Had he watched him die? Had Berlioz been the one to take his life and destroy his family? This was the kind of shit he dealt with back at base, not on the goddamn frontline. But it was in his head now, like a mental poison, clogging his thoughts. Who would tell his partner that he was dead? Did ARM do that? Would anyone know what happened here? Then he scowled, Of course someone will know. Some media asshole will come in to show the worlds what 'good' work we've done. How we're 'bringing back the peace'. This isn't peacekeeping, it's legalised murder. Paid slaughter.
 
He took another look around the room, a holographic video of two people chasing a dog down a beach, what looked like a replica 21st century alarm clock floated close past it. Berlioz pushed himself back through the doorway, sealing it shut with the button on the frame.

All in a day's work to take someone's husband and father away.

[Wei Zhour]

The hallway was clear for now. Zhour wished that the mission would be over soon and according to the Captain they needed to clear out this level. He knew another part of the battalion was a few floors down clearing out enemies down there. He had his night vision mode on currently, he would of had the thermal vision. But if he did than at least for him he wouldn't be able to see his surroundings, he hated it. But having the night vision for him was much easier. Getting into position to enter another room, Zhour opened the door by the console and Hobbar nodded for him to go inside and clear it out. The door opened and Zhour raised his rifle. His HUD didn’t read anyone in the room but sometimes technology failed one had to do things the old fashioned way. He quickly saw that the room was void of bodies, except for a few objects floating around in it.


Walking inside he went over to the shelf to see if there was anything of value and saw a few papers. Papers were almost very rare since everything was electronic these days. He then grabbed one paper, and started to read it. It was a letter to the occupant’s wife, apparently telling her that he was going to dump her. Letting it go he noticed a few of the objects floating around in the room a pair of socks and gloves. And one small green rubber ball. With nothing inside the room, Wei than walked outside of the room and went to the next one. Zhour got ready as Hobbar nodded to Zhour. The door opened and he saw a body floating in the room with the head decapitated. There was no head in the room. “Oh geez.” Zhour whispered to himself , there was a lot of blood floating around on the room with some in the wall, and a hand print on the ceiling. Around the body there was a large sign that said ‘Con man.’ Zhour walked up slowly and looked around the room for anything but everything was gone except the covers on the bed. There were no data drives, no holographic videos of any sort, no letters. Someone must have been really really pissed to take everything from the room.

“Lieutenant, there’s a decapitated body in here with a sign that says ‘Con man’. There is nothing in the room except the sheet on the bed." Hobbar nodded and then pointed to the next room. The lieutenant wasn't going to worry about that but probably let the captain know about it. Someone higher up would figure out what to do with the body and if possible find out what had occured.Zhour hoped the mission would be over soon, this was becoming tedious.