Moreton's party advanced down the corridor, his men systematically clearing out the small maintenance store rooms and offices down the corridor. Occasionally a scream would briefly echo down the hallway, so far this had been slaughter. Suddenly the sound of weapon-fire could be heard from back at breach-site.
'They'll hold keep moving! Get a techie on that door now!'
The door to the warp-core was sealed by a blast-door, yet the panel still functioned.
'Sir, I'll get this door open in a second.'
'Wait, breech the door, don't use the panel, it might be rigged with a trap on the otherside.'
Moreton turned to listen to gunfight developing at the other end of the corridor then turned back to his techmaster. 'Drill the door before you blow it, the send a tachyon pulse though the door, should defuse any plasma traps they've set on the side.' Jake Night turned to his commander, 'do we have the time for this Sir?' Moreton begun to look worried, 'we'll be though in two minutes and I trust McRoy to hold the breach site'. Still Moreton's doubts began to pull on his mind, a plasma trap was a nasty thing but this mission depended on the teams moving fast and keeping up the momentum of surprise. Right now his team was losing that momentum.
McRoy watches as Moreton leaves with the remaining squad,having suddenly given a small temporary fireteam of his own,he looks at the standing men,ready to give orders
"Okay men,this is gonna get rough,we're expecting the whole cardi-sniffin' party to come rolling down on us,so we'd get ready before they get here."
He moves his head around the large area,and then speaks
"Take defensive positions here,there,and behind those crates,and hey you!,pick up that rifle and get to the platform,stay behind cover until i give the signal."
He goes and takes cover behind some more crates,he orders another soldier to use the machine gun.
"Hold your fire,weapon's ready!"
McRoy knew the fight was suicidal,but was better than nothing,he reloads his assault rifle,with a smirk on his face as he spots a Maltese soldier far on the other side
Huge explosions could be heard as Johnny McRoy and his team fought a two-dozen soldiers continuously suppressing the 5-man squad
"Sir,they are on to us! we need to get outta here!"
"We are NOT falling back! We need to buy Moreton some time!
Suddenly McRoy looks up and guns down two soldiers,followed by more kills by his teamates,reducing their chances of getting killed,at the same time,5 more soldiers come from the blast door,causing more trouble
"Oh damn this!"
He mutters through the comms
"Hold your fire and stay behind cover,suppress them on my mark,let the majority of them to stop and reload."
McRoy readies his grenade launcher,signals the machine gunner to fire grenade rounds.
"On 3..."
The soldiers ready their weapons
3!
"Suppressing!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The soldiers turn over and fire out in their assault rifles,reducing the amount of bullets coming towards the 5-man squad,McRoy Leans over and launches his grenade from his rifle simutaneously with the Machine gunner,causing heavy explosions and killing a dozen of the soldiers. Bringing the team courage,as they move out of their covers,picking off the remaining ones one by one
"Who said we're gonna lose?"
He smirks as the soldiers drop the last bandit
Clear!,clear...,clear!
"Okay,we are moving out,get your ammo ready."
With that,he reloads his rifle and looks at the others. Wondering what Moreton is up to.
Jade Team took up positions in the corridor just outside the Turbolift atrium. Peering out into the atrium via a snake-cam, Mercury was greeted with an image of a cavernous with four lift-tubes. Noting a squad of Outcasts within, he hit the commlink "Titan, EMP, Viper, STRIKER, Athena and I will clear the rest" he ordered.
In a blur of motion, Titan tossed an EMP grenade, that was swiftly followed by a glob of white-hot plasma spat by Viper's STRIKER. Moving into the room, Mercury spotted two survivors who had dodged the blast. Tapping his trigger, he sent a 3-round burst into the torso of one, sending him into a nearby wall. The man's comrade fared no better as he slumped to the ground, with several smoking holes in his body armor.
Moments later the voice of Athena came across the comm channel "Clear."
Reflexively, Mercury motioned his team to one of the lift-tubes. "We'll take this one up to the floor below the Command center, from there, we'll take a maintenance shaft up to the CIC" he explained.
The lift came seconds later and the squad piled in.
The Outcasts waiting in the lift atrium were greeted with the bright light and noise of a flashbang going off. Four of the eight in the room were dropped by knife wounds seconds after Jade Team stormed out of the turbolift. The rest were felled by disciplined bursts from their rifles.
The squad regrouped near the room's exit. Motioning to his squad, Titan and Viper moved down the hallway cautiously, weapons raised. Coming to a halt some 20 meters down the hallway, Viper motioned to Mercury and Athena to come to them. Moments after regrouping, Viper voice came over the squad comm channel "Motion Trackers show approximately 20 hostiles scattered across this floor, currently they appear to be unaware of our intrusion on this level."
"What else?" came back the voice of Mercury in reply.
"Our target is around this corner" Viper said ecstatically.
"Finally, move and prepare to breach" Mercury replied, unslinging his STRIKER.
The rest of the squad nodded and moved into position.
The CIC was filled with the maelstrom of noise that a firefight would produce. Jade Team had moved up the maintenance access and had promptly blew the door between them and the CIC. The Outcasts within had been caught off guard, and in seconds it appeared as though every Outcast within the area was converging on the CIC.
"Secure the area" Mercury yelled over the squad channel. His order was met with a reply in the form of volley of gunfire from his team. Each one of them moved from cover to cover neutralizing Outcasts as they went.
It was all over in less than two minutes after they had breached. Titan, Athena and Viper moved to cover the exits as Mercury positioned himself at a control console.
Keying into the channel that linked Jade and Onyx teams to the Starry Ice Mercury spoke "Director, Jade has secured the CIC, orders?"
"Affirmative Mercury, decompress the hangars, I want them clear of hostiles before we send in the marines, I'd prefer to minimize casualties" came back the voice of Kell Tainer.
"Copy that, give me a few moments" replied Mercury. After moments of hammering in a series of commands into the console, Mercury activating his comm again "Director, the bays have been decompressed, null life signs, however before the atmosphere was fully vented, approximately a dozen fighters managed to launch, let Golanski know" he replied.
"Copy" came back the voice of Kell coldly.
Switching to the squad channel Mercury spoke again "Set charges and prepare to move out, I want to wreck this place before we move to the hangars"
With that, he moved away from the console to allow Titan to place explosives.
Half of Fedayeen's escort and portion of interceptors went after the small convoy, their crew unaware of reason behind the sudden black out. As out of dense nebulae condition they went under fire, their leader tried desperately contact for support. Little they knew that there will be no back up as strike has been pulled out perfectly. First strike group were picking on stragglers that evaded devastating attack run and base itself was mostly disabled in terms of defenses.
Fedayeen emerged nearby base as equal match of Maltese pilots just launched to meet them. Golanski did not wasted time to order a new strategy. "Solaris batteries, target enemy fighters and supress them. Fedayeen's escort group, you are cleared to engage." There was no place for errors, mercy or honor. In Admiral's mind base's fate was sealed with momenth they found it.
Escorts of a transport quickly beat the dust. Away from main field of engagements, fighters proceeded to target engines of the hauler. Now disabled transport was at mercy of black snubcraft. Sporadic random fire with no aim at all was last desperate chance of survival they had. "Allright... this transport will not travel anywhere now. You can bring heavier guns to finish our work here." Interceptors reported, having insufficient weaponry to kill transport in time due to heated warzone now just few klicks away. Freed from their duties, each single pilot returned to galactic grinder zone Admiral has prepared for remnants of Red Talon's fighter wing.
Playing defensive, Nephthyses and Bastets anihilated last of the resistance in space directly neighbouring to station itself without any losses sustained. "This is Admiral Golanski to all units... all fighters prepare to be recovered. Strike group 2 is first in the line." Michal called it an end to strike itself. With everything being now in hands of boarding teams, he called Fedayeen's captain with more specific orders. "Konstantinov, launch fresh fighters to pick on escort duty. Fry that transport out of my sight as well... no witnesses."
He did not required to speak again, captain of the carrier agreed to order given without discussion, knowing stakes. Bearing weapons online upon failing transport, it took only momenths to split it into the two. Explosion of the reactor killed everyone aboard that survived sudden decompression of the middle section.
It has been four hours since operation has ended. All that remained of base was turned into space dust. In transit for their next objective, Fedayeen's group travels through treacherous nebula. Them accompanying is an oddity - courtesy of director Kell Tainer - "Taureau" transport, occupied by Division 3 operatives - Special Operation Command. Group of squad leaders that have dived into the base were gathered in small room for debriefing. To their surprise it was not their director but an officer from OCV Fedayeen that has just arrived through shuttle. Redheaded female officer entered, wielding no specific insignias on the black uniform.
As all their sights were focused on whoever is supposed to talk to them right now, officer begun. "Director Tainer is unable to attend for your debriefing. It is not in my knowledge to tell you where he is or when he will return. Until I am relieved from this duty, I am supposed to achieve her few things... but let's start from the beggining." She had oldfashioned notebook she has just opened, containing details and information she needed. It would appear to the soldiers gathered that there is much stress put on pursuing their final goal. "You have managed to infiltrate that base, recover your mission objective and assist in destroying that installation. Thanks to you, we have total of eight freighters being prepared for false flag operation Command has intended. With most of our specialists occupied with retrofitting these ships to task desired, we have very limited escort to protect battlegroup itself..."
Moving her eyes across the room, she finally found the person needed. Nameplate and brief description pointed at Moreton, who the officer addresses next. "Moreton. You take over capacity of leader over this marine outfit for the time being. Your first assigment in this position is to prepare list of cassualties suffered during assault. I will pass this list to Admirality for later reference." With her job nearly done here, all she has left to do is to fammilarize them with current situation. Letting out deep sigh, having been on tiresome duty for some time now. Turning over next page in her notebook, it came to an unknown figure that she has forgot to introduce herself.
"I do not know whether it will be given to meet you ever again after this. You can call me simply Valkyrie... I do not bear rank and my file is likely above your level of clearance but my chain of command is simple. If for duration of my stay with you there is any problem you have with me - you need to take this up to admirality because it is them who give me orders." Valkyrie speaks it as if she practicsed it daily. Personnaly being new to The Order itself, not mentioning Wedjat - the chores she was tasked with were a test for her skills she has claimed to aquired from previous occupation. "With all efforts put into making next op a reality, we are neglecting seriously our defense capacity right now. While all of our pilots returned home, some of the snubs they brought back are medical miracles. Damaged craft are put on recon duty to be our eyes ahead while combat ready vessels are held back should actual battle happen." Topic has moved onto where Starry Ice falls in all of this.
"This ship will leave our battlegroup and rendezevous with Atum and await next assigment. Moreton becomes effectively captain of this boat after my departure as my knowledge is still needed on Fedayeen." Finally over, the standard procedure in the end had to be made. "Well, do you have any questions?"
More stared over the full casualty list in front of him, 'four dead, twelve injured, only two severely'. He sunk back into his chair, while Night, his #1 stood over the desk. 'So who was that redhead' Night inquired, after he didn't get a response he tried again. 'No business of yours is what she is, you're dismissed.' Jake Night left his friend heading onto the boats CIC, leaving Moreton to contemplate his position. Left in charge of a boat full of marines, 'this isn't what I expected when they made me a Commander'.
Moreton loaded up his desktop, and started moving his fingers manically, every tiny movement was another instruction for his desks computer, it only took a minute to finish the casualty report and to begin transferring the message to the admiralty. He lay back is chair and relaxed for a few minutes. 'I'll check the CIC is a moment they won't need me watching over them constantly', he thought, justifying the few moments of rest he was taking. 'I wonder what Valkyrie's role is in all this', some how, he knew the next orders she'd bring him were going to be trouble.
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