The shattered edge

[arvg]

Pasha blinked at the obviously insane doctor, and then looked at his obviously insane Captain, "we're going back... over there?"

Brook's maniacal grin, had Pasha up, marching back out the airlock and across to the Kerimov. He entered the ships primary armoury, selecting from the racks or rather impressive weaponry a pan loaded light machinegun with armour piercing rounds. Making sure he had a nice pack full of ammunition, he also pocketed a few vapourization grenades, for good measure...

Topping everything off with a helmet... a good, solid, people's made helmet. The kind with a nice red star on top.

Satisfied he had what he needed, he returned to the Social Credit and strapped himself into the co-pilots chair. "Ready to go do something stupid... again," Pasha said, with a long sigh.

---

[Tabris]

Upon receiving confrimation the BAAL's holographic Avatar seems to grin, despite it being a skull. "Orders received..." it replied, a cold chuckle sending a chill up the spine of one of the officers near Khan.

"Now hold still Avian-like Meatbag, BAAL has a treat for you!" it blared over it's speakers outside, the Energy-Efficient Turrets opening up on the Bat as it tried to pry into the hull of the Storm, the first volley hit the 'bat' in the wings, causing it to screech in agony. Extracting it's talons just as the second volley hit it in the chest, sending it flying off of the Storm and down towards the deck below, hitting the ground with a 'crunch' that coincided with the sound of bones breaking, as BAAL rounded on the downed Bat all it's turrets now trained on the downed corpse it sent a signal to Khan.

"Avian-Meatbag neutralized, body is realtively intact for Research and Development to handle, marking position as well as sending a constructed 'Floor Plan' from localized scans of the deck and the density of the structural integrity." the AI reported before landing on the deck not far from the corpse, it's turrets rotating around the chassis, not wanting to be taken off guard again.

[arvg]

Alvarez shook his head, "flesh wound, you'll be fine, suck it up hermana... I've seen worse."

He stood adjusting his fur cap and checking their surroundings, NAV-ALPHA was a few meters away, and they could see one of the Lance Corporal's of the marine teams making his way back towards them. He was crossing over a wide circular feature in the battered deck, waving at them. With his eyes on them, he didn't seem to see the middle of the hatch open, the halves sliding apart. He couldn't hear Alvarez's shout of warning, as several long, segmented metal tentacles snaked out.

In another moment, the unlucky marine was caught and lifted off his feet. The service automatic in his hand went off, then fell from his grasp as he was yanked into the depths of the ship. Alvarez daren't shoot, in case he hit the boy.

The hatch snapped shut. Alvarez catching Winters to hold her back; she would have charged for the hatch. "Stand where you are and hold your fire! We can't get any closer till we know what we're dealing with!"

He shook his head as the echoing screams of the boy reverberated from somewhere far below them. And Alvarez lowered his head, wondering if a bullet would have been more merciful.

The TAC crackled, "we're in bound to your position Colonel," XiaoBei's voice.

"Si? Bring a medical kit," Alvarez countered, eying Winter's wound suspiciously as they moved back into the main room.

---

[arvg]

An hour later things had changed, although the explorers didn't know much more than they had in the beginning.

Captain Alvarez was walking around the upper tier of the menagerie, his eyes hard as he patrolled, keeping watch for anyone or anything that was approaching. While Pasha, with the pan loaded machinegun, was bunkered down beside what appeared to be a medical console. He, like Alvarez, wasn't about to take chances.

Brooks was languishing against a cage, an assualt rifle clutched lightly in his hand, and his ball cap pushed up away from his eyes. Watching as the Doc set up some kind of contraption in the middle of the room.

XiaoBei was the Coalition's premier mind, and it was hoped that he could make some kind of sense out of the alien derelict around them.

He was sipping tea from a thermos, his long black overcoat splayed out around him as he tinkered with a human-sized drone robot, customarily used by Storm-class gunboats to perform EVA repairs. It only took the genius a half hour to adapt it to the role of artificial explorer. And with a little luck, it would tell them what had happened to the rest of the boarding parties.

Satisfied, XiaoBei stood up and directed the robot to make a preliminary exploration of the ship. But the contraption, essentially a bulbous detector.telemetry package on two legs, stopped dead in front of the hatch that had swallowed the lance-corporal, XiaoBei looked thoughtful.

The robot refused to respond to further commands, the hatch stayed open, and there was no sigh of activity below. XiaoBei's eyes narrowed as he studied the robots remote controls.

"Well that was a waste of an hour, ese," Alvarez called from above.

"We learned something," XiaoBei called back. "Our robotics can be affected by whatever is deeper in the ship. That rules out our drones, exo-bots, and BAAL..."

"Meaning what, Doctore?" Alvarez asked.

"Meaning if we want to find out what is down the hole, we're going to have to go in ourselves." XiaoBei surmised.

"Si, you wanna stick your head down there, be my guest ese, but I'm not ordering anyone down there till I know what we're dealing with."

Pasha, audibly, breathed a sigh of relief.

"Get those spotlights on," XiaoBei ordered to Jayce, "and you may chamber a round in your weapons, but leave the safeties on. If anyone fires without my direct order, I'll see that he's court-martialed and hanged."

Every single Coalition Soldier switched their weapons over to full auto, promptly ignoring the Doctor.

The lights that Brooks brought closer were powerful, but not powerful enough to reach the farthest limits of the compartment below. It resembled a complex cityscape. The alien equipment and machinery was made of glassy alloys and translucent materials, with conduit-like structures crisscrossing in midair and oddly shaped contrivances in every direction. It was wonderfully, truly and exceptionally alien.

"Okay," XiaoBei said, with a nod. "I vote Jayce goes in first."

---

[Jayce]

"Sooo... Basically we just invaded the temple of doom... WHY!?" Jayce screamed the last word down towards the city, and his reply was quick and immediate: A flock of large birds erupted from one of the towers, and headed straight for the group of marines. "Well... That was really dumb. Hey, Doc, can we shoot now?" Jayce said with a lazy smile, chambering a Dragon's Breath round into his shotgun.

"What are you talking abo-" XiaoBei replied, but was cut off by the roaring flame spouting from Jayce's tactical shotgun. His shot was followed by the rest of the Coalition marines in the room, and soon a rather stocky pile of dead birds rested around the group, all pointed towards the good Coalition doctor.

"Hey Doc, did you ever see that movie about the killer birds? Cut us some slack with the hanging thing, alright boss?" Jayce said, with a slight tone of mocking in his voice. "Now then, what are we, or more importantly, you, doing here then, boss?

---

[arvg]

Running a hand down his face tiredly, Doctor XiaoBei looked at Brooks. "Just for that, you've just volunteered to be the first one down." He pulled a palm scanner out of his pocket. "Readings show no danger from radiation, atmospheric, or biological contaminants. You should be fine... we tie a nice rope around you and lower you down, should be no problem."

"No Doctore," Alvarez cut in. "if we go in, we go in together. I am not having one of my men... even if it is the burro here, going in there on his own." He turned to Winters. "Can you make it?"

---

[Violette]

Stacy winced in pain a little as she assessed the injury with her right hand again.

"Yeah, give me a shot of whatever morphine-like substance you have, the bleeding has just about stopped" she rested her rifle against the wall, picking up one of the dead Marine's combat shotguns, "I can walk it off, let's do this"

She was handed a shot of a rather strong painkiller, to which she administered to her lower left arm.

[arvg]

Fifteen minutes of walking had them standing in a passageway as high and wide as a stadium, Alvarez was in the lead shining the light mounted to his SMG around him. "Comradas, this place is playing tricks with my mind... does it look to anyone else like the walls are moving?"

Pasha, a few steps behind him grunted, puffing heavily on a cigarette and looking like he'd rather be anywhere but there at that moment, "Da, there's a fog flowing through all the nooks and crannies..."

Doctor XiaoBei rested a hand against his temple, "Yes, they've been shifting for... some time now. I feel dizzy..."

Alvarez took a step backwards looking grim. "Doctore, we should, perhaps, fall back, si?"

He watched XiaoBei worriedly; with all the Coalition was undergoing at that time. The BHG threat, the Reapers, and the Corsairs... the arrival of the Redemption class Du Gaulle, and now the alien derelict Xiaobei had become the most indispensable man in the Coalition. The Doctor had to be kept safe at all costs, and the Colonel was growing skittish.

Brooks returned to the group after scouting ahead, his face as white as a sheet. "You'd better brace yourselves," he swallowed with difficulty. "I found our missing marines... but it's a little hard to take." He swallowed again, as if to keep from vomiting.

One by one they went to join him at the entrance to the next compartment, from which an intense light shone. XiaoBei caught the edge of the hatch to steady himself when he saw what was there.

In large translucent tanks wired with various life support systems floated the various pieces of the ambushed marine teams in a tiny sea of sluggish nutrient fluid.

They drifted lazily, here an arm, there a head-sightless eyes wide open-a severed hand bumping gently against a stripped torso. The fluid was filled with fine strands glowing in incandescent greens. Tiny amoeba-like globules flocked to the body parts and away from them again, feeding and providing oxygen and removing wastes.

Alvarez gestured to his soldiers. "Establish a perimeter! I have no desire to meet the creature that did this, hermanos, not without all our guns at the ready." Pasha sprinted to take a covering position, while Winters moved to the other side, keeping her weapon up.

All, that is, but Brooks, who was about to pluck out a leg by a white, wrinkled foot that had bobbed to the surface. "We can't just leave him like this!"

XiaoBei grabbed his jacket, hauling him back with surprising strength. His voice climbing an octave. "Don't touch him! Who knows what the solution is? You want to end up pickled in there too? No? Good! then make yourself useful and draw a specimen with this..." he produced a complicated looking device from his bag. "Be careful!"

---

[Violette]

"We.. uhh... does anyone else hear that?" Brooks questioned, lowering his gun to listen a little more carefully.

The whole group cocked their ears, hearing a small whirring sound, followed by some clicks and a scraping noise.

"Uh oh... we got company!" Stacy pointed towards one of the corners of the room, where a rather strange metal hulk began to built itself, large arms, legs and claws locked themselves into place as a horrific, robotic creature stepped out from it's shell, flexing it's new limbs.

"This is definitely not good mi amigos..." Alvarez muttered, "Not good at all!" he roared as the robotic beast charged.

Alvarez pounced on XiaoBei, shoving the good Doctor behind what seemed to be a broken alien control console. Brooks, Winters and Pasha opened fire, unloading entire clips of shotgun shells and assault rifle rounds into the creature. Each shot seemed to simply halt at the robot's armour plating, the ballistic rounds merely hitting a wall and ricocheting off.

The beast didn't even seem to register the shots, continuing it's rampage through the room towards them.
Pasha yelped and dived to the left, as Brooks pushed Winters to the right, the three of them narrowly avoiding the robot's charge.

It turned on the spot, lunging again at Brooks and Winters, who scuffled off behind one of the tanks of goo, the metallic beast's limbs flailing around in an attempt to destroy the Coalition officers.

As Pasha emptied another clip, the robot threw one of it's arms around, taking Pasha off his feet and into one of the rather complicated piles of wiring for the many consoles lining the walls.

"Time for you to die pendejo!" Alvarez yelled, aiming for the center-mass of the beast from across the room, firing what he had left in his clip. Again, the robot was completely unharmed, as it turned it's attention towards Alvarez and the Doctor, "How fast can you run Doctore?"

Behind the beast however, a small light could be seem, a tiny yellow dot, slowly expanding to match a high-frequency sound, much like a jet-engine starting. Then it fell silent, and the light dulled, a split second later the room lit up and a large yellow and green bolt shot from the corridor into the robot's chest-armour, causing it melt away and throw the beast off balance.

From the corridor, Dimitrov could be seem wielding a large, shoulder-mounted Tachyon cannon, a rather pissed off looking Steele beside him, covered in what looked to be someone else's blood. Steele roared and charged at the robot, firing off a clip of his assault rifle into the hole in the beast's armour.

When his weapon was exhausted of ammo, he pounced, clinging onto the robot's back as it stood up to recover from Dimitrov's shot. Steele stabbed away at the parts within the armour with his knife, ducking to avoid one of the limbs aimed at his head.

"Woah..." he exclaimed, diving off the beast's back into cover next to Brooks and Winters.

"That's it?" Brooks criticized Steele,

"Wait for it..." Steele smiled, as the robot turned it's attention to them and their cover. At that moment, the grenade that Steele had slipped into the beast's armour plating detonated, blowing it apart from the inside, "And to think you doubted me" Steele's face covered with a mighty grin.

[Aphil]

It had been a quite a while since Steele had lost contact with TAC-NET. While making his last transmission, he was pounced upon by one of the smaller Wolves chasing him. It dove at him and they both crashed through a hatch and into the depths of the vessel. They hit with a large thump, thankfully Steeles armor taking the brunt of the impact. Steele immediately withdrew his combat knife and stabbed the Wolf in the eyes with one hand while keeping it from ripping his face off with the other. He breathed heavily, noticing just how far he had fallen.

He was laying on his back and while getting up, he noticed numerous outlines in the shadows. He raised his weapon and turned on his night vision on his armor, to his horror the outlines were that of mutilated Marines from previous fire teams. What was odd about this bunch however, was the energy marks that had practically melted their armor. He moved in to investigate just what had caused the marks when he heard a strange sound behind him. He immediately turned around and leveled his weapon, he found a dieing Marines on the floor. Steele rushed over.

"Comrade! What happened to you?"

The Marine was in complete shock and horror, Steele had never seen such a well trained Marine lose his head like this. The Marine was talking to himself incoherently before suddenly going quiet. There was a massive pool of blood around him. As Steele got up, he noticed he had been covered with the marine's blood. He got up and kept his weapon at the ready. He knew that something wicked was on this derelict and it would stop at nothing until he was dead.

He moved quickly trying to make a mental map of the area in-case he had to escape from something horrible. He heard gunfire, this sound however was much closer then the others. Steeles began running in that direction, just as he turned the corner, he came face to face with Dimitrov. Not expecting to see him Steeles instinctively raised his rifle and fired, luckily Dmitrov moved out of the way just in time.

"Dimitrov! Damn, am I glad to see you!"

"Yea, I figured the bullet you tried to put through my head happy to see me too."

"Right..."

It was then that he noticed Dimitrov had gotten his hands on what appeared to be a Shoulder-Mounted Tachyon Cannon.

"Hell, where'd you get that thing?"

"Long story, now lets move."

The sounds got louder and louder as they approached, they turned a corner and saw something unexpected. It was a robotic creature of some sort attacking a Coalition Squadron. Steeles noticed this wasn't another marine squad however, for he saw many familiar faces like Brooks and Alvarez.

"Alright, game face Dimitrov. You use that fancy thing to distract it and I'll try to stick a grenade in it."

"That's cra-"

"No time for arguments, on my mark."

Dimitrov had no other plan in mind so he did as he was told. Steeles waited until the robot was facing them with its chest armor exposed.

"Ready... Mark."

Dimitrov fired the Tachyon Cannon and a small light could be seem, a tiny yellow dot, slowly expanding to match a high-frequency sound, much like a jet-engine starting. Then it fell silent, and the light dulled, a split second later the room lit up and a large yellow and green bolt shot from the corridor into the robot's chest-armor, causing it melt away and throw the beast off balance.

Steeles immediately went for the robot, roaring a war cry to give him courage while pumping shot after shot from his assault rifle into the robot. As soon as he had run out of ammo he threw the Assault Rifle aside and reached for his Combat Knife, he jumped at the robot and managed to latch onto it. Ducking blows from its arms he stabbed at the now melting armor until he had pried off a sizeable amount. He stuck a grenade and dived into cover just as the robot slammed its hands into where he had just been.

"Woah..." was all Steele could say as he made his landing.

"What, that's it" said Jayce, unaware of what was about to happen.

"Wait for it..." He couldn't hold back his smile as the robot turned to face them and was ripped to pieces by the force of his grenade.

"And to think, you doubted me". The look on Jayces face would of been absolutely hilarious were they not in danger of being killed at any possible moment.

---

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