Explosive Content

Posted on 09/29/2022 @ 9:23am by 1st Lieutenant Anthony Hill & 2nd Lieutenant Erin Inferson

1,496 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Mission 22: The Other Side of the Mirror
Location: Herodotus Equipment Deck
Timeline: MD04 - 1400 Hours

Anthony stood looking at a holo representation of the Emperors Palace. It was large, something of a true fortress if ever there was one, but it was not impregnable. There were key points of ingress, weakness to a superior force or at the very least to the technology that they had at their fingertips.

Now, their jobs, Erin's and himself, was to make it crumble.

Erin strolled into the Cargo Bay that had become the Marine staging area. The MARVEL EAS suits stood as sentinels against the wall of the bay and in the center was a holo table that Jack installed. She looked at the image of the palace that Hill had loaded. "It is quite a beautiful structure shame we have to blow it up. See any good spots that will make it go quick?"

Anthony looked up from the display and smiled at Erin as she effortlessly glided towards him. "There are a few." He said simply as the size of the task dawned on him. It was a large structure to take down, then there was the collateral damage of people and surrounding areas.

"From the data we have there are a few support beams I've highlighted." He said lighting them up for Erin to see. "There are also what look like power conduits that lead to a central generator room. If we do both we could cause an overload that would stress out the beams causing them to crack and fall like a house of cards."

"That would work great... However, if we destroy these two auxiliary support beams we run the risk of killing innocents. The palace is surrounded by a city of sorts and if the building does fall just right we could kill a lot of people that do not need to die." Erin indicated the beams that she spoke about. "We need to figure out a way we can get the palace to implode."

There was a brief moment where Anthony was going to question the need to protect the innocents. The completing the mission at all costs filling his ears but he knew that the safeguarding of those around, even if Terran, were probably not entirely happy about serving a dictator of the Emperors repute. "We could place a couple of gravity generators around? That way an explosive force would still damage what we need and instead of debris flying out with the potential for harm towards the city the gravity of our generators would draw it back in. Potentially causing an inward fall as opposed to a scattering of brick and mortar." Anthony suggested. "Although, I am open to suggestions?"

Erin snapped her fingers and smiled. The dimples in her cheeks became more prevalent when she smiled, which had the side effect of making her look younger and demurer. "That would work and if we added a small shield generator to the devices, we could actually contain the debris within the shields. Rig all that to a remote detonator and we should be able to be in and out. Once the setup is done, we could move to an area outside of the shields and beam out. Detonate from the Herodotus and watch the show with a drink." She gave him a wink when she finished speaking. "Hell of a first date..."

"Definitely enough to get me hot under the collar." Anthony replied with a nod. He took the comment in his stride, he knew there was an attraction between them but as of yet they hadn't acted on it. It was all flirtation, all banter and cheeky glances. The final push never presented itself, not yet.

"Of course, on paper this all seem quite easy." he commented. "However, there are only 2 of us and a bit of gear to carry."

Erin nudged him playfully. "Big strong man like you can't carry the gear..." After laughing at her joke, she continued. "The suits will give us a bump in strength as they always do, so I think we should be ok. With any luck everything will be lighter on the way back anyway."

"Hey, I can manage." he laughed half-heartedly back at her. In his mind he knew she was fishing for a reaction from him, and she got a little bite. "Well, I'm not bringing anything back except for you."

"That may be true, but we are going to have to wait until BlackJack and his team are clear. The timing is going to be tight. You may be bringing me back but we will make sure that everyone gets back one way or the other." Erin stared at the holo and it all seemed easy and hard at the same time. She was not keen on this mission even if it meant that she could blow something up.

"I know." Anthony said. "We'll make sure everyone gets out alive. You know I'll be the last one to leave. I wouldn't have it any other way." he added as he clicked a few pieces of tech together and it began to light up and hum a little.

"WE... will be the last to leave. Marines leave no one behind cowboy. Semper Fi do or die." Erin said as she packed the remaining tri cobalt devices. "Now I think the big question is how are we getting back. I mean with the Herodotus most likely tied up with Terran ships. Our suits don't have enough thrust to break orbit. So where are we going to transport to?"

"Yes, yes, of course we." Anthony replied rolling his eyes. He'd let her have her way with the words of it all but in the end he'd push her out to safety if it came down to the brass tacks of things. "I guess we'll have to improvise when we are there. I'd imagine the palace has a transporter, some form of transportation to get around quickly." he shrugged. "The plans don't really show anything like that."

"Yeah, I was thinking about that myself. I have to imagine that the Emperor or Empress would have one to get out if need be. But then again if I had something like that, I wouldn't put it on the plans either. We could cut main power before we detonate. But then our own people would be in the dark too." Erin stared at the schematic. Hill had brought up a good point and potential kink in their plan.

"If we cut main power then we lose a larger element of our plan on toppling the palace." Anthony commented. "Lack of power equals a less explosive effect. I like my dictators crispy." he joked. "We'll leave the lights on for our own, no sense in making their job difficult when we can engineer our own way out."

"Agreed! It is going to be cutting it close. So, we will have to stay on our toes. This is the reason that I hate the air drop deployments. We are going to leap into our deaths, and if we survive, we are going to blow something up to our deaths. Sigh... Semper Fi do our die I guess." Erin was a tad nervous about this impending mission. Although she tried to hold it in while she spoke. She stopped talking to refocus herself and her thoughts.

"We'll be fine, love. Don't worry." Anthony slapped some of his sunny optimism her way. He didn't need to be an empath to know the nerves she felt, he felt them too. "Death is never the end. I don't fear the Reaper. If one shows up, we'll just blow his ass up too." he grinned as he looked over at her oh so serious face.

Erin smiled she could not resist this man's handsome face. She had always been a sucker for a man with a good smile. "I wish The Reaper was coming with us. At least we would have someone to watch our butts." She made sure to bend over right after she spoke to check her go bag.

"A man with a sickle would be handy." Anthony replied pretending to swish a fake sickle around whilst making the noises and pretending to kill horrible evil people.

"We have two hours so lets get our affairs in order. Just in case something incredibly stupid happens." Erin would never admit it to anyone but this mission left a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach. She felt like something was incredibly off about everything with this mission.

"How very official." Anthony quipped. "But I suppose that's the smart thing to do. What would I do without you Erin." he threw his arm around her shoulder and they both walked towards the large doors of the bay. Off into the sunsetly dimmed lights of the Herodotus.

---

Second Lieutenant Erin "Sparks" Inferson
Platoon CO, The Swords
Demolitions
The Kingsmen
Poseidon Station

1st Lieutenant Anthony "Spitfire" Hill
Platoon CO, "The Castle"
Combat Engineer, The Kingsmen
Poseidon Station

 

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