Burn, Baby, Burn

Posted on 10/12/2022 @ 5:18am by 1st Lieutenant Anthony Hill & 2nd Lieutenant Erin Inferson

1,861 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Mission 22: The Other Side of the Mirror
Location: Herodotus, then Emperors Planet/Palace
Timeline: MD006 - 1030 Hours

The rumble of the outside battle could be felt from the shuttle bay. As the bay doors opened, the shimmering forcefield rippling as it rose, the numerous ships fighting back, trying to stop them could now be seen as Anthony fixed and tugged at his MARVEL EAS suit.

"Looks like it's going to be a bumpy ride." He said turning to Erin.

Erin's heads up display or HUD worked according to specs, and she could see a small flashing dot that indicated where they were to land and begin their infiltration of the palace. If they were successful thousands would die in this explosion, and yet from what she had heard about these Terrans she did not seem to care too much about it. "You afraid of a little bump and bruises cowboy." In truth Erin was afraid of getting shot while they broke atmo, and the little flirtation with Hill allowed her to forget the fear for a moment.

"Depends how I get those bumps and bruises." He flirted back. "Free falling from the shuttlebay of a ship, into a hostile space battle, and then atmo diving into an evil Terran Palace on an enemy planet? Can mark that off my bucket list!" He joked.

Erin turned toward Hill and flashed him a flirtatious smile and a wink. "Sounds glamourous. You really know how to show a girl a good time on a first date. That is if you can catch me..." As soon as she finished speaking she executed a perfect dive toward the planet.

"Show off!" Anthony shouted before he took a dive and began to follow her. Around him the flashes of light could be seen, the different types of phaser fire, minor explosions on shielding and hull hits. Whilst freefalling it almost seemed quite picturesque, a serene space-scape.

There was a flash across Anthony's face as what looked like a torpedo flew past, but he then caught the sight of Erin on his display, and he headed straight for the beautiful outline.

Erin was head first and angled correctly for atmo entry. Out of the very corner of her eye she noticed a bright blue dot coming toward her. "Fuck I have a quantum torpedo that locked on to me. Initiating evasive..." She banked into a barrel roll and the torpedo kept coming, and now her HUD showed that she was way off course. As she maneuvered she noticed a meteor not too far off. Erin made her way to it using the suits thrusters and landed on it. She was on the far side of the meteor so that it was between her and the torpedo. Her HUD showed it coming toward her and now she had to time it just right. Moments later the torpedo struck the meteor and Erin leapt away and fired all the thrusters. She managed to avoid the bulk of the explosion and but not entirely as she took some damage. The main damage being her navigation system. "Hey tall dark and surly care to give a girl a hand getting back on track?"

"You can't just make a simply dive, can you?" Anthony teased as he pinpointed her location on his on HUD. Adjusting his path so he headed towards her, but still maintained a line of sight with the dive coordinates, he put on a beacon she could follow. "Well gorgeous, your chauffeur has arrived."

"Well Jeeves I would hate to be late to the explosive ball. Shall we?" As Erin spoke, she engaged a maglock tether that came from her suit and connected to Hill's so he could guide her in. The rest of the dive would have to be slow, but they would get down there. Sure enough after a number of minutes they were both down at the landing site. In a swift motion she lowered her helmet and drew her weapon. "It seems too deserted let's get a move on before anyone suspects. I think the entrance should be 30 clicks north."

As they were now 'safely' on the ground he retracted his helmet and also drew his sidearm. "I am not detecting any signs of life in the immediate area." he added as he also scanned for potential dangers. "Can we take the scenic route? Well actually if you are wanting me to carry you again, we'd better just take the direct one." he teased once more and gave her a little nudge with his elbow.

"The suit legs work just fine thank you. But I may take you up on that later. For now lead on sir..." Erin gave him a mock salute, even if the sir was appropriate. He was the senior officer.

"Mhm." Anthony screwed his eyes a little before moving on towards the palace.

The landscape was quite serene, peaceful. "You know..." he said moving forward across the dirt. "It's funny. From here you wouldn't think that there was an evil Terran palace just over the horizon that seeks to dominate and dictate to everyone."

"It is always serene closest to home. Now according to the Intel there is a tunnel that some used to escape. This should give us access to the sub levels so we can set the charges. Viola... after you cowboy." Erin led him to a dark and dusty opening in the ground. Spider webs wreathed it, however, if you looked closely you could see fresh footprints leaving the tunnel.

"You know I'm not from America, right?" he asked in reference to the cowboy references that had been going on a while. He moved behind her and knelt down to inspect them. "A lot of traffic seen through here." he commented. "One quite heavy set but looks female due to size and width. What do you think?"

"Yeah, I know you're not American but I hope you are a cowboy, or at least you ride like one." She knelt down next to him without any further word on that. "I would think you are right. It also seems that whoever made these prints was leaving in a hurry. Could be that people are escaping the palace, which could mean that they know we are here. Gotta keep our eyes up and make sure we get in."

Anthony looked at Erin for a moment at the mere mention of why she kept throwing the cowboy name at him. His raised eyebrows were replaced by a cheesy grin and a knowing look out of Erin's view. "Yes, but it doesn't look panicked. It's almost insanely organised, but let's keep going. Only way is up!"

The two Marines travelled in relative silence for about five minutes or so. They were never challenged that was until two male voices came from around the bend. "Hey, you don't belong here. I don't recognize those uniforms, but the insignia I do. You are from that other..." The voice was cut short as phased energy lanced out from Erin's weapon and nearly missed the man as he ducked back behind the corner.

Both Erin and Anthony took cover as more shots came in. "Ohh hooo." Anthony yelled in excitement. "Finally some fun." he looked over to Erin and winked. Looking down at the ground he placed a small mechanical device with wheels. The upper casing has some small holes but from outside looking in no-one would know exactly what they were. Anthony mouthed 'watch this' as the device began to buggy along.

A few seconds later there was a smattering of phaser fire and then a thud or two. The whirring noise from the device came closer and the device came back without a scratch. For a moment it almost looked happy for a job well done.

Erin took a quick shot as another guard popped from around the corner. The guard hit the ground with a thud and silence took over the corridor. "Well that was the welcoming party. We should get moving a double step before the next group comes for brunch."

"Two ticks love." Anthony began to collect the bodies of the fallen and piled them up in a small corner nearby but one that was still out of the way. He placed two emitters on the ground and activated them. The bodies disappeared behind a small cloak. "Gotta hide the evidence."

"Good thinking. I believe if we head down the maintenance tube at the end of this corridor, it should lead us to the basement levels and then to the support struts. Activate your life sign scrambler." Erin did as she suggested. The suits they wore were able to cover their life signs so they could not be found or tracked.

"I put that on before we came down!" he laughed. "So, what you're telling me is that we had a little tiny winy firefight because you forgot." he nudged her playfully. She shot him a look that could kill, and he quickly tucked tail, "I am kidding. Kind of." he teased. "Let's go!"

Erin felt kind of sheepish for not activating the scrambler before they left. She knew that there was nothing for it now. But she was probably the reason they were discovered. If their mission did not succeed, she would never forgive herself. She followed Hill into the tube. Once inside she held herself in place with her feet and sealed the hatch with her phaser. "I locked off the rear." Erin said as she let her feet go and began to slide down the tube.

"No-one likes an open rear hatch." Anthony nodded with a smile. "The layout should be fairly simple from here. As we are underneath the palace, we don't have to go much deeper to find the power source. All we need to do is set our gravity charges, overload the power core, avoid... or deal with... any patrols and then get out of here."

"Sounds good." Erin said as she climbed out of the tube. She slid up to one of the palace's support struts. Erin opened the drop pouch that contained the gravity charges and set one up one the strut. In short order the charge was in place and lit green which indicated it was active. "Well, that is one down. I do so love it when things go boom."

"Well as long as I'm not near them." Anthony said rolling up his sleeve and showing off his extensive burns. "I'd like to keep the rest of me scorch free."

"You know I love scars..." Erin said as she hustled down the corridor in a trot. She knew there was a job to do, but she found him attractive and there was nothing she could do to stop herself from flirting. "Betcha I get all of mine placed before you get yours." She hollered over her shoulder as she ran.

Anthony's eyebrows shot up in surprise but also excitement. "Oh, the sounds like a challenge Lieutenant Inferson." He grinned. "See you at the generator?" He set the gauntlet down.

---

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

 

RSS Feed