Unexpected Encounter

Becks

Becks
After thirty long, exhausting minutes climbing up the ladder in the dark hoistway, Rebecca finally touched the cold metal of the top maintenance hatch.

She hooked her snap link into the wallbar, took down her headset and just waited for several minutes while catching breath, listening to the surrounding sounds and observing the weak light which seeped through the joints of the hatch.

Apart from Kenneths heavy breath beneath her, she heard gun shots far beneath her. The sounds of the surrounding battle were surprisingly muffled, but she still felt the vibrations of the explosions in the district and the fire of the tanks.

She could no observe irregularities in the light or hear breathing sounds and voices so she assumed that the engine room behind the hatch was empty.

"Flashlight." she whispered into the mic of her headset and heard how Kenneth started to check his equipment.

The flashlight on her visor activated and she began carefully searching the joints of the hatch. She remembered exactly what Sgt Baezas wife taught her about mines, IEDs and booby traps before she got killed.

It didn't take long before she found what she was searching for. Almost invisible there were two metal flakes, together not wider than a millimetre, placed between the hatch and it's frame.

"What's taking so long up there?", Kenneth asked quietly but impatient from beneath her.

"It's rigged. Looks like a pressure release detonator and I don't want to witness from this close if it's armed or not." She whispered back in an annoyed tone. "Just give me a minute."
Carefully she tried to look into the joint by pressing her cheek against the hatch but the angle prevented her from seeing into it.

"Sh*t, I can't see the cables. Do you have a mirror or something?" Rebecca whispered to Kenneth while looking down to him.

"Yeah, in the pocket on my *ss. Under all the equipment you couldn't carry. Could take a while till I can reach it." came the sarcastic answer.

As Rebecca looked over his equipment bags and gear her look fell onto the knife in the sheath strapped to his leg. It wasn't the standard issued knife but instead a bad ass looking, almost 30 cm long heavy knife which could be used to pierce through a bulletproof light armor. As far as she knew he had taken it from some rebel he killed in the guerilla fights. He loved his knife and she could swear she heard him talking a few times to it. The point was: This knife was probably better polished then the cutlery in the presidential palace of the federation. He noticed her look and followed it back to his knife.

"Oh no no no no no. NO WAY."

Rebecca grinned.

"Your knife."

"That's out of question. Use your own. Do you know how long I polished this knife?"

"Yes. That's exactly why I want it. The knife. NOW."

"Still out of question."

"Private, your knife. NOW." She raised her voice a bit and it echoed through the hoistway.

"Fine, fine. Just stop screaming around. Damn, do you want us to get killed? And if you drop it, I'll throw you right behind it."

"Was that a threat?"

"That was a promise."

He pulled his knife out of his sheath and handed the knife up to her.
Rebecca looked over the knife, seeing her own reflection on it.

"Seriously, you're a knife freak." she said while looking through the reflection on the knife into the joint.
Two small cables, a red and a black, went right from the metal flakes out of the joint.

"The knifefreak saved you from guessing were the bad cables are. Don't complain."

"Oh, I'm not complaining. By the way, how sharp is this monstrosity?" she asked while she looked carefully over the blades edge.

"Very sharp. Why are you asking?"

"No particular reason." she answered while placing the knife's blade between the upper metal flake and the hatch.
Then she pressed the hatch slightly upwards while carefully pushing the knife into the joint and holding the pressure on the two metal flakes.

"Give me a plaster out of the medikit. A big one." She ordered Kenneth.

He searched a minute around his equipment until he reached up a plaster.
Rebecca pressed hatch up with her head, while holding down the detonator with the knife in the one hand and grabbing the plaster with the other hand. She removed the package of the plaster with her teeth and placed it over the detonator. With her head and her free hand she lifted the hatch out of his frame and peeked into the engine room. Empty.

She opened the hatch fully and pressed the detonator with her now free hand. Beneath her Kenneth started moving up with all his equipment.
He pushed past Rebecca through the hatch, then he carefully removed the firing pins out of the charge surrounding the hatch.
Rebecca took the detonator and threw it down the hoistway, then she climbed through the hatch.




Rebecca looked around in the room. There wasn't much in it apart from a broom, the switched off console for the elevator machinery and some empty bottles. The bright sunlight falling through a small window above the sliding door leading onto the roof hurt in her eyes after the darkness in the hoistway. Whirled up dust was floating through the air and through the dirty pane she could see the blue sky over New Philipsburg and the side of the incredible high central tower.

She unfastened a small oval, matte black device from her visor, then she drew out the cable connecting it and the visor. The left part of her visor turned black and displayed the field of vision of the small black device. She raised her hand with the device up to the dirty window and analysed the image of the roof. Because the elevator was located on the back of the building she had a good view over the whole roof.

Two men, dressed in army clothes, were standing in front of something what seemed like a transmitting antenna, armed with long tubes equipped with binocular sights and carefully watching the sky. Behind them, near the antenna there were several more tubes lying on the roof. On the other site of the roof near the edge stood a man, dressed in civil, aiming down into the district through the huge scope of a long rifle. He shot, then he smiled and pulled back his rifle to move to another part of the roof. The last person on the roof was a boy, not older than twelve or thirteen years old, who sat with his head between his knees and hands pressed onto his ears, near the door leading to the staircase. She couldn't see his face, but his movements indicated that he was sobbing. A low calibre submachinegun leaned against the wall next to him.

She pressed a button on her visor and device and cable got pulled back to the visor before she turned to Kenneth who was still aiming his silenced pistol at the door.

"Four Romeos. Two near, low threat, armed with Fire-and-forget rocketlaunchers. Two far, one near the edge of the roof, armed with a precision rifle. One sitting near the door leading to the staircase, armed with a submachinegun." she summed up the situation in a whisper.

"How much cover? And your plan?"

"No cover. You take out the sharpshooter, I'll take out the guy sitting next to the staircase. Whoever has his target down first, takes care of the two with the rocketlaunchers. They have these binocular sights, so I don't expect them to react too fast. The real threat is the sharpshooter. If he manages to turn his rifle, we're both dead."

"What's with the transmitter? That's why we're here."

"Directly behind the guys with the rocketlaunchers. Shouldn't be a problem."

"Can I use this ..." he patted on the assault rifle which hung from his back, "... or are you in sneaky mood today?"

She paused for a second, playing through different scenarios of what could happen out there.

"Use your silenced pistol. I don't want to attract the attention of the people who might be in the story beneath us. I want this to go clean and fast without dying."

"And after we take them out?"

"You're going to do whatever you were ordered to do with that transmitter and I'm going to prepare some nasty surprises for everyone coming up the staircase."

"MULTIPLE nasty surprises? Are they at least original?", he asked while pulling up one eyebrow.

Rebecca forced herself to grin.
"Actually it's just one. But they're going to be very surprised about it."

"And you dare to call me a freak. Alright let's do this."

Kenneth stood up and started to cast his equipment on the console. As soon as he was done, he came back, drew his pistol and stood besides the sliding door.
Adrenaline rushed through their veins and Rebecca forced herself to slow down her breath.

She put three fingers up.

"Three ..."

Kenneth moved his left hand to the handle of the sliding door.

"Two ..."

Rebecca tightened her fingers around the pistol grip.

"One ..."

Both of them took one last deep breath.

"Go."

Kenneth teared back the handle with full force and the door slid into the wall.

Bright light fell into the engine room and the dust floating in the air was swirled up again by the cracking gun shots from the two pistols.
The shots were nowhere near silent but not as loud as an unsilenced guns.

The sharpshooter looked up with a surprised look on his face when the third of Kenneths six fired shots hit his throat. He collapsed with the same surprised look and with a disgusting gargle while blood spouted out of his wound.

Rebecca differed from the plan and shot at the two rebels with the rocket launchers first. They were easy targets, wide open, unprepared, chests turned in her direction. Both of them got shot two times into the chest before they even could drop their launchers. Then she aimed her pistol at the boy sitting near the staircase while stepping out of the engine room.

"Touch that weapon and you're dead.", she yelled and the boy looked up with a frightened look on his face.

She heard two more shots and her head turned towards Kenneth who finished the guys with the rocket launchers lying on the ground off.

From the corner of her eye, she saw how the boy took his chance and reached out for the SMG.
She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger.
 
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Becks

Becks
She opened her eyes again when the firing pin hit the empty chamber repeatedly. Seven out of fourteen shots in the pistol had hit their target, but the boy was not dead yet. He sat in a growing puddle of blood and with every time he coughed more blood poured out of his bullet wounds and his mouth.

It wasn't the first time she shot someone nor was it the first time she shot a child. But she despised the thought of killing someone younger than her.

A hand touched her shoulder.

"I had no choice. He or I."

"I know. You don't need to justify anything. Lets do our job." He lifted his pistol, took aim and shot two times.
Both shots hit the boys head and he fell to the side.

Rebecca remained in silence, while she stared at him for a few seconds.
Kenneth stared back.

"Alright, back to work."

Both of them went back to the maintenance room to get their equipment. Kenneth pulled some cables, a tastature and a screen out of his bags and plugged the cables into the antenna in the midst of the roof. Numbers and letters flooded the screen and with a concentrated look on his face he started typing commands into his console.

Rebecca dragged the still warm corpse of the sharpshooter to the staircase and placed him on the platform beneath the top carefully trying to avoid as much noise as possible. Out of her bag, which was carried by kenneth earlier she pulled an object built from four cylindrical grenades, a lot of duct tape and a wire. The construct weighed almost a kilo since she used the heavier incendiary grenades. She placed the device under the corpse of the man and pulled the wire out. Then she backed slowly off. Even the slightest movement of the corpse would cause a deadly firestorm, which would not only make the stairs impassable but also spread downwards through the staircase.

Through her headset she heard a sudden static rustle which abruptly ended.

Then she heard Kenneths voice, far clearer then before and without the static noise.

"I need you up here. Managed to eavesdrop some interesting conversations on the Romeo channels."

She closed the bag and moved slowly away from the corpse and up the stairs.

"So what conversation?"

"Can't tell exactly. Something about the evacuation of a VIP. The signal source is somewhere to the south east from here."

"Roger. I'll take a look." Rebecca said while she got the imager out of its case, walked to the south east corner of the roof and lay down onto her belly.
She looked through the imager and let her eyes wander across the war-torn district. UD soldiers ran, fought and died on the streets below her while muzzle flashes illuminated the dark and narrow streets of the city district. Dust raised where the troops used heavier weapons and even the flaming jet of a flamethrower could be seen. Sometimes even the bright beam of a laser shot into the sky.

Her gaze fell on a old, large, cubic apartment building with a big square patio nearly a kilometre to the southeast. Every window and the big holes in the walls of the building were surrounded by soot. Apparently it had been bombarded not long ago. She couldn't see what was on the ground of the patio, but it whirled up a lot of dust.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we have a winner." she spoke in a sarcastic tone.

"What?" Kenneth asked while still being busy with typing commands into his terminal.

"Found it."

"What are you waiting for? Radio the lieutenant."

"No time. I'm reporting this directly to command."

"Archer One calling Callsign-Actual. Callsign-Actual come in, over."

It took a few moments until the deep voice of the colonel leading the attack answered.

"Callsign-Actual, reading you loud and clear, over."

"Callsign-Actual, possible enemy evacuation in progress. Big, cubic shaped apartment building southwest from our position. Unknown number of enemy aircraft ready for liftoff. Over."

"Copy, Archer One. Mark the targets. Over."

"Copy, Callsign-Actual. Targets marked at three-seven-five seven-six-one. Over."

"Phalanx Four, do you copy? Over."

"Callsign-Actual, reading you loud and clear. Copy. Marked target detected and locked. Ready for indirect fire. Over."

"Phalanx Four, fire."

A flap opened on the rear of one of the Ozymandias tanks and two metal cylinders were catapulted one after another from the tube. They were thrown nearly 20 meters into the air.
At the top of their path flames bursted out of the cylinder and they shot with a steep angle into the sky. The engines of the two missiles died for a short moment on the top of their trajectory, then they ignited again and propelled the slender metal cylinders with even greater speed towards the apartment building.

Suddenly the dust cloud enlarged and Two point defences on the building spew bullets at the first missile and both missiles began flying irregular dogding manouvres. The first missile was hit a hundred meters from the target, but the second missiles heatsignature was covered by the explosion for just a moment. That single moment was enough for the point defences to loose their track of it. When it reappeared on their sensors it was already in a different position than expected and it was too late realign the barrels of the point defences.

The second missile flew into the patio and a second later a gigantic fireball mixed with dust and rubble shot out of the building. The escaping helicopter was caught in the blast, started swaying and descended uncontrolled into the district. Dense smoke rose from the building and it was visibly damaged but still standing.

"Callsign-Actual, target still standing. One enemy aircraft downed approximately 500 meters south of the target."

"Phalanx Four, repeat. Over."

"Copy, Callsign-Actual."

The flap opened again and two more missiles were catapulted into the sky.
In the same moment they ignited their boosters, the first quakes trembled through New Philipsburg.


<OOC>
If you find any grammatical errors or typos, please notify me :)

"Callsign-Actual" is the code for the unit commander. In this case for the commander of the fifth assault unit.
"Repeat" is a request for additional (artillery) fire
</OOC>
 
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Becks

Becks
Rebecca dropped the imager and pushed herself away from the edge of the roof as fast as she could and Kenneth had trouble holding his balance.
A muffled boom came from the staircase. Apparently the tremors set the trap off.
Then the shaking ceased after some more seconds.

"What the f*ck was that?" he spoke slightly panicked. Obviously he didn't enjoy sitting on the roof of a more than 100 meter high building during an earthquake.

"Dunno. Maybe tectonic stuff?" She answered as calm as possible but with a visible pale face.

"I grew up here. This isn't even close to an earthquake zone."

"Whatever it was, I don't want to be up here when it happens again, so lets get out of here."

"And how?"

"The colonel arranged evacuation by air for us. A helicopter should be here in a few minutes."

"And the AAs?"

"I don't know what's planned. Going down the staircase isn't really an option and I don't want to be in that hoistway during the next earthquake."

"If there is a next earthqu..." He didn't finish his sentence. Instead a mix out of confusion and surprise appeared on his face.

"What?"

He just pointed with her finger somewhere behind her. She turned around and saw how the gigantic shield, a perfect usually transparent hemisphere protecting the inner city districts and the skyline, began glowing blue. The blue intensified and spread over the whole shield, some spots turned whiteish and became transparent again. Holes, holes in a shield, which had protected the city for centuries and resisted the combined artillery fire and bombardement of ground, air, and spaceforces for weeks. The holes tore through the shield and grew bigger and bigger until suddenly the blue was divided into an upper and a lower part. The size of the gap increased rapidly and it was foreseeable that the shield would be gone within the next minute. The sight was shocking, fascinating and confusing at the same time.

"So does that mean we won?" Kenneth asked, still shocked from the sight.

"Probably not, if they plan on using the city ever again." she answered.

She turned to the north looking for artillery fire and missiles climbing into the sky. Nothing.

"ALL UNITS, RETREAT IMMEDIATELY. ALL UNITS, RETREAT IMMEDIATELY." a familiar deep voice shouted through the crackling coms.
The last gunfire noises ceased and engine noises came from the mainroad of the district.

"Archer One, this is Silver Hawk 3. Please tell me you're ready for evac. Over." His voice sounded rushed and a little bit feared.

"Silver Hawk 3, copy, we're ready for evac. Over." She answered.

"Roger, ETA: Something around a minute. Out."

She signed Kenneth to grab his backpack, then she grabbed hers.

"What about all the other stuff I carried up here?"

"Take your gun, your backpack and the AMR. Leave the rest here."

Not even thirty seconds later, the slender frame of a helicopter shot past the building, braking by directing both of his large double rotors, which were mounted on movable suspensions over both sidedoors, against his direction of movement. The pilot tilted his rotors slightly and the helicopter made a sharp turn towards the building.

"That dude sure is in a hurry." Kenneth mumbled.

The side doors of the helicopter were slid open and a soldier with full gear stood in the frame, two safety lines in his hand.

Kenneth and Rebecca ducked and looked on the ground as the heli hovered above the roof and kicked a lot of dust and smoke from the staircase up.

It touched down a few meters away from them on the roof and they ran with their heads lowered towards the helicopter. The soldier jumped out and hooked the safety lines into Kenneths and Rebeccas gear then they boarded the aircraft.

The pilot pushed the throttle forwards and the aircraft took off from the roof.

"What's going on? Why are we retreating?", Rebecca shouted over the noise of the rotors.

The soldier ignored her and pulled himself against the forces of acceleration to the door leading into the cockpit instead. Rebecca followed him until she could look into the cockpit.
The soldier shouted to the pilot: "Did we make it in time?"

The pilot lifted his hand from the throttle and pointed towards a orange glowing cloud front high above in the sky.

"No, we didn't."


<OOC>
Divine Cerinian said:
You do a wonderful job, thank you for letting us read this.
Click to expand...
Thankies :D

And again, if you find any grammatical errors or typos, please notify me :)
</OOC>
 

Becks

Becks
The red hot hull of the strike leading Anaconda shot out of the glowing cloud, while it's pilot ignited the forwards thrusters to brake the massive ship down to attack speed. Four more Condas in a widespread delta formation flew to the left and the right behind their leader. Four more wings of five Condas appeared left and right of the original wing. Behind them a gigantic sixth wing consisting of hundreds of smaller ships.

The pilot dragged both his flight sticks back, while he pushed the throttle on both sticks with his thumbs to the maximum. The rotors revved, then they pointed themselves against the flight. Kenneth, Rebecca and the soldier were pressed against the doorframe and had trouble holding onto something. As the helicopter layed into a narrow, steep downwards turn, Rebecca lost her grip and slid, only held by the safety line, towards the side door. She reached out and grabbed a strut when the pilot pulled up the heli a few meters above the roofs of the city and steered it towards the skyline with full speed.

"What are you doing? Our order is to retreat!", Kenneth shouted over the howling rotors.

"You've never seen a federal bombardement, have you?" answered the soldier who was still busy with pulling himself on the passenger seats of the aircraft, while Rebecca was still struggling with not falling out of the helicopter. The soldier grabbed her safety line and pulled her onto a seat, then he put the safety gear around her upper body.

"Well, they're dropping bombs onto things, aren't they?" Kenneth answered while he fussed around with his own safety gear.

"It's a bit more than that. Those big ships carry twenty 20-ton airburst charges. Those things explode over the roofs and the airpressure kills everything unprotected in a large area. Perfect to smoke out densely built areas. Those small shi ..." His sentence was disrupted when the pilot dropped the heli into the street canyon of the main road. They flew with an insane speed past the buildings and over street crossings.

"I think I'm getting sick." Rebecca mumbled with a pale face.

"If you're going to barf, aim for the door and not for me. Well, those small ships have the actual bombs on board. And they just aim for everything not being reduced to rubble behind the big ships."

"And why exactly are we flying into enemy territory? What's with enemy AAs?"

"We wouldn't make it if we try to slip beneath the bombs. The airburst charges would wipe us out and the AAs have far bigger problems than a little attack chopper cruising through their territory."

"And what's with our troops in the districts? Are they going to bomb their own troops?"

"We aren't THEIR troops. We're just some backward colonial army, and that's how the federal high command views us. Wouldn't be the first time, they sacrifice a few hundred thousand of us to get their way."

"They're dropping their stuff! Hold onto something!" the pilot screamed through the com of the heli.

The blast hit the heli like a giant fist and the pilot couldn't avoid to brush past one of the buildings alongside the road.
The impact left the slender aircraft spinning. Rubble flew through the air. Cracks appeared on the windshield and the amount of screaming warning signals in the cockpit tripled.

Then the impact on the ground. Rebecca closed her eyes and heard the deafening noise of something shattering as the heli tilted to the side. When she opened them again she saw through her blurry vision that the double rotor on the other side dug into the asphalt of the street and then tore itself to pieces scattering fragments all over the place. Kenneth had several lacerations in the face and his uniform was cut in many places. The other soldier had a huge fragment sticking in his leg and screamed bloody murder. As she looked down, she saw a maybe 2 centimetres long fragment sticking in the chestplate of her armor. With her knife she cut her safety gear, then the gear of the wounded soldier. She took a look into the cockpit and saw that the upper half of the pilots head was gone. His body was still fixed in the pilot seat but blood from his head was spread over what was left of the windshield and the controls.

She stumbled out of the wreck and puked onto the street. When she looked up again she saw how Kenneth dragged the wounded soldier out of the wreck. She ran over and took a closer look at the wound.

"He's going to bleed out if we can't stop the bleeding fast."

"We don't have the ressources to do that. Almost everything went flying when we hit that building."

Another bomb exploded several kilometres away but the blast was strong enough to send a duststorm through the streets.

"We need to take shelter. Fast!" she screamed towards Kenneth over the sound of the explosion.

He hesitated then he answered. "There might be something 200 metres down the street. But we never reach it in time. We have to carry him."

"Please don't let me die here. Not like this." the soldier wailed out.

Rebecca didn't need to see his face through the full helmet to tell that he was crying. She stood up.

"We're leaving him behind. Get your stuff ready."

"You can't just decide that we're leaving him behind! I won't leave a wounded man behind." Kenneth answered in a harsh tone.

She drew her pistol, took aim and shot two times. Blood splattered across Kenneths face and his expression changed into unbelieving. He looked at the dead soldier with the two bullet holes in his head and his expression changed again. Into absolute rage this time.

"ARE YOU F*CKING INSANE?!" he shouted at her. "Are you now shooting your own comrades?!"

"No. I want to survive. He was a unnecessary burden and I disposed of him. He would have died anyway."

"You're a . You're doing anything to survive, even if you sacrifice the last shred of your own humanity."

"At least you know now where the nickname came from."
 
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Becks

Becks
The two soldiers ran along the street towards the entrance of the subway.

Another explosion behind them, much closer this time, pushed another duststorm through the street canyons of the city.

Kenneth tripped over a piece of rubble and fell onto the street, where he rolled off as much as the heavy backpack allowed it.

Rebecca slowed down, stopped, then she turned around to help him up.

She grabbed his backpack and pulled him up again.

"NOW RUN!" she screamed over the thunder of the colossal explosions.

150 meters to the entrance.

100 meters.

50 meters.

20 meters.

A piece of rubble on the stairs of the entrance, slid away beyond her foot, and she fell down the stairs onto the dark subway platform.

Right behind her Kenneth sprinted down the stairs onto the platform.

She picked herself up, then she ran behind him.

"Where is it? Where is it? WHERE IS IT?" she heard him screaming as she followed him.

Kenneth stood on the monorail track frantically searching around. His flashlight wandered along the track and his voice slipped.

"Found it." he screamed, then he ran into the dark tunnel.

Dust was pushed by another blastwave into the tunnels.

He stopped after a few meters and jumped besides the rail. She followed him and saw how he tried to pull open a small access hatch in the ground.

"No, no, no, NO! They locked it with a freaking electronic lock. F*CK."

"Out of the way." she yelled back as she pulled the AMR from her shoulder. They lost the barrel when the heli crashed but luckily the gun was designed for the possibility to shoot without a barrel if needed.

She pulled the loading lever back with one hand and sensed how the bullet entered the chamber as she pressed it back.
She pressed the gun into her shoulder then she set it on the lock.

BOOM.

The already deafening noise of the heavy rifle was amplified by the round tunnel walls and even drowned the thunder sound of the bomb rain for a moment.

She shot again and again until the lock and its bolts were vaporized.

Kenneth pulled the hatch open and looked down the ladder leading into the dark.

"Great ... another ladder." Rebecca moaned.

"Ladies with big guns go always first." Kenneth said with a weak smile.

Rebecca climbed down the ladder, Kenneth followed her as soon as he could.

The hatch fell back into it's frame and the two soldiers climbed down the ladder into the dark.





Several hours later.

The gigantic blast door began slowly moving and light fell into the tunnel on the other side. Scream and gunfire came out and soldiers in black gear ran out into the large hangar. A older greyhaired man without a helmet wielding a pistol left the only by muzzle flashes illuminated tunnel.

"Dark Runner, start the engines. NOW.", he screamed into the mic of his earpiece.

The huge rectangular outlets of the anaconda in the hangar began glowing and whirring as the pilot started the ignition sequence.

A big soldier carrying a unconscious blonde girl on his shoulder sprinted out of the tunnel. Blood dripped from her face and her hair were sticky from blood.

"Into the ship." the grey haired man screamed as the soldier ran past him.

More soldiers came out of the tunnel, the one last were walking backwards and delivered heavy suppression fire into the tunnel.

One of them turned to the old man.

"We're the last ones. The others are all dead." he shouted to him.

The old man pressed the button on the earpiece again.

"CLOSE THE BLAST DOOR! FAST! Everyone else don't let them out of the tunnel!."

An exosoldier with a chaingun came down the loading ramp of the anaconda and positioned itself behind the still firing soldiers.

The barrels began turning faster and faster. Then the chaingun fired rounds with a ridiculous high fire rate into the tunnel.

The last thing they saw through the small gap in the blast door was something jumping towards them.

Then the door closed and they lowered their weapon.

"Board the ship ASAP!" Greyhair started yelling, "We lost many good men today. I don't need any more losses because you took your time when we're about to make a getaway!"

"Yes Sir, Colonel Ares, Sir!." They shouted in unisono, then shouldered their guns and ran towards the loading ramp.

The soldiers hurried up the ramp and Ares went in last.

"Pull the Ramp up and then get us out of here.", he said into his mic.

"Roger. By the way: Macek brought the girl into the med bay." the pilot said, then through the speakers of the ship: "All units, prepare for takeoff, I repeat, prepare for takeoff. You better get a hold on something because this is going to be rough."

The ramp wasn't fully closed when the pilot of the anaconda ignited the vertical thrusters. The soldiers in the loading area rushed towards the handles on the walls, the lucky ones even got one of the rumble seats in the back of the loading area.

The blast doors in the hangar ceiling, protecting the anaconda from the federal bombardement and shelling, opened and opened the view onto the blackish-blue sky of Ehecatl A7. High above, the ships of the fifth wave of the federal bomber armada engaged their frame shift drives and hurled themselves out of the system.

The anaconda pilot gave full power to the thrusters and raised the nose of the anaconda in a steep angle into the sky. Then he hit the boost button.

With a gigantic dustcloud and the deep roaring of the main thrusters, the anaconda shot into the sky.

The speakers in the anaconda were so loud they could be heard over the engine noise.

"Prepare for jump in fifteen. Leaving masslock now. Charging."

Rebecca woke up to the countdown of the pilot.

"7."

"6."

"5."

The voice counting down changed into the female voice of the standard ship AI.

"4."

"3."

"2."

"1."

"Engage."

A thousand tons of spaceship, far more than hundred men and women and a girl were catapulted out of the planets atmosphere into another system.

And again, everyone Rebecca had known was gone.





[OOC]

Again if you find grammar mistakes, typos, sth ... tell me.

@mr.Gr3y: Thankies :D (I really like the word "Thankies")

[/OOC]
 
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Becks

Becks
"Wuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh." Even after almost 10 days in zero gravity it was still fun for Ria to fly around the ship. The beginning was hard and she had hit her head against almost everything in the ship. But with each day she spent in space, she learned how to control her movement better.

The door to the bridge of the anaconda opened with a quiet swish and Ria, slowly rotating around her own axis, floated into the cockpit. Rebecca sat, like always, in the pilot seat with a ridiculous big headset on her head, listening to music and druming rhythmically onto the throttle.

Ria floated into the warm light of the orange star in front of the ship towards the pilot seat and grabbed the handle at the back. She pulled herself above the seat and waved her tablet in front of Rebecca's face. That was basically all she was doing the past 10 days. Staring at pictures of planets, searching for things like atmosphere, clouds, blueish areas or generally something out of the normal. But she soon found out that most planets in space were basically rocks without atmosphere drifting around in the vacuum. Usually she did this from the port seat, but after six or seven hours straight, she got hungry and went to the relatively big kitchen compartment on the second deck to get something to eat.

Rebecca took her hand off the throttle and pushed her headset down her neck. Loud electronic music blared out of the headset.

"Wait a moment till I'm done with scooping." she said while pushing the throttle up and the nose of the Conda down.
The ship passed the bright orange star and shadows more black than anything Ria had ever seen before fell over the bow of the ship as Rebecca realigned it with the yellow marker for the next jump.

"And what have we in this system?", she asked while looking up to the floating girl.

"We have a rock, some more rocks, another rock, a gas giant circled by, you guessed it, rocks and ... what's this? Ahh, a rock." Ria grimaced while presenting her results.

"Well, that's the universe for a explorer. 99% rocks, 1% stuff worth scanning." Rebecca sarcastically responded.

"Prepare for jump?"

"Prepare for jump."

Ria pushed herself towards the seat on the port seat of the conda bridge, sat down and fastened her safety belts.

"Charging." the electronic voice from the computer almost drowned in the music from Rebeccas headset.

"Are you ready?" Rebecca asked over the sound of her music as the "Throttle up to engage" message popped up.

Ria checked her belts a last time, then she confirmed.

Rebecca pushed the throttle, stars changed into white lines and a whiteblue circle formed around the ship black area where the nose of the ship pointed.

"4... 3... 2... 1... Engage."

The ship lurched as it entered the witchspace and the velocity meter went crazy as they flew through the random light formations.

Then, after a few seconds, the ship dropped out into the light of the next star. Ria pressed the button for the Advanced Discovery Scanner down and after some moments a deep, vibrating sound of a sucessful scan echoed through the cockpit.

67 new objects. Ria groaned.

"Not. Again. Please no."

Rebecca started giggling.

"Maybe you'll find something interesting this time." she responded, then still giggling: "I'm kind of happy that I don't have to look over all those space rocks."

"How long do you plan on torturing me today?"

"Maybe for two or three hours more. Not too long. I'm getting tired."

"Thank goodness."


6 hours later. Somewhere on a unnamed planet past the 50.000 lightyears from Sol line.

Rebecca woke up to the ringing sound of an ancient alarm clock. She opened her eyes and looked onto the PSA around her wrist. 05:40 Earth Standard Time.

"Activate the cameras in the crew quarters." She whispered through her dark cabin.

The PSA displayed the dark silhouttes of four bunks, a few spinds, some chairs and a table in the dimmed light of the crew quarters. Only the bare mattress was laying on three of the four beds. The fourth bed was occupied by Rias slender frame.

"Deactivate."

She stood up and changed into her flight suit. Then she walked down the dark floor towards the communication room.
Exactly at 05:45 Earth Standard Time, she activated the big screen in the communication room.
She didn't even wait for thirty seconds, then the screen began changing.

[OOC]

Same as everytime :)

[/OOC]
 
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Becks

Becks
"Red Winter calling Icy Summer. Icy Summer, come in."

"This is Icy Summer, reading you loud and clear. Identification code: Hotel-Tango-Zulu-Alpha-Kilo-India fourteen sixtythree ninetyseven, over."

"Code confirmed. Secure connection established. Establishing connection to overseer Enigma. Coordinator, out."

The screen suddenly displayed a picture instead of a static black screen.
The outlines of the bald person on the screen were visible, but face and front were in darkness.

"Icy Summer, update me."

"I crossed the 50 Kylie mark and I'm closing in on the clients system. No incidents worth mentioning. Spareparts are ready for transfer. We expect the exchange to run smoothly."

"Has the client tried to establish contact?"

"No, Sir. Every contacting is coordinated by the responsible dispatch on Wollheim Vision."

"Understood. Here are the details on this mission. Listen carefully."

He made a little pause to make sure he had her attention.

"This is a long range search and recovery operation. Security classification ultra blue. Your target is this."

The picture on the monitor changed.
A reinforced cargo canister with several biohazard signs, stood surrounded by heavy armed men in a loading bay. None of the men had any insignias on their black gear and the only symbol referring to an organization were four yellow letters on the protection plates of the canister: INRA.

"You don't need to know who took those pictures or where they were taken. The only thing I can tell you is that they're from almost fifty years ago. Your mission is to recover two of those canisters from a wreck out there, then you make sure that noone else can recover anything else from this wreck. You have the device issued for that task already onboard. The client has the info on the location and the details. He didn't send those for security reasons, before he managed it to fry his fuelscoop."

"Biological weapons, Sir?" the blonde woman asked the eclipsed man on the screen.

"You don't need to know. Just don't open those containers if you find them."

"Yes, Sir." Her eyes wandered through the communications room, avoiding direct eye contact.

"Is anything the matter, Icy Summer?"

She remained silent for a few seconds.

"Actually ... yes, Sir. I don't understand why I was picked for this mission. I'm not exactly a recovery specialist and my missions had always a more ... offensive nature."

"Normally I don't explain why certain agents are picked for certain missions. Consider this a one time exception to rebuild trust between command and operator.

First point: you have completed every assigned mission with a satisfying result.

Second point: you served in the main unit of the Ares Company. One of the very few who survived the annihilation of the company. Although independent on the outside, Ares was an important external for our service and we monitor every surviving member very carefully.

Third point: You're a official registered and kind of well-known fuel rat. That's a ideal cover to start such a long range operation without attracting too much attention from the alliance and the empire. Especially when it's a official fuel rats rescue. Noone will suspect a operation of the secret service behind this and those who do are feared to speak up since your organization is extremely popular and well respected by almost every major organization in human space.

Fourth point: Absolute loyality is required for this assignment. The reward and my means of pressure ensure your absolutely loyality."

"A mean of pressure, Sir?"

"Yes, Icy Summer."

The picture on the screen changed and the look on her face changed, too. Into confusion.

"Sir, I'm not sure why you think that th ..." The picture changed again, before she could finish her sentence.

She took a moment to recognize what was on the picture, then her expression switched from confusion over genuine surprise to unbelief. Emotions which were well hidden for more than a decade began to stir up and she was slowly losing the cool and uncaring front she built up over a long time.

"W-What?" Her voice shook and he could see how the picture made her insecure, "How?".

"We have our methods." He smiled. The pictures had worked exactly like he intended it, "More information on this is part of your reward. Don't disappoint me. Enigma, out."

The screen went black.

More than fifty thousand lightyears away in the Sol system, somewhere deep below some unimportant outbuilding of the federal headquarter on Mars, Overseer Enigma stood up from his seat. He looked onto the person who had listened to the entire conversation between the Overseer and the operative.

"That's the operative who's furthest out?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Give me a brief summary of her history with us."

"Joined the Ares Company shortly before her 18th birthday after fighting on Ehecatl A7. Got trained under Ares personally as marksman and sharpshooter. Absolved her first operation for us with 19. After this one several more under Ares. She survived the annihilation of the company by the imperial Inquisition and fled off world. She appeared again a year later, when she was accepted into the flight school of the pilots federation. We contacted her and persuaded her to work for us again. She absolved her first mission as a paramilitaric operative while she was still in flight training. Three years ago she got promoted to ultra blue and so far she hasn't failed a single mission."

"What's her speciality?"

"She carried out mostly dirty work for us. Assassinations and the silencing of witnesses for example. But she has partaken in sabotage, hostage rescue, smuggling and personal security, too. She prefers to take out her targets over a long range and avoids direct contact with them. Although there were incidents where she resorted to close combat. Her operations in space are rare since it's not her speciality, the last one was a combined operation of several POs during the war against onionhead on Panem. She piloted one of the fighters, which bombed the onionhead storages and laboratories in the urban areas of Panem."

"Were by any chance some highranked rebel officers in those "storages" and "laboratories"?"

"Yes, Sir."

The person nodded and swiped over his tablet. He stopped at a paragraph in the health section.

"She's a Dark-Zone user? I heard a lot about this drug and the catastrophic failure it was."

"There is a small percentage of people who can endure occasional use. We have strict reglementations to ensure the mental and physical health of our POs and COs and they have to call in for a full medical check after the use of certain enhancing substances."

"And her cover?"

"She's a fuel rat, Sir. One of those pilots, who risk their life to save other pilots. It's actually a pretty good cover for our activities. It provides with a reason to visit federal, imperial and independent systems and the reputation of the organization causes the law keepers often to turn a blind eye on minor violations of the law. As far as we can tell, her cover is still intact."

"I really hope your operative is as good as you claim her to be, Overseer Enigma." He made a little pause. "To much depends on this little operation of yours and I will not accept a failure. For the Federation."

"Yes, President Hudson, Sir. For the Federation."
 

Becks

Becks
The Anaconda exited supercruise with a familiar bang and dropped onto two ships rotating around each other. Rebecca pulled the throttle back as she approached the long tether that held the ASP Explorer and the Diamondback Explorer together. Two persons could be seen in the starlight, both floating in the middle of the connector secured with life lines.

"Alright, we're ready here." the comm crackled as Burwellian's deep voice came through it.

"Copy, deploying connector lines. Disengaging main thrusters."

The conda turned until her belly pointed towards the connector, then two flexible multipart steel rods came out of the corners of the front cargo hatch.

"Alright, a few more meters to the ..." he looked up and took a moment to directions of the conda, "... right." Rebecca ignited two of the right manouvre thrusters and the ship slowly drifted a bit to the right.

"Almost ... almost ... got it." He reached out with a long bar and pulled one of the rods towards the connector. The other man caught the other rod and attached it to the tether.

"Alright, Becci. You can fasten it and deploy the rest."

Rebecca pressed a button and the flexible rods contracted as they solidified.

"Rods are solid. Deploying the rest of the connector. Move a bit." she said into the comm as she pressed a button sequence on the keyboard to her left.

Two more rods came out of the corners and moved together with attached braces along the already established rods towards the tether. When they were finally established, the three ships and the tether formed a large T and slowly circled around each other.

"I'm putting on my atmosuit, then we can begin with transfering the spare parts and the tools I brought with me." she said, as she unfastened her security belts and pushed herself of the pilot seat.

Ria had watched silently since the rescue procedure had begun when they dropped into the system. Now she unfastened her belts and floated up.

"You're staying here." Rebecca looked at her with a little concerned look.

"Why? I can help." Ria sounded a bit disappointed as she talked back.

"Spacewalks aren't like a fun stroll through a park. One mistake and you're gone forever." Rebecca just wanted to avoid the client seeing her. The last thing she needed now was a FSS case investigator who told everything to Enigma as soon as he received the spare parts.

"Aww, come on. I swear I'll be careful."

"No. I doubt that I have a atmosuit fitting for you and they need to fit perfectly." In her mind she was asking herself why she was refusing it.

Ria made a sad face, then she pushed herself back into her seat and remained silent.

"Besides, I need you here in case anything happens. I want you to watch the scanner and report anything strange to me, okay?", Rebecca said as she left through the door of the bridge.

"Yeah, yeah.", Ria answered, then she mumbled under her breath, "As if you couldn't do that with that thing on your wrist."



Transferring the fuel processor from Rebecca's ship to the DBE was a lot more complicated than she had estimated. The processor was about the size of a limpet but very sensible, so it was surrounded with several protective layers which effectively doubled its size. After 90 minutes of trying, Burwellian and Rebecca finally managed to transport it through the hatch, around the bend of the tether and through the hatch of the DBE. The outside protective layers were visibly damaged and both rats were exhausted.

"Now we just need to get the tools." Rebecca said with a grin.

"Are they as bulky as this thing? Please say no." Burwellian said with a slightly annoyed tone.

Rebecca laughed, "They are not. Don't worry. Just two normal toolboxes and a precision plasma cutter."

"Thank, god.", he sighed and a few minutes later he was at work in the engine room of the DBE. Burwellian was a gifted engineer and more than able to handle this alone, so Rebecca went to look after the client.

He was in his bed room, was strapped into his bed and was startled when she opened the bulkhead. He looked pale and ill. Probably an aftereffect of the stasis drugs. He wasn't that old, probably just a few years older than her, but he looked more exhausted than some of the veterans she knew.

"Hey, everything okay?", she asked.

He looked up to her then he answered, "Yeah ... yeah, it's just that I wasn't prepared for all this. Usually I do a desk job. I wasn't prepared for ... all this. Flying fifty thousand lightyears on my own, being alone for months ... I just want to go home."

"Why don't you go home?"

"Uhm, I haven't completed my task yet. I have to ..." Rebecca put a hand over his mouth and bowed down to his ear.

"I understand that you're from the HQ. And I understand that you worked until now always with a team. With people you could talk to. But here we are in the field. And rule number one in the field is: Never ever give away your objective.", she whispered, then she moved her hand and straigtened.

He looked surprised, then he realized who she was.

"So you're Icy Su...", the rest of the sentence was muffled by her hand again.

"No names. Just give me the info and I'll take care of the rest.", she whispered again.

He pointed to his terminal, "There is a datacore in there. If you're the one, HE sent you to decrypt it."

She looked at him in a curious way. "And if I'm not?"

He shrugged, "Then I won't risk my life defending something you can't use."

She stepped to the terminal, opened the drive and took the cube-shaped blue shining crystal out. Then she pressed it into the rectangular shape on her wristband. The wristband opened a comm channel to the Anaconda and not even sixty seconds later an artificial voice said, "File decrypted." She turned to the man who laid still in his bed.

"I guess I'm the one HE sent. In a few hours he's done with the repairs in the engine room, then you can start jumping home." She saluted, then she stepped out of the cabin before he could answer.


[OOC]
Sorry for the long pause :D I was a little busy with another project and had a little blockade :)

Like always any grammar errors/spelling mistakes to me :)
[/OOC]
 
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