zaifyrRR
patreon
V2 Chapter 9: Counter Attack I
🕑 Added 2023-01-03 14:12:21 +0000 UTCSevs had the crew form up in the hallway slightly off the main corridor. First things first, they needed to find a landing point. So, carefully and quickly, they moved. They all moved towards the corridor bordering the hull of the ship. Resistance was slim. It was clear that the enemy was aware of the ships coming to my house as much as they were. They only ran into a few small squads, which they had no problem taking out. But the first point they found where a landing ship had breached their hull was empty. There was just a flickering force field keeping the atmosphere in.
The next two they found along the same quarter also are missing the landing pods. Apparently, after a successful raid, the tarlaki left the same way they came in. Assuming that the ship wasn't completely captured, that is. Sevs felt the time was running low. The ship was shaking almost constantly now, and they could hear creaking where they should be none. The next landing point they came across was actively being boarded. They were spotted at the same time as they saw the space elves fleeing.
Both sides opened fire, but most of the space elves were already on the ship, so they didn't have the same firepower. Those were quickly mowed down, but before Sevs's crew could get in position, the ship detached from the ones already inside and quickly made their escape.
He kept assuming that soon he would hear a word of dissent from his team. That they should have stayed and looked for the other survivors. That some leaders would have already had them back on a functional human ship. However, no voice spoke up. At least not about that. There was chatter of people making suggestions about what they thought was likely or where they remembered hearing about breaches as they moved on.
Each time they found another empty hole, they moved faster.
"They can't all be gone. Take us, we've killed at least four or five squads worth, and I'm sure the other players didn't do nearly as bad. Unless…" Jason complained. At first, it sounded like he was making a joke, but as he continued on, his voice started to trail off a little bit. Eventually, he paused, and this caused Sevs to look back at him. The visor made it kind of hard to tell, but it looked like he was slightly pale beneath it.
"Unless they're being recalled remotely." Sevs finished for him. "All right, people, we need to move fast. They're not all gone, we still see people getting in them, but we need to get on one soon."
They went into a higher gear breaking down a jog-clearing corner still but much less methodically than they used to. This was dangerous but staying behind was likely more of a risk now. They barely ever encountered anyone, and all those that did were usually far away and running. They didn't even bother to exchange shots.
Eventually, they found a pod that hadn't been taken yet. As they ran down a corridor, they spotted a hole in the side without the blue glimmer keeping the air in. Sevs's felt the whole squad breathe a sigh of relief. They sprinted the rest of the way to the opening. However, they didn't make it before things started to go south.
When they were halfway to their goal, a five-man team of Tarlaki rounded the corner. Caught in the open, there wasn't much they could do. The Tarlaki managed to duck behind the corner to get some cover. Sevs called for the team to run forward. They needed to make it to the pod so they could have some coverage of their own. As they ran, Carl and Bexy in front took potshots to keep the Tarlaki back. It was only slightly effective. Once they realized what the humans were doing, then they started to take more risks.
Sevs was grateful for the human's better armor and sturdier composition. They each took several hits. At this point, no one had made it, though completely unscathed. No one was seriously injured. Nothing that a tiny bit of rest wouldn't repair. That was one blessing of this world: healing was pretty quick.
The Tarlaki didn't have the same constitution that humans did. So they didn't have the same luxury of running through fire and accepting some hits. Sure they are quick and hard to hit but trying to peak a corner where they had to go through one area was still pretty hard. One of the ones trying to prevent them from getting on the ship misjudged the timing and popped out right as one of Carl's shots was heading for the corner. Maybe he was just unlucky, but the elf took a shot to the chest and stumbled back. Some hands guarded around the corner to pull them back, but the whole thing took a couple seconds which gave them the reading room they needed to get into cover.
They quickly formed up Soshal and Bexy ducked inside to clear the area and figure out how to start it. Carl and Jason took a position at the opening to trade fire and make sure no one came into the corridor in either direction. Sevs helped Robert down as he seemed to have recovered the most hits. Sevs was considering whether or not a good idea to try to help Robert out a part of his armor 10 to the wound, so they do quicker or leave him be for now. That's when he heard Soshal cursing from the front.
"We don't have authentication. So if I'm interpreting these flashing lights right, that is, we're going to need a card and some fingerprints. Otherwise, we're not getting anywhere."
"Which hand?" Sevs called back.
"The right? yeah, the right."
"Also, we need a card that looks like it's about 6 centimeters in width," Bexy added.
Stopping tending to Robert says offered a hand to pull him to his feet. Robert groaned as he accepted. "All right, you and Carl watch the door. Jason with me."
Without taking a look back, Sevs darted out into the corridor. Robert and Carl filled the hallway with fire as he sprinted towards where the Tarlaki position was. As he ran, he heard Jason's footsteps right on his heels. The covering fire Carl and Robert supplied was enough to get the enemies to duck back in surprise. It wasn't enough to completely get Sevs and Jason to them, but it got them most of the way.
As they neared the bend, Jason muttered into a direct link to Sevs. "You go high, I go low?"
Before Sevs could confirm, they were there. It seems that Jason had assumed Sevs would accept his plan as he hit the dirt, sliding on the baseball player. Rolling on the side to face the enemy as he slid past the corner and struck the far wall feet first, Jason with them up. At the same time, sevs rented the corner at a run, not going all the way across the hallway but staying close to the corner. This odd angle cut them by surprise and quickly had three of them down. It seemed the one that had taken a shot earlier wasn't in condition, so that left only one Tarlaki still alive.
Now in close, Sevs swung the butt of the rifle off the shoulder at the remaining enemy's head. It ducked under the blow fluidly and grabbed the knife, but some foot was already crashing into its knee. After all this time and training, the differences in stat allocation were starting to show. The only thing Sevs still had the edge over his teammates was hand-to-hand combat. Of course, that was likely just because they didn't train it very often. Still, his Physical Combat skill had reached high into the teens, and he could boast that he had the first tier three skill of the group with Unarmed Combat.
Once the knee was taken out, the rest of the fight didn't last long. Grappling was a specialty, but he really didn't have to worry about that as he simply just dropped onto the enemy slamming the butt of his gun into the throat piece of the armor. It didn't stand up, and soon the Tarlaki was clutching its neck and gasping for air. Finishing the last one, Sevs looked up at Jason.
Jason apparently had supreme confidence in Sevs's ability to finish off the last enemy alone. He was already in the middle of a gruesome task of cutting off the right hand of one of the fallen enemies. Turning away, he began to dig through the pockets of the armor of another fallen enemy until he found some cards. They're actually six cards in his pockets, and Sevs wasn't sure which one they were looking for, so you can grab them all.
