2Chapter 4
What can possibly go wrong
The expedition team was consisted of 20 operatives(including the 222 night wolves with three operatives), a very small number considering the size of the Elysium transport essentially everything the GTL could spare unless risking go behind schedule with the Bravo team. The egg heads and the capable army engineers from Nos Astra Company created some custom equipment and researched the broken containment unit and computer systems in order to understand and use some of the alien tec.
In order to succeed in the mission the extraction team brought a heavy fusion reactor, and a custom made cable built to be compatible with the containment unit assuming the other one they were tasked to acquire used the same design. The cable was supposed to supply power to the containment unit (with element X in it) so they could extract it to the eggheads. The extraction team was composed of 6 engineer, 1 scientist and 9 shock troopers.
From GTL Solace perspective the wreckages looked like they were located tightly close to each other but up close was a different story. The wrecks was scattered about a 1- 6 km apart depending on the direction, by the sheer amount it seemed like a major battle took place here. Strangely most of the ship in the wreckage when by computer simulations at Solace where put together didn´t became bigger than a corvette about 800m long (corvettes in freespace universe are bigger and longer then the cruisers).
The 222 has the state of the art scanning equipment, it didn't took long for them to find a wreck with a containment unit containing element X. However the distance in order reach the wreck was long. Once they scanned the commanding officer of the extraction team called the 222.
"222, report" Said Sarge.
"We found what we are looking for but we should reach our target about 2 hours with the Elysium speed." Said Corley in a depressing voice.
"Roger, how big is the derelict?"
"The derelict seems somewhat intact however seems to be slightly bigger then our corvette class frigates, according to the scanner it should be about 960m by length." Said Corley (it's a dreadnought class ship in mass effect universe, for the record the GTD Raynor should be about 3km in lenght)
"By the way... Bogdova has asked me to make a detailed mission report including our peoples mental state, I bet you guys has heard what happened in GTC Duke"
"We saw not just heard... the video footage in the fleet-net was disturbing, it wasn´t pretty I give you that" Said Taylor
"Then you understand my situation, I would really appreciate the 222 to tap in on our Helmet cams in order to help me deliver a more detailed report along with video footage once this mission is finished." Said Sarge
"Roger" Said Samuel
In the end they reached their destination, and entered the ship.
The helmets the operatives where using has enhanced reality functions, it essentially helped the crew to see in the dark and identify each other despite wearing full EVA suit with covering mask, and other vital functions like displaying the outside pressure, temp and equipment to analyse the air(if there is any) outside the suit. Altus only the engineers had helmet cam. That allowed the 222 to follow their progress.
The Shock Troopers had mainly black and red features on their EVA suit/armour (standard for shock troopers), the scientist was wearing a Med/support officer armour, while the engineers where wearing duller armour designed for practicality not for look. All the EVA suit of the GTVA have "magnetic lock" in their boots that allowed them to walk in non gravity or more accurately in near non gravity environment.
2 soldiers was left to guard the entrance of the transport while the rest of the operatives entered the wreck, the alien ship has clearly seen better days, it looked dark, cold, while dust and ice particles was hovering around the room along with misc item like tools and blown off wall panels.
"Sarge, I really want to return to Solace, this place give me the creeps, and walking in non-gravity environment for the first time in a place like this just rub me the wrong way." Said a rookie engineer while effortlessly pushing away a metal panel in front of him and illuminating the dark room with his flashlight.
"Then lets finish this dam mission faster so that we can leave, I don´t like this anymore the you do. I can barely wait to get some RNR promised by Bogdova after this mission. She is really riding the security personnel and Nos Astra hard son" Said a 57 year old male soldier former shock trooper, now high-ranking security guard.
"(chuckle) No shit, we were forced to do this mission while the rest of Nos Astra and the crews are celebrating their hard work and watching the shuttles launch bravo team to land on Per Volantis." said another engineer that was carrying effortlessly a fridge sized fusion reactor in the zero G environment.
"This mission can take up to a day in worse cases, especially if the cable end up not being compatible." Said another engineer carrying hull sealing wax that was part of squad 2.
"Well someone got to do this, if not us someone else would have to experience this shitty day" Said Sarge.
"Alright then, assuming the 222 scanning equipment didn't fuck up this sealed door is the first of many doors we have to cut thru in order to get to the containment unit. However more doors will block our path." Said Sarge while waving his hand over to the three engineers with fusion torches. "Let's cut throe smoothly".
"Hey rookie(engineer), did you bring the reconnaissance drones, I asked?" Said Sarge.
"Yes Sarge, but why did you want to bring it? Since we already have a map of this wreck?" Said the rookie.
"It feels safer to map out this ship in detail there might be something the 222 scanners have missed, and I don´t trust on new barely field tested experimental technology that these fighters are using. On top of it I don't like taking risk that can potentially endanger the mission since. Since I will take the blunt force from the higher up if this screw up." "So now hand over the drones son" Said Sarge with a serious, stern and clear voice. Once we cut thru we will lunch these drones to map out the area.
Few minutes later
The fusion torches did their job and the team could continue, Sarge Pushed the com unit on his right side of the helmet.
"Alright, 222, I want you to relay the scanning data you gathered and send it to all the operatives. Along with data of the drones we should be able to make a more accurate map of the wreck.
"Roger" said Taylor
"Ok, Squad 2, I want you to use the hull sealing wax and seal up any leaks and lock down the sections of the wreck that can potentially compromise the life support." said Sarge while lunching fast hovering drones to map out the ship and relaying the data to all the operatives.
Squad 3 consist of two soldiers, one engineer and a scientist who are familiar/experienced with the aliens computer systems (they worked on the bow engine project and have a basic understanding of the Xeno computer systems.)
"Squad 3 I want to have life support back I doesn´t have to remind you that our air supply is limited to a few hours, readings have shown that this alien species breathe similar air to our own. The suit air filters take care of the potential air contamination once life support is back" Said Sarge
Squad three scientist nodded and made his way long with the other to the dec of the ship they assumed had the controls to do their assigned task.
There was only 4 operatives assigned to squad 1, it consisted of Sarge, the Rookie engineer, Adam(engineer with the fusion reactor). And second in command Narobi Strechkova(shock trooper).
Shortly after they reached another door.
"Same procedure, Narobi help rookie to cut throe." Said Sarge
"Roger"
20 min later
Squad 3
"Interesting, feels like gravity is back along with the power" said the engineer to the scientist.
"You where supposed to initialize the life supp.." a loud scream could be heard in the coms. When they somehow turned on the gravity on the ship other ship/wreck system went online, Red warning lights could be seen along with some flickering lights in the ship.
"What was that?" Said the storm trooper while he was trying to reach Sarge
Meanwhile ( Sarge)
"Shit! Aaargh what the fuck %#"#!" Screamed Private engineer Adam, the heavy fusion reactor fell on his left legs, bones clearly snapped considering the angle the leg was bended to.
Narobi was a very capable Major, she took out the med kit and used the in suit needle to inject the suffering engineer with morphine to dull down the pain but in the end it was unnecessary, he passed out. The corridor where they were didn´t had atmosphere so the medical treatment was limited.
"What is his status" Said Sarge.
"He passed out, but should be fine, permission to take engineer Adam back to Elyseum transport" Said Narobi while the rookie engineer and Narobi tried to move the heavy fusion reactor. Sarge held up is hand in front Narobi while receving a call from Squad 3.
"What happened Sarge we head screams" Said the trooper
"A minor accident, gravity is back and the fusion reactor fell on Adam, We got the situation under control" He switched the com back to Narobi.
"Granted, you are the highest ranking soldier when it comes to medical area, hone the doctor and patient confidentiality and take him to the med bay, stay with him. That an order"
Narobi just nodded and brought him up to her shoulders and walked back to the transport. This was quite easy to achieve since her EVA suit was equipped with small frame EXO skeleton, however captain Bogdova prioritized these addition to the EVA suit to the ground based Bravo team lead by Kunieda and her partner Mr Lundson. She has barely started to apply these skeletons to the other Eva suits she had available in the fleet. Apparently Narobi had to call in special favour in order to get one.
This reminded 222 night wolfs of a incident that they heard when they came to GTL Solace mess to eat before hitting the bunk yesterday.
When gossip spread like wild fire about a sexual favour, Narobi didn´t took it well, in the mess she went to the table with the engineer who gave her the exo sceleton. He made jokingly remarks to her... her face flinched a little and burning eyes of rage, then she just took his hair and shoved his head it to the table really hard. The engineer from Nos Astra company ended up in med bay for concussion and broken nose.
It was like watching a movie for the 222 night wolfs despite they knew everything they saw was the real deal.
"That got to hurt, getting the bones crushed like that?" Said Taylor while looking thru the shocked rookies head cam
"Yeah, looks like Sarge failed to avoid any incident" said Corley
"By the way isn´t the major the one people mentioned back at GTL Solace Dinner?" Taylor
"I bet it is her, she is a real charmer that one isn´t she" Said Corley sarcastically with a flirting tone in the comm.
"Seriously... Just don´t get any funny ideas, an incident like that and Al´faddir will hang you by the balls" remarked Taylor.
"Owch, Taylor... Do you always need to be graphical each time you comment on something, I might just fall for you if you keep this up." Said Corley in a flattery and flirty voice.
"Hmm, dont get a head of yourself kiddo, im older then you" Said Taylor cynicaly
"Really?"(corley)
"Alright cut it off, both of you, make sure you guys are recording this "
"Yes but I have difficulties to see thru squad 3 engineer cam, but I am still recording everything"
"Same here, I can´t see what squad 3 is up to. Might me a malfunction"
Meanwhile back to the wreck
Narobi was carrying Adam back to the Elysium transport, she flinched and wanted to shove a boot in Bogdovas ass. Narobi was cut off from everything, she didn't sign up to do this, especially not be forced to work for the GTVA. Matter in fact she was a spy from the collected scratched ashes of GTI( Galactic Terran intelligence) back during the early formation of GTVA. Shit she screamed internally, really not knowing what to do, except join the GTVA in the name of survival.
She eventually reached the Elysium transport but was surprised to find no one to greet her, so Narobi entered the air lock, closed the door, restored atmosphere and entered the decontamination and eradication procedure, before entering the ship.
The Elysium transport was a very versatile craft many variants thru out the decades have been built, using same basic design. These ship was used to everything from transporting to boarding crafty for pirates. So as a standard these kind of ship was equipped with little of everything, a small work shop, med bay, armoury and huge storage space and the list goes on and on.
She decided to make her way to the med bay and use the coms to contact the missing soldiers, so she tapped her right side of the helmet.
"Desert snake, Saw! Report" Said Narobi(...) Static was her answer and made her feel really uneasy. Then she noticed that the static was from her inbuilt quantum entanglement com device, meant to contact her superior. It was not perfect since it had to used Morse code to communicate in order to shrink it´s size. Unfortunate for her superior was forced to cryo sleep, so Narobi ended up being on her own, Narobi switched to her standard GTVA com.
"Saw!, DS are you there? Report" She later noticed the com was disabled, the way the static sounded was disturbing since it resonated almost the same way a GTI jammer would do.
Narobi neck hair rose when she thought more about it. While taking off her helmet hand hung it to the side of her utility belt, she could suddenly clearly hear distant voice along the badly lit corridors, it was Laughter and miscellaneous activity in the workshop. If she remembered correctly it should be close to the med bay. So she went there to investigate.
"What the fuck are you guys doing, I shouldn´t need to remind you guys of the penalty of disobeying orders and abandoning your assigned post. Why aren´t you guys guarding the entrance." Said Narobi while having the unconscious engineer over her shoulder.
"Major... our comms started to give up the ghost, so we went here to figure out what went wrong, by the way what happened to the engineer." Said Desert snake intrigued while fiddling with his helmet com with analysing equipment.
"I can give you privacy if you are about to do what I think you will do" Said Saw jokingly.
"Give me a break, you are going to regret that. Anyway my com unit doesn't work neither." Said Narobi while putting the unconscious engineer to the floor.
"Hmm interesting, try out Adams(the unconscious engineer com unit it might work" Said DS
Narobi took off Adams helmet fiddling it with a optimistic expression that later turned with a hint of despair and tried to collect herself.
"Im not an good cold reader but I can tell you might know what behind this." Said DS
"Well I am no expert, but crew wide disruption of the coms only suggest there is something jamming us. We should easily find the source by triangulating it´s location." Said Narobi.
"Wait are you saying there is something or someone out there who is doing this to us?" Said Saw a little bit worried.
"Look, let's focus on getting the coms back online, and speculate later." Replied Narobi
"Well the easiest way to do that is to strategically place out detection and scanning gear and a good gridded map of the wrecked ship and Elysium transport. There should be some in the Cargo hold 24 at dec three." Said Saw while making his way out of the room.
"Wait why not just contact the 222 escort, surely these fighter craft have the equipment needed to triangulate the location" Said Narobi.
"Yeah smart thinking, Why not use the coms to contact the 222 to find the jammer location that jam the coms. Why haven´t I thought about it before" Said Saw
"(Shrugging barely), I will address to that attitude sooner then later… look basically we only need a window, helmet flashlight and use Morse code,"
"Wait, major are you saying you can use Morse code? On top it all do you think these pilot of 222 can understand it" said Desert snake.
"Well it is worth a shot, I rather try that first then go around and place the heavy detection/scanning equipment around the ship and the wreck now that gravity is back online"
"You got the EXO suit right" said Saw with the annoying tone.
"Ok that it… Saw! Take Adam to the med bay, let the medical VI treat him and stay with him during the rest of the mission" that an order"
"Hmm it really sucks being you right now, I guess you know the penalty for disobeying a superior officer" Said Desert snake amused.
"Ahh, just shut up" Said Saw while reluctantly obliging to the orders.
"Now then, as far as I know the Elysium transport isn´t famous for having fully exposed and fancy observations dec, unless you want to spin the wreck with the transport or detach from the wreck ship to face the fighters. Witch as I might add is breach from 34 protocols If I remember correctly.
"Yeah I already figured that out, I'm going to try detach us from the wreck and take care of the fallout later. You know how to pilot the transport right? " Said Narobi while making her way to the bridge , DS froze a bit knowing that he was going to be a part of this, but decided to follow shortly thereafter.
"Yes, my father thought me when I was a kid at Nos Vermius Prime, he piloted one of these things after the Capella incident, supplying food and water to the refugees that survived the Shivan triggered supernova" Said DS while checking the safety and turned off his Pulse rifle.
"Sounds like an person I would like to meet, bet he got interesting stories to tell" Said Narobi while pushing the red button to a cargo elevator.
There was no holographic fancy tec in the repurposed Elysium transport, if Narobi remembered correctly this ship should have been built before holo -tec became standard in the GTVA .
"He is dead and before that lived in Nos Vermus Prime, it's a mining colony built in an asteroid at the edge of GTVA space. So to be able to get by there you got at least learn how to pilot an Elysium transport to even get a decent job. I'm being generous at that detail. " Said DS while taking the lead and trying to open the bridge sliding doors that seemed to refuse to open.
"Hmm, we should oil the door in order to slide mechanism work more smoothly" Said Narobi while giving a hand and the door and with the power from EXO skeleton the door was easily forced open.
"What is his name anyway?" Said Narobi intrigued
"Josh Smith, I found out his real name after he died, In his testament that was only allowed to be read by me, in the end he wrote that he was sorry for not letting me know things. But that I deserved to know, I was shocked to find out who he really was" Said DS while sitting on the main piloting seat and disengage the five docking clams.
"And we are off, by the way would you mind if you told me his real name? " said Strechkova while taking off Fry pin and after a bit of humming thru the control panel she found the button to turn on and off the exterior lights in front the transport.
"You will eventually find out anyway once you look at my profile, by the way when I told Saw about it he decided to figure it out on his own it essentially took 2 weeks, are you ready to use the flashlight?."
"I just came up with a better idea, we won´t need it we might as well use the Elysium external light, got to be more noticeable" Said Narobi, all thus she was intrigued about DS past suddenly she was reminded that she actually spoke to the enemy.
"Yeah good idea, I got to admit that you behaviour is not following the traditional cut and dry shock trooper protocol, just make sure Sarge won't find you in this state." Said DS, he could see there was some conflict with Narobi simply not knowing how to respond.
DS turned the ship
Meanwhile back to the wreck (Sarge)
The understaffed squad 4 was now only Sarge and the rookie engineer helping each other to drag the heavy reactor shortly after Narobi left, and the rookie engineer was starting to panick.
"It seems that the reactor is undamaged from the drop, Guess it could have been worse son" Said Sarge
"Sarge, I don´t like this at all, I want to return to Solace and please stop calling me son, other people might get the wrong idea"
"I don´t like this anymore then you do, and stop being a cry baby, from now on you're going to be called the kid"
"Hey, I got a real name, it should be in the heads-up display. Use it"
"Look, I changed your call sign to the kid, and I won't change it until you can be tossed like a rag doll like all of us without complaining. If you do that then I will consider changing it and call you whatever you like."
"That is not fair"
"Life is not fair kid….." Said Sarge when suddenly he could only hear static, he found himself unable to communicate with Kid.
The engineer clearly panicked and dropped his end of the reactor, while Sarge carefully putted it down on his end.
"Fuck, anybody respond!" Said Sarge while fiddling with his com unit, he seemed to be able to receive the coms from others but the reception was corrupted an no sensible word could be recognised out of the static.
"Damm it" Said Sarge(monolog) while he was trying to calm the kid down.
After some lengthy improvised sign language Sarge explained that they should find the others and regroup at the transport. Kid followed Sarge like a sheep following the shepherd.
They eventually reached the environment control room where Squad 3 was supposed to be according to the last updated map location. The location updates worked by triangulating the operative's location when they communicate with one or the other. When the soldier called Sarge other received the call "without hearing the content and by drawing a line from the direction of the call it was possible to triangulate the location. This was done by an installed software in the suit.
A horrifying sight was seen, when they entered the room fresh blood everywhere. There was clear sign of firefight in the room, apart from the scientist corpse no other from squad 3 could be found. And there seemed only be one entrance in to the room.
"What happened here" (monolog) Sarge Suddenly felt his warrior instinct and gut feeling telling him to leave immediately, he had a really bad feeling about this.
He almost panicked but his Soldier training kicked in, and it fought back so in the end after barely a second later he could collect himself. Sarge immediately stopped Kid from entering the room, took his hand and ran away from the place and regroup at the transport. While running back Sarge and Kid could feel vibrations from the floor something or someone was following them and it was big by the feel of it…
Meanwhile Squad 2
Squad 2 was the biggest one in this mission composed of 7 operatives (squad 1 and 3 where 4 along with 2 at the guard team at the transport)
Even the soldiers aided the engineers to seal up the potential atmospheric leakage with hull sealing wax. By far it was only a temporary solution to restore life support along the corridor between the transport and the containment unit. One shock soldier was very uncomfortable to say the least, the very thought of atmosphere being held inside a thin foiled patched up ship and nothing more then empty black, hostile space outside was enough to make his neck hair rise. It became worse when the com stopped working properly.
Well what do you guys think, This is by far the longest chapter I have done yet(that is published) I really putted a lot of effort making this chapter interesting and functional. I would love to have review. I can´t wait to see what I can come up with in the future, and I really hope that I can keep up with the high standard I implemented on this chapter.