Chapter 21: Creepy Tales
Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2021 8:27 pm
A hauler had landed; food, as well as salvage from the old settlement, was unloaded onto the flight deck. Lieutenant Bear and colonel Bridgeford had a conversation in a nearby corner as the work progressed. “Say what you will about the scrap yard gang, but one thing you can’t say is they aren’t efficient about getting their salvage.” The Colonel was making small talk as he attempted to question Bear. “Yes, they are and no colonel, I had nothing to do with the theft of the war head. You may not believe this, but Admiral Jacob told me about it. He said the cylons are in possession of it.” The old marine didn’t like the lieutenant’s quasi-psychic responses, also hated the new sound of his voice and decided to drop the issue. Instead he pointed toward chief Forester and the waiting raptor to let him know that it was almost time for him to leave. Bear saluted and walked toward his plane.
As the hauler was unloaded the lieutenant stopped to look at the various food items and objects from the old settlement. One of the crewmen on the deck laughed saying that the toasters didn’t even bother with the remains of the old colony when they took it over. But then he suddenly stopped and became sullen as it occurred to him that Gomorrah was once a group of people trying to form a new establishment that had been wiped out of existence. “I’m sorry sir, I guess their misfortune is our gain.” Bear grunted and stopped for a moment.
He noticed a large fireman’s axe and picked it up. He then looked at the deckhand and eased his feelings saying that he was certain the spirits of the past are happy that their sacrifices will help them with their future. “They have no need of these things, but our use of them, will help the spirits rest in peace.” Bear than held the large steel axe above his head and shouted back at the Colonel. “Sir! Guns and bombs are coward’s tools. This is how I hunt!” With that he entered the raptor and began the pre-flight procedure as Forester sat in the rear wondering why he was ordered to spend time with the lieutenant by the doctor.
The Colonel snorted to himself and mumbling under his breath that the lieutenant should have been a marine. He then watched the plane lift off and was shortly joined by the admiral and the crew of raptor 484. Hallis, without formalities, proceeded with business. He was short in his conversations telling his C.A.G. to not get too curious about anything and just take a casual look around. “I can’t put my finger on it, but Mr. Conoy is something more than a spy-guy. Do only what you have to.” Gains overhearing the commentary laughed and made it clear that for her shore-leave, she intended to finish her job as quickly as possible because she wanted to get out of uniform as quickly as possible. Her intonation made it clear what she was talking about but everyone choose to ignore it.
Just like the previous raptor, Lapointe, Gains, and Assuras entered the plane and promptly took off. Hallis and Bridgeford walked away from the flight deck, both men commenting how they disliked all this unknown variable felter-carb. The old marine summed it up best, “woogie-boogie intelligence reports. Spies that can’t give a straight answer and a missing nuke. Things are nicely F.U.B.A.R”
The Admiral rolled his eyes noting that he missed the good old days with the food and water crisis. “At least back then, Gains was too hungry and tired to worry about frakin.” Aboard raptor 484, the Major was the first one to speak. “Ok people, I want to use as little as possible of our shore leave. So let’s just scout out the area and get the frak out of there.” No one disagreed but everyone appeared apprehensive. Noticing their uneasiness, Assuras asked Lapointe to brief them with any information he had on the area.
The Lieutenant responded, “It’s the old cylon base. During the first war, Galactica and another battlestar blew it up. Since then no one has ever returned to it. After the war the colonies focused on things closer to home. Gomorrah is far and remote with little strategic value. None of the re-supply crews have explored this area because the admiral is scared there might be some old toasters waiting to start up again.” Major Assuras paused momentarily as she flew the aircraft into the atmosphere. She then spoke a warning. “You hear that people. Keep your focus because it isn’t happy-fun time yet. We may find ourselves going head to head with the enemy.” With foreboding silence the plane landed.
-----
Over the next 24 hours periodic reports had come in from major Assuras on their progress. Nothing special was noted, mostly ruins and the possibility of some salvage and as far as the admiral was concerned, no news was good news. On the other hand things were starting to heat up aboard the Argus. The Colonel was in the middle of conducting a search of the entire ship, looking for Mr. Conoy. Needless to say, that both the Admiral and Colonel were not amused and they were beginning to believe that the man they thought must be a spy was not one at all. Their greatest fear was that he was an enemy collaborator. He must have somehow gotten possession of the warhead and intended to use it to destroy the ship. The worry was that if he wasn’t on the ship; it would already be too late.
Bridgeford was in the Admiral’s office yelling at some of his men, demanding to know how guards posted outside a room with no other exits couldn’t see a man leave. Hallis was present and after a few minutes he cut him off, ordered the men to remain silent and dismissed everyone. “It won’t do any good yelling at them. The man probably walked right past them and they didn’t notice or chose not to.”
The Colonel didn’t like the sound of this and bit his lip to resist verbally exploding at his superior. The Admiral continued, “Let’s just reason this out. He must still be on the ship or we wouldn’t be here. Still it won’t hurt to look into it.” Colonel Bridgeford stood stoic and remained silent. “The only aircraft landing on the planet surface have been raptors. Therefore I’m going down to the flight deck and see if there is anything I can find there. Because he couldn’t have stepped on to a plane without being noticed.”
The assurance of the Admiral had a surprisingly calming effect on the Colonel and he was finally able to combat his frustration enough to respond. “The entire ship is already talking, so I’m going to make a public address about looking for the man. It might help.” He then began to wonder about how long it would be until Toaster one’s arrival and was told that since they were here for just over 40 hours, so they could expect the Captain in just over a day.
Both men paused for a moment wondering, if Mr. Creepy did blow up the ship, how he planned to get home. Perhaps if he was a cylon sympathizer, there was something aboard the basestar he could use. After all, these problems had started shortly after they found the vessel. Having said all they could say, the two men walked out of the room and began their investigations.
Feeling like he was fumbling in the dark, the old marine entered C.I.C and took the public address system to make his statements about looking for Mr. Conoy. It was short and pointed, simply that they now had reason to believe that the man might be working with the enemy. Nothing was said about the missing nuclear bomb. Not only could this produce panic in some of the crew, but the wild card they were sure had the explosive, might panic himself and prematurely detonate the bomb, if he knew they were aware of its absence. Only petty officer Richards made a comment and that was to say she knew the man was slime. The Colonel shot her a dirty look but sat down at a terminal and demanded someone make the old thing display the weapons inventories.
In the meantime, Hallis was questioning people on the flight deck trying to make certain he was correct in his assumption that no one could have gotten off the ship unnoticed. The lieutenant made it clear that it was impossible because apart from the haulers, there were only 2 raptors that had taken off since the disappearance, Cupcake’s and Bear’s.
The Admiral shook his head feeling slightly secure that Mr. Conoy couldn’t get off his ship, when he noticed small metal containers being loaded into the back of a hauler. “What are those?” He demanded. The young lieutenant smiled and calmly explained that chief Forester came up the idea before he left. “Instead of having raptors make multiple landings on the planet surface, these empty boxes are loaded on them when they bring supplies to the heavy equipment. They are then dropped from the air to teams gathering supplies on the surface. It saves a lot of fuel!”
The ship’s old man just closed his eyes when he heard the information. And in disbelief the young man spoke again, “Sir that would be insane! There is almost no room and he couldn’t fit extra air. Plus these boxes are bolted shut and dropped without parachutes. It would be like putting a mouse in a soup can and throwing it at a wall.” Admiral Hallis just groaned because no matter how dangerous it might be, there was a way off the ship.
It was about that same moment word came from bridge that the communications had been lost with Cupcake. And the colonel had something important to ask, “Admiral, did you order Cupcake’s raptor armed with a nuke? Because according to the records you ordered Lapointe to have it armed 20 minutes before it took off.” Hallis groaned again because as things became clearer, they got muddier.
-----
Mr. Conoy’s mind faded in and out of consciousness due to lack of oxygen. The fall to the planet’s surface was hell and he was fighting the feeling of just letting go of this life. A dull ache was in his legs and he wondered if they were broken. If they were, there would be no reason to continue and perhaps suffocation would be an option. His previous mission was now officially botched and he couldn’t see the value of worrying further about the decrepit Argus.
He began to surrender to the darkness affirming to himself that everything would soon be better. But something deep inside his psyche stirred and his hands reached up and removed his helmet. As the air pierced his lungs, he painfully gasped. In a dim haze, he checked his legs and noted that they were sore but not broken. He wasn’t finished with this life yet and he had a new mission to complete.
By cylon or human standards what he had done just done was insane. Leoben had stolen a pilot’s flight gear and stowed away inside a titanium box in the back of a hauler. He had to dangerously lean out his oxygen supply and use a small explosive charge to in order to get out of it before it hit the ground. Not an easy task because they were made small and strong. The construction minimized the possibility they would be damaged when they hit the ground.
Regardless if it was suit design, skill in the deployment of the explosive charge that he used to blow the open box, during it’s free fall, or just plain luck that kept him from being killed; he managed to make it to the planet surface without being noticed. Grinning, he decided that a divine power loved him and it assured him of the righteousness of his mission. Still, death would have been so much easier, even if it wasn’t very entertaining.
Sitting up he spoke to himself, “Anyone can die, so you might as well make it an interesting experience.” He got up and took off his suit and due to curiosity he examined it. With more grinning he noted that there really wasn’t anything usable from it, and although the suit maintained oxygen integrity it was now basically garbage. His parachute wasn’t much better. So he quickly hid what was left of them and preceded to get his bearings.
He had managed to convince someone to smuggle his nuke onto the planet. But he wasn’t on Mr. Conoy’s team in this war and he didn’t want to run the risk of him suddenly coming to his senses and ruining all his plans. Instead of just smiling this time, he clapped and laughed about his date with destiny; he was certain he would keep his rendezvous with the warhead. He just had to make sure to deploy it where it would do the most good.
Softly he chided himself, “ As we stand in the river of time, what has happened before will happen again, good bye Gomorrah.” He then began to whistle and walk off the pain in his leg.
-----
Major Assuras and her recon party spent the majority of the time walking around the old ruins of the former cylon outpost. It would appear that the destruction of the base was thorough because the high points of their mission were the periodic check-ins with the Argus. “Man, the Galactica really blew this place to pieces. There isn’t anything worth finding here.” Gains was bored and had her mind on being some place else. The Major chimed in saying that she just wanted to check the tree line close to the area and then was going to call it quits. She noted that if re-supplying was going according to schedule, the party would begin in a few hours and she had no intention of missing it.
They ventured several hundred meters into the tree line. The forest was wild and unspoiled. Sasha suddenly stopped and motioned to everyone to take cover. The Major waited readying her side arm. “What is it lieutenant?” She took out her binoculars started to scan the area. “The birds suddenly stopped making noise.” Lapointe looked at her curiously, and without stopping her scan of the area, she softly spoke again, “Lieutenant, that means something nastier than us has scared them off.” She pointed in a direction and handed the binoculars to major Assuras. She looked and then cussed that the party was being crashed before it began, as she saw a cylon centurion walk into a clearing about another 500 meters away from them.
“Nothing too much to worry about, it’s just like we got rid of on Toaster one.” Aircraft engines broke the silence and a heavy raider came into view as it landed in the clearing. They quietly backed off several more meters for more advantageous concealment. The Major continued to watch and give the play by play of what she saw. A woman walked out of the plane, she was tall, blonde and proceeded to talk to the centurion. “Frak I hate traitors!” A moment later her jaw dropped open as 2 more identical women emerged from the aircraft. “What the frak is this frak? Triplets?!” She passed the binoculars to lieutenant Gains who quickly added that there were triplets plus a set of twins and the twins were Mr. Conoy’s brothers. Assuras gritted her teeth gave the order to quietly bug out of the area. She didn’t like the idea that the toasters had somehow created some sort human like android.
They began moving back when a hail of bullets came from the direction they were heading. Assuras was momentarily stunned as she regarded the stature of two new centurions that were quickly advancing. Gains knocked her to the ground with a sudden foot sweep. As her face met the grass, she scrambled away on her stomach. Meanwhile Gains and Lapointe dove for cover and in moments found themselves surrounded by the enemy.
The shooting stopped as the 3 blonde triplets and Mr. Conoy look-a-likes approached. One of the blonde women spoke, “Ahhh god must love us! You know you should just put your arms up because otherwise we’ll have to throw some really big grenades at you.”
Mr. Lapointe glanced momentarily at Sasha and then slowly stood up with his hands in the air. Again the blonde woman spoke, “Well geez, how did I know lieutenant Lapointe would be the first to stand up?” Sasha Gains was disgusted with her companion and for a moment considered her options. Alone her choices were limited, so she decided to follow suit and hope for opportunities later. Under the hail of bullets, the Major managed to scurry several meters away before getting her feet once again beneath her. She ran blindly through the forest, this was life or death and there was no time to think of her companions.
Gunfire ricocheted all around her and she tried to react as they had taught her in basic training. Her lungs burned and her legs ached. The centurions seemed to be everywhere and she panicked wondering how long before she ran directly into one. In the distance she saw what might be remains of the old human outpost and she headed towards it. The sound of the heavy raider above her became evident and in seconds even more intense gunfire erupted. She began a zigzag pattern of running trying to avoid being hit.
Adrenalin filled every muscle of her body as everything dissolved into a nonsensical haze. A metal door on a concrete bunker came into her view and she instinctively headed toward it. And as she approached within 50 meters of her destination, a fair sized tree suddenly fell besides her, having been cut down by bullets. But this was the last, because suddenly the gunfire stopped and she was freely allowed to reach her destination.
Assuras pulled open the door, slammed it shut behind her and collapsed on the floor gasping. As she caught her breath, she looked up and saw what appeared to be numerous frozen bodies. “What in the frak is this frak?” was her comment.
As the hauler was unloaded the lieutenant stopped to look at the various food items and objects from the old settlement. One of the crewmen on the deck laughed saying that the toasters didn’t even bother with the remains of the old colony when they took it over. But then he suddenly stopped and became sullen as it occurred to him that Gomorrah was once a group of people trying to form a new establishment that had been wiped out of existence. “I’m sorry sir, I guess their misfortune is our gain.” Bear grunted and stopped for a moment.
He noticed a large fireman’s axe and picked it up. He then looked at the deckhand and eased his feelings saying that he was certain the spirits of the past are happy that their sacrifices will help them with their future. “They have no need of these things, but our use of them, will help the spirits rest in peace.” Bear than held the large steel axe above his head and shouted back at the Colonel. “Sir! Guns and bombs are coward’s tools. This is how I hunt!” With that he entered the raptor and began the pre-flight procedure as Forester sat in the rear wondering why he was ordered to spend time with the lieutenant by the doctor.
The Colonel snorted to himself and mumbling under his breath that the lieutenant should have been a marine. He then watched the plane lift off and was shortly joined by the admiral and the crew of raptor 484. Hallis, without formalities, proceeded with business. He was short in his conversations telling his C.A.G. to not get too curious about anything and just take a casual look around. “I can’t put my finger on it, but Mr. Conoy is something more than a spy-guy. Do only what you have to.” Gains overhearing the commentary laughed and made it clear that for her shore-leave, she intended to finish her job as quickly as possible because she wanted to get out of uniform as quickly as possible. Her intonation made it clear what she was talking about but everyone choose to ignore it.
Just like the previous raptor, Lapointe, Gains, and Assuras entered the plane and promptly took off. Hallis and Bridgeford walked away from the flight deck, both men commenting how they disliked all this unknown variable felter-carb. The old marine summed it up best, “woogie-boogie intelligence reports. Spies that can’t give a straight answer and a missing nuke. Things are nicely F.U.B.A.R”
The Admiral rolled his eyes noting that he missed the good old days with the food and water crisis. “At least back then, Gains was too hungry and tired to worry about frakin.” Aboard raptor 484, the Major was the first one to speak. “Ok people, I want to use as little as possible of our shore leave. So let’s just scout out the area and get the frak out of there.” No one disagreed but everyone appeared apprehensive. Noticing their uneasiness, Assuras asked Lapointe to brief them with any information he had on the area.
The Lieutenant responded, “It’s the old cylon base. During the first war, Galactica and another battlestar blew it up. Since then no one has ever returned to it. After the war the colonies focused on things closer to home. Gomorrah is far and remote with little strategic value. None of the re-supply crews have explored this area because the admiral is scared there might be some old toasters waiting to start up again.” Major Assuras paused momentarily as she flew the aircraft into the atmosphere. She then spoke a warning. “You hear that people. Keep your focus because it isn’t happy-fun time yet. We may find ourselves going head to head with the enemy.” With foreboding silence the plane landed.
-----
Over the next 24 hours periodic reports had come in from major Assuras on their progress. Nothing special was noted, mostly ruins and the possibility of some salvage and as far as the admiral was concerned, no news was good news. On the other hand things were starting to heat up aboard the Argus. The Colonel was in the middle of conducting a search of the entire ship, looking for Mr. Conoy. Needless to say, that both the Admiral and Colonel were not amused and they were beginning to believe that the man they thought must be a spy was not one at all. Their greatest fear was that he was an enemy collaborator. He must have somehow gotten possession of the warhead and intended to use it to destroy the ship. The worry was that if he wasn’t on the ship; it would already be too late.
Bridgeford was in the Admiral’s office yelling at some of his men, demanding to know how guards posted outside a room with no other exits couldn’t see a man leave. Hallis was present and after a few minutes he cut him off, ordered the men to remain silent and dismissed everyone. “It won’t do any good yelling at them. The man probably walked right past them and they didn’t notice or chose not to.”
The Colonel didn’t like the sound of this and bit his lip to resist verbally exploding at his superior. The Admiral continued, “Let’s just reason this out. He must still be on the ship or we wouldn’t be here. Still it won’t hurt to look into it.” Colonel Bridgeford stood stoic and remained silent. “The only aircraft landing on the planet surface have been raptors. Therefore I’m going down to the flight deck and see if there is anything I can find there. Because he couldn’t have stepped on to a plane without being noticed.”
The assurance of the Admiral had a surprisingly calming effect on the Colonel and he was finally able to combat his frustration enough to respond. “The entire ship is already talking, so I’m going to make a public address about looking for the man. It might help.” He then began to wonder about how long it would be until Toaster one’s arrival and was told that since they were here for just over 40 hours, so they could expect the Captain in just over a day.
Both men paused for a moment wondering, if Mr. Creepy did blow up the ship, how he planned to get home. Perhaps if he was a cylon sympathizer, there was something aboard the basestar he could use. After all, these problems had started shortly after they found the vessel. Having said all they could say, the two men walked out of the room and began their investigations.
Feeling like he was fumbling in the dark, the old marine entered C.I.C and took the public address system to make his statements about looking for Mr. Conoy. It was short and pointed, simply that they now had reason to believe that the man might be working with the enemy. Nothing was said about the missing nuclear bomb. Not only could this produce panic in some of the crew, but the wild card they were sure had the explosive, might panic himself and prematurely detonate the bomb, if he knew they were aware of its absence. Only petty officer Richards made a comment and that was to say she knew the man was slime. The Colonel shot her a dirty look but sat down at a terminal and demanded someone make the old thing display the weapons inventories.
In the meantime, Hallis was questioning people on the flight deck trying to make certain he was correct in his assumption that no one could have gotten off the ship unnoticed. The lieutenant made it clear that it was impossible because apart from the haulers, there were only 2 raptors that had taken off since the disappearance, Cupcake’s and Bear’s.
The Admiral shook his head feeling slightly secure that Mr. Conoy couldn’t get off his ship, when he noticed small metal containers being loaded into the back of a hauler. “What are those?” He demanded. The young lieutenant smiled and calmly explained that chief Forester came up the idea before he left. “Instead of having raptors make multiple landings on the planet surface, these empty boxes are loaded on them when they bring supplies to the heavy equipment. They are then dropped from the air to teams gathering supplies on the surface. It saves a lot of fuel!”
The ship’s old man just closed his eyes when he heard the information. And in disbelief the young man spoke again, “Sir that would be insane! There is almost no room and he couldn’t fit extra air. Plus these boxes are bolted shut and dropped without parachutes. It would be like putting a mouse in a soup can and throwing it at a wall.” Admiral Hallis just groaned because no matter how dangerous it might be, there was a way off the ship.
It was about that same moment word came from bridge that the communications had been lost with Cupcake. And the colonel had something important to ask, “Admiral, did you order Cupcake’s raptor armed with a nuke? Because according to the records you ordered Lapointe to have it armed 20 minutes before it took off.” Hallis groaned again because as things became clearer, they got muddier.
-----
Mr. Conoy’s mind faded in and out of consciousness due to lack of oxygen. The fall to the planet’s surface was hell and he was fighting the feeling of just letting go of this life. A dull ache was in his legs and he wondered if they were broken. If they were, there would be no reason to continue and perhaps suffocation would be an option. His previous mission was now officially botched and he couldn’t see the value of worrying further about the decrepit Argus.
He began to surrender to the darkness affirming to himself that everything would soon be better. But something deep inside his psyche stirred and his hands reached up and removed his helmet. As the air pierced his lungs, he painfully gasped. In a dim haze, he checked his legs and noted that they were sore but not broken. He wasn’t finished with this life yet and he had a new mission to complete.
By cylon or human standards what he had done just done was insane. Leoben had stolen a pilot’s flight gear and stowed away inside a titanium box in the back of a hauler. He had to dangerously lean out his oxygen supply and use a small explosive charge to in order to get out of it before it hit the ground. Not an easy task because they were made small and strong. The construction minimized the possibility they would be damaged when they hit the ground.
Regardless if it was suit design, skill in the deployment of the explosive charge that he used to blow the open box, during it’s free fall, or just plain luck that kept him from being killed; he managed to make it to the planet surface without being noticed. Grinning, he decided that a divine power loved him and it assured him of the righteousness of his mission. Still, death would have been so much easier, even if it wasn’t very entertaining.
Sitting up he spoke to himself, “Anyone can die, so you might as well make it an interesting experience.” He got up and took off his suit and due to curiosity he examined it. With more grinning he noted that there really wasn’t anything usable from it, and although the suit maintained oxygen integrity it was now basically garbage. His parachute wasn’t much better. So he quickly hid what was left of them and preceded to get his bearings.
He had managed to convince someone to smuggle his nuke onto the planet. But he wasn’t on Mr. Conoy’s team in this war and he didn’t want to run the risk of him suddenly coming to his senses and ruining all his plans. Instead of just smiling this time, he clapped and laughed about his date with destiny; he was certain he would keep his rendezvous with the warhead. He just had to make sure to deploy it where it would do the most good.
Softly he chided himself, “ As we stand in the river of time, what has happened before will happen again, good bye Gomorrah.” He then began to whistle and walk off the pain in his leg.
-----
Major Assuras and her recon party spent the majority of the time walking around the old ruins of the former cylon outpost. It would appear that the destruction of the base was thorough because the high points of their mission were the periodic check-ins with the Argus. “Man, the Galactica really blew this place to pieces. There isn’t anything worth finding here.” Gains was bored and had her mind on being some place else. The Major chimed in saying that she just wanted to check the tree line close to the area and then was going to call it quits. She noted that if re-supplying was going according to schedule, the party would begin in a few hours and she had no intention of missing it.
They ventured several hundred meters into the tree line. The forest was wild and unspoiled. Sasha suddenly stopped and motioned to everyone to take cover. The Major waited readying her side arm. “What is it lieutenant?” She took out her binoculars started to scan the area. “The birds suddenly stopped making noise.” Lapointe looked at her curiously, and without stopping her scan of the area, she softly spoke again, “Lieutenant, that means something nastier than us has scared them off.” She pointed in a direction and handed the binoculars to major Assuras. She looked and then cussed that the party was being crashed before it began, as she saw a cylon centurion walk into a clearing about another 500 meters away from them.
“Nothing too much to worry about, it’s just like we got rid of on Toaster one.” Aircraft engines broke the silence and a heavy raider came into view as it landed in the clearing. They quietly backed off several more meters for more advantageous concealment. The Major continued to watch and give the play by play of what she saw. A woman walked out of the plane, she was tall, blonde and proceeded to talk to the centurion. “Frak I hate traitors!” A moment later her jaw dropped open as 2 more identical women emerged from the aircraft. “What the frak is this frak? Triplets?!” She passed the binoculars to lieutenant Gains who quickly added that there were triplets plus a set of twins and the twins were Mr. Conoy’s brothers. Assuras gritted her teeth gave the order to quietly bug out of the area. She didn’t like the idea that the toasters had somehow created some sort human like android.
They began moving back when a hail of bullets came from the direction they were heading. Assuras was momentarily stunned as she regarded the stature of two new centurions that were quickly advancing. Gains knocked her to the ground with a sudden foot sweep. As her face met the grass, she scrambled away on her stomach. Meanwhile Gains and Lapointe dove for cover and in moments found themselves surrounded by the enemy.
The shooting stopped as the 3 blonde triplets and Mr. Conoy look-a-likes approached. One of the blonde women spoke, “Ahhh god must love us! You know you should just put your arms up because otherwise we’ll have to throw some really big grenades at you.”
Mr. Lapointe glanced momentarily at Sasha and then slowly stood up with his hands in the air. Again the blonde woman spoke, “Well geez, how did I know lieutenant Lapointe would be the first to stand up?” Sasha Gains was disgusted with her companion and for a moment considered her options. Alone her choices were limited, so she decided to follow suit and hope for opportunities later. Under the hail of bullets, the Major managed to scurry several meters away before getting her feet once again beneath her. She ran blindly through the forest, this was life or death and there was no time to think of her companions.
Gunfire ricocheted all around her and she tried to react as they had taught her in basic training. Her lungs burned and her legs ached. The centurions seemed to be everywhere and she panicked wondering how long before she ran directly into one. In the distance she saw what might be remains of the old human outpost and she headed towards it. The sound of the heavy raider above her became evident and in seconds even more intense gunfire erupted. She began a zigzag pattern of running trying to avoid being hit.
Adrenalin filled every muscle of her body as everything dissolved into a nonsensical haze. A metal door on a concrete bunker came into her view and she instinctively headed toward it. And as she approached within 50 meters of her destination, a fair sized tree suddenly fell besides her, having been cut down by bullets. But this was the last, because suddenly the gunfire stopped and she was freely allowed to reach her destination.
Assuras pulled open the door, slammed it shut behind her and collapsed on the floor gasping. As she caught her breath, she looked up and saw what appeared to be numerous frozen bodies. “What in the frak is this frak?” was her comment.