Adventures of a Drunkard Pilot

Chapter 9: First Blood

"Delta, arm base defenses," Cameron told him, "sync AA guns with targeting data from Iota."

"Right away, Captain Vox," Delta coolly replied. His image shimmered slightly. "All anti-air emplacements have targeting solutions. Estimated effect per salvo is at 34% destruction of enemy forces. However, chances of the emplacements being able to fire off more than two salvos sit at .02% before destruction."

"Send it," I told him. Arthur and Mitchell came running around the corner.

"Duncan!" Mitchell shouted over the alarm. He tossed something to me. I snatched it out of the air and recognized the 12 gauge Mossberg 500 from the stash of guns. He tossed a bandoleer of shells to me, which I caught and slung over my body.

"Thanks!" I shouted back. Arthur nodded and raised his rifle. The H&K 416 had a short range scope and a vertical forward grip. Mitchell motioned with his KRISS Vector back the way they had come.

"Gather anyone with combat experience in the briefing room," I shouted to Cameron as I took off at a jog toward the guys, "Get everyone else in a secure location."

"What about you guys?" Cameron asked.

"Us?" Arthur asked. "We're gonna get ready. We'll be there in 3." With that we ran back to our room.

"Any ideas?" I asked as we entered our humble abode.

"Well, I got one," Arthur offered. He walked to a long weapon case and pulled a bolt action M40 sniper rifle out. Luckily, some of our gear had been moved from the storage room to our room.

"D, we need you guys," I said into my radio. The next second, all three AI's appeared in the room.

"You rang?" Omega asked.

"Yeah, you're with us for this," Mitchell told him, "Get set to upload scans to brief room and prep action plans."

"Got it boss," Omega replied. "Hey, you guys forget how those suits work?"

"No?" I replied.

"When why don't you have the helmet on?" Iota asked. We all paused for a second before sheepishly shrugging.

"See the panel on your wrist?" Omega asked. We all looked at our wrists. I noticed a small touch screen with pulse, temperature, suit battery level, and a small button. I pressed the button.

Suddenly, the armor plates around my neck broke apart into small pieces and wrapped around my head with a series of loud clicks. It completely covered my head in a jet-black mask. I clawed at it, yelling in surprise. As suddenly as my world had gone dark, it lit up. The mask covering my face was a copy of the Spartan Warriors of old. The screen that came to life showed a progress bar that said LOADING PRESETS and a status bar that filled almost immediately. As soon as the progress bar hit 100%, it disappeared and brought up my HUD. I looked at Arthur and Mitchell, both of who had stopped clawing at their faces. Mitchell's mask looked like a pair of jet-black ski goggles imposed on top of a respirator mask, while Arthur's was a mouth piece wade of 2 flat pieces angled like a plow and 2 horizontal slits, one that went from temple to temple and one an inch or so below it.

"Well shit," was all i could say. The guys kinda chuckled, but were cut off by an explosion that rocked the base and caused the lights to flicker.

"Cameron!" I called into my radio.

"Long range Legion fighters just blew a hole in hanger 14 and landed a dozen Legion foot soldiers," was her reply.

"Skidders," Mitchell spit out, "Shit."

"Route evacuations away from that sector," I told her as I started for the door. "Jester Actual will engage."

"No Frames detected," Delta cut into the conversation. "Only skidders. Light firearms will be sufficient."

"Get to the hangar and activate the manual emergency controls," Cameron told us as we left the room. "We'll send guys to retrieve your extra gear and bring it to the briefing room."

"Distribute the guns to the fighters," I told her, "And leave the rest locked up. No point it getting too much to carry."

"Got it," was her reply.

"Ready guys?" I asked Arthur and Mitchell.

"Let's rock," Mitchell replied as Arthur threw horns. I nodded and took off running towards the hangar. A message on my HUD reported that the Indicator-Friend or Foe, or IFF, system was functioning. It painted the few people we sprinted past in a green aura. It also displayed the number 12 in the upper right hand corner. We rounded one last corner and came to the hangar door. Right as a Legion skidder forced the doors open. The skidder stood 7 feet tall, humanoid in appearance with red mechanical parts fused to the organic parts in its legs, arms, chest, and head. The bald head glared back at us with one green slit eye and one red mechanical one. It opened its mouth, revealing rows of shark-like teeth, and let out a loud screech. I stopped it with a shotgun blast to the head. The 00-buck round took the skidder's head off in a cloud of dark green blood and a mix of mechanical pieces and brain matter. The number in my HUD dropped to 11. As the body dropped, 2 more appeared in the door. Before I could pump my shotgun, Mitchell let out a pair of quick bursts. Each burst hit the skidders in the heads and tore chunks out as the hollow point rounds did their job. The number dropped to 9.

Arthur fired 5 rounds in quick succession. There was a squeal of pain from inside the room as the number dropped to 5. Arthur started to lower his rifle, but noticed one of his shots hadn't killed the target. He raised his rifle to finish it off, but we all were forced to dive to the side as a burst of energy came flying through the door. I slid up to the door and peeked in. I scanned the room. It was a large, mostly empty room. There were a few crates stacked near our door, then a large open area that had been occupied by Lord Rojas' ship hours before.  And I saw our targets. The remaining 9 skidders were spread out across the room. 8 were aiming at us, with the 9th thrashing around on the ground in a pool of its own blood. I was forced to duck back as another wave of fire from the Legion's plasma rifles came our way. I blindly aimed my shotgun around the corner and fired at the general area that the injured skidder and fired 3 rounds, pumping the shotgun as fast as I could. I heard a pair of alien screams, and the number on my HUD dropped to 7. Mitchell stacked up on the other side with Arthur behind him. I have them a few hand signals. Mitchell nodded back, and then slid around the corner. I stepped into the room and immediately slid behind one of the crates. Mitchell slid behind the one next to me and immediately started firing around the side of it. I aimed around the side of mine and spotted only one skidder. I put a blast into its leg as Arthur's rifle barked from the door and the number on my HUD dropped to 5. The leg was torn off, and as the skidder fell to the ground I put my last shot into its chest. The buckshot punched a hole through the skidder's chest and out the back, causing my HUD to change the 5 to a 4. Mitchell's Vector opened up, and the number dropped to 1. I dropped my empty shotgun and drew the revolver on my leg as I stood up and faced towards where I believed the last skidder to be. I was rewarded with seeing it as Arthur put a trio of round through its head. The body counter on my HUD hit 0, and disappeared, replaced with a waypoint indicating where the override panel was. I looked at the computer monitor across the room, then sprinted over to it.

"What do I do?" I asked as I came up to it.

"Just put your palm to the console." Delta replied. I followed his instruction, placing my open hand on the screen. My palm glowed blue for a second, then stopped as the giant hole in the hangar was sealed by blast doors.

"Data-nanites integrated into the palm of your gloves," was all Delta said.

"Cameron, hangar is cleared," I said into my radio.

"Got it," she sounded surprised, "regroup at the briefing room. We have a situation."