Ludwig's Deposit, HIP 75862 3 C - 3308-08-04 08:21 GST
Maria drove the settlement's Scorpion light assault vehicle north away from Ludwig's Deposit towards an area of badlands. Thomas was in the gunner's seat behind her studying something on his data terminal, probably custom software he was working on for his little e-breach side project. Maria was a little grumpy. Thompson had interrupted breakfast to get the two of them to checkout some flaky perimeter sensors. Their employers, HIP 74286 Stakeholders, often didn't send the highest quality supplies: short term economies that lead to more work for them in the long term. Without Thomas repairing, patching, and developing clever hacks, the settlement would have had a catastrophic infrastructure failure ages ago. It was going to be his job to figure out what was wrong. It was her job, as scout, to look after him. This was an anarchy system controlled by a criminal organization, after all.
The rushed breakfast was the first reason that Maria was grumpy. The beginnings of a migraine was the second. Her meds weren't helping today. It was going to be a bad one. For now it was under control. Driving the SRV at speed seemed to help. The rough terrain was keeping her mind off it.
They were about half way to the faulty sensor. Thompson had the team building out the sensor perimeter for over a year, set in a ring, ten kilometers from the settlement. They supplemented the settlement's own sensors, giving them early warning of any intruders coming on foot or in surface vehicles. They'd drilled reaction to such an assault about a dozen times and put together a pretty decent settlement defence plan. It was overkill for a little mining settlement like theirs and the other security staff grumbled a bit. Maria didn't mind, though. Safety was worth working for. If anyone knew that, then it was her.
As if to underscore the point, Maria noticed a supercruise jump flash directly ahead. A ship had just entered supercruise. It was too far away to see what the ship was, but it was from a point just beyond the perimeter, as far as Maria could tell. A light throbbing began in Maria's head. A faint whining began in her ears. It was a familiar auditory hallucinations she got with her worst migraines.
"Frak! Heads up Thomas. We might have trouble."
"What?", he responded, confused.
Maria opened a comms channel back to Ludwig's Deposit.
"Ludwig's Deposit. This is Maria. I have just noticed a ship jump out from a point just outside our perimeter."
"Roger that! Setting condition yellow.", Thompson replied.
"It's probably nothing.", Maria started to reply.
"No, no. You did the right thing calling it in. Checkout the site and give me sitreps every five minutes."
"Roger that."
"Ludwig's Deposit Actual, out."
Frak, Maria thought. Thompson was getting everybody out of bed and suited up. She'd be popular when she got back, if this turned out to be nothing. This day just kept getting better and better.
Maria drove onwards. The sensor display zoomed out to maximum range as Thomas made adjustments. The resolution wasn't as good when they were configured this way, but it did give them better range. There was a faint signal at the edge of the sensor range. Maria maintained their course, using short taps on the Scorpion's vertical lift thrusters to jump over the small boulders that were in their way. The signal resolved and Thomas targeted it almost immediately.
"What the frak!", he said, "It's our Scarab!"
"What?", Maria replied. "How the in the three hells did that get out here? Are you sure?"
"Absolutely. Transponder matches, including the secondary handshake, that I added for extra security. It's parked just beyond the perimeter sensor."
"Secondary handshake? Frak it. Never mind."
Maria thumbed on the comms channel. "Ludwig's Deposit. This is Maria. We've detected the Scarab out here. Is anybody else supposed to be out and about?"
"Negative. Do you have a visual? Are you sure its our Scarab?"
"No visual, but we're pretty certain. Solid transponder match."
"There will be hell to pay if someone took it out on a joy ride.", Thompson replied. "Get visual confirmation. If it is unmanned, take it back to base. It looks like someone went AWOL."
"Roger that", Maria replied.
Maria focused on driving the Scorpion as fast as she could without it suffering damage. It took all her concentration as the terrain was getting rougher as they progressed. The whining tightness in her head wasn't helping. She willed herself to relax and the whining receded. They were about one kilometer from the Scarab at this point climbing a modest slope. Maria estimated the Scarab was just beyond the ridge.
Thomas spoke. "Did you see that?"
"See what?", she replied.
"I thought I saw some contacts on the scanner for a fraction of a second."
"Frak! The Badlands are just up ahead. Who knows what's hiding in there. I'll go up to the ridge on foot for a look. You get into the driving seat and be ready to go when I tell you."
Maria slowed the Scorpion and turned it to face down hill, bringing it to a stop about one hundred meters from the crest of the ridge. She climbed out the side hatch of the Scorpion and walked briskly uphill. As she neared the top she began to crouch and eventually to crawl. See peeked over the crest. The other side of the ridge dropped steeply into a valley and at the bottom was the settlement's Scarab SRV. It was empty, with one of the doors to the cabin left open. Motion beyond the Scarab caught Maria's eye: a handful of figures stepped out from behind a boulder, weapons drawn and pointed at the Scarab. They were in combat armour sprayed with garish neon patterns. Her suit registered them as a cluster of uncertain contacts on her helmet's HUD. The figures, five of them that she could see, fanned out around the Scarab. They shouldered their weapons and then, almost casually, they all lobbed a grenade towards the SRV. The vehicle disappeared in a large explosion. Maria targeted her suit sensors at each of the figures in a quick cycle. She didn't learn much. There were no transponders that identified the wearer as belonging to any particular faction. Her suit expert systems identified the figures as a mix of commandos and sharpshooters, confirming her own appraisal. The group paused for a while looking back along the valley. Maria considered pulling out her hand scanner to gather more information on them, when one of the figure's head's snapped around to look up the ridge in her direction. Maria ducked down hoping that she hadn't been seen. The bursts of laser and plasma fire above her head told her that she had. She must have shown up as a trace on someone's sensors. Maria scrambled down the slope in a hunched run. She clambered into the Scorpion and roared at Thomas, "Drive!". The vehicle lurched forward and she pulled herself into the gunner's seat and clipped herself in. She engaged the turret virtual reality interface and her helmet projected the view from the cameras on the turret directly onto her retinas, while blacking out the visor to reduce distraction.
The Scorpion lurched forward. Maria swung the turret around to face backwards and scanned the ridge for movement. She didn't have to wait long. Four heads popped up over the ridge briefly. Maria held down the trigger on the surge repeater and sprayed fire along the ridge line. It was unlikely that she would hit anything, as the surge repeater was notoriously inaccurate weapon until it got warmed up. It would, however, make the intruders think twice about climbing over the ridge. For good measure she fired a few missiles from the Scorpion's aculeus missile launcher. It was working, because, there were only a few laser shots hitting the Scorpion's shields. It absorbed the hits with ease.
Maria opened a comms channel back to Ludwig's Deposit.
"Ludwig's Deposit. This is Maria. Definite contact. At least five intruders, on foot, and hostile. Possibly more. The Scarab was destroyed. We are returning to base."
"Roger that. Let us know when you reach the inner perimeter."
Maria could hear the settlement alarm blaring in the background, over the comms channel.
"Acknowledged."
Maria relaxed a little and flexed her fingers. With all the excitement, she had forgotten the pain in her head. Now it returned with vengeance. Spots flashed before her eyes and she felt nauseated. This was a really bad one. They were still about four kilometers from the settlement's inner perimeter, but under no immediate threat so Maria closed her eyes and focused on her breathing, trying to get the pain under control. Thomas had slowed slightly, so the jostling wasn't so bad anymore. Hopefully, the attackers had been discouraged and she could grab a few seconds to find and take her medication when they got back to the settlement.
"Aw, frak! Maria!", Thomas said, "Are you seeing this?".
The Scorpion accelerated again. Maria glanced at the scanner. Four ships had come out of orbital cruise and were on a glide path straight towards Ludwig's Deposit. She started up the turret virtual reality interface again and quickly targeted each ship in turn. There were two Diamond Back Explorers and two ASP Scouts. That was a lot of firepower. The ASP Scouts banked towards the west on a path that would take them the storage area on the far side of landing pad two. If they were careful they could land on the far side of the buildings there and loot everything there out of the settlement's defences. Bloody pirates! It was a known weakness in their defences and Cunningham had petitioned the Central Council for funding for an extra turret on that side of the settlement, but it was denied. The ASP Scouts would have to wait, though. Maria had more immediate problems. The two Diamond Back Explorers were on a path that flew directly over the Scorpion. Through the virtual reality interface she could see that they were dropping down close to the surface hoping to use the mineral extractors as cover from the settlement's pulse laser turrets. It was working: the laser pulses went above the two ships. However, Maria's Scorpion had a clear line of sight. She targeted the nearest DBX and let loose a burst of fire from the surge repeater. The DBX's shields flared. In her ear, Maria heard the pip-pip-pip auditory cues from the Scorpion's aculeus missile launcher's targeting system. When it became a steady tone, she pulled the secondary trigger three times in quick succession. Three guided missiles launched, one after the other, and streaked towards the targeted ship. The guided missiles slammed into the ship's shields. The ship replied with a shot from its plasma accelerator and two dumbfire missiles, one from each of its missile racks. The plasma fire missed, thankfully, but the missiles hit the Scorpion's rear shields. The explosion lifted the vehicle's rear wheels off the ground, and Thomas struggled to regain control, which caused the next surge repeater volley to go high, and the aculeus missile launcher's targeting system to lose its lock. Maria cursed under her breath. They passed between the two groups of mineral extractors: they were almost back at the settlement. The comms channel opened up.
"All personnel, settlement defence plan foxtrot is in effect. Ludwig's Deposit Actua...". The communication was interrupted by a garbled series of squeaks and pops. The channel dropped. Settlement comms were being jammed.
"What's settlement defence plan foxtrot?", Thomas asked, a note of fear in his voice.
"We defend the building entrances until the turrets take these assholes out, or until we get air support. And Cunningham has activated the minefields. Park us between the extraction building and the storage building. Then make a break for the storage building. I'll cover you with the turret."
"Don't be crazy. You'll be a sitting duck!"
"That's my problem.", Maria replied as she selected the second DBX as her target. The first had dropped down behind the mineral extractors and looked to be dropping assault troops. She couldn't get a clear shot at that, but she had a clear line of sight to her new target. It was already taking fire from one of the base turrets, and it was firing dumbfire missiles at the settlement's anti-personnel turret. She could see that it had already dropped troops and they were huddled down at the corner of the extraction building. She let off a long burst from the surge repeater, draining the weapon capacitor. The Scorpion skidded to a stop as she did so, and Thomas unstrapped himself from the driver seat. He opened the hatch and paused, with one foot out. He gave a concerned glance at Maria, then turned and left the vehicle and sprinted to door of the storage building. A steady tone told Maria that the aculeus missile launcher had acquired a lock. Maria launched missiles and hosed the DBX down with surge repeater fire. The DBX's shields failed, but not before the anti-personnel turret exploded in a bloom of lilac plasma fire. The DBX raised its nose and launched two dumbfire missiles at Maria's Scorpion. They slammed into the side of the little vehicle. Its shields collapsed and it was lifted into the air and flipped over and rolled towards the storage building. Maria blacked out for a few seconds and woke to find the Scorpion lying on its side. She unclipped herself and pulled herself up to stand on the side of her seat. From there she was able to reach the emergency release controls for the hatch on what was once the left hand side of the Scorpion, but now was its roof. The explosive bolts detonated and blew the hatch outwards. Maria jumped towards opening and pulled herself through, expecting another salvo of missiles to slam into her at any moment. The DBX had decided that its damage was to bad to remain and attempted to gain altitude to escape. It was struck with a missile from the direction of Command building, whose detonation left a green tinged cloud behind. Its pilot tried to get it out of the line of fire but lost control and the ship when into a flat spin and landed belly down just beyond pad one. A series of explosions under the crashed ship ripped it to pieces. Chalk one up to the mine field, Maria thought.
A bullet ricocheting off her helmet brought her back to her own situation.
"Frak! Frak! Frak!", she muttered to herself. She thumbed her shields on, flipped out of the hatch and rolled over the Scorpion's turret towards the Storage building. She got her legs under her and scrambled forward, half crawling and half running towards the Storage building's airlock. Her migraine was really bad and each step felt like a hammer blow to head. Blotches of yellow green clouded her vision. There was a high pitched whine in her head. After what felt like an eternity, she reached the double doors of the building which slid open for her. The Scorpion exploded behind her, one of its heavy duty wheels slamming into the building right beside the entrance. She dived inside and rolled back to her feet and continued running. Ahead, taking cover at the corner of a shelf unit Thomas had his laser pistol aimed at the doorway behind her. Beyond Thomas, Alicia and Roger were in cover at control point Charlie, back to back. Alicia was covering another of the entrances into this warehouse building with her submachine gun, while Roger trained his laser rifle along a long shelving aisle towards the third entrance. Maria slid to a stop beside Thomas, removed her laser carbine from its mounting bracket on her back and stood in a crouched stance behind him, aiming back at the door she had passed through. It had closed behind her, so they'd have some notice before the shooting started again. Maria did some breathing exercises, trying to calm herself and waited. She felt the detonations of the battle outside, more than she heard them, and was very glad that the blast shutters were closed. At least they were safe from the three ships. They had just the assault troops to worry about. Cunningham may be a uptight and strict, but he did train them for all eventualities. Defence plan foxtrot meant that everyone knew to be inside and to be ready for attackers. She hoped the others were safe. She glanced down at Thomas. As a technician he didn't have to do the same combat training as the security staff, so she was surprised to see him in a good firing stance giving the smallest of targets to anyone coming in through the door. He looked like he had done this before. His pistol was wavering a little, though.
"Relax your arms a bit, Tom. And remember to breathe." She heard him exhale.
"Breathe! Right!", he replied.
"Four count in, four count out. Okay?"
"Yeah! Got it!"
He sounded scared. He had a right to be. She was. They were out numbered. This attack was way more intense than any of their plans had projected. She had no idea if reinforcements were coming to aid them. She had no idea if their attackers were going to get reinforcements. There were twelve security personnel, and three of them were in this building. Their attackers had complete control of outside, and if they were clever, could concentrate their forces. About the only things going for Maria and her colleagues was that the attackers had to pass through the choke points of the doors and that they the security team were well trained and focused. It may not be enough.
Maria saw a flicker of movement through the window in the airlock doors.
"Get ready! Here they come.", she said.
The doors snapped open. Three figures in combat armour surged through. Their armour was decorated with spikes and florescent decals. Their faces were hidden, their helmets having an opaque face mask and tinted goggles rather than the usual plexiglass visor. Thomas and herself got off a few shots on the first attacker before they spotted them and started returning fire. Two streams of plasma shots from their attackers' assault rifles slammed into the corner Maria and Tom were using for cover. Maria kept firing but Tom was forced to duck back behind the corner. Behind her, Maria could hear Roger's laser rifle firing, followed shortly by Alicia's submachine gun. The other entrances must have attackers too, she thought. Maria's migraine was the worst it had ever been. The pain was almost crippling, the whining in her head almost drowned out the sound of her laser carbine firing, and the green and yellow blotches in her vision almost completely obscured her field of view. She was able to see that the third attacker had managed to lob a grenade in her direction and that was going to bounce just in front of her. This is how I die, she thought. The whining noise in her head reached a crescendo. Then it stopped. The blotches of yellow and green disappeared. The fear and tension and pain she had been feeling went away and were replaced by the absolute certainty that the people attacking her had to die. Almost like a spectator in her own body Maria realized she had dived forward towards the grenade. She used her carbine as a bat and flicked the grenade straight back towards her attackers in a low flat arc. She continued her dive into a roll, under a stream of plasma bolts, and then rolled to the side, to counter her attackers' adjusted aim, firing all the time. The grenade detonated. It was an EMP device that took down the shields of her three attackers. At this point her carbine had expended a full power cell. She stowed it with one hand, while drawing her pistol with the other. She fired the pistol. Her first shot went through the goggles of one of the attackers, killing them instantly. The second struck another attacker in the shoulder spinning them around and into the line of fire of the last attacker. The plasma bolts tore through their chest plate, leaving big holes. All the while, Maria was moving. She fired her next four pistol shots at nearly point blank range into the chest of the third attacker, who dropped their weapon and crumpled to the floor. Some instinct caused her to throw an EMP grenade and her two frag grenades to land just outside the door of the building. Muffled curses were cut short by the EMP blast and the explosions of the other two grenades. Maria reloaded and approached the door. It was still open, which meant the sensors had detected someone on the other side. As she approached shes saw two corpses, far enough away from the door to not be triggering the door's sensor. She rolled through the doorway, brought her pistol to bear on the frame of the door, and fired four shots. One of the shots struck another attacker in the throat. They fell backwards and slid down the wall dead. There were no other attackers nearby. Maria noticed that there was an e-breach attached to the door authorization scanner. She casually swung her pistol around in an arc and smashed it. There were enemies behind her in the building and friends that needed support.
She switched weapon, back to her laser carbine, reloaded it, and went back inside. The door closed behind her. From where she was she could see that Roger and Alicia were still alive and firing at enemies, but they were both wounded. There was a lot of laser bursts and bullets were returning in their direction. Maria glanced to her right, towards the entranceway to another section of the warehouse building. There was a route through there to the third entrance. See didn't see any attackers coming from that direction. Perhaps she could go that way and flank the enemies that had Roger and Alicia pinned down. A thought popped into her head that she could cover the ground faster on all fours in this low gravity environment. She didn't examine it much an dived forward, landed on one palm, pulled her knees in to her chest, and kicked off, bounding away like a hound in pursuit of prey. Her high-g adapted body propelled her forward far faster than she would be able to run on two legs. A part of her thought that this was very odd, but another part thought that this was the fastest way to reach the enemies, the enemies that must die.
A gap opened the shelves. Maria angled towards it. Her momentum slammed her into the end of a shelf unit, and she bounced off it. The noise alerted an enemy that was now less than ten meters ahead of her, but before they could bring their weapon to bear on her, she sprayed laser fire from her carbine over the target, shredding both shields and armour in seconds. Maria surged forwarded. She was out of ammo for the carbine, so she discarded it, drawing her pistol instead. At the next corner she found two enemies. They turned from firing at Roger and Alicia, and brought their weapons to bear on her. She kicked the nearest one in the chest into the line of fire from Roger and Alicia and fired her pistol point blank. The enemy fell under their combined fire. The last enemy dropped their assault rifle, and started to draw a plasma pistol. Maria dived at them, knocking them off their feet before the pistol was fully drawn. She pinned the plasma pistol against the enemy's side and fired at their head with her own. The bullets were deflected by the enemy's shield. When the pistol was out of ammo she flipped it around in her hand and struck the enemy with the butt repeatedly until they went slack. She then dispatched them with a shot from the plasma pistol. This area was clear. Maria stood up and headed to doorway with the plasma pistol levelled in front of her. She smashed the e-breach she knew she would find there. A shadow passed overhead: it was one of the enemy's ASP Scouts. It was in free fall. It slammed, nose first, into some cargo containers, fifty meters in front of Maria, and exploded. The explosion picked her up and threw her back into the storage building. Maria was unconscious before she landed.