Viz looked at Mr. T. “What do you think Grandad? Time to go home?”
Mr. T had a huge smile. “You kids go on. I’ll catch up later. Hold on. It’s a 3-hour flight back. Give me 5 minutes, will you? I need to have a quick chat with the general. Then I’ll be ready to go.”
September 29th, 1400 hours, Greenwich. We are about to port with four 9-member spec-ops teams to Darkside. Rock and Roll have been exercising, trying to increase their lift capability. Evidently exercise works for just about anything. It will still require two separate ports. The goal is to port the spec-ops teams close to the base. There are 4 airlock doors.
The squads will secure those doors and help to take the base. After that they will move the hostages to the shelter domes. The ships that are transporting the domes and other equipment left early yesterday. It will take another 10 hours or so to make the Lunar orbital insertion. They can vary that timing a bit, but not by much. We’re up, time to go. Mr. T has given Muncle leave from the mission. Evidently, he isn’t feeling well. Get well Muncle!
It’s still September 29th. We’re so amped. This is what has happened so far. Shockwave is inside the Darkside base. Rock and Roll have also ported the special ops teams to Darkside, two quick trips. Each team is close to the base, near a hatch, hunkered down in smallish impact craters. There has been no reaction from the bugs, though it is likely they noticed the arrival. Shockwave ported to the ... to the Eastern hatch.
We punched in the key-code. The hatch opened! I’m not sure why I was surprised. We were cloaked of course. The airlock inner hatch opened, and we were inside. A couple of bugs looked at the hatch. They looked at each other and they gave a bug-shrug. Seriously. That’s what it looked like. And they went back to their business. I’m sure they thought it was odd. But they didn’t do anything about it. Evidently, if our teams have been spotted by their scanner arrays, no general alarm has been given.
We hurried to the HVAC <heating-ventilation-air-conditioning> system main line. Para hauled the huge tank of bug spray. Rock drilled a hole in the vent pipe and double checked the direction of airflow. We didn’t want the gas going into the scrubbing system and being neutralized. Roll inserted the hose into the hole, opening the valve, and the spray entered the vents. Now we wait.
Crud! I hate loud screechy alarms. The base has a big smoke detector or ion detector or something. Why didn’t we think of that? A few bugs are coming our way. But they are moving slowly. And there aren’t many of them. Probably some bug engineers coming to check the HVAC system. There goes Para, like a whirlwind. Broke the cloak. But good job. Nice and quiet. Time check. It’s 2:45, okay 14:45. We are still on schedule. Hold on. More bugs coming. These are wearing spacesuits. Going to be busy for a while.
A full platoon of the bug elite guard has taken position at the control room entrance and activated an energetic shield. They’re wearing some sort of enviro-suit with what looks like heavy armor plating. We need the gate to open, but we sure don’t want a message sent through to warn the Empire. The other special operations units are in and securing the human prisoners.
Our immediate task is to take the control room, though our weapons have been rendered ineffective by the shielding. The bugs sentries are on high alert, guns at the ready. And they are waiting. Twenty of them in a semi-circle covering the control room. They’ll try to hold until the gate opens. They aren’t firing. Too much sensitive equipment around our positions. We don’t have time for this. Here comes the command.
Mr. T is shouting, command voice. “Form up for a hostage situation, rear of target, from the outside in, as facing hostiles, Rock to left and Roll to right. Move out.”
We all drew sidearms. Para took Roll’s hand. I cloaked and moved to Rock and Mr. T. Mr. T held up three fingers. 3,2,1... port. We untangled right behind the enemy soldiers. Gun in contact with the base of the head, a neck shot right where the head and thorax connect. Fire. Reposition. Fire.
The others ported back to a safe position. I stayed behind, cloaked, quietly unslung my rifle, and moved behind some equipment in a cover position.
10 dead bugs. 10 bugs left. The remaining bugs were agitated, looking all around the control room. They didn’t see anyone. They looked out and saw the team outside the shielding hiding behind some heavy equipment. The bugs then formed up again, facing outward, and opened fire despite risking damage to the equipment.
3,2,1... port. The port teams fired, base of neck, stepped off to the sides and continued firing. I opened up with the 6.8 and kept firing until my magazine was empty. Then I dropped my empty mag, put in a new one, chambered a round, and watched for movement. Nothing. Para scanned them. All dead. Roll crashed the shielding.
Almost 2:50, so 14:50. We need to get the engineers in here to turn off the alarms and make sure no warning message goes out to the Empire.
Mr. T is on the comms. “We’ve secured the portal gate control room. Let’s get the engineers in here.”
A few Earth engineers were embedded with the spec-ops teams. They think they can operate the portal computers if needed. We did a lot of recording when on recon duty. And the computer terminals and controls on the bug ships provided a good starting point to develop a basic understanding of bug systems. Most of the set-up is automated anyway. The engineers have silenced the alarm.
