Seraph’s Gambit- Episode 53
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Noah
Noah“We’re coming to you!” Noah shouted, hefting his rifle and preparing to head to engineering to help Vlasa with the boarders.
“Proceed with the
Noah exchanged a glance with Squee who stood in the
With a roar of frustration, he slammed his hand onto the
Weapon fire from behind him caught his attention. Squee had gunned down another one of the crew. For the moment, the two of them were now alone in the corridor. Keeping his weapon up, Noah approached the nearest door and glanced at Squee. The
The door parted, revealing a cramped room. Squished into one corner, Javi was not immediately
For a moment, Javi continued rushing past before coming to a sudden stop. He turned one eyestalk around and then another, flipping his body in a maneuver that, on a human, would have caused the person’s neck to snap as they moved their head through their torso. Noah shuddered.
“I never expected to see either of you again. Especially not together.”
“Yeah, well, life’s full of surprises,” Noah quipped before tossing Javi a gun belt. “Now, let’s go. We’ve got to disable the FTL before these jokers decide it’s better to live to fight another day.”
“I do not believe they can retreat.” Javi said, as he secured the gun belt and drew the pistol, “If they engage the FTL, they will lose their connection to the AI fleet.”
“Connection, sure, but not total control, right? They’ll be able to get it back right.”
“Yes.”
“Then if we’re too successful, they’ll take that chance.”
The trio began moving steadily down the corridor. Noah kept to the rear, always looking behind them. But nothing snuck up from that direction.
“This is Team 1, we have been engaged by combat drones!” the Rokma in the missile bay announced.
“Team 2, engaging combat drones!” The Rokma in shield control echoed.
Almost involuntarily, Noah and the others slowed at the sounds of combat filling their ears. It may very well have been this decision that caused Squee to step more cautiously around the next corner. The sudden barrage of weapon fire that greeted him would have cut him in half had he gone around at full speed.
“Combat drones!” Squee barked, “I couldn’t see how many.”
Noah rushed forward and risked a quick glance around the corner. The boom of a heavy caliber gun greeted him. A hole the size of his head appeared on the opposite wall.
“Goddamn. They are definitely trying to kill you, Squee.”
“It is a good thing we are not near the exterior hull,” Javi said.
“Javi, anything but drones around the corner?” Noah asked.
The Slu shook his eyestalks, “I sense no life there.”
“Yeah, only death,” Noah whispered under his breath.
“With the firepower they are using, I cannot be a shield like we attempted before. Those rounds would penetrate even my skin.”
“Yeah.” Noah said, thoughtfully patting his gun, “If I can get a shot, I have the firepower to take them out. But trading one for one won’t get us very far.”
A new sound began echoing down the corridor. Mechanical gears whirred and small impacts reverberated through the deck. Noah glanced at Squee, who nodded. He grabbed Javi’s shoulder, and the three of them began racing down the corridor the way they had come.
“Stop here!” Noah suddenly hissed when they reach a pair of doors. “We won’t make it to the next cross-section. We’ll get one chance at this when they come around the corner. We need to hold here.”
Dropping to the deck, Noah flipped the bipod stand down and steadied his big rifle. He spotted a point high above the deck near the ceiling. Doing his best to slow his breathing, he waited, his finger ready near the trigger.
As expected, the first drone to come around the corner crawled along the ceiling, walking with magnetically connected feet. Noah had seen this trick before, and he didn’t hesitate. Three quick bursts from his rifle hit their mark, puncturing the drone’s central core, killing the AI brain.
With the brain severed, the drone collapsed, but its feet remained magnetized, leaving a drone corpse dangling from the ceiling. Shifting his aim, he choose the left side of the corridor. As he moved his gunsight, he caught a glimpse of the next drone coming around the corner. Unfortunately, it hugged the right bulkhead. Before he could shift his gun back, the drone started firing.
Letting go of his rifle, Noah rolled to his right, trying to get into the slim cover provided by the nearby doorway. A smoking hole appeared in the deck where he had been laying a second before. The rattle of more weapons fire echoed in the corridor, and by the time Noah could spare a glance up, the second drone had been disabled by Squee and Javi.
“Everyone okay?”
“I am well,” Squee said. He remained flush with the doorframe aiming his rifle at the corner.
“They grazed me, but just a flesh wound,” Javi said, shifting a part of his lower body that sported a blackened mark. “Though it also destroyed my recall device.”
“Then it is good we brought two,” Squee said, handing another one to Javi.
Noah frowned at the device as Squee handed it over, thinking of Serene. But he just shook his head as he stood up, “There were only two drones, and we don’t want to get stuck here when….goddamn it!”
Squee and Javi both shifted their aim around, trying to find the threat while Noah dropped to his knees in the middle of the corridor. He bent to pick up the shattered remains of his rifle, now burned clean through and in two pieces. A heavy sigh escaped him.
“This was my favorite gun.” He said.
“We’ll get you a new one.”
“She was one of a kind. I have never missed when firing her. You can’t ask for more from a gun.”
His moment of mourning was interrupted by a crackle over the comm network, “We need extraction! There are too many of them!”
“Mesu, port back the shield team now!” Ariana ordered.
“Port successful. Both team members are aboard. Unfortunately, my preliminary assessment is that they are beyond even my capabilities.” Mesu said, his usually cheerful tone notably absent.
“We also need extraction!” the Rokma from the other boarding party announced.
“I am unable to move the bodies from the teleportation chamber alone.”
Squee turned and started down the corridor, “We must help them.”
“We can’t. The missile bay is on fire. We’d be burned to a crisp.”
“I would not,” Squee said.
“Yeah, but you can’t help them alone. We have to get to the FTL…”
A sudden shift in the universe made Noah stumble. He shook his head, and then looked up, his stomach sinking, “We’re too late. They’ve already jumped.”
Continue to Episode 54
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