Once again this is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental. As always, any mistakes are my own and any constructive criticism is always welcome. In this chapter I start using the made-up language, so I'm sorry in advance. Yes, the sex is coming.
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Date: 231908.20
Time: 2016.10
Location: Flin Carrier Island O8 level
'O5 ready for breach, over.' I heard in my ear.
'Roger, all levels ready for breach. Breach in 3.. 2.. 1.. Breach.' Bobby said and my visor darkened as the cutting gel began to melt through the armored hatch on the flag bridge. It took just 10 seconds to cut through, then 2 DC men moved in and quickly pried out the still hot slug of steel. 6 Breachers swarmed through the hole weapons up.
'Clear, clear, clear, clear, clear, clear. All clear.' The Sargent said as the intel POs quickly entered the space, I slipped in behind them and looked around the bridge.
Drops of blood floated in the airless space, the 10 individuals that floated had obviously died of blunt force trauma from slamming into equipment when the island separated from the hull and the artificial gravity failed. About the only thing that were working were the emergency lights and a few pieces of equipment that had emergency battery backup.
Exiting the bridge, I went over to the Admirals cabin and pried the door open and walked in my pistol up and ready. The main room was empty and clear, as I stepped into his sleeping area and saw the life pod in the corner, welded to the deck. It was working but several warning lights were lit. 'Medic to my location.' I said and knelt down, shining my head light into the interior. A small dirty, scared human face stared back at me. 'Brenda get your ass in here now. DC team to me ASAP.' The medic had just walked in as I called out.
'Oh shit.' I heard her say as she rushed over to the pod and began to check it over. 'Fuck, we gotta get this thing out of here now, sir.' She told me as Brenda and 3 other Marines filled the door weapons up.
'What the fuck Sir?' She asked, then saw the pod. 'Oh shit.' and was pushed out of the way by the DC team.
'Ripper 6, Crusher 3-5 we got a live one at position 4, over.' Brenda said over the command freq. '3-5 this is 6 hold your pos. I'll be right down.' Bobby said. 'Roger 6' Brenda replied and looked over at the pod as the teams tried to stabilize and free it.
'This thing is fucked up.'
'Check the connectors, see if we can cross connect.'
'Repair 7 Bravo send a pod pack over to my position, yesterday.'
'Her stats are failing we need to get her out now.'
'Check the scrubbers, see if they're clogger.'
'It's welded to the deck back here; we're going to need 5 minutes to free it safely.'
'The back-up systems are failing, looks like it hasn't been services in a while.'
'CO scrubbers' levels are near lethal levels we need to change it.'
'She's starting to Fib here, we gotta go now Sir.'
'Give me that O2 bottle hose, we have a connector threaded on.'
'Cutting here standby.'
Bobby came in and caught my attention, I switched freqs. 'Yeah Sarge.' He smiled at that. 'We need to go private, right now.' I looked back at the mad scramble around the pod then back at him. 'Rip it out and haul ass?' I asked as the DC crews started to cut it free. 'Sounds like a plan, let's do it, we need to go.' He said and pulled back out of the crowded compartment. I switched back to the primary freq.
'You got 60 seconds to get it free, then I'm going to have to rip it out.' I said. One DC team kept their heads down and continued their work to cut it free, the other worked with the medics to swap out several filters and attached an O2 fitting, helping to stabilize and save the trapped girl.
'We have her stabilized Sir we just need to cut her free now.' The female medic said. 'I'd rather not bounce her around too much Sir, 2 minutes 3 tops.' HM1 Doc Bashier said. He was an old school medic with 4 tours as a FMF medic and 2 as an IDC Corpsman. This was someone who when he spoke, people listened.
I looked around as people where quickly packing up their gear for the move. 'Okay Doc, but let's step it up you got 2 minutes, 3 tops then we gotta go quick.'
'Roger that Sir, alright people you heard the man this ain't a Sunday social let's go, let's go.' He barked. Within 90 seconds I heard 4 'Freed' and watched the pod float up as 2 DC men and the medics guided it out the room.
An intel PO bumped my elbow and held up his bag. 'Were done here Sir the bridge and berthing spaces have been cleaned out; we're headed down now Sir.' He said. 'Okay make sure you have all of your people.' I told him as he headed out. On the command overlay inside my visor I could see green dots headed down towards the crossing point. I looked over at the DC team as they packed the last of their gear up. 'Let's go boys, we don't wanna miss the hover tram. it's a long walk home.' I said and followed them out the door. Bobby was waiting for me by the ladder as I made one last check for anyone left behind.
'Clear, let's go sarge.' I told him as we made our way to the O5 level to pick up 1st Lt. Gabby Brinks who was just finishing her final sweep. 'Clear Sirs, ready to evac.' She said and headed down the ladder as we followed her towards the boarding gangway that connected the Island to our ship. 6 Marines guarded our end, and I knew that 20 others were standing by on the other side, just in case.
'Report Marines.' Bobby barked out. 'Sir, with the exception of the 9 of us all others have evacuated back to the Arc Royal. The air lock is clear, and the life pod went through 7 minutes ago.' The Sargent said.
'Very well. Let's clear out and get aboard.' Bobby said.
'Sir.' The Sargent said, turned and pointed at the Marine closest to the boarding tube then at the tube. The Marine nodded and ducked into the tube, followed by the remaining Marines until only Bobby and me remained. 'Never thought I'd get to see the inside of one of these things.' I said looking around.
'Guess there's a first time for everything.' He said and tapped my shoulder pad. 'Let's go private, beers getting warm.' Yes, it was. I followed Bobby down the tube and into the airlock, as I began to close the hatch, I could see the flex tube being retracted. Good leave no evidence behind that we had been inside.
I could feel the pressure change as the space filled with breathing gas once again and I knew we were being scanned for any possible contamination.
'Clear of contamination, recompression complete, cleared to enter.' The ships AI Francis said, and the inner hatch opened with a slight hiss. no matter how carefully you try to equalize the pressures one side will always be slightly higher than the other. Stepping into the hanger bay I popped my visor open, and the noise of hundreds of voices hit me. It seemed as if everyone who could get free was here watching. The Intel teams were counting their bags and grabbing spare hands to help them take their haul to the entrance of their labyrinth. From there it would disappear into the maze of locked cubicles that made up the Intel center.
The squadrons pilots and crews were clustered around Hawkeye as he recounted what he'd seen on the primary bridge, I could see they were hanging on his every word. I should have gone over and broke it up, but why? This would help cement his standing in the squadron plus it gave him a boost over a few of the other new pilots. The ships 1MC system saved me.