When the gunshots first rang out, Athena immediately got back onto her feet. Beside her, Adrianna stood up as well. She did drink quite a lot, but when danger was near, she quickly proved that she was far more than a simple drunk. A simple drunk wouldn’t have lasted years in the Imperial Army.
“Those are Defenders. Defender-71s.” The redhead realized, referring to the other name of Defender-S rifles. “What the hell is going on? Did the local animals somehow breach the perimeter? But…if so the gunshots wouldn’t be coming from everywhere. Something is very wrong here!”
Athena observed her new friend in silence. If Adrianna was a member of the Guard, then she likely knew Athena wasn’t. In fact, there was no way Adrianna would be drinking so much at a time like this. Yes, some amateurs might drink before a battle to help calm themselves down, but veterans like the two of them knew the boldness that alcohol brought often came at a great cost. It took more than fearlessness to survive in a battle.
As the thoughts went through her head, Athena quickly entered the game, selected the 13 roaches, and deployed them underground. As she expected, the action was subtle. If she didn't have the link between herself and the Zerg units, she never would have known that 13 Zerg roaches just appeared underneath her feet.
Under her command, 11 of the 13 roaches started moving out in various directions. Their order was to find the rebel fighters and, once Athena gave the order, unburrow from the ground and strike. The other two roaches stayed with Athena, acting as her bodyguards.
Adrianna tapped her earpiece and switched between the various channels. “Anyone? Is anyone…”
Before she could continue, Athena turned to her new friend and shook her head. Adrianna frowned but muted herself regardless. “What is going on here, Athena?” She asked, realizing Athena might know a little more about this whole debacle than she did.
Several thoughts quickly went through Athena’s head. Adrianna was likely a loyalist. Of course, Athena would test this further. If she was a loyalist, then Athena could reveal the same information she revealed to Instigator Kendrick to her. She could help Adrianna survive. After all, Athena did grow to like her new friend.
“It’s complicated and I don’t know too much either, but elements of the company have gone rogue,” Athena explained. “They have likely betrayed the Imperium.”
“What?” Adrianna turned pale, well aware of the implications of this sudden betrayal. “But…why?” She answered herself before Athena could. “Doesn’t matter now. Do you know who we can trust? Wait, how did you know this? Are you…”
“No.” Athena shook her head. “It’s a long story that we don’t have time for now.”
Adrianna nodded slowly. Even in a situation like this, she was still calm enough to think properly. “I believe you. If you have gone rogue you wouldn’t be talking to me now. Judging from the sound of the gunshots the rogue elements have likely gone to the armory and accessed the arsenal before opening fire. Likewise, since I’m here talking to you, you should know that I’m not one of them either.”
Athena nodded. It seemed like the two of them had similar deduction processes.
“Do you have a plan?” Adrianna asked.
“You can say that.” Athena lied, reminding herself that she was just a loyal trooper who came across some information by accident. A loyalist like her wouldn’t be too concerned about her own safety, not when the greater good of the Imperium was at stake. If anything, martyrdom was quite a tempting idea. “There is only one thing on this planet that those bastards may want, and that is Doctor Payton from the Academy. We need to get to the lab now and make sure she is safe.”
“I don’t like our chances. We are unarmed and unarmored, and we have no idea who’s a friend and who’s a foe.” Adrianna shrugged and pointed at the sword symbol on her left choice. “But I guess we don’t have any other options. Might as well go down fighting for the sigil on our uniforms, right?”
“Indeed.” Athena nodded and did her best to not sound sarcastic. "For the Imperium."
After reaching a consensus, the two of them made their way to the door. Athena tossed a quick glance into the hallway before snapping back at Adrianna and putting a finger over her lips. Almost at the same time, a few bursts of gunshots rang out from not far away, followed by the pained groan of a man. Another burst of gunshots, and the groans were silenced.
Athena raised three fingers to Adrianna and then crossed her index fingers. Three men. All in armor.
Adrianna bit her lips and readied herself. This was suicide. She knew it. Athena likely also knew it. But as she said to Athena, they didn't really have a choice. Perhaps they could last a little longer if they hid in their room and prayed they wouldn’t be found, but it was obvious these men were searching the rooms. Adrianna personally preferred to take her chances and go down fighting.
Luckily for her, Athena was hardly as defenseless as she seemed. Right beside Adrianna, Athena took a deep breath and issued a single command.
Go roaches…kill them all.
And the pair of roaches serving as her bodyguard obeyed.
In the hallway, three Guard troopers in Guardian-class power armor suddenly ceased their movement. With their face shields lifted, they could hear a strange sound coming from nearby. It was as if something sharp was cutting through metal. It didn't take long before they came to a shocking realization. The sound was coming…from below.
Right in front of them, the steel plating that served as the floor to the hallway cracked and split. It was almost as if something was trying to dig its way out from underneath, but…what? What could be under their feet? And how did they even get there?
One of the troops considered shooting at the ground but wondered if that would really be a smart idea. Another man reached for his grenade. A third turned on his comms. But before any of them could act, the floor suddenly erupted. Pieces of steel were tossed into the air, and from the newly formed opening emerged…a single Zerg roach.
“What the shit…” To his credit, the trooper closest to the roach reacted to this with both curses and action. Even as he was swearing, his rifle was already trained on the roach and his finger was already pulling hard on the trigger. Bullet after bullet hit the roach, not necessarily because the man was a great shot but more so because the roach was wide enough to cover most of the hallway. It would take true skill to miss such a giant target.
To the trooper’s horror, the bullets from the Defender automatic rifle merely bounced off the thick plating of the Zerg roach. That was it. Rounds capable of piercing power armor looked like nothing but toys against the heavily armed roach.
He never got another chance to act, because the roach simply raised one of its scythe-like blades and cut the trooper in half. He did almost everything right, but in certain cases, survival was just impossible.
The second trooper pulled out his grenade just as a shower of green liquid rained onto his body. The acidic saliva from the roach easily burned through the man’s armor before working on his flesh. He would have lasted a few seconds, a few long and painful seconds, if the roach didn't immediately follow the acidic saliva up with another strike of its blade and put the trooper out of his misery.
“We…we are under attack. What the bloody hell is this thing?” The death of two of his comrades brought the third trooper some time to scream into his comms and let the others know something was wrong. Unfortunately for him, that was all the time he had. Another roach emerged from behind him and cut him in half with a single strike.
With their job done, the two roaches dug their way into the ground once again, leaving the mauled and dissolved corpses of the three rogue troopers.
As the roaches disappeared, Athena turned back to Adrianna. She could see the horror in the redhead’s eyes. It was a level of horror that far exceeded what Adrianna felt when she learned of the betrayal.
“What…what was that?” Adrianna whispered, not knowing if the roaches were still there.
“I don’t know…one of the local species we have yet to identify and catalog?” Athena lied, pushing the story she hoped the Imperials would believe. “Well, at least they’re helping us kill the rebels.”
The two of them waited for a few more seconds before exiting the room and entering the hallway. Of course, the hallway was empty. The two roaches were back to lurking under Athena now that their job was done, not that Adrianna needed to know that.
The two of them approached the three bodies, and even though they were enemies, Athena still had to admit she was a little disgusted by the scene of the carnage. Getting cut in half by giant blades wasn’t pretty, and neither was being dissolved in strong acid.
“Careful.” Athena pointed at the acid that was still sizzling on the body of the second trooper. She might be the leader of the Zerg units, but acid didn't really have allegiances. Adrianna nodded. She didn't need to be reminded to avoid the acid after seeing what it did to a fully armored trooper.
The two of them picked up two of the Defender rifles from the fallen rebels.
“Defender-89s.” Adrianna said as she checked the condition of one of the rifles. “Gonna be a bitch to use without our armors, but I guess they’ll have to do for now. They're better than nothing.”
Athena nodded and retrieved a few ammo clips from one of the fallen rogue troopers. She pointed in the direction of the lab.
“That way. Let’s go.”
As the two of them moved, Athena walked in front of Adrianna on purpose. This was her final test for her new friend. She gave Adrianna both the weapon and the opportunity. If Adrianna was a member of the Guard, this would be her perfect chance to strike.
Of course, if Adrianna did try to shoot her in the back, she would find Athena to be more ready than expected. Even though Athena had her back facing Adrianna, the two roaches beneath them still gave Athena enough vision to tell if Adrianna tried to raise her rifle. A veteran like Adrianna would never aim her firearm in the direction of an ally even if the safety was on. If that happened, Athena would turn around and take care of the traitor.
It wouldn’t be fun for her, but she wouldn’t allow a betrayal like this to go unpunished.
Luckily for both parties involved, Adrianna never made an attempt on Athena’s life.
As Athena and Adrianna headed for the lab, 11 roaches have already started slaughtering their way throughout the base. Under Athena’s orders, they targeted any troopers they could find, only avoiding a handful of individuals Athena wanted to keep alive. Given that most of the loyalists were taken out in the first minutes of the mutiny, most of the roaches’ victims were Guard members, just as Athena intended. If she wanted to get off this planet without raising any suspicion, she needed to weaken the rebels as much as possible.
On the other side, Captain Hanson was faced with a difficult situation.
Everything was going well all the way up to the panicked scream in the comms a few minutes ago. Since then, more and more cries of panic and pain have flooded the comms channel. Guard soldiers all over the facility reported encountering beasts that dug their way out from underneath. These beasts cut through some troops with their blades and melted others with strong acid. Light arms fire were useless against them. The same could be said for shrapnel grenades. In most cases, the calls for help didn't last any longer than a few seconds.
“Sir!” The sergeant turned to Captain Hanson. “What do we do now?”
“Get this information to the Republic ship as soon as you can. They need to be ready for what's going on down here.” The captain quickly made up his mind and tapped his comms again. “All units, abandon previous tasks and head for the hangar right now! Don’t try to fight them. We don’t have the firepower or the numbers!”
Two minutes later, after the sergeant notified the Republic light cruiser of the presence of the beasts, Captain Hanson and his men detonated the command center and fled out into the hallway. They were lucky enough to make their way to the hangar without being attacked. But as they ran into the hangar, it quickly became clear that they were one of the lucky few that did.
“Is this everyone?” The captain scanned the hangar. How many rebels were here in total? 20? 30? They had over a hundred men when they initiated the mutiny!
“Sergeant Louis and his men are on their way here with heavy weapons. They have maybe a dozen men. They have just repelled an attack from one of those beasts.” Sergeant Diaz explained with a frown. “As far as we can tell they’re the only ones still heading here. The others…I’m afraid they’re all lost.”
“Shit…” Captain Hanson cursed. This wasn’t supposed to happen. None of this was supposed to happen! “Where did those things come from? We have never encountered any of them before!”
“Who knows?” Sergeant Diaz could only shrug. “This is a big planet and we only explored a tiny piece of it. Maybe they’re sentient. Maybe they have been observing us the entire time and were just waiting to strike. It doesn’t matter. Help is coming, and we will be out of here soon.”
Captain Hanson nodded, praying to all the gods in the world that his old friend was right.
When the gunshots first rang out, Athena immediately got back onto her feet. Beside her, Adrianna stood up as well. She did drink quite a lot, but when danger was near, she quickly proved that she was far more than a simple drunk. A simple drunk wouldn’t have lasted years in the Imperial Army.
“Those are Defenders. Defender-71s.” The redhead realized, referring to the other name of Defender-S rifles. “What the hell is going on? Did the local animals somehow breach the perimeter? But…if so the gunshots wouldn’t be coming from everywhere. Something is very wrong here!”
Athena observed her new friend in silence. If Adrianna was a member of the Guard, then she likely knew Athena wasn’t. In fact, there was no way Adrianna would be drinking so much at a time like this. Yes, some amateurs might drink before a battle to help calm themselves down, but veterans like the two of them knew the boldness that alcohol brought often came at a great cost. It took more than fearlessness to survive in a battle.
As the thoughts went through her head, Athena quickly entered the game, selected the 13 roaches, and deployed them underground. As she expected, the action was subtle. If she didn't have the link between herself and the Zerg units, she never would have known that 13 Zerg roaches just appeared underneath her feet.
Under her command, 11 of the 13 roaches started moving out in various directions. Their order was to find the rebel fighters and, once Athena gave the order, unburrow from the ground and strike. The other two roaches stayed with Athena, acting as her bodyguards.
Adrianna tapped her earpiece and switched between the various channels. “Anyone? Is anyone…”
Before she could continue, Athena turned to her new friend and shook her head. Adrianna frowned but muted herself regardless. “What is going on here, Athena?” She asked, realizing Athena might know a little more about this whole debacle than she did.
Several thoughts quickly went through Athena’s head. Adrianna was likely a loyalist. Of course, Athena would test this further. If she was a loyalist, then Athena could reveal the same information she revealed to Instigator Kendrick to her. She could help Adrianna survive. After all, Athena did grow to like her new friend.
“It’s complicated and I don’t know too much either, but elements of the company have gone rogue,” Athena explained. “They have likely betrayed the Imperium.”
“What?” Adrianna turned pale, well aware of the implications of this sudden betrayal. “But…why?” She answered herself before Athena could. “Doesn’t matter now. Do you know who we can trust? Wait, how did you know this? Are you…”
“No.” Athena shook her head. “It’s a long story that we don’t have time for now.”
Adrianna nodded slowly. Even in a situation like this, she was still calm enough to think properly. “I believe you. If you have gone rogue you wouldn’t be talking to me now. Judging from the sound of the gunshots the rogue elements have likely gone to the armory and accessed the arsenal before opening fire. Likewise, since I’m here talking to you, you should know that I’m not one of them either.”
Athena nodded. It seemed like the two of them had similar deduction processes.
“Do you have a plan?” Adrianna asked.
“You can say that.” Athena lied, reminding herself that she was just a loyal trooper who came across some information by accident. A loyalist like her wouldn’t be too concerned about her own safety, not when the greater good of the Imperium was at stake. If anything, martyrdom was quite a tempting idea. “There is only one thing on this planet that those bastards may want, and that is Doctor Payton from the Academy. We need to get to the lab now and make sure she is safe.”
“I don’t like our chances. We are unarmed and unarmored, and we have no idea who’s a friend and who’s a foe.” Adrianna shrugged and pointed at the sword symbol on her left choice. “But I guess we don’t have any other options. Might as well go down fighting for the sigil on our uniforms, right?”
“Indeed.” Athena nodded and did her best to not sound sarcastic. "For the Imperium."
After reaching a consensus, the two of them made their way to the door. Athena tossed a quick glance into the hallway before snapping back at Adrianna and putting a finger over her lips. Almost at the same time, a few bursts of gunshots rang out from not far away, followed by the pained groan of a man. Another burst of gunshots, and the groans were silenced.
Athena raised three fingers to Adrianna and then crossed her index fingers. Three men. All in armor.
Adrianna bit her lips and readied herself. This was suicide. She knew it. Athena likely also knew it. But as she said to Athena, they didn't really have a choice. Perhaps they could last a little longer if they hid in their room and prayed they wouldn’t be found, but it was obvious these men were searching the rooms. Adrianna personally preferred to take her chances and go down fighting.
Luckily for her, Athena was hardly as defenseless as she seemed. Right beside Adrianna, Athena took a deep breath and issued a single command.
Go roaches…kill them all.
And the pair of roaches serving as her bodyguard obeyed.
In the hallway, three Guard troopers in Guardian-class power armor suddenly ceased their movement. With their face shields lifted, they could hear a strange sound coming from nearby. It was as if something sharp was cutting through metal. It didn't take long before they came to a shocking realization. The sound was coming…from below.
Right in front of them, the steel plating that served as the floor to the hallway cracked and split. It was almost as if something was trying to dig its way out from underneath, but…what? What could be under their feet? And how did they even get there?
One of the troops considered shooting at the ground but wondered if that would really be a smart idea. Another man reached for his grenade. A third turned on his comms. But before any of them could act, the floor suddenly erupted. Pieces of steel were tossed into the air, and from the newly formed opening emerged…a single Zerg roach.
“What the shit…” To his credit, the trooper closest to the roach reacted to this with both curses and action. Even as he was swearing, his rifle was already trained on the roach and his finger was already pulling hard on the trigger. Bullet after bullet hit the roach, not necessarily because the man was a great shot but more so because the roach was wide enough to cover most of the hallway. It would take true skill to miss such a giant target.
To the trooper’s horror, the bullets from the Defender automatic rifle merely bounced off the thick plating of the Zerg roach. That was it. Rounds capable of piercing power armor looked like nothing but toys against the heavily armed roach.
He never got another chance to act, because the roach simply raised one of its scythe-like blades and cut the trooper in half. He did almost everything right, but in certain cases, survival was just impossible.
The second trooper pulled out his grenade just as a shower of green liquid rained onto his body. The acidic saliva from the roach easily burned through the man’s armor before working on his flesh. He would have lasted a few seconds, a few long and painful seconds, if the roach didn't immediately follow the acidic saliva up with another strike of its blade and put the trooper out of his misery.
“We…we are under attack. What the bloody hell is this thing?” The death of two of his comrades brought the third trooper some time to scream into his comms and let the others know something was wrong. Unfortunately for him, that was all the time he had. Another roach emerged from behind him and cut him in half with a single strike.
With their job done, the two roaches dug their way into the ground once again, leaving the mauled and dissolved corpses of the three rogue troopers.
As the roaches disappeared, Athena turned back to Adrianna. She could see the horror in the redhead’s eyes. It was a level of horror that far exceeded what Adrianna felt when she learned of the betrayal.
“What…what was that?” Adrianna whispered, not knowing if the roaches were still there.
“I don’t know…one of the local species we have yet to identify and catalog?” Athena lied, pushing the story she hoped the Imperials would believe. “Well, at least they’re helping us kill the rebels.”
The two of them waited for a few more seconds before exiting the room and entering the hallway. Of course, the hallway was empty. The two roaches were back to lurking under Athena now that their job was done, not that Adrianna needed to know that.
The two of them approached the three bodies, and even though they were enemies, Athena still had to admit she was a little disgusted by the scene of the carnage. Getting cut in half by giant blades wasn’t pretty, and neither was being dissolved in strong acid.
“Careful.” Athena pointed at the acid that was still sizzling on the body of the second trooper. She might be the leader of the Zerg units, but acid didn't really have allegiances. Adrianna nodded. She didn't need to be reminded to avoid the acid after seeing what it did to a fully armored trooper.
The two of them picked up two of the Defender rifles from the fallen rebels.
“Defender-89s.” Adrianna said as she checked the condition of one of the rifles. “Gonna be a bitch to use without our armors, but I guess they’ll have to do for now. They're better than nothing.”
Athena nodded and retrieved a few ammo clips from one of the fallen rogue troopers. She pointed in the direction of the lab.
“That way. Let’s go.”
As the two of them moved, Athena walked in front of Adrianna on purpose. This was her final test for her new friend. She gave Adrianna both the weapon and the opportunity. If Adrianna was a member of the Guard, this would be her perfect chance to strike.
Of course, if Adrianna did try to shoot her in the back, she would find Athena to be more ready than expected. Even though Athena had her back facing Adrianna, the two roaches beneath them still gave Athena enough vision to tell if Adrianna tried to raise her rifle. A veteran like Adrianna would never aim her firearm in the direction of an ally even if the safety was on. If that happened, Athena would turn around and take care of the traitor.
It wouldn’t be fun for her, but she wouldn’t allow a betrayal like this to go unpunished.
Luckily for both parties involved, Adrianna never made an attempt on Athena’s life.
As Athena and Adrianna headed for the lab, 11 roaches have already started slaughtering their way throughout the base. Under Athena’s orders, they targeted any troopers they could find, only avoiding a handful of individuals Athena wanted to keep alive. Given that most of the loyalists were taken out in the first minutes of the mutiny, most of the roaches’ victims were Guard members, just as Athena intended. If she wanted to get off this planet without raising any suspicion, she needed to weaken the rebels as much as possible.
On the other side, Captain Hanson was faced with a difficult situation.
Everything was going well all the way up to the panicked scream in the comms a few minutes ago. Since then, more and more cries of panic and pain have flooded the comms channel. Guard soldiers all over the facility reported encountering beasts that dug their way out from underneath. These beasts cut through some troops with their blades and melted others with strong acid. Light arms fire were useless against them. The same could be said for shrapnel grenades. In most cases, the calls for help didn't last any longer than a few seconds.
“Sir!” The sergeant turned to Captain Hanson. “What do we do now?”
“Get this information to the Republic ship as soon as you can. They need to be ready for what's going on down here.” The captain quickly made up his mind and tapped his comms again. “All units, abandon previous tasks and head for the hangar right now! Don’t try to fight them. We don’t have the firepower or the numbers!”
Two minutes later, after the sergeant notified the Republic light cruiser of the presence of the beasts, Captain Hanson and his men detonated the command center and fled out into the hallway. They were lucky enough to make their way to the hangar without being attacked. But as they ran into the hangar, it quickly became clear that they were one of the lucky few that did.
“Is this everyone?” The captain scanned the hangar. How many rebels were here in total? 20? 30? They had over a hundred men when they initiated the mutiny!
“Sergeant Louis and his men are on their way here with heavy weapons. They have maybe a dozen men. They have just repelled an attack from one of those beasts.” Sergeant Diaz explained with a frown. “As far as we can tell they’re the only ones still heading here. The others…I’m afraid they’re all lost.”
“Shit…” Captain Hanson cursed. This wasn’t supposed to happen. None of this was supposed to happen! “Where did those things come from? We have never encountered any of them before!”
“Who knows?” Sergeant Diaz could only shrug. “This is a big planet and we only explored a tiny piece of it. Maybe they’re sentient. Maybe they have been observing us the entire time and were just waiting to strike. It doesn’t matter. Help is coming, and we will be out of here soon.”
Captain Hanson nodded, praying to all the gods in the world that his old friend was right.
