Station Escape by Nimph

Lt. Ein Balsm walked up to the data station inside the space station under Collective control nearby Jupiter. He typed in his password and began searching through the libary that was within the machine. He looked for something of interest to look at, it was his day off, and the recreational facilities were out of order. He saw a file on Morgans Base and opened up the file. The file read:


Location: Morgan's Base
Year: 185 Standard Years
Log: Battle of Kleist Ridge

The noted battle bewtween C/1/2 15th armored infantry company of the Collective and a Titan militia Battalion with a Europan mercenary company in support. The battle started when Collective forces from Jupiter landed on Titan pushed their way up from the south of Morgans Base.

Ein saw different files following the text and selected the first log listed on the list. The file read:

The following log is from 2nd Lt. Brice Ope:

Day One: "Under the command of Captian Kleist, we have quickly passed through the Titan Militia's defense and are coming up on Morgans Base."

Day Two: "We've suffered heavy losses, but we've managed to take Morgans Base, we have dubbed a hill Kleist Ridge."

Day Three: "I have been badly injured, the medic says I have 2 hours left to my life, pray for our leader Captian Kleist."

The log ended there, he kept reading on about the battle, but a sudden blaring sound of battle sirens went off. Ein shutdown the machine and began running to his battle post, he pulled out his comlink and switched it to the channel of the battle coordinator, "Whats going on??!" All in reply was a nothing. Whoever was attacking had jammed all frequency's. That meant he'd have to wait to get to his battle station and talk through the system.

He entered in his password and the door in front of him sunk into the ground allowing passage. He screamed over the sirens to the officers in the room, "Whats going on?!" An officer turned around and quickly walked over to Ein. "Those bloody Europan Mercanery's are back again! This time they have a heavily modified space yacht, its named the "Firehawk," all we know on that ship is that was recently stolen by the moon Io." Ein Shoved the officer out of the way and stood over a battle coordinator, watching the view screen.

The yacht was pulling back with a small fighter screen of five Lancasters. The screen also was reporting the statistics of the battle, one space frieghter was pirated and destroyed and two of the Europan Mercanery's Lancasters were destroyed. A quick fight it had been, but the Maklov company wouldn't enjoy the fact they loss a frieghter under the protection of the space station. Another downside being was that the mercs had probably taken everything possible before exploding the frieghter with the explosives they put on it.

Ein stood up, "Good job men, next time try to save the frieghter." Ein turned away from the screens and suddenly the comm system in the room came to life, "Attention Collective space staion. What you have seen was merely a distraction. I hope you know that the station you are in is now carrying a small band of us mercenaries that we have dropped off. May the games begin." Ein swore as he walked into the hallway, he pulled out his small plasma pistol. He started walking alertedly as he noticed that the guards on this level seemed to be giving off a scent of fear, they must have been warned that the mercenaries were on a nearby level.

An explosion rocked the ground and Ein dropped to his knees to keep from falling over. He got back up quickly and began running to get to his room, he didn't want those grimy, smelly men to steal anything of his. He got inside a turbolift and pressed the button for his floor. The turbolift took ten seconds to get their, and then with a hiss of hydrolics the door went into the left wall of the turbolift. Ein raced down the hallway and stopped a moment as the lights flickered. He came up to a junction and looked down the hallway to the left, he heard grumbling and screaming from that direction. Luckly his room was on the right hallway. He quickly got his door hoping no one would see him. He entered in his personal password and the door slid open. A man was inside wearing an odd assortment of armor, looking as it had been welded together. Ein pulled out his Plasma Pistol again, but the mercenary turned around and shot Ein with a round of CAW shots. Ein slumped to the ground as a bloody mess.

Private Guch saw Lt. Ein Balsm fall to the ground from his doorway. He had just taken out his Maklov standard issue Assault Rifle after putting his armor on when he heard Lt. Ein Balsm running through the hallway. Guch threw a grenade into Lt. Ein Balsm's room, killing the mercenary inside. He had to get out of this station. The Europan mercenaries were sure to take everything out and blow the station up, or to take it over for themselves. But after detonating the base of the station it was not likely that they'd keep the station. He had to get to the hangar and grab a ship and get out.

Private Guch grabbed an extra grenade, having four others hooked to his belt. He threw the grenade down the left hallway and ran for the turbolift that Lt. Ein Balsm had taken before. He got inside and saw certian level numbers in red, that meant those levels could no longer be accessed by turbolift. The hangar's level being one of them. He could get two levels above and then have to take stairways. Guch checked his assault rifle to make sure it was fully loaded one last time. Then checked his incinerator. Both were full and working. Guch relized he'd been holding his breath. He let go of his breath, and then pressed the button for level F.

The turbolifts light dimmed as it drawed energy and then began moving. The turbolift stopped and then the door opened up. Private Guch had his Assault Rifle pulled out and ready, he stepped out into the hallway. He looked around, this level seems to have been ransacked already. It was a good thing that the mercenaries couldn't use the turbolifts without passwords or key cards. But they were sure to get a key card soon.

Guch turned on his enhanced sensors, looking for any thermal energy so he could see any cloaking mercenaries. The room behind the wall to his right had a body crouched and hiding under what looked like a table. It was probably a civilian. Guch was gonna check it out. He walked up to the door, pressed one button on the keypad on the door and the whole door collasped in front of him. A plasma beam shot past his head and Guch quickly hid against the wall. More beams kept pouring out of the room. "Stop shooting, Im a friendly, I wanna get out here, and I bet you do too!" Guch yelled. The plasma beams stopped coming out, and a teenanger holding a officers pistol walked out of the room. "Will you help me sir?" The teenanger asked. "Sure I will kid, my names Guch, you stick close and cooperate, and we are sure to get out of here." The teenanger walked up to Guch and held out his hand, "Im Jeff." Guch shook the kids hand, feeling awkward doing it with his glove on.

Guch's comm crackled on, "This is Ec9R of the 26th Guard squad, We're trapped on the Hangar level, is anyone out there?" Guch kept listening as another squad came in talking to the trapped squad. But the other squad was silenced with a scream as what sounded like the clanking of grenades came in and exploded on the comm. "This Rv3Y of the 21st Guard squad, my men are all dead. But Im coming down to the hangar level with a civilian. When I get close enough I'll contact you, just hang on!" Guch said. "Come on kid, time wont slow down for us."

Guch stopped dead in his tracks, Jeff bumped into his armor covered back. "Guch what is it?" Guch pulled out his Assault Rifle and shot a burst at a wall, but the shots landed on something infront of the wall, "Get back, its a Commando!" Jeff ran inside a room as Guch started shooting at the cloaked mercenary. Jeff heard a crackle of air as the mercenary uncloaked and started shooting back. Then Jeff heard a body thud against the ground. Footsteps came slowly to the room. Jeff got his plasma pistol ready to shoot but pu his gun away as he saw Guch standing in the doorway.

Guch quickly ran around a corner as a explosive detonated, blowing up the door that wouldn't open for him. Guch came back to the door and looked down the stairway, "Its all clear Jeff." Guch stepped over a dead body of a Collective soldier, and began walking down the stairs. He came to a door on the hangar level, he opened up a panel on the wall and it read that there was no oxygen in this level. He couldn't go in there without having to keep Jeff behind, but then he remembered the dead body he passed two levels up. "Jeff go back up and drag down that dead body, try not to damage the suit."

Jeff came back 20 minutes later with the dead body behind him. "Put on the suit." Jeff looked at the body, "Do I have to?" Guch walked over to the body, "The suit looks fine, and it wont smell, this guy died of a snapped neck, I cant see anything else that would have killed him. Plus, you cant go onto this level without an oxygen supply." Jeff started undressing the dead soldier, but Guch had lied, the suit smelled horible. Not of dead flesh, but of body odors.

Guch looked at the rather short Jeff in a tall combat suit. "Well, I cant get you anything better, we got to go now." Guch opened up the door and was instantly sucked into the hangar level. Jeff screamed, "Whats happening??!" Guch grabbed hold of a light on the ceiling, as Jeff slammed into the wall. "Space is sucking out the air from the stairway, this level is open to space somewhere. Theres also no gravity. The mercenaries and that squad I talked to must be somewhere on this level where there is air." Guch pushed off the light and was propelled forward down the hallway. He had to rely on the suits comm system now, with no air Guch and Jeff couldn't hear each other threw space.

Guch remembered his promise to contact the squad and turned his comm to the frequency that squad leader was using. "This is your help again, can you tell me where you are?" The comm crackled and then silence returned. "Hello? Are you there?" Guch heard another crackle, and then the squad leader started talking again, "We're trapped right outside the Hangar bay. Please hurry." Guch opened up another door and went farther down the hallways. He could start to feel gravity return, but it was just barely there. Guch was pushing off the ground when he felt it shake, good, he was nearby. He saw a door with a window in the top middle of it, he came up to it and looked through. There was two mercenaries shooting into a hallway to the right and eight shooting to the left. The squad must be guarding the entrance to the hangar bay. "Alright Im here, Im going to toss grenades into the mercenaries."

"Jeff stay back!" Guch opened the door and tossed his four grenades into the junction that the mercenaries were in. He ran forwards after the grenades exploded and pulled out his incinerator, he pulled the trigger and burned a mercenary into a a crusty carcass. He threw his incinerator at a mercenary to his right and knocking him over. The he pulled out his assault rifle and shot the last two mercenaries. The rest had been killed by the squad while the mercenaries were caught offguard by the grenades.

Guch called Jeff over and the two of them came up to the soldiers. "We're putting all the last personel that made it here into the last shuttle. And there is one other left for us soldiers. Hurry, this station is going to fall apart any moment! Plus, before the battle coordination station went offline it reported seeing that modified yacht coming back." Guch and Jeff followed the soldiers into the hangar bay, the place was a mess, a ship was dismantled by explosives, dead bodies were everywhere, the walls had chunks of itself missing from rockets shot by the mercenaries.

The soldiers led them to the shuttle they were going on, the hatch started opening up as the other shuttle full of the last evacuated personel lifted off and launched for Jupiter. Suddenly a oversized door opened up revealing Europan mercenaries. The mercenaries started shooting at the shuttle, everyone had gotten aboard safely, but the shuttle was being rocked by bullets striking it. The engines started up, the exhaust melting bullets that came near it. The shuttle left the ground and shot out into space. A rocket went flying past the shuttle, the last thing that was seen from the mercenaries.

One of the soldiers stood up and walked over to Jeff, he pulled out a stunner and shot Jeff. Jeff slumped in his seat. Guch punched the soldier, "Why'd you do that?!" The soldier recovered from the hit and replied, "That soldier was reported dead, that has to be a mercenary inside that, lucky you he hadn't killed you." Guch started laughing in the mans face. "Thats a civilian who got into that suit, he needed a suit for protection from space when we went on the hangar level." The soldiers sitting around Guch and the soldier with the stunner all started laughing.

Guch looked out a window, watching the modified yacht take in assault shuttles holding the loot they stole and mercenaries that went inside and attacked the station. Then the yacht turned around and let out a salvo of laser fire and set the station on fire, blowing it up. The yacht then left towards Europan. "Hey, its no fair that slime like those mercs get to cruise around in yachts and loot station while we ride around in cramped shuttles. We're gonna strike back one day, stronger than ever. Destroying all that oppose us."


The End

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