Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5209207" data-attributes="member: 143">Session 23 (September 29, 2008)Chapter 95“We’re clear, no alien intercepts,” Stan’s voice came to them via the tiny speakers in their helmets.  “We’re about to begin our run.  The gas bomb reads green on all readouts… wait a minute… no, it’s fine.  We’re go, deployment in 25 seconds.”Vasily frowned as the Lightning jolted slightly under them.  They were standing facing the hatch, forming a row, holding onto the straps that dangled down from the brace above.  Ken’s voice followed Stan’s on their comms.  “We’re heading in after them,” the pilot reported.  “I’ll drop you down in front of the base, then I’ll find a nice hidden little spot to park the Lightning.  Activating Grace’s array… gods, I hope this works.”“So do we, Ken, so do we,” James muttered. There was a pause.  The Alphas checked their weapons and waited.  Finally, after what seemed like minutes, Stan said, “The bomb’s away, direct hit, we’re clear… you’re good to go, Alpha!”“Right, here we go!” Ken yelled, loud enough for them to hear him even without the communicators.  The Lightning arced downward, and they streaked toward their destination.  They tightened their grips on the straps as the floor under them suddenly pressed hard upward, and the front of the craft rose up before the entire vessel settled down with a crunch.  “We’re down!” Ken reported, but the Alphas were already disembarking, moving out into a field of pure white as far as they could see in every direction.  They could just make out the shadowy outlines of ridges and other terrain features, but it was all lost in the blinding haze of snow that filled the air and blew around them in a blistering wind that lashed at them like a whip.  The Lightning was already rising back into the air, leaving the HWP lying in the snow where it had rolled out of the aircraft’s cargo compartment.  It hummed as its systems activated, and it lurched into motion, its tracks digging parallel tracks in the snow. “Where base?” Vasily asked.  “Can see nothing.”  He tapped his helmet, but the storm, or some other source of interference, was apparently wreaking havoc on their sensors, as the VDUs failed to add any clarity to the scene, the bright green lines of the heads up display skewing and shifting as the suits tried to compensate.   James apparently knew something they didn’t; the doctor was moving across the snowfield toward a vague dark line that might have been anything.  “Come on, move it!” he urged.  They started after him, but the HWP suddenly swiveled its turret and chirped a warning.  A bright flash erupted ahead of them, and a stream of plasma flared as it caught James on the shoulder.  The doctor staggered back and dove to the ground a moment before a second blast streaked over him, vanishing into the storm.  The source of the attack became clear a moment later, as the attackers drew closer. “Discs!” Catalina yelled, but they could all see them now, three of them, hovering a bit unevenly in the harsh winds, firing plasma bolts that streaked through their ranks.  The Alphas returned fire, laying down covering fire as Mary rushed over to James, who rose to one knee and shot a blast from his own rifle that streaked past its target and exploded against the ridge behind.  The HWP powered up its cannon and fired a bright streak of plasma energy that shot narrowly past Catalina before impacting the lead disc in a bright explosion that was augmented a moment later as the alien machine detonated.  “Careful!” Vasily yelled, as he fired a bolt from his plasma cannon at another cyberdisc.  “Not stand in way of tank!” Catalina nodded and darted to the side, a fortuitous move as a plasma bolt geysered into the ground where she’d been standing.  The two remaining cyberdiscs continued to close, firing as they came, but they quickly succumbed to the sheer volume of firepower that Alpha put out.  The only additional casualty was the HWP, which had suffered a glancing hit that seemed to have been mostly absorbed by its layered armor.  James was not seriously hurt, so after a quick check to make sure there were no more of the discs lurking about, they made their way forward to the entry that the doctor had spotted earlier. The dark line in the storm resolved into another ridge, a mass of ice and rock that rose up out of the ground ahead of them, a good ten meters high.  As they drew closer they could all see the gaping opening ahead of them, a tunnel that vanished into darkness below.     “Should we send the robot first?” Mary asked, staring into the tunnel. “Is not exactly too smart if no one around,” Vasily said. “Yeah, it’s semi-autonomous, not autonomous,” Jane said, as she replaced the depleted plasma cell in her rifle with a fresh one.  “Looks like the bomb worked,” Catalina said.  “No welcoming committee, save for the discs.”“Forgot about them,” Vasily said.  “Come on.”  He led them forward, into the shaft.  The chaos of the storm receded behind them, replaced by a quiet, seeping cold that they could feel even through the insulation in their armor.  White plumes rose from the exhaust ports in their air filtration units.  They switched on their lamps, but as they descended they could see light ahead.  After about fifty meters the shaft deposited them in a broad natural cavern, one lit with vaguely phosphorescent patches along the walls, glistening on the ice with a pale radiance that brightened the way ahead. “There,” Jane said, spotting the first body.  The snakeman lay in a frozen heap, covered in a slick of ice and green goop.  It was covered in wounds, its segmented body covered in deep gashes.  Another alien lay a few meters further in, this one a sectoid that lay slumped against a boulder, looking like it had just laid down and decided to go to sleep.“Looks like an exit back there,” Catalina said, shining her light attached to her motion detector toward the back of the cavern.  It glinted on something, just as the screen on the detector flashed; movement. “Hostiles spotted!” Hadrian said, falling into a crouch, cursing as the mechanism on his rifle jammed.  Jane and Vasily came forward, adding the glow of their helmet lights to Catalina’s handheld.  The light revealed more enemies lurking near the back of the cavern, at least a dozen sectoids.  As the diminutive aliens shuffled forward, they could see that the aliens were in bad shape; dark fluid was frozen to their heads where it had oozed from their eyes, ears, and nostrils, and they moved with frozen, jerky movements.  They carried a variety of weapons, vibroblades, mostly, although several held what looked like metal tools, and one even carried a hunk of rock that was slick with frozen green blood.  That one had a plasma pistol fixed to its belt, but the creature made no move for the weapon, instead lifting the bloody rock as it caught sight of the human intruders.As one the aliens screamed, and charged forward at the surprised Alphas.</blockquote>

Verification