Alpha squad part 4 - Belly of the Beast

[Sonny]

Alpha squad returns - heading straight for the Terran warpgate. You can read the whole series here: www.talesfromauraxis.com

ALPHA SQUAD PART 4 - BELLY OF THE BEAST

The Sunderer heaved back and forth as it bounded over the rough gravel road. Marius snapped opened his eyes with a start. He cursed to himself as the sharp stabs of pain from misaligned nerves and muscles returned. Fowler was such a rookie with the medi-gun...

“Are we there yet?!” Marius coughed, barely holding himself up with a freezing, shaking hand.

Banks laughed deeply from the opposite bench of the passenger bay, his cheerful face mottled with dark bruises.

“No man, you’re just in time!”

Wincing, Marius slowly pushed himself up and clambered over piles of hastily-discarded Terran munitions and armour to the driver’s seat.

“So, scrub, how does it feel to wake up to your entire platoon dying?” Vickers spat venomously as he limped past. Marius avoided his stare.

“You heard me.” the barrel-chested giant continued drily “We shoulda just taken our chances through Vanu territory. At least there wouldn’t be 10,000 troopers waiting for us there, eh? Now we’re serving ourselves up on a plate. You think they’ll just let us drive straight into the warpgate and teleport to Amerish? No, they’ll capture, torture and kill us the moment they see us. Nice job, Acre, nice job. Now we’ll never get home. Landiss would have been proud.”

Marius’ mouth went dry with shame. He recalled the debate of the night before. As the freezing snowstorm that battered the stolen truck, the squad had reluctantly sided with Gregson’s radical idea, despite Vickers’ vehement opposition.

Gregson craned backwards as far as his thick neck would let him, glancing past Marius to the centre of the truck with disdain.

“Will you shut up Vickers? Your constant whining is boring!”

He shook his head at Marius, singed blonde hair drooping over his round face.

“Hmm. He’s what we call a ‘glass-half empty’ guy. Trust me - the odds are on our side – we’re de-spawned, we have a Terran truck and we’re doing exactly what they least expect us to do. We stay calm, we’ll make it.”

“OK Gregson. I hope you know what you’re doing…”Marius smiled weakly.

Suddenly, the clouds from the seemingly-endless snowstorm cleared. Ahead of the truck was the fizzing red glow of the Terran warpgate. Three curved prongs lanced in a half-circle, hundreds of metres in radius, towards an intense white glowing central light. The outer shield hummed with flowing, coalescing, spurting energy – the mysterious product of ancient, encrypted alien technology. Marius felt a knot lodge itself in his throat as the enormity of their task became clear. There were thousands of Terran soldiers standing within that dome. Tens of thousands. Maybe Vickers was right. This was a stupid idea.

Banks jumped his feet, smiling broadly at the sight.

“I can’t believe it. We made it. I never thought I’d see this. I’ve been dreaming of this since I was a boy. I imagined that I’d have an army behind me, of course. Do you know how many NC troopers have made it this far?”

“Hmm… Five. Plus me. I mean, probably.” Gregson muttered.

“No way man - Gregson. You’ve been here before?” Banks blurted.

“Well, I realise I may seem like an idiot, but I’m still a damn good infiltrator.”

“Bullshit, you couldn’t hide in a maze!” Vickers laughed.

“Hmm well, I’ll have you know that I was there when we took down the Terran spawn bank…” Gregson stuttered in protest.

A flicker of metal in the sunlight caught Marius’ eye. He snapped to attention. “Guys – let’s quiet it down, we’re coming up to the checkpoint.”

The squad rushed into action, doing final checks on their ‘borrowed’ Terran weapons and armour. Marius smiled nervously to himself. This leadership thing wasn’t so hard if you sound like you mean it. He drew himself to full height, clapping his hands with forced enthusiasm.

“OK everyone, stay quiet and look professional. You all look like Terrans. Make them believe you are Terrans. Let Gregson do the talking. We WILL make it to Amerish.”

A couple of hundred metres to the front of the truck, a column of three Prowler heavy tanks pulled out of the Terran checkpoint at the gate. Marius felt his heart rush with adrenaline.

“Go left, Gregson.” He said coldly, his hand on the back of the Sunderer’s driving seat. The Prowler tanks accelerated with a low rumble.

“Left, Gregson! Terrans drive on the left!”

The lead tank, bringing its cannons to bear barely 100 metres away, blared a deafening fog horn, shaking the brittle windscreen of the damaged truck. Gregson finally swung the truck over to the other side of the road, sending Marius clattering into the side wall. Nakano shuddered into wakefulness in the passenger seat.

“Shit, you’re right. Sorry.” Gregson mouthed, red-faced.

“For God’s sake…” Marius shook his head. He wondered again why he was trusting this guy.

The Terran checkpoint was rapidly approaching. A formidable red gate shield stood firmly alongside a matt black bunker that towered over the approaching truck. In front, four Terran troopers in stock red and grey waited expectantly behind a pair of menacing AV cannons. One soldier, slightly taller than the others, waved them down with a black-gloved hand, right arm firmly clutching a TRAC-5 carbine. Marius settled back down on the bench in the passenger bay. Kissing the lucky charm that hung from his neck, he prepared himself for the oncoming trial, pulling nervously at his bare chin. As the truck drew to a halt, he could just make out the dull face of an officious Terran border guard through the driver’s side window.

Gregson saluted “Morning, soldier. Loyalty until death.”

The Terran guard saluted instinctively and gazed dumbly through the side window of the cab at the squad. He slurred slowly in a low, Hossinian accent.

“Yeah, Loyalty ‘til… whatever – You having trouble driving your truck?”

“Not at all, corporal. We took a hit to the axle back at Nott. Drives like a three-legged mule.” Gregson gave a slightly-too-loud, hollow laugh.

“Uh-huh.” Nodded the Terran dumbly, his mouth ajar. He chewed mechanically on a thick wad of black gum. He flicked his head back down to a screen in his left hand.

“So, what regiment you from?”

“Ghost corps.”

“Hah. Ghost corps?! That’s new. I ain’t never heard of no Ghost corps.” He scanned some sort of list on a handheld tablet. “Here say your vehicle is registered with the… 5th Cavalry at Nott. One second –“ He looked up, puzzled.

“Hey Jimmy! You ever heard of a ‘Ghost Corps’?”

Marius’ heart started to race. Rumbled already…

“Look, soldier.” Gregson muttered desperately through clenched teeth. “Ghost corps is above your clearance. We are de-spawned infiltrators back from a sabotage mission at Eisa. Now you let us through or I’ll take this up with your superiors.”

The soldier turned back with a start “What you say, de-spawned? Like, no spawn?”

Gregson nodded several times in frustration “Yep, of course, that’s it. Check for yourself.”

“Alright…” The soldier brought out a small handheld device and aimed it carefully at the side of Gregson’s head. A red laser wave danced over his skull. After five seconds, Marius heard a negative beep.

“Well shit.” The soldier brought a hand up to his face as if to pull back his words. “I’m sorry sir. Sorry t’have questioned you. We – we really appre’sate what you people do for the Republic. Puttin’ your lives on the line and all.”

Marius sighed with relief. He recalled the legends of the ‘de-spawned’. The most hard-core soldiers of the entire army. Without the activated implant that broadcasts their location to friendly spawn banks, the de-spawned don’t trigger the automatic sensors that litter enemy facilities, making them the best infiltrators on Auraxis. The downside – only one life to live. Only the most loyal, crazed soldiers volunteered for such a fate.

A second trooper, a tall, lumbering brute, reached the window. His face appeared equally as dumbstruck as the first.
“What’s up, Dale?”

Dale pointed at Gregson like a museum exhibit.

“Say Jimmy, these troopers are done been de-spawned. How abouts you show them some respect.”

The big guy turned to the driver’s seat.

“De-spawned?! For real?! We really appreciate –"

Gregson held his hand up in acknowledgement.

“Yes, yes comrades, your appreciation is welcomed, but we cannot stay long. Now, we’re coming back from an important mission and need to meet with our superiors for debrief. If you could point us in the direction of the main warpgate compound I would be thankful.”

The pair shot each other a puzzled look, as if Gregson was speaking a foreign language.

“Oh, ok.” murmured Dale sullenly. “The main warpgate compound – umm.. That’s straight up past four or five, then on the left.”

Gregson saluted at the two troopers. “Now, good day. Loyalty until death.”
The two slow privates threw their hands up to their helmets. Gregson pulled away as rapidly as he could without raising suspicion. There was a shout from behind.

“Oh wait, HOLD IT!”

Gregson cursed with frustration as he switched off the motor one more time. Marius clenched both fists in disbelief. The two troopers jogged up to the window once more. Dale dropped his head respectfully.

“Sorry sir, we just got new orders – all arrivals have t’be inspected. Trouble at Nott or somethin’. Not my choice, but I gotta call in Colonel Kruger.”

“Can’t we just - ?” Gregson pleaded, but it was too late, the guard was already on the radio.

“He’ll be here in two seconds. You just stay right tight here.” Dale nodded like a happy dog, grinning foolishly.

“OK.” Gregson sighed slowly. He turned back to the squad, shrugging. All were pinned to their seats in breathless silence. Marius, panicking, shouted in a loud whisper across the truck.

“Gregson! What’s going on?! I thought you knew what you were doing?!”
Gregson spoke out of the side of his mouth, still smiling “It’s routine, when the Republic are spooked by something, they do this all the time. Stay quiet and look Terran, they won’t come up with anything. All our NC weapons were chucked out, right?”

“Right.”

“Oh, and move Isla over to the side bench. He’ll come from the back.”

In a few frantic seconds, Vickers and Marius picked up Isla and put her on the side bench. She murmured feverishly as the pair carried her out of the path of the back doors. As soon as she was set down, there was a knock from the back doors.

“Colonel Kruger here. Inspection. Open these doors.” Came a stern, booming voice.

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