Vengeance underground

The vote was unanimous. Even the sole remaining local fighter was eager to finish the mission, getting **** for the damage done to the seemingly indestructible insect warrior. Without her guidance however it was a much slower process to clear the remainder of the floor. Each door the team cleared was sprayed with weapon fire as the iris fell away, just to be on the safe side. Dustin kept one eye on his scanner as he led the team from shadowy room to shadowy room, tense that any corner could be blocking sight of more explosive attackers.

When the next attack did come, it was almost a relief; a single Fractal opening fire at the same time as a pair of turrets emerged from the wall. The first volley from the team split the Fractal in half; their second turned the two bulbous turrets into heaps of mangled and smoking metal. “Keep aiming centre of mass” Dustin said as they cautiously checked that the Fractal was truly dead. “It didn’t seem able to repair the damage there. Might just be this one, but…” His comments got a round of nods from the rest of the team; the next Fractal to emerge was similarly bisected but kept moving for some time until it took a repeater-crossbow round to the head. “Guess they differ in what takes them down.” Dustin grunted, nudging the bolt that had wedged itself in the floor with his foot. “Let’s keep moving, we’ve got to be nearly there.”

Dustin opted for overkill when they reached the final doorway some time later, several of the team nursing burns on their armour from firefights, traps or Fractal turrets on the way down. Gesturing to one of the demolitions-trained security staff, he gave the go-ahead to use one of the limited number of explosive grenades Yril’k had opted to add to the team’s load-out. It was entirely the kind of thing that would reveal advanced technology; while the pulse-carbines they were using had been checked by Defia (the Fractal woman claiming that the modern firearms would only register as primitive weapons due to their impact patterns), fragmentation grenades went far beyond what the locals should be capable of.

Tossing three of the things through the partially open iris at a group of suddenly surprised looking spiky Fractal drones, then, was not exactly doing things quietly. The enemy had all gathered around the door - some kind of last stand, Dustin assumed - and so took the detonations head-on. Fire washed over the communications equipment; to Dustin’s relief none of the gathered Fractals appeared to have been connected to it - and the pieces of the creatures that remained after the detonation were inert when the team prodded them with the barrels of their weapons.

Glancing around the space as the dust and debris from the explosion settled, Dustin frowned before turning to the explosives expert. “We need that… console? Array? Whatever the hell you want to call that mess of balls and spikes, I want it to not be here any more. See to it.” Then, levelling his own weapon at the tunnel they’d just entered by, Dustin gave the order for the rest of the team to provide cover while the charge was being set. Seconds seemed like minutes in the dark of the Fractal complex with the only light illuminating the area around them coming from their torches until at last the explosive was ready to go. This last charge was put on a long fuse, and Dustin personally sparked it as the team made their way back out. They’d just reached the first ramp upwards when the blast went off - a great bark like some enormous hound echoing from behind them with the dull glow of distant flames.

A moment later, a pulse of silvery-blue electricity flickered across the walls. Readings that Dustin’s scanner had been picking up of traps and turrets down side passages flickered out as the wave hit; the nullification pulse seemed to have functioned exactly as Defia had predicted it would. Of course, that led to it’s own problems. For starters, the temperature in the passageways began to increase; they were quite some way underground, and without the facility’s own air circulation moving things about (a setup Defia had said was used to prevent ingress by biological contaminants rather than due to any Fractal need for oxygen) the air started to get very stale very rapidly.

The complete lack of any sound - not even the background hum of electricity through the walls of the complex - also made things feel weird as Dustin pulled a re-breather from his pocket and clamped it between his teeth. The others followed his lead; their butterfly companion’s eyes going wide as the dry tunnel air was suddenly replaced in his mouth by perfectly pure-tasting atmosphere. With his own mouth occupied, Dustin gestured for them to continue with his hand, and the team carried on their return to the surface at speed.

The climb out of the facility was somehow even less pleasant than the climb in, if that were possible. The team was tired, and they were scrambling up a hole through which not only earth but water had fallen, courtesy of a rainstorm passing overhead while they had been underground. The water had turned the dry, dusty, and debris filled tunnel they had entered by into a mud-filled slippery endurance test full of jagged metal and uneven flooring. Dustin was panting heavily by the time he made it free, taking the offered hand from one of the team as he scrambled the last of the way out. Having opted to take the rear-guard position, Dustin took a moment to catch his breath, bent double with his hands on his knees before staggering towards the shuttle as the last to board.

As soon as he was inside, Bleu helped him towards the pilot’s console. “Yril’k is stable, for now at least. I need a proper medbay to repair much of the damage, and if I’m honest I want Trea’k’s input on the best way to heal her. Vex’ess evolutionary biology is fascinating, and I’d like to make sure the woman that saved my idiot lover’s life comes out of the whole ordeal as quickly as possible.” The Queri medic’s voice was quiet, ensuring only Dustin could hear - but the fury in her gaze was unrestrained.

Dustin got them airborne, his chest tight as he worked the controls. Bleu had been correct - if it hadn’t been for the warrior’s swift action both he and the rest of his team would have been caught in the blast. “I gave her a sedative; she’s **** right now.” The medic continued, her eyes flickering between Dustin and the back of the shuttle where he assumed her patients were resting. “The butterfly girl suffered a pretty serious injury to one of her wings. I’ve patched it as best I can, but it’ll be months before she regains full use of it again. As for the junior officer, two broken ribs and a bad break on his forearm that’ll take time to heal. I’ve done basic care for now, once he’s back in medbay he can make the decision to either have a nanospray and be up in a day or do the weird human thing and heal naturally over a few weeks.”

The shuttle skimmed up into the clouds as she spoke, and Bleu glanced at Dustin. “Shouldn’t we take the locals home before…” She began to say, before he silenced her with a look and explained. “You said you needed a medbay for Yril’k. We’re going to Sola, the only reason I’ve not pushed the engines is because you tell me she’s stable. Go check in on the other local - he fought well, but he was showing signs of trauma after seeing what happened to our security chief.”

As Bleu departed towards the rear of the craft, Dustin hit the communicator. “Trea’k, are you there?” There was a moment’s pause before the Vex’ess envoy’s voice answered. “Yes, my mate. Apologies, I was talking with Naera regarding her feelings about the current situation. What can I…” Dustin cut her off. “Yril’k’s been hurt. Bleu says she’s stable, but we’re on an inbound course to get her transferred to medbay asap. Can you make sure you’re ready to meet the doctor there? She wants to go over treatment with you, and I’m going to be heading back down to the planet with the team as soon as we’ve transferred our patients.”

Trea’k replied instantly, the insect woman already on her way to the medbay as Dustin’s craft broke free of the upper atmosphere. He grimaced to himself as he flew, glad that Bleu had left the cockpit. She’d been right; for all he was sure his decision to go on the mission was the correct one operationally speaking, he still couldn’t help but hold himself responsible for Yril’k’s injuries. Even if she would have been on the mission regardless, and even if he knew full well she’d have thrown herself in front of that charging Fractal to protect any of the other members of the team, a leader relying on her carapace to give her the best chance of surviving in a life-or-**** moment, he still couldn’t shake that feeling of guilt.

Arriving back at the ship, Dustin left one of the security team in charge of the shuttle - and their two butterfly passengers - and escorted Yril’k to the medbay personally. Trea’k’s face was pale beneath her chitin as she saw her friend transferred from stretcher to bed, despite Bleu’s assurances that the **** woman would be fine. It was only with the greatest of efforts that Dustin was able to tear himself away from his Vex’ess champion’s bedside, a brief exchange of hugs between him, Trea’k and Bleu ending what should have been an easy mission as he returned to the shuttle to descend to the planet once more. As Sola fell away behind the departing shuttle, he stared at the dust clouds on the plains below, and could only hope that the armies he’d set in motion were doing better on that day than he was.