On Point
Posted on Tue Jul 1st, 2025 @ 11:15pm by Gunnery Sergeant Gaagii & Staff Warrant Officer Rommie & Gunnery Sergeant Tessia T'Lar & Sergeant Sina Ravenna
Edited on on Tue Jul 1st, 2025 @ 11:19pm
2,431 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Episode 16 - Silent Cries
Location: Below the surface of Wren IX
Timeline: MD010 0745 hrs
Egress into the Silence’s world had gone as planned for the Cure, with the Point team lead by Gunnery Sergeant Gaagii with Gunnery Sergeant T’lar and Sergeant Ravenna forming the Detachment’s point element. Beaming down to the surface, in as close to what the Pioneer’s sensors indicated was the most likely path below the surface.
It was the point element’s job to patrol ahead of the main body, finding the rift that S626D was using.
Crumbled, worked stone merged with natural rock the first thousand yards and several twists and turns to where the only lighting available would have been what they brought with them, if the MARVEL-EAS suits sensors let them see in the dark.
Sina surveyed the area. It was quiet and lifeless, no bird song, no buzzing of insects, no plants, even the crumbling stone structures were bereft of moss, lichen or vines. It was like something had consumed everything that once lived on this world.
Gaagii looked at his team and made sure that they had arrived safely. "Engage infrared scanning mode. I do not want any outside light used. We walk three abreast unless there is a lack of space. Every five clicks check our six and cover tracks. Keep comm traffic to a minimum use visual cues. Ready to move out?"
"Ready." Sina signaled having checked her suit's systems.
Tessia gave a firm nod and switched to infrared. The world around her shifted ghostly shapes and faint heat signatures painting the ruins ahead. She scanned the crumbled stone and jagged passages. No movement. No life. Not even the hint of decay. Just stillness. Something about it felt wrong.
She exchanged a glance with Ravenna, then moved into position, forming up in the three-abreast pattern. The air was dry, the dust barely disturbed beneath their boots. No sound. No sign of anything living. Tessia tightened her grip on her rifle, scanning the dark. The silence wasn’t calm—it was watching.
She flicked her fingers in a quick series of signals—Eyes up. Corners clear. Ready.
Gaagii was never the kind of Marine who preferred to move with his rifle shouldered and ready. He prefered to keep his rifle slung and hanging and his hands free. This way he could select the appropriate weapon in the situation. He moved in the center of the cave as they advanced. The infrared in his helmet at the moment red only the heat of his team. As they advanced he checked their rear and covered their tracks. About ten minutes passed as the team advanced in silence. Then they came to a fork in the cave system. He signalled the all stop. Using hand signals he asked his team how they should proceed.
Tessia halted at Gaagii’s signal, instinctively lowering her stance slightly, scanning both forks of the cave She knelt beside the wall. Dust settled evenly in both directions, but to the left... there was a faint drag mark. Barely visible. Not made by boots—something smoother.
She looked up, caught Gaagii’s gaze, and signed back Left fork – recent movement. Pattern irregular.
Gaagii nodded the acknowledgement and reached into a compartment on his suit. He pulled out a small tracer and dropped it at the mouth of the left fork. They were now Hansel and Gretel in the woods and he would make a trail to follow. He signalled the team to follow the left fork and continue.
Sina kept her head on a swivel, checking for signs of movement, and tracks. This is what she had been trained for, first by her people, and then by the Corps. Like Gaagii, she carried a choice of weapons, allowing her to fight melee or at range.
Static filled the team net for a few seconds then Neil's voice came through, “All Elements, Fleet Team has contact and are engaging. Looks like the Silence’s platform was an ambush. Stand by."
After a few beats, Neil's voice came back this time even harder to understand. "“-oint Team. Gaagii. Get us a route as best you can. We’re tightening the formation for better coverage.” After the first part became garbled, the comms switched over to text message, which scrawled across the suit's HUD's.
Gaagii stopped the team and spoke softly, but with an air of authority. "Scan for any large energy output. That should be the portal we are looking for. You heard the Colonel our new orders are to blaze the trail so lets light it up."
Tessia adjusted the settings on her interface, narrowing the scan parameters to focus on concentrated energy signatures. A moment later, a spike flickered across her display, faint but distinct, coming from the left passage, deeper into the tunnel system. “Got something.” She said quietly, eyes fixed on the readout. “Localized energy spike. Doesn’t match ambient geological patterns. Could be the portal.”
She raised her hand, signaling the direction, then glanced at Gaagii. “Readings are unstable but persistent. It’s our best lead."
Sina kept an eye on her team's six. Listening out for the insectoids.
Gaagii spoke into the suit's internal comms so that there would be little to no ambient sound. "T'lar send the coordinates to what you have through the suits so we all have them on the HUD. Then head for it, it is the best lead we have." He then opened a channel to the makeshift HQ. "Command, RECON we have an abnormal energy reading. We are going to follow the reading and investigate. Breadcrumb trail is being relayed to your HUD. Will advise further. Raven out."
Abruptly, a CnC transmission scrolled across their HUD's:>>>"All Team, all CURE Elements. Be advised. This Species is the same as the Malificus entity. Be mindful of our previous experiences and watch each other's back. Tremble out."<<<
She silently relayed the coordinates Gaagii requested, tagging the path on their shared HUD before giving a hand signal and taking point. Her voice came through crisp and low on the internal comms, steady despite the knot of tension forming at the base of her spine.
“Coordinates uploaded. Moving out.”
With rifle up and eyes scanning through the ghostly infrared wash, she advanced. Each step measured, careful, quiet. Her senses tuned to any hint of movement beyond the flickering heat signatures of her team. She had no intention of being caught off guard.
As they pressed forward, the energy reading on Tessia's HUD began to spike. Subtle at first, then more pronounced with every step. Whatever was ahead, it was close.
The corridor began to change, narrowing gradually until the team was forced to adjust formation. What had been a wide, crumbling tunnel was now barely wide enough for three to walk side by side. The walls pressed in with rough, jagged stone, creating a funnel that forced tighter movement and limited fields of fire.
Tessia's boot crunched against something. She glanced down. Marks. Deep, uneven gouges in the dust caked floor. Tracks. Multiple. Wide splayed and clawed, leading in the direction of the growing energy signature.
Tessia narrowed her eyes at the markings in the dust. She raised a closed fist hold and dropped to a crouch, studying the gouges more closely.
After a moment, she spoke again. "It's a lot of movement. Pattern's erratic but clustered. Looks like something insectoid. Multiple legs. Fast." She glanced ahead.
Gaagii was about to kneel down to have a look when a sound interrupted his movement. There was a skittering as if a large colony of ants moved at once. He turned both left and right attempting to get a bead on where the sound came from. He signalled that the rest of the team should do the same.
Despite their efforts there was nothing registering, and yet the sound continued and even got louder. "In the absence of any hard targets. We should continue and see what the source of the power spike is. We cannot afford an ambush on the main force. Press on..." Gaagii indicated that Tessia should continue.
Sina signaled her agreement. The sounds and scan seemed to echo off the walls, making precise analysis impossible. The Vulcanoid preferred open spaces, where you could see any potential threats, before they saw you. She searched the walls for any further sign of the creatures. Her senses told her 'trap'."
Tessia gave a quiet “Understood,” and rose to her feet. She checked the readings one final time. Still spiking. She took point once more. The corridor remained tight, but wide enough for the three of them to stay in formation. With every step, the skittering intensified.
Roughly five meters ahead, the tunnel ended in an opening. Tessia slowed, raising her hand in a silent signal for the others to hold position. The energy reading was peaking now, nearly overwhelming the sensor feed. She crept forward alone. Four meters. Three. Two. One.
She paused at the edge, exhaled slowly, and tightened her grip on the rifle before shifting to the wall. Hugging the rough stone, she leaned out just enough to see. The space beyond was vast. Too large to see the far end. Shafts of pale light poured through holes in the ceiling, as if something had tunneled through from above. The beams illuminated patches of the cavern, casting deep shadows. And within those pools of light there was movement. She counted quickly. Ten... maybe more. Massive insectoid creatures clustered around large, pulsing eggs.
She eased back from the edge and into cover. With practiced precision, she tapped twice on the comm, her voice low. "It’s some kind of breeding chamber.” She reported. “Massive insectoids—at least ten—clustered around what appear to be eggs. The room is partially lit from overhead. Looks like natural tunnels punched through the ceiling. I can’t see the full extent of the chamber, but it’s big. Too big to clear easily.”
Gaagii stepped forward to get a look at what Tessia saw. His eyes widened momentarily at the sight of it. It seemed that this power fed some sort of breeding area. There is no end to this enemy. They will keep coming. He thought. Within this chamber were a number of tanks filled with a mucusy liquid. Within the tanks were insectoid creatures. Most looked as half formed insects only larger. However, what really made Gaagii's blood boil were some tanks that members of the Silence mutated into some sort of insect creature. He made sure to get some imaging of this using his suit.
Gaagii was about to give orders when a noise from above caught his attention. Slowly he looked up and what he saw was a mechanical spider. Moving above their heads was a large spider, silver in color with glowing blue eyes. Its legs were a dark metallic black with razor sharp blades on them. It seemed to be spinning some sort of webbing and had not noticed the intruders into its domain as of yet.
Gaagii's normally mellow voice, was slightly harried as he whispered into the coms. "We retreat. Silently but in the quickstep. Lock in on the Colonel and make for the main force. We need to regroup."
“Understood.” Tessia murmured, taking one last glance into the chamber. Her eyes lingered on the silver spider above, its mechanical legs weaving a slow, deliberate pattern through the upper webbing. It hadn’t noticed them....yet. She let out a silent breath of relief and began to retreat. Gaagii moved first. Tessia followed, walking backward to cover their six.
Her shoulder brushed the jagged edge of the passage wall. Sharp stone cut through the suit’s outer layer, slicing into her arm. She winced, biting back the pain. The rock she'd nudged dislodged and tumbled to the ground with a dull clack that echoed far too loud in the silence.
Tessia froze. She looked back toward the chamber and locked eyes with the spider. It had stopped weaving. It was staring back at her.
Her voice cut through the comms. “We’ve got company. Move!”
Seeing the spider notice them, Sina pushed T'Lar out of the way. "I'll try and slow it down." She said throwing a cluster of grenades past, the spider and into the 'bug nursery'. She'd detected a high concentration of methane gas in there. And ignition of the first grenade set of a chain reaction that transformed the nursery into a blast furnace, when the entrance collapsed.
Sina was thrown into a cave wall by the blast and her body put itself into a comatose state in order to keep her alive.
The metal spider crawled its way out of the rubble, a little scratched, a little scorched, but otherwise undamaged.
It scanned Sina, seeing her as no longer a threat, it continued after Gaagii and T'Lar.
Gaagii reached for his hip and pulled one of his tomahawks. With a well timed throw he hurled it into the air past the spider. In the immediate it would have looked like he missed his target. However, a moment later his plan was revealed. The webbing that the spider weaved had been cut and it threw the spider off balance. Just long enough for Gaagii to reach into his pack and pull out a small disk. He placed the disk on the ground and Sina on the disk. A moment later Sina had dissolved into a transporter effect and the disk had been returned to whence it came. "Now, we run." He said to Tessia.
Tessia gave a sharp nod and took off at a sprint, boots pounding the stone beneath her. The heat from the explosion still clung to the air, and the sound of the spider scraping after them was too close for comfort. She didn’t look back...just ran, heart hammering, lungs burning. They had to make it back to the others.
A Joint Post By
Gunnery Sergeant Gaagii
RECONN, Team 2, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Sergeant Sina Ravenna
Pathfinder, Team 1, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Gunnery Sergeant Tessia T'Lar
Sniper, Team 1, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Staff Warrant Officer Rommie
Artificial Intelligence, The Cure
USS Pioneer
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