The Battery Part III
Posted on Sun Aug 10th, 2025 @ 4:22pm by Gunnery Sergeant Gaagii & Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble & 1st Lieutenant Jeksyne Vale & Lieutenant Mira Jayna & Gunnery Sergeant Tessia T'Lar & Sergeant Azure Thompson & Sergeant Sina Ravenna & Sergeant Tyrigus Fry & Sergeant Miranda Schultz
Edited on on Sun Aug 10th, 2025 @ 4:43pm
1,490 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Episode 16 - Silent Cries
Location: Surface of Wren IX
Timeline: MD10 0840
Rommie ran through her limited profiles and the logic engine decided she could and should take direct action. As the Colonel took a half step, nearly over the edge she locked all servo's in place and moved his suit backwards. Activating the open comm as programmed for anyone to help, she said, "The Colonel's brain waives became erratic approximately twenty seconds ago. They registered the same as a deep REM sleep might, but it is unusual for such a transition in a small amount of time during such a stressed moment. Most Marines can sleep any place anytime, but this is not normal. I have switched my interface and locked his suit pending a change of disposition. Not knowing what is wrong, I can not order a cocktail from the auto-doc that might help. I am monitoring..."
A deep REM sleep? An image flashed in Jayna's mind. A giant cave spider in a web... Then it was gone. "Yes. Keep monitoring him. I think what happened may have some connection to what's happening to the Silence." But she'd need to talk it over with Alyssa. "Let me know if I can help."
"I don't really know, Lieutenant. I can't get through...perhaps if you could. I don't know," The AI was at something of a loss. "Maybe try to get his attention? He isn't responding to me?"
"Neil! Neil! This is Jayna. I'm pregnant with twins and you're the father."
Neil's mind took another lurch and his headache crawled back through the top of his head, then down into his neck and shoulders.
Jayna's mental tug had him blinking and he found his muscles straining to push himself over the edge and saw the suit lockouts in place on his HUD. Relaxing slowly, he opened his mind to speak and then he remembered.
He remembered a dream. A previously unremembered dream from not so long ago where he'd been falling and he could feel an almost slimy touch in his thoughts. Like the dreams weren't supposed to be there. The Silence had sent out dream help messages and those had had the crew getting nightmares.
Swimming up through all of that were Jayna's words and tried to get a fix.
A grin spread over Neil's face and he said back on the direct link. "Good."
Then he got himself sort of straightened out, shut down the link and said, "I've got it, Rommie, release lockouts. Gamma three six zero, command authorization. And thanks," he half whispered as he got himself back together.
The AI responded with a thumbs up on his HUD and the servo's to his suit unlocked and he took a couple of steps back. He took a couple more beats to take in the data flow and said, "Sierra Six Two Six Delta is definitely drawing power from this setup. No idea what kind, though Rommie is drawing parallels to something called a psionic resonator. That energy is being drawn from the Silence and the salt water is the carrier medium. It must flow to where we want to be..."
"Colonel," Rommie sounded an urgent tone. "That spider-entity that the Gunnery Sergeant mentioned is inbound. Fifteen seconds."
Muttering, Neil had to go with his gut. "I think abruptly cutting these Silence off from each other would be bad. Leaving that power stream while we're trying to shut down that Portal is bad. Staying here is about to get REALLY bad. A metalic clicking as a silver spider roughly the size of a Type Eight shuttle, moving on black legs with multiple blue glowing eyes skittered into the chamber from the route the Point team had entered.
Skittered in on the ceiling, no less.
As if a falling nightmare wasn't bad enough.
Muttering a curse, Neil looked at the spider and set targeting beacons, even as he spoke. "Fighting will be just as bad. We have to jump. The drone thinks there's room to follow the river and it has to come out somewhere. Anyone have a better idea?"
"I have a bad feeling about this," Jayna muttered to herself. But she didn't have a better idea. Especially when her attention keep jumping to that spider... "Any idea what's down stream?" They couldn't afford to jump from the frying pan into the fire. And they had to liberate the Silence.
Gaagii dove toward the shadows and dropped prone. This was a reflex stance for him. The targeting sensor on his sniper rifle was open and he read the statistics. No wind resistance, it vulnerable spot is on the thorax. I have a lock. He thought. There was no time to wait for orders, he took the shot. The phaser blast hit its mark and a small sizzle and spark could be seen as it erupted from the spider.
In a blur the spider turned its head toward the sniper. A long blue thread spewed forth from its head and hit Gaagii. The Navajo's eyes widened as the thread wrapped around him and locked his limbs into place. He could feel the air being pushed from his lungs as he realized that he had made a terrible error. Before he could say anything aloud the thread wrapped around his visor and there was darkness. He began to talk aloud his comm channel reported all the words. "Do not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning's hush I am the swift uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there. I did not die..." His voice trailed off as his comm channel went dead. The threads not fully encircled him and the sniper code named Raven was now flying with the Ravens in total stasis.
Neil fired at the spider as he watched the attack on Gaagii with fear gnawing at his gut. That fear took a bigger bite when Neil's HUD flashed red as his snipers suit telemetry showed the webbing pulling the suit apart and invading it. Gaagii's bio readings died out as the last of the suits readouts, and possibly the gunnery sergeant's life was snuffed out by the living webbing. The webbing began cementing Gaagii to the rocky floor. Gritting his teeth, Neil called out. "Cut him free. Azure, emergency beam out."
Fry ran toward Gaagii, pulling a hand phaser and using a cutting beam, carved it loose from the rock as it attempted to solidify and bind the cocoon.
Avoiding the spider's attacks, Azure ran to Gaagii, attached a transporter enhancer to his incased form and activated it.
The Gunny's body disappeared, beamed to the Pioneer, by way of the shuttle Hawkeye.
The Corpsman let loose the last of her plant-based munitions on the spider, in order to give the others cover. Plant tendrils shot forth from the 'Tangler grenades' attempting to coil around the spider's body.
Grimly, Neil yelled. "Scatter. Kill that thing and avoid the webs. The webbing is alive too."
A Joint Post By
Sergeant Azure Thompson
Corpsman, Team 1, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Battalion Commander, The Cure
Sergeant Tyrigus Fry
Rifleman, Team 1, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Gunnery Sergeant Gaagii
RECONN, Team 2, The Cure
USS Pioneer
First Lieutenant Jeksyne Vale
Company Executive Officer, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Gunnery Sergeant Tessia T'Lar
Sniper, Team 1, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Mira Jayna
Intelligence Officer, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Sergeant Sina Ravenna
Pathfinder, Team 1, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Sergeant Miranda Schultz
Communications Specialist HQ, The Cure
USS Pioneer
RSS Feed