A Last Gasp
Posted on Tue Sep 23rd, 2025 @ 1:04pm by Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble
Edited on on Thu Sep 25th, 2025 @ 6:11am
1,132 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Episode 16 - Silent Cries
Location: Below the surface of Wren IX. Portal area.
Timeline: MD010 1600 hrs
Slowly. Like fighting to find his way from beneath an overly heavy blanket while dead asleep when he was a kid, Neil struggled, fighting unconsciousness as a buzzing sounded in his eardrum and, strangely, against his right eye as his mother reminded him it was time for school.
“Don’t wanna go to school,” Neil murmured, his mouth thick with blood. He wheezed and coughed, causing a whole new sense of agony. The darkness clawed relentlessly at his consciousness while his mother’s voice warped into Rommie’s.
“Colonel. COLONEL! I'm sorry, but you need to wake up now, sir,” the AI ordered. His mother’s voice had coaxed him from unconsciousness, but she knew he’d insist on being awake. Switching her voice to mimic that of DI Dawes, she barked, “Off your ass and on your feet, marine!”
Neil’s eyes…well, eye...blinked open. The other one wasn’t responding for some reason, but his contact was pulling information from the Marine tactical net, including he saw, a remote copy of Rommie . The light was too bright and the roaring that had filled his mind since he’d come awake was deafening.
As his brain processed beyond the agony of existing, it started filtering out the sounds of weapons fire and the faint babble of comms traffic over the implanted communicator in his ear. Willing himself to move, Neil turned his head but couldn’t see much beyond the vaulted cavern ceiling as Rommie began extrapolating the battlefield for him and displaying it via tridio over his contact.
The Cure were encircled and the boss entity had emerged. As he narrowed focus, Rommie picked up cues from his pupils and zoomed in. The entity had changed, was more solid and the weapons fire wasn’t having much of an effect. Explosives were knocking it back, but the munitions tally Rommie was running indicated they were running low on everything. S626D’s minions were stacking up like cordwood, but there were still more coming. The only real advantage the Cure had right now was that they had a perimeter, nearly fighting back to back and the beam weapons were giving them an ever shortening killing ground.
Soon they would have to fight hand-to-hand and that would be pretty much that. The team needed to take care of the entity now or force a tactical retreat to some place where they could re-establish contact with the Hawkeye or Pioneer for dust off.
Retreat would be bad.
Neil tried to spit out the foul taste from his mouth--which upon brief reflection, was likely his own blood and a smattering of particulates from the stone and soil--with little success. He again focused on the video play for a few more seconds, then let his eye shutter. Thinking was difficult.
But the tactical problem ordered his mind. The worry was that it reminded him of the several last stands he'd had to study in Command school. Right now he was useless and his Crew was going to pay the price.
Which meant he had to do something. And all he had left was the motivational speech.
He'd gotten a passing grade in that at Command school. But...
Well. Barely. All he had left was his voice, so that would have to do. The built in bio readouts from his HUD didn’t show much promise of a bounce back.
“All Pioneer Elements,” he whispered, working to get his voice back. What was left of Rommie activated the comm, adjusting to block background noise and boosting the signal strength.
“Alright people,” Neil said without preamble. He was too tired to go strictly by the field commander’s guide at this point. “We’ve still got a job to do. You’re Pioneers. You’re all part of The Cure now and that means we get this done. It’s not about the Silence anymore. It’s about surviving this fight. It's about fighting for each other and what comes next for each and every one of us. I’m proud of every one of you. Marines: conserve your munitions, use crossfire and tighten this perimeter down so tight nothing gets through. Stand by to repel boarders.”
He breathed shallowly as he tried to wipe at his mouth but both hands failed him. “Science and Engineering. It’s up to you. This thing is feeding off the Silence. We’re depending on you. It’s not fair, but that’s the deal. Find a way to shut down that link and the Cure will slam the door on S626D’s ass on the way out. Remember, If you have a problem, we are The Cure.”
Neil was growing weaker. If he could just rest for a moment…
His eye wouldn’t open again, but he couldn't let it stop him from finishing what he had to say. Going close to sub-vocal, he continued. “Comms to Merrick and Lachlan.” He waited for everything to click and Rommie’s voice, which was going distant on him, assured him he had private channels, then said, “Ok gents. This is NOT going to turn bad. If Science can’t get this resolved, I’m ordering the bug out. Grab the squishies and get back to the surface. Get Miranda someplace where she can get in touch with the Pioneer and get everyone off this rock.”
Neil's strength was failing and his voice was barely a whisper now. “This entity is a threat to more than just the Silence. Rommie has my recommendations for the General. Ed: When and if you pull out, use your command override to force Jayna out and forget about me. If this goes any more pear shaped, I’m just meat. She’ll be pissed, but you’re used to that in women.”
Lips twitching slightly in humor, he finished, “Been a privilege serving with you both. Now get back to work.”
Definitely sub-vocalizing now, he said, “Switch coms to..”
“I have a direct, secure link to Lieutenant Mira,” Rommie’s voice murmured in his ear.
“Thanks Rommie,” Neil acknowledge, his lips just twitching as he squeezed the words out of his brain. “Jayna, know that I love you. You’ve brought me hope and a shining light in the dark. Keep that light going if something happens to me.”
Wryly, his lips twitched into a smiled. “Anything more, that is. The dark is scary when you’re by yourself.”
He was tired. Sleep. He needed…craved more sleep.
Neil didn’t want to go to school today.
A Post By
Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Battalion Commander, The Cure
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