Beachhead Edited 11-8-2018

Shortly after arriving at my quarters I opened the EXP store and selected the “RATE” area. After scrolling for a while, then sorting for the Warrant Officers ranking, I found what I wanted

Advanced Cyber Wetware and Warfare Officer

Benefit

Advanced Diagnostics Scanner Operations

Cybernetics Design Software Unlocked

Maintenance Reduced on all Personal Cyberware

“Optional” Grading unlocked for Cyberware

Cyberware Build Time Decreased by 30%

Hacking Synthetic Intelligence Unlocked For Purchase

Penalty

Weapons Modification Times Increased 10%

Armor Creation Time Increased 20% (Cyber Armor excluded from penalties)

Weapon Creation Failure Rate Increased 15%

Schematics Learning Success Rate Decreased 15% Non-Cyber Schematics

Synthetic Intelligence Designer Permanently Locked

I was going to hate losing the SI designer, but I hadn’t used it to this point. Just the thought of being completely locked out from a tool, however, was aggravating.

I noticed that the emblem for my rate was now featured prominently on my uniform. A mechanical snake with two heads encircled by “electricity” and what appeared to be a bomb that according to our databases was called a “Fat Man” landing on the shared tail with a mushroom cloud erupting from the fins. I checked all my gear, and it was added. I then noticed, for the first time, that except for my fatigues which were considered a “neutral” type uniform, all had been upgraded to Officers uniforms. I opened the designer software and saw that I could now make replacement limbs, replacement organs, and, new cybernetic wetware, such as neural implants. I could before now, but I would have had to design them from the ground up. Now I had the ships blessing with defaults schematics. It was time to sleep.

After spending a few hours tossing and not able to sleep, I decided to start making additional mods for the weapons. I needed to see how this new rate would affect things. After delivering my second set of magazines, stocks, and barrels to the Marines, as well as some sidearm chambering mods, I was hit by several rapid pings. There was then a “beeping” that wouldn’t shut up! I punched my terminal, trying to mute it.

My hand-held console was beeping with gusto as well, and my terminal still had the demon tone sounding. I opened my messages and saw why the terminal wasn’t shutting up. The ship's commander was requesting to see me immediately in a senior officers briefing room. Well not me specifically, but all “Senior Ranking Engineers.” I guess that with official purchase of my rank and rate, I was now it. I quickly dressed in my now “new” officers working uniform and headed towards the briefing room. Personally, I would have preferred to be able to sleep.

Following the navigation provided by my mini-map, I was able to make good time and arrived at the briefing room within five minutes of having read the message. Commander Watson, the ships Executive Officer, was already there, along with Yama, Commander Olmos, Lieutenant Li, and a few officers I wasn’t familiar with in or out of the game. As a Warrant Officer I was confident I’d be the lowest ranking officer, but what surprised me was that the flight crew was represented by an Aviation Ordinanceman. An E-3 was officially the lowest ranking person in this emergency meeting.

“…just another minute or two for any stragglers” the XO was saying as I entered. All eyes turned towards me as the hatch wasn’t the quietest piece of equipment to operate. Lt. Li recognized me and smiled.

“Now we have someone for every classification!” he exclaimed a little too loudly while gesturing towards the chair next to him.

I glanced at a collection of enlisted crewmen that seemed to be huddling together. I noticed one Master Chief, three Petty Officers, and the previously mentioned Ordinanceman. They were all also next to the coffee pot. I nodded to Lt. Li, then made a b-line for said equipment and began to operate it with the expert precision of an addict. Less than a minute later, another four people had joined us, including the Marines Regimental CO. Grabbing two cups, not waiting for the pot to finish I joined Lt. Li, offering him the spare. A moment later, the “enlisted” crew all filled their cups, except for the Ordinanceman, who was forced to start another batch so he could get his. The XO began the briefing.

“Less than 24 hours ago,” he began with a thick southern drawl coloring his speech “the ship that was trailing us, which we had been calling ‘Escort-001’, suffered a major explosion. At this point, we have no idea what has caused the explosion. We do know that there was an unauthorized communication right before Escort exploded. We also know where it was sent from, and both Yama and Rasputin have already locked down the party responsible.” Yama’s rictus grin held onto me for the briefest moment as he looked around the room. I could almost feel his eyes look through me instead of at me, acknowledging the presence of Observer. In my mind, I could feel amusement coming from my companion.

“We would have already achieved planet fall were it not for this. We decided to stop, reverse course, and assist if possible. We are currently zero-six hours from coming alongside, and in range of launching a relief operation.” There was an intake of breath from the Master Chief. Looks like he bought his rank as well.

“We will start by landing Marines from our Regiment,” he nodded towards the Marines CO, “and secure an LZ where we can operate humanitarian aid from. Engineers and Technicians will be needed as volunteers for the first wave AFTER the Marines have secured the area. This group will be responsible for ensuring the safety of everyone else. You will need to locate, identify, and secure an atmospheric cycler so that we can breathe without contained air.” He paused, sipping from a cup of water.

“Sir,” I interrupted, “Wouldn’t it be simpler to take some spares with us?”

“In theory, Warrant Jax, but we don’t have any fully built items for spares to take with us, and if we did, they wouldn’t fit on the shuttles.” An Ensign with an environment rate supplied before the XO could respond.

“Correct, Ensign. We do not have the room to take a spare with us. As for having a spare to take, we could assemble one with our spare parts, but we do not have one assembled.” I nodded acknowledging that it just couldn’t be done with the tech we had.

I was going to have to see what I could whip up. I took note of the Ensign and started typing up notes on my portable, including a message to the Ensign asking to meet later, and that it was concerning this briefing, and if possible, he should bring a basic schematic of the atmo system to the Officers Club to review.

“Once the Landing Party has secured air for our crews, we will sweep the ship IN ITS ENTIRETY for survivors, and barring that, intel, equipment, and everything else that we can use to learn. We need data. We need the tech. We need answers.” The XO then motioned to the entry hatch, and for the first time, I noticed that there were Marines stationed at the hatch. They closed the hatch, secured it, then Yama stated “Sssssecured.”

“Here’s some intel that is not to be mentioned outside of this room.” What appeared to be an EULA appeared in front of my eyes. I could tell that it wasn’t just me that had one pop-up either, based on the groans that were muttered.

“Yes, I know that these are a pain in the ass, but you will need to read this to understand the severity of what I am about to tell you.” The XO then sat down, apparently waiting for us to read the eleven pages which were mostly consequences of leaking this intel, what the intel could be considered would pertain to, and proper procedures to secure data. I felt that I was one of the few people who read the full document.

Getting to the end of the form, I noticed there was no place for me to agree to anything. More accurately, it was there, just greyed out an inaccessible to me. I looked up at Yama, then the document disappeared, and my portable alerted me to a new message from Yama. After another few seconds, the XO stood and addressed us again.

“Over 50 days ago, in the game- that’s three years and change relative, we stumbled across an anomaly that is not so different from an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. By stumbled across, of course, I mean that our flotilla detected an anomaly and before we could identify what it was, we were swallowed and appeared where we are now.” The XO paused to let us take in the news.

“As a result, Overlord has been fragmented. Now Rasputin, Yama, and the rest have had to give up portions of their systems to ensure that Overlord survives. We have even started having our repair drones in the physical stand up all spare systems hardware to create new systems for Overlord to populate. The ships that came through with us are doing the same.”

“So far, we have been able to prevent corruption of the data-cores. That’s primary, secondary, tertiary, and backup cores. Several of the system techs have been awakened off cycle to help with these efforts.”

“This is relevant because the area we are now in, in game, was not part of the original plan. In fact, this was all created ONLY after we were separated. The ship that is out there was not programmed in by us. We have ZERO data on that ship. We need intel.” The XO paused allowing the weight of his words to settle on the assembled crew.

“We’re flying in the dark here. As we were the closest to Escort, we are tasked to be the first with boots on the ground. If there are any left alive, then this will also become a First Contact scenario. With that in mind, try not to kill them. We don’t know where the design for the ship came from; we do not know if there are any life forms on board. All we know is that there are potential answers there and that something has left us a link.” The XOs eyes settled on me for the briefest of moments.

“Now, get to your quarters and get some shut-eye. I would ask a few of you to stay behind. Warrant Jax, Lt. Li, PO-2 AND PO-3 Suarez, please stick around. Colonel White, did you want to stick around?” The XO addressed the Marine CO.

“If you don’t mind, Wats, I’ll stick around for some coffee.” The Marine addressed the XO like an old drinking buddy. I wasn’t sure if this was a pissing match in the making or actual friends. He leaned on the counter by the caffeine, facing the rest of us. Shortly after everyone else had left the XO continued.

“You are all going with the Marines as part of the welcoming crew. For those of you not sure as to why,” he looked at the two Suarez Petty officers that he had asked to stick around “that is because you are all actual engineers on the outside, and not just regular engineers, but the ones that have figured out how the game works.” Looking at the rate insignia that the Suarez’s wore I saw that they were for a Hull Tech and for a Construction Tech. Good, a CB was going to be with us. “Li and Jax, have first-hand experience with alien tech, so they are going, though originally it was only supposed to be Li.”

I smiled at the acknowledgment. It appears that someone else had been slated for my seat, but my rate buy-in had thrown a small wrench into the mix. Being a gremlin can sometimes be fun. White pushed off the counter and strode towards us.

“Right, because Jax was trained as a Marine, you’ll be familiar with how we operate. As for you other three, if you haven’t already, clean your firearms and ensure they’re ready. You will all have a one day only pass to our firing range. Jax, I believe you already have secured a deal for us to let you in, unofficially?” Yep, I was famous.

“Sir, I got what you need. Just give me numbers, and I can start working on them once we leave.” This caused the XO to laugh.

“Looks like you owe me a drink, Whitey.” Okay, they were friends. No pissing match to worry about dodging the back spray for. I looked towards the XO, an eyebrow cocked. The CO replied before the XO could.

“We were going to contact you after the briefing to place a large order, with you here we skipped that step. The rest of the story can wait.” Okay, so I really was getting famous. Maybe infamous?

“The situation is this. We will be landing a full battalion. Six-hundred four of our riflemen will be landing, and most will need something different. Everyone will need at least three extended magazines. I also understand that you have updated the barrels to work better in zero-G?” Well, that was news.

“Not specific use, sir, just a side effect,” I replied. I wondered if that was due to the venting I had put into place. Then I started to wonder on how they figured out that it worked better than the standard for zero-G.

“I will need five-hundred eight of your short barrels and thirty long. We have some heavy weapons specialists as well. Cooked up anything for them?

“Not yet, sir. Give me a model name/number, and I can have something whipped up shortly.”

The CO motioned for me to follow him. As I looked up to the XO, he dismissed us all. I followed the CO out, answering questions as I followed him towards the Marines armory. After starting work copying the magazine schematic as well as the short barrel schematic into the fabrication stations, the XO requisitioned the parts from Yama directly.

We started to spit out presents for all the best dressed on board (not counting myself that is). While the systems were spitting out weapon mods, I started to design a drone for our door breaker teams. With thirty minutes left before shuttle launch, I had finished producing the mods for everyone. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to meet up with the Ensign from the briefing. While working, I noticed that there was no cost for the materials I needed. I hope that didn’t mean I would get zero EXP for all of this.

The next day, after finishing up the order for the deployment, I was packed into a dropship with a squad of Marines.

“Liefsdottir, you the tech on the doorbuster team?” I asked the guy sliding in next to me with the overly large utility pack.

“I am. You the one that designed the mags and barrels?” He asked back.

“Yep, plus another few goodies.” I motioned towards the crate behind the pilots’ seat. A grin would have been visible, but per drop-ship regs, I was buttoned up and secured tighter than a political prisoner on Venus. My armor plating was equipped to my suit connection points with no fatigues visible. No reason to get my uniform all shot up in the unlikely event of a firefight.

“I’ve got a dozen drones with various capabilities in there for you. Let me pass you the activation codes. But, don’t fire them up until we make the LZ.” I think the grin showed through my voice. Liefsdottir laughed loudly.

“Fuck yes! What do we got?” He asked that last part as if it was one-word “whaddaweegout” a bit of an accent even came through at the end.

“I call them ‘Monkeys.’” I said, continuing as I queued a file transfer to him, “Here are the specs for the M1K33 Multi-purpose Drone Platform. Five limbs, all fully actuated magnetized, and each limb also contains a barbed tip for when the magnets don’t work. Prehensile limbs so it can grip on something with up to four while maintaining a fifth for tracking of targets, managing data scans, or whatever else is needed. Two of the limbs have a plasma cutter built into them, that’s standard.”

“Next, in order of what I feel like saying, some are set up with spectrum analyzers, two are set up with atmo detection and sensor forwarders. One oversized one is also set up as a heavy weapons platform. We then have a data hacking module installed on two of them, though with what we have heard, that may not be useful. The last few are set up with a construction toolset, so they can help us to create a seal so we can pump atmo into an area. Think Construction, Communication, and Scanning.”

I felt the drop craft “bump,” and then we started spinning.

Everyone looked at each other. Well, shit. Not everyone. Two of the guys sitting across from each other looked like they were asleep, the problem was there was a hole through the chests of each of them, along with the sudden decompression of the drop craft.

I could hear the “oh shits” coming through the local comms, and I may have added a few of my own. Then the back half of the dropship crumpled and tore off, taking more than half of the marines with it. I did a quick head count, and there were five us still alive. Counting the pilot and co-pilot. Then there was a shudder, the crate with my monkeys was pushed towards me, and then there was only Liefsdottir, a corporal sitting across from me, and myself still breathing. In what was now the opening for the back of the drop craft I could see Escort swallowing us up.

Beachhead - Original

Shortly after arriving at my quarters I opened the EXP store and selected the “RATE” area. After scrolling for a while, then sorting for the Warrant Officers ranking, I found what I wanted

Advanced Cyber Wetware and Warfare Officer

Benefit

Advanced Diagnostics Scanner Operations

Cybernetics Design Software Unlocked

Maintenance Reduced on all Personal Cyberware

“Optional” Grading unlocked for Cyberware

Cyberware Build Time Decreased by 30%

Hacking Synthetic Intelligences Unlocked For Purchase

Penalty

Weapons Modification Times Increased 10%

Armor Creation Time Increased 20% (Cyber Armor excluded from penalties)

Weapon Creation Failure Rate Increased 15%

Schematics Learning Success Rate Decreased 15% Non-Cyber Schematics

Synthetic Intelligence Designer Permanently Locked

I was going to hate losing the SI designer, but I hadn’t used it to this point. Just the thought of being completely locked out from a tool was aggravating.

I noticed that the emblem for my rate was now featured prominently on my uniform. A mechanical snake with two heads encircled by “electricity” and what appeared to be a bomb that according to our databases was called a “Fat Man” landing on the shared tail with a mushroom cloud erupting from the fins. I checked all my gear and it was added. I then noticed, for the first time, that except for my fatigues which were considered a “neutral” type uniform, all had been upgraded to Officers uniforms. I opened the designer software and saw that I could now make replacement limbs, replacement organs, and, new cybernetic wetware, such as neural implants. I had the ability to before now, but I would have had to design them from the ground up. Now I had the ships blessing with defaults schematics. It was time to sleep.

After spending a few hours tossing and not able to sleep, I decided to start making additional mods for the weapons. I needed to see how this new rate would affect things. After delivering my second set of magazines, stocks, and barrels to the Marines, as well as some side arm chambering mods, I was hit by several rapid pings. There was then a “beeping” that wouldn’t shut up! I hit my terminal, trying to mute it.

My hand-held console was beeping with gusto as well, and my terminal still had the demon tone sounding. I opened my messages and saw why the terminal wasn’t shutting up. The ships commander was requesting to see me immediately in a senior officers briefing room. Well not me specifically, but all “Senior Ranking Engineers”. I guess that with official purchase of my rank and rate, I was now it. I quickly dressed in my now “new” officers working uniform and headed towards the briefing room. Personally, I would have preferred to be able to sleep.

Following the navigation provided by my mini-map, I was able to make good time and arrived at the briefing room within five minutes of having read the message. Commander Watson, the ships Executive Officer, was already there, along with Yama, Commander Olmos, Lieutenant Li, and a few officers I wasn’t familiar with in or out of the game. As a Warrant Officer I was confident I’d be the lowest ranking officer, but what surprised me was that the flight crew was represented by an Aviation Ordinanceman. An E-3 was officially the lowest ranking person in this emergency meeting.

“…just another minute or two for any stragglers” the XO was saying as I entered. All eyes turned towards me as the hatch wasn’t the quietest piece of equipment to operate. Lt. Li recognized me and smiled.

“Now we have someone for every classification!” he exclaimed a little to loudly, while gesturing towards the chair next to him.

I glanced at a collection of enlisted crew that seemed to be huddling together. I noticed one Master Chief, three Petty Officers, and the previously mentioned Ordinanceman. They were all also next to the coffee pot. I nodded to Lt. Li, then made a b-line for said equipment and began to operate it with the expert precision of an addict. Less than a minute later, another four people had joined us, including the Marines Regimental CO. Grabbing two cups, not waiting for the pot to finish I joined Lt. Li, offering him the spare. A moment later, the “enlisted” crew all filled their cups, except for the Ordinanceman, who started another batch. The XO began the briefing.

“Less than 24 hours ago,” he began with a thick southern drawl coloring his speech “the ship that was trailing us, which we had been calling ‘Escort-001’, suffered a major explosion. At this point we have no idea what has caused the explosion. We do know that there was an unauthorized communication right before Escort exploded. We also know where it was sent from, and both Yama and Rasputin have already locked down the party responsible.” Yama’s rictus grin held onto me for the briefest moment as he looked around the room. I could almost feel his eyes look through me instead of at me, acknowledging the presence of Observer. In my mind I could feel amusement coming from my companion.

“We would have already achieved planet fall were it not for this. We decided to stop, reverse course, and assist if possible. We are currently zero-six hours from coming along side, and in range of launching a relief operation.” There was an intake of breath from the Master Chief. Looks like he bought his rank as well.

“We will start by landing Marines from our Regiment,” he nodded towards the Marines CO, “and secure an LZ where we can operate humanitarian aid from. Engineers and Technicians will be needed as volunteers for the first wave AFTER the Marines have secured the area. This group will be responsible for ensuring the safety of everyone else. You will need to locate, identify, and secure an atmospheric cycler so that we can breathe without contained air.” He paused, sipping from a cup of water.

“Sir,” I interrupted, “Wouldn’t it be simpler to take some spares with us?”

“In theory, Warrant Jax, but we don’t have any fully built items for spares to take with us, and if we did, they wouldn’t fit on the shuttles.” An Ensign with an environment rate supplied, before the XO could respond.

“Correct, Ensign. We do not have the room to take a spare with us. As for having a spare to take, we could assemble one with our spare parts, but we do not have one assembled.” I nodded acknowledging that it simply couldn’t be done with the tech we had.

I was going to have to see what I could whip up. I took note of the Ensign and started typing up notes on my portable, including a message to the Ensign asking to meet later and that it was concerning this briefing, and if possible, he should bring a basic schematic of the atmo system to the Officers Club to review.

“Once the Landing Party has secured air for our crews, we will sweep the ship IN ITS ENTIRETY for survivors, and barring that, intel, equipment, and everything else that we can use to learn. We need data. We need tech. We need answers.” The XO then motioned to the entry hatch, and for the first time I noticed that there were Marines stationed at the hatch. They closed the hatch, secured it, then Yama stated “Sssssecured”.

“Here’s some intel that is not to be mentioned outside of this room.” What appeared to be a EULA appeared in front of my eyes. I could tell that it wasn’t just me that had one appear either, based on the groans that were muttered.

“Yes, I know that these are a pain in the ass, but you will need to read this to understand the severity of what I am about to tell you.” The XO then sat down, apparently waiting for us to read the eleven pages which was mostly consequences of leaking this intel, what the intel could be considered to pertain to, and proper procedures to secure data. I felt that I was one of the few people whom read the full document.

Getting to the end of the form, I noticed there was no place for me to agree to anything. More accurately, it was there, just greyed out an inaccessible to me. I looked up at Yama, then the document disappeared, and my portable alerted me to a new message from Yama. After another few seconds the XO stood and addressed us again.

“Over 50 days ago, in game- that’s three years and change relative, we stumbled across an anomaly that is not so different from an Einstein-Rosen-Diamandis Bridge. By stumbled across, of course I mean that our flotilla detected an anomaly and before we could identify what it was, we were swallowed and appeared where we are now.” The XO paused to let us take in the news.

“As a result, Overlord has been fragmented. Now Rasputin, Yama, and the rest have had to give up portions of their systems to ensure that Overlord survives. We have even started having our repair drones in the physical stand up all spare systems hardware to create new systems for Overlord to populate. The ships that came through with us are doing the same.”

“So far, we have been able to prevent corruption of the data-cores. That’s primary, secondary, tertiary, and backup cores. Several of the system techs have been awakened off cycle to help with these efforts.”

“This is relevant because the area we are now in, in game, was not part of the original plan. In fact, this was all created ONLY after we were separated. The ship that is out there was not programmed in by us. We have ZERO data on that ship. We need intel.” The XO paused allowing the weight of his words to settle on the assembled crew.

“We’re flying in the dark here. As we were the closest to Escort, we are tasked to be the first with boots on the ground. If there are any left alive, then this will also become a First Contact scenario. With that in mind, try not to kill them. We don’t know where the design for the ship came from, we do not know if there are any life forms on board. All we know is that there are potentially answers there, and that something has left us a link.” The XOs eyes settled on me for the briefest of moments.

“Now, get to your quarters and get some shut eye. I would ask a few of you to stay behind. Warrant Jax, LT Li, PO-2 AND PO-3 Suarez, please stick around. Colonel White, did you want to stick around?” The XO addressed the Marine CO.

“If you don’t mind, Wats, I’ll stick around for some coffee.” The Marine addressed the XO like an old drinking buddy. I wasn’t sure if this was a pissing match in the making or actual friends. He leaned on the counter by the caffeine, facing the rest of us. Shortly after everyone else had left the XO continued.

“You are all going with the Marines as part of the welcoming crew. For those of you not sure as to why,” he looked at the two Suarez Petty officers that he had asked to stick around “that is because you are all actual engineers on the outside, and not just regular engineers, but the ones that have figured out how the game works.” Looking at the rate insignia that the Suarez’s wore I saw that they were for a Hull Tech and for a Construction Tech. Good, a CB was going to be with us. “Li and Jax, have first hand experience with alien tech so they are going, though originally it was only supposed to be Li.”

I smiled at the acknowledgement. It appears that someone else had been slated for my seat but my rate buy-in had thrown a small wrench into the mix. Being a gremlin can sometimes be fun. White pushed off the counter and strode towards us.

“Right, because Jax was trained as a Marine, you’ll be familiar with how we operate. As for you other three, if you haven’t already, clean your firearms and ensure they’re ready. You will all have a one day only pass to our firing range. Jax, I believe you already have secured a deal for us to let you in, unofficially?” Yep, I was famous.

“Sir, I got what you need. Just give me numbers and I can start working on them once we leave.” This caused the XO to laugh.

“Looks like you own me a drink, Whitey.” Okay, they were friends. No pissing match to worry about dodging the back spray for. I looked to the XO, an eyebrow cocked. The CO replied before the XO could.

“We were going to contact you after the briefing to place a large order, with you here we skipped that step. The rest of the story can wait.” Okay, so I really was getting famous. Maybe infamous?

“The situation is this. We will be landing a full battalion. Six-hundred four of our riflemen will be landing and most will need something different. Everyone will need at least three extended magazines. I also understand that you have updating the barrels to work better in zero-G?” Well that was news.

“Not specific use, sir, just a side effect.” I replied. I wondered if that was due to the venting I had put into place. Then I started to wonder on how they figured out that it worked better than standard for zero-G.

“I will need five-hundred eight of your short barrels and thirty long. We have some heavy weapons specialists as well. Cooked up anything for them?

“Not yet, sir. Give me a model name/number and I can have something whipped up shortly.”

The CO motioned for me to follow him. As I looked up to the XO he dismissed us all. I followed the CO out, answering questions as I followed him towards the Marines armory. After starting work copying the magazine schematic as well as the short barrel schematic into the fabrication stations, the XO requisitioned the parts from Yama directly.

We started to spit out presents for all the best dressed on board (not counting myself that is). While the systems were spitting out weapon mods, I started to design a drone for our door breaker teams. With thirty minutes left before shuttle launch I had finished producing the mods for everyone. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to meet up with the Ensign from the briefing. While working, I noticed that there was no cost for the materials I needed. I hope that didn’t mean I would get zero EXP for all of this.

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“Liefsdottir, you the tech on the door buster team?” I asked the guy sliding in next to me with the overly large utility pack.

“I am. You the one that designed the mags and barrels?” He asked back.

“Yep, plus another few goodies.” I motioned towards the crate behind the pilots’ seat. A grin would have been visible, but per drop-ship regs, I was buttoned up and secured tighter than a political prisoner on Venus. My armor plating was equipped to my suit connection points with no fatigues visible. No reason to get my uniform all shot up in the unlikely event of a firefight.

“I’ve got a dozen drones with various capabilities in there for you. Let me pass you the activation codes. But, don’t fire them up until we make the LZ.” I think the grin showed through my voice. Liefsdottir laughed loudly.

“Fuck yes! What do we got?” He asked that last part as if it was one word “whaddaweegout” a bit of an accent even came through at the end.

“I call them ‘Monkeys’.” I said, continuing as I queued a file transfer to him, “Here’s the specs for the M1K33 Multi-purpose Drone Platform. Five limbs, all fully actuated magnetized, and each limb also contains a barbed tip for when the magnets don’t work. Prehensile limbs so it can grip on something with up to four while maintaining a fifth for tracking of targets, managing data scans, or whatever else is needed. Two of the limbs have a plasma cutter built into them, that’s standard.”

“Next, in order of what I feel like saying, some are set up with spectrum analyzers, two are set up with atmo detection and sensor forwarders. One oversized one is also set up as a heavy weapons platform. We then have a data hacking module installed on two of them, though with what we have heard, that may not be useful. The last are all set up with a construction toolset, so they can help us to create a seal, so we can pump atmo into an area. Think Construction, Communication and Scanning.”

I felt the drop craft “bump” and then we started spinning.

Everyone looked at each other and… well shit. Not everyone. Two of the guys sitting across from each other looked like they were asleep, problem was there was a hole through the chests of each of them, along with the sudden decompression of the drop craft.

I could hear the “ohh shits” coming through the local comms, and I may have added a few of my own. Then the back half of the dropship crumpled and tore off, taking more than half of the marines with it. I did a quick head count and there were five us still alive. Counting the pilot and co-pilot. Then there was a shudder, the crate with my monkeys was pushed towards me, and then there was only Liefsdottir, a corporal sitting across from me, and myself still breathing. In what was now the opening for the back of the drop craft I could see Escort swallowing us up.