Contact - Edited 11-8-2018

I relieved the Heavy watching the hatch, so he could recharge his air tanks. Janssens hadn’t heard from the Captain, and the mini-maps hadn’t updated in some time. There really weren’t enough of us to mount a rescue op. After everyone had cycled through and recharged their air (something that was only 80% as effective as I’d hoped), I approached Janssens again.

“So, what’s the word on the Captain? There’s not really enough of us to hike through an unknown ship design and figure out where we need to go.”

Janssens looked over to me.

“Well, Mother seems to think that with the data you sent over, they will be able to blast any more turrets off the ship before they can fire at us, so it’s just a matter of time until he respawns and is sent over.” He wasn’t concerned at all.

“Yeah, but think of it this way,” I started, “If he dies, he’ll blame his NCOs who left him to die for the loss of EXP.” I gave Janssens a pointed look. “The penalty for death is full loss of EXP for the ENTIRE day.”

Janssens floated there, tethered to the dropship with the turret attached, running a few scenarios through his mind.

“Well, Jax. Thanks for volunteering.” He said. I could hear the smile in his voice.

“Shit, you really going to put this on me?” I had to admit, I sort of expected it, but I was still shocked at his decision.

“You can hack systems, you have nonstandard armor, and something tells me that you have some more tricks you haven’t brought out yet.” He knew me well enough, but I lost my other toys on the trip over. No heavy weapons platform meant less boom-boom.

“Well, then... I suppose I should be going. I’ll be borrowing some items, though.” I said, grabbing the sidearm from one of the dead pilots. I had forgotten to ask Yama that happened to gear when you died. I then picked up some spare clips from two of the others.

Thompson .50 Combat Pistol

Type

Kinetic

Rounds

0/7

Sight

None

Fire Mode Options

Single

Weight

1.25 kg

Modifications

Zero-G Rifling

Range

20 m

Maximum

150 m

The main thing I hated about these pistols was that they used a feed system instead of a fully contained magazine. I had a few other gripes, but they were my only option for a backup weapon, so it was going to be it. I swapped the magazines in my Battle Rifle.

“By the way, you wouldn’t happen to have some extra rounds, would you? Some dick NCO is sending me to get my tits blown off, and I want to come back in one piece as a ‘fuck you’ to him.” I said, holding my hand out. Janssens laughed and handed me a spare extended magazine and a small box of 50 rounds. Checking to verify their type, I noticed the “DU” on the box. Fun, they were depleted uranium. These would be good as tank buster rounds. That beat to hell my standard ammo. Checking the magazine that he had just handed to me, I noticed it was already loaded with DU rounds.

I walked/floated to the beast of a hatch and was glad that there was no gravity as I would have had to jump to reach the manual release. It took me a moment to re-orient myself and to gather enough leverage to operate the control. Fun fact, the manual controls on Escort worked opposite to our own. Unexpected, the moment I had the locking mechanism on the hatch released, the door flung open, with me still on it, and flooded the compartment with the ship's atmosphere. I was thrilled that my Monkeys had patched the hull.

So as not to get crushed as the door flung itself inward, I rolled towards the hinges. There was a loud “gong” sound as the hatch hit the bulkhead. I was crushed, but not to death, just to extreme pain and having the wind knocked out of me. Once I was able to breathe again, I scanned the atmo.

Nitrogen (54%), oxygen (17%), argon (11%), ammonia (9%), and then trace amounts of carbon dioxide, neon, helium, methane, krypton, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, xenon, ozone, iodine, and carbon monoxide. Not too different from Earth, but different enough to be toxic thanks to the argon and ammonia. Our air filters would be able to filter it. The humidity in the air was also very high at 80%. Ambient temperatures started to increase as well. It was already 322K and raising now that there was airflow again. I forwarded Janssens my sensor readouts so that he would know that the Marines should stay sealed up.

Pulling myself along the bulkhead, I was able to get over the top of the hatch and push myself through. That’s when gravity decided to reassert itself. I fell hard. I had the wind knocked out of me for the second time in as many minutes. Gasping, I sat up, feeling heavy. Looking into the compartment, I had just fallen out of I saw that they were all still floating. I pulled up my status.

Name:

Jax

Danni

Build:

Engineer

Warrant Officer

Status:

Full Suit Integrity

Armor 95% Effective

Air:

152:17:44

External Toxic, Filters Effective

Gravity

1.3 G

Stable

Accessories:

M1k33 Drones (4 Comm, 3 Sensor Relay 3 General purpose)

Engineering Kit MK-I

Weapons:

Taishi Ci Battle Rifle

45/45 (3 spare magazines)

Thompson .50 Combat Pistol

7/7 (3 spare clips)

Mono-blade

N/A

I stood and brushed myself off. I sent Janssens a report on the gravity. IT HURT! Everything was moving slower. My movements were jerking as my muscles caught up to what I wanted them to do. A quick start then slowly moving that ended abruptly. This was going to be hell to get used to. I started humming to myself so I could keep my mind off how shit it was to walk through the passageways like this.

I stopped at every intersection to verify communications back to Janssens, while also trying to reach the Captain or any other Marines that were onboard. There were a few compartments that had been seen by Marines and the data forwarded to the larger whole, but I couldn’t get any of their hatches to open from this side. At my 8th intersection, I came across a ladder well and set up one of the relay Monkeys to forward data. I could tell that this was a ladder well as there was an outline for handholds every meter. According to the minimap, the Captain last reported data from three decks above and on the opposite side of the ship. The handholds were non-existent, however.

There was a data panel next to the chute. Or what I took to be a data panel. There was a scanner port, or at least what looked like one. Alien tech. I used the mono-blade to pry the cover off. This thing was useful; I was going to have to make me one. Then a snag. No cables for me to try and hotwire. There were crystals instead of cabling. I broke some out and stuck it in my Engineering kit. I sent another Monkey up the ladder well after attaching a tether line to it. It took me some time to climb up thanks to the added gravity. I was already thinking of adding a grapple launcher into an arm in case I had to do this again.

When I finally climbed free from the ladder well, I started getting sensor data from a Marine with a scanner, though there was still no comms. My mini-map had several dozen red blips and three green blips barricaded inside a room 700 meters from my position. I started to jog. My body was starting to get used to the new gravity. It was still far from comfortable, but my moving was a lot smoother. I sent my last relay drone to the intersection and had it start running a full spectrum scan. Reading through the data, I was receiving I began to add some filters then noticed a communication jamming field around the area that the three green dots were in. I was also now able to get visuals on the red dots.

Standing at 3 meters tall I was unsure if they were armored suits or chitinous exoskeletons, but the rest was clear. Six legs and quills that covered their entire bodies. The quills would extend whenever the creature breathed. There were several spines stuck in the hatch to the chamber the green dots were in, which was the most likely reason I was getting that data at all. I verified that the Thompson was loaded with a round chambered, then placed it in the holster. Then I checked that my battle rifle was primed and ready as well. I had my sensor drone push data to the three green dots behind the hatch, relaying my position, then had the Monkey pull back.

The data pulse with the updated information was enough to get the attention of the aliens, and a barrage of spines immediately shot down the passageway towards my Monkey, and more importantly, towards me. It’s amazing how much quicker you hit the deck with an additional 30% gravity.

I sent a command to some of my construction Monkeys to pull me back, and I shot a burst toward the mob before disappearing around the corner. One of the quills had hit my armor and cracked one of the plates, but it didn’t pierce. I activated my scope as I pointed my battle rifle around the corner. Look at that, they bled. There weren’t any down, but there was one that was leaking a bright green fluid from a leg. I should have kept some of those grenades I made.

I sent my Monkeys down the passageway, the direction I had initially arrived from, and had them start cutting the ceiling plating away, ready to drop it if necessary, then I headed that way, battle rifle pointing behind me, so I could have a visual on the area behind me.

By the time I arrived at the next intersection, the creatures were sprinting down the hallway behind me, and I sent the order to drop the ceiling to the deck. The first ceiling plate fell. Then the second and third. My Monkeys then scampered back my direction, trying to catch up. Two of these creatures were flattened, though only one seemed to have been killed, the other was disabled, two of its legs crushed. The third plate missed entirely as the creature had stopped to send some quills my direction. I was hit by three of them and again, no penetration, but that didn’t stop the kinetic force. Two of the armor plates on my back were entirely shattered. Only the pieces immediately connected to the connectors stayed attached. I stood and started running again, having taken the corner. My feet were hammering away at the deck as I was trying to get some distance.

At the next intersection, I turned again, this time I crashed immediately into a different alien creature. This one was humanoid-ish. With blue-grey skin, it stood with its head almost touching the ceiling. It had three legs instead of two, and they appeared to be digitigrade. Two arms that extruded from the center of its torso and dragged all the way to the floor, and a tail with a stinger. The head had five eyes that provided a full 360 degrees of vision, and there were gills on what I took to be the neck. It was wrapped in a cloth robe with a small package pinned between its arm and body. The robe didn’t look like it would provide much armor.

I rebounded from the figure. It was solid, and fortunately, it moved slowly compared to the bug-like creatures from earlier. The bugs were still chasing me, but I stood in shock for a moment. My scanners showed that it was ambient temperature, which put it at 340K. But that is all it showed. I was going to have to get a biological upgrade for my scanner in the future for situations like this. I decided to dodge around the creature instead of engaging it directly. I continued running down the passageway. Then the bugs rounded the corner into it, and then there was a LOT of noise. You couldn’t exactly call it screaming, shrieking, or yelling, but if you put all three of those sounds in a blender with some ball bearings, you would be getting close.

I was running out of breath when the first bug hit me. It was thrown by the giant, so when I say “hit me” I was talking a fastball pitch down the passageway, and I couldn’t even consider dodging it. The force not only knocked me off my feet and drove the air from me, but all the armor plates that were left on my back were shattered. When I rebounded off the floor, most of the armor plates that were left shattered as well. I then noticed I had several quills that had punch through my ship suit. My status was flashing red again. This time, I still had some armor.

Name:

Jax

Danni

Build:

Engineer

Warrant Officer

Status:

Suit Integrity Compromised

3% Effective

Air:

152:17:44

External Toxic, Filters Effective

Gravity

1.3 G

Stable

Accessories:

M1k33 Drones (1 Sensor Relay 2 General purpose)

Engineering Kit MK-I

Weapons:

Taishi Ci Battle Rifle

45/45 (3 spare magazines)

Thompson .50 Combat Pistol

7/7 (3 spare clips)

Mono-blade

N/A

My status was DEEP in the red. My armor was almost completely destroyed, I was punctured a few times, and my Monkeys were dying. I forced myself to roll over, knocking the quills that were through me against the deck. I was too amped up on the pain and adrenaline to do more than scream, which I was already doing. I then emptied my magazine into the bug, reloaded with the first mag I grabbed and went full auto down range.

The carnage I unleashed would be considered holy damnation by a street preacher. Each of the rounds that impacted tore a hole through whatever they hit. The giant was getting ready to wing another of the bugs toward me and a round punched into its leftmost leg, completely severing it and knocking the throw off, the bug impacting the bulkhead next to it in a splash of ichor. Another round then ripped across its center leg completely bringing the Goliath down. The six-legged freaks became a paste when a shot hit them in the body. When a bullet clipped a limb it continued through, usually hitting one or two of the other legs on the same side, some even continued through to catch another of the bugs. That was probably the depleted uranium rounds that Janssens had given me.

The gel inlay in my suit was keeping the pressure on my wounds, so I wasn’t going to bleed out, but I would need to patch up before any vacuum. I reloaded my rifle with another magazine, then filled my two spent magazines with the depleted uranium rounds that Janssens had given me. I could only fully refill one of them, the other I loaded with the last five rounds. I then grabbed the mono-blade and cut through the quills as close as I could to my ship suit so that I could lean against things, and to limit how much I had to worry about turning in close quarters. The gunfire was going to bring a lot of attention and soon. I started to head towards the green dots. There were now only two of them, but the red dots outside the hatch were gone.

A few minutes later, I was standing outside the hatch; the quills were still holding it slightly open. To announce myself I knocked out “a shave and a haircut,” then sent another comms pulse. The hatchway opened, the captain was there, missing an arm which was pinned to the bulkhead opposite the hatch, and there were three dead Marines, two pinned to the bulkhead with a few quills, the third looked like a mercy killing as there was a lot of gore that a pistol wound wouldn’t have caused. His suit cut open with his entrails pooled around his feet.

“Captain?” I addressed the officer. “I’m Warrant Jax; the coast is clear to the squad that Sgt. Janssens had been able to put together from the survivors. I came to verify your status and provide an escort if requested. I’d suggest we gather gear from the fallen to ensure safe passage.”

Contact - Original

I relieved the Heavy watching the hatch, so he could recharge his air tanks. Janssens hadn’t heard from the Captain and the mini-maps hadn’t updated in some time. There really weren’t enough of us to mount a rescue op. After everyone had cycled through and recharged their air (something that was only 80% as effective as I’d hoped), I approached Janssens again.

“So, what’s the word on the Captain? There’s not really enough of us to hike through an unknown ship design and figure out where we need to go.”

Janssens looked over to me.

“Well, Mother seems to think that with the data you sent over, they will be able to blast any more turrets off the ship before they can fire at us, so its just a matter of time until he respawns and is sent over.” He wasn’t concerned at all.

“Yeah, but think of it this way,” I started, “If he dies, he’ll blame his NCOs who left him to die for the loss of EXP.” I gave Janssens a pointed look. “The penalty for death is full loss of EXP for the ENTIRE day.”

Janssens floated there, tethered to the dropship with the turret attached, running a few scenarios through his mind.

“Well, Jax. Thanks for volunteering.” He said. I could hear the smile in his voice.

“Shit, you really going to put this on me?” I had to admit, I sort of expected it, but I was still shocked at his decision.

“You can hack systems, you have nonstandard armor, and something tells me that you have some more tricks you haven’t brought out yet.” He knew me well enough, but I lost my other toys on the trip over. No heavy weapons platform meant less boom-boom.

“Well, then... I suppose I should be going. I’ll be borrowing some items, though.” I said, grabbing the side arm from one of the dead pilots. I had forgotten to ask Yama that happened to gear when you died. I then grabbed the spare clips from two of the others.

Thompson .50 Combat Pistol

Type

Kinetic

Rounds

0/7

Sight

None

Fire Mode Options

Single

Weight

1.25 kg

Modifications

Zero-G Rifling

Range

20 m

Maximum

150 m

The main thing I hated about these pistols was that they used a feed system instead of a fully contained magazine. I had a few other gripes, but they were my only option for a backup weapon, so it was going to be it. I swapped the magazines in my Battle Rifle.

“By the way, you wouldn’t happen to have some extra rounds, would you? Some dick NCO is sending me to get my tits blown off and I want to come back in one piece as a ‘fuck you’ to him.” I said, holding my hand out. Janssens laughed and handed me a spare extended magazine and a small box of 50 rounds. Checking to verify their type, I noticed the “DU” on the box. Fun, they were depleted uranium. These would be good as tank buster rounds. That beat to hell my standard ammo. Checking the magazine that he had just handed to me, I noticed it was already loaded with DU rounds.

I walked/floated to the beast of a hatch and was glad that there was no gravity as I would have had to jump to reach the manual release. It took me a moment to re-orient myself and to gather enough leverage to operate the control. Fun fact, the manual controls on Escort worked opposite to our own. Unexpected, the moment I had the locking mechanism on the hatch released, the door flung open, with me still on it, and flooded the compartment with atmosphere. I was very happy that my Monkeys had patched the hull.

So as not to get crushed as the door flung itself inward, I rolled towards the hinges. There was a loud “gong” sound as the hatch hit the bulkhead. I was crushed, but not to death, just to extreme pain and having the wind knocked out of me. Once I was able to breathe again, I scanned the atmo.

Nitrogen (54%), oxygen (17%), argon (11%), ammonia (9%), and then trace amounts of carbon dioxide, neon, helium, methane, krypton, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, xenon, ozone, iodine, and carbon monoxide. Not too different from Earth, but different enough to be toxic thanks to the argon and ammonia. Our air filters would be able to filter it. The humidity in the air was also very high at 80%. Ambient temperatures started to increase as well. It was already 322K and raising now that there was airflow again. I forwarded Janssens my sensor readouts so that he would know that the Marines should stay sealed up.

Pulling myself up the bulkhead, I was able to get over top of the hatch and push myself through. That’s when gravity decided to reassert itself. I fell hard. I had the wind knocked out of me for the second time in as many minutes. Gasping, I sat up, feeling heavy. Looking into the compartment I had just fallen out of I saw that they were all still floating. I pulled up my status.

Name:

Jax

Danni

Build:

Engineer

Warrant Officer

Status:

Full Suit Integrity

Armor 95% Effective

Air:

152:17:44

External Toxic, Filters Effective

Gravity

1.3 G

Stable

Accessories:

M1k33 Drones (4 Comm, 3 Sensor Relay 3 General purpose)

Engineering Kit MK-I

Weapons:

Taishi Ci Battle Rifle

45/45 (3 spare magazines)

Thompson .50 Combat Pistol

7/7 (3 spare clips)

Mono-blade

N/A

I stood and brushed myself off. I sent Janssens a report on the gravity. IT HURT! Everything was moving slower. My movements were jerking as my muscles caught up to what I wanted them to do. A quick start then slowly moving that ended abruptly. This was going to be hell to get used to. I started humming to myself, so I could keep my mind off how shit it was to walk through the passageways like this.

I stopped at every intersection to verify communications back to Janssens, while also trying to reach the Captain or any other Marines that were onboard. There were a few compartments that had been seen by Marines and the data forwarded to the larger whole, but I couldn’t get any of their hatches to open from this side. At my 8th intersection I came across a ladder well and set up one of the relay Monkeys to forward data. I could tell that this was a ladder well as there was an outline for hand holds every meter. According to the mini map, the Captain last reported data from three decks above and on the opposite side of the ship. The hand holds were non-existent, however.

There was a data panel next to the chute. Or what I took to be a data panel. There was a scanner port, or at least what looked like one. Alien tech. I used the mono-blade to pry the cover off. This thing was useful, I was going to have to make me one. Then a snag. No cables for me to try and hotwire. There were crystals instead of cabling. I broke some out and stuck it in my Engineering kit. I sent another Monkey up the ladder well after attaching a tether line to it. It took me some time to climb up thanks to the added gravity. I was already thinking of adding a grapple launcher into an arm in case I had to do this again.

When I finally climbed free from the ladder well, I started getting sensor data from a Marine with a scanner, though there was still no comms. My mini-map had several dozen red blips and three green blips barricaded inside a room 700 meters from my position. I started to jog. My body was starting to get used to the new gravity. It was still far from comfortable, but my moving was a lot smoother. I sent my last relay drone to the intersection and had it start running a full spectrum scan. Reading through the data I was receiving I started to add some filters then noticed a communication jamming field around the area that the three green dots were in. I was also now able to get visuals on the red dots.

Standing at 3 meters tall I was unsure if they were armored suits or chitinous exoskeletons, but the rest was clear. Six legs and quills that covered their entire bodies. The quills would extend whenever the creature breathed. There were several spines stuck in the hatch to the chamber the green dots were in, which was the most likely reason I was getting that data at all. I verified that the Thompson was loaded with a round chambered, then placed it in the holster. Then I verified my battle rifle was primed and ready as well. I had my sensor drone push data to the three green dots behind the hatch, relaying my position, then had the Monkey pull back.

The data pulse with the updated information was enough to get the attention of the aliens, and a barrage of spines immediately shot down the passageway towards my Monkey, and more importantly, towards me. It’s amazing how much quicker you hit the deck with an additional 30% gravity.

I sent a command to some of my construction Monkeys to pull me back and I shot a burst toward the mob before disappearing around the corner. One of the quills had hit my armor and cracked one of the plates, but it didn’t pierce. I activated my scope as I pointed my battle rifle around the corner. Look at that, they bled. There weren’t any down, but there was one that was leaking a bright green fluid from a leg. I should have kept some of those grenades I made.

I sent my Monkeys down the passageway, the direction I had originally arrived from, and had them start cutting the ceiling plating away, ready to drop it if necessary, then I headed that way, battle rifle pointing behind me, so I could have a visual on the area behind me.

By the time I arrived at the next intersection, the creatures were sprinting down the hallway behind me, and I sent the order to drop the ceiling to the deck. The first ceiling plate fell. Then the second and third. My Monkeys then scampered back my direction, trying to catch up. Two of these creatures were flattened, though only one seemed to have been killed, the other was disabled, two of its legs crushed. The third plate missed entirely as the creature had stopped to send some quills my direction. I was hit by three of them and again, no penetration, but that didn’t stop the kinetic force. Two of the armor plates on my back shattered completely. Only the pieces immediately connected to the connectors stayed attached. I stood and started running again, having taken the corner. My feet hammering away at the deck as I was trying to get some distance.

At the next intersection I turned again, this time I crashed immediately into a different alien creature. This one was humanoid-ish. With blue-grey skin, it stood with its head almost touching the ceiling. It had three legs instead of two, and they appeared to be digitigrade. Two arms that extruded from the center of its torso and dragged all the way to the floor, and a tail with a stinger. The head had five eyes that provided a full 360 degrees of vision and there were gills on what I took to be the neck. It was wrapped in a cloth robe with a small package pinned between its arm and body. The robe didn’t look like it would provide much armor.

I rebounded from the figure. It was solid and fortunately it moved slowly compared to the bug-like creatures from earlier. The bugs were still chasing me, but I stood in shock for a moment. My scanners showed that it was ambient temperature, which put it at 340K. But that is all it showed. I was going to have to get a biological upgrade for my scanner in the future for situations like this. I decided to dodge around the creature instead of engaging it directly. I continued running down the passageway. Then the bugs rounded the corner into it, and then there was a LOT of noise. You couldn’t exactly call it screaming, shrieking, or yelling, but if you put all three of those sounds in a blender with some ball bearings you would be getting close.

I was running out of breath when the first bug hit me. It was thrown by the giant, so when I say “hit me” I was talking a fastball pitch down the passageway and I couldn’t even consider dodging it. The force not only knocked me off my feet and drove the air from me, but all the armor plates that were left on my back were shattered. When I rebounded off the floor, most of the armor plates that were left shattered as well. I then noticed I had several quills that had punch through my ship suit. My status was flashing red again. This time, I still had some armor.

Name:

Jax

Danni

Build:

Engineer

Warrant Officer

Status:

Suit Integrity Compromised

3% Effective

Air:

152:17:44

External Toxic, Filters Effective

Gravity

1.3 G

Stable

Accessories:

M1k33 Drones (1 Sensor Relay 2 General purpose)

Engineering Kit MK-I

Weapons:

Taishi Ci Battle Rifle

45/45 (3 spare magazines)

Thompson .50 Combat Pistol

7/7 (3 spare clips)

Mono-blade

N/A

My status was DEEP in the red. My armor was almost completely destroyed, I was punctured a few times, and my Monkeys were dying. I forced myself to roll over, knocking the quills that were through me against the deck. I was too amped up on the pain and adrenaline to do more than scream, which I was already doing. I then emptied my magazine into the bug, reloaded with the first mag I grabbed, and went full auto down range.

The carnage I unleashed would be considered holy damnation by a street preacher. Each of the rounds that impacted tore a hole through whatever they hit. The giant was getting ready to wing another of the bugs toward me and was hit in its left most leg, completely severing it and knocking the throw off, the bug impacting the bulkhead next to it in a splash of ichor. Another round then ripped across its center leg completely bringing the goliath down. The six-legged freaks became a paste when a round hit them in the body. When a round clipped a limb it continued through, usually hitting one or two of the other legs on the same side, some even continued through to hit another of the bugs. That was probably the depleted uranium rounds that Janssens had given me.

The gel inlay in my suit was keeping pressure on my wounds so I wasn’t going to bleed out, but I would need to patch up before any vacuum. I reloaded my rifle with another magazine, then filled my two spent magazines with the depleted uranium rounds that Janssens had given me. I could only fully refill one of them, the other I loaded with the last five rounds. I then grabbed the mono-blade and cut through the quills as close as I could to my ship suit so that I could lean against things, and to limit how much I had to worry about turning in close quarters. The gunfire was going to bring a lot of attention and soon. I started to head towards the green dots. There were now only two of them, but the red dots outside the hatch were gone.

A few minutes later, I was standing outside the hatch, the quills were still holding the it slightly open. To announce myself I knocked out “a shave and a haircut”, then sent another comms pulse. The hatchway opened, the captain was there, missing an arm which was pinned to the bulkhead opposite the hatch, and there were three dead Marines, two pinned to the bulkhead with a few quills, the third looked like a mercy killing as there was a lot of gore that a pistol wound wouldn’t have caused. His suit cut open with his entrails pooled around his feet.

“Captain?” I addressed the officer. “I’m warrant Jax, the coast is clear to the squad that Sgt. Janssens had been able to put together from the survivors. I came to verify your status and provide escort if requested. I’d suggest we gather gear from the fallen to ensure safe passage.”