Session 4 Prologue: Escaping the Chaos

The radio crackled in Forrester's ear as hyper-velocity rounds snapped by overhead; "I've got them. Break contact and we'll rendezvous near the central lift."

"Acknowledged, they're pressing hard, but we should be able to disengage!"

Most major corporations spare no expense ensuring
that their troops have the best training and equipment

Forrester popped out from behind the bench and took stock of the situation. Less then twenty meters down the tunnel, a half dozen armored corporate troops lay in cover. They acted in concert, popping up, firing off controlled bursts and ducking back into cover before they could be hit.

"Hetzer," he called, "We have to get out of here; I'm going to lay down smoke, I need you to to cover us!"

"We're leavin'? But there oll still alive!"

"Just do it! the rest of us are going to fall back. I'll put a flash/bang down on a timer, when it goes you need to run for it."

Crouching down behind the bench, Forrester dug through his suit and pulled out a double handful of grenades. He sorted through the, looking for one with a yellow stripe and four with white ones.

"Here it goes," he shouted as he leaned out and flung the grenades as hard as he could.

The grenades blew and instantly clouded the end of the corridor with smoke. The Bio-Pharm troops were seasoned veterans, they knew what was happening and they immediately opened fire to try to keep the party pinned down.

 Most of the party jumped up out of cover and sprinted back, but Hetzer stood up fully and roared as he unloaded an entire magazine from his PDW.



The Orion Cluster Military makes it a point of pride that
all service personnel, even those in non-combat roles,
are given basic infantry training.

Tobey also remained down, he drew a bead. Despite the resounding crash of gunfire, he exhaled gently and pulled back the trigger as calmly as if he was ordering lunch. The massive round punched a neat hole in the exact center of the target's breastplate. The man was thrown back and flipped over a safety barrier.

After what seemed an eternity, the stun grenade went off, Hetzer and Tobey picked up and ran back. The corporate troops shook off the effects of the flashbang and charged after them.

The party fell back from the observation ring, slowly and with great difficulty. The Bio-Pharm troops must have been aware that their comrades had been ambushed and their prize taken. They had to follow the party back to their destination and hope they got a chance to recover it.

As the party moved back towards the lift, Col. Strong met up with them leading the two terrified children. This part of the station was different than most they had seen. It was older and less finished, likely part of the original construction connecting the main docking bay with the first habitation areas.

With Col. Strong's firepower added to the group, they were able to make better progress, even having to look out for the two children, it almost appeared that they would get away easily when another problem presented itself.

At the last junction leading into the lift area, the party took up positions to delay the corporate troops when suddenly they came under fire from the other corridor. They retreated further into the alcove and looked down to see if they had been flanked. From the lift area, they could see the corporate troops advancing by leaps and bounds in swift, disciplined bursts while providing a steady suppressive fire. From the other corridor they saw a horde of Svesh gangsters roaring down the tunnel firing wildly at them and screaming in battlelust.

"Well...that complicates things." Said Tobey drily.

"Colonel, those cheatin' bastards locked down the lifts. We're not goin' anywhere 'till I can unscramble the security."

Colonel Strong reached into his rainy-day pouch and withdrew a saucer-sized flat object.

"Every down and in cover." He bellowed as he hit a series of keys on the device and tossed it out into the corridor junction.

The heavy anti-personnel mine landed directly in front of a trio of Svesh. They were used to intimidating shopkeepers and had no experience with modern infantry weapons beyond their natural affinity for firearms. They never recognized the strange object for what it was. Inside the mine, a small fusion charge detonated and converted a 3.2kg block of stressed silicate into 10,000 jagged shards travelling at 800mps.

The explosion turned the three into a fine pink vapor and overturned anything within twenty meters that hadn't been bolted down. For a moment there was a shocking quiet, the only sound was Hetzer at the lift panel cursing to himself rythmically. Cyrus was the first to stir from his hiding spot, he peared around the corner and, seeing nothing, made to run across to join the rest of the party.

Unfortunately, a corporate sharpshooter had been waiting and fired a single round. Cyrus went down an instant before getting to safety. Col. Strong instinctively reached out and pulled him into cover.

"Doc'! Get over here."

Col. Strong was not a trained medic, but he'd seen enough wounds in his time to recognize that as fatal. He held the young man's hand and comforted him gently, as he had for far too many other young men in his life. 

Doc' Merrill reached them and immediately set about trying to stop the bleeding, his calm competency a comfort to both of them. Cyrus lay back and looked the Colonel directly in the eyes.

"The Baculum...you have to find it." he whispered through gritted teeth. Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew a datastick and held it out to Strong.

"I think...its more important than...even I realize.

Col. Strong reached out and took the datastick, he said nothing as he watched the light fade from his eyes. Soon enough Doc' Merrill sat back wearily, "I'm sorry Colonel, I couldn't save him."

"Corrin' door's open!"

"Let's go Merrill, we still have a long way to go." said Col. Strong, as he carefully stowed the datastick.