SENJO<br/><br/>The sound of gunfire was mixed with inhuman screeching and hissing sounds. Sounds new to me. Mixed in were chitinous clatterings that were filed into my memory as akin to...<em>claws?</em>I rapidly ran the other sound wave patterns through my database but such a search would take time. At this time, more urgent demands took priority.<br/><br/>Sergeant O'Shay's voice came over the comms line.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">"Fall back to the rally point! Alpha, we've got incoming hostiles numbers unknown! Don't let the sentries blast us too!"</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>B Gun was poorly sited, and it's safety was on. Those two conditions were in fact helpful; it could be moved. If it was shifted towards the barricade just two or three metres, it could sanitize the full length of the walkway leading to the School. The decision took a fraction of a second to make.<br/><br/><strong>"Leftenant. I am moving B Gun along the Hab unit row three metres. From there it will bear down the School corridor."</strong>Not waiting for a response, I put my pulse rifle on the gun control desk and stepped the few paces to B Gun. Squatting next to it, bracing my feet securely and using my forearms under it's bulky body like the tines of a power loader I straightened my legs, lifting with my thigh and calf muscles, not my spinal muscles. Upright I walked the gun three metres along the row and squatting again planted it down, aligning it's barrel down the corridor. Forty metres down I could see Bravo falling back, muzzles flashes from their weapons filling the walkway. I could see nothing beyond them, only smoke and darkness.<br/><br/>Working quickly and efficiently, but not rushing, not making mistakes I checked the gun was securely planted and mounted and that it's body had a clear swing and was not fouled by the Hab unit wall behind it. I checked power leads and ammunition and interrogated the status lamps before running back to my desk and collecting my rifle. I put the gun's control console on my knee, my finger poised over the safety disengage button. Bravo needed to get out of that walkway and fast. I checked over my shoulder to A Gun. It was silent, the barrel holding steady aimed at the door to the furthest end if the Hab block. It would be better to turn it around and have both Alpha and Bravo the far side of it, then two guns would meet the attack, however there wasn't time. One gun would have to do.