Pat supposed it was fitting. He was the platoon's comms specialist - or was that now the company's? He wasn't sure but he'd seen a few survivors from at least one other platoon fighting alongside their own. So for him to be running the communications himself, in the absence of working technology, made perfect sense to him.<br/><br/>The Platoon's line was holding it seemed, but as he dodged around a corner, his mind was in overdrive. Too smart for his own good, his boot-camp sergeant had told him. So. The ship was under attack. Whether they were close to their debarkation point or not, he didn't know, but there was clearly a space battle going on and it was not going the Fleet's way.<br/><br/>The troop carriers were, with the possible exception of the fleet carriers that brought the atmosphere capable ground attack and air superiority craft through hyperspace, the most valuable assets in the fleet. So why were they not being protected? Why were fighters not deployed and blowing the bastard bioships off their hull? Why were the bioships getting through the screen in the first place?<br/><br/>His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of heavy weapon, and small-arms fire from in front. He skidded to a halt just in time to witness the trooper with the grenade drop it and be thrown onto it.<br/><br/>He and his escort joined in the brief firefight that pushed the orcs back again, and then he looked around, "Who's in charge? Well fook me. 'Tis Romeo 'imself. Congratulations." The irony in his voice was obvious. He quickly explained the workings of the induction handset. Then when Church asked if he'd heard the dead guy screaming, he shook his head. "I didn't see shit, I didn't hear shit. You wanna tell the Sarge or the LT about it, you do it. I doubt they'll want to know."<br/><br/>The comm unit delivered he waited for his escort to finish chasing the bad guys, while Church called in a sitrep, his eyes going wide when the point man requested his presence. "Okay, you bastard". He grinned at the self-appointed section leader. "Let's do this. Hell I didn't wanna live forever anyway!"<br/><br/><hr/><br/>B-Deck was a nightmare. Automatic weapons fire echoed from somewhere aft of where Paige and her section had penetrated, witness to the fact that someone at least was alive back there, but it was clear they had launched an assault right into the middle of an Orc rear-echelon area. If she'd had the time she would have had a field day destroying stacks of arrows and axes, shooting the orcs that were smaller and smarter than the huge warriors and generally wreaking havoc. But she had a mission. "Targets of opportunity only!" She instructed the troopers under her command. "Stay focussed." None the less they did manage to take out what was clearly a command post, retake some captured weapons and, most amazing of all, free some prisoners, three fleet ratings and an officer, looking the worse for wear but still able to walk, who gladly put themselves under her command.<br/><br/>She kept the ensign with her and left the ratings for Stern to assimilate into her squad. Ensign Mannie Porter was probably nineteen, and must have been really pretty before the orcs got hold of her. No one would describe her as pretty now, nor ever again. Paige was tempted to put a bullet in her but she insisted she was okay and actually proved useful, telling her of a magazine that she would have gone straight past. They raided it and replenished their ammo, grabbed more heavy weapons, the squad now had three SAWs and a Self Targetting Weapon (STeW) launcher, complete with a dozen smart bombs for it.<br/><br/>They made it to the access ramp to A-Deck with the loss of only one man, a lucky shot from an orc archer getting him in the eye before they spotted the creature. Word of their presence behind the Orc's lines was getting around though and as they reached the ramp, Automatic fire erupted behind them.<br/><br/>Stern's squad suddenly found themselves under attack from three sides.<br/><br/>Paige shrugged. Not her concern. Stern was her best friend and the best fuck this side of the Horse-head Nebula, but Kerry had a job to do. Stern's was to keep the bad guys off her back long enough to do it.<br/><br/>They hit the ramp at a run, mowing down the squad of orcs that was heading up it. Sporadic automatic fire could be heard from up above, but it was in no way coordinated. "SHIT!" Paige swore as she skidded to a stop at the top of the ramp. A deck was a mess. Most of the internal bulkheads were gone. A section seal forward had been burned through. Aft she could see a huge concentration of the enemy and that was where the fire was coming from. Not her concern. right in front of her was a sight she'd hoped never to see again. A bioships queen - much smaller than the adult bioships but still four times the size of a orc - was laying eggs on the mummified but still living bodies of some of the bridge crew.<br/><br/>The eggs would hatch and the infant bioships would  consume the humans, keeping them alive the whole time, absorbing them until just a spark of awareness remained. That spark of awareness was what the adult bioships used for their intelligence. She couldn't stand by and let that happen. She grabbed the STeW from the trooper carrying it, loaded it, aimed it at the queen and blew the crap out of her. She dropped the weapon and swung up her Kalashnikov. On single shot she put a bullet in the head of each of the mummified humans.<br/><br/>The explosion and shots attracted attention of the orcs guarding the bridge and her men took them out. The firefight here was brief too. The orcs were simply not expecting her team to be there and she quickly pulled her entire forcethrough the breached section seal and onto the bridge.<br/><br/>"FUCK!" They were too late, that much was clear. Not by much, but they were too late. Taking the Orc troops in the rear was almost as satisfying as arse-fucking a guy who wanted to arse-fuck her. She wasn't careful about where the stray bullets went. She doubted whether any of those consoles would be flying the ship any further.<br/><br/>Five minutes of ugly, close quarters fighting later, during which she lost three more men and the Fleet Ensign and took a nasty cut to her left thigh, the bridge was theirs.<br/><br/>It was then that she looked out of the window. "Fucking BASTARDS!"<br/><br/>She watched in horror, as a fleet carrier twice the size of this troop carrier, with almost seven thousand souls on board including the fighter and bomber pilots, self destructed before her eyes. the glimpse she had of it before if disappeared in a blinding flash showed her it was encrusted with bioships. Three cruisers drifted nearby - the fleet carrier's escort, equally encrusted. One was caught in the blast and went up too, it's shields down. Kerry turned away, blinking. A cloud of glowing debris caught her eye. Another capital ship already destroyed.<br/><br/>Where the fuck was the rest of the fleet? She watched two more cruisers and three destroyers fighting for their lives against a swarm of Bioships, some of which were detaching from the two clearly dead cruisers - and some of which were heading this way! She looked ahead. There.... A warp field flash caught her eye. She spotted three troop carriers, one clearly in trouble, the other two powering away. Another fleet carrier and the bulk of the escort group were heading for jump.<br/><br/>A single flotilla of destroyers was hanging back, the three ships doing their best to pick up the escape pods and assault ships that were popping off the one beleaguered  troop carrier.<br/><br/>Stern's squad arrived, and the combined section set up defences against the sudden surge of Orcs that rolled towards them. Some of her men checked for survivors.<br/><br/>"Sergeant..." The voice was one Paige recognised, but it was no longer the voice of one in command.<br/><br/>She looked down. Unconsciously she had sat in the Captain's chair. The Captain was curled on the floor and she had thought him dead. "SIR!" She shot to her feet, wincing at the pain.<br/><br/>"Sit..." The Captain croaked. "Your ... ship. Earned it. Captain!" The man had clearly not lost his sense of humour. Paige sat again and he smiled, then coughed, and spat blood. "You ... must destroy ship. Get as ... many off... as you... can! But destroy ship." He coughed and collapsed.<br/><br/>"Sir? How?" Paige had no idea how to destroy a ship this big.<br/><br/>The Captain coughed blood again and waved weakly at the console in front of her. "Keys.... Mine, first officer's. Two keyholes. Turn ... symu...together." A fit of coughing, that he managed to stop. "Keypad ... time delay ... turn"" keys back, snap off... can't be undone if ... break keys off!"<br/><br/>A final coughing fit and Paige nodded grimly. "Aye aye sir!" She hunted for the key on the Captain's corpse, finding it about his neck. "You, Corporal, find the first officer, My guess is he's one of those over there. Get his key."<br/><br/>Another voice, again one she recognised. "Sir?"<br/><br/>Paige looked up. "Gullins?" The com tech was covered in blood, but she was alive and apparently uninjured. She would never be pretty, either, but unlike the ensign, she hadn't started out that way. "Don't call me Sir, Gullins", she tapped her stripes. "I work for a living". Oll, old, NCO joke.<br/><br/>"No, Sir, You're the Captain. So I call you Sir, Sir!" She shook her head and then said, softly, "Lieutenant Commander Weir - the first officer - was dragged out there a few minutes before you arrived."<br/><br/>"Oh fuck!" That meant his body was in one of the cocoons. Along with his key. "We're gonna have to go get it back, that's all...!"