Oscar : "JJ, cover me. I'm getting vision"
Jason : "Got it"
Oscar : "Gabe, try to convince the station security to retreat, they are just going to get hurt. Get in contact with the Syndicate commander too, you represent us today."
Charles : "You two are chasing? Stick together, it's gonna eat you alive if you are alone."
Oscar : "We know CC, mission stands."
Charles didn't know what the mission was anymore, it appeared the mission had changed to aiding the syndicate in finding and fixing that monster. Which was not the same as evacuating civilians.
Jason : "Woah, mess hall, it's on the hallway. Outside Outside!"
Jason was opening the broadcast to everyone, uniquely this message was not private to the knights as the others were.
Gabriel was silent, presumably on other channels, he was generally a diplomatic kid.
Oscar : "Moving"
The knights could all hear station security and syndicate comms, they politely avoided blasting transmission back at them. normal encryption had been dropped due to the unprecedented circumstances, the marine commander might be catching a lot of flack for not using the encrypted channels if they all lived.
It was wise, coordination needed to happen, which was probably why Oscar was deferring to that marine captain. There was little chance station security was properly trained for this.
Only seconds after Jason's callout, nothing but pain on station security channel. Chaos, discharged weapons, depressurization, death.
Jason : "OH NO! Joining you Scar! Thing is quick, that it got some of those boys."
Gabe : "Marines are inbound, it looks like I got about 2 security with me, we are just going to hunker down and wait for an ambush. The others are lost. Owningsburg doesn't want us getting in the way, that is, he want's us keeping the civies safe."
Oscar : "They are only safe when that thing is dead. GG get outside, we need eyes. CC stay with the listener."
Charles : "Copy"
Oscar : "Nuts! JJ, just spray when I shoot, It moves faster than I can aim. We need to tag it to kill it."
Listening to chatter was painful, Charles tried not to intervene, violence was violence human emotion was not capable of processing it, it was best to think of it as a safety crisis. Charles was insurance for the civilians, to worry about the misadventures of syndicate assets was depressing, necessary and something to meditate later.
Strictly speaking, Charles was supposed to listen. He could tune out of Syndicate or security channels, but if he lived, it would be a black mark. A sign of weakness among his fellows. If he died, well he would only disappoint himself for he had hid from the truth.
Things were not going well for syndicate security. The monster had drawn them out and begun to pick them apart in the hallways of the station. It made sense, the human weapon, the gun, was not made for tunnels. Guns were made for mountains and fields and land under the sun. No doubt that beast was abusing human reliance on vision. Line of sight was really bad in hallways.
Charles surveyed the civilians, civilians who could hear the creaks and groans of the station as combat began.
Charles focused on the communications between his fellow knights.
Jason : "If we hop over we can cover the other side of that hallway"
Oscar : "No, we assume it want's the shuttle."
The two outside tried to ignore the shuttle gunship that blasted nearby outside the station,
Jason : "Hell yea, I bet that thing could kill it."
Oscar : "Focus… focus…"
Silence…
Jason : "We tagged it"
Oscar: "Follow!"
Jason : "I think it bounced one of your rounds Scar."
Sitting inside was hellish, the listener's data-pad had just gone dark on hallway #4, a massive impact was detected near storage.
Charles : "Get vantage of storage."
The listener was reporting the same info to syndicate communications. They got bigger returns from marines and the knights trundling around the station than it did from the monster. The monster's actions showed up as catastrophic decaying blooms. It indicated that the machine was impressively smooth mechanically. Smoother than most humans. Tuning the listening software to be sensitive enough to detect humans normally created so much noise the readings became meaningless.
Oscar : "Confirmed, it's disappearing down a ripped open airlock. Looks like maintenance, You know the door to watch CC."
Charles puzzled, it sounded like the monster didn't really care about doors. Oscar's language was inaccurate. Charles pointed his gun at that wall. He hated motions like this, he worried the action was symbolic, what action wasn't?
Gabriel was making the callout to the syndicate marines.
Captain Owningsburg : "It fears the gunfire, Knights push down that hallway, keep that machine pinned."
Oscar : "You heard that man"
Gabriel and Oscar lined up to the hallway, the two security with Gabriel had grown to 5 security members, the station captain as well. That was all of them. They didn't want to be civilians, they wanted to kill the monster.
Luddites like to tell people no, Gabriel and Charles didn't tell these 5 volunteers no.
Oscar : "Tell the captain that we want volume of fire on this thing GG. We need more overwatch."
Gabriel: "My comrades think volume of fire is the best move sir! Can we get marines on overwatch?"
Owningsburg : "Copy, Affirmative"
Charles marched first down the hallway, followed at a distance of about 20 feet by the captain and one of his officers, then Gabriel 20 feet back. then the three younger security members. They had agreed to not worry about shooting the each other if they could bring the beast down. The hope was that the beast would attack one of the knights if it ambushed them, allowing the others to get bullets on target. The knights would be safe against small arms. Gabriel and Charles knew that their armor was only vulnerable under heavier caliber stuff.
Gabriels's weapon would kill Charles, Charles's wouldn't easily kill Gabe.
Charles pondered the head space of their quary. Was it panicked? It seemed like it, it had fled to a corner of the station.
No… it had played radiation, the area that security had died was not directly exposed to coolant but the radiation burns on that one soldier implied the monster had brought serious radiation along with it. It must be immune to radiation, or not caring, perhaps it was a true robot.
T – 15 minutes till shuttle arrival
Charles stopped 50 feet before the awkward little staircase before him. It was a perfect ambush spot. two marines had linked up with his group.
Marine 1: "Howdy, We are gonna push, the other half of the squad is outside covering." It was the local channel, proximity emissions only. The outside world was unlikely to hear this conversation.
Charles was normally happy to relinquish seniority and responsibility, but the circumstances were such that he didn't trust the judgment of others.
Charles : "If I was that thing I would kill us in a staircase just like that one, do you think we could breach the walls and enter the connected hallway like it did?"
Marine 1: "You two could cut a hole in the floor there and hop down." They were referring to the two knights, who both had wrist claws on their armor. A steel dewclaw that normally acted as a prybar. Most millitaries forwent the extra weight, saving the prybar sort of functionality for "jaws of life" like equipment or engineering teams. The knights picked the simple and heavy option.
Charles knew all this but what mattered is that these marines were consenting and wouldn't perceived his planned route as vandalism. Charles couldn't ever stop being a lawyer.
Of course there were stories of knights using them to violent effect.
Charles : "GG get over here, actually in fact, stand there, let me get this started, it's gonna be a minute." He pointed where he wanted Gabe to stand.
Power armor was strong but the prybar was intended to open things not cut them apart. Charles looked at the metal floor panel.
Charles : "It's gonna be loud, I might startle the beast. I'm gonna try to be quick." Then to his commanders on the broader net.
Charles: "Terrain delay, taking a low risk option" What did that even mean? Oscar was gonna laugh at him if they lived. Hopefully there was an afterlife. He approached the top of the staircase.
With practiced kicks he dented four corners of the floor panel, his armor bouncing slightly under the gentle gravity with each smash, he hoped to yield whatever fasteners the station floor was utilizing. The structure shuddered under his weight, the floor panel crumpled slightly. He tried to ignore how ridiculous it must look. A giant metal clown throwing a tantrum as 1 marine with a submarine gun and 5 local security flagged around him with their rifles, thankfully the other's head was on a swivel.
Charles : "Ready?"
Gabe : "Got it"
The two knights bent simultaneously and with surprising ease they popped the floor panel away, a second one was just beneath the first. The ceiling of the floor below.
Charles : "Get it out of here, drop this for me in a second." He handed Gabe his rifle.
He didn't hesitate, he jumped, both hands pushed off the ceiling, and he hoped the little gravity the station did have could work overtime. His feet hit the panel, it buckled and then popped beneath his weight. Half of him worried of stumbling or falling directly on the machine. He had barely registered that he had descended the awkward stairs before a marine had barreled through the hole after him. They fired weapons down the hallway at storage.
The two marines had taken point, Charles was thankful, he had endured the humiliation of a breach, they accepted the risk. It was only right. Gabe dropped his weapon for him, station security boldly followed, disregarding the sharp and dangerous metal Charles had created and exposed. Charles looked at the staircase, no monster. Surely the marines themselves looked at the staircase.
Owningsburg : "What's taking so long down there, have you got eyes on the exit?"
Marine 1 : "Confirmed"
The two marines were not part of the mutual friendly fire pact, Charles pushed the intrusive thought away.
Owningsburg : "You breachers are going to saturate that room with fire without entering it, the station walls are not proofed against bullets. We are gonna flush them out with fire, if anything explodes or burns in there it's a bonus. Keep a quarter of your ammo. We have your hallway covered."
Marine 1: "Copy, On your mark sir!"
Gabe : "CC, cover the civilians." Gabe was Referring to station security,
There was a delay, about 30 seconds.
T- 13 minutes till shuttle arrival.