Out of Space 6 The Jump

Captain Blake look at the main tactical screen and listen in to the marine comms.

"Need backup! Royce is down!"

"Medic!"

He closed his eyes remembering his 1st fight with the Swarm on Himpra Prime. He and the other troops of the 6th PDF deployed on the outskirts of the city. He remembers the sky was a beautiful purplish pink with white clouds but the horizon is marred with plumes of black smoke. He watched using his binoculars, dark lines appear in the wheat fields, 3 km away, till there is too many to count, approaching their defensive location rapidly in a massive wave of black chitin. Artillery fired and balls of fire spurt out among the dark lines, yet the Swarm pushes on relentlessly. Soon the order to open fire came. and he with a thousand others fired their weapons in the mass.

'Captain?" XO Ford called out. "Are you alright sir?"

"Yes, just remembering some things." Capt Blake looks at the timer. 4 more mins before entering the Eycthn Jump Point. So far their mains are keeping the Swarm parasite cruisers at bay, but they learned and are staying mostly at the blind spot of main gun 1, effectively cutting down 1/3rd of their firepower. And with the emissions from their own engines, sensors are not very effective meaning their point defense is weaker and spore seeds are landing on his ship.

From his experience and research released to the military by Fleet Intelligence, the Swarm is attracted to sources of energy like the fission reactor and thrust engines. The scientists are unable to determine how they see as they don't have physical eyes. It was widely speculated that they sense and communicated using some telepathic ways.

"Let the Marines do what they need to stop the Swarm without killing us all" Captain Blake said.

The ship groans again as the pilot put the ship through another bout of evasive maneuvers. As the timer counter dropped to 2 minutes. Capt Blake gripped his armrest and orders, "Stand by wrap engines and pilot, bring us to 125% power to engines. Once we are in warp space, cut the engines immediately!"

The 7 massive Mitsubishi ST RX-78 Astrospace engines created a longer more massive plume of superheated plasma pushing the massive 35,000 tons of armored steel nearer towards the Ecythn Jump Point. The 4 remaining Swarm parasite cruisers, seemingly sensing that their prey appears to be escaping, also put on speed and "swam" closer to the United Nations of Man heavy cruiser.

"Staff! What do we do now? Section 4 just suffered over 80% casualties!" 2nd Lt Frank urgently asked SSGT Pike. "Put the survivors with Section 3?"

"Sir, I advise you to let the survivors recover a bit first, put them here to hold the bridge. Push Section 2 to help secure Engineering B, and move Section 1 to cover Engineering A." SSGT Pike said while tapping the map on his readout. "Breakout the rest of our M7A1s to the crew security details to help hold Engineering. Other than our M7s, nothing will is effective enough against the scums."

"Can't we load armor piercing rounds? Or loadout the heavy guns?" 2nd Lt Frank asked worriedly. "We are taking unnecessary loses."

"Unless you wanna blow half the ship to space. No sir." SSGT Pike sigh. "Let's move the section out. Better to bring more ammo along."

"Alright, Staff. We do it your way." 2nd Lt Frank said. He activated his comms and instructed Section 2 to advance towards Section 3's location and ordered the survivors of Section 4 to take over the guard post at the Bridge.

"Yes, Sir." SSGT Pike turned to the rest of the section manning the guard post outside the bridge hatch and yelled. "Alright pack it up! We are moving to Engineering A. Lambert and Gath, you 2 stay here and wait for relief from Section 4. After that head to the armory and bring 1 times 6.5 mm "C" type ammunition case to Engineering A. Do you apes understand?"

"Yes, Staff! 1 times 6.5 mm "C" type ammunition case! Aye!" Pvt Lambert and Pvt Gath chorused.

"Sgt Raman! Where are you?" SSGT Pike comms over the net.

"Y-yes, Staff?" Sgt Raman, I/C of Section 2 replied after a while.

"What are you doing? Get your section to Engineering B and I want you to unlock the armory and issue out the remaining M7s to security details and also wait for Pvt Lambert and Pvt Gath to draw ammunition. Then get your ass back to your section. You clear?" SSGT Pike spoke into his comms.

"Of course! My pleasure! Staff!" Sgt Raman replied, happy to know he can get out of harm's way. Ever since he has been posted onboard UNS Singapore as an armorer, as there was no senior NCO for Section 2, he was assigned to be the I/C and armorer. Most of the men don't like him, as he was not the ideal example of a fighting marine. With a slight pot belly and balding head, he struggles to squeeze into his suit, harness, and armor. He normally skips the drills and exercises the rest of the men went through, claiming he needs to inspect his armory, leaving the running of his Section to the 2 I/C, Cpl James. When the sirens went off, he was totally terrified. He hid in his armory, using as many excuses as he could to not deploy with the men till Staff Pike kicked his ass out of the armory.

While he may be a coward and was posted to UNS Singapore to keep out of trouble, his skills as an armorer are top notched. He is able to modify or even scratch build guns from scraps and gun parts.

Sgt Raman sucked in his tummy, turned and said in a self-important manner, "Cpl James, you're in charge now. Staff wants Section 2 to link up with Section 3 and I am supposed to head to the armory." He grinned happily. "New orders."

"Eh, roger that sarge." Cpl James raised an eyebrow as he watches Sgt Raman scuttle away like some huge cockroach. Sighing, he turned and spoke to the rest of the section watching Sgt Raman leaving. "Ok new orders, Staff wants us to link up with Section 3. Let's go!"

"Fat Ramen is a joke, man." Pvt Mills said in a low voice to Pvt Bartley. "He always tries to hide in some dark corner and away from all the fun! Ha!"

Pvt Bartley, standing at over 2m tall, replied in a soft slow way and said, "You shouldn't make fun of the sarge. He's a good man inside."

"Come on! He posted here due to him losing his marbles in the front lines. He's lucky they didn't shoot him for cowardice." Pvt Mills scorn. "Hey Corp! Why are we joining Section 3?"

Cpl James looks up from his readout and saw Pvt Mills together with Pvt Bartley walking next to him. Pvt Bartley looks like a huge lost bear without his usual heavy weapon and the M7A1 in his hands look like a toy. "Heard that Section 4 got it bad. That's why."

"Ah shit, that bad?" Pvt Mills gulped. He wondered if he made a right choice in joining the Marines instead of Fleet or any other branches. Am I gonna die here on this old metal tub? He thought.

"All hands prepare to enter warp space in 2 minutes! Prepare for warp space! I repeat entering warp space in T minus 2 minutes!" The shipwide PA system blared.

Chapter end