>>5551950>>5551767You aren’t sure what La’afette thinks he’s doing but you decide to trust the man. He never misses a shot and by extension never shoots what he doesn’t mean to. You take it on faith that there’s a reason for the gun in your face and his strange behaviour earlier.
Your helmet’s speakers filter only silence through from the smoky air around you, but your tactical officer seems to be listening to something you can’t hear. His head twitches as if tracking a darting mouse and the pistol barrel drifts ever so slowly to point over your shoulder.
You take the chance to re-enable your comm, hoping that perhaps your close proximity might allow you to cut through the interference and let you talk privately with your Tactical officer without the risk of being overheard. Instead, the static seems the loudest it's ever been - the meaningless crackling seeming to shift from ear to ear as you tilt your head.
Strangely though, with the increased volume, the static has taken on a different texture. The crackle seems less formless, with rhythmic variations in pitch giving it a chittering undertone - like a thousand crickets all chirping at once. For some reason your command implant twinges with pain, and you reel as alternating feelings of claustrophobia and then agoraphobia war with one another in your mind. The sound builds to a crescendo and you swear you can almost make out- <span class="mu-s">BANG!
Coen fires a single shot over your shoulder. The interference and sensations immediately cease and you hear a familiar cracking, crumbling noise behind you. Turning, you shield your visor as its splintered yet airtight surface fails to fully keep out the brilliant white flare of a Spiker immolating itself.
“Target down.” Coen intones softly, lowering his weapon and giving you a single nod.
>Rolled 3<span class="mu-r">S4 takes 3 unmitigated damage from welding fuel explosion. Armour destroyed. Health 1/3.
S4 takes 1 damage from pistol shot. S4 destroyed.</span>
You sigh, relieved that you at least made the right decision to wait for and trust in your backup. But if one Spiker survived your hastily made plan, what of the other intruders? More importantly, what about your other crew?!
You turn and stride as purposefully as you can on unsteady legs into the dense, black smoke, hoping to find the corpses of your enemies and still breathing allies.
After only a few steps you stumble, one foot catching on something soft yet dense.
Dropping to one knee you reach out and seize the obstacle, hoping against hope it's nothing sinister.
Your hand comes back with a fistful of bone white powder - the substance streaming through your gloved fingers like the final sands of an hourglass. Your eyes grow wide.
Standing as the smoke thins slightly, you survey a wide pool of ash - all that remains of the unaccounted for members of the boarding party. It’s over. You won. At least this battle anyway.
<span class="mu-r">S5 takes 1 impact damage and 1 burning damage from C2. S5 destroyed.</span></span>
