Canterra - Operation: Cold Comfort: Nemo's Lode Down among the dead men Pt III

Posted on 11 Sep 2019 @ 9:30am by Captain Edward Bolingbroke (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Commander Iria Taltos & Gunnery Sergeant Kyle Walken & Lieutenant Junior Grade Anyi Nila
Edited on on 11 Sep 2019 @ 9:38am

Mission: Hahai i na pilikua nui - Hunting Monsters
Location: The Xore Strike Mine Level 10

[ON]

[Level Ten – Cavern]

Bolingbroke was watching the tunnel entrance, the Gorn were well protected by the tunnel and surrounding rocks. Within the tunnel, at the other end, the Infantry were faced with the same situation, well dug in Gorn defenders and their assault had ground to a halt.

He was trying to think of a way to attack the tunnel without getting them all killed in the process. Meanwhile the flood water was knee deep and freezing cold. He was starting to lose feeling in his feet and the Marines around him shivered. Just then his commbadge went off. It was Doctor T’Lara.

=/\= “Where is my back up?!” =/\= She almost shouted.

=/\=Bolingbroke to T'Lara! =/\= The sounds of weapons fire and screaming came through with the Doctor’s transmission =/\= We can’t respond, we’re in a firefight! What’s the problem? =/\=

=/\= The Implanted Colonist are attacking the rest =/\= T'Lara explained, the Vulcan detachment not expressing the full horror of the situation

=/\=Dammit! It’s the Gorn, they did the same to us down here! Stun them, you have to stun them! They are still Humanoid!… =/\= The rest of the transmission cut off as he ducked away from a shot by the Gorn

Another voice came on. =/\= Doctor T'Lara this is Captain Bjornsdotter, Marine Infantry. =/\= The Doctor’s commbadge activated with a new voice =/\= We are coming to help. Hold on, it will be a few minutes, but we are coming! =/\=

The thought was terrifying, the Gorn had tuned ALL of the Implanted Colonists into killers? There were hundreds of them in the upper level, more even than Bjornsdotter’s Infantry could handle. There had to be another way to stop them…

Bolingbroke called Kadesh and the rest of Second Team. =/\= Kadesh take some of the Infantry and get the pumps turned back on. Send the rest of the Team to me =/\=

=/\= Already sent Mason and the Starfleet Officer after the pumps Sir. I’ll support them, the rest are on the way! =/\=

Next Bolingbroke called over to Walken, knowing he would have heard the Doctor’s transmission. “Sarnt Walken, these are the last unaccounted for Gorn in the mine. Whatever they are using to control the Implanted colonists it has to be in that tunnel! We need to find it and shut it down!”

"Well than Boss, I think we are gonna need a plan. I don't think it's good but it's the best we have. We still have a few flashbangs, cook 'em, toss 'em, then we fight our way down the tunnel. It's extremely risky but we don't have much for options." Kyle stated as he walked over to Bolingbroke.

Bolingbroke nodded it was a start, they still needed a way to prize the Gorn out of the tunnel but how?

“I guess we just wait until the whole place floods and they come swimming out” He muttered, then stopped in thought.

He shook his head, it was a crazy notion. But, there was little other choice…

He turned to Walken “How well do you swim?” and explained his idea “The water’s what, thirty inches deep now?” It was well up on their thighs and bitterly cold “Maybe three feet in the deeper bits and that tunnel is certainly a bit lower than this cavern. We keep them busy and three of the team swim in, get close and come up right in their face!”

He knew it was dangerous, the cold alone would probably induce hypothermia in a few minutes once somebody was full immersed; not to mention having to get close to the Gorn without being seen in relatively shallow water. But it was dark, the water was black and if the rest of the Team kept them busy, there was a chance the Gorn would not notice three underwater shadows drifting in…

He looked to Walken fully expecting a rejection.

Kyle looked down the tunnel and shook his head, under any other situation he would have refused this near-suicidal plan but they did not have the time, equipment, or people. "We don't have much of a choice, I would say at most we can only send three people down there."

"Alright, pick the other two" Bokingbroke nodded grimly, not happy but knowing they had little choice.


[Level Ten – Pump House]

The building housing the pumps was at the far end of the cavern, up on a mezzanine level, cut back into the bed rock about thirty feet above the cavern floor. It was a large squat ferro-crete structure sitting on top of the rock wall, on the right side of the cavern a metal walkway and steps led up the rock wall to it.

On the left side was a parking area, there was a row of large mining vehicles, machines and equipment there.

The area was in near darkness, only a few dim red emergency lights shone on the walkway and around the building up on the mezzanine level.

The flood water was much deeper here, it roiled and surged as it flowed upwards from the lowest part of the cavern. It was waist deep and icy cold as Mason and the others waded forward.

The roar of the water hid another sound, that of an engine starting up. The first the three women knew was when a row of blindingly bright headlights suddenly came on and illuminated them as they made for the walkway.

The lights lurched upwards and came towards them. There was a heavy clanking noise, a series of thuds and, despite the flow of the flood water, the floor shook under their feet. A large multi-legged mining machine moved off the pad.

It moved on six articulated legs, a further two were extended before it, on one a large serrated cutting wheel spun up to speed. On the other a plasma cutting torch ignited, jetting out a four foot bright blue-white flame.

Like a giant mechanical spider, the mining machine advanced upon them!

“Run!” Mason called “Get up the walkway!” She pushed forward through the water, raising her rifle and firing phaser bolts at the machine.

"Frakenstein's monster needs that for a play mate." Iria muttered as she ran half swam in the rising water, it was on their others hips it was around her lower ribs and getting higher...

"Seriously!?" Nila yelled out, it seemed no matter what they did the day was just getting worse and worse. She followed close behind Mason keeping as low as she could in this freezing water.

The giant mining machine clanked closer, the six legs propelling it forward. The cutting disc screamed as it spun up to high speed and began to slice backwards and forwards as the Gorn in the driving seat slashed at the three women making their way through the water to the walkway.

The blade struck one of the metal uprights and in a storm of sparks tore right through it. Still going it gouged a big chunk of rock out of the wall, sending jagged shrapnel flying in all directions.

Mason had reached the walkway and brought her rifle up to bear, she aimed and fired twice managing to take out a couple of the machines spotlights. Then she had to duck as the cutting disc screamed back towards her, slicing off another piece of the walkway.

"Yeah spinning wheel of death or blow torch blue fire, not my prefer parkour choices," Iria muttered as she managed to climb up on the walkway before the buzz saw blade cut some away. She rolled out of the way getting to her feet unsteadily, looking at the not distance doorway, to Mason, "Mason, do you need us to keep his focus so you can kill the driver or do we just make for the pump room and hope to hell there's not another one hiding in the room with a disruptor?"

Nila was gripping a railing and held on for dear life when the buzzsaw cut part of it away. "We don't have time to play bait, we need to get the pump going unless you want to freeze to death from the water."

“Go Go! Get to the pumps!” Mason called out, “I’ve got this bastard!”
She was firing relentlessly on the Mining-Spider. The machine was big and heavy, but not built for combat.

Her shots took out the hydraulics on one of the limbs and it lurched to the left, she fired again and a second limb joint blew out, then the third. The machine crumpled, the left side slammed down into the water while the limbs of the right side scrabbled ineffectively.

It was crippled but not done, the cutting disc flipped horizontally at chest height and came screaming at Mason.

“Woahhhh!” Mason threw herself backwards, submerging completely in the frigid black water a split second before the disc sliced through where she had been.

She had barely gulped any air and instead got a mouthful of freezing brackish water, she started choking and pushed herself back off the rocky floor. But as soon as she broke the surface the searing blue flame of the plasma cutter came for her. She dived again, kicking furiously to get away as the water above her was instantly vaporized as soon as the flame touched it.

She swam towards the machine, her lungs burning, grasping one of the crippled legs she pulled herself upward, breaking the surface she sucked in air. She was shaking violently, part adrenaline but mostly from the icy water. Her hands were cramping up with the cold as she struggled to retrieve her rifle, thankfully still attached to her on its sling.

She peered around the limb, the machine seemed to have stopped. The cutting disc arm was stationary off to her left, the disc still spinning. The plasma torch arm was down in front of the machine, boiling away water in a hissing cloud of steam.

There was a metallic clunk above her and she looked up, just as a heavy Gorn foot kicked her right in the face!

To Be Continued...