Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Signals in the Void 19

("Signals in the Void" is a character fan fiction story revolving around my adventures in exploration.)

It was a new thing for Jimmy holding an assault rifle, and though it felt almost like holding one of the welding or salvaging lasers the feel of it made him less uneasy.  Moving to catch up to the other mercenaries, Jimmy overhears Blake discussing their options when they get to the jammer drone.  The tone of the conversation didn't sound promising and checking equipment and weapons the rest of the mercenaries move forward with Jimmy following in the rear wondering if they have a plan.

Arriving at another set of locked doors Jimmy sets the rifle down and un-slings his battery pack off his shoulders.  When Jimmy gets the doors to slide open the other mercenaries move through with their guns raised.  Looking at the surrounding walls it appears the team has moved out of the maintenance corridors and have wandered into a rather prestige area.  The walls are covered with ornate designs and colors.  As they walk down the hall, Jimmy turns around to follow one of the longer panoramic designs and his vision seems to blur for a bit as he looks further down the hall.  Stopping to shake his head, he looks back down the hall without any problem; only to see the wall bend a little as if affected by a slight ripple.

Jimmy jumps a little when Blake rests his hand on Jimmy's shoulder.  Knowing what question Blake is going to ask, Jimmy begins telling him how his vision isn't doing so good and how it seems to make the walls ripple slightly or get blurry as if looking through water.  A little concerned Blake brings up the air reading for toxicity on his display expecting something.  But other than being old, the reading is showing there are no toxicants to be found.

Looking down the hallway himself, Blake catches a slight shifting of one of the walls.  Quickly raising his rifle Blake steps forward in front of Jimmy.  Taking another step toward where he saw the rippling, a human sized drone uncloaks and releases several bursts of auto-gun fire toward the pair.  While at the same time Blake begins firing his assault rifle at the rogue machine.

Though the drone's ammo is poorly made the amount fired tears through Blake's shields and begins to dent the front armor.  Blake's plasma rounds hit the drone's core causing its guns to flail as it falls backwards against the wall.  With a couple more bursts of auto-gun fire as it falls the drone lays there without a sound.

Making sure the drone has stopped moving Blake stumbles backward into the wall and slides onto the floor into a sitting position.  The action breaks Jimmy out of his stupor and he rushes over to Blake.  On his way he notices the thumb sized holes punched through the walls, floor, and ceiling where the drone's gun fire had been diverted.  Reaching Blake, Jimmy sees a few rather large holes have been punched into Blake's front armor.

What he wasn't expecting was the soft chuckle Blake makes as the other mercenaries arrive and the logistics trooper leans down to inspect the damage.

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