Carly Loren's Story

Planet: Sephoroy
Ten thousand feet above ground level

"I'm telling you, Blasto is a horrible series. It's acting is stupid, it's picture is nothing more than stencil drawings, and the direction in which the series goes is a complete waste of time!" Linda Graves stated as she ran a rag over her rifle in a almost meditative gesture, her gaze never breaking from the weapon as the other party to the conversation slammed her fist down on the bench.

"Bullshit! I'll admit that Blasto the movie series isn't some kind of Da Vinci painting in a cinematic form, but it has everything that it needs to entertain you! Explosions! One liners! Funny moments! Over the top action!" Carly Loren stated as she held her Vindicator rifle on her lap.

"Oh, so it screams to the inner adolescent in you? I thought grown ups were past that sort of shit." Linda stated, her voice condescending to the point of sarcasm.

"Oh I'm sorry, I'm not the one who was crying at the end of Fleet and Flotilla!" Linda looked up sharply.

"That movie is an acclaimed masterpiece!"

"IT'S ABOUT A HELMET AND FACE CLAWS!" Linda looked up at Carly slightly before turning her gaze to the last squad mate in the Kodiak.

"Lieutenant, can you please inform Sergeant Loren here how culturally dead she is?"

"Oh no, I'm not about to get into the middle of that one. I generally like to have both arms in a non broken state and my pride intact." Daniel Harrens replied, giving a smile as he looked back at both of them through his raised face plate, his one hand constantly on his ear as he listened to the communications between Commander Buchan's team and the Infinity.

"Don't you worry about it LT, Linda over here is just scared to take me on herself because she has a thing with confined spaces." Carly stated as she looked over to their squad marksman who gave a slight glare to the woman.

"In this amount of space, I wouldn't have to aim and I could hit the broad side of a barn. Lucky for me, you're the same size." There was a slight amount of silence before Carly responded.

"Oh...Oh you didn't."

"I believe I just did, but don't worry, I'm sure someone will be around soon enough to milk the cows that are inside." Daniel held back a snicker as he turned back to see Carly getting slightly red faced from the whole ordeal.

"Oh don't worry Carly." Daniel stated as he looked back. "She's just jealous that, with you, there's something left to milk." Both of them paused and Linda looked to Daniel once more.

"A. Didn't you say you weren't taking sides and B. Did you just call me a whore?" Daniel held up a finger.

"Shhhhhh..." He stated as the comm. started getting more active from Commander Buchan herself. he could practically feel the finger being held up in his general direction from his marksman. Daniel listened intently as Buchan seemed to become more curious, and suddenly there was a flurry of orders being issued. Without having to be told, he knew they were under attack and he opened the side of the Kodiak. They were high enough up that they were above the cloud cover and the sun shone brightly into the compartment. Below them however, the clouds were dark as night, which would make a pinpoint drop difficult but not impossible. They would simply have to rely on their HUD to make it through and land near the Commander.

Should they be given the order anyways. Daniel tensed near the door, every fiber of his being telling him to jump and get down there but knowing that once they did, their hand would be shone. If the hostiles had more troops down there, then the element of surprise would mean nothing. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Captain Titus gave the order.

"Aye sir, Demons en route. ETA thirty seconds." Daniel stated as he looked back, only to see Carly and Linda diving literally head first out the other side of the Kodiak. Without a moment's hesitation, Daniel followed them. His HUD immediately filled with relevant information, but unlike a standard marine's display, it also showed drop coordinates and warnings of possible obstacles and hazards in the way. In this instance, the warning symbol was going crazy due to the lightning of the storm, but their shields would negate that.

Or at least, Daniel hoped they would.

"Alright you know the drill ladies. Linda find yourself a good perch, Carly you're on guard detail. I have the heat brigade." Daniel shouted as he entered the clouds and was immediately pelted with rain.

"It's almost as if we've done this before." Linda chipped in as she altered course to find her prefered vantage point.

"Careful Lieutenant, you might just start inspiring confidence." Carly added, and Daniel couldn't help but roll his eyes. A moment ago they were ready to rip into each other, but now they were tag teaming him. Such was the nature of this team though, and no matter what they understood that their lives hinged on each other. It wasn't long before they broke through the bottom of the clouds, and Daniel could half make out where he was going to land. Not long now.

Linda fired her jets first, most likely compensating to land on a building. Carly and Daniel started at roughly the same time. Their entire landing was based on a series of controlled jet boosts that, coupled with muscle enhancing armor pieces, allowed them to survive the freefall. As Daniel edged closer though, his eyes got wide at what he was looking at exactly. He was a couple seconds behind Carly in landing, who managed to touch down just a mere few feet beside Vala with a bit of a crash and ending in a roll into a kneeling position. Daniel landed much the same way, although at the end of his roll he hit his jets again to gain some distance from the...thing that he was now looking at.

The rain and overall storm may have been adding to the eerie effect that this creature was having on him, or it might have simply been the multitude of skulls peering out at him from underneath the equivalent of a turtle shell. Either way, it stopped to look at him, as he was only a few feet from the creature at this point. He paused for only a second while his mind tried to grasp what the creature was, before bringing up his vindicator and firing several rounds into it's faces while running around it.

It seemed to flinch for a split second before it screamed and arced upwards on it's legs. Daniel didn't have time to understand what was happening before a pulsing blue light split from it's eyes and hit him dead center, pushing him back. His shields were draining so fast from the continuous laser that it felt like someone had simply taken the battery out of his suit. Luckily, the Demon armor was designed to have stronger than average shields to compensate for a lower than average durability and armor integrity. In the split second it took Daniel to realize what was going on, he hit his jets and boosted directly over top of the creature, landing hard on the other side as he landed in a slide. Daniel quickly propped himself on his stomach, using his elbows as a brace to fire his Vindicator repeatedly as the creature turned. A rocket slammed into the side of the creature alongside more assault rifle fire, which only seemed to piss the creature off as it turned to face Vala and Carly. A second later, a sharp crack broke through the storm, one could easily mistake it for thunder but at that moment a round impacted on the creature's biotic barrier, making one of it's several heads flip back for a moment.

"Increased barrier strength, armor piercing rounds are barely having an effect." Linda stated from her position on top of a colony building a distance away.

"The rocket just seemed to make it angry...what is this fucking thing?" Carly stated as she loaded another rocket into her weapon. The creature seemed ready to unleash another burst from it's weapon on Vala and Carly, but at that moment it seemed to pause even as the rest of them continued their fire. Suddenly it lifted off into the air and started floating towards the colony.

"Linda! Stay on that creature! Don't lose sight of it!" Daniel stated as he made his way to Commander Buchan and Carly.

"Understood sir." Linda stated, her jets flaring in the distance as she did her best to keep up with the creature. Daniel managed to get to Vala and Carly just as Commander Buchan was finishing up her call.

"You've got incoming Chekan! Get moving!" Daniel stopped just short of them, nodding to the Commander.

"Commander Buchan. Lieutenant Harrens, Sergeant Loren, and Sergeant Graves reporting. Our orders are to kill the creature but you hold tactical command. How do you want to proceed?"

"Cautiously but quickly Lieutenant. That thing is heading straight for the space port, which is supposed to be extraction." Commander Buchan replied to which Daniel gave a nod. It wasn't a battle plan, but her saying that basically left it up to Daniel to interpret what was 'cautious' and what wasn't.

"Alright, we better get moving then...Ma'am." Daniel stated before bursting into a run for the gate with Carly and Vala following closely behind.

They had just reached wall and were heading towards the space port when Linda came over the comm. "Lieutenant, Commander, the...thing has hit the space port. Your primary extraction is down." There was a slight pause for a moment before the Commander spoke.

"Did the pilot get out?"

"Yes ma'am, he and the others are heading towards the secondary extraction point with the marines. Currently it's preoccupied with ripping the Kodiak to shreds." There was a slight pause before Linda spoke again. "Scratch that, two spooks are on the other side of the space port and firing. Effect is negligible."

"Alright." Daniel stated. "We'll kill it when we get there. What's the area like?"

"Crowded with buildings sir. Good cover, but our packs will be limited in mobility. Also, this thing seems to have the ability to send out some kind of...pulse. It nearly took out the Commander's troops when it landed with it."

"Good to know, we're coming in, keep the fire up." Daniel stated as he gave a look back at Carly. "Get high, and get a bead with the rockets."

"Aye sir." Carly replied, her jets flaring a moment after, propelling her high into the sky towards the sky port. Daniel and Vala entered the space sport mere moments after the order to witness the Collector Creation literally ripping the door off the side of the Kodiak. Several puncture marks from the creature's spiked legs could be seen pocket marking the transport.

Sniper rounds peppered the creature while the odd rocket came flying in and sometimes went wide as the creature twisted and turned unnaturally. Two special forces operatives were bunkered down on a second story window, firing in controlled bursts at the creature with the odd overload hitting the barriers of the creature. A shrill shriek came out of it's many mouths as one rocket found it's mark right in the middle of the pack of skulls. It looked over at Daniel and Vala, and arced up on it's legs for a moment. "Incoming!" Daniel shouted as both he and Vala dodged in separate directions. Daniel gave a boost of his pack, increasing the distance of his barrel roll and safely putting him behind cover as the beam passed over top of him.

Fire continued to pepper the creature, and it seemed it was at least having some effect as it seemed to shy away from the rounds peppering it. Daniel slammed a new heat sink into his Vindicator as the creature shrieked and released some sort of electrical pulse that fell just short of their cover.

"See...pulse." Linda stated as more sniper rounds echoed through the space port. Daniel peered above his cover for a moment and gauged the situation. The creature seemed to be heavily armored and with a fairly strong biotic barrier judging by the purple shimmer deflecting the rounds as they found their mark. It was strong enough to rip through the Kodiak's armor, shot lasers from it's eyes like something out of science fiction, and was capable of a electrical pulse that Daniel had no inclination to get close to.

Yep, this was going to be a tough fight. Daniel gritted his teeth slight, bought his rifle to bear, and opened fire.

So these were Commander Horn's 'Demons'. She watched them pepper the construct with fire, her own rifle, an M-96 Mattock, at the ready but not yet raised to fire as the thing seemed to just absorb the endless pile of fire they were dumping on it. She'd read over their profiles when she'd taken the position, as she had with the large majority of the crew as expected of someone in her 'department'. An interesting group, but before she could really afford them any attention, Buchan needed to deal with the monster that was currently ruining their entire operation.

"How close are you to the spaceport?" She inquired briskly, shouldering her rifle and feathering the trigger. The stronger rounds didn't phase the thing's shields, even as rockets and sniper fire pelted it.

"We're just about there, Chekan is ready to go the moment we get there." Malina replied shakily, clearly running out of breath and a little concerned about the monster she'd just barely gotten away from. "Are you alright?"

"Wouldn't be radioing if I wasn't." Vala assured her, gritting her teeth as the Mattock hissed it's overheat warning and jettisoned it's heat-sink past her shoulder. "Tachi, Arcsberg, I want you two to head back with the data. Gravette, Marczak, I'm going to need you on the edge of the colo-" She cut herself off mid-sentence as the creature looked to her for a moment and seemingly prepared to fire it's eye weaponry again. Just as she tensed to dive aside from the attack though, it stopped, turning partially before it's legs tucked under it's body and it hovered off into the air.

She shot after it briefly, but it's departure made no sense. Why would it disengage after being so focused on whatever was near it? Her eyes widened with realization. The shuttle was preparing to take off. Snapping to the operational comm, she barked hastily into the line. "You've got incoming Chekan! Get moving!" There was a panicked grunt of acknowledgement, as the Demon lead approached her, stopping a few steps away.

"Commander Buchan. Lieutenant Harrens, Sergeant Loren, and Sergeant Graves reporting. Our orders are to kill the creature but you hold tactical command. How do you want to proceed?" They were capable soldiers, and time was something she didn't have until her vulnerable personnel were safe. A battle plan would need to wait.

"Cautiously but quickly Lieutenant. That thing is heading straight for the space port, which is supposed to be extraction." If he was hoping for more instruction, there was no outward sign, and the Lieutenant turned towards the colony as he replied.

"Alright, we better get moving then...Ma'am." The two soldiers burst into a heavy run, but the officer quickly matched their pace, knowing she could go faster but it would be unwise to split from her reinforcements with such a dangerous foe before them. As they passed through the gate, the third demon, Graves, spoke through the comm line.

"Lieutenant, Commander, the...thing has hit the space port. Your primary extraction is down." Her stride quickened sharply at the news, pulling slightly ahead of the two. Chekan had been warned, but he had only a precious few moments, and the pilot likely would have tried to pull the ship out instead of abandoning it.

The mental race didn't show in her voice beyond the brief pause before she replied. "Did the pilot get out?"

"Yes ma'am, he and the others are heading towards the secondary extraction point with the marines. Currently it's preoccupied with ripping the Kodiak to shreds." She released a breath she didn't realize she was holding in relief, before Graves spoke again. "Scratch that, two spooks are on the other side of the space port and firing. Effect is negligible."

The Nightmares were splitting the work it seemed. Made sense, given the situation. The lack of mention of another sniper hinted that Tachi and Arcsberg were the ones handling the extraction, ideal given their recon skills. A secondary ambush would be hard to slip past them. She glanced partially as Sergeant Loren hit the thrusters on her jet-pack, peeling off into the darkened sky in search of vantage, leaving the Lieutenant with her.

Moments later, the two entered the spaceport, where the construct was brutally rending the Kodiak apart with bladed limbs. Well, that certainly made close quarters even more of a dangerous prospect, as the hull crumpled under it's onslaught. Sighting Gravette and Marczak, she noted with pleasure that neither had sustained any real injuries judging by feedback on her HUD. The Nightmare's SMGs would be helpful for dealing with the construct's damn barrier, but wouldn't help much with the actual armour protecting the damn thing.

"Incoming!" Her attention snapped to the horror, shifting her footing mid-stride to launch herself into a side aerial out of the attacks path, landing smoothly on the rain slick concrete with Mattock raised. She fired a few staggering shots, drawing it's attention from the cover it was blasting furiously.

It took several steps towards the Commander, while the others poured more and more fire onto the construct in seemingly futile effort to bring the monster down. It's barrier flickered briefly, before dissolving around it and letting one of the sniper rounds crash into it's armoured hide. Before they could capitalize further on the barrier's dissolution, it screamed in it's chittering choir before pulse erupted from it's body and swept across the ground. She back-pedaled several steps, but the attack dissipated a few steps before her harmlessly.

"See...pulse." The sniper commented dryly, her rounds still punishing the creature's shield. The thing was practically a living tank the way it was defended, without even considering it's defensive capabilities. Taking advantage of it's momentary distraction, Vala rushed across another patch of open ground, ignoring it's endless noise behind her. Leaping a toppled mound of shipping containers, she ducked into the cover as the creature raked its lasers of her position.

Random fire wasn't going to bring this thing down, and it would only leave them low on ammunition the longer it dragged on. Clearing her throat, Vala took control. "Sergeant Loren, Sergeant Graves. Ceasing firing on the construct." The effect was instant, the sniper shots no longer ringing like thunder to accompany the storm. "It's barrier is more than capable of handling the fire you're producing, and we'll need the heavy hits for the armour. Conserve your ammunition, wait for it's barrier to drop, then give it hell." A few affirmatives chimed in her ear.

There was a mechanical hiss on the far side of her cover, and Vala broke into another sprint as the construct clambered over her cover in search of the elusive commander. "Nightmares, you've got the guns and the offensive programs to get that thing's barriers down. Pelt it with everything you have, but don't waste your ammo when it's down, leave it's hide to the Demons." She slide along the slick ground as another blast nicked her shields, the heat of the energy seeping through the hardened weave like a miniature sun.

The slide carried her straight into the cover the Lieutenant had occupied, and she pressed her back to the battered shipping containers as she looked at the man through the small rivers of rain running down her visor. "Lieutenant, I hear you're something of an engineer."

"Only on Tuesdays Ma'am...luckily it's a Tuesday."

She grinned at his joke, even if he couldn't see it. "It's my lucky day, isn't it? We're going to get you some time, Lieutenant, and I want you to re-purpose my mulched Kodiak. We spent good money on it, and I want some bang for our buck." There was only a brief pause before he replied.

"I'm going to assume that you want me to make the Kodiak into a massive grenade. I am incredibly OK with this. I need cover."

"Cover I can provide. Martin!" As if on cue, the hulking armour of the mercenary gunman came barreling into the space port, his Argus barking furiously as the construct swerved to face the new target. It arced it's legs in preparation to fire, but Vala leaped her cover in one fluid motion, dark energy materializing along her arms and arcing out into dozens of dark blue strands. As her hands snapped tight on the base of the energy, the strands coalesced into two whips, which she brought smashing into the construct's face with a full swing of her body.

The durable creature rolled backwards from the unexpected hit, catching itself in midair and righting quickly to retaliate. The commander gave the merc a quick glance, nodding to the right before breaking left as the two split apart to avoid it's return fire. The Lieutenant didn't need any further incentive, hopping his cover and hauling across the space port to the mangled shuttle.

"All forces!" Vala barked as she rolled roughly across the ground to dodge a sudden lunge from the hulking monster. "We need to keep this thing occupied so the Lieutenant can jury-rig our finale. It gets near him, give it hell to get it's attention so he can work. Otherwise, only fire when it's effective. I have no intentions of-" The creature's bladed limb sliced down near her; air whistling as it passed and she contorted to avoid the second limb.

Smashing the base of one of the whips into it's barrier, the biotic fields reacted to each other's presence, detonating violently and flinging her back from the construct several feet. She skidded to a stop on her heels, shields flickering from the sudden force they'd been exposed. "...I have no intentions of repeating myself. Am I clear?"

"Affirmative."

Nothing more needed said, as the Tac-Commander weaved back from another of the construct's swiping limbs, gritting her teeth in annoyance even as Martin blasted it's barrier from behind relentlessly. The Nightmares were peppering it with fire, one of the two dropping from the window into the spaceport to move to another firing vantage as the other fired numerous overloads from their omni-tool. She had to give it credit, whatever it was. This thing was relentless.

With feline grace, Vala back-flipped neatly away from the crashing claws, her landing immediately twisting into a butterfly twist as her feet touched the ground, neatly weaving over a sweep of one of it's legs like it's every move was telegraphed to the commander before it even tried. Its assault was interrupted by a sudden impact crashing into it's side; the construct's gaze shifting to Martin as the mercenary deftly slipped another concussive shot into the launcher on his Argus. It blasted at him, but the thickly plated mercenary made no effort to move as his shields flared in defense of his bulky frame.

Vala's HUD fed her an alert on the shield status, and she looked to the merc cautiously as she gained some distance from the construct, biotic lashes still trailing in glowing arcs through the rainfall in her wake. As his shields collapsed , Martin stepped from it's beam, raising his gun just as the barriers collapsed under the endless barrage from the Nightmare pair. The Concussive shot blasted out even as he pumped the trigger of the rifle, pounding the constructs body as the boom of the sniper rifle roared back into the fray.

It's hide withstood the onslaught, even as thin rivulets of strange blue liquid trailed from the small damage the construct took. It lunged forward with a screech at the mercenary, but caught a rocket mid-flight and lost it's momentum in a howl of fury and perhaps 'pain'. Martin took several steps forward, hammering the trigger relentlessly as his rounds set small fires to it's hide, undaunted by the danger the creature posed even as he closed on it.

His aim shifted to the constructs 'maw', pumping the various skulls with rounds before they howled in unison and it reared up into the air like it had before. He tilted his head back to see it, before something immaterial took hold of his armour and ripped him backwards like he was no more than a feather. The pulse tore through the ground as the construct brought it's body crashing down, barrier once more pulsing along it's unnatural hide. The sudden tug dumped him like a toy behind Vala, who quickly raised a barrier before her as the pulse collided with the energy.

The energy nearly shredded the barrier, the pulse barely pushing around the confines of the protective dark energy before flickering and leaving the Commander largely untouched save for more laboured breaths. "Calm down, Martin." She muttered through her external speakers, barely looking back at the gunman. "I don't need a corpse at the moment."

The merc hauled himself up with a barely dignified grunt, one hand still firmly locked on his rifle even as the construct focused it's attention on the suddenly renewed fire from the Nightmares. "Right." He replied curtly, his neutral tone betraying little of his own thoughts. He resumed firing without much delay, quickly earning the construct's ire once more as he popped a spent heatsink and slammed another home.

Rifle fire began to echo from the rooftops, likely Sergeant Loren growing tired of waiting for shots with her ML-77, which would see the barriers down even faster if they kept it occupied. "Lieutenant! How long?"

"It's pretty much ready, Commander!" He replied quickly. "I can trigger it on your go." She looked back to the ruined Kodiak before over to the construct that was blasting it's eye weapons at anything that moved in much less methodical patterns.

"Get it's barriers down!" She ordered, crossing the star-port and hauling herself up onto the Kodiak. The Infinity forces wasted no time pounding the machine with everything at their disposal, nearly matching the rain in the amount of rounds racing towards the construct. It's barriers, formidable though they were, didn't hold long under such concentrated fire and as they flickered, Vala raised her biotic whips and lashed them at the machine. The energy collided with the hull of the construct, but instead of smashing, the dark energy molded itself to the smooth surface and gripped it.

It screeched furiously, as the Tac-Commander dug her heels into the mangled remains of the shuttle and willed the energy to pull. The bladed limbs scratched and dug into the concrete to stop the movement, but before they could find proper purchase, a sniper round shattered through one of the slender legs at the joint. Suddenly unbalanced, the construct didn't have time to right itself as a rocket smashed into it's side, tilting it even further off center, before one last concussive shot shattered another of it's slender limbs to send it's bulk crashing to the concrete.

Digging up whatever she could find, Vala dragged the construct forward, inch by inch across the pavement even as it's remaining claws scratched fruitlessly for purchase. With a pulse of dark energy, she ripped it the last few feet into the Kodiak's side, burying it's head into the brutalized passenger cabin. "Lieutenant! Now!"

There was a blast of the engineer's jet-pack, before she felt his arms catch her under her shoulders and the two rocketed up and away from the shuttle. Dissolving her whips, Vala threw on last blast of energy at the construct to slam it back into the ground as it tried fruitlessly to rise, before Daniel hit the detonator flashing on his omni-tool. There was only a split second delay before the core of the ship exploded, engulfing the construct and most of the spaceport in fire.

"A sizable blast for just a few minutes work, Lieutenant." She commented idly, eyes straying from the blast zone to ensure that the teams had cleared the blast alright. It didn't take much to see that they'd managed to avoid the thick of the explosion, but they seemed on edge still. As they neared the ground, she understood why immediately. The maddening chitter hadn't stopped. "Set me down."
She dropped from his grip as they drew close to the ground, landing in a half jog as she crossed back towards the crater where her shuttle had once been. The heat of the scorched ground was sweltering, but she ignored it as she approached the mangled wreck that had once been the construct. Most of it's hull was blasted apart, splaying the twisted remains of what looked like it might have been human once across the concrete, but the 'face' of it remained partially intact.

It's chittering quieted as she approached, eyes flickering with light she assumed was supposed to be an attempt to blast her again. Drawing her pistol, a Phalanx, she calmly aimed into the cluster of heads. "Infinity, this is Commander Buchan. The threat has been neutralized, and I've got some remains we can likely analyze." She squeezed a trio of rounds into the mass, and the chittering finally quieted completely, but as soon as it did, the battered hull simply crumpled like ash.

In mere seconds, there was nothing left of the construct but the vanishing fragments of it's body, which soon vanished into the flames licking the air around her against the steady beat of the rain. "...cancel that. It seems to have dissolved." She ground out, inwardly furious that such valuable resources had literally just melted away right in front of her. "We're heading for extraction, Infinity."

Stepping out of the ruined spaceport, Vala glanced at the troops for a moment. "We're moving out. Time for exfil." She instructed, looking partially to the Demon's after she spoke. "And thank you for your assistance." She didn't wait for a reply, already moving off towards the marker on her HUD for the rendezvous with the shuttles. Her mind already swam with possibilities, but those would have to wait for later. "Major O'Ryan, we're en-route to your position. I've had more than my fill of this colony." The commander spared the empty buildings one last, distance glance, before trudging out into the mud after the troops. True to her trade, there were no prints left in her wake, just the dying embers of the flames to mark their passage, and soon those too would fade.

Forgotten, as it should be.