11 Red Twilight Demon of the Flowers chapter 11

Chapter 11 Battle the Zzuragg part 1

A gloved hand reaches over slapping Kauri on the side of his mask. "Hey pup, you doing all right?" the hand belongs to prvt. Maize, she is a silver-haired fox with shimmering blue eyes, not that they can be seen through the mask she wears. Prvt. Kauri finds himself locked into a personnel drop ship, dressed in his full body armor: a vacuum suit, self-contained atmospheric admitted, and a slew of armored plates and tools tide to his body just like the others, not an inch of his body visible through it. Every one of them pacing two magnetic guns, a SAW called the Mg Mk VRSN 3 (or MG3 for short) and a sidearm called the Vt7.

The dropship has ten men in it, two Lt.'s from the Navy here to piolet the command ship, and eight SM's: one corporal, three privet first class, and four privet second class, that is where Kauri finds himself. All of whom work for the United Federation of Planets, UFP for short

Today is Kauri first day on active duty. After 14 weeks of hand to hand training and 46 weeks of utility training. But it turns out that no amount of utility training can prepare someone for the feeling of being on a ship, a starship, and even if he had been in a starship before today a dropship is not the same.

Prvt Dover shouts over "come on, let's see if he is still awake when we touch down!" Dover chuckles, he is a red fox, young and irresponsible, a place like the SM was never meant for the likes of him. This place will break him. Maize reaches out to grab at Dover threateningly, Dover giggles and slaps at Maize "you want to start something island girl?" Dover's behavior is childish.

Cprl. Dawg Barks "knock that shit off or I'll teach both of you to respect the back of my hand."

Maize sits back and clinches the locking bar over her set. Dover giggles "I love you Dawg!"

Dawg locks eyes with Dover and points. Dawg is an old wolf; he has been in service for over twenty years, no one knows why he is so low in the pecking order, or why he keeps signing up for more tours. After a long stare Dawg whispers "one more word and I go get your mama."

Maize leans over Kauri "you good?"

Kauri nods "I think I'm going to be sick."

Maize nods in return "Everyone is their first-time."

Kauri calls out to Dawg "Cprl. Can we get a brief?"

Dawg calls out "All right you knot-head! Damage control time. Here are the fax: A mining ship passing through Thaghta encountered a hostile. We lost contact with them 07-26-4014-23.55. We encountered an SOS at 08-03-4014-01.01 coming from the same region. We are going to investigate. According to scans taken by the SS. Titan, Thaghta is currently under the control of Zzuragg."

Maize inquires "what are Zzuragg?"

Dawg adds on "If we are lucky we don't need to find out."

Dover ask "and if we are unlucky?"

"you will find out what happened to my other eye."

Lt. Corman's voice comes over the radio "landing codes are locked in, we are making our final approach."

A new voice comes in and a video feed starts in on one side of the visor everyone is equipped with "I am Elion, I will be your navigator. Your radios have all been linked into mine. All your broadcast will be filtered through me and in the event, that contact is lost with Crpl. Dawg I will be taking over as your S.O."

The dropship flies around the wreckage then off in one direction to find the landing spot they had locked on to. The planet they witness is covered in a gray-black slime; strange stone spires shoot from the ground, the party lands on a lonely stone island. The rear hatch drops open, and the SM walk out in signal file MG3 in hand.

Dawg taking up the lead looks over his shoulder after completing initial perimeter sweep. Each man yelling 'clear' in turn "Ok, everyone flip on the tracing light of the man in front of you." One by one each solders shoulder mounted lights get activated. Dawg waves the last man to the front to turn on their light for them.

Dover looks to Dawg as his lights get fired up "so Cprl. Why aren't you doing some sexy desk job? You're like seventy or something, aren't you?"

"Because I want to die with my boots on."

Elion's voice comes in over the party radio "one of you has a spy bug strapped to your back. Turn it on; I will take remote control of it from here." Each of the soldiers searches the body of the solder next to them.

Kauri call over "Maize has it."

Dawg nods "you heard the lady, fire that shit up." After a few short moments of assembling the spy bug, the small brass-gold helicopter looking tool starts to levitate.

Corman's voice comes in "we have eyes. It seems there is a healthy amount of terrane radiation. Keep an eye on your atmosphere generators, if anyone's filter reads over 70/30 drop what you are doing and get back to the ship."

Elion adds on "your cameras seem to be flickering some. Anything you can do to boost your signal Dawg?"

"all our shit has been flicking for days. I say you should put in a call to D.S. and get us some new gear." Dawg replies frankly.

Elion signals "Copy. Now Dawg, Kauri should have a low power radar pulse emitter strapped to his arm, the antenna for it is on his back, collect Kauri's MG3 and hand him the antenna."

After being given the radar, Kauri is pushed to the front of the team. It is a two-mile walk through ankle-deep slime as the lot of them make their way to the downed mining ship.

"anyone have any idea what this shit we are walking through is?" Maize asks from the third rank.

From fourth Dover calls up "do you want to know?"

At first rank, Kauri calls back "I can see something on radar. Movement eight, maybe twelve signals."

Dawg holds up his rifle looking around "which is it; eight or twelve?"

"Don't have a positive lock." Kauri declares.

Dawg talks to base "what do my eyes see?"

Radio chatter picks up as Elion and Corman speak back and forth

Corman starts the exchange "I see movement at your 10. Four confirmed."

"markings?"

"Abdominal section figure eight."

"is in an eight or an hourglass?"

"is there a difference?"

"there is."

"hourglass."

"Willow family."

"five more at your two Dawg. Marking, two rings, large and small."

Elion takes over the radio "Dawg; you have at least two families of Zzuragg in your proximity. Both are three generations displace from Hive. This could be a territory dispute you are walking into. Hopefully, you can slip between them without being noticed. Your objective is to reach the crashed ship. Engage only if necessary."

Dawg prods for more info "Do we have classifications on potential hostels?"

Corman cuts back in "according to the index seven scavengers and two hunters."

Kauri speaks up "that leaves two unconfirmed."

Dawg nods "I noticed."

The walk is slow and tense; the SM unit crouches to stay hidden in the now waist deep slime. Dawg keeps his head slightly higher than the other as he serves the battlefield in waiting. He knows the threat that hides in the creep below but never has he seen it in its own environment. Kauri whispers "twenty-six, there are now twenty-six signals in range."

Skittishly Dover calls over "twenty-six? What is the range on that thing?"

Corman is the one to retort "33.334 cubical yards"

Dover starts looking around frantically "that's like 90 feet or something, isn't it? Shouldn't we have a visual lock-on?"

Elion whispers into her headset "take it easy Dover; the creep hides them."

Maize taps her helmet to join in the communication "would changing to search-mode to compensate."

Dawg picks up the back-and-forth ". This sludge is protein based, if you switch on your search-mode, it will overload. Stay low and a stay slow."

A winter fox from rank seven calls over "Protein? You mean this is liquefied meat?" his name is Huston, he is a pretty boy who is as charming as he is incompetent, his family is wealthy and influential in the courts, the type of kid that has a habit of skipping town when the service calls, but if Huston wants to run for Congress when his mother retires he needs to finish at least one four-year tour with S.M. six years with Navy or eight years with S.D.F.

Dawg calls back to the team "four groups of two. I want you each locked at the hip, each man is responsible for covering the four through eight of the man next to them" this is an S.C.R.A.M. (Secure, Control, Retain, Aim, Move.) maneuver, Dawg is getting uncomfortable. The S.M. can feel it. The move together in teams of two, one man on point the other walking backward covering their tail.

In double time the team reaches the crashed ship. Dawg waves the group out into cover possession, crouched and watching the horizon, Dawg then looks about, if the vessel wasn't mounted in the ground at a 45* angle, it would be impossible to find. the entrance is lost somewhere under the mub, Dawg calls out "Demolition!" if they want in, they are going to need to make a new way in. Maize brake the line to comply "we need a door."

Shadows move on all sides, chartering and creaking sounds fill the air, snarling and hissing. Spotlights light of the swamp, the threat moves ever closer, but the lights see nothing.