Deaths and Drills

Red and blue flashing lights covered outside the entrance of the Seacliff Mining Station where the dungeon was located. Already a large crowd of miners and other workers had formed, all watching the ambulances and security personnel waiting at the entrance.

Shortly after a group of rag tagged medical staff and their escorts came running out with stretchers carrying the critical wounded between them. They rushed up to the waiting ambulances and the crowd parted to allow the ambulances to rush the wounded to the hospital where the emergency rooms were already ready and standing by to receive them.

Karl watched as the next group of people carried out the bodies of the dead. He looked at the remaining Adventurers' Inc. members who could still walk, escorting the remains of their comrades out. Karl saw the two youngsters covered in blood and their faces were ashen being laid out by the usually cheerful Leon, whose expression was grim and dark.

"Turok!" Karl called out at the unmistakable figure of the bulky Orc. Turok paused and spotted Karl and he strolled over, his body covered in blood and wounds. "What happened?"

Turok gave a sigh and set his surprisingly clean double bladed axe down down. "Any drinks?"

Karl gestured to one of the support staff and the elf returned with several flasks of cold water, which Turok gratefully took one and finished it in one go, before opening another bottle and pouring it over his body.

Turok gave a grimace as the water caused some of his wounds to sting and he sat down. "Dark King... Many bones warriors..."

"Dark magic very strong..." Turok explained. "Team Two and Three wiped out by dark magic..."

"Too many bone warriors... Cannot die..." Turok took another bottle of water and gulped down its contents. "Dark magic keep bring back many bone warriors..."

"We charged to Dark King," Turok said and gestured to the black body bags being laid out. "Great courage them. Many died to reach Dark King."

Turok patted his axe beside him and mimicked a chopping motion with his hands, "Smash dark magic with Mooncleaver! Chop, chop, chop, Dark King into many pieces! And level cleared!"

Karl shook his head dejectedly, "Shit... this mission just effectively crippled two thirds of our teams!"

"Did you see what was on the last level?" Karl asked.

Turok nodded in acknowledgement, "Last level covered in liquid fire with long bridge in middle!"

"Lava?" Karl frowned. "Did you see what monsters were at that level?"

Turok gave a shrug, "Nope."

"Alright..." Karl replied and he gestured towards the exit. "Go rest and recover, I will handle the rest here."

Turok nodded and stood up, swinging his axe over his shoulder and strolled out with a slight limp. He waved away the medical team that approached him and headed towards the rows of body bags and he kneeled down and whispered a prayer in Orekish.

"Worthy comrades! You honour your ancestors! Your ancestors be proud! Your great deeds shall be known to all under the sky! Go with peace and pride!"

-----

United Nations, Outskirts of Haven, Research and Development Site, Hangar 9

The exposed skeletal airframe of the stripped down Valkyrie gunship laid bare as a small group of goblin techies fussed over the machine. Sparks flew as power tools saw through the frame over the background music of death metal.

The goblins and humans engineers worked for weeks to remove parts of the old Boeing 848 Super Spacebus turned gunship. The troop compartment was removed and the previously stripped off space armour was to be reinstalled. The space armour will protect the crew against heat, cold and radiation from space.

WIthout the troop compartment, the airframe will be shortened by at least six meters and replaced with an airlock and the turbofans removed and replaced back with the original thrusters. The reduce in the length of the Valkyrie will also reduce its overall weight.

Life support systems and other essential systems were also to be reinstalled back and once the Valkyrie was reassembled, it will carry a maximum crew of four and have enough oxygen and fuel to survive in space for roughly fifteen hours which will be more than enough time for them to grab the probe in orbit and reprogram it.

Two tanks will also be installed on both sides of the airframe just under the armpits of the wings which will run from the cockpit to the tail of the machine. A pump linking to a heating and cooling system will run through both tanks and storage tank for the Aetherium crystals salvaged off the crashed airship.

The heating of the Aetherium crystals will provide lift for the Valkyrie, thus drastically reducing the need for extra fuel and weight. As the original space shuttle was not rated for atmospheric flight and re entry or orbital insertion, much changes to its external airframe were needed. To achieve orbital insertion, a pair of disposable hydrogen fueled rocket boosters will be strapped on the back of the Valkyrie to give it the extra boost it needed to exit the planet's gravity.

The crew for the mission had already been chosen, which will include one human, two elves and a goblin with the human, Airforce Major Peter Mitch, heading the mission.

-----

United Nations, Outskirts of Haven, Research and Development Site, Hangar 11

Wattz worked the controls on the side of his waist as he was taught, as he half floated inside a massive pond wearing some kind of suit and helmet. Manoeuvring jets mounted on his backpack pushed him forward towards the huge white grey cylinder before him. "Weeeeeeeee!"

He didn't really like water that much, especially being submerged in a deep pool. The first he was dropped into the huge pond which he thought the size was ridiculous when he saw it with the rest of his gang. He protested to the instructors telling them that goblins don't do drowning well nor swim well either, if not why would he sign up with the Airforce instead of the Navy.

The God like Instructors laughed at him and shoved him into a surprising fitting suit and forced him to memorize all the hundreds of steps of how to wear it and take off all within five minutes. He soon dreaded the suit as it was hot and stuffy inside and it made him unable to scratch the parts that needed to be scratched!

After weeks of hell of putting on and removing the suit, he and the rest had to cramp their heads full of other 'things', like how heaven was actually dark and scary, not all golden, white and shiny and was also called space instead. He particularly didn't like the videos showing what happened to someone who did not wear those hot suits properly when in space.

But as time and training passed on, he grew confident with himself, including the rest of the gang, the two other long legs that actually outranked him, making him miss his time cursing the 'Mar nees'.

"Watts! Stop yelling or screaming in the damn comms!" A voice berated him sternly in his ear as Watts showed off with his skill with his booster pack. "And stop showing off! Concentrate on your mission! Now!"

"Yes! Boss!" Watts rapidly replied and eased off the controls and his wild spinning approach towards the simulated space probe slowed and he stopped perfectly against the side of the probe. He flicked a thumbs up to the two other elves in their white suits and grinned triumphantly inside his helmet. "Watts is awesome!"

-----

Airforce Major Peter Mitch sat inside the control room with several other Instructors and support staff as they watched the simulated exercise through cameras mounted on the trainees' head cams.

"... is awesome!" The goblin's voice came through the speakers as the goblin self praised himself through the comms.

Peter shook his head with a laugh and he turned back to the head instructor and said. "Well, he's pretty good with the M Pack."

"Cocky little bastard," Chief Matt who had the most EVA experience and time clocked among the original crew, and now acting as head instructor replied. "As long he doesn't cock up during the real mission..."

"Give that little punk a Suit Puncture Drill!" Chief Matt displayed a nasty smile while gesturing to the watching control staff. "See how he react!"

"Yes, Chief!" The controller grinned back and he tapped a few keys which directly sent a signal to Watts's suit."Inputting drill... and... done!"

Watts had tethered himself against the probe's hull and was about to access the control hatches when the status panel of his suit started beeping and flashing red warning signs. He looked down in alarm to his arm where the display panel was flashing red.

"Warning suit integrity compromised! O2 levels decreasing! Immediate action required!" A cold emotionless female voice blared at Watts's ear as he urgently tapped at his status panel to find out the problem, his fingers feeling fat and thick through his gloves.

"Me suit is leaking!" Watts shrieked in panic into his comms and the two other elves in his team, pulled themselves over to help him. "Where is the toopid leak!"

"Warning O2 levels reaching critical levels! User has estimated two minutes of O2 reserves remaining. 119 seconds... 118 seconds.... 117 seconds..."

"FARRKKKK!" Watts shrieked as he heard the announcement and he felt the air he was breathing in the bubble helmet was indeed getting thin. "Where is it?"

"Got it!" He shrieked in triumphant as the suit's diagnostic highlighted a patch at his rear end. "Whaaatt? Why is my ass leaking air?!"

Sniffling back their laughter, his two other teammates removed suit repair patches and had Watts stick his butt out and they slapped the patches on his butt. The control room burst into laughter as they watched Watts antics and Chief Matt shook his head as he prayed that the damn goblin will soon take things seriously.

"32 seconds... 31 seconds..."

"HURRY UP!!!" Watts stared at his status panel, see the flashing red lights and numbers dropping rapidly. "COVER MY BUTT!"

Chief Matt gestured to the controller who nodded and cancelled the simulated drill while the rest keep on chuckling at the goblin's panic.

"Leak repaired. Suit integrity normal. O2 levels returning to normal levels."

"Phew... Thanks for the repair, guys!" Watts let out a sigh. Sweat covered his face and he wondered did he peed himself or was it just his sweat.

"Alright, continue the mission!" Chief Matt's voice came through from the comms. "Remember, this may be a drill but anything may happen up there! So pay attention and stop clowning around!"

"Yes, Chief!" Watts chastised, replied in a small voice.

"Now, return to the mission at hand!" Chief Matt ordered. "You got thirty minutes of air left!"

"Oh shit!" Watts cursed and he quickly followed the other two towards the maintenance access hatch of the probe. The training probe was built to a 1:1 scale of the actual probe with all the access hatches, but the inside was empty and covered up. Only the important systems and area was built as much to as possible to match the actual thing so that the crew can train.

"Well, other than Watts getting over his head once in a while," Peter gestured to the monitors. "The team's pretty solid."

Chief Matt nodded as they watched the image of Watts squeezing into the maintenance access. "Yeah... As long as that green bastard doesn't do anything funny, he's pretty good."

"Now what we need is the space shuttle operational," Peter said. "And we will be good to grab that probe in orbit."

"Before that happens," Chief Matt's expression darkened. "We just have to keep training and training, till these bastards can do it in their sleep!"

"And is including you too, Major!" Chief Matt glared at Peter who grinned back. "Tomorrow, you get into the Tank with the rest!"