Tin Soldiers

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The Sojourner
Posts: 1458
Joined: Tue Feb 25, 2003 6:21 pm

Tin Soldiers

Post by Nivest »

OOC: These events take place two months after the conclusion of this thread.

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Sparks flew through the air, bringing with them memories of warm holiday evenings when lights danced among greenstalk canopies. He blinked, and in a moment the warmth of nostalgia evaporated. This wasn’t Mrisst. Home never looked like the hard, cold durasteel passageway he was lying in. What that shadow was above him, and who was pounding something next to his head he didn't know. He had an epiphany his head hurt, and that sound was his heart pumping the blood through his ears. In fact, as his vision focused, his hearing also sharpened to where he could distinguish someone whispering his name.

“Zin.”

“Zin.”

“ZIN!”

An armored fist smacked the side of his helmet.

“That concussion grenade sure did something to you, kid. You never told me you could do flips.”

A flood of questions wanted to come out, but Zin only managed to rasp a single syllable, “Where?”

The figure crouching above him flipped up his visor. Steel colored eyes in a hard face stared into his. The eyes framed themselves in creases at what apparently the man thought was an odd question.

“It was pretty quick after we made entry through the outer hull. Intel was bad and our point of entry was hot. Good thing our initial objective was to draw the enemy from Bravo team. We managed to take most of them out, but they brought an E-Webb in and barricaded the passage, so we moved up this shaft. We have a little surprise for them, though.” He jerked his head in the direction of the sparks. “Joran there is using the fusion cutter to get us a shortcut to where we can really do some damage.” He chortled. “Get it, a shortcut?”

Zin suddenly realized he'd been greedily sucking from a tube in his helmet. He idly wondered how he knew that was there when He didn’t even know where here was. His thirst slaked, he shook his head and ignored the bad joke.

“No, I mean what is this place?”

A look of incredulity replaced amusement over his joke.

“You’re telling me that ‘nade scrambled your brains?”

The man stood up, gesticulating in annoyance as he vented his frustration, drawing looks from the other men in the corridor.

“I can't believe this! I may have hauled you up here, but by the force I’m not going to hold your hand for the rest of the mission.”

Zin hauled himself to his feet, his face flushing with anger.

“I’m fine. I never said I needed -“

His sentence was cut short as a wincing pain stabbed through his skull, bringing with it bits and pieces of his memory.

“Croan… pirates. We’re Croan… this is a pirate bas, but wh--.”

“Form up!”

Again, without thinking he instinctively moved into position with the rest of the squad. They all watched as Joran switched off the fusion cutter and fished out a semi-spherical device. Fixing it to the wall, he studied it for a few seconds before flashing five fingers. So they could expect five hostiles. The question was, were the pirates expecting them?

Zin glanced at the faces of the men with him, their blaster carbines at ready. He didn’t see any indication of doubt that they could deal with anyone, or anything, on the other side. He wasn’t quite so sure for himself, but he repressed those thoughts, putting on the same air of determination. Who knows, maybe they were all thinking the same thing despite the outward bravado - What if the guy on the other side pumps a blaster bolt into me before I get one into him?

The man he had been talking with before grunted has he slapped his visor back into place.

“Well, kid, at least you remembered what we’re doing… kinda. I hope you haven’t forgotten how to fight. And in case you don't remember, my name's Jeth, though you can call me, 'Sir'.”

He thought he saw a smirk accompany that last comment, but didn’t have time to dwell on it before Jeth kicked the wall down. The section traced out by the fusion cutter fell to the floor with a dull clang, which was instantly followed by the clattering of concussion grenades tossed through the breach by two of the soldiers. Zin had just enough time to close his own visor before the twin explosions sent a miniature shockwave back through the opening. He repressed a wave of nausea and an odd feeling of déjà vu as he followed Jeth through the yawning hole into the smoke shrouded chamber beyond.
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