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Jack sat expectantly in his deployment pod, the red light of the alert system shining mesmerizingly into his eyes. He tapped his new rifle, finally acknowledging its existence. He picked it up, looking through the infrared scope. It seemed to be about the same as the sugar, with the exception of the rifle's power. He only hoped it was strong enough to puncture Drathonian skulls. Sighing, he leaned back in the dark pod. A few of the other marines were quietly boasting to each other of the glory they'd have in the upcoming battle. Jack couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at them. These children would probably end up as forgotten corpses on some hunk of scrap metal, floating through space. Jack intended to do the boasting after the fact. He lowered his solar visor in anticipation, and chambered his energy cartridge in the tiger rifle. He pressed against the wall in anticipation of the launch. He'd heard these pods were more like missiles than ships. The ride would be bumpy to say the least, and impact wasn't too pleasant either. He closed his eyes and began to quietly hum an old song under his breath.

((sorry for taking so long, I was busy GMing on another forum, Dice-based PVP is kinda hard for me to grasp.. but i just might use it in the next battle))

Garret got a call from the initial survey team "Uhh.. sir? the thing's like, 30 feet around and at least 50 feet long. the corridor's been Vac'd and sealed off from everything else, so make sure to use an EVA suit and come in through one of engineering's airlocks.

***

Moments after Garret recieved his call, the Ship Decelerated upon a scene that was even more psychotic than the ship's firt battle. instead of a bunch of calm ships sitting in blockade, there was a full-on battle already raging. Energy blasts of all colors, shapes and sizes criss-crossed in front of the ship, and Kinetic weapons filled the vacuum with solid mass. more than a few ships from each side were already crumbling wrecks. Directly in fron of the battleship, however, was the contested piece of property; an orbital shipyards larger than even Demonix had been. Already severl half-finished vessels had been ejected, replaced by terran boarding vessels, some of which were already being destroyed from the inside, others departing to get more loads from the carriers, which loomed near the reatr edges of the battlefield. The Hymn unleashed yet another volley from the Solaris cannons, Cutting straight through a Few raptor class vessels and putting a large hole into a drake, which then imploded from the sudden pressure release. Next off, The ship broadsided the shipyards, firing off the boarding pods and opening the hangar bay's blast doors, releasing it's deadly cargo of fighters, and shooting the boarding pods with abandon. The pods sailed home to their target, to fast to be hit by enemy weaponry.

***

jack's pod was no exception, a sudden jarring feeling as the ship's anti-gravity forces kicked in, keeping the occupants from turning t=into goo from the sudden acceleration, followed almost immediately by an even more jarring impact, as the craft hit, drilling into the shipyards. the doors opened up and revealed that they had arrived into the deadspace between two decks, and would now have to crawl through and search for a way out and into the battle.

***

Steven's and Kai's HUD's beeped as soon as they arrived, setting the craft on autopilot so no one would hit each other on the way out into the battle. Both craft hurtling out into the battle, the Scimitars for the most part much more quickly than the plucky Shamshir. As soon as the pilots were out, they were in on the fray, Dodging, weaving and blasting opponents to kingdom come. Many terrans were amazed at how many shots were simply bouncing off the craft's upgraded shields, but they soon fond that the shields still weren't invincible, as the first few casualties began to mount up. Alpha squad was the first group out, headed straight towards the nearest enemy capital ship, setting off to destroy it's weapons so it would be helpless and useless.

Before Jack could even take a breath after the ship dropped out of hyperspace with a lurch, he was thrown sideways by the sudden launch of his boarding pod. Huge G forces sickened him momentarily before the anti-gravity kicked in, and Jack felt like he was going to vomit. With one final jolt he was flung to the other side as the pod sank its teeth into the side of the shipyard. When the doors finally opened, Jack stepped to the threshold and turned on his flood lights. The pod had landed his squad in a crawl space. As the marines stood there, someone asked, "What are we going to do?" Jack grabbed a spacial charge, chucked it out of the pod, then slammed on the door button. After a definitive tremor from outside, he opened the doors again. His sergeant stepped out first, and Jack was right behind. The charge had blown a hole in each direction. Looking down, Jack saw a vast bay hundreds of meters tall. It wouldn't do to jump down there. The sarge crawled up through the hole in the ceiling, and Jack followed suit. Rolling out onto his knees, he brought his gun up and scanned his new surroundings as the rest of the squad emerged from the hole behind him.

"Thank you. Garrett out." He rushed out with his equipment dangling from his belt, and bouncing against his left thigh as he sprinted down the hallways. An EVA suit was easy enough to obtain, and he slid into it quickly, threw his belt around it, and double-checked the clasp. Once he felt it was secure, he proceeded through the nearest engineering access corridor, and worked his way through the tunnels to his destination. Once there, he realized that he had chosen his gear correctly. In fact, he would only need one. He set the charge as near to the center of the obtrusive metal as possible, then retreated into the engineer's airlock before detonating the device. The result was a muffled fwoomp, and gravel-sized shrapnel about the room. Obviously, it didn't destroy everything, but it was enough that there was no longer an obstacle within the corridor. He returned to the main corridor, stripped himself of the EVA suit, and tried to contact the Admiral.

"Miss, I was wondering if you could direct me to the nearest boarding crew leader, and perhaps let them know I'm going to join up with their squad. I think they could really use my talents in this battle." As he spoke, he was reentering his workshop and collecting the typical equipment required during an invasive procedure, and a few bits of ambush gear. He was always prepared for any situation because there were multiple ways to approach every situation, and a lot of them could involve explosives, incendiaries, and electronics, and gaseous materials.

Garrett was already running down the corridors toward the hangar bay when she spoke. He had a strong feeling he wouldn't make it, but he pressed on with haste, determined to beat the odds. With a little luck, he managed to make it there three seconds before departure, and threw himself into a harness just as the door sealed shut, and the launch proceeded. This was the only part he hated about his job. Jumping ship was perhaps the most revolting experience he had ever encountered, and he hated it every time, no matter how many times he did it. It was sick.

With perhaps a bit more luck (or an apparent lack thereof), the pod managed to lodge itself just above the entrance point of Jack's squad, putting them in the direct line of fire of the Drathonian blasters. When the access hatch lurched open, much of the ammo that missed its desired targets, or was merely cover fire, ended up entering the pod. It was a bad day for those eager to fight: the men that had already risen from their seats and approached the front were almost immediately mowed down. Garrett wasn't one of them, however, as he preferred to be the last out the door. Instead of gunning it for the door, he had crouched in front of his seat. He was reviewing a mental checklist of all items attached to his gear belt and the harness that essentially consisted of two leather straps looping over his shoulders and tethering to his belt. In a strong sense, they were close cousins to the old-fashioned suspenders men had once worn.

After the doorway had cleared and he felt comfortable with his load out, he dove through the pod's sole aperture, and quickly placed himself behind cover alongside a few of the boarder marines that had preceded him.

With their first target nuetralized, the men of alpha squad rocketed away, this time with no interference from shields, as the drake no longer had any thanks to their efforts. As soon as they cleared it, a cannon blast lanced through the ship, causing massive explosions as the thing became nothing but a floating hulk. The Marine pilots set their sights on the station this time, as it's defense guns were harrassing nearby Terran ships.

***

The Shamshir and it's accompanying squadron were immediately set upon by a large number of fighters, the slow moving, steady formation an easy target for the drathonian pilots. The Shamshir's heavier shields, were barely dented, while the lighter ones of the Scimitar's began to wear thin, a few weakened shots blasting though to put scorch marks on the fighters. they would have to do something soon or there wouldn't be many left. Green 2 opened up with the chaingun, the rounds pinging off the enemy shields, causing visual disturbances on them and steadily decreasing their power.

***

The corridor was now in chaos, as the Drathinians were split between two groups of Terran enemies Jack and Garrett, being the ones with explosives, would need to do something very quickly to even out the odds or else the small band of Terrans in the area would be eradicated.

After sticking a cigarette between his lips, Garrett peeked out over the twisted wreckage that currently served as his shield. Once he felt he had a good mental estimate, he hid again and pulled from his belt a copy of the orb he had used in the duel against the Drathonian aboard the Hymn. The man next to him looked confused by Garrett's smirk.

"What the hell is that?"

"Just keep your head down," Garrett replied, and then echoed those words at the top of his voice so that his teammates could hear him over the gun fire. Then he lobbed the shock orb toward the center of the enemy with the aim of sticking it to some unlucky smasher's chest. That was the aim, anyways, but not necessarily the outcome. In the end, he could only wait the allotted three seconds for deploy, and watch the fireworks.

As Jack heard someone from behind shout "Keep your head down," he quickly heeded the advice and shoved his head between his knees. An instant later an explosion went off just a few yards behind him, and a drathonian smasher's fried corpse went flying past his shoulder. The lizards in front of him stopped for a moment, confused by the sudden shock of the explosion. Taking advantage of the situation, Jack dove to the ground, taking cover behind the corpse of the hulking smasher. Trying his best to avoid being a target, he switched off his laser sight and went into heatvision mode on his scope. Pressing an eye against it, his trigger finger flashed and the tiger made a few quick jerks as he lets loose a volley of shots. A smasher directly ahead of Jack fell to its knees, a hole burnt through its skull. Jack pulled out his second spatial charge and sets it to go off on impact, carefully aiming as he hurled it over the smashers to come down smack in the middle of the blasters. He immediately turned his attention to the gaggle of hulking lizard men about him.

Jack felt a pang of sorrow as he turned just in time to see one directly to his left charge into his sergeant with a painfully loud crunch. The sergeant fell to the ground, motionless, as the smasher proceeded to crush him under a heel while bringing his weapon down on the head of a marine attempting to engage it. It smashed through his thick visor, and the marine crumpled to the the ground, his armor useless against the brute strength of the alien. His head buzzing with rage, Jack leapt to his feet, landing on the back of the alien. He shoves his gun into the side of its face, puncturing its scaly skin. "You no good alien b@$†@%#!!" he yelled through a snarling grimace. He pulled the trigger as a possessed look came across his face, and blood gushed onto his visor as the fleshy tower he was sitting atop came crashing to the ground. Standing up from the tangle of twisted limbs, Jack turned on the scope cam in his HUD, charging at the nearest lizard with a bellow aas he let loose another volley of shots aimed at its throat. Seeing his new squadmates die had really set Jack off.