Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 119: Tyranus Moon Base
"We are entering the moon's orbit now." Someone called from the cockpit. Salem was seated in the back with the others. Her small squad of five which had trained with Director Fenrir back at the Echo System. They were all wearing basic Infantry armors at the moment.
After she left the Echo System she reached out to her Union contact and told him about her disappearance and made a partial report about what she found. Then she dived into her Inquisitor work and gave some tips to the Union when they were getting close to finding a Union cell or base.
Now after a few days of quiet work she had gotten approval to move on a Tyranus base without giving it away. Since she had arrived at Inquisitor Headquarters she had met pressure from all sides but ignored it and instead had arrested at least one of her fellow Inquisitors when one of the Tyranus bases she found ended up empty.
She had very quickly become one of the most hated people among her fellow Inquisitors but that was the point of being sent here. She made enemies and now she knew clearly who was supporting the enemy openly and who she could turn to for help. Which is how she found her way to politically maneuver them to secretly attack a Tyranus base.
"This should do wonders for your stress, boss lady." One of the others told her. His name was Argon, he had grown up on Kamot and was usually under the command of Dakota's daughter. As the transport ship shuddered. "How are the other landing ship's doing?" He asked towards the cockpit.
"They are scattered around us. It seems like their operations commander clearly did not plan this well. But it does seem like they are avoiding us for some reason." The pilot told them.
Salem sighed as she realized what was going on, "take evasive maneuvers. Command is trying to single us out. When you land you will probably want to stay on the ground until we clear the area."
"Seriously, we have only been at it for a week. Are we annoying them so bad that they are giving up a base just to try and kill us?" Another of them, JC asked with laughter as he buckled into his seat.
"Probably, but they will still suffer a backlash from this. I will highlight the clear political maneuvering during a military operation and have them imprisoned or demoted." Salem declared as she moved to look through the window while holding onto a handhold.
She watched as they neared the location of the moon base she had located. They started firing cannons and surface to air rockets. As the base started appearing she could see most of them flying in their direction.
The pilot pitched the nose down and dived under the wave of explosives. "They really only aimed for us." The pilot leveled off once they were closer to the sandy dunes of the moon's surface. "Hopefully we do not get by any small arms."
They rounded another dune and the entrance to the base came into view. The external security consisted of turrets, some very obvious mines and people in infantry armor that were exiting taking cover behind small walls. One of the turrets fired a rocket and the ship veered to the side.
The ship shuddered and shook under the explosive impact as it shuddered. Salem just tightened her grip as the transport spun out about to crash. Then there was bouncing and shuddering as they crashed into the ground. The front window cracking and shattering releasing the air into space since the moon was lacking any atmosphere.
Once the ship stopped rocking Salem walked forward into the pilot's section. She checked the pilots and confirmed they were okay. Both were alive but the pilot was unconscious while the co-pilot was delirious. She then walked to the back where the others were beginning to climb out of their seats and grabbing their weapons.
She walked to a weapons rack and pulled her shotgun off a shelf, double checking it to make sure there was no damage. "JC and Angel, you lead the way. Watch for mines as we move." She then walked to the back ramp and hit a button and slammed open.
The rear ramp was not directly pointing at the base but it was aimed somewhat in the base's direction. So when they walked down the ramp they had a clear line of sight of base. JC and Angel led the way out, quickly jogging towards the Tyranus base while brandishing their weapons.
Argon and Lee were a second behind them with their sniper and submachine gun respectively. Salem walked behind them as they laid down covering fire while quickly covering the distance to the base.
As soon as they arrived at the base they could see the injured and dead traitors that JC and Angel had shot. The injured were slowly dying now that their Infantry armor had been compromised and they were exposed to space.
Salem looked over the armor and realized it was a mix of mercenary armor while some of the better Infantry armor had nobility regalia. Indicating that they were the children of nobles or nobles themselves. It was an older tradition that many of the Inquisitors still did.
"Nobles and mercenaries, they will not stand a chance." Lee chuckled out over their communication channel.
Salem rolled her eyes as she opened the exterior door for the airlock. "Do not get overconfident." She entered the airlock and looked through the clear airlock door and saw several more Tyranus soldiers running over. "Put explosives in the airlock." She then stepped out and the others stepped back as Lee tossed a chain of grenades in the airlock and closed the exterior door.
BOOM! WHOOSH!
A few seconds passed before a loud explosion threw the external door out into the sandy dunes. Then the air from the base began decompressing as a few bodies were pulled out. As they flew past her squad there were a few gunshots as they made sure all of them were dead.
"Argon, check the hole." Salem instructed as they pointed their guns at the entrance. Salem glanced in the air and saw that there were several ships still in the air. They were landing farther away because they were avoiding the anti-ship weapons.
"I see five people left in the hall. All nobles. Seems their armor saved them from the explosion and decompression." Argon declared from his spot peaking around the corner.
Salem nodded and then picked up one of the corpses with infantry armor in one hand. In her other hand she held the shotgun and marched into the hole where the airlock once was. Using the corpse as a shield as the nobles' weapons began bouncing off the armor.
It continued like that for a few seconds before she reached the closest noble in Infantry armor. His armor was severely damaged and when she tossed the corpse aside and pulled him by a collar in front of her he immediately began panicking and making motions with his hands. But his allies ignored him as their weapons began penetrating and breaching his armor, killing him.
Salem raised her shotgun and aimed it at the next closest noble and fired. There was an explosion of blood as his arm went flying through the air. While he began making panicking motions as well with his arm spewing blood from it. Salem ignored him and turned her attention to the last three down the hall. The one furthest back turned and began running down the hall.
There was a racing object that passed by her helmet and penetrated their helmet. Causing it to explode in a bloody mess covering part of the hall. Argon probably fired his sniper rifle to kill the running noble.
The last two moved forward quickly firing their weapons while ignoring their injured and likely dying friend. Once they were closer Salem threw the body she was using a shield at one of them while she quickly pumped her shotgun and dashed forwards so she was point blank with the last one.
Her shotgun fired and the man's torso disappeared in a bloody and chunky explosion that covered her and the last noble who had pushed aside the body. She pumped the shotgun again and then aimed at the head of the last one who was wiping blood off of their visor. As they cleared it enough that they could see and then flinched when they saw her pointing her gun at him.
Then she fired and blood and brain matter covered the wall. Then the body fell to the ground and she turned to look down the hall as the rest of her squad joined her.
"Was that enough? Or do you need to kill some more people?" Lee asked as they started walking down the hall with him taking the lead and Salem walking right behind him.
Salem chuckled, "that was therapeutic enough. How is our little spy doing?"
"Good, she has recorded the conversation and the captain's orders highlighting how his plans were an attempt to kill us." Argon explained.
Salem sighed as she started making her way down the hall. It was a shame she had enemies on all sides. But she was sent to the Inquisitors to root out all of the traitors she could and that was what she was doing.
