Ravens of Eternity

79 Massacre at Dendrus, Pt Deep inside the bunker, only the sound of groans and buckling metal filled the darkened rooms and hallways. After a moment, emergency orange lights switched on as the secondary generators spun up and delivered much-needed power to the nearly-dead base.

The thick heavily reinforced bunker walls had cracked and crumbled everywhere, with some areas having collapsed entirely. Large chunks of the ceilings and walls had fragmented and caved in, which allowed piles of dirt from the hill above to come pouring in as well.

The unfortunate few ended up crushed to death under those mounds of rubble, though the impact had killed most of them instantly, thankfully enough. Those who were truly unlucky died slow, agonizing deaths as the dirt and debris asphyxiated and compressed their fragile human bodies.

Getting buried alive has always been one of the worst ways to die. Everytime one breathed, the soil would shift to fill the space left behind. Eventually, their lungs wouldn’t be able to move, and they would have suffocated to death.

One of the technicians had been buried under the soil, but unluckily wasn’t killed outright. Everytime he breathed, the soil would fill in where his expanded chest was. Eventually, his lungs weren’t able to move at all. The tech suffocated to death alone, and in complete darkness.

The command core had taken the least amount of damage as it was the most protected and armored. But even then, large cracks had appeared all over the walls, and the ceiling threatened to crumble at any moment. Handfuls of dirt fell through some of the cracks, but it held.

At least, for the time being.

Some of the fallen officers climbed back to their feet, though they were all shaken to a great degree. The constant pounding of the enemy artillery had caused huge waves of sound pressure to constantly reverberate up and down the halls, which deafened and disoriented many.

Some fell back down and vomited due to the prolonged dizziness they felt. A handful even bled from their ears.

.....

The female junior officer ran over to the senior officer, who was lying limply on the ground. She got down on her knees by his side, and looked him over for any wounds. Her mind was still fuzzy, but she pushed through the haze and concentrated on checking his vitals.

She felt his heart beat through the tips of her fingers.

“Still alive!” she exclaimed. “The major’s still alive!”

Nearly half his face was bathed in blood, which shocked her. She rolled him onto his back and checked the side of his head. There was an inch-long gash just above his ear. Blood kept streaming out of it.

She glanced up to the tacmap, and noted that one edge had a small amount of blood on it. It was easy to conclude that he hit his head on the edge, which caused it to split open.

She opened up comms through her DI as she pulled a medical kit from a compartment on the tacmap’s table. The comm officer on the other end didn’t even have time to say anything before she could bark out her orders.

“Send medics to the command core, stat! The major’s down! Bleeding with a head wound. Unconscious, possible concussion, but alive and breathing.”

The junior officer then washed off the wound as quickly as she could, but blood kept on coming out. Undeterred, she pressed down on it with some sterile pads in one hand to help staunch the blood a little. With the other hand, she fished around the kit for a medical pen.

When she found one, she pulled its top off with her teeth, then prepped the tip for a quick suture.

The tiny display on the pen turned green the moment it was ready, and she didn’t hesitate to pull the bloodied pads away to seal the wound. With steady movements, she circled the wound with the pen, and deployed a nanite swarm right on his skin.

They quickly sank down and worked to bind the laceration back together. They did this by connecting the skin to themselves, as well as to each other. Sort of like a subatomic zipper made out of hyper-intelligent robots.

The junior officer watched in awe as the gash slowly snapped shut by itself, as though it was somewhat magnetic. Though the skin was brought back together, blood still seeped through it.

She quickly activated the cauterization function, which showed a little countdown on the pen. When it hit ‘One’, the nanites superheated themselves for a brief moment, fused the flesh together, and stopped the bleeding completely.

Once the major’s vitals were determined to be stable, the nanites resurfaced from his skin automatically. There, they were easily scooped back up into the medpen, where they were flash-sterilized for the next use.

She hoped she didn’t have to use it again.

Someone else’s life was literally in the palm of her hands, and the thought alone caused her to shiver from the weight of that responsibility. But she quickly shook it off, stood up straight, and looked around the room.

Everything was in a disarray, and many were still laid out on the ground. Those who were up were still in a bit of a daze and struggled to maintain their balance. A few even fell back down in defeat.

Almost all of the monitors and screens had been badly damaged and rendered completely inoperable. The tacmap itself was frozen solid, but it wasn’t broken or damaged. Rather, it wasn’t deemed as critical equipment, and couldn’t be added to the emergency circuits.

In fact, only half of the equipment in the command center had power going to it, and that severely impacted their effectiveness.

With the major down, and no-one in command, the junior officer was forced to step up. Although she had plenty of officer training, this was on a whole ‘nother level. She grit her teeth as her mind raced to figure out what to do next.

Running blind and on low power... Comms!

She looked around the room frantically, and immediately ran towards one of the few operational terminals. The technician who manned it was just getting his bearings back when she suddenly rushed to his side.

He was thrown off-guard by the severe expression plastered on her face, and reeled slightly. She was stressed all to hell.

“Open base comms!” she ordered. “Send an alert – let them know that the major has been rendered unconscious but is alive. I’m temporarily taking over duties until he’s fit to return to command. Clear?”

“Yes, ma’am!”

The tech immediately got to work, and began to report command’s status throughout the bunker.

“Good. And someone get me damage reports, stat. We’ll need to seal any breaches asap.”

“Hey!” interjected the anxious junior officer. “Who the hell died and made you the boss? If I might remind you, we’re both XO’s! But now you’re somehow the one in charge?! Fucking ludicrous!”

He had come to his senses moments ago, and quickly gathered up his wits just as she issued the temporary change of command. When he saw that she had started to take charge, he couldn’t help but object. Something within him simply couldn’t abide by her command.

He felt that she wasn’t deserving of it.

“We don’t have time for this horseshit!” she retorted angrily. “You were knocked out, so I had to do something. If anything, you oughta blame yourself for your own inadequacies.”

“Captain!” yelled a nearby tech. “Emergency at the hangar bay! Outer airlock doors are reported as breached. Inner airlock doors are severely weakened, but secure. For now.”

“What about the outer defenses?” she asked. “The pillboxes, armor, and so on?”

“No word on the pillboxes, ma’am. Not my unit.”

“Well, dammit, then figure out who that unit is, join them, and find out their status! Now’s the time to step up... And send the alert to deploy all available mecha immediately to defend the hangar! That’s now our forward operating position!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“The hell is all this?!” interjected the other junior officer again. “I’m goddamned captain too, you realize that, right?”

This time he stomped towards the female captain, and shoved a finger in her face angrily as he continued his rant.

“And that means we should be sharing command right now!” he snarled.

“I agree wholeheartedly!” she shot back. “So I suggest, captain, that you make yourself useful instead of whining all the time!”

“Whining? I’m just being real here – you’ve usurped power just because the major’s down! What made you so qualified for the position, hm? Hell, I don’t even know why you’re a captain! How do you think you’re gonna save us from getting killed, huh? Come on, tell us the plan!”

Her eyes narrowed as he spoke. The Hegemony Hussars were no doubt on their way. Their doors were busted and weak, and they had no idea if their defenses were even powered up. Hell, they didn’t even know if the bombardment had ended.

Her anger for his wastefulness sharpened to a point, and she struck him with it.

“I’ve earned my marks through countless commendations for meritorious service, which you clearly don’t know a thing about. Our base is literally falling apart, and all you’re doing is crying about rank and moaning about being doomed. You think that’s the kind of leadership that’s gonna save us from Hussar blades?”

His face paled as he imagined a Hussar saber cutting his head clean off his neck. The shock of it stunned him into silence. And before he could recover and retort, she pressed her attack for the kill.

Her voice grew colder as she spoke.

“You might be fine with keeling over and dying without a fight, but I’m not. If this is it for us, if we’re destined to die here, then I’m gonna make sure that we bring them all down too. So how about you do some meritorious service of your own for goddamned once, get in a mecha, and kill us some fucking Hussars? That a good enough plan for you?!”

By the time she was done, he had shrunk back a great deal. His hand went up to his neck and pressed slightly into the flesh. He felt his airway constrict just a little bit, and that was enough for him to tear his hand away.

Of course he was afraid. They all were. But as an officer, he needed to be better than that. Like his fellow captain had said, this was their duty, and in no way could they take this all lying down.

“Y-You’re right,” he stammered. “I’ll... go lead the forward position.”

Her stance softened, and she gave him a firm nod in response. She felt it was also her duty to be at the hangar, but with the major incapacitated, there was no-one else to keep things in order.

“Good,” she said. “Send our enemies to hell, captain.”