103 to 104-1103 – Sakaliin
As darkness sank across Proving Site Nine, the party and the other inhabitants of the site realised that they were all but out of time to make any further preparations for the onslaught that lay ahead. In front of them were the remains of Ken Himoji’s body: the mining specialist had proved too heedless of the risks presented by the Creepers and had been mauled and poisoned by them as a result. Beside him lay the carcasses of a Feeder and a Killer, with another, very-much-alive Breeder slowly losing interest in the buggy it had been obsessed with. Killing it was the first task, but this took yet more ammunition from the dwindling supplies within the camp.
As well as the Travellers, the site still held:
- Anson Kobleinz, another victim of kidnap like the group, who was beginning to regain memories of her life as a Belter in the Wildeman system in the Trojan Reach
- Lance Person, also kidnapped, a mineralogist from nearby Estos
- Sayelle Mikolos, the engineer from the smallhauler Maus who was helping fix the broken Walker: refined, reserved and quiet
- Hambley Tommerman, the bluff, confident captain of the smallhauler
- Telford Abergavenny, the medical tech for Proving Site Nine
- Corey Shiro, the site’s young, terrified drone operator
- Katriona Starvni, who described herself as the “scientist, just barely” for the proving site
Ken Himoji and Davide Maxanni, the co-pilot of the Maus, were both dead already, as were several Proviing Site technical staff who had been killed the previous night.
When the first full wave of Pederson’s Creepers finally turned their attention on the camp, the defenders found themselves facing at least a dozen of them, including a Killer, a couple of Breeders and nine Feeders. The group had a wide arc to defend, only partially protected by log barricades and shallow, diesel-filled trenches which had yet to be lit.
In the right-centre, Ken’s body had been placed on top of one of the bombs, and this quickly attracted a group of scavengers which were destroyed by the ensuing explosion. As a result, the fight on the right flank went well for Zhana and Perre, while the centre was held by Vanderpool, Drevil and the Belter Anson, but the left flank began to collapse, with first Lance and then Hambley killed as a Killer and a Feeder emerged from the bushes on that side. Ferrik and Dr Hakim were under heavy pressure but as the others were able to drive off the rest of the attackers with gunfire and grenades, they were able to move to the left and shore it up, with cutlass-work in particular proving effective.
There followed a lull of several hours. Yet more Creepers appeared outside the defences, but they were initially distracted by cannibalising the bloody remains of their own nest-mates. After a time, they completed this task and there was a brief, eery quiet, during which time Sayelle and Captain Drevil completed the repairs to the Walker, which sputtered into life with a blast of black, diesel smoke before Drevil triumphantly piloted it out into the encampment, testing the controls.
Soon, the Creepers re-emerged, perhaps drawn by the noise and electrical activity of the Walker, and an even larger attack fell upon the defenders. Telford triggered the second switch a little early, only catching three Creepers who had been drawn to the bodies of Lance and Hambley, and those in the surrounding area were covered in the exploded remains of creepers and corpses alike.
This time, a Thinker was visible fifty yards away, and it seemed to be almost guiding the attack from its place on the mine site embankment. While a few of the Feeders and Breeders attacked the left flank, they were driven back by the bomb, burning diesel and the fire and grenades of the heavily-armed Ferrik Osmund. Others attacked the centre, including a Killer that had been covered in diesel and which had caught light. These tried to clamber over the barricades and a fierce fight began as Vax Vanderpool, Rosa Perre and Lt Colonel Zhana rained fire down on them from above, their bullets rendered less effective by the armour of the Killer but deadly against the others.
The main force fell on the open right flank, undefended by fire pits or barricades, and here Travis Drevil placed the Walker in position in the centre of the gap, using its huge manipulators to smash down on the skulls of the Creepers which approached. One after another attempted to pass, and although the Walker took damage, and Corey and Anson were badly injured on each side of the Walker by other attacks by a Breeder and a Killer, eventually the great metal machine took its toll on the attackers and those in the centre were able to roll up the flank of the Creepers’ attacks.
In the meanwhile, however, Ferrik Osmund had been injured and Telford had gestured to come over to where he and Sayelle were sheltering. Instead of treating him, however, Telford injected him with what seemed to be the same psychoactive sedative as had been used on the party in their low berths, and Sayelle attacked him at the same time. Osmund called out to the others but couldn’t be heard over the sounds of gunfire, clanging metal, diesel fire and the screeching of the Creepers as they attacked and died. When the fight ended and others ran over, Sayelle and Telford explained that Osmund had been stung by a Creeper and had gone berserk, attacking them and forcing them to defend themselves by giving him a sedative.
As the party took in their surroundings, they saw that Rosa, Ferrisk, Vax, Anson, Telford and Corey were all injured – some badly so – and that an even bigger swarm of Creepers was assembling. Dr Bilal al-Hakim took pictures and copious notes while he could on these strange creatures. But more and more were assembling.
Retreating into the larger residential building, they made a last stand, using the last of their grenades and ammunition to kill as many Creepers as they could, but the waves seemed inexhaustible…
Then, as Creepers climbed onto the roof of their building, hurled themselves at the windows and burrowed into the ground under the floor, the party received a message from the incoming freighter: they were on final approach and would be using their shipboard lasers to clear the area, so could the party mark their position? As only one building still had lighting, this was easy, and there was the sound of a ferocious attack as the massive beam lasers of the hovering craft swept the area, filling the building with the repulsive chemical smell of the burned Creeper bodies where they had been carved open by laser beams two full inches wide.
The freighter was too large to risk landing on unprepared ground, but it sent down a modular cutter to rescue the survivors while the ship’s gunners stayed at their posts, scanning the ground for danger and occasionally loosing another blast where they saw movement in the tree line. The exhausted Travellers and their companions, having been awake for 22 hours of heavy physical activity and of fighting, collapsed in the hold of the cutter as they were taken to the giant ship overhead.
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