Thread:FleetCaptainT/@comment-27324808-20170630185715

Fifty-three

  In the hour after meeting Verbina, Intrepid made his way back to the Assembly plaza lugging a bright yellow backpack. The hazard markings defied his preference for discreetness, but the visibility kept personnel away from him and his volatile cargo, which was nice. It took reverse engineering the Unverse Manipulator and accessing emergency resources, but Verbina was talented and quick. In twenty minutes she produced two boxes of Unverse Bombs for Stage 2 of their plan.

  After stowing those weapons and his repaired Manipulator on the Starchief, Intrepid went to meet with Suave and the rest of the strike team. The plaza had been cleared of civilians, nonessential personnel, and uninvolved soldiers so the least amount of people were in harms way: only Suave’s team of thirty Sentinel commandos and the rest of their team. Including Suave they totaled forty-eight. Krill Mathias was excluded since no one knew where he was, and Luke and Mara were staying behind on the Starchief.

  Ten rifle-equipped Sentinels were placed on the room’s balconies with Sergeant Ghost Mustache leading them, their weapons trained on the Ring. Everyone else was on the ground including the Super Sentinel, who stood before the Ring Breacher with one hand over his zipgun and the other over his stubble.

  Suave spoke when Intrepid approached him. “There’s reason to believe that opening a connection with the Maelstrom Dimension will open us to attack, hence this arrangement.”

  He gestured to the balcony-based Sentinels. “I see,” Intrepid nodded.

  “We can’t have any fatalities.” Suave said grimly. “Rescue missions just aren’t viable if you lose more people than you save. I value the lives of every one here.”

  “Me too.” Intrepid said. “Here, and there, and wherever.”

  “Good,” Suave shifted on his feet. “Depending on what happens, I might be better purposed staying here, in which case you’re the effective leader of this operation going forward. Just remember every life matters. Our friends will understand if we can’t save them.”

  “If they’re even still alive,” Intrepid added, since they were leaving no words unspoken, until there was nothing more to say. Suave turned to join the squad closest to the Ring, with Blade, Argon, Rover, Shadow, and six unfamiliar Sentinels. Intrepid continued on to the next group with Skilled, Kate, Stunt, Rare, Shira, Jonna, Ray, Tornado, Cailan and Crimson, and Ben who held a remote Ring activation switch.

  “Don’t be a pessimist.” Shira said once Intrepid took a combat stance next to her. “I mean, there’s a healthy amount of pessimism, you know I’d know.” She laughed. “I don’t want to see you exceed that.”

  “Thanks for looking out for me.” Intrepid said. He

  “I’m all in favor of optimism.” Kate said, and they turned to her. “I also heard what Sauve said. Keeping our team safe is noble, I can agree with stopping the mission short to safe lives. But personally, I won’t leave without Cyclone and the others… or until we know what happened to them, if they… you know.” She gave them a small smile, but her eyes looked pained to even suggest what she didn’t want to say.

  “Don’t tell Suave, but I am with you and I agree with everything you said.” Intrepid said.

  “I think we all do.” Shira pointed out. “We’re with you.” she repeated.

  “I don’t even know you, or your friends,” Ray said, “but I followed you this far, so I can confirm Shira is right.”

  “Of course I’m right.”

  Their headsets clicked and Suave’s voice came through. “The teams are positioned, we’re ready for the breach.”

  “That’s you, buddy.” Intrepid said to Ben who still held the remote switch. He had built it, he may as well be the one to press it.

  The red haired boy’s mouth was a thin line as he held up the radio box. It beeped to confirm its connection with a robotic arm sitting next to the Ring Breacher’s controls, in the potential line of fire, while the minifigures kept a safe distance away.

  “T-minus three.” Ben whispered. “Two. One.” He pressed the button and the robotic arm extended to pull the activation lever on the Ring.

  The Ring lit up and there was a rush of wind as the air pressure in the room lowered, then returned to normal levels. Purple clouds formed at the Ring’s event horizon as it opened a wormhole through Maelstrom infected Unverse, and Imagination water started to rain from the ceiling mounted anti-infection suppression system. The clouds were dissipated and a scene appeared in the Ring’s event horizon: several parked crafts, spaceships large and small and lines of personal sized fighters and rockets. Boarding the spaceships were columns of Stromling soldiers, mechs, and Spiderlings. Every five seconds, a spaceship would just disappear from thin air. Then a Stromling in Maelstrom Engineer clothes happened to walk past the other end of the breach, before it stopped to retrace his steps. For a moment it stared through, marveling in the view from one dimension to another, until a zipgun blast smashed it.

  Intrepid took off running, his team behind him, Suave’s team ahead of him. He glanced sideways at Sergeant and the rifle contingent who were making their way down from the balconies. The lack of resistance meant they were all going in together, to the Maelstrom Dimension, to save their friends.

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