"Carnival"

[Kansas_Jones 0]

04.18.07

USS Excalibur

“Carnival”

 

Lieutenant junior grade JoNs dove behind a jagged outcropping of asteroid rock, a beam from one of the defense turrets striking the ground she had been scrambling across moments before. The Caitian felt like a target from one of those carnival shooting games that had been so popular on Cait hundreds of years ago.

 

She glanced quickly at the data screen imbedded into the left gauntlet of her EV suit, checking again that she was still in the “safe zone” with regard to the surrounding landmines. Safe zone? Pardon? Insert scathing commentary here.

 

To be fair, saying that the entire mission to breach the Scorpiad asteroid facility was fragged was a bit harsh. However, they were scrooged six ways to Grethor with the timetable change – nothing like having your first entry point compromised and having to go locate another entry while automated defense turrets fire away at you. Oh…Joy. And she didn’t mean the ambassador attached to the Excal.

 

The Caitian officer grabbed asteroid turf again as another defense beam sliced through the cold of space and blew another crater in the asteroid’s surface. She continued moving, physically working in tandem with her EV adhesive boots and the thruster pack as she kept pace with the team. The feline lieutenant naturally fell into a rear point guard position, covering the team and watching their backs as they scouted out and located another possible entry point. She was aware of Ensign Garigo, the big male Capellan, floating up beside her and helping to take potshots at the defense turrets.

 

Then, Garigo wasn’t there anymore. One of the beams hit home, slicing into his neck and upper chest, simultaneously shearing through the skin and cauterizing the open wounds. The man didn’t even have time to scream.

 

Garigo…rather, his head…still encased within the EV helmet…floated away, no longer having any anchor to the body. Bits of blood and spinal fluid that had escaped were evaporated in the extreme cold of the vacuum.

 

The torso was another matter. The force of the death blow had caused Garigos mortal remains to float into Left Ear, and she was jolted – both mentally and physically - as the body impacted with her. The only thing that kept the Caitian from puking in her helmet was, well, the thought of puking in her helmet; this was never a good thing to do in an enclosed EV suit.

 

She grappled with the body husk, and managed to push it away, causing it to drift without the benefit of user controlled boot adhesive or thruster pack. The man’s mortal remains floated away and became one with the darkness of space as Left Ear scrambled behind another rock outcropping a split second before another beam vaporized the ground she had been standing on.

 

Left Ear continued her run and gun, focusing on reaching the new entry point everyone was going pell mell for. There was no time to mourn now; she would mourn the fallen later.

 

The Caitian lieutenant had no intention of being a recipient of a one way ticket into whatever hell the Scorpiads believed in.

[Dox Maturin 0]

Poor Garigio! Very exciting log B)