Battle Hymn of the Republic

"Pheh heh heh heh." chuckled Asher as their Sergeants took their turns with orders. He wasn't particular chuckling at the ragging on Cibo or just the nature of their humor, but rather what their orders signified. The Surandanian was expecting battle, a bigger, bloodier battle than the one they fought before. He broke off from Hector for a moment to find a decent place to use as cover for the battle, hopping over desks an consoles like some kind of monkey. Due to his size, and center of gravity, he seemed quite fit for clearing obstacles rather quickly. "Y'know, Draths are pretty fun t'fight." he said aloud, whilst comparing the best fields of fire with the doors, "Unlike tha' muties, they got some measure a brains, so they'll try t'trick ya, eventually. Not only that, they're bigga' n'actually equipped, so it juss' gets that much mo' interestin'." He squatted down in a spot he seemed to like. "But unlike tha' muties, they're predictable. Muties don' got tactics, so they'll juss' do anythin' an' go anywhere f'ya head. Draths? Iffn' they don' try t'outsmart ya, they'll just keep doin' tha' same tactics."

"Ew, ew, ew!" she sounded over the comms at the man. "What are you thinking Lieutenant?! Its very obvious Hector and Asher are nowhere near normal size! Just listen to them talking about how they'd love to swing around big giant guns! Normal men like you don't need those!" she exclaimed, crawling through the dark and thickly dusty vents.

"Y'really wanna' have that talk again, pancake?" asked Asher, giving another chuckle, this one reeking less of bloodlust.

"Well, sir, we wouldn't be steamrolled if I had a heavy weapon. And on a brighter note, we'd have three heavy weapons between Asher and myself just for little miss pancake's pleasure. Trust me gal, the shit they pumped through me didn't just make me taller and stronger. I could probably lift your skinny near-nonexistant ass with my two little fingers!" He let out a long, loud hearty laugh and nearly lost his cigar in the process.

"Honestly, I could give a damn about tactics. Give me a big ass gun and say 'FIRE' and I'll shoot them dead."

"That's great Hector, all your fantasizing is really spot-on. Trouble is we have none of your heavy weapons because the situation has changed beyond all possible prediction of the Kurogane's crew. Let's focus on what we have and go from there. Speaking of which," He pointed toward the starboard hall- the one not lined with explosive traps. Snag as many Drathonian guns as you can and stockpile them here. If nothing else, they'll make great bludgeoning weapons.

"Kai, do we have an ETA for engagement?"

"From what I can tell the ones who just landed will take about five minutes, but, who knows if there's not others already in the station." Kai responded to Hendlow, before ordering his squad to help Hendlow's with stockpiling the slugthrowers. The blonde himself began grabbing weapons and, before long, they'd had most of them gathered and brought into the control room.

"They shouldn't be long, Destiny and Cibo should let us know."

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As destiny and Cibo crawled their way through the vents, they would find them much as Destiny had before- quite full of dust. They were a veritable maze of tunnels sandwiched between the inner decks and the outer hull and systems, but they also followed a logical pattern, following along with the corridors and branching off to rooms, every so often leading down a bigger vent to one of the large Air conditioning/life support plants that had controlled the comfort and breatheability in the station back when it was in more use.

About 300 yards ahead, CIbo could see the first scouts- the small, quick moonies were ranging ahead quietly trying to scope out what kind of opposition they would be up against.

"Whatever....sir," grumbled Hector. He continued in a much cheerier voice, "Let's go make us some lizard smashers! Hahahaha! I need to find me some tape!"

Despite the lack of heavy projectile weapons, Hector was quite looking forward to the melee weapons he could make. "Lizard Smashers" were fun to make, the bigger the better. If they were big enough, he might be able to kill them in one swing! Oh the good times that were about to be had.

Cibo squeaked indignantly, but she couldn't so much as yell back at those idiots.

She was practically right on top of the Drathonians. How did she get there so soon? Because this kind of thing was her job! Since it was her job to be crawling through ductwork and sneaking around, Cibo made sure she was damn effing good at it! Killing her external speakers, Cibo carefully whispered to the two Lieutenants. "Drathonians, my position. Starboard hallway, 300 yards. Moonies. Can't count."

The rest had better kill the scouts and not let any get back alive. Otherwise, they'd be coming in prepared.

"You got it, boss! Scavengin's a specialty of mine. I know how t'make 40 bullets fit in a 30 bullet bag. I'cn salvage tha' springs off a gun n'make it look like hadn't even been opened! Grenades? Fuck, I'll scoop those up n'turn'm inta' a pineapple tree!" boasted Asher as he moved along, scooping up weapons, turning their safeties on as he put each under his arm. He'd gather a few, and then set them up against the wall, and go back for a few more, happily attending to his meager duties. "Yeeeeeeeeah boi! You want somethin' wit' mo' dakka? Boom! Strap two guns t'getha' and BOOM!" He spun around aiming two Drathonian weapons side by side into the air, making a fully-automatic gun noise.

"Mo' dakka!"

"I've got Moonies coming down my hall, too"Destiny called over the comms. "It seems they're scouting for the main force- shit, one just phased out, be careful, guys." The redhead continued her scouting venture, but then looked down a vent to her side, to see an odd bluish glow. "What the..." she asked herself heading toward it.

CIbo would notice a similar glow to her side as she moved forward- The vent would take her toward destiny, if she chose to go down it.

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"Alright everybody, get back inside, we've got Moonies phasing out, so we need to be ready. their main force is probably just behind, but I think Destiny found something, She hasn't reported back yet." Sergeant Nakamura ordered, getting his SGUR readied by giving it a final check-over. "I don't want any screw ups, alright?"

Cibo immediately perked up as she listened in on their various comm channels. What had the other woman found? 'Is it something shiny?' the Intelligence Officer wondered. 'Oh! What if it's glowing? Or, or what if it's both?!' She cued her comms, her voice carrying a hint of glee as she eyed the light. "I see a path or something that'll take me towards Destiny. Moving to back her up." Cibo spoke over to Garrett and Kai.

The slim woman started to crawl towards Destiny.

Not even time enough to erect a scaly barricade. Damn. Garrett moved his team back to the control room, but kept his eyes on the hallway. He hated that cloaking tech. Sure, it was easy to disrupt, but it was even easier to accidentally overlook a slight warp in the air and get gunned down by one of the little cowardly bastards. Thankfully they were even more cowardly than they were stupid, so a soldier rarely had to worry about them pulling something slick- like sneaking past the Marines and flanking.

"Eyes open, coms critical only. We're in deep shit now, so get focused."