Author Notes:
Welp, after a couple of days to recharge my battery, I am back with the new GSS chapter! My apologies for the wait, and I hope you all will enjoy the new release. Do comment, review, and show some support if any of my stories catch your interest~!
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OBOM Visual Guide:
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I lost sight of Johnson's group when they entered the train car with the second makeshift bomb. However, I do know for a fact that Sister Setsuna has left behind quite a mess of body parts, chopped-up armor, and weapons on the ground for Johnson's party to navigate around. Like a freight train, Setsuna has crashed through the defense of the Dregs around the second bomb before moving on to clear the cars ahead of it. Right now, she is still making herself a bigger target than she is by kicking down one bulkhead after another, lessening the pressure on the boarding party so that they can defuse the second bomb safely. It's a bit of a risky maneuver, but I trust that her new body of alloy will see her through.
Who knows, this may even be a blessing in disguise, helping Sister Setsuna get into the groove of using her newfound strength properly.
"We're at bomb number two. Data-interrogator is already working on it." Johnson reports. From him, we can hear scattered gunfire.
"Concentrate on that, Sarge. We got your back." I communicate with the man.
Then, Weiss taps my shoulder, pointing out in the far-off distance on the other side of the speeding train.
"Dust cloud in the distance," Weiss says. "Is that our QRF or what?"
I shake my head, already feeling something is wrong with that dust cloud. The Archmagos Dominus then enlightens Weiss by saying.
"Negative. QRF is not in visual distance. Detecting multiple fast-moving vehicles, dune buggies, approaching the train right now. They are hostile."
Hearing this, Blake, our pilot, contacts her wingwoman. "Roughneck 1-2, you heard the Dominus; divert to intercept those buggies. We will hold down the fort here."
"Copy that. Be careful, 1-1." Receiving her order, Yang, the pilot of the other Valkyrie, turns her aircraft 45 degrees to port and speeds up to meet the enemy vehicles before they get to the train.
"I should be the one saying that..." Blake sighs before cutting the Vox link.
"Yang's Valkyrie is equipped with a Lascannon, and she has Rocket Pods. She may be a bit of a daredevil, but I trust her to dispatch the buggies safely, Blake." I advise our pilot through the aircraft intercom. "She will be fine."
"That bit of a daredevil is exactly what I'm worried about." Blake responds, and I feel there's a wry smile on her face. "For all I know, she may take her Valkyrie low and fast to try and race those buggies, rather than using altitude to her advantage."
I fall silent at that image, and Weiss next to me interjects after a giggle.
"You know, Yang does give people that impression. It's no wonder she buddy up so quickly to Scorpin and her Squad."
"Well, they're both boisterous and love going hard and fast with things going boom, boom, and boom." I smile too, then pull us back to the topic at hand. "John, how goes the defusal work?"
"Bloody Data-interrogator..." Is Johnson's reply. " Always so slow when we need it... There! Second bomb is defused!"
"Good, because we may have a situation up ahead." I say. " Sister Setsuna, I see that you have stopped. What's the holdup?"
"I am looking at a cradle for an artillery shell right now. The walkway through it is misaligned with the rest of the train." Setsuna replies through the Vox network. "My Jump Pack will carry me over it just fine, but the same can't be said for the others."
I frown. "Are you able to start a realignment, Sister Setsuna?"
"I am at the control terminal now... Negative. It's out of power."
"So either we rush up and give the Data-interrogator to the Sister so that she can go ahead and defuse the remaining bombs, if there are any remaining." Johnson speaks up as he runs with the rest of our Platoon. "Or we find a fresh power source for that cradle."
"No offense, Sister Setsuna, but going with the former suggestion involves too many risks." I say. "You may be ok, but the Data-interrogator is fragile."
"None taken. From a rational standpoint, this munition hauler should have a spare power source somewhere; we need to find it."
"You need to find them." Cawl corrects. "I have marked the location of one battery for the cradle on the Sister of Battle's Auspex. Sergeant Johnson, your unit will need to search for a yellow container, both directly to the wall and in the next car you come across. Open the container and retrieve the battery inside. What's next is a simple matter of replacing the old battery with a fully charged one. I trust even pre-servitors can handle such a simple replacement."
"You heard the Dominus," Johnson speaks, presumably to the rest of 3rd Platoon around him. "Roll out, and secure that battery!"
"So I have to backtrack up to the scaffolding of the previous car?" Sister Setsuna comments. "Odd choice of a place to store a battery."
"I have learned enough to understand that you shouldn't question Mechanicus logic much, Sister Setsuna." I reply to her with a grin. "Surprisingly, if their metallic guts tell them it's ok to install a battery on an unstable platform, then they will, until someone with higher authority overrides that decision."
"What the Corporal said is... Actually not incorrect." Even Cawl admits my opinion has credence.
Surprisingly, even Master chimes in, seemingly in ponder and amazement.
[Jingwei: Why does it sound like the Mechanicus is a practitioner of Feng Shui?]
I would laugh if I were in a private setting.
"... Perhaps I should feel lucky that none of those mechanical oddballs were involved in my reconstruction process." Setsuna replies at last, not even pausing after jumping and touching down on the scaffolding she previously cleared out to search for the marked container.
From my point of view, Setsuna is swift to locate, open, and retrieve the battery, hoisting it on one hand while wielding her Bolt Pistol warily on the other.
"I got one battery." Setsuna announces.
"This is Johnson; we've located ours." Johnson reports. "Rendezvous with you in a second."
"Be swift, everyone." I remind. "The clock is ticking."
"Don't rush me as if I am a stowaway, girl." Johnson laughs as he and the rest of 3rd Platoon finally come into view.
Johnson, alongside Setsuna, starts installing the new batteries. Once that's done, Scorpin hits the realignment button to turn the circular munition cradle clockwise. As they wait for the walkway to align itself with the rest of the train, thus forming a path forward, Setsuna nods in Johnson's direction before using her Jump Pack to go ahead.
I then speak into the intercom.
"Blake, take us to the front cars; it's time we end this."
"Roger that." Blake obliges my request.
I give Weiss a nod, signalling her to support Sister Setsuna if she can get a clear shot at any cultist that comes out of their hiding spot. While we're rendering fire support to Setsuna, Roughneck 1-2 gives a report on her end.
"This is Roughneck 1-2. Enemy vehicles decimated. You're clear on this front, boarding party. Making my way back now."
"Great work, 1-2. Be seeing you soon." Blake sighs in relief.
"Thanks for the compliment, boss."
The conversation between the pilots is cut short when a new, no-nonsense voice intrudes into our Vox network.
"This is Commissar Vesna. I have ordered an evacuation, but these things take time that we do not have. I require a status report."
Obviously, the apt person to reply to this query is none other than my mechanical teacher, Cawl.
"Would you care for the status to be conveyed in Binharic or Gothic, oh Lady of Unbridled Authority?" Although there's some noise present in the Vox communication, I can perfectly infer the sarcasm in the Archmagos Dominus' voice.
"The path's set!" Johnson barks over the Vox link. "Go! Go! Go! Support the Sister of Battle!"
With 3rd Platoon charging forward, I devote myself fully to the elimination of targets of opportunity. With the roaring of Weiss' Heavy Bolter as a backdrop, I lose myself in the constant repetition of minute adjustments and pulling the trigger. It's when the Setsuna reaches the last few cars that I sense something's wrong.
I warn. "Sister Setsuna. Stop and wait for 3rd Platoon to catch up. It should be any moment now."
"What is it, Ein? Did you sense something?" Setsuna inquires; a certain severity creeps into her tone when she hears my advice.
I reply directly. "Nothing good behind that door." I say, noting how there hasn't been any Dreg coming out of the last few cars.
My suspicion is that they're booby-trapped on the other side to prevent unwanted intrusion.
"I know we don't have time, but there's an ambush behind that door. You will need to wait for Johnson to come up with breaching charges. Then you two can coordinate an attack from multiple fronts."
"Sounds like a plan, Corporal." Johnson says as he reaches Setsuna's position after stepping through many intact corpses. "Ma'am, here."
Johnson then passes a small Melta charge, shaped into a circular strip, to Setsuna. "Pull the cord, and the charge will slacken for you to adjust the shape of your entryway. Once you're ready, connect it to this Clacker via a detonation cord. Pull the trigger at least twice to ensure proper detonation."
"Not a model I am familiar with, but I get the gist of it." Setsuna says as she accepts the breaching charge.
"Ein made this and more. It gives us more options." Johnson replies before he gestures with his head, and Scorpin's Squad moves to provide cover and to set up the breaching charge on the supposedly booby-trapped doorway. The charge will take out anything attached to and behind it.
Simultaneously, Setsuna jumps onto the roof of the ambush car before proceeding to move to the other end of it. It's when she's up there that Setsuna sees the corpses left rotting on the roof and beyond by the combined effort of Weiss and me. This is the last enclosed car before the engine car, so if there's a bomb remaining, the ambush car is the only thing that can hide it. When Setsuna turns to nod at the Valkyries flying escort, more specifically giving Weiss and me her regards, I return the gesture by giving her a two-finger salute.
Once the breaching charges are set on both ends of the ambush car, and the boarding party clears themselves away from the blast zone, Johnson starts counting.
"Breaching in three... Two... One... Fire in the hole!"
CLACKCLACK
BOOM
Without much preamble, the booby-trapped door is blown off its hinges by superheated energy, taking with it the wire links to the pins of the grenades mounted by the door frame. Understandably, a few Dregs are crushed to paste by the heavy door that comes at them like mama's slipper, and the subsequent explosions are enough to indicate that the booby-trapped grenades have also exploded and maybe even peppered some other Dregs to death.
When the explosions haven't even stopped flying yet, and when the Dregs are still stunned by the breaching from two ends of the car, 3rd Platoon has already charged through the smoke-filled doorway, Flash Shields, Shock Mauls, and guns blazing. Their speedy momentum as they smash and shoot up the car creates the split-second distraction needed for Setsuna to finish her breach by jumping down from the hole in the roof. With Bolt Pistol aimed and Power Sword swinging, Setsuna decapitates and explodes the Dregs in the rear line in a shower of blood and bone matter. Setsuna's intrusion breaks the little backbone the Dregs have left, as they turn and fight like helpless chickens, trapped between a rock and a hard place. Their leader, seemingly a champion among the Dregs, hasn't even managed to raise his looted Plasma Gun when Setsuna's Power is already piercing him high into the air like a fish on a skewer.
With a low roar, Setsuna then swings her Power Sword, throwing the Dreg Champion's body, now severed in two halves, at the bunch of scared, shitless Dregs. Without hesitation, she raises her Bolt Pistol to purge the corpse and the knocked-down Dregs from the face of Cadia.
"A deserved fate for one such as he." I can hear Cawl comment idly.
Eventually, the entire ambush car is cleansed, and the Data-interrogator is put to work again on the last bomb.
"One last cluster, then maybe we can breathe easier." Johnson says.
"I need a SITREP." Comes the voice of the Cadian 53rd's Commissar.
"A moment, oh Lady of Unbridled Authority." And then there's Cawl's strangely sarcastic tone. The ensuing silence is probably because Cawl is communicating on a secure channel with that Commissar again.
As the Data-interrogator is rapidly filling its progress bar, Setsuna nods at Johnson's direction. "We still need to stop the train physically."
Before Johnson can even reply, RTX-6090 suddenly lurches and slows down visibly, eventually coming to a full stop.
"Wait, did we somehow do that?" Johnson asks, looking in the direction of the engine car.
As the door to the engine car opens with a screeching sound, akin to rusted rollers moving, Weiss and I are revealed for all to see. Behind us is the landed posture of Roughneck 1-1.
"No need for further trouble, everyone. I have taken matters into my own hands." As if punctuating my words, the Data-interrogator let out a series of beeping sounds, signifying the defusal of the detonating mechanism on the last bomb.
"Hah! Well, that was timely." Johnson grins, giving the Rookie and me a thumbs-up.
And for the last time, we hear the voice of Commissar Vesna of the Cadian 53rd.
"It seems that the 53rd is in your debt. We will not forget this."
Guess we got ourselves some new friends.