27. A Temperamental Void Shield

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Nearly There

With the crew back up to full strength we started moving back towards The Stone Shark. Flicker seemed at ease, and the crew seemed to like her. She’d proven herself in a fight and not gonna lie, a Time-walker could be very handy. You don’t come across too many of them, not that want to join a crew anyway. I’m hopeful that she works out, at least long enough to get us out of this place. Once we’re clear, we can either part ways or keep her on permanently. I’d like it to be permanent, recruitments a pain in the fucking ass.

Miraculously, we hadn’t encountered any Hastian’s victims since we met Flicker and none of us believed they were all dead. They must be up ahead of us, and this was making the crew twitchy. I knew we were getting close to the Hanger Bay so gathered the crew around.

“Okay,” I started, “according to the map, we have a single room to go through, then we’re back to the original hanger bay. Of idle concern is that the room ahead is a fucking massive hanger. Given what ours looked like when we touched down, this one may be full of zombies and crews. Stay sharp, keep it moving, and let’s finish this. We can regroup back at The Stone Shark, which is only a few hundred metres away. Let’s go.”

Everyone checked their weapons, stated readiness, and we rolled forward into the hanger bay.

Explosives?!

It was a large space. Not as big as the one we used, but not too far off either. As I suspected, there were corpses everywhere. Not just zombies, though plenty of them, but independent crews as well. I figure those crews had done us a favour. All those folks that came here and died at the landing site. Whittled the numbers down, let us get deeper into the station. Sucks to be them, rocks to be us.

As we assessed the space it became apparent that not everything was dead. Space suits were wandering around. It was the strangest thing. Old, battered, but still clearly sealed and full of gas. And moving. One of them turned towards us and I saw the Hastian’s victim inside it.

“Oh you are fucking kidding me!” exclaimed Doc. We all spun to look at him. He continued, “When a body dies it decomposes and a shit ton of gases escape. The ones in those space suits, all bloated, they’re clearly full of gas. There is a non-zero probability that they could explode if shot.”

We all groaned. “Alright folks,” I began, “try not to blow us up. Don’t take any stupid risks though. You know, beyond coming here that is.” They all chuckled, “Let’s get this done, then we can rest on the ship for a while.”

Some Surprises

Doc nudged Flicker, “Let’s go, you’re leading our fire team. You’ve got me, Wolf and Headcase.” Flicker nodded and moved off with Doc. Her first time rolling with us in combat, time to see what she was made from. Pretty solid stuff was my hunch.

Flicker took her team to the right, I went left with Sarge, Gumball and Nitro. Phantom and Lo-ball went up the middle. As we entered the area we noted the scattered cargo crates, the broken ships, the general disarray. Plenty of cover for killing work.

As we moved in two things happened. We spotted not one, but two other crews moving through the place. One of them looked so fresh I’d say they had just arrived. The looked nervous and twitchy. The other crew though, they looked like they’d been through some shit. I’d say they were trying to get back to their ship. They appeared wrung out and ready to drop. They also looked royally pissed off. As we all saw each other guns came up and people took aim.

Before a single shot could be fired though a deafening hum ripped through the hanger and a floor to ceiling void shield flickered into place. Not in a straight line either. It was a crazy diagonal. We all stared at it for a couple of seconds then it shut down. Well, that certainly complicated things.

Time for Business

Deciding it was time to end the stand-off I activated my Energy Shield and Sarge shot and stunned one of the Bloaters. Gumball did the same to another. Lo-ball though, figured that the other crews were a bigger threat and took out a Hacker that stumbled into his line of sight.

Despite Lo-ball blasting their Hacker the other crews seemed more interested in murdering each other than us. That was a nice change that I’d happily take. They weren’t completely focused on each other though.

The First Mate from the crew to our right flank stunned Headcase with a carbine shot. Dropping to the ground she needed a moment to recover.

Flicker Flickers

I glanced over at Flicker. I wanted to keep an eye on her, assess how she blended in with the crew during an action, not just a random corridor. She had good instincts but could she use them to help us? As I watched her she started twisting a dial and pushing a couple of buttons on her bandolier. After that, she seemed to be in two places at once.

I’d heard about this before, never seen it though. Time-walkers call it reading the Probability Curve. They can see a short distance to the future, only a second or two, but choose which outcome they want. It sucks at cards because you can see them do it. It’s great for dodging bullets though.

While Flicker activated the Probability Curve, a Bloater closed to melee range with her. Not a good situation to be in. Encumbered by the space suit though it was slow. It swung a clumsy arm at her head, trying to knock her to the deck. 

Flicker didn’t see it coming, it connected, the weight of the strike drove her down. The Bloater dropped on her and started smashing her face through the back of her skull.

Flicker saw it coming, ducked, and rose up with her knife driving under the helmet and into the Bloater’s head. The suit deflated, the Bloater dropped, Flicker barfed her guts on the floor from the stench.

I blinked. Since she was still alive, I assume she chose the option where she saw it coming. She came back into focus as a single movement. I guess she’d read that Probability Curve to conclusion. Must ask her about it sometime.

Stupid Shield

Doc had pushed forward to try and grab something shiny that he spotted. He pushed too far though and the two wounded Bloaters converged on him. Happily he spotted them before they could close range completely so he was able to retreat to cover. Meanwhile Sarge had advanced on the left to get a better position on the other crews.

Suddenly, another deafening hum, a burst of static, and the void shield cut a diagonal line across the hanger. The shield had separated Sarge from the rest of us.

Figuring the shield would shut itself down soon I moved up towards Sarge, ready to support him when it dropped. He was facing an entire enemy crew on his side of the void shield. Luckily they were busy with a bunch of Bloater zombies. I don’t think they’d actually noticed him at this point. Not that it would bother Sarge if they did.

Wolf Takes a Hit

Wolf was exchanging fire on the right flank with the second enemy crew. He was keeping them pinned down while we organised a push forward. I saw him line up a pinpoint shot on a Trooper. I also saw his gun jam. He kept calm, tried to clear it and continue firing. Before he could though, the Trooper he had lined up on shot him square in the head. I was pretty sure his helmet had stopped the bullet, but couldn’t be certain. Wolf dropped to the deck and lay there. He was either knocked out or dead. We’d have to find out which later.

Headcase moved to Wolf but rather than waste time trying to revive him in a firefight, she just dragged his deadweight ass with her. That woman really is a nutter.

We were making decent progress towards our exit from this shit show. The hanger bay where The Stone Shark docked was to our left. The other crews were to the right and front. This was always going to be a hold and retreat action. Most of the crew had traversed to the left. Headcase was still dragging Wolf along.

Could the Shield Just Fuck Off

Another ear splitting hum, another crackle, and the void shield readjusted. Sarge was no longer cut off. Thank Sagblu, sadly though, it did split the crew pretty much in half. Flicker, Headcase (dragging Wolf) and Gumball were all on the wrong side.

This worked out fine for some of us, as we were completely safe, not so good for the others. Being on the safe half I immediately had everyone get into covering fire positions. I was really hoping the void shield would move in our favour.

The rest of the crew were not having such a good time. Flicker took a hit from the same Trooper that had knocked Wolf out. She looked a little dazed but still saw the Pathfinder drawing a bead on her. If I hadn’t already been impressed with her I was now. She looked at the Pathfinder and just shook her head a little. I watched the Pathfinder adjust his aim and deliberately miss her. That’s the sort of thing Starburn used to do when he’d Bribed someone before a skirmish. If Flicker had done that, I had no idea how or when. She is chock full of surprises.

Headcase kept dragging Wolf towards our hanger bay. He must still be alive or she wouldn’t have bothered. Gumball was laying down fire to cover Headcase. It was tough, but it looked like they’d make it.

Home Free

The void shield crackled out but didn’t reset itself. We immediately laid down suppressing fire so that the cut-offs could join us on our side of the Hanger. It didn’t take long to reposition. A quick glance at Wolf confirmed he was fine, just unconscious.

We rolled back and departed the area. The other two crews were still battling each other and the zombies. We were happy to let them. We were back at The Stone Shark.

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Stargrave is published by Osprey Games and was created by Joseph A. McCullough