Troopers - Book 1

Bug Tunnel

                “You three need to work out how to get him out of this other than getting Olwen to cut his arm off.” Eastre looked at the crushed armour, and realised there would be no way of taking that section off alone and removing the entire armour would take too long. “Thoth can you remove this section of armour without further damage?”

                “My cutter would burn the flesh as the armour would heat up, would that be causing more damage? We have to take the top half of his armour off manually otherwise.” Thoth said

                “No, somehow it still functions, I must stay contained within. For the safety of you all, I would prefer to stay here than take the risk of being open to the current environment.”  Thorne said

                “Boulder?” Eastre questioned “I can’t do anymore then”

                “If we put our backs to it we should be able to shift it easily even in Stryker armour” Luk said

                “Sir! Fuck!” Medb came round the boulder at a jog as if she’d been called.

                “Sir” Aasith came round the corner a moment afterwards but her expression never changed.

                “This is hard for me to do, project to all your minds so listen carefully. I sense twenty-seven warrior bugs headed this way. Medb I want you to use a ‘Firewall’ rocket to block the passage way further up to give us time for Oakham to come round. Aasith, take my pistol, it’s the ‘Emancipator’ with the higher calibre round, once you get further down the tunnel you will not be able to use your rifle effectively, make ever shot count. Morrigan, you are in charge of the unit, soon I will not be able keep cognitive thought coherent enough. Get the unit out; tell Military Intelligence that stage two of the mission is known to the bugs. Eastre, if needs be, shoot me do not let me be captured for the brain bugs. Do you get me?” Thorne said in all seriousness

                “We get you sir!” they responded in unison.

                “Aasith, Medb move out.” Thorne said his ‘voice’ drained. Aasith moved forward and unclipped his pistol as well as a spare magazine; Medb pulled her pack round and selected a missile. She put her pack down next to Thorne and Aasith un-slung her rifle leaving it behind. The two moved off into the darkness, even with the light of Medb’s lamp they were soon swallowed into the darkness.

                “Right, let’s move this rock!” Eastre said trying to sound excited. She knew the medical state of the unit although they were physically fine; being knocked out even for a short time was mentally draining. The training would kick in once under attack along with adrenaline. She glanced down at Thorne and she swore she saw him smile slightly and nod.

                Luk, Morrigan and Thoth braced themselves against the boulder and Easter grabbed Thorne’s arm.

                “One, two, three, push!” Morrigan’s lilt came through as she gave the order, and the three troopers pushed, the boulder lifted easily and Eastre pulled the arm free. The blood flowed. Staunching powder was poured as best Eastre could into the various cracks in the armour. Thoth reached into his pack and began to investigate the armour at the same time as Eastre was trying to stop the flow of the blood without taking the armour off.

                “I’ll cut parts away” Thoth said pulling a pair of pliers from his tool belt, he began bending a stretching torn metal, so that Eastre had more access, pulling cutters out he began to remove the sections that were in the way watching the hole that he didn’t cut through needed circuitry only the armour  and underskin of the suit.