Ravens of Eternity

318 A Question of Dominion, Pt The twelve Corvus Operatives ran down the kilometer-long passageway at breakneck speed. They were hardly fatigued by their efforts, thanks to the top-of-the-line mechanisms of their power armor and Azrael’s next-generation combat stimulant.

Freya and Kali led their teams with unrelenting drive and resolve. And besides the operatives themselves, they were accompanied by a couple of Raijin’s cottonball bird drones. They sped right alongside the furious dozen, and shared their determination.

“Not seeing anyone out here,” Freya said over comms. “Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing.”

“According to Gerveaux Intelligence,” Lucifer quickly answered her, “only a couple hundred or so actually took over the main station. They didn’t even bother to take over the surrounding facilities – just this central one. Which makes some sense, I suppose. They can control the entire array’s defenses from here.”

“Well, that’s just great,” Kali groaned. “Any idea where to find ’em?”

“Head to the nearest terminal,” Raijin replied. “Any will do. My drones will inject my engines into the station’s codestream and pull the data we need.”

“And I’ll handle interpreting it,” Lucifer added.

“No sweat,” said Freya.

She then ducked forward and increased her velocity, and the rest followed suit.

.....

~

At the other end of the giant passageway, past the massive open doorway, a half dozen Tyreia terrorists in heavy combat armor hung around lazily. One of them leaned up on the far wall and played some kind of game on his personal datapad. Another was laid out on the ground with an arm over his head – he was clearly taking a nap.

The rest stood in a loose circle in the center of the vast T-intersection and chatted with each other casually.

“I shoulda learned to be a pilot,” said one of them. “They get all the fun. Just look at the reports that’re coming in. They’re tearing down Gerveaux pigs left and right. I’m so damned jealous.”

“Sure, but they’re also getting shot at,” said another. “It’s fun to look at the kill lists, but our own casualty report’s kinda long, too.”

“So what? I wanna shoot people. If that means dyin’ for Tyreia, then all the better.”

“Hey, no shame in that if it’s your thing. It ain’t mine, though. Not trying to get my hide perforated.”

“And yet here you are with your big boy armor and big boy rifle,” mocked a third. “Or did you think we were havin’ another impromptu raid drill?”

“Hey man, lay off,” the second fought back. “We’re deep behind the lines, protected by the boss and all his men. They’re bulletproof, you hear?! Plus we’ve got lots of anti-cap defenses all around. No way are they gonna break through to get to us. No goddamned way.”

“So you’re just freeloading off us, is that it?” the fourth chimed in.

“Hell no. I’m perfectly fine to fight. I just said I ain’t down to di-”

The terrorist never got to finish his sentence. Instead, there was a brief rumble along the floor, a mad rush of air, and a low growl. It was all punctuated by a resounding and sickening WHONG.

Kali had rushed in first, swung her resonance hammer with unrestrained might, and smashed the terrorist on the side of his head. The force of it was strong enough that his head was torn completely off from the neck, and was flung to the other end.

It bounced off the wall with a wet THUD, fell to the ground, and rolled away. At the same time, the terrorist’s body dropped to its knees, then fell chest-first onto the floor.

Fear swept through the terrorists as Kali slid to a halt mere meters away from them. Seeing her imposing two-handed hammer along with her cutting edge power armor caused them to freeze in place.

One of them fumbled around for his gun and brought it up feebly. Though he shakily pointed it at Kali, he never got the chance to fire.

The rest of Kali’s team rushed in right after, and eliminated the team with equally violent ferocity. Their hammers smashed the terrorists’ bodies with brutal efficiency.

The sounds of raw meat getting pounded to oblivion mixed with the nauseating sound of cracking bone filled the air. The terrorists’ bodies were flung around and crushed by the onslaught with such severity that it was over just as quickly as it began.

Freya’s team ran up behind Kali’s but instead of following up on any attacks, simply headed towards the door terminal off to the side. One of Raijin’s cottonball drones zapped it with a partial charge, which caused its screen to flicker briefly.

It only took seconds for Raijin’s engines to invade the system, though she didn’t take it over. Instead, she went through some of the security data, filtered out the trash, and sent the relevant streams directly to Lucifer’s TacMap.

Lucifer’s eyes flitted across the reports as it scrolled by at an incredible rate. Although hir assistants were frantically attempting to organize the data properly, ze had no such problems sorting it all out mentally.

“It appears that the terrorists came through every entrance at the exact same time,” ze began. “They ushered everyone they came across, and gathered them into the two large mess halls on the recreation deck.”

“No casualties?” asked Freya.

“Security footage shows they were rough and abusive, but no, they didn’t permanently hurt or kill anyone. Which I find a little odd. If I hated the Gerveaux as much as they do, I would’ve killed everyone in sight.”

“That’s good for us,” Azrael pitched in. “Means the hostage we’re supposed to rescue is probably alive. Raijin, can you confirm he’s on the station manifest?”

“I don’t see his name mentioned on the crew or the guest list,” Raijin replied. “Perhaps the Gerveaux Triumvirate was mistaken in believing he is here? Perhaps he has visited a different station within the array?”

“Not possible,” Lucifer replied. “They’re adamant he’s here. It’s possible that he came using an alias – he’s one of the Triumvirate’s sons after all.”

“Looks like we’re gonna need to do this the hard way,” Freya sighed. “Let’s get those hostages free, then move from there.”

“Remember, getting that hostage is only one of our objectives,” Lucifer reminded her. “Don’t get bogged down if you can’t help it.”

“Hey, look who you’re talking to.”

The dozen Corvus Operatives then sped off, guided by Raijin’s cottonball drones. They sped through the many passageways, and ran up the ramps to the middle floors. Despite the fact that the entire station interior was as massive as any planet-bound administrative building, they took very little time getting to their destination.

They sped into the recreation floor, which was equally as empty as the rest of the station.

However they could easily hear the shouting and barking of terrorists, as well as the cries and blubbering of the hostages at the center of it. The mess halls were mostly enclosed from the rest of the floor, save for two open arched doors facing each other in the middle of a long hallway.

There, a number of terrorists laughed and cajoled as they watched over the entrances. Not that they laughed for long.

Both teams assaulted the mess hall entrances with great speed, and tore the guards apart before they even realized what was happening. They then split up and assaulted the mess halls themselves, where more of the Tyreian terrorists harangued the hostages.

A few quickly noticed the charging operatives, and raised their rifles in absolute alarm. They squeezed their triggers and fired their rifles nonstop. And though they sprayed down Kali and her team, they quickly found that their weapons simply couldn’t penetrate.

Their bullets simply bounced off their armor and left mere scratches in their wake.

As though in punishment for their futile attempts, they were quickly met with the operatives’ hammers.

And just like the others that Kali and her team took down, these ones crumpled just as easily. The sheer force of their blows deeply dented the terrorists’ armor, and crushed meat and bone with equal ease.

Some were thrown across the cafeteria, smashed into the far wall, and fell to the ground in a heap of tender meat and broken bone.

Their methods were so terrifying and brutal that two of the terrorists threw their weapons down, and surrendered on the spot. They shook as sheer terror had overtaken their minds and bodies.

Across the hallway, Freya sped in with her Ra’ventrii blade split into two, and leapt for the nearest cluster of Tyreian terrorists. She filled them all with mortal dread as she entered her Cyclone Stance and expertly spun around in the middle of them.

Her blades followed her as she went, and cut into the terrorists with exacting precision.

The Ra’ventrii blade’s razor-thin edges sliced cleanly through their heavy armor and bit deep into the flesh and bone far below. Those around her were almost instantly sliced to ribbons as gouts of blood poured out of their wounds.

A few of them made choking sounds as their lives exited their bodies, which began to slowly fall to the ground. It was as though they were gradually realizing just how dead they were.

Freya’s team marveled at the sight for a brief moment – they were overawed by the sheer prowess of their squad leader, at her unbridled skill at dealing death. But they shook it off quickly, aimed their flechette rifles at the rest of the terrorists all around, and squeezed the triggers.

The tremendous sound of hundreds of needle darts tore through the air at supersonic speeds. The tungsten carbide darts easily punched through the terrorists’ armor with ridiculous ease, and ripped into the much softer flesh below.

Many of the terrorists were killed instantly as dozens of flechette darts embedded deep in their bodies. They screamed in pain as their internal organs were punctured and rearranged by the operatives’ brutal weapons.

The speed of their assault was so rapid that the terrorists hardly had a chance to even fire a single shot in retaliation. They were all dismantled so easily and professionally that the hostages were left with their mouths agape in sheer awe.

The bloodied terrorists fell all around Freya as their blood flowed freely from the numerous deep gashes across their armor. It was an excruciating few seconds as they died from their wounds.

Freya herself straightened up from the middle of them, then glanced over at the hostages huddled on the floor together.

“Let’s get you all to safety,” she said.

But no-one said anything in response. They were completely stunned by the sheer speed and power that the Corvus Operatives displayed. To them, it was as though they appeared out of nowhere, and absolutely devastated their enemies in the span of seconds.

“Thank the gods,” one of the hostages finally said, before he broke down on his knees and wept.

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