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Sweety Basket
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Looking around, there isn't much in the wreckage that you can use to make a decoy. You switch your rifle to automatic and get into a good position in the wreck. You pull the pin with your teeth and try to throw the grenade towards the orks. It flys a little far off and only injures the one farthest left.
This causes their leader to turn just as you pull the trigger. Rather than the expected vibration of automatic fire, the rifle produces a gentle push. Instead of a hail of red las bolts flying towards the ork, you see one solid beam of blue lightning blast out for perhaps a quarter second before you're engulfed in a thick cloud of steam issuing from the rifle's cooling system.
There's a lull in the firefight outside, with lots of shouting coming from the orcs. You can't see anything through the steam, but you can certainly hear the cascade of fire striking the cover next to you. That is until the sound of everything exploding fills the air.
Then all was quiet. As the steam dissipates, the immediate area seems to be peaceful. Off in the distance, the same sounds of artillery and gunfire echo. Nearby, a human voice shouts "Friend or Foe, either way come out with your hands in the air!" You slowly climb out of the wreck to find yourself looking at a firing line of six men. One of them is sitting behind a rather impressive autocannon, and another has a modified plasma rifle.
"Uh... I'm Felix, I'm a pilot... Please don't shoot me?" you say, with your jumpsuit damp and your face flushed from steam.
"Hey, it's a navy boy! Thanks for the distraction man, gave me time to set up my baby here. What're you doin' down here without a jet?" jeeres the one behind the cannon. The group relaxes and the trooper with the plasma rifle waves you over.
"I guess it's a long story, but I got shot down... You guys know where I can find an officer?"
"I don't know about an officer, but we're trying to find us some volunteers to go track down the warboss around here." begins the trooper with the plasma rifle. His uniform shows him as an NCO, so he's probably the squad leader. A thick black mustache accents his green beret. "Don't know how long you've been lookin' around, but these things are smarter. They're wearing camouflage, diggin' trenches, setting ambushes... No, something's wrong. We've got to find the warboss that's leadin' 'em and take him out before we have an organized army to fight. I'm Devlin by the way, nice to meet you. Gunner's Jones, spotter's Tarn, tech's Smith, riflemen are Beans and Tanner."
"Well I guess I'm game for that, but what did you have in mind? I heard about a checkpoint somewhere around here that they're trying to get people to regroup to, and there's a whole squad pinned down just near it. I don't have a map though."
"Oh yeah, we heard about them. Before we ran into our friends here we were actually debating going over there or trying to find a supply cache we heard about. It's a bit out of the way, but it might help out if shit's going to get as thick as it looks like from here."
"Sarge, I think we need this guy" says a shorter trooper with glasses. "We're not getting in without someone from around here."
Seeing your confused expression, the leader spreads his hands and shrugs. "You see we were supposed to accompany some bigshot officer to find this ork, but... well he had an accident. Basically, we need a squad to blend in with to get anywhere official, and we might as well pretend to be with you. Whatta ya say?"
Looks like the choice is yours. Do you want to go directly to the checkpoint and try to help out, or save the pinned squad? That supply cache might have something useful in it, but there's something fishy about these guys. The magazine in your rifle is flashing empty, so you're down to the one mag and you still don't know what the hell happened.
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