USCMRPG

The USS Heimlich slipped her moorings and left the hangar. Her crew shuttled the twenty-one civilians into the mess hall, where they hopefully couldn’t get into much trouble. They were guarded by a few Marines in case they decided to get into trouble. The rest of the crew made their way to the bridge to receive orders.

The bridge itself was far too small to accommodate them all, but a number of them stood in the hall outside to hear what was said. “USS Heimlich, this is Commander Zimmerman of the USS Higgins. The Devil Dawgs are assaulting the Gaia’s Life Support Control Room as we speak. If they fail to get life support back online, we need a plan B. I have spoken with your synthetic, Knight. He has assured me that there is an external access port that can be used to reactivate life support. I want you to patch in manually and attempt to reactivate life support as soon as possible. Remember that 5000 civilians are counting on you to get this back online. Zimmerman out.”

They all were starting to question what might be entailed by “manually patching in” to an “external access port” when Ensign Yu turned to them. “You all heard him. We will have to dust off our space suits and load them on the dropship ASAP. I want six volunteers.” The men and women looked around at each other in nervous thought.
<Tag everyone>

Standing in the middle of a crowd on the bridge, Fernandez had to crane forward to hear the new orders from Commander Zimmerman. The news wasn't good, but it also wasn't very surprising. Leadership never liked leaving a single body of a fallen soldier behind, let alone an entire squadron of living marines. But, jumping from a spacecraft onto a separate vessel was one of the most difficult maneuvers his academy trained for. Fortunately for Fernandez, Neutral Buoyancy was the class he achieved top marks in.

Fernandez glanced at Knight and nodded, there was no way command would allow him to stay behind on this mission. He knows everything about the station, and wouldn't even need the full suit that would restrict movement. He reserved his fear and raised his hand to volunteer.

<tag Knight>

He simultaneously elbowed Bryant gently to convey his hopes she would also join in. Watching her in the docking bay he knew she was fearless, and that was a necessity on this mission.

<tag Bryant>

Bryant had turned Codename Civvy Slag over to a couple rear detachment Marines and joined her crew as they gathered away from the civilians. She absorbed the briefing stoically. She actually LIKED going EV. Just not outside a station that was currently under armed combat, e.g. Marines firing those grenade launchers and very likely breaching charges big enough for external access.
She felt Fernandez elbow her and she shook her head to clear it. She raised her gently shaking hand.

The volunteers loaded the dropship with everything they would need to achieve their dangerous objective. Going out into the void protected by only a centimeter of fabrics was not a very attractive prospect to most, but there had been no shortage of volunteers. Personal bravery aside, the survivors of the wreck of the Shiloh were tightly bonded together by shared hardship. Their comrades were on board the space station and they were willing to risk their necks to save them.

The dropship lifted off and exited the hangar of the USS Heimlich. “Dropship Alpha-Niner away, approaching the target on an axial one-six.” The volunteers in the back assisted each other getting into the unwieldy space suits. Petty Officer Fernandez would be leading them. Two Navy crew were with him, Bosun’s Apprentice Bryant and Seaman Darrel Stark. A Marine named Isaac Cohen had also volunteered. Both synthetics, Knight and Preacher, had naturally been chosen to go as they were more adept and expendable. The dropship was piloted by Chief Petty Officer Zoe Barr and Seaman Apprentice Trey Shields.

The dropship approached the surface of Gaia Station. The voice of Zoe Barr could be heard in their helmets, “All green? Okay, go in 3… 2… 1…”

The ramp began to lower and the room decompressed in less than a heartbeat. The six volunteers felt their limbs become as light as feathers, almost like being underwater. They had all magnetized their boots to the floor of the dropship before it opened, so nobody lifted off the floor. Looking down the ramp, they saw the metal skin of the space station extending out indefinitely.
(Actions)

Knight was the first to walk slowly down the ramp, accompanied by a steady "Klank - Klank - Klank - echo" of the magnetic boots. Waiting for the others to catch up, he surveyed the area. He spotted the external access about 60 yards away. Opening up a comm channel, he pointed his finger to the barely visible hatch ...

"Over there, this is the entry hatch. Should i go first?"
<Tag Others>

Fernandez froze on the ramp as he looked at the view surrounding him, the golden emission nebula stretched thousands of light years over their ship. He had never been this far from home, and his training in the Milky Way could never have prepared him for what space truly held. He stood in place, mouth agape, until he heard Knight in his comms. Fernandez realized he was now several yards behind Knight.

"Yes Knight, lead off and I will follow just behind you."

<Tag Knight, et al>