Mission 1 Turn 1: Armageddon

[pictish20]

Perez was right; a boarding action would be absurd. Cavalet knew his own inexperience provided some justification for his question, but that did little to stay the feeling of foolishness that washed over him -- but no time for that now! Perez was off, calling for Cavalet to follow. They ran to the armory, where Cavalet loaded up with the pile of equipment handed to him by Perez.

Then, the evacuation was sounded and Cavalet found himself on the heels of Perez once again. They ran, boots beating off the metal floor of the Shiloh, until they flew into the pod, and slammed themselves into whatever seats they could find. The harness latched over Cavalet mere moments before it all went mad. In the few, precious, terrible seconds of consciousness, Cavalet felt his hands clap onto the harness like a deathgrip, his head pressed back into his seat, and his fear washed away into pure terror which would not allow anything, even fear. Then, blackness.

When Cavalet awoke, he found none of the chaos and the nightmare. Marines were about in the pod, checking others and grabbing gear. Across the pod, one Marine was apparently receiving medical attention; another Marine scanned him and administered some drug that Cavalet could not identify through it all. He called another Marine over, presumably his section's corpsman. Cavalet glanced down at his own medkit, and then back over at the wounded Marine.

I doubt I can do much more than they can, and, if anything, I'll just get in their way. They don't need any more distractions in a situation like this.

So Cavalet remained where he was. This wasn't his wheelhouse; the other Marines had experience with these situations that he did not, so he decided to defer to their wisdom.

He gave a weak chuckle and said to Perez, "Sergeant, I've figured out why you're always so ill-tempered: these Smartguns are bloody heavy." Cavalet remained sitting, awaiting, well, anything, hands still white-knuckling on the harness around him.