Xeno Core

The concrete wall above Gelly's head showers fragments onto him as the armor penetrating shell burrows into it. Another miss. The furballs still aren't used to the lower gravity. As a result, they have been overcompensating and aiming too high. The twisting shadows from the chaotic lightshow overhead isn't helping anyone's aim either.

Dashing to the side in a low roll, Gelly snap fires back, his SAm20 kicking twice, bucking against his shoulder. Two bursts of electrified shrapnel burrow into the chest of his four-armed adversary. The air fills with the stink of burnt leather and fur.

Rushing forward to retrieve the fresh corpse's rifle, he just barely dashes past an incoming stream of metal slugs. The impacts blast a line of small holes in the clay bricks, sending up a red dust cloud. As well as sawing the two crewmembers following him in half, their empty rifles falling from their lifeless hands.

Gelly curses at the loss; of course the bastard has someone to cover him. And of course, that furball's the one to figure out how to aim.

A quick glance and the skilled Operative is already sending charged shrapnel hurtling in righteous retribution. He fires four times, but a soft click answers the final trigger press. Slinging his SAm20 onto his back, Gelly looks warily around. He spots the second attacker, blown into chunks of badly cooked meat. He sighs in relief before grabbing the exotic alien gun at his feet.

Armed with the dead looter's rifle, he claims the second kill's ammo cans for himself and continues down the wide and litter-strewn street. He uses signs and trash containers for cover as he darts through the shopping center.

The contact he wasn't able to meet with is just one of many missing from the city. The ruling families that live in the capitol are probably hiding in their secure basements right now. If they're smart.

So much for fancy dinner parties. Grand Matron Bell won't be happy; she always has a dinner party when her 'granbaby' visits. Jim usually gets dragged into, to represent the crew. Gelly worries briefly about his cousin but decides Jim can take care of himself.

Clues point to the civilian population being evacuated. Not enough bodies. Those few Imperium soldiers and officers that managed to survive the brutal and unexpected attack must be with the citizens. They should be safe at the old mining site situated in the mountains across Centra Lake. Gelly runs past another scrawled message on the side of a grocery store directing everyone to head to the temporary shelter. Imperium gold paint, notes Gelly as he jogs past.

He looks up at the colored lights dancing far above, the storm the Tserri used as cover for their invasion of Centra City. It's been causing too much interference for his personal comms equipment since he got into the city. He's sure Jim knows about the invasion, no doubt saving Grand Matron Bell in some heroic fashion, but Operation Darcy is a bust.

The shuttle is parked outside city limits. He'll need to send a nice apology present to the poor farmer whose fields he ruined when landing. A set of new tools would be appropriate. The pitchfork the old man had tried stabbing Gelly's face with has seen better days. Hopefully the farmer and his wife make it to the shelter.

The large commercial district has been fine hunting grounds, but Operative Drop needs to get a message up to his crewmates. He needs something with a lot of power to send a halfway coherent signal.

He comes across another looter weighed down under an expensive trivee set exiting a high-end electronics store. A burst of fire takes out one more invader before they can do more damage to the city his people built. The fancy trivee set drops to the ground, emitters shattering and a wide crack creeps up its base.

Gelly shrugs his shoulders and keeps going. The store owner can probably afford the loss. Assuming they live, of course. He checks the shop the looter came from but finds that it's been cleaned out. With the electronics shops pillaged he can only think that the local trivee station might still have the right equipment.

Crossing into the entertainment hub doesn't take long and he soon sees the large transmission spike. It towers over the nearby office buildings and small empty parks. There aren't as many enemy soldiers roaming around. Either this area isn't that important to the invaders, or they've been pulled to somewhere else.

Patrolling in front of the station are a pair of alien warriors, prowling the area around the entrance vigilantly. Leather armor studded with steel bars adorns these warriors. They carry heavy rifles and keep them ready for use.

Sneaking through a nearby alley, Gelly spots an emergency escape ladder bolted to the side of the corporate offices of the company that runs the trivee station. He climbs it slowly, trying to remain silent. The lower gravity on this world makes sneaking slightly more difficult, so he moves extremely cautiously. At the top is a locked gate leading to the flat rooftop which causes Gelly to let out a long silent sigh of disappointment.

Pulling out the long knife he's carried since his youth he begins taking apart the hinges, using the blade to pop out the pins holding the gate together. He catches the mesh gate in one hand and puts his knife away before gently setting the small barricade down to one side.

Once on the roof he creeps silently to a good vantage point overlooking the guards at street level. He takes careful aim at the center of mass and fires. Unfamiliar with the rifle as he is, the slug is too high. Blood and brains fountain out of the side of a brown fur covered head. Even as the metal slug is leaving the invader's skull Gelly rises into a sprint and leaps off the roof. The remaining guard looks up just in time to see two boots a handspan from his face. The impact knocks the guard to the ground, Gelly atop them.

Gelly quickly bounces off his victim with a grunt and fires twice into the center of the alien chest, ending any effort to fight back the invader might have made. He races across the street to the now unguarded trivee tower.

A swift kick sends the station door flying open and Gelly sprays his captured rifle into the startled guards inside. He runs in past the carnage and heads to the transmission booth, thanking the stars he didn't destroy anything important in the front lobby.

Inside the booth stands a final guard, armed with a heavy flamer. Gelly rolls low past the door and holds down the trigger as he passes. The air above him turns into hot plasma as energy spews from the flamer. Screams fill the air before falling silent as the dying guard drops it to the ground.

He stands up and walks cautiously back to the door and kicks the alien's leather covered torso before collapsing into the cheap office chair in front of the transmission terminal in relief. A different system than Imperium standard, but civilian equipment should still be able to send at the right frequency, with a little adjustment.

After familiarizing himself with the equipment, Gelly turns the power up as high as it will go. Everyone on the planet will receive the signal, and hopefully the Selberclaw as well.

Gelly enters a string of authorization and command prompts and sends off his brief call for assistance. He hauls himself up tiredly, getting back to his feet to escape the building. Another squad will come looking for the Tserri he's just killed before long, if they haven't already.

He needs to find a secure resting place, and soon. With more yet running to look ahead to, Gelly sets off to find a place to wait for back up to arrive.

---

From his vantage point hidden on the roof of the tallest building still standing in the ruins of the residential sector, Gelly watches as three flaming trails are burned against the multihued evening sky.

Reinforcements are finally arriving. Too bad they're going to land so far away. Gelly does some mental calculations before beginning the long descent back to street level, cursing under his breath the entire time.

Checking his comms yields only static and harsh shrilling. It would have been nice to give those pods a piece of his mind. He turns it back off as he runs back towards the outlying rural area. He'll save it until he gets there.

It looks like that farmer's going to be getting a much bigger gift than Gelly had originally thought. Maybe a new tractor would keep the landowner from pressing charges?

If he asks her nicely his aunt would surely arrange to have one delivered. Being the favorite has to come with some advantages.

When he sees the dun-colored clouds of dust blown skyward by the impact Gelly decides a tractor won't be enough. His loping jog rapidly devours the ground before him, and he runs long into the night.

At sunrise he crosses paths with the squad sent down in the escape pods.