Chapter 37: Chapter 23: Snakes in the Grass

With the wounded relocated to the infirmary and the marines who were still capable of doing so bearing arms, we prepared to launch our attack on the last big group of enemies on the ship. This last group was actually being put on the defensive by our people who’d been inside of the ship’s hangar. Unlike most of their comrades, this group of enemies did not run, but set up a defensive zone instead. They were probably not counting on an attack from the rear, though. 

As our group approached from behind, Ellie told us that none of them were facing us, they were all just shooting back at our advancing troops. But for some reason, that sounded a bit too fishy for my liking. So I stopped our advance for now.

“It’s not sitting well with you either, right?” Gunny asked. 

“Yeah, this goes against the most basic principles of tactics. Even their troops around the first armory kept a lookout at the rear. And it would surprise me if no one knew what was happening to their other forces. They must know we are coming, right?” 

“Mhmm.” Gunny nodded. 

“Wait, let me contact Luna.” I signaled to gunny to cover one of the hallways and to order the others to do the same. “Luna, are you there?” 

“Yes, Commander.” She replied almost instantly. “Is everything alright?” 

“Hmmm, I think so but I’d like to have your opinion on something, and Grayson too if he’s around.” 

“I’ll call him over…” I heard some rumbling in the background before Luna yelled. “Grayson!!”

“Ouch.” My ears were ringing a little bit. 

“Oh, sorry, did I forget to mute myself.” 

“Yeah, but it’s fine.” I softly chuckled. 

“I’m so sorry.” 

“Really, Luna, it’s fine, just try not to forget next time.” 

“Mhmm.” She hummed. “Oh, there he is. Grayson, it’s the Commander.” I then heard a beep which meant that she must’ve put it ‘speaker mode’ 

“Commander?” Grayson asked over the line. “Do you need me for something?” 

“Yes, as I told Luna, I’d like to hear your opinion on something.” 

“Go ahead, Commander. Giving my opinion is my sole reason of existence.” -I had noticed that.- 

“Alright, so we are approaching the enemy from behind but they aren’t covering their rear at all.” I started. 

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Grayson asked. 

“No, it’s too easy.” Luna commented before I could. “It’s atypical for how the enemy has been acting up until now.” Luna might not have had a lot of combat experience but she did pay attention when it came to analyzing enemy behaviors. 

“Exactly.” I replied.

“So you think they are laying an ambush?” Grayson asked again. 

“The thought has definitely crossed my mind. But the thing is, Ellie can’t detect anyone through her sensors.” 

“I see where you are going with this.” Grayson replied. “You want to ask if it is possible for them to have a similar kind of cloaking device for their troops as they have for their ship.” 

“Yes, pretty much what I wanted to ask.” 

“But why would only that group of enemies use it?” Luna replied. 

“That’s the other side of that theory. If they had that kind of technology, they must surely have already used it for their other squads, right?”

“That’s indeed quite the predicament, Commander. So either the enemy is just being stupid, or they do, in fact, have that technology, which also means that there could be more enemies on this ship than we initially thought.” Grayson concluded. 

“Hmm, I sincerely hope that’s not the case.” 

“Commander…” Luna spoke to me. 

“Yes?” 

“I personally think it is more likely that the enemy has set up booby traps instead. So please keep a watch-out for things that look strange to you.” That was an option as well… Grayson and I might have been overthinking it a little. 

“We will. Thank you for your help, Luna.” 

“Stay safe.” After that, Luna hung up the line. 

 

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I informed my marines of what we’d discussed. To keep an eye out for anything irregular, with traps in particular in mind. I told the person in charge on the hangar’s end the same thing so that they wouldn’t run into any issues either, and then we decided on the timing for our attack. We slowly but steadily approached the enemy positions, trying to move our group as silently as possible when we encountered something four corners away from our objective. One of the combat engineers had stopped me and Gunny, who were taking point. 

“Commander, wait.” The combat engineer silently moved in front of us and crouched down. It was hard to tell, but as the engineer pointed towards the wall, we could see a very small pentagonal hole had been cut into the wall. The same was true for the other side. It was approximately at knee-height. 

“What is it, Corporal?” 

“There’s an ultra-thin wire connecting these two spot’s, Commander.” He replied. 

“Really? I don’t even see it, and I’m looking right at it.” Gunny replied. 

“I almost didn’t spot it either, it’s actually the holes I saw first. But look.” The marine put on his flashlight and shone at it while moving the light horizontally. It was faint but you could see the slightest of reflections. 

“Those crafty fuckers… Can you dismantle it?” Gunny continued. 

“I’d need to study it more but we don’t have that time at the moment. Best thing I can do is mark it as an area not to cross.” He took out a roll of tape from the side of his backpack and attached it at the same height of the wire, right next to it, while doing the same on the other side. 

That way, we could easily step over it without touching the near-invisible wire. We then moved on, and along the way we found at least a dozen more similar traps at different heights. But now that we knew what to look for, it wasn’t very hard to spot them anymore. They had placed some more obvious traps as well, but those were easy enough to avoid too. We’d have quite a bit of defusing to do afterwards but that could wait as the Corporal had said. 

 

“Is everyone ready on your end?” I talked to the commanding officer on the hangar’s side. 

“Yes, ma’am, we are waiting for you.” 

“Alright. I’ll let Ellie start a two-minute countdown, once that reaches 0, we will spring into action. Watch out for friendly fire.” 

“Yes, Commander. See you on the other side.” 

And with that, our plan was set in place as the two-minute countdown started. We’d approached as close as we could to the enemy. Our recon had confirmed that there weren’t any more traps in between us and them. It looked like they had complete confidence in their traps, as they still didn’t have anyone facing our way. 

“One minute left, Commander.” 

“Thanks, Ellie.” 

“Hey, Lauren, please stay behind us, okay?” Gunny put his hand on my shoulder. 

“I will, but be careful, okay. And if you can, please capture one of them. I’ll be covering the rear.” 

“Careful is my middle name.” Gunny laughed. 

“Is that so? Then it’s not very fitting.” I grinned back. 

“Ten seconds.” Ellie said.

“Be safe, everyone.” I spoke to my marines one last time before the countdown reached zero. 

 

We stormed in and just as we thought, the enemy was caught completely off-guard. We barely needed the help from the hangar team, as we swooped in so fast that they’d been completely overwhelmed. Some shots were fired and even I managed to get a shot in at someone who tried to flee, hitting them in the head. But overall, the firefight had been short and relatively uneventful. We managed to capture three of the enemy soldiers, although we had to be quick about it because they were planning on being taken alive. 

“They are all secure, right?” I asked, looking at the restraints placed on the enemy soldiers.

“They are not going anywhere, Commander.” Our combat engineer reassured me. “You’d have issues breaking this with laser cutters.” 

“Good.” I patted the Corporal on the shoulder. I then moved on to another familiar face. Jacky and a couple of other Dokazuuk had joined the assault from the hangar’s side, and according to a lot of my marines, their help had been invaluable. 

“Hey, Jacky, it’s good to see you are unharmed.” 

“The same goes for you, Commander.” 

“I hope you haven’t lost many people.” 

“No, Commander, thanks to the help of your forces we managed to get everyone into the hangar on time. We have some wounded, but they are all being treated well. I’m sorry for all the people you’ve lost today.” Even though our losses might seem trivial for someone who’d just lost his planet not that long ago, I still felt that his condolences were sincere. 

“We’ll avenge them, that’s for sure.” I looked down at the prisoners. They were as silent as the grave. “We need to figure out who the fuck they are first, though.” 

Jacky nodded. “If you need our help. You need only ask.” 

“Thanks again.” I smiled. -At least I hope we can get some useful information out of them…-

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