Atmospheric conditions on the moon led to our delivery to be delayed. Instead of landing at the plant, we were forced to land at an auxiliary supply port 160 km due south of the base. I had a bit of time before the storms let up, so I made small talk with the crew and the mercenaries in the security force. I learned from our mercs that several other cargo frigates were docked at the station in orbit waiting for the storm to allow an entry window. Only one managed to make it down with ours. The ship belonged to a Caldari company named Expert Intervention. I didn’t know much about them, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a familiar face at the loading dock. Her hair was shorter and a few worry lines on her brow, but I would recognize Jessica anywhere. I approached her and exchanged pleasantries. She and her team had designed the nanite clusters for the hive. As we talked, I noticed the soldiers in her detail were all human. I asked her about it and she seemed a bit nervous. She told me this is high sec, so there wasn’t a need for clones to be here. She had a point. Mannar didn’t even have a CRU in our frigate.
As I walked away from her, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. It was her eyes. She never had a problem looking at me in the eyes before. Even when we were at our worst she always stared me down. So why did she keep looking away now? I knew something was up but I didn’t have time to ask her. It was time to roll out. The convoy was all loaded up and I was offered a seat in a LAV with the other researchers near the cargo. I climbed just as the lead car started to pull out. The storm had died down in this area, so the trip wasn’t unpleasant. Though we did have to stop and were forced to circle back on one occasion. Apparently the winds caused a pass to be blocked by a rockslide and we had to take an alternate route. During the stop, I noticed my mercs seemed agitated. I tried to bring up comms, but all I got was static. They were already going for their weapons when I saw them. Swarm missiles, lots of them.
I didn’t know what was going on. The LAVs at both ends of the convoy erupted into flames. The human soldiers looked confused, and at the time I didn’t take notice that they never even drew a weapon. My only thought was to get to Jess and keep her safe. I saw that my mercs were already in defensive positions around the cargo trucks. I ran out to her LAV and tried to pull her out, but she wouldn’t budge. She kept saying it was too soon. That this was not the right place. I asked her what she meant, but she just kept repeating herself. I yelled to her that we need to get to the mercs, and thats when she finally looked at me. In all my life I have never seen such hate glare in my direction. She scoffed and told me that they will be dealt with soon enough, along with their lap dogs. I didn’t understand what she was talking about. All I knew was that we were in trouble.
I looked back as I heard a sort of pinging noise to see two of the mercs drop to the ground. I heard Vincent Sins, the head of the security detail yell out “SNIPER FIRE, TAKE COVER”. I was standing between Jessica’s LAV and the trucks. No cover here, so I hit dirt and crawled over to them. On the way, I came across the two that were wounded and they were bleeding out fast. One pointed to his belt, and I saw the nanite injector. I plunged it into his chest and hit the trigger. As the injector hissed I was already moving to the next. Just as I reached her, I turned back to look at the ridge when I saw the the flash of the rifle. The merc behind me flew forward and was gone. Bastards. I was determined not to make that mistake again. I picked up his weapon that fell next to my feet, a mass driver from the look of it. I could barely hold it up , but I took aim and pulled the trigger. The round tore out of the gun, and knocked me on my ass. I was able to pick my head up just enough to see the sniper fly from behind the rock he was hiding. As he tried to get up, rocks that were dislodged by the blast caused him to fall down the cliff face. I didn’t know if I killed him, and I didn’t care. I dropped the gun and managed to pull the remaining merc behind the wheel of the one of the trucks to administer the injector just in time. She got up, thanked me and then yelled at me to get down and move to the rest of the squad.
As I made my way to Vincent, the human soldiers started to move in our direction. Once they were in position, they opened fire on us. I finally understood what was going on, we were set up. The Expert Intervention soldiers managed to take down our logistics merc with a volley of grenades shortly after he mowed down their forward assault with his Gek. I was the closest to his LAV, so I grabbed his extra equipment pack from it and fell back to cover. Vince yell after me to bring the gear to him. When I got there, he told me to hand over one of the hives and then fall back to the rear guards position and give the other to his second in command, Jamil Tyran. After that, I was to do whatever Jamil tells me to do. Before leaving, I told Vince what Jessica said in the LAV, and he looked up and pointed as he said, “Understood. Now get going, we got incoming!”
I looked to where he was pointing, and saw a grimsnes fly over the ridge to the left. I wasted no time running to Jamil’s squad which was under heavy fire from the rear. I reported to Jamil, handed over the nanohive and was told to stay low and look after his troops with the repair tool and nanite injector. He handed me a hybrid pistol he had picked up saying he hoped I wouldn’t need it. I got down behind some cover just as the enemy opened fire from several positions with a mix of sniper, assault rifles, a hmg and a mass driver. Two more merc went down, another wounded. I crawled to the wounded and hit him with the injector. Then as he and I moved to safety, fired up the repper. It was a standard one, so it took its time getting him back into the fight. But in the end, it did the job. The rear guard was holding off any attempt of the enemy to advance, so Jamil ordered me back to Vince. When I got there, I couldn’t believe what I saw.
They were almost all dead, the Expert Intervention soldiers I mean. It looked as though the mercenaries in the grimsnes dropped in behind them and took them by surprise. I looked out just in time to see the yellow flash of a laser beam cut a man in half. I saw a merc run behind a small group of soldiers and sent them flying with blast from her shotgun. As a LAV exploded, another merc walked through the flames carrying a hmg. He opened fire on another group, ripping them to shreds. From behind him, a merc with an assault rifle ran out to flank the last few soldiers. They didn’t last long. Then as all four turned their attention to us, out of nowhere their grimsnes flew in between the two squads and opens fire on us.
I had managed to dive under the truck just before the blaster turrets gunned down the remaining mercs. I didn’t know if any of the other researchers survived the attack. All I knew was Jess sold us out and got a lot people killed. I will never forgive her for that. I heard the dropship leave so I thought it would be safe enough for me to check what was going on. I was about to make my move when someone grabbed my foot, dragged me out and held me upside down with one arm. He was bigger than the rest and wearing what looked to be an Amarrian dropsuit. He unhooked the strap that held the repper and injectors, then tossed it to one side and me to the other. I drew my pistol as I got up and unloaded the clip into him. I swear I heard him laughing just before he took it from me, flipped it around and hit me with it. The last thing I remember was his glowing red eyes as I blacked out.