[Tasan]

Mission 13
April 1, 2040

Triton 1 sets down close to the north east corner of the battle grid. The rookies are all anxious, and some of them for good reason. The roster:

Caesar
SirFozzie II
Greyroofoo II
BYU 14 II
JeeberD II
Roberto II
kingfc22 III
MrBug708 II
gkb
RealDeal II
Travis III
ntndeacon III
Izulde
path12 II

The reason for the anxiety? Not everyone got an armor suit. Production is currently behind, so Travis III, gkb, and ntndeacon III are without extra protection. BYU 14 II and Roberto II are both carrying Thermal Shok Launchers, and everyone else has the now-standard Sonic Rifle.

Caesar is first out through the door. He heads to the nose of the Triton and looks west. Everything seems clear so far. Greyroofoo II was next to him in the ship, and heads out towards the tail. He clears the north east corner and also turns west, looking out over the tail towards nothing in particular. SirFozzie II moves out towards the south, running along the eastern edge. Izulde, path12 II, and JeeberD II exit the ship, but SirFozzie II instructs the rest to wait and let the first group spread out.

Movement. Out to the west, Greyroofoo II spots something. “We've got something new out here. Looks like a lobster almost, but man-sized and walking upright carrying a sonic weapon. Watch out guys.”

More movement, and Greyroofoo II is able to get a shot off. It sails wide of the target though. He takes aim again, but can't hit the target. Izulde moves up and kneels, taking a quick shot. He finds the target, but the creature barely flinches with the hit. This is not a good sign. The alien moves out of sight.

Caesar moves up a small rise and spots the alien that Izulde and Greyroofoo II have been firing at. He can't get a good shot on it though. The rest of the team moves through the battle grid, cautiously keeping an eye out for more of these things.

Greyroofoo II advances to try and locate the alien again. As he does, he spots the original one plus another over by a gas pipeline. He takes aim on the pipeline, hoping the resulting explosion can knock the aliens down. He again can't hit what he's aiming for. Izulde steps up to back his buddy again, and nails the pipe. It violently explodes, but the shockwave isn't enough to knock either alien down. A similar blast on a previous mission killed Aquatoids.

BYU 14 II moves into a position where he can throw a Pulser. He tosses it and the device lands right next to the closest alien and goes off. When the bubbles clear, the alien is still standing.

From out of the distance, a Pulser comes sailing in towards Greyroofoo II and Izulde. Fortunately for them, it lands on the other side of a small hill and explodes harmlessly.

Caesar tries to move up to see the aliens, but a shot comes out of the swirling mess around where they stood and hits him. His armor holds though, for the moment.

“I need some help here, I'm hit and need some medical attention!” cries Caesar.

“I'm coming Caesar!” replies SirFozzie, who grabs his medikit from his belt and moves towards his wounded comrade.

The alien who threw the grenade shows himself, but Greyroofoo II is too slow to react. It fires at him and hits his faceplate. The armor doesn't hold, collapsing the weight of several hundred feet of water onto Greyroofoo II's face. Izulde moves to find the alien. He spots it and fires, scoring a direct hit. The alien doesn't go down though. RealDeal II comes over a rise to the south of Izulde and can see the alien. He fires as well, also scoring a hit. The thing still doesn't fall. ntndeacon III tried to lend fire support, but his shot can't find the mark.

BYU 14 II decides to try a grenade again, and takes out his last Pulser. He lobs a perfect toss at the feet of the alien. It explodes and does little more than remove coral from the area. The alien returns fire twice, but misses Izulde and RealDeal II with both shots.

SirFozzie II makes it over to Caesar. Caesar's free hand is holding his chest. SirFozzie II hooks up the medikit and administers three shots of Heal All and a Pain Away. Relief spreads across Caesar's face and he takes a knee. MrBug708 II moves over to cover them.

Back with Izulde, he gathers himself back up, takes aim on the alien once again, and scores another hit. This time, the creature roars and falls to the ground, presumably dead. Three direct hits with a Sonic Rifle and a Pulser blast is all it took.

Another alien comes out of the haze near where the lone dead one lays and fires on Izulde. His armor holds with barely a scratch. He moves up and fires on the lobster-thing and gets another hit, but no kill. Roberto II steps up with his Shok launcher and nails the beast, knocking it stunned to the ocean floor.

From a high peak in the center of the grid, RealDeal II spots the alien ship in the distance to the west. With the position of the doors, it looks to be one of the really small-small ships. He keeps his sights on the doors.

The team continues its methodical sweep. path12 II moves in towards the door and spots one of the aliens about to go in. He fires but only hits the door behind the alien. Izulde moves up and spies it. He fires but also misses. ntndeacon III, now on top of the same peak RealDeal II was on earlier, fires at the alien with similar results. SirFozzie II makes it up path12 II's right flank and fires on the creature. He hits it square and it roars as it falls. It stops moving on the ground, lifeless.

Things get quiet as the team prepares to assault the ship. Caesar takes an overwatch position on the side of a tall sea hill. path12 moves closer to the door to get ready to storm it. As he does, a shot comes from the far corner of the ship. It hits him at his ribs and finds a weak spot in his armor, killing him instantly. Izulde moves up to find his attacker. He spots the alien through the murky waters.


The murky waters help shield the aliens from the Aquanauts' view.

Izulde takes aim and shoots. The blast hits the alien midsection, but it just spins a returns fire. It's shot flies over Izulde and other troops behind him. He takes cover behind come coral. RealDeal II steps up and gets a line on the giant lobster. His shot is true, but the alien still stands. Roberto II moves forward and fires his Shok launcher, but misses well right and the bomb explodes well to the rear of the alien. Travis III tries a shot and misses horribly.

MrBug708 II senses this thing getting out of hand. He comes around the large hill in the middle and takes a quick shot at the bug. He also hits, but the thing doesn't go down. Caesar, from his overwatch position, tries a desperate, long shot but scores a hit, and the creature falls to the ground. It twitches there, though, and isn't dead.

Everyone takes a big breath. The team continues to move up to the door of the ship, expecting an alien inside. However, as the team gets in place, Izulde spots another alien outside, to the rear of the ship. Once again he fires on an alien and scores a hit only to not see it drop. The alien pulls out a Pulser and throws it his way. It doesn't land near him, but close enough to the gas pipes to cause them to explode again. The blast takes Travis III's head clean off. Izulde is unhurt, as is RealDeal II, who was right next to the pipe when it went.

Izulde tries to locate the alien, but can't see much through all the silt, mud and sand kicked into the water. SirFozzie II moves up to the ship door to keep an eye on it. Roberto II thinks he can get a Shok bomb over near where the alien stood, and fires. It hits a rock right next to where the creature once stood. Nobody can see anything fall though.

Izulde pushes his way through the muck and spots the alien, cowering next to some coral. He fires and hits it. It falls to the ground, knocked cold and bleeding.

SirFozzie II and MrBug708 II storm the ship, but find no more aliens. The mission is over. Poor armor has directly led to two more deaths. Another death was just plain bad luck. Three dead against these powerful new foes seems light though. They seem to be the strongest things yet. All told, we killed three and recovered two still alive. The entire ship was in good shape even after having tangled with a Barracuda.

For his excellent work on the mission, Izulde is promoted to Ensign.