Oddly responding doors and staircases

Posted on Fri Feb 26th, 2021 @ 9:25am by Gunnery Sergeant Roderik Kos

666 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: S1E4: The Hills Have Eyes
Location: USS Phantom

In the end, it had taken three marines to drag Rodi back on board the ship. After his mission on the station he had secured his weapons and then stowed his armour. He went to his quarters, grabbed his go-bag. That was quickly filled with the clothing in the drawers. His face was in a rigid scowl, as it was the only way to avoid the tears that would have flowed. The scattered FNS reports he had seen spoke about a tsunami hitting Ireland. His family lived in-land but Ireland was still an island, and not a particularly large one at that.

With a duffle on his shoulder Rodi exited his quarters. From there he made a quick left to the nearest turbolift. When the lift opened its doors on the lowest deck the small hallway lead to the entry of the shuttlebay. The doors refused to open, showing they were locked down. Rodi's security chief override key made quick work of that, but flagged to the security console on the bridge. The marine standing guard at it sent it down to the closest three guards. His assumption was that the Gunny might need back up.

Rodi was halfway through starting the shuttle. He wasn't qualified to pilot this shuttle. Hell, he was barely qualified to control the auto-pilot functions, but his family might be in danger.

"Gunny? Whatcha doing?" One of the marines, a corporal, asked as he stepped on board the Chaffee-class shuttle. Two privates followed him on, their eyes sweeping around the cramped quarters. They spotted the large marine duffle.

Rodi swivelled the pilot's chair around. His scowl deepened, shading his eyes under a furrowed brow. Slowly he came out of the chair and stalked over. "Get off the shuttle." he ordered quietly as he intruded in the corporal's private space.

The young tilted his head down so he could look Rodi in the eyes. He felt nervous, it was never a good idea to challenge a gunnery sergeant. They've been there, done that, written the manual, and probably taught you on how to do it right too. But there was something odd about the situation. The corporal made a decision. He took a half step back so that Rodi wouldn't be in his personal space before he spoke. "Gunny, why are you on the shuttle? Without a pilot?"

"I just gave you an order, corporal. I did not invite you to ask questions. Disembark, now." Rodi said, his tone having turned icy cold.

The corporal swallowed but remained standing where he was. "Can't do that gunny. I don't think you have clearance to the take the shuttle out. How about we talk this over outside?"

Rodi's mind flashed red. The last thing he remembered was balling a fist and preparing to swing. Several long moments later he was laying on the deck. Rodi felt a heavy knee between his shoulder blades, a pair of hands restraining his wrists on the small of his back, and one marine sitting against a bulkhead with a nasty cut just under his eyes.

It was later told that Rodi had knocked the corporal off his feet with the first swing, rugby tackled the private behind the corporal and rode him to the ground. When the second private tried to intervene he had broken that one's nose with a viscous rear-headbutt. And it finally took all three marines grabbing limbs and all their bodyweight to drive Rodi to the ground and restrain him until common sense took over.

Tears flowed, understanding was found, and when the corporal sent in his report it simply stated that Gunnery Sergeant Kos was doing a spot inspection of the shuttle and the bay. The injuries the four of them had? There were some very oddly responding doors and staircases in the shuttlebay. Rodi didn't come out of his quarters for four days and nights until he received word from the site supervisor in Ireland that his family was safe and sound.

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