(Loki) The Veins of Ragnarok (Closed)

"Copy that." Icarus spoke a concise reply to Stefan, lobbing another flare deeper into the tunnel, landing just where the entrances into the other tunnels branched out. "It'll take us forever to check each of the caves one by one. This place is huge." He shifted the other two people in his team to watch the entrances. He was slowly circling with the scanner, but not moving deeper into the caves.

"I'm not sure. I've got a feeling we're not gonna like it, though. Something's wrong with these caves- They're smooth-borne, rather than a regular cave's craggy surface." She turned towards her partner, activating the shoulder-lamp on her armor. "What do you think about Icarus?" She spoke, still on the private line.

Two hours eighteen minutes in the past

The marine blanched at the sheer destruction the behemoth had wrought just by moving. Bach had been lucky, his armor recieving a but a globule of the Maw's stone liquefying phlegm. His armor was able to compensate, insulating the marine despite some extreme discomfort.

Weinberg and Myers weren't so lucky. Myers wasn't able to move in time, and thus found himself crushed under ice and stone, his death instantaneous. Weinberg had no such luck, struck solidly by the maw's acid, his armor melting almost as swiftly as his organs.

His screams were mercifully short. Only five marines were alive now, including the severely wounded.

The rifleman felt that old familiar feeling, when the universe illustrated just how powerless you were in the grand scale of things. His brothers and sisters in arms were dying and he couldn't-

"Private, report!"

Get it together, Marine. Stay frosty and remember your training.

"I have Corporal Hammond, sir. Her legs are messed up, but her suit hasn't been breached. I think she's in shock."

Hammond didn't confimr or deny beyond gripping the nameless marine like a life raft. He applied a dose of medigel.

Jormungandr had submerged, but it was only a matter of time before the beast resurfaced, the very ground trembling with the Thresher Maw's passage. The rifleman carried the crippled corporal across the shattered chasm, swift as possible. He spoke even as his legs pounded on the frost encrusted ground.

"Sir, where do we go?"

It was a fair question. The chasm was a death trap, and none of their alternatives seemed better. Staying would result in death. Fleeing out onto the plains would be death. Returning to the caves might grant them a reprieve, but that would be like swimming deeper into an ocean to hide from a shark.

The odds weren't in their favor.
---------------------------------------------------

Present.

Outside the cave, the pair of Mako's finished lowering themselves into the chasm. As they did so, a response came from the Yorktown, the voice nasally and unfamiliar.

"Rescue Team, this is Specialist Marlowe. We've managed to pull several hours of data from it, and we're concerned that you may be dealing with a-."

Before Marlowe could could continue, the world shifted, violenlty. In the cave, beyond the sudden vibration of the stone, there was no visible change, but the ear shattering roar that erupted from the cave left no mistake where the source of the chaos was coming from.

The decision to journey on foot may have been riskier, but their soft footsteps were inaudible to the titan lurking beneath them. The makos, sturdy war machines that they were, lacked that necessary subtly.

PFC Norris, driver of the rear Mako, felt the vehicle shake, before he became the first member of the rescue team to die on Loki.



Unknowingly, the other driver, bowls tightening with recognition, completed the sentence of Specialist Marlowe.

"THRESHER MAAAAAW!"
----------
In one of the side tunnels, smaller than the rest, partially collapsed and unstable, a single beam of light cautiously extended into the greater darkness.

"YORKTOWN! I WANT FOCUSED PAYLOADS ON THE THRESHER MAW TARGET IMMEDIATELY! WE ARE DOWN A VEHICLE! WE NEED AN PRECISION AIRSTRIKE!"
Sarah broadcast to Command, as soon as she heard the commotion from the outside. "SURVIVING MAKO- DRAW IT AWAY SO THEY CAN HAVE A CLEAR AVENUE OF FIRE! IF YOU GET IT INTO THE CAVES WE'LL NEVER HAVE A SHOT OF KILLING IT!" She looked to the other members of the rescue team. "INTO THE TUNNELS! MOVE, NOW!"

She'd take her kit and run into the tunnels, tossing flares to follow behind her.

Two Hours, Seventeen Minutes in the Past

Jackson's breathing was fast, he glanced at the remnants of the squad. His responsibility. Rajapaske was partially supporting Bach, who was calming down. The tiny Sri Lankan looked like the other Marine would tip her over with his bulk, but gene mods were a wonderful thing. She met Jackson's eyes briefly and then he spoke.

There wasn't really a choice, in the end.

"Back into the caverns," He said flatly, lifting his rifle, "And move it Marines."

Rajapaske, shifting under Bach's arm, began to move back in, juggling her LMG and the other Marine. She could only hope the bloody beacon was working.

"Serviceman," Jackson added to the Navy corpsman who was looking like he wished he'd taken a desk job, "Do what you can for the wounded."

"Aye aye."

Present

The tunnel swallowed them whole, made them mice hiding in the dark from the predator. The remaining Marines from the ill-fated squad crouched in the caverns. They'd avoided the maw for an eternity in the twisting caverns, but they dared not return to the surface.

The Marines had taken turns carrying Hammond to reduce fatigue, excepting Bach whose face was sallow but was moving. Only Hammond had stopped talking half and hour ago and the colour had fled from her skin. Without her hardsuit and the corpsman, she would've died an hour ago. But she needed proper medical attention and they simply couldn't help anymore.

Rajapaske gripped her light machine gun. The Marines were quiet and the silence pressed down on her.

Then light, she blinked against it.

"That's not from the maw, right?" Bach rasped out.

Rajapaske pushed herself forward, hand shaking slightly as she turned on her helmet light. Jackson said nothing.

She flicked her comm open, "Anyone on this frequency?" There'd been a distortion in comms before-perhaps-

He nodded at the Lieutenant, sharing her pessimism regarding the missing squad, and grunted in response to her last statement, "Seemed weird, but I never was much of a geologist." After a pause, he said "He's a good kid. Weird seeing so many kids that young trooping around, but that's only natural after the war ate through most of our experienced people. He was with Nat King in the war, right? I think I saw him on Veratix, but that nearly seems like it was a lifetime ago." Another pause. Some days he felt like he was still fighting and living the war against the Reapers; other days he felt like it had been a century past.

Then everything went to hell. Oh shit. Suddenly everything made sense. The melted beacon. The phantom firefight. As their first squad member flatlined Urbanski said over the radio, "Norris is down!" Everyone knew it by then, but it was a response programmed into the NCO by this point.

Sprinting behind Thompson into the caves, flares dancing along the tunnel walls (the mystery of their formation now solved) he shouted to the rest of the marines, "Haul ass! Marines, we are leaving!"

"Hey I'm picking up something on the tracker." Icarus spoke over the radio. "100 meters, in front of us..... 70 Meters, It's moving fast. Big signal." Suddenly the cave started to shake. " 60 meters ,40, 20, 5 meters, It's right on top of us, what the hell."

The marines watched the caves, expecting something to pop out of the many tunnel entrances, nothing, but the cave continued to rumble. Icarus did an about turn "20 meters, it's moving away, it's reaching the Makos." And suddenly, the source burst out of the tunnel floor. Shit. He tossed flares into the tunnel mouthes just as Stefan did, seeing him dash past him.

"YOU HEARD THE MAN, FALL BACK!" He fired at the Thresher maw for a second before realizing it was doing nothing to it's armor, he followed stefan, his team keeping up, keeping his tracker up to make sure there wasn't a second Maw following them.

Quick to heed oerders, the marines on the rescue team scuttled further into the caves, but they barely went a few feet, before their motion sensors announced what was soon confirmed by their eyes. The five surviving marines, plus one very beleaguered serviceman, likewise found possible salvation in a fleeing rescue team. Before anyone could do much beyond shining lights at the forms emerging from the dark.

The rifleman was the first to get a word in, assault rifle not quite up and ready to fire in preparation for danger, but he swiftly relaxed once FOF tags identified them as friendlies.

"Sir, I got eyes on friendlies."

He reported to Jackson, with tense mirth. They were still in it deep, but now they had a chance of climbing out of it.
----------------

Aboard the Yorktown, Captain Primeaux frowned deeply at the rapid com chatter. After Sarah's transmission ended, he gave orders for the Yorktown to descend near the given coordinates.

He then patched back into communications.

"Lieutenant Thompson, this is Captain Primeaux. The Yorktown cannot open fire at the Maw without risking collateral damage. We will, however, do our best to distract the creature so your team can be safely extracted. Unless there is any indication that the survey team survived, I want you topside for pick up, now "

As he said this, Primeaux signaled Udari orders, and the XO was swift to bark them into reality.
----------

While the Maw briefly distracted itself by feasting on Norris' Mako, rapidly freezing blood painting its proboscis, the Yorktown descended into view. The Hastings class frigate circled above like an angry hawk, even as two rapid forms descended from its cargo bay. The pair of Kodiaks, identical to the model devoured by the Maw several hours ago, opened fire on the beast, which elicted an angry bellows as Jormungandr assessed the prey challenging it.

As this happened, the cavern trembled slightly, the walls cracking slightly some unseen pressure.

"MARINES ON LOKI! SITREP AND LOCATION NOW! WE ARE THE RESCUE TEAM!" Sarah lost her footing, tumbling into a slide down a small dip in the tunnel. "Fuck- Fuck, fuck!" She'd tumble head over heels, sliding across the icy floor. "There is a Thresher Maw engaging our ground forces and we don't have a lot of time to get out of here, please hit us back on this frequency!"

Sarah pushed herself to a stand, hoping nobody saw her clumsy mistake. "Yorktown, understood, please engage a distraction, team is alive, repeat- Team is alive."

Someone did, as one of the surviving marines, seeing the tumble, skidded over to the Lieutenant. He reached over, offering a hand.

"You alright, ma'am?"

The rifleman asked, his voice tinny over the com. Interference on the frequencies was quite apparent, but with closer proximity, easier to understand each other.

Rajapaske for her part, with Bach against her shoulder, stared at these new marines. Their rescuers. Who were now coming to the same sort of fate as their squad had. It was Jackson's turn to carry Hammond, shoulders bowed under her weight. She wasn't talking, wasn't moving-only the suit monitor on the squad's visors confirmed she was still alive.

But she needed help very soon.

At the request for sitrep from the Lieutenant, she spoke, seeing Jackson was distracted with getting the rest of the remaining Marines up and moving, "We've taken several casualties-five of us are combat effective, we've got two wounded, one of which is severe. We require MEDEVAC fucking soon, ma'am." what she didn't say was 'or Hammond is probably dead'. They were close enough that the interference on the comms wasn't too bad. From here, the lieutenant would see how tired and young Private Rajapaske looked, even as she kept her shoulders squared and her voice strong. She was now the 2IC of the remaining Marines, with Hammond down and out for the count.

The tunnel trembled. Bach swore, voice tight with pain, fingers clenching around his rifle.

Not a-fucking-gain.

Sarah grabbed the friendly's forearm and pulled herself to a wobbly footing. "Fine- Just dizzy." She ignored the nausea and spoke. "We're here, soldier. I have some medigel but we're having a bit of trouble outside with the damned thresher maws. There are a few of us." She'd glance up the incline.

She'd kneel down and speak into her radio towards command. "Command, this is Thompson, I've found the marines."

"How severe is your man?"

Rajapaske stared at the lieutenant. When she spoke her voice clashed with Bach's, "How many is a few? We should just evac-"

"No fucking shit," Bach's voice was sharp with pain, "What do you reckon took out the goddamn shuttle?"

"Rein it in," Rajapaske snapped, but her glare was kind of taken away from because of the angle she had to twist her head to look at him, and the way their height differences were called into sharp contrast. Still, he knew enough to lapse into silence.

The Navy corpsman spoke, his voice calm. Not a Reaper War vet like Rajapaske, Hammond and Jackson, but a level-headed sort, "Bach is not in immediate danger, but Hammond requires medical attention ASAP."

Jackson stepped forward, Hammond hefted over his back. The lights shining from the Marines' helmets illuminated the mess of dark armour, bright blood, white medigel and splintered bone her lower body had become. "Is there any way to distract the maws long enough to evac, ma'am?"

As the two groups of marines confered with varying degrees of desperation, save the nameless rifleman who had backed away slightly from Sarah, his expressionless helmet quirking slightly.

Before anything else could be said, another thunderous roar ripled through the cave. Whatever was going on outside, the Maw was getting angry.

The com line crackled with urgency.

"Rescue team, this is Lieutenant Kai! We're doing our best to draw the Thresher away from the cavern, but its getting better at hurling its death phlegm at my shuttle. Get the fuck out of the hole in the ground so we can get you, over!"

-------------------

The monster didn't appreciate the two pests that kept dancing out of reach, the leviathan snapping and exhaling torrents of the lethal acid, even as the two shuttles raked its armored hide. Had it's rage been less consuming, it might have noticed one drawing its attention away from the cavern, while the second began a cautious descent, its pilot ready to bolt if the hungry titan decided to go for another lunge.

Sarah cursed /vividly/. "Oh, that motherfucking earthworm! We've got to get up this incline and out of here /NOW!/" She motioned up the incline. "That maw is still /very/ much pissed and hoping to turn us into goo with whatever the fuck it's spraying! MOVE IT! Strongest carry the wounded, move as fast as possible for exfil!"

Bolting right behind the Lieutenant, Urbanski yelled to the marines, both his rescue team and the survivors, "Move it, we won't get a second shot at this!" The walls were cracking from the pressure of the immense monster's presence - if they were unlucky enough, they might nearly make it out only for the cavern to collapse on them. Fuck, fuck, fuck, he thought. He briefly wondered whether about the status of the surviving Mako - Norris in the rear vehicle was dead but they never heard back from the other driver after the Maw emerged. "Mako One, what's your status?!" He yelled over the radio - maybe the man had died as well, but they needed confirmation, otherwise they were leaving another marine stranded on this rock. He prayed that two minutes from now, they'd be sitting in the cramped, familiar interior of a Kodiak as it rocketed away from the hellhole called Loki.

Icarus, continuously monitoring the creature's distance from the group of marines via his motion detector, followed Stefan back out the tunnel. "Sir, it's still moving away from us, we have time." He reported over the radio.

There wasn't time left for further words. The cave was fracturing, the walls weakening as spider web thin cracks spread out, and increasingly large chips of stone and rock impacted the marine's hardsuits.

Outside, the kodiak's hatch popped open, the vessel hovering close to the ground, ready to make a desperate escape. A medical corpsman leapt out, beckoning for Hammond to be carefully lifted in first.

Meanwhile, the other Mako driver whirled his machine further from the monstrosity, before responding.

"I'm fine! Just get me out of here, or get someone over here on the gun!"

The Maw pierced the sky with its unholy bellow before taking another snap at the offending Kodiak. It clipped it, sending the craft into a minor spin, as its pilot struggled to compensate

"Move, Move now!" She jabbed a pointed hand at the Kodiak. "Everyone, get the fuck out of the Caves or get comfy with the idea it's a tomb! Command, We need help with that Maw, that mako isn't going to last much longer!"

"Well fuck," Rajapaske decided as the cave began to crack before her eyes. She pulled on Bach, pulling him into a stumbling run toward the exit as the lieutenant shouted-dramatic much? She concentrated on that rather than the fact that this might very well be their tomb. Bach's armour clacked dully against hers as they moved.

Why had she thought that staying with the Marines had been a good idea again?

Bach stumbled, nearly dragging her down. She gritted her teeth and pulled him back, half-carrying him. The shuttle was so close. She could see Hammond being lifted into it, could see the cold light breaking on one of the Marines' helmet. She shoved Bach toward waiting hands and waited long enough to see him pulled onto the shuttle.

Then she keyed her comms, 'Mako, this is Private Rajapaske. I'm coming to you. Try not to run me over, over." To the friendlies closest to her, she said flatly, "Try to give me some covering fire.""

Then she ran toward the dancing Mako. Toward the thresher maw.