The Interview (Roll Call)

Posted on Sun Jan 7th, 2024 @ 10:47pm by Lance Corporal Evan Griffin

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Catus IX - Camp Falkirk
Timeline: TWO YEARS AGO
1557 words - 3.1 OF Standard Post Measure

[ON:]


TWO YEARS AGO – CATUS IX - CAMP FALKIRK – FORWARD OPERATING BASE


“Take your time; there is no rush. I have all the time we need” the correspondent said. Jarret Hjorn is a seasoned reporter for one of the premiere news divisions in the United Federation of Planets. It is her privilege to be assigned to the Marine division of the military wing of Starfleet. Her job had her working for the Federation Network News (FNN). She sat across the way from LCpl. Evan Griffin and held her breath.

It was cold here – even this far into the complex – in Falkirk. Even in this comfortable office and the heaters on; it still felt cold. Maybe it was those slightly bluish lights with a very high color temperature.

“Can you take me back to that day?” she asked patiently.

Evan was in his duty uniform, a fresh haircut, looking very dapper. He cast his eyes somewhere beyond her, to the past. After a moment, he put his hand to his chest and inhaled sharply.


MIWAANTI SEVEN – RUINS OF A CITY

“EE—OH—DEE! SAAPPERRR!!” the Gunnery Sgt yelled from the front of the platoon. “Griff? You’re up man. We got your back man. We got you.” Dressed in combat gear, rifle in his hands and his sapper gear on his back, Lance Corporal Evan Griffin, covered in mud and muck, just like the rest of the Marines of his squad, made his way to the front.

He passed by a medic treating phaser burns and shrapnel wounds. Their mouths were covered by fellow Marines so that their screams were muffled. He passed by the computer tech and the comms guy. Both trying to coordinate sensor readings. All the while, all around them was phaser fire and aerial attacks. A staff sergeant speaking into his combat helmet an Evan only hearing a snippet, “…you promised us air cover. We’re getting blown away down here and our extraction point is compromised…” . Once or twice, a hand was on his back in support. He made his way to the front ducking as a photon grenade was lobbed at their position.

They were dug in a semi-covered gouge in the ground. It used to be a paved street. In front of them lay a MAGLEV train that had derailed when the track it was on was destroyed. It lay in a smoldering heap before them and blocked their exit route.

“Griffin! Here, take these and look at the bridges overhead” the Gunnery Sergeant handed him a combat binocular. A single lens on the end to scan and derive sensor data and two eyepieces on the user end to give a stereoscopic view. Griffin lay prone of the rise of dirt that gave him the view.

“I see them. There’s the MAGLEV carriages, I see the overhead support structure wrecked. I don’t see a way around it” he said.

“That’s exactly right. We’re not going around it. There’s no time. Here. Look at our six. There…at about 120…it’s them” he said.

Evan looked back. He could clearly see that a gunship was disgorging six of the Warren AI Security Androids. They were more like robots than androids. Androids gave one the impression they were somehow Human. These Warren Security…robots…weren’t Human at all. They were cheap to manufacture though. Terribly illegal within the Federation. The former seemed to outweigh the latter.

“The dampening field should hide us from their sensors for a while longer. Here’s what I need” they looked back forward to the wrecked train cars, “I need get through those two train carriages and I need that crumbly-bent-ass-bridge to not fall on us. Our target is to reach that depot and the beam out point. I need some more of that magic in your bag.”

Griffin was joined by the two remaining sappers from their platoon. He briefed them quickly on what was needed. “Bangalore torpedoes are out best bet. We can lay them out alongside while we’re under cover. Then we can detonate the whole line to displace the train.” Griffin nodded, “Copy that. You two work the train. I’ll place cabrodine and infernite charges on the support columns of the bridge to blow it to the right of out position.”

Once the plan was in place, the Marines gave the sappers covering fire as they ran across “no man’s land” to get to the burned out train. Gathering a few kilos of infernite and a few more of cabrodine, Evan set forth on his own about thirty meters (98 feet) to set his charges.

He used his combat tricorder to analyze the damaged structure and made a few calculations in his head. Then he ran the most likely one through the tri-corder and it beeped with a green checkmark. He set the explosives and he listened to the comm chatter. He had just set the last charge and needed to connect them by pairing them to the detonator when he heard something running and thumping quickly from behind him.

He grabbed his rifle, dropped the detonator and fell backward as he shot at point blank range one of the Warren AI droids. It was as large as a refrigerator and covered in security armor. His phaser hits did little damage but it did throw the android off of him and allowed Evan to get to a kneeling position. Now, on a fours it came at him. Running, like a hound, it closed the distance quickly and he fell backward onto his rump. The droid knocked the phaser rifle from his hands and then with one arm, slammed him back to the ground and pinned him there. With the other arm, it was trying to punch him and crush his head and face. With each punch, a cloud of dust went up from the impact and Evan could not get away. He heard on the COMM that the other two sappers were done with their task and were coming. Griffin reached into his side pocket and grabbed a chunk of infernite. He mashed it onto the breastplate of the damn Warren AI and was going to strike as hard as he could to ignite the infernite.

The Android lifted its powerful arm once more and aimed for Griffin’s head. Evan tried to pound the infernite but he couldn’t move his right arm as the droid had changed positions. Then, quite suddenly, the head of the android, a roughly toaster sized array of cameras, antenna and sensors, exploded in a shower of sparks. Evan kicked away the robot as it crawled after him. Then, it stood up in reverse, back legs came over to the front and it stood up. Prepared to rush him once more and finish him off. Then, it exploded. The infernite was hit, spot on. The Warren AI exploded and then clanked and tipped over.

From the sniper’s perch, the overwatch sniper had saved his life. He scrambled to his feet, ran for the detonator and paired it to the charges he had set for the bridge. The other two sappers came and got him to help him, “Overwatch saved your ass Griff!” He nodded. As they made their way to cover, van sent the info to his Gunnery Sergeant. And a moment later – and not a moment too soon – the train and its carriages exploded and were lifted. They blew over and other their side and fell out of the way. A path forward, about 15 meters wide was clear. Griffin got the signal to execute on the shitty bridge and that lit up the evening with the bright flash and head of the infernite and cabrodine mix. The beams and supports tilted just enough to fall over to the right and not into the cleared path.

There was a lot of yelling, more Warren AI’s were being dropped from gunships. But they made it to the beam out point. And it was covering fire all the way until every last one of them was beamed away.


CAMP FALKIRK – THE PRESENT

Evan stopped speaking. He held his breath and then exhaled. “We got what we came for. But…I don’t know of it changed anything.”

“You and your team came home alive. And you got the data. I’d call that a successful mission” Jarret said. “With this information, Warren Robotics is out of business. And the Miwaan’s – their bio research is being dismantled and destroyed.”

“Yes ma’am. Well, when you put it like that. I guess we did OK” he answered.

“Is that what your job is like? That kind of pressure and fast decision making?” she asked.

The head worn interview camera glinted in the reflected light. “Yes ma’am. That’s what its like sometimes. We all watch out for each other. Get the mission done. And if we did everything right, 99 times out of 100, we all get to come home.”


[OFF:]

Lance Corporal Evan Griffin
“I don’t know who needs to hear this: But you’re cranky ‘cause you need to get laid.”
Division VI, MARDET 62nd Company "Spartans", 1st Platoon Sapper/EOD
=/\= USS ELYSIUM - NCC-89000 =/\=