My new squad and I were in the armory now. I had carte blanch, essentially, to eliminate hostiles where they appear. I had my primitive Roter gun on, and I had more ammo then the rest of my squad combined.

  We had lasguns, shields and shotguns, a bolt pistol, and primitive axes aplenty. The call came to repel boarders, and we sat in the armory, waiting.

  The squad was doing final checks on weapons and praying when I got notified. I checked, and would have smiled if I could. The fun was beginning.

  "Final preparations. Enemy expected within 5 minutes. Get ready to move fast. We stay around bridge. Likely landing position." I say, and continue my wait.

  "All crew, all crew. Boarding in progress. Repeat, boarding in progress."

  A nav point was sent to me, and it was down 2 decks and 100 meters away. "Up, squad. Prepare for hostile contact." I say.

  I lead the squad out, and wave the Sargent forward. "You command, unless gross incompetence I see."

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  He nods, and we head down 2 decks. He waves the two shields forward when we reach our target deck, and we then follow at a slower pace. The sound of lasguns and shotguns ring through the halls, along with the sporadic sound of a bolt weapon.

  "Squad advance, brace for iminant contact, fire at will." The Sargent said. I crouch walked to be properly be behind the shields, and prepared my gun.

  We slowly advanced, and made smooth progress when some voidsmen ran around the corner and headed to us. The shields twitched, but held fire. They were in our colors.

  "THEY'RE BEHIND US! FECKIN MUTANTS AN' SHIT!" One said as they set up makeshift positions I. Doorways ahead of us. We split up into our own doorways, but me and the shields were ordered to be a big target in the hall.

  I revved my gun, and the barrels got to spinning. "Block until a big chunk group up, then give room." I say. Soon enough, the tail end of the voidsmen squad cleared the corner forcefully. One hit the wall with a crunch, and a head bounced off the wall ahead and rolled down towards us.

  I heard some retching, but no vomiting. That was good, as some multilimbed abomination rounded the corner ahead. It had a large hammer in 2 hands, and a arm in a 3rd, grotesquely large arm in its stomach. Behind it, more mutants and some normal men came behind.

  We opened fire with lasguns and shotguns as they rounded, and the Sargent threw a grenade. It slid for a meter, hitting a foot, then blew up with a flash and very loud bang. "Move." I command, and the shields split.

  I aim and fire quickly. I had decided that firerate was king, and my gun spat 1500rpm downrange. The kick was heavy, but I controlled it well enough to not hit my comrades. What small amounts of return fire were coming at us stopped as the mutants were stopped dead.

  I raked the things even as the 2 squads kept firing. "HOLD FIRE!" The Sargent yelled a bit later, and I stopped. 10 seconds had elapsed from apart to finish. The Sargent threw another grenade, and this one blew up properly. The rather large pike of bodies twitched slightly, and the Sargent put a bolt in the one that moved.

  "CLEAN UP SURVIVORS! LETS GO!" He shouted and advanced. This was going to be an interesting day.