Signals in the Void 10

("Signals in the Void" is a character fan fiction story revolving around my adventures in exploration.)

Watching the pile of metal stand up, Blake was already surging forwards shouting at workers to move out of the way.  As panic and understanding grips the salvage teams, Blake gets clear of the crowd and raises his assault rifle.  A few quick bursts of charged plasma at the core of the metallic monstrosity causes it to collapse on top of its previous kill.  Talking calmly on his communicator he orders several mercenaries to lead the way back to base camp while the others provide rear guard support.  Shaking his head in disbelief Blake wonders how rogue drones got past their scanners.  He hears more gunfire to the side as more drones begin dropping down from different sections of the ceiling. 

The mercenaries keep the drones from closing on the unarmed workers as they get moving down the corridor toward base.  Gunfire becomes more frequent as more and more drones begin pouring into the room.  Blake begins to fall back when he passes one of the workers just standing there.  Shooting a few more drones which had moved closer Blake grabs the kid's shoulder and shoves him toward the exit where he begins to run after the others.

Having gotten the civilians out of the room the rest of the mercenaries make their way toward the corridor providing covering fire for those mercenaries still making their way back.  Reaching the doorway Blake is the last to go through, as he looks back and sees dozens of wreckage piles and more drones making their way toward him he mashes the button causing the door to enter emergency shutdown procedures.  While the door begins sliding shut Blake primes a Locus grenade and tosses it through right before the door finishes cycling. 

With more work yet to be done and non-combatants to keep safe Blake and the mercenaries with him begin making their way up the corridor.  Getting in touch with the other teams throughout the station it appears theirs was the only one attacked thus far.  Ordering all groups to begin making their way back, he begins planning their fortification strategy until Draiv returns. 

Arriving back at base camp, Blake orders a head count and is pleased to find they have lost only two workers.  After positioning his group of mercenaries in key locations along the route back to camp, Blake starts to question the various work bosses and technicians on how they could have missed the drones in the pre-scan of the station.  The other groups interrupt the conversation as they arrive and his front scouts report encountering more drones heading toward their base camp.

While the news is ill received by the work force,  nobody notices the smiling faces behind the mercenary helmets; today just got interesting.