A Time Team Story

By Noah Stambovsky

As Donna turned, her entire field of vision went white. She had already been functionally deaf for the last minute and a half. Another sensory grenade had landed closer to their position, leaving her less time to shield her eyes.

She felt an arm on her shoulder as a helmet bumped against hers. In some mix of feeling and hearing, she could sense the vibrations as Katie yelled over the din.

"Gomez is fucking dead!" Katie said. Donna was pretty sure that was what she said. She may have said Gomez had been well fed. Donna inferred that, no, their teammate Aaron Gomez, had died in the line of duty.

Donna sensed how slowly her hearing was returning. She might as well plan for the rest of the fight under the assumption that she would be mostly deaf for the entire thing.

On the other hand, she was definitely getting her sight back. She turned to Katie. "Check on Sarge!" she shouted over both noise and her own lack of hearing. "I'll cover you!"

Katie looked at her, skeptical. She held up three fingers and mouthed "How many?"

Donna shouted "Three! Now go get Sarge!" Donna curved her weapon around a nearby boulder to provide cover fire.

She couldn’t hear, but again, got the uncanny sensation of "feeling" the terrible roar of her weapon through the bones in her arm and shoulder.

She couldn't speak for the whole squad, but Donna personally had no idea where the enemy was.

She had a vague sense of where the rest of her Space Navy Seals unit was, but her HUD had been rebooting since the first sensory grenade.

Sensory grenades with short range EMPs? What kind of pirates carried ordinance like that?

She let off five quick bursts of standard flechettes from her SNS-Assault 9C rifle. She aimed in the general direction away from the Unit's position.

She saw Katie run for it. Through the ground, she felt the explosions and gunfire nearby. No, she heard it, but through her feet and shoulders, not her ears.

Donna felt a tingling sensation on her ear, and suddenly her HUD was back, as were her comms. She quickly keyed in a command to have the channel transcribed on her HUD, and read the incoming messages.

Katie: Sarge is unconscious but alive, repeat Sarge is alive. He's been tagged in the kneecap we are providing medical. Position reported.