Acid Burns

Five minutes ahead of schedule. Lee switched her headset to the outbound channel.
"Victory, this is Krakulv Base, Major Lee Treicher speaking. Good to hear you. We're just
about cooked down here. I have approx one-zero-zero to one-five-zero survivors for evac;
please advise."
"Looking kind of crowded down there, Major. Can we land a Destroyer in your bay?"
Lee swore under her breath. Krakulv hadn't been designed to handle a ship the size
of the Victory. Nobody had thought it would be necessary. "Negative. Can you set down
outside the walls?"
"Negative back at you. There's a blanket of zerg for half a klick in all directions."
"Did you already pick up our medivacs?"
"Affirmative, all present and accounted for."
"Then listen up. We have one medivac remaining here. Send three more down
empty, then move into position over the base and give us air-to-surface artillery fire to buy
us time."
The line went silent. Lee knew the ship's captain would be weighing her suggestion,
but it was the only sensible option. Even a basic Destroyer like the Victory was loaded out
with enough artillery to make the zerg think twice, and had enough armor to withstand
counterattacks.
The line crackled back to life. "Copy that, Major. Sounds like a plan. ETA to firing
position is three minutes. We'll launch the medivacs from there."
Lee spent the next three minutes coordinating her marines. She directed injured
troops to the base's remaining medivac, and ordered everyone else to fall back inside the
building. Then she sent the remaining centcomm skeleton crew to the medivac bay. They
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