by M. D. Cooper
Joseph was at the pilot’s console and was firing up the ship’s reactor. Normally, when the reactor had been cold for some time, the process was carefully executed over several hours, but this wasn’t a several-hours sort of situation and he was skipping a number—or all—of the safety procedures.
"Conversation was getting redundant," Tanis muttered and killed the connection; she instructed Grenwald to keep MOS abreast of issues from his position.
Lauder reported in.
“What’s the stat?” Tanis asked Joseph.
“I’ve released our clamps, station is still clamped on, but frankly I don’t care. Ready to apply magnetic debarkation in 3, 2, 1. Magnetic rails active.”
A violent shudder ran through the small ship as it strained to break free from the station’s grapple, and an unpleasant tearing sound echoed through the hull.
“That was one nasty noise,” Peters said. “But I don’t think it was the sound of us getting free.”
Joseph’s expression was sour as he attempted to determine why the ship was still moored. “Don’t you trust my driving?”
“It’s not your driving; it’s how well this tub can hold up to it.”
“I resent that,” a clear voice rang out in the bridge.
“Sorry, Tom.” Peters apologized. “Situational stress.”
“I understand,” Tom replied. “I’ve been having a rough few days myself. Thanks to Angela, I’m almost feeling like myself again.”
“Good to hear it. You’re most familiar with this ship, what do you recommend we do to break free from dock?” Tanis asked.
“Well, my mag rails probably aren’t strong enough. You’ll have to use thrusters and a reverse magnetic pulse on the station’s mag clamps.”
“Sounds like a plan; co-ord it with Joseph,” Tanis replied.
A pulse thrummed through the ship and with a final screech and a lurch, the ship pulled free.
The inner lock was just an ES shield which was not designed to stop objects as large and determined as a ship under thrust. The shield snapped off momentarily, creating quite the storm on the dock behind them. Sensors showed that in the few moments the docks didn’t lose enough atmosphere to kill anyone.
“Move us away from the MOS. Grenwald has put the call into your fighter patrols, Commander. They’re scrambling Blue Wing to escort us to the Intrepid’s VIP dock.”
“Fitting, I’d say.” Joseph grinned. Something on his board caught his eye. “Damn, two of their ships are breaking free as well. We’re gonna have a race on our hands.”
“Either that, or a fight,” Tanis said.
“Tom, do you have any types of weapons or shielding?” Joseph asked.
“This class of ship is not equipped with any weapons, and nothing more than a frontal velocity shield.”
“You owe us, Tom; tell me about the real loadout.”
A sigh came over the audible speakers and the shipnet. “Very well, we have two three-inch lasers and a very light refractive shield.”
“Better than a kick in the head,” Tanis muttered. “Peters, have Tom hook you up with a console for weapons; Tannon, you’re on ship’s systems and damage control.”
Tanis got two yes ma’ams and the men went to their tasks. She tapped into ship’s scan and brought it up on the small holo. Their ship was pulling away from MOS on thrusters, slowly angling around the shipyard to the outer side where the Intrepid was docked.
“Brace!” Peters called out as a projectile impacted their ship. Reports flashed on everyone’s overlays showing the damage to the lower holds. External cameras displayed cargo spilling out into space.
“That wasn’t very nice,” Peters muttered as he worked his interface. “I’ve got a bead on the ship that fired that. May I take the shot?”
“Fire at will, Corporal,” Tanis said. “We just need to keep these guys at bay for two more minutes. All fighters are deploying around the Intrepid so the launching tubes are a bit stacked. Our escort should be here any moment, though.”
Just as Tanis was finishing her statement Joseph let out a curse. “There’s been a malfunction in the stationside tubes. Blue Wing isn’t able to deploy, should I have Yellow come escort us?”
“Negative.” Tanis shook her head. “That would be just the diversion I would be looking for to attack the Intrepid. No, we’re on our own until the TSF patrol craft and fighter support arrive.”
“ETA on that?” Timmins asked.
“Updating the combat net now—should be eleven minutes.”
“Damn,” Tannon said. “We need to do something creative, or we won’t last that long.”
“We could head toward the Intrepid, draw our merc friends into the range of the patrols there,” Joseph suggested.
“I would, except I have a suspicion that there’s more here than meets the eye.”
On the holo before her, the two merc ships were accelerating and moving into flanking positions while Joseph altered vector to angle away from the Intrepid. Another projectile hurtled from the merc ship at their starboard side, but this time Peters had the lasers ready and melted it in flight.
“Just took a bit to get comfortable with the calibration.”
“I’ve got the refractor shield up to full strength.” Tannon seemed to be doing most of his work through the Link, his hands not touching the holo interface. “Not a lot I can do about those projectiles, though.”
Tanis glanced down at the main holo. The ship’s engines were at an angle where they were no longer pointed at MOS. “Hit the ion drive and give us some thrust.”
“Oh they’re not gonna like that.” Joseph smirked as he did as he was told.
“I’m the one who’s not liking things right now,” Tanis growled. “I’m going to be paying another visit to our friend the stationmaster very soon. If MOS keeps this up they may forfeit their standing as a self-governing body
and have to submit to TSF for changeover.”
“I doubt it’s gone that far yet. Doesn’t there have to be evidence of widespread neglect and loss of life for that?” Joseph’s eyes never left his screens as he spoke, but a hint of appeasement was evident in his tone.
Tanis rolled her eyes at Angela. “Yeah. I’m just venting. All the bureaucracy is starting to drive me nuts. I’ve seen entire planets with less of it.”
“Were they really small?” Peters asked and Lauder chucked.
Joseph interrupted the banter, “everyone hold on to something. High g thrust in twenty seconds—counter on the combat net.”
The other four Marines made double time and rushed into the bridge, securing themselves to tie-downs and duty stations. The bridge net showed status green on the ion engine’s nozzle extension and on the zero mark Joseph fired a continuous burst. The thrust pushed everyone back into their seats and the freighter pulled away from its pursuers.
Once the initial thrust was over, Tanis assigned the Marines to duty stations and monitoring tasks. It really didn’t take that many people to keep the ship in line, but it was better to give them something to do.
“They’re catching up; we’ve got several incoming missiles.” Tannon shifted shielding to cover the appropriate sections of the ship.
“We’re gonna have to roll.” Joseph synced his pattern with Tannon and Peters’ stations. “Everyone hold on to your lunch, or it’s gonna get nasty in here.”
The ship began to spin. Joseph also used evasive jinks to ensure the enemy had as much trouble targeting them as possible. Tanis saw the Marines all lock their armor’s necks solid. Joseph seemed fine however, sliding casually in his seat with each of the ship’s movements. Tanis resorted to using the head straps in the captain’s chair. It wouldn’t look so good if the major spewed across the main holo projector.
“Oh my god…” Jansen moaned. “This is worse than an orbital drop.”
Tanis agreed as her stomach lurched from a sharp bank while the ship rotated against the turn. She wondered if Joseph was trying to make them sick.
“Doesn’t the MOS have turrets for security issues like this?” Lauder asked.
“They do, but they seem to be having target control issues with the turrets in this area. I’m not certain if it’s more sabotage, or general incompetence,” Tannon replied from his station on scan.
“I’m voting for a combination. I don’t want to give either group too much credit.” Joseph seemed completely unruffled, his face merely showing light concentration as he banked around the skeleton of an ore freighter.
“They’re ah…not going to fire until they’ve worked out those targeting issues, are they?” Peters asked.
“The day the MOS security does anything decisive that doesn’t involve getting in the way will be the day I get a full night’s sleep,” Tanis replied.
“Wow, not really helping with the warm fuzzies here.” Lang grunted—paused. “Uh, sir.”
Tanis couldn’t help but let a little smile through. Poor Marines could barely stand having a lieutenant around all the time and here they were crammed into a tiny bridge with a commander and a major.
Joseph cleared the freighter and Tom’s voice came over the bridge’s speakers. “They’re attempting a remote retake of my core. Angela and I are fighting it off, but it may decrease performance of my systems.”
“I’m guessing those ships have subverted AI as well.” Joseph’s voice dripped with distaste as he plotted a course along the dorsal frame of a TSF destroyer that was being refitted station north of the ore freighter. “Too bad that destroyer is powered down; our troubles would be over in one quick call.”
“Could be worse, the mercs could actually be decent at shooting.”
“They’re not bad.” Peters looked up from his console. “I’ve melted seven other projectiles. I’m betting they’ll be switching to lasers shortly. Keep that spin up.”
Joseph nodded in acknowledgement as the ship rotated, weaving through docked freighters and transport craft. A projectile missed them and impacted a luxury liner that was being overhauled, causing a rod of flame to lance out of the ship into the vacuum.
“Damn, I almost had that one,” Peters said.
“Worry about us, not some liner,” Tannon shot back. “They’re all empty anyway.”
“That’s why I’m on guns…Private.” Peters glanced at his squad mate. “More shrapnel in an explosion than the original projectile. Besides, high-O2 fires in space creep me out.”
“Amen to that.” Jansen was nodding while looking at a view holo. “There’s something about those fires that looks totally unnatural. Or too natural; it’s like they are living things.”
Tanis smiled to herself. Banter, the best way to combat the fear of being blown to pieces.
“TSF update,” she said out loud, “ETA on fighters is seven minutes.”
“Our friends out there probably know that too. I expect they’ll start getting desperate any moment now,” Joseph said.
Power usage meters shot up all over the boards as the ship’s refraction shields repelled laser beams.
“Right on time,” Tanis said.
“We’re at 70% across the board. If we weren’t rotating we’d’ve been holed by that salvo,” Tannon reported.
“Nets ahead!” Joseph said triumphantly. “I knew I saw some out here on my last patrol.”
Accessing the ship’s forward cameras Tanis saw what he was referring to. Several kilometers of storage nets showed on the holo view, all holding various components and even small sections of ships for final assembly. The working lights were off, meaning no personnel were present in the nets, but the proximity alarms were sounding on the bridge—both from the ship and the net’s perimeter system.
“Can you nix that noise, Tom?” Tanis asked.
“On it, just responding a bit slow,” Tom replied. Moments later the klaxons ceased. “There we are.”
“Thanks, Tom,” Joseph said. “This is going to feel worse than it really is.”
With that the commander banked the ship hard around a net, under the next and around another. He threaded them smoothly, but their pursuers were managing to keep pace.
“At least they’re not shooting at us,” Tannon said.
“Peters.” Tanis glanced at the corporal. “See if you can take out a mooring mount or two. It’d make my day if we could cause a wee bit of a collision behind us.”
“I like the way you think, sir.” Peters targeted several of the net’s mooring points. “A little mayhem here, a little mayhem there…”
“That’s the spirit.” Jansen grinned.
Several of the nets had been under load; their cargo bundled against them and held in place by the station’s centripetal rotation. With their moorings weakened, the nets swung out wildly; the closest of their pursuers narrowly avoided collision. Though the merc ship escaped that disaster, it clipped a piece of cargo from another net and had to retro-brake to avoid colliding with a shuttle frame that swung out from the impact.
“One mostly down.” Peters targeted more moorings and sent cargo spinning wildly in their wake.
“You wouldn’t believe the stink we’re getting from MOS on this. They should really know by now that the more they aggravate me, the more paperwork I generate.” Even as she spoke, Tanis was filing dozens of complaints against the station for each of the code violations and oversight failures that had allowed this scenario to occur in the first place. The bureaucrats complaining to her would soon be buried in a mountain of paperwork.
At that moment, a clang echoed through the compartment and the bridge door slid open; two mercs hung in the frame, guns
drawn.
“Cease acceleration and prepare to be boarded.”
“What the fuck?” Lauder swore. “Where did you two idiots come from?”
“The places you didn’t search,” the first man said. “Now drop your weapons and comply.”
“Are these guys serious?” Jansen asked Tanis.
“They seem like it…but I’m not really sure. Are you two serious? You are going to try to take on six Marines and two TSF officers by yourselves? You’re going to die, and it’ll probably be messy.”
The men looked at each other and then at Tanis. Before they could respond, an impact rattled the ship and in the midst of the collision multiple shots peppered the mercs. Their hands slipped free of the handholds and their lifeless bodies fell back through the opening.
“Oops, did I clip that cargo net?” Joseph asked. “Sorry about that.”
Another shock ran through the ship, coupled with the screams of metal shearing. Joseph grunted. “That one wasn’t me.”
The second merc ship had gained ground while the commander’s focus was split and had gotten a projectile round off at close range.
“Losing our starboard engine.” Tom’s concerned voice sounded over the bridge speakers. “Shutting it down to avoid a runaway reaction.”
“ETA on TSF fighter craft is two minutes.” Tannon sounded anxious. The Marines were used to conflicts that they could take direct action to decide the outcome. This frantic flight was wearing on their nerves.
“Think they’ll try to board us, or just blow us out of the sky?” Lang asked.
Another explosion rocked the ship and Lauder swore. “I guess that’s our answer.”
“Belay that impending doom!” Tannon grinned at the scan console. “Looks like they got the tubes cleared. Blue squadron is inbound. Say goodbye to the bad mercenaries.”
Tanis brought the scan data up on the main holo and sure enough, six fighter craft were racing over the bulk of the station. Tactical missiles fired from each ship and tore into the lead mercenary vessel. Their yield was low, but the strikes were precise. The engines went dead and the weapons signatures winked out. Scan showed a tug leave a nearby dock to catch the ship before it did more damage. Moments later a similar scene played out with the other merc ship.
