It was fortunate I already had extensive knowledge of the stations layout. I was hoping whoever took over the station didn’t have that information. The chances of the opposition inviting me in would be slim. I had to be very careful where I made my entry so I would not introduce the wrong people to vacuum. I knew where the Overmasters command center was and it had a pressure door. I hoped they had replaced it since my last visit. “Justice I need you to map the command center for me and give me the best case entry point at that location.”
“Hull thickness directly above the command center is fifty five inches Commander. I calculate that three to four rounds of rail cannon fire will allow you access to the command center.”
“Make me a door whenever you’re ready Justice.”
“Roger Commander I will angle my fire so it will deflect back into the outer hull upon penetration.”
Justice moved the Legacy just beyond the shuttle arm and came to a halt. I was just inside the hangar door waiting for Justice to open it. I got an exterior video feed in my helmet and then felt the slight thumping vibration of Justice pumping individual rounds into the same spot on the outside of the facility. My external view showed three puffs of debris blow out of a dark spot on the massive exterior hull. It took a final round to breach the station hull. A large assortment of junk and possibly body parts came blasting out into the void and then quickly ceased.
“I will be standing by awaiting orders Commander. Our entry strategy will allow limited communications while you are on the upper deck.”
The hangar doors opened, and I jumped into the void and gave my thrusters a sharp burp driving myself headlong towards the gaping hole in the station hull. I grasped onto the jagged edge of the opening and pushed myself down the hole. I was greeted by flashing red and yellow warning lights on most every control panel I looked at. There was a large furry chunk of something floating around and it wasn’t hard to guess what it had once been. I moved toward the door control and Justice projected the override sequence onto my H.U.D. so I could get the door open. When it opened I was blown back across the wrecked control room when the station atmosphere came jetting from the doorway. I heaved myself up and forced my way through the partially opened doorway. It would be just a matter of seconds before emergency protocols would seal the door once again. I put my back against the wall next to the doorway and slid myself across the wall. The door finally slammed itself shut and my audio pickups were assaulted by the wail of several alarms.
I ran to the lifts and peeked down. I had played this game once and knew I had been lucky. This time I was sure resistance at the bottom of the down tube would get ugly. Gripping the edge with my left hand I leaned out as far as possible. I wanted a good angle so I could bounce several delayed charges of high explosive out into the middle of the room before they detonated. In the back of my mind I could hear my friend Klutch telling me more was always better. I gave my arm a little side-to-side wave sending twelve rounds bouncing in all directions on the floor below me. There was a five second delay that just didn’t seem that way when the floor heaved under the rippled explosive blasts. I was knocked down and bounced around like a ball. When I got to my feet, I noticed the floor now ran uphill towards the lift tubes.
I looked down the tube and saw it was collapsed in on itself. It was no longer a viable mode of downward transportation. I moved to the up tube side of the lift thinking I would just boost myself down against the upward fall of the gravity field. I didn’t realize until I jumped head first into the tube, it was no longer functioning. I made the twenty foot drop head first into the bottom of the up tube. I struggled to get my footing back hoping if there were any surviving enemy troops waiting for me, they would be incapacitated by laughter and I still might get the drop on them. I got to my knees and my weapons pointed in the right direction. I could only see complete devastation. There was a considerable amount of furry looking armor pieces splattered on some of the walls.
The only intact doorway was the storage room where we had found Justice’s cores. The heavy vault door was bent back into its frame. I worked my way through the debris and stopped at the Overmasters office door. It had blown inward and I could see several Murlak on the floor. The two closest to the door would not be a problem for anyone anymore. The three that were further back into the room were flopping around like fish out of water and making sickly gurgling noises. I turned by back on them and headed towards the labs at the end of the corridor. The doors looked wrenched and out of place. There was a noticeable gap at the bottom I could peek through and see what might wait for me on the other side.
I was getting worried wondering what the Murlak might have done to the Grawl scientists. It was a possibility they had been taken off of the station. My worry went to fear because there was also a possibility the scientist may have been on the Union gunship. I pushed debris aside and got down on one knee and used my targeting optics to peek through the crack. There was very little light and no movement. Just as I got to my feet I thought I saw a table move to the right side of the lab. A chill ran up my spine as I recognized combat drones coming up the ramped hallway from the dock area. There was six of them spreading out and advancing in my direction. Just behind the drones was at least twenty armored Murlak troops. After seeing the results of my attack I knew the quality of the Murlak armor was only fair at best. The combat drones would be the big equalizer. I was having a hard time trying to forget I had nearly lost my life in this same hall once before.
It didn’t take a brilliant tactician to figure out getting trapped on this floor with six combat drones was not a healthy proposition. I needed to lure them into the lift and into a kill box of my choice not theirs. I might get lucky and get two coming through the lab doors but I would be retreating under fire. Time was running out, so I headed back to the up tube and waited to see what the order of battle would shape up to be. The hallway doors blew inward from a tremendous explosion followed by a serious amount of heavy ordnance that dismantled the rest of the already wrecked corridor. The Overmasters office that had once sheltered the badly wounded Murlak was in direct line with the drone assault and now resembled a large smoldering cavern. I was being pelted with ricocheting shrapnel and debris. Putting my arm around the edge of the tube I put the target dot in the middle of the blown out doorway and saw a drone entering the hallway. I gave it a long burst of the armor piercing rounds that generated an opaque cloud around the drone that sent my rounds flying in all directions. OH SHIT! They got shields.
I boosted up the tube and headed to the docking arm airlock. “Justice I am in trouble and coming out the docking arm. Do you copy?” I was getting nothing from Justice and was panicking as I fumbled with the airlock door. I was hoping the drones had not taken much offense to me shooting at them and would not destroy the airlock with me in it. If I had pissed them off bad enough, they might not care if there was any atmosphere on the station and blow my ass out of here. I glanced behind me as the airlock opened and saw a significant amount of smoke and junk flying out of the up tube, it wouldn’t be long now. The inner door closed, and the atmosphere was being sucked out as I stared through the view screen hoping they would think hard about not wrecking the airlock. “Justice have you got a copy?”
“Yes Commander I am standing by for EVAC operations!”
“I have six shielded combat drones coming my way and I could sure use your help!”
“I am moving just over the docking arm Commander and the hangar doors are open.”
I didn’t need any encouragement to get clear of the docking arm. It wasn’t hard to find an exit. The shuttle docking bay on my right as I exited the airlock was open to space and had a large piece of a shuttle hatch still securely clamped to it. I looked over my shoulder and saw the airlock door close. That was a good sign cooler heads were prevailing, and the drones had been reined in before blowing the hell out of the airlock. Justice momentarily uncloaked to give my hasty exit a good reference point to find the hangar door. I was boo
sting so hard for the hangar I was having great difficulty slowing down and went careening off of the ceiling and crashing into the hangar wall.
“You are fortunate in your timing Commander. It coincided with my taking a break from minding my own business.”
Getting to my feet I moved to the door. “That’s not funny Justice!” While I found Justice’s humor in poor taste it did have a calming effect to the panic I was feeling moments before. I looked down at the docking arm and four of the six drones came popping out of the hatches that had once been shuttles. Justice cloaked but had the hangar door open leaving me standing as an inviting target for the drones to center their attention on. I could see the flashes of their weapons as all four opened up on me. The massed fire was exploding about thirty feet out in front of me leaving small milky white spots on the Legacy’s shields that dissipated in seconds. I threw them the bird and smiled when the rail cannon hatches popped open and reduced the four drones to shattered tinsel. “Justice there are still two………….” I was cut off mid- sentence by a bright flash and the end of the docking arm no longer existed. I was sure the Murlaks waiting on the other side of the airlock, had little doubt about what was going to happen in their near future.
“Thanks Justice, things were not going my way and I appreciate the help.” I jumped out of the airlock and flew into the massive hole at the end of the docking arm. I thought what the hell and tried the airlock door controls only to find they were indeed locked again. Boosting back out of the docking arm I went back into the hole in the command center. As the command center pressure door opened I was surprised as a Murlak soldier was sucked into the crack of the now opening door. I grabbed him by the back of the armor and jerked him inside with me then slammed him up through the hole in the ceiling. I pushed myself back into the rushing atmosphere and out the door. The door slammed shut as I again slid myself against the wall. I was hit by some kind of beam weapon which caused my visor to blank out momentarily. Whatever the weapon was it did not impart any significant amount of kinetic energy but did give me a yellow temperature warning light in my H.U.D. I threw my arm up and gave the retreating Murlak two rounds of anti-personnel munitions. The three Murlak closest to me were cut to ribbons by the twin explosions and also gave myself a fair dusting of fragments from the back blast. Two more Murlak jumped up from the debris and took off for the blown out lab doors. They weren’t even bothering to take aim they were waving their weapons wildly and spraying everything but me with rail gun fire. I attributed their piss poor weapons handling and growling screeches to the apparition my Halloween paint presented to them. I looked down at the front of my armor and saw I was covered in a fair amount of Murlak blood and guts from the anti-personnel rounds. My new paint job was taking a beating.
I took off running after the Murlak. If I could catch one of them alive, I could question him. I had not made it two steps into the lab before I was blasted violently backwards into the scattered wreckage I had just waded through. The shattered hallway was becoming my nemesis. I was not sure what I had been hit with but the shock was wearing off and my lower left side hurt like I had been kicked in the guts by a mule. I was regaining my senses and saw I was getting an orange damage warning light on my visor. Rolling over behind a mound of wreckage I jerked my double barrel weapon around and got it pointed towards the doorway. Feeling down my side I couldn’t find any holes. Glancing back out at the labs I saw a really big Murlak with some kind of tube weapon on his shoulder. It looked like he was getting ready to give me seconds so I squeezed the trigger on my weapon. A fountain of sparks leaped out from just beyond the twin barrels and made contact with the oversized Murlak and everything around him. The crackling fusillade blew the tube weapon off of the Murlaks shoulder and gave the alien a grotesque sponge like appearance before he was flipped over backwards into the lab tables. It took me a second to realize I had fired all twelve rounds. I flipped the selector to slugs and scrambled to my feet. My side was sending pain messages to my brain with each breath I took. I would not repeat that stupidity again and cautiously peeked around the corner of the shattered doorway. I could hear a wailing growl coming from the lab but wasn’t sure where.
Seeing no movement I ducked low and went into the lab with my weapon up and ready. I took a knee behind one of the big tables and gave the entire room a once over. There wasn’t near enough dead Murlak to account for all the troops I had seen. The wailing I had heard was now a much quieter moaning. I heard movement from a few tables away from me so I worked my way around the end of the room. I could look down each row of tables as I worked my way to the dock.
The first row was empty, and the second had the pulverized corpse of the big Murlak lying dead in it. I moved on to the third and it was also empty but the fourth had a Murlak belly crawling toward the opposite side of the room. The pulsating pain in my side reminded me to not target fixate, and I moved on to the last couple of rows not finding anything. It was a good time to take a break, so I quietly slid prone up on one of the big tables and pointed my weapon down the short ramped hallway leading to the cargo dock. It would be just a matter of time before the Murlak snake came crawling by and we could have a little chat. I reached down into the belly pack Justice had made for me and grabbed a new rotary magazine full of buck shot. I eased the empty one out and threw it across the room banging it off the wall. The Murlak on the floor sounded like a small herd of cows in his attempt to get clear of the room. I slipped my new magazine in the double barrel and jacked a round into the chamber and slid off of the table right in the path of the crawling Murlak. He screeched and babbled as I jerked him up off of the floor. Blood was oozing from several places on his right side and he had shrapnel pock marks on much of his armor. There was an oversized pistol in a holster at his side. I reached down and ripped it from his holster and smashed it on the table till both the weapon and the table were a mess.
The Murlak blubbered even louder, so I slapped him just hard enough to shut him up and focus on what I was saying. I could see my reflection in the facemask of his helmet and it was definitely a bowel loosening specter. I would have to complement Justice on the red glowing eye sockets it was such a lovely touch. “Where are the Grawl scientist?” I was getting nothing from him. His helmet had a clear visor and I could plainly see he was looking over my shoulder at the hallway to the docks. I jerked him toward me and stuck my weapon up to his facemask. “I will have no use for you if you will not talk to me!” I pushed him out at arm’s length and turned my head. I wasn’t planning on shooting him but he didn’t know that and shouted. “They are in the dock!” I needed to know what the hell was going on and why Murlak were at this station. “Why are you here?” The Murlak looked confused. “We were ordered to secure this station and await further orders.” It was obvious this guy was a foot soldier and was blindly following orders. He would have no valuable information. “How many troops are on this station?” The Murlak looked terrified and was shaking his head. “If you do not answer me, you will die!” He struggled and pushed away from me. “I do not know you have killed so many!” I let go of him and pointed towards the doors to the dock. It looked like he would bolt so I grabbed the back of his armor. “How many troops came with you?” I pushed him down the ramped hallway. “Forty soldiers and three Commanders.” He stopped and turned to look back at the labs. “Now only two Commanders.”
I was going to need a better source of information. It was becoming apparent the new source could only come from the other side of the doors at the end of the hallway. I remembered the cargo dock control room and several equipment storage areas were high on the cavernous room’s walls. The lifts that took you to the scientist’s personal quarters was also located up there. If luck was on my side, there would only be about fifteen or twenty Murlak on the other side of the door. It was a solid bet they would wait on the catwalks above, looking for a chance to snipe me when I come through the doors. I prodded my prisoner up to the doors. “I am going to open the doors and I want you
to step through and tell me what you see. If you do that, I will release you and you can go to your comrades.” The Murlak was shaking his head negative, and I stuck the barrel of my weapon to the back of his helmet. “You will not survive your other choice!” I clipped my weapon to my backpack and hit the door control. When the doors opened, I could see no one out in the dock area. I kept a firm grip on the back of the Murlaks armor and shoved him forward. My prisoner quickly put his hands out in front of himself and turned his head towards me. A huge explosion drove me up the hallway almost to the lab tables. I was stunned by the impact and it took several seconds for my vision to clear.
There were warning signals blinking orange and red in several places in my visor. I focused on them and didn’t like what I was seeing. Several of my maneuvering thrusters were inoperable. Coordinated flight was no longer possible. I pushed myself back upright and noticed my hand was still gripping a smoldering hunk of Murlak armor. I let it fall to the floor and held my arms up targeting the middle of the door way. It would be disappointing if they made we wait. They didn’t. Six Murlak came charging into the hallway as I let loose with the needle gun and three rounds of anti-personnel. I was hit by beam weapons and a few rail gun rounds that let me know the cost of my armor was worth every credit. My return fire blew several of the Murlak to pieces and the rest were enveloped by hyper velocity needles as I sent a nonstop torrent of fire into the remains of my attackers. The needles made an impressive pyrotechnical display of fiery sparks that ricocheted and fragmented in all directions across the cargo hangar. A low munitions warning blinked in my visor when the needle magazine dropped below five hundred rounds. I ceased fire and slowly got to my feet. Another warning started flashing from the exoskeleton servos on my left leg. There was a slight lag in response to my movement. I needed to end this before I took any more serious damage. Charging down the hallway I reached the pressure doors before they decided the pieces of my attackers were no longer a valid reason to remain open.
First of my Kind Page 43
