“The bridge is on the top level, forward from where our suite is located,” Tavia said to Dalton, though he undoubtedly knew where it was. Without missing a beat, she then told the serpents in their own language to follow her. Even though technically Bill, as a centurion, was in charge, everyone knew that the serpents preferred taking orders from a female, since they had a matriarchal society. They raced up the spiral staircase with Tavia, Hatch and Bill in the lead followed by Dalton and the serpent forces. They quickly reached the upper deck where the highest-class suites were located. To maintain their cover as a wealthy couple on their honeymoon, Tavia and Bill had their suite on the most expensive deck. They knew the passageway led directly to a flight of stairs leading to the bridge, which sat atop the ship at the bow. As they moved down the hall, some of the passengers opened their suite doors. As soon as they saw the serpents, the doors snapped shut. As they approached the half way point to the bridge, a door opened on the left side of the passageway and five mercenaries came out, guns blazing. Tavia and Bill covered themselves and Dalton with their shields. Two of the serpents went down. The next nearest serpents leapt at the shooters and the nearest two mercenaries had their chests and abdomens torn open through their armor. The other three were initially stunned and then vomited out of fear, as they turned to run away. They were too slow and the serpents tore their backs open. Serpent combat was always fast and efficient but very messy.
Tavia and Hatch entered the room from which the mercenaries came and saw in the dim light a young couple tied and gagged in their chairs. Tavia recognized Ann and Greg immediately. Since Dalton, Tavia, Bill, Ann and Greg were all tablemates and three of the five were fighting in the boarding party, they must have assumed Ann and Greg were also spies. Tavia told Bill to move on, that she would catch up. Bill ordered two of the Special Forces to stay with Tavia and called down for serpent medics to tend to the wounded serpents. He then took the rest forward. He also asked the serpent centurion to send up two armored males if she could spare them.
Tavia flicked on the light switch and saw the eyes of her tablemates. They were fixed on Hatch and the fear was palpable. Tavia pulled her dagger and slit the bindings on their hands and feet. They removed their gags themselves.
“Please don’t hurt us, we had nothing to do with those men,” Ann pleaded.
It was then that Tavia realized they did not recognize her with her helmet on and the face shield down. Tavia quickly removed her helmet and said, “Ann and Greg, we won’t hurt you. You are safe now.”
“Tavia? Is that you? What is going on and what is this animal?” Greg asked rapidly and could not take his eyes off Hatch.
“Yes, it’s me and this is Hatch, my friend and she is not an animal. You have just met your first alien and she is very intelligent. Stay in your suite, lock the door, and when this is over I will come and explain everything to you.”
“What about those people who tied us up?”
“They’re dead, so they won’t be back.” With that, Tavia left and Hatch followed her out. The last thing Greg and Ann heard was Tavia making strange noises to the aliens. Greg closed and locked the door and turned back to see that Ann had fainted.
When Tavia exited the room, a serpent medic was tending to the wounded serpents. One was bandaged and ready to return to action. The other one took the brunt of the automatic weapons’ fire and did not look like she was going to make it. As Tavia and the guards were ready to join the main force, two armored males arrived with their Gatling guns. Tavia led her group of five forward without further incident.
When Tavia reached the end of the passageway, she saw that the others were standing in front of a blast door. They were waiting for Tavia, since she had the tap node. Tavia pulled it out of her armor and placed it against the door controls. The node immediately made contact with the main computer. As this was happening, the Special Forces troops moved to the side and the armored males took the central position in front of the door. Tavia spoke into the communicator in her helmet, “Invicta we need the blast door opened to the bridge. I have the tap node on the control panel.”
“One second,” Tavia recognized Tom Gardner’s voice. “The doors will open in five seconds.”
“Everyone, get ready,” Tavia said just as the blast doors began to separate. She quickly grabbed the tap node, raised her shield and lowered her rifle. When the doors were about a meter apart, shots began to come through. Tavia was to the right of the armored males and Bill to the left. The armored males in the middle, being serpents, had perfect night vision and could see their targets. They opened up with their Gatling guns. All other thoughts left Tavia’s brain as it was filled with only one. ‘Wow, those guns are deafening in a tight space’. A few shots from the other side of the door got through, but the serpent males were heavily armored and nothing penetrated. On the other hand, since the serpents saw in the dark as if it was day, the thirty caliber rounds coming out of the Gatling guns at three thousand per minute shredded the armor and bodies of the five guards firing through the blast door. The armored males used to use railguns, but once introduced to the mini Gatling guns, there was no turning back. They loved them. The males now moved ahead and cleared any resistance in the passageway leading to the stairs to the bridge. Bill ordered them to stay back and cover them while he led the Special Forces into the bridge. With no clear idea of what awaited them, Bill decided to simply rush in with the Special Forces and count on the element of surprise and the speed of the serpents. They all knew that the captain was to be taken alive, if possible. The rest of the bridge crew did not matter. On Bill’s order, they rushed the bridge. The speed of the serpents propelled them quickly onto the bridge and the shocks of their speed and appearance made it difficult to defend against them. The armored males were ordered to protect the access to the bridge in case of a counter attack. Tavia, Bill, Dalton and Hatch left the males behind and ran up the stairs to the bridge. They had heard a few shots and a lot of shouting and hissing. When the Romani finally reached the top of the stairs and entered the bridge, it was all over. The serpents had killed or captured the entire bridge crew, even the captain. One serpent laid dead along with three bridge guards and several of the crew.
“Captain, do you surrender your ship?” Centurion Marshal asked as he pointed his pistol at Captain Meigs.
Meigs looked around the bridge and concentrated especially at the serpents, who were looking intently at him and the surviving bridge crew. “We surrender. Do I have your permission to use the ship wide communications to convey this to my crew?”
“No tricks. Just a simple capitulation message.”
Meigs pressed the communications button and said, “Attention crew, this is Captain Meigs. I have surrendered. Cease all combat and lay down your weapons.” He then pressed the button again and raised his hands. “Please keep your animals under control.”
Tavia hated that these people kept calling her friends animals and had to speak up. “The only animals on this ship are you and your crew. We saw the video log of our destroyer you blew apart without giving them a chance to surrender. These are members of our republic and they have a greater sense of fair play than you and your mercenaries. Consider this your first encounter with an alien race as intelligent as humans, if not more so.”
Tavia could see by the expression on Meigs’ face that the shock of her statement was just registering. Tavia then called down the stairs and told the males to order the medics up to the bridge for the wounded serpents and to secure the one who would not rise again. Tavia then activated her helmet communicator, “Invicta, the captain here has surrendered and ordered his troops to put down their weapons.”
The return message came quickly, “We picked up his transmission but the mercenaries are not obeying yet. Some have surrendered but others are trying to force their way through the eighth cohort to the hangar bay. We think they are planning to take the boarding shuttles there, but are not sure what the intention is. So far we are holding them back, but mo
re are applying pressure on our forces.”
“What of the serpent cohort?”
“That has broken through to the engine room and all resistance there has ended. Some of their centuries are giving chase to the mercenaries moving forward.”
“What can we do to help?”
“Keep the bridge secure, incase this is a feint to retake the bridge.”
“Yes sir,” Tavia then turned to Captain Meigs, “Captain, is there another entrance to the bridge?”
“There is an elevator leading down to the crew decks. It opens in that corner.” Meigs indicated a set of doors just to the right of the bridge staircase.”
“Hatch, tie up the crew and rip them open if they resist,” Bill ordered.
“Sss. Yes Centurion.” Hatch replied and it was evident that the surviving bridge crew was shocked that these creatures knew human language. Since the order was giving so the humans could understand it, there was no resistance. The torn open bodies of those who put up a fight were deterrents enough.
Aboard the Invicta, Slone was pleased with the results of the combat. The bridge and the engine rooms were in Romani hands and the eighth cohort was near the forward generator room. Nevertheless, the mercenaries appeared to want to leave the ship by reaching the boarding shuttles. This was odd, since the yachts in the rear hangar were all slipstream capable, but boarding shuttles were not. Therefore, what was the plan here?
After capturing the engine room, a century was left behind while the rest of the serpent cohort moved to higher decks looking for the enemy forces. It was now a slow grind from deck to deck to seek out and destroy the enemy. The ship was too large to ferret out the enemy quickly, and it required the cohorts to divide into their individual centuries to check all areas. Unfortunately, this thinning of forces also meant there were gaps in the line. Had they been dealing with corporate military, they would have all gladly surrendered, since their pay was not worth their lives. However, these mercenaries wanted their pay; this meant they had to present themselves to their employer to get it.
The mercenary commander called himself Colonel Otto Mueller, a former resident of the Brandenberger Corporation. He was ex-military, as were all his mercenaries and his men trusted him to make the best deals possible. Thus far, the assignment on the Rising Star was simple and lucrative. The ship’s crew was all Sinclair Navy and his troops only had to defend the ship if they were boarded. There was no intention of boarding any ships they attacked, since complete and rapid destruction was the mission. Mueller never really cared why his employers did what they did. Morality was not his concern. All he wanted was cold hard cash, payment in gold only. He and his troops heard about the freighter spotted entering the system and didn’t give it a second thought. They had already obliterated over 10 of those and never took a single prisoner. Thus far, serving on a Sinclair Q-Ship had been a very lucrative, monumental bore. That all changed in a flash. They had broken orbit to intercept the freighter and the mercenary forces were alerted. Unfortunately, it was very much like that old story of the boy who cried wolf. There had been so many alerts, that with each one, the mercenaries grew a little more lax. Colonel Mueller could count on his personal regiment of one thousand troops; they had been with him for over a decade. The contract called for three thousand troops and there was little time, so he had to hire from various mercenary hangouts. It was those two thousand troops he was not sure about and therefore, happy to keep idle. Then, suddenly, it all turned into a disaster.
The mercenaries were still in their quarters lounging, not having taken the alert seriously, when the klaxon called them to general quarters and the intercom repeated ‘prepare to repel boarders’ three times. Colonel Mueller received word from the bridge that boarding shuttles were landing troops in the forward and aft hangar decks. Mueller looked at the monitors and saw troops landing in the forward hangar deck. He ordered one thousand of his lesser quality troops to defend the forward part of the ship. He then looked at the monitor of the aft hangar and was surprised to see some kind of trained combat animal in large numbers jumping onto the deck. He was more concerned with the human elements, but it appeared that the total humans landing were less than a third of his force and the animals would probably run when it got dicey. He was not sure what enemy this was, but combat animals were rarely used due to their unpredictability. He sent the other thousand new hires against them. Mueller kept his crack regiment behind. They were his best and he hoped that the new hires were good enough to whittle down the odds. If they perished, while doing that, so much the better, and more money for him and his best.
Colonel Mueller kept track of the battle through listening in on the coms of his officers along with helmet cam feeds. It soon became evident that the human troops that landed in the forward hangar did not fight the way corporate troops did. They used shields and in close quarters swords. The first clash was designed to slow them down and allow Mueller to evaluate the enemy and adjust his troop dispositions. To that end, the troops erected barricades meant to slow down or stop the enemy. The only problem was they did neither. Through the brilliant use of grenade types and their shields, they swept through the barricades and sent the defenders running as they fell over the body parts of their comrades. They decided to make a stand in the large equipment room near the forward generator compartment. The defenders used the equipment as shields but again the use of grenades flushed them out and they were taken down. Grenades used by the defenders were mostly useless as the enemy shields went up double height each time for protection. These enemies were fighting like well-oiled machines. Never had Mueller seen troops fight like this and he knew his people were in trouble. He now turned his attention to the fight against the trained combat animals. He had great hopes for success there and then he could turn all of his troops against the human threat.
The command and control room for the mercenary forces was in the center of the ship, about equidistant from both hangar decks. One wall was covered with monitors showing all of the engagements going on in the ship. Due to the massive size of the vessel, none of the effects of the combat could be felt in the room, but the monitors made them clear for all to see. The normal corporate regiment was five hundred troops, but this massive ship held many more than a corporate dreadnought. Mueller’s personal regiment of one thousand was broken into companies of one hundred each. These were led by captains. Now all of the companies were standing ready in the passageways leading away from the command and control center. They were under the command of their sergeants and the 10 captains were crowded into the room with eyes glued to the monitors. They had all seen as the enemy landed and noted the fighting style of the humans. They were now glued to the monitors and watching the action with the combat animals. They appeared to be some type of reptile. Mueller wondered where they had gotten them. He also wondered from where these troops were coming. They looked formidable, but no animal could withstand the sounds and damage of combat, that was why no one used them anymore. They had not engaged immediately but waited until some humans came out of a yacht to join them. Mueller assumed these were the handlers. The animals seemed to react to them and then they moved into the ship. The humans and a few animals broke off and went into the passenger portion of the ship. He assumed they were heading to the bridge, but that was sealed off and very well protected. In front of the animals, there were larger reptiles they had actually gotten to wear armor and carry what looked like mini Gatling guns. He wondered how they expected animals to handle a weapon that complex. He thought it odd that all of the humans went up with the small group to the passenger area. The large animal force was without human handlers. Now would be the defining moment for the combat animals. They all carried shields and used what looked like a small rod of some kind. They reached the first barricade, and the armored ones opened fire with the Gatling guns and shredded the makeshift barricade. As Mueller watched, the most unbelievable event occurred. One of the animals let out some hissing and barking noises and the armored ones stoppe
d and moved back as the front rank of those with shields moved up. This was animals in command of animals, how could that be. As he watched, the animals smashed through the barricade and engaged his troops, then both he and the troops came to the same realization and it left them stunned. These were not dumb animals, this was a sentient alien race, and they were irresistible. His new hires turned tail and ran, but the aliens were much faster and cut them down from behind with the rods, which Mueller now recognized as some kind of spear.
Mueller took in the horror of what was happening to the troops engaged with the aliens. A sour taste came to the back of his throat as his mouth felt as dry as a desert. Fear, a feeling he had not had for decades, suddenly welled up in him and it was all he could do to maintain his bodily functions. He had to get off this ship and away from this horror. Just as he was deciding what to do, a message came down that the bridge was breached and they needed help. He ordered some of the new hires up there and then turned to his captains.
“We have to get off this ship. This is an alien force that is somehow working with these humans.”
Captain Griffith, one of the company commanders, spoke up, ‘How do we get off and where do we go? If they’re after us for what we’ve done to ships, there will be no mercy.”
Mueller thought for a few minutes, in which time he was notified that engineering had been captured by the alien forces. If the bridge was still holding, they may decide to activate the self-destruct, not a good thing for him and his troops. “Split the regiment into companies and head to the forward hangar deck. If we can get to the boarding shuttles, we can make it to that freighter. We take her, space the crew and anyone else aboard and get out of here.”
Rising Star Page 14