by JK Stone
Saleria laughed in response, and then replied, “If any of us understands your situation, it would be Pops. Vellia is keeping him company for now, and he knows you’ll come over and visit as time allows.”
A moment later Jason, Jerren, Justin, and Eneria had returned to the master control room with the same weapon she had selected.
Upon reentering the master control room, Jerren smiled at her and said, “I like the way you think, but I only want to use these weapons as a last resort. I drew my energy weapon after I got this new weapon, and even the rail gun vanishes when we phase, so I say we use stealth as much as possible.”
Terrah agreed with a nod, and then Jerren got everyone’s attention.
“Alright let’s do this. We’ll do this the same way as on Terrah’s ship. Only this time we’ll be without gravity.” Looking toward Saleria, Jerren added, “so as soon as you board activate your mag boots, it’s that button right there,” Jerren pointed to a spot on her EVA suit.
Then Jerren looked around settling on her, “as for your suit, you can increase the gravity until you reach the desired effect.”
Terrah nodded in understanding, and Jerren looked back at Saleria.
“Are you ready?” Jerren asked of Saleria.
Saleria nodded and muffled out, “About as ready as I can be I guess.” Then one by one they followed Jerren through the archway.
*****
Jerren, Justin, and Jason approached the engine core and placed their hands on it, and then Jerren called over his shoulder, “You two should grab our shoulders, and help push energy into the core.”
Terrah looked at her sister and nodded, then she grasped Jerren and Justin’s shoulders and Saleria grasped Jerren and Jason’s. Once the contact was made they all pushed as hard as they could, and with a flicker of light on the engine, Eneria called over.
“The ships reset has initiated. I am moving our ship to a safe location and I’ll be in there in a moment.”
Terrah told Saleria, “You need to reset the life support, but hold off on the gravity for now though. It’ll be easier to move through the debris.”
A moment later Terrah saw the oxygen levels rising and she made her way through the floating debris toward the archway to the inner corridor and opened it. The clutter wasn’t near as bad as on Saleria’s ship as it had been on hers, and she pushed her way to the next archway. A moment later her heads-up display began flashing red with a hull breach warning.
Sighing disgruntledly Terrah said, “There’s a hull breach in the outer corridor or control room. Saleria, I saw Inola repair a breach by touching a console, maybe you can find the command and fix it from here.”
Terrah watched as Saleria closed her eyes and seemed to be concentrating, then she said, “I found the command, but it’s not responding yet… I’ll keep trying.”
“Saleria, will the ship allow you to perform an in-ship transport yet?” Jerren asked.
“How do I do it?” Saleria asked in return.
Jerren explained the process and then said, “Now, focus on sending me to the prep room first. If there’s a problem, you can always transport me back here.”
A second later there was a flash and Jerren was gone, then a few seconds passed before Jerren called out, “Alright, it looks as if the life support is good in here. You need to transport over here and get one of these suits on, that EVA suit should be getting low on O2 by now.”
Terrah watched as her sister too vanished from right in front of her. Then a few minutes later Saleria called out, “Alright, I’m depressurizing our rooms and the inner corridor’s so we can open the archways. We’ll meet you in the control room.”
The room depressurized a moment later and Terrah, Eneria, Jason and Justin drew their side arms vanishing. A moment later Jason stepped through the archway into the control room and then he whispered, “We have company. I hear people entering through the hole in the ceiling, and it sounds like they’re on the second level at the moment.”
“We’re at the archway to the control room, we’ll breach in three…two…one,” Jerren counted down.
Terrah saw the door to the archway dissolve on the adjoining wall and watched as Jerren led Saleria into the control room.
Jason took a step into the room followed by Eneria then Terrah with Justin covering their flank.
Terrah stepped closer to Saleria and whispered, “Try to close the breach in the floor and ceiling there first. Then we can reset the control consoles. That one is a mess.”
What Terrah saw of the console looked half melted away. A moment later the hole in the ceiling closed, but the gaping hole in the floor still remained.
Saleria shook her head and said, “It’s no use. The hole in the floor won’t close.”
“Try removing the console first. Put it in base mineral storage,” Eneria suggested.
A second later the console vanished, and Terrah was about to tell Saleria to try again when the hole in the floor vanished then the ship seemed to shimmer and rattle a moment. A second later Saleria re-pressurized the room and once the oxygen levels were back to normal, they all lowered their armor.
Jerren let out an audible sigh and said, “Alright, let’s see if it will let you place the three consoles in the room.”
In a matter of a few seconds, one, two, then all three consoles were in place. Eneria had asked Saleria to scan the ship for life signs and anomalies then Saleria replied, “Okay, it looks as if the breach only affected this room and the corner of the second level. There are faint life signs on the second level, but there’s not enough of a signal to get a lock on them, they seem to be phasing in and out.”
“Alright, extend the scan if you can, I’d like to see if we can scan the interior of the GoW. If we can locate any altered DNA, it should lead us to Horuisis,” Eneria stated.
Terrah watched the display as the scan extended and she let out a whistle, “Damn, that ship is huge.”
Eneria shook her head saying, “There’s no genetic lock. There appear to be a lot of life forms on the ship, but their signals are responding as if they’re shifting in and out of phase, just like when Anubisis had his armor on, so we will probably encounter armored resistance.”
Jerren pointed to a location on the display, “Can you transport us to there? It looks empty and it’s the closest unoccupied area to that location. It appears to be heavily shielded, so I would surmise that’s where Horuisis will be hold up.”
Saleria looked at all of them, “Are you ready?”
They all redrew their weapons then gave the go code and a moment later they were in a deserted corridor but still a distance away from the shielded room. Jerren took point and Jason took the rear, with Terrah, Justin, and Eneria covering them. They made it down two additional corridors before they ran into their first hostiles.
Jerren looked back and said, “I’m going to attempt to get past them, with us cloaked the guards shouldn’t see me. If I’m successful, then follow me in.”
Jerren stepped forward and was slowly passing between the two armored guards when a line of armored men came barreling down the corridor, colliding with him.
One second Jerren was standing, the next he was on his back, as were the guards that collided with him. Jerren hurried to his feet and got behind the corner the rest of them had retreated to and told them, “We can’t pass through those suits. I’ll try the rail gun real fast.”
Jerren then holstered his weapon, raised his armor and then ordered the guards who were apparently still looking for what they ran into to lower their weapons, which they didn’t so Jerren opened fire.
The rail gun worked as Terrah hoped it would, and they made it into another corridor before the reinforcements had arrived.
It didn’t take long to be low on ammo, Terrah peeked out from her cover to get a shot off, and a weapons blast hit her suit and dispersed pleasantly into her body.
Jerren sighed. “It looks like we go hand to hand from here, are we ready?” he asked.
&nbs
p; Terrah nodded, and as soon as Jerren and Eneria took off, she advanced on the enemy as well. They were soon fighting, and it was apparent at once that the only ones doing any real damage were Eneria and Jerren.
Jerren and Eneria were hitting their targets with such force that their opponent’s armor was shattering on impact, leaving pieces strewn all over.
Terrah’s punches just didn’t have the power behind them yet. Looking down she saw the debris and had an idea. She redrew her sidearm, and once she had a clear shot, she took aim at the floor right in front of the advancing horde and thought, “concussion wave.”
The energy wave did nothing to the armored warriors; the debris on the floor that rocketed off was another story however. With each shot fired, pieces of the guard’s armor that were shattered off became new projectiles for the next shot.
Terrah informed the others of what she’d done, and moments later she was accompanied by Jason and Justin who began doing the same as her.
Within a minute, Terrah was finding it hard to traverse the fallen, and Jerren called out to Saleria, “Saleria, can you transport us to the closest corridor to the shielded room? The soldiers are pushing this way, and it will put us at their rear. We’ll deal with the push back from there.”
A second later Jerren vanished, followed by Eneria, then the rest of them.
Once again Jerren and Eneria were fighting the guard’s hand to hand, and as soon as Terrah saw enough debris on the floor she began firing the concussive waves again.
Another minute into it and Jerren called out, “Jason and Justin, I need you two to hold this position. Just keep firing the concussive wave if anyone attempts to enter. Terrah and Eneria you’re with me,” Jerren drew his sidearm and vanished, so Terrah did the same, then followed Jerren and Eneria.
Jerren, Eneria, and Terrah were invisible as they crept down the corridor and came to a halt a few feet from two burly guards who were blocking the large double door to the shielded room.
Jerren looked back at Terrah and said, “Eneria and I’ll take these guys out, then we’ll re-draw our weapons and enter the room. If Horuisis is there I’ll try to make physical contact and immobilize him. Keep an eye out for anything.”
Terrah had to stifle a laugh, neither of the two burly guards saw the incapacitating blows which took them out, and in seconds Eneria opened the chamber door where Terrah could hear someone barking out commands.
Terrah and Eneria entered the room just behind Jerren, and Eneria pointed Horuisis out. Jerren was just about to render Horuisis unconscious when Eneria halted him, “Stop! That’s a dark matter bomb beside him.”
Terrah crept up on Horuisis and examined both he and the bomb before saying, “He has it on a dead man’s switch. One of us needs to keep it from going off. I can do it, just make sure he’s knocked out fast.”
Terrah then got really close to Horuisis and prepared to grab his armor-clad hand.
Jerren tried to call and warn Justin and Jason of the danger, but the room was too heavily shielded and Jerren must have decided not to waste any more time on it.
Eneria and Jerren decided to hit Horuisis from opposite sides of his head at the same time and counted it down. The second Jerren made it to three, Terrah holstered her weapon, and then with a firm grip, she took hold of Horuisis’s hand securing the trigger with both of her hands and squeezed as tight as she could.
Horuisis looked down at her in apparent shock, and a moment later he was laid out cold on the floor, then Jerren and Eneria proceeded to work on the six remaining people in the room.
Terrah felt the hair stand up on the back of her neck, and she looked back just in time to see someone had entered the room and was about to pounce on her. She rocked back, and kicking much harder than she thought possible, Terrah sent the man flying across the room where he collided with the wall.
A second later Terrah flinched and almost lashed out again when Eneria touched her shoulder and called out.
“It’s alright; we need to secure Horuisis and the bomb. The first step is to get that trigger out of his hand and secure it.”
Terrah and Jerren worked as fast as they could safely go, and once Horuisis’s hand was freed from the Deadman’s switch, and Terrah was securely holding the trigger, Jerren pulled out some utility tape and painstakingly wrapped the trigger securing it in place.
Once the bomb was no longer an immediate threat, the three of them turned their focus to Horuisis. The three of them removed every piece of armor from Horuisis’s body, then using the utility tape, Jerren bound Horuisis’s wrists and ankles tightly together.
Jerren called out, “Terrah, I want you to carry the bomb and Eneria and I’ll get Horuisis.”
With arms hooked through Horuisis’s Jerren and Eneria proceeded to drag him out of the room to meet up with Jason and Justin, and Terrah brought up the rear, carrying the bomb.
The three of them made it back to Jason’s side and Jason said with a laugh, “What took you so long?”
Jason then looked at Terrah and must have realized what she was carrying, because he had paled and asked, “That isn’t what I think it is, is it?” in apparent disgust.
Jerren nodded and said, “Yes. So much for a quick extraction, hold this position a few more minutes.”
Turning to her, Jerren said, “Terrah, you need to stand back a bit.”
Terrah moved to the far wall and wondered what Jerren was going to do, but a moment later she had her answer when Jerren opened communications.
“Saleria, I need you to transport me and my prisoner directly to your Engine room. Don’t transport anyone else, we have a dark matter bomb, and we’ll have to manually extract after I get back. Transport now.”
Then in a flash Jerren and Horuisis were gone.
Eneria went past her, and covered the opposite end of the corridor, and keeping the bomb out of target range and behind cover, Terrah waited impatiently for Jerren’s return.
Ten minutes later Jerren called back, “Alright I’ll be there in one second.”
Terrah heard Jerren signal Saleria and an instant later, Jerren was back in front of them.
“It’s time, we need to get out of this ship. Saleria says she may have found a way to free TDS 2 from the GoW, but she is waiting for us to return,” Jerren explained.
Peering around Jerren added, “Alright here’s the plan, Eneria and I’ll take the lead, and Jason and Justin will cover our flank. Terrah, since you cannot phase while carrying the dark matter bomb, I want you to remain an equal distance between both of our groups and keep the bomb out of the line of fire. Are we ready?”
Terrah nodded and she followed as they began their trek back to TDS 2.
*****
It took a little over an hour and thirty minutes of heavy fighting before Terrah and the others made it back to the forward bulkhead where TDS 2 was attached to the GoW.
Saleria must have sealed the outer hull breach because a group of fighters clad in what appeared to be pressure suits were pounding their weapons, chunks of debris and even their fists on TDS 2’s hull in attempts to regain entry.
Terrah heard Jerren chuckle, then a moment later he called out, “Saleria, pop the cork,” Jerren said with amusement in his voice.
A moment later, a hatch opened and the men that had made it inside TDS 2 when there was a hole in the hull were blasted out by the explosive decompression.
Once the passageway was reopened Terrah and the others opened fire from behind the stunned fighters, and fought their way back toward the ship, and Jerren led their party back aboard TDS 2.
Once they were safely floating onboard TDS 2, Jerren called out, “Close it up!” and a second later the five of them were secured within the second level of TDS 2.
Terrah looked around, the room was completely cleared and the archway was opened for the void storage. Terrah increased the gravity in her suit, and once she was firmly on the floor she made her way to store the dark matter bomb.
She entered the void stora
ge with a shimmer and Jerren was right behind her.
Jerren cleared a location for the bomb, and Terrah stored it securely away.
“I’m glad that’s over with,” Terrah let out a nervous chuckle as she said that.
“Me too… I didn’t like that you were carrying it,” Jerren said sounding very nervous.
Terrah didn’t know how to take that remark, but wanting Jerren to know she was more than up to the challenge she snapped, “Just because I’m a female—
“Hold it right there!” Jerren had snapped back at her in return.
“It has nothing to do with your gender. I wouldn’t want any of you to have to carry that thing. Least of all you and our sisters, especially because I wouldn’t want to lose any of you now that we just found out about you. Not that we all wouldn’t have been seriously screwed if it went off. It was best the way we did it; I just didn’t like the fact that we had to do it at all,” Jerren said sounding flustered.
Terrah smiled warmly at Jerren and gave him a hug. “Thanks, I didn’t want to think my brother was raised as a sexist pig,” Terrah said with a laugh.
Jerren chuckled and said, “Not a chance, Pops told me about some of your older missions and I was impressed, I didn’t know you were in the OSI also.”
Terrah let out a chuckle and replied, “How do you think Jason got transferred? I made up a mission for him, one that only he was qualified for, in order to recruit him. He was only an E-3 and I had to pull in a lot of favors to get him transferred. But Inola’s voice told me to do it, so I did.”
Terrah let out a great laugh at Jerren’s expression then said, “You should’ve heard Jason trying to figure out why and even how he was allowed to be in the OSI with the minimum grade requirement. Eventually I had to have Jason’s Chief Master Sargent tell him it was need to know, and he didn’t.”
That statement got Jerren busting out in laughter.
Terrah looked hard at Jerren and said, “I wanted to apologize to Jason for putting him in danger like that after I heard he’d been medically discharged from the military, but I just couldn’t bring myself to approach him. I tried to see the after-action review on his mission, but it was classified SCI 4.”