by Tyler Totten
Medical… Green
Final System Check… Green
System Check Complete
Lieutenant Amelia Scott’s eyes snapped open inside her helm. She quickly scanned the system diagnostic. She already knew what it said, she could feel that all her systems were functioning, but it was a habit. They’d had it drilled into their heads since basic, double check your double checks. She slowly turned her head, looking around the inside of the unpressurized compartment that was their assault shuttle. There were small light sources, their power sources almost undetectable even if you knew where to scan, throughout the compartment. With her enhanced vison it gave her a reasonable impression of the inside of the compartment. She could see that the other three members of Arrow squad were also awake. She locked eyes with them in turn, nodding to each. They returned the nod. When she was satisfied that they were ready she turned to their positional display. Small but sensitive passive sensors still had their target locked, a Chinese battlecruiser. She was mildly annoyed at the nervous relief she felt at that, she was usually not so nervous before a mission. The other shuttle was nowhere to be found, even though the sensors knew where to look for her. Scott smiled at that, all the better if nobody could see them.
With a thought she accessed the shuttle computer. She directed it to commence with its cold burn to initiate the docking sequence. With no dampeners, she could feel the 11gs of acceleration press her body into her armor even more than the normally snug fit. The suit responded by increasing select pressures within the flexible interior to maintain better circulation and functionality. That still didn’t make it overly pleasant.
Scott’s eyes flicked quickly to her display as a yellow warning flashed on the display. The other shuttle had revealed itself, a ghostly contact that the shuttle’s own sensors were having difficulty pinning down. She relaxed, scolding herself again. She directed her AI to give her a slight dose of a low-grade sedative, just enough to prevent her nerves from affecting performance without dulling her reaction times. She’d have to double up on the stims once in combat, but her current requirements were patience and composure.
The shuttle continued to thrust for several minutes, varying the thrust as needed. Finally, the shuttle reversed thrust and Scott watched the distance close with the battlecruiser rapidly. The ship filled most of the field of vision of the bottom-side camera now.
She looked back at each member of her team; Sergeant Charlie Sommer, Corporal Robert Shay, and Corporal Kellie Mae. Every one of them was a veteran, having served for at least 3 years in the Agema. Previously to that they all had military careers in Aegis Defense as regular security specialists or operators. The thrusters cut out and an almost imperceptible bump occurred as the shuttle touched the hull. A half-second later, Scott felt the vibrations as four spikes were driven into the battlecruiser’s hull with explosive charges. Her eyes automatically tracked downward as the second rumble indicated that the breaching charges had detonated under the deck hatch, hopefully providing them with access to the ship.
In perfect unison, the four Agema stood, their locking bolts unlocking on command. Scott directed her suit to give her a double-dose of stims as her rifle filled her hands. It was a compact version, more suitable for operating in the confines of a ship. Sergeant Sommer opened the hatch and tossed a probe into the jagged round hole the breaching charge had cut into the hull. As it entered the ship, the internal gravity pulled it down faster and faster into the ship. This, combined with the substantial initial velocity he had imparted to it, allowed the probe to overcome the rush of air that accompanied opening the hatch into the shuttle. The entire team received the feed, seeing that the charge had indeed breached into habitable spaces, cutting cleanly through the thick hull of the ship. Satisfied, Scott swung over the edge and descended into the ship. It took less than twenty seconds for the team to enter and assemble.
Corporal Shay reached into one of his waist pouches, withdrawing a pair of small flat disks. One at a time he lofted the small rotor drones, their whisper blades keeping them aloft with almost no noise above the noises of the ship. They both proceeded forward to wait by the hatch. Simultaneously, Corporal Mae gently threw two sticky camera units against opposite bulkheads. Scott performed the final job, ordering the shuttle to rig for detonation. If anyone tried to gain access, it would explode. If an Agema didn’t return inside of an hour, it would explode. The entire process took less than 20 seconds. Scott finally spoke into the unit comm.
“Go, no go?” She inquired.
“Go.” Shay replied.
“Go.”
“Go.”
“Let’s move.” Scott said, moving to the hatch. The rest of the team stacked up as she manually operated the hatch. Either through damage or damage control, the power to this compartment was out. Scott opened the hatch just wide enough to allow the two small drones to slip past the hatch and frame. They sped off down the passageway, splitting up to cover both directions. Scott saw the 3D map start to overlay on the 2D plans that NavInt had provided to them. Each hatch was marked out as the rotor-drones continued down the passageways. They continued independently until they reached a junction, where they moved to the overhead and attached themselves magnetically to the bulkhead, as per their mission parameters. No crew had been seen, though the flashing red lights and other indication meant that damage control parties would probably be along soon. Scott didn’t need to confer with her team, they were all seeing the same thing, so she opened the hatch all the way and proceeded down the left passageway. Intel indicated that was the direction that would get them to the nearest gun turret, a main battery of three 115mm railguns.
The four armored Agema moved swiftly down the passageway, the sound of their passage partially muted by the rubberized coating applied to the bottom of their armored feet. It wasn’t used for ground troops, since it would be damaged or destroyed quickly, but on a ship it was helpful to reduce noise as well as help to reduce the damage done to friendly decks. Mae continued to stick cameras to the bulkhead at fifteen meter intervals, giving them a continuous picture of the passageways behind them. As they reached the junction, the rotor-drone detached and on Shay’s command sped off down the right fork, heading for the armored hatch that led to the turret access. Scott allowed the drone to scout before beginning to move in the direction of the hatch. The drone once again nested itself on a bulkhead, this one directly across from the turret access.
As the Agema made it halfway down the passageway, a four man DC team emerged from what the plans said was a zero-g ladder-well. Their pressure suits were tougher than a standard crew pressure suit, but they were still soft shelled. Mae launched herself forward, her 30cm blade flashing up as she landed among them. The first died under her blade and a second followed. The third member of the party attempted to turn and flee, but Mae hammered her fist into his chest, noticeably caving it in. The man fell to the deck a limp form. The fourth man swung his heavy pry-bar at the armored corporal, but the alloyed-steel bar just bounced off her far tougher armor. She turned quickly and buried her blade in his neck, nearly decapitating him. Mae’s armor was now splattered with various bits of her victims, but there was nothing to be done about it now. Unarmored people never failed well against armored soldiers. It was almost impossible to not apply excessive force to an unarmored individual, making the results a gruesome sight.
“Intruder Alert. Armored troops on A-deck, junction 34 near turret 2. Security forces are to respond, crew are to shelter in place.” An alarm blared across the ship to accompany the warning in Mandarin. Each of the Agema could speak near fluent Mandarin, so they needed no translation. It did provide a motivation to get moving again. The four of them sprinted down the passageway, covering the last 40m in seconds. Once at the hatch there was no time for stealth, their position had been made. Sommer pulled a powerful breaching charge from his back and affixed it to the doorframe. Shay released three more rotor-drones to scout the surrounding area while Mae monitored the camera feeds, tra
cking movements as they came into their field of view.
“Intruder Alert. Armored troops on A-deck, junction 240 near Forward Sensor Substation. Security forces are to respond, crew are to shelter in place.” Came the similar warning. Clearly Sword squad had also been discovered.
“Ready.” Sommers said as he finished setting the charge.
“Do it.” Scott said.
“Fire in the hole.” Sommers said a heartbeat before giving his suit the command to detonate the charges. The pressure wave from the explosion would have damaged hearing to any unarmored person in the passageway. Scott was moving forward even before the charge had detonated and was well within the range for that, but she wasn’t unarmored. The hatch, miraculously, was still in the doorway but she could see lights from the other side and it looked at though the hatch was just barely hanging on. Making the decision quickly, Scott didn’t break stride, simply dropped her shoulder and barreled into the door. The impact was sudden and severe, jarring her and forcing half the breath from her lungs. She felt the slight damage to the external surface of her suit and the deeper effects of using her shoulder like a ballpeen. The door screeched in protest for a second before yielding and sending both the door and Scott tumbling into the compartment. Shay covered the door and Sommers leapt over Scott to take up a position further in the compartment. Scott rolled to her left and took a knee behind a structural support. She quickly dismissed the suit’s warning flashes.
The other two joined them quickly and they began to move deeper into the access. Since the turret was somewhat exposed and rotated relative to the ship, it wasn’t a simple hatch arrangement for entry. Instead, there was an access region and the turret had a second series of armored hatches to provide access in any position. This provided secondary blast protection for the ship in the event of a breach in the turret.
“Try a hack.” Scott ordered. Shay stepped up to the hatch, pulling a short cable from a chest pocket. He plugged one end into his suit and the other into the Chinese maintenance port on the access panel. He closed his eyes and dove into the machine.
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“Roll us over, protect the port side breach.” Athena called out to Masters at the helm. He responded immediately, snap rolling the ship to keep the port side out of the closest battlestation’s heavy guns.
Tripoli had taken an unlucky hit from one of the fighter-bombers on their first attack run. The run had also necessitated taking hours to burn the required delta-V and return to their battlestations. By the time they were clear of DSF-1’s point defense, however, only twenty of their ninety remained. The Armadillos had again proved their worth. Not a single missile got past their defenses and they managed to rack up at least thirty fighter kills apiece.
“Prepare to fire another salvo of missiles, target is battlestation station Bravo.” Athena ordered, targeting on the somewhat damaged of the two battlestations glaring at her on the tactical display.
“Aye sir. We have the tubes loaded, plus three full sets of reloads ready to go. If we want any more we’ll have to unpack them.” Masters informed her.
“Gunboats are holding formation sir.” Johnson reported. The eight gunboats who were still missile armed were in close formation behind Tripoli. Ticonderoga was in formation, just off the port side. The rest of DSF-1 was slightly further back, awaiting an opening to FTL in close and go to guns against the battlestation. To do that, Athena had to wound her first.
“Drone status?”
“Half are down sir, ten more are in the tubes ready to replace most of what we’ve lost.” Heath responded.
“Launch them as soon as we come out of our jump. It’s time to bore in.” Athena ordered. She turned back to Masters. “Emergency military power. Take us right down their throats.”
Tripoli, Ticonderoga, and the gunboats corkscrewed through space, winding and weaving in an effort to break targeting locks for the battlestation railguns. As they bore in, the surviving fighter-bombers launched, heading directly for them. They formed up and then jumped to within 10,000 km of Tripoli.
“Execute jump!” Athena nearly shouted.
“Jumping.” Masters responded, his voice somewhat quieter.
The group crossed the boundary into subspace in an instant, travelling quickly across the distance between the battlestation and their start point. The fighter-bombers had jumped the gun, coming in too soon and not close enough to ensure their missiles had to be engaged.
“Emergence.” Masters report came only a couple seconds after transition, even with their relatively slow FTL speed.
“Drones away!”
“Gunboats, commence attack runs.” Athena said into her comm.
Each of the gunboats shot out from behind their protector, moving outward and forward. As they closed the gap, the station began to pick them up compared to the drones, the close proximity making tricking the enemy more difficult. As soon as the first gunboats died to the battlestation’s big guns, the remaining boats fired everything they had, 18 missiles in total. Tripoli added her own meager fire to the mix, sending a half dozen missiles at the nearest station.
The station reached out with its point defense array, each layer killing more of the missiles. Two warheads made it within repulsor range. The first detonated with minor damage to the station, knocking out its primary long-range comm array and a few point defense turrets. The second, however, managed to trigger secondary explosions near a point defense battery. The resultant explosion tore a gash in the station’s armor, expanding gases adding to the conflagration.
“That’s the window, give Port Royal the go.” Athena said. Port Royal would lead the attack on this station now.
Athena glanced back at the 3D tactical display. Thunderer was still working hard to keep the Chinese battlecruiser at arm’s length, while simultaneously taking on her escorts and the wounded cruiser that remained. While she was taking a beating, it was working.
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“I’m in.” Shay said as the hatch rolled aside. Mae was covering it in an instant, while Sommer covered the passageway. Unarmored security had been the first to respond and Sommer had no trouble keeping them at bay with carefully selected bursts of fire and the odd grenade. Now though, their armored troops had made it to here. They were harder to suppress and Scott had just moved over to assist. Now she stepped back inside and hefted the ruined blast door. She maneuvered it back into rough position, leaving just enough space for Sommer to fire through it. As she held it in place with a single armored hand, she reached out with her other and grabbed at the piping and wiring running across the overhead. She pulled several section off the bulkhead and used it to catch the tops of the broken dogs, effectively lashing the door in place. While it would barely stop an unarmored man, it would slow down any who tried to go through. Above the door she quickly rigged a proximity charge. She nodded to Sommer and he lobbed a final grenade down the passageway before moving to the open turret hatch with Scott. As they entered they found that the other two Agema had already eliminated the gun crew. Shay was again at work hacking into the system. Luckily, his previous hack left him a starting point. He started by reclosing the hatch.
“I’ll try and initiate a lock-down first.” Shay said quietly.
“Good. I’m sending Sommer in as well.” Scott gestured to her sergeant. He nodded and plugged into the console as Shay had done. With two of them, they would make faster progress.
“Meeting resistance.” Shay said almost immediately, grimacing inside his armor as his own cyber-defenses were assaulted.
“Turret control established.” Sommer said. While Shay had drawn the initial counter-attack, Sommer had slipped in and given local control to them for the turret. While the gun crew normally served as a back-up, Sommer had switched the gun to gunnery training mode, meaning that all of the external controls were removed. That didn’t remove the safeties, but there was n
o time for that.
“Targets…” Mae said absentmindedly to herself as she too plugged in and took control of the turret directly. The turret slewed in place, acquiring a target. Mae fired off the last nine rounds in the big triple-barreled gun’s ‘clip’ in rapid succession before having to wait for the autoloader process to commence. A second later she was ready and loosed another clip of twenty-four rounds.
“Hit on a corvette, looks like she might be breaking up.” Mae reported.
“Safety overrides?” Scott inquired from her position near the hatches. The troopers outside were setting charges even now. Clearly they didn’t plan to take the ten minutes or so to re-hack into their own system.
“Breaking them down now.” Mae responded. “Got them.”
The big turret trained downward, going below its nominal lowest safe depression. Mae then slewed around and took aim at the mid-ventral turret, a virtual carbon copy of their own. She fired six rounds into the turret, immediately turning it into a twisted wreck of hull, gun barrels, and expensive electronics. She slewed again, taking aim at a cluster of shotgun point defense this time and fired a single round before all of the lights to the compartment shut-down simultaneously and the computer systems needed to fire the gun died as well. Scott looked around briefly, then checked the cameras again. Sure enough, the Chinese were about to blow the hatch.
“Incoming.” Scott warned.
“I’m done here, sir.” Shay said.
“Chances are they won’t even notice.” Sommer confirmed.
“No time to wait around and do it better.” Scott said flatly. “Mae, get us a way out.”
Mae’s response coincided with the center-left hatch blowing inward and four grenades accompanying it into the compartment. All four Agema were in good cover behind consoles so the grenades were of no effect. Two armored Chinese marines entered next and were cut down by efficient bursts from Shay. He received enough return fire to keep him in cover. The next marine to charge in took a burst from Scott, nearly 90 degrees off Shay’s position. Sommer, in turn, used the suppressive fire on Scott to fire four grenades back through the broken hatch. The fire slackened temporarily, allowing Mae to bound up to the top of the turret compartment. Once there, she placed a series of charges on the maintenance access hatch and dropped back behind a series of consoles before detonating them. A heavy piece of the surrounding steel frame and the hatch itself dropped to the deck.