The Slaver Wars: Alien Contact

by Raymond L. Weil

  Back in the other compartment, the hatch opened, and Captain Silvan led his heavily armed marines down the ramp. Quickly scanning the flight bay, he saw no evidence of any aliens from the planet below or Hocklyns.

  “Spread out,” he ordered, gesturing for his marines to take up their defensive positions.

  Captain Silvan’s mission was to capture the station’s Command Center. Sergeant Craven would proceed to the Hocklyn ship and try to neutralize the ship’s self-destruct charges. Other marines exited the other shuttles and spread out through the bay. After a few moments, they had determined that the other shuttles and small ships were empty with no crew present.

  “Seems strange for the flight bay to be completely empty,” commented Sergeant Craven, holding his assault rifle in both hands. “There is no one here at all. I hope this isn’t a trap.”

  “Let’s find the exit,” Captain Silvan ordered. “Our luck might not hold out for much longer.”

  It took only a few minutes for the marines to find the exit to the flight bay and split into two groups. Four marines remained behind to protect the scout ships in case any of the station’s crew or Hocklyns showed up. Both Captain Silvan and Sergeant Craven were surprised that they still hadn’t encountered anyone yet.

  Captain Silvan moved over to Sergeant Craven. “Proceed to the Hocklyn ship. Set off the EMP charge and we will begin our attack.”

  This was one of the changes that Ariel and Clarissa had recommended. The marines had a small EMP device that would be set off as close to the Hocklyn ship as possible. It was hoped that the EMP blast would temporality shut down the station as well as the Hocklyn warship, particularly since the ship’s shields would not be up while it was docked to the station.

  Sergeant Craven nodded his head, and he motioned to his marines. They quickly proceeded down the corridor and moved off in the general direction of where they thought the Hocklyn ship was docked.

  For ten minutes, they moved through the station without encountering anyone. The lighting in the station was brighter than they were used to, but the visors on their armor automatically adjusted to make seeing easier. Sergeant Craven was beginning to wonder if there was anyone on the station when they stepped into another corridor and encountered two Hocklyns.

  The surprised Hocklyns, upon seeing the approaching humans, immediately reached for their weapons, which were strapped to their waists. A quick burst of automatic weapons fire from several marines instantly cut them down.

  “We need to move quickly now,” Sergeant Craven ordered as he stopped briefly to make sure the two Hocklyns were dead. He didn’t know if others had heard the gunfire.

  Sergeant Craven thought they were nearly to the Hocklyn ship when several scouts he had sent ahead returned. They had been checking adjoining corridors to make sure they were going in the right direction. They had encountered four more Hocklyns, all of who had been quickly dispatched by the heavily armed marines. It was becoming extremely clear that the Hocklyns were not prepared to fight a boarding action. None of the Hocklyns had been armed with heavy weapons. It was also strange that they hadn’t seen any of the station’s crew. Sergeant Craven was starting to wonder if there were only Hocklyns on the station.

  “The Hocklyn ship is just ahead,” Private Anderlene reported. The young woman gazed intently at Sergeant Craven. “There are four heavily armed Hocklyns at the docking port. I don’t think we can take them by surprise.”

  “They might have heard our weapons fire and are wondering what is going on.” Turning around he gazed at the marines behind him. “We will toss several stun grenades down the corridor and then rush the docking port. If the airlock is open, we will set the EMP device inside and detonate it there.”

  A minute later, the Hocklyns guarding the docking port looked with surprise as two round metal objects landed at their feet. The stun grenades went off with two loud bangs and two of the Hocklyns instantly went down. The other two fell back against the wall but quickly recovered and aimed their weapons down the corridor. They didn’t know how, but they were obviously under attack. They quickly passed the warning on to the Second Leader who was in the War Room of their ship. Almost instantly, alarms began to go off inside the ship as well as in the station.

  Sergeant Craven led his marines down the corridor and seeing two armored Hocklyns still standing fired off a quick burst with from his assault rifle. The other marines began firing also. The two Hocklyns went down, but not before one of Craven’s marines was hit. He could also hear the warning alarms going off. Their attack wasn’t a secret any longer! They needed to move quickly. The next Hocklyns they encountered wouldn’t be taken by surprise.

  Striding over to the airlock, he looked in noticing that it was still open. “Set the EMP device in here and set it to detonate in thirty seconds. Everyone else get back to the other corridor.”

  “Corporal Everett didn’t make it,” Private Anderlene reported. “He took a direct hit to his chest.”

  Sergeant Craven nodded. He had expected to lose some of his marines in this. He suspected that Corporal Everett wouldn’t be the last. Seeing that the EMP device was set, he ordered his remaining marines to move quickly back.

  They had just reached the safety of the adjoining corridor when the EMP device detonated. Instantly all the lights in the corridor went out, and there was an eerie silence in the station as the alarms were silenced. Sergeant Craven tapped his shoulder, and two small lights on his suit armor flashed on.

  -

  Back in the flight bay, Captain Arcles saw all the lights in the flight bay go dark. All the systems in the scouts had been shut down, and the key systems were shielded. Not everything, but they would still be able to fly the scouts out if the mission succeeded. The obvious detonation of the EMP device was a positive sign that the mission was proceeding according to plan.

  -

  The Vindication and the Avenger were waiting on the far outskirts of the system just out of what they estimated was the extreme range of the Hocklyn’s sensors. Their long-range sensors detected the detonation of the EMP device and the subsequent loss of power to the station and the Hocklyn ship.

  “Order the assault shuttles in,” Captain Standel ordered.

  Instantly the flight bay doors on both the Vindication and the Avenger opened. The six shuttles rapidly exited the two flight bays, and after a few moments executed in system jumps toward the space station and the Hocklyn ship. The assault shuttles were going to be sacrificed, or a least their FTL drives were going to be. They would be jumping well into the planet’s gravity well, which would destroy the drives but leave the sublight drives intact. That would just leave a fifteen-minute flight at high acceleration to reach the Hocklyn ship and the station. The shuttles would land on the Hocklyn ship’s hull and use directional explosive charges to blast their way in. Once the ship was breached, another one hundred and twenty marines would enter the Hocklyn ship and try to seize it before its systems came back on line. Four other assault shuttles were holding just outside the system, ready to jump in if needed.

  -

  “In the ship, now!” Sergeant Craven shouted over his mini-com as the marines charged back down the corridor and poured through the Hocklyn ship’s open air lock. It was dimly lit by emergency lighting. “Group one, proceed on mission. Corporal Bates, I want that self-destruct neutralized. Once that’s done proceed to the next self destruct, hopefully I will meet you there.”

  Turning, Sergeant Craven led eighteen marines down the corridor toward the center of the ship where the largest nuclear self-destruct device should be located. Corporal Bates was leading nineteen marines toward what was assumed to be the Hocklyn engineering decks and where another nuclear self-destruct was located. The third was in between the two. The two AIs had suggested that it might be set to destroy the ship’s main computer core.

  Sergeant Craven and his marines had scarcely entered the next corridor when they ran into a group of heavily armed Hocklyns. The tall reptile like Hocklyn
s seemed shocked to see humans actually inside the ship advancing on them, but quickly realized the danger and opened fire. The corridor was narrow, and there was no cover. Heavy weapons fire echoed in the corridor, and one of the marines hurriedly hurled a stun grenade in the midst of the six Hocklyns who were trying to block the corridor. A few moments later, it was over. All six of the Hocklyns were dead, but so were two more marines.

  “Let’s go,” ordered Craven, moving rapidly down the corridor. “We can’t let them get organized.”

  They had two more brief fire fights before reaching their goal. They found themselves in a large room containing numerous control consoles. There were no Hocklyns in the room, and after examining it for a moment, Sergeant Craven realized that this had to be their emergency Command Center.

  “The nuke's behind this wall,” Private Anderlene reported as she gazed at an instrument she was holding. It was giving off a reading that could only come from a nuclear warhead.

  “Get that wall opened up,” ordered Craven, pointing to several marines.

  The indicated marines moved quickly to follow his order. While they started on the wall, he began placing the rest to give cover fire to the room. Private Anderlene and the two marines would need some time to disarm the nuke. He stationed six marines to defend the corridor in case more Hocklyns showed up. He didn’t want to get trapped in here.

  A few minutes later, the wall had been opened up, and the marines were busy disarming the small nuclear warhead they had found in the wall. Craven thought he could hear weapons fire in the distance, but he couldn’t be sure. Looking at his timepiece, he knew it was too early for the assault shuttles to be here.

  “Sir, there are several computers in here,” reported Private Anderlene stepping over close to Sergeant Craven. “Should we attempt to remove their hard drives?”

  It was at that moment that weapons fire erupted down the corridor and two of his marines fell. The other four began returning fire in short controlled bursts. It didn’t look as if they were going to be able to make it to the second rendezvous point.

  “Yes, go ahead. We may be trapped in here until help comes.”

  Craven sent two more marines down the corridor to help hold it. Looking around, he carefully placed his remaining marines in positions to give overlapping fields of fire across the corridor if needed. There were several other rooms off to the side of the short corridor they were in. He decided to take advantage of the protection from weapons fire they offered. The rooms seemed to hold primarily spare parts and a few supplies. He placed a few marines in each room at the door so they could fire down the corridor if needed.

  He quickly ordered several of his remaining marines to move some crates and supplies and stack them across the corridor in front of the hatch to the emergency Control Room. That would give his marines some protection from incoming weapons fire. Now he just needed to hold this position until help arrived. He hoped that Corporal Bates succeeded in deactivating the other two self-destruct devices.

  For several long minutes, the firing seemed to intensify. More of his marines fell, and Craven was forced to pull his remaining marines back from the end of the corridor. The Hocklyns poured through the open hatch, and Craven and his people fired a withering hail of bullets into them. The Hocklyns returned fire as casualties mounted on both sides. The Hocklyns finally forced Craven and his marines back inside the emergency Command Center. They pulled their barricade back to the hatch where they could fire over it.

  “I have the hard drives pulled,” Private Anderlene reported.

  Sergeant Craven pulled her down behind a console as a hail of bullets passed overhead. The corridor was full of smoke, and it was becoming difficult to see the enemy. He doubted if the Hocklyns could see any of the marines. They seemed to be just firing blindly into the room, hoping to hit something.

  “Stay down,” Craven ordered his men as more Hocklyn weapon’s fire hit several consoles, shattering them.

  Just when it looked as if they were about to be overrun, stun grenades began going off up and down the corridor. Looking over their makeshift barricade, Craven saw the Hocklyns going down as more marines poured into the corridor from the far end.

  “Sergeant Craven, are you still with us?” Major Graydon’s commanding voice came over the mini-com.

  “Yes, sir,” a relieved Craven answered. The mini-coms had been set for very short range so the Hocklyns would not be able to pick up their signals. “We disarmed the self-destruct and managed to get our hands on several computer hard drives. The Hocklyns had us pinned down in here.”

  “Corporal Bates disarmed the other two,” Major Graydon reported as he stepped into the corridor that was filled with dead Hocklyns and marines. “He was pinned down also, but we have managed to reach him. The ship should be ours shortly. A number of the Hocklyns we have encountered were not heavily armed and were quickly dispatched. Evacuate your wounded back to the flight bay on the station. We hold the majority of it now also.”

  -

  In space, the Vindication and Avenger had micro-jumped to just outside the targeted planet’s gravity well. They were waiting and watching to see if reinforcements would be called in to assist the space station and Hocklyn ship.

  “Nothing is happening,” Commander Standel commented over his mini-com to Commander Wisthom. “None of the freighters jumped out, and the people down on the planet don’t seem interested in what’s happening in orbit. That EMP blast should have been detected by planetary sensors.”

  “We don’t know what they have down on the surface in the way of sensors,” Commander Wisthom replied.

  He too was feeling confused. You would think that the freighters would have jumped out and gone for help. They seemed to be carrying on their business as usual. A few were even still in transit to the station and had not deviated from their courses. It would be hours before any of them neared the station, so they were not a concern as of yet.

  “We don’t know how long the Hocklyns have controlled this system,” Ariel commented with a blink of her dark captivating eyes. “The crews of those ships may be under strict orders from the Hocklyns not to deviate from their designated courses under any conditions. They may fear reprisals from the Hocklyns for disobeying orders more than what is going on at the station. We have detected a few sensor scans in the last few minutes from several of the nearer freighters, but other than that there is no other activity.”

  “Keep us informed, Ariel,” replied Commander Standel, folding his arms across his chest. He looked up at the main sensor screen, noting the position of the freighters that were being displayed.

  The Vindication and Avenger had jumped in to assist with the attack on the space station and Hocklyn ship, but their main mission was to destroy any Hocklyn vessel that might come to the aid of their target. In order to do this with minimal damage to either light cruiser, Admiral Streth had agreed to let the two AIs control the two cruisers if battle was necessary.

  “Sir, I’m receiving a message from Major Graydon,” Lieutenant Arcles spoke with an intent look upon her face as she listened to the incoming message. “He reports that the Hocklyn ship and the space station are now under our control.”

  “That’s great news,” Standel replied, pleased that this part of the mission was now completed. “Helm, move us in; now it’s our turn.” The Avenger and Vindication would now move in, and specialists from their crews would board the Hocklyn ship and the space station to search for any technology or information that might be useful to the Federation. They would also be treating any wounded marines. Extra medical personnel had been assigned to both ships for this purpose. “Send a message to the StarStrike that we’re moving in to begin Stage Two of the mission.”

  Commander Standel knew that the StarStrike and the rest of the battle group would now jump to the edge of the system and wait. If any Hocklyn ships were to show up while the Avenger and Vindication were docked to the alien space station, the battle cruiser would be responsible for t
aking them out. Standel hoped that wouldn’t be necessary.

  Chapter Ten

  War Leader Sigeth was in his flagship, the 1,200-meter dreadnaught War Hammer. For over a week, the Hocklyn fleet had been on its way toward the human worlds. This was the largest single fleet the Hocklyns had gathered in well over a century. Twenty dreadnaughts led the fleet with forty-two heavy war cruisers and another two hundred and eight escort cruisers filling in the ranks. There were also another one hundred and twenty-six support ships carrying 250,000 protectors and all of their equipment as well as supplies and munitions for the war fleet. In the midst of the fleet were two massive vessels, from which the Hocklyn ships kept a discreet distance.

  Sigeth’s aide, Fourth Leader Breedon, gazed at one of the many viewscreens on the walls of the War Room showing one of the two huge ships of their masters. There was no evidence of the type of engine technology the two massive ships used. The ships of their masters were largely unknown and were seldom seen. Whenever one did make a rare appearance, death normally followed. It was rumored that only the top leaders in the empire had regular contact with their powerful and all controlling masters.

  “Their technology is far beyond ours,” commented War Leader Sigeth, noticing what his aide was watching. He looked impersonally at the screen, recalling his brief visit to one of those ships after being summoned by the AIs. It was something he would never forget. “Their ships can jump inside a planet’s gravity well with no damage. That kind of jump would seriously damage or destroy one of ours. Their sublight drive is also much faster.”

  “It is rumored that their weapons technology is equally advanced,” Breedon commented in his rasping voice, still in awe at the massive ship on the screen. It dwarfed everything else in the fleet, including the War Hammer.

  “There has never been a report of one of their ships being destroyed in battle,” Sigeth replied in a cold voice. “No world has ever managed to withstand the onslaught of one of our master’s ships for more than a few hours. They are the most powerful force in the galaxy, and because of them we have our empire.”