by Randy Dyess
“Sir, I think I should go in first and clear the way. You’re too important to lose,” First Sergeant McCoons told the young lieutenant.
“My show, First Sergeant,” Lt. Davids said.
First Sergeant McCoons simply said, “Aye, sir.” He waited for the outer hatch door to close and the airlock to cycle.
“Get ready, boys!” Lt. Davids told his five men as the airlock indicator went from red to green.
Neither Lt. Davids nor his men had a chance, though, as fifteen pirates fired into the airlock chamber as soon as the inner hatch doors opened. First Sergeant McCoons watched the fire team with the remote camera on Lt. Davids suit and saw Lt. Davids and his team die within the first ten seconds of entering.
“Alpha Squad down. Beta Squad on me!” First Sergeant McCoons yelled.
The outer hatch door opened and First Sergeant McCoons and the five men of Beta Squad entered the airlock chamber. “Everyone grab a flashbang and set it to three seconds. As soon as the inner hatch starts to open, throw your flashbang against the far wall, turn your head, and count to three.”
All five marines looked at First Sergeant McCoons as they pulled flashbang grenades from various pouches on their suits. Every man and woman were nervously sweating as the airlock cycle and the light turned green.
“Now!” First Sergeant McCoons yelled as the airlock hatch slid open just enough for the grenades to fit. All six marines threw their flashbangs into the main docking chamber and counted to three. Even with their eyes closed and their heads turned, they could see the bright lights and hear the loud bangs echo around the docking chamber.
“Go!” All six marines rushed into the chamber and saw fifteen pirates rolling on the floor with eyes shut and hands over their bloody ears. McCoons’ team didn’t waste time, and they all fired on the pirates.
“Charlie, Delta, and Echo Squads make entry,” McCoons commanded the rest of the assault troops. “Beta Squad, secure the hallway entrance.
“Tech Sergeant Chen, on me. Let’s find the main computer and get the rest of these docking hatches open.”
“Aye, First Sergeant.”
It didn’t take the two men long to find a working computer station. Apparently, locking out the computer systems hadn’t been part of the pirates’ defensive measures. Tech Sergeant Chen entered the code given to the assault team and gained entry into the station’s system.
“I’m in. Pulling up docking hatch overrides,” Tech Sergeant Chen said.
“Hang on,” McCoons replied. “All Squads, this is First Sergeant McCoons. Lt. Davids is down and I’m taking charge. Move off five meters to the side of your entry points. Make entry on command.”
First Sergeant McCoons didn’t wait for replies, and he looked at Chen and told him to override the hatch safeties. He wanted all of the airlock hatches to open at the same time while sealing off the main chambers from the rest of the station.
“But, First Sergeant, that will—” Tech Sergeant Chen started to say before being cut off.
“I know, Billy: it’ll dump the atmosphere. It will also flush all the defenders into space and save a few of our men’s lives, though. I’d rather have the pirates pulled out into space than lose any more lives trying to breach this station. We simply are not equipped; we have to use the hatches.”
“Aye, First Sergeant,” Tech Sergeant Chen said before hesitantly moving his fingers to input the commands. He looked up at McCoons one last time when he finished; McCoons looked back at Chen and then reached down to hit the enter button. Let the brass blame him for spacing dozens of pirates in order to save his marines.
The station shook as five other sets of docking hatches opened and a large amount of the station’s atmosphere rushed out. Along with the cargo containers and other debris, seventy-five pirates in the docking chambers prepared to kill the marines were thrown out into space.
“All units, go!” McCoons shouted into his com unit. “Report when you have secured the docking chambers.”
It took three more minutes before the remaining five teams reported in. “Chen, close the outer doors and open the inner corridor doors on my command,” First Sergeant McCoons told Tech Sergeant Chen. “Listen up, everyone,” the First Sergeant commanded over the company’s broadcast channel. We’re going zero G for the rest of the fight. Engage your magnetics.”
While the marine assault team was poorly equipped to handle boarding such a large station, one thing they did have was a series of magnetic plates in the soles of their boots. In zero or low gravity situations, the magnetic plates allowed the marines to stand upright and walk when the defenders floated around. This gave the marines a tremendous advantage when boarding ships or taking over a space station.
“Chen cut the gravity and open the doors,” First Sergeant McCoons commanded.
First Sergeant McCoons watched the monitor and saw the outer docking hatches go green as they closed around the space station. He could tell the inner corridor doors had opened, as well. The monitor didn’t have to tell him the gravity had been cut, for he could see trash and cargo containers float into the air, along with the bodies of the pirates, Lt. Davids, and Alpha Squad.
“Echo Squad, secure the Lt. and Alpha Squad, and then move out to your objective,” McCoons told his men before switching back to the main channel. “Everyone should know their objectives. Move out and secure this station. Watch out for hostages, but spare no pirates who want to put up a fight.”
“Aye, First Sergeant!” filled the channel as McCoons motioned for Beta Squad to move into the corridor.
******
First Sergeant McCoons and the five men of Beta Squad moved silently through the corridor to the main command center. McCoons looked at the hand-held tablet showing the deck plan of the space station. His team had been chosen to hit the docking station closest to the main command center. “We’re almost there,” he relayed to his team members. He wished his commanders would provide the ability to project the map onto the face plates of his marines, but that equipment was far too costly for Terran Marines—only private security forces and elite Senate operatives received modern equipment.
So far, his team had not encountered any pirates, but others had to fight their way to their objectives. The First Sergeant didn’t have the official count, but he knew that over twenty marines had been killed so far, and he wanted to take control of the command center before any more of his men wasted their lives.
McCoons saw Private Iwo look around a corner and hold his fist straight up, signaling the other marines to stop. “First Sergeant,” Private Iwo said over the com channel, “we’re here. The blast door is closed, but no one is outside.”
“That might not last long with the fighting going on. There’s no cover in the main hall and I don’t want to be caught out in the open if they decide to leave the command center and run for it. We’ll use this tunnel for now. Shekhar and Vilhelmo, you’re up. Get to those doors and put the charges on. Iwo, Chen, you’re with me on support. Jorge, you’ve got our six—make sure no one sneaks up on us.”
The men remained silent as they moved into position. Corporal Shekhar and Private Vilhelmo placed boarding charges in pouches they could get to quickly when they needed them. The two men braced themselves against the wall and faced the blast doors. “Go!” First Sergeant McCoons ordered. He watched the two men propel themselves off the corridor’s wall and use various pieces of equipment to “swim” their way to the blast doors. Floating in zero G was much faster than running, even when you had regular gravity and no magnetics. The two men quickly placed the boarding charges and shot back toward Beta Squad before anyone could open the doors and catch them in the open. When they came even with the team, Private Iwo and Tech Sergeant Chen reached out and pulled them into the side corridor with the rest of the team. “Fire in the hole!” First Sergeant McCoons yelled as he blew the boarding charges. A loud explosion ripped through the air and the corridors filled with smoke.
“Go! Flashbangs on three!�
� First Sergeant McCoons ordered.
The men formed up and moved down the main corridor. They were much slower than Shekhar and Vilhelmo had been, but with the smoke of the explosion, they were safe from any pirate weapon fire for a few seconds.
First Sergeant McCoons and the rest of the team counted to three and then threw flashbang grenades through the hole into the command center. Thirty seconds after the flashbangs went off, the team filed through the hole. They found ten pirates floating in the room, but only five were dumb or coherent enough to point their weapons at McCoons and his team.
They didn’t last long, and the rest pushed their weapons away and opened their hands, showing they couldn’t fight back. Floating in zero G made it impossible for the pirates to kneel down and put their hands up, but the marines recognized the gesture from the few ship boardings they had done in the past.
“Chen, secure this station and get me on internal comms. Lock out all stations but this one,” McCoons ordered.
“Aye,” Tech Sergeant Chen replied as he got to work. The rest of Beta Squad spread out and started arresting security pirates as Corporal Shekhar and Private Vilhelmo guarded the corridor through the hole in the blast doors.
“On,” Chen reported a minute later.
McCoons stepped up and grabbed the microphone to the station. “Listen up, this is Terran Marine First Sergeant McCoons; we have control of your command center and your station. Surrender now or I will start venting the atmo in this station one section at a time until you do. It’s over. Give up and take your punishment. You have no choice.”
“Going to regular gravity,” McCoons told the assault team. He imagined that a few of the pirates fell straight on their faces as Chen entered the command, but he didn’t care.
It only took a few minutes before reports started coming in of pirates surrendering and hostages being freed all over the station.
“It’s over, boys. Let’s mop up and take the hostages home. The main docking station is the rally point for prisoners and hostages,” McCoons said on the assault force’s main channel.
******
First Sergeant McCoons and Sergeant McKinsey stood in the cargo bay on the mining station, watching as the bodies of thirty dead marines were carefully loaded aboard two marine dropships. These poor men and women were going to the Taurus’ Pride and sent directly to the closest marine base on Palieus, where they would be cremated and sent deep into space. Almost no marine asked to be taken back to their birth planet since their lives on corporate planets were best forgotten. They wanted to rest in the stars with the millions of their fellow marines lost over the last eight hundred years.
The two marine sergeants also watched as nearly one-hundred pirate captives were loaded onto several cargo shuttles to make their way toward the Candus vessel, Rook. Both men knew the conditions prisoners in Candus prisons faced, and they silently wondered if the dead marines and pirates were better off. None of them would ever be freed and most would be dead within a few years from the harsh living and working conditions faced by corporate prisoners. Corporations never had a shortage of prisoners to work in their sweatshops, so if a few died each day, it really didn’t matter. New ones were always on the way to fill in the spots. In fact, most corporate prisons worked under the guidelines that they needed to turn over at least ten percent of their beds on a weekly basis so the prisons wouldn’t become too overcrowded to be controlled. Corporations never paroled any of their prisoners, which meant the only way to get those beds was through death.
“One-hundred and thirty-five is the count. We estimate another hundred were spaced when the airlock hatches were opened,” a young corporal told First Sergeant McCoons. McCoons knew that someone on an inner-core world would get a hold of his report and try to make an example of him because he killed one-hundred people by opening the station’s airlock doors and spacing them. Getting another hundred marines killed trying to get aboard the station would have been fine, but killing a few pirates inhumanly was too much for those inner-core morons.
“Did you want us to police the remaining bodies?” Sergeant McKinsey asked.
“No. Let them go down with the station,” McCoons replied. He had no way to handle that number of bodies, and he knew the hostages they’d rescued and sent to the Sullivan’s Pride would demand to be pampered as they made their way back to their homes in the core worlds. There was no way they were going to stay aboard a ship with pirate bodies.
“Have the demo team start placing the charges and clear the station. It’s time to leave this rotten place and watch it go down in flames,” First Sergeant McCoons ordered the young corporal as he walked toward the nearest drop ship with Sergeant McKinsey.
Chapter 7
Captain Dakota Sullivan and her sister, Cheyenne, looked at the image of Captain Moore on the view screen. The Candus Security and Sullivan Shipping attack on Pirate’s Bay had been a success, and the marines were making their way back to Sullivan’s Pride with rescued hostages. Wounded marines had been loaded on Taurus’ Pride, which had already left the Archimedes Asteroid Field for the nearest marine base and hospital on Palieus.
“Do you have the latest status?” Dakota asked Captain Moore.
“As you know,” he responded, “we didn’t suffer any ship damage or lose any sailors. The marine assault force is a different matter, though. Thirty marines were lost while taking the station and another forty were injured. They are on their way to Palieus.”
Dakota and Cheyenne gasped at the news. They knew marines had been killed and wounded, but they’d never imagined that so many had suffered. One-hundred and fifty marines had assaulted the station and almost fifty percent had been killed or wounded.
“If only they had better equipment,” Cheyenne told the two captains on the video feed. “I know it has been over six hundred years since the last war, but there has to be better equipment out there.”
“There is,” Captain Moore said. “Private and corporate security teams have much better equipment. Ask your brother—his commando unit has equipment the marines would love to have. I bet he had even better equipment when he served on Senate Intelligence. The problem is that the Senate does not give the Terran Navy or Marines a large enough budget to keep their equipment current.”
“Did we capture Florres?” Dakota asked.
“No. The marines who boarded the Anarchy found his body. One of his captives, a young girl named Carmina, had killed Florres with a small knife. The poor thing suffered for years at his hands; the marines understood her desire for revenge. She has been sent to Palieus with the wounded marines. She may not have physical injuries, but she sure has mental ones. Her family will meet her there and take care of her.”
“How many pirates were killed or captured?” Dakota asked Captain Moore.
“We may never know the exact number,” he said. “Initial reports show over two-hundred and fifty pirates killed, eighty-nine captured, and one-hundred and thirty pirate ships destroyed, including the Anarchy. We’ve also rescued thirty hostages, including the young girl on the Anarchy.”
“Even with the number of marines killed,” Dakota said, “this will go down as a great victory.”
“Yes. Commander Wekesa has been informed of the mission and Candus Corporation is already trying to figure out how to market this victory to lure more business to its planets.”
Cheyenne just sighed at the news. She had seen living humans sucked out into space with no protection, and even though they were pirates, the inhumane way they’d died bothered her.
“By the way,” Captain Moore interrupted Cheyenne’s thoughts, “that was some maneuver you two pulled on the Anarchy. How did you come up with something like that?”
“It’s actually a company secret,” Dakota replied while looking at Cheyenne. They both knew the combat AI had recommended the move, but Captain Sullivan was not ready to tell anyone about her sister’s project. “The victory belongs to the marines, though—not to us.”
“I agree.
I’m going to have a talk with Commander Wekesa about that marine First Sergeant. He deserves a promotion and a medal for the way he took over the assault and finished the mission. Lt. Davids and the rest of the casualties deserve something, as well.”
“If I know the marines,” Dakota said, “they’ll get nothing but a quick burial out in space. Only the Terran Navy has medals—Marines are disposable fodder.”
“Too true,” Captain Moore responded. “Now, about the hostages. I can take them off your hands if you are ready.”
“Please,” Dakota said quickly. “They are already making demands on my crew for luxury items. Two steps off the drop ship and they start hounding us about private rooms and steam baths. We’re a freighter, not a cruise ship.”
“Since you asked so nicely, I’ll come over right away,” Captain Moore said with a smile.
******
Captain Moore and Dakota met in the Sullivan’s Pride conference room after he brought the Castle’s shuttle to pick up the rescued hostages. He had left the handling of the hostages to his first officer, claiming he needed to debrief Captain Sullivan. Captain Moore and Dakota, however, both knew it was just an excuse for getting away from the hostages.