“How are we looking?” Meisha asked Thorn. The woman peered back from the pilot's chair, her eyes hidden by a set of HUD glasses, showing her streams of relevant data.
“We’re looking perfect, Captain. All systems have been triple checked and we’re green. No system failures.”
“Green over here, Captain.” Anderson called from the gunnery chair. “All weapon systems are currently on standby until we leave the atmosphere. Safeties are engaged, we’re clear for a safe launch.”
Meisha nodded, and looked over at Pirique. “Any word from command?”
Pirique shook her head. “No ma’am. We’re set to launch on your mark. The Dockmaster has opened the doors for us, we’ll be ferried into the atmosphere at 10% thrust. All personnel are accounted for.” She paused. “We’re as prepared as we’re going to get.”
“Alright then.” Meisha said, taking a deep breath to hide her nerves. “We have the best crew in the fleet and we have the best ship ever made. Thorn, take us out, smooth and easy.”
“Hell yes.” Thorn said, a cocky grin on her face. The bridge’s holopanels lit up, showing a 360 degree view of the world around them as the Dauntless Midnight’s engines roared to life. A low rumble shook through the ship as the Midnight’s powerful fusion reactors started working harder. Several electronic alarms sounded, and notifications flashed on Meisha’s own HUD glasses, showing her engine statuses and power levels.
After a moment of idling, The Dauntless Midnight rose from its perch in its hangar, and glided out into the sunlight. Mountains and cities could be seen in the distance, and Meisha stole one last glance at the beauty of Earth. As the ship rose higher into the atmosphere, four stubby ships with thick armor rose up alongside them.
“Captain Al-Jihlani? Earth Escort Wing. We’re here to take you to high orbit. Congrats on the ship, she’s a beauty.”
Meisha smiled, watching the light blue sky darken as they rose further into the atmosphere, past oceans of clouds. “Thank you. She definitely is.” The stars soon became visible, and the earth below had become a glowing canvas of shimmering blue and green. The escort ships faltered, and pulled away.
“You’re in the exosphere now, Ma’am. Head towards Starshot Pacific, they have orders to fire you out.”
“Will do, thanks.” Meisha pulled up her starchart, looking at the colony map. “You heard the man, Thorn. Take us to Starshot Pacific. We’re out of the atmosphere for the most part, let's take her up to 50% thrusters.”
“Aye captain.” Thorn responded. The Dauntless Midnight picked up speed, orbiting the planet towards the pacific ocean. It wasn’t long before the Starshot came into view.
Starshots were humanity’s most advanced creation to date. Capable of launching ships at speeds faster than light, the massive space stations orbited a central colony in most major systems, acting as a means for both trade and travel. Each starshot was built somewhat similarly, only varying in the number of cannons (or lanes) and interceptor rings it contained.
The idea was that a ship would be guided remotely into the starshot’s cannon and fired by the station crew, at the interceptor ring of the destination starshot. This way, there was no risk of collision with other ships or disparity between firing lines. The Starshot pacific was the largest station of these, having fourteen lanes for travel. The fleet had three reserved specifically for them, allowing them to embark on missions that would have taken weeks or years in just a matter of a few days.
“Eh, captain?” Pirique asked, looking over. “We’re receiving a transmission from the Starshot pacific, want me to put it through?”
“Please.”
The speaker crackled for a moment. “Welcome to the Pacific, Dauntless Midnight. We have orders to give you a priority lane to Starshot Perseus. Recon ship Lazy Drifter wanted us to relay a quick report to you guys. Word is Perseus is all quiet, Drifter says everything appears normal. Bit of a far out journey, are you ready to go?”
“ As ready as we’re going to be.” Meisha replied. “Which lane?”
The station officer laughed. “That ready, huh? Alright, lane 11. Reduce your thrust to 0, we’re going to pull you in. Make sure your crew is sitting down.”
Meisha nodded to Thorn. “Sound the general warning, everyone take a seat. Gonna be a bumpy launch and I’d rather not have Dr. Serrano working on patients so soon.” The Dauntless Midnight was guided into the massive starshot barrel, clamps coming down in its wingtips to stabilize it. “Pirique, lock us down.” Meisha ordered. The woman nodded, and the view screens turned off momentarily, as to not damage the optics or the crew with the flash that was about to take place. Meisha turned to Anderson. “All hatches, guns, and hangar doors secure?”
“Yes ma’am. Our inertial drives are running hot as well. We’re ready for any sort of acceleration or stop.”
Meisha nodded, glad that someone had remembered to make sure those were functioning. To be fired out of a Starshot at unimaginable speeds without the gravity wave field the drives created to protect them… it would be a very painful death. She shook the resulting image out of her mind and smiled at her crew. “Alright then, let's get this show on the road. Ready when you are, Pacific.”
“Alright. Good luck, Dauntless Midnight. Y'all be safe now.” There was a massive roar as the station’s warp cannon spun up, an impact, and the entire ship shuddered. In the blink of an eye, the Dauntless Midnight was gone.
The crew knew something was wrong the moment the Dauntless Midnight hit Persues’s deceleration ring. Or rather, what was left of it. As the ship slowed to a halt, the bridge’s view screens came back online, casting the room in a deep orange glow from the nearby gas giant. The Persues starshot was eerily silent, and only a few lights could be seen along its hull. The starshot cannons were mangled, resembling piles of scrap and slag. One deceleration ring was completely gone, with wires sparking where it had once been. The ring the Dauntless Midnight had entered through was cracked in several places. Meisha’s eyes widened at the station’s damage. “Holy shit.”
Thorn glanced back from the pilot's chair. “Well we’re here! But eh, well…” She shrugged. “Place looks like it got hit by a swarm of angry meteorites.”
“You don’t say…” Meisha murmured. She stood up and examined the view panels containing the station. “Anderson, I want a scan and readout of that station as soon as possible.”
“Yes Ma’am.” After a moment, one of the viewing panels switched over into a blueprint of the starshot station, showing multiple hull breaches and severe system damages.
“Pirique, anysign of the Lazy Drifter? Can we reach the local colony on the gas planet?”
Pirique worked for a moment, then shook her head. “I’m not detecting the recon ship anywhere, Ma’am. Gas giant is giving off too much radio interference, I can’t reach the colony or the station either. Their signal boosters must not be working correctly.”
“That's not good.” Meisha paced back and forth across the bridge, crossing her arms. She stopped for a moment and tapped her foot, deep in thought. “Pirique, contact Briggs on the comm please.”
“Uh, yes Ma’am.”
The comm cracked for a moment, and Briggs' gruff voice came through the speaker. “I’m guessing you’re seeing what I’m seeing, Captain?” He asked.
“Damaged Starshot station?”
“Yep. Looking at it through one of the external cameras. What's the plan?”
Meisha paused for a moment. “I want you to take a dropship to the colony on the planet, find out what the hell happened here. I want to take a few squads and check out the interior of the starshot station. See what we can see, and meet back here.”
“We’re splitting up, Ma’am? I don’t think that's advisable.”
“Well unless you want to enjoy a very very long flight back to the nearest starshot station, we need to figure out some way to leave this system.” There was a long pause.
“Alright Cap. Fair point, I’ll prepare a team of troopers. We’ll do a flyby of the colony and meet you back here.”
Meisha stared at the giant orange planet on the cameras. “I want you back in three hours, Briggs.”
There was a distorted chuckle over the comms. “You heard the lady, boys, she does care. Let's get moving! First Platoon, transport one with me. Second platoon, you’re traveling with the captain!” The comm cut off, and Meisha looked over at Pirique.
“Keep us in contact as long as possible. Let me know if anything comes up.”
Pirique blinked. “Yes Ma’am, but is splitting up really that good of an idea? Especially with you leaving the ship-”
“Starshots are locked down in the event of an attack and only unlocked with Admiralty biometrics. Prevents pirates from taking them. We won’t be able to enter unless a ranking official is there. Meaning I have to go.” Meisha stated matter of factly. She paused for a moment. “Besides, I believe Briggs to be able to recon an area, and I trust you to handle the ship and crew while I take a look. We need to figure out if we can find a way to launch ourselves home. Won’t do us any good to figure out what happened here if we’re stuck.”
“As you say, ma’am.” Pirique murmured. Meisha could tell the woman was nervous. She blinked for a moment, wondering what to say to help steel the crew’s resolve.
“Eh, Thorn. Keep us around the starshot, I don’t want to chase you to re-dock once we’re finished.” She said. The pilot nodded, and Meisha gave a small smile. “Well that’s that, wish me luck.
She made her way to the hangar bay, hastily pulling on her light exoarmor jumpsuit that was meant for situations such as this. The dark gray armor wouldn’t protect against serious weaponry, but against small arms it would serve well, and also keep her atmosphere and oxygen stable in case she had to take a space walk. Her name and rank was posted on her right shoulder and breastplate, and the insignia of the Dauntless Midnight on her left. Her helmet hung at her hip, next to her sidearm as she zipped up the suit and sealed its armor, approaching Second Platoon.
The troopers were all lined up wearing the same fashion armor, though theirs was much heavier. They held Type-74 Autoshot rifles; small, rapidfire recoilless guns that could chew through most armor while still being effective without sacrificing accuracy in zero G. Along with the Platoon, there were five men in REAPER suits, towering almost two feet above their comrades. Their black armor and silver visors made them somewhat unnerving to stand before, and on their backs sat massive Shredder cannons, weapons that fired superheated shrapnel at an alarming rate, capable of destroying anything from an enemy encampment to a building if need be. The downside of the armored suits was of course that they were slow. While they could take hits and deal massive damage, the men acted more like stationary defenses than troopers. They were walking shields half of the time, and they knew it. You had to be a certain sort of crazy to be a REAPER. A man jogged up as the men stood to attention, nodding at Meisha as she approached.
“Lieutenant Gabriels, Ma’am.” He said, standing at attention. “I’m the commander of the Second Platoon. We’re ready to drop when you are.”
Meisha nodded, putting on her helmet and locking the air seals. “Then let's get moving, Gabriels. I’m curious to see how the station is.” The man nodded and started to bark orders at the standing troops, who turned and started loading into the armored transport that sat in the bay. The sizable ship resembled a toy when compared to the Dauntless Midnight, but as troop carriers went, it was bulky with thick armor, and well armed. Regardless of what had happened to the Starshot cannon, Meisha felt like the transport would at least arrive safely. She made her way to the transport’s cockpit, where the two pilots were checking flight systems. “How’s our flight path look?”
“Well, there’s a lot of debris between us and the station from… Well, we’re not sure. I’m guessing it's left over from whatever happened to the Starshot, but there’s more debris than there should be if that was the case. So we’re gonna have a bit of a rough entry.” The pilot glanced back at her. “If you’d take a seat, ma’am. Everybody is locked in on my bird. No wandering in the cabin, even for you.”
Meisha smiled underneath her helmet and gave a nod, going back and locking herself in with the troops. After a moment, she felt the transport lurch as its engines kicked in and launched it from the hangar bay. The only viewport was in the cockpit, so the troops in the transport bay sat only washed in dim lights, waiting for the clear landing signal. The uneasiness of sitting there, not being able to see around bothered Meisha, and a few of the troops seemed to notice.
“Never been in a V11 Transport before, captain?” One trooper asked mockingly.
Meisha’s eyes narrowed at the trooper. “No I haven’t, private. When I commanded my old ship, I had to take a spacewalk to go anywhere outside my ship. Didn’t have the luxury of a transport.”
The man gave a quiet laugh. “I didn’t think you officers took spacewalks.”
“I commanded a very small, very old transport ship with a crew of 10. I didn’t have extra people to just send out and fix things when we felt like it. So if something broke…” She paused for a moment. “I went out to help fix it.”
“Aren’t spacewalks dangerous?”
“Very. One stray meteor, one sharp object, one wrong movement, and you’re gone.”
The man seemed to quiet down, looking away as Meisha stared him down. After a moment, one of the pilots spoke over the com channel. “Speaking of spacewalks, we’re going to need somebody to take one. The starshot’s shuttle bay is sealed shut, the automated system isn’t opening for us. We need someone to go out there and open the door manually. Should be an emergency crank close to the bay door. If we can force that open, we can land.”
There was a moment of silence from the troopers, and Meisha laughed. “Alright then, Private. It appears we have some work to do.”
“Wait, both of us?” The soldier sputtered.
“Why of course! After all, I can’t go out there without a wingman!” Meisha chimed happily. “Now let's get in that airlock and go for a spacewalk!” She disengaged the seat lock and moved to the back of the transport, stepping inside the airlock separating the cabin from the exit. “Pilots, vent us whenever you're ready.”
“Roger.” Came the reply, and after a moment, a dull thump echoed through the room, as the door slid back, opening into the vacuum. Meisha turned to the private, tapping on the side of her helmet. “Keep in constant contact, and follow me. Make sure your suit is set to magnetize to surfaces or else you’ll hit the station and bounce right off.”
The man nodded without saying a word, though Meisha could tell he was nervous. Meisha patted his shoulder. “Come on, private. If an officer can do it, surely you can too.” She turned and leapt out of the transport, gliding through the empty darkness of space towards the starshot facility. She gave a slight shiver as her suit’s heating coils kicked in to regulate her temperature. After around twenty seconds, she impacted on the side of the beat up station, relaxing as her suit magnetically attached her feet to the exterior plating. The private landed behind her, steady himself. He gave her a nod, and pointed over at the hangar bay door.
“ I think I saw the emergency panel when we were coming in”
“By all means, lead the way.” Meisha said, gesturing for him to go ahead. The two awkwardly made their way towards the small hatch on the hull, where Meisha knelt down and tugged at the release. The hatch lifted, revealing a lever, which the private pulled. The large metal shutters started retracting.
In an instant, the hangar doors slid open, explosively decompressing into the vacuum. The blast launched Meisha from the station, careening into the void. She barely had time to shout for help when the private grabbed her arm, and held on as the atmosphere continued to vent. After a few moments of sheer panic the force of the venting slowed, and the private pulled the startled captain back to the station’s surface.
“You ok, Captain?”
Meisha blinked a few times, pushing the fact that she was moments away from heading into deep space out of her head. “Yeah, I’m alright, thanks to you. What’s your name, private?”
“Donovan, Ma’am.”
“Well, I… Thank you.”
Donovan tapped a finger on the side of his helmet. “Think nothing of it. You would have done the same, probably. Though with you being an officer, you probably would have missed.”
Meisha shook her head, suppressing a small chuckle. “Come on, let's head into the hangar. Atmosphere venting like that means that the void shielding failed somehow.” The two pushed off the station, gliding into the hangar. Its lights were off, with only the dim red emergency lights casting what little glow they had on its interior. Most everything that wasn’t bolted down had been blown into space, and what did remain appeared like it had almost never been used. The whole place seemed deserted, save for an exotic looking craft that sat off to the left of the hangar bay.
“Uh, Captain? Have you ever seen a ship like that?” Donovan asked cautiously. Meisha stared at it for a long time. The craft was long and sleek, looking almost akin to a Greek delta. The pair’s external lights reflected off its silver and red surface.
“No…. I haven’t.” She admitted after some hesitation. “That's new to me.” She drifted towards the hangar bay controls, and braced herself against the central terminal. “Let's get the Platoon in here before we investigate. Something here is very wrong.” She paused for a moment. “Donovan, do you know anything about space stations?”
Donovan looked over. “Yeah, I grew up on Thessolus 4, orbiting Mars. Mining station.”
“Why would somebody want to turn off the void shield?”
Donovan thought for a moment. "Power failure? The only time we ever messed with our void shields back home was when our solar array went down and we were on backup for a bit. Sometimes we had to close down the secondary hangars to reroute power to essential systems. Could only keep one primary hangar shielded for emergencies, everything else went to life support.”
“Well this is the emergency bay.” Meisha mused. “Maybe that's the case?”
“I dunno, Cap. These starshot facilities are a lot more advanced than a mining colony. Completely different backup systems. Maybe-” Donovan’s next words were cut off as bullets started to shred the ground around the two of them, loud thunderous roars filling the hangar bay. Meisha ducked behind the hangar bay console, cursing loudly as she pulled out her sidearm. Donovan jumped behind the strange ship, and glanced over at Meisha. “Captain what the hell is firing on us?” Meisha shook her head and peaked over the console, cursing as bullets shredded the wall behind her.
“Donovan I have no idea, just stay low!” She turned to poke her head out again, only to hear the dull whump of something impacting next to her. She looked down at the grenade and her eyes widened. “Oh sh-” The concussion from the explosion, paired with the lack of gravity in the hangar, sent her flying clear into the opposite wall. Her right arm was in a lot of pain, and she knew her suit was leaking oxygen. “-it.” She gasped, taking a shaky breath.She tried not to panic, using her left arm to fumble around the combat suit looking for the emergency sealant kit, while her right remained limp. The loudening fire around her was drowned out by the fear of suffocation and the pain in her arm.
Donovan saw her hit the wall and rushed to help, firing randomly in the direction of their assailants, hoping to hit at least one of them. Before he could reach the captain, however, something massive flew into the hangar, retrorockets screaming as it tried to slow down. The hatch on its back slid open, and five massive, black clad individuals walked out, their armored boots denting the metal floor underneath as the boots magnets pulled them against the deck’s plating. The REAPER unit had arrived.
Whoever was firing switched from Donovan to these newcomers, washing them in a wave of bullets. The REAPERS shrugged off the attack as if it was raining, and turned their own shoulder mounted shredder cannons back in the same direction, literally lighting up the room with the volume of fire they shot back at the enemy. One soldier stomped his way over to where Meisha was desperately trying to patch her suit’s leaks, and sprayed her arm with fast drying sealant that fired from the REAPER’s wrist.
“Sergeant Lupus, of the Second Reaper company.” The man said, his gruff voice transmitting through the suit’s communications network. “Looks like we landed at the right time.”
Meisha grit her teeth and gave a nod as her suit automatically jabbed some painkillers into her arm. “You sure did.”
“I take it that you don’t experience combat much, Captain.”
“Ship combat, once. Ground based? This would be my first time.” She winced, and stepped behind the armored man as more bullets impacted next to her. “Did you manage to catch who was firing at us as you dropped in?”
Sergeant Lupus turned, using the armor’s massive shoulder plate as a shield. “No, emergency lightning wasn’t that helpful. All we know is that we’re being attacked from the maintenance catwalks. They’re above us.”
“Turn on any external lights those suits have.” Meisha growled. “I wanna see who fragged me.” The soldier gave a single nod, and relayed the command to the rest of his team. In an instant, bright yellow lights illuminated every nook of the hangar bay. Meisha looked up at the catwalk. She cursed, seeing large metal clad figures positioned above, with spindly robotic arms and lights flickering across their body. “ Are those station security drones?”
“Sure looks like it.” Lupus growled. He aimed his shredder cannon at one, tearing it apart in a matter of seconds.
“Stand aside.” Meisha ordered. She stepped past the armored giant, pointing at the captain's bars on her chest. “Perseus Security! I am Captain Meisha Al-Jihlani of the United Colonial Defense Fleet, here under the authority of the Admiralty! Cease fire!”
The firing died for a moment as the security drones processed this information. “Credentials Rejected.” One announced in a synthetic, monotone voice. The firing opened back up, and Lupus hauled Meisha back behind himself as bullets started pinging off the Reaper armor.
“With all due respect, Captain, you command the ship. You aren’t a ground officer, so get back to the ship.” the sergeant barked. “My men can take these drones no problem, but they’ll tear you up.”
“I can handle myself, you know.”
Lupus grunted as a drone targeted him, a stream of bullets impacting his back and sending him stumbling forwards. He gave Meisha a sidelong glare, the helmet’s red eye slits cutting into hers. “You’ve been blown up and almost killed twice, while distracting me from the fight. Head back to the transport and wait for my men and I to do our thing.We don’t have time for your stubbornness.”
Meisha let out a shaky breath, realizing Lupus was right. “Of course, sorry Sergeant. Best of luck, radio when you’ve cleared them.” She turned and sprinted back to the transport as the REAPER force engaged the drones. Donovan was in the airlock waiting for her, having come out of the firefight seemingly unharmed. The airlock sealed shut behind her, opening back up into the central transport bay where the rest of the ground force stood, checking their gear and preparing to disembark. “Prepare to search the station right after the REAPER force is finished securing the hangar.” Meisha ordered as she passed Lieutenant Gabriels.
He gave a nod, looking at her bloodstained suit. “Are you alright Ma’am?”
“I’m fine.” She murmured. “Gonna check on the cams in the cockpit, see how the REAPERS are doing.” She shouldered her way into the cockpit, where the two transport pilots sat watching their exterior cameras. “How are they holding up?”
“They’re holding ground.” One reported. He shook his head. “Never seen mech security this aggressive before. Are we on the wrong station? Maybe this is like some corporation owned starshot or…” he trailed off, looking back at Meisha. “I mean, why are they firing at us, Captain?”
Meisha leaned in, her gaze set on the cameras. “I’m not sure.” She reached past the pilot, zooming in on the station security force. “That one to the left, what's it holding?”
The pilot glanced back. “Oh, uh, not sure. It's been messing with it for a while. Whatever it is, doesn’t seem to be working.”
“Normal bots don’t mess with things that intuitively.” The second pilot chimed in. “That must be some prototype mech or something. Never seen a design like that before.”
“Get me a scan on that, now.” Meisha demanded, fear creeping into her voice. “Cross reference it with everything in our database, I want to know what it's holding, this instant.”
The first pilot stretched. “Roger that, boss.” He typed a few keywords into the transport’s main terminal, and froze. The color drained from the man’s face. “Captain, that's a thermonuclear asteroid mining charge. For M-class Trojan asteroids. Uhh…” he said in a shaky voice. “Typically eighty megatons.”
“They’re going to destroy the station.” Meisha whispered. She gripped the back of the pilot’s chair, steading herself as her mind raced trying to find a solution. “Ok. Do we have any electromagnetic weapons on this craft?”
“Uh, no Ma’am. Besides, those bots have a built-in faraday cage. EMP would only fry our own systems and most likely the hanger's”
Meisha tapped the screen. “Yeah but that nuke has an electric fuse. If we can disable that, then we disable the nuke. A localized pulse would kill that fuse and keep the station… well, as functional as it is I guess." She paused for a moment. "So a pulse; can we rig one?”
The pilot grimaced.”I don’t know ma’am, maybe one of the engineers..?” Before he finished, Meisha was out the door.
“Gabriels, where are your field engineers?”
“Captain?” He paused for a moment. “I have two, Donnovan and Reiya.” At the mention of his name, Donovan popped up.
“Need me again, Cap?”
Meisha gave a single nod, and pointed at the woman who had stood up. “Reiya? You too. We have a problem and I want a solution. There’s a nuclear mining charge that could go off at any second. I want an EMP rigged to take its electronic fuse out. Can you do it?”
“We’d need a good capacitor, loads of copper wiring and a good solid iron bar…..” Reiya muttered. Donovan paced back and forth for a minute before snapping his fingers.
“A long range transmitter. We have a unit per platoon, they have enough copper wiring to make an EM coil and a great switch we can key at any time to pulse it.”
“No, that wouldn’t work.” Reiya snapped. “The capacitors are too small.”
“What about the backup hangar door controls? We rip one out of the wall, weld it to the EM coil to the transmitter, charge it up, and boom, we have ourselves a very strong pulse. One time use though, it’ll fry the transmitter and everything around it.”
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Meisha snapped her fingers with her good hand, getting the attention of the two engineers. “Great, so we can do it. How long?”
Donovan peered at Reiya, who shrugged. “It's an easy job, actually. Two minutes to rig the EM coil, a minute to rip into the control panel, two minutes to replace and fill the capacitors?”
“Go ahead and start.” Meisha ordered. She slammed her helmet back on, grabbing one of the soldier’s Autoshot rifles and heading for the airlock. Gabriels stepped in front of her.
“Ma’am, where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m getting my REAPERS on this ship, and sending you all to safety.”
Gabriels pointed at her injured arm. "You able to move that?"
Meisha glanced down at it, almost having forgotten that her arm was in a sorry state. She flexed it, wincing as a dull ache broke through the haze of the painkillers. "I can move it enough." Gabriels studied her, then stepped aside with a nod. She stepped past him, and back into the battle that was raging across the hangar bay. Bullets pinged off the floor around her as she ran back to where Sergeant Lupus and his men were laying down fields of fire at the enemies above. He swore as he saw her small form darting through the debris.
“Dammit girl I told you to stay on the ship!” He roared. Meisha threw herself into cover next to him.
“They’re prepping a nuke!” She shouted. “And it could go at any second! Fall back to the transport, that's an order.”
Lupus swore loudly. “Alright boys, you heard the lady, fall back one by one, I’ll take rear guard. Move quickly.” One by one, the mighty REAPER suits fell back, leaving only the Sergeant and the captain to brave the enemy fire. “Ok Cap, what now.” Lupus growled.
“You have a missile launcher, yeah? Launch at the fire suppression systems.”
Lupus studied her. “I would have thought of that sooner or later.” He swung the missile tube from his back onto his shoulder, and the REAPER’s magboots clamped into the steel deck. With a roar, the rocket flew from its tube and slammed into the ceiling, popping the container of suppression foam used to put out fires on deck. In seconds, the room was filled with foam and mist, making it hard to read heat signatures or movements. Lupus grabbed Meisha’s shoulder and shoved her forwards, catching up as she hit the ground running back to the transport. “So what's the plan now?”
“Reiya, Donovan, you ready” Meisha asked over the comms. The two came stumbling out of the transport’s airlock as they approached, with Donovan holding a backpack sized device, a mess of wires spilling out.
“We’re as ready as we’re going to be.”
Meisha gave a nod, and contacted the pilots. “Lift off. Circle for ten minutes. If the station hasn’t exploded by then, come back in for us.”
“Yes ma’am, good luck.” The transport rose, its engines roaring as it pulled out of the hangar, blind fire pinging off its sides.
She turned back to the engineers. “Right, this control panel, where is it?”
“Along the wall, near the doors.” Reiya said, pointing to where the hangar led into the vacuum of space. Meisha turned to Lupus.
“Get us there.”
Lupus said nothing, but grabbed Donovan with one massive arm. “Hold on kid.” He grunted, and flung the engineer across. As Donovan neared the panel, he reactivated his mag boots, stabilizing himself and started to cut the wall panel off. Reiya joined him a second later by the same method.
“Two minutes!” The engineer shouted. Meisha huddled behind Lupus as the fire suppressant began to clear, letting his armor take the brunt of the small arms fire.
“Lupus.” She said, “How much shredder ammo do you have left?” The armored man grunted as another hail of bullets slammed into the armor.
“Enough for one or two more volleys on the area.” He growled. “But they're resilient. No matter how much I pierce their armor, they have backup systems. They take a massive amount of damage.”
Meisha grabbed his arm. “I don’t need you to destroy them. Shred their armor. Turn them into swiss cheese. Aim at them all except the one with the nuke. If we can bust their faraday cages up enough, the EM pulse will fry them along with the nuke’s fuse. Should at least disrupt them for a bit, long enough for us to put them down.”
“Roger that Captain.” Lupus said. His shredder cannon spun up, shooting hundreds of rounds at the robots. Meisha turned back to the engineers.
“How much longer?”
“Almost there, I just have to hook the capacitor to the switch….. Done!” Donovan yelled triumphantly. “Throwing it over, cap, be ready to catch it.” He sent the device floating through the zero g room, slowly tumbling.
Meisha jumped and grabbed it, using Lupus’s shoulder to pull herself back to the hangar’s deck. “Alright Sergeant, send me in.”
“What? You’re insane. They’ll kill you before you ever make it up there. Those guns will tear your suit to shreds.”
“Do you have a better idea?” Meisha snapped.
“I do.” Lupus growled. He slammed his armored boot into the deck plating, stomping until the thick steel plate bent inwards. He grabbed the edge and pulled with every servo in his REAPER suit screaming. The plating tore away, and he held it up like a massive shield. “Here you go, Cap. Grab on.”
Meisha’s eyes widened. “Oh you can’t be serious.”
“That nuke could go off at any minute and you wanna argue? Grab on.”
Meisha shook her head and braced herself against the metal plate, clicking her mag boots and gloves to its surface. “Alright, I’m ready.” With a grunt, Lupus threw the plate with all his might. It soared through the air towards the enemies on the catwalk above. Meisha grimanced as bullets started to ping off, realizing that Lupus had just saved her life. “Right.” She muttered. “Hit the switch, trigger the EMP. Simple. Please don’t let them detonate the nuke now of all times. Not when we’re so close.” The impacting bullets slowed the plate as it continued its path. “Come on, a few more seconds” Meisha though. As soon as she saw the railing of the catwalk pass underneath her, she activated her mag boots and slammed the plate down in front of her, using it as cover. “This had better work!” She shouted to nobody in particular, and activated the comms unit.
The electromagnetic pulse was more powerful than Meisha had thought. Nor had she thought of the possibility that it would affect her own suit as well. The lights in her helmet were the first to blow out, followed by the temperature system, oxygen regulation, communications, and her magboots, everything dying within milliseconds of each other. The emergency lights in the hangar sparked and died, and the roar of fire cut away to an eerie silence. Meisha slowly rose to her feet, pushing herself off the ground and grabbing the rail to steady herself. Behind her, Lupus was making some sort of hand motion, but with a dead comms unit it was useless. She glanced at the security robots that were slumped down, their faraday cages damaged enough to let the EMP in. Her eyes passed over the nuclear mine, and the strange robot that had been trying to activate it. “There you are, you bastard” She growled, and pushed herself in that direction. She drifted over to the robot and grabbed the mining charge, still clutched in one of its hands. “Come on, let go.” She murmured, pulling out her combat knife and slashing at its wrist. After a few hacks the robot’s hand finally severed, and Meisha turned to where Lupus and the engineers stood, tossing it down to them. Lupus raised his arms in a “What the Hell” motion. “Throw it off the station” Meisha cursed, knowing that he couldn’t hear her. That's when the other robotic hand grabbed her by the throat.
Meisha’s eyes widened as the robot stood up, its eyes flaring blue as it studied her. Her hands went to her throat, trying to pry the bot's hands off to no effect. “Did you follow her here?” It growled, touching its head to hers to allow the soundwaves to pass through the helmet.
She stopped struggling for a moment, thrown by the question. “What?”
“The Dragon of the Abyss. Did she lead you here? Where is she?” The robot asked, its voice full of anger.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Meisha gasped. “You shouldn’t even be able to ask questions like this.”
The robot paused, and started to squeeze Meisha’s neck more. “You will not stop us. Your time is at an end, human. It's time for-” whatever it was going to say was cut off as bullets slammed into its side. Using that distraction, Meisha brought her combat knife up and slashed repeatedly at its elbow, using all of her might in the desperate hope to sever the joint. As the blade bit through the elbow’s wiring, the robot’s grip loosened and Meisha pushed herself off it, using the lack of gravity to escape and allow her to catch her breath. As she floated through the hangar, something grabbed her, and started pulling her back to the floor. Meisha looked down to see Lupus, having deactivated his mag boots for a moment to launch himself up. He reactivated his boots and pulled her to the ground, pressing his helmet to hers.
“Take cover!” He ordered. Meisha nodded and pulled herself to the ground, not a moment too soon. A dull roar opened up through the hangar as the transport ship flew back into the hangar, its defense turrets shredding the catwalk and anything on it. The robot shuttered and fell, its eyes going dim. After firing for what seemed like an eternity, the ship landed, opening its ramps to allow the rest of the REAPER unit to redeploy, this time with the rest of Gabriel's troopers. As the men moved to secure the hangar, Gabriels helped Meisha back into the transport, followed by Lupus and the engineers. Once inside, Meisha took her helmet off and looked back at them.
“What happened to the nuke?”
“I disarmed it while Lupus and Reiya helped you deal with that bot.” Donnovan stated.
Lupus nodded at Meisha’s suit. “How bad is it fried?”
“Destroyed completely. No functionality on anything.”
Reiya cursed, stepping up and opening one of the electronic panels on the suit’s back. “We have some extra supplies on board, I should be able to repair your mag boots, lights, comms and oxygen. Won’t be perfect though, so I hope you have a spare suit on board the Midnight. Preferably one with more armor.” She paused for a moment. “That bot should have been fried like the rest of them.”
Shaking her head, Meisha looked at Gabriels and Lupus. “That robot was malfunctioning.”
“Well obviously.” Gabriels said with a chuckle.”It was firing upon fleet personnel.”
Meisha shot him a dirty look. “More than that. It spoke to me… asked me if we had followed someone.”
“That shouldn’t be possible.” Donnovan said hesitantly. “It was a basic defense robot. They’re on every Starshot station; they have basic combat AI but nothing crazy or intelligent. They can’t ask questions, only respond to basic commands.”
“It asked.” Meisha whispered, her mind going to the helplessness she felt only moments before. “It asked me if we had followed a… dragon? It was…” She hesitated for a moment. “It was angry.”
Lupus paused. “Reiya check her suit’s O2 levels, see if she was starting to become delirious.” Reiya surveyed a few gauges and shook her head.
“No sir. She still has most of her tank left, plenty of O2.”
Meisha stared hard at Lupus. “I know what I heard, Sergeant. I think it's safe to say that based on the greeting we received here, somebody doesn’t want us to see it.”
“Maybe it was remotely controlled?” Gabriels asked. “It's possible, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it's possible.” Reiya admitted.
Meisha took a deep breath, and sighed. “We need to board and see what happened. As soon as my suit is fixed, we’ll enter and see what we can find.”
“With all due respect.” Lupus started to say. Meisha cut him off with a glare.
“No, I won’t go back to the Midnight and let you handle whatever happens here. I want to see everything firsthand.”
Lupus gave a solid nod. “Alright then Cap. In that case, fix her up quick Reiya, and let's see what the hell happened.”
It took a few hours and a lot of technical expertise from Gabriels men to pressurize the hangar. After some cursing and a few mishaps, they were able to close the emergency doors and pump in some air. Several troopers removed their helmets, grateful to breathe in air that didn't filter through their stale suits.
Plasma torches had been working away at the inner airlock which had been fused shut. While all of this was taking place, Meisha was inspecting the strange ship that was docked in the hangar. She shook her head, running her hand along its exterior while Donnovan searched for the entrance hatch.
“I don’t understand, Ma’am.” he murmured. “I’ve never seen a ship like this. Nothing is even coming close to a match in our database.”
“So it's a custom ship?”
The engineer shrugged. “Maybe? Judging from the size, I’d say it's an armed yacht? Big enough for someone to live on. But a ship like this must have cost billions, and I can’t even find an entrance. Tried cutting into it with the plasma torches but this thing’s armor is unbreakable.”
“We’ll have to take it with us when we’re done here then.” Meisha said. She looked over to where Gabriel's men were cutting into the airlock. “They should be done soon, get ready. I want you to try and stabilize the power with Reiya once we pop this door open.”
“Copy that boss.”
Meisha walked over to where the cutting was taking place, and stood next to Gabriels. “How are we looking?”
“Should be done any minute now. We’ve secured the hangar, but the emergency station shuttle is gone. Command center should let us know where it is when we reach there.” He nodded at the strange ship. “Figure out anything about that?”
“Not much, no. Figured we’d take it with us when we-”
At that moment, the airlock door fell to the floor with a thundering crash. The sharp smell of iron and decomposition seeped out of the dark airlock, causing a few of the men to scramble back, gagging. Meisha herself stepped back, covering her face with her arm.
“Holy hell.” Gabriels moaned, retching. Meisha put her helmet back on, and switched its external oxygen scrubbers.
“Deploy some lights in here.” She ordered. A few of the troopers donned their helmets, shining flashlights into the airlock. It was a gruesome sight: bodies strewn across the ground with pools of blood and other liquids collecting in corners. Bullet holes pocket marked the walls and floor where bodies had fallen. Out of all of the gore, only a handful of the bodies were even recognizable as human. Meisha’s eyes were filled with horror as she stepped into the airlock. She fought the urge to retch and let out a string of profanity to keep herself from throwing up. “What the f-”
One of the field medics crouched next to a body, and started studying it with his light. “They’ve been dead for at least a week, if my estimate is right. Those security bots’ guns must have mulched the hell out of them.”
“Looks like they pushed everyone into the airlock. Created a chokepoint, like shooting fish in a barrel.” Lupus growled. He stepped past the group of smaller soldiers, shining his suit’s lights further down the hallway. “Not as much death this way, Cap. Should be simple to find our way to the command center unless we run into any more bots.”
“Right. Lupus, take our engineers down to the reactor and see if we can crank any more juice into this station. Gabriels, send a fireteam with them, and the rest come with us to the command center.” As Gabriels started issuing orders, something flashed out of the corner of Meisha’s vision. She turned and stared down the hallway, staring hard into the darkness. After a second, she saw it again; just barely in the cone of light from the troopers was a human figure, running away. She bolted after it.
She heard Gabriels shouting after her, but didn’t slow down. The figure wasn’t faster than her, and as she gained on them, her flashlight lit up a torn and bloody jumpsuit of a station worker. “Hey, stop!” She shouted. The figure in the jumpsuit did not. Meisha uttered a few curses under her breath and sped up, pushing herself into a full blown sprint, and getting close enough to jump at them. She grabbed the figure from behind and tackled them to the ground, rolling a couple feet as the figure grabbed onto her and started to struggle. Meisha shined her light into the person’s face, and was met with the terrified eyes of a middle aged man, covered with dried blood.
“Leave me alone.” He sobbed. “Leave me alone, don’t kill me.”
Meisha grabbed his arms, trying to settle him down. “Calm down, I’m not here to kill you. I’m from the Fleet.” The man continued to struggle hard.
“The fleet? Like the security robots that were supposed to protect us? Leave me alone.” He cried. Meisha scrambled back, drawing her pistol from her hip and aiming at his chest.
“I don’t want to have to hurt you.” She said in as calm a tone she could muster. “Calm down. We’re here to help but I can’t do that if you’re fighting me.” The man froze, breathing hard.
With one hand, Meisha took off her helmet and set it on the ground, keeping the gun aimed. “I’m not a security bot, see? Flesh and blood, just like you.”
The man looked puzzled for a second, and then seemed to regain some sort of sanity. “You aren’t one of them. You’re like her.”
“Her?” Meisha furrowed her brow, holding up her hand as Gabriels and a fireteam rounded the corner. “The security bots mentioned a woman. Who was she? And who are you?” She hesitated for a moment. “Hell, what happened here?”
His eyes flicking between Gabriels men and Meisha, the man slowly stood up. “I… I’m Chief technician Mathew Engales. I was in charge of making sure that things stayed running around here.” He drew in a shaky breath. “We received a weird call from The Admiralty, telling us to cease all incoming and outgoing traffic from the Starshot, even the deceleration rings. They claimed it was for some sort of system update, so we did it. A few hours later, the security bots went crazy. I was outside at the time, working on one of our radar sensors when it happened. I could… I could feel the station shaking, I thought we were being attacked by pirates at first, but then the shouting on the comm channels started. Everybody was trying to make it to the station shuttle to escape, but the airlocks wouldn’t open. The station was under lockdown.”
“The station shuttle isn’t there anymore.” Meisha murmured. “Is it possible some of your colleagues made it inside?”
Engales shook his head, still looking back and forth between Meisha and her troopers. “No, the CEO took the shuttle down to the planet.
Gabriels stepped forwards, lowering his gun. “CEO? Like, the CEO of the gas mining company for the colony?”
“I don’t know, she was strange. She landed in the hangar a day or so after the bots started their rampage. I was low on air at that point, using the shuttle for extra air and life support. Couldn’t take off; the launch keys were still in the station. She helped me inside, told me to make sure one of the deceleration rings stayed on no matter what, then led the bots into the hangar while I sealed the door from the inside. She left her ship here and took the shuttle down to the planet.”
“How long ago was that?”
“I… I don’t know.” Engales admitted. “Maybe five or six days? You’re the first living people I’ve seen since then.” He blinked his eyes a few times. “You really are here to help?”
Meisha cast a sideways glance over at Gabriels. “We’re here because we lost contact with the colony below. Part of my team is checking it out now, but this facility looks like it took quite a bit of damage. The starshot tubes are gone and the deceleration rings are all but disintegrated.”
“There was shaking a few days ago I think. The crew quarters decompressed, along with a lot of our supplies.” The technician exclaimed, wide eyed. “I saw them, while I was outside. They had weird ships, three of them heading straight for the planet.”
“Pirates.” Gabriels muttered. “This makes a lot of sense. Section off a colony and hit it as many times as possible before a fleet ship arrives. I bet they turned and burned as far away from here as possible as soon as we arrived in the system.”
Meisha cursed, holstering her sidearm. “Just our luck. At least we have a vague understanding of what happened here. Engales, does this station’s comms ping planetside? My ship was having issues breaking through earlier; I’d like to check up on my crew.”
The man seemed distracted, lost in thought. “The control room has everything. Whatever you need is in the control room.”
“Great, some good news at last. Can you lead us to the control room?” Meisha turned to Gabriels. “Make sure our engineers get that reactor humming. Doesn’t need to be full power, or even last long, but I want to be able to beam that signal soon. No use hanging around here.”
“Yes Ma’am.” The Lieutenant hesitated. “The Dauntless Midnight is still on standby. Should I update them on what we’ve found?”
Meisha cursed herself for forgetting about the ship. “Yes, have them keep an eye on the radar and comms, tell them to watch for possible pirate activity.”
“Yes Ma’am.” Gabriels saluted, and motioned two troopers to follow him as he headed back down the hallway. Meisha nodded at Engales.
“Alright, lead the way.”
The Starshot’s command center was a mess of sparking wires and shattered screens. The giant star chart displays on the wall were pocket marked with bullet holes, and the consoles where the crew used to sit showed signs of a very brutal attack. Bodies still slumped in their seats, and one in particular was crushed underneath an oversized computer. Engales choked when he saw it, tears welling up in his eyes. “That’s Henry Kamroc, the station director.” He sniffled. “He was a good man.” Meisha averted her gaze from the crumpled body, and studied the room.
“We’ll be lucky if we find a working clock in this mess.” She said with a curse. “Fan out, check these consoles and see if we ended up getting lucky.” Her escort of troopers started spreading out, and she turned back to Engales. “You said that you were a techie, right?” The man didn’t respond, having given into whatever thoughts were going through his head. Meisha frowned. While the man had gone through an insane amount of suffering the past week, she needed him as focused as possible. “Engales!” She snapped. The man’s head shot up.
“Uh, yes, I’m a technician.”
“If we can’t find one of these working consoles, we may need you to fix one. You know the starshot system more than we do.”
Engales blinked. “You want to call the planet? You can’t do that though, it might wake them up.”
“...What?”
“The things that hacked the security bots. You’ll wake them up, then they’ll come back to finish the job.”
Meisha stepped forwards, getting more worried that Engales was more shaken up than she had thought. “Engales, they were pirates, and if they already hit once then they won’t be back for a long time. We’re safe.”
“Liar!” He snarled. Meisha stepped away from him, putting her hand back on her sidearm. The rest of the soldiers looked up at the commotion. “What is the Admiralty hiding from us? The robots spoke to me, captain! I could hear them over the radio channels, taunting me. They told me we were going to be left behind. What are you hiding from me?”
“Engales, calm down. We’re still trying to figure out the situation, as soon as we learn something about the pirates that-”
“They weren’t pirates!” He howled, grabbing a long jagged piece of metal. “They were not human! You’re hiding something, tell me now! What did you do to us?”
“Do to you? Engales, please listen! We haven’t done anything, we’re only here to check on the colony!” Meisha pleaded. A few of the soldiers started to raise their weapons but Meisha gestured for them to keep their guns lowered. “Look, Engales. Matthew. Some crazy, messed up stuff happened here, and I’m sorry, I really am, ok? But all I need to do is contact my ground team, then we can move you to a med bay and…”
“What, so you can make sure I don’t remember?” He spat. He was gripping the sharp metal so tightly that blood was dripping from his fist. “If you won’t tell me the truth… then I’ll cut it out of you.”
“Engales, please-” With a scream of rage, Engales charged the captain with his makeshift knife. Meisha’s eyes widened in fear, and she drew her pistol. As the raging man grew nearer, she did the one thing she never expected herself to do: She froze.
GLOW GLOW
The thunderous shots echoed through the room, leaving it in an eerie stillness. The rest of the soldiers looked on as Meisha breathed hard, her gun still aimed at where Engales would have been. Lupus lowered his still smoking autocannon, and put his hand on the young captain’s shoulder.
“ It hits differently, doesn’t it?” He grunted.
“He wasn’t an enemy… he was-”
“He was insane.” Lupus said, pushing Meisha’s gun down. “He would have slit your throat while you were still working up the resolve to put a bullet in his brain. He wasn’t thinking straight.
“I should have had him evac’d.”
Lupus shrugged. “Should have, would have, could have. In the end, none of it matters. He’s gone now, the station had no survivors. Isn’t that right?” He said, the last part much louder.
“Sir yes sir!” The soldiers shouted back. Lupus turned back to Meisha.
“Permission to speak freely?”
“You’ve been doing that already.”
“You’re an idiot. I don’t know how you managed to pull off the ambush with your old crew, but I don’t believe for a second that you have anything worthwhile to provide as a leader. You throw yourself into situations that you’re not equipped for. You have no real experience leading this sort of op, and you’re going to end up getting yourself killed, and us along with you.”
Meisha grit her teeth, trying to stay calm. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Sergeant.”
Lupus pointed at the body. “Next time you end up in that position, Briggs will be taking command of the ship. Tighten it up or we are all going to have a bad day.”
“Thanks for the advice.” Meisha growled.
“No problem, Cap. Now, your orders?”
Meisha took a deep breath and refocused herself. “Right, did Donnovan and Reiya manage to squeeze any extra juice out of the reactor?”
“Not much, this place is trashed. Reiya was shocked that the reactor hasn’t gone critical yet, with the amount of damage the systems have taken. We should be able to beam a message out though.”
One of the soldiers looked up from his search. “Captain! Sergeant! I have a working terminal over here!” He shrugged. “It's busted up bad, but I think it’ll work.” Meisha moved over to where he was and looked over his shoulder as the soldier checked out the terminal. “Doesn’t look like we’ll be able to log in without security clearance.” He muttered.
“Would an employee ID work?” Lupus asked.
The soldier shrugged. “Could try it, sir.” Lupus grunted and crouched down next to Engales blood covered body, patting it down for a moment before pulling out a thin translucent data card. Meisha fought the urge to turn away, not wanting the troopers in the room to think that she had a weak stomach as well as a lack of experience. Lupus gave the data card to the soldier, who slotted it into the machine. “We’re in!” He exclaimed. “We don’t have access to a lot of the system unfortunately… station security, starshot controls, those we don’t have high enough clearance for.”
“What do we have access to?”
“Radar, Ladar, station inventory and manifests, engineering logs, system Qcomms… generally things used for station maintenance and tracking of flights.”
Meisha pursed her lips, thinking. “Pull up any docking and delivery in the past month.”
The soldier nodded and input Meisha’s criteria into the terminal. Three results pulled up, one highlighted red. “Looks like Admiralty had a lower rank admiral inspect the station near the beginning of the month. They were only docked for a few hours, so couldn’t have been major. Next delivery is a…” The soldier paused. “A trade in replacement for station security robots.” Lupus looked over at Meisha, who said nothing. “Last one is an emergency alert. Unidentified, unregistered landing, and subsequent departing of the stational shuttle.” The group was quiet for a moment, before Meisha cleared her throat.
“Right, back up the data and beam it to The Midnight. Then give me a system scan with the Radar and Ladar, and let's see if we can break through that colony’s interference.”
“Yes Ma’am.” The soldier ran a few commands. “Radars showing nothing but the Midnight in the system at the moment, whoever shot the heck out of the station is either well hidden or long gone.” He frowned. “Our comms beam is strong enough to penetrate the gas clouds, but… Ma’am, I’m not getting anything.”
“Nothing? As in nothing from Lieutenant Briggs, or nothing from the mining colony?”
The soldier turned around with a worried expression on his face. “Neither. No communication from the LT, no automatic communications from mining equipment… nothing. Not a single man made radio pulse.”
Meisha froze for a moment. “Something is majorly wrong.” She murmured. She opened her coms channel to the Midnight’s command frequency. “Pirique, I’m having the data we have access to beaming to you as we speak, look over it and have the crew keep an eye on the systemwide radar. Gabriels, pull your troops and regroup in the hangar bay, and have the pilots start warming up for takeoff. We’ve officially lost contact with our recon team and we’re heading planetside.”
The transport ship was quiet, with an air of worry and excitement as it pulled out of the Starshot’s emergency hangar. The one thing left behind on the station was the foreign ship, still waiting for its owner to return. Meisha walked past her troops and poked her head into the cockpit, watching the large gas giant grow closer. Its orange light seeped into the dim ship, giving everything an eerie shadow.
Her thoughts were solely focused on the ship that had taken this flight before her; Briggs and his troopers had flown this same flightpath. The thought that something might have happened to them, and that Meisha may have sent half of her troops to their deaths on her first assignment was nagging at the back of her mind. She shook her head and attempted to push the perturbations from her mind. The transport ship’s pilots, unaware of their captain’s struggle, looked back at her as they got closer and closer.
“Ma’am, we’re about to be entering the atmosphere and this is gonna go from a very smooth ride to a very bumpy one. You should really sit down.”
“Ok, but stream the entry camera to my helmet feed, I want to watch our descent.” One of the pilots nodded and tapped on his console.
“Rog, captain. You should be able to watch the whole thing now.”
Meisha made her way back to her seat, where Lupus was checking his rifle. “How’s it looking, Cap?” He asked gruffly. Meisha shrugged.
“For a gas giant, it's a scenic planet. The colony is about a ten minute ride from where we’ll be entering the atmosphere, and I’ve instructed us to go in with comms open in case we’re somehow not receiving.” She surveyed the room, while troops fidgeted. “We’ll take this slow and steady, I need everyone to be alert. Any detail is important.”
The intercom clicked on. “Right, we’re about to enter the atmosphere.” One of the pilots said. “Everyone, helmets on, make sure your gear is stowed tight and that you’re strapped in. Nobody is dying on my ship. We’ll be entering in five, four, three, two, one.” Before the last word even left the pilot’s mouth, the whole craft shook. Every person was thrown in their seat, straining against the restraints in their chairs as the planet's immense gravity tugged on them.
The temperature in the room grew, and the dim lights flickered. Beside Meisha, Lupus muttered curses under his breath, gripping tightly to his chair. Donnovan was passed out in his chair, while Gabriels was just bouncing his leg, impatiently waiting for the drop to be over. Meisha’s eyes were transfixed on the display on her helmet, watching the descent from the ship’s point of view. The planet was a never ending ocean of clouds, some drifting by lazily while others sped past at incredible speeds. The orange glow was softer in the atmosphere, nowhere near as harsh as it was from space.
As the ship shook and rocked in the turbulence, Meisha’s eye’s caught something on the camera: a small blue speck, growing brighter and brighter. She furrowed her brow, trying to determine what it was.
“Hey guys, check out that blue light, twelve o,clock, about forty five degrees below us.”
“What is that?” One of the pilots asked curiously. “Another ship’s engine? Are we seeing their rocket trail?”
“No, it's getting brighter, if it was another ship it wouldn’t be changing.” The other answered.
“The mining colony then?”
“No, that should be in view in about thirty seconds to our right. Maybe a planetary anomaly?”
Meisha’s eyes widened as the light grew brighter and brighter. “It's something coming right at us. Divert from the flight path, now.”
“Ma’am, are you sure?”
“Do it!” Meisha shouted. She unhooked her restraint, gritting her teeth as she stumbled against the turbulence. Making her way into the cockpit, she braced herself in the doorframe, staring out the window as the pilots pulled left. The light followed them, and Meisha could see exactly how fast it was.
“What the hell is that!” One of the pilots growled as the light swung its course to match the transports. “It's on an intercept course, is that a missile?”
“I can’t tell with all these damned clouds in the way.” The other said, sending the transport into a dive. The light again shifted directions, this time orienting itself right in front of them.
“Watch out!” Meisha cried, but it was too late. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The light burst from the clouds, revealing itself to be a small cylinder with a rocket attached to it. The transport, with all of its speed and momentum from entering the atmosphere, couldn’t change its course fast enough. As the ship plummeted towards the cylinder, its two halves split, a red beam of energy arcing in between them. The ship hit it nose first, and the energy slit through it straight down the middle, like a hot knife through butter.
At first, nothing happened. Then the pilot on the left slumped over, blood pouring from him onto the console. Meisha stared in horror as the ship began to split, now separated into two halves. Consoles sparked as the two halves pulled apart, engines still running. The living pilot cursed and fought to regain control of his half, but the ship had started to roll, now lacking its one wing. Meisha stared as half of her troops, along with the second half of the ship, descended into a roll in the distance. She gripped tightly to the doorframe as their roll got stronger and stronger. The pilot turned to look at her.
“Captain-” As he began to speak, one of the consoles shorted out and exploded into shrapnel, slamming into both him and Meisha. Meisha cried out as the metal shards pierced her suit, one slamming and cracking her helmet, shattering the glass. The force of it tore her from the doorframe, and the momentum of the roll sent her flying into the planet’s atmosphere. She screamed as the planet’s hot gasses entered her lungs, arms flailing as she struggled to find some way to survive. She started suffocating, oxygen escaping through her shattered helmet.
As her vision dimmed, she saw the whole tragedy unfold: two halves of the transport ship, with other soldiers still restrained in each respective half, unable to escape, unable to survive. A floating steel platform in the distance with lights blinking and flashing. The mining colony… they had been so close. Something blurry shifted at the corner of her vision, and the cylinder with the blue light resealed itself and headed in that direction.She tried to crane her head to see, but more gas forced its way into her lungs and she coughed, breathing in even more of it. It was too much for the young captain. Meisha took in one last breath and gave up struggling, closing her eyes.
“I’m sorry.” She whispered, her voice hoarse. Her world went black and she let herself fall.
