Authors: Max Feinstein
Damian activated
a small holographic screen built into his command seat and switched to a video feed coming from the commander of one of the
Venture’s
boarding teams. This helmet cam feed showed the heavily armed boarding party waiting along either side of the shuttle’s airlock hatch. The team waited for the hull cutter ring to complete its rotation as it sheered its way through the transport’s auxiliary hatch. Within seconds the cutting was done and Damian watched the shuttles airlock door slide open before a lifter, a heavy load lifting robot, trotted forward from behind the men. The lifter grabbed the other ship’s airlock hatch and wrenched it from the surrounding hull, causing the heavy piece of alloy to fall into the Rukkon’s interior.
With its mission complete the large lifter bot back away, while the boarding team prepared for their role in the operation. On command one of the men pulled a small dome shaped object from his back and tossed it through the open airlock. The micro-drone arced forward and powered up inflight to hover just inside the ship. It spun around to scan the immediate vicinity before slowly moving further into the freighter to see what lay beyond. The drone did not make it far, however, before a hail of plasma bolts slammed into it, causing the thing to disintegrate in midair.
The destruction of the drone was not in vain because it had completed its mission. Just before falling to the deck in pieces
it had transmitted data on the locations of each of the shots fired at it, therefore allowing the boarding party to know the locations of their opponents. In response the assault team tossed in a pair of IFX grenades, letting the elongated spheres roll down the airlock corridor. Near the end of the passageway were two openings, one on both sides, and Damian watched the grenades split up on their own as they approached these openings. One rolled into one parallel corridor while the other went into the second before detonating at the same time.
The flash that filled the dim passageway was bright enough to cause the camera transmitting the signal to dim automatically. Damian watched the initial brightness fade to reveal an ever expanding wave of glimmering light.
The wave moved out in all direction, transitioning through the surrounding walls as if they weren’t even there before coming to stop and dissipating only a few meters in front of the airlock hatch. Another drone was tossed through the opening right after and flew through the darkened passageway just like the one before it. Unlike the first, however, this one was not met with gunfire. It reached its destination without incident and confirmed that the grenades had done their job. Within each of the joining corridors was a trio of slumped bodied, each clad in blue armor and still holding their carbines in their hands.
With the defenders status confirmed, the entire assault team rushed through the airlock and moved into the Rukkon freighter. Damian watched them move towards the stunned bodies and quickly bind them in restraints before proceeding further into the ship. He knew the same sort of operation was happening at the rear of the ship, so he switched the video feed to one coming from the second Rapid Boarding Team. That team had already cut its way through the rear cargo hatch
and was in the process of securing the large cargo hold. It was instantly apparent that the cargo area was much more heavily defended than the airlock had been. Being loaded with cargo containers there were many places for the defending security team to take cover, allowing them to fire at the boarding party while staying concealed at the same time.
To counter the threat four Legion soldiers moved
forward to form a curved line before activating their personal barriers. The shield power up and extended both up and down from each man’s forearm, creating an almost clear protective barrier against most firearms. Behind this line of soldier formed the rest of the assault team and together they advanced through the cavernous hold under a hail of defensive plasma fire. As Damian watched blue plasma bolts slam into the manmade barrier wall from many directions and get deflected throughout the cargo hold. This allowed the boarding party to advance further while returning fire from their own movable cover. In a relatively short period of time the assault team meticulously swept through the hold, killing or wounding four of the security personnel and causing the others to retreat further into the transport.
As more and more of the cargo area was cleared, two technicians entered the hold and started to get the designated cargo containers ready for transfer. They first scanned each
container to confirm their contents and marked each one for transfer before disabling the tracking devices embedded within each one. A pair of lifters followed these technicians out of the shuttle and started to haul the marked and cleared cargo out of the Rukkon’s hold. The anti-gravitational systems built into each of the cargo containers made the loading and unload much faster and easier, allowing the heavy containers to be moved without the need of cranes. This was especially important now that the entire operation was under a short timetable.
There was only a little over twenty minutes left on the countdown clock and only a fraction of the convoy’s cargo had been transferred over to
Marauder
. It helped that the cruiser had finally closed to within a thousand kilometers of the convoy, greatly decreasing the transit time of for shuttles to and from each freighter. Even now the two shuttles were heading back to their respective transports after unloading their first batch of containers, while a third shuttle was inbound with another load from a third freighter. The entire process was taking time, much more time than they had to work with.
Damian monitored the boarding teams on the
Venture
at the same time that he watched the clock countdown to zero. His teams were making progress on advancing towards the ship’s bridge, but the defenders were putting up a tough fight. Not only that, but they also had the ship’s internal automated defense systems to deal with. These automated weapons had already injured two of his men, one of them gravely. Both were now being flown back to the
Marauder’s
medical bay along with the first load of cargo from the transport.
“Emerging contact!” the sensor station called out at that very moment.
“Eight hundred twenty kilometers out and identified as FNV Griffin class.”
A new map of the surrounding space appeared on the forward display, showing the four disabled freighters and a ne
w contact. This new contact was quickly encased in a red oval to indicate its hostile status. Damian leaned forward intently and saw that the clock had paused at minus twelve minutes, causing him to shake his head slightly. It seemed that today everything was working against them.
“Projected course will put them between the convoy and us in five minutes.”
The Griffin was a new class of corvette designed for fleet protection as well as independent patrol missions. They were created with speed and weaponry in mind and as such were armed with a wide variety of weapons systems. Since the ship was often supposed to conduct lone operations it featured a small hanger bay, allowing it to take on opponents larger than itself. She was not a ship to be taken lightly and Damian watched her captain put that ship’s speed to good use. It accelerated rapidly and began to close the distance between the
Marauder
and the convoy.
“Shields and weapons up. Notify the away teams of the sit
uation and instruct them to complete their last cargo transfer and wait for our command to disengage from their assigned ships. Have the Larks double back and establish a defensive line at three-four-six, eighty klicks out.” Damian ordered in a surprisingly calm voice.
All around him the bridge swung into action. Every station instantly got to work prepping the ship for combat and relaying the captain’s orders to the boarding parties as well as the fighter squadron
. The response from Captain Ziana was instantaneous, her Lark squadron reformed in the space surrounding the floating freighters and turned back towards the
Marauder
. They accelerated at a much faster rate than the incoming Griffin, allowing them close the distance faster and set up a forward fighter screen before the Federation vessel reached its intended destination.
“Receiving incoming transmission,” Damian heard as he studied the newly activated
Tactical Information Display on the forward viewport. It showed a large view of the battle space with the
Marauder
and its Kaji screen on the right side drifting towards the four convoy ships floating on the far left. From the top of the screen came the red hued Federation corvette, racing toward the middle to take up position between the UPF convoy and the Legion’s cruiser.
“Attention, attention, this is the FNV
Cambridge.
You are conducting an unlawful search and seizure of United Planets Federation ships and properly. Cease and desist immediately. Power down all systems in preparation for boarding. If you continue, you will be fired upon. You have two minutes to respond.”
“The
Cambridge
is launching fighters,” Srita called out as she studied the sensor holodisplay.
At that Captain Deisthauf stood up from his chair and crossed his arms
over his chest. Looking forward towards the quickly changing tactical information display, he watched small red triangular symbols emerge from the underside of the Griffin class corvette. These new craft were quickly scanned and identified. Four of the ships were AF-103D, also known as MKIV, Dragonfire fighters, while the other eight were smaller Pegasus class Unmanned Combat Vehicles. The drones swiftly spread out and took positions between each of the manned fighters. This formation allowed each Dragonfire to have two of its own wingmen for support. As they flew away from their command ship they swung around towards the
Marauder
.
Damian watched the Federation fighter force slow down as they completed their maneuver and came to a halt directly across from his own screening squadron. For now they held their position just off the
Cambridge’s
port side, awaiting further orders, as the corvette finally slid into the space between his cruiser and the captured freighters. He watched the TID intently, trying to figure out what his next move should be. There was not much time to act and the knowledge of what would occur to his crew should they be captured forced his mind to think rapidly and more clearly.
“Team Victor reports
Venture
secured and objective complete,” relayed Srita as she turned towards Damian from her station.
That bit of good news actually spurred Damian’s mind toward a creative solution to their current predicament. From that moment everything seemed crystal clear to him. The plan came together almost instantly
within his mind like parts of a puzzle. It was something that happened to him often when putting together operations, even during his early years at the officer training academy. At first it had been unsettling, but after discovering the truth about his creation, everything had become clear to him. This incredible ability had been bred into his genetics, allowing Damian to process data at a faster than normal rate.
And so, with his plan mentally forged, Damian began to explain it to his second in command.
Srita in turn relayed the information to each of the appropriate command stations positioned around the bridge. A fury of activity broke out from that very moment as orders were disseminated throughout the entirety of the Phoenix Legion force. It was surprising how much work could be done in just under two minutes when people were threatened with incarceration or death.
“Energy buildup from the
Cambridge
!” exclaimed a bridge station just before a cobalt colored beam of light flashed across the ship’s port side, just outside its shield boundary.
“Unmarked vessel, this if your final warning. Cease all illegal activities or you will be
fired upon and destroyed. Repeat, power down your shields and weapons and hold fast for boarding,” came the deep male voice through the bridge’s speakers.
Damian saw
Srita turn towards him from the right in his peripheral vision and waited a long second before giving a small nod. That one tiny gesture commenced the entire attack. Before the Federation vessel could make good on its threat, Damian’s force responded preemptively with an initial missile barrage from the fighter screen. A pair of missiles ejected from each of the Kaji fighters and raced towards the opposing fighters. As soon as the missiles launched the Legion squadron leapt forward as one to close the distance between the two forces.
At the same time that the fighters attacked
, the
Marauder
shuddered and began to accelerate under full emergency power directly at the Griffin corvette. Watching the forward display Damian could see the entire engagement unfold before him. As soon as the missiles appeared on the TID the
Cambridge
fighters started to scatter in different directions. The Pegasus drones responded first, following programmed evasive maneuvers, while the manned Dragonfires took a few milliseconds longer. Unlike the UCVs, however, the piloted craft were more unpredictable. Some accelerated away, while others let loose with their own rockets. These were small projectiles, though, designed to counter any incoming missiles and Damian watched as three of the anti-fighter missiles blinked off the sensor display.