Pax

“Attention on deck!” Pappy yelled and stood as he smartly stood at attention. The Skipper, Commander Wilfong, walked in with a small retinue of officers with him.

“At ease men, have a seat. Alright, there’s no time for a lengthy prelude, so I’ll just spit it all out now. Marauder activity in the 61 Cygni system has increased lately, and with the Cygnus fleet taking a real beating lately they could use some help---from a powerful retrofitted cruiser like the Athena, Hua? The 61 Cygni government, as official Commonwealth members, have made a formal request for assistance and the UEAF is obligated to that effect. It will be a good shake down mission for the Athena, but make no mistake about it men, this will be no routine patrol, the Marauders may very well be fixin’ to give us hell.”

The Skipper let out a big sigh.

“Now unfortunately for us, and this is none of your fault, the whole mess has become very political. The Cygnan fleet has been getting their asses handed to them, these recent waves of attacks are an embarrassment to the government as well as their military.”

“Politicians make terrible tacticians, they keep putting pressure on the local Cygnan military as well as the Sol UEAF Cygnus fleet headquartered at 61 Cygni to do something. They forced us to arrange armed escorts and routine patrols. The logistics of that approach tied down our ships, and routine patrols and convoys are easy for the Marauders to both avoid and ambush.”

"In response to the convoys the Marauders have begun to use a special kind of wolf pack tactic and nickel and dime the combined fleets to death, now we have ships being destroyed, in dock for repairs, or ‘long overdue and presumed missing.’ There are many skeptics in the fleets who don’t believe the Marauders can be defeated using such tactics. Boldly, the UEAF has volunteered us for this vaunted task, no guts no glory I guess..."

"Now luckily for us, Fleet Headquarters isn't stupid enough to send us in without some kind of plan. The plan is to set a trap for the marauders; using a commercial liner as bait, the Cygnans have loaded it with an entire Brigade of starship troopers trained in ship board combat tactics. The combined task fleet, that's us, will be disguised behind the system’s only gas giant, Sabazios. When they go for the bait we pounce on them and dig our claws in. We will neutralize their offensive capabilities, and eventually board and seize their ships, officially. Unofficially I say kill 'em all and let the Lord sort 'em out, but I didn't just say that."

"The flagship of this Marauder fleet is the Despoiler. A six pack of beer goes to the first man to fire on her, a case goes to the man who immoblizs her. If you somehow manage to destroy her, hell, I'll authorize orders for you and a friend to go on leave on the sandy beaches of Sirius, with lovely tanned Sirian ladies pandering and pampering yer butts."

“The Marauders also have a renegade aerospace squadron fighting for them called the Nephilim. It’s slightly larger than a typical squadron and has been cannibalizing UEAF fighters for parts for years. The commander of the Nephilim squadron calls himself the Widowmaker, we have no idea who he or she is, but seems to take special delight in targeting UEAF ships, be advised.”

“Carter, if you’re up to it, I want you commanding a squadron of Tornado aerospace fighters. I don’t care what kind of trouble you’ve gotten yourself into in the past, I’ve seen you pilot and I need nerves like that when it comes down to the twelfth hour. I’m sure you’ve had the training, but watch out, I hear she can pull some hard Gees. Your squadron’s role is to fly ahead of our task fleet and provide a protective screen as we close with the enemy.”

“Richard? Nice to meet you son, I’m your Skipper. I’m not exactly sure what your deal is and why the hell you’d be crazy enough to risk duty on this ship. I don’t care if you’re a suicidal mercenary, an adrenaline junkie, whatever. If you like killing Marauders then we can use you. I hear you have a history with mobile armor units. We have a platoon of Phalanx Armored infantry standing by in the auxiliary cargo bays. As we close with the Marauders they will attempt to board this ship and fight us tooth and nail, that’s what they do. I want your platoon going *EVA and punching holes in their boarding craft before they get that close, because that’s what we do. Copy?”

“Nathan, as soon as we get in range I want to give those Marauders everything we have in inventory; Pythons, Vipers, you keep firing until you see white flags and when you do, reload. I want you on the battle bridge when we give the command to go to battle stations, you’ll be our tactical officer. Directing fire on a live enemy is a stressful job son, it’s not in the simulators. I you’re not ready for it let me know now.”

“You have your orders, they go into effect as of now, we are officially combat ready as I speak these words. We’ll be conducting drills and exercises until we make contact with the enemy. They’ve bullied us, backed us into corners. They beat us, murder us, rob us, do God knows what with our women, enough; this is where we draw the line. Show them no mercy, give them no quarter, exterminate the enemy with extreme prejudice. That’s an order. Dismissed.”

The Skipper stormed out of the briefing room and seemed to trail a cloud behind him as the officers trailed him closely.

Pappy turned and smirked at the group.

"Heh, looks like we're in it now, knee deep in it!"


*EVA - extra-vehicular activity, i.e. spacewalk

 

Nathan grinned to himself. Just like the old days, the team (or what was left of it) was back together. Tactical commander, sounded like fun. Boarding the ship, can't get much more into the action than that, can you?
He turned back to Carter.
"Congrats on the promotion, Agent Carter." He grinned before turning to Richard. "EVA eh? Always been fascinated by that."
Finally he turned to Pappy. "So Pappy, what's your job this time? Picking us up after we've all fallen on our arses?" he chuckled. "Good luck out there."

 

Kyla Trinnery looked from the back of the room to the skipper and listened intensely, even though she was sure he didn’t even see her there. There was nothing more that she hated in the known universe than marauders. She grew up fearing them, was raised without a family because of them, and now was moving on to hunting them. They were integral to her existence, and their end was her reason for a continued being. She had killed her first one when she was just a child, but she lost so much more that day. It was time for the revenge she was waiting for. A lot more of them would die by her own hand before they could hope to bring a monster like her down. Trin grinned slightly as the team was given orders; it was one of the only things she has had to look forward to over the years.

After the skipper had left the room, Trin went over the details of the mission in her head. It would work, and work fairly well most likely, but there would be losses. And there were things that seemed to be not looked at thoroughly. Then she spoke and woke everyone up to her presence in the briefing room. “Why load the ship with marines? How about we sacrifice one ship instead of a few? I say we stick the largest bomb we have in it, right next to the jump drives, and control the ship by remote control, or let an A.I. pilot it. Drive it right up one of their carrier’s asses and take out that fighter squadron, or maybe even into the flagship and end the whole wolf pack in one shocking explosion. Then we follow through with the rest of the plan and take out the whole fleet with one wave, little or no losses to boot. Just lose one ship. Hell, we could even put some supplies on it to make it look better.”

Kyla was more than pleased with her suggestion. It might not have been the most brilliant thing to do on her first time back, but she thought it would maybe be taken up. She wanted both to move up in ranks into the ownership of a battle cruiser, and to take down an army of marauders. Why not go for broke and work on both at the same time?

As she was waiting for a response her arm started to ache when she remembered who her team was. The surgeons did great work constructing a mechanized arm for her after she lost it in the explosion. It was far beyond the capabilities of an arm by human standards, being much stronger and faster. But it ached from time to time, and it was still connected to some burns that never healed. The best she could hope for with it was for the nerve endings to die out in the painful spots. Trin was injured and angry for it, but she wasn’t dead. Kyla Trinnery was back to fighting for the fleet again, and herself.

 

Why load the ship with marines? How about we sacrifice one ship instead of a few? I say we stick the largest bomb we have in it, right next to the jump drives, and control the ship by remote control, or let an A.I. pilot it. Drive it right up one of their carrier’s asses and take out that fighter squadron, or maybe even into the flagship and end the whole wolf pack in one shocking explosion. Then we follow through with the rest of the plan and take out the whole fleet with one wave, little or no losses to boot. Just lose one ship. Hell, we could even put some supplies on it to make it look better.”

"What would be the use of that? If we just simply blew them all up, we’d know nothing about their various contacts and suppliers, where their other forces are and what ever, we use hostages, then the brass can try to negotiate, like that'll work, but hell, this is why I'm here, besides, it'd be a waste of a good bomb"
Richard got up and walked towards the door.
"I'll see all of you around, gotta make sure these Phalax suits are up to scratch"
He walked out and down the corridor, he didn’t stop to listen, if he planned to go EVA, he wanted to make sure everything was running properly , as soon as he could.

The bay was fairly spacious, considering they where on a ship, but each square meter of the space was put to use. The armoured suits he’d be piloting where each held in there own ‘pod’.
“Only one way to see how well these things work”
He stepped forward, placing his hand on a control panel, the suite activated, sections of the armour moving away, ready for him. He settled into the suit.
“DNA match, Gunnery Sergeant Richard Mason”
“Activate suit”
Armour slid into place, panels covering each section of his body, enclosing him, a gel layer expanded around him, fitting his form to the suit. Last, the helmet enclosed around his head, it was dark for several seconds, then the heads up display started.
He stood up, moving, testing the suits movement capabilities.
“Run diagnostics of thrusters”
He had no chance to properly test them in here, so a data analysis was all he could do.
“Thrusters capability at 100%”
After running several more tests, he moved back to where it’d waited.
“Deactivate suit”
The suit automatically withdrew the gel layer and began to peal the armour open.

 

“Now unfortunately for us, and this is none of your fault, the whole mess has become very political. The Cygnan fleet has been getting their asses handed to them, these recent waves of attacks are an embarrassment to the government as well as their military.”

I sighed and looked at my feet. 'Political.' That word covered all manner of sins. I had signed up for this mission to get away from all that bull**** ambigueity that had followed me around like a bad stench since Ceres. And now it looked like this mission was no longer a 'Murder everyone wearing a different colour uniform than you' mission. Oh i did like those ones.

“Why load the ship with marines? How about we sacrifice one ship instead of a few? I say we stick the largest bomb we have in it, right next to the jump drives, and control the ship by remote control, or let an A.I. pilot it. Drive it right up one of their carrier’s asses and take out that fighter squadron, or maybe even into the flagship and end the whole wolf pack in one shocking explosion. Then we follow through with the rest of the plan and take out the whole fleet with one wave, little or no losses to boot. Just lose one ship. Hell, we could even put some supplies on it to make it look better.”

Jesus Christ was that who I thought it was? I looked around and saw Trin skulking at the back. Well I'll be damned, she wasn't dead. I quickly recovered from my surprise and concentrated on what she had said. It was a good idea and it would have worked. In fact its probably what the UEAF would have done on an ordinary 'Kill all Hostiles' mission. Unfortunately whenever politics got involved practicality and common sense took a back seat for appearences and pretty speeches.

"What would be the use of that? If we just simply blew them all up, we’d know nothing about their various contacts and suppliers, where their other forces are and what ever, we use hostages, then the brass can try to negotiate, like that'll work, but hell, this is why I'm here, besides, it'd be a waste of a good bomb"

I waited until Richard had left before sarcastically saying, "As opposed to a waste of those useless marines we haul around? Dick."

I turned around to Nathan and Trin, "Your ideas a good one, but as they've said this is political now. It's all about what they put on the headlines, and what sounds better? 'Professional UEAF marines board and capture Marauder fleet?' Or 'UEAF blow the **** outta everything in a 10 mile radius.' Now personally I don't give a **** as to what they write in the papers, but as we all know the Universe is run by those who do."

I liked that, it was profound. I should write that down. I stood up and walked over to Trin. She had disliked me when we served together, but that had been years ago, and it was clear we had both come through with scars.

"Trin, It's been a while. You look well for someone who's meant to be dead," I held out my hand for her to shake, "Listen I'm gunna take down their flagship. Immobilize it, then board the bugger. Take down the captain, get it out of the fight. I could use some help, and I work best alone or with a partner. So, you wanna come?"

 

“Why load the ship with marines? How about we sacrifice one ship instead of a few? I say we stick the largest bomb we have in it, right next to the jump drives, and control the ship by remote control, or let an A.I. pilot it. Drive it right up one of their carrier’s asses and take out that fighter squadron, or maybe even into the flagship and end the whole wolf pack in one shocking explosion. Then we follow through with the rest of the plan and take out the whole fleet with one wave, little or no losses to boot. Just lose one ship. Hell, we could even put some supplies on it to make it look better.”

Nathan though to himself... That could work, as long as they didn't scan the ship for life forms...
Wait.
Who'd said that? He turned to see Trin, hapy with her suggestion. After she and Carter had spoken, he approached her. This might be an opportunity to rid himself of guilt.
"Trin, I've gotta be honest with you, I was pretty damn sure you were dead. And, I dunno about you, but I felt like it was my fault, so seeing you here makes me feel a bit better. Do you know about the others? Anything about what happened? More so, how'd you escape?"

 

"So Pappy, what's your job this time? Picking us up after we've all fallen on our arses?" Nathan joked.

“Very cute kid, but ya’all are grown up, I’m done babysitting, maybe I can take a break this time around---and maybe I have wings on my ass.” Pappy growled.


“Why load the ship with marines? How about we sacrifice one ship instead of a few? I say we stick the largest bomb we have in it, right next to the jump drives, and control the ship by remote control, or let an A.I. pilot it. Drive it right up one of their carrier’s asses and take out that fighter squadron, or maybe even into the flagship and end the whole wolf pack in one shocking explosion. Then we follow through with the rest of the plan and take out the whole fleet with one wave, little or no losses to boot. Just lose one ship. Hell, we could even put some supplies on it to make it look better.” Trin muttered, her contralto was unmistakable. Pappy nearly crapped a brick, he was sure he heard a ghost.

“Trin? Hell, This keeps getting better. I knew those docs would have had you patched up good as knew, and now you got some more scars and war stories like old Pappy, ha! And just between you and me and everyone else in this room, your idea is tactically brilliant. Unfortunately, it will never happen in this fleet in a million years. There are too many war regulations and interstellar treaties and conventions that it would violate. And yes, I know that the Marauders don’t have regulations, it doesn’t matter, we are held to a higher standard, because we are better then they are. No use bellyaching young lady, this is what you signed up for, hua?”

"I'll see all of you around, gotta make sure these Phalax suits are up to scratch," Richard said.

“Alright, see ya round Dick!” Pappy yelled. When Mason was down the bay Pappy muttered to the others.

“Did ya’all just hear new guy call the suits phallic? Am I hearing things?”

 

Adam made his way to the briefing room. He was late, but walked at a comfortable pace, nonetheless. Wouldn't want the brass to think I've changed too much. Besides, the old man or one of the kids can fill me in.

As he worked his way down the halls, Dogface thought about how lucky he was to be here. He had remained unapologetic for his actions while in the UEAF; that hadn't changed even during the trial. The only reason he was on board the Athena instead of in the brig was his participation at Ceres. Well, that and Pappy. The old f*** had fought hard for him. Dog feared he could ever return the favor.

As Dog neared the briefing room, a familiar man exited and walked in the opposite direction. Damn, what was his name again? Adam considered calling after him, but thought better. What am I gonna say, "hey, eyeball"? That wouldn't go over too well, and it's a horrible nickname, to boot.


“Alright, see ya round Dick!”

Ah, that's his name. Adam entered the room.

“Did ya’all just hear new guy call the suits phallic? Am I hearing things?”

"Get your head out of the gutter, old man." Dog joked.

Dogface looked at the remaining Misfits. "This is why you always wear double hearing protection on the range." he said while motioning to Pappy.

 

Being bombarded with comments and being able to respond to them was far from Trin’s forte. In fact, it took most her willpower to stop herself from telling everyone to shut up, and from killing the punk who decided to refute her immediately without thinking. But rushing into something she didn’t need to was the reason she lost her arm. She didn’t need a repeat of the situation. So she instead took them in the best toppling stride she could, and responded to the ones she wanted to.

"Trin, It's been a while. You look well for someone who's meant to be dead," I held out my hand for her to shake, "Listen I'm gunna take down their flagship. Immobilize it, then board the bugger. Take down the captain, get it out of the fight. I could use some help, and I work best alone or with a partner. So, you wanna come?"

The man she had really come to hate during the Ceres mess seemed so much more mature now. He still the whole song and dance routine to his speech that she remembered, but there was an air that he was a lot less for messing around anymore. He must have seen some things he didn’t want to since last I saw him. He must be more of soldier now than he ever was before. It interested her. He might have stories worth listening to now. Worth delving into him to find.

But as for what he said, since her own plan was brushed away by politics, she started to form a new one. She didn’t want to board the ship directly, because she knew she’d lose control with the marauders and get herself killed, but she was going to be in this fight. A tactical positioning strategy started to form in her mind. We’ll encircle them and knock out their thrusters from behind. Then we’ll board. Details of the scenario passed through her mind like wildfire.

She put her hand into his and shook it firmly. “I will not be going with you Carter, but I will be helping ease the job from behind. Trust me on this one. I’ll tell you the details later.” She release his hand and noticed others trying to speak to her. “And good to see you again Carter.”

Trin turned to Nathan Brown.

"Trin, I've gotta be honest with you, I was pretty damn sure you were dead. And, I dunno about you, but I felt like it was my fault, so seeing you here makes me feel a bit better. Do you know about the others? Anything about what happened? More so, how'd you escape?"

She thought about the fire as it flushed over her. She thought about the metal shrapnel that tore three quarters of her arm clean off. She tried to push it away with the new plan in her head, but it was difficult. Her face showed that the question was one she didn’t have the drive to answer to the detail. “I don’t know what happened to the others, since I never asked. I was in the hospital for a few months while they kept me alive and engineered my new arm. I don’t remember what got me out of there, but I’m sure someone dragged me out. It was a terrible mess. I can’t remember much of that time.”

That was an outright lie. She remembered it, every detail. But it was a painful time, and this was not the time to talk about it.

“Good to see you again.” Then she turned to Pappy.

She listened to what he had to say and nearly laughed at old soldier lingo he had. She liked talking to the older men for that reason. They were more enjoyable to her than most.

“Not too many war stories since then, but a few that may interest you, yes.” She smiled at him. “I’m sure you have an endless supply I’d like to hear.” She had about as much emotion in her voice as she could muster, mainly because she didn’t have much emotion to begin with. But she was honestly happy to see him. She had saved him for a reason before. He was the best soldier she’d met.

“Good to see you again Gunthar. Looking forward to interrogating some captured marauder captains.”

If they honestly let her interrogate one, they would get all the information they would ever want, but they’d better put them in a sound-proof and window-less room and forget they were there. They’d have nightmares from what they would se there.

 

Hours past, test after test. Each suit checked, out of the bay full, only 4 with systems not running at 100%, the wearers of those where going to be assigned on the bay entrance lat line of defence. No need risking a suit if it can’t handle taking hits.
He was looking at one of the new weapon systems, the ‘Cobra’ anti armour rifle. 6 had been stored, these babies could punch through 30cm’s of solid titanium before the shell exploded. Major over kill, the best kind. There where enough rounds for a 6 round magazine per rifle, plus 2 spare shells each. Better to keep hold of them in case the battle dragged out.
He stood, looking over the stoed armour units. He laugted a little, then sighed.
“If I knew I’d be wearing something so ugly, I’d of brought something to add a little colour to it with”
Something clattered to the floor. Someone had been walking up behind him. He was picking up several tools he’d knocked over.
“Have the test been finished?”
“Yeh, already taken care of, you’re a little late if you wanted to help”
“Yeh, sorry sir, I was doing some maintenance on several of the ships weapon system systems, I wanted to help speed this along, but kind of lost track of time…”
“Well, keep a better track of it in future, if you don’t you could end up getting someone killed somehow”
“Sorry sir… is there anything else you’ve not finished?”
“Yep, I’ve not prepped the weaponry for launch yet, wana give me a hand with that?”
“Yes, sure sir”
The kid walked over.
“What are we preparing first? Sir?”
“Get the heaviest out of the way, encase we need to launch before we’re ready”
Richard got up and motioned for the kid to get at the other end of the ‘cobra’.
“So what’s your name?”
“Mine sir? Mark”
“Well Mark, hope you pilot these things better then you keep your time”
They got to work.

 

"Get your head out of the gutter, old man." A familar voice said, Pappy turned around to see Dog coming through the hatch.

"This is why you always wear double hearing protection on the range."

"You? That let your old ugly ass on this steel can too? Holy, they just let anybody in---oh well. I guess if I'm gonna die this time I better have you there too, just like that one time on Ishtar, you remember? Peace-keeping mission, damn ornery colonists and what not. I left behind a cute little local dame on one of its moons too, she's probably some old bird by now. Anyway, don't tell me you're going to be mowing down some Marauder ass with that old mining laser of yours. And I know it's been a long time since you've been in combat, so let me tell you, we don't use muzzle loaders anymore, 'kay? Harrr."

Pappy could feel the ship lunging forward.

"Whoa, what's this? Feels like we're accelerating, pulling some gees now. I bet you anything we're real close to that jump gate right about now. Well, that's my cue to head to the armory and start picking out my gear. Those nasty Maraudies won't give us time to bat an eye before they start acting like the baboons they are."

 

The Athena seemed to slowly crawl towards the large space station that was in actuality a giant gateway to the stars. The so-called wormhole generator was a slight misnomer, as the wormhole genertors did not create wormholes as much as take a naturally occuring cosmic wormhole and make them considerably larger (using exotic particles and an astronomical amount of energy). The generators were like small artificial moons compared to the conventional stations that they easily dwarfed, and a true titan compared to the Athena.

"All hands, this is the Captain, standby for wormhole jump to 61 Cygni," Commander Wilfong said. It is a kind of credit to the many centuries of naval tradition that became married with the UEAF that regardless of one's rank, the ranking commander of a ship was always referred to as its Captain.

"Wormhole aperture activated, conduit to 61 Cygni established sir."

"Bring us in helm, ahead one third."

"Aye aye sir, ahead one third."

As the ship fired its thursters and moved into position, the navigator began to count down, a silent warning to all and a small prelude of what would come.

"What did Dante say? Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here?" Commander Wilfog muttered before smiling.

 

Nathan made his way into one of the armory rooms. Before him, stood a large group of men and women, each checking weapons and armour.
These men and women would each be responsible for the lives of a squad, and he, he would be responsible for each of them, and their squads.
"Alright, listen up. My name's Nathan Brown, and I'll be commanding a squad and directing all of you to where to take your squads. You are responsible for your squad. If a man dies, you are responsible, and so am I. That's why you need to follow everything I tell you.
I'll be saying things at times, that tactically wont make sense to you. This is because you can't hear what I'm saying to the other squads. The way I want to work this, is in co-operation with the EVA soldiers. They'll be punching holes in the ship, so I want to make sure all of us are away from those holes when they're made. I'll be talking to the man leading the EVA units soon, but the basic strategy for us will be to surround the inside of the ship.
As soon as we get on via the transport ships, we'll be splitting up. Squads will be going left right and center, so keep with your soldiers. Like I said, we're both responsible if they die. Any questions, soldiers?"
One woman spoke up.
"How will we be reaching the ship? Wouldn't transport ships be a bit risky considering the Tornados will be fighting other ships from the Marauders?" she asked.
"Agent Carter will be keeping us safe. I'll speak to him about sending a few Tornados to escort us to the ship. Anything else?"
The soldiers remained silent. "Good. We'll be going through the wormholes soon. Get your gear and meet up with your squads. Anything else, come to me."

The soldiers went their own ways. Nathan needed to find Richard, Trin and Carter so he could co-ordinate how his squads would act on the ship, but he also needed to find his squad. They could wait, he thought, he'd meet them before they got to the transport ships though.
He found Carter, Richard and Trin.
"So, what's the plan? I've got my squads surrounding the inside of the ship."

 

"So, what's the plan? I've got my squads surrounding the inside of the ship."

"The majority of the EVA units will be in defensive clusters around our ship, several squads will be acompanying our boarding craft, but will remain outside the ship, I'll be leading the defenceive squads, providing things go to plan, there'll be no wories on loosing our ship"
"I've checked all of the suits, only 4 with minor system glitch's, they'll be on loading bay defence, all of the others are locked and loaded"
"Is there any favours you's ull be needing out there?"

 

Pappy was eyeing some ballistics armor and an Avenger in submachine configuration when Nathan addressed his squad.

"Alright, listen up. My name's Nathan Brown, and I'll be commanding a squad and directing all of you to where to take your squads. You are responsible for your squad. If a man dies, you are responsible, and so am I. That's why you need to follow everything I tell you." Nathan barked with authority.

"Ha! That's my boy, yeah, you shake them down good. Tough love is what I say, be hard on them here and now because when the turd hits the fan in combat, all that training will seem like a---"

"Master Chief Gunther?" Some squared away looking fresh fish asked, running into the armory all flushed in the face and huffing, like he had been running.

"Yeah, that's me kid, call me Pappy."

"Master Pappy, it's the Operations Officer, he asked me to send for you, something about being a crew member for the assault shuttles. Last minute thing."

"What the hell? Damn, and just when I thought I was done babysitting. Alright alrgiht, give me a damn minute here to straightern out my gear.

***

The Athena flashed through the aperture of the wormhole singulaity, in an instant dozens of light years, and trillions upon trillions of kilometers had been spanned. The bridge navigators immediately got their bearing on the heart of the system, the twin stars of Cygnus Alpha and Beta. The wormhole took them close (in relative astronomical terms, a few millions of kilometers) to the planet Bendis, the chief colony world of the system.

"It's Bendis sir, we're receiving a transmission from the Cygnans, Commonwealth encryption, standard greeting. Cygnan fleet is ahead, bearing ninety degrees, mark minus five. The Spartacus is on point, cruisers Belisarius and Orpheus are trailing. UEAF Corvette Pegasus is joining the formation. We're receiving a message from the Skipper of the Spartacus."

"Send it through."

The commander of the Spartacus appeared as a hologram besides the Skipper's chair. His face seemed bearded and bloated, a large stomach was barely hidden under an officious gray uniform.

"Wilfong, last I saw you, you were a Yeoman on a space skiff that had barely made a voyage past the Oort cloud of that pitiful system you call Sol. I hope your crew is worth all that combat and hazard pay they're racking up, and I hope that you have the maturity and tenure needed for such an illustrious position as yours."

"Demsky, if you spent less time worrying about me and my crew, our pitiful system wouldnt have to come here to save your sorry asses."

"That's a wild boast from an untested Skipper, from a system that hasn't seen a Marauder ship in their own system in decades."

"That's only because we know how to deal with them."

"We'll see about that."

"Yeah, I guess we will."

"Tell you what, I hear your pretty little fishing yacht has some perty new toys, why don't you take the fleet's lead and us ice colonists will stay behind and guard the rear---since we're so incompetent."

"Suits me fine. Trin? You have the comm, I'll join the senior officer staff on the auxiliary bride. Take care of my ship."

 

"So, what's the plan? I've got my squads surrounding the inside of the ship."
"Nathan save your men from boarding their flagship. Thats mine," I realised what I must have said would have sounded incredibly cocky so I explained, "About 6 months ago I was hunting a marauder captain. A transponder and a makeshift uniform were a couple of suvoneirs I picked up. With any luck after disabling the ships engines I can board it without them suspecting anything."

I looked at them, "After years working solo, its what I'm good at. Until then though, you have me and my squads support. Maybe I can even take out that Nephilili or whatever the hell their turncoat hotshot was."

I saluted and then strode to my locked and donned my scrappy Marauder uniform. I had pilfered only what i could carry, which was a helmet and a combat vest with red streaks. So I tore holes in my pants, and scuffed up my boots. I looked alright. I would probably be able to get by with a combination of luck and charisma. Plus with everyone occupied trying to keep the ship together, they probably wouldn't be paying much attention to anyone. After suiting up I headed to the docking bay where my modified Tornado lay. She didn't look like a Marauder ship as I had not expected to be using it for an infiltration mission, but I could probably get by. Not all Marauders slashed their ships, however I probably would need some paint. I was attracting some very strange looks from nearby personal, so I flashed my ID badge, "Agent Carter."

I grabbed a techie who was running past, "What's your name son?"

He yelped but then regained control of his nerves when I took off my helmet, "Bacchus sir..."

"Good name. Listen I need some red paint on my ship. Marauder kinda stuff ya know? Infiltration, Agent stuff. Hush Hush. You good for it son?"

He nodded and dashed off. I smiled and turned around.

"Now wheres my squad...”

 

"Is there any favours you's ull be needing out there?" Richard asked.

"My squad will need to make their way to the Marauder's ship. Carter, if you can lend a few of your pilots to escort our transport ships, that'd help. Richard, if you can get a few of your men to crawl around and take out the ship's exterior guns, that'll keep our transport ships safe and Carter's tornadoes. Once we're inside the ship, we'll cut all power, and completely stop it from escaping. We'll disable comms and engines and then take out the rest. Once we've done that, my squad will check out the communications rooms and make sure no backup is en route to us while the other squads prepare for evac. We'll then follow them. What are we doing with the ship? Making a supernova with it?" Nathan asked with a grin. He contacted the Captain as Carter and Richard thought over this.
"Command Wilfong, this is Nathan Brown speaking. Our team, assuming all goes well, will have the perfect opportunity to sneak something onto the ship. What are we aiming for? Hell, we could send the ship on its way to another fleet like Trin suggested with the commercial ship." Nathan suggested. He was looking forward to his holiday on Sirius... He'd even settle for a case of beer.

"Nathan save your men from boarding their flagship. Thats mine," I realised what I must have said would have sounded incredibly cocky so I explained, "About 6 months ago I was hunting a marauder captain. A transponder and a makeshift uniform were a couple of suvoneirs I picked up. With any luck after disabling the ships engines I can board it without them suspecting anything."

With that, Carter left. Nathan had confidence in Carter, but Nathan's men were promised a fight, and there was no way Trin would be letting the fight on the Athena. He grabbed his comm unit.
"Carter, I have a compromise. If they see my men tinkering with the ship's heart, they'll evac and self destruct. Here's my thoughts. If you get onto the Nephilili, you can take a little package with you and drop it into the ship's heart. Now, this'll take the ship out, but I'm thinking bigger. I checked up on some patterns on the Marauders. Now, this is by no means definite, but it seems like the Nephilili will be meeting up with the Despoiler soon, likely after this battle. If you got that 'package' onto the ship, we could take out two birds with one stone. Two very large birds.
Of course, the flagships' gonna check. The crew of the Nephilili will be making sure there's nothing on there, especially after the battle with the Athena.
So we need to take the crew out. That's where we come in. If Richard's men could go around to the engines on the exterior after they've taken out the exterior guns, we'll be able to hold off boarding for a bit longer, so there'll be no suspicion when you're on there. Carter, you're a strong fighter, but I doubt that even you could shoot down an entire ship of Marauders, so my men will board the ship after you've put the package in. We'll stay away from the heart so they don't suspect anything, and we'll take out the crew. Then, we send it back to the Despoiler and have an A.I. convince them it's full of crew and send them a nice little message stating it's all clear to board up.
Then, having arrived back on the Athena, we might even see a flash in the sky."

OOC: Sorry, I wrote the first part of this before Lebby's post, so it might not make a lot of sense.

 

"We'll stay away from the heart so they don't suspect anything, and we'll take out the crew. Then, we send it back to the Despoiler and have an A.I. convince them it's full of crew and send them a nice little message stating it's all clear to board up."

"Nathan thats a pretty decent plan, but its full of risks. Theres no guarantee your men would be able to get out in time, and is it worth risking dozens when one man could get the job done? I know I sound cocky, but infiltration is what I've been doing for years now. And during a pitched battle in space, no Marauder in his wildest dreams would ever think of a one guy flying into their ship, disguised as one of their own, and then going at the controls with a sledge hammer. The UEAF want a big political victory to splash up on the NewsPaper headlines, they want this ship captured, and I'm gunna give it to them 'Lone UEAF Agent Captures Marauder Flagship' heh heh..." I laughed, "Nathan, it's a long shot, but I've been in tighter spots. I'm not planning on shooting up the whole ship. I'm gunna disable the engines in my Tornado, then land in the ship using the transponder. After that, it should be a fairly easy task of reaching the bridge, murdering everyone inside, locking it down, discharging all weapons at nearby Marauder vessels, then shutting down the ships engines before blasting the crap outta all the control pannels..." I paused, "Granted that sounded more simple in my head but tell ya what, I'll bring your bomb onboard and trigger it as a last resort if I fail... Bring it down to the loading bay Nathan."

 

"Negative. We'll be using the bomb on another ship. Same plan, smaller ship. We'll take the ship closest to the Nephilili. It'll be a bit further that we'll require your escort Tornadoes, but it'll be worth it. I'm loading my men up now, if you CAN spare some Tornadoes, I'll appreciate it."
He switched his comms to Richard as he made his way to the Platoon of men he'd be commanding.
"Richard, scrap the engines on the Nephilili, instead, try to get a few units over to the engines of the Resistante. It's the next biggest ship and should be closest to the Nephilili when we meet them. My platoon will be boarding it instead. Try and deactivate them, but don't destroy them. We need this ship's engines so we can send it back to the Despoiler..."

He hurried down to meet his squad. The other squads had begun boarding the transport ships. They each could fit one squad of ten, so they needed four transport ships, for a total of forty men. He found his squad standing by their ship.

The squad was split into two fire teams, Alfa and Bravo. He was in Alfa. He inspected the four other men in his fire team who saluted upon seeing him.
The first man, Neilson, was a small stick of a man who held a small device in his hand. This must be the guy who was meant to be an expert in hacking. He'd be useful in this.

The next man, Turner, was the exact opposite. A walking tank, he held a close quarters weapon, a modified shotgun.

The third soldier was a woman, Williams. She had a tough look on her face and held an automatic machine gun. In a tough situation, it'd be perfect for covering fire.

Finally, the fourth soldier, Daniels, nodded at Nathan, holding another modified weapon. This one, of the most impressive of all, was a sort of cross between a pistol and a shotgun. Modified to reduce recoil and increase range, this deadly weapon could take your head off from miles away, with more power than a long range rifle.

Of course, none of this was any match to Nathan's amazing Stilleto. The UEAF had expected each soldier to take a weapon from the Armoury, but Nathan needed nothing but his Stilleto.

Every time he looked at it, Nathan remembered Spectre and Mel, and a fire grew inside of him.
The gun was just as it had been when Spectre first gave it to him... Well, almost the same. The only difference now, was the safe knockout darts had been replaced with lethal ones.

A beeping was heard behind him, and a forklift arrived holding a large rock-like thing. It was a bit bigger than he had been expecting. He called out to the Platoon.

"Alright soldiers, this is it. Get yourselves ready for some major action. We're heading over to the Resistante, and we're bringing this beauty with us. We're gonna take down their flagship, the Despoiler, and if they try to stop us, we're gonna fight harder.
We're gonna deliver this bomb right to their doorstep!
Oorah!"

The soldiers cheered back. "OORAH!"

"Now get your asses ready for deployment. The second we're in position, these ships are dropping down, and we're planting that bomb. You know the plan, you know the rules."

He turned to Fire team Alfa. "You four are with me, prepare for a bumpy ride."

The team, fired up, grinned and nodded before getting on the transport ship. He just hoped to God this plan worked... "oorah..." he muttered under his breath as he boarded the ship.

 

Trin spent a few minutes inspecting the bridge of her newly aquired position fervently. It was like old times with her father, being in control of a ship hurdling through space. The Athena jumped to the combat area, but Trin remained fairly unphased, still appreciating the power she had been given. It was then next step towards her ultimate goal. It was control of something with incredilbe power. She wouldn’t fail the senior officer on her life. This ship would be going down in the most valiant display destruction if she failed. No turning back.

And the fact that she was fighting a fleet of marauders probably had more to do with that than anything. Trin didn’t like the idea of having some of them live to be interrogated, unless she could do the job. She wanted all of them to die. Personal vendettas have a knack for not being over till death.

She then noticed the officers looking at her, waiting for her call, for her to say something. She needed to finally put her mental plan into action. “Increase thrusters to full power and maintain a course around the planet until the Athena facing the marauder fleet. Use the planet’s gravity to slingshot us at them faster and harder than they could expect.” Navigation began to mave quickly. “We already have the jump on them, and gave us maybe a minute till they pick us up on the sensors and can react. Let’s be moving a lot faster when that happens, and have a more fire in the air.”

Trin turned to weapons. “I need our two main cannons firing immediately at the thrusters of the flagship. Bring them out of commision and have them facing the wrong direction. The first missle barrage should be fired seconds after the cannons fire and are recharging. Take out the fleet’s mobility first, and when their sitting ducks, fire on all their weapons systems. Keep alternating fire, and don’t stop till the job’s done. Use the ship’s lasers for taking out their smaller weapon’s systems primarily, and as point missle defense as secondary. If we can stop their weapons fire immediately, our fighters and troops will all make it to them in one piece for their part of the action.”

The crew moved with purpose to positions, but listened very readily. “Not one marauder, not even a ****ing frieghter of theirs, is going to move unless we let them. They’re going to be dead in the water, screaming for mercy, and we aren’t going to let them see one minute of it.” Trin’s face was stern, and prepared for battle. She stood at the helm and was ready for the destruction to come. We’re going to come in like a bat out of hell, and end this battle before it even has a chance to begin.

“Politicians say they want prisoners, well then lets give them more than they bargained for. Let’s snap their wings and break their arms. To your posts.” No cheesy lines, no “good luck” or “ god speed,” just get to your posts. Get in, get the job done, and celebrate later. They all had some particularly difficult work to do, and Trin was reveling in it, though she never let a soul on the Athena’s bridge know it.

 

Richard stood in the bay, the suits lined out perfectly, a soldier before all but one, his own.
“Ok, here’s how things are going down, squads Alpha through Delta will be one point defence, your jobs to take care of any boarding craft they send our way. Squads Echo through Gamma, your reporting to Nathan, I’m sure you know him already, do you job, I’ll be commanding the defence party, now, suite up!”
Everyone in the bay shouted in unison “Home!”
They all stepped back into their suite, Richard doing the same. The suites activated, then closed around their wearers. The deck began to vibrate, they where picking up speed.
“Ok! Get to the launch bays!”
They broke into 2 main groups, one heading towards Nathans craft, each of those teams holding 10 men, his teams moving towards the launch chambers, each of these consisting of 20 men, they waited for Richard to enter first.
The chambers where long and thin, enough room to launch the suits, a pair of metal struts led along the floor, he stood on them, his souls magnetising to them, he used his thrusters to move forward, the others followed suit in the each of the 4 chambers.
A ready signal was sent to his HUD. The hatch’s behind them where sealed.
“Richard to bridge, we are prepared to launch, waiting for the go ahead”

 

Subutai squinted at the screen as his helm commander and tactical officer looked on at the large vessel. They were big, even by Marauder standards. Something about the low gravity made them tall, and the rumor was that Marauders selectively bred their children for stockiness. Subutai heard rumors of some of his own people plotting behind his back, he could show no weaknesses.

If he was lucky, there would be plenty of salvage and women onboard the unescorted vessel they saw. If they were very lucky, maybe even a few thousand metric tons of Mercurian hooch. Of course, the most sinister booty they could hope to be had were men, many meaty men. His tactical officer smiled, revealing his sharpened teeth.

Who were the flatlanders to judge Marauder culture? What was so wrong about cannibalism? It’s hard to survive in deep space, sometimes even chickens are hard to breed, low gravity is unforgiving on bird embryonic development. Nothing like man flesh, it tastes just like chicken and can be found anywhere where there are men.

“It’s not like the Cygnans to leave a star liner unescorted,” the tactical officer noted.

Subutai’s eyebrows rose.

“A trap?” He asked.

“Impossible, the Cygan fleet is too weak for us,” the helm steersman sneered.

“They’re never at full strength, and stretched thin.”

“What about Earth?”

“Her fleets are stretched even more thin, and every joint mission they’ve ever tried before in the past has been---sloppy.”

“We should be careful,” the tactical officer warned.
Subutai stroked his chin, at the space beard he was growing over the long months in Cygnan space.

For months they had been making constant successful attacks and even more successful tactical withdrawals. He had been able to feed an entire fleet on the spoils of plunder alone, making a fool of the combined fleets of two systems and thumbing his nose at them at the same time. Should he show more restraint this time? Was he being too hubristic? If he showed any weakness, his malefactors might have tried to kill him, or at least question his command, in front of the others, in a battle even! He would be as good as dead, his fleet as good as dead in space.

“I want that liner, charge! Charge at her! I want a large fresh man, a small young lady, and a bottle of Mercurian rum in my quarters within the hour!”

***

Pappy made his way to the launch bay and helped the crew chiefs do a prelaunch inspection of the assault shuttles as some infantry squads assembled.

Pappy strolled past a Sturgeon.

"You might wanna have somebody remove the intake blanks from those engines, last thing we need is to fod* out the motors right before we get stuck in it."

Pappy strolled past a jarhead.

"And you son, your weapon is not on safe. Safety your weapon, close your ejection port, and for Krishna's sake, secure your fly!"

The platoon commanders were giving their men some rousing words, no hoorahs were spared.

"You boys might want to secure your enthusiasm. I happen to know that there's a young commander out there by the name of Nathan. He got himself a troop of gungho hard chargers that are all salty and tougher than iron nails. You might as well pack up and go back to Terra, he's got us covered."

"You wanna make a bet, Master Chief?" A platoon commander asked.

"My hundred stars against yours, hell yeah." They shook on it.

 

This was it. Nathan felt his heart drumming against his chest, part of an orchestra playing in his stomach.
The drumming got louder and louder, until he realised it was coming from behind him. A squad of EVA units had made there way to him.
"You must be Richard's kids... Well, the more help, the better. All we need now is some Tornadoes from Carter. Hell, even if we don't get them, we should be fine...
Our transport ships are heading for the 'Resistante'. I need Echo squad to be directly in front of us. You'll need to make sure we can fit into the ship. If the whole isn't big enough, make it bigger. The rest of you, stay behind us and by our side. Your EVA units can take more damage than our transport ships. Now, head to the nearest launch bay and get ready. As soon as we're in space, group up with us. Good luck, we better not need it." He finished, with a grin.

 

Pappy's kids weren't exactly kids anymore. They all had the lives of other men and women in their hands now. Hell, Trin was even running the show back on the Athena. Dogface had always respected them as soldiers and equals, but today was different; today he knew they were something more. Heh, you won't see me taking on that kind of responsibility. Just give me my guns and point me in the right direction. He patted his Direct Action A36 and entered the assault shuttle.

Dog looked around the cramped vessel. He was the only civilian on board, and judging by the looks of the troops, one of the only people present to have seen any action. Most of the faces were young. Still kids in his eyes. Barely able to grow peach fuzz. He saw the fear in their eyes and a chill ran through him. He knew how they felt, and he knew several of them wouldn't be coming back.

 

"Agent Carter, these are your men."

I looked at the dozen young pilots who were standing at rigid attention. The officer continued his spiel, "This is Mathers, Hopsick, Cunnington-"

"At ease fellas," I cut the man off.

He bridled, but kept his mouth shut, saluted, and marched away.

"Who here has combat experience?" I asked.

Every one of them raised their hands. I smiled, these were wolves, vets, killers. I do like competence.

"Right, you six," I pointed at those on my right, "Your on escort duty. Report to an officer named Nathan, he's on Comm channel three. He'll be your commanding officer for the remainder of this mission. Dismissed."

Some desultory murmurs and dirty looks ensued as the solders filed out. Some of the remaining men had smirks on their faces, satisfied that they had been chosen for the real work. Butchers work.

"Well well well, look at this. We got six badasses who are gunna leave this battle heroes," I smiled slyly, "This battle is ours. This battle depends on us. This is what people like us were bred to do. Space. Such a big pretty thing aint it? Lets go blow some **** up in it shall we?"

"Erm, sir?" A square jawed pilot queried.

"It's Carter, and yes?"

"What are our mission objectives?"

I thought.

"Well I generally prefer to keep it simple stupid. Round the 'Murder everyone who ain't us' kinda spectrum. But if we must get into specifics, how bout we start with that turncoat squadron with that Nephililtiti or whoever. And for seconds... Well I'm gunna take down the despoiler. You can help if you want. Should be lots of fun. To yoru ships gents. Lets get out into the big black."

I grinned at them and then strode to my modified fighter, now sporting a ragged Marauder motif.

"Right then."