Pax

Dozens of officers moved around the deck in a rush to get everything ready before the orbital half ellipse was complete and the battle to begin. Trin stared down at the holographic sand-table that had formed after the readings of what the marauder fleet consisted of had popped in. They were numerous, but also completely blind. It wouldn’t be an easy battle because of their numbers, but in no way did it seem like it would be the hardest one either. It was good training for Trin’s first command.

“The marauder flagship appears to be facing away from us, parallel to our vessel out there,” mentioned an officer Trin had not yet identified. He wasn't old, even though he somewhat looked it, but instead was just a very hard man. His skin was somewhat thick and aged, but he had the build of younger and stronger man. Space does some interesting things to a person. She needed to get to know the crew sometime, but right now everyone was a bit busy, and so was she.

“Good, we’ll hit their thrusters first with the cannons as planned.” She was quite pleased that at least part of her plan would work out. The thing she was afraid of was that there was too much forward assault in her plan. But then again, you can’t take a beach by lying down and digging in. Trin pushed the fear of it aside and thought more about screaming marauders burning inside lonely engine rooms.

The officer spoke up again, “Should we then launch the fighters, followed by the escorted transports?” Clearly he was experienced in space combat. Maybe she would get to know him more later. She had honestly forgotten about that for a minute, a good sign of being a rookie at this, and a bad sign for her.

“Yes, and we’ll have the fighters keep the marauder squadrons busy while the transports try to make it to the flagship for capture. The more fighters we keep off of us, the more forward moving we can be.” The officer agreed and immediately set out to comms to let the squadrons know launch time and whatnot.

A navigations officer called Trin out from her seat. “Five minutes till we’ll have visual on the targets.”

Trin snapped away from the table. God, I hope this works out as planned. Things never did, but this time she had many lives on her hands. Don’t let me **** up.

“Weapons loaded and charged ma’am.”

She looked at the clock. The minutes went by so slowly. When four and a half minutes passed, the tension in her mind released. “Fire primary cannons on my mark. Five. Four. Three. Two.” Revenge. “One.” For the ones we lost.

“Mark.”

 

Nathan strapped himself in and nodded to his fire team.

The claw-like machines holding the ship above the ground of the bay started up, pulling them towards space, black nothingness.

Behind him, the Tornadoes and EVA units were also ready to launch. Carter, Pappy, Dog and Richard would be just about to leave the Athena, Trin, about to shoot.

He heard the countdowns, all moments apart.

Then, all of a sudden, the claw released them, and the first transport ship was off.

Suddenly, they were thrown into Chaos.

The Athena shot at the engines of a Marauder ship, sooner than the pilot of Nathan's transport had expected.
"*hit!" Nathan heard from the cockpit. The transport rocked to the side, knocked, even in this low gravity, by the Athena's shot.

Nathan unstrapped himself and stood up. He looked out through the strong window of the transport and found the other three transports coming after them. Then, the EVA troopers came around the corner of the bay, taking their formation around the four transports.

A moment later, six tornadoes flew in beside the transport ships. Nathan grinned to himself, Carter had gotten some escorts over.

"We're here to keep your asses from getting blown up, sir." he heard over his radio. Things were looking good... Up until the second ship burst into flames.

They were about fifteen seconds into the flight, when a Marauder craft flew by. With it's wide wingspan, the ship scraped by Bravo's transport ship before being shot down by a Tornado, but it was too late.

Nathan stared in horror at the ship, a small hole in it. The screams echoes over his radio, as the men were sucked out of their own ship, which had set on fire.

"Bravo squad! Damn it! We've lost Bravo! Continue as planned, we need to get this thing on the Resistan-" Nathan was cut off as the ship rocked violently again, throwing him to the floor.

"What the hell was that?!?" Daniels screamed. Nathan felt a ringing in his left ear."

The pilot's voice came over the radio. "Jesus! They've got such a large fleet that they're... they're firing their one of their ship's main cannons at us! The gravitational pull from the shots are knocking us about!"

"But, that stuff's meant to be used on ships like the Athena! Not tiny transport craft like this! Why would they shoot at us?" Daniel's replied.

"Do I look lime I'm a Marauder mind reader? I guess they think they can spare the firepower since they have so many ships!" The pilot yelled back.

Nathan could hear the fear in their voices, he needed to keep moral up. "Well they're damn wrong! They'll need all the firepower they can get if they wanna take out the Athena! Oorah!" he yelled and received a half hearted reply.

Another Marauder craft flew by, shooting at Nathan's ship, but an escort Tornado shot a wing off, and an EVA unit punched the cockpit in, before jetting back into formation.

They still had a long way to go, Nathan had to keep the moral up if they were gonna survive this.

 

Too much assault. Too many things forward and not enough defense. And now I’m paying for it.

When things turn completely for the worse in the matter of seconds, right after the tension had already broken for the battle; you know that you are already doomed for a tough situation. Trin wanted to scream. Bad luck seemed to have been the case for all of it.

It must have been a recon patrol that picked us up on our way. They were waiting for us. Oh god, they were waiting for us.

“Bravo’s transport seems to have plugged the whole, but they lost half the crew. Said the pilot did some crazy sh…”

They’re going to die and it’s my fault. It’s all my fault. I thought I knew what I was doing. Her face was frozen, not in a state of panic or fear, but in a lifeless state. She didn’t look too well, and the crew began to notice.

“They’ve got a god damn platform gun firing at us! What the hell are we supposed to do?”

She tried to pull herself together while she clenched the railing where she stood, bending one side with her stronger false arm. She was failing at it. God damn it why? A beam from the platform cannon brushed passed the ship and made a horrendous noise as it scraped along some plates.

“Those weren’t large ships on the radar, it was cluster **** of small ships that are armed!”

I need to do something, anything. I need to pull this together, myself together. What the hell is wrong with… At that exact moment before she finished her thought, a hand slapped her extremely hard across the face, stinging and burning as she turned to see who it was.

The hard looking officer was staring her in the face. “Wake up and do your job.” That was all she needed to hear.

“Weapons, target that platform cannon with both cannons. Target the cannon only and not the platform, the generators will be too heavily armored for us to take it out quickly and move on. Also, scramble warheads towards those clusters of small marauder vessels. Hopefully we can take out a couple each barrage. We want as few as possible in there to fire on us when we make out pass.” She spoke sternly, and with a clear head. The officer who helped stood and listened momentarily, pleased with his work, and then moved to the navigation officer to coordinate a strategy for passing this fleet.
Trin looked up at another officer on the bridge. “Comms, patch me in to Bravo’s transport.”

“Yes ma’am. There online now.”

“Bravo, are you still able to make it to the flagship and back?”

There was a moment of pause, then a gasp of air. “That’s a negative Athena, we vented most of our air and half of the squad. It’s a one-way trip for this brick unless we’re picked up.”

“That’s a negative Bravo, we’re swinging by too fast for pick-up. You’re going to have to land and go in with the squad. You have permission to abandon the transport.” I would love to hear the story of what happened on there later. None of these men should be alive right now.

“Yes, ma’am.” There was a bit of interference and then another slight gasp over the radio. “Jergins out.”

Another missile barrage could be heard leaving the ship, alongside the constant point defense laser fire. She heard missiles exploding all around the ship, and just waited for the time when one would hit.

 

Captain Demsky, skipper of the Cygnan flagship, the Spartacus, watched on as the Marauders took the bait.

"Oh, those poor bastards. We're gonna haul your asses in like a trout this time. You're all gonna hang, heads will roll---standby all missile batteries, charge Debbies*. Do we we have fighters and shuttles ready?"

"Fueled and armed sir, waiting for the green light."

"Alright, that's good. We'll let our Terran buddies here make the first move, seeing as how---"

The Athena began to fire on a Marauder ship.

"Hot damn, look at those explosisons! Those Python missiles sure do make some big holes. Alright, looks like we're in it now men. All hands---battle stations, I repeat, battle staaa-shuns!!! This is not a drill. Tactical---tora tora tora. Shoot, launch all fighters and shuttles. Provide a screen for the Athena and the fleet. Fire on the Marauder ships, concentrate fire on engines and weapons platforms. By Thor men, let's give them what for."

***

The Admonisher and Ravisher both took heavy hits from the ambushing Earth and Cygnan vessels. Subutai cursed and then reached for his tactical officer just as a blast knocked him about in his chair.

"You have failed me---your death by my hands is assured. If you give me victory I may spare your life, fight well today, die well, this I command. Communications?"

"Yes sir?"

"Give me a comm channel with the Widowmaker."

"As you command."

The Widowmaker's raspy, wheezing voice was heard on a secure channel.

"It appears that our enemy have prepared a new strategum commander." The commander of the rogue Nephilim aerospace fighter squadron commented.

"This is not amusing, this should never have happened."

"In battle, one must learn to expect what is not to be expected. According to Sun Tzu all warfare is based on deception."

"Spare me that ancient earth tripe. I'll double the pay, no triple---whatever you earn per raid. Defend this ship and give me their flagship."

"No small task, this fleet is well prepared."

"Give me victory, or die!"

"Come now, no need for threats, I accept your offer, triple the bounty. Widowmaker out."



*Directed energy beam weapon, i.e. lasers and proton cannons

 

Suddenly, the closest ships firing platform blew up in a light show of orange and red.

Nathan eyed the bomb that sat patiently by the door to the cockpit. It was just waiting to go off.

The ships were near the Resistante now. "Echo EVA units, get to that ship. I see infantry units waiting at the bay, they're ready to take us down!" Nathan yelled.

A squad of the massive units glided forward, landing in the ship. The Marauders, shocked that these giants were in their ship, began firing. One EVA unit fell back after they concentrated their fire on him, but the others merely squished the infantry.

Alpha's transport landed in the now cleared bay. The remains of Bravo close behind.
Nathan was about to lead the squad out, when he noticed the slight flashing lights around the bay.

"Jesus Christ, they've rigged the bay to blow! Pilot, get us out of here, Echo get out, now!" He screamed, jumping back into the transport.

The EVA units began running to jump out of the ship, to float through space, the pilot started the engine.

"Bravo, turn back, lead the other squads away! This thing's gonna-"

The bay blew up into a merciless fire.


Nathan felt himself thrown against the wall of the transport. He managed to get a brief glimpse through the window of the ship and realised, to his horror, the transport pilot was not flying OUT of the Resistante, but further into the bay.

There was a crunch, as the cockpit burst into flames, and everything went excruciatingly loud.

Nathan raised his head, to see the transport was on a 70 degree angle, the cockpit at the top.

Nathan was at the bottom... He rolled out of the way as the bomb slid down the transport, slamming centimeters away from him.

He picked himself up and found the cockpit crushed, bravo fire team (who had been closest to it), were also now a mix of mangled bodies and metal. Alfa were cut and beaten, but alive.

"Alfa, report." he wheezed.

The team reported in, ready for combat.

"Echo EVA, report. Echo EVA? Sh**, we've lost them." Nathan stated. "Bravo, report!"

"Nathan, this Jergins, we got your warning right on time. We're all circling the Resistante. We've had some tornado casualties, only two remain. The EVA units, other than Echo, are still with us. We ca-" Jergins cut out with a beam of static.

"Jergins?" They had lost connection. He tried all other comm channels, no luck. Nathan looked to his squad. "Let's get moving..."

He kicked the door open, and noticed the Marauders had planned for a boarding. They had set up another bay door, splitting the bay in half. That way, when the bay blew up, the ship was still active. That would explain why the pilot flew forward... He knew going back would be impossible, so he crashed them into the second half of the bay.

Nathan heard footsteps running in, and motioned for the fire-team to stay in the ship.

He pulled out his Stilleto, and eyed the Marauders sent to investigate.

The squad of Marauders moved closer to the ship. He held up three fingers to his squad.

Three.

Two.

One.

Nathan jumped out and fired three silent shots, each hitting a target in the head. The two remaining soldiers fired in panic at the ship. Turner jumped in front of Nathan, firing at the two soldiers, killing them both.

"Let's move Alfa! We've got a job to do!"

 

Carter smiled as he heard the low Whoomp of plasma fire in the cockpit of his tornado. The battle had started. He and his men were flying in a V formation towards the Marauder fleet. Growing specks in the black distance foreshadowed the skirmish that was to come.

I turned on my communicator, fairly sure that Trin was on the bridge "Agent Carter to Athena. We are about to engage enemy fighters. I'm gunna try and take down that WidowMaker, then move on to the Despoiler. Carter out."

I switched to my squads personal channel, "Alright guys, my trophy cabinets lookin a little dusty, and what better excuse for a clean out then some shiny shiny medals eh? Stick together, watch each others backs, and lets get these ten bastards coming up on our front."

"Ten? They outnumber us," one of my men complained.

"Yeah I know, now its a fair fight see? Christ don't make me say things like that. Just hold your finger on the trigger till everything in front of you is nothin but shredded metal."

The enemy squadron closed in.

"Lets see if we can lure this WidowMaker out eh?"

The first fighters swooped low, and three of my men gave chase. I released a missile at the rugged vehicle in front of me. The Marauders bloodlust must have been too great for he did not even bother to try and swerve away, he simply blossomed into a searing cloud of energy and metal. I looked for another target and found another fighter right behind. He charged right at me loosing a volley of plasma bolts. I did a barrel roll, vertigo rocking the small cabin. The attack flew harmlessly passed. When I came to bear the fighter had shot away. I was close on his tail. I grinned anticipating the kill, squeezed the trigger on my pannel and sent him to oblivion.

"I got one on my tail!"

"Roger, I'm on him... He's toast."

"Thanks."

"HAHA Nailed the ****er!"

"Keep it steady, keep it steady."

My squads banter maintained the smile on my lips. We were winning. Suddenly the cockpit heated up as a shot of plasma burned past.

"Agent Carter, you got one on your tail!"

I swore, and pulled back on the throttle. My craft swerved up to a dizzying angle before flipping around facing the Marauder's vicious vessel. He was a pilot of some skill and managed to meet me as I bore him down. Neither of us broke our course.

"Now this is what I call chicken," I mumured to myself, heart racing.

At the last second the other pilot peeled away, by some ludicrous chance crashing into the other last Marauder ship. I was stunned.

"... Intended boys," I quipped to my squad.

Someone laughed.

"What now sir?"

I keyed my Comms unit, "Agent Carter to Athena. Enemy squadron destroyed. No casualties. Moving on to Despoiler."

Space was ablaze with plasma, missiles, lasers, explosions and ships. Dozens of craft engages in dogfights across a thousand kilometres of the abyss. Quite a fireworks show for the planet below I figured. In that battle, awash with death and seared carcasses of dead vessels floated the bloated Despoiler. A ship so bristling with modified armaments, bays and sections that it took on an jagged oval shape. It was an eyesore, but by God did it look deadly.

"Thats our fish fellas. Huah."

"HUAH!"

Like vultures we swooped in from above, it's monstrous size only now becoming apparent.

"Go for the engines! Knock it out!"

I fired on the nearest protruding tower, and it collapsed on the rest of the ship in a flaming mess. The damage was minor but it meant I was getting drunk tonight.

"Carter to Athena, shots fired on Despoiler. Buy from the top shelf will ya?"

Despite the chaos reigning around, I still managed to find the time to send Trin a short message on a private channel, "Feel like getting smashed tonight?"

 

A flurry of missiles, warheads, and lasers flew around the Athena in an awe-inspiring barrage. Aside from the large number of ships the Athena had already disabled or disarmed, the cloud of death that punched into the fleet was a site to see. Trin observed the marauders signatures on her display drop by a quarter after its impact.

The Athena sped on at full speed though, with lessing amounts of firepower pounding at her hull, trying to break through. Laser turrets began to warp sections that they were drilling, causing slight weapons malfunction, and for the hull to be much more brittle then it ever was before.

Trin noticed most of the marauder fleet moving toward her position on the display. If we can swoop behind them, we can bring to a surrender quick. We just need to survive the pass.

“Ma’am, fighter squadrons report that all enemy fighters have been eliminated, and that the Despoiler’s engines are offline.”

That’s perfect, absolutely perfect. We may have half a chance now. “Set a course below the fleet. Let’s let our boys have a clear line of fire, and we’ll move right behind them. We can hit the bottoms of their ships hard too with point fire.” They’ll never stand a chance,and we’ll make it back to celebrate too. Damn good day. But it was always a good time for Trin when she got to watch marauders burn.

The Athena shifted at a hard fifty degrees downward, and pulled itself under the fleet before the next barrage flew right into the marauders. Even more markers dissappeared from her display. It’s a damn good day.

 

Pappy donned a smirk as the assault shuttle neared one of the Marauder ships. It was a killers' smirk, he had seen the look before, on a hundred other troopers. The look of the deadly jester, a psycho smile. Who knew why troopers did it, nerves maybe, a tick, a facade. All Pappy knew was that he was not laughing inside.

One of the troopers squirmed.

"You know Master Chief, it took me about fifteen mikes to get all dressed up in this battle gear, and now I have a terrible itch, right in the middle of my back."

"Quit yer bitchin', you wanna back scratch? Get this damn mission over with quick and then get back on the Athena. Get some Sirian beauty to scratch your ass while you're on leave."

He had dealt with Marauders and their ilk before. Goddamned savages, space barbarians. No place in any system, no use for them. Pappy had fought them all before, seperatist colonists, Consortium commandos, Mercurian mercenaries. Pappy remembered the first time he killed someone, an irregular partisan squatting in the bushes in some dumb hole off of Epsilon Indi. Pappy was just a boot then, doing some police action, furthest thing from his mind was killking somebody, but his hand was forced. The damn rebel was probably all hyped up on separatist propaganda and opened fire on his squad with a second rate gauss rifle. Pappy didn't even blink. Two in the chest. One in the head. Search and assess. Eyes, muzzle, target, safe. Kill 'em all.

"We're close Master Chief, we'll be making contact in one mike." The pilot yelled. Resistance was light with Carter screening them and Trin blasting their asses into oblivion. Good work misfits.

"Platton commander, get your men in chalks."

"Aye aye Master Chief. First Squad, port side tactical column. Second squad, starboard side---Master Chief, would you mind looking after third and fourth squads in the reserves?"

"With all due respect sir, kiss my ass. I didn't get all dressed up to stay in the rear. Get behind me kid and let uncle Pappy drive this bus to hades."

"We're latching to the hull now!" The pilot yelled as the crew chief and his crew began to drill into the enemy hull.

"Mount bayonets. Get your stun grenades ready, and remember to look away when they blow for Buddha's sake."

The hull fell in, the squads took cover as the stun grenades were tossed in. They made a defiant bang inside, the clamor echoing in the long corridors of the Marauder vessel.

"Remember to watch for civilians, keep casaulties to a minimum, if you can. If you can't, well, don't lose sleep over a Marauder."

Pappy leapt through the hole.

"Prepare to rush. Rush!!!" He screamed and charged at a detached group of disoriented Marauders, half dressed in war gear. He butt stroked one in the chin and hit another with a back fist.

"Get down on the deck you piece of filth." Pappy said, and stomped on his head just to make sure he would stay down.

"What the hell is the matter with you damn amateurs? Why can't you just leave all the real soldiering to the pros? Do us all a favor and throw yourself into deep space you ape!"

 

They launched, travelling out several meters from the ships before the plasma jets kicked in, sending each of the EVA’s back towards the ship. Richards simply relaxed against the gs as the suite followed it’s plotted coarse, he nestled near cargo bay Bravo, the souls of his suit magnetising to the ships surface. There where blue plumes of energy as others where getting in position.
He waited, going through a ready list of all of the units, all showed green leds, everyone in position.
The ship continued picking up speed as it exited it’s slingshot orbit. It began to fire, plumes of exhaust marking nothingness. Richard stood there, watching as transports left the main ship, missiles streaked past the Athena. They closed on the transports, he enhanced his vision on his visor, small ships began to leave the small fleet of ships, boarding craft, perfect.
“First group targeted, give them hell!”
A flurry of rockets and high calibre rounds rapidly approached the ships, the leads instantly fell to the first barrage, the ones following colliding with flaming hulks.
Someone called in. “Second group sighted!”
A NAV arrow appeared on his HUD. A second group of craft where coming at them from below. He didn’t have a line of sight, but he saw the explosions as the transports where engulthed in flames.
Something streaked past him, he’d lost his focus. There was an explosion 40 meters behind him, he felt the ship turning. He noticed something ‘above’ them, gray, moving against the darkness.
“That’s not one of ours… Captain… Captain, you there?”
Only static answer back, had the radar been hit? Or was it simply interference?
“Scatter! There’s a ship above us!”
It was to late, there was a sudden barrage of missiles impacting the surface of Athena. Signals to units began to disappear, 2, 7, 15, 29 flat lines.
The ship continued heading straight towards the Athena, it was coming down on top of him.
“Everyone off the upper plates!”
He saw the exhaust as units began to move, he did as well, but he couldn’t move fast enough, the ship collided with the Athena, the jolt from the collision sent Richards spiralling from the surface into nothing, he tried his thrusters, nothing.
“****, thrusters, status”
A computer voice came back. “Thruster repairs in progress”
He tumbled into nothing… tracers past him, he saw a ship, one of the marauders, then he saw more, to many, he’d been catapulted into the heart of the fleet.
“Thruster repairs complete”
He energized them immediately, he saw tracers streaking past where he’d been moments before. He glided to the nearest ship, landing in it’s docking area, several people in EVA units gawked at him for a moment, then his pulled the trigger on his Viper.

 

"Alright lads, lets nail this sonovabitch, aim for the engine," I barked into my headset

"Sir, they'll have dozens of point laser defenses covering their ass, we'd be blown outta the sky in a second flat."

"Well then get back to babysitting our transports boot, leave the heros work to us! Huah?"

A desultry 'huah' crackled through the communicator.

"Lads, we just blew the **** outta an entire Marauder squadron bigger than us, we didn't lose anyone. We are ****in aces, we are the reason the UEAF is a ****in super power, hell, we're GODS"

What I said was bull**** but I needed my men pumped, they seemed to buy it and the next huah was much more invigorated. They were right, we probably wouldn't get through this next encounter unscathed, but hell, in war there were always risks. Risks won battles. I lead my squad in a steep dive past the Despoilers engines. The gaping burning holes were exposed, but as we shot past already lasers were lashing at our ships.

"Damn! Alright lads, nothing fancy here, loose V formation, charge the engines, fire your rockets, dodge the lasers, simple stupid."

I pulled up on the throttle, swung the ship around and blasted towards the engines. The heat made me sweat in my seat, but I endured instead focussing on dodging and weaving through the network of lasers that was reigning all around. Some of my squad was not so lucky.

"Ahhh! I'm hit!"

I heard the explosion behind me and winced. Damn. But I pressed onwards, now only a few hundred metres from the engines. I thumbed my pannel, and launched the missiles, a trail of exhaust tracing their way across space. I then peeled off, the cockpit quickly cooling as I faced away from the engines.

"Everyone else alright?"

"We lost Mike," Someone said.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. But he did good, he didn't run."

"I'm sure that means a lot to him sir," the voice bitterly replied.

I looked at my data screen, new feeds were streaming in, "Maybe not, but the fact that the Despoiler is disabled might."

I changed the channel, "Athena, Agent Carter here, Depsoiler has been disabled, shes dead in the water."

"Alright lads, maybe that Widowmaker might take a shot at us now."

 

"Nielson, move ahead and hack the electricity. I want every light in this hangar gone. Turner, go with him." Nathan ordered, pulling the bomb down from the ship.

The bomb was moved onto a small wheeled platform, which Daniels pushed. Nathan took the front of the bomb, while Williams covered the back.

About five minutes after Turner and Nielson had left, the lights went out. Nathan whispered. "Alpha, you're clear to use your flashlights, keep 'em dim."

"What about Nielson and Turner?" Daniels asked.
"What about 'em?"
"Shouldn't we have heard from them?"
"Radios are cut. The only talking we'll be doing, is the good ol' fashion natural talking."

The only light in the hangar was the torches from the three members of Alpha, and the red glow emitting from a screen on the bomb.

Within moments, the floor tilted, and the three soldiers watched in horror as the roof came closer. The hangar was falling apart.
"Alpha, stay as high up as you c-" Nathan slipped, grabbing for anything. He reached a small handle sticking out on a wall, and once he had his grip, he checked below him.

The hangar of the Resistante was built above a large hollow area which extended for god knew how many metres. This was to ensure that if any damage was done to the inside of the hangar, the air wouldn't suddenly rush out into space.
What Nathan was looking at, was a gaping whole, more damage than ever should have been. The floor had tilted up, and Nathan's legs were dangling over the edge. He looked up, but found the floor had bent in, meaning he couldn't see anything above him.
About 20 centimeters up from him, another handle hung there, and another, continuing into the darkness.

"NATHAN!" He heard a scream from Daniels. Sir, it's another trap, they're pouring in through the roof!"

"Daniels, forget the bomb, we'll get to it later, just take cover!"

"There's bloody hundreds of 'em!" He cried.

"Sir, I'm on my way to you, hold on!" Williams yelled, her footsteps echoing through the hangar. Within instants, Nathan saw the sea of light come down from the roof, each flashlight belonging to an enemy, to someone who wanted nothing more than to see Nathan and his team dead.

The gunfire began moments later, and Nathan heard Daniels scream in agony. Williams reached over the edge of the tilted floor, her hand dangling in front of Nathan.
"Sir, grab my hand!" She cried. Nathan hesitated.
"Daniels, new orders, do what you can to push the bomb down the floor until it has enough momentum to continue on its own, don't let go."
"Sir?" Daniels and Williams were both confused at this strange order.
"Do it!"

Nathan heard the screech of the bomb being pushed down on its platform, toward he and Williams.

"Sir! Grab my hand, I'll pull you up!" She yelled again. Nathan reached for her hand, and said a prayer. He then grabber her hand, and pulled.

Williams was pulled over the edge, now dangling with Nathan.

"We're stuck here now! Sir, are you crazy?" She screamed, her eyes searching for some way to get back up.

"Only slightly." Nathan answered as the screech of the bomb grew closer.

"I'm about to go over the edge, I need to let go of the bomb!" Daniels cried.

"Daniels, if you let go, you wont make it off this ship alive, I can promise you that." Nathan ordered him to hold on.

And then, the moment that would decide it all. The bomb flew off the edge of the titled floor, heading for the deep drop below, Daniels screaming, but holding on. Nathan reached out, grabbing Daniel's foot, pulling him from the bomb, and watching it, before he heard the loud smack as the bomb finally hit the bottom. Now, the three of them were hanging below the floor, the Marauders above them.

"Now, Alpha team, we survive. You can thank me later." Nathan reached for the next handle, and began swinging himself under the floor, gesturing for the team to follow. Finally, they reached the other side of the Hangar, and put a small explosive under it. They quickly swung away and shielded themselves from it. The explosive put a small blast in the ship's floor, and the team climbed up through it quietly, making sure their flashlights were off. In front of them, the hundreds of flashlights were peering over the edge of the floor, assuming the team had fallen.
Well, they 'were'. The explosive drew their attention.

"Alpha, move!" Nathan screamed. They rushed for the nearest door, gunfire following them, but finally, they were out of the hangar, but in an equally dark room.

"Nathan?" a voice echoed through the darkness. It was Nielson.

"Nielson, I need you to lock the hangar doors. Make sure nobody can get in or out!"

"On it."

Moments later, the doors shut, sealing the Marauders in.

"Nathan, I need help..." Nielson cried, I-I have some bed news..."

 

The Widowmaker squinted at the squadron of Tornados flying in formation. Damn UEAF, so cocky, they thought they just because they had the latest and greatest that they were beyond reproach or even the possibility of defeat. He had had showed them otherwise.

Before he arrived with his renegade squadron, Subutai’s band of rougnecking barbarians had their thumbs up their collective asses trying to figure out how to feed their crews. They were harassing gypsies and caravans when they came, small fish. Only his vision showed them that it would be possible to take on a class of enemy they could only dream of. He was the one who showed them fleet tactics and weaknesses.

“Did you know that barbarians stormed the gates of Rome?” The Widowmaker asked his wingman.

“Say again?” A voice called over the ether.

“Nevermind, get in attack formation. Save the leader for me though, and I want first blood.”

Widowmaker saw as a bright flash marked a large explosion on the Despoiler, she was swarming with assault craft and fighters; it seemed that the fleet had gotten over their fear of close combat, maybe it wouldn’t have been a bad idea to throw in the towel?

There was a much greater risk of not getting a reward from Subutai if he failed in destroying the UEAF and Cygnan alliance. The Widowmaker was not immune from punishment, and they were cannibals. Death by consumption was their favorite form of torture.

The Widowmaker thought hard, either he could face death or defeat, or flee and fight another day...

 

Richards thrusters kicked at 100% thrust away from the bay as he fired all of the explosive rounds into the suites and transports, then disposed the empty Viper, letting it float away.
The thrusters began to sputter, there was a loud clang, a hiss.
“****, Status!”
“Suit breached, thrusters damaged, loosing suites power, 3 minuets 37 seconds till power failure”
Small timer appeared in his HuD.
He kept firing his thrusters in bursts, aiming towards another ship, the one he’d left began launching smaller ships, some began to come after him.
A large ship loomed in front of him, bays stretched out along it length, a carrier, not ideal, but he needed to get out of the suit before it lost power.
He began to evade as chain guns on the ships behind him opened fire. He felt several rounds hit, but none made it through the armour, the timer counted down… 2 minuets… 1 minuets… then he was in, he skirted across the bay, grinding to a halt before he hit the wall.
Several units stared, one began to shout something.
He got to his feet as fast as he could, running for the nearest door. It opened automatically. 38 seconds.
“Suit, disengage!”
The armoured layers pealed away, he stood out from the suit.
“Remove locks on Rifle”
There was a click, then the rifle fell from it’s mounting area on it’s back. Richard picked it up, hefting it’s weight.
Someone charged down the corridor ahead of his, a quick burst blew apart his upper body. The high calibre slugs making nothing of his jump suit. He heard the heavy foot falls in the hanger, then began to run further into the ship.
He prayed that this ship wasn’t fired on whiles he was here.