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In the far distance, in reality millions of kilometers away, a comet continues its long journey, its tail long and white fading out to a light mist behind it. Made of ice and rock the comet is oblivious to its surroundings, timeless and ancient against the short fires of lives that humans live.
"What are you thinking?" A womans voice.
Chelsea Stamford, brilliant starship engineer, daughter of Harris Stamord the owner of Stamford Industries, the largest ship producing corporation in the entire Prime Galaxy, turns around away from the comet and smiles when she sees her sister, Maya, standing with arms folded and staring at her behind her round glasses.
"I still don't know why you wear those sister. Your eye sight is perfect, and even if it wasn't you could just have them replaced."
Maya shrugs away her sisters humour, "It's all in the appearence. You still haven't told me what you were thinking?"
"Do I have to tell you everything? Chelsea walks beside her sister, looking at her from the corner of her eye.
"Dont't try to make my anymore nervous than I am. Tommorow this place will be crawling with the media and government officials, and even less savoury characters all trying to get the first peak at your ship."
Chelsea's heart warms at any mention of her ship, the Star Chaser, a majestic starship the galaxy has ever yet to see. "Nothing will go wrong, the Star Chaser is perfect and Hakka has seen to security himself. You don't have to be nervous, because you wont have to do anything tommorow except maybe make a speech, but I know how much you like to do that 'going beyond the borders of the Union to find new worlds and ancient civilisations'. Such the explorer and adventurer you are."
Maya frowns. Her sister always wore the air of the superior. To most that was true. She was brilliant and had the best in the Union working for her because of that reason. Just like she had the best in her fields in her own team of archeologists, biologists and specialties. But she didn't have to act that way with her, her own sister. She would only behave differently with Dad. But truthfully, even she is better than him.
Maya reached out and put her hand on Chelsea's bare forarm. The climate inside the shipyard factilities was tightly controlled and mild enough for the many races which worked there. "It's going to be fun." she says. Chelsea takes Maya's hand in her own and looks at her, her bright eyes gleaming like her golden dress and hair, "Yes it will be. A journey beyond imagining."
Maya was right when she said the shipyard would be flooded with media, governement, and other peoples all coming to see the Star Chaser begin its journey into the unknown as part of the Prime Union Council's Exploration Policy. After fifty years of rebuilding the destrcution caused by the Servile Rebellion and Clone War where all engergies have been turned inwards, the Council had decided it was time to focus on expansion, finding new worlds that could provide resources or land for colonies. Maya had learned of the change in policy well before it was announced, from an agent she had inside the Council, and had approached her sister. Chelsea had taken to the idea, it would be the perfect opportunity for her ship to show everyone what it could do, and just how superior she was. And so, when the Council made its announcement and asked for tenders, Maya and Chelsea were the first to respond. But they were not the first to leave. It was not because they didn't have time to prepare, they had more time than anyone else. It was because they wanted to steal the spotlight. And so while government and corporate sponsored exploration teams jumped their ships beyond the Union, Chelsea and Maya waited and made sure there was much activity at the shipyard until the onlookers could stand it no more and inquired as to when they would be leaving.
In a week came the official reply from the Public Relations Head of Stamford Industries. The announcement sent shockwaves through the Union. With Stamford Industries backing, the sisters would have the best of everything. And they did.
So now, a week later, the shipyard, located in an empty system except for a large gas giant and astroid belt, was host to a vast horde of onlookers. The normally empty space was filled with ships of all sizes, from media owned vessels, shuttles, to the militaries new pocket battleship, the PUNV Creos. The pocket battleship was by far the largest vessel, its dull dark grey hull illuminated by its hazard lights to stop smaller craft from crashing into it. A flight of Ramora X's hung around its cigar shaped body.
This time it was Maya who was looking out into space, at the spectacle. It was Chelsea who came up behind her and spoke first. "What are you thinking?" she echoed.
"That the Creos," she pointed " is one exceptionally mean looking ship."
Chelsea laughed lightly at that, "It is larger than my Star Chaser, and has more weapons, but it would be an impossibility for the Creos to even touch it. Not that I have any mind to waste the Star Chaser on fighting."
"It is a beautiful ship."
"Yes. It will blow their minds away when they see it. Anyway, Father sent me to get you, the ceremony will begin shortly and I want to be away on time."
The secondary dry dock had been turned into the ceremony room, and it was still too small for the thousands that filled it. The main dry dock housed the yet unseen Star Chaser. Equipment and marchinery had been packed down one end of the dock and special shielding put in place so no accident would wipe out the heart of the Union in a few seconds. A projector painted a vast picture of the ships outside against the wall where a podium was erected. Communications technicians scurried about, making sound checks for the umpteenth time. The crowd murmered like a swarm of bees, but fell silent as the procession of Stamford Industries management made their way onto the podium lead by Harris Stamford.
Mr Stamford placed his hands round the edges of the podium and reading from the scrolling monitor built into it, welcomed all the guests, singling out the Council Members, top military brass (saying how nice the Creos looked) and other important figures and customers. He said how proud he was to sponsor his daughters in their expidition and provide the materials and facilities to build his daughter Chelsea's star ship, a revolutionary model that will change the face of intersteller navigation and time of travel. There was a buzz in the crowd at these grandoise statements. He finished by turning the podium over to his youngest daughter, Maya.
As Chelsea had predicted Maya spoke about the amazing discoveries and new worlds they would find, as much as any other exploration team had done so. The crowd had heard it all scores of times before and clapped appreciatively when she had finished and the person whom they had all been waiting for took the podium.
Cheslea looked out along the crowd, quiet, waiting for the words to come from her mouth, eagerly waiting for her to announce her ship and show it to them hidden behind shielded walls in the primary dock. She put her hands, folded together over the screen on the podium, her words memorised and seared into her brain weeks ago.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Councilmen, Officials, Officers, Leaders and Personalities," she began, "you are soon about to witness the public inveiling of a revolutionary starship design, that myself and the best aerospace engineers in the Union laboured to produce." her hands left their resting place, her body animated with the excitment of introducing her ship to the thousands below, and millions watching the media feeds.
"A starship that has already changed the face in interstellar travel. A starship that has already halved the time to travel from one end of the Union to the other - and be delayed along the way."
Murmers swept the crowd. Half the time!? Commerce, defense, travel all halfed. It would dramatically shift the growth and interculture of the Union.
Why then, someone thought, with the technology was it being used just for the expidition and not markted? Once proved, everyone would be clammering for Harris Industries ships and the other yards would be fighting to catch up.
"A starship that does not have to plot its course and make a hyperspatial jump to its destination, but can navigate as if in real space while traveling at Faster-Than-Light speeds. With no added risk, the sensors and standard astronautic maps ensure as safe as any jump, but I'm sure much more safer which will be proved when we return from this expidition having travelled to the Other Side Of The Galaxy!"
The crowd gasp.
So did Maya and her father, and Maya's team and the Harris Industries Management.
To the other side of the Galaxy and back, all in, one year? That was Chelsea's secret goal and why she accepted her sisters proposal. The Star Chaser was the most advanced ship in existance, years ahead of anything else, and its special drive decades ahead. To travel to the other side of the Galaxy had been Chelsea's goal long before she had even drawn the first schematics for the Star Chaser, and the sole reason for its construction.
The Media feed zoomed in, beaming out to scores of planets Chelsea's triumphant face, a smile that fully reflected her superiority to everything else.
"And now," before the crowd had time to recover from the shock, "I give you the Star Chaser!" and she pressed a button on the podium and the holographic projected flipped away from the ships outside to inside the primary dock and rendered a half size side view of Chelsea's construction.
If the sound of jaws falling made a noise, there would have been a tremendous clatter. Instead there was a sharp intake of breath and the docks fans surged to fill the void with recycled air.
On the holographic projector, rendered in one billion colours and shades, a million polygons per square centimeter, was a gleaming silver smooth curved streamlined bodied starship.
The Star Chaser had the shape of a shooting star and its tail. The front was thin and tapered and as it stretched back the tail of the star grew down in an arc until most of the way back at 450 angle it stopped. There was also a ridge on the top, identified as the bridge with a band of long portals. Its engines took up half the height of the rear of the ship, as Chelsea spoke, the sections were hightlighted and a scrolling info-dump further explained.
The engines were modified to cope with the responsiveness needed by the Navigation computer, itself housed in a vast portion of the ship, and directional thrusters were located at all areas of the hull to make small directional changes. The area below the engine was filled with one of the two Sensor Suites the Star Chaser housed - the other at the bow - another depature from doctrine. Chelsea explained that current ship designs could not scan to their rear very will with forward or middle mounted sensors and the interference caused by the ships engines. This new mounting would allow a single ship to scan a complete bubble around it without the need for a sensor feed for a nearby ship to complete its sweep. There were two shuttle bays, a smaller one at the back of the top ridge that could handle shuttles only, and the main bay which took up the rest of the below arc area and housed a mix of shuttle types and the flight of fighters that the military would provide - all expiditions were to be accompanied by a military presence -. Medical and scienfific laboratories were located to the fore away from the engines and navigation computer to reduce interference, crew quarters and recreation rooms at the other end. The Star Chaser had full artificial gravity. As an aside, the next improvement on her model would be a complete gravimetic drive. To this Maya looked upwards already tiring of her sisters exposition.
"Soon, you will see the Star Chasers leave the shipyard and have a much better view."
She stepped down from the podium and joined her sister, her smile of triumph as strong as when she started.
Their father returned to the podium and made the closing comments and that in one hour the Star Chaser would leave its berth. Those special invided guests were to follow the uniformed Hosts to the gallery and everyone else had better hurry back to their ships to see the Star Chaser as she came out.
"That went very well." Chelsea said to nobody in particular.
"I hope I've got everything packed," replied her sister in the same manner.
For a ship that had been ready for over a week there was a lot of activity inside it as Technicians made final checks before disembarking, and crewmembers stowed away their gear and went to their posts. Maya was the last to enter, the airlock door sealing hermetically behind her and the umbilical gangway withdrawing back to the side of the dock. Inside the dock lights flashed casting hues over the body of the Star Chaser, a blinking rainbow. Over the PA system a disembodied voice echoed "T minus twenty minutes to Outer Gates Opening".
Maya made her way to a lift, "Bridge", and with a little pressure she ascended. The doors opened and she stepped out into the InterShipStatus section where the health of the Star Chaser was monitored. She quickly, having been through the ship before, made her way to the bridge proper, past the Communications and Sensor sections until ending at Command.
Here Chelsea was already setting in the Con chair, beside her, in clay coloured robes and head dress was her stock O'ckchukan Security Officer Hakka. Hakka heard her approach and turned and made a small bow and welcomed her. Maya nodded her head back and as casually as she could say, "How are we going?". She knew she was a fifth wheel any where on the ship besides her outfillted science labs. She didn't know whether Hakka was smiling at her behind his cultural dress, amused at her attempts.
"Perfectly of course," answered her sister. She was intently checking some holographic Heads Up Displays that feeded in information from the other sections of the ship, allowing the Con to know what was going on anywhere at any time.
"I would be amazed otherwise." Maya just felt she had to have the last word, and to stamp out a position for herself. She may be a Stamford, and Chelsea's sister, but the crew was all picked by her sister and loyal to her first.
She stood by the Con, on the other side to Hakka, and gazed around the Command and to the blank dock doors that would soon open up and allow them to get under way. Her sister was obviously busy and she wondered what Hakka would be feeling. He too would be bored.
"No security glitches?" she asked.
"None. Not that there was any anticipated. Few knew about the facility long enough for then to plan any significant way of infiltrating and trying to sabotage. In any case, I am constantly in contact with all the security channels."
So he wasn't bored. He was listening to "All Clears." from a dozen different sources.
Relief came to Maya when the all clear was given and with a driving beep the dock doors slowly opened and the air was sucked out into vacuum.
"Forward one-eight" said the helm. The engines powered from idle and with short thrusts began to move the Star Chaser out of the dock.
The crowd of spectator ships and shuttles gathered round, surrounding the Star Chaser as it moved into freespace. Shuttles buzzed around like bees.
"Captian of the Creos is hailing us Ms Chelsea." announced a ComTech."
Cheslea nodded to put the communication through and a holograph of the Captain appeared in front of the Con.
"A most impressive ship your Star Chaser Ms Stamford. We are ready to transfer the your military complement aboard."
"As much as see them as unnecessary Captain you may begin. I'm sure they will be quite bored through out this expidition." she pressed a button on the arm of her chair that flood lite the main docking bay.
Out of the side of the Creos half a dozen aerospace fighters ejected from their hangers breezed over to the Star Chaser under mininal thrust, following them came two shuttles of personnel and equipment.
It took forty minutes to load the fighters and shuttles into the bay and their respective loading stations, the fighters set for a hot release but their crew and the others on the shuttle making their way to their quarters and storage locations.
"All aboard successfully, depature in twenty minutes and counting." announced Chelsea on the shipwide channel. The Navigation Officer repeated and broadcast it to the ships outside which moved away from the Star Chaser. The Creos lazily turned away, "Good luck Star Chaser, and bring my men back home safely in a year."
"Roger that Creos, all stations prepare for directional FTL drive in nineteen minutes."
The count continued down. Hakka removed himself to his post and Maya took a spare seat in the bridge. Chelsea was busying herself with the navigation controls.
For such a momentous event the time clocked down quickly for Maya.
"DFTLN in 5"
"4 , 3, 2, 1, GO"
The shipyard and all the ships vanished. Stars flew by like trees on the side of a road.
Chelsea stood up from the ConChair and turned to face her sister, "Under way and already ten light years from our start point." she said with a grin. "We will be at our first destination in sixteen hours. A trip that would take three days under conventional and safe hyperspatial jumping."
"Just as long as this travel is safe I have no concerns. I'm going to meet the new arrivals, care to join me?" Maya asked her sister.
"I suppose I must, at least to get it out of the way. I really don't see why they need to be here." Chelsea walked with her sister to the elevator.
The quarters assaigned to the military personnel were clustered together near the main flight bay, which was to say furthest away from Chelsea's own. It was a scene of ordered chaos as the two dozen officers and rankers stowed away their gear and famaliarised themselves with the ships utilities.
Neither Maya or Chelsea knew who would be in command of the force and arrived to see Hakka directing the soldiers with an officer next to him. Hakka turned at the arrival of the sisters and introduced the officer, "This is Lieutenant Jake Armstrong, his second is coordinating the putaway of their heavy equipment in the storage holds. Lieutentant Armstrong, this is Chelsea, and Maya Stamford, leaders of this expidition."
Lieutentant Armstrong shook both their hands, "A pleasure indeed ladies. I commend you on the Star Chaser Ms Chelsea, I'm sure my soldiers will be too comfortable here."
"Thank you, I wouldn't want the military inconvenienced in any way aboard my ship," started Chelsea. Maya butted in to stop her sister getting off on the wrong foot with the Lieutenant.
"Pilot?" she asked.
"Yes. Out of Tolongra." he answered.
"Lieutenant Armstrong has a good record. He was explaining before. His team consists of a flight of pilots and maintenance crew, and a squad of infantry. I am glad to say that all most all of the infantry are O'ckchukan." Hakka put in. Since the founding of the Prime Union, the O'ckchuka had provided the largest number of volunteers into the ground forces, continuing their legacy placed by those that fought along side the Humans in the Servile Rebellion. It was considered a disgracefull act not to do military service in their society. They had proved themselves many times over to be excellent soldiers, soundly loyal and many of their own in the higher ranks. They remembered with pride how they faithfully served the Messiah Keith Hansle and overthrew the Crok Empire.
"I am glad for you Hakka, I'm sure you would like to spend much time with your fellows."
Hakka bowed to Chelsea in pleasure, then to the others and left to continue his duties. Chelsea soon after excused herself and returned to the bridge leaving Maya and the Lieutentant to acquant themselves.
Chelsea was in the lift when an urgent message came through, "Ms Chelsea, we have picked up a distress signal two degrees to port, three parsecs away. Initial details make it out to be a civilian transport."
"I'm almost there, inform Hakka and the Officer downdeck and have them come to the bridge." the lift doors whisked open and Chelsea quickly strode into the main bridge, "Status?"
"The signal has stopped, but we have a location fix. We will be out of arc in two minutes." that meant after two minutes it would take a considerable amount of time to change direction and speed to reach the location of the distress call.
"Hakka did you get that?" she said onver the intraship channel.
"Yes. Sensors are telling me that we are the only ship in the area that can respond. Even if others were closer, we could still arrive before them if they had picked up the signal. Union Regulations stipulate our response in this matter in any case,"
"Thats right, all ships that are able to respond to a distress call must do so," Armstrong came over channel, he was in the lift and speaking into a receiver that Maya had shown to him.
"I know the Regulations Lieutentant. Navigation, bring us to the location of the distress call. Sensors, sweep that area completely. I want to know everything that's going on before we get there."
Maya and Armstrong came onto the Bridge. Chelsea turned to face the, her smile gone. "How long until we get there?" she asked Navigation.
"Five minutes."
"Stop us at four in and scan the area."
Hakka arrived and the four retired into a small Planning room near the bridge.
Armstrong began, "Why are we stopping a minute out of the distress call? That delay could be fatal. It's our Duty to answer the call as fast as possible."
"I am not rushing my ship into an unknown situation when it has the capability to scan the area from a distance as if we were already there. That way we can go in more prepared." Chelsea stood her ground against the officer. "And if something catastrophic has happend, then we won't be able to help no matter how fast the Star Chaser can travel."
There was tense silence. The Star Chaser was Chelsea's ship, her crew and her mission. She would not let her command and authority be taken away from her, not so suddenly if at all.
A report broke the silence. "Sensors have one medium sized craft at zero velocity. The distress signal has not been continued and there is no other communications traffic. Surrounding space is clear so far."
"What are the possible situations?" asked Maya.
Hakka replied, "Power loss, engine leak, decompression through an accident - clear space means that there would be no obstructions or asteriods that could have breached the hull, a miss jump or accident that occurred during a jump, sabotage although that seems unlikely, possibly a hostage situation - crazed gunman or similar."
"None of those sound too pretty."
"One minute out and holding." came the next report.
"Ms Chelsea, you know that we have to continue, right away." Armstrong began but Chelsea cut him off.
"I have no attention of breaching Union Regulations. The Star Chaser will be under full alert and I want your pilots in space as soon as we arrive."
Maya gave a mental sigh of relief.
"We have environmental suits aboard and a full medical lab, they will be ready on arrival. I suggest a shuttle also be readied with medical staff, some of my men and the infantry."
"There would be no need for your ship security personnel..."
"My personnel are more than security. We know how ships work and where the critical systems are. If there is damage that could spread we can shut it off. This kind of training is not provided to standard infantry." Hakka fought his own battle of authority against the Lieutenant successfully.
"I guess I'll stay here and watch" Maya tried to lighten the mood.
"Bring us in to the craft Navigation," Chelsea ordered and the Star Chaser fired its thrusters.
The last minute was at sub-light speed. Armstrong's men went to their posts, the soldiers in full hazard gear and the pilots to their fighters which launched out from the Star Chaser when the origin of the distress call was sighted. They streaked ahead of the Star Chaser like comets.
Chelsea stood by her chair too nervous to sit. "What do we have?" she asked.
"One B3E civilian liner - wait getting a transmission." the ComTech said excitedly.
"Do not approach any further, we have taken the ships passengers hostage and if you proceed we will start killing them!" a gruff voice growled.
"Kongsverrgragrin pirates," Hakka said through the ship channel. He was at the shuttle bay with his men.
"Hold the ship at this distance but move to get a better look at the liner, and call those pilots away." Chelsea crossed her arms in anger. Her mission was being spoilt by a hostage situation. This was not what she wanted.
"Looks like you've got some use for us after all" Armstrong said through his link to the Star Chaser, "I can see the pirate's ship locked to the other side of the liner. It isn't very big, maybe carry a dozen or so. Old model but it has jump capacity."
"I think we need a plan Chelsea. There could be hundreds of people on that liner." Maya warned.
The four of them, plus Armstrong's second in command, a Manoon Na called Nagyona, a Sargeant. Hakka stood his distance from the Manoon Na Maya noticed. She would have to ask why later.
"This is now a military matter boys and girls." stared Armstrong, "Not something any of us expected or wanted, but its real. The nearest Naval vessel is a couple of hours away and the Kongs will try to escape as soon as possible. With some hostages as well I bet."
"Let them go." Chelsea said. Armstrong turned to her in frustration, "We can follow them anywhere and they won't know it. The Star Chaser has done it before when some pirates tried to capture it during shakedown trials. She hid in a dust cloud until the pirates gave up and then followed them back to their base and gave the location to the Navy. We can do the same here."
"But there are hostages involved. Here they are contained. The liner is too slow to escape and it will take time for their own ship to be ready. My squad can get aboard and neutralise the pirates with a low casualties to the hostages." Nagyona put forth his comments on the situation.
"That's a text book response and wont work." Hakka attacked, "If freeing the hostages is our objective we have to get aboard the ship without them noticing and disable them."
"What Electronic Warfare capabilities does this ship have?" it was Anderson. "If we can disable their's and the liner's ship-functions and sensors we can get a shuttle to the hull without them knowing it."
Hakka: "The Star Chaser wasn't designed for military action but it can throw electronic interference. I have an idea that can give us time to get a shuttle closer: we open a communication, try to negotiate with the Kongs, and fire a correctly pitched frequency that will stun them, followed by an EMP burst to disable their sensors. We should have enough time to get aboard or latch onto the hull without being seen."
"Great plan, lets do it." said Maya hurridely.
Chelsea and Armstrong stood on the Bridge, occaisionaly looking at a projected count-down clock that ticked away the seconds, the seconds to the start of their plan. Aft, in the shuttle bay Hakka and some select men along with Sargeant Nagyona and his squad were waiting. Two fighters made laps around the liner at a distance.
The timer reached zero.
"Open a channel to the pirates."
There was a delay for about ten seconds when a haired gorilla like face of a Kongsvergragrin filled the holograph. It scowled at the two humans.
"This is Lieutentant Armstrong of the Prime Union Navy. On behalf of the Council I am asking for the release of all passengers and their liner,"
"There will be no negotiation!" the Kongs growled, "You will do as we say or hostages will die!"
"What are you demands?"
"That you turn your ship over to us and ..." it howled in pain, its large hands grabbing the side of its head. More howling could be heard in the background.
"Launch shuttle, continue this frequency for five seconds then fire the EMP ahead of the shuttle."
"Aye sir,"
The shuttle launched out of the bay at reached the nose of the Star Chaser at the five second mark. A Technician in the Sensors room pressed a button and a directed EMP wave arc'd towards the liner and pirate ship. The shuttle fired its engines to maximum burn and streaked after the escaping wave.
The Wave hit the liner and passed through, rendering electronic components useless, killing all the sensors and the life support system. It continued out the other side damaging some parts of the Kongs ship but its important components were shielded against such an attack.
It was a long thirty seconds, the time it took for the shuttle to reach the liner and hide itself, as much as a shuttle can, against the hull away from any viewports. An airlock opened and four suited figures drifted out holding equipment. They stopped at a airlock on the liner and two of the figures ignited their cutters, the other two holding the power cells and they cut a hole into the lock.
Hakk watched from inside the shuttle through the suits mini-cam feed. "It will be tricky if its only a two-stage airlock. We'll have to get through fast to limit the decompression damage."
"All men will be anchored. Those pirates wont know what hit them." announced Nagyona.
It took a minute to burn through the airlock. Word came back, a two-stage airlock. There was only one other door between space and the interior of the ship. The rest of the men crawled out of the shuttle and walked on the hull of the liner and into the airlock. They carried a powercell and bypass kit that would allow them to power the door and open it.
Chelsea watched this from a distance, "What will the pirates be doing? They must have recovered by now."
"They will be wondering why their systems are dead, and whether we have been affected as well. Two minutes to get the strike team aboard is all that is needed."
"What if they've already started killing hostages?" asked Maya.
"I doubt it. They wont do that unless they can show us, otherwise all they're doing is reducing their bargaining power."
They returned their attention to the liner, they could see no movement on the hull.
Nagyona stood next to the airlock door and counted down from five with his fingers, shaking his hand each time. A soldier holding the bypass watched him intently and when the closed fist came down he opened the door. Twelve men rushed in as fast as their anchored feet could carry them as the liners air and debris shot out into space through them. The door hissed shut as soon as the twelve were through.
"Anchors off, weapons ready but be carefull for civilians." Nagyona said. "Team A with me, B to the engine room". Hakka's men and himself were divided into two pairs and assigned to either one of the soldiers teams.
Crouched over, snub nosed submaching guns locked into their shoulders, the teams split up and headed off to their objectives.
Nagyona was in the lead of his team, the place were leaders were suppost to be. He glanced alternatively to his helmet projected HUD that showed a deck plan for a typical liner of this kind and any contacts his sensors could pick up; and ahead down the grey corridor. They passed by doors, checked to see if they were locked, opening them if they weren't.
"Sir, I'm not getting any noise from the air recylcing units. Could the EMP have knocked it out?" a soldier asked.
"Possibly. Then we must move quicker to secure the ship." replied the Manoon Na.
They stopped at a corner, two blips appeared on the HUD. Five meters away. Nagyona increased the sensitivity of his audio pickups. Kongs voices, low and gutteral came through.
Nagyona stepped around the corner and kneeled down. The two Kongs looked at him in surprise and then tried to reach for their holstered weapons. Two silenced bursts put them both down. On bent knees he scurried forward followed by his men.
A report came back to the Star Chaser, "Life support was disabled by the EMP. The Kongs sent a group to the engine room to see what was wrong and we attacked them by surprise. Fighting is still going on in the enine room and a power cell has been brought up to restart life support. Team A is about to encounter the Kongs holding the passengers."
A soldier pushed a thin wire camera around the corner returning a vision of the liner's meeting room full of passengers sitting on the ground in fear and being looked over by Kongs guards, some of whom were arguing.
"Time is short, fire the frequency."
A press of a button filled the Kongs ears with a painfull screetch. The six men charged inside and the passengers screamed and ducked. Short bursts downed half the Kongs before they could react.
"Put the weapons down!" screamed the soldiers. One large Kongs, most likely a leader reached for a grenade, he crashed back against a wall with his head missing.
"Area secure. Bind them, then bridge."
Hakka ducked as a hail of bullets spanged into the console he was taking cover behind. Three of four Kongs were still alive and fighting in the engine compartment, discovered after a costly rush forward that left one of the soldiers badly wounded. It was a dangerous situation. The Kongs were trapped and didn't have the numbers to fight their way out but still controlled most of the engine room, stopping the life support system from being reactivated. There wasn't enough men to overpower them in an attack. Time was running out.
"Ms Chelsea, the pirate ship is trying to break away."
Armstrong : "Let it get away from the Liner, the fighters will destroy it."
"Bring us in closer Navigation."
With a cloud of oxygen and particles the pirate ship pulled away from the stationary liner and fired its thrusters seeking to escape. It didn't get far, just far enough away from the liner before two streaks of fighter launched missiles slammed into its side and cracked the hull open like an egg.
Hakka caught a glimps of fur, popped up and fired, and was rewarded with a clatter and grunt of pain. He scurried forward followed by one of his men. The firing intensified and there was a great roar and then it was hand to hand.
A large Kongs, a towering titan of muscle charged out and backhanded a soldier into a wall knocking him down. He saw Hakka crouched nearby and pulled out a pistol. Hakka fired and missed and jumped out of the way, holes appearing where he had just been. The Kongs rushed after him yelling.
A huge fist smashed down near the O'ckchukan's head. The Kongs, twice his height swung the other fist down in a whistling arc. He managed to fire two rounds into the Kongs abdomen before the fist crashed into his shoulder and slumped him into the ground. Stars exploded in his eyes. He tried to aim his gun at the black mass but it was swated out of his hand. The Kongs roar filled his ears like a hurricane and then fell silent. The black mass dissapeared from his blurred vision and thudded to the ground. It was replaced by a much smaller mass.
"You don't look so good." it was Nagyona. Hakka grunted in response. "Get life support running now!" he barked and propped Hakka up by his good shoulder.
Maya let out a long sigh when the "Ship clear, hostages free," announcement came. The tension drained from her body and the crew clapped and whistled.
The PUNV Creos sat over the liner like a mother protecting its children. Ramora units drifted lazily in packs and searched the debris of the destroyed pirate vessel.
"Very good job Star Chaser," the Captain of the Creos praised, " and a perfect resolution. This is another blow to the weakened pirate bands, they wont be giving the Union much trouble in the future.
"Lieutentant Armstrong, commend your men for their skill and bravery. Replacements for your injured and equipment expenditure has being sent over.
"Ms Chelsea, I'm sorry that one of your men was injured, and amazed that he is still going to travel with you,"
"Captain, Hakka is resiliant and wont let the bruises keep him from doing his job."
Slowly the Creos and liner shrank in size as the Star Chaser returned to its primary mission, of discovering new worlds, and travelling from one side of the galaxy to the other and back, a dream of its designer, Chelsea Stamford.
