(When I say "power suits", I mean heavy power suits, with full movement and strength augmentation to a very high degree. I'm referring to the "heavy" suits such as the type used to tear through the station doors in the last chapter.)

"Copy that, sir. All right, fellows, let's close this place down." The more technically apt members of Xitell's "vagabond squad" got to work at the controls. Fortunately one could read and speak Cantharan. He quickly accessed main systems.

"Life support online. Outer defenses online. Shields powering up, but are doing so very slowly. Internal security systems up and running. You can all access and use them. Internal camera system up. We can see everything from here."

"'Tell, those ATR's are getting close."

"Commence firing." The station's guns powered up and opened fire on the approaching transports, striking several hits. One ATR slammed through the slowly charging shields, crippling itself but disgorging its EVAT's. The shields then closed around the station, sealing the other two ATR's out.

"This is Xitell. One ATR made it through the shields, and the other two are pounding them down. We're maintaining return fire. The enemy EVAT's are beginning to cut a breach in the wall, section A corridor 3. Set up your defenses there. Automated systems are powering up."

------------------
"Parlez-vous jig jig, madam?"
"I must put my pyjamas in the drawer marked pyjamas."
- Under Milk Wood

Casper could feel the needle in his heart inject the adrenaline. He shot up.

"Cas, let's go, we've got new orders."

Casper looked up at Decker and nodded. He checked his HUD; a new objective was listed: "Defend Section 3, Corridor A". He got up and HP2 took off towards the area. After the hundredth time, he had gotten used to this sort of thing.

Before they got to the corridor before the enemies, they slowed down. They could hear the Cantharans recieving orders. They had just breached the hall and were about to set up they're defenses when Casper gave the signal.

Casper ran into Corridor A, flaming the enemy EVATs. Using the fire as cover, Lords and Teronne shot their rocket launchers into the confused crowd. Casper hadn't checked how many there were, but it looked to be around thirty. He heard the rockets explode, the cue for Decker and Shin to run on the ceiling and drop behind the enemy unit, concealing them.

"CASPER! They went into the room there."

Decker had stopped Casper luckily just before he had overheated. Casper silently thanked him and ordered HP2 to hold. There were about eight dead EVATs on the ground, all charred and mangled. Casper smiled and got onto the ceiling. He placed comp-d on the door that the Cantharan EVATs were guarding. He could hear them moving things around in the room to set up defenses. So he set up excessive amounts of comp-d about four feet from each side of the main door. He blew the main door and began flaming it for cover and confusion. He then blew the two sides, creating gaping holes in the weakly-fortified room.

Shin and Decker rushed the right while Lords and Teronne rushed the left. Casper dropped to the floor and began launching grenades into the room. He could hear laser blasts sizzling uselessly against the heavy armor of his men.

"CLEAR!!!"

HP2 jumped out of the room as Casper blew the grenades. The explosion shook the ship. If that wasn't overkill, nothing was. Casper smiled. He could feel the sedatives kicking in. HP2 walked into the destroyed room. He looked around happily.

There was a noise. Casper turned around as the ventilation shaft cover swung down and a Cantharan EVAT shot his back. He must have been their best shot, because the blast was in right on the connection tubing from the flamers to the ammo pack. Casper closed his eyes.

Another explosion shook the ship. Captain Bob's squad had just finished completely hacking the station's computers. Bob began to wonder what the explosions were. Had the Musgrave lost the fight and the enemy ships were beginning to shoot the station? He hadn't heard from any of his troops in the past five minutes, so he assumed the best. Xitell buzzed in on the radio.

"Captain, those explosions were coming from Corridor A, where HP2 was located."

"So what's the situation?"

"Captain... None of them are moving. They had taken out the entire ATR-full of EVATs. Well... Here, we have the footage."

Bob put the security camera's footage on his HUD. He was amazed as he saw five men take down an entire platoon. His amazement turned to horror as he saw the laser blast connect onto Casper's backgear. The resulting explosion had turned the camera's reception to fuzz. Then, several more cameras were shown with fuzz, even some in Sectors 2 and 4. Then there was a shot from one of the Musgrave's outer cameras. A small chunk of the station had broken off had apparantly been launched so quickly, it hit one of the incoming ATRs and destroyed it. Bob tried to radio HP2, but with no luck. He shook his head.

------------------
Beware My Big Stick

"Yes sir, I'll see what I can do." Faolain closed down the link to Cap'n Bob and turned to ask a favor of the Research Vessel.

"We've detected a 'sample,' and we've found it to be most interesting. We'll need your tractors to bring it in of course," said Faolain to the captain of the research vessel hidden in the asteroid. "Oh, and I think you should find it similarly interesting."
"Really?" said the captain. "What does it contain, what is it made of?"
"It contains our top five Heavy units," said Faolain, watching the captain pale, "and it's part of the station above us."

The captain was visibly trembling now. "I'll try... sir... I may need more power."
"You'll have your power," said Faolain, walking from the bridge.

--

With power being rerouted from the turrets, the segment slowly came down to rest on the surface of the asteroid, and Mobile Ops quickly began to swarm over it and pull out what they could.

Medical facilities were on the way.

------------------
"Welcome to our Pirate outpost. Please enjoy your stay, and realize that any irregular actions can and will be used against you in the afterlife."

Due to a communications error between the command room and the Musgrave's captain, the forces had been lead to believe that there were only three ATRs, when, in fact, there were six, with three coming from each of the two jumpgates.

As the Pegasus approached the three ATRs that were moving more slowly, carefully, and, as a result from the other two, stealthily, Mag noticed the shimmerings that meant cloaked ships. There were four...cruisers, he figured, judging by their size. "Captain, there's four cruisers with them."

Captain Kobayashi swore. They couldn't take four cruisers at once, especially after being in that battle for a while. "Keep your distance, then. We'll have to try something when they drop the EVATs off."

Mag backed off. His guess is that the Cantharan EVATs would set up some defenses wherever they landed, and the Pegasus would end up using its weaponry and its two tanks to help the UNS marines take them out. Those cruisers would be a very large hindrance...

--------------------------

As the HVC raged through the battle, the combat drones kept on pushing their way through, slowly making their way for the bridge. All of the crew members that weren't essential during combat had grouped in the mess hall, and was now making an offensive on the drones.

The drones used their grenades shrewdly, and their pulse guns were enough to down most of the Cantharans, especially in combination with their superior mobility and sensors packages.

They were fortifying themselves in at a T junction, with the hallway that had an end already cleared out, and Cantharans coming at them from both directions. The drones could see around the corners, and were able to pop their guns up, take down a Cantharan or two, and then hide again. The drones' AIs were working cooperatively - there was no leader, they were all functioning independently in a coordinated fashion. This form of tactics had not been seen before by the Cantharans, except by the Audemedon, which the Cantharans had never had to fight before.

Slowly, the ground was being gained, and the Cantharans were running out of crew members to supply to the resistance. It would not be long until the HVC was captured.

-----------------------------

The four Cantharan cruisers began engaging the mining station, to get the defenders to concentrate on them. Once the humans began focusing all of their attention on the threat from the cruisers, the ATRs made their move. They quickly flew in and attatched to the hull, the EVATs using their laser cutters to make their entrances. After they were in, the ATRs pulled off and headed off to hide in the asteroids.

The Pegasus had been watching this, of course, hidden a ways back in the asteroids. After the ATRs had left, it moved in. Mag deposited the tanks a ways away from the Cantharans, and the captain sent orders to their AIs to rendesvous with the UNS forces.

The Pegasus then pulled back into a good position to pound the Cantharan defenses from the outside, as it had a good deal of firepower, and doing so would trap the Cantharans between the Pegasus and the UNS EVATs.

Captain Kobayashi had Ron send a message to the marines, telling them what to expect.

------------------
"Cleanliness is evil. Embrace the mess!"

Darkk's hands flew over the keyboard. He was in the captured station's main control room, running the captured automated defenses, because he was one of the best at that. Darkk was using little more than hacks hanging off various OS traps to run the station defenses. He threw up a blizzard of internal security forcefields, and set off every alarm he could. Darkk sent out an explanation over the comm so the UNS troops wouldn't panic too much, but the Cantharans would think Darkk had engaged the self destruct mechanism.

It worked. Thinking the station was about to blow, the Cantharans jetted out, flying out at all angles so that Mag could only target a small number of them. Darkk sighed. That bought them some time, and he had an idea about how to use that time.

The EVATs were heading back to their ATRs, and since the repair crews had just got up a temporary shield, Darkk guessed that they'd wait a bit before returning even after they figured out the station wouldn't blow.

Darkk hurriedly hit the "station rotation" controls, and managed to turn the station 127° before the ATRs had even recovered their EVATs. Darkk loaded up metal transfer railgun control and engaged the autoloading mechanism. He managed to convince the computer that the ATRs were in fact catcher craft and made it fire the railgun in their direction.

The whole station shook as a slug of refined ore the size of a gunship hurtled out at insane speed and accuracy towards the Cantharan ATRs. It hit with massive momentum and crippled all it did not destroy, as well as getting 2 cruisers.

Suddenly Darkk noticed something in the logs. A record of what the supply railgun had been fired at. Apparently, there was a real catcher mechanism in this system 127° from the ATRs. Darkk did a sensor focus. Something there, maybe a shipyard. He'd have to have the UNS EVATs check it out. Total boarder violations.

Darkk turned to Bob. "When we clear the last curiser, there's a station here I'd like you to check out for me..."

------------------
"In literature as in love we are astounded by what is chosen by others." Andre Maurois

(This message has been edited by Fleet Admiral Darkk (edited 05-06-2002).)

Shrout1 dodges back into the action, being gone and out of it all weekend. He has no idea what has taken place beyond Darkk's capture, but will keep his eyes on the story to jump back in. (Anyone willing to recap would be great!!!)

------------------
"You will find that your device is highly non-functional...." - Bad Guy

Bob didn't like having civilians doing his job for him. He could stand Darkk doing tasks that his men couldn't do, but he resented that the civilian was taking liberties without consulting him. Reports were coming in. The station was clear of hostiles, and the crew was still contained. An aidstation had been set up, and wounded were being collected and readied to ship back to the Musgrave.

Bob walked into the control center. Darkk was joking with Franklin and Xitell's squad.

"Darkk, come here a minute, we need to talk."

Bob took Darkk out into the hallway and closed the door.

"Now just what do you think this is, a frivolous outing? A game of tag? This is a dangerous combat situation! I am the commander of this unit, I am responsible for the lives and safety of both the hostages and these marines! We are the best company of combat engineers you will find in the galaxy, and I will not have some civilian taking liberties with my men and the security of the mission! You are a guest here, Darkk. You are here because I permit you to be, not because I need you. If you continue to be liability to my men, I will ensure that you never set foot off of that science vessel until we return to base. Do I make myself understood?"

Darkk was indignant. He had acted with the safety of the mission in mind. Moreover, the word "civilian" stung. He had trained for combat. Deep down, he thought of himself as a soldier. His fur stood up on end, and he showed his teeth as he growled.

"Now look here, Captain! I acted with both the safety of your men and that of the fleet outside in mind! Firing that railgun and setting off that false self destruct signal saved dozens of lives both out in the fleet and on board this station, furthermore, I'd like to-

Bob cut him off.

"Irrelevant! It is my decision, not yours. You took risks that were not yours to take. You endangered my men and my mission without consulting me first. Were you a member of my company, I would have you court-martialed, but I can't because you are a civillian. Don't let it happen again, Darkk. You're an asset to my team. Don't become a liability."

Bob turned and walked out, leaving Darkk fuming. Bob had another assault to plan.

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

The Science Vessel hauled in the floating piece of the station. The scientists took extra care not to disturb it too much. Once it was on the asteroid, the Mobile Ops team began to cut through the layers of charred and melted metal that was Sector A of the station.

HP2 had been brought into the sick bay of the Science Vessel. The doctors began giving them a good looking over. They were shocked.

"It seems that all the men are in fine condition, except Casper, whose hands are severely injured due to the tubing placement. Otherwise, they all seem fine. The heavy suits protected them from the blast, but the reason why they are unconscious is because of the instant depressurization. They weren't ready for that.
They didn't have enough time to react, and the one or two seconds they were exposed to the vacuum of space had been enough to knock them out. Luckily their suits pressurized and began pumping oxygen into their lungs and beating their hearts so they would continue to live in this state of "hibernation". If they wake up soon, they might be able to get back into action. But we'll have to do some operations on Casper's hands so he will be able to use them when he wakes up..."

------------------
Beware My Big Stick

After about half an hour of on-board fighting, the combat drones had taken the HVC. Only four were still fully functional. Three had been destroyed, and the other three had been noticeably damaged. However, they had taken out the entire crew of a Heavy Cruiser. Captain Kobayashi had great faith in the drones, after what he had seen, from their on-board camera mounts.

Once the ship was clear, the drones automatically hacked the ship's computer systems, took control of the ship, and reported in. Darkk immediately went through the data on board, and also using the extra access the cruiser had, searching for any information about the other station. He figured that it probably would, and would love to find the crew's briefing for the mission...

------------------
"Vampiric chickens are spiffy. Bak bak bak ARRR!"

(It would be nice if somebody would post something, fokes...)

------------------
"Vampiric chickens are spiffy. Bak bak bak ARRR!"

Darkk fumed, but then went back in and set to work. Work always cleared his mind. He motioned to Bob that he'd like to sit down again, and did so once Bob nodded.

He hacked for only a few minutes before he saw something important.

"Bob, speaking of assets, there's a ton of information in here."
"What's it say?"
"It's not much, mostly types and quantities of metal fired at the other station. I can't match the type ratios with any known type of Cantharan ship, and they don't usually build more than one type at a single 'yard, for efficiency purposes."
"So what's it most like?"
"It's somewhat of an average of the ratios of the Carrier and the HVD. I'm not sure what that means. There's also another metal in there that's only used, as far as I know, to build gateships. They don't have NEARLY enough material out there to build a gateship, and the only place with a big enough station is Cantharis Yards. They're not building another one of those giant monsters."

Darkk looked again. "Got the coordinates. I'm making a recommendation that we approach SLOWLY. They don't want visitors, in all likelyhood, and I'm unable to find any data on its armament. It's most likely got heavily reinforced shielding and enhanced weapons."

"Dang. I'm not sure we have the firepower to take that."

"The HVC I came in has a lot, but I'm not sure it's enough. We should send something small in, or something with cloaking if we captured one."

------------------
"In literature as in love we are astounded by what is chosen by others." Andre Maurois

(This message has been edited by Fleet Admiral Darkk (edited 05-10-2002).)

Bob and Darkk were standing in the open door of the 9154775, watching the large space platform approaching, holding cameras. The ship’s cloaking field was just a few inches away, and Bob was being careful not to disrupt it. Trinv was immersed in a large holographic circle that surrounded his head, and displayed everything that the sensors detected outside of the ship. It gave him the uninterrupted view he needed to approach within fifteen feet of the station. The Advanced HVC did a slow circle, looking for an appropriate insertion point, as well as taking in the sights. Once they got a good look at the spacedock, and the huge ship that was being built in it, the HVC pulled away, and began to sneak its way back through the asteroids to the UNS Musgrove and its escorts.

Bob felt confident that he had a solid grasp of the main entrypoints, as well as the locations of the main external gun emplacements. With this knowledge, he could plan his assault. Now he had a few hours while the analysts viewed the sensor logs to visit the wounded and assemble his roster for the next mission.

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

Darkk sighed, and picked up the pointer. As a grad student at Ishima University College of Xenotechnology, he'd been forced to teach freshman engineering back in the far-off days when he was in the book-learning phase of his career.

He walked up to the podium. In front of him was the Musgrave and its fleet's entire marine complement. He knew some of them knew a great deal on Cantharan tech, but some rather little. Well, he'd have to dumb it down a little, but not too much. He hated dumbing down, but recognised (and, in some ways, admired) those too dedicate to their military careers to spend several years learning engineering.

"Ok. You all know why this briefing was called - the Cantharans have built a shipyard here in violation of neutral zone treaties. We've shut down their ore refinery, preventing them from doing any further construction, but from what I saw, that thing's almost done.

"We have no confirmation of the nature of this device, but we believe it is some sort of heavily-defended mini-gateship. It is known that it is armed with multiple quasimatter turrets, and that its reactor is almost equal in power to an Ishiman gateship's, providing it with quite a lot of energy to feed those turrets. It is also known that it was sent materials used normally only in the construction of gateships.

"There's a good deal of circumstantial evidence this thing can power a jumpgate. I believe it might be able to pull something as big as a carrier through without too much trouble.

"We were unable to do high-intensity scans of it, so the following is nothing but estimates. Judging by the quantity of materials sent to it, the number of turrets mounted, and the state of completion of the turrets, it is believed that as many as 4 of them might be operational or could be made operational quickly. While this might not seem like much, might I remind you that Cantharan destroyers require only a single quasimatter gun to devistate ship groups? I have no reason to assume that these are any less capable than a destroyer's gun.

"As you can see here, the hull is reinforced by structural integrity generators, allowing it to resist large physical stresses without shields. It could even in theory let objects through to absorb the impact (and possibly chemical explosions with sufficiently low energy projection rates). This was most likely added as a reaction to the method we used to destroy their gateship at Sol. Its shields are also fairly powerful, and judging by the number, size, and placement of the shield generators, its shields are almost equal to half the origional gateship's, while providing a much smaller target.

"Finally, there is the shipyard itself. Many high-security Cantharan installations have a Tesla area defense mechanism, that saturates the air with alternating current of a sufficiently low frequency to kill you. These can output enough voltage to fry suit electronics, and potentially enough to arc through some types of insulation.

"Additionally, it most likely has far more elite Cantharans aboard it than the ore processing plant, which might be one of many - I've seen railgun projectiles arrive at the station's catcher from other directions during our scan. Also, it will most likely raise shields when we get too close.

"I've proposed a tactic to Bob and his superiors for getting in:
These other stations will most likely send everything they have to the yard in order to get the ship moving under its own power ASAP so we don't blow it up when the naval crackdown arrives.
We're going to ride the slugs of metal in. They'll be going a good 5% light speed, which is really damn fast. You'd best hang on really, really tight. Falling off will make a small, blood-colored crater in an asteroid. These slugs are fired on a path that avoids asteroids, so you should be safe. The catcher mechanism will slow you down at an rate of about 17G, which your suits should be able to take. Be sure to not fall off there, as the Cantharans have a system to zap zerbilites which might think you're one. Of course, shooting back will instantly cancel surprise, and result most likely in being fried by any turrets that can be brought to bear.
Once the slug is inside, then you can start a fairly conventional assault. I'm turning the briefing over to Bob, who will describe how you're going to get on and what you will do once you get off."

------------------
"In literature as in love we are astounded by what is chosen by others." Andre Maurois

"Ok, Men, Here's the plan. You will be inserted by the 9154775 onto pieces of ore flying at reletivistic speeds. Unfortunately, the Modified HVC that you will be riding does not have enough seats to hold a full complement of armed marines, let alone heavies. You will all be riding on sidecar seats that the Musgrave's repair section are bolting onto the outside of the HVC's hull. This will allow the ship to carry 12 heavies, or about twenty regular suits. This is about as many as I care to land on any one flying ore slug. The flight time should be about fifeteen minutes after you are dropped onto the slugs, so you will have time to get locked down for the harsh decelleration. Luckily, I have arranged it so you are not going to be landing in a hot LZ.

Wolf nine will insert ahead of the main assault team and covertly disable the zerballite guns on the catcher mechanism, and try to get you a clean insertion point.. I have assembled a roster under Lieutenant Caulfield to lead the first wave into the station. You probably won't have long before the techs monitoring the incoming ore slugs see you and raise the alarm. Therefore, I'm drawing mostly upon Heavy Weapons Platoon to ride the first slug in. Your job will be to secure that catcher mechanism, and make sure its functioning so that another two squads can be inserted and you can move to secure a proper LZ for our main assault force. I'm giving you a layout map with three possible LZs. You are landing on the refinery module of the stardock, so there will be a lot of dangerous metalworking machinery inside. I'd reccomend you move with extreme caution. Damaging too many systems could end up diabling the catcher mechanism, which would cause a catastrophic collision. Your job is solely to secure an LZ for our ATRs, commendeer any external guns you can, cut them off from central control, and use them to cover the incoming ATRs. Any questions?

Bob looked for raised hands.

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

No hands were raised.
"Very well, briefing by squads will begin."
The squads let the room to hear their individual briefings.

Darkk spent the time before the operation tuning the HVC's engines. He and the crew got them up to maximum spec in no time, and were even able to work out some kinks and increase the acceleration.

Immediatly before the insertion, all the marines being inserted by slug got onto the science vessel. The vessel and the HVC hyperspaced in to a point fairly close to the first slug's path. The heavy squad dropped onto the HVC, which caught up to and ran alongside the slug. Magnetic grappling hooks were fired, and the heavies winched over as quickly as they could. Lines linking them to the HVC were cut, and the HVC hypered to the next slug meeting point, which was coming in at a different angle.

The research vessel had gotten there on its hyperdrive, and transfered the next squad.
The marines were landed again, and the process was repeated 1 more time.

-------------------------------------------------

The HVC hypered in, cloaked.

Wolf nine hit the base cloaked, leaving the HVC to hyper out. Darkk, watching on the scanners, would have wiped the sweat off his brow if he had been a species which sweated.

Wolf 9 walked up to the automated anti-zerbelite gun (AAZG) control computer. Darkk had a copy of the primary Cantharan Mining Corp AAZG emergency maintinance/safety override program. Wolf 9 inserted it, and the guns went into safety/maintinance mode. A slight modification to the code on the disk had made it not send a signal to the main operations room that the guns had switched mode.

The slugs approached. The first one entered the catcher.

------------------
"In literature as in love we are astounded by what is chosen by others." Andre Maurois

I think that your way to see the level is very interesting. And the aventure you pass is also good.
I liked this post.

------------------

The first team of heavies landed and deployed quickly. They had to maintain secrecy long enough for the next two inbound slugs to be caught. Then, they'd have enough men and firepower on station to secure a proper LZ and take the stardock.

Bob was watching from the Pegasus, which was waiting, ready to go on station along with four other ATRs full of marines. Bob was assaulting at company strength. He had every combat able marine ready to go. That meant that soon, 114 shock troops would be inserted into the station, and once they were, it would only be a matter of time before the station fell.

It was getting them all aboard that worried him. This was by far one of the riskiest insertions he had ever sent men in on. He wanted to be riding the rocks in, so he could ensure that his marines would be safe, but he knew he had responsabilities. He had to watch the mission first and his men second.

He waited. When the second and third metal slugs were aboard, he would be able to breathe again. He just hoped lieutenant Caulfield over on the second slug would make it. ETA in thirty seconds.

The Cantharaans hadn't noticed anything wrong... yet...

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

(In the abscence of another RPG, this one is now BACK.)

Darkk watched the last 2 slugs approach on the transmission science vessel's sensors, on the carrier's screen. In an asteroid field, 2 ship types were king in detecting something other than the nearest 20 asteroids. One was astrominers. You can guess the other one.

Darkk confirmed alignment. The slugs would go fine. Suddenly, something caught his eye on the monitor showing crew camera signals. It was labled in obscure Cantharan code, and was probably the remnant of an ancient prototype that had been canibalized in the station's hasty construction. The Cantharan dialect was so obscure and old that the humans might not understand it, despite their knowledge of more modern variants.

It said, "Reactor Room." Darkk snickered. Darkk turned to Bob. "We maybe can finish this without sending any more troops, sir."

"I'm listening."

"Unless I miss my guess, they might have a chace to pull the old blow-the-reactors trick."

Bob looked at him. "What do you mean? That's almost impossible, reactors are heavily guarded."

"I can think of two good reasons for this one to not be. One: they expect an attack from the outside, Two: they need to finish the ship fast - the commander himself is probably wielding a monkey wrench for his life now."

"Maybe. I'll have them look, but they'll be cautious."

"Even if it is guarded, in the reactor room, they'll have to use ammo that won't breach anything. They'll have nothing capable of hurting a suited marine."

"I like that plan. You heard Darkk, scan, breack, and rig to blow."

On the station, the other 2 slugs made it without incident. The marines scanned the room: 3 guards. In the room were 2 high-power antimatter reactors, each one capable or making whole place dust. The door was breached, and a few sniper shots finished the Cantharans while they were still drawing their pistols. Charges were set, and coolant pipes were smashed.

Back on the carrier, Darkk, Trinve, and the carrier's flight crew had programed in a rather bizarre sequence. Darkk had to override 3 seperate safeties to get the computer to accept the manuver. The carrier nulled its velocity relative to the station, then engaged its superlight. All aboard said a silent prayer.

On the station, the marines had boobie-trapped all the doors into the recieving bay and the reactor room. Muffled exposions indicated that the repair team sent by the Cantharans had found one of the surprise packages. The marines stood on the lip of the docking bay, most facing out, a few covering the rear with rocket launchers, tied to someone else.

Suddenly, everything went white, then black, as a massive superlight flare appeared, then something blotted out the stars and sun. Lines were fired from the belly of the carrier, and marines jumped to them.

On the mini-gateship, docking clamps were being released while turrets aimed for the carrier virtually touching it. The turrets, however, had little time, and only got the shields down to 70% before the carrier warped out, with the marines safely in its docking bay.

The carrier dropped out of superlight just in time to get a great recording of the station detonating, and taking the mini-gateship with it in a spectacular double explosion.

Darkk and Bob gave each other high-fives. Then they went to the mess to properly honor the defenders - a rolicking party!

------------------
"In literature as in love we are astounded by what is chosen by others." Andre Maurois

(This message has been edited by Fleet Admiral Darkk (edited 07-08-2002).)

(This message has been edited by Fleet Admiral Darkk (edited 07-08-2002).)