“200 meters and climbing.”

“I have the target.” Bob raised his pulse gun to his shoulder.

"Take the shot, you’re gonna lose it!”

“Don’t push me, lieutenant. It’s my shot”

Caulfield looked through his binoculars.

“Its still going, sir, range approaching 300 meters. I’ll take it!”

“Stand down lieutenant, this one’s mine.”

Bob squeezed his trigger.

Three hundred and twelve yards away, a dinner plate shattered into a dozen pieces. He laughed.

“looks like you’re buying the beers, lieutenant. I believe that that was just a clean shot at over three hundred meters without optics.”

“That depends. Give me that rifle.” Bob took the binoculars.

“Sergeant Davies, let the record show that as of 1245 hours, I have completed the terms of the bet as it was specified, and that Lieutenant Caulfield will be purchasing the first round of ale tonight at the officer’s club.”

“Aye aye, sir”

Bob and his marines were doing live fire training on the exterior of the UNS Musgrave. For a half mile on either side of him, the collossal ship spread out. His men were spread out all over the length of the ship, held down by the ships's artificial gravity, shooting at target drones.

“Davies, you may launch the target when ready.”

Caulfield and Bob were using special, smaller targets that they had appropriated from the ship’s mess hall. Davies picked one up and hurled it out. Just then, a jumpstream terminated a mile off the ship's port side, directly in front of Captain Roberts and Lt. Caulfield. As the flash dissapated, Bob could make out an Ishiman heavy cruiser turning towards the Musgrave and its escorts. Bob raised his binoculars and examined the ship as it approached.

"Caulfield, why is there and Ishiman Heavy cruiser flying into airspace that the captain expressly reserved for live fire training?"

"I'd imagine that it has something to do with bad planning, sir. Shall I order cease fire?"

"Please, before it gets within range and something bad happens. Hmm... ISN 9154775. Looks like we have some diplomatic visitors..."

Just then, the HVC boosted towards the Musgrave, rocketing barely ten feet above the marines heads before kicking itself sideways and into a cartwheel to retrofire and slide gently into the docking bay on the far side of the ship. Bob stood up from where he had flung himself to the deck.

"Caulfield, check and make sure everyone's ok. I'm going to have a word with that pilot."

"Very good, sir."

Bob ran to an emergency escape airlock and hard cycled it, quickly emerging into one of the ships main corridors.

He ran to a lift, pounding through the halls with his heavy suit, sending ops personnel scampering out of his way. He charged into the large landing bay just as the gangway stairs were pulled out, and a short, stubby Ishiman wearing a diplomatic uniform stepped out onto the flight deck. Bob cut himself off as he realized that what he had to say was for the pilot, not the passenger. He saluted smartly, as the Captain walked in and greeted the diplomat warmly. Bob instead walked behind them up into the HVC.

Inside, a tremendously oversized wasp was making jokes with two Ishimans and a Human. He looked over his shoulder at Bob and threw a lazy salute with one of his arms.

"Greetings, Captain, how may I be of service to you?"

Bob's anger fell away very quickly. He looked at the wasp with amusement for a moment.

"Trinve... Good to see you again!"

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

(This message has been edited by Captain Pharris (edited 05-03-2002).)

Darkk sighed as he took of his transit suit. He'd spacewalked all the way from his ship to the carrier to meet his old "friend" because the HVC didn't swing by to pick him up. It also passed through a firing range zone that was marked as such by beacons on the ship's hull.

Darkk walked up to the captain and Ambassador Hrintz. "Greetings, ma'am."
"Darkk, is it? It's been ages! How are you? I be you still want to call me 'Hrintz the clumsy' eh?"

Darkk sighed. He remebered that incident from long ago. Back in his combat days, his squad had been her escort on a mission to make a pirate guild leader "surrender". Darkk had tried to convince her to back out 13 times, but to no avail.

When they got there, the pirates had promptly grabbed her. Darkk reciprocated by grabbing the guild leader (who was close enough, fortunately) and suggesting a trade. The pirates were about to agree to this when Hrintz tried to break free and knocked a heavy metal piece of decor into Darkk's head. He woke up in a cozy pirate brig cell and stayed there a month until the pirates were through driving up the ransom and made the deal.

"I reserve the mortal insults for those of lower rank than myself now."
Darkk wasn't kidding. To an Irthantan, "clumsy" is a mortal insult.
As an Ishiman, Hrintz considered it funny.

Darkk sighed. "I'd like you to tell me what it is this time."
"We have detected a Cantharan astromining station in the UNS/Cantharis neutral zone. It is in violtation of treaty, and I will be going there to request they remove it. I wish you to come in order to verify that it is merely an astromining center by examining the technology onboard."

Darkk tensed. It felt the same. Definitely too similar for comfort. "I don't think this a very good idea. Let's bring a nice UNS marine squad..."

"NO! This has to be non-threatening. The UNS isn't allowed in the zone anyway, not unless Cantharis or Ishima invites them in, under the terms of the treaty. Same with the Cantharans - they're only supposed to come in if the UNS or us will let them."

Darkk groned. "Just promise me not to screw up my escape plan this time."
"Sure."

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

The engines on the fighter powered down, it settled to the hangar floor. It wasn't originally designed to have hyper-spatial capabilites, but in Nidok's line of work, he had to get where he had to get, and he had to do it fast usually. On the other side of the bay was an Ishiman Heavy Cruiser, it's pilot had just pulled off a tricky manuever getting in. "I don't think I'd risk my ship like that," though Nidok, staring over while he finished up his post flight-routines. He was very glad to be off of that death-trap, and he looked forward to a few days rest, hopefully. Then again, things always did happen unexpectedly here, so one never knew. His orders, simply report to Captain Bob at 1200 hours the next day. He was going to go get some rest.

(Shrout1 will be gone until Sunday, so go ahead and include me in the action a bit - play around, I won't mind. Have a good weekend!)

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

"You mean they're sending you to land on a Cantharaan station without any escort for this diplomatic figure? You're sure you don't want me to come along?"

Trinv shook his head and buzzed a negative.

"Sorry, Bob, that's treaty controlled space. Ishimans are the only ones allowed in to inspect the place."

"So you're going to go without an armed boarding party?"

"Hey, don't ask me, I just work here. Anyway, this ship alone is enough to wreck the entire station if the need arises. I'm not worried about a few backwater miners. We can take them."

"I'll be waiting with my weapon locked and loaded and my ATRs on the launchpad to come rescue your sorry hide."

"Don't tell anyone, but I have it on very reliable sources that your services have been planned for."

"Oh... sources..."

Just then, Hrintz walked back up the gangplank, followed by Darkk. Bob saluted, excused himself, and walked down the gangplank. He couldn't help but notice Darkk's face. It seemed as though every moment spent with that Ishiman was pain for him.

Bob watched the HVC launch, then walked back to the squad equipment room to change out of his suit and go to the officers mess. It wasn't every day that the CO got to drink at his officer's expense.

The Pegasus had been added to Bob's ATR complement, with two of the normal ATRs sent off to do missions with other squads. The Pegasus had used its 16-inch armor-piercing shell guns to join in with the firing practice a few times, mostly as a joke by the starboard gunner. The Pegasus's captain, Samuel Kobayashi, was pleased with the posting. The ship, due to it's relatively poor performance in ratio to the cost to build it, was usually assigned to boring, backwater missions, as the UNS wanted such an expensive piece of hardware to pay itself off. Hopefully, they'd get some interesting missions, soon...

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

Darkk sighed as he plopped into his seat for take off. He didn't want this mission, but orders from "on up" had put him in it. He wondered if it was some plot. Ah well. He'd gotten a sense that not everything was on the level, but ah well. He'd been in worse scrapes - the one he'd left only a day or so ago came to mind.

He ran a finger along his upper and lower biting teeth. It would be correct, he thought, that if this mission went arry, the last thing whoever set him and Hrintz together would be those 32 teeth. Nah, it would probably be someone high-ranking. He'd have to be content with some form of hacking...

Darkk fell asleep as soon as the ship took off. He plugged his ears first to make sure Hrintz's annoying chatter didn't keep him awake.

It was 12 hours later when Darkk awoke. The HVC was approaching the station, weaving through asteroids. Darkk noticed one very odd thing about the station - while most astroming stations had railguns to fire the ore to their destination, only those with destinations in the same system had them. But this one did. But there wasn't anything else out here except chunks of rock. Darkk shurgged. Maybe it was just a stock station that had been moved here. Moved by what? A jumpgate didn't have the power, and the Cantharans only had ONE gateship which the UNS had given a bad end. He'd have to look into this.

Darkk listened to the pilot radio for clearance, listened to the argument with the stationmaster.

Hrintz finally convinced the stationmaster to give them docking clearance, and they landed in the main docking bay. As they got out, Darkk noticed that there were a number of EVATs in full armor covering them.

"What are you here for?" demanded the nearest.

"We're here to notify you that this station is located in banned space, and must be moved or destroyed; we will also inspect this station for further violations and..."

"SIEZE THEM!!!" interrupted the nearest EVAT, who seemed to be the stationmaster in an EVAT suit. Darkk sighed as they put the cuffs on. This time he'd have to plan an escape, they might not accept ransom.

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

(I will be unable to post until Sunday afternoon, as I'll be gone until then. The stats on the Pegasus and such are in the reference topic if you need to check on them.)

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

Trinve Buzzed in annoyance.

"Get those shields up! Lock the door! DO IT! NOW!"

Outside, the Cantharaan were trying to encircle the ship. They had sealed the outer door of the docking bay, but Trinve was sure he could get through it with his guns. What he was worried about was that if he tried to blast his way out, Darkk and Hrintz would surely be sucked out. He was very low on options, and a Cantharaan was on the radio, barking at him to land and shut down the engines or risk the life of the two prisoners. His mind raced through contingencies. He finally stopped.

"Bizz, shut down the engines."

The Ishiman systems engineer powered down the engines. Next to him, the human first officer, Anton, was busily performing the presurrender checklist; radioing SOS with position and data logs, then destroying the ship's encryption keys and other classified data. He then locked down the ship's computer with his voiceprint, disabling it from all but the most intent computer hack.

"Security is set. Shall I prepare scuttling charges, sir?"

"No. Not yet. I think we may be getting off of this thing sooner than you think. Bizz, Anton, lets go see our new captors.

Bob was pulled out of bed by the beeping computer. He rolled over and grabbed the audio reciever.

"Captain Roberts."

There was a calm, clear voice on the other end, speaking english with a slight trace of an Ishiman accent.

"Good morning, Captain. I am sorry to disturb you at this hour, but I require the services of you and your marines. My name is Maletena Wizr. I am the Trey'sh of the Ishiman reestablishment committee. I drafted the treaty under which your associate Darkk, and my diplomatic envoy are attempting to force the removal or abandonment of a Cantharaan mining facility and shipyard.

Unfortunately, they have been illegally detained by the Cantharaans. Captain, this is where your services are needed. I value my personnel above all else, which is why I ask for the services of the best fighting unit that the UNS can provide. Your captain has the details of your assignment. Thank you for your help, Captain, I trust that you will return my personnel to safety.

Oh, and Mr. Pharris, if you happen to capture the mining station's computer system intact, please do not hesitate to tap it for me. It would be most appreciated."

The terminal went dead, and Bob climbed out of bed. He got dressed quickly and went to the bridge to see the captain. When he got there, he noticed that the ship was in a jumpstream already, and was heading to the station.

"Captain, you have a limited ammount of time. You have the entire task force at your disposal. Make use of it how you like. You will find layouts of the station, provided to us by the Ishimans, on the network. You may prepare your boarding parties, we arrive in four hours."

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

Darkk was having difficulty supressing the urge to try to take as many Cantharans with him as possible. He'd never liked being taken captive, even in excercises. Of course, in excercises it was a very good idea to "die" heroicly - usually he went out with explosives, Darkk remembered.

He sighed as the ship powered down and the crew filed off. Darkk had hoped they'd tried blasting the crowd of EVATs with full batteries, but he realized the wash would probably blind him until he could get eye regeneration and definitely kill Hrintz. Bah.

Darkk did not like to surrender. They marched the prisoners down into a primative lockup facility, obviously a secondary one. It still used metal bars to hold the prisoners in place, in this day and age! Bah, he wasn't getting anywhere near the respect as a captive. They really should take more precautions. He was annoyed they didn't consider him dangerous enough to warrent a forcefield door. Hmm. Iron bar door.

Irthantans were well known for the occasional burst of psychotic fury. Darkk began to bang on the bars with his arms, legs, ... head. After 34 bangs (he counted), he lost conciousness.

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

Darkk awoke in a standard Cantharan infirmary. At the foot of the bed stood a bored-looking Cantharan trooper with a high-power pulse rifle but no body armor except a vest and helmet. The trooper looked bored and inattentive. Also stupid, Darkk thought.

Irthantans had lost the retractable claws on their forefeet when those evolved into hands, but their HIND feet still had nice, sharp claws that retracted until you could hardly tell they were there. Nobody who knew better would stand at the FOOT of a hostile Irthantan's bed.

Darkk looked around. The only other being in the room was an elderly female Cantharan with a medic's uniform on. He couldn't see a single camera. "Boy, they really thought I was out," Darkk thought, "but we're made to take head blows."

Darkk extended his foot claws and kicked violently at the trooper's hands. They nearly came off, and of course the trooper dropped the rifle. Darkk scooped it up before it had fallen a decimeter and fried the alarm button the medic was rushing for.

Darkk promptly tossed both of the them into a conveniently located escape pod and fired it. Since it would be trying to evade asteroids for the next hour or so until it cleared the belt, it would be almost impossible to recover.

Darkk promptly popped open a ventilator shaft and got inside. Once again, his thinner and more flexible body meant he could move through spaces few other sentients could. Darkk soon began moving towards the docking bay. He could board the ship and fly it out. It was probably locked down, but Darkk's friends on the ^hack channel of Hypernet Relay Chat knew at least 23 ways around Ishiman warship lockdowns, even 915 series lockdowns.

He looked. The air vent only carried him within two corridors. He'd have to go out in the open, more or less. Darkk waited until the EVAT guarding the last opening of the vent looked down for a moment, then burst out and pushed him over.

Cantharan EVAT suits, having no neural interfaces and as a consequence being quite clumsy, cannot get up in under 70 seconds. Darkk took 3 seconds to pop a few rounds through a seam in the neck armor.

He promptly ran down the next corridor. He'd blast out, and trade the ambassador for the lives of all the Cantharans by threatening the station with the ship's guns.

Darkk repeated his knockdown trick, because he could hear the EVATs around corners and they couldn't sense him at all.

Soon, he was almost there. He looked around the landing bay, and popped the 2 EVATs guarding the ship through their neck seams using the rifle's scope. Suddenly, an image came up on the big screen.

Six Cantharan EVATs surrounded Hrintz and the other Ishiman on the flight in hexagonal formation, facing outward. It was obvious she was hostage. The EVATs didn't need to be facing them, they could blow them away and she would never resist. Any Irthantan would try to go down fighting rather than suffer the humiliation of being used as a hostage, but an Ishiman would always choose the safe-seeming path.

"Darkk! Give it up and come to primary lockup with no gun and your hands in the air or we'll fry your friends. Get inside to the ship and we blast it with the internal security cannons AND your friends here."

Darkk sighed. He'd have to go back. They meant it. But he knew by the way they arranged the circle, they intended to shoot him on sight.

He'd have to be clever. He climbed back into the air vents.

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

In the primary lockup, the Cantharans watched the door. When that a**wipe showed up, they'd blast him, surrendering or not. Suddenly, he heard a bang and the sound of "lock prisoner door 3" shouted in Cantharan.

Darkk had leaped out the air vent over cell 4 and jumped across the corridor to cell 3, then used the "anybody can seal the doors" feature of the locks to seal himself in safely.

The officer in charge of the squad was furious. The troopers didn't have the authority to open the locks. Only a guard or lockup officer could do that. But those two groups were so dang legalisic about everything. He could hear the lockup officer saying "We can't shoot him, it's against prisoner policy. We are prohibited from shooting him by the Military Prisoners Treaty."

He walked over to Darkk's cell. "Fine, buddy. If I ever get to shoot at you again, I'm going for the head. Or chest. Or neck. Whatever's convinient. And if I find you disabled, it's death by torture."

Darkk smiled. "I'm like the weather, my friend. Lots of people complain about me, but few ever really do much about me."

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

Bob and the three others rode the small pod through the asteroid field. The station was getting closer now, so they needed to be even more careful. Somewhere far off behind the four EVATs, The UNS Musgrove task force was laying low in a patch of interference, standing by for the EVATs to remove the station's radar masts so the UNS Pegasus could approach quietly and insert two platoons of marines onto the station. Of course by that time, Bob would have tried to secure the hostages, but that was a secondary concern. First he had to ensure that Pegasus had a clear approach.

"Lets take the rest on suit thrusters. Get your computers to calculate a trajectory and follow it. I want this smooth. Let's move, Marines."

The four EVATs jumped from the approach craft and their small thrusters altered their course enough for them to slide gingerly up to the underside of the station. They landed gently, as they always practiced, and crawled to the ventral radar array. Franklin, the squad engineer popped the front open and climbed inside, opening his pack to retrieve his electronics kit. In a few minutes of splicing, he placed a small signal generator in the place of the radar dish, and set it to "asteroids". He then got out, sealing the door behind him.

"That one's done, sir. One more on top, and the coast should be clear for the Musgrave."

"Mag, this is boarding team, we have eliminated the ventral radar assembly. Begin approach to the bottom side of the station to insert Caulfield's squad. We are proceeding to eliminate the main array. Lead out."

Bob switched back to the squad channel "Come on, lets take a short cut through the station. Its quicker this way."

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

Casper looked at his squad again. They were all sitting in the refectory, waiting for orders on this new mission. Decker broke his train of thought.

"Hey Cas, who do you think was stupid enough to go down there without an escort?"

They never told the 2nd HP Squad anything. They were the joke of Charlie Company. During training, they were all worst in the class. But when it came to the live fire excersizes, 2nd HP excelled. They had blown holes in most of the training station where the excersize was taking place, making it look like swiss cheese. They held up a position versus drones coming from all sides for an hour before the class officers decided to call them back.

It was hard work having to sit down and watch as the other troopers were sent into battle.

"I don't know Decks. But will it really matter? They're sending in Caulfield's squad, plus they already have Bob and some of his men."

A computerized voice came on over the intercom.

"2nd Squad of Heavy Platoon, report to debriefing room at once."

Casper looked puzzled. He had never actually seen the inside of the debriefing room of the Musgrave. This could be their big chance. He gave out a large grin.

"Let's move squad."

When the 2nd arrived in the debriefing room, several chuckles could be heard. Everyone thought they were confused and had missed the turn to the lavatories. That's when Caulfield spoke up.

"You all know Casper and his men. They'll be joining us in this mission. Since Parker and Johnes are still out of commision from the last mission, I want to make no mistakes this time. 2nd HP are the best squad of heavies we have, and it's about time we had them in battle."

Caulfield gave a slight smile to Casper as everyone turned around and gave unwanting stares. Casper didn't care about the others, what he cared about was that Caulfield had shown them respect. And that he appreciated.

Casper and his squad saluted Caulfield and took seats to hear about the mission.

The marines were all getting ready to get inside the ATRs. Casper had made sure that 2nd HP was fully set and prepped for optimum performance.

"This might be the only time we have to be in a real mission. Let's make it count."

With that, the marines loaded into the ATRs and prepared for take off.

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

Xitell fastened his sleek suit's joints. Zhorl-made suits were more mobile and less armored than human ones, and they also were works of craftsmanship, art. He examined his beamer rifle and popped in a battery chip, then checked his burst pistol and inserted a new plasma cartridge, then a fresh battery pack. The assembled pistol was a smooth, curved dull-silver masterpiece. He placed it in the holster at the small of his back. Then he flexed his forearms and his formidable talons popped out of the ventral slits in his wrists and through his suit gloves, whose material parted and re-sealed around them. Satisfied, he retracted his talons and slung his rifle over his back.

He looked over the beings under his command. His small squad was composed of types like him- individuals, rogues, troublemakers. Fewer than half were human. His squad had been assembled for one purpose: Tactical flexibility. Augmentation. They weren't the first in or the ones who dug in and held the ground, they were the ones who took out a trouble spot, worked apart from the main group, dealt with the unexpected.

"All right, beings," he said, beckoning them to their launch positions with their handholds in the ATR's bulkheads, "Stand by."

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

Bob waved the others across the hallway, then followed himself. He was proceeding with his squad to an acess shaft that ran vertically the height of the station. Once he got there, he could theoretically access anywhere he wanted to, particularly the station's central computer systems and the dorsal sensor structure. Once he had eliminated all of the station's comm equipment, the gunships could make their way in and surprise the Cantharaans before they could scramble assistance. Franklin had already cracked the internal security monitors from an office terminal, and had set them to loop old footage. It was the most he could do remotely, as he did not wish to arouse suspiscion, in case anyone was paying too close attention to the network logs.

The squad moved quietly now, with Nidoc cloaked, leading the way. Bob figured that if he could get Franklin direct acess to the ships server cluster, there was a good chance he could take control of most of the station's systems, giving the incoming marines an even bigger advantage.

The outer airlock doors opened with sixty meters to go. Mag just hoped that noone was looking in his direction. The sixty-odd marines slid from their airlocks and spread out into their approach pattern. They landed gingerly on the side of the station while Mag quietly fell back to hold station somewhere in the asteroid field.

As soon as feet hit the deck and electromagnetised boots stuck down to the hull, the squads assembled and proceeded to their entry points. Some where to be moving in through escape airlocks, some through docking ports, and still others would be making their own insertion points.

The 2nd HP Squad was assigned to split up, cut four entry points for two other squads, then rally, and stage an assault on the main landing bay as soon as the six other teams were waiting on insertion. The heavies would then move in and make a show of securing the Ishiman HVC. They would secure the launch bay with the help of most of second platoon. It was a difficult task, as the launch bay contained a large number of high-powered internal defence guns capable of destroying small ships. Once they had secured the launch bay and its control room, the light platoons would proceed inward, while the heavies held the large, open space as an LZ for the dropships.

The other squads would use the spearhead as a distraction so that they could move in on the station's engineering section, command and control room, and main brig. If possible, they would immediately breach and clear the room, rescuing the hostages and calling for evac. If not, the teams would clear the station, disarming and cuffing all personell, then proceed to clear the room with more intel and preparation.

So far, Xitell had been assigned to take the Command and Control Center, Sergeant Davies was assigned to take engineering with squads from first platoon while Lt. Caulfield would lead the strike on the detention center with two squads from his second platoon. The marines were already on the surface, proceeding to entrance points as stealthily as possible. In a few minutes, the assault on the landing bay would begin.

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

"Allright Mr. Darkk, I'm going to place this collar on you. Once I activate it, it blows up if a trooper or guard on the station dies. Now don't try to resist, the troopers behind me really want a chance to shoot you."

Irthantans really, really, really hated collars. They did not like any "pet" symbolism. They even refused to wear neckties. Darkk would have to NOT try to kill the guard. The troopers behind the guard would just shoot him, and that would be a silly way to die. They were wearing EVAT armor, so he couldn't really do anything to them even with his foot-claws. He sighed.

"Wait, what was that?" he thought. Something behind the brig door...

Suddenly, the brig door flew inward as if it had been blasted in, knocking over the troopers, and denting their EVAT armor. The guard raised his hands in the air, as if expecting this. Darkk pushed him into the hallway between the cells. "Hey Caulfield. What took you so long?"

"How the heck did you know it's me? We haven't even entered yet. Did you get loose and get that guy to surrender?"

"Your smell was all over for the past minute. I was sorta being worked on. You got rid of everybody bad here except the guard, who just put his hands up when you knocked."

Caulfield and his squad entered, and noted the heap of unconcious EVATs. "Good thing we used so much explosive."

Darkk snickered. "Great. Now we've got to get the others out of the cells, and make everybody vacuum ready. I hope you brought rescue bags, because standard Cantharan repel-boarders policy involves..."

Suddenly an announcement blared in Cantharan (which the marines spoke fairly well). "Attention. Boarders detected. All personell must vacuum enable or reach a lockdown area. Seal breach in 3 minutes."

Darkk grabbed one of the suits on the wall reserved for the guards. It fit fairly well, and certainly was better than a dang bag. He threw the guard into another one and removed its movement circuitry, then used his suit's built in welder to weld a jagged piece of metal over the slot for the circuitry to prevent it from being repaired. Then he used the lock feature on the suit to prevent anyone without Darkk's private key from removing it.

He then removed the control pannels on the cell with Hrintz and the others, and bridged some wires. The field dropped. The marines hurriedly placed them in rescue bags. 2 seconds later the room decompressed.

Yet another hairline escape from certain death.

------------------
"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 05-05-2002).)

As 2nd HP rallied together at their allotted way-point, Casper noticed something. They hadn't encountered any enemies yet. Casper shrugged it off. That wasn't his mission. They moved towards the docking bay.

They still hadn't seen any enemies when they got to the door of the docking bay.

"Okay, Shin, check the room for turret placements once I blow this door."

"Roger roger."

"Stand back."

Casper openned one of his compartments and pulled out some comp-d explosive. He stick it on the door, took a step back, and blew off the door. As the dust settled, buzzing and the motion of gears could be heard. The turrets were ready to shoot them as they came out.

Shin jumped up and changed his boot settings so that he would stay there. He stuck to the ceiling. Shin crawled over to the top of the door and peered over.

"All corners with two in between each."

This was tricky, Casper thought. They could stay by the door here and shoot off the outer-entrance side turrets. But for the turrets on their side, they had to get to a different location.

"Teronne, use your rocket launcher and take out those turrets."

Teronne walked up the wall, then on to the ceiling and took a position next to Shin. He peered over quickly to see where the turrets were. He stuck his launcher over the side and positioned it. Shin got behind it as to lesten the recoil. He fired. The turret could be heard dropping to the floor, destroyed.

Teronne had destroyed all the turrets on the other side of the bay. Now they had to get a new position to get the last four turrets.

Casper brought up his HUD and checked the schematics of the facility. He sent the route to the rest of his squad and they were off. Suddenly, Caulfield radioed to him.

"Casper, how are things going over there?"

"Well, sir, we're relocating to a different position so we can take out the remaining turrets."

"Good to hear, we'll be at your position soon."

"Sir? Have you encountered any enemy troops yet?"

"Hmm, only the guards here at the prison. Why do you ask?"

"Because we haven't found any either, and I-"

Casper was cut off short from gunfire ahead of him.

"Casper? What's going on?"

"We've found the enemy sir."

There was a t-junction ahead, so the enemies were probably ready on both sides. Casper lifted up his arms and started firing grenades into both halls. Shouts were heard with scampering feet. He hadn't let the grenades detonate yet, so they were safe.

"On my mark, run in."

As Casper let the grenades explode, he yelled go. Using the explosion's dust and debris as a cover, 2nd HP ran up to the junction. Casper and Decker on the left and Shin, Teronne, and Lords on the right. The Cantharans weren't expecting that to happen, especially from five men. The first row of enemies were mowed down by shells, while the rest fell back into rooms on both sides of their halls.

"Lords, Decker, take up sides on this door, Shin, Teronne, you take the other door."

Casper stood in the middle, both arms ready to fire off grenades and flames into the opposite hallways. That's when he got shot in the back. The heavy armor deflected the shot easily, but Casper was still furious. He turned around and let loose with the gatling cannon. He could see the Cantharan's eyes fill with terror as their comrades were riddled with shells. Casper could hear his men shouting to eachother, indicating that they were busy too. Casper began to push forward, putting down the gattling cannon and changing to flamethrowers. The intensity of the flames almost blinded the Cantharan troops, and they clumsily fell further back. But Casper kept on pushing. While flaming, he shot grenades behind the enemy EVATs. He pushed them further back and right into his trap. He blew the grenades and took out their entire unit in that corridor.

Casper looked behind him and could see laser bolts zipping across the hall. He ran back to the junction. His sedatives kicked in and he became focused. from his corridor of the junction, he bounced grenades off the opposite walls and into the enemy ranks. He blew them up as more screams of agony were heard.

"PUSH UP!!"

2nd HP stood from their positions on the sides of the doors and ran out at the enemy troops. The Cantharans were stunned by the quickness of their opponents, especially since they were heavy suits. Casper smiled to himself as he could hear his men blasting the opponents into nothing. That's when he passed out.

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Beware My Big Stick

In the Musgrave's tactical room, the heads of the mission were looking over the data from the marines and forming strategies when one of the sensors officers signaled for their attention. They were working furiously to plot out the locations of the Cantharan EVATs and come up with some strategies to try out, so they ignored him and kept planning. He threw a pen at one of them, and it bounced of the commander's head. He ran over to the sensors officer, furious.

"What is it?!?" Despite his anger, he was able to avoid any unnecessary hostility in such a tight situation.

"Our sensors just barely managed to pick up a jumpgate. I'm guessing that there have actually been several, but the Cantharans are using the asteroids to hide them."

"What all came out of the jumpgate?"

"Something cloaked."

The commander cursed, then turned on the comm to the bridge. "Captain, be ready for some cloaked cruisers and such to come through this field on a sweep."

"Aight. I'll deploy the fighters and get the fleet in a defensive formation. All you folks in the tactical room, get ready for some battling." The comm switched off. The commander walked back over to the sensors officer.

"Thanks. Report everything else you find to the captain."

"Aye, sir." The sensors officer went back to his screen, and the commander walked back to the table to confer with the other commanders.

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Ron, the Pegasus's officer for everything that wasn't combat-related (like a pilot or gunner), noticed a sheet of paper rolling out of the printer at his desk. He glanced at the top of it. "Captain. Message for you."
Captain Kobayashi jogged over and grabbed the paper. He read over it. "Hey, Mag. Pull into formation." He handed the paper to Mag as well, so Mag would know the full situation. As the ship started turning, the captain opened up the comm to the gunners, Alice and Harvard Anderson. "Alice, Harvard, be ready for some incoming hostiles." Though the Pegasus wasn't designed for ship to ship combat, it actually worked okay for it, and its crew was planning on being more helpful than the other ATRs.

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"Cleanliness is evil. Embrace the mess!"

Two of the standard ATRs began to turn towards a larger, stable asteroid.
"Look, we know when and where we're needed. Right now we're needed down there. Mobile Ops should be able to fortify our position quick enough to maintain some skeleton resistance, and it's better than anything we can do ourselves."

On touchdown, 25 Mobile Ops EVATs burst out of the hull and began to assemble the portions of the base they carried, with Lt. Faolain barking out orders.
"Lambda, Set up your power cores, scattered as usual. Kappa, four to a core. Standard defensive pattern, nothin' new t' see here."

Within a minute, there were 5 shielded defensive emplacements scattered on the surface. Mobile Ops regrouped and was ready for new orders.
"Only one way to go, and that's down. Ready!"

Usually used for cutting through thick metal doors, the blowtorches that all Mobile Ops men carried now turned towards the surface of the metal asteroid. While slow, they managed to cut out a decently sized and obscured hole within a couple minutes, and continued to hollow out a base from there.

"Marbhfaisc Ort!", Lt. Faolain yelled to the sky, and disappeared into the hollows.

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"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."

The fleet pulled into a formation that allowed them to get the maximum advantage out of the emplacements on the asteroid.

The Pegasus had deployed its ten combat drones and two tanks. The combat drones had jumped over to the Musgrave, as the fighters would make good jump points for movement - movement based on converging at one cantharan ship, and boarding it. The Pegasus itself was sitting somewhat by itself, near the asteroid.

The standard ATRs were using regular UNS combat policy - they had formed a clump. They would function as a psychotically powerful one-use missile launching system, and their combined regular firepower would be decent.

The Musgrave was innocently parked a bit farther from the asteroid, as a lure. It's fighters were ready to scramble. The fleet had its guns trained in that direction. The Cantharans would hopefully center on the Musgrave, attempting to take it down, and the fleet could surprise them.

The science vessel had landed inside what had been completed of the base that had been dug by Mobile Ops and powered down. The Ishimans knew how effective science vessels were in combat.

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

37 minutes after the turrets had been placed, a lone cruiser's shimmer was seen making its way toward the Musgrave. The fighters scrambled, and the Musgrave started firing on it, when it jumped out. The fleet didn't want to fire on such a small foe, as it wasn't worth a single cruiser to give away their position.

Shortly after the cruiser had left, a good number of superlight flares were seen. The Cantharan fleet uncloaked all at once. It numbered fourteen cruisers, three heavy cruisers, and two heavy destroyers. They obviously expected that there was more to the fleet than just the Musgrave. The two HVDs had dropped out on either side of the armed asteroid, hoping to use it for cover as they made their attack run. As the HVDs were lining themselves up, however, the asteroid and the Pegasus opened fire. Two turrets from the station and one 16-inch shell gun from the Pegasus on each of them. By the time their pilots reacted, it was too late, and the HVDs were easily dispatched.

After the HVDs had been dealt with, the 6 remaining fighters did a quick, temporary dock with the Musgrave. The Musgrave then made a short superlight jump to the asteroid, and again launched its fighers to engage the fleet.

The Cantharans, now satisfied that they knew what the rest of the Musgrave's fleet was, turned and headed towards the asteroid in an all-out assault. They met a face-full of missiles. All of the cruisers dodged, but they were just too close and there were too many of them to be able to effectively dodge most of the missiles. Four of the cruisers exploded. The rest engaged their superlight boosters and reformed a ways back.

They made a formation in the shape of a plus stretched over a dome, with the top of the dome away from the asteroid, and began closing in. The fighters, the Musgrave, and the Pegasus all charged, each for a different branch. The asteroid fired on the fourth branch, and the ATRs charged the middle.

The Pegasus had two fusion pulse reactors, which, when combined with its concussion missile bay, gave it more forward-only firepower than a heavy cruiser. Mag engaged in dogfights while Alice and Harvard "Cap'n Harvy" Roeder fired the shell gun turrets at anything in their fields of fire - Alice had 180 degrees to the left, Cap'n Harvy had the 180 degrees to the right. Generally, the unmaneuverability of the Pegasus made chasing the crusiers difficult, but its missiles meant that the cruisers had to spend a lot of time dodging that could have been dedicated to pulling into a more strategic position.

Captain Kobayashi kept an eye on the combat drones. The UNS was beginning to test them for EVA combat against ships, now, as their jumping ability was amazing. They sprung about, jumping off of the various ships and asteroids, using their programming to set a trap for one of the heavy cruisers. Its pilot was particularly good, so Kobayashi had sic'ed them on it. They would soon arrive at it.

The Cantharan formation desintigrated pretty quickly, with the task force's tactics. Each part of the plus had had to react to some sort of heavy resistance, and so the battle had become a confused fray. The fighter pilots were flying very well, and four had managed to survive for quite some time, actually managing to take down one of the cruisers, and pestering many of the other cruisers that had found good positions to the point where said cruisers had to disengage their ideal target to go futiley chasing after the fighters.

The Musgrave was acting as a powerful battle platform. Its laser turret was being trained on whichever of two chosen cruisers was nearest at any given moment, and those two cruisers were showing signs of the continued fire. Whenever any ships flew in front of the Musgrave, that ship would get a powerful smacking from the Musgrave's magneto cannons.

The ten combat drones had converged on their assigned HVC, and began cutting their way in delicately, careful not to disturb the ship's sensors. They evenly cut out the edges of a large 10-gon until the air pressure inside the ship blew that section of the hull off. It swirled off into space, the Cantharans that had been in the breached room following it closely. The combat drones each mounted one leg upside-down on the wall inside the room for better leverage as they peeked their main bodily parts (no real name for them) into the room, scanning for defenses. Two defense turrets, one on each of the side walls to the room, began swivelling on them. One grenade each took care of them, and the drones proceeded to walk around the walls/floor/ceiling of the room until they had approached the door on the far side from the hull breach, and began to hack the lock.

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

In the Musgrave's command room, the sensors officer quickly grabbed the commanders' attention. "I've got two jumpgates, with three ATRs from each of them. They're heading for the station."

After a quick poll, they decided to dispatch the Pegasus to intercept the ATRs and ward off the EVATs of any that made it in, while the rest of the fleet would keep the Cantharan cruisers busy.

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"Cleanliness is evil. Embrace the mess!"

(This message has been edited by Mag Steelglass (edited 05-05-2002).)

Xitell's squad pushed slowly toward the control room of the station. As they approached the main doors to the place he saw two pillbox-like fortifications jutting from the walls. each defense station was armed with a medium repeating pk cannon plus whatever small arms the Canths had. It was a long, wide corridor with no cover and only a few side passages.

"Jennek, Torvau, give me some cover."

"Gotcha, 'Tell."
"I read you." Two marines, one human and one of a species Xitell wasn't really sure of, with power suits, opened up with heavy energy cannons and explosive shells that exploded against the armored walls with little effect. Heavy pk bolts came flying down the corridor, missing their targets. "The rest of you, follow my lead." Xitell took a sparkler grenade, a handy trinket from the weapon smiths of the Myakara race, and tossed it with all his might down the corridor. It was caught in the crossfire about ten feet before the fortifications and exploded in a special shaped charge that sent a blinding, multi-colored light, intense heat and all manner of electromagnetic disturbances at the fortified Cantharans. Xitell leapt down the corridor followed by his buddies. Some of his more agile companions leapt off the walls or the ceiling. They all reached side corridors before the light dissipated.

It was then that the sparkler grenade revealed its darker purpose. Millions of fragments of filmy material with life-form sensors drifted down from the explosion. Certain ones glowed brightly. The Canths probably thought the light was more distracting material, but Xitell knew perfectly well. He slung up his beamer rifle and pressed the firing button. An emerald-hued beam surged forth and went straight through one of the glowing pieces. Sure enough, he heard the sound of reinforced armored plastic shattering and the hiss of a Cantharan. His squadmates had similar successes and the heavy covering marines reached the Cantharan positions and punched through what little transparent cover remained, taking out the rest of the defenders. Finally all the debris cleared.

Xitell planted charges on the doorseams and a few on no particular place for good measure. The squad took cover in the side halls as intense heat melted through the door's critical points. The door fell down and Xitell got a view of the command center before weapons fire started screaming out once again.

His squad overran the control room. Without warning, a hidden, lightly-armored defender leapt from behind and pulled Xitell's arm behind his back, placing a weapon up against his back. He apparently wanted to bargain for Xitell's life. Xitell noticed that the Cantharan was holding his arm not too far from the Cantharan's own arm.

Xitell's talon popped out and straight through the Cantharan's wrist. He dropped his weapon and Xitell spun around and drove his talon into the Canth's neck.

"Lead, this is Xitell. Control room is secure."

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

(All of Charlie Company's suits are powered. Unpowered suits are only worn because normal powered ones are clumsy, but the 515th Regiment has neural laces, so our powered suits are agile. Hoooray!)

Bob and his squad had gotten to the central server cluster, and were covering the exits while Franklin busily installed the data taps that the Ishimans had requested. Bob was hearing postive reports from all over. The main spearhead, lead by HP2, had managed to draw nearly all of the enemies, so that the other asssault teams had managed to take their own objectives, then encircle and eliminate the majority of the Cantharaans, locking them in the brigs and welding them shut. As soon as scanning teams had cleared the station, Bob would be able to declare it secure.

Right now, Bob was more worried about getting cabin pressure back online. His men didn't really want to have to kill the enemies locked in the security strongpoints, and right now, the easiest way in was with explosives. Franklin was working on the computer to change that.

Just then, the captain of the Musgrave raised him over the comlink, updating him on the trouble outside, and of the incoming boarding parties. He cursed, then called up his entire boarding party on the comm.

"Allright marines, we are about ready for company. Three Cantharaan ATRs have just entered the system to board and recapture the station. I want this place's external weapons online, and I want all main access points covered. Xitell, we're about to give you command acess to the stations defense and ops systems. Lock this place down!"

Bob turned to Franklin. "Finish up here. Stay with Nidoc and when you finish hacking that system, give acess to us, and weld the doors shut. I'm sure Caulfield and I will have cooked up another assignment for you by then. Good luck."

Bob took the other member of his team and moved out to the command center, where Caulfield had set up a rallying point and an aidstation. The rest of the marines were setting up defences and locking down doors to create strategic choke points. Bob was hoping that he could get the station's weaponry online. It was so much easier to kill Evats before they launched than trying to take them down inflight, or while they were on the station.

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