The landing was rough. The Grrrrelen had much more aggressive ship tactics and the collusion was jarring as they punched through the target's hull. The humans or Tarlaki would have clamped on and cut a hole, but that took too long and gave too much warning to their new allies.

Once everyone had unclipped, they were in action right away. Sevs and team had landed right next to a squad of Grrrelen and immediately moved to cover them. The Tarlaki were completely unprepared in this area, and Sevs and the team could quickly take out the couple of guards that tried to engage them. After that, they turned to help their allies, but the Grrrrrrrrrelen had no need. Sometimes they forgot that these were capable fighters, too, if not on the same level. They were far beyond bots.

Meeting up in the middle of the hall, Sevs and the Grrrrrrrelen commander exchanged quick words before going down the tunnel to the left. Their objective was one of communication relays to prevent any real details from escaping. After that, they were just to clear the station before destroying it on their way out.

Sevs wasn't sure why they needed to clear the station if they were trying to destroy it anyways. Maybe it had to do with not letting the word get out. It seemed wasteful and risky. If they were worried about survivors, Sevs could save them the trouble. They would never get everyone. Eventually, someone would find out what happened here. It was just if the sides would already have committed to their conflict before they could take anything back.

He assumed that other teams were going after the escape pod bays.

After the last time they had to take a Tarlaki facility, the fight was harder than they were used to. Not because the Tarlaki defenses were any better but because they had the Grrrrrelen. Because they didn't respawn, it turned a joint mission into an escort quest. And if the humans wanted to keep the respawning under wraps for now, they also couldn't die. They wouldn't have to be hidden for a while if they did.

At least that was the guidance that Sevs had got for now. So as they traveled, it was in a shell formation with the Grrrrrrelen in the middle. This was a situation that no one was really happy with, and Sevs had immediately regretted teaming up with them rather than going their own ways.

He hoped that they could integrate quickly and find the duties they were best at because the current situation wasn't tenable long-term.

So far, they had only met light resistance as this wasn't a military installation. Still, once the two militaries engaged in the peace talks were alerted, the danger would pick up. Sevs just hoped that they would blame each other and their work would be done for them. He had low confidence that this would work, but he agreed it was worth a shot.

After a while, they reached the door. Bexy blew it out of the slot, and they took the room easily. Too easily. Sevs was starting to think that something was wrong. They let the Grrrrrrelen in to do the actual contentions. Soshal joined them to make sure that the humans had info on what was actually going on.

***

They didn't take long to finish the work in the comms room. Soshal came out and made eye contact with Sevs. He received a quick message from her. "They have control of the comms, but something isn't right. The data of the two parties' landing was wrong. I checked the bays it said they docked at, but the ships there at the time were just cargo ships."

"Any idea of what those ships were carrying? Were they registered with the system?"

"No, and no."

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"Did the Grrrrrrelen notice anything was wrong? Did you tell them?"

Soshal just shook her head. Sevs sighed and thought about what to do. This was starting to feel more and more like a trap. But whose trap was it?

Had the Tarlaki leaked information to get the Grrrrrelen to come here, or was it the Grrrrrrrrrrrrelen who was setting them up? Sevs couldn't ask commands for what to do in time. So he would have to figure out what to do himself.

As they moved through the halls, they let the Grrrrrelen take the lead. In the meantime, a service began talking to the other commanders to see if they noticed anything weird. So far, everything has been going to plan, and their allies showed no signs of deception. Everyone was now on high alert. At least the humans were.

Sure, if they were double-crossed here, it would suck, but unless they got the ship as well, it wouldn't matter. However, if the Tarlaki were trapping them, their nascent alliance would probably crumble very quickly.

They didn't have to wait long. Apparently, when they were trying to clear a few large warehouses, they had run into resistance. Much heavy resistance in the head anywhere else.

Soon a flood of Tarlaki was spilling out of these stations, trying to push back the boarding parties. They're pushed back but not nearly defeated as they might have been otherwise. The way the Grrrrrelen reacted was enough to convince Sevs that they were just as surprised as the humans.

He bet that the Tarlaki hadn't counted on the humans joining, and this was a trap just for their new allies. Quickly they communicated the new situation to the allies and began retreating. The presence of the humans made the attack progress much faster than expected. Certainly much faster than the enemies that cut off guard had expected. This means most of the charges were in place, and information was sent out from the station.

The station likely never was actually a meeting place for two different factions. However, they weren't sure how deep the cover went, and maybe this would still send some confusing signals, but he doubted it. All they'd really be able to do now was a hit-and-run on a minor target. Teams were starting to become overrun, especially those that had to travel the farthest from The landing points, but they were making sure to get everyone they could back to the ships so they could extract before the whole thing blew.

Any idea that they had of clearing the whole station and taking extra time to investigate its secrets and possible confidential information was gone. Not that I would likely help, as it was probably sanitized in preparation for this trap. Sevs only hoped that the fleet was still okay. He hadn't heard back from command ever since they sent them off.

When they got to their ships, there was an issue. One of the downsides to punching through the ship instead of attaching to the outside was that it was harder to get out. Normally this wouldn't be too big of a deal; however, it was a very large deal if you were trying to run while being chased off the ship. Seth wasn't sure how the Grrrrelen normally took care of this. Still, he had to figure out their tactics to either complete the mission or they would all be dead because there was no chance that they would be able to escape with this method. At least not promptly.

Once they got to the attack pods, the Grrrrrrrrelen started to work on getting it freed while Sevs's team pushed out to choke points to hold back the wave of Tarlaki that swarmed over the ship now. After a few minutes, he requested an update from the Grrrrelen.

It will be several more minutes, Human. Came the response. Sevs wondered what the problem was. If it was him, he would have Bexy blasting it free. He bet she could have it free in under a minute, but there might be a reason it took them so long. After the Tarlaki started their attack, Sevs was sure that the Grrrrrrrelen wasn't about to turn on them now.

After a couple more minutes with no call back to the ship, he asked again. This time offering assistance. A few moments passed with no reply, and Sevs heart pounded, fearing betrayal. We are ready, Humans. Fall back.

Sevs called out the retreat, and his group streamed back to the ship, no longer lodged in the station's hull. The ship had backed out and floated a few inches from the station. One at a time, the team jumped the gap and safely landed on the other side.

Sevs was the last one off. As they streamed back to their ships, he got an order to pass along to Bexy. Behind them, the station started to shake and convulse as all the demolition experts set off the presents they left behind.