The deck shook just as he was about to fire. Almost causing his shot to go wide. His quick augmented reflexes allowed him to compensate and three blue bolts of concentrated particle energy slammed into his target a moment later. The burst burned through the massive alien lizard leaving charred flesh in its wake.

Thankfully it was the last one here. Giving them a bit of a breather. Since hitting the armory they had been making their way towards the Docks. Only running into the Cathamari twice since then not counting this squad. It helped now that both Eri and Tika were outfitted with plasma rifles. Krall plasma weapons were somewhat different from Cathamari designs. Tika had introduced them as the Kesi-7. It was a reliable rifle favored by ship security and marines, and as such she was somewhat familiar with it. It fired a variable yield phased plasma pulse. It featured both single fire, and burst firing modes. As for the yield, it had several variable settings. At setting one, it would stun the target. Setting two was also meant to stun, but intended for larger targets and may kill a smaller target outright. Setting three was the final stun setting, and intended for really large targets such as an elephant, at least that is how he understood it. Right now Tika and Eri had their rifles set to setting three. At that setting it was quite lethal to the Cathamari, and was not powerful enough to blow out any bulkheads. It had five more yield settings above that setting, and three of those were powerful enough to blow out the bulkheads. Apparently the highest setting could even vaporize a person.

They seemed to be an impressive set of small arms. Thankfully the Krall weren’t built too differently from Humans so, they were also able to use them. Cathamari weapons were awkward to use, not to mention heavy. Likely a consequence of the fact that the Cathamari were enormously strong, and could lift those heavy weapons easily. If they were allowed, he would like to study one, but he had little doubt that Ruri was taking detailed scans of everything they could see. He already had detailed scans of the IKS Teketh, and they had scans of his ship. So in that regard they were coming away fairly even, although he suspected they got the better deal.

After one last glance down the corridor, he inquired, “Anyone have an idea of what shook the station?”

Tika looked around, “Not sure, but that felt like an explosion, and a fairly powerful one at that.”

He agreed, but no one else seemed to know what caused it. Although he had a bad feeling about that explosion. Thankfully the dock was just a few meters further down the corridor. It did however seem, that this squad wasn’t the only group of troops in the area, as he could hear the sound of particle fire, and Cathamari plasma weapons. Some of his marines must be engaged defending the docks.

They hurried down the corridor, aas safety wasn’t that far, and turned a corner that led them right into the large bay that linked to the gangway to the Enterprise. At a glance he noticed several barricades had been set up, and he also saw a few heavy gun positions set up. The advent of modern infantry armor had rendered the machine guns of old obselete, but by no means was their role rendered obsolete. The ability to rapidly lay down fire was still highly valued by militaries everywhere. The HPL-400 was the current weapon of choice for this role, it had two distinct firing modes, and was a versatile heavy ground weapon. Often mounted on vehicles or ground-placed emplacements. There was also a lighter version of the weapon that was meant for use as a heavy squad weapon.

The HPL 400 in its primary firing mode could unleash a highly accurate and deadly stream of particle fire, while its secondary firing mode was slower, and unleashed a powerful anti-tank particle pulse. It could fire 2400 bolts per minute, which is twice as fast as an XR-471, and each bolt is also slightly more powerful than that of XR-471. In secondary mode it fires at a mere 450 bolts per minute, but the focused particle stream is much more powerful and able to punch through tank armor. Although its only a threat to lighter tanks, and it is outperformed by more specialized weapons in that role.

At the moment he could see three positions that had been set up to cover the entrances to the docking bay. Each one behind a barricade that would protect the marine manning the weapon. He aslo noted flanking those marines, were another set of marines wielding MPL-400s the lighter cousin of the HPL-400. The MPL-400 was a heavy squad weapon, it fired weaker pulse at a lower but still respectable 1800 bolts per minute, and it also featured a heavy anti-tank pulse for its secondary firing mode. Again it was slower in that mode at 337.5 bolts per minute, but the yield was still quite respectable.

From what he could see, they were using the weapons to suppress several squads of attacking Cathamari soldiers. Although they were still managing to shoot back, but were unable to close enough to use their grenades. He even noted a few marines closing on the positions of those pinned troops, using anything they could to conceal their movements. At the moment the position facing them was suppressing another squad of Cathamari that they had come up behind. Countryman checked his weapon, he still had a few shots left, but the power cell was running low.

He took position, and fired into the back of a Cathamari soldier. The chief fired at a second. In a couple of seconds the flanked squad was dead, and the path forward was clear. For the moment anyway, that could change quickly. Especially since he didn’t know how many of the scaly bastards had managed to get aboard, but from what he had seen so far it must have been a fair number, possibly a full contingent if not more. He had little doubt someone was going to lose their job over this. As this wasn’t a small security breach.

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In the meantime, he signaled for the group to move forward. He figure now was the best chance they were going to get, and he would rather not risk another group of the scally bastards coming up from behind them. Especially not in the same manner his own group had just come up on some of the lizards.

They hurried across the gap to the barricades, passing the heavy duty crates the Cathamari had been using for cover. They were pretty shot up, and might not have held up much longer anyway. They were filled with burn holes from particle blasts, from the looks of it, the nly reason they hadn’t failed early was due to the cargo, some kind of rock.

Tika must have caught his questioning look. “Erudite Ore. Not very useful in its raw state, but when refined its quite valuable. Used in ship armor for obvious reasons, but its not as wide spread as Duranium or Tritanium due to its rarity, and the cost to manufacture. It does alloy quite well with Tritanium however, so many capital ships use Tritanium-Erudite alloy in their hull plating, especially heavy combatants.”

“Interesting. Those scaly bastards should consider themselves lucky that stuff was in those crates.” replied Countryman while making a note to see if he couldn’t acquire some of the stuff. They had some stuff to trade, although he planned to review what they had. It might prove useful in producing an enhanced hull alloy, and that might prove useful. Of course they might have to find their own source of the ore to really make use of anything using it. Afterall it sounded like this ore was both rare and expensive. With that in mind, they might have a hard time acquiring the ore, and synthetic production might be out of the question. It would depend on the requirements for that.

As they were reaching the barricade, she stated, “Not really. Illeria is the foremost producer of the ore in the sector, and the fifth largest supplier in the Imperium. Just one more reason why this world is important.”

“I see.”

Before their conversation could continue, a Marine with a commander’s marking on his armor approached. “Ah, sir! Glad to see you made it back. General Forest was starting to get worried, and was organizing a search party.”

He looked arround, and saw the general in question, in his armor exiting the gangway with a few marines. “I can see that. Has Williams made it back yet?”

The marine shook his head, “No we haven’t seen her.”

“I guess that party may still be needed. I’m going to go and talk with the General.”

The Marine nodded, and let him go on. The General was the head of his marine contingent, and was one of the highest ranking people on his ship. Technically he outranked everyone else, and had previously been assigned to Star Tech HQ. Given the importance of the facility a general had been assigned to command the local contingent. That garrison now made up the troop complements of his three ships. Well most of it, they had picked up a few marines from other ships as well.

He reached general Forest a moment, later. The general noticed his presence, and said, “Glad to see you made it back alright sir. I was just about to send these marines here to find you.”

“I heard. I’ve also heard that Williams hasn’t made it back yet.”

“You want me to go find her? Are you sure about that?”

“Unfortunately, as much as I would prefer otherwise, it would be better if she made it back alive. We have lost too many to the lizards as it is, and we don’t need another burial.”

“I understand. I’ll make sure she gets back here alive.”

Forest quickly organized his squad, and headed out. Countryman would ahve preferred he stayed here, but he knew Forest. He was a lead from the front kind of guy. It was also why, the General had a special suit of armor. His black and silver suit of heavy personal armor was the best mankind could produce. Like most examples of marine armor it functioned like an exosuit, enhancing the wearer's speed, and strength. However it had a few extra layers of protection, and a much more robust power pack, one able to store more energy for the armor. As such he could be int he thick of battle, but would be better protected than the average marine. When one consider that the average marine was already a nigh unstoppable force on the battlefield, this armor made its wearer a natural juggernaut among juggernauts. It also had a few extra gizmos, some of which were being phased into standard marine armor. One of those was the integrated wrist cannons, complete with their own power cells. Those cells were rechargeable and designed to be field swappable if needed. The cannons were intended as a quick back-up weapon, and those marines that had them loved them. His own EX-94 was a modification of the cannon Forest had, and he had two of them. Forest had the base model, but it was still a potent side arm.

Among the other gizmos he had, was a set of micro-pulse wave thrusters. On the ground they gave him an assisted jump, but in microgravity they allowed for limited flight. They were not recommended for extend use, due to their power draw. Still they were quite useful, and had been included on other models of armor. They were even being considered as being made standard. Due to the mobility advantages, they provided. His best gizmo was the full tactical heads up display, and the robust comms system installed in his armor. That was what allowed him to lead from the front, and keep in contact with the rest of his units.

Seeing the defense was going well, he turned to Tika, and Eri who had caught up with him. The chief having joined his fellows already in defending the docks. “Let's head on inside, and get to the bridge. Hopefully Greyman knows more about what is going on.”

Tika and Eri nodded, and he led the way into the ship.