"There's nothing I can say that will stop you from going, is there?" Grey asked as Ali handed him a tablet with their mission plan on it.

"You can force me to actually disobey a direct order, but no," Ali confessed. Regardless of her current standing within USEP right now, for all intents and purposes she was treating him as her commanding officer. And she respected him too much to lie to him now, and she knew he knew her well enough to know it would be a lie.

Grey sighed and turned to the plan she had just handed him. "Make your case."

"I've got years of combat experience and technical know-how. Not to mention the telepathy that got us here. I also have too much zero-g, zero-atmo experience as well - and yes I know all USEP members get that training. I'm far more useful on the ground - as it were - than helping remotely."

Grey sighed, his eyes flicking between her and the tablet. Ali stared him down. She had rehearsed her argument to ensure it was reasonable and rational, knowing that if it wasn't he would have a legitimate reason to ground her. "Okay then. Nikud has recommended Lieutenant Ala'tuk Pol lead the ground teams, you'll be her second in command, but I want you to work together."

"Are you suggesting that I don't play nicely with others?"

"I do know you, Ali," Grey teased as she gave him a far too innocent look. "And just how many arguments did you have with Ben when you met?"

"At least half of them were him just threatening to throw me in the brig," Ali shrugged as if it were no big deal. Honestly, at the time it had only served to amuse her and still did. "I'll go and meet Ala'tuk now, so long as she has a good head on her shoulders I'm sure we'll be fine." Ali was about to leave, then paused. "Do we get a medic?"

"I considered it, but because you'll be in close quarters combat and we don't have any medics aboard with what I'd class as significant war zone experience, Narla and I decided against it. The assembled team has a decent amount of first aid knowledge, so should be able to stabilise anyone till you can get out." Ali nodded, that made sense, but it was always good to check these things before it became critical.

~-x-~

"Okay, that's everyone checked," Ali declared once they had finished the double checks on an ensign's spacesuit, even though their plan no longer involved any zero-g or vacuum exposure, they were going in prepared for every iteration of the plan they'd come up with. It was safer that way. Especially when Ali had pointed out that if she were running an illegal operation and a USEP ship managed to get a team on board that she'd depressurise sections to stop them.

"Right, run through the comm check then we're ready to go," Ala'tuk confirmed. That was as simple as Ala'tuk running through names and indicating each in turn for them to respond with their comm strength. "Did anyone not hear a response? Or a weak one."

"No, ma'am," everyone replied.

Ala'tuk opened her comm. "Bridge, this is boarding party, we're good to go once you give us the signal, sir."

"Roger, boarding party, we've initiated contact. Stand by."

The waiting was anxiety inducing. Ali was focusing on the screen on her scanner, it wasn't really powerful enough to tell her anything useful, but it was better than trying to avoid eye contact with the other occupants of the beamer room. Ala'tuk had her gaze fixed on the beamer console and her short trunk jiggled with impatience.

Suddenly their comms flared to life with a flicker of static. "Target's engines and shields are disabled. They're dead in the water," Grey reported. "Boarding party, you are good to go."

Ready to go, the beamer operator initiated the transfer on the confirmation signal from Ala'tuk and they rematerialised at the predesignated coordinates. Once solidified the entire team secured their surroundings and that their flank was covered.

"What does the welcome party look like?" Ala'tuk asked once she'd confirmed her team were secure, and spotted that Ali still had her scanner in a hand.

"Nothing a grenade won't fix," Ali replied, sharing a knowing look with the other woman. It was hard to tell through the spacesuit, but Ala'tuk's trunk gave a little amused twitch at that.

One of their seven personnel opened the door for their buddy to toss a grenade through it, only to seal it again to protect them from the blast. Once the detonation registered on Ali's scanner, Ala'tuk gave the order for them to proceed. Everyone had already been briefed on their mission and strategy. First priority was finding their missing crew members, after that it was to secure the ship's systems and then any personnel they found.

They were looking at five decks in total, though the engines spanned the whole five at the back of the ship. Overall it was probably only about twice the size of Ali's old ship the Hotpot. That meant that the number of people aboard exceeded normal occupancy, hopefully that had resulted in some cabin fever that would result in sloppier security work. Though Ali knew they were unlikely to be that lucky. The corridors would work in their favour, natural bottlenecks meant that their enemies superior numbers wouldn't be instantly overwhelming, so long as they played it smart.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Just like Touchard's base, Ali told herself. Not that she'd been wanting to repeat the incident. Hell, how many heists had she pulled off during her loner years?

Before they had left the Endeavour Ali and Mishri had pre-loaded the seven biometrics into her scanner, so that it would highlight those for easier searching. "Which way?" Ala'tuk asked once her people had quickly dispatched the security presence left from the grenade.

"We need to go up a level," Ali explained, before taking a pot shot at a guard, who had come around the corner with the hopes of surprising them, with her pistol. "There's a lot of movement," she added as she watched the schematics of the ship build up as her scanner collected data. "That way," she added, pointing with her left hand - the one with the scanner in - down the corridor that had been behind her.

There weren't any security guards between them and the lift because they had split into groups to waylay them at their beam in point, then protect what they were after. Ala'tuk hit the controls before snorting furiously as they turned an angry red colour. "Locked," she grumbled.

"Not surprising," Ali admitted, gently pressing on Ala'tuk's arm to nudge her out of the way so that she could pop off the nearby junction cover to expose the security interface. "They've put multiple layers of encryption over the ship's main computer cores, I might be able to hack it, but it'll take time."

"Any other options?" Ala'tuk asked.

"Maintenance crawl ways," Ali replied. "A ship this size has to wind it's systems throughout the living spaces. There'll be multiple access points on this level alone."

"Then we take those."

"Just a minute, I want to run a little interference first," Ali replied, her eyes still glued to the screen she'd uncovered as she tapped away. "Okay, done," she announced a moment later before replacing the panel.

"What did you do?" Ala'tuk asked after Ali indicated to their nearest access point.

"Uploaded a really rudimentary decryption algorithm and set it running."

"Why? We're not coming back here."

Ali chuckled. "It wouldn't matter if we were, it's not going to actually crack them this century." Ali could sense Ala'tuk's confusion without the tuthum vocalising it. "It might cause a useful distraction, and if it doesn't, we haven't lost anything."

Getting into the maintenance space was easy enough, moving around in them was less so. As Ali had said, small ships didn't have the luxury of spare space, so they only have the minimum requirements for access. There was barely enough room for Ali to raise herself onto her elbows and knees, and frankly she wasn't sure if she'd be better off belly crawling.

They made it up a level to where their colleague's biometrics were registering. Though this deck had many more mercenaries guarding the hallway. Ala'tuk found one small peephole and sent one of her people to the other end of the corridor to see what they could see, taking stock before turning to where Ali was laid behind her, analysing the readings from her scanner.

As Ala'tuk joined her Ali pointed at the various points in the corridor they wanted to access, using her other hand to indicate numbers. Ala'tuk considered the information before indicating to her people and the groups of mercs that Ali had just communicated. Drop in at each end and use the surprise to take out the sentries there, then they could rout and flank the guards on the doors. Ali bit her lip as she thought, before waving a hand to indicate her disagreement, before miming shooting one guard, then pointing to one end of the corridor, and then flipping it with the other guard, create confusion and chaos and then all drop at one end away from either shoot point.

Ala'tuk looked back at the blips on the schematics on the scanner lying between them. There was no advantage in all entering from the same point, the corridor was too narrow and too exposed for them all to have cover if they did. She formed another plan, snipe one of the guards, drop half their team at one end, that team could toss a grenade down the other end of the corridor giving cover to snipe the second guard before the other half of their team made a surprise entrance where the grenade had just detonated.

Ali nodded once to indicate her agreement and Ala'tuk motioned to her people to get into the positions she wanted, and in what order to execute the orders she was non-verbally issuing. It was awkward in the confined spaces, but even thought their helmets meant that the guards below them shouldn't be able to hear them discussing any plans, they didn't want to take the risk that their comms had been hacked. Especially when their plan required an element of surprise, even if their opponents probably knew where they were.

That put Ali in the second team, and her in two minds about whether or not she monitored her scanner as they waited or if she stored it on her belt now so that she was ready to go once the grenade detonated. In the end she compromised by keeping it until Ala'tuk's team threw the grenade, just to ensure that there were no nasty surprises - beyond the usual type where Ali expected any plan to go off the rails and be just as quickly abandoned in the face of new data.

Ali had managed to convince the people she was with to let her go first. She had some stuff she needed to work out, and this provided the perfect opportunity as the group of mercs below them staggered out of their limited cover after the grenade blew. One dropped instantly to the floor, which made their jobs a little easier. With the access panel out of their way they had a clear shot for one of the remaining security guards, Ali readied herself as one of her colleagues took it, before swinging herself over the hole to drop down the second the shot had gone.

That left two disorientated guards at their end of the corridor. Ali raised her energy pistol to shoot at one whilst launching herself at the other. She ducked under the clumsy attempt to strike at her head and - instead of rushing under the outstretched arm to get behind them like she normally would - slammed her shoulder into their midriff and propelled them into the wall almost immediately behind them. As she took half a step back she twisted her elbow into their head just to make sure they were knocked out before ducking behind one of the struts that were the only source of cover in the hallway.

The person who'd dropped after her had incapacitated the other merc at their end, which left just the ones still plaguing Ala'tuk's group. They got two shots off before the mercs realised that they needed to protect their flank. But now there were only four left. They managed to work into a rhythm of attack to avoid crossfire and patiently whittled off the remaining security presence.

Once the sound of weapons discharge had finished Ala'tuk organised her people to secure their deck whilst Ali had her scanner back in her hand. "Well?"

"They're busy scrambling to reinforce the areas we haven't taken, I think they're hoping if we get our people we'll leave," Ali reported, making no indication as to whether or not that were true.

"And our crew?"

Ali looked up and pointed to the door that their sharp shooters had eliminated the guards from. "In there."