“Oh, right. Most human weapons are capable of rapid-fire. All those machine guns mounted on the tank over there, this rifle, and many others. The difference is that on small arms such as this,” Sergeant Gerrick gestured toward the rifle, “it is select fire, meaning you can choose to switch between one shot per trigger pull, or continuous shooting until the trigger is let go.”

Not only are these weapons accurate, but they are capable of rapid-fire too? Just like our plasma weapons?

I looked over at the target dummy we had been shooting at. The rifle round fired by Gerrick had torn a large hole in the middle of it. I can only imagine what it would look like after only a few seconds of sustained fire. There must be downsides though.

“I assume that rapid-fire significantly reduces accuracy?”

“You are correct, the recoil makes it much harder to accurately aim the weapon, so when it’s used, most soldiers elect to burst fire. This is when they hold the trigger down for three to four shots, before resetting.”

Thomas interjected, “Additionally, less precision means in combat, constant use of rapid-fire will deplete a soldier’s ammunition supply quicker.”

That would seem to be the main downfall of physical ammunition. Human soldiers would have to carry hundreds of these projectiles on them, plasma storage is much more compact.

Gerrick turned to me, “Now, this will sound a little strange, but you might feel less recoil shooting the rifle, rather than the small pistol. You have three points of contact, two on your hands, and one in your shoulder. Additionally, this model is equipped with recoil dampeners in the stock.”

I was starting to have second thoughts about trying the larger weapon. It clearly was not built for me. I picked it up, testing its weight, not too heavy. I walked over to the testing range, “It’s already loaded and ready, correct?”

“Yes, all you have to do is flip the switch on the side to the semi-auto setting.”

I found the switch, moved it once, and brought the weapon up to my shoulder. This time I was trying to aim. I took a deep breath, looked through the sight, this one was much easier to use. It had a shape with a dot in the middle, signifying where to aim. I put my finger on the trigger.

I never did get to fire the weapon. It happened rather quickly, a loud alert system began blaring and the doors to the testing area closed. A robotic voice came over speakers mounted in the wall, “ALERT. INCOMING CRAFT. TAG DESIGNATION: HOSTILE.”

Sergeant Gerrick looked to Thomas, “Get to your quarters, Thomas.” He nodded and jogged out of the room. Gerrick then walked over to the table, took the fabric article off his head, and put on the helmet I had seen earlier. It clicked into place, connecting to his chest armor, it made a sound almost like pressurization. He turned toward me, his once cheerful face now an emotionless reflective material. He spoke, his voice now muffled: “We need to move, possible boarding craft or attack incoming.”

I assumed he was receiving communications through his helmet, which was confirmed when he spoke again: “How many? No, I need to escort the VIP, have Sergeant Edwin take my place. I’ll get them to the bridge, and help hold the bulkhead there.” I had no idea what to do, I just stared at him, I didn’t know anything about this ship. Why would there be an attack on our station? We’re on outskirt territory, we picked a station to meet the humans that is close to their space. We had no records of space-faring hostiles in this area.

Gerrick now addressed me, as he picked up another rifle from the display: “Three Floriacian boarding craft incoming, one frigate out of point defense range. We’re docked in your station so we can’t rear the ship around to use the main cannon. They obviously know this,” he loaded a magazine into the rifle, “so they’re dispatching boarding parties.”

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“Floriacian? We have no record of a species under that name. Nor a hostile faction near here.”

“That’s the name we gave them. We need to move.”

Sergeant Gerrick gestured for me to follow him, and moved toward a door, raising his weapon to check around the corner. I was about to follow, then hesitated. I moved back to the table and picked up the larger pistol. Then I ran after Gerrick.

We were moving through corridors, I saw many human soldiers running in formation, going to wherever their stations were to repel boarders. The alarm continued to blare, now with a slight modification: “ALERT. THREE INCOMING BOARDING CRAFT. ALL ACTIVE UNITS MOVE TO YOUR ASSIGNED BULKHEADS.” We were nearing a shaft that was to take us up toward the “bridge,” as Gerrick called it when I was knocked over. It wasn’t just me, other human soldiers stumbled. The entire ship had shaken, one of the boarding craft hit.

I got back up and we kept moving. We got into the room that would move us up, and I began hearing the sound of gunshots. The doors closed, and we started moving up. Sergeant Gerrick spoke to me again: “They’re the reason we were “discovered” by the Federation. We encountered a distress signal from deep space, I was on the UN ship that moved to assist. We found a ghost ship, but a trail left by an FTL jump. We followed it and found some kind of camp holding the crew hostage. We stormed it and freed them. When the crew returned to Conglomerate space, they told the Federation about us.”

“That’s not true, we had been watching your planet, waiting for you to discover faster than light travel.” My voice was shaky.

“Sorry Ozis, while we are a young species as it relates to FTL, the Federation thought it better to not alert the galactic public of a new slaver species.”

This could not be happening. The galactic community hadn’t seen a slaver species in decades. Although, if what this human was saying is true, that could be a lie. He was right, the discovery of a slaver species could throw the Conglomerate into chaos as the different members fight over what to do about it. Why am I objecting to their existence? They would have come from an area near the human system, an area largely unexplored. The door opened.

We ran through more corridors, seeing fewer human soldiers now. A thick door opened in front of us and we moved in. Apparently, humans, or at least Americans, called the control room of a ship the “bridge.” There were soldiers dressed the same way as Gerrick, all with guns trained on the door.

When we got in, Gerrick spoke into his helmet again, “VIP secure in the bridge, how copy?” I followed him as he moved over to a screen of some sort. He pulled up a video feed, from cameras around the ship. He flipped through different views multiple times until he landed on one with a fight visible. I watched as four human soldiers were defending a corridor, using storage boxes as cover. Three dead humans lay on the ground. A large group of aliens I had never seen before were firing some form of projectile weapons at the humans.

They were awful to look at. Grey, four large arms, they were scaled like me. I watched as two of them were taken down by the defending soldiers. This was the first time I had seen human weapons used against organics. They were effective. Each Floriacian that was hit sprayed their comrades with blood and chunks of scales. I watched and grimaced as one more human soldier was struck in the chest, sparking off his body armor. The plate didn’t hold, and it knocked him onto the ground. A pool of red blood starting to form around him. The three other soldiers retreated.

Gerrick shook his head and switched to another camera. “Your station’s security is moving to assist, but it’s not equipped to handle this. Seems like you all weren’t expecting an attack here.”

“There wouldn’t be any armed security here normally. This is a research station. We have no record of hostiles in any system near here.”

Gerrick let out a large breath. “I’m sending out a distress signal. If we can’t deal with this ourselves we’ll need help. I can only hope they’ll get here in time. In my attack they weren’t ready for us, we dealt with them quickly. These Floriacians are behaving much more organized, we may be experiencing a military force rather than pirates.”

“What are we going to do?”

“If we successfully repel this attack, we’ll disengage from our dock with your station, and attack the enemy frigate.”

There were windows in the front of the room. I walked over to them. I could see the boarding craft, they had slammed into the hangars that held the smaller crafts I had seen earlier. The point defense turrets had rotated to aim at the enemy frigate, which was just barely visible. Most likely in preparation for potential further boarding attacks. I turned back to Gerrick, who was now talking to another soldier dressed in combat gear. I had to ask, “How did they surprise us?”

“They came out of FTL absurdly close. We obviously didn’t expect an attack here, point defense wasn’t operational. If they try to send a boarding party again, they won’t make it. I’m sorry Ozis, I have to go assist, stay here with the command crew, they’ll keep you safe.”

Sergeant Gerrick ran out the door, which closed behind him. I found myself genuinely worried for him. I looked down, I still had the human weapon in my hand. I feared that I might have to use it.