Four hours later, Venna sat before the ship's monitor observing Benjamin and Titus floating through space; each in their own Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU). The thrusters on their EMUs pulsed, bringing each of them into view of the space station. "Looks like there are about two dozen small ships docked to the station. The merc ship is definitely still there. No discernable heat signatures consistent with body heat are coming from within or around the ship." Venna's voice broke over the squad comms. "I'll bring the ship into better position to observe the dock."
"Roger. Be aware of our vectors as you reposition. As we continue to get closer I don't want us to limit your ability to provide fire support by entering your field of fire. The dock walkway is designated target reference point one. The side entry hatch to the merc ship is TRP two. If we take fire I want those target reference points obliterated." Titus listed off.
"Roger. In position." Venna breathed.
"Engaging EMU max thrust now." Benjamin barked.
Titus and Benjamin soundlessly zipped through the blackness. The only clue to their speed was the size of the station growing in comparison to the two men as they neared it. In a matter of seconds, the monitor before Venna showed the two men reach the metal support structure underneath the docks. Benjamin flowed through the beams and made his way directly toward the merc ship. Titus maneuvered at a forty five degree angle off of Benjamin's trajectory, his weapon up in his shoulder. Venna adjusted a few settings in the ship and activated the thermal sensor to notify her of any changes. Venna leaned closer to the monitor to scrutinize the dock surrounding their objective. Something seemed off. But no matter how much she looked she could not find anything.
"All clear from here still." Venna reported.
"Good. I'm headed in. I'll get what information I can from the ship. Titus you watch my back now." Benjamin's voice had its usual casual flippant tone mixed with a tension that belied the reality of the mission.
Venna knew that missions could be tough under normal conditions, but space added another dimension that often proved to be unpredictable and fatal. She continued to scan the docks for any clue of danger. Something still tugged at the back of her mind. What was wrong? There was absolutely nothing happening on the docks. No movement apart from Benjamin and Titus. No heat signatures apart from them. Then it hit her. Every other section of dock on the entire station was filled with movement. Dock droids were flitting back and forth all throughout the station. There were also a small number of heat signatures in most other sections of the station and docks. The section with Benjamin, Titus, and the merc ship though, was still and dark. Just as these details finally percolated through Venna's mind, Benjamin entered the ship and was lost from view. Even his heat signature was completely hidden from scanners. Alarm raced through Venna as she realized that anyone could be shielded and hiding from her thermal scanner. Venna launched her hand to the ships communications panel and began to broadcast a warning to Titus and Benjamin when the ship abruptly shuddered.
"Taking fire from my rear flank. Scanners show nothing, but weapons energy signature suggests a ship fired on me." Venna shouted over the comms before she was forced to burn her starboard engines, launching her ship to one side. Once moving, she hit the reverse thrusters and immediately flipped one hundred and eighty degrees with her cockpit facing the oncoming fire. Venna pulled the trigger on her stick and released a salvo of 40mm rounds. The hull vibrated with each burst. "I see you now." Mumbled Venna to herself.
At that moment, the enemy ship flipped 180 degrees and began a fast burn to disengage from Venna. Venna paused, looked to her scanner, and realized that all comms and readings were being blocked. She punched it, giving the engine a full burn to catch up to the fleeing ship. The best way for her to support Benjamin and Titus was to hunt down the ship and end its interference.
Venna maneuvered right behind the fleeing enemy ship. It maintained a perfectly straight trajectory which struck Venna as odd. A fleeing ship would be using secondary and tertiary engines to subtly adjust its trajectory in order to make it a difficult target. As it was, Venna could line up an easy kill. "This rookie pilot has no clue does he." Thought Venna. Venna closed her hand around the stick and flipped the switch to arm the missiles. She leaned closer to the view screen in concentration as her finger slipped over the trigger.
Just as she pulled the trigger a loud crackling pulse ripped through the ship shorting out every system with loud pops and cracks. Even her ear com shocked with the pulse. The ship sunk into total darkness and continued to drift lifeless on its previous heading. In the blackness, all Venna could see was the enemy ship in front of her already flipped back around heading toward her.
Venna floated in the lifeless ship toward the rear compartment. She grabbed a hair tie off her wrist to secure her hair that was continually obstructing her field of view. She approached the power control system and opened the panel. There was no power in the ship due to the EMP pulse she had been hit with. There was a power reset control on the panel, but the system would take at least five minutes to reboot. Just as she flipped the reset switch, a bright light shone through the cockpit window. The enemy ship had already closed the distance and was preparing to dock. Venna looked at the power system reboot. It was not going to make enough progress to make the ship functional again prior to the enemy forcing their way into her ship. Venna looked at the screen and saw what systems were now receiving power. The EMU docking station was back up and the remaining suit was functional. Venna took one last look at the screen, typed in a code, ripped out the navigational drive, then turned and launched herself across the rear compartment towards the EMU. The airlock door made a shrill grating sound as the enemy ship latched itself onto the hull and positioned itself over the entry hatch. Venna smoothly slid into the suit and began its power up procedures. Sounds began to emanate from the airlock. There was a loud wrenching and the airlock door moved a fraction of an inch. Venna just needed to buy time for the ship to power back up. She took one last look at the slowly moving door and then sealed her helmet. She moved to the secondary emergency hatch and began to rotate its locking mechanism. With a final spin, the hatch came loose and she slid the inner hatch open. Venna floated down through the hatch into the small airlock and began opening the final hatch. As the final hatch lock disengaged, the door swung open into space with a hiss and the pressure of the ship began to steadily evacuate through the opening. Venna allowed the stream of air to gently carry her through the door. Once clear of the ship, she closed the hatch back up.
The void surrounded her as she clung to the outer hull of her lifeless ship. There had always been something suffocating and claustrophobic about space to her. For all its vastness, death lurked just outside. She turned to see if she could catch a glimpse of the shipyard but she was too far away to even make out its dark form. “Good luck boys. I hope my warning got through.”
With a sigh and a grunt she twisted herself around and beheld her attacker. The enemy attack craft attached to her ship like a leach was sleek and new. It was tech she had never seen before and larger than she would have guessed from her scans. Clearly it utilized technology to minimize its signature. Venna gently pushed off and glided through the space between her ship’s hatch and the underside of the attack craft. She had a slight moment of panic when she realized her push was going to send her just out of reach of the hull of the other ship and into the black abyss. But then she calmed herself and used the EMU to course correct. Back on the correct trajectory, Venna reached with her hand and grasped the underside of the attack craft’s hull. Looking up, she contemplated the docking tether that her attackers had used to breach her airlock and enter into her ship. If she could find a way to cause a manual malfunction that would detach the seal, they would have to come out and fix the issue before leaving. That would be her way onto their functioning ship.
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"Good. I'm headed in. I'll get what information I can from the ship. Titus you watch my back now." Benjamin's voice had its usual casual flippant tone mixed with a tension that belied the reality of the mission.
Titus floated forward with his weapon ready as Benjamin moved into the docked ship. Suddenly there was static and crackling on the comms and a few garbled words came through. It sounded like they had come from Venna. Something was wrong. Titus tried to contact Benjamin or Venna but there was only silence. Suddenly he noticed dots appearing on the metal docking arms around him. They were appearing around him in a pattern and magnetizing to the metal surface. They were making a circular pattern to surround him. The final one landed in place and then each of the small metal disks began to shimmer as if emitting a pulse. Titus's EMU went dark. He clicked the thrust, but nothing happened. The disks were no longer shimmering and they were also no longer attached to the metal docking arm. Titus reasoned that the pulse they had emitted had also effected them. His previous momentum carried him around to see four individuals in their own suits floating toward him. Unlike Titus, these individuals had power. Titus raised his weapon and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. The special systems that had been designed to facilitate the firing of his weapon as well as its cooling had been incapacitated as well. The figures continued to get closer. There was no way to gauge their distance in the blackness of space. Titus could only hear his breathing. Soon the visor began to fog. The suit had been completely shut down. Even the air filtration and life support had failed.
Titus closed his eyes and focused. He knew that there would be just enough air in his suit to keep him alive, but he didn’t know if there was enough to keep him conscious before the men arrived. Titus came to the conclusion that the figures approaching him wanted him alive. He thought through his options and began to slow his heart rate and his breathing. "In. Out. In. Out." Titus methodically chanted to himself. The only disturbance to his breathing was a bright light that brought his eyes open. His position had rotated away from the approaching figures and out toward open space. It occurred to him that something, probably a ship, had exploded. He hoped that Venna was alright. He knew now that it had been a mistake to come without reinforcements. He swore to himself. He had not learned and this mistake was going to cost him and his team their lives. Titus stopped himself realizing that he was no longer slowing his breathing. “In. Out. In. Out.” He resumed his chant.
After an unknown amount of time he felt hands grasp onto his suit from the sides. Titus reasoned that two of the four were on either side of him holding onto the EMU frame and using their jets to navigate him back to where they wanted him. Titus took one last breath then shouted "Now".
He used his left arm to knock one individual away and latch onto the other. With his right hand he grabbed his holmium laser knife and plunged it into the fuel cell of the remaining person's jet pack. His grip tightened on the individual as the cell burst and they accelerated dramatically in an unknown direction. Titus then used the knife to dispatch the flailing individual by simply slicing through the suit and exposing the person to space. The Fuel cell continued to drain at an explosive pace. Titus rocketed away from the other three figures. All three were recovering from the shock of the attack and the blast from the power cell. One quickly reached over to another and placed an adhesive strip over a tear in the suit caused by the explosive back blast of the power cell bursting. Titus had rocketed away so quickly that he was quickly becoming indiscernible from the blackness of space. The three individuals stayed in position and began pointing in the direction Titus had launched. Soon, a ship appeared from the direction of the station and approached the three individuals.
Titus was still blind to the outside world because of the fog on his visor. He released the limp figure he had been holding onto, as the power cell was no longer providing any thrust. The air in the suit was becoming stagnant and thick. Titus began to process the series of events when his head began pounding. He tried blinking the pain away but it wouldn’t subside. A nail was being driven between his eyes and out the back of this skull near his spine. A sudden feeling of dizziness engulfed him and smothered the headache. Titus' mind shocked alert with a moment of clarity. He was dying by carbon dioxide poisoning. Every one of his breaths was slowly killing him. His heartbeat pounded in his chest trying desperately to escape his body. As he began slipping into darkness he felt two sets of arms grab him.
…
"Good. I'm headed in. I'll get what information I can from the ship. Titus you watch my back now." Benjamin's voice had its usual casual flippant tone mixed with a tension that belied the reality of the mission.
Benjamin moved into the entryway of the ship. So far everything was going according to plan. He reasoned that Venna was still in her planned position providing overwatch and Titus was close by protecting his six. As he rounded the corner of the ship’s main corridor, he entered the bridge. Benjamin took in the command console and reached out to the communications display.
“All units, initiate Operation Enrapture.” Benjamin pondered to himself if naming the operation Enrapture was too dramatic or over the top. He shrugged to himself. He had to enjoy some creative moments now and again, an indulgence if you will. His ruminations were interrupted by static breaking the silence around him.
A voice came from the comm station. “Sir, this is Raptor 1. We have disabled the ship and are making our approach. We will breach her airlock in five mikes.”
Benjamin licked his lips and grinned. “Roger Raptor 1. Let me know when Venna is in your custody.”
Another voice broke in. “Sir, this is Raptor 2, The target’s suit is disabled and we are approaching now. It appears his weapon is offline and we will have him in ten mikes."
“Not so capable now are we Titus.” Benjamin chuckled to himself. Looking up he keyed the comms and replied, “Roger Raptor 2. Let me know when he is secured and aboard the ship.”
With that final dispatch, Benjamin could feel his tension ebb. He thought about all the planning and maneuvering it had taken to get Titus alone in a compromising situation without any trace to himself. Laughing to himself he pondered what he would have to say to the council. Maybe he would talk about the tragedy of being the sole survivor of such a vicious attack. Or focus on the angst he felt for not tempering Titus’ zeal and talking him out of his decision to pursue these mercenaries with so little intel. The council would eat that stuff up and he would look like the tragic lone survivor of a team whose leader had led them into destruction.
Finally, with Titus in their hands they could see how much he knew. Titus had recognized the symbol embedded on the data stick from Salverton. Had he come into possession of other data sticks? Benjamin rubbed his hands together relishing the opportunity he would get to force answers out of Titus.
A frantic voice from the comms station jerked Benjamin from his reverie. “Sir, we breached the ship but she wasn’t on board. Now…” The words became static for a second before continuing. “I don’t know how she.” More static interrupted. “NO! NO! We can’t get out! Hel__” Static burst from the speaker and then went silent. Just at that moment, Benjamin saw a brief spherical burst of light from outside the bridge’s viewing screen. After the light winked out, the hull of the ship he was in rattled with shrapnel.
Benjamin swore to himself and keyed the comms. “Raptor 2, be advised, I believe that Raptor 1 has been taken out. Unsure if the target survived. Continue with the capture of your target.” Benjamin snatched a piece of metal debris floating through the bridge and hurled it against a wall. Seething, he reasoned with himself that Venna was just a secondary target anyway. The real prize was Titus. Benjamin continued telling himself that for a few minutes until his breathing settled.
“Raptor 2, what is your status?” Benjamin snapped. “Respond immediately!”
The silence was their only reply. Benjamin’s head snapped to the viewing screen as another pop of light ignited the darkness and the familiar sound of debris pelted the hull around him. He knew then that none of the plan had worked. He calmed himself put on the face of Benjamin and began his movement from the ship.