Chase made his way inside the station. The mockups they had trained on were surprisingly close to the room he now found himself in. It was a large chamber with two other exits and no immediate sign of hostiles.

"Clear!" Chase yelled, waving for the others to follow him.

The station had five decks. It was believed most of it comprised storage holds for resupplying the enemy fleet. Sensor readings had also indicated that the power core was at the station’s centre, where it would be most protected. The in-helmet display was guiding him, calculating which corridor was most likely to lead him to the largest power reading.

Sutherland was on his six, with Winter bringing up the rear behind the rest of the team. A door opened, and two of the hostiles stepped out. Before they could raise their weapons, Chase had taken the first one out and dropped to one knee as the return fire from the second zipped over his head. Two blasts from Dryden took the second one out.

"Nice shooting," Chase complimented.

They kept moving down the corridor when an alert sounded.

"Are you seeing this?" Winter called.

Chase was. The map through the corridors had been overlaid with a sensor readout from the exterior of the station. One of the enemy ships was coming in to dock.

"What do you wanna do?" Winter asked. "It looks like they’re docking."

If more enemy troops were coming aboard, they would be seriously outnumbered. But they were committed to this course of action. The odds of them getting away if that were to happen wouldn’t be increased by leaving now. They were going to have to plant the bomb and play this out.

"We push on," Chase told her.

"Very good," Winter said.

The ship on the readout continued to close in on the station. Chase turned the corner and found a locked door. The energy readings were almost off the charts.

"This must be it," he said.

He aimed his rifle and shot the panel, which exploded in a display of sparks. The door remained locked.

"Did you think that would work?" asked Sutherland.

"It has done in the past," said Chase.

Sutherland took out two thin strips of paper-like substance and stuck them on either side of the locked door.

"Fire in the hole!" he yelled, waving the others back.

Chase followed him. A moment later, there was a slight bang—more of a pop. Chase assumed it hadn’t worked, but Sutherland returned to the door and gave it a slight push with his gloved hand. The door fell inwards with a mighty crash.

"That was hardly anything," Chase said. "I thought you’d need something much more powerful."

Sutherland shrugged. "Only use what we need to get the job done."

They dived back as they came under fire.

Sutherland swore.

Chase lifted his rifle and fired inwards. Ducking down to one side of the doorway, he could aim at one hostile. He took a shot and managed to down one of the hostiles.

"I’m counting four," said Chase.

"Confirmed," said Sutherland.

They were spread across two levels, some on the same level as the boarders, others on a mezzanine slightly higher up. Chase ran in and managed to take out one on the higher level before turning and getting a shot at a hostile only a few metres away. He dived behind a control panel as the other three now targeted him.

Several of the team came in after him. The distraction allowed Chase to get in another kill. He checked his rifle’s power cells and reloaded. The two remaining hostiles were taken out with a thud as they hit the deck.

Chase continued down the next corridor, his rifle raised, ready for whatever came next. The light level was low, but he kept his eyes peeled. Turning the corner, he found the corridor continued further into the centre of the station, the metallic floor clanging with every step.

A door on his left opened with the low whirr of a motor, revealing two large hostiles stepped out. His rifle cracked and the first one went straight down, slamming onto the deck as Chase opened fire without hesitation. The second one almost shot him, just missing Chase’s shoulder by millimetres. Chase crouched to one knee and returned fire. Sparks flew as Chase’s weapons’ fire impacted against its suit. The larger creature slammed up against the bulkhead before sliding down to the deck.

Winter sprinted up behind him. “You good?” she asked.

“I’m good,” Chase replied, continuing further in. They reached the end of the corridor, and he hit a button that opened the interior door. The computer control room was slightly warmer than the rest of the station. It was the largest space they had yet come across with banks of computers illuminated by different flashings interfaces and screens with a red graphic interface in the alien text. An alarm signalled intermittently, interrupting the hum of the equipment.

Chase did a sweep of the room before signaling for the others to follow him in.

Sutherland joined them. He dropped the package from his back and started setting up the countdown mechanism.

“How long do you want the timer?” Sutherland asked.

Chase thought for a moment. “Keep it at the agreed ten minutes,” he ordered.

Sutherland wasted no time priming the explosive. “Ten minutes it is,”

“Can’t we just remotely detonate it from Trafalgar?” queried Winter.

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“That would rely on us making it back,” said Chase.

There was the sound of footsteps in the corridor. Chase followed Winter out, where another three hostiles were closing in on them. Chase raised his weapon, but before he could even pull the trigger, Winter took them out, each with a precision shot.

“We’ve got a problem!” yelled Sutherland from the computer core.

Chase turned and ran back. “Report!” he asked.

Sutherland had his slate out, displaying a camera feed of an exterior view of the airlock. “It looks like one of their ships is coming in to dock.”

“Fuck,” said Winter, stepping back into the room. “We’re never getting off the station if they’re landing troops.”

“We might need a shorter time,” said Chase. Sutherland nodded, knowing what that meant. He had known the risks of the mission.

“I’ll activate a thirty countdown on your order,” Sutherland replied.

“Very good,” replied Chase. He stared at the screen. The ship had not yet begun docking manoeuvres. “Come on,” urged Chase.

A metallic strut extended from the station.

“Is that a boarding ramp?” asked Winter.

Chase shook his head. “No. Our scans only detected the one airlock, and that’s still free.”

Across the room, one of the large cylinders began flashing a pattern of lights. Chase scanned it with his slate. “They are refuelling.” He allowed himself a smile. “They’re just taking fuel from the station supply. They’re not coming aboard.”

“Well, we’re not dead yet,” said Sutherland, resetting the timer to ten minutes.

“Are you set?” asked Chase.

“Most certainly,” said Sutherland.

“Let’s get out of here, then. Are you sure that’s enough time to get out of the airlock and make it far enough away from the blast range?” asked Winter.

Chase was honest with her. “No. But I’m not prepared to leave it any longer, so let’s not dally.”

They moved the device to one side of the doorway and pushed one of the terminals to keep it out of immediate view from anyone entering. If anyone made it this far, it would probably be game over, but it was slightly less obvious.

They faced no opposition, making it back to the airlock.

Chase began pressurising the airlock. The others stepped in, and the interior door locked. His suit’s display indicated the pressure was falling.

“Have your suits’ thrusters ready to fire the second that airlock opens,” Chase ordered. “We need to get back to the shuttle immediately.”

The timer was counting down on the inside of all their helmets. Chase felt the adrenaline flowing through him. There wasn’t much time to get this done, and it had to be right the first time.

The airlock pressure had dropped to 20%. The door would open in a matter of seconds. He pulled up the thruster commands and was met with a warning screen he was in a sealed environment. He disregarded it and hovered his finger over the button.

The airlock opened. He ran and leapt, hitting the thruster control as he did so.

The thruster kicked in, and Chase was propelled away from the station. His heads-up display indicated that the others were not far behind him. If nothing else, they had all made it off the station in one piece—that was good. A crosshair overlaid the shuttle’s position directly ahead. All he had to do now was keep aiming straight for it and wait.

The sound of his breathing echoed around the helmet. To the right of his vision, he watched the countdown timer—only a few minutes were left.

“Sit rep,” he called out over his suit’s comm.

“I’m Oscar Mike,” came the reply from Winter.

“Right behind you,” Sutherland checked in.

The shuttle was easily identifiable by the naked eye—not long to go now.

His interface blurred horizontally for a moment before going blank.

“Shit,” he thought. Was he flying blind?

Chase waited a moment before it kicked back in, the shuttle still in his target sights. He breathed a sigh of relief; he wouldn’t have wanted to have to complete this trip manually.

Then he noticed the timer had paused. Had it been disabled, or was his display at fault?

“Are you seeing this?” Winter asked. “The countdown stopped.”

It wasn’t just him.

“My display flickered,” said Chase.

“Mine too,” replied Sutherland. “Could it be a system fault?”

“If it isn’t, there’s no going back,” said Chase.

“The commander’s right,” said Winter. “If it’s a problem with the readout, we’ll be walking into an explosion.”

Chase narrowed in on the shuttle and slowed to make contact. The side access was still open, and he made it into the main compartment, followed a minute later by Winter and, finally, Sutherland. He sealed the hatch, and the onboard display flashed red to indicated that the cabin was re-pressurising. A moment later it then flashed to green.

Chase removed his helmet and moved over to the cockpit.

“Trafalgar, this is shuttle 2. We are making our way to your position.”

“This is Trafalgar Actual,” came the reply.

“Package has been deployed. There was a dropout from the countdown—waiting for confirmation,” Chase replied before clicking off.

“Acknowledged.”

He powered on the shuttle’s engine and proceeded to the rendezvous point in orbit above the nearest planet.