Jake and the five others hooked up to each other and then to the back of the runabout.
Looking inside the runabout, there was no pilot. Jake radioed up to York, “Ready to take us out.” Ten runabouts took off and exited the side of the ship in an arrow shape, heading straight for the biggest ship.
“Everyone, get ready for disconnect.” Jake fired his suit thruster and swung the five out in an arc just before Jo shot the rope connecting them all to the runabout.
“Jo, stabilise,” Jake said, followed by Jo activating his thrusters before everyone disconnected and rocketed towards one of the ships.
“Good luck, everyone,” Jake said before everyone went to radio silence. Explosion and debris shot by the group of five as they slowly got closer to the target. Just before the group hit their target, the runabouts split, flying in all directions, separating the enemies' focus.
The group had lost one person just after the split, two to debris, then one more when he failed to activate his thrusters just before impact; out of the group of six, four remained.
Jo moved over to a hatch and placed explosives around the hatch, and the group got ready to enter. Jo looked over the four, then gave a thumbs up as he activated the explosives, blowing a hole in the side of the ship. Air blasted out of the new hole, followed by three bodies. The two other soldiers entered the hole first, followed by Jo and Jake.
Jake pointed down the hallway. The group moved down the hallway until they reached a locked door. Jake looked over at Jo, then Jo tapped the man in front of him. The man placed a charge on the door as the others moved to the side. Once the man was out of the way, he pulled out an activation button and pushed it. The door burst apart with a rush of air, but this time no bodies followed. So the group pushed into the next area, Jake taking one zone while the others took their zones before moving deeper into the ship, only stopping when they reached the entrance to what seemed to be the bridge. The ship was a lot smaller than Jake hoped, but if all goes well by the end of this battle, Jake would have a fleet of these smaller vessels, and that would be a great bonus for his crew. Busting open the last door, the team of four entered the bridge, guns blazing away as they cut down red-skinned invaders left and right. Once the gunfire stopped, Jake ordered the two soldiers to take command of the ship and fly it back to the moon while Jo and he headed for their next target. Standing on the outside of the hull, Jo pointed at what looked to be a gunship, and Jake nodded as both men blasted off the converted transport vessel, heading out into space and towards the gunship. Looking out over the battlefield, Jake could only smile as one ship after the other shot a white flare and headed for the moon. Jake counted five ships heading for the moon before the enemy fleet caught on to what was happening and began opening fire on any ship that moved out of formation.
“Looks like the jig is up, sir. What should we do?” Jo asked over the radio.
Jake sent a message back to the rusty bucket to order a slow retreat just as Jo and he landed on the gunship. “To the bridge, hopefully one of the other teams has caught a prisoner or two for us.” Jake pointed in the direction of what looked to be a prominent bridge jutting out the nose of the ship. Running along the hull, Jake noticed many issues with the ship's construction; it seemed age had taken its toll on this vessel, as parts of the ship were vented to space.
“This ship is structurally unsound,” Jake said to Jo just as they reached the bridge.
Jake pointed to the roof of the bridge. “Vent them.” Jake said. Jo placed his last charge, blowing a hole big enough to fit a truck through. The concussive force knocked everyone inside off their feet. Then Jo and Jake entered from the hole, floating down like they were angels of death, lights shining from their helmets. One of the red-skinned invaders looked on in horror as the metal objects these angels had shot fired at her fellow crew members. She instantly raised her hands in a gesture she had seen the creatures on the planet do when they wished to stop resisting. By the time Jake and Jo hit the deck, the fight was over—ten invaders dead and one captured, awaiting her fate.
“Jo, tie it up,” Jake said as he moved to the central console and began operating its systems.
“Fuck, this ship has no atmosphere and its shielding has been destroyed; it's a fucken piece of junk.” Jake walked over to the prisoner and hit the side of her helmet, then pointed at her radio.
“Don't hurt me, I surrender,” the feminine voice said.
“I don't care. Tell me how to get this ship out of here without being destroyed.”
“On the side of the console, the button will send out an automated message to the fleet.”
“What will it say?”
“It will tell everyone to retreat back to our base.”
“And why would they follow that order?”
“Because it would seem like it came from my cousin, the commander of this transport fleet.”
“If this doesn't work, you will die,” Jake said as he hit the button. Seconds later, the enemy fleet started to break formation and scatter as the rusty bucket rounded on them and tore them apart with its point defence system. Knowing at least two ships were out of action, Jake fired off a flare as the rusty bucket came back around, pulling its gigantic form over the small gunship.
“York, send over an engineer. I'm heading back with a prisoner.” Jake opened a private channel to Jo. “Take it back to the moon. I have a feeling our new employer will want to talk after this battle.”
Reaching down, he grabbed the prisoner and shot out through the hole they entered through. Moments later, Jake was back aboard his ship with his prisoner in tow. The two headed for the brig. As Jake locked her in, he made her remove any weapons and armour she might be carrying. Now, the red-skinned lady stood in a room with only her undergarments on. Jake locked the door and headed directly for the bridge, leaving two guards to watch over his prisoner.
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“Sir, we just got a communication from the United Earth Defence Forces fleet commander. They would like to come aboard.”
“Tell them if they wish to talk, we can do it at the moon,” Jake said as he rode the elevator up.
Moments later, Jake was on the bridge, sitting in his seat. As he relaxed, his ship headed back to the moon, followed by the remaining five ships of the United Earth Defence Forces. As they came up on the south pole of the moon, Jake was awed at the sight; the battle had made them a profit of nine ships, and four of them were gunships.
“Hopefully they won't be all like that one Jo and I captured,” Jake said to himself.
“Sir, our new fleet has got a preliminary report of the losses and gains,” Joel said.
“Go ahead.”
“We have gained a total of five classed ships: four gunships and one cutter class, all in need of extensive repairs. As for the other ships, there are a total of fifteen fighters and four transports. Our losses are—”
“What's our losses?” Jake asked, knowing the number must be high.
“We lost every member of team three and five engineers. We also lost all of our runabouts and one fighter, but the pilot survived.” The bridge went quiet as Jake said the words he wished he didn't have to. Jake opened the comms so everyone within range could hear his words.
“To the heroes—they gave their lives, and as such, now they have become our new heroes. We honour their passing.”
Once Jake said this, every member of his fleet and those on the moon opened their radios and broadcasted the three-word reply:
“To the heroes”, followed shortly after by the same reply from Earth sent through the encrypted frequency.
“Okay, send a message to the United Earth Defence Forces fleet. Tell them to send a delegation over.”
An hour later, the United Earth Defence Forces fleet pulled a ship alongside the Rusty Bucket, and four people entered the open flight deck as Jake and a group of his soldiers waited for them. Jake turned to look at Lewis.
“I'm sorry to hear about Mary; she was a good officer and person. She will be missed,” Jake said. After some time as they waited, Jake spoke again,
“If you feel up to it, I would like to know what happened?”
“She, she managed to board one of the cutters and they were just about to enter when one of these arseholes' ships destroyed it. I don't know what they were even doing there. The ship she went for was on our side of the battlefield and they were in retreat, so why did they pick her ship to attack and not the countless others that were in front?”
“Are you doing okay?” Jake asked.
“I will be fine, sir; I can do my job,” Lewis said in a stern tone. “It's just after losing my brother, Mary helped me a lot, so I'm feeling a little lost.”
Jake was about to say something when the four representatives arrived. Lewis and his men walked forward to check the new arrivals for weapons. Only once Jake got the signal did he move forward to greet the four.
“Welcome to the Rusty Bucket. My name is Jake Everval; pleased to meet you.” Jake said as he reached his hand out in the usual human gesture. The first person reciprocated and said, “We of the United Earth Defence Forces thank the Demon's Hand Mercenary Group for their prompt response to our job request. I, Admiral Kate Simon, would like to thank you personally for the words you said earlier; the losses were well beyond my expectations,” the lady said.
“Shall we take this meeting somewhere we can remove these helmets?” Jake said as the group left for the officer's meeting room adjacent to the flight deck. Entering the room through one of the airlock doors, Jake removed his helmet, showing his demonic face for the first time to the group.
“What is this?” one of the people behind Admiral Kate Simon said before Kate glared at the man. “This is not the United Earth Defence Forces, and these people saved our lives. You know our mission was a suicide mission; otherwise, why would they give it that name?” one of the Americans said.
“What name?” Jake asked.
“Task Force Smith,” the American said, basically spitting the words.
“Oh, I'm sorry,” Jake said.
“It's not your fault. After all, you're not part of those foolish politicians,” Kate said.
“So I'm guessing you didn't want to just thank us. So, what brings you aboard my ship?”
“We would like to ask if you can assist us in our fight. Of course, when I say 'help', I do mean I would like to hire you and your fleet to fight under our command.”
“The Demon's Hand mercenary group doesn't take commands from other groups or organisations unless the order comes from the leaders of the group,” Lewis said with disdain and anger.
“What gives a traitor to the human race the right to speak here?” the same man that spoke before said.
“Your fucking mum did last night,” Lewis shot back before jumping across the table, grabbing the man by his throat. “Was it you? Did you order that ship to attack us?” Lewis asked, spit flying out of his mouth.
“Lewis, stand down,” Jake yelled. Lewis let the man go and stood beside Jake. “Sorry, sir, I just couldn't stop it; these people killed her.”
“We don't know if they ordered it yet,” Jake said.
“Yes, sir.”
“I'm truly sorry about that. I would like to offer you this storage ring as an apology for my subordinate's actions.” Jake said, but as he was going to hand over the ring, the man spat on the floor and said, “So what if I ordered the destruction of that ship? You people did more to capture ships than you did to help us. Plus, once I destroyed that ship, the rest turned tail and ran.”
Jake looked at the man as he activated a skill, summoning all four of his lost servants, before saying one word:
“Kill.” In an instant, the servant Elizabeth Bay launched forward, instantly killing the man.
“I'm truly sorry, but any attack on my people is an attack on the Demon's Hand mercenary group. As such, I'm going to ask you one question: Did you have anything to do with his actions?” The lady on the other side of the table smiled and said, “No, I didn't, but I found out once the fight was over. I brought him here on purpose; I wanted to see if you were as brutal as the rumours say.”
“And what do the rumours say about me?”
“That you are a man that will do anything for the people beside you and that you act without thinking. But what I have noticed is different; you think through your actions. As for the other part, I don't know yet.”
“So what are your actions from here?” Jake asked.
“I would like to proceed with our conversation. As for the gift—”
Jake flicked the ring over to her. “Keep it, we don't need that stuff anyway.”
Jake had given the lady an exosuit and one runabout Jake was keeping as a backup.
“Thank you. I won't forget this. As for our conversation, I would still like to hire your people. If you accept, you won’t be under my command, and you can refuse any job you don’t agree with.”
“I will accept, but you will need to go put your request in with the closest mercenary branch and make the appropriate payment.”
“I will send some people back to Earth then, but in the meantime can what's left of my fleet stay here?”
“You're welcome to stay, but don't go down to the moon; it's infested with strong creatures,” Jake warned the Admiral.
“I'll take your word for it.”