[Erick Sanders]

I Jerked awake, landing hard on my shoulder as I tumbled from the edge of the cell's bed. Before anything else, I scanned the room with my EM sense and breathed a deep sigh of relief that it worked once again.

The explosion in the bridge, the one that had sucked me into space to die gasping in a vacuum, must also have killed Daron. Ending his control over my augments. That, or by respawning, the nanites he had poisoned us with had been removed in this fresh body. Maybe both. I wouldn’t know until I saw him face to face.

Without a scanner on my arm, I didn’t have to worry about ignoring the annoying notification of my loss of credits or ranking. I focused on scanning the surrounding rooms and hallway, both with the EM sense and with my eyes. The rooms on either side of my cell were empty, and the hallway was illuminated by a strobing red warning light. Daron's ship had gone into an emergency scenario, the further I scanned the more chaotic it all appeared.

The ship shook, and the sound of vibrating metal rang through the walls. The ship was taking a hammering from the outside. Earth! I remember with a start. The thousands, or was it millions of small ships that had been spread out through space. This was the middle of a battle, and I was stuck in the centre of the enemy command vessel.

I jumped to my feet, steadying myself as the floor rolled from the impact of another missile. I need to find a way out of here, I thought. I scanned the walls and the closed glass doorway with more concentration, looking for any weakness or gap that I could exploit. When that turned up nothing, I scanned the floors. Below the floor was a series of struts, supports and wiring looms, but I did note a thick pipe almost a meter in diameter running under my feet. I followed it with my EM sense from one wall, under the room then directly beneath the…toilet.

I forced down the feeling of disgust the thought brought and walked over to stand above the alien device. It was universal, literally. Created to facilitate a multitude of different species and their needs. What that meant was it amounted to little more than a large bowl built into the floor, with a hole in the centre. A small sliding hatch covered the hole, set to open when the unit was in use. I placed a foot into the bowl and pressed slightly on the hatch to open it. Breathing only through my mouth, I reached down and slid the fingers of both hands into the hole, searching for anything to grab hold of. At the edge of the pipe was a ringed indent in the metal where the pipe met the toilet. I dug my fingers into it and pulled.

My arms strained, the veins popping to the surface of my skin with effort, but the smaller tube below the hole ruptured and the bowl buckled outwards with a satisfying groan. Cracks began to appear on the tiled floor, and then with a pop, the whole toilet ripped free. Leaving a cavity and the meter wide pipe visible.

I tossed the toilet aside and inspected the pipe. It was thin, meant only for the transport of waste and not for any structural support, it was only made from a lightweight alloy. I reached into the ruptured opening and tore at the metal. It came away in pieces, releasing a stench to rival any portaloo or public bathroom after a music festival. I was thankful for my strong stomach as I ripped a person-sized hole, said a silent prayer, and slid into the pipe feet first. I couldn’t waste time looking for other ways out. Here was a perfect, yet horrible smelling, escape route and I wasn’t going to just pass it up.

I did have to reflect on my life choices as I felt the dark liquid engulf me up to the shoulders, I lay on my back, leaving myself room to breathe as I began using the damp top of the pipe to push myself along in the direction I thought was the front of the ship. I slid, shimmied and pressed myself away from my cell, my hands slipping almost constantly on patches of grime and muck. I reminded myself that I wouldn’t have to worry about being sucked straight out into space. A ship this size would have a full recycling system, to reuse water and create fertiliser, as well as restrictions on where rubbish and bodily waste could be dumped within a system. That meant that they would likely only dump waste once a week, and not in the middle of a space battle.

I moved along the pipe, a few centimetres at a time feeling my skin scraping and collecting the grime and muck until I was underneath an empty room, another cell. The door to this one had been open when they had taken me to the bridge, and I couldn't think of a reason why they would have closed it since. I moved further until I felt the toilet's pipe.

As if I was escaping from a coffin, I stabbed up at the top of the pipe with tightened straight fingers. I felt the metal bend under the force and I hit it a second time, then again until my hand punched through and I hit the underside of the toilet bowl. My hand came back scratched and bleeding. I tore and punched my way free, eventually pulling myself from the stinking pipe and shoving one side of the toilet from the floor. I dragged myself out, sucking in fresh, clean air.

Shower! I knew it wasn’t the best time, but I couldn’t go around skinking of literal shit. I shuffled across the floor, my feet slick on the tiles as they left a trail of refuse behind me until I was in the shower.

I switched it on and received a few seconds of blessedly clean warm water that ran over my stomach and legs without pressure before it spluttered and stopped. I swore under my breath. I had to assume the water pumps and non-essential utilities were off to divert power to shielding. I looked down at my half cleaned legs and then at my still disgusting shirt. I pulled the shirt off and tossed it aside, then used the thin towel to wipe what I could from my face and hair and body.

I couldn’t tell if I had cleaned enough off to help with the smell, or if I was just becoming used to it. I tossed the now ruined towel away and walked out of the bathroom and then the cell.

The brig was still empty, but I could feel people running down the hallways around me. I followed the red lights to the end of the corridor, passing empty cells until I came to a thick door. With no other prisoners, the guards wouldn't have been on watch when I was taken away so Daron could gloat. Thankfully, they had not returned to their posts.

Like most doors on ships, It was made to slide into a recess in the wall, but unlike most doors, this one was manual. Some kind of security measure, I guessed. I pulled open the door and moved into an empty guard's room. Console screens lined one wall showing views of the cells and hall, with no one there to monitor them. I staggered as the ship shuddered again, stumbling over pieces of a board game that had been thrown to the floor.

It looked like the guards or soldiers had left in a hurry. Two chairs were overturned and a spilt cup left someone's drink dribbling down a steel table leg. The men who had been guarding me would now be manning guns or preparing to combat boarding forces. If earth's navy could even manage to board. I wasn't so sure they could.

I checked the room, finding only a simple dagger tucked into a draw. With nothing else, I stopped before the door. On the other side, I could feel a wide hallway that ran too far for my EM sense to feel. I stepped back and to the side, hugging the wall against a set of steel shelves as someone approached and slid the door open.

I had been expecting a guard in uniform, instead, it was a man in plain respawn clothing, his soft shoes padded on the hard floor as he walked into the room. On top of his respawn shirt was an armoured vest that held a handful of throwing knives. In one hand was a pistol and the other a short sword. It was Daron’s brother, likely looking for revenge for a painful death.

As soon as the door slid closed behind him and he began moving towards the door to the cells, I pounced. I jumped at his back, the dagger stabbing out at his spine. It should have been an easy kill on an unsuspecting subject, but at the last second, he turned. The dagger skidded across his ribs barely tearing the skin. I would have sworn if I had time. The blade wasn't even nanite sharpened. Against a high ranker, it was like trying to cut someone with a butter knife.

I had to duck as his sword whipped through the air above my head. I stepped back, switched the knife and threw it as he brought the pistol up. The gun went clattering to the floor and slid under the desk. Now unarmed, I retreated further, around the table and towards the cells as Daron's brother scowled and sniffed at the air. “I thought I smelt something. What happened to you? You look even more disgusting than before,” He sniffed the air again.

“You don’t respawn like this?” I snickered. I continued to back away towards the open doorway.

“Do you have any idea what you have done? Daron is going to skin me for letting you destroy the bridge. So everything he is going to do to me, I’m going to do to you first, plus some.” He grabbed the edge of the table and threw it across the room. It hit the wall with a thud and I jumped back through the doorway as he stabbed out with his sword.

He pressed after me and I twisted the dial in my mind a little. I would need perfect timing if I was going to get away from this with my life. Daron's brother wasn’t the most intimidating person, but in the few seconds of fighting I had seen, He wasn’t to be taken lightly. As he started to come through the door after me, I slammed it closed with everything I could muster. The edge of the door caught his hand as he swung back and he cried out in pain. I could hear an audible crunch of bones before the sword clattered to the ground.

I released the door and kicked the sword back down the hallway before rolling after it. I came up with it firmly in my grasp just in time to deflect a throwing knife, then another. Daron's brother pulled the door open with his injured hand while he flicked knives down the hallway at me. I deflected another before the fourth sliced through the top of my shoulder. I twisted the dial in my mind further, slowing my perception of time to the point of freezing it. I only needed a moment to think. To plan. I looked along the hallway, at the ceiling and the walls.

Then I twisted the dial back and ran at him. As he stepped into the hallway I dropped into a slide, slipping along the floor. I flicked the blade high, forcing him to deflect with a knife while the side of my foot collided with his. It wasn’t hard, only forceful. I pushed his left foot back while he was distracted. It cracked through a thin metal vent in the base of the wall, the soft cotton of his shoes ripping with the rough metal, trapping his foot, if just for a moment.

I spun on the floor, sweeping my leg out and into his free leg, knocking it wide. He tried to adjust his footing, but his movement was halted as he forced his foot free. In that instance, with his distraction, I lashed out with the short sword. Slicing through his Achilles tendon and then his femoral artery in quick succession. He cried out in pain and I rolled away as he lashed out with his last knife.

Blood streamed down his leg, and he cursed me as I came to my feet. “Damn you! He will skin me worse for this,” The colour was beginning to drain from his face as the blood leaked on the floor. “If I die, I will never stop hunting…”

I lunged forward and pierced him through the heart in one fluid motion before he could finish his sentence. I didn’t need to hear about how he would hunt me forever. He was a little fish in a big fish family and hopefully, he wouldn’t be the last one I killed today.

I sighed at his empty forearm. He had been in such a hurry, that he hadn’t even strapped on a scanner. I pulled the vest from his body, collected the throwing knives from the floor and walked from the brig. I stopped in the hallway, looking left, then right. Unsure of my next move. I was in the middle of an enemy command ship. In the centre of a hornet's nest. A nest of well trained and well-paid hornets.

Daron's brother had come from the left, closer to the centre of the ship. I needed armour, clothing and more weapons, so without a better option, I went left. I jogged down the hallway, the ship still rumbling underfoot at the missile strikes. I checked every door I could. Half were locked, and the other half only held bunked accommodation or cleaning supplies. I was passed three times by ship's staff, but they paid me no mind as they sprinted to do whatever task they had been ordered, too busy to even notice the stink coming from me.

[Jackson Sanders]

“They’re going to keep getting in our way,” Sam muttered as she swept her rifle from side to side, scanning the passageway.

“Would you rather we were alone?” Jack whispered. His throat mic would be picking up his voice perfect and sending it right to Sam, Mia and Keg.

“Yes,” Sam said.

“We can’t take this ship alone.” Jack reminded her.

They had already had this discussion. Their docking hole had only gotten them into this narrow maintenance tunnel. They had spent too long hunkering low, whispering silently while Sam tapped into the ship's system to retrieve a layout map.

Keg and Sam had argued that they should have moved further into the ship, and left Cam and his team to fend for themselves, but Jack had insisted on waiting. They had grumbled about it ever since.

Eventually, Cam had docked and breached through the airlock they had made. They had found the holding cells on the map, aided by Mia’s memory, and moved off through the service corridor.

They weren’t sure if Erick would respawn on the ship. Jack wasn’t entirely sure if Erick had even died when the cockpit exploded. Even if he thought he had seen his body drifting through space, without assurances, Jack wasn’t willing to take the chance that Erick wasn’t still trapped in a cell.

If Erick wasn’t there, they still had a mission. They needed to find the secondary bridge and either infiltrate it, disable it, or destroy it. If they couldn't do that, then they needed to disable the engines. The bridge or the engine room. The two most well-protected places on any ship.

They creepy through the bowels of the ship, ducking under ventilation ducts, cooling pipes and wiring looms. “You could have picked a better place to dock,” Cam whispered.

“I wasn’t spoilt for choice,” Mia hissed.

“You didn't have to come along,” Sam added.

“You’re kidding, right? Storming a big ship, in the middle of the battle for Earth, with a group of fifth tiers? Where else would I rather be? Plus I thought Erick would be with Jack.”

“I hope he is here somewhere,” Mia muttered. “How do you know Erick again?”

“Old friends,” Cam said. “I’ve known him for years. How do you know Erick?”

“Good friends,” Mia answered.

“Not quite,” Keg interjected from the front of the passage. “They’re bumping uglies.”

“Really?” Cam said, blinking.

“Keg. Shut the fuck up.” Mia cracked.

“Can you all shut the fuck up?” Jack hissed.

“Sorry mate, shouldn’t mention your little brother's bits,” Keg whispered with a laugh, then fell silent.

“There should be a panel on the left coming up that leads to the main junction,” Sam said after they had walked another ten paces.

“I see it,” Keg replied and came to a stop. He ran a hand along the walls.

“It should open outward,” Jack said, checking the schematics. “Mia and Sam, breach positions, two and three,” Jack ordered as they moved up behind Keg. Sam and Mia formed up tight behind keg, practically pressing against him.

“What can we do,” Cam asked and he crept closer to Jack.

Jack looked back at him and his two friends, they were kitted out with decent equipment, and nice yellow splash painted armour, but Jack just shook his head. “Absolutely nothing, wait for us to breach and clear the hallway on the other side, then come through. Keg, Go when ready.” Jack looked back at Keg, Sam and Mia. Then readied his rifle.

Keg flicked the lock on the panel and then pushed it. It swung wide into the hallway, sending red light pouring into their service corridor for a second before he stepped through, Mia and Sam following close behind him. They split as they moved into the wide hallway, each checking a different direction and sightlines. Jack thought the coast was clear, before the sounds of suppressed gunfire echoed off the wall. Six shots in quick succession. Jack darted into the hallway, checking towards the sounds of fire, where Sam knelt. She fired three more times and a man in a navy blue jumpsuit dropped to the floor beside an open door.

“Were they armed?” Keg asked not turning from covering his end of the hallway.

“What does it matter. This is an enemy warship, in the middle of a battle. There aren’t any rules of engagement here. You see anyone, you kill them.” Jack said. He raised his rifle and began to walk towards the body. “Sam, on me. We need to check the room. Mia, cover her end.”

Mia shifted positions so she was aiming her rifle down the hallway while Sam clipped her rifle to her chest and pulled her expanding spear from her lower back, flicking it to half-length.

Rifles weren’t the best weapon to breach smaller rooms with. Especially if someone was waiting on the other side with a blade, if they were high enough rank, a rifle left the breacher at a disadvantage. Sam held the short spear in her left hand and drew her pistol with her other as she followed Jack to the doorway.

They stepped through and scanned the room, Sam leading the way with Jack following close behind. It was a storage room, and empty except for tools lining the room. Jack grabbed the body and dragged it inside, closing the door behind him as they left the room.

“It’s clear. Keg, start moving. Someone may have heard those shots. Keep going straight, then take the next left.” He ordered.

Keg stood and began moving along the hallway. The others followed with Mia walking backwards to watch behind them. They were almost at their left turn when three armed soldiers stepped around the corner. “Three on me,” Keg called. The men jumped, their eyes going wide in surprise as Keg and Sam began firing. The bullets cracked on their chest armour. All three jerked from the impact and then dove back around the corner.

Keg wasted no time and tossed a flash grenade after them. It erupted with blinding light and deafening noise. Keg peaked the corner from a crouch, firing three rounds before pulling behind cover again. “There are more of them, If we don’t move, they’re going to close the airlock doors.” Sam stepped up and tossed another flashbang, and then a smoke grenade. The small balls bounced off the walls before exploding and hissing.

Sam and Keg darted out around the corner, while Jack and Mia began laying down covering fire into the now thick smoke. From behind Jack, a spout of flames rocketed past and down the hallway. There were cries of alarm and the sounds of people diving away from the flames. Keg followed the fire as the sounds of grinding metal began shaking the hallway. There was a hiss and the sound of cracking metal. when the smoke began to clear, the airlock door was stopped in the middle of the hall. With Keg's broad sword jammed in the middle of it.

[Erick Sanders]

I must have tried ten doors before my luck turned. I strolled into what looked could only have been an officer's quarters. A large double room with an ensuite bathroom. It would have been stately if not for the complete utilitarian nature. Everything was shining metal, from the chairs and desk to the bed's headboard.

Whoever called this room home was clearly a high ranking member of Daron's father's personal army. My breath almost caught when I pulled open the storage locker against the wall.

Hanging neatly from a rack was a familiar black blade. This high ranking officer had clearly taken the spoils of war when they captured Mia and I. They had even found a snug scabbard for it. I pulled the blade free. "Now where's your sibling," I muttered. It was probably running around somewhere on the ship. I hoped it wasn't floating in the darkness of space.

I still couldn't tell if I hated this sword or not. It was a symbol of everything I hated. The last possession of a man who made his living torturing people. But it was also a tool that had helped give me freedom. I had used it to kill my captors, its previous owner and my own.

I tied the blade to my back with a strap from the locker and added a high calibre pistol beside it. Lastly, I grabbed a short assault rifle. It looked like a spare from its. Unkempt and in need of a few replacements. I clipped it onto the vest and walked back to the door, flipping the mattress onto the floor and giving it a few slashes with a blade for good measure. I hoped it would inhibit respawn if this officer died.

As soon as it opened I was hit with a reminder that we were in the middle of a battle. Rattling gunfire echoed down the hallway from my left, followed by the boom of grenades exploding. Someone had boarded this ship, I realised. By the sounds of it, they were having a hell of a fight.

I took off at a run as the ship shuddered again and a new set of alarms began wailing. I tried to formulate some kind of plan, unfortunately, all of my studies on apprehension, bounty-hunting, interrogation and legal requirements didn't provide much in the way of tactics for storming occupied ships.

I knew that there would be a secondary command bridge closer to the centre of the ship. It would be simple, but entirely capable of controlling the ship. The captain's quarters, Daron's quarters and respawn, would be close by or attached. How to disable or get into it was another matter entirely.

I sprinted towards the sounds of battle. This ship was large, but even so, it would only have a crew of perhaps forty. There were at least ten people in the cockpit when Daron tried to parade me around. That would leave thirty more. Some engineers, medical staff, janitors and soldiers. I wasn’t sure how many fighters from earth had infiltrated the ship, I only hoped it was enough.

My soft respawn shoes padded on the floors as I ran, the cracking and rattling of gunshots growing louder and louder in the enclosed space until they were deafening. I came around the corner to a small battle. Six men were hugging the wall as they fired through an airlock doorway that had been jammed open with a long blade. Smoke wafted in the air, jerking and jumping with the shockwaves from the rifles, filling the place with the acrid smell of chemical explosives. Against the wall was a dead soldier, his one remaining eye staring blankly from where he sat slumped over. I dropped the rifle and lunged at the soldiers.