"We're approaching the station. ETA two minutes," Amber informed, standing at the navigation console behind me.

I turned to the side, "Ries?"

She gave me a thumbs up from the communications console, "Ready, Boss!"

I then turned to the other side, "Lea?"

She gave me a nod, "Ready to prime the weapons once we stop our Travel Drives, Mistress."

Good.

I focused my attention on my ship controls, the map in the corner of my screen showing our ship getting closer and closer to our destination.

I disabled the autopilot and took over the controls, preparing to shut off the Travel Drives to direct the ship towards the station.

A minute passed and I switched off the Travel Drives, bringing us back to Birmingham speeds.

The station was already in view and I realised that it was relatively small compared to the other stations I have seen so far.

"Amber?" I called out.

"Scanners don't show any ships in this sector. The station appears to be a communications outpost but it's not registered as part of the government or any known private companies. Which I suppose is expected if that guy is getting deliveries from here so this should be a drop of some sort."

"Lea?"

"Weapons are all prime and loaded, Mistress. Shields are also working fine."

"Ries?"

"I'm trying to hail the station but we're not getting a response…"

I shrugged, "Guess we're really going in then. Let's prep for boarding."

Amber gave me a mock salute, "Aye, aye Captain!"

She then ran out of the room to head towards the armoury room.

We had already discussed ahead of time that the likelihood of us needing to board the station was high.

If that was the case, Amber and I would be the ones boarding the station while Lea and Ries stayed behind to watch the ship and provide backup in case anything happens.

As we got closer to the station, I started looking for a hangar or a docking hatch that I could tether my ship to in order to dock with it.

That was when I found a ship anchored at one of the docking hatches that seemed to be pretty banged up.

In fact, I could even see that some kind of kinetic weapon had blasted a hole through one of its engines and I would say this ship is lucky to have even managed to limp here without it blowing up.

That is assuming that the ship wasn't in this state while it was still docked to the station of course.

"Ries?" I called out.

She tapped on the console for a moment before shaking her head at me, "No response from the ship Boss…"

I tapped on my own console to activate my ship scanners to scan the ship, frowning when I saw the results of the scan.

On the screen, it showed that the ship had no known relations and that it was not registered in any database.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

That usually either means that this ship belonged to a pirate or to someone who isn't doing anything legal.

Honestly, it could just belong to the owner of this station since I already know that there's some illegal trade being done here due to the fact that Linc had some secret package coming from here. But the fact that the ship was damaged like that meant that there was some kind of trouble as well.

"I'm initiating a wide area scan, both of you be ready," I warned them.

A wide area scan should help us check if there were any ships in this area even if they had their engines off which the normal scanners would detect, but it would also alert them to our presence.

Thus, we needed to be ready in case there were enemies around and we needed to fight them off when they got a hold of our position and started attacking us.

I charged up the scanners before I activated it, my scanners sending out a wave outwards in a sphere that pinged everything around us.

I watched the map closely, waiting to see if the scanners picked up anything that might be a ship of some sort that was lying in ambush.

Interestingly, nothing actually came up and we were the only ship that was in this sector.

"We're docking with the station," I announced.

I manoeuvred my ship until it was lined up with the other docking hatch before activating the docking sequence.

From there, the computer took over and started to do the minute corrections needed to dock my ship with the station while I stepped out of the Captain's seat.

"I'm heading out. We'll maintain radio contact through our comms and if anything happens to us, prioritise your own safety first. If any ship enters the sector, let us know as well."

"Yes, Mistress."

"Don't worry, Boss!"

I left the bridge to head down to the armoury where Amber had already suited up and was waiting for me.

She even helped me prepare my weapons so that I could just pick them up and we were ready to go.

I nodded at her, "Ready?"

"Of course~" She answered cheerfully, giving a pat on the dual pistols at her waist.

I strapped my shotgun behind my back and the two of us made our way to the entrance hatch.

"Lea, Ries, do you read me?" I spoke into the comms.

Ries was the one who replied, "We hear you, Boss."

"We're going in now."

"Got it, stay safe."

I turned to Amber and she gave me a nod, prompting me to step towards the hatch and causing it to cycle open.

When we stepped into the station, I realised the place was dark, meaning the power was out.

I frowned a little and used my Codex to contact Ries again, "Ries… Do a scan on the station… Seems like the power is out… Could we see if there's any lifesigns or something?"

"Ah… Give me a moment, Boss… Err… Sorry, I don't think our scanners can search for lifesigns… We might need to upgrade that if you want something like that. But from what I can see… The power generator is definitely out but the life support systems are still online somehow. Probably from an auxiliary generator or something."

"I guess we should go and check out the power then… Could you guide us there?"

"There's no map Boss, especially since this station isn't registered on the GalaNet."

Well that's a bummer… And since we don't know how big this station is, I don't really think just fumbling around in the dark would be helpful as well.

Amber chuckled, "We just need to find a terminal, Tera. Then we could connect to the station's network which should have a map or at least give us a clue to its layout. I doubt a station like this could be that big anyway."

I shrugged, "I suppose… Still… I think we should be on our guard."

I pulled out my shotgun and Amber did the same with her pistols before we switched on the flashlights on our personal terminals.

The corridor was relatively narrow and it seemed to lead to some kind of reception room at the end. The good thing was that the place seemed to be relatively tidy so it wasn't like the setup of a horror game where trash and debris was littered around the place.

It's not like the place was completely pitch black either since there were emergency lights that illuminated parts of the corridor so that it wasn't totally dark.

As we were nearing the reception area, Amber suddenly placed a hand on my shoulder to stop me and switched off her light, prompting me to do the same.

She then gestured for me to follow behind her which I did so while keeping my gun at the ready.

We crept towards the doorway and she lowered herself closer to the ground so that she was crouch walking towards the edge.

We piled up at the entrance and Amber slowly sucked in a breath before leaping out of the doorway.

I was just standing behind watching her fly out with a stunned expression on my face because that was definitely not what I was expecting her to do.

While she was still in midair, she pointed her pistols towards both sides of the doorway and fired two shots.

There was a choked gasp and someone fell forward, his body collapsing across the doorway and his gun clattering onto the ground noisily.

The other guy seemed to have a shield that managed to save him from Amber's bullets and he started to raise his gun to point at her.

I immediately leapt out and smashed my elbow into his face, sending the guy stumbling back before I levelled my shotgun at his abdomen and fired a shot.

The slugs shattered his shield before eviscerating his midsection, the guy's eyes widening in panic before he fell onto his side, unmoving.

Ok… So we just killed two guys… Who the fuck are they?