Chapter 21 - Sea of Venus(13) - Explosive Ejection
The four cruisers surrounded the broken destroyer.
“Callsign NOBIN. Do you copy?”
The destroyer was rolling in a barrel roll as it careened past asteroids
“Their fucked. No thrust. Heading towards gravity well in the asteroid belt? That’s a death sentence.”
The man sitting next to the captain sighed, “Here, look at the logs. Just hacked it off the primary mainframe.”
The captain sighed, “Ah. It’s a political assassination. I feel bad for the kid.”
“Should we board?”
“Yeah. Burst a hatch open.”
The captain connected to the global channel, “Empire fleet, we are preparing to board topmost hatch. Please stand clear of any debris.”
“Negative. Allow fleet to halt vessel.”
Three beams of green and blue light hit the destroyer from the other three cruisers. The captain stared in amazement, “Graviton beams?”
The destroyer slowly came to a halt over the course of half an hour and stopped spinning.
The captain signaled to the gunner, “Open it up.”
*Thunk*
The sound of a railgun shell with minimal charge sent the cruiser into an eerily quiet recharge sequence. The usual whoosh of the energy release and recharge usually filled the silence and cooled the anticipation of a hit. The crew watched in silence as the small gleaming rod traveled towards the destroyer.
A bright flash of blue came out of the destroyer as the hatch was depressurized. The captain waved over to the crew,
“Get in the breacher drone! We’re dropping in!”
Six of the men squeezed into the cramped space along with their gear.
“Cycle it and launch us!”
The hatch depressurized and opened flinging the drone into space.
“Calculating breach vector.”
A loud beep echoed inside the drone.
“Vector found. Burning.”
*Crunch*
An AI blared through the speakers, “Depressurizing drone.”
Two bolts on the side of the drone fell to the ground.
“Activation ready.”
A button on the opposite side of the door out of the drone lit up red. The captain put his hand up to the button, “We ready?”
The five other men nodded.
“One milligram.”
Each of the men hit a button on the inside of their wrist. A sharp pain struck the back of their necks. A warm sensation filled their body as the mixture of ash, blood, and water traveled through their bodies.
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The captain hit the button.
*Thunk*
*BANG*
The door flew off the drone and lodged itself in the wall of the empty hatch. All the contents of the hanger had been ejected when the room was depressurized.
The six men stepped out into the pitch-black hanger and started utilizing the electromagnets on their boots to walk on the ground.
“We’re gonna need to airlock this shit.”
Out rolled a large rectangular emergency airlock that folded out into a small room.
The captain clicked a button, and robots automatically welded it to the floor and wall of the hatch.
“This is Bloodshot Brothers. We have successfully boarded the target. How shall we proceed?”
“Fleet @&$# to away crew, maintain neutral stance. Engage if necessary. We can mind wipe if needed.”
The captain cursed under his breath, “Quantum computer, graviton beam, and brain scrubber. What the fuck? What is this fleet doing out here.”
The men walked into a dimly lit corridor as the newly made airlock sealed behind them.
“Dad… what are those red dots?”
Sweat rolled down the man’s face as he stared at the map of the ship, “Those are friends that are here to help us.”
“Where’s mommy?”
The man glanced over his shoulder and saw his wife checking the plasma magazines of two rifles, “She’s getting ready to greet those friends.”
“Really?”
The man nodded and handed the little girl her favorite stuffed bear, “Hold onto this. We’re going to play hide and seek okay? I’ll try to find you.”
One of the men tapped the side of a sliding door, “It’s open.”
“Weapons at ease, take an evasive stance.”
The men spread out about two meters from each other. The captain tapped the door twice, “Opening it up. In three, two, one.”
*Clang*
The two sides of the sliding door clattered to the ground as the men walked into the dark control module. Their searchlights scoured the whole room. Four tables were on their side.
“I need thermal scans.”
“We are transmitting.”
The captain got a signal from the empire’s cruisers, “Tha-“
*Pop* *Pop*
“Shit!”
Blue plasma streaked through the air as a figured stood crouched behind the table in the middle of the room, shooting plasma.
“Shields!”
The captain hit a sequence of buttons on the inside of his wrist and felt a cold sensation cover his body. The plasma bullets splattered onto the shields and evaporated as one of the intruders put up a barrier.
A stray bit of plasma splattered onto the top of the waist high barrier, the intruder cursed, “It’s stuck!”
“Deploy it. Damn it!”
“This shit is stuck!”
The captain pushed one of the other members to the front and ripped out the corner of the barrier that was stuck. He chucked the piece of metal into a random corner of the room, “Deploy it!”
With a hard tug on the top of the box, the barrier extended above their heads with rotatable slots for them to fit their rifles to shoot through.
“Barrier deployed!”
The captain unhooked a grenade from his belt and pulled the pin using his teeth, “Stun grenade!”
A loud sound made the whole destroyer rumble as the room was flooded in blinding white light. The Intruders raised the visors that they used to shield their eyes from the grenade.
The captain yelled, “Get them!”
Two figures lay prone behind the middle table. A man and a woman. The captain looked at the biometrics, “Target found. Eliminating.”
He pointed his rifle at the man’s heart, “Unfortunately, you’ll need to suffer pain because I can’t fry your brain.”
*Pop* *Pop*
The sound of metal hitting metal came from behind the captain.
“Momm- “
The little girl saw six men in full plated armor with two of the men holding her parents by the head, their lifeless bodies dangling from their grips as a strange silver device was placed onto their heads. Smoke came out of a hole where their hearts once were.
The girl turned and sprinted towards the door she had just come through. One of the two fallen doors tripped her, and she fell to the ground with a loud thump.
The captain yelled, “Put ‘er to sleep!”
A small dart shot out of the wrist of one of the men and the little girl collapsed on the ground.
One of the men tapped the back of the silver helmet, “Brain’s in stasis. Fragments intact.”
The captain took out a vacuum safe ejection bag, “Put em in.”
The sleeping girl and the two dead bodies were thrown into the bag. The captain tossed an explosive charge at the large command module window. He primed it and walked out.
“Seal it.”
*click*
*Boom*
“Away to fleet, Objective has been ejected from the ship. Collect it yourself.”
The bag flew through the window that was blasted open as the command module depressurized.
“The eternal empire is grateful for your assistance. We’ve done you a little… favor. We hope to meet again and hopefully not as enemies.”
The captain looked at the holographic map and saw a floating cache of something.
“Crew, scan that object.”
“Captain… it’s… it’s…”
“What is it?”
“Liquid ether. It’s Sophus!”
The captain’s eyes widened, “Sophus.”
The other men stared at the captain in shock.
He nodded, “Purification.”