The raptor had left the bay and space seemed to surround Lt. Vara as he sat in the rear of the cabin. He grimaced at the sight as he was never comfortable in open space in such a small craft. No real snipe should be. However, the butterflies in his stomach was from the nature of the mission. He looked around the deck again at the squad of marines who were either bullshitting with each other or doing some last minute pre-combat inspections which is what Vara imagined a real soldier should be doing.
"Looks like the XO and Shaw are already on Scylla," said the ECO. His name was Dearman or Dearborn, something like that. Vara wasn't familiar with any of the pilots except the CAG himself. He read over the Raven's manifest again.
Alright, you all 've heard we've run into a fleet of civilian ships, said the XO in his brief earlier and no, Vara had not heard of the news. The Colonel seemed to be rather glum of the situation. We'll be conducting a salvage mission on the group. You'll each be given a manifest of your target ship and a team of marines. How you get them to meet the demands... its your show, but... He paused to think for a moment, if you run into real resistance, just stand by and give me a push, ok? The group nodded in agreement but in confusion as well.
The Raven was a cargo transport ship that had sent up a flag in the CIC. Initial scans of the Raven showed obvious modifications that he can see just from looking at the ship and only the Gods know what they're for but the manifest they sent over to the Pegasus failed to disclose anything out of the norm except for a severely undermanned crew for a ship that size. Vara understood why they chose an engineer to lead the team for that freighter but better judgment, in his opinion, would've chosen a combat experienced leader to deal with the shadiness of the situation.
The raptor was weaving through the civilian fleet to the monstrosity at the rear of the formation dubbed the Raven. "What the frak," the ECO said, "Colonel Fisk's team opened fire on the Scylla."
"Is it a fire fight?" Sergeant Haskins asked immediately
"I dont... no, its not"
"They're mowing down civies?" A Marine asked
"What the frak, indeed," Haskins said as he looked at the LT. Vara looked back, his panic may have been evident on his face as his heart raced. He was at a loss of words so he just pulled out his sidearm to inspect it again, only this time his hand was slightly shaking. Vara had never fired a weapon since basic training and hoped he never had to. Haskins dropped his gaze at Vara and turned to his squad.
"Alpha team, you're going in hot." The sound of rounds being chambered echoed through the deck.
The gap between them and the Raven started closing rapidly and at this moment, Lieutenant Vara wanted nothing more to be in his quarters with his head buried in his pillow.
After a series of hatches, the team was lead into a small hangar deck littered with equipment and crates.
Vara looked around past the man who was waiting for them and decided a viper or two could fit in there. The man himself had a weapon holstered on the side of his right leg that goes from his waist almost down to the knee. The butt of the thing was wood-like and seemed cut off. His hands were gripping his suspenders making his pose seem a little too relaxed.
"Permission to come aboard"
"Permission granted, welcome aboard the Raven," the man replied, sounding a little upbeat.
"Thank you. Captain Aldan I presume?" Vara asked, still kind of looking around.
"Yep. Trayshawn Aldan is the name. People just call me Tray."
"Well met, Captain Aldan, I'm Lieutenant Vara with the Battlestar Pegasus. Where is the rest of your crew?"
"My crew's pretty limited, as you could probably tell from our ship's manifest. They're where they need to be for basic operations sake."
"Ah, well, speaking of manifest, per orders from Admiral Cain, this is a list of equipment and personnel that will be transferred to us. This list is also open to equipment that I may add as I inspect your ship," says Vara as he hands Aldan a clipboard.
Aldan browses through the documents as a slight smile on his face, that had been there the whole time, is still there. He chucked as he pointed somewhere on a paper.
"You don't want him, trust me." He continued shuffling through the paperwork. "Wow, this is a hefty list, Mr. Vara. But hey, I guess in a time like this, big bad warships gotta do what it's gotta do. I'd probably do the same thing."
Vara didn't know whether to feel relief or caution. It was definitely veering more towards caution when Aldan 's speech started getting slower and louder.
"Except the part where you off innocent people left and right. I'm sorry Mr. Vara I don't think I... can help you," Aldan said and a clanking noise somewhere to the team's right followed immediately. At the same time Aldan held the clipboard right up to his face. All seven marines reacted instantly with a high-ready position to either the sound or the abrupt motion of the clipboard but it was too late. A bang erupted in the room so loud Vara felt his eardrums were pierced. He covered his ears and as he was moving, all he could see was the motionless figure of Trayshawn Aldan holding a clipboard to his face. He moved till the ride side of his body eventually hit something, a wall maybe, and collapsed on the floor. The imprint of Aldan blurred into tracers going back and forth in the hangar but still deafened by a ringing noise. A quick glance around the room showed a couple of marines on the floor, the rest behind some kind of cover returning fire. Aldan was joined by two people that Vara could see. One of them was a blond female with a small automatic weapon and was covering for another tall man with dreadlocks who was advancing very fast from cover to cover. Vara stood up and reached for his sidearm when two things happened almost instantaneously. First he noticed his gut suddenly felt like it was on fire and a split second after he was knocked back down to the ground by the man with dreadlocks. Vara looked down to examine his waist. His uniform jacket was getting darker at the bottom and he was beginning to feel the worst pain in his life.
Vara remained conscious long enough to witness the rest of the marines neutralized and Aldan and his men gathering. There was actually about five of them including Aldan and each one of them looked like they can bring down a world of hurt.
"What now?" the Dreadlocks asked.
"To the raptor. We got places to be," replied Aldan with a smile as he pulls out his ear plugs. He then breaks open his weapon to drop the spent shells.
The blond girl's face suddenly appeared in front of Vara. She had a concerned look on her. As she closed his eyes for him, the last thought to run through his mind was how familiar her pretty face looked.