StarCraft: Brain Damage
Chapter 56: Rendezvous
"Thoughts?" Jim asked Katsuragi.
They were both standing on the bridge looking at the main screen, on which was live feed of a remote space platform. Sitting on its surface in a big open area was a small civilian transport ship. Outside the ship in CMC battle armor stood three figures.
"I think, that Golding must be holding up on his end of the deal," Katsuragi replied.
"I meant on what we should do now," Jim said.
"Oh," she said, "Then I think we should land the entire ship."
"Good idea. I'll form everybody up at the invasion ramp," Jim said and left the bridge.
Once on the elevator, he pushed the button for the bottom deck. Then he switched on his COM link.
"Squad's 1 through 3 form up at the invasion ramp ASAP. Check your suit seals and bring weapons. Out."
The elevator came to a stop and opened its doors, allowing Jim to step out. The invasion ramp was a large section at the bottom of the ship that could be lowered, allowing up to three Siege Tanks or two platoons of troops to exit the ship at once in a rush of manpower. It effectively turned the Shogoki into an oversized dropship.
After a few minutes, the squads showed up packed into three elevator loads and assembled around Jim.
"One rule for this: don't fire without me saying so. Got it?" he asked.
"Yes sir," they replied.
--
Golding watched as the Shogoki came in for a landing, its bow sticking up higher than its stern. The rear struts touched down first, followed by their fore counterparts. The ship came to a stop on the gray metal that covered the space platform and sat for a minute, its sensors reading the surrounding area. Then a massive ramp in the bottom lowered and the Dogs of War emerged.
The three whole squads of soldiers marched across the landing zone and stopped ten feet from Golding and his two bodyguards. The lead suited man pointed at the ground in front of his feet and said one word.
"Payment."
"Where's the guy?" Golding asked, mindful of the five hundred thousand dollars in the briefcase held in his right hand.
"He's dead. Green killed him," Jim replied, "Give me the money."
"I assume that Green was killed then?" Golding asked.
"You got that right," Jim said.
"Did you recover the hab?" Golding asked.
"No, and I'm not going to. If you want it back then you can fight your way through the Zerg yourself," Jim said bluntly, "Now give me the money."
"I don't think I can do that," Golding said and turned his back on Jim to head to his transport.
"Asshole," Jim muttered, "All squads open fire."
The three squads let loose with their Impalers, cutting through Golding's two bodyguards like they weren't even there. A C20 round punched its way through Golding's skull and drove his CMC suited body to the ground. A D18 charge latched itself onto the engine housing of the transport and detonated, blowing the entire ship into bits of hot steel that rocketed into space.
"Mana, case, now," Jim ordered.
The female sergeant hopped through the low gravity to the dead body of Golding and pried the briefcase from his dead fingers. Turning, she tossed the briefcase to Jim who then caught it with his free hand and walked back toward the Shogoki.
--
"Sir, Golding is down," reported Lieutenant Commander Davis from where she stood behind the surveillance station aboard the Battlecruiser Dark Star.
"Thank you Commander," replied Colonel Roth, unconsciously rubbing his eye patch with his index and middle fingers, "De-cloak the Wraiths and commence the attack."
"Aye sir," replied Davis.
--
Katsuragi was busy taking a sip of her morning coffee when Hyuga shouted.
"Twelve Wraiths de-cloaking just outside our missile range!"
The former UED Captain spit her coffee all over her uniform pants in surprise. Without thinking, she grabbed her headset and put it on, while at the same time tuning it to the frequency the ground team was on.
"Jim, we've got company," she said.
"So I noticed," he replied.
On the monitor, Katsuragi could see the three squads spin around as one and launch a volley of rocket propelled grenades up at the Wraiths. Most of the nimble multipurpose flyers were able to dodge the shots, except for one. Three of the rockets impacted its right-side engine and sent it spiraling into one of its comrades, forcing both craft to spin out into the blackness of space with no hope of recovering.
"Hyuga, where'd they come from?" Katsuragi demanded.
"I'm working on that!" he answered while frantically typing in commands.
He conducted a long range sensor sweep and instantly found the source of the Wraiths.
"Ma'am, there's a Dominion Battlecruiser holding position six kilometers outside our defense envelope!" he reported.
"What class?" she asked.
Hyuga gulped. "Hercules," he replied nervously.
"God damnit," she muttered, "Jim we've got a massive neo-steel plated problem."
"We're on board and closing the ramp. Move, now!" came his response.
--
"Colonel they've taken off. Wraiths cannot close in, there are to many defenses," Davis reported.
"Follow them!" Roth ordered.
The Dark Star lurched forward after the Shogoki, which by now was already opening a warp hole just off the space platform.
"Sir?" Davis asked.
"We are not going to lose them! Go in after it!" he shouted.
"Additional contact!" shouted the helm, "In between us and the target!"
"What is it?" asked Davis, peering over the helm's shoulder.
"Is it a civilian? I thought we had this area cleared?" Roth asked.
"Negative," Davis answered, "Its unregistered, but definitely Dominion."
On the screen, Roth saw his target disappear into the warp hole, only to be followed by a much smaller black scout ship.
