"Weapons on stun," Alex instructed the marines, helping herself to a pair of phase pistols from the weapons locker. She ejected the power cells, inspected them to ensure that they were undamaged and fully charged, and slotted them back home. She would have preferred a good old-fashioned pair of six-shot revolvers – she was an ace with those weapons – but they didn't have a stun setting. Neither did the particle accelerator cannon she had salvaged from the ancient warship, which was a pity. She liked that cannon.
Lieutenant Miles queried, "Stun, sir?"
"Stun. We're not killing anyone."
"Spoil sport."
"They tried to kill us," grumbled Sergeant Harrison, adjusting the setting on his pulse rifle.
Alex gave him one of her hardest stares, and watched all of the grizzled marine's defiance melt out of him. She had a hell of a look. "We're better than them."
"Yes, sir."
There were no further complaints, so Major Tyler took over the briefing, which was being held in the main cargo bay, the largest open area on Alex's ship. "Three teams of four. We'll dock here, at this airlock," he gestured to the printed map that was lain out across a crate, "force it open and make our way inside. Teams one and two will sweep upwards and take control of the operations centre; team three will head down to free the Daedalus prisoners. The enemy could detect our boarding, and if they do they'll send a distress call. The ship will jam all outgoing transmissions. Harrison, Colt, Madeira, that's where you come in. Lieutenant Nain has shown you what to do. Block all of their transmissions. If any of the fighters attempt to leave your jamming field, you're ordered to disable them. Is that understood?"
"Sir, yes, sir!" Chimed the three men selected to remain aboard. They wanted to be going with their friends into action, Alex could sense their disappointment, but they understood the importance of their task.
"You all have your assigned teams –"
"I don't," interrupted Alex.
Tyler gave her a patient look. "You're with me, Lieutenant. No offence, but I'd rather have you where I can keep an eye on you."
"Still don't trust me?"
"It's not that. We're professional soldiers, you're a helmsman. I'll be covering your back personally."
"Translation: he doesn't trust you as far as he could throw you."
"Thank you, Major," Alex smiled at him. "I'm touched by your concern for my welfare."
"All part of the job. Now, you all have your assigned teams. Levin, Miles, your teams will hit the operations centre. My people will spring Captain Matsura and his crew."
"He's keeping us out of the way." Kana pouted. "I wanted to attack the command centre. That sounds like a lot more fun."
"Jailbreak, Kana. It's gonna be fun enough."
There were no questions, so Tyler instructed his teams to assemble at the airlock. As they filed out, he handed his pulse rifle to Alex. She took the weapon from him, looked at it, and wondered why she was holding it.
"You're going to need something that packs more of a hit than that pistol of yours," he explained.
Alex lifted the weapon to her shoulder and sighted along its barrel, testing its weight and finding it comfortable. "Sure you trust me with this?"
"I never said I distrust you. Just that disaster seems to happen when you're around."
"Well," she slipped the rifle's strap over her shoulders and let it hang, "we could be in trouble here, couldn't we?"
"Maybe. But so long as the station doesn't blow up around us, my boys will get the job done."
"I bet you any money that the guy defending that station will say the same about his men," suggested Kana.
"Get some armour, Lieutenant," said Tyler, patting the flexible chest plate that he was wearing: matte grey, with the FMACO crest on the right breast, and built to withstand a phase rifle blast.
Alex shook her head. "Nah. I hate body armour. It looks ridiculous."
Tyler glanced at the sky blue trousers, vest and billowing cloak that she wore. His expression changed to something that could, very loosely, be called a smile. "No comment."
Susan had been sitting at the back of the cargo bay, listening to everything that had been said, and everything that had been thought. Now, she asked, "What do I get to do?"
"Stay here, on the ship, where it's safe."
She was at first surprised, then aggravated. "What? Why?"
"This is a dangerous situation, Susan. I won't put you at risk."
"I can take care of myself!"
Alex was pleasant, but firm. "Sorry. But Miranda would nag me something fierce if anything happened to you. And Miho would kill me, probably in a very unpleasant way. There would be blood and pain and probably a lot of screaming. You're staying here, where it's safe."
There was no changing her mind. Although only a child, Susan could tell that – she could sense Alex's steely determination and knew that she wouldn't be able to wear her down. She also knew that she had no chance of convincing Major Tyler to support her – he thought that she should have been returned to the Endeavour as soon as she had been discovered to be aboard – so she turned to the only other person who could help her.
"Dark Soul?"
Kana's fire appeared in Alex's eyes. She folded her arms firmly. "No means no." A moment later, she had to keep herself from cackling as she added, "Cry as much as you want."
The Augment child elected to do just that. Kana led Tyler out of the cargo bay, and closed the door behind her.
"We could have handled that better," decided Alex, taking control back.
"Sure. But it wouldn't have been as much fun."
Nuzzling Alex's craft into the airlock was a simple matter; the Shadow Wing was designed to be able to discretely board any ship or vessel. Its airlock was infinitely adjustable, and built to override a victim's security systems. Upon linking to the station's power and computer feeds, Shadow Wing uploaded a very intelligent virus into the system, which spread rapidly and shut down every security protocol that it came into contact with. Alex was silently grateful that these people had never acquired an Orion ship for themselves; otherwise they might have been able to develop a defence.
The three marine teams swarmed out of the airlock and quickly stunned the guards. Miles bound the peoples' hands with plastic strap cuffs and disarmed them, so that even if the stun wore off quicker than expected they wouldn't be causing any trouble.
"Let's move out," instructed Tyler. "Radio silence until you've taken the objective. Go, go."
Alex stuck towards the back of her group, feeling a little awkward. Tyler, Sanchez, and Rhode worked together fluidly, advancing, covering each other, communicating essential information with a few hand gestures. Already, she could see that she was a weak link in their chain. She made more noise than they did, she couldn't take mental snapshots of an area and identify any dangers the way the marines could, and could not make any sense of their sign language – no one had thought to teach it to her.
She reminded herself that there was no reason to feel inferior. She could take care of herself in a fight, always had before; and if things got really badly out of hand she could call on Kana. She'd been from one end of the galaxy to the other, and she had yet to encounter a foe that Kana couldn't flatten with a gesture. She would be fine.
It was just…their professionalism made her feel a little inferior, as she told Kana.
"Cry baby," she said compassionately.
They swept the docking level; stunning and binding two more alien technicians. They were remarkably simian looking, very much like a great ape, just a little taller than average, a lot thinner, and they had pale yellow hair. Their eyes were large, like snooker balls, but their ears were nothing more than little crevices in the sides of their skulls. Opposable thumbs, of course. They were all male, as far as Alex could tell, and all dressed in identical orange uniforms.
She had met a lot of aliens in her travels. Some had been so beautiful that the sight of them had made her weep; others had been hideous beyond her mind's ability to cope, and only Kana's help had saved her from madness. These people weren't either. They were just…kind of dull, really. They were monkeys in boiler suits, and not even cute monkeys at that; she was disappointed.
"I know these people," said Kana. "They're called the Vyar."
"Anything else?"
"Pretty routine stuff. Warlike people, hungry for expansion and resources, ruled over by a heartless tyrant called the Pavron. They discovered warp travel a century ago, moved out into space, conquered their neighbours, and generally did unpleasant things to them."
"Your kind of people," observed Alex dryly.
Kana snorted. "Hardly. They're brainless thugs, with no finesse."
"They nicked the Daedalus."
"Point. Yes, that is a bit of a change of tactics for them. Probably got a new Pavron on their throne."
The politics of an alien culture didn't matter much to Alex, although she was glad to have a name for these aliens. If Kana knew these people, even if her information was a little out of date, she felt more confident; some of the mystery was gone.
They descended through the maintenance decks, finding nothing but a few technicians that were already drunk or sleeping, and hardly required the stun shots that the marines gave them.
Below the maintenance levels was the prison itself; a hollow cylinder of cells that descended dozens of floors into the depths of the space station. A tower rose through the middle of the prison, providing accommodation for the guards and a monitoring station from where they could keep an eye on the prisoners. It was the marines' target, and with Alex following in their wake, they infiltrated the building.
It was at this point that their luck ran out. The guard tower was heavily defended, as was to be expected, and the marines had been prepared for it. What they hadn't expected was to find the tower's security system active; it was on a different network to the station's main systems, and hadn't been infected with Shadow Wing's virus. Alarms began to blare as soon as the marines entered the tower.
"Cover!" Shouted Tyler.
Vyar guards charged into the corridor, ready to face the escaped prisoners they expected to find. They were rather less prepared for the hail of pulse fire that greeted them, the marines firing precision bursts into each man and putting him down. A second wave was neutralised as easily as the first, and the marines pressed forward. Automated security systems attempted to repulse them, but were dealt with via strategic use of hand grenades and concentrated rifle fire. There wasn't an artificial intelligence yet devised that could impede the progress of the Federation MACOs.
They reached the control room and took up positions outside the door. Tyler gestured to Rhodes, who pulled a stun grenade from his belt and bowled it through the door. A bright white flash and loud bang gave away the grenade's detonation, and the marines rushed into the room, capitalising on the disruption caused by the blast.
There was none. The defenders had sheltered from the blast, and now poked out from behind the consoles that had protected them, firing at the marines. Tyler was hit in the chest, and only his armour saved his life. He was knocked to the floor, in great pain. Rhodes and Sanchez stood over their leader, laying down covering fire while Alex dragged him behind the safety of a console. She looked at his chest wound. The armour was burnt completely away where he had been hit, and he was bleeding, but it wasn't bad. She gave him a painkiller from his medical pouch, and slapped an antiseptic patch over the wound.
"That's all I can do here."
"Good enough," Tyler grunted. He had dropped his rifle when he'd fallen, and no one had picked it up for him. He drew his pistol and leant out, taking a shot at one of the Vyar. His aim was good and the man was struck in the shoulder, instantly falling limp.
"Suppress those bastards," Tyler shouted. Alex and the two marines fired a spray of pulse bullets at the Vyar, making them duck down. Rhodes went to throw a grenade, but Tyler stopped him; at these close quarters, the defenders might be able to throw it back in time.
Alex passed her rifle to Tyler and whispered, "Keep them suppressed. I'll flank 'em."
"No. That's my job."
"You're wounded, and I can't use that rifle."
She moved before he could argue any more, a phase pistol in each hand. She kept low, circling around to where the Vyar were, grateful that the consoles were laid out in a horseshoe shape and that she would have cover the whole way. She had counted five people shooting at them before. She would have to take them quickly, before any could react to her presence, or she would be killed.
The marines were hammering phased energy into the consoles the Vyar were ducked behind. Sparks flew frighteningly, keeping the Vyar down.
Alex had them in her sights. She fired a rapid spray from each of her pistols. Four Vyar dropped straight away, but the fifth reacted in time and threw himself out of her line of fire. He rolled back and fired a single shot from his rifle. It struck Alex in the shoulder and lifted her off her feet, throwing her into the large glass windows of the monitoring centre.
Glass that wasn't reinforced.
It shattered immediately, and Alex found herself falling. The sheer walls of the tower flashed past her as she plummeted into darkness.