Homestar Saga

Chapter 28: Boarding Party

"Internal defenses activated," The Captain looked up from his console. "At least Migo left those intact."

"Do you think that'll be enough to stop them?" Lissa asked.

"No." Mims walked over to the portable shield generators in front of the main hatch. "But it'll buy us some time." He deactivated the shields one after the other and opened the door. "Yvian, send out the drones. I want three teams of three to hit each boarding party."

Yvian entered the commands. Thirty six military grade combat drones flew out into the hallway. Mims closed the hatch behind them and reactivated the shields. "The Vrrl are gonna come straight for us," he said. "The drones'll thin their number a bit, but every one of the bastards is packing an ion weapon. Boarding ships is what the Vrrl do. They're good at it. Once they've crushed our other defenses, they'll swarm us. They've got blasters and plasma weapons, but they're just as happy tearing into us with fangs and claws, and their armor's almost as good as ours. You'll need to do a lot of damage to take one out."

The Captain started pulling additional weapons out of the final container. He handed each of the girls a blade. It looked like a knife, but much longer. He grabbed one for himself and unsheathed it. "This is a nanocarbon katana. It'll cut steel on it's own, but if you push this switch," He pressed a button near the top of the hilt, just below the small crossguard. "The blade vibrates at high frequency. Between that and the strength enhancements in your suits, you should be able to cut a Vrrl in half with one swing." He paused. "Remind me to start teaching you two swordsmanship if we survive all this." He sheathed the blade and attached it to his armor, on his left hip. The sisters did likewise.

Next he pulled out a massive eight barreled plasma blaster similar to the turrets he'd set up. "This is a BFG14 Plasma Gatling gun. It fires superheated plasma at a rate of two hundred bolts per minute. Do not fire it without using AIMASSIST." He handed it to Lissa and pulled a second one out for Yvian. "This thing does a lot of damage, and I don't want you putting unnecessary holes in the Paradigm Shift." Yvian nearly dropped hers when Mims handed it over. It was even heavier than it looked. She would need to activate her suit's strength enhancements just to aim the thing.

"Where's your giant rapid fire plasma thingy?" Lissa asked.

"I only have the two." Mims shrugged. He reached in and pulled out a BFSR4 sniper rifle and a pair of KL53 assault rifles. "Have the drones made contact, yet?"

Yvian glanced down at her wrist console. "First group's made contact." The first wave of drones had stuck one of the boarding parties. As she watched, the last of them went offline. "First group's destroyed." Twelve combat drones, destroyed in seconds. They'd only managed to kill four of the Vrrl. Two more drone groups were about to engage their targets. Yvian did not have high hopes for their success.

Crunch. Yvian looked over at her sister. Lissa stood as straight as she could, holding the BFG14. Her legs were shaking. Yvian didn't blame her. She was breathing a little too hard, herself. Her shoulders and legs were clenched in fear. She'd heard tales of the Vrrl her whole life. Everyone had. They were nightmares of tooth and claw. Vicious, sadistic killers that toyed with their prey. If she lost this fight, she would be torn apart and eaten alive. If she was lucky. Sometimes the Vrrl took prisoners. If she was taken to a breeding farm, gruesome death wouldn't be something to be feared. It would be her fondest wish. Yvian shuddered.

"Well, that's four we won't have to deal with." Mims looked as calm as he ever did. If he noticed the sisters' fear, he gave no sign. He looked up from his wrist console and continued. "When they get here, they'll try to breach the shields first. After that, they'll hit us with ion. Our suits are shielded, and so are the katanas, but we'll lose the big guns. The longer we can keep the shields intact the better off we'll be. Any questions?"