In the Black Spaces

015: Breach

Mayeda checked the sight of his pulsar shotgun for the fifth time as the launch hurtled towards the alien station, trying not to clench his teeth with nerves. The boarding galley was packed with a heavily armed and armoured security detachment from the Cobra, carrying the most potent personal weapons in the armoury.

He was under no illusions about what they might be walking into, however, no matter how powerful their weapons might have been. Everything he'd seen aboard the wreck of the Manticore, and the ravaged colony of Myrr Idol, made it clear that their weapons were sickeningly ineffective.

Right now, though, they didn't have a choice.

A team of twelve deck guards from the Cobra's security contingent checked their own weapons – shotguns, heavy boarding rifles, and even a tripod-mounted breach cannon, lugged along by a towering bear of a man named Mosley.

"Launch-6 to command," he said as their ship passed under into the great maw of the landing bay, "closing on target. Deployment in two minutes."

"Copy, Launch-6," Commander Clay replied. "Priority is safe extraction of the away team. Once you've secured friendlies you are to withdraw. Is that clear?"

"Absolutely, ma'am," Mayeda assured her.

"Then good hunting. Clay out."

He breathed deep through his nose and nodded to himself.

"The hell you think we're gonna find over there, sir?" asked one of the deck guards, a younger man whose strained voice betrayed his nerves.

"I don't know," he replied flatly, keeping his eyes to the front. "And I don't care. You heard the commander. Our priority is getting the away team out safely. That's all."

"But... I mean they boarded-,"

"I know everything that you know, Mr. Holloway." Mayeda turned sharply on the man. "We have our orders. You will carry them out."

"I... yes, sir." Holloway gulped. The woman beside him gave him a light clip around the back of the helmet.

"Too late to change your drawers now," she chuckled. A scattered laugh passed through the rest of the boarding team. Even Holloway himself managed a faint smile.

"Everyone just stick tight and remember your training," Mayeda told them. "We go in fast, we secure the friendlies and we get the hell out. Watch each other's backs and we'll all be back on the Cobra in time for dinner."

"Wouldn't want to miss that," Mosley put in, patting the long, javelin-like barrel of the breach cannon he was carrying.

"Thirty seconds!" shouted the pilot.

"Copy." Mayeda made a spinning motion with one finger. "Lock your helmets. Hardseal and comm check."

Fastening his own blast helmet into place, he checked its seals then fired up the internal communications network. The checks from the other deck guards rattled through his earpiece in quick succession, their voices encapsulating varying degrees of nervousness.

Then they were in. He felt the bump of the ship touching down, and then the boarding ramps to the left and right of the rear compartment sprang open. Mayeda led the way, sliding down the low-friction surface. A faint jolt at the base of the ramp popped him up onto his feet as he executed the speed-boarding manoeuvre, landing neatly and locking his shotgun to his shoulder.

He scurried forward as the other members of the boarding team followed him down, springing up and spreading out into formation. The Narvorian shuttles were scattered around them, their own ramps already open and emptied.