Combat

“Fifteen seconds to impact,” the intercom in Joanna’s helmet cracked to life, the announcement being sent directly from the Persephone. Due to the short distances and high danger of most boarding actions, the boarding shuttles were usually steered via link from the Persephone itself, an option which was a lot cheaper than having a soldier in every squad trained to handle the small craft, and more doctrinally sound than to leave the squad with a pilot to protect at the same time as performing their mission.

“Ten,” The intercom cracked out again, and Joanna raised her right arm into the air and balled up her fist, signalling to the eight soldiers in her squad to brace for impact. It was standard procedure, ensuring that all were aware of the need to prepare for the imminent impact and acting as a failsafe against both green soldiers’ failing to comprehend the radio message fully and technical malfunctions in the individual radios.

“Five,” Joanna felt strangely calm. This wasn’t her first boarding action, and she had already checked and re-checked her weapons, armour and equipment to the point that she was absolutely certain of the fact that all of it was in flawless condition.

Even the persistent beeping noise being heard in the shuttle as a warning that this particular part of the universe was currently filled with all sorts of heavy ordnance as the ****-barge did its best to shoot down as many shuttles as possible before they could lock on to it couldn’t shake her calm, though a few of the less experienced members of the squad were looking pretty shaken.

The shuttle suddenly slammed to a halt as it latched onto the barge, the rearward thrusters having slowed it down enough that it wasn’t crushed by the impact with the much larger vessel, and the cutters had already begun to work through the hull even as the Angels’ unattached themselves from their safety-seats and prepared for the moment when they were to come leaping through the hull. Niftily enough, the hole would later, either once the boarded ship had been taken or the boarders were **** to retreat and there were still friendlies aboard the ship, be filled with a semi-liquid fluid which would harden and thereby serve as a makeshift replacement for the piece of hull which had been cut away in the boarding.

The shuttle was suddenly drenched in the red light which signalled that the hull had now been cut through, and Joanna had time to declare “Alpha-Two,” which was the call sign of her squad, the second squad of the first platoon, “going in,” before the front of the shuttle slid open to reveal the innards of the barge.

Corporal De Groot, second-in-command of the squad and the only NCO other than Joanna, was first through the breach, landing in the corridor inside the ship just ahead of two of the squad’s privates, with Joanna bringing up the rear once the first three had spread out to cover the entrance of the rest of the squad.

Stepping through the breach, her weapon at the ready, Joanna looked around in both directions. At this point, she should be able to see other squads at about fifty yards distance in both directions of the corridor. She could hear the sounds of combat going on aboard in the artificial atmosphere of the ship.