ORCAS. Ooh-Rah!

With the transport ship neutralised, Virgil and Lorina quickly suited up into their tactical gear, flak vests and side arms, and took a small scout shuttle over to the Battering Ram to brief their allies.

Ten minutes later Virgil and Lorina were standing in front of a 16-man Operational Response, Combat and Suppression (ORCAS) unit. The mercs had been hired by the Viper Stream at short notice. They knew they were going to be involved in a boarding action but didn’t know the exact details. Only that the contract was extremely lucrative.

The ORCAS stood to attention, their midnight blue armour gleamed under the low lighting of the boarding chamber, creating a row of intimidating silhouettes that reared up behind the mercenaries.

The ORCAS were suited in modular tactical exo-armor. A pinnacle of military engineering and the best Galactic-Creds could buy. Layers of high-tech alloy plates that were highly resistant to a variety of physical and energy-based attacks. TacEx-armour had the flexibility to allow for mission-specific load outs and customization and various appendages and gear could be attached to increase effectiveness based on mission parameters.

Whilst this could include an over-the-shoulder mounted plasma cannon or underslung grenade launcher forearm attachment for heavy **** operations, in this instance Virgil had insisted on heavy riot suppression equipment. In other words, non-lethal or at most near lethal weapons only.

Virgil had served alongside ORCAS before. These mercenary teams specialised in launching from space-based platforms for planetary assaults or ship-to-ship boarding. They were trained in both reconnaissance and combat, they excelled in on-ground ops, gathering intel, and delivering a powerful **** to neutralize ground resistance. They were also willing to commit virtually any act if the price was high enough. In particular they specialised in demoralisation-post operation ‘ganking’ on enemy units.

The face plates of ORCAS unit armour was generally an intimidating and almost featureless mask, somewhat reminiscent of a skull. For the briefing their visors were up. It hardly made a difference. The unit’s members were to a man, ruthless desperados and their cynical demeanours and tattooed scarred faces showed it.

The worst of them was their leader Captain Mallard, a giant of a man that stood an inch higher than even Virgil. His broad ugly face was a labyrinth of scars and burns that was testament to the terrors he had witnessed and overcome; to say nothing of inflicted.

As soon as Virgil and Lorina entered, Mallard gave a broad horrible grin, saluted and put out one gauntleted hand in greeting. “You come highly recommended Captain,” said Virgil brusquely accepting the greeting, “apologies for the short notice.”

“You’ve built a reputation for yourself Montoya. I wouldn’t have thought anyone could have penetrated Galvigrad security and live. I saw the report on VWN.”

Virgil nodded but kept his satisfaction to himself. When Void Watch Network had dispensed with their censorship charter and had begun broadcasting the selected highlights of Star Ravisher operations it had made him a minor celebrity amongst certain quarters, not to mention boost the ratings of VWN. Sex and **** had always sold and the 36th century was no different.

Mallard stepped back and let Virgil address the unit.

“Ok gentlemen, we are in a live-operation and I know a detailed briefing like this is not ideal so I will keep this succinct. The mission is a board and extract operation. The target is Dr Cammie Tonda.” Behind him Lorina projected a picture of a blonde mature woman, perhaps forty but with a cute, almost youthful face. There was a mummer through the unit. They all knew her from interstellar news dispatches, not least VWN which had run numerous stories on her.

“She needs no introduction,” continued Virgil acknowledging the ORCAS surprise, “Dr Tonda aka the Bio-Tyrant is the foremost bio-terrorist in the Galaxy. She’s responsible for the Castration of Belda Prime and the London-on-Star Degradation. She is directly or indirectly responsible for over two million deaths to her name. And tonight, we’re going to get the bitch."

The ORCAS looked grim faced, even for them Cammie Tonda was a monster. The ORCAS might commit atrocities but at least they were paid for it, and they tried to avoid collateral damage. If your enemy could afford to hire an ORCAS unit you probably had it coming.

Dr Tonda on the other hand inflicted unlimited carnage on the whim of the highest bidder and for her own delusional ideology.

Dr Tonda was no combat or strategic expert though. In fact, she was the leading expert in gene-therapy, genetic-modding and demographic-reprogramming in this quadrant. Or at least she had been until she fell in with Gene-Path Radicals. She had come to believe that there was a utopian version of humanity awaiting the future and it could be built through extensive gene modding and reconstruction. Anyone weak or genetically deviant needed to be eradicated. More than this, random bio-attacks served a valuable purpose in providing data as to which gene-pools on a planetary scale were most resistant.

Virgil let the name of the target sink in for a couple of seconds then continued. “Myself and my XO Lorina here are going to go into the ship and recover her personally. Meanwhile I need you gentlemen to take out the first line of defence,” Lorina moved the slide deck along to show a group photo of eight teenage cadets in uniform, “three months ago, Dr Tonda hacked the inculcation-lab at a Sparrow-Hawk barracks. She was able to bend a small group of Sparrow-Hawk first-year cadets to her will. The Free-Matriarch authorities say the conditioning can be reversed but until then the cadets are going to defend Dr Tonda with their lives. And we all know Sparrow-Hawks means Valkryie-Mechas.”

Mallard grunted in acknowledgment. For three decades Valkryie-Mechas had been the armament of choice for the all-female elite heavy infantry of the Free-Matriarch state.

“Tonda has used the cadets to raid and steal a large quantity of bio-hazardous material across the quadrant. God only knows what she is planning to do with this but after extensive tracking from no less than nine different Star Ravisher vessels Tonda resurfaced on Nu-New-York. We nearly caught her there but she bribed the captain of Hannah’s Pride and fled the system into Feral Space.”

Virgil produced two pieces of paper tucked inside his flak vest and held them up.

“Now listen. We are in Feral Space. That means officially we are outside any Galactic treaty or legal repercussion. However, Dr Tonda is still technically a citizen of the Free-Matriarch States as are the cadets under her influence. Our employers want to avoid any unnecessary diplomatic incidents with the Free-Matriarch states so they have set conditions for this operation. One; they have gained formal permission from the Free-Matriarch state to seize and extradite the good Doctor to a jurisdiction of the employers choosing; namely their own.”

Virgil threw the extradition agreement over to Mallard, “and two,” Virgil said holding up the second piece of folded paper, “or this permission to be acceded by the Free-Matriarchs there is a reciprocal agreement that the mission will be non-lethal. The cadets are to be neutralised but not killed.”

There was a slight exchange of surprised glances amongst the ORCAS. Non-lethal missions were rare, especially in Feral Space. There was no grumbling though. Dealing with a cadre of teenage girls was not exactly an apocalyptic encounter even if the 18-year-olds would be in Valkyrie-Mechas.

Mallard spoke up “I got one question; can I ask who our mysterious employer is?”

“You can ask,” replied Virgil “but you’re all getting paid 500K a-piece to be satisfied with not receiving an answer. Also, there’s an additional 150K a-piece bonus if all the cadets make it out alive and the ship can be recovered at the Free-Matriarch state’s convenience.”

The Captain of the ORCAS grunted, obviously satisfied enough by the response.

Lorina gave a smile, “Virgil maybe you should tell these fine gentlemen about the other bonus.”

“Oh yes,” said Virgil “I nearly forgot. Considering our location and in the circumstances the Free-Matriarch states have consented.” Virgil now read directly from the piece of paper, “...to turn a blind eye to post combat dominance,” Virgil smirked, “in other words ganking is permitted.”