Take The Ship.

“We are going to take the ship if we can. We will need two eight man teams counting myself and you to lead the first team. Jenkins will lead the second.”

“Your not a soldier any more my lord.” Miranda protested.

“Maybe not but I am not going to sit back and do nothing while others risk their lives. Gather the men, Nova, and the commander. I knew she was right but sitting on the side lines while others risked their lives was me.

“Yes my lord.” Miranda said and stood up. She came back a little while later with the two teams. “So do we have a plan?”

“Yes. Were going to pull a Trojan horse like we did on Tempest.” I nodded.

“The gun ship.” Jenkins smiled.

“They should be expecting it back so lets give it to them. We just have to cripple her enough to make her look wounded but not enough that we can't get away if needed. Nova can handle that easy enough. From what we learned they are expecting to engage enemies but they have only repaired the heavy weapons and not the close quarter weapons so even if they catch on we should be able away. I will command the first squad and Jenkins will take the second. We have two targets. My team will head to the CIC, Jenkins team will take engineering. If we can lock down either we can control the ships. Lethal ordinance is authorized. We will go in heavy with pulse rifles and armor. There will be civilians on board so check your targets at all times but don't hesitate if someone is armed.” I said and pulled up a map displaying the ship and the plan. With luck most people would be in the crew area which we could avoid to limit causalities.

“Nova. In case we fail I want you to plot a long range salvo to take out her primary guns. We know where she is but she hasn't seen us yet. Thank you can hit it with minimal damage to the hull?” I asked. I could see her doing the math in her head.

“With my eyes closed. If I fire each shot at an increasing level of velocity all the shots should hit her at the same time.” She nodded. That was the beauty of space. As long as we sat here dark they couldn't see us unless they knew exactly where to look.

“That should do enough damage to make her turn tail and run or give the fleet better odds if she doesn't.” I nodded. If it got to that point we would be dead but at least someone would avenge us.

“Okay people you have your assignments. Let's move out.” I looked around the table.

“Commander, Nova, hold a second please I want to discuss something.”

“Sir.” The Commander said as the door closed.

“I need Nova to rig the gunships fusion core as a last resort. If they open their ports to fire a nuke at the planet in retaliation. You blow the ship rather we are on it or not.”

“Understood sir. I hope it doesn't come to that.” The Commander nodded.

“Me to commander but at least it will be quick” I nodded.

“Here this might help get you on board.”Nova held out a device.

“Voice Modulator?” I took it.

“The leader. Thought it might come in handy. He has been doing nothing but cursing down there in the brig so I had plenty to work with.” Nova smiled.

“What would I do without you.” I grinned. “Go get to work.”

“Yes sir.” Nova nodded.

“Baron.” A voice said and I turned to see Miss Baker still recording away with the mini cam over her ear. She ran to catch up with me.

“Still here?” I smiled.

“Best news story in the system, where else would I be.” She smiled.

“Did you need something?”

“You sure you want to go through with this. What if you die? You are responsible for the people in this system.” She asked as she turned and walked backwards to get me in field of view of the camera.

“Which is why I am doing this. I did a lot of stuff when I was in the military that I am not proud of but it was necessary.” That was a lie. Sometimes I questioned things I did in the name of the empire but we were at war. “Least now I know why I am doing it and who I am doing it for. What is one life compared that of hundreds that are at shipyards or on the ships protecting her. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to die but if my **** can save even a few it is worth it.”

“Thank you.” She smiled and stopped and leaned in giving me a peck on the lips catching me a little by surprise.

“What was that for?”

“Luck.” She smiled and grabbed her bag. “And to ask you to bring this on board.” She said holding up a little disc.

“Cam Drone.” I smiled taking it. A nicer model from the look of it. I had a cheap one when I was a teenager.

“It will follow you and record everything that happens.” She smiled.

“You do know we will have to edit everything you record for military purposes?”

“I am aware. “ She nodded. “All I need is enough to show people what happened here today. The real news and not some government bullshit propaganda. No offense.”

“None taken.” I smiled. I headed into the locker room where Miranda was pulling off her shirt to show off her two pert tits. They where a nice size considering how lean she was from staying in shape. They be bigger otherwise but they fit her nice tone physique. I walked to my locker and sat the drone inside and began to unbutton my shirt.

“Nervous.” I glanced over as she shimmied out of her pants leaving only a skimpy pair of panties to cover her ass.

“I don't get nervous. Trigger happy maybe.” She said standing up. “Don't suppose I can talk you out of this?”

“No.”

“Didn't think so.”

“Just so you know your buying when this is done Baron.” She smiled and grabbed her body suit and stepped into it and shimmed her hips sliding them on. Buy the time we got into are suits Nova was done and we headed for the battle carrier. The coms system beeped so I fixed the color tight around my neck.

“Test one, two, three. I sound like an ass.” I said making Miranda shake her head at me as she flew the gunship.

“Gregory. Where the hell have you been?” A voice said after I hit the button.

“Oh, I thought I take a sight seeing tour around the moons. Find a bar... Where the hell you think I been. We were scouting the shipyards and took some fire from a gun platform. I had to land on one of the moons to fix this bird.”

“You should have called we could have sent help.” The voice replied.

“We had it under control. Nothing the mechanic couldn't fix. Just open the fucking doors and let us land.”

“Opening now.” He said and I killed the channel.

“Handing remote piloting over to you Nova.” Miranda said.

“I have the helm. Good hunting.” Nova answered.

“Okay everyone. That's our signal.” I said and grabbed my helmet and slid it on over my head. I felt the seam around my neck tighten and the HUD came up in front of me displaying my vitals and other information. The names of each of each squad member came up over their head. I looked down and put my hand on the rifle and the targeting assist came to life. “Move out.”

We moved to the back of the ship and Jenkins blew the airlock. The air in the cabin rushing out of the ship in a matter of seconds. His team dove out the back into the black. I moved through the second squad just as Miranda reached the edge.

“Race you guys to the finish line.” Miranda said and jumped out. I followed behind and turned my head firing the thrusters on the MMU to angle me toward the ship and fired them again. The MMU thrusting me forward. I glanced over to the ship just to check my flank. Luckily battle ships didn't have windows. Even in the all black space suit someone might notice us. The ship came up quickly and I fired the deceleration thrusters. The mag locks of the boots kicking in when we hit the haul.

“Where on the hull. Moving to the airlock.” I said as we ran across the outside of the ship. Lieutenant Harper bent down and opened the panel. Everyone else took a direction to look for hostiles.

“The panel says there is no power.” Harper replied. That was a good thing since it meant no one inside would know when we opened it or lock us out.. Harper plugged into panel and hacked her way in. The doors opening for us and Miranda went in first as she rotated herself as she went in to center herself with the gravity of the ships grav gens. Harper went in second and waved her hand at the camera inside. It was motion sensitive meaning that since it didn't track her hand it was off. I came in next followed by the others one by one. The last pulling the airlock closed. Harper hacked the inner airlock door and we moved into the hall. The place was a mess. I wasn't sure what had happened here but it looked like one hell of a fire fight had taken place. They had gotten power working to the level though some of the lights flickered while others didn't work at all. The level was mostly dedicated to storage and most of the doors looked like many had been **** open as they where not fully opened are closed. No doubt looted and picked over by the vagrants calling it home.

I pulled out the cam drone and activated it. It was quit enough that it wouldn't give us away. We reached the stairs and headed up till we reached deck twenty. The heart of the ship. This thing seemed massive compared to the others I had been on but the lifts weren't working. The command level looked somewhat better. It was still a mess but all the lights were working. Miranda dropped to her knee and took aim as she saw to men.

“On the floor. Now.” Miranda yelled at them. One reached for a gun on his hip and Miranda fired taking him down with two almost silent bolts of energy. I fired on the second as he went to run and tell his friends. We kept moving towards command. I expected more resistance but things where pretty quit. That quickly changed as the alarm began to sound.

“Guess they know where here.” Miranda shook her head.

“Probably Jenkins.” I shrugged. “Double time it.” We moved faster now in formation, checking corners as we moved. We where almost at CIC when we ran into armed guards at the door. Miranda dropped one before they opened fire on us and ran across the intersection to take cover and provide cover fire. They took cover behind the door way firing out at us. Ducking out I took a shot and dropped one before ducking back as one all most winged me. I saw movement out the corner of my visor and saw a figure flanking us.

“Miranda.”I yelled and fire but missed as he took cover and fired at Miranda hitting her in the back. Miranda opened fire back causing the man to take cover. I opened fire as I moved across followed by Carver on my back who provided cover fire down the hallway at two more guys trying to flank us. I grabbed her arm and **** her around behind cover.

“Fuck.” She as I sat her up. She had taken a pulse blast to the back of her shoulder but her armor had taken the brunt of the damage leaving a serious burn.

“You good?” I asked.

“Juice.” She said as she grunted. I nodded and pulled the hypospray from my pocket pulled her forward and gave her a shot as close as I could get without shooting into the skin of the wound. She grunted and clutched my arm and breathed heavily. The pain quickly began to fade as she nodded.

“Sir. The door.” Harper said. I stood up and looked around the corner to see they where closing the CIC door. Sadly it was to late to do anything about it.

“Harper get that door open. Second squad on me before they have time to close the other one.” I said and began to move down the hall to go around. Suddenly the lights went out and emergency lighting for the floor kicked on. The gravity as well as we began to floor. I raised my legs up a pushed the button on my boots and flipped around sticking to the ceiling. Carver ran along side me on the ground as I heard the others boots kick on behind me. We reached the door as one was trying to push it closed manually. Carver put a round trough his head. I heard three more shots from inside the room and then nothing. Carver went through first and went right. Dutch went left into the room and I came up the middle. Bodies and blood floated about in the room. A lone man standing in the middle with his hands up. A gun slowly floating away.

“Where did the others go?” I said walking toward him upside down. My gun pointed at the back of his head as I knocked his gun away.

“I killed them.” He said coldly and pointed toward a counsel where the key for the nuclear fire control went. The key was in the in the slot as the chain dangled from it in the air. Another man who floated beside him held one in his hand. They where going to fire the nukes.

“Why?” I looked at the man pressing the gun to his back.

“The launchers don't work. They were going to detonate them and kill us all rather then be taken prisoner.” He gave a little shrug. They would rather have died then surrendered. They had been willing to kill everyone on board then let the empire take their families.

Carver grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him down onto the holo table and bound his hands behind his back. Not that he could fight back even if he was bigger then Carver. All the strength in the world meant very little if you couldn't plant your feet to the ground. I kicked off the ceiling and spun around in the air and landed on the floor. The other door opened and in walked the other fire team with Miranda with her gun raised.

“You shot me you son of a bitch.” Miranda sneered at the guy as Carver pulled him upright.