Simulation! (Complete)

Reclaimers

Sparrow had hacked into the screen to show Alex an empty corridor through every camera in the ship. The Wolfhound started rolling as Sparrow shut her palmtop computer. The fifty soldiers, five mechs and one tank started rolling. The others had made it through different blast doors. "Situation look familiar, Dove?" Sean called over the radio.

"Fuckin' a." Dove replied. Thinking back to the throne room. Alexander The Greater had stuffed up big time. He had let them see the interior layout of the room they were stormng. Dove knelt behind a gunshield on the right track cover as the tank faced the door. The door was a thin blast door design, where two doors slid together and then a third door slid into grooves in the two doors. Sparrow took her palmtop out again and connected it into a terminal attached to the door.

"That won't be neccesary, Private First Class Sparrow." The PA system blared, and the lock color switched to green and the door began to open. The tank drove through the open blast door. Dove, shielded from view by the gunshield, slid the clip out of his Glock, reached inside his armour and pulled out a drum magazine for the Glock. He slid the clip into the weapon and cocked the slide.

Dove looked through the firing slit in the gunshield. There were no less than three-hundred Caprician special forces units in his view range, as well as thirty mechs. "Do not fire unless fired upon, but keep your guns ready." Dove ordered. Hawk and the SAS in the mechs knelt down for the remaining SAS soldiers on foot to climb into the cupola turrets based on the mechs. Buzzard's personal squad were in the APC compartment, ready to escort Brianna Rogers into the tank for exfil.

"Golddiggers, come in." Dove said into his radio. "Now would be a good time to gather around the remains of the ship." Then Dove said to Buzzard through the radio, "Close the firing slit. I have an idea."

Dove stepped off the track guard and walked towards Alexander and Rogers. "I accept your deal." He declared loudly. "Now give us back Dragon-One-One." He ordered. O'Malley came forward with his squad and Brianna. "Into the tank." He ordered.

"What are my men doing?" Alexander asked as he saw his men enter the tank.

"Oh just some R&R, you know, undercover work is very hard work. Don't worry, they'll be back to cause you grief later." Dove said. Alexander looked thunderstruck. Dove laughed as he walked back to the tank. "Golddigger pilots we are ready for exfil. Ten seconds."

Alexander heard him. "Ten seconds, you can't get out of here in ten seconds."

"Watch us." Dove said as he climbed into the tank and shut the door. A gout of fire came from all the mechs and the tank at once, aimed at the ceiling, where the steel of the ship met the vacuum of space.