2356 hours, January 26th, 2160
Closed hangar, MWR Free, stratosphere above Earth
We stood there, Bret, I, and probably ten other soldiers that volunteered for the mission. Our objectives were simple enough, board and capture the Incolma ship. Easy enough. Oh, how it would be so difficult.
“Has anyone ever been aboard one of their ships before?” I asked Bret with the expectations of a yeah, a little prisoner action, no one ever made it off, kinda thing.
“Nope, no prisoners, no human that we know of has ever been aboard one of these ships. We don’t even know if we can fly on,.” just what I wanted to hear.
I turned around and faced the others; all already in their DAWN EVA Mark II suits. Good, they know what to expect. “Okay, men, you know what we are about to face; An enemy with superior fire power, superior numbers, and a home field advantage, so to speak. Do you all understand that none of us may make it back to this ship?” Nods all around. They knew that, why did I say it? “Okay then, everyone, grab rifles and side arms. If you can, grab some of their laser rifles once we’ve taken some of them out, I’ve used them before and they work right through their battle armor. Aim for the heads, they aren’t covered.” Everyone acknowledged the orders.
I walked over to where my EVA suit was. It was custom built, based off the unreleased Mark III variant, for my back. It hooked up with my spine that connected to me at the brain. It gave me extra Head Up Display elements that the others didn’t have; It can tell me my Vitals, whether I have enough energy to go somewhere and even allow me to communicate with others through thought, all at my own discretion. I don’t like using the thought comm.s they make me feel dizzy.
I put the suit on, but not before stripping down to nothing, just like everyone else. It was mandatory. The suit is skin tight, to make it feel like a part of you, and it can’t work properly if your shirt and pants are getting in the way. I found my helmet and slid it on. The HUD loaded up, showing us the Jackson-Dawn armory logo. Then it came up, but it looked… Odd? It’s normally clear with just the green and blue HUD elements. But this time it was green. The whole screen booted up as green, with red and orange HUD elements. I turned towards the rest of my new squad and walked over to a kid, no older than nineteen. “Hey, son, what’s your name?”
“Phillips, sir. Cory Phillips.”
“Phillips, do you mind doing me a favor before we go?”
“Sir, yes sir!”
“Will you put my helmet on and tell me if you see anything unusual?” He took my helmet and looked to me for approval before sliding it on. I nodded and he donned it. A few seconds later he removed it and told me there wasn’t anything weird about it.
“Okay, thank you.” I guess it’s the upgrades to my Spine, must be messing with the helmet.
We went to the six ships, all Microships like the one I used to get off of Dreadnought. These were not named, four of them weren’t even painted yet. I took the one closed to the hangar bay door. We all climbed into the ships two people per ship except mine. I was going solo. I would be the first to try to get in and I didn’t want someone else to die if it didn’t work.
“Shipboard AI, Open Hangar Bay Door 07.”
“Request Confirmed.”
The doors behind us vacuum shut and the bay doors slowly crawled open. I started the engine and the others followed suit. I clicked into the comm. Channels.
“Blue leader calling all other ships, read back.”
“Blue 1.” it was Bret
“Blue 2.” It was Phillips
“Blue 3.” I didn’t know her, but she sounded sweet. Like Bailey did.
“Blue 4 checking in.” I recognized the voice, but I couldn’t place the face.
“Blue 5, uh, we don’t have much fuel, sir. Maybe enough to get there and back.”
“Well,” I called back, “let’s hope there isn’t any dog fights that break out.” There will be, if not already predestined, then because one of my men didn’t have fuel.
That was it, all six of us were ready to go.
We flew out of the hangar, only to be greeted by turrets, massive, pre-aimed turrets, pointing at the hangar, waiting for us to come out. Then they opened fire. Blue 4 and 5 were taken out in a hurry. Three shots to the hood and they blew up like popcorn. The rest of us were able to pass by the slow turning turrets. We flipped over the bow of the ship. Why haven’t they thrown any fighters at us? We flew around, dodging every round they threw at us. Blue 2 rang in, “I don’t think this thing has a hangar!” Blue 3 was next, “I think we have to abort the mission!” I was next, “NO! If we abandon the mission then Earth will be gone by tomorrow morning! We’re going in hot! Through the front windshield! Confirm!?” The only one who did was Blue 1. “Blue 2 and 3, fall back to the ship, contact us when you’ve gotten back, Confirm?” the two orange lights flickered in my HUD. “Good, thank you for what you’ve done. Safe flying.”
I looked over at Bret, who had caught up to me. We blinked each other’s notification lights, a naval code for good luck or good job. Luck. I guess I need it now more than ever. We looked ahead in time to see the Denizens scrambling for the door. We hit the glass before they could make it.
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The Milky Way Saga: Cities to Embers (Book 1 of 3)
Science Fiction"In the year 2160, Humans are at war with an alien race who call themselves Incolma, or Denizens. They have destoryed much of what humanity has accomplished in the last 100 years. Now, it is up to Vice Admiral Isaac Free to save humanity, and all t...
