Sanders crouched low as he changed sides so he could get a better view into the room. Parel was leaning back against the wall unmoving. The room was dark enough that Sanders couldn't see anyone inside.
Sanders tried to slide through the door trying to reach Parel. Pulse bolts slammed the floor inches from where Sanders was. Sanders quickly pulled back to safety as he quickly took stock of the situation. His comm suddenly came to life.
"Sanders," Parel's voice said in his ear.
"You ok?" Sanders said, concern lacing his voice.
"Yeah for the most part I am. My armor stopped the bolts but I think it's breeched. The main computer system is down and I don't have mobility."
Sanders sighed, that was bad. It meant that Parel's armor was breeched and the main computer in his suit had been hit. This wasn't good, without his suit computer his mobility was limited. Whoever was shooting at them hadn't targeted Parel again, which probably meant they thought Parel was dead.
"Parel can you see anything?" Sanders asked.
Parel shifted his head slightly and scanned the area as best as he could through his helmet. Nothing stuck out in the room, no movement, no light sources except the light from the now open door and halon sticks lying on the floor. Parel moved his right hand to the data pad attached to his left arm. He hit the button to turn on his infrared sensors in his helmet. At first, nothing happened, and then his face shield fuzzed before changing to the infrared spectrum.
Hidden partially behind a large crate was a humanoid. Every couple of seconds it would poke its head up over the top of the crate. Parel could tell it had some type of environment suit on and from of all the air bottles on the floor it had plenty of oxygen. Parel glanced down at the small display that told him how much oxygen he had left; 2:30 minutes.
"Sanders," Parel said.
Sanders slowly peeked around the corner, "I'm here, what do you see?"
"There's a humanoid behind the large crate to the right of the reactor. It pokes its head up every 3 — 4 seconds to check the doorway. Switch to infrared and you should be able to see it."
Sanders flipped his sensors to infrared after he pulled back from the edge of the door. Switching sensor types always made him sick to his stomach. Doctors told him it was due to how his brain took in the information from his eyes. Only about 1% of the humans had the condition, he was just one of the lucky few.
Sanders once again slowly maneuvered so he could get a view through the door. As he slowly poked his head around the door he saw the figure stand up and start shooting in his direction. The flash of the bolts cause his helmet to react protecting his eyes. A mirror surface snapped into place dampening the brightness as the infrared sensors immediately went to stand by. The whole thing caused him to scrabble back from the doorway. The sudden switching from infrared to normal vision turned his stomach upside down. The last thing he wanted was to get sick while sealed in his suit.
"Sanders, are you ok?" Parel asked.
"Yeah, the flash caused my helmet to react and you know how I am about switching sensors on my helmet," Sanders replied in a queasy voice.
"You didn't get sick in your suit did you?"
"Not yet. Oh, and thanks for the warning that they were standing up and watching the doorway."
"Well, swallow hard and get over it because we're running out of air. We need to do something to get to the main reactor and get it back on line."
"I know. Maybe we should try to speak to them."
"Maybe, you should peek you head back around the corner and I'll shoot them when they stand up."
Sanders sighed, "That's the only way you know how to handle anything. Shoot first and ask questions later. That's how you got where you're at right now."
"Well, sometimes asking questions first will get you killed before you can shoot. But in this instance, I'm saying distract them long enough for me to toss and entangle grenade. We disable them and then once we get power restored we can ask questions."
"You know, sometimes you surprise me. That head on you shoulders is actually good for something besides chasing girls and pissing off the upper brass."
"Yeah, well just don't let it get around. It'll ruin my hard earned reputation."
"Hah! Fat chance of that happening anytime soon. Give me a second to get back into position."
"Just let me know when you're ready."
Sanders cycled the mirror shield on his visor back open and turned off the infrared sensors. He once again peered quickly around the edge of the door. Almost instantly, bolts slammed into the doorframe inches from his head. He pulled back and waited for the shooting to stop.
"Now!" yelled Parel.
Sanders stepped out into the open shooting in the direction of the most recent gunfire. Parel lobbed the tangle grenade over the boxes where the figure crouched. Two seconds later the grenade exploded covering their mysterious attacked in monofilament fibers. The fibers were soaked in an unknown solution that made them extremely sticky. The solution hardened seconds after release, trapping whoever it caught in the predetermined blast radius.
Sanders, having taken cover behind the door, peered through the opening. After a few seconds of not being shot at he took a tentative step through the doors as he crouched low.
"Parel, do you see any movement?" Sanders asked.
"Nothing, I think we got them," Parel replied. "Just be careful."
Sanders moved next to Parel to check his condition. Close inspection of Parel's suit let him know that it hadn't been breeched but had taken a direct hit on the CPU. Sanders activated the back up system on Parel's suit. After a self-diagnostic, the suit reactivated most of the back up systems.
Parel slowly got up into a crouch next to Sanders and retrieved his weapon. He ran a system diagnostic on it to make sure it was still ok.
"Looks like your suit isn't breeched anywhere. It took a direct hit to the main CPU; I've switched you to your back up systems. That should hold out until we get the reactor on line and life support operating," Sanders said.
"I don't understand why these suits don't switch to back up systems when the main CPU is fried," Parel said.
"They work that way because you wouldn't want it to switch and fry you if the suit is badly damaged."
"Yeah, I guess that would be a bad thing. Let's go meet our friend, those strands will start to dissolve any minute."
Parel's gun chimed letting him know that the diagnostic was finished and nothing was wrong. Parel switched on the light on his rifle as he stood up.
Trash littered the room, used air bottles were tossed all over the room. Someone had locked themselves in this room and cut all the power to the station. Scorch marks marred the walls, signs that a battle had taken place here. From where he stood, Parel could see the main reactor was set to standby mode.
Sanders tapped Parel on the shoulder and pointed two fingers to his eyes. Parel nodded back and raised his rifle as they slowly made their way across the room. Sanders split off going around the reactors console while Parel approached the stack of crates. Letters on one of the crates spelled out the words 'Emergency Rations' another said 'Air Bottles' and yet another said 'Medical Supplies'. Someone had collected supplies for the long haul.
Parel stepped around the edge of the crates and swept the area with his weapon. Lying on the floor immobile was a humanoid figure dressed in a flight suit. Sanders stepped around from the other side of the boxes weapon ready. The figure struggled against the fibers holding them in place.
With Parel covering him, Sanders stepped over to the lone figure and picked up their weapon. The crouched next to them and turned off the main power routines to the suit. He removed the main and back up CPU units, effectively disabling the suit.
"There that should hold them in check until we can get the main reactor and life support back on line. Then we can take the time to find out what happened here," Sanders said as he stood up.
"I think I'll keep an eye on our mystery guest while you work," Parel replied. He motioned towards the prone figure as he sat down on one of the crates.
"Alright, sounds like a plan. I think I can access everything I need from this console."
Sanders slung his weapon over his shoulder and walked up to the console he had passed. He noticed that the reactor was still feeding power to key systems. The power levels were so low that they were undetectable. Life support was set so far below minimum it might as well be shut off. He started working on bringing the power levels back up to be able to supply enough power to life support.
The reactor hummed to life as Sanders increased it power output. Once he had it stabilized and high enough to run life support he stopped increasing it. Something was going on here and he was sure about bringing the reactor to full power. There might be critical systems damaged and until he ran a full diagnostic on the stations systems he didn't want to risk a power over load.
"Parel, I'm only going to bring life support back on until we know what's going on here. Most of the other systems on the station are in standby mode and I have no idea what damage there is," Sanders said.
"Do what you think is best."
"Well with our welcome here to the station and the fact that there is an enemy presence here. I don't know if lighting up the station and letting them know we're here would be such a good idea. I have a feeling our friend here shut down most of these systems."
"Why would someone do that? That would leave the station defenseless."
"Well, while it might not sound like a good idea. There is evidence of a battle taking place on the station. Maybe they escaped detection and shut these systems down to make them think the station was off line. It looks like some of these systems have been command code locked out. I had to use our command codes to get near the reactor controls. Then I had to hack through the rest of the way to gain access to the reactor controls. Life support was operating, but just barely. Enough that it could recharge the emergency air bottles, but not enough to be detectable."
"Get us some power to main control center. We'll move back up there with our guest and then run a passive scan on the system. Then we can find out first hand what is going on."
Sanders began to work on the console in front of him as he brought several systems out of stand by. He allowed enough power to operate them in a minimal capacity. Some of the systems he tried to bring back on line refused his command codes. His hacking attempts failed too, he would have to sit down and work on them in the control room.
The lights in the room flickered to life. They weren't as bright as they would have been due to the limited power. For the first time Parel could see the seriousness of the damage to the room. Scorch marks littered the walls, evidence of an intense firefight.
Lying along the back wall of the room was a person. Human by the look, their helmet was missing and the flight suit was covered in blood. Parel stood up and raised his rifle, pointing it at the newly discovered person. The prone figure had stopped struggling to break free when Parel stood.
"Sanders," Parel said. He was already advancing on the newly discovered person.
"Yeah?" Sanders replied. He was still concentrating on the panel in front of him.
"Sanders!" Parel yelled.
Sanders spun around to see what the problem was. When he saw Parel holding his weapon up and stepping past their captive he immediately looked to where Parel was moving. Once he saw the new body, he pulled his rifle off his shoulder and moved into a position to cover Parel.
Parel slowly approached the unmoving figure nudging the body with his foot. Parel knew at once that the person was dead. Blue lips and the multiple gun shot wounds that covered the body was evidence enough. Parel crouched down and checked for signs of life just to make sure. The name tag on the flight suit caught his attention, it read 'Corporal Lawson'. He was one of the men they were supposed to relieve.
Parel turned and looked at their captive, "That must be Lieutenant Harcove."
"Why do you say that?" Sanders asked. He glance over to the captive.
"Must be," Parel said as he motioned to the body. "This is Corporal Lawson."
Sanders glance back down at the captive, "Then why hasn't Harcove used his comm to contact us?"
"I don't know. Maybe his suit's comm unit isn't functioning."
"That could be. I have life support back on line and some of the systems. Everything is running at low power but the station should start warming up and supplying breathable air. We can do a low intensity scan of the system once we get to control. I was afraid to bring anything to full power with enemy ships in system."
"Can you get any of the defensive systems on line?" Parel asked. He stood up and moved back towards Sanders.
"The main shield generator is damaged and the back up generator is off line for some reason. As far as the defensive batteries, I won't know until I can bring main power up to full and run a diagnostic. I would rather find out what is in system before I try to bring main systems on line."
"Ok, let's move our friend up to control. Then we can find out what the hell is going on. Once we know for sure we're alone we will start bringing the main systems back on line. We need to try to get a message out to the Kojidu and let them know what happened here."
Parel and Sanders each took an arm of their captive and drug him towards control.
Keteshed Battle Fleet Four
Jadequas System
Admiral Buju stood on the bridge of his carrier as he watched the invasion of the commerce planet. The war was going well, the invasions of planets that refused to surrender only slowed things down. This planet was one of the main backbones of the Zaeous Empire. The loss of this planets income would severely hamper the Zaeous war effort.
"Admiral, the transports have reported a successful landing; minimal resistance," Comm reported.
Buju looked down on the table in front of him that displayed holographic images of what was going happening on the surface. The transports had landed and were in the process of deploying troops and armored divisions on the surface. As a commerce planet he had expected little or no resistance. The fool that ran the planet was stubborn though and refused to surrender.
"Good, have them proceed to the capital when they're deployed."
"Yes Admiral. I have an incoming message from the capital for you, it's Chancellor Grellan."
Buju moved away from the holographic display and picked up his cup of coffee. The coffee was a little bit more bitter than usual. Maybe he should add a bit more sugar to dampen the taste.
Buju sat down in his command chair listening to the surface reports coming in. Some things never changed, refusal of surrender until the troops land. Then they always call and beg for the removal of the troops and then their unconditional surrender.
He supposed it was time, "Put the Chancellor through."
On a screen hanging over the holo table in the center of the room the Chancellor's face appeared. His bald head reflected the lights from the room he was in. His red face showed how upset he was.
"Good day Chancellor, how can I be of service?" Buju asked in a pleasant voice.
"You can pull your troops off my planet!" The Chancellor yelled.
"Excuse me? Chancellor if you don't stop yelling at me right now I'll end this conversation. Then we can pick it back up once you're in the brig on my vessel."
"Ok Admiral I'll play your game. Could you please pull your troops off the surface of my planet?"
"No."
"Admiral, if you don't pull your troops back right now I'll have to use force to stop them."
"Force? You had your chance to settle this peacefully. All you had to do was surrender. I'm sorry it has come to this but you have left me no choice in the matter."
"This is a neutral planet, as I told you before. The Keteshed are more than welcome to conduct business here. We don't support one side or the other."
"So you say, I have evidence to the contrary. You support the Zaeous war effort in secret. This makes you an ally of their Empire."
"We support no war effort. We're neutral and will always stay neutral. I'm warning you, remove your people from the surface of my planet. Then remove your ships from orbit. If you would like to conduct business here then come in a shuttle and I would be more than happy to see to you myself."
"As I told you, this isn't a negotiation. Either surrender and remain in control or resist and be destroyed."
"I'm sorry Admiral you leave me little choice."
With that, the transmission died and seconds later Buju's ship rocked with the force of an explosion. Klaxons flared to life as lights dimmed and switch to red.
"Admiral, the fleet is taking fire from the surface of the planet. They've destroyed the Light Cruiser Eeoas and the Heavy Frigate Caqued has sustained heavy damage," Tactical reported.
"What? They're not supposed to be armed..." Buju said in surprise.