Hold the Star: Samair in Argos: Book 2 (85 page)

              “Yes, XO, what is it?” the woman said, sounding as though she’d been woken up from a sound sleep.  He checked the chrono and winced.  The captain had been asleep for less than two hours at this point.  It had better not be another false alarm, or someone’s head would roll.

              “The station is putting out an emergency alert, Commander,” Leicasitaj said.  “They’ve been broadcasting for over four minutes now,” he reported, checking the display.  “They’re saying armed boarders are coming out from the
Kara
.”

              He could hear her swear.  “I’m on my way up.  Take us to action stations, XO.  Get the crew to battle stations.  We’re going to do what we can.”

              “Understood, ma’am.”  The call cut off.  He turned to Garidhak at Tactical.  “Action stations,” he ordered.

              The cat nodded.  “Yes, sir.”  She pressed the button and alarm klaxons blared throughout the ship.  “Action stations, action stations,” Garidhak called over the PA system.  “Set Condition One throughout the ship.  This is not a drill.  Action stations, action stations.”

              Ten seconds later, Tamara bustled onto the bridge, zipping up her skinsuit, helmet in hand.  “Report!” she barked.

              “Nothing has changed, ma’am,” Leicasitaj said, vacating the command chair and moving to his own console next to Garidhak.  “They’re still broadcasting a distress call, but we’re seeing no other activity in the vicinity of the mining station.”

              “What about the
Kara
?” she asked, sitting down and scanning through the displays.

              “Nothing, Commander,” Garidhak replied.  “They’re just sitting there.”

              “Sensors are showing that a great number of people are moving from the ship over to the station,” Ykzann spoke up.  His antennae drooped.  “I’m sorry, ma’am, I didn’t spot them earlier.”

              Tamara shook her head.  “Let’s not worry about that now, Ykzann.  Nobody thought to look at how many people were aboard the ship when she set off from the orbital.”

              “I can assure you, ma’am, that I’m going to be looking more closely,” Ykzann told her.

              She smirked.  “So will I.  Hail the
Kara
,” Tamara ordered.

              “They’re responding, ma’am,” the comms watch officer reported.

              “This is Commander Tamara Samair on the
Cavalier
to the freighter
Kara
.  You will stop with the unloading of the soldiers onto the mining station immediately, or I will fire into you.”

              The image of the ship’s Captain appeared on Tamara’s display.  He looked rather squirrely and nervous, but he was answering the call.  Of course, when a warship captain said she would fire into your ship , you tended to answer her transmission.

              “This is Captain Ferrod on the
Kara
.  We are a licensed and chartered freighter from this system’s orbital station.  You have no right to be threatening me or my ship.”  His voice was clearly showing signs of stress, as was the fact that his eyes were flicking about.

              “My sensors show that a great number of people are moving from your ship to the station,” she retorted.  “I’m not going to say it again.  You will cease the offloading of those soldiers or I
will
fire.”  She flicked two fingers toward Garidhak who blinked in acknowledgement, activating her weapons.  Tamara could see that the systems were powered up, and the
Cavalier
’s lasers and rail guns were locked onto the freighter.

              “What?  N-no,” he stammered.  “You can’t do this!”

              Tamara cut the circuit.  “He’s stalling, to try and get more soldiers aboard the station.  Miss Garidhak, target the ship’s bridge.”

              The Severite nodded, without hesitation.  “I’m ready, ma’am.”

              “Are you sure you want to do this, Commander?” Leicasitaj said.  “Kill them all?”

              “They’re attacking the station, XO,” she said, fury building in her eyes.  “I’m not going to stand by here and do nothing.”

              “What if we shoot where the
Kara
is connected with the station?” he replied.  “It would disconnect them from the station, and it might stop whoever is left on board from getting onto the station.”

              Tamara nodded.  “Mister Wymea,” she said, straightening in her chair, “Bring us into position.  Miss Garidhak, target the airlock.  Hail the
Kara
again.”

              “Channel open, ma’am,” the comms officer replied.

              “Captain Ferrod, this is Commander Samair.  In thirty seconds, we will be in position to fire on your ship.  If you do not disconnect from the station, I will be forced to fire.  Respond.”  The last word was said with just cold fury.

              Ferrod’s image appeared again on Tamara’s display, this time contorted with fear.  “N-no!” he spluttered.  “You can’t
do
that!  You can’t shoot an unarmed ship in friendly space!  Certainly not a government chartered ship!”

              “In range, Captain,” the tactical officer reported a few seconds later.

              “Yes, Captain Ferrod, I can.  Because you’ve given me no choice.  Fire at will.”

              The
Cavalier
’s guns opened up on the connection between the station and the ship.  With no shields energized, the heavy laser cannons and rail guns tore into the metal and shredded it.  Air blasted the metal apart and outwards.  The pressure of the escaping gas actually shoved the
Kara
away from the station.  It drifted away from the mining station at a slow pace, debris and then bodies rushing out into the void, with more of the same being blasted out from the station side as well.

              “Get the station on the line,” Tamara snapped.  “Have them seal off the damaged area, now!”

              “What the hell does she think I’m
doing
?” Tiyaana demanded, frantically working her console.  She and three of her operations crew were trying to get the breach sealed off, but the problem was in order to do that, they needed to close emergency bulkheads.  This ordinarily wouldn’t be a problem, but with the boarders on the station, blowing through bulkheads and hatches to try and get to critical areas, she was unable to seal the breaches.  The station was going to exhale itself to death.

              Thankfully, the workers and residents aboard the station were in sealed sections, well away from where the combat was going on so it would be unlikely that they would be harmed, but the longer this went on, the more likely that the common areas would lose more atmo until the main sections of the station would be completely vented to space.  Tiyaana swore, stabbing at keys.  “How the hell am I supposed to get a hold of this if they keep smashing through the stars damned walls?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              “What the hell is going on?” Corajen demanded as she fired down the corridor.  Another of the attackers went down, and the lupusan and her small fire team of deputies shifted fire to the remaining two mercenaries who were trying to advance through her position.  “Ops!  What is happening?”  She grabbed a flash grenade from her belt, popped the spoon and tossed it at the enemy. 

              “The
Cavalier
fired on the airlock,” Tiyaana’s voice came over Corajen’s earpiece.  “It blasted the airlock apart and the
Kara
is falling away from the station.  So far they’re not falling into the Jovian’s atmosphere…”

              “I don’t care about the freighter!” the lupusan snapped.  “What about the hostiles that were coming through?”

              “I don’t know, Chief,” the young woman replied, clearly flustered.  “I’m busy trying to lock down the station.  Every time I get the breach sealed, the bastards blast a new hole and I have to start all over.  It’s like they brought a thousand charges just for blowing holes in my bulkheads!”

              “Are the internal cameras showing more troops coming in from the docking bay?”

              “What?” she asked, distracted.  “No, no more.  The airlock had an explosive decompression and whoever was in that compartment, the compartment beyond that were blown out into space.”

              “Yes!” Corajen crowed, as she and her team rushed the mercs ahead of her, gunning them down.  The corridor was clear.  She knelt, briefly and checked the body of the human male she’d just killed.  She didn’t recognize him, but that wasn’t a surprise.  But his weapons, his armor, tattoos, those were all familiar.  “These are mercs.  They’re mercs!”

              “What?” Tiyaana demanded.  “Who are mercs?”

              “The hostiles!” the lupusan said, getting back to her feet.  “They’re stars-damned mercs.  Which means that someone hired them.  Someone on the planet, or the orbital,” she said, thinking out loud.  “Some fucker on the planet thinks they’re going to take out station?”  She barked out a laugh.  “Ops?  Where are they heading?”

              “Well, they’re progress has slowed,” the woman answered, harried.  “I’m still trying to deal with the damned breach, Chief.”

              “This is just as important.  I need to know where they’re going.”

              “Two teams, Chief,” Tiyaana said after a moment.  “One is heading to Deck Nine toward sections fifteen through… eighteen.”

              “Environmental,” Corajen said.  “That’s obvious.  I’ve got twenty of my deputies in there right now.  I am not losing Environmental.  Wait, you said two teams.”

              “Yeah, they’re coming here.”

              “Here?”

              “Yeah, to Ops.”  Strangely, Tiyaana didn’t sound upset by this.

              “You got the blast doors sealed?”

              “As well as they can be,” she replied.  “Whatever they’re using to cut through the bulkheads won’t get slowed much, I’m sure of it.”

              “All right, I’m on my way.  I’ll get back to you.”  She flicked her head in the direction of the corridor.  “Let’s move.”  Changing channels on her comms, she started calling for assistance.

              “How many made it?” Glacis asked, changing out the magazine on his weapon.  This had not gone according to plan.  All of his soldiers were supposed to have been brought over from the freighter, now it looked as though little more than half were actually on the station.  That and the crazed bitch of a security chief was putting up stiffer resistance than expected.  On top of
that
, the controllers on the station were slamming emergency bulkheads all over the place, forcing him to expend all of his explosives to blast them open, which was slowing things down. 

              “Out of our three hundred, maybe two hundred made it,” one of his lieutenants, Verone, answered.  “And after all the fighting so far, doesn’t look like we have more than a hundred effectives left.”

              He hissed, shaking his head.  “We need to continue pushing forward.  We’re almost to Operations.  Once we’re there, we own the place.”

              “Don’t need to tell me, Boss,” Verone answered, checking the corridor.  Bodies were strewn everywhere, on the deck, lying against the bulkhead.  They were a mix of the mercs, security and a few of the civilian workers from the station who happened to get caught in the crossfire.  It was a mess, but for the moment, Ghovorak’s soldiers held the area.  It would be changing, because there was no way that the security people would be done.  “But we have to take Ops, Boss.  Resistance heading toward Environmental is really stiff.  I don’t think they’re going to take it unless Security does something stupid.  And so far, it doesn’t look like they will.”

              “Shit.  All right, let’s move.  We head straight for Ops, no more messing around.”  Glacis hefted his weapon and led his soldiers forward, their boots all clomping on the deck as they followed.

              “Where are they, Ops?” Corajen asked as she and her squad hustled down the corridor.  They were only one corridor from Operations and the fighting had been intense.  She was down to only six deputies in her squad, and two were injured.  She was down to her last magazine on her rifle, with only her sidearm and a trio of Samair’s slimmer grenades left.  And her blade, of course, to say nothing of her own natural weapons.  She was never unarmed. 

              “Corridor Four,” was the response.  “There, finally.”

              “What?” she demanded.  “What happened?”

              “Oh, we just got the venting sealed off.  Oh, and it looks like your team down in Environmental has the force heading there stalled.  They can’t advance, but your guys down there can’t break out, either.”

              “Good,” Corajen said, bringing her rifle up.  They should be making visual with the boarders any second now.  She and her squad were coming to the last junction that lead to the Operations center from this direction.  There were two entrances to the control center of the mining station, and it was highly possible, even likely, that the mercs were coming in from the other direction.  The station was big enough and there were enough passages that her team and the mercs would have missed each other.  But in the end, it didn’t matter.  She got here before they did, Ops was still secure and she wasn’t going to lose it to these people.