“What the fuck is going on!” she demanded after hearing Nathan’s voice over the loud speakers. “First we’re slugging it out with warships, then we’re boarding them, then we’re slugging it out again, and now we’re being boarded? I mean, what the hell? Last I heard we were orbiting Jupiter!”
“You know what your problem is, Ensign?” the master chief said as they ran down the corridor.
“No, but I’m sure you’re gonna tell me!”
“You talk too much!”
The master chief turned the corner and suddenly found himself face to face with the enemy. Having never seen the Jung before, he hadn’t known what to expect, other than the fact that they were human.
“Whoa!” he cried, ducking as the enemy swung the butt of his rifle at the master chief’s face. The master chief hit the enemy soldier low, right in the upper abdomen with his left shoulder, driving him back against his friends. With his gun hand, the master chief reached around the first soldier and sprayed the ones behind him with automatic fire, sending at least three of them to the floor in a bloody pile.
“Get Down!” Jessica yelled as she brought her weapon to bear.
The master chief hit the deck as Jessica emptied her entire clip at the rest of the soldiers, killing not only the first one, but the remaining four as well.
“You okay!” she yelled, dropping her empty clip and slapping in a fresh one as she ran past him toward the sound of weapons fire.
“Fuck me!” the master chief exclaimed, stunned that not only had they just taken down eight enemy combatants, but that he had made it through the encounter without a scratch. He immediately started looking himself over for wounds, still in disbelief.
“Come on! It ain’t over!” she hollered, her voice full of excitement as the adrenaline coursed through her veins. All that combat training she had been through was finally coming in handy.
At the next corner, she came to a group of three shipmates trying to hold the corridor with small arms. There had been five, but two of them were dead, holes burnt in their bodies by energy weapons fire.
“How are you guys doing?” Jessica asked as she knelt down beside them and began to return fire. The smell of the burnt bodies was nearly overpowering.
“Better than them!” the first one answered.
“I don’t know what kind of guns they have, but they do some serious damage!” the second one exclaimed.
“Yeah, I can see that,” she answered as the master chief dropped down behind her.
“Here!” the master chief told his shipmates, offering a few of the enemy’s energy weapons. “Thought you could use these!”
The first crewman looked at the weapon in disbelief. “Where did you get these?”
“Took’em off the fuckers we just wasted back there,” the master chief bragged, pointing back down the corridor the way they came. “Figured they didn’t need them anymore!”
“From back there?” the crewman asked, turning slightly paler.
“Yeah, figure they were tryin’ to flank ya!”
“Shit! Thanks, Master Chief!” The crewman looked at the weapon. “How do they work?”
“Hadn’t thought about that,” he admitted. “Let me see it,” he added grabbing the weapon back from the crewman. The master chief looked at the weapon for a moment. It looked like an over-sized flare gun, with a longer barrel, and a large battery looking object situated just forward of the trigger. The master chief pointed it down the corridor and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. After looking at it again, he flipped a switch, then pointed down the corridor and pulled the trigger once more. This time the weapon discharged and a bright red bolt of light shot down the corridor, striking one of the status lights along the ceiling, obliterating it into a mass of molten plastic and metal.
“Like that!” the master chief smiled, handing the weapon back.
The other two followed the master chief’s example and joined their friend on the firing line.
“Me, Nash, and three crewman are holding this corridor for now, Sir!” the master chief’s voice reported over the comm. “But if they get reinforced, they’ll mow us down right quick!”
“Understood!” Nathan answered. “Standby,” Nathan turned to Cameron. “Cam, I need you to take the helm!”
“Sure,” she answered, resigning herself to the situation. As unbelievable as it was, Nathan Scott was legally in command of the Aurora. At least until a more senior officer from elsewhere on the ship assumed the role. “What do you want me to do?”
“Can you back us away from them?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted as she started checking to see what was working.
“Engineering! Bridge! Respond!” Nathan called.
“Da! Engineering here! Nathan! Is that you?”
“Yeah! Vlad! It’s me!” Nathan could hear all manner of commotion coming through the comm from engineering. People were yelling in the background, alarms were sounding, and he was pretty sure he heard the sound of portable fire suppression equipment being used. Above it all, Vladimir was yelling instructions to someone.
“What are you doing on the command channel, Nathan? You can get in big trouble for this!”
“I’m in command!”
“Shto?”
Nathan had learned a few words in Russian just from sharing a cabin with Vladimir for a few weeks, and he knew that ‘shto’ meant ‘what’. “I’m in command!”
“Oh bozhe moi!”
Nathan knew what that meant too.
“Listen, Vlad, can you get maneuvering back online?”
“I don’t know, Nathan! Everything is crazy here! Let me call you back!” Suddenly the line went dead.
“All I’ve got is braking thrusters, Nathan!” Cameron announced. “And docking thrusters! But nothing else!”
“Master Chief!” Nathan called over the comm.
“Yeah, go ahead!”
“What side of the primary forward bulkhead are you on?”
“Aft side!”
“Damn it!” Nathan cursed.
“Can you drive them back behind the primary forward bulkheads?”
“With a few more guys, maybe!”
Nathan spun around to face the marine guarding the port exit. “You two go down and help. I need them pushed back behind the primary forward bulkheads. Then lock those hatches and I’ll flush the bastards out into space!” he ordered.
“Yes Sir!” the marine acknowledged, stepping forward and handing Nathan his weapon. “You might need this, Sir.”
Nathan was a bit stunned, but he realized why the marine was offering it to him. “What about you?” he asked.
“There’s a weapons locker at the bottom of the ramp, Sir. We’ll load up there on our way.”
“Very well, good luck.” Nathan watched them leave, the second marine handing him his weapon as well. For the second time in less than an hour, Nathan was amazed at the bravery of the people he served with, unsure if he was worthy of being in their company.
He looked over at Cameron, and after making eye contact he tossed her one of the weapons. “Just in case,” he told her. He looked at the science officer to the left of the flight console. She was obviously shaken, but looked like she could still function.
“Master Chief!” Nathan called out over the comm again. “Two Marines are headed your way, and they’re bringing an armory with them!”
“Yes Sir!” the master chief answered.
“What’s your name, Ensign?” Nathan asked the woman at the sciences station. He felt a little embarrassed that even after a full eight hour bridge shift with her the day before, he had yet to learn her name.
“Yosef,” she answered a bit shakily. “Ensign Yosef, Sir.”
“What’s your first name?”
“Kaylah.”
“Okay, Kaylah. Is it possible for you to take over the sensors from your station there?” He needed someone on sensors more than he needed a science officer right now, but the sensor station was covered with blood.
“Yes Sir,” she answered. “But it will take a few minutes to reconfigure the console and displays.”