Our teams were set and ready as we reached Earth orbit. Right before our shuttles departed I let Julie speak to everyone. It wasn’t a dramatic speech; it was simply her thanking everyone for their efforts and a good luck and Godspeed. I had the last word with the team…
“Ok, we all have a job to do and it’s time to go to work. We’ve been over it a hundred times but I’ll say it again; when you encounter the Noridians on that ship don’t hesitate, don’t try to understand what they’re doing or try to communicate. It is critical that we take each and every one of them out before they can warn Jaki on the ground or other Noridians through their long range communications. And remember, all they have to do is ‘think’ a warning and their bioware does the rest so act quickly and without hesitation.”
We were ready.
Silva was staying on the Coridian ship and his team was already interfacing with the Noridian ship. It ‘knew’ we were here but it also ‘knew’ that we were friendly and that there was no need to mention our presence. As soon as my shuttle deorbited Silva would have the Noridian ship ‘welcome’ our boarding party’s shuttle and then the fun would begin.
My shuttle departed first. Toni had volunteered to pilot us and had made a good argument that she knew us as well as anyone and would be less likely to confuse our orders. Apparently any Coridian could pilot a shuttle with reasonably equal skill so we accepted. She was now telling us that since we were stealthed it would take 40 minutes for us to reach Versailles.
“Mike,” I said through my earpiece. “Have your shuttle in position in 38 minutes and prepare to board on my mark.”
“Aye, aye”, Iron Jaw responded. “We will be in position in three-eight minutes and board on your mark.”
As I glanced around the interior of our shuttle I noticed Julie watching me. She was very calm and I gave her a quick thumbs up which she returned.
One aspect of both of these shuttle flights that we’d emphasized to everyone was that the last ten minutes of both would be without cabin lights. It wasn’t a total blackout, we could still see each other, but it was important that our eyes not have to adjust to any low light conditions we might face.
With Coridian technology there was of course no sound or sense of motion but it almost felt like we were in an old paratrooper plane ready to parachute behind enemy lines.
We had the press conference on our view screens now and it appeared that the French Foreign Minister was just finishing with some long-winded proclamation to a glorious future for a Noridian Earth.
With two Noridians guarding the podium in the same black armor and weapons we’d seen on Larga I wondered how anyone could stomach the hypocrisy.
Jaki was given a sickeningly long introduction and then took the podium.
I had Toni hold a hover a few hundred feet above the press conference and I signaled to Mike, “Go, Go, Go!”
Another advantage to the Coridian technology is that our earpieces came equipped with a fiber optic camera - a camera that used software stabilization so the picture didn’t bob or shake and had a viewpoint that had to be several inches above the wearer’s head. From our shuttle therefor, we had a bird’s-eye view of the boarding action.
Keeping one eye on Jaki and another on Iron Jaw’s feed, I watched them enter the ship.
In true Marine fashion Mike was the first to go through the airlock. I watched two surprised Noridians turn around and then immediately go down from shots to the head. Just as Mike had taught it - no hesitation, no mercy.
Silva was awaiting my command to launch their second cyber-attack on the ship; the one to wrest control of the ship’s engines, weapons, and communications. I was waiting until the last possible moment to give the order; there’d be no hiding it and the fewer Noridians left to fight back the better.
Just then I heard Julie gasp and I switched to her view of Captain Garvais’ feed. He was in a room that could only be described as a morgue. There were at least a couple of dozen bodies laid out and I’m pretty sure they were all from the Earth Team. It was a gruesome sight and just then I realized what had caused Julie’s moan; one of the first bodies to come into clear focus was Hilbert Sullivan, MD—Julie’s colleague.
We had hoped beyond hope that this would be a surgical strike. Just like you see S.W.A.T. teams or urban infantry clear rooms and halls; swift, silent, and deadly. We had already ‘cleared’ a surprisingly large number of Noridians when all Hell broke loose.
Captain Hiromi and her civilian teammate entered the shuttle bay and had the misfortune to encounter three Noridians preparing to go planetside; one of them fully armed and armored.
Dr. Freida Molander fired wildly into the compartment as she collapsed with a burning hole in her chest. Simultaneously Hiromi fired at the armored Noridian and threw herself down behind some metal crates. Several plasma bolts exploded through the crates; one of them neatly severing Hiromi’s rifle in two. She reached down to grab her pistol only to discover that it, along with a small chunk of her thigh, were gone.
I don’t know if Hiromi could see as well as us or if we had a better camera angle but Dr. Molander’s fire had taken out one of the Noridians and the armored one was wounded, obviously hurting, and leaning back against the side of the shuttle—but he still had his gun.
Without wasting a moment Captain Ito Hiromi rose and fluidly pulled the Katana sword from her back. She charged the enemy.
“Silva, now!” I was yelling.
“Already on it,” came back the reply.
Suddenly all our video feeds with the boarding team went blank.
“Silva, talk to me,” I said.
“Major, the ship’s shields just came on; that’s what’s cut off our communications.”
“Why have they put the shields up?” I asked.
“I’m not… Major, it looks as if they’re deorbiting. Ok, I’m back in the ships directory… Jaki has ordered the ship to initiate an emergency controlled decent to a holding position a thousand feet above your position. That ship is huge Major, I’m not sure if she wants to intimidate everyone or maybe use it as a missile shield to protect her position but she caught us off guard. She knows something is going on but I don’t think she realizes it’s us.”
“Silva, get control of that ship. Now.”
“Major, you’re going to want to see this,” said Dr. Decker.
On the view screen Jaki was sneering at the cameras.
“Are Earthers really this stupid? We demonstrated our power. You don’t stand a chance against us and still you resist. Whichever one of your governments is behind this attack on my ship will pay the price, and if we can’t determine who is responsible we’ll just destroy a few more cities around…”
She stopped in mid-sentence as the crowd started screaming, “Look! What is that?”
The entire southern sky was lighting up as a giant fireball was slowly growing larger.
“Major, we’re fighting each other for control of the ship… wait, the ship is falling. Major, the ship is tumbling out of control!”
“Silva, you said you could do this—I’m counting on you. Get that ship under control!
“Toni,” I said loudly. “Take us to a hover within about 20 yards from the front of that podium.
“Kamiko, when the side door opens you take out the armed Noridian on the right and I’ll take out the one on the left, then we both take out Jaki. Understood?”