'Now you're having a laugh at my expense.'
'Just putting your education to work.'
The deck shuddered as the doors spread open a crack. With an ear splitting scrape and grind the motors managed to draw the meter thick, dense metal doors apart. They were three meters tall, made for transporting major components deeper into the station.
'Ayan? Is Ayan from the Triton here?' asked a panicky looking bald woman at the front of fifteen mismatched station staff members. They looked around the cargo area warily, some with their hands raised, others in awe at the damage the area had sustained.
Ayan drew back the faceplate of her armour, leaving the hood up and stepped into the open. 'I'm here.'
'I'm Larissa, we spoke on the comm. We're seeking asylum on the Triton. You have to hurry, alarms will be going off now that this door is open and Amanda will know someone's trying to escape.'
'You're prisoners?'
'We're workers, but after what's happened they'll never let us leave.'
'Yeah, we're prisoners! Can we go now?' added Bradley. 'That's what you are if you get paid but never get to leave,' he spat at Larissa so harshly she flinched. 'Bloody wazzock.'
'We were just leaving,' Ayan smiled. It had been a long time since she'd met anyone with such a thick Britannia accent. It was good to hear even though the speaker's dialect was rough. 'All right, cover these people. We return to the Cold Reaver at a run,' Ayan ordered Alaka.
Ayan scanned the fifteen newcomers and was surprised to find them unarmed. A few of them had medical kits and bundles of personal items very hastily packed together but other than that they had nothing. They were ready to run, however, and kept up with the group of militia handily.
'I hate to ask, but who's your sponsor? I've never seen the kind of armour you're wearing,' Bradly asked as he fell into step beside her. He clutched a large medical kit to his chest with both arms.
' Triton is an independent ship. We manufacture our own equipment.'
'Are you originally from Earth? We noticed it was built in the Sol system.'
'No, I can't go into the details just now, but we're not from Earth.'
'See? Like I was saying. Pirates,' Larissa said to Bradley, who gave her a wide eyed stare. She turned to Ayan with a thin smile; 'Not that I look down on it, mind you. Pirates are fine if they're just stopping for supplies or to spend time at the pub.'
'Right now we're just looking for a place to make repairs so we can move on and find an ally. Privateering is more our calling.'
'Against anyone in particular?'
'The Order of Eden,' Ayan answered without an instant's hesitation. 'A number of us were on Pandem when they took it.'
'What happened to Pandem?' asked one of the newcomers behind her.
Ayan's heart began to sink, but she steeled herself against the terrible memories of what happened to the place. 'I'm sorry. The virus that made your automated systems go mad here struck there, then the Order of Eden and Regent Galactic stepped in to finish the job.'
'Oh my God, I knew people on Pandem, took my last vacation there. I've never seen a place like it,' he said sadly. 'What is it like now?'
'It's better that you remember it as it was.'
'Oh. Any chance anyone from Verona survived? That's where I stayed.'
Alaka dropped back to run along side the fellow, his long, loping steps and great size was intimidating even when he withdrew the plates covering his head to reveal a furred, pointed nose and mournful dark eyes. 'I'm sorry. The resort islands were struck first. Few people survived Pandem, my family and I were fortunate.'
'So you fight with the Triton against the people who destroyed your home.'
'Yes, that is the promise.'
'Ayan, look,' Victor directed her to look through the hallway window.
The Triton was positioning itself in front of the station, drifting at speed to cover their escape. The torpedo tubes all along the edges of the hull came to life, the sleek projectiles turning as soon as they were launched towards some obscured foe. 'That's a lot of firepower, they must be in some serious trouble.'
'A Caran Enterprises fleet has arrived, they're staking a claim on the station since our highest ranking officer is only a Forewoman, not even a real controller.'
'You couldn't have told us this a few minutes ago?' Victor replied at Bradley.
'I'm sorry, I was-' he was interrupted as a flash of light flared through the wide porthole.
'They just landed a focused nuclear strike against the Triton’s shields. Thank God it struck the opposite side,' Ayan said as many of her companions stared in shock. 'Run, the sooner we get to the Cold Reaver, the sooner we can try to blast our way out of here. We don't have much of a choice.'
'I'm getting a message from the Reaver now,' Alaka said as they started running. 'They say that someone is cutting through the hangar door from the outside. The metal is white hot and they've almost breached.'
'All right, tell them to stay tethered to something in case it opens to vacuum, and get the people we have in stasis bags ready to travel. No one takes more than their kit with them.'
Alaka relayed the message as quickly as he could. 'Chief Vega wants to confirm; we're abandoning the Cold Reaver?'
'I'm afraid so.'
Chapter 18
The Clever Dream lowered itself into place over the squad, covering them with her main airlock. The embarkation collar sealed around the hole they were drilling through the large hangar door and the air began to pressurize. 'How long?' Asked Jake.
'Less than a minute. I'm just glad the ship is here so we don't open the space inside up to vacuum when we break through.'
'All our people are in vacsuits, that was never a worry.' Captain Valance plugged into the small airlock interface panel and opened a channel to the Clever Dream's cockpit. 'How is the Triton?'
'Our live relay just went dead, but she was holding up just a few seconds ago. Oz kept them busy with negotiations as long as they could then they sent five destroyers. From what we could tell they managed to tear one to pieces, Ronin is keeping another very occupied,' answered Lewis. 'One more thing, it looks like the Palamo is starting a suicide run on the biggest of the Caran ships.'
'What kind of weaponry are they bringing to bear?'
'Particle beams and self propelled torpedoes. Each of the vessels are heavily fortified, even the first Commander McPatrick managed to nearly disable is still firing.'
The fusion powered cutter burst through the hangar door and Jake watched as his squad removed the clamps securing the device in place and hauled it clear. The gravity between the Clever Dream and the station equalized, followed by the air pressure and the inner airlock door opened. He looked through the freshly cut hole and saw Ayan, Alaka, two squads and several other people rushing towards the Cold Reaver. Everyone from the drop ship had already realized that someone was cutting through to rescue them and they were tethered to the rear embarkation ramp of the Cold Reaver just in case the air was about to rush out the circular hole forming in the hangar door.
'We don't have much time, come through in single file!' Jake ordered.
Alaka remained closest to the main hall leading into the hangar, keeping watch with a canister in one hand and his beam cannon in the other. The armour plates of his vacsuit rose into place and sealed over his face.
The group at the rear of the Cold Reaver were the first to climb through the hastily cut exit leading into the Clever Dream in single file. As the first group were through Jake stepped out and surveyed the situation. The crew and squads stationed on the Cold Reaver had done everything right. The majority of them had only taken their kits,
