Operation Musket

[Manticore]

"We're ready. I'm initiating Operation Musket. JADE will be guiding you from here."

Lisa’s voice echoed with crystal clarity through a speaker hidden somewhere in the wall of the cargo bay. Four men were immediately set into motion by her words.

They all wore fairly bulky sets of full-body combat armor, minus their helmets. The armor was painted a matte black color that seemed to absorb the light, with flat lines and surfaces that indicated stealth technology. The only insignias were stenciled images of the star of Liberty on their chests in a dull silver tone.

Weapons and equipment were snatched up from several rolls of green canvas spread on the floor, having been made battle-ready over the course of the past hour. Each man clipped and attached the gear to his armor in a practiced and efficient manner, then wordlessly the four of them split into two pairs and checked each other’s equipment to ensure everything was secured properly. Then, they slung large packs onto their backs and secured them with shoulder, chest, and waist straps. One more round of partner inspections followed, and then each nodded their readiness.

Their attention was redirected to a sandy-haired man with green eyes – their leader. “Okay, we know the plan. Webb – you’re with me on the port side. Arland, you and Herrin will approach from the starboard. Just follow the AI’s lead and we’ll get in there just fine. The rest should be simple. All good?”

His eyes flickered to the faces of the other men. “Right. Let’s go.” He snapped his helmet onto his head and the others followed suit.

He led them to a side hatch, and they all wedged into an airlock that was probably a bit too small for the four men and all of their equipment. It was only a brief period of discomfort, however, until the airlock cycled and the outer door hissed open.

With a quick push of the feet, the men exited the ship into open space, drifting freely. They slowly separated into two pairs via tiny jets of thrust from the packs each man wore on his back. Slowly, both pairs came to rest, the armor they wore seeming to drink in the faint light of Tau-23’s star.

Commander Eisenhart, the team’s leader, turned his head slightly to the left, visually confirming that CPO Webb had successfully reached their rendezvous. Even mere meters from the man, his suit made him difficult to clearly see. This team had spent several months training with this new equipment, but this would be their first combat mission together. The commander assumed that was the cause of the extra bit of tumult in his stomach. Plus the constant reminder that their work here was going to be carefully scrutinized by the Admiralty.

Still, the addition of Ms. Jaeger’s unique services was going to make this entire thing go much more smoothly. She would be pre-selecting their target, and then her AI would be coordinating the most difficult part – the approach. But even with the AI’s guidance, what they were about to do made him nervous.

Abruptly, a small timer appeared in the top left corner of his HUD, reading, “Burn in 0:60.0”. After a moment of delay, the timer started ticking downwards.

“Sixty seconds, people,” Eisenhart said over the squad net.

At thirty seconds, small thrusters housed in the pack on his back flickered briefly, rotating his body about forty degrees downward. He raised his head slightly, realizing he was now pointing directly at the dim outline of a space station far through the rock field. The AI would do all the driving here, since it could react far quicker than he could to any changes to their course. That still didn’t put him at ease.

The timer hit zero, and the thrusters on his back flared to full power. It was a long burn, draining nearly half of the fuel in his tanks before the engines finally faded. Glancing up at his HUD’s speed measurements, he realized he’d reached a speed of 200 meters per second, faster than a ship at impulse. He rocketed through the asteroid field, the AI occasionally making small course corrections to avoid hitting any of the rocks. At these speeds, even a relatively small rock would kill him instantly – this sort of approach would be impossible without the AI’s assistance.

The station’s shape grew larger in the distance. Java Station, home to many miners, Zoners, and Gallics. The reason they were closing at ballistic speeds now was so they could remain undetected on the station’s scanners. The burn had concluded before they’d entered the station’s sensor envelope, so their suits should now render them essentially undetectable, even to short-range active scanners. He reckoned they would put that theory to the test momentarily.

“Target has been redirected to Bay 14-D. Entering final approach.” The AI’s voice was calm, reassuringly so. He knew better than that – if she made even a tiny mistake, he could end up splattered against the side of the station like a bug on a ship’s canopy in atmo.

Just another day in the Liberty Navy…