Capture

[Xing]

Gerald Black, the young colonel in charge of St-Mitchell (nobody knew where admiral Alban went to), cooly took the situation in hand.
"Progression of enemy?"
"They are storming through the southern airlock, sir. I am ordering security to retreat, they are too many..."
"Well done. Tell them to come within the walls of the core center. When they reach this position, we will lock down every door between the core quadrant and the external."
"Yes sir. Sir, the battleships report similar invasion of their vessels."
"Hm..."
The ensign at the console smiled,
"Don't worry sir, I've told them to make same tactic."
"Right. Don't forget to mention, cut all control to external quadrants. We don't want trouble. Oh, and knowing the crazy guys on the Citadelle..."
Black smirked, and looked by the viewport,
"tell them we'll need some of their men in St-Mitchell. As well, activate the shield dome."
"Yes sir."

Outside, a radiant golden shield was activated by the powerful satelite, making a 2.5k impenetrable area around St-Mitchell.
The only problem was, the navy was now trapped with the Order within the zone.

--
Aboard the Citadelle, the few Order crewmen were immediately taken prisonner or killed. IT was a terrible mistake to take on the headquarter of some of the best land trooper of Liberty...
The men of the 106th ran accross all section of the ship, blasters at the ready, checking for more invaders. But most were already in the brig.

On the other ships, things weren't going so well.
And now St-Mitchell was calling for assistance...

--
Isabelle rushed to the cell of Trinity, and nearly fell to the floor as someone bumped her.
"ouch..."
She held herself from falling by holding on to a section of the wall.
"J... Jimmy?! What are you doing here?" she asked, bewildered.
But she didn't had time to ask question, and taking hold of the man's arm, ran toward the cell of Trinity
"you'll have to come with me! We don't have much time left, and it sounds like the Order is back!"

--
The Order soldiers aboard St-Mitchell were now trapped: unable to go further in their progression, they tried to commandeer the station from their position, only to find all control pannels disabled.

When they retreated back toward the airlock, they found two rhino shuttle of the Citadelle coming crash-landing in, and deploying dozens of the elite 106th marine troopers.

Hence, they were now trapped somewhere between the exit and the core of the station, fighting a desperate fight, using furniture and wall pannel hull as some kind of barricade.

--
At the control of St-Mitchell, technicians were trying as best as they could to decypher the cloaking device the order was using. They knew there was something hidden among them. To detect such thing was quite hard. The navy developped a few techniques, the best being to follow the trail of nuclear activity a cloaked ship left behind him - except, that was near impossible in a small environement full of ships.
The other way around was electronic signature of a cloaking device, which were always different from one ship to another.
And took one hell of a long time to find out.

--
Isabelle saw on her way to the cell a LSF commander running toward the core quadrant. Probably the interogator, she thought. And Jimmy probably was to replace him...
Could he trust the man?
She didn't had much choice. What she was about to do could be considered treason. Trinity was still hanging by her chains over the restraining cylinder, naked, her body bloodied by the various beating she went through. Isabelle's heart flipped slightly at the thought Liberty suposedly abolished such things as torture... but such things were yet openly practiced here, in the secret prison of St Mitchell...
She carefully manipulated the buttons, and as the restrains over Trinity's arms and legs suddenly gave away at her command, Isabelle catch her as the woman litterally dropped, free from her shackles.
Jimmy was behind, looking confused and unsure what to do.
How was she going to explain that to him?
"Jimmy, hold the gate for us will you? Shoot at anyone wearing Order color coming down here!"
She waited until Jimmy was standing by the door, less or more sure he couldnt hear her over the loud alarm klaxon
"Commander..."
Isabelle looked around, and found a large white blanket, with which she covered the body of the woman. It immediately became red, soaked with blood.
"Commander Elation, you'll need to tell me everything about the nomads and the order, everything, because that's going to be your only chance at seeing freedom again..."
She stopped, looking at the gate making sure Jimmy was doing his job.
"Your brother is back trying to save you, but his soldiers won't be able to stand against my marines. In less than an hour, they will be all dead, your brother forced to retreat for a second time, and I'm afraid he will waste more lifes from the Order because he will never abandon you it seems."
Trinity looked to her, her stare showing a slight fear from her previous torture. But she seemed back in control already.
"I'm doing this against the order of the governemnt of Liberty, mind you what, so that's making me as much a criminal as you are. But I'm having serious trouble believing Liberty's official version on the Order, just like we all know the official version on the nomad is quite falsified as well."
Trinity openned her mouth and said nothing.
But she knew sincerity when she heard it.
"For humanity, and our fight against the nomads, we are on the same side, general. I shall tell you as much as I can."

--
The LSF anonymous commander stormed in the control room, and talked with colonel Black.
"Tell the techs to enter code 540674586-94585-CCD-938247." he said, dictating from his datapad.
"One of the tech entered the long serie of coding on his own data terminal, and smiled with a certain triumph on his face. He turned toward the colonel.
"We've got him, sir. It's the right code."
"Uncloak me this bastard and..."
The LSF commander shook his head,
"I wont suggest that. Whoever is commanding still has multiple vessel. We, only have one operational battleships while the other 3 are still struggling to get rid of invaders. We must take care of them, before showing our joker card."

--
Despite being nearly half less than the order troopers who boarded St-Mitchell, the 106th men were holding very well against the invaders. The teamwork was quite impressive, each soldiers supporting another in a very precise and synchronised way in such pattern that no one was exposed to firefight too long, each taking a careful and well placed shot to a target before ducking to let his comrade do the same, hence giving the impression they were actually as much as the order soldiers shooting at very constant interval.

But due to terrain advantage, the order was very hard to hit.
Plus, they were now cutting through the door leading to the prison sectors of the station - the gate toward core quadrant being too thick for their small plasma thrower.

---