Capture

[Xing]

ETA 20 minutes. The pilot replied to Jimmy. Attention, system wall, brace yourself. He added, as everyone held tight to whatever they could hold. A system wall was the exact center limit between two star mass from two different system, and told them they were now very close to Dublin system. There was a loud bang as all the ships in the squadron shook hard.


A stealth Raven Rhino troop lander shuttle.

--

The LNS Eagle Prime, admiral Alban's flagship.

Colonel Gerald Black was sitting at his console, watching the progression of the small strike force with anxiety, as like most of the officers in the command center of the Eagle Prime. The massive dreadnaught (with an engine longer by nearly half its usual length to house the hyperdrive) was advancing at a steady rate, but Gerald knew was there something to go wrong, theyd never arrive in time to save the squad.
He looked toward admiral Alban, sitting on his command chair with apparent nonchalance.
Group one, two, three are coming on estimated area of target in less than 10 minutes, sir.
Excellent. Tell them to begin long range scan of the area with the electronic code of the cloaking device.
Yes sir.
From now on, we will maintain complete comm. silence with the strike force. Alban declared with a little grin. We will not jeopardize their mission by giving the enemy any hint.

--

Deploy scan. Isabelle ordered.
The pilot of all three rhino punched in a serie of numbers the electronic cloaking code of the Tenabras. This kind of thing was hard coded and very hard to change and only performed in a shipyard. It was safe to assume the vessel was still using the same as it was when in St-Mitchell.
Sensor deploying in 10. The pilot announced, as the ships dropped from hyperspace, jettisoning their hyperdrive pods, which immediately self destroyed itself. It wasnt good to leave trace behind.
On the top of each shuttle, an antenna dish cam out of their cache, and began rotating in search for the researched signal. Except, no one could see this: all of them cloaked as soon as they dropped from hyperspace.
In fact, dropped right in the middle of a mine and asteroid field. Which was a good thing; the Order battleship wouldnt be able to pick them on radar scan easily with all the refraction of the thousands of lifeless masses around.
General, weve got a reading. On coordinate 3132.1323.1230bds.
Isabelle turned around, and saw numbers of codes scrolling down from one of the console of the cockpit, way too fast for a human eye to read. But when so much intel was accumulating, it always meant something was going on
In this instance, it meant an immense artificial object was moving at high speed.
Can you get a visual?
Will convert the scan into holo image. Cant guarantee on quality.
The hologram loaded slowly the cams feed, and soon it became clear what it was. The Tenabras, seen through a black and white scan.


The Tenabras, cloaked, seen through one of the Raven Rhino's external sensor.

Sounds like weve got our prey.
Everyone went behind Isabelle to look at the projector. So there it was
All right. Transmit on sub channel to the other ships. Remember to use the IMG frequency the LSF gave you people. We dont want to be shot down before even boarding this monster dont we. She added with a grim smile.
Most of the men laughed with a nervous stare to the projection.
Link engaged.
Excellent. Isabelle sat down next to the comm. channel, and thought for a little moment what to say exactly. Sometime, a few words before a battle could change the tide easily. It was going to be hard to up their moral in this situation.
All of them knew very well why they were there.
Right, well begin with a return on mission objective. We have accomplished the first one, that is, finding the Tenabras. As you can see, we are on cruise speed slightly ahead of it. We have from now on about 20 minutes to act before our ships cloaking generators fail. She checked her watch, making sure her final briefing will fall in time.
The pilots will force-moor their ship on various points of the vessel that are blind spot to the ship weapons. After what, what happens to the shuttle doesnt really matter even if they blow them up with fighters. Because, once we will be attached to the Tenabras, our mass will add up the ship, and the commander of this vessel isnt stupid. Hed be expecting us since a while, though maybe not in this fashion. He will know what is going on, so there will be no chance at failure for us in there. Because the shuttles arent the way out.
Once we are affixed, we will create an artificial airlock, and open up on the hull of the ship with our plasma cutters. At that point, we dont need to concern ourselves with the Tenabras shielding systems: since we will be part of the mass of the ship, it wont block our way, so no worry at being turned into fried human beings.
We will be separated into three group, mixed squadrons of LSF and 106th. First group is Alpha, lead by myself. Our goal is the hardest; reach the command center and take control of it. Second team, Lambda, is to take over the hangar in order to guarantee no one will escape from there. Lambda is hence especially armed with the heavy RPG launchers: orders are to shoot down any ship that will attempt to flee by the opening. Last team, Kappa is to take over the engines in case Alpha fail at its objective. Her last words tasted very much like ash to herself. She shook her head, now wasnt the time to listen to all kind of negative premonitions she was going to succeed, as she always did.
And now was never for her chance at revenge against Travis. Too bad they were enemies, she had somehow begun to like the man and its chivalrous attitude. She was slightly ashamed she wasnt showing much gratitude to this but orders were order, and to each his version of the code of honour. In her case, she wasnt going to disobey a logic command even though she fully knew it was directed with corruption and unhealthy avenging emotions.
Once we take control of the ship, mission will be over. We are supposed to receive reinforcement from the navy. At worse, we will drive it back home ourselves, but the big part of the job would be done.
She looked again at her watch. 15 minutes left before they would be forced to board.
All of you know the reason why we are here. And I dont mean the official joke admiral Alban has given us.
Slight laughter at the remark, especially from the older veterans.
Many of you might seriously wonder why you are here, attempting a suicide mission on something that you probably consider, really isnt worth your life.
I say, you are right. This whole mission is a big, big joke. We are like the Rheinlander who were sent blindly in the 80 years war to be slaughtered by the thousands in the treacherous nebulas of S13.
But I say, are we going to get slaughtered like these blind, led by greedy corporations?
Today, we are faced with a difficult task at hand. On the contrary of the rheinlanders, today, our enemies are outnumbering us, but not outgunning us. Today, our enemies have the terrain advantage, but not the tactical one. Today, our enemies want to flee home.
Today, we want victory. Weve always fought for this abstract concept because, those with too much time in their hand will tell you theres no such thing as victory in a war -
She was interrupted again by the laughter of the soldiers, heard through the comm. channel of the three shuttles, but as well from their covert pilots.
No, theres no such thing as victory in a war. Not in the way of human life. In a war, all of us are losers because weve accepted to sacrifice our humanity for something most doesnt even see.
Weve fought for liberty, freedom. Weve been the keepers, the guardians of peace to our nation and citizens. That it is on the open skirmish against the rogue pilots, or covert missions like this one against terrorist organisations (the word terrorist remained somewhat stuck in her throat), we are fighting to keep the ones close to us alive. Even if they will never ever know of your deed. Even if they might never understand your choices, your actions. Even if they turn against you.
She sighed slowly.
Remember, this victory no, this fight against the Order will not exterminate the organisation. Yet, it will weaken it considerably. That might means of your comrade at arm wont die in the next month by that battleship. It might mean it wont get the occasion to self destruct itself with a whole battlegroup.
At this mention, everyone kept silent, their face serious.
We will fight for this future we might never see with our own eyes. Fight, thinking of the ones you might be saving, right now. And remember.

--

Sir, they have begun manoeuvres.
Excellent. Sim visuals, on.
The large holoprojector of the command center displayed a simulated space field, with, at its center, the Tenabras, and around in formation, the libertonian strike group.
The first shuttle is closing on Tenabras. It is estimated that it is now at only 10 meters of the target. It has deployed itd magnetic mooring claws.
Gerald looked at the whole scene with intensity.
It was most terrible to assist to such a dangerous operation without being able to influence anything in it. Something goes wrong, and they might just lose 50 good soldiers.

--

They were now holding their weapons in battle stance, all of them standing in a half circle around the airlock. Two soldiers were standing ready with their heavy plasma cutter. The pilots were still synchronising among them to fix themselves over the ship at the exact same second. No mistake would be allowed.
Once they heard the decisive clang of the ship on the battleship, they would tear apart the ships hull, and storm in.
Isabelle looked around, and saw only men anxious, but ready to face combat. That was good. She couldnt force them to fight with a big smile in their face.
A light hearted combat wasnt very efficient anyway.
She was the last to put on her helmet, made in a shape that somehow recalled vaguely that of a wolf. She smiled. The wolf was pretty much the unofficial animal representing the 106th (the official emblem of the battlegroup showed instead a falcon about to strike).

Then, they heard the pilot yell Now!
The loud clang followed a shocking collision against the battleship, where everyone nearly fell to the ground. But the two soldiers at the airlock began their work immediately; the gate opened to show directly the hull of the Tenabras. They took on their heavy cutters, and in a matter of seconds, one of them kicked away the large panel of metal.
Go go go! Isabelle yelled, as everyone stormed in, rifles ready.
They went in by group of 3, one rolling on the ground, the other two running to each extremity of the corridors wall, checking left and right, then proceeded to the intersection at either ends, ready to fire.
The orders were shoot to kill when fired upon, and shoot to stun otherwise. Slightly annoying, but Isabelle was very specific on this. Liberty navy wasnt some lowly tyrannical military force. They will do their job cleanly, or die.
The general and her men preferred the first alternative of course.

She herself came in the last group, with Jimmy as her covert. After checking either side of the corridor like the previous group, she ran toward the right in her clattering heavy black armour. She could already hear blaster fire
In combat, instinct and training took over very quick. Her men were at the corner, charging their weapons and exchanging fire with their enemy, waiting for her.
They knew they had very little time, and surprise and fear was a weapon as powerful as any. Isabelle dropped to the ground and rolled in the middle of the intersection, landing shot with deadly accuracy at her enemy toward their head. She was covered by the furious rifle shot of her soldiers, who immediately came out of their hiding as she went in. As the first line of enemies were shaken at suddenly seeing so many opponents, the 106th trooper easily took terrain advantage, as they dropped smoke detonator, confusing the enemy. Isabelle activated her helms improved vision, and seeing through the smoke, took out the rest of their first encounter of resistance.

The enemy reinforcement coming to them were taken aback to see the corridor empty, only filled with the corpse of their own.

--

Regroup with the first section! she yelled, as they retreated from this corridor to join the one that went by the left corridor. In such war, you had to confuse the enemy as much as possible to make them waste time. It was an exhausting one, but Isabelle relied on their training. After all, they were reputed to be the best land troopers of Liberty. Time to prove that.
Her comm. officer came up to her, as they ran toward their objective,
General, lambda and kappa have deployed in similar fashion, and are now heading to their objective.
Copy. Tell them they must avoid at all cost to be divided in two by the enemy! She took the comm. unit, Good luck, men!

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