Overrun: Project Hideaway (26 page)

The captain sat quiet and
contemplative at the helm of the Vulture explorer frigate. His attention was
fixed intently on the holovid monitor to his left. On the small screen, he
watched two soldiers with blow torches move about slowly beneath a hail of
sparks. The boarding team was close to cutting their way completely through the
air-locked entrance door to the Hideaway.

Half the crew of the Vulture
ship made up the boarding party and stood just beyond the flurry of sparks. The
captain wasn’t comfortable with the dispatch of this many of his limited
personnel, but RadCom, his boarding chief, had convinced him the necessity of
doing otherwise.

The captain watched RadCom
standing behind the men with the torches waiting for them to finish breaking
in. The rest of the boarding crew stood behind him with their weapons aimed at
whatever awaited behind the disintegrating door.

The captain tried to ignore the
sickening feeling festering in his gut while he watched the glowing door of the
Hideaway begin to fall through.

Ever since they came within
visual range of the Hideaway, he had begun to have misgivings about the entire
mission and his own reasons for leaving Earth. The unknown behind this mission
now seemed more of a risk than the certainty of participating in the battles
currently being waged back on the planet.

But this didn’t really matter at
this point.

In addition to the transmission
from the Hideaway boarding, another holovid was lit in front of him. He only
half listened to the man barking orders from its screen. He mainly kept his
attention focused on the image of his crew standing ready in the boarding tube.

"They're almost
through," the captain said covering his eyes against the glare of the torches.
Even dulled by the holovid image, their intensity still made his eyes squint.

"Any signs of pilot
life?" War Minister Faulken's voice was sharp and irritated. It resonated
loudly through the empty command bridge.

"We detected a small power
surge about forty-five minutes ago, right around the time we maneuvered into
position to dock. But it didn’t seem to be anything more than what the ship
would most likely be routinely performing on its own."

A loud clang echoed through the
explorer frigate.

The mammoth exterior door to the
Hideaway finally separated itself from the metal anchoring it to its fist-sized
hinges. The two men in front powered their torches down and without turning
around backed carefully away.

The boarding team waiting behind
RadCom stepped cautiously around him. RadCom stood stiffly at the center of the
boarding tube. The torch crew backed around and behind him until they
disappeared from the view of the holovid and re-boarded the explorer frigate.

"Our team is entering their
landing bay now, War Minister," the captain reported without taking his
eyes away from the holovid image of the Hideaway.

He did not hear Faulken's reply.

He shifted uncomfortably in his
seat. His eyes riveted on the first of his men to enter the ship. No sound came
from the holovid screen.

The last of the initial entrance
team slipped past RadCom and slunk into the darkness of the Hideaway's landing
bay. RadCom remained where he stood at the center of the boarding tube. He
turned his head slightly when the torch team, now also armed and clad in full
assault gear, returned and jogged across the tube.

They passed RadCom and slipped
through the jagged entrance to the ship. The massive doorframe still glowed
from the heat of the torches. RadCom stood there for another second and
followed the last of his men inside.

"We're in," RadCom's
voice said softly from a speaker to the captain's right.

"Team’s in," the
captain repeated to the other holovid screen where Faulken's face still
remained.

The holovid monitoring the boarding
tube became empty, motionless and silent after RadCom stepped inside. The
captain sat back in his seat and waited for the team to establish transmitters
within the ship.

Faulken said something again
from the screen that this time the captain didn’t hear. The frigate’s command
bridge was eerie and quiet. Only the hum of recently vacated command stations
interrupted the silence. The captain couldn't remember the last time he
monitored a crew mission alone in the command area.

"We’ve got some activity,"
RadCom's voice whispered through the empty command bridge. His voice was just
loud enough for Faulken to hear on the other holovid.

"Captain, what’s
happening?" Faulken asked with some nervousness in his voice.

"What do you got,
RadCom?" the captain spoke into his own holovid transmitter.

"We’ve got some
movement…something...can’t quite pin down the location."

RadCom's voice was then suddenly
interrupted by an explosion of small rounds fire.

"Holy shit!" RadCom's
surprised voice bellowed from the command center speaker. "Frigate, we're
being fired upon. Repeat, Frigate. Shots are being fired from inside the
ship!"

His audio transmission ended
abruptly in a loud burst of static.

"Captain, what the hell is
going on?" Faulken barked from the second holovid.

The captain sat bolt upright in
his chair and stared intently at the silent holovid screen. White flashes of
smoke and light were visible coming from the Hideaway bay along with giant
holes ripping themselves through the walls near the bay door.

Bodies dove in front of the
holovid’s field of view. The force of subsequent explosions tossed legs and
feet straight up into the air.

The men of the ambushed crew
landed on top of one another and hugged themselves to the deck. Enemy fire
strafed across the wall just above their heads.

"Captain!” Faulken barked.
“What in the hell...!?"

"The landing crew is
receiving fire!" the captain yelled back and then turned to bellow into
his transmitter. "RadCom, come in! RadCom! Report in!"

When the shower of weapons fire
and shredded metal began to subside, one of the bodies tangled up on the floor
began to crawl slowly through the boarding tube away from the bay. Two other
members of the boarding crew knelt behind a mound of recently exploded concrete
within the Hideaway and returned fire.

"Captain, we have fire
coming from deep within the bay!” RadCom’s voice came in over the bellowing
roar of fired weapons and explosions just on the other side of the boarding
tube. “We haven’t yet been able to establish its source."

RadCom was sprawled just at the
edge of the tube closest to the Hideaway door while he reported in. A quick
series of shots buried themselves into the metal over his head.

Behind him, one of his team was
sprawled out motionless on his back near the center of the passageway between
the two ships. The captain watched RadCom reach out with one arm, his other
grasping his own shoulder, and pull the motionless figure closer to him for
cover. The wounded man’s body was completely still while RadCom dragged him the
short distance across the floor.

"Captain, who is doing the
goddamn firing?!" Faulken roared again.

"RadCom , any signs or
indic...?" the captain ignored the war minister and kept his attention on
the screen monitoring the boarding tube.

"Captain! We don’t have any
signs of shit!" RadCom yelled over the speaker. Large bursts of gunfire
drowned out his words. “We’re just keeping our heads down and trying not to
fucking die!”

The captain watched RadCom curl
his body across the soldier he had just pulled from the center of the tube. A
fresh burst of fire tore overhead and brought a wall down around them. RadCom
buried his head into the chest of the unconscious man and covered both of them
the best he could with the top of his arms.

For the next few seconds,
lingering smoke from the discharged weaponry obscured the area in front of the
holovid transmitter. The only thing visible through the haze was one of the
feet of the unconscious soldier. His boot moved slightly and then pulled in
towards his body.

The captain could hear the sound
of the exploding rounds echo through his own ship. The frigate’s command center
was located one level directly over the boarding tube and the Hideaway landing
bay where the battle was being waged.

"Frigate Captain, I demand
a status report!" Faulken blustered.

"The status is any second
my whole boarding crew is going to be dead!” the captain yelled towards the
second screen not taking his eyes from the first. “That’s the goddamn fucking
status!”

He strained his eyes against the
smallness of the holovid trying to see through the thick smoke.

"Is the ship still
intact?" Faulken asked again.

"It’s intact."

"Captain, we have two men
down," RadCom's voice crackled again from the speaker. "Jones is
dead. I got Swanson here. We need to get him back onboard the ship. Like right
now."

The captain leaned over and
switched channels on his transmitter.

"I need crewmen to the
boarding area," he said softly trying to block out the war minister on the
second holovid. "I want weapons ready and assault gear worn by everyone.
Prepare to bring back wounded. We’ve got one in the tube."

"Captain, instruct your men
to put down immediately whomever is on that ship!” Faulken’s voice blared.
“Immediately. Do not identify or make contact. Kill them. Kill them now! Is
that understood?!"

The captain of the explorer
frigate turned back to the enraged man on the holovid screen. The expression on
Faulken's face had changed from shock to complete rage. Veins pulsed from both
sides of his neck, and his bottom lip quivered.

"What if it is the
pilots?" the captain asked. He was furious that this question was even
necessary. Especially since someone on his crew was now dead. “We may need at
least one of them if they placed the signaturization into effect.”

"Captain, you listen to
me," Faulken spit. "I want you to kill whoever it is that is firing
from that ship. I don't give a goddamn who it is. Not even if it is the pilots!
Kill them and take control of the Hideaway. Bring it back to Earth before it is
too late. Are these orders in any way unclear?"

"No, sir," the captain
said and clicked off the holovid.

He wasn't even sure if Faulken
was done speaking. He didn’t really care. He turned his head to the holovid
monitoring the boarding tube.

Heavy smoke settled over the
area. Periodic flashes from discharging weapons still came from somewhere
deeper within the landing bay. The echoes of battle had become quieter at least
through the explorer frigate.

From the bottom of the monitor,
the captain observed his second boarding party, which was composed of almost
all the remaining men on his own ship, make their way slowly through the tube.
They hugged the walls with their backs, two on each side of the tube. Their
weapons rested tautly across their shoulders and pointed towards the destroyed
door of the other ship.

RadCom appeared from the smoke
just ahead of them. He crawled across the ground near one of the walls dragging
the wounded member of the first team behind him.

The second team from the frigate
slowly approached. Two pairs of hands reached down to grab the unconscious
bleeding form RadCom held tightly in his grasp and quickly hauled him back to
their own ship.

The two other men stayed along
the walls with their rifles pointed towards the Hideaway and waited for RadCom
to crawl to safety behind them. When he was safely back, all three men
retreated away from the holovid monitor back to the explorer frigate.

Weapon flashes continued coming
from the Hideaway, and the captain could still hear the faint echo of gunfire.
A burst of static came from the speaker at his side. RadCom's breathless voice
soon followed.

"We've still got four men
pinned down in there."

An explosion sounded from the
front of the boarding tube, and flame spilled from the Hideaway entranceway. A
soldier from the first team appeared from the smoke and flames. He pressed his
shoulder against the side of the wall and fired back into the ship.

He dove to the ground as weapons
slugs traced a path over his head and threw hot sparks across his body. A short
second later another soldier fell into the tube and pressed his body up against
the opposite wall.

"We're being pushed
back," RadCom said.

"RadCom," the captain
said watching the flames that were now spreading into the boarding tube.

Two more small explosions caused
the men to hunker down again and duck their heads. They pressed themselves hard
against the walls as two large flame bursts bellowed into the chamber.

"RadCom, we can't take too
many more hits to the boarding tube," the captain said. "We're going
to have to seal it off from the rest of this ship. Bring your men back. We're
going to have to figure another way to access the Hideaway."

"Sir, we can't do
that," RadCom replied. A faint sound of buckling metal could be heard over
his voice.

The holovid image of the
boarding tube began to move as if invisible hands were rocking the transmitter.
For a moment, the image became black.

"Captain, we've still got
two men in there."

"If the boarding tube
becomes damaged with the Hideaway still exposed, we're going to lose that ship.
And the Beam Cannon Hardware."

"I know that, sir,"
RadCom responded as an image returned to the holovid screen.

The sound of buckling metal
became louder over the command center speaker. What came across the holovid now
was an image of the floor and the feet of one of the boarding members returning
from inside the explorer frigate.

“Put it on my shoulder,” RadCom
ordered the man that approached.