The drifted closer to the station and Kronos and Zhang we’re already waiting at the ramp. They heard the telltale hiss of the environment being released and Kronos looked back to make sure the rest of the crew weren’t having any problems. He got three thumbs up and returned his own before turning back to the ramp.

“You ready for this?” He asked over the TACNET.

“I was born ready for this,” Zhang answered. “This was the kind of thing I always wanted to do while I was a rebel. Despite everything, I’m happy to be here.”

Kronos found himself agreeing with the sentiment. He didn’t bother making anymore noise because the ramp was descending and revealing the blackness of space. In the distance, the surface—such as it was—of Uranus was on full display. It was a churning mix of water, methane, and ammonia. It was these resources that had kept the Zodiac in business since it’s founding. Water was useful throughout the solar system, methane was used in large amounts to help terraforming on other planets while ammonia was synthesized in some cases as fuel.

When they drifted closer, the ramp opened and they heard a “Good hunting,” from Astra over the TACNET.

At her fatewell, both Zhang and Kronos pushed off the ramp. The amplified strength of their armor had them sailing toward the station at top speed. Objectively, Kronos knew the impact with the station wouldn’t hurt him. However, that was hard to reconcile as he was hurtling through space and the silver skin of the station was growing larger at a rapid pace.

Their goal was an access hatch in the top of the structure, but they didn’t want to shoot for tip and then miss. Their armor wasn’t intended for EVA use and so they didn’t have the direction thrusters that came standard in the Marine version.

In a matter of seconds, they slammed into the side of the station and their armor automatically magnetized to the hull. The impact hadn’t even caused Kronos to lose his breath. It felt like no more than a light punch to the chest.

“Secured,” he reported over the TACNET. He was echoed half a second later by Zhang.

Now that they were attached, he started to scale the hull like a four-legged spider. He had practiced the maneuver dozens of times during their virtual training, but had never experienced it in real life. As he methodically deactivated the mag locks on his hands and feet while keeping three points of contact. He found himself moving more rapidly as his memories from virtual were refreshed. By the time he reached the top of the station, he was as comfortable on the outside of the station as he was walking around the inside.

He had to wait a few minutes for Zhang, but that didn’t bother him. He was marveling at the efficacy of the previous training he had undergone. When Zhang arrived at the hatch, he pressed a button on his PCD and a tight-beam laser was emitted from the tip of the gauntlet. He guided the laser until it hit the external controls of the hatch. They only had to wait a few seconds for his Omni-tool to access the stations systems, disable the alarms, and grant them access.

The hatched opened silently because there was no atmosphere to release. Most stations kept their maintenance channels in a vacuum. It prevented fires and other nasty surprises if something went wrong. Kronos released his mag lock on the hull and pulled himself inside the corridor. When he dropped in, he reengaged the mag lock on his boots, and he was pulled to the surface of the deck. He moved out of the way and Zhang dropped in next to him while pulling the hatch closed.

Once the hatch had sealed, the artificial gravity in the corridor was activated and both men were able to disable their mag locks entirely. Kronos drew one of the pistols from his thigh but left his rifle secured to his back. It would only be a hindrance in the tight corridor. Even then, if he turned completely sideways, his armor scratched the various pipes and panels that covered the entirety of the walls.

He checked his HUD and saw that they still had a bit to go before nearing their target. The hallway they were in crowned the top of the station. There were multiple ways to exit and enter the corridor, but they had decided to pick the airlock closest to where they assumed the hostages were being kept. Kronos set off with Zhang just behind him. His partner had already drawn his own weapon and was carefully making sure no one snuck up behind him. He didn’t have to turn around to do that, his three sixty vision provided more than enough cover. However, they had done missions like this before during training. Kronos would watch the front and his bigger frame would soak up any projectiles, while Zhang would watch his back and prevent any sneak attacks.

As they traipsed through the corridors, Kronos let himself sigh in relief. There was a chance that their entry had been detected and he didn’t want to give into a firefight within the narrow confines of the hallway. After a few minutes of walking, the fear was dispelled.

When they reached the airlock that led to a small maintenance bay next to the administration section, Zhang switched places with Kronos. The larger man covered his partner as he set up another tight beam connection with the airlock. This time, there were more safety overrides and it took them long minutes to gain access. Soon enough, Zhang’s confidence in his own abilities was proven as the door slid open without setting off any alarms.

As they entered the small airlock, they deactivated their shields and turned on their active camouflage. The sensors in their armor picked up their surroundings and then replicated it effortlessly. Now, they looked like nothing more than a heat wave floating in the air. If they remained completely still, then even that small eddy in the air would disappear.

The door to the maintenance corridor closed, and the heard the atmosphere being pumped into the room. A light went green on the hatch in front of them and the quietly slid open. The duo entered the room beyond and scanned for any hostiles. Their sensors flipped through various spectrums and tagged any lifeforms with a pulse. Luckily for them, all they caught were the rats that were common even in space.

They went padded their way through the bay but saw nothing suspicious. Instead of shuttles, this bay was meant for the hundred of droids that served this part of the station. The majority of the machines were maintenance and custodial models but Kronos noticed a few older combat dories. They were rusted and not activey being repaired. Kronos hadn’t seen them around the station, but that was because there was such a heavy Guard presence. Typically, droids were only used when there was a shortage of manpower. The Marines and the Navy used them heavily, but the Guards only used them in times of crisis.

This certainly counts as a crisis, Kronos noted with a measure of humor.

They reached the end of the bay and slipped through the door. They made sure to move slowly and steadily to give their camouflage time to react to their surroundings. They were finally in the administration hub, and hey caught their first look at the opposition.

“Where the fuck did they get rifles?” Kronos asked on the TACNET.

Kronos was surprised when Pictor answered his question rather than Zhang.

“Some of the models are older. Clearly they’ve been smuggled in. The rest are regular Mark Threes issued to the Guard.” There was anger in the chief’s voice and Kronos wondered how many of the rifles were there because he overlooked certain shipments.

“Well, that answers that,” he said in a private channel to Zhang.

“Yup,” Zhang said before laughing. “How many of those do you think are because of us.”

Kronos decided not to answer his friends question. Instead, he started painting targets with his HUD. The two separated to get maximum coverage over the room. There were ten of the Ravens spread around the circular space. They were guarding the various entrances into the offices that sat in the center of the hub.

They stowed their pistols and then drew their rifles from their backs. After that, they changed the settings on their rifle to make their shots invisible. Typically, each shot was altered so that it each shot was bright red. This was done so that shooters could see where their shots were going and adjust fire if necessary. However, the directed energy weapons were invisible by default. In certain circumstances, it was useful to revert them to the default to stay concealed.

Their targeting systems set up firing solutions and linked up with their rifles. The function of their armor wasn’t useful in combat when the user was running and moving on the battlefield. However, when they and their targets were standing still, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Once the computer was done with its work. Zhang and Kronos did a short countdown before pressing their triggers at the same time.

Their armor responded to the commands and took over for them. It was a strange experience to relax and let the armor do the work, but Kronos couldn’t deny it’s efficiency. It shot, pivoted, shot again, and repeated until all five of his targets were downed with smoking holes in their foreheads. In less than ten seconds, all ten of the enemy combatants were dead, and the two operatives were still concealed.

“Good work,” Zhang complimented. “Let’s get this done.”

As one they made their way to the central office. It was there that the analysts back in HQ had predicted the hostages were being held. It was central, had the best defensive security, and deep enough that hostages could be moved to another location if the Guard burst in the front door. After seeing the amount of ravens guarding the place, Kronos agreed with their assessment.

The two men entered the doors silently. On the inside, there was only one Raven and he had his back turned from the doorway. One of the five hostages widened her eyes as she saw the door open, but she was evidently confused when she didn’t see anyone enter.

Kronos lifted his rifle and shot the raven in the back of the head. The man crumpled over the station that he had been peering at. After that, the two operatives deactivated their camouflage and there was a collective gasp from the bound hostages.

“Thank the Emperor, you’re here.” A blonde-headed woman said. “Untie us, the rebels are trying to vent the atmosphere in the guard quarters and set the power core to blow.”

“That’s not good,” Kronos said privately to Zhang.

He drew a mono blade from it’s receptacle on his boot and set about freeing the hostages while Zhang went up to the central console. He casually pushed aside the dead man and started accessing the hub’s mainframe.

“That copy of the malware they gave you wasn’t the only one they had,” he muttered as he worked. “They didn’t have access to the central command so they couldn’t control the entire station, but they’ve got this hub under control and the malware is steadily granting them more access to the systems. If we had waited any longer, they would’ve gotten access to the automated defenses and that would’ve been trouble for us.”

“Can you stop it?” Kronos asked as he released the last prisoner. The man rubbed his wrist where the cords had cut into his flesh.

He stood up from his crouch and went to his partner’s side. He wasn’t as experienced with this side of covert operations. He had some experience from their virtual training, but he wasn’t confident he would be able to defeat the raven’s code. Zhang did this sort of thing while he was a rebel, or so he said.

The blonde-headed woman exploded behind him. “Didn’t you hear what I said? What are you two even doing?”

Kronos realized that he had been talking privately to Zhang and the hostages wouldn’t have heard anything they had said. He turned to face the woman and activated his external speakers.

“Shut up. We’re working on it.”

The woman started to bluster, but Kronos ignored her and turned back to the holoscreen that Zhang was working on. His partner answered the previous question.

“Yeah, I think I can put a stop to it. The only problem is if I do that, the ravens will know.”

“That’s okay,” Kronos decided. “I’ll call in the reinforces. They’ll be too busy getting fucked up by the Guard to worry about their code.”

Zhang nodded his acceptance, so Kronos connected with HQ. “Eagle Nest. Eagle 1.”

“Go Eagle 1.” Pictor responded.

“Hostages are secure. Call in the home team.”

“Reinforcements inbound in fifteen seconds. You are authorized to neutralize any remaining combatants.”

“Confirmed Eagle Nest.”

With the reinforcements inbound. Kronos returned to the task at hand. “You got this? I’m going to head out and see how many ravens I can pluck.”

Zhang didn’t look up from the terminal. “Yeah, I’ve got it. I’ll keep watch over the hostages, you go tear some shit up for me.”

“Roger,” Kronos said happily before turning to the hostages. “You five are staying here. My partner is going to keep watch over you while he disables the malware the ravens slipped onto your computers.”

The five glared at him with varying intensity, but accepted his command. With a whistle that no one could hear, Kronos left the office and made his way across the corridor to the nearest hatch.

“Shit,” Zhang said over the TACNET.

Before Kronos could ask what happened, and explosion rocked the station. The force was violent enough that it caused him to stumble into the bulkhead. He looked up and noticed that the lights had switched to the amber hue associated with backup power. When he righted himself, he deactivated his camouflage and engaged his shield. He didn’t know what the explosion was but he figured thing were about to get hairy.

“They slagged the power core.” Zhang clarified the situation. “I’ve released the rest of the Guard from their berthings. I’m sending you camera feeds now.”

Kronos scanned through the feeds and found firefights breaking out all over the section. There looked to be more than a hundred of the ravens on the various levels. Instead of being intimidated, the man smiled.

Time to get to work, he thought while smiling. He exited the central hub and started running down the adjoining corridor. Zhang had already connected Kronos hub with the sections security system and started painting targets for him. When Kronos came upon his first victim, he didn’t even slow. He punched the man in the head as he passed and the impact caused the raven’s head to explode into red paste and bits of gray matter.

The next one had time to turn and scream before Kronos peppered him with three shots. He felt into a heap and Kronos just kept running. As he was running from target to target, Zhang kept him updated.

“They’re attacking all over the station. Since most of the Guard is in your section, they’re setting off explosions and attacking Guard personnel everywhere.”

Kronos frowned at the news. “That’s not what was supposed to happen. I thought the analysts said they identified everyone in the group.”

“Looks like they were wrong, partner.” Zhang gravely returned. “The STRATNET is abuzz with normal civilians murdering the Guard in cold blood. They’re having to activate defense droids all over the section. I don’t think this resistance will take long, but now the analysts have no idea who to trust.”

Kronos just shrugged. Everyone had their missions to do and his was focused on this part of the station. Once he had cleared out his level, he descended via lift to the next one. As soon as the doors opened, he was lit up by blaster fire. None of them even came close to touching his armor, but the blue sparks from his personal shield blinded him for a second. He leaped into a forward roll to throw off his enemies aim and then came up blasting.

His first shot killed a raven cleanly, but there were another four to go. Kronos noticed that one was wearing an exosuit that was designed for EVA ship repair. The other three were downed in rapid succession but the fourth was coming at him with a plasma torch. Kronos backed away at the man’s wild swings with the torch and switched his weapon over to it’s railgun configuration. He knew that his shields wouldn’t stand up to a plasma torch so with one last dodge he brought his rifle to his shoulder and fired an explosive round.

The bullet penetrated center mass of his target before exploding. The force caused a chain reaction in the diminutive power core of the exosuit and the entire thing lit up. Blood and bone exploded all over the bulkheads, the deck, and Kronos himself. The chain explosion was powerful enough to have warped the deck and the bulkheads around it. Pieces of the machinery had even embedded themselves in the walls while Kronos remained untouched. His shields had been enough to disperse the energy and deflect any projectiles.

After that fight, the rest of the cleanup was easy. The guards had already cleaned up most of the section when he met them a couple floors down. In his own case, he had killed over a quarter of the ravens himself. All in all he called it a productive mission.

When the section was purged, the duo was ordered to report to HQ. They made their way there in high spirits. The good guys won and the bad guys had been defeated. They couldn’t ask for much more.