I was pressed against my acceleration couch as the ship continued to weave its way through the battle. Or, that's what I'm imagined it was doing. It was kind of hard to think when are struggling to breathe.

All five of response crew D-14 was strapped down securely in our folding ready couches in our fire room. I barely had time to reacquaint myself with my teammates when general quarters was sounded. True to what the Inugoarian liaison officer said, The attack started an hour ago and it has been vicious. The slavers working with the New Worlders has proven to be tenacious. Command still doesn't know where the modern ships came from or how they were able to come up with the funding for it but it was here now and it was giving the fleet a real fight. The forest lord made the decision to attack immediately when the recon drones return from their survey of the system. There was no guarantee that the New Worlders didn't have more ships rushing to reinforce the transition point or other tricks up their sleeves so it was better to face a known opponent than to open the fleet for a surprise.

The fleet rang the bell of engagement by sending in APHOK mine-clearing missiles. The warheads on these missiles were filled with small metal spheres that scatter when the warhead explodes. They could clear a large area but they were also vulnerable to anti-missile fire so the forest lord had a few of the missiles loaded with reflectors and heat markers to draw laser and missile fire away from the APHOK. It would have been bad to use the oversized countermeasure missiles if the APHOK missiles were guided but they work on an area effect profile.

The first wave of mine clearing-missiles was immediately followed by long-range autonomous missile pods to give those defending the transition point something to think about. The missile pods were breathtakingly expensive but they are valuable when trying to establish a transition head.

Once the defending ships were busy trying to knock down the missile pods, the fleet carriers blinked into existence. They did not hang around too long. They launched their fighters as quickly as possible before turning back and transitioning back to alliance-controlled space before again turning around to pick up their fighters.

The fighters were alone for only less than five minutes before Aegis mobile defense platforms made their appearance. The spherical defense platforms were 'mobile' in the way that a grav car without a power plant is mobile. It was towed by the fleet then was pulled through by destroyers as they made their transition. Four defense platforms bristling with anti-missile battery, point defense quad turrets, and kinetic cannons provided cover for the rest of the attacking fleet as they transitioned one by one.

Although the New Worlders and Krait Slavers were fighting from a defensible position, they were losing in terms of tonnage and modern technology. They were only able to give the alliance fleet a fight due to the number of offensive weaponry installed on the New Worlder ships. The fanatics preferred fighting fast with overwhelming firepower but it did not make for great defensive ships. Once you blunt their initial attack and was able to get into a position of a fair fight, a few hits on the New Worlder ship would generally knock it out of the battle. The glass cannon ships were a terrible design that the fanatics still insists on using.

The mercenaries waited until their task force lead received a QE message ordering them to transition. The Red Tiger mercenaries were wholly focused on defending the transport ships. Though they would be working with the alliance escort ships, Red Tiger had no plans in allowing any enemy ship a chance at shooting at the trooper transports. Aquila had its carriers floating beside the large ships to act as point defense. Half of their fighters would be launched as soon as transition was made to provide combat space patrol for the task force while the other half would be held as a reserve strike force. SpeckTech will also be launching their drone fighters to lead anti-shipping strikes on the New Worlder and Slaver ships. The Alliance would be paying for all lost drones so SpeckTech didn't skimp on bringing a large number of their best units.

The battle continued to rage as I concentrated on respiration. The ship had not been damaged yet as far as I know. The only update we got from Franny was that Wellgunde and Flosshilde were tied to our data net, vastly improving our point defense capabilities.

"Ugh, I hate these couches. I had a dream once where I died after my couch ate me. Can you imagine? man-eating couches!?" Nika shared then snickered at her own story.

"Woman, you are one strange merc, you know that?" T replied after a few moments of silence. He was the only one taking the heavy Gs in stride. He looked pretty comfortable in his seat while he fiddled with his ArmComm.

"I said it was a dream! A funny one too. Not my fault you have no imagination." Nika retorted back.

"My imagination works just fine, thank you. I mostly dream about being filthy rich or owning a planet. More practical things."

"Like I said, no imagination. Hey, Albert! how's the grub back on Adanas? Inugorian food any good?"

"It's good. Very traditional, but very good. I might have even started a new dining experience over there. Head cook got real interested in human cuisine. They've never had a chance to prepare a human-styled dish before." I grunted back. The pressure was lessening but it was probably just a break from maneuvers. The captain must be driving the ole' ship real hard if we were getting smashed in our couches even with a working inertia dampeners.

"I see that you've come back with a souvenir. I'm impressed. Few of our people would willingly bestow a sentinel's fighting knife to someone not of the community. It seems that almost dying also has its perks." Musaka said as his eyes spotted the knife handle poking out of one of my pouches. I have yet to make a proper sheath for it on my armored environmental suit so I stuck it in one of my utility pouches.

I grinned as I ran my fingers on the wooden grip. Now that I'm thinking about it, it was quite the feat getting it good with the sentinels.

"Fend Rakar gave it to me after dirtying their deck with my intestines. He taught me a bit how to use it too. I'm not good with it but I'm proud to report that I don't suck at knife fighting. He said-"

"Right, we're done with fast maneuvering. We're about to reach engagement range. Deflate your couches and grab your gear." Franny said loudly as she interrupted my story. I hit the deflate button on my couch and felt the impact gel slowly get absorbed back into the hose connected to the bulkheads.

I unbuckled my straps and moved to my locker. I took out my oversized rig and started checking my equipment, ensuring that everything was there. Nika, being the newest member of our response team, was also saddled with a supply bag but hers were more of the cutting and repairing variety. I carried more firefighting equipment and ammunition. Franny decided that it would lessen the need for us to run and look for a supply locker in case of large emergency situations.

Assured that everything was there, I attached the rig on its holder by my seat. I was ready as I could be.

I tried to listen to everybody as they talked about various things. Nika was one very talkative woman and dominated the conversation. She kept on talking about the Grease Monkeys. It was her first time last night to watch the resident band of the Woglinde and she dug their tune.

It was two hours in the battle when the ship suddenly was rocked. Well, it was more a rumble from what I have felt. Franny sat up and listened carefully in her comm unit. She waved us down as the slight damage was not in our area of responsibility.

"A slaver ship tried to ram us. Blew him up pretty close so we within range of the blast radius. No significant damage. Just a few burst pipes. Settle down people." Franny ordered.

I didn't notice that I was already reaching for my rig. I let go of my equipment and sat back down. Nika was the same. I didn't know it that was a good thing or not. Being responsive to emergencies was good but the automatic response to every rocking and rumbling was probably going to tire me out.

My mind wondered as D-14 continued to talk smack about each other, waiting for something to happen. Was it always like this? I’ve always thought that space battles were all about people rushing to and fro, a lot of cursing and collapsing bulkheads, angry captains and battery gunners firing at a nearby threat with teeth firmly clenched. The holovids were all wrong.

From what I have learned, that kind of fighting almost only happens when the ship is about to disintegrate from weapons fire or about to be captured. I understood that running around like your head is on fire was detrimental to the proper operation of the ship. How can you do your job when you were yelling and sprinting all the time? We were doing squat at the moment and we were doing a great job. How would we be able to respond to emergencies if we were off somewhere, acting the holovid trope? As much as it crushed the romance of space battles, us sitting around while talking about who got real drunk during the last port of call was our job at the moment.

“Hey, man. How’d you do sparring against the sentinel commander? He must have been one bad dude in the ring.” T asked. I snorted at the memory.

“I didn’t do well at all. In fact, I did terribly. He was so fast and strong, it was a miracle I didn’t accidentally kill myself, even if I was using a practice blade. That Inugorian’s muscles were so hard, it hurt me more when he blocked my attacks.” I complained. Even now, I have bruises on my forearms. It felt like my arms were swatted away by hard sticks, rather than fleshy arms.

“I do not envy you. I do not know Fend Rakar personally but anybody that has achieved such lofty position did not arrive there by accident. Even with my staff, I doubt my chances of survival against the respected sentinel would not have been any better that yours even if he was unarmed.” Musaka added. I saw him fight and though I was no expert, I believed him.

“I bet I could take him. Just one good smack on the head is all I need.” Nika boastfully interjected in the conversation. We all looked at her, even Franny stopped concentrating on her comms to give the assistant cook an arched eyebrow.

“What? I didn’t say I was going to win. I just said I could take him. Never a good idea to think you’ve lost even before a fight. Granted, I’d probably try my damnest to shoot him before he could even touch me but you can bet your ass I’ll be swinging once he gets in my face.” She formed a fist with her right hand in front of her face to show her determination.

“Oh, yeah. I forgot. You’re a former boxer, aren’t you?” T asked as he snapped his fingers.

“Yeah. I’m a former two-time Tyrian Boxing League light welterweight champion, female division. Mama always said that you had to be able to defend yourself. You can find my fights on the GalNet.” Nika proudly stated. If it was somebody else that said it, it would have sounded arrogant. Coming from the fireplug of a woman, it just made Nika sound competent and dependable. It helped that there was no arrogance in her voice. She spoke like how it was. Just a matter of truth and she was proud of her accomplishments. It made me remember the half dozen of participation trophies I had displayed in my long ago apartment back in Ceres. I was so proud of those things then. Now, it made me cringe.

I was about to ask something to Nika when Franny’s hand signaled for quiet. We shut up as she listened closely to her comms.

“Alright, central has work for us. Non-essential damage has been reported in section E, deck three. It’s nothing serious but it would be bad to leave it unattended. Albert, you’re with T. Handle the situation. I expect you both to be back here soonest.” Franny ordered. We verbalized our understanding then grabbed our rigs. I slammed down my helmet visor as the seals tightened, giving me airtight isolation. My UI pinged as Franny threw us our marker and I followed T out of our fire room.

We jogged towards our job site, making good time due to the deserted passageways. We got there in a couple of minutes and found the problem. It was a coolant tube that was leaking on a power coupling due to misalignment. It was a simple fix that required some brawn. The power coupling kept shorting and central was reporting that it was causing power fluctuations in section 13.

“Let’s get this fixed. Here, I’ll block the coolant pipe off so we could replace it. Take out your scanner and see if the coupling is still worth saving.” T ordered.

I dropped my rig and started digging inside for my tools. I took out my portable energy reader and waved it over the coupling, checking if it was salvageable. The coolant had turned into slimy gunk that covered its surface. The read was good and it showed that the coolant hasn’t penetrated the coupling dangerously. I returned the reader and called central to cut power on the module. When I saw the system power down, I removed the coupling and cleaned the coolant off of it. I also used a microvac to suck out all the moisture from the innards of the thing then reattached it. It was a good thing mom was showing me exactly what to do in my UI since I wouldn’t know how to do this myself.

Once I was done with my work and tested that it was working properly, I helped T manhandle the pipe back into alignment. A large connecting bolt got sheared off somehow so T replaced that with a new one.

It took us about eight minutes to do the job and we didn’t waste time. I called central back to restore power back into the module and he reported that power draw has stabilized. We just got off the lift when Franny broke into our comms.

“Boys, I’m sending you to the flight deck. A couple of alliance gunships got mangled real bad. They didn’t have enough power to get back to their carriers and they’ll be attempting an unpowered docking maneuver on the flight deck. Deck crew is reporting that a two of the gunships are burning. They’ve got a fire suppression crew but extra help might be needed. Get moving.”

“Affirmative. Moving.” T answered for both of us. It was one of those things T had explained to me that was different if we were in the Navy. A merc has his primary job and secondary posting when in battle but we kind of do everything. Merc ships normally have a smaller crew complement compared to the navy for smaller ships so an assistant cook could find himself as damage control specialists one day and an assistant loader the next. Mercs are not too fussy about official job titles in times of crisis.

We took the lift and made our way to the flight deck. Once we entered the expansive hangar, the miniboss was already bellowing orders at the different crews that were rushing towards their positions.

“Clear that space! You! Human! Move aside. If the gunship skids, we will be scraping you off the deck. Get behind the blast shields. Move it!”

“Sir! Response crew D-14. Franny told us you need extra firefighters? We have our fire suppression units.” T reported to the Inugorian when we approached the busy being. He glanced at us then gestured towards a blast shield that was deployed.

“Take position behind that shield. The gunships are moving at an erratic approach. Their drive coils are malfunctioning so expect a hard crash.” Was our instruction. We hustled to hunker down behind the shield and squeezed behind the crew already there.

“You guys gonna help us out?” Asked one of the suited mercs. Has was holding what was affectionately called a ‘can opener.’ It was basically a portable plasma saw that is used to cut through reinforced metal. In this case, it would be used to open up a hole on the ship in case that the ship’s auxiliary power bank was down.

“Yup. We’ll keep the fire off of you.” T promised. He was packing a mist gun while I started priming gels and I loaded my launcher with it. Fire grenades didn’t work well on burning ships. Coating them with gels would do the job.

“Great. Those squids gonna owe us one.” The man replied. I heard a grunt from the Barral who was having a hard time getting his bulk completely covered by the blast shield. He opted to crouch down with his naturally armored shell facing the crash zone.

“Why are they called squids?” I asked T in our private channel. I learned about the proper title and positions of people on a ship but I was still unfamiliar with the lingo.

“Pre-space earth jargon. They’re great when moving in a straight line but sucks at changing course.” He explained.

We didn’t have to wait long before we spotted the troubled gunship through the hangar environmental field. The gunship looked like a crescent of an axe’s blade. The gunship was armed with rail cannons and smart missiles and was only different from a military corvette due to its inability to do space transitions by itself. They normally work in conjunction with fighters, being the hammer that nailed down multiple fighters at the same time or slugging it out with other gunships. Their impressive point defense system allowed them to become the oasis in the heat of battle as they could data net with other gunships, making them a nightmare for enemy fighters.

This particular gunship was missing its starboard crescent tip. It looked like it was sheared off. We could see that it was leaking oxygen and the starboard rail guns were melted. The miniboss hit the crash warning tone as the gunship passed the environmental shield. The sudden infusion of oxygen caused a flare up of fire as half of the ship suddenly burst into flame.

“Shit. Focus on killing those flash points. I’ll keep the rescue crew from getting toasted.” T said. I acknowledged as I gripped my launcher tight.

The gunship must have finally lost power as it suddenly dropped. It slammed down hard on the deck and skidded, plowing a large gash on the hardened surface. It hit the inner blast shield and rebounded back a few meters. Thankfully, nothing exploded but it was still on fire. Mercs flowed from behind the shields as fire suppression units started pumping gels on the craft while those with mist guns were spraying down the airlocks.

I worked my launcher systematically, walking my gels starting from the largest flare up zone I could find then sweeping it back and forth, suffocating the fire with it. I was launching gels as fast as I could but it wasn’t doing much. I signaled one of the firefighters to help me out. The Inugorian saw my dilemma and brought his own launcher to bear.

As we were dampening the fires on the starboard wing, the rescue crew rushed towards the cockpit hatch. I guessed they were communicating with the pilot since they were just standing around. The Inugorian and I were almost done with the largest fires when I opened my comm to T.

“Hey, man. We’re almost done here. What do you need me to do? Do you want me to help you out there?” I asked.

“Nope. I’m good. Just give the ship a good gel coating then reload. The second one is coming in. They might need your help.”

“Acknowledge. Stars, this ship is messed up.”

“New Worlder fighters pack neutrino lasers. They could overload shield emitters if a couple of them gets a few seconds of continuous burn. This dude must have been swimming in fanatics to get this messed up.” T explained. It did look like somebody chewed then spat the gunship out.

There must have been a problem with the hatch mechanism or the pilot was just not answering because the plasma saw wielding guy started working on the hatch. He traced the saw over the seals then on the hinges. The Barral crewmember grabbed the sagging portal and ripped it off its weakened hinges. He threw it on the deck as the rest of his team slipped inside the now-opened entrance. The Inugorian tapped me on the shoulder and jerked his heads towards the other side so we jogged around the ship and added our own launchers to those that were already putting out fires.

A head popped out of the hatch as we watched a gang of levbed carrying mercs handed the foldable conveyance up to the waiting hands of the rescue crewman.

He re-emerged from the innards of the ship with the alliance military personnel strapped down on the levbeds. The miniboss must have called for the medical team because they were ready and waiting at the foot of the hatch.

The attending doctor swiftly started barking orders to his nurses and orderlies. He jumped on one levbed that was transporting a severely-injured looking man. An orderly grabbed the handles on the head of the bed and ran towards the large lifts. A merc ran in front of the medical team, shouting for people to clear the way, occasionally pushing away those she deemed too slow. The doctor was straddling the man and already had a containment field erected on the man’s chest. He had his hand inside the man’s chest cavity, from what I could see. I quickly turned away before I saw anything I would regret. I had no issues chopping up animal parts for consumption but the sight of the inner workings of a human would probably make me swoon. I concentrated on doing my job.

In the time it took for the fire marshall to declare fire out on the ship, two more gunships made their landings. Thankfully, the other two were less damaged than the one T and I have been assigned to. The few surviving alliance personnel were escorted by the mercs to medical, a number were sporting gashes and in one case, a broken arm.

I finished my job and thanked the unnamed Inugorian before joining T. We walked towards the miniboss to get directions since Franny hasn’t told us to come back yet.

“Good work. We will be moving the gunship. Return to your post.” T and I verbalized our understanding.

“Franny, we’re done here. We’re coming back. Alliance gunships got hit pretty bad.”

“I wouldn’t want to be in one of those things.” Franny replied back.

“Me too. Give me a gun and drop me on the ground and I’ll fight anyone. Getting blown up hundreds of kilometers away is not my idea of a good fight.” T added.

“You do know you are in a warship, right? You could be shot in the void even further away.” Nika said, breaking into the conversation.

“Yeah, sure but-”

The ship was suddenly rocked violently, throwing both T and I on the bulkheads. We slammed hard but without any negative effects due to our armored environmental suits. The other people in the passageway were similarly taken off their feet. The lights flickered a couple of times before completely failing. A few seconds later, dim red lights illuminated the passageway.

I didn’t immediately notice because my comms unit started going crazy. A high-pitched mechanical wailing painfully blasted out of the speakers. I hurriedly tried to lower the volume but my UI interface was not working. I had to use the secondary controls on my ArmComm to kill the damn thing.

“T, can you hear me? T? Franny? Anyone?” I tried to re-establish a secure comms signal but according to my ArmComm, everything was going wonky. My signal kept bouncing all over the place and the channels kept switching.

T tapped me on the shoulder and motioned me to get up and follow him. I wanted to raise my visor to talk to him but that would have been stupid. Not only would that be a safety protocol violation, I was also not sure about the integrity of the section we were in.

I almost dropped to my knees again when the comms suddenly burst into life.

“Vampire, Vampire! missiles in the void. Designating as threat alpha. Counter-battery cycling to-”

“-ep your weapons secure. I would personally make anybody who loses his weapon clean the entire stock of rifles in the armory and pay three times the-”

“-your six! Argyle four, Talon two! ...Wooo! Voided one I-”

“-have new stealth device. Intelligence assumes that Dr. Xiao had-”

“C’mon, work you stupid thing… There. T! Albert! Can both of you hear me?” Franny’s voice cut through the maelstrom of conversations and comms transmissions that kept crossing our channels.

“I’m reading you. Albert?” T turned his helmet towards me as he made himself heard.

“Yeah. I’m good. What in the stars happened!?” I asked. We helped a couple of mercs that were tangled on the deck. One of them seemed to have dislocated a should and was being helped by his friend to medical.

“Our main drives have been knocked out. New Worlders just detonated a new EMP bomb in the middle of the alliance fleet. We’re running on manual controls and auxiliary power banks. Listen, things are not looking good. The military boys are dead in the void and are getting hammered by the New Worlders. We’re not going to last long too. We’re lucky we were at the edge of the blast radius or even our backups would have been non-functional. Get back here fast.”

“Okay. We’re running.” T took off and I was on his heels. A cold feeling was crawling up my spine. Whatever that EMP bomb was, it was something new. All modern ships of the alliance were hard shielded against such attacks. Apparently, the fanatics were able to develop a newer one that could penetrate the latest of alliance hardware.

We got back to our fire room without any other incident to see our team loading up. Curiously, they were dumping all our firefighting and patching equipment and were filling their bags with trooper equipment. Water, ration bars (my creation, I was proud to see), extra powercells, medical supplies and various weaponry.

“What’s happening? Why are you guys suddenly turning into troopers?” T asked for the both of us. He was already dumping the contents of his own bag even if he didn’t know what was going on.

“Captain’s orders. We’re bailing out with the rest of the landing team. The Woglinde is not going to be able to get power back anytime soon. We have enough juice for environmentals, basic maneuvering, and some light shielding. A slaver task force is making their way towards us unopposed. We’re going to have to do a planetary insertion using the assault shuttles. A few of the officers will try to do a freefall insertion and use the last of the ship’s power for an emergency crash. The transport ships would be doing the same thing. The entire landing force would be launching itself early. We need to get out of here. If those slaver ships get a shot at us, we’re dead.” Franny said with emphasis. She attached her axe on her hip then shouldered her rig. I was almost speechless. How could this happen? Where did they get their new tech and ships? What was going to happen to us!?

“You have to pack, friend. Our time is precious.” Musaka’s calm voice broke against the horror that was mounting in my brain. His calm demeanor and the firm hand on my shoulder helped me center myself, even through the thick armor of my suit.

“Thanks, Musaka.” I took a deep breath then exhaled slowly. I saw Franny pause to look my way then gave me a grave nod. I upended my own bag and started filling it with things T directed me to carry.

What I have noticed was this time, everybody has a laser rifle slung over their shoulders. They were all carrying the same model and there was a spare one for me. My heart sank as I slung it across my chest. I had very little experience with rifles, just the chemical ones that Flower had let me try shooting when I accompanied him and Baby during their hunts. This thing was a modern frontline weapon. I hoped that I would never be called on to use it.

T noticed my hesitation with the weapon and approached me. He checked that my weapon was powered off and had its safety engaged. He opened a private channel.

“Keep it with you. I know we haven’t had the time to teach you how to use it but I’ll try to teach you if time allows. You got your knives?” he asked. I touched the wrist sheaths of my armor and felt the reassuring form of my knives. I nodded back.

“Good. Remember, we’re not troopers. We’ll probably be with the command staff, working as orderlies. You shouldn’t have to worry about shooting anybody.” T reassured. It made me pause and consider what he said. It made sense.

“So, who are going to be stuck with? Some of those maintenance goobers smell bad and I don’t want to get stuck with gross Alvin.” Nika said. Her observation of our maintenance crew’s hygiene earned her some loud chuckles from the team.

“Don’t worry. I don’t like how they smell too. Funny you should ask, a first sergeant just got me on comms. He had arranged for us to grab a ride with him. His unit will be proving security for the command staff. He said, and I quote, ‘Can’t have the beer guy dying on us.’ You made some friends, Albert.” Franny said.

We had five minutes to get our stuff together so we ensured that we have brought everything we could conceivably need. Franny made sure we conducted one last equipment check.

Satisfied, she ordered us out of our fire room and jogging towards the fighter bays. The passageways were flooded with Woglinde crew, all going to the hangar. It suddenly dawned on me that a number of the ship’s officer complement would be staying on the ship to try to save her. It made me incredibly sad. I knew very few people personally among the hundreds of people on the ship and was only able to see the captain once but I still felt like I was losing a distant relative.

The flow of people started breaking into teams as they received boarding instructions from Mother. I could see that she was also going to be leaving the ship as she moved around in an impressive two-meter tall exomech. It was a beefy thing that had various equipment jutting out from odd angles.

We followed Franny’s lead as she turned left on the large flight deck and made for the furthest assault shuttle. I could see Sokolov waiting for us on the ramp. The rest of his unit was already strapped in so we double-timed our way to them. I took one last look at the emptying flight deck as the cargo doors clanged shut.