The room froze. The ship shuddered again. A female voice came through clearly over the shipwide intercom. “Battle stations”

Everyone looked at Zim. He was as steady as ever, projecting an air of confidence. He commanded, “Follow me.”

And he was off running. As everyone moved to follow, Sevs ran out to the training floor. Grabbing Roberts and Jason’s rifles along the way, he helped Robert off Jason, where he landed. Then Jason got to his feet. He gave them their actual weapons, and they dropped the training ones on the floor, and they ran off after the others, Jason and Robert still wearing their training vests. Already the group was out of sight, but Sevs could hear the sounds of their feet as they ran. Luckily he and Jason were some of the groups fastest, and they pulled Robert along.

Right as the squad was set up in a curving hallway along the outer side of the ship. Zim was doing a headcount when he saw them. He had them form up into groups. He took six and faced one direction. The other seven faced the other direction. Sevs and his group got put in the section facing the other direction. As Sevs was getting into position, a hand clasped his shoulder, and behind him, he heard Zim speak. “Thank you for getting them.”

Sevs nodded without looking over his shoulder. He mimicked Zim and set up his side of the hallway. Two pressed up against each side of the hall. The front one was kneeling, and the one behind was standing. More towards the center, the remaining two went prone. They were ready to fill the corridor with death if need be. The shape of the walls offered some cover. It was easy to press up against it, offering a smaller target and opening up more firing lines. This also worked for the enemy, but it seemed to favor the side set into position a bit more.

Once they were all set up, an oppressive silence filled the air. The recruits didn’t really know what was going on. This type of battle wasn’t something that they had really prepared for. Sevs felt he should say something; however, it wasn’t really his place. He had been in situations not unlike this before, but Zim undoubtedly had more experience. He could feel the nerves in his men rising and could see some were beginning to panic. His leadership skill was probably kicking in and giving him a sixth sense about those under him. Just when it was getting to the point where Sevs was about to speak regardless, Zim finally broke the silence.

“Sometimes we get ambushed by the Space Elves.” Zim started. “As you know, we are part of a larger fleet. Once you get done with training, you will learn more about our situation. However, some details will become more important sooner than I would like. We are one of the smaller long-range ships protecting true population centers. It is our job to scout the way, and when we can, we take the hit of the raids. We are the most well prepared and have the least to lose.”

Realizing that he had gotten slightly off-topic, Zim brought it back. “Anyways, you will learn more about that later. The tactic is we are in a position to deal with them if they get to boarding. Normally our fighter squad and gun turrets can keep them off us. However, sometimes they get past. They have pods that stick to our hull like barnacles. Then they cut in. Usually, a squad of twenty or so. Normally we only have four-man squads patrolling, so we are quite overprepared. We have found the best way to deal with it is to have teams like this ready to gun them down before they can get far.”

“Umm, sir?” One of the recruits from Zim’s side asked.

“Yes?”

“What if they come out on top of us?”

“Well, then you would hear it. The hull is thick enough to give us about a ten-second warning. It’s a pretty distinctive sound. A whirring and grinding that gets louder.” Everyone stopped and listened intently.

“What we do is all move in one direction. So it might make sense to fire on them from both sides, but the issue is if they get too far into the tunnel, we won’t have clear firing lines.”

Sevs nodded to himself. That made sense. No point in hitting your own men.

That’s when they heard a noise. A soft clunk. The hall tremored slightly. Everyone held their breath. A grinding and shriek of tearing metal filled the air. Of course, Sevs thought. Why not?

Sevs called out. “It’s coming from our side. Team one heads up.”

Not knowing what to call the people under his command, he made something up. It seemed to help. Everyone settled down and stilled rifles at the ready to send a wave of destruction down the hall. Right as the noise appeared to reach a crescendo, it went quiet. That might have been the only thing that saved them. A second clunk was heard, this time behind Sevs.

Taking up Sevs’s naming scheme, Zim yelled. “Team two, hostiles, make ready!”

Everyone received a prompt:

Defend the ship from the Tarlaki incursion, rewards unknown

As he was talking, a circular section of the wall fell forward. Time seemed to slow as the massive section tilted inward. To Sevs eyes, it floated to the floor. He braced himself for a fight from both sides. Their forteen untrained and unarmored recruits were going to get at least forty of the enemy, with surprise being their only advantage, and that would only work for the first group.

With a clatter, the first door hit the ground, right on its heels charged the enemy, and the battle began.