June 23 7 AE (military calendar)June 23 2029 AC (global calendar)Major griffin

  Onboard the Onager

  I can’t decide if being in a space battle is worse or better than a naval battle. On one hand, at least in the water, I can attempt to get to nd but in space, we can depressurize the entire ship to reduce damage.

  I think that’s about the only positive actually. We’ve investigated Titan and got chased off then we whipped by Europa and shot a probe at it. It confirmed Tanya’s and Cole's suspicions, so good thing we didn’t actually go there.

  Right now we are on our way to the belt for refit. We lost a worrying amount of guns from what I understand. We don’t have much to do right now so my team and Franks are in one of the hangers checking out the fighters.

  We are actually getting a somewhat guided tour by Monarch and his weapons officer. I never caught their name. Prince was able to get a few jabs into his brother as he’s seen more action as of te where whereas Monarch has been grounded with the rest of the pilots because of Earth's weather.

  The unch system for the fighters looks needlessly complex to me but Monarch expined it somewhat. It’s a circur expanding gantry that contracts to be pulled inside the ship but once clear expands letting the entire squadron unch at once.

  The fighters are way more interesting. Full-sized thrusters on the rear obviously but also on the front with maneuvering thrusters dotted around.

  They use EM-neutron ram jets something that none of us knows how it works. We could ask a technician but they were all busy. That’s assuming they even knew.

  As for an armament they have a bunch of hard points for rockets and the like and two fifty-millimeter CMAC auto cannons. Basically, it boiled down to they are ludicrously fast and can pack more than a few punches.

  As he was about to show us the cockpit the yellow arm triggered meaning we are supposed to seal up because there might be a fight.

  Monarch promises he’ll finish the tour ter as we head to our combined squad’s quarters to seal up. We also get the rest of our gear and then sit tight.

  We all have the grapple rails on our wrist hard points. We all agreed that they are just universally useful, especially in lower gravity.

  About three hours pass and the entire time the alert stays yellow. That all changes when simultaneously it switches to red for immediate action and Tanya is on the radio.

  “Get to the dropships and take a listen to this on the way” Then it cuts off and I have an attachment. “To the hanger on the double,” I tell the guys and we sprint. Surprisingly well which means we’re accelerating.

  The attachment is the recording of an SOS “This is Hephaestus station we are under attack. A rge fleet is encircling us as I speak and lots of smaller craft are pouring from them. Some are heading for the docks, refineries, and the main station if anyone receives this we are being boarded”

  Oh fuck. Basically, the only dockyard Elysium has is at risk of being lost. “We need to be the first to the hanger” Zombie Bate and Archangel both speed up.

  Once we get to the hangar it’s barely contained chaos. Fighters are being armed and rotated on the gantry’s and the rest of the 104th are all streaming for dropships. All of which have door guns and the ramp guns manned.

  We pile into the closest dropship and attach airlines and strap in. We are pulled into the vehicles local comms and I hear the crew chief call over it “We’re full”

  The vibration through the ship increases as the pilot increases the throttle. The crew chief sps my shoulder “You boys the special forces” I nod “Great it’s our lucky day. Call me Bubbles and the pilot is Biscuit”

  Frank ughs “I’ve got to hear that story” A notification makes me tune them out as Tanya sent out objective information. Refineries and production facilities are secondary priorities the main control station is primary interestingly the habitation sections are tertiary.

  Each marker for the facility has codes embedded so we’ll have access as well as interior maps so we can navigate with no problems.

  Red lights start strobing and I tune back into the convention on the transport. “We’re decompressing we’ll drop soon” Bubbles informs us. Shortly after the rge hanger doors rapidly drop into the floor and ceiling and some reverberation. Before they are even fully open we are shooting the gap.

  Immediately space is full of tracers sers and psma shots. Nearly nothing is the characteristic inky bck associated with space. “Holy hell hold on tight, gunners keep ‘em off my tail” Our speed spikes, and out of the back I see some shots just miss us.

  Yep, I hate this way more than in atmosphere. Jed taps my shoulder “I’m bouncing you a call” I nod and surprisingly it’s not Tanya. I think that might actually make this worse. “Major Serin this is Admiral Cole one of the NATO vessels is on an intercept course with your flight path. Can you try to board it”

  After a heartbeat, I reply “Sir would it not be more effective to just blow it up like the rest” his reply is calcuting “We could but we’d miss out on crucial data, reactor pcement bridge pcement, and the like”

  I sigh “We’ll attempt a boarding but no promises you are aware this will be a first right” his reply is surprisingly cheerful “Of course major good hunting, I’ve marked the ship, send a quick burst if you can board or two if you can’t so we can lift targeting restrictions”

  He cuts the comm. “listen up gents we have a new objective Cole isn’t happy with his current ships he wants another” I toss the tagged ship to Biscuit. The dropships crew all curse “fuck I knew we should’ve shooed them away” one of the door gunners states.

  “Can you get us close” I mentally run through our equipment, we all have grapples so in theory we could just fly close and tch on. We were prepared for close quarters anyway so we should be fine.

  Music begins to bre through the local comm, kickstart my heart. I peek out the side and several fighters shoot past followed by one friendly fighter. In quick succession, it opens fire with its ballistic weapons and little explosions light up space just a little more.

  The pilot then flips one hundred eighty degrees and rockets right past us again. I don’t even want to think of how many G’s they just pulled.

  “Approaching target get ready” We all get out of our seats and ready our grapple rails. I’m hoping we can nd but we’re only going to get one shot.

  The drop ship jukes back and forth “We’re going to have to fly by I’ll try to match the speed at least for you guys” Biscuit shouts.

  The ship shuddered and the forward door gunners were limp and in pieces still partially attached to the inside hull. “Here’s your chance go go go” Bubbles yells as he moves to grab a gun.

  We all unch our grapples and they thankfully attach to the hull of the NATO vessel. We are immediately pulled out of the back of our dropship as it continues on its heading. “Real in fast we need boots on the hull now”

  I call out as the motor silently screams as it reals in the cable. For the st few feet, I orient my feet forward and turn on my mag boots and they cmp down. Shortly after Zombie Bate and Archangel attach around me.

  “Rabbit you have the cutting torch right” he moves over to me “Latest one” I nod “think you can cut through” he shrugs “I can try” With that he kneels down and gets to work as the rest of us form a perimeter.

  As rabbit is close to finishing, the torch couldn’t cut all the way through, something tickles the back of my mind “Hey rabbit take a step back as you finish” Only a few seconds after I said that and thankfully he listened the square he cut out ejects from the ship as the interior pressure found a week point.

  A second ter the air rushing out turns red and a few bodies smack into the hole and are torn into space. We wait for all the air to leave then peak in. Frank comments “I guess that’s why they were so adamant about pumping out all the air”

  I couldn’t agree more after seeing the results in front of us. We roll inside and it’s eerie. The lights are still on but everything has the crisp look of vacuum and I spot several bodies wedged into exposed pipes and things.

  We are in a hallway with bulkhead doors closed on both ends. “I think it’s safe to say they won’t be mounting a counterattack into this section,” I say. Frank tosses out an interesting idea ssh question “Can we just pop each section to advance”

  I wave for Rabbit to join me at the bulkhead “How long would it take to cut through” I ask. He shrugs “Only one way to find out… I’m going to try and direct the way it blows out”

  He has us all on one wall the opposite one he’s going to end on so hopefully it’ll swing away from all of us. Of course rabbit will be on that side but the door frame should protect him.

  He actually makes good time and it gets ejected just how we pnned. We all had to activate our mag gloves to stay upright from the rushing air. “Think they know we’re here yet,” Jed asks.

  I peek around the frame and have to quickly pull it back as gunfire erupts. “Guess I have my answer” he states. Like a well-oiled machine, we roll out from cover, and Archangel all crouch and walk forward as Zombie Bate stays standing as we advance and shoot down the few stragglers.

  “It might be faster to open this next one gently so we can reseal it no point cutting through every bulkhead though that means more people, less people is nice but cutting takes a while,” I say rabbit just shrugs and gets to work while we clear the rooms and cover him.

  The silence of us waiting starts to become slightly awkward as we all are pretty chatty on missions but luckily Frank saves us. “Hey Griff want to make a bet” I look at him and then respond “What’s the bet”

  I can hear his smile “I’ve heard every single mission you’ve been on you’ve dented your helmet” I silently sigh “Yeah and” I can tell his grin got wider “Make it through this one without a new dent and I’ll buy you a round”

  I feel a mischievous tickle “And if I get a new one” I ask and he immediately answers “Then you buy” I figured “Fine but if I win you owe me a whole bar I feel that represents the odds fairly”

  Frank ughs “Fine deal, by the way, I like that rare Japanese stuff” we all ughed at him. Shortly after rabbit announced “Ready to pop”

  We spread evenly on both sides and once I was satisfied with our positions I gave the order. At first, nothing happened then the doors began to slowly open with a rush of air. Normally I would like us to rush in right now with the enemy distracted but with the hurricane winds, it wasn’t happening.

  Once the air was completely vented I side-armed a grenade through the door. The second it went through we followed. Met with some gunfire the grenade brought a good portion down. Without having to say anything we dropped the rest.

  We take a minute to clear the new area then I have rabbit close the door. As we stack up on the next door rabbit asks no one in particur “Wonder if they cheeped out of the sensors” Surprisingly he just hit the open button and the door did as commanded.

  With the air not being as debilitating and without the worry of being sucked out into space we moved at the same time as the door.

  The burst of air slowed our pace but otherwise didn’t affect us as we shot through the gap in the door and by the time it fully opened we were fully through. “Jed find someone still alive I want to know where the reactor is” I bark out.

  Jed and Barbosa break off and start checking the bodies lying around. Some looked to be techs. A short while ter and we are springing through the ship in a running gunfight. Luckily they are running low-caliber weapons to not pop their own ship so other than bruising us they were completely ineffective.

  A short while ter we arrive at the access doors and Rabbit is cutting through while getting shot at. We get stuck there for twenty minutes while he gets through. Finally, I hear the words I’ve been waiting for “I’m through”

  Immediately zombie bate turns and pushes through the door while archangel covers them. “Find a nice hole for the charge then we’re heading to the bridge” Frank having crossed trained grabs my demo charge and scurries around the room while the rest of us hold the door.

  “Bomb has been pnted” he called out “Let’s go we’re going to sprint this” I yell. our sudden movement seemed to catch the soldiers who were trying to pin us down by surprise and we cleared their checkpoint with a minimal loss to momentum.

  I’m not sure how long it takes but eventually, we make it to the bridge and after a heavy firefight we got inside. What surprised me the most was the windows. “Secure the bridge, Jed find the pilot seat Prince download everything you can”

  We take what cover we can and Jed finds the controls. “Destination,” he asks “Any NATO ships nearby” Unfortunately the answer is no “Find a nice rock to introduce it to” Jed nods.

  “Prince status” After a moment he replies “Just got in it’ll take a while to transfer it all” I nod “We hold until we get all we can Jed try to unbance whoever remains” I doubt there is anyone really left I feel like we killed basically everyone on the ship already.

  “This is your captain speaking our flight path has been slightly modified, for your own safety please secure yourself until we reach our destination,” Jed says over the ship intercom. A second ter he cuts the forward thrusters and pushes the retro thrusters to the max making us all nearly fall.

  “Jed bounce me to biscuit” A few moments ter I see the confirmation icon pop up “Biscuit we need a lift we’re going to be exiting from the bridge” A wash of static proceeds his response “En route”

  “Can you get the admiral” I ask as Jed sends the ship into a three-axis tumble, then with a lot of effort stops it. I finally get the link though “This is Admiral Cole” he immediately states”

  I smile “We have taken the bridge and are securing all the data we can we are extracting momentarily” a brief pause then he asks “And the ship” I simply reply “Going to be introduced to a rock, we also have a backup in the reactor”

  “Good work with that ship not being a thorn I’ll be able to end this quickly Cole out” I could only imagine the chaos outside as our ships tried to not blow us up. “Sir transfer is complete”

  I grin “Jed plot a course rabbit get ready to open a window everyone else get in position” Once Jed and Rabbit join the rest of us away from a window but otherwise unobstructed to it we detonated the shaped charges and we all got thrown out through the window by the explosive decompression.

  “Activate your beacons now” I call out as I tumble. Jed’s reading spikes and I hear him cursing “fuck fuck fuck where is it” I use my thrusters to stop my tumble and find his beacon. After a few moments, I find it, and once I zoom in I see white whisps of air.

  I tap my thrusters to send me over “Biscuit pick up Jed first” I switch to my guys “Check yourselves for suit damage Jed how bad is it” After a few moments by the time I reach him and grab on seeing me seems to calm him and he answers “my patch kit is gone”

  I look him over and he’s holding a section tight with both hands. I pull out my patch kit and get it ready. Once he gives me a nod I sp it on as he moves his hands out of the way. It adheres and reseals his internal atmosphere.

  “How much air did you lose” I ask him. “Ten minutes left” I check mine and have a little under an hour left. He lost a lot but he’s lucky he didn’t explosively decompress. “You did good Jed save your air”

  We float along for a few minutes watching the streaks of psma and the streaks of missiles with the orange blossoms of explosions. I feel the stress bleed away as I get eyes on the transponder of our dropship approaching.

  I grab Jed and ease us into the rear hatch. My boots connect to the floor and I immediately notice a problem, the ship is shot to hell. So I grab an air hose and connect it to Jed so he’s on the ship's air supply.

  Over the next twenty minutes, we picked up the rest of my guys and Jed was the only one who had trouble. I look out the back and noticed that the vessel we boarded was in close proximity to other NATO vessels so I hit the trigger for the explosives we left behind.

  We all watch out the back as glowing hulls break off from their formation as we return to the onager.