Innes in Command
Copyright© 2026 by Lumpy
Chapter 29
The assault shuttle’s clamps hit the Dart with a heavy shudder and held. Lieutenant Roberts was at the forward hatch with his marines stacked up behind him in two assault teams.
“Hard seal,” the pilot said over the intercom as the breach door to the shuttle slid back, revealing the scorched outer shell of the corvette, now sealed against the vacuum of space.
A marine stepped forward and slapped breaching charges onto the surface, pulling the charge frame until it was just within the hatch door, making an outline of an entrance on the ship. Another marine checked the seal on the collar and gave Roberts a thumbs-up. Roberts held up two fingers, then dropped them one by one.
There was a bright flash as the cutting charge activated, sending sparks into the shuttle, along with the bitter smell of scorched polymers.
When the charge finished its job, the now cut side of the ship fell back into the corvette, revealing the white interior of the ship.
As soon as the breach was completed, the first team surged through, weapons up and bodies angled to claim the corridor beyond.
Fire met them immediately, frangible rounds sparking against Carbsteel bulkheads and shattering into fragment spray. The sound was brutal in the confined space. The Marines’ return fire answered in short bursts.
Roberts drove the second team forward right behind the first and ordered them to move. Innes followed with them, mag pistol up in a two-handed grip, elbows in, as he’d been taught.
Emergency strips along the corridor cast everything in dim, red light. A conduit bundle hung loose from the overhead, sparking intermittently, and the deck was littered with debris.
They had docked near the rear of the vessel and he could see a sealed bulkhead aft with red warning lights blinking and the stenciled markings for pressure containment. Beyond it, the ship had been ripped open by the mines and a near-critical rupture of the fusion plant.
Bodies wearing Meryd uniforms lay in the passageways near the sealed sections, some pressed into corners by the blast wave and others sprawled in the open.
One of the Marines took a hit to his chest plate as they cleared the first intersection. The impact rocked him backward a fraction, but he stayed upright and kept moving. The round had shattered on the armor plate, leaving a white scuff and a shower of composite fragments. The shooter, who was tucked into a doorway, received three controlled bursts in return.
“Check that and move forward,” Roberts said after no reply came, and the teams advanced in pairs.
Roberts kept the teams moving forward through the compartment line, and the first space they cleared was crew quarters with bunks and storage lockers, where two Meryd personnel raised their hands the moment the Marines entered and they realized they had been found.
“Down,” the Marine said.
They dropped to their knees and a Marine moved in, restrained them quickly with shackles, patted them down, and hauled them to their feet.
“Take them back to breach,” Roberts said.
The prisoners were pushed down the corridor toward the shuttle collar, escorted by one marine at the rear of the stack. Innes watched them go.
At least they would have some witnesses to question and explain what this ship’s intent was.
The second compartment was marked armory but, unlike the last compartment, was empty. Most of the weapon racks were clear, meaning the crew had armed themselves.
They advanced again, pairs clearing, weapons up, the corridor narrowing as it ran toward the command spaces. The ship’s architecture contracted, funneling traffic toward a handful of critical junctions.
Roberts halted at an intersection and held the formation while Brooks and another marine edged out to check the cross-corridor, and the moment they committed to the angle a burst from the left passage hammered into the junction and sent fragments skipping across the deck.
Brooks returned fire while stepping forward to reduce the angle, and then a round caught him high at the neckline above his vest, and the impact was not a clean punch but a tearing explosion of fragments that dropped him instantly, leaving him sprawled on the deck with his weapon clattering away.
Innes reacted instinctively and started forward before his brain caught up. Roberts grabbed his arm and yanked him back behind the bulkhead.
“Stay back,” Roberts said.
“I can...” Innes began, but Roberts cut him off, shoving him back and keeping his focus ahead.
Another marine lunged out, hooked Brooks by his harness, and dragged him back out of the intersection while rounds snapped into the wall where Brooks had been, and when the marine checked him with one fast glance and a hand at the wound, he shook his head.
There was nothing they could do.
The firefight with four Meryd began in earnest as soon as they committed to the left passage. The defenders were positioned to create overlapping fire, one in a doorway, one behind a maintenance alcove, and two deeper down the corridor using the bends as cover.
The Marines moved under suppressing bursts of fire, covering each other as they shifted positions, and the defenders tried to hold the corridor, filling it with high-velocity metal.
One marine went down when a burst caught him in the arm and side below his vest, and he hit the deck hard while his rifle skidded and his teammates stepped over him to keep the corridor from becoming a killing funnel.