Chapter 8: A pair of aces

Besides the battleship we got another unregistered system. It was strange because the battleship nav listed it as a space anomaly. We chose a system but were going to jump to the anomaly first. Me, Peter and Samantha had to talk to and debrief fleet intel so I let everyone take a few days off.

This time we left with a small fleet, it was strange to have so many ships around us. We jumped in behind the rest of the ships and saw several cruisers moving to engage. I looked at the situation and grinned, “A dead system. Take us in Peter. Leave the fleet to fight and move towards that station. Skip if you can but watch the gravity scan.”

I glanced at Samantha in her holograph, “Keep an eye on the cruisers.”

She nodded as we began moving and I kept watching as we started skipping. The cruisers engaged our fleet and I began to relax. I watched the scan repeater and zoomed in on the station when we were halfway into the system, “How does the grav scan look?”

Tana glanced at me, “Only from the few planets so far.”

I nodded and sat back, “Samantha we have what looks like two ships moored at the station.”

She nodded, “I see them.”

I smiled, “Once we get closer bracket the station with four missiles.”

She nodded and I went back to watching and waiting. We finally came out of a skip and fired the missiles and I opened the system comm after they went off, “That was your only warning. Abandon both the freighters. Leave one booby trap and we will blow the station.”

I glanced at Peter, “Take us to the port side freighter first.”

He nodded and I opened the ship intercom, “Listen up. The boarding party will use the starboard airlock. As soon as you have checked and cleared the ship get back aboard. Sonia, once you are clear undock and head out. Skip if you can and then jump.”

I glanced at Samantha as she frowned, “What?”

She glanced at me, “I think something is on the far side of the port freighter.”

I looked into my scan repeater and finally looked back at her, “Kept your missiles armed and ready.”

As we started over the freighter the edge of another hull appeared and I jerked up, “Fire!”

Six missiles launched as Peter used thrusters to push us down behind the freighter. The missile streaked over the freighter and twelve screamed back towards us as Samantha ejected two decoys. I growled as I opened the comm, “We are blowing the station.”

“Wait!”

I looked at Samantha as she shifted in her seat, “The missiles missed.”

I opened the comm, “Put the next spread into the station.”

“We surrender!”

I kept my eyes on the scan as Peter began moving us under the freighter, “Tell the cruiser to shut its systems down.”

When we saw the cruiser it was dark and I noticed it was attached to the freighter, “Dock on the far side of the cruiser Peter and tell the cruiser to have all its crew evacuate through the freighter.”

I climbed out of my seat and ran to the airlock before we docked. I nodded to the waiting boarding crew and as soon as we had a green light I pulled my pistol. The hatch opened and I started through expecting the enemy to be firing at us. I opened the cruiser airlock and slipped in and waited for my people.

Once the inside airlock opened we surged in, one party headed aft to engineering and the other to the bridge. I headed straight across to the other airlock and found it open and so was the airlock for the freighter. I opened my comm, “Once you finish clearing meet me at the far airlock to clear the freighter.”

I moved through and into the freighter and stepped into the empty corridor. I waited and finally the boarding party appeared. While they split up I once more headed across to the far airlock. I made sure the outer hatch was closed and sealed before closing the inner. The boarding party finished clearing the ship and I headed back to the cruiser.