Starship Engineer

Chapter 99 Hostile Boarding

We had 40 hours before departure to get our plan finalized. Then we had a 7-hour trip to our subspace transition point. Edmund seemed certain the Brotherhood ship would drop a disrupter and attempt to board us. That was going to force an engagement, as we had no way to avoid it. We could transition early, but I decided against it.

Edmund said the ship would follow us out to the transition point, staying at around 10,000 km distance. When they were sure no local crafts could intervene, they would fire the disrupter. They would lock their corvette (I forgot to note the size of Hanson’s ship in my notes…corvette?) to our hull, cut through, and send in their marines. If we evaded the boarding, then they would fire on us until they disabled our engines or we surrendered. So I did not plan to resist.

Our plan was threefold. The first phase was keeping our sensors constantly scanning the enemy ship, giving us real-time scanner data to feed our defending marines. The second phase was using my large exterior engineering bots to cut holes into the corvette’s hull. The third phase was our counter-offensive, sending our marines into their ship from two different breach points while we kept a dozen marines on our ship for defense.

We had 40 hours to get ready, and the entire crew was aware of the impending encounter. The Marines were excited to have a fight coming and plenty of time to prepare. Half of our Badger stealth suits would be assigned to one breach site on the enemy hull and the remainder to the other site—fourteen suits in total. I had a fifteenth suit that was my personal suit. Eve was going to wear it in my place and remain on our ship for defense. I hoped to finish two more of the stealth suits to be added to our defense, but Eve could openly handle any assault attempt by herself. We also bought six heavy plasma repeaters for Marines to man in my old Sapphirean combat armor. The plasma repeaters would be mobile and defend corridors if they managed to get into the ship.

Gabby was going to get two more cabled spider bots built. The prototype she had built had been put through debugging, and it fell slightly short of the expected parameters. Gabby had been making some alterations to correct this but was only partway through the retooling. They definitely looked ominous. All three spider bots would be plugged into the cargo bay, the most likely site of the enemy ship’s assault.

The final attack would come from Julie. Julie was to infiltrate and neutralize the opposing ship’s AI and shut down the ship’s systems. One of the Marines had the third hacking device. They would plug it directly into the ship to help Julie’s connectivity once they boarded.

The forty hours passed at a snail’s pace as we ran VR scenarios and got the ship ready for a long voyage. The hollow spaces under the faux hull were stuffed with fuel canisters. Going into alien-controlled space, I was concerned about getting fuel during the journey. I had considered getting a hydrogen scoop for gas giants. But the shuttle was large, and the refinery took up too much space in the cargo hold.

I was able to purchase deep space star maps with locations of independent stations that traded fairly, according to the Tirani. As for the alien star nations we would be passing through....many were not friendly to humans. I was starting to reconsider pursuing my brother if our ports of call were limited and suspected the further we got from human-controlled space the more difficulty we would have.

The envoys arrived and were ushered to their accommodations. They appeared happy as we departed, and my crew went into final prep mode for the inevitable assault.

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Hanson had been planning on the trip in subspace out to the Tirani station. He had four crew members to eliminate, five if he included the bot technician. He wasn’t sure of that man‘s loyalty to the Brotherhood. When they transitioned, two of his loyal agents and three reprogrammed bots eliminated all five in seconds across his ship. He waited and watched for any of his crew to react.

As the minutes passed, he slowly relaxed. He talked over the comm to the crew and let them know their next destination. They were going to a Brotherhood station in a remote system that was lightly manned. They could take it easily and stockpile supplies and saleable equipment there.

He wouldn’t be the first agent like this to go rogue. Hell, he had been responsible for tracking down three such agents himself. Well, he would be the first Diamond agent that he was aware of that went AWOL. His engineers were doing the standard maintenance while his ship remained dark and cloaked far away from the station. It had been right hours since entering the system when one of his bridge officers commed him in his quarters. He took the message. An agent at the station had located the target on the station. He matched the physical description of Devon Wellspring.

Hanson Gammon was skeptical as he entered the bridge and turned his passive sensors on the docked ships. Nothing struck him....did the man switch ships? His navigation officer offered holographic overlays of the Void Phoenix and the various docked ships. One ship fit the Void Phoneix nicely inside, and it’s engines were a perfect match. Had Devon covered his entire ship in a fake hull? Impressive but a huge waste of resources, in his opinion....and time. Personally, he would have just switched ships. So that is how he disappeared. No matter, the prey was his now.

Hanson needed to decide if he wanted to try and salvage his relationship with the Brotherhood. The deaths of the five members of his crew would be difficult, but he was certain he could explain them away. If he could capture and free Jane Doe....he would be safe and back in the good graces of the Brotherhood again. It was better than spending a lifetime looking over his shoulder. He prepared a message and sent it to Desdemona.

He got his crew on task. Taking a fat trader wouldn’t be difficult. He had eleven Brotherhood spec ops suits on board. Only nine trained operators, though, as two of the men he had killed were assigned operators. But still, nine suits were overkill for an operation like this. He hoped to take as many prizes as possible. Deven had shown deep pockets in the past.

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The waiting was torturous. It was days, and the ship had only just moved from one side of the station to the other. If they remained docked for two more weeks, then more of Desdemona’s fleet might make it out here. He wasn’t going to risk docking at the station. The Tirani were not to be messed with in such close proximity. He had thought about playing with a small Tirani system patrol craft but doing anything on the station....that would be foolhardy.

When the disguised Void Phoenix left the station, he breathed a sigh of relief, and his adrenaline quickly surged. The pursuit of the quarry was ahead of him. The unsuspecting quarry. The course of the target was curious. They were headed into alien-controlled space. This made no sense unless Deven had allies or was outright fleeing. He would abate his curiosity when he questioned the man in person.

Six hours into the pursuit, he got a green light from his sensors officer. No ship could respond to an attack in less than two hours. More than enough time to board the slower ship. He moved in close, grappled the ship, and fired the subspace disrupter, which was probably unnecessary. No one would be dumb enough to go to subspace at this range from the sun’s gravity. His cutters were positioned perfectly over the forward cargo bay doors.

His main strike team was ready as they started cutting through the hull. He placed his own suit helmet on and went to join them while watching updates on his HUD. He was halfway to his men when he slowed in his walk. It was taking an awfully long time to cut through those bay doors. And why had the ship not commed them or attempted to negotiate? Something was wrong. He felt it. He checked his ship’s AI, and it had not been able to penetrate the firewalls of the other ship yet. Not unexpected but somewhat unlikely. Then a cold thought went through his mind, what if Jane Doe was working with Deven? She could have unlocked her combat suits, and they could have been waiting for them.

Jane Doe was too much of a Brotherhood loyalist, he told himself. Still.... His HUD indicated successful entry into the cargo bay finally. Hanson still paused here and watched his men enter. The bay was dark, so they flipped to different optics. The bay had been flooded with a gas that obscured vision, and all he had was a grainy image through the transmitted video. Then something happened, and he flicked to another suit’s video as he had begun firing at the ceiling. Three massive spiders were descending on a cable. The other men joined in focused fire, and Hanson had wanted to warn them to be on the lookout as this felt more like a trap than a boarding action now.

His bridge crew suddenly said the port access hatch was being compromised on their ship. Damn it. They were boarding him! He started to move to the breech when the bridge said the starboard side was also being cut through. Fuck! His instincts told him to hurry. He commed his AI and told him to break the lock and get the hell out of there. Nothing—the ship’s AI was not responding. What the fuck was happening?

He moved to a nearby terminal, and the ship computers were seized up, nothing could have hacked him unless Jane Doe was in fact, working with Deven. All his comms were down, but his suit-to-suit video still worked on contact. He checked, and he only lost two men. The others were freeing another who was stuck in capture foam. He needed to make the call. Go and get his men to defend his ship, or rush and join them and take the other ship before he lost his. He rushed to his men and entered the cargo bay as the man was released from the foam.

He studied the destroyed spiders in passing. The nightmarish bots were barely damaged....ah the cable had been to power them as well as descend them from the ceiling. Clever....but how were the bots in such good condition? The weapons should have shredded them. No time to find out. He quickly touched suits, and everyone did the same for direct communication to override the comm blackout. He told his men they were proceeding with the boarding and takeover of the ship. To win the day, they needed to take the bridge of this ship.

At this point, he wished he had grappled near one of the shuttle bays, closer to the bridge. But moving from the lower decks up, like ascending levels in a VR game, was always more fun. They moved out in practiced formation to the first lift they noticed. Then a flitter of movement came and took the man to the far right. The crates in the cargo bay made it easy to hide and move, but that speed was inhuman. Even in combat armor, the g forces....

A second man fell, and Hanson felt fear. The grainy image and the speed of their opponent. He ordered a retreat, and not a single man hesitated. Nightmarish spiders and now a ghost in power armor that might be an Armageddon bot.

The area was at least two open to be attacked here. Just four men and himself were left as he closed the doors. A figure stood in the open now, and a few of his men fired only to watch it easily dodge. That had to be a bot wearing human combat armor. He had definitely underestimated Deven. He needed to retake his own ship now. He just hoped the two breeches also didn’t have bots in combat armor. He was definitely underprepared to take on Deven. He did have two Terminator bots in storage, old Armageddon bots. That was definitely going to be easier to reach than his own bridge....Deven had caught him off guard, but he still had a few Aces to play.