FSE

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Richard rolled over in his bed arching his back in pain. The alarm beeped at him, and muscles burned from the mock battles in the holodeck. A quick slam shut off the alarm, his ears rang in his head from the noise. It was still set for his early morning workout. Getting out of bed he looked down at his erection reminding him of his strange dream. The first fantasy he had in a very long time, and it got ruined by his usual nightmare. He dreamed of being with Trixi for the first time. Then the armored operatives burst into his room and attacked. A cold shower would suit him instead of his normal routine.

Once dressed in his black coverall uniform, he proceeded to the breakroom. Motion sensors picked up his movement and the LED overhead lights blinked on. The empty room echoed with every movement as he grabbed a mug and placed it into the coffee machine. The steam poured out into the cool station air. Once the mug was set on the table the entrance hissed open.

Officer Roma entered the breakroom. “Hello, sir.”

Richard greeted the man returning his salute, “Good morning, how’s the shift going.”

Roma had a nervous look about him, something that all subordinates had when they were about to ask for something. If it were the younger officers Richard would hear it out and maybe consider it, but Roma had a spotless record that stretched through three other duty stations. “Nightshift had no incidents, the entirety of code blue.” Richard sat down and sipped at his coffee, waiting for Roma to state the real reason he came in. Roma nervously looked back at the entrance, “Sorry sir, but I wanted to talk to you about something.” Richard set the mug down offering the chair across from him with an outstretched hand. Roma took the seat, “It concerns the events about a couple of weeks ago, I just wanted to thank you for respecting-“

He was cut off as Jack entered the breakroom, his cheerful mood cutting through the cold air like a knife, “Ah… thank you for warming up the machine for me, I need it after last night.” Richard ignored his second in command and focused on Roma.

He rolled his wrist to get him to continue, “Respecting…?”

Roma shook his head dismissively, “I’ll talk to you later about it, it’s kind of private.” He quickly got up and left the breakroom.

Jack joined Richard at the table, “What was that about?” A shrug was all Richard could give in response.

The two sipped their coffee, then Jack decided to bust his friend’s balls, “So I was in the bar last night and saw your little friend come in completely elated, bouncing around like she was the Space Queen. You decided to go for her?” He laughed as Richard’s face reddened.

“I don’t know. Maybe… I’m concerned about pursuing a relationship with her.”

Jack scoffed, “Oh please, no one will give a shit, even if they did you have the entire security department who will gladly realign incorrect opinions.” He punctuated the statement by cracking his knuckles with a smirk.

“She’s a clown though. I don’t want to ruin her position on the station. She’s on the station to remind everyone to not get wound up too tight using slapstick jokes and other pranks. Kind of hard to do that when you have the security head dating her.”

“I see. Could always keep it a secret, the crew is already starting to make judgments anyway, whether you do or not. Go for it; you've both been spending a lot of hours after a shift together, clearly you like each other. Fuck the consequences. That’s how I ended up back in the inner sphere away from those coffin stations.” Richard’s mood improved when hearing that.

“Fuck the consequences…”

Jack drank from his mug. They chatted till Richard’s PDA beeped out a reminder. He looked down and sighed at the time that flew by, “Well time to go. Maybe we can lower the hours for everyone, the twelves are draining.”

Jack smiled and raised his mug, “The men would appreciate that. Good luck!”

The meeting droned on, the heads handed over the files and went through the routine of their plans. Richard wondered what he should say to Trixi, he didn’t pay attention to the other head’s speeches. The research director sat down after he gave his briefing, he looked over at Richard expectantly. Soon all eyes turned toward the man.

“What?” Richard said returning to the room.

The scrawny scientist spoke up again, “I was just asking if the asbestos plates we provided would be enough, we recovered some spare material to make more.”

“No, I think we have enough for all the volunteers, they worked quite well. They stopped several shots from a fully charged X-01.”

“Good, I wish we could do more, but our printers are limited thanks to local space laws.”

Richard groaned, “Don’t remind me.”

It was Richard’s turn. He handed his portfolio to the captain gave a quick salute and then returned to his seat. “I know things have been difficult with security around your departments. Because of this, I’d like to request that the captain lower the extra duty hours that the security team and the volunteers are working.”

The chief engineer joined in agreement, “I’d also like to voice this concern. A few of my subordinates have voiced their grievances with this extra duty.”

Richard looked at the mustached man, he figured the man for a xenophobe. He then gazed at the captain who looked deep in thought on the subject.

The chief medical officer interjected, “So we are to put our lives in jeopardy because a few lizards want to have more time to themselves?”

The engineer ruffled his mustache, “Allison, I would like to quote Richard on this, keep to your department. Last I checked none of your crew volunteered and my crew has been sluggish because of the code blue, if Richard thinks it’s safe for us to lighten the load, then I’ll refer to him.” He turned to Richard nodded. The woman leaned back in her chair scowling.

“Alright enough,” Martinez said while he stroked his bushy beard listening to the conversation, “Is there anything else you would like to add Richard?”

Richard stood and paced a few steps, thinking about how the volunteers may have been treated by their respective bosses, “The volunteers are all top shots, they qualified with the highest scores. I’d like to add they have been performing beyond expectations. I don’t see a reason to have them constantly do drills. I'd put my life on that.”

The chief engineer’s eyes betrayed shock by the statement, “Well I’m glad they are performing well.”

Ali clasped his hands together, “Excellent, if you are that confident in their abilities, I have no problem agreeing.”

The captain stood up, “Sounds great, I’ll leave it to you then, thank you, Richard.”

The security head took his seat and relaxed into the leather. The next one to speak was Allison. She stood up and Richard immediately turned off his mind remembering last month. She didn’t bring up any other departments this time, probably due to the captain’s private conversations with her. She only mentioned the surplus of medical supplies for the code blue. Once she took her seat the other heads were at the edge of their seats eager to get back to their posts. The captain stood up first, “We all know our parts. We know what to do if we go into red alert. I trust all your staff knows as well.” Everyone nodded in acknowledgment. The captain’s jolly demeanor took hold, and he smiled brightly with rosy cheeks, “Good, dismissed.”

Richard returned to his office grateful to be done with the meeting and finally able to spread the good news to his team. He was surprised to see Roma sitting in the chair across from his. The gleaming blue scales of Welds stood next to him. Her tail was wrapped around his shoulder massaging it with a flex of powerful muscles. “Roma, it’s past your duty assignment. You should be asleep.”

He quickly popped up from the chair startled and saluted quickly, “Sorry sir, I just needed to talk to you in private.” Welds had a concerned look on her scaled muzzle.

Richard saluted back and sat in his chair opposite the two of them, “What’s going on?”

Roma sat back down, “Sorry for interrupting you twice sir, but I needed to talk about my relationship. And I can’t talk about it with anyone else.” Welds’ tail wrapped tighter to comfort the man.

Richard immediately turned red, “Oh…” He placed his hand over his face then peered up at Welds, “I’m sorry about that night, I had way too many drinks…”

She responded, “No sssir, you were ressspectful of my relationship.”

Roma’s eyes were bloodshot from having already worked a 12-hour shift, “She told me you asked her out, I was shocked, to be honest. I knew I had a catch, but I didn’t know you saw her the way I do.” He sneered while he gently petted her tail.

Richard smiled at the couple, “Well I’m very happy for you two.”

She giggled and nudged Roma further, the man wiped his tired eye, “Now that you know this, I was going to ask if I could switch shifts, I wanted to spend more time with Welds off shift, she works days and with the schedules and extra duties we have been apart for a month.”

Richard pulled up his PDA, “I can arrange that… Why didn’t you say so sooner?”

The exhausted man rubbed the back of his head, “We were still a bit nervous about revealing our relationship to anyone. Even after you asked Welds, and to be honest, I was terrified you would be jealous.” Richard frowned at the assumption. “But… We heard you and Trixi were going out, so we were more open to the idea of telling someone.” Richard changed the schedules on his PDA and sighed. He didn’t know how to respond to that.

“Scheduling is done, you will switch with Danny, he wanted to work nights anyway, go ahead and get full rest and start tomorrow morning.”

Welds bounced on her springy legs; powerful talons flashed when she jumped. Roma got up, with a groan, “Thank you, sir.” He turned and walked out the office door hand in claw. Before the door sealed shut, they pulled away from each other.

Richard sighed again, forced to live like that with the one you cared for had to be torture. He forced his mind to paperwork, filling out data sheets, and checking on reports. After the bureaucratic waste of wood was filled out, he left to the breakroom for another coffee.

He sipped his coffee wondering if he would also have to hide like Roma and Welds, looking over his shoulder everywhere. However, the two of them already thought he was in a xeno-relationship, and they finally came to someone. He wondered if he was the first person they ever told. Pulling out his PDA he started to type a message to Trixi, ‘I would like to speak to you about ‘us’.’ He held off on sending it, thinking it was too gloomy, and then quickly deleted it, ‘I want to see you tonight over a drink.’ He sent it and smiled.

His earpiece buzzed, “Come to the bridge immediately!” The smile vanished instantly.

____________________

The coffee spilled from the haphazard way it was placed down as he bolted to the bridge. Jack joined in his sprint through the main hallway. They didn’t say a word to each other as the door slid open to the bridge. The captain stood grimly behind the HoP who sat at the console. Ali stuttered out, “W-we d-detected them.”

Richard moved the man out of the way to look for himself. The signature was highlighted with red text, officially logged, and in the database records as a syndicate infiltrator vessel. He marked the location picked up by the probe floating in the asteroid field. It was right in their backyard; a short jump and they could be at the station in mere minutes.

Richard asked not breaking eye contact with the screen, “Did they detect our probe yet?”

“N-not that I’m a-aware o-of.”

Richard stepped back, “Drift the probes away, if we pull back, they might think we detected them. I want you to do it at the normal pace you've been scanning. We'll arm and man our posts in red alert.” The shaking HoP nodded. “Well captain, do you have anything to add?”

The captain remained silent, glaring at the screen. He tapped the glass and brought up the information and stared intently at them, “Can we detect lifeforms aboard?”

Ali typed a few commands and sent the signal to the probes, “It will take a few minutes sir.” The room waited patiently for the results. Richard itched for this fight, all the preparation, and training. If they had better equipment to utilize, he would feel more confident. Damn inner sphere laws.

The results popped up on the screen in a window, one life form aboard. The enemy’s crew already left the infiltrator. The captain pulled the console’s microphone to his lips and pressed the button. “Attention crew, there is an immediate threat to the station, code red. Report to your stations of duty and follow the instructions of your department heads.” He pulled away from the microphone and pressed his earpiece, “A.I., you know the drill, I want radio sweeps around the entire station, inform of any metal projectiles headed toward the station.”

Richard spoke to the security channel, “Alright crew, we ran through these drills daily. I want you all in the department immediately. The warden will pass out the equipment.”

It didn’t take long for the security department to get set up. The officers were given laser pistols and several recharge ports to bring with them. They wore Kevlar armor with the new ceramic plates. The disabler lasers and non-lethal weaponry they had in storage were useless against the hardsuits the enemy most likely wore.

When the enlisted arrived, there was a total of 15 officers and 20 draftees from around the station. The idea was to overwhelm the nutjob mercenaries with sheer force and win through attrition. Problem was that Nanotrasen didn’t keep enough real weapons on the station, so they selected the top performers out of the group. The officers helped gear them up.

The two human volunteers placed on their ceramic body plates and a helmet. The lizardmen required a little more effort, a slimmer torsos and longer legs proved to be slightly more complex to the men trying to help them strap the gear on. But with a little elbow grease, they managed. The helmets had the visor smashed off so that it could fit over their angular heads. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was all the station could provide. Once they were geared up the warden handed them laser rifles from the armory.

The group was split into 5 units led by the officers. One was sent to the A.I.’s control wing of the station, one of the officers in that group was fitted with one of the three security hardsuits. He was to guard the A.I.’s room and defend against space breeches.

The powered hardsuit was sealed for space walks, while the armor-plated chest and shoulders were secured over a flexible thick polymer inner lining, providing considerable protection against laser fire. He slipped on the inner lining and then the black-armored plates were secured around his body. Not ideal to prevent the A.I. from being targeted but they hoped to deter threats from just wandering in.

Another unit was stationed in engineering. One explosive in that location would knock out the entire station’s power grid and they would be left floating helplessly in the dark. One more unit was placed in medical, and they were to help bring casualties back for medical treatment. The last two were mobile units, to help pinch the intruders when they arrive on the station.

Richard took Roma and Miller aside before they marched off with the medical unit. Roma just finished chugging a coffee as soon as he got his gear on. “I need you two to go on a special mission. You two are to bring the enemy’s ship to dock with the station. Get hardsuits on and take one of the personnel shuttles to do it. There is a single life form aboard, probably intel personnel to help coordinate the enemy. Get the drop on them and take them out.” The two men looked at the HoS with confidence. Richard had a smug expression on his face, “If they don’t get the drop on us, we'll get the drop on them. Here are the coordinates.” He handed the two of them a small datapad with the location of the asteroid field where they were last spotted.

Richard helped the two of them get suited up while the rest of the security went off to their designated locations. Richard placed the black helmet over their heads and the armor sealed them inside. Internals came online and the HUD reflected off their faces from inside. “Alright, good luck you two, if you get spotted warp back immediately, the shuttle can take a bit of a pounding so you should be able to get away.” The two saluted and marched off, heavy metal boots slammed on the gunmetal plates.

Jack was the last one, he asked a question from behind the armory window, “So where would you like me?”

Richard sat down, exhausted from fitting, thinking for a moment, “I’m going to need you in engineering. Only 7 there, it’s not enough, if they cut power or communications or life support we’re fucked.” Jack exited the armory and was about to walk off before Richard stopped him, “Take my hardsuit, I have the trench coat and hardened Kevlar, it will provide enough protection for me.”

They headed to his quarters and opened the high-security locker. His hardsuit was a standard design but thicker armored plates. Jack pulled out the helmet, “Are you sure this is a smart idea, you have more experience in combat than me.”

He tried his best to comfort his friend, “I have the gasmask and gravity boots, plus you have more to live for than me.”

Jack responded with an exhausted tone, “Stop that depressed bullshit, now isn’t the time to be pessimistic.”

“You want me to say it’s because I know you’re a bad shot and will take a few rounds before you put them down?” The two shared the laugh as Richard helped him into the hardsuit.

Once Jack was kitted out, Richard grabbed his armored vest and jacket donning them quickly. He then put on a pair of armored gravity boots, which operated more like glorified adjustable magnetic shoes. He then slipped on his night vision gas mask helmet. Fitting over his entire head with thick latex, red-tinted his vision as it was snapped snuggly to his head. With a final touch, he grabbed his military beret and readied his pistol, “Let's head out and push their shit in when they get here.”

When the door opened to the main hallway Trixi in her full clown regalia stood inside. She was looking through the windows to the breakroom. Her orange bushy tail sashayed back and forth. Jack’s voice boomed out of the powered hardsuit’s speakers, “Why aren’t you in the services department!?”

Her fur puffed up in surprise. She stood boldly to the two men, “I want to help, I trained too! I can help!” The voice carried confidence unbecoming of a clown.

Richard stepped forward and kneeled to her, his visage was terrifying with the armor and weapon in hand, “I’m sorry, but we don’t have any more weapons. We barely had enough for the volunteers we got. All my men are forced to carry pistols because of the shortages.”

The captain's voice roared over his earpiece, “I’m dressed up and ready to defend, where would you like me, Richard!”

Richard stood and held the button on his waist, “Thank you for your participation, sir, we could use all the help we can get. I take it you brought that old gun out of retirement?”

The captain’s jolly laugh echoed over the radio, “Oh you know me too well, just got fitted into my hardsuit it took a bit of squeezing to get it on… I could use a position on one of your teams I saw running around.”

Richard wondered where to place the captain, “Take Philhouse’s position and help the A.I. You hear that Philhouse, I need you over to the medical department.”

Another voice affirmed him, “Yes sir!”

The dejected Trixi pouted watching him give orders to everyone over the headset.

He looked down at the sad vixen, “If we can get their ship to dock with the station, we can steal their weapons and arm more crew.”

She was shocked, “You stole their ship?!”

He shook his head, “Not yet, I have two officers on their way to it. Hopefully, we can strike them without them even knowing we are onto them.”

Jack patted him on the shoulder, “We should get going.”

“Right, Trixi tell the services department to hide the bar, I know they’re probably already in cargo, but it’s too exposed. I need them to be away from the hull of the station, in case they plant a bomb outside.” For a moment he thought he saw fear in her eyes, but it vanished when she agreed. Her shoes squeaked toward the exit. Richard stopped her as the exit opened, “Remind the crew that this is a direct order from the head of security and if they don’t listen, I will beat them.” He pounded his hand into his fist for emphasis. She giggled and exited the door.

Jack patted him on the shoulder, “Smart thinking, we will get to their ship before they even attack. They won’t get the drop on us.” Richard nodded and they exited the security wing. They didn’t have much to worry about, there were only a few key targets the operators were after, the AI, the power grid, and the nuclear arming disk.

Richard keyed his mic, “Is the disk secured?”

There was a delay before the captain answered back, “Yes, I passed it off.” He wondered who had it but considering the captain’s need to fight he was sure it was the HoP, who was probably cowering in the bridge.

The two men separated not saying a word to each other, focused on the mission at hand. Richard opened the door to the bridge. Sure enough, the man sat at the monitors, staring intently at the suit logs. “You alright?”

The man nearly fell back from fright. “D-don’t scare me like that, you know how terrifying it is holding onto this damn thing!”

“Just keep doing what you’re doing. I would ask if you were to stay with a group, but it would be best if you stayed at the heart of the station. We can counter any offensive better that way.” Ali returned to the screens, monitoring the locations and health of the entire crew.

Richard patrolled the halls as the crew abandoned the hallways to their duty stations. He remembered times on the smaller stations where everyone would grab weapons and manhunt the intruders. It didn’t take long till the A.I. picked up something on the radar. The computer’s voice warned Richard, “A large metal object is going to collide into arrivals.”

“Is it a bomb?”

“No, it’s not fast enough to match a torpedo and the signature matches a boarding orb.”

He sprinted toward arrivals keying the mic, “I’m headed to intercept, I need the first mobile team to join me immediately.” He rounded the corner and readied his weapon. As he ran through the services quarter, he saw a few crewmates walking toward the cafeteria, slowly. He yelled out at them, “Get the fuck inside or I will put you down!” They tripped over themselves and clambered out of the hallway to safety.

Arrivals were dead quiet. Docking doors were retracted giving a clear view to open space through the empty ship docks. He couldn’t see anything, pulling himself away from the glass to join the mobile team in the lobby. They sat down on the wooden chairs that occupied the waiting area. The unit was anxious, holding their laser rifles and pistols ready. The AI said, “the metal object is going to collide with dock 2.”

Richard stood to the door and activated his gravity boots, “You all better grab ahold of a wall, because we are about to get the vacuum.”

A bulldozing crash screeched through the area and an ear-shattering bang quickly followed by the expelling hiss of an atmosphere leak. Richard spotted a very large black metal ball. The ball had to be over 2 meters in diameter. It had embedded itself into the wall outside the windows to the lobby. The siphoning stopped as the emergency shutter slammed shut over the broken portion of the dock.

Richard retreated to the unit, “Get to cover now!” Wooden tables were kicked over. The others followed suit knocking over another large table for cover. They saw the metal ball through the large bay fractured glass window, it rocked a bit back and forth like an egg ready to hatch. A seam appeared on the hemispheres. Metal pings sounded off from inside. The sphere exploded, the reinforced window shattering completely from the metal fragments.

The unit ducked as the shards of glass fragmented out. The captain’s voice buzzed through security comms, “Report!”

Richard peered over the ruined wall, the boarding sphere revealed a black metal egg-shaped figure. Two blazing red lights beamed out from the center of this egg; hover pads extended out from beneath it. Richard responded to the captain, “We have a syndicate assault drone. The medical team gets over here ASAP.”

The drone’s hover legs lifted the large robot higher, more arms popped out from the metal shell one with a chain gun and the other with a grenade launcher. Richard cycled to ion blast on his pistol and opened fire. The rest of the unit did the same with red beams cutting through the air through the broken window the robot’s shell graciously made for them. The robot’s armor held up as it simply pointed the grenade launcher from the rightmost arm and fired to the largest cluster of attackers.

Two lizardmen were at the impact zone of the explosive. Richard and three others were caught in the blast. Luckily the armor protected them from fragmentation. Richard picked himself up but couldn’t hear a single thing from the ringing. He glanced over at the wounded; they were already being pulled out of the lobby by the others to safety.

The drone cycled another grenade into the launcher and was ready to fire another at the fleeing combatants. Richard jumped to the door to arrivals firing ion shots trying to get the attention of the death bot. Lightning arched around the bot as the white bolts struck the armored shell. It shuddered and dipped in height as it hovered. The two red lights twisted around its shell and focused on the more threatening target. It pointed the left most claw with the chain gun at Richard and opened fire.

Bullets rained as he took cover by the door frame. He felt his coat tails get tugged on from a few stray rounds. The fire was sustained as it floated closer to his location. He looked around desperately for an item to use and spotted a half-broken coffee mug. The mug was scooped up and tossed into arrivals. The bullet spray traced the broken mug nailing the heavy metal plates with few ricochet twangs. Richard peaked the corner and aimed for the two red beams of light and fired.

The lights sparked and fell dark as the electricity zapped through it. He fired several more shots until the battery was depleted in his weapon. The eyes rotated around the body searching with dead eyes. This was his opportunity to strike. He sprang forward and leaped onto the floating machine. The robot started to spasm swinging all its limbs as it drifted backward bashing and scratching at the human.

Richard held on tightly as his back was pounded on heavily. The padding provided quite a bit of protection from the beating. He spun around and heard the grenade launcher’s thump. It struck more windows in the docks, the A.I. quickly sealed them. Richard looked through the broken window and noticed the 5 remaining of his unit behind cover.

“Fire damn you! Fire!” He cried out to the soldiers. They hesitated a moment but fired carefully. Richard watched through the red tent as the red lasers struck the armor melting portions of the coating and damaging important components inside. The robot pointed the gun and fire it as the hover stabilizers tried their best to keep steady. The bullets missed every shot as the weapon depleted its ammunition. Richard thought they were winning the battle as one of the legs was blasted off by a perfectly aimed laser.

With a last-ditch effort, the robot struck with a lucky blow hitting the human off with the grenade launcher arm.

Richard was flung across the room into the reception area, his back bounced off the counter and his side collided onto the wall. He fell forward and collapsed to the ground. Battered and bruised the right side of his head was completely numb and warm. His right ear rang horribly. He gripped his weapon and stood to fire a few more shots from the self-recharging gun. Through blurred vision and pounding head, the first shot missed, the second shot struck the housing for the hovering legs.

It drifted slowly to the ground as the hovering pads lost power. Lasers continued to pepper the case as the robot’s weapon dry fired unable to see targets. Richard raised his hand and jumped over the countertop. The laser fire stopped as they waited for further orders. Richard peered over the edge of the broken window and gazed at the crippled robot. The limbs weakly moved; it wasn’t going to get back up anytime soon.

His ears were still ringing, and he couldn’t hear the others. His officer stepped forward and his mouth moved. Richard just shook his head and pointed to his ears, piercing pain shot through his skull. He winced and gritted his teeth yelling out to the man, “I can’t hear anything, the drone is down!”

The man turned to check the injuries on the rest of the unit.

Richard checked over himself poking holes through his jacket pulling out an embedded bullet the flattened lead didn’t make it through the outermost layer of armor. He wasn’t struck by a bullet and was just beaten badly. The hearing slowly returned to his left eat and he started to hear ticking, it was loud. First thinking it was just his ear acting up but as he turned to check his right chest plate when it got louder. He stared over the window again, the direction of the ticking. “Run!”

Richard picked up one of the lizardmen who had a difficult time running and dashed out through the hallway with the rest of the unit. They ran just past the airlocks to the entrance of the station, a station rattling explosion shook them all to the ground. The lizardman was sent flying down the hall, slipping out of his arms. Richard steadied himself up with the help of the gravity boots. Then airflow reversed pulling him backward. He was pulled off his feet back toward the origin of the explosion. The emergency blast doors slammed shut just in time for his back to collide with the metal.

He came to a minute after. The rest of his body ached every time he moved, but nothing compared to his stinging warm pain on the side of his head. He looked up and saw the mobile unit arguing with crewmates that had left the cafeteria. Trixi was right in front of his mask, worry and tears running down her muzzle. He shook his head of the pain and dizziness, “Is everyone alright?”

Trixi hugged him, “Your safe!”

He winced as she squeezed him tightly. He keyed his radio, “What’s going on?” No one responded.

His officer ran toward Richard, “Sir, they are trying to cut their way through the hull in engineering, we are holding them off as best we can.”

Richard shot up and looked at the crewmates, they were all frightened. “Get back in the bar immediately! Turn out the lights, don’t leave until I or the captain says so!” The crew started arguing, then Richard shot an ion blast at the floor. The loud crackle immediately shut them up and forced them to return to safety.

Trixi’s eyes were watery as she looked up at him. He couldn’t get distracted by her, so he kneeled and ordered her, “Please, go with them. I need you to be safe.”

“But your hurt, I can smell the blood.” He ignored her as he felt a numb buzz in his right ear. He pulled off his gas mask letting his hat fall to the floor. He wheezed from the burning pain as he peeled it away. Warmth flowed from the right side of his face down his neck.

Trixi gasped and turned away from the sight. He winced as he reached to his earpiece and pulled it out. He flicked the earpiece shaking blood from it and put it in his other ear.

The A.I.’s voice came in clearly in his other ear, “-getting engagements on two locations in engineering, they are affixing a C4 to the hull of the A.I. chamber. Mobile group 1 is taking care of the wounded HoS.”

Richard keyed the microphone, “Fake news, I’m not wounded. I’ll be assisting the A.I. immediately.”

He stood up and placed the mask over his head again, grinding his teeth through the sticky burning pain. Trixi grabbed him, her eyes locked to the ground. Before he left, he told her, “Be safe.” She didn’t say anything in return as he marched away with the unit. The sound of his heavy metal boots grew quiet until all that was left in the hallway was a vixen trying to hold herself together.

____________________

Watching him leave like that tore at her heart. She stared at the hat, praying to any god that it wouldn’t be the last thing she sees of him. The abandoned hat was picked up and she walked toward the safety of the bar. The smell of his blood lingered in her nose as she entered the dark cafeteria; all lights were cut to dissuade attacking the unprotected non-combatants. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and ascended the staircase to the upper saloon. The airlocked blast doors opened to allow her to enter, once she stepped in it was sealed and bolted again.

A voice from the crowd of people whispered angrily, “God damn you clown, you took forever to get back up here.”

Trixi eyed the crowd and held the hat tightly, “Sorry… I’ll be quiet…” Murmurs spread through the terrified cliques from around the station. 45 of the service members were crammed into the small bar. From janitors to cargo techs, everyone was accounted for.

Bakes was at the counter giving water and some refreshments to calm people’s nerves, they just had to be quiet to get it. Trixi walked behind the counter and sat down on a box. She looked through her PDA, the dull light reflecting off her painted fur. The message from this morning blinked at her. Tears beaded at the corner of her eyes again, “This place isn’t worth sacrificing yourself…”

Bakes watched the little vulpes carefully and sat next to her giving her a gentle rub on the back. He reassured her with a whisper, “It’sss okay little one.” He handed her a glass of cold water. She gently lapped it up to not make to too much noise.

“Thank you.” She said choking on her grief.

She thought about all the plans she made this morning, the beautiful house she was going to purchase next to her sister’s new house. She finally had a new lease on life with enough funds to get the dream life on her birth world. She would be done with Nanotrasen and the space station. She wanted to tell Richard all her plans, after all, he’s the one that granted it to her. Richard’s bloody pained face returned to her mind.

She was reminded of his lessons, ‘Simulations are very different from real experiences. Real gore has a different effect on the brain.’ She wanted to stop him from running off to battle. Another station-wide vibration sent everyone to the ground. She fell and the cup spilled sending ice skidding across the floor. The pain of not knowing what was going on echoed through the crowd. Richard never did tell her the threat to the station, he always skirted or avoided the question passing it off as nothing.

The crew held onto their friends and loved ones in terrified silence. Part of her desperately wanted to cheer people up, the only thing she liked about her job was to see people laugh. Xenophobes and people that just hated clowns were always great targets, but this was something she wasn’t ready for. Nothing prepared her for a crowd that huddled in the dark horrified. She picked herself up from the floor and scanned the sea of faces in the dark. Her pointed ears heard a banging from below.

Trixi crept toward the window. Whispers told her to get back, but curiosity overwhelmed her. Her eyes peeked over the edge down below and saw two armored men were breaking the airlock with crowbars. She pushed her back to the wall and sank to the floor eyes wide with terror.

A woman snuck up to her and whispered, “What did you see?”

Trixi said with a soft voice, “Two people are breaking into the cafeteria.” Everyone started to speak softly to each other, their body language was on edge.

One man calmed them, “The AI saw them, no doubt. The security team will take them out… right…” The banging got louder, everyone else heard it. Their anxieties climbed higher.

A felinid whispered, “The AI sees everything, the security team probably just defended engineering.”

This continued back and forth as the intruders broke through the cafeteria. Their boots echoed as they stepped through, everyone was dead silent and lowered their bodies to the floor. Trixi pressed her ear close to the wall. The men spoke to each other, “Get that thing in place and weld it down while I keep watch.” Loud scraping and boot slamming, something heavy was dragged through the broken door. Trixi fought every instinct to see and kept her large ear pressed. “We still need that disk. You want to get it or me?”

The other man said, “Rock, paper, scissors?” The two started to count and then argue on if it was on ‘go’ or ‘three’. This continued for such a long time that the vulpes slid up flattening her ears. She peeked once again and saw a metal bomb with a nuclear symbol on it.

Trixi ducked down her chest heaved with fear, “They have a nuke.” Her voice rose a little too high and she immediately clamped it shut with her paws.

The others shuffled around peeking over the edge of the window themselves. Bakes set a glass down and spoke out in a higher voice just a bit over the crowd’s noise, “Keep calm and get back. They ssstill need the disssk to activate the ssstolen bomb, they need Nanotrasssen authorization codesss.” The patrons calmed after the lizard’s statement. Trixi exhaled and continued her listening.

One pair of boots were crunching smashed glass as he exited toward the hallway. The other man messed with his belongings looking for something. It clicked and then a steady sizzling reverberated through the wall. Trixi raised herself to see what he was doing and blinked as a bright light shined in her eye, he was welding the bomb to the plated floor.

Another vibration through the station shook her to her butt. Bakes’ lizard claws tapped gently as he ran over to help some people get back up. A woman asked him quietly to the lizard, “How do you know what they need?”

He smiled and flicked his forked tongue, “I been doing this bartending job quite a long time.” Trixi always liked listening to Bakes’ stories, tales from several stations, pirates, wizards, and xenomorphs. It calmed her and the rest of the crew to see someone keep good spirits in this awful situation.

After laying down for a while her curiosity gnawed at her again. She slid back up and spied on the man once again, he placed the welding torch away and started to guard the explosive. He paced around a few times, the four green beads of his helmet cut through the darkness like razors. Eventually, they stopped moving, aimed at the wall with the vending machines. The syndicate pulled out a red energy sword with a distinct high-pitched sizzle. It lit up his entire frame. Red armor plates over all extremities and a menacing red helmet were revealed by the red glow. The chest plate was made of segmented plates to maximize flexibility without giving an ounce of defense. The man slashed out and sliced his way through the vending machine. Trixi sniffed out a small laugh, knowing he won’t get any of the drinks Richard called disgusting swill. Her smile melted and she ducked down fast as the neon green orbs turned toward the staircase.

“Uh, I think he might be thirsty…” she whispered. The air was dead silent. Trixi saw some people start to hide behind furniture that was tipped over. She needed to distract him; it was her job after all. She pulled her tiny claws out of the fabric of the hat she had a tight grip on and placed it in the pockets of her baggy pants. There was something cold inside the large pocket as she stuffed the hat inside, she gripped it and pulled it out.

The practice pistol she was given, brilliance struck her mind. She sprang as the sound of sizzling and boot stomps started on the staircase. Her shoes squeaked as she ran behind the counter through the back. Bakes started to marshal people to the back rooms to not be seen by the invader but trixi stepped in front of him. “I can lead him away.” He looked at her curiously, then she pointed the gun.

“Where did you get that.”, “Why didn’t you just use it on the first.”, “Why do you have that?”, Bakes and several other crewmates asked at once.

“It’s a practice weapon, it can’t kill but I can use it to draw him away, everyone please stay here where it’s safe.” Bakes tied to nab the gun from the vulpes, but she vanished through the backroom, her squeaks shrank away in the darkness.

She dashed as quick as her little claws took her, tail bushy with fear of the unknown. She passed her dorms and slid down the ladder to the next level. The door to the main hallway hissed open, she peaked around making sure no enemies were in sight. She took in a deep breath and then looped around toward the cafeteria again, knowing that the crew was just a single blast door from being killed.

With squeaking shoes, she passed the kitchen’s darkened windows and then the cafeteria. She saw the man through the glass. He was trying to peer through the top blast door’s tiny window, but the glare of his red energy sword made that difficult. She exhaled and aimed with her yellow gun.

The red energy bolt blasted his back. He pivoted and looked down at the attacker. Trixi blasted him again hitting him in the armor with a weak laser. The operative laughed, “A clown is going to stop us? You better start running you, little midget.” His sword’s blade zipped away in exchange for an energy rifle. He aimed it dead center through the clown in the window.

She fled line of sight just as a green energy bolt flew through the glass pockmarking as it made contact with the floor tile. Her shoes squeaked with every step. The thumping of her heartbeat was but a touch lighter than the combat boots giving chase. She curved the corner and made her to the ladder to head down a level away from everyone. Her pointed ears just made it through the ladder’s port when another green laser flashed singing a few hairs on the top of her ears.

“Goddamn you clowns, such a nuisance.”

She gulped as his voice was projected out of the suit’s speakers. She slid down to the bottom level and started running. Her pursuer made no such safety measure and jumped down the flight catching up to her quickly. His powered suit helped absorb the impact of his landing.

She fired off more of her red blasts. The man aimed his rifle back before pointing it down. He was shaking and tilting his head back. Laughing, he laughed at the clown’s attempts. The operative squared his shoulders and exhaled, the microphone picking up his voice once more, “Did you think you could stop me with that weapon?”

Trixi’s heart raced, and her tongue lulled out panting for breaths to calm herself down. He stepped closer forcing her to take a few squeaking steps back. Terrified to say anything to the red armored man towering over her. The man just inspected her looking her up and down, just like how the humans in the hologram stared at her.

“A vulpes? Quite rare, maybe there is some personal profit that can be made on this worthless station.” She fired off another laser shot only to get backhanded, sending the useless gun away. She recoiled in pain rubbing her paws together. “I think I’m going to have you come with me little vulpes, you will make some sultan or baron an interesting pet.”

She backed away shuffling in her pockets for another means to getaway. Her paw grabbed something then her arm was grabbed and raised, nearly crushing her wrist bones. A high pitch shriek of pain escaped her muzzle.

“Relax, I’m not going to hurt you… too much. It would lower your value. However, if you keep struggling you could always be turned into a fluffy little pillow.” The man pointed the rifle at her head, and she froze. The man laughed, “Give up, being a pet would probably be an upgrade than how you’re currently living.”

Tears swelled in her eyes. She closed her eyes tightly to keep her composure. She relaxed her paw and released what she held onto, “Get off my station…” The small objects let out taps as they bounced on the metal plates. The armored intruder stepped to see what fell. Before he knew he stepped on some marbles and tumbled forward. The gun slid down the hall and Trixi fell on her back. The gun was out of reach, she scrambled to it. A sharp pain gripped her heel.

“Damn you fucking clowns!”

She screamed and kicked at him; her soft red shoes just squeaked against his helmet. Her fingertips were just out of reach of the rifle. A sound echoed through the halls. A horrible bone-crushing sound. The arm relaxed around her leg, Trixi quickly got to her feet and looked back.

The smell hit her first, it was awful, fresh blood and grey matter. She choked back vomit. The emergency blast doors and fire doors had crushed the man’s skull and severed the arm. Pulping into a twisted mass of bone, sinew, and brains. Trixi turned away heaving on the ground.

A calm computerized voice projected to the speaker near the ceiling, “Please return to your designated location at this time.”

Trixi looked up and saw the camera pointed at her, “Did you save me A.I.?”

“I prevented human harm.”

She was completely confused by this answer, “What?”

“Non-humans have infiltrated to harm humans, designated by their employee numbers, you are human.”

Trixi wiped at her eyes clearing the moisture from her encounter, “Thank you AI. I’ll go give this weapon to one of the security officers first.”

The robot confirmed, “Good.”

She picked up the gun and a massive vibration shook the station, several reinforced glass windows cracked as she fell to the ground again. The computer immediately sealed them, closing off the view to the station. The blast doors had buckled and bent and hissing emanated from where she came from. Her only way back up to the main level.

The quick-thinking vulpes searched a nearby storage room. She climbed up a shelf unit toward the back, knocking boxes of office supplies to the ground. She spotted her target in the dark room, an air vent. With a quick laser blast to the metal, she crawled through to get access to the other levels.

____________________

Richard’s earpiece buzzed with several voices at once. He and his team just finished destroying three operatives sending them to die alone in space. Several more officers were injured near the power generator. Another one was cutting his way through to atmospherics and the nuclear bomb had already been secured in place. The captain’s voice cut through all of them, “Is the disc secured still?” There wasn’t an answer. Richard exploded over coms, “Dammit Ali, respond!”

The A.I. responded, “His location is in the bridge, but there are 2 intruders on their way to the bridge. I have slowed them down with fire doors.”

“I’m going to go secure the disc, everyone reinforce atmospherics, the enemy should be running out of bodies by now.” He kicked himself for not paying attention to the services, of course, they had more dirtbags follow their worthless little pod. Shit backing up in the toilet happens, just like this trash that crawled in through disposals.

Richard passed by medical, carefully avoiding the nurses carrying some wounded crewmates inside, the blast in engineering did a number on them. He continued his sprint, the sloshing of liquid in his right ear as the pressure gave him a headache. The AI opened the emergency fire doors for him. The two operatives were leaving the bridge. The green helmet lights pointed in his direction.

“You go, I got this bastard.” The smaller man stood his ground while the other man ran through a sliced open fire door. Richard pulled his pistol and opened fire. Two red lights lashed out one struck the man’s armored helmet the other was deflected with a red energy blade sending it into the wall. The man stood defiantly.

Richard wanted to grab one of the enemy’s swords before they exploded. He would show the intruder who runs this station. His earpiece was picking up chatter from his team, the enemy finally cut through atmospherics. He sighed and squared himself with his current opponent.

Richard shot him with a few more blasts and charged forward. He grabbed at his hip for the stun baton. A rather useless weapon against an energy sword but its carbon fiber shaft might prove effective to hold off the blade. The stun baton was fully charged before he collided with the enemy. He continuously fired off shots hoping to at least weaken the armor plating to get in.

Richard’s actions baffled the operative who focused on deflecting the energy bolts. The shots were rhythmic, once Richard got to melee range, he swung hard at the man’s neck with the baton. Electricity sparked on the suit and the operative sucked in air as his windpipe was beaten. He took a step back and clutched his neck with a hand. Richard continued his advance and lunged at him. He dropped his weapons and grabbed at the energy sword’s hilt with both hands.

The shuffle continued, but the intruder was inexperienced, despite his equipment giving him a strength advantage over the HoS. With a swift kick into the wall, he had the sword. The man was staggered. He quickly pulled a pistol from his belt and fired, striking Richard in the face.

The 9mm round was slowed considerably by the filter over the gas mask, however, the bullet tumbled and tore through his lower jaw punching through his lip and pulverizing 3 teeth. The sizzling round remained in his mouth. Screaming in agony his mouth clinched, slashing wildly with the energy sword. His mouth filled with hot blood and pain shot through making the concussion and broken ear feel like a mild breeze.

He stared down at the body through pained tears at the man who shot him. Several burning slashes ran across his torso and his left arm was severed; the wound completely sealed from the burning. His corpse ticked, just like the rest. Richard shook as he picked up his body and hobbled toward security. He snapped his fingers to the camera and the fire doors immediately opened up for him, he threw the body in and they closed followed by blast doors.

There was a shaking explosion and the doors held nicely. Richard’s vision tunneled. Every nerve burned and screamed in his mouth. He reached in his medical pouch and pulled out a syringe of morphine and god knows what else. He slammed it into his leg and swallowed a mouth full of blood which caused him to gag, he fought the urge to vomit. His vision started to clear, and the pain was much more manageable.

The voices on the radio were speaking the entire time, “The captain’s down. Where is the HoP?”

The A.I. tried its best to answer all these questions, then the A.I. stopped itself and said, “A nuclear explosive has been armed in the cafeteria. It will detonate in 3 minutes.”

Another explosion rattled the station as Richard picked up his pistol and energy handle. His head was floating, and he couldn’t feel his arms. The drugs were setting in. He sprinted toward the cafeteria. Occasional red mist spurted out from the bullet hole in his mask as he exhaled. He readied his weapons energy sword in his right hand and pistol in left.

The operative laughed, “Shouldn’t have let that kid stick around with you.” The red armored man had a double-bladed energy sword in front of him.

The red LED lit up the room, chairs scattered around, and the tables tipped over to the edges of the wall. The ominous nuclear device ticked away; the display locked behind a glass case. Richard swallowed a mouth full of blood and rushed forward. The energy swords clashed several times, the opponent slashed in rocking movements to get the maximum use of his sword. Richard stopped the swings with flicks of his wrist. His other hand gripped the pistol tightly.

A few shots splashed the man’s armor blackening the red coating. Several sets of footsteps pattered quickly down the stairs. Both of them turned their heads to see several service members touching the controls of the nuclear device. Bakes popped open the glass case covering the device. The operative screamed out, “Stop that you fucking lizard!”

Richard refused to let him disengage from the fight, he locked swords and shot his helmet blasting out one of the cameras. He growled pressing his blade forward. Their swords clashed again, and the powered suit started to push the veteran HoS back. Richard took his chances and tossed his laser pistol toward the unarmed crewmates hoping they could help.

This move distracted him enough to push the double energy sword to force Richard’s energy sword out of his hand. Richard leaped back just in time to avoid the backswing searing his Kevlar. A red laser splashed the armor, a woman in a chef’s uniform held the gun out with both hands and fired another shot. The armor absorbed the blow. Terror gripped her while the others messed with the explosive.

The operative held his double-bladed weapon pointing one end at Richard and the other to quickly deflect any more energy bolts. The defensive stance was ended when another explosion rattled them to the ground. The crackling of the energy swords stopped as they dropped their weapons when they landed on the ground. Richard’s magnetic boots kept him upright.

The heavily armored man attempted to get up but was promptly stepped on by Richard. He leaned down and kicked the hilt away. He wanted to say something to the enemy, but it would just be gurgling blood with slurred words, he felt strangely lucid. A firm boot pressed to the man’s helmet as Richard pushed the button to increase the magnetic pull on the boot. His legs were beaten and clawed at by his captor, but the pain wasn’t registering. The sound of bending metal and cracking glass was quickly followed by the screams of a dying man as the boot’s magnetic pull maxed out, pulling itself to the metal plate below, crushing the man’s skull between.

The gore flowered outward in a beautiful array of colors. He switched the boots back to normal and immediately picked up the ticking headless body tossing it over the side into the kitchen. He ducked behind the counter to avoid the blast. Bakes pulled everyone down as the kitchen exploded. Water started to flow out of a ruptured pipe filling the room with moisture from the waterfall over the counter.

One of the crewmates vomited while Bakes quickly checked on Richard who was still laying down. The scaled lips moved but nothing was entering his ears. Claws gripped him and helped him stand. Richard just gave a half nod and walked toward the bomb. There was still a minute and a half left on the bomb. Richard looked over at Bakes who was still talking.

His hands were completely numb, he flexed them, they were like two water balloons. His skin had first-degree burns on them. Probably from the energy swords, no gloves protected his hands from the heat. His earpiece was buzzing but nothing was getting through.

Richard pulled out his combat knife from the hip and pulled at the wire bundle with them. One quick upward arch the wires snapped. The timer stopped and then dimmed. He pushed the button on the disk receiver. The disk fell out onto the ground. The bomb was now deactivated.

His vision was jostled, he stopped and looked around. The people around him had smiles on their faces. He shook his head at them. In a quick motion, he jammed the blade into the receiver and forced his weight on the handle snapping it inside the slot. Blood trickled from his right arm; the broken blade sliced through from the clumsy movement. This would prevent any further arming of the device.

He swallowed again, the feeling of blacking out returned. He shook his head, trying to shake it off. Stopping only for a moment he removed his gas mask. His skin was pale and from the mouth down a shade of the ruby. The right half of his head had deep gashes coated slick with dark red blood, a single stream of fresh blood flowed out of his left ear as the headset was removed.

Bakes wrinkled his muzzle and tried to speak to his friend. Richard handed his headset over and muttered incoherently, a mouth full of blood pooling on the floor. He put the mask back on. Bakes tried to keep a hold of him, but Richard shrugged him away and walked off. He took the pistol from the chef and picked up the hilt of the energy sword before he left the cafeteria.

Clouded with drugs he was only focused on one thing, killing all intruders. His legs betrayed him though, refusing to walk in a straight line. To his right was the window facing the bridge, to the left the destroyed entrance to arrivals. He walked toward the windows keeping the red-tinted vision for anyone else. The captain was in medical, the HoP was missing, he failed to protect the station. He needed to save the survivors.

Turning the corner back toward engineering he stopped. Down the hallway was another red armored operator. Richard shot an energy bolt into him, the light splashed on the man’s helmet melting the armor in an ugly scar. The man stumbled forward a few steps. A second shot was fired, the shot was deflected back at Richard by a shimmering energy shield in the intruder’s left hand. Richard was brought to a knee as the bolt hit his right knee cap.

The challenger laughed, activating his energy sword. He walked cautiously toward the HoS, energy shield ready to deflect rounds. Richard took in deep breaths. His vision cloudy, legs shaky as he stood back up and activated the hilt of his energy sword. They stared each other down.

The hum of electricity buzzed in the air. Trixi had finally gotten up to the main level through the dusty vents. She pushed the vent out and it fell with a clatter. The operative turned his head briefly but was quickly reminded of the threat that he faced as another energy bolt struck him in the back of the neck. The weak layer melted away and burned his skin. He growled in anger and faced the wounded assailant.

“You were giving us a run for our money. Damn corporate shill. But this ends now, you lost. Your weapons are countered by our defenses, and we are slowly slicing through to get at the defenders. I’m going to enjoy killing you.”

Trixi popped her head out and checked for any threats. The standoff was going on to her left, nose burned with ozone and blood. She slid out of the vent quickly with her energy rifle. She primed the shot and aimed the operative. Richard screamed for her to leave; blood just spilled from the mask’s hole. The operative laughed at him, he stopped advancing when he realized how fucked the HoS was.

“Are you on your last breath? Sounded like a plead. After what you did with my team and my ship. Once I kill you, my men will cut down the rest of your crew and sell the rest to slavery. Maybe keep a few for our own. Your captain’s dead. It’s over, Drop your weapons and I will make this quicker than you deserve.”

Trixi lined up the hologram sights at the back of the man’s exposed neck. The man’s bolstering covered the charging capacitors. The trigger was squeezed, and the laser vaporized the man’s neck.

The green energy lapped at his spine, severing it through. He fell over dead without any fanfare. Trixi beamed with joy as the energy weapons retreated to their hilts, “Got ‘em!” Her happy squeaking shoes bounced over the corpse toward Richard, his bloody hand holding himself up on the station’s glass. He screamed out, with all his might, but the blood just bubbled out as he waved his hand telling her to flee.

“We need to get you to the clinic now!” Trixi said with a serious tone.

Richard’s eyes were tearing up as she stepped over the body. She didn’t know, he acted as quick as his sluggish body could. He looked around for an escape but couldn’t find any cover. She reached up and grabbed his hand with an unaware smile on her face. He lashed out and gripped her wrist tightly. She yipped out in pain. He quickly pulled her into a ball into his chest, wrapping his coat around her.

His back faced the vindictive corpse. He held on to her as tightly as he could as she struggled, “What are you doing?!” He set his gravity boots to the maximum. The ear-shattering sound was followed by silence.