28. Counterattack
William could not twist the ship into the corridor leading to the STC and decided instead to go for the nearest airlock. Sure enough, the airlock was cut open and some sort of ship was docked to the airlock blocking access to space. A plan started to hatch and William opened a secure line to Janice.
"Where are you?"
"No matter Jan, are those two pilots ready?"
"Yes, they are waiting for you command."
"Sweet, link the squad into this secure line and call me back. I got work to do."
Janice cut the line while she waited, giving William a bit of quiet time to fine tune his plan. It was going to be a gamble but as with most such things the gamble would be worthwhile if it paid off. He locked his neutron guns on the access door to the ship that was attached to the station and waited.
"Banzai 01, Banzai 02. All Banzai present and accounted for."
That meant that his entire team of the elite Itani Swift Wind squadron were present. Probably the top twelve fighter jocks the Itani military had to offer and the Serco did not seem to be aware of their presence. That was why the plan might work, they would have surprise on their side.
"All Banzai call-signs, listen up. We are going to do as follows."
###
Pourdon had guided his squad to the Atlas and managed to get them all onboard with their valuable cargo. They closed the airlock and secured themselves for high-speed manoeuvres including the thing in the cage. Something had happened to second squad that had prevented them from taking the last objective, but that was not mission-critical. They had the mission critical item in his Atlas and the first platoon had already boarded and was disengaging as his squad stripped in. They would need maybe another thirty seconds to succeed completely. He looked around to make sure all his troopers were securely fastened and met the gaze of each and every one of them. The grins said it all, they had succeeded above and beyond the wildest expectations. Pourdon nodded and hit the all-clear signal, informing the Atlas driver that they were ready for disengaging. A slight change in gravity signalled that the nano bots had been given a self destruct command and ceased securing the Atlas to the station. They were now back under the ships gravity drive. Pourdon relaxed slightly, it was now out of his hands. He opened a channel to the command net
"Lead this is marine three bravo. Target secured and stowed. Handing over command."
The reply was swift, their leader had been waiting for this moment.
"Roger marine three bravo. I assume command. Good job men. All assault teams disengage, I say again disengage."
The Atlas lurched sideways as the pilot engaged the turbo disregarding the damage the three metre flames would do to the surface of the station. Time was essential and they needed to get away before the Itani could reinforce from the other stations in Cantus.
###
Yarina kept her head down to keep from giving her thoughts away. She had heard of Serco face recognition software that could read your most likely thoughts from facial expressions only and even though she had received training in negating such intelligence gathering devices, she had no idea how sensitive it would be. And it would be a disaster if they could read her mind right now. She had three options right now. She could wait it out and hope for rescue, she could get close to Utia and detonate her bomb or she could just explode the bomb and hope that the explosion took the ship out as well. In reality though she couldn't use option three as it had too much chance of the Serco surviving with Utia and that was not an option. She had to decide what option to use before the Atlas jumped out of Cantus but as long as the Atlas was anywhere in Cantus there were still a chance of rescue. After all, she didn't want to kill Utia and especially not when it meant killing herself as well. She kept averting the gaze of the Serco marines and played her mind games silently as the Atlas roared outwards.
###
A large explosion that ripped the third Atlas apart heralded the counterattack. William had fired his twin neutron guns directly into the ship through the open armoured gate at the back wall of the cargo compartment tearing through the lightly armoured wall and tearing the safety covers on the battery to shreds before shorting it. The explosion pushed his own IBG back into the tunnel and shredded the front armour but cleared the route into space. He thumbed the turbo and roared into space on a pillar of flame like a vengeful angel of death. That was the signal for the other two IBG's to break out and engage the two SVG's that were guarding the launch bay. William twisted his own ship and roared with satisfaction at getting a targeting solution on the nearest SVG. He fired a long streak of neutrons into the dazzled Serco and tore the light fighter to shreds before the Serco had a chance to avoid the shots. The other Serco boosted down and away from the station almost directly into the path of the two other IBG's that had just exited through the air locks. Caught from three sides the Serco pilot hit the turbo to escape the cross fire but too late. The six neutron guns from the IBG's reduced the SVG to an expanding fireball and William gave the GO signal to the remaining banzai callsigns. This was not over yet.
###
Cat saw the Atlas launch and readied for the extraction. It had been fairly boring so far, precisely how it should be. The large explosion on the other side of the station changed all that. She focused on the launch bay ahead and waited for something to exit while listening to the curses of the two pilots that were guarding bay one. The disappearance of the SVG's on the screen and the new hostiles could only mean that the Itani had somehow broken through the barrier that the strike force had set in place. She twisted her ship and moved towards the now unguarded exit. It was spawning Valkyries at a faster rate than she had seen before; these were not rookie pilots for sure. She felt a knot form in her stomach as the three IBG's accelerated towards the Atlas that had only just launched and she boosted to intercept them. Within four hundred metres she had the rear most in her sights and depressed the trigger spewing neutron death into the lightly armoured rocket shaped interceptor, destroying it easily. The drain on the battery forced her to jump out f turbo and the enemy surged ahead. The lead IBG closed the distance to the Atlas and punched holes all over the left side of the assault ship. A normal Atlas would have exploded under the withering fire but the extra armour had been worth every extra kilo. The Atlas continued as the lead IBG fell behind with the same problem she had just had. Cat smiled a predatory smile that would make herds of cattle stampede to get away. The shooting that the Itani scum had just done had in effect sealed his fate. She boosted at half battery towards the IBG and as son as it was within reach she poured the remaining power into her guns hitting with every shot. The interceptor exploded violently and she screamed in joy. Now she just needed to kill the last IBG before it could hurt the Atlas further and she boosted after it. On the radar she could see the remaining SVG's and Prometheus's engage the by now nine Valkyries that had appeared in rapid succession from the station. The Itani were outnumbered two to one and the Serco only had to fight until the Atlas's had safely jumped out of the system.
###
The message popped in on Fletholm's screen and was about as welcome as a twenty pound turd. If it weren’t for his extreme laziness he would have spilled his koffee, now he merely swallowed and summoned his Itani and Serco specialists. Eggert was the first to pop his head in, his boyish nerdy features sporting a wide grin.
"I knew it, or rather I knew they would do something like this."
"Spill it Eggert."
"Seems like we were framed Sir. A UIT trader named Brix," Eggert smirked and looked at Fletholm," heard of him?, escaped from the Xang Xi prison roid yesterday. Found some of his own stash and drove a Behemoth loaded with a nuclear device into the primary Serco revival facility and detonated the contraption. apparently he killed the entire revival facility in one stroke. If I may put in my two creds worth, this smells like Itani secret service so badly that I am willing to put a months pay on it."
Fletholm nodded and indicated the message on his screen.
"This is from the Serco Diplomatic Corps asking us kindly to explain why a UIT citizen would do that."
"Maybe it has something to do with the little thing we sprung on the Tani Sir? You know, the thing on Eo?"
Fletholm almost told Eggert what had happened but remembered that it was for him only.
"Maybe, but how do I wiggle out of this one?"
"That is why they pay you that exorbitant amount of money Sir."
Fletholm frowned and nodded while focusing on the screen again.
"Yeah, I get to earn my pay these days for sure."
Eggert grinned and left the office leaving Fletholm to solve the trouble. Sometimes it was good to be the smallest fish in the pond.
