Beginning of the end Chapter 12
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‘What are you doing up here Devin I told you to stay in your room you’ll be safe there’ father wasn’t happy that I arrived on the bridge? I left my brother in the room, gawping out the window. I believed anywhere would be safe on a ship this size so I didn’t budge and found a chair near the engineering section, that kept my father quiet.
‘Sir it looks like they are moving around the planet’ the Flight officer said both dreadnaughts pulled away, avoiding the heavy batteries of the Warfire. They tried to return in kind, A glancing hit of the forward shields there was a small vibration.
One of the engineering officers confirmed the hit and the status of the shields. Colonel Bracken presence was inspiring, everything worked in unison like a string quartet, beautifully playing a masterpiece, even father was a part of the show, he took over fire controls ‘were moving in closer get ready for boarding put more power into the forward shields and launch starfighter let’s not keep their weapons trained on us for target practice’ Bracken said the Warfire engine thrust us into action the decking began to vibrate beneath my feet.
‘Colonel I would like to lead the party against the Marauder’ father spoke while leading making his way out of the bridge the Colonel acknowledge then went back to commanding his vessel.
‘Bring us between them activate the tractor beams to keep them in place while we board. Get the starfighters to take out the light weapons on the inside of our approach, fire control get rid of the heavy weapons I would like to have a ship in one piece after I get back,’ Bracken said
A chorus of ‘yes sir’ came back and then he followed my father.
I chased after the colonel through the corridors after a few turns I made it to a large airlock near the hull, wide enough to have four men abreast in light battle armor beyond them my father at the front of the boarding party he swung his sword Daraka in front of him preparing, loosening the muscle around his shoulder, father stopped when the Colonel moved up, they spoke briefly a nod from my father and the colonel left moving to the other side.
‘Son do you want to come aboard with me’ father spoke into my mind, I felt an undercurrent of apprehension,
‘Sure it sounds exciting’ I responded cheerfully
‘remember to stick with me always keep your shield raised and don’t lose focus just like we taught you back home,’ I received a rush of excitement from the man.
‘all right gentlemen we are about to board the Marauder, I have a strong belief this will be brief and short, now to my right is my son keep an eye out for him he is new to this battle’ the soldiers looked at me briefly realizing am there, behind me a massive clang on the outside of the airlock doors, the ships must have been linked, moments later an explosion happened. Everyone moved up to the airlock waiting for the seal to happen some troops rechecked their equipment while the waited others mumbled under their breath I heard a ping and a green light above the airlock and we all started to move through to the pirate ship.
Everyone boarded the Marauder carefully it seemed too quiet, and the lights dimmed in this area didn’t help create spooky shadows. Pushing out with my Kensei abilities the presence or activity, I formed a shield on my arm for safety only generating it about half the height of myself this left something in reserve for an attack.
Father was to my right and a soldier with three chevrons on his arm moved on my left ‘hi there am Sgt Rosco’ holding his hand out to shake.
‘Devin, please to meet you’ it was a brief shake his hand moved back to his weapon a standard issue pulse rifle.
Rosco wasn’t tall but he more than made up for it in bulk the man was huge and strongly built ‘stay close to me, I’ll get you through this’ with a reassuring smile. Proceeding further into the ship nothing happened until Father twitched and moved fast.
The pirates opened up on us firing a mass of crisscrossing laser fire intended to decimate the team in one go.
I hunker down my shield bouncing most of the deadly beams of light safely away Rosco and his men returned fire taking cover.
‘Their main target was your father, they probably made him out to be a praetorian because he was just standing there with a sword,’ Rosco explained helpfully firing back several shots from his refuge a metal container.
The rest of the troopers shot back at the pirates looking around, not every soldier made it to safety, one wounded and another laid still with a burnt hole in his chest, I moved fast from a burst of speed reaching the wounded man in a blink of an eye. Quickly checking him over his side hit, leaving a laser burn it had sealed the wound at least he won’t bleed to death, now for the other problem in rushing out into the open the enemy thought I was a new threat and an easy target. While coming to the man aid I placed the shield around us stretching my physical energy while dragging him to safety I also felt the odd beam strike my shield.
Looking back, the laser fire also seemed to have ebbed the pirates were being knocked around into the center of the room. Father movements became blurred he knocked men over and deflected more determined laser fire away using combinations of Daraka and dengen and before most could react any further he had them all tied up in a bunch.
‘Take care of the wounded get them and these criminals back onto the Warfire,’ Father said he seems to be enjoying himself
‘Yes sir, Tommy get Rike off the ground and back to the med bay Xavier take two men and secure this little band of pirates’ Rosco ordered, he came up to me butting a new ammo pack into his rifle. ‘Hey, thanks for that I owe you lets catch up with your dad’ he waved to the other men under his command they all moved in the direction of my father.
****
‘Respond,’ the comms’ man looked over at me ‘The Warfire have breached the hull, secondary teams are in place, the last report says there are two praetorians on board and our sister dreadnaught Razorback is suffering from a similar assault,’ he concluded his features grim,
Damn, Marcus, you will pay for this with praetorians onboard, we don’t stand a chance ‘have you activated the internal defense system on the lower deck, maybe we can slow them down also Stram get a team outside the hull, blow that airlock ring off with explosives.’
Stram looked at me with those eyes ‘it is impossiblez to blow thez arm is made outez of viridium’
I shook my head in frustration of how dense he is sometimes ‘take out the clamps, not the arm we can use our engines to rip off the rest, take four men with you that should be enough to get the job done’ Stram looked about to protest, instead, he nodded taking two men from the bridge
‘Talesse the internal shields and weapons are slowing down the enemy looks like they split up into two fire teams’ Gunther said, smiling, always enjoy it when his toy cause trouble, I smiled. Gunther gift of traps and weapons helping us as usual ‘good, hopefully, it will give us time.’
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About the author.
Albert is an ex-royal air force photographer. He is passionate about novel writing and creative arts, his work can be seen on Amazon and Opensea. Albert enjoys gaming with his son and records them to replay on YouTube.
