Voyage of the Dawn Rider

Chapter 11

Voyage of the Dawn Rider 9.

I called Dr. Leah to the bridge for his input, but our first concern was the object Nessa and our scanner had picked up. I reduced speed, as Magiere stood by on the weapons. I was looking for a stand-alone craft of some sort, but suddenly Nessa alerted me, "Captain I saw something on that big rock down in the left corner, see it?" I increased scanner magnification to reveal what appeared to be metal hanger type doors underneath a rocky overhang on the floating meteor, which the scanner was only just now picking up. "Ahh, thought you could hide from us did you," I muttered. "Very clever," said Garet, that whole meteor is probably some sort of spacecraft." "No doubt," I replied, "Lieutenant, hit those doors full force." All six photon cannons cut loose, but nothing seemed to happen. "Hit 'em again," I said. This time I got us as close as we dared before Magiere cut loose again, holding down her fire a little longer than normal. This time the rocky outcrop completely disappeared along with one of the doors being knocked ajar. "Lieutenant, get out there with the pup, cover our ass," Speaking into my comm mic I called out, "Chief, Lieutenant Dall to the bridge immediately. As soon as Magiere was clear, of us, I set the Dawn Rider down on the meteor's surface, as close as I could to the doors. "Chief, you're at the helm, Lieutenant, you're with me, suit up we're going hunting." He looked at the screen and the sight of the sprung door, then at me, "Out there sir?" With a tone of exasperation I replied, "Yes Lieutenant, Out there! We're going to check out what's behind those doors, now let's go." "But I've never worn a spacesuit before!" I snickered, "Well Lieutenant, welcome to your first lesson, now let's move!"

I grabbed two Omma plasma rifles, some pulse grenades and a satchel charge, on the way to the air lock. I performed a quick "walk-thru" on suiting up for the Lieutenant, making sure he didn't "leak" and knew where the various controls were located. Surprisingly Lieutenant Dall kept his cool, paid close attention and we got outside in good time. I showed him how to use his rocket pack to propel himself over to the door. Once we were both there, I noted that there was enough room for us to enter precluding the need for the breeching charge. Once inside, I showed him how to operate his helmet light, as well as the helmet cam. I checked back with the chief, who indicated everything was a go; Magiere also came in loud and clear as well. "Here we go Lieutenant; I'll take point, safeties off, triple red, kill anything that moves." With that, we cautiously moved out. Our helmets had an eyepiece that centered over our right eyes, looking like a riflescope, but instead being an infrared, as well as a movement scanner, allowing us to spot trouble before it became trouble. Once we had moved down the corridor a little ways, dead aliens began to show up, apparently the breeched door had compromised this first section of the station. The bodies floated near the ceiling due to loss of gravity. Once we turned a corner, a sealed hatch greeted us, and while Keith covered me, I attempted to open the hatch.

Surprisingly the small wheel actually worked, and the lugs pulled inward allowing the door to be opened. I told the Lieutenant to stand aside while I kicked the door open. I was expecting the room to decompress, but nothing happened, indicating the room had already been decompressed. We cautiously entered, ready for anything, looking around I could tell that a lot of effort had been expended in hollowing out this meteor for their space station. I closed the hatch behind us, and located the control for pressurizing the room. "Keep your suit on Lieutenant, they might try and pull something on us, just be ready." Entering the next room revealed it to be some sort of mechanical room, no doubt life support equipment. I motioned for Keith to take up a position on my left, we waited for a moment, I detected a slight movement under what looked like duct work off to my right, sure enough two of the creatures cautiously moved out from behind the pipe, the automatic sights on my Omma had them pegged for ten feet, both the Lieutenant and I opened fire at the same time, blowing the aliens apart like burst balloons. We waited a moment to see if they had friends, but nothing appeared. Again, we crept forward. The Lieutenant shot two more I had completely missed who were trying to sneak under a pump of some sort. I was really beginning to like this guy he seemed to know his business. An hour slowly went by this room clearing was starting to take a toll on my nerves; three more fell to our blasters. Finally we reached what I hoped was the last room, the station layout seemed to be pretty simple and straightforward, no ante rooms or cubbyholes, as I was kneeling down, I heard a scrape behind me, turning around I saw a hatch in the floor begin to open. I motioned to Keith who stayed where he was covering our front. The hatch slowly opened as an alien head popped up, I shot it with my rifle, causing it to disintegrate, amid squawks from below, I quickly pulled the pin from a pulse grenade and rolled it over to the open hatch, and watching as it dropped down. Turning away from the blast I knew would follow, we heard an enormous explosion from below, the lights immediately went out as the door in front of us opened, and almost a dozen aliens started to emerge. Both the Lieutenant and I opened fire on them. If I had had time to think about it I might have lost my "lunch" the exploding bodies and c*****e was incredible, they made no attempt to shoot at us, it was obvious they were trying to get away from something. I tossed another pulse grenade through the open door with the resulting explosion slamming the door shut severing the bodies of four aliens as they tried to get through it. Signaling the Lieutenant, I shouted into my helmet comm, "Let's clear out, I have a bad feeling about this."

Wasting no more time, we took off double-time back the way we came, I felt a rumble beneath my feet, somethi9ng had been destroyed by that first grenade, something that very likely was getting ready to implode this whole meteor. On our way out, we shot three more aliens who looked as desperate as we were to escape. We had no sooner cleared the exterior blast door when we could not only hear, but feel the whole place start to go. "Get us out of here chief, this whole damned place is going up!" I shouted into my comm. We grabbed our jet packs and shot for the ship. The chief was already starting to lift off as the Lieutenant and I entered the air lock. "We're in, GO GO GO!" I shouted. I heard Magiere shouting about something over my headset but was too busy closing the outer hatch to pay her much attention. "We're under attack was all I heard, the re-pressurization seemed to take forever, but once it was safe, I popped the door and began to make a dash for the bridge. Stripping my suit on the way, I was greeted with, "Cap we're being attacked by two of their fighters, Maggie is holding one off but I'm no by god fighter pilot." "I'm on it chief," I responded, as I slid into my seat. The chief quickly headed for his duty station as I began to size up the fight. We had already taken a couple hits, but the shields were holding. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the sight of the meteor imploding, but I was too busy at the moment to pay much attention to it. Magiere was doing an excellent job of keeping one of the fighters off her tail, as I came up fast behind it pouring cannon fire into the craft. I could only do that for a second or two as the other fighter was coming at me from below. "Hang on everybody," I shouted into my comm mic, "It's gonna get rough!" I felt the hits on our underbelly but the shielding was heaviest there, quickly rolling and doing a reverse spin that felt like it would tear this ship apart, I was able to catch the alien fighter across it's engines with concentrated cannon fire, blowing it apart. Immediately going on the alert for more enemies, I hailed Magiere. "I'm fine captain!" came the reply, scratch two bandits." "Those two had to be hiding somewhere," I said, "They weren't on that meteor. A tiny voice in my head responded, "I saw where they came from captain," Nessa flew up to the scanner screen and pointed to another large meteor. "Right there." "On my lead Lieutenant, follow me go in blasting," I shouted over my comm.

Together, we attacked the meteor drifting in space, both of us pounding it with everything we had, suddenly it imploded like the other. "Scratch one bandit base," announced Magiere. We continued to maintain our vigilance for another hour, until Magiere returned to the cargo bay. Once we had a chance to eat and de-compress, I called a crew meeting. I really want to congratulate everyone, Lieutenant Dall, I'm extremely impressed by your display of professionalism and coolness under fire that you displayed today. Chief, you too, great job getting us away from that meteor. And you Lieutenant Starle, I'm also quite impressed with you're skill. You will all be mentioned in dispatches, be most assured of that. Now it's very clear they know we're here and here to play rough, Nessa! You young lady I want to especially commend, you're keen eye and presence of mind saved our royal asses today. Garet then spoke up, "Captain, I did some preliminary readings on that planet down there; the radiation readings I'm getting are rather unusual, would it be possible to check the place out?" "got a hunch about something doctor?" I replied. "Possibly," " The reason I ask is that with the radiation levels being so high in places, there should be no reason to be getting life form readings as well, but I am, this bothers me." "Hmm," I replied, "Before we do that though I want to get some rest, but I want everybody to get sleep, and we can't do that flying around, we'll find us one of these meteor's to set down on and hide." We were able to find another meteor with an overhang large enough to mask our signature, I was beat, and ready for some well earned sleep.

Personal Journal of Keith Dall;

The captain seemed quite impressed with my abilities, today, I must admit this was my first real test of live combat and I didn't fail. Once I'm home again, I will have to commend sergeant Major Collins for insisting on that room and house-clearing program, for once a training program can be directly attributable to saving a life…Mine! Something else wonderful also happened, I was just getting settled in my room when a small knock at the door and a voice said, "I trust you haven't gone to sleep yet Lieutenant?" It was Lieutenant Starle. "Well, I'm not really dressed for visitors," I replied. I heard a giggle, "Oh that's even better, are you going to let me wait out here all night?" I opened the door whereby Magiere stepped inside. "Ummm, I certainly like what I see. Actually I came down here to ask you for help Lieutenant." "And what possible help could I render," I replied. She stepped right up to me and began to run her fingers down my chest. 'Well Lieutenant, every time I return from heavy combat like that I'm just so sexed up I don't know what to do, usually I have to amuse myself, however this time I thought of you. Perhaps you get the same way, maybe we can help each other out, care to try?" By this time, her sent was overpowering, and she radiated an overpowering s****l urgency, her muscles were as hard as stone. The next thing I knew the wetness of her mouth was upon mine, and she was pulling me down.

My Journal….Magiere Starle

I'm afraid I may have come upon Lieutenant Dall a bit too strong last night, but combat does that to me, I can't help it. However the Lieutenant met and exceeded the challenge, anything I may have thought about these humans melted away last night, the man has incredible stamina, He is also quite well endowed, he had to hold his hand over my mouth to keep from waking the whole ship. Needless to say, I haven't made love like this in a very long time; the man is simply incredible, giving me much to think about.