Chapter One
Boarding Party
Duncan scanned the room. Her team was in position. All were in their light armor and behind cover. To her right was Jenkin’s group. Three men, two with rifles and Gordo the heavy gunner. They stacked up in the corridor.
The lights flashed over the docking door as the enemy ship sealed the bridge between the two ships and flooded the connection tube with atmosphere. Lights changed from a blinking red, to a stable yellow and finally green.
The doors parted on the Q-Ship. Duncan could make out that the legs that were emerging from behind the rising door were unarmored. So far, the intel was correct. They should be able to pull this off.
She sighted down her rifle and as soon as the chests of the FUP navy sailors were visible; she opened fire. Ten shots fired and all four men were on the ground. Jenkin’s had his team sprinting into the airlock across to the enemy ship.
Duncan waved her men forward to join in the assault. As far as she could tell, the enemy didn’t get out a warning before they fell. In a few seconds they had passed the tube and were in the FUP patrol ship. Jenkin’s team headed for the bridge. She was to lead her group to the engine room.
One thing they practiced with was using chalk to mark out their progress. Jenkin’s marked the corridor with an arrow for the direction his team had taken. It conveyed exactly what he did without an electronic transmission the enemy could pick up.
Duncan went the opposite direction from the arrow mark. The ship was a small escort vessel that was being used for inspections. As such, the design was rather straight forward. There was only one deck. The bridge was in the front of the patrol craft with the engine room in the rear. In between were the various crew quarters and functions needed to run the warship.
As they sprinted down the hall, a door opened to the left and an officer stepped out into the corridor. Duncan swung the butt of her rifle up into the forehead of the man and slammed him back into the room he exited. She kept running past towards her objective.
There was a distant booming sound from behind them. That was probably Jenkin’s team breaching the bridge. Ahead was a secure door for the engine room and engineering section. The closed hatch presented a problem. They only had a few seconds to get in before she estimated that the enemy would realize that they were under attack.
Copyright © 2017 CN Stoesen
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination, obtained with permission of use, or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination, obtained with permission of use, or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.