"Commander Z'taz, It seems as though the heavy particle cannons on Pax Orbis are no longer trained on our ship." A female graxlian ensign shouted from the tactical console on the S-979's bridge.
Z'taz stood up from her chair and came up behind the green girl's shoulder. "Thank you Ensign F'Neq. Seems like whoever's in charge understands the perilous situation they're in. Let's hope their fear remains until we deploy the marines. After that, it won't matter. I'm coming for you Rowan."
"Commander?"
"Nothing." She swaggered back to the captain's chair. "Commence standard parking plan with the station's human section hangar. Deploy some escort fighters and make sure the frigates are on standby in case things go pear shaped."
"Yes Commander!"
The battlescared capital ship maneuvered like it was on invisible tracks in space as the navigational computers kept the ship on the correct course. When the flagship of the battlegroup got close enough to the station, the hangarbay doors slowly opened. Z'taz put her hand on her belly. Her heart did a flip flop at the thought of being with her new paramour Rowan. He would be the first of many. Once the graxlians had control of the station they hoped to hack into the station controls and extract the secret path through the minefield and commence raids on human settlements to exfiltrate a population of male studs. She thought to the future, when she no longer had to deal with the vulgar lizardeen.
"Miss F'Neq, it seems like their hangar bay doors have stopped opening, slow to a stop and hail them."
"Yes, Commander. Commander! A small starfighter has excited the hangar and is on a collision course with the ship!"
"A fat lot of good that will do. Our armor plating can handle one star fighter crashing into it. Fine, we'll do it the hard way. Move the marines from the docking clamp area to the attack shuttles. We'll pry those hangar doors open if we have to."
"Collision in three, two, one…no collision registered commander! Our support frigate is hailing us."
"Put them on." Z'taz said, starting to sweat.
The frigate's captain showed it on the main screen. "Commander! You must stop him!"
"Stop who?"
"That starfighter is zipping over the surface of your ship! We're detecting a power surge from it. Your sensor array can't detect it because it's too close."
Z'taz pinched her chin and muttered, "What the hell are you doing Rowan?"
…
"Yeeehaw!" Rowan pushed the throttle to the max speed and powered up the plasma beam. Flying barely a meter above the graxlian ship's greeblie, Rowan smashed the activate button on the KG-1's dashboard. Hot white plasma erupted from under the fighter's carapace. The beam poured megajoules of energy into a point no bigger than a pencil tip. The Kabutogani acted like an acetylene torch cutting through plate steel, but at lightning speed. Turning to his rearview display, the man saw a roostertail of venting atmosphere, ejected graxlian marines, and red hot slag erupt from the starship's hull.
Dicia spoke in his mind. "You've got two escort frigates coming your way."
"What are they going to do, try to shoot me? I'm right on their … oh shit!"
Bolts of blue light came down in front of him as he raced over the surface. When the energy bolts hit the ship he was attacking, they caused geysers of material and molten metal to erupt and block his path towards his end goal, which was the ship's engines. He did a barrel roll to escape the column of flaming death and to continue on his course.
Dicia spoke in his mind, "You're doing great Rowan! Once you slice open their reactor, get back in the hangar as soon as possible. I'm turning on the station defence systems now."
"Hey! I'm still on the ship!"
"Don't worry," Dicia said. "I'm only targeting the frigates and any fighters that will come next to my boy." Just as she said this he saw a flaming graxlian fighter pancake into the hull.
…Energy reserves at thirty percent…speed is twenty two hundred kilometers per hour… radiation levels rising…
Rowan knew his mission would soon be over, one way or another. He felt like he was flying off the edge of the world as he flew over the ship's engines. The roostertail went from orange to blue as the capital ship was now venting nuclear fuel instead of just atmosphere.
…
Z'taz watched in wonder at the ship's damage control monitor. The computer systems had trouble determining the scope of the problem. The display simply showed that half the ship was missing and that reactors two and five were going critical.
"My dear Rowan. Why would you do this to me? Don't you see I'm the only one for you? We were supposed to be together forever! Our children would have ruled an empire that would have spanned the stars."
"Commander! The ship is lost!"
Z'taz sat back, closed her eyes, and waited for the shockwave from the exploding reactors to hit the bridge.
…
Carmen put the nozzle of her cutting torch against the wall abutting the slime section of the station and carved a hole large enough for her to step through and then gave it a sharp kick with her exosuit boot. The slab of steel flew backward and managed to pin a lizard against the wall. The cyborg women in exosuits poured through the gap and leveled their plasma rifles at the fleeing graxlians.
"Not so tough now are you! Where's that perverted sneer now huh? Take that!" Carmen yelled as she made the fleeing invaders eat blue death. Sure the bolts of energy warped and punctured the walls, but the girls knew which walls were safe to shoot.
Lora pulled out a hyperblade and launched herself at a grouping of lizards trying frantically to reload their low velocity guns. One managed to fire a round into Lora's suit, but it just flattened against the hardened armor. The blonde grunted and then cut them down with three swift cuts.
"Eww, my suit's covered in lizard guts!"
Siren threw half a graxlian into a group of two others and yelled at Lora, "Stop complaining! We'll power wash the suits when we're done. Watch out!' She leveled her rifle and vaporized the head of a graxlian about to get the jump on Lora. Lora screamed and vaulted herself back to be at Siren's side.
"Thanks sis! I owe you one."
"Let me have your first date with Rowan then."
"Not on your life, Siren!"
"Quit your yapping girls!" Carmen pushed them forward. "If we control the next nexus we can give the lizards an escape path and flush them out of the slime section."
"Don't we want to kill them?" Siren pouted.
"Yes! But getting them away from the slimes takes priority. If we corral the graxlians in their section then we can spring the trap!" Carmen led them down the hallway with her flamethrower spraying burning fuel hundreds of feet in front of them, clearing the way. The orange light from the flame reflected in her blue eyes as she let out a battlecry.
…
Indigo's tail flicked as she slipped stealthily towards the lycan section. In this open section of the station, buildings stood three or four stories high. She spotted a pair of graxlians right under the fire escape of a building abutting the lycan section. Her kin were safe behind the security door. Indigo stalked her prey from the shadows. Indigo leapt on one and threw a dagger at another. Each of them felt a pinch in their necks and then had coughing fits as their own blood poured down their windpipes. She dragged the bodies into an alleyway before leaping into the air and catching the bottom rung of the fire escape of the building. A few moments later she was on the roof, crouching, and panting. She had spotted several lizards with long barrel guns on some of the rooftops.
Indigo tried to psych herself up. "Okay Indigo, this is the hardest part, run full bore over that gap and leap to the grate on the other side. With some luck it should cave in and I can get through. The conduit should take me right back to my apartment." She took three deep breaths and then sprinted. Time seemed to slow for her as adrenaline coursed through her body. When she leapt she heard the whistling of a low velocity round pass her and shatter the venting grate she was going to barrel through. Thanks guys!
She covered her face with her arms and tucked into a roll as she landed in the entrance to the vent. She felt a pain in one ear and reached up, the round that had let her into this tunnel had nicked the tip of her ear. She cursed before sprinting into the darkness.
…
The fox girl swung the door to her apartment open and made a dash for her communications equipment. She placed her eye over a scanner and the hyperspace communications transceiver hummed to life. Tapping in her access secret she started frantically typing out a message.
…Security alert for lycan population on Pax Orbis…Graxlians have attempted to take control… Several atrocities against civilians have been committed by graxlian forces… Request immediate assistance from the Wolfpack fleet…
Slumping into her chair, she said, "Well Teddybear, I've done my part. I hope you've cut their flagships to shreds by now, otherwise my fleet's not going to help much."