The Ink

I

Deep in the Ink of space, a bloom of bright light spiked the darkness. The Requiem of Hades exploded back into normal space. The intense radiation he collected during his superluminal flight created a bright silhouette streaking forward of the hull and then it quickly dissipated back into the fabric of the Ink.

The leading edge of the hull glowed with built up heat and faded in swirling patterns as the intercoolers did their job to prevent damage to the outer hull plating. The massive ring that encircled the hull on his rear quarter opened vents that glowed as bright as stars from the built up energy. It too would fade over time as the coil cooled with the aid of the Hades' own exhaust gasses venting across the radiator-like veins blowing some of the heat out to space. The Hades was a battle worn ship. His outer hull was still in good shape but the paint and hull markings were weathered with age and scars stood as a silent testament of battles hard won.

Semper fideles ad speciem. "Always loyal to the species."

The oath was emblazoned across the hatch of the breach pod in bright gold. Underneath it were the Three Ladies.

Without gravity within the pod, all the marines made the most of the space. Some of the greenhorns kept their eyes focused on their tasks, a trick taught in AIT for low and zero gravity acclimation, or at least to keep the greenhorns who have never been in the Ink from embarrassing themselves by vomiting (in null-gravity, all vomit is projectile vomit).

The pod was loud with everyone talking through check lists for equipment, but a thrumming hum of magnetic boots was ever present under the noise. This noise was comforting to the Major. To him, it meant that everything was working and everyone was still alive.

Major Izaks looked up at his troops as he stood on the hatch, the irony of do not step painted on the hatch did not escape some of the marines nor himself. Everyone was checking the pressure seals on their armor, double checking the ammunition and power-cells in their weapons.

"Ears to me!" Izaks threw a small holo-projector onto the hatch at his feet. The room became silent except for the magnetic boot hum and the rustle of gear being equipped. "I have a lot of new faces here today so let me be the first to welcome you to the Ink." Izaks' face expressed his age, his white hair was groomed short with a neat clean shaven face. His eyes were crystal clear and focused. The armor he wore was dinged and scratched, on the center of the breast plate was a gold oak leaf, over it was stenciled Izaks, below were the initials C H G I S.

"Here's the profile." The projection was a tactical schematic of the station; Izaks took a breath as he reoriented the image so his marines could see it. "The Home Office hasn't gotten a report from Foxtrot Sierra Three Six in four months and expects the worst. According to patrol boats and listening posts, there has been increased pirate activity, so we have been instructed to perform a sweep and squat on this station."

Requiem of Hades drifted silently toward the flower shaped space station. Frontier stations were multi-functional space stations that acted as both habitat and storage depot deep in space. The massive warship could never fit in the docking clamps on the station's main dock, its hull geometry, while great for combat, was prohibitive to accessing any of the specialized docks that hung below the habitat disk of the station.

With ease and surprising grace, the Hades drifted into a parking orientation a few kilometers from the main docks. The tactical hologram was showing the marines everything the ship was doing as well as feeding them the sensor information and communication traffic from the bridge to keep them as up to date as possible.

On the hologram, small indicators displayed Wasps and Hornets being launched from the Hades' aft section. The assault drones were taking defensive orbits in case of pirate attack. A few more drones were launched, Whiskers. Each Whisker was performing a detailed high resolution sensor scan of the station. The link quietly came to life as sensor operators and Hannibal, the Hades' intelligence, began to cross chat.

While many of the marines were not trained in much of the technical jargon, a young Sergeant was kindly translating much of what was said.

"In essence sir, the station has no power, limited air, and no outward signs of life." The Sergeant stated plainly.

"Congratulations Sergeant Perkins, your team is heading to engineering and getting that port up and running."

"Ops to Major Izaks." The link opened.

"Izaks here." He began to pull his helmet on and the other marines followed suit.

"Your breech pod is ready for launch. Your entry point will be dock seven. If your techs can't get the hatch to comply from your end, you are authorized to breach."

"Understood." Izaks turned to the other marines as he nudged the projector to turn it off, "You heard the orders. Just because the port is dead, doesn't mean that it doesn't want a body count."

The breech pod drifted quietly from Hades. It didn't take long for the pod to leave the finely manipulated gravity field of the Hades. Izaks could feel every slight turn and acceleration of the pod as it made its way to the dock, even with over twenty years of service, this always made him queasy. Hades had his floodlights glaring onto dock seven to more clearly watch the small craft make contact with the clamp. When the pod made contact it was a resonating thud that could be felt throughout the pod. The sounds of the thrusters pushing hard against the clamp with another thud as the tow cables found their marks.

"Tech squad up." Izaks yelled as he jumped off the hatch and drifted slowly into the center of the pod. Several marines drifted toward the hatch and palmed it open. The dock's hatch looked old and worn, almost like it had been sandblasted by micrometeors. One of the tech squad pulled a screwdriver from their hip bag and carefully removed a panel off of the hatch. The metal was thick and was passed back into the cabin to be examined later.

"Major, the electronics look good; we are going to link the pod's and the hatch's power and see if we can get the locks to motivate."

"Proceed. Everyone, on guard!" The front ring of marines brought their weapons to bear, aiming at the hatch. A series of pops were heard as the locks latched onto the pod and a green indicator became lit. "Okay class, time to split-" The panel showered bright sparks and then the entire pod went dead. "What was that?"

In the darkness, everyone instinctively turned on their night vision displays. "Power drain, sir. The hatch is unlocked, we are able to force it open and proceed." Perkins relayed.

"Execute." He would hang his head low in embarrassment, but fortunately for Izaks, without gravity, his head can't hang.

Two of the larger members of the tech squad pulled a pair of forced-entry-handles out of their bags. With a soft thud, they were attached to either side of the hatch. A quick three count and the two men pulled hard on their handles and forced the door to slide open. Air rushed into the station and a small mist started to roll into the pod, condensed humidity from the pressure change.

"Alpha team, move to C-and-C and hold. Bravo team, enter the habitat disk and secure. Charlie, into the docks. Delta, check for supplies in the depot. Echo team, down into the engineering core and get us running." Izaks reminded them.

"Oorah." The marines quickly disembarked.