Human Weaponry

Chapter 4: In Action

"Floriacian? We have no record of a species under that name. Nor a hostile faction near here."

"That's the name we gave them. We need to move."

Sergeant Gerrick gestured for me to follow him, and moved toward a door, raising his weapon to check around the corner. I was about to follow, then hesitated. I moved back to the table and picked up the larger pistol. Then I ran after Gerrick.

We were moving through corridors, I saw many human soldiers running in formation, going to wherever their stations were to repel boarders. The alarm continued to blare, now with a slight modification: "ALERT. THREE INCOMING BOARDING CRAFT. ALL ACTIVE UNITS MOVE TO YOUR ASSIGNED BULKHEADS." We were nearing a shaft that was to take us up toward the "bridge," as Gerrick called it when I was knocked over. It wasn't just me, other human soldiers stumbled. The entire ship had shaken, one of the boarding craft hit.

I got back up and we kept moving. We got into the room that would move us up, and I began hearing the sound of gunshots. The doors closed, and we started moving up. Sergeant Gerrick spoke to me again: "They're the reason we were "discovered" by the Federation. We encountered a distress signal from deep space, I was on the UN ship that moved to assist. We found a ghost ship, but a trail left by an FTL jump. We followed it and found some kind of camp holding the crew hostage. We stormed it and freed them. When the crew returned to Conglomerate space, they told the Federation about us."

"That's not true, we had been watching your planet, waiting for you to discover faster than light travel." My voice was shaky.

"Sorry Ozis, while we are a young species as it relates to FTL, the Federation thought it better to not alert the galactic public of a new slaver species."

This could not be happening. The galactic community hadn't seen a slaver species in decades. Although, if what this human was saying is true, that could be a lie. He was right, the discovery of a slaver species could throw the Conglomerate into chaos as the different members fight over what to do about it. Why am I objecting to their existence? They would have come from an area near the human system, an area largely unexplored. The door opened.

We ran through more corridors, seeing fewer human soldiers now. A thick door opened in front of us and we moved in. Apparently, humans, or at least Americans, called the control room of a ship the "bridge." There were soldiers dressed the same way as Gerrick, all with guns trained on the door.

When we got in, Gerrick spoke into his helmet again, "VIP secure in the bridge, how copy?" I followed him as he moved over to a screen of some sort. He pulled up a video feed, from cameras around the ship. He flipped through different views multiple times until he landed on one with a fight visible. I watched as four human soldiers were defending a corridor, using storage boxes as cover. Three dead humans lay on the ground. A large group of aliens I had never seen before were firing some form of projectile weapons at the humans.

They were awful to look at. Grey, four large arms, they were scaled like me. I watched as two of them were taken down by the defending soldiers. This was the first time I had seen human weapons used against organics. They were effective. Each Floriacian that was hit sprayed their comrades with blood and chunks of scales. I watched and grimaced as one more human soldier was struck in the chest, sparking off his body armor. The plate didn't hold, and it knocked him onto the ground. A pool of red blood starting to form around him. The three other soldiers retreated.

Gerrick shook his head and switched to another camera. "Your station's security is moving to assist, but it's not equipped to handle this. Seems like you all weren't expecting an attack here."

"There wouldn't be any armed security here normally. This is a research station. We have no record of hostiles in any system near here."

Gerrick let out a large breath. "I'm sending out a distress signal. If we can't deal with this ourselves we'll need help. I can only hope they'll get here in time. In my attack they weren't ready for us, we dealt with them quickly. These Floriacians are behaving much more organized, we may be experiencing a military force rather than pirates."

"What are we going to do?"

"If we successfully repel this attack, we'll disengage from our dock with your station, and attack the enemy frigate."

There were windows in the front of the room. I walked over to them. I could see the boarding craft, they had slammed into the hangars that held the smaller crafts I had seen earlier. The point defense turrets had rotated to aim at the enemy frigate, which was just barely visible. Most likely in preparation for potential further boarding attacks. I turned back to Gerrick, who was now talking to another soldier dressed in combat gear. I had to ask, "How did they surprise us?"

"They came out of FTL absurdly close. We obviously didn't expect an attack here, point defense wasn't operational. If they try to send a boarding party again, they won't make it. I'm sorry Ozis, I have to go assist, stay here with the command crew, they'll keep you safe."

Sergeant Gerrick ran out the door, which closed behind him. I found myself genuinely worried for him. I looked down, I still had the human weapon in my hand. I feared that I might have to use it.