9 Chapter 9 :
Low Orbit, Maradisaè, 3rd of March 2119.
Starfort Eta, Living Quaters, Captain Wells's Room.
Time, 09:45
Captain Alex Wells
Captain Alex Wells woke with a start.
The door to his cabin suddenly slid open, in came Xeing and Magnler, followed swiftly by Ara, Laecian and two of his guards.
It seemed they were all woken quickly. Notably Ara seemed to be in some sort of long green nightgown, a strange sleeveless dress.
"Ara, stay here." he said, "Faen, Byrn, don't let anything happen to them."
Both guards stood to attention, their right hands folded over their chests.
Laecian nodded, "Stay here, I will see what is going on."
"Wait!" exclaimed Wells, "Where are Josh, Imogen and the others?"
"They are safe." said Laecian.
With that, he left.
Immediatly afterwards, the two guards positionned themselves by the entrance of the door, drew their swords and twisted the odd metal frame attached to their left arms. As the frames aligned with their forarms, blue energy flooded from them forming oval shields roughly 50 centimeters wide and a meter tall. Each of them then pressed their Empire's symbol, the Silver Tree, imbedded in their armour, and that too took on a bluish energy. They then took a ready stance.
"Can we see what's going on from here?" asked Wells.
Ara shook her head, "No, emergency protocols mean we cannot access mainstream information. But I can try and get us a view on active radar scans."
She gracefully darted over to the desk, where she brough up a three dimentionnal image of the planet, what seemed to be it's defensive fortifications and... the enemy.
Each enemy blip was red, and underneath it were it's ID, written in whatever language they were broadcasting.
"Ah, I can't read their language! Can you?" she glanced over at the members of the New Horizon.
Bentham quickly moved up and looked carefully at the blips.
He turned quickly, looking desperatly at his captain, "Captain! It's the UNSF Navy!"
The captain rushed over. He looked carefully at the writing.
"I recognise some of the ships," he exclaimed, pointing one of them out, "that's the Adjudicator, and the Spirit of Victory... and the Ark Royal!" he paused a moment, "Those are all warships..."
Ara looked up, "Are you attacking us?" she asked, a hint of fear in her voice.
"No!" exclaimed Bentham, anguished, "Of course not, we would never do that! They... they're... we can stop them!" he finished, his voice quiverring.
Wells didn't look up.
"Right Captain?" queried Xeing.
Wells looked over to Ara, "Can you get me to a communication relay?"
Ara nodded and went over to the door. Before she could leave, the guards stood forward, stopping her. She looked at them questionningly. The one on the right, Faen, Wells remembered, held up a slim finger. Then reached to slide open the door.
He opened it and slipped out, motionning for his fellow to follow him, but just before he could the entire station lurched. Lights flashed blue illuminating the room. A rough voice came through the intercom.
"Hull breach! Hull breach! Emergency lockdown initiated."
Byrn desperatly launched himself at the panel with inhuman speed but it shut down as his hand was caught inside it. It crushed his shield arm, sparks flying off it as technology was crushed, but he succeded in pulling his hand back.
"Curses!"
Ara quicly moved over to the conctol panel. She muttered to herself and the screen shattered. She inserted her hands inside, reconnecting wires in different patterns. She was trying to hack open the door.
"Captain...?" said Xeing uncertainly.
Wells turned from Ara to her, she was standing by the window.
"What is it?"
She pointed.
Wells walked over and squinted towards what she was designating.
Multiple pinpricks that were the UNSF Navy were visible, including the rounds that they fired, colliding with the station and causing alarms to blare. Also visible were multiple boarding craft landing on the station all around them.
"They're all landing near us." noted Xeing.
"Why? Why would they even send boarding teams?" asked Wells.
"I don't know."
