Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 416: Boarding Party
One Hour before arrival in the Sakana System.
Rico was watching as his boarding team were mostly gathered in this cargo hangar. The only ones that were not gathered here were the five mechs that were part of Captain Tyler’s team. They were waiting in another hangar since they would be climbing out and manually walking out in space to do a survey of the external part of the Fuji-8.
There were twenty five people in total that were part of this boarding party. There were the five Walker class mechs that made up Captain Tyler’s team including himself. Then there was Captain Ulin’s and the four other members of her team. Then there was Captain Maxim with his four people. Sergeant K, Ulin’s second in command, had a five man team of her own. Then Jace led the last five man team.
Jace’s team consisted of Captain Uti, Gorund Velwrench, Jack Quest from logistics, and Richter Foulm from medical. They already had the schematics for the ship and knew where to go. Jace’s team was assigned to the bridge, they would move there and see what they could find and maybe even get the ship moving again.
Captain Tyler was searching the external part of the ship with his squad. He doubted they would find anything. But Jace asked them to see if they could find anything to clarify the reason why the ship was disabled, whether it was scorch marks or something else.’
Captain Ulin was assigned to the lower crew quarters. She would be mostly searching for survivors and just about anything else she could find to explain the reason for the ship being disabled. He had as much hope about them finding anything as he had about Tyler finding something. Which was next to nothing.
Sergeant K was assigned to the upper crew quarters. That is the officer barracks and rooms. He had higher hopes for these rooms since they would have left something lying around or up even if the entire crew was lost.
Then finally there was Captain Maxim. He was going to the ship’s reactor core. He had an engineer with him so they could hopefully get the ship operational again. Jace also had high hopes for that as well. Despite their varying designs, human ships tended to be far more durable than most other designs. He learned that it was unique to their galaxy when Velwrench commented on ship designs one day.
"Why are you using a shotgun? I thought the protocol for ship boarding was that the main weapons needed to be laser based. Plasma and kinetic are far too damaging to risk it." Richter Foulm pointed out. True to his preference he was only geared up with a light armored infantry suit that was all white with a red cross on part of it. Which was there galaxies equivalent of a neutral party. He had a single Pyre as a side arm for self defense while he was carrying a large cannon shaped device that could generate a localized shield as needed. Jace had read in his file that he was a pacifist and preferred healing to doing harm of any kind. All of the teams aside from Captain Tyler’s at least had one member from medical aboard in case they found a survivor that needed medical assistance.
Jace chuckled as he put the pump shotgun on his back. It was an older version that would not easily breach the hull of a ship. "Some types are allowed. But yeah, typically you should not use kinetic weapons aboard a ship. Especially if you do not have a space capable armor or suit." He double checked Doctor Foulm’s gear before nodding. "But I do not plan to fire anyways. I will let the rest of my team do the work. I am mostly coming as an oversight and to see how you all do."
"One hour until arrival. All hands get to stations." Solisa’s voice echoed throughout the entire ship.
Jace looked at the rest of his squad to check their gear. Gorund was in a space capable armor power armor that he built himself. He had a massive battle hammer heaved over his shoulder along with a shield. All of his gear he had custom made for himself. He was really taking advantage of the Victorium’s funding.
Captain Uti had some armor that was space capable. It was Victorium made and built specifically so the Ola could function in space if needed. But it was not nearly as durable as infantry armor. He knew it too, Jace had already seen the request for a new custom set of armor. It would just take some time to get that and all the other requests through. Captain Uti’s arsenal consisted of a laser sub machine gun, a breaching laser cannon, and a laser cutter. It was an odd set of gear that he would use to breach any rooms that had been secured.
Jack Quest was more of your average soldier. He had Infantry armor in the medium type, not too armored and not too lightly armored. He had a Pyre side arm and some breaching grenades. His main weapon is a laser sniper rifle from the Victorium, apparently he had taken a liking to the weapon after the training simulations. There might not be as much use in it in a contained environment like the Fuji-8. But if there was any combat it might get used in a long hallway.
After Jace finished inspecting all the gear he let Uti and Gorund double check his own gear which was not much. "I am surprised you are not going to wear any space capable stuff. Are you expecting the ship to have an atmosphere?"
Jace shrugged and nodded at a set of gear that was off to the side. "If need be, I can just grab one of those quick and easy oxygen bubble suits." They were another new piece of gear. They came with a mask and some bracelets and anklets. They would allow a person to exist in space with their own atmospheric bubble. It is based off of the atmosphere barriers that were created for military ships.
"I figured you had your own set of gear. I have been hearing stories from soldiers for weeks about how you tear through an enemy group like it is nothing." Foulm pointed out Jace waved him off.
"He does have his own armor. Most advanced piece of technology I have ever seen. But I did not see it anywhere. Not on any logs or stored anywhere and aside from a personal weapon or sidearm. It is supposed to be registered and checked by the engineers or logistics division." Gorund pointed out.
Jace raised an eyebrow and looked at the dwarf. "What were you searching for my Spectre armor for?"
Gorund rolled his shoulders as he shrugged. "I... I needed a bit of help with how to pad the armor from Chemi-metal and a person’s body. Because the metal combination is... toxic to most creatures."
"You managed to figure out how to forge Chemi-metal?" Jace asked in surprise.
"Nope." Gorund shook his head. "But I managed to figure that out. I also figured out that it does not stop the force of the impact. It only disperses it. I assume you can use it as armor because you are so durable. But I need to make a whole new set of everything out of Chemi-metal. From the smallest bolt to the biggest plate. Otherwise it will focus the force on the non-Chemi-metal and break it."
Jace shrugged. "I have my ways. Worry less about me and more about the ship’s schematics. You understand what we need to do when we get to the bridge, correct?" 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
"I need to get the ship operational and pull up the ship logs." Gorund answered with a sigh.
"Major Jace, the politicians at the negotiation are reaching out again." Solisa announced again through his communication device.
"Ignore them." Jace answered, getting an odd look from his team. Jace shrugged, "I need to keep exposure and our approximate arrival to a minimum. Military command and MILD understand that, that is why they are not hassling me for ignoring them."
"Won’t that get you in trouble later?" Jack asked in surprise.
"Definitely, but that is a problem for later. My first priority is this unit and the mission." Jace answered. "Now then, one more time. What are all of you doing?"
Foulm stepped forward first. "I am looking for and helping survivors. In the event that there are none, I will inspect the dead to look for a cause of death." Jace nodded and turned to Jack who waved his hand.
"I am looking out for data pads and lists to see what they had on the list and a way to catalog the contents of the ship." Jack nodded.
Gorund grunted in annoyance. "Fixing the ship if possible. Getting the logs if it is not possible."
Jace looked at Uti who clicked his tongue in amusement. "I am running security and escorting them to the bridge. I have the gear to break open secure rooms if necessary."
