Chapter 39: Chapter Thirty Two Interruptions

The shiplord studied his screens. While not the most glorious of missions, he had been sent on one of vital importance. The Krall were fairly strong, and they needed an edge in case of a full-scale war. Otherwise, they would surely lose, even a lowly shiplord like himself could see that. The Humans had been tough in many respects fighting just one of their ships was like fighting a weaker Krall vessel. The best comparison was that a Human heavy cruiser was roughly equal in terms of combat ability to a Krall light cruiser. They only ‘won’ that war due to having superior numbers and faster ships. At least in terms of faster than light travel. If that war had gone as planned they would have had what they needed to fight the Krall on more even terms, but since the blasted Battlelord in charge of that fiasco had screwed up, and wiped their homeworld out they now needed to make new plans. Hence why he was out here, in an under-gunned freighter with second-hand components, and a stolen hyperdrive. 

His mission was a simple raid, on this Krall outpost. They were here to steal anything they could get that might even the playing field. At the moment, he was making the plan of attack, and one element that was sure to complicate things was sitting right there in a capital ship dock. It was a rather distinctive element with a black and silver hull, saucer-shaped primary hull, and outboard nacelles. The disk-shaped secondary hull was new to him, but he must not have seen ships with them or later models had gotten rid of it. He suspected the latter honestly. The ship was in all likelihood decades old, although he had never heard of encounters with their ships this far out. It was well known that they didn’t have the ability to travel between stars, not within reasonable timeframes anyway given their lack of an FTL engine.

Regardless he had to wonder what a Human ship was doing docked with a Krall outpost. It garnered questions, and more importantly complicated things. If it was an older vessel as seemed likely, its armor, engines and weapons would all likely be weaker than its size would suggest. Regardless, it was certainly going to be a complication. Human ground troops were notoriously hard to kill, and strong. If they intervened to help the outpost his mission might fail. His freighter was built for speed and had been deemed fast enough to get away, but that was against Krall ships, human vessels were notably faster on sublight. On sublight humans were among the fastest in the known galaxy. They might be able to run down his lowly freighter as he makes his escape. 

It just meant that he would have to adjust his plan of attack, but he also needed to make sure that one battleship wasn’t the only ship in the area. Their ships were also well known for not showing up on sensors unless you compensated for their dispersion plating. Unfortunately the only method to do that also cut sensor range in half, so unless you had reason to suspect they were there, you usually weren’t scanning for them. More bad news was that no scanning method, at least none that he knew of could penetrate their hulls. As such he had no way of knowing just what that ship was equipped with. He could guess, based off observations, but that would be inaccurate.

Given its probable age, it likely carried a mixed battery of laser cannons, low yield particle cannons, and a heavy battery of fusion torpedoes. It likely didn’t have the newer shield penetrating weapons, but that didn’t mean anything. Especially given his lowly freighter didn’t really have much in the way of shields, armor, or weapons. He did have a few decoy drones meant to draw attention away from the ship, so they could make the jump to hyperspace. Once in hyperspace, it would be clean sailing back to Cathamari space. He ordered a few brief scans, as they made their approach. Honestly, that one capital ship was a minor complication, it was any other ship that may be in the system that worried him more. Although there were a few ships whose brave shiplords had volunteered to provide a distraction that would be arriving soon. Those ships would likely die in the mission, but there was no helping that.

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Countryman stretched, the meeting had been dragging on for a while. They had largely finished negotiating the key points, but everyone was getting a bit tired and hungry. It was time they adjourned for a break. Williams stormed off on her own, the moment they declared adjournment. 

He sighed, and then told the one guard to go after her. It would be best if someone was around to keep an eye on her. Tika who was nearby frowned, “My translator must have malfunctioned, I didn’t catch that.”

He chuckled, “Likely not. Its programmed for American English, and I wasn’t speaking any dialect of English when I spoke to that young man. My orders were given in Japanese, his home tongue.”

Tika frowned, “You two don’t speak the same language?”

He shook his head, “Technically we do since I just spoke to him in Japanese. Although it is true that we don’t have a unified language. The majority of the people onboard however speak either American English or Japanese. A few other languages are spoken as well, but if you know just those two you can speak to just about anyone. That used to be true of our homeworld as well.”

“It was?”

He nodded, “Various dialects of English had spread around the world and had been a major trading tongue for generations. Japanese spread to much of the Asian sphere and the colonies more recently. Largely a consequence of our third world war which happened over a century ago. Quite a few major languages fell into obscurity and while others rose to prominence thanks to that war. Hell a few dialects of English also vanished during that war.”

Tika shifted her stance, “Interesting. I would have expected given your developmental age that you would have shifted towards having only one global language, perhaps with a few regional dialects, but one language nonetheless.”

“We were working on that actually, when the Cathamari showed up. You see until just a few short years ago, we were a fractured people under several different flags. The end of the Colonial wars brought all of us under one flag, but the UEF council was still debating between which of the three most widespread languages of English, Japanese, and Russian would be picked as the basis for that. English was the odds on favorite for that given it was the preferred language of the Military, but several large colonial elements were pushing for Japanese. With yet another set of elements pushing for Russian. Now the arguments are rather moot given what happened.”

Tika nodded, “I see. That actually gives me a rough idea of where your civilization is in its development. It sounds like you had a rather late unification, but that comes with its own advantages.”

Suddenly several alarms went off all at once, ending the conversation. Countryman blinked, “That wasn’t me this time was it?”

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Tika shook her head, “No that isn’t the weapon alarm.”

Before they could speculate further, an announcement came over the intercom, “Intruder alert! Repeat this is an Intruder alert. Cathamari boarding parties have been spotted on levels six, seven, eight, thirteen and twenty-nine. Non-combatants are requested to secure themselves at the nearest security bunker...”

It went on. Countryman had heard enough and turned to Tika and Eri. The remaining guard was still standing just outside this room. “Sounds like our meeting might be postponed a little longer.”

“It does. I suggest we make our way to your ship, its not too far from here. Not to mention closer than the nearest security bunker.”

Countryman opened his arm, arming his cannon. “Now I am wishing I had thought to bring another weapon.” He looked at the guard, “Chief take point, I’ll watch our rear.”

“Yes, sir.” replied the guard. It made the most sense for him to take point since he had a weapon. As for why Countryman called him Chief, that was his rank. The Marines and Navy used slightly different ranks, but they largely overlapped, and that particular rank was used by both. It was also labeled as R4 which went to show it was a fairly low rank, he wasn’t even considered an officer, as the lowest officer rank was R6 Ensign. Not that rank mattered much here. What did was who had what. Tika wasn’t armed, her fellows had left earlier just like Williams had. Although they had been a bit nicer about it. Eri also wasn’t carrying a weapon, and like him, she had a basic armored uniform. It would protect her vitals, but it didn’t have full coverage. As such only he, and the guard had any weapons, especially since he sent the other guard after Williams. As such between the four of them here, they had only two weapons, and only one of them had full combat armor. The marine had an XR-471, a good reliable, and very deadly particle weapon. While he was carrying a modified EX-94. They might be okay, but it would be best to avoid battle, especially since half their number wasn’t even armed. Not to mention only one of them had decent protection. Unless...

He turned to Tika, “Out of curiosity, is that uniform of yours armored, or do you have a personal shield of some kind?”

She adjusted her stance, “Technically yes, but its not much of a defense. I wouldn’t want to rely on it. As for a shield, I’m afraid not. Combat wasn’t high on the list of things I expected to deal with today.” She stroked her snout, “Hmm, there is an armory between us and your ship. It would be a bit of a detour, but it is much closer.”

“Good to know. Might be a good idea to stop by, and borrow a couple of rifles. While the announcement didn’t mention anyone on this level, that could change quickly. Not to mention I would feel better if everyone had a weapon at the minimum.”

“I understand, and I would like to know what Cathamari are doing on the station.”

“I would as well, but we don’t have time to speculate.”

They quickly agreed and made their way down the corridor. As Countryman had ordered the guard took point, while he brought up the rear. While the other two were in the center. If Williams hadn’t run off, Countryman likely would have been in the center with them, but there was no point considering what-ifs or complaining about what was already done. Not right now, not when there was a possibility of combat. Instead, they made their way down the corridor in silence, while keeping an eye out for hostiles.

The corridors on the Krall station were utilitarian, with metal floor plates, and ridges every few meters. Those ridges provides a bit of cover if they needed it, but some could also be found in door wells. They had plenty of light thanks to three parallel light strips mounted flush with the ceiling. It differed a bit from human construction, but it wasn’t completely alien. Given that both species were bipedal it made sense that their structures would be reasonably similar. Albeit with differences meant to accommodate their physiology. In any case, he was taking note of potential positions with which to take cover in the event of a firefight.

It was a good thing he was doing that, because they rounded a corner, and came face to face with a squad of Cathamari troops. Four of the scally bastards in full combat armor, and armed with plasma rifles. They quickly dived into cover, just as plasma splashed over their previous positions. Countryman took cover on the left side of the corridor, and popped off a shot as he slipped into the covered position. A concentrated bolt of charged particle energy shot across the corridor. The blue bolt struck a Cathamari square in the chest. It burned right through the armor, and right through the chest to splash against the wall. The material melted, and the bolt sailed through the wall, and out of sight. With a thud, the dead lizard hit the floor, while he switched settings. He didn’t want to cause a hull breach and hopefully, that shot didn’t hit anyone else on its way through the station.

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