The New Holland Incident

"I suppose Captain Hilton briefed you before you came aboard?" Llewellyn asked as he motioned for the Marine Lieutenant to follow him into a small briefing room that was set aside for use by the ships pilots.

"Aye, that he did." Southers replied, declining with a shake of his head when Llewellyn offered him a seat at the rooms small desk. "We're going in hot to secure a xeno civilian transport from hostile persons unknown. We are to locate and secure any hostages, eliminate all hostiles, and extract back to the ship in time for dinner."

Llewellyn cracked a smile. "That is the gist of it, yes. It may be a little more complicated then that however."

"It's nothing my boys can't handle." Southers said with an air of confident assurance.

"Are you sure?" Llewellyn asked, knowing the response would undoubtedly be 'Yes'. It was always yes. "We have no intel on enemy strength or even who they are. You sure you and your men are up for going in blind?"

"Sir," The response came with a stern tone. "Four-Three Commando have trained for exactly this kind of operation. My Marines know exactly what to do and how to do it. We will succeed or die trying. His Majesty's Royal Marines do not abide failure."

The captain couldn't help but smile again. "I have the utmost confidence in you and your men." Llewellyn said, leaning forward in his chair. "Those whoever the hell they are out there are committing acts of piracy within sovereign British territory. And as such we need to show them that the Royal Navy won't sit idly by while innocents are marauded." The captain found himself taking a pause, more for dramatic effect than anything else. He sat up straighter in his chair and continued. "Your orders are clear. Pacify any resistance on that ship by any means necessary and evacuate those innocents. Other than that, I leave full operational control with you when you get over there. I'm trusting your judgment on this."

"Yes sir! We'll give them a lesson in British civility that they won't soon forget." Lieutenant Southers said rather enthusiastically, and with a slightly sinister smile.

"Excellent." Llewellyn said with a slight nod. "Our operational window is not very wide, so have your men gear up and on the shuttles as soon as possible. Dismissed."

The Marine commander gave another crisp salute and walked out of the briefing room and disappeared into the hallway the two had just come from. Llewellyn relieved himself from the small briefing room and made his way back up to the bridge. The command deck's atmosphere had the same bustle of activity as when he had left. He sat back in his command chair and brought up his terminal. They had about ten minutes before they were in optimal weapons range. Telemetry from the drones had reported that the unknown ships had started to move in a slight defensive pattern. Seemingly anticipating and reacting to their approach. The Captain let out a mental sigh. Some of those pre-combat jitters were starting to creep up on him.

He shook them off as best he could. It wouldn't be long now before their plan would be set into motion. Thirty Marines (twenty from the Churchill and ten from the Battleaxe, Marines were left on both ships in the event of getting boarded themselves) would man the three shuttles from the Churchill and four more from Battleaxe. They would be covered as best as they could be by the far side of the Battleaxe until they were in close enough to attach themselves to the hull of the transport and breach in. From there Churchill and Battleaxe would secure the surrounding space and extract any survivors. A simple enough plan, Llewellyn thought. However he couldn't help but remember an old adage he once heard. 'No plan survives contact with the enemy.'

Speaking of enemy contact, Llewellyn couldn't help but notice that it had just about become that time. A report crossed his screen that the Marines had been loaded and the makeshift airlocks secured. All they were waiting on now was clearance to launch. With a quick shout to Commander Haynes, the Captain ordered the shuttles released. With that first step complete, he turned his attention to the three enemy ships.

The pirates were now close enough that the light lag between them was almost non existent, and as such all three ships were now being constantly painted by the two Commonwealth warships ranging lasers. Despite their movement into defensive positions, the enemy ships were still too close to the transport for Llewellyn's comfort. They had to get them to break off. They did have a plan, but before anything could set it in motion there was one last little thing to take care of. The Captain ordered a general channel opened and directed towards the three ships.

"Unidentified vessels, this is Captain Llewellyn of the British Commonwealth ship HMS Battleaxe. You are currently in violation of Commonwealth anti-piracy laws within sovereign Commonwealth territory. Power down your ships and prepare to be boarded for inspection. Failure to comply will be regarded as a hostile action and will be dealt with accordingly. This is your first and only warning. HMS Battleaxe out."

The Captain didn't expect an answer, but by law he had to give them the option. Several minutes passed with no response from the alien vessels. Just as well, Llewellyn thought. Piracy was once punishable by death. And if the aliens didn't want to surrender, well, Llewellyn really had little choice.

"Captain," The voice came from Lieutenant Belvins. "We're seeing energy spikes from the alien ships. Best guess is they're powering up their weapons."

"Well, I suppose that answers that." Llewellyn said under his breath. He cleared his throat and spoke up. "Weapons, bring the drivers and PDC's online and open the missile tubes. Prepare for target priorities."

An 'Aye sir' could be heard as Llewellyn focused his attention back to Lieutenant Belvins. Time to spring the trap.

"Mister Belvins, have drone two target the far right ship, designated Hostile One, and prepare for missile launch."

Once again an 'Aye sir' could be heard. Each drone carried two small missiles. Far too weak to really do any significant damage to a ship any larger than a shuttle however. They were mainly intended for use in support of ground operations. However Llewellyn was hoping to use them as a way to 'shake the bee hive' so to say. They would launch a probing attack against one of the ships in hope that it would draw out to engage the drone, effectively moving it out of range of the transport. The plan was mostly riding on the hope that the alien pirates were just about as disciplined as the regular Human pirates (meaning not very).

"Target lock established." He could hear Belvins say.

The captain hesitated for a second before finally speaking. "Launch missiles."

Llewellyn turned his head to look at his terminal screen. The ships radar now showed two small contacts streaking away from one of the drones and towards one of the small alien ships. The missiles covered the distance with amazing speed. Not having to fight air resistance meant the solid fuel engines were able to reach their maximum efficiency in a very short time. At about the half way mark Llewellyn started to see movement from the alien ships. The ship farthest to the right, the same one they were targeting, started to move towards the incoming missiles. The other two ships seemed to begin moving as well. The other small ship, which just happen to be the farthest left, began moving in the direction of the other drone which had still yet to fire. The largest ship on the other hand pointed itself squarely towards the two oncoming Commonwealth ships.

"Weapons fire from Hostile One!" Lieutenant Belvins shouted, a hint of excitement could be heard in his voice. "Some kind of countermeasure aimed at drone two's missiles."

Llewellyn watched as the countermeasures appeared on the radar and made their way toward the incoming drones missiles. It wasn't long before whatever it was impacted the oncoming weapons and both blips fell off the radar screen. He didn't necessarily need Lieutenant Belvins to tell him that the drones missiles had been neutralized, but nevertheless after his officer had finished informing him Llewellyn ordered the remaining drone to loose it's compliment of missiles as well. The distraction, for what it was worth, seemed to be working. The two small escorts had peeled off their formation with the central ship in favor of engaging the Battleaxe's drones. Hostile One had now moved far enough away from the transport that Llewellyn now felt more confident in engaging them.

"Weapons, target Hostile One with the Hypervelocity drivers. Once you have a solution, open fire." The Captain commanded.

No more than twenty seconds later the Battleaxe shuttered. A pair of deep thumps could be heard, and felt, vibrating through the ships superstructure. Railgun shells were slightly hard to track given their high relative speed and small profile, nevertheless two parallel high speed projectiles were now showing on the radar screen. They weren't there long however. Soon the projectiles met with their target and a hit was confirmed. Physical telescopes were showing that both shells hit their target square on, punched right through their hull nearly center mass, and kept on going. 'Well I suppose that answers the armor question', Llewellyn thought to himself.

The shells appeared to hit the alien ship so fast that it took a few seconds for it to actually respond. The areas around the holes began to vent, throwing gasses, debris and flash frozen shards of ice into the surrounding space. The ship itself held together, but had now lost power to it's engines and was beginning to rotate on an axis around its wounds. The other two ships certainly took notice of their comrades fate and began pulling evasive maneuvers, bobbing and weaving in an attempt to throw off any target locks they might have. The Captain almost didn't hear when Belvins called out again.

"Drone one's missiles intercepted and destroyed. Ship designated Hostile Two is firing additional weapons at the drone." The Lieutenant reported, pausing for a moment before continuing. "Drone one taking fire... hit, contact with drone one lost."

That was to be expected. Llewellyn didn't expect the drones to be able to put up much of a fight once their payload was shot. But they had done what he wanted, and the fights numbers had been evened out. Time for phase two.

"Mister Shepard, inform the Churchill to begin attack run." Llewellyn commanded while turning to his XO. "Commander deploy the Marines." He said before once again turning to face out to the bridge. "Helm, forward full thrust. Intercept course to the transport. Once the Marine shuttles are set make sure to cover them with our broadside. Weapons, designate targets of opportunity and fire at will."

A flurry of 'Aye, sir's responded to him and before long the battle started in earnest.

February 2nd, 2172 -- 1220 Hours Local Time

HMS Battleaxe Boarding Shuttle

Commonwealth Controlled Space, New Holland System

Southers sat strapped in as he felt the artificial gravity of the hangar bay leave them. This shuttle wasn't as crammed full with Marines as the one he had rode over from the Churchill. Looking out through the visor of his hardsuit's helmet he could see a trio of the same gray camo-clad suits as the one he wore. No outward markings other than a stenciled name tag and a British flag to tell them apart. Of course his suit's bluforce tracking told him who exactly he was looking at via the HUD on his visor (along with his suits battery power and oxygen levels). The three men that sat across from him were Marine's Robbie Sires and Alistair Riley along with Lance Corporal Edan Lavigne. Sitting beside him was Sergeant Francis Lynn. Together the five men made up the strike teams Alpha squad. Lynn, Lavigne and Sires came from Southers own Marine regiment while Riley was part of the Battleaxe's on board Marine detachment.

Southers had decided to take to commanding a squad himself. Not exactly standard operating procedure he admitted. However the Captain had given him full authority over the 'ground' theater of this little operation, so the decision was really only his to make. The shuttle had started to jerk almost the moment they left the bay. Evasive maneuvers no doubt. Southers had no way of seeing outside so he could only speculate. He could have tuned into the pilots frequency and have a listen, but opted to sit quietly and run over engagement scenarios in his mind. His squad had barely said a word as well. Riley and Sires had chatted for a bit just before take off. That had however ceased now. No doubt that they were attempting to focus as well.

"Five minutes to touchdown!" Southers could hear their shuttle pilot's voice bellow from his suits radio after a particularly sickening jolt downwards.

Southers mind shifted gears. He went over the deployment plan again in his head. The shuttle would land and engage a magnetic seal to the transports hull. Once secure the Marines would then open the shuttle's bottom cargo hatch and attach thermite breaching charges to the hull and effectively melt a hole to which they could enter. The squad would then breach in, clear the immediate area, and set up the emergency airlocks. Once accomplished his team would begin to search their designated section of the ship, eliminate all hostiles and recover any survivors. Simple in theory. It was never that easy in practice however. They had zero intel on who or what exactly the pirates were or on their armor and armaments. So while Southers remained optimistic, he prepared himself for the worst.

The shuttle banked again, throwing Southers back into his seat. This variant of shuttle had little in the way of inertial dampening, so the passengers could feel every little movement the pilot made. The Marine really didn't want to think about what they were flying through. With one final jerk and a very unceremonious bang, the shuttle pilot informed his passengers that they were down and locked to the transports hull. Without a word being said the five Marines unbuckled their harnesses and went to work. Everything had been briefly rehearsed ahead of time. Riley opened the sliding cargo doors, Lavigne and Sires began placing the thermite strips. Meanwhile Southers readied his weapon. It was a semi-automatic magazine fed shotgun designed for close quarters engagements.

It was currently loaded with soft metal buckshot as a precaution. Normal buckshot could never pierce the hull of a standard Human designed ship, but seeing as this wasn't a Human ship the Marines decided to air on the side of caution. He and Lynn were planning on being the first ones in, much to Lynn's disagreement about his CO taking point. Regardless both men readied themselves as the last of the breaching strips went down and the men who laid them pushed off out of the way (the shuttle still being in micro gravity). Southers made a quick nod to Lavigne and the interior of the shuttle was filled with the light of a small star. The visor on Southers hardsuit was slightly tinted, but he still had to avoid his eyes regardless. After a few more moments of intense light, the dull red ambiance of the shuttle returned. The glowing molten square where the thermite had super heated the metal hull now adding it's own light to the mix as well. Sires and Lavigne quickly moved themselves to opposite corners of the newly cut hole and braced themselves along the shuttles frame. In unison both men brought their legs up and then down, striking the piece of hull with all their strength.

An audible pop could be heard as the breached piece of metal fell away from it's previous resting place in the hull at a ninety degree angle, now caught in the transports artificial gravity. A small torrent of air could be felt as the shuttle and the alien transports corridor that it was now attached to rushed to equalize air pressure. Southers gave Lynn a three fingered countdown. Once it reached one both men pushed off the roof of the shuttle and into the alien ship. They way the shuttle had attached to the ship the two men floated in parallel to the floor until the gravity caught them, pulling them out of the air and onto their sides, each facing a different direction looking down the corridor.

"Left clear!" Southers yelled into his suits radio, not seeing anything in his immediate field of view.

"Right clear!" Lynn echoed him.

Both men got up into a crouch, still scanning their respective sectors. Southers could hear as Lavigne, Sires and Riley exited the shuttle one by one. Southers knew without having to look that the three men would be assembling and attaching the emergency portable airlock over the breach, and it wasn't two minutes later that he had got confirmation of success. The rest of his squad took up defensive positions around their beachhead while Southers keyed his radio in preparation for the next part of the operation.

"This is Alpha team, breach successful. No contacts. All teams report in." The Marine lieutenant ordered.

"Bravo team here. Breach successful. No contacts."

"Charlie team. We're in, no contacts."

"Delta team here. We're in but we've got a man down. Hostile contacts are four legged creatures in some kind of red and black armor. We were engaged as soon as we breached in. They're equipped with some kind of armor piercing rifles. Recommend switching to armor piercing rounds as well. The soft buck is ineffective against their armor."

Well it was a good idea anyways, Southers thought as he switched his shotguns magazine for one with slugs. The rest of the teams reported in. Everyone had made it in, all the way to team Golf. Delta and Echo had contacts engaged right off the bat, while Foxtrot was reporting that they were still in an active firefight with a group of the four legged aliens. Delta was still the only team to take a casualty so far. The inside of the transport was as alien as Southers was expecting. The artificial gravity was set at about half a G and the oxygen content was only about three-fifths of Earth normal. Still plenty breathable enough that they didn't have to waste their suits oxygen reserves. The inside was bathed in a sooth blue-white light which bounced elegantly over the rounded, and quite tall, arched corridors and bulkheads. The bulkheads themselves were a sterile looking white with the occasional deep blue octagonal symbols which contained more symbols and triangles pointing in different directions.

Alien directions, Southers figured. The team moved in a rough diamond formation. Southers and Lynn took point while Lavigne and Sires took left and right respectively. Leaving Riley to watch the rear. His teams delegated objective was to recon one of the ships rear cargo holds. The Marines had figured that if the alien pirates had taken any hostages, an area like a cargo bay might be a good place to hold them. Southers and his Alpha team continued to creep through the alien transport. There were a handful of doors along their path and the team stopped to stack up and clear them each time they ran across one. They mostly seemed to be cabins. All empty except for one which held the toppled over corpse of some reptilian looking alien, laying in a pool of red liquid. They had stopped to check on it, only to discover that a neat hole had been carved in it's chest and all life had been drained out of it some time ago. Southers knew that while they were expecting this, it was still discouraging for the first xeno they found to be laying face down in a pool of it's own blood.

The team left it be and continued on their way. As they approached the end of their corridor, a sound caught the teams attention. It sounded to Southers like some kind of gunfire. Definitely not one of theirs however. It was a series of concussive sounding whistles, and by the amount of them, it appeared as so a firefight was occurring. Southers ordered his team to double time it, and the five men picked up their pace through the corridor. They stopped at a T-junction. The firefight seemed to be happening just to their left. Southers took a peak around the corner. About ten meters down the hallway were a pair of four legged creatures, very adamantly laying down a blanket of fire at something, or someone, just out of sight. The aliens had their back to Southers, obviously more interested in whatever they were shooting at than at covering their rears. A mistake that Southers planned to wholly take advantage of. Taking stock of his environment, the marine lieutenant noticed a lip from one of the many archways that made up the ships corridors. It was just thick enough maybe to hide one of his men behind. Southers keyed his squad radio.