The New Holland Incident

"Lynn, set yourself up behind that arch across the hallway." Southers ordered while pointing.

"Roger." Lynn said as he quickly dashed across the hallway and slid behind the archway. "Set."

"Copy." Southers responded. "Sires, set yourself up on this corner and crouch down." Southers commanded, motioning to the corner he was standing besides. "I'm going to fire over you."

Sires nodded and got into position. Southers keys his radio again.

"Riley, Lavigne, cover our arses." The Marine lieutenant said as he watched his two remaining men get into a position to watch their backs. "Fire on my mark."

The three men took aim at the oblivious aliens down the hallway, still firing away. Southers took a deep breath and let it out.

"Mark."

All three men fired. The slugs from their respective weaponry tearing through the alien pirates armor. Southers thought he could almost hear a confused squeal as the aliens were knocked forward, bits of metal and red flesh flying out of them. The whole engagement was over in less than ten seconds. Each alien had been hit with approximately six slugs, each square in the back. Southers motioned for his Marine team to slowly advance, keeping their weapons trained on the downed aliens the whole while.

"Police the rifles." He said as they moved up on them.

That order consisted mainly of the Marines kicking the rifles away from the downed aliens, far enough that they couldn't reach, just in case. Southers gave one a probing kick. It didn't move. Lynn did likewise to the other to the same effect.

"Think it's safe to say their dead, sir." He could hear Lynn say.

Southers grunted in acknowledgment. He was about to attempt to flip one over when he heard Lynn speak up again.

"I got movement down the hallway." The Marine said, shouldering his weapon once more and aiming it in the general direction.

Southers shifted to look as well. He could see a pair of, what looked like hands? They were outstretched out of a door down the hallway. A squeaky voice seemed to accompany them. While his suits audio translation program analyzed the language, Southers keyed his external speakers.

"This is Leftenant Brock Southers of the British Royal Marines. Come out nice and slowly with your hands up. You will not be harmed if you comply." He commanded.

It took a couple of seconds but eventually a gray clad bipedal alien walked into view. It's hands were up awkwardly and Southers could see a look of pure fear in it's eyes. The creature was just about the same height as he was (around 180cm) with yellowish skin, two green eyes, small what looked like a nose and mouth and tendrils on the top of it's head. The creature spoke again, this time his suit caught the language and gave him a crude, but understandable translation.

"You are British? You come to save we?"

Southers thought the voice sounded feminine, but since it seemed to lack breasts or any other marker that he associated with female he could only speculate.

"Yes." Southers responded. "We're from the British Commonwealth. We're here to help."

At first the Marine had thought he had said something wrong, that the words hadn't translated appropriately to 'her'. The alien fell to it's knees and began to cry. Streaks of clear liquid ran down it's face. Southers turned to face Lynn who was now flanked by Sires. Lynn just gave him a shrug. The Marine lieutenant turned back to the crying alien. He was about to try and word it another way when the alien stopped sobbing for a moment and spoke.

"Thank you British! Thank you!."

Trivate Charters Transport Ship Hyande Val-Askanse

British Commonwealth Claimed System of 'New Holland'

Vas had never been so happy to not actually see someone in her life. She was only saying that because the British's armor had a full faced helmet that obscured it. But that didn't matter because now they were here. Vas could feel a wave of relief wash over her. It was only a couple of minutes ago that she was certain that she was going to die. The lone Lohi pilot had been carrying Rent towards the shuttlebay when his condition had suddenly started to sharply deteriorate. It seemed as though the painkillers she had given her injured companion had begun to wear off. The two decided to stop to let him rest for a moment and gather his strength. It was then that they were unfortunate enough to run into a Breten Hvas patrol seemingly quite panicked and running through the corridor that they now shared. Vas had managed to hide Rent in an open custodial closet before the two Siven noticed her and opened fire.

Vas had tried to return fire, but her own inexperience with the weapon she carried lead her to fire wildly and seemingly hit everything but her assailants. It had got to the point where she had simply dropped her rifle and tried to make herself as small as possible behind an archway as the two pirates continued to shoot immanent death all around her. Her heart had been beating so fast that Vas thought she might die of cardiac failure before the Hvas bullets took her. That was when a series of new bangs echoed through the corridor. It was louder than the noise of the Siven rifles, about a dozen thumps that resonated to her core. The new noise had stopped almost as soon as it had started, and with it the sounds of the Breten Hvas rifles. It took Vas what seemed like an eternity to gather up the courage to peak around her little piece of cover.

This time instead of the quadruped Siven she saw five bipedal xeno's, taller than the Siven, clad in heavy looking armor and wielding weapons of their own. She watched one of the armored aliens give a probing kick to one the now floored pirates. Vas felt she could tell by the body language that the alien seemed satisfied that it wasn't going to get back up. As she looked it seemed that one of the others noticed her and raised it's weapon towards her. She quickly ducked back into her cover and awaited a new hail of bullets to rain down over her. When that didn't happen, Vas considered that maybe these xeno's weren't with the Breten Hvas. Maybe these were the British. She didn't know what the British wore as armor, so this could very well be them. Carefully she stuck her hands out around her archway. It was a gesture among her people that she meant no harm.

"Please don't shoot! I'm part of the crew!" Vas made sure to announce.

Vas was confident that these newcomers didn't want her dead as her hands were still attached when she heard one of them speak.

"This is Leftenant Brock Southers of the British Royal Marines. Come out nice and slowly with your hands up. You will not be harmed if you comply." The armored individual commanded.

At least her translator recognized the language. Vas did as the voice demanded and stood up and out of her hiding place, making sure to extend her arms more up, as was requested. Her breath shallowed as she walked towards the imposing figures in front of her. The armored aliens were now all pointing their rifles at her. Her heart began to pump furiously once more as a cold metallic taste entered her mouth. Once she was fully exposed she swallowed as hard as she could and spoke up again.

"You're the British? Have you come to save us?" Vas inquired, trying, and failing, to sound less scared than she was.

"Yes." The armored British replied. "We're from the British Commonwealth. We're here to help."

Vas could feel her whole lower body start to become weak. Before she had realized she had done it she had fallen to her knees and streams of tears were flowing out of her eyes. She did it! They did it! They survived and now they were being rescued! Through her tear blocked vision she could see the British lower their weapons. The one that had spoken to her, the one she assumed was in charge, made a small tilt of it's head and turned to look at the one beside it. The other made a simple up and down motion of it's shoulders before the leader turned back to her. Before it could say anything else Vas blurted out a string of thank yous between her tears. When her tears started to subside she noticed that one of the British was now kneeling in front of her. The others seemed to be on alert, watching every direction in what seemed like a very professional manner.

"Are you hurt?" The leader, Brock Southers, who was the one kneeling in front of her, asked her.

"No." Vas replied, trying to wipe as may of the tears away from her face with the sleeve of her jumpsuit as she could. "But my friend has been shot, he needs help."

Brock Southers head seemed to move slightly and then another one of the soldiers hurried over and knelt with them. Vas figured that they must be talking to each other inside of their suits.

"Can you show us where he is?" Brock Southers asked.

"Yes." Vas said before attempting to stand back up. The Lohi could feel a hard metallic gauntlet help her as she did. "He's back here in the custodial closet."

Vas lead the five 'Marines' to where she had left Rent. She quickly opened the door and rushed in, dropping down to her knees beside the wounded reptilian.

"Rent, British arrive." She said switching back to Teheki and grabbing his hand. "They time save us."

Rent cracked a small smile. Vas could see his eyes look past her to where she assumed at least one of the armored soldiers was standing.

"Looks like you were right after all." Rent said, and action that seemed to cause him more pain than before.

One of the British that wasn't Brock Southers came into the closet and knelt beside Rent. He seemed to unfasten some kind of kit from one of his armors side pouches.

"Hey, my name is Edan." Vas could hear the new British say. "I'm a medic. I'm going to see if I can help you. What's your name?"

Vas knew that Rent wouldn't be able to understand a word Edan was saying. So she spoke up for him.

"His name is Rent. He lost his translator when he was injured." Vas made sure to explain. "He was shot in the chest. I filled the wound with medical foam and gave him a painkiller but I fear it's started to wear off."

Edan turned to look at her. "How are you two communicating then?" The British asked.

"We know a language in common. I'm not very good at it, but I know some basics." Vas responded, suddenly feeling a little proud that she had been able to make it this far without being able to properly talk to Rent.

Edan nodded and then turned towards where Brock Southers was standing.

"Leftenant, do we have any spare translators? The patient lost his and can't understand me." Vas could hear Edan say. Apparently the man had forgotten to turn off his outward speaker before calling his leader. "Alright, copy that." Edan turned back to face Rent and Vas. "It doesn't seem like we have any spare personal translators that can translate into non-Human languages. Can you tell him that I want to take a look at his wound?"

Vas complied and informed Rent that Edan was a medic and he needed to check his wounds. Rent weakly smiled and gave the okay. While Edan was checking out her handiwork, Vas couldn't help but think about the word he had used. Non-Human? What was a Human. Was that his planet? The solar system maybe? Vas couldn't keep her curiosity to herself and before she could stop herself she found herself asking.

"Edan," The young Lohi began. "I thought you were British. What's Human? Is that your planet?"

Edan let out a little laugh. "I'm Human, we're Human." He said as he pointed a single gloved digit, it looked like an opposable thumb, back towards his companions. "Our home planet is Earth. We're from the British Commonwealth. It's one of the many nations that live there."

"Oh," Vas said, suddenly feeling a little stupid. "I've been calling your species the British this whole time."

Vas could hear Edan let out a louder laugh this time.

"I know of a couple of hardliner politicians who would love that you just said that." The Marine said.

Vas cocked her head slightly. She had no idea what that meant either. This time she figured she wouldn't press it. Edan stopped with his examination of Rent for a moment and raised his hands to the neck of his suit. With a slight hiss and a pop he removed his helmet and set it on the deck. Vas now got her first real look at a Briti- Human. Edan had pink colored skin, with two eyes, a nose larger than hers and a mouth much the same. He also had two of what Vas suspected were some kind of ears and the top of his head was a very short and stubbly carpet of brown hair. He kind of looked like a Kai'ani with a shorter face. He wasn't what she would associate as being attractive, but he wasn't unpleasant to look at either. Edan caught her staring and gave her a smile before refocusing on Rent. He peeled back Rent's bandages and took a closer look at the wound. It had started to bleed again. The medical foam was starting to come loose. Vas could see a concerned looking expression come over Edan's face.

"If you were Human I know exactly what to do to fix this up." The medic said, letting out a sigh. "I don't know your physiology so I have no idea if anything I have can really help." He turned to face Vas. "Can you tell him that?" He asked but not before adding in. "If he says it's okay I'll try to treat him like I would any Human, but I don't know what our medicines could do to him."

Vas gave a small nod and turned to Rent.

"Edan say want you he fix as Human. Unknown fix how will effect you. Confirm?" Vas told her companion to the best of her ability.

Rent let out a painful sigh. "Well it sounds better than slowly bleeding out." Rent said as he turned his head to face the Human medic. "Treat me like you know how to. I won't blame you if it doesn't work."

With that confirmation Edan opened up his medical kit and began treating Rent. He first injected him with some kind of syringe. Within seconds Vas noticed as Rent's eyes started to get heavy and go somewhat blank. Next Edan withdrew some kind of small pouch and pressed it into the wound. Vas could see Rent wince slightly but the man seemed to be a little too drugged up to really feel it too much. The Human medic continued to clean the wound and re-bandage it, all the while making sure that Rent was still relatively awake and alert.

"How's it going." Vas could hear Brock Southers say behind them.

"I've really done all I can, Sir." Edan responded. "We really need to get him back to the ship and get him some proper xeno-medical attention."

"That might be a bit of an issue." Brock Southers said, a stern tone with a hint of annoyance laced his words.

Both Vas and Edan turned their full attention to him. By the way that Edan made a glance at his helmet Vas figured that if he had kept it on he would have been in the loop. Too late for that now though.

"Sir?" Edan said cautiously.

"I just received a message from the shuttle pilot." The lead Marine said rather ominously. "We've just lost contact with the Battleaxe."

February 2nd, 2172 -- 1238 Hours Local Time

Commonwealth Patrol Ship HMS Battleaxe

Commonwealth Controlled Space, New Holland System

The side of his face hurt. It took him a moment but he slowly came to remember. He was on the deck, laying beside his chair. Llewellyn shook his head in an attempt to clear the haze. His vision was still half blurred but his hearing had started to return. An alarm... a decompression alarm, was blaring in his ear. He could hear voices, familiar voices. Commander Haynes. He touched the left side of his head. It was sore. His vision started to clear more. He pulled his hand away and looked at it. Blood. Only a little bit though. His memories started to fill themselves back in. He had hit his head on his terminal. Yes, that was right. He had hit is head on the terminal when the inertial dampeners cut out.

It had been an odd feeling. The artificial gravity had failed when the dampeners went offline, causing Llewellyn to begin to float momentarily. That was before the ship was... hit. Yes hit for a second time causing it and everyone in it to lurch to the side. So he hadn't so much hit the terminal as the terminal had hit him. That was what he got for not strapping himself down. The gravity seemed to be back on now. He began to pull himself back onto his chair. Commander Haynes was still yelling... something. Llewellyn still couldn't quite make it out. He looked at his XO and tapped on his ear then pointed upwards. Hoping she understood that he couldn't hear her. She seemed to get the message and killed the alarm.

"Status Commander!" Llewellyn yelled a bit too loudly.

"We've been holed! Damage reports coming in from all departments!" Haynes yelled back to him, either not bothering or not caring to adjust her voice to the now more silent room. "The smaller ship seems to have some kind of miniaturized mass driver that can punch right through us. It's throwing out more firepower than a ship of that size should really be capable of!" She exclaimed, pausing a moment before continuing. "The last two shots went right through the computer core. We're dead in space until we can bypass. We've got gravity and dampeners back. Still working on engines and weapons. We're down to maneuvering thrusters for now."

Llewellyn grimaced. "Alright, thank you Commander." He turned his attention to his ship operations officer. "Mister Belvins, when can we get our systems back online?"

"Damage control teams say there is a fist sized hole straight through the computer core, sir." A very disheveled lieutenant Belvins responded. Llewellyn could see a fear in his eyes that he'd never seen before. A trickle of blood ran down the lower part of the young mans face seeming to originate from his nose. "And we're having trouble bringing the backups online. There was a power surge through the system which knocked the emergencies offline. We're trying to work around it, but there is really no telling how long that could take."

Llewellyn pursed his lips and brought his hands up to his chin. They were essentially sitting paralyzed and pacified. The computer core taking a direct hit was devastating. Next to the reactor the computer core was one of the more heavily armored parts of the ship. If the aliens had been able to puncture it with such ease, it didn't bode well for their chances.

"Do what you can Mister Belvins." The lieutenant snapped off a quick 'Aye' and returned to his work. Captain Llewellyn turned to again face his XO. "Commander, do we still have comms? We need to contact the Churchill." He asked, hoping for at least some good news.

"Negative, we only have internal radios." His XO replied. "No doubt Captain Hilton saw what has happened, sir. I doubt there is much he could do at this point. We'll be on our own for now."

"Bloody hell." The Captain said, rubbing the side of his face once more, clenching his teeth as he passed over a particularly sore spot. "Commander, I want priority repairs to our engines. I don't want to be a sitting target for any longer..."

"Captain! New radar contacts!" A sudden shout interrupted. Llewellyn quickly forgot what he was saying and snapped his attention towards Ensign Emilia Smyth, his warfare specialist and senior weapons officer. "Shuttles matching the configuration of the enemies boarding craft have disembarked from Hostile One!"

Hostile One? That was the ship they had originally 'killed' with their opening mass driver shots. Or at least they had thought they had killed. Apparently these aliens had more surviveability than they had originally thought.

"Destination?" Llewellyn inquired, wondering to himself how many more of those craft the aliens had.

"Unknown yet." The officer replied.

"They might be trying to reinforce their position on board the transport." Commander Haynes suggested, scanning over the radar telemetry that they thankfully still had.