u/Competitive-Food8407

Sorry this one is a little late everyone. I've been busy with work this week so I didn't get the time to write like I usually do. There are probably some spelling errors as I have only been able to go over this once since I just finished it this evening. As always Thank you all so much for reading. C&C welcome. You all are really helping out and I hope it is making the story better for you all.

This week we find the Ironsides making a mad dash to get off the planet and out of the system. New problems pop up, but they do their best to fix what they can.

December 26, 3067 Outreach

The screaming of the Ironsides’ main engine was a sound Marcus would never forget during that very launch. Inside the claustrophobic darkness of his powered down Nova Cat’s cockpit he was pinned flat against his command seat by an invisible crushing weight. The dropship’s massive fusion torches were burning at a brutal two and a half G’s to claw their way out of Outreach’s gravity well. Every bone in his body ached. The pressure on his chest made each breath a calculated struggle, his lungs fighting the heavy pull of the ascent. His neurohelmet felt like a block of lead pressing down on his head.

"Focus on your breathing everyone." Marcus groaned over the unit tactical net, his teeth gritted against the crushing G-forces. His voice came out as a strained raspy wheeze. "Stay locked into those couches. Do not attempt to pop your canopies until Elena clears us for normal gravity."

"Copy that, chief." Jax choked out. His voice was a thin, panicked squeak. Strapped tightly into his Assassin, the young pilot was experiencing the raw, violent reality of a combat launch for the very first time, or any sort of launch as he had never left his home world before. His vision was tunneling at the edges a gray haze creeping into his eyes as the immense pressure tried to pull the blood from his brain. "I think... I think my ribs are throwing a code."

"Breathe through it kid," Irina encouraged from her Vindicator’s cradle. Her training had prepared her for high G burns, but even she couldn't hide the sharp ragged edge to her voice. "Focus on the breathing like mechanic said."

The Ironsides’ primary sensor feeds painted a harrowing picture of the Outreach sky. The Am Numsan spaceport had become a graveyard of burning steel and plasma. To their starboard side a Union class mercenary dropship punched through the low cloud deck its engines roaring with a clean blue flame only to be detonated by an intersecting capital ship laser firing from a Word of Blake destroyer in high orbit. The Union tore apart in a silent blinding flash its debris raining down from the lower atmospheric layers. Moments later a massive civilian liner, packed to the bulkheads with fleeing refugees suffered a catastrophic failure after a missile strike. It listed heavily to the left, caught the trailing thermal wake of another dropship ahead of it, and tumbled end over end before being torn apart under the forces pulling at it.

"We have three... no, four more detonations below us." Elena’s voice cut through the static, strained but fiercely authoritative as she managed the dropship's helm. "The airspace is completely saturated with debris and interceptors. I am burning the engines to the absolute limit. Brace for evasive action!" The ship violently jolted sideways, a sickening move that sent a horrific groan running through the Ironsides’ frame. Marcus squeezed his eyes shut, his hands locked around his mech's deactivated control sticks, trusting the heavy structure of the maintenance bay to keep his machine from ripping free of its moorings.

Ninety brutal seconds later, the crushing weight finally lifted, replaced by the disorienting void of deep space. The primary fusion drives throttled down to a low, rhythmic hum of one G acceleration. There was no celebration. The Ironsides had made it to space, but they were now facing a desperate, seventy two hour high speed run to the system's jump point. Down in the lower decks the reality of their escape had plunged the civilian families into a living nightmare. With the main thrusters cut to normal gravity they could start dealing with the chaos that had been left after the mad dash to escape. For the wives, husbands, and children of the unit's technical crews, life had become a chaotic maze of terror with piles of belongings mixed in the infantry barracks they had fled to.

Refugees who had scrambled aboard with nothing but the clothes on their backs and what they could carry in their hands were now wandering through the cavernous ship clutching tightly to structural supports and equipment tie-downs. The air was thick with the scent of sweat and vomit, and the slight metallic tang of recycled oxygen. Children cried in the still dark barracks, their bodies unaccustomed to the terrifying sensation of the high gravity launch they had just survived. Their parents frantically tried to secure loose crates, clothing, and personal belongings with bungee cords and velcro straps before the next potential combat maneuver.

"Thomas! I need an update on that manifold!" Elena shouted, walking down the hallway of the lower engine compartment on the Ironside. Her flight jacket was unzipped and she swung her arms with the determination of someone that had no other choices left. Thomas, covered in the dust and detritus of the void spaces, was dusting himself off as she approached him and his maintenance team. "It’s bad boss" Thomas growled spitting out a mouthful of stale air as he adjusted his safety goggles. "When Jax ripped that fuel line free on the tarmac the emergency shutoff didn't close clean. The seals are warped from the stress he exerted with his mech. We’re bleeding liquid hydrogen directly into the outer structural framing and venting a trail behind us into space. At this rate we’ll expend our fuel long before we even see the jump point."

"Can you weld it shut?" Irina asked crossing her arms and tapping her foot as she thought about the possibilities.

"I think I can use the backup fuel connection to isolate the primary. I can introduce some water into the line first and then use the hydrogen to freeze it sealing off the leak. Then we can repair the warped section but if we have to make any sudden evasive maneuvers, the structural torque will crack the frozen section wide" Thomas explained, gesturing with his flashlight toward a computer slate one of his assistants held. The ships schematics were clearly visible on its glass surface. "We’re capable of doing the work, but if you think we might see any combat in the next twenty four hours I’d hold off doing the work."

Elena took the slate from the astech and looked it over. Her brow furrowing as she looked over the schematics to try and understand the full scope of what Thomas was proposing. “There’s no isolation valves for this system?”

“There is, but they isolate the entire fuel system. If we use the valve it shuts down our engines, for some reason Tharkad Aerospace didn’t feel like anyone would need to work on the fuel system while in transit anywhere. That or they just wanted to make sure any future work would have to come their way when it came to fuel system repairs.” Thomas took the slate from her looking at the drawings and sighing.”There is another risk. When I add the water into the backup line and freeze it there is a risk that it will rupture the line, and since we have no way to shut it off without stopping our transit, we will vent all of our hydrogen. Only instead of it leaking off into space it will be vented into the ship.” Thomas looked at her and shrugged his shoulders. “so it’s die by being blown up from the escaping hydrogen, or die by being blown out of the void by any pursuing Blakist ship.” Elena sat thinking about the options before them. They really were pretty simple, leak all of there fuel while leaving a nice trail through space for tracking, possibly blow up the ship if the repair goes wrong, or stop to fix the repair and get turned into rapidly expanding debris.

“So just one option then, Got it. Make it happen, pull any labor you need from other tasks for it. This is our priority over everything else.” She zipped up her jacket and turned to leave. “Tell me as soon as it is complete, assuming I don’t already know how it has gone.” She smirked at him over her shoulder as she left.

December 27, 3067 Outreach space

By the second day of the transit, the tension on the command bridge was high. Marcus, Irina, and Thomas gathered around the central holo-projector table in Elena’s command quarters. Elena sat at the apex of the console, her eyes bloodshot, as her fingers flew across the controls. The holographic display showed a highly compressed layout of the system. A tiny blue dot representing the Ironsides was crawling toward the Zenith point, but trailing several million kilometers behind them were two distinct red radar silhouettes. "Blakist destroyers" Elena said, her voice dropping low and taking on a hard edge. "They’re tracking our ion trail, along with about a dozen other trails behind and ahead of us. Seems we weren’t the only ones to escape the blockade. They aren't closing the distance yet because they’re waiting for everyone to lead them to their jumpships, but they know exactly where we’re heading."

"What about our JumpShip?" Marcus asked, his jaw tight. "Did we find anyone willing to take on a ship full of refugees and get us out of here?"

“One, I’ve found one jumpship that might be willing to take us. It’s an old merchant class with two docking rings. They are already contracted with another group of mercs so we will have to tag along with them, but anywhere is better then here!” She pulled up the message from the captain of The Stardust Nomad, Kenji Hoshito.

“Wait, what is this part about “we will wait for you as long as we can”?” Thomas pulled the unlit cigarette out of his mouth and pointed at the screen.

“The other mercenaries are ahead of us. They got into the air before we did and have been burning hard since they don’t have any refugees onboard. They will beat us to the jumpship and be docked and ready to go before we ever get there. Hoshito has agreed to wait in orbit until we are docked, or they are in danger of attack.” Elena sat down in her chair at the head of the table, leaning back and crossing her arms.”We are in a race to see if we can beat the Blakists to the jump point.”

“Do they have any forces at the Zenith jump point?” Marcus was looking at the star system map that was still up on the table display. There were a few green dots above and below outreaches sun, but nothing moving between the two points.

“No, they jumped in at the nadir point, and it would take nearly two weeks for them to make it from one point to the other. Even if they left the moment the jumped in they would still be days away from reaching the zenith. We have something else we need to discuss. Thomas, please tell everyone what your plan is.”

Thomas sat up and rested his chin on his clasped hands. “Well, you all are tracking on the leak, I’ve already briefed Elena on it as well as the fix but you both should be aware. Especially you Marcus since I have a job for you in it.” Thomas looked at Elena and nodded his head. The display on the table changed and the schematic of the fuel system for the Ironside came up. Thomas stood up and indicated on the schematic as he spoke. “The primary line is leaking from one of the fittings just inside the outer skin. This is leaving a trail of Hydrogen behind us that those destroyers are going to follow straight to the Nomad. We can’t isolate the lines with any valves without shutting down our engines, which I’m sure you both get why we can’t do that. The fact is I’ve figured out a way to isolate the damaged section, but we have to pump some water into the secondary line in order to do it.”

“You’re going to create a freeze plug?” Marcus asked. Raising his eyebrows as he saw what Thomas intended, then quickly furrowed his brows. “What the hell do you need me for?”

“I need you to create the plug. I’ve got no eye for working with coolant, and I’ve got to be inside the line doing the repair as soon as the plug is in place, so I need you to monitor it after you create it. I’ll have other techs on site, but I wouldn’t trust any of the others with this since it’s going to be my ass on the line. Especially since after you create the plug, and I’m inside the line, we have to vent the rest of the hydrogen into space so I can make the weld without blowing us up!”

“So you’re going to be laying inside the line welding it with your ass exposed to vacuum?” Irina looked impressed by the endeavor he had proposed. Marcus sat back and nodded while looking at the Thomas.

“When do we start?”

“In about two hours we’ll have everything staged. I’ll meet you in the lower decks then.” Thomas stood up, and so did the rest heading to where ever they could be of most use until then.

December 27, 3067 Outreach space: Two hours later

Marcus stood in the lower engine compartment along with Thomas and a hand full of techs and Astechs. They were hooking up a long water line from a spigot mounted into the wall that accessed the ships onboard reservoir. The others were removing as many of the access panels they could exposing the fuel line behind, including the access port for the twenty four inch line. The Y connection that the secondary line branched off of was only about another fifteen feet beyond the access point. Just beyond that was a sample access port that allowed the hydrogen coming into the ship to be sampled and tested. This port is what Marcus would use to build the freeze plug. Marcus walked over and began assembling a connection out of parts they had brought with them, one that included a valve for him to control the flow. Once they were done laying out the line and connecting it all up Marcus started his part. He placed one hand onto the valve, and another onto the side of the massive line. As the ships engine hummed he could feel the pulsing through the cold insulated line. The thump of the fuel pumps would rise and fall in an attempt to maintain a constant pressure for the engines against the loss from the leak. After a few moments he could time the pattern in his head. He cranked open the valve to dump in water as quickly as possible. It would freeze instantly and he would need to get more then twenty gallons into the line in order to create a plug at least 12 inches long. A mere minute after he started the pressure on the side of the line between him and the leak began dropping. He kept dumping water to make sure the plug was thick enough it wouldn’t launch Thomas into space like a cannon shot. When the pressure was just a little below the ambient in the ship the popped the access hatch. Thomas already had his helmet on and the compact welding rig he needed to do the work. First he climbed in with his head facing towards the leak. Then they passed the welder kit into the opening so he could push it along ahead of him then closed the hatch.

“Marcus this is Thomas how do I read, over.”

“I read you loud and clear man. This isn’t a formal comm you don’t need to pretend it is man.”

“Yeah but how often do I get to talk over comms? Usually I’m just yelling at you from across the hangar.”

“Fair enough, but lets get this done before we have to find a new chief mechanic.” Marcus signaled to one of the other techs to get onto the release valve for the exterior connection. “I’ve got Jones standing by to open the exterior valve once you’re ready.”

“Yeah, just remind him to only crack it please. I don’t need to become the next satellite circling this system.” The trepidation in his voice was evident even though the comm.

“Look this was your idea. We could have crammed one of the guys in the hall here into that suit and shove them into the hole just as easy as we did you.” The others in the hall looked nervously between one another. No one else wanted to do the job because of how risky it was. Any left over hydrogen and the line would blow as soon as you sparked the welder, not enough water for the plug and the pressure from the hydrogen behind it would blow you into space, open the valve to much and you’d get sucked out into the void. Thomas took the job because he wouldn’t ask any of his men to attempt it, and they all knew that.

“Let Jones know if he screws up, he’s next in the tube.” Marcus laughed into the mic he wore.

“Yeah I’ll let him know that, are you ready yet?”

“Calm yourself man! But yeah, I’m in position, and braced as best I can. Remind him, just a crack, we only need to vent the gas, not his boss.”

“Ok Jones, just a little so we don’t launch Thomas.” Marcus couldn’t help but smile as he said it. Jones, a younger guy in his mid twenties wiped his sweaty hands off onto his pants legs and grabbed the valve handle. He started turning slowly having to put some real force behind it to get it started at first, but then the valve began to move easier. The mechanical advantage on such a large valve was huge, forcing him to have to turn the handle several times just to get a small movement out of it.

“Ok I can feel the gas moving. It’s pulling me along a little. That’s probably enough, we can wait a moment for it to clear out.” Thomas sat a waited a few moments for the entire line to clear. He could tell it was getting close when the sound from outside the suit disappeared and he could only hear his own breathing and the oxygen system in the suits hum as it circulated air. As he shifted the sound carried through his suit, but nothing came through from the outside as he moved. The sensation was eerie. “I’m sparking the torch and getting started.” His suits helmet lights were showing him exactly where the crack was. It was nearly a quarter inch across at it’s widest point and stretched about six inches long. He started passing the welder tip back and forth across the hole, slowly building up material to seal the opening. The welder had more then enough flux core wire in it to do the job, and he made sure it had a fresh battery in it before he climbed inside the pipe. Gradually the hole sealed up with a perfect set of metal waves along its length. It took him several passes, but he was able to get the repair done. Five minutes after he had started the work he was done. “Close the valve, I’m on my way back.”

“That was fast, hardly seems like you needed me for this one.” Marcus’ almost seemed annoyed it was so fast.

“You don’t pay me for what I do, you pay me for what I know how to do.” It was Thomas’ favorite saying. He wasn’t wrong either. When it came to maintenance work there was little that he didn’t understand. That was why 7 years ago Elena had hired him, after consulting with Marcus. Thomas knocked at the hatch from the inside and waited for them to open it up. It took three of the Astechs to get it open because of the vacuum. Finally Marcus had to come over and lend a hand to break the seal. Thomas could hear the whistle of the oxygen as it filled the space he was in. Then he could hear the sounds of conversation muffled by his suit. The took the welder from him and helped him out. He turned off the oxygen tank on the suit and pulled off his helmet. “Well that’s one problem solved. Now we just have to take care of the other one.”

“Other one? What the hell are you talking about, the leak was our only problem. I mean our only problem besides being chased by the Blakists and almost being incinerated on the launch pad.” Marcus half smiled as he joked with Thomas.

“Well we fixed the whole, but now we have to clear the contaminants in the line. The plug you made worked great, but now it’s a one hundred and fifty plus pound battering ram sitting in the line. Not to mention the oxygen we just filled the line with, but I have a plan to rid us of both.” Marcus waved at a couple of the other techs standing by and indicated for them to come over to them. They carried a couple cases with them. He took one of the cases, set it down and opened it.”Industrial thermal warming blankets. We use them for preheating welds on the mechs, or warming up myomer bundles when it’s freezing out. Sometimes we make popcorn with them. We never had much need for them on Outreach, but I like to hoard a few things just in case. Better to have it and not need it.”

“Then to need it and not have it. Yeah I’m familiar with the saying, but how is that going to solve our problem?” Marcus watched as Thomas threw one of the blankets onto the pipe where the plug was at. Then the techs wrapped the other one around the bottom. Thomas stepped back and began stripping of the enviro suit while the techs worked. They fastened straps around the blankets so they were tight onto the pipe, then ran electrical lines from them to the cases they were packed into. They had built in batteries and temp controls.

“Ok Jones, open that valve all the way this time.” Marcus nodded to the young man on the valve handle. He began spinning it open again. Having already been broken free it spun easily this time. It took him nearly three minutes to get it fully open. They heard the whistle of the oxygen bleeding off into space as it opened, then silence. “Alright crank those babies up to max temp. It’ll take a lot of heat to get that ice to break free in there.” the two techs turned the dials in the cases up to the max red line. The temp gauge immediately bagan to tick up, sometimes a couple degrees at a time.

“Where did you get those things anyway? They are some serious equipment if they are getting that hot!” Marcus watched as they climbed up well into the three digit scale.

“I aquired them from one of the abandoned warehouses on the outskirts of the spaceport. Some merc company had taken off and left a bunch of gear behind. I found them buried in one of the back rooms. Their loss, our gain.”

“Hoarder.” It wasn’t an accusation, it was a statement of fact from Marcus.

“Jones! Be ready to close that thing. You’ll know when to do it from the sound, but I don’t want to pump any more of our hydrogen into the void then we have to.” Jones prepared himself for what he though was going to happen any second. In reality it was more like ten minutes. There was a squeek from the pipe which made everyone look that way, then a resounding boom as the plug was launched into deep space by the pressure. One hundred and twenty five PSI doesn’t sound like much, until you calculate the total pressure across a twenty four inch circle. The ice plug left the pipe with over fifty six thousand pounds of force behind it! Jones scrambled to spin the handle as fast as he could. His arms were a blur, but it still took about two minutes to close the valve. Thomas pulled out a tablet from one of his pockets and brought up the ships metrics. He could check the atmospheric pressures across the ship, monitor the engines output, and a dozen other metrics, but the most important was the fuel level at the moment. “Damn, we lost over a quarter of our total fuel volume just in the day we’ve been traveling! I guess it’s good we repaired it now instead of waiting. Ok my problem is fixed, now you need to do all the rest!” Marcus and Thomas smiled at one another.

“Yeah I’ll get right on that. Good job man, you didn’t blow us up or strand us.” Marcus shook his hand.”Next time let Jax have all the fun.” He patted Thomas on the shoulder and started walking off.

“Hey aren’t you going to help clean this up?”

“Nope, you’ve got it. I’m going to go eat and take a nap. With any luck I wake up and this was all just a bad dream” Marcus waved without ever turning back around.

Ok Chapter 3 is here! Things are heating up, and we get to see some of our first combat in the story. I hope you all enjoy this one. I didn't get to spend as much time with it as I would have liked, but I think it is pretty exciting for a first outing. Remember I can always use your comments and criticism. I take it into account as I work on the next chapter. I hope you all enjoy! Thank you to all who read it.

Chapter Three: Skirmish At The End

The sky above the Am Numsan spaceport was a filled with fire and thick black smoke. High above the atmosphere of Outreach the flashes of nuclear detonations illuminated the low hanging dust clouds like strobe lights from hell, but on the tarmac the apocalypse was terrifyingly close. Inside the cockpit of his Nova Cat Marcus checked his displays as he lumbered down the gangway of the Ironside to the dropship gantry below. The primary targeting reticle was a dead flickering ghost drifting across his HUD completely disconnected from his weapons. A line of red error code sat at the bottom of his MFD, subdued by the override he had engaged. He was going to have to bore sight every single shot aiming his weapons by pure instinct and Kentucky windage.

"Elena, talk to me." Marcus called into his neurohelmet comms his voice tight as he maneuvered onto the tarmac at the base of the mobile dropship gantry. "Give us a countdown."

"You have exactly nine minutes and forty seconds until the hydrogen fuel lines finish topping us off Marcus." Elena’s voice cut through the static crisp and steady despite the chatter on a myriad number of comm nets around them. "Hold the line at the northern perimeter fence between us and the rest of the spaceport. If anything touches those fuel lines nobody leaves this rock." The spaceport around them was a scene of absolute butchery. To the left a half klick away a massive Mule class dropship attempted a desperate emergency takeoff. Its roaring fusion drives instantly cooked a smaller civilian transport parked in the adjacent berth since the deluge pumps were off and no water was damping the engine exhaust. It was a crumpled molten slag heap that was blown away by the continued thrust from the ships engines. Seconds later the Mule itself was bracketed by concentrated long range missile fire from sources unknown. The eleven thousand ton freighter erupted in a blinding catastrophic fireball, a chain reaction as the visible blast wave rolled out from the center of the explosion and shattered gantry cranes and sent shrapnel tearing across the concrete flats and raining down from above like artillery.

"Keep your heads down!" Irina’s voice snapped across the tactical channel. Her Vindicator paced forward with heavy rhythmic strides dodging to the side to avoid falling debris, its PPC already humming with its deadly man made lightning. "The smoke from that Mule detonation is blowing directly into the northern grid. It’s masking us for now, but they will find us eventually."

"Marcus! Shit! Marcus did you see that? The whole ship just... it just evaporated!" Jax’s voice was a frantic high pitched whine of pure terror and adrenaline. Inside his Assassins cockpit he was bouncing wildly against the straps as he charged down the ramp and circled wide around Marcus and Irina. His hands were slick with sweat on the controls from his nervousness and adrenaline. This upgraded model was a masterpiece of custom engineering built on an endo steel chassis and powered by a compact Light Fusion Engine but right now it just felt like a high tech coffin to him. It was Jax's first time ever seeing real combat and the sensory overload was incredible. From the smell of the sterile cockpit with new upholstery to the bone shaking rumble of the exploding dropship, the terrifying sound of super heated plasma exhaust from various ship engines shearing the air with their rumbling crackle as they launched. He was hyperventilating as his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. While he was utterly terrified the raw electric current of frantic excitement was surging through him.

"Focus, Jax!" Marcus commanded pivoting his massive Nova Cat toward the roaring wall of white steam and black smoke. "You’ve done the simulator runs a hundred times. Trust your training and listen to what we tell you to do. Speed is your friend in that mech so keep moving, and don’t be afraid to use your jump jets. Irina, pace me on me left flank. Let's draw any targets off from the Ironside." The three primer green mechs took up position as the thick curtain of white steam suddenly parted revealing the vanguard of a Word of Blake assault force. A platoon of fanatical infantry poured out of a wheeled armored personnel carrier armed with a machine gun turret. They were armed with missile launchers and small arms which they sprinted across the shattered tarmac with towards cover. A pair of fast moving Pegasus hover tanks skirted wide across the relatively smooth ferrocrete surface around them to the right. Behind the conventional forces the massive silhouettes of a Blakist Grim Reaper and a hunched Grand Crusader emerged from the haze their pilots looking for targets.

"Infantry and light vehicles due North, Mechs trailing." Elena reported calmly from the Ironsides command deck. "It looks like they’ve spotted our skirmish line. Marcus you have to pull their attention now."

"Irina, suppress the infantry! Jax, pick your target and wait for my lead!" Marcus called out. He braced his boots against the pedals of his mech aligning the barrels of his weapons with the shadow marks on his heads up glass directly with the lead hover tank. He had to eyeball the alignment lifting the Nova Cat’s massive right arm. "Firing!"

Marcus unleashed a devastating volley. The twin Extended Range PPC’s in his right arm erupted with a blinding crack of artificial lightning. Without the assistance of his targeting computer the twin beams tore through the smoke completely missing the agile hover tank but smashing directly into the parked armored personnel carrier behind it. The vehicle instantly detonated its hull turning into a shower of white hot shrapnel and detonating ammunition. Marcus immediately swung his torso left bracing against the massive spike of heat as he brought the three ER Large Lasers in his left arm to bear. They flashed to life one after the other chain firing so he could guide them on target burning heavy molten gouges across the tarmac to force the incoming Blakist machines to back off.

Beside him Irina was a model of cold efficiency. Her right arm PPC sparked off a bolt of blue energy that shattered a concrete barrier hiding a Word of Blake missile team. She immediately followed up firing her torso mounted LRM 5 to rain explosive ordnance down on the fleeing infantry while cycling the medium laser on her head and the tiny small laser on her left arm to melt a line into the rear armor of one of the advancing tanks.

"They're trying to bypass you on the left flank! One of the hovercraft is breaking for the gantry!" Jax screamed out as the enemy hover tank whipped around aiming its SRM missile racks directly at the vulnerable unarmored hydrogen fuel lines feeding the Ironside that were still just out of its range.

"Jax, just take the shot!" Marcus ordered.

Jax didn't think he pulled hard on the triggers once the reticle was lined up for his LRM 5, SRM four and medium pulse laser as his mech sprinted across the tarmac towards the tank. The Assassin’s right arm Medium Pulse Laser strobed with a rapid low pitched thrum burning straight through the tank's thin rear armor plates. At close range now for his LRM his torso mounted missiles cycled burying a barrage of missiles directly into the exposed rear structure. The hover tank erupted in a bright catastrophic blossom of orange fire, the blast wave slamming against Jax’s cockpit glass ratting him in his harness. "I got him! Marcus I got him! He's down! Target down!" Jax shouted into the coms. A sudden euphoric rush of wild manic laughter tearing from his throat. The terror vanished for a split second, replaced by the intoxicating high of his first confirmed enemy kill. "Did you see that? I blew him to….."

"Watch your six, kid!" Irina cut him off. Her Vindicator stepping in front of Jax’s back arc to absorb a heavy burst of laser fire from the advancing Grim Reaper. The armor on her left shoulder took a solid burn and a spray of sparks and molten armor slagged away. "Celebrate when we're in atmo!"

"Five minutes team," Elena’s voice was tense now. "The Blakist war ships are adjusting their orbital vectors. The nuclear bombardment is expanding toward Am Numsan. We need to try and wrap this up."

"Marcus, the Grand Crusader is closing in!" Irina warned taking evasive maneuvers as long range missiles began raining down around them pockmarking the concrete with craters. "We can't out-slug them while you're bore sighting."

"We don't need to out slug them. We just need to break their coordination and delay them." Marcus aimed again lifting his heavy right arm and aligning the dead crosshairs with the Grim Reaper's torso. "Irina pull the Reaper to left and try to draw his fire. Jax, find a line on the right and split their targets." Jax executed a hard jump jet burn his thrusters launching him over a row of cargo containers to come down on the far right flank of the Grand Crusader. His medium pulse laser flashed, and a barrage of LRM's blasted away chunks of armor at long range forcing the massive Blakist Mech pilot to rotate his torso to deal with the agile hunter.

"Now." Marcus ordered in the deadpan of someone who has done all of this before. He tightened his fingers onto the triggers firing. The twin right arm ER PPCs and triple left arm ER Large Lasers fired in a full alpha strike as he strafed off to the Grim Reapers left. The terrifying surge of internal heat started to cook his cockpit instantly sending his temperature gauge into the flashing red danger zone. The wall of particle energy and coherent light punched through the smoke. The twin PPC beams found their target and struck the Grim Reaper dead center shattering its ferro fibrous armor while the triple ER lasers followed in sequence a fraction of a second apart in a lucky score, slicing through the structure and equipment behind. The enemy Mech groaned its internal fusion core going dark before the machine collapsed face down and smoking onto the concrete flats sliding to a halt as it expended its momentum. Marcus absently slapped the override stopping the countdown on the overheat timer before shutdown.

"Fuel cycle complete!" Elena’s voice called out over the radio nearly drowned out by a massive orbital blast that rattled the entire spaceport infrastructure. "The dropship is fueled! Get your assets inside time now!"

"Fall back! Back to the Ironside!" Marcus commanded throwing the Nova Cat into a reverse while Irina continued to take shots at the Grand Crusader. As a group they started moving toward the looming mountain of the Ironside. The crusaders allies wiped out it held back peppering LRM’s at them as the remaining Pegasus skirted the perimeter and ran for the cover of the smoke. As they reached the massive ramp up the gantry a devastating realization hit the comms.

“The automated emergency release on the primary hydrogen fuel line has jammed!” Elena reported into the coms. Rusted over by the spaceport's neglected maintenance, or warped by the intense thermal heat of the surrounding explosions combined with the cold of the liquid hydrogen. The massive reinforced umbilical hose was still firmly locked to the dropship's lower hull. If the ship ignited its engines now it would rip its own fuel manifold out causing an explosion that would detonate the ship on the pad. "The line is stuck!" Elena called out. "The automated overrides aren't responding!"

"I've got it!" Jax helpfully volunteered. Before Marcus could stop him Jax threw his Assassin forward. He ran the agile mech around the gantry to the connection point. He maneuvered the mech's single mechanical hand with frantic precision. He flipped the combat lock off of the hands individual fingers and wrapped the hand carefully around the connector for the hydrogen fuel line. The cockpit view was full of blinding white steam as the dropship's auxiliary thrusters began to warm up causing the water from the initial cooling deluge jets to flash off. Working carefully by sight Jax manipulated the mech's hand on the manual release collar of the umbilical. He pulled back with the full multi-ton torque of his mech's arm actuators and myomer musculature. The Light Fusion Engine winding up under the sudden strain. The metal groaned and popped as the locking bolts resisted.

"Pull, Jax! Pull!" Marcus shouted his Nova Cat standing guard to shield the Assassin’s rear from scattered infantry fire and occasionally taking a shot with his ER Large lasers to keep the mech and tank at bay. They both seemed to be holding back, unsure of any defenses the dropship may have. Irina had taken up position on the other side of Jax protecting his other flank letting her PPC do the talking. One of her shots connected with the Pegasus in it's side armor, but didn't destroy it, just sending it careening off into the smoke again with slagged armor. With a screeching snap of shearing titanium the line broke free. The massive fuel line whipped away venting a cloud of freezing pressurized hydrogen gas that was still in the un-vented line across the tarmac.

"It's clear! Go, go, go!" Jax reported.

The three mechs scrambled up the massive inclined loading ramp of the Ironside just as the dropship’s primary engines started their full warm up thrust. They burst into the cavernous mech hangar and made for their individual mech bays. "Thomas lock it up." Marcus ordered the moment his mech’s feet cleared the entryway.

The massive multi ton door began to grind shut sealing out the burning apocalyptic sky of Outreach just as the first nuclear shock waves began to rattle the dropship's outer hull plating. Inside the bay the tech crews were screaming over the din frantically gesturing with hand lights to guide the warriors into their bays. Jax walked his Assassin into its designated maintenance cradle. The moment the magnetic locks snapped shut around his mech securing it for the impending high-G takeoff he cut the engine. The sudden silence inside his cockpit was deafening. His hands were shaking so violently he could only grip them together to stop the shaking as the adrenaline wore off. He leaned his head back against the padding of his pilot seat completely spent caught in a swirling vortex of absolute horror at the world they were leaving behind and the terrifying exhilarating realization that he had survived his first true baptism by fire.

"Everyone strap in now!" Elena’s voice echoed through the ships speakers as the floor began to vibrate with the staggering bone shaking roar of the Ironsides’ primary fusion engines ramping up for launch. "We are launching in T minus 10."

I bring you chapter two of my story so far. I think I have addressed some of the comments you all left me for chapter one so I hope that makes it a little more enjoyable for you all. As always C&C is welcome and appreciated.

Chapter Two: The Red Skyline

December 24, 3067 Outreach

Christmas was celebrated a little different inside the Ironsides ship. Elana made it mandatory for all personnel, even going so far as to put it in their contracts, to attend the company party. Families were invited, distant relatives, even friends from the bar could come. She would spend extra on drinks, food, presents for the workers children. She told everyone that it had been her old boss that taught her how important it was to take one day a year to bring everyone together for something like this. Wardrobe was whatever you wanted to, or could afford to wear. Some guys would show up still wearing their coveralls, other crew members would have on ball gowns, or formal wear they kept in a locker just for this night. Christmas party politics hadn’t changed much in the hundreds of years since people had only celebrated it on Terra. People drinking too much and embarassing themselves. Crew members who had harbored long standing interests in another would shoot their shot, and either return triumphant in the following days, or visibly sad that things didn’t work out.

The walls of the mess hall in the infantry barracks on board were decorated with burnt out myomer garlands and various sized ball bearings welders had attached small hooks onto. A nylon polymer pop up fir tree was hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the floor. People clustered in groups around tables of food and talked loudly. Kids played and ran around the room, as grown men tried to find the courage to talk to women they had worked along side and ask them to dance. Marcus understood why Elena held the party, and was fine with it. He wasn’t the boss so he never had to foot the bill for it. He had put on an old suit he had kept for years. He wore it only to this party anymore. A gray jacket with slightly darker gray pants that still had a shade difference from where a stripe had run up the crease, a black leather belt with a polished and well cared for silver buckle. The high collar was unadorned, and he wore a black button down shirt underneath the jacket. He had it modified nearly a decade before by a local tailor after making it to Outreach. He sat on the far side of the mess hall in one of the corners with Jax, Thomas, and Elena sharing drinks they were mixing for one another.

“It’s been over a month now Marcus, how is the new hire working out?” Elena sipped from the glass of Glengarry black label she had poured from her private stash. Marcus looked at her over the glass he had mixed a PPC in for himself with a little ouzo. He finished his sip, and lowered the glass back to the table he was sitting at. He thought for a bit actually considering what had been asked.

“She’s been a great fit. She isn’t afraid to work, and knows her stuff. There have been a few finer detail things that she needed help with, but nothing major. The only problem I see is she doesn’t like to ask for help, but what Capellan does?” Elena considered his words and then turned to Thomas giving him the go ahead with a nod.

Thomas was a man in his fifties, shorter then most, broad shoulders, but with a body like a beer keg, and a surprising endurance for such a tanky little man. His short curly hair having gone gray when he was in his late twenties. He was the man in charge of the maintenance floor. He scheduled the teams to get the work completed, assigned space to each project, and made sure any tools they didn’t have were delivered to them. He was a rare breed, a man who didn’t want to pilot machines, just fix them. He also had a perpetual bad habit of smoking the cheap spaceport cigarettes he could get from the local vendors. He took the unlit cigarette from his lips he had been sporting all night and responded to his boss “She works, she doesn’t complain, and I don’t have to babysit her.”

Elena raised her glass to him ”High praise coming from you! What about you Jax? How do you feel about the new hire now that you’ve had time to work alongside her?” She turned her head to the young man who was only half paying attention as a one of the older mechanics had brought his rather attractive daughter to the party, and she was about his age, so he had been trying to convince himself it was a good idea to ask out a coworkers daughter throughout the evening.

“Hungh? Oh, yeah she’s all good Chief. She listens to me when I tell her what needs to be fixed, and doesn’t give me a hard time for being young. She doesn’t really engage too much outside just getting the work done and asking the occasional question.” He flashed a quick smile at his boss, then went back to tracking the young woman around the party with his eyes, drinking more of the local beer he had brought with him to the party. It was at this time that Irina entered the party. She walked through the double doors on the far end from where the small group was sitting. Despite the revelry going on, people noticed, there was a drop in the volume of conversation around the room.

Irina wore a dark red sleeveless qipao. It had a traditional high collar and black embroidery around the edges, and a simple floral design that was echoed at her right shoulder and at the lower left leg. Centered and on the chest of the dress was a rather elaborate embroidered silver rapier, blade up. The slit on the left side of the dress extended nearly to her hip, revealing a well muscled leg above a pair of black ankle boots. She paused at the door scanning the room, her eyes finally descending on the group in the corner. She turned to them and made her way across, the room parting for her in advance. “Good evening.” Her formal greeting with its accent cut cleanly through the background noise.

Marcus rose to his feet to greet her, unconsciously holding out his hand. She looked at it down the length of her nose, before gingerly taking it.“Good evening, You seem a bit overdressed for our little celebration tonight.”

“I am not only one, yes?” She looked his suit up and down. ”I think you do same?” She gave him a small smile and nod.

“Fair enough, you’re not wrong.” He let her hand go and motioned to his chair, taking up a standing position between her and Elena, his back to the wall. “I’m surprised you came out tonight. I wouldn’t figure you to be one for parties like this?”

“I’m not, but it was made clear I was to attend.” She looked at Elena, who was quietly sipping at her drink while looking away from the two. She lowered her drink and gave an innocent grin back.”However the smell of the food has permeated the entire ship all the way down to the mech bay, I could not resist.” She glanced over at the buffet tables piled high with food of all kinds and cultures.

“Please don’t let us stop you.” Thomas said tilting his head toward the table.

“In moment. I first wanted to speak to all of you.” She adjusted herself crossing her legs and settling into the chair. “I know I have not been here long, but I wanted to express my appreciation to you all for letting me stay, and work.” She was addressing Elena directly, but took in the entire group with a glance. “I know you all took on risk bringing me here, and I appreciate it.” She looked each one of them in the eyes in turn, ending with Marcus.

Elena took another sip of her drink and finally responded. “Irina, you wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t proven you belonged here. I hired you on a hunch you’d make a good tech, and you haven’t proven me wrong. Yet.” Elena’s even gaze made it clear she wasn’t kidding about the yet. As long as Irina kept working, she’d have a home. “Now with that settled lets go get some food!” The two of them stood up, and moved towards the buffet, Marcus watching as they went.

“I think I’ll see about some food as well!” Jax popped up to make his way towards the same tables.

“Bull shit! You just want to talk to Emil’s daughter!” Marcus quipped. Jax just looked over his shoulder and shrugged, with that happy go lucky grin on his face.

December 26, 3067 Outreach

The primary Mech floor did not take long to turn into a screaming echo chamber of tools and running machinery on a normal day. By the time the sun broke free of the horizon the structural steel ribs of the mech bay vibrated with the continuous cacophony of hard work. Techs, AS Techs, mechanics, welders, customers, and laborers milled about on the massive dropship floor. Business was brisk, and good. The fortress dropship, her old name faded but still visible on her exterior, Ironside, had made the maintenance company that operated from her interior that much more known. That combined with the skill and discipline of the people who worked, and mostly lived, in the big gray sphere had made a small upstart on Outreach a money maker. Today was different from every other though. A sudden low thump followed by a crack of incredibly loud thunder echoed across the entire bay shaking the deck plates and making tools rattle where they lay. Overhead the emergency warning panels suddenly started throwing a bright rhythmic crimson and orange glare across the ceiling and walls. The low drone of a general alarm, something many of the people inside her at that moment had never heard, but not all of them did not know what it meant.

[COMMS - ELENA]: "All decks, this is the Captain! This is not a drill! This is not a drill! Orbital satellites have confirmed multiple kinetic impacts across the planet! We are pulling stakes people! If your families aren’t already on board get them here now!" Elena Vance’s voice blasted through the hangar speakers, entirely stripped of its calm, business like boss lady persona. This was the voice of a regular ships commander who had just seen first contact. “Marcus, Irina, Jax, Thomas, to the bridge time now!”

Marcus unhooked his safety harness from the handrail next to the Centurion and took off at a run, his boots skidding across the slick steel mesh of the third tier gantry. The deck plates rattled and jumped again as the ship took a second concussive shock wave from outside the hull. The concrete foundation of the Am Numsan starport cracked beneath the dropShip's massive landing struts. The physical shock overcoming the ships landing shocks and being transmitted through the hull, throwing tools out of their magnetic trays in a cascading metal clatter. Down on the floor, the transformation was instantaneous, and terrifying. The orderly morning shift of chaos dissolved into a frantic stampede. Machinists threw down their tools; senior techs, and welders dropped their torches and diag readers where they stood. "Jax! Raise the crane cable and stow that machine!" Marcus yelled, sliding down the structural ladder in the middle of the hangar next to the lift, his hands hot from the steel rails. "Irina! Lets go in the lift now!"Jax Kincaid didn't answer with words. The kid was already charging towards the lift after having stowed the crane.

Captain Elena Vance stood dead center at the main tactical computer, a white-knuckled grip on the station’s safety rail as she observed the screen and read the latest tactical updates. Outside the thick, reinforced view screens of the dropships bridge the pristine skylines of Am Numsan were actively dissolving into a rolling sea of orange fire, and black clouds, illuminated by the blinding, periodic flashes of new orbital strikes.

"Talk to us, Captain!" Chief Thomas barked, his weathered face pale under the crimson glare of the emergency lights as he lead the group onto the bridge.

"The starport master control computer just went completely dead! The ComStar hyperpulse generator arrays are collapsing into the dirt!" She pointed at the display screen in front of here where a local news cast was showing where they had dominated the skyline of Harlech, Outreaches capitol, with there massive dishes. A mushroom cloud could be seen in the background of the image directly over down town Harlech.

"It’s not just a regional raid, or some pirates, Thomas." Elena said, her voice dropping into an icy, terrifying baseline that completely cut through the howling klaxons in the distance. “They are glassing the planet.” She hit a button on the terminal, bringing up a grainy low frequency image. The tactical display showed three bone white strike DropShips, Achilles and Triumph class, descending through the upper clouds like predatory birds their forward weapons systematically razing the civilian transport terminals. They were swarmed by several wings of aerospace fighters "Look at the IFF signatures. The encryption keys have Comstar all over them, it’s the Word of Blake!"

Irina gasped softly her hazel eyes widening as her hand found the metal railing of the command pit to steady herself. "The Blakists? Here? A holy war on Outreach?"

"They are here to occupy the sector, Irina," Elena snarled her dark eyes reflecting the amber pulse of the tracking monitors. "They’re glassing every interstellar communications connection, every industrial hub, and every functional weapons platform across the planet. They are throwing a dark curtain over the entire system. They want to wipe out the mercenaries here if I had to guess"

"Then we're trapped on the tarmac," Jax said his usual easy grin entirely missing from his grime streaked face. "We're a sitting target."

"We aren't trapped, Jax," Elena said, turning her head to fix Marcus and the rest with a sharp, calculated look of defiance. "Because the reports I gave to the port authorities the last couple years were a lie. The primary engines on the Ironside aren't stripped scrap metal. I’ve spent the last ten years rebuilding the main engines and navigation thrusters. I’ve also slowly been filling her with fuel a little at a time as we could afford it. The Ironside is flight worthy, but we still have to top off her tanks."

Marcus stepped forward his eyes widening slightly as the reality of what she was saying hit home. "Elena... if we can fly, then we can escape this. What do you need from us?"

"That is exactly why I brought you up here," Elena said leaning over the console her voice all business now. "Trent and Vassily are currently burning the firewalls to manually release the electronic hull locks from the bridge. But we need the high pressure fuel lines to stay open and pumping. I need another twenty minutes to finish packing our tanks full. It gives us time to load the rest of the families, but I need every second you can get us." She looked at Marcus, then at Irina and Jax. "If those white-armored bastards deploy their BattleMech vanguard onto the flight line before those twenty minutes are up they will target the fuel depot. If that station blows while the lines are attached this entire ship becomes a crater on the starport tarmac."

"You want us to form a wall." Marcus said his voice dropping into a cold register as he stared down Elena and the other two.

"I want you to march your machines out onto that runway and break anything that looks at my ship." Elena directed flatly.

"Thomas, get the families into the infantry barracks. Strap them into the bunks and secure the doors. We are flying every single soul out of this firestorm and we are going as far from the Word of Blake as the Ironsides navigation charts and the first jump ship we can secure will carry us." Marcus turned toward the bridge elevator his boots clanging sharply against the deck as he lead the other two out. "Jax, get to the Assassin. Irina, start your Vindy. Thomas, open the bay doors and clear that ramp." He looked back at Elena over his shoulder with a hard dangerous smile on his face. "Keep the pumps running Captain. We’ll give you your twenty minutes."

-----------------------------------

Jax was already dropping inside the cockpit of the Assassin. He had grown to really like the mech as he had worked alongside Marcus on rebuilding it. The pristine polished scout machine, originally sitting immaculate and ready for sale, groaned inside its vertical docking harness as its internal fusion engine spun to life. Its forward targeting display casting a pale blue light across Jax's terrified but hyper-focused face. Betty started talking to him as the start up cycle ran through it’s paces “ REACTOR: Online, SENSORS: Online, WEAPONS: Online, ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL.”

Two berths over, Irina was already scrambling up the gantry next to her dark green Vindicator. Her movements carried a precise, fluid discipline that completely ignored the violent swaying of the scaffolding. She dropped inside her pilot couch, fingers flying across the archaic Cyrillic stenciled control panels of her mech. She was already initiating startup of her machine before she’d strapped in. Betty was here too “REAKTOR: Zapushchen, SENSORY: Zapushcheny, ORUZHIYE: Zapushcheno, VSE SISTEMY V NORME.”

[COMMS - IRINA]: "Marcus. Reactor is green. Weapons green, I am ready to operate."

Marcus hit the hangar floor sprinting, through the red fogged atmosphere toward the lift basket of the Nova Cat. He looked through the wide reinforced steel observation view screens of the exterior bay doors as he ran past. Outside the sky over Am Numsan had turned an apocalyptic bruised violet. A sleek, white strike dropShip dropped out of the clouds like a predatory bird its forward weapons strafing the civilian security checkpoints and the rows of commercial transport trucks parked along the tarmac. They were eliminating all the possible threats, total war.

[COMMS - ELENA]: "Marcus! The automated utility clamps on our hull are locked solid! If we don't disconnect those external connections and drop the fuel tethers manually, the engine ignition will tear the bottom out of this ship!"

Marcus strapped his neurohelmet chin strap the interface causing his head to throb with a sharp psychic whine as his mind connected directly to the Nova Cat's systems. Betty was talking to him “CORE INITILIZATION COMPLETE, OMNI LINK SYNC: Established, TARGET AQUISITION ARRAYS: Inactive, CRITICAL SYSTEM DEGRADATION: Initialization Aborted!” The advanced Clan multi function displays erupted into a blinding cascade of red error codes the green crosshairs drifting wildly across his HUD. He slammed his palm against the system override button, forcing the heavy OmniMech to stand upright inside its gantry berth. “SYSTEM OVERRIDE INITIATED.” The alarms Betty was setting off in the cockpit silenced. The machine took its first heavy steps toward the descending ramp." Jax, Irina, move out!" Marcus commanded his voice having fallen into an unconscious military cadence as the massive bay door rolled completely open exposing them to the burning city outside. "We have to protect those tanks for at least another 18 minutes before Elena’s ready to burn the pad. Hold the line!"

High above the roar of the mechbay the primary command bridge of the Ironside was an island of cold, high tension focus. The air was thick with the bitter smell of hot electronics and old wiring carrying a sharp subaudible vibration that rattled the synthetic coffee mugs sitting in the consols recessed cup holders. Captain Elena Vance stood front and center in the spherical command pit her feet planted on the non skid deck plates. She had on her SLDF pattern flight jacke, zipped up, her hands braced hard against the metal edge of the master navigation console as the entire bridge tilted five degrees to the port side. Another shock wave from a distant orbital strike had just traveled right up through the starport’s concrete tarmac causing the ship's ancient analog tilt indicators to click wildly back and forth. "Status on the docking clamps!" Elena barked, her voice an icy calm.

"Nothing Captain!" Vassily, a thirty-year-old former locomotive mechanic, who just happened to also have been a former navigator, now turned flight technician, shouted back. He was frantically throwing manual toggle switches across his auxiliary panel his face completely stripped of color beneath his cap. "The ships flight and engine controls aren’t responding to our commands."

"We just need the clamps off the legs of this egg Vassily." Elena said her eyes locked on the forward viewport. Outside the reinforced glass the Am Numsan sky had turned a bruised unnatural violet. A row of commercial transport trucks less than five hundred meters away disintegrated in a silent blinding flash of blue plasma fire as a Word of Blake aerospace fighter roared low over the starport.

[COMMS - MASTER TERMINAL]: "SECURITY COMMAND: STARPORT IS LOCKED BY PLANETARY MANDATE. HULL IS REGISTERED AS CIVILIAN REAL ESTATE. EMERGENCY LOCKDOWN ACTIVE."

The ship's master computer terminal flashed repeating red text across the main bridge displays. The automated starport security network had detected the sudden surge of power inside the Ironside’s fusion powerplant before being blown sky high and had clamped down on the hull with a set of external locking clamps while locking down the flight controls remotely. Threatening to brick her flight computers before the crew could even drop the fuel tether. "Trent! Talk to me!" Elena turned toward her secondary pilots console.

Trent, an out of work commercial drop pilot who had spent the last two years scrubbing carbon deposits out of the Ironside’s engine manifolds and rewiring the command consoles was buried up to his elbows beneath the navigation terminal. He had popped off the decorative wood grain housing panels exposing a tangled knot of Star League era cabling and bypass lines that he and Elena had secretly routed during a decade of low rent maintenance work. "The starport security mainframe is trying to override our steering controls Captain!" Trent gasped around a heavy wirecutter clutched in his teeth as he manually separated a bundle of thick blue data cables. "They think we're a stationary building! The master terminal is pushing an administrative deadlock down onto our primary engine controls! Every time I try to cycle the thruster contol computer the port security array kicks the signal back!"

"They think we're a building because I paid them to think we were a building!" Elena snarled, her knuckles turning white against the console frame. "Vassily, clear the Nav computer cache! Trent spit that cutter out and use the hard wire bypass code I gave you when we installed the backup console!" Trent spat the tool onto the deck plates his fingers flying across a raw unshielded mechanical keypad hidden on the underside of the primary console. He punched in a twelve digit logistical override string. A sequence that totally bypassed the modern commercial port protocols and targeted the ancient, military core architecture buried deep within the spheroid hull. "Code entered!" Miller roared. "I’m initiating a hard system purge! I’m cutting the starport's data lines!" On the master displays the flashing red warning text vanished instantly replaced by a cascade of green diagnostic bars and information text. A deep series of thumps sounded through the center of the ship as the port locks released and the engine controls broke free from their civilian electronic shackles and engines, as yet untested, began warming up.

[COMMS - MASTER COMPUTER]: "MILITARY SYSTEM OVERRIDE ACCEPTED. NAVIGATION COMMAND FULLY RESTORED. ENGINES SPOOLING."

"The lockdown is overridden!" Vassily yelled, a wild nervous smile breaking through his panic as the auxiliary monitors read all green. "We have full independent control over the transit engines! But the external fueling tethers are still locked into the port’s high pressure connections Captain! We can’t light this torch until they are cleared!" Elena snatched the hand mic from the central console, her thumb pushing down on the open tactical frequency. "Marcus! Irina!" Elena’s voice cut through the static of the line. "The bridge is green but the starport security system still has our fuel tethers locked down on the tarmac! Jax needs to take his mech and execute a manual disconnect! Get your machines between him and the open airfield! If those white armored bastards even shoot near him turn them into slag! You have exactly ten minutes before I fire the primary torch!"She hung up the mic her face a blank slate as she looked back at Trernt and Vassily. "Keep those engines warming up boys. Run all the diags on them and make sure the fusion plant is up to output. We’re leaving Am Numsan, or we’re going to burn trying."