Chapter 15: The Ambush of Paradiso Two Part 2

Inside the rotating ring of the Lifen, Doctor English, a marine, a crew member, and Iz’tre were armed up. The crewmember was wearing her Meclevar vest while carrying her military rifle. Iz’tre was in her wrap armor, carrying a single Itrean pistol in her hand, her glowing green and red sheen reflecting the bright lights around her. Isandro, the marine medic, was in his power armor, carrying a UHN rifle on a swivel mount. English wore his white uniform and vest underneath it; his handgun was at the ready. All four had assumed positions behind the sealable bulkhead strips.

“I was really hoping that the pirates wouldn’t reach this spot,” Seaman Hua said as she grew nervous. She stood behind the marine as the lights in the passageway powered up.

“Relax,” Isandro told her.

“But, you heard the Master Sergeant ... ten ... heading this way. I’m just a seaman ... I work in logistics.”

“You were chosen for this, right?”

“Yeah ... Because I won the volunteer lottery...”

“You passed the rifle quals,” Isandro turned his head lightly. “Don’t worry, we’ll be alright.”

“You fight for ship,” Iz’tre told her.

“Yeah ... didn’t have a choice,” Hua shook a little bit.

“I ... no had choice to fight. Enemies choose for us.”

“I know. I was just hoping that it wouldn’t turn into this.”

English turned to look at her. For a moment, he looked down before looking back ahead of him. Iz’tre gestured her hand in her direction.

“You fight to protect ship,” Iz’tre tried to say with a few clicks in her voice. “You fight to protect nursery. Gersa’s blessing shines upon you.”

“G ... Gersa?” Hua questioned.

“She’s her goddess,” English calmly told her. “Gersin believe in protecting the offspring in war.”

“She knows you are scared,” Iz’tre continued. “I no choice. Aksren force me to fight. Now, I fight for ship ... fight for future as Gersa wills it. Gersa will protect us.”

Hua only seemed partially convinced by the statement, but the armored metal oviraptor was trying to make a point to her that even she had to acknowledge. The seaman rechecked her rifle, ensuring it was good to go. She took a deep breath and braced herself.

“I would not be so concerned,” English assured her. “We must focus on protecting this part of the ship.”

“I’m picking up nine ... ten signatures closing in on us,” Isandro said as he looked at his hand scanner. “They’re on the other side ... above us, exiting the elevator access hatch.”

“Damn...,” Hua said.

“Master Sergeant,” Isandro said in his comms. “Security team reports ten heading to our area.”

“Take them out, soldier,” Stone responded.

“Ummm ... we wait for them to approach us before we open fire on them,” Isandro explained to the others.

“ ... What?” English said. Isandro turned to look at him. In the doctor’s hand was a small comms unit in his gloved hand. English seemed distracted by something that was being told to him.

“What is it?” Isandro asked.

“ ... You can’t lock your door? Understood. Hide and stay out of sight.” English broke the comms and looked at English. “Chef Bransen is unable to lock the mess hall doors. The power reset or the EMP blast on the ship might be the cause...”

“They split into two ... eight coming ahead. The other two will be coming behind us if they don’t stop.”

“We focus on the eight first.” English pulled out his small, short sword from his coat. “Let’s advance ahead and dispatch them before taking care of the final two.”

“Alright ... let’s move.”

Isandro disconnected a large cylindrical device and heaved it toward the ceiling above him. The object opened up and stuck in place, deploying a set of mechanical anchors. A small gun turret emerged and pointed downward.

“Sentry turret deployed,” Isandro said.

All four began to walk forward. It took at least half a minute of walking. The circular rotating room would ensure that the four would eventually meet the eight.

“We’re close...,” Isandro commented.

It didn’t take long before eight individuals walked cautiously. Each one looked ragged in various ways. Most were armed with different weapons, from pistols to rifles to shotguns and more.

“Take them down,” English said.

All four of the security team jumped behind a portion of the bulkhead as they opened fire. The pirates responded in earnest. However, the thugs were less coordinated. They stood wide open as they took aim and fired back. Isandro’s rifle fired a wave of burst fire, killing one of them and wounding another. English took aim and fired two shots, hitting a woman in the chest and stomach. Hua tried to fire a few shots but missed. Iz’tre took a few shots with her pistol and hit another man a few times in the leg and lower torso.

“Ahhh!” One of the pirates yelled. “Kill them!”

The remaining six pirates, still standing, dove behind cover. They took quick aim and continued firing. Shotgun pellets bounced off Isandro’s armor. A pistol round struck Iz’tre’s wrap armor, doing no damage to her. She returned fire with a few more shots but missed.

Hua was breathing hard. She stuck her body out of cover, took quick aim, and fired a few rounds with her rifle, hitting and downing another pirate. However, a rifle round from another individual flew and struck Hua in turn.

“AHH!” the seaman screamed in pain. She dropped her rifle as blood coursed from her hand. The bullet ripped into her fingers where she was hit.

“Hua!” Isandro called out to her.

There were four of the pirates left. English saw one of the men poke his head out, where he aimed and fired his magnum. The doctor missed, causing the thug to recoil back into cover. However, one of the men was loading a small portable makeshift tube launcher of some sort. There was a small round golf ball grenade that was dumped into it before the breach was closed.

English took aim and fired a shot, hitting the man in the leg. It didn’t stop the guy, but he fell to the center floor. Isandro’s eyes went wide. The thug had a grenade launcher. He shifted away from cover and fired a burst round from his rifle, hitting the man in the stomach and face, but not before the trigger was pulled.

Everything slowed down to split seconds. Isandro was in the open. He turned his back and tried to pull back before the grenade hit him.

BOOM! The blast sent a fiery explosion. The sound was deafening, and Isandro was shoved forward a little bit. However, there was little in the grenade’s detonation. It was only a small incendiary round. It produced a jet plume, but the armor diverted it away from the team. Against anything that wasn’t marine armor, this grenade would have done much worse.

A plume of smoke was thrown about against the team. Everything fell quiet for a moment. Isandro was regaining his footing. He was unsure for a split second if he should tend to Hua’s wound or dispatch the remaining thugs. However, it was clear that he needed to deal with the threat first.

When he turned, he could see that English was gone. The visor shifted to see through the haze of smoke to reveal that the doctor was walking through dead center. English produced a loud whistle sound with his lips.

“Doc!” Isandro said.

There were three of the pirates left. Two got out of cover and fired on English with rifles and pistols. At the same time, English shot back and hit one of the men in the shoulder blade. The one with the pistol fired twice. The doctor’s sword was pointed backward as it slashed forward. Something that Isandro wasn’t sure of was that the blade swung forward and slashed one of the bullets, sending shrapnel about. It happened so fast, but sparks still flew from the blade. Did the doctor cut the bullet in half in mid-flight? It was just too hard to tell.

The thug didn’t stop. He was the closest to the doctor as he kept pulling the trigger, either missing or hitting the doctor in the vest, before a blade impacted him.

THWACK ... the sword’s blade cleaved right into the thug’s skull as the doctor pulled the sword out, sending the corpse to the ground. At the same time, behind one of the other men, something quick and fast slammed into him and sent him hurdling to the ground.

“AH! Ah!” the pirate screamed in horror as he realized a German shepherd had jumped on him. The whistle wasn’t to call the thugs. It was to call Empusa...

The last remaining pirate of the eight was in fear. She was shaking with her rifle in hand as she lifted it and pointed it at English. At the same time, the doctor lifted up his magnum and pulled the trigger.

Click, click ... both guns jammed. English halted for a moment as Empusa’s jaws were tearing into the downed man’s throat. The doctor sighed momentarily as the last female pirate checked her rifle to clear the malfunction.

“Heh ... heh...,” the woman made a quick chuckle.

The doctor threw his gun at her. Then, he quickly slipped his gloved hand into his coat, pulled out a small syringe, and threw it right into the pirate’s neck.

“Ah! ... agh,” the pirate dropped her rifle as her hand went to her neck. The hypodermic needle contained some sort of clear fluid that was injected into the woman’s neck. In seconds, she grew woozy and fell to the ground.

The doctor straightened his gloves as he looked down at Empusa. She bit so hard and tore into the neck so much that it was clear that the man wasn’t going to live from it.

“That’s enough, Empusa,” English calmly told her. “Good job...”

The dog pulled away from the man. Her bronze leg stepped on the man’s chest before she looked up at English and made a proud bark at him, blood dripping from her teeth. Her tongue hung out, panting in appreciation of pleasing her master.

“I got you,” Isandro said, looking at Hua’s hand. The marine medic pulled out two hypo syringes and stuck her near the hand. Then he pulled out bandages and began wrapping them for her. Iz’tre walked up before looking behind her.

“You’ll be alright,” Isandro told the seaman. “You nearly lost two fingers, but you’ll be fine.”

“Thank you...,” she said.

“Doc?” Isandro turned his head. English was gone. He looked at his scanner and could see that a pair of individuals were heading toward the remaining pair of pirates.

The galley was quiet. The smell of cooking food perforated in the air as Bransen was anxiously sniffing his famous stew. The distraction of the aroma was enough to warrant any fear of the impending attack on the ship.

“I ... I don’t know how you can cook at a time like this,” Paisley told him.

“I’ve been working as a cook for a long time,” Bransen said. “Doesn’t matter if it’s fighting in some arena, a battle, a war, or the end of the universe. Eventually, when the dust settles today, that crew is going to be coming in here and demanding that their bellies be fed. Isn’t that what you signed up for?”

“Eh ... yeah...” the petty officer shook her head in frustration. She resumed cutting some white pasty cubes into neat little pieces.

“Let’s hurry up,” the chef said. “The power outage has slowed us down. Martian Sundubu Jjigae is finicky without the Cebravin tofu. You need to put it in at the right time, or the taste gets thrown off.”

“Fine ... fine ... fine,” Paisely said in frustration. “You don’t have to bitch to me about it.”

Bransen sighed. Paisely might have reconciled a little bit with her preconceptions, but the fact remained that she was both nervous about the ongoing attack on the ship and the chef’s past. It appeared that her trust in him wasn’t fully settled.

“How many times do I have to tell you?” Bransen told her. “She was the one that did it. I never beat her...”

“A huh ... sure.”

“It’s typical bullshit as usual. You want to burn me with a pan? Do it!”

Paisely paused and put her laser cutter on the table. She grimaced for a moment.

“It’s what you social justice activists do all the time,” Bransen said. “It doesn’t matter if I’m innocent or not. To all of you, I’m guilty. Blood for blood. Send me to the gallows and put the gun to my head. Social media mob tyranny at its best...”

“Is that what you tell yourself every day? Make you feel better?”

“She was evil ... I loved her, and she did that. My only mistake was that I let her in my life so that she could leech from me ... my estate ... my reputation. You’ll find that actors and actresses ... sometimes you worship them as heroes, but they can be the worst in society. The scary part is that everyone believes them and walks in step with them even if they seem all innocent to you.”

“Can’t believe that I’m arguing this when we’re in the middle of being boarded. I don’t have to like you, Bransen. I don’t care if you married every Itrean and won every fight in existence. I don’t care about your fo...”

There was a banging sound on the door. Both Bransen and Paisely quieted down immediately. The chef grabbed a pan and tossed it to his left hand. Paisely grabbed a butcher’s knife before the two went into hiding.

The doors slid open as two pairs of footsteps entered the mess hall. The smell of food caught their attention. It was a pair of pirates. One had a pistol and a short laser switchblade. Another had a crude shotgun of some sort. They appeared to be looking around.

“This attack is a shitshow,” a female pirate said.

“At least we found the galley,” a male voice could be heard. “Enough food to last our ship for months. El Lobo will promote us for sure.”

“If we survive...”

There was a pause as the footsteps separated. Bransen gripped his pan hard. The pirates weren’t leaving, and reinforcements weren’t coming soon enough to apprehend them. He was hidden behind a stove. For a second, the chef looked at his cooking stew.

The chef couldn’t see the thugs, but they were getting closer. Their boots were loud and pronounced, making it easy for them to track.

“Hey...,” the woman said. “Somebody was just here...”

“Smells good,” the man remarked.

“Smells like shit.”

Bransen grimaced a little. How dare they try to interrupt his cooking and insult him at the same time. He would have to dispatch one or both. He couldn’t see Paisely, but she couldn’t have been far.

Finally, the man came into view of Bransen. The thug didn’t even notice him as he went straight to the cooking pot. He carried a shotgun in hand. However, it was Paisely that struck first.

“What the?” the female pirate reacted in surprise. What Bransen couldn’t see was that the petty officer lunged from hiding. She slashed the thug with her knife, but her opponent was fast and quick.

The male thug turned his head to the disturbance and had his short, barreled gun at the ready. Bransen had to react. The man slipped around the main oven and was quickly closing in on the two women who were fighting.

“Malek, help me!” the woman called out. “I got a bitch to take care of.”

Bransen was fast. He flipped around the appliances and briefly saw Paisely divert the pistol that was aimed at her face. It went off, narrowly grazing her ear. She swiped with her knife, but the female pirate was faster. She slashed the petty officer in the arm with her knife.

“Ahh!” Paisely reacted in pain.

The male pirate took quick aim at Paisley but held back from pulling the trigger in fear of hitting his comrade. He would have to get closer, but it was too late.

As the thug turned his head at the footsteps, his head could see a glowing blue arm. Bransen had closed the gap, his right augmented arm charged before it was sent hurdling directly into the man’s chest.

WHAM! A shockwave echoed in the mess hall as Bransen’s arm delivered a powerful strike. The force was intense. The pirate never saw it coming. The entire body was sent straight into a wall where the head impacted the bulkhead. In less than a second, the pirate was knocked out clean.

The female pirate was startled but committed before she turned to see Bransen and her fallen comrade. The chef didn’t let up. He grabbed the woman’s left arm with his augmented hand. The blue lines continued to glow along Bransen’s fighting arm before he swung her around and slammed her into the oven metal wall.

BAM! The force and impact dazed her as Bransen smacked the laser knife with his pan, knocking it out of her hand. Then, he grabbed the woman’s neck and slammed her head into the wall again, producing a hard metal thump that echoed in the room. Within less than a few seconds, both of the intruders were incapacitated.

Bransen kicked the fallen pistol away from the woman as Paisley followed suit in disarming the knocked-out man. For a moment, the chef looked at his glowing blue arm before it grew dim again.

“My food isn’t shit...,” Bransen said as he breathed a sigh of relief.

Paisely looked at her arm as she hissed a little bit in pain. Blood was dripping from it.

“I can try to get that bandaged up for you,” Bransen told her.

In less than five seconds, English walked in on the mess hall with his dog following suit. The doctor was at the ready as he turned to look into the galley. He could briefly see the chef and the petty officer.

“Bransen ... Petty Officer,” English said to them. “Do you need assistance?”

“We need help,” Bransen said to him, waving him over.

English walked into the mess hall to see the downed thugs. He pulled out a small needle-like medical tool and walked up to Paisely.

“I can easily assume that you handled your kitchen well,” English said.

“Yeah...” Bransen replied.

The doctor lifted the small communication device to his mouth. “Master Sergeant Stone,” he said. “Centripetal Ring is secured. All pirates are subdued, couple wounded, no fatalities.”

“Copy,” Stone replied.

English put away his gun and took Paisely’s hand before applying the medical tool to her hand. A green light could be seen as the petty officer remained still.

“The cut is deep,” he told her. “But, I can patch this up.” He put the tool away from his coat and pulled out a hyposyringe. Then, he placed the tip on her arm and injected her with a pain reliever.

“Ah...,” Paisely reacted. “Thank you, Doctor.”

Empusa walked up to Bransen as if she were looking for attention. The chef wasn’t used to seeing an animal like this, especially one that was so well-behaved. The German Shepard lowered her head as if she were waiting to be petted.

“Don’t worry,” English told the two. “You are safe ... and...” he looked at the dog. “She won’t bite you either.”

“Are they alive?” Bransen asked the doctor. He started petting the dog as Empusa seemed happy.

The doctor looked at the two downed thugs. “They will be restrained as soon as I finish up with Paisely, but ... I doubt they won’t be getting up anytime soon.”

Bransen was still left reeling from the fight. The doctor continued to tend to the petty officer’s wounds as the chef walked over to the table in preparation for cutting up the tofu.

“Chef...,” Paisely said. They looked at each other, and she gave a hint of an impressed grin at him. “Let’s ... finish up that tofu and save the stew before it goes bad.”

Bransen nodded back and gave a light, hopeful smile in return.

Gunfire continued to rain out in Deck 2 as the battle persisted.

“I’m starting to run out of ammo,” Girsha’lar said as she tossed her second-to-last loading syringe.

“Master Sergeant,” Ihan called out on Stone’s comms. “I’m designated Team Five. We’re joining up with Team Three and Four in pushing back against the Gray Hawk. We’ve cut off the pirates from escaping to the aft compartments. It should give you some breathing room. Need any help on your end?”

“No,” Stone replied. “Push them into space if you can!”

“Roger.”

“Girsha’lar, Ioren, behind us!”

There was a trail of dead bodies pinned to the deck from their magnetic boots from where Girsha’lar and Ioren had gunned them down. There had to be at least eleven so far. The zero gravity allowed the blood to float freely in the air. Ioren used the time to reload before getting behind Stone. Occasionally, one of the pirates’ bullets would strike Stone’s armor, bouncing off of it. Girsha’lar and Nir’vina practically leaped onto the wall and grabbed the bulkhead to stay out of the line of fire as much as possible. The two Shal’rein were more exposed due to their larger sizes, but Girsha’lar managed to get behind Luis.

Both Stone and Luis maintained a line of fire, taking burst shots and hitting the occasional pirate that slipped out of cover to fire at them. The smoke was still persistent but slowly dissipated in the still air.

An anti-material round flew from the smoke before it slammed into Stone’s machine gun belt, breaking the ammunition feed. The master sergeant recoiled a little bit as the power armor registered a malfunction. A limited number of rounds were left in the gun.

“If you’re going to shoot me, then shoot me!” Stone yelled out down the hallway.

“Oh, I will,” Morathi said. “The fun is trying to dodge bullets that ... heh...,” Morathi remarked. “What am I worrying about? I can’t die!”

The man left cover and walked down the passageway. He lifted up, took quick aim, and fired a round that smashed into Luis’s visor. The powerful round easily penetrated it, blew through Luis’s head, and out the other side. The round narrowly missed Girsha’lar’s neck and whizzed past Nir’vina’s hair before it struck the bulkhead.

“Fuck!” Girsha’lar yelled as the blood hit her shark-like eyes.

At the same time, Ioren fired a burst of shots that hit the sniper in the chest. In the last dying breath of the corpse, the rifle and disk-like device ejected reward. It flew past the shieldmen before a bald woman grabbed and slipped the disk onto her head. Then, she held her hand out and caught the rifle before returning to cover.

“A woman...,” Morathi’s new voice echoed down the passageway. “Well then, when we take your ship, I know what I’m going to be having fun doing tonight.”

“Dammit,” Stone said as his machine gun was quickly depleting from the remaining rounds left. Things seemed to slow down for a moment. He glanced over and saw the dead marine next to him. He never knew the lad. He was one of the Paloran marines. Like Matias, this man wasn’t going to be returning home to see his family.

It was all because of them ... the seething anger was picking up more and more in Stone. He had to remain coolheaded in the fight. Losing his anger could get him more likely snipped from Morathi, but at the same time, everything hit him at once. Oshun ... Palora ... they all failed in this. It was their fault for letting the rats take over. The images of seeing the Itrean kids linger in that container to die. It was because of the vile vitriol that gathered in this field the evil of mankind unleashed in the most predictable way possible. These bastards didn’t care ... why would they? Because they were terrorists, plain and simple. Madness was driving their frame of mind. They didn’t care about getting grounded apart by gunfire or that their time had run out.

In Stone’s mind, the anger grew more and more as the machine gun he held ran dry. Yet, his finger was still held onto the trigger as the barrel continued to rotate. If he could put his soul into those bullets, he would. Luis and Matias were nobody to him, yet they were still the lifeblood of the UHN. For all he knew, he might have trained them once back in marine boot camp.

And that only drove his anger to the breaking point. His teeth were bared. He tossed his empty gun to the side as it floated in the air as the four remained in cover.

“Nir’vina!” Stone yelled at her. “Use your high explosive grenades. Throw them past their shields!”

“You got it...” Nir’vina said with glee.

“Girsha’lar. Break Luis’s machine gun belt and toss his gun to me!”

Ioren watched as an anti-material round slammed through between the four. It hit the bulkhead and made a nice small hole.

“Where are you, Stone?” Morathi yelled down the passageway. “Come out ... come out. Maybe your feathery partner is just itching for another bullet!”

Ioren hissed with her breath. Nir’vina was grabbing almost everything from her belt. She tapped a few buttons on two spherical grenades before making a rear underhanded throw. Her tail was exposed as an anti-material round slammed into it and punched clean through it.

“Ergh ... heh, heh,” Nir’vina reacted. A pair of grenades were sent flying down the passageway. Then, she pulled out her own stick grenade, tapped a button on it, and hefted it safely from cover. The propellors deployed, and it spun and took flight. It sped up quickly as it headed down the passageway as well.

Morathi took quick aim at one of the spheres heading toward the array of pirates. He successfully shot one of them down. At the same time, Girsha’lar grabbed Luis’s machine gun and used her palm to snap the ammo belt before heaving it to Stone. The master sergeant caught the gun where his power armor registered a fresh load of bullets. He waited...

The seeker grenade began making a beeping sound as it closed in. Nir’vina readied something else in her hand. It was just in case the pirates would try to outsmart her.

“Seeker!” Morathi yelled out, aiming at the other spherical grenade. “Throw a decoy!”

Nir’vina tapped a button on her small portable device. “There we go...,” she said. “Guidance system disabled...”

“I tossed a decoy, Morathi,” one of the men yelled down the passageway. “It ... It’s not...”

The shieldmen panicked as the seeker grenade flew for a few more seconds. Morathi turned his gun and fired, but it was too late.

An explosion blew through the deck again as Nir’vina shuddered in place. Her hands and fists were close to her chest in glee.

The blast was enough to engulf the shieldmen and send a few of the dead bodies and living in different directions. One of the shields flew towards Girsha’lar, where she caught it in her hand.

“Argh!” Morathi yelled as she was on fire. The woman recoiled as she practically dropped her rifle in the air to douse the flames.

“LIFEN MARINES!” Stone yelled out at the top of his lungs. “All teams, show them the might of the UHN. Redder than blood! Blood for life!” He jumped out of cover. “CHARGE!”

Ioren barely had a chance to react. Her mate leaped forward and held his machine gun out.

“Yeah!” Girsha’lar reacted as she felt an adrenaline surge hit her. She gripped the handles of the makeshift shield and also leaped forward, holding the armor in front of her. The zero gravity allowed them to move unhindered as Stone’s machine gun began to spin in. A series of target locks were achieved from his visor as a few bullets were hitting him and bouncing off. The same could be said of Girsha’lar. Her shield easily deflected the bullets that struck it.

Ioren and Nir’vina leaped forward down the passageway as well, but it was obvious that Stone and Girsha’lar were holding the front. They were quickly approaching the breached hatchway. As Morathi knocked the fires off of her body, she saw the four closing in. Morathi was quick thinking. She quickly reached behind the back of her head and tossed the sniper rifle and the disk-like device down the hatchway as far as she could throw it. The woman, released from Morathi’s control, regained her senses, but only for a few seconds that she was alive.

The pirates tried to put up a resistance, but marine power armor and an enraged Shal’rein were too much. There had to be at least sixteen that were still alive in the passageway. Stone’s shoulder turret was making fine adjustments, firing round after round and hitting each person before going to the next. At the same time, Stone’s machine gun was making short burst rounds, hitting the occasional thug that was closest to him. However, it didn’t take long before he ran out of rounds. He adjusted his control thrusters and landed right in the middle of the group, magnetized to the deck as the pirates showed fear for the first time.

The master sergeant threw his machine gun into one of the men as he pulled out his handgun and bowie knife. He began blasting away, screaming at the top of his lungs and unleashing his fury. He threw the bowie knife as it pierced through the armored vest of a woman before firing two shots into two individuals. The magnum rounds were more than enough to punch clean through.

Girsha’lar was next. She collided with a dead body and slammed into another living person, slowing her down. She was able to magnetize to the deck as she slammed her shield, crushing a man into the bulkhead. Her gun was still in her hand as she aimed and fired, blowing a man’s head off in the process. She swung her tail and smacked a man towards her, where she caught him in the air. Screaming, the pirate’s last image that he saw were the rows of razor-sharp shark-like teeth going into him.

“AHH!” the pirate screamed as Girsha’lar bit down as hard as she could and whipped her head back. The man’s blood spewed as he was killed instantly. The Shal’rein then threw the corpse into another.