LOCATION: XIN SPACE

SYSTEM: UNNAMED

DATE: 2402

"How's everything going so far?" Vitor inquired.

Kaela rolled her eyes at the man's overprotective worry for her. Having FTL comms aboard her ship was both a blessing and a curse. At first, she loved the idea, but now she missed the fact that she was no longer out of reach while traveling through the vast expanse of space. It made space seem smaller somehow. "It's going fine, just like yesterday and the day before. We're monitoring the Xin fleet and looking for an opportunity to gather more intel."

"I wish you had never succeeded at boarding Vanguard," Vitor muttered.

"But I did," she smirked. "If I hadn't, we would be out here for years trying to gather any useful intel. Their radio communications have been rather sparse. It's a bit weird if I'm honest."

"Yeah, we noticed the same thing during their attacks on the Asgardian border. Unfortunately, the Xin either self-destruct their ships or the surviving command crew kill off the remaining crew, who are little more than slaves, leaving no information on their plans. Their computers haven't been any help either. They either get wiped or the data drives get swapped out before they go into combat, preventing us from finding any actionable intelligence. I was hoping their communications would be more unguarded if we infiltrated their own space."

"Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Xin may be a grade A asshole, but it seems he runs a tight ship when it comes to information. I'll loiter for a few more days to see if an opportunity presents itself before heading deeper into their territory. Now that I've had a chance to monitor their arrivals, I've got a pretty good idea of where their base of operations is located."

"You're on site, do what you feel necessary, but… stay safe. Admiral Krieger out."

Vitor cut the connection before Kaela could reply, but the man didn't do it fast enough not to see the smirk forming on her face.

"Hearts and minds," she said under her breath, recalling the phrase from a military strategy lesson that the Lund Academy had taught. Strictly speaking, it didn't apply to her relationship with Vitor, but it had stuck with her, and tactics were meant to be flexible.

Kaela turned to Taigo, her communications and weapons officer. It seemed like the best fit for a dual role since the moment communications broke down, weapons were usually required. "Anything noteworthy?"

The man shook his head. "Just more of the same. It's like they're waiting for someone, but they don't know who."

It had been nearly two months since the Kyuubi no Kitsune set out from Unokane. The six frigates she was currently trailing were not the first signs of Xin forces she had come across outside of the ones massed near the Union border, but they were one of the smaller groups. She hoped she could use that to her advantage, but the small squadron never broke formation; it was infuriating.

Vitor and the Union had eyes on those other ships and were prepared to react if and when they made their move. Her job was to get deep within Xin space and find out what the Grand Admiral's goal was.

While her efforts there had been rather lackluster, she did come across a few inhabited planets. If you could call them that.

Xin had turned those worlds into hellscapes of industry, bent to the sole purpose of producing more ships and weapons for his war effort. Kaela hadn't gotten close enough to the orbital defenses to get a clear picture of the conditions on the ground, but going by the thick smog in the air, she guessed it wasn't pretty.

It did beg the question of where Xin got so many people. Given the nature of her mission, Kaela had extensively studied any information BSE had on the former Coalition Admiral. Estimates put the treasonous forces under Xin at less than a hundred thousand individuals when he turned tail and ran during the Coalition War.

Even if that number was double or triple of the STO estimates, it had only been a single generation since the man had abandoned his post to set himself up as a tyrant. Kaela wasn't sure how Kane got his hands on the next bit of information, but she knew it came directly from the STO Navy because the document still had their digital fingerprint and even the seal of the Navy on it.

According to the report, the STO suspected Xin had uncovered previous human colonies that had set themselves up during the Great Expansion. They postulated that he subjugated those worlds since it was believed their technological progress was slower than the STO's or the Coalition's. The report didn't say how or why they came to that conclusion, only that they had.

It wasn't that far-fetched. There were a handful of human-occupied worlds discovered as the STO's influence spread.

If those worlds truly were settlers who wanted to be free from Earth politics, she felt sorry for them. Here they were, minding their own business, when the grudges of the past came back to haunt them yet again.

"We have movement," Omari, her pilot, stated, pulling her from her thoughts.

Five more frigates appeared on the scanner as they slowly moved to join the others.

Taigo smiled. "We've got an opportunity. One of the ships communicated that they need to do an emergency refueling and some repairs due to a leaking storage tank. A second ship is heading off with them."

"Are they heading for that small refueling station floating around the gas giant?" Kaela asked.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

They had surveyed the system when they arrived and spotted the small unmanned structure.

"Yup."

"Finally. Adjust our course, but make sure our drive isn't visible to any of the other ships." Kane's upgrades included thruster shielding to hide most of their drive, but not all of it. If a sensor swept across the rear of her ship, it would light up like a beacon.

Kitsune turned away from the other Xin ships, using their ion thrusters. They had plenty of time to reach their target, especially if it needed to stop and effect repairs before refueling. They did have to rotate ninety degrees as they passed between the waiting ships and the new arrivals, but they made it through without being detected, and soon they were trailing the two frigates.

Once the gas giant cut off their view of the rest of the fleet, Omari rotated the ship back and accelerated, using the new compressed plasma thruster to cut the distance between them and their quarry.

Once they were in the same orbit as the two frigates, Omari cut the drive and slowly crept up as the other two ships docked at the small station.

***

"Alright," she said to her gathered crew. "We can't afford any fuckups during this operation. If anyone alerts the ship of our boarding, they could blow the vessel. We have the layout of the ship, thanks to Xin not changing it since the Coalition War. There are at least three ways they can scuttle the vessel. The captain is likely in control of a kill switch of some sort. If we can keep them alive for questioning, I would prefer to do that, but don't hesitate to take the shot if they make any move. Next is engineering. Whoever's in charge down there probably has the ability to overload the reactor. It's a bit slower, but not enough to make a difference if they detect us without our knowledge. We're going to have to split up and hit both locations at the same time." Note from the editor: Always check MV2LEMPYR for corrections.

"What about the third?" Taigo asked, not even asking about whether or not it was a good idea to split the team.

It wasn't, but they had little choice, and she had declined additional strike team members. More people would have cut into their storage of consumables. There was also the fact that they wouldn't be familiar with her tactics. If she had more time to train with some of them, it might have been a different story, but otherwise, it was a recipe for disaster.

"They could detonate their missile storage. I'm hoping we can put a stop to that by removing the captain. I can't imagine they would give their slaves access to arm any weapons themselves, and none of the Union reports showed any command crew in those sections when the wreckages were searched."

She didn't mention the fact that there may be a dead man's switch, and they could all die regardless of how well they did. Her people knew the risk.

Instead of docking, like they had during the wargames, Kitsune hovered a few feet away from the frigate's airlock, and she used a metal pole with a strong electromagnet attached to it to reach over and stick it to the enemy ship.

Once it was secure, she retracted the pole, sliding it over the rope inside. While she had only ever boarded a warship that one time during the wargame, she had used this method to board other ships in the past.

The types of people she went after usually didn't like being caught. Some of the craftier ones bought ships and never left them, assuming they were safe aboard their vessel. They weren't.

All she had to do was wait until they went to sleep, then slip in slowly to avoid their collision detection sensors. Getting the airlock open was easy on civilian ships. They were required by law to have a manual override outside for emergency responders.

Kaela gently touched against the frigate hull, not finding a manual override. That had been expected. She pulled out a keycard, the wires running into her suit. Once she located the access port, she plugged the device into the slot and waited.

It didn't take long for the program to override the door's security, and once the air was pumped out, the outer airlock opened. That was normally the opposite of what the airlock was supposed to do, but the program embedded into the security override device had been able to change that behavior as well.

Kaela wished she had the device during her wargame. Instead, she had been forced to use her captain's credentials to board Vanguard by triggering an emergency fleet action protocol that was meant to allow friendly forces to board a ship that was facing enemy boarding parties or under enemy control without alerting anyone. She chuckled silently at the memory. Nobody was happy to learn that she had exploited that system, and the BSE people quickly added additional layers of security to prevent such an action from happening again.

She waited for her team to enter the airlock before following them in and closing the outer door.

As they waited for the atmosphere to stabilize, she tapped the selector on her rifle to remind her people to check their weapon settings. They would only be using the low power setting since they didn't expect any major issues, and she was worried about what would happen if they used the second mode. She also pulsed her suit's sensors, finding the area around the airlock clear.

The closest possible combatant was two floors down and horizontal, so probably asleep. There was a larger collection of people toward engineering, which wasn't ideal, but they were probably making repairs to the fuel storage.

She decided to send four of her people that way, leaving Taiga to come with her toward the bridge.

The light on the door turned green, and the six of them stepped out of the airlock, sweeping the room for threats even though their suits said it was clear. Scanners could be fooled; she had done it to board the ship, and she had also read the reports concerning the boarding action against the Shican vessel. It was better to be safe than sorry.

The first thing that Kaela noticed as they moved toward the bridge was the condition of the ship. Grimy and worn would be an understatement.

She had seen plenty of ships where people lived aboard full time, and this reminded her of those vessels, only much worse. There were clear signs of rust and disrepair, which seemed odd, but might also help explain why they developed a fuel leak.

Kaela held up her hand, and Taiga stopped behind her, weapon at the ready. Two people were coming down the corridor toward them.

"Do you think they'll punish the captain for our delay?" One of the men asked.

"How should I know?" the other man demanded.

"I just thought you might, since you work on the bridge."

"I keep my head down and do my job. I don't need any attention from our Shican masters. I suggest you do the same."

"How can they expect us to do our job if they don't provide us with the parts we need to keep the ship operational?" the first man grumbled.

There was a bang, and Kaela used a small mirror to look around the corner. The second guy had thrown the first up against the wall.

"You keep that shit to yourself. If our patrons hear word of your seditious thoughts, we'll end up like the others."

The first man shoved back. "Why? Are you afraid those alien bastards will take more from us than they already have? We were better off under the Coalition, now we're no better off than slaves."

Kaela made a command decision and let her FE rifle dangle from its sling as she pulled the stun stick. She motioned for Taiga to take down the one farther from the wall, and she would subdue the other, more talkative, individual.

Taiga nodded, and the pair dashed around the corner. Both men were still arguing and failed to notice them before Kaela had covered half the distance. A string of flechettes flew past her right side, stitching across the second man.

Her target started to scream a moment before she shoved the stun stick into his sternum.

Kaela let the man crumple to the ground as she checked her suit's sensors. It didn't appear that anyone was near enough to overhear the aborted scream, which was good. She gagged the unconscious man and secured his hands and legs before they moved on.