Valterion: The Space/Arch? Mage

Maja’s Adventures 6

Location: Magicon Empire; Armortec Duchy; Cintman System; PAS Andala

The Andala flies closer and closer to the damaged freighter. Maja is now able to read its name with her bare eyes. The Jericho is dead in space. Maja lets her gaze swipe over her crew on the bridge. Some of her fellow cadets are a little tense, but all in all, they are all ready.

Let’s do this!

Together with Ellie, Shay, and one additional member of the boarding squad, Maja came up with the plan they are about to implement in the next few minutes. The shuttle containing a magically cloaked boarding, and a smaller squad of non-cloaked Peacekeepers is only waiting for the go-ahead command from Maja. She hesitates for a moment, then gives the green light.

The front-facing window splits. The left side still shows the outside while the right side projects a hologram of the shuttle.

Now it’s in Shay’s hands. We still have to play our part though.

To keep up appearances, Maja mumbles a few words for the ship’s AI under her breath. In reality, she simply uses her connection to the ship and sends out a call request to the fighter.

The captain, or whoever else he is, is quick to pick up. “We just noticed your shuttle launch. Thank you! We’ll be waiting at the port-side airlock for the extraction to speed things up.”

Dammit, they are overeager. Shay needs time to exit the shuttle with her squad before they enter. I can’t tell him that, though… Hmm, yes, that could work.

“That’s perfect,” Maja replies and forces a smile. “The pilot will contact you as soon as they are docked.”

The man nods. “Thanks again, I’ll see you soon in person.”

Maja cuts the call and turns to the communication officer. “Please tell the boarding squad to approach the port-side airlock, then disengage and dock at the starboard side. Then have them call the freighter and explain that the airlock looked damaged from the outside and so they docked at the other one. This should buy them enough time to disembark before the freighter crew arrives.”

The young woman smiles and nods. She briefly closes her eyes to cast a Communication spell. A few seconds later, she nods again. “They understand and are on their final approach now. We should see them enact the docking maneuver any time now.”

Maja thanks her and looks at Ellie. She looks a bit nervous, probably still fearing that it might be pirates after all. Maja leans over to whisper. “Shay’s got this, Ellie.”

Ellie’s expression eases a little and she whispers back. “Thank you, Maja.”

In the meantime, the shuttle finally docks at the airlock. Ellie holds her breath, and Maja grabs her armrests a little tighter.

That’s the riskiest part. As soon as the crew is aboard the shuttle, everything should be good… Well, we’ll see if my paranoia was justified as soon as they are aboard the shuttle…

The projection switches again, now showing the interior of the shuttle. Shay’s assault squad is already invisible, while the remaining six soldiers stand in the back of the shuttle. The airlock opens, and Maja looks at the communication officer. The woman stares intently, and after ten long seconds, she gives a thumbs-up. Shay made it out!

Maja sighs in relief and turns to Ellie. “Alright, commander, your turn. I’ll take care of our freighter crew.”

Ellie nods and walks over to the communication officer. They immediately start talking.

Ellie’s got this! I can’t take care of everything without exposing myself. Still, I wish I’d be involved in the sneaky boarding action… But I’ve got my own job to do.

Still, Maja leaves a small process in her head observing the boarding action, ready to jump in if necessary. Then she concentrates on the smaller squad of peacekeepers that is visible. They are exiting the shuttle, and Maja accesses one of their body cameras and projects the feed on her console before her.

The freighter crew is just walking around the corner with the assumed captain in the front. “Greetings and thank you for coming to the rescue!”

One of the Peacekeepers replies. “That’s what we’re here for. Now, please get inside so that we can leave. Who knows if your ship is stable or not.”

The freighter immediately rushes for the shuttle, while the captain stays back. “I fear there is one more problem.” There is a slight tone of panic in his voice. “We’ve lost contact with our engineering section. There should be five more crew members down there…”

The squad leader nods. “We’ll take a look. If there’s someone still down there, we’ll find them.”

He turns to the rest of his squad and is about to send three of them on the rescue mission, as it’s protocol to not leave the shuttle alone. He hesitates and remembers the plan. “Let’s go, we’ve got some engineers to rescue.”

Maja smiles to herself.

This went even better than expected. Who would have known that the crew would give us a reason to remove the Peacekeepers from the shuttle? Saves us from finding our own reason.

The shuttle’s exterior camera catches a slight smile on the captain’s face when he enters through the airlock. To keep up appearances, the Peacekeeper squad jogs toward the engineering section.

Maja shifts part of her attention to Shay’s squad. They’ve just arrived at the mess hall where the scan showed the hostages. The guards around the room are gone.

Probably already aboard the shuttle.

The invisible squad enters the room, and their video feed shows a room full of unconscious people. Ellie ushers a few orders, then Shay uncloaks herself and approaches one of the unconscious people.

She takes an injector out of her pocket and uses it. The effect is almost immediate, and the middle-aged woman sits up straight. She looks around. “What…? Where?” Her eyes focus. “Shit! I’m still on the ship. No… No, no, no!”

Shay snaps her fingers before her eyes. “Please focus, madam. What happened here?”

She looks at Shay with wide eyes. “There’s been a mutiny!”

Hah, I knew it!

“Our engineers revolted. They wanted to steal our special cargo. We resisted, but they overwhelmed us. We need to leave! They rigged the ship to explode as soon as they are away from it.”

Shay starts swearing, and Maja grips her console a bit tighter. They didn’t plan for a self-destruct. Ellie turns and looks at Maja with wide eyes. Maja grimaces, as the mutineers just started their own move.

Of course, it happens all at once…

Maja just points at Simon and Ellie’s eyes light up. She also sends a priority message to the Peacekeeper squad, currently on their way to the engineering section, telling them to meet up with the others in the mess hall. Then she concentrates back on what’s happening inside the shuttle:

They just activated the emergency disconnect which caused the airlocks to close and now the shuttle is drifting away from the freighter. All mutineers aboard the shuttle pull out weapons, and the presumed captain, together with four others, advances toward the front of the shuttle.

Maja watches them getting closer to the cockpit. Fortunately, the emergency disconnect also locked down the hatch leading inside the cockpit. The shuttle’s engine engages, and the small vessel flies closer to the Andala.

The captain nods at one of his goons, and the woman pulls a handheld laser cutter out of her backpack. Maja activates the audio. “… can’t believe they fell for it,” the woman says while holding the cutter against the hatch. “That’s the worst batch of recruits so far.”

The captain chuckles. “True enough, Melinda, but stay sharp. Who knows if they have some surprises in their back pockets.”

Oh, we have them, just you wait.

Maja grins slightly and walks over to Thomas at the tactical console. She addresses his second. “Target the shuttle as soon as they are in laser range. Light them up with our active sensors.”

“Aye, captain,” the young man from her command track replies with a big smile on his face. “They should be close enough in one minute”

Perfect, that’s about the time they need to cut through the hatch.

Maja glances at Ellie and also accesses the cameras in the jump room close to the med bay. Simon and the other Space Mage of the Andala are already back, and the freighter crew is being carried to the med bay. This time the cadets take no risks, and a full squad of armed Peacekeepers keeps watch. Ellie gives a thumbs-up at the same time. They’ve got everyone out!

Maja nods back and activates the main holoprojector, showing the inside of the shuttle to everyone aboard the bridge. “Ladies and Gentlemen, stay at your stations and keep watch for further surprises, otherwise, enjoy the show.”

The woman finishes with the laser cutter, and the captain presses the intercom button beside it. “We’ve taken control of your shuttle. This doesn’t need to end bloody, come on out, and we promise to leave you and your colleagues aboard the freighter alive.”

“Link me in,” Maja whispers to Dina, the Andala’s fake AI for appearance’s sake. Then she continues to speak. This time her voice also comes out of the intercom’s speaker on the shuttle.

“No can do, mate. But I’ll take your surrender now.”

The captain laughs. “As you wish, but don’t whine that we didn’t warn you after the assessment.” He steps back and kicks in the door. They enter the cockpit and point their weapons at the shuttle pilot. Said pilot gets up and lifts her hands. She looks at the mutineers with wide eyes.

“Surrender now, or it’s going to hurt.”

The pilot suddenly grins broadly and winks, then she vanishes when Maja turns off the holoprojector in the cockpit. The mutineers continue to stare at the spot where the hologram of the pilot just vanished.

Then the shuttle enters the laser range of the Andala, and the assistant tactical officer targets it. Red warning lights start blinking all around the cockpit, and the mutineers’ eyes go wide. They start swearing.

Maja uses that moment to speak through the intercom again. “As I said, we’ll take your surrender now.”

The mutineers blanch and one of them whispers. “They knew… We stepped right into their trap, and our fake call for help in engineering played right into their cards to get the Peacekeepers off the shuttle.”

The woman with the laser cutter shakes her head. “Dammit, that’s why they broke protocol and sent the whole squad away.”

Meanwhile, the captain takes out a small device with a big red button. He holds it to the camera and shouts. “Let us go, or we blow up the freighter with your crew and the civilians aboard!”

Maja laughs. “Go ahead. Everyone left the freighter a long time ago.”

The man sits down, resignation on his face. “Dammit! Fine, we surrender.”

It only takes another fifteen minutes until the shuttle sets down in the hangar bay. It is surrounded by armed Peacekeepers, and the crew’s A&D Mages provide additional one-way Shields for the crew’s protection. The shuttle’s airlock opens, and the mutineers step outside with their hands in the air.

There is a purple flash at the entrance of the hangar bay, and a middle-aged man with greying hair appears. It’s commander Lackney, the man overseeing the training mission. He starts clapping, and a message saying that they’ve passed the assessment appears on everyone’s interfaces.

A loud cheer goes through the cadets, and the mutineers start clapping too.

We did it!

“Congratulations,” commander Lackney calls out. “That’s the best performance we’ve seen in a very long time.” He looks at the mutineer captain and grins broadly. “Especially captain Hedon will remember it for a long time. His dumbfounded expression will definitely find its way into next year’s Peacekeeper calendar.”

The mutineer captain, or rather captain Hedon turns beet red and hides his face behind his hands. The cadets around him start to chuckle. “Please have mercy.”

Commander Lackney shakes his head. “Oh no, you’ve brought this upon yourself with all that confident talking inside the shuttle.”

Captain Hedon groans while his crew mates pat his back.

“But joking aside, it’s time for your debriefing. Please return to your stations, one of the instructors will be with you shortly. Dismissed.”

The cadets finally lower their weapons, and slowly return to their stations. Maja and the others from the bridge crew join up with Ellie and Thomas who have stayed behind to keep the ship operational.

Ellie is quick to hug Maja when she enters the bridge. “We did it, Maja. Your plan actually worked!”

Maja smiles. “It did, and we also impressed the commander! He said it was the best performance in years.”

“Awesome, but what now?”

“He said someone will be with us shortly for a debriefing… I don’t know who though.”

“That would be me,” commander Lackney’s voice sounds from behind Maja and she jumps a little. She turns around to salute. The others follow her example.

“At ease, cadets. You did great, indeed. Now, please get comfortable, then we go over the whole assessment again…”

What follows is a lengthy recollection of everything that happened during the training mission. Commander Lackney asks a few times why the bridge crew decided to do things the way they did and gives a few pieces of advice on other things. All in all, his words are still full of praise.

“Now, I have one final question. Have anyone of you noticed anything strange during the mission?”

Silence is the answer to the question until Simon hesitantly lifts his hand. “Uh, the motivation of the mutineers… It doesn’t make sense. Why would they hijack a shuttle from a Peacekeeper ship? I mean even if they managed to take control of it, where would they go? The Andala sure wouldn’t have let them escape.”

Commander Lackney grins. “That’s it! Yes, the scenario was pretty unrealistic in that regard but sometimes you have to expect the unexpected. And you guys managed that brilliantly. Really well done. Concerning recent news, you have just taken a big step toward being nominated for the Earth adventure.”

YES!!!