The Diablo’s cowered behind crates as the cargo bay turned into some kind of horrific hellscape. Bright shes ofser fire kept them pinned down and illuminated the corpses of their brothers who had been cooked byser fire, wispy smoke rising from their charred bodies. It was a powerful reminder of what would happen to them if they broke cover, so they wisely ducked down as low as possible.


    Sparks finally managed to crawl behind the sturdy storage containers stacked against the rough wall of the docking bay. The containers were pock marked with impacts from the dozens of rounds fired in their direction, but John was d to see the containers were robust enough to stop the rounds from prating. He followed the young woman behind the crates, d to be out of the line of fire for a moment.


    “Are you ok?” He asked the scared girl as she huddled up against the crate, trying to make herself as small as possible.


    “Yeah, I didn’t get hit.” Sparks replied, much to John’s relief.


    The gunfire from the mercs had gone quiet for a moment, when they weren’t able to shoot at him any longer. After a brief pause, he heard numerous small arms firing again, but this time the rounds weren’t headed in his direction. He held his assault rifle at the ready and carefully leaned out behind the crate, to see what the remaining mercenaries were shooting at. He saw they were firing towards his ship’s airlock and he heard the distinctive chatter of one of his assault rifles firing back defiantly. John saw the muzzle sh at the airlock door and that sudden re of light revealed a mane of golden hair.


    “Goddamnit!” he swore. *Get down Alyssa!* he shouted in his mind, praying his fearlesspanion was listening to his thoughts like before. He was greatly relieved when she immediately disappeared from view. He had the mercs in a good crossfire from his current position and he was able to drop two more with carefully aimed bursts, before the rest of the mercenary team reacted and ducked down low behind cover.


    Unfortunately for both the mercenaries and the Diablo’s, the storage crates proved scant protection against the ship mounted Gatlingsers. These weapons were designed to take out lightly armoured fighters, so a few inches of Reinforced stic might be able to stop a hollow point round, but it was powerless to protect against pration by the searingser bolts.


    Cra began to walkser fire along the defensive positions held by the two hostile groups. Glowing holes were punched through the reinforced stic of the storage crates before theser bolts connected with soft flesh, screams of pain announcing every sessful strike. Pitiful cries of surrender began to drift up around the loading bay and John contacted Cra using his watchmunicator and asked her to cease fire.This material belongs to N?velDrama.Org.


    “Ok it’s over, get out of here!” John shouted loudly to the terrified attackers, their morale truly broken.


    The seven remaining Diablo’s stopped to pick up their fallen brothers and dragged them from the Loading bay. The mohawked leader was one of the survivors and he turned to face John before he left.


    “This ain’t over chief, the Diablo’s have got long memories!” he snarled. When two of the Gatlingsers began to spin up and track him, his bravado disappeared and he fled the docking bay.


    John saw the three surviving mercs crawl out of cover and limp away, leaving their fallen behind. John took a quick nce at the abandoned corpses, but he couldn’t see Seb anywhere. He noticed a bloody trail leading out of the docking bay from where he had sent the mine owner sprawling and figured he must have crawled away during the heat ofbat.


    “Are you ok to walk?” he asked Sparks.


    The teen nodded tentatively and John offered her a strong hand to help her stand up. Adrenalin was fast wearing off and the young woman stood on wobbly legs, reluctant to let go of John’s supportive arm. He helped her to walk towards the airlock on the Invictus.


    Alyssa came dashing out to their side, her face concerned. “Are you both ok? Did either of you get hit?” she asked, worried.


    “I’m going to get a nasty couple of bruises, but other than that, all good!” John replied reassuringly.


    The gorgeous blonde moved to hug them both, but John held her off for a moment.


    “Let’s get inside the ship first, I’m still feeling a bit exposed here.” He said, ncing over his shoulder at the writhing figures still lying in the ughterhouse that the docking bay had be. Alyssa helped Sparks through the airlock on her shaky legs, while John entered the Cargo bay and pressed the controls that would re-seal the outer hull of the Invictus. He walked briskly over to meet up with the girls in the corridor and they took the elevator up to the bridge.


    The door swished open quietly and they walked out on to the bridge. Alyssa watched her friend with amusement as Sparks stood open mouthed with awe at the technical wonder that was themand deck of the Invictus. The multi levelled bridge was illuminated with the light blue glow of the holographical tactical images projected into the centre of the room.


    Cra stood up from her tactical station when she heard them arrive and came over to meet them. “I’m so d you’re all ok!” she said, relief showing clearly on her face when she saw that they weren’t injured.


    “It’s our very own deus ex machina!” eximed John upon seeing Cra and he moved forward to sweep her up in a warm hug. “That was awesome honey, you were amazing!” he said proudly.


    The gorgeous Latina beamed up at him, glowing with his praise.


    “Thanks for the rescue you guys.” Sparks said in a small voice, clearly intimidated by the massive ship and yet another ravishingly beautiful woman.


    “Oh sorry, I’m being rude.” John apologised to the girls. “Cra, this is Alyssa’s old friend Sparks. Sparks, this is Cra, we’re lucky to have her as the Tactical Officer on the Invictus”.


    “And she’s quite lovely too!” Alyssa said warmly, moving in to wrap Cra in a hug. “You did a great job today Cra. Thank you for saving these two!” she grinned happily.


    “You’re all wee!” the gorgeous brte smiled at them, her deep brown eyes warm and friendly.


    “Why don’t we go the debriefing room and we can have a chat.” John suggested to the young women gathered around him.


    The three teenagers followed after him as he led them to the as yet unused door, on the other side of the bridge. The door led into a sizeable room, with a long meeting table dominating the space, surrounded by plush,fortable looking chairs. A long window ran the length of the room, which would no doubt provide spectacr views, but unfortunately all they could see at the moment was the rough hewn rock of the Docking bay wall. John gestured for the girls to sit and once they had moved to take their seats, he sat in the luxurious leather chair at the head of the table.


    “Alyssa, why don’t you exin to Sparks what you had in mind for her onboard the Invictus?” John prompted gently.


    The beautiful blonde nodded happily and gleefullyunched into a long and detailed exnation of her ns for her spiky haired young friend, shocking the pale teen to the core.


    “Now wait a minute, let me just get this straight…” Sparks said. “You want me to join the crew as Chief Engineer and sail around the gxy in this monster of a ship. I get an almost unlimited budget to maintain the Invictus and I can work on whatever side-projects I like. I get to hang out with my BFF and I’m going to end up looking like these two goddesses.” she said waving her hand towards Alyssa and Cra.


    “And all you want in exchange, is for me to dyke out with beautiful and gorgeous here from time to time and have Mr Handsome blow me up like a balloon whenever he wants?” the redhead asked.


    Cra and Alyssa nodded serenely, lovely warm smiles on their perfect faces.


    “That’s about the size of it I guess.” John said hesitantly, a bit startled by her blunt delivery.


    “Well show me where to sign up!!” Sparks grinned excitedly.


    John chuckled loudly. “Wee to the team.” he said, smiling at Sparks warmly.


    Alyssa stood and wrapped her old friend in a big hug “I’m so happy you’reing with us!” she said, overjoyed.


    Cra gave the little redhead a hug too “I’m looking forward to getting to know you.” she said smiling, her voice friendly and weing.


    “Well I don’t know about you girls, but I think I’ve had quite enough of Karron.” John said soberly. The young women nodded, agreeing with him wholeheartedly.


    “Alyssa, please take us out of here and plot a course to Port Olympus.” he requested as the group left the briefing room and stepped back on to the bridge.


    “I better speak to the Star port authorities and exin the carnage in the Loading bay.” he said, grimacing. “I’ll be in my ready room. Let me know when we’re under way.”


    John strode away, disappearing into his office.


    “Wow he’s a real take-charge kind of a guy isn’t he?” Sparksmented to Cra, turning to look at the Latina.


    “Uh-huh.” the gorgeous brte nodded dreamily, as she watched John disappear into the side room with adoring eyes.


    Sparks left Cra to her tactical station and the redhead turned to look at Alyssa, who had darted up to the Executive Officer’s chair. Sparks followed her old friend up on to themand podium and watched in amazement as the enthusiastic blonde rapidly plotted a course back to the centre of Terran Federation power. The girl’s hands flickered over the controls and holographic system charts sprung into being, the glowing blue line of her projected flight path linking system to system.


    “How do you know how to do all that?” Sparks boggled in amazement.


    Alyssa shrugged self-deprecatingly. “I had some spare time and John needed a navigator.” she said, smiling happily as she added the finishing touches to their route back to the core worlds. She raised a delicate finger to her full lips, gesturing for her friend to hold the questions for a moment.


    “Karron starport this is the cruiser Invictus.” She stated, her voice calm and confident. “Requesting clearance to leave Docking Bay three.”


    “Clearance granted Invictus.” Themunications officer at the starport replied.


    Warning lights began to sh in the loading area and a hexagonal pattered force field sprung into being, sealing off the cruiser from the rest of the Docking bay. Shortly afterwards, the force field sealing the outer bay doors winked out of existence and the massive airlock squealed in protest as the doors opened, depressurising the tunnel out into the vacuum of space.


    Sparks watched astounded as Alyssa eased the sleek cruiser out of the crudely bored out tunnel and then clear of the asteroid. The beautiful blonde rotated the ship smoothly and then powered up the enormous engines, causing the Invictus to surge forward on its way towards the Nav beacon.


    “Say goodbye to Karron, Sparks.” Alyssa said to her old friend in a quiet voice. “I promise you, the rest of the gxy has so much more to offer.”


    The redhead nodded mutely as Alyssa activated the FTL drive and their ship leapt into Hyper-warp and away from Karron. Sparks watched the asteroid in the system map and saw Karron grow tiny before disappearing behind them as the Invictus raced away. She was finally leaving the colony where she had spent her entire life.


    “To the future.” Sparks thought to herself, feeling a bit scared, but daring to hope for the first time.