“Kirrix have armoured carapaces” John exined. “We need the armour piercing rounds to punch through that, but we can’t afford any stray rounds going through the hull, so be very careful!”.


    “No problem” Alyssa replied steadfastly.


    The elevator door opened and they were looking down the corridor towards the airlock.


    “Let’s move!” John said and the two of them dashed up the hallway to the airlock door and hugged the walls on either side of the reinforced portal.


    They could hear heavy clunking on the other side of the airlock as the insectoid soldiers attempted to bash their way through the armoured door. The two of them shared a nce and Alyssa nodded her readiness as John ced his hand on the DNA reader. The green light flickered across and scanned his DNA, beeping softly in recognition.


    The airlock door spiralled open and a six legged creature that was attempting to bash through the door with heavy scythe like ws, lumbered forward and sprawled on the floor. If insectoid faces could show surprise, this one would have been utterly astonished. Alyssa whirled and followed its motion as it fell forward to the floor, before firing a burst into its armoured head at point nk range. Green ichor spurted outwards from the wound, as the rounds bored through its brain.


    John swung into the now open doorway and began to fire bursts into the tightly packed insectoid soldiers. It was like shooting fish in a barrel and the interior of the Kirrix dropship echoed with high pitched death squeals, as viscous green fluid gouted out from fatal wounds. One of the Kirrix managed to fire his rifle in return, but the sickly green st went wide of the mark as John ducked for cover. Alyssa swung out and shot the insectoid soldier in the head, her armour piercing rounds punching into the Kirrix soldier’spound eye and through its brain, before bouncing off the armour ting at the back of its skull and sending the rounds back through the brain a second time. Utterly dead, the hulking insect crashed to the floor in a heap of chitinous limbs.


    The Kirrix dropship pilot had been intending to join the boarding party, but it frantically tried to return to the cockpit when the ursed humans massacred it’s podmates. Thest thing it felt was a sharp pain to the back of its skull as Alyssa shot it in the head, spraying the cockpit in green blood.Têxt belongs to N?velDrama.Org.


    A few of the insectoid soldiers twitched feebly, badly wounded but not quite dead, until John executed each of them with a single round to the head.


    “That’ll teach you to try and board a marine’s ship!” he muttered indignantly.


    “What do we do about this dropship?” Alyssa asked him pointedly. “We can’t jump into hyper warp with it attached”.


    “Shut the airlock and disengage the docking mps I guess?” John said, wondering why she was asking.


    Alyssa was ncing over the controls “This looks pretty straightforward to fly, I couldnd it in the hangar bay if you like?”


    “Sure, if you want” John replied. “At the very least Sparks will be able to take a look at some alien tech” he said smiling.


    “Ok let’s do this” Alyssa said confidently. “You go back to the Invictus and seal the airlock, then open the hull doors to the hangar bay, I’ll bring the dropship around”.


    “Yes ma’am!” John grinned and moved to follow her instructions.


    Alyssa stepped over the mangled Kirrix pilot she had gunned down earlier and wiped his brain matter from the control surface. She pushed a couple of buttons that sealed the dropship’s airlock and fired up the engines. Taking hold of the flight stick, she found she could operate it ok, even though it was designed for an arthropod forelimb and she gently eased the dropship away from the docking cor on the Invictus’ airlock. She then rotated the ship cleanly so that it was facing the hangar bay and waited for the doors in the outer hull of the Invictus to open. She nudged the Kirrix dropship in cautiously, the alien craft enveloped in the pressurised force field sealing the hangar bay, beforending it gingerly in the middle of the cavernous room as the hull doors swung closed. She opened the airlock and then powered the small ship down, before leaving to go and meet up with John.


    “Nice flying honey” he said, moving forward to give her a kiss. He was surprised when she raised a hand to stop him.


    “You’re covered in green goo!” she said grinning and pointed at the alien blood that had sshed over his face. “You need a shower first, then you can kiss me as much as you like” she said yfully.


    “Ok I’ll take you up on that!” he grinned “First, let’s see what’s happening on the bridge”.


    They rode up in the elevator and stepped out on to the bridge a few momentster.


    “How are you two doing?” John asked, “everything ok up here?”


    “All engines on the Kirrix hive ship destroyed Commander!” Cra told him proudly.


    “Nice work Cra!” John grinned at her “So, they are totally immobilised?”


    “They aren’t going anywhere!” she said excitedly. “We’re safe now too, we’re out of their fire arcs”


    “I’m recharging shields again John, we’re back up to 62% now!” Sparks chimed in.


    “Great job, the pair of you” John praised them sincerely.


    “What happened with the boarding party and why is your face covered in green goop?” Sparks asked him.


    “They were no match for our surprise Counter-attack!” Alyssa said grinning. “They messed with the wrong marine, right John?”


    John chuckled good naturedly. “Yeah, I’m wearing Kirrix at the moment” he said, wiping his face for emphasis.


    “I’m afraid we’re not done yet though honey, we’re going to have to go in and save those captives” John said blowing out a sigh.


    “Well we ughtered thatst bunch, this should be a breeze!” Alyssa grinned.


    “We had all the odds stacked in our favour, those bugs had no chance” John said solemnly. “If we board their ship, we’re going to be heavily outnumbered and we won’t have the advantage of surprise. It’s going to be really nasty” he said grimly.


    “We have to do something though John” Cra interjected, “We can’t leave the prisoners to die like that. You’ve seen the vids right?”


    John nodded, his face showing his distaste.


    “What vids?” Sparks asked curiously.


    “It’s part of the Terran Federation Academy, Xeno familiarisation training” The Latina exined. “Thest time we stopped a Kirrix incursion, they took videos of what they found on board their ships…” She paused, recalling the horrific images. “No-one should die like that” she continued looking sickened.


    “Maybe we could still have the element of surprise” Alyssa said, tapping her finger against her chin thoughtfully.


    “How so?” John asked, curious as to what his devious Executive Office might have thought up now.


    “The dropship” Alyssa said, smiling at him. “The Kirrix won’t know we’ve captured it and we can just fly back, dock with them and then sneak on board”


    “Oh that’s very good” John grinned slyly.


    “Do you want either of us toe with you?” Sparks asked hesitantly.


    “No, I need you two here on the bridge to cover our butts!” John grinned.


    John wasn’t beingpletely truthful however, as neither the redhead or the brte had much firearms training and he didn’t want to expose them to unnecessary danger. Not only that but Alyssa worked with him like an extension of his own will, they synergised so well together and her shooting skills probably surpassed his own, he admitted to himself honestly. He nced over at the stunningly beautiful blonde who was ever present at his side.


    Alyssa gave him a tight smile, nodding slightly to show she agreed wholeheartedly with his decision.


    “Ok John, you can count on us!” Sparks said, somewhat relieved. She never liked bugs much and the thought of facing eight foot tall, heavily armoured homicidal ones left her quaking in her boots.


    “I’ll contact you if the situation changes up here” Cra said dutifully.


    “Ok good luck you two, we’ll be back soon” John said, and he and Alyssa took the elevator down to their quarters.