The Nordmar was indeed an impressive ship. Very large, massive shields, and a deadly array of weaponry were part of the dead. The Prison Liner was almost as powerful as some of the massive battleships that plied the trade lanes from time to time.
But right now, all that armor, guns, and shields were worthless. Even heavily defended ships had to get their fuel from somewhere, their oxygen, their water, guards, techs, and so on; They all came from somewhere. Supply shuttles carried these necessities out to wherever the larger ships had moored themselves. And it was the supply ship that was the Nordmars' one weakness, the Achilles Heal that would bring the once mighty feat of engineering to its' knees.
The pilot of this particular supply ship was well off now. When the SiN Tech Corporation contacted him to carry a single crate along with the rest of his cargo, and were ready to pay a handsome 20K for his trouble, how could he refuse such an offer? Of course he wouldn't tell anyone about it, and for an extra 5K he would even make sure the package got mistaken for personal effects of some officer or another. Treated right and proper, that package would. The SiN Tech officials smiled broadly, thanking him profusely for keeping this delivery on the down-low. With the ground crew loading up the rather large crate, the pilot looked back for the SiN Tech official, and for a second thought he saw them in a window, talking to a KNF man. The pilot blinked and looked again, but the window had been turned to reflective. The pilot shrugged and continued on his way, making no note of the momentary vision.
The crate in question was, however, different in other ways. It was large for a reason, because inside was hidden a very dangerous cargo. The first SiNNERs, all 6 of them, waited patiently for their chance. Imbedded in the metal of the container were small sensors. When the light turned green, the six were to exit the container and proceed with the mission. It was only a matter of time now...
****
From being bathed in red light to a cool green, and just as suddenly in the white light of the cargo bay, the six SiNNERs exited. Weapons at the ready, the squad rolled out and into cover, just in case. The sensors had worked perfectly, however, and nobody was in the cargo bay. At least, nobody but the SiNNERs. The grouped around, checked each other, and then moved out, their metal boots thudding into the metal floor with each step. The crate they evacuated closed up the sides and once again looked like a regular cargo crate. By the time anyone on the Nordmar would think to check this particular crate, all the action would be over.
****
The maintenance ways were the most unused part of any ship. Every ship had them, claustrophobia inducing little crawlways, filled with miscellaneous readouts, tubes, and wires. Nobody liked them, so they were generally avoided at all costs. Getting fully armored soldiers through them was nigh impossible, and even if you could fit you still had to crawl single file and get out. In the end, when soldiers made it through, they more often then not were stuck inside the crawl ways until the battle was all but over, at which point the poor blokes would just surrender and be put into their very roomy cells. Comparatively, mind you.
The SiNNERs had a few advantages over most soldiers. Their armor was built directly onto their skin, their equipment was small, and nobody was expecting six soldiers to be crawling around in the maintenance ways right this moment. So when the access hatch popped open, the two guards at the brig figured it was some tech guy looking for a breath of fresh air. Which explained their complete surprise as a red, armed and armored demon sprang out and took both their lives with a quite chatter from its two machine pistols.
The pistols were new as well. A recent invention, out of the labs but not yet on the shelves, the Disruptor pistols worked well against targets both armored and not. The bullets were fired out an electromagnetic barrel, at supersonic for unarmored targets, and sub-sonic for armored or stealth missions. Massive kinetic energy, so massive that at super-sonic the bullets had a tendency to shatter against most armor. At sub-sonic, they could pierce infantry armor and would either flatten against vehicle armor or bounce, either was fine for the Disruptor. The reason being that they punched out not only greats amount of kinetic energy but released a very strong electrical charge nanoseconds after impact. A single bullet would confuse the nerves in the afflicted body part for minutes, while 5 would burn out the whole nervous system. Each of the guards took 5 or 6 each, and they crumpled to the ground like rag dolls.
The KSP officers first knew something was up when the cell doors opened. Looking up, one officer named Nida Tadashii, saw the monsters. He figured they were with FEAR, and was to be his executioner. So when the demon offered its, his, hand to help Nida out of the cell, there was a bit of confusion. Nida accepted, and the demon pulled him out like he was nothing. The rest of the imprisoned KSP officers were rescued, and the SiNNERs ushered them to fall in between them as they entered the maintenance ways once more. The KSP officers had no armor or equipment, so they were fine.
It was a short crawl to the shuttle bay, and there the SiNNERs motioned for the KSP officers to wait. The six made it out, took cover behind some ship parts, and within 10 seconds had slain every tech in the room.
****
The first warning anyone on the Nordmar had that something was wrong was when one of their shuttles cycled the airlock and blasted out into space. Nobody could raise the shuttle crews and the captain of the Nordmar was asleep; it was midnight, ship-time, after all. The gun-crews demanded orders, but in the confusion nobody could get a coherent order out. The shuttle slipped off into the black of space, out of range of the Nordmars' guns. While still in system, the shuttle docked with a KNF battleship, which had entered and left without a word. The Kusari State Police officers had been freed, and SiN Tech had gotten their SiNNER super soldiers, plus gun, tested in real conditions. If the SiNNERs kept performing like that, SiN Tech might have to just arrange a shoot-out. Covert Ops were all well and good, but few commanders would let their soldiers pick how they engaged.
And now we come back to the little supply shuttle pilot from the beginning of our story. What of him? He keeps the money and lives happily ever after? Unfortunately, no. FEAR figured out a way the mysterious troopers had gotten on the ship, and were interrogating everyone they could. The pilot was one such person, but SiN Tech doesn’t like leaving loose ends. The credit chit they gave him had been laced with a bug, a very special bug targeted only for him. When the man was stressed, like being interrogated such as now, the bug attacked the heart. And thus a healthy, 30 year old man had a heart attack and died right there in the interrogation room.
And people wonder why younger and younger men are getting heart attacks these days...
****
There you are, KNF. We have returned your pilots, and we have gotten very good results from our test. Oh, please inform your officers that everything related to our [#ref.deleted] project is deemed highly classified. Discussion of anything relating to them will be pursued in court to the full extent of the law.
A pleasure doing business with you.
Sincerely,
Adam Kruzman, Director of Public Relations - SiN Tech
How droll and delightful. I am extremely pleased that your experiment was successful, and very grateful to you for rescuing our hostages. The Kusari State Police were nothing but innocent victims of these confused, arrogant fools. Their rationale for their supposed "murder" accusations were completely without substance.
I caution all reasonable people to scrutinize the motives and the actions of the minions of F.E.A.R. For "lawful" pirates, they have committed completely heinous acts which totally contradict their stated purpose.
They are not to be trusted, atall atall.
Once again, the Sin Tech Corporation has our undying gratitude.
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