Nothing happened. For about three long, torturous minutes, the UEN forces waited, weapons drawn, expecting a boarding party. Perhaps the Cypher were going to try to hack into the Kestrel’s systems, and open the door via a remote slaving protocol. Or maybe the enemy would attempt to breach the hull of the Earth vessel, a relatively effective approach, seeing that the Kestrel was designed to focus on speed and stealth, more of the latter, than it was for combat. So everyone remained on high alert.
Any moment now, they would hear the ominous click of the hermetic locks of the Kestrel’s bay doors as the hissing sound of decompression would inform the Earthlings that the interior of their vessel sought to establish equilibrium with the atmosphere beyond it. Or, there would be the loud report of Cypher weaponry slamming against their hull, most probably an incision laser strobe, or an ion saw.
There was nothing.
It wasn’t long before even the half-trained infantrymen realized nobody was coming for them. Camera feeds taken from optical sensors on the Kestrel indicated that the hanger in which the ship had been forced to dock was devoid of a single soul. If the Cypher had souls at all. It was empty, with no amount of activity in it. The infantrymen began shuffling uneasily and exchanging whispers, as they grew tired of waiting out the Cypher.
“Listen up, everyone,” 023 stated authoritatively over the comms. “This is most certainly a trap, but we’ll be in a worse situation if we stay here and wait for our enemies to come to us. We’re going to move out, and attempt to disable the tractor beams. If we’re fortunate, we might be able to take control of this vessel. Now I know this is totally unexpected, even for those who think themselves experienced among us. Yet, if you intend to survive this, no stepping out of turn, no attitude, and no breaking of ranks. We’re going to deploy electromagnetic scramblers, so our comm channels will be messed up outside the Kestrel. To this end, keep your senses peeled, and stay frosty. Pilot, open the doors, 084, give us intel. The rest of you stay put, but cover everything in sight.”
At the command, Lori seemed to dissolve into the surroundings, having activated the tactical camouflage function on her exo-suit. As the doors to the Kestrel opened, Ming twisted the lids on two steel-colored cylinders in his hands, which he rolled out of the open aperture. They burst into sparks, and anyone whose comm channels were still on would hear the chatter of static.
That meant all electromagnetic functions on the exo-suit were temporarily offline. On the flip side, Cypher observatory devices were electromagnetic in function, so if the Cypher were remotely viewing the hangar, that section of the warship would be lost to them. For now.
Silently, undetected, 084 slipped out of the Kestrel into enemy territory.
To be continued...
Thanks for coming!
That little boy,
