By William S. Frisbee

In space there is too much emptiness. It's everywhere and it's frightening. When there is nothing, not even a minute particle of matter within hundreds of kilometers. When all you can see is stars around you, no ground, no sky, nothing to differentiate between up or down a traveler can feel truly alone. With scanners and communicators those who travel among the stars try to convince themselves that space is not so empty and lonely as they hide inside their ships of metal and plastic. It takes a special kind of person to leave the comfort of something that shields them and leap out, alone into the great void between planets and stars.

The lone destroyer glided through the vast emptiness, a sleek, lethal flattened cylinder. Several panels slid open revealing many short tubes and in each of the tubes was a single nearly invisible person. Without any warning the tubes began shooting their cargoes into the inky, lonely, vastness of space.

Eighty one men and women of the Alliance Marine Corps were hurled into the void. They were invisible to each other in their battle dress that bent light around them. Up close they would appear made of crystal clear water. In space they were invisible to sight, scanners and to each other. Each one hung below a thick metal bar, called a Grav-T-Bar, which was nothing more than a contra gravity unit that was currently braking their speed as they 'fell'. Each one was completely alone in his or her own little world with nothing around them but the blinking of stars. The systems primary was nothing more than a pinprick of light, lost in the vast number of stars around them. In less than a heartbeat the destroyer was gone from sight, lost in the void. Their destination was unseen, hidden in the emptiness.

For five hours the eighty one men and women hung in that vast frightful void with nothing to keep them company but their equipment and their imagination. Each one feeling the one point five gravity’s of their grav chute as they fell through the emptiness. Finally something began to blot out the stars `below' them. A lightless ball of rock without any atmosphere appeared to hang still in the void below them. A large chunk of worthless matter left over from the forming of the nearest star.

As they got closer seven very dull lights came on, forming a big `T', with five lights forming the long part and three forming the top of the T. Down below on the surface of the asteroid two warriors scanned the darkness of space looking for the Marines they knew were inbound. Their weapons pointing away from the lights.

Without sound and without warning Marines started landing. The two marines of STA (Sniper, Target Acquisition) section tagged each newcomer they saw with an IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) transmission that identified the newcomers and themselves as friendly. The grav-T-bars were discarded and the lights were extinguished as Lieutenant Kendricks, the platoon commander of the newcomers, made contact with the two STA marines who had set up the signal lights. Everyone was present and accounted for, assembled in a loose circle facing away from the lights. The lieutenant gave the signal and the three squad leaders began to move out their squads. Their objective was five kilometers away hidden in a natural crevasse.

Dispersed over a large area the Alliance Marines advanced on their objective. For five kilometers it was stop and go as one person would get down while their partner would advance, then they would switch duties. One person was always covering the other person's movement, their personal contra gravity units keeping them on the asteroid in the low gravity.

Finally they reached their destination and began deploying. Below them in a crack was the enemy base. The crack itself was like a canyon that split into two different crevasses. Inside the `V' set in the rock giving it access to both crevasses was the pirate base. Docked to the base in the southernmost crevasse was their ship, a converted Krayman class freighter, a rectangle shaped block with various jury rigged weapons along the black scarred hull. Four scout snipers from STA section were already in place, targeting the two unsuspecting pirates who moved about the outside of the hull doing some kind of repair work. Out of sight of the two pirates Lt. Kendricks began deploying the three squads.

The scout snipers had been in position for thirty six hours observing the base having been `dropped' by a pair of starfighters. The pirate base below would have had no warning of the nearby Marines since all the sensors they had set out to detect a possible attack had already been defeated and altered by the Marines of STA section. There were three entrances to the Pirate Base. One was being used by the Krayman, one was actually a small hanger housing three obsolete Pajakan fighter craft and the third was an almost hidden airlock. Two squads began approaching the airlock and hangar, which were hidden from the two pirates repairing the ship while the third squad watched the pirates. Each squad was covered by two scout snipers while two machine gun teams were deployed so they could shoot down the long portion of the crevasses and behind them, looking away from the crevasse were more scout sniper teams, guarding everyone's back.

The two squads reached the airlock and hangar without being detected but the entrances were both closed. Combat engineers, two with each squad moved up to bypass the electronic locks.

First squad, led by Sergeant Taro, a small tough oriental man was the first to bypass and enter the Hangar. An alarm went off in the base and the two pirates outside the Krayman were instantly killed by pinpoint sniper fire. Third squad swept down to disable and capture the Krayman as second squad finally bypassed the airlock door and sent in the first team.

The attack was underway.

Beamer fire splattered sparks and molten metal near Corporal Hudson as he ducked back around the corner opposite him Lance Corporal Taylor leaned around the corner and returned fire cutting down the unarmored pirate. Hudson leaned around the corner pointing his weapon down the currently empty corridor. Behind Hudson, Tielman was applying first aid to Bacas who hadn't been so lucky a moment earlier and behind them the rest of second squad was cycling through the airlock.

Above them two Marines, Lindsay and Fromm, their contra-grav polarity set to reverse, lay down on the ceiling in the prone, their weapons covering the corridor so they could shoot over the heads of the marines below. To them everything appeared upside down but that wouldn't affect their lethal fire.

"Go!" they said when they were both in position.

Hudson and Taylor sprinted forward to the first hatch which was on the left and another pair of marines moved up to their positions. Hudson waved his hand in front of the sensor and Taylor threw the sonic grenade into the room. A tooth rattling buzz erupted from the room and the two marines entered the room quickly moving away from the doorway, their weapons scanning for targets. The sonic grenade wouldn't do any damage but any unprotected personnel would definitely be stunned and even unprotected people might be disorientated for a few seconds. But there was nobody there.

For more information please contact me at warcat@usmc.net