If not for the chronometer glowing in the corner of his HUD, Jake would have sworn that the trip to the
Kirishima took forever. When they started out, the cruiser was not even visible to the eye, and when it did
come into view, their approach seemed so slow that Jake at times thought he was actually moving away from
the ship. Again, a periodic check of the HUD's range-finder confirmed that he was indeed closing in on the
target, although he could feel nothing since he'd stopped accelerating mere minutes into the trip.
"You there, Jake?" asked Val, her voice coming through loud and clear in a laser transmission
undetectable by the enemy. Jake could not see her, but he knew she was hurtling through space somewhere
below him and to his right.
"I am, Val. Go ahead."
"This trip is mind-numbing. Perhaps your voice can keep me sane. Explain to me again why the Kirishima
has not already blasted the November Wind into space dust?"
It was the same question that he had posed to Star Captain Ian earlier on. "The Kuritas probably know
that Invader-class JumpShips like ours are used mainly for merchant transport among the Clans, especially
when WarShips are available for combat duty. The Kirishima almost certainly detected the November Wind's
emergence wave when it jumped in, but there is a good chance her crew would have identified it as a civilian
transport and ignored it. Besides, what harm can an unarmed JumpShip do to a WarShip?"
"So that explains why we immediately unfurled the jump sail upon arrival," Val said. "They probably think
the Wind is merely recharging her jump drive and will leave the system as soon as possible. But a cautious
commander would investigate an unexpected arrival, quiaff?"
"Perhaps, but Lita tells me Combine warriors can be incredibly stubborn and proud—"
"Like Clanners?" Val cut in slyly.
Jake chuckled. "Touché. But seriously, dealing with such a ship might be considered beneath the captain's
station. Or, he might be watching for another ship to arrive, signaling an actual invasion force. He has tried
to contact the Wind by radio, but we have not responded. He may be sending a boarding party to investigate,
which is fine with me. The other fifteen Elementals of Gamma that we left behind should be able to deal with
anything these Spheroids can muster."
"And if they send a boarding party, that means less marines on board the Kirishima."

"Precisely. So, have I answered your question?"
Val laughed. "Yes, and several others I did not realize I had. I think we passed the time rather
productively."
Val was right. The Kirishima had more than doubled in apparent size since they had begun talking, and
Jake could see the muzzle-flashes of weapons beginning to fire in their direction.
"We had better continue this another time," he said.
"See you on the inside, Jake."
Their conversation was cut short when Jake was momentarily blinded by the flash of a capital-grade laser
beam spearing past him. Its sheer size stunned him. Though he had no way to determine how close he was
to the beam, it was at least as wide as he was.
Freebirth! he cursed silently. One of those hits me, and it is all over.
As he continued drifting toward the WarShip, its weapons continued firing. Jake knew intellectually that
sound could not travel through space, but the total silence of such a massive barrage of fire surprised him.
He switched his transmitter from laser to radio so he could broadcast to his entire force.
"All right, people," he said. "They know we are here and that we are close enough for their guns to hit us.
See you on the inside. Begin evasive action!"
With that, Jake braced himself and looked at his HUD for a new control icon. He spotted it, a symbol made
of arrows pointing in many directions. Focusing on it for a moment, he triggered the evasive-action sequence
Sara had programmed into the thruster pack. It would send him on an erratic series of maneuvers designed
to accomplish three goals. One and two were to avoid enemy fire and to prevent collisions with his own
troops. The third was to make sure he ended up with the same heading and velocity as when he began, so
that he would end up boarding the Kirishima and not hurtling out into interstellar space.
After a few seconds' delay, his thrusters blasted to life, pressing Jake down into the suit's feet as he rapidly
accelerated. Before his body could become accustomed to the Gs, the thrusters changed trajectory,
slamming him backward and then suddenly down again.
All he could do was hope his movements were as disorienting to the Kirishima's gunners as they were to
him. So far, it looked like they were. Shots from antifighter weapons raked the space all around him, but
none scored hits. During one extended period between accelerations, Jake did see one of his Elementals take
a direct hit from an autocannon. He cursed himself for not being able to tell who it was. In an instant, the
warrior was gone, and Jake was accelerating again. It was becoming a supreme effort to maintain focus and
consciousness.
And then it was over.
Jake realized that the evasive sequence was complete, and he was drifting again. The Kirishima loomed
before him, filling his entire field of vision. He could see the stacked pair of wide bridge windows on the ship's
nose, and above them the Kurita dragon emblazoned proudly in red and green. His Elementals—those that
had survived the trip—would make contact with the vessel in less than a minute.
Jake needed a head count. "Status report. Sound off!"
Per standard procedure, the members of each point would sound off in reverse numerical order to their
point commanders. The point commanders would then give the numbers to their star commanders, who
would report to Jake. Immediately, the members of Jake's own point began sounding off:
"Five..."
"Four..."
"... Two"
Then Jake said, "One."
The gap between Four and Two could only mean one thing—they had lost Lewis. They were probably lucky
they had not lost more, considering the massive barrage of weapons fire.
The transmissions from the point commanders began immediately.
Dominic reported first. "Epsilon, three."
An unfamiliar voice followed. "Delta, two—I think. Sorry, sir. We lost Point Commander Kris."
Jake winced at the loss as John reported next. "Gamma, five." Val's Beta Point was next. He breathed a sigh of relief when he heard her say, "Beta, three."
As he reported his own "Alpha, four," Jake mentally tallied seventeen out of twenty-five for his star. He did
not have to wait long for the report from the Assault Nova. "Assault Nova, ten. I hope your star fared better,
sir."
Stravag! Jake thought. They had lost too many, but he told himself that did not matter. They were
Elementals. Nothing on board the Kirishima could hope to stop them.
"Aff," he replied. "We have seventeen. I will take command from here on. Over."
The voice on the other end sounded relieved. The star's commander must have been killed on the
approach. "Roger that, Star Captain."
The Kirishima continued to grow in his view, becoming less a discernable ship than a massive wall
pockmarked with windows and weapons. With a blast from his thruster pack, Jake angled to the right,
veering away from the ship's nose and toward the port side. Several other Elementals followed.
Another thruster blast sent him hurtling directly toward the WarShip. Now he could finally see the target
point: a hatch four meters tall and three wide. A quick adjustment to his jump jets and thruster pack turned
him so that his feet pointed "down" toward the ship. Jake braced for contact.
He expected a noisy crash, but thanks to vacuum, the only sounds were the reverberations within his suit.
Despite its myomer musculature, he could feel the jarring impact through his whole body.
After pausing to recover his breath—and receiving an automatic injection of stimulant from his armor's
Life Support Sustaining Unit—Jake proceeded to plant his demolition charge on the hatch. He felt a shudder
as another Elemental landed nearby, and he looked up. The newcomer approached with an unusually slow
gait, his split-toed metal feet gripping the ship's hull with powerful magnets. They slowed his stride but kept
him from floating off into space.
Immediately, Jake regretted looking up. The WarShip's hull offered some semblance of "down" for him to
orient to, but the chaotic panorama before him now threatened to break his already tenuous grasp on
consciousness. He could see more Elementals raining down from above, and several of them were turned
around the wrong way.
Jake winced. Those landings would not be pleasant.
In addition, several Combine fighters had been scrambled in defense. They were flying in every
conceivable direction: up, down, right, left, and sideways. Witnessing strafing runs over the hull from
impossible angles did not help Jake pull himself together.
A tap on the shoulder from the newly arrived Elemental did. Kneeling beside Jake over the hatch, the other
warrior pulled his demolition pack from the holster on his armored thigh and planted it next to the one Jake
had placed there moments before.
As the rest of the Elementals touched down on the hull, Jake and his companion stepped away from the
hatch, waving off the others. Banishing his anxiety, Jake opened a channel. "Charges ready. Detonate on my
mark."
He checked the hatch area for stray Elementals. Seeing none, he used his suit's claw to press the button
on the hand-held detonator.
A silent explosion was one of space combat's more unusual experiences. One did not realize how integral
sound was to the entire concept of explosions until he or she witnessed one of these firsthand. In space there
was, of course, no oxygen to fuel combustion. The explosives in each charge contained their own oxygen
supplies, but still the explosion little resembled what ground-bound observers were used to.
The results, however, were the same. The metal surface of the hatch buckled inward severely, blackened
and weakened by the explosion, but not destroyed. Jake and the others took care of that with their support
lasers, heating the metal until it melted and dripped off into space in white-hot gobbets.
Jake waved for the others to enter. They had to open the interior door before they could gain access to the
inside of the ship. Val's welcome voice came through on the radio as Jake waited for the next set of
demolition packs to be set.
"The next hatch ought to put on more of a show, quiaff?" she said.
"Aff. Explosive decompression will blow it out into space, along with a healthy volume of air from inside the
ship. They must have closed their emergency bulkheads by now, but we will probably flush several crew
members and marines out anyway." Elementals climbing back out onto the hull indicated that the charges were set. Point Commander John led
them, and he held his detonator up. "Charges ready. Detonate on my mark," he said.
This time, Jake braced. The hull shook as the charges tore through the internal hatch. As promised, the
difference in pressure between the inside of the ship and space resulted in explosive decompression. Flames
leapt up from the tear in the hull, fueled by the air streaming out, then were quickly snuffed out. As the
smoke cleared, Jake counted at least six bodies floating out into space.
Anticipation was replaced with adrenaline as he looked down through the jagged opening in the hull.
Leading the way, he dove down into the ship and toward redemption.
* * *
The door to the Kirishima's bridge melted into slag under the relentless punishment of half a dozen
support lasers. Shotgun blasts filled the air as the ship's marines desperately tried to repel the advancing
Elementals. When outfitted for shipboard combat, marines were equipped with weapons specifically chosen
to avoid blasting accidental holes through the hull: shotguns, sonic stunners, and all manner of melee
weapons. Unfortunately for them, those weapons had about as much chance of penetrating Elemental battle
armor as they did the hull of a ship.
With his squad lying dead around him, the leader of the marines stepped forward. The telltale hum of the
katana he brandished identified it as a vibroweapon. Jake stepped forward to accept the silent challenge. As
the marine advanced, Jake's head began to swim with images of shadowy figures wielding swords.
Not now! he thought. Not when he was so close to victory.
Before the marine could come within sword's reach, Jake lifted his left arm and unleashed a blast from the
shotgun slung under his claw. The shot took the marine square in the chest, dropping him where he stood.
The vibrokatana clattered to the ground, its white-hot blade gouging the floor before the weapon fell silent.
Jake labored to control his breathing, and he looked around the bridge. All around him, among overturned
chairs and scorched control panels, unarmed crewmembers raised their hands in surrender. Nodding in
satisfaction, he opened a channel to the rest of his force. "Bridge secured. Docking collar team, status
report."
The vast amounts of metal in the ship's structure created a hiss in Point Commander Dominic's response.
"All but one DropShip locked down, sir."
"All but one?"
"Not to worry, Star Captain. We blasted two of its drives on the way out. There is no way it will make
planetfall."
"Good work, Dominic. Engine room team, status report."
John responded, another loud hiss confirming his position in the bowels of the WarShip. "Engine room
secured, Star Captain. Full pressure restored to all intact decks. Good thing we got here when we did, too."
"Oh?"
"They were all set to self-destruct. You better get a team of techs down here right away to make sure we
did not miss any fail-safes."
"Copy that. My compliments to your team, John. The ship appears to be ours."