Teddy blinked, continuing to stare at the steadily growing mass of gunmetal gray, which he had been looking at for the passed two days. For most of that time, he had been in a barely conscious state, close to being legally dead, induced by packs of experimentally mixed meds within the stealth suit he was wearing, used to lower his bodily functions and reduce his need for air. It was all in effort to conserve the life-support within the suit, as he, his detachment of commandos and several other detachments, floated through the cold void of space towards the massive orbital fortress, preventing the Sigma Authority fleet from taking up positions around the planet of Haven.

They had been launched at a very low velocity from the bulky troop ships, in order to make sure they could land safety on the hull of the fortress, instead of being turned into red smears on the paint job. Now, with less then ten minutes before they would make contact, the meds changed, pumping a new mixture into their veins, reawakening the commandos and reviving their bodies. It was like molten lead had been poured into the blood vessels, until the whole body burned for thirty seconds or so.

Captain Greaves flexed his fingers and his toes, feeling the digits respond after the pain had disappeared. He wanted to move his arms and legs but doing so might make him crash into one of the forty-nine floating bodies around him. No one wanted to go spinning wildly away from the group, only to bounced off the fortress and be lost in the cold grips of space without hope for rescue. He also wanted to make sure his weapons were still attached to the back of his suit but couldn’t do that either. Slowly, to make sure he didn’t change his trajectory, he raised his left hand to his helmet and pressed the com unit.

“Tenth Detachment sound off”

The com crackled as the commandos around him responded, starting with his second in command and then working through the fire teams in the four squads. It would seem that the meds had worked properly for everyone, within his command at least. He couldn’t tell with the others and this close to his target (a hatch intelligence had identified as being used by repair bots), he didn’t have the time to look at the other floating clouds of men and women or open a channel to their leaders.

As Teddy was about to smack into the hull of the fortress, he grabbed the magnetic attachment anchor at his belt and slapped it against the painted metal. His torso bumped into the hull and bounced back. The short tether snapped tight and held him close to the fortress. Breathing hard, he grabbed at another pouch on his stealth suit and pulled out a square box with four thin spikes. Jamming it into the hatch controls of what hopefully would be an airlock, he pushed a series of commands in the suddenly glowing screen. For a long moment nothing happened and a strengthening feeling of controlled concern grew in the pit of his stomach. Then the hatch soundlessly opened.

Smiling within his helmet, he waved a hand into the opening, wordlessly ordering his command into the airlock. Lieutenant Sisson would be first, as she was carrying the second override unit and would use it to open the second hatch in the airlock, as soon as he had followed the rest of the unit inside and set the outer hatchway to close. Hopefully they would find atmosphere inside but it was likely they there might only be air within the command hub, their target location. The rest of the station might be just as unbreathable as the void, seeing as most the fortress was likely only ever used by Peacekeeper androids.





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Pain brought Izzy fully to his senses, as the suit pumped him full of a whole different sort of cocktail of drugs. The first bunch, as far as was run by him, put him as close to deaths door as someone would have the displeasure of dealing with, and the suit would maintain them there. He resisted the urge to stretch after the pain faded, content to slowly ball his fists and release them again. He was content to believe the techs and his own brief gear inspection right before the launch would ensure that his equipment was still on his person. He grinned to himself, staring at the mass of metal steadily approaching him, as well as the rest of the detachment he was part of.

At the order to sound off, he calmly, but slowly to avoid sending himself tumbling, raised his arm to trigger his comm piece as well. Others were sounding off as well, so he waited for a pause to slip his own sound off in, so it wasn't lost in any way, shape, or form. "Corporal Merrick reporting good to go." With that, he kept his peace. No need to waste his breath, that he very well might need later, with idle chatter. This was a combat op, after all, and an important one at that. In time with the rest of the detachment, he launched his mag anchor, the short ranged grapple hooking him to the side of the station and pulled close. This was a quiet relief, as the risk of a slight nudge sending him to a death in the void was much less likely at this point.

Izzy was near the hatch that the commando's would be pouring into, and watched the captain plug on a device and tap some noiseless commands into the device. After a few moments longer than necessary, the device triggered the hatch to open. He was one of the first in after the Lieutenant, she would be opening the second hatch after all, and being in first would not only get in the way, but put him first into the line of fire. It was common sense. As soon as the second hatch was open, he would follow the rest of the men and women in. It would be nice to encounter some sort of artificial atmosphere, but he knew this was unlikely. The Peacekeepers didn't need trifling things like breathable air, which made his job all that more difficult. He'd rather fight them on the ground, but in the end, wherever he was assigned to fight, he fought.

It was much like sleeping. Actually, you might even call it better than sleeping, for whenever Samantha slept she would wake up to sudden painful jerks as her nerves would be annoyed by the mechanical attachment and physical invasion. Not to forget the nightmares, Urgh…Nightmares. Constantly plagued by the horrible memories of the many battles she’s been in, Samantha often found herself injecting drugs to make herself sleep better.

Sam didn’t react to the pinch of the needle as it injected itself into her, so it could spread the burning chemicals into her body. It took a longer while for her body to react, and when she awoke, her helmet had turned itself on and begun repeating the orders given.


Her mechanic arm had moved up to the side of the helmet and performed the order, quick enough to do it and barely careful not to spin out of course. With the order executed, her mechanical arm froze at the side of her head, saving more energy by not moving it back to space.
She watched through the glass as the Commando opened the first metal hatch. Sam had never really fought in Atmosphere-Zero conditions before, something inside her was almost excited to try it and yet she was also concerned that it would go badly wrong. The Peacekeepers were robotic…They didn’t need air, yet could they be forced to submit to animal, or even remote human, psychology. Suppression fire rarely kept the machines at bay, surprise never worked and worst of all, they could fight for months, non-stop.

Sam would be ready, nevertheless. Armed with an excellent anti-infantry weapon, she had carved her way through the Peacekeepers before, taking hit after hit (both from bullets and robot fists) and returned to the battlefield more than she’d care to count. This was but a stealth mission. Infiltrate, find and…Wait…What was the mission again?
Frowning, Sam felt like a complete idiot. She was already slowly forgetting the objective of their mission, she just had to re-establish her speakers then...

Kill Com Link!
Kill Com Link!
Kill C…

Reacting instantly, she turned off the speakers in her helmet. Feeling both cautious and overly embarrassed.

The sting of a needle brought Sally out of her drug induced coma. Then her veins turned into the familiar burn of fire that she'd come to know well since being stationed with the commandos. This wasn't the first stealth mission she'd been on. No the first had been New Venus. She and a group of twenty other commandos had been deployed to take out the Peachkeeper's control satellite. Even that had been a close call with the satellite's defense systems.

"10th Detachment, sound off," the new commander said through her helmet com-link.

She waited until all of her platoon had replied before slowly reaching up activating her own. "Sergeant First Class Clemmins reporting in. 1st Platoon all accounted for, sir," Sally responded and released the com-link. She landed above the hatch as her commander hacked the airlock terminal, and secured herself to the station with a magnetic tether. Within a minute or so the hatch opened and Salina slipped in behind the lieutenant and leaned against the wall across from her.

Sally tugged a flash bang from its secured position on her void suit and got ready to toss it in. Unexpectedly, the blinding grenades had proved rather effective against the peacekeeper droids. It seemed the flash emitted from the grenade was too bright for their sensors and often destroy some of their optical scanners and if they got lucky took them down altogether. This may have been a service droid airlock, but she'd been in enough fights to know that even a repair bot could trip the alarms. Sally didn't want to take that chance.

Olivia became aware of everything around her. She wasn’t sure if anyone ever got used to the feeling of being woken up. Her body ached. Olivia wanted desperately to move her arms and legs, stretch everything but doing so would send her careening off. A voice crackled over her com. It was the commander. Reaching for her com, the most she’d move as they floated closer to the hull of the fortress, she pressed the button.

“Sisson, good to go sir.” Olivia released the button and she moved steadily towards the destination.

The rest of the unit responded in as Olivia knew they would. They were trained for this and they wouldn’t disappoint. The hull appeared in front of her and Olivia attached her magnet. The rest of her body completed the movement and she braced herself for the slight bump.

Olivia looked over to where the commander was working on the first hatch. He plugged the device in and punched in the codes. She moved closer as it popped open. Teddy waved her in and with a brief look at the others waiting for their turn, she slid inside. Moving quickly and deftly, Olivia came up to the second hatch. Behind her, the rest would be ready to move in as soon as she got it opened. Looking to the opposite wall, Olivia saw Salina at the ready. A nod as the flash bang was pulled out and made ready, Olivia plugged in her box. The screen came to life and Olivia began the series of commands that would cause the hatch to pop open. Final command entered and she waited. The tension was high, Olivia knew every single one of her unit were alert and ready.

The hatch popped open, as soundless and as easy as the first. Olivia pressed her back to the wall knowing that Salina would be using the flash bang to provide the distraction as the unit climbed through and headed to their objective. Command hub, their target was the command hub and who know what stood between them and it. Of course that is why they sent the tenth. They were the best.

As the last of the tenth detachment slipped into the skin of the enemy fortress, Teddy set the override to close the hatch and hauled himself inside. Reaching behind him, he unclasped the Type120 from the back of his stealth suit. As the inner hatch began to open, he braced himself, ready and hoping there would be a blast of atmosphere. Disappointingly but not unexpected, there wasn’t. It was a good thing that the drugs had saved a majority of the oxygen supplies in the suits, so it would be a race against time to the command hub. Well, it would still be a race but they had a lot longer to finish.

There also weren’t any Peacekeepers waiting for them. Their approached had been undetected but he doubted that their entrance would be. In fact, if anyone had been paying close enough attention, they would have noticed the small red light of a camera coming online. Motion sensitive, it was suppose to monitor the deployment of the repair bots, incase there was a jam or malfunction. Now it watched invaders slip into of the first line of defense for Haven.

Deep in the bowels of the fortress, the arrival of Sigma Authority commandos in several different places, was noticed by the current shift of Peacekeeper Control Officers. The pacifistic men and women, who issued the orders for their robotic soldiers to fight and kill, hit the panic button. Alarms blared and red lights flashed across the fortress, as the security force of modified Peacekeepers came on line.

Unlike those Peacekeeper androids found on New Venus or waiting to defend the planet below them, these were designed with reinforced frontal armor. They also didn’t have projectile or energy weapons attached or issued to them, in order to prevent them from damaging the facilities. Instead they constructed with a pair of two-foot blades coming out of each wrist.

Moving out of the airlock, the soldiers of the Tenth (and the other commando detachments), found the corridors lined with grav plates. Cheaper and using less power then a gravity generator but weaker and only putting out a small field, the plates applied about a third of Earth’s gravity. Stronger plates or even a small generator might be found in the command hub but like the atmosphere, the Peacekeepers didn’t need much gravity.

“Listen up” said Teddy, as they moved down the corridor, moving to the right from the airlock, “Intel suggests that the command hub will be located at the core of this floating chunk metal. At the first junction, Lieutenant Sisson will take third and forth platoons and work her way towards the middle. I will take first and second on along the outer edge and attempt the same thing from another direction.”

Izzy checked his Type 142 as the next hatch was being opened, calmly making sure everything was in place and working order. Nothing should have been wrong with it, considering if something had happened to it, he wouldn't have probably ever really came to again, as whatever would have damaged the weapon would probably have thrown him off course. Emphasis on each probably. Which was why he was checking the weapon after getting in the station as well as before having been launched. Everything seemed in working order though, so he moved out of the way as the rest of the commando's moved through the hatch, immediately testing how much the gravity was compared to what he was used to. More than half the norm, as far as he was concerned, no more than maybe a third, but no less than a quarter.

Having done the immediate necessities, Izzy listened to what the Captain had to say on their orders from here on out. The L would be leading third and fourth, from the next intersection, and carve a path towards the center through whatever model of Peacekeeper they would be facing here. Whether it would be the normal that he had gotten used to last time he ran across them, or something else completely was yet to be seen. It was still too early for him to judge this new Captain yet, so whether or not he was smart enough to be respected had yet to be seen. He had his head on straight for now though, so there was no need to say anything. Nor would he even if there was, some things were better saved for the moment when they were really needed.

Izzy fell in with the rest of the third and fourth platoon, to be lead by the Lt into whatever mess this station held in store for them. He kept his rifle at the ready, steadily scanning for anything unusual now that they were now deep in enemy territory, as it were. Not as deep as commando's always went, sure, but it was farther than most would be comfortable with. That being one reason most were not commandos. Putting that abrupt chain of thought away for now, he focused on watching his surroundings for anything unusual. He couldn't believe that this many men and women, even in stealth armor, would go unnoticed. That was just too useful a series of events. This left him expecting trouble, and he doubted this expectation would be left waiting for much longer.

Sally let out a sigh, not realizing she'd been holding her breath as the hatch opened. When she realized nothing was on the other side she slipped the flash bang back into its pouch and grabbed the large energy weapon off her back. She checked the energy level and made sure everything was in working order with a function check. Satisfied that everything worked she followed the commander and the rest of the commandos down a long corridor that split off at a junction.

She listened to the commander's orders intently and nodded her assent. Sally signaled for 1st platoon to form up on her and issued orders on formation. She assembled them into four man strike teams and positioned them on each side of the corridor far enough apart as to minimize risk from weapons with a high kill radius.

After this was complete, Sally fell into step with the commander in the middle of the formation. "Sir, do you know what type of Peacekeeper's they'll use in this thing? Anything from intel?" she asked as they proceeded towards their mission.

The hatch opened and Olivia was a bit surprised at the lack of presence on the other side. She watched Sally pocket the flash bang. The commandoes poured in. Orders came over the com. Olivia pressed her com, “Understood, sir. Third and Fourth, let’s move.” Olivia, no longer burdened by her hacking equipment, pulled her weapon. She moved forward, eyes alert for any sign of the Peacekeepers.

At the junction, Olivia waved forward her platoons. The Third and Fourth began to move forward in front of her. With a quick look at Teddy, Olivia gave him a quick salute and headed off after her soldiers. They moved slowly down the corridors, each one on alert. Olivia found herself walking near Izzy.

Ahead, the soldiers gave the sign to halt. Someone had seen something. The unit stopped and waited. Taking a cover position like the rest of the unit, Olivia craned her neck. Olivia’s eyes scanned the corridor in front of her. There was no way that they were getting in here unnoticed and she was a little surprised it had taken this long.

Olivia hit her com, “Eyes in front, do you have visual? Report.” She hoped to get some intel before shots were fired.

"Nothing about new Peacekeeper models Sergeant" said Teddy, leaving his com unit open, "But we didn't get word of new models on New Venus either. We thought we were going to scrap a bunch of bots with stunguns, when the pods launched. Most of my regiment died without knowing they were in any danger. Keep your eyes sharp, they dump the brainless into Intel."

He glanced up at the flashing lights and wondered if the alarms had begun because they fleet was suppose to move closer to the floating fortress when they detected successful landings by the commandos or if they were tripped because they had been discovered by the enemy. It wasn't a comforting thought, as they left half of the detachment behind, heading into danger without reliable comms. The way and the materials the fortress was build with limited the range of the personal units. Oh they didn't do a thing to Peacekeepers or their signals to and from the command hub but Intel suspected that they was some sort of boosting tech built into their heads.

The Captain's hands flexed in the twin grips of his rifle, half wishing he could feel the weight of the bulky thing. It would have been reasurring, as the twenty-five humans seemed to creep through the unsettling empty corridor. There should have been maintenance bots scurrying around by now, if the fortress was preparing to fend off the fleet. That lone fact made this seem more like a trap with each heart beat. It was almost a relief, when there was a cry over the comms, when a commando in the front left strike team threw himself backwards and there was a flesh of light reflecting off of steel blades. Stepping out of an alcove was the first of many Peacekeepers.

"Kill it" commanded Teddy, raising his rifle, pointing down the corridor, when more shapes started to move.

Sam had adjusted the volume of the speakers in her helmet in order to ensure the safety of the company as they would move stealthily through the corridors. The last thing she wanted was to give the group away because of her inability to remember properly; with her weapon raised and moving along the edges of the hallway, staying somewhat close to the back.

Only now did she feel her body ache from the drugs. Sam almost felt pain from moving, despite having less body than the rest of the company she could swear that she felt pinches and bones aching in her robotic arm. It bother her to the point where she almost lost track of what was going on and nearly bumped into the soldier in front of her, cursing mildly, she stood up a little to see what was going on ahead.

Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary. Honestly, Sam had spend the majority of her soldier time on planets, fighting in ruins, or fields, against the peacekeepers so she had no real idea for how the Peacekeepers worked. Did the senior officers expect her to know how they functioned? All that Sammantha knew (or rather, remembered) was that she would have to shoot every damn peacekeeper that she crossed path with, and that was what she would do.

Sam jerked as the Peacekeeper appeared and lashed out after one of the soldier from the left strike team; the comm was filled with his fear-filled scream, instinctively Sam turned her gun to point at Peacekeepers as she moved out towards the middle of the hallway, making sure not to hit her fellow humans. When the order was given to open fire, her trigger finger pulled, sending a hail of bullets flying down the hallway.

“Peacekeepers. Two and at least two more behind them.” The soldiers in front reported back to her. Olivia expected it; it was only a matter of time before something came to them. “Take them down.”

Before anyone could acknowledge the sound of gunfire could be heard. Olivia nodded to the others with her and they all began advancing up the corridor behind the others. Her weapon was raised, ready to fire. Her finger prepped on the trigger as her eyes looked ahead.

In front of her the head of the platoons were already working their way through the first Peacekeeper. Shots rang out around her. She looked to Izzy and the two men behind him. Olivia pointed past the first Peacekeeper to the one coming up behind it. With a nod to the men, she aimed her weapon at the second on and fired. The goal was to take some pressure off of the first group of troops as they took down the Keeper in front of them.

As the tumult of battle began and bullets flew past Sally sprang into action. "Hold your ground. Make sure you acquire your targets! If your standard rounds don't work switch to incendiary! Jenkin's, Riley, on me. Jenkin's bipod now! Riley, give me some cover fire!" Sally shouted orders and tried to control the situation as she set up the energy minigun. Within seconds the bipod was attached and Sally slapped the battery pack into the lower receiver.

"Clear a path! Fall back or press yourselves to side of the wall!" she called and the soldiers responded by reflex. as the hallway opened up so did Sally and highly charged plasma sped from the barrel of the weapon and slammed into the advancing Peacekeepers shredding their armor like a hot knife through butter.

Olivia watched as the bullets barely made a dent. Time to take a new approach. “Flash bang now, we need the bastards to turn around.” Within seconds of the order a bang went off and the first Peacekeeper turned. “Gotcha.” As it turned, the soldiers fired. The armour was weaker on the Peacekeeper’s back. The designers assumed nothing would get past its front defences and less armour meant easier access for maintenance.

The designers and engineers hadn’t built them with commandoes in mind and this unit were some of the best, even split in half they were a force to be reckoned with. The first Peacekeeper took heavy damage. As it became still a wave of the platoon moved forward. The second bang went off and again the next Peacekeeper turned and was taken down.

The platoon worked like a fluid wave, some moving forward to give their comrades time to reload and breath. Platoon three and four moved down the corridor. It was slow going, bullets taking a long time to pierce through, even with the lighter armour at the back. They worked like a well oiled machine, slow and steady. It was what they were trained to do.

Olivia moved with her troops, she was proud of them. The third and fourth found themselves at the end of this corridor, another branching in front of them. “Good job, keep it moving.” With a nod they moved on, working towards the core of the station.