Free Star Crusades Nexus: Book 09 - The Black Rift by Michael G. Thomas

Coilgun in the Guards unit.
    The other squads confirmed their success as they breached a series of outer doors. So far none had commented on traps or defenders.
    Will they let this station fall, without even a struggle?
    He felt almost offended that military personnel would give up so easily. He looked ahead and at the next set of doors. Additional welded plates protected the hatch to stop it blowing out into space. He’d expected this and merely indicated for the technicians to move forward. Again the two went around the hatch, but this time they fitted a piece of equipment over the control unit to the side.
    “Thirty seconds to breach, Sir,” said the senior of the two.
    Both moved back and out of the way to await access. The rest of the unit now came in closer and lifted their weapons to their shoulders. In their black armor they looked sinister and threatening, exactly the intention behind the design.
    “Seal behind us. Let’s keep this a clean operation. We need the station operational and the crew alive.”
    One of the soldiers placed a frame around the breach entrance and hit a button. A thin layer of material expanded out and then hardened into a temporary wall. Thin ribs bulged out to make the thing look like a section of a flying reptile’s wing.
    “Ten seconds.”
    Lieutenant Dobbs looked back to the entrance and lifted his carbine. The sights communicated directly with his PDS armor, but so far there were no tagged targets.
    “Five.”
    He took three quick, short breaths and then moved his finger to the trigger. The weapon was already on rapid-fire mode, but each of them had also twisted their barrels to activate the subsonic stealth mode. This wasn’t because he wanted to eliminate the sound; it was simply to reduce the recoil inside the station, in case there was a loss of gravity.
    “Now.”
    The door slid open as the computer system was overridden. Lieutenant Dobbs grabbed the sides and stepped through. He didn’t stop and moved into the large computer suites that housed upward of fifty stations. The slightly curved ceiling was high, at least twenty meters above his head and also filled with screens of data. He noticed a few showing their ships outside.
    “Spread out, watch for hostiles.”
    The rest of his team followed in close behind and then spread out into a crescent. Even as they moved, he could feel his heart pounding inside his chest. He’d expected to find the placed filled with people, but it was deserted.
    “Put down your weapons!” came a voice from ahead.
    A shape moved perhaps twenty or twenty-five meters directly in front of him. As soon as one of his men spotted the shape, it was tagged and the data sent to the rest of the team. More and more shapes appeared from behind the final row of computer stations until he counted twelve of them.
    “I am Lieutenant Dobbs, Terra Nova Guards. By order of the President, you will lay down your weapons and surrender this station.”
    The shape ahead was much clearer now. The man was in Alliance clothing and in the thinner PDS gear worn by some crews. It was proof against heat and pressure, but from memory he knew it offered almost no ballistic protection. The man’s head was protected by a dark, tight-fitting pilot’s helmet with a raised visor.
    Colonel Pierce, it has to be.
    His cheek tightened as he looked at the man. Though of similar positions in the military, they had followed completely different paths. Dobbs had spent his entire career on Terra Nova, while this man had been living the high-life on ships and stations. Lieutenant Dobbs had no doubt it was this kind of exposure to alien creatures and attitudes that had left them so weak to start with.
    “I am Colonel Pierce. This is my station. Put down your weapons.”
    Dobbs took aim directly at the man’s chest.
    “My forces are already aboard your station. Your people have collaborated with the enemy. Drop your weapons and accept your fate…or face the consequences.”
    He tilted