[b]Anuria Orbit[/b]
[i]Ashtar Archangel-cruiser
Shieldgenerator hallway.[/i]

“Clear!” yelled the lookout, as he peered through the small hole the plasma torch cut for him. Then the larger blast door was forcibly removed. Deltha Squad had been cutting through doors for the past 15 minutes. Of their 16 man squad already 3 fell to the Ashtar and their interior turrets. Again one of the SIF began burning through the next door with a blowtorch. While 2 others put their armored arm on the metal door. Through basic radar they could get an approximation of the size of the room ahead. “Large room sir. We’re hearing humming and stuff.” One of the two said to Captain Tanner. Who started to device a tactic for the room. They hadn’t found a full sized room yet. Which meant that it could both be very well defended, and extremely valuable. The team waited in silence. With only the sizzling of the plasma torch burning away the door. “Who still got flashbangs?” he asked, 5 men raised their hands. “And smokes?” 3 other guys raised their hand. It was little. But it would have to do.

With impatience the troops waited as the blastdoor was being cut by the torch. They pushed it inwards and were immediately greeted by a bunch of Ashtar fire. Obviously the Ashtar were expecting them. They were a good distance away from the door. Well dug in. From the fire Tanner guessed about 7 guys were ready for them. That were a lot of Ashtar to take on. The flashbangs were practically useless, as the Ashtar had read the mind of the SIF soldiers. So they wasted 3 flashbangs on entry. But the 3 following smokes were more effective. The Ashtar knew the smoke was coming. But not being able to see your enemy makes it hard to hit them. If you’re expecting it or not. Under the cover of smoke everyone was able to dash to a well-covered position. Once the smoke settled, there was only silence for a moment. As both sides waited out the other. Tanner took a deep breath, and pulled his last Hi-explosive grenade’s pin. He cooked it for about 2 seconds, then threw it from behind his corner. The blast shredded 1 Ashtar, and all hell broke loose. The 6 others opened fire, and the SIF returned the favor. In the bloody skirmish 5 SIF and 2 Ashtar fell and 1 got injured. Then, Tanner had a magnificent idea. “I’m going to jump!” he yelled to his SIF comrades.

One SIF threw another flashbang, which did caught an Ashtar off guard but the other surviving 2 could duck into cover on time. It didn’t matter to Tanner. He activated his Pegasus-suit and with one push off the ground his suit’s engines pushed him towards the other side of the wall. Where the Ashtar were. In his flight, he managed to take down the one dazed Ashtar. The action did cost him all his ammo though. So when the 2 other Ashtar suddenly noticed that an enemy was right next to them, they lifted their weapons. As Tanner grabbed his Shadowrunner, one of the now exposed Ashtar got killed by Tanner’s teammates’ covering fire. Tanner’s shield took a hit too though. One too many as his capacitors gave in and the shield vanished around him. The second Ashtar’s shield collapsed too, after several hits. Right then, Tanner and the second Ashtar each traded a shot. The Ashtar took Tanner right in the guts. Burning away all armor there. Tanner managed to fire his needler-round into the Ashtar’s chest. The anaesthetic quickly spread through the body. Making his body limp and himself disoriented. There was still a wounded Ashtar in the corner of the fight. Knocked unconscious by the wound. But not dead yet. Once the room was considered clear, the SIF cheered. Raising their rifles. For the first time in Anurian-battle history did they manage to seize a room of the Ashtar, but also take 2 Ashtar alive.

But the victory was short lived. As their commander collapsed due to the shot to the guts. In his mind, everything was going slow-mo. He could even begin to count casualties. 7 SIF troopers died, to kill 4 Ashtar and capture 2. He put on a little grin. He couldn’t help to think about the irony. He died, so they could take an Ashtar alive. They all knew their lives were worth less than a live Ashtar. But all those thought vanished as he felt something rising through his throat. The last thing he did was spit out the blood in front of him. Seeing it fly through the room that was worth so much more than him. With empty eyes he watched his comrades, as they ran towards him with the first-aid. But the only thing he wanted right there and then was to sleep. His eyes felt heavy. Slowly they fell shut and the darkness pulled him in.

His eyes shot wide open. His blood was raging, fiery hot. Being pumped by his heart all around every by a heartbeat that was off the charts. He looked down and saw how a soldier managed to jam an adrenaline needle in his tight. Everyone’s faces turned from worried to relieve. One quickly called in support, and demanded a medic to be ready. Usually medical crew had to stay onboard of a ship. They were too highly trained to be lost in combat. But apparently admiral Lagare made an exception on that rule herself. Everything still felt hazy for Tanner. In the hallway he saw how another hole was being burned through the outer hull. A circular plate of metal fell with a loud clang on the ground. Soldiers rushed out of it, an entire platoon, 32 men and women. 4 lifted Tanner up and carried him back to the Medium Boarding Vessel where he came from. Together with 2 doctors.  Soon he was shipped back to ‘Second Light’. The Large Boarding Vessel that brought in the soldiers was quickly loaded up with the 2 incapacitated Ashtar. The heavily drugged one was put on a special kind of medication. A needler-dart from the Shadowrunner had the nasty side effect to kill whatever it hit within 30 minutes. Just to make sure that if the target wasn’t retrieved, it would die anyway. With the constant supply of meds, the total effect of the shadowrunner would be kept going. Keeping him limp and docile. The one that was knocked unconscious didn’t need the meds. The soldiers began to take pictures of the entire room. Even brought in a 3D scanner to get a perfect image of the place. After that they began the unrefined process of moving everything that wasn’t bolted to the floor onto the vessel. After that, they would start loosening bolts.
[hr]
As Delta was retrieving whatever was in the room that quickly appeared to house some sort of shield generator, Alpha team had breached the ship’s bridge with little resistance. They too called a Large Boarding Vessel. In similar fashion as the shield generator room, the bridge was stripped apart. Strange terminals were taken from the ground as massive screens were getting disconnected. The troops were rather crude in their methods, and no doubt some of the equipment would be damaged. But that didn’t matter for now. The Alpha SIF team was relocated to meet up with Bravo. Who was receiving a very unkind welcome from the Ashtar. Charlie team too were raking up casualties. Back on the bridge, admiral Lagare was nervously looking at the bridge’s counter. Every SIF trooper had a certain cost to produce. A culmination of training, equipment, mental and physical aid. The same happened to ships. On the bridge of a fleet flag ship a huge counter would be hung up. The counter said, at the start of the mission how much the cost was so far. The cost of a mission was more than just the logistical cost. For every ship destroyed it would go up. For every trooper dead the cost would rise too. At the end of an operation, the cost would be compared to the profit. As there was a bounty on every trooper, ship or other stuff from the enemy. Ashtar technology had a huge bounty though. So she didn’t have to worry about the cost. She was, however, worrying about lost opportunity. After minutes of contemplating, she finally decided and contacted Seraphim command. Requesting a second Cherubim-flagship fleet. Meaning a similar fleet as hers would be dispatched to her position.