Omega Force: Rebellion (OF11), стр. 24

"Thanks," Jason said drily. "How close did we come to the target zone?"

"We will anchor the sled twenty-six meters away from the area we were targeting," Lucky said.

"Not a bad shot," Jason said, impressed.

They were winched the rest of the way down and dismounted the sled that had been their home for the two-day flight out. Jason stood on the battleship's hull and stretched before unhooking the support umbilicals that brought external power, air, water, and a disgusting nutrient paste into his armor so he wouldn't be using his internal systems the entire time they were adrift. He smiled to himself as he thought of Twingo having to clean out the waste reclamation modules once they returned.

It only took them a few minutes to gather all of their gear off the sled, make sure it was anchored solidly, and then march off towards the stern of the ship. On big capital ships, the engines weren't actually mounted directly to the hull. They were cradled inside the structure on large, shock absorbing pylons. Normally, the gaps between the body of the engine and the hull of the ship would be protected by a security force field to keep out unwanted guests who were insane enough to attempt a boarding there. Even if the fields weren't in place, the radiation and errant power discharges that arced around inside the area would quickly fry anyone before they made it to the service hatches.

When the ship's main reactors weren't powered up, and the engines were long-dormant, however, the space made a handy point of entry that was far easier to breach than trying to cut through meters of hardened starship hull alloy. Lucky moved quickly to the airlock for the maintenance hatch of the number six engine bay and ripped the access panel free so he could get to the wiring beneath. The external hatches weren't part of any sub-systems that were powered up while in a deep storage mode, so it was a relatively simple task for the battlesynth to find the right signal and power lines he needed and splice into them. Less than a minute after he started, the light pipe that ringed the hatch lit up weakly in green, indicating the airlock was open and clear.

Still observing com silence, Lucky opened the hatch and motioned them in before following and closing it behind him. The airlock was large enough for ten people so there was plenty of room for them to spread out as Jason pulled out a compressed gas cylinder and Lucky went to work on the inner access control panel. Once the battlesynth had applied power to the inner hatch, the light around it sputtered to life and glowed red. Jason opened the valve on the automatic regulator attached to the cylinder and stepped back as atmosphere fogged up from the tap and swirled about the chamber. A moment later, the light around the inner hatch blinked to amber and, finally, as the pressure matched to the interior of the ship, went green.

Jason closed the valve and pulled off his plasma rifle so he could join Fendra, covering the hatch as Lucky opened it. It seemed unlikely they'd been detected, but it was possible that a passive sensor caught their sled coming in and there was an armed party waiting on the other side of the hatch. He looked at Lucky and made a chopping motion with his left hand.

"Clear," Fendra said aloud when the hatch opened and nobody was there to greet them.

"Scanning," Lucky said, stepping through and allowing his sensors to take in the environment. Jason moved past him, weapon up, and cleared around the corner. The corridor led into a cavernous engineering support bay loaded with shelves of parts and work benches with partially disassembled components and tools strewn about. His multispectral optics, now able to see perfectly within the confines of the ship, let him quickly clear the space and move out into one of the main access corridors.

"Looks like all the hatches down here were opened before they killed the power," he said. "That should make things easier. I'm not picking up any residual thermals or anything that indicates someone has been down here recently."

"I concur," Lucky said. "I can detect no trace emissions and only a faint power signature coming from somewhere ahead of us, which I assume is the backup generator that's maintaining the life support systems."

"Heat and air are stable and comfortable," Fendra said. "Gravity is down to about a third of Eshquarian normal but still enough for anyone stuck out here for an extended stay. What's first?"

"We try and find a powered-up terminal and access the network," Jason said. "Honestly, if we could pull this off without having to capture and question whoever is on this ship, all the better."

"That's…wildly optimistic, but we'll try it your way first," Fendra said.

"You say that as if you have a choice," Jason said. "You're a guest on this op, remember that. If you're here for some other reason we aren't aware of, you'd best come clean now or you'll be staying here permanently."

"No need for the hostility, Captain," she said calmly. "Though I commend you on your natural distrust of newcomers. That will keep you alive longer than if you just blindly accepted things you were told. To answer directly, no…Mok didn't give me a secondary set of orders—not that I take direction from him anyway—and I haven't received instructions from my handlers since shortly after the Fleet Masters were all captured."

"You are making too much noise," Lucky admonished. "Please refrain from unnecessary talking from here on out."

"Sorry," Jason said.

"Sorry," Fendra repeated.

They moved through the labyrinth of corridors in the engineering spaces up to the plusher, comfortable decks where most of the crew lived and worked. The ship seemed to go on forever as they plodded up the carpeted corridors to finally reach an auxiliary control room outside of the powerplant area where