Behind a wall of firepower, the raiding party moved forward, combots clearing path. Once past that large group of Kristang combots, they hit scattered resistance from Kristang combots and armored suits. I was getting worried, we'd started with six people in suits and nine combots, by the time they'd fought their way back to the docking bay, there were two people dead, one injured and unconscious, and only three combots still functional. The three combots remained to guard the inner doorway while Chang got Sergeant Thomson and Darzi aboard one dropship, and carried Giraud aboard the other. Skippy had already partly retracted the outer door, and as soon as Thomson and Darzi were strapped in, he put pedal to the metal and surged that dropship out and away, I saw on the display he had the dropship pushing six gees and I ordered him to throttle down slightly once the dropship was ten miles away.

Chang's dropship had a slight delay and he got Giraud strapped in, and that almost killed us. Thomson had the node and Darzi had the module, technically we'd accomplished the mission already, except for the people in the second dropship. And that's when a stray round came through the inner doorway, missed our combots, flew across the docking bay and hit the armored hull of the Thuranin dropship. The explosive tip erupted inward, creating a superheated jet of plasma that burned through the armor to the interior of the dropship. Once the plasma hit air, it exploded in all directions. US Air Force Staff Sergeant Joy Chung, who was operating one of the three remaining combots, was killed instantly, three others were seriously injured. Chang and Giraud were protected by their armored suits, everyone else was hit pretty badly. With people screaming in pain, blood flying around the dropship and air racing out the hole in the hull, Chang didn't hesitate, he ordered Skippy to get them the hell out of there. The dropship shot out of the docking bay and clear of the doors as Skippy took over the automated repairs systems to plug the finger-sized hole and get the air pumped back up.

"Clear. Both dropships clear," Skippy reported in a matter-of-fact voice, "no pursuit. Packages secure. I'm guiding the dropships back here."

"Great." I said, emotionally exhausted. "Pilot, I'll be in our docking bay."

"No, sir." Desai said flatly. "Colonel Chang and Major Simms can handle people who need help. We need you here."

She was right, and I knew it. I could be emotional later. Later, after we'd jumped away safely. "Captain, you're right." I looked down at my shaking hands in disgust. I hadn't been in danger at any time. It was a long eight minutes to wait for the dropships to return.

"Dropships secured. Pilot, initiate jump, option Alpha." Skippy announced.

"Belay that," I ordered, and Desai turned to me in confusion. "Jump option Charlie, now. Go."