"That would be…unfortunate," Serra said. "I simply don't have the numbers to hold this position and try to secure the landing cradles for the lifters. Have you heard from the docking platforms since you've arrived?"

"No," Jackson said. "But we haven't sent them a direct message, either. Would they reach out to us after losing contact with the base?"

"They're minimally crewed, but yeah…they should have. I'm worried those have already been secured be the enemy and Colonel Beck is right, and we'll be overrun if they can manage to dock those ships."

"Those ships will be out of play soon enough," Jackson assured him. "But you bring up an interesting possibility. Colonel Beck, how long for you to plan an assault on all four platforms using only the resources available on the Saber?"

"Two hours," Beck said without hesitation. "We're geared up, and I have enough Marines to take all four platforms from what I've seen on the schematics. We also have four Scorpion-class assault shuttles in the hangar bay we brought so we could board enemy ships with overwhelming force."

"Colonel Serra, if I can capture the platforms I can dock to one of them, and Colonel Beck could use the lifters to bring her Marines down and reinforce you," Jackson said as Beck nodded with a feral smile on her face. "Any reason this won't work?"

"No, sir," Serra said. "When you begin your descent, we'll push out of Hab C and make sure the landing cradles aren't swarming with enemy troops. They'll be hesitant to fire on the lifters themselves if they have any plans of trying to move material off this base."

"Colonel Beck, you have a green light. Get started," Jackson said.

"Aye-aye, sir! Colonel Beck, out." She slid the headset off and tossed it to the startled com officer as she jogged back off the bridge.

"I'm handing you back over to my com officer, Colonel Serra," Jackson said. "I want you to leave this channel open and manned for the duration of this op, if possible. I suppose it would be too much to ask that there's a Bluebird system in that bunker you're in?"

"No dice, Admiral," Serra said. "Just standard com gear. Pretty shortsighted given what's made here, but I'm just the security guard around here. I'll keep my people on this channel at all times, sir. Good luck."

"You too, Colonel. Wolfe out." Jackson double-tapped the side of the headset to terminate his connection to the channel and slid them back off his head. "Call down to your backshop and have someone sent up to handle this channel. I don't want any delays between Colonel Serra calling up and me knowing about it."

"Yes, sir," the com officer said and typed furiously into her terminal while she simultaneously talked to the Marines on the ground.

"Admiral," Captain Ellsworth said, nodding as he walked onto the bridge. Out of habit, Jackson glanced at the master clock over the display and saw Ellsworth was ninety minutes early for first watch. "Seems something is afoot."