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Stryker looked on in awe as the ship bobbed and weaved around the crimson-red beam of the Planet Cracker, queuing his weapons to prepare for firing. Out of curiosity, he summoned up a feed from the ship's rear-mounted camera and witnessed the devastating power of the mining lasers. Chunks of a destroyed moon floated in the empty nothingness, spiraling with the residual inertia of the blast. Even as the ship cleared the main cannon, they were still subject to incoming fire from the smaller laser arrays. Stryker gulped down the shock of that sight, ordered the pilot to up their rear shield output, and turned his attention back to the task at hand.

"No need to worry about comms Rento, I forgot for a moment you weren't around to hear our planning. We had one of our team's specialists take care of that as soon as we launched the shuttles. Not that it was of any real concern. We're still technically in Alliance space, though I guess the borders between Human and Republic space have shifted a little in the last few years" Stryker stated matter-of-factly to the android "Used to be a couple of human colonies in this system, but it was evacuated during the Corvais War, and in the aftermath, designated a no-man's land out of respect for the billions of lives that were lost here. This fucking station has no business being here, so we're fragging it. Now, eyes on your controls, we're coming up on the target"

"OPEN FIRE" Stryker commanded "Tibulus, cut us across now, give me a clean shot on the rear of that connecting joint"
He went about establishing a tri-point weapons lock on the laser and waited for the ship to drift into just the right position
"Firing main cannons.... now" He pulled the trigger and once-more was blinded by the brilliant blue beams that rocketed forward from the top and side-mounted weapons. It blazed forward, heading directly for the acquired target, and with a flash, landed flush.

The Planet Cracker had been cracked.

The long tube splintered from it's connecting joint and fell away from the 'pivot dish' that had allowed it's manueverability, as well as the remainder of the station. A tragic flaw in an otherwise unstoppable weapon. Stryker couldn't help but let out a whoop of excitement.
"Alright, excellent job everybody, I guess now all we gotta do is keep peppering the station until the crew finishes up and signals for pick..... wait"
One of the ship's scanners had detected a sudden surge of energy, coming from the point they'd just severed the mining laser off of. Stryker brought up a holographic, zoomed-in view of the discrepancy, and his face shifted from joy to horror.
"Tibulus, get us away from here, now! Gun crew, disengage and buckle up! The station still has the laser's primary ignition source on there and if these scans are correct, the main regulator has been destroyed. Any second now, that little nub out there is gonna erupt with raw untapped energy. No way for anyone on the station to control it, even if they suddenly decided to stop trying to kill us. So as of now, we're subject to the whims of the universe"

Stryker sat back in his seat and buckled in, things were about to get pretty hectic out here. He looked across the cockpit to Tibulus.
"Hope you haven't used all your fancy pilot tricks yet. When that thing blows, we could have to dodge a different beam every couple seconds, might as well get some distance on it now"
He decided to inform the crew.

-----

Grayson's comms chirped to life just as the ground crew finished off the Federation squad. He tapped into the line to hear Stryker speak as he walked over to check on Belov.
"Squad, status report?" 
Grayson turned Belov face up. He hadn't made it. A frag grenade must've blown a hole in his suit, and from there the Federation troops had lit him up with their lasers. His chest was a mess of congealed blood and cauterized holes. Grayson took Belov's gun and knife waved over Maxi, just to confirm it more than anything and to give the kid the Russian's medical supplies, then responded.
"Maverick here, we just encountered a few Federation troops, all targets eliminated, but we lost Belov. How you all holding up mate?"
"Well, good news and bad news out here" Stryker responded over the increasingly-crackly comms "The good news is we've taken out their main means of defense, the Planet Cracker. The bad news is, we're still under fire, they must've updated the design of these damn mining lasers. The firing array and the primary ignition source are still active inside the base-level of the station. Now this presents to us a unique opportunity to take care of this place in one-fell swoop. Benjamin, I want you to take SAL, Arex, and Holmström and proceed down to the base-level, secure the area, then plant the charges you brought. Reply with estimated detonator range and longest possible fuse time. We're gonna use your explosives to blast a hole above the ignition source. That'll disrupt the flow of energy and destroy the base from the inside-out. Grayson, you carry on with the others, proceed upwards to take out any remaining Federation forces and try to find some intel on what they're doing here. We have a tight deadline here so no pussyfooting around"

"Permission to pussyfoot for just a second boss man?" Grayson responded, his eye implant picking up a sign of life in a room just off the cargo bay, he walked towards it "Yup, we got a human here, prisoner. Looks a bit banged up, but otherwise intact. What do we do with him?"
He paused for Stryker's response, then nodded towards the grease-covered man. 
"How're ya? Call me Maverick, listen uh, you know your way around here do ya? Clearly ye're in here for a reason, and yer not Federation, so the boss thinks we can cut a deal. We'll free ya, give ya a gun, all that. You help us out, we won't leave ya here when this station gets blasted to the heavens, how's that sound mate?"