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SAL had tried manually unlocking the cell door, but his knowledge of Federation security systems was woefully out of date. Instead, he motioned for Grayson to step back from the door, loaded an explosive shell into his shotgun and blasted the lock into dust.

"Congratulations, you've been rescued" the robot said to Joe.
"Yeah, welcome to the family mate" Grayson said offhand as he surveyed the area, looking for any sign of their MIA squadmates. Stryker's voice broke through the comms.

"That's strange, I'm not picking up any signs from either of them, their IFF signals are just gone. We can salvage this though. I'm taking manual control of one of the drones to get a firsthand look"

Platform 116's faceplate flickered for a moment as it handed over control to Stryker's datapad. It rotated as Stryker took a look around, then twisted to look at Joe. His voice now came directly from a speaker on the drone.
"Joe is it? I'm Stryker, from what I'm hearing from my crew, seems like we can help each other out. You're a mechanic? That's good. Not sure if you heard the little exchange just now, or know what's going on, but anyway the short version is we're here to destroy this station, and we've just lost one of our more technically-aligned crewmembers, and I'm guessing you know your way around? That's the case, how about you lend our Scottish friend there, Benny, a hand? He's taking a team down to the reactor level to plant some explosives. You show him how to get there and we'll take you with us when we leave, simple. Grayson, I'm sending along the location for the last ping I got from Amy's suit, head that way before you move up, I'll send the drones we have left in the opposite direction, they won't be able to ID Amy as a friendly if her IFF tag is busted. Get a move on"

Grayson nodded at the drone, a radar ping appeared in his suit's HUD, leading the way.
"Maxi, Saul, Lataniva... shall we?" He headed off for the door.

SAL fell in behind Benny, and nodded down at the human.
"I am ready to assist"

----

Back on the ship, Stryker finished off assigning the drones' duty, then turned back to the task at hand.
"Turn the shields to full-forward" Stryker said "First burst will be coming any second, get ready"
Next he addressed the gun crew "There's not a whole lot you guys can do right now, but quick enough reflexes, you all might be able to help the ship absorb a bit of damage if you fire on the energy offshoots at the right angle. I've seen some vids on it a few years back. Keep your eyes up on it"

The scanners flashed red, the mangled nub at the base of the mining station had overloaded, and a beam of energy shot out, wild and unfocused, it swept widely across the system in erratic motions, small offshoots like lightning bolts blasted out at awkward angles.
"Drop us down behind the Planet Cracker, we can use that hunk of space junk as a barrier between us and the beams!"