“Anyone have room for batteries?” Carthage asked, holding up two of the standard size weapon chargers in one hand and looking around.

“I can take some more.” Athena called out. She had been making last minute adjustments to the new chain-feed system for her railgun, to ensure it didn’t interfere when she transitioned between long range and scattershot modes.

Carthage threw the batteries underarm across the room to her partner.

“An army from the depths of Tartarus can’t stop this.” Kjartan growled gleefully, cycling his new heavy rotary plasma repeater. The barrel whirred and fizzed, too fast for the eye to see. He still wore a physical shield in its smallest form on his left arm, so he could easily switch between LMG and his close range weaponry.

“Sacred Band, let's move out.” Thebes eventually barked, magnetically attaching his carbine to the back of his suit.

They clanked out of the equipment room and towards a key junction within the ship, where they could rapidly respond to any boarding action.

[hr]
The massive Outreman fleet jumped into space on the outskirts of the Psi-Helios system as one coordinated unit. Little bastards up front, big ones in back. They immediately began scanning the area while moving to the rallypoint.

The whole area was scattered with large asteroids which muddied the picture. However, a first sweep suggested that enemy fleets were arranged around one half of the system’s curved perimeter, and their joint exercise fleet had jumped in behind them. The fleet closest to the middle appeared to contain something larger than anything the good guys had brought. A weapons platform or an FOB perhaps?

Forward elements from these enemy fleets were already overpowering a hopelessly outnumbered but incredibly brave peacekeeper contingent. The Barbarossa picked up mayday beacons from a huge floating factory complex which sprawled across another nearby asteroid field. It also detected an evacuation in need of urgent assistance taking place on a ring shaped space station orbiting the last of five planets around the system’s red giant star.