"Surprise."

[FredM 0]

"The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy."

- Von Clausewiltz

 

 

They were late and he didn't like it. Heck, who in the sane mind would? They were running at maximum speed away from that Breen ugly looking station. It would only be a matter of time before everyone and their half dead sister came looking for them. "We're already sixteen minutes late! Get this tub moving!", screamed the figure from the station near the rear of the bridge.

 

"We would be on time if you hadn't taken so long recharging your damn toys!", growled someone else. The remark was factual...instead of taking five seconds to recharge the devices had instead taken ten. This had resulted in their target not taking exactly the amount of damage they had anticipated. But it was hardly a point worth debating at this stage, though it seemed everyone on the bridge would have disagreed.

 

The bickering lasted a solid ten minutes before the only doors on the bridge, to the left of the main viewer, creaked open. As a shorter, scare faced man, stepped through everything got silent in a hurry. The first one to speak was the woman at the forward station to the right of the viewer. She was easily twice the man's height, though her voice and facial responses to him would make you think she wasn't taller than six inches. "Master, we are operating as fast as possible. I cannot make these engines move any faster," she said in a clearly fearful tone.

 

The man growled and moved towards the chair in the center. Staring at it for a moment he sat, causing a klunk to be heard as the supports strained to support the extra weight. Someone from the right of the bridge stood and started screaming, "We cannot stay on this ship! They saw us! We will soon be followed and..." His sentence was cut short by the sound of disruptor fire. In addition, the figure who had once been a humanoid now resembled Horta.

 

"My lord, I am detecting a signal. It is coded properly," said the person from the rear who had originally started the argument about being late. With a grunt, the order was given to activate the viewer. Seconds later, the viewer changed from the image of stars to one of a dark room where only dimly lite lights on the walls could be seen. No figures or motion could be detected, though a voice was clearly heard. "Is the assignment complete?," questioned the darkness.

 

There was another grunt from the person in the center of the bridge, "Now give the unlock codes and our deal will be complete. I have no use for cargo filled with payment I cannot open!" A chuckle was a response from the viewer, followed by a soft sigh. "Very well. My surprise to you is that your payment is expendable...as are you."

 

No response could be made before the channel was closed. The figure in the center seat grunted and stood, "Bring us to stop!" The order was yelled so loud that in fact it could be heard several decks away. "Master, we are stopping.....," a response came. Yet, the sentence would not be completed. Instead, it was finished by someone else on the bridge who stood and screamed. The short figure in the center seat turned, pulling his disrupter but had his concentration broken by the sight of a yellow gas coming from a nearby vent.

 

"What is this!!!," he demanded. However, no one was able to respond. "There are massive energy readings...I cannot control it...it's coming from...everywhere! The computers...it won't work!", yelled someone. It was the last thing they would say. The woman near the front of the bridge screamed, staring at her hand as she watched in horror her flesh begin to boil. The figure in the center of the bridge started to move towards the doors, instead he cursed in agony as his right leg detached itself from the rest of his body...refusing to move and now standing as a pillar on the bridge.

 

The horror aboard the ship was short lived, in part due to the nature of the surprise. Within a series of two minutes, those in areas of the ship that might have had a chance to eject the cargo they had brought aboard days earlier were dead or wishing they were. Everyone else aboard the ship had no idea they're existence was about to come to an end, an end none had anticipated. It started slowly, first from the bow and then from the stern. Systems they had installed days earlier had turned against them, causing overloads and destruction that kept any type of emergency system from functioning. The cause of their success was also their own destruction.

 

The explosions worked their way to the center, following those persons fleeing in horror towards the deck of escape pods. Their trek to try to reach safety was futile. Because of a lack of room in their cargo holds and in excess quarters, they had stored some of the crates in the escape pods. As one group reached a pod, they stood in horror as the deck below them vanished and released them into space. This scene was repeated almost everywhere, the conclusion to a horribly sick plan.

 

The lucky ones found themselves vaporized by an explosion, others lived several seconds in the vacuum of space before nature took it's course. It was a horrible existence being a mercenary. There was a problem with being hired to do someone's dirty work...they never wanted witnesses.