Station 4:
Shortie by Lone Wolf
Starring: Ashley Williams

~Look up! It's a shooting star!~

	The Hunters aren't just a group of guns for hire. We are not that 
stupid. There are often more of us than missions available, so that leaves 
many of us without anything to do at times. As appealing as that sounds, 
most of us would go stir crazy without something to do. Therefor, nearly 
everybody does some sort of work when not on a mission. Be it working in the 
labs researching some new material for laser proofing, working with 
maintenance crews on keeing HQ in one piece, or manning the guard stations 
at the various Hunter establishments, we are never at rest. I am proud to 
say that I go with that flow.

	Our civilization have taken to and colonized the stars. We gladly 
boast at least three permanent settlements on planets in our solar system 
and outposts of all sorts on many moons. However, for every establishment 
that exists, there is at least one band of rogues, one egotistical rebel 
unit, or one other such problem out there, waiting for a chance to strike at 
our home planet. The Hunters know this and, as a precaution, we have set up 
six space stations that orbit the planet. Armed to the teeth with cannons, 
missile packs, and a full 5 legions of fighters each, the Magificant Six (as 
they have been nicknamed) are the only line of defence from such forces. If 
they fall, so do we.

	There is a group of fighter pilots on the stations at all times. They 
work in shifts of a year each shift, since they are the the closest thing we 
have to unlimited range defences. But the other crew - maintenance workers, 
people to arm the weapons arrays, and other essentials - work in bi-weekly 
shifts. Quite often, Tabitha, Michael, Jonathan, "Rose", and I volunteer as 
a group to work on any one of the stations. It is rare that they turn us 
down and it is even rarer that they put us on seperate stations.

	The ship had just docked with Station 4, or the East Station (the 
stations were lable by their relative compass positions, with the two 
stations at the poles being called N.Pole and S.Pole). We grabbed our 2 
weeks supply of stuff and floated to the hatch. It opened and we floated 
out. "Odd," Jonathan commented, his long, white and black striped tiger tail 
flicking uncomfortably. "Usually when we leave the ship, the gravity from 
inside the station takes affect and we drop like stones."
	"I know," Michael said, taking off his trademark shades. He pulled a 
technician aside. "What's up with the gravity?"
	"The AG generator's down," the techie replied. "No gravity until we 
can get it fixed. That should be in three days."
	Rose laughed. "That's okay dear," she said. "We'll manage. Hey, 
Tabitha, I'll race ya to the quarters!" She grabbed her two bags and flew 
down the hall.
	"Oh no you don't!" Tabitha responded, grabbing her things and pursuing 
her. 
	I floated there, shaking my head. I never could bear the sight of an 
hedgefox and a negaskunk engaging in a 0G race. "What will we do about those 
two?"
	"Simple," Michael responded. "Follow them and make sure they don't 
kill anyone in their race." I chuckled and grabbed my bags. "I'm glad you 
agree Ashy. Johnny, let's go!" We took off in hot pursuit.

	We dropped our bags off in our quarters. Since space was limited, the 
five of us had to share a single room. It was no big deal; Johnathan was a 
very decent man and Michael had learned from me that trying to cop a feel 
will often result in a fist across the muzzle. We were eager to begin duty, 
since we were replacing the gunner crew, so we all zipped down the corridors 
to the weapons control room. As soon as we got there, the relieved crew got 
out of their seats and floated by us. We were left the weapons. "Okay," I 
asked. "Who gets what?"
	"I call missile control," Michael said, floating over to the proper 
seat.
	"Laser cannons," Rose said, grabbing her seat.
	"I'm the only one who knows how to work the vacuum launcher," 
Johnathan said, sitting down in the plush leather seat. "I should man it."
	"Understood," I said. I turned to Tabitha. "Well, whadda ya say sis? 
Team up on the Phaser banks?"
	"Hell yeah!" She said. "It's fun to shoot with those beside you!" She 
sat down in one of the two remaining seats. 
	I laughed and sat down in the last seat. "Let's get a few sector scans 
down before calling up for lunch." They all nodded. "Ready?" 
	We clapped out hands together once. "Break!" we all said. Our seats 
moved to their respective control panels and we hit our stations. 

	The phaser arrays were good medium range weapons, and, therefor, has 
some long range sensors to help line up the shots. They also make good for 
spotting problems that have breeched our longer range scanners, like on the 
vacuum launcher. Being a semi-expert at this sort of thing, I did my thing. 
Nothing came up. "I've got nothing here," I called. "Tabitha?"
	"Nada. We're clear all around."
	"I'm getting nothing," Rose, who was manning our set of short and 
medium range scanners, told us. "The inner shell is clear."
	"Missile packs aren't detecting anything," Michael reported. "Johnny, 
you pickin' up anything?"
	"The shell is secure," Johnathan responded. "And there are no cloak or 
anything beyond that."
	"Great," I said. I flipped the intercom on. "Weapons to Galley."
	"Galley here."
	"What's the lunch special today?"
	"Ah yes...today we have a rather nice caesar salad, some tender veal 
cutlets, and some hot ginger and parsley soup."
	I looked at the others. Everyone was drooling or licking their chops 
for some reason or another. I smirked. "Send up three orders of the veal, 
two large salads, and five order of soup." Everybody smiled. They were quite 
happy about that.
	"Ah yes, but of course, Miss Ashy. We will have it to you in five 
minutes."
	"Good. Weapons out." I flipped the switch again. "Lunch is on it's way 
guys."

	We were halfway done with lunch when Johnathan's alarms started to go 
off. He muttered as duty drew him away from his absolutely delicious veal 
meal. I felt a little sorry for him, but duty was duty. He tapped away at 
the controls, a look of worry growing stronger and stronger as he did. 
"Guys, we've got contacts." We all moved to our stations and readied 
ourselves. "Confirmed. We have a small bandit fleet moving in."
	"So much for lunch," I said as I put on a microphone headset. I 
flipped a switch. "All hands, we have an approaching hostile fleet. Battle 
stations. Repeat, we have hostiles approaching. All fighters on standby." I 
flipped the switch again. "Let's rip it! Johnathan, send them a warning 
shot."
	"Aye ma'am," he pushed a few buttons, moved his finger across a 
screen, and pulled the trigger on the control stick on his seat. The vacuum 
launcher fired off a single round. 
	What the launcher does is it no secret. How is another story. It takes 
the vacuum of space and compresses a small ammount of it into a clear, 
synthetic plastic ball the size of a basketball. The plastic ball is then 
fired at a speed of 80 mph. Upon contact with anything, the plastic shatters 
and the compressed vacuum explodes out, causing some damage.
	"The warning shot did nothing," he told me after the ball exploded. 
"They're still approaching."
	"Okay guys, no more warning shots. Let's go full burn." I flipped a 
switch. "Computer, activate phaser banks." My seat and systems moved out 
from where they were so I could have a little maneuvering room. The 
machinery grew a pair of control sticks; my way of aiming and firing the 
phasers.
	"Computer," Tabitha said. "Activate forward disruptor and phaser 
banks." Her seat did something similar. Everyone followed in suit, 
eventually giving us all enough room to fight without problems.
	"Activate targeting scanners," I said. The large, plastic screen in 
front of me, and everyone else, lit up. There were approximately six gunner 
crews on this station, each controlling a set of phaser banks, a pair of 
missile packs, and a small number of laser cannons. There were only three 
crews that had control of a vacuum launcher. So when I asked for targeting 
scanners, I got the view from the camera on my phaser bank. "Mike, John, 
they're within your range. Start picking them off."
	"On it," Michael said, tapping away at his controls. He grabbed his 
control sticks and pulled them to one side. His seat, and all the machinery, 
moved in that direction. "And away we go!" He pulled the trigger. We heard 
the missiles fly out at the enemy.
	"They're in range," Tabitha shouted at me.
	"On it!" I shot back. I grabbed my controls. "Target the nearest 
enemy. Keep them away from the big guns." Johnathan fired off a shot. A 
single fighter disappeared and the ships around it were damaged. I aimed and 
pulled my triggers. I watched as the twin, yellow beams fired. They clipped 
the wing of a ship, which went spiraling into another. Both exploded. 
"Boo-yeah!" 
	My response was the entire station jumping.
	"What the hell was that?"
	"We've got a problem," Johnathan responded. "They've got some sort of 
heavy weapons platform out of my range and they're bombarding us."
	"Fuck!" I flipped the intercom. "All fighters get ready to launch. We 
have a weapons platform out of station weapons range. Repeat, all fighters 
get ready to launch."
	A few moments passed. "Red Wing here," the commander of a unit called 
in. "Ready to launch."
	"We'll provide cover fire. Launch on three." I cast a hasty glance at 
Michael.
	"On it Ashy," he responded. He punched his controls.
	"Three," I called, pulling my triggers. My guns blared and his 
missiles swerved through the vacuum. Enemy fighters exploded instantly. We 
could hear the roars of the fighters as they were launched.
	"Red Wing leader here," I heard. "Getting ready for assualt pass."
	"Red Wing," I replied. "This is forward weapons command. We'll watch 
your asses to the range of the VL. Once out of that, you're on your own. 
Good luck. And, come back alive."
	He chuckled. "Will do, m'lady." I watched on my screen as the 
bird-winged fighters flew out at the approaching enemy.
	"Okay guys, protect our men. Computer, full power to all phaser banks. 
Automatic targeting. Leave me one to control." The station jolted again. I 
growled. "You picked the wrong day to cross me, bandit scum bags...." I 
targeted and pulled the triggers.
	Some warning beeps came from Rose's contorl panels. "Fuck," she said. 
"That jolt nailed two of my turrets."
	"How many you got left?"
	"Four."
	"Still good enough."
	"Damn it!" Tabitha slammed her control panel. "They nailed my 
disruptors." That was not good. "My phasers took a little damage."
	"Hang in there Tabby. We'll get through this." I ran up the damage 
control. "Hull is at 93%. We're still good."
	"Ashley," Johnathan said. "Permission to launch a couple of pods."
	I looked at him. "What do you have in mind?"
	"The launcher can't reach the back line with the accuracy we'd like, 
but the pods can. I can make a few balls and they can carry them."
	I went over the risks in my head. "The pods are cheap. Permission 
granted." I turned to my controls. "Computer, launch pods one through..." I 
looked to Johnathan.
	"Eight."
	"One through eight. Give control to Vacuum Launcher control."
	"Pods launched," the screen read.
	"I've got 'em." The pods each flew to the launcher and picked up their 
deadly cargo. They darted over the enemy fleet towards the back line. They 
disappeared from range in no time. Soon enough, there were some explosions 
on the outside cameras, followed by one big one. "One of the weapons 
platforms destroyed." The ship jerked. "There's still one more."
	"Damn it." I turned to the intercom. "Red Wing, how much longer?"
	"We're there," they replied. "Making first sweep."
	I growled. "Don't fail us." I pulled my triggers again. The computer 
beeped. "Computer, status."
	"Phaser banks destroyed," the screen read.
	"Damn it! I'm blown." I shook my head. "Computer, launch fighter pod 
three A."
	Tabitha looked at me. "Three A?"
	"My special pod," I responded. "Computer, give me visual from the 
pod's cameras and display pod status." My phaser camera display instantly 
flashed to the pod's eye view and I got a heads up display. "And away we 
go!" I pushed the controls forward. The pod zipped out. "Activate gatt 
guns." The faint image of two gattling guns appeared at the bottom of the 
view. "Die scumbags!" I pulled the triggers. The guns fired off, sending 
streams of energy out. They pummled the cockpit of an unfortunate jet, which 
exploded. "Wa-hoo!" I pulled one of the sticks back and the pod pulled a 
sharp turn. The stream still coming, it clipped the wings of another. It 
spiraled into the planet's atmosphere and burned up. There weren't many left 
after that.
	"This is Red Wing," I heard over the intercom. "Weapons platform 
destroyed. No losses."
	"Excellent," I rattled. "Come in and help us finish these buggers 
off." I turned the intercom off. I shot down a few more fighters and turned 
the pod back for home. "Computer, auto-docking sequence for pod three A." I 
let go of the controls and leaned back.
	"All enemy destroyed or in retreat," Johnathan said a few moment 
later. "We're in the clear."
	"Computer," I said. "Damage report." I read the report. "We lost my 
phasers, Tabitha's disruptors, two of Rose's laser arrays, and Michael 
emptied one of our missile stores. Computer, forward this to maintenance and 
send them our apologies." The screen clicked off and our machinery moved 
back into place.
	I yawned. "That was fun. We should do this more often."
	"Yeah," Michael said, taking his shades off. "But let's not worry 
about that now. Lunch is getting cold." I laughed and floated over to the 
small mess that was floating in the air. I found my lunch and starting to 
eat again. This was how it always was. And, as I always hope, it was the 
perfect end to a battle:

	I was still alive.

End

Ashley Williams, Tabitha Evans, Michael D'Ketra, Johnathan Radec, and Melody 
"Rose" Patterson are © Lone Wolf and <([ Lone Wolf Studios ])>

See you next time,
	-Ashley Williams and crew