“1 minute to disengaging warp!”
The bright white lights switched to a dim red glow illuminating the rows of mech suits and their pilots. I stood on the platform, looking down into a dark crevasse that was the entrance to my mech suit. I stood there and enjoyed the momentary freedom of not being incased in a giant war machine. Then, after a deep breath, I lowered myself in to the cockpit of the suit.  My arms and legs slipped into the pillow-like mold.  My fingers worked their way into the gloves of the suit, finding a joystick rippling with buttons and switches. After a moment of hesitation, I grabbed the joysticks firmly and the lid of the suit closed over me.
  Everything went black and my heart started to race. After a short lag, the machine booted up and all the displays lit up. The cushy foam surrounding me hardened until I was completely locked in position. I started to break out in a sweat.  We only had a rough idea of what equipment the enemy outpost had. After all, our employers built it.  But, if any additions were made since the Great Galactic War, two decades ago, we wouldn’t know. I had only been working as a contractor for the Black Hawk Corporation for a month when the United Galactic Nations came to us for help.  Since the GGW, the UGN has monopolized production of advanced electronics, but now resources are starting to dwindle and the entire nation is on the verge of a major economic depression.  Their solution was to take over an outpost located very close to a mineral rich asteroid field in the Skotavi System. The only problem was it was owned by The People’s Galactic Republic of Pagos.  To prevent causing another galactic war, the UGN paid the Black Hawk Corporation to cripple the base, and make it look like an organized pirate attack.  If everything went well, the UGN could strike up a deal with the PGRP to rebuild the station and take ownership of it in exchange for mineral resources. But, if anything went wrong, the UGN would declare us terrorists and hunt down everyone associated.
“10 seconds till disengaging warp,” announced the captain. 
I closed my eyes, praying that I wouldn’t die the moment we disengaged.  An alarm like a submarine’s diving signal burst through the com set, announcing our arrival into the Skotavi System. There was a sudden series of massive jolts as the spaceship fired off three small, high density, Meg-rounds using its massive rail cannon.  Intel had informed us that the station could avoid collisions with oncoming objects given a few hours; these rounds would hit long before then. If we were lucky it would destroy their communication systems before they even noticed us. 
The gravity suddenly shifted then started to increase as the colossal spaceship pivoted and spun its two counter-rotating rings faster. In normal flight, it would use the rings to produce artificial gravity, but in this case it was using them to flinging troops into space.  The force pushing down on me started to become unbearable.  The suit’s chest foam was now soaked with sweat and I could feel moisture all over my forearms.  I gritted my teeth as I approached 10 g’s of force.
Then with a blinding flash, the floor panel I was standing on popped off violently. I was suddenly weightless and hurtling at thousands of miles an hour toward the outpost.  Everything was dead silent and from the look of things, it was evident that the Meg-rounds had hit their mark.  Where the communications array should have been was a little stub of a tower and an expanding cloud of metallic material. I swiveled the recessed helmet of my suit and looked over my shoulder. The ship sat there like some alien monolith with the name Lone Wolf written in blood red along the bow. In the light of the nearby white dwarf I could see hundreds of decoy duds spilling out of the ships massive rotating rings like an angry cloud of bees from a disturbed hive. Every dozen or so was marked with a green dot distinguishing the really troops from the numerous fake duds. A red flash caught my eye and I turned in time to see a streaking red line slash the empty space.  A continuous red beam appeared several meters off to right and sliced a nice chunk off a dud with one clean swipe.  The massive battleship started to responded with its own massive cannons, decorating the empty space like a some obscene rave party.
I floated there terrified that at any moment I could be sliced in two. Then up ahead a few duds suddenly exploded as some incredible force had ripped it apart.
“S***” I muttered to myself,
The outpost was using gat-rail guns. Though they had almost no effect on ships as large as the Lone Wolf, due to its high fire rate, it was excellent at taking out troops. The empty space around me quickly became a minefield of flying debris as duds and other troops were hit by speeding projectiles. There was a deafening noise of metal scraping metal as the shrapnel of an annihilated dud glanced off the chest of my suit sending me spinning.  I wanted to use my boosters to straighten myself out, but it would give away my position.
After what seemed like an eternity of spinning and watching the glint of shrapnel and lasers flying past me, the silence was broken by a voice.
“Alpha squad, fire boosters and move to beacon!”
I used the SAS to stabilize my spin and did a full burn toward the now marked beacon on one of the many cargo bays of the outpost. 
As a closed in on the bay, an object flashed by me and my screen dimmed as it shielded my eyes from the extreme light. A plume of fire exploded outward as the oxygen being released was ignited by the extreme heat created by the collision of the Meg-round.  When the fire died, there was a jagged hole in the door allowing me to venture into the station. 
I glided through the hole and I landed with a jolt as I used the giant claws on my mech to grip into the metal floor.  I quickly did a scan looking for hidden weapons and cameras.  I saw two small auto turrets at the end of the loading area and fired a round into each destroying them before being able to deploy.  I activated the magnets on the suit’s feet I started to run across the bay to take cover behind some large crates incase enemy troops started spilling out the large entrances to the bay area. 
I turned in time to see Sammy, our squad lead, rush in and take cover next to me.  Her small butt nimble suit was scared with gashes and nicks that had been sustained by mostly shrapnel.
As she came to land, she stretched her legs out in front of her and used her booster to push her into the ground looking like a baseball player and sliding to home base.  She came to a skidding halt next to me.
“S***!” she muttered, looking down at a melted and scorched sub that had once been her mechs hand.
“How bad is it?” I asked
“Its minor damage, but holy s***! That was d--- close!” She said,
“Yea, at least you didn’t buy the farm” I replied,
At that moment Wes and Big Jake lumbered in with their much bigger suits.  They both took cover behind the some crates on the other side of the bay.
“Where are the others?” I asked. 
“ We have lost contact with Dale, Creed, and Kane; Tucker I saw get hit by rail gun bolt square in the chest, killed instantly.” reported Sammy. 
At that moment the loading bay doors opened and plasma bolts started to rain down on use.  I toggled plasma rounds and sprayed a number of rounds at the now exposed feet of the mechs that were now shooting at us. Bright orange streaks flew past me and burrowed themselves into the floor and walls.
“Big Jake! Blow the doors!” Sammy yelled,
“Right,” he said with a tinge of joy in his voice
He lifted is right arm and fired a white hot beam of particles from his massive cannon.  The Beam ripped apart the airlock door like an explosive laser tearing the thick metal doors like aluminum foil.  The dwindling enemy forces were caught off guard.  Some launched out of the bay by the venting atmosphere, but most used their feet and hand claws to grab to the bay floor.  In doing so they were left sitting ducks, letting me and Sammy finish them. Once the corridors connected to the airlock had stopped venting Sammy reported.
“Bay area clear, proceeded to fusion core ops room.”
Now with danger put aside for the moment, we marched our way to the fusion reactor, the main power system of the station.  Our mission was specifically to remove the valuable computer chips running the reactor then precede to kill all survives on the station. Without those custom chips, there was no way the PGRP could replace repair the station on their own.
“Squad 1,” reported advisors on the Lone Wolf floating outside the station. “We have activity in sector 23.  It seems to be some sort of launch bay.  Continue mission as planned, but be ready for revisions in the plan” 
“Copy that,” responded Sammy.  
After several seconds the ship reported back, this time franticly
“Code Red, Code Red, I repeat, Cod Red, They have a pulse cannon!  Revise plans! Move to sector 23 now!” 
“Oh S***!” Sammy replied “if we lose that ship we’re f-----!  MOVE!!”
We tore down the hall towards the new beacon on our HUDs, but it was too late.  There was a flash outside the observation windows and then my screen went dark as the cameras on the suit shut down to protect themselves from the bright light.  There was brief moment of just the eerie glow of my hud then as the cameras came back I saw that the massive battleship had been hit by the blast in the aft.   It started to roll head over back as it floated controlled through space.  One of the surround rings had been completely shattered and large chunks were falling away from it.  Then, to my horror, the main engine housing was starting to glow.
“Squad 1 to Lone Wolf! Jettison your warp cells, you have sever core overheat!” 
No response.
“Squad 1 to Lone Wolf, jettison your warp cells now!  You’re going to blow your core!” 
The radiation from the explosion was disrupting our signals.  I looked over to Sammy she seem to be trying to communicate as well.  Then in the deathly silent, there was bright explosion from the ship as the fusion core exploded peeling open the entire rear end of the ship like a firecracker in an empty soda can.  We all stood in horror as we watched as a large chunk of the spaceships engine nacelle hit the warp cells.  My display died leaving me in the green glow of my HUD. After several seconds the display recovered from the explosion and I looked out in desperation to where the ship had been.  All that was left was a cloud of debris expanding out ward from the empty space the ship occupied moments before. 
The mission was a bust.  Now both the UGN and the PGRP were out to kill us.
Sammy’s voice came over the com sat “I see no poi…sticking aroun… Lets get ou… here!” The radiation from the explosion was still messing with communications, but I got the idea.  With that I Sammy turned and started running to the nearest docking bay. From this point on, my life would be very different.