Mack Banes and his Wreck Jumpers are back in this thrilling sequel. Chapter 1 body { font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 800px; margin: 0 auto; padding: 20px; background-color: #f9f9f9; } h1 { text-align: center; font-size: 2em; margin-bottom: 30px; color: #333; } p { margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: justify; } .section-break { text-align: center; margin: 30px 0; font-size: 1.5em; font-weight: bold; } CHAPTER 1 The thundering bang that radiated across the hull set off alarms in the cockpit and inside the legionnaires' buckets. Master Sergeant Malcolm "Mack" Baines, the team sergeant for Recovery Team Pelican, pushed his tongue against the helmet's interior control toggle to turn off the blaring noise and prompts. Like that wouldn't be distracting during a gunfight, Mack thought. He keyed up the L-comm, the Legion's special communications network, to speak to the rest of the team aboard their ship. "Sir, I don't mean to be a pain in your fourth point of contact, but could you turn off the ship alarm? Me and the boys really don't need any help remembering where we are." Captain Robert Tyler swiveled in the command chair at his station behind the pilot. The C2 station—command and control—just outside the cockpit was a staple for the officer in charge of a REC-team. The OIC could link his bucket into the comms station to run almost any operational protocol he needed. Hard kit screens and holographic displays turned the man's workstation into an oracle in support of the team. Currently, Tyler had the screens set to visibility mode, which allowed anyone from the team to see what he was working on. With him leaning out of the way, Mack had a good view of the ship's exterior, currently being broadcast to the holostation. They had just passed the planet Derdosin, a small red-and-black rock in the middle of nowhere orbiting a fairly healthy star. Because of its remote nature and the proximity to its sun, Derdosin was a favored spot for the Republic Navy to test new ship-based weaponry in secret. The navy would fly in, test out the new tech, and then use tractor technology to pitch any lingering evidence into Derdosin's sun. On the display floating behind the captain, which showed the aft section of their ship, the feed depicted Derdosin falling away from their engines like a spinning red marble. Another hovering screen broadcast the front of their VTR-Corobal Sun-Runner Corsair, now barreling toward a shining speck in the distance. The speck was highly reflective, which was terrifying out here in the emptiness of space, because it highlighted just how close they were to the sun. Tyler flicked a switch on his console, terminating the alarm. "No worries, Top," he said, using the familiar term for the "top" NCO on a team. "We're still seventy million klicks away from the sun. I'm sure we'll be fine." Another bang radiated through the hull. Mack reached over the restraining harness, keeping him in the crash chair beside the rest of his legionnaires, and tapped his knuckles on the bulkhead. "You care to revise that last statement, sir?" "That drum solo's a good thing," Tyler said as he swiveled back into his station. "That's Snowball using our defense guns to take out the minefield. What you're hearing is residual force from the mines hitting the shield and rattling the hull. You won't actually hear the one that gets us." Mack swiveled his helmet to the leej seated across from him. Like the rest of the team, the other legionnaire wore their distinctive "Wrecker" armor, complete with a fully enclosed helmet—the "bucket." A slightly bulkier version of Legion armor, the Wrecker variant was designed to adapt to different environments a rescue leej might find himself in. The operator could fit it with additional tech that might allow for deep-sea diving, extended operations in vacuum, or carrying life-saving tech. The girth of the heavy plate armor did nothing to impede the rude gesture floated by Creeper, Mack's second in charge for when they hit the street. "Is that so?" Creeper said to Tyler. "I'd like to set up a little change to your will so they can etch that last tidbit o' wisdom onto your tombstone. He actually didn't hear the one that got him. " "I'll take that under advisement, Creep," Tyler replied. Switching the three of them into the command channel, he radioed the pilot. "Snowball, what's doing up there?" Chief Warrant Officer Demura, callsign Snowball, pinged into the channel with loud music playing over the net. It was only there for a second before he knobbed the volume, but it was enough to key in the team leaders that Snowball was out here for a good time. "Sorry about that, Cap. Trying to keep myself motivated after a long flight out here. You know how it goes. Sensor track has us one hundred forty klicks out from the Repub guided missile boat RSS Bullitar Bingo . How these sailors got caught up in a minefield out here is beyond me. But you don't pay me for my opinio