"Rithvik, you should get here, NOW!" yelled Leo over the announcement system. The alarms were already blaring all over the ship. I got out of my bed and bolted out of my cabin. I bumped into Anna, who too was making her way to the bridge. "What the hell is happening?" She yelled over the alarms. "There was an explosion onboard Orion Five. Reneesh and Souvik were on the ship." I yelled.  Together, we ran to the bridge as fast as we could. "Are Reneesh and Souvik back yet?" I asked Leo. "They are making their way here." Leo replied. "Get those shields up." I ordered. Just as we were speaking, Reneesh and Souvik stumbled out of the dock bridge and Souvik collapsed to the floor. Konrad rushed forward and helped him remove his suit. "Disconnect the ships, NOW!" Reneesh screamed. Leo immediately disconnected the link. I stood on the bridge and looked at Orion Five. There still was fire bringing in some parts of the ship where there was a supply of oxygen. Soon, both Reneesh and Souvik were being given first aid by Anna. Reneesh was bleeding from the forehead. "What the hell happened?" I asked Reneesh. "Souvik, tell them." Reneesh told Souvik. "It goes on like this" Souvik started. "I was outside on a spacewalk trying to fix a faulty electronic device. The hatch was open the whole time. Just I was fixing the device I turned around to see two small ship-like structures approaching Orion Five. I freaked out. They were coming from the other side, hence they were totally invisible to the naked eye of anyone on Orion Four." He said. "Just then I saw something approaching us on the radar." Reneesh took over. " I immediately ordered Souvik to get his ass back to the ship and that's when the first missile struck".

"And you saw nothing?" I asked Leo. "I was down in the server room, boss. I came here as soon as I heard the alarms go off." Leo replied. "The missile took out the communication systems and other important systems. Before I could run another missile hit." Reneesh continued. "And then I rushed to the hatch and closed it after getting into the ship. The power had gone out and the breach in the hull caused the pressure to plummet. The artificial gravity disengaged and oxygen levels went down." Souvik said. "I saw Souvik as he made his way into the bridge with little help from his MMU. He helped me put the suit on. We made our way to the link bridge between our ship when I heard the missile lock alarm go off again. The both of us made it into the link as the final missile struck Orion Five." Reneesh completed. "Leo, I want you to run a scan in our surrounding areas, see if you can find any sort of vehicle in our vicinity. Also, concentrate all power to exterior shields. Shut down any unnecessary systems. Keep a hawk eye on our surroundings." I ordered.

I asked Reneesh and Souvik to go down to the cabins and have some rest, but they refused. Both Reneesh and I agreed that this was some sort of provocation and that we would have to plan our course of action with extreme caution. We also agreed upon the fact that launching an all-out offensive now would mean suicide. But now that the first move was made by the aliens, we had to have our guard up at all times. Reneesh and I made our way to the armoury. "Grab that crate." I instructed, pointing to an empty crate at the far end of the room. Together, we loaded the crate with six submachine guns and also loaded the crate with magazines. The both of us dragged the crate up to the bridge. "Everyone, please grab a gun and keep it with you at all times from now on. But please do not forget to keep the safeties on." I ordered.  "Boss, hold up." Leo said. "I couldn't find a trace of that ship. Must have escaped immediately after taking down Orion Five." Leo said. "Alright then. Make sure no ship ever enters our vicinity without us knowing. Keep our weapons hot. We blow anything which comes too close to our comfort out of the sky." I further ordered. After waiting for approximately an hour, we could not see any kind of enemy activity in our vicinity. The fires on board Orion Five had died out due to the lack of oxygen. "Is there anything we can salvage from Orion Five?" I asked Leo. "The food supplies and some of the equipment could have survived, including some weapons. That section of the ship has not been seriously damaged. So, we have a shot at salvaging them." Leo replied. "Alright then. Leo, take Reneesh and Konrad along with you. Salvage whatever you can find. Make it quick and bring them out onto our ship. Any spare parts, your supplies anything you find which would help us must be brought onto this ship." I ordered. I then got an idea. "Leo." I said. "Can Orion Five's thrusters still move the ship?" I asked. "There does not seem to be much damage to that part of the ship either but I cannot guarantee anything. The ship did take devastating hits. It's worth a try though. Why do you ask?" He replied. "Imagine this. We send Orion Five forward. And then Leo tries hacking into their systems and disables their automatic defences. And then we send it out further to check their defences and then we can figure out something to take care or avoid those defences. How's that?" I say. "That is not much of a plan, boss. But I guess it's worth a try." He replied. "We'll do it after cleaning out the ship. Leo, stay there are set up what I've asked for. Please make it as soon as possible. The sooner we get this over with, the better." I told the crew. It took almost three hours for the crew to transfer the salvageable items from Orion Five to Orion Four. The lack of gravity did not help them. We finally completed the task and Leo, after half an hour of working on the computers, said that he has managed to give Orion Five a unique access code to get it past the defences. "Let's get on with it." I ordered. "It is completely ready?" I asked him. "Yes, it is. The defence system will think it is one of theirs. In fact, any automated system would be fooled into thinking it is one of theirs, but then once an alien sets eyes on it, it is when the fireworks start." He replied. "Well then, launch it." I ordered. "Enabling remote control over the emergency thrusters and engines of Orion Five... and done." He said.

"Is this a go, Captain?" Leo asks me. "It is a go." I confirmed. Orion Five's thrusters suddenly came online and it took a few minutes for the engines to reach enough thrust to move the ship. Apparently, as Leo filled me in, the emergency thrusters failed to activate. Apparently, some system must have been damaged in the attack. The ship slowly started inching towards the area where Leo said the automatic defences were. We watched in anticipation as the ship made its' way into the Xandion System. The ship actually made it past the defence system area without a single missile launching. "Whoo!" Leo shouted in celebration. The kid had succeeded in hacking an alien defence system. That ought to be a first. We watched as the ship got to the outer marker of the Xandion System as we saw a streak of light approaching the ship with great velocity. "What is that?" I asked Leo. It seems to be some sort of a missile." Leo replied. "Well, I am not blind, Leo. Where the hell did that come from? I cannot see any ships. Can you track from where the missile came from?" I asked him. "Let me check Orion Five's radar system, to check if it can come online and transmit some information via the secondary transmission system... and there it is. The missile does not seem to have originated from a ship. It instead seems to have originated from Planet G, or MR-1." Leo said. "Are you sure?" I asked him. "I'm positive." He replied. "Put the live feed from Orion Five on the main screen." I ordered. Soon, we had a clear visual of the missile rapidly approaching Orion Five. And seconds later, the feed went dead and we saw a huge explosion where Orion Five was supposed to be. The missile had struck the target. The explosion was far more violent than a normal explosion in space, which meant that these were no ordinary missiles we had back on Earth.

"They know we are here and yet they choose not to attack. I do not seem to understand their tactics." Souvik said. "Whatever their tactic is, it is working. We're one ship down and we should consider ourselves lucky. Nobody was seriously injured." I replied. "So, what are we going to do? Sit ducks and wait for them to come and blast us?" Reneesh asked. "Do you have a better idea, Reneesh?" I asked him. "Well, sitting here waiting for something to happen or somone to come is a waste of time. And time is something which is very valuable to our mission." Reneesh replied. "Well Reneesh, unless you come up with a plan better than this, this is what we are going to do." I said. Reneesh just nodded his head in exasperation and walked away.

***