The ten rebel Gorgons were in an awkward state. They stayed because there were more men loyal to Davis than on the other ships, but that didn’t mean anything. They were still surrounded and stuck. There was no escape and no salvation. Nonetheless, they had one tiny advantage. Jean couldn’t afford destroying ten Gorgons. They were just too precious. She needed to recover them, and the only way she could do that was by sending out boarding parties, kill all the resisting crew members, and then commandeer the ships. Davis knew that, and she made up her mind to make that process as painful and costly as possible.

The ravens in the Dominion fleet stepped out under the cover of big brother battlecruisers and started showing why they were considered the peak of terran technology.

Countless disabling matrixes were thrown toward the Gorgons. Usually the Gorgons could dodge them or fend them off, but not this time. This time Jean mixed the defensive matrixes in viking torpedoes and wraith missiles to make sure the disabling matrixes could reach the enemy ships.

Disabling matrixes were basically a giant ball of emp. They fried anything electronic that they hit. The Gorgons were too big for a single hit to disable the entire ship, but that didn’t stop Jean from disabling the majority of the weapon systems. With most of the weapons down, the boarding parties could reach their fields without the fear of being shot down in the air.

Usually in boarding combats, the side landing would always suffer heavy losses due to the batteries on the enemy ships. The landing side utilized drop pods, which were not exactly slow but were definitely not armored. A single shot could destroy the drop pod along with every single unit inside. This was not the case now.

With a loud bang, the drop pods sharped tips penetrated the Gorgon’s side armors. They pulled apart and ripped the armor on the side open and created an opening. The ground units within poured out.

The Gorgons replied quickly by deploying its own ground forces. Captains ordered MPs to stand behind the common soldiers and execute anyone that turned or fled. Most of the soldiers didn’t want to fight, but they didn’t have a choice.

Jean focused her attention on the Victor. She had had a conversation with Valerian on what to do with her. Despite saying he wanted Davis dead for multiple times, Valerian felt killing her would make him not different from his father. He ordered Jean to arrest Davis and bring her back to a proper trial. Jean acknowledged his opinion in words, but what she really thought was pretty different.

She and Nova were directly commanding the boarding of the Victor on their flagship.

Fifty drop pods were released toward the Victor in a scattered formation. Twenty five had twenty marines inside. Twenty five drop pods had ten marauders. There were a total of 750 cheap bio forces. Larger units like tanks and thors were ineffective in the small hallways of the battlecruisers. Ghosts were too expensive to be sent on this mission. If a drop pod was hit, it didn’t matter whether the drop pod was filled by cheap replaceable marines or costly ghosts. Everyone would die. Plus, this was just the first wave.

The ravens disabled most of the batteries, but some survived. The random gun batteries did their best to fire upon the drop pods.

“Taking fire...ahh!” “Incoming!...” “Mayday mayday. We’re hit! We’re hit!!”

Scattered transmissions came from the drop pods in distress. Occasionally one of the drop pods would be hit by a laser battery. The metal container was melted instantly. Even with their CMC armors marines and marauders couldn’t survive the hit and would be evaporated. What was more terrifying was how defenseless the troops were. There was nothing they could do but sit back and pray no harm would come to them. No amount of skills or weapons could save them if they were the unfortunate ones.

Jean was unmoved. The first round was always the most devastating, but even if only half of the units survive there would still be 375 marines and marauders. A Gorgon had 6000-8000 men, but most of them were crew members, officers, and pilots. Unless the Gorgon was prepared for a transportation mission, there was only 1500 ground units aboard.

Nearly four hundred soldiers were enough to create a brief fortification and hold off enemy attacks until the second round of drop pods arrive.

The rebels acted as quickly as they could. The Adjutant marked out where the drop pods would be likely be landing in, and rebel troops were quickly deployed. Some of the drop pods that survived the laser batteries opened their doors and found themselves surrounded by gun barrels. That wasn’t good for the Dominion forces.

Despite suffering heavy losses, some of the drop pods were lucky enough to survive the laser batteries and not get surrounded and terminated. They secured the surrounding hallways and sent out a signal to direct more drop pod reinforcements to them.

The rebels tried to take back the hallways, but the thing was the battle inside the Gorgon was dictated by twists and turns. Numbers were undermined as only a few soldiers could fire at once. A few Dominion marines could have the same firepower of fifty rebel soldiers that were stuck in a narrow hallway. The Dominion survivors pinned down the rebel forces.

On one of the largest fortifications the rebels performed seven charges toward the defenses in less than ten minutes. Officers and MPs waved their firearms and forced the common soldiers to move forward. But as soon as the marines and marauders left the covers they would be welcomed by a wave of grenades and rifle rounds. They would drop a dozen bodies and be forced back into hiding. The officers would execute a few cowards, and the rest would be forced to make another charge. This happened for seven times, but the rebel didn’t gain an inch of ground.

Things really went bad for the rebels when the second round of drop pods arrived. Jean directed the majority of the drop pods to the area the first wave of troops held. When fresh Dominion reinforcements arrived in the field, the rebels turned and fled.

Officers tried to stop the retreat. Some loyalists shot several deserters, but that really worsened things. To the rebel soldiers who were beaten up both physically and mentally it was certain death if they move forward. They want to live, and the only way to live was to flee or surrender. By shooting deserters the officers were cutting off their only way of surviving this. This angered the soldiers, and the few loyalists were quickly shot dead by angry soldiers. Other officers that were smarter ran along with the fleeing soldiers.

“Admiral, we have controlled the land site. We are now moving forward toward the bridge. The rebels are fleeing.” An excited Dominion officer reported through the comm.

“Press on the attack soldier. Victory is upon us.” Jean praised the officer and grabbed onto a military cap. “Let’s go meet our dear general Davis.” She walked out the bridge and toward a transport. An Admiral like her wouldn’t risk being in a drop pod. Jean knew if her drop pod was hit by a laser battery she would be either maimed or dead. That would just be stupid. A modified Dominion transport, however, was much safer.

Nova grinned and followed Jean out. “It’s about time.”