Captain Conner and Trooper Kyle were pushed back into their seats as the AB1 rocket was launched into orbit. After what seemed like forever the pressure eased and Connor and Kyle could tell they were weightless. Connor moved his control panel in place and tapped his headset, “Control, we are in orbit and Kyle and I are in top condition.”

  That’s excellent to hear, AB1,” replied Rudy in the Cartwright Space Centre Control Room, “AB1 also reports top condition.”

  “Going silent,” said Connor and moved his mouthpiece away from his face.

  “Hey Connor,” said Kyle, “Are we sure The Brick won’t just shoot us?”

  Connor looked firm and said, “We don’t think so. We have been sending up satellites into orbit behind The Brick and it just ignores each new satellite until it catches it on the next sweep. Anything big in front of The Brick gets hit with its laser, but anything behind gets ignored.”

  Kyle looked partly convinced. He was one of two members of ARRG that had joined Doug and Connor on this crazy attempt to capture The Brick.

  “Do we count as ‘big’?” asked Kyle.

  “We are actually smaller than some of the junk up here. We only have manoeuvring rockets and our life support cabin. The cabin is armoured, but I doubt it would survive a laser hit, but it will protect from collisions with the space junk. Look,” said Connor, moving the monitor out so they could both see a view of the surrounding space.

  “I thought we would be seeing junk everywhere,” said Kyle observing the mostly empty space, “sort of like in the movies when space ships fly through an asteroid field.”

  “Space is big, Kyle,” said Connor in a reassuring voice, “It’s pretty rare for us to collide with anything.”

  A ping and bump on the outside of the ship made them both jump. They saw a small bit of space junk fly away from them after obviously bouncing off the hull.

  Kyle groaned, “Rare does not mean impossible.”

  Changing the subject, Connor asked Kyle, “Did you know that the orbit of space is not controlled by any country? It is considered international territory, like the empty oceans outside a country’s borders.”

  Kyle nodded and said, “Yeah. So?”

  Connor looked at Kyle and said, “Well here we are, in International space, armed and dangerous, planning to capture a ship.”

  Kyle looked at their weapons strapped to the hatches next to both of their seats. He nodded, guessing where this was heading.

  “That makes us Space Pirates!” said Connor smiling broadly, “You, me, Doug and Terry. Space Pirates. Arrrr.”

  “I’m actually a Space Marine. Anyway, let’s work out which we are once we’re safe on the ground,” said Kyle. Once he was in action, he would be fine. It’s the waiting while weightless that was the bad part.

  ****

  General Gant was at NASA Houston base watching the progress of AB1 and AB2. NASA and the Cartwright Space Centre were in interlinked communication based on a terrestrial network link. All organisations that had the resources were rapidly securing their communications that avoided satellite links. In a few week’s time, there would be no satellites.

  The General asked one of the NASA operators, “Why are the two rockets called AB1 and AB2?”

  The operator answered, “Anti Brick 1 and Anti Brick 2.”

  Gant raised his eyebrow is a questioning way and the operator added, “Private enterprise, Sir. No committees to help make more suitable names.”

  “Well, I can accept the names,” said Gant, “Especially if it works.”

  NASA had quickly reallocated many parts and fuel for use in the project. AB1 lifted off from the Cartwright Space Centre, AB2 lifted off from NASA’s base. Both had the same basic design of a rocket which would seperate once the ship was in position and the cabin with attached life support and manoeuvring system. It was a high risk mission. If they were unable to make contact, they would fall back to Earth and splashdown in the ocean somewhere.

  There were limited options otherwise.

  General Gant had sent men into battle many times before, but this one was different. It was very high risk, with experimental systems and experimental weapons against a mostly unknown foe. He remembered his meeting with two of his ARRG troopers, Kyle and Terry.

  “Gentlemen,” General Gant had said, “At ease.”

  Kyle and Terry stood at ease, confident in their ability to handle anything that was thrown at them. Both had been in the Texas ARRG team from the beginning and were part of the response to the hunt which had shot down two US Air force jets. Only one member of that hunting party had made it back to the alien ship alive. ARRG had attempted to capture one of the alien’s communicators, but it had exploded not long after the survivor and the bodies of the other hunters had returned. While they were wondering what to do with the alien left behind, they had to fight some professional rat like aliens. Their fighting withdrawal had left two of the ARRG troopers dead and others injured. There was no love lost between the ARRG team and those alien professionals, but there was grudging respect.

  “Captain Connor and the Cartwright Space Centre astronaut Doug - both ex US Air Force - have a plan to get back at The Brick which is hoovering up everything in Earth’s orbit,” General Gant said, “We can’t do a frontal assault. That thing ate a Cold War era nuclear explosion and after a short break, continued on as if nothing happened. We know the side panels can be damaged, but they have some automated repair systems. It’s a very tough nut to crack.”

  Kyle and Terry waited, wondering what this had to do with them.

  “The reason I have selected both of you,” continued the General as if reading their thoughts, “is because you both tried out for the Space Force section of the military when we were testing the viability of having Space Marines. You both had excellent results and you now have experience fighting the aliens one on one.”

  General Gant looked at them closely and said firmly, “I want you to join Connor and Doug and capture The Brick.”

  Kyle and Terry stood still not knowing what to say.

  “Here’s the plan,” continued the General.

  ****

  Navi was enjoying the slow and steady accumulation of materials into his storage areas. Some of the space junk gave his lovely ship a bit of indigestion, but overall the cleanup was proceeding smoothly.

  He leaned back in his chair and dozed on and off, happy to let the automated systems continue. The planet was Non Compatible. What could go wrong?

  ****

  The huge bulk of The Brick passed above the two little Human ships, AB1 and AB2. One thousand metres of space ship proceeded along its automatic route, absorbing all sorts of space junk and satellites indiscriminately and converting them into useful raw materials. Watching their monitors, the occupants of AB1 and AB2 waited until The Brick had passed.

  “Now!” said Connor, and activated his thrusters.

  AB1 and AB2 moved up out of the larger junk field in which they were hiding and followed in the wake of The Brick, hopefully hidden from any monitoring by the huge ship by the slow glare of the engine exhaust.

  If Navi had been paying close attention he may have noticed the two new pieces of space junk move behind his ship, but he was dozing and the automated monitoring systems had been desensitised after all the close calls by random pieces of junk. None had caused any damage other than small dints to add to the myriad of existing dints.

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  “So far so good,” said Connor to Doug in AB2, “Let’s go to stage two.”

  Connor and Kyle were pressed back into their chairs as AB1 thrust forward and over the top of the engines and above the control room of The Brick.

  “Stage Three!” shouted Connor as he engaged his landing thrusters and landed on top of The Brick. The hatches next to Kyle and Connor opened and Kyle joined Terry, while Connor and Dough attached their ships to The Brick by hooks, magnets and, using a pneumatic gun, bolted into position. Running to the edge using their magnetic boots, Terry and Kyle reached over the edge and clamped a round metal device, the size of a pizza plate, to the observation windows on either side of the control room.

  “Fire in the hole!” shouted Kyle as he and Terry pressed a button on a device attached to their suits. Connor and Doug lay flat on the top of The Brick.

  WHOOMP! The explosion blew a hole in the observation window on Kyle’s side, pieces of whatever it was made of spraying out of the ship by the sudden release of the cabin’s internal pressure. Kyle threw a grappling hook into the hole and started pulling himself down.

  Terry’s device had not engaged. He leaned down and fiddled, leant back and tried again.

  Meanwhile, the alien reacted very quickly. As the air escaped out the hole in his window he reached for the emergency red button on his controls. It slammed the button down hard and leapt backwards to a door at the rear of the control room, diving in and the door closed behind it.

  Shutters moved quickly down to protect the observation windows. The one on Kyle’s side stuck on the grapple hook caught in the hole and air continued to leak outwards.

  Terry’s device was trapped between the shutters and the observation window. He pressed his button and the explosion in the enclosed space was amplified. The windows exploded inwards and the protective shutter exploded outwards, floating away into orbit. The remaining air escaped outwards and in moments, the control room was open to space.

  “This side!” shouted Terry. Kyle gave up on his grapple hook which was hopelessly wedged by the protective shield and ran across the roof to follow Terry into the control room by the large hole Terry had made. Connor and Doug followed.

  Terry and Kyle brandished their weapons and looked around. The alien wasn’t visible.

  “It didn’t get sucked out,” said Terry, “We would have seen it.”

  Doug and Connor raced to the control panel and looked at the array of buttons and controls, many blinking in different colours.

  “Is red bad and green good?” asked Doug.

  Connor shrugged.

  “It must have escaped through that door,” said Kyle, looking at the only door in the control room, “It looks like a sealing door, like we have on our space ships in case of pressure loss. I reckon it’s in there.”

  Kyle look towards Connor and Doug, “Got anything?”

  Connor and Doug looked at each other, “Ummm, do any of you read alien?”

  ****

  A short time later Doug had rigged up a connection from their suits to AB1 and were finally able to communicate with Earth.

  “Success!” said Connor, sounding hopeful. He could hear lots of cheering in the background of the control centre.

  There was a short sound of a quick change of person on the microphone and they heard Johnny Cartwright’s voice, “You’re still sucking up my satellites!”

  “Well, Sir,” said Connor, “We have full control of The Brick. The alien is locked into a room on the other side of what we believe is a pressure door and we have full access to the control panel. I am sending visuals now.”

  Connor sent video images of a slow panoramic view of the very wide control panel. As the video was being seen by the experts of both NASA and the Cartwright Space Centre, Connor and Doug nodded at each other. On their private channel, “It’s not just up to us. Let’s see if they can work something out.”

  A short while later, the Earth control centre contacted the boarding party, “Connor. You have enough oxygen and supplies for about a week. Take turns in AB1 and AB2 while we work this out. Can you put on Kyle?”

  General Gant’s voice then spoke, “Kyle. Don’t try and open that pressure door. It is working like a prison. Keep guard on it at all times. It may have equipment there we don’t know about. We’ll work on translating the function of that control panel and plan for your return home.”

  ****

  Four days passed. Four very boring days on The Brick for the boarding party who took turns resting in AB1 and AB2 and guarding the pressure door. Doug and Connor tried to work out what the buttons did, but didn’t want to touch anything in case it made the situation worse. Meanwhile The Brick continued to suck up space junk. It had now finished its sweep of the middle orbit and had begun on the Low Earth Orbit - the one containing all of the CartNet satellites. If the CartNet satellites were destroyed, the network coverage on Earth would be reduced to just main cities and areas within range of terrestrial towers. Those in more remote areas would have no GWS messages of any new hunts.

  “Connor!” called Rudy from the Cartwright Space Centre, “We can translated most of the buttons.”

  Connor and Doug looked at each other and did a high five with their gloved hands.

  Curious, Connor asked, “How?”

  “We were able to convince the communicator we captured to do a reverse translation, from Federation to English,” said Rudy.

  “That’s great, Sir,” said Connor, “What do we press?”

  “Well,” Rudy said slowly, “Many of the button’s words are just abbreviations. So although we can read the abbreviations, we do not know what they stand for. We’re working on it. We’re sending you the video of the control panel superimposed with the translations.”

  Connor sighed, “Thanks Control. We’ll have a look too.”

  Doug pointed at the red section covered by a clear panel, “That has got to be something important. How about we try those?”

  “No,” said Connor, “I think we’ll wait until we’re a bit more desperate.”

  BANG! BANG! The pressure door was reverberating by something hitting the other side.

  “Control! Control!” Connor yelled into his microphone.

  “Terry!” shouted Kyle over the local intercom, “Code Red! Code Red!”

  “Control here,” said Rudy.

  “The alien is trying to break through the pressure door! We have to do something now,” Connor said.

  Terry slid into the room through the open window and faced the pressure door with Kyle, both brandishing their weapons.

  Connor noticed the weapons being brandished and asked over their local network, “What are they?”

  “FOP modified lasers,” said Kyle quickly, “Work out those controls!”

  “Control!” said Connor, “Doug reckons it is worth trying some of the red buttons under the clear cover. The banging is getting harder and the door is showing dints on our side!”

  “You’ve started eating MY satellites!” shouted Johnny Cartwright, obviously from behind Rudy, “Press the red buttons!”

  Doug wondered if Mr Cartwright had ever watched any movies when he shouted commands like that! He reached over and lifted up the cover. He paused over one marked “L”

  BANG! CRUNCH! The pressure door bent and broke. The huge rat like alien in some sort of space suit could be seen holding a huge axe like weapon.

  Terry fired and hit the edge of the door. The alien ducked out of sight.

  Doug pressed the “L” button.

  The laser gun of The Brick fired, incinerating one of the CartNet satellites.

  Doug ignored the background voice over their connection to the Control Centre, “They shot one of my satellites!”

  The voice from Control came closer and yelled, “Another red button! Another one!”

  Doug looked at the panel and Connor pointed at a larger button marked “Eng”

  Doug shrugged and reached for the “Eng” button, “It could be Engine?” he said.

  “Hmmm, better wait,” suggested Connor.

  The Pressure door burst open and flew into Kyle, who was pushed back from the force into the side of the control room, crushing him under the door. The alien flew out straight towards Terry who stood firm and fired his gun. A laser bolt hit the alien in its shoulder and the force redirected its trajectory just past Terry and into the window above Doug and Connor.

  Doug yelled and pressed the “Eng” button.

  The background noise of the engine stopped.

  The alien got up and pushed Doug and Connor out of the way. They flew backwards into the rear wall. The alien pressed the “Eng” button and the Engine rumbled and turned back on. Terry fired at the alien hitting it in his chest. The alien fell onto the control panel, pressing into a multitude of random red buttons.

  It raised itself and launched at Terry. Terry fired and his gun went “click”. Kyle struggled up from underneath the pressure door and fired across the room, hitting the alien in the head as it careened into Terry, crushing them both to the floor.

  Connor got up and lifted Doug to his feet. They both rushed to the control panel and looked at the Control panel.

  “Well,” said Connor, “Mission accomplished. ALL red buttons are pressed or destroyed.”

  Kyle crawled over to Terry and the alien. The alien did not move. Kyle pushed it off Terry and checked Terry for vital signs.

  “Connor,” Kyle said over their intercom, “Terry is unconscious. We have to get him into one of the ABs”

  Connor looked at the smashed control panel, “I think we all have to get into the ABs.”

  “Control,” Connor called, “We are abandoning The Brick and returning to AB1 and AB2. The alien attacked and wounded Kyle and Terry. The control board is smashed and all red buttons are pressed. The engine is off. It looks like all other systems are also disengaged.”

  “Go!” said Johnny Cartwright, “Get off The Brick. We can see its orbit is destabilising. As someone once said, ‘It’s flying exactly the way a brick doesn’t’”

  “Over and Out!” said Connor as he turned to Doug, “You help Terry. I’ll help Kyle. Get to your ship and detach. We’re getting off this brick!”

  In a short time they scrambled into their ships and with a lot of grunting and groaning, detached the ships and broke away from The Brick. Meanwhile, The Brick slowly descended towards Earth, knocking satellites and other debris off their pre-planned orbits.

  A few days later AB1 and AB2 crash landed in the Pacific and were rescued by the US Navy.

  The Brick continued its descent towards Earth and landed in Australia, in the middle of the Nullarbor desert, near the small emergency airport of Forrest.

  The Kessler Syndrome came true and the destabilised satellites instigated a chain reaction of collisions, rendering low Earth orbit a wild collection of debris. The upper orbit were clear of all space objects, junk or otherwise.

  Some astronomers were very happy as their observatories now had much clearer views, but internet coverage was now very limited. Worse, GPS was also so patchy that it was now unreliable. The world scrambled to adjust to the new situation.