Commander Rashad, Lieutenant Commander Barker and Ensign Oakenshield were all prepared to leave in their Starfleet standard EVA suits. They were awaiting the arrival of Major Phanan and his Marines, who would be accompanying them to the Ferengi Marauder.

The doors opened and three figures, dressed in green EVA suits appeared through the doors, their gravity boots clanking on the shuttlebay's floor. Each had a Marine standard phaser rifle over their shoulder and a pack on their back.

The Marines EVA suits were a new addition to the Major's armoury, one of over a dozen things he had requested be despatched and kept aboard the Leviathan once they'd arrived back in the Alpha quadrant. Although the suits looked heavy and bulky, they were infact made of a very light and durable material and allowed a freedom of movement not given by the standard Starfleet hard EVA suit. During the Major's time aboard the Leviathan, he'd been forced to use these 'Fleeter' hard suits and believed that had they had these Marine suits, many of the Marines under his command would not have perished.

The Starfleet crew would have been unable to make out which suit was which, the coated visor hiding the wearers face were it not for two facts. The first was the size of one of the Marines, far larger than the other two, this was obviously Wok'Tal, the Klingon Marine, one of Phanan new recruits. The second was the fact that each suit and helmet had the wearer's name etched into it.

Major Phanan flipped a switch on his suit and the visor moved up into the helmet. The other Marines followed suit and Rashad could now see that the third Marine was Mike Gibs, another of the Major's new recruits.

"I don't think green is my colour, sir." 2nd Lieutenant Gibs remarked with his dry wit.

The Major grinned. "Major Phanan and company reporting ma'am," Jon said with a salute. The other two Marines followed suit, saluting the Commander.

Commander Rashad gave a small grin, knowing that the Marines were under obligation to salute a Starfleet officer. In ranking terms, the Commander was senior to the Major, but in real terms the Major had the authority equivalent to the Captain's when dealing with the Federation Marines. She also knew that the Marines had a low regard generally towards Starfleet or 'Fleeters'. There was always a 'friendly' rivalry between the two branches of the Federation military.

Which made the Major's gesture even more comforting, he was showing to the Commander that he was handing his authority to her. But she also knew that if the going got rough, he'd reassert his authority and get the job done.

"Good of you to arrive. We're going to need your EVA experience on this mission." The Commander replied, glad that the Major was both co-operating and coming along.

The group made their way onboard the Hellcat and whilst the Starfleet crew moved to the command deck, Major Phanan and his two Marines sat in the combined Mess\Briefing room, where they looked over the schematics of the Ferengi Marauder.

Commander Rashad took the command chair, whilst Oakenshield sat at the tactical and Lieutenant Commander Barker took over the operations station. The only member of the crew not in an EVA suit was Lieutenant Shale, who had been checking over the Hellcat whilst the others were awaiting the arrival of the Marines. The Hellcat quickly moved out of the Leviathan's shuttlebay and into open space. Once outside, the Commander contacted the Captain.

"Hellcat to Leviathan" Rashad announced.

[Taybar here.] The Captain's voice replied.

"We're about to engage the cloaking device and go into radio silence." Rashad announced. "See you later. Hellcat out."

[Good luck Commander.] Aki replied. [And be careful.]

"Mister Barker, engage the cloaking device. Mister Shale set a course for the Marauder, one quarter impulse." The Commander ordered. "Oakenshield, reduce our power signature as low as possible."

Shale piloted the Hellcat through the asteroid belt and towards the heavily crippled Ferengi vessels. As the moved through first the asteroid and then the debris field, they saw the remains of dead Ferengi, escape pods and shuttles from the vessel. Finally they approached the Marauder itself.

"Take a look at that." Julia announced looking out of the forward window as Shale did a 'flypast' of the vessel.

Many areas of the hull were open to the vacuum of space, the huge holes allowed the crew of the Hellcat to see right inside. Whatever had hit the vessel, it had hit it hard. Shale moved away from the Marauder once more before making another pass, this time travelling across the underside of the vessel, which had suffered similar damage.

"The shuttle bay should be just ahead." Commander Barker remarked, checking a schematic of the Marauder. "Let's just hope they left the doors open."

They needn't have worried, because as the saw the shuttlebay, they also saw the damage. The entire front of the shuttlebay was open to space, like so many areas of the vessel.

"Obviously one of the mines must have exploded close to the shuttlebay." Chu remarked. "Probably when they attempted to launch the shuttles to escape."

"Can we land ?" The Commander asked.

"No problem Commander." Shale replied, as he skilfully manoeuvred the Hellcat into the heart of the shuttle bay.

"We'll be reaching the Marauder in a few minutes Major." Commander Rashad announced over the intercom.

[Thank you Commander.] The Major replied. [We'll be ready.]

Gently the Hellcat set down on the deck of the Marauder and Shale began to shut down the vessels systems.

"Disengage the cloak." Commander Rashad ordered and let's get to the airlock.

Rashad, Barker and Oakenshield all rose from their seats and picked up their EVA suit helmets. Shale rose from his seat and helped Commander Barker to seal his helmet, whilst Rashad and Oakenshield sealed and checked over each other's helmets.

[Comms check.] Rashad announced.

[All clear.] Barker announced.

[Loud and clear Commander.] Oakenshield stated.

[Then let's go.] Rashad announced.

The three white suited officers slowly headed for the airlock to meet the Marines.