On Galaxy's Edge: Ascendance (20 page)

“So...” said Sevi. “What are we expecting down there?”

“Don’t know Sevi. That’s the fun of it,” Nate replied.

Talyah cast Nate a disparaging glance. “It’s the cargo hold, but there will probably be a significant amount of security down there. So we will need to be very careful, okay Sevi?”

“Yes Talyah. Very careful.” Nate smirked at her attitude behind Talyah’s back.

The progress bar neared level zero, and they all felt the slight deceleration as the platform slowed down. Everyone reached for a weapon, if they didn’t have one out already. The platform finally came to a halt, and the orange strobe reactivated as the doors began to slide open again.

Before they could make anything out in the cargo hold, laser fire burst through the gap between the lift doors, hitting the back wall. Everyone dived out of the way.

“Back!” Nero yelled, whilst at the same time pulling a few chemical grenades from his belt. With the doors still not fully open, Nero threw the handful of grenades out and dived for cover in the lift. A series of minor explosions followed, accompanied by harsh green flashes of light as the grenades went off. The initial explosions weren’t what caused the major damage, however. The grenades released a highly toxic gas cloud, fatal unless one was wearing a rebreather face helmet.

Nero looked back out of the now fully-open doors. Through the green gas, he could make out maybe ten bodies collapsed on the ground.

“Talyah, how many people would you say are still around here?” Nero asked, relying on Talyah’s unusual ability to sense people’s mental states.

She paused, as she got a feeling for the area. “I am struggling sense people in here, Nero. But I would say there are a good many left. And I would say they are heading this way.” She looked sharply to the left, causing Nero to do the same. They heard the sound of running boots on metal. Nero raised his laser rifle. “Incoming.”

The gas had mostly cleared already, so the security forces were visible from some distance away. Nero lined up his shot and fired, seeing his target’s head disappear. The other seven members of the security squad quickly followed. Nero and his team stepped out of the lift.

“You know,” Nate said. “I don’t think they were expecting trouble.”

“They weren’t expecting the rest of us either,” Onon replied.

“Ha!” Nate said. “Nice one.”

“I thank you.” Onon gave Nate a mocking bow.

“When you two have quite finished,” Nero said, “we do have some supplies to get.”

They were stood in a massive room, maybe thirty metres high, and impossibly long. Stretching to the left and right were thousands upon thousands of crates, the contents of which were completely unknown. However, directly in front of them was a vast trap door in the floor, on top of which was a platform. Attached to a thick cable, the platform had a number of large crates sat on it.

“That looks promising,” Onon said as they walked up to it. Sure enough, stamped on the sides of the crates was the word ‘Dimora’. Their planet.

“Alright, we have to be quick here,” Nero said. “The cruiser will be landing soon, and there’s surely more security on the way. I want these crates in the lift in three minutes. Okay?” They set to work, though it was less effort than they might have imagined. The crates had repulsive lift engines integrated into their bases, so they didn’t even need hover-boards to move them.

Nero activated the nearest crate, which lifted up into the air a few centimetres with a slight humming sound. It vibrated as he pushed it along, bouncing down off the platform.

“So what’s in these crates, Nero?” Sevi asked, ambling up to Nero as he pushed his crate back to the lifts. “Anything fun?”

“Fun? No, it’s mainly medical drugs and supplies, and a few augs too. But the drugs in here are worth more than their weight in platinum.”

“Maybe we can buy some--” Sevi abruptly stopped talking, as Abia, pushing along a crate just ahead of them, fell over. “What--” Sevi started.

“Fuck!” Nero yelled, seeing the smoking hole in Abia’s side, knowing they’d lost him. He dived behind the crate, dragging Sevi with him. Where had the shot come from? He risked a look in the general direction he thought it had come from, and saw, running between crates, another group of security guards. He fired his own rifle back at them. “Keep moving,” he shouted at the others, knowing they couldn’t waste the time getting pinned down. They continued, slowly, pushing the crates to the lift.

They were only a few metres away now, but the security guards kept firing towards them. They kept hitting the hardened metal cases of the crates, leaving blackened scorch marks where they struck. Nero pushed Sevi into the lift when they were close enough, next to the wall where there was some cover. He waited impatiently while Talyah, Nate, Onon and the others ran into the lift, pushing their crates with them.

“What about Abia?” Talyah asked, when she was in, a tense note in her voice.

“He’s gone, Tal. We have to leave him,” Nero replied, already putting his friend out of his mind. He hit the button for the tenth floor, and continued randomly firing his rifle at the security guards until the thick metal doors closed. “Shit,” he breathed once they were safe.

The ride back up was a sombre one, and a stressful one. “Are you sure he was...?” Onon asked Nero, her voice subdued.

“It was a big hole, Onon. He was dead before he hit the ground. I’m sorry.”

Slowly, ever so slowly, the lift ascended, until it finally reached the top floor. The vast doors slid open, to reveal another firefight going on. Jerad and Koegan backed into the lift as soon as the doors were open enough, thankful for the extra cover it provided.

“Where have you guys been?” Jerad yelled, in between firing his rifle down the corridor.

“We didn’t want to spoil your fun,” Nate replied. “How many are there?” He looked out of the lift, to see a head pop around a corner a short way down the corridor.

“A few, I don’t know. We hit a couple when they came around the corner, and the rest just stick their weapons out for the odd shot,” Jerad replied, firing again.

Nero looked into the corridor himself. There was another corridor branching off from the one the lifts were in, not far down. He saw a laser rifle held out from that corridor, and the owner fired randomly down their corridor. “Alright. The rest of you, take these crates back to the hole, and get them into the shuttles. I’ll deal with these guards myself.”

****

Talyah led the others back down the corridor, towards their entry point, as Nero ran off in the opposite direction. She didn’t like his idea, and didn’t want to lose a second person on what was, in all honesty, an unnecessary job, but she knew they wouldn’t be able to get back up through the hole whilst being fired upon. She glanced behind her to see Nero’s back disappearing around the corner.

“You go up first, Sevi,” Talyah said once they reached the hole. They could see the lookouts they’d stationed still standing at the top of the hole. “Can you get up there?”

Sevi gave Talyah a dark look, and immediately jumped up to grab on to the cable. She then proceeded to pull herself up the cable in almost no time, veritably jumping out of the hole when she reached the top. “Easy,” she said, and disappeared from view.

Talyah smiled, and turned her attention to connecting the first crate to the pulley system the lookouts had set up. It didn’t take long to raise it up, but there were another ten crates to follow, and who knew how successful Nero had been in holding off reinforcements...

****

He kicked out, and felt his augmented foot connect with the head of one of the security guards. It kept moving, disintegrating his opponent’s head, and Nero spun around with the kick, moving out of the way of the weapon of another guard. With a blade extending from his arm, he lashed out and sliced across that guard’s throat. Blood sprayed from the wound, covering his arm in hot sticky blood.

The other guards were running now, far down the corridor, and Nero sprinted after them. His augmented legs brought him up to them in no time, and he dispatched another as the rest ran through an open door, slamming the door shut behind them.

A red mist had descended upon Nero, and he punched the door. The metal dented slightly under the force his limbs exerted, and he punched the door again. And again, and again, increasing the speed until his arms were a blur of movement, repeatedly pounding the door until the metal finally bent inwards and split open, revealing a small hole. He reached in and pulled the hole open more, wide enough to allow him to squeeze through.

Laser fire came shooting out of it, and he ducked out of the way before he went through, with one bolt of laser fire managing to blacken the metal of one of his arms. He pulled an incendiary grenade from his belt, and tossed it into the room. A moment passed, and then a massive explosion blew a gale of hot air out of the hole in the door, followed by flames. When they had died down, Nero stepped into the room.

The remaining security guards were dead, bodies blackened by the intense heat of the grenade, and most of the rest of the room was now aflame. Nero paused to look around, now that there appeared to be no danger. It looked like he was standing in the ship’s bridge, with a panoramic window in front of him showing the impressive view of the city, which they were now right on top of.

He glanced at the captain’s seat, in the centre of the large room, and saw the charred remains of a body in the chair. It looked like that was at the centre of the grenade’s explosion, since the control console had been completely destroyed. “That doesn’t look good,” Nero said under his breath.

No sooner had he noticed that, than warning sirens began to sound. He almost had to cover his ears, so loud was the sound. An electronic voice then followed it. “Warning. Collision course detected. Please rectify course.” It repeated the message.

Nero looked around for a way to control the ship, but it looked like the only control set belonged to the captain, and that had been destroyed in the explosion. “Oh shit. Computer,” Nero tried. “Activate autopilot.” Nothing happened. “Computer?” Still nothing.

Why would that not work? Was the AI computer malfunctioning? Maybe the bridge AI systems had been damaged, he thought. It didn’t look good.

“Guys...” he said into his communicator. “How are you doing up there?”

Talyah’s voice came back to him. “We’re all in the ship, Nero, waiting for you.”

He looked at the view from the bridge windows. They were only a few hundred metres above the Scrapers now, fast approaching the ground. “Er, you’re gonna have to take off without me. It will take me a minute to get to you, and we haven’t got that long.” He made his way over to the window as he was talking. The cruiser had passed over the main part of the city, and was now above the outskirts. It was hard to estimate their height, but they were probably only a couple of hundred metres above the ground now.

“But--” Talyah started.

“I’ve got another exit. Go now!” Nero shouted, as he punched the window in front of him with all his might. There was a slight cracking sound, and he punched again, and again. They were maybe fifty metres above the ground now. With a final powerful punch, the great window shattered, tiny fragments flying backwards into the bridge. Heart pounding, he climbed up and jumped out of the window, sliding down the front of the cruiser as it hurtled towards the ground, and then he was freefalling in the air. The ground rushed up to meet him as the cruiser carried on overhead, and then he slowed, a blue glow coming from his hands as the stabilization augmentations kicked in.

He allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief as he descended to the rooftop below him. About a kilometre away from him now, the cruiser didn’t slow. The loudest sound Nero had ever heard accompanied the giant space cruiser’s crash landing, as it hit the ground. It sounded as if the planet was exploding, and a huge plume of grit and dust billowed up from where the cruiser hit. It completely flattened the buildings it landed on, and left a huge crater in the ground. That didn’t stop it moving though. The massive momentum of the beast meant it kept moving forward, digging out a great gouge in the surface of the planet until it finally ground to a halt, the dust cloud filling the sky above it.

Five square miles of city lay crushed and destroyed. Nero stood and watched.

CHAPTER NINE

LIEUTENANT

The alien entered the bridge, a nervous look plastered on its face, escorted by two men covered in full-body armour, dark grey in colour. They had full-face helmets on, completely hiding their faces, and with an array of camera sensors and lenses scattered where the eyes would be located, each glowing a faint blue. Below the sensors was a large rebreather unit. The alien shuffled forward in between the two men, looking as if this were the last place it wanted to be.

Disgusting creature, the captain thought as he watched the alien being escorted towards him, between the bridge’s ten control stations. It was a vacso, by the looks of things, though a particularly malnourished one. They were tough creatures, but lacked any imagination, and were singularly unattractive. The captain made sure no vacsos had a position of authority on his ship. He believed this one worked in some out of the way area. Probably refuse disposal.

“So,” he said, his voice a harsh rasp coming out of his own full-face helmet. “You are, of course, aware that you are here because this organisation - about which you express some knowledge - has taken out a CSG transport. Yes?”

“Yes your... yes captain.”

“Good. Tell me what you know about this organisation.” He turned his back on the alien to survey the stars once again, through the bridge's panoramic window. It was nearly ten metres high, and perhaps sixty metres wide, stretching the entire width of the bridge.

“Yes captain,” the alien muttered. It looked around, as it tried to compose itself, and then it froze. The captain turned around when the alien didn’t speak.

“Ah, you noticed our friend down there,” he said, sparing the decapitated head resting on the floor a momentary glance. “He had a rather unpleasant message to deliver. And he annoyed me.” He looked back up at the alien, who was still staring at the head, sat as it was in a spreading pool of dark red blood. “Very well. Ensign?”

Another man, dressed in the same military grey armour as the captain, and with the same small shield symbol embossed on the breast, stood up from one of the secondary control stations. “Captain.”

“Tidy that up,” the captain said, gesturing dismissively at the head lolling slightly on the floor, moving with the slight vibrations of the deep-space cruiser.

“At once, captain,” the ensign said, saluting sharply.

The captain watched as the ensign walked over from behind his control station, on one side of the bridge, to the main area. He casually picked the head up by the hair, and carried it out of the room, blood still dripping from the severed neck. “Are you happy now, alien?”

The vacso looked up into the captain’s eyes, and very quickly looked away again. “Yes, captain.”

“Good. Then perhaps you can tell me something useful.” He really hated these nervous types. They took much more prompting than the captain liked, and they were then very slow to come out with anything useful. If this alien didn’t have any useful information, the captain would very happily remove its head as well.

“I came to you a few years ago, after fleeing the planet. Dimora. You, er... you took me on as staff, after I relayed what information I had.”

“Did I?”

“Erm... one of your lieutenants did, I believe.”

“Ah. Continue, alien.”

“Before I left the planet, I had agents infiltrate this organisation. It was smaller then, but still a nuisance. And I found out how it was run, who ran it, and the locations they had. I lost my original agent, but I was working on more, and had a very promising one, when they attacked me.”

“And your useful information is what, exactly?”

“Um, I know how their organisation works, captain, and how they made their money. Qiameth. That was their main source of income. They smuggled it onto the planet, and sold it.”

“Ah. So you do have some information, then. Tell me. Where is qiameth made?” The captain didn’t expect this alien to know, but he did enjoy watching others squirm. A fearful look came over the alien’s features as it figured out how to answer, its mouth opening and closing a couple of times. The captain stood and watched the process.

“Er, I think, er, one of my suppliers, erm...”

“Leave it, alien. We’ll deal with it. Congratulations; you’ve kept your head, for today. You may yet be useful. But let me be clear - you are to assist us, in any and every way you can, or I will become... displeased. Is that understood?” The alien nodded, not trusting itself to speak, and the captain walked away, leaving the guards to escort the alien back off the bridge. He stood in front of the window again, arms clasped behind his back, and looked out on the stars speeding past the ship.

Another armoured man quietly walked up to stand next to the captain, after the alien had been removed from the bridge. He stood there silently for a minute, also watching the stars go by, before finally speaking.

“Is it worth the effort, dealing with this organisation? I don’t even recognise the planet.”

The captain continued looking out of the window, with the lieutenant an intimidating presence next to him. “Two decades ago, we had trouble on an outer edge planet,” he said after a moment. “Me’ryn, if I’m not mistaken. It was a small place, with no more than five billion citizens, but some got it into their puny minds that they could distance themselves from the CSG. They started off by stealing from their government to fund their organization. We ignored this, of course. These outer planets have little value for us.

“But this spread. The resistance got bigger, and at some point they overthrew the entrenched government. Our government. It was a mistake to let things get that far. We couldn’t tolerate insubordination like that, so we bombed the planet. Killed every resident, to ensure that... disease... was eradicated. It was a messy business. I do not want this situation to arise again.”

“Would it have affected the central systems?”

“It may have done, given time. It may not have. But it is risky to let these things fester. And this organisation on Dimora has the same troubling signs. This needs to be stamped out, before there is any real trouble.”

The lieutenant looked at the captain, once again silently cursing the full-face helmets they wore. They were useful, but meant that facial expressions couldn’t be read. “Very well, captain. I shall assemble some infiltration units immediately.”

“Do that, lieutenant.”

Knowing when he was dismissed, the lieutenant snapped a brief salute. “Comandante e la gloria,” he said.

“Comandante e la gloria,” the captain echoed, as the lieutenant turned and walked down the stairs that led from the bridge, leaving the captain alone with the few pilots at their stations.

The vast deep-space military cruiser continued on its journey into the outer reaches of the galaxy.

****

Ami rolled over to face him, the bedcovers only covering her from the waist down. Nero couldn’t help looking at her, and Ami watched, a slightly amused expression on her face. He looked back up into her eyes, his thoughts again returning unbidden to Abia.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, concern written clear on her face now.

“It’s nothing, Ami,” Nero said, annoyed with himself for letting his emotions show so obviously. He didn’t want to bother Ami with things like this. He just wanted to enjoy his time with her.

“It’s something, Nero. I wish you would talk to me. You’ve been reticent - even more than usual - for days now. What’s going on?”

He looked away, to stare out of the window of the apartment. The sun was just rising, turning the whole apartment a sort of bloody red in colour. He looked away again. “I lost a friend, the other day,” he said, rolling over himself to sit on the side of the bed. The covers fell away from him, to reveal the black metal limb augmentations, fused to his body.

Ami sat up too, and moved over to sit next to him. “Why didn’t you tell me that before, Nero?” she said, putting an arm over his shoulder.

“It wasn’t relevant. It isn’t relevant,” he replied. “I shouldn’t let it get to me.” He stood up, brushing her arm away, and walked over to stare out of the window, on the city streets far below them. A silver shuttle flew past the window, heading to the adjacent Scraper.

“What do you mean, it isn’t relevant? Of course it’s relevant, Nero. He was a friend.”

“Casualties are inevitable in my line of work, Ami,” he replied, turning around to face her again, noting that she was now completely naked, sat on the side of the bed. “And there’s other things to be getting on with.”

“That’s a load of crap, Nero. Just because there are risks doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be affected if you lose someone. If they’re important.”

“Yeah, well...” There was silence between them for a time, as Ami stood up to look out at the view with Nero. Another shuttle flew by in the distance, this time. A factory owner, going to visit his property, perhaps.

“You know, you’ve been like this ever since that cruiser crashed into the city,” she said, glancing at Nero. “That wasn’t...?”

Nero turned to look at her. “Nothing to do with me. You know I’m in the trading business.”

“Of course. And it’s a good job you didn’t have anything to do with that. There’s been a lot of talk recently, about who was responsible for the crash. They know it wasn’t an accident, and there were lots of reports of two shuttles seen leaving the cruiser, just before it hit the ground.”

“And the point is, Ami...?”

“The point, Nero? There’s talk about people in high positions - very high positions - taking an interest in the cause of the crash. Higher even than my father.” A slightly dark look clouded her features when she mentioned him. “Whoever did cause the crash needs to be careful, is what I’m saying. But since that has nothing to do with you, we can leave it at that, can’t we?”

“Indeed,” Nero replied, thoughts swirling through his mind. They again lapsed into silence for a time, before Ami wandered off to the bathroom.

“Coming?” she asked. Nero turned and followed her in, but not before taking a qiameth pill from the packet beside the bed.

****

Talyah looked at the time. Thirty minutes late. Abnormal, but she decided she’d wait a few more minutes before doing anything. She looked up at the sky. There wasn’t a cloud in sight, and the morning sun was streaming rays of orange-red light over the city, only slightly obfuscated by the smoggy atmosphere. The massive Scrapers, so often hulking dark monoliths, appeared to glow red this morning. It was quite a sight.

Another ten minutes passed, with still no sign of the expected ship. Talyah was about to give up, and head back to base to sort things out, when one of the ships approaching the spaceport caught her attention. It wasn’t the usual freighter that she was expecting, but the design was familiar to her. It was hard to place, though.

Then it hit her. She’d seen the ship before when she’d had cause to visit Kaza'ona a year ago. Except, back then it had been sparkling clean, and in perfect condition. This ship nearing her now was scorched, as if it had been in a battle, and the engines seemed to be emitting some sort of vapour. This didn’t look good.

Talyah waited patiently while the small ship slowly descended, heading to the landing pad where she was waiting. On the final phase of landing, the ship’s engines rotated to face downwards, bringing the ship to a steady hover a few centimetres above the landing pad, and then it lowered itself to the ground. The pilot cut the engines, cutting off the strange vapour that was being produced, and the boarding ramp descended from underneath the ship’s nose.

Talyah walked over to the ship, her curiosity now well and truly roused. A single figure stumbled down the ramp to meet her.

“Are you alright, signore?” Talyah asked, when the man stopped in front of her, a slightly bleary look filling his eyes. It took a moment for him to comprehend that someone had spoken to him.

“What? Um, yes, fine. I’m fine.”

“Where have you come from?” Talyah asked, authority in her voice.

“Kaza'ona. Are you...?”

“Talyah. I’m waiting for the shipment, but instead of pills I find you. Perhaps you could explain this?”

“Not really,” the man said. Talyah was about to say something, when the man continued. “I don’t know what happened. But we were attacked. The city. It was destroyed.”

“Destroyed?” Talyah demanded.

“I think. I ran, took this ship,” he said, glancing up at the ship he’d arrived in. “They fired at me, but I escaped. I escaped. And I came here. I didn’t know any other places, and I’ve flown shipments here before. For you.”

Talyah watched the man, who appeared to be about to fall over. “Okay, I am going to take you back to our base, to talk with Nero, yes?” The man nodded in response, and Talyah carefully led him to her shuttle.

It only took a couple of minutes before they arrived at the base, where Talyah took the man to a seat, and left him while she went to find Nero. When she returned a few minutes later, though, the man had lapsed into unconsciousness.

“Hey, wake up!” She shook his head, but it didn’t seem to have any effect. “Is Zea around?” she asked Nero, who was now stood next to them.

“No, but I’m not sure he could help anyway. This guy looks pretty badly injured, if you ask me.” He glanced at some of the man’s wounds, to see blood still seeping from them. “Besides, who is he exactly?”

Talyah glanced up at him. “I don’t know. But he’s from Kaza'ona, and apparently the city was attacked.”

“Attacked?”

“Yes, but by who, or how badly, I don’t know. We didn’t get this week’s shipment, though. So there’s something gone wrong.”

Nero looked back down at the man sprawled on the chair. “His wounds don’t even look that bad. What caused them?”

“He didn’t say,” Talyah replied. “But they look like they may have been caused by shrapnel. Perhaps he was caught in an explosion. Maybe he has internal injuries.”

Nero nodded in agreement. The wounds certainly weren’t caused by a laser weapon, and nor did they look like a blade had been the cause. “In which case, there’s really nothing we can do for him.” Nero sighed. “I'm gonna have to go out there myself, aren’t I? See what’s going on.”