Star Brigade: Resurgent (Star Brigade Book 1) (28 page)

V’Korram was the sentries’ sole fixation. The Kintarian, in the room’s far left corner, sat in a predatory squat. His tawny body fur disheveled, green-flecked eyes glittering, he sized up the sentries. The silent faceoff between the four mechanoids and V’Korram lingered—each waiting for the other to flinch. The sentries, not so patient, raised their gun barrels, unleashing a blistering, pounding salvo.

The massive Kintarian flipped high over the volleys, landed on all fours and pounced, diving under as another incendiary scorched just over him. He then kicked off the ground and sprinted forward.

The Kintarian’s movements were a blur, nearly impossible for Habraum to follow. His legs and arms looked more like muscled springs than actual limbs. The walls were scorched where the numerous incendiaries fired at him and missed. During the brief nanoclics V’Korram was crouched in one place, his face actually had a feral grin twisting across his lips, showing off razor-sharp teeth. But every time V’Korram found a new approach en route for the hostages, the sentries would see through his ploy and fire unmercifully at the advance. And somehow the Kintarian would weave out of the way at the last moment—more or less dancing around each oncoming incendiary.

Though the Kintarian possessed no maximal abilities, Habraum couldn’t help but marvel at V’Korram’s uncanny agility and balance. He’d be perfect for field combat…

…except that the Kintarian’s antics were getting all the hostages killed. V’Korram got too close, the destromechs would fire and he would dart away, another hostage taking the shots meant for him.

“
Twins Bleeding!
” Habraum rose up and ran, hoping to draw fire away from V’Korram. His hope was well-founded. One of the sentrymechs swiveled its cannons at the Cerc and opened fire.

Habraum kept running and shot off a solid biokinetic blast. The sentrymech’s reaction was instant and brutal; a blistering photon barrage. It then erected a glowing pink shield, which the biokinetic blast hit and promptly fizzled out of existence.  Habraum leaped aside, narrowly missing the flares, at the same time shooting off a more potent concussive blast from each fist. This round shattered the sentry’s shield like glass, exploding through the mechanoid in a double eruption of flames and plasteel shrapnel.

“Prydyri-Ravlek, fall back!” Habraum boomed as another hostage fell dead. The order was ignored.

The stink of burnt ferroment caught his nose—caustic, enough to make him gag. Then Habraum glanced at a round slice in the wall to his left. It suddenly glowed white-hot and quickly melted into a viscous molten goop trickling down to the ground. Right away Sam soared through the hole she just created. Her fiery aura scorched the air as she flew straight into the thick of conflict. Following in her wake was a shiny flash of bulk that had to be Khrome. Sam rose up into the air to avoid the streaking incendiaries while Khrome casually blocked any that struck his armored skin. Honaa, using his phase-shifting talents, walked through the wall slowly. It surprised Habraum to see the Rothorid so winded.

No sign of Tyris as well as Jan’Hax, meaning that the Tanoeen had fallen also.

While Sam weaved lyrically through the air, she and Habraum unleashed their respective energy attacks at the sentries. Then V’Korram bounded past Sam, barely dodging another incendiary. She wasn’t so lucky. Unable to move in time, Sam took the blast right in the stomach and dropped like a stone.

V’Korram stopped and turned back, horrified as Sam hit the ground stiffly. The sentrymechs showed no such remorse, firing the instant V’Korram turned his back. Incendiaries drilled the Kintarian into unnatural attitudes, lifting him clean off the ground. Honaa dashed for the remaining captives before V’Korram’s limp body struck him, sandwiching the Rothorid against an unforgiving ferroment wall.

Disgusted, Habraum rose up like a viper. “End session, NOW!”

Just like that the ferroment walls faded, so did the hostages and the destromechs, leaving an empty and impossibly vast room with a wall-to-wall electric blue glow. The floor was littered with dazed and injured Brigadiers. Liliana was helped up by Surje. Jan’Hax and Tyris regained their footing. Khrome looked a little confused, brushing soot from his silvery shoulder. With just a few words, the Hard Light Hologram Suite or HLHG could recreate virtually any environment the Star Brigade needed for training. It had practically been Habraum and the other Star Brigadiers’ home since training began.

For all the good it’s done.
Habraum wiped the sweat from his brow and just glared around in pure loathing. He already knew that these newbies weren’t remotely ready for field combat after combing over their profiles. But that did little to blunt the shock of seeing it firsthand during training. Five different mission scenarios, producing five failures no matter what Habraum tried.

If these had been live missions
, Habraum realized,
it’d be Beridaas all over again
. The realization was worse than a knife thrust to his heart. The Cerc moved to help Sam and Honaa, both already on their feet. Sam, in fact, was already headed straight for a dazed V’Korram.

“What the hell is your problem Lieutenant?” The Kintarian was twice Sam’s size, but she still furiously hauled him up roughly to his feet.

V’Korram was looking surly again. “This exercise is ridiculous, Sam. I was trying to end it for all our sanities so we can do more meaningful simulations.”

“By getting all the hostages killed and your teammates subdued? Congratulations, Einsteiner!” Their subsequent words were lost in a rising chorus of angered voices. Rigorous simulations combined with successive failures were just too much. Something had to give. Honaa was hissing. Sam was still yelling. Somewhere in the background Khrome’s laughed at something. V’Korram growled, his teeth gnashing. Tyris and Jan’Hax played the blame game, getting in each other’s faces and bellowing. All these voices came together in a distorted, incomprehensible din.

Habraum felt numb, physically and emotionally
numb.
To his ears the quarreling sounded less like noise and more like a furious pounding. To his eyes it was the sight of sentients part of something greater than themselves fracturing at the core, all stupidly arguing over their own shortcomings. Then Surje’s voice caught his ear. “How long do we have to keep this up? We’ve been busting our asses for days—.”

Habraum wheeled on him. “Until we get it right, Ensign. And by how abysmal this session was, that won’t happen anytime soon!” The scolding words silenced the discord. Nobody spoke, not even Khrome.

“Your performances were all
deplorable
,” Habraum stated without preamble. The only movement came from the pulsing blue glow on the walls. His eyes narrowed. “We will go through these drills again and again until you learn to work as a Star Brigade combat team,” Habraum pounded one fist on the other to emphasis each point. “Think long and hard about how you’ll do BETTER tomorrow. These drills only get harder. Dismissed.”

The rest of the Brigade, sans Sam and Honaa, somberly exited the HLHG room, murmurs buzzing around the motley group. V’Korram started striding toward the exit.

“Not you Prydyri-Ravlek,” Habraum added with cold courtesy.

V’Korram stopped and snapped his head toward the Cerc, his long ginger mane flicking over his shoulder. His green-flecked eyes cast a surly glare in Habraum’s direction. The Kintarian turned and strode forward silently, stopping right in front of Habraum to emphasize his four-inch height advantage. Habraum wasted no time reaching the summit of his displeasure.

“Abandoning your squad, and then endangering the safety of your team members to name a few things. Your actions during this session were unacceptable.”

“May I be frank Captain?” V’Korram began growling in reply.

“No, you
can’t
,” Sam advanced. “How many ti—.”

“Commander,” Habraum cut her off coolly. Everyone yelling wasn’t helpful.

“Except for Captain Ishiliba and Commander D’Urso, they are all too unseasoned to even view a battlefield, let alone step foot on one,” V’Korram snarled, body hair bristling.

“You do your job and I’ll worry about their weaknesses, Lieutenant,” Habraum countered, forcing himself to maintain some composure, which wasn’t easy. “Their inexperience is fixable. My problem right now is you being a fubbering klonk.” V’Korram’s scowl deepened, if possible. Just then the HLHG entrance hissed open. Lethe glided in and slowly approached the group.

“You’re either a team player or you’re done,” Habraum continued. “There is no place here for anyone not committed to Star Brigade.”

V’Korram straightened up and crossed his arms. “Ironic, as you left when Star Brigade needed you.”

One could have heard an atom split after that. There was a strange, closed look on V’Korram’s face. Undoubtedly, he knew he had crossed way over the line. But Habraum actually chuckled a little. “That’s one.” The Cerc raised his index finger to emphasize the point. “You
don’t
get two.”

Under his tawny fur V’Korram’s face noticeably reddened. No other words were needed before he quickly retreated from the HLHG room. Once the door hissed shut, Sam whirled on Habraum. “I understand how you feel Braum, but you could’ve gone easier on these kids. This was a
minor
setback.”

“Minor setback?” Habraum snorted. “What if anyone in UComm saw this?” Honaa was silent during the exchange, looking run down. The HLHG room door hissed open again, drawing the Rothorid’s eye.

“Is this why you brought me back?” Habraum pressed in heatedly, unable to contain himself any longer, “To fix one of your messes that you couldn’t cover up?”

Sam purpled with rage. She lashed out cat-quick, her fist smashing hard across Habraum’s mouth. An explosion of pain lit up his jaw. Habraum staggered back, but kept his footing.

“Ssssamantha!” Honaa hissed out in horror, rushing between the two officers a moment too late.

Habraum blinked away as much pain as he could. That reaction hadn’t surprised him, honestly.

Sam’s face emptied of rage, only to fill up with panic. “
Shit
,” she hissed under her breath.

By her horrified expression, Sam knew Habraum as commanding officer could relieve her for insubordination if he wanted.
Then I’d have one less seasoned officer.

He straightened back up and casually rubbed his jaw, as if it weren’t throbbing like mad. “The truth’s still the truth,” the Cerc said coolly.

“Captain Nwosu.” The sound of Lethe’s tripled voice bearing such unexpected bother drew everyone’s attention to him. Habraum frowned at the Kudoban in confusion.

“Looks like you’re running an airtight ship here, Nwosu,” said a cold, mocking voice behind Lethe.

Honaa hissed threateningly. Sam turned white as a sheet.

Rogguts, please tell me he didn’t see what Sam just did.
Habraum bucked his teeth so hard he thought they might shatter, slowly turning to face Atom Greystone. The Defense Ministry liaison was leaning against the wall opposite the HLHG room, a wicked smirk on his face.

I am sorry Habraum. He saw the session…and its aftermath,
Lethe psychically conveyed.

Habraum’s neck muscles tighten as he bit back a curse. Just when this couldn’t get any worse… “What do you want?” he snapped.

“Observing, not touching anything, just like we agreed,” Greystone raised his hands disarmingly as he walked forward with chest puffed out. The fake glee coloring his voice turned Habraum’s stomach. “. But I couldn’t help but observe the less than exemplary performance by the Brigade. It was—.”

“Something that will be fixed,” Sam broke in. “And it’s none of your goddamn business, Greystone.”  The two locked eyes. It was hard to see which face disclosed more hatred.

“Oh, but it is very much my business, Commander.” Greystone’s eyes darted back at Habraum. “My superiors have a vested interest in what goes on in this starbase. And they’d love to know that the Great Habraum Nwosu is in over his head with managing the Star Brigade.”

Honaa bared his needle-like teeth, which made Greystone recoil. Habraum forced on a cool smile for show. “No one ever said fixing the Brigade would be easy. Rome on Old Earth wasn’t built in a day.”

Greystone’s sneer grew another inch. “Well, even if I said nothing, ultimately you’ll have to hand Star Brigade over just to keep your sanity. Face it, two senior operatives and a pacifist who also runs this starbase are your only support. A year ago there were four Colonels and seven Captains of Star Brigade counsel, and it was tough for even them.”

Those words were a swift kick to Habraum’s stomach. Management once field assignments started coming in had never crossed his mind. He felt all eyes on him, waiting for his next move.

Habraum buried it all, the uncertainty and fatigue, under a calm visage. “You finished?”

“Oh, not by a long shot—.”

“No, you
are
finished, Greystone. Now get the
hazik
off this starbase,” the Cerc spat. Sam and Honaa moved to stand side by side with Habraum.

The sneer on Greystone’s face vanished as quickly as the two Brigadiers advanced. “This isn’t over.” Greystone snootily puffed out his chest and turned to walk out. Habraum watched him with baleful eyes. Once there was some distance between him and Habraum, all his insufferable bravado returned.