Warpath (21 page)

“No, you must get as
much distance as you can or get your fleet on the other side of the
planet.”

“Can you get there
yourself?” Oz asked.

“We have about ten
minutes before it activates, so, yes, but not with every ship in the
system firing on us,” replied the pilot.

Oz silenced his side of
the communication using his command and control unit. “You scanned
their ship?” he asked the analysts to his left.

“We did, his missile
bay is empty, and their weapons are powered down. Approximately nine
percent shield power left. There are no signs of antimatter, and the
gunship is powered using a pair of fusion reactors that cannot be set
to explode.”

“Do your scans
confirm what he’s saying?”

“Yes,” Henrietta
said without a hint of doubt in her tone. “I have been able to
confirm everything the Triton AI and this defector are saying with
our scan data.”

“All right,” Oz
said. He turned to communications. “We’ve got our prisoner then.
Notify all forces that they are not to be fired upon unless they open
fire. They are our prisoners. We’ll take physical control of their
shuttle when we’ve gotten distance from the Pontos.” He turned
the channel to the gunship back on. “Pilot, you are clear to pass
through our space and join us on the other side of Kambis. Stay close
to the Triton, do not arm weapons. We will perform boarding
operations as soon as we’re clear of this situation.”

“Thank you, Admiral,”
replied the pilot. The channel closed.

The main tactical
display on the bridge made it clear that the entire Triton Fleet,
including the Barricade, was in retreat along with the British
Alliance. Most of the Order of Eden carrier group were too damaged to
make good speed out of the system, but one destroyer was able to make
it into a wormhole as soon as the Barricade’s interdiction systems
were turned away from it.

“Any word on how the
Warlord crew’s boarding operation is going? What am I seeing here?”
Oz asked as he focused in on an image of the Warlord lightly
colliding with the side of an Order of Eden Battlecruiser.

“Captain Valent
converted his ship into an antimatter bomb,” Agameg said. “So
once it struck the side of that vessel, the Eternity, it would clamp
on with the maxjack and explode like a focused charge. The Eternity,
the Blessed Mission and the Redeemer Three, the main combat carrier
all opened fire on the Warlord with directed electromagnetic pulse
beams before it could complete its task, so it will not explode. The
antimatter containment fail safes are in place, and the Warlord is
now empty and relatively harmless.”

“That’s something I
never thought I’d hear. The Warlord: empty and relatively
harmless,” Victor said. “I sent Captain Valent a message about
our new problem. He tells me they will be able to take control of the
Blessed Mission and get her out of the way in time.”

“That’s insane.
Recall all fighters and order the gunships to move to the other side
of the planet,” Oz said. “What can our shields do to protect us
against the blast?”

“We’re working on
that math right now,” Henrietta said hurriedly. “Let me guess,
you want to know if you can move the Triton in right here,” she
highlighted a spot on the map in front of the Blessed Mission,
seemingly far from the Pontos on the tactical map. “Then charge up
our shields to protect it.”

“Exactly.”

“Nope, not going to
work,” Henrietta said, shaking her head. “That blast is going to
be way too hot. If this second planet burner has as much antimatter
as the first, then there’s no way.”

“Jake,” Oz said,
opening a direct channel. “You have to get that ship into a
wormhole, you have about eight minutes, maybe less.”

Jake fired all four
barrels of his short rifle at the blast doors in front of him. The
gel loads covered a two metre wide section and filled the hallway
with white light as it began burning through the metal. “Working on
getting to the bridge now. Any advice you could offer would be
appreciated.”

“Do you think you’ll
make it?” Oz asked.

Jake looked to Ayan,
who was scanning the door as the gel burned through. “That’ll
take ninety three seconds to get through,” she said. “There will
be soldiers on the other side.”

“Any way around?”
Jake asked as he looked at his tactical display. Their scans of the
ship were complete, but that offered little comfort as he realized
that there was no way around that bulkhead.

“No,” Minh-Chu said
from behind him. “Dent and I already did some stealthed recon. This
whole front section of the ship is closed off, and this door is the
thinnest point.”

Ayan gave him a brief
hug. “What are you doing here?”

“Someone left the
front door wide open and we were out of ammo, so I thought we’d
visit,” Minh-Chu said. “The whole Samurai Squadron is stealthing
around looking for a place for a hull buster Sticky had. Bad time?”

The hallway shook as
heavy weapons fire announced the progress of Alaka’s team. Jake
looked to the white light of the thermalitic gel burning through the
blast doors then back to Minh-Chu. “Good timing, I think Alaka’s
team just cornered the Order squad he was tracking.”

“Cargo bay three,
Captain,” Alaka announced through his communicator. “We could use
some help. The enemy may retreat in your direction.”

“Is there a good
place to break through with a hull buster over there?” Jake asked
as he dropped two mines in front of the door he was burning through.

“As good as any, a
nice wide loading door leading aft,” Alaka replied.

“That’s hilarious,”
Dent said to Minh-Chu. “They’ll come through the door thinking
there’s a whole bunch of us waiting for them once it burns through
and…”

“We all get the
picture,” Minh-Chu said. “After those go off, this whole hallway
will be impossible to get through. You have a really dark idea of
funny.”

The group started
running, following the three heavily armoured guards in front of Jake
and Ayan, who were equally armoured. Jake was thankful for the mild
stims that were keeping him going, and the vacsuit that was helping
him keep his balance. He tried to reload his quad barrel rifle while
running, but decided to wait when he nearly fumbled his shells. “How
is the access to the rest of the ship?”

“I’m headed to
Alaka’s position too,” Remmy said. “All the systems in the
forward section of the ship are dead. Some thanks to electromagnetic
pulse damage, others have been cut off from engineering, I assume to
keep us from taking control.”

“This is a smart
crew,” Jake said. “I hate that.” He stowed his quad barrel
rifle and did his best to let his vacsuit teach him to run, keep him
balanced and moving forward. He’d never been so tired in his life,
sweat dripped down his face. He was thankful that his suit had a
system that gently dried him and sequestered the sweat for processing
along with other waste.

The dark run down the
hallways was a quick one, they had no time to waste. According to his
timer, the Triton expected the Pontos to explode in five minutes and
fifty-seven seconds. “Alaka, get your people behind cover and stop
firing on the enemy immediately. I’ve got to try something before
we all get slagged.” He stopped in front of a pair of large doors
that led into cargo bay three.

“Aye, finding cover
and ceasing fire,” Alaka said.

“Oh, and use your
stealth systems to get into position if you can, this might not
work,” Jake said. He took a few seconds to catch his breath then
opened communications on all channels. “This is Captain Valent,
looking to contact the Captain of the Blessed Mission. I would like
to offer a ceasefire so we can take a wormhole away from Kambis. The
Pontos is about to explode, taking this ship and its crew with it.”

The response was so
immediate that it surprised Jake. “Never,” said a young male
voice. “I would have destroyed this ship already if I wasn’t sure
we would repel your attack and take you captive. Your ship is adrift
outside, our sister ship survived your ill-conceived attack. Now I
will have the honour of watching you die with us. My immortal frame
will preserve me, and I-“

Jake closed the
channel, cutting him off. “All units, this is now a seek and
destroy mission. Take no prisoners, give no quarter unless our enemy
approaches without weapons and hands raised. We are not going to the
bridge, our new goal is to get to the nearest working control node
and to get this ship to safety. Anyone standing in the way of our
mission is to be killed quickly, efficiently. Execute my orders
immediately.”

Jake could feel an
explosion from the cargo bay on the other side of the door, and the
rumble of gunfire. His tactical display updated with information from
Remmy’s team. They were about to join the fighting through the
cargo bay door on the opposite side.

“You all right?”
Ayan asked.

He hadn’t realized
it, but he was still breathing heavily. He ordered a round of
fortifying medications and stims through his command and control unit
and drew his quad rifle. His thoughts seemed to focus, the urgent
need for air abated, allowing him to get his breathing under control,
and he even felt firmer on his feet. “Better than ever,” Jake
said.

“About time we got
about the business of taking this ship,” Frost said.

“Aye,” Jake agreed.
He nodded towards Stephanie and her boarding team, and they pulled
the manual lever for the door. The tall pair of cargo bay doors
opened, revealing an unfair firefight. Alaka’s team, sixty three
Triton troops and Remmy’s Rangers had the last of the Order of Eden
soldiers cornered. There was another group sneaking through the
corridors around the cargo bay just in case reinforcements were
needed.

Jake could see there
was still a little hesitation in how his orders were being executed.
The Order of Eden group, reduced to only four, had been driven back
behind a stack of heavily armoured metal crates. They were peeking
out from behind to burst fire at their enemies whenever their shields
were charged just enough. There was no time to press a surrender.

Jake set the firing
power on his quad barrel rifle low, and angled it up. He fired the
first grenade in a smooth arc so it landed right beside the crates.
It was a miss, but close enough for him to find his range. One of the
hold-outs was frightened out of cover and was immediately torn apart
by the boarding team’s weapons. Jake fired two more grenades and
hit the mark, incinerating the rest. “Let’s get that hull buster
up here, now!” Jake ordered. To his surprise, three hull busters
were brought forward by the boarding parties in addition to the one
carried by a rather short and slender pilot from behind him. “Um,
do you really still need mine?” she asked.

“Damn right we do,”
Stephanie said, “Thanks Sticky, we’re going to make sure there
are extra ration credits loaded for our new galley once we get
through this.” She took the hull buster and led her boarding party
back down the hallway they came.

The rest of the
boarding parties affixed the circular shaped plasma charges to the
three interior cargo bay doors that led into the main section of the
ship. In the meantime, Jake opened another comm channel on all
frequencies. “Your Captain has sealed your fate. I have ordered my
teams to execute anyone who does not surrender the instant we make
contact. Those who surrender will be treated fairly, and most
importantly, you will survive this because we will get this ship out
of the radius of the Pontos’ self destruct action. You can
broadcast your surrender signal to me on any channel, I will receive
it.” Jake was surprised to hear an ear-stinging guffaw of a laugh
over the secure boarding party channel.

“Oh, c’mon Remmy,
what’s so funny?” Alice chastised. “We’re about to get
slagged because of a bunch of religious fanatic idiots.”

“I don’t know, it
shouldn’t be funny, I’m sorry, maybe it’s the tension,” Remmy
said through suppressed laughter. “Still working the mission,
Captain, don’t worry.”

“Weirdo-butthead,”
Alice shot back.

“All right,” Ayan
said, “let’s get ready to breach those doors.” The skitters who
abandoned the Warlord with them, along with the shield droid that
survived the initial fighting in the landing bay rushed between them.

Jake followed as the
hull busters fired. Super-hot plasma melted through the doors. The
armoured cup that focused the plasma heated to red by the time they
were finished. The shield droid moved ahead while the skitters leapt
onto the interior doors and pried the circular hull busters off
before the boarding teams had time to get to it.

A gust of atmosphere
from the other side of the door rushed out, pulling a crewman in a
flimsy vacsuit through the middle door. Jake, Ayan, Minh-Chu and
several of their comrades couldn’t help but flinch sympathetically
as the crewman bounced off a heavy crate, pinwheeled through the air,
rebounded off the ceiling then crashed against the far wall of the
cargo bay. “Think he survived that?” Frost asked. “Poor lad.”

“Nope, definitely
not,” replied one Warlord soldier from behind.

“Hold your fire!”
shouted someone from the inside. “We surrender!” shouted another.
The atmosphere on the other side was held in by an isolation field of
a type Jake had never seen before, keeping the rest of an engineering
team safe on the other side. “We work for Regent Galactic, the
contract with the Order isn’t worth this!” exclaimed a third. The
dashes across the chest of his thin navy blue vacuum suit marked him
as a Quality Assurance Manager, equivalent in rank to a Junior Chief.

There were forty-two of
them, all gathered in a main concourse intersection. “We’ve got a
terminal open for you right there,” their leader said shakily,
pointing just behind him as he slowly lowered himself to the deck,
putting his hands behind his head. “My password and clearance chip
are already in.”