Wrath of the Void Strider (14 page)

Filan paused to consider and shook her head.  “I don’t.”

“Fancy talk for a space jump,” Collins explained.

“Oh, then yes.”  Filan’s timid cheer returned.

“Good, then I think you’re all set.”  Valerie crossed her arms and lowered her tablet.  “Do you have any questions?”

Filan drew an audible breath and answered, “No.  Not right now.”

Fogg displayed, “NOT AT PRESENT.”

“Welcome to the crew,” Zerki said with a delighted smile.  Looking to Gavin, she asked, “How soon can you be ready for another jump?”

He yawned.  “I’m ready now.”

She chuckled.  “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but we need you alert.”  Taking a moment to straighten her attire, she said, “Let’s finish breakfast, and you should get some sleep.  We’ll make preparations in the meantime.”  After a glance at her tablet, she said, “Meet me on the bridge in 5 hours.”

Gavin nodded as he fought back another yawn.  “Aye, Captain.”

Chapter 10

The
Sanguine Shadow
arrived near Ixion Prime, where she accelerated into orbit.  The planet’s surface was a glittering expanse of crystal formations, fractal seas, coastlines, and lakes.  She shone brightly, cradled by her yellow sun, shrouded in a mantle of scattered storm clouds.

“I'm picking up a small freighter-class starship west of the crash site,” reported the woman at the scanning station, “but I’m getting a lot of false positives because of a nearby electrical storm.  Our scanners are having trouble locking on.”  She glanced up at Zerki.  “Sorry, Captain.”

Zerki smiled slightly and said, “No need to be.  They’re counting on that storm to keep us from tracking them, staying under the clouds to pounce on us when we land.”  Easing into her chair, its leather creaked quietly as she leaned back, and she seated her chin on her palm.  “I mean… it’s right
there
.  There’s got to be a way.”

“We could ram them,” D’Arro offered.  “The
Shadow
’s a lot bigger than they are.”

“They'll have ship-to-ships,” Collins assured him, “knock us out of the sky long before we get close enough to ram.”

D’Arro countered, “Not likely.  Union military’s got a standing order to shoot-on-sight any civilian starship that’s packing weapons during peace time.  No merc group in a hundred systems would be stupid enough to install ship-to-ships.”

Zerki chewed absently on her lower lip.  “We can’t take the chance, and I don’t want to damage the
Shadow
if it can be avoided.”  She leaned forward.  “Lodoxol really wants us dead.  There’s a good chance they’re paramilitary.”  She slowly shook her head.  “No, we need to outsmart them, outmaneuver them.”

“Boarding sleds?” suggested D’Arro.

Narrowing her eyes, Zerki said, “They’re not airworthy.  It’s possible to do a sky drop, but their ship’s so small, all they’d have to do is juke a few meters, and we’ll be adding another empty coffin to the forward hold.”  Her gaze drifted away.  “Actually, I have an idea.”

Collins crossed his arms.  “Let’s hear it.”

“We’ll use transponder decoys.”

“Been done.  They’ll see it coming.”

Zerki regarded him with a crooked smile.  “They won’t see this coming.”  She drew a deep breath and shared the details of her plan.  When she was done, Krane nodded approvingly and Collins dryly laughed.

“I’d rather ram them,” D’Arro muttered.

Zerki chuckled.  “That’ll be our Plan B.”  She leaned over her comm and called for D’Arro’s security team to assemble in the briefing room.

Gavin said, “Captain, I’ll stay in the rig in case it goes south.  Say the word, and we can jump back to Afskya at a moment’s notice.”  He shook his head.  “But if it works, I owe you dinner.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

Collins added, “Course, if it doesn’t work, there will be explosions.  Namely… ours.”

“It’ll work," Zerki assured him.  “Krane, I’ll signal you from the briefing room.  When I do, please take us down.”

“Aye, Captain.”

Zerki stood up and looked to her first mate.  “Come on, Valerie.  You’re critical in this.”

Her shoulders hunched, and she cast her captain a doubting stare.  “I don’t feel good about it.”  Nonetheless, she followed Zerki to the lift.  They descended to the middle deck and made their way to the briefing room.  When everyone was present, Zerki activated a holographic map of Behemothylax’s crash site.  She detailed landing sites and tactics.  “Fogg, you’ll be rewriting the transponders.  When you’re done, please join the rest of the team inside the number-one cargo module.”

“AYE CAPTAIN,” he replied.

“Jenn, you’re in charge.”  She straightened.  “Is everyone clear on their part?”

Filan raised her hand.

“Yes?”

“I’ve only had a few hours of training with my blaster rifle.  Are you sure I’m ready for this?”

Zerki nodded.  “I am.  It’s electronic, and you’re byriani.  You’ll do fine.  Jenn will answer any questions in the field.”

Filan studied her weapon before lowering it.  “Okay.”

The others confirmed their readiness.

“Takeo, are you good for this?”

He nodded solemnly.  “Aye, Captain.  One shot.  I won’t miss.”

“Very good.”  She exhaled audibly and said, “Good hunting, team.  You’re dismissed.”

Zerki lingered as they exited.  She sent notice to Krane, and he switched on the shields.  A moment later, the
Sanguine Shadow
descended through the upper atmosphere.  She creaked and groaned as she fell.  “Right,” she muttered and made her way to the aft hangar bay.

“It’s huge in here,” Taryn noted as she descended the rungs inside the cargo module.  Its environment control unit yawned awake, its heaters humming and whining as old and heavy fans lumbered into motion.  Bitter cold air slowly warmed.  Dim interior lights flickered on, strips of pale white that drew attention to the edges of every dingy loading arm, every bit of cargo netting and every plastic chair.  Gravity had been weak when they first entered, but it was rapidly intensifying the closer the starship got to the planet’s surface.

Jenn climbed down ahead of Taryn and said, “Well, if you ever end up in one of these things during zero-G, don’t let go until you reach the deck. You go drifting in here, you’ll personally feel just how big it really is.”  She reached the deck and pulled herself along the netting toward a heavy steel door, where she set to securing her safety restraints.  “Where’s Fogg?”

As he descended, Takeo answered, “I’m sure he’s almost finished.  Jenn, where are you from?”

“Dublin.”  She glanced his way.  “Earth, not New Falkirk.”

“Gavin was born on Earth, somewhere in California Free State.  He moved to Afskya when he was five years old, so he doesn’t remember much.”

Jenn smiled.  “That’s nice.  Aye, there’s a few of us Earthers out here in the black.”

Filan said, “Poor Earth.  I heard she’s hardly habitable anymore.”

“Did you hear that from an ellogon?”

She nodded.

“Don’t believe everything you hear,” Jenn advised.  “There’s still plenty of unspoiled land.”

Takeo stepped carefully, the last in the procession.  “What’s it like in Dublin?  If you remember.”

“Oh, I remember.”  She smiled wistfully.  “It’s very green, but I could never do it justice with mere words.  You should visit, if you get the chance.”

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Taryn reached the deck and set to strapping herself in.  She grinned nervously.  “This is exciting!”

After a moment of feigned indifference, Jenn nodded and smiled brighter than she intended.  “Aye, it is.”

“How’d you end up working for the captain?”

Jenn laughed and shook her head.  “It’s a good story.  Remind me to tell you after.”

Before long, Fogg slipped into the cargo module as a tiny flying saucer, and every member of the team secured themselves.  Jenn reported to the bridge that they were ready.  Moments later, far overhead, a tremendous crash echoed though the enormous container.  The cargo module plummeted toward the surface of the planet.

“First one’s away,” Collins announced from the bridge.

Tense moments passed as he intently watched the tactical display, focused on the dot that represented the mercenary starship.  Several more dots appeared suddenly, timed with several strokes of lightning, and the mercenaries seemed to jump across the screen.  “Let the second one go.”

“Done,” Krane confirmed, and the boom that followed resounded throughout the
Sanguine Shadow
.  Another cargo module fell toward the crash site, plunging through the clouds.  “The first one should be in visual range of the mercenaries now.”

“Good,” Collins quietly replied.  “Switch on the beacons, and ready the third one.”

Alone aboard the cargo shuttle, Zerki exited the aft hangar, flying out into the cover of the storm.

·· • ··

Derisive laughter made its rounds through the mercenary starship’s bridge.  A stocky, densely muscled fellow sneered, “Wow, these guys are amateurs!”  He watched the dinner plate-sized scanner screen, where it displayed six tagged dots, each claiming to be the
Sanguine Shadow
.  Clearly visible through their V-shaped canopy, the first cargo module appeared from the belly of the storm clouds, leaving a hazy trail in its wake.  Drop thrusters fired, slowing its descent, and moments later, it settled upon the quartz-encrusted surface, some distance from the crash site.

A grizzled mountain of a man leaned forward and growled, “Show some respect.  It’s a salvage hauler, what did you think was gonna happen?”  The sides of his cheeks bulged as he icily regarded his now quiet crew.  “Give ‘em some credit.  Decoys aren’t a bad idea.  Too bad they waited too long to switch ‘em on.”  He studied the screen, watching a seventh dot as it skimmed the cloud cover.  Its transponder reported it to be an unnamed transport shuttle.

He smiled a twisted smile.  “That’s the one we’re after.  That’s the
Sanguine Shadow
,” and he jammed his finger on the shuttle dot.  Looking to the stocky fellow, he said, “Take the Barret.  We’re leaving you with the bins.  Shoot anyone that comes out.”

His underling acknowledged, “Yessir.”

The captain nodded toward his pilot.  “Drop him off a click or two out.”

Their sleek starship had the look of a hawk, its wings frozen forever on the downbeat.  It was black, completely non-reflective, with no portholes to be seen.  Under the nose, it housed an energy cannon that spanned half the length of the fuselage.  They dove toward crystalline shores, pausing to hover above the surface just long enough for the stocky fellow to disembark.

He made his way to a proper sniper’s roost as the mercenary starship rapidly ascended in pursuit of what its captain had decided was the
Sanguine Shadow
.  A second bin smashed down, coming to rest near the first.  The stocky fellow hunkered down and propped his sniper blaster on its bipod.  He peered through the targeting scope.  Scanning the two bins, he jumped as a third landed thunderously near the first two.  Quickly regaining himself, he zoomed in on the ground-level bulkhead of the first bin.

·· • ··

Taryn unhitched herself and hurried to the door.  Slowly, she slid it open.

“Someone’s watching us,” Valerie reported.

The others disengaged from their straps and harnesses as she closed her eyes, breathing deeply and evenly.  “That way.”  She pointed beyond the doorway.

Taryn moved away from the opening.  She nodded toward Takeo, prompting him to ready an ellogon blaster rifle.  He hustled across the deck.  Looking to the ceiling, he nodded and climbed the far wall’s rungs.

Fogg dispersed and raced toward the perched mercenary.  Upon arriving, he coalesced into a dense sphere and fell to the ground.  Immediately, Fogg began transmitting video information to Takeo. 

In the skies overhead, the transport shuttle charged through dark and swollen clouds.  Zerki glanced repeatedly to her scanner screen, but a series of lightning strikes flooded the display with a dozen clones of the mercenary starship.  She clenched her teeth and tapped the glass, holding the flight controls steady.  “Come on,” she hissed, “take the bait.”  Finally, the false positives vanished, leaving a single starship.  She rolled the shuttle, doubling back on her own path, and she spotted the mercenaries’ hawkish craft.

On the planet’s surface, a fourth and fifth bin landed, as the sniper watched the open door.  He startled to see the
Sanguine Shadow
drop below the cloud line and prepare to land.  Tapping his microphone, he shouted, “Sir, it’s here!  The
Sanguine Shadow
is here!  It’s getting ready to—”

Unseen from the cargo module’s top hatch, Takeo fired, and the blaster bolt struck its home, burning a hole straight through the stocky fellow’s head.  Breathing out, Takeo lowered the gun and began his climb back down.  Grimly, he watched the
Sanguine Shadow
halt its descent and race once more for the clouds.

The sixth bin crashed down.

“Double back!” roared the mercenary captain.

“Yessir,” answered his pilot.

Crouched behind the door, Takeo joined his squad mates in firing upon the approaching mercenary starship.  Their stomachs sank as charged bolts bounced harmlessly off the vessel’s plasma shields.  “Keep firing!” Jenn urged.  The ends of their blaster barrels heated from red to yellow, as they held down their triggers.

The sleek starship raced through the air, closing on the hauler’s enormous bins.  A man at the gunnery station turned off the shields, whereupon the vessel’s armor handily weathered the hail of blaster bolts.  He switched on the energy cannon.  “Batteries are charging,” he reported.  “We’ll be primed in five… four… three…”

The streams of blaster fire abruptly stopped.

“Sir,” said one of his men, “I’m reading six beacons—five on the ground, but one is coming from directly above us!”

The captain had only enough time to peer up through the canopy.

He watched helplessly as the
Sanguine Shadow
dropped from the sky.  The docking clamps she normally used to secure her cargo modules bore down on the sleek vessel’s spine.  Mechanical arms gripped and did as they had done hundreds of times before: they grappled steel and returned to their housings, tearing the mercenary starship apart.