Theron and Bellona are chattering away like old friends as we continue heading towards who knows where.
For a moment, it’s like I’m reliving the past. It's an all too brief moment where I am an honest-to-goodness child for the first time in my life. The memory washes over me, crisp and clear. I am surrounded by new friends and found family, heading back to the Sol Pernix to celebrate completing a nice, safe job that didn’t involve us fleeing local planetary authorities. There was going to be iced dessert of some kind.
The more recent experience of believing my entire crew had been decimated, and the heavy numbness in my side soured the moment. The fact that I’d be in a world of pain when the meds wore off did not help in the slightest.
The sobriety has at least allowed me to refocus on the one thing we have to do: survive.
“Hate to interrupt the soirée, but what’s our sit rep?” I ask as I prop myself up.
“Ah, the princess wakes.” Theron says.
I resist every urge to poke out his eye.
“You want the good news or the bad news?” Bellona chimes in.
“Good.” I say instantly.
“Well, the Pernix and the Diamond are in position to extract us.” She says.
I have to ask. "And the bad?"
“There’s a Conglomerate blockade steadily forming outside the space station.” Bellona says. “Down here, four battalions of Conglomerate defenders were deployed to block every viable exit. The largest one is positioned to guard the Queen’s frigate.”
“And that’s bad because…” I prompt, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“Because Jean Philippe and Agent Zero are pinned behind enemy lines. They’re a Conglomerate sandwich.” Bellona says.
“Eh, clever!” Theron says, patting Bellona on the head which she, of course, was eating up. Traitor.
“Well, let’s have us a bite then.” I sit up further, still feeling tender where the Queen’s Huntsmen bruised me. “Doctor Capaldi, I hope I’m back to fully charged?”
“Wave two backup charges expended. Ye're at 100%.” The Doctor replies. “That leaves you with just one last set.”
“I’ll make them count.” I say, calling up comms. “Bellona, patch me through.”
I connect with the rest of the crew almost instantly. Jean Philippe is in full stealth mode, hidden like a trapdoor spider on the Queen’s frigate. Mick, Leon, Mila and Iñigo were en route to retrieve our omega upgrades - the real ones, not the decoys.
My crew aren't the only ones on the joint comms. To my surprise, I see Tala and Dropshot, as well as Walsh, Summer and Charles, and it brings a smile to my face. Certain captains notwithstanding, I adored the crew of the Sol Pernix.
“It’s good to see you again, little girl.” Tala says.
I beam. “It’s good to be seen. How’s my baby doing?”
“She runs like a dream. You ought to give Dropshot a few classes on how to run a ship.” She banters back. Five hells, I've missed the sound of her voice. I always felt like I could conquer worlds with Tala Mienstrom at my side, so I am not-so-secretly pleased that I still have her respect even now.
“I’m certain that if Captain Jaeger were not so stingy with supplies and spent less on his clothes and more on the ship, the Pernix would rival the Diamond.” Dropshot says. “His last purchase of Selverine Leather cost us a total of—“
“Yeah, let’s try to focus here? We have a space station to escape and some princesses to rescue.” Theron says over the snickers of both his crew and mine.
“You all know I hate to agree with Captain Jaeger, but in this case, I do. We need to get out of here fast." I frown as I notice who's missing on comms. "Bell, why don’t I see Agent Zero linked up? You said he was with the girls.”
“I did and he is.” Bellona says carefully. I hope it’s just because she’s running diagnostics. “He’s transmitting coded messages because they’re pinned and keeping cloaked like Jean Philippe.”
“What’s his position?” I ask.
“About two klicks from the frigate, which from recent data, means that we need to break through four klicks worth of battalion.” Bellona reports.
“Blockade’s getting nastier out here. We’re about two capital ships from full lockdown.” Charles says. As a retired soldier, I know he knows what he's talking about. “Feels like old times.”
“Dad’s right. You have about, what, a fifteen-minute window before we’re boxed in?” Summer adds. “Wish we could have been down there with you Yuki, but the captain ordered all of us to keep the engines warm.”
I glance at Theron, who's busy pretending to keep his eyes on the road. I could tell from the faces of his crew that they felt it was a betrayal to me and mine that they weren’t on the ground with us. As much as I hated to agree with Theron again, this was another good call. The fact that Tala and Dropshot were on the Diamond meant they had a better chance of getting away if things went south.
“Well, in the captain’s defense, he did say he had a plan.” Walsh says, defending his big brother as always. “You do have a plan, right Theron?”
Theron takes a sharp turn and we weave through some deserted service roads. On my HUD, I see Bellona is hard at work, no doubt navigating us through the clearest path to our next rendezvous point.
“The plan is to keep the ships running because we’re gonna punch out of the hangar. All the extra cloaks we installed are going to run out right when the blockade becomes impassable, so you all have your orders to exit the system as soon as the last cloak falls off both the Diamond and the Pernix… with or without us.” Theron orders.
His crew protests, but I cut them off.
“Guys,” I say. “The Faldanian princesses need a way out and as heirs to the throne, we have to split them up to ensure that succession has the best chance it can get. Which means… We will make damn sure both the Diamond and the Pernix each have one of the girls before the blockade is inescapable. This is about them, okay? They’re the future of Faldan and Faldan is the turning point of this civil war.”
I sense it in the neuroweave right before Bellona cuts off their responses.
“Distress signal from Agent Zero. There’s a Huntsman within a ten block radius of their location and it’s burning through their cloaking fast.” Bellona warbles in alarm.
Ice floods my veins. “Same one that tried to gut me like a fish?”
“Hard to say. But from my power readings, your guess is as good as mine.” Bellona offers, sending me her findings.
I scan them, and realize that this Huntman either got an upgrade or this is something completely different. Either way, we had to get Zavus and the girls out of there. "How much time do they have left before they're made out?"
“Five… Maybe six minutes.” Bellona says.
“How many minutes until we reach their position?” I ask, checking to see if the Doctor has restocked my supplies and weapons. He did.
“Also five or six minutes.” She says.
I call up the Faldan Station cityscape from memory and make some quick mental calculations.
“Right, change of plans. Mick, Mila, Leon and Iñigo, rendezvous point is now Sector Thirty-five. Theron, get us there now. Jean Philippe, can you intercept without being detected?” I ask, before drawing my weapons and using my go-to cocktail of med-kit chemicals and stimulants to get me battle ready. Doctor Capaldi’s eyes narrow, but he says nothing. He hates the risks to my body, but also knows we have little choice at the moment.
“Sector Thirty-five is the nearest town square to Hangar One. It will no doubt be the most heavily guarded. Many wide-open spaces. That’s the front line, solnyshka.” Mila says over comms. I can feel her ‘smiling’. She knows where I’m taking this.
“You bet it is.” I say as Theron guns the engine. “Secure the omega upgrades and blitz on over nice and quick. Give me all of your ETAs.” Once they do, I factor that into what I’m about to do.
“Jean Philippe says he’ll manage. Patching him t
hrough to Captain Zavus now.” Bellona informs us. “He’s also says he sent possible escape routes to the captain, and that he has a present for you, Yuki.”
“Looks like I finally get to meet…” Theron says with a smirk, but I don’t let him finish..
“Stop talking. Like… Don’t even finish that sentence.” I say as I locate the controls for the hovercraft’s roof. “You and Z split the girls up and keep them safe. We’ll make sure you have a clean path to the extraction points.”
“Copy that.” He says. “We’ll be crashing into the first wave of their patrols soon. I’m pretty sure their scouts are going to pick us up any moment now, if they haven’t already.”
“Oh, they’ll know we’re here because I’ll tell them.” I activate the controls to the roof of the hovercraft. As I wait for it to slide open, I take one of Leon’s shield emitters and place it on the center console of the hovercraft. “This has enough juice for about a minute of shielding. Click the shiny red button to flip it on and off. Radius should cover the craft.”
“Wait. What are you doing? Your bots aren’t going to be here for at least another two minutes.” Theron asks as I hoist myself up through the now-open hovercraft roof. Sweet merciful higher powers, I do love a nice breeze blowing through my hair.
“Bellona will give you the most viable place to power the craft down and standby. It’s going to have a clear line of sight to the action. With any luck, they’ll be too busy with me to notice you. As soon as you see a path, gun the engine and go for it. I’m leaving the Doctor with you!” I yell over the rushing wind. “Bell, activate Ri2x-W protocol and patch me through. Let’s say hi.”
“Hey.” Theron calls out without a trace of his usual sarcasm or bluster. He doesn’t even take his eyes off the road. But I know that tone of voice. It’s enough to make me pause, even as Bellona reconfigures herself around my body.
“What?” I ask. Whatever he wants to say to me, I am going to make him work for it.
For the briefest moment, he looks at me and the look in his eyes makes want to lower my guard. When he gets like this, I remember how, even after everything, even after all these years, he would gladly risk his life for mine, no questions asked.
And because I am apparently a giant stupid marshmallow, I cave and nod my head. That’s all he’s getting from me. Fair trade, if one damned look is all he’s offering. Whatever is unspoken between us will apparently remain that way. And neither of us would have too many regrets if this were the last time we ever saw each other.
He nods back, his eyes back on the road ahead. “Give ‘em hell, princess.” He says sincerely, not without a trace of anger in his tone.
“Not a princess.” I say before Bellona and I take off.
◆◆◆
Transmission
Destination: All Faldan Space Station Comms Channels
Announcer One: Attention, Conglomerate battalions. This is Captain Yuki Shirogane of the Winter Diamond. My crew and I would like to formally issue a request for your surrender while granting safe passage for Princesses Lahani and Kelna Mardress.
This will be our final and only warning. Lay down your weapons, stand aside and let us through. Otherwise, we will be forced to employ every force at our disposal to safely deliver these girls from the hands of the Conglomerate.
To the rest of the citizens in this fine space station - many of you are Faldanian, if not by birth, then by immigration. You’ve seen my little exchange with Her Royalness. Faldan is the turning point, the crux of this entire power struggle. Octavia has no right using these girls as leverage. You’ve seen the footage. Now it’s time to choose. At the very least, encourage your people to step aside. For the sake of your planet. For the sake of these girls… For the sake of…
Announcer Two: We have several projectiles inbound. I count thirty-four, Captain.
Announcer One: Oh, for fu……
Transmission Ended
Chapter Eight
I've never been good at making speeches anyway, I think grimly as Bellona and I dodge the first salvo of anti-aircraft ordnance fired at us. I couldn't decide if I was flattered that they thought they needed this much firepower to bring me and my crew down or horrified that they were this afraid of us.
As I weave through the airspace above Sector Thirty-five, I am reminded that it has an actual name: the Faldanian Memorial Square. It’s a park in the middle of the city with monuments of Faldanian heroes and statesmen sprinkled all over. Would have been nice to take a tour, I think, if it weren’t lined with a battalion’s worth of soldiers, combat synthoids, assault bots, anti-aircraft towers and tanks. Right now, it’s a veritable kill box.
Fortunately, I am pretty hard to kill.
Still linked up with Bellona, I deploy countermeasures as I analyze the battlefield. Several projectiles explode as they collide with my flares. Ok. It’s safe to conclude that, yeah… they’re afraid of me.
I can't help wondering who decided to prepare all this ordnance to be used against one strike team of eight. Then again, there is no strike team in the united galaxies quite like mine.
Gotta get rid of the rest of these projectiles though.
I pull out my newly charged blasters, overclock my nanites for a few seconds and lock on to each projectile heading towards me.
“Bell, patch me through to just the soldiers. All ranks.” I say, shooting down every remaining anti-aircraft projectile on my tail. I smile as the counter on my HUD goes to zero projectiles in the air.
“Hey!” I yell when Bellona gives me the greenlight. “Can’t a lady give an inspirational speech before getting blown up around here? I was serious about you Faldanians!”
My screen lights up with several warnings, sixty-four to be exact. One warning for every anti-aircraft projectile launched at me. Guess it's time for salvo number two of the day.
“So that's how it's going to be, huh? Are any of you battalion folks… Batalionneers… Soldiery army people…” I struggle to speak as I weave and dodge in midair. The ground troops open fire, further narrowing my field of movement.
“Are any of you even Faldanian?” I yell, before any response is cut off as blaster fire collides with the projectiles. The explosions send me and Bellona careening sideways. I’m going deaf from all the noise and that pisses me off even more.
“Well, if you’re going to be like this...” I seethe under my breath before I finally interface fully with Bellona.
The world slows down. I calculate the number of vehicles and anti-aircraft mini towers I can take out given the number of airborne projectiles. Another second passes as I calculate my ideal flight plan.
I weave through the sky, flying right into the path of every active projectile while dodging blaster file. The projectiles lock on to me, and I string them along, making sure none of the blaster fire detonates them prematurely. I'm going to need them all.
I fly straight into the row of carrier craft, tanks, supply trucks and other large vehicles. This is by far the deadliest game of chicken I have played in a long while. It’s kind of a rush, but only because I know what I’m doing.
I perch on top of the first tank nearest to me. I have to wait a few seconds to make sure the first set of projectiles lock on to my location without altering course.
My dance begins the moment I push off of the tank.
It's times like this that I feel graceful, because there's a beauty to what I do. I like the shapes my body makes while avoiding enemy fire. Keeping my body aerodynamic, while moving from one target to the next, in my humble opinion, is an art in itself.
Cold Snap Page 9
