by Ken Lozito
“Aye, sir,” Lieutenant Pitts said.
Within the next few minutes, midrange Hornet B missiles were fired, targeted at the globular cluster of Krake attack drones. Sean watched as the power draw on their fusion reactor drained much quicker than he’d thought was possible. The Hornet missiles flew toward the Krake attack drones and came to a stop as they were caught in the artificial gravity field.
“Colonel, reactors are reaching critical levels,” Gabriel said.
“Maintain speed and heading,” Sean replied.
There were three fusion reactors aboard the Vigilant, and each operated with emergency shutdown procedures that would automatically engage. One after the other, they began to shut down, and the gravity field outside the ship began to fail. The Babylon transitioned through the space gate and was quickly followed by the Vigilant. The globular cluster of Krake attack drones followed next. Then, the Yorktown's self-destruct engaged and a cataclysmic explosion destroyed both the ship and the space gate in the alternate universe. Perhaps, if they were even luckier, the explosion would take out a few Krake ships with it. In any case, there would be nothing left for the Krake warships to find.
The artificial gravity field failed when the last of the reactors aboard the Vigilant went into emergency shutdown and the Hornets unleashed their fury into the tightly packed Krake attack drones. But the Vigilant was too close. Klaxon alarms blared on the bridge as the stern of the ship was impacted by the force of the detonating Hornet missiles. Damage reports came to prominence on the main holoscreen, and the Vigilant switched to emergency power systems as sensor feeds went offline. They were blind to the outside, and Sean didn’t know if there were any attack drones left.
An emergency comlink came from Major Shelton. “Sir, the remaining attack drones have been taken out. What’s your status?”
Sean swallowed hard, trying to loosen the tightness of his shoulders. “It seems we’re out of fuel. Do you think you can give us a ride?”
This drew several chuckles from people on the bridge, and Sean felt a profound sense of relief. They’d survived.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Major Shelton said and smiled. “Comms have lit up across the board. We’re home, sir.”
Sean sagged into his chair and blew out a long, slow breath. Somehow, they had done it. He looked at Oriana. “I think you've found a way to nullify the advantage of those attack drones.”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far. Look what it did to the ship,” Oriana said.
The damage reports continued to come in. The rear of the ship had taken most of the damage, but there hadn't been any casualties. They had drilled for scenarios involving a sudden loss of power from the reactor cores, but never all three cores at once. A complete loss of all power to a CDF warship usually meant the ship was no longer operable, but the Vigilant wasn’t dead, at least not yet. They had to examine the reactor cores and shielding. They'd probably need to be repaired or even replaced, but at least they were in the right universe to get the help they needed.
25
Connor heard the landing gear deploy and the gentle whine of the engines spinning down as the ship landed. It wasn’t a large ship, and Bradley’s recon drone had explored most of the ventilation shafts. The Krake ship must have been remotely piloted under the control of a sophisticated guidance system. This made sense to Connor because of the Krake's affinity for using attack drones, which were remotely controlled and somewhat autonomously guided.
“Dash, enable the privacy mode of your MPS. I don’t want them to have a look at your face, no matter what happens,” Connor said.
Corporal Bradley and Private Marsters wore Nexstar combat suits and would already be in combat mode. They knew better than to show their faces to the Krake, but there was very little they could do about Cerot. The Krake would be able to tell right away that he was an Ovarrow, and covering his face wouldn’t change that.
Minutes went by as they waited in the holding rooms. Since Connor and Bradley were the only ones armed, he told her to wait for his signal. He would look for an opportunity for them to escape.
An interior wall slid into itself, revealing a doorway. There was a light coming from each end of the passageway. Connor stepped out of the room and glanced to his left. A short distance away was a loading ramp that had opened to the outside. He opened the comlink to the others with him, and as he suspected, the suppression field had been turned off since the ship had landed. They'd be able to speak to each other undetected by the Krake. Amber lights flared overhead, and Connor saw Ovarrow symbols appear above the exit.
Connor walked toward the exit and down the loading ramp. The others followed. They were in a hangar bay, but they were still on the planet. He glanced to the outside where a wide door was open. The ship must have flown through it in order to have landed where they had. He saw a semi-translucent shield at the edge of the door and attempted to open a comlink to Samson, but he got no reply. So, their comms must have been limited to the immediate area.
Three rows of Krake soldiers were standing near the loading ramp, and upon seeing Connor and the others, they pointed their weapons at them. They all wore that living-tissue armor that blended with powered armor. The nearest soldier spoke. Connor thought it sounded similar to the Ovarrow language, but there were differences. The Krake repeated himself, his voice sounding authoritative, but Connor had no idea what he was saying. And he didn’t seem to care that Connor held a weapon.
Several Krake soldiers stomped toward them and Cerot began shouting, gesturing toward Connor and the others. Then Cerot beckoned Connor and the others to stand away from the loading ramp. The Krake soldiers seem to be waiting for someone as they kept careful watch.
“Corporal, pass control of your drone over to me,” Connor said quietly.
A moment later, the drone interface appeared on Connor’s internal heads-up display. He uploaded an Ovarrow interface and sent it flying off. He needed it to find the nearest terminal, which would allow the data exfiltration software to begin copying from Krake computer systems. The small recon drone didn’t have much in the way of data storage, but it could relay the information to any one of their combat suits, which had more capacity. If they needed to, they could chunk it into pieces on their individual suit computers.
Another Krake entered the hangar bay. He wore similar armor to the other soldiers, but his face was exposed. There were certain similarities to the Ovarrow, but there were also significant differences, as if they were cousins on the same evolutionary tree. There was an air of deference afforded the newcomer, which indicated to Connor that this Krake was in charge.
The Krake leader strode over to Cerot and scrutinized him closely. He noted Cerot’s wounded side and then his gaze flicked toward the wrist computer that included the Ovarrow translator. The Krake spoke to Cerot, but the Ovarrow remained silent. He stared defiantly at the ground as if refusing to acknowledge the Krake’s presence. Several soldiers stormed over and grabbed Cerot by his arms, pulling him away from the others. They forced him to hold out his arm, and the leader jabbed his armored hand into Cerot’s wounded side. The Ovarrow let out a half-strangled cry and tried to move away, but the soldiers held him in place.
Connor glanced at the other soldiers, who watched them warily. There was no way he could take them by surprise, and as much as he hated what they were doing, he had to wait. There was a time to fight, and there was a time to wait. Connor clenched his teeth and watched. He heard Dash muttering something, but the others were silent.
The Krake leader attached a small, metallic box to Cerot’s shoulder, and it shimmered as it activated. Metallic laces detached themselves from the box and plunged into Cerot’s exposed neck, piercing his armor as if it provided no protection. Cerot’s eyes went wide, and his body began to contort with pain.
Connor stepped forward. “Enough. It’s for communications,” he said and sent the signal to activate the Ovarrow translator on Cerot’s wrist.
A personal holoscreen
appeared over Cerot’s wrist, and the Ovarrow symbols translated what Connor had said. The Krake leader peered at it and then looked at Connor. He spoke to Connor, but Connor couldn’t understand him. Soldiers began stomping toward him, but before they could grab him, Connor stepped forward, moving away from the others. “I don’t understand. This is how we communicate with the Ovarrow.”
The Krake soldiers grabbed his arms and attempted to pull him back, but the Nexstar combat suit was capable of enormous feats of strength. Connor braced himself and refused to be moved. They struggled against his arms, trying to force him back. Power surged through his suit, and Connor tore free from their grasp. More soldiers moved forward, but the Krake leader shouted and they stopped their advance.
They hadn’t fired their weapons, so it was clear that they didn’t want to kill him, at least not yet. The Krake leader turned back toward Cerot and removed the colonial translator from his wrist. The interface remained active, and the Krake held a device up to it. The holoscreen began flickering as a library of Ovarrow symbols flashed across it.
“He’s accessing the translator program,” Dash said.
“I figured as much,” Connor replied.
The Krake leader's gaze flicked toward Dash, and then, a few moments later, the Krake soldiers surrounded him and pulled him over to where Cerot was. The military-grade MPS couldn’t produce the same amount of force that the Nexstar combat suit could. Connor inhaled deeply and looked at the Krake leader. Had he detected the comlink? Just then, a comlink opened from the personal recon drone and the data dump began. Connor watched the Krake for a reaction, but there wasn’t any. So, he must’ve somehow heard the brief exchange between Connor and Dash.
The Krake leader produced another small, metallic box and placed it on Dash's shoulder. Again, the metallic laces burst forth from the box and attempted to penetrate the MPS. He heard Dash cry out in anticipation of pain, but then he suddenly stopped. The metallic laces couldn’t penetrate the MPS, even though they tried several times on multiple parts of Dash’s upper body.
The Krake leader held out his hand. The metallic laces lifted the box up, and it jumped like a spider into his outstretched hand. He turned toward Connor and flung the box toward him. Connor tried to swipe it away, but the metallic laces wrapped around his wrist and scurried up his arm, attempting to pierce his armor. Connor enabled his defensive countermeasures, and as power surged through his shoulder, the spider was flung off him in a charred wreck.
The holoscreen above Cerot’s wrist computer went off and the Krake leader brought up several more of his own. Symbols Connor recognized from the Krake base flickered by. He must’ve been running some sort of analysis, and then that, too, finished.
The Krake leader gestured and one of the holoscreens flipped around. He tossed Cerot’s wrist computer to the floor. The Krake soldiers let Cerot go, and he collapsed to the ground. He grabbed his wrist computer and slapped it back on. Connor’s connection to Cerot's wrist computer was still active, and he noticed that there were differences now. The Krake leader spoke to Cerot again. This time, a translation appeared on Connor’s internal heads-up display.
“Name of origin,” the Krake leader said.
Connor’s eyes widened, and he looked at the leader.
“You know better than to resist, Ovarrow. Answer me now, or you’ll join the thousands of others we have participating in the trials,” the Krake leader said.
Cerot regained his feet. “I’ll never tell you!” he yelled and lunged for the Krake leader.
The Krake raised his hand and a burst of energy slammed into Cerot, throwing him back a dozen meters and slamming him into the wall. The Ovarrow collapsed into a heap.
Connor brought up his weapon and fired it at the Krake leader's unprotected head. Incendiary darts bounced off a personal shield, but the Krake leader flinched backward. Connor charged forward, but a soldier tried to block his path. He swung his AR-71 toward the soldier and squeezed the trigger. The incendiary darts ripped into the Krake armor and Connor updated the ammo to high-impact rounds. It would chew through his ammunition quicker, but it would also provide more of a punch.
The Krake leader sent a blast of invisible force toward Dash, catching him by surprise.
“Suppressing fire,” Connor shouted.
Together, he and Bradley sprayed suppressing fire against the Krake soldiers while Marsters ran toward Dash and got him to his feet. They were close to the wide-open door, and Connor shouted for them to head toward it. He and Bradley covered their flank. Krake soldiers raced toward them. Behind them, Connor saw that they had Cerot pinned to the ground. Connor cursed as the doors began to close. There was no way he could reach Cerot. Marsters picked Dash up and slung him over his shoulder. Engaging the combat suit, he quickly made it through the door.
“I’m out of ammo,” Corporal Bradley said.
Connor’s ammunition was nearly empty as well. They ran through the door as the Krake soldiers fired their weapons. Bolts of energy streaked past them and into another building.
Connor and the others ran along the building until they reached the end. There was an open area beyond, where they’d be picked off when the soldiers caught up to them.
“Take Dash and rendezvous with Samson,” Connor said.
“General, I can’t leave you here alone. We can’t even reach Captain Samson,” Bradley said.
“I’m sending you the rendezvous coordinates. Make your way there, best speed. Don’t look back. That’s an order,” Connor said.
Marsters shifted Dash’s weight onto his shoulder, but he was slowly regaining consciousness and moving on his own.
“General, I can help you,” Bradley said.
“No. I’m going to lead them away from you, giving you a chance to get away. The uplink is still active. Get whatever data you can back to Captain Samson, and you’re ordered to go back through the gateway ASAP. I’ll follow you when I have Cerot,” Connor said.
The Krake soldiers were nearly upon them, and Connor didn’t wait for a reply. He engaged his suit's jets and launched himself to the top of the adjacent building. Running along the roof, he fired three-round bursts at the soldiers, drawing their attention. They quickly changed course and scrambled up the side of the wall. Connor fired his remaining grenade, and it hit a Krake soldier in the chest just as he was coming over the edge. Several Krake soldiers tumbled to the ground, and Connor engaged his Nexstar combat suit and ran. Combat suits enabled him to run at ultrafast speeds. In fact, he wasn’t actually running but taking super long strides.
The helmet's rear video feed showed that the Krake soldiers had climbed onto the roof, but they couldn’t catch up to him. Connor dropped down off the roof of the building and headed back toward the hangar, bringing up the tracker he’d placed on Cerot’s armor. They'd placed them on all the Ovarrow's armor in case they got separated.
The words "Acquiring signal" appeared, but he had to get back into the building in order for the signal to connect. At first glance there seemed to be an endless number of walls. He could create his own doorway, but that would draw a lot of attention. Connor kept running until he saw a small hatch near the ground. He grabbed the handle and pulled it, forcing the hatch to open. Slipping inside, he found himself in a different part of the hangar.
Cerot’s personal locator signal went active as soon as he entered the building. He was on the other side, and Connor headed toward him.
A loud noise echoed from across the hangar. There was minimal lighting in the area, but he saw several small ships in standby mode. He ran among them, going as quickly and quietly as he could.
Connor raced to the end of the row of ships and stopped, seeing Cerot sitting on the ground. The Krake leader stood nearby, and he was speaking to another soldier on his holoscreen. Connor's Ovarrow translation program was still active, and it began putting the words on his internal heads-up display.
“Alert Skywatch Base. Have invader ships been detected in the system?”
&n
bsp; “None have been detected, Sector Chief,” came the reply.
Connor frowned for a moment. Invader ships? What were they talking about?
“Be on full alert. Invader ships utilize misdirection tactics as recorded by their assault on our processing center. Their designation is Colonial Defense Force,” the sector chief said.
Trident Battle Group! They were talking about Sean! Connor felt a rush of adrenaline. They hadn’t received word from Sean for months. This was the first confirmation he had that they were even alive and had attacked a Krake processing center, whatever that meant. But the moment of relief soon left him as he refocused on getting to Cerot.
He squatted down and peered across the hangar bay but couldn’t tell if Cerot was awake. He wasn’t moving, and Connor hoped they hadn’t killed him. He needed to get a closer look, but any second now, the soldiers that were chasing him would return. Connor was on borrowed time. Thinking of a way to distract them, he hit upon the reconnaissance drone that was broadcasting from the Krake terminal. Connor accessed the drone and brought up a secondary interface to access the terminal. He ran the interface through the updated translator and was able to understand more of the layout. There were power systems, communication systems, and maintenance systems. Connor selected the maintenance systems and engaged a diagnostic. A warning appeared, indicating the recycling of some kind of shield. Connor acknowledged the warning and engaged the maintenance protocol. The semi-translucent shield on the far side of the hangar flickered off, and the sector chief, as well as several other soldiers, glanced in the direction of the door. When they approached the shield to investigate, Connor burst from cover and raced toward Cerot. As he reached the Ovarrow, a group of soldiers who'd been hiding nearby rushed him. It was an ambush. A wall of living armor tackled Connor to the ground before he could react. They slapped some kind of suppressor cuffs on his wrists and he found that he couldn’t move, even though the combat suit controls still worked.
