“That is most wise!” Vakrexid pronounced from the corner squirming and writhing like a worm stuck on a hook.
“Now,” I said clasping both hands together as I looked around the table. “Let’s get down to the nitty gritty, just how exactly are we going to pull this off? We need a plan of action.”
“That,” Mara said a slow smile forming on her face. “Is why I invited you all here.”
“No, no, NO!” Lily screamed dropped her wrench as she went tearing across the reactor room and pointed from one coupling then where it was supposed to go and did the same with the second. “This one goes there, that one goes there? You could have blown out the power relays.”
Darinson gritted his teeth, and furrowed his brows, but nodded silently and corrected his mistake. Lily and the ERF technicians didn’t seem to get along very well. All of her knowledge of mechanics and reactor tech was self-learned, and quite frankly she was brilliant, but she had her own way doing things that didn’t exactly jive with the way our allies worked.
They followed protocol and had a set of procedures. Lily had learned to do what she could with the tools she had which were usually few and far between. She’d already been forced to make changes to the power systems of the Relentless, but it was causing a bit of a headache for the ERF technicians who weren’t accustomed to working with a system that was clearly in need of a complete overhaul. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time or the luxury to complete such a task so Morris had ordered his men to work with Lily to get things done as best they could.
I was there mostly to help with the heavy lifting otherwise I stayed out of the way and did as Lily said. It was very obvious she knew what she was doing, and I definitely didn’t have the foggiest clue. I could probably find a way to blow it to shit, but that’s about as far as my technical expertise ran. Mostly, I just watched in fascination. Lily’s face was covered in grease and grime, sweat covered her cloths and her hair was a mess, but somehow she never looked more beautiful to me.
She’d come a long way from the quiet and timid little man I’d first met not so long ago. Sure, she could still be shy and sometimes had a hard time expressing herself, but she was far more confident than her former self had ever been.
She approached me, tossing her wrench aside with a flick of her wrist and slid her hand across her forehead wiping the grease clean. She grabbed me by the arm and pulled me aside. “We have a problem.”
I let her lead me away, and I stumbled feeling a brief surge of dizziness before I felt her lips lock around mine. I kissed her back and slipped my hand into her shirt. One thing led to another and we found ourselves back in our quarters and I forgot all about my odd little moment of disorientation.
Chapter Twelve
It seemed a tragedy that we should spend so much time fixing up the Relentless only to hand it over to our ERF allies, but given that the resistance had more experience operating Qharr tech my newest acquisition seemed the better fit for us. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean it would be any easier for us to get into New York. Lily’s little transponder trick wouldn’t fool the city’s sensors once we got close, and while we had managed to forge a transponder signal, with the help of Morris’s technicians, no one knew if they were going to buy it.
Entry into the city was going to difficult, and in the intervening weeks we’d only come up with one possible avenue of entrance. There just wasn’t a lot of information available. Unlike Scottsdale, New York was locked down tight and passage in and out of the city was controlled by the Qharr. Worse yet we were traveling into Manhattan-island, which was cut off from the rest of the city and since it was the center of the Qharr government on Earth it would be much more heavily patrolled. Humans were never given leave to exit the city even for special errands so that presented yet another difficulty.
It was one mission where so much was riding on a simple little gimmick. Not that it was much different from our usual mode of operation, but we weren’t traveling around the more sparsely populated regions around Scottsdale or Canada. This was an entirely different ballpark and truth to be told the prospect terrified me, but we were already committed. So there was nothing to do, but get underway.
“Lily, are we ready?”
“Bringing the engines online now,” she stopped and stared back at me with those big magenta eyes. “Should I launch the ship?”
“No, open a communication line to the Defiant and the Relentless. Let’s give everyone our last goodbyes.”
“Renegade,” Morris said with a nod from the bridge of the Defiant his green-tinged image just a little off due to our ship’s un-calibrated holo-emitters.
Mara was a little more talkative, but her countenance was no less muddied or distorted. “Thank you, for giving us use of the Relentless. We’ll try to bring her back in one piece.”
“If we’re successful, we won’t need her in one piece,” I replied rapping my knuckles against the console wishing that it were made of wood. “If we’re not well… I don’t think I’ll be around to complain.”
Morris stepped forward drawing almost as close to his holo-camera as was possible. “I don’t think I need to tell you all how important this is so I’ll just say this. Good luck, and God speed.”
I nodded and was about to issue a reply when he blinked out, having apparently closed the communication line without waiting for my reply.
“Lexa dear, I really do wish you and your crew the best of luck and if you happen to make contact with the ERF forces after we’ve successfully brought down the shield grid I do hope you’ll send them my regards,” she paused staring at her holo camera with the strangest look in her eye. “There’s someone with them who will be very happy to learn you’re alive.”
Her image fizzled away and I shook my head, not entirely sure what she could have meant with that last remark? Who on Earth, or in the ERF forces, cared one bit if I was alive or dead? I put the matter out of my mind and looked around the bridge. Locking gazes with each of my crew in turn, starting with Becca, then Farris, Rayland, Vakrexid and Max before finally settling on Lily. There were other members of my strike force, but they were the ones I could lean a shoulder on when things get tough.
“Lil’,” I said clearing my throat and turned away so no one could see my eyes watering up. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
And with that simple command, the Renegade went soaring up into the sky beginning the hours-long flight toward New York.
Chapter Thirteen
“Grephhak!” A deep and guttural Qharr voice demanded through the intercom. We’d reached New York and were awaiting admittance into the city, but the port master was giving us the third degree. I don’t know if he was suspicious or if he did this with all ships, but it was beginning to grate on my nerves.
“Port master!” I yelled back in Qharr, my voice artificially deepened by a vocal emulator which I was wearing around my throat attached by a snug nylon collar. Too bad no one had thought of it earlier such a device would have saved us a lot of trouble especially when coupled with the visual illusion of a real Qharr face. “I grow weary of these questions. Why is it that you delay me? I seek admittance will you give it to me or must I continue to answer these pointless questions!?”
Max’s jaw dropped and she turned to look at me like I was insane. Rayland grinned and let out a low throaty chuckle and folded his arms across his chest. Clearly he wasn’t surprised by my behavior, but I think he knew me well enough by that time to understand it was all an act. Max on the other hand didn’t really know me or the Qharr so her reaction was pretty much what I would have expected. The gray skins did not take kindly to such inquests they saw it as a question of their honor.
“I do my duty to the sub-ascendant and the empire as you well know Captain Breyga. I only have one more question, answer me or don’t, it makes no difference to me, but if you do not cooperate I will not admit you into the city.”
“Very well,” I replied between gritted t
eeth. It was irritating and while I hadn’t had any trouble answering the questions as yet, I worried what would happen if he asked one we hadn’t anticipated. So far I had told him that we had entered the city on an errand for a local Qharr official, one Mourrd Wyldyr who we had selected because we’d intercepted audio transmissions that said he was out of town, and had given him detailed information about the size of the crew the contents of our cargo hold as well as the technical specifications of the ship.
“I’m curious captain, my logs indicate that Castigator Wyldyr left the city almost a week ago. He will not return for several more weeks, what business will you attending to in his absence?”
“We’ve been sent to retrieve some of his personal effects as well as attend to some certain familial obligations.”
“You are kin then?”
“Yes, I have been adopted into the family’s second circle,” I replied with a slightly raised voice. A second circle was a group of trusted friends and servants who are considered so close to a family that they are able to act on behalf of them and in some cases can even serve as heirs or guardians to children of deceased parents.
“Gel’pan Garm, you have permission to enter the city. I’m sending over a flight itinerary deviate from the set path and you will be gunned down.” he said giving the Renegade’s forged name.
I didn’t bother replying, but instead clicked off the comm switch and let out a long sigh of relief. Cutting the line short like that was considered rude, but given my irritated responses to the port master it wasn’t at all unexpected. The Qharr leaders most of have been worried about incursions into the city to include such a stringent array of questions and risk offending their honor-conscious citizens.
I hit the throttle and sent the Renegade lurching forward, following the path set out by the port master. I didn’t intend to deviate from it one bit, but this whole plan had me on edge. A part of me wanted to turn the ship around and flee to some place far far away, but I was never one to be cowed so easily. Even if I did succumb to such an urge I could have never forgiven myself. The future of Earth was riding on our mission if we failed there would be no hope whatsoever for humanity.
Qharr controlled New York had six boroughs, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, Staten Island, Hudson-Bergen, and Manhattan. The last of which was our destination. A lot of the reason we’d decided to masquerade as servants of Mourrd Wyldyr was that he owned and operated his own personal dock on his property which as you might have guessed was located within the Manhattan metropolitan area.
Unfortunately, we hadn’t reached Manhattan yet. First, we had to get through Husdon-Bergen, which had only become a borough for one simple reason. The gray skins had felt Manhattan was too vulnerable on its’ east side so they built up the New Jersey counties Hudson and Bergen along the opposite side of the river and dammed up the river making it impossible to access Manhattan by water.
When I’d first seen Scottsdale I couldn’t believe how massive it was, but it paled in comparison to the New York. Its towering structures dwarfed the other cities’ and made it seem an isolated hamlet in comparison. The buildings were dark, looming structures that thousands of ships ranging in size to small one-pilot vessels to larger cruisers like the Renegade zoomed, swirled and sped around in long streams.
The buildings of Qharr-built section of the city had a dark, almost organic look much like any structure built by the gray skins, but I’d never seen a skyscraper built by our self-declared masters. Most of their buildings were large, yes, but not at all like those in New York. Why they had elected to replicate the edifices of New York was a question I couldn’t quite grasp. Perhaps, there was some strategic reason that escaped me, but something told me that it had more to do with the ego of the sub-ascendant than anything else.
We had found our way through Hudson-Bergen and into the dirtier and grimier sections of Manhattan. Most of the structures were human built, like the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center, but scattered amongst them were more than a few built by our oppressors. Each one of latter was a match for or was even taller or grander than the former. Yes, it was becoming more and more clear that ego was involved in the creation of the gray skin skyscrapers. To their line of thinking if an honor-less society of humans could be these amazing structures it goes without saying that a much more superior race like theirs could top them.
When we got closer to Mourrd Wyldyr’s estate, the comm buzzed and I waved my hand at Lily to answer it. The port master’s face appeared on screen and I felt a sinking feeling in my gut as I looked over his three-eyed countenance. “Captain Breyga, we’ve found a… discrepancy. I just spoke with Castigator Wyldyr and he’s never heard of you. I’m afraid I’ll have to impound your ship pending an investigation.
“Shit,” I cursed and waved my hand at Lily. The comm line dropped and my fingers zoomed across the control interface sending the Renegade down into the deepest bowels of the city. Phase cannon blasts splattered the ground in our wake, but more than a few hit home. Fortunately, our shields held up against the bombardment, but with so many blasts pounding into us it was only a matter of time before they gave out.
I zigzagged through the city streets, sometimes forced to turn the Renegade on its side to fit through a particularly narrow side street. If navigating the avenues of Scottsdale had been difficult, flying through the roadways of New York was worse especially considering that our cruiser was so much larger than the single pilot fighter I’d taken on my little joyride the last time.
To start with we had a trio of three fighters on our tail, but each time we turned a corner we picked up a few more until we had a full squadron blasting fire up our asses. Coming up on a dead end I was forced to climb straight up in the air, and even then it was a close call. The belly of the Renegade grated against the wall of the building and no doubt producing sparks and an extremely unpleasant shriek of scraping metal.
Lily managed to hit one of the fights with a phase blast. It careened into a second as they both went slamming into the wall and consumed three more fighters with a fireball that was powerful and large enough to give our ship a good shaking. When I topped the building, I looped over it and took a nose dive back down toward the ground.
“What are you doing?” Max’s voice protested from somewhere behind me. “The mission is a bust we need to escape and regroup.”
“No, this is our only chance. If we fail now, it’s going to be even harder to get back into the city. I will not give up when we’re so close!” I yelled back at her between gritted teeth as I leveled the ship.
“Get buckled in!” I called back over my shoulder right before glancing down at my nav display and reaffirming that I was indeed headed toward the Sub-ascendant’s estates.
The thought I had was wildly reckless and not exactly in keeping with the new path I was trying to take for myself, but under the circumstances the only two other options were buckling down and hiding or running away with our tails tucked between our legs. Neither option was particularly appealing for obvious reasons, but if anyone else caught wind of what I had planned I kind of doubted they’d be very open to the idea. Not that I was about to open the matter to debate, sometimes a leader had to make decisions at her own discretion.
More phase blasts peppers our shields as another half a dozen fighters joined those already pursuing us. I sent the ship soaring up and flipped around taking up position behind the fighters and Lily blasted them with our phase canons managing to take out four of them before they even knew what hit them. The others managed to evade her attacks, five swooped up and took up position behind me while the remaining four dove down side streets presumably so that they could swing back around to meet us.
It didn’t matter if they caught up to us or not, we’d almost reached our destination and by then their pursuit would have proven to be all but pointless or so I hoped. I twisted and turned down a side street and went rocketing down a wide avenue toward Jykkar’s home. It was massive structure that spoke volumes f
or the ego of the sub-ascendant.
It was not a skyscraper, but much more closely resembled a fortress which stretched across three entire city blocks and must have been eight-hundred meters wide or more. It stood twenty stories tall and was so black that it almost seemed make the surrounding area darker. It was unadorned in the usual gray skin fashion, but seemed to lack the organic look of most gray skin structures. Nor did it have the usual insectine appearance I’d come to associate with Qharr, it looked like a cancerous black tumor that had grown out from the ground.
“Brace yourselves,” I screamed sending the ship diving down toward the palace. A particularly well-aimed phase blasts struck us and the ship rocked just a moment before Lily screamed out that the shields had failed. From there it only went from bad to worse, shot after shot pelted the Renegade and it wasn’t long before I lost complete control f and we went down in a blaze of fire.
Chapter Fourteen
After we hit, I was up on my feet before the dust had even settled, thanks to Khala, but I couldn’t say the same for the others. Dyssa must not have been as quick to dispel the effects of the gravity. When Lily finally staggered from her seat she was more than a little uneven on her feet. Becca, was pretty shaken up and had a cut on her arm that her symbiote hadn’t attended to yet, but was in otherwise good shape. Farris looked more angry than anything else, but when I went to check on Rayland that’s when my breath caught in my throat.
I thought for sure we was dead, but then his eyes snapped open and his face stretched into a grin. “Well, hello there!”
I rolled my eyes and turned awake grabbing Max by the shoulder and shaking her awake, but when she didn’t move my heart leaped into my chest. I thought for sure she was dead, but when I reached down to check for a pulse I let out a long sigh of relief.
Battle For Earth Page 61
