The two men sprinted away from the crumbling structure, not stopping until they were secure behind a wall of stockpiled permacrete barricades used for restricting traffic during various ship build patterns. Looking over the top of the barricades, Chhun saw a number of shock troopers fleeing the area as well. He picked them off as they ran, knowing that a KTF now was a problem they wouldn’t have to face later.
But his attention was mostly on Bear and Sticks, who were still sprinting for all they were worth toward Chhun and Fish. “Keep moving,” Chhun encouraged them.
With an agonizing groan, an impervisteel crane twisted away from the top of the swaying construction spire. It fell almost gracefully, landing in the path of Bear and Sticks. The two leejes were immediately obscured by a swirling cloud of dust and debris.
“Bear! Sticks!” Chhun called out. “Report in. You guys okay?” It would be some time before their vital signs updated over the battlenet.
“Enemy troops are rallying,” Fish said. “They’re setting up fields of fire.”
“Keep up on them,” Chhun ordered. “Bear, buddy? You out there? Sticks?”
Bear answered over comm with a half groan, half growl befitting his nickname. “That sucked.”
“Glad you’re okay,” Chhun said. “What’s the status on Sticks?”
“I… don’t see him. There’s so much kelhorned dust around, though. He could be right next to me.”
Chhun tracked a shock trooper through the scope of his N-4 and scored a headshot. “We’ll try to buy you some time, but the phonies are pressing the attack.”
“Phonies,” chuckled Fish between bursts from his SAB. “I like that. Let’s use that.”
“I see him,” Bear reported. “He’s maybe three meters from me. Unconscious according to synced vitals. Man, looks like a beam of impervisteel dropped right on his legs.”
Chhun fired more bursts at the shock troopers. At this rate, his ammunition wouldn’t last long. “Can you get him loose?”
“I’ll try.”
The dust began to die down, and Chhun saw the massive bear of a legionnaire straining to lift an equally huge beam of impervisteel off of his fallen comrade. Just when it seemed the beam wouldn’t budge, Bear gave a shout and pulled it up, then gently lowered it back down.
“I can get it up. Heavy as hell, but I can do it. I just need someone to pull Sticks free. I can’t do both, sorry.”
“You go,” Fish said to Chhun. “I’ll keep them at bay with the SAB. But hey, I’m almost black.”
“Copy,” Chhun said. He raced toward the wounded legionnaire. “Wraith! I need you to help us out again, man. Send down as many missiles as you can, because we’ve a swarm of phonies converging on our position and a wounded leej to carry out.”
“Ship’s almost here,” Wraith answered. “I’ll send them in and ask them to please not blow you up.”
“Copy,” Chhun said.
“Phonies,” chimed in Masters. “Great name for these losers.”
As Chhun neared Bear, the imposing legionnaire again bent down and deadlifted the impervisteel beam. For a moment Chhun worried he wouldn’t be able to perform the feat of strength twice—that a muscle would rupture or tear from the exertion. But the leej got it up, and Chhun pulled Sticks out.
“Watch your toes,” Bear grunted, dropping the beam and grabbing his rifle to engage the shock troopers who were already firing on them. “How’s he look?”
“Leg’s hanging on by a thread, but the synthprene’s auto-tourniquet seems to be working. Not much blood loss.” Chhun was thankful for that particular advancement in technology. Had it existed on Kublar, he could think of more than a few men who would have survived that ordeal.
“Good,” Bear said, sending rounds of return fire into the enemy.
“Listen,” Chhun said. He looked back to Fish, who was firing at such a rapid pace that the barrel of his weapon had begun to glow. “We gotta get clear. Wraith is sending missiles down, and we can’t be here when they land. Help me with Sticks?”
“Nah,” Bear said, grabbing the stricken leej in one arm and hoisting him over a burly shoulder. “I got him. Let’s go!”
The two men ran while Fish continued his blistering rate of fire. Somewhere behind them, Chhun heard the first missile impact.
***
The Indelible VI hovered above Wraith and Masters, too far off the ground for either man to reach the open boarding ramp.
“Can’t you get this thing any lower?” Wraith demanded of his AI.
“Boy, that would be something!” the artificial intelligence replied, seemingly overjoyed to have the conversation. “But no, this is the limit of my piloting capabilities. Anything beyond this would substantially increase the likelihood of my destroying the freighter, which would be a disaster!”
“Okay, stand back,” Wraith said to Masters. “I’ll try to use my jump boots to reach.”
Masters cleared out of the way while Wraith took several steps backward.
“I should’ve installed speed-ropes,” Wraith mumbled to himself as he took a leap and activated the thrusters in his boot heels.
He felt the sudden shifting of his organs as his body was propelled upward. He stretched out both hands, hoping to reach the base of the ramp, but he didn’t need his visor to tell him that his velocity and trajectory would make him fall short. And if he couldn’t board his own ship, they’d have to tramp through jungle until they found a spot where the ship’s AI could land. He seriously doubted Chhun’s team had that kind of time.
Suddenly, when Wraith had almost reached the zenith of his jump, the Six shifted down on its repulsors, angling itself so that the ramp was just within his reach. His fingers gripped the platform, and with an effort, he pulled himself up.
“Thought you said it was too risky,” Wraith said to the AI as he crawled up the ramp and grabbed a handhold to pull himself to his feet.
“Oh, I didn’t do that,” the AI said cheerfully, as though every word was an utterance of utterly contented bliss.
Wraith moved inside the ship, alarmed by the AI’s statement. “Well, who did?”
“That is being me,” replied a familiar voice.
“Ravi!” Wraith felt equal parts exuberance and disbelief.
“Yes, I am back. You should be returning to the cockpit now. There is a fifty percent chance of saving your friends Captain Chhun and the Bear and Fish if you depart in the next sixty seconds. These chances will drop dramatically for every half minute—”
“Okay, okay!” Wraith was already sprinting for the cockpit. “I’m almost there.”
“Yes, I am hoping so. I should add that the Dark Ops legionnaire nicknamed Sticks has considerably lesser odds given the severity of his injury.”
“Where’s Pike?”
“Locked in the fresher by the AI and calling for help. I have instructed the Six to no longer jam L-comms, except for his, as I think his yelling for assistance that we do not have time to give will add a degree of difficulty of one point three that we do not need given the severity of the—”
“Quiet, Ravi,” Wraith said, strapping himself in at the console.
Ravi was in his familiar place in the navigator’s chair. He raised an eyebrow and looked at Wraith. “I see we have fallen into our usual routine, then.”
“I’m not complaining,” Wraith said, nosing the ship down and spinning it on repulsors in a manner that caused the top of several palms to shear off, but left the ramp within Masters’s reach. As the legionnaire hopped up and moved inside, the freighter took off for the shipyards.
“Get ready to help them on board,” Wraith ordered Masters as he pushed speed toward his teammates. Toward his friends.
Missiles were falling everywhere. Wraith spotted a sizeable force of shock troopers advancing on the kill team, who had fallen back to a semi-sheltered location.
“Providing missiles with this level of AI was a terrible idea,” scolded Ravi. “You are very fortunate that none of them attempted
some wild and destructive action. Like blowing up your ship.”
Wraith ignored the lecture. “Train the main guns on that patch of shock troopers,” he instructed his holographic navigator.
The Six’s guns came alive with rapid fire blasts and strafed the hapless soldiers. Wraith landed between Victory Squad and the shock troopers. The ramp dropped, and Masters stepped out to urge the surviving team members on board.
An alert whistled inside the cockpit. Ravi moved his hands speedily across his controls. “We are being locked upon by a Republic-grade aero-precision launcher.”
“Well, shoot the guy,” Wraith said.
“Yes, I have him now.”
A burst turret on the aft of the Six spat out fire, and the whistling lock noise stopped.
“Pike’s with us, everybody else on board?” Wraith called over the comm.
“We’re all in,” Chhun answered. “Get us out of here!”
“My pleasure.” Wraith lifted off and began rocketing up into the atmosphere. “Let’s put some distance between us and that shipyard before it blows.”
As the Indelible VI streaked away, a white flash appeared on rear sensor scopes—the reactor had exploded in its sub-level. A small mountain was formed as the earth was violently pushed upward, toppling most of what remained of the shipyard—and then the mountain collapsed on itself, forming a broad crater.
“The city is experiencing an earthquake,” Ravi said. “But buildings look to be holding. I think civilian casualties will be very minimal. I am thinking this must be because of Captain Chhun, because from you I would have expected a level of carnage—”
“Ravi,” Wraith interrupted. He pulled away his helmet. “What gives? Why are you here now? And where is everybody else?”
Ravi twirled his black mustache. “Yes, I am supposing we should get down to this particular detail.”
There was a pregnant pause.
Keel held out his hand plaintively. “I’m listening.”
“I had not intended to come back so soon. Perhaps not at all, if you will forgive me. But in spite of my best efforts, the situation has…” Ravi stopped, as if considering his words. “The surviving members of your crew are in incredible danger. And so, for that matter, is the entire galaxy.”
THE CREW OF THE INDELIBLE VI
18
It was Prisma who awoke first.
She was in a ship. But not rude old Captain Keel’s ship. A different one. In hyperspace.
All the uncertain things that had happened to her since… Well, since her father had been murdered by a man named Goth Sullus. Hyperspace helped those things.
Hyperspace was kind of her safe place, a place in which to hide. It was hyperspace that had taken her away from the planet where Goth Sullus had killed her father. And she’d found Rechs at the end of that journey. He had rescued her from Ankar, and again they’d gone into hyperspace—where she felt safe from all the evils the galaxy could throw at her. Chase her with. Terrify her with.
In hyperspace, none of those scary things could get her.
She burrowed down into the seat she found herself in. Even though she was confined and couldn’t move her hands, she was in hyperspace. And that was enough.
She wasn’t afraid of the dark.
After a while, she opened her eyes and stared about.
She was in a big room. No, a hold. On a ship, they called a room a hold. Across from her sat Leenah. Her head was down on her chest, and she was sleeping. She was beautiful, even when she slept. She, too, was strapped into some kind of restraint/safety harness. So was Skrizz, strapped into yet another seat, except they’d used heavy-duty locking manacles to restrain the cat. And Garret was here, too. His head was back and his mouth was open. Drool ran down the side of his face. He didn’t have his glasses on.
This did not look good.
All Prisma remembered was that Leenah had been showing her how to disconnect the inducers from the local power grid. Everybody had been doing something. Except Captain Keel. He was… not there. He’d left with the legionnaires. The nice ones.
Like Masters. Prisma liked him. And she wanted him to like her too. Even though that could never happen.
And then she’d… she’d been stung. Lightly.
And she’d fallen asleep. And there had been dreams. But they were all gone and forgotten now.
And here she was.
And here was Ravi.
He just appeared. Not instantly. But like… like he just formed out of the light the universe had to give, what little of it there was in this hold. He just formed, and now, like some ethereal ghost, he was staring at her and smiling.
He bent down on one knee, next to her.
“You are awake now?”
Prisma nodded solemnly. Then she asked, very seriously, in her little girl’s soft soprano, “Are we in trouble? Am I going to be dead like you?”
Ravi’s eyes widened, and he tilted his head to the side. He looked down at himself.
“I am not dead.”
“Oh,” replied Prisma. “I just thought… back when Rechs… He died, you know. Leenah told me.”
And she started to feel bad about this. Like she had about her daddy because… because Rechs… because it was like living it all over again. And she was tired of crying. And tired of grieving. And so instead she made her eyes really wide and tried not feel anything.
“I know,” Ravi whispered. Which is sometimes all you can say in the face of all the grief someone else must live through.
“Where are we?” Prisma asked, after the storm inside her had passed.
“You are in a ship,” Ravi said. “They call this kind a tactical assault ship. The people who took you are going to seem very scary to you, Prisma. At first. But they are good people. They are trying to do the right thing.”
“Why will they seem scary, Ravi?”
He thought about that for a moment.
“Because,” he began, his sparkling eyes alight with some fire of knowledge. “Sometimes good people have to do hard things. And that can make them feel like they have to be hard, and scare others, in order to do those hard things that must be done. But you must trust me. I promise that they are brave and that they will take care of you, even though… what’s coming is very scary. So you will have to be brave as well. Do you still trust me, Prisma?”
“I do. But I’m not sure how to be brave.”
He studied her, as if he was searching for something he hadn’t previously known to look for. Like Ravi was ever so slightly surprised. For just a moment.
“Brave,” he said, “is doing what must be done… even though you are perhaps afraid.”
She thought about the days since she’d set out to avenge her father’s death. She had been afraid. Afraid in the space battle in Rechs’s ship. Afraid when they’d met the pirates in that wreckage of the warship. She’d been afraid many times. But she’d never not wanted to find Goth Sullus. And kill him. And make him pay.
She still had, hidden in her things, the needle blaster Rechs had shown her how to clean. And use. When the time came, she would shoot with her mind. Because she wanted to make sure the man called Goth Sullus was dead. Because she wanted him dead with all her heart. And Rechs had told her she must shoot with her mind and not her heart. Even though it was her heart that wanted to shoot.
So she would do as she was told.
She’d felt safe with the man in the armor. She’d felt safe with Rechs teaching her how to kill. How to take care of herself. She had no one else now. Teaching her about blasters … and the bounty hunter’s way. And about killing. Yes… killing.
“You will need to be brave, little girl,” said Ravi. His eyes were still bright, but his tone was serious now. “The galaxy is on fire, and there are dark times ahead. These people who have taken you, they’re trying to make things better. But we will see.”
Prisma thought about that. Ravi watched her eyes.
“Will you go with us?” she asked.
“
I’ll go with you, little girl. But we won’t be alone. At least, not forever. I visited our friends on Tarrago. They will help. Remember: Brave.”
Ravi disappeared only moments before Leenah opened her eyes with a start. Prisma stared straight at her. But really, that’s where Ravi had been.
Leenah darted her head around, panic blossoming across her pretty features. She saw Prisma staring at her.
“Don’t worry, Prisma. I’ll get you out of this,” Leenah growled, struggling against her restraints.
“I’m not worried,” Prisma said.
And then the security hatch to the hold slid aside, and a young woman—lean, cool and carrying a blaster in a shoulder holster—walked in. She was followed by a huge, hulking man with a wicked scar that bisected the right side of his face. He looked like a legionnaire without a helmet, Prisma thought.
“I see you’re awake now,” said the woman. “I’m Agent Broxin. Andien Broxin. But you can just call me Andien. I need your help to save the Republic.”
Leenah was struggling with the restraining harness, and Skrizz was clearly less than thrilled with the security locks. He yowled and popped his claws in an attempt to slice through them.
“I need all of you to calm down for just a moment. We’re going to release you, I promise. We needed to make sure you came with us, so we incapacitated you with a sonic neutralizer. Don’t worry, there aren’t any side effects. Contrary to what the news channels would have you believe.”
“Wh-wh-wh-why?” said Garret. “Why would you do that? Do you have any idea what kind of damage one of those can do to a person’s brain?”
“Did Captain Keel know about this?” Leenah demanded.
Andien stepped forward. “It wasn’t the man you call Keel’s decision. And he wasn’t consulted. The mission he and the rest of the kill team were on, it’s most likely a one-way trip. So we rescued you, so you wouldn’t get killed along with him and his buddies. If it cost you a few brain cells, great, you get to go on living. And thinking.”
“Shows what you know,” Prisma hissed to herself, remembering Ravi’s words. He’d talked to them. They were alive.
Sword of the Legion (Galaxy's Edge Book 5) Page 16
