Captive Galaxy 1: The Bellerophon: Ambush

by J. W. Kurtz

  "I know this is a cliché, but I think we've got them right where we want them," he said with a mysterious grin.

  "Captain?!" Pfeiffer whispered with concern evident in his voice. He was rather informal in his next tightly whispered question, "umm, what the hell do you mean by that exactly?"

  "You remember that alien relic we pulled off the Osprey? We're just taking precautions in case the plan authored by Weston and Chavez goes sideways."

  The constant white-noise hum, drone, and whirr of ships systems, all constant background sounds of the living ship, ground to a halt as the bridge crew followed the orders of the Captain and shut down nearly all active and non-essential systems of the Belle'. The sound of the Captain rifling through the contents of the heavy bag of weapons and gear brought to the bridge by Pfeiffer was now easily heard as all others faded. The only sound that competed with this noise was the audible nervous heartbeats of nearly everyone in the room. The Captain included.

  Though the Captain was quite clear in his orders regarding what systems were to remain active, an error was made. Anton Prieto's station included the primary life support and environmental controls. Believing that it was a given to keep those systems online, since they were only ever deactivated when docked and running off the life support systems of the host base, he only disengaged the ventilation system leaving the main components in full operation. Had he asked for clarification this would have been a nonissue. But he didn't. The mistake was not discovered by Wray or Pfeiffer because the fans and ducts went silent like everything else that went offline or into a stepped down standby safe-mode. It was to be a costly mistake assuming that the order given had been followed to the letter.

  *****

  Over the last several minutes Bachman, Weston, Chavez, and even Ayad hundreds of meters away trailing the lone wolf, had been busy coordinating their moves over the combined tactical net. Once they received the updated data feed, and the live tracking on the location of the heavies, Alpha and the newly added team of Weston and Chavez refined their plan and sprung into action.

  Ayad was still operating with a much diminished team in a losing race to the primary engineering compartment.

  The pistol now in Takashi's hand was surely something better than a slingshot. But, against the heavy armor of the boarders, Bachman may well have actually given Takashi an actual slingshot, or a straw to shoot spit wads for that matter. Bachman had given Takashi his sidearm to replace his destroyed carbine. A short time ago, as they'd gathered their gear, Takashi discovered the weapon he'd lugged away from the initial firefight had a sizable chunk missing from the receiver. The damage to the now useless weapon had been caused most likely by a piece of high-speed shrapnel, a result no doubt of the detonation by the H-E grenade loosed from the attackers as the remnants of Alpha retreated. The carbine had been slung across his back at the time and it appeared that it had saved his life by absorbing the dangerous piece of flying debris.

  Takashi continued to follow Bachman's lead still, but he was less than thrilled about the plan. The pieces of it he'd been told anyway. The only part he'd had fully explained was the part where he and Bachman were to act as bait. He was confused as to why it was vital for them to act as bait. What were they bringing to bear exactly that would make a bit of difference? As he understood it, nothing they had in their arsenal was effective against the foe they faced.

  In detailing their part, Bachman had told Takashi that they would 'shoot-and-scoot.'

  "What do you mean 'shoot-and-scoot'? Where're we leading them exactly?'" Takashi asked his team leader. Worry and apprehension once again creeping into his voice.

  "To the primary life support control compartment."

  "Uh...isn't that where they're headed anyway?"

  "Yes. We think so. So that should make it easier for us then. What we need is for them to really focus on us, on their front, as they're moving forward. There's a point when we can blindside them. I think. Hope... Trust me. Oh, and open up your visor...in fact toss your helmet altogether. At this point it doesn't matter if we lose atmosphere or not. That crap visor looks like it's fogging up your view anyway," Bachman calmly stated.

  Takashi complied and discarded his helmet. Placing it on a miscellaneous piece of chest-high machinery jutting from a bulkhead about a foot into the corridor.

  Bachman then detached his own helmet, which wasn't having any fogging or visibility issues, and clipped the base gasket to the side of his suit on a purpose built retainment pinion.

  Takashi didn't know what to think about all this. His own helmet was useless in combat except to guard against the inhalation of gas and caustic smoke. But Bachman, lacking an active HUD via his visor, would not be able to accurately target the hostiles or use any enhanced vision. What advantage did they gain with him shucking the one piece of useful technology at their disposal? He admitted that he might not know the complete picture as he'd only heard bits and pieces being discussed about the plan, and the precautions being taken, when in earshot as he was not totally tapped into the tactical network for several reasons, chief among them being that he was a cook and was out of his element. Thusly he was only told what he needed to know and not the whole story which was fine by him because he feared the more information he had about their precarious position the greater the possibility he would be paralyzed by fear.

  Bachman, out of habit, handled the lighter he carried around to light those clichéd post mission victory cigars of his with the terrible smelling tobacco. Bachman silently hoped to himself that he'd have the opportunity to pollute the air with one soon.

  "Okay," Bachman began as the two waited, crouched behind steel ribbings spaced along the bulkhead of the corridor, "just snap off a couple shots then continue to retreat down the planned route. We just need to get them to focus 100 percent on us. Aim isn't important so much. Just keep their attention. Hey...and don't worry so much!"

  "Yeah, I know and...wait I think I hear them coming," Takashi said, the worry heavy in his voice.

  "Yep. I hear'em. Make ready. Keep yourself low and move. I don't want to have to drag you behind me," Bachman replied.

  Takashi mentally rehearsed. Two or three shots and then run the last five or ten meters down the corridor to the safety of an L-intersection. Move down that corridor and repeat. But to what end? Takashi knew Weston and Chavez were coming up from behind the hostiles but, from what he'd overheard, they weren't carrying anything like the mines and explosives that had caused damage to the heavies in the earlier engagement. He knew they had a trick up their sleeves, he just wished they'd share it with him to alleviate his agitation and concern.

  The words "don't worry" continued to echo in his head. First heard from the mouth of Darius, in what seemed like hours ago, but what was actually only minutes, and then from Bachman just now. His worrying about worrying was interrupted by the growing rhythmic vibration felt traveling up his legs from the deck caused by the approaching heavily armored boots. The sound was also different. The heavy footfalls were unusually loud and clear. Two clicks, Bachman and Takashi taking the safeties off their weapons, also echoed louder than it should have in the corridor. It was then that Takashi realized the ship was as quiet as he'd ever remembered hearing it. He listened to the quiet. There were no whirring of ventilation fans, humming of high-energy capacitors, or thrumming of idling engines which was ever present and filled the background with the white noise. It was so quiet that he thought he could hear his own heart beating through his suit.

  Takashi shook off the daydream and returned to the now. He very much hoped to survive the now and experience the later. The much, much later.

  Chapter 19:

  Laaken and Petrov rounded yet another corner of the so called "central corridor." He wondered if they were in fact going in circles, they had taken so many damn turns. The signage they encountered along the way assured him that they were indeed taking the correct route to their destination. The meters kept ticking down. They had been slowed however when the
y came to a space of what appeared to be new decking, shinny and unpainted, a complete blank canvas lacking even the archaic painted navigation lines they had been relying upon for direction.

  They split up briefly to explore the neighboring corridors until they had once again come to discover the correct path, backtracked to link up, and then proceeded once again the correct way. Now they were in the homestretch, and there were no defenders to be seen. There were no mines left in the retreating wake of the defenders, absolutely no sign of resistance, organized or otherwise.

  Laaken suspected they would encounter the last stand in the bridge, but with control of the environmental and life support system soon in hand, the task of taking the bridge would be an easy enough task that he was once again filled with confidence.

  No sooner had the two taken a couple steps down a new turn, still following the painted navigation line, when they began to take like plasma bolt fire from two defenders hiding behind cover approximately 20-meters away. Both Laaken and Petrov immediately returned fire.

  Laaken was happy to see Petrov had heeded his instructions for once, fighting through his raw anger and chemically enhanced aggression, and not answered the bolts of the defenders with more high explosive grenades. Laaken maintained a real concern about the stability of his teammate. When this was all over he knew he would need to better assess the people he worked with in the future. He was seriously considering burning down both Petrov and Dixon, Dixon for sure, once this whole affair was over. But that was a resolution for another time.

  The fire from both sides was woefully inaccurate, due to the targeting systems of the heavies being inoperative and the targeting by Bachman being unassisted but this of course was by choice. Still, despite the poor fire control of the Ogre battlesuits, the overall withering firepower poured at the defenders was overwhelming. The defenders quickly retreated from view after snapping off only a half-dozen shots. Of course no damage was done by the single bolt that had struck the glacis of Laaken by the light sidearm fired from one of the defenders. It would all be over shortly if this was the type of defense that was left to the crew of the ship.

  The two continued on after the retreating defender.

  *****

  Hundreds of meters aft, the remnants of the ravaged Beta team lead by Ayad, continued to shadow and harass the lone wolf Ogre. The lone wolf was going about his business clearing the engineering spaces of the Bellerophon with great efficiency and enthusiasm. Ayad was not quite desperate yet, but he was very quickly nearing that state.

  Of the eight members of his hurriedly assembled team that he started with when the firing started in the hangar, he was down to two effectives; himself and Assistant Engineer Clark Swanson. There were five dead in the hangar. A badly wounded Frederick Gessle, heavily sedated and pumped full of medi-nanites, sat unconscious in the Osprey waiting for transport to medical for the Doctor to patch him up, if and when possible.

  Until today Ayad had no idea who Clark Swanson really was.

  He now understood, that the Assistant Engineer, working under Chief Engineer James Callo, was more than just an extra body taking up space on the ship. Swanson was a diamond in the rough. The man listened without asking silly, time-consuming questions, and he managed to move swiftly and efficiently. He'd taken quickly to zigging when he needed to zig and zagging when he needed to zag despite the extremely cumbersome vacsuit and weapon weighing him down. In another life Swanson was a warrior, this Ayad was sure of.

  The bridge had been in communication with Ayad and his team of two ever since comms had been reestablished upon the destruction of the hostile jammer. Unfortunately all this did was confirm from the bridge that no manpower support looked to be forthcoming anytime soon. Ayad had hoped to add numbers to his cause, rallying any crew that he'd come across as he moved through engineering, however the lone wolf had burnt down every member of the Bellerophon's crew that he'd come across as he advanced, leaving only the shattered and charred remains for Ayad to discover. Ayad hoped the rest of the unarmed crew in this section of the ship had fled to safety or hidden outright as the murderous foe cleared the spaces without mercy.

  At one point Ayad had come across Chief Engineer Callo, and seeing as how he was unarmed, lacking even an emergency vacsuit, he was sent away to see about gathering additional weapons and support if possible. Ayad hated sending him away because he needed the help but, seeing as how Callo wasn't in possession of a weapon, even a makeshift weapon, and a dead Chief Engineer is rarely of use, it seemed the prudent decision as painful as it was to make.

  Of grave concern to Ayad at the moment was that the lone wolf seemed little interested in taking the engineering and propulsion spaces in one piece. He was causing as much destruction as he could without the use of heavy explosives and grenades, only appearing to refrain from using those because it would hazard his own progress.

  Several portions of engineering now laid in an absolute and total wreck. For all Ayad knew, mortal damage may have already been met to the Belle', and this running, harassing fight of his was all for naught. Ayad had no doubt that the guy was off the reservation. He had a sinking sensation that the endgame was not the capture of the Belle' but in fact her destruction.

  Soon the harassing fire by Ayad and Swanson had depleted the energy cells of nearly all the energy weapons they carried; weapons scavenged from the dead in the main hangar. Not that the light carbines and pistols had much of a chance to do anything against the heavy ferro-ceramic armor they faced, but there was always the chance that a lucky shot could damage a vital component. Unfortunately their luck only maintained their personal safety for no unleashed arrow had yet found an Achilles heel on the Ogre exoskeleton. Ayad had no real hope that one would in fact be found, but he continued undaunted in hope that an opportunity would arise for them to do real damage. Time, nearly as obstinate a foe as the man in the armored suit, was waning quickly.

  Minutes passed and now, with almost the entirety of the engineering spaces cleared and in the hands of the lone wolf, Ayad considered one last desperate action before the psychopath discerned a way to destroy the ship with the numerous options now available to him.

  Ayad and Swanson were currently hunkered down behind a waist-high workstation in a compartment adjoining the primary generator room for the ripper drive. The two had long since discarded their ungainly vacsuit helmets due to their complete lack of tactical design. Wearing those helmets had severely restricted their aim, as much as it had mattered up to this point anyhow. The emergency vacsuits both Ayad and Swanson wore were of a "shitty" design not fit for any sort of combat, a testament easily but forth by the team leader and the recently baptized by fire Swanson.

  It was pretty evident to Ayad that they were down to their final gasps and that their next move would most likely be their last charge. Ayad activated his personal communicator and opened a line on the tactical net to contact the bridge and Alpha to inform them of his intentions. It was in fact the point of desperation now.

  "Bridge, Alpha, this is Beta...this is Ayad, guys," Ayad said breaking nominal radio protocol.

  "We have you, Ayad. Confirmed patched into Alpha as well. Everyone can hear you, go," the resolute voice of Captain Wray answered.

  "We're out of time here, guys. I think the hostile down here in engineering is about to scuttle the ship. He's destroyed about everything he could on his march and now he looks to be studying the primary generator and ripper drive."

  "What makes you think he's going to try to destroy the ship? This is his only ride," Bachman asked ahead of the Captain.

  "He may or may not know his ship, that frigate, had been destroyed. It's immaterial, I don't think he cares. This guy has been very systematic in his destruction of everything he's come across. If it looks important he's destroyed it. This place is an absolute wreck. He also seems to very much enjoy the killing and destruction, Captain. A couple of the guys he's killed he...well he made very sure they were dead. And he lingered over the kills like he w
as admiring his work," there was a pause as Ayad replayed the images in his head of the psycho continually blasting, stomping, and generally dismembering the crew he had come across. Ayad nodded absently that his assessment was correct. This guy was nuts he thought to himself. "Like I said, he's taking shots at everything he comes across that looks like it's vital or the least bit important really. Displays. Conduit junctions. Control stations. This isn't the act of a guy wanting to seize a ship. As it is, due to the reckless abandon in which he's carried on, I bet we're in a serious hurt with the damage this he's already done to engineering, propulsion, and the power plant systems. If not for the fact that the bridge powered down nearly everything a short time ago, and that CHENG safeguarded everything he could while he retreated, this prick would probably have already struck gold by now and turned us into a super nova."

  "You said he's studying the ripper and generator? What's he doing right now, Ayad? You got eyes on him?" the Captain queried. His voice was even and steady, not betraying the growing concern that began to spread across his face hundreds of meters forward on the bridge. He had assumed the two teams would be working toward similar goals. The notion, that the boarder in control of the most fragile space on the ship was suicidal, was alarming.

  "He's in the main engineering compartment, Boss. The heart of it. He's just standing there. I bet he knows we're in here. I just don't think he cares. He seems pretty focused on the primary generator and the...H3 storage system and drive controls before him according to Swanson. Again, I think he's trying to figure out a way to sabotage the whole thing and cause a catastrophic failure. If he's looking to do that, again according to Swanson here, he's in the right place," Ayad took a deep breath and finished his reply in a very serious tone, "I think this is imminent guys as in right fucking now."

  "Do what you can, Ayad. Distract him. Throw rocks if you're outta juice. Get him away from those systems. Alpha's almost in contact again with the two heading our way. I'm signing off for now. Good luck, Ayad, and we'll get there as soon as we can after we stop the two we're dealing with here. Hold on," Wray said through the crackling encrypted tactical line.