Naero did a scan and punched some coded orders into her handcomp.
A greasy waiter ambled over.
“Ya can’t just park here, dammit. Food or drink. Ya gotta order something, or get the hell out.”
Tarim slapped a few miner credits on the filthy table. “I guess we’d better get the hell out.”
Together they got up to leave.
Just as the ten bounty hunters blasted their way in through the walls of The Happy Boy.
All of them wearing brand new gear, armor, and heavy weapons.
New fancy Corps stuff.
The big stocky leader jabbed his finger at the empty table in the corner. “I want the piece of shit that was just sitting there.”
Everyone looked over that way.
The same greasy waiter rushed up to the goons and pointed angrily up at the stairs.
“Ya wanna scrap? Third floor, morons.”
The snarling leader fumed and head-butted the waiter down.
And then prepared to blast him to slag.
Naero stepped in and quietly pushed the muzzle of the blaster cannon up over her head.
She flashed her eyes and smiled.
“If we we’re too late…you goons are even later. He’s gone. Now you’re wasting everyone’s time.”
The leader grunted, and looked slightly confused. “Just two of you? Against him?”
Naero snorted. “Ten of your kind are any better?” She waved her hand in front of her face. “He smelled you idiots coming. You fools are lucky you’re still alive. He doesn’t waste his time on garbage like you.”
“Who the hell–”
Naero ignored him and walked slowly to the entrance. Tarim covering her back.
“Hold it, bitch,” the leader said. “I don’t know you. And you can’t just walk out of this. I gotta kill something tonight.” He trained his humming weapons on them again. All of his goons did the same. More weapons whined to full power.
Naero stopped. Then sighed.
“You really don’t want to do this, chums. Suck breath for another day, assholes.”
“BURN THIS PLACE DOWN TO THE SLAB!”
Tarim shot three of their heads off in the less than a second.
By that time, Naero kicked the other seven of them high up against the heavy blast walls of the bar.
Each one of them slid down over a sizzling red katana blade that appeared stuck in the wall.
The crackling sword blades fizzed, slicing the killers and their exploding fancy powered armor suits neatly into two halves.
Then the red swords vanished. As quickly as they appeared.
Naero and Tarim rapidly made their way back out into the city.
They went to have a word with the Mining Consortium officials and military in charge of the planet.
36
With it being early evening by that time, the planetary government offices would be closed.
“We’d better talk to the Mining Military,” Tarim suggested. “Each planet and colony has its own standing army now. With the threat of war, there will always be someone in command and on duty.”
Naero remembered fighting beside the miners. They were tough, resourceful warriors, canny and fearless. Ready to sacrifice themselves for each other at any turn. And they could rig almost anything.
The two of them walked by a medical center and within seconds, a door swung open and a woman in a white medical coat came running after them. An attractive Besh woman, but with a squashed nose.
“Tarim. Nari. I mean Naero!”
They turned around, a little surprised to hear their names.
Naero instantly recognized her medtek friend Arana from the miners. Who looked equally flabbergasted and amazed to see them.
“This is a happy surprise. What the heck are you two doing here?”
Naero hugged her and smiled. “Our fleet’s here on a trade run. anything you need?”
Arana blinked and her mouth dropped open. “God yes! I can’t believe this. We’re doing alright, but there’s always a lot of stuff we need.”
Naero looked at Arana’s name embroidered on her lab coat.
“Dr. Arana Wenten. Congratulations.”
Arana beamed. “Finished my licensing, finally, once things settle down. I run the clinic here. It’s not a full hospital yet, but I’m trying to convince the local officials that we need more than the army hospital on the nearby military base.”
“That’s really great, Arana. Everything good around here?”
“Well, as good as can be expected, with the war and all. Everyone keeps hoping it won’t reach us here, but we all know that it will. Sooner or later. Hey, where are you two going?”
“Uh, we we’re just on our way back to our ships after meeting someone.”
Arana grabbed both of their hands. “I won’t take no for an answer. You two are going to have supper with my husband and I and our two kids. You can do your trading business in the morning. That way, you I can make a long list of the stuff I need at the clinic.”
“Arana, you never said you had kids. And a husband?”
Arana laughed. “I didn’t. Not until I married Jericho. He’s a commissioned captain in the Colonial Army now. He used to be one of Kinmal’s top commandos. His wife died, during one of the battles a few years back. I met him and his kids when they got hurt. We hit it off later on…” She tossed her head nervously. “And, one thing led to another.”
“I’m so happy for you.” Naero glance at Tarim.
Army captain.
Tarim grinned. “We’d be honored to break bread with you and your family.”
Arana looked worried suddenly. “Oh, crap. I just realized I don’t have much at home. We gotta go shopping before the stores close. We gotta hurry!”
One of the local stores was a mid-sized commercial food market. A pre-fab Stellar Mart in fact. Arana grabbed one of the ancient, rusty metal carts with the rickety wheels as they ducked in and pushed it down the aisles, tossing stuff in as she went.
Naero halted, gasped, and staggered forward.
Jett.
They had an entire frickin’ cooler of the stuff. And ice damned cold too.
“Naero?” Tarim asked.
She kept staring. “Get a cart Tarim. Get a damn cart!”
They left the Stellar Mart as it closed. Naero insisted on calling one of the old-style wheeled cabs to trundle by and drive them back to Arana’s house in the working district.
And then deliver the cart-load of Jett to The Dagger.
Minus a few four packs of course.
She drank three borbles by herself, just on the way to Arana’s.
So. Good.
Naero thanked the powers that be for the black citrus night oranges and their heavenly sweet and sour taste that made the perfect flavoring for Jett, her favorite lix. She could do commercials for them.
“You’re…a junkie,” Tarim noted.
“A happy Jett junkie, to be exact. And don’t you forget it.” All three of them laughed.
At Arana’s house they met her family.
Captain Jericho Wenten was a tall, handsome man with dark black skin and the bearing of a warrior. Naero spotted the type right off. His chiseled face bore a few burn scars but he seemed very gregarious with his wife and kids, enjoying them openly.
Naero felt a twinge of pain at the loss of her own father. Seeing Jericho so filled with joy and playful around his family. Scooping the little kids up. Covering them with kisses. Making fart noises on their bellies as they exploded with laughter.
The two little kids were incredibly cute. The little boy Thai was three years old, and his tiny sister Naomi was just a year and half.
But both of them sported several scars as well.
Naero wondered if all the miners simply bore such scars, in one way or another. A token of all they had been through as a people.
Jericho grilled some kind of poultry with rainbow barbecue sauce and long blue-green tubers that were kind of a cross
between a sweet potato and a turnip.
Arana made miner fajitas and flatbread with several kinds of veggies and sauces of the local variety. Naero didn’t like hot peppers or veg of any kind, so she had to ask what-was-what, or try a little first.
But there were these stringy little pink, deep-fried onion shreds that were so light and so sweet. She couldn’t get enough of them, with the yellow salsa and the sour cream Arana served them with.
Then they had some fruity ices, kind of like sherbet, with tangy mixed-berry flavors.
It really was quite the feast, and Naero had insisted on paying for everything. Even after they all stuffed themselves, there would be plenty of leftovers.
Arana put the kids to bed. They could hear her down the hall singing them to sleep, with a voice pretty and yet haunting.
Naero finished off her second quad of Jett while Jericho and Tarim sipped sparkling hard cider made from the local fruit trees.
They all talked briefly about the war and the remote planet’s defenses.
Clearly, nothing that would stop a determined foe.
“You two aren’t saying something,” Jericho said straight out. “Should my people and I be worried? Is some kind of trouble coming to us?”
Naero glance once at Tarim.
“You’re smart,” Naero said. “That’s good. We’re with Spacer Intel, on an important mission. The enemy’s after something and they might be coming here.”
“We know something’s up. I’ve read all the reports on the attacks on the other systems and colonies.” He suddenly looked at them very seriously.
His battle face snapped up.
“When. When are they coming?”
“We don’t know,” Naero said. “But if they do arrive, it’s going to be bad.”
Tarim added. “Can you think of anything, any reason why the enemy would attack here?”
Jericho shook his head.
“Not a damn thing.”
Naero looked at Captain Jericho suddenly. “Has Nevano Kinmal been here recently? By chance is he here now, even in secret?”
“The president? He hasn’t been here in months, not since he toured everywhere. With the war he’s holed up in the safest place we have. On Torrin-5. The entire place is like a fortress. They’d have a hard time taking him down.”
Tarim looked at them both and his face went pale.
“What about his daughter…Shalaen?”
“She’s out among the colonies all the time, with the explorers, searching for ruins of her mother’s people, the Yattai or some such. In fact, she was onworld just yesterday. But she departed again this morning for the next system over. Kendall-2.”
Tarim looked like he was about to lose it.
“Tarim?” Naero asked.
“That has to be it. We have to warn her.”
“Captain, how many people know Shalaen was here?”
“Just the security people and the high officials. It wasn’t an official visit. Just a quick stop off. Her movements are kept secret as well, just like her father’s.”
“Warn them on Kendall-2. Now,” Tarim demanded. “Baeven said the enemy might be after anyone who can channel Cosmic energy. Shalaen isn’t a Mystic, but she is part Yattai. That’s who they’re after and why.”
“Captain, you’d better alert your people. I’d bet if you checked the systems that were hit, most of them had a visit from Shalaen recently. The enemy is stalking her.”
Jericho went to his console and spread the alarm.
Seconds later, planetary warning sirens sounded in return.
Jericho shut down the volume so as not to wake the kids right away.
He turned to Naero and Tarim.
“The invasion just started. Incoming enemy troops. Backed by several enemy fleets up there in the black.”
“Tarim, alert The Dagger. Have them call in the cavalry, and get our ground forces down here pronto. Get a message to the miners on Kendall-2 also.”
“I’ve tried,” Jericho said from his com array. “Our sat systems are down. We’re being jammed. But one message got through. Kendall-2 is already under heavy assault.”
Arana came running down the hall.
“What’s going on?”
Jericho hugged and kissed her quickly.
“We’re under attack, baby. Get the kids. I gotta get all of you to safety and then report to my unit.”
37
Naero sent Tarim with Captain Jericho and Arana to make sure that they and their kids reached the army fortifications.
With the sirens wailing, lines of people rushed out of their homes and raced toward the mining tunnels with any weapons and supplies they could carry.
Very little panic and confusion.
The miners had been through wars. Another was just more of the same. They scrambled to their shelters, hardpoints, and defensive positions with very little wasted effort.
The slight warning gave them a headstart.
Enemy fighters and bombers swept in and seized the skies above the city. Then the starport.
The few air defenses that the miners had were quickly overwhelmed and neutralized.
In keeping with military doctrine, the enemy drop troops captured the starport and any landing fields at the mines. Then they brought in their heavy transport ships to deploy the bulk of their ground forces.
The Flying Dagger cloaked and escaped early on.
A few other merchant vessels weren’t so lucky, and got shot down trying to flee. Some of their wrecks still burned on the tarmac, and in the surrounding area.
Some of Naero’s advance forces made it down to the surface to join with the military defense forces. But most were still en route.
Naero cloaked early on and finished surveying the enemy invasion up in the air with her gravwing. She fed crucial intel to her people via her secure channels.
She popped down to rejoin her friends at the defensive hard points, while the last remnants of the civilian population still scrambled to get to safety.
Then she spotted the invader’s forward skirmishers.
Ejjai shock troops.
Enemy scouts and forward units cut down any stragglers they found with glee wherever they fell upon them.
But the Ejjai shock troops almost always made the mistake of stopping to glut themselves on fresh meat.
Along the way to the fortress and the defenses, Naero continued gathering forward observer intel on enemy troops and weapon system deployments.
She also dropped down in several isolated spots to interrupt the Ejjai feeding frenzies.
And the last thing many bloated and bloody enemy scouting units saw before they died were twin blazing red Chaos katanas, sizzling in the humid night air.
At the primary shielded barrier, Captain Jericho and the miner defense forces put up a stiff resistance.
Among other things, they used modified starship engines, and huge plasma mining borers to roast the attackers and burn them back.
But the Ejjai were cunning and determined foes who kept on coming, probing the defenses constantly from every angle. Looking for any weak point to exploit.
They attempted to use gravwings to drop in among the defenders.
Air defense batteries and heavy chain guns cut them out of the sky.
The enemy gave up on that tactic, for the time being.
But the defenders remained boxed in.
Every time they tried to break out or counterattack from hidden tunnels, a weird haze of purple mist would swirl around.
Concealed within that strange cloud, something ripped the miners apart. Something swift and deadly concealed within that haze.
When the mists cleared, the bodies of the defenders lay everywhere. Missing their heads and torn to pieces.
Down below the defenders could all see the enemy gravtanks and hover assault vehicles deploying and forming up.
Enemy artillery units set up in the distance to bombard the defenders from several kilometers away.
Anyone with
any military knowledge could predict how it was all going to go down.
Eventually the invaders would blast the shields down, then pound and chew their way through the static defenses up close.
The defenders could not hold out forever against such odds, and such concentrated firepower.
Up in orbit around Celonia-4, the starlit sky grew blotted out by a brilliant light show of blasts and explosions as the enemy fleets duked it out with Naero’s attacking forces.
“Don’t worry. My people will fight their way down here to help us, captain. Fight well, my friends.”
Some scrambled transmissions and reports made it through the enemy jamming.
Corps fleets now protected the enemy invaders. Corps fleets with ion cannons.
The latest modified Spacer shields could now withstand several more hits before going down.
But this was offset by the new fact that that enemy support fleets and their ion guns had somehow increased their rate of fire.
Both sides constantly struggled to adapt and overcome.
Less than three hours later, after intense bombardment and several assaults by waves of enemy gravtanks, the main front defensive wall collapsed.
Three bells standard time sounded.
It remained dark. And the naval battle up in space around the planet still raged, deciding the fate of Celonia-4.
But by that point, Captain Jericho had most of the defenders and their heavy weapons already re-deployed behind the secondary and tertiary lines of defense.
The miners went down hard, defending every hardpoint, every gun emplacement, every bloody foot to the last troop. That was just their way.
But the numbers and hardware of the invaders made it very clear.
Despite their valor, in a matter of hours, they were all going to be swept away.
Naero knew exactly, firsthand, what would follow. Once most of the fighters were dead. The Ejjai would begin their culling process and bring in their meatships. The adults and the old would be dispatched, and the young would be at the mercy of the invaders.
Who saw them only as a delicacy.
Naero kept firing her long range, Gauss sniper rifle, silently taking out target after target. Reloading as needed.
The Ejjai shock troops kept coming.
Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit Page 26
