A cooling breeze kissed Charley’s cheeks as the pirates bustled through seed-laden grass tussocks. She wasn’t exactly unfit, but the extended run was sapping. Vanessa was struggling to keep up.
“This is bullshit,” muttered FIGJAM at her belt. “But at least I get to watch that hot thing run before a bandit blows me to hell.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Charley said, secretly glad for the distraction. “You’re bad for morale.”
“Then get that whore to strip down,” ordered FIGJAM petulantly. “My antenna is rigid.”
“You’re a moron,” Charley said. “Just be glad I don’t smash you myself.”
She sighed, but felt more relaxed after trading barbs with FIGJAM. The arrogant little robot was good like that.
The paja had done a great job in knocking over a fence panel along the camp’s southern perimeter. Judging from the smoking carcasses, the fence had been electrified.
“Take cover behind the fallen deer,” Vin said. Charley did as she was told, crouching behind a foul-smelling beast already stiffening in death. Defensive turrets squatted to either side of the front gate. For now, the bandits were concentrating their fire at the panicked deer inside the camp. It was difficult to tell if more turrets were located at the rear of the depot. Vin looked at Charley with pre-battle eyes. He looked feral and rather attractive at that moment.
“Take the old fucker and scale that turret,” he said. “Me and Gronko will rush the other one.”
“What about Vanessa?” Charley asked.
Vin shrugged as if she was an afterthought. “Take her too.”
“Go!” growled the renki, taking off at surprising speed. The air was hazy from the dust raised by the hoofed animals, providing more cover for the small attacking force. Charley signaled to Harry and Vanessa before bolting across the tussocks. She could see the paja deer running amok further in the encampment, goring attacking bandits with their antlers. A bandit was pumping plasma into the chaotic herd from the nearest turret. Charley leaped onto the steel ladder and climbed the rungs two at a time. In such moments she appreciated her light, supple utility suit. At the top of the ladder she wormed through a small opening in the balustrade and beckoned the others to stay quiet. The gunner was too occupied with atomizing deer to notice her. She held the blaster to the nape of his neck and squeezed the trigger. One thing she learned on Abeya was that there was no time for sympathy when it came to survival. The bandit’s brains rained down on the frantic herd. She kicked the corpse from the tower, hoping no one would notice in all the chaos.
While she was astride the turret, it made sense to use the gun. Charley grabbed the side handles of the heavy weapon as Harry and Vanessa took cover behind her. Scanning the battlefield carefully, she resolved not to mangle the poor deer if she could help it. Vin was already opening fire from the other turret focusing on an armored vehicle parked in front of a guard post. Charley looked for alternative targets. She could see several blue-suited Silent Runners weaving through the paja herd with difficulty. Her attempt at shooting one of them resulted in a geyser of red deer meat. A bandit climbed on top the armored vehicle to escape the rushing paja. Charley slotted him with a direct hit. With a pang of guilt she saw arms and legs go flying - the light armor was no match for heavy plasma
The other bandits were either being trampled by the paja or massing on the other side of the vehicle. A second bandit scaled the vehicle and successfully slotted a mini-turret into custom receptors. Charley fired, but the turret spewed a thick shield just in time. The grinning bandit showered Vin’s tower with raking plasma fire, destroying the balustrade. Vin and Gronko dropped to their knees to avoid the deadly fire.
“Someone needs to get down there,” Charley said determinedly.
“That’s suicide,” cautioned Harry. “There’s too much going on.”
“We won’t get any further unless we push,” Charley reasoned. “Those bandits are fighting back.”
Before Harry could say anything else, Charley was climbing down the ladder. Fortunately the bandit on the armored vehicle concentrated his fire on the other tower. She was immediately jostled by paja when she hit the ground. Praying she wasn’t trampled, she allowed herself to be pushed through the throng and was directed straight for the vehicle. With yards to go, she dropped to the muddy ground and rolled under the troop carrier. The plasma fire screeched from the roof above. She could see several bandits’ feet on the other side. They appeared to be hatching some kind of plan for a counter attack. Charley needed to act quickly. Her blaster, though reliable, wasn’t going to cut it. She ran through her pellet options. Green for toxic cloud, red for incendiary grenade, white for flashbang, gray for smoke bomb. She tossed a red pellet across the mud, turning her back to the blast. A chorus of screams suggested she’d scored a direct hit, but the shock wave was scorchingly hot.
The smell of charred flesh assailed Charley as she rolled free of the vehicle and inspected the carnage. Body parts everywhere. The explosion had tipped the paja over into a mad frenzy. Hundreds of beasts could be seen clamoring and flailing near the jacan trees at the rear of the depot. Camouflaged buildings were barely visible through the foliage. Charley could’ve sworn she was looking at the entrance to an underground bunker. Whatever the pirates needed to fix the Surprise might be located down that rabbit-hole. Not a minute could be wasted. The surviving bandits might already be holed up and it would be devilishly hard to get them out. The armored troop carrier tried to make a run for it, surging through the smashed front gate. Vin and Harry Teks bombarded it with plasma fire from their respective turrets. One of the bolts struck gold, slicing through the fuel line and crippling the vehicle. A few more bolts and the engine exploded, lifting the troop carrier into the air. It tipped onto its roof and spun slowly. A second explosion ripped it apart, scraps of armor plating raining from the sky. Charley cowered until the debris had settled. She made eye contact with each of her comrades and motioned for them to follow her into the trees. Within seconds the party was cautiously traversing the path the paja had taken.
The thunder of the stampede had faded somewhat, but the deer were still running amok along the camp’s northern perimeter. A dull boom signaled the fall of one of the fence plates. Judging from the sound, the paja had successfully spilled out into the woodland beyond. Silence descended as the herd made good their escape. The party huddled at the bunker face. There was no sign of activity inside.
“How?” growled Gronko, kicking the enormous double doors in frustration.
“Allow me,” Charley said brightly. “Or should I say, allow my PalBot.”
Charley presented FIGJAM to the others.
“I thought you’d never fuckin’ ask,” it said belligerently. “Humans are so stupid.”
Vin scowled. “We have no time for toys, Charley.”
FIGJAM’s digital readout flared. Charley wondered if a PalBot was capable of attacking a human, but the moment passed and it extended an arm into the data node beside the lock.
“You’ll trip the alarm,” Vin warned.
“You’ll trip over my dick, motherfucker.”
Vin drew his blaster and actually peeled off a shot. Charley pulled FIGJAM away just as the shot ricocheted off the door and into the yard.
“You’ll get us all killed,” she said angrily. Still glowering at FIGJAM, the burly pirate stepped away.
“Try that again, FJ,” Charley ordered.
The PalBot spoke to the bunker AI a second time, presumably using all its guile and charm to get them in. At length the armored double doors slid open. Harry grunted in appreciation.
“I like your friends, Charley,” he said with a broad smile as he took point, blaster raised. Inside, a corridor drifted into darkness. Soft red lights lined the base of the walls.
“Careful,” Vin said from behind. “They know we’re coming.”
Her heart hammering in her ears, Charley followed Harry. Halfway down the corridor a sound like a spinning wheel greeted them. As it gr
ew louder, she realized it was something rolling down the corridor toward them. Something small.
“Grenade!” she shouted.
42
A rush of air caressed Charley’s ear and the grenade was pushed back down the corridor, where it exploded against the wall. The flare blinded her for several seconds, but when she blinked away the afterglow she was glad to see that no one had been hurt. Gronko wore an arrogant grin and tapped a small canister under the main barrel on his heavy weapon.
“Generates a rush of air,” he said proudly. “Effective against grenades and other explosives. Lost count of the times it’s saved my life.”
Charley nodded. “You have good eyesight too.”
“Yeah, well, we could stand around and list all the ways renki are superior to humans,” he said, “but we’d be here for days.”
Charley followed the others further down the corridor. FIGJAM nuzzled her feet and she slotted him back into her utility belt.
An open doorway admitted to a larger chamber lined with beds. An inner barracks, but no sign of bandits.
“They’re holed up somewhere,” Vin said. “Probably the control room. Which means …”
Harry kicked open a door that read WORKSHOP.
“… their gear might be unattended.”
The pirates hustled into a room smelling of grease and circuitry. Gronko found a set of wide doors at the far end of the workshop. He hauled on a chain release and sunlight flooded the chamber. The shores of a wide, serene lake beckoned. They’d reached the northern end of the bunker and come out the other side, far beyond the camp’s northern perimeter. A square structure stood in the shallow water.
“Boathouse,” Harry said. “Looks like escape route if we need one.”
“We have some serious tech here” Vin called out. Charley rushed to his side. All manner of ship parts were neatly stored on the shelves and plastic pallets.
“My guess is a cargo ship arrives to receive goods every few weeks,” Vin said. “These parts are for temporary repairs only.” The pirate punched a crate in frustration. “I don’t think we’ll find everything we need to patch Surprise together.”
Charley put a hand on his shoulder. He’d obviously grown as attached to the Surprise as she had.
“Then we take what we can,” she said. “We just need a vehicle to transfer the -”
Gunfire drowned her voice. Gronko was firing from the double doors. An object splashed into the mud along the lake’s edge.
“Drone,” he called, nudging it with a boot.
“Bandits must’ve sent it from the control room,” Harry said.
“We gotta clean them out,” Vin said, forgetting about the ship parts. “Gronko, can you see exactly where the drone came from?”
“Someone up on the roof,” came the growled answer.
Harry hefted a service ladder. “Looks like we’ve got some climbing to do.”
The pirates climbed the ladder one by one and crouched on the roof of the bunker. Through the trees to the south Charley could see the smoking ruin of the bandit camp.
“Now what?” Harry asked.
“We wait,” Vin said curtly. “They’re bound to send another drone if their scanners have stopped picking up the first one.”
The tattooed pirate proved to be correct. After a tense minute, a hatch slid open and the ominous sound of an attack drone filled the air. The spherical unit hovered into view and Gronko lunged at it with his bare hands. Vin dropped two pulse grenades into the open hatch. Everyone hit the deck as an explosion rocked the chamber beneath them. Cries of anguish pierced the aftermath. Vin dropped through the hatch with a war cry. Brandishing her blaster, Charley followed close behind. At first, a thick veil of smoke obscured her view, but at length she could make out three or four bodies writhing on the floor. Gronko dropped down behind her and made a point of putting a bullet in each head. The alien seemed to take great delight in smiting Silent Runners. Vin was more interested in scouting the room for further threats.
“All clear,” he said pointedly, frowning at the bloodthirsty renki.
“Let me out,” said FIGJAM. Charley put it on top of the central console. The PalBot plugged himself in, diodes whirring.
“Shutting down security systems,” it reported.
“Thanks, FJ,” said Charley, checking the external corridor. No enemy activity. In addition to the corpses in the control room, she estimated there were seven or eight kills out in the yard.
“An entire squadron,” she concluded. “This facility must be important to the Silent Runners.”
“There’s a large room to the south,” FIGJAM reported. “Could be more goons in there.”
“Let’s go,” said Vin grimly. “Everyone else stay here.”
Charley followed him down the corridor and into a wide, shadowy warehouse area. Vin ripped a crate open and shied away from the smell. Charley risked a glance - tapo fruit. The exotic, tropical fruit was known to have strange properties. The salukar tribes on Gyron were said to use the fruit for certain ceremonies. The Silent Runners had clearly established a supply line from Bonesse.
“Interesting,” Vin said. “I’m pretty sure this stuff is illegal. Well, it wasn’t back in the old Imperial days anyway.”
“No ship parts,” Charley said, unable to hide her disappointment. She pointed to a goods lift in the center of the warehouse floor. “Wonder where that goes?”
“Into the jungle above, I think.”
Vin activated the lift once they were both in. It rose through a sliding aperture in the roof, where dappled sunlight greeted them. Vin had been correct - just off the edge of the roof stood a wall of jungle. The terminus of a zip line stood a few yards away. The line itself disappeared into the shadows of the jungle. A series of wide, shallow baskets hung from the cable at regular intervals.
“That’s how they transfer the fruit,” Vin said thoughtfully.
“Something’s not right in there,” Charley said. The monkeys and birds had fallen silent.
“Everything OK, Harry?” Charley asked nervously. But he was gone. At length he appeared in the goods lift with Vanessa, FIGJAM and Gronko.
“What’s going on?” Charley asked as she slotted FIGJAM into her belt.
“Play the message, PalBot,” Harry ordered.
FIGJAM played a scratchy recording of a male voice.
<… penetrated the lakeside depot. I repeat, a strike force has penetrated the lakeside depot. Send in two firebirds just to make sure of them.>
Charley looked at Vin - blood was already draining from his face.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” he said.
On cue, the roar of heavy engines rolled over the otherwise silent jungle, triggering anxiety in the hearts of the pirates. It was like the firebirds were already on top of them. Charley had never seen one, but this time she had no desire to satiate her curiosity.
“Everyone on the zip line,” Vin said impatiently as he fiddled with a control panel. The cable chugged into life, transporting empty containers through the jungle. “Girl, you go first.”
Vanessa climbed into a basket and discovered it was large enough to support her weight. With a panicked glance at Charley, she disappeared into the jungle.
“Gronko, look after her,” Charley ordered, waving the big alien on next. Thankfully, his basket held firm. A heatwave rolled across the pirates as a flying craft loomed into view. The vessel was shaped like a bird of prey and sported murderous-looking gatlings in its wings. Time seemed to slow down as the ammo chambers began spinning.
“Incoming flak, go, go, go!” Vin shouted.
Harry scooped Charley off her feet and shoved her into a basket before climbing in himself. Bouncing around alarmingly, the pair were whisked away through the trees. The baskets were spaced at around 400 yards, so it was difficult to tell if Vin had climbed into the next basket. All Charley could hear was the thunder
of heavy gatling fire. Every now and again she got a glimpse of Gronko in the basket ahead of them. At semi-regular intervals the zip line was tethered to great yaob trees. Encircling platforms had been erected at all such nodes. Though Charley was tempted to scramble onto one of the platforms, it was probably a good idea to flee as far as possible. The firebirds wouldn’t be able to follow into the jungle and the pirates stood a much better chance of surviving there. Just when Charley dared to hope they might have escaped, the zip line stopped moving, leaving the pair swinging in silence.
Charley looked to Harry for reassurance. “It’s alright, girl, we’ll think of something.”
She stepped in close to the old pirate. If they weren’t on the run for their lives, she might’ve actually enjoyed the ride. The zip line was high in the canopy and granted superb views of the colorful flowering creepers that dominated at this storey. Gronko was somewhere around a bend in front of them, and they still hadn’t seen any sign of Vin.
“What do we do?” Charley asked.
“We wait,” Harry said, closing his arms around Charley’s neck. She was happy to stand close to him, feeling that familiar sense of protection whenever he was near.
“Copy that, Vin, we’ll sit tight,” said Charley into the com.
43
It was always difficult waiting in such circumstances, but Charley and Harry had little choice. No one else could be seen. The chatter of gatlings had faded away. She wondered if Vin had been able to return fire and protect the rear. It wouldn’t be long before bandits were creeping along the zip line after them.
The Pirate Guild Page 20
