Outriders

by Ian Blackport

  Kyla shouted a panicky tirade on cue. “I’m detecting a leak in the propulsion core auxiliary catalyst motivator, which is emitting lethal levels of tungsten hexafluoride and radon. Sealing the bridge and venting the lower level and all adjacent corridors.”

  A schematic appeared above Taylor’s station, showing the Solar Flare in green with a flashing red indicator warning that their cargo bay was ajar in flight.

  Kyla twisted around and mouthed several words at Taylor: Insertion team is clear.

  With half the freighter’s complement gone to undertake their own mission, Taylor and those currently aboard had one priority: to give the insertion team enough time to broadcast their files. Nothing else mattered other than pinning down the military facility and keeping their personnel focused on the Solar Flare. Even if the only feasible way to achieve this objective was reckless beyond measure.

  *

  Alexis waited inside a blackened cargo container with her helmet sealed to the spacesuit she wore. Sitting on a magnetic levitation speeder bike behind Tessa, she leaned backward while gripping the seat beneath. Fierce vibrations seized the Solar Flare and shook Alexis as Connor tore through the atmosphere at a perilous velocity, straining bulkheads and hull integrity within the freighter. Alexis wanted to look upward in response to each violent tremor, even knowing she could see nothing beyond the container they waited inside. Visual amplification gear in her suit was offline, along with all other enhancement equipment except for basic communication transceivers. They could not risk the military or science installations on the ground detecting power fluctuations where none should be.

  “Steady,” Tessa whispered. “I can feel you twitching with every rattle.”

  “I’m having a difficult time staying calm.”

  “Your pilot is good. He’ll navigate this shitstorm.”

  “He’s never done anything like this before,” explained Alexis. “We’re usually better flyers.”

  “Just keep your composure. That’s all I need from you right now.”

  “Easy for you to—”

  Kyla’s voice echoed through their helmets, giving them a mere two second warning for what was about to happen. “I’m detecting a leak in the propulsion core auxiliary catalyst motivator, which is emitting lethal levels of tungsten hexafluoride and radon. Sealing the bridge and venting the lower level and all adjacent corridors.”

  Alexis thrust herself forward into a curled posture and wrapped both arms around Tessa’s midsection. Shrieking alarms resounded through the cargo hold and Alexis felt the container skid across floor with a high-pitched squeal as though kicked by a giant boot. The crate tumbled end over end through the cargo hold, throwing Alexis and Tessa into a somersault and against one interior wall. A harness enfolding their legs and waist held firm, until the container was ripped through the yawning cargo bay door and plummeted beyond the loading ramp.

  The sensation of weightlessness enveloped Alexis and flung her toward what currently passed for the ceiling, her trembling arms still clasping Tessa.

  “Three thousand meters,” Tessa affirmed.

  Alexis clenched her eyes shut and struggled not to vomit, which would be the worst experience of her life in a fully sealed spacesuit. She had no idea how Tessa remained alert, comfortable and focused as they plunged toward an unseen surface beyond the groaning container.

  “Two thousand meters.”

  Alexis released Tessa, fumbled for a control panel on her wrist and prepared to detonate non-explosive concussion charges rigged throughout the crate. Panic clawed from her writhing, nauseous stomach up to her gullet, yet she held firm and activated the display.

  “Fifteen hundred.”

  Alexis winced as gravity shifted again and they flipped among claustrophobic confines and scraped against one corrugated wall.

  “One thousand. Ignite.”

  Alexis jabbed the trigger mechanism and dazzling flashes peppered the crate, accompanied by pallid smoke and deafening noise dampened by her helmet. Walls split into fragmented metal, light poured in and air roared over her body while they emerged from the container and fell through the sky. Debris expelled from the cargo hold littered a wide area in all directions, twisting and breaking to pieces like glittering meteorites. Alexis watched another container crack apart in the distance straight ahead, freeing Reyes and Rinko on an identical maglev speeder.

  At five hundred meters above the surface Tessa activated the antigravity magnetic field and slowed their descent with a jolting shudder. Howling wind softened and the vehicle reoriented until Alexis was upright and the harness no longer jabbed into her legs. An expanse of green and brown grass sprinkled in snowdrifts stretched beneath them, broken by trees and scored boulders dragged under the retreating glacier’s weight. A weeping ice wall tarnished by dirt and particulates was barely visible far ahead, the scars from its relentless expansion thousands of years earlier still noticeable across the ground.

  Their vehicle drifted downward at a gentle, controlled rate and Alexis watched the valley floor grow closer. Within a minute their descent concluded and Alexis could hop off if she felt inclined to do so. Tessa lessened the magnetic levitation field until their bike hovered barely a hand’s width above the ground and deactivated thrusters.

  “You okay back there?” Tessa inquired.

  “No.”

  “We’re all alive. I say count your blessings and move on.”

  “I’ll try to once I find my errant heart and shove the useless thing back down my throat.”

  “Canales, Kaneshiro, can you read me?”

  Hissing distortion sounded in their ears for a moment until words became audible. In order to minimize the chances of Confederacy ground-based stations detecting their transmissions, the range was reduced to a pitiful twenty kilometers. Beyond that only white-noise and silence were noticeable, with scarcely a blip for listening or scanning equipment to identify.

  “…here…closing…barely able…”

  “What’s that?” Tessa asked. “I didn’t copy.”

  “…almost…range…”

  “Say again, Kaneshiro.”

  All static faded and the communication abruptly came through in clear definition. “We’re closing in on your position from a range of fifteen kilometers to your rear. Be there in a few.”

  “Acknowledged.” Tessa unstiffened her shoulders and glanced backward. “You can let go of me now.”

  “Oh, right.” Alexis belatedly released the other woman’s waist and leaned backward. “Sorry.”

  “I take it you’ve never been dropped from orbit before.”

  “What gave it away? I’m guessing you have. Though you’re pretty stone-cold and unruffled at all times, so maybe you’re just a better first-timer than me.”

  “No, I’ve gone through orbital insertion drops. A couple times in my younger days. Tends to be the easiest way to infiltrate a hostile world that doesn’t allow civilian traffic. A shielded OID is almost impossible to detect, since the pods barely give off any heat and have minimal software.”

  “And you survived them all. That’s comforting in retrospect.”

  “During one drop the pressure-dampening field malfunctioned and the pod suffered a rapid de-pressurization with me still inside. Lost both my legs below the knee and almost bled to death hidden in some backwoods forest.”

  “Holy shit. I’m glad you didn’t tell me that horror story before we jumped.”

  “I figured hearing about my exploits might rattle your nerves.”

  “You’re damn right it would. What happened to you?”

  “A few other specialists found me passed out trapped inside the crumpled pod and stabilized my wounds until our pre-arranged extraction several days later. I was relieved of duty for six months while artificial replacements could be designed and delicately attached. I didn’t care for the forced sabbatical.”

  “Sounds like something you’d hate. Sorry about your legs.”

  “Don’t be. These ones are a resili
ent superalloy weave of nanocrystalline diamond and graphene. I can stroll through lava or acid if I don’t mind needing to buy new shoes afterward.”

  Alexis caught movement to one side and craned her head in time to catch glimpses of another maglev speeder approaching. “Here come the others.”

  Reyes guided his vehicle closer and came alongside at a leisurely speed. Rinko released handholds on the seat and waved.

  “Nice to see the plan didn’t have any hiccups,” Rinko affirmed. “You doing okay?”

  “More or less,” replied Alexis.

  Tessa rested her arms on the speeder’s control panel. “Please tell me we remained undetected after all that.”

  “Hard to tell.” Rinko consulted a wrist display on her suit and accessed its sensor suite. “No unusual chatter or tightbeam communications that might indicate they noticed us, but I’m limited by only using passive scanners. Hopefully they bought our ruse and believed we were nothing but debris ejected from a falling freighter. Though I can’t say for certain.”

  Reyes reached above his head and cracked his neck. “Fine by me. I say we head to the science facility and see if they shoot at us on the way. That’ll be our answer.”

  “I’ve got nothing better.” Tessa revved their thrusters and kicked the speeder into gear. “Move out.”

  Chapter 26

  Taylor punched a button on his console and muted the broadcast to Kanaloa Base Command on their end. With Alexis’ team deployed on the surface, it was time to begin the most dangerous phase of the airborne operation. “Harun, bring those Raptors online and get them into the atmosphere.”

  “On it. They’ll be live and connected with us in two minutes.”

  “Connor, give me updates.”

  “I’m following their instructions, but the heading brings us away from the military facility.”

  “Then alter your flight path,” Taylor directed. “We need to have line-of-sight with that base.”

  “Seems a good way to piss the gun-toting, trigger-happy soldiers off.”

  “Lie to them. Do whatever it takes to keep those aggravated halfwits happy.”

  “Cunning strategy, boss.” Connor tilted the yoke and banked their freighter in a clumsy, wobbling manner, giving the appearance he fought against malfunctioning systems. “Altering course.”

  Base Command challenged them within moments. “Merchant’s Kiss, be advised you’re drifting to starboard. Your current vector is not viable. Say again, not viable. Reorient to your approved trajectory at once or we will be forced to take action.”

  Taylor waited for Connor to reach across one terminal and deactivate several systems before he resumed transmitting their side of the conversation.

  “We’ve lost maneuvering thrust nozzles two and four,” Connor claimed. “I’m having trouble adjusting course.”

  “You are prohibited from continuing on this path,” warned the controller. “Turn back now.”

  Mountains lush with greenery and crowned by snow appeared through the viewport ahead. Structures were visible on a sheltered plateau at the edge of one escarpment, stretching in myriad directions and connected by walkways spanning clefts and gorges. Antennas crowded rooftops climbing three floors high, transport vehicles and shuttles lined a landing pad, soldiers conducted training exercises on fields and rifle ranges.

  Kyla brought screens to life at her gunnery station and lowered her voice until only Taylor could discern the words. “Base within range. Bringing weapons systems online and initializing targeting protocols.”

  “We get one chance.”

  “I’ll make the most of it.”

  Targeting crosshairs flared from yellow to red on Kyla’s screen and she opened fire with the freighter’s Event Horizon cannons.

  The planetary controller monitoring their incursion from inside the facility shouted a garbled warning still audible so long as the broadcast remained active. “Weapons are live on the incoming vessel! Say again, the freighter is hostile and targeting—”

  Plasma lashed Confederacy starfighters stationed on the ground, shredding their unshielded hulls and rupturing the propulsion cores in a cataclysmic firestorm that sprayed flaming shrapnel skyward and melted the tarmac surface beneath. Fires and pluming black smoke erupted in a volcanic detonation as Connor strafed the isolated airfield and Kyla rained down an unrelenting aerial bombardment. Taylor scarcely caught sight of base personnel sprinting away from the explosions before the Solar Flare swept past and ascended with all engines and systems at full power once more.

  “Activate kinetic buffers,” directed Taylor.

  Defensive anti-aircraft batteries mounted on the facility discharged kinetic projectiles and warning alarms shrieked throughout the bridge. Their freighter reeled when one accelerated slug clipped the starboard wing and scored a gouge across their hull.

  “Status of enemy fighter capability,” Taylor demanded.

  “Four Blinkers destroyed outright or crippled,” reported Kyla.

  Connor’s hissing voice spoke through gritted teeth as he wrenched the freighter into a sharp roll. “No chance I can make another pass. Those damn guns will tear us apart.”

  “Come about on an eastern heading and stay within range,” Taylor directed. “We need to keep their cannons focused on us.”

  Straining bulkheads echoed through corridors and a tremor rattled the walls. “That’ll happen most definitely.”

  “Raptors on station,” said Harun. “Visual feed linking to our monitors.”

  Screens appeared showing tundra and stunted trees hurtling beneath the low-flying stealth aircraft as the two remotely-operated vehicles surged across the Kanaloan surface.

  “The Raptors are registering heat signatures descending from low orbit,” reported Kyla. “At least two or three separate vessels, each starfighter size. We’ll have company soon.”

  The Solar Flare banked to port and rocketed between jagged mountain precipices. Dual-linked ground cannons continued to track the freighter, pounding craters in the snow-capped summits. Pulverized rocks rattled off their hull and Connor dived into a chasm beyond.

  Harun half-turned in his chair, one eye still focused on a screen. “Raptor 04 is registering an anomaly two hundred and eighty kilometers from our position.”

  “I think we have more pressing concerns,” snapped Connor.

  “Onboard surveillance suites are tracking movement on a direct heading toward the science installation. Not that I need to explain myself, since the choice isn’t yours to make. I’m diverting one drone to determine what’s happening out there.”

  Raptor 04 veered away on a sharp trajectory, blurring the screen into a haze of gray sky and snowy ground until the image steadied and the machine tracked its elusive target. Their remaining Raptor approached the Confederacy military facility and launched into evasive maneuvers among a hail of anti-aircraft gunfire.

  “Sensors on Raptor 09 have located concealed cannon emplacements one kilometer to the northeast of the base,” Harun said. “It’s likely the operators are hoping we’ll stumble unawares into the killing zone.”

  “We might have,” responded Taylor. “The area seemed slightly less deadly on our screens.”

  Kyla gripped her seat as the Solar Flare pitched to starboard. “Inbound Confederacy reinforcements are tentatively identified as two Blinker-class starfighters. They’ll be within weapons range in four minutes.”

  “That’s wonderfully optimistic,” Connor remarked. “Thinking we’ll still be alive in four minutes.”

  Glaring red flashes peppered Harun’s screen and a status report appeared. “Raptor’s been hit.”

  The Solar Flare turned beyond range of one anti-aircraft battery and climbed higher, glimpsing their endangered drone far ahead, the surrounding sky lit by streaks of cannon fire.

  “How bad is the damage?” questioned Taylor.

  “I’ve lost maneuvering capabilities,” Harun affirmed. “Visual feed is being terminated.”

  The drone re
eled into a chaotic spin as flaming pieces fragmented apart and then erupted in a blinding fireball when the self-destruct was triggered. Modern surveillance aircraft were designed to explode after taking critical damage to prevent the enemy from salvaging data or electronics. Black smoke lingered in the air, a dark smudge blotting the sky while vaporized particles drifted to the ground.

  “Damn it,” Harun hissed. “Raptor 09’s been destroyed by sustained weapons fire.”

  “Recall the other one,” instructed Taylor.

  “Negative. Not until I determine what the mysterious signal is.”

  “Who cares?” Connor muttered. “It’s in the middle of nowhere.”

  “There shouldn’t be a signal in a valley that doesn’t have facilities or training grounds. That’s why I have a bad feeling.”

  Taylor consulted a console showing a schematic of damage inflicted on the Solar Flare. “One flyby and then you bring the drone back.”

  “No promises.”

  Connor brought their freighter toward the surface and skimmed vegetation crystallized with frost, throwing the Solar Flare into a spiralling ascent when ordnance fired from the facility’s cannons detonated against frozen soil. Dirt and ice shards plumed skyward like a snowy geyser.

  “Raptor 04 is closing in on the unknown anomaly,” announced Harun.

  Numbers indicating range from its target decreased in one corner on a screen linked to the drone. The image magnified, pinpointing a ground vehicle traveling across rough terrain while also displaying information regarding its class, capabilities, tonnage and crew.

  “Troop transport,” Harun said. “A Trailblazer vehicle carrying twelve soldiers in three fireteams. Probably conducting exercises in the – shit, the speeder has heavy ordnance cannons!”

  The image flashed in shaky rhythms when artillery launched from the transport, ripping through their lightly armored Raptor as Harun grasped the controls and desperately struggled to avoid lethally accurate volleys. Crackling distortion appeared on the console before vanishing into a black void.