Riot turned to the others for clarification. They were all wearing their new uniforms. Dark grey was the primary color of their pants and button-up long-sleeved shirts. The shirt was double-breasted and bore a secondary color in correspondence with their class.
Vet and Rizzo were the pilot and the mechanic, so their tops were trimmed with a lighter grey. Deborah and Wang were considered doctors and scientists, so they were given a blue trim. Riot’s was red with a badge on the front right of her shirt, a spear pointed up, designating her as the ship’s captain.
“Did you take those mice out?” Riot looked over to Wang with a raised eyebrow. “I told you, no pranks.”
“I took them all out of her bed.” Wang shrugged, counting his fingers in front of him. “I got them all. There were only four. I picked them all up: Eeny, Meeny, Miny, and Moe.”
“You put mice in my quarters?” Deborah’s face turned red. “I’m not even talking about that.”
“Take a breath, Bubbles. You look like you’re going to pop.” Riot peered out through the front of the ship to a large countdown timer. The screen hung in the hanger, marking the passing of time until they departed. They had a few minutes left. “What are you talking about?”
“Evonne, bring up a view of the outside of the ship, the spot with the name of our craft.” Deborah’s eyes never left the four Marines in front of her as she instructed the AI. “Zoom in on that name.”
“Yes, Doctor,” Evonne spoke in her Australian accent that made the word “doctor” sound more like “docta.”
The three windows on the ship’s bridge could also act as screens. Evonne took advantage of this as she used the middle screen to show the squad what Deborah was so irate about.
Someone had tampered with the ship’s name of Peace Envoy One. The white lettering had not been removed; rather, something had been added. Underneath, in the same plain, white block lettering, were the words: Click, Click, Boom!
Riot suspected Rizzo’s artistic talents had made the change, but she wasn’t about to rat out her own team member. They had minutes left until their departure, so something like this would have to wait. Still, Deborah had to be pacified.
“Well, that’s horrible.” Riot went to Deborah and put a hand onto her shoulder. She addressed her men with the tone of a drill sergeant. “We’re about to leave, but you have my word that whoever did this will be found out. A full investigation will be opened, and if any of you had anything to do with this, there will be hell to pay!”
Vet, Wang, and Rizzo stood at attention, eyes forward.
“There, there.” Riot patted Deborah on the head. “Better?”
“I … I don’t know.” Deborah looked at her in confusion. “Are you mocking me?”
“Peace Envoy One,” Captain Harlan’s voice came over the ship’s comms. “You have a green light to go.”
Riot took the opportunity to break her current conversation with Deborah and assume a position in her command chair. The rest of the squad did the same. Rizzo took the pilot’s seat in front of Riot, while Vet buckled himself into a seat on their right. Wang and Deborah did the same in seats to her left.
Riot took a moment to center herself. She sat in her chair, a high-backed one that almost looked like a throne. There were controls on the armrest, some of which Riot understood, others she was still learning. One function caught her eye: the feature to take over manual control of the ship. She would have to rely on Evonne and Deborah until she was more comfortable with the inner workings of deep space travel.
The screen in front of them dissolved back to a clear view of the hanger.
“May God watch over you and bring you back safely,” Captain Harlan said over the comm. “We’re counting on you to secure the future of Earth. Bring us back some allies, Marines.”
“Corporal Rizzo.” Riot prepared herself to say the words that seemed like they belonged more in a movie than in real life. “Take us out.”
Rizzo’s shaved head bobbed in front of her as he began touching controls on the display in front of him. Holograms popped up on his display as they had in Captain Harlan’s office. His hands moved through the holograms with practiced ease.
A moment later, a brief hum began as the engines kicked to life.
“All systems are go.” Vet scowled and squinted through his one eye at the readout in front of him. “Evonne, can you start the music, please?”
“Music?” Deborah asked, confused. “There’s no music in space.”
Rizzo lifted the craft off the ground, hovering in midair. A large, circular steel door opened in front of them. A massive black tunnel would provide them a route from the underground Bulwark to the sky above.
“Intergalactic” by the Beastie Boys began to pump through the bridge as Evonne acknowledged Vet’s request.
“No, this is not how we do things here.” Deborah looked over at Riot, alarmed.
“I like it,” Evonne said.
“Buckle up.” Riot reached behind either shoulder and brought the harness down in front of her. It fit her like a rollercoaster ride’s safety belt. “Rizzo, punch it.”
A moment later, the ship jolted forward. It passed into the tunnel, where bright, white lights implanted into the sides clicked on. Rizzo maneuvered through, then angled upward as they headed for the surface. The feeling was like being hurtled head-first into a tunnel by a catapult.
“Rizzo, the exit door isn’t open!” Deborah screamed from her seat. “Wait for the door to open!”
Rizzo either didn’t hear her or didn’t care. He kept the same speed as he headed up.
I wonder how far Peace Envoy Three will make it when we die, Riot thought as she held her tongue. He knows what he’s doing. God, I hope he knows what he’s doing.
19
At the last possible moment, the exit doors to the tunnel slid open and the craft rocketed out into the clean, open air. Everyone was temporarily blinded as their eyes grew accustomed to the sun’s harsh glare.
“Holy, Toledo!” Wang was breathing heavily from his seat. “I think I peed myself a little. Yep, yep, that’s pee. I’m going to need to be excused soon.”
“Should have worn some ‘Depends’, like me.” Vet shook his head as if there was nothing disturbing about what he’d just said. “I peed myself, too, but I already feel as dry as the sand on a desert.”
Riot heard them talking, but her attention was on the scene in front of them, not the state of her underwear. Already they were leaving Earth’s atmosphere, rising so quickly, Riot wasn’t able to fully appreciate how beautiful the sky and space beyond it really were.
Blues touched by the sun’s bright yellow rays were giving way to the blackness of space that extended beyond. The sun was to their right as they left everything they knew, and the Earth itself, behind.
The last lines of the song pumping over the comms unit died.
“System check.” Riot cut into the conversation of adult diapers. “How are we looking?”
“Engines are good,” Vet said from his seat.
“Comms are still up and active with the Bulwark,” Deborah reported.
“Evonne, how are you feeling?” Riot asked the ship.
“If by ‘how am I feeling’ you are referring to the state of the ship, then we are feeling all well and safe. We will not be burning in the atmosphere as we enter into space,” Evonne replied in her chipper female voice. “I also enjoyed the song very much.”
The next few minutes sent them vibrating through the atmosphere and into space. All things considered, Riot had to give it to the Syndicate engineers. They knew how to build their spacecraft. The trip had been a little rocky, but nothing worse than a rollercoaster at a large amusement park.
Everyone shared a silent moment as they drifted into space. The dark and lonely void that existed between planets, stars, and moons opened up in front of them in all directions.
Rizzo cut the thruster, taking a moment to enjoy the scene himself.
“Bulwark is trackin
g us just fine.” Deborah maneuvered around her own hologram desk. “We look like we're ready to plot a course to Hoydren.”
“Do it.” Riot couldn’t take her eyes off the wonder that space brought. “Rizzo, when Deborah’s locked in the coordinates, you’re good to go.”
Rizzo gave Riot a thumbs-up over his shoulder.
“When we go FTL, we’ll have some downtime before we exit into Hoydren’s orbit.” Deborah’s fingers were busy locking in the exact point of destination. “When we exit light speed, we need to be ready for anything. That’s where we lost contact with Peace Envoy One—I mean, the other Peace Envoy One. There! I just sent the coordinates to Corporal Rizzo.”
“Roger that.” Riot nodded her agreement to Deborah. “Rizzo, let’s do it.”
Rizzo went to work at his display, and a moment later, a countdown timer appeared on the middle screen of the ship, starting from five.
When the timer reached one, the scene around the ship shifted from the black of space with tiny, bright dots all around them, to a multicolored swirl of every color Riot could think of. The closest thing she could relate the colors of light speed with were the Northern Lights she had seen while visiting Alaska.
The colors were beautiful, fading out and coming in bright once more—first green, then easing into blue and yellow, and so on.
“This,” Vet said to himself more than to anyone else, “is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Amazing,” Deborah agreed.
“Amazing for now.” Riot drummed the fingers of her right hand on the armrest of her captain’s chair. “When we exit, we’ll have to be prepared for anything.”
The hours they had until they were scheduled to exit light speed into Hoydren’s orbit were spent checking and rechecking the ship and supplies. Rizzo stayed at the helm, while Vet and Deborah performed system checks.
Wang slipped out of the bridge, saying he had something to take care of. As much as Riot wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, she wondered if it had anything to do with a trip to the med bay and a bottle of pills.
Riot made a trip to check their gear, as well as to go over everything she knew about Hoydren and the Trilords one last time. She sat in her quarters, studying all of the information she had already studied a hundred times before while preparing at the Bulwark.
Although she could have the information on one of the fancy new hologram displays, Riot still preferred good old paper and pen. She opened a folder, finding a seat on her bed. Her fingers turned pages as her eyes registered notes made in her own hand.
After the defeat of the Syndicate, humanity took over the weapons and technology, even discovering the FTL lanes they now used. Not many understood the intentions of the Syndicate, but it was clear that they had purposefully set up defensive systems around the Earth. Now humanity was creating teams to move out and find more allies among the stars. SPEAR was the beginning of this. More specifically, Riot and her Marines were.
The Trilords were no joking matter. Riot had come to learn this first-hand. It wasn’t their size or prowess as fighters that worried her now; it was their ideology as a race. They were a culture of proud, loyal warriors who believed deeply in family and custom. What would their ancient customs say about allying with strangers from another planet?
“Riot?” Evonne’s voice echoed into Riot’s room.
“Damn it!” Riot jolted in her seated position. “Evonne, this had better be good.”
“You told me to notify you when the ship was about to exit light speed.”
A ball of worry twisted in Riot’s stomach. “Let’s go.”
20
Whatever we see on the other side,” Riot said, sitting straight in the captain’s chair, preparing her squad for anything. “Whether it’s enemy spacecraft, or a merry band of demon Christmas bears; whatever we come up against, it has more to fear from us than we have from them.”
“Arrrooo!”
“Trust your instinct. You’ve had the best training the Corps has to offer. We’re all weapons from the inside out. Think fast, move faster.”
“Arrrooo!”
“Bring it!” Vet sat in his seat, his own eye over the controls, ready to divert energy to the ship’s shields, cut power on and off engines, and a variety of other functions.
The large red numbers counting them down from hyperspeed flashed in middle window again. It was at five…
Deborah sat wide-eyed, bracing herself against her desk, despite the harness that held her in.
Four…
Riot had given Wang control over the ship’s guns; he was in charge of both the heavy blasters on either side of the ship’s frame, as well as the heavier laser beam mounted on the top of the ship. There were a dozen other smaller weapons they could use in a fight, but these would be their bread and butter.
Three…
“Let’s roar into that good night one more time wolves!” Wang shouted.
Two…
“Arrrooo!”
One…
The ship exited hyperspeed in the space of a millisecond. One moment, they were traveling amidst a multicolored glow that would put the best light show to shame; the next, they were in front of a nest.
That was the only word for it. A floating asteroid a mile wide and just as deep drifted lazily in space. On the asteroid, and surrounding the rock, was an army of creatures flapping their wings with no real sense of urgency.
“Holy Reverend.” Vet’s voice was more like a child who had just witnessed the boogie monster sneak out of his closet and give him a wink. “Are those—”
“What the hell are dragons doing in space?” Wang finished Vet’s thought.
“This wasn’t in any of the notes.” Deborah looked over at Riot with panic in her eyes. “This was never part of the plan.”
“Hold yourself together.” Riot was still in awe herself, a plan still formulating in her mind as she calculated the risks and rewards. “We’ll make it. Evonne,” she ordered, “amplify what we’re seeing in front of us, main screen.”
“Yes, Riot,” Evonne’s voice answered back as she obeyed.
Riot understood she had a moment, maybe less, before the creatures noticed their latest neighbors. Riot took the time to study them. They were every color, every size she could imagine. The youngest no more than a baby the size of a dog, the largest rivaling their own ship for size.
She didn’t want to use the word “dragon,” but what else could they be? Massive, leather wings spanned out on either side of their bulky bodies. Two hind legs and two front legs covered in scales came in front of a swishing tail, also lined with scales. Mouths lined with jagged teeth, reptilian eyes, and razor-sharp talons finished their intimidating forms.
That was it. Time was up. The closest dragon, a large, black beast with red eyes, jerked his head to take a look at the spaceship. It opened his mouth, showing a maw full of teeth unlike anything Riot had ever seen as it roared a warning to the rest of the dragons, both flying by and floating in the air.
Hundreds of heads swiveled and took in Riot’s spacecraft. Wings spread from nearly every reptilian body as they took flight to meet the perceived attack on their colony.
“Rizzo, get us out of here, to the planet if you can,” Riot ordered. “Wang, only shoot if you have to.”
Both men obeyed without question. Rizzo dropped them in a tight dive that would send them under the colony of dragons.
Riot could feel a sheen of sweat gather at her brow despite the lack of heat on the bridge. At once, she understood what had become of the actual Peace Envoy One—the poor bastards had landed point-blank in the middle of a freaking dragon asteroid.
The planet of Hoydren lay dead ahead, its two suns just over the horizon to their left. The planet looked slightly smaller than Earth, with rich green landmasses surrounded by the deep blue of oceans.
The dragon horde recognized what Rizzo was about to do and dove to counter his move. The next instant, Rizzo was swerving between doze
ns of dragons. It was like a nightmare. Jaws snapped at them, while talons tore at the space they had been in only a moment before.
The ship shuddered as something large struck the rear.
“We’ve got a hitchhiker.” Vet punched a few more buttons on his display. “A big mother just attached itself to the underside of the hull.”
“Riot?” Wang waited for her to give the command to fire. “Riot?”
“Wang, hold your fire.” Riot didn’t have any love for the animals, but it did seem like a waste of everyone’s time to start blowing them away. “Deborah, plot me a course out of here. Rizzo, show me what you can do. Let’s get this POS detached from our butt and get the hell out of here. Drive it like you stole it.”
The words were just out of Riot’s mouth as Rizzo slammed the thrusters forward and sent the ship screaming toward the green and blue planet of Hoydren. Dragons bounced off the ship’s hull as the ship barreled forward.
“Bubbles, how are we doing on that flight plan?” Riot forced herself to say despite the pressure she was feeling as they charged forward.
“Got it,” Deborah grabbed the desk in front of her as the sound of wrenching metal came from the rear of the ship. “I think we lost our hitchhiker.”
“Evonne?” Riot asked as she was jerked to the side from an insane maneuver Rizzo performed to avoid another collision.
“The creature has fallen off,” Evonne reported.
Just like that, the view in front of the ship was clear. A ball of fire began at the nose of the plane and spread up as they entered Hoydren’s atmosphere.
Riot let out a sigh of relief, though she wouldn’t have felt so good about her situation if she knew what waited for them on the planet’s surface.
21
Rizzo followed the flight course set out by Deborah. Vet was in the back of the ship, checking out damages, with Evonne’s help. They glided over the lush, jungle-like terrain just above the tree line.
War Wolves: Boxset 1-3 Page 8
