“Any report from Tamber?” Oz asked.
“They were on the other side of Kambis,” Henrietta said quietly. “Haven Shore is fine, they had a minor flash, only two of our military installations are down as far as I can tell.”
“I think its safe to assume they lost power in the flash,” added Lieutenant Commander Erron. “Their emergency drills put reset time at roughly nine minutes for the eastern-most base, and six minutes and thirty two seconds for our base at Un-Tam. I’ll tell you as soon as they report in. Cursory scans forwarded from British Alliance Command confirm that our bases are still there, life signs are consistent with their expected compliment.”
“That’s something,” Oz said. “Did our British Alliance or Lorander friends lose anything in the blast?”
“The British lost a minor orbital platform, but everyone got out in time. Lorander is fine,” replied Lieutenant Commander Erron.
“Flight,” Oz said, looking through the floor. It did not become transparent, and his seat did not rebroadcast his voice to the level below. He walked to the ramp instead. “How long until we can get ships to the Blessed Mission?”
“I don’t know,” Chief Mendle said. “Everything’s still rebooting, the Triton may have weathered that pulse fine, but our fighters will take a minute. I’m not going to launch anything without a diagnostic. Our new gunships are all fine though, Clever Dream already checked in and wants to go after them.”
“Tell Leiutenant Garrison to go ahead. He can have any gunship that’s still in fighting shape to go with him,” Oz replied.
“British Alliance Navnet just went down,” one of the Flight Crew announced. “Critical transmitter failure.”
“What about Haven Shore?” Oz asked.
“They’re good, but three of the communications satellites they use to forward commands are down,” Chief Mendle said. “Looks like we’ll have to move into position and become a relay until we can get satellites in position around what’s left of Kambis.”
“Let me guess, everything on that side of Kambis is-“
“Obliterated!” Chief Mendle said, throwing up her hands. “Ka-frikkin-boom!”
“All right, looks like the Triton is stuck here for a while, coordinate with the Barricade, see if we can get some help,” Oz said.
“What? From those untrained monkeys? The only place I wouldn’t take directions from a Ranger is space, especially when they’ve barely had time to learn to point their own ship in the right direction. No thanks, we’re fine, Admiral. We’ll keep ships from colliding into each other and get temporary relay sattellites back in orbit by the end of our shift. But hey, while we’re talking about help, why don’t you open communications with the Lorander ship over there? Maybe they’ll give us a hand with clean up after staying out of a fight that cost us a resource-rich planet and nearly burned Tamber back into the stone age.”
“Tell me if there’s anything we can do,” Oz said, returning to the bridge.
“I love how she takes an attack on the ship personally,” Victor said. “Not that I don’t.”
“I know, I’m just glad her language has improved since she became a mom,” Oz replied.
‘You would not be so impressed if you could hear her thoughts,” Hausgiest told him telepathically. ‘I have never sensed such irritation. It goes beyond what language could share.’
“Let’s see if we can get a few more people down there to help her direct traffic,” Oz told Victor.
“Good idea,” he replied, standing up and starting for the Flight Deck.
Chapter 21
Lead From The Middle
With the first group of captives taken and bound behind them, the crew moved on, leaving a single stealthed squad to watch over their prisoners. Jake, Minh-Chu, Alice and Ayan were exploring corridors well behind one of the forward groups. In his current condition, Jake couldn’t bring himself to inconvenience one of the forward boarding teams by joining their number. Stephanie, Alaka and Remmy had it well in hand. Besides, he wanted to stay near Ayan, Minh-Chu, and the least armoured members of his crew behind them.
Three heavily armoured soldiers took the lead as they carefully traversed the central section of the ship. Most of them hadn’t been on a simulated boarding operation, let alone the real thing. Jake knew they were the safest group with Alaka’s squads ahead, Stephanie’s to the right, and Remmy’s Rangers to the left. Alice’s squad moved behind them as a rear guard.
The first minutes after exiting the wormhole were the worst. The ship was silent except for the diminishing hums of systems powering down. It took only minutes to get everyone organized into their squads and moving. They all scanned rooms as they moved. Alaka’s boarding teams across the front of their formation took the most captives as they went, killing only five soldiers, stunning and binding thirty-seven crewmembers.
Jake listened in on the action, which was quick in every case, wishing he was at the front. Everyone in command knew that would be a mistake, including him. He was being kept on his feet by stims, his balance was assisted by his suit. He could still give competent commands from the centre of their troops formation. That was his best role.
The first escape pod to launch was the most startling. It happened just ahead and two decks above them, a loud ping and the blast of a booster firing against the interior door. It was followed by several more, Jake lost count after seventeen. “How many people per pod?” Jake asked.
“Twenty eight,” Ayan replied. “Every fifth one has a micro wormhole generator. It’ll take them about an hour to charge.”
“That explains why we’re finding so few crew,” Alaka said. “There is no fight here, our scans show nineteen life signs aft.”
Jake looked at the tactical readouts of the rear of the ship in time to see the nine life signs move rapidly away from the ship, obviously in a pod. “There they go,” Jake said. A movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he looked up just in time to see a trio of grenades bounce across the hallway in front of them. “Everyone down!” Jake said as he raised his rifle and tried to fire at the grenades with a gel suspension round, meant to expand around a target and affix it to a surface. He didn’t know if the gel round would help in the least, but it was all he had time to do.
The explosion struck him and the three soldiers in front of him before he could tell if he got the round off. Smoke and fire filled the broad causeway after the initial explosion, and Jake was immediately on his feet. His heads up display informed him that painkillers had been administered locally, nanobots and recovery injections were administered before he was fully on his feet. One of the soldiers in front of him was already being put into emergency stasis, the other two were unconscious, and their automated medical systems were treating them. Ayan’s life signs were solid, but her armour was ruptured on the left hand side. Her arm was broken and burned, something the nanobots and recovery meds were already taking care of. Everyone else got off lucky.
A shadow moved towards them through the black smoke at great speed. Jake was almost fully on his feet, and lowered his shoulder into the oncoming shape. “Get back!” Jake said as he felt the heavy form collide with him hard enough to knock him onto his back. The enemy soldier’s shields were up, the sensation of a shield clashing with metal was unmistakeable. He could feel the stock of a rifle trapped under his left leg, and he scrambled for it as he saw the shape of an Order Knight in full armour.
The hallway was filled with bright flashing light from his right, Ayan was down on one knee, firing a rifle loaded with anti-framework rounds on full automatic. He could hear her screaming through her clenched teeth as the nearby explosions of dozens of rounds on her enemy and the wall behind him immediately raised the temperature of that section of the hallway past what normal skin could tolerate. Her bare arm and a small section of her shoulder were scorched by the time her suit created a thin emergency seal.
The Order Knight was across the corridor before Jake could stop him, knocking Ayan’s rifl
e out of her hands and sending her several metres down the hallway. By the time he turned towards Jake, he had the rifle that was trapped under his leg in hand, and he opened fire.
With the Order Knight less than two metres away, he was able to fire eleven rounds before the Knight grabbed the rifle out of his hands as though Jake was a toddler and the weapon was a toy. A monofilament blade emerged from the Knight’s wrist armour.
A flash of silver passed between Jake and the Knight before he could bring his weapon down on Jake, and his enemy seemed to hesitate. Jake looked up and saw Minh-Chu standing off to the side with a nanoblade raised high, it had the hilt of a traditional samurai sword. “Fall down,” he said as he kicked the Order Knight’s shoulder. The Knight’s head rolled free.
Jake was up and at Ayan’s side in the next instant. The crisis was over, but there could be more Knights nearby.
“Come in, Jake, we read weapon’s fire in your section and are responding,” Remmy said urgently.
Ayan nodded as Jake helped her up. “Emergency treatment’s taking care of me, I’m okay.”
“This is Ronin,” Minh-Chu said in response to Remmy’s communication. “We’re all right, but we’re going to have to increase the intensity of our scans and re-clear the ship. We had to put down an Order Knight here. Getting ready to dispose of it now,” he said as he helped one of the soldiers who were in the front up.
“All right, we’ll start a volumetric scan of the ship interior,” Remmy said. “We’re near a primary terminal, looks like flight operations. Requesting cover while we get ready to fly this bird home. Pretty sure we have tow systems so we can bring the Warlord with us.”
“I’ll send two squads your way, Remmy. Another two squads are already on their way to the Captain’s group,” Alaka replied. “Volumetric scanning shows movement in sector twenty one. There is at least one more Knight aboard. We are moving to close around him. Don’t worry about any more Knights or spooks, Captain, we know they’re here, and we will finish this hunt for you. Get your group together and move to the Ranger’s position. That is the most secure position aboard.”
“Acknowledged, we’ll head over as soon as we finish cleaning up here,” he replied. Jake couldn’t help but look at Ayan for an extra moment. Her heavy armour was split open on the left side, but the temporary vacsuit had closed the gap, and his medical readings on her said she was completely healed. He was left with the thought that he could have lost her just moments before, and he could have been killed if it wasn’t for her. “You saved my ass there,” he said. “Kicked some too.”
“I don’t train with the Rangers for nothing,” Ayan said. “You did pretty well yourself, but I think we both owe Minh a drink.”
They joined Minh-Chu as he picked up the remains of the Order Knight. Jake’s command and control unit warned him that the Knight was already beginning to regenerate a new head. The warning on his heads up display was enough to spur everyone into motion. “Do we blow him up here?” asked Ashley, who looked frazzled and worried.
Jake looked around for a moment then noticed something on the map display inside his visor. “Nearest airlock, this way!” he said as he put himself under one arm of the heavy Order Knight. “I’m calling dibs on his rifle,” Jake said as he and Minh-Chu dragged him through a hatchway to the right, down a ramp then into a debarkation room made for droids and crewmembers tasked with making repairs on the outer hull. They dropped him on top of the airlock hatch at their feet.
“Wait!” Ayan said, running to catch up, holding the Knight’s de-helmed head at arms length with both hands. “His head!”
“Yup,” Jake said as he folded a grenade and the last three explosive rounds he had for his ruined quad rifle into the Knight’s chest armour.
Minh-Chu accepted the head and put it down on the hatch. “This is for you,” he said to it as he pushed a grenade into its mouth and set the timer to three minutes to match the timer Jake had set.
Jake punched the inner door button. The hatch opened and the Order Knight’s corpse fell into the outer hatch. “Did it look like his eyes are moving?” Jake asked.
“No, it’s all in your head,” Minh-Chu said, prompting an “Oh, God!” response from where Dent watched with everyone else at the end of the hallway. “Cheesy!”
“Silence! Jinxy pilot!” Minh-Chu shouted over his shoulder as they watched the inner door close behind the Order Knight.
“All right, adding a little extra pressure to the outer cabin,” Jake said as he turned one of the environmental dials.
“Everyone say buh-bye to the Knight who tried to murder us,” Minh-Chu said as he floppily waved his hand at the Knight’s corpse through the airlock window.
Jake looked over his shoulder at the small crowd that had gathered at the end of the service hallway in time to see most of them emulating Minh-Chu’s wave and saying ‘buh-bye.” He tapped the button to open the exterior door then pressed YES when the control screen asked him if he was sure.
The Order Knight and his head were sent out into space along with the rush of pressurized air in the airlock. Several people, Ashley and Dent included, squeezed into the service hallway so they could watch through the airlock window. “How long did you guys set the timer?” asked Dent.
“Three minutes,” Jake replied.
“That seems long now,” Minh-Chu said.
“I know, right?” Ayan remarked. “I can’t even see him anymore.”
“Better safe than sorry,” Dent replied.
“There he is,” Minh-Chu said, pointing through the window. “My scanner says he’s got a new head and he’s just about to wake up.”
“That could be trouble,” Jake muttered. “If he-“ He was interrupted by a flash of light in the distance. “Nevermind,” Jake said with a smile.
“You sure that got him?” Dent asked.
“Disintegration grenade,” Jake replied. “One of my last ones.”
“Those are illegal pretty much everywhere, aren’t they?” Dent asked.
“Let’s see about joining Remmy in that control room,” Jake said. “I have a crew here that would like to get warmed up to their new ship while it gets cleared.”
Chapter 22
The Importance Of Being Flexible
Industrial buildings always seemed depressing to Governor Tate. Blockish factories, fabrication buildings that stretched out for kilometres, and refineries that grew up like forests of tubes and towers. The business of industrial support for a modern solar system was a dirty one. To be told that the Mother of the Order of Eden would be landing in the middle of one such industrial forest, atop the Xane Company building, was a shock. The change in her plans was inconvenient. He had security set up for the space she was supposed to use. Now it would be used to play a giant holographic version of whatever happened on top of the boring, dirty space she’d chosen at the last minute.
There was nothing special about that building, it was only a cap for an industrial lake. From the outside it looked like a flat roofed structure that was two storeys tall with a landing field atop it, and landing fields around. It was where they stored refined materials that were ready for transport off world. If she said something he would regret, he would have to smooth things over with the people at Xane, one of his top one hundred taxpayers.
He was there at the appointed time, with his four Order Knights and no one else, as he was told. Standing on the top of the Xane Company building, he had time to admire the optical illusion of the place’s flat top. It was so large that the reflection of the morning sun against the metal tricked the eye into seeing a silvery lake in the distance. Governor Tate knew there was no water on the roof, it hadn’t rained over Xane Company territory for months. He remembered hearing that what he was seeing was once called a mirage effect.
“People who were wandering the desert used to be tricked by mirages like these,” he said aloud, pointing across the rooftop. “Like that, the shimmer in the distance there.” His Order Knights, who were most likely
as bored as he was, stepped a little closer so they could hear him. They hung on his every word. “The sand is really quartz on most worlds, and the sun would create reflections on it. At a distance you’d see what looked like water. Some would run towards it, others would keep trudging on, and all of the dead would be found on their bellies. Skeletons frozen in the act of reaching for something that was almost never there.”
“That’s rather dark for such a nice morning, Governor,” said a voice behind him.
The Order Knights whirled, raising their rifles at Wheeler, who only smiled and half raised his hands. “I come in peace.”
“It’s all right,” Governor Tate said. “If this one wanted to kill me, I would have been found in pieces weeks ago.”
“Would you be found at all?” Wheeler asked, cocking his head and smiling a little.
The Order Knights lowered their rifles and allowed Wheeler into the protective box formation they maintained around the Governor. “How was your time away?”
“I didn’t go far, just had to reassure my small crew,” Wheeler said. “Had a strategic talk with a few of them, sent another pair off on an errand. With Citadel here, it’s amazing what kind of information I can tap into.”
“Like?” Governor Tate asked.
“Logs from the Triton, ending about a year ago,” Wheeler said. “They had someone aboard who transmitted everything. As far as Citadel can tell, no one on the Triton knows the leak happened.”
“Do you think I could get a copy?” Governor Tate asked, waving his hand low, indicating to his guards that he was all right. He started walking away from them, and Wheeler followed.
“That depends if you’re still the real power in this solar system by the time Eve is finished here,” Wheeler replied.
Warpath Page 17
