Crusade For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 2)

by Adrian D. Roberts

  “I’ve got good hearing and I know about the two women you sneaked out last week. If I was still working for the Pantheon, don’t you think you would have been taken and interrogated by now? This is the point for you to decide to trust me or not. I’ve taken that leap and now it’s your turn.”

  Quin glanced at the Spartan women and Valerie had to supress a grimace as she held Quin’s gaze. Something you never did was to accuse a Spartan warrior of spying. She could feel them bristle in anger around her. Valerie held up her hand slightly, hoping they would take her lead. For a moment, Quin’s life hung in the balance and she did not know it. Briseis nodded faint agreement and the warriors subsided.

  “The last thing these women would do is turn us in, Quin. It’s not in their nature.”

  The indecision was clear on her face and Quin chewed her lip thoughtfully.

  “Very well. I don’t know how you did it, but you’re right. I was inserted here to move our people out.”

  Leaning forward, Cheimon looked eager. “You can release us from this prison?”

  Quin shook her head. “No, our pipeline is too new and with the way it works, we can only get one or two people out at a time. It needs weeks to reset before the next one. Besides,” she nodded at Valerie, “there’s no way I can get you out. I got word from my contact while you were in solitary. I don’t know what you did, but they want you here until you rot.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest, but that’s a conversation for another time. First of all, where are we?”

  “The Blaze system. The Rock is out in one of the belts close to the hyper-limit.”

  Valerie’s eyebrows rose involuntarily. Of all the systems the Rock could be located in, Blaze was the most serendipitous.

  “Can you get word out to Blaze A with your contact?” she asked.

  “Why?”

  “I have some contacts of my own who could be of great help.” A memory tickled at the back of Valerie’s mind, but she couldn’t place it and shunted it off to think about later.

  “Who? Old Privileged friends?” There was an edge of nastiness to Quin’s question.

  “No,” Valerie replied shaking her head. “One of the gangs in Inferno.”

  “You want to trust criminals? No chance, they’ll sell us out to the police in a heartbeat.”

  “You associate with criminals, Valerie?” Briseis asked. “Perhaps you are not the woman we thought you were.”

  “Things are different in the Pantheon, Briseis,” she explained. “The gangs do a lot of good, more than they harm. More importantly, they do more for the people than the Privileged government.” Valerie turned back to Quin. “These people can be trusted as well as your own. You know the line between the Underworld and a civic government is more blurred on Blaze than anywhere else. I’m sure you want to get as many people off the Rock as you can. You’ll have an abundance of recruits here who, as you pointed out, hate the Privileged. With my help and my contacts on Blaze, you can have the best chance of achieving that.”

  “You really think they can do that?”

  “When I first met these people, Quin, I thought the same as you. They surprised me. The Blaze Underworld is far more capable than people know.”

  “Alright, if I’m going to trust you, I have to trust you know what you’re talking about. How do we contact them and what do we say?”

  Sitting back Valerie considered. She hadn’t really thought Quin would agree right now. She guessed her fight with the guards had gone quite a way, convincing Quin she was no longer working for the Privileged.

  “Send someone to the Coach Flyer in Inferno and get them to order a Roman Lemon Vodka. Someone will be along to talk to them within the hour. I’ll leave it up to you as to how much you want to say.”

  “It’ll take some time,” Quin pointed out.

  “I presumed as much, luckily time is something we have plenty of around here,” she turned back to the Spartans. “So, you never answered my question.”

  “Schemes run wild here,” Briseis answered. “You are confident with Quin’s help you can free our warriors?”

  “It’s what the Devils are trained to do and I was the best of them.”

  “Warriors boast,” Phrike challenged.

  “Indeed they do. I don’t. Care to test me?” she told them seriously.

  “Hah, we have done that dance,” Briseis laughed. “Trust is the order of the day, though it matters not, for the Pantheon already knows,” she turned serious again. “Our great ship was hired to hunt a pirate. A pirate that came and went like a ghost. It would not be seen for weeks and then arrive to target a fat merchant, only to disappear again. We hid in the belly of a target, ripe for the plucking. When we emerged to fight, the cowards ran. We pursued them across the vastness of space. Always close enough to track through hyperspace, but never in range of our guns.”

  “How could you track them in hyperspace?” Valerie asked. What Briseis was describing was an almost unheard of event. It was possible to follow a ship in hyperspace, but you needed to be on exactly the right vector and able to match their speed to the tenth decimal place. The Legion Navy had been practising hyperspace pursuits for centuries, with only a ten percent success rate. Briseis was talking about multiple jumps.

  “There are some things even the great Pantheon cannot do, but I cannot tell you how. We three are Hoplites. We know little of the ships.”

  “You’re Marines,” Valerie clarified.

  “Yes. That is what some call us,” Briseis nodded before continuing. “We finally brought the pirate into range, in the Shigatse system in the Boundary and destroyed her completely. Our Lochagos did not like that we had come so far and denied us the honour to board her, to take her as a prize. With our mission fulfilled, we wished only to return home, but were ambushed by Legion ships. We were surrounded and had no hope to fight our way out. Lochagos Kydoimos did not wish our ship captured. He ordered us to abandon her and surrender.”

  “How many survived?” Valerie asked gently.

  “Seven hundred and forty-two departed Sparta. Now, I do not know. Our shuttle held thirty Hoplites and five crew. All ten of the Hoplite shuttles were launched and many of the ships escape boats. We destroyed our computers and do not know what happened to our people. Once we were captured, we have been separated into smaller and smaller groups, until we awoke here with only two sisters.”

  “It doesn’t make any sense,” Quin said. “Why would there be a Legion task force in Shigatse? That’s fifty light years outside the Pantheon. Why would a pirate run all that way.”

  “To draw out a Spartan warship,” Valerie said grimly. “The Legion has been hearing rumours for decades about Spartans ships that could be closely matched to our own. My guess is the pirate was actually a privateer for one of the Corporations, with the sole purpose of dragging a Spartan ship close enough to be captured.”

  “They could not know we would follow so far,” Cheimon pointed out. “How could they place their ships in position to ambush us without a means to escape?”

  “The Legion’s not short of ships. They regularly run ‘flying the flag’ missions throughout the Boundary.”

  “Intimidation missions, you mean,” Quin said.

  “Yes, that’s what they amount to,” Valerie agreed. “They would have task forces all along the route, waiting for the right moment to pounce. It’s risky, but for the prize of a Spartan cruiser, I can see them doing it.”

  She turned to Quin. “Can you find out if they’re all on the Rock and where they are? If we’ve got three hundred Spartan Hoplites on board, our chances of getting out of here just increased considerably.”

  Quin nodded thoughtfully. “I can do that,” she smiled. “I’m glad I took you up on your offer.”

  “We will show them the might of Sparta and they will tremble.” Phrike said as she slapped Valerie on the back and almost caused her to spit out the last mouthful of her breakfast.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN


  “Are you sure they can’t see us?” Hanna asked from her jury-rigged seat at the back of the cockpit.

  The chuckle from Hans was good natured. “Absolutely. If they knew we were out here, they would be tracking us with their guns, and that task force in the outer system would be heading our way. We’ve been within their active sensor envelope for over two hours, without them making a single peep.” He looked over to Deni who sat next to him in the co-pilots seat. “How are you doing there, Deni?”

  “All OK, Captain.” Hanna snorted in disgust. Over the last couple of months Deni had picked up the annoying habit of using all these military titles. Her friend ignored her of course and continued as though she had not heard a thing. “She flies like a dream. Coming up on the next drop point now.”

  “Good,” Hans replied. “Arming warhead.” For almost an hour, the Spectre floated around the asteroid containing the Rock deploying missiles. None of them were activate. They had simply been released from the Spectre’s bay and left dormant in space, just another piece of random rock orbiting the asteroid.

  Ever since she boarded the Spectre from the Alliance’s staging area, Hanna had had nothing to do. She sat and watched as Hans piloted the ship out to the Rock. There Deni took over, while Hans dealt with the weapon systems. One of the things they lacked for the assault was trained military pilots. Various members of the Crew were trained for reserve roles. Rush would be co-piloting Helo One in Hans’ place.

  “Missile launched and in place. We’re right on time. Take us to the jumping off point, Deni.” That was Hanna’s cue. She would soon be called upon to do what she did best. Her Quartz sat in her lap ready and linked to the Spectre’s powerful computers. It took Sneaker and her weeks to cut through the powerful encryptions and defences installed in the ship, but now she was in full control of everything in its database. In theory she could have overridden any of the flight controls. She wouldn’t though. She thought it would come under the heading of ‘a very bad idea’.

  She glanced at the sealed hatch at her feet. If she thought her seat was a bit uncomfortable, it was nothing compared to First Platoon’s Alpha fire team.

  “Lieutenant Saito, we are approaching the jump point,” Hans said into his com. “Are your people ready down there?”

  “Copy that, Captain Benz. All suits sealed and ready for deployment.” The five members of Alpha team were in their Fully Powered Body Armour with the Extra-Vehicular Attachments. The suits were designed for use in a vacuum. The EVA added thrusters and additional air supply to allow them to move and fight in space. Hanna saw them wearing it all before they boarded. She imagined it was very crowded in the ship’s crew quarters.

  The Spectre was designed for many things, but not as a troop assault craft. Alpha team were crammed in and there would be nothing rapid about their deployment. The ship did have an airlock for emergency repairs, but that was designed for a crew person in a standard, close fitting space suit. An FPBA equipped soldier couldn’t fit even without the EVA. They were going to have to vent the crew quarters and open the main hatch to deploy Alpha team.

  Deni guided the ship into position and Hanna could see Hans watching very carefully, but he didn’t say anything or try and take control.

  “That’s it, Deni,” he said. “Perfect. Now hold it there.” On the three hundred and sixty degree holographic display, Hanna saw the bulk of the Rock hanging in space a thousand metres away and she shook her head. She’d asked five times if the Rock’s defences could see the Spectre and she still could barely believe it.

  “You do the honours,” Hans told Deni.

  She nodded and took a deep breath before keying the com. “Alpha team. We are in position. I am lowering the hatch.”

  “Copy, Deni, hatch is lowering.” Michio confirmed. “Hatch is down, Button you’re up.”

  Chao wouldn’t have any choice, he was the last to board and there was no room to switch places down there. Hans adjusted the display and they could see the black armoured shape of Chao Button drifting out, away from the ship. He was followed by the others and they drifted together ten metres off the hull. In unison, the soldiers turned and jetted off towards the Rock. With their armour’s colouring and camouflage systems, better than those they used on Ison Island, they quickly disappeared.

  “Sealing the hatch, Sir.” Deni said and Hanna snorted again loudly. Her heart wasn’t really in it this time and she concentrated on the Quartz’s display. Alpha team’s objective was to breach the Rock covertly. Once in, they would insert an uplink giving Hanna access to the prison’s systems. Now all they could to do was wait.

  ***

  It was times like this Button really enjoyed being a member of Shadow Company. His three closest buddies were beside him, as they glided through space to assault the most notorious prison in the Pantheon. According to the information the Rebellion obtained, they would be facing two thousand four hundred guards and another four thousand maintenance and support personnel.

  Long odds even for Shadow Company. Sneaker managed to put together another hundred Enforcers and the Rebellion supplied four hundred fighters. They still faced odds of four to one and the Alliance’s forces only included one hundred units in FPB armour. Everyone else was in the powered medium armour Major Forlani procured in the FOB module.

  Of course, those five hundred and ninety-five other troops were not here right now. They were all sitting in the five Helos, two Scarabs and eight cargo shuttles currently on ballistic courses towards the Rock. Alpha team were on their own against two thousand, four hundred guards. If the Rebellion’s information was solid, only six hundred would be on duty. The rest would be in the station’s crew quarter’s and that was Alpha team’s mission.

  The Rock loomed up ahead of him and he could see what inspired the name. Whoever set this up had taken a large asteroid and hollowed part of it out. The asteroid was vaguely egg shaped, and on this side there were three large holes burrowed deep inside. Each one lead to the shuttle bay for a wing of the prison. Three more were on the other side. All around them were weapon placements’. At the top and bottom of the egg were the communications arrays.

  Alpha team headed to the middle hole leading directly to the crew quarters wing. The Company’s FPB armour was not as good as the Spectre at hiding, but this close in they didn’t have to be. They used their jets within the ships shielding and drifted the rest of the way. As far as the prison’s sensors were concerned, they were five very small holes in space.

  Button led the team and entered the central cavern first. There was no other way to describe it now he was inside. The builders hadn’t used a lot of finesse when they carved it out. His HUD showed the target highlighted. He made minor corrections to his course with tiny bursts of air. Halfway along the cavern, was an access hatch to the tunnels leading out to the weapon placements. This was their way in.

  Arriving first, Button made sure he was out of the way as Guggenheim came in next. It was his job to override the hatch to get them in. Guggenheim had been trained by the best in the Legion. After arriving in Blaze and meeting Sneaker, Major Forlani decided that wasn’t good enough. All of Guggenheim’s equivalents, throughout the Company, were sent to ‘Hacker School’ Blaze style. Hanna was the teacher and Sneaker the Headmaster.

  Guggenheim hadn’t liked it much, nor had any of the others. After the first day, they all stopped complaining. Button had still not been able to find out what happened in that first class, but it must have been bad. Those electronic specialists were very quiet and worked very hard from then on. He suspected they had been shown that what they knew, was nowhere near what a sixteen year old could do.

  Inside his helmet, Button shook his head. He found it very hard to believe they all celebrated Hanna’s sixteenth birthday two weeks ago. They did the same with Deni a month before. There was another young girl who impressed. Captain Benz practically raved about her skills as a pilot, and having seen her mentor, Rush, in action, Button could see why. The only reason those two wer
e sitting in the co-pilot’s seats on this mission, was a lack of experience on space assaults. If they were dirtside, he suspected they would be piloting and Shadow Company’s air crews wouldn’t have been complaining too much.

  The hatch slid open smoothly and Guggenheim dropped down into it first. It was a maintenance hatch and, unlike the one on the Spectre, it was designed for a repair suit similar in size to their armour. It could only take one at a time though. Guggenheim was going in alone until the rest of the team could cycle through the airlock after him. The hatch slid shut and the four of them hung in space, waiting for the light to revert to green.

  Wester followed Guggenheim and the Lieutenant went next. Button was glad the Lieutenant decided to join the rest of the Company in their mutiny. He was a good kid, a bit serious at times, but he got the job done and was willing to listen to the Non-Commissioned Officers, like Sergeant Major Bickerstaff, Sergeant Haebich and Corporal Richings. Captain Gibson on the other hand, was not happy to find out he had been duped after the FOB left the Olympus system.

  True to her word, Major Forlani dealt with him herself. She explained their position quite eloquently, Button thought, and Gibson still refused to listen. He threatened them with all sorts of things. The arrogant bastard never realised just how serious they all were. He had probably still not caught on when Major Forlani shot him between the eyes.

  Shrugging to himself, Button headed to the hatch. Everyone else was through and it was his turn. It opened at a touch of the button. He swung his bulky armour round in the near zero gravity environment with ease. In his sixty-six year career in the Legion, he had a lot of practice. It was still a tight fit in the airlock and he was careful getting himself into position. Both of his feet needed to be magnetically clamped to two plates, just above the inner hatch, before he could close the outer door. With his feet set and the magnets activated, he began the airlocks cycle.

  The outer hatch slid shut and air hissed into the compartment, followed by the pull of artificial gravity set at Olympus normal. The hatch below him opened and he was lowered down, into the corridor by the grav-plates he stood on. The rest of the team were all there