by Z D Dean
“Ms. Samix, is it?” one of the men said as he motioned for her to take a seat in the lone chair opposite them.
She moved to the seat and responded in the affirmative. The situation had taken a turn that threatened to spiral beyond her ample diplomatic skills. As she waited for the others to begin the conversation, she desperately tried to raise Zade on their internal comms. Due to the depth of the room, she couldn’t raise him, and the sensation of being completely alone tugged at her constitution. She wished she had a copy of Ann inside her armor like Zade. If she made it out of this, she would ask Zade to find a solution for the crew in case things went south.
“You have possession of a warship unlike any we have ever seen before,” began the Baast man clad in blue and yellow, the de facto leader of the group. “Do you think a crew of two will be able to deal with the threat to our profits?”
“We do. All we need are some medical supplies, and then we can address the situation.”
Her statement was punctuated by the man’s derisive laughter. Like a switch had been hit, the laughter stopped and he continued.
“We have sent crew after crew of hired security out to defeat the pirates to no avail. They had the best equipment available and none were seen again.”
“That is terrible,” Samix responded. “Sorry for your loss.”
“How naïve. It wasn’t a loss, it simply reduced our security expenses; however, with a vessel like yours, our crews might stand a chance.”
“We are not a battle class vessel,” she said, knowing she needed to change the direction of the conversation if it was going to go the way she wanted it to. “We just want to lend a hand if we can.”
“Liar,” the man spat, interrupting her. “We have footage from the external sensors of the last ship you helped out.”
A projector in the center of the large table came to life. Within seconds she was watching herself destroy the second shuttle from the view of the mining ship she had detached from. She couldn’t believe her eyes as she watched the recording of her first space battle.
“Now that we are all on the same page, we will be commandeering your ship so our security can deal with the threat. You will be detained here until we decide we no longer need the ship.”
Two men in blue uniforms moved from their post on the wall to bind her hands behind her back. After she was secured, they tried, unsuccessfully, to remove her helmet. Irritated by their failure the men began to get more violent.
“Have you forgotten that there is another one of us aboard my ship?” she asked the heads of business between blows.
“One man could never stand up to squads of the best money can buy,” the man in blue retorted with a smirk on his face.
“Have you ever heard of the Groz?” she said through gritted teeth, blood dripping down her temple.
∆∆∆
“Captain, it appears Samix has gone underground. I have lost contact with her and her armor,” Ann said, interrupting his work at the forger workbench.
“She’s already proven herself more than capable in these types of situations. I’m not worried yet. Let’s see if she checks in later.”
He dove back into his work, only being interrupted when Mara came back aboard with some tools for her engineering work. With the information he had learned in the armor-smithing documents, he was trying to improve the hardness of his equipment by using the energy as a bonding layer. He quickly found that he would fall down the rabbit hole while he was working and would lose track of time.
“Captain, it appears that eight armed men are approaching the ship,” Ann said with the eerie calmness that only AI could muster.
“What time is it?” he asked.
Traveling through space and landing on different planets meant that he never really had a standard clock to use. Instead, he kept a ship time and Ann would give an adjustment for local time.
“It is 16:00 +6. It appears that they are placing some kind of breaching device on the exterior of airlock one.”
This told him that based on his clock it was late afternoon, but locally it was closer to midnight. The time was the least of his worries. He clipped the armor pieces that he was working on the back on to his suit and grabbed the weapons he had been too lazy to take back to the armory from the far corner of the room.
“Can you pipe my voice to the outside of the ship?” he asked as he fixed all of his weapons in place. When he heard his comms beep, he addressed the men outside. “I would not do what you are thinking about doing if I were you.”
“Sir, we are seizing your ship to be used to battle the threat in the system. Do not resist and we will take you to where your crewman is being detained. Resist and we will be forced to terminate you.”
Am I getting carjacked already? he asked himself as he cut the link to the external speakers. I knew this was a bad part of town.
“You feel like being hijacked?” he asked the AI as he moved towards the airlock.
“Not particularly, though I feel like your current temperament and the impending actions you will take will lead to a larger energy harvest than the other altercations thus far.”
“Aww, you do loooove me,” he quipped as he continued towards the cargo bay. “I want a long funnel for these guys. Shift all of the crates into a narrow passage ending at the airlock. I have to make a stop at the armory.”
As he was stocking up on ammo and explosives that he had brought from his former ship, Ann piped in another demand from the men outside.
“You have two minutes to comply or we will make forcible entry and you will be considered hostile.”
“Would you be mad if I blew them up inside you?” he asked as he eyed the grenades he had brought with him.
“Although you could never really damage me, an explosion that close to the hatch may render it unserviceable. I cannot calculate how fast I could make the ship space worthy if that were to happen.”
“You know I love it when you talk dirty.”
Mara must have heard him rifling through the racks because she came into the room slightly out of breath.
“What is going on?”
“Samix has been taken hostage by one of the mining companies,” Zade said, continuing to look through the weapons rack. “These ass holes are trying to take my ship so they can take care of the pirates on their own.”
Mara’s ears laid back against the side of her head and she let out a long hiss.
“Over my dead body can they have your ship,” she said, teeth clenched together. “How can I help?”
“Can you use a firearm?” he asked. When he got a timid nod, he spread his arms presenting the sparsely stocked racks. “Take the one you feel comfortable with and don’t let anyone aboard that isn’t in this armor.”
He was proud to see her pick up a long gun and a sidearm. As she finished the outfit with a simple harness, she quickly began loading with extra magazines. He told her to wait in her quarters until Ann gave her the OK to come out.
“Ann, I need you to kill the lights in the cargo bay and open the hatch when I tell you too. Can you patch me back through to the guys outside?” he asked as he found his position at the end of the murder chute by the airlock. Just as he got into position, the bay fell into utter blackness penetrated only by the infrared overlay in his helmet.
As soon as he heard the beep in his helmet, he started in his most timid, fearful voice.
“Ok. Ok. I’ll help. Just don’t hurt us. Give me a second to get the hatch open for you guys. I’ve been working on a wiring problem, so the cargo bay is dark, it might take me a minute. As soon as you get past the crates, turn left. I will be in the lit passageway where you can see me. Just, please, don’t hurt me.”
The weakness in his voice almost made him sick, but the fact that it was a ruse made it tolerable. He gave Ann the word and the hatch opened up. At first, nothing happened, but after clearing their immediate surroundings, the men began filing in. His matte black armor blended in perfectly with the darkne
ss, so he simply waited for the entire team to get inside. Once the last man was in, he turned around and covered the outside. Since the hatch swung inwards, he had to set up in the door jamb. Zade gave the word for the door to be closed and was pleasantly surprised to hear the crunch of bones and screams as the door slammed shut with extreme force. The click of the locking mechanism signaled that Ann had gotten it completely closed and the screams of the man on drag quickly turned to gurgles and finally stopped.
The commotion had caused the men to stop their forward progress, a few even turning to try to provide aid to their wounded comrades. He had to give the men credit for their discipline because the lead man pushed forward to set security despite what was happening behind him. At only three feet away, his flashlight finally landed on Zade’s armor. It was too late.
Zade had equipped himself with his medium strength rail rifle. He simply depressed the trigger on and didn’t let up until the battery was fully drained. The extremely high-velocity projectiles were fast enough to tear through flesh but not fast enough to damage his ship. A few seconds of pure chaos went by before everything fell silent. He found himself almost insulted that the corporations didn’t send more men, seeing it as blatant disrespect for his abilities.
After a combat reload, he walked through the carnage making sure he had finished the job. It was unnecessary. With the threat eliminated, he turned his attention to recovering his lost pilot.
“Ann, let Mara out and show me the last known location of Samix.”
There was no pleasantry in his voice; he was in operations mode.
He could see that Samix went black nearly three-hundred kilometers from the ship. It was too far to tackle on foot, and he didn’t want to waste time trying to find a ground vehicle to steal. He decided both he and the ship would be in on the rescue. When Mara came into the bay, he instructed her to take anything of value from the bodies, toss the corpses out the airlock, and secure it behind her. He needed to go have a word with Roy.
The plan wasn’t to kill the man, even though he couldn’t stand him. He only wanted to get an idea of where they took Sam. He applauded Mara’s dedication. She jumped right into cleaning up the ship without a second glance. As she began stripping the men of weapons and armor, he made the walk towards the union building. He could see the fat bureaucrat watching the commotion from the window of his second-floor office. As soon as the man realized he had been spotted, he backed away from the window and let the drapes fall back into place.
The sight of the corpulent, useless man reignited the anger that had begun to cool in him. The two industrial doors to the building stood closed before him. He picked up speed and planted his boot just below the latching mechanism. Although there was a thunderous thud, the doors did little more than shudder. He stepped back, wound up, and kicked the door again to no avail.
What the hell are these things made of? he asked himself as he examined the handles. To his chagrin, the handle turned under his grip and the door swung open. Luckily, no one saw me do that.
“I did,” Ann said in his helmet.
“Well, there’s no reason that can’t stay between us.”
He peered into the desolate first floor. Samix had explained, in passing, how the building was laid out, so he knew what to expect. Even though he wasn’t expecting trouble, he stuck to the little cover he could find as he moved to the stairs in the rear of the building. After checking to make sure the stairs were clear, he moved up to the offices on the second floor.
The level was desolate. There were no signs of life at that hour except for light seeping out from under one door at the end of the hall. He crept forward, taking care not to make the floor squeak as he moved. To prevent a replay of his attempt to enter the building, he checked the handle before trying to break down the door. The handle turned and he pushed it open. He followed the door and quickly took a step to the left to get out of the funnel. From behind the desk in the room a shot rang out, burning a hole through the upper door frame.
“Drop it,” Zade ordered with his weapon trained on the man behind the desk.
“I never meant for her to get taken. But the companies said they could use your ship to get rid of the pirates. I just wanted to protect my people,” Roy replied, his voice beginning to shake.
“I wasn’t asking a question. I said drop it,” Zade responded, firing one round above the man’s head to show exactly how serious he was. “I already know where she is being held so, I can do this with or without your help.”
The warning shot had the intended effect. The man’s eyes widened and he began to shake. When Zade shifted his aim back to center mass, the man whimpered, and a wet spot began to grow on his pants. Finally, he complied, tossing his pistol to the floor between them. Zade lowered his weapon and continued in a more conversational tone.
“Samix saved your life once before. You owe her. She knew full well that I would wipe this planet if something happened to her. If you want to prevent that from happening, you will do your best to make sure I find her before she gets hurt. The death of this planet will affect you far more than it will affect me,” he said. “I know Samix was taken to the city to the east and I know she was taken underground. What I don’t know is who took her.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it before. All four corporations were working together. Each of them had a representative present when she was picked up. That’s never happened before. Sometimes two will work together, but never all four. Since each corporation owns a building in the central hub, they created an additional one to be used as neutral territory. That way, no one got an advantage over the others.”
“What am I looking for in the city?” Zade interrupted. “What does the building look like? How is it laid out?”
“It’s a grey building, not painted in any of the company colors.”
“Roy, you’re not giving me much of a reason to be gentle. What is the layout? What should I expect?” Zade pressed. The fact that his temper was running out caused the questions to come out as a growl.
“Yes, sorry,” Roy started again. “It’s a skyscraper just like the others in the hub. Except this one is almost always empty. The top floors are only used to quarter troops when they are getting ready for a big operation. The main part is the operations room in the basement. If the companies have her, she’ll be there.”
“Thank you, Roy. That wasn’t so hard, was it? Most of me wants to kill you because I despise spineless men like you, but part of me appreciates what you are doing for the miners. I won’t put you down because I think you just lost your way and that you can help the people of this world. But mostly, I don’t think Sam would approve of my actions. Count this as your one freebie.”
As Zade spoke, there was nothing but terror in the man’s eyes. Once he revealed he would be sparing Roy, the terror turned to relief. Zade quickly headed to the door but before he made his exit.
“If I find out that you warned anyone I was coming, Roy,” he said, stopping by the door and turning to look at the bureaucrat, “what I said about sparing you is void. I will come back here and beat you to death with your own shoes.”
Chapter 9
Once he made his way downstairs and out of the building, he looked around for a means of transportation to get himself to the hub. Behind the hall, he found large mining equipment and slow mining vehicles. At the far side of the building, there was a parking lot, but it was devoid of any occupants. He expanded his search to the small homes that were near the union building, but only found small piecemeal affairs that wouldn’t do him any good.
“Ann, you up for a little planet side foray?” he asked as he headed back to the ship.
“I thought you’d never ask. Where are we going?”
“I know you heard about where Samix was being held. We’re going to get her. Do you have any imagery of the hub?”
A transparent image of the hub, taken from orbit, covered part of his field of view. The image was dense enough that he could make out t
he layout of the hub and the location of the buildings, but transparent enough to allow him to navigate back to the ship. Because of the angle of the picture, he couldn’t see anything but the roofs of the buildings and couldn’t even identify the building he would need to breach. What he could tell, by the length of the shadows, was the height of the buildings. Three of the buildings were of uniform height. One was significantly taller and one that was shorter.
He assessed the shorter building to be the target. He assumed that the companies had made some sort of equality agreement to end in-fighting amongst themselves, and the shorter building was a neutral space that each company could access when necessary. Based on Roy’s information about the four corporations working together, he guessed the neutral space was a necessity. As he stepped on the cargo lift, he felt the engines spin up. Before the lift was even fully closed, he watched the landing gear retract as the ground receded below him. Without obstacles to avoid, Ann was able to stay close to the surface of the planet.
“How would you like to handle this?” Ann asked as he waited impatiently in the cargo bay.
“Primary landing zone is the north-south running road to the east of the target. The secondary is the east-west to the north of the building. In the event you cannot safely land, tertiary is the roof of the building,” he stated, his time calling in airstrikes as an officer coming right back to him. “Once I have made entry, take off, and provide cover. Nothing in or out of the building that isn’t Sam or me.”
“And the Rules of Engagement?”
“Free fire on all company employees. You can identify them by their company colored uniforms. Miners wear a hodgepodge of clothing. Only engage them if they have a weapon and are engaging you, or are trying to gain entry to the building.”
