by Z D Dean
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The emergency hatch slammed shut just in front of Max. He was horrified to find Zade’s unmoving body lying in the hard vacuum of space. As the smoke and debris cleared in the thin atmosphere, he got a full picture of the severity of the situation. Zade laid face down on the planet’s surface, his body lying in an unnatural pose. He could see several breaks and even a few holes in the environmental suit he wore. His new captain was not long for this world if he didn’t do something immediately. He pounded his fist bloody on the hatch, the girl in his arms forgotten.
He stood frozen, trying to think of a solution that would allow him to help the man who had just earned so much of his respect. The hatch was closed to keep the section he was in pressurized, and even if he could get out to Zade safely, he risked the girl’s life.
“There has to be a way,” he chided himself. “I’ve been here from the beginning. I helped build this colony.”
He walked back to the docking bay, hoping to find his solution there. After setting the girl on one of the crates that littered the floor, he began searching the area for a solution. On the far wall, there was a locker marked ‘Docking Failure Kit.’ The words seemed familiar, but it took him a second to remember where he had heard it.
A while back, when he was drinking in a ship section, he overheard two engineers talking about a mining ship that had been damaged when it collided with the rock they were working on. The engineers had to go out and fix the damage to the airlock before the ship could safely dock. The realization dawned on him that if they had to fix the ship before it could dock, they had to work in a vacuum.
He ran to the cabinet and ripped it open. Inside were two protective suits and two safety lanyards. His armor was standard Baast issue, so all he needed was one helmet and the lanyards. With equipment in hand, he knelt in front of the girl and explained what he needed to do. He might be able to manage it himself, but her help would improve their odds.
“I’ve got to go outside and help the man who saved you. Do you think you can help me with that?”
The girl’s face flashed through a series of emotions. He saw fear, uncertainty, and something else that made him proud of the small child: determination.
“I want to help,” she said, bravely.
He explained his plan and when he felt the girl was comfortable, he put on the safety helmet. He would have loved to do a test run with the girl, but time was running out for Zade if it hadn’t already. He planned on using the last section of the corridor as an airlock, leaving the girl in the pressurized safety of the bay.
Once he had the environmental suit helmet on, he was ready. He gave the girl the thumbs up and she hit the emergency seal button located on the door panel. Lighting in the segment turned red and a warning siren began to sound. He made his way to the other end of the segment and began typing in the safety override sequence on the exterior hatch. He had learned it when he was working with the guards. It was within the scope of their job to be able to open or close any segment of the colony for security reasons.
When he was finished with the sequence, he hit the execute button and the siren began to fade. Once he couldn’t hear it any longer, signifying the gas in his segment had been cleared, he opened the external hatch. He felt a slight push as the little remaining atmosphere from inside the unit vented. Before stepping out onto the surface, he reached around the side of the corridor and connected his safety lanyard to the exterior mounting point. Reaching the mounting point was harder than it should have been because of the damage inflicted by the orbital strike.
Carefully, ensuring that one of his magnetic soled feet was always in contact with the corridor, he shuffled his way to the outer edge. He was happy he was wearing his armor. The jagged edges of the destroyed unit dug at his plating as he stretched around to make the safety connection. The single act gave him a new appreciation for the engineers who would have had to do the task in nothing more than a thin skin environmental suit.
After a few tugs to ensure he was secured, he made his way out onto the planetoid’s surface. Although the broken grey terrain looked smooth and clean from space, his feet kicked up dust. He half shuffled and half bounced over to where his fallen captain laid. The closer he got, the more gruesome the scene became. From what he could see both of the captain’s legs were broken and laying at strange angles. His left arm didn’t look much better, and the side of his helmet had been badly burnt.
With Zade laying on his back, it didn’t take long for him to find a solid piece of his plate armor for him to attach the second lanyard he had brought with him. When the men were safely secured together, he attempted to pick up the man, but Zade did not budge. He tried to lift Zade again, but he couldn’t get his body separated from the surface. Realizing he lacked the raw strength to move the man, he leaned down to try and inspect what was keeping him hung up.
He took a knee and bent down to see what Zade was stuck to. What he found fit the gruesome scene perfectly, but did nothing for his confidence in saving Zade. Blood seeping from his multitude of wounds had flash-frozen in the cold of space, securely fastening him to the landscape. He drew his knife and rolled Zade’s body as much as he could. As he did, he regained some of his spirit. Most of the gore had soaked into the dust and frozen into a block, leaving only a few points where his body was connected to the rocky substrate that made up the crust of the planetoid.
Knife in hand, he began chipping away at the portions that held Zade down, silently apologizing about the rough treatment as he went. Halfway through his work, he thought he felt Zade’s body tighten up, but it went limp just as quickly. With Zade free to move, Max began the arduous process of getting back to safety.
The relatively low gravity made Zade’s body lighter, but also made it difficult for him to garner traction. With feet slipping in the dust, he changed his tactic and trekked back to the edge of the destroyed segment alone. As he moved, he felt the vibration of the safety lanyard connected to Zade unspooling. Once he was back, his feet safely clamped to the remaining jagged decking, he began to haul in Zade’s line. It was a rough move for Zade, and he cringed every time the man’s body hit a rocky protrusion, but he made quick work of getting him back to the colony.
After disconnecting the pair of lanyards, he carried the body back into his temporary airlock and closed the emergency hatch behind him. As gasses began to fill the space, he heard a rhythmic pounding. The pounding became more frantic as the section re-pressurized. Although the girl left in the bay was too short to be seen through the window of the hatch she was guarding, he quickly realized she was the source of the noise.
Once he felt the pressures had sufficiently equalized, he pounded on the door himself, the sign for the girl to open the interior hatch. As it opened, she came rushing in.
“More bad men are coming. I could hear them, but I don’t think they know we are here.”
Shit, he thought to himself while trying to keep a brave face on for the girl.
“OK, I need you to hide in this airlock and don’t come out for anyone but me,” he said, pointing to the airlock he and Zade had used to enter the colony. “I’m going to put Zade in there with you. Do you think you can watch him for me?”
“Yes,” she stammered but seemed to gain confidence after she said it.
He stowed Zade and the girl safely behind him, and with the hatch at his back, he peeked around the corner to see who was approaching the dock. Down the corridor he saw a handful of mercs, meticulously working their way towards him. He was thankful that they were checking every hatch they passed.
While they made their way towards him, he built himself a beachhead. There were crates around the bay that he used to make himself a covered firing position as well. Minutes ticked by like hours until he saw the barrel of a weapon poke into his space. Before the rest of the man could materialize, he threw one of the special hand grenades Zade had given him. The grenade detonated and he heard screaming from just out of sight.
A second muzzle poked out shortly after, and he got to appreciate the design of the weapon. Even though it packed an explosive punch, he couldn’t see any shrapnel or debris blowback in towards the bay. Keeping that in mind, he leveled his weapon, saving his final grenade for a last stand.
After the men had gathered themselves, recovered from Max’s sneak attack, they sprinted behind obstacles that still littered the bay floor. He was lucky and got two before they could make it to cover. He hit one in the head and the other in the throat, but nine escaped him. As one of the elite unit snipers for the Baast, patience was a virtue for him. The mercs would fire blindly, not wanting to risk exposing themselves until they emptied their magazines at which point Max would leave his cover and engage those that couldn’t quite fit behind their cover.
Once the firing started again, he would dig in behind his barricade and wait them out. The firefight drug on, no party wanting to make an extreme move that could cost them, which was perfectly fine with Max. As long as they didn’t move to flank him, he guessed he could hold out until help arrived. One by one, he picked them off. With only a couple of threats left, Max noticed that they were being extra cautious and seemed to be listening for the sound of his empty hitting the floor when he stopped firing.
He tested his theory and fired a few rounds, which kept the mercs firmly behind their cover. Like Pavlov’s hungry dogs, as soon as he threw an extra empty magazine on the floor, both men popped up. He couldn’t help but grin as he finished them both off with clean headshots. The silence after the fight was almost deafening to him. He had conducted a few shipboard missions while in service to the Baast, but none had been rolling gunfights.
With a second to gather himself and assess the damage, he found that he had been hit several times in the head guard, which was barely hanging on to the rest of his kit. With a freshly loaded weapon, he tried to raise the ship yet again. Like his other attempts, he couldn’t be certain of his success, so he began stripping the mercenaries and reinforcing his position. He didn’t know how long he would have to hold out but knew that Mara would come back for him.
What the fuck have I gotten us into? he asked himself as he got to the first body in the bay. The mercenaries were kitted out in the best equipment he had ever seen. It was far better than what was needed to take over the colony. The only justification he could think of for the corporations sending such an advanced force was that they had been personally slighted by Zade and his crew or, more likely, were afraid of him.
He methodically collected their armor and weapons, using the former to reinforce his cover and the latter he stockpiled. As he moved through the bay, he drug the extra crates and equipment away from the opening to either hall, preventing any further threat from using them. Just as he was about to check on the girl and Zade, he heard more voices yelling down the hall, presumably calling for the team he had dispatched.
As he hunkered down and checked the weapons he had looted, the voices and corresponding footsteps began to grow in volume. Every time the team sent to investigate the bay didn’t answer, the man seemed to get more irritated. Max waited for his opportunity, trying his best to estimate the number of men coming down the hall to meet his rifle.
With nothing but his thoughts to keep him company, it felt like time had slowed to a crawl as he waited for his prey to enter the kill box. His mind raced through the different courses of action he could take to defeat them, but he couldn’t settle on one until he knew their numbers. Just as the first men rounded the corner and appeared in the bay, the airlock behind his position slid open. Leaving his rifle trained on the entering men, he quickly glanced back to see his sister emerging from the ship.
“Get back in the airlock!” he screamed to her.
The look of relief on her face from seeing him well quickly turned to fear at his words. Before he could exit his cover, he had to drive the attackers back into the passageway. It was the only way he could move without them getting a bead on his back. He flipped his rifle to automatic and laid down a withering wall of lead. The first few men’s bodies were perforated and driven back into the others. Caught completely by surprise, the men retreated, back to the last area they knew was safe: the corridor.
Seeing no reason to wait for them to regroup, he hurled his last grenade into the mouth of the hall, grabbed what he could from his stockpile, and sprinted to the safety of the airlock.
Chapter 16
The door to the airlock slammed shut as soon as he entered. He had to be careful not to step on the little girl or the body of his captain as he moved around the cramped space. After dropping the weapons he had grabbed, he wrapped his sister in a bear hug.
“What happened in there?” she asked, voice still tinged with fear.
“Everything went to shit when we split up. I went to help the colony security team and he went to help the little girl,” he said as he motioned toward the body on the floor of the lock. “On the way back to the bay he was hurt, but not like this. I think they dropped an orbital strike on the section he was in.”
Before she could ask her next question, the airlock towards the bay began to ring with the staccato of gunfire. Max knew it wouldn’t hold up to the punishment for long, which was the reason he didn’t just lock himself inside and wait for the ship to return.
“Come on,” he ordered, addressing his sister. “We have to get everything on the ship before the door gives out.”
As much as he wanted to honor his captain, he decided to focus on the extra weapons he had brought first. The sad reality to him was that the weapons could still be useful; the captain not so much. It was a cold way to look at the situation, but battlefield triage was rarely kind. After securing the weapons in the cargo hold and having the little one guard them so she was out from underfoot, he returned to his sister and helped her lift Zade’s body.
As each grabbed an arm and lifted, Zade let out a pained moan followed by a weak coughing fit. The noise startled them both so much that they reflexively dropped him. The siblings looked at each other, first in surprise then in embarrassment at what they had done. They quickly secured the captain again and drug him aboard Ann.
“Sam, Zade is hurt. Get us out of here, and back to the med bay on Axis’s ship as fast as possible,” Mara said.
Sam didn’t even respond before slamming the ship into gear and rocketing towards the large carrier ship orbiting the small rock. Within a fraction of a second of the docking arms releasing, the ship was rocketing out of the planetoid’s thin atmosphere. Just as the ship appeared it would make it out into space, two mercenary ships lined up to block its way.
At the helm, Samix swallowed hard and mentally prepared herself. She wanted to engage the targets for what they had done down below, but she also knew Zade was running on borrowed time. Just as she lined the ship up to split the two blockers, she was joined by Max.
“I need Mara up here to take one of the point defense turrets,” she said, her attention never leaving the task at hand.
“She’s trying to stabilize Zade. Until she’s done, I’m all you got.”
“It’ll have to do. Sit down at one of the consoles. I’ll tie the turrets together and have Ann give you the controls.”
Sam knew that Zade must have been in bad shape if Mara was attending to him instead of helping the brother she had once thought lost.
After familiarizing himself with the controls for the turrets, he turned his attention to Sam.
“What’s the game plan, Captain?”
“We don’t have time to stay and fight. I’m going to split them and head for Axis. I want you to take your shots as we pass. Keep them at a distance if they decide to follow us.”
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Mara felt the subtle shifts in gravity as Sam maneuvered the ship out of orbit as she ran back from the armory with the first aid kit Zade had insisted on putting together. She wasn’t sure what she was doing, but Zade had shown the whole crew some basic first aid while they had waited for his friend to show up.
Before her laid her captain, the man who had saved her life just days ago. She knew someone was going to have to do something to help She shuddered as she bandaged the wounds she could see. The minimal knowledge she had wouldn’t fix him, though she hoped it was enough to keep him alive until someone could take over.
He faded in and out of consciousness as she worked on him. After getting the small shrapnel wounds covered, she began wrapping the stump that remained where his left hand had been. As his body began to warm up, blood began pouring from the wound, and no matter she did. She just couldn’t get it to stop.
“Ann!” she shouted. “Ann, help me!”
“To stop the bleeding, you’ll have to apply a tourniquet,” Ann said, an icy stillness in her voice.
Ann guided her through what to do, step by step. After removing the blood-soaked remnants of her last bandaging attempt, Mara looked around the cargo bay to find something to stop Zade’s arm from bleeding. After finding an unused cargo strap in the bay, she returned to Zade and began pulling off the remains of his forearm armor. With nothing covering his under suit, she wrapped the impromptu tourniquet around his lower arm and began tightening it down. Every twist slowed the blood flow until it finally stopped completely.
She knew she had done everything in her power to help him. She rolled him onto his back and used some packing material to cushion his head. When she thought he was in a comfortable position, she stepped back and wiped the sweat from her brow. Her movement felt sticky and she pulled her hand away; it was covered in Zade’s blood. She looked down at her blood-soaked hands. Her under suit was covered entirely in blood, too. She felt faint. Tears began to well in her eyes.
∆∆∆
“Captain, I don’t want to tell you how to do your job, but I’m not sure we are going to fit between them,” Max said, his voice filled with concern.
