“Ye Gods!” hollered Arte Kasik with an unexpected, adrenalin-driven euphoria. “That was great! Took out most of their officers and cronies, we just did!” Beside him, Cren Hollis howled repeatedly with approval while Janney Stox and Tran Wuu both watched brief glimpses of smoldering debris flashing past the cockpit windows in silent, stunned disbelief.
“Hang on fellas, we’re not done yet,” cautioned Adam Roh as he continued reading statistical data from the colored indicators on the inside of his vision.
The massive, seemingly endless underside of the Yakiir mother ship appeared in the lower left corner of the cockpit windows. Seconds later it dominated their entire left side as Adam entered yet another course change, diving back down toward the plane of battle. Next came a sudden, sharp turn to port that left them almost totally perpendicular to the larger warship an surging ahead at full speed. Again there was a severe impact that rocked the cockpit and the entire ship surrounding them as they crashed into the center of the enemy’s hull amidships.
In a jarring collision that even rattled teeth, their fast moving, commandeered supply ship struck a larger, slower moving object. The small vessel tore deeply into the cruiser’s mid-section, propelled by its considerable momentum. Its superstructure groaned in protest, accompanied by the harsh shriek of metal-fatigue. Large cracks appeared in the cockpit windows as their forward progress ground to a slow halt, spider-webbing outward in all directions with ominous snikking sounds. In the end, thankfully, everything held together and atmospheric integrity was maintained.
“We could have been killed!” gasped Kasik, his short-lived adrenalin-infused confidence fading as the realization of what they had just done sunk in. He stared in utter shock at the sparking, smoking consoles surrounding Adam that suddenly went dark as nearly all of them lost power. Only emergency lights still winked green from the helm and navigation consoles, proving they remained active. Outside, through the cracks in the windows, they could see the upper half of a lower deck and the lower half of the one just above it. “How did you know this ship would hold up to the pounding?”
For the first time in a long while, Adam laughed heartily. “It’s one of the first rules of ship design, if its designers use common sense,” he informed the four Crasel. “You cannot fly a ship without a pilot, so the cockpit area is usually reinforced to withstand considerable damage.” He eased back on the throttle, shutting down the thundering engines that were still trying to push them forward.
The abrupt impact and subsequent loss of momentum caused all of them to simply sit there quietly for a few seconds contemplating what they had just done. Even Adam was temporarily at a loss for words, although he wondered idly what the sight must look like from outside. After all, the supply ship had just ripped one shuttle completely apart before firmly embedding itself at least twenty meters deep in the starboard side of the larger, mother ship.
“The Yakiir will be extremely angry and eager to seek vengeance against us,” predicted Janney Stox after a prolonged pause. “Mott’s Ghost, but we are in the thick of it this time. You’ve really done it mate,” he growled with a shake of his head, gaping with continued astonishment at Adam Roh.
Snapping loose the seat harness, Adam swiveled back toward them and shook his head. “We just took out most of their senior officers by destroying one of their shuttles, and – by my estimate – severely damaged the mother ship’s Point-to-Point capability. Do you really believe they’re going to care about us right now, when the Zaketh have suddenly gained an unexpected advantage over them?” He let his point sink in for a few seconds. “How eager do you think the Yakiir are going to be to continue boarding the Pyrhh?”
“Not very,” guffawed Big Cren Hollis in response. He slapped his knees and roared with laughter.
Tran Wuu smiled wryly. “So what are we going to do next, Adam Roh?” he asked inquisitively.
“I’m going to board this warship and try to disable its primary power supply… more than likely by accessing terminals in the engine room just like we did last time. Meanwhile, you boys are going to sit tight right here and wait for me,” stated Adam calmly in response. “The Yakiir will likely have a lot more soldiers in key defensive positions on a warship – more so than they did aboard this ship. Just hold your position here and I’ll come back for you once I’ve completed my reconnaissance.”
“With respect, there’s no way we’re just going to sit here and let you take all the risk,” objected Cren Hollis fiercely. “What do we look like, a bunch of soft-fingered weaklings?”
Adam tapped a command into the helm console, causing the explosive bolts on one of the cockpit’s emergency exit hatches to blow. The round metal disk leaped into the air and clattered to a halt inside the Yakiir warship. Somewhere inside the larger vessel outside, alarm klaxons were blaring loudly. He turned and smiled at his colleagues, a soft, electrical blue glow suddenly appearing out of nowhere and surrounding his entire body. The others watched with astonishment as he turned transparent and then vanished completely from view. An instant later, the blue glow still outlining his profile also faded away. “Unless you men have an invisibility screen like mine, you’ll only be slowing me down,” he cautioned sternly. Because they could no longer see him, the four of them heard him clambering up to the open hatchway, followed almost immediately by a scrabbling sound and then the thump of his feet landing on the metal deck plating outside.
“Mott’s Ghost but that one’s a sorcerer,” gasped Janney Stox in utter shock. “Perhaps he’s even old Mott himself, come back from the dead to save us.” He paused for a moment, the realization of it all sinking gradually in. “What do we do?” he continued finally, uncertain as to what their next move should be.
“I don’t usually get asked to sit and wait during a major confrontation,” responded Wuu coolly. “And my injured shoulder still hurts from all of this running around. So until there’s a reason for us to move, I say we honor Adam’s request and hold our position here.”
Three grunts of disagreement caused him to smile mischievously.
PROJECT WASTELAND
Pathfinder Series: Book Two
Chapter IV: Turning The Tables
Aboard the Yakiir warship…
Adam moved very swiftly through the corridors of the huge, intimidating alien ship, noticing immediately how clean and new everything looked. In stark contrast to the vessels he had boarded so far – even the supply shuttle – this one looked as though it only recently departed on its maiden voyage. Clean glass windows along with polished metal corridors stretched out ahead of him. Amazingly, the air smelled fresh and free of decay for the first time since he entered the Wasteland.
As predicted, there were armed guards watching every major corridor and intersection, dressed in crisp, black uniforms striped with bright green and the recognizable claw symbol that represented Clan Yakiir. It was a strange sight, given the fading, torn uniforms and heavily scratched body armor he was used to seeing his colleagues wearing. Even the Zaketh crew’s uniforms and equipment had been heavily used, and the Pyrhh’s corridors filled with unending grime, terrible smells and the rusty stains of dried blood.
[“How are you feeling, Adam,”] Kaufield’s voice asked unexpectedly, whispering in his mind for attention. [“That was quite a show you’ve put on up until now.”]
[“Wasn’t it though?”] he replied proudly, elated at how well he had performed under duress. [“The tactical database made everything surprisingly easy… it felt as though I had years and years of actual combat experience.”] A thought occurred to him as he silently eased past a guard standing next to a bulkhead and entered a new area of the warship. [“Whose idea was the HUD display on the inside of my eyeball?”]
[“Thomas suggested that one… we included it with your last set of upgrades,”] noted Kaufield with a soft laugh. [“Seriously, we have a ‘threat monitoring’ computer running here that constantly monitors your danger level. On a scale from 1 to 100, 100 being worst, it never rose a
bove 60. Currently you’re holding steady at a mild 48, and when you were sleeping back aboard the Pyrhh you were at 18.”]
[“The stealth functions appear to be working pretty well too,”] Adam thought to himself, doing the best he could to hold a silent, long distance conversation in his head while still moving quietly. [“I just walked right past an armed guard and he didn’t even blink.”]
[“Is there anything else you need at his point?”] Kaufield asked inquisitively. [“We’re using your implant’s passive sensors from here, and I can tell you that the ship you’re on still has plenty of soldiers aboard.”]
He slowed his pace slightly, thinking the matter over carefully before responding. [“It would help if you could find a way for me to increase power to the portable ear transceiver that Snee Vasten gave me,”] he decided. [“Also, I’m trying to locate the engine room on this beast. So if you guys can lock on to the strongest power source near the stern of the ship, that should lead me right where I want to end up.”]
There was a long pause as his requests were analyzed by the experts on the other end of the conversation. [“Local jamming in your area is primarily designed to disrupt long-range communications,”] pointed out Kaufield after a bit. [“Wasteland attack vessels simply don’t want other clans calling for help while they’re being boarded. Your implant is capable of supplying energy wirelessly. Request access to additional energy and then route it to the earwig. Your implant should interpret, analyze and adapt. As for your other request, well, stand by for a minute… we’re working on it.”]
Deciding to use the time wisely, Adam found a reasonably empty corridor before locating an open hatch and ducking inside. He closed the hatch so that only a thin sliver of the corridor remained visible and then retreated into the back area of a large room that resembled some sort of meeting room or mess hall. There were tables and chairs lying overturned everywhere he looked, likely scattered by the recent collision. The HUD graphics on his inner vision remained, and a motion sensing overlay appeared in bright blue and green circles that represented the immediate area surrounding him.
Adam could see tiny red dots – the display’s representation of nearby Yakiir soldiers – moving every once in a while on the perimeter of the targeting circles but none of them were close to him. Rotating his head to the right, he noticed that the implant was even detecting soldiers in the adjacent corridor running parallel to the one he had just exited, on the other side of the room’s wall. As instructed, he tapped into the implant software and submitted a request to amplify power to his ear transceiver.
When he received a code green confirmation that the function was complete, he removed his helmet and set it on one of the few tables still standing. The helmet itself remained invisible, leaving Adam with all kinds of questions about how the stealth technology worked. Best not to ask too many of them at this point, he decided silently. I can always question Noah WHEN I get back. Reaching up to touch the earwig, he listened to the loud crackling in his ear and waited for it to clear. When it did he spoke immediately and in a very subdued tone of voice. “Vasten… are you still listening to this frequency?” he hissed sharply, eyes watching the moving red dots on the back of his vision.
There was a lengthy pause and then a voice he did not recognize. “Stand by,” someone told him.
Irritated, Adam ignored the advice. “Vasten, do you still have us tuned in?” he asked again. “This is Adam Roh, one of the Crasel soldiers that you recently recruited. I’m aboard the Yakiir warship.”
“Yes, your point of entry is… well known to us,” said the familiar voice of Snee Vasten after a few more seconds. “It appears that we underestimated you and your men… you have given us a chance for life.”
“Stow that talk for later. Right now you’ve got an even bigger opportunity… a chance to take this vessel.”
“What?” Vasten’s tone turned abruptly suspicious.
“I’m not kidding,” replied Adam hastily. “What is the situation out there? Have you been boarded?”
“No,” replied the Zaketh slowly. “How do you have enough power to pierce local interference?”
“Nevermind,” Adam admonished him sharply. “Where are the two shuttles?”
“Both are still flanking us to port and starboard. Neither has moved in the past several minutes. With the death of most of their officers on that shuttle you rammed, I would think that the remaining command crew is deciding whether or not we’re worth any more losses. Over here, we figure the odds of them leaving us behind altogether as even.”
“Up those odds,” suggested Adam firmly. “You have external gun turrets. Use them to force those shuttles away from the Pyrhh.”
“That’s never a good idea,” replied Vasten somewhat snidely. “We are still the probable losers in any engagement and do not have a lot of firepower. Firing on shuttles that may board us anyway has a tendency to irritate an already aggressive enemy. Doing so is a good way to discover just how LONG potential captors can prolong a tortured death.” He paused, clearly frustrated by the idea. “If we lose this engagement, I personally would prefer to die quickly. Your actions, unfortunately, have all but eliminated that possibility.”
Adam felt his anger rising and carefully struggled to control the emotion, refusing to let it affect his judgment. “I didn’t say to destroy them,” he emphasized calmly. “Just chase them away from the Pyrhh for now. Then, move your ship beneath this one and board it on the port side. Tell your Captain it’s probably his one and only chance to capture a Yakiir war cruiser intact. And he gets the supply shuttle’s contents too, since it has now become a part of this ship.”
“You’re insane.”
“Am I?” This time he did allow some of the ire he was feeling to seep into his voice. “I’m about to disable all power over here, and once I do so this ship’s external guns will no longer have auto-targeting sensors. If you blockheads over there really want to live, get ready to fight your way onto this ship. Our crash really messed up the starboard hull, so if you move below us and come alongside to port, those shuttles have no place to dock except the dorsal hull. Your shipmates will be able to continue to use gun turrets to keep them from doing that.” He paused, letting the weight of his words sink in. “Explain it to your Captain. It’ll take me another few minutes to make my way to the engineering deck and disable the crew on duty there. In exchange for my help, anyone who surrenders gets to live, especially the men on those shuttles.”
The pause was much longer this time. “Acceptable. We may comply if you keep your end of the bargain.”
“If I keep my end of the bargain, I think my men and I have earned our Zaketh stripes today,” countered Adam, noticeable irritated. “We want a share of this ship and its technology. It’s the very least you can do after leaving us to rot and then forcing us to save your collective asses.”
“We will see.”
The signal abruptly went dead and the channel reverted back to a static flutter, causing Adam to shut it down. He reached out and picked up a helmet he could not see and settled it back over his head. The red dots blinking on the back of his vision were still far enough away from the center of the HUD display, allowing him to make his way silently back into the corridor.
[“Congratulations. Recruiting help from the Zaketh has dropped the danger meter to 55,”] chuckled Kaufield with amusement, his presence returning to Adam’s mind.
[“I need to know where the engine room is,”] he replied back. [“And pronto.”]
[“Fine. Here’s how you get there…”]
*
It took Adam slightly more than ten minutes to make his way to the rear of the Yakiir warship. During that time span, he used his wrist guns along the way to disable four soldiers guarding the entrance. The engine room was cavernous, spanning at least three decks, possibly four. It was impossible to tell due to the huge number of screens that formed the distant ‘ceiling above’. Quite probably they served as ‘flooring’ for an upper deck where addi
tional fuel and hardware could be stored. Point-to-Point transit equipment tended to range from big to bigger to biggest… only the Pathfinder project had found a way to safely miniaturize it.
Even then, Kaufield and company had done so using state-of-the-art technology and an entirely new science. The loud, steady thrumming sound of the engines, placed on standby, allowed him to easily slip up to a wider-than-normal entrance to the huge chamber. The curve of each massive thruster assembly could be seen to port and starboard, forming the traditional liquid-fuel powered engines used when traveling at normal speeds. In the center of the chamber was a large assortment of PTP hardware, some of it more than two stories high. Encircling the equipment in a large semi-circle was row after row of sophisticated computer electronics.
Once again, the Yakiir appear to have everything that the other clans do not, he thought to himself.
A quick instruction sent to his implant allowed Adam to modify the HUD display on the inside of his eyeballs even further. Armed Yakiir inside the engine room now blinked in red on his tactical display, while all other humanoid life forms showed up as non-threatening, dark blue dots. When he moved, he did so very quickly and using the targeting options available to him so that there would be no misses. Half a dozen guards went down simultaneously as he stepped into the engine room and fired one wrist gun to the left, the other to the right. Other soldiers standing next to men working along the computer semi-circle were next, and some of the scientists also went down from the energy pulses emitted by his wrist weaponry. Finally, he targeted a pair of guards watching two stories above him on narrow catwalks, disabling both of them with pulses of high energy. Both of them collapsed against the safety railing and slumped to their knees, rifles falling toward the deck below. A bit apprehensively, Adam checked for more targets before moving farther.
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