by Will Crudge
Steve sounded more amused with himself than usual.
Kara instantly realized her left forearm had an Unum brand military grade ballistic energy shield generator mounted to it. She was completely concealed, and none too soon.
“Take her out!” One of the pirates shouted, and an eruption of small arms fire began to impact her shield to no avail. The hodge-podge of plasma bolts, pulse blasts, and ballistic projectiles were easily deflected by the military grade shielding. The shield was rated for heavier combat rifle variants, so the array of pistols and small carbines barely registered any impact signatures.
Kara didn’t waste time being a stationary target. She raised her pistol over the top edge of the shield and sent a few pulse blasts in the general direction of the larger group. They scattered as she had hoped, and there was a slight break in the incoming fire. She rolled to her right and ducked behind a palletized mobile diagnostics console, then pulled out three stun grenades.
Blasts of enemy fire began to chew the console to shreds, and a piece of debris missed her left ear by millimeters. She blindly hurled the grenades over her head and over her rapidly deteriorating cover. There were a few audible gasps from her pirate attackers, and then the grenades detonated.
Kara’s powered armor launched her into a blistering sprint as she took advantage of the lull in enemy fire and went on the offensive. She skirted the bulkhead, and then put herself at a perfect angle to strafe the skirmish line of fuck-sticks. Pulse blasts unleashed from her pistol, and the disoriented pirate crew began to drop. Her years of training translated into a deadly rhythm of control bursts, and she instinctively had to adjust to how her pistols boosted power level was going to slow down her safe rate of fire.
Kara stared down the right flank of the pirate skirmish line. She shifted her direction towards the row of enemies and engaged her shield. The repulsive effect of the shield’s surface allowed her to plow right into the first three pirates—who she hadn’t already shot—and sent them flying.
“Hold it right there!” Baldy came into view, then positioned Sergeant Andrews as a human shield. “Power down your shield and drop your piece! Last chance!”
“He dies—you die!” Kara jeered. She held the shield in place, and had her pistol pointing directly at Baldy’s head. She knew she couldn’t fire through the shield, but she had to maintain a position of authority.
The remaining pirates began to emerge from behind Baldy. This time they were smarter and tried picking positions that gave them some semblance of cover. They kicked over hardened crates, docking cradle pieces, or any solid object they could find.
Kara had hoped she’d taken out most of them already, but she quickly realized that most of them were still in fighting shape. She’d dropped at least three that wouldn’t get up—or probably breathe again. Two of the three victims of her lunging shield attack were still motionless, but one female was slowly climbing back on her feet.
“This nicely groomed Sergeant here is depending on your compliance. But I guess you’ve just sealed his fate!” Baldy shouted, and then Kara zoomed in on the trigger guard of his plasma pistol. His finger was on the trigger… the world slowed down and it seemed like slow motion. She’d failed. Andrews was dead.
But he wasn’t. Andrews took matters into his own hands and drove his elbow back into the bald pirate’s solar plexus. Baldy lurched and the plasma pistol discharged harmlessly into the bulkhead to Kara’s right. Andrews grabbed the pistol with both hands and spun around in a single motion, while simultaneously stripping the pistol from its owner’s hand. Now Andrews was trained with the pistol at the forehead of the breathless pirate.
Baldy was still hunched and seemed to have the wind knocked out of him. Andrews took advantage of Baldy’s condition and grabbed his throat. The plasma pistol was now resting on the pirate’s bottom row of teeth… barrel towards that back of his throat.
Curses of profanity ranged out from the rag-tag crew, but they didn’t risk shooting their leader.
“Drop your weapons, and your boss lives!” Sergeant Andrews demanded. His voice was more confident than fearful now.
“Go to hell!” One of the crew spat.
“Sergeant! How’s about you let my boss go, or this nice lady gets it!” The voice came from behind Kara. One of the men she knocked around with her shield was now behind her, and she felt the muzzle of some sort of weapon pressed up against the thinner sub-armor on her lower back.
Kara executed a textbook back kick and the man crumpled in pain.
Somehow Kara didn’t seem to care but appreciated his tactical maneuver just the same. “Looks, like we’re back to square one!” she shouted back. The man held one hand over his groin, and the other raised his ballistic pistol at her. The trigger squeeze let out an audible click.
Kara kicked the pistol from his hand and pointed her own pistol at his head.
“Sergeant… These bastards aren’t known for loyalty. They’ll shoot you and their boss before they stand down. Especially when a priceless spacecraft is on the line!” Kara spoke as a matter of fact.
Andrews just nodded, then began to ease back. He pulled his bald pirate buddy with him… But it was too late…
An eruption of fire lanced out from the enemy positions. Pulse blasts, plasma bolts, and ballistic weapons of every imaginable configuration mowed down the two men. They both fell to the deck. Motionless.
The pirate crew didn’t know what hit them—but it hit them fast and hard.
Metallic Terror
Location: Clarendon Station, Interstellar Port, dock
Date Time: Post Interstellar 08/01/4201
System: Vulcan System, Outer Region
Kara held fast to her shield. A myriad of weapons pounded into the pinkish hue of the shield in brilliant flashes of light. The ballistic weapon impacts were slowed down by the repulsive field before impact, but the energy-based weapons were beginning to tax her limited shield generator. Red warning indicators were already flashing. She was in the open, and now her shield generator began to cascade rapidly below a fifty percent charge.
She knew some unknown something was coming through the bulkhead door into the dock. She angled her shield to cover her from the pirates’ firing positions, and now to include the bulkhead door.
Four huge metallic blurs sprinted into the dock and began to unleash weapons fire on the pirates’ positions. One veered directly towards Kara and stopped instantly. The clear view of a female UAHC Soldier had a pinkish hue as Kara saw her through the shielding.
“Clear left!” The soldier shouted over her right shoulder, then took her eyes off Kara and pivoted back towards the enemy positions. Kara looked to see three more UAHC soldiers with their backs facing her. They were firing with heavy pulse rifles with precision intervals.
Pulse weapons required a brief pause between shots to allow the capacitors to build up a charge before hitting avalanche. Once the capacitors hit avalanche, they discharged a concentrated pulse of energy onto the emitters that formed a spherical ball of concentrated energy that became encapsulated into a short-lived magnetic f
ield. The emitter essentially expels the ball of energy into a shimmering golden ball that had a concussive discharge effect on whatever solid mass it impacted.
The timed trigger squeezes of the, now four soldier, skirmish line was a well-rehearsed dance that maximized the overall volume of fire. Then it all stopped just as soon as it began.
“Interlace your fingers behind your heads… slowly stand up… turn around. Walk backwards towards my voice!” One of the soldiers sounded off. Kara could tell by the speaker’s inflection and evenly spaced pauses that he’d done this many times before.
He was a law enforcement grade AI, but he was also a clown. Still, Kara couldn’t help but notice Steve seemed to be embracing his current role. Thanks, Steve. She powered off her shield and held her pistol at the low-ready position, then rapidly moved forward to get a better view of the situation.
All but two pirates were dead. The survivors were complying with instructions and were slowly stepping back within ten or so meters of the soldiers.
“Halt!” the soldier spouted.
“Please excuse me.” Kara glanced over at the soldier giving the orders. The man turned to her, and she got a clear view of his status display on his right arm. He was a Master Sergeant. She looked up to meet his gaze. “Master Sergeant, I am Major Kara Elders of the Unum Defense force. If I may, I’d like to ask these two perps a few questions?”
Kara realized the soldier gave her a slight hint of surprise in his expression. The tall man with short brown hair just nodded. “Thank you.” She raised her pistol slightly and walked in a circular pattern around the left side of the two pirates who were still facing away. She looked into the faces of the two rough men. “Where are your Crimson handlers? Who sent you?” Kara maintained an authoritarian voice.
One of the men just quivered his lip in disgust and kept his gaze straight forward. The closer man slightly turned his head to meet Kara’s eyes. He seemed noticeably more rattled than his companion. He seemed to be younger as well. Kara figured she could make this one talk.
“I-I don’t…” The pirate stuttered.
“Don’t say shit, boy!” The other one spat.
Kara’s face remained stoic. She had to make this man more afraid of her than he was of his buddy. “Obviously you don’t want to live, do you?” Kara said as she arched her eyebrows.
She knew she was obligated to give any captive due process. But these men were technically not her captives. UAHC Soldiers had punitive discretion when it came to certain classifications of criminals and had the authority to unilaterally execute known pirates at any time. For a military force that had such tight restrictions, she always found that part a little odd. However, the pirates themselves were all too aware of the policy.
“I don’t know who he is! I just know he gives us weapons, fuel, and helps us keep our ships flightworthy!” The man spat the words out as fast as he could. His eyes were the size of planets.
That’s a good little pirate. Kara thought to herself.
“You’ll have to do better than that! These soldiers don’t care if you live or die. They can legally splatter your brain case against the bulkhead, and the only thing the local authorities can do about it is send them the cleaning bill!”
“That’s all I know! I swear!” The young man began to shake.
Kara noticed the other pirate began to huff. Perhaps he knew more. She stepped out a little further and pointed her pistol at his forehead. He didn’t seem to budge. He acted like she wasn’t even there.
“Spit it out, you! Same question!” Kara growled.
“I’m not telling you shit! Besides, the only person that knew all the details is dead.” The man still wouldn’t look at her. But Kara realized he must have meant Baldy.
“You bastards can’t keep secrets! You rape, murder, and steal for a living! You can do better than that.” Kara didn’t believe her own statement, but it had to be said. There was always the off chance they knew some shred of detail that could shed light on the situation.
“Listen here, bitch! If I did know, I wouldn’t say shit. That bald-ass moron thought he was some hot shit because he brought us all these cool trinkets, but all he did was drag us around on wild goose chases. He wouldn’t even tell us what in the hell we were even looking for.”
Kara believed him this time. She’d been around enough scum to know the usual tells. Either this guy had the best poker face she’d ever encountered, or he was being truthful. And she suspected she could out-play him in poker.
“I guess I’m done with you. There’s nothing I can do for you. These soldiers are free to proceed any way they see fit, as far as I’m concerned.” She shrugged, lowered he weapon, and then turned to walk away. That was when she was grabbed from behind.
The first man she had spoken to made a desperate move, and grabbed her pistol. The soldiers were powerless to intercede… she was in their field of fire as well. The pirate wheeled her around like a human shield and put her own pulse pistol to her head.
“Drop the weapons, you-see’s!” You-see being pirate slang for U-A-H-C’s.
“Don’t stand down, fellas!” Steve audibly chimed in. “Let her do her thing!”
The soldiers didn’t respond but seemed to go along. They kept their rifles trained on Kara. One soldier, the female, walked forward and grabbed the other pirate. She tossed him to the ground face first, and he went limp from the impact.
“Drop them! Now!” The younger pirate shouted once more. His tone was becoming increasingly desperate. Then Kara cracked a smile.
Then in a flash of bright blue, an energy shield covered Kara’s head and neck. The pulse pistol was now out of play. She snatched it out of his hands with blinding speed. Her powered armor increased her speed, strength, and agility beyond what she’d ever experienced before… but it felt like she’d been wearing this new armor for years.
Her elbow crashed into the pirate’s mid-section and he was sent scampering into a support column with a load thud. She pivoted with a reverse step and grabbed the man’s shoulders. He was still struggling to breathe and was otherwise flailing helplessly. Kara stepped out to clear the support column and then hurled the man straight up into the air.
Gravity did its work and dropped the man toward the deck from whence he once stood, but he would never touch it. Kara stepped into an upward kick and with a loud crack of shatter ribs and vertebrae, the pirate’s body was punted straight up and out of the energy field of that sealed the atmosphere in the dock. The football style punt launched the man clear into the vacuum of space beyond. His body floated away rapidly but was gone in a split second. The massive mega-freighter would probably never know it hit a human flying through space. He was gone.
Kara just smiled as she gazed out and into open space. Then she heard a single slow clap. Then another. By the time she turned around to look at the soldiers, they were already in full applause. Smiles filled their faces, and a few nods of approval accompanied their cheerful expressions.
All Kara could do was blush and take a bow.
Soldier Buddies
Location: Clarendon Station, Interstellar Port, dock
Date Time: Post Interstellar 08/01/4201
System: Vulcan System, Outer Region
The other pirate was now bound in restraints, but still out cold. Kara had noticed the icon that paired the four soldiers’ ranks. They were assigned to marine duties.
There was no actual marine branch of the UAHC. Soldiers were assigned to marine units as a mere duty position. Whether they bore the rank of duties of a naval, marine, or field (ground-pounder) soldier, they were all Soldiers. All with the same training. She’d learned quite a bit from her short time with Darius.
Darius. She couldn’t keep him from the back of her mind.
“Thanks for coming. I would say I had the situation handled, but that may be a lie!” Kara smiled and directed her words at the Master Sergeant.
“I’m Master Sergeant David.” He reached out his hand.
She took it in kind, and then spoke again. “I didn’t realize there were any Fleet personnel nearby. But I’m sure glad there was!” Kara let out a deep breath of relief.
“We had some… malfunctions.” The female soldier chimed in. Kara could see her rank was Staff Sergeant. “Staff Sergeant Kelley, by the way.”
Kara nodded. “Tech can do that to you.”
“My armor! Aarrggh!” Then one of the other soldiers screamed. The soldier seemed to be making strained but robotic movements. He reached back to unlatch his pulse rifle from his back, and then pointed it back towards the Skull-Crusher.
Kara looked over to see Jimma and Sasha had just disembarked and were walking towards them. They barely cleared the keel of the LRF when they froze in place, and Jimma reached for her sword.
Now the other three soldiers were on him. They struggled to force the weapon out of his hand. The Soldier was cussing and straining to fight the AI’s control over his powered armor.
Kara didn’t waste a moment. She reached back behind her neck and found the rectangular node that kept Steve embedded within her armor. She was in a full sprint and shifted her ingress to angle her arm towards the aux port in the Soldier’s armor. The other three were struggling to overpower the rogue suit, but it was defying all odds. Something must be overriding its safeguards and pushing it well-beyond its normal power output.
