“I don’t see as we have much choice,” Kink remarked. “The heavy gunners had environ suits on. Even when Lindil’s team is done we’ll still have to contend with them.”
Ller grimaced. Damn, but they’re right. “All right, let’s head back and get us a rocket, but we have to move quickly,” Ller ordered, waving Kink to the point position.
GFS Cunningham, Main Security Station
Trevis hated waiting. He had planned everything and had timed their assault to perfection. Now his own team were forcing him to delay. Two doors away from his objective, the acrid smell of plasma-seared flesh and plastic threatened to choke him if he opened his suit vents again. Beside the door with Telsh, he surveyed the room. Dead security officers littered the floor as Porc manipulated the fiber cam he had secreted through the hatch into the next chamber. More soldiers waited for them behind a barricade, and beyond, at the hatchway onto the bridge.
Ller’s annoyed voice echoed back.
Silence followed for several moments before Trevis thought-sent again.
“We’re nearly in position,” Lindil’s voice came back. “We had to clear a blockage.”
“No, a blockage, don’t ask, we’ll be set in another… six pulses.”
Trevis knew that impatience killed, but so did those fighters racing back to their silent mothership.
The door out of the security office exploded outwards a moment later. It rocketed down the passageway behind a geyser of smoke, and Porc lunged after it.
His heavy repeating plaser gouged tunnels through the smoke as he rushed the barricade. Nash followed, lobbing a quartet of grenades ahead of Porc before Trevis and Telsh joined them. Laying down covering fire, the two Tomeris breeding partners raced for the cover of a door alcove.
The grenades exploded a moment later, tearing apart the front of the barricade and the deck plating ahead of it. The plaser fire paused for a moment as defenders fell back for cover.
That pause was all the Explosions needed. Covered by Trevis and Telsh, Porc and Nash rushed the barricade. Porc led the way, blasting the heavy weapons mounts as he made a suicidal run towards the barricade. Trevis couldn’t believe his eyes as the younger Nerzain vaulted over the barrier, Nash only a few steps behind him. For a moment only the sound of smaller sidearms met Trevis’ ears, then a single bolt parted the smoke and impacted the ceiling.
Trevis exchanged a quick look with Telsh then bounded ahead. Had the pair gotten themselves killed or captured? The sight that greeted him when he reached the barrier made him hold fast, Porc and Nash had ditched their weapons and were slicing at the GF troops with their natural blade claws like wild beasts. Trevis held fast to watch the slaughter.
Red human blood splashed against Trevis’ visor as one of Porc’s elbow blades cleaved the arm from a Geffer’s shoulder. And a moment later it was over, the pair huffing from exertion, Trevis swearing that he could see a smile on the composite faceplate of Porc’s helmet.
When Trevis made his way around the barrier a moment later, not even a moan escaped the lips of the beings on the floor. He motioned to the hatch with his rifle, tapping Porc’s heavy repeating plaser with his foot. Before he could say another word, a violent shudder rattled through the deck plates.
GFS Cunningham, Environmental Control
“What be that explosion?” Trevis asked over the link.
Damn, he be pissed if he be actually speaking instead of thought sending, Lindil realized.
Lindil shot a look to Ribtin as he finished affixing the breaching charge to the inside of the sewage tank’s maintenance hatch. “This be taking longer than we be thinking!”
“I be working as fast as I can!” Ribtin snapped and pushed away towards the others. “I be done,” he called out and swam back to the others before activating his maglocks and dropping to the floor with the rest of them. “Ready,” he called, his rifle now at the ready like the rest.
Lindil didn’t bother waiting and keyed the charge.
The pressure wave slammed into Lindil, her ears popping, but to its credit, the suit kept it from crushing her. A moment later she felt the water flowing away from her and looked up and out into the environmental control bay, where much of the effluent tank’s wall had been blown away. Through the mire her IR camera showed the crew outside flailing against the torrent, the still hot wall chunk embedded in the doors opposite the tank.
Lindil didn’t bother to wait and released the maglocks in her boots, allowing the flow to take her out of the tank before she reengaged them. With a solid double thump she landed on the deck beside the ruined tank. She took a quick look. The crew did their best to get back to their feet and to their weapons, but she didn’t have time to waste. “Roilin!”
“On it, boss lady,” Roilin replied and tossed a stun grenade into the mire.
Lightening arced through the water, surging into the Geffers. Lindil couldn’t help but smile as she looked at the Geffers flop about in response, a meter in her helmet showing just how much charge the suit could take before she too would be overcome.
Now was not the time to celebrate, however, and she ran for the main atmospheric control console. The water had dropped below the level of the controls but she still had to wipe away at the panel to access it as the rest of her team patched their canisters of knock out gas into the system. A thumbs-up from each of her teammates soon followed and Lindil opened the taps, forcing the gas into the ship’s atmosphere.
GFS Cunningham, Main Engineering
“About time,” Ller growled when Lindil’s report came over the link. Had she been quicker, the news might have been welcome. Instead, she stood plastered against a cross passage hoping that the Geffer’s heavy gun wouldn’t chew through the wall behind him. His team’s gamble with the rocket hadn’t paid off. The kinetic kill weapon didn’t have a chance to reach full speed before it had hit the barrier. As a result it gave them only a moment’s breathing space to reach this holdout. If he wanted to take Main Engineering without casualties to his team, he needed that knockout gas.
A light blinked in Ller’s HUD, and his suit sealed around him. He breathed a tentative sigh of relief as the volume of fire coming their way slowed and then stopped. This is our chance.
Ller led his team around the corner towards main engineering, stepping over the defensive team that had held them so long slumped on the floor. He almost felt sorry for them, but the moment before he reached the hatchway, the sound he feared most echoed back at him.
“God’s be telling me that be not what I be thinking?” Dibtil asked.
Ller entered the bay to find the smoking remains of the hyperspace navigational computer staring back at him. He wanted to curse so bad that it hurt, but a movement caught his eye and a technician in an environment suit ran towards the power core, a second scuttling charge in his hand. I think not. Ller fired two rounds at the man, drilling one through the man’s helmet.
“Fragging Geffers,” Gadcon roared and slammed his fist into the bulkhead beside the door, the metal warping around his hand.
Ller couldn’t allow himself to get so emotional, and shooting Gadcon a hard look ran up to the remains of the computer.
Dibtel flashed a quick thumbs-up.
At least there’s that.
Ller looked up at the drive, the hyperspace bubble throbbed and forced dark energy to coalesce around the ship. A pulse later the ship’s relative mass dropped to less than a single one of their team before the engines fired and the ship streaked away towards the jump point. Ller smiled. The smaller fighters would never be able to catch them in slipstream. Now, all he had to do was to get his team to patch the dropship’s nav computer into that of their prize.
Star System: Classified, UCSBA-13, Neurosimulation Bay 3
Ller snatched off his helmet and jumped back to his feet. The motion threatened to topple him, but to his credit he remained standing. “What in Falsing’s Last Turd took you so long? We lost the hyperspace nav computer because of your delay. That thing could have had jump codes to a major Geffer world in its memory, maybe even Phar’s, or Earth’s.”
Lindil took her time in replying. Even Ller could tell that she was having trouble regaining her balance. “It be unavoidable. They be having a trap for us outside the main doors, so we be having to divert. Croy! They be having a plaser cannon off a fighter down there that be giving Arion’s Big Red cannon envy.”
Trevis stomped over. The last thing he needed now was his own team tearing each other apart. “What be your divert then?” Trevis asked, laying a hand on Lindil’s shoulder. He squeezed it just enough to show that he too was annoyed by the delay.
“We be entering through the upper hatch of the main storage tank. Ribtin’s suit be springing a leak in the process.”
“Be trusting me on this, it not be how I wanted it to go,” Ribtin commented with a shiver.
“Destress your jets,” Porc commented and unzipped a hidden pocket on his shin. “We accomplished the primary mission and took the ship. That’s what’s most important.”
The team nodded and even Trevis had to admit that Porc was right.
“And, since it was a victory, I get one of these babies,” Porc continued and pulled out one of his shin length, finger width, hand rolled cigars from his homeworld before sticking it between his teeth.
Trevis took a step away and even the other Nerzain on the squad stepped back as Porc fished around in his suit for his lighter. Trevis hated the noxious odor of the leaf. Even Kink and Ller said that the stink reminded them too much of their coming of age hunts. A reminder of the monstrous Nair Rats was something no sane Nerzain cared for. Be that man’s psych profile even close to legal?
As Porc found the lighter, a voice boomed through the room from the door to the control center and Tadeh Qudas strode in. “Cadet Porc, if you light that thing in my bay I will shove it so far up your rectum that you’ll still be able to smoke it. Do I make myself clear?”
Porc swallowed hard and nodded, chewing on the end of the cigar instead.
“Now everyone, listen up,” Tadeh Qudas ordered as he came to stand amongst them
The squad fell into a semi-circle around their leader and instructor.
“First, congratulations on the capture of the GFS Cunningham.”
Trevis looked back at his team and smiled.
“But once again, you screwed up. Your orders were to bring the ship back intact. Instead, you destroyed, or through inaction, allowed to be destroyed, the communications array, the top rear turret, the primary rear shield array, the fighter launch rails, the sewage containment vat, the hyperspace navigation computer, twenty three hatches around the ship, blasted a hole in the flight-deck, and nearly burnt out the slipstream drive.”
Porc counted up the tally on his fingers as Tadeh Qudas spoke. “Hey, damage happens.”
Tadeh Qudas spun on the smaller, rodent-faced alien faster than Trevis could imagine. The rest of the squad took a step away. “Not to that extent!” he roared. “When you take a ship like that, part of the reason is to gather intel. There is no way to study any of those systems you destroyed.”
Trevis stepped forward. He was in command of the mission, and while even he didn’t care for Porc’s attitude, he wouldn’t allow Tadeh Qudas to tear his team down without good reason. “Sir, respectfully, we be having three objectives by our accounting.” He held up his hand and began to count off. “One: ‘Staying Alive’, if things be going bad I be having no problem ordering a full retreat. I not be losing people for no reason. Two: ‘Capturing the Ship’, which we be doing. And Three: ‘Be Minimizing Damage’. I be feeling that the damage we be doing be justified in the doing of our first two objectives.”
“Wait, I thought minimize damage was like number five on the list, behind ‘Looking Good Doing It’ and ‘Humiliating the Geffer Crew’.”
“Zip it, Porc!” Trevis hollered and sent the smaller Nerzain stumbling backwards.
“Still, it goes without saying that your reckless disregard for advanced systems needs to stop,” Tadeh Qudas replied. “This is something you need to work towards. And if damage can be avoided, avoid it. Lindil, you should have indicated your delay sooner. Trevis, Ller, your two sections will always take priority. If the environmental team is held up, you need to press to take the bridge and engineering bays. Ller, had you done so, you might have saved the nav computer. That was by far your most serious loss. Now, all of you get cleaned up and meet me in the debriefing room in twenty pulses for full debrief.”
UCSBA-13, Mendrick’s Bar and Grill
Marda recognized the look on the Explosion’s faces when they stumbled into Mendrick’s. They’d been in the Neurosimulation bay long enough to get dehydrated. Bet Tadeh Qudas didn’t even let them get water during the debrief, either, same as our last op.
Gavit leaned back in his seat, a hologram of a twin engined, forward swept wing Splicer 5000 hovering in front of him, their new craft. “Do my eyes deceive me, or could those be the Explosions?”
Matt looked back at the team, a half smile on his face. “Why yes, I do believe you might be right. Though it’s been a long while since I set eyes upon them,” he replied with a laugh.
Telsh shook her head as she approached. “We only be gone two cycles.” She stole Gavit’s drink and took a long draw of the sweet alcoholic nectar. “You be gone longer on your last mission.”
Marda guided Trevis towards an empty chair beside her and Blazer. She didn’t even attempt to hide her smile at the aghast look on Gavit’s face as Telsh drained his whole mug in one go. “How did it go?”
“Rough. They really be ramping up the defenses on us. Plus we be getting another reprimand for the amount of damage we be doing,” Trevis replied, before he grabbed one of the passing waitresses. His massive hand engulfed the girl’s arm. “Miss, please to be bringing a round for my team, Coretherian Honey Mead, and be putting it on me tab,” he asked before releasing her. She hurried off to the bar. “Tadeh Qudas be feeling that we be too liberal with the explosives.”
Blazer shrugged from beside Marda. It was a common complaint against their sis
ter team. “Well, you are the Explosions, doesn’t he know that? Did you make the objective and come back in one piece? Our last run we lost half the prisoners we were sent to retrieve, plus Arion, Matt and Bichard.”
Arion shook his head. “Damned land mine, it tore the blasted AT-APT to bits.”
“We’ll fill you in on the gory details later,” Porc replied and pulled out his lighter and a fresh cigar.
Marda smiled as everyone stared at Porc in disapproval while he stuck the noxious wound up weed in his mouth. She hated the smell like the rest, but she understood how important the ritual was to him.
“What?” Porc pointed at the air filter intake vent above his head. “You won’t smell it hardly at all. So leave me my one vice, okay?” he asked, taking a long drag off it. “Oh, good stuff.”
Marda elbowed Trevis, drawing him in close. “We still can’t figure out where he hides those things. We must have searched his quarters three times.”
“Thanks, but me thinks he be keeping them on his person. It be explaining his smell,” he replied.
“Well, nobody’s going to search that now, are they?”
UCSB DATE: 1001.291
Anul System, Planet Anul, Capben, Club Soren
Jell bounced into the bar of Club Soren, waving to several employees before she leapt onto one of the cushioned stools. It felt odd seeing the place all lit up, with music turned down low as workers readied it for opening in a few hects.
Derjin came out from the stockroom and winked at her. He hadn’t slipped into his normal work clothes yet. “Hey, babe,” he said and set down his tray before leaning over the bar to give her a quick peck on the lips.
Jell sat back as far as she could and crossed her arms. “Hey.”
“You want anything to drink?”
In Death's Shadow Page 28
