"We can push towards our reinforcements, we should press our advantage," Remmy said.
"No, stay on the bridge, fortify the position. More Haven ships are minutes away."
"Did you get a communication I didn't?" Remmy asked.
"No, but we're in the Haven System, reinforcements are definitely on the way, even though we're as far from Tamber as we could be. Fortify that position, I'll keep drawing them here, pushing them back if I can."
"If you're wrong, you're dead," Remmy said flatly.
"That's enough, Remmy," Minh-Chu said. "Fortifying our position, Captain."
Sixty-Four
Breaking In
* * *
The weaponry Alice's Nafalli brought into her squad was stunning. When Woone and Faloo melted the inner airlock of the Nova Concord in less than three seconds with intense particle beam weapons that were mounted on hip rigs then charged forward, Alice was relieved. She knew the technical capabilities of the weapons, that all four of the Nafalli had hundreds of hours training on them with and without the harness mounts but seeing them burn a door through in a perfect square starting from the top and cutting right through to the bottom with expert ease was real reassurance that they were practiced with their gear.
They flooded the main aft causeway, catching fire right away. Knud, Jessen, Newell, and Nash represented the humans with Gabe and Alice in the middle. Woone and Faloo were running point, while the taller males Faloo and Krooke took up the rear. As soon as they were through, all the Nafalli fired several bursts from their personal energy cannons - that was the actual classification of their weapons - in all directions, revealing everything that was cloaked on their level and along the causeway above.
Alice's breath caught as she recognized the silhouette of the largest target amongst twenty figures that were attempting to remain cloaked. "Pick your targets and burn them down," Alice ordered, marking the large silhouette, the Beast of the Order of Eden as her primary target. "Missile burst!" she cried, unleashing a barrage of five micro-missiles in his direction and catching the pair of Order Knights at his side.
Their boots were holding them to the deck, their shield units were working together to form one protective bubble, and the Order Knights were throwing every kind of ammunition in their direction, but their shields were holding up, the charge bouncing between ninety-seven and ninety-nine percent as the focused beams of the Nafalli burst wide, revealing target locations, then focused in for seconds at a time, melting thin hull plating to get to some targets, striking directly at Order Knights who weren't wise enough to find cover.
"Where'd he go?" Alice asked. "Target zero, anyone have eyes on him?"
"I saw you nail him with two missiles and I can't find him now," Gabe said. "Auto scan isn't coming up with him either."
Alice got an idea then and pulled an automated pulse grenade from the slot under her arm. "Going to track this," she said, throwing it up towards the main concourse one level up. Two seconds later, their group was pummelled by concussive grenades, reducing their collective shield to twelve percent. "Move! Rush my waypoint," Alice ordered, marking a spot on her map part way down a hall that hugged the port side of the ship. There were bulkheads there, good cover.
Woone nudged into an Order Knight and broke rank, activating the savage vibrating bayonet on the end of her weapon and wielding it like a long staff. It clashed with the Knight's shield as she bashed him twice, knocking him to the deck. The third strike broke through his shields, and as the blurry, vibrating tip of her bayonet blade rattled and jigged against his armour, she activated her beam weapon, beginning a super-hot cut that burned through metal, flesh and bone from his stomach to the top of his head. Another struck her from the side, the round of his sidearm sending a splash of energy across the side of her armour, and Faloo was there, stabbing and firing at him.
The rest of the group caught up, finishing the Order Knights off. Alice dropped a timed electromagnetic grenade between their corpses to stop their regeneration. They went off as her group reached the hallway opposite the main aft airlock, rendering the Knights inert.
She found herself at the rear of the group, between Krooke and Noro, who were blasting at three Order Knights that fired at them from cover. The Beast came down from the causeway railing above, blasting through what remained of their shield, snatching Alice and hurling her down the broad hallway from port to starboard. She touched the wall of the corridor and affixed several metres out of sight from her squad. "Fabricate nanobot compound twenty-eight and load it into my sidearm." She said to her computer system as she scanned the hallway for the Beast with every system she had as well as her eyeballs. No one was attacking her, the Order Knights were focusing on keeping her people bottled up in the port side hallway. The Beast knew who she was, it was the only explanation.
Her shield was charged up to nine percent when a heavy electromagnetic round struck her at high speed, depleting it and destroying half her emitter systems. She fired back in the direction the round came from then watched for any sign of a cloaked soldier. She was about to take a pulse grenade from her thigh pocket when she was struck so hard that the chest of her armour registered damage. Her boots held to the deck, the artificial muscle in the back and bottom half of her armour held her position, but the invisible figure had a grip on her rifle, and a blade strike was registered against her visor.
Alice grabbed at her assailant, her throbbing head clearing. Her left hand caught nothing but air, then her right got a firm grip on a metal edge, and she used every augmented physical system to punch with her empty hand as the other pulled. The crackling of his shield taking the hit and fighting to expel her as he activated it lit the space in front of her. The flaws she made in his cloak were revealing him only as a towering dark shape. Another strike from something solid, something made to pierce and cut hit her helmet, and she didn't need her computer to warn her about the impact, her head was jostled to the side.
With gnashed teeth, she struck at him several more times, trying to pry his armour open and his cloak failed, his shield failed before it could cut through her wrist. One more punch revealed that she was holding on to not only a piece of his armour, but the belly plate beneath, and he swung for her head frantically with his armoured, spiked fists as her last punch ripped it open, exposing him to the vacuum, making his stomach send blood into the weightless space between them.
All the while she ducked low, watching his swings, keeping her head out of the way. "Sidearm reload complete," her computer said.
"Time to end you," Alice growled through clenched teeth.
Pain lanced through her shoulder, then another wave of excruciating agony as whatever cut into her from above, from her bleeding assailant was ripped free. The strength in her right arm was gone, and she let go of him. The Beast caught her by the helmet before she could get out of the way, stims and recovery medication flooding her system along with a small army of nanobots to take care of her growing injury list. Her suit was already beginning to seal.
Alice drew her sidearm and fired at the Beast's belly, which had already regenerated. If it penetrated, there was no indication. He grabbed her wrist, let her helmet go and ripped her boots free of their grip on the deck, damaging the synthetic muscle and plating in her armour. She flailed, her suit re-sealed from the void, the stimulants kicking in, and the wound in her shoulder burning, tingling as nanobot surgeons did their work. Getting her wrist free of him was useless, he was grabbing for one of her legs, and she caught his intention, kicking away and up, landing a boot against his jaw with more pressure than anyone outside of augmented armour could manage. It didn't faze him.
Light pulsed behind him, her squad was free, and charging. A dark figure came down from above, his boots affixing to the deck behind the Beast. She recognized the death's head helmet of her father's armour. The Beast let her wrist go, grabbed her helmet and drove a long spike against her chest armour, denting it severely. Alice kicked at him and struck his arm with a blow th
at snapped bone, but the Beast got his shot. A long spike drove into her beneath the breastbone, failing to press through the back of her armour, but running all the way through her body, and there was no pain greater. Then pulses of electrical current passed through the blade into her body, sending her into convulsions, the sound of her own screams filled her ears for long seconds before she passed out.
Sixty-Five
Valents
* * *
The Beast flicked Alice off his long arm blade, sending her into a dark corner of the hall. Jake's systems told him that, despite two Nafalli beam weapons firing on him, his shields were recharging. The squad from the Clever Dream was representing themselves well, fighting at least two squads of Order Knights - driving them behind cover with expert cover fire - while advancing slowly on the Beast. It was how it should be done, it was the best way to keep your whole team alive while you tried to save your comrade.
The Beast's armour was self-repairing, he was about to take a step away, and Jake dropped his rifle, bumped into it on the way across the space between him and the Beast, sending it spinning through the gravity absent causeway. At the last instant, the Beast turned to him, and even through that horrific plating, Jake could see him smiling.
The Beast slashed at him with the same blade he'd used to impale his daughter, Jake raised his arm shield, deflecting it easily then bashing the Beast bodily at full charge, pushing him onto his back foot. Jake's intent was grim, not rage fuelled, but driven by more hate than he could stand. Jacob Valent's intent was simple. Murder him. Murder him quickly. His right-hand bracer unit vibrated as a nano-blade made to cut through hull material emerged. The Beast sidestepped Jake's swipe. He was about to regain his balance, retake the advantage.
Jake wouldn't have it and leapt at the Beast who narrowly dodged a body to body collision. He failed to deflect Jake's hand as it got a grip on the bulge of his shoulder plate. An electric surge burned Jake's energy shield out in one shot, a trick he'd adapt from the Beast's arsenal, and he felt an impact against his side. He risked shifting his grip, catching the Beast's neck and he hooked his leg around the bastard's waist, dragging his nano-blade across the thing's chest, watching his eyes grow wide. "I've got you now," Jake said. He felt the pierce of a blade shallowly penetrating his armour and clenched his teeth, hate bearing him through. The armour sealed the hole with a thin layer of emergency material. "I’m going to open you up and watch you start healing." There it was, another strike, but it missed the hole the Beast made the first time, he was panicking.
The first small crack started to form in the Beast's armour as the bastard bashed Jake's helmet with his unbladed hand frantically. His bladed fist found its mark, piercing Jake's side, digging in towards his stomach and Jake roared, holding to his enemy, cutting through plate, the breach in the Beast's armour growing, globules of dark blood shaking out of the crack into the air.
Another body collided with the Beast's shoulder, gripping him under the helmet, a sidearm in her hand. Alice pressed the muzzle against the opening Jake made in the Beast's armour and fired shot after shot until the Beast began to scream, it wasn't heard, but seen through the transparent section of his helmet. "Let him go, Dad," she said, their suits communicating through laser link.
As he did so, he watched as the Beast's armour sealed, but the transparent faceplate revealed an image that Jake couldn't believe at first. The crimson plates covering the misshapen head of the Beast were breaking down. The colour of the skin beneath changed from red and blue to fresh human pink. "Don't fire on the Beast. He's been neutralized," Alice said. "There won't be a framework cell left in his body in a minute."
"There are no Order Knights. Two other soldiers surrendered, we think they're Citadel. I'm sorry we couldn't go after you when he pulled you out of our formation, Alice," Gabe said. "Good job, damn good job."
"No worries," Alice said. "Rushing after me would have gotten more people killed. This was a victory. We have Clark Patterson."
"Well done," Jake said as he looked into the face of a young man who had an uncanny resemblance to Jonas Valent. "Someone get that thing in restraints."
He turned towards Alice, his stomach still burning and tingling, and pulsed his basic propulsion system in her direction. "Are you all right?"
"I was dead for a second there," Alice said, surprisingly cheery. "But I feel much better now." She allowed herself to be caught in his arms and chuckled as they gently bounced off the wall. "Welcome home."
Sixty-Six
Wrap Up
* * *
All it took for Alice to completely accept Jacob Valent as her father, biological and beyond, was his proximity. Her doubt and refusal, looking to Jonas as the person who initially made her so many years before as her true father, was purely intellectual. Watching how he spoke to people and sorted things out aboard the Nova Concord as quickly as he could while being effective at the same time made her feel like her father had returned. Her own squad sorted itself out quickly, by the time Alice directed them in restraining and securing the few prisoners they took, they were ready with a plan in mind.
It was clear to her that Gabe needed his own people. He stepped into a leadership role fluidly and was very good at it. Not quite as good as Jake, but experienced and confident. She wanted to work with him, maybe there was room for him aboard the Clever Dream. It was worth proposing.
Everyone gathered in the forward section of the ship on the lowest deck, where the Clever Dream was coming around to dock at one of the secondary airlocks and the first Haven Fleet destroyer to arrive was sending marines aboard to do another sweep of the ship and as they retrieved the survivors. Alice's attention was so split between watching her father and taking care of her own Squad, who seemed disappointed that there wasn't more work for them to do, that she almost didn't notice Minh-Chu, who approached her with a big smile. It was funny, she never realized how short he was until then. He was only a few centimetres taller, she could match or beat his height by standing on her tiptoes.
"Well, look at this. They grow so fast while we're away," he said.
Alice gave him a welcoming hug and smiled back at him. "I cheated." Being with Jake and Minh-Chu made her feel young again, almost as young as she did when they left. "What happened? Why did you come in on this ship instead of the Revenge?"
"We saw an opportunity to hit the Order where it hurts," Minh-Chu said. "I think it worked, but when the Order crashed our party, we were too far from the Revenge to catch a ride back."
"They're not back yet," Alice said. "But we're expecting them tomorrow."
Minh-Chu's lively expression darkened a little, worried. He was easier to read than Iruuk.
There was no reason to leave him in the dark, or to withhold reassurances. "Everything's fine, they said they were limping back but doing well," Alice reassured. "They'll probably be surprised when they find out you got here first."
"That'll be something," he said, his mood lifting a little. Three shuttles docked along the wall, the doors opened to admit squads of soldiers. Each group knew where to go, passing around the survivors and into the bowels of the Nova Concord. It was time for them to do a sweep of the vessel, and Alice suspected that it was only the first wave. There would be hundreds of them in minutes.
"Captain Valent," a Commander said, his grin practically splitting his face it was so wide. "I'm Commander Sonnen, formerly of Freeground Fleet, now serving in your military. It's an honour to meet you."
Jake shook his hand. "Welcome to the Fleet," he said, half turning to Alice.
"Everyone knows you, Captain Valent," the Commander said with the same grin. "I wouldn't have been transferred if it weren't for you, a lot of people are grateful for the opportunities your actions brought us," he said, offering his hand.
Alice took it, and blushed, her heart skipping a beat when she saw Noah Lucas walking by behind him, joining Minh-Chu. "Um, thank you," Alice said, fighting to regain focus for a moment. "What opportunity did I give Free
ground Fleet?"
"When you dressed down Terran, you made an important point to Haven leadership. There was a lot of outrage, but many experienced commanders started taking a closer look at the people who were brought in to manage your military efforts here, and hundreds of them were put out, a few thousand were demoted. Didn't you hear about it?"
"I was a little busy, I can't talk about it…" Alice said, eyeing a pair of marines standing nearby. There was no way they had clearance, and she really didn't feel like talking about her experiences over the last few days.
"I understand. To the point: If it weren't for you, the military merge between Freeground and Haven Fleet could have taken months, but now we expect to be finished by the end of the week. People who have been ready for promotions for years are finally being put in the right place, and the Freeground Nation are accepting the idea of relocation much faster. I just wanted to say thank you. Admiral Anderson has been a large part of the merge as well, possibly larger, if you could pass my thanks on, I'd appreciate it."
"I will, thank you," Jake said.
"For now, it's time for your people to board my shuttles," Commander Sonnen said. "We'll take you to the Hunter, from there you'll be going to the War Forge, Sir."
Alice thought the Commander was pleasant, but he definitely knew how to move things along. All but one squad of soldiers were already out of sight, moving into the Nova Concord on their sweep. "I'll be taking my people back to the Clever Dream," Alice said. "Good to meet you, Commander." She turned to her father. "See you aboard the War Forge."
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 11 Page 42
