by Kal Spriggs
"Why wouldn't you?" Alannis asked, stepping around her desk. She didn't sit, she didn't want to put herself in a vulnerable position.
Tomas didn't seem concerned about that. He sat in the chair in front of her desk and put his feet up. "Oh, I know Mark Salazar well enough, not as well as you do, I'm sure, but well enough." His smirk suggested volumes. "And he'd never leave the La Muerto Negra in someone else's hands. Not if he were still alive. Tell me, meine liebchin, did you make him suffer?"
Alannis blinked at him as his behavior suddenly began to make sense. Maria and he were lovers, she realized. She forced herself to smile, "He died quickly."
Tomas stared at her, his smile turning to puzzlement, "There's something different about you, my dear, did you change your hair?"
Alannis reached down as if to adjust her pant leg and drew her stun wand. "You noticed?" She maintained the smile, even as she came around the edge of the desk. Hopefully the Marines had taken down the bodyguards in the corridor. I shouldn't have tried this alone, she realized.
His voice sounded suspicious, "I have an eye for detail. Tell me, my dear, do you still have my keepsake?"
"Of course," Alannis said as she walked towards him. She started to bring her stun-wand out, "Right, here..."
He moved with viper speed, one hand catching her wrist as she lunged at him. His other hand went for her throat and Alannis's shout of warning cut off as his hand clamped down, choking off her breath as he rose to his feet, lifting her clear of the floor.
"What have you done to Maria!?" Tomas demanded. "Did you think to fool me so easily? Tell me, did Salazar find out about us?"
Alannis's world started to fade. She reached down to grab for her pistol, but he slammed her into the bulkhead and it flew out of her hands. "I'll know the truth soon enough," Tomas growled. "I'll torture it out of you and when I'm done you'll beg me for death in the torture room that Maria and I shared."
Alannis kicked her feet, but he shifted sideways so she hit his hip rather than his groin. She clawed at his fingers with her hand, but the world just darkened further. She couldn't breathe, couldn't scream. She was helpless. She was going to die. Her mission would fail...
She remembered the knife that she’d put on her belt. With a jerk she reached down and drew it out of her boot and then slashed it across the inside of Tomas's wrist. He let go of her with a shout of pain and as he recoiled, she lunged in with her stun wand.
Tomas fell back, limbs twitching, to crash to the floor. His eyes remained open, so she hit him again, grinding the stun wand into him until his eyes rolled back in his head.
The hatch opened and a pair of Marines rushed inside. They stared at the scene with shock. Alannis looked down at herself, at the bloody knife in one hand and the stun wand in the other. She could barely speak, her throat hoarse as she did. "He's injured, patch that up and get him secured."
"Yes, ma'am," one of the Marines said. "Do you need medical assistance?"
"No," Alannis rasped. "I'll be fine. Just get him out of here."
She sat on the edge of her desk as she watched them pull the unconscious terrorist out. She'd nearly died. She still couldn't believe how fast and strong Tomas had been, how he'd completely overpowered her. Next time, she thought, I'm not coming within arm’s reach of an enemy.
***
Ricky One-eye grimaced as the Raptor emerged from shadow space. The old frigate shuddered a bit, but it held together. More or less.
The Panjar hadn't been so lucky. Ricky had salvaged what he could from the frigate on their emergence from their blind jump, but the Panjar had emerged mangled, most of the crew ripped apart. It wasn't the first time he'd had to loot the dead, so he had gone about it as quickly as possible.
The jump had put them in the Arcturus system and between repairs and salvaging the Panjar, he'd realized right away that his best bet was to return to Yaitsik Station and try to salvage something of the situation. None of his people would dare to speak up and tell the awaiting pirates what had happened. They'd put all the blame on the navy ships that had shown up, conduct their repairs, and then leave. Hopefully Ricky could get a loan of some kind to pay for supplies.
"Yaitsik Station," Ricky said, keying up a transmission to the pirate station, "this is Ricky, we're back, uh..." he trailed off as he tried to build up the courage to let them know that he'd be the only one to return.
"Hey," the criminal on the other end sounded oddly happy, "glad to see you back. The La Muerto Negra just made port, they said Salazar is interrogating Reese's people. Any news on that?"
"Uh..." Ricky rubbed his one good eye. That was impossible as far as he knew. Unless Salazar is doing that interrogation in hell... "No, no news. I've got some damage to repair, I'll head to my usual berth."
"Sure," the response was casual, relaxed. Ricky felt oddly disconnected, like the world had gone sideways somehow. He'd seen the venting atmosphere from the La Muerto Negra. He'd seen the navy ships coming in, close enough to launch missiles. There was no way that the La Muerto Negra should be here, not unless it had ghosts for crew. Who brought the destroyer back?
He hadn't realized he spoke aloud until the response came back, "Maria Avila. Tomas is talking with her now."
"Thanks," Ricky said. He glanced at Captain Burani, who wore a bandage over the side of his head from being thrown into a wall on their emergence from the blind jump. "Something's wrong here. There shouldn't be any way they got out of there. If they had, they would have told them about what we did."
"Should we jump?" Captain Burani asked nervously.
Ricky gnawed at his lip. He didn't like this. Ricky was a weasel, he knew how to survive most of all, but right now, he didn't like his options. Either this was a trap set by Tomas and the other criminals, in which case as soon as he docked, Ricky's crew would be overrun and he'd face torture and worse... or else this was a trap by someone else.
"Maybe the navy boys..." Ibrihim started to say.
Ricky's one eye went wide as he considered that. If the Navy had captured the La Muerto Negra intact, they'd have access codes, records, they would know about Yaitsik Station. They might have sent it back as a trojan horse. They'll have people on the station already, Ricky realized.
If that was the case, it would be best if he fled. If he ran, then he'd be clear of all this. But he didn't have supplies and the Raptor might not survive another jump without big repairs. There had to be a way to turn this to his advantage...
Ricky's head snapped around, "Ibrihim, call Anton Slivko directly, tell him he needs to meet me at our berth… he needs to know what I have to say."
***
Staff Sergeant Dawn Witzke grimaced as she stepped over a ruptured pipe. Whatever it had once carried, it was clear that it now served as a sort of open sewer, the top cut open and a flow of untreated effluent flowing along it.
"Staff Sergeant," Lance Corporal Sutton spoke up, "I'm getting a bad feeling about this."
"Thanks," Dawn said. "But keep your mind on the mission." Yaitsik Station was far bigger than they'd expected. Dawn had already emplaced her squad at two other locations, ready to hold their ground and defend the entrances to the levels that contained human prisoners and civilians.
She and the other three who remained had worked their way around to the back area of the market that accessed a corridor that led to the command section.. She hoped it matched the plans they had, but she didn't know. The pirate facility was a warren, with jury-rigged systems and entire sections that had been abandoned. Combined with sections with low gravity, no gravity, or malfunctioning gravity, it had taken her far longer than expected to work her way to this point.
"Second Squad, what's your status?" Major Woods asked over her earbud.
"Getting into position now, sir," Dawn muttered. The microphone stud hidden by the collar of her jacket relayed her reply.
"Roger, First and Third are running behind, they'll be in position in five minutes," Major Woods said. "After that, we'll wait for Fleet'
s signal to initiate."
"Roger, sir," Dawn replied. The Fleet had timed their launch so they'd arrive three hours after the La Muerto Negra. With the La Muerto Negra providing intel and relaying from the Marines, they should be able to take down Yaitsik Station quickly.
Of course, she thought, we thought we'd be able to move unnoticed, but there's less activity in this area than we expected. It was even worse over for Third Team, she knew. That was why she was here to back them up. She'd heard Staff Sergeant Southard’s report that the pirates had locked down the areas around their command deck, either because they didn't trust one another or as a general security measure. That had forced Third Team to work their way to a point where they'd finally breached an access tunnel and risked setting off security alarms.
Thus far there'd been no sign of issues, but Third Squad had to get in place to secure the command for the entire base. If they didn't, or couldn't, then things would get far more dicey.
First Team had run into fewer problems, but there was a group of armed slavers acting a security for their prisoners. They'd been told to leave the area, so they'd been forced to stage some distance away.
None of the teams carried heavy weapons. Dawn had hidden a sub-gun under her civilian coat. Most of her team had short-stock weapons or pistols. If the pirates and criminals they faced had better equipment, this had the potential to get ugly very fast.
That was why Major Woods had three platoons worth of powered armor. Their mission was to move to their positions and support. The problem being, Yaitsik Station was huge. The abandoned mining facility ran throughout the asteroid, with kilometers of tunnels across multiple levels. There were thousands of pirates, criminals, smugglers, and civilians in residence and Dawn winced as she thought of how ghastly the casualties would be for those civilians in the market places and vending stalls when gunfire broke out.
Yet she and her Marines could only to so much. Those who traded here might not be criminals in themselves, but they supported criminals to who trafficked in slavery and they did business with pirates and other criminals who killed, murdered, and stole.
Yaitsik Station was about to get violent and bloody and Dawn just hoped that she and her people could hold out long enough for Major Woods to arrive.
***
"What do you want, Ricky?" Anton Slivko growled at him as he came up the ramp.
"Yaitsik Station has been infiltrated by military personnel," Ricky spat out. "They came in on the La Muerto Negra, they could have dozens of navy people throughout the base already. You have to prep for attack, right now!"
Anton stared at him, "What? That is impossible, they had access codes, Tomas spoke with Maria Avila herself."
"Well, then they put her in front of a camera," Ricky snapped. "I'm telling you, the navy boys were waiting for us at Porax Station. They took down the base and blew away several of our ships. The Raptor only barely escaped."
Anton looked around at the twisted supports visible in the docking bay and the damaged systems, some of them with wires dangling. "Tomas went aboard the La Muerto Negra. He would have called if there was problem," One of Anton's men said.
"Only if he's still alive," Ricky shook his head. "Go on, try to get him."
Anton Slivko's eyes narrowed. He pulled up his comm unit, "Tomas, this is Anton." They waited in silence for a long moment. After over a minute, Anton lowered his arm.
Anton's man cleared his throat and adjusted his tie, "Perhaps he is out of range or occupied?"
Anton Slivko shrugged, "Perhaps. Or perhaps Ricky One-eye has just saved us all. Order our ships to full readiness, all vessels undock from the station. Tell them it is a drill, yes?" Anton turned his gaze to Ricky, "You could have fled, abandoned us. You chose to come back and warn us?"
Ricky felt sweat bead on his forehead. Anton was known for his paranoia. It would be an easy step for him to assume that Ricky was part of any ambush as well. "My ship is damaged, I wouldn't have made it without supplies and repairs."
Anton nodded, "True. Very well, you come with me. We're going to visit the La Muerto Negra." Anton turned to his men, "Assemble boarding teams, full armor, tell them to gather near the berth." His arctic smile could have frozen hydrogen. "Tell Van Meer to secure key areas of the station. Clear out anyone who isn't our people and use whatever force they feel is appropriate."
***
"Staff Sergeant," Lance Corporal Sutton said, "we got problems."
Staff Sergeant Witzke looked up to see a group of armed men headed their way. The leader was a big man, in bulky carapace armor, his face seamed with scars and festooned with knives and guns. He looked frightening, but Dawn noted how many of his weapons were just strapped on, many in hard to reach places. Poser, she thought, but probably dangerous anyway.
She nodded at Lance Corporal Sutton. "Looks like something tipped them off." She took a deep breath and activated her radio, "Command, this is Team Two. We have a squad of armed personnel headed towards our objective, over."
"Roger," Major Woods replied, "Team Three, what's your status?"
"Lots of activity here, Staff Sergeant Southard replied. "We may have to--" the transmission cut out with a squeal of static. Shit, Dawn thought, they're jamming us.
"We are go-time," Staff Sergeant Witzke snapped. She nodded at Lance Corporal Sutton and Private Pranhar and Gomez. "Take these jokers down and then move on the command node."
***
Ivan Van Meer growled and shoved a civilian out of his way as he stalked down the corridor. The man stumbled and fell, sprawling in a puddle of grease, but the trader cowered against the wall rather than say or do anything to further annoy him. One of Ivan's men grabbed him and then shoved him further back down the corridor. "Market's closed. Get out of here."
Ivan ignored the man has he ran away. He'd worked for Anton Slivko for three decades. In that time, he'd never heard a tone of nervousness in his boss's voice, not even when they'd been street-level enforcers and had running gun-battles with the police.
Today, though, there'd been a tone of uncertainty in his old friend's voice. Something was going on, there was chatter on the radio about possible infiltrators. That didn't make sense, though. The Slivko crime family had paid off the Canis Majoris system government. They'd even paid off the local Centauri Confederation garrison, just for good measure. No one would dare attack the Centauri Confederation... so who was Anton afraid of?
Ivan didn't know, but he did know that Anton had told him to secure the main access route to the command deck. That was why he was here... and his eyes narrowed as he caught movement ahead. "Spread out," he growled to his men. They were seasoned veterans, many of them had experience fighting other pirates and criminals. They'd been with him when the Slivko crime family took over this pirate base from the previous owners. They were solid and he'd take them against anyone.
"Boss," one of his men stepped forward, "Command deck said they're picking up encrypted transmissions, they're starting jamming--"
Just as the man stepped in front of him, there was the sound of gunfire and blood and brains exploded across Ivan's face. He reacted, even before the corpse hit the ground, "Contact!" he bellowed, "Return fire!"
A smile creased his face, it had been too long since he killed anyone.
***
Chapter XI
Yaitsik Station, Alpha Canis Majoris
Centauri Confederation
February 28, 2410
Ricky ducked down as gunfire erupted and bullets tore through the docking area. He saw Ibrihim go down, screaming as a bullet blew his knee apart. Anton Slivko and his men had their weapons out and were returning fire.
Ricky didn't know who'd fired, he'd guess one of the navy boys had noticed Anton's men converging on the La Muerto Negra and decided to kick things off. Or maybe one of the other criminal gangs had been spooked and thought Anton was there for him. Either way, Ricky wanted no part of this.
He ignored Ibirihim's shrill screams as he crawled away. Ricky w
asn't about to risk his own life for the man. Besides, he'd bleed out soon enough without medical attention and his screaming might distract someone else long enough for Ricky to escape.
"Captain Burani," Ricky called out on his comm, but there was no response. The smart thing to do right now was to find someplace to hide and lay low. Later, after Anton's men gained the upper hand, he could emerge and maybe claim a reward for tipping them off.
He crawled into an open ventilation duck and then watched as the fighting continued. It looked as if Anton's men had suppressed or killed whoever had attacked them. They were pressing forward towards the docking port, spraying suppressive fire at the open hatch.
Then several figures appeared in the hatch. For a second, Ricky thought there was something wrong with his eye. The figures seemed too big, too bulky... but then he realized that they wore powered armor.
The four figures opened up with chain-guns and scythed down scores of pirates in only seconds. Ricky hugged the deck as bullets chewed through the bulkhead above him. He saw Anton and his lieutenants go down, dead before they even knew what had hit them. A moment later the power armored figures bounded out of the airlock, followed by a stream of figures, all of them hulking and armored, sporting plasma rifles, chain-guns, and worse. Ricky whimpered as heavy footsteps stopped past his hiding place and he felt warm urine stain his pants.
Yet they didn't stop, and after what seemed like an eternity, the heavy footsteps moved away.
This is my chance, he thought. The armored figures had drawn away, Ricky could get aboard another ship, any ship. The Raptor was too damaged to make a good escape. His eye went to the airlock of the La Muerto Negra, but he discarded that. They might have stationed someone there to guard it.
The docking port, he thought, that will lead aboard the ship. He'd stolen several ships that way, slipping aboard the station docking port where the station pumped in fresh air and water to docked vessels.
