A Fiery Sunset
Page 38
“See you back in that cool station of yours.” He changed channels. “Hargrave? You been listening in?”
“Here, Boss. Yes, but I don’t understand any better than she did.”
“To tell the truth, neither do I.”
“Boss?”
“I can’t explain. Keep the ships docked. We’ll be landing in the Raknar bay in 5 minutes.”
* * *
Splunk took her hands away, and Jim snapped back to his normal self. It was disconcerting, but it got easier every time they did it. “You okay?” he asked Splunk. She nodded her head, ears wagging and patted his head. Still, there was something wrong with her mannerisms. She seemed nervous. Outside, the bay was flushed with high pressure nitrogen, then pressurized with oxygen. The nitrogen made sure no residual radioactive particles lingered in the air, and it was a system Jim hadn’t managed to have repaired yet, so he was surprised when it worked.
“Who fixed the flush system?” he asked as he hung the oxygen mask up in the cockpit, not needing it now. “Did you do it?” he asked his Fae companion. She shook her head, and he narrowed his eyes. “What’s wrong?” She popped the Raknar cockpit and skittered out. “Hey, Splunk? What’s going on?”
He wanted to run after her, but he was 20 meters above the deck. Even in the low gravity on Upsilon 4, that was too far to jump. By the time he’d climbed down to the deck, she was gone, and Hargrave was walking in.
“Jim, what are we going to do? Staying here and getting captured doesn’t seem like a great idea.” Around them the platoon of CASPers he’d brought to Karma Station jumped down to the deck, braking with tiny pulses from their jumpjets.
“Hell of a mission!” Buddha said, stopping next to them and popping his cockpit. “You kinda went off the rails in that ship attack. The guys and I were afraid you’d forgotten about us.”
“I did,” he admitted. “When I’m linked into the Raknar, it’s not me anymore.” Both Buddha and Hargrave looked confused. “I can’t explain. Just like I can’t explain why coming here will keep us safe.”
“We don’t have enough forces to hold this place,” Hargrave said. “Three companies won’t do it; it’s too big. We’d need three battalions.” Jim nodded. Of course the older merc was right. “But they’ll probably just stand back and nuke the rock into dust.”
“Commander?” Jim heard over his pinplants.
“Go ahead, Captain Su.”
“A squadron of ten warships is closing on us. They’ll be in weapons range in five minutes. If I don’t detach, I’m a sitting duck.” A memory echoed in the back of his mind. Don’t let the ships go.
“Remain docked, Captain.”
“But, Commander…”
“Everything will be fine, I promise.”
“Very well, Bucephalus out.”
“
“Stay with the troopers,” Jim said. Hargrave gawked. “Like I told Captain Su, everything will be fine.” He headed through the massive tunnels, moving quickly in long, bounding strides. Then he was at the door to the bay where Splunk and he had encountered the strange robotic lifeform back when they first came to the station. The battle had almost killed him. He’d only survived by having Captain Su blow the cargo bay doors off, ejecting the creature into space. His internal clock said they had 2 minutes before the alien fleet would be in weapons range.
“I’m here, Splunk,” he said, then shook his head. She hadn’t transmitted those instructions on the radio! How had she done that? The doors rumbled open. The scene inside was one he could never have imagined in all his life.
“Hello, Jim,
Splunk was sitting on a little chair hooked to a series of consoles. There were dozens and dozens more consoles, all constructed from full-scale computers, various different models of Tri-Vs, and a dizzying variety of slates. Sitting perched in front of many of those slates were an equally amazing variety of Fae.
“Surprise,” one of them said. It was white; the only one of that particular shade. All the Fae turned and regarded him with dozens of pairs of startling blue eyes.
One of the Fae chortled a sound of alarm. Jim was just standing there with his jaw hanging down, but he recognized the sound as one Splunk used when they were in danger. The white Fae turned and spoke in their language, galvanizing all the others to action. That one’s in charge, Jim thought. Enough of his presence of mind remained for him to be disappointed that it wasn’t Splunk who was in charge.
One of the Tri-Vs showed the approaching fleet. They’d launched missiles, and the weapons were tracking in. It looked like the aliens had decided it wasn’t worth digging him out of the asteroid base after all. They were just going to kill him.
“Watch this, Jim,
One of the larger Tri-Vs showed the planet Karma. It was far enough away that the orbiting station wasn’t visible. The missiles raced closer and closer. Jim tried not to panic, but it was nearly impossible. One of the Fae was saying something in a rhythmic manner. Was it counting down? Then there was a sudden feeling of uncreation as he was obliterated and reassembled in a single heartbeat. The big Tri-V showed nothing but pure whiteness.
“Are we in hyperspace?” Jim gasped. The white Fae looked at him and gave Jim an unmistakable thumbs-up. The other Fae all made their musical speech to each other for a few seconds, then began shutting down their consoles and disappearing into numerous small exits. In seconds, only Splunk and the white one remained.
“It wasn’t just you stealing everything in sight on Karma station, was it?” he asked Splunk. She nodded and the other one smiled. He’d only dealt with Splunk for a long time; having another one there was disconcerting. Not just because he’d now seen so many of them, but because this new one was so different. It didn’t have her curious, almost whimsical methods. This one was serious and liked to lock eyes and stare.
“Jim, this is Sly
“Hello, Jim,” Sly said and bowed its head. This Fae was similar to Splunk in many ways, but it was colored differently, was a bit bigger, and it had a tuft of long loose fur on the end of its tail, similar to the tufts on the end of its and Splunk’s ears. That’s a male, he realized, though he didn’t know how he knew.
“Hello, Sly,” he said. “How did you equip Upsilon 4 with shunts? I know you’ve been stealing a lot of stuff, but you can’t find shunts just lying around in a dusty warehouse.”
“Always had them here,” Sly explained. “This place mobile.” There was the sound of someone bounding down the hallway in their direction. Sly looked past Jim, then turned to go.
“I have a lot of questions,” he said. The Fae looked from Jim to Splunk then back.
“Later,” he said and was gone.
“Splunk,” Jim said after Sly was out of sight, “what the fuck?”
“Jim, you in there?” Hargrave yelled as he came into view.
“Yeah,” Jim yelled back. Splunk hopped lightly up onto his shoulder. For the first time, he wasn’t sure if he felt reassured by it. Hargrave came into view and took in the room. It looked like nothing more than a garage sale CIC.
“What the hell, kid? Why didn’t you just tell us you rigged the whole place for hyperspace? You never cease to amaze me.” Jim looked at Splunk, who looked back, her bright blue eyes conveying nothing of what was going on behind them. He opened his mouth to tell Hargrave what he’d seen, and she gave his shoulder the gentlest of squeezes.
“
“Surprised?” Jim asked his XO. Hargrave clapped him on the back and laughed.
“Captain Su wants to talk; she’d love to know how you managed it.”
“So would I,” he mumbled.
“What?”
“Nothing, I just said I look forward to it.”
Jim allowed himself to be led back down the corridor. He glanced back over his shoulder to see a single white Fae watching him intent
ly. Then he was around the corner.
* * * * *
Chapter Twenty-Three
Inside the Mercenary Guild, Capital Planet
The Asbaran Solutions force began taking fire as they crossed the atrium. The first defenders were two of the MinSha, who were hiding behind a large desk at the far end of the space. They began popping up and firing at the Humans with their laser pistols, and two of the troopers answered with rockets from their shoulder pods. Both MinSha went down in a double flash of overkill.
As the platoon reached the desk and ensured the MinSha were dead—with all the blue blood and pieces of chitin scattered around, it was obvious they were—they began taking fire from the office wing to the left. In addition to the elevator that serviced the wing, a large circular ramp waited just off the main atrium, and aliens could be seen coming from the first six floors which opened onto it.
Several of his troopers’ icons went yellow as the enemy mercs scored hits; they needed to get out of the killing ground!
“This way!” Mason yelled before he could say anything, and the senior trooper raced off to a large doorway on the back wall. He didn’t stop as he reached it but barreled through it with a resounding crash.
Nigel fired a couple of rockets at the enemy mercs on the ramp for suppression and rushed after Mason with the rest of the soldiers.
The space behind the atrium was a warren of hallways and offices, but the platoon had a general idea where it was going and soon reached a door that was inset into the wall, with just a key pad outside it. The door appeared well reinforced, with no handle on the outside.
Nigel hurried up to find Mason eyeing the door.
“Got any ideas?” Nigel asked.
Mason pointed to a tiny camera above the door. “I suppose you could ask them nicely to let us in.”
“I doubt that would work.”
“Me, too. The only other option is to blow it.”
“I agree. Make it happen. We’re also going to need to set up some defensive positions. In addition to the security forces, it looks like every damn person here has their own weapons, too.”
“Damn mercs,” Mason said. Nigel could hear the smile in his voice.
“Yeah. My thoughts exactly.”
“Donnelly, Enkh, and Cortez, take your squads and start setting up blocking positions,” Mason ordered. “Shepherd, get over here and drop this wall.”
“Do you mean blow the door?” Staff Sergeant Vernon Shepherd asked.
“No, the door is reinforced. Blow a hole next to it, into the space beyond, and we’ll go through there.”
“Got it, Top,” Shepherd said, popping his canopy. While the grasping mechanisms of the CASPers continued to get better, Nigel realized some things—like handling explosives—were just easier when done with Human hands. Shepherd opened one of the storage panels on his CASPer’s leg and got to work.
“I got movement from the rear,” Staff Sergeant Kenneth Donnelly called.
“Over on the side, too,” Staff Sergeant Susan Cortez announced on the tac net.
“Status report, Donnelly,” Nigel asked, as he moved away from where the explosives were being placed.
“Just some light probing fire so far,” the soldier replied. “MinSha guards, maybe a merc or two.”
“Same here,” Cortez added. “Looks like they’re just trying to figure out who we are and what we’re up to.”
“That won’t take long,” Mason said on a private circuit to Nigel. “We can expect the MinSha to get geared up and respond quickly. Probably the Goka troops, too.”
Donnelly’s voice came through the tac net again. “I laid out some remote devices, and it looks like a big force of MinSha are coming,” he called. “They’ve got some heavy lasers, too.” There was a pause, then the staff sergeant added, “There’s a lot of enemy forces coming. It’s going to get ugly fast—there’s not a lot of cover in these hallways.”
“Do whatever you need to,” Nigel replied. “Knock down some walls and make your own cover.”
“That didn’t take long,” Nigel replied to Mason. “We’re not going to have much time to waste.”
“I’ll see to the explosives.”
“Please do,” Nigel replied as the first explosions rocked the building from the direction of Donnelly’s squad.
* * *
Under the Mercenary Guild, Capital Planet
Walker watched as Glass kicked in the door, then he dove to the side as laser fire erupted from the hallway behind it. He got a glimpse of several dark forms before he hit the ground and rolled to a stop. Several warning lights illuminated on his panel from his leg sensors, but he was still operational. Three of the other troopers had warning lights as well.
Before he could organize an attack, a grenade rolled out into the area. Staff Sergeant Antonio Rodrigues was at the doorway next to it, and he dove on top of it. The force of the explosion lifted him from the ground, and his icon went red. “Medic!” Walker yelled as two other troopers grabbed the legs of Rodrigues’ suit and pulled him from the doorway.
“Y’all like grenades?” Glass yelled. He pulled out an L bomb and armed it. “Eat this!” he yelled and tossed it through the doorway. The motion caused another round of laser fire, but he avoided it.
The oversize grenade detonated, and smoke and debris flew from the doorway. The laser fire dropped off, but Walker could see it reflecting from the smoke in the air.
Glass snuck a glance around the corner, then armed another grenade and tossed it through the doorway. It detonated, and he raced into the hallway immediately after, firing his rifle. The rest of the squad hurried after him to find the Besquith all dead. They’d set up two barricades; both had been destroyed by the L bombs, and Glass had finished off any that had survived the twin blasts.
The hallway led to another door that was as wide as the passageway. Glass eyed it critically. It slid from one side to the other; there was no way to easily kick it in like he had the others. He looked back up the passageway. “I can try to run into it and knock it down, but there ain’t gonna be a lot of room to hide once I open this door,” he said. “Perhaps y’all would like to move back to the barricades the Besquith set up, or maybe better, back into the stairwell?”
“There isn’t going to be any room for you to hide, either,” Walker noted, “and anyone in the stairwell isn’t going to be able to support you.”
“We could blow the door,” Mun said.
“I don’t want to waste the time needed to set that up,” Walker replied. “The Asbaran folks are going to draw a lot of attention upstairs, and soon; we need to get to the elevator, down, and back, ASAP!”
“How about this?” Captain Joseph Gracia asked. “How about if we back off to the barricades and hit it with rockets in the corners. Maybe that’ll be enough to knock it down.”
“Worth a try,” Mun said.
“I knew there was a reason I brought you,” Walker agreed. “Everyone back to the barricades!”
The platoon went back and took cover as best they could, and a soldier fired four rockets at the corners of the door. Although the rockets blew holes through the door where they hit, the door remained standing and didn’t look significantly weakened.
“Well, shit,” Walker said.
“Back to Plan A,” Glass said. “Cover me once I’m through.” The soldier started jogging toward the door, then leaned forward and toggled his jumpjets. Although the door hadn’t come down when the rockets hit it, it had been significantly weakened, and Glass burst through it easily, tearing the whole thing down. He crashed to the ground and rolled to a stop, then he slowly drew himself back upright again. As much as he jerked getting up, Walker could tell the suit was damaged; the yellow lights on his display for Staff Sergeant Glass only confirmed it. He’d just made it to his feet, wobbling slightly, when an antitank missile from the left hit him center mass. Glass’ life signs went to zero.
“No!” Walker yelled. He ran forward and around the corner. Almost a plat
oon of Besquith waited fifty feet further down the passageway behind a series of barricades. As he started to slow, 16 weapons swiveled to point at him.
* * *
Inside the Mercenary Guild, Capital Planet
Staff Sergeant Donnelly leaned around the corner and saw several flashes of blue. “There’s a lot of enemy forces coming,” he reported. “It’s going to get ugly fast—there’s not a lot of cover in these hallways.”
“Do whatever you need to,” Colonel Shirazi replied. “Knock down some walls and make your own cover.”
“Now he’s talking,” Donnelly said to Corporal Cody Sain next to him. Donnelly pulled an L bomb off the attachment point, armed it, and tossed it around the corner on the right side of the hallway. As fast as he could, he sent a second one down the hallway on the left side.
The detonations in the enclosed area were tremendous, even buffeting them from around the corner. Donnelly looked around the corner again. “C’mon!” he ordered. “First fire team, follow me.”
Donnelly rounded the corner; he could see through the clearing smoke that the explosives had ripped huge holes in the walls and left rubble strewn across the passageway. The force of the bombs had turned the wall material into powder, though; there wasn’t enough left to scoop up into a barricade, so he sprinted down the hallway and dove into the room on the right exposed by the blast. It was some sort of office space, though no one was in it. Two more soldiers joined him in the room, while two others went into the office on the left.
Although the explosions had stunned the opposing forces, it wasn’t long before the enemy was back and firing at them again. The Humans traded fire with the MinSha; neither side appeared in too much of a hurry to dislodge the other from their positions. After a few minutes, that began to worry Donnelly.
“Sain, I want you to run across the corridor and take a look down the hall while you do.”
“Why’s that, Staff Sergeant?”