Wu and the members of his team not holding the entrance door—and not counting a casualty Henry noticed being tended to in cover—returned fire where able, joined by Miri and Piper. Felix squeezed off several shots into the door before joining Henry. "We won't last long in this situation," he said. "Where's our evac?"
"Burning in now," Henry replied. "We just need to hold out for a few more minutes."
That was easily said, not so easily done. The rescue party and the rescued were pressed on both sides. Henry checked on the others as much as he could. Brigitte and Quan seemed to have taken personal responsibility for Tia's well-being as they kept behind one of the vehicles in the lot, popping up to take shots at the gate area.
The police weren't moving forward yet. Henry returned his attention to the gunfight inside the entrance while pondering the matter. He squeezed off a couple shots and checked the magazine, noting how low it was getting. Soon it would be time to switch to the CP-2520, if they had that long.
A low roar overhead hinted that they wouldn't. Henry looked up to see a pair of heavy helicars move into position, bearing the shield sigil of the Hestian Security Forces on their livery. The doors opened and power-armored figures appeared. They jumped from the vehicles and hit the ground, where fire converged on them to no effect. They lifted their rifles and commenced firing. Henry heard a scream and watched Wu's second in command go down to a heavy rifle shot.
Any time now, Yanik.
Henry noted one of the armored figures bringing his rifle over across the doors. He lunged across the open gap and caught Felix with his weight, knocking him over. The armored soldier's shots blew holes in the door frame above their head.
The power-armored soldier's rifle shifted. He brought it to bear on them. Henry tried to return fire, but his weapon failed to penetrate the armored skin of his foe.
The auto-turrets on the Shadow Wolf were a different story.
His ship descended out of nowhere, its auto-turrets and quad turrets blazing as it came down. The quads caught the HSF cargo helicars in mid-air and blasted each one to pieces. The auto-turrets focused on the power armor-clad HSF troopers to their detriment. The landing legs of the Shadow Wolf lowered until they hit the ground, the weight of the ship crushing three of the police cars in the process.
Henry's link crackled. "Ye'd better get movin', Captain," Cera warned. "Looks like they might be scramblin' fighters."
"Open the holds facing us," he ordered, and for good reason. The ramps themselves provided some cover from the police still in the street. Even before they were in contact with the ground, people rushed forward for them.
"Time to extract! All units fall back!" Felix shouted.
The defenders inside the building doors heeded the call. They fell back, guns blazing, with Henry and Felix providing fire support as they came. They shuffled backward down the stairs to the ground level as the first security troops tried to rush the doors. One of the Shadow Wolf's quad turrets inflicted the ultimate price for that attempt.
Piper and Miri were the first to the ramps, where they helped wounded Hestians aboard. Quan and Brigitte brought Tia up to the middle starboard hold's ramp, where Henry and Felix met them while falling back under the turrets' heavy fire. The Rigault security personnel inside the complex were staying in the doors given the grisly fates of the more adventurous of their number. "To the bridge!" Henry called to Piper and Miri, who nodded as they fell in with him.
Even before the ramps finished retracting and the airlock doors finished closing, the Shadow Wolf lifted off its legs and ascended skyward.
* * *
Antoine could only watch as the rugged-looking cargo ship ascended from near the HSF Justice Complex. The launching engines angled the ship's bow skyward and the four engines on the back brightened, accelerating the vessel towards orbit. He had no word yet on Tia Nguyen's status, but given the vessel's markings made it clear she was the Shadow Wolf, he had little doubt his prisoner was aboard.
He grabbed his link and brought it to his face. "Director Rigault here. Planetary Security, what is your status?"
On the other end, a woman's voice spoke up. "The 8th and 23rd Attack Squadrons are readying for launch now, Director. Estimate complete launch of both squadrons in five minutes."
"Target the Shadow Wolf before she can get to the L5 jump point," he ordered. "Blow her and her crew to atoms!"
23
Henry got to the bridge of the Shadow Wolf in a rush, still clad in his Rigault uniform. "Status?" he asked.
"We are now leaving the atmosphere," Yanik said. He stood from the command chair. "Sensors show defense fighters ascending from the planet's surface."
Henry reclaimed his seat. Piper took hers from Vidia while Miri slipped into the auxiliary station they used for independent gunnery control. Yanik waited a few moments before taking the First Mate's station. "Is Tia all right?"
"She's alive, but Oskar needs to see to her along with other wounded," Henry replied. His eyes focused on the traffic monitoring holotank showing the incoming contacts. One set was coming up from the planet and another from one of Hestia's orbiting stations. "Cera, prepare for evasives. Let's deal with these fighters. What are we looking at?"
"I'm running it through the recognition database." After a moment, Piper called out, "Missiles fired!"
"Auto-turrets engaging," Miri said.
The fighter-launched missiles coming in were medium-size models, meant for vessels of the Shadow Wolf's size. Under Cera's control, the ship slipped around in four directions, never leaving her course to the L5 point but still providing a shifting target for the incoming missiles. The turrets blazed away on both sides, tearing apart the missiles on direct hits with their magnetically-propelled rounds.
There was a shudder through the ship. "Hit on stern quarter deflectors," Yanik rumbled. "Deflectors reduced but holding."
"The fighters coming from the surface are coming up." Piper examined one of her screens. "Recognition systems identify them as Fubuki Aerospace Hayabusa models."
Henry recognized the model. They were relatively-capable tactical aerospace fighters, at least in Neutral Space, although they lagged about a decade behind the CDF's newest generation technology. Fubuki Aerospace produced them on both contract and speculation basis for sale to governments and private organizations.
"That model can carry torpedoes," Miri pointed out. "And they've got pulse cannon armament."
"The space-based ones likely have the torps."
"Ground-based fighters coming up!"
The Hayabusa fighters attempted to flank the Shadow Wolf on all sides. Cera responded by rotating the ship, allowing the manned quad turrets easier firing fields. Miri activated the ship's plasma cannons to join the fight. The karnon-pumped plasma sent spears of purple energy toward the opposing craft, forcing them to break off attack runs to dodge.
The Hestian Security Forces' pilots maintained their poise in attacking. Bolts of pale blue light battered away at the Shadow Wolf deflectors at all sides, even as the gunners borrowed from the Majha crew scored one kill, then another. "They're stickin' like a bad port call date, Captain," Cera said. "I'll have t' freely maneuver t' evade."
"Second wave fighters are arming torpedoes," Piper warned.
Henry didn't want to risk a spread of torpedoes; the Shadow Wolf's deflectors wouldn't be up to that. Even not counting torpedoes, a running engagement all the way to the L5 point was not what he had in mind. "I've got something else in mind. Cera, bring the fusion drive online." As he expected, that won him uncertain glances from the others, save for Yanik, who provided a pragmatic nod of the head. "We won't win a running fight all the way out. The Hayabusa's tough, but we can out-accelerate them with the drives, and they're not system-wide craft."
"Right. Triggerin' th' drives, sir."
Henry tapped the intercom key on his chair. "All passengers and hands, brace for high-G burn."
With her helm controls, Cera triggered the ship's rigged fusion driv
e. She started with a burst of increased acceleration, which did its job all too well. The enemy fighters found that their shots were hitting empty void as the Wolf's speed spiked under the increased thrust. The same sudden shift in their delta-v threw off the firing calculations and intercept courses of the space-based fighters, forcing them to adjust and burn more fuel in an attempt to make the intercept.
The crew felt the weight of G-forces push them into their own chairs. It would be worse for the rescued Hestians in the holds, already weak and pressed toward the ship's stern. Cera, keeping the Shadow Wolf's strained structure in mind, dialed the thrust up and down, trying to minimize the strain while maintaining some of the superior thrust.
The holotank told Henry his call was working. The fighters' interception chances were declining rapidly. The trade-off of their design, combat power for range, was now in the Shadow Wolf's favor.
A telltale vibration filled the decks beneath their feet. Knowing what it meant, he ordered, "Cut fusion drives, max burn on the GXR-4500s".
"Aye, sir," Cera answered. She killed the power to the fusion drives. The vibration went away, as did the G-forces pressing against them. "We're at max burn now."
A check of the holotank confirmed his calculations. The fighters were already starting to back off their pursuits. Even with the plasma drives' lesser thrust, the speed picked up during the fusion drive burn made interception on their fuel capacity unlikely.
Now that the immediate danger was out of the way, Henry checked on their compatriots. The Majha was already burning for the L5 point, giving them a slight head start. The differences in their engines and mass meant the Wolf might overtake them just as they neared the L5 point's jump zone.
"Looks like we're home free," Piper said. "I'm not seeing any other ships that can intercept us before we hit the L5."
"What about those cutters we saw while burning in?"
She shook her head. "They're out of position, mostly. One or two might just manage to catch up in time, if they give up on their targets, but I doubt those things have our firepower."
"Still, keep a close eye on scopes." He glanced at the holotank, which confirmed Piper's argument. "The League's here, and that might include ships."
"You actually run into th' sassenach Leaguers down there?"
"Did. Brig and I shot a few, though not Aristide."
"What is their role here?" Yanik asked.
Henry shook his head. "Taking their control freak tendencies to the ultimate extreme." As he spoke, he wondered how Oskar was doing with Tia. I'll have to ask once we're out of the system.
* * *
Now that the high-G burn was over, Oskar got back to work. The trained corpsman on Felix's team had Lieutenant Woods' injury well in hand, but there were several Hestians who were wounded to various extents. With the help of Brigitte and Vidia, as well as the other Hestians, Oskar quickly saw to first aid.
That Tia was untreated so far was by her own choice. She was exhausted and wound up from having the puppeting implant still in her neck, but she didn't have actual wounds from gunfire. Her people with those injuries came first. She waited patiently at the infirmary threshold while Quan organized the line of injured Hestians for Oskar to treat.
After a couple of hours, Oskar had all of the worst cases dealt with. Brigitte brought her in, and she took to the one empty bed available. Oskar approached with a scanning device. "You're exhausted physiologically," he noted, "but I'm not reading new injuries. Just new scar tissue at…" His voice stopped. Tia glanced his way and saw Oskar's face pale into a sheet-white tone.
Brigitte filled the silence. "That doctor from the camp was there, Oskar. Breivik."
Pain shot through Oskar's face. He nearly fell backwards into his nearby chair, where for a moment, he buried his face in his hands. A deep, mournful groan came from his throat.
"Oskar, you knew that Leaguer?" Tia asked.
He nodded wordlessly. "He was a colleague and friend back in my days assigned to the Social Defense Militia. One of the few personnel I enjoyed working with." He shook his head. "It's all in the past, a pain I'd rather not speak of. Your situation deserves my focus, not Jan."
"You can remove this thing, then?" Tia asked. "Because I want it out. I'm no one's damn puppet!"
He nodded. "It will have to wait until the ship is safe, but I can remove the implant in your neck."
Brigitte was the one to ask, "Because he made it?"
"No," Oskar replied. "Because I made it."
* * *
After a couple hours of burning with their plasma drives, the Shadow Wolf and the Majha were finally near to the jump limit. Felix stepped through the bridge door and took a look around, as if reminding himself of something he'd lost. Aloud, he said, "Oskar's got the worst cases taken care of, and Lieutenant Tashi's tended to the little stuff."
"Good. What about that data?" Henry glanced his way. "Did your people get what you needed?"
"Sanchez and Wu just started analyzing," Felix answered. "I'll get back to them soon to help. Right now, though, it's too early to tell. We had to cut free before we fully searched the database."
"Well, I can tell you one thing you might find." Henry let through the frown he'd been feeling since seeing the "motor testing lab." "I think I know a major reason the League's here. It's their experiment, the one they used on Tia."
"Some kind of implant, right?"
"Yeah. A mind control device or something. It lets them control your body remotely."
Felix's face betrayed his bewilderment. "What? Like, they can make you feel something?"
"They can control your muscles, making you walk and pick up and carry things without wanting to," he recounted. "They can silence you or trigger your brain to feel pain whenever they like."
For a moment, it was clear Felix and the others on the bridge were not sure how to react to what he said. It seemed impossible. A mad scientist's lark, not something that existed.
"They… they really did it?" Felix blinked. "Just… like that?" He snapped his fingers. "They can control people?"
"Like puppets."
Felix paled. Everyone present did. "Even that won't be enough," Miri remarked. "They'll want to control thoughts too. Anti-Social thoughts are just as important to suppress."
"Christ in Heaven." Felix shook his head and balled a fist. "They did that to Tia?"
"Other folks too." A wave of guilt crashed through Henry at the prisoner he'd escorted to the surgical theater as part of his cover. I couldn't save him then, he insisted to himself. I couldn't.
A second thought replied. You could've, but it might've cost you Tia. That's the truth, and that fellow, he's going to take her place. All because you didn't go back for him.
"We've got to get this to Ostrovsky. To the Coalition." Felix looked as sick as Henry felt, if for different reasons. "This changes… it changes so much. The stuff they could do with this technology, it's monstrous."
"Enslave entire worlds, entire peoples," Yanik rumbled. "Make all resistance impossible."
"We'd just be drones, puppets to the bastards." Felix shook his head. "But why Hestia? Why didn't they develop this back in the Orion Arm?"
"Well, until a couple months ago, the Coalition was blowing things up in the Arm," Henry pointed out. "Including labs. Hestia's safer. Plus, the locals want to use the tech too from what I've seen."
"Even Fuentes will have to act. Rhodes might be a self-righteous twit who won't bend, but—"
"Wormhole forming!" Piper called out, interrupting Felix in mid-sentence.
Henry's attention went to the viewer. Just ahead of them, a wormhole blossomed open. No. No, let it be a merchant ship, let it be something other than—
—a League of Sol destroyer.
The Cobra-class vessel accelerated through the wormhole ready for action. Her plasma cannons centered ahead. She kept her speed up.
A voice crackled over the open ship comm line. "To both vessels fleeing Hestia with prisoners, cut your engin
es now and prepare for boarding. If you do not surrender, you will be destroyed."
24
An oppressive silence came over the Shadow Wolf bridge at the sight of the Cobra-class vessel on the screen. The League destroyer exuded menace as its plasma cannons swiveled to face their ship. It had the capability to blew them to atoms, and most likely would.
"Captain Henry." Kaiya's voice was deceptively calm. Henry was certain she felt much like he did, since the Majha, despite her size, was not a match for the Cobra either. "The intelligence we gathered must get back to the Coalition. One of our ships must get to the jump zone."
"Yeah." He swallowed. They'd just overtaken the Majha, so the Shadow Wolf would face the destroyer first.
"You have thirty seconds to comply or we will open fire," the League captain said, his voice crackling over another comm line for their benefit.
Henry made the calculation. The Majha could engage the destroyer briefly, but she had no heavy anti-ship weapons of note. The Sikh ship might be a clandestine CDF Intel vessel, but her cover demanded she pass as a normal cargo carrier. Her weapons were only truly fit for enemy fighters or, at most, pirates with armed civilian vessels.
On the other hand, the Shadow Wolf had her neutron cannon. It was already proven against League destroyers.
But for that, and for the thrust to survive, we need the fusion drive. Every minute of the fight, the Wolf will die a little more. Henry drew in a breath before answering Kaiya. "Burn for the zone, Captain, we'll try to buy you time."
"Godspeed, Captain Henry."
"Firin' th' fusion drive up," said Cera, saving him the need to give the order. "I'll try t' keep from flyin' her apart."
"A direct hit will break us up as fast as the structure failing," Piper pointed out sullenly. The fear on her face was real.
Miri manned the auxiliary station. "I'll fire the neutron cannon when we have a good shot."
Breach of Trust: Breach of Faith Book Four Page 19
