“If I lock the pirates in their quarters or the mess areas,” she added, “you might not even get shot at.”
Amaratne chuckled. “Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, but if you can do that, I’d appreciate it.”
“Me, too,” John added fervently as the shuttle dropped.
“See if you can show us the approach,” the older man told Ivy. “It’d be nice to not go in totally blind.”
Their plan fell apart almost from the moment when they entered the base.
“Is that…is that a welcoming committee?” the young mage asked when he saw the small squad of Dreth waiting in the small passenger lounge beyond the hangar.
“It looks like it,” Amaratne replied. “Trust us to get smart pirates.” He glared at the shuttle’s ceiling but Ted did not respond.
John frowned. “They won’t expect an empty shuttle, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I can cloak us from sight. We don’t get out. They come in to look for us, and we wait until they’ve gone past and leave the shuttle with them.”
The admiral gave him a dubious look, then shrugged.
“It’s all we have. Let’s see if it works.”
They huddled low in the corner formed by the first row of seats and the back of the cockpit and moved swiftly to be in position by the time the hangar had aired up and the Dreth commander had snapped an order.
The three looked at each other and shrugged. The shuttle door opened and they waited.
The Dreth gathered around the hatch, their commander front and center while two troops aimed blasters at the opening. When no one exited, one of the troops moved forward and tossed in something small and round.
It bounced twice, and John moved quickly to wrap it in blue and propel it further down the shuttle. The resulting blast was blocked by his shield, even if it made their ears ring.
The blast had barely died away when heavy boots landed in the hatchway and a burst of solid fire raked the seats, shredded the headrests, and exited the craft’s thin hull in several places.
John’s arm tightened around Ivy, but she pushed it back so she could see. It was hard to stay still when the Dreth’s armor-covered legs moved past their hiding place and she got a good look at the seven-and-a-half-foot-tall alien.
His skin was darker than Vishlog’s and loops of gold punctured his ears. The blaster in his hands was not the only weapon he carried.
He was followed by a second Dreth, whose skin was marred by scarlet tattoos. Both swept the empty rows with their weapons.
John waited until they were past, then tapped his teammates on their shoulders and jerked his thumb at the door. As they stood to move, the rear-most Dreth pivoted, but his gaze passed over them as he scanned the cockpit area.
His brow wrinkled, but he turned slowly and spoke sharply. His partner also scanned the cabin, then shrugged, and together, they moved toward the cargo bay with its sealed hatch.
The trio breathed again and exited the shuttle slowly. As they dropped to the tarmac, the commander’s brow furrowed and John froze and stopped the other two with a hand on each.
They waited while the commander studied them but didn’t react. When the Dreth gave a faint shake of his head, the boy tapped his companions and they moved across the hangar to where several cargo bays stood.
Hunkered behind several neatly stacked crates, they turned to watch the shuttle. Ivy noticed a terminal close to a door and tapped John’s arm to draw both his and the admiral’s attention.
Amaratne gestured approval and they moved closer to it. Ivy raised her eyebrows in question, and both men frowned. The two Dreth emerged from the shuttle and answered their commander’s sharp question with abrupt answers.
During the heated discussion that followed, the admiral tapped Ivy and pointed to the door. John nodded, and the three shuffled close enough for her to make short work of the entry pad.
In moments, they stepped swiftly through and hurried along the corridor toward the next room that might contain a terminal. Judging by what they passed, they’d reached the supply section.
A hasty look through the doors closest to the hangar revealed storerooms and a workshop. They encountered no Dreth until they reached what looked like their first target, and then it was only one.
He glanced toward the door as they entered a second before John dropped a blue globe over his head and clenched his fist. The Dreth clutched his throat and kicked back as he tried to peel the invisible layer from his head.
The young mage made a lifting motion with his free hand and pulled the alien out from behind his desk.
“Well, it’s not how the Hooligans did it,” Ted observed as John floated the Dreth into a corner. He kicked and thrashed, and his eyes bulged with terror as he tried to free himself.
Amaratne uttered an impatient curse and shot him, the silenced round no louder than a hand-clap. Ivy gave him a wide-eyed stare and thumped her hand down on the door controls, and the trio froze.
Ted chuckled. “Most certainly not how the Hooligans did it.”
“What did they do?”
“They dropped through the bottom of the shuttle, went loud when the welcoming committee saw them, separated into pairs, and destroyed half the base. The reinforcements were not impressed.” He paused. “They had the numbers, though.”
“So you’ve put three people into a scenario the Marines used twice as many people to achieve?” Remy asked.
“Not simply any Marines,” his uncle told him, “Todd’s Hooligans, but yes, I believe I did.”
“Why?” Roma asked, bewildered.
“Because I believe they can succeed.”
“Have you told them that?” the AI wanted to know, and Ted let her feel the puzzlement he felt at the unexpected question.
“Why?”
“Because until now, they haven’t been meant to succeed. They’ve been learning against the odds.”
“Then this should be novel, shouldn’t it?”
They turned their attention to the screen, where Ivy now worked through the files and several armed Dreth had gathered outside the door. Amaratne had crouched facing the rear wall, and John was preparing to fry the first pirate through the door.
“It was still better than watching him choke to death,” the older man muttered, and Ted felt a moment of disbelief.
“The man must be going soft in his old age,” he commented.
“Or he’s sick of killing,” Roma suggested.
Remy focused the view onto Ivy. “Or he noticed what John did not.”
The girl was as pale as a ghost and her jaw showed white from the way she clenched it. She occasionally darted a glance from the dead Dreth to John and her eyes shimmered.
“Are you sure she’s strong enough for this?” Remy asked.
“She will cope,” Roma assured him as a loud clang made them all jump.
“John jammed the doors,” Ted explained as one of the Dreth took a pry bar and tried to wedge it in the gap where the door met the wall.
Amaratne scampered away from the wall and took shelter beside Ivy. The fizzing pop that followed made her start, and he looked at her.
“How are you doing?” he asked, moved to the hole he’d created, and peered carefully through. “It’s clear.”
Her fingers moved faster, and her frown deepened. “The data’s not in this network,” she concluded as another clang echoed through the room.
In the corridor outside, the pry bar slipped out of the socket bent at an angle that rendered it useless for anything but scrap. Another Dreth arrived, holding two limpet-like devices.
Ivy stood from behind the computer. “Time to go,” she told them. “They plan to blast their way in.”
The three infiltrators wasted no time to slide through an empty storeroom and out into the corridor.
“Did you get the doors shut?” John asked as they bolted toward the servers.
“That system only hooked into the shuttle bay, the surve
illance system, and the cargo area. Everything else must be held somewhere else.”
“What about the hostages?”
“There are guards outside the area where they’re supposed to be,” Ivy said, “but there’s something…not right about it.”
He nodded. “What are our chances—” he began but stopped as half a dozen Dreth trotted into the corridor ahead. They were accompanied by two humans and a Meligornian mage.
“Well,” Amaratne muttered, moved to the front, and fired a sustained volley, “this puts a whole different complexion on things.”
Shields sparked in front of the armor and Roma gave Ted a horrified look.
“Did you know they had shielding?” she whispered.
“Of course,” he informed her, “just as I know there are many more Dreth than these three are expecting. The Hooligans had very good reasons for destroying half the base.”
The three didn’t stop. John sent a wall of blue down the corridor to thrust the Dreth squad back and drive them into the wall at the other end. As soon as they were pinned, he twisted his hand, and the blue sparkled with electricity, shorted the pirate’s armor, and fried the flesh within.
Boots thundered into the corridor behind them, and Ivy bowled a grenade into the midst of their newly-arrived opponents.
“Incoming!” she shouted as one of the Dreth booted it back.
John glanced over his shoulder and dropped a shield between the returning grenade and themselves. It bounced back and exploded before the warrior could deflect it for a second time.
“Is it my imagination or should that have been all the pirates on this base?” Ivy asked.
“Now I know why the Hooligans held Navy Intelligence in such high disregard,” Amaratne muttered. “This is a clusterf—”
The door in front of him opened, and he fired several short bursts into the enemies who stepped through it. The team continued to run and moved past as more emerged.
Ivy lobbed a grenade through the gap that appeared between one pirate falling and another taking his place. Screams followed the explosion.
“I need to find the door controls!” she yelled.
“Yup,” John agreed, and they bolted into the corridor leading to the servers.
“Oh…” He stopped and braced as he encased them in a wall of blue.
“How long will that hold?” Amaratne asked as the auto-cannon’s first rounds pounded into them.
The boy clenched his jaw. “I need a room very soon.”
“Well, we can’t go back the way we came,” Ivy reported. “Can I fire through this?”
“Don’t…know…” He gritted his teeth.
The admiral laid a hand over hers and pushed her blaster down. “And now’s not the time to find out the hard way.”
She nodded, pale-faced, and checked the map display in her HUD before she glanced up the corridor. The rounds that impacted with the shield made the barrier spark with such intensity it was hard to see.
“Take the next door,” she ordered and hoped she’d judged the distance correctly.
“But that’s—” Amaratne began and she smiled.
“Since when were walls a problem for you?” she asked.
He gave her a startled glance and smiled in return. John stepped left, moved the bubble over an entry panel, and operated it to shift them out of the autocannon’s line of fire.
Ivy took one look around the room and realized she’d misjudged but in a good way. “Block the door, John. We’re here.”
The young mage dropped the shield and melted the door frame until the door blended into the surrounding wall. “I hope you didn’t want to leave anytime soon.”
Amaratne pushed a desk across the still glowing doorway, tilted it, and wedged it. “This won’t hold them for long,” he observed, “but it’ll provide a little extra cover.”
“I still need to get to the hostages,” John said.
“I’m working on it,” the older man replied and shunted a filing cabinet in front of the door. He looked around at the stacked computer racks and frowned when he realized he couldn’t move any of them. “What does a pirate outpost need this kind of computing power for anyway?”
“Life support?” the boy asked, and Amaratne shook his head. “Comms?”
The admiral frowned. “Deep space comms?” He wracked his brain to work out why the Navy had sent the Hooligans after this outpost in the first place. Coming up empty, he shrugged.
“I guess we’ll have to find out.”
A glimmer of light caught John’s eye, and he scowled and melted the camera in its bracket. “What they can’t see—”
“That still won’t save you.” The sibilant tones could only belong to one race, and the three of them froze.
“Is that…” Ivy began, but she didn’t stop what she was doing and her hands rattled the keyboard she was working on.
Amaratne started to prepare a second exit.
“Let me check what’s on the other side,” she told him. “Here.”
His eyes widened as the camera feed from the next room appeared in his HUD. “Uh…do we have an alternative?” he asked.
“Gimme a mi—there.” Ivy pointed at one of the other walls.
Amaratne studied the glittering lights of the computers stacked in his path. “Uh…”
“I got it,” John told him and glanced at Ivy. “Do you need these?”
“Wait…wait, wait, wait.” The rattle of keys sounded even faster, and they heard the faint schnick of a data stick being inserted, changed over, and the new one inserted.
“How much data…” Amaratne began and tried desperately to remember exactly what Todd’s team had pulled for them.
“Let’s simply say the extra data sticks will come in handy.”
“Let’s say you need to hurry,” John interrupted and she glanced up and her gaze noticed the red line forming slowly where one door seam had been.
“Masks!” Amaratne ordered as the vent above Ivy hissed and white vapor formed around it.
They closed their HUDs, and John watched the gas warily.
“We gotta go, Ives.”
She nodded and stood but kept her fingers on the keyboard and her eyes on the screen.
The mist sank a little.
“Ives…” The young mage’s warning was touched by alarm.
“Patience is a virtue,” she replied.
John laid a patina of blue over the door, then arced a second over Ivy’s head.
“Not right now, it isn’t,” he warned and flicked a glance at Amaratne. “Do you still need these?” he asked Ivy.
“Yes…and three, two…one! No.” She yanked the data stick from the drive and moved away from the computer.
The boy shifted the hand he’d held toward the door and a sheet of blue formed around the computer stack in Amaratne’s way. With a brief flash, the shelves shattered and dropped the computers on the floor.
With a sweep of his hand, he swept the debris aside, and Amaratne moved in and took the charges from their pouch.
“A sticky would be faster,” John advised him. “Ivy, is that room still clear?”
She stopped behind him and studied her HUD. After a moment, she nodded. “Clear.”
“And the Teloran?”
This time, she took a little longer. “In the corridor…moving to the comms center.”
John groaned. “Change of plans,” he said. “Is there any way to secure the communications without going to the communications center?”
“If we can hack it from another point and shift the controls,” Amaratne said thoughtfully.
“How about a shuttle?” Ivy suggested. “What if I moved the controls to the shuttle’s comms system?”
The admiral thought about it as he worked to place the stickies. “We can only try.”
Now, I know why they blew up half the base, he thought and stepped back as he placed the last piece of explosive. “John?”
The young mage glanced up and shifted the shield to cove
r the three of them. “That mist’s not friendly,” he pointed out as the white haze reached the first debris from the stacks of shelves and vapor rose from the metal.
The room shook as the stickies destroyed a section of the wall. It shook a second time when rounds slammed into the wall Amaratne had originally chosen for their exit.
“They were waiting,” the older man observed and led them through the hole he’d made.
“It won’t do them any good,” John observed and sealed the next door. “Ivy?”
She paused, then pointed to another wall. “That way.”
Boots sounded in the corridor outside and she frowned. “And then there should be a door on the other side.” She scowled at John. “Don’t melt that one into a wall.”
“Gotcha.”
They moved, and the admiral no longer bothered to position the stickies. He merely tossed them into the center of the space he needed, and John expanded the blast so they could fit.
“You know our suits are sealed, right?” Ivy asked, and Ted felt a small wave of disbelief.
That was exactly the same question Ka had asked in that area.
A rumble drew his gaze to the screen.
“That is exactly what the Hooligans did,” he muttered as Amaratne made a small sound of understanding.
“Oh… That’s why they did that!”
He hadn’t been too impressed when he read the report, but he hadn’t had time to debrief the Hooligans as much as he’d have liked to. By then, he had begun to recognize that the Federation had some serious security concerns inside its Navy. It was a shame he’d been too late to address them.
A clang was followed by a soft boom as the door panel fell in and signaled that the Dreth had finally gained access into the server room.
The three of them ran to the door and burst into the corridor beyond.
“What’s next?” Ivy asked.
“Hostages,” Amaratne declared. “It’s not like they’ll blow their comms up, and it’ll take all three of us to deal with a Teloran if we have to go back there.”
“You do remember our orders were to hold the comms center?” she reminded them.
“The comms center can be anywhere we can shift the comms operation to,” he assured her, and she pointed to a stairwell.
Michael Anderle - [Heretic of the Federation 03] Page 22
