“The Trozzerd Emitter 3DXZ propels waves of particles that are harmless until contact with a defensive shield. As they pass through the shield particles, they weaponize with destructive force.”
“And if we drop our shields…?”
“Then you are vulnerable to the Beugrimt Seeker 55THT.” He didn’t wait for Carey to ask. “These fire multiple rounds of heat-seeking projectiles. Arachnid X likes to alternate between the two weapons. Even we are unable to react quickly enough to this pattern of fire.”
Carey considered this. “They why were you willing to launch this strike?”
“Both the Trozzerd Emitter 3DXZ and the Beugrimt Seeker 55THT require charging. We believed we could strike before they could be charged.”
“But if he knows we are coming…”
“Then both weapons are likely charging or already fully charged.” More thinking time. “They both require charging. So they use a lot of energy? They can’t just keep them charged?”
“Correct.”
“And together they are almost impossible to defend against.”
“The likelihood of a negative outcome for us is high.”
Crap.
It was possible that Carey’s silence troubled the robot. “They are illegal to possess.”
Of course, they were. But these were not ships concerned with legalities. If he’d had any doubts about the mission, this both confirmed those doubts and erased them.
Pretty diabolical to turn protective shields against ships. The Arachnids had to be stopped, but how? His brain churned. If their teams on the ships were able to take over—but would they see the danger in time? And if the Arachnoids knew they were there, were their teams in trouble, too?
“I thought he wanted your ship and all of you?” he asked, stalling as his thoughts continued their racing.
“If he knows we are here, it is possible he knows that the Captain is aboard his ship.”
And he might settle for the robot in hand rather than the ones in the Najer.
“He will not wish to battle all of us, though he may demand our surrender.”
“What would you do?”
“We will not surrender.”
Carey’s skin chilled inside his flight suit. Before he could come up with a response to this, RaptorZ added, “This is not your battle—”
“We have people on those ships—” Carey stopped. Could they make it look like they were breaking off, but come around? No. The math didn’t work out right. He frowned. They couldn’t run. They couldn’t hide. And if they dropped their shields… He studied their map with growing frustration. The field of engagement would be close, too, once they were both on the same side of the moon. Once a weapon was fired, there was nothing to slow it down until impact.
If the so-called field of battle were better, his birds could handle the heat-seekers. They were designed to be fighter craft, and his pilots were well-trained in dog fighting, but in space physics and inertia were not on their side because of the lack of atmosphere—
“The moon,” he said.
“The…moon?” The robot almost sounded puzzled.
“How much atmosphere does it have?”
Almost it seemed as if the robot on the other end sat up straighter. “Atmosphere…”
They had very narrow band comms with Bangle on Golf Sierra Zulu. It updated the life signs on each level they reached, doing it through their headgear, but only once for each level. They did not dare have more contact than this. It did give them a good look at each level, then the signal went dark.
Despite this information, Kraye noticed that Sergeant City kept a close eye on their rear, what she’d called their six. The Garradian body armor had motion sensing technology that had gaps, possibly because of alloys in the walls of the ship. As they moved down level after level, he found he trusted the data less and less.
“It’s too easy,” City muttered, the sound a whisper in his headgear. He nodded to show he’d heard her, and that he agreed.
OxeroidR had assumed a lower profile as if he too sensed trouble. His aspect went dark as well, making him almost invisible as he kept what City called “point.”
With only one corridor between them and the brig, Kraye’s instincts were blaring inside his head. Even OxeroidR hesitated at the last turn, extending a sensor that allowed him to see the corridor in advance. City was as back to back with Kraye as possible with the bird on his back.
The bird was an interesting passenger. His head was tucked in against Kraye’s neck so that he could see, but remain somewhat protected.
Only once had it said anything. “Wait.”
Kraye had relayed the order, and they’d paused until it said to go. When OxeroidR had checked out the passageway, a figure had gone around the corner ahead of them. How had the bird known this? He did not know the ways of birds. Perhaps it had felt the change in the air currents or smelled something they could not. Animals had different ways of processing danger.
Without realizing it, Kraye glanced back at the bird. It nodded as if it knew what question Kraye had not asked. City moved past OxeroidR, who had stopped at the brig entry hatch. She flattened her body against the wall by the next corner, her head angled as if she listened. Then she did a glance around, quickly resuming her position.
“What do you think?” Her voice was soft over their shared intercom. “My spidey sense is tingling. We’re running out of time.”
He did not understand the term, but he got the message. He retreated along the way they’d come and positioned himself to cover their…six.
OxeroidR appeared to study the control panel for this access. He lifted his head, suddenly alert.
“They are coming,” the parrot said.
“Maybe we should retreat to a better position,” Kraye suggested. The parrot dropped down from its perch and seemed as if it assessed something they could not see, then it looked up at Kraye.
“We must enter,” it said. This was said with such decision, he wondered if the bird was more in charge than anyone had indicated to him and OxeroidR. He looked at City.
She hesitated. “I don’t think our prisoner is on this ship.”
“I concur,” OxeroidR said, though he did not move from his position.
“This ship contains more than one prisoner in need of release,” the parrot said, looking at OxeroidR instead of City.
That was not their mission, but Kraye did not protest. No matter what City ordered now, OxeroidR would not leave.
City stared at the parrot, then she might have sighed. She half shrugged. “So option fast then. Can you blow it without injuring anyone inside, Zulu3?”
Instead of answering, OxeroidR lifted his arm and fired precisely directed rays at the bolts holding the door in place. Then he turned his attention to the locking mechanism. He lifted his great leg and kicked it down.
City, her back still to the wall by the broken brig door, but her weapon pointed away down the corridor, leaned forward, and examined the arch where the door had been. “Nice work.”
The parrot’s wings lifted, and it half flew, half trotted into the exposed brig. OxeroidR activated a light that beamed into the shadowy space.
“There are living species imprisoned here,” OxeroidR said. He paused. “One like Zulu4.”
Zulu4? It took Kraye a moment to realize OxeroidR was talking about the parrot.
19
It was a matter of staying alive until the Arachnid ships had to stand down and recharge the big bad weapons. According to RaptorZ, both ships still had an array of more conventional space-type weapons, but both the Najer and Carey’s squadron didn’t mind a fair fight.
They could stop, keep the moon between them, but if Xaddek didn’t already know about their people on his ships, then they had to keep to the original plan, draw his attention, with the hope of distracting him while their teams did their thing.
Even as they acted as if the spider didn’t know, Carey figured he must know by now that he’d been boarded.
They needed to engage him, otherwise, he’d be free to turn his attention to their people. If any of them failed in their primary mission, well, those ships had to be destroyed. Xaddek could not be permitted to leave this galaxy.
The Dauntless was designed for fighting both in and out of the atmosphere, though the thick atmosphere would slow them down, too. But they wouldn’t be fighting other ships or even directed fire. The spider was trying to bring the hammer down before he had to face them tactically.
What they needed to do was get the spider to commit to his firing solution and then take the fight down into the moon’s atmosphere—okay, it was too big for a moon but it was hanging out there like a moon even if it was a big ass one.
It wasn’t a perfect plan. There was a chance that the particles from the—Carey still couldn’t pronounce the name of either badass weapon, so he called them BA-1 and heat sucker, would interact with the moon’s atmosphere in an “unstable manner,” one that “couldn’t be predicted without testing.”
“Well, just have to do some on-the-hop testing,” Carey said, philosophically.
They still didn’t have certainty, but they did have hope.
“Does everyone know what to do?” Carey asked. It hadn’t been easy sending orders when they weren’t sure their comms were completely secure, but they’d done it with help from the robots, who had established a secondary link with Delta Tango Flight, one with extra layers of encryption. And lots of code words.
He got a round of “affirmatives.”
“Go flight. I say again, go flight.” He wanted to add something about the force being with them, but he didn’t. He wanted to, though.
There were, Doc realized, worse things than not seeing what was going on. For instance, viewing the action with the General.
Yeah. Even Hel didn’t have a witty quip for her about that.
We are missing something.
He was right. The arrangement of forces was curious. With only two ships to deal with, she’d have expected them to fan out, presenting a wide, narrow target—one that allowed all the ships to concentrate their fire. Or to stack the ships, so that they could deliver waves of fire. But the robot ship was proceeding slightly ahead of Carey’s divided squadron and skimming the moon’s atmosphere. The second wave of Carey’s squadron was further down the curve of the moon, but it was also skimming the atmosphere.
Why would they anticipate dropping down into the atmosphere?
The Dauntless can maneuver better in the atmosphere, Doc mused. Atmosphere will also create more resistance to any incoming fire.
But will it not also do the same to their fire?
Yeah. So Carey wanted, needed to maneuver. Her gaze shifted to the two enemy ships. He wasn’t planning to direct a lot of fire at the two bogeys, not from there. Incoming fire. He’s expecting unusual incoming fire that atmosphere will…slow down?
Why not just destroy the two ships? Hel sounded puzzled.
Carey had been given a lot of latitude but destroying two ships that hadn’t attacked him was a stretch.
Are they trying to draw fire? Divert attention away from something? Garradian ships had phase cloaks, but she couldn’t see why they’d use them and have the diversionary flights.
There is something happening that we can not see.
Doc couldn’t disagree with that. They must have found other ships with phased cloaks down on the outpost. She felt Hel’s agreement, but…
This arrangement of ships does not explain other ships.
It could be a diversion, a play for time, but to what end?
Hel frowned. The Garradian shuttles can not travel as fast as the squadron fighters.
Are we sure about that? Doc asked.
Hel spun around to face her.
Who do we ask? But even as she asked, Doc knew. She sighed and nodded.
Hel vanished in the flash of light from his Special Key transport. It was not a surprise she hadn’t been invited. The AI keeper of that secret room didn’t like her. Also not a surprised that her skin began to itch.
As if on cue, the cobwebs began to run across the corridor, closing off the path behind them and pushing them forward if they didn’t want to be ensnared.
If it looks like a spider web and you feel like a fly, it’s probably a trap.
Which left the question: how big of a trap? Was it just them? Or the whole operation? With all her systems on full alert, Rachel followed Valyr inside, stepping around him when the passage widened into a room. A room that looked more like a cave.
She had her weapon up and ready to fire, but a wave of web strands dropped down between them and the eyes, even more coming at them from the sides and back. The webs stuck to her and Valyr’s long ray guns, yanking them from their hands. Other webs yanked at their side arms. The creepiest moment was the web that was more like a vine with fingers. It patted both of them down, removing the knives at thighs and strapped to their backs. Each weapon disappeared up into the thick web over their heads.
It had happened so fast, it was hard to be sure, but she thought it hadn’t found the small handguns tucked into compartments in the back of her calves. If she—
The webbing circled arms and ankles, going just taut enough to halt movement. But Rachel, with the vision of Savlf in her head, knew just how quickly the strands could turn ugly.
“I was hoping CabeX would be with you.”
His voice was just what she’d have expected an evil spider to sound like—if she’d thought about it, which she hadn’t because who wanted to spend time thinking about how a spider would sound when he talked?—exuding fake sorrow like an oil slick. He didn’t sound disappointed either. Did that mean he knew where CabeX was?
“I wonder what interests him more than me?”
She wished she could exchange some significant looks with Valyr, but the situation didn’t lend itself to that, even if they weren’t wearing the body armor. Oh, it was super flexible and provided about one-eighty vision, but the room was dark inside and outside. All she could see, if she’d looked at Valyr, was his dark, reflective face screen. Of course, that meant the spider couldn’t see them either. But could he hear them? Could he, had he already tapped into their comms? Were they still secure?
It was clear the spider had been expecting them, but for how long? Her thoughts returned to the webs that seemed to be all over the ship. They could have been his version of spy cameras or sensors. Or he could be toying with them, trying to get them to admit things he didn’t know, in the belief that he did know.
Still, the fact that he knew or suspected that CabeX was on this ship, and not on the Najer, was a bad sign. Did that mean he knew about both Golf Sierra intrusions? Logic said he’d never have let them board his ship if he’d seen them coming. That presupposed the spider shared their logic. He could have let them board because he believed they were no threat. A trap, in fact.
If the webs could “see,” then he might have become aware of them when they attacked his engineering section. Whatever he knew, he’d let them come this far. There’d been no alarms from the Mikes or CabeX, which could mean he’d been waiting for them to get here. According to CabeX, he was difficult to see when he didn’t want to be seen. That’s why he’d gone for Savlf. Rachel had agreed that he was her best chance. Which still wasn’t much of a chance.
The spider could be toying with them.
Was that why the webs weren’t tight yet? To give them hope he could take away, a little at a time? If she thought or hoped he wouldn’t torture them, all she had to do was remember Savlf. Layer after layer of web until all that was left was her sight—and probably the only thing she saw anymore was this thing.
Comms gone with the Romeo and Delta Tango Flights.
It was good they still had comms with Bangle. If they did? Like the tiniest trickle of sound, Bangle began to filter what Rachel called her inspiration or fight songs. Almost she smiled as adrenalin dripped back into her chilled bloodstream. Flight was not an option. So that left fight.<
br />
And fight would work if she figured out how to get access to the two calf guns—assuming they were still there. They had to be there. It was their only chance. She’d need them both to penetrate the webbing, based on how thick it was around her wrists and what she’d observed during the weapons snatching.
If she had her two, then Valyr had them, too. Four ray guns were always better than two. But they needed a good distraction. What kind of distraction would startle the spider and fool his webs? They didn’t have a giant shoe or bug spray.
“While we wait for CabeX to reach his destination, let’s talk about the ships that are incoming.”
A tracking screen appeared to one side of them. She flinched at the sudden light. It wasn’t a gift when her eyes adjusted. He could see Carey’s squadron of cloaked ships. How—of course, from the same place he’d got the comet drive. Stupid. I should have thought of that. So he’d seen it all, or almost all, from the moment he arrived in the system. Or—had he? His tracking didn’t show the phased ships embedded in his engineering compartment, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t seen them. He was letting them see what he wanted them to see. And he didn’t know that CabeX was a walking, talking super self-destruct.
Rachel half frowned. That wasn’t the formation or approach they’d talked about in the briefing. On their current course, they would enter the upper atmosphere of the planet’s moon. Not only would that slow their approach, it would render their weapons less effective. Something had changed, but what—
“It is clear your associates have done an assessment of my weapons, and they believe they can give me a good fight if that interesting approach vector is any indication, but I’m afraid I never put all my cards on the table when playing Iegnap.”
The raspy, evil voice did not sound unduly gleeful. More like remorseless. Inevitable.
He doesn’t, he can’t know everything. He wants us to believe he does. It was hard not to believe when the webs tightened and relaxed in the same cadence as his voice as if reminding them that this was just the first play in the game.
Lost Valyr: Project Enterprise 7 Page 25
