by G J Ogden
“Is there ever a day when you don’t hear disturbing news from the outer bridge worlds?” said Cad, strolling alongside his employer.
“Don’t play games with me,” Doyle hit back with a spontaneous venom that Cad hadn’t anticipated. “You attacked the personal vault of Frazer Melton Strickland, and then killed him!”
Cad felt the hairs on the back of his neck tingle and he straightened up. Normally, there was at least the pretense of civility, but this time, Doyle had wasted no time in laying into him.
“I wouldn’t shed a tear for that asshole,” Cad hit back. “He was just trying to get at you. He wanted me dead for killing his cousin.” Cad levelled a finger at Doyle. “A hit that you ordered me to do.”
Cad knew that pointing at Doyle would only enrage him further, but he wasn’t prepared to take the flak for a situation Doyle had perpetuated. Surprisingly, however, Doyle recovered his composure, rather than exploding even more violently.
“With the Blackfire Squadron out of the way, Strickland planned to step up his efforts to attack your various interests,” Cad continued, further emboldened by Doyle’s silence. He then pressed his hands behind his back and puffed out his chest before adding defiantly, “You should be thanking me, not complaining.”
Doyle grunted then turned back toward the vast grounds of his corporate estate. “The fixer, Daggett, was useful. You could have just taught her a lesson, rather than burn her to a crisp on the roof of that tower,” Doyle complained, choosing not to take up Cad’s suggestion of offering thanks for taking out one of his biggest rivals, though Cad expected nothing less.
“I made an example out of her,” Cad answered coolly. “It’s your other rivals that will have learnt the lesson – that lesson being, don’t screw with Cad Rikkard.”
Doyle sighed then met Cad’s eyes again. “And the nuclear warheads you stole? What the hell do you need with those?”
“Those are for another lesson I intend to teach someone else,” Cad replied, still maintaining his imperious stance. For once, Doyle appeared to be showing him a measure of respect, and he was going to milk it while it lasted.
“I need Dr. Rand alive, not atomized,” Doyle snarled.
“I thought it was ‘dead or alive’?” replied Cad, wondering if he’d misheard the Consortium boss when he’d given him the mission.
“Circumstances have changed, and I am compelled to alter the terms of our agreement,” Doyle muttered, clearly unhappy with the situation. “Shelby Rand must be brought to me alive.”
Cad sighed. “I don’t suppose you care to tell me why?” he asked, though he didn’t know why he bothered, since he knew how Doyle would respond.
“You know all you need to know,” replied Doyle, proving Cad correct. “So you can put those damn nuclear warheads into storage. They won’t be needed, and I certainly don’t need the heat that will come down on me if you’re discovered using banned weapons of mass destruction.”
“Nothing will come back on you,” said Cad, oozing confidence. The victory on Minerva had given him a boost, and he was still buzzing from acquiring possession of La Joyeuse, the magnificent sword of Charlemagne. Added to the fact that Doyle was – for once – not talking to him like a peasant lackey, he was on a high.
Doyle grunted again but continued to regard Cad with narrowed eyes. “There was also a renegade attack on Pales, involving your friends from Wolf Squadron.”
Cad bristled at the mention of the name; the Wolf Squadron was the only force to have ever stood against him and survived. His mind turned to Hallam Knight and Dakota Wulfrun, and in an instant, Cad was knocked off his high.
“For what reason?” Cad asked. “There’s nothing on Pales but drunkards and effluence.”
“That’s precisely the point, Mr. Rikkard,” Doyle barked. “That’s what you and your hapless cronies are supposed to be finding out!”
Cad bristled again. It hadn’t taken Doyle long to revert to his usual belligerent self.
“So far, all you have given me is problems, an enormous and growing bill, and no results,” Doyle went on. This time, it was the multi-trillionaire that thrust a finger, aiming it squarely between Cad’s holographically-generated eyes. “This is your last warning,” Doyle snarled. “You have seventy-two hours. After that, I am terminating your contract.” Doyle lowered his finger and pressed his hands behind his back, seemingly mimicking Cad’s earlier imperiousness. “And we both know what that will mean for you and your precious Blackfire Squadron. Fail me, and I will drag your name and reputation through the gutter!”
Every muscle in Cad’s body tensed up, and his jaw clenched so tightly that he could feel one of his back teeth crack.
“Seventy-two hours, Mr. Rikkard,” Doyle said again, then the holo faded and Cad was back in the ready room on his ship.
Immediately, Cad let out a maddened roar and hammered his fist into the locker to his side. The cathartic effect of pummeling the metal was short-lived, and he drew his fist back, hammering the locker again and again and again, until the panel was smeared with blood.
The holo transceiver bleeped an incoming call, and Cad glanced down at the screen, briefly pausing from his therapeutic assault. His heart was still thumping, even if his fist was now still. Cad read the name then reached over to accept the call, dripping blood onto the deck of his ship as he did so. Moments later, he was standing inside Falken’s lair.
“I swear, this call had better be to bring me good news or I will turn your little mountain hideout to dust,” Cad snarled, still holding up his bloodied fist.
Falken recoiled slightly, but as on the other occasions Cad had dealt with her, the threat seemed not to faze the virtuoso hacker in the slightest.
“Wow, someone is grouchy today,” Falken began, taking a slurp of a thick pink milkshake. “But, as it happens, yes, this is good news.” Cad lowered his fist, but then Falken scrunched up her face and hastily added, “Well, good news and bad news, actually.”
Cad sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly through his nose. “What’s the bad news?”
“Let me give you the good news first, just so you don’t use one of those nukes on me.” Falken laughed, causing Cad to raise an eyebrow.
“Thanks, now I’ll know who is responsible, should any government agencies or enforcement bodies know that I have them,” said Cad, offering another, more veiled threat.
“Relax. I think it’s cool you have nukes,” said Falken, again completely unperturbed by Cad’s aggression. “Anyway, the good news is that I have a way to defeat the security systems on the renegade hideouts that you’re clearly planning on nuking. And I also know how to find out where the others are,” she added, taking another slurp of the pink milkshake and awaiting Cad’s response.
“So what’s the bad news, lady?” Cad asked, refusing to let himself feel any swell of excitement, until he’d heard the caveat.
“The snag is that I need a command computer console from their operations center,” said Falken with a breeziness that made the task sound simple. “The entire thing, I’m afraid. Bit of a bummer, I know.”
Cad laughed, a reaction that even caught himself by surprise. However, it wasn’t an amused laugh – quite the opposite. He knew that he would now be forced to risk a third assault on a renegade base. The funny part was that if he hadn’t blown up the first base, he could have just returned to it and saved himself the hassle. He hated everything about this job, and despite knowing that it was only stubborn pridefulness that was preventing him from walking away, he just couldn’t do it. His reputation was his life. The prospect of Doyle destroying his status and costing him his position as the galaxy’s top mercenary was worse than death.
“You’d better be right about this,” said Cad, meeting the woman’s unflinching eyes.
“I always am,” Falken replied with a carefree little shrug.
Cad grunted and shook his head. “I’ll bring you the damned computer in twenty-four hours.”
17
Cad Rikkard’s Blackfire Squadron sat in a high orbit above the rogue moon, vigilantly stalking its prey. This time the renegade hideout was deep in the Darkspace between Vesta and Fortuna. However, to Cad, the location didn’t matter. All that mattered was the success of the mission. If he failed this time, then he had no hope of discovering the whereabouts of the other renegade bases or flushing out Dr. Rand. Failure would mean his ruination at the hands of Damien Doyle. He’d die before he let that happen, and take Doyle down with him – but Cad Rikkard wasn’t done with living yet.
“I wonder why they haven’t launched fighters?” said Alexis Black over the comm channel.
She and Draga Vex had sat on Cad’s wings, waiting for the hideout to scramble their alert ships, as they had done on the previous two occasions. However, the renegade base had shown no signs of responding to the threat looming above them. It had transmitted no messages, no warnings – nothing.
“They know they can’t beat us out here,” replied Cad, who had been silently mulling over the same question for the last couple of minutes. However, it wasn’t the question of why the renegades hadn’t launched fighters that bothered him, but rather what the renegades had in store for them instead that weighed heavily on his mind. “They’ve adapted their strategy,” Cad continued, stroking the base of his chin with his thumb as he pondered their next move. “They’ll be expecting us to breach the hangar doors again, like last time.”
“Except this time, they’ll have the guns of their fighters trained on the breach gate, waiting for us to step out and get obliterated,” Alexis chipped in, seemingly coming to the same conclusion as Cad.
“So we don’t breach the hangar door,” said Draga Vex matter-of-factly. As usual, the finer minutiae of mission planning bored her, and she was clearly eager to get into close action. “There are plenty of other places we can breach the base.”
Cad brought up an enlarged tactical scan of the hideout. Something still didn’t feel right. “What if they’re expecting that too?” he said, again stroking the base of his chin. “A double bluff to force us into making a risky attack…” What the hell are they planning?... Cad asked himself, growing increasingly frustrated with each passing second.
Normally, Cad would relish the opportunity to get into close action, just like Draga, but he’d lost all his advantages. There was no longer the element of surprise – the renegades had clearly prepared a defense against his breaching pod tactic. And even when he did get inside, the fighting would be tough. Despite knowing that the renegades would deploy combat bots or even warbots, he couldn’t use EMP grenades for risk of destroying the computers in the command operations center. He needed more time to plan, but time was not on his side, and neither were the odds.
“Alexis, I need you to stay outside and draw fire from the base’s flak cannons and missiles,” said Cad, finally making a decision. “If they’re expecting us to use the breaching pod again, then they will now understand what it takes to put it down. By splitting their fire, it gives us a chance to make it through.”
There was silence on the comm channel for several seconds. Cad knew that Alexis would be eager to challenge his command, but he also knew that she wouldn’t do it openly. And if he were forced to assault the base with only one of his two squadron members at his side, Draga was the obvious choice. Alexis would know that too, and even agree with Cad’s selection, but she would also know that reducing the assault force to two would dramatically increase the chances of him getting killed.
“Understood,” came the eventual and unusually stunted reply from Alexis. Cad fully expected to get it in the neck from Alexis later, assuming he managed to make it out of the base alive.
Cad reset the target coordinates for the breaching pod then depressurized the cockpit in readiness to space walk over to it. He glanced right and saw that Draga had already opened her canopy and was maneuvering through space using the thrusters in her armor.
“We’ll breach directly into the command operations center,” said Cad, also now popping open his canopy. “The corridor linking the operations center to the rest of the base will be a choke point. Draga, I’ll leave it to you to hold that position and stop any reinforcements from getting inside.”
The rear hatch of the breaching pod swung open and Draga pulled herself into the main compartment. “I have just the thing for such a task,” she said. Cad didn’t ask what Draga had in mind but trusted that it would be suitably violent.
“I’ll deal with whatever lunatic robot they decide to let loose,” Cad continued as he pushed himself out of the cockpit and set himself on course for the breaching pod.
“Do me a favor and keep your sword in its sheath this time,” Alexis chipped in. Cad could tell that she was still seething. “No unnecessary risks.”
Cad touched down onto the deck of the breaching pod and hit the button to close the hatch. “Once we secure the operations command center and capture the commander, it should be over quickly,” he replied, trying to allay Alexis’ obvious concerns and – if he was honest – his own as well. “Then I expect you to haul our assess off that base in double quick time, got it?”
“You can count on that…” said Alexis resolutely. Her sterner warrior persona was in full effect once again.
Cad slid down into the forward seat and strapped himself in, noting that Draga was already in position. She was holding her semi-automatic shotgun in one hand but had another substantial piece of equipment stowed directly to her left. Cad couldn’t quite make out what it was but guessed he’d find out soon enough. Glancing to his own left, he checked that his Black Prince sword was safely stowed. Despite Alexis’ grouchy warning to leave it sheathed, he still intended to take it and use it if necessary. However, stowed alongside it was another weapon from Doyle’s repository of experimental tech that he also intended to use in anger, should the need arise. The description had intrigued him when he saw the item on the stock record in the secret warehouse. It was listed as an “Electroblade.”
“Ready to initiate breaching program in three… two… one… initiate,” Cad spoke over the comm channel before hitting the initiator with his thumb. The breaching pod’s multiple layers of external shielding fell into place and the thrusters fired, maneuvering the seize weapon on course.
With all external windows now blanketed with thick layers of dense armor plating, Cad activated the virtualized external view. He immediately saw Alexis’ fighter shoot ahead of them, guns lighting up the Darkspace as she attempted to provoke the base’s defenses into engaging her. Soon flak barrages were detonating all around them, but as Cad had predicted, their fire was being split between the breaching pod and Alexis’ ship.
A low, urgent tone filled the cabin and Cad saw that the base had launched two missiles.
“Damn it…” Cad snarled, grabbing the gun controls as flak started to buffet the armored pod. The first missile was taken out by the base’s own flak barrage, but the second snuck through. Cad targeted the missile and fired the cannons, taking it out long before it posed a threat. The pod was then rocked hard by a series of heavy thuds, and one of the defensive weapon mounts went dead. “Hell, they won’t need missiles to take us out if we keep taking a pounding like this,” said Cad as another volley exploded ahead of them, pockmarking their armor with more shrapnel.
“Armor integrity at sixty percent,” said Draga, speaking for the first time since taking her seat. Her voice remained calm and composed. “Hard contact with the base in fifty seconds.”
The base launched another four missiles, two snaking off in pursuit of Alexis while the remaining two pierced the flak barrage and raced toward the breaching pod. Cad targeted the missiles and fired again, taking one out before his cannons went dead completely.
“Damn it, brace for contact!” Cad cried out, hoping that what remained of their dense armor was tough enough to stop a missile. The flak barrage continued to intensify, and with each successive thump and shimmy, additional warning lights flashed up on Cad’s
panel. The virtualized view outside was also now failing, but through the chaos, Cad saw the missile get swallowed up by flying debris. It exploded, simply adding more shrapnel to the mass of metal fragments that were constantly thrashing their armor, whittling down their last line of defense, millimeter by millimeter. Cad was now helpless to prevent the base’s onslaught – his fate was in the hands of a higher power. Then the barrage stopped.
“We’re through their firing perimeter,” Draga called out, still with remarkable composure. “Shield integrity at ten percent. Cutting beams three through seven are down.” Suddenly, there was a harder and much more physical thump as the breaching pod made contact with the outer hull of the renegade base. “Lock and seal achieved. I’m initiating cutting and manual drilling. Standby, ninety seconds…”
Cad unclipped his harness and climbed out of the seat, as Draga hauled her new mystery weapon onto her shoulder. He grabbed the Black Prince sword and attached it to his armor, slinging the Electroblade over his back. If the Darkspace Renegades did send a combat bot at them, it would at least allow him the opportunity to test the experimental weapon’s true capabilities. Finally, he grabbed his rifle, holding it ready and beginning a series of deep, meditative breaths, mentally readying himself for battle.
Then another alert shrieked inside the cabin, and Cad’s gut tightened into a knot, realizing that it was a mayday. Alexis’ ship had been hit. Cad’s heart raced even faster as he hurriedly punched up the external feed, bringing the image of Alexis’ fighter into view. It was spinning away from the base, out of control and with smoke billowing from its aft section.
“Alexis!” Cad yelled over the comm channel, but he received only static in reply. “Alexis, give me a status report, now!” Still, there was only static in reply. “Alexis!”
Cad hammered his fist into the console, pulverizing it with the enhanced strength of his armored gauntlet, sending sparks and shards of plastic and metal flying. Then the lights dimmed and turned red as the breaching pod finally finished cutting and drilling through the outer hull of the renegade base. The access tunnel extended, creating a conduit through which Cad and Draga could directly infiltrate the command operations center.
