Darkspace Renegade Volume 1: Books 1 & 2: (A Military Sci-Fi Series)

by G J Ogden

  “I already have something in mind,” Draga replied. The lack of any hesitation suggested that whatever Draga had in mind was something she’d been thinking about for some time already.

  Cad grunted an acknowledgement then moved past Alexis, who was too consumed with the movie and her snacks to notice his departure. He hurried down the metal staircase leading off the mezzanine level and found a concealed spot next to a sealed-up elevator door. Judging that the location would offer some level of privacy, he slid his virtualization glasses out of his breast pocket and slipped them on before answering the call from Damien Doyle.

  “Catch you at a bad time, Mr. Rikkard?” said Doyle as the image of the multi-trillionaire businessman sitting at his desk in his giant study materialized. The unique personal protection bot stood dutifully behind and to his side.

  “I wouldn’t have answered if it was a bad time,” Cad replied. Already, he could feel his pulse start to quicken, preparing for whatever slights and threats the magnate would level at him this time.

  “I need you to go to Fortuna at once,” Doyle went on, for once getting straight to the point without any unnecessary pomp. “The renegades who were snooping around on Pales have been spotted en route there.”

  Cad shrugged. “So send one of your CSF squadrons or alert the local enforcers. That’s work well below my pay-grade.”

  Doyle’s eyes narrowed and he began to rub his knuckles, a clear sign of irritation that Cad had noticed him doing before. He realized he should probably soften his tone a touch, but Alexis had almost died during his last mission. Were it not for the state-of-the-art automated medical pod that Cad had installed on his ship, she might not have made it.

  “It is not that simple, Mr. Rikkard,” Doyle said, growing impatient. “I have important facilities on Fortuna that house some extremely sensitive information. Should the renegades be in search of this facility, I need them dealt with swiftly, and by a professional. And, as ever, without anything coming back on me.”

  Cad’s eyebrows raised up a little. A compliment was the last thing he expected to hear out of Doyle’s mouth. However, he was still angry about Alexis, and couldn’t help pushing his luck.

  “Why not ask Group-X?” Cad said with more snark than he’d intended. Though he liked to believe otherwise, Cad held long grudges, and Doyle’s previous threat of replacing him with a rival mercenary company still grated on him. “Give them a call,” Cad went on. “I hear they’re permanently available, since no one is dumb enough to hire them.”

  “Enough games, Mr. Rikkard!” Doyle snapped, slamming his hand down on the desk, causing ornaments to jostle and a photo to topple over. The personal protection bot to Doyle’s rear also jerked into life momentarily before quietly standing down again when it realized there was no threat. “The information in question is far too sensitive to risk sending an enforcer squad. I would have to spend days personally vetting the candidates. You may be arrogant and discourteous, Mr. Rikkard, but you are also proficient and discreet, and you know what’s in your best interests.” Doyle then reached over to a computer console and tapped a sequence of commands. A few seconds later, Cad’s watch bleeped, notifying him that data had been received. “Do not forget that you are in my employ, Mr. Rikkard,” Doyle added darkly. “And do not forget our earlier conversations either.”

  Cad snorted a laugh. Doyle had got to the insults and threats eventually, he realized. “Look, I don’t have time to chase around the galaxy fixing the problems that your enforcers are too inept to deal with themselves,” Cad answered. “Do you want me to take out the renegade hideouts and get Dr. Rand or not?”

  Doyle rose from his seat and aimed a finger at Cad. “You would do well to watch your tone,” Doyle said, the muscles in his lanky body tense and his jaw tight. “Now get to Fortuna at once. You may travel via the Centrum bridge in order to expedite your journey. I have already sanctioned it.”

  Cad’s eyes narrowed. How does he know that travelling via the Centrum is my quickest route to Fortuna? he wondered. Then he remembered what Falken had said earlier about all of Doyle’s tracking tech, and anger swelled inside him again.

  “Fine, I’ll leave right away,” Cad replied, pulling off his glasses and terminating the call. He remained in the dark corner of Falken’s base for some time – it could have been seconds, or a few minutes, he didn’t know – meditating on the trajectory of the mission. Draga, as usual, had been right. The mission was heading toward a dark place, though what final form it would adopt was still unclear. However, what was clear was that he was in too deep to walk away. To do so would cost him his reputation, and that was something he’d never sacrifice. Doyle was a problem – Draga had been right about him too – but the multi-trillionaire mogul was a problem for another time. Heading back up the metal stairwell to the mezzanine, Cad saw Falken excitedly waving him over.

  “I’m starting to get some data,” Falken said as Cad drew alongside. She was fizzing even more than her sickly-sweet beverage. “It’s incredible stuff. Who would have believed that Dr. Shelby Rand was the renegade’s leader! That’s just wild! I can’t wait to get this news out on the Dark BridgeNet.”

  Falken then lifted a cup to her lips and sucked a fizzy green liquid though a long, red straw. Without a word of warning, Cad drew his sword and swung it toward Falken’s neck, stopping less than an inch away from her throat. Green liquid oozed out of the thick straw, which had been sliced in half. One section remained pushed through the lid of the cup, while the other was still pressed between Falken’s lips.

  “You will reveal that information to no one, do you understand?” Cad said, speaking the words calmly and with authority, but without aggression.

  Falken let the straw fall from her lips before returning a series of short, staccato nods. “You got it. No problem at all,” she replied, and perhaps for the first time since Cad had met her, the eccentric hacker actually appeared afraid.

  Cad held the blade to her neck for a few seconds longer before he drew it back and sheathed the sword. “Contact me as soon as you have the co-ordinates of the first renegade base,” he said, pointing to the command computer. “I have to leave now. I have a pointless errand to run for an old fool.”

  Draga Vex appeared at Cad’s side. “Where are we headed this time?” she asked.

  “Fortuna,” said Cad, releasing an agitated sigh. “Our renegade friends are up to something.”

  Alexis Black also now joined him, apparently having sensed Cad’s change in temperament, as she was adept at doing. All traces of her playful mood had already vanished, and she looked ready for a fight. Cad often likened Alexis to a switchblade – innocuous one moment and deadly the next. It was another thing about her that he loved.

  “Let me know when you have those gadgets,” Cad said, again addressing Falken. “I’m sick of Doyle seeming to always know where I am.”

  “These will do it,” said Falken, pointing to three identical black modules that she’d apparently set out on the desk while Cad had been gone. “They won’t completely shield you from the Consortium’s spidery reach, but it will make it a whole hell of a lot harder – and slower – for them to track and trace your movements.”

  Cad grunted and collected the devices, handing one each to Alexis and Draga. He then drew in a deep breath before asking, “How much?”

  Falken held out a small computer pad, and Cad took it, reading the number and then laughing boisterously. “You’re a bigger damn crook than Doyle himself,” he said, transferring the money but using his own personal account, rather than Doyle’s traceable war kitty.

  “I’ll transmit the first co-ordinates as soon as I retrieve them,” Falken said, taking the pad back with a broad smile on her face.

  “I’ll be waiting,” replied Cad, again fixing his cold, serious eyes onto the hacker. “And remember what I told you. I’d hate to have to reduce this little mountain den of yours to a radioactive pile of dust.”

  Falken’s uncommon silence was enough to
let Cad know the hacker had understood his warning, and that it was no idle threat. Cad Rikkard then turned to leave, with Alexis Black and Draga Vex following perfectly in-step behind him.

  20

  After completing their narrow escape from Pales, Hallam and Dakota had diverted to Fortuna, as per Dr. Rand’s instructions. However, much to Dakota’s relief, the scientist had decided not to accompany them on their new mission to infiltrate Damien Doyle’s secret data bunker to steal the data concerning the alien probe’s location. Instead, they had rendezvoused with another renegade fighter in the Darkspace so that Dr. Rand could be transported back to her hideout.

  Hallam recalled the anticipation on Dakota’s face as they had approached the rendezvous fighter. She had clearly been hoping that the pilot was Ruby Rivas. However, Dakota’s excitement had quickly ebbed as it became clear that the flyer was from the reserve squadron on Dr. Rand’s Darkspace hideout. During their time on Pales, Dakota had talked of her sadness over her falling out with Ruby. They had still not spoken to one another, or even seen each other, since their clash on the hideout, after Ruby had destroyed a retreating CSF fighter against Dakota’s orders. However, a reconciliation with Ruby was the least of their problems. First, they had to complete their heist on Fortuna. After their excitement on Pales, Hallam had considered it a definite case of “out of the frying pan and into the fire.”

  Hallam and Dakota’s new target was a Consortium office block in one of Fortuna’s many financial districts. Simply reaching the building had not been a simple task. The colonies on Fortuna were some of the wealthiest and highly-developed in all the bridge worlds, on account of the predominantly high-tech, high-worth industries that had located themselves on the planet. As such, security was tight, which meant that they couldn’t simply fly into the city’s commercial spaceport in a heavily armed space fighter, as if they were no different to a passenger transport. Instead, they’d landed in a secluded valley system on the outskirts of the city and walked into one of the suburban areas. From there, they’d taken a public transport into the district center. Both had still attracted plenty of attention, in the form of inquisitive and anxious looks from other transport passengers. Neither Hallam nor Dakota were wearing their renegade armor, but their base-layer flight suits still contrasted starkly with the crisp uniforms and stylish workwear of most Fortunans. The journey had been tiring, but thankfully, Hallam knew that their plan to get off Fortuna again involved considerably less effort, albeit with a proportionately higher level of danger.

  It was three o’clock in the morning, Fortunan time, and the clean streets of the financial district were dark and quiet. The Consortium building itself was as nondescript as a square block of concrete. However, harsh lights illuminated the sidewalks surrounding it, in addition to all the doors and emergency exits, making it impossible for anyone to creep up on it unseen. As Hallam studied the structure in more detail, he noted that there were no signs or identifying logos on the structure at all. It was simply an anonymous black obelisk, shrouded in privacy glass to ensure no-one on the outside could see in.

  Hallam crept along a nearby alley, his back pressed against the wall, and peeked around the corner toward the fenced-off rear courtyard of the Consortium building. Dakota Wulfrun inched up behind Hallam, her back also pressed to the wall to stay out of sight.

  “How many guards are there?” Dakota asked, unable to see past Hallam.

  “None, at least none that are human anyway,” Hallam replied, ducking back into the alley and pressing his back flat to the wall again. “But there are plenty of cameras covering the gates and the doors, and there’s a security drone buzzing around too. That’s a lot of security for such a boring-looking building, in the middle of a boring district.”

  Dakota nodded. “Dr. Rand was right. Whatever is in that building must be important.”

  Dakota unslung a compact backpack she was wearing and began to remove the various items Dr. Rand had given them prior to her departure. The genius scientist had surprised Hallam on Pales with her ability to hack the security systems. And she surprised him again by equipping them with the tools and gizmos necessary to achieve the same level of stealth on Fortuna. However, due to the more sophisticated security on the high-tech world, compared to Pales, the hardware required to ensure their covert progress inside the Consortium building had to be similarly upgraded.

  “I hope these things work,” said Hallam, attaching another one of the many sensor jammers to his clothes in the locations Dr. Rand had indicated. They were innocuous, matte-silver metal circles that automatically pinned themselves through the fabric as Hallam pressed them in place. He now had these circles dotted all over his body, so that he looked like a Hollywood motion-capture actor about to go on set.

  “If Dr. Rand designed them, then I’m sure they work,” replied Dakota, who was also busy undertaking the same task. Then she shuffled around and held out a palmful of the circles to Hallam. “Can you add the last ones to my back? I can’t reach.”

  Hallam took the sensors from Dakota and started to dot them onto her shoulders, moving down her back to her hips. He smiled as he got to the last one, which he attached firmly before tickling Dakota’s sides.

  Dakota spun around and almost slapped him, full force, around the face. “Cut it out, will you?” she snapped, though she was trying – and failing – to suppress a smile too. “We’re supposed to be undercover, not clowning around.”

  Hallam raised his hands apologetically. “Sorry, Dak. Though if these sensor jammers don’t work, our careers as spies will be pretty short lived…”

  Dr. Rand had explained that the sensor jammers would create a short-range bubble of interference around their bodies, which would temporarily blind nearby cameras inside the building. To any remote observer, they’d just look like glitches or localized distortions on the security feeds.

  Hallam finished off his new stealthy ensemble by pulling on a full-cover balaclava, which would have looked a bit like a ski-mask were it not for the matte-silver sensor patches dotted around it. Dakota laughed as Hallam looked back at her with only his eyes visible through the narrow window in the headgear.

  “You look like you’re about to rob a bank,” she said, grinning.

  Hallam picked up the second balaclava and tossed it at Dakota. “Well, let’s see if you look any better,” he hit back.

  Dakota pulled on the headgear, and Hallam studied her for a moment, making a show of stroking his chin thoughtfully, since his actual facial expressions were hidden under the fabric.

  “I never noticed before, but you have really shifty-looking eyes, did you know that?” said Hallam, receiving a jab to his arm for his trouble.

  Dakota then reached over to Hallam and flipped a switch sewn into the neck of the garment. Hallam could feel his skin tingle as energy filled the little metal patches covering his body.

  “We only have a couple of hours before the power runs out on these things,” Dakota said, activating her own array of sensor jammers. “After that, we’re visible to the security feeds.” Dakota then removed the last couple of items from the bag and handed one of the devices to Hallam. “This should hack any locks we come across.”

  Hallam took the device and pushed it into his thigh pocket. “I preferred the version where the Doc just hacked the security systems from her palm computer,” he said, taking another peek around the corner. “It beats all this sneaking around. We’re renegades, not ninjas.”

  Dakota stood and threw the backpack on again, pulling the straps tight. “Well, tonight, we’re renegade ninjas,” she replied, holding up a spherical object about the size of a baseball.

  “What’s that thing?” said Hallam, feeling the need to edge away from the device for fear of it exploding in his face.

  “The sensor jammers work well when we’re indoors,” Dakota explained, “but to get past the outer security perimeter, we need a bigger burst of interference to blind the cameras and that drone.” Then she met Hallam’s eyes
and added, “Are you ready? We’ll only have about two minutes once this thing goes off to get over that fence and inside.”

  Hallam also rose to his feet and then stretched and flexed his legs and arms. “Last one inside buys the drinks…” he said.

  Dakota smiled. “You’re on. And you’ll also lose…”

  Hallam expected that Dakota probably felt as anxious as he did, but he figured stoking the friendly rivalry between them was a good way to motivate them both.

  Dakota compressed two buttons on the top and bottom of the device, darted out of the alley, and lobbed the metal sphere toward the building. Hallam snuck a look and watched the orb sail over the fence and land in the courtyard before spikes jutted out from its surface, preventing it from rolling away into a dark corner. Dakota looked at her watch, which then bleeped twice.

  “The jammer is active; we go on three…” she said, her voice urgent. Then she started a countdown. “Three… Two…”

  The “one” never came, because Dakota had already raced out of the alley and was hurtling toward the tall wire fence.

  “Damn cheater!” cursed Hallam, realizing that Dakota had tricked him in order to get a head-start and win their bet. Perhaps the challenge wasn’t such a good idea after all…” he thought as he raced out after her.

  Dakota was already halfway up the fence by the time Hallam reached the bottom. He leapt up onto it, digging his fingers through the gaps.

  “What took you so long?” Dakota called down to him, though despite Hallam’s best efforts, he couldn’t gain on her.

  Through the fence, Hallam could see a little a ring of light pulsing around the metal sphere, which seemed to be getting faster the higher he climbed.

  “One minute,” said Dakota, who was already over the fence and descending even faster than she’d climbed. “Get a move on!”