by Kal Spriggs
No, their best bet at this point was to try to seize some of the crew to use as a bargaining chip.
“Go explosive,” Jason ordered.
Dominguez pulled a large, flat sheet of explosive out of his pack. The compact military-grade explosive was packaged with an adhesive on one side. He peeled it off and attached the thin sheet to the door. Dominguez plugged in the shock tube and unspooled the coil as they backed around a corner.
Jason took a moment to verify that his entire team was in shelter.
“Clear,” Jason nodded.
“Fire in the hole,” Dominguez snapped.
The sharp explosion buffeted them all, especially in the confined corridors with nowhere for the blast to go. If they hadn't all had subdural armor as well as protective sheathing on their vital organs, the blast would have killed them. As it was, Jason's ears didn't even ring.
“Move,” he snapped. The time for stealth was over.
***
Mel heard the thump of an explosion in the near-distance and swore. “Fenris?”
“They explosively breached the security door on third deck, side access corridor three.”
That wasn't far, Mel knew they could get there within a few minutes... if they didn't mind rushing headlong into well-armed enemies. “Remind me to complain, again, about the Guard Peacekeeper's search of that shuttle.”
While that wasn't entirely fair... there were always nooks and crannies to hide weapons on a shuttle or starship... the truth probably was that they'd been ordered to overlook any weapons.
“Who is this stud with the nice voice, and why the hell isn't he helping?” Yewell asked as they moved down the corridor.
“That's, uh...” Mel blanked on a convenient lie. “He's our pilot.”
“Probably not doing very much piloting right now, how about he comes down and carries a gun?” Yewell asked as she waved around the pistol that Mel had given her.
Mel carried Maggie, the Tyvek Autopistol that Johnny Woodard had given her. She didn't really feel comfortable bringing Swaim's mother into this, but the other woman had been insistent, especially when Mel had admitted that she'd ordered Swaim to grab a weapon and meet them.
“I would love to be able to come and help, but unfortunately I'm unable to lend a hand in that regard,” Fenris said in a deep voice. That's only accurate, considering the fact that he doesn't have arms...
“Where is Swaim?” Mel asked, hoping to deflect the conversation.
“He's one deck above you, I'm zeroing him onto your position,” Fenris replied. “He stopped by at the armory on his way.”
“Oh... shit,” Mel said. She couldn't imagine what weapons the young man had thought appropriate. Since Johnny Woodard, Bob Walker, and Brian Liu had all gone a bit... gun happy after their last big mission, there was a lot to choose from.
What's the worst that could happen...
***
“Fire in the hole!” Dominguez shouted.
A moment later, the charge went off and they breached the third security door. Jason would have expected a full corridor of enemies and a hail of gunfire.
Instead it was silent. He and his team pied the breached hatch and then piled through in a stream. “No movement,” Jason snapped. “Clear Front.”
“Clear right,” Dominguez replied.
“Clear left,” Porter growled.
“Clear rear,” Karlsen announced.
“Move forward,” Jason ordered. They continued down the corridor, faced by yet another security hatch. At this point, Jason was starting to wonder if this was some kind of twisted maze, designed to screw with anyone who boarded the vessel. He hadn't seen living quarters. He hadn't seen working spaces, just meter after endless meter of corridors. This is insane... they have to be messing with us somehow...
***
“You're kidding me, right?” Mel stared at Swaim as he came through the hatch. He had a plasma rifle over one shoulder, a Karnos Arms gauss rifle over the other, and a automatic M244 heavy machinegun cradled in his arms.
“Hey mom!” Swaim said cheerfully.
Samantha Yewell rushed over and gave him a hug. “Ah, you haven't been taking care of yourself! I can tell you haven't been eating right! And signing on with those terrorist scumbags... I mean, why? You have no idea how worried I was about you!”
“Moooom,” Swaim whined, “you're embarrassing me!”
“Yes, yes, it's only what you deserve,” Yewell waved a hand. “I mean really... you do all of that and then you don't even drop me a message? You sign on with some mercenaries and I have to track you down!”
“I hate to interrupt, but we do sort of have a group of well-armed commandos to deal with,” Mel gestured down the corridor. “And from what Fenris said, they're headed this way.”
“Fine,” Yewell sighed. She waved at her son, “So, what did you bring?”
“Well, they have the really heavy stuff locked up, I couldn't bypass their codes and Fenris wouldn't do it for me, but I brought this for you...” He held out the M244 machine gun.
“Very thoughtful,” Yewell nodded, as if he'd just given her a birthday present. Swaim's mother is weird... Mel noted that she checked the weapon and went through a functions check faster than she would have thought possible for someone in the media business.
“And I'll use this!” Swaim pulled the plasma rifle off his shoulder and brandished it.
“No you won't!” Mel and Yewell both snapped. They shot one another looks and Mel flushed a bit, for reasons she couldn't really explain.
“Jeremiah, that's a weapon for outside or if you're wearing powered armor,” Samantha Yewell adopted a lecturing tone, “if you fire that in here, not only will you severely damage parts of the ship, but you'll probably cook us all alive.”
“Fine...” Swaim sighed. “Can I still use the gauss rifle?”
Mel reached out and took the spare pistol back from Yewell and then handed it over to Swaim, “How about you stick with this, huh?”
“But...” Swaim's shoulders drooped, “I never get to have any fun.”
“The gauss rifle is nice, sweetie, but it's kind of overkill for this situation,” Yewell hefted her machine gun. “Tell you what, I'll take you to a range when all this is over. Alright, let's go.”
Mel wondered just what the hell was going on with this pair. Swaim had always seemed... odd. But mostly in the helpless, awkward duckling sort of way. Swaim's mother, on the other hand, seemed odd in the knowing far too much about weapons for a wealthy and presumably sheltered media star sort of way.
“Which way, Fenris?” Mel asked.
“They breached the final hatch in side access corridor three and they're in the main fore and aft corridor on deck three,” Fenris announced. “I can't track which direction they're moving until they breach another hatch. I would appreciate it if you would stop them soon, they're doing an impressive amount of damage.”
“We'll do what we can,” Mel said. “Where's Brian?”
“He's on the other side of them, deck three, just entering their sensor jamming field, so I'll lose track of him... now.” Fenris said.
“You won't be able to open hatches for him if you can't see him, can you?” Mel asked. They hadn't really rehearsed boarding operations. That was a gap in their planning that she should have foreseen... but they hadn't expected anyone to try to board the ship.
“I can,” Fenris growled, “he activates the control panel and I can detect when he opens a hatch. Of more interest is their sensor jamming system, it's overwhelming my motion detectors, my visual sensors, everything, yet somehow it isn't having severe impact on the other systems. I'd very much like to obtain the equipment for examination.”
“Noted,” Mel said as she led the way to the nearest ladder. If they went down a deck, then they could be in position to hopefully take their enemy boarding team in the flank. Since these people hadn't retreated or surrendered, there was every expectation that they'd have to kill them. Seeing as the team had already se
en enough of the Fenris to be dangerous, Mel supposed that was the only route to go.
She led the way down, and then paused as Fenris's voice growled in her earpiece, “Mel, I won't be able to track you or reach you by comms, their signal is too strong on this deck... be careful.”
Mel swallowed, “I will, thanks Fenris.”
She toggled open the hatch and stepped through. The main access corridor was ten meters further down the corridor and she moved forward cautiously, alert for any sounds or motion.
The hatch at the end of the corridor was intact and Mel paused there. Swaim and his mother came up behind her and she gave them a look. Swaim looked nervous and pale, but she didn't think he'd run. His mother had a calm, impatient expression and she gestured at Mel to get on with it.
Here goes nothing, Mel thought to herself.
***
“Sergeant, we're running low on explosives,” Dominguez noted as he stepped back from the next hatch.
“I know,” Sergeant First Class Jason Cordova said. If they didn't find someone to use as a hostage soon, then they'd be stuck. “Mechanical breaches if necessary,” he said.
Dominguez gave him a distrusting look and Jason shrugged. I didn't say it was a good idea, but it's the only one I have...
“Fire in the hole,” Dominguez snapped.
The charge went off and Dominguez moved forward, pistol ready.
No sooner had he stepped through than someone caught him by the forearms and swung him into the bulkhead with an impact that Jason felt through his boots. A moment later, he heard gunfire from the rear. It seemed that the other boot had finally dropped.
Thank God, Jason thought to himself. He'd always hated waiting.
***
Brian grinned as gunfire erupted through the breached hatch. As expected the Special Service operative he'd hit was recovering, far faster than a normal human ought to do. Brian didn't give him time to get to his feet, he lashed out with a kick that crushed the man's head against the bulkhead.
As the dead man went limp, Brian spun back to the breached hatch.
He took a step forward, planning to dive through, but then someone came through in a blur, pistol firing.
Brian dove to the side, feeling the impact of bullets on his armor and not really caring beyond the fact that they didn't hit anything important.
Brian kicked out and his boot connected. His opponent's pistol went flying. Brian paused as the man froze. They stared at each other for a long moment. Brian tuned out the gunfire coming from the other side of the breach. The other man adopted a fighting stance and drew a knife. “Nice ambush, how did you know we were coming?”
“Just good timing,” Brian smiled. He waggled his knife back and forth, then as his opponent's eyes went that way, he lunged forward. He kicked out, but the man blocked and brought his knife around in a thrust that Brian barely blocked. The two of them struggled for a moment,
He gave his opponent a slight nod, “You're fast, strong too.”
The man gave him a slight nod, “So are you.”
“Special Service?” Brian asked as he shifted to the right.
His opponent didn't answer, his gaze flicking to the breached hatch. The sound of gunfire had trailed off. Someone had won... someone had died.
“Surrender?” Brian asked.
“Not really an option,” the man shrugged slightly. “In for a penny.”
Brian couldn't say what tipped him off, whether it was a slight tensing of muscles or a narrowing of the eyes. All he knew was that the man was about to make his move... and Brian moved first. He stepped into the oncoming attack, driving his knife in and upwards, straight through his opponent's armored ribs and into the man's heart.
***
Mel stepped through the breached hatch, followed by Yewell and Swaim. “Status?”
“Five neutralized, all dead,” Brian responded, rising from checking the bodies.
“Couldn't take any prisoners?” Mel asked. “It would have been nice to have confirmation over who attacked us.”
“This one is unconscious,” Brian gestured at one of the slumped figures. He cocked his head, “I think I cracked his skull, but he's technically still alive...”
“Mel,” Fenris interrupted, “you need to evacuate the hallway immediately.” He opened a side hatch even as he spoke.
Mel didn't hesitate, she led the others through the doorway, only as the hatch slapped shut behind them did she ask, “What's going on?”
“The three infiltrators that Brian dealt with just detonated, some kind of incendiary device on each of them,” Fenris growled. “I'm scanning the bodies of these--”
Before he could finish, Mel heard a series of muffled explosions. “As I expected, they were similarly equipped,” Fenris growled.
“Security implants,” Brian looked like he wanted to spit. “Probably designed to trigger if their monitor judges there's a strong chance of mission failure or of their people being compromised.”
“Explosive implants?” Mel asked. “That's... that's sick.”
“Yeah, those poor bastards probably had no choice about this mission, succeed or die,” Brian shook his head.
Samantha Yewell looked rather aloof, “What does it matter? The men out there intended to kill or kidnap your prisoner.”
“It's the person who sent them here that I want to get,” Mel closed her eyes as she considered it. Whoever had sent those men had done so expecting them to have a high chance of failure. For that matter, the explosive charges might have been an added security measure in case their attackers had decided to scrap the mission or even abandon their employer.
“They were almost definitely Guard Army Special Service,” Brian said. “Heavily augmented, and Guard Army likes to make use of those kinds of security measures.”
Mel shivered, “I thought they frowned on implants and cybernetics?” Most people weren't all that keen on it. Guard Fleet made use of limited neural computers, mostly with tactical officers so they could react faster during maneuvers and combat. The general prejudice against cybernetics was pretty strong, and even Mel could admit she wasn't crazy about the idea, personally.
“They do, outside of special fields. The Guard Marine Corps make heavy use of enhancements like that. So does Guard Army Special Service,” Brian shrugged, “And as you saw before, so do Guard Intelligence Agents.”
Mel grimaced at that. Marcus had made use of an implant to give him regular, monitored doses of rex, a highly illegal and highly addictive mental stimulant. From what he'd said, it was pretty standard amongst Guard Intelligence. Knowing that, she supposed she shouldn't be too surprised that other sections of the Guard military made use of implants or even combat drugs.
“Has our shuttle docked?” Mel asked. She was suddenly acutely aware of Yewell's presence. Just what the woman already knew, Mel didn't know. What she did know was that the woman was an outsider and a risk. The more people Mel had on hand to manage that, the better
“Yes, Captain,” Fenris replied. “However, only three of the team is back aboard. Apparently that is the reason for their delay. Additionally, we've received a message explaining the absence of... that crew member, but you'll probably want to review it in private.”
That's not good. Mel nodded, though, “Very well. Let's head to the briefing room, I think we have some things to discuss with Miss Yewell.” Mel took a deep breath and looked up at the overhead and Fenris, “Oh, and please inform Commodore Creed of our uninvited guests and that we managed the situation.”
“Of course, Captain,” Fenris replied.
Mel looked over at Yewell, who cradled the M244 machine gun in her arms, her expression serene. Somehow, Mel doubted this conversation would go the way she wanted.
***
Chapter 8
Time: 2300 6 February 292 G.D.
Location: Harmony System
“It was actually quite easy for me to locate and identify all of you,” Samantha Yewell said a few minutes later. “I'd
been monitoring my son's biometric signature, since I was trying to locate him. I'd already known he was in trouble of some kind. When an 'update' changed his biometric signature, it was easy enough for me to scan the entire update packet and identify what other 'updates' there were in the packet, as well as the origination of the data. Once I had your names, I backtracked that to the Guard Intelligence operation that recruited you. I wasn't able to get into the Guard Intelligence files, but I could do a bit of backwards planning from when they recruited you all and connect that in with the arrival of the Fenris at Vagyr and the news reports I already had on that.”
“So you know...” Mel started.
“I knew that your ship was the Fenris. I also knew the identities of your crew and team. I suspected that you'd disabled the artificial intelligence, but that you kept the automation, which was how you managed to operate such a large vessel with such a small crew.” Yewell gave a tight smile, “I can't say I'm thrilled with the idea of my son being aboard a fully armed ship run by an unstable artificial intelligence, no matter how well you've programmed his loyalty protocols.”
“I'm not unstable,” Fenris growled, “nor did they reprogram me.”
For the first time since her arrival, Yewell looked uncomfortable. “Are you saying that you are a fully liberated artificial sentient? Because if you are, not only are you illegal, but you're probably insane.”
“Sanity is all relative, anyway,” Aldera Kynes said off-handedly. It was the first time the woman had spoken since her arrival aboard the ship. She looked worried and Mel figured most of that came from Bob Walker's absence.
“I have examined a great deal of Fenris's programming,” Aldera said, as everyone looked over at her. “He is a masterwork of programming. Billions of lines of code, self-defining sections to give him adaptability and the ability to evolve. He's not just stable, he's self-stabilizing, so that as events occur that should not be definable to his existing world-view, he is able to adjust his world-view to these new events. Not only can he reconfigure his software, but his optical core allows him to redefine his processing parameters. He's more mentally and emotionally stable than most humans could ever be, with the ability to rewire his brain as necessary.”