by Marc Stevens
I spoke to Broza and then to the Sig crew. They assured me the freighter’s weapons and shields were performing to spec. We went over everything they needed to know. My confidence in the Zaens was given a boost when they seemed almost enthusiastic about going into combat. I think it had a lot to do with the way the Sig crew performed during the attack the pirates made on our freighter. Their actions obviously put some starch into the Zaens’ spines. If our mining plans worked out, I would upgrade to a freighter based on a battleship platform. If anyone got wind we were moving large quantities of Containium, we would need the extra firepower to protect our business interests. We went to the ready room and started our ritual of strapping on the tools of our trade. We checked each other’s kit and made sure everything was secure. I made eye contact with Tria, Coonts, and Klutch, and they each gave me a thumbs up. As I stepped in front of the Operative, I could see her eyes wandering around her HUD menus before fixing on me. She gave me a Chaalt salute, and I returned it. Then she gave me a thumbs up. Every weapon was at capacity, and our suits were all in the green.
“Justice, take us to the surveillance jump point.”
“Roger that, Commander. The matrix is charged, and we will be out of direct observation from our freighter in three minutes. DEHD core jump to waypoint one in three minutes and thirty seconds.”
We marched single file to the hangar. Xul was sitting in the cockpit of Eagle Two and gave me a thumbs up. I thought it was pretty cool when the aliens under my command acknowledged they were good to go with an Earth man gesture. Xul would be flying in the event we needed an emergency dust off or some extra firepower. I was hoping we wouldn’t have any need for it. My grandad taught me a long time ago to hope for the best and prep for the worst.
Our reality faded away and then back again. We now occupied a piece of the void two hundred and sixty light-years from our freighter and point five from our target. As far as we knew, the Chaalt were the only ones with deep space sensors that could detect DEHD core transitions. If we were wrong, we had knocked hard on the Murlak’s door. Our stealth systems were online, and Justice was scanning. Five minutes later, he gave us a less than favorable report. We were close to the coordinates, but it was on the edge of a massive multi-light-year asteroid field. There were millions of asteroids spread out in every direction, and the majority were huge. You could hide an entire fleet of Warbringer’s in that mess. Justice started throwing numbers at me based on his scan observations.
“Commander, of the one million eleven thousand thirty-three asteroids detected in my scans, one hundred and sixty-two thousand are large enough to harbor a base capable of docking a Murlak Warbringer-class battleship. I narrowed my search pattern and have eliminated all but two hundred and seventy-one that are concentrated around the coordinates given to us by Illam Pove. I am not detecting spacecraft or other telltale emissions in or around those targets.”
I should have known just getting the coordinates would have made finding Shurmosk too easy. We would be forced to search. There was always the chance that Illam Pove was a tougher nut to crack than we thought and gave us erroneous intel. After thinking back on my observations of Klutch’s interrogation, I dismissed any speculation on the Murlak’s fortitude. Pove’s shrill screams as Klutch slowly bit down on the last finger of his left hand gave little doubt as to his sincerity. I cleared the morbid scene from my mind and brought our present situation back in focus. It would be stupidity on the part of the Murlak to not have sensors and weapons on any usable route to their base. If Justice could get a whiff of those systems, they might lead us to where the base was located. We would again be relying heavily on our Guardian-designed equipment to shield us from detection. The complete lack of activity as we penetrated deeper into the asteroid field was a confidence builder. Our technological edge was holding.
“Commander, we are coming up on the coordinates of Shurmosk,” Justice said. “I have no active detections to report at this time. There is a possibility the location revealed to us may have been a contact waypoint. It would be a way to identify friend from foe. Once a vessel is verified as an ally, the final route to the base would be transmitted.”
It wasn’t something I had considered. Now that Justice put the theory out for us to chew on, it was more or less the same thing we were doing with El Dorado. We were actively shielding its whereabouts from all but a few select allies. It made sense to limit the information so it could not be coerced or extracted by more diabolical methods. I was getting antsy. I thought we would be on the base by now doing our thing. I didn’t like standing around with a thumb inserted in my out door. We were all dressed up with no place to go. If we had to turn around and go back to Alpha Base, I knew a Murlak who was going to go for a walk in the void without a suit.
“Commander, I am detecting transition distortion waves close to our area of operations. I am going to shelter the Legacy in close proximity to one of the nearby asteroids so we can observe and identify the vessel.”
“Roger that. If it is the Murlak, maybe they will be kind enough to show us the way to Shurmosk.”
“I have identified the vessel as a Murlak Warbringer-class battleship. It is moving closer to the asteroid field but is not on a course that will intersect with the coordinates you were given by Illam Pove.”
Justice put a digital representation of the surrounding asteroid field and a red triangle indicating the Murlak ship in our HUDs. He extended a course cursor from the hostile ship that indicated its flight path. Justice was right. It would pass near the asteroid field, but unless it made a hard-ninety-degree turn, it would miss it completely. I was again thinking Pove had lied to us.
“Commander, I am detecting three shuttles launching from the Murlak ship,” Justice said. “The hulls of the shuttles are exhibiting stealth characteristics. They are moving into the asteroid field on a course that will pass close to our position.”
“What about the battleship?”
“Its course has not changed. It appears to be on a heading that will take it into the dust nebula that surrounds the outer perimeter of the asteroid field.”
“How good is their stealth?”
“It is of fair quality. Their systems are redirecting over half of my passive scan return information. What it does not do adequately is mask the drive emissions. I foresee no problems tracking them.”
We watched as Justice tracked the shuttles in our HUDs. At one point, they were on a vector that would take them directly at the Legacy but veered off sharply and made a sweeping arc well behind us. Justice confirmed what was on our minds. The Murlak were making a methodical search of the surrounding area. We thought it was a matter of time before they would lead us to Shurmosk. I had Xul drop the ramp on Eagle Two, and we made ourselves comfortable in the cargo hold jump seats. I hoped we would get moving soon. After another hour of sitting, Coonts and Klutch were elbowing and swatting at each other. I was glad they closed their helmets; I could only imagine the conversation that was taking place on their private comms channels. The Operative sat quietly with her arms crossed, trying her best to ignore my other strike team members who were acting like ten-year-old children. The Operative of old would have had a meltdown by now. She would have been reaming me a new one over my crew’s lack of discipline. After more than three hours of course changes and backtracking, the shuttles regrouped. It looked like they were moving toward the fringe of the asteroid field.
“Commander, the Murlak Warbringer is retracing its outbound course and moving back to the asteroid field,” Justice reported.
“Is there a possibility they detected our position?”
“We were never targeted by any of the shuttles’ scans. It is highly unlikely they are aware of our presence.”
“Have you picked up any comms traffic?”
“Negative, Commander. They have maintained communication silence.”
I was thinking the Murlak decided to load up and leave. We would be forced to search for the base once they left the area. I
was on the verge of telling my strike team to stand down and stow their armor.
“Commander!” Justice said urgently. “Two additional shuttles have launched from the Warbringer. They are joining with the three-shuttle formation and moving back into the asteroid field.”
My pulse quickened. We may have witnessed the ritual security sweep that preceded landing at the Murlak base. I was wondering who might be on the second set of shuttles. Was this Eiger’s security team escorting him to Shurmosk?
“Commander, the shuttles are on a course that intersects with an asteroid with a diameter of less than five miles,” Justice said. “If this is indeed their destination, a Warbringer battleship would have great difficulty accommodating its large size in such a restricted area. I am moving the Legacy a safe distance behind the shuttle formation, and we will follow until they reach their final destination.”
We watched as the shuttles headed for the asteroid Justice had indicated. They slowed, and as they did, a rock formation on the surface parted and they disappeared inside. My crew was back to business as normal. We marched off of Eagle Two and made ready for a combat jump. Justice tucked the Legacy against the back side of a large asteroid that faced our target, then partially opened the hangar door. We jumped out. He quickly closed the hatch and slowly moved the Legacy away. We used our gravity boosters to take us around the asteroid to a point where we could observe the pirate base. We were about a thousand yards from our target, and there was no outward reaction to our insertion. We formed up and boosted toward the pirate fortress. We were vulnerable and exposed while crossing to the surface of Shurmosk. We should find out fairly quickly if the stealth features of our suits failed us.
To my relief, our touchdown on the surface was uneventful. We were close enough to the hidden opening the shuttles had used for access that we could make out the parting line in the rock. We stayed low to the surface and used small burps of our gravity drives to push us along. Klutch suddenly held up a fist and pointed at a row of rocklike protrusions sticking up from the surface. We were keeping our comms locked down to further avoid detection. He pointed left and right. I followed his arm and saw that the protrusions were an equal distance from each other and went in both directions. Klutch made a circle motion with his hand and again pointed at the rocklike pillars. I wasn’t sure what they were for, but Klutch was right: it looked like they encircled the hidden access doors. He turned us away and I assumed we were going to try to find another way in. We slowly worked our way along the surface.
We came to a crater that was about thirty feet across. As we started to go over the edge, Klutch stopped us again. The crater was only about ten feet deep. At its bottom were rows of pencil thin antennas about two feet tall. They created a grid that was roughly six feet by six feet. While this was an interesting find, it was what Klutch pointed at to the side of the array that got my blood pressure up a couple of notches. The rocklike wall had the outline of a hatch on it. We skirted the sensor grid and stacked near the hatch. I pointed to Klutch’s portal device and then at the door. He nodded and was going to pull his plasma weapon from its clip. I quickly grabbed the barrel of the weapon and pulled his shotgun for him instead. I wagged my finger in front of his facemask. We would try to use stealth before I would let him burn the place down around us.
He activated the device, and we got a small, single-person hole. He leaned forward into it and then stuck a hand back out behind him. He waved for us to follow. I was next with Tria, Coonts, and the Operative bringing up the rear. We were in a narrow, dark service tunnel. My no-light sensors gave me a great view of the Troop Master’s ass but nothing else beyond him. His armor filled the tunnel, blocking our line of sight. We had no choice but to blindly follow. If he started a party, we would have a hard time joining the celebration until we could exit the passage. We crawled along for more than two hundred yards. It was a testimony as to the thickness of the outer shell of the asteroid. The Troop Master slowed and then finally stopped. I could barely peek over his shoulder and could see the passage dead ended at another hatch. Klutch was messing around with the backside of the access, and to my surprise, it opened. We dropped down into a large machine space that had an active generator.
Now that we were inside, I took a leap of faith that our comms would no longer be an issue with detection.
“Coonts, take a look around and give me an idea of what this equipment might be used for,” I said. “Klutch, you and Sael look for an exit.”
Turning to Tria, I pointed at a service panel. “See if it is something we can cause a little trouble with.”
Tria went to survey the control panel, and I got a heads-up from Klutch and the Operative. They found two hatches and split up to guard each of them. Coonts returned and reported the generator supplied power to several surface arrays, but its size implied it powered other unknown equipment as well.
“This display is a monitoring station for several pumps,” Tria said, pointing at the control panel. “It does not identify what they are pumping. The switches on the lower panel are the actuators. I think if we shut them down, someone would be here shortly to find out what the problem was. It would be a good way to get some information on the facility.”
Coonts was standing next to me studying the board. Tria had a good point. If we could not get someone’s attention with the pumps, maybe screwing with the power supply would get us a maintenance tech.
“Is there anything like this on the generator?”
“No, Commander, the generator is being monitored at another location. There are, however, a number of transfer switches that alternate the flow of energy. If we were to damage enough of them, we could trigger an automated shutdown of the generator.”
There was no time like the present to start adding complexities to the lives of the pirates. I decided we would start with the pumps. If that didn’t net us the results we were looking for, the generator would be next.
“Tria, shut down the pumps. Sael, Klutch, we will be expecting some guest shortly. I have no idea how many, but I need at least one to be alive.”
When Tria shut the pumps off, an alarm sounded. I knew it would be doing the same elsewhere. Tria, Coonts, and I climbed up on a maintenance scaffold on the side of the generator. We had a good view of the hatches. We cloaked and settled in for what I hoped would be a short wait. About forty seconds passed, and the hatch on Sael’s side of the room opened. Two Murlak wearing bright green jumpsuits hustled through the door. Sael was a little overenthusiastic. She clotheslined the first one, flipping him up and then prone on his back. He was gagging and clawing at his throat. She whipped the other around by his arm and smashed him face-first into the rock wall. The wet-sounding crunch had a definite note of finality to it. A short string of Chaalt oaths was heard over our group comms. It did not bode well for the health of either Murlak.
“Commander Myers, we will need another source of information,” Sael reported. “I have two Murlak fatalities.”
Klutch thought it was funny. I did not. I cut his croaking laugh off like a light switch.
“Klutch! Can that crap!” I yelled.
There was no point in jumping Sael’s ass for killing the Murlak. It was why we were here and what we had planned on doing. She was not as finely tuned to the armor as we were. The suit-assisted reflexes and strength multipliers made it extremely easy to kill an unarmored combatant. Before I could tell her to take it easy next time, the hatch opened and a tall Murlak wearing body armor stepped in.
“Cancel that alar—”
His eyes swelled and his words locked in his throat as he stared at the two dead bodies. Sael didn’t hesitate. She kicked one of the bodies with such force it flew into the hatch, slamming it shut before the Murlak could turn and run back through it. He fumbled with the door control, but Sael jerked him backward onto the floor. He attempted to draw a sidearm, and she wrenched it from his grip, snapping the bones in his wrist. He screeched out in pain as she picked him off the floor and threw him at
the Troop Master.
“Here, Troop Master! Do something with this Throgg before I to kill it, too!”