Aidele frowned. “That’s rather dark for you, Durante. I’m shocked…”
He looked to her. “I know the truth now. President Lee ordered the invasion. And that malicious… man up there, he won’t be stopped unless you stop him. And if it’s for the greater good… Look, I hate violence, Aidele. But, deep in my heart, I know that some men… just have to die. And nobody’s better at wanton violence than you.”
“Ah’ll go with her…” Asta said still holding onto Drevan’s shoulder, her face wet from tears. “Ah own that sumabitch fer ever’thin’.”
“Ah’ll come too,” Drevan let go of Asta’s shoulder and checked his guns.
Asta stood on her own, finally feeling well enough to use her own muscles. She took his hand.
“No, yer not. Yer gonna help Garret’n Durante. Ya need ta keep ‘em safe ta finish the job.”
Drevan’s eyes found hers. “Are ya sure ya want ta split up like that?”
“D’ya want ta kill Berricks?”
“More’n an’thin’.”
“Then ya do as ah ask,” she said then grabbed both sides of his face and drew him in for a long kiss. He gripped her head back and they embraced fiercely. Then, Asta took a step back and took the second gun Aidele offered her.
“Ah love you,” Drevan said.
Asta smiled. “Ah’ve always loved you as well, ya crotchety ol’ bastard. An’ ah’ll see ya soon.”
Drevan nodded. Asta turned to Aidele. “Ah ken show ya the way ta the bridge.”
“Okay.” Aidele shared a gaze with the others. “We’ll meet back in the docks in no more’n twenty minutes. Think that’ll be enough time to do your damage?”
Durante nodded. “Yeah. More than enough time. I’ll trigger the evacuation alert. Then, I’ll set the core to erupt fifteen minutes from then.”
“Don’t be late,” Aidele smiled and turned to follow Asta.
Lights flashed a stuttering red and an alarm sounded.
“Looks like they finally realized their well-planned trap failed as epically as out infiltration did.” Durante said. “We’d better hurry.”
No further words were spoken as they raced for the engine room.
“DEFENSE FORCES INCOMING!” Commander Riley shouted as the bridge rocked under fresh assault.
“So?” Sam growled. “Fire back. Take ‘em out. Our guns’re more’n a match fer ‘em.”
“Yes… sir,” she replied frowning.
Sam leaned over Commander Kyle’s station and looked at some data readouts.
“Now, focus the forward cannons on those coordinates,” he pointed and Commander Kyle was taken aback.
“Sir? There’s nothing showing up on visuals there…” They looked up at the screen where what was left of Aquila Mons stood as little more than a crater. The area Sam wanted targeted was out in the desert scarp a few miles to the west. The screen panned out to show the new coordinate field.
“It’s subterranean,” Sam stated. “A titanium processing planet. It’s where they manufacture the building materials for all those wonderful starcraft swarming us right now. I want you to bury it. Should only take a few minutes. Then we’ll move on to the next target on the list. Commander Riley, continue to maintain defensive measures.”
“Yes, sir!”
Commander Kyle swallowed hard, “Yes, sir.”
Sam straightened and looked out the viewport to the forward section of the bridge. HDF ships buzzed the Invicta’s hull and were doing some minor damage. But Riley picked them off at a fairly decent clip. However, taking too long wasn’t an ideal prospect. More ships would be called up, then they’d be overwhelmed. He had to finish off the Chuhukon resources fast to bring all their own weapons systems to bear on the defense forces. Then, there were the intruders to deal with. Undoubtedly Wilson. And she’d escaped the trap. Reports were coming in of firefights all across deck ten. And that wasn’t good. Wilson was supposed to have gone to the brig and gotten gunned down. But, apparently, she’d brought help. Now she was running around with whoever causing mayhem and likely freeing Lynch and her team by now, which meant they’d be coming for him.
“Commander Riley, lock down the bridge.” Sam crossed his arms over his chest. “Send word to all decks the bridge is off limits until further notice. Order all soldiers to eliminate anyone they don’t recognize on the spot, and to do a full sweep of all levels looking for intruders. And, post guards at the bridge lift too. Not that it’ll do much good. But might buy us enough time to finish the job.”
“Uh… yes, sir.”
Fifteen minutes. That’s all they needed.
DREVAN FIRED TWICE, downing the soldier permanently on the second shot. Garret was in cover beside him by a corner and then leapt out to down two more that were rushing their position. Despite the shooting, there was a remarkably light presence of soldiers. They’d only encountered around twenty. Seventeen wouldn’t be seeing tomorrow, but three seemed to take the red alert as an excuse to abandon ship.
Some ‘loyalists’. Drevan shook his head.
They rushed to the end of the hall and followed Durante into the engine core where they found five scientists hiding behind a control console. Durante gave a smile and a quick off-handed wave, then proceeded to the core command station. Drevan and Garret took covering positions beside the entrance doorway. Strangely, no more troopers were coming after them.
“Think they done ran out?” Drevan quipped.
“If so, it will be that much easier to get back to the bay,” Garret replied. “But I fear those actually performing their duties are busy with Aidele and Asta.”
“The two o’em are pretty good at gittin’ inta trouble.”
Garret huffed as one of the scientists stood up. “Durante? What are you doing? Where’ve you been? What’s going on?”
Durante approached where the pylons lined the long tubular room to the rear of engine observation and opened up the command station’s control panel. Afterwards, he glanced over his shoulder to the woman. His former Second Administrator, Tella Brighton.
“Berricks was ordered to destroy Aquila Mons. There’s nothing left of the city. So, we’re disabling the Invicta before she can be used to deliver any further damage.”
“That’s… impossible! He wouldn’t do that!” she protested.
“Yeah, I thought the same thing at first. Seen a lot since then,” Durante said.
Another scientist stood up, his brows furrowed. “Dr. Brighton, if it wasn’t a surface attack, then what were the cannons firing upon?”
“I… that’s to say…”
“We don’t have time for this,” Durante interrupted turning back to the panel and entering commands. “I’m going to need all of you to evacuate the ship. The order will blare out soon. Anyone who stays, well, they’re going to have a real bad day.”
“Wh, what if we won’t let you?” one of the others asked trying to look defiant.
Drevan glared back at him. “Don’ make me shoot ya.”
The scientists shared confused, nervous looks. Then fled the room not giving Durante, Drevan, or Garret another look. Garret and Drevan let them through still on the alert for more soldiers. None were coming.
“Did they abandon ship?” Drevan scowled. “Aidele and Asta aren’t commanding all of the ship’s attention! Ah was expectin’ more o’a fight.”
Garret grunted. “It’s unusual. However, let’s just count ourselves lucky we’re not being overwhelmed.”
“We’re in the Invicta’s engine room. Shouldn’t that be attracting some attention? I don’t like this.”
Garret said nothing and frowned while Durante went to work breaking into the executive files in the system. After a few minutes, he scowled with a curse. Garret looked back, brows knitted.
“What’s the problem? Can’t you break the coding?”
Durante shook his head. “No. No. That’s not it. I’ll be able to override the systems in two minutes. The problem is… they already transmitted the journal copies. It’
s… in Union hands now.”
Garret walked over to him trusting Drevan to sound the alarm if necessary. “Is it possible to… unsend it?”
“Union transmissions are encoded. The second one is sent out it’s already in the ether with no way to undo the action without an advance set of codes. In a matter of minutes, they’ll have every note, diagram, and schematic the professor put in that book. But I can record a copy onto a data disc. Having it will definitely be beneficial. I just wish we didn’t have to lose the journal in the process.”
Garret placed a hand on his shoulder and rubbed gently. “Do what you can, Durante. If the Union has the journal now, well, there’s other matters we must attend to right now.”
“Yeah. Don’t worry. I’ve got it.” Durante waved a hand through the air and pushed onward into his override commands.
Garret went back over to Drevan and took position opposite him, waiting for any adversary at all to come racing down the corridors for them. Drevan glanced over to Garret.
“Never rains, but it pours.”
“Tell me about it.”
ASTA DROPPED TO one knee, her hands to her chest, and gasped for breath. Aidele knelt beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She wasn’t looking good. Her breathing was ragged and her ebony features were going pale. Her lips were already a tint of blue. Asta coughed roughly.
“You need ta sit this one out. Berricks did a number on ya’n—”
“Ah ain’ sittin’ out! Ah might be gaspin’, might feel like a mule sittin’ on mah chest, but ah ain’ lettin’ that sumabitch win!” Asta clasped a hand on Aidele’s back. “Jus’ git me back ta mah feet…”
Aidele screwed up her face but did as she asked. Asta nodded in appreciation and pulled her revolvers again. Satisfied, she held them forward and forced herself to her full height fighting hard not to collapse back to her knees. Aidele knitted her brows worrying about how much farther she could go.
“Ah’m ready. Dontchou worry ‘bout me. Maybe ah’ll check me out one o’dem ‘doctors’ we keep hearin’ so much ‘bout when ah git back home…” She went silent for the briefest of moments then snorted. “Berricks ain’ gonna wait all day.”
She walked ahead and Aidele followed. They’d only gotten into a firefight with roughly fifteen soldiers. Of them, eleven were put down, the others broke cover and ran. Since that firefight, they’d seen no other soldier or civilian. Aidele had a cold shiver run through her veins as a result. Yet, Asta forged ahead heedless of the confounding nature of their insertion.
It only took another ten minutes of silence filled only by their harried footsteps before they reached the access corridor to the bridge. Bullets whizzed by their heads almost the second they rounded the corner. Asta darted across the intersection to take cover at the junction’s other corner as the two of them opened fire on the pair of soldiers guarding the lift a short jaunt to the corridor’s end. It was over with before it really began as the soldiers had no cover to speak of allowing the two women to stay out of the line of fire around the junction corners.
With the battle done they rushed down the short hallway to access the lift to the bridge. It was locked down much to Aidele’s great frustration.
“Shit,” Aidele scowled and checked a panel on the wall. “Guess he isn’t wanting company.”
“What d’we do now?”
“Give me a sec…” Aidele found the commboard and cycled through communication channels. “Wonder which is… Is this the engine room?”
A man’s face appeared on the small projection to the side of the panel. “Who is this?”
Aidele changed the channel. “Is this the engine room?”
A woman this time. “There’s no time for that! We have to get out of here! We’re under attack! The insurgents—”
She flipped again getting several dead channels, and then someone picked up, “Is this the engine room?”
The man on the other end was already speaking as he answered to someone offscreen. “…and it was stupid to not come with a full complement of soldiers! What was Lee thinking! Less than a hundred soldiers—who is this?”
Aidele continued flipping until Durante’s face appeared. “Aidele! Did you make it to the bridge?”
“We’re at the access lift now but the damn door is locked!”
Durante smiled. “It won’t be for long. I’m almost done here, then we’re headed for the bay. Bay seven, in case you forgot in all the fighting. You’ll have fifteen minutes starting… now. Engine core overlord imminent and locked out from the bridge. Aaaaannnnddd… there.” The lift doors slid open as the ship’s speakers sent out an evacuation order to all personnel.
“You’re a gawddamned genius, Durante. Stay safe and we’ll be with you soon.”
“You be careful as well. Don’t go dying on us,” his grin lopsided now.
She returned the expression. “Not on the agenda.”
She cut the feed and they entered the lift. The evacuation order repeated with the computerized voice informing all personnel to find the nearest emergency escape pod.
“Less than fifteen minutes now,” Aidele checked her ammo load and nodded. “Let’s go kill this fucker.”
“Sounds good ta me,” Asta replied, her countenance dead serious.
SAM BERRICKS HOWLED and gritted his teeth. Spittle flew from his lips as he slammed the edges of his fists into the console panel. All the cannons ceased firing and all they could now was hear the rhythmic pounding of defensive fire from the Hinon Defense Forces swarming the Invicta like enraged hornets.
The job wasn’t finished. The titanium processing plant was buried but the agricultural production store houses were unscathed. And their military headquarters had yet to be demolished as it resided beneath the ship production facilities. Yes, they got the capital and collapsed the materials development wing. But that was mostly symbolic at this point. With those resources still in play, the Union fleets would meet heavy resistance.
Maybe it wasn’t a complete loss, though, Sam considered. The damage wasn’t total, for sure, but the morale element could still hit them hard. Surely it would take weeks to recuperate sufficiently enough for a coming attack. The fleets were mere hours out after all. Less than two, if he had his timeline right. There couldn’t be enough time for a counter offensive. Not with them bringing to bear the might of their defense fleet now. The people would have to be broken and ready to surrender. They were just a weakened colony, he justified.
Sam turned to Commander Riley, “Riley, we might be still locked out, but communications will still work. Get me the president—" Both Commanders Riley and Kyle were retreating across the deck towards the armaments room where emergency escape pods were located. Apparently, during his fuming, most of the bridge crew had taken Weiss’ little evacuation warning seriously and left. Only Riley and Kyle remained. Dutiful to the end. Or so he had thought. “Where the fuck do you two think yer goin’?”
Commander Riley looked over her shoulder still running. “All due respect, sir, but we’re getting the fuck out of Dodge.”
Sam sighed, pulled his right revolver, and put a bullet into each of their heads. “Pansies.”
The bodies hadn’t even hit the floor when the lift doors slid wide open and Wilson with Lynch leapt out, guns blazing. Sam hurtled himself backwards over the command console taking two shots to the hip and one to the shoulder of his mechanical arm. The rest of the projectiles buried themselves into the console sending sparks flying in every direction. Smoke rose obscuring his attackers and his location to a degree, but not enough to stop him from returning fire.
The two women split up, ducking behind the consoles wrapping around the bridge and looking to pin him down where he was in the middle of the forward section. Sam opened fire on Lynch’s position and heard her scream as she tried to pop up to return her own volley but couldn’t get an angle. No thoughts came to his mind, only the battle rage to drive him forward, to tackle the threat to his survival. He continued to unload, his how
ls echoing around the bridge. Next thing he knew, Wilson fired on his position. He dropped back down, reloaded his revolvers with a quick snap of the wrist and a clicking of ammo cartridges from his gun-belt. He ran his firing chambers across his thighs causing a whirring drone from his spinning cartridges and heard Wilson racing around the perimeter from the war room rampway.
Near his feet was the boxy data bot sitting on its rail in a neutral slumber. He kicked the thing as hard as he could. It wailed a protest as it railed around the bend and went sailing into Wilson’s shins as she neared him. She went sprawled eagle down to the floor and he raced around to grab her before she could get back to her feet. She was quick and almost bringing those lethal harbingers back to bear before he got his synthetic grip around her throat and picked her up, his raging growl one of satisfaction and determination. He slammed her back into the rear of the command console. She didn’t howl out but the contorted face of pain and tears cascading down her scowling visage filled him with instant joy. He slammed her again getting a grunt and putting a dent into the console’s metal. She struggled to break loose and grabbed at his arm hoping to pull free. Then she kicked him in the stomach but he didn’t even buckle.
Bullets ricocheted all around them forcing Sam to drop Wilson and duck down. She fell like a sack of bricks, gasping for breath. He held both revolvers forward as he rushed past her keeping the consoles between himself and Lynch who unloaded on where she thought he was located hoping, he assumed, that the exchange would penetrate the metal circuitry and blast him dead. He had something else for her efforts as he heard her reloading. He popped up and took aim just as Lynch was whirling her cartridges into place. Smoke and the foul exchange of weapons’ fire filled the air, stinging his nostrils and eyes. Two bullets ripped through his shoulder, one his side. Six of his own riddled Lynch’s torso and legs. Still she refused to fall, the rage on her face, the snarling lips, the spit flying freely, her eyes on him fixated like a growling mountain cat. Her guns began their ritual once more and he returned the favor.
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