“That is quite…harrowing coming from someone like him,” Genos muttered.
“I heard anger in his voice, and a tinge of fear, but after he finished talking, I remember him looking up and smiling.” She smiled under her helmet herself.
“Smiling? About what?” His tone sounded confused but curious.
“He said that he might have gotten knocked down a few pegs, but that one of the men he had worked with told him to not let Gin ‘win’—in this case, the mental victory. Wolfson also helped him get back on his feet, and he said that you, me, and all of us in our little group helped too.” She chuckled again and a sense of merriment returned to her voice. “Yes, I do worry that he might not return one day. I also know that may come even after we graduate. Who knows what our lives will be then? But seeing who he is, what he’s done… I think…however it may sound, I would be more broken if he stopped altogether, to see that part of him fade away.” She looked at her companion and wondered if he could understand.
Genos nodded. “There’s a saying among the warriors—translated, it would be something along the lines of ‘The best weapon is your will, the greatest armor is your conviction. Only you can wield them or let them shatter.’ Do you think it applies?”
“I believe so,” she agreed. “But despite all of that, I would still like him to message us more when he leaves.”
“Yes, he said something to the effect that you ‘grilled him’ on that subject.”
“Did he now?” she muttered.
As the two continued to talk and their craft flew deeper into space and closer to their target, something approached them—unseen and not on their radar, but they were in its sights.
Chapter Fourteen
Kaiden pushed open the forth locked door he had found so far in the shuttle to reveal only a few crates hidden in the far corner of the room. He walked over and undid the straps that held them together before he pried open the top one and looked inside.
“Do you see anything good?” Chief asked.
“Can’t you see what I see?” he asked as he peered inside the crate with real disappointment.
“I’m making small talk. Everything is bubkiss so far. This is the only way I can entertain myself.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be making that patio?” He shut the crate and opened the others to take quick peeks before he sighed. “This one has a few pistols in it and the others had some rifles—certainly nothing worth trading our weapons in for. Maybe Genos can use them to make a torpedo or something.”
Chief’s eye skewed in the HUD. “I don’t think that’s possible.”
“I was exaggerating, although to be fair, if you’d played it right, I would have totally believed you if you said it was possible.” Kaiden let the top of the crate fall and crash to the floor. He dusted his hands off and looked around. On the other side of the room, a few shelves ran along the wall. He hurried over to examine a couple of cylinders with white markings on the side, picked one up, and shook his head. “Hey, Chief, what are these?”
“Explosives of some kind. Hold it up and let me scan it.”
He raised the device to his visor and a white line flared across his screen. “It appears to be a type of swarm grenade similar to the ones Genos and Cameron use from time to time. It looks like they seek out anything with an energy source and attach to it before they drain the energy from whatever they stick to.”
Kaiden rolled it around in his hand. “That sounds nifty, but if the seekers search things out indiscriminately, it’s basically a crapshoot if they attack anything useful.”
“That’s why the ones who usually use them are engineers or techies who have devices that allow them to control them a little better. But in this case, the top of the grenade has a little dial. Take a look.”
He flipped the grenade and looked at a small dial with white marking beside it. Without thinking, he took the knob between his fingers and turned it once. The white marking at the knob and on the side of the grenade changed to blue. “What did I do?” he asked and nearly dropped the grenade. “I didn’t just kill us, did I?”
“As hilarious as that would be, I wouldn’t let you do that,” Chief huffed. “Even in the relative safety of the Animus, I have some sense of self-preservation.”
Kaiden looked at the device once more, turned the knob again, and changed the color to red. “Okay, so my guess is that it’s a color coded system, and each color means a different type of target for the seekers to attack?”
“Good guess. White is neutral so they go after whatever is nearby. Blue is for electricity, purple is plasma, and red is heat.”
“Heat?” he asked, rather surprised, “As in only heat-seeking or can they actually drain body heat?”
“I would typically blast you for suggesting something so silly, but in this case, you are right. These are experimental grenades made by our now good friends at Tessa,” Chief explained. Kaiden’s eyes lowered in annoyance as he continued. “They were developed about three years ago, apparently a prototype for use by soldiers to circumvent that whole, ‘these things are really complicated’ problem they had with other seeker grenades. Fun fact: they earned the nickname ‘nerd grenades’ because of this difficulty. Apparently, they had small tests on Earth but sent batches out to other colonies and outposts where they could have different targets and experiences. Also anywhere they really lacked engineers, that’s probably more important.”
“I guess Axiom can’t make all the pain in the ass doodads.” He sighed and took the other grenade from the shelf. “It’s hard to see where they could benefit using them on a planet that was such a hostile jungle that the plants wanted to kill you, especially since you would be the one with the most power flowing. You could literally throw this thing sixty yards away and still have it blow up in your face.”
“My guess is that they were either supposed to be used in testing, procured from another ship, or were ‘gifts’ from the pirates for doing their dirty work on the planet.”
“If we did this for real, we could actually have made some money off them. Corporations and the WC have a turn-in value for devices like these if they are found out in the wild.” He clipped both grenades to his belt. “For now, I think I’ll hang onto them.”
“There’s only that one room left on the left. I looked through the ship’s blueprints and didn’t find any smuggler’s hatches or secret doors.”
“Well, that’s disappointing. These guys don’t even know how to run a proper operation.” Kaiden left the room and sauntered to the remaining door, Chiyo’s drive at the ready. “Either the Animus is getting lazy or these guys were based on galactic yuppies.”
He pressed the driver into a slot on the door’s access panel. “Wanna place a bet on what’s in there? No peeking with the scanner.”
“Yes, because there’s no place for such deviousness in gambling,” Chief chided with a roll of his eye. “My guess is provisions, We haven’t found any so far, and you would think they would at least have that in here.”
“I’d bet on cleaning supplies. Maybe I can at least get my gear shined while we’re twiddling our thumbs.” He snickered. The light on the access panel turned green and the doors opened. He took one step and his eyes widened at what was within. “Oh, this is way better than either of those things— Wait, do I even know how to use one of those?”
“Good thing you saved those points, huh?”
“Are there talents I can use to let me have a little fun with that?”
“Maybe not a specific one, but with the points you have left, we could invest them into a couple of different ones and that should be enough to— Kaiden, brace yourself!”
Without hesitation, Kaiden dropped and braced himself against the frame of the door. A blast rocked the ship and tilted it to its side so steeply that he almost slid into the room opposite. He tightened his grip on the frame and used both hands to hold himself steady.
“What’s going on?”
“We’re under attack!”
Chiyo shouted as she righted herself in her chair and stared at the screens.
“I agree.” Genos banked sharply away and pressed a few buttons on the console. “No need for stealth at the moment.”
“Who or what is attacking us?” she asked and stared at the displays. “Moderate damage to the shields—another blast or two and those will be gone. Kaitō, get back here!” In less than a second, the fox avatar appeared in her display.
“I am ready, madame,” Kaitō acknowledged. “What do you require?”
“I’m sending you into the ship’s systems. Activate cyber warfare suite and make sure they can’t access us.” Another bolt of energy roared toward the left side of the cockpit, barely avoided by a quick tilt of the controls from Genos. Chiyo drew a plug on a cord from her gauntlet and inserted it into the ship’s console. “I don’t think they plan to attack us that way, but to be safe, after that, see if there’s any way we can access their systems.”
The fox nodded. “Understood. I shall inform you of my progress momentarily.” With that, Kaitō disappeared and Chiyo opened a holoscreen,
“I’ll see if there are any auto-guns or turrets on the ship we can use. If so, I’ll set them to fire all at once on the ship to break through their shields.”
“I’m not sure if that’s an option.” Genos confessed. “Like I said, this ship is more along the lines of a supply ship. It doesn’t have many offensive options.” He looked at the stick in his right hand. “This controls the front cannon. That may be all we have to fight with. I turned off the stealth drive so the shields will gain power, but that doesn’t mean we can take more than a few strikes before it tears into us.”
She balled a fist. “Dammit, you’re right. There’s nothing.” She sighed but laughed almost immediately.
“Is something amusing, friend Chiyo?” he asked as he made a deft turn to try to swing and bring the enemy ship into view. “I could certainly use something to make the mood more joyous.”
“I simply thought we should try to finish this before Kaiden is able to get back in here. My guess is that he would volunteer to be shot out of a torpedo tube at the ship so he could infiltrate it.”
“That’s actually pretty close.” She looked back as Kaiden stumbled into the cockpit, a hand on either wall to steady himself as he approached. “Since you seem to be so attuned to my way of thinking, I guess I won’t have to argue much?”
“Kaiden, we don’t even have a torpedo tube to launch you out of,” she retorted. “Genos said that all we have is the main cannon and he’s trying to get a shot.”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to accomplish that,” the Tsuna huffed. “I can only catch glimpses of our pursuers. It doesn’t appear to be a fighter but their ship is much faster and more agile than ours. I would say that it would be more likely that an errant asteroid would crash into it and take it out before we have a chance.”
“Well, that’s unfortunate.” Kaiden grinned. “So, back to my plan?”
Chiyo closed her holoscreen and looked at the ace. “I tremble to ask, but what is it, exactly?”
“You drop me out of the back of the ship, and I’ll board the other ship and take it over.”
Both Chiyo and Genos—who should have been focused on the need to dodge the other ship’s attacks—looked at him incredulously.
“Friend Kaiden, even not taking into account that it is a very odd and dangerous plan, even by your standards, this is space. There is no gravity. You would simply float in space until you either suffocated or the enemy took pity on you and blew you apart.”
“Normally, yes,” Kaiden conceded before he drew his rifle and primed it. “But I found a new toy down below that I want to try.”
Kaiden stood impatiently in the bay and waited for Genos to open the door. He was decked out in the astrosuit and jet pack he had found. An excited smile settled his face when he heard Genos over the comm. “Are you are sure about this, Kaiden?”
“Hurry up and open the door already!” he demanded. “Even if it doesn’t work out as I plan, I could be enough of a distraction for you to get the shots you need. Let’s do this.”
“You sound so jubilant,” Genos commented. “Very well, I’ll open the doors. I hope you have fun.”
“No doubt about it.” He braced himself. A light flickered overhead and a warning siren wailed as the doors began to part. The force dragged him slowly toward them. When the gap was wide enough, he vaulted up and was immediately whisked away, and he activated the jetpack as soon as he was clear of the ship.
He set a direct course for the enemy craft. It was slightly smaller than their shuttle and was painted in pirate colors—the red and black of the DSC. Another idea popped into his head when he saw this, but he would let that wait. He raised Sire and charged it to full, retrieved one of the seeker grenades he had found, and activated it. The seekers erupted from the container and soared toward the enemy ship, attached themselves to the craft’s shields, and drained them. The shield briefly became visible, a shimmering blue color, before it faded away along the front hull. Perfect.
Kaiden aimed carefully a few seconds before the ship flew into him and fired a blast. He could have sworn he saw the bewildered looks of the crew in the cockpit as they drew closer together immediately before his shot created an opening in the front of the vessel. With his weapon held tightly against his chest, he cut power to the jetpack and cruised through the aperture he had made. Surprised shouts and worried yelps from the pirates competed as they either reacted to their unexpected visitor or to the hole in their damn ship.
He dropped Sire, drew Debonair, and scanned the room as he moved his free hand to his belt for the grenade he had previously turned to the heat setting. Seven, by his count—a cinch. As emergency hatches covered the hole in the cockpit, he threw the grenade and spun to fire at the two pirates closest to him. Both were eliminated in four shots. He rolled to the side as a weapon charged behind him and the pirate’s shotgun blast missed him by inches.
By the time he turned again, the grenade had blown open and three of the other pirates had been swarmed, including the one who had fired on him. He shifted his attention to the remaining pirate, who scrabbled for a gun on the underside of the console. Chief alerted him to the doors opening behind him. Kaiden whirled and fired and, at the same time, flicked his wrist so his blade ejected into his hand. Two more pirates rushed in to help their comrades, only to be greeted by Debonair’s assault. They fell to seven shots, but Debonair was tapped. The final man had grabbed the pistol he had tried to retrieve but as he turned to fire, his eyes wild and a yellow, toothy grin smeared across his face, he had a only split second to see the tip of a knife as Kaiden’s blade pierced his skull. He stumbled back for a moment, as if his body was too shocked to realize what had happened, before he finally fell and joined the rest.
Kaiden vented Debonair as he hurried to turn off the ship’s engines. “Chief, take a look around and see if there’s anyone else. I’ll contact Chiyo and Genos.”
“Gotcha. On it.”
He removed the jetpack and retrieved Sire before he closed Debonair’s vent port and holstered it. With a final look around the cockpit, he placed a hand on the side of his helmet. “Genos, Chiyo, are you there?”
“Indeed, friend Kaiden. I assume it went well?” the mechanist asked.
Kaiden grinned. “Very well.”
“I see that the ship is powered down now. If you’re clear, we can come and get you, or you could fly back using the pack if you prefer.”
“Although that sounds great, I’ll do it another time.”
“I see that the ship is flying Dead Space colors,” Chiyo stated. “I don’t know if they are looking for us specifically, but I would guess we’ve lost the element of surprise.”
“Yeah…about that. I had an idea that I wanted to run by you two.” Chief reappeared in his visor and flashed green to give him the all-clear. “Why don’t you two come aboard our new ship? That one was getting a little stuffy.�
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Chapter Fifteen
A massive, dark shape floated up ahead in the distance. It would have been almost hidden in the blackness of space if it weren’t for the illumination of large lights that shone along its hull.
“Is that the station?” Chiyo asked as she donned the Dead Space crew helmet.
“It looks like it,” Kaiden replied as he adjusted his own stolen uniform and closed the visor. “It’s not shooting at us on sight, which is both nice and a sign that my plan has worked well so far. We should be good—”
“We’re being hailed,” she stated.
Kaiden’s head dropped as he sighed. “Unless they want to identify us personally. There’s that too.”
“Should I bring it on screen?” Genos asked.
Kaiden nodded. “Make sure to send the codes you recovered so it looks authentic. Activate voice modulation, Chief,” he ordered, stood, and walked to the center of the bay.
A holoscreen appeared and displayed a balding man with a salt-and-pepper beard in a black and red uniform and beanie on screen. “What are you doing back so soon, BAT-3? You’re still supposed to be on patrol. What happened to the ship that came into our borders?”
“We took it out,” Kaiden stated, his voice rougher and shallow like he had spent the last two weeks smoking and yelling his lungs out every night. “Was able to recover some goods, too, but we were pegged in the front hull. Emergency shutters were activated but we need repairs.”
“I thought you said that thing was a hunk of junk.” The pirate chuckled. “Yet it was still able to get a shot at you. How the hell did a jackass like you get a ship?”
“You have my files. Look up my list of accomplishments,” Kaiden retorted and folded his arms. “Keep yapping and I might make you a footnote.”
The pirate sneered and looked at Chiyo. “Can you vouch for this guy?”
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