“Perhaps, but we shouldn’t underestimate them. They are infamous for their raiding skills, and I’m sure they’ve amassed plenty of weapons in their stocks,” Chiyo warned. “This won’t be easy.”
“I would imagine not, considering what we’ve accomplished so far.” Kaiden chuckled. “By now, the academy staff have numbers on us, so I would guess they tailored the difficulty of the mission to what they believe we can accomplish.”
“The objective is to infiltrate the pirate base and destroy it or compromise it,” Genos recalled. “Looking at it now, most of it seems derelict, but many parts are active. On the positive side, that means whatever is powering the remnants of the station should be isolated and quicker to disable than if we had to deal with a full power station.”
“What are the negatives?” Chiyo asked.
“From a rudimentary glance and an estimate from Viola, we’re still looking at dealing with roughly a battalion of pirates. Four to eight hundred, leaning closer to four.”
“They were able to take a station with only that many?” Kaiden asked.
She shook her head. “I doubt that’s their full number. Plus, this place was probably only a science or small colony station. There aren’t many signs of heavy fighting. They probably ransacked it and took over.”
“I guess when you’re the big dog, you get to say you own the place.” Kaiden smirked.
Genos drifted the ship slowly to the side of the station. Kaiden stepped beside him and looked out. “The DSC aren’t as bad as some of the other pirates I’ve heard of, or even some of the merc groups in the area. But they make up for it by being tenacious and ruthless, especially to the military. Apparently, they harbor a grudge due to all the fighting between the two. I would suspect, though, that it simply comes with the territory.”
“I suppose I can’t blame them for being…annoyed, considering what led to their creation. However, becoming pirates seems to be a rather extreme reaction,” the Tsuna commented. “I don’t suppose a peaceful solution is somehow obtainable?”
“This all happened a long time ago, Genos. I’m sure that if a peaceful solution was available, the Animus wouldn’t have them as an option,” Kaiden reasoned. “But hey, if this works out, we could potentially be done with this mission in a few hours.”
“There isn’t enough time,” Chiyo admitted, and he gave her a quick look. “You remember that there is a time limit due to the influx of students. We have a little under two hours left.”
He looked at Genos for a moment before he turned to her. “That’s good to know. I guess we’re not in the homestretch yet. We’ll have to see how far in we can get and hope we make it to a good stopping point before we’re kicked out.”
“I don’t think they’ll kick you out if you are in the middle of a firefight,” Genos protested. “If we are constantly fighting, we could potentially extend our time for the day.” He froze when he realized what he had suggested, and Chiyo stared at him. He could feel her anger even behind the visor. “Or it could end up being a disaster if we alerted the entire station.”
“As much as that appeals to me, I’d rather not, for the time being,” Kaiden admitted. “We don’t know the layout, but I can tell that there’ll be a lot of tight spaces in there. Without field advantage, they can keep throwing grunts at us until we are tired and are overwhelmed. This time, you will need to flex your brains instead of your muscles, for the most part.” He went silent for a moment. “Or at least, that’s the hope. Usually, bad things happen when we get too optimistic.”
As they approached the hangar, Chiyo looked around. “I suppose you have an explanation as to why there are fewer people on board than when we set off?” she asked.
He folded his arms. “Of course I do.” He pointed a finger at the hole in the cockpit. “That’s why I splashed blood around that. I’ll tell them a few ended up getting spaced. Not that I would think these guys would have a hell of a lot of common sense, but you would think that when you have the reputation of being a pack of raving lunatics from the stars, a little collateral damage will occur.”
“To be fair, it wouldn’t really be a lie.” Genos drifted the ship into the hangar. “We’re about to dock. Are you ready?”
Kaiden knocked his fists together “Of course.”
The dropship of Dead Space pirates flew up to the front gate of their stronghold. The leader, dressed head to toe in crimson heavy armor and a rounded helmet with a full-face visor, carried a modified Reaver shotgun when he strode up to the console of the ship and pressed a key to hail the station.
A holoscreen appeared. A woman with a passive gaze and pink and blonde hair looked at the leader. “Password?” she asked, and stared at him for a moment. Her eyes widened when she realized who she was talking to. The leader grunted as he raised a hand and placed it on the scanner.
“I should simply say open the damn gate, but I’ll be cordial. It’s ‘black hole sun,’” he responded brusquely, earning a small nod from the woman on screen. She quickly pressed buttons on her terminal.
“Good to see you, Captain. What brings you back to the station so soon?” she asked.
“Hurry up and open the gates. We have a shipment of chems and loads of Stardust from one of the puppet colonies here, and I want to have a chat with Walker.” The captain’s gruff voice was accentuated with a crackling voice modifier in his helmet.
The woman onscreen nodded one last time before the screen deactivated. The large doors of the main hangar began to open and slid into the walls around them. The captain turned to the group of pirates in the ship and nodded at them as the ship began to dock, their cue to get moving.
One of them in the front nodded. He turned to the two dozen others behind him and waved them forward. Pirates shuffled around quickly and gathered equipment and goods as the ship stopped and exit doors opened.
The grounds of the DSC base were comprised of the remains of the science station Antarctica. The captain looked around and recalled when they first took the base over. Somewhat ironically, it had also briefly been the base of a company of Red Sun mercs, who had maintained it fairly well. Unfortunately, they didn’t do as much when they ousted the mercs from the station. The fading color on the walls and the fact that three-quarters of the place didn’t even work properly could attest to the neglect. No one had come to look for them yet, neither the mercs nor the WCM to avenge the scientists. The captain decided it was either because they were too afraid to deal with the Dead Space Crew personally or they knew there would be nothing left of their people to find.
His men filed out of the ship with a caravan comprised of twelve floating storage units holding all the chem and drugs from their haul from the nearby planet of Koma, a planet that seemed to be only good for making powerful recreational drugs. The WC thought it useless, but enterprising men such as he found many uses for it.
The crew maneuvered their way through the hatches and headed to the holding dock attached to the hangar where they could be examined and processed. They entered the building, which was mostly empty. A random tech sat in the corner they had yet to go through. The few crewmen sorting through some items on the other side of the room dropped everything to run over and help with the new shipments. Several Handy droids walked around the floor, cleaning or moving objects into place. These humanoid-design robots were approximately six feet tall, with long limbs, rounded heads with a single large, blue glowing eye, and white bodies that were dirty from their work and lack of maintenance.
One of the bots approached the captain. “Good day, sir. Anything I can help you with?”
He drew his shotgun and placed the barrel against the droid’s chest. “You can get the contents of these containers ready for processing. Until then, get out of my face.” He sneered and pushed the bot back with his gun for emphasis.
“Of course, sir, right away. Sorry to be too close to your face,” the droid acknowledged and apologized. The containers stopped in the middle of the warehouse and rotated so they
were side by side with each other. The pirates began to sort through and organize the packages within the crates. Two men with the highest rank besides the captain followed him out of the warehouse and to the center of the station.
“Hey, Mick,” one of the station pirates hissed, catching the attention of one of the crew pirates. “What’s happened with Captain Swarn?”
“What do you mean?” Mick asked. “You know he’s not exactly the nice sort.”
“Well, sure, but he’s mostly only indifferent or snarky. He’s coming across like he’s bitter. Usually, he would order the bots to leave him alone. There’s no point in shoving his gun in their faces when they can’t feel anything.”
“Ah, right, that.” Mick sighed. “That would be one of the reasons we came back early. Turns out one of the deals Walker made went sour. No big fight or nothing, but it was a hell of a lot of wasted time for no payout, the captain hasn’t had time to blow off steam for a while, so I’d guess that things will get a little rowdy in the office once the two have words.”
“Oh, that’s not good.” The crewman sighed. “We’d best hope nothing else is out of place. If anything else goes rotten, the captain will probably start on a bloody warpath.”
Chapter Sixteen
The trio left the shuttle and warily observed a group of pirates nearby. The man they had spoken to stood among them, and he pushed past the others and approached them. “Is this all that’s left? Weren’t there about ten of you?”
“Good day to you too,” Kaiden greeted sarcastically. He held out the stolen ID chip and motioned for Chiyo and Genos to be on their way. “I thought you said someone else would debrief me?”
“So I did,” the man grunted as he inserted the chip into a tablet. “But we had a sudden change in plans. Captain Swarn arrived at the same time as you did, and all the boot-lickers ran to the main hangar to meet him and get to groveling.”
“You aren’t a fan of the captain?” he asked as he took the chip from the man.
“He earned his title, and he’ll probably keep it until the end of his days. I don’t doubt he’s earned respect, but I could do without all the toadies who suck up to him whenever he comes back. There are other things to do than kiss his arsehole until it shines.”
“I guess I can relate.” Kaiden shrugged and gestured behind him with his thumb. “How long till we can set out again?”
The man gave the craft a cursory glance. “What’s the damages?”
“The obvious big-ass hole in the front, for one. Besides that, damage to the shields. They aren’t charging right. They used some sort of tiny machines to wear it down.”
“Probably seekers, although I didn’t realize they’d started using them in torpedoes.”
“They didn’t. They sort of dropped them on us.”
The man guffawed. “Seriously? I’m surprised they didn’t target their own ship—although, if they’ve developed something like that, we could make some serious creds if we had a sample to show the markets.”
“I think most fell off or were destroyed in the fight, but if you want to get some scrubbers up there to have a look, be my guest.” The ace peered to the side to confirm that Genos and Chiyo now wandered around. They acted like they were simply killing time, but he knew they were both focused on the situation.
“Where are the goods?” the man asked, dragging Kaiden’s attention back to him.
“Storage bay one. I took all the items they had on board, and anything that could be repurposed or scrapped. Otherwise, the ship was too damaged, so we blew it up before we headed back.”
His attention moved to the group of pirates behind the man, who all seemed to scrutinize him. He shifted slightly and snaked his right hand closer to Debonair’s holster. “Can I help you guys?”
One of the larger men smiled deviously and walked forward with his hand out. “Your weapons—give them here,” he demanded, and two others came up behind him for support.
“Hell, no.” He balked, and his hand now gripped Debonair’s handle. “This is my cut. You ain’t taking a damn thing.”
“Come on now, buddy. Are you really gonna be like that?” the tall man asked. “You lost most of your crew. This is, what—your twentieth patrol in the lead, right?” He prodded Kaiden’s chest plate. “You BAT guys are all about going out into space and finding the big catch. There’ll be more in the future. Some of those guys were my friends, so I feel I deserve a little recompense.”
“Really now? What were their names?” he responded.
The man made a fist and held it up to Kaiden’s visor. “We had a lot of nicknames. My favorites were ‘Fuck’ and ‘You.’”
“You need to work on your material, dumbass,” he muttered as he drew Debonair and held it at the ready.
“You boys stop your bitching!” the first man demanded. He apparently had more clout than Kaiden realized since the tall pirate and his friends backed off. “And you, Doma.” It took the ace a moment to realize he was talking to him.
“What now?” he asked, feigning exhaustion.
“I’m answering your question, so show a little gratitude, punk,” he warned. “The repairs will take anywhere from sixteen to twenty-five hours unless the shielding really is dead. The minute this thing is ready, you and what remains of your crew will be back on patrol, with an extra shift to make up for your fuckup.”
“Fine, fine,” he said with a wave, anxious to move on so they could continue with their mission to blow this place to hell. “Do you need anything else?”
“Only to say that I’ll take my cut if there happens to be one of those seekers left on the ship.”
“Sounds all right.” He nodded and strode toward Chiyo and Genos. “Let me know when it’s fixed.
“All right.” The older pirate looked at the group. “The rest of you get in there and fight each other for the scraps. Get moving!”
Water, oil, and several liquids they couldn’t identify dripped from the grates above the canal. Angry shouts and the fizz of overheated electronics from above were muffled but audible. The trio wandered slowly through the tight corridor and hugged the side as they tried not to step into the puddles and keep their noise to a minimum.
Several shots were fired above, followed by laughter and snarls that seemed to indicate pleasure in the violence. In front of the group, a tiny stream of blood trickled through a small hole in the left wall. Genos, who was closest to the drips, inched away to avoid the tainted liquid.
“Hey, Chiyo, out of curiosity, why did you choose the creepiest destination for us to go to?” Kaiden hissed, his annoyance evident over the comm.
“Because I do not have a full map of the station,” she explained. “Using what I do have, this was the path that would lead to the central chamber and arguably be the safest.”
“Well, at least you thought it out,” he mumbled. “It’s that door up ahead, right?”
“Yes. That should lead to the western chamber, and from there, we should have a direct route to the center.”
Genos approached with his cannon aimed downward and turned the handle, while his teammates held their weapons at the ready. There was nothing behind the door but a longer, darker hallway that offered no visibility.
“I’ve only now realized that this DSC gear doesn’t have night vision.” Kaiden sighed and tapped around his helmet before he pressed a button and a small light flashed on. “Well, that’s something, at least. So, who’s first into the deep, dark hole?” he asked. Chiyo walked up beside him and opened a miniature holoscreen. “My access is extremely limited. It doesn’t look like they use a base-wide system, but rather issue commands from one location. It’s rudimentary but more effective than most security systems, ironically. That being said…” She pressed a few buttons, and small dots of light brightened the hallway. “There are a few things I can do to make our lives a little easier.”
The group made their way along the now-illuminated path, the amber light of the glow strips their only means of guidance
. They reached a split in the corridor. One continued directly forward, and the other led them to the left. Chiyo stopped them, pointed down the left hallway, and beckoned them to follow.
“Do you have a map?” Kaiden whispered over their comm link.
“No, not a complete one. I’m filling it in as we go. If I can find a console, I could get a clearer picture, but for now, Kaitō takes what we have and uses the topography to fill in the rest as we go along to make a path.”
“That’s useful,” Genos commented. “What exactly do you suggest we do once we get to this location, Chiyo?”
“Right now, the only objectives are ‘destroy the station’ and ‘don’t die.’ There should be an important device we can exploit. I hope it’s the command system, since I would be able to gain access and set off a destruction order or a deactivation sequence as needed. If we have to go with Genos’ traditional route, it means we would have to send the core into meltdown and then run to the hangars before we are also caught in the explosions.” They continued moving, and Kaiden remained alert for enemies, cameras, turrets, or anything that could be a potential danger. So far, they had encountered nothing of concern. The hallway was devoid of anything but intersecting corridors and the low lights of the glow strips.
“I don’t like this. I know it’s cliché and everything, but it’s too damn quiet,” Chief grunted, his eye peering around in Kaiden’s HUD as if he scanned the surroundings.
“It doesn’t look like an area they use often. I can’t imagine there would be many guards down here,” Kaiden reasoned.
Animus Boxed Set 2 (Books 5-8): Revenant, Glitch, Master, Infiltration Page 13