Giving directions to her team, they spread out along the catwalks, segregating her already small team into two man fire teams in order to blanket the entire upper walkways. Keryn’s fear remained. Even if a Terran fired at her team from within the room, the noisy engines would drown out the weapon’s report. Without hearing the shot, she had no way to know if other members of her team were in danger.
She and the Avalon moved slowly across the outer catwalk, scanning the dark nooks for movement or glints off metallic rifles. However, after covering nearly half the engine room, they still failed to encounter any resistance.
They’re here, the Voice whispered. I can sense them in the air. Don’t get complacent. Be ready for anything.
Knowing that enemies were inside the room did not prepare her when they chose to attack. As she and the Avalon approached the stairwell on the far side of the engine room, the Avalon staggered, his blood pouring from a gunshot wound in his chest. Stumbling backward, his legs struck the railing and he tumbled over. Lacking the strength to spread his wings to break his fall, he plummeted over sixty feet to the ground below. Dropping into a crouch, Keryn scanned the room and watched in horror as Terrans flooded out from their hidden alcoves all around the room. Even with the engines roaring, she could hear the sound of exchanging gunfire.
A Terran stepped onto the platform near the stairs that led down to the ground floor and opened fire on her position. Already crouched, Keryn sprung from the catwalk as a round grazed her shoulder, landing gracefully on top of the machinery nearby. The Terran paused, not eager to shoot at the massive engine, and Keryn used the opening to fire two shots into his chest, dropping him on the spot. Turning, she sprinted across the engine, weaving between its metallic outcroppings, and fired into the Terran forces spreading across the upper catwalks. Below, she could hear more gunfire and knew that Adam was similarly engaged. Using a metal box on top of the engine as a spring board, Keryn vaulted over a nearby railing, slamming the butt of her pistol into the face of a Terran sniper. She smiled maliciously as she felt the bones shatter under the strike. As the sniper dropped his rifle and lurched backward, horrified and clutching his face, Keryn chose not to waste a bullet and, instead, kicked the Terran squarely in the chest. The Terran tumbled over the railing and slammed into the curve of the second engine. Bouncing, the Terran went limp halfway through his fall as he struck a metal beam.
Perusing the catwalks, Keryn fired a few more shots into the gathering Terrans. Though the element of surprise had worked in their favor, she quickly realized there was only a small group of Terrans guarding the upper catwalks. Nearly half of her forces lay dead, but the other five had already regrouped and were in the process of killing the last of the snipers hiding throughout the walkways. Knowing that her remaining soldiers could handle the rest of the catwalks, Keryn ran to the stairs and bound, two at a time, toward the ground floor where Adam’s team was still engaged in heavy fighting.
The stairwell twisted its way through and over the massive machines, leaving her on the far side of the twin engines once she finally reached the room’s bottom level. Scanning her immediate area, she didn’t notice any Terrans. It wasn’t surprising to her, since she knew most would have left this side to engage Adam’s team near the far rail gun. As she turned to make her way in that direction, a shadow detached itself from beneath the engine and launched itself at her.
The Terran slammed into her, his large body tacking Keryn to the ground, knocking her pistol free from her grip. As she slammed into the floor, her head missing a bucket full of long metal bolts by inches, the Terran shoved his hand into her stomach, forcing the air from her lungs and throwing his weight against her already broken rib. She let out a cry of pain as water filled her eyes. Blinking away the tears, she looked up just in time to move her head out of the way of a descending wrench. The tool struck the metal floor and sent a shower of sparks splashing against Keryn’s face.
Her hand shot forward as the Terran brought the wrench up for another swing, catching his wrist. Growling in rage, the Terran punched her in her broken rib and Keryn felt her arm buckling from the pain. She tried squirming out from underneath his weight, but he moved his own body to keep her trapped beneath his. Fighting to keep the wrench from crashing down on top of her, Keryn brought her knee up in between their two bodies, keeping the Terran at bay.
The Terran lifted his weight momentarily before throwing himself forward again, trying to crush Keryn beneath his body. She felt her knee strain from the force and bit back another yelp of pain. Growling as he tried to shake her hand free of his wrist, he lifted his body again. Quickly taking advantage of the situation, Keryn slid her other leg between them, catching the Terran’s mass with both of her feet. Pushing off, she used her legs to shove the Terran from her. Stumbling backward in surprise, the Terran staggered toward the rail gun. Though still over twenty feet away, the magnetic pull from the rails ripped the metal wrench from his hand, sending the Terran spinning before he collapsed onto the ground near the gun mount. The wrench flew through the air as the Terran spun, clanging loudly onto one of the rails. As the Terran began to stand, Keryn quickly looked around. Her pistol lay far out of reach, coming to rest far away from where the two struggled against each other. Looking to her left, searching now for any improvised weapon, she saw the bucket, bolts spilling over its brim. Smiling impishly, she grabbed the bucket and flung it toward the man. As it spun, the heavy metal bolts spilled free of the bucket before being caught in the rail gun’s magnetic field. Standing, the Terran watched in horror as dozens of deadly metallic projectiles flashed toward him. His body being between Keryn and the rail gun, the blunt bolts slammed into him one after another, tearing through his flesh and gouging strips from his arms and legs. When the bolts struck his chest and abdomen, they bored through his soft flesh, pulled unavoidably toward the rail gun by insanely strong magnetic forces. The bolts dug through organs and muscle, leaving tepid waste to fill their holes in their wake. As the last of the bolts finished its gruesome trek through his body, the bucket slammed into his skull. His neck twisting at an unnatural angle, the Terran collapsed to the ground.
Keryn stood slowly, wincing as she put weight on her injured knee and breathing through hitched breaths as the pain spread through her ribs. Retrieving her pistol, she moved around the engines, using the massive machines for support. By the time she made it to the far side, Adam and his three remaining soldiers stood among the slaughtered Terrans, nursing their own wounds. The tissue on Adam’s right thigh was torn, as though from shrapnel. Her own team slowly descended the stairs to the ground floor. Together, eight of the original twenty troops in Keryn’s team had survived the invasion of the engine room. Limping, everyone wounded, the team made its way to the exit, dreading the painful climb back up the stairs. As they exited the room and the metal doors slid shut behind them, Keryn heard the exhilarated calls over the radio. One by one, teams reported in that their missions were completed. Above all the others, Keryn could hear Alcent calling enthusiastically that the bridge had been taken with no shots fired. The Captain and her crew had surrendered without a fight. As Alcent finished his announcement over their radios, the intercom leapt to life above Keryn’s head.
“Attention to all Terrans still on board,” Alcent’s voice called out. “The Revolutionaries of Othus,” Keryn could hear the capitalized words in his speech, “have taken control of the Ballistae. The Captain has unconditionally surrendered to our forces and now requests that you do the same to avoid further bloodshed.”
The speaker went dead momentarily, before coming to life again with a woman’s voice reading a clearly rehearsed script. “This is Captain Wajitri,” the female announced, “Captain…”
Her words cut short by a growling voice. “Stick to the script,” the voice called from a distance.
The Captain began again. “…former Captain of the Ballistae. I have surrendered to the Revolutionaries of Othus and request that all those loyal to the Empire lay dow
n their arms and surrender. Those surrendering to the Revolutionaries will be treated humanely under the Interstellar Alliance Code of Ethics. Any found resisting will be killed slowly by patrolling guards.”
The intercom went dead again and Keryn’s radio crackled on her private channel. “Keryn, this is Alcent,” the Uligart’s voice said quietly into her earpiece.
Keryn depressed the talk button. “This is Keryn. Congratulations on your bloodless victory. Wish I could say it was that easy down here at the engine room.”
“It’s at least good to hear that you’re still alive,” Alcent said, continuing his nearly whispering tone. “Adam still with you as well?”
“Yes,” Keryn replied, wincing again as a sharp pain shot through her side. “Yes, he’s still very much alive.” She couldn’t quite tell if she could hear disappointment in Alcent’s responding sigh.
“I’ve got reports coming in from around the ship. It sounds like the few remaining Terran loyalists are surrendering in waves. I…” he paused, seemingly embarrassed. “I didn’t really plan this out. We got them to surrender but I’m not really sure what to do with them now.”
“Take all the captives, gather them together, and jettison them out of the closest airlock,” she said harshly.
“What about the Code of Ethics?” Alcent asked, surprised.
“I’ve never read it,” she replied. “Have you?”
Keryn could virtually see the smile spread across his lips. “No, I can’t say that I have. Not a lot of use for the Code of Ethics in the smuggling business.”
“Then find the closest airlock and send them on their merry way. I’ll be on my way up to the bridge, but it’s going to take me a while. In the meantime, set a course for the Falitan Galaxy. We’re heading to a planet called Beracus. I’ll join you on the bridge once you’ve finished with our prisoners.”
She turned to Adam, who already looked crestfallen. Following his gaze, she peered up the tall flights of stairs ahead of them. Her shoulders sagged as she started counting the metal stairs, stopping when the number became too depressing. Feeling the pain in her knee and seeing Adam’s wounded leg, she frowned.
“This is going to take a while.”
CHAPTER 28:
The heavy gravities caused during the slingshots around the gas giants took their toll on the crew. Many didn’t sleep well at night and woke in the mornings with muscles aching as though they had spent the entire previous day in the gym. The weight of the increased gravities felt a like a lead foot being pressed against their chests, making their lungs scream for air with every breath. For Yen, especially, the sore muscles and difficulty breathing only added to his sour mood. Aside from answering questions from his pilots about tactics and flight formations, Yen kept to himself during the accelerations.
He filled his time with thoughts of strategy and flight formations, making assumptions about Terran tactics and how best to exploit their weaknesses. He knew the Terran ships bunched together for better defensive overlap from their rail guns and fighter interceptors. If one of the ships exploded, it usually did collateral damage to the Destroyers nearby. Though they tried against the invading Terran ships a year ago, the Alliance had been unable to slip a large enough explosive to destroy one of their ships outright past their intricately woven defensive grid.
In the one conflict between the Terran Empire and the Interstellar Alliance, most of the ships that each side lost had been due to destroyed engines and disabled weaponry. The ships had floated listlessly in the combat, the massive bulks acting as flotsam and jetsam around which the smaller fighters had swarmed. Yen surmised that it was possible to cause a massive explosion in one of the Terran ships were a fighter able to sneak some of the plasma missiles past the defenses and strike either the weapon bays with its volatile plasma warheads or drive a rocket into the fuel cells in the rear of the ship. But maneuvering missiles to those locations while dodging machine gun fire, enemy rockets and fighters, and metal slugs from both sides was near impossible.
The intricate battle planning had given Yen a headache to add to the aching muscles. As a result, he was pleased when Captain Hodge came over the intercom and notified the Fleet that they had arrived and were beginning decelerations. While Yen was ferried by elevator to the bridge, the weight lifted from his chest and he nearly collapsed in surprise at the first lung full of breath he’d had in days. As the door opened, Yen stepped onto the bridge and, for the first time, laid eyes on the galaxy that he had seen so many times in simulation.
The small sun was dormant, producing no light. The two dark spheres of the closest planets floated like voids in space; two black spots behind which the stars could not be seen. In front of the Revolution, however, the four gas giants spun lazily in their elliptical orbit around the sun. The bodies, bloated and swollen, remained lit from within as arcs of lightning danced between the cloud layers. The violets and blues of the planets’ clouds stood backlit momentarily before the electrical charge scurried toward another pair of clouds in the atmosphere.
“It will still be another three hours until we’ve reached orbit around the planets,” Captain Hodge said from the helm. “That gives me three hours to build up the nerve to fly this massive kite into that even larger thunderstorm. It doesn’t give me a very warm feeling.”
“Have no fear, Captain,” Yen replied. “Those are enormous bolts of lightning. If you do get struck, you won’t live long enough to feel it.”
“You’re not helping,” the Captain said dryly.
They stood for a while in silence, both watching the majesty of the gas giants and the deadly storms brewing just beneath their surfaces. The planets grew only slightly closer in the time they watched, the distances between the ships and their destinations were deceptive in the enormity of space. After nearly an hour of silence had passed, Captain Hodge activated the Fleet-wide channel.
“Attention all Captains,” she said, her voice carrying to the bridges of nearly three-dozen Cruisers. “We have reached the separation point. Starburst at this time and take up your positions in your respective planets. This will be the last time we talk before the battle begins. Good luck to all of you and may your aim be true.”
She switched off the channel and turned to Yen. “It’s time, Squadron Commander. Be safe out there and come back to us.”
“Don’t worry, ma’am,” Yen answered coolly. “I have no intention of dying out there.”
With a quick salute, Yen left the bridge, taking the elevator down to the hangar bay. He zipped up the front of his flight suit, and pulled on his insulated gloves before opening the door to the bay. As he made his way across the open floor, he was not surprised to see all the pilots from Teams Six and Seven gathered around his fighter.
“Separation anxiety?” Yen asked as he approached.
“Oh, you big jerk,” Iana answered as the spokeswoman for the group. “You know we couldn’t just let you leave without a proper goodbye.”
They all spoke at once as he got near. Yen was quickly inundated with a hundred different handshakes and wishes for a safe trip. As they finished their goodbyes, the pilots left the group one by one until only Iana and Gregario remained by the ship.
“So,” Gregario said, breaking the awkward silence.
“So,” Yen agreed.
“Make sure you’re…” Iana began before Yen cut her off mid-sentence.
“Please, please don’t give me another ‘make sure you’re safe’ speech. I expect more originality out of you than that.”
Iana punched him playfully on the arm and gave her best impersonation of a scowl.
“Don’t go,” she said.
“Well, that one is a little more original,” Yen replied. “But you know that just isn’t an option for me.”
“I know,” she said, handing him his helmet. “But you can’t blame a girl for trying.”
“She’s completely loaded with ammunition and fuel,” Gregario said, patting the side of the fighter and changing the tense con
versation. “She’ll take you… well, as far as you need to go.”
“You two are acting like I’m never going to see you again,” Yen said, exasperated.
“You did volunteer for a suicide mission, sir,” Gregario answered. “That does preclude us to believe we’re not going to see you again.”
“Just who do you think you’re talking to?” Yen asked, surprised. “You don’t honestly think I’d volunteer for a mission that had no chance of survival, do you? You both just be ready to cover my six once the battle begins. I’ll be all alone until you guys get there.”
“We’ve never let you down before,” Iana said, smiling. “We won’t let you down this time. You stay alive until we get out of the atmosphere of the planet and I guarantee we’ll be there to save your ass.”
“Then can I get you two off my fighter so I can start the pre-launch checks?” Yen asked, pushing Iana off the wing. He paused as she moved, revealing the improvement they had made to the side of his ship. The pair of pilots were smiling broadly as he turned toward them.
“Surprise,” Gregario said anti-climactically.
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