The Dying Light
Page 29
“Understood.”
Roche steadied herself as the courier rolled beneath her. They were well back from the frontline, but close enough to catch the occasional stray shot. The makeshift E-shields and disrupters the Box had installed were bearing up well, much to her relief. They were going to need them once she decided to make her move.
The outriggers were close enough to take potshots at the A-P cannons scattered over the station’s exterior surfaces. Their voices sang through her in a fugue similar to the Plenary she had witnessed, but without its innate sense of order. In among the battle calls was the Auditor herself, her calming voice keeping everything under relative control.
25-26Watch out! Watch out!
31Covered. Keep an eye on that second gunner!
___Groups 4-9 and 17-26 pull back and down.
___Flank support required.
17-22We have a positive on feeder placement in sectors blue and yellow.
9-13How long until hull integrity is compromised?
17-22Five minutes. Can you hold out that long?
9-13We’11 have to, I guess.
___Shields are falling in orange sector:
___All available fire to concentrate here.
___The cannon are vulnerable.
45Damn!
33You okay?
45Singed. This is just like stripping JA-32!
33And we know what happened there, don’t we?
___Concentrate, people.
___We have company.
Singleships spilled out of docking bays from all over the station, scattering the outriggers on a wave of returned fire.
___Hold formation!
___Don’t turn your back unless you want to be shot in it!
From the nooks and crannies of the prowling mines came every independent craft Roche had been able to lay her hands on. Mass-throwers, impact probes, and remote instruments of every description converged on the station.
“Byrne! Tell your people to be careful. It’s going to get messy in there!”
___Retract all antennae!
___Incoming debris!
The space around the station became thick with energy and matter. A wild variety of thrusters—some as small as a fingernail—flashed and burned; accurate shots sent fragments and dust flying in all directions; laser beams were absorbed or deflected in crazy patterns. Through it all moved the singleships and outriggers, with Daybreak close by. And behind them all came the prowling mines, still lumbering on and laboring under the concentrated fire from the station’s artillery.
The Ana Vereine took a volley of shots to its flank and went into a slow roll. Roche nodded in satisfaction. It would be ready to attack in a few minutes.
“Take us closer,” she instructed Haid.
34Be careful!
38I am. It’s just...
34Laird? Goddamn! I need reinforcements!
5-7Hold on. We’re coming!
___Let the drones and teleop teams go in first.
___And watch out for pincer attacks.
___I want live fighters: you aren’t any good to me dead!
“Look at them,” said Haid, watching a similar view to Roche’s on a bridge monitor. The singleships swooped and parried, pairs targeting lone outriggers and dispatching them first, then trying to break up larger groups. “They’re Kesh pilots,” he said. “I’ve seen them fight like that before.”
“Efficient, aren’t they?” Disisto commented emotionlessly from behind them.
“They’d never fight like that against their own kind,” said Haid.
27Hull breach in orange sector!
38Concentrate your fire. Hurt them! Hurt them!
___Group 31-34. stay back.
___That tower’s about to blow!
8Lud? Are you still with us?
14Barely... Pressure’s dropping.
8Withdraw! We can handle it from here.
“Byrne,” said Roche. “Tell the wounded or damaged to fall back. We’re about to move in.”
___Expect reinforcement soon.
___Fall back on my command.
___Injured and compromised first.
___I want everyone else to remain for the second wave.
“You hear that, Uri?”
“Yes, Morgan.” Kajic’s voice came from the bridge speakers. “We will break cover in twenty seconds.”
“Okay, good. We’re relying on you to watch our back. And keep an eye on Yarrow, if you can.” As Roche had expected, the Wide Berth survivor hadn’t taken the option to hide in the hold of the Ana Vereine. “Ameidio, full thrust as soon as the Ana Vereine is exposed. We go in under its covering fire.”
“You got it.” Almost imperceptibly, the pilot stiffened at the controls of the courier.
“I guess this is it,” Mavalhin muttered nervously.
“It sure is, Myer,” Roche said, “And you’re going to do exactly as I tell you, when I tell you.” She kept her attention on the image of the disguised Ana Vereine as she spoke. Suddenly the appearance of the crippled prowling mine shimmered, then vanished altogether. In its place was now the Marauder, its many prongs lit up against the black sky by its own blazing weapons.
“Hold on everyone!” Haid pushed the courier forward and into the melee. Singleships dodged and weaved to avoid the energy weapons bombarding them from all directions. Two fell instantly; seconds later, another. The station’s cannon turned to bear on the swooping ship and Daybreak aimed into the gap.
The freight transfer point was located near the R painted on the side of the station, halfway between the nominal top and the docking equator. Haid looped once around the station, then veered in closer. The wreckage became noticeably thicker. Heavy clangs announced impacts with pieces large enough to penetrate the shields; near misses dissipated with bright flashes of energy.
A recessed gantry appeared before them.
“That’s it,” Mavalhin said.
Outrigger fire had scarred much of the area around the gantry, aiming for surveillance equipment and anti-intrusion emplacements. The area looked secure. There was just enough room in the docking space to hide the courier.
“Take us in, Ameidio,” said Roche. “Byrne, we’re there!”
___All except teleop groups—
___withdraw!
Haid brought the courier close enough for grapnels to hook onto. Roche glanced up at the sky. As some of the outriggers fell back, the Ana Vereine stepped up the attack on the singleships. At the same time, the prowling mines had approached to what must have been uncomfortably close proximity for those aboard Galine Four. With so many threats harrying the station, she hoped to be able to dock the ship relatively unnoticed.
Roche grunted her understanding. She braced herself as the courier clanged home, then stood up. Haid secured the console, then also rose. The four drone suits stirred.
“Let’s go,” Roche said to Disisto and Mavalhin. “I want your voice transmissions kept to a minimum.”
They filed back to the airlock as pumps evacuated the entire ship. The inner door was already open when they reached it. Part of her hoped they would encounter some form of resistance; another part of her prayed they wouldn’t.
The outer door hissed open at their approach. Roche went first, hands extended, weapons and sensors in her gloves scanning the gantry. It was clear. She removed a rifle from its back holster and stood aside.
The others followed. One of the drones placed cutting equipment against the corroded seals Mavalhin had mentioned and began blasting. The metal parted like melting cheese. Radiation warnings pinged in Roche’s chest, but they weren’t urgent enough to require her to step
away.
Above them, the sky continued to boil.
One of the suits—she had already lost track of which were drones and which weren’t—stepped toward her and touched her shoulder.
READING ME? asked Haid.
The remains of the gantry door swung silently aside.
Stepping past the drones and over the still-glowing edge of the gantry door, Haid led the way into the station. The others followed, with Roche and two of the drones taking up the rear.
The freight transfer deck was spacious but empty. Nevertheless, Roche kept alert for any sign that they had been spotted.
said the Box.
She couldn’t tell if it was meant as a joke or not.
Roche frowned; they hadn’t planned it that way.
She wasn’t reassured. The Box sounded as if it was enjoying itself. At times like these, she had learned to be worried.
She checked a moment later to make sure it had been done: through the sensors of the drone immediately behind her, she saw herself wave an arm.
Turning to the others, Roche motioned them forward. The maps she’d acquired on her first visit to the station indicated the exit she wanted. As they approached, the door slid open. They moved off along the passageway, pressure doors opening and closing smoothly as they passed. At the second intersection they came to, two of the drones turned right. Haid automatically went to follow.
BUT—
While she didn’t know precisely where Cane and Maii were being held, it seemed likely they would be in one of the two holding pens indicated on the station’s maps. They were located midway between the outer hull and Galine Four’s centralmost chamber, but on opposite sides of the station. The closest wasn’t far from where they were, so it was to this one they headed. Roche silently prayed it was the right one.
At the end of the corridor were two freight elevators waiting to take them deep into the station’s infrastructure. As the heavy doors slid aside, a rumble echoed through the floors and walls.
Roche stepped into the elevator and steadied herself. Having a moment to spare while the cage dropped, she reconnected herself to the battle outside.
17Get the ship!
___It’s too late! Fall back!
38We can’t let them take it!
18Yarrow! Don’t—
17What the hell is he doing?
25He’s going to mine it!
___Clear the area!
___Now!
Through the senses of the courier Roche saw a singleship loom close. The sky beyond was thick with crossfire. Into the web of energy came the black shape of Yarrow’s battle-scarred all-suit, a magnetic mine in one extended manipulator. Watching the speed and precision with which he moved, Roche couldn’t help but think of Cane. The obvious comparison left her with mixed feelings, the strongest of which was fear.
The singleship turned to defend itself, but it wasn’t Yarrow’s target. He dived straight toward Daybreak and pressed the mine onto its hull. Then he moved away, heading low and close to the hull to maximize the amount of mass between him and the explosion.
When it came, the view from the courier blacked out instantly. The last thing Roche saw was the singleship realizing what had happened and trying too late to get away.
A heavy thud made the floor beneath jump. From the Ana Vereine’s point of view, Roche watched as a blue-white hemisphere suddenly blossomed from the side of the station, then disappeared, leaving blackened ruin in its wake.
Another deep rumble echoed through the station. Haid’s suit whined softly as he staggered.
“What the hell was that?” His voice came from internal speakers this time. “One of the prowlers?”
“A mine. They found Daybreak. Yarrow destroyed it, and the entrance.”
“Is he crazy?”
“It actually makes sense,” said Roche. “This way they won’t be able to work out how many of us were in the ship—nor can they follow us in. They don’t even know if we got in at all. It’s a mess up there.”
“It still leaves us trapped, though!”
“Don’t worry. We’ll find a way out.”
The elevator slowed to a halt, but the doors didn’t open.
“You’re really going through with this?” asked Disisto.
“I have no choice. You and Myer keep your heads down and follow me.” She studied the view of the security guards. Their weapons looked like standard issue; her armor would absorb it easily, but Disisto and Mavalhin would not be so well protected.
His hand touched her upper arm. GOT IT.
The drone moved out as soon as the elevator door opened, with Roche stepping past it to its left. The drone raised its rifle and fired a single sharp burst before the guards had a chance to react. One guard fell. Roche was a split-second behind; her shot caught the second guard in the shoulder, spinning him around and into the wall. He slid down to the floor and didn’t move. Two down, she thought.
The pitch of the alarms didn’t change.
OKAY.
He edged up to the corner, with one of the drones close behind. Once he had rounded it, Roche headed off along the passageway, with the two captives and the other drone behind. So far Disisto and Mavalhin had shown nothing but coopera
tion, but she couldn’t afford to relax. She would feel easier once Haid caught up with them again.
She had almost reached the guardroom when two sharp retorts rang out along the corridor; then a third. The response was immediate: voices and movement came from ahead of her. Instinctively she selected a subsonic from the suit’s array of weaponry and stepped around the corner into the guardroom itself.
Two of the guards were fully equipped and ready for action while the others were still in the process of fitting armor and weapons. None of the armor was powered, and the blast of low-frequency sound caught them by surprise. One keeled over backwards; another doubled over vomiting; the others clutched their heads in pain.
The drone moved forward, its raised gun taking out a guard with a single shot to the chest.
The drone immediately flipped the rifle and used the butt to club the remaining four unconscious.
A hand touched Roche’s shoulder: MESSY, said Haid.
A corridor on the far side led into the black zone.
OKAY. SHOUT IF YOU NEED BACKUP.
“Wait,” said Mavalhin as Roche stepped forward.
She turned. “What?”
“I know this area,” said the pilot. Then in response to Roche’s quizzical expression, he explained: “I’ve, ah, spent some time here in the past.”
“Well-deserved too, if I recall,” muttered Disisto.