Attached to the top of the shuttle was a single escape pod.
‘The pods are reliable,’ General Bra’hiv assured the Veng’en. ‘They can take a hell of a beating.’
‘Have you ever seen one survive a re-entry?’ Kordaz asked.
‘Just because I haven’t seen it, doesn’t mean it cannot happen,’ Bra’hiv replied.
‘The capsule will jettison as soon as you’re through the atmosphere,’ C’rairn explained. ‘Being on the top of the shuttle will protect you from the worst of the entry-burn. The pilots will detach you and you’ll free-fall for two minutes before a parachute will deploy and slow your descent until touch down.’
‘Why not just throw the capsule out of the back of the shuttle once we’re safely through the atmosphere?’ Kordaz asked.
‘The descent phase masks craft from radar and sensors while in the upper atmosphere,’ Bra’hiv explained. ‘The heat and light will prevent Salim and his people from detecting your presence. Once clear of the shuttle, the pod on its own is too small to track. If the shuttle slowed in normal flight and opened its rear ramp, they might detect it.’
Kordaz’s long snout and scaled facial features made it hard for him to express emotions, but he gave it his best shot.
‘A frigate filled with soldiers and your damned captain chooses me for this mission?’
‘You’re getting a free ride home aboard Atlantia,’ Bra’hiv replied. ‘You gotta take a fall sometime.’
‘Very droll,’ Kordaz murmured. ‘Weapons?’
‘Close quarters blades only for you,’ C’rairn cautioned. ‘Chiron IV is uninhabited so it’s plausible that Salim’s men could detect an active plasma magazine out in the wilderness and you’d be bombed out of existence. You’ll be supplied with some chemical explosives to be used on targets of opportunity, if required, to assist us. Plenty of wildlife down there though, so as long as you stay out of sight they should never even know you’re there.’
‘Wildlife?’ Kordaz echoed. ‘Any idea what form it takes?’
C’rairn and Bra’hiv glanced at each other. The general shrugged. ‘Another good reason to stay out of sight.’
‘Rescue, if I become injured or am spotted?’ Kordaz inquired with what might have been a hint of weariness.
‘The captain cannot reveal this deception for fear of hostages being killed,’ Lieutenant C’rairn replied, ‘so if everything goes to hell your best bet is to run like the wind and hunker down somewhere. We’ll get to you eventually.’
Kordaz rested his hand on an elaborate, mirror-polished blade attached to a simple belt around his waist. A wickedly-hooked weapon with several different cutting edges and a spike pointing out of the back of the hilt, it was a ceremonial D’jeck, used in mortal combat between warring Veng’en back on Wraithe when judicial means were unable to resolve a dispute.
‘You just lost two fighters, a shuttle, a platoon of Marines and two pilots down there, but you’ll get to me eventually?’ Kordaz uttered. ‘I won’t hold my breath. I need to speak to the captain before I leave.’
‘There’s no time,’ C’rairn replied, ‘and the captain’s got his hands full right now. Get this mission out of the way and I’m sure he’ll find a slot for you.’
‘It’s important,’ Kordaz insisted, certain only that he could trust nobody other than the captain with what he knew.
‘So is this mission,’ Bra’hiv replied cheerfully. ‘Unless you’d rather I report to the captain that you’re unwilling to undertake it, or perhaps afraid?’
Kordaz scowled at the general as he turned and in a single bound leaped onto the top of the shuttle. The open capsule was laying on its back and attached via clamps to the hull, the lid opened. Kordaz took one last look at the crew on the deck below and at the ship around him, and tried to force an unfamiliar emotion of regret from his mind as he clambered down into the capsule and closed the lid.
The capsule sealed itself and almost immediately he felt rather than heard the shuttle’s ion engines whine into life, the vibrations humming through the capsule. The launch bay was evacuated of personnel and then after a short delay and the sound of warning claxons the atmosphere rushed out of the bay in a whorl of white vapour as the shuttle lifted off and accelerated away.
Kordaz looked out of the capsule’s viewing window and saw the landing bay lights flash by and then the vast bow of the Atlantia drifting past far above him, her hull scarred by years of travelling the cosmos and stained a dull rusty colour from being constantly bombarded by cosmic rays and dust.
The frigate vanished as the shuttle turned beneath him and aimed at the planet, out of Kordaz’s sight. Moments later the ship tilted slightly as it angled itself for primary descent, and Kordaz glimpsed the Atlantia once more, already far away and glinting like a jewel suspended against the dense starfields. He turned his head and saw the flaring star entombed in its glowing death throes disappearing over the shoulder of Chiron IV, and he realised that not only was he about to be plunged alone and virtually unarmed onto a planet he had never before visited, but that he was also going to be deployed at night.
Kordaz cursed and then yelped as a sudden, severe vibration slammed into the shuttle and a fearsome red glow illuminated the edges of the capsule. Kordaz gritted his teeth and clenched his clawed fists as the shuttle plunged into the atmosphere, shuddering and rattling as the immense forces at work around it attempted to tear the vehicle apart and consume it in a fiery halo.
Warning sensors began blaring for attention in the capsule and Kordaz saw a temperature gauge shoot up as the shuttle plummeted toward the planet’s surface. The viewing panel cracked as he stared at ferocious jets of flame flickering around the edges of the shuttle’s hull, reaching out for him. The stars in the inky blackness outside glittered and shimmered in the heat and an alarm screeched in Kordaz’s sensitive ears as the capsule’s own hull reached critical temperature.
Kordaz let out a cry of alarm as the whole capsule shook as though it were being torn from its mounts. He grasped for the handholds inside as suddenly a heavy jolt slammed his head back against the rest and the capsule tumbled as it was ejected from the shuttle’s hull, the terrific noise vanishing as though a switch had been flipped.
Kordaz’s ears hummed with the memory of the din of re-entry and he grimaced as he felt himself flipped upside-down, the capsule spinning wildly. He glimpsed clouds far below glowing a strange green and orange beneath immense veils of light rippling across the skies. The capsule rolled over and over, spinning as it plummeted toward the surface at a velocity Kordaz did not want to think about. The clouds below seemed to grow larger with frightening rapidity, looming toward him, and then the sky and the aurora vanished and turbulence buffeted the tiny capsule as it rocketed ever downward through dense clouds and was plunged into utter blackness.
Kordaz glanced at an altimeter inside the capsule, the feint green glow like an anchor to reality. The figures upon it were in human script and as such meant little to him, but the terrifying speed with which they were counting down told him all that he needed to know.
Kordaz didn’t pray. No Veng’en did. But every now and again, in times of extreme stress, even a Veng’en could not resist the temptation to address a higher power.
‘I’ll kill you!’ Kordaz bellowed in his darkened prison.
A reply came as a deafening crash right above Kordaz’s upside-down head sent a tremor of terminal fear racing through his body. The capsule jerked right-side up and immense G-forces slammed into Kordaz’s body as it did so, and then all was silence.
Kordaz, his breath sawing rapidly in his throat and both of his hearts racing in his chest, pressed his head against the viewing panel and peered up to see a parachute canopy billowing above him, just visible against the darkened sky. He looked down and then jerked his head back just before the capsule slammed into the ground.
Kordaz was pitched onto his back again and he felt the capsule being dragged along the ground by the chute. He hit the buttons t
o jettison the lid, and as it popped open he pulled the parachute cutting-cord hard and then scrambled out of the capsule. The parachute billowed in the wind and then collapsed onto scrub foliage on a low hillside nearby. Kordaz crouched in the darkness, one hand on his D’jeck as he peered into the gloom and tried to calm his wildly beating hearts.
The smell of oceans and salty air caressed his senses, and his eyes swiftly adjusted to the planetary conditions. The clouds above glowed from the ethereal auroral light above them, and as Kordaz turned on the spot he realised that the shuttle pilots had done an immensely competent job. Beyond low hills no more than ten thousand cubits away a bright glow lit the night sky and reflected off the clouds as only man-made light could do.
Kordaz hurried across the plain and gathered up the parachute, rolling it into a tight ball and depositing it inside the capsule. He worked fast, dragging the capsule into bushes of scrub foliage and then camouflaging it as best he could. Within minutes the capsule looked much like a rock covered in ferns and mosses, the lid open and the bundled parachute breaking up its sleek lines to help disguise its presence.
Kordaz turned and took a pace toward the distant light.
A growl stopped him.
He froze. He could see nothing and no scent marred the air. With the wind in his face he knew that the threat must lay behind him and most likely had purposefully approached him from downwind. A predator’s natural instinct.
Kordaz turned, his wide eyes seeking movement in the darkness. The faint glow in the clouds above gave him just enough light to pick out shapes in the gloom, and that was when he saw it and several thoughts flashed through his mind in a beat of his hearts.
Twice as large as a Veng’en, likely double the body-mass too. Fangs. Huge, hunched shoulders and muscular forelimbs with crouched, shorter hind legs. A leaping, ambush beast, not a long-distance runner, with a backbone and spinal column just like so many species on other worlds. Dense, dark fur and large, padded, clawed feet.
Yellow, soulless eyes.
Kordaz slowly drew his D’jeck with one hand and the weapon glinted in the faint light. He saw the creature’s gaze flick briefly to the weapon but sensed no understanding in the gaze, only recognition of the movement. The creature shifted postion, crouching down lower as its fearsome eyes narrowed. Kordaz braced himself as the beast prepared to launch itself at him.
A hellish scream erupted from the animal and reverberated through Kordaz’s chest like war drums as the beast leaped into the air and bounded toward him.
Kordaz jumped to one side as with his free hand he hauled the parachute out of the capsule and into the air, the huge canopy billowing open. The beast plunged into the parachute and landed with the fabric rippling around it as it clawed to free itself and let out another enraged roar.
Kordaz leaped through the air and landed upon the animal’s back as the chute slid free, its shoulders as hard as rocks and the fur thick and smelling of soil and the oil of its skin. The animal, its head still wrapped in the chute, reared up as Kordaz lifted the D’jeck and plunged it down with all of his might into the back of the animal’s neck.
The polished blade smashed down through flesh, gristle and bone to a terrific scream of pain as Kordaz shifted to a two-handed grip on the weapon and, careful not to impale himself on the spike poking from the handle, he twisted the weapon sideways and then hauled it out of the animal. The serrated blade tore upward and took ragged chunks of flesh with it.
The beast groaned in agony and hurled itself sideways in an attempt to crush Kordaz. The Veng’en leaped clear and rolled across the ground, then came up into a crouch with the D’jeck held ready.
The beast got up onto all fours as the parachute ripped open and fell away from its face, and shook its great head. Kordaz saw it stagger slightly as blood poured from its wound, the terrible damage wrought by the D’jeck on its spinal column taking its toll.
The animal looked at Kordaz and he heard its tortured breathing wheeze from gigantic lungs, and then its legs gave way and it slumped forward onto its belly, the air from its snout blowing dust as it struggled to stay alive.
Kordaz watched it for a moment, and then he slid the D’jeck back into its sheath and marched away toward the light.
***
XXII
‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’
Teera stood in the barred cell alongside Evelyn and looked down at the pile of robes that an Ogrin had just tossed into the cell. Similar in style to those worn by the hybrids, they were designed to expose the maximum amount of flesh and be as easy to remove as possible.
The Ogrin stared at them expectantly. Neither Teera nor Evelyn moved.
The Ogrin humphed, turned, and stomped away from the cells.
‘We need a way out of here,’ Evelyn said.
‘And off this planet,’ Teera whispered beneath her breath. ‘The Atlantia was cleared to gather resources, right? The captain would have made every effort to put somebody on the ground near us.’
‘Probably,’ Evelyn replied as she surveyed the meagre clothing offered them. Right now, she felt a lot more secure in her flight suit. ‘But it’s not going to have been easy. I’m guessing that the Arcadia’s shields and radar are all fully active, so that’ll be what’s giving Salim’s compound its cover and defences.’
The Ogrin returned, and this time he was dragging a body behind him. Evelyn and Teera stood back from the cell doors as two pirates, flanking their giant charge, opened the doors. One stood guard with a plasma rifle aimed at Evelyn and Teera as the other yanked the door back and the Ogrin hurled the comatose woman’s body into the cell. The door slammed shut behind her as Teera dropped to her knees alongside the woman.
‘An idea of what’s going to happen if you don’t comply,’ one of the pirates murmured with a confident grin. ‘We’ll give you one hour to convince her to capitulate. If she does not, you’ll all be hanged outside the compound as a warning to others. Think on it, why don’t you?’
The pirates strolled away, followed by the Ogrin. As soon as they were gone Evelyn joined Teera, who was lifting the woman up into a sitting position and holding her there. The woman blinked, her eyes hooded and her hair in disarray.
‘Erin,’ she gasped.
The woman’s voice was rough, her throat dry. Evelyn spotted a small cantina of water on a shelf in the cell, a vague gesture of humanity from their captors. She fetched the cantina and let the woman drink from it.
‘Who’s Erin?’ Evelyn asked her.
The woman stopped drinking and gasped for breath as she slumped against Teera.
‘My daughter,’ she replied. ‘They’re holding her and my father, Stefan.’
‘I think we saw Erin in the throne room,’ Evelyn replied. ‘She’s unharmed.’
‘For now,’ the woman replied wearily.
‘What’s your name?’ Teera asked.
‘Ishira,’ came the exhausted reply, ‘captain of the merchant vessel Valiant.’
‘How did you end up here?’
‘We were fleeing,’ Ishira replied. ‘We were searching for supplies when we got jumped by a Veng’en cruiser. We fled across the system and managed to evade them, but then we got captured by some damned pirate and…’
‘Whoa, back up a moment,’ Evelyn cut her off. ‘You saw a Veng’en cruiser?’
Ishira nodded as she drank a little more from the canteen. ‘Came out of nowhere. We’d only just arrived in the system, and I guess the flare star’s output was screwing up our warning receivers and radar. They opened fire but we out-ran them.’
Evelyn sat back on her haunches thoughtfully.
‘We were following a Veng’en cruiser,’ she said. ‘Sensors said it dropped out of super-luminal close to the Chiron system.’
‘Could be the same one,’ Teera acknowledged. ‘But why start messing about hitting merchant ships? They were on their way home, right?’
‘You don’t know where the cruiser went?’ Evelyn asked Ishira.
&nbs
p; ‘No,’ Ishira replied. ‘We were getting closer to the parent star when they just vanished, turned back for some reason.’
Teera and Evelyn exchanged a glance.
‘Maybe they saw the pirates coming?’ Teera ventured.
‘Veng’en wouldn’t run just like that,’ Evelyn said. ‘If they were chasing one human vessel and others turned up they’d have considered it a bonus. Something else must have happened to them.’
Ishira looked up at them both as she began to recover her senses.
‘What then hell were you doing following a Veng’en cruiser? Who are you?’ Then she saw Evelyn’s shoulder insignia and the patches on her flight suit. ‘Atlantia?! You’re Colonial?’
‘Atlantia’s in orbit right now,’ Evelyn confirmed.
Ishira apparently found a fresh surge of energy as she scrambled to her feet.
‘Then get them the hell down here!’
‘A bit tricky,’ Teera replied. ‘We’re hostages here and Salim Phaeon has a large force at his disposal. Carpet-bombing the compound with so many innocent lives at stake isn’t an option.’
‘Nor is leaving us here!’
‘Nobody’s leaving anybody,’ Evelyn assured her. ‘But our captain isn’t going to make a move against Salim until he’s sure that he can do so without endangering too many lives.’
‘Human shield,’ Ishira uttered in disgust. ‘Salim is a pig and a coward.’
‘Our sentiments exactly,’ Teera grinned. ‘Which is why we’ll do everything we can to disrupt things from our end.’
‘Great,’ Ishira said as she put her hands on her hips. ‘Where do we start?’
‘By putting these robes on,’ Evelyn replied.
Ishira’s jubilant expression folded in upon itself. ‘You want us to do what?’
‘Put the robes on,’ Evelyn replied as she picked up one of the flowing gowns. ‘We can’t do much good sitting down here in a cell.’
Atlantia Series 3: Aggressor Page 16