Star Brigade: Maelstrom (Star Brigade Book 2)

by C. C. Ekeke

  “Take a defensive stance,” V’Korram growled, pointing at her.

  Marguliese cocked an eyebrow. “You should be concerned about your own, Lieutenant. There needs to be more spacing between your feet.” Nwosu snorted and smiled. Khrome guffawed. Lily laughed out loud, but quickly slapped a hand over her mouth. V’Korram glanced down and hissed something under his breath.

  Then he exploded forward, claws out, charging Marguliese so fast, Liliana actually squealed.

  The Cybernarr was ready, sidestepping him with adroit ease. V’Korram gave her no time to recover. He danced around Marguliese, lashing out with a swift combination of vicious kicks and palm strikes.

  The four observers remained silent, engrossed with the battle. Except Khrome, who muttered under his breath “C’mon, V’Korram.” Liliana, Nwosu and Tyris all looked at him. “V’Korram’s the lesser evil here.” Khrome snapped, turning back to the viewscreen.

  The two combatants moved so fast that if you blinked, you’d miss whole sequences of action. Lily noted the differences in fighting styles: V’Korram struck with a feral aggression, abruptly lunging at the Cybernarr, only to elegantly spin away from her counterstrikes; typical of the Kintarian martial art Pantheleo. At one point he rained down blow after blow on Marguliese with only his feet, balancing on his hands as if they were legs. Amazing, Liliana marveled as she watched.

  Marguliese blocked or sidestepped every blow just as swiftly, giving no ground to the Kintarian despite their massive size difference. She whipped her arms about in systematic counterstrikes, wasting little movement, her golden-skinned face as impassive as if watching a tedious news stream.

  When Marguliese snapped off a perfect crescent kick, V’Korram’s cruel smile displayed sharp teeth. He slapped her leg aside contemptuously and swiped his claws at her face.

  Lily almost covered her eyes…until Marguliese bridged back lightning-fast, dodging V’Korram’s attack—scissoring his arm between her long legs as it swiped over her. She flipped back then, flinging V’Korram through the air and to the HLHG floor in a heap.

  The Cybernarr landed on her feet and then strode a few metrids away from him. “Good, but you must learn more control over your emotions,” she said, not looking at all exerted.

  “She should talk, if she HAD any,” Khrome muttered to Liliana.

  V’Korram crouched on all fours briefly, chest heaving. His narrowed gaze showed what he thought of her mid-fight critique…before rocketing again at Marguliese.

  But he pounced too high. So Marguliese ducked low and drove a back thrust kick into V’Korram’s gut, the speed and impact making his eyes bulge and every spectator cringe. Marguliese whirled around with a backhand, cracking V’Korram so hard across the face that he went spinning to the floor.

  The Kintarian struggled to a knee after a long moment, wiping a dribble of blood from his nose. With a furious roar, V’Korram launched himself again at the Cybernarr.

  And again, she knocked him back down with the same chilling detachment in each flawless blow. But like a stubborn yosk bull, V’Korram wouldn’t stay down, but kept getting sent to the ground by Marguliese’s quick flurry of fists and feet. Liliana felt a growing unease watching this, especially seeing how much slower V’Korram got up each time he went down. The doctor turned to Nwosu and saw he too was growing concerned.

  “Rage make your attacks unsound,” Marguliese said coolly, sidestepping another breakneck swipe. “An adversary can easily exploit this flaw.”

  “STOP PATRONIZING ME,” V’Korram roared, diving for the Cybernarr with claws bared.

  In one flowing motion Marguliese caught V’Korram’s massive arms, crisscrossing them and yanking the Kintarian down to her eye level. “Stop attempting and actually hit me.” The Cybernarr didn’t shout. She didn’t have to. Her words cut like blades.

  V’Korram’s eyes flashed. He backflipped then, with Marguliese hanging on and kicked the Cybernarr off, both feet striking her midsection hard.

  “Ba-BOOM!” Tyris called out.

  “Finally!” Khrome crowed.

  “Well struck,” Marguliese said coolly while sailing upside-down into a wall. “But ultimately—.”

  “Shaddup, you!” V’Korram snarled, dashing after her.

  Marguliese somersaulted over his charge, snaring his head with her legs to toss him in a fluid forward roll. “Unimpressive,” she finished, landing lightly on her feet.

  V’Korram rolled with the throw, hitting the wall with both feet and kicking off to spring back at Marguliese. Then came a blur of strikes; the high snap kick to the jaw stood him straight up, the sweep kick to V’Korram’s inner left thigh knocked him sideways into the air. The single palm thrust, from her cybernetic arm to his chest, whacked V’Korram back against the wall with a sickening thud. All so fast that Lily would’ve missed had she blinked.

  The Kintarian slid to the floor. Marguliese glided back to a standing position and approached unhurriedly, a hunter confidently stalking her wounded prey. V’Korram lay gasping laboriously, prone and sprawled on the floor. Either out of instinct or plain stubbornness he tried pushing up to his feet …only to cough up a spatter of dark blood and sag to his knees.

  A bizarre compassion overtook Lily. V’Korram was beaten. She opened her mouth to stop this fight, which wasn’t even a fight anymore.

  Thankfully Captain Nwosu intervened. “Maggie. Enough.”

  Marguliese turned and looked directly into the holoscreen, “As you command.” Her cold, yet beautiful golden mask of a face and the way her right eye flashed, it all prickled Liliana’s flesh with goose bumps. With moves like that, she was grateful they had Marguliese on their side.

  Lily eyed Khrome beside her. “That bitch,” he snarled, and stomped away. Tyris scurried after him.

  “Lieutenant, can you walk?” Nwosu asked, ignoring Khrome’s tantrum.

  “Yes.” V’Korram was on his feet, but leaning heavily against the HLHG wall. In a glance, Liliana knew he had internal injuries, maybe worse. Captain Nwosu realized that, too.

  “Lieutenant, go to the Medcenter.”

  V’Korram’s eyes glittered angrily. “I don’t need medical—”.

  “Need I order you?” Nwosu’s sharp tone ended further dispute.

  In the HLHG suite Marguliese watched as V’Korram rose under his own power, but clutched at his midsection. Finally she spoke. “You are much better than this Lieutenant. The problem is you waste too much energy trying to prove it.” She turned and strode toward the exit.

  V’Korram looked ready to explode, every muscle on his furry frame tensing up. Instead, the tension deflated with a ragged sigh and he slowly trailed after Marguliese. Liliana thought watching V’Korram get humbled would be enjoyable. Instead she felt piercing guilt seeing V’Korram’s face—a mixture of anger, shame, resignation and defeat. The beep of Captain Nwosu’s wristcom pulled Liliana from her thoughts. “Nwosu,” he answered.

  “I got news that you’re gonna love,” Sam’s smoky voice purred.

  “Depends on the news,” Nwosu replied blithely. Liliana hid a smile, noting how the Cerc’s deportment always lightened around Sam. “You confirm those earlier readings?” Marguliese had appeared and stood listening next to Nwosu. Liliana reflexively distanced herself from the Cybernarr.

  “Yes indeed,” the Commander replied. “Reports from UIB confirmed starship activity in the Doro System similar to the ones in the Barsulae Asteroid Belt. The KIF’s on the move!”

  5.

  “So much for the KIF being on the move,” Habraum Nwosu muttered, staring at the traffic-laden viewscreen. Beyond that a small greenish sphere floated alone in the dark, the Union memberworld Kheldoroth in the neighboring Doro System. Flashes of ship engines lit up the already illuminated bridge of the Phaeton as they zipped to their destinations. All around him on the Phaeton’s bridge was his Star Brigade combat team.

  Honaa in front at the helm, Sam at the comm/ops station, Khrome and Tyris at weapons control and Marguliese sat
next to Liliana at the meeting table in the bridge’s center. Tension hung heavy over the bridge as everyone watched the same space traffic as Habraum, shaking loose memories of his first official Brigade mission at the end of 2395. Back then the Cerc had been scared out of his wits, with so much to prove to his peers as an untested Brigadier and the Union’s most famous POW.

  A similar disquiet flooded his veins now, leading this green combat team, and with death lurking around every corner of a field op. However, unlike that first mission and the impromptu mission two weeks ago, demonstrating CT-1’s improved mettle actually filled Habraum with a giddy anticipation. Which brought on another shooting pang of worry. If Star Brigade failed today, Habraum knew the blame would land like a meteor strike on his leadership. Just the leverage a bureaucrat like Atom Greystone needed to sink his teeth into the Brigade.

  Had these sorts of worries plagued the first Star Brigade combat team over three decades ago? Habraum wondered if the group’s fate rode on the success of CT-Prime’s inaugural mission to hunt down dangerous maximums.

  There had been five in the original combat team. Arotha Ghedi-Kyja aka Strider, field commander and former Space Marine TROJAN who could track anyone thanks to his heightened Kintarian senses and psychometric gifts; Andromeda Ryan aka Nightingale, a Pogollish human girl of just seventeen with a burgeoning talent for magnetism. Leonardo Yamazaki, a Martianborn Regulator sergeant blessed with super strength by turning his flesh into organic diamond. Hyadouth Jume aka Blitz, a Galdorian xenobioengineer who could morph her limbs to almost any melee weapon. And Xa Tll’mrn aka Nova, a Kheldoroshii male civilian with the power to unleash a mini supernova at his insectoid appendages. Habraum would’ve killed to serve with or under any of them, but all had retired or been killed in combat long before he’d been recruited.

  Today he led Star Brigade at the start of its resurgence, again with so much to prove. Habraum felt a sudden urge to tell Jennica about this when the mission was complete, then realized that he hadn’t written to his late wife in over week. The stitch of guilt in his chest didn’t throb as severely as expected. Wherever Jenn is now, I hope she understands. He returned his attention to the mission at hand.

  The Doro System’s location underneath the Rhyne System made it a hotbed of spacelane traffic. Habraum zeroed in on the twinkle in the far top left of the screen, far from the most congested spacelanes. “How long’s it been parked there?” Habraum asked, turning to Sam.

  “From what I’m seeing, almost an orv,” Sam replied, frowning over her readings. “Other than the shroud, I’m getting no readings off the ship.”

  “Their shroud is undoubtedly blocking our sensors,” Marguliese interjected, her eyes glued to the rotating hologram projected by the table’s TriTran. Another Raider-Class vessel, virtually identical to the pair Star Brigade had encountered weeks ago. Brigade Intelligence detected it roughly three orvs ago above the Doro System, tracking it to the planetary system’s Mid-Rim just past Kheldoroth. Liliana was observing the holo, rigid in posture.

  “Reign to Planet Hopper,” Habraum spoke into the comms. “You reading anything off the target?”

  “Negative Reign,” a human male replied on the comms. “We only read the ship’s location and that it’s in shroud, just like you. We’re going in for a more comprehensive sensor scan.” The voice belonged to Lt. Commander Marius Han, part of the UIB convoy accompanying the Phaeton. Once Associate Director Greenwald was notified, he insisted on UIB’s involvement on this mission.

  The Cybernarr turned toward Habraum. “It would be effortless for me to—.”

  “Not yet,” Habraum shook his head. With Union Intelligence involved, Habraum didn’t want risk possibly exposing Marguliese. “Khrome, try bypassing whatever’s blocking us.”

  Marguliese nodded and turned back to the holo. Habraum practically felt the triumph radiating off Khrome. Without delay the Thulican began punching data codes into his console.

  “Irazu, take us closer. Arcturus, ready forward cannons and shields.” Habraum eased back into his Captain’s seat and gave the ship a measured stare. The vessel parked near Kheldoroth and its major traffic felt so obvious. But the Cerc had to investigate, find out if KIF was truly involved….

  “Wait.” Honaa’s diamond-shaped eyes were wide, his tail stick-straight. Something was wrong.

  “Planet Hopper, hold position,” Habraum ordered, his eyes now on The Rothorid. “Irazu?”

  Honaa turned in his seat at the sound of his field codename, facing Habraum and the others. “Run a low-level ion resssidue sscan around the ssship. Trussst me, Heatssstroke,” he told Sam after seeing her inquiring look.

  Habraum nodded to Sam. “Do it.” Honaa must have gotten a similar hunch to his own.

  The Commander tacked away at her console. “Should take a short bit,” she replied. Soon on the viewscreen a swollen shell lit up around the shrouded ship—disappearing just as quickly.

  Liliana jerked forward in her seat. “What was that?!”

  Habraum snapped his head around to Sam. “Commander?”

  “Whoa!” Sam gaped at her console, then at Honaa. “You were right to be cautious. Check this out.” She brought up the holo and other data on the large viewscreen. “It’s some type of detection energy field,” Sam continued. “I used low ion frequencies in the scan, increasing each until I got that reaction. If the Phaeton had passed through, the same thing would’ve happened or worse.”

  “Worse,” Tyris spoke, drawing everyone’s attention. “Ion Detector Mine. Reacts to a shield’s ion emissions within a set detection field radius, then…shaka-TOOM…times five.”

  Sam made a scoffing noise. “Hate it when that happens,” the human snarked.

  Death lurking around every corner. Habraum went cold all over. “Top marks for that catch, Irazu.”

  Honaa’s smile exposed frighteningly-sharp teeth. “Not the firssst time the KIF hasss done thisss.”

  The Cerc walked forward and gave Honaa a hard pat on the shoulder. “Planet Hopper, this is Reign. We’ve an IDM situation.”

  “A mine?” the UIB officer on the comms questioned, clear alarm in his voice.

  “It’s under control,” Habraum assured him. “Scan the surrounding areas with low-level ion scans to see if there are any more.”

  “Understood Reign, Planet Hopper out.”

  “Oh Captain, my Captain,” Khrome said. “My brilliant self partially shriked past the ship’s sensory shroud but found no bio-signatures. Also, the ship’s been idle for about an orv, just before we got here.”

  “So they could be light-years away now.” Habraum eyed the viewscreen, shaking his head.

  “They might’ve hijacked another ship nearby,” Sam suggested, tucking her hair behind her ears. “I’m picking up several energy emissions around the vessel. If I can identify them and pinpoint trails...”

  “…we can find the ship they hijacked and where it may be. Get on that.”

  “If that isss the cassse, Reign,” Honaa craned his head around to look at Habraum. “They will hide in thossse sspacelanesss, wait for our departure and then run.”

  “Well, I hope they brought a good holonovel cuz we aren’t leaving until we find them. Khrome,” Habraum turned to him, “get anything that might convey what ships they encountered recently?”

  “Working on it,” the Thulican confessed. “A bit longer—.”

  Habraum turned to Marguliese. “Maggie, can you work with the breach Khrome made?”

  “I can do better.” The Cybernarr stood up and rounded the table in three strides.

  Khrome shot to his feet so fast his chair snapped back and forth like a taut rubber band. “Reign, I can crack through this block.”

  Again with this nonsense. Habraum didn’t hide his exasperated sigh. “It’s not a matter of your ability, Khrome. We don’t know where those Korvenites are and time’s bleeding away.”

  Marguliese stared ahead as she stood in the center of the Phaeton’s bridge, raising her ar
m in the air toward the ceiling. It started as a few fleeting sparkles on the triceps, then noticeable ripples across the entire length of her arm. Within mere nanoclics, her hand and forearm began to morph in shape. The glow of halolights splashing across the shiny limb caught every minuscule movement.

  Though Habraum had seen this before, seeing Marguliese’s arm transmorph was always astounding—and disturbing. Wiry coils and filaments snaked out of the appendage, shifting like living tentacles, quickly integrating into the bridge’s smooth ceiling.

  Tyris gawked. Sam’s jaw dropped. Liliana scooted forward in her seat with awestruck curiosity. Khrome slouched in his seat, seething. Two macroms later, the Cybernarr completed her task. “The ship they confiscated is a TG-3450 freighter, 2402 model.” Both eyes pulsed brightly on her impassive face.

  “A TG-3450?” Sam stared incredulously at the Cybernarr. “You sure? TGs are really common around here.” Habraum glanced at his commander. Despite how well she hid it, Habraum caught agitation in her voice. Fretting over a cloudhopping freighter? Odd, he mused.

  “My findings are completely accurate, Commander,” was Marguliese’s flat, unflinching reply.

  Sam frowned and avoided Habraum’s searching stare. “It may not be much, but I have found a definite fuel residue that ends right before the highest trafficked spacelane. We need to find them now before they jump to hyperspace.” More unease, confirming Habraum’s suspicions. What is she hiding?

  “I agree with Heatssstroke,” Honaa rasped. “Do you have a plan, Reign?”

  “Planet Hopper to the Phaeton. Reign,” Marius Han announced on comms, “we did a thorough sweep and found no other IDMs. We’re going in to disable the weapon.”

  Habraum strode leisurely toward the helm, arms folded behind his back. “Very good Planet Hopper. Stand by.” The Planet Hopper, an Apollo-Class Vindicator slightly smaller than the Phaeton, floated into sight on the viewscreen. Its sable hull was faintly iridescent against the starlight, accentuating the ship’s slim and low-hung build primarily for stealth and pursuit. The vessel’s armament followed the same pattern, neither unwieldy nor ostentatious, something many observers might not notice offhand.