by Kelly Gay
Yeah, something bad was coming.
“The ship you look for, the Radiant Perception, crashed on Laconia in your . . .” She paused to look at something off-screen. “Sometime near the end of the time period you humans call Febberry—”
“February.”
“Yes, or soon after that. Year twenty-five thirty-one.” Rion’s heart gave a bang. A tide of hope rose so swift and eager that she had to dig her nails into her palms, not wanting to give in to premature emotions. But, damn, the timing was right. It was right.
Options ran swiftly through her mind and one sequence of events seemed to rise above all the others. After a short skirmish with the Roman Blue, the Radiant Perception could have retrieved Spirit of Fire’s buoy. Sometime after that the Covenant destroyer must have met with resistance, or it could have been damaged from its run-in with the Blue, and crashed on Laconia. There might not have been enough time for the crew of the Radiant Perception to pass the buoy on to another ship or even for the Covenant to decipher the encryption themselves.
If this sequence proved true, and provided the buoy hadn’t been destroyed during the crash, there was a very real chance that the Spirit of Fire’s buoy was indeed salvageable. The idea left chills on the back of her neck.
“The ship has been on Laconia ever since,” Nor continued. “It has never been lost. Just . . . avoided.”
“Wait, what are you saying? There’s salvage?”
“Yes. But it is infested.” Nor’s feathers ruffled. Whatever it was unnerved the Kig-Yar. “With Hunters.”
A jolt of dread lifted the hairs on the back of Rion’s neck. Funny how one word could do that. Hunters. She stifled a shudder and tried to ignore her sinking hopes. “Any idea how many?”
Nor shook her head. “Word is there were many survivors after the crash. The Hunters, though, they kill whatever was left. Then they waited for rescue. None came, so . . . some say they multiply. Maybe true. Maybe whole ship, whole planet infested by now.” Nor shuddered. “Me? Don’t want to know. Can’t confirm, of course . . . could all be talk. Rumor and more rumor. You know how that go.”
The Mgalekgolo, or Hunters, as they were colloquially known, weren’t like the Sangheili or the Kig-Yar. Once the Covenant War was over, many of them had engaged in a mass exodus to God only knew where. And humanity was very relieved about that.
It’d be an enormous hurdle dealing with Hunters, but first and foremost, they had to find the Radiant Perception. Rion would manage any other concerns when the time came. “Where’s the likeliest place for a science station on a Covenant destroyer?”
“Depends. Lots of places.”
“I mean a decryption center, a place for studying human technology. . . .”
“Bridge, most likely. They big places. Many stations and levels and ramps. Or somewhere close by. You got blueprints? I sell you some.”
Rion smiled. “No. I’m all set, thanks.”
“Now you owe me, Captain.”
“Yes, I do. Thank you, Nor.”
“One more thing.” Nor’s features went hard and serious. “Another salvage crew. Disappear.” She made that exploding motion again by spreading her talons.
That got Rion’s attention. “Which one?”
“Ram Chalva’s. Last heard, they were on their way back from digging under glass on Mesa. Had a couple old Kodiaks and a piece of Forerunner tech on board.”
A sinking feeling settled in Rion’s gut. Damn it. Ram Chalva was a pro, his salvage crew and his ship were top-notch. . . . The crews going missing in the last year just couldn’t be coincidence. Someone out there was tagging salvagers, waiting for them to secure a payload, and then striking.
“Not good for business,” Nor said. “Not good for any of us.”
“Crews don’t go missing without someone, somewhere talking about it.” And there was so much traffic coming through the clearinghouse that Nor had to have heard inklings. Whispers. Talk. . . .
“There is one group of late,” Nor admitted. “Unrulier than most. . . . Been gathering things up quick, been boasting, leader thinks he’s beyond my rules. Name’s Gek. Gek ‘Lhar.”
“Sangheili?”
“Worse. Sangheili commander. Some say he’s part of a sect based on Hesduros, under Jul ‘Mdama. Word is he’s been sent out with a crew to secure weapons and ships. They organizing, growing, rebuilding the Covenant. Dangerous, that . . . dangerous for everyone.”
And a creature like that with a holy doctrine fueling his every move wouldn’t think twice about going after salvage crews, taking what he wanted, and calling it divine right. If it was this Gek ‘Lhar . . .
“He is fight you can’t win,” Nor said perceptively.
Rion’s grim expression became a flat smile. “You worried about me, Nor?”
“You flatter yourself, human. Worried about business.”
“Where is he now, do you know?”
“I am not the first to inquire about your lost ship. Gek is hunting for heavies. A destroyer would turn his head, no? Might be he’s taken that ship by now.”
“Understood. If you hear anything more about Gek, let me know.”
“Will do, Captain.” Nor gave a nod, leaned forward, and the screen went black.
Rion sat back, her thoughts churning. A ship infested with Hunters had been enough to keep salvagers at bay for at least a couple of decades. But these days, with ships and weapons at a premium and every faction out there desperate for power, there were those who wouldn’t hesitate to face an infested planet if they thought the payout was great enough. If Nor was right and Gek ‘Lhar had indeed beaten her to the Radiant Perception, Rion’s search might end on Laconia. Or it might mean nothing at all.
The Hunter problem aside, she and this Sangheili commander weren’t exactly looking for the same thing.
PART THREE
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DOUBLE DOWN
NINE
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Ace of Spades, 6 million kilometers outside the Procyon system
The Ace of Spades dropped out of slipspace at the edge of the Procyon system. Farther off course by several million kilometers than Rion would’ve liked, but not a bad spot given the fact that slipspace navigation was the definition of a shot in the dark. Destination points were never precise. Instead, they were viewed with a more general approach. If you arrived somewhere in or close to the vicinity you were aiming for, that was considered a successful jump in most travelers’ minds.
Cade monitored Lessa’s attempt at plotting a course correction to Laconia. Once achieved and entered, they began the journey at sub-light-speed.
Rion watched the interaction with a strange sense of detachment, her attention turning to the great canvas of black beyond the viewscreen and its handful of celestial objects. Tiny things. Just pinpricks of light. It felt odd to be there, moving through the system, following the same path as her father and the Spirit of Fire.
Like sailing in the shadows of giants.
“Less, put us within visual range of Arcadia,” Rion said.
Ace maintained course for the next few hours and then swung aft by eleven degrees. Not long after, Arcadia emerged like a ghost from the darkness and dominated the viewscreen. A pale blue atmospheric ring circled the planet, creating a spectral glow around an otherwise ashen gray surface. No one spoke on the bridge. They all knew what they were looking at—a planet-size tomb. A grave marker of millions.
Rion had seen her share of glassed planets, and this one had been dealt a mortal blow. There were no pockets of color, no places where the ventral beams and their destructive plasma had not gone. It appeared the Covenant had been especially zealous in destroying this once resortlike human world.
Laconia, Arcadia’s long-distance neighbor, hadn’t received the same plasma bombardment, however. There was no colony to
obliterate, no reason to pay mind to the cold, volcanic world. And while the planet could support life, the air was thin and harsh, the volcanoes mildly active and occasionally spewing sulfur dioxide. No need to bother with Laconia when the lush world of Arcadia was right around the corner and could serve as a better example of the Covenant’s might.
Ace settled into low geostationary orbit roughly above the coordinates that Nor had provided. Somewhere below them on the rocky volcanic flows lay a Covenant destroyer. Rion pushed up from her chair and stepped to the main tactical table, which sat in the open space between the nav and comm stations.
“See if you two can pull up a decent image of the wreckage,” she told Cade and Lessa. The volcanic ash in the atmosphere wasn’t going to make it easy, but they could build a general image from the ship’s lidar and quick mapping system.
Quelling her impatience, Rion waited, watching the display as a holographic image built.
“Looks like Nor was right,” Cade said. “There’s something living inside the ship. Picking up a large signal . . . Shit. Hold on.” He paused. “There’s more than one signal. We have eight outside of the Perception and a ship.”
“Engaging baffling engines.” Immediately Rion brought up a control panel, her fingers flying across the pad. “Run the sensors again, see if you can get a species match on those sigs.” She turned to the tactical table and the holo-image. There was no need to ask about the ship Cade referenced. It was emerging right along with the massive destroyer. “Damn. It’s a Covenant war-freighter. Older model. Fully-armed tithe ship. . . ”
“There’s still auxiliary power on the destroyer,” Lessa said.
Now that was a surprise, a very good one. If there was still aux power, that meant there was a working power core. The damage down there might be minimal. The Radiant Perception could be a gold mine.
“The war-freighter’s engines are powered down but hot,” Rion said. “They just beat us, damn it.”
“Eighty-seven percent probability that the eight outside the destroyer are Sangheili.” Cade shook his head, annoyed. “Still working on the one inside. Next trip home, we’re upgrading the life-detection software.”
Yeah, she’d been meaning to do that.
Rion chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully and stared at the two images hovering above the table. Her thoughts turned to the warning Nor had given her and the mention of the ex-Covenant commander, Gek ‘Lhar. The war-freighter might have been dwarfed by the colossal destroyer, but it packed a punch with its heavy plasma cannon and two side-mounted turrets. And if that was Gek down there, he’d have not only firepower, but a wealth of tactical experience. Facing him wouldn’t be easy.
Good thing she didn’t plan to.
Cade joined her at the table and studied the destroyer image. “Looks like she’s wedged in an old lava flow.”
“And there’s not much around to give us cover,” Rion said, noting that, besides the Covenant war-freighter, the Radiant Perception was the lone anomaly on the landscape, a colossal hump in a large valley of cooled lava.
“No significant thermal readings from that volcano nearby. Environmentally, we should be good if we want to use those ridges.” Cade pointed to an area of deep scores in the volcano’s slope, which would provide decent cover. “It’s three klicks from our target, but nothing we can’t handle, provided those lava flats are stable.”
Rion pulled up the destroyer’s interior blueprints, placing them next to the lidar image. The area designated as bridge was enormous, several stories tall, with levels and stations and a network of elevators and ramps leading from one place to another. In the center of it all was a massive, raised central command.
“Niko, how are things coming on the detector?”
His voice came over the intercom. “She’s just about ready, Cap.”
“ ‘She’?” Rion was almost afraid to ask. Niko had a habit of naming his toys.
“Yeah, I’m calling her Diane. She’s loaded with every radio frequency and emergency transponder signal known to mankind. She can sniff out any UNSC signal on that ship. I added battery and energy emission signals too. If that buoy has a working power source, or even a decaying battery, my girl will find it.”
“Nice work, kid.”
“Thanks. Can I have that raise now?”
Rion bit back a smile and ignored him as she added the life detection intel to the blueprints and lidar to see exactly where each life sign was originating. “There.” She pointed to the glowing red dot near the aft of the ship at the main entrance to the bridge, while eight more sigs were clustered inside the Covenant war-freighter.
“How about a bonus?” Niko said.
“Diane finds my buoy . . . then we’ll talk.”
“What are you thinking?” Cade asked her.
Rion scrutinized the images. “Well, ship’s not infested . . .” The life detection scanner alerted on the lone signal within the destroyer. “Mgalekgolo. Ninety-two percent probability.” Rion straightened and leaned against the table. “We could wait it out, let the Sangheili take care of the Hunter for us. They won’t be looking for the buoy. They’ll go for the heavy stuff.”
“That could take them a long time though. If the ship is as intact as we think it is, then there’s months’, maybe years’ worth of salvage.”
“Depending on what they’re looking for. Won’t take them long to scan for heavies, dropships, and if that is Gek ‘Lhar down there, then I can bet you the first thing he’d look for is a luminary.”
“Think so?”
She nodded. “If I were trying to rebuild the Covenant and out hunting for the best weapons and tech to help relaunch the war, I’d go for the single most precious thing on that ship. He’ll look for the luminary first. Weapons and support ships second. You’re right though—he might be there for a while, might call in reinforcements to help with the salvage.”
“Which means we need to get inside that ship now,” Cade said. “Before help arrives.”
“We’ll have to deal with the Hunter ourselves if need be and avoid the Sangheili. Hopefully, we can search for the buoy without either of them knowing we’re there.” She pointed to a damaged spot at the midsection of the ship, an area on the side opposite from where the Covenant war-freighter was parked. “We could enter there, then make our way to the bridge. . . .”
“The Hunter is on the bridge,” Cade said. “I’m not sure we can avoid it.”
Rion was already keying in a search and bringing up an image of a Hunter, placing it next to the destroyer’s blueprints. The creature was almost four meters tall and weighed a stunning five tons. Covenant armor encased a colony of Lekgolo, orange eel-like creatures, which had bonded together physically and mentally to form a conscious, bipedal being. A Mgalekgolo. One of the handful of subspecies the Lekgolo were able to form, and the prime subspecies that the Covenant had put into action against humanity. A fuel rod cannon was integrated into the armor on one arm and the other held a two-ton shield as strong as a Covenant ship’s hull.
“I’m the first to admit you’re usually one lucky SOB, Forge, but getting in there, finding the buoy, and dealing with a Hunter if necessary—without being detected by the Sangheili . . . ?”
“And here I was thinking the odds weren’t that bad. We’ve done some of our best work in stealth.” They’d had plenty of experience in that particular area, after all. “I’m not worried about the Sangheili. The Hunter though—that’s the wild card.” She glanced at Cade. “You’ve had contact with those things. Any insight?”
He stepped back and sat on the edge of the nav console. “Well, they’re one of the tougher aliens to kill. Usually fight in pairs. If there’s one down there, there’s likely another. Depending on where it is on the ship, with aux power, and the ash in the atmosphere . . . we might not be picking up a second sig. Better to prepare for two of them.”
Rion leaned over Lessa’s shoulder to check the data again. “Well, it hasn’t moved since we got here. And the signal itself, the energy that creature is putting off, is faint for its size.”
“Signal might be faint for all kinds of reasons, Rion,” Cade replied. “You know that. And one Hunter doesn’t make the danger any less real. This thing probably doesn’t even know the war’s over, which makes it even more of a threat.” He plowed his fingers through his hair, his manner becoming jumpy and bothered. “All it does is kill, Ri. It doesn’t ask questions or try to communicate. I’ve seen them annihilate Covenant troops in the middle of battle just for stepping into their line of sight. That rumor Nor told you about started somewhere. There’s a reason everyone has steered clear of the ship and why no one has attempted salvage.”
“True. But that thing has been down there for twenty-six years,” she countered, making sure her tone wasn’t contentious. Obviously Cade’s experience with the Hunters in combat had left some scars. . . . “It could be injured or dying or maybe even too old to fight. We can’t say anything for sure, not until we check it out.”
His response was an exasperated eye roll. “Well, if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not watch that thing rip you apart.” He flung an arm toward Lessa. “Or any of us. Because that’s what’ll happen if it doesn’t get you with its cannon. Don’t think I haven’t seen it done a hundred times before,” he said, eyes hard and haunted. “You’re not invincible, and you’re being foolish if you think you can just walk in there without someone getting hurt.” He pushed off the console and stormed off the bridge.
“I never said I was just going to walk in there . . . Cade!” she yelled after him, his assumption and attitude getting the best of her. She despised being walked out on in the middle of a discussion or a fight; Rion was a have-it-out-and-finish-it type of person. Things left unsaid, things unresolved . . . no. She had enough of that in her life already.