by G J Ogden
“Then what do you want, Rikkard?” said Hallam, partly because he wanted the mercenary to get to the point, but also because he wanted to prevent Ruby from continuing to rub him up the wrong way.
“You already know what I want,” Cad spat back. “I want Rand alive, and I want all three of you dead. And this time, I’m going to get what I want.”
The formation of renegade ships closed to within a few hundred meters of the mercenary vessels, and Dakota slowed to a stop. The two squadrons hung in space, facing one another, like a deep-space Mexican standoff.
“You know that we won’t surrender Rand or give ourselves up,” said Hallam, though the fact that this went without saying made him nervous. Cad was about to lay his cards on the table, and he had no idea what his hand contained.
“Oh, you will,” replied Cad, his supreme confidence oozing through the speaker. “Or I will destroy every last renegade hideout and kill every renegade sympathizer, right down to the last man, woman, and child if I must.” The mercenary’s statement was delivered with a chilling detachment. And again, Hallam detected the bitter undertone that told him that this was no longer just a contract to Rikkard. It had become deeply personal. “And before you or your brash associate opens her insolent mouth again, I’ll show you exactly why you’ll bow to my demands,” Cad added.
Hallam’s console wailed an alarm, and his eyes widened as he saw a missile streak out from underneath the wing of Cad’s fighter.
Dakota called out, “Break, break, break!” over their private squadron comm channel, and Hallam threw his controls right and thrusted hard, readying a raft of countermeasures. However, he then realized the missile wasn’t heading toward their squadron. Instead, it had turned sharply and was racing toward the renegade base instead.
“Cover me, I’m going to try to shoot it down!” Dakota called out, and Hallam saw her fighter burn hard after the missile. Her voice sounded panicked and strained, as the g-forces of her ship’s sudden acceleration racked her body.
Hallam acknowledged Dakota then turned his ship back to the mercenary fighters, watching them keenly for any signs they were about to attack. However, both ships remained in position. Beyond launching the missile, neither had made an aggressive move.
“What are they doing?” Hallam heard Ruby call out over the squadron comm channel. He cast his eyes left and saw her fighter drawing up alongside his. Both of them were again staring down the gun turrets of the Blackfire Squadron vessels, which remained immobile, as if they were ghost ships.
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it,” replied Hallam, bringing up an enlarged image of the enemy fighters on one of his screens while keeping half an eye on Dakota’s position.
Both mercenary ships appeared to be cocooned in an additional layer of armor, as if they were protecting themselves against an attack or some other imminent danger. Hallam felt a pit in his stomach and focused back on his scanners, examining the readings from the missile launch.
What the hell am I missing… he thought while scouring the data. Dakota was almost within range, which also didn’t make sense. Cad would have known that we’d be able to shoot down the missile, Hallam thought. Why would he launch, knowing we could stop it? Broadening the scan data, Hallam then cursed as he finally spotted the missing component. His heart racing even faster than the missile, Hallam opened a direct channel to Dakota.
“Dak, pull up, now; it’s a nuke!” he yelled out, observing that there were now only seconds before the missile reached its target.
“What? That’s impossible!” Dakota cried, continuing in pursuit of the missile.
“Dak, trust me,” Hallam called back. “Turn and burn now, or you’ll get caught in the blast!”
He heard Dakota curse, then her fighter flipped on its axis and began to burn even harder in the opposite direction. Hallam knew that she’d first have to overcome her velocity toward the base before she could start to increase her distance from it, putting her dangerously close to the epicenter of the explosion.
Teeth gritted and muscles taut, Hallam was helpless as he saw the missile strike the cobbled-together collection of super freighters and tankers that comprised the renegade hideout. There was a sudden, bright flash of light, then the base and surrounding landscape on the moon were covered in the thick cloud of dust. Hallam turned his attention back to Dakota’s ship and saw her spinning out of control into the Darkspace.
26
The open comm channel to the mercenary fighters crackled, and Hallam again heard the honeyed, arrogant tones of Cad Rikkard in his ear.
“That is just a taste of what’s to come, Knight,” spat the mercenary. “Do you still intend to refuse my demands, or will you force me to annihilate more bases? The blood of the dead renegades will be on your hands, not mine.”
Hallam was about to yell a response that would have made even Ruby Rivas blush, but before he could curse the mercenary, he saw Ruby blast out ahead of him.
“Ruby, don’t!” Hallam cried over their squadron comm channel, realizing that she was going to attack, but it was already too late. Ruby had committed herself to the fight. Cannon rounds from Ruby’s guns thudded into Cad Rikkard’s mercenary fighter, but with its armadillo-like shell still in place, the attack was ineffective. Both mercenary fighters then broke hard, and Hallam saw some of their additional shields retract to allow for greater visibility and maneuverability. Cursing again, Hallam set off after Ruby. He knew that the mercenary fighters would be tough nuts to crack. The odds were heavily stacked against them in fighter-to-fighter combat. The Blackfire Squadron were not only exceptional pilots, but their heavily augmented fighters were superior to the renegade ships in every way.
“Ruby, break off!” This time, it was Dakota over the comm channel. “We have to get out of here!”
Hallam put himself into the fight, going after Alexis Black and drawing her away from Ruby. He fired a burst from his cannons, clipping the wing of the mercenary ship, but the damage was minor.
“Dak, are you okay?” Hallam called out as Alexis spun around and lined up her guns with Hallam’s fighter. Hallam cursed and thrust away, but strangely, Alexis did not fire, despite having him dead to rights.
“I just caught the edge of the explosion, so I’m going to need a minute to reset my systems and restart the Shelby Drive,” Dakota called back. “But I need both of you to spool up and get out of here right now. I’m in no condition to fight, and those mercenaries have us outgunned and outclassed.”
“No way, boss,” said Ruby, jerking her fighter through space while firing short bursts at Cad, who appeared to be toying with her. “We’re not leaving you here.”
“Ruby, at least get yourself ready to bridge,” said Hallam as he entered a reciprocal course into his Shelby Drive computer and initiated the program. “I’ll stay on your wing and help to hold these assholes off for as long as we can, and just hope it’s enough.”
“Damn it, Hal, not you too!” snapped Dakota. “Doesn’t anybody understand what a damn order means?”
“Hey, we’re renegades, remember?” said Hallam as he wrestled with his controls to line up Alexis Black in his sights. “Non-conforming is our thing…” Hallam fired another volley at Alexis and saw some of the rounds strike her ventral hull, but the armored shell prevented any serious damage.
“You’re quite good, Knight,” said the voice of Alexis Black over the open comm channel. However, it was not the playful Alexis, but the hard-nosed warrior that was speaking. “It’s almost a shame to kill you. Almost…” Alexis then pulled off a maneuver that Hallam didn’t even think was possible, and she again had him dead to rights. However, once again, the mercenary didn’t take the shot. “But when we eventually choose to kill you, it will be much more up close and personal,” Alexis added, her voice like a ghost in Hallam’s ear. “I wouldn’t miss the chance to see you begging and squirming at Cad’s boots.”
Hallam withdrew, not wanting to take the chance that Alexis would change her mind, and
obliterate him then and there instead. His navigation computer chimed an alert and he saw that the Shelby Drive program was ready. Switching back to the squadron channel, he said, “I’m ready to bridge, Dak. How about you?”
There was a short pause before Dakota answered. “Just about, though I’m going to need to make some running repairs at the rendezvous coordinates. That nuke fritzed more systems than I knew I had.”
Hallam altered course and accelerated toward Dakota’s position. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to beat Alexis Black in the cockpit. And while he didn’t relish the prospect of being made to beg and squirm at Cad Rikkard’s boots, he preferred that possible future to the certainty of Alexis blowing him to atoms right then and there.
“Ruby, come on!” Hallam called out, watching her fighter continue her dogged pursuit of Cad Rikkard. However, it was clear now that the mercenary was toying with her on purpose. “We can’t beat them ship-to-ship, Ruby. Break off now!”
“Damn it, the armor on their fighters is thicker than Rikkard’s skull,” Ruby growled. Then Cad Rikkard’s mercenary vessel spun around in the blink of an eye, and Hallam saw its guns flash. Ruby took evasive action just in time to avoid a killing blow, but Hallam could see that she’d taken a serious hit. “To hell with this!” Ruby called out, turning to match Hallam’s course and burning hard away from the mercenary fighters.
The Blackfire Squadron pursued, but curiously, neither attempted to match Ruby’s acceleration curve, despite their ships being capable of even greater acceleration than the renegade fighters. Hallam again felt a pit in his stomach. He couldn’t imagine that Cad would just let them all leave completely unscathed, despite what he’d said. Then his console chimed and he saw another missile appear on his sensors. Hallam quickly scrutinized the data, panic swelling in his gut, but this time, it was a regular ship-to-ship missile, instead of a nuke. And it was heading directly for Ruby.
“Ruby, launch your countermeasures!” Hallam yelled, but Ruby’s fighter continued to offer no defense against the incoming missile. Hallam enhanced the image of her ship and discovered that her cockpit glass had been cracked, and that black smoke was pouring from her engines.
“They’re not working,” Ruby called back over the comm channel. “Half of my systems are overloading and the drive systems are failing!”
Hallam cursed and spun around, pushing his main engines as hard as his body could withstand. “You’ll have to eject,” he cried out, while at the same time depressurizing the cargo bay and lowering the rear ramp.
“Eject!” cried Ruby and Dakota, their voices in perfect harmony. “What the hell do you mean eject!” Dakota added.
“For once can you not argue?” Hallam hit back. Then he added a little more reticently, “Just point your cockpit toward my ship and punch out. I’ll catch you…”
“You’ll catch me!” yelled Ruby.
Hallam realized that his idea sounded crazy, and he couldn’t deny that it was a huge roll of the dice. However, the missile was now only seconds away from destroying Ruby’s ship. Ultimately, she had no choice. It was either eject or die. Hallam saw Ruby cut her failing engines and tip the nose of the ship forward, angling her cockpit at Hallam’s approaching fighter. Hallam blew out a tense breath and prepared himself. I was always more of a hitter than a catcher… he thought as his fingers flexed nervously around the controls.
“Dak, if ever there was a time to pat Bob the bear on the head, now is it…” said Hallam. Then the canopy of Ruby’s fighter blew off and the pilot was ejected into space inside her chair. A split-second later, the vessel was hit by the missile, engulfed in flames and blown into pieces. “Here goes nothing…” said Hallam, more to himself than to the others. He pulsed the thrusters to align his fighter with Ruby’s rapidly approaching ejection seat and held his breath. With a ready eye still on the scanners, he noted that the Blackfire Squadron fighters had both begun to accelerate harder. Cad had obviously figured out Hallam’s high-risk plan, but neither mercenary ship would be in range before he was. “Just hold on, Ruby!” called Hallam in an attempt to reassure her. Then he winced, realizing how redundant his statement was.
“Hold on!” Ruby cried back. “What the hell do you think I’m doing?”
Hallam gritted his teeth and cut his engines, spinning the ship around to align the cargo hold with Ruby’s approaching ejection seat. However, Ruby was still on course to miss him, and he had only a few seconds to adjust his position.
“Yo, tanker man, you’re in the wrong place!” yelled Ruby, the pitch of her voice rising ever higher with each word.
Hallam hated Ruby’s nickname for him, and he briefly considered letting the snarky pilot sail off into the Darkspace. Instead, he continued to make micro adjustments using the thrusters, altering his position and angle, until he finally had Ruby lined up to slot directly into the hold. Unfortunately, their closing velocity was still too high. Unless he reduced their relative speed, Ruby would end up as a smear on his cargo bay wall. At least that would shut her up… Hallam considered before pushing the thought aside and placing his hand delicately on the main throttle. Hallam blipped the engines in controlled bursts, watching their relative speed steadily reduce to a safe velocity. However, as Ruby drew close enough that she could have flipped Hallam the bird, the final burst from the main engines kicked her off course.
“Hallam!” Ruby screamed.
However, all Hallam could hear was the blood pumping furiously in his ears. He engaged the thrusters again, flying on gut instinct alone, and pushed the ship back in line with barely a second to spare. He heard and felt the thud of Ruby’s ejector seat hammer against the bulkhead, and practically punched the button to close the ramp.
“Dak, we’re clear; get gone already!” Hallam yelled, pushing his throttle forward and starting the Shelby Drive sequence. Flopping back into his chair, Hallam let out a huge exhalation of pent-up breath and watched the countdown tick down on his screen.
Twelve, eleven… Hallam counted in his head.
“I could kill you right now if I wanted to, Knight,” Cad Rikkard said over the open comm channel, his voice hushed and sinister.
…ten, nine…
“But I want you to know that I’m choosing to let you go,” Cad continued, his words oozing out like venom from a viper’s fangs.
…eight… seven…
“But you can’t run forever. One day soon, we’ll meet face-to-face.”
…six… five…
“And then you’ll admit that I beat you. You’ll lie broken at my feet and confess that I am the superior man. You’ll beg me for your life…”
four… three…
“…and then, Knight, you will die.”
two… one…
Hallam’s renegade fighter was consumed by the swirling red energy of bridge space, and the voice of Cad Rikkard vanished. Hallam should have felt safe and relieved, he realized, but he experienced none of those emotions. Cad Rikkard’s words were still echoing in his ears. He now understood the true meaning of the message the mercenary had wanted to convey. The offer of sparing the renegade hideouts from destruction on the condition he and the others surrendered was a façade. And the veneer that coated that lie had also been paper thin. The mercenary’s true motivations were now as clear as starlight. Cad Rikkard wanted revenge, but more than this, he wanted to belittle Hallam and make him beg for his life. He didn’t just want him beaten. He wanted him broken.
The Wolf and Blackfire squadrons were no longer sparring. There were no longer any rules, and no count outs or submissions. The gloves had come off, and this was now a fight to the death, no holds barred. However, that went both ways, Hallam told himself. If Cad Rikkard wanted to go to war, then Hallam would ride out to face him on the battlefield. Because in a fight between Cad Rikkard’s ego and the future of the human race, the mercenary leader of the Blackfire Squadron could not be permitted to win.
27
Hallam jumped down from his fighter as Ruby Rivas was
hurriedly loaded onto a stretcher and rushed toward the medical bay. She had taken a hard knock after Hallam had caught her in the cargo bay, like a lacrosse stick catching a ball. Luckily, her injuries were not critical, and she had still been conscious when Hallam had landed back at Dr. Rand’s hideout. Yet it was the closest call that any of them had experienced. A second was all that had separated Ruby from survival versus a cold, lonely death in the Darkspace.
Dakota ran to Hallam’s side, and without thinking, he pulled her into an embrace. He’d almost lost her twice in as many days, and it seemed that each time they faced the Blackfire Squadron, their odds of survival were getting slimmer. The embrace initially appeared to catch Dakota by surprise, but she quickly returned it, squeezing him tighter. She then slid her hand onto the back of Hallam’s neck and peered into his eyes.
“That was too close,” she said softly. Hallam realized that they were both shaking. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” replied Hallam, glancing at Ruby’s stretcher, which was already disappearing through the doorways, a team of medics at its side. “But Ruby almost didn’t make it. I caught her out of pure luck, rather than skill or judgment.”
Hallam spotted Dr. Rand hurrying toward them across the hangar deck. He and Dakota swiftly released their grips on one another and waited for her to arrive, trying to look nonchalant. Dakota smoothed back her hair and looked idly around the bay, while Hallam shoved his hands in his pockets and scuffed his boots on the deck, each of them trying to appear like they were just coincidentally hanging out in the same place.
“What happened?” said Dr. Rand. She’d either not noticed their embrace or chosen not to mention it.
“Cad Rikkard wanted to make a statement, and he made one, alright,” said Dakota. “He’s discovered a way to disable the defense grids, and he claims to know where the rest of the hideouts are. Unless we give ourselves up. You, me, Hallam, and Ruby. He’ll destroy them all.” Then Dakota shrugged. “To be honest, I think he’ll attack them anyway, no matter what we do.”