Galactic - Ten Book Space Opera Sci-Fi Boxset

by Colin F. Barnes

  “Tarkun, how long’s it been?” Sanchez said, turning on his best gunrunner’s charm. “Not using your exo nowadays?”

  “It’s back at the mine,” Tarkun said and looked around Sanchez as Mach and Adira approached. “Who are they?”

  “Two of the crew. We’re staying here tonight for a bit of fun. What time do you finish work?”

  “I’m not sure I want to be in a bar with you, Sanchez.”

  The big hunter laughed. “Oh, come on. Once I’m back on my feet, I’ll bring you some vestan lasers. Just a couple of drinks for old time’s sake?”

  “Very well. I’ll be back with the convoy before sunset. They’ll probably join me. Tell your friends to keep their mouths shut unless they’re asked a question.”

  “The entire group?” Sanchez said and puffed his cheeks. “There’s not enough room to swing a snake in the Nebula.”

  “There’s only five of us. You can buy the drinks.”

  “Sounds good to me. Let’s get our business out of the way. I want to stash them on our ship before the militia start sniffing around.”

  “You won’t get any trouble from them,” Tarkun said, and nodded toward the main road. A feronian in a leathery royal blue uniform stood by the side of it and rolled an electric bat in his hand.

  Tarkun flipped open a compartment at the back of his hover bike and pulled out a long gray bag. He unfastened it and showed three antique SamCore Vipers. Stun weapons that ceased to be produced seven decades ago. Mach had used a couple before; they were reliable old beasts.

  “They’re charged and ready to go,” Tarkun said. “Ten thousand eros.”

  Sanchez waved Mach forward. He configured the amount on his smart-screen and held his wrist against Tarkun’s. The exchange confirmed with a soft electronic bleep.

  Mach tucked the bag under his arm. “Pleasure doing business.”

  Tarkun turned to Sanchez and pointed a spindly finger in Mach’s direction. “Don’t bring this one tonight. There’s something about him I don’t like.”

  “He won’t be at the bar,” Sanchez said. “You can trust me on that.”

  The feronian straddled his hover bike and fired up its engines to a whine. The bike gently lifted a meter into the air and drifted toward the main road. Dust and small stones sprayed across the ground in its hot wake.

  “If these are your friends,” Adira said, “I’d hate to see your enemies.”

  “He’s gonna be my enemy soon enough,” Sanchez said. “Five on the convoy shouldn’t be too much trouble if we find a decent place on the trail.”

  “Agreed,” Mach said. “Let’s take a quick scan of the compound.”

  Adira shook her head. “If it’s anything like the last time I checked it out, we’ll be facing at least twenty armed feronians.”

  “She’s right,” Sanchez said. “The numbers have swung it.”

  Mach shielded his brow and checked local time on his smart-screen. The sun had dipped in the sky since he last checked, meaning they only had a couple of hours to find a suitable position for the crystal heist.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Mach crouched on top of the peninsula’s hill, positioned between the shipyard and the city, and surveyed inland. The trail to the mine at the bottom of the mountain had been quiet for the last ten minutes.

  Sanchez had stripped and reassembled each of the Vipers, ensuring their serviceability.

  Adira stood by Mach’s side, resting a hand on his shoulder. She pointed at a cluster of rocks on the trail, at the mouth of a shallow valley that led toward the city. “That’s where we should do it. One of us provides covering fire from height. The other two take the convoy down from ground level.”

  The plan was solid enough. They would never know what kind of weapons they were facing until they sprang the ambush, but the one-shot deal to secure the Jaguar was good enough to take the risk.

  Mach decided to check on the other group’s progress. He keyed Babcock on his smart-screen and raised it to his mouth. “Babcock, how are things going on your end?”

  “Like a dream. You’ll love it. They’ve opened the hangar roof for takeoff, and the JPs are being taken through the controls.”

  “Nothing out of the ordinary for us to worry about?”

  “Nope. The engineers here know about your mission and they’re buzzing. It means they’re all in work for another year. All seems legit.”

  “Be ready to go around sunset. If we don’t return after dark, get back to the Phalanx-E and head for the nearest space port.”

  “I know you well enough, Mach. See you in an hour.”

  Sanchez placed the Vipers back in the gray bag and shouldered it. Keeping the weapons concealed was the best approach. Two humans and a fidian walking along the trail to the mine and armed with Vipers would set off alarm bells. As it was, they were just a crew having a stroll out of the city. Nothing out of the ordinary for people who landed and didn’t want to sample Feronia Prime’s delights.

  Adira led the way down a dusty thin path, surrounded by wiry brown shrubs. The sun’s heat weakened as it dipped toward the sea, casting long shadows across the ground. Mach wondered why they only had five people in the convoy. The only logical conclusion was that most people wouldn’t have the balls to rob the orcus on their home world. After years of having the freedom of the city, their guard had dropped.

  “Do we kill after we stun?” Adira said, jumping straight to an obvious practical problem. They would be hunted down if any of the gang lived to tell the tale. Mach didn’t like cutting off access to planets in the Salus Sphere, or killing for no reason, so stunning would do the job.

  “Stun and move quick,” Mach said. “They’ll contact others and they’ll be straight on top of us.”

  “Agreed,” Sanchez said. “We can pay back a holdup if we complete our mission. They’ve got plenty more crystals in the mine. They won’t forgive us for killing their crew.”

  “Screw them,” Adira said. “They’re jumped-up pirates and smugglers. I’m never coming back to this hellhole.”

  Mach could see both points of view, but they had to have a clear strategy, but he refused to kill anybody in cold blood. The orcus wouldn’t think twice about killing them, but the plan was to not give them a chance.

  “I’m leaving on the Jaguar,” Mach said. “As much as I hate to say it, Adira, we’re taking the soft approach.”

  Adira shook her head and kicked a stone along the path.

  Mach understood that it probably railed against her killer instinct, but once they captured the Atlantis ship, Adira could forget that life.

  At the bottom of the path, they joined the trail toward the mountains. The brown dirt valley rose twenty meters either side of them. Nothing came in either direction and they reached the rocks after two minutes. Sanchez handed out the Vipers.

  Twice as heavy as the new graphene models, Mach thought. He shouldered it, flicked on the electronic scope and peered through it. The rifle automatically focused on moving objects: great for hunting single creatures, but confusing in a firefight. He switched it back to manual.

  “I’ll take the top,” Adira said.

  She scrambled up the small hill and nestled between two boulders in the prone firing position. Sanchez edged behind a pile of rocks and dropped to one knee. Mach ducked alongside him. Carrying out moves like this always took him back to the old days on Fides Prime, carrying out military exercises in the sweltering jungle. All CWDF destroyer crew had to learn basic soldiering before the boring technical lectures began.

  The white streaky cirrus in the sky took on a pink tinge as the sun continued to lower. Natural light began to fade, but they still had a good level of visibility, and the Viper had a night-sight option.

  “Something’s coming,” Adira said.

  Mach craned his neck around the pile of rocks. Two black vehicles snaked around the trail, leaving a cloud of dust behind. Two-track trucks with open cabins. At least the five orcus hadn’t come on hover bikes. That would�
��ve made things a lot harder if the one carrying the crystals split, and the others fired their mini laser cannons.

  The gruff engine noise and the monotonous cranking of the tracks grew louder.

  “Two TTs. Fire at the front cabin. I’ll take the rear one,” Mach said.

  Sanchez nodded and slipped his finger around the trigger. “You got it.”

  Tracks crunched over loose stones only thirty meters away. A single headlight stabbed out of the front of the lead vehicle, brightening the increasingly gloomy valley. Mach glanced back at Adira. She aimed down, ready to fire.

  “Ready?” Mach asked.

  Sanchez didn’t wait for a command. He sprinted to the edge of the track, aimed at the truck’s windshield and fired an energy burst.

  Mach ran straight past him. An orcus gang member jumped out of the side door and raised a laser. Before he could fire, Mach zapped him in the chest. He quickly switched aim to the cabin. The other door was open. Multiple footsteps pounded against the dirt.

  The distinctive fire of a Viper crackled high to his left. Adira found her target. A body hit the ground.

  “Front truck clear,” Sanchez called out.

  A head appeared around the back of the rear truck. Mach ducked in front. “We’ve still got one back here.”

  Mach took a few deep breaths and wiped sweat from his brow. Sanchez dashed around forward and skidded to a halt next to him. “Three in the front cabin. One here. That’s one left.”

  “Sanchez,” a voice called out, “is that you?”

  “Damn,” Sanchez said and glanced around the side of the truck. “It’s Tarkun.”

  Fuel from the front engine pooled around Mach’s boots. He elbowed Sanchez and gestured down with his rifle. “We have to finish this. Now.”

  “Come out, Sanchez,” Tarkun shouted. “If it’s the crystals you want, take them.”

  “He’s gonna call in our position,” Carson said. “You go one way, I’ll go the other. Ready?”

  “Wait,” Sanchez said. “I’ll talk to him.”

  “No. It only buys the orcus more time to get here.”

  Carson reached out to drag him back, but Sanchez moved swiftly around away and stood around the side with his rifle shouldered.

  “Come out with your hands up,” Sanchez said.

  Quickly glancing in either direction, Mach couldn’t see anything approaching. He hunched down, edged around the front end, and provided cover.

  Tarkun leaped from the back with a laser pistol raised in each hand. A shot echoed high to Carson’s left and the gangster’s head snapped back. The pistols fell from his hands and thudded against the ground. Adira accurately stunned him.

  Sanchez stared at Tarkun. Carson rushed past him to the back of the truck, climbed the mini ladder, and searched for the crystals. He popped open two dull metal crates, but both were empty. Switching on his night vision, he searched around the dark corners with his sights. There was nothing else here apart from an old blanket and some empty food trays.

  Carson jumped back out of the truck and found Sanchez crouched over Tarkun.

  “Forget about him,” Carson said. “He’s not going to give you a present when he wakes.”

  “I’m not bothered about him. I’m checking for anything useful.”

  “We need the damned crystals. If they’re not in the front truck, we’re leaving here on the Phalanx-E.”

  Adira had descended into the valley. She opened the lead truck’s door and aimed inside. Carson climbed into the back. Two shiny metal boxes, one on top of the other, were position at the front end. He pulled the lid off the first and ripped away the foil seal, revealing it packed full with blue fusion crystals.

  Mach picked up the box and guessed it weighed double what the master-builder requested. Sanchez and Adira both looked at him in anticipation as he carried the rear end and held it down.

  “This is our ticket out of here,” Mach said.

  Sanchez cradled the box in his tattooed arms.

  Adira looked inside it and her eyes lit up. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  Mach jumped down and they climbed the opposite side of the valley. From here, it was a descent to the grid of warehouses and back to hangar two.

  Two bright lights shot into the air over the city and headed for the location of the ambush. Another one came from the direction of the mine. Orcus hover bikes reacting to a call they probably received from Tarkun.

  All three of them ran down the opposite slope, toward the shipyard lights that twinkled in the dusk.

  Mach scrolled through the contacts on his screen and called Babcock. “We’ll be there in a few minutes. Make sure everything’s ready.”

  “I’ll have the master-builder wait by the ramp.”

  “Thanks.”

  Unlike the JPs, who would probably ask dumb questions, Mach knew Babcock would understand the situation. No surviving witnesses also suited the master-builder’s needs. He could stash the crystals and deny everything. If an investigation were launched by the orcus, their ship would be long gone. Mach guessed it would be the last time he visited Feronia Prime.

  They continued at a fast pace between warehouses. No craft flew overhead, meaning a hot pursuit hadn’t begun. The stealth of their operation was the key to its success.

  A door opened at the back of hangar two and an engineer beckoned them inside. “Have you got the crystals?” she asked.

  “We’re delivering them to your boss,” Carson said and continued toward the ramp.

  Babcock and the master-builder turned as they slapped across the hangar floor. Sanchez dumped the box at their feet, rested his hands against his knees and gulped for air. Adira rubbed her forearm across her brow and leaned against the wing.

  “Are we good to go?” Mach asked.

  The master-builder scooped out a chunk of shimmering crystal and held it against a shiny black device. It registered a beep and reading. He smiled and buried his hand deep into the box, checking the quantity.

  “Can we leave?” Mach said. “For the record, we only stunned your local gangsters.”

  “You are free to leave. I wish you good luck and safe travels.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Mach engaged the ignition protocol and the advanced Gamma Drive engines on the Jaguar bellowed into life like the roar of Zeus himself. A thunderclap boomed around the shipyard, its massive roar shaking the craft as Mach increased the power slowly into the experimental motors.

  A ship tech spoke over the comm channel. “How’s she doing up there?” the grizzled voice, thick with pride, asked.

  “Purring like a lion,” Mach said, thrilled by the power pulsing through the ship. The rest of the crew were strapped into their seats and just looked on at the curved holographic screen with a mixture of fear and excitement.

  “How’re the crystals holding up?” Mach asked as he let the engines idle.

  “So far so good,” the tech said. “Temperatures and frequencies all within tolerances. Captain, Mach, I do believe you have yourself a new ship. Go fly her like the wind and put her through her paces. And be sure to send us reports.”

  “Roger that,” Mach said, and then to his crew: “Wanna go fly a new bird?”

  “Punch it,” Sanchez said with a boyish grin on his face.

  “Take it steady at first,” Danick said, “just in case.”

  Mach’s laugh was almost as raucous as the Jaguar’s engines. He didn’t come this far to take it easy. If this ship was as good as everyone had promised, he was going to damn well see what it could do.

  The Gamma Drive was said to allow the ship to fly at an incredible two-point-five APD: astronomical units per day. Coming from the heap of crap that was the Phalanx-E it was like suddenly being fired out of a rail gun where before you were flung from a boy’s slingshot.

  Mach placed his hands into the holocontrols and disengaged the landing locks. The ship rock to one side as the weight of it settled naturally on its landing feet. He adjusted the ang
le of the auxiliary thrusters and, when he received the all clear from the tech, slowly took the ship up and out of the vertical hangar.

  Once clear, he banked to starboard, pointed the nose to the sky and, when he was a few hundred meters away from the shipyard, engaged the Gamma Drive and punched it to thirty percent power.

  The ship shot forward, accelerating to thirty percent in less time than it took to take a breath. Mach was forced back into his seat, the ship pulling hard Gs in the instant it climbed out of Feronia’s gravity well.

  Lassea screamed with the shock of it. Sanchez’ smile hadn’t moved at all.

  Adira looked at him, her face passive as though this was just an everyday occurrence.

  “There goes the atmosphere,” Danick said after a few seconds. They blasted out of the planet’s atmosphere and charged on forward, reaching well over thirty-four thousand KPH.

  Mach slowly increased the power of the ship to fifty percent capacity and the thrust continued to drive them faster and faster. He banked the ship half a degree, flying starboard of an asteroid cluster.

  The rocky formation blurred away, the Jaguar burning up the klicks. “My god, this thing is good,” Mach said. He glanced over to Babcock, who held his head at an angle, watching the telemetry metrics flowing down his screen. “All good over there?” Mach asked, concerned at the worried expression on the other’s face.

  “I think we’re being…” Babcock waved his hands over the console, leaned closer and nodded before sitting back and turning to Sanchez and Adira. “Arm the lasers, we’ve got company. Three signals, point two AUs, ten degrees north, behind that asteroid.”

  “What?” Mach said, doing a double take at the screen in front of him. He enlarged the magnification and squinted at the three specks of yellow fusion burners. “Orcus fighters. I guess they figured they’d get their crystals back.”

  Sanchez grunted as he manipulated the weapon’s controls. “Lasers at quarter capacity, ready to fire in three seconds.”