by Ryan Kirk
Nothing happened.
At least, nothing new happened. They were still pressed into their seats and missiles were exploding all around them.
The acceleration suddenly stopped, and Kindra was disoriented by the sudden change in her weight. Her breath came easily for the first time in what felt like forever. She realized she had been sweating from the effort.
“Max velocity reached,” Alston reported.
Kindra frowned, her understanding of space physics not keeping up with the reality of the situation.
“What do you mean?”
Alston barely had time to reply as he scanned his screens. “Need to decelerate if we’re going to dock.”
Mala’s voice was soft. “Explorer can only take one more hit, and then it’s done.”
Alston shook his head. “I’m sorry, Mala.”
There wasn’t anything else to be said.
Alston warned them all what was coming. “Prepare for deceleration. It’s gonna hurt.”
Their not-geologist wasn’t wrong. The engines kicked in, and again, Kindra was pushed into her chair. She was confused for a minute, only realizing later the Vigilance had turned around 180 degrees to brake.
The ship shuddered, and Mala burst out with a short scream. Kindra was focused on breathing, but she knew Mala’s ship must have just been destroyed. How long did it take for the Hellbringer’s main laser to cycle? Would they have enough time to reach the jumpship?
There wasn’t any way to know. Everything was out of her hands. She was only along for the ride. And then she finally blacked out.
Her vision returned. How long had she been out? It was still so hard to breathe, as though a tight rope was pulled across her chest. She gulped hungrily for air, sweat pouring down her face.
Alston was screaming, but the sound was strangely soft.
She had never heard Alston scream.
But he wasn’t Alston, was he? He was someone else.
To her left, the emergency bulkhead slammed shut.
Her next breath came more easily, air filling cavities of her lungs that had been empty for what felt like days. Her vision cleared.
They had been hit. Probably by the laser.
She rolled her head to the side and looked at Alston. He looked wrong, there was something protruding from his shoulder. He spoke, grunting with effort as he did.
“Launch missiles. AI override, code three-four-two.”
Kindra wanted to frown, but the burn from the engines slammed her even deeper into her chair, and she blacked out again.
When she opened her eyes again, the world wasn’t in order. She should have been looking at her screen, but she wasn’t. She was hanging from her chair, blood dripping down her hair. Her blood?
Kindra’s world went black again.
Everything hurt. She knew she should open her eyes, but she was afraid that if she did, they would simply hurt more. The darkness called to her, warm in its embrace.
Alston’s voice, strained, brought her back to the present. He was calling her name.
She tried to open her eyes.
Failed.
Panicked, she put more effort into what should have been an easy task. One eye obeyed, dried blood cracking and falling down. She tried to find words, to let Alston know she was okay.
“Alston,” her voice croaked. It didn’t sound like her at all. More like a robot was trying to imitate how she sounded.
“Are you injured?”
“I don’t know.”
Kindra used her open eye to start scanning her surroundings. It took her almost a full minute to process what she saw. She was hanging upside down, only the harness of her chair holding on to her. Everything around her was chaos, nothing in its place.
One by one, she moved her limbs and found them responsive. She was in incredible pain, but there were any number of explanations for that. She brought a hand up to her head and winced gingerly as she touched a cut. With extreme care, she felt around the cut. It didn’t feel deep, but it had been the source of the blood. With the same hand, she traced the blood down to her eyes and peeled the layer of caked blood off her other eyelid, which then opened.
Another minute of orientation and she started to undo her harness. She bit back a yelp as she hit the floor, hard.
“You okay?” Alston’s voice was concerned.
“Yeah. Just a hard fall.”
She looked around. She was still on the bridge of the Vigilance, but it looked like a child had taken the bridge and tossed it around, then left it behind when her mother called her for lunch. Kindra was standing on what had been one of the walls of the bridge, one of her feet on the ceiling.
She looked for Alston, found the pilot’s chair. All the angles were wrong, her rational mind wrestling with her previous experiences. Gingerly, she picked her way over towards the chair, gasping at what she saw.
Alston had seen better days. There was a shard of metal driven into his left shoulder, and his left arm hung limply at his side. He looked at her with a lopsided grin. “I’m afraid I’m stuck.”
The shard had gone through his shoulder, pinning him to his chair. Even if he undid his harness, it would rip the shard through his body. To move him, they needed to remove the shard, although it would open the wound. Kindra didn’t need to point any of that out to Alston. His look told her that he understood.
She looked around for bandages but found nothing suitable. Lacking options, she ripped the sleeves off her uniform. While she prepared, she tried to distract him.
“What did you do?”
“Their laser cycled too fast. After they blew up Mala’s ship, they had enough time to fire once directly on us. They missed the engine, at least, but destroyed a lot of the rest of the ship. We weren’t going to be able to withstand what I’d originally planned, so I ordered the AI to ram us into the Hellbringer. It worked.”
Kindra looked around the bridge. She saw two bodies, not enough for everyone on board.
“The others?”
“Trying to establish a perimeter. Told them I’d wait.” Alston laughed at his own joke.
Kindra was ready to begin, but she hesitated. “Are you sure you want me to do this? You might lose too much blood.”
Alston nodded. “I think you’re going to need me. It’s worth the risk.”
Kindra didn’t argue. After seeing his moves in the hold back on the planet, she was pretty certain that even injured and one handed he was the most dangerous one among them. “Ready?”
Alston gave one sharp nod of his head. Wrapping her hand so as not to injure herself, Kindra braced her body and pulled on the shard. Fortunately, it came out smoothly, although, as she had guessed, the wound opened and blood poured out. She hurried to pack the wound and wrap it as tightly as she could.
After she helped Alston out of his chair. The entire affair was ponderous and felt as though it was taking all day, even though she assumed only a few minutes had passed.
Together, they worked their way off the bridge.
There wasn’t much of the Vigilance left. They had crashed somewhere near the middle of the Hellbringer, and Kindra was surprised to realize she recognized the hallway they came out in. They took cover behind debris with Mala and her two remaining crew. Kindra thought the five of them made a pretty lousy boarding party.
They didn’t immediately encounter too much resistance. Kindra assumed Tev and Derreck had been successful and were drawing most of the attention towards themselves. Nicks would realize they were only a decoy, only send enough people after them to keep them pinned down while he dealt with the real threat.
Their situation wasn’t good, but it could have been worse. Both the Fleet crew and Nicks’ crew seemed content to trade the occasional random shot, but neither side was trying too hard. The rebellion troops only had to wait for a couple of exosuits to come and clean up, and Kindra and her team were directionless. Their whole goal had been to be the decoy, and they had completed that as well as they were like to.
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Survival was the easier option, but Kindra wanted to do more. They needed to do more. She risked a glance up and down the hallway, amazed they had ended up someplace she recognized.
One thought cascaded over another, and suddenly she had a plan. She put her hand on Alston’s good shoulder to get his attention.
“I know the way to Captain Nicks’ office from here. There may be copies, or even the originals, of the technology he found.”
Kindra’s mind raced. If they could get access to that information, or even find a way to control it, the balance of power in the conflict would shift. They could hold it hostage, bargain for some sort of peace. She hadn’t decided on the best way to use the technology if they found it, but there was no doubt it was the best chance of doing something that would make a difference here.
Alston seemed to have the same thought. “Which way?”
Kindra pointed down the hallway, where the rebellion soldiers were firing at them from behind corners.
Alston groaned. “Of course.”
He looked around at the surviving crew. “I don’t suppose any of you happen to have a grenade lying around, do you?”
His request was answered with blank stares.
“I thought not.”
Alston looked down the hallway thoughtfully. The corner the enemy was using as cover was about ten meters away. He looked back at his own team. “Can you all cover me?”
They nodded, and Alston got ready to leap over the debris and sprint for the corner. “On three.”
“One.”
“Two.” Alston took a deep breath and paused.
“Wait. None of you are going to shoot me on accident, right?” The concern in his voice was evident.
Mala looked like she might shoot him on purpose.
“Right. Three.” Alston leaped up as everyone fired in tandem.
Their desperate gamble worked. Alston slid into the corner, his weapon out and firing. Kindra didn’t know how he managed with the pain he must be feeling. But he had been right. Without him, Kindra wasn’t sure how they would have gotten out of their predicament.
He struggled to his feet, trying and failing to hide his pain. The rest of them came after him, taking the weapons from the bodies of the soldiers. Better armed, it was Kindra’s turn to lead the way.
She had only been here once before, but every turn was ingrained in her memory. Her heart had been racing that time, too, even though no one had been shooting at her. The fear heightened her recollection, and she moved with a surety that surprised even her.
They didn’t encounter any resistance between their crash site and Nicks’ office. Kindra figured it was most likely that almost all the forces were focused on Tev. She hoped he’d survive, but it was difficult to hold out hope for any of them.
The door to Nicks’ office was locked, but that didn’t seem to discourage Alston. He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out his datapad. He held it up against the door and it opened without hesitation. Kindra stared at him, amazed and slightly jealous. He shrugged. “Fleet has some nice toys.”
Kindra stepped into the office first and made a beeline for Nicks’ desk. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was expecting to find, but his desk was as clear as it had been the last time she was here.
Alston was looking around the room, admiring the decor. Having been in the space before, Kindra didn’t think much of it, but it was richly appointed. There were relics scattered throughout the room. Alston’s eye was drawn towards a sword mounted against the wall.
“This has to be thousands of years old.” He reached out to touch it but hesitated.
Kindra fought the urge to throw something at him. They had far more important things to do than admire swords right now. “Will you come here and use your pad to hack into the system?”
Alston shook his head. “No. The information won’t be accessible from his desk. It’s too valuable, and he’d want to keep most of it off the general ship network. Too risky.”
The spy pulled out his datapad and placed it on the wall next to the sword. To Kindra’s amazement, a slot opened, revealing several data sticks. She decided, immediately, that Alston was a much better spy than a geologist. Far more interesting as well.
Her sense of relief and success was quickly taken away. Outside, she could hear the approaching footfalls of a sprinting exosuit. Without being told, she knew their foray into the office had been discovered, and the rebellion soldiers were on their way to kill them.
With the others, she approached the door, weapon ready, just in time to see a type of exosuit she’d never seen before crash around the corner. She could see the markings on the suit clearly, and her heart sank even further. Captain Nicks had come to reclaim that which he’d found.
Eleven
Tev looked out the window as their new dropship lifted off. He wasn’t sure if he would see his planet again. He certainly hoped so. Everything he had done had been for this planet and the people who called it home. It seemed a shame not to return for another campfire.
He let the thought slip from his mind. The debris was still settling from the massive explosion, and the higher they got, the more gutted Tev became by the damage a single weapon had caused.
Nicks would not be allowed to live. Such an abuse of power had no fitting punishment in Tev’s mind. Death was quickest, but if there was a worse punishment, Tev would have had no problem in administering it.
Such destruction affected more than just the people who lived in the area, although many had died. The true tragedy was in all the other life that perished. Trees, fish, bugs. Nothing could have survived a blast like that.
Nicks shared the same problem so many in Kindra’s society seemed to have: They took far more than they returned. Their behavior was disgraceful, and Tev felt sick when he thought about the actions Nicks had taken just to prove a point.
His resolve hardened. They would take the Hellbringer, Nicks’ pride and joy, right from under him. Then they’d kill Nicks. The thought brought a smile to Tev’s face.
They passed out of atmosphere quickly, and Derreck pushed them hard towards Hellbringer. He told them to take their seats in some of the gravity cushions. The suits protected them from some the forces they were going to feel, but not all.
For several minutes, the ride was as smooth as any Tev had taken, but it didn’t last. He heard Derreck swear under his breath, and the ship started jerking violently, acceleration pushing them in many different directions.
Tev was worried. Their plan hinged on sneaking onto the Hellbringer. If they were already being fired on, they had no chance. He asked Derreck what was happening.
“It’s our own people. I guess Alston’s really trying to sell the deception.”
Moments later, Tev was slammed to the side of his seat.
“One missile got through. No permanent damage, though.”
Tev hated not being able to do anything. He pictured himself on the hull of the ship, trying to snipe incoming missiles with his rifle. He knew he was being childish, but anything seemed preferable to being locked in a can with nothing to do.
The ride smoothed out, and Derreck took a moment to open a public channel and call to the remaining hunters. “Everyone okay?”
There were a chorus of affirmative grunts.
Derreck was silent for several minutes before he spoke again. “Okay, everyone. Hellbringer is taking over our systems for final approach. If we get through this, we’ll be on board the jumper in a few minutes.”
A minute later. “Our codes were accepted. Prepare for combat.”
Tev released himself from his seat. As the others stood up with him, he took a moment and looked around. He was proud of all the hunters he had trained. They were learning more than just how to pilot the suits. They were learning about an entirely different way of life, and they had adapted. The hunters, he realized, were the trial. Could his people quickly adapt to new truths? If the men and women in front of him were any indication, they cou
ld. They would survive, and thrive, long after he was gone. The thought gave him comfort as the ship gently shuddered to a stop, inside the belly of their most dangerous enemy.
When the ramp of the ship opened there wasn’t any time for him to take in the sights. Derreck had warned them that at most they would get a few minutes before Nicks realized he’d been duped. They might not even have that long.
Their approach was unconventional. They only had eight suits, all damaged, to take over an entire jumpship. The odds weren’t in their favor, and if they stuck with conventional tactics, it would only be a matter of time before they were overwhelmed.
Generally, an assault would take place using groups of four suits, overpowering the enemy one step at a time. Derreck didn’t want to concentrate their forces that much. Instead, they were going to make the most out of the hunters’ mobility. The plan was to split into four groups of two, with two pairs taking different paths to the engine room and two pairs taking different paths towards the bridge.
Both objectives were down in the bowels of the ship, as was customary. Derreck’s instructions were simple. “Keep moving. Kill what you can, but movement is more important. Never let yourselves get pinned.”
Derreck was with Tev. Each pair was comprised of the two who had trained the most together, and for Tev, that meant the captain.
Before they sprinted out of the dropship, Tev turned and looked at Derreck. “You think you can keep up?”
Derreck laughed, a short bark. “Probably not.”
Tev led the way, barreling past shocked technicians as they approached to perform the standard post-landing routines. As the last pair of hunters left the dropship, the ramp closed behind them. Eleta would stay on board and use the dropship to work whatever technical magic she could.
He could hear the exclamations of the techs as they were nearly run over by the sprinting suits. The four pairs of suits went to different exits of the hanger, gone by the time the hallways started flashing red.