She was not so brash with the energy weapons. She knew those were dangerous at all times. Gently placing her boot on the rear portion of the weapon, she carefully bent the barrel just enough so that it was disabled. Once both bots and weapons were out of play, she moved to the wall on her left and took up a kneeling position, her rifle barrel pointing into the large processing hall.
Mils got set opposite her, and once he was in position, he signalled Cryne, who brought up the rest of the team.
“Same drill as the two previous levels. We sweep as a team now. There are still five more droids out there, and we don’t want to get jumped by them.” Cryne stepped forward into the vast space, his weapon up and scanning to his front, but somehow he missed it. Standish knew that if Cryne had missed it, she probably would have to. This was only her second experience of ground-combat, and she should have guessed that it wasn’t going to be as easy as shooting old Rigel Axion droids.
“Fuck!” Cryne ducked down to his left, the purple blast of energy just missing his right shoulder by a fraction.
The rest of the team couldn’t see what had forced their leader down, but it was apparent right away that it wasn’t an old machine, because as soon as the first shot had just missed, it was followed by a massive barrage of concentrated fire designed to keep everyone’s head down, most likely while it manoeuvred to a superior firing position.
“Light Sentinel!” Cryne was breathing hard inside his helmet, and the report was a wake-up call to anyone on the team who thought that this was going to be an easy sweep of a lightly defended target. “Standish and Mils cut left. Ho and Lo cut right. Has and I will pop up here.” Cryne positioned himself ready for the counterattack. “This machine is grey, and it was moving fast.”
Standish checked her weapon and amplified her hearing systems on her helmet to detect the machines possible whereabouts. Her hands were sweating slightly inside her armour. She knew that this was not going to be an easy fight.
“Go!”
The command came, and everyone sprung into action. Standish got to her feet, while moving left around the corner, and into the large chamber. Her rifle was sweeping back and forth, looking for the enemy robot, waiting for it to pop up from behind some piece of machinery. There was no way of knowing where the Sentinel was until it revealed itself again, and there was also no way of knowing if the machine would attack or conduct some kind of guerrilla war on the team as they moved through the compound, but as Standish was starting to learn, in warfare, you rarely have to wait long for the horrible truth to become evident.
When the shots came, Standish was looking almost directly at them. The seven purple beams of charged energy were picked up by her helmets HUD system and quickly highlighted as a threat.
Acting on instinct, Standish quickly fired her side-mounted mini-thrusters and shot herself through the air to her left. It got her out of the firing line but slammed her right into Mil Cannarr who was trying to get a shot on the Sentinel.
“Fuck!” Standish yelled at herself. Stupid and clumsy.
The force of the impact sent them sprawling onto the ground, with Standish ending up on her back.
She could see that her other team members were returning fire towards the Sentinel, but it didn’t seem to have the desired effect, as the longer she watched the exchange of fire, she could see that the arc of fire was getting increasingly close to her position, which meant that the enemy robot had to be getting much closer to where she was lying.
Rolling onto her side, Standish quickly brought her rifle up and pointed it down the aisle she was next to, checking for threats. None were in sight, and she took the opportunity to check on Mils, who was kneeling down not far from where she was, his weapon pointed out, ready to engage the Sentinel, but its next attack came in a very unconventional fashion.
Scanning the aisle that was in her line of fire, Standish spotted an arm of the Sentinel ten metres away, with an object in its hand, but it moved too fast for her, and before she could take a bearing and get off a well-aimed shot, the machine fired a grappling hook device at her, which landed on her left ankle, and before she could react and cut it off, Standish found herself being dragged down the aisle feet first.
Her first reaction was to reorient her weapon, and when she had done so, she let rip a steady stream of fire at the exposed hand and arm of the machine, but it proved ineffective. The laser blasts hit their target, but there seemed to be no damage caused.
“Mils!” She screamed at the top of her lungs.
Rechecking her position, she realised that the short trip to the end of the grappling hook was about to come to an end, and the moment she stopped being dragged, she snapped her head to her right to see the Light Sentinel just a few feet away. It had discarded its blaster pistol, and without hesitation, brought up its right arm, and slammed its fist into the sternum of Standish’s armour.
The impact was massive and tremendously forceful. It broke seven of Standish’s ribs, and ruptured her spleen, forcing her to cough up blood inside her helmet. She attempted to call for help, but all the came out over her helmets speaker was a garbled cry for “Mils.” Which no one heard.
The force of the strike had forced her head away from the ground, before settling back down gently. Looking up, she noticed her HUD was damaged, and she could barely see what was coming through on her main picture, but it didn’t matter, her vision was blurred, and the heads-up display was covered in some of her own blood.
Time froze for her as she lay there. Her head felt like it was swaying from side to side after the strike, and even though she hadn’t been hit in the head, she felt dizzy. Unable to see correctly, she flipped up her blast shield, an unwise move in any tactical environment, and looked at the grey coloured killing machine that was next to her. She watched as it snatched her rifle out of her hands without any effort. It’s dark blue eyes glowing in the poorly lit room. The machine was probably smaller than she was, but it was stronger, faster, and more lethal. The armour she wore and all the enhancements it allowed her paled in comparison to a fully capable Sentinel.
Once the rifle was pried from her hands, she knew she was done for, she just didn’t know in what form death would come for her. She couldn’t move, she suspected that the strike had damaged her back. Closing her eyes, she started to lose consciousness, but before she was out, she blinked her eyes open for just long enough to see someone drive a blade into the side of the Sentinel’s head. After that, it was only darkness.
50
The Past
AR 79 System
She felt cold, and when Standish opened her eyes, she knew why. She was laying on her back in nothing but the undergarments she wore with her armour. Blinking twice, she looked up but didn’t recognise the ceiling she was staring at. Feeling a bit light-headed, she looked to her right and saw her armour lying next to her, the significant dent in the chest plate still present.
Looking to her left, she spotted the medical holding bag, which was keeping Systa K in stasis. She was back on the freighter. Propping herself up on her elbows, Standish noticed that she had a bio-medical warp around her entire midsection. It was fitted tightly to her skin, and very warm. In fact, it was the only warm part of her body.
Slowly moving to her feet, Standish noticed that her rifle was just next to her, and as an act of habit, picked up the weapon, checked that it was on safe and loaded, then looked around the large holding area for her personal kit, which was up against the wall. Reaching her gear, she set the rifle down, then quickly put on her jumpsuit, making sure she didn’t disturb the medical device strapped to her torso. Once her boots were on, she picked her weapon up again and headed to the bridge.
There she found Jun, alone, monitoring a variety of systems.
“You’re awake.” He said, looking up from the monitor with a smile on his face. “I was worried that I’d lose all my female operatives on this one.”
Standish leaned against the bulkhead and took a deep breath. “What happened?�
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“Light Sentinel got you.” Jun replied, standing up straight. “Cryne took it out.” Jun moved towards the flight chair which had been repaired and sat down in it. “Come here.” He pointed to a seat just next to the pilot's station.
Standish moved over and sat down gingerly on the seat. She snuck a glance towards the front of the ship and the repaired windshield. Outside was nothing by darkness. No stars, nothing.
“Once you were down, Cryne made the decision to have Mils evacuate you back to the transportation dock. He then contacted me to come and extract you. Once that was complete, the team went through the rest of the mine and destroyed the remaining Rigel Axion bots.
“Once that was complete, and no clues could be found, Cryne put enough demolitions on the mine that whoever wants to reopen it will need a lot of heavy machinery and time to do it.” Jun rested his right arm on his knee and looked at Standish. “Once the first mine was secure, we moved here, RBM 45, as quickly as we could, just in case a signal from TKM 44 was sent here. The team inserted, and they’ve been sweeping the mine since we arrived.”
“They went without me?” Standish asked, a hint of disappointment in her voice.
“You were of no use to them.” Jun said, shaking his head. “Your injuries might have killed someone else. You’re lucky your species is robustly built.”
Standish knew he was right. She just didn’t like it. “What happens now?”
“Now?” Jun took in a deep breath. “We extract the team in thirty minutes, detonate the charges that Cryne is setting, just like on the last asteroid, then go into a hide, and wait for someone to show up.”
“When will I be ready for duty?”
“Two or three days.”
Standish ran her hand over the med-unit that was stuck to her torso. It was smooth and warm to the touch. Casting a glance towards the exterior of the ship, she tried to come to terms with the reality that they must have been deep inside the crater of the 45 asteroid, and far away from the surface. Not the kind of place they’d want to be ambushed in.
Bringing her hands up, she rubbed her face, then took a moment to look over the small bridge. There were three primary stations, all with various displays or dials showing the status of different components and functions of the ship. Everything seemed to be running calmly.
Standish finally rested her eyes on Jun. He was reading from a datapad and seemed lost in thought. He was undoubtedly one of the more analytical members of the Dynamic Operations community that she had met, and perhaps one of the least flashy either. There was nothing about him that screamed out for attention, or the need to be boastful. His simple, quiet professionalism spoke for itself. She wondered how he’d conduct himself under fire. She guessed that he’d do it by the numbers.
When the rest of the team reboarded the ship, there was a sense of relief that the first phase of the mission was concluded. Cryne reported that the security set-up in the second mine of RBM 45 was the same as that on TKM 44: ten Rigel Axiom combat drones each, along with a single Light Sentinel. Leaving the mine, Jun decided on a safe spot to land on an asteroid with good fields of vision towards the two mines in question, then held a briefing to discuss the next phase of the operation.
Standish was propped up next to Mils Cannarr who had a big smile on his face after seeing his teammate back on her feet. The rest of the team, other than K, were also huddled around the command table looking at a three-dimensional image of the asteroid belt that the two mines were in.
“We are here.” Jun pointed at a flashing blue dot on one of the floating rocks. “And our targets, 44 and 45, are located here.” They were both represented by two flashing red dots. “Now, what can we surmise after the two recces of the mines?”
There was a pause, which Standish used to look at the faces around the table. They had all seen combat before, but Standish knew that not all of them had encountered the speed and agility of a Sentinel before. From what Mils had said, the second machine had been much harder to take down than the first.
“They have resources, but don’t know how to best deploy them.” Cryne said, leaning on the table. “If they had been smart, they would have left some kind of auto defence system external to the mines and positioned all their assets just inside the transportation docks to repel boarders.”
Standish watched him as he spoke. He was lower on energy than she expected, but he still had a spark in his voice. He was also still wearing his armour, along with Nik Has, while the rest of the team had all stripped down to their jumpsuits.
“So, they have assets, but no military or tactical training?” Jun asked, looking at Cryne.
Cryne shrugged.
Jun rubbed his chin. “So, it’s not the Coalition.”
“No chance.” Oyni Ho said with confidence. “Of the Rigel droids we took out, there was a variation in weapons that they carried. If this were a military organisation, there would have been uniformity in the weapons and kit.”
“Same goes for those two Sentinels.” Has added. “The Light on 44 had a blaster pistol with a limited capacity charge.” He shook his head. “And the Light on 45 had what?” He looked at Cryne.
“A light wave pulse cannon.” Cryne answered.
Nik Has nodded. “That’s the kind of system used for large open areas, not confined close quarters. Whoever armed these things was either an idiot or had extremely limited resources to hand.”
“It doesn’t make any sense.” Standish said in a low voice. “How can they have the capacity to capture a mining facility, even an unarmed one, without technical knowledge?”
“What was your assessment of the actual mining facilities when you were down there?” Jun asked out loud, but the query was directed at Cryne.
“The loading docks had a full complement of refined ore waiting for collection, which means that whoever is responsible for this is due shortly, or they’re already overdue.”
“I concur.” Lo chimed in. “On 44 the entire loading dock was full. Zero room for additional pallets of ore. On 45, I’d wager it was ninety percent plus filled.” He looked over at Ho. “Is that what you thought?”
Ho nodded. “It is.”
“So we’re dealing with a customer that has access to advanced resources, but doesn’t have tactical or strategic skill sets, and if they are planning on returning, it could be soon.” Jun said in summary.
“That sounds about right.” Cryne said, wrapping his knuckles on the table. “And if they’re due back shortly, we need to be ready for them.”
“How would you play this, if you were them?” Jun asked, looking at his number two.
Cryne rocked his head from side to side. “At this point, the facility has been shut down since just after the war started, and if it takes however many days the AI said it took to mine enough ore to fill the loading docks, then this may be their third or fourth trip, which could make them cocky and overconfident. They know no one is in the system, and they might not be aware that a disturbance has been detected back at corporate headquarters, or they might assume everything in the Core is up for grabs.” He brought his hands up in protest. “With all that in play, I would guess that they’ll jump in and act as if it’s business as usual.”
“Just jump in, cruise up to the transportation dock, load the ore then be off?” Jun asked.
Cryne nodded.
“Then the question becomes, where do we have the best chance to catch them?” He looked around the room, then down at the three-dimensional map. “Since we are expecting them to be considering this a routine run, I anticipate that they will only have one ship, and it will be lightly armed. A freighter of some kind. One of the newer ones with several light-weight rail-gun batteries.” He looked at Cryne, who nodded in approval. “Our problem is that the moment they dock, and realise that both mines have been sabotaged, the game will be up. They’ll have two choices, run at once, or attempt to load the cargo then depart. If our assessment of them being militarily unsophisticated is correct, let us assume
that when they see the damage done to the mines, they suspect that it is accidental, perhaps the result of some equipment malfunction. After all, they’re after the ore, and that is why they’ve come to this deserted system.” Jun leaned back away from the table. “Their greed will get the better of them, and their naivety about all things warfare related will be their undoing.”
“But.” Standish leaned forward. “There is one small issue that needs to be mentioned.” She looked at Cryne, then Jun.
“Yes?” Jun asked.
“What if they go to 44 and realise the game is afoot, then split, but we’ve laid a trap at 45? There is no chance in this thing,” she gestured to their environment. “That’d we’d be able to chase them down. Certainly not if their ship is armed.”
She was right, and everyone standing around the table knew it. It was undeniable. It was only a question of how’d they’d spring their trap. They didn’t have to wait long for Jun to come up with a solution.
“We hold at this position, equal distance from both mines.” Jun pointed at their position on the three-dimensional image. “Once they jump in, we wait until they make their destination known to us. Once we have that information, we make a run at them.”
“A run at them?” Has asked, a confused look on his face.
Jun nodded. “We’ll need to close the gap down quickly. Their ship could be armed. We need to get to them swiftly, board, and detain or eliminate all threats on board. Once the ship is secure, jump back to Killious.” He paused and looked at Cryne. “What do you think?”
Cryne tilted his head to one side. “The plan carries with it risk.” He leaned forward and rested his hands on the table. “We’ll be exposed making our run towards whichever mine they go to first. We might be better off utilising the shuttles to make our runs. They might present smaller targets for their ship’s sensors.”
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