"I'm the Admiral of this emergency response fleet, you may call me by my rank. We have come to re-assert our claim on this Caran Enterprise interest and require that you leave this space immediately."
"We're retrieving a number of our people and will require at least half an hour to complete operations."
"Please state your vessel's business here again?"
"We responded to a distress call, freed a large slave crew and restored power to a large section of Ossimi station after defeating a number of raiders inside. We're just picking up some of our people and-" Oz was interrupted as the holographic figure disappeared. He looked behind him to Jason and shrugged.
"They dropped the transmission. I can tell that the relay line they're using to speak through the energy barrier is still active but they're not speaking to us."
Oz motioned for Jason to move up to the command seats as he sat down. "Do a check on the crew profiles, see if anyone has dealt with Caran Enterprises before."
"I already did, we don't have anyone aboard who's run into them."
"Fantastic."
"Oops, tall, blurry and mysterious is back."
"Put him through," Oz said, standing up again.
The vague image of the Admiral reappeared. "The Station Keeper, Foreperson Amanda Dimitri has informed me that you have failed to meet her reasonable demands and your people have cost her the lives of several workers. It's also come to my attention that there is a Galactic Warrant out for this vessel and her crew. Specifically one Captain Jacob Valance, also known as Jonas Valent. I'm instructing you to power down all but essential systems and prepare to be boarded. All compartments are to be opened for scanning, any weapons you have will be secured in arms lockers, your crew will stand at stations for inspections and all senior officers will meet the inspection team at the airlock when they arrive with the command codes for all vessels. Any show of resistance will be met with brute force."
"Please, give me a moment to begin making arrangements," Oz said as he cut the channel with a tap on his comm unit.
The Admiral's holographic image disappeared.
"Ronin," Oz addressed.
"Here and waiting. How is diplomacy going?"
"If it looks like any of those turrets are about to take a shot at the Clever Dream, then take them out. Cover them while they pick up our people."
"That well, huh? I'm on it."
"Flight Operations, launch the Clever Dream. Tell the commanding officer to deliver this message to Captain Valance; 'We're out of time.'"
"Yes sir. They're ready and will be off the deck in twenty seconds," Replied Chief Angelo Vercelli from where he stood at the central podium below.
Oz turned his attention to the tertiary main holographic display on the bridge. It was the control Ship Ellis exterior scan. The vessel was six and a half kilometres long with four main columns that extended upward from a large misshapen base. At a glance he could tell it was built to be a massive, combat ready mobile space station in its own right. The Triton seemed huge, but compared to the Ellis she was completely outclassed.
What was worse were the five battle cruisers that accompanied her. Their sleek hulls curved around short central structures that contained at least one fighter bay and what appeared to be a considerable arsenal. The thrusters set above the main protective hull segments were disproportionately large, suggesting that the ships were made as much for interception as they were for combat at various ranges. The Triton could take on two of the roughly four hundred meter long ships, but Oz knew five were just too many. His thoughts shifted to the botanical gallery and the families who lived there. The orphans of Pandem came to mind and he shook it off.
He caught Ashley's dark brown eyes looking at him. She was picking up on his anxiety. Oz flashed a quick grin and nodded to himself. "Time to leave," he muttered as he took the central command chair. "I'm sure Ayan and Jake have things under control on their end."
Chapter 17
Run
Ayan was just hitching back into her combat engineer's tool backpack when the main doors leading further into the station creaked and groaned. The raiders had failed to cut through the thick armoured doors, but they'd managed to leave behind a great deal of damage.
"Someone's trying to come through from the other side," one of the squad members with them commented.
"Your grasp of the obvious is astounding," Alaka replied as he started to charge his beam cannon. "Take cover."
Ayan and the squad scrambled to get behind the heavier crates, taking cover in pairs. She finished securing the last clip of her backpack and took her rifle from Victor. "Thank you."
"Sticking with white?" he asked, gesturing at the colour of her armour.
She looked at the mixed coloured crates and the pocked metal floor. There were whole swathes where the floor's coating had been blasted away, leaving the metal bare. "It's better than black for camouflage right now. Besides, it was always my favourite colour."
"I thought white was a non-colour."
"Nope, white is a colour, black isn't a colour."
"I thought black was the presence of all colours."
"No, you're thinking of painting. If you combine all your paints except for white you sometimes end up with black. In the real world white is the brightest colour, black is the absence of light."
"Well, that changes everything," Victor smirked.
"Now you're having a laugh at my expense."
"Just putting your education to work."
The deck shuddered as the doors spread open a crack. With an ear splitting scrape and grind the motors managed to draw the meter thick, dense metal doors apart. They were three meters tall, made for transporting major components deeper into the station.
"Ayan? Is Ayan from the Triton here?" asked a panicky looking bald woman at the front of fifteen mismatched station staff members. They looked around the cargo area warily, some with their hands raised, others in awe at the damage the area had sustained.
Ayan drew back the faceplate of her armour, leaving the hood up and stepped into the open. "I'm here."
"I'm Larissa, we spoke on the comm. We're seeking asylum on the Triton. You have to hurry, alarms will be going off now that this door is open and Amanda will know someone's trying to escape."
"You're prisoners?"
"We're workers, but after what's happened they'll never let us leave."
"Yeah, we're prisoners! Can we go now?" added Bradley. "That's what you are if you get paid but never get to leave," he spat at Larissa so harshly she flinched. "Bloody wazzock."
"We were just leaving," Ayan smiled. It had been a long time since she'd met anyone with such a thick Britannia accent. It was good to hear even though the speaker's dialect was rough. "All right, cover these people. We return to the Cold Reaver at a run," Ayan ordered Alaka.
Ayan scanned the fifteen newcomers and was surprised to find them unarmed. A few of them had medical kits and bundles of personal items very hastily packed together but other than that they had nothing. They were ready to run, however, and kept up with the group of militia handily.
"I hate to ask, but who's your sponsor? I've never seen the kind of armour you're wearing," Bradly asked as he fell into step beside her. He clutched a large medical kit to his chest with both arms.
" Triton is an independent ship. We manufacture our own equipment."
"Are you originally from Earth? We noticed it was built in the Sol system."
"No, I can't go into the details just now, but we're not from Earth."
"See? Like I was saying. Pirates," Larissa said to Bradley, who gave her a wide eyed stare. She turned to Ayan with a thin smile; "Not that I look down on it, mind you. Pirates are fine if they're just stopping for supplies or to spend time at the pub."
"Right now we're just looking for a place to make repairs so we can move on and find an ally. Privateering is more our calling."
"Against anyone in particular?"
"The Order of Eden," Ayan answered
without an instant's hesitation. "A number of us were on Pandem when they took it."
"What happened to Pandem?" asked one of the newcomers behind her.
Ayan's heart began to sink, but she steeled herself against the terrible memories of what happened to the place. "I'm sorry. The virus that made your automated systems go mad here struck there, then the Order of Eden and Regent Galactic stepped in to finish the job."
"Oh my God, I knew people on Pandem, took my last vacation there. I've never seen a place like it," he said sadly. "What is it like now?"
"It's better that you remember it as it was."
"Oh. Any chance anyone from Verona survived? That's where I stayed."
Alaka dropped back to run along side the fellow, his long, loping steps and great size was intimidating even when he withdrew the plates covering his head to reveal a furred, pointed nose and mournful dark eyes. "I'm sorry. The resort islands were struck first. Few people survived Pandem, my family and I were fortunate."
"So you fight with the Triton against the people who destroyed your home."
"Yes, that is the promise."
"Ayan, look," Victor directed her to look through the hallway window.
The Triton was positioning itself in front of the station, drifting at speed to cover their escape. The torpedo tubes all along the edges of the hull came to life, the sleek projectiles turning as soon as they were launched towards some obscured foe. "That's a lot of firepower, they must be in some serious trouble."
"A Caran Enterprises fleet has arrived, they're staking a claim on the station since our highest ranking officer is only a Forewoman, not even a real controller."
"You couldn't have told us this a few minutes ago?" Victor replied at Bradley.
"I'm sorry, I was-" he was interrupted as a flash of light flared through the wide porthole.
"They just landed a focused nuclear strike against the Triton’s shields. Thank God it struck the opposite side," Ayan said as many of her companions stared in shock. "Run, the sooner we get to the Cold Reaver, the sooner we can try to blast our way out of here. We don't have much of a choice."
"I'm getting a message from the Reaver now," Alaka said as they started running. "They say that someone is cutting through the hangar door from the outside. The metal is white hot and they've almost breached."
"All right, tell them to stay tethered to something in case it opens to vacuum, and get the people we have in stasis bags ready to travel. No one takes more than their kit with them."
Alaka relayed the message as quickly as he could. "Chief Vega wants to confirm; we're abandoning the Cold Reaver?"
"I'm afraid so."
Chapter 18
Breaking Point
The Clever Dream lowered itself into place over the squad, covering them with her main airlock. The embarkation collar sealed around the hole they were drilling through the large hangar door and the air began to pressurize. "How long?" Asked Jake.
"Less than a minute. I'm just glad the ship is here so we don't open the space inside up to vacuum when we break through."
"All our people are in vacsuits, that was never a worry." Captain Valance plugged into the small airlock interface panel and opened a channel to the Clever Dream's cockpit. "How is the Triton?"
"Our live relay just went dead, but she was holding up just a few seconds ago. Oz kept them busy with negotiations as long as they could then they sent five destroyers. From what we could tell they managed to tear one to pieces, Ronin is keeping another very occupied," answered Lewis. "One more thing, it looks like the Palamo is starting a suicide run on the biggest of the Caran ships."
"What kind of weaponry are they bringing to bear?"
"Particle beams and self propelled torpedoes. Each of the vessels are heavily fortified, even the first Commander McPatrick managed to nearly disable is still firing."
The fusion powered cutter burst through the hangar door and Jake watched as his squad removed the clamps securing the device in place and hauled it clear. The gravity between the Clever Dream and the station equalized, followed by the air pressure and the inner airlock door opened. He looked through the freshly cut hole and saw Ayan, Alaka, two squads and several other people rushing towards the Cold Reaver. Everyone from the drop ship had already realized that someone was cutting through to rescue them and they were tethered to the rear embarkation ramp of the Cold Reaver just in case the air was about to rush out the circular hole forming in the hangar door.
"We don't have much time, come through in single file!" Jake ordered.
Alaka remained closest to the main hall leading into the hangar, keeping watch with a canister in one hand and his beam cannon in the other. The armour plates of his vacsuit rose into place and sealed over his face.
The group at the rear of the Cold Reaver were the first to climb through the hastily cut exit leading into the Clever Dream in single file. As the first group were through Jake stepped out and surveyed the situation. The crew and squads stationed on the Cold Reaver had done everything right. The majority of them had only taken their kits, a few had strapped on extra packs filled with food, medical supplies, extra power cells and survival gear. The weeks, and in some cases months of simulations the crew had undergone had paid off. For most of them it looked like they were quickly running through the motions. Even the technicians they'd brought moved as though they knew exactly what steps had to take place in order to evacuate to the Clever Dream.
"Are you sure we have to leave her behind sir?" Stephanie asked as she was about to pass into the Clever Dream's airlock. "She's a solid ship."
"As long as we have the Triton, that's just a glorified longboat," he answered flatly.
"Aye," she nodded, moving on.
Ayan's group put the mismatched station staffers first, and they eyed Captain Valance as they passed.
Jake strode to meet Ayan half way, she held her rifle at the ready, walking backwards and looking towards the hall leading to the rest of the station. "They came out requesting asylum. Most are carrying medical gear, no weapons," she reported.
"They have friends coming after them?" Jake asked.
"There's a Forewoman here who wants to show she can control the station, I think they're undermining that."
In a flash of light and sound gunfire erupted from the hallway at Alaka, who started walking backwards at an even pace. He fired several short streams of deadly energy from his beam cannon, cutting into the sides of the hallway and scorching bare cables tied against the walls.
Ayan, Victor and a few other soldiers stepped forward and laid down cover fire with their pulse rifles so Alaka could turn and run. The shooting from the hallway ceased, and the tall nafalli took the opportunity to make a run for the makeshift exit. They withdrew in seconds, closing the airlock behind them.
Jake hit the control panel's intercom button. "Time to go Lewis, I'm on my way to the cockpit."
"I call it a bridge, for future reference. It may be small, but it has all the features one would expect on a proper starship, which I happen to be," Lewis replied over the speakers as Jake ran through the cargo area where the soldiers were settling in. Ayan was right behind him.
He arrived on the bridge as the Clever Dream skimmed along the hull of the massive station, weaving between the lattice work and docking arms. Lieutenant Garrison got out of the pilot's seat and invited Jake to sit down. "Not like Lewis let me fly much anyway," he said with a smile. "I'll go help get the wounded into recovery chambers."
"Good idea. You're trained?"
"Lewis insisted since this is my third time on his bridge."
"All right, keep me informed on their condition."
Ayan took the secondary control seat and brought up the tactical and copilot's screens.
"All right Lewis, get us clear of the station so we can communicate with the Triton," Jake ordered mildly.
"As you wish. Would you like to take the controls?"
"Not right now, just keep us clear of danger. Have you mana
ged to get your cloaking systems back on line?"
"There was no time to finish connecting the secondary field generator to my computer systems before I was called to this retrieval mission."
"Could we do it right now?" Ayan asked.
"Hello Ayan. No, I'm afraid not. My shields would have to be down."
"All right, I promise I'll get to it as soon as I can."
"Personally? Well, I'm honoured."
" Triton to Clever Dream," addressed one of the communications officers through the communications systems.
"Clever Dream here. We have everyone. Ready to land," Jake's breath caught in his throat as the Triton came up on his tactical display. The energy readings on their shields were dangerously low and they were open to space on the aft dorsal section, right below the gunnery deck. Several of the gunnery turrets were seized due to heat damage and their far port side had a through and through breach that effected six decks.
"Change of plans Captain. I'm laser linking rendezvous coordinates to you," Oz said as the coordinates came up on the computer. "We're taking too much damage to take you on, we'll meet you there."
"This is Ronin. My squadron is following you, Clever Dream. We'll hitch through your wormhole. We're coming up on your six."
Jake took the controls and nodded. "You're going to have to play navigator Lewis," he said.
His answer came like a shiver. The ship computer and Lewis connected to him through the link systems in his hands, a capability Jake hadn't used extensively since Pandem. In fact, he had made a point not to unless he was trying to access the biological regeneration abilities he'd discovered when Ayan had been shot. "I'm sorry, I wasn't aware how surprising this sensation would be to you. I often shared this link with Alice."
"I'm sorry she couldn't be here," Jake replied aloud.
"She made a point to say goodbye before she left. I miss her, but don't worry, she'll live on in another form." Lewis sent Jake a mental picture of a workable course that would lead them through the debris and enemy fighters.
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