Star Streaker Boxed Set 1 (Star Streaker Series)

by T. M. Catron

  When she put on the helmet, all other noises were muffled. The helmet’s neuroreceptors cradled her head and dug into her hair. Solaris gave the armor another tap, and the suit powered on, turning on a heads-up display that was just as good as the one in her eye—except this one worked. The cameras were a perfect complement to the HUD. They cycled through the views, and Rance was able to take control of them quickly.

  She hadn’t worn armor in years and had never owned any of her own. But, she’d trained in it at the Flight Academy, Unity's prestigious school on Xanthes. Rance smiled at Solaris through the visor. “Guess I’ll have to protect you now, huh?”

  Solaris grunted and nodded down the hall.

  The suit exaggerated all of Rance’s movements, making her quick and powerful, able to punch a hole in a door if needed. She cycled through her options, hoping to catch a hint of what was going on in other parts of the station. Mostly all she heard through the comm were coordinates and orders to march. A few reports of taking over part of the docks.

  “The pirates have reached the docks,” she said.

  “Then Unity is losing ground. Surrendering to them might not have been the right call, after all.”

  Rance sniffed. “Well, we knew that anyway. At the airlock, we can count the enemies. Better than an unknown number at the docks.”

  “And do you plan to commandeer Kaur’s own vessel? Because I have a feeling those guards are protecting his personal transport, which I bet is docked on the other side of that airlock.”

  Rance shot Solaris a look. “If we must. Just long enough to get us to the Streaker. Let me handle it, okay?”

  Solaris muttered something which she couldn’t quite catch. It sounded like an oath. Ignoring him, Rance took off at a run, wishing to draw the fire to herself. Her current plan—to surprise the pirates with a berserker-like attack—scared the fire out of her. Rance knew she could be impetuous, but this was the most suicidal thing she had ever attempted. Pushing aside her misgivings, Rance charged forward, ignoring the pain the suit caused in her body.

  At first, the guards at the airlock didn’t react when Rance charged around the corner. She used this to her advantage, firing on them before they had a chance to realize she was the enemy. Rance leaped into the air, and in her suit it felt like flying. She came down in the middle of the pirates, scattering them as they scrambled to gather themselves for defense.

  When the pirates opened fire, Rance didn’t feel the hits, but a small alarm went off in her suit as it displayed damage reports. She swung at the closest attacker, barreling into the suit next to her with a jolt that shook her teeth even through the cushioned lining. They crashed down together as more fire erupted. Rance desperately hoped it was all directed at her and that they hadn’t discovered Solaris.

  She rolled, pulling the other suit in front of her as a shield. The pirates didn’t hesitate to fire on their own man, and her captive cursed as his armor absorbed heavy fire.

  They listened, pulling him off of Rance. She hopped to her feet, overshot her intended landing spot, and smacked into the wall. The suit bounced off, and Rance swung around only to find herself surrounded by five angry pirates. They leveled their weapons at her like a firing squad and opened fire.

  Blazes of light hit her helmet, blinding her. The visor darkened automatically as more alarms went off. Rance, afraid to fire down the corridor in case she struck Solaris, used her suit’s power to barrel her way through.

  Another suit latched onto her. It was scorched black all down the front—the pirate she’d used as a shield. Knowing the suit had taken hard damage, she fired at point blank range. The man grunted, trying to get away from her assault.

  Her suit’s alarm became more insistent. The display that showed damage turned red. The other pirates were going to shred her to bits.

  Rance pivoted, swinging wide. A blade popped free on her left arm, accidentally triggered by her inexperience. Rance swiped it through the air. The other pirates ducked. With a lucky swipe, she caught a man’s rifle and sent it flying. It arched through the air, flying to land atop the metal crates stacked to the side.

  With a start, Rance saw Solaris standing up there. He ignored the rifle and wielded his staff like a bat. Since the pirates had been too busy trying to bring Rance down, they hadn't noticed him creep up there. He struck the first two on the neck before they realized they had another enemy. Rance seized her opportunity to attack the closest pirate.

  He swore as she sent his rifle spinning. Then, Rance’s luck began to turn as her berserker strategy no longer surprised her enemies. The pirate dodged the blade on her arm and ejected one of his own.

  They squared off as the other two pirates fired at Solaris.

  Rance heard Solaris return fire. He must have decided to use the rifle, after all. One of the pirates hopped up on the crates to catch him. Lights flashed back and forth as Solaris tried to evade him.

  Rance trained a camera on him but had to keep her attention focused on the pirate who now slashed expertly at her suit. His blade began to glow—it had a thermite edge, an upgrade her suit didn’t have. With one blow, it severed Rance’s blade in half. The impact jolted her arm all the way to the shoulder.

  Rance backed away and fired, but her ammunition was running low, and there were still three—one went flying, blown backward by Solaris’ blue shield—no, two pirates left. One was trying to disembowel her. The other was trying to reach Solaris, who was defending himself from behind the crates.

  Rance jumped away from the glowing blade, but the pirate pushed her back toward the airlock, cutting off her escape. She swung with her severed sword, and it hit the thermite edge with a shower of sparks. Another chunk of her blade flew down the hall, hacked off by her opponent’s sword. If she could evade him long enough, the thermite would burn out.

  She just had to stay out of reach long enough.

  Rance fired at the pirate's visor, emptying her magazine of its remaining ammunition, hoping to momentarily blind him. When it emptied, she leaped upward, sailing over his head. The pirate reached up with lightning reflexes.

  The thermite wasn’t glowing as hotly now, but Rance felt it hit the suit. It sliced right through the armor at her hip. Hot searing pain ran down her leg, and then she landed in a heap. Unwilling to give him another opening, Rance jumped up, only to feel unbalanced and wobbly. All of the suit's displays had turned red. Her left leg wasn’t working correctly. She looked down at the gaping hole at the top of the leg joint. It burned like she’d fallen into hot plasma, but the suit had taken the majority of the damage.

  It had saved her leg, but its response was now sluggish as if the armor had gone to sleep from the hip down.

  The glow of thermite vanished, and the pirate ejected the spent blade. He attacked, ready to punch her into the next galaxy. Rance didn’t have any doubts about his intentions—if she didn't fight back, the pirate would kill her. Crippled by her frozen leg, she swung around, still able to rotate with lightning reflexes of her own. The small weapon on her right arm opened fire, and she concentrated on the already smoking bits of the pirate’s helmet.

  Rance’s suit scrambled to compensate, shifting all its weight to one leg. The other dragged along like an anchor scraping the bottom of the sea, pulling her back.

  The pirate slammed into her, his first punch sending Rance backward into a free fall. Unable to get her good leg under her in time, she fell to the deck. The pirate jumped on top of her, ramming his armored fist into her helmet over and over again. The blows rattled Rance’s teeth as the suit tried to absorb the violence.

  The visor cracked, sending wavy lines through her HUD. Rance punched back, trying to do as much damage to him as he was doing to her. She landed blows in his kidneys, feeling the armor give way a little more each time.

  But she was at a disadvantage. Her blows didn’t match the pirate’s. Desperate to get away before the pirate broke through her visor and used her face as a punching bag, Rance tried to heave him off. Her
suit wouldn’t respond. And with the added weight of the armor, she couldn’t stand on her own.

  Finally, her visor shattered. She winced as shards of plastic bit into her face. The pirate grabbed the rim of the helmet and hauled her forward, holding her up by the head. With the HUD and cameras out, she couldn’t see anything but the leering, angry face above her, ready to kill. Rance grabbed his arms, sending her remaining power to her fingers and squeezing. He jerked away, one arm pulled back for the killing blow.

  The pirate’s visor flickered, then turned dark. For a moment, Rance wondered why he wasn’t killing her.

  With a loud thwack and then a shove, Solaris was there, bleeding from his head and hand. A burn mark scorched his bicep. With the little bit of power left in her suit, Rance helped Solaris shove the disabled pirate off of her.

  The five pirates lay on the floor, scattered at awkward angles. Weapons and debris littered the narrow hallway between the crates. More explosions echoed down the hall, but the airlock was free.

  Solaris sniffed. “I wanted to let you handle it because that’s what you told me to do, Captain, but I didn’t think you’d mind me stepping in this one time.”

  Rance was so happy, she wrapped her armored arms around Solaris to hug him. He grunted, and she pulled back, remembering she could snap his ribs like they were toothpicks. Instead, Rance feigned indifference. “I had that pirate right where I wanted him.”

  Solaris raised an eyebrow. “Of course you did.”

  Since Rance’s suit was damaged beyond any kind of usability, she removed it, wincing as it peeled off a sizable, angry burn on her hip.

  “You were lucky,” Solaris said.

  “Not as lucky as you. How did you get away from that one?” Rance asked, pointing at the pirate who had cornered Solaris atop the crates. He had smashed into the opposite wall and landed head first on the deck.

  “I managed a shield to hold against the wall. It was puny, but enough to deflect his laser rifle—amazing what you can do when death is imminent. He threw a grenade at me. I saw it and threw it back.” Solaris smiled. “That got him.”

  “I didn’t even feel the grenade. I need to get one of these,” Rance said, pointing to the battle armor.

  “With your luck, you need it.”

  The unmistakable sounds of battle drew closer. More shouts. More boots pounding up and down the halls.

  “I thought the pirates had pushed Unity to the docks,” Rance said, looking at the airlock and wondering what they would find on the outside.

  “I thought so, too. Maybe Unity forced the pirates back.”

  Then, a violent rocking jolted Rance and Solaris against the airlock door. Popping sounds and groans filled the air. Another alarm went off.

  Panic shot through Rance. It sounded like the station was breaking apart. She looked around wildly for anything that might help them. Solaris had grabbed two rifles from the deck and was checking their magazines.

  Rance’s gaze fell on a closet that held space suits. “Hey, Solaris,” she said, opening the doors. “I’ve found our way out.”

  Chapter Six

  “This is suicide,” Solaris said as he pulled on the grav boots.

  The station rocked again, and he almost lost his balance.

  Rance inspected her new helmet. “It doesn’t sound like we have a choice. The station could lose life support at any moment. Do you think the pirates mean to destroy it?”

  “Who knows?” Solaris asked. “They don’t hesitate to destroy cities, so I imagine a space station is inconsequential to them.”

  They checked each other’s suits to make sure all the seals were secure. Rance had just put on her helmet and given Solaris a thumbs up when the first red bolt shot down the hall and hit the wall between them.

  They ducked. Solaris punched the button for the door, and the airlock opened to them. More red bolts flew in and hit the door on the opposite side. When Rance looked down the hall, fear flashed through her body.

  Pirate Kaur ran down the corridor, followed by at least ten pirates.

  He roared and fired again. Rance realized he wasn’t trying to hit them, but the keypad that operated the outside door. Was he trying to trap them inside, or send them out into the void beyond? She and Solaris ducked inside and hit the button. The inner door hissed closed as more fire ricocheted underneath. They backed out of the way, not wishing to damage their space suits.

  The door shut with a final bang. Rance punched the buttons to cycle the air out of the chamber. “Did we just put ourselves on Kaur’s ship?”

  “No,” Solaris said, peering out the small window. “The ship is gone. Maybe the pilot left while we were battling the guards outside.”

  “Which means we’re spacing ourselves.”

  “Looks like it.”

  The inner door locked. Pirate Kaur’s face appeared in the window, angry and terrible. He couldn’t open the door now that the sequence had begun to cycle out the air. Rance got the impression he was studying her face for the future. She was unwilling to turn her back on him yet knew that he would never forget the woman who had bested five of his armored pirates. Rance slapped a hand on the glass in defiance.

  “Yes, make him angrier, Captain,” Solaris said dryly, watching Kaur’s eyes turn deadly cold.

  “He’s a bully.”

  “A powerful bully.”

  Kaur watched Solaris too, and recognition flashed in his eyes. Alarmed, Rance looked at Solaris, whose face had grown grim.

  The outer door hissed open. Without waiting for more dirty looks, Rance and Solaris grabbed the outer edge and pulled themselves around until their boots engaged on the hull. Rance’s breathing and the rush of blood in her ears sounded loud inside the helmet. The comm had gone quiet too. Fires burned all over the station. Great chunks had torn off of it, floating aimlessly above the growing debris field.

  Above the carnage, a great space battle raged between Unity and the pirates. A Unity Destroyer had arrived with more UDFs. They engaged the Scorpions from every direction, passing overhead, lighting up space in balls of yellow and red.

  Rance and Solaris climbed away from the airlock, hoping Kaur didn’t follow but knowing he might.

  “He might send a fighter after us, just because,” Rance said, breaking their silence.

  “He might, but I don’t think so. Kaur is vengeful, but not to a fault. He’s a brilliant strategist who wouldn’t pull a fighter away from a battle to take care of two insignificant threats.”

  “I don’t think we’re insignificant.”

  Solaris smiled. “Now what do we do, O Great Captain? Do we watch the station disintegrate before our eyes?”

  Rance smiled back. “Let’s put more distance between us and that airlock. Then wait for James.”

  A Scorpion passed close overhead—too close. Rance watched it grow smaller and then turn around.

  “How is James going to find us out here?” Solaris asked.

  “I turned on my flight suit’s beacon. Without interference from the station, James should be able to find me.”

  Despite her optimism that James would get her signal, Rance was impatient. She opened a general comm channel. “James? You there?”

  They waited a moment, clunking along the outer hull of the station, keeping toward the outside rather than the inner arms where the fires burned. Rance felt the hiss-clunk of her boots every time they engaged and disengaged.

  The fighter returned, swooping overhead too close for comfort. Rance and Solaris ducked low, but it flew back to the battle.

  “I think that ship is ogling us,” Rance said. “You may have been wrong about Kaur's vengeance.”

  “Maybe,” Solaris said thoughtfully.

  Her comm crackled. “Captain?”

  “James! Thank the Founders you’re alive! Come get us!”

  “Where are you?”

  “Somewhere outside Section D.”

  “Outside?”

  “Yes, no time to explain!”

  �
��On my way.”

  The station shook underfoot so violently that one of Rance’s boots disengaged. Her leg jerked out from under her, floating awkwardly until she pulled it back and down for purchase.

  Another Unity Destroyer arrived, and more UDFs zipped out of it to join the battle.

  “Reinforcements!” Rance yelled. She had never been so glad to see Unity. Maybe they would get Pirate Kaur once and for all.

  “Captain,” James said, “I see you, but I have a slight problem.”

  Rance grabbed Solaris’ arm. “What now?”

  “I’ve got a pirate on my tail.”

  “Well, shake him off! We’ve got to get out of here.”

  “Working on it,” he said tersely.

  Worried, Rance bit her lip. The Star Streaker flew by, chased by a Scorpion. James led it toward the Destroyer, which fired on both of them. The Streaker evaded, but the pirate wasn’t so lucky. Unity’s ship hit its target, and the Scorpion exploded in a fireball so bright that it filled Rance’s vision.

  She had just breathed a sigh of relief when a bolt from a laser rifle shot past. Rance and Solaris turned to see Pirate Kaur and his team approaching. They were still far enough away that their suits’ targeting systems wouldn’t be as accurate. But they were moving fast across the hull, too fast for Rance and Solaris to outrun. Rance looked around for the Streaker.

  “James, look out! Keep your shields up!”

  “I see them, Captain. Why are pirates chasing you outside the ship?”

  “Ah, I may have angered them a bit.”

  “Coming in now.”

  The pirates’ shots became more accurate as they closed in. One nicked Solaris’ oxygen tank as it went by, and air hissed out in a tiny white stream.

  The Streaker wouldn’t be able to pick them up like this. The pirates might jump into the ship with them. Solaris stood with his staff ready, prepared to use every last bit of strength to generate a shield strong enough to keep the pirates at bay. Rance knew he wouldn’t be able to do it this time.