by R. E. Graham
The overrider shot his hands up higher.
Two troopers moved up with the one batting him in the head with the butt of his rifle.
The pirate fell to the ground with blood streaming from his injury. “What in the void were you doing?” the trooper barked.
Using his hands to shield him, Jax rolled up into a ball.
Cyrus watched on but couldn’t hear what the fight was about. He looked back to Nina who stood defiantly in front of the others.
“One more time. Where is Mikhail?” he asked.
The woman shook her head, but before she could say anything the Inquisitor drew his pistol and shot her in the head.
Leesa’s ears rang loudly cutting off the noise of Poli’s scream at Nina’s death. Rhonda looked upwards to avoid watching her crewmate’s body crumple to the ground.
“Where. Is. Mikhail?!”
The Captain’s insides quivered at the thought of his crew being gunned down when help was so close. His opportunity for saving his family was closing rapidly. All that was left now was to tell all of the truth.
“Soon everyone you love will be dead” the voice whispered into his ear.
Mikhail turned to the pirate lord with fear gripping the light in his eyes. "I beg you Lord, give the orders. My…my family's life depends on it."
“Your family?” Yondo asked in awe. A mischievous grin grew on his face. “I knew it. I knew you were holding information back.”
Deimos stepped back and placed his hand on the grip of his pistol while keeping direct eye contact on the Captain. This was a very tense moment, and he wanted to be certain Mikhail didn't get too desperate.
“Was your town even attacked?”
“Yes,” Mikhail said empathically. “We got a message from a survivor that told us of the ambush. He told me that my family had been taken hostage to be used to draw me out.”
Yondo smugly massaged his chin with his right hand. “What will you give me?”
“I have nothing left to give you lord,” Mikhail pleaded.
“I want all of the salvage.”
“Yes, yes. Anything. Just please give the order to attack.”
The pirate lord sat up straight in his chair as if he were a thrown. “Bow to me.”
“What?” the Captain asked confused by the command.
“Bow to me…and I will give the order.”
“I already have pledged to you that I would serve you,” Mikhail said sheepishly.
“Yes, but you are a proud man. You stood before the pirate lords as a man trying to manipulate all of us. I want your pride.”
The Captain looked to Deimos then back to Yondo. He carefully stepped forward and turned to Lord Horsh.
“Bow,” Yondo said cherishing the moment like a child eating candy.
The entire bridge watched as Mikhail humbled himself and got down onto his knees. He would never give life to the words, but even Deimos felt saddened for the Captain at the scene of a man having to beg.
"Please Lord, help my family," Mikhail said with his head lowered to the floor.
Yondo harshly placed his right foot on the groveling man’s shoulder and leaned forward. “You belong to me now. Never forget that!”
He removed his foot and looked to the comm’s officer. “Give the order to the fleet. We attack!”
Chapter 45
Cycle: 434 Month: 3 Rotation: 11
Corre Republic Space
Prefecture: Siimon
Planet: Destiny
Location: Aboard the Silverbolt
The Tactical Action Officer noticed that her station wasn’t getting proper signals.
“Sir, I think we are being jammed.”
Aries looked over to her surprised and decided to walk over to her screen. Her station displayed disconnect icons for each of the ground teams and for the other two Carinas.
“Why would they worry about jamming us?” he asked aloud. Then it suddenly hit him. “Check for enemy ships!”
Cyrus aimed his pistol to the sky so that everyone could see it. “For the last time, where is Mikhail?”
No one in the group responded. He noticed that Hern looked very angry, but before he could question him, the sound of Dogma’s engines roared. It blasted upwards along with its two Jaspers as escorts.
One of the fireteam leaders used his earpiece radio to call to the Silverbolt. “This is Fireteam One to command. What’s going on? Over.”
He did not get a response.
The Inquisitor used his left hand to activate his own radio. “Silverbolt come in.”
What is going on?
His gauntlet's built-in artificial intelligence spoke up. "Inquisitor, it appears that we are being jammed."
“What? How could that be? Why didn’t you notice sooner?” he asked.
“I am unsure of when it happened, but I cannot connect to any of our local assets.”
Fear shot up his spine as he analyzed the situation. He looked up to see the Silverbolt was getting into a defensive position over the remnants of Largo. A loud boom shook the air even over the sound of the hovering Jaspers. Many of the ground personnel including the Inquisitor looked towards the Dogma to see a whole fleet of ships advancing.
Over ten transports of varying sizes with four additional fighter aircraft were quickly heading towards the Republic ship. An Oxen surged past the Republic carrier firing its two heavy cannon turrets into the starboard side of the Carina.
One of the Jaspers guarding the Dogma was blasted out of the sky by a barrage of missiles from a multi-colored freighter with a sloppily mounted launcher attached to its hull. Pieces fell to the ground below as its the crew of the smaller VTOL was killed instantly.
The other Jasper flew up and fired its repeater laser into a smaller transport vessel, scoring a bunch of hits but no severe damage. It received a barrage of anti-aircraft cannon fire for its trouble shredding the VTOL apart in seconds.
Now being overwhelmed, the Dogma attempted to disengage from the close ranged combat firing three of its capitol laser cannons into a different transport. The lasers pierced deep into the hull and caused a tremendous explosion to rip out of it, destroying the pirate ship entirely.
“Lord, we just lost the Pixie Dust.”
Yondo smashed his fist onto the arm of his chair. “Tell the fighters to strafe the WarMechs. Have all other ships target that Carina. I want it destroyed!”
Mikhail's heart pounded at the sight of the destruction. He had never been in a battle quite this large before. So much was at stake and here he was trying to keep it all together. He decided to focus on the holoscreen as the fight unfolded.
The four pirate fighters which consisted of one Buzzer, two Pilons, and one stolen Jasper raced ahead of the fleet. Before the aircraft could entirely advance onto the Republic's mechs, the Jade headed upwards to back up the Dogma. Its own two Jasper escorts climbed upwards alongside their parent Carina.
As the fighters raced ahead, the two pikes of DSST WarMechs took aim. Cannon and laser fire blasted up from the ground units while the pirate aircraft shot everything they had. Missiles from the pair of Pilon spacecraft crisscrossed and hit a Sierras and one of the Enforcers engulfing them in flames. Before the pirate crafts completed their run one of the Hunter’s scored a hit with its shoulder mounted focus beams and sliced the tail off of the enemy Jasper. It careened down to the planet below and exploded on impact.
Hern and Rhonda dove to the ground and pulled up their rifles. They took cover and opened fire on the distracted shock troopers killing two and wounding a third. The rest of the crew split and ran for cover.
Cyrus cursed and pulled Leesa down to the ground. "Deploy my mech," he said to the built-in A.I.
“Yes Inquisitor,” the female voice responded.
Even though many signals would be interrupted by the jammer in the Only Hope, the emergency signals that the inquisitors used as emergency contacts to their mechs were on different wavelengths. Toya activated the Spade’s engine, and the Wa
rMech awoke.
Hearing the battle breaking out Riko activated his WarMech. He disengaged it from the safety locks holding his machine in place and stomped down the loading ramp.
The fireteams were about to overwhelm Rhonda and Hernando when they saw the hunching titan.
“This is for my family!” the pilot screamed over his external speakers.
Both of the plasma slingers mounted to its forearms sent streams of green globules. The shock troopers knew their rifles couldn’t harm the hulking WarMech and ran for cover. One was melted in half by the plasma attack while two others were hit in the chest and died screaming.
Joker ducked down while the Goblin advanced and cleared the ramp. He ran as fast as he could into the ship and bolted for the bridge. To his surprise, Poli was already waiting up there for him and was warming the ship's engines. The pilot nearly tripped as he hopped into his seat and got situated.
He quickly connected his harness and looked back to his acting gunner. “Here we go!”
Mikhail watched helplessly as another pirate ship was barraged by the damaged Carina and was obliterated.
A roar of excitement filled the bridge as the Dogma carrier was brought down and it tumbled to the soil below.
“Bring the fighters back around and target the second Carina. Tell the freighters to join the fighters and have the transports deploy their mechs,” Yondo ordered Deimos.
The large pirate barked the orders to his crew, and they got to work. One of the Republic's surviving Jasper’s targeted the Midnight and unleashed a deadly flurry of lasers disabling one of the Oxen’s main cannons.
“We just lost cannon two!”
“I want our mechs on the ground now dammit!” Yondo shouted above the noise. He stood to his feet and analyzed the situation.
“We can still win this if we can knock out another of their main ships.”
The Captain noticed in the holoscreen that the Only Hope lifted off but was targeted by one of the Sierra’s. A massive blast ripped armor off the starboard side of the ship, but it continued upward and was heading for the battle where the other pirate ships were duking it out with the second Carina.
The Silverbolt’s port side bay door opened and out hopped the Inquisitor’s all black Spade WarMech. It fired its jumper pack and launched itself up and over so that its arc would land it next to its pilot.
Cyrus spotted the mech's rapid approach and ran for a clearing. Hern spotted the running Lawman and took aim with his rifle. Just as he fired his gun, the Spade landed with a loud thud shielding the Inquisitor from the attack. It used its monstrous right hand to carefully scoop up its pilot and popped open its cockpit.
The Inquisitor climbed in with practiced ease and closed the hatch. As his gauntlet's artificial intelligence synced up with the Spade, he gripped his controls. His helmet simultaneously reverted back to the small shape on his neck giving him better visibility.
He surveyed the situation, but it was looking pretty dire. His radar only recognized six functional Republic WarMechs besides his own, the Dogma was destroyed, and the Jade was being overwhelmed by a concentrated attack. Just one friendly Jasper was left of the eight they originally had, and the Silverbolt was now joining the fight probably to try and rescue the Jade.
“Inquisitor, radio contact is still being jammed,” Toya said as the rest of the mech’s systems were now online.
“It probably is coming from the Only Hope,” he said to himself.
He remembered Leesa and twisted his controls to locate her. She had gotten up and was running for cover when he broke out into a run to catch up with the woman.
“Aaaah!” she screamed as she tripped on debris and smashed her face onto the ground.
Her vision blurred as she felt a huge hand lift her body up from the ground and suspend her in the air. Using the foot pedals, the Inquisitor moved his Spade closer to Alpha team’s pike. The three remaining members of the mech team stood together by a cropping of rocks and were trying to hit the pirates last two fighters while Beta pike had moved to engage the pirate Goblin.
He activated his external speakers. “This is Inquisitor Cyrus. Our comms are being jammed by the Only Hope. Take it down!”
The three mechs targeted the pirate vessel with their focus beams and fired. While laser repeaters shot a stream of bolts hoping to dig into thin armor and pepper a target to death, a focus beam was designed to be more like a constant piercing laser that could cut through the thickest plating. It also was very precise even at extreme ranges.
Each Hunter came equipped with two smaller versions of the deadly weapon on their shoulders while the Enforcer boasted a more powerful one in its left arm. All three joined fire together on the ship as it lifted up higher and higher.
Poli targeted the Jade and fired a blast from the Only Hope’s main cannon. The round took a chunk out of the bottom side of the large vessel.
Suddenly alarm sounds shrieked as two of the focus beams sliced through one of the engines while the other beam missed wide. The pirate freighter was never built intending to go up against military grade weaponry. Its weak armor was melted with ease, damaging many vital parts inside.
Joker fought against the controls as the ship began losing altitude. Poli gripped her console as tight as she could as the ship lost power.
The mechs fired again, and this time each beam pierced deeply into the ship and dragged along the side of it wrecking more of its internals.
“I can’t stop her,” Joker said as he kept fighting.
The ground was getting extremely close on the main screen as it flickered from interference.
He looked over to the young woman, his face covered in fear. “I’m sorry…” was all he could say as the ship continued to lose altitude.
Rhonda killed a shock trooper that moved up to shoot Hern in the back with her rifle.
He noticed the dead man. “Thanks,” the gunner said before he turned back and fired at two more troopers taking cover behind what was left of the town hall.
The eerie sound of the focus beams shrieked through the air and caught Rhonda’s attention. Her mouth hung open as she saw the Only Hope diving downward.
Mikhail felt like he had been punched in the stomach as he watched the holographic image of his ship smash into the planet’s surface.
“The Only Hope is down,” the comm’s officer shouted as the Midnight rocked from an attack from some of the WarMechs.
"Get those mechs out now, or I will shoot you myself," Yondo growled.
Using the port side as a shield, the Oxen deployed its pike of mechs. The team of four moved out onto the battlefield just as the other pirate vessels unloaded their own. In total twelve Onyx mechs joined into the fight.
The Captain’s mind swirled wondering who was on the ship when it was destroyed.
This is going very badly…
Aboard the Midnight there wasn’t much he could do. He just had to sit and wait until something changed.
“Lord, we are being contacted by the Inquisitor.”
Deimos looked at Yondo suspiciously.
“Put him through,” the pirate lord said as he sat back in his chair.
A screen built into the wall across from the captain’s chair lit up with the image of the dangerous Lawman. “I am Inquisitor Cyrus. I request to speak with the one in charge of the attacking force.”
Mikhail’s body shook with anger at the sight of the man.
So, this is him. He’s the one who has my family! I’ll kill him…
"I am Lord Yondo Horsh of Onyx. Surrender now, and we promise to spare some of you." The pirate lord relished a moment to talk down to an inquisitor. It wasn't every day he felt emboldened enough to even try.
Cyrus chuckled as he unleashed four missiles from his Spade destroying two of the pirate WarMechs.
Yondo saw the devastating loss play out on his holoscreen and scowled.
“I am in control of the situation Lord Horsh. Is Captain Mikhail aboard your ship?” the Inquisi
tor asked with a hint of accusation in his voice.
Deimos looked around but found Mikhail was gone.
"You will speak to me, Inquisitor. I have waited a very long time…"
Another voice broke into the conversation but was only audible. “This is Captain Mikhail.”
Yondo looked personally insulted as he looked around the bridge for his captive.
“He disappeared,” Deimos said.
“What do you want with me?” Mikhail asked over the radio.
Lord Horsh jumped to his feet. “Find that little poosh and bring him to me!”
The pirate captain ran out the door with two other guards right behind him. Yondo continued to simmer in his fury while the two other men talked back and forth.
“Captain, all of this here and now is because of you. I have your wife with me.”
Not knowing if Mikhail could see, he hoisted his Spade’s right hand which held a squirming Mrs. Tarvus in it. No one could hear her screams over the battle that raged around her as the mechs of both sides fired back and forth.
“Where’s my son?”
Cyrus smiled. “He is safe. He’s aboard one of my ships which is more reason for you to call this fight off.”
“How dare that Republic bastard speak to him that way. I am in charge! Me. Not him!” Yondo exclaimed as he listened.
Inside the Midnight’s hangar sat a small emergency lifeboat that Mikhail had found. He was powering up the engine as he pressed a button which opened the hangar bay up to the battle.
“I am coming to you. Don’t hurt my wife.”
Deimos and the guards burst into the hangar just as the lifeboat hovered in place and boosted out the door.
Chapter 46
Cycle: 434 Month: 3 Rotation: 11
Corre Republic Space
Prefecture: Siimon