Puar took his place at the sensor console. “I’ll keep scanning for the right ship.”
“Not gonna do us a whole lotta good if we don’t get there!” Brix commented sarcastically.
“Come on, Brix,” Puar chided with forced cheerfulness. “Think positively!”
“I was,” he shot back, “I would much rather die in space than be captured and tortured by dog-things.”
“Ha!” Dah shouted with glee. “He did it! I’ve got some controls back!”
“And I have found the ship we’re looking for!” Puar said with mock accomplishment. “Thank you, thank you! I’ll be here all week!”
The ship shuddered violently. “That was close,” Khai remarked.
“Too close,” Dah added. “They must still be tracking us. This is gonna be a short trip!” Another glancing strike sent the cockpit into a screeching tizzy with blinking lights and blaring sirens. “We’re not going to make it guys,” Dah said, utterly defeated. “I’m sorry.”
“You did your best,” Khai said, placing a hand him his shoulder. “I’ll go. Where are your vac suits?”
“You can’t possibly be serious!” Puar protested. “You won’t make it a hundred yards!”
“You’ve got a better idea?” Khai shot back sternly.
“Well—no, I don’t!”
“Well… this is a good way to go out,” Kay murmured.
“Maybe not!” Puar said, looking back at the sensors. “I’ve got incoming—lots of incoming! Look!” Puar pointed out the canopy.
Fifty gargantuan ships of ancient design emerged from black holes along with the rest of the Bright Fleet. They instantly started pelting the F’Rosian fleet with merciless fervor. Two F’Rosian ships went up in massive conflagrations that filled the canopy with bright light and caused them all to look away for a moment. The energy wave that followed was enough to rock the Merchant violently. But, whatever interest they were drawing was now very much on the approaching fleet.
“They must have been able to override the safety protocols!” Khai said with relief.
No sooner did Khai say that, when the first wave of Vyysarri ships jumped in piggybacking through black holes and making their first strafing runs, peppering the tops of the enemy ships with swords of green energy that splashed across their top shields and sent some into catastrophic, cascading explosions. One ship in particular listed to the starboard side and collided with another, sending them both into a flickering death.
With the welcome distraction, Dah pushed the engines as hard as they could and they made their way toward the ship they intended to destroy, or at the very least disable. Dah used his sensors to “paint” the target ship so that the rest of the fleet wouldn’t blast it to oblivion while they were still on board.
The ship shuddered as it passed through the energy shield protecting the ship.
“What’s our entrance strategy?” Kay asked.
“Well, we could—” Khai was cut off immediately.
“No!” Dah snapped. “We are not crashing the ship!”
“Why not? It’d be the last thing they’d expect!”
“We’ve already lost one ship today,” Dah responded angrily, “I don’t intend to lose another!”
“Have it your way,” Khai said, resigned.
“I have an idea,” Dah said, pulling up the targeting controls.
Dah swooped the ship around within the F’Rosian ship’s shield barrier and targeted what he was hoping would be the hangar doors. The sensors indicated a large open space beyond, so it was almost more than an educated guess. Using the powerful lasers mounted in the nose of the Savvy Merchant, Dah blasted away at the large doors. When the first pass didn’t get them through, he swung around for another pass. Only this time, the F’Rosians were on to him. Large cannons targeted him and opened fire. With the limited maneuverability, they were sitting ducks. As the first shot grazed the aft section, more lights danced across the damage readout. That didn’t stop Dah, he continued forward, blasting away. A large explosion off the starboard side caused them all to shield their eyes and then look out the canopy at what went up.
That was when they noticed several Seryysan fighters swarming around them, protecting them. A brave pilot had just given his life to save theirs. Dah wasn’t about to let that death be meaningless. With more fire, the doors finally exploded outward violently, venting precious atmosphere, equipment and people. A hole had been made where the two doors met and this hole was big enough for Dah to squeeze the Merchant through. Everyone inside the hangar was either dead or dying from either decompression or the blast, or both as Dah put the ship down.
“So how do we get in?” Brix asked.
Dah hit a button and the door to a small locker swung open revealing several vac suits. These particular vac suits were something special. Obviously belonging to someone who was able to afford the finest gear, they boasted complete, unhindered, comfortable movement almost like a flight suit, only airtight and insulated. Khai didn’t even have stuff like this in the military.
“Prototype evacuation suit that my brother was developing for the military,” Dah said, picking up on Khai’s marveling.
“Are they safe?” Puar asked.
“Mm-hm,” Dah assured. “Field tested, genius approved!”
“Remarkable maneuverability!” Kay remarked as she flexed and stretched.
“It’s tear proof, too,” Dah added. “Made from a fine Ti’tan’lium weave and infused with the same polymer they use to make the joints in the power armor. It’ll stop a knife, maybe even a bullet, but I wouldn’t test that theory if I were you.”
“Oh don’t worry,” Puar said mirthlessly. “I probably will.”
Everyone, including Dah, donned a suit and headed out. Though Dah wasn’t going out to fight, he was going out to affect some repairs that needed to happen if they had any dream of escaping once their job was done. After they all debarked, Dah had the ship hover up above the hangar floor to allow him and his hover chair underneath. A gun was fastened to the chair in the event that he needed to defend himself, but in order to get to him, they would have to send people out into the now-exposed hangar and that was unlikely at this point.
“Be careful,” Dah said to them as they left.
“You do the same, Dack,” Khai replied. “All right, everyone. Let’s get this over with.”
Sibrex took point, his gun up at the ready. Being the smartest of them there, he had the best chance of deciphering the F’Rosians language and operating their system quick enough to override the door to let them in. When they got there, Sibrex saw an obvious green button to open the door. When he pushed it, however, it buzzed at him.
“They must have a safety protocol that disallows the opening of a door should there be a hull breach. It will take me a few moments to override it.”
“Do what you have to, Sibrex,” Khai responded.
Electrical systems were the same with any race and Sibrex demonstrated this theory by quickly removing the panel front and sticking his hands in there. A few sparks later and the door slid open with a great whoosh of air. They fought the current and got in to see many F’Rosians lying on the corridor floor gasping for air. Sibrex quickly pulled the inside panel off and convinced the door to close. When the air had no place left to go, things calmed considerably. Most of the F’Rosians were dead. The ones that weren’t were killed quickly with no mercy, though the ones that survived were suffering awfully, so, in a way, one could argue the opposite.
They followed the corridor to a small room with a purpose they could not identify, nor did they care to. There they removed their helmets and once off their heads, compressed and folded automatically until they could fit in a small pouch.
“Rich people and their toys…” Puar murmured.
“Indeed,” Sibrex agreed.
“We need to get to the engine room,” Khai said, cutting the chatter.
“Maybe we should split up,” Kay offered.
“No,” Khai s
aid immediately. “They know we’re here. Hell, they’re probably already on their way. So we need strength in numbers. If we were sneaking about, I’d agree.”
“So we head aft,” Brix blurted out.
“We head aft,” Khai agreed. “Let’s move!”
The labyrinth of corridors and nooks took them in what felt like a winding path of bulkheads. The only indication that they were making any progress was that the soft rumble of the engines was gradually getting louder the longer they walked. They encountered a few patrols with two or three F’Rosians per patrol—and they were taken out from a distance with no need to go hand-to-hand, but they hadn’t encountered anything that would indicate a crew of more than a couple hundred, and that to Khai was very, very suspicious.
About an hour into the journey, Khai signaled for everyone to stop.
“What’s up?” Puar asked.
“It’s a trap,” Khai said straight.
“What do you mean?” Brix asked.
“They’ve set a trap for us in engineering,” Khai explained. “It’s the only explanation.”
“Explanation for what?” Puar demanded.
“The ease of our advance,” Khai shot back. “We’ve encountered virtually no resistance. The only way to explain it is that they’re luring us in.”
“You sure?” Kay asked.
“Pretty sure,” Khai answered.
“So what do we do now?” Brawl asked.
“We take the bridge,” Khai declared.
“Are you mad?” Brawl yelped.
“No,” Khai replied, stone-faced. “It’ll be the last thing they’ll expect.”
“How do we know that the ambush isn’t waiting on the bridge instead of engineering?” Puar added. “Maybe this way is so easy because the path to the bridge is so heavily guarded.”
Khai had not thought of that. “Then we scout out engineering and see.”
“And how do we do that without knowing where to infiltrate?” Brawl asked.
“Sibrex here will hack the system and get us schematics,” Khai offered. “It’d most likely not even be restricted information.”
“Indeed,” Sibrex agreed. “It is not restricted information on either a Vyysarri or Seryysan ship.”
“How long will it take?” Kay asked.
“Not long if I can interface directly with a computer,” Sibrex answered.
“Then we just need to find one,” Puar said, “which shouldn’t be hard.”
They pressed on a little further until they encountered a large room with many computers within. The room had two entrances, one on either side of which led to adjacent corridors. Sibrex found a computer terminal that looked to be regulating power flow through the pulsing conduit behind a window.
“Can’t we just screw this thing up and run?” Puar asked.
“Possibly,” Sibrex said. “But until I know for sure what it does, I would strongly discourage ‘screwing’ anything up.”
“Whatever you say,” Puar said sarcastically.
Sibrex produced a micro-comp and set it on the counter. Then he pulled the panel off of the computer and started sifting through wires. A few minutes later, he had a few wires stripped and a few exposed wires from an interface cord from his computer wrapped around the exposed wires.
“This is how I was able to get information from the Freedom when we first found her,” Sibrex said and he started up his micro-comp.
His fingers flew across the keyboard as he hacked away. Out of nowhere, a small, spherical devise bounced off the door frame and straight at Kay, whose reflex chip kicked in and she—in one fluid motion—pulled her Kit’Ra and batted it back at the door frame, bouncing it straight back at the thrower. A shout in a language they’d never heard before broke the silence just before a deafening crack echoed down the corridor.
“Defensive positions!” Khai yelled, taking up a firing position at the east door with Puar while Kay, Brawl and Brix took up firing positions at the west door.
The sound of padded feet echoed off the floor as troops closed in on their positions. Another explosive device bounced into the room on Khai’s side. He just kicked the thing out the door in whatever direction it decided to go. Another loud crack nearly made their eardrums burst. While their ears rang, Khai encountered his first F’Rosian face to face. The first thing he saw come through the door, was the muzzle of a gun with a serrated blade attached to the front of it. Khai pounced with the speed and strength of a sabercat, but the F’Rosian was not caught flatfooted. Khai grabbed for the gun and expected it to come right out of the guy’s hands. When it didn’t, Khai had a second to disbelieve before the soldier jerked the gun from his hands and swung the butt around toward his head.
Khai had only a second to duck under what would have been an incapacitating blow. The gun broke against the door frame and the beast came charging in, grabbing Khai by his vest and driving him backward into the wall with a grunt. Everyone stood surprised to see someone like Khai get overpowered.
Khai wasn’t completely helpless though. He fought back and saw what he thought was surprise on the hound-like face across from him. Khai weaved his arm between the soldier’s two arms and jerked up abruptly, breaking his grip while simultaneously, he placed a powerful foot right at the waistline. The hound tumbled backward into another. They both got up and charged him. With a roar, Khai charged them. The first went for a two handed grapple; Khai slid between his legs and struck him right where it counts. The soldier doubled over, but before Khai could feel even a slight bit of satisfaction, the other grabbed him by the wrist and hauled him up to his feet. Khai cried out as the hound jerked the shoulder far enough that it popped out of the socket then tossed Khai into a computer, sending sparks everywhere.
Khai got to his feet, his right arm hanging slack by his side. Kay had never seen a scared look on Khai’s face before…ever. The hound grinned showing two dozen white teeth. Khai purposefully stumbled back into the wall, bashing his shoulder back into its socket, but kept the ruse going. The hound haughtily approached and raised a clawed hand to finish him. As the death blow came down, Khai pulled the knife from his belt and buried it to the hilt through the hound’s hand. He howled in pain, rage and surprise, but it didn’t last long. Khai pulled the knife out and slashed viciously at the hound’s throat. Arterial spray bathed the wall and Khai in blood and he stumbled back, putting useless pressure on the wound. He fell dead in a pool of his own blood and three more entered to take his place.
With a frustrated sigh and roll of his eyes, Khai moved in to engage.
At the west door, Kay was fairing far better. These hound-like men couldn’t lay a paw on her… literally! Anytime one would move to grapple or strike her, the hand doing the grappling or striking would be lost with a lightning fast swipe from her Kit’Ra! Compared to training, lightning-fast reflexes and an insanely sharp sword, these hounds’ strength added up to nothing. She bobbed and weaved, lobbing hands, feet and heads off, carving a bloody path. When it became apparent that Kay had things well under control, Brix moved to Khai’s side to aid in repelling the F’Rosian soldiers there.
Brawl relied heavily on his prosthetic arm, using it to block bladed weapons, and crush windpipes. But no matter how hard he fought he couldn’t keep up with Kay who, by this point, was drenched in bright red blood. Brawl risked a moment of lustful staring at her grace, power, beauty, and downright deadly instinct. His awe-struck self was brought back to the here and now with a searing pain in his jaw as he caught a fist to the face. He stumbled back into a computer, blushed a little, grabbed a frag grenade off his vest, armed it and charged the hound-like man. He started with a kick to the stomach that doubled the soldier over, then a vicious uppercut that snapped the soldier’s head back, then another blow from his bionic hand drove into the soldier’s stomach and drove the air from his lungs. As the F’Rosian wheezed out a breath, Brawl grabbed the soldier’s lower jaw, jammed the grenade down his throat and, with a spinning back kick, knocked him out into the c
orridor.
Seconds later, the gray walls of the corridor were painted red. Brawl risked a look out into the corridor where he saw a bloody mess of limbs and entrails. He regarded Kay with a cocky smile and caught a bullet that ricocheted of his metallic arm and harmlessly into the wall of the corridor. More were coming from the other direction.
“Damn!” Brawl growled, knowing that Kay was going to have a higher body count than him.
Sibrex, despite the small war going on around him, worked diligently to hack the F’Rosian ship’s main computer. Rather than trying to decipher the F’Rosian language, which, Sibrex had gathered so far, was made mostly of pictographs representing metaphorical allusions, he, instead, broke everything down into binary code and went from there. Once he learned how the F’Rosian computer spoke and developed an algorithm to interface in the computer’s language, it was merely hacking a computer like any other computer.
He accessed the main directory which was the unrestricted information he sought. There, he found schematics of the ship and downloaded it to his computer. As the fight still raged on, he glanced back to see things well in hand. Confident that his assistance wasn’t needed, he pushed harder into the main computer trying to find something else that might end their fight right there and then.
After a few workarounds, he found some restricted files and started scanning through them. Most of them were personnel files, crew logs and communication logs—nothing too useful, so he kept digging. The F’Rosian computer was good, the firewalls were sound, but nothing could stop Sibrex when he set his mind to a task. Moving his fingers across the keyboard so fast that they were almost a blur, he began rewriting the system from the ground up. The problem with the F’Rosians—and what would ultimately be their undoing, Sibrex mused—was their overconfidence. Once he broke the main line of defense against the F’Rosian computer, he found that there were no backups, as if the F’Rosians couldn’t possibly fathom the idea that someone could hack their system.
From there, he had his way with the computer. It wouldn’t be long before he would tell the ship to go into self-destruct mode and get off the ship before she blew.
The Seryys Chronicles: Steel Alliance Page 21