Pixie Hazard

by Archibald Bradford

  The familiar weightlessness of space came as a relief to their strained bodies, as did the deafening silence.

  Blinking rapidly to clear the spots from her eyes, Donnie worked her jaw for a moment to get her ears to pop before getting down to business.

  “Com check.”

  “Check.”

  “Check.”

  Satisfied that she could still communicate with the two marines, she followed up with her orders.

  “Power down your suit augments in case their exterior sensors are up to snuff, and stay on local coms only. That lidar tower tells me that someone on their crew has a half a brain and might be monitoring global chatter. Hopefully the good folks on the Pixie don’t write us off for stupid.”

  “Yeah this has been a banner week for stupid.” Eva complained.

  “Stow it. Our suits won’t handle a slipjump so we need to move. Sledge, get that manual crank going. Put those muscles you’re so proud of to work.”

  “Wilco Skip.”

  The bitch still sounded like she was having fun, which only annoyed Donnie more.

  “Head in the game marine. We’re all alone up here.”

  With the vista of Kentis beside them and the void of space everywhere else, her words were all too true.

  “Aye ma’am.”

  Moving with deliberate purpose, the muscular soldier tore off the breakaway panel next to the airlock, letting it float away into vacuum before reaching in and gripping the lever inside.

  She hesitated before engaging it though.

  “Skip, these yahoos might not follow proper launch protocol, could be under pressure.”

  “Copy, standby for tether.” Donnie gestured at Eva as she spoke; “We were just talking about Pressure-Wreckers too, so there’s that.”

  Shifting herself around on the hull, the redhead attached a thin cable to the built-in loop between the blonde woman’s shoulders, then attached the other end to a similar loop on her own waist. Using the magnetic contact points in her suit she anchored herself against the hull below her, all the while juggling hers and Maria’s heavy repeaters.

  “Belay on. Give her a crank and let’s get this done.” She finally declared.

  Though she spoke tersely, Donnie recognized the excitement in her voice as she likewise braced herself.

  “Here goes. Breaching in three... two... one-”

  As it happened, the Junkers did follow proper launch protocol, so the airlock was already depressurized when the hatch began to inch its way open, which meant there wasn’t an explosive release of atmosphere when the portal lost its seal.

  “All kind of alarms should be going off on this shitty ship right now, provided they even work.” Maria suggested in a strained voice as she pumped the hydraulic failsafe with all her might.

  Eva had meanwhile already untethered them and was standing by at the hatch with Donnie as it opened inch by inch with every pull of their shipmate’s arm.

  “Assume the worst.” The captain ordered.

  It was another half minute or so before the hatch was wide enough for them to float inside, then there was that moment of vertigo that accompanied stepping into an artificial mass field, most of their body floating while their feet found the arbitrary ‘down’ of the vessel.

  The veterans were unfazed by the bizarre sensation though and took up position on either side of the interior door, out of sight of the small circular window in its center.

  With her fire-team in place, Donnie smacked the emergency re-pressurization button hard enough to crack it and the hatch slammed back closed as oxygen began to fill the room.

  Sound gradually returned as the vacuum around them filled with breathable atmosphere. The hiss of the airlock was the most noticeable, though they could also make out the klaxon blare of an alarm on the other side of the door as well as the general hum of the ships engines.

  As the indicator next to the interior door counted down, Donnie shouldered her shotgun.

  “Stack up. We’re going in hot.”

  Chapter 9:

  Breach

  The worn interior door of the airlock opened to reveal a grungy locker room with two rows of lockers, likely designed originally for storage of the miners’ suits, now they were in severe disrepair and the room looked largely unused.

  The marines making entry were unconcerned with the place’s need for a mop and a coat of paint, too focused on clearing their corners. Maria and Donnie had their weapons gripped in two hands, but Eva had slung her repeater over her shoulder in exchange for a pistol and a functional combat knife, steadying the hand of the former with the hand of the latter.

  It took them a few seconds to determine they were alone.

  “Clear Skip.”

  “We’re clear.” Eva muttered right after Maria as she moved to the first hatch.

  But right as she finished speaking the interior door opened and a stout man with an ancient looking submachine gun entered to investigate the airlock alarm.

  He barely had time to register the hulking brute that was Maria before Eva bull-rushed him from the side, slamming him into the nearest bank of lockers, the weight of her armour enough to crater the flimsy doors and crush a number of his ribs.

  She finished him on his way to the floor with some bloody knife work, making a mess of her armour, but keeping the noise to a minimum.

  “One down.” She called once he stopped struggling.

  “I can see that.” Donnie said as she and Maria checked the corridor he came out of and found it empty to either side; “Let’s move, you bought us some time by killing the messenger, but they’ll figure out we stowed away soon.”

  “Where to?”

  The corridor had a number of hatches leading off of it into various storage spaces, while a set of stairs leading to the more habitable sections of the ship was immediately to their right.

  Having a rough idea where they were on the vessel, Donnie gave her orders.

  “Clear this deck Hooker, then find the engine room and see about scuttling this piece of shit. The Pixie isn’t getting close enough to pick us up so long as those Arbalests got power. Sledge and I are headed up. You both know why we’re here. Check your targets, move fast, and drop anyone who looks like a pirate.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  Eva slipped away, moving stealthily despite her combat armour as she began to clear the lower holds, one by one.

  “I’ve got point Skipper.” Maria said with her gun leading the way.

  She went towards the stairs with the captain right behind her, both of them moving quickly; the shrill screech of the ship’s alarm echoing all around them serving as a constant reminder that they were on borrowed time and that further violence was imminent.

  Once at the top of the stairs, they heard the sound of a man shouting coming from a corridor on their left. Following it they ended up at a T-junction deep in the belly of the vessel, close enough to make out what he was saying.

  “-that alarm off! Dewey’s dealing with it!”

  He stomped his way around the corner while still looking back at someone behind him, then turned to see the two marines in their hulking exo-rigs.

  “What are you supposed to be?”

  He didn’t sound in the least bit frightened, maybe even a bit impatient.

  Maria answered by bringing the butt of her repeater down on his head.

  Without her suit she would have cracked his skull, instead it caved inwards in mess of blood and grey matter.

  The sound of him slumping to the floor was drowned out by the last second or so of the alarm before someone finally shut it off.

  “I go right, you go left.” Donnie ordered, her voice deafening in the sudden silence.

  “Copy.”

  Together they moved into the T-junction, though neither of them saw anyone as they split up.

  Taking a few seconds to clear a surprisingly clean bathroom, Donnie heard more coarse voices around the next corner when she came out.

  “Alarms are
off, hope the commodore isn’t too pissed with us for leaving. Need me some pussy.”

  “Quit thinking with your dick and just be glad we’re not dead.”

  Another pair of men came into view, both wearing almost identical worn coveralls, this time though they had a much more appropriate response to the sight of the armoured marine.

  Or they would have if she didn’t rapidly discharge her shotgun twice, tearing through their torsos one after another.

  But even as they too slumped to the floor, Donnie heard a yelped curse and the rapid footsteps of someone running away.

  She booked it after him, her gyros whirring as she rounded the corner.

  “I got a rabbit! Sledge, Hooker, we’re blown! Time to get messy!”

  “I figured that much when you started shooting! I heard that monster from down here!” Eva complained.

  Before Donnie reached the end of the latest passageway someone at the end popped out of a door and lit her up with a pulse-rifle.

  With no cover to speak of all she could do was return fire, her shotgun barking again as it splattered his head and shoulders across the hatch he had stepped out of to shoot at her.

  Donnie cursed as she pressed against the wall.

  She had gotten lucky and she knew it: he was a lousy marksman.

  Two of the shots went wide, but she felt the stinging burn in her hip where one of the laser bursts made it through her armour.

  Having doubled back at the sound of the captain’s firefight, Maria rounded the corner to see her leaning against the wall.

  “Skipper!” She cried out in alarm as she moved beside her.

  Her repeater winged another Junker as he charged out of the same hatch as his friend, sending him twirling to the floor in the corridor.

  “Keep moving, go!” Donnie said between grit teeth; “Fucker tagged me but I’m fine! Clear that room!”

  The deep stinging pain in her hip told her she was lying, but she could still move.

  The powerhouse stalked up to the hatch, kicking it in when someone on the other side tried to hold it closed. She came out right quick though when her head bounced back from a repeater round ricocheting off of her helmet.

  Awkwardly turning with the force of the blow she took cover next to the broken hatch and fired a few shots in blindly to keep whoever was inside ducking.

  “Found their armoury! Two more inside!”

  The charged round had rung her bell pretty good but not enough to stop her.

  A different toned alarm began to sound in the corridor even as the men inside shouted desperate epithets at the hulking marine.

  Donnie caught up and took her position on the other side of the door, doing her best to avoid limping as she straddled the man Maria had winged.

  “Just two?”

  “That I counted very briefly before getting hit in the face with a watermelon.”

  “You okay? You sound loopy.”

  “Oh I’m fine, just having fun is all.”

  “Right.” Donnie focused back on the corridor and called inside; “You boys wanna surrender?”

  “Suck my-“

  “-yer mother with a cactus!”

  Their words garbled together as they swore at her.

  Donnie briefly considered how best to get at the two hostiles in the room, then stooped down to unclip a grenade off of the dead Junker’s belt.

  “That a good idea Skip?”

  The captain mulled it over for a full two seconds before shrugging.

  “Probably not. But fuck it. Hope none of your shit is combustible!”

  “The hell does that mean?!”

  She primed the high explosive grenade and tossed it as close as she could, using the pirate’s voice to get a rough idea of where to throw.

  At which point minds were abruptly changed.

  “Wait! We surren-”

  The panicked capitulation was cut off in the ensuing blast as smoke and debris flew out of the hatch and caused the wounded man in the corridor to scream as he was pelted by bits of his friends.

  Once the smoke cleared a bit Maria went in again, this time without any resistance as Donnie’s toss had been spot on.

  “Room’s clear. That was underwhelming. Thought for sure you would have done something structural with all the ordinance in here.”

  “Life isn’t a holo-vid.” The captain responded as she flipped over the last living Junker; “How many onboard?”

  He didn’t answer right away; the grenade had his ears ringing and he was bleeding profusely from where Maria’s repeater had taken a sizable chunk out of his bicep.

  Donnie wasn’t in the mood for tight-lipped Junker trash and their health problems though, so she jammed the muzzle of her gun into his wound until he squealed.

  “How many?”

  She didn’t raise her voice, simply repeating the question as Maria came out of the room to cover her.

  “I dunno! Maybe twenty f-five?! Half the crew got iced dirtside.” He whimpered.

  “What about hostages?”

  Again she didn’t get a response right away, so she hurt him some more, this time drawing a proper scream out of him. Maria’s cheek twitched at the noise, but she swept through the rest of the corridor, checking a few empty bunks while her skipper did what she had to do.

  “Are there any hostages?”

  Donjoon Nelson was implacable when she needed to be: if there were civilians onboard, she intended to find them.

  “O-one, I think he’s dead though! Cletus kicked the crap out of him after his brother bought it yesterday.”

  “We did all of this for one guy?” Maria complained; “Whatever. He’d better be cute.”

  “Where?” Donnie demanded.

  Before he could answer they heard footsteps running towards them and more angry shouts from the corridor past the armoury even as a call went over the Junker ship’s intercoms.

  “Some sneaky sumbitches stowed away! They’re on deck two, everyone get down there and smoke ‘em!”

  Maria started shooting again, forcing whoever was coming to duck for cover, but she had to take cover herself when more repeaters started pounding into her armour.

  “Short on time here Skip! They’re coming down from the upper decks. We need to keep moving before they hem us in!”

  But before Donnie could answer the ship suddenly lurched and she felt a wave of vertigo as the mass generator lost power for the briefest of moments.

  Eva’s voice came over the coms then.

  “Captain, I secured the engine room but I hit something expensive looking in the firefight, rads spiked for a second there.”

  “Copy, if you’ve disabled the guns then reach out to the Pixie. If your sister isn’t airborne by now then we might all be fucked.”

  The ship began to vibrate and the emergency lights came on as Eva kept at her work in the engine room.

  “Oh fuck, I don’t wanna die!” The wounded Junker blubbered as Donnie was distracted.

  Seeing that he was clearly panicking, she let up on the stick and tried a bit more carrot.

  “Tell me where that hostage is and I won’t kill you. Sound fair? You have three seconds.”

  She pressed the muzzle of her shotgun against his nose.

  “Three, two-”

  “The b-brig!” The suddenly cross-eyed man screamed; “That way! Go left, hatch at the end!”

  “Thanks.”

  Donnie immediately got back to her feet, though she grunted at the searing pain in her hip from the movement.

  She and Maria quickly beat a retreat back to the T-junction, leaving the terrified man to bleed out on the floor or get saved by his shipmates, whichever.

  The shaking in the ship grew more violent, causing Donnie to pitch to one side abruptly and slam into the wall.

  “Hooker way overdid it! Mass-gen is going out for real! Next will be the life support. Then the reactor! Eva if you’re still breaking shit, cut it out!”

  As if the redhead was thumbing her nose a
t Donnie, the ship groaned and the vibrations grew more intense as a distant explosion rocked the entire vessel, while the distinct groan of metal strained too far echoed around them.

  “Oops.”

  She at least she had the decency to sound sheepish over the coms.

  Once again Donnie was pitched to the side, her injury greatly hampering her movements in the fucked up gravity.

  “Shit! We’re bugging out, Sledge you check the brig while I find us an exit!”

  “Right!” Maria said.

  The powerhouse was hopping deftly down the corridor as gravity became intermittent and random, at one point she appeared to be running along the wall from Donnie’s point of view.

  Meanwhile the captain had to take two seconds to tear an emergency sealant off her belt and press it deep into the hole in her hip, no longer able to ignore her HUD’s flashing warnings regarding her suit’s integrity given the likelihood of them ending up in vacuum again.

  The little injector nozzle filled the opening with a black foam that quickly expanded and hardened until the alarms stopped flashing in her face, though the overlay in her HUD still had a red glowing bit on her hip, as if the searing pain wasn’t enough of a reminder that she’d been shot.

  With that worry off her list, she set off to find a way out.

  Chapter 10:

  Big Damn Hero

  Bryan Everson was in worse shape than ever.

  He was still on the floor with his hands bound, though they had left the hood off after the crazy Junker had beaten the crap out of him the previous day.

  He was more than ready for the nightmare to end, even in death at this point.

  Which is what he was expecting when the ship began to shake and he flopped around the brig as the gravity failed.

  And he was definitely expecting it when the hulking brute in black armour all but tore the hatch off its hinges and stormed into the room to find him slumped against the far wall.

  A female voice crackled over the armoured suit’s intercom.

  “You alive over there little buddy?”