The next deck they arrived on changed those rules. It wasn’t exposed to space. SOM fighters attacked with their magnetic rifles. The warriors, as expected, struggled, melee combat with no gravity or psionic support was always the Empire’s shortcoming when it came to boarding ships back before artificial gravity was invented.
Karklosea experienced that shortcoming firsthand. Her psionic powers were sapped by the mind shield’s damping, limiting her redeemer to its blade form without the psionic imbuement. It was all up to Chevallier and the numbers advantage they had, and the fact SOM rushed into battle wearing robes. Blind faith in Marduk she figured.
One by one, the fighters turned into spinning bodies spraying gobs of orb-shaped blood from the holes or parts of their body where a limb used to be connected. Once clear, Chevallier had the group follow her to an intersection in the corridor. She took off her helmet calling Rivera’s name over and over. A section of the ceiling floated away, and down came a human woman with dark silky hair floating about, with a bag over her shoulders, and human tools in her hands.
She spoke with Chevallier, nodded, then offered a hand to Karklosea. “Nice to meet you, I’m Jasmine Rivera.”
“I am Karklosea,” she replied. “You speak Radiance I see.”
“I used to be the language expert on the team until we picked up Odelea.”
Rivera’s guidance put them in the Gerard Kuiper’s engineering. None of the crew expected a Radiance Templar, human soldier, and Imperial warriors and guardians to enter. Rivera turned away from the slaughter and body dismemberment of the SOM members and then asked for someone to remove a floating hand that drifted next to a computer workstation she needed to attend.
When she was done with it, Karklosea felt her mind become clear, her psionic abilities had returned. It felt as if they were never gone to start with. Rivera disabled the mind shield. Three minutes later, there was a flash of bright blue light. When it faded, Foster, Miles, Maxwell, and LeBoeuf floated, all were armed for combat.
Foster’s face fixed in on the vortex key. She floated next to it as the tattoos that covered her hands, arms, and whatever parts under her uniform glowed blue. She didn’t look pleased.
“Foster’s here to shut that thing down,” Chevallier said. “Hopefully ending this conflict.”
Karklosea nodded to her. “Where do we go next?”
“We need to find Lisette and Nereid first. Rivera?”
Rivera flicked her wrist, and a small holographic map of the Gerard Kuiper appeared and hovered above the palm of her hand. “They’re both being held in the habitat ring, follow me.”
She repeated for the rest of the team in a language they understood, leading the way to an elevator that traveled up a long shaft. The elevator, as with the shaft it traveled through, was covered in windows allowing those aboard to peer out into space and watch as the elevator moved away from the primary fuselage of the Gerard Kuiper, up to its arching rotating habitat rings.
Beyond was the battle and signs that the Draconians were making progress, as two bio-ships pushed past slag and wreckage that used to be Imperial and Terran ships. The Kepler and Rezeki’s Rage were still operational, though both ships had no overshields, the shiny blue barriers of their standard shields were the first and last line of defense they had. The Rezeki’s Rage’s were on the verge of shattering, as indicated by the blackened burns on its hull where it lacked shield coverage.
The Gerard Kuiper wasn’t in a better position. Debris from a downed Terran ship smashed into it, sending a vibrating ripple powerful enough to be felt in the elevator. The second impact of slag and debris made the elevator’s joints flash with sparks. It stopped moving five seconds later.
Rivera floated to the elevator’s controls, pulling its panel apart. “Not good!”
“What’s wrong?” Karklosea asked her.
“I disabled the shields long ago,” Rivera said. “These elevators traveling up to the habitat ring aren’t the most structurally sound spot of the ship.”
The emerald hues of a wyvern’s plasma breath reflected off one of the windows. Karklosea faced it and saw a group approach the unshielded ship.
“One hit from them and we’re done,” Rivera said, looking away from the elevator’s wires and cables spilling out from the panel.
Karklosea holstered her weapon to her side and channeled her psionic might. It made her body shine with psionic light under her armor. The elevator pushed up slightly, her telekinetic mind was in play. Her eyes shut and she focused, erasing all thought of the nearing doom the wyverns might bring.
Her brain worked like unseen hands that forced and pulled against the elevator making it slowly move up to the habitat ring. It wasn’t as fast as it was before it had broken down. She hoped it would be fast enough to get them to safety before the dragons were in range.
61 Foster
ESRS Gerard Kuiper
Terran Alliance Fleet, Near Hallowed Nebula Center
July 24, 2119, 09:07 SST (Sol Standard Time)
The urge to crack a snarky comment that there were too many people in the elevator traveling to the habitat ring crossed Foster’s mind. She counted four Hashmedai from Peiun’s ship, Rivera, Chevallier, Karklosea, who was doing an amazing job at using her powers to bring the elevator to the top. Then there was Foster and the combat specialists she brought from the Kepler, Miles, Maxwell, and LeBoeuf. That was a lot of people jammed into one spot, and a lot of mass for it to carry.
Gravity took hold of her body by the time they reached the ring. Foster could tell, not just by the fact her body fell to the elevator’s floor, but because she was able to feel the rumbles of the shaft come apart thanks to the wyverns outside making a pass.
The elevator’s door didn’t open on its own. So Chevallier forced it open with her new arm. A Rabuabin member of the Marduk cult had his back turned at that moment and turned around just in time for Chevallier to punch him in the face. The blow twisted his head backward and flung him into the wall.
“I’m really diggin’ that arm, Chevallier,” Foster said to her as they all left the elevator.
Chevallier looked down at her metal hand balled up into a fist. “I still wish I had the one I was born with . . .” she said. “But, we’d be dead now if I didn’t have this.”
Foster had the group split up and sent the Hashmedai team to watch the remaining elevator doors throughout the ring, creating a choke point to prevent further enemy backup. Chevallier took her EDF team to search for Lisette who was confined to one of the quarters. That left Foster, Miles, and Rivera with Karklosea as psionic support.
They stopped briefly at the nearest observation window on the ring when the view of the Rezeki’s Rage drifted past charging its mighty forward plasma cannons. Tachyon beams were cutting holes into the Rezeki’s Rage’s hull, its shields were down. One direct hit through its reactor and it was done.
“That’s not good,” Foster said, shaking her head at the sight.
Miles joined the view. “How in the hell are their shields down already?”
“They don’t have a psionic,” Rivera said after she spoke with Karklosea. “They went into this without overshields.”
“So did we,” Foster said. “Tolukei is stressed. The Kepler is going to be taking extra fire if we lose the Rezeki’s Rage.”
To its credit, the Rezeki’s Rage was a tough ship. If it were the Kepler it would have been adrift at best in its current situation, then again, if the Rezeki’s Rage was the Kepler it would have meant its end almost a year ago when the Draconians made their first strike against the Empire. The Rezeki’s Rage should still be able to hold up a while longer under the heat, but not much. They had to escape soon, or it would be destroyed, and fleeing the battle wasn’t going to be an option for it.
The Rezeki’s Rage only had sub light engines, and the Draconians and the Terran ships had FTL which could be used to chase it. Foster returning to the Kepler and activating the vortex key was the Rezeki’s Rage’s and Kepler
’s only means of escape. The Rezeki’s Rage remaining in the fight was the Kepler’s only means of staying in one piece long enough for Foster to return to it and staring out the window wasn’t going to fix that problem. They continued moving, searching for the room Rivera found that held Nereid.
Foster went for her wrist terminal. “Foster to Kepler, what’s your status?”
Williams’ hologram appeared sitting on the captain’s chair of the Kepler floating above her wrist.
“It’s getting hot out here, Becca,” Williams said. “And the Rezeki’s Rage is taking too many hits for my liking.”
“We’ve noticed, Dom, almost done here.”
“The Whisper ship, the Prometheus, can only do so much,” he said. “The Terrans still think it’s loyal to them. So, the Prometheus has to shoot at us and the Rezeki’s Rage sometimes to make themselves look good. And sometimes, we got to shoot the Prometheus back to make it look believable.”
“Well, that’s awkward.”
“Tell me about it.”
She cut the comm link with the wrist terminal when the group ran into armed guards standing watch over the quarters Rivera led them to. Both sides retreated, using the bend in the corridor as cover. Except for Rivera, she hunkered down behind a pot of decorative plants further back, not that it would protect her from high-velocity rounds.
Miles quickly established dominance, pushing forward with the protection the shields from his exosuit gave him, laying down covering fire. Karklosea joined him, charging forward with her glowing psionic shield on her wrist like the space knight she was. The furious Templar and UNE Marine created enough of a distraction for Foster to enter the quarters Nereid was held in.
“Go get her, Captain,” Miles said to her. “We’ll cover you!”
She grabbed Rivera’s trembling arm with one hand, keeping the other around her tachyon rifle, and bolted into the heavily modified quarters. Standing in the center like Rivera predicted was an aquarium filled to the top with the goo that protects ships from the maelstrom. Nereid was still floating in it, and her psionic powers were doing something strange to it.
Rivera ran to a computer console, her fingers danced across its keyboard. “Let’s see if I can pick up where I left off.”
“You mean you don’t know how to shut it down?” Foster said drily.
“I tried earlier with not much luck,” Rivera said. “But roaming around in the access conduits, I found the power distribution cables to this and cut them.” The lights inside the aquarium darkened, making a smile spread across Rivera’s face as she looked at it. “That did it; they had aux power keeping it active, which I can disable from here—”
A strike to the back of Foster’s head threw her to the floor. A second hit made her vision daze, while her tachyon rifle spiraled across the floor out of reach. She rolled across the floor, instincts told her it was the right thing to do. The fist of her attacker drove into the floor where Foster once was.
Getting back to her feet quickly, she saw a woman with Asian and European features, wearing a twenty-first-century IESA uniform with the Canadian flag on her shoulders. Her name tag read ‘A. Levesque.’ The Gerard Kuiper’s Captain Alisha Levesque had a mean fist. She also had the same blue glow of alien tattoos on her body shimmering, just like Foster.
“At last we meet, Foster,” Alisha said with a smirk.
Alisha eyed Rivera when she went to drain the aquarium of the goo and free Nereid. She wanted to stop Rivera, Foster had to stop Alisha. Alisha went for Rivera. Foster went for Alisha. The two women came crashing to the floor with a leaping tackle from Foster and wrestled each other.
Foster hoped she was buying Rivera enough time to get Nereid out, it was hard to see. She saw the ceiling, the floor, the wall, Alisha’s face, Alisha’s black silky hair, the floor again. Then stars, Alisha socked her good. But Foster’s workout routine for the past eight months gave her the strength to get back up, with her tattoo-glowing fists ready for round three. Alisha did the same. Neither of the two made a move. Perhaps it was time to talk things over, she figured.
“Look, Levesque, we’s both got the same uniform on,” Foster said, then ducked from a left swing. “Though I think we had a better tailor than yours.” She blocked a right swing and countered with a head butt that knocked them both back. “Seriously, I had that IESA uniform back on the Carl Sagan, made my shoulders itch, which is why I opted to not use it when we arrived.”
Alisha removed a stream of crimson that rained from her nose with her sleeve.
She went after Foster again, this time swinging her legs for a wide kick. Foster wasn’t the only IESA captain that had been working out a lot. Alisha’s moves were swift, majestic, full of quick takedowns, kicks, flips, and rolls. Foster wasn’t sure what her style was. Karate? Jujutsu? Whatever it was, Alisha had a black belt in it, and it hurt.
“Not one for small talk, huh?” Foster snorted as the two continued to brawl.
“You want to talk?”
Foster’s hands came to hold Alisha in a headlock. “We both wear IESA uniforms, both carry the rank of captain, both served on ships that upped and vanished from Sirius, and both are cursed with these tattoos. We’re like twins, Levesque, twins that never had a slumber party together.”
A hard elbow from Alisha forced the headlock to break. “You’re a fool, anyone ever tell you that?”
Backing off was the best thing to do at that point. It gave Foster a chance to catch her breath, size up Alisha better, and grin at the sight of Rivera removing Nereid out from the aquarium.
“Yeah, the slumber party thing was probably pushing it a little—”
“You turned down Marduk’s offer,” Alisha said rapidly, closing the gap between them. “He wanted to make you a Goddess; he offered you the power to bring your father back. You could have shared that power with the galaxy!”
“I miss my papa more than anything, girl, believe me! But selling out to Marduk wasn’t goin’ to help anyone in the long run.”
A high kick from Alisha sent Foster leaping back. “You never know unless you try. And that’s where I come in.”
“How?”
“The Soldiers of Marduk was created to find the technique Marduk was going to share with you, Foster.”
“And then the cult gave y’all the boot,” Foster said, keeping her distance. “I’m guessing that’s why you had Jainuzei kill its members.”
“Kill? We created the group; it deviated greatly from our goals. Jainuzei was taking corrective action, getting rid of the leaders, and placing the two of us back in charge. The way it was supposed to be.”
“I take it you don’t give a rat’s ass about Marduk coming back?”
Alisha laughed. “No, something greater.”
“Tiamat?”
“Even greater,” Alisha said, gesturing to the corridor from the opened door. “Those morons out there have no idea, they’re just tools. Same with the Terrans and Taxah Hashmedai—”
A telekinetic throw made Alisha fly out of Foster’s sight. Alisha tumbled through the air like a ragdoll until she hit the wall. Nereid stood, holding her hand out, dripping with the residue left behind from the goo bath she was forced in. She looked pissed.
With a beaming smirk, Foster stood over Alisha’s motionless body. “You talk too much, anyone ever tell ya that?”
Foster recovered her tachyon rifle, and then with the aid of Rivera, helped guide Nereid’s weakened body to the door quickly. She went for her wrist terminal again and made a face when she noticed it had been recording, probably activated accidentally during the brawl.
“Foster to Kepler, what’s your status?”
“We got to go now,” Williams transmitted. “The Rezeki’s Rage is about to get Swiss cheesed and our shields just shattered!” The corridor outside the quarters was empty. Miles and Karklosea were nowhere in sight. “Miles, status report?” Silence was the reply. “Chevallier, can you read me?”
“We got Lisette, Captain,” Chevallier trans
mitted. “We’re linking up with the Hashmedai team now.”
“Come to my signal after you’ve done that. I lost contact with Miles and Karklosea, and we’s gotta jet.”
“We’re on the move.”
“Miles!” Foster shouted into her wrist terminal, trying again to get a hold of him. “Miles, can you read me?”
“I can, Captain.” The voice that replied wasn’t the one she expected.
It was the voice of Jainuzei.
Hidden at a four-way intersection deeper in the corridors was Jainuzei standing ahead of a dozen robed cult members. They were all armed with weapons pointed at the back of the heads of Miles and Karklosea who stood with their arms up in surrender. They probably bit off more than they could chew when they went gung ho to let Foster and Rivera into their quarters.
Behind Foster, Rivera, and a weakened Nereid came Chevallier, her EDF team, and the Hashmedai they came aboard with, and a liberated Lisette. Everyone that held a weapon pointed at their opponents, entering a large Mexican standoff in the four-way corridor intersection.
If escape would have been as easy as LeBoeuf teleporting everyone away, they would have done it. In truth, it wasn’t, there were too many bodies with them. Had Tolukei been well enough to use his powers, and came for the ride, maybe as it would have been two psionics that could teleport. Tasking LeBoeuf with teleporting the whole group away was going to take a lot of focus on her part, and possibly half a minute just to muster the psionic energy needed. A lot of bad things could happen in that half-minute.
“You have no place to go, Captain,” Jainuzei said.
“We’s got the psionic advantage, Jainuzei,” Foster said, while her tachyon rifle took aim at his head. “Let us go, this ain’t worth it.”
“Your ship and the Rezeki’s Rage is about to meet its end,” Jainuzei said. “I know you plan to use the vortex to escape. But think about the risks, Captain. Think about what would happen if you were to use it now. There are too many ships close by, including the command ship. The gravity well will rip it apart sending its remains onto your two fleeing ships. And the Draconians? They will follow behind you.”
Hallowed Nebula Page 44