A corner of her lips curled up. “Check across the board. I even brought a healthy respect for the enemy this time.”
“Really?”
“No.”
He shook his head in an exaggerated lament as he put his hands on his weapons in a final pre-mission check. But the check was rote and routine, so he let muscle memory do the work while he watched her.
Her eyes and glyphs shone as brilliantly as they had on Chionis, and the dim, gray landscape lent them yet more luminosity. But despite the strain of the recent battle and only the briefest spells of sleep since, she genuinely did seem to be okay. Better than okay—full of eagerness and determination to put her newest skills to work for the cause, basking in the comfort and joy of a family that was both whole and within reach.
She glanced over and caught him scrutinizing her. He tossed her a smile, but it reminded him he needed to focus. He’d meant to be putting his own eyes on her weapons, even if she was apt to be far too busy on cerebral matters to have a chance to use any of them. He’d taken to using the diati as a weapon to such an extent lately, he was unlikely to use any of his own, either. But nobody was taking any chances, and pre-mission checks were more than de rigueur—they saved lives.
Alex’s gaze diverted past his shoulder as the Marines reached them. He turned and offered a quick greeting to Harper, then to Jenner. “We’re ready to move as soon as the fleet is in position.”
“As are we. How’s the exit point look?”
Alex stepped up beside him. “Mia and I scouted ahead in sidespace and picked out a spot twenty meters down the hall from the Data Control server room. It’s in a supply storage room, but there’s enough open space to stage our entry. Watching the location in sidespace while opening and maintaining a wormhole, walking through it and hacking the data server is one feat too many for me, so Mia’s assumed responsibility for the area surveillance—but I bet you already knew that. She’ll tell us when the immediate area is clear. Devon’s also on standby to watch whatever you find you need him to watch once we get there.”
Jenner nodded. “Understood. Eaton, link Mr. Reynolds into our mission channel now, as well as these two.”
Comm checks followed, then they twiddled their thumbs for twenty seconds before the fleet status checks began rolling in from MW Sector 9.
Commandant Solovy (AFS Stalwart II): “Infiltration team, you are clear to proceed.”
Alex lifted her chin and motioned everyone off to the left. The undercarriage of the Siyane began to glow a diffuse amber, and the air in front of Alex began to shift and distort. The muscles running down her neck flexed as her jaw tightened in concentration. “Wormhole is stable, and Mia says ‘go,’ so let’s go.”
For tactical reasons—the need to establish the diati bubble promptly upon their arrival—Caleb had to traverse the wormhole first. He kept Alex behind him and took note of how the Marines, whether instinctively or on prior orders, formed a protective circle around her. He gave silent thanks and stepped through the wormhole.
MILKY WAY SECTOR 9
AFS MA-PRIMARY
Commander Lekkas (AFS MA-Primary): “Defense shield power generator targeted and locked. Firing.”
Her arcalaser tore into the module tucked beneath the station’s central structure, sending unmoored energy shooting outward ahead of a burst of flame that in turn quickly evaporated for a dearth of oxygen.
“Hello, Vigil. Guess who’s here.” Morgan spun away from the station and swept around to set up for the next, slightly altered run.
You should have burned the greeting into the station hull with the arcalaser.
Ha! I like it, Stanley. Graffiti written in the stars at eight hundred kilojoules per second. But if I’d done something that dramatic, I probably would have written ‘Fuck you, Vigil.’
A valid alternative, to be sure.
She chuckled and slipped unnoticed between two automated drones headed in the opposite direction, toward the fleet that was now making itself conveniently known.
Vigil HQ’s defense shielding wasn’t as robust as the defenses at the large manufacturing facilities. It didn’t include a physical barrier blocking entry or a staffed checkpoint, presumably due to traffic in and out of HQ being too frequent for such an onerous barrier to be practical.
Still, taking out the primary defense shield with the opening volley was going to make their job simpler. More importantly, though, doing so had triggered the station’s external defenses and sent a horde of drones flying away from the station and toward the fleet. Maybe some manned ships, too. Security was now firmly focused on the external threat; with any luck, so focused they wouldn’t even notice the internal one.
Commandant Solovy (Stalwart II): “Infiltration team, you are clear to proceed.”
The fleet engaged the approaching defenders, if only passably so in a gambit to draw out the engagement and buy the infiltration team time to work.
With the shield down and the drones distracted, Morgan instructed the Eidolon flights to begin delivering their payloads: twenty-two negative energy bombs set for remote detonation. Sending the signal for detonation was to be the last act of the mission.
I hope Brook tries to avoid the exploding remains of any Vigil mechs this time. Also, sharp claws belonging to monstrous beasts.
I suspect Captain Harper will risk life and limb as she deems necessary in order to perform her job expertly, as always.
Heh. It would be fantastic if she’d actually limit doing so to when it’s necessary.
You worry about her.
More than I want to. I feel like a ninny.
She skimmed a hair over three meters beneath the station’s lower hull, invisible and undetectable. Due ahead lay a junction of station modules—a weak point ready to crumble to dust under the force of the bomb she carried.
She is highly skilled at her job.
And Morgan didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Yep. So am I.
Commander Lekkas (MA-Primary): “Placement of negative energy bombs commencing. Detonation will be on my mark and not an instant before it.”
24
VIGIL HEADQUARTERS
MILKY WAY SECTOR 9
* * *
CALEB MARANO (MISSION): “Initiating diati bubble.”
Lieutenant Odaka (mission): “Rearguard has cleared the wormhole, boots on target location.”
Alexis Solovy (mission): “Closing wormhole.”
The amount of diati required to create the bubble wasn’t an issue; Caleb had a surfeit of it at his disposal. The real trick was keeping it reigned in at precisely the size and shape he needed. Control—him, in intimate control of the power—grew more difficult the greater the levels of diati he called into use.
Caleb breathed out through his nose. “The bubble extends across this level as well as one level above and below to abut the interior hull.”
Jenner held out a small scanner and rotated in a slow circle. “Ingress and egress points are now marked on the mission grid. Polowski and Shaviiz, post at Point A, Grenier and Eaton, Point B. Kill anything that crosses your visuals. Everyone else, hold here.”
Alex’s irises had faded, albeit temporarily, with the closing of the wormhole. “The server room is out the door and left down the hall twenty-one meters, also on the left.”
Mia Requelme (mission): “A guard drone is stationed inside the server room door, then past it are two Anadens. They’re acting closer to techs than security guards, not that it matters.”
Brigadier Jenner (mission): “Acknowledged. Harper, Pello, Redale, Benoit, secure the entrance.
Captain Harper (mission): “With pleasure.” She and the others activated their Veils and vanished.
Alex tapped her fingers on her thigh in time to her foot tapping the floor.
Jenner eyed her suspiciously. “We’ll move when the server room’s secure.”
“I can shoot just fine.”
Caleb sighed. “We know, baby, but you’re not here to shoot, you’re
here to hack. You be our sword, and let us be your shield.”
“Damn poetic, priyazn. But aren’t you usually the sword—”
A series of thuds and crashes rang out from down the hall. Jenner raised his Daemon. Caleb gritted his teeth and tamped down his natural instinct to act to address the threat. Instead he concentrated on maintaining the stability of the diati bubble.
Captain Harper (mission): “Server room is secure.”
Brigadier Jenner (mission): “Copy that. On our way.” Jenner motioned for Odaka to take up the rear then stepped into the hallway. Once he’d checked it, he indicated for them to follow.
Caleb moved as swiftly and deliberately as he could while ensuring the perimeter of the bubble didn’t shift with his movement. When they reached the door, he stepped through it alert for threats, even though the Marines would intercept any threat long before it reached them.
Two bodies lay on the floor in restraining fields under the watchful eye of one of the Marines. The Anadens looked dead, but better safe than sorry. A drone sat in the corner, inactive but intact. “Harper, take one of those spikes Eren gave us and jam it into the small input node behind the camera-eye.”
She went over to kneel in front of the drone. A brief hissing sound followed. There—now it was more inactive.
Alex strode past all the floor clutter through the entrance to the large server room and pressed her left palm to the control panel. Three seconds later the force field blocking entry disappeared. Eren had also sent along a tool the anarchs used for disabling these types of security measures, but Alex hadn’t bothered to use it. She was now hacking Anaden technology as quickly and expertly as she did human systems.
As Malcolm hurriedly motioned two Marines forward to guard her, she entered the server room and went straight to the central control module. Of course she’d scouted ahead in sidespace, so she also already knew where everything was. Her blade came out of its sheath and activated, and she had the panel halfway cut open before one of the Marines tried to take over for her. She shot the Marine a dubious glare and finished slicing the metal, then maneuvered the panel out and handed it to the Marine to hold.
Caleb chuckled under his breath.
Her eyes and glyphs now lit up in renewed brilliance, but she spoke aloud for their benefit. “Okay, Valkyrie. As we suspected, this is way too much data to try to analyze here or copy onto physical slabs, so I need you to record and store it temporarily in your databanks. We’ll decrypt it and sort it out later. But—” she fished her Reor slab out of the pocket of her tactical vest and held it out in front of her “—let’s record what this shows us, too. Never know if it could turn out to be useful.” The air around her shimmered and undulated, but he couldn’t see what she saw, only that the air soon returned to normal.
She placed the slab in her vest pocket, thrust her hand and arm out and plunged them into the exposed circuitry.
“Alex!” Jenner leapt for her in alarm.
Caleb just laughed. “She does that. She’s fine.”
“Fine?”
He tilted his head in Alex’s direction and shrugged, as she was, quite clearly, fine.
Jenner rubbed at his jaw, looking at an utter loss as to what to do.
Caleb smiled to himself, a mix of proud and uncharitable thoughts musing idly through his mind.
Devon Reynolds (mission): “You’ve got serious incoming from the floor below, left side from the server room, center transit tube.”
Brigadier Jenner (mission): “Harper, Pello, Redale, back up Polowski and Shaviiz. I’m trip mining the entrance to the server room, so do announce your arrival when you return.” He jogged out through the small entry room to the hallway.
The incoming attackers had been inside the diati bubble when it was created. Obviously they had, because they couldn’t have penetrated it from the outside. More than this, though, Caleb had felt their presence, as he felt the presence of every breathing or powered form existing inside the bubble.
He twitched with stewing energy, but he could do nothing to help meet the threat beyond ensuring the bubble remained in place so that when the Marines ended their lives, it would be for good.
The chaotic sounds of close-quarters combat grew so loud they muffled the sound of a ceiling segment bursting open above him.
A Vigil officer—Machim—dropped through the hole and fired on Caleb.
He stumbled half a step on account of so much of his power being utilized elsewhere, but the diati he retained absorbed the blow without prompting. In his next step he placed himself between the Vigil officer and Alex.
The attacker shook off his surprise at the ineffectiveness of his weapon and charged.
Caleb unlatched his blade hilt with one hand and readied—
—the attacker jerked to a violent halt. Jenner materialized behind him, left arm locked around the man’s neck and the other jamming the muzzle of his Daemon into the man’s side, trigger pressed flush. When the man started to slacken, Jenner’s left arm loosened its hold slightly. He dragged his arm to the left, leading a blade across the officer’s neck.
Jenner tossed the body to the side and raised his Daemon to point at the hole in the ceiling. “We have Vigil in the ceiling. Assume we have them in the walls and coming up through the floor as well.”
Caleb took two steps back until he drew even with Alex. “Almost finished? We need to go soon, or things are going to get ugly.”
If she’d been aware of the altercation, she gave no indication of it; all her concentration remained on the data flowing through her and to Valkyrie. She nodded minutely. “Almost.”
He squeezed her free hand and stepped forward toward Jenner. He kept his voice low. “Pull your people in as soon as it’s safe to do so. We’ll be ready to leave by the time they get here. And thank you. Again. I’m in danger of owing you.”
Jenner flashed him a smirk. “Good.”
Brigadier Jenner (mission): “As soon as all active assailants are disabled, withdraw to the entrance of the server room and prepare for departure.”
The walls shuddered from an impact, distant but heavy; it came from outside the station. A quick focusing of the fleet mission channel confirmed that they were winning too handily and wouldn’t be able to stall for much longer.
“Alex, time’s up. We’ve got to go.”
When he didn’t get a response, he checked behind him to find her holding up a finger of her free hand. He waited one second…two…
…and was about to have to force the issue when she withdrew her arm from the circuitry, masterfully covered a slight stumble and hurried to his side. “What are we waiting for?”
“Not a thing.” He grabbed her hand and maneuvered to stay in front of her as they joined the Marines.
Harper and several others jogged down the hallway toward them, covered in blood of nonobvious origin. Jenner motioned for them to keep going toward the supply room, then for everyone else to join them.
Weapons fire continued from the opposite end of the hallway.
Brigadier Jenner (mission): “Pello, Polowski, reinforce Point B. Remember, we need one hundred percent termination.”
Two Marines moved ahead as they reached the supply room. Jenner and Harper cleared it, after which Caleb urged Alex inside ahead of him.
The weapons fire died away, and the rest of the squad appeared around the corner carrying one of their own. One of the Marines held a blood-soaked field medwrap against the injured man’s thigh.
Caleb motioned them into the supply room as he took a last survey of both directions. No sound suggested movement. He swept his perception through the diati and found nothing living or powered except in the room behind him.
A timer began ticking down on a whisper in his virtual vision as he backed into the room.
Alex motioned outward with both arms. “Everyone against the walls. You don’t want to get caught half in a wormhole when it forms. At least, I assume doing so would be bad—no one’s volunteered to test it.”
Her skin lit afire, and she stood perfectly still for several seconds.
The disruption in the air was difficult to make out in the dim room, but finally she nodded sharply. “Go. Everyone, go!”
Three Marines moved their injured comrade through first. The others followed, and soon only Harper, Jenner, he and Alex remained. The timer continued its steady progression toward the instant he could be certain everyone dead inside the bubble was well and truly dead. He stared at Jenner, who now stood beside him. “Why are you still here? Go, all of you.”
Jenner shook his head. “If more trouble shows up, you can’t fight them off and keep the bubble up. We’re here to the end.” He glanced behind him. “Alex, you should go, though. You can keep the wormhole open from the other side.”
Her face screwed up like he’d voiced the dumbest combination of words since mankind had developed spoken language. “Um, no?”
Jenner opened his mouth as if to argue, but Caleb cut him off. “It’s an irrelevant argument in eight seconds…seven…you get the idea. Be ready…and…go.”
Still, he was the last, remaining until everyone else was off the station. Finally he drew the diati powering the bubble into himself and fell backwards through the wormhole onto the hard, unforgiving bedrock of the staging planet.
Caleb struggled up to his knees. “I’m out—shut it down!”
The air in front of him rippled then calmed, in contrast to the frenzied scene he found when he stood.
One of the Marines he knew by name, Verela, knelt beside the wounded Marine and began active treatment while another grasped the man’s hand and someone else sprinted to the transport for a field med kit.
Jenner hurried from one squad member to another, confirming their presence and the absence of additional serious injuries.
Harper touched a fingertip to her cheek and scowled at it when it came back bloody; at some point her shield had been depleted and she’d caught a graze of fire.
Alex sank against the hull of the Siyane, shoulders sagging, looking a little tired but smiling.
When Jenner reached the last Marine he activated his comm.
Aurora Resonant: The Complete Collection (Amaranthe Collections Book 3) Page 97