Privateer Tales 3: Parley (26 page)

“I’ll check the airlock,” I said.

“No power, Liam, we’ll have to pop the glass,” Tali said.

“I’ve got it,” Jordy pulled a thin cord from a pouch on his waist. The cord stuck to the glass and he ran it around the entire outline. It was hard to watch. Sure, I’d been the one to drive
Sterra's Gift
into the engines of the frigate, but blowing the glass seemed to just add insult to injury.

“Fire in the hole …” Jordy warned. I had no idea how strong the explosion would be, so I jetted over next to Marny. We’d lost the artificial gravity with the power.

“Hold on to something …” Jordy jetted back with the rest of us and held onto the back of a chair. The cord simply turned from gray to black and a second later the glass popped out and tumbled away from the ship, propelled by the atmosphere that desperately wanted out. A few seconds later we were in vacuum.

Full crew on this Russian-made frigate is forty-two,” Tali said. “I’ve uploaded the deck plans to your AIs. I don’t think we’re talking more than half that. That’s the good news. The bad news is the best point
of entry is on deck five - the bottom of the ship.”

The plan we’d devised was to have Marny provide the tactical walk-through and set the objectives. We’d spent nearly half an hour talking through our approach and I felt good about having delivered on my end of it. Losing
Sterra's Gift
would be worth it if we could get Qiu back. Getting Flark would be icing on the cake.

“First through the glass is Tali followed by Jordy. You’ll take these defensive positions,” Marny said. My HUD showed two blinking indicators on the three dimensional rendering of the frigate projected in my vision. Jordy would set up high on the engine cowl on the starboard side. Tali, low on the port. “Liam, you and I will set the charges on the engine.”

The first part of the plan was to make sure the engines wouldn’t start up again. We couldn't be sure that the damage we’d caused with
Sterra's Gift
would be permanent. The frigate had been trailing behind the hauler as it slowly accelerated the asteroid it was pushing. We strongly believed the hauler wouldn't disengage from the asteroid to come to the frigate’s aid. If it did, there would be no time to reengage and begin its slow push before Mars Protectorate showed up on the scene. Sending its darts had been the only help the hauler could give at this distance.

Marny handed me a large blaster rifle. I strapped it to my back and pulled the flechette from its holster.

“You’re going to want some firepower if we get into it out there,” Marny said, noticing my weapon choice.

“I won’t have time to aim it, I need something fast.” I said.

Marny looked at me for a moment and made a decision. “Put the gun away. Normally, space marines hunker down and try to blow holes in things. But you’re fast enough that you may very well get into close quarters combat.”

She pulled a five centimeter flat handle out of my belt and handed it to me. She’d explained its use once already, but it was one of five new weapons that I was carrying. I had no plan to be experimenting with them in combat. She’d insisted that it wouldn’t hurt me to have them available, just in case.

“Hold that. See? It expands into your hand. Flick it outward but away from everyone.”

I’d seen nano blades on vids and had always wanted use one.
I flicked outward and a thin blue glowing line appeared at the end of the handle. I knew from her previous description that the blue glow was only on my HUD and invisible to non-friendlies.

“Use that for up close and personal. Otherwise, be using that blaster rifle,” Marny explained. I retracted the blade and reattached it to my belt.

“We’ve gotta get going,” Tali said.

“Go.”

Tali jetted through the blown-out section of armor glass, followed by Jordy. They appeared to be more comfortable with arc-jets than Marny, but both had clearly been born planet-side.

Marny handed me a sack. “Your HUD has the locations to plant these. Just like we talked about before, your HUD arms them once you plant ‘em. I’ll blow ‘em all at once.”

“Roger that.” My HUD presented a path to my first objective and I darted out of the glass. I couldn’t help but look back over
Sterra's Gift
. We’d ground into the engines of the frigate and it looked like the spine of
Sterra's Gift
was bent. We’d rolled slightly on impact and torn off the newly added missile launchers. I felt sick looking at it.

“Suck it up, Cap,” Marny reprimanded. She was right, I was starting to wallow
again.

I had six charges to plant, all within thirty meters of each other. On the way to the first, I pulled one of the charges from the sack. The charge I held was an unimpressive container with very little that indicated its purpose. My HUD warned of extreme radiant heat on the engine’s surface.

“What’s the operating temp of these charges? I’ve got seven hundred degrees over here.” The HUD had given me the exact temperature but I knew from experience that you didn't want to come in contact with metal which was a dull red color.

“They’re good over a thousand,” Marny reassured.

I ratcheted up my courage and gently pushed the charge onto the surface, being careful not to allow my gloves to touch the extremely hot metal. The gloves could handle it for a couple of seconds, but I didn’t want to test them. The top of the charge flashed a green symbol that I didn’t recognize, but my HUD confirmed that the charge was armed and synced.

I flitted over to the remaining five locations, each in turn and armed them. I had to work my way around
Sterra's Gift
and the more I did, the more I realized that this had been her last passage. I couldn’t process it right now, but the sick feeling in my stomach grew that much more.

“Cap, you need to get those charges planted,” Marny said as I caught up with her.

“All done.”

Marny hesitated and I saw through her face shield that she was viewing her HUD, no doubt checking my work. “That’s impossible, I’ve only planted two.”

“Give me your bag and do that strategy thing you enjoy so much,” I said lightly. Marny reluctantly handed me her bag and four new locations illuminated.

“We’ve got company,” Jordy said. His voice was even, like he’d just asked for a cup of coffee. “They’re tagged on tactical.” Four red icons appeared on my HUD. The holographic model of the frigate showed them on the starboard side of the ship.

“I’ve got a pair over here,” Tali said.

“Don’t give away your positions. Let us get these charges set,” Marny said.

I pushed my arc-jets hard and set the final four charges, barely pausing as I jetted across the surface of the ruined engine compartment.

“Charges deployed,” I tried to keep my voice even and slow, mimicking Jordy, but it sounded higher than I was used to. Marny had moved to where Tali was tracking two figures jetting toward us.

“Three, two …” Marny counted down. The two icons on the port side of the frigate blinked out.

“That woke ‘em up,” Jordy said. “I don’t have a shot.”

“Form up on me,” Marny said. She jetted down the port side of the frigate, staying close in. I jetted along the surface and caught up with her. According to my HUD, Jordy was just clearing the engine.

“Fire in the hole …” Marny said. Since I wasn’t touching the ship, the only indication I got that the charges had fired was watching
Sterra's Gift
tumble slowly away from the back of the frigate. Up to this point, I hadn’t had much time to think about it, but for some reason the image of my ship tumbling away was almost too much to take

“Tali, you’re on point. We need to take that airlock. Jordy, you have her back. Liam, take a position on the keel, watching aft. We may have dusted those other four, but don’t count on it.”

I jetted down beneath the frigate, careful to stay close in. The guns of the frigate would be able to find us if we got more than twenty meters off its surface. Peering down, I was surprised by two figures jetting directly at me. Somehow they had my position. Both were armed with pistols and started firing.

“Contact!” I’d been jetting along in a fairly straight line, but a sensor strip on the frigate must have tracked me and was feeding info to the two attackers.

I fired my glove jets against the hull to divert my direction and pushed my boots to max thrust. It was a move I used all of the time in pod-ball when I needed to dramatically change direction. Blaster fire lit up all around me. It momentarily registered that I might have gotten nicked, but the armored vac-suit could absorb near misses all day.

A
turret loomed in front of me. The guns weren’t going to be a factor in this but a perpendicular object to the hull surface certainly would. I grabbed for a handhold and used my momentum to swing around the turret. My shoulder screamed, but I bet my pursuers wouldn’t see it coming. With my free hand, I pulled the nano blade from my belt and gave it a hard flick.

Fifty percent isn’t too bad in some circumstances, but in combat it can be a bitch when you’re outnumbered. I’d caught one of the two pirates completely off guard and he continued to fly directly at my old position. To his credit, he tried to adjust at the last moment. Blaster fire stitched the space where I’d been and closed in on my current position. My plan was simple - put the nano-blade into his path and try not to catch too much of what happened next.

A nano-blade is a simple object, with an electrically stimulated filament that is impossibly narrow, but relatively rigid for its otherwise small structure. According to Marny, special armor exists that resists nano-blades easily - but it’s expensive. More importantly, this guy didn’t have that armor. I immediately discovered that I much preferred guns to blades.

I didn’t have much time to think about it because the second attacker was clearly spacer born. He’d seen my gambit and had adjusted at the last minute. I let go of the nano-blade and focused on jetting away. I was in the unenviable position of running and dodging in the open. Further down the keel, I aimed for another structure, one where I could hopefully gain some cover.

Before I made it to the structure Marny spoke over the comm, “You’re clear, Cap.” It was surprising, since not more than a second before I’d seen the pursuing pirate’s red blip on my HUD. Sure enough, it was gone. I turned back to see the narrow body of the spacer sail past me. I directed my AI to replay the shot and watched Jordy float out from his position next to the airlock and take the sixty-meter shot. It was one thing to hit a long distance target, but we’d both been juking and jiving back and forth. It felt like an impossible shot to me - apparently not to Jordy.

“Thank you, Jordy,” I said, taking a position closer to the airlock, still covering the aft position.

“Nice flying,” he said.

“Cut the chatter, Cap,” I smiled, Marny was in focus mode and there was nothing but business - until there wasn’t.

“Door’s jammed, going to blow it,” Tali said. “Three, two ...” She’d wasted no time in setting it up.

“Wait one,” Marny said. “I’ve got a manual winch.” I couldn’t look back, but I’d seen her pack the device.

“We’re through,” Tali said finally.

The airlock was big enough for the entire team, but Marny didn’t want to trap us all at the same time. She and Tali loaded in first.

“Clear,” she said after a few minutes, I suspected the inside door had been stuck also.

Jordy and I cycled through the manual lock.

“It’s safe to say they know where we’re at,” Marny said once we were through. Two bodies lay in the hallway - the walls behind them blackened.

I pulled the blaster rifle from my shoulder and locked it up under my chin like Marny had been drilling into Nick and me. For a moment, I was back in the simulator, even though I knew we were in real danger this time.

My HUD showed the deck we were on was the fifth and lowest deck. It was also the smallest. From the side, the frigate was roughly a triangular shape, pointed downward. Deck five occupied the bottom of that triangle.

The bridge and command were all on deck two. The only direct way there was up the elevator at the end of the hallway. Jordy was in the process of attaching explosives to the exterior door of the elevator.

“We’ll clear forward, then aft. Form up on Tali,” Marny instructed. “Go.”

Marny swung around behind Tali and applied a perfect slicing-the-pie swivel. I took my position just behind Marny, and Jordy fell in behind me. It was my responsibility to make sure he didn’t lose contact with us as we moved forward since he'd be facing the opposite direction.

Our target was a maintenance shaft running from this deck all the way up to deck one. We’d have to fight our way back down to the command deck, but we wouldn’t be relying on the elevator controlled by those in command of the ship.

“Clear,” Tali announced. The two rooms off the short hallway were devoid of personnel.

“Blow the elevator,” Marny said. I heard the whump of small explosives detonating back in the hallway we’d just left. Tali led us back across the hallway and through another door. A man, no older than myself, cowered in a corner of the room. His pistol lay on the floor well away from him.