Clay threw his fighter to the side, dodging the concentrated fire of three enemy fighters and dragging his own weapons across the depleted shields of a fourth. It wasn’t enough to destroy his target, but he saw at least one thruster flare and fail.
That left the enemy fighter with no real options other than to try and get away. Without the speed or agility to match Clay staying in the fight would be suicidal. Now was when the fighter would try to run.
Except it didn’t. It stayed in the fight, sacrificing even more speed as it tried to turn to target Clay’s fighter. Clay shook his head even as he swung his ship through a complex figure eight which left him able to attack the damaged fighter again without it being anywhere near in position to return fire.
Moments later the enemy ship was replaced by a fireball, but even as it happened Clay’s ship was struck by heavy fire. He rolled away, his instincts adding a rolling spin which caused the next set of fire to narrowly miss. He grunted as he pulled another tight turn and managed to unleash fire on another enemy fighter. It made no effort to avoid the attack, instead it just kept trying to turn to engage.
Something was wrong. Clay’s instincts told him that something about the whole fight was badly off. None of the enemy pilots were behaving in the way he’d expect human pilots to… which lead to an unpleasant conclusion, namely that they weren’t human, not entirely. They must be Limited.
All his experience told him he could carry on pounding his target for another few seconds, but he broke off anyway… just in time to avoid another heavy volley from several enemy fighters. He shook his head, trying to understand, then it hit. They were presenting themselves as bait, trying to draw him into attacking one of their number and leave him in a predictable position for the others.
Definitely Limited then. The coordination and pure self-sacrifice weren’t something that human pilots would pull off. That made things more difficult, but on the plus side they were all focused on engaging with him, which meant they weren’t closing in on the ship Jess was trying to rescue.
For a moment Clay wondered how the Wanderer was getting on, but he quickly forced his attention back to his own fight. He needed to stay sharp. His abilities could easily become a liability with the enemy acting in ways he wasn’t used to.
Something else was nagging at him. The markings on the enemy fighters seemed familiar, but he couldn’t quite place them. He’d seen them somewhere recently he was sure, but where… of course! These were the Cobra’s Fangs, the elite group he’d managed to avoid joining by running from the fleet.
They’d drafted some replacements apparently, but more than that… the elite unit was now a Limited unit. That made a twisted kind of sense. The unit was tasked with the dirtiest, nastiest missions. Who better to send on those than Limited who would never question an order?
He eased his fighter to the right, slipping away from another concentrated attack, and raked an enemy fighter with return fire. Only for a moment, though. He was more interested in avoiding being hit than in actually taking down the enemy for the moment. His goal was to keep the fighters tied up, and he was managing that well.
So if these were the Fangs, did that mean the Cobra was nearby? Clay punched commands into his system and was quickly patched into the enemy comms network. It seemed the Imperials still hadn’t made any significant changes, none that the tools Clay had inherited from his friend Leo couldn’t crack anyway.
There was almost no talk on the channel. None of the buzz he’d expected to hear. Occasionally a few words were snapped out in flat, emotionless voices, but other than that there as nothing. Well, he could soon change that. It was time to poke the beast.
“Hey Cobra dear, how’s it going? I see you replaced all your pretty ships that I destroyed last time. Pity the new ones are going to go the same way.”
There was no response for a few seconds, then a woman’s voice replied.
“Ah… it’s you.”
That was it. No response to his barbs, no anger, no threats. Nothing. This wasn’t the officer he’d been in fear of… was it?
“Cobra dear, is that really you?” asked Clay. “You sound a bit… flat. Maybe even a bit Limited.”
“Yes, it is me. Despite your previous behaviour I am willing to forgive you. It isn’t too late. Power down your weapons and dock with the ship and you can once again fight for the glory of the Empire.”
Clay couldn’t believe what he was hearing for a moment, then shook his head.
“You mean join and become a Limited like you?”
There was a long pause, then an abrupt response. “No.”
No? That was it? No other response? There was no doubt that she was Limited now, so what had the no meant? Maybe that he’d be turned into a Limited but not one like her.
He shook his head again, surprised at the emptiness he felt inside. All the anger he’d harboured toward the Cobra, all the drive he’d felt to get revenge on her, was gone now. The person he hated didn’t exist anymore. Only a shell remained.
Ice forced its way down his veins as the full implications sank in. He’d never learnt what rank the Cobra held but it had clearly been a very senior role, and yet she’d been turned into one of the Limited. If someone of that rank could be converted then who else could? If the Cobra could be turned into one of the Limited then how few people in charge of the Empire were still truly human… and just what was it they wanted?
The only likely answer was as chilling as it was disgusting. They wanted humanity, the whole of humanity, in chains at their feet. Most likely they wanted the whole of humanity turned into obedient little Limited.
For a moment it actually left Clay wondering whether stopping the Taint had been the right move. He wasn’t sure the Limited were actually any worse than the Taint, but the Taint was alien. The Limited were human, or those in charge were at least, and somehow that made it feel a lot worse.
Clay jerked as several shots struck his fighter, knocking his shields below fifty percent. He quickly swung his ship into a series of evasive moves, gritting his teeth as he went. It was time to start taking out the enemy fighters.
It might only be spitting in the wind in terms of stopping the Limited forces, but he’d learnt from fighting the Taint with Jess that every little victory really could make a difference in the end. There were eight fighters remaining. Clay intended to make eight small differences.
Jess sent the Wanderer to the left, mostly dodging a particularly nasty blast from one of the floating turrets. The Wanderer was taking more and more of the fire as it drew close which was good from the point of view of saving the other ship’s occupant, but not so great in terms of keeping the Wanderer safe.
“Damn it!” shouted Ali. Jess grimaced as her frustration flowed through their link and washed over him. “We’ve lost all communications with him. I don’t know if he heard me say he had to get out of the ship.”
Jess glanced at the Wanderer’s latest scans of their target and pulled a face.
“I don’t think it matters what he heard. Look! There’s no power left to the bridge or most of the ship. The shields seem to be running off of backup power, what’s left of them, but that won’t last long. I don’t think it’s going to hold together until we reach it, and I really don’t think there’s anyone left alive for us to save.”
“Do we abort?”
“I don’t know. We should, I’m pretty sure of that, but… it doesn’t feel right somehow.”
“You remember how your sense of right and wrong keeps getting you into trouble, don’t you?”
“Like rescuing a group off a damaged freighter who then tried to take over the ship? That didn’t turn out so badly!”
She smiled at him, then mock glared. “If you think you’re rescuing any more damsels in distress and falling in love with them, you’d better think again!”
“Of course not! One was all I needed!”
“Good. Now… do you want to keep going? And can the Wanderer take it?”
“Yes, it should be able to. We won’t be slowing down, I’m not feeling that suicidal, but I have to be sure we did what we could.”
“Is it worth sending a robot over, sacrificing it to see if there’s anything useful held on the ship itself?”
Jess paused for a moment… he hadn’t considered that option. Then he shook his head.
“No. He said he’d stolen the ship and it doesn’t look Imperial. I’m not sure there’s going to be anything left to interface with anyway.”
Ali just nodded. The Wanderer started to vibrate as more and more of the station’s weaponry was turned on it, but Jess could tell there wouldn’t be enough to truly trouble the Wanderer, not if they kept moving quickly.
“Still no sign of power on the ship,” muttered Ali. “I think we were too… wait! What’s that!”
She sent details of what she’d spotted through the link. Jess studied it for a moment then threw as much power as he dared into the Wanderer’s thrusters, sending it leaping forward.
“Escape pod!” he and Ali shouted at the same time, then grinned at each other.
There was no time to say anything else. The pod was sheltered from fire by the ship it had just left, but that wasn’t going to last for very long. A key feature of an escape pod was the ability to get away from the parent ship quickly in case it exploded.
The Wanderer wouldn’t get there in time. It would be close, but the pod would be exposed to fire for at least twelve seconds. Jess was hoping it would take those firing a few seconds to realise and change their aim, but that was still too long.
He felt Ali’s mind meshing with his and the Wanderer’s. Together they worked out which of the station’s defences would get a firing solution, how soon each could fire and how dangerous it was. Using that information they set priorities for the Wanderer’s own weapons, which started to fire immediately.
Despite the danger, despite being drawn into something without being given a choice once again, Jess felt truly happy for the first time in days. Ali and the Wanderer were the two beings he felt closest to in the Universe, and here he was linked so closely to both that it was impossible to say where he ended and they started. The feeling was blissful, sweeping him up in the moment and draining some of his worries away.
The Wanderer’s weapons lashed out at the station as it closed on the escape pod, scoring hits and in a few cases knocking weapons out of action. Jess, Ali and the Wanderer continually updated both the firing solution and the choice of targets. The results were felt as much as they were consciously processed, and the feeing was of great achievements… that wouldn’t quite be enough.
The moments crept down and it became clear that some weapons would still be able to target the escape pod. Not the most dangerous, but against the unshielded and barely armoured escape pod that wouldn’t matter.
Jess stared in exasperation, trying to spot anything they’d missed, but there was nothing. If they could get the damaged ship to move a little that would help, but there was no way to do that. Or was there…
Jess was acting on the idea almost the moment it occurred to him. He felt the Wanderer and Ali’s confusion, followed by comprehension, then shock. He didn’t blame them. What he was doing was crazy, but it was also the only thing that might work.
He had the Wanderer targeting the stricken ship with every weapon it had, trying to destroy it in just a couple of seconds. Even for the Wanderer that would normally have been difficult, but the ship was already barely hanging on. The Wanderer’s powerful weaponry smashed through an area where the shields had almost collapsed anyway, drilling through the ship’s limited armour before crashing through to an engine.
The ship exploded, sending wreckage flying in all directions. As Jess had hoped, much of the wreckage got in the way of the station’s weaponry. As he had feared, some of the wreckage struck the escape pod. The Wanderer’s sensors didn’t show any massive damage from the impact but Jess was worried something vital would have been destroyed.
The impact had one unexpected benefit, though. The station was still trying to fire on the pod, blindly lashing out. Most of the attacks struck debris. Enough got through to wreck the pod… if it had been where they expected. Instead all those attacks speared nothing more than empty space. The impacts had shifted the pod to a new location.
The fight wasn’t over yet. Jess knew that at any moment a stray shot could catch the pod. He worried that someone smart might decide to widen the targeted location too, or they might make out where the pod really was.
The Wanderer seemed to creep toward the escape pod. Jess winced at every shot which came close to it, but none struck. He still couldn’t tell whether anyone was alive in the pod. The only way to be sure would be to bring it aboard.
He didn’t speak, but he could feel Ali’s presence near him. She was as nervous as he was, putting all her attention into the pod and its very limited information. All that it was really confirming was that it was an escape pod and its systems weren’t completely destroyed.
The last few seconds stretched out agonisingly slowly… then the Wanderer was between the escape pod and the incoming fire. Moments later it snatched up the pod, using fields to cushion the sudden change of velocity. Jess felt the tension leave his body as he turned the Wanderer and threw it into jump space, emerging a few seconds later and a safe distance away from the station.
“Hey Jess, did you get him?” Clay sent. “I just saw you drop out of jump space.”
“Sorry Clay. We got an escape pod and it isn’t obviously damaged, but we don’t know if anyone’s alive inside it. We’re on our way now to take a peek. Do you want us to pick you up?”
“Hold on a second… got the bastard! Yeah, come get me. That’s all the fighters taken care of but I’m in danger of getting sandwiched between the incoming fleet and the station’s defences. I got a little caught up playing tag with my new buddies out here.”
“On our way!”
Jess set the Wanderer to making a jump near to Clay, then found himself smiling as he stood up. Ali was grinning too.
“Does he take anything seriously?” she asked.
“Not much,” Jess replied. “When he does I start to worry!”
“I hope I don’t get to see that then. Come on slow coach, or we’ll be opening the pod without you!”
She darted off the flight deck, leaving Jess to chase after her, but he found himself moving more slowly. Something about the situation was worrying him, and he wasn’t sure what.
As he moved through the living area the Wanderer appeared alongside Clay’s fighter and opened the airlock. For a moment Jess worried that the escape pod might be in danger as it was still being held in the outer airlock, but the ship had already put a field around it, keeping it safe and keeping air around it. Moments later Clay’s fighter eased past the pod and into the main bay. The Wanderer leapt into jump space again before the shuttle had even touched down on the deck.
Jess entered the hangar. Clay’s fighter was there, but Clay was gone already. Through the Wanderer Jess could sense that Clay and Ali were waiting impatiently for him in the outer airlock. Ali glanced up at Jess with a smile on her face when he joined them, but it disappeared as she looked to his side.
“You think we’ll need the robot?”
“What?”
Jess glanced to the side, half surprised to see the robot there. He realised he’d been vaguely aware of it joining him in the living area but had given it no thought.
“The robot… you think we’ll need it.”
“I… I suppose I must have. Or the Wanderer did. It wasn’t a conscious thing. I hardly noticed it was tagging along. I’m glad it’s here, though. Something about this has me right on edge, but I can’t work out why.”
Ali stepped to him and put a hand on his arm. “I feel it too. I want to know if we’ve managed to save anyone, but the thought of opening the pod makes me want to run! What’s in there? What could be making us feel this way?”
Jess shook his head, but then the Wanderer pushed an image into his mind and it all clicked into place. Ali froze for a moment as she received the same, then looked at Jess with sudden understanding.
“Of course,” she said.
“Back where it started,” said Jess.
“Maybe you could include those of us who aren’t hooked into the ship in the conversation,” said Clay, cocking an eyebrow.
“Sorry,” said Jess. “The Wanderer sent us an image which reminded us. This was how the Taint first got aboard. We rescued an escape pod, but the young girl inside was already dead. Sal took it really badly and stayed with the body. The girl had been taken by the Taint and somehow it held on long enough in her dead body to infect Sal.”
“Damn. Of course. I remember you telling me. No wonder this feels ominous.”
“It’s not the same, though. We had no idea what we were dealing with then. We do now. Besides, there’s four of us, including the Wanderer, and the Taint is gone now anyway. The Limited are a problem but they don’t spread in the same way.”
“Suddenly I’m really glad you brought the robot along,” said Ali. “So… do we open it?”
“We should… I guess. If whoever’s in there is injured then the longer we take the worse their condition will get.”
“Yeah. So we open it.”
None of them made a move to do so. Jess glanced at Clay, who shrugged.
“Hell, you’ve got me spooked too,” he said. “Maybe you should get the robot to open it.”
“Yeah,” said Ali. “I know it’s stupid, but I really don’t want to be too close.”
Jess chuckled. “This is silly. We’re on the Wanderer. We know to be on our guard. The Taint is gone. But I’m still not going to open it myself!”
He stepped back and sent the robot toward the escape pod. It leaned over and started to activate the controls. After the pod ran checks to confirm it truly was in a safe environment, rather than in the vacuum of space, it unlocked. The robot pulled it open, revealing a crumpled and bloody shape within, lying face down and not moving.
Anger built in Jess’s chest. All of that for nothing? All of that for a dead body? Damn it! How could they be that unlucky?
And then, with a groan, the body moved. Anger was replaced by fear. This felt far too familiar, but the Taint had been completely destroyed… hadn’t it?