Cavern eight, Ballenhyght Caverns, Dresse
The armed Gatas sprinted back up the loading ramp and inside the large vessel. Its antigravs continued thundering their way up towards equilibrium with the planet’s gravity.
Bache gritted his teeth as the noise became deafening. You wouldn’t normally be anywhere near a ship of this size on take-off, especially in an enclosed space.
‘Come on, Bache, think,’ he shouted at himself. In a few moments, himself, Clunk, Parsic and all the thousands of locals still trapped within the caverns would be reduced to a cloud of gas.
He stepped back and looked up at the small unmanned ship and then it struck him as to what he had to do. Moving away from the drone quickly, he set his tablet down on a stack of unused pallets and began tapping away.
The drone’s systems weren’t encrypted, only the data core was. It also still had an intact weapons cache. Activating its flight controls, while the small antigrav began spooling up, Bache brought its weapon systems online.
In his peripheral vision he saw the Gata ship begin to lift.
‘Shit—come on,’ he shouted at the tablet, as if that was going to speed things up.
The big ship turned lazily, the pilot had to be careful not to hit the ceiling. It seemed to be what was called a hybrid vessel, part freighter, part warship. Normally, a ship of this type would be used for trade runs into the more seditious corners of the galaxy. Bache knew, even without its shields up, which couldn’t be activated while still in the cavern, its armour was thick and it would take pin-point accuracy to bring it down.
Finally, the drone lifted off its struts and Bache, flying it through its forward-mounted camera, sent it left and towards the quickly retreating Gata ship. It was halfway down the cavern now and Bache knew he had to be quick and because he couldn’t get above or below the big ship, he couldn’t target the antigravs or its array. He instead targeted the rear loading ramp. Knowing he only had six kataligo missiles, he thought he’d first try and penetrate the ramp with the laser. If he could do that, he’d send the missiles inside the ship.
He hit the big door over and over with everything the small cannon had but only managed to punch a few small holes in the outer skin. He had no idea if it had penetrated through inside the ship and anyway the vessel hadn’t changed its course or speed one iota.
He sent two missiles towards the points where the ramp pivoted up, hoping they were a weak point. When this didn’t do anything, he sent two more at exactly the same points. This time he was sure the ramp flexed and sending one more at the left hinge point, he finally had a result. The ramp disconnected at that side and swung down which twisted the right hinge which also snapped. Flapping open, it dropped, caught the floor of the cavern and tore itself off.
Bache wasted no time and sent the final missile towards the open freight deck just as the ship cleared the cavern and disappeared upwards. He screamed in frustration as the missile lost its lock and sailed straight on across the valley floor.
‘FUCK,’ he bellowed, punching and kicking the pile of pallets in frustration.
The drone was still a kilometre from the exit when he saw something on his screen drop past the cavern, followed by an enormous explosion on the valley floor.
‘What the hell was that?’ he muttered. He was convinced it couldn’t have been the Gata ship, as it was nowhere near damaged enough. Then he saw something he couldn’t quite believe. A GDA gunship nosing its way down from above and into the cavern.
It quickly bypassed the drone, that Bache had landed, and arrowed up the cavern towards him at breakneck speed.
‘Can’t be mine, surely,’ he said, wondering if he should hide behind the pallets again.
The gunship approached at speed, braked late, turned and landed with a teeth-jarring crunch fifty metres away, confirming to Bache it certainly was his gunship.
‘How the hell did he pull that off?’ Bache said to himself, scratching his head and glancing to where he had last seen Clunk.
Both side airlock doors opened together. The sound of loud music pumping out from the interior hit him. Clunk then appeared, jigging about to the beat in the doorway.
‘Bring it on,’ he shouted, continuing to jump around and punch his fists to the beat excitedly. ‘I just shot down a fucking freighter.’
Bache approached, stopped and stared up from the bottom of the steps.
‘I really have no idea how in the name of the ancients you just did that,’ he said.
‘Top killer pilot, me,’ said Clunk, his grin almost as wide as the airlock.
‘But you were just there a minute ago,’ he said, pointing to where he’d left him.
‘As soon as I heard their ship starting up, I realised we’d all be dead if they got it out of the cavern. So I sprinted back to the gunship. They emerged from this cavern at the same time I did from next door. I was able to take out his motors before he got his shields up. Although, I think I might’ve scratched the top of the ship trying to exit the other cavern.’
‘I’ll let you explain that to Mr Whippy,’ said Bache. ‘You did well though, we’ll probably never know how many lives you just saved.’
Clunk beamed and leant out from the airlock, staring back down the cavern. Bache soon realised what he was looking at, as the sound of an electric cart grew in volume.
Bache lifted up his weapon and gazed through the sight, but he soon lowered it again when he realised it was Parsic. He swung around the gunship, approached and stopped a few feet away.
‘Have they all gone?’ he asked, glancing at where the big ship had been.
‘Oh, they’ve all gone all right,’ said Clunk. ‘You’re welcome.’
Parsic listened to the translation and looked at Bache quizzically.
Bache showed him the drone footage of the Gata ship dropping and exploding out on the valley floor. His eyes widened when he saw it.
‘You killed them all?’ he said, the shock evident in his tone.
‘They would’ve detonated the big bombs and killed all of us if that ship had got enough altitude,’ said Bache.
Parsic seemed to think about that for a moment, glancing back towards the cavern entrance.
‘And anyway, you didn’t hesitate with that Gata driving this thing,’ said Bache, indicating the cart that Parsic was sitting in.
‘He was a priden and a particularly cruel one,’ replied Parsic. ‘He murdered a few of my friends over the years. So I knew it would be me or him.’
‘What’s happening with your people?’ Bache asked, peering over in the direction of the dormitory tunnel.
‘They’re going down the line of caverns and releasing everyone,’ he said, turning to follow Bache’s look. ‘None of them will come this way, and that reminds me.’ He stooped down and picked another detonator off the floor, giving it to Bache. ‘There was another of those big crates down that tunnel too,’ he said. ‘I showed them how to deactivate and remove the detonator.’
‘Good,’ said Bache. ‘Make sure you find all of them.’
‘What do we do with them?’
‘Nothing, don’t touch them. I’ll organise a disposal team to come here and get them off your planet as soon as possible.’
‘Did you get the information you wanted from the drone?’ Clunk asked.
‘It was doubly encrypted,’ said Bache, rolling his eyes. ‘Someone was certainly being careful.’
‘So we came all this way for nothing?’ Clunk said, dejectedly.
‘Not necessarily,’ Bache replied. ‘We can still send it on its way, as they were probably about to do when they got it into space.’
‘What, and follow it?’
Bache nodded with a wry grin.
‘That’s brilliant,’ said Clunk, peering around the cavern. ‘Where is it anyway?’