Baxter was the first down, not needing to be lowered by the cargo arms. When they were in position, he stepped off the edge of the cargo hold and plummeted to the train car below. The moment he landed on the train module, he magnetized his feet and began active scanning along the kilometers of cars ahead of him. He motioned the others down and stalked forward.
Jax and Steve came down first, the heavy-duty cable making a piercing whine as it unspooled aboard the Osprey, letting the two men mostly free fall until the last three meters. They unclipped quickly and headed toward the rear of the car at a crouch. The pale star that served as a sun for Jebidiah was setting. The cables retracted quickly so that Naomi and Kori could hook in and descend.
Once all five of them were on the ore car, they headed for the hatch at the rear end of the car. The platform in front of the door was not large, big enough for two people at most. Jax jumped down, careful to not fall backward off the car. He looked at the small control panel set in the door. “Looks straightforward. I couldn’t get too many details out of my pal at the stockyard, but he mentioned that most of these cars are still set to factory specs, since no one actually cares.” He looked up at his friends, “Once we crack one, should be easier after that.” He looked at Naomi. “Right?”
Naomi jumped down and knelt next to the hatch and the control panel. After a minute of tinkering in which Jax noticed a familiar blue glow, she looked up. “Abra cadabra.” The hatch popped and swung in. “Now that I know the default settings, it’ll go faster.” She said as she stood and entered the internal corridor of the train car.
As Steve jumped down to enter the car, he looked at the panel. “She’s good. Can’t even tell she messed with it.”
Jax looked down. “Uh, yeah. Good.” He shoved Steve inside to make room for Kori, who was sitting above them waiting to jump down to the small platform.
The ore modules sat atop the barebones train car. Without modules, the car would resemble a flatbed with framed in walkway running down the center. The ore modules, shaped like a squat upside down U, rested over the walkway and locked into the car with thick latches along the sides at the front and back of the car. Each car could hold two modules.
In the middle of each car was a small display mounted to the mesh of the walkway. It displayed which lot number the two ore modules corresponded to.
Jax looked at the small device. “Not so lucky, not this car.” He motioned for the group to continue. Due to his height, Baxter had stayed topside, pacing them from above, and keeping an eye out for trouble.
As they neared the hatch that would lead to the next train car, Rudy called in, “How’s it going?” Their comms were short range only, good for maybe a kilometer at best, less with tons of delibdomin between them and the Valerian Infiltrator keeping position overhead.
“We just got here. Car one is a bust,” Jax growled. From the inside, it was easy to unlock the hatch and move across the narrow walkway that connected the cars. The tracks rattled past below. Naomi moved gingerly past Jax to look at the next hatch. She knelt down, careful to keep her body between the control panel and the others. It took half as long as the first to open. Jax said, “Hold tight. We’ll signal you when we find it.”
The second car was a bust. So were the third and fourth. Kori said from the back of their procession, “You’re sure this the right train?”
“It’s the only train,” Jax grated, then added, “We’ve barely covered the first quarter of cars, but you’re right in that we gotta pick up the pace.” He shoved Steve, who had taken the lead of the group so the other man would jog the length of the car.
They checked two more cars before finding the first of two lot numbers Jax had been given. “This is it,” he said. “According to Ichiko, this is one of the lots that were stolen from his coop by the neighboring much larger mining corporation.” He motioned to Kori and Steve. “You two remember the drill on the latching mechanism?”
Kori had her hair in tight braids. They swayed as she nodded. “Attach the bypass doodad you gave us, clip to the blue wire, then cut.”
“Green. Green wire,” Steve replied, sighing.
“Oh, right. Green.” Kori grinned. She batted her eyelashes, her brown eyes gleaming in the dim light. “I got this.”
Steve reached for the device but was blocked expertly. “I’ll do it. You head to the rear. You’ll see when the latches disengage.” Steve frowned, then nodded.
Kori looked at Jax and Steve, then kissed Jax on the cheek. “Good luck.” She looked at Naomi. “Keep him safe.” The slimmer Japanese woman inclined her head.
Jax shook his head. “Come on, let’s get to the next car so these two can get out of here.” He tapped his earpiece. “Found one, standby.” Then, he turned back to his friends. “Remember, we want both modules. Don’t disconnect them!” Jax shouted. Kori and Steve gave a thumbs up.
“Standing by,” Skip replied.
After Jax and Naomi moved to the next car, Kori leaned out over the narrow connector walkway. The latch controls were meant to be accessed by stockyard personnel, standing on the ground, next to the unmoving train. The ground roared by barely a foot from her head as she strained to reach the control panel. One of her braids skittered across the gravel that raced by underneath. Absently, she thought about the fact that the train line was sitting on gravel, and given how muddy that part of the planet was, it must have taken a lot of work to get all that gravel in one place. The wiring connected each car to the control center in the engine. The bypass would keep telling the control system that the ore modules were latched to the car like normal. The bypass device would release the two modules, keeping them connected to each other with long bars that slide along the exterior creating a rigid structure.
Using her legs to push further under the train car, while clutching the railing with one hand, she managed to open the control panel, revealing the control lever for the latches and the signal wires. She attached the bypass and cut the green wire. The small LED on the bypass blinked twice, then remained lit. She exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding and flipped the switch.
As she pulled herself back up onto the connector walkway, she heard the metallic clang of the latches built into the car disengaging from the cargo module. Up above, as the latches disengaged, large metal loops meant for the heavy duty crane at the stockyards slid up and out of the ore module. By the time Kori climbed up to the top of the module, Baxter had secured the harness that Steve designed to both ends of the module. It was now nearly pitch black. Each member of the team had a night vision visor. She pulled hers down over her eyes to see Baxter standing a meter away. Steve was at the far end of the train, his side attached to the frame. The matte black combat droid walked past her and effortlessly leapt to the next car in the line. When he landed, he said over comms, “See you both soon.”
There was a metallic twang as the reinforced cable went taut, the Osprey using her powerful grav-lifts to pull the ore module off the train car.
* * *
The Osprey rocked and her engine noise ratcheted up a couple of decibels as she tilted wildly. “Okay, this is harder than I expected,” Skip said over the speakers.
Rudy was gripping his console, even though his roller ball was magnetically secured to deck. The smart material had flattened a bit so more surface was in contact with the deck. “Yeah, you don’t seem to be doing a good job at this.” The Osprey tilted the opposite direction. “What’s the problem? You’ve piloted the Osprey hundreds of times over the years.”
“Of course, but never with such a heavy load dangling underneath, messing with the flight dynamics,” the ship’s SI replied. “Hold on.” The ship shuddered and banked.
“I am,” Rudy replied. “We need to hurry.”
“I know that.”
“Then why are you not heading in the right direction?”
The ship lurched and tilted wildly. “My bad.”