Veritas
The rush onto the Ascent One was a blur. Dame, Easy, and Ronin touched down in their fighters alongside the Jester. The next instant they were out of them, taking their rifles and infantry kits out, locking the systems down - especially the small quad drives that had survived the fighting - and then they were grouped as three soldiers with Ronin in the lead.
The Jester and the other two Clever Class corvettes took off the instant the boarding parties were out of their holds, rushing towards another objective, Dame assumed. There was little time to get a good look at the three heavy armour squads, the heavily damaged landing bay or her fellow pilots before everyone was on the run.
The Nafalli's armour looked like a liquid metal had been poured on their fur. Their hackles were raised, giving them sharp points on their backs and necks. Red and black eyepieces helped give them a savage look. The humans had skull holograms that made it look like some kind of evil death's head was inside their helmets. Most likely to hide their identities and to intimidate. I should choose one. With a few gestures, she selected a sun-bleached lion skull with a few eye gestures and left it like that.
The charge was on, then, and Dame had no trouble keeping up as she followed behind Ronin. Her rifle at the ready, carried across her chest, she felt out of place, but she'd done the infantry qualifiers, was in good physical shape and kept her eyes open, looking through the transparent tactical overlay in her helmet at the burned and bashed hangar. Edda Paley had never seen the damage the weapons on her fighter could do. While the broad holes, warped plating and blackened pierce marks around her weren't actually from her fighter, they were caused by the same weapons.
There were crewmen and women in the large hangar when it was hit, people in a couple shuttles that were torn to bits while they were getting ready to take off, and some of the inner doors were open at the time. She could see the evidence of equipment that had been drawn out, scraping along the hall floors, as violent, sudden decompressions had taken place. The control booth's transparent metal windows were shot through. It was once busy with crewmembers who directed traffic and work was dark. That was necessary, she thought to herself. Those were Order of Eden people who would cheer if I was killed. They'd celebrate if the broken hull of my ship were dragged onto this deck, revive me if they could. Then I'd be tortured and probed for information. The same would happen to any person who doesn't agree with them. This destruction is necessary. Her belief in the justifications that went through her head were strong enough for her to pull the trigger, that was the important part. There was always a little part of her that was willing to reconsider after the fact, though. Dame would keep that to herself until she didn't feel justified in acting. There was no good reason to sow doubt in others until then.
The main hatchway leading deeper into the ship was blown through by Admiral Valent along with two Nafalli. As soon as they were through, Ronin's voice was in her ear. "Dame, Easy, we're not following the rest of the group. We're sneaking off to a utility tunnel. Follow me."
The stealth systems on their suits activated as Ronin popped a simple hatch open. It was made to blend in with the hallway bulkhead. There was an alert on her tactical map, showing where Admiral Valent's squads were running into resistance from lightly armoured Order of Eden crew and two squads of combat androids. It wasn't their fight. Instead, they slipped into a service corridor, quietly closing the door behind them.
"What's our objective back here?"
There were a few simple robots ahead, they were transporting armour plating and support beams from somewhere further inside the ship, leaving them in neat piles along the side of the hall. They couldn't see the trio of invaders making a quick march past them. Dame felt like she was playing a sneaking game, like she and her friends in the care centre would sneak out of bed to steal a cookie or piece of fruit from the kitchen as children. There were much higher stakes, but the feeling of being unseen was strangely delicious. "We're here to sneak aboard another ship and hijack its navigation system, stop it from getting away."
"We're headed to another launch bay?" Easy asked.
"Not really. Here," Ronin said, highlighting a section several frames ahead on the ship. "There's an escape ship built into this one. We're on the way."
"There's no one guarding these maintenance areas?" Dame asked, surprised to see that the access hallway they were in was nice and broad, it lead all the way to the front of the ship, too.
"There are supposed to be patrols passing regularly along the entrances and exits. They're supposed to come through here, too, but it looks like every soldier they had was put in a fighting ship and sent to break the stalemate between our fleets."
"We were losing," Dame said without thinking, recalling the destruction of the Sunspire.
"We were holding out," Ronin countered, increasing the pace to a run.
It wasn't hard for her to keep up, but Easy's heartrate was highest, it was a test for him. A portrait of a gentlemanly looking male in an Order of Eden fellow appeared in the upper right-hand corner of Dame's view. Beneath it stated: Order of Eden Rear Admiral West Kenly: Capture and contain. "This is why we're stopping that ship. He's going to use it to escape and we're cutting this Rear Admiral off."
"That's right," Ronin said. They were moving at a full run. The ship they were trying to get to was on her tactical display, and it was starting to activate. The vessel was corvette class, thirty-nine metres long, roughly shaped like a leaf. It didn't look like a vessel Regent Galactic made. That was probably because it wasn't. It was special, probably an expensive escape craft for cowardly commanders. "Jake, er, the Admiral was hoping to capture him, but they're running into too much resistance. Finishing the hack on the Ascent and capturing its database is more important, so he's put me in charge of getting West."
"As if you don't have enough to do," Easy snickered between huffs and puffs.
"We'll get him," Edda said flatly, right behind Ronin.
Their route took them out into the open, where they would emerge at one end of the loading bay for the escape ship. They slowed, and Ronin kicked the door open. Nothing on their tactical map warned them that there was anything wrong with kicking the maintenance door open and rushing in. Their scanners didn't show any activity in the bay other than the systems aboard the escape ship powering up.
The bay was made to fit the ship with large armoured doors, mooring clamps along its sides, and a collapsible gangway leading to the port side of the vessel, which was called Veritas. The name was written large across the aft side of the ship in a curve that conformed with the shape of the hull.
An instant before disaster struck, Edda noticed a squad of fifteen security androids surrounding six soldiers that read clearly as framework constructs. Minh-Chu didn't show any sign of noticing them, they were over twenty metres away, in formation, standing on the far walkway that was connected to the ship gangway. The androids turned their flat, boxy heads. They didn't have faces save for a flat armoured panel that most likely protected their sensor suites. The androids, not made to look human at all, noticed Ronin and began to raise their weapons.
Without thinking, Dame yanked Ronin by the pack built into the back of his armour, throwing him behind her as she fired her rifle at the squad in the distance. They exchanged fire at the same time - her shots flying wild, meant to distract as much as to maim and disable - and she dropped under cover as her shields reported hits, the indicator flashing red: 98%, 91%, 83%, 71% before she put a crate between her and the squad of mechanized and synthesized Order soldiers.
Easy stayed back in the service passage, Ronin was scrambling to his feet just ahead of him, out of the line of fire. "Why didn't those guys show up on our scanners?" Ronin asked, irritated.
"Dead suits!" Easy replied, peeking around the corner, firing a few shots, then ducking back as several bolts of energy narrowly missed him, scarring the wall instead. "It must be. It's like old cloaking tech, suits that block all signs of life so whoever's wearing them can hide what they are."
"Yeah, but our scanners should have picked up the androids," Ronin remarked, throwing three discs into the air that started flying in random patterns as they fired energy bolts at their assailants. They only lasted seconds, so much skeet for the androids and framework soldiers.
"Some kind of jamming? Or maybe they hacked into our tactical system or something?" Easy proposed.
"I can see them now," Edda said as she took a small hand rocket from her thigh pocket and flung it overhead. The androids didn't scatter, but shot at it, forcing it to explode half way across the bay. "Dammit! I hate robots!"
"I told Jake this was a bad idea," Ronin grumbled as he fired back at the androids, most of his shots hitting their mark, depleting their shields, but they were fearless, and instead of jumping for cover, they fired back. Before his shields were depleted, Ronin ducked back behind cover. "It should be him and his best guys here, everyone else charging up the middle. We just don't have the people to take these buggers out. We'll have to get creative. Any ideas?"
Edda took her turn firing, getting through to two androids. Watching the strikes directly on their metal armour was highly satisfying, and she was reluctant to duck back under cover when her own shields were down to twelve percent. An alert popped up on her tactical display that said; WORMHOLE SYSTEMS CHARGING, referring to the Veritas. It would be able to escape moments after launch. "It might be too late to get creative," she replied.
Then her scanners picked up six humans. One was verified as West, and she watched them run towards the gangway. "They're going to escape," Easy said through clenched teeth. "Dammit, I want someone to answer for all the shit the Order's done to the Haven System!"
"You and the whole Admiralty. We want someone other than Wheeler, someone whose been in the order for years, and this guy's the right guy, according to our intel," Ronin said as he took his turn shooting. A barrage of his heavy rounds battered the lower half of the squad of troops, doing as much damage to the flimsy deck as it did to the shields. Taking their footing out was a good idea, but it was too late to stop the Rear Admiral. Ronin's next barrage targeted the coupling between the gangway and the ship. To Edda's surprise, it only did superficial damage. The armouring there was robust, even for something built to military standards.
It really is time to think creatively, but I don't have enough training to be a real infantry soldier, Edda thought, looking all around for anything that could help them stop the Rear Admiral. Then, another thought occurred to her; Is there something else we can do if we can't stop him? The hull of the Veritas was only twelve metres away, by her estimation. For her that was ten long paces and a jump, unless she used the propulsion systems in her suit, then she could get there even faster. There was an emergency hatch on the hull, too. If it could be accessed from the outside, then she could get into the ship. She shuddered at the memory of going after a Wheeler in a downed Starskipper. Taking one person alive was difficult, even under those circumstances. No, I can't force my way aboard and expect to live, not even in this armour. They will have weapons and full control of the systems on that ship.
As a last-ditch attempt to stop them, Dame peeked out from behind cover and fired at the gangway, scarring the transparent metal cover as the Rear Admiral and his small group rushed to the ship. She wasn't the only one. Her shots were joined by Easy's, and Ronin tossed two hand rockets up. One struck the gangway, the other landed in the middle of the androids. The first did little damage, while the second scattered the enemy squad. It was a lucky shot; the androids were too focused on protecting the Rear Admiral and his people to take the rocket that hit them out.
The main thrusters of the Veritas lighted, glowing red then blue, pointing up. The heat wouldn't be a problem for them in their armour, but it indicated that the ship was about to leave. With surprising speed, the armoured doors at the bottom of the hangar swept open, and pure nervousness gnawed at Dame's middle as she realized there was only one way to go after the Rear Admiral.
The androids were down along with the framework constructs. They wouldn't have much of a chance to shoot at her as she made the jump, so she got to her feet and readied herself.
"Dame! What are you doing?" Ronin asked, shocked.
"I'll get him. I'll bring him back." That first step punctuated her statement, and she made the leap, suit thrusters pulsing as the mooring clamps came away from the sides of the ship. This was the kind of thing a hero did. This was the kind of mad act that got normal men and women killed but served as the beginning to the greatest stories in the histories of her people. This was the kind of thing that could win a war and end suffering.
The ship began to move faster than she was descending, and she thought; This is the kind of thing an idiot does, as the hull fell away from her so fast that her body couldn't make contact. Then, to her surprise, Easy flew past her and collided with the hull. His suit affixed, he half turned and grabbed her hand.
Flopping onto her back, her armour affixed to the hull of the Veritas and she watched the shape of the Ascent One diminish, getting smaller faster as the Veritas' thrusters pushed them away. A pair of Uriel fighters turned, firing pulse guns that raked the Veritas' shields. Then they were inside a wormhole, surrounded by twisted light and colour shifted space. Dame turned all but the direct laser link channel to Easy off. They would definitely be detected if they left their whole communications suite on, then she realized that her cloaking systems were still running. If the ship they were piggybacking on didn't have the technology the Order used to detect cloaked ships, then they could ride along undetected indefinitely.
After several moments of laying still, attached to the hull, Easy burst into laughter. Dame was just starting to laugh along, marvelling at the absurdity of her idea, when he sobered. "Now what do we do?" came the question.
An answer came to mind, but she knew it wouldn't be helpful. Edda offered it anyway; "We answer that question, and then we'll know."
"May as well start talking about the sound of one hand clapping," Easy grumbled, turning over and looking at their immediate surroundings. There was nothing but hull plating, flat and neatly fitted together for several metres in every direction. "I lost my rifle." He breathed. "I just realized. I dropped it when I saw what you did then dove after you."
"Why did you do that?" Edda asked.
"I…" Easy started, verbally fumbled, then settled on; "I have no idea. Why did you jump?"
"Seemed like the heroic thing to do," Edda said, flipping onto her belly, making sure her suit was properly affixed.
"I hate and love that answer at the same time. Did anyone ever tell you that you're crazy?"
"Where I come from, I'm a perfectly reasonable person." That wasn't true, and Edda knew it, but it wasn't the time for soul searching. It was time to start looking for the hatch she saw before she made the leap.
"You're going to have to tell me about your people sometime," Easy said with a chuckle. "If you're reasonable there, then they're probably pretty cool."
"I'll have plenty of time to tell you about them if we can't get into this ship quietly. We'll have to make the whole trip on the outside."
"Oh, guess that could be worse, I aced Suit Week," Easy said.
"I didn't have to do that," Dame said, imagining what it must be like, trapped in a space suit for an entire week.
"Well, you're about to," Easy said. "Found the hatch. It's hard-locked. Can't open it while we're in wormhole transit without setting off every alarm on the ship. We're going to be spending a lot of quality time stargazing."
"Oh," Dame replied, considering the idea of breaking through the hatch by force. There was no way they could do that while maintaining their advantage. In short: most of the outcomes would end in their terrible demises. She checked her supplies and survival systems. She could survive in her suit for twenty-eight days. "I'm afraid I'm not very interesting, Easy."
"Let me guess; you just checked your suit and realized that you could survive out here for a while?"
"Yes. I can survive for over a standard month."
"I'm sure we'll land by then. I bet you're plenty interesting, too," Easy said.
"I wasn't always a heroic person," Dame replied, shaking her head.
"Interesting and heroic aren't the same thing. Why do you worry about not being heroic, anyway?"
"Because where I come from, they don't believe in being heroic," Edda replied. Her rifle was recharged, and there were plenty of solid rounds left. If someone came out to check on the things sticking to their hull, Dame was sure she could take them out and hopefully find a way inside.
"Well, depending on how this turns out, I have a feeling that they'll start believing," Easy said. "I know I'll be retelling this story if I get the chance."
"You will. Don't worry, we'll get this Rear Admiral, and he will be in the cell next to Wheeler."
"I'm starting to believe you," Easy chuckled.