Resurgence (Redleg In Space Book 2) Page 12

  He wanted nothing more than to put this conversation on hold while he assaulted the mining vessel. Somehow, hard-knocking a vessel alone with an unknown number of enemies still seemed easier than having the conversation about what ‘duties’ were expected of Mara since he saved her life.

  “You don’t owe me anything,” he said as he snapped his last piece of armor on. “We are square.”

  When he headed out of the forge room towards his weapons in the armory, he was within arm’s reach of Mara. She reached out and slapped him across the side of his helmet. The strike was enough to turn his head.

  “My life is worth more than a simple ‘thank you.’ I am a good engineer. No, great engineer. If that isn’t enough, I am young, fit, and flexible. Do not insult me by sending me away without giving me a chance to settle the debt.”

  “I meant no insult, but in a few minutes, I’ll be hard-knocking one of your people’s ships, trying to save their lives,” he said, the shock from the slap giving way to anger. He grabbed the woman by the front of her suit and pinned her to the wall. “I don’t have time for this conversation. For now, go see if Samix needs any help.”

  With that admonishment, he released the woman and headed into the armory to ready himself for the mission. When he was waiting outside the airlock door, he activated the magnetic clamps in his boots and gave Samix the go-ahead. He could feel the pull of the ship as the pilot brought the mains to full throttle. Before he knew it, the ship was slowing, and he heard the signature of the defense cannons.

  “Their communications are down, but I don’t know if anyone saw us coming. You should be quick. I’m not sure if we will get company. Docking in 5...4…3…2…1.”

  At one, he heard the docking clamps locking onto the mining ship. Before the docking process was even complete, he was inside the airlock waiting for the green light to flash, giving him the go-ahead to proceed. As the docking process finished, his map updated, and internal feeds were pushed to his visor.

  “As soon as the clamps attached, I got control of the ship,” Ann said as the docking indicator turned green. “I will be able to feed you real-time information on the pirates aboard. There appear to be twelve in total, split into three groups.”

  “I don’t want to give myself away, but if the pirates start closing in on me, can you secure the hatches to stop them?” he asked the AI.

  “Like I said before, I have control over the ship. We have only fought together once, so I will keep you updated with the location of the pirates. You can decide to lock down if the need arises.”

  Her logic was sound and he couldn’t see a fault in it. As they were talking, he watched as one of the pirate groups split up, making them first on his hit list. From what he could see on his map, they seemed to be looting the crew quarters. Three were in rooms while a fourth stayed in the passageway. The group looked to be towards the rear of the ship and were the closest to his location.

  After checking his weapon one last time, he hit the hand scanner, and the door to the other ship slid open. He quickly moved through the door of the ship into the harsh, red, flashing emergency lighting of the mining ship. He moved to the corner of the passage in which he was standing and took a knee to let his eyes adjust. Even with his high-tech visor, his eyes still needed a second.

  As he waited, he heard two bursts of gunfire erupt from somewhere behind him. Almost immediately after the gunplay, two female screams broke the silence before him. For a moment he was torn, but his combat experience helped him stay calm and on task. The gunfire behind him was coming from two separate types of weapons, meaning defenders were trying to hold the ship. He couldn’t hear any signs of struggle from before him which meant that the women were on their own.

  He drew his rifle and quickly scanned the room. The crossing passage was empty, just like his map showed, and allowed him to move across uninterrupted and unseen. Instinct had him moving down the corridor quickly ensuring doors were secured before moving past them. The corridor followed the contour of the hull and he came to a bend that blocked him from the view of his enemies, though they were a few short meters away from him.

  At this proximity to the pirates, he could hear the sounds of struggle. More screams were followed by thuds and damning silence. As he was about to charge in headfirst, the pirate standing guard began moving towards the far end of the section. Afraid gunfire would alert the others, Zade let his rifle hang and drew the axe off his back. If he thought about the weapon, it felt strange in his hands, but on an instinctual level, he knew exactly how to move his body to make it a lethal implement.

  Closing with the sentry was out of the question, as his metal boots clanking against the decking would alert the man. The man wasn’t wearing anything close to armor, so Zade hurled his axe, hoping at the very least he could close with the man while he was stunned. As he watched, the axe turned one final time and buried itself in the man’s neck. Not wanting to waste any momentum, he retrieved his weapon and absorbed the man’s energy.

  With a touch of energy in his reserves to power his shields, he was more confident moving forward. The three doors that hid the dead man’s teammates were arrayed before him. Behind one he could hear someone ransacking the belongings inside. The middle room was silent, and in the last, he could hear people struggling.

  Concerned the large two-handed weapon would be unwieldy in the cramped quarters of the cabin, he broke it into its two single-bladed components and stowed one on his back. After aligning himself with the door, he tightened his grip on his weapon and gave Ann the go-ahead to open it.

  What he saw made him want to cringe and laugh simultaneously. One of the pirates, pants around his ankles, was trying to corner one of the female Baast crew members. She had been fighting her attacker off, as her suit was torn in multiple places. Holding the front of her clothing in place to cover herself, she kicked frantically at the man trying to take advantage of her. The scene itself wasn’t funny, but the idea that Zade would be able to bury his axe in the back of the pirate’s head without him knowing because he was too focused on pussy played to his dark sense of humor.

  Not wanting to allow the man a chance to get ahold of the woman, he stepped forward and spun his axe around, so it was turned spike down. Using an overhead chopping motion Zade quickly dispatched the man while guiding his lifeless body towards the ground and away from the terrified woman. For some reason, unknown to Zade, the sight of her savior caused the women to scream and fight even more desperately.

  He motioned for the woman to be quiet as he peeked around the door frame before returning to the hall. The commotion and sounds of terrified women’s screams must have been a normal scene for the pirates because the disturbance didn’t spur them into action. After ensuring the woman he had just saved was secured in her quarters, he moved to the silent room. Best case, he thought, the room was empty. The door slid open to reveal a blood-spattered hellscape.

  A particularly nasty-looking pirate was straddling a limp woman, searching her for valuables. This one, however, had the presence of mind to turn and see who had come in the room when he heard the door open behind him. A feral smile broke across Zade’s face when he saw the pirate would not be able to defend himself with his hands buried in the folds of the woman’s uniform.

  He took a step forward and found that the pirate was quicker than he had anticipated. Just as he began to move, his shields flared green. Momentarily stunned at the change of events, his delay allowed the pirate to fire a second shot. He dropped his axe and drew the pistol on his hip. One well-placed shot added to the bloody fresco on the walls of the room. The man slumped down as his energy was absorbed by Zade’s helmet.

  Concerned that the bulky man was crushing the woman who laid beneath him, he quickly rolled him aside and checked the woman’s vitals. She was alive, but barely. With gunshots having already been fired, time was not on his side. After performing the swipe method on the woman to check for wounds, he gently rolled her onto her back and began performing
rudimentary first aid.

  From what he could see, she was covered in bruises and some abrasions. The majority of the blood adorning the walls came from two large cuts on her left leg. He tore a strip off of a garment left on the floor and fastened a basic tourniquet above the wound that was still pumping. As he tightened it enough to staunch the flow of blood, the door to the cabin opened revealing another pirate. He had anticipated that the last man in the section would hear the ruckus he had made, so he had left his sidearm on the bed next to him. Once he got a positive ID on the intruder, he unceremoniously laced him up. On his way out of the room, he grabbed the man whose body was blocking the hatch from closing and tossed him in the corridor.

  Based on what he saw on the map overlay, his fight hadn’t attracted the attention of any of the other pirates aboard. They were still firmly located in the sections he had seen them in as he entered the ship. As he crept towards the group closest to him, Samix’s voice rang inside his helmet.

  “Zade, I think we have a problem out here.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “One of the shuttles that were moving towards the other ship has changed course and is headed straight for us,” she said, a bit of panic in her voice.

  “Thankfully we decided to arm the ship before we did this, Sam. Can you handle them?”

  “I think so. I don’t remember seeing any armament on the other shuttles,” she replied, unconfidently.

  “I’m good here. Detach from the mining ship and stop them from coming aboard. I think you can handle an unarmed shuttle better than I can handle more armed individuals.”

  “I don’t know if I’m comfortable shooting down an unarmed ship,” her uncertainty had turned to panic.

  “Sam, I assure you they aren’t headed this way for charity work. If you had seen what they had done and were doing to the people on this ship, you wouldn’t feel bad about putting them down. You need to stop them before they come aboard and overwhelm me.”

  After Samix disengaged from the mining ship, he began creeping forward once more. Just as he was about to round the corner to engage the second group of pirates, he watched the icons on his map begin moving rapidly towards the group who was engaged with the crew. With them moving in haste, he raised his rifle and increased his tempo. He was dumbfounded by their lack of tactical proficiency. On their run to the front of the ship, they never once looked back to protect their six.

  The pirates rounded the last corner between themselves and their comrades, leaving Zade alone in the passage. He reached out to his pilot to ensure she was doing alright and was happy to find that she had already taken care of the shuttle and was headed back to the dock. With no risk of threats sneaking up on him, he readied himself for the ensuing gunfight.

  Once he peeked around the corner, he realized there would be no glory won. The remaining pirates sat hunkered behind crates, firing almost blindly at the two crew members who were attempting to hold the bridge. None of the pirates even looked his way as he stepped out from behind his piece of cover. He aimed at the leftmost side of the pirates, and depressed the trigger on his rifle, raking it back and forth across the line. The fight wasn’t honorable. It wasn’t fair. But it was necessary. The pirates fell without even seeing the monster that delivered them to their god.

  The crew holding the door hesitated, stunned by their turn of luck. He raised his hands, a sign of his lack of hostility towards them before they turned their sights on him. With his weapon hanging in front of him he informed the crew about the two women who needed medical help back in the crew quarters.

  They paused for a moment, unsure if they should trust the newcomer who had just singlehandedly dispatched the men that had threatened to take the ship, before sending another from the bridge back towards the injured women. With nothing else to do, he headed back to the airlock where his ship was attached. With the battle high leaving him, the trek to his ship seemed like the longest part of his expedition on the mining vessel.

  As soon as he was safe aboard his ship again, he had Samix take a winding scenic route to their hiding spot. As the ship detached, he stopped by the forge room to drop off the ship’s share of the energy he had harvested. With the ship flying a predetermined route, he was greeted by a slightly shaken pilot when he arrived on the command deck.

  “Nice work with the other shuttle. How are you doing?”

  “I’m good, I think. It just felt wrong to attack them preemptively. We didn’t know what they wanted.”

  “You did well. From what I saw, nothing good would have come from them getting aboard,” he said, his tone reassuring. “We need a game plan for taking out the rest of the scum that is poisoning this system, and that begins with a visit back planet side.”

  As they headed towards the galley for some food, he explained to Sam why they couldn’t do the job for free. Although he agreed they didn’t want to take advantage of the poor miners, they also needed supplies and equipment to help them on their journey. By the time they had finished eating, she could see his point of view and was comfortable doing the job for some medical equipment and supplies.

  He cleaned up the mess in the galley before heading to the forge while Sam headed to her pilot station to set a course back to the planet. Although she could have made the trip in under an hour with engines under full power, she chose to conserve fuel and make the trip longer. It would give her time to sleep and prepare for the meeting with Roy, and, she hoped, the mining company leadership.

  Chapter 8

  It wasn’t long before the ship was sitting on the landing pad outside the mining building. Samix was met by Mara before she rode the ramp down for her meeting with the Baast. Mara was disembarking to gather some supplies she needed for a longer stint aboard the ship. Before she left, Mara made Zade promise not to leave without her. After the women said their goodbyes and he told them to stay safe, he headed back into the ship to work at the forge.

  As the ship closed up, Samix headed towards the mining building. Like the first time they had landed on the planet, the rotund bureaucrat was waiting outside to meet her. Even though they had only been gone for a few days, she thought he had gained weight. Although he wore a smile and was more cordial than he had been at their first meeting, there was an air of nervousness surrounding him.

  “Back already, Ms. Samix? Were you able to deal with the thugs that keep screwing up our operations?”

  “You understood we didn’t leave last time to deal with the threat. We left to collect more information. So, no, we have not been able to stop those who have been hurting your miners,” she responded sharply, irritated that his focus was still on money instead of lives. “We believe we can take care of the problem, but we will need some supplies first.”

  “I will be able to help with some small things from the union building, but anything significant will have to come from the corporations. You can discuss that when we meet with company leadership,” he said as he motioned her towards the waiting limo.

  There was an uneasiness in his posture and she wondered what had changed since she had last met with him. There was nothing that made her overly edgy, but she checked in with Zade before getting in the vehicle. He reminded her that she was nearly indestructible so long as she stayed in her armor, which did little to ease her mind.

  To her surprise, four individuals were waiting in the vehicle when she sat down. Each of the four was an aide to an executive from one of the companies. Each had their interests in mind, and their own agenda for the removal of the pirates. The most verbose one never gave his name but did tell her he was from Brax Corporation, the largest operation in the system.

  She slid over to allow Roy room to get in the vehicle, but before he could get in, the man from Brax informed him that he would not be attending the meeting as it was beyond his station. There was the briefest flash of disappointment on his face before he removed his leg from the vehicle and absentmindedly adjusted his jacket.

  “In that case, are there any supplies
I can round up for you while you are gone, Ms. Samix?”

  “We need small and large fabricators and medical supplies and equipment to set up our medical bay. If you can have any of that ready for me upon my return, it will greatly increase our odds of success.”

  “The medical equipment would have to come from the companies. They keep a tight hold on that type of gear. I should be able to dig up a couple of fabricators for you though. I will have them ready for you when you get back.”

  With her nod of approval, the door of the vehicle swung shut and they headed towards the high-rise buildings that were perched on the horizon. As a hover vehicle, the ride was perfectly smooth, but the landscape zipping and zagging by outside the windows was jarring. As soon as the vehicle moved away from the spaceport and mining buildings, the lush greenery turned into harsh, barren, hard-packed dirt, baked for centuries by the twin suns.

  As suddenly as the flora stopped outside the port, it began again around the bases of the high rises. Now closer to them, she could see that each was uniquely liveried with the colors and logos of the large corporations. The largest was a blue and yellow behemoth with Brax Corp. emblazoned across its facade.

  Instead of continuing towards the large blue skyscraper, the car made a sharp left and headed towards a less grandiose, slate-gray building. Upon arrival, security gates opened and the car headed into an underground parking area. The car came to a stop in front of large elevator doors and she was quickly transferred into the elevator. Instead of heading up towards the penthouse, where she expected the meeting to take place, the elevator began descending into the bowels of the planet. It was hard for her to tell how long she had been descending or how fast she had been descending, but it felt like forever.

  Once she came to a stop, the doors opened into a large operations room. The walls were lined with well-equipped and well-disciplined security personnel clad in uniforms matching the colors of the four corporations that ran all major mining operations in the system. None of them flinched when the doors at the rear of the room opened, allowing entry to four flamboyantly dressed individuals. They sat at the large table adorning the center of the room, their aides quickly falling in at their shoulders.