Blockade Runner (Privateer Tales Book 11) Read online

  "Jester Ripples should come with you," he replied. He didn't always refer to himself in the third person, saving it for moments when he was overly excited.

  "I'll come back, Jester Ripples," I said. "This is important and it might not be safe."

  "If it's not safe for Jester Ripples, then Liam Hoffen and Tabitha Masters should not be going."

  I smiled at a conversation we'd had numerous times. Norigans were fiercely loyal and brave to a fault. The problem was, they were about as useless as sand in an air filter when it came to a fight.

  "Check in with Nicholas and we'll be back as quickly as possible," I said.

  Jester Ripples blinked in what I'd learned to recognize as mild annoyance, but climbed down. "I will place Liam Hoffen's bed sheets in the cleaner first."

  ***

  'Going heavy' was Marny's term for bringing along the modified Colt 42816s we'd manufactured on planet Curie in the Tipperary system. Our version of the utility weapon included a back mounted, just-in-time ammunition manufacturing system. We'd stolen the idea from the mechanized Marine's exoskeletons used during our takeover of the Red Houzi dreadnaught, Bakunawa. The basic idea was the AI could create a perfect mix of projectile and explosive rounds on demand. When dealing with Kroerak, we loaded armor piercing, explosive ordnance as our default and ratcheted up from there. The biggest disadvantage to the system was the backpacks added between thirty and forty kilograms, restricting our movement.

  "Do we have any of those grenade strips left?" I asked as Marny helped me into my 816's pack.

  Tabby slapped an adhesive, ten-centimeter strip of grenade marbles across my abdomen. "Just don't be going all Divelbiss on me."

  I smiled at the reference to a brave crewman who lost his hand when he stuffed it and a grenade into a Kroerak's beak.

  "Marny, you have tactical," I said.

  Tactical channel one, acknowledge Marny Bertrand team leader. My comment had been overheard by our AIs and a special comm channel had been established. As team leader, Marny would be given control over some of our suit's functions. She could also update our maps with primary and secondary kill targets.

  "Acknowledged," I responded. I wasn't even remotely surprised to see that I'd been given the responsibility of third position. In a four-man team, I was better suited to the number two spot, but with our three-person team, taking up the rear was where I added most value. I'd spend most of my time walking backward and making sure nothing crept up on us.

  Tabby mic'd in a second later and appeared on my HUD’s tactical display as point. Finally, Marny showed up right in the middle, where she belonged. The choices for Marny and Tabby were straightforward; Tabby was by far the quickest thinking and most devastating fighter in the group. In the Battle for Colony-40, she'd lost both legs, an arm, and much of her spine and rib cage. When she'd been found, no one expected her to survive and even then, it would be as a multiple amputee. Through considerable luck and perseverance, we were able to get her high-tech replacements for her missing limbs. Thus, she was faster and stronger than either Marny or me by a significant margin.

  "Jonathan, go ahead and deploy the remote," Marny said. "We're Oscar Mike."

  "Remote surveillance launch in three seconds," Jonathan responded. From Intrepid’s position next to the larger alien ship, none of our sensors had a good view into the breach forward of the main engines. The drone would give us a good look into the hole before we arrived.

  "Liam, I want you to jump first and take position on the hull at this mark," Marny directed. She'd identified a location where I'd have a direct view into the breach. "Tabby, once Liam is in position, I want you at the mouth. I'll be two seconds behind. Make sure you stay beneath Liam's line of fire at two and a half meters. Stay low." As she spoke, a virtual cone from the position she'd assigned me indicated the space she wanted me to cover.

  I nudged my chin forward and acknowledged her assignment. A green indicator lit up next to my name in the HUD's tactical display at the same time one lit next to Tabby. We weren't always this quiet, but preferred to keep the comms free of chatter in hostile territory.

  "Drone is reporting the breach is clear," Marny announced as we entered Intrepid’s cargo hold. We'd chosen Intrepid’s hold as our launching point because it sported a pressure barrier when the main door was open. Looking through the translucent energy barrier, I took in both the enormity of the battle-cruiser class ship as well as the wholesale damage it had received along its flank. It didn't take much imagination to replay the ship's last moments as waves of Kroerak lances pierced its side. My eyes searched and found lances that hadn't completely passed through, most likely contacting the ship’s internal skeleton where the ends shattered upon contact.

  "Cap," Marny suddenly appeared in front of me, breaking my gaze. "I need you in the here and now. You got this?"

  "Copy that, Marny. These guys never knew what hit them," I said. "They were obliterated. Their armor shredded like it wasn't even there."

  "Aye, Cap," Marny said. "Technology in war can be a terrible thing." She slapped the side of my helmet. "Now take your position, Soldier, or I'll make this an all-girl event."

  "I'm in, Marny."

  SENTINEL

  I launched myself from Intrepid’s hold almost perfectly in line with the AI's recommended path. Without adjustment, I'd land on the alien battle cruiser three meters from my mark. I slowly adjusted, preferring to make several minor modifications instead of one big change. The suits we'd obtained from Thomas Phillipe Anino utilized gravity waves instead of arc-jets. Here in the Mhina system, we were less than one and a half million kilometers from one of two gas giants, so there was plenty of whatever Anino's suits needed.

  The ship had several hatches and my AI provided a few interesting statistics. The most important one being that the height and width of the doors were compatible with human forms. Whatever the species was, they were obviously no strangers to war. The ship fairly bristled with turrets, most of which had been damaged by their encounter with the Kroerak.

  Upon arrival, I used my hands to slow my relative velocity and allowed my legs to absorb the residual energy. My first order of business was to lock down Tabby's landing zone. I pulled the stock of my 816 to my shoulder and used the rifle's auxiliary magnification to scan for trouble.

  "Infiltration zone is clear," I announced, not finding anything beyond the expected jagged metal plating and torn decking. One can learn a lot about a species by looking at their ships and it was evident this one was behind humanity's technology curve, although not substantially. Numerous bundles of severed cables resembled a rat's nest and belied the presence of an integrated communications system.

  "Copy that," Marny replied. "On your mark, Tabby."

  "Go," Tabby replied.

  I wanted to watch the two of them cross the three hundred meters that separated the ships, but I knew better. At a minimum, Marny would review my camera's view and reprimand my inattentiveness. The real reason, however, was that their lives might depend on my vigilance.

  Instead, I continued to scan the breach, not allowing myself to become myopic, but broadening my sweep to different sections of the dead ship. It wouldn't do any good to miss an approaching threat because I was only staring into the hole in front of me. I caught Tabby's movement as she sailed into the breach. My AI showed her approach to be twenty-three meters per second and I winced as her legs absorbed the impact of a hard landing. Anyone else would have broken bones, but Tabby's legs were a titanium lattice and her muscles had been manufactured by the best scientists humanity had to offer. She didn't even grunt as she spun onto one knee and swept the deck I only had a partial view of. A moment later, and with considerably less velocity, Marny landed, struggling to gain equilibrium on the ship's uneven hull.

  Just as Marny made contact, I pushed off and grabbed her heavily muscled arm, steadying her. Having grown up in the full gravity of Earth, Marny hadn't developed the same zero-gravity skills Tabby and I took for granted. Perhaps
the hardest concept for her to overcome was that 'down' had no real meaning. For someone born and raised planet-side, the notions of up and down simply were too ingrained.

  "Got it, Cap," Marny quipped. "Thanks." She was always embarrassed by what she saw as weakness and spent hours trying to train out her Earth-borne instincts.

  "Passage is clear," Tabby announced. "Ten meters, hatch on portside. Passage is blocked at twelve meters. Looks like a standard descending atmo-containment bulkhead. Bulkhead did not fully deploy; looks like it was stopped by debris."

  "Secure portside hatch," Marny answered.

  Atmo-containment bulkheads were standard tools on ships and space stations. If a hull breach was detected, these bulkheads would drop and seal off the section exposed to space. Unfortunately, for the inhabitants of this ship, something had prevented the bulkhead from sealing.

  After a few meters of walking backward, hovering so I wouldn't stumble, my feet found solid purchase on the ship's deck. Technically, the motion was more sideways, sweeping back and forth, but I spent most of my time surveying the space behind us. The deck beneath our feet was coated in a soft, pliable material. It wasn’t carpeting, but also not the grit-painted steel common on most human ships.

  "In position," Tabby breathed.

  My tactical orders were modified, requiring me to sweep and cover the other side of the open hatch. Since I expected the order, I smoothly transitioned from covering our backs to slipping past Tabby and Marny and sweeping across the open hatch. As I did, Marny and Tabby flowed into the room, first covering their zones, then sweeping the remainder of the room.

  The room could have been cargo space on any Earth or Mars ship. It was unremarkable and mostly empty, save for a few crates. I was intensely curious as to their contents, but such was not our mission. We needed to make sure the area was safe first and keep moving.

  I tabbed my chin into the soft padding of my helmet to indicate a clear status, noticing that Tabby and Marny had already updated their statuses.

  "Secure the main passageway," Marny ordered, pulling a narrow jack from her pack and exiting the storage room.

  Tabby and I followed. I resumed my backward orientation, slapping a surveillance puck onto the bulkhead next to me. The pucks were about the size of my thumb pad and a millimeter thick. Their entire job was to warn us of movement or sound.

  Glancing back, I watched Marny place the thin jack beneath the failed bulkhead. The device was a simple but powerful machine that could exert enough newtons of force to split open two centimeters of steel plate. It would either lift the bulkhead or create enough of a dent in it that we'd be able to crawl beneath.

  I joined Tabby, turning to face the unexplored hallway ahead as the jack lifted the bulkhead a meter and a half from the deck. The passageway was complete chaos compared to what we'd seen so far. Piles of long-undisturbed debris were everywhere and it made me shudder to realize corpses must be mixed in with the mess.

  "Stabilize this hatch," Marny ordered. My HUD highlighted the object of her command.

  The order was for me. I was the only one who carried a welding/cutting torch as part of my standard ship boarding kit.

  I stepped up behind Tabby and pulled a strip of metal filler from my thigh pouch. One-handed, I slapped the strip beneath the door and against the wall. With my other hand, I brought out the small torch and melted the metal into the frame, bonding the sliding bulkhead to the wall. My AI reported a strong weld now joined the two permanently, making it impossible for the hatch to slide back down once the jack was removed.

  "Fall in and move out," Marny snapped.

  Tabby stepped forward, picking her way carefully through the debris. I scanned the passageway behind us one last time, ducked under the bulkhead, and followed Marny's retreating form.

  "Hold," Tabby warned, pinging an open hatch where a body lay across the threshold. I knew better than to expect that Marny would let me get a good look at the ship's occupants until she was convinced of our general safety. "It's a Kroerak kill," Tabby said, focusing on the center of the humanoid form.

  It was a scene we'd seen too many times. In this case, the body was anything but fresh, but hadn't been fed on, which was surprising.

  I slapped another puck onto the wall and we pushed forward, stopping at a shaft that was open above and below. Tabby stuck her head in for a better view and reported a series of ledges on opposite sides of the shaft. Each set of ledges was spaced at around three meters.

  "They must have gravity control in this shaft," Tabby said, adding to the list of technologies attributable to the species.

  "Tight fit for Kroerak," Marny said. "I have an update from Jonathan. The bridge should be seven decks up and another hundred meters forward. Up you go, Tabby."

  "Cap, drop an A-P three meters down. We don't need uninvited guests following," Marny ordered.

  I jumped into the shaft, dropped a few meters and slapped an anti-personnel mine against the wall. Our crew would be safe, but the mine would warn of intruders coming from below decks.

  The three of us popped out of the shaft seven decks up into another passageway and to a now familiar scene of destruction. Long deceased inhabitants and debris were scattered everywhere.

  "Cap," Marny stopped us. "Jonathan just informed me that their analysis shows evidence of Kroerak activity within the last several years. It's likely they left sleepers."

  "Copy that. We're only a few meters from our target. Do you want to abort?"

  Marny gave a quick shake of her head. "Negative, Cap. Not my call."

  "We don't know what wakes sleepers up." Tabby spoke in almost a whisper, as if she were afraid of being the alarm that woke them. "Whatever we hope to learn better be worth it."

  "Tens of thousands of aliens died to the Kroerak here and Belirand had some part in it," I replied. "If we ever hope to stop the bugs, we have to start learning what they're up to." I probably said my piece more passionately than was required, but Tabby and I'd had this conversation already.

  "Move out, Tabby," Marny ordered, cutting short the conversation. The only reason Marny had asked the question was because the mission parameters had changed. Now that she knew what my decision was, she resumed tactical command.

  "Copy," Tabby replied. It sounded like there was a little sulkiness in her voice, but I couldn’t deal with now.

  We continued down the passageway, clearing hatches and moving on.

  "You guys seeing this?" I asked, highlighting the back-end of one of the corpses. A bright yellow blaze of color shown from a split in the corpse's suit.

  "Cap," Marny warned.

  I frowned, but took the reprimand and continued to cover our retreat, placing surveillance pucks every ten meters or so.

  "Jonathan believes this to be the bridge," Marny announced, bringing us to a stop. The passageway had widened to double in size and a large bulkhead was closed in front of us. The passage split and continued around either side. All in all, it was reminiscent of the dreadnaught Bakunawa, with its heavily armored, centrally located bridge. "We need to secure the vicinity. I want mines on the forward, starboard and port passageways. Move out, Tabby."

  We continued around the circular room and discovered hatches on the starboard and aft sides – or simply put, a four-way intersection with the rounded bridge at the center. Due to the width of the hallways, we dropped two mines into each passageway, except to the aft, which we identified as our preferred escape route.

  "Look at that," Tabby exclaimed as we came around the final bend. A Kroerak lance had penetrated the ship's skin, avoiding all structure until embedding itself into the port-side exterior bulkhead of the bridge.

  "Let's crack this hatch," Marny said, ignoring Tabby. She approached the aft door and swung her 816 to the side, taking up a defensive stance.

  I inspected the door, attempting to discern its opening mechanism. Four scratches, ten centimeters long and two centimeters apart ran across a central raised panel. Upon further inspection, I realize
d it was a small hatch that slid to the side, revealing an inclined pad. The surface looked very much like a hand scanner, yet there were indentations for only three digits. I placed my hand on the pad anyway, but wasn't rewarded with any sign of acknowledgement.

  Pulling out my welding torch, I switched it to cutting mode. "I'm going to burn it."

  "Copy that," Marny agreed.

  The amount of energy required to cut steel is considerable and I monitored my secondary power system as I pulled a line of fire down the door. The metal slagged as I cut, but without gravity, it stayed put, requiring me to dredge it out with a hooked instrument. Fortunately, this was Mining-101. I'd spent my entire youth dealing with material that regularly bent or broke heavy machinery and I was a master with a cutting torch. I worked quickly and was soon rewarded with a clean line, deep enough to hook Marny's jack into.

  For a few moments, the powerful jack spooled tension in its simple mechanism. All at once, the bulkhead shuddered, sending shockwaves along the deck and up through my armored boots. "Stand back," I said, stepping to the side, not sure what was about to happen.

  Three thumb-sized security bolts tore out of the upper jamb, ripping through centimeter-thick steel. A whoosh of atmo blew into the hallway, momentarily fogging my faceplate as the door was once again still.

  "That was exciting," I said as I released the tension on the jack and repositioned it. I’d only opened the exterior skin of the hatch by four centimeters and it would take more work to open it wide enough for entry.

  I removed the jack and continued cutting away resistant portions of the structure. I then cut a new slot into the door and remounted the jack, repeating my previous attack. It took almost twenty minutes of cutting and prying, but the multi-layered door finally opened to about twenty centimeters. I pulled out a spray of what we simply referred to as fire-damp. One of the problems of working in vacuum was that it took forever for steel to dissipate heat. The problem was easily overcome with a readily available foam that would cover the hot spots and slowly leach the heat away, disintegrating when cooled to a hundred degrees.