I cast an eye over the group, in light of that revelation, and sure enough, more than half of our number were currently huddled around the door, anxious to find a way out.
“We also don’t currently have anyone watching our six,” Jai added, eyes roaming over the storage facility. “Which is poor procedure.”
I braced myself for some sort of backlash, particularly from Tolvorez. He seemed like the sort of man who liked to be in charge, and being given attitude by the newest member of our team wasn’t likely to go down well.
But before he could say a single word, everyone else abruptly moved away from the door, and four soldiers took it upon themselves to form a rear guard, scanning the room behind us. Tolvorez was left standing there, until he, too, suddenly saw the wisdom in Jai’s words, and retreated a few metres as well.
“Something you should all keep in mind,” Jai said, “and I apologise if I’m trying to teach the teacher here. But space pirates are not stupid. I’ve seen too many missions where crews go in expecting pirates to be disorganised or poorly prepared. But their very survival depends on their ability to improvise, and the successful ones learn a lot of very useful tricks along the way. I would treat this mission the same way I would treat a mission to take down a highly trained special ops team. Expect the unexpected, and do not underestimate them.”
There was a pause, as the warning sunk in. “Well said,” Bryce agreed, when it seemed no one else had a response. “So does anyone have any thoughts about how to open the door, given that it could be rigged? And on that note, it’s extremely likely that we’re going to run up against a lot of fire power on the other side. If they’re expecting a lot of us to be taken out by whatever the trap is, then they’ll want to finish off what’s left of us in a hurry.”
“Is there any other way out of this room?” Jai asked.
“No,” Tolvorez replied. “It’s this or the airlock.”
“Then I would suggest trying to trigger the trap from a safe distance,” Jai said. He holstered his gun and started scanning the nearby crates. “I need a couple of objects that are reasonably heavy. Like boots, or a hammer.”
A couple of other soldiers joined in the search for something suitable, and a minute later, one of them came up with a couple of metal brackets – presumably spare parts in case the ship needed repairs while in transit. “How about this?” she called, showing Jai what she’d found.
“Perfect,” Jai said, taking the brackets from her. “Everyone stand back and take cover.”
We all did, and I felt a thrill of admiration for my new dimari. Not only was he absolutely correct in his assessment of the situation so far, but he was also willing to take charge, even in the presence of higher ranking officers. Maybe that belligerent attitude had some substance behind it, after all.
Once everyone was reasonably safe, Jai approached the door cautiously, keeping several metres back. He tossed the first bracket at the cargo door, hitting it dead centre with a loud clang. He threw the second bracket in the same manner, then the third, then he backed away, tucking himself into the nearest row of shelves.
A moment later, a faint popping sound came from the direction of the ceiling, and some kind of liquid splashed down in front of the door. A second flush of liquid rapidly followed it… and then I heard a chorus of curses and exclamations as the whole of the floor in front of us burst into flames.
Those nearest the front of the group scrambled backwards, but thanks to Jai’s careful planning, no one was within range of the liquid. Had we continued trying to open the door before we’d all moved, three quarters of our team would currently be on fire.
But the fireworks weren’t quite over yet. Along the frame of the door, a series of explosions went off, and that triggered a new wave of shouting as people shielded their eyes from the bursts of light. I’d had the foresight to look away once the fire started, suspecting there might be more to come, and so I kept my head down, judging from the reflections on the metal beams around us as to when the flashing stopped. When it seemed to have faded out, I cautiously peered up at the door. A good section on the right had been torn away from its casing, and a few solid blows should make a gap wide enough for a person to fit through. But I saw movement on the far side, and there was no way that was going to be good.
“Incoming!” I yelled, just as a small object was tossed into the room. It wasn’t metal – it landed on the floor with the sort of thud that suggested it was made of plastic. The people closest to the device once more scattered, and not a moment too soon. Liquid splashed out of it, re-igniting the patches of floor that had been burned the first time around. One good thing – if it could be called that – about being on a space ship was that no one would be stupid enough to use grenades or any other serious explosives. Blasting a hole in the side of the ship could kill everyone on board, not just our team.
As the flames began to die down again, I saw a long, thin object projecting into the room through the small gap, and it looked enough like the muzzle of a gun that I didn’t stop to think. I lifted my own gun and sent a volley of laser blasts through the gap. A yelp, then a string of curses on the far side said I’d hit something. Or rather, someone.
A blast of white foam surged out across the flames, and I looked to my left, seeing that someone had found a fire extinguisher and was putting it to good use. A volley of shots were fired at the door from a few other soldiers, and then Tolvorez moved quickly but cautiously towards the door, twoother soldiers flanking him. I glanced at Jai, wondering if he’d have anything more to say about this latest development, but he just sent me a quick nod, then eased out of cover, edging towards the door behind Tolvorez. I looked around for Bryce and Carver, and with a brief series of gestures and nods, we all began to move as well, forming up our team again, weapons drawn, ready to slice a pathway through the mayhem so we could get on with retaking this ship.
Nearest the door, Tolvorez took a small device out of one of his pockets. “Flash grenade,” he muttered through the comm link, and we all looked away. Our suits had automated systems to suppress excessively loud sounds, but the lights could still blind us if we weren’t careful. He tossed the device into the hallway, and we listened to the series of pops that were the muted version of the ear-shattering noise it would be producing. Once the noises stopped, we opened our eyes again and Tolvorez, along with two Denzogals in his team, made short work of kicking the side of the door in, making a hole that was large enough for even a Denzogal to step through. He darted through the gap, and the rest of us began to follow, weapons out, forming a united front against whatever was waiting for us on the other side.
By the time I slithered through the gap, taking care about the sharp edges of metal, the pirates were in full retreat. I glimpsed the bright orange fur of an Anicrian as he darted off around a corner, then the bulbous white shape of a Polvron as it rushed through a distant doorway.
“Anicrians and Polvrons,” I told my team. “Possibly something else as well, but that gives us a start.” It wasn’t the worst outcome possible. Polvrons were large, both tall and wide. They were slow in battle, but were generally well equipped with advanced technology. Meanwhile, Anicrians were a lot smaller. They were fast and agile but not terribly strong. Thepartnership between the two species wasn’t surprising, each of them covering the other’s weaknesses.
With the hallway semi-secured, we paused for a brief strategy meeting. “Major, you and your team should head for the bridge,” Tolvorez said to Bryce. “If you gain access, seal the doors behind you. The rest of us will look for the crew – I’m assuming they’d have been taken captive. Team one, head for the stern, teams two and three go to the upper deck, team four stay here and hold this position.” The ship was large enough to have two operational levels around the outside of the massive rotors. The section in the centre of the ship wouldn’t have enough inertia to maintain adequate simulated gravity for it to be a usable space. But even so, the total floor area we were dealing with was substantial.
I glanced at Bryce, wondering what he’d think of Tolvorez’s instructions. As hastily as this mission had been thrown together, there was no official ‘mission leader’, as such, just the various team leaders and the expectation that we all had enough miles under our belts to behave like grownups.
“Any chance we can get access to a map of the ship?” Bryce asked, tapping at various functions on his comm. “Knowing where the hell we’re going would be a good option.”
Tolvorez and a few others also made an attempt to connect to the ship’s communication network, and then one of the lieutenants announced, “Got it, sir. The pirates have attempted to lock us out, but they’re not doing a very good job of it. Military grade comms give us a few work-around options,” he added, with a smirk. “But it might be worth trying to memorise the major routes. There’s no guarantees they won’t wise up and lock us out properly.”
“That gives us enough to work with for now,” Bryce said, and the other team leaders echoed him. “All right, then. Let’s move out.”
With our plan set, the four of us in Bryce’s team headed for the front of the ship. The bridge was on the second level, right at the front, and we’d have to get upstairs to find it. We slunk along the hallways, our visors still on, weapons at the ready. Now that we were in simulated gravity, the magnetic functions on our boots automatically switched themselves off, allowing us to walk more smoothly, and far more quietly than in zero gravity. One detail I did notice, though, was that there were waist-height railings along both walls, running the length of the hallways and around the corners. That wasn’t a surprise. Ships like this were designed to operate in simulated gravity, but system failures were always possible, so the railings were there to allow the crew to navigate the ship easily and safely in zero gravity, pulling themselves along and giving them something to clip any equipment onto, to stop it floating around.
The first wave of resistance hit us as we rounded the very first corner. A group of Anicrians were peering out of the doors into the crew quarters, and we had to duck back behind the corner to avoid being shot. They threw a flash grenade at us, which we calmly waited out, eyes shielded, sound muted, thanks to our visors. Once it was over, Bryce gave us orders in the form of a series of hand gestures. We responded like a well-oiled machine. Jai and I darted across the hallway into the cover of the opposite corner, then all four of us fired at the group, taking out three of them in quick succession, with the fourth scampering away down the hall. Bryce unapologetically shot him in the back.
That was one of the early lessons we learned in Alliance training. If someone has tried to kill you, you’re never under any obligation to let them live. If the man had tried to surrender, we might have considered it. But shooting at us then running away was not cause to spare him. Perhaps that degree of brutality came from living on a fringe planet that had been attacked fartoo many times. Perhaps it was just good sense. Either way, none of us were going to object to the decision.
