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‘We’ve explosions coming from all around the ship,’ he heard one of them scream. ‘And breaches all over, on all decks.’
Kage arched an eyebrow. Kainan’s plan was in theatre then and working splendidly well so far.
Suddenly a figure lurched to a stop before him. Kage looked up slowly into Faron Rinnax’s face, who held a pulse rifle now squarely aimed at Kage’s face.
‘Having a little trouble?’ the Edenite ventured.
Faron swung the butt of his rifle, and Kage ducked. It still caught the edge of his temple, and he whistled as agony exploded in his head. His metanoids jumped to work, and he felt the pain melt away, but not before blood tricked down the side of his face.
‘Kinai, I’ve enough scars,’ he grumbled. ‘Don’t need another.’
‘Stop being a smart ass and tell me who is out there.’
‘How would I know?’ Kage shrugged.
‘They’re not cordial callers! Which means they’re here for you or at your behest.’
‘Go figure,’ he lied through his teeth. ‘I’ve been sitting here innocently waiting for your next move. No access to your comms, as you can see. In fact, for most of my visit, I’ve been trussed up or kicked to the floor. So I’m the last person with a clue who is knocking on your door.’
Faron let out a string of ugly curses. ‘We’re camouflaged! How did they know where we were?’
Just then, a comm alert trilled in the bridge. ‘Call from Rhesia,’ a harried-looking clone at the nav called out.
‘Patch it in,’ Faron barked. ‘Maybe they can explain what is happening outside.’
A face swam onto the holo screen as Faron swung himself in front of it to obscure Kage’s vision, but not before the Edenite caught sight of who was calling. He raised both eyebrows and whistled under his breath, hoping his node had captured the feed.
He feigned nonchalance as his metanoids enhanced the voices.
‘We have word from Ankis,’ he heard the holo caller say. ‘You are to proceed with demanding a ransom. The prisoner in exchange for all access codes to Sable-Net, their AI and their servers.’
‘We’re under attack here!’ Faron cried out. ‘We’ve already been tracked down, and I’m pretty sure The Sable Group is trying to bust our captive outta here.’
‘Then get creative. Slow them down! Get what we want!’
The feed flickered off. The Rhesian contact was gone.
Explosions sounded from outside the bridge door.
Faron whirled around the bridge, shouting to himself. ‘Think, man, think!’
Ballistics hammered the doorway, and a pulse sword started cutting a flaming path around the entrance as Faron worked his comm tab, searching for something. Finally, he found what he was after and grinned.
‘I have it. Get more missiles ready for launch.’
‘How many?’ The nav tech asked.
‘All 12 of them onboard. Lock in these locations,’ Faron growled, swiping a link towards the nav holo.
‘Copy that,’ his clone said.
The nav tech’s hands flew over the controls as Kage switched his view from Faron to the arc on the door that was joining quickly. The Riders were about to bust through.
‘Missiles ready,’ the tech announced.
‘Launch,’ Faron ordered forcefully, sweat dripping down his brow.
The nav tech clicked a few buttons, and Kage looked up at the holo screen to see twelve bogeys leap from the missile tubes of The Haiku.
