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‘Danada,’ he said drily. ‘Too late. Your guests are here.’
The flaming arcs of the pulse sword joined up. Shortly after, there was a rumble and roar from behind the door as explosives went off.
Faron took note of the dire circumstances, took a deep breath and aimed his rifle at Kage’s head. Seconds later, the door and its surrounding bulkhead fell in.
Three meta-suited warriors slowly walked through the resulting fog of smoke and flames.
Faron jerked the weapon trained on Kage, twisting his head to address the newcomers, his eyes raking over their garb and insignia. ‘If it isn’t the formidable Riders themselves.’
Kainan stepped forward, his helmet retracting to reveal his face. ‘Ko’sawa?’ he asked Kage, concern all over his face. ‘How are you?’
His fellow Rider looked up from the floor he sat on and gave him a wry smile. ‘Shittin’ glitter,khosi. What d’you think?’
Kainan grinned, moving towards him. ‘Think we need to end thiskaramu,kaka. Party’s over.’
Faron blanched at Kainan’s nonchalance and jerked his weapon. ‘Stay back! Unless you want to see your fellow Rider’s brains all over this steel floor.’
The Sable Group’s leader paused mid-step and smiled cordially. ‘May we have our brother back?’
Faron huffed with derision. ‘You can’t just waltz in here and take him. We need him to get what we want.’
‘And what’s that?’ Kainan asked.
‘His life, in exchange for all access to every technology and schematic The Sable Group has ever created.’
Kainan laughed, long and low, his mirth infecting Riv and Xion because they, too, started to chuckle.
‘Think this is funny?’ Faron whispered. ‘If you don’t give us what we want, I’ll blow The Sable Group spaceport and Skylab to the stars. I’ve just launched twelve missiles at them.’
‘Santefor the heads up, my man,’ Kainan taunted, unseeingly moved by the news. ‘Now for a taste of your own medicine.’
While Kainan spoke, Kage felt his stomach churn. Harlow had been spending nights at Skylab. He needed to get to her now. He reached out to the Riders via his node.
What are we doing about those missiles? Harlow’s probably at Skylab along with other late-night working staff. We need to get them out of there, he said.
Zane and I are working on it, Mirage told him.
Brother, we’re taking care of it. For now I need you to move,Kage heard Kainan say neurally to him.Launch yourself at us. At the same time, you do, reactivate your helmet and HUD. We’re setting off a 928.
Kage nodded, thinking fast. ‘Hey, Faron, what’s that over there?’ he said out loud, pointing to a far corner of the room as his helmet extended over his head.
The deflection worked. The clone reflexively glanced left while Kage pistoned himself from the floor and launched towards his brothers, nabbing Faron’s weapon from his clasp as he did.
As soon as his hand touched Xion’s shoulder and the group formed into a huddle, Kainan bellowed into the Riders’ neural net.
Zane, now!
A telekinetic energy cloud exploded from Zane’s mind. It travelled down the neural network in milliseconds and fired through the minds of the joined Riders.
The psionic EMP detonated throughout the bridge and, aided by the Riders’ metanoids, bloomed throughout the Haiku, shredding its electronic equipment, comms and security.
On the back of the EMP came a code riding on the coattails of the metanoids. It hacked the Haiku causing an all system shutdown - from the nav holo and malware console, to the lights and drive. Electrostatic discharges went off throughout the ship resulting in sparks and explosions at stations and conduits.
The pulse raced through The Haiku, causing arcing and damage whilst knocking out most of the crew. Finally, it dissipated on the external hull of the ship, wiping out the control modules on the missile silos and cannons on its way out.
With a loud groan, the Rinnax ship lost gravitational power and began falling to the moonscape’s surface below.
The Riders emerged unscathed from their huddle, their suits having provided the protection needed to withstand the EMP. Shaking off the effects of their energy-draining exercise, they steadied themselves.
