Part 10: Know When To Walk Away, and Know When To Run

Alex finished his team’s final prep before the Bucephalus dropped out of hyperspace. Now it was just time to wait. The gravity mines had been set, creating a large gravity well where the Pillar of Hercules, and its mutonium shipment, was scheduled to make a navigation check. As long as Byron’s intel was accurate, the trap could be sprung any minute.

Alex did not like the anticipation before combat. After pacing the cargo hold for a few minutes, he went back to the cockpit to get a better handle on the situation. There, the boredom didn’t seem to be bothering Jade. She had her feet propped up, a reading tablet in hand.

“Any word from Byron yet?” Alex asked, dropping himself into the co-pilot’s seat.

Jade didn’t bother to look up. “Nothing. Probably a false lead. I mean, who has that much mutonium just sitting around? Wild goose chase if you ask me.” She sat quietly for a few moments, then looked up with a frown. “We’re still getting paid for this, right? I mean, if the ship doesn’t show?”

Alex chuckled. It was nice to know she wasn’t falling too far to the idealist end of the spectrum.

Before he could respond, though, the comm crackled to life. It was Byron. “We have a fly in the web. Operation is a go.”

Jade tossed her tablet aside, and swung her feet down. “Moot point, I guess,” she said, grabbing the controls. The coordinates for the short jump were preprogramed for every ship in Byron’s fleet. Outside, Alex could see 20 or so lights quickly accelerate, then disappear. Jade punch a few buttons, and the Bucephalus was off too.

The jump only lasted a few seconds, and when they reentered regular space, they could see a massive freighter floating in front of them. The Pillar of Hercules was by far the largest ship Byron’s team had hit so far. Over the comm, Alex could hear Byron making his standard warning. “Lower your shield and prepare to be boarded. You will not be harmed. Allow us access to your cargo, and you will leave with your lives. Any and all resistance will be met with deadly force.” 

The Pillar of Hercules responded with a volley of fire, scattering Byron’s fleet. Byron’s command ship and a half dozen small smuggler ships dropped back, while the ships like the Bucephalus carried their boarding teams forward. So far, things were still going to plan.

That lasted for a few seconds. Suddenly, Jade was picking up something else on her sensors. “We’ve got new contacts… 3… 7… 15, coming in fast.”

Alex sighed. “Fighter escort. Of course something this valuable would bring a fighter squadron with them.” Alex jumped on the comm. “Byron, did you know we’d have to deal with fighters?”

There was dead silence on the other end. It was a few seconds longer than Alex was comfortable with. Finally, Byron responded. “Negative, we didn’t know. Our intel said the shipment was trying to avoid attention, keep a low profile. Either way, we continue as planned.”

Alex switched off the comm and began giving orders. He grabbed the intercom. “Kwame…” he started, before noticing Kwame climbing the ladder into the cockpit. Alex spun around. “Kwame, I need you to go man the rear gun. I can run the combat console here until…”

Kwame put up a hand. “I can handle the console here, Alex. I have been training young John on the rear guns.”

Alex climbed out of the co-pilot seat, making room for Kwame. Outside the viewport a fighter dove past. Jade pulled the ship into a swooping turn, trying to keep the fighter from gaining position on them. Alex grabbed the wall to steady himself. “When has he been training on the guns?”

“We don’t just lay about when we are back at the Rock, Alex.” Kwame said, a broad smile spreading across his face. From behind them, they could hear the sound of the rear guns thumping out metallic death. Another fighter flew past, trying to curl around behind the Bucephalus, at least until it exploded into a shower of sparks and debris. From the back of the ship, they could hear John let out a loud “WHOOO!”

Kwame tapped the intercom. “Excellent shot, John. Do not get cocky.”

“Two more coming in,” Jade said.

“Get the flak charges ready,” Alex said.

            “Ahead of you,” Kwame said. Outside the ship, barrel-like canisters ejected from compartments hidden on the port and starboard sides. Jade punched the accelerator, just clearing the twin explosions. Their pursuers couldn’t help but to fly through the clouds of concussive shrapnel.

            Jade scanned her HUD. “The other ships aren’t faring as well as we are,” she said, turning to Alex. “The Shanghai has two fighters bearing down, doesn’t look like they can shake ‘em.” Her face was pleading.

            “Go help them, but don’t forget, we need to get to that freighter.” Alex said.

            “We’ve got it under control,” Jade said, diving the Bucephalus down to assist the Shanghai.

            Outside, the fighters were taking their toll on Byron’s fleet, but their numbers were dropping quickly. He moved his ships around the Pillar of Hercules to pen it in, keeping it from breaking to the edge of the gravity well and escaping.

Kwame’s volleys honed in on the first of the two fighters menacing the Shanghai. Walking his rounds towards it, the fighter suddenly exploded. The victory was short, though. As soon as Kwame turned his sights to the other fighter, it launched a pair of missiles at the Shanghai, their impact destroying the starboard engine and ripping a hole down the side of the ship. 

Men went flying out of the tear. The lucky few already had their pressure suits on, but most of them were helmetless.

“90 seconds in a vacuum… you can survive 90 seconds in a vacuum…,” Jade said, mostly to herself. “I can get them…. I can get them…” She tapped the intercom for the cargo bay. “I’m opening the front doors, prepare to take on casualties.”

Alex leaned down to the intercom. “Belay that order.” He hated himself for saying it. But the fact of the matter was that every minute the Pillar of Hercules could delay being boarded raised the odds of its escape, or worse, it getting more help. “Jade, we need to get on that ship.”

She turned to look at him, her face full of anger and sadness. She opened her mouth to argue, but Alex laid a hand on her shoulder.

“I know… I know.” he said, turning to climb out of the cockpit. “I’m going to get ready in the hold. Jade, get us on that ship.”

“Aye,” she said, turning the Bucephalus to face the Pillar of Hercules, the space around them exploding with flak. “We’re going to have to bring you in hot,” she shouted over her shoulder.

Alex jogged back down to the cargo bay. When he opened the door, Michael was there to meet him. Alex almost jumped out of his suit.

“Are we close?” Michael asked, his face a mask of calmness. The other members of the boarding party did not seem to share the same feeling. Over Michael’s shoulder, Alex could see an embarrassed looking young man standing hunched in the corner, a foul puddle splashed around his feet. Some of the mercenaries, who had traded stories of their own toughness on the trip here, were also turning a few shades of pale green.

Alex brushed Michael aside. “Alright!” he shouted, “Suit up! We don’t have the luxury of being able to land. We’ll be deploying in flight. Cutting team, to the rear door.” Four men who looked more likely to be repairing ships than attacking them stood up, each carrying a large cutting torch in hand.

“Tip of the spear!” Alex shouted to the green looking mercenaries, “You’re next.” He turned to Michael. “You’re with me.”

Michael slung his rifle over his back. “Ready to go!”

The Bucephalus shuddered as the Pillar of Hercules’s fire slammed the ship. “We’re close,” Alex said. The rear door began to open. Alex could see the hull of the Hercules flying by beneath them. He took a deep breath, reached down for his rifle, and started running for the door. “Go! Go! Go!” he shouted, and Team 13 spilled out into the silent space.

The cutting team was already halfway through the hull when Alex joined them. It’d taken a few minutes to round up the scattered team. The soles of their boots were magnetized, keeping them from floating into space, but walking with those boots was difficult at best.

Across the hull, Alex could see other teams landing. Byron had brought 13 with him. Alex could only see six, scattered along the large ship. Waiting for the hull to be breached, he turned to his men and laid out their goals.

“Our main objective is the bridge. We will rendezvous with Team 12, secure the crew and the ship.” He looked at the mercenaries. “Nonlethally, if possible,” he added. “Once on the bridge, we have a secondary objective; intel. We will upload as much of the ships logs, manifests, orders, and customer information as possible while the merchandise is offloaded. Then we leave the crew… unharmed… while we make our exit.” A soon as he finished speaking, the cutters finished making their hole, tossing the cut piece into space. Alex looked down, then back at his men. “Into the breach, gentlemen.”

Byron paced as the reports came in. He’d converted the cargo hold of his ship into a makeshift command center. The fighters were bad. He’d anticipated three, maybe six, but not a full squadron. The fleet took them out, but he lost six ships before they could land boarding teams. The seven that managed to land were faring no better aboard the Pillar.        

“Heavy resistance.” The reports kept coming in. Different teams, the same report. “Heavy resistance.” Byron knew the day was lost. Deep down, he knew it. But he had lost so much already. Ships, men. He needed to hold on to the chance that it might turn, that something good was going to happen. After today, he’d nearly be starting over. With the mutonium, he could build something bigger, better than before. This attack had to work. He’d put all of his eggs in this basket. “You need to get them out of there!” Jade shouted over the comm. Byron ignored it, crossed his arms, and paced some more.

“We’re getting heavy resistance,” Alex’s comm crackled, “I don’t think we will make it to the bridge with…” The signal cut out before the sentence could finish. Alex swore under his breath. His own team was pinned down by security forces. Bullets were pinging off of the bulkhead he was taking cover behind.

He looked over to the mercenaries. One of them shouted at him, “We can make it to the escape pods if we go now!”

Alex leaned out and fired a burst. “We’ve got a job to do!”

“I ain’t getting’ paid to die!” he said, and with that, he and three others took off down an adjacent corridor. The security team gave chase, seeming to not notice Alex, Michael, and the rest of the huddled Team 13.

Alex looked at Michael, shrugged, and jumped up. “Let’s go, this is our only chance.” He sprinted up the corridor. The door to the bridge was sealed. Alex called to his hacker. “How long to crack the lock?”

A thick, balding man ran up. He paused for a moment to catch his breath. His face was red, and he’d dropped his rifle a long ways back. He exhaled, and looked at the locking mechanism. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he pulled out his tools.

“Well?” Alex asked. He looked up to see the rest of the team staring at the hacker too. “Michael, grab a couple of men, go down the corridor and guard our six.”

Michael pointed at three other men, jerked his head back, then sped back down the corridor. Alex had been impressed with him so far. He turned his attention back to the lock. The hacker was working furiously, muttering under his breath.

“10 seconds,” he said. Alex looked up at what was left of his team. Three cutters, plus himself and the hacker. He shook his head, and motioned for them to stack on the door. He readied his own rifle just as the doors opened.

Alex surged onto the bridge, shouting at the ship’s pilots and commander. They instantly threw their hands up. Alex directed a his men to tie them up. “Terribly sorry about all of this, business, you know.” The commander nodded. Alex sat down at the commander’s seat. He inserted his data drive and began uploading the ship’s logs.

A flashing light caught his eye. Alex quickly shut it off, and radioed Byron. “I thought you jammed their communications, they’ve had a distress signal going the whole time!”

“Are you sure? We haven’t picked up any signal…. wait.” The silence unnerved Alex. He was sure it wasn’t good. Waiting for the response, looked across the panel.

A readout of the ship showed the security forces as blue dots, and the invaders as red. He could see his cluster of dots on the bridge. Scanning over to the escape pods, he could see one last red blink out. Then the blue dots started to move back towards the bridge.

“Seal that door!” Alex shouted before remembering that Michael and his other men were down the corridor. He radioed to them, “You’ve got trouble coming, Michael, rally on the bridge.”

Byron finally came over the comm. “Abort, get out of there! We’ve got a pair of Kilon vessels coming to assist the Pillar; they just dropped out of hyperspace.”

Alex looked around. A small escape pod, for the command crew, was there. It would have to do. He ordered the men into it, then checked on Michael. The blue dots had caught the red. Now there were three red instead of four. They were all moving towards the bridge.

“Jade, you there?”

“Ready Cap!” came her reply.

“We’re going to jettison on the bridge escape pod, have Kwame and John be ready to pick us up.”

“Affirmative.”

Alex grabbed the data drive. It was time to go. The hacker was waiting at the door. Alex looked back to the readout. Two red dots… now just one. He could hear that one coming up the corridor. “Michael?!”

“I’m coming, boss!” Michael said.

Bullets started to fly through the opening. The hacker tried to duck out of the way, but couldn’t fast enough. He slumped to the floor, his chest sporting a growing red stain. His hand was on the door controls, and as he fell, he triggered the door to seal.

Alex ran to the door, and checked the hacker’s pulse. Dead. He looked at the controls, wildly hitting buttons. Nothing worked. Bullets were slamming into the door on the outside. Looking over a the readout, he could see one red dot still outside. But he didn’t know how to open the door. He looked out the main viewport, and could see the Kilon ships. Byron and his cargo ships had already escaped. The Bucephalus was waiting outside.

Alex knew what he needed to do. He whispered, “I’m sorry, Michael,” then turned to get in the escape pod. It was the sudden silence that caught his made him caught his attention. He couldn’t hear the bullets hitting the bridge door. Whispering a quiet goodbye for his fallen friend, he stopped and was amazed to see the door to the bridge blast open, flying across the room. Michael walked in, dusting himself off.

“What…?” Alex started, but Michael shushed him.

“We need to go,” he said, grabbing a dumbfounded Alex and making for the escape pod. They jumped in, shut the door, and took off, right into the waiting cargo bay of the Bucephalus.

“About time,” Jade said over the intercom. “Got the coordinates ready, we’re out of here!”

Alex slumped to the floor of the cargo bay as he felt the hyperspace engines fire up. He exhaled. They were safe. But they’d lost a lot. He dug the data drive from his pocket. Turning it over in his hand, he said, “I hope you have something valuable.”