Chapter 13 Evo #2
I double-click back as the ink of Toriszi’s portal surrounds our ship. We exit into space with fifteen other vessels. Coms cut out as Titans go silent. Ahead of us, in the distance, is the approaching Solcrue battle cruiser.
“Time to find out if our upgraded cloaks work,” Reidar says quietly to his co-pilot.
“All I care about is the shields holding.”
I agree. But I remain quietly in my slot like the other soldiers and Titans. Tension rises as we all prepare ourselves for infiltration. Reidar cuts engines and drifts out among the asteroid belt, hiding us behind a larger rock with only minor thruster adjustments.
Aera shifts between her feet in front of me.
I tap her shoulder and hold up a hand when she twists around. Problem?
She pats her side where a zembi sword would normally be strapped, and I think she wishes she had one. But there aren’t many left, so the Rogue Saber team has the few that remain.
I mouth to her Sabers on Ship Two, and point through the window at the vessel.
Aera gives me a thumbs up.
We stand in silence for nearly an hour, waiting.
Then, finally, Reidar calls back to us. “Stealths are on the move. Solcrue vessel in range. Manual breach in five.”
We wait in silence, the ship’s main lights off, and engines powered down.
“They’re inside. Ship two, launching now.” Reidar’s voice is calm and quiet. “Three launching.”
Aera does a couple of squats, shakes out her legs, twists in her chamber, and checks her weapons again.
There is one thing I do not miss about being a human. It is the rush of adrenaline before battle. Now, my ultromotor only surges during intense situations like when she crawled over me on the bed and kissed me.
Savage>>Local: They’re trying to raise shields. Launch everyone now!
Reidar brings the ship systems online. “Tube up!”
I get in my slot. Aera brings her feet together, arms to her sides, and looks up.
“Five…” Reidar tips the nose of the ship down and cants the roof toward the Solcrue cruiser. Our chambers seal off with radial glass walls. “Four…”
Launch lights climb along the vertical ejection mechanism in the wall beside me.
“Three.”
Aera inhales deeply enough that I see her shoulders rise. She has done this before. I tell myself again and again, and yet I can’t help but think bringing her was a mistake.
“Two…” The roof hatches open. “One.”
Aera lets her breath out as the floor rises upward in a quick burst, and we launch out of the ship into the void.
Momentum carries our cluster toward the Solcrue ship and our designated hatch access. A Stealth model has already opened it, and other crews have entered. Our crew is the backup plan.
To my surprise, Aera changes her positioning mid-flight with a nudge from a boot thruster that rotates her so she lands feet first on the hull while the rest of us simply catch ourselves and crawl our way to the hatch.
Vandal>>Evo: Show off.
I’m relieved to see Aera has such advanced skills and draw my rifle from my back, climbing into the hatch first. She pulls herself in behind me before I can offer her a hand.
The thruster maintenance room we’ve entered has five dead Solcrue already floating in its depressurized space. We clomp across the floor on magnetized boots and down the passage way to where the exterior weapons systems have already been disabled.
Banshee closes the hatch. He’s the last member inside. The ship pressurizes the system, and gravity kicks on again.
We scan each room we pass for useful supplies and take whatever we can carry. Weapons, ammo, food, tools. I can pack a lot into the pouches on my armor. Anything larger will need to leave on a ship.
Exiting into an interior passageway that loops around lower decks of these types of battleships, I’m certain the maintenance zones are clear, and we should head up.
Evo>>Local: We’re inside. Where are we needed?
Wraith>>Local: Most of the ship is secure, but the officers have locked themselves in the core of the ship. Coms are down, and no beacon went out. Shields are offline, but we need to breach that stronghold to eliminate targets so we can ensure they won’t override hangars.
Chaos>>Local: Trio of Terror has cleared bunk quarters on Level Three.
Terror>>Local: Squad of Terror, thank you very much.
Scimitar>>Local: Sabers have cleared Level Two.
When I check on Aera, she has her rifle trained on a Solcrue in StarJumper armor, whose hands are in the air.
I push her rifle down. “Don’t. Cara isn’t the only Solcrue on our force. That’s Sythius.”
“Jeris is around here somewhere, too,” Castor remarks.
“He’s trying to hack his way into the officers’ quarters,” Sythius says, regarding Aera with caution. “We need Evo’s help.”
A flash of green down a perpendicular hallway makes Vandal snarl, “Finally! Come here, you little slithery bastard!”
Vandal takes off down a corridor. Banshee and several Rebels join them, leaving Aera, me, Castor, and a few others to follow Sythius.
He leads us up two levels to a nicer area of the ship, one that I know well. Apprehension fills me as I move up the steps like I used to, like I’m on a mission to serve my Master of the day.
Vandal>>Evo: I don’t suppose you know the access code to the kitchen service corridors.
As Vandal asks, a recording comes back to me, one buried deep.
Evo>>Local: All service passageways behind a coded pad are not service passageways. They are backup munitions holds. Open with caution. The last code I remember was 69 plus a vertical infinity snake. I did not get codes for other secured areas of the ship.
“But you got the ones to the extra bombs?” Castor mutters.
“The torture cells are accessible only through them,” I coldly reply.
Savage>>Evo: Would have been useful to know this ahead of time.
Evo>>Local: I had hoped I would never return, so I compressed the memory files. They are opening now.
Menace>>Local: Anything else you want to share?
I ignore the sneer in Menace’s voice even though I know I should probably heed its warning. I should’ve tried harder to pull out important information earlier. But I was preoccupied with keeping Aera safe and getting the junk out of my nanosolution.
Evo>>Local: Self-destruct is in the officers’ quarters. Hangars can be manually opened from the jump box at the top of each door. And fuel cell access will require a Solcrue eye. It does not have to be...attached.
Menace chuckles.
Terror>>Local: Now you’re talking!
Jeris waits by the nearest door to the officers’ quarters with Redline and several others.
I take off a glove and hover my hand over the screen.
Aera pats my back. “You got this.”
I’m glad she’s confident. I’m not.
Settling my palm onto the screen, I mentally sink into the ship’s computer system. It tries to shut me out like it always did, but I manage to pull up the access program, read the code that streams across my vision, and fill in the blanks with my pattern recognition software.
The door unlocks and slides open. Aera is the first to peer into the passage.
Before I can pull her back, she steadies her rifle in her arms and leans into the rapid string of shots she fires down the hallway.
The firelight flickering off of her angry, focused eyes is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
She doesn’t run for cover even if she uses it, rotating behind the edge of the wall to redirect her shots into the passageway.
Jeris mutters. “Your girl’s got skills.”
“She is my Bond, not my mate,” I tell him.
Jeris hums a note of interest.
I pull my hand off of the panel and point at him. “Don’t get any ideas. I am eager for a reason to turn you inside out.”
Aera pauses her shooting as another Titan squad approaches. “Redline, you look like a fast unit. You want to tap in?”
He pats her shoulder and bolts inside. Panther, Cobra, and RamBash are next, along with several human Rebels in StarJumper suits like Aera.
Evo>>Local: Officer quarters open.
Terror>>Local: Engine access open.
Savage>>Local: Hangars opening. I need confirmation that self-destruct is offline.
I slip past Aera, steady my handgun in my palm, and hustle through the corridors.
I have not served on this ship, but I know the symbol I need to find.
Aera helps me hunt for the commander’s chevron stack and find it outside a room.
Aera stays at my back, rifle ready to fire at anyone who comes up behind us.
“Stay a few paces back, please,” I warn her.
Down the hallway, Redline is a blur of red-hot metal, smashing through Solcrue and leaving only green blood spray in his wake.
RamBash body-slams officers, knocking them through walls.
Panther leaps onto them and claws them to pieces, while Cobra drops into a snake form that ricochets through the hallways, punching through Solcrue chests before landing in humanoid form again.
“Watch your back,” I warn Aera.
She nods. “I never got to see you guys in action so...up close, only in training at the port, and on the holoas a kid.”
“Just keep your earcom on, and Titans will sense you.”
Only the commander’s DNA and iris will open his door. Not even I can hack that without having first touched him to replicate him. Which means I have to go through.
My armor heats as I pull up my memory of touching Relic Magma. Anything could greet me on the other side. My scanners won’t show me anything but a faint orb of heat.
“Wait here.” I give Aera one more glance and hope it isn’t my last.