CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
JAI
The first pirate I came across that I couldn’t find a way around was – just my luck – a Fenton.
Fentons were strong, fast and agile, and this one was doing a very diligent job of guarding the hallway that led to a staircase.
I watched him through the spy camera on my comm.
The tiny lens was attached to a thin, retractable extension cable, and I’d extended it around the corner I was hiding behind, so that I could watch him, but he couldn’t see me at all.
I considered my options for how to distract him.
Throwing something down the hallway was an option, but the only things I had were my knives, and they were too valuable to throw away.
If I tried to go around him, I’d have to deal with two Anicrians in the next hallway.
Even if they were smaller, going in two against one when I didn’t have any long range weapons was not a good idea.
But despite the Fenton being the better option to fight with, he was being too diligent to simply wait him out.
His back was to the wall, giving him a wide field of vision, and he scanned his gaze in both directions every couple of seconds.
Meanwhile, I was on a time limit, even if I wasn’t entirely aware of what the countdown was.
Given that he was armed with a laser gun, and I only had my knives, I couldn’t tackle him head on.
But it occurred to me that maybe the thing that distracted him didn’t have to be a real thing.
I tapped through the options on my comm, still not entirely familiar with all its functions, and found a number of different light settings.
Usually, the main light would be used to light a room or a path in a dark environment, but there was also a laser pointer that could be used to direct people’s attention to diagrams on a screen, for example.
If I made it too obvious, the Fenton would know exactly what was going on, and he wasn’t going to just follow a bright dot like some animals did.
But Fentons had excellent eyesight, so maybe I could distract him just enough to give me a few seconds to kill him?
To make this work, I was going to need better leverage, so I carefully rearranged myself, easing away from the ceiling until I could reach the railing.
I repositioned the camera, then kept watching him a few seconds longer, getting a feel for when he’d look the other way.
The next time he did, I extended my arm out into the hallway and flickered the laser pointer on and off twice.
Luck was on my side, it seemed, because the Fenton caught the brief glimmer reflecting off the wall at the far end of the hallway, and his body went rigid as his attention focused on it.
Taking advantage of the momentary opportunity, I moved, surging silently out of my hiding place and towards him.
Halfway there, I flickered the light again, keeping his attention on the far end of the hallway.
He took a step in that direction, bringing his gun up as he scanned the entire hallway, from floor to ceiling…
Two seconds later, I plunged my two short knives into the sides of his neck.
Given that it was a symmetrical movement, I was able to put a fair bit of force into the action without destabilising my own trajectory.
He made a slight, gasping sound and tried to turn around, but I yanked the knife on the right out, slicing though his artery as I did so.
A spray of blood shot out of the wound, small droplets scattering all over the hallway in a macabre dance.
The Fenton went lax in my hands. I retrieved the gun from his now limp grip, then shot him in the head with it, just to make sure.
As I did so, I appreciated the fact that we were all using laser weapons.
They were almost silent, just a slight humming noise as they fired, but nothing loud enough to attract any attention.
Grimacing at the blood droplets floating around, I checked my map, then eased up the hallway, trying to edge around most of the blood on my way to the stairs.
The stairwell was empty, but there was another guard in the hallway at the top who would need to be dealt with.
Now, though, I had a gun to make that so much easier.
I floated carefully up the stairs and used my camera to take a peek at the guard.
This one was paying attention, gun in hand, but facing away from me.
I caught him in the back of the head with the laser shot, and was quickly on my way again.
I wound my way along hallways which were notably shorter, now that I was nearing the bridge.
This was where most of the staff facilities were – the kitchen, entertainment rooms, a few small offices – and the hallways wove around the rooms in a criss-cross pattern.
It wasn’t long before I found my next target – an Anicrian who was being far less diligent than the other two.
He was focused on some document or other on his comm, so it was a relatively easy thing to float up behind him, latch onto him with my knees, and snap his neck.
The benefit of that method was that it didn’t leave blood droplets floating around to attract attention.
The pirate was dead before he’d managed to do more than gasp.
I checked the location of the other pirates on my map, then stowed the body in a nearby office, to prevent anyone else noticing it too quickly.
“What the fuck?” a voice said loudly, as I went to exit the office, and I instantly ducked back inside again.
“What do you mean, he’s dead?” the voice asked again.
There was silence, then the loud, clumping sound of someone walking in magnetic boots along the hall outside the office.
I watched the green dot on my map until it passed my hiding spot and the pirate turned the next corner.
I opened the door – thankfully, these were well maintained and all but silent – and floated up to the corner, peering around it to see a Polvron standing with his back to me.
“Well, go and find them, then!” the Polvron snapped at whoever he was talking to, and I wondered whether another of their crew had found one of the bodies I’d left lying around.
Then again, I’d been aware of the orange dots of the other Alliance soldiers moving steadily towards the front of the ship, so it could just as easily have been some sort of mess they’d left lying around.
Regardless, the man was currently engrossed in his conversation, so I took careful aim and shot him in the back of the head.
The body jerked, but remained attached to the floor, thanks to the mag boots, and it was a little odd to see, his body weightless, but still appearing to stand there, given the way his feet were pinned to the floor.
Given the reminder, I took a moment to see how the Alliance soldiers were doing.
They were moving in a tight cluster through the hallways, and right at that moment, they had just surrounded two green dots.
One of the green lights went out, and then the other, and I realised they must have been destroying the comms on the pirates they’d killed.
It was a good tactic, as it would prevent them from accidentally doubling back to kill people who were already dead, or worse, dismissing a live threat on the mistaken belief that they’d already killed that one.
But as I continued to watch the map – keeping an eye out for any pirates near my own location at the same time – I noticed that one small cluster of green dots was moving far more rapidly than the others.
I frowned as I watched them race along a hallway, then around a corner.
There were two more green dots in their path.
The five surrounded the two, and there seemed to be a bit of shuffling about.
It was impossible to know exactly what was going on, based on the movements of two-dimensional dots, but after only a few seconds, the five abruptly took off again, heading towards the bridge.
The two green dots drifted very slowly towards the stern.
I took a wild guess that this little cluster were the missing crew, the ones who’d caused the engines to stop. And from the movement of the two dots they’d left behind, it was possible those were two pirates who were now dead, drifting aimlessly in zero gravity.
I couldn’t know for certain, so I tagged the little cluster as purple, distinguishing them from the orange of the military group, and the green of the pirates. That way, I could keep an eye on them, but also not get too comfortable with the idea that they were allies.
I turned my attention back to my own mission, checking where the final pirate I would have to get past was.
He was standing right in front of the door to the bridge, and while that might have seemed an obvious place to station a guard, it was rather pointless when their attackers were armed with laser guns.
According to the map, there was no cover at all in that hallway, and the guard would make an easy target.
Then again, the pirates apparently believed that most of their attackers were still locked up in storage, so maybe this one’s job was more about stopping the more junior members of the group from annoying the senior ones inside the bridge?
Either way, he wouldn’t be a problem for much longer.
I floated along the hallway, around a corner, along another hall, then stopped just out of sight of the last sentry.
I once more extended my camera to get a look at what he was doing, relieved to see he was looking bored.
He was currently turning in slow circles, sending his feet up towards the ceiling, then around until he was upright again, and I figured I was correct in my assumption that he was counting on the other pirates further down the ship preventing any trouble getting this far.
I checked my map again, just to make sure everyone was still where they’d been…
and felt a jolt of alarm run through me.
The purple team, the ones who were most likely the missing crew, were heading my way fast. They probably had the same goal as I did, to retake the bridge, but from what I’d seen, even if they were armed, they’d be walking into a death trap.
This band of pirates was experienced, prepared and heavily armed, and a group of civilian ship rats wouldn’t last thirty seconds against them.
At the same time, they weren’t expecting me to be here, and they likely had a ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ policy when it came to finding stragglers sneaking around the ship.
Fuck. That really narrowed my choices, and it only took me two seconds to decide on a course of action.
Checking on the distracted sentry again, I leaned out of cover and fired three quick shots at the man, making sure he was dead before he had the chance to react.
I slid up to the door along the floor, to avoid the worst of the blood splatter, then checked the position of the pirates inside the room.
There were five of them, and they were spread out, likely monitoring various consoles, which would make my job that much harder.
On the plus side, though, I now had a dead body that I could use as cover.
The Anicrian was smaller than me, but he’d still do to shield my torso, even if that left my legs as easy targets.
I pulled out the hacking device I’d stolen much earlier in the mission and tried to link it to the door, then frowned as it flashed a message: Lock release failed. Damn it. Had the pirates physically jammed the door? Or placed some extra encryption on it?
I looked at the release button again, and rolled my eyes, cursing at myself.
This was the sort of mistake people made when they were being rushed, and didn’t take the time to think things through.
The blue glow of the button indicated that the door was already unlocked.
Fine, then. Time to unleash some true mayhem.
I tightened my grip on my makeshift shield and pressed the door release.