Chapter 18
SANTIAGO
The hangar bay rumbled with the pulse of engine power-ups and the buzz of final prep checks.
Onscreen, a rogue gunship loomed in the dark quadrant of space like a rusted blade drifting too close to the throat of the flotilla, in an unauthorized, unapologetic trajectory.
Santi stood near the aft-loading deck, suited in his combat armor made of black, ribbed, spectral-reactive fabric.
A shimmer of violet pulsed down his arms as his lycan core aligned with the suit’s energy nanite controls.
Around him, Zev double-checked his arm-mounted disruptors, and Boaz loaded his plasma signature rifle.
Kaal tapped through a holo-map of the enemy vessel’s layout, the blue glow of the screen shimmering in his eyes. ‘Santi, brother, this better be done and dusted in hours. I’ve got a scorching date with a smokin’ hot princess I’d like to keep tomorrow.’
‘A date? You?’ Boaz growled, leaning forward so the flickering light caught the deep scar over his brow.
‘Last time you had a ‘wild rendezvous,’ Kaal, she was Lyra Vex, the famous actress who turned out to be a delusional stalker. The one who invaded your personal space by growling began wearing cat ears and meowing. Didn’t she break into your quarters, and when you kicked her out, started breathing hard and crying, ‘this triggers me’. Spare us the hyperbolic fantasy, man.’
By this time, Zev was bent over with laughter.
‘Smokin’ hot princess?’ Santi muttered, his fingers flying across his console, never glancing up.
‘Let me guess, that’s because she’s sending you images of herself in your bunk.
Where she’s waiting in nothing but what her mama gave her.
Watch out, she might be a ‘heiress’ only because she’s the sole heir to a cargo bay full of restraining orders.
Don’t worry, Kaal, we’ll be done in time.
We wouldn’t want to jeopardize the most thrilling moments of your romantic life, yet. ’
‘Fokk off,’ Kaal rasped, with a twinkle in his eye, even as Zev and Boaz guffawed.
Santi stepped away from the others and activated a holo call on his wrist comm.
A soft chime rang before her image bloomed to life, her face half-lit, her background a golden dawn light over one of his lakeside cabins.
‘Santi?’ she asked, her voice warm, sleepy.
‘Naam, mi sol,’ he growled in a gentle burr. ‘Didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye.’
Her smile wavered. ‘You’re leaving?’
‘Got an urgent mission that came up early this morning. It might be a day. Maybe two. We’re intercepting a ship we think belongs to the Red Skulls faction, which has drifted too close to the flotilla.’
She stilled. ‘That’s dangerous.’
‘Only if they’re smart, and I’m betting they’re not.’
He leaned one shoulder against the steel hull, eyes raking her face. ‘Listen, I don’t want to be away from you, but I need to do this. We have to know what they’re planning.’
Soleil gave a slight shrug. ‘I get it, honey.’
‘That’s my girl,’ he said with a grin. ‘And as long as you’re okay with it, I’m a happy man.’
She laughed, that beautiful sound that tugged at his soul. ‘Just come back to me.’
‘Promise.’ He reached out, brushing a thumb across her holo-cheek. ‘Seal it with a kiss?’
She leaned in with a slow, intimate smile, then kissed the air like she meant it.
He shut off the call with a throbbing ache in his chest, and he rubbed at it.
Turning back, he found Kaal eyeing him from the edge of the loading bay.
‘You ready, lover?’ his lycan brother chuckled, winking.
Santi bestowed him the finger.
‘Never readier, fokker,’ the XO muttered, eyes hardening. ‘Let’s kick shit up.’
The crew stepped into the drop ship and sealed the ramp.
Propulsion systems ignited with a roar, casting them into the void, shadows armed with purpose.
The drop ship was quiet at first, engines humming in stealth mode as it knifed through the black toward the rogue Red Skull gunner.
The inside of the cabin glowed vermilion from the control panels, a hush of anticipation clinging to the walls.
It was a three-hour ride to contact, and even for seasoned warriors like the Signet strong guard, that was a long stretch to let your nerves dance.
The banter had begun early, and the brothers focused on Zev, who was still suffering lingering effects from his extracurricular activities the night before.
Boaz grunted as he adjusted a weapons strap across his broad chest. ‘Zev, did you even recognize your own name last night? I think you tried to pay the bartender, then explained to the bouncer that your new spirit animal was a startled flamingo. Your attempts at ‘seductive dancing’ looked less like a party stripper and more like a malfunctioning ceiling fan.’
‘Hey, it’s called embracing the moment, and I distinctly remember having some intense, philosophical conversations,’ Zev shot back, trying to smooth down his hair.
‘I enlightened at least three strangers on the true meaning of existence, and one of them bought me a beverage, so my charisma was at peak limit. Besides, you’re just jealous you went home early and missed my interpretive dance performance dedicated to the lost art of the cheese platter. ’
‘Brother, you became the hors d’oeuvres when you face-planted into the appetizers.
Look, the only thing operating at optimal capacity was your liver, and it’s probably already filed for retirement.
The real question is: who do I send the invoice to for emotional distress after having to retrieve your shoes from the decorative fountain? ’
The laughter spread like heat through the crew, easing shoulders, softening grips on rifles.
Kaal leaned back against the wall, turning his gaze toward Santi, who hadn’t joined in. He was buckled in, arms folded, head tipped down, studying his boots, though his mind was elsewhere.
‘So a woman, ay?’ Kaal murmured just loud enough for Santi to hear.
Santi’s head snapped up, eyes narrowing. ‘Qué?’
Kaal smirked, resting his elbow on the seat rail. ‘Don’t give me that, cabrón. You’ve been walking like someone handed you the stars and served ‘em with breakfast.’
Santi growled under his breath. ‘Drop it.’
‘Why are you hiding her?’
Santi paused, his jaw tightening. Was he?
Other than Miral, he hadn’t told the others about Soleil.
Not because he was ashamed.
Nada, it was something else, a guarded hesitation. Santi was a careful man, always had been, and there were too many unknowns swirling around Soleil and her past.
As well as her silences, her old-soul eyes, and the sadness in her wistful expressions.
He’d yet to ask Miral to run a deep scan on her, still wanting to trust her.
Hoping for her to come to him with her whole truth, in her own time.
So he waited, wishing it wouldn’t bite him in the ass.
‘She must be something,’ Kaal added.
‘She is,’ Santi rasped before falling into a silence that Kaal respected with a chin raise.
The XO folded his arms tighter and stared at the floor, brooding for the rest of the ride.
Tossing in his mind the pros and cons of trusting the woman he was fast becoming enamored with.
Two hours in, Miral shimmered into view in the center aisle. Her translucent form flickered with golden pixels.
‘Good evening, gentlemen,’ she purred, voice rich with wry amusement. ‘I bring gifts.’
Boaz, ever the engineer, grinned. ‘Finally, those piston rings I’ve been bugging you about for weeks.’
‘Not that type of tribute, you cretin,’ Miral smirked.
Her tone tightened. ‘I’ve got updated intel on our target. Like we suspected, it’s a Red Skull vessel. Their transponder ID pulse matches two ships registered in raids across Livia Prime and the Trion orbit.’
A holo-map unfurled above the cabin, rotating as it focused.
‘They’ve got two mid-range rail guns, one ventral cannon, and a set of modded stabilizers, likely stolen. Complement is between twenty and thirty bodies, but most are mercs, not core crew. Their shield’s been fluctuating, which means they’re covering something. Or hiding someone.’
‘What’s the breach plan?’ Zev asked.
Miral flicked up schematics of the enemy vessel’s layout, then turned to Kaal. ‘Boss?’
The Signet’s security chief tapped through it, the blue glow of the screen flickering in his eyes. ‘We go in through the underbelly vent shaft. Their pressure locks are cheap and easy to tear into.
‘You’ll need to attach and blow a hole in their side,’ Miral replied. ‘Hard and fast. Run in, guns blazing. Make it a total surprise. Once you’re inside, I’ll do my best to interface with their systems. See what they’re hauling, who they’re sheltering. Maybe even hack their command logs.’
Shouldn’t give us trouble.’
‘Famous last words,’ Boaz growled, and Zev chuckled beside him.
‘Don’t jinx it,’ Santi muttered.
‘We’re good at surprises,’ Boaz rumbled.
‘Good luck, I’ll provide arms support from the Corvette helm,’ Miral stated, fading from view.
The cabin fell into a tense silence. Helmets were checked. Weapons armed.
Santi stood and faced his team, his utterance a snarled timbre. ‘Let’s tear the truth out of these ghosts.’
They buckled in as the lighting activated into battle mode, senses stimulated into wakefulness and alertness.
Concentration ratcheted as the hunt had begun.
The Red Skull ship loomed in the distance, a jagged silhouette drifting just beyond the flotilla’s outer ring.
It was a menacing vessel, long and narrow like a rusted blade forgotten in the void. Pocked with old scars, its exterior bore the gang’s insignia: a jawless skeleton’s head flanked by twin sickles, etched in burgundy paint across the flank.
The ship’s name burned white beneath it in cracked block script: Crimson Widow.
‘She’s a scavenger gunner, all right,’ Zev muttered, his voice tight through the comms as they approached under stealth.
‘Rail gun clusters on the port. Makeshift plasma turrets grafted to the nose. Ugly as sin,’ Boaz added, grinning as he inspected his ammo.
Inside the hold of the stealthed Signet corvette, tension shimmered with an electric charge.