Far From Home: The Complete Series (18 page)

Swogger looked up at the instant he jammed a clip into his pistol. It contained enough charge for eighteen hours of constant fire. “Don’t worry about me, Commander. I know what you want me to do.”

Greene shook his head. “I didn’t exactly mean that.”

“Look, it’s over with. I got drunk, I got silly, I was eaten up over the death of my men. Still am.”

“Yeah, I know, but -” Greene started to say but Swogger held up both hands for him to stop.

“I didn’t have a right to do what I did. But I can’t take that back. I can only try to show you I’m not really a bad guy,” Swogger said.

Greene nodded. “Good. Just try not to blow it up before we’re off that thing.”

“You know, I wouldn’t worry about that,” Swogger said with a chuckle. “I’d worry about them shooting us down before we get there.”

I hadn’t considered that,
Greene thought.
Thanks a bunch.

They left the
Defiant
behind and headed straight for the
Inflictor
.

“Ugly isn’t it?” Swogger said, peering across the pilot’s chair at the immensity of the Draxx vessel.

Hawk laughed. “They’re all ugly as hell, fella, lemme tell yuh. I ain’t ever seen anythin’ to do with that cursed race worth a damn. That reminds me, I meant to ask, either of you boys seen much action?”

Swogger shook his head. “Nope. Not on the ground. Sorry.”

Hawk looked across at Greene. “And you Commander?”

Greene looked down at the floor. “You could say so, yeah …”

Nowlan regarded him for a moment with eyes that had seen far too much, enough to fill several lifetimes. He saw the same mark of experience in Greene’s as he did his own whenever he caught them looking back at him in the mirror.

The ghosts of war.

“Fair enough,” Hawk said softly. He cleared his throat, threw several switches. “Okay boys, hold on tight. I ‘spect in a minute it’s gonna get pretty hairy ‘round here.”

* * *

“Three hundred metres, Captain,” Chang reported.

Jessica told everyone to buckle themselves up. She did the same.

“This is it people,” she said. “Time to show these cold-blooded brutes what we’re really made of.”

“Two fifty,” Chang said.

“I’m ready,” Kyle Banks said from the helm. His hands were literally poised over the console controls.

“Take us in close; buy us some seconds to pack a few hits in. Then get us the hell out of here,” Jessica said. She turned to Jack Boi. “Ensign, be sure to maintain contact with the team. I want to know the minute that nuke is set.”

She watched as the transport shrank from view, swamped by the enormous Draxx warship in front of them.

“Two hundred metres,” Chang said.

And into the dragon’s den they go …
Jessica thought.

* * *

The
Inflictor
swamped them on all sides. It was huge, an ugly brute of pure strength. Built to wreak havoc.

Commander Greene was reminded of the Draxx creed:
Dominate the Weak, Destroy the Strong
and how it was in direct opposition with the Union’s own idealistic motto of
Defend the Weak and Destroy Tyranny
.

It was said that the Union came up with their own after hearing the Draxx version first, and he could well believe it.

At one time, as it faced the insurmountable pressure of fighting a war without end, the Union had taken shortcuts. Replicants created for the battlefield. Planets lain to waste using both weapons of mass destruction and biological agents capable of destroying everything on a planet within hours. The Union hit back at the Draxx in the only way it knew how; when they brought a knife, the Union turned up to the next battle with a gun. When they brought an automatic rifle, the Union turned up with a precision missile. And so it went.

But eventually they learned that in doing so, in fighting evil with
necessary
evil, they had become the very thing they were attempting to stop. The Draxx were a deadly cancer infecting the Galaxy one system at a time.

The civil unrest initiated by
The Metal Marquis
set about a chain reaction of events that led to the Union seeing the error of its ways.

Defend the Weak. Destroy Tyranny.

A flashing light appeared atop Nowlan’s flight console. He spun about.

“That’s it. That’s the signal!” he said. He turned back to his controls, and threw the transport into a tight burst of thrust that sent it rocketing toward an awaiting hangar. “
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeha
!”

The others were thrown back against their seats, pinned by the sudden inertia.

They tore into the hangar, and he kicked the reverse thrusters into full gear to stop them crashing into the far wall. The assembled Draxx foot soldiers stumbled back in shock as Hawk brought the transport to hover just a foot off the deck. He then did the unexpected.

He steered the transport fast and loose about the hangar, knocking the Draxx over, crushing them between the underneath of the craft and the deck. A group of them he pushed straight out of the hangar bay opening, and they went tumbling into space.

In no time at all, the hangar was clear.

Before Hawk had her settled down on the deck, the others were out of their seats and putting on their helmets. Nowlan unstrapped himself from the pilot seat and saw to his own helmet, so much more streamlined than what he was used to.

“Never seen that before,” White said.

Hawk shot her a wink. “I know a few tricks.”

Hunter hit the control panel by the ramp, and it opened away from the transport. The atmosphere in the cabin rushed out into the empty vacuum of the hangar bay. There was no time to equalise pressure accurately.

Swogger took the handles of the anti-grav and pulled it down the ramp, with Greene in tow. Kaminsky, Hunter and White took up defensive positions in front and to the side, with Hawk in the rear. Greene moved to the front.

There were two doors. He indicated the one on the left. From what he knew of Draxx design, that way should lead to the reactor rooms. Although there were many throughout the ship, they only had to detonate the nuke next to one of them to make the
Inflictor
blossom into a new sun.

A check of one of the scanners confirmed his suspicions. It showed a large energy signature.

“That way!” he yelled. “Hustle!”

* * *

Captain King watched as Olivia Rayne showed true mastery of the weapons console. Like a pianist her hands flew across the controls, unleashing hell upon the Draxx behemoth.

“Ten degrees port, Lieutenant,” she ordered. Lieutenant Banks acknowledged by turning the
Defiant
away to the left. Draxx warheads pirouetted past the ships nose.

“Hull plating is taking significant damage,” Chang reported.

King nodded. “Okay, have we heard from our boys yet?”

Boi turned in his seat. “Just now. They’re making their way through the ship.”

“Any resistance?”

“No more than we expected,” Boi said.

“Okay, let’s get this going. Lieutenant Banks, execute the coordinates. Full speed,” King said. “Roll across our axis, and Olivia try to score a few hits as we pass.”

The
Defiant
shifted vector, angled to port. At the same time, Banks rolled her over on her side, like a whale about to poke its right fin out of the water. The deck seemed to lift and tilt, and Jessica gripped the sides of her chair despite being strapped in.

Ensign Rayne retargeted the battery guns to fire a wide spray at the
Inflictor.

The hits blossomed like tiny yellow flowers along the ship’s hull. In seconds they shot past the Draxx vessel and sped toward the heart of the nebula.

“
Inflictor
is turning to follow,” Chang reported.

King clenched her jaw tight.

“Incoming communication!” Ensign Boi reported.

“Put it up,” she said.

Prince Sepix looked amused. “You have made your play then.”

“You really thought I’d allow you to take our lives?” Captain King asked him.

The
Defiant
rocked from a hit to aft. The lights flickered momentarily then came back to full strength.

“Farewell then Captain,” Sepix said.

The viewscreen changed back to the view of the nebula rushing before them, a dense blue fog.

“Banks, give it all she’s got. This ship better move faster than she ever has before,” King said.

Now it’s make or break.

* * *

Carn arrived on the command deck. The
Defiant
shrank from view on the forward screen as it descended into the nebula. The
Inflictor
moved to pursue.

“Their forces are making their way through the ship,” he reported.

Sepix grinned. Humanity’s gift for deception surprised and even delighted him sometimes. If it weren’t for their warm blood …

“As I thought. They have something planned,” Sepix said. “I’ll send some soldiers to deal with them. There can’t be many in a shuttle that size.”

Carn shook his head. “I will go with them. I’ll see to it personally that they are exterminated.”

To illustrate his point, Carn reached down to the long-shafted blade at his side. Sepix remembered the tales of the General and his affection for such arcane combat techniques. There were stories of him executing Union top brass by decapitating them with swings of his sword.

“Excellent, General,” Sepix said. “Take whatever action necessary.”

He watched Carn leave, then turned back to the task at hand. Running down the prey then closing in for the kill.

9.

The corridors that led from the hangar were tall but narrow, and they went single file with Kaminsky and White in lead and Hawk, Greene, and Hunter making up the rear. The
Inflictor
groaned and ticked around them, like the gurgles of some strange beast. The dim lighting came and went, and there was a strong smell of sulphur that made the team thankful for their masks.

“Keep yuh eyes peeled,” Hawk warned.

Swogger pushed the nuke on the anti-grav unit, and looked the most nervous of them all. None of this was his sort of gig normally. Nobody ever sent him to the field of battle. The weapon holster at his side seemed out of place.

“Creepy ship,” he said.

“I know what you mean,” Commander Greene said. He held his rifle at waist height, ready to fire at a moment’s notice. Unlike Swogger, he’d seen plenty of action before. Not that he relished it. The scars he held from those experiences were as much within himself as they were skin deep.

His ears picked up something ahead. The sound of boots on deck plating.

“Up ahead,” he barked.

They stopped moving and dropped to defensive positions on either side of the corridor. The footfalls ahead grew steadily louder.

“Easy Commander,” Hawk said. He’d noticed how tightly Greene clutched the barrel of the rifle. “The boys will shoot when they need to shoot. We just gotta cover.”

“I know that Captain, I’m not a rookie,” Greene snapped.

Hawk shot him a look.

Shouts from farther up the passage. The team braced themselves. A second later energy bolts split the air. Kaminsky and White fired back. With the density of the air both sides were shooting blind.

“It’s like a smog,” Greene said, squinting to see.

“Uh, boys? Roll some stunners,” Hawk said.

Kaminsky and White nodded. They unclipped stun grenades from their belts and primed them before tossing them ahead. There was a bright flash followed by the sound of bodies thudding to the floor.

“Let’s move!” Hawk ordered.

They pressed on. The Draxx foot soldiers lay in a heap, unconscious. The team hastily stepped over them. Swogger pushed the platform and it rose over their bodies.

“Bloody hell,” he muttered.

“Don’t drag yuh feet, pal,” Hawk said. “There’ll be more. Once they know where we are that is.”

The corridor forked off to either side. White studied a handheld scanner. It showed the location of a reactor as a bright white blob. “This way.”

They turned left. Hunter trailed behind to hold point for a moment.

Kaminsky held up a fist. They stopped.

“Movement up ahead. I’m gonna check it out,” he said.

He left the front and sprinted on. Moments later the report of his rifle echoed off the walls. He ran back so they could see him give the all clear gesture.

The corridor led to a large chamber with a large power core glowing through the centre. There were several Draxx working at stations around the edge of the room. Kaminsky and White ran straight inside and fired. Greene rushed two Draxx opposite. They whirled about in surprise as he riddled them with rifle blasts. Hunter protected Swogger.

Within seconds they had the chamber.

Swogger hurriedly pushed the nuke up to the side of the reactor core.

“Seal the exits,” Hawk ordered.

Another voice boomed across from them.

“A good idea,” it said. “If late.”

Hawk turned to see General Carn framed in a doorway with several Draxx on either side.

“Carn!”

The General tilted his head in greeting.

Commander Greene let loose and opened fire. Kaminsky, White, and Hunter followed. The Draxx scrambled to fire back. They let loose a few rounds before dropping like flies.

With all the hellfire going on around him, Carn didn’t even flinch. He stared dead at Hawk. As his men fell, he gave Hawk one last look before retreating from the room.

Hawk gripped the hilt of his kataan. He unbuckled it and held it out to his side. With a flick of a switch, the kataan unfolded itself to full length.

“Carn’s mine,” Hawk said and ran after him.

Greene threw his arms up in the air. “Great -” he started to say.

Swogger stood clutching his side. A bright red stain spread out from beneath his hand. He looked up at them all in shock.

“Swogger?” Greene asked. Before he could get to him, Swogger had already dropped to the deck. Greene rushed to his side. He glanced about at the other three.