Gamma Nine (Book One) (20 page)

Remy had
delivered the report to her captain with tears in her eyes, the
strain of knowing that millions of lives had ended in a heartbeat
was almost too much for her too bear. She had confirmed the
composition of the asteroids and matched them with data in the
P-SEP Planetary Colonization Database. Remy had also found traces
of weapon residue in the void around the destroyed planet, but the
Hyperion’s scanners could not identify what class of weapon was
used to blow up an entire planet. Planet destroyers were ancient
weapons lost long ago during old wars, and no planet in any of the
known sectors could or would manufacture such a horrible weapon,
not after all of the lives that were lost because of them. No-one
even knew how these old weapons worked or how to build one,
whatever caused Nox’s destruction was something entirely new, and
something vicious.

It pained Gray
to see Remy this way, he wished he could hold the girl, he longed
to brush the loose hair from her face...he was so lost in thoughts
of his secret attraction that he almost did not hear his radio
operator’s sudden outburst.

“Sir, the
Fateful Moment’s engines are live, burning at maximum!” The panic
in the man’s voice was clear at the sudden turn of events. “It’s
turning away sir!”

Remy’s head
snapped up from the display on her lap. “Impossible! Helm?” she
asked.

“I see it
ma’am, she’s turning away from us on an unknown path,” the officer
replied, working at the Hyperion’s controls.

“Then we follow
it, Captain?” Remy looked at Gray, looking for a counter argument
to her order.

“You heard the
lady. I am taking control,” Gray said, his hands still attached to
his command chair.

The helm
officer’s controls went dead in his hands as the Hyperion’s true
pilot took over control. Captain Gray pulled his loved cruiser into
a wide turn, dodging the larger asteroids hurtling past the
Hyperion’s hull.

Gray could see
on the displays around him that the Fateful Moment was burning far
too hot, its engine flares immensely bright behind the cargo
vessel. It was at maximum power, which meant that its reactor would
go critical and rupture if it was not stopped soon. The reactor on
any space-faring vessel could maintain maximum burn for
approximately two hours, after that the reactor would fail and the
vessel it belonged to would be reduced to slag or blown to
pieces.

“Give me
three-quarters power Remy, we are faster than her, we need to keep
her in our sight. Calculate its path, we can fall in behind it and
use it to bulldoze the way.” Gray’s manoeuvre had brought the
Hyperion around right behind the Fateful Moment’s tail-end, falling
into the same line as the cargo vessel.

“Yes sir, on
it!” Remy replied. She was already strapped in to her seat, her
petite hands working on her display.

The Hyperion
shuddered as its engines increased in power. The shuddering stopped
as soon as it had started, the vessel settled as the power coursed
through its systems.

Gray could see
the Fateful Moment ahead, moving through the asteroids, its
movements precise and clinical, something he had not seen for a
long time, something that reminded him of the auto piloting systems
the P-SEP flight academy used to train cadets with.

Whatever was
piloting the vessel in front of him was definitively not human.

Gray knew the
chase was on and what needed to be done before the Fateful Moment
burned itself out.

“Find me
someone to contact on that damned ship! We need to inform them of
what’s going on out here! Get it done!” Gray said through his
straining lips. The speed at which the two ships were charging
through the asteroid field was almost suicide, and it would require
Gray’s full attention very soon.

“This can’t be
good,” Xander said mostly to himself, but his opinion was voiced
over the squad radio nonetheless.

The Lancers
also heard Xander’s comment, a few of them nodding in agreement at
the Titan’s assessment of the developing situation.

Locke did not
bother to ask the AIE about the next phase of the psychotic
machine’s plan; he doubted it would share any more. The metal brain
of wires and circuits just watched them all from its perch, not
saying anything, glowing from the annoyance the humans had caused.
Locke was pretty sure their conversation had made things worse than
it already was, but it did not matter, they needed to escape and
soon.

“Got it,
Captain,” Rivers suddenly said over the radio, sharing his path
through the perilous ship with the rest of the squad. “We have to
go down to go up. The path we need to take is highlighted in red.”
Rivers stood up from where he was kneeling, picking up Roger with
his free hand. The little automaton climbed on Rivers by itself,
scrambling over the Titan’s shoulder, attaching itself to the
waiting connection point on its master’s back. Roger did not power
down, it instead kept beeping, scanning the surroundings and
reporting everything it found to River’s visor.

“This part,”
Nathan said, referring to the first part of their path through the
ship “will be a seriously tight squeeze. The ventilation system
will force us into single-file. Pyoter is going to struggle with
it. Do you see now, Pyoter?” He did not bother waiting for the
giant Titan to reply. “All of that shit you ate to bulk up is
coming back to bite all of us in the ass now.”

“Nyet Big Bear,
real men bulk up, my father would be ashamed of me if I was as tiny
as the rest of you,” Pyoter replied to Nathan’s verbal stab,
emphasizing the tiny with a hand gesture.

“Orders, sir?”
a Lancer asked Locke over the squad radio, ignoring the jokes the
others were making.

Locke
recognized the Lancer’s voice as the one that was speaking with the
FNG on-board the Maiden. He liked the man’s directness, straight to
the point, ready to take on whatever was in front of him. The
Lancer’s courage was commendable; Locke would make sure to mention
it to Sabian when he saw him again - if he saw him again. He nodded
at the Lancer and turned to the FNG, it was time for him to test
the mettle of the new Titan under his command. “Corporal, you will
take the lead, your shield will be the anvil on which this tide
will break in the confines of the vents,” Locke said, turning to
Nathan next, “Nathan will be behind you with his shield, push
anything coming at us back and the rest of us will make them bleed
with whatever ammo we have left.”

Christian
nodded and confirmed the order, already walking to the ventilation
duct that had opened earlier to release a torrent of monsters. He
was too focused to say anything. He crouched down at the edge of
the open duct, and waited for Locke to complete the order for the
rest of the squad.

“Xander fall in
behind Nathan, the Lancers will follow, and I will follow them.
Pyoter and Rivers will take the rear; Rivers’ scanners will tell us
if anything is following us or sneaking up on us. Pyoter can use
his bulk to plug the duct, in case anything gets past Rivers.
Everything clear Wolves?” Locke looked at everyone in turn and then
settled his helmet on the Lancers. “Clear?” he asked Sabian’s
elite.

Everyone
acknowledged the Captain’s order and joined Christian at the
ventilation system entrance. No-one looked or spoke to the AIE as
they passed the machine, ignoring the thing’s vibrating and glowing
lights.

One by one the
rag-tag squad dropped into the vent, blood was pooled on the floor
from the fight minutes ago, the dim red light of the ventilation
system adding a deeper hue of red to the life-giving fluid.

Christian had
to slightly crouch behind his shield, his helmet missing the roof
of the duct by inches. Pyoter would definitely have a hard time
fitting; he would have to move along on all-fours. There was almost
no room to fight in the vents, but with his strength and Nathan
behind him he was sure he could push back whatever came at him. The
shield would protect most of his body for the short walk beneath
the decking of the Fateful Moment.

Everyone had
dropped into the vent, leaving only Rivers at the edge of the
entrance to the red tunnel underneath the decking. Rivers felt that
something needed to be said to the AIE before he dropped down as
well. In his crouched position he looked over his shoulder and
shouted at the AIE. “Oi!” he shouted, trying to get the AIE’s
attention. His shout worked and the AIE turned on its perch to look
at the Titan. “We will be seeing you again,” he said to the thing.
He raised his fist as he spoke and followed it up by raising his
middle finger at the machine before he dropped out of sight.

Progress was
slow through the ventilation system of the Fateful Moment; the
rag-tag squad chose to be cautious instead of stepping into more
crap they might not have been prepared for. Rivers had linked his
scanners to the rest of the squad, allowing everyone to see what
was going on around them. So far there had only been a few pings of
movement above and below them, nothing had come close so far. Even
so, the Wolves and the Lancers were moving as quietly as they
could, there was no need to take any unnecessary risks in the
confines of the ducts they were moving through. They would have
probably increased their pace had they known what was happening in
the void on the other side of the vessel’s hull plating.

“Intersection
ahead, cutting right across our path,” Christian reported from the
front, his voice low and not broadcasting through his helmet’s
external speakers.

“Take positions
and hold at the edge of the intersection. We need to cross it
quickly.” Locke was getting annoyed at the confined spaces, and he
was getting especially annoyed at Pyoter complaining constantly
about the exact same thing already getting on his own nerves. The
giant Titan could be heard swearing in his native tongue every time
his armour hit the sides of the duct, or whenever he got himself
stuck on protruding pipes and machines on the sides of the vents,
and it happened more than just a few times.

Rivers was just
as annoyed at the back of the line, having to stop and watch Pyoter
squirm was not something high on his list of most favourite things
to see, neither was watching a giant armoured buttocks move only a
few feet from his face.

“No movement,
lights are off further down, dark sight sees nothing.” Christian
reported again, he was at the cross-section, his shield in front of
him and his combat blade in his free hand, Nathan’s shield was
right behind him, covering the gap between his brother and the
squad behind.

“Cross it. Keep
it nice and quiet,” Locke ordered the brothers, waiting a few
seconds for Pyoter and Rivers to catch up.

The Titan
brothers crossed the intersection with their shields kept in the
same positions, glancing at the tunnels on either side only
momentarily, Xander went next, and his stocky body looked awkward
as he scrambled across with his pistol pointing down the left
tunnel. Jay was the first Lancer behind Xander to cross, he did so
in a few silent steps, but the Lancer behind him was not so nimble.
A man Jay had called Borstil, tripped over a protruding coolant
pipe, his chubby legs not lending him enough height to hop over the
piece of equipment. The tubby Lancer went down in a chorus of
armour hitting metal grating, echoing his clumsiness down the empty
tunnels.

Everyone froze
instantly, sweating inside their respective armours as the sound of
Borstil’s fall carried down the tunnels. It echoed for a long time
as everyone’s anxiety rose. They sat crouched in silence listening
for any sound that should not be there, Nathan just stared at the
chubby Lancer, no doubt cursing him behind his visor.

They waited a
few seconds after the sound had finally stopped echoing in silence,
just listening to the dark, in case anything decided to reply with
a sound of its own.

Everything
seemed to be ok for a few moments, and in the dark the silence
continued. But as soon as the next Lancer moved Rivers’ scanners
went off, pinging movement moving closer.

“Where are they
coming from?” Jay asked Xander that was beside him.

Xander was
resting his pistol on his knee, he moved to check its clip and pull
the slide back before he replied. “Everywhere,” he said to the
Lancer.

Christian faced
forward while Nathan turned around to protect his brother’s rear.
Xander anchored himself against the side of the intersection behind
some pipes, and pointed his pistol down the left tunnel again. Jay
took the Titan’s lead and braced himself next to the Titan,
pointing his rifle down the same tunnel. Chubby Borstil had picked
himself up and was braced on the opposite side if the vent Xander
and Jay was covering. The six remaining Lancers covered the side
tunnels in two teams of three, each of them in positions to fire
down the tunnel. There was not enough space for Locke to move into
the intersection, so instead he told Pyoter to lie down so he could
aim his Kicker over the giant Titan’s prone body, effectively using
him as a blockade, ass first. Rivers was on one knee, leaning
against the side of the vent with his shotgun to his shoulder, he
had positioned himself to allow a clear line of fire for his
captain.

At first only
the pinging over Rivers’ scanners could be heard inside the helmets
of everyone in the ventilation ducts, coming ever closer, numbers
growing with every pulse of the scanner’s pinging. But the sound
was soon joined by a new one, the sound of howling and growling
built up slowly in the darkness of the tunnels.

The final sound
to join the already unnerving song that was building was the sound
of meaty limbs scurrying over metal grating. Like a nest of hornets
attacking an intruder a torrent of infected converged on the squad
in their compromising situation.