Gamma Nine (Book One) (35 page)

“It won’t be
long now Gabriel, less than six hours before we reach our
destination. The only thing we need to fear now is the Hyperion
disintegrating before we reach New Horizon,” Gray said without
taking his eyes of the displays in front of him.

“What are the
chances of that?” Locke asked Gray.

“Fifty-fifty,”
Gray replied.

Remy’s head
snapped up, her captain’s joke was uncalled for. “I would have
never suggested this course of action if our chances were that bad.
It is more like twenty-eighty, give or take a few percent,
depending on Captain Gray’s skill to finish.”

“Don’t you
worry about my finishing, I finish like the best of them,” Gray
said before Locke could say anything.

Locke laughed a
little, he was glad to hear that Gray’s spirit was still high, and
that was always a good sign, especially before a mission. “I will
take my leave then,” Locke said, turning to leave the bridge. He
left Gray to wrestle with his ship in peace.

Locke waited
until he was in the passageway outside of the bridge before opening
a channel to the rest of the Wolves. “It’s time Wolves,” was all he
needed to say.

The other
Wolves replied almost instantly, gearing up and grabbing whatever
they needed - or whatever made the biggest boom - before they would
join their captain where the Maiden of Flame was waiting for
them.

It was almost
time to know the fate of the planet all of them had grown to love
during their Titan trials.

All of them
hoped that there was still someone left alive, someone still worth
fighting for.

Within two
hours the Wolves had assembled near the Maiden’s dock. All of them
were armed and ready for Locke to brief them on what the plan was
once they reached New Horizon. Their freshly painted and repaired
armour gleamed beneath the bright lights attached to the side of
the Maiden’s outer hull.

Nathan was
without his shield, its destruction during the events on the
Fateful Moment still fresh in his memory. He felt its absence, and
hated every moment of it. Nathan had chosen two large calibre
launchers in his shield’s place. Launcher ammo hung on belts
criss-crossing his chest and thighs. He held his rifle in his
hands, tensing every now and then as his grip tightened on the
rifle. It was his way of focusing, building his anger slowly until
all he saw was hatred for the enemy, and he was succeeding even
though he did not know exactly who or what the enemy would be.

Christian stood
next to his brother, silently checking and rechecking his rifle, as
was his way. Fidgety is what previous squad-mates had called him,
and the Wolves would soon adopt the same descriptive word for his
behaviour before a mission. His choice of weaponry had not changed
since the Fateful Moment. His shield was on his back, his combat
blade in the perfect position to unsheathe quickly and his new, but
proven, Kicker in his armoured hands.

Rivers was
tinkering with Roger’s metal brain, muttering curses under his
breath as the little automaton resisted its master’s touch. He was
down on one knee as he tried to calibrate the little bastard for
the coming battle. His trusty shotgun was attached to his back
accompanied by what looked like a large calibre revolver, although
it was far too large to resemble any standard issue weapon anyone
had ever seen before. Next to the revolver there was another
unrecognizable weapon attached to his back plating, it was anyone’s
guess what function the weapon was meant for, but whatever it was
Rivers had probably designed it to be extremely lethal.

There was not
much to see regarding Xander, he was crouching against the side of
the Maiden, making jokes to ease the tension, although no-one was
really listening to him at that moment. Everyone’s thoughts were on
what was to come. He had his regular plethora of devices hanging
from belts looping around his armour. The annoying sound of
explosive devices rattling against each other accompanied every
movement the stocky Titan made, something that made Jay, who was
seated next to him, very uncomfortable.

Poor Jay had to
endure Xander’s terrible jokes since he had arrived; luckily his
helmet hid the annoyance from the Titan, fearing that his
unwillingness to laugh at the Titan’s jokes might get his limbs
pulled off. Pissing off his new-found squad was something he did
not wish to do, at least not so soon. What made matters worse he
had gotten into the position without thinking about how heavy his
new weapon was, and to his utter shame he had pinned himself to the
Maiden and decking. Godwaker was resting across his lap, its long
barrel and bulky stock too heavy to lift from either side. Jay
lowered his head as he realized he would have to ask one of the
Titans to help him up once the captain arrived...shit, he thought
to himself.

Pyoter was
standing as still as a statue, he rested his hands on the hilt of
his giant blade in front of him. The blade’s terribly sharp tip
piercing the decking between the Titan’s armoured boots. Pyoter had
his head bowed, reciting some ancient battle prayer from his
ancestors in a language none of the Wolves understood. But it made
no difference to any of them, Pyoter’s tone and how he announced
every word filled the rest of the squad with courage. Had they
known what the prayer truly meant, they would be filled with doubt
instead of courage. Roughly translated the prayer spoke of glorious
death and fighting until your spirit perished - not something one
wants to hear when gearing up for a suicide mission.

Locke arrived
moments after Pyoter completed his prayer, strolling from the
docking bay’s inner doors towards his squad. Two combat blades
protruded from his back plating on either side of his fastened
Kicker rifle. He had removed his helm and carried it underneath his
right arm. Locke’s expression was a mix of excitement, joy and
casualness. Ammo pouches covered his torso wherever there was space
for one. Locke was not going to take any chances; he wanted to have
enough bullets to put holes in anything hostile they came across. A
belt of grenades hung from his hips, all of them creations from
Xander’s strange imagination.

Locke stopped
in front of his squad, looking at each of them in turn. “The time
is almost here, within a few hours we will be in the thick of
things. Are all of you ready to make difficult choices?”

A chorus of yes
sirs answered him.

“Good. By my
estimation New Horizon is in big trouble, either from military
attack or from something else,” Locke said.

“How do you
know that?” Rivers asked.

“We can only
hear emergency beacons transmitting from the planet’s surface, most
of them inside the capital. All military channels are silent. Which
can mean only one thing,” Locke replied.

“A shit storm,”
Pyoter interjected.

Locke nodded at
Pyoter. “Correct. The situation is not ideal. We will infiltrate
via a stealth combat drop, fast in and fast out for the Maiden, and
then make our way to the beacons in range. We can’t get to them
all, so we have to decide before we drop which ones to go for.”

“Let’s do it,
before we get mushy.” Nathan stepped forward as he spoke.

Locke produced
a map from one of his armour pouches, unfolding it as the Titans
gathered around him.

Jay was about
to ask for help to stand when Christian saw him struggle. Without a
word Christian lifted the rifle and acted as if he was checking it
instead of helping Jay to unpin himself. “It looks good,” he said
to Jay.

Jay was
relieved and smiled before replying to Christian. “Indeed it does,
sir” he said.

Christian
tapped Jay on the shoulder and ushered him towards the others who
were already pouring over the map Locke had brought.

It took only a
few minutes to decide on which objective to pursue and which ones
to abandon. Their main objectives were three beacons, the first was
a school, the second a hospital and the third a civilian emergency
bunker.

Christian
looked at the map as the others were working out tactics, searching
for a beacon he had hoped he would see. It was not there, somewhere
to the west of the hospital was where Jessica had told him the
hidden bunker was, and there was no beacon or transmission to
indicate that such a bunker even existed on the map.

He tried to not
think of it, focusing his mind on the other people that were
calling for help instead. He hoped that Jessica and her sister were
safe near one of the objectives.

If they were
not, he doubted he would get the opportunity to search for them,
and even if he could he would not know where to start his search
exactly. The bunker could be in any of over twenty buildings in
close proximity to the hospital beacon, or even further away.

He shook his
head to clear his mind.

Nathan saw his
brother shake his head, and immediately switched to a private
channel. “What is it?” he asked his brother.

“Nothing,”
Christian replied.

Nathan did not
press the matter. He resumed his discussion with the rest of the
squad.

Christian half
listened to what the plan would be, the other half of his mind
feared for the worst.

He did not want
to even think of the worst case scenario, it was too painful.
Whatever was waiting for him, for them, on New Horizon, was surely
to be horribly unpleasant.

“Sir, I am
tracking an anomaly behind the binary star in this system,” a crew
member yelled out. He was dressed in the same black uniform his
lord and master was.

“Focus,” Lord
Vincent ordered.

The Stygian
Council’s bridge display focused on the scanners picking up on the
anomaly passing through New Horizon’s system.

“What am I
looking at?” Lord Vincent asked calmly.

The crew member
Lord Vincent expected to answer hesitated for a few moments, before
replying. “I...we...have no idea, sir,” the crew member replied
uneasily.

“Tell me,” Lord
Vincent sad as he shifted in his throne. He used his free hand -
the one that was not holding some extravagant liquor - to wipe the
lone strands of black hair back into position above his pale
forehead. “Why do I keep you around?” he asked the crew member.

“Uh, I don’t
know...sir,” was the reply.

“Exactly,
neither do I,” Vincent smiled softly, and then snapped his hand up
towards a bodyguard stationed by the bridge’s door. “Remove him,”
Vincent ordered. “Now, can anyone else tell me what I am supposed
to see, or do I need to make more examples?”

An officer
replied before anyone else could. “We suspect that it is a rogue
comet passing through the system. It is nothing to be worried about
my lord.”

“And if you are
wrong?” Lord Vincent asked the brave officer with an arrogant smirk
on his face.

The officer did
not know what to say, so instead he just guessed at what his lord
and master was hinting at. “You will throw me in the brig,” the
officer replied, his forehead and hands sweating profusely.

“No,” Lord
Vincent laughed, “nothing so dull.” his expression changed from
cheerful to fanatical. “I will feed you to my new pets.”

The officer
swallowed hard, saluting Lord Vincent in understanding. It was not
like he had any choice in what would happen to him should he be
wrong or fail his master.

“Good, that
goes for the rest of you as well. My pets will be hungry once we
are done with this, filth.” Vincent took a sip of his expensive
liquor, savouring the glorious taste before speaking again. “Is
there anything else to report?” he asked another officer standing
beside the communications console.

The man was
instantly filled with fear as his master’s scrutinizing eyes bore
into him. “Ninety-eight percent of the military’s presence on the
planet’s surface has been silenced. New ships have arrived to help
whoever sent a message through the jamming, but they are of no
threat to your magnificent ship my lord. We should destroy them
soon enough, our bombers are making runs on the larger vessels as
we speak.”

“And what of my
support?” Lord Vincent asked.

“They are
mopping up the stragglers that tried to escape, my lord.”

“Good news.
Very good,” Lord Vincent said, but a sound from the officer he had
threatened moments before interrupted what he was about to say
next. It had sounded like the officer had just caught his nuts in
something, and the pain and shock manifested into whatever sound he
had made. Vincent’s mood changed immediately, his annoyance
immeasurable because of the interruption. “What!” Vincent screamed
at the man.

The poor
officer’s gulp could be heard on the other side of the bridge. He
straightened his black coat before he spoke, not daring to look his
master in the eye. “Nothing your grace, I merely hurt my genitals
on my console, nothing serious.”

“Interrupt me
again and your genitals will be removed for your arrogance!”

“Of course my
lord, I apologize.”

Lord Victor
Vincent did not say anything else. He took a mouthful of his
ostentatious drink, sitting back into his throne as he thought of
the superb destruction below him on the surface of New Horizon.
Relishing as he thought of how his subjects would adore him more as
he ransacked more planets. Oh how his stature would grow, it was a
wonderful thought. Glorious death and destruction fed his insane
mind, filling his coffers with blood. He loved every second of it,
and that made him more of a monster than the Beast could ever be.
At least the beasts could not help its greed, Vincent on the other
hand was well aware of it.

Little did Lord
Vincent know, but the officer had lied to his master. He had seen
something on the scanners, something he had recognized instantly.
But instead of telling his lord and forfeiting his life, he had
cleared the scanners and focused them on a different part of the
void. Hoping no-one else would see the identity codes of the
Hyperion inside the anomaly hurtling towards the Stygian
Council.