Merkiaari Wars: 03 - Operation Oracle (44 page)

“Bit busy here,” Eric relied. Gina heard his pistol and the sound of return fire in the background. “I need you in here sooner rather than later.”

“Okay, hold on. Fuentez out.”

“Hurry.”

The urgency and stress in his voice made her pulse speed. She had never heard that in his voice before. He must be seriously hard pressed in there, and that changed things for her. The slow careful approach she preferred was out of the question now. She needed to smash the opposition outside the ship, access an airlock, and relieve Eric before something happened she would regret.

She moved out again.

Her preference would have been clearing the outside before entering the ship, but now she was in a race against time. She decided to ignore the hostiles in the building if they would let her and engage those trying to enter the ship. No doubt the strays would attack as soon as they saw her. If they did she would deal, if they didn’t, she would deal with them later, after she rescued Eric.

She entered the open area that the raiders had used for their landing site. She realised it was a plaza or square. It was lined on all sides with buildings, but it was a big one. The shuttles were to one side, the ship was in the centre, but there was plenty of open space left. Too much. It seemed as if she had oceans of empty space to cross, and she felt naked as she did so. She pulled off her glove ignoring the cold and the warnings on her display as contaminants entered the suit. Her PLSS kicked into high gear trying to adjust and compensate for her suit’s loss of integrity.

She charged toward the ship, her legs pumping. She brought her rifle around and selected her grenade launcher. She skidded to a stop on the ice dropping her pack and pumped grenades toward the ship. She sent all ten arcing high. They came down amidst the raiders and detonated throwing bodies and pieces of bodies high in the air. Shrapnel pinged and clanged off the ship’s hull, but caused no damage. Ships were far too tough.

Movement.

She spun to her right going to one knee. Her targeting reticule locked on, spun redly and she fired. The raider was blasted back. She ducked away as return fire flooded in from other locations in the square including the ship. Her grenades had killed most of the raiders there, but not all. She grabbed her pack and sprinted toward the ship, firing short controlled bursts one handed toward the survivors. One died, and another. The third one tried to scramble away from her as she arrived. She butt-stroked him and he went down.

Incoming fire toward her strengthened as some of the group in the building emerged. She kept low and tried the airlock controls. They were locked down as she had guessed earlier. She was about to try a code that Eric might have used, but had to throw herself flat as the raiders saturated the air with pulser fire. It was getting bloody dangerous out here! She returned fire forcing them to go to ground, and took a chance. She entered the regiment’s motto, but the code was refused.

“Code, Eric, dammit,” she snarled. “What’s the override code?”

“Alpha-three-niner-niner-Charlie-one”

Gina entered the code keeping down and reaching high to stab the keys above her head. She flinched when more pulser fire splashed against the ship as the airlock door shot open. She hurled herself inside and closed the hatch breathing a little hard with adrenaline rush. She liked excitement as much as the next girl, but that had been a little too exciting.

She reloaded her rifle and grenade launcher, though she had no intention of using grenades within the ship. They needed it to get home. Only then did she open the inner door.

She threw herself prone as a crewman hosed the airlock with railgun fire. It was only a handheld, not an AAR, but the hail of slugs it threw was more than enough to shred her into blood and screams. There was only the one man, but he laid down a barrage fit for a squad. She rolled out of the open hatch, keeping him targeted, and fire one round. He collapsed holding his belly screaming at the pain. Pulser burns hurt like a bastard. She knew from experience. Her second round put him out of his misery.

Gina stood and advanced toward the body where it sprawled at the junction. TacNet had already reached out to the only other viper unit in range, Eric, and linked up with him to share data. She had the latest tacsit in a small window on her display as a result. She knew where he was, engineering level 2, and his situation, dire. What the bloody hell was he doing in engineering? The last she knew he had been in control of the bridge and in a good situation to hold it. Why take on so many when he knew she was on the way? She didn’t know, but the answer was with Eric.

“Let’s go ask him,” she muttered.

She considered removing her suit but decided against taking the time. Eric had sounded desperate but she didn’t really know why. He was a viper. A dozen armed raiders might give him a decent fight, but they shouldn’t be beyond him if he was careful.

She called the elevator, stepped over the body, and entered the car.

The ride took only a few moments. She slung her rifle and drew her pistol. She held it aimed and ready as the doors opened letting her out on engineering level 1. She had chosen the level above Eric because there were raiders using it to pin him. She targeted those she saw upon entering engineering. She gave each of them a three round burst in the back. Two men fell off the catwalk to thud solidly on the deck of level 2. The third sighed and slumped against the rail.

She ducked back into the car as the remaining raiders targeted her, but then edged carefully back out and to the right when they reloaded. She kept low and crept along the catwalk, trying for a better position. She could probably kill some of them with grenades, but she didn’t want to risk the ship. They were already taking a chance shooting up the place as it was. Hit the wrong thing in here and the drive could either be damaged beyond use, or worse, it could lose field containment entirely and cause a sun to be born and die on the surface of the planet. She looked down over the safety rail and found Eric below her, using one of those important and sensitive bits of equipment as cover.

“What the hell, Eric? Stop playing with them.”

“I’m nearly out of ammo!” Eric snarled back on viper comm, sounding pissed off at the accusation. “If you’d moved your arse like I told you, I wouldn’t be sitting here like a target.”

Aha! That explained a few things. “Look up. I have a present for you. Catch!”

She dropped her pack down to him, and ducked back as railgun slugs reached for her life pinging and ricocheting of the rail and bulkhead. She fired back giving Eric cover while he reloaded. She knew the moment to move had come when he went all Zelda on the raider’s arses, and laid down a barrage to make Fleet proud. She surged to her feet and leapt the safety railing. Her pistol barked twice as she fell. Two targets were blasted back before she landed. The raiders turned their attention to her, and Eric rushed them. She joined him and the fight ended with her emptying her pistol on full auto into the space between two consoles shredding the enemy hiding there.

Eric stood among the bodies targeting them one after the other and putting a single shot into each of their heads. Gina watched. It had to be done, but his emotionless face disturbed her. It was one of the things she didn’t like about him. Her thoughts flashed back to the elevator shaft and remembered finding him hanging from his rope zoned out with something... odd, something not Eric looking out at the world using his eyes.

She shivered.

“You done?” she asked a little harshly. She cleared her throat. “I didn’t clear the ground before coming aboard. You sounded a bit harried.”

Eric snorted. “How many left?”

“Ten, twelve maybe. I’m worried about those shuttles. If they take it into their heads, they could attack alpha site.”

“They could, but they won’t. They’re too fixated on getting in here to deal with us, but let’s make sure.”

She nodded, glad he saw it as she did, and headed for her pack where Eric had left it. She reloaded her pistol and took the opportunity to swap its power cells for fresh ones. The old ones still had plenty of charge, but no need to run them down to nothing and get stuck for power at the wrong time. Eric saw what she was doing and took the opportunity to do the same.

“Where’s your suit, on the bridge?”

“Cargo bay,” Eric said heading for the elevator.

She hefted her slightly deflated pack and followed him into the car. “Let’s get it and finish this. I’m sick of snow.”

Eric grunted.

After reclaiming his suit, Eric separated from Gina. They chose different exits from the ship for strategic reasons, neither choosing her entry point. The cargo bay ramps were also out. Those huge pressure doors were too slow in opening and closing; much too tempting for the remaining raiders to try retaking the ship. Gina gave half of her spare ammo to Eric and all the loose grenades. Her rifle was fully loaded, and the fight outside was ideal for its use. She holstered her pistol not expecting to need it anymore today.

She chose the airlock opposite the one she had used to enter the ship. Her reasoning was simple really. The airlock was on the portside of the ship, which put the bulk of the ship between her and the building the raiders had found so interesting. She doubted they were still there, but that was their last known location. They might be moving from there or back to it, they might all be trying to enter the airlock where she had killed so many. She was betting her safety on her guess that they wouldn’t round the ship to enter on the portside, but would try entering on the starboard side closest to the building. Less of a walk.

She cycled the airlock on one knee with her rifle up ready to fire. TacNet updated itself as soon as her sensors swept an area in front of her. The cone shaped region on the map lightened, updating itself and building upon the map as it had been before she entered the ship. There were no hostiles in the vicinity of the lock. Eric must have exited the ship at that moment, because his icon blinked into place close by surrounded by a circle of live sensor data. His map would have her cone of data on it, and it was time she added something more to it.

She left the airlock and locked it behind her. Without the code, no one would enter this way short of dismantling the lock or cutting the hatch open. With sensors running continual sweeps in all directions she rounded the ship in a bent kneed jog with her rifle up looking for targets. Sensors reported Eric moving around the ship in the opposite direction. She kept TacNet open in a small window on her display and its map updated as soon as the first hostiles came within sensor range. Eric was closest, and he opened fire first. Gina sprinted forward, needing to close the range a little and take advantage of the distraction he provided.

She knew the moment that she reached optimal range. Her targeting reticule appeared and spun pulsing red over one of the raiders. She fired, retargeted, fired again. Both raiders dropped, one rolling from side to side hugging himself probably screaming. She was too distant to hear while wearing her helmet. She ran to a new firing location and Eric did the same. Return fire started up, but it was poorly targeted. Snow and ice flashed to steam around her, but nothing more dangerous came close. She switched to her grenade launcher and fired just once at the open ramp of a shuttle the raiders had been moving toward. It exploded just inside the ship. She wasn’t attempting to take it out, just deter entry. Exploding fuel tanks wouldn’t be in anyone’s best interests. Such a thing would kill everyone nearby. Liquid hydrogen tended to do that.

Shuttle reactors were actually safer than their fuel source, because the reaction was so precise. Interrupting the fuel supply or unbalancing the reaction in some way causes the plasma within deuterium-tritium fusion reactors to cool within seconds. The reaction simply ceases. No risk of runaway reactors or chain reactions. Safety is one of the main reasons to use such reactors aboard ships that routinely entered atmosphere.

Her strike upon the shuttle ramp had the desired effect at first. The raiders pulled back. Unfortunately it had two side effects that she didn’t appreciate. One: they scattered but chose her as their main target. Two: they were pulling back toward that building they had found so interesting. She ducked and fell prone trying to return fire, and managed to take out two more raiders, but the others were panicking and firing blindly in her direction. She became the eye of a storm of pulser blasts.

Eric of course took advantage and sniped away almost unnoticed, the lucky bastard. As the hostiles died one by one, Gina was able to advance again, but she wasn’t able to stop the last half dozen or so raiders ducking out of sight into the building.

“We can’t leave them I suppose?” she said hopefully. “We could wreck the shuttles and take the ship back to orbit. Maroon them as they would have done to us.”

“No.”

“But—”

“I said no,” Eric said again, this time in his command voice. Gina straightened a little at hearing it. An instinctive reaction she had yet to shed. “They murdered our people. Everyone aboard
Hobbs
. No one does that to us.”

She agreed with the sentiment, but marooning them was a death sentence. She didn’t need to kill them with her own hands to feel that justice had been served. Eric obviously didn’t agree and he was senior. He led the attack.

She covered him as he went into the impressive looking building. She wondered if perhaps the raiders had been after data of some kind, because impressive though it was, it wasn’t somewhere she would look for money. She would have blown every bank vault on the planet and raided the factories for precious metals. Even the jewellery stores would have made more sense to her than this imposing edifice that reminded her of a major library or government admin building.