stop the Unity from boarding and Unity forces rarely bothered to accept. Just a part of a well understood game. Until now.
The M'hin'rah and her ships halted above them. Old and slow, smaller even than the agile Raptors, the transports were no threat.
Th'han'dra and two other pods floated close to the transports. The rickety old ships looked like they'd blow up all by themselves given half a chance.
He listened to the chatter on the squad comm. The other squad leaders ordered their pods away. The three pods took turns circling the convoy, and the two pilots angrily disputed any evidence they were military. Finally, however, they left Th'han'dra alone out there.
"Blue Box Leader, order your pod away from the target."
Mak watched the other Blue Box pods. A couple danced a little. His was rock steady.
"M'hin'rah, standby."
He shot over to join Th'han'dra who was practically sitting on top of the lead transport.
"Th'han'dra, take your position with Blue Box," he said as he approached.
"No."
Figures, he thought. "Do it, Th'han'dra. That's an order." He'd never said that before and it sounded strange.
"Look." She pointed with a grappler at a large window in one of the transports. A bunch of children were excitedly gesturing at them. Big windows dotted the transport. The children pressed their faces and hands against the glass. What military craft would have so many windows all over its fuselage? This was a tourist boat. He could punch out a window and they'd all die.
Mak's pod stayed even and steady as he surveyed the faces. "Th'han'dra, this is a direct order. Please return to formation. Please."
At first, she didn't move. He didn't know what he'd do if she refused. In all the time he'd been Leader, she'd always been on the same page as him. He couldn't remember a time he had to give her a direct order. He held his breath. Then slowly, Th'han'dra moved off.
He flicked his comm to open a channel to the Kyrzal ship. "Captain of the Kyrzal transports."
"This is the captain," came the weary voice. Somebody who'd been through this too many times before. He probably wasn't even Kyrzal. Just a refugee runner. "What's the damned hold up? Don't tell me you guys are thinking about coming on board now, are you?"
"Captain, why do you have Unity citizens on board?"
Th'han'dra's pod almost spun around but then kept on course to return to the Blue Box formation. On his other comm channel, the M'hin'rah comm officer barked out orders to vacate the area in increasing intensity.
"Huh? We don't have anybody from the Unity on board."
"I say again, captain. How many Unity citizens do you have on board?"
"Hey, are you deaf? There are none. Zero. Zilch."
"I can see them right here."
The M'hin'rah first officer was now doing the ordering, threatening to ground him forever unless he moved away.
The transport captain snorted. "Then you're blind too."
"Lies will only make this worse for you. We'll let you go since you have our citizens on board but we expect you to report this at your next port."
"Report what? That you've been taking one too many Aphros out there?"
Mak started to dance a little. He wasn't good with frustration. Very slowly he said, "Did you say three? Then we'll let you go but you must?"
"Three? What part of none don't you?"
The silence seemed endless.
The Kyrzal's voice was different now. "Alright, you caught us. Each ship has five or more Unity citizens on board. Dozens even." He sounded scared. Mak noticed people were suddenly leaving the windows. What good that would do was a mystery to him.
"M'hin'rah, this is Blue Box Leader."
"It's about goddamned time, Blue Box Leader!" This time it was the captain. A D'ha'ren captain. And she was livid. "Now get the hell out of the goddamned way!"
"Sir, I've detected Unity citizens on these transports."
"What?" There was a brief pause. "Our scans show negative on Unity life signs."
"I can see them through the windows, sir. I recommend asking the transport captain yourself, sir. I have them on my comm, sir." In the military, 'sir' could never be overused.
There was some swearing which sounded like she was blowing a flute really hard, then in the common language, "Captain of the Kyrzal ships. Do you have Unity citizens on board?"
"That's true, captain. Each ship does."
"Can you explain why we can't detect any of them on our scans?"
Mak's pod shivered in the lengthening silence, then he filled in. "They must be shielded."
"Yeah, that's right," the transport captain said, quickly. "Shielded."
"Shielded?" said the M'hin'rah captain.
"Yes, we've shielded them from your sensors."
"You have shielded just the Unity citizens on board, is that what you're telling me?"
"You got it."
Pause.
The M'hin'rah comm officer came on the secure comm channel. "Standby, Blue Box Leader. We're relaying your findings to Cobra Command."
Mak quieted down. He smirked a little at what the M'hin'rah had said. "Your findings." They were hanging this on him. That was okay. He wished he'd eaten a little more at breakfast. The nutrients in the pod weren't bad but they weren't nearly as good as the mess hall where the food seemed pretty good to him. Others complained but considering his background, even the free food seemed like a lot. He sipped some water. A kid had come back to the window and seemed to be signaling him. He ignored her. She couldn't possibly see him through one of the pod's tiny windows. They were the only vulnerable points in the pod's defenses. They could be closed off in battle if necessary. The child was doing something. What was it, a cartwheel? Then she pointed at him. Then another cartwheel. He ignored her. She was joined by more kids doing cartwheels. Finally, he performed a complete roll, and the kids jumped around, laughing and clapping. Stupid kids. They kept on doing more cartwheels. He tuned them out.
This little lie would give the brass time to see reason, then save face. Pretty soon, Blue Box would head back to the rock cloud and finish up their fruitless search for signs of the missing pods. Then back home. Jerry had given him some new books to read. He'd shown Mak how to read faster by not moving his lips so much. He preferred to watch some of Jerry's videos. Really old stuff. Turned out the Hellborne loved a bunch of guys called the Three Stooges. They'd annoyed Mak when he first saw them. How could anybody be this stupid? And the way they pounded on each other. Surely one of them would pull a knife and kill the other two. But after a while, he couldn't help but laugh. He loved the way Jerry would just suddenly out of nowhere say, woop woop woop woop woop, or Wise guy, eh.
"Mak!" the M'hin'rah captain said urgently. "Incoming! Get out of there. The Warszawa's fired a goddamned Buster. It'll be here in fifteen seconds."
The squads, Hammer, and the Raptors were already moving off.
"Kyrzal captain!" Mak shouted into the comm. "Run! Run for your lives!"
The ships started to power up as Mak flung his pod away from the area. His sensors watched the convoy lamely getting underway. Then suddenly the Buster was there. It vaporized the three transports and the shock wave rocked the Unity ships.
"If you were going to blow the living shit out of that goddamned convoy," bellowed the M'hin'rah captain, Quo'heyl. "Then why the hell did you send us out there to be begin with?"
Quo'heyl took the offensive in the hearing. And she unleashed the infamous D'ha'ren temper with staggering intensity.
"You weren't following orders," Tar, the Battle Group Commander-in-Chief, snapped back tightly.
"You sent my ship, my group, under my command out there to investigate. Was there some fucking rush?"
The Raptor captains and other squad leaders had already been dismissed leaving only Captain Suth, Squad Ops Chief Telli, Mak and Quo'heyl to face the board in Captain Suth's Ready Room.
"You let this pilot delay?" Tar's second in command started. The two officers from t
he Warszawa were connected in via a console.
"What was the rush, huh? I was in charge. It was my call. If you wanted to blow the goddamned crap out of them, you sure as shit didn't need to send me."
"Maybe next time we won't, captain," Tar's second in command snapped, another D'ha'ren.
"Good. Because you're wasting my goddamned time. Either I'm in charge out there or send some dumbshit to do it."
"You still disobeyed orders," the second in command stated again.
"Maybe I wasn't given a goddamned chance, did you think of that? And what's with sending a goddamned buster? Were they dragging a small fucking moon behind them which I wasn't aware of?"
"A buster was chosen to make sure that our point was well understood."
"Understood?" Quo'heyl scoffed. "By who? There isn't one single goddamned molecule left alive to get the goddamned point."
Mak always marveled at how well the D'ha'ren could swear. They might not be able to speak the common lingo well, but swearing? They had that down pat.
"We expect our orders to be obeyed immediately, captain," Tar said.
"Our goddamned orders were to see whether those poor schmucks were involved with Gold Ghost's disappearance."
"They had nothing to do with it," the second spat out.
"Then perhaps you can tell me why the hell they were blown to tiny little bits? They were fucking refugee boats for god's sake."
"They were the fucking enemy," the second said, finally letting his temper show.
Suth cleared his throat. "Since when are civilians considered the enemy?" he asked mildly. "What if there were Unity citizens on board? What if they were involved in Gold Ghost's disappearance? We aren't going