Chapter 19 The Scorpions Lair
They fired their microjets, closing rapidly on the inert lifeless ball of rock that housed the raider base. It was in total darkness, with not so much as a navigation beacon showing, and for all intents and purposes looked like it had indeed been abandoned years ago. He knew that looks could be deceptive however and he was taking no chances. They cut the microjets and drifted in the last few meters to reduce the risk of detection.
Mendez and Reynolds encountered the first problem. The heavy blast doors of the hanger were sealed shut, meaning they’d have to find an alternative means of entry and get the doors open before anyone could leave. They readjusted their trajectories and located the emergency airlocks either side of the main hanger doors. They were operational, but they were going to have to blow them open. They each detached their now defunct wormhole generator and set it to explosive mode before clamping them onto the airlocks, then waited for Ford to give the signal. Vlade and Chole could have simply blown the main gun batteries off the rock with theirs, but they’d decided to try and take them intact, in case Jasper showed up before they could evacuate everyone. They’d opted instead to force their way in, through a couple of inspection hatches behind a fearsome set of rail guns, and take the gunnery control intact. They set their explosives and waited also.
Logan’s teams had come up trumps and located a disused and unsecured supply shaft. It had been used during the construction of the base, but had long since been abandoned. They dropped down the hundred meter shaft using their microjets as breaking thrusters, followed by Horra’s team. Cranked open a rusty, unsecured airlock, and found themselves in a dusty, disused storage area. Checking the air was good they discarded their oxygen tanks and kitted up ready to move out. Carol was busy meanwhile hacking the locks on the escape pod hatches, near to what was once the miners’ barracks. Ford wanted her in and jacked into a computer as soon as possible. Until they knew now the Raiders had configured the old mining station they were all, to some extent, fighting blind. Suddenly a bank of hatches popped open. The escape pods had long since gone, so they slipped in, closing the lids behind them and repressurised the pod bays.
There was no way of knowing if the hatches had been alarmed or if Logan and Horra had tripped a hidden silent alarm. If so they needed to try and keep the Raiders off balance. He gave the order to begin the assault, watching as his HUD lit up with activity. Explosions detonating in quick succession, as their Draconion and Talmari allies blew the hatches and entered the base.
Ford detached his oxygen tank, kicked the inner hatch open and dropped into a long narrow corridor gun at the ready. It was deserted for now. Either side of him Themis’s teams were dropping into the corridor, throwing their discarded equipment into the pod bays, as they kitted up ready to fight. Ford gestured to Carol to jack into the control panel opposite the pods and see if she could use to it to access the main computer. As she set about her work he detached the small kit bag he’d been carry under his oxygen tanks and unfurled his cyber cloak, slipping it over his battle scared armour.
Carol smiled “Wondered when you were going to get that out.”
Ford smiled back, simultaneously giving orders and monitoring the other team's progress. He gestured to Bravo and Charlie teams to take up defensive positions either end of the corridor.
“Though I’d dress for the occasion. How’s it going?”
He could see from his HUD that the Draconion’s, after the initial shock of the decompressive explosions ripping open the airlocks, were meeting stiff resistance. They were bottled up around the two airlock bays they had penetrated. Meanwhile the Talmari appeared to be engaged in a highly dangerous fire fight in one of the gun battery magazines. Logan and Horra were fanning out from their location and had yet to met any resistance.
“Nearly in, just another minute of two.” said Carol. ”They’ve got a primitive AI in here and boy she’s a bitch. Ouch! I don’t think that physically possible, but you’re more than welcome to get your undies in a twist trying dear.” she shrugged her shoulders as the screen sparked and hissed angrily, showering her and Ford with sparks.
“Contact!” snapped Carson readying his rifle at the far end of the corridor. Bravo team exchange fire with a small group of Raiders fending off their attack with a hail of plasma bolts. Then, just as that attack subsided, there was another burst of fire as Charlie engaged the enemy at the other end.
“Steady people.” said Ford. “Don’t waste your ammo, they’re just probing us for now.”
Carol meanwhile had taken the direct route, bypassing the touch controls and ripping off the access panel, to hack directly into the computers digital pathways. Shorting out several of them in the process. “Feel the burn baby.” she said with satisfaction, as she hotwired another circuit, bypassing and burning out others before the screen finally came to life. Presenting them with a real time schematic, showing the location of each of their four primary targets in green, their locations in blue, and the Raiders in red.
“Nice work. “ said Ford relaying the information to all the teams.
Carol put her hands on her hips and cocked her head to one side, an evil grin on her face. “Well I try my best to please the men in my life, but as for this AI, she’s sure as hell no lady and seriously pissed. If I was you, I wouldn’t plan on hanging around for the morning after the night before.”
“Noted. Anything you can do from here to help our Draconion and Talmari colleagues?”
She turned back to the exposed circuits, cursing under her breath, as sparks spat out angrily at her. “Tell Vlade and Chole to fall back. I’m trigging the fire suppression systems in the main gun battery magazines. That should help stop them from blowing the base up. I’ve also put the bases automated defences in a diagnostic loop that'll take an hour or two to sort itself out.”
Ford nodded. “Done. Now let’s go see Captain Scott.”
Carol resealed the access panel she’d used to jack into the bases computer. “Don’t know how long this’ll hold, but it’ll give me remote access to their systems, until they repair it or the AI figures out a way round it.”
Ford took the lead, marching up to the end of the corridor and stepping out in front of Charlie team, into the adjoining passage. He turned to the left, his cyber clock billowing around him, as pulses of energy from the Raiders weapons deflected harmless off it. He lifted up his rifle using the secondary launcher to lose off a salvo of fragmentation and flash grenades, before leading team Charlie forward at a brisk jog. Spraying plasma bolts into the clearing fog of battle, sending the surviving Raiders running for their lives.
Meanwhile Mendez and Reynolds were making slow, but steady progress, following the disabling of the internal defences. Fanning out across the hanger deck from their bridgeheads by the airlocks. Suddenly a new target lit up on the hanger deck, it was green. The Phoenix’s gun turrets had suddenly come to life and swung around to bear on the Raiders.
A familiar voice cut over comm channel. “Don’t know who you guys are, but any enemy of these guys is a friend of mine, I hope.”
Ford smiled and took a moment out of the battle “Jay this is Ford, little busy right now, brief you later, but these are the good guys.”
The fire suppression systems meanwhile had taken care of most of the Raiders in the gun batteries, sealing them in the magazines after Vlade and Chole had withdrawn. Dropping the emergency bulkheads and flooding them with fire suppressants. Anyone not in some form of EVA suit would be in serious trouble. The double armed Talmari were an impressive sight in battle, blazing away at their enemies with plasma rifles, while their secondary arms wielded their pistols with deadly precision. What was left of the Raiders forces in that section of the base were falling back to make a final stand in gunnery control.
Logan and Horra had finally met some resistance. They were deep inside the base. About a hundred meters from where the computer indicated Bryson and Alpha team were being held prisoner. Ford was impressed b
y the rugged ruthlessness and recklessness of Logan’s men, fanning out to use their heavy armour as a human shields, laying down suppressing fire. While Horra’s team followed up behind them, acting as snipers, picking off the Raiders one by one. As they advanced steadily toward their goal.
Ford detected movement up ahead, as they approached a junction. He held up his arm, indicating to them to wait and poked his head cautiously round the corner, rifle at the ready. The next thing he knew there was a heavy crump of a large explosion. The shock wave picked him up off his feet, like a rag doll, throwing him into the men behind him. Sending him spinning as they collapsed in a tangled, dazed, bruised, heap. His HUD blacked out, replaced by a sea of static, his suits computer temporarily off-line, as it reset and rebooted. He cursed his carelessness for walking into such an obvious ambush and struggled to free himself from the tangled mass of bodies. Dimly aware of angry shouts and the whoosh of plasma bolts zipping over their heads.
The Raiders trying to take advantage of the confusion had rushed their position. Carol and Delta team, who'd been far enough back to avoid the worst of the blast, were laying down suppressing fire to drive them back. Ford tossed his broken rifle aside and pulled out his faithful sidearm. Taking up a kneeling position, he fired at the enemy the old fashioned way, by line of sight. Ignoring the panicked confusion and chatter in the background, as his suit finished rebooting, bringing his HUD and comms back on line. He grabbed a still functioning rifle off one his dazed comrades, using his command codes to override the bio-filter. Then gestured to everyone to fall back, as there was another heavy thud, and another shock wave washed over them, his HUD flickering briefly before restabilising.
He waited a few seconds before detaching his spent wormhole generator and rolling it into the junction. There was another heavy crump and another shock wave rolled over them sending the metal disc spinning crazily into the air. Jagged sparks of energy arching off it, back towards the source the incoming fire. Ford seized the opportunity, wrapping his cyber cloak tightly around himself, rolling through the dissipating energy waves into the junction. He loosed off a salvo of grenades in the general direction of the heavy weapon. Then crouched down under his cloak as they found there mark. Pulling his hood tightly over his head, as the biggest shock wave yet rumbled down the corridor. After it had washed over him, he stood up, tossing his hood back, rifle at the ready, scanning the smouldering wreckage for targets, but found none.
Satisfied the path was clear, he gestured to his team to advance. Checking his HUD for updates, he tossed the rifle back to its owner and cut across the back-chatter. “They had a pulse cannon, it’s been neutralised. Keep your eyes peeled, they might have more surprises.”
Just then another voice cut over his comm. “Ford, this is Captain Scott, you’ve upset my AI Suzie. She tells me you’ve done some terrible things to her and she wants payback. That pulse cannon was just the beginning. Tell your people to lay down their arms or I’ll start killing the prisoners.”
He smiled to himself as his tactical display showed Horra’s snipers had taken down the last of the guards. Logan’s men were busy smashing open the holding pens, where Bryson and the others were being held, along with what appeared like a couple of hundred refugees.
“What prisoners Captain Scott?”
“How about these refugees, seeking political alyssum from a dozen different star systems, for starters?” He transmitted an image of an old starliner, Crystal Voyager, dropping out of hyperspace and beginning the final approach to the station, escorted by several Raider ships. “Anders, scrub that rust bucket.”
Ford flicked his HUD back to Vlade and Chole, who had also caught the broadcast and responded immediately. Throwing their rifles aside and drawing their Courtain’s, to lead a reckless charge towards the remaining defenders of the gunnery control station. They leapt over the Raiders barricade, their spinning swords scything down anything and everything in the path, emptying their pistol clips into anyone they missed. In one fluid movement they ejected the pistol daggers, tossing the spent weapons aside, catching the pommels in their secondary hands and in a fury of flashing blades burst into the room. The rest of the Talmari assault team followed hard on their heels, covering their backs, dispatching anyone that missed their dual onslaught with ruthless precision. Yet despite this, they couldn’t reach Anders in time, to stop him firing a volley of missiles at the Crystal Voyager. As, pieced by multiple blades, he choked on his own blood.
It was now a race against time, as the Talmari sought to bring the guns on-line and shoot down the missiles. Lucy opened up the Jay-birds engines screaming towards the doomed starliner. As its escort broke away trying to avoid the incoming fire, she ripping one apart with her guns as she jinked and weaved to get a bead on the incoming missiles. Five had out-run Vlade and Chole efforts to shoot them down and were closing rapidly on the Crystal Voyager. She skimmed across its hull, a few meters beneath her, taking out three more. Swerving away to avoid a head on impact with the other two, desperately banking back around to try and get another shot before they hit home. One collided with a Raider ship. The fifth found its target, ripping apart the starliners engines, trigging a chain reaction that rippled down the length of its hull and broke the ships back. Screaming in anger and frustration, Lucy spun the Jay Bird around, painting the remaining Raider ships with her targeting computer and let fly with everything she had. Vlade and Chole followed suit, bringing the bases main rail guns to life, shredding everything in the kill box she had highlighted.
Scott tut-tutted, chiding Ford. “How does it feel to have all those innocent lives, on route from Nova-7 to start a new live here, on your conscience? Suzie’s really mad. I could have bought her a lot of upgrades with the money the Anterian’s were going to pay for that cargo. I might not be able to control her now.”
Ford turned to Carol. “Find the computer core and erase that AI. I’m going to deal with Scott personally.” he checked his HUD. Elsewhere the fighting was over, they had control of weapons and the hanger, to which the freed prisoners were being escorted. There was also a fresh marker on his HUD. Bryson and his team had reclaimed their equipment and were back in the game.
Carol nodded and set off at jog with her team down the corridor that broke off to the right of the junction. Speed was of the essence, her hack was degenerating faster than expected. There was a very real possibility the automated defences could be back on line before they got everyone off the base. What was left of the Raiders forces were falling back, to rally for a final stand in the central control nexus, with Captain Scott. Bryson and his freshly liberated team were closing rapidly on Ford’s position.
Bryson was the first to appear, intersecting their route to the control nexus a couple of junctions up from where they’d left Carol.
“Though you could use some back up.” he said tossing a fresh rifle to Ford. “Besides we have a score to settle for being taken on the Amastra. Bastards had kept some civilians back, children, as hostages, threatened to kill them if we didn’t surrender. Then...” he shuddered “...spaced them anyway.”
Ford locked his new rifle to his bio-signature and placed his hand on Bryson’s shoulder. “Good to have you back, now let’s put them out of business, once and for all.”
They made good time, picking off the odd straggler as they closed in on Scott. Ford held up his hand and gestured to them to wait, he wasn’t about to be taken by surprise a second time. He called in an update on the tactical situation. Sultan was poised to jump in at a moment’s notice to assist with the evacuation. Although there were ample ships on the base to get everyone safely away. A small fleet of Raider ships, fighters, shuttles and an assortment of captured vessels in addition to the Phoenix and the Amastra, were dotted across the hanger deck. He doubted they had enough pilots to fly them all, but made a mental note to take the best of them to kit out Themis’s empty hangars. The main problem was getting the hangar doors open, which remained stubbornly locked, as the Raiders AI battled wit
h Carol's hacks for control of the base. They still had control of the bases weapons array for now, but the AI was slowly reasserting itself, taking back secondary systems and eroding the firewall she’d used to lock it out. Carol's team were methodically cutting through the defences erected around the AI’s data core, but it was slow and painstaking work. The automated defence systems guarding it were on a separate circuit and remained active. Beyond which there were passive defences to contend with. A three hundred and sixty degree force field, and blast proof bulkhead door.
Scott broadcast an open message, audio and visual. He was holding a small canister with a skull and crossbones symbol clearly visible. Suzie, the AI avatar, was standing next to him. A buxom blond in the crude studded leather uniform of the Raiders, wearing an eye patch that mirrored Scott’s. Ford shook his head. What was it with Raiders and eye-patches?
“Recognize this? Its nestercine gas, illegal in most civilised societies, but then again were not that civilised. Suzie tells me it’s quite unpleasant. Attacks the neural pathways breaks down the synapses between them. Subjects exposed to it lose the ability to think, speak, move and finally breathe. Still at least you won’t have to listen to them scream as they die. Suzie also tells me she’ll have full control of ventilation and life support systems in less than five minutes. If you’ve not surrendered by then I’ll flood the base with it. A bit more creative than just killing life support and venting the atmosphere don’t you think?”
Panic was already spreading through the refugees on the hangar deck. Ford rolled up his eyes and called on Gaia, even across such vast distances the uplink with Gaia’s dataverse was almost instantaneous. In the split second it took to establish a link, he had assimilated all known knowledge about nestercine gas and played out countless scenarios, none of which had a palatable outcome. He blinked himself back to the present. Logan had transmitted something to Carol on an encrypted channel he couldn’t decode.
Carol responded by immediately ordering her team to blast a path clear to a small data port, a few meters down the heavily defended passage, taking several casualties in the process. As soon as the way was clear she jacked into the data port and entered what appeared to be a random string of letters and numbers. Almost immediately the AI's defence grid powered down, dropping the force field and releasing the bulkhead seals. Carol raced ahead escorted by two of her team, into the main AI core, while the rest of them assisted their fallen comrades. The first took a lethal shot to the head from an autonomous defence droid, the last line of the AI’s defences, before they could reduce it to a heap of smouldering scrap.
Carol stepped up to the data core and jacked into main console. “Initiating AI wipe and system reset, rerouting control of all essential systems to this panel...now!”
Ford watched as Suzie’s avatar screamed, flickered and then vanished from Scott’s side.
“Dum bastards. Forgot to reset the construction crews default override codes for the computer core. Lucky I had one of the old foremen on my team.” cut in Logan.
Ford couldn’t help thinking it was a little to convenient, but right now he had more than enough conspiracy theories to deal with. He was happy to put this one down to good luck, given that Logan had been willing to put his and his men’s life of the line rescuing the prisoners. Suddenly the lights flickered and went out as the base powered down, plunging them monetarily into complete and total darkness. Then the dull red glow of the emergency lighting kicked in.
“Report.”
“Normal. Part of the purge and reset. It’ll take about fifteen minutes for all the systems to reset and come back on line, unless there’s any surprises hidden in the code.”
“Just make sure we get the hanger doors open and those people out of here before Jasper shows up. I’ve had enough surprises for one day.” he replied as they pulled up short at the final junction before the central control nexus.
Learning from past experience, they launched a micro surveillance drone, to see what was around the corner. A barricade of hastily assembled metal crates and other paraphernalia stood between them and the control nexus, behind which sat a couple more pulse cannons, and judging from the shot that took out the drone, at least one sniper. Ford reviewed the updated base schematics Carol had downloaded and gave Bryson his orders. Putting him in charge of both teams, before heading back the way they’d came and disappearing round a corner.
As soon as Ford was out of sight Bryson launched his attack. Using smoke and mirrors to keep the defenders busy, with combination of flash grenades and sensor drones. Losing off the occasional frag grenade and volley of plasma blots in their general direction to keep their attention. The Raider’s snipers were left chasing phantoms, while the pulse cannons had minimal effect pummelling sensor ghosts, the shock waves washing relatively harmlessly over their constantly changing positions. A couple of their number had taken minor hits, more by luck than judgement, as they kept up the deadly game of cat and mouse. The surreal half light of the emergency lighting, punctuated by the blinding flash of grenades and intermittent bursts of gunfire, making everyone appear as if they were moving in some strange stereoscopic slow motion strobe light. Whatever Ford was doing he needed to be quick about it, thought Bryson, it was only a matter of time before the Raider’s saw through the ruse and zeroed in on their positions.
Ford had ripped open a service hatch and scrambling up a ladder into the ducting, to find himself in a low, dusty, dirty maze of pipes, cables, relays and fibre optics. The long forgotten, neglected, cardiovascular and central nervous systems of the complex, through which its life sustaining energy, oxygen and data flowed under normal circumstances. He shook his head it wasn’t a particularly good analogy, given that they’d just wiped the AI, triggering the equivalent of brain death. Carefully he followed the main data feed through a narrow crawl space, till he found himself looking through a metal grid, directly above the control nexus. Scott his back to him, was clearly visible facing the door, Gauss pistol in one hand, nestercine gas canister in the other. As far as he could tell there we only a couple of other people in the room with him. The rest were outside playing cat and mouse with Bryson.
Ford checked the seals on his suit, recalibrated his filters and oxygen recycler for good measure. Then, strapping his rifle across his back, drew his pistol before kicking the panel out and dropping into the room. The pistol flashed twice as he fell and by the time his feet hit the solid metal floor, his suit compensating for the impact that would have otherwise broke his ankles, he and Scott were the only two living human beings in the room. Scott swung around to face him, wild eyed, his thumb poised on the gas canisters release valve. His pistol pointed at Ford as they stood face to face.
“Having a bad day?” quipped Ford.
Scott’s thumb played with the realise valve, his other hand wavering unsteady as he pointed the gun at Ford’s face. “Don’t move or I’ll do it!”
Ford smiled. “Commit suicide if you want, unlike you I’m in a sealed suit.”
“Coward!” screamed Scott banging the muzzle of his gun against Ford’s faceplate. “I’ll shoot your visor out first.”
Ford retracted his helmet. “You’ll have to better than that to scare me. It’s over, your finished. I’m taking you to the authorities on Nova-7 to answer for your crimes.”
Scott lowered his gun laughing out loud. It was the maniacal laugh of a man pushed to breaking point and beyond. “Oh that’s good, that’s funny, you really have no idea do you? This was a joint project with Nova-7’s Governor. He’s been paying us to solve their refugee problem, make all those pesky alyssum seekers clogging up their station, disrupting their ‘commercial activities’, go away, no questions asked.”
“You mean he knows about ‘the meat run’?”
“How else do you think we’ve been able to operate so long without any interference? That is till you came along.” Scott had lowered his guard, his body shaking with near hysterical mirth. “You take me back to Nova-7, they’ll
put you in chains, if they don’t shoot you first.”
“Well thanks for sharing that with me, but it’s a chance I’m prepared to take.”
Quick as lighting he snatched the gas canister from his hand flicking the safety back on before tossing it aside. Grabbing Scott’s arm he spun him around as he twisted his arm up his back. There was a sickening crunch as he stiffened the metal joints of his gloved hand and snapped the bones in the wrist in his other arm. The gauss pistol clattering harmlessly to the floor. He frogmarched him outside, his pistol pointed at his head. “Lay down your weapons, it over.”
What was left of the Raider’s severely depleted forces spun round to face him. One of the men who’d been manning the pulse cannons reached for his gun. He barely had time for his hand to reach the holster before he took a shot to the back of the head. He was dead before he hit the ground. Bryson emerged out the mist and confusion of battle, that drifted all around them, rifle at the ready.
“Anyone else want to try their luck?”
There was a brief exchange of glances followed by the clatter of weapons dropping to the floor and Bryson began organising the escort of their prisoners back to the hanger deck.
“We could just shoot them all now, a lot of people would thank us for it.”
Ford shook his head. “Then we’d be no better than them. We hand them over to the authorities, put them on trial, make an example of them, a warning to others.”
“Well no one can fault your idealism, but there are some people out there who would be a lot happier just to sweep the whole sorry affair under the carpet.”
He smiled and pushed Scott, cursing profusely, cradling his broken wrist in his good hand, into Bryson’s arms. “Of that there’s no doubt, that’s why I want you to take good care of this one. We’ve got an appointment with the governor of Nova-7.”