He didn’t take his eyes off them. “Commander? What’s happening on your side?”
“We just seized the advantage. See for yourself.”
Lee turned and saw Quintus standing behind the group facing Aaron, the firearm pointing at their backs.
“Stand down,” Quintus said. “I am your Lord Commander. In the name of the Emperor I command you to stand down.”
Lee moved cautiously with Aaron at his side, and next to Quintus. He reached and took the firearm from Quintus and reloaded it.
“Doesn’t work without these,” he said, firing low shots at the standing Imperials.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Quintus said.
“We have to come back this way. Almost sure I did.”
Lee braced Aaron and together with Quintus, they limped towards the end of the deck, and waited for Quintus to release the security lockout on his quarters. A few taps on the console and the hatchway parted.
One by one, they stepped through and into the darkness.
Chapter 29 – You’re Not Dead Yet
Imperial Dreadnought—Phalanx
There was no illumination other than emergency lights in the passageway. Quintus couldn’t see beyond the hatch. He moved forward towards a computer terminal on the far side of the room. “The terminal is—”
“Usurper!”
Aaron reacted first—stepping in front the Lord Commander. The pulse beam burned into his neck and he slumped to the deck. He took the full brunt of the beam strike. Lee stepped forward and shot the assassin in the center of his forehead.
Quintus knelt by Aaron.
“Why, Commander?”
Aaron coughed blood onto the deck. “Your Emperor won’t need to hear about what happened here from me. Maybe, just maybe . . .” he drew in a deep breath, “I’m hoping Lord Commander Quintus Scipio gets the chance to tell him . . . tell him how forces on both sides conspired to provoke us to war, and how forces on both sides . . . set aside years of intolerance. To stop them right here at Atlas. Where they wanted it to begin.”
Aaron groaned and Quintus held his head off the deck.
“I can’t bring your brother back, Quintus, but I . . .” Aaron coughed and heaved more blood onto the deck. “I can make damn sure the sacrifice he made, to maintain the peace is not in vain. I didn’t think it would be fair for two honorable brothers of the Empire, to die on the same day.”
“Aaron . . .”
“Promise me, Quintus, you’ll make the Emperor listen. Honor above loyalty you said.”
The Lord Commander blinked back tears.
“Honor above loyalty,” he said. “I promise. But you’re not dead yet, Aaron Rayne.” He looked over at Lee. “Take him. I’ll get the datachip.” Quintus moved to the terminal, punched in his access code, and extracted a datachip. He then moved to a backroom and returned with a small portable power device and medkit. First, he knelt by Commander Rayne and applied an emergency patch to his neck wound. Then he injected him with a dose of adrenaline to counter any neurological damage from the pulse beam. Then he attached the small portable power source to Lee’s bionic arm and activated it.
“That should restore full use of your arm. They used an improvised inhibitor on it,” he said.
The fearless foot soldier swung the arm wildly as if to satisfy himself. Then he slammed his fist into a bulkhead.
Quintus winced. “Hold still, Lieutenant Lee. Let me apply this emergency patch to your wound.” Once the dressing was in place, he shot himself and Lee with a stimulant. Although, it didn’t look like the foot soldier needed any stimulant. Seeing his commander blasted with a pulse rifle provided the only stimulus he needed. Quintus and Lee lifted the Commander off the deck and Quintus hoisted him across his shoulders.
Quintus squinted at the body near the far bulkhead. Lord Praetor Brutus Bannon met a fitting end. The Praetor used Quintus’ personal pulse weapon. The only weapon on the ship capable of bypassing the security dampening field. Quintus failed to secure it before the crew rebelled.
“Lord Commander, stay behind me,” the red-faced wild man said.
Quintus didn’t argue as he shouldered the rifle. He’d offered it to Lee but the man refused it.
****
Quintus stepped aside as Lee took point. From behind, Quintus advised him on where to turn, utilizing a different path back to the safe room. The stimulant killed the agony which lingered from the painful brawl with the traitors.
He kept a few paces behind the enraged man. Lee shot the first few traitors they encountered center of mass. Certainly, an expert shooter. The wound wouldn’t be fatal in all cases. His chest hurt every time Lee shot one of them, but it hurt worse to see them killed while fighting for a hateful ideology.
Quintus admired the tenacity of Commander Rayne’s henchman. Lee executed a mixture of martial arts some of which reminded him of fighting styles practiced by Imperial citizens. As they progressed, the fighter clobbered some of the challengers and threw others hard against the bulkheads. One traitor received a forceful roundhouse to the chin. They didn’t encounter much more resistance.
They reached the barricade and Quintus called out.
“Decimus, we’ve returned, hold your fire.”
The loyalists aided their movement through the barricade. Fortunately, no other traitors were nearby since the initial push.
“He’s critically injured, Decimus, I applied an emergency patch and stopped the bleeding, but he won’t survive without a transfusion.”
Lee stepped forward.
“We have to get him back to our ship now. We have a doctor on board who can help him.”
“While you were gone, Lord Commander,” Decimus said. “We managed to boost a handheld and received a signal from the destroyer Auraelius. They’ve boarded through the main cargo bay and deployed loyal marine centurions throughout the ship. They’re clearing the ship deck by deck. They estimate we’ll have full control of the ship within fifteen minutes.”
The Imperial centurions boarding would be fully armored, armed and in communication with each other. The jamming field deployed by the traitors would suppress the ordinary handheld devices carried by ship personnel, but the equipment inside the armory and those carried by the boarding marines was far more powerful. Good thing he’d sealed the armory first thing, not knowing who was with him from who wasn’t.
“A squad is on their way to our position to escort us to the bridge,” Decimus said.
Quintus turned to Lee.
“We won’t get far with your fleet surrounding us. Is there anything you can do to help us?”
Aaron suddenly grabbed Lee’s arm.
“Lee, I don’t know if I’ll be alive in five minutes to speak again. My final order to you is to use whatever means necessary to ensure this ship escapes the blockading action by the United Fleet. Do you understand me, Lee? Quintus must return to the Empire.”
“I read you loud and clear, Commander,” Lee said, turning to Quintus. “Lord Commander. Please instruct your helm to maintain a five-thousand meter distance on our ship’s starboard quarter. Just track us as we depart, you’ll see which ship I mean. Match our speed and follow the course corrections we transmit to you. Keep the formation tight. Do not deviate under any circumstances. You will have to trust us implicitly.”
“I will make certain your instructions are followed precisely,” Quintus said.
Lee hoisted the Commander and moved through the airlock onto Reliant.