“Allow me to guess,” Lagoon said, his webbed hands rubbing together excitedly. “This ship is due to dock at this repair station?”
“She’s already there. Has been for three days. There’s another four before the ship is due to leave. Should be done purging the radiation by the time we arrive.” Nguyen tapped at the tablet again and several sections of the ship became highlighted. “We’ll ingress at these locations. There’s only a skeleton crew remaining.”
“Somewhat literally, if the reactor shielding cracked. There aren’t many races that would survive that,” Kalk said. “A ship like this has a crew of hundreds and a whole battalion of troopers. How many do you expect to remain?”
“Ships manifest states twenty, total. Between the crew and the troopers,” Orson said. “Shouldn’t be a problem for us.”
“The current plan is for our marines to breach here.” Nguyen pointed at the hologram. “This is the closest route to the main reactor chamber. We want fighters from each of your ships to breach at these other locations. You’ll each have a marine with them to help co-ordinate.”
“It would be helpful to send those who have been training our fighters with them, they are already familiar,” Auris said.
“Agreed. Your teams will be responsible for securing the bridge, armoury and medical bay. Council procedure mandates weapons controls are switched off, and that hangars remain locked whilst docked to a facility of any kind. We can worry about those once we’ve taken our targets.” Nguyen tapped at the tablet’s glass, switching off the hologram. “Once we’re done, we fry the computer circuits of the station and set its reactor to blow. Hopefully, we can make it look like the problems on the battleship were more than they thought, and that it took the station with it.”
“I know it’s a big ask. But this is an opportunity we can’t pass up. This is a chance we won’t get again.” Orson stood up, his eyes sweeping across the assembled aliens.
“It could be a trap,” Lagoon said with a shrug. “Like those insectoids.”
“They were just vigilantes trying to be heroes.” Orson had left the survivors aboard the comms station with a stack of rations. He was aware that them getting rescued seemed unlikely, that it was probably quicker to just shoot them, but he felt they deserved at least a chance of some kind. If they were saved, then it simply added to his mythos. The merciful Knower. “But you’re right, it could be. We still have to try. This is a prize we can’t ignore.”
“And if it does turn out to be a trap?” Auris said.
“Then at least we die trying.”
Chapter Sixteen
Michael couldn’t move, the gel of his chair had stretched over him, leaving only his head exposed. He didn’t like it. Michael felt like a butterfly trying-and failing-to break free from a cocoon. The others weren’t having the same issue, their gel had left their arms free, covering only their torsos. It was like the blue ooze knew he was useless, a spare part when it came to running the ship.
Before him, the glass of the control room was awash with fire, the Seeker punching through the atmosphere like a bullet. The battle was behind them now, raging away in orbit, the massed ships taking chunks from one another in a storm of exotic energies. Michael shuddered, the gel shaking as he did. The bizarre heads of those unknown ships, it felt like they had been looking right at him, staring at his soul.
“There’s a city below us,” Aileena said, shouting over the noise. The ship was shuddering as it descended, and everything seemed to creak and rattle in response. “I’m going to bring us in there. Seems a good a place as any.”
“We aren’t going to, you know, run?” Michael and his friends weren’t popular with the Council, and he had no idea how the other aliens were going to treat them. It didn’t feel worthwhile sticking around to see who won.
“We got lucky, we jumped in real close, broke through the line before they could really notice us. We want to lay low in case someone working a targeting console fancies taking a pot shot at us. Especially those things. Rhythm help me those had a lot of guns.”
“Was it? I always assumed you would want to cover a ship with guns like that.” Something clanked in the ceiling, more work for Kestok once they got back. If they got back.
“Nah,” Brekt said. He had activated the controls for the turret atop the Seeker, twisting it around to cover their rear. “Big battleships like that have a forward-facing array of cannons, all fixed to the hull. The kind of range and firepower you need in space means anything smaller just doesn’t have the grunt to be useful.”
“Those other ships seemed to be doing fine.”
“Yeah.” Brekt was barely audible over the noise, his voice softer than usual. “Yeah, they were. Never seen weapons like that. Not surprising they’re holding their own. Each one of those ships must have the firepower of dozens of battleships.”
“We can gawp at them later. Maybe they’ll let us come aboard, take a tour.” Michael shook his head, the only part of his body he could move. “They didn’t look friendly. And don’t start on about differing cultures and stylistic choices or something like that, Mellok. You all know there’s something off about them.”
The feathered alien didn’t chastise Michael as expected. He didn’t say anything at all. He was sullen, his head drooped. His feathers had shifted colour, settling on a purple so deep it was near black. Michael had only seen him like this once before. When Cortica burned.
“Hey, Mellok? Earth to Mellok, you reading me?” Michael tried to wave his hand, immediately feeling the resistance from the gel. He settled for shaking his head instead.
“I’ve seen these before,” Mellok muttered. The noise in the cabin had vanished as the ship slid into a smoother part of the atmosphere, the fire fading away as quickly as it had arrived. “Those ships, during my travels. We can’t stop here.”
“We can’t go back up either,” Aileena said, wrestling with the controls as she levelled the Seeker out. “Look, we’ll just find somewhere to land until there’s a window, an unoccupied pad somewhere on the outskirts of the ci-”
A klaxon sounded and the lights flashed red inside the control room. Large alien symbols sprung to life on each console, announcing something Michael couldn’t read. He felt the swing of the ship as it pulled to the side, the dampening effect of the artificial gravity disabled this close to the surface. The Seeker spun and Michael felt his stomach twisting into knots, nausea coming over him. He had never been one for theme park rides, his stomach was too weak. He was still banned from the log flumes.
“What’s going on?” Michael shouted over the din of the alarm.
“Incoming missiles, launched from the surface,” Brekt said. His words were sharp, terse, snapped off in a hurry as he focused on the controls.
“Can’t we evade them?”
“What in the Rhythm’s name do you think we’re doing?” Aileena barked.
The Seeker rolled again, a missile streaking past as it did. Michael could see the exhaust trail of the weapon through the control room glass. It was coming around, curving as it turned to race at the Seeker head-on. There was a flash of purple light, several short snaps of energy as one of the defensive turrets on the belly of the ship unfurled from its hidden position and fired. The missile exploded, shrapnel clattering against the hull as the Seeker raced through the still lingering flames.
“We’ve got another one,” Brekt said. “Second launch from the same location. Personnel mounted weapons. I’d put good money on that. Looks like it’s from the top of the nearby building.”