“Everyone in, quickly. If you’re not inside before the engines get up to speed, we’re taking off without you,” Ivona shouted. She was hanging off the entry ramp, clinging to the airlock with one hand whilst beckoning the lagging members inside with the other. “Unless you fancy a trip inside a collector like our Knower buddy.”
Michael was watching Ivona from inside the airlock. He was sat against the far wall, Aileena running a small grey box over his side. It felt cold, and oddly tingly where the metal touched his skin.
“Stay still,” Aileena said, jabbing Michael in the side with the device. In her other hand was a small tablet, words unreadable to Michael scrolling down it. “This thing is struggling with you as is. Don’t make it worse.”
“She’s tough on them, isn’t she?” Michael said, nodding towards Ivona.
“She has to be. Been in a situation like this myself once or twice. Well, not exactly like this, but close enough.” Aileena examined the tablet closely, her six eyes narrowing. “You have to be harsh. There’s no room to let things slide.”
“I guess. Ow,” Michael said, wincing. “Be careful with that.”
“Looks like you have a hairline fracture on a rib, not a break. And wow, you have so many ribs. Lots of really thin ones. Bit weird.”
“Alright. No need to start taking digs at my biology.”
“You’ll be fine. Just try not to move too much or do anything strenuous for a few weeks.”
“Oh, I’ll just let the killer robots know,” Michael said. “I’m sure they’ll be accommodating.”
Ivona’s boots clanked as she stepped inside the airlock. The normally brilliant red of her trooper armour had lost its sheen during her ordeal. There were large scrapes across it, revealing the dull metal beneath.
“Everyone is aboard. Bit of a slim haul sorry,” Ivona said. She was looking directly at Aileena. “You understand right, you did say you’re a merc? You know situations can change.”
“Yeah. Yeah, these things happen. I’ll tell you a story about that once we’re clear. It involves two drunk Mikons and a versac with a wonky saddle.”
“I’ll have to take you up on it. You ok?”
“I will be, eventually.” Michael rubbed at his arms where the needles had been. “That thing freaked out when it scanned me. Something about impossible genes? No idea.”
Aileena eyed Michael. There was something on her mind, he could tell.
“You’re looking at me like chopped liver,” Michael said. The confused stare was all the response he needed. “Right yeah, probably didn’t translate. You look like you have something to say.”
“It’s not important. Not right now.” Aileena stood up, slipping the medical scanner and tablet into a pocket on her trousers. “I’m assuming the colonel here has some experience running ships?”
“Not much honestly. I’m a ground pounder. Got some basic scanner operation certs but that’s about it.”
“That’ll do, take up the sensor console. Michael you’ll have to take the couches at the back.” Aileena turned towards the resistance fighters. “The galley chairs have gel seats. There are some emergency pads in the back of the cargo bay. Stack them against the far wall. We’ll be going vertical quickly.”
The fighters nodded, disappearing into the hold.
“Ok,” Ivona said. “I’m about ready to get off this hell world.”
Michael let out a chuckle, immediately regretting it as a sharp pain shot across his chest. “You’re really going to love where we take you. You could say it’s almost the exact opposite.”
The Seeker lifted into the air, hovering above the warehouse as it ascended. It swept with its light, just as it had done when it had arrived. Now the asphalt below was full of scuttling metal. The collectors had come, clambering over the low wall that ran around the complex. They looked up at the ship, a baleful swarm of glowing eyes.
Several of the collectors fired shots, pulses of red flying off into the night as the Seeker jinked in response. It could have rocketed off into the sky, escaping from the threat below, but it didn’t. Instead, it floated above for a moment, before unleashing petty vengeance.
The belly guns fired, energy beams raking across the swarm below. Metal melted at its touch, dropping several of the collectors. It wasn’t much of a difference from the overall swarm, but it was something at least. A tiny victory on behalf of the Purnaxians.
The Seeker fired its engines, the jet wash pressing against the collectors below it as the ship lifted itself higher. It tilted backwards, shifting until its nose pointed upwards towards the stars above. With a great monstrous roar, the main engines awoke, brilliant blue light blossoming from within as they pushed the Seeker into the sky.
“I do hope the codes you have work,” Mellok said. He was inputting the string of numbers Ivona had provided into the communications console before him. His feathers had taken on a dark blue hue. Mellok was normally a shimmering rainbow, a cascade of colour. When he adopted a block colour it was normally a sign of unease. The Seeker had breached the upper atmosphere, the artificial gravity switching back on.
Ahead, the battle was still ongoing. The Council fleet was smaller than when they had arrived, whilst the furious bound titans of the Unmind Index seemed unperturbed. They were winning, the Council fleet now further from the planet than it had been. Beaten back over thousands of miles by the constant barrage of angry red energy.
“Not worried about the Council, it’s those monsters that will be our problem,” Aileena was gripping the controls tightly, ready to move. “Time on our jump drive?”
“Just a few moments,” Brekt said. “I’m plotting a course to a gap between systems. We can jump, wait to see if we’re followed, then head to Eden. Don’t want to lead someone there.”
“Good idea,” Aileena slammed the controls to the side, sending the Seeker into a spiral. A burst of red light skimmed past. The Unmind ships had noticed them, twisting some of their guns in their direction. “It’s getting a little dicey out here.”
“Ready.” Brekt nodded to his colleague, and Aileena tapped at the console before her.
The Seeker winked out of existence, vanishing into the twisting realm of jump space.
Chapter Twenty
Orson felt a dull throb in his head, a constant reminder that the Gallant was currently cruising through jump space. He was sat in the captain’s chair which groaned under his weight. Like the rest of the bridge crew, he was wearing a spare suit of trooper armour, just in case things went wrong. Orson was experienced enough to know that on a mission this daring, they almost certainly would.
He wasn’t a fan of wearing the armour. The suits were designed to fit a wide a range of species as possible. You entered them from behind, stepping into the suit, the armour panels shutting behind you. The padding inside would then contract around you, adjusting automatically to fit. It always felt tighter than Orson would like, almost as if the suit was squeezing him on purpose. The whole thing took some getting used to, suddenly finding yourself with significantly more bulk was a little unbalancing.
On his left, projecting from the arm of his chair, was a small hologram. It showed the relative positions of the rest of his makeshift fleet. Multiple ships could share a single jump corridor, and ships with weaker short-range drives often piggybacked on the corridors of their bigger cousins. There was a price for this, further jumps taking exponentially longer. Forward scout ships or couriers were designed with fast recharging drives to make several smaller leaps, but these were often plagued by dodgy drive shielding and reactor leaks.
Jump drives worked by doing two things, firstly by burrowing a corridor through jump space between two locations in real space. When this had first been explained to Orson, he had called it a wormhole, something his Council trainers were quick to correct him on. He still didn’t quite get the distinction, Orson had lived most of his life on the theory that if it looked like a duck, and quacked like a duck, chances were it was a duck. The second function of the drive was to project an invisible shield that protected those within the ship from the strange effects of the bizarre dimension. It was this that made sure they were committed to this attack. It took time after returning to real space for the drive to disgorge the energy it had absorbed, anywhere from a few hours to a few days based on the distance travelled. Once they arrived, they weren’t going anywhere for a while.