Between worlds two, p.28
Between Worlds Two, page 28
Sighing, he glanced at the railgun attached to his right arm. It was fully charged and loaded. Which was a shame, because part of him had kind of been hoping something would go wrong and that would give him a reason to turn back.
Alas, no such luck. He and Kernathu did good work.
“Private Jason, you were called to the bridge for a crew conference.” Tisi’s crisp tones came over the comms. “Why have you failed to obey that order?”
There was a definite terseness to those comments. Which was certainly understandable, given the current circumstances. Still, he couldn’t help but think there was just a little bit more of an edge to Tisi’s voice that hadn’t been there five minutes prior.
“Apologies, ma’am,” he radioed back. “Using the lavs.”
“Irrelevant.” Tisi’s response was instant. “You are needed on the bridge; whether you attend while standing or do so while sitting and shitting in the aisle makes little difference at this point.”
He flinched a little at the woman’s tone. Clearly his captain was unhappy.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, ma’am,” he said finally.
There was a beat of silence, before Tisi’s voice came through the comms again, cold as ice. “Am I to believe that you are defying a direct order, private?”
“In a manner of speaking. Though, it might be more correct to say that I’m currently incapable of making my way to the bridge.”
“Explain,” Tisi said. “Do we have some kind of mechanical fault between the lavs and the bridge?”
He sighed. “Nope… well, there might be, but I wouldn’t know about it if there was.”
“And why is that, private?” the woman asked, clearly having grown tired of the run around he was giving her these last three sentences.
He took a deep breath. This was it. This was the moment he irreparably torpedoed his career for reasons that were nebulous even to him.
Though some might argue that said moment had actually occurred about ten seconds back.
“Well, I’m technically not on the ship anymore,” he said finally.
Silence reigned. For more than a beat this time. It was more like three beats.
“Where are you?” The woman’s tone sent a shiver up his spine.
“Well, uh, technically I’m currently floating towards the Maw.” He glanced down at his metal encased arms. “I’m also inside Ares. That’s, uh, Kernathu’s new mech.”
“Return. Immediately.” Tisi’s voice had gone somewhere beyond mad or even furious. If he had to ascribe a particular notion to it, he’d go with nuclear. “We can discuss disciplinary actions upon your return of Imperial military property for which you are not certified.”
Well, he was sort of certified for it. He’d taken a spin in a civilian Exo during his time at university as part of the familiarization process. That counted, right?
“Can’t do that,” he repeated.
“I’m ordering you, private.”
“And I’m really tempted to obey, ma’am,” he answered honestly. “Unfortunately, I’m being quite literal here. I physically can’t return to the Whisker.”
“Just activate the-”
“If you were about to say thrusters,” he interrupted. “I’m sorry to say that the Ares doesn’t have them fitted.”
Not yet at least. It had been one of the last things on the docket of things they’d needed to do. Given that any other alterations to the machine would have thrown off the weight balance, making them have to readjust the thrusters all over again, it was simpler just to leave it to last.
“So you’re drifting, completely uncontrolled, toward an enemy craft, in an scraped together Exo, that you barely know how to operate!?”
Jason glanced at the massive ship in the distance that was growing larger and larger with each passing moment.
“That would be about the sum of it,” he said. “Yeah.”
“Are you insane!?” Kernathu’s voice cut into the comms.
He might have shrugged if his current confines allowed for it. “Maybe.”
“What if you miss, Jason!?” This time it was Yaro’s turn to butt in on what was supposed to be a private line.
He glanced at the planet looming behind the ship he was aiming for. “I was trying not to think about that.”
“Why?” Tisi asked, ignoring the breaking of comm protocols. “What would possess you to do this?”
“In all likelihood there’s a hold full of kidnapped sapient beings in that ship,” he deadpanned. “Beings who are going to be sold into slavery on some godforsaken Coalition world. Unless something is done to stop Hela.”
That was the crux of it, wasn’t it? He couldn’t let that happen. Physically couldn’t. Not if he ever wanted to be able to look at himself in a mirror again. Or sleep at night. Because even an average guy like him had lines that were inviolable.
“How do you - no, never mind that,” Tisi snapped. “Why wouldn’t you talk to us about it? Let me come up with a plan that wasn’t… this!”
He sighed, really feeling like a heel.
“Because that’s all I’ve been doing for the last year. Trusting in the system to do the right thing. When I was conscripted. When I was in Basic. When I was on leave. When I took my final combat exam. When I arrived at Gurathu. And when I discovered that shit like this might be happening.”
And every time, he’d been let down.
The cadets that attacked him were never punished. The noble that exiled him had been able to do so. And Hela had somehow been able to evade justice.
The system had failed every time, and this time he just couldn’t afford for that to happen.
“This time, I’m going to do something,” he finished.
Even if it is the stupidest damn thing I’ve ever done in my life, he thought as the massive battle scarred form of the Grinshaw’s Maw loomed ever larger in his view.
…Just not large enough apparently.
He was going to miss it completely.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Certainly not an ideal situation to be in, with the prospect of him burning up in the atmosphere of a gas giant in his immediate future if he didn’t change course.
Fortunately for him, this situation was one that had been – sort of – planned for.
“Though I might have preferred just being on target in the first place,” he grunted as he brought up his railgun, calculating what he hoped was the ideal angle.
He supposed it was all rather inconsequential in the end though. He was going to have to decelerate somehow, no matter what happened. Being off target had just added another variable to that equation.
So now it was just a matter of timing really, as he drifted ever closer to the massive ship. Ideally, he might have started making course corrections sooner, but that would be demonstrating to the Maw’s sensors that he was most assuredly not a piece of space debris, which would have resulted in the rather menacing laser pod that was attached to the front of the ship reducing him and the Ares to their component atoms.
The armor of an exo was tough – relative to most infantry based weapon systems. It was not, however, ship-grade tough.
So he had to wait, until he’d drifted ‘under the guns’ of the transport ship. Which fortunately for his nerves, did not take long, as he watched the massive scarred leviathan of metal grow so large that it eclipsed his vision. Most importantly, he could no longer see the very front of the ship. And if he couldn’t see the laser-pod, the laser pod couldn’t see him.
So he fired.
It was a little strange to know just how powerful a gun he was firing, but to feel or hear next to nothing. Space robbed him of the sound of the gun, and the exo’s mechanical strength robbed him of the recoil. Hell, there was barely anything to see beyond a tiny smattering of sparks as electro-magnetic energy rippled down the twin prongs of the wrist mounted gun.
Sighing just a little at the anti-climax, he nonetheless held down the trigger. The weapon was designed for automatic fire and would continue to do so until it ran out of ammunition or the twin prongs that served as the ‘barrel’ melted.
Not that Jason intended to be firing for that long. Even if it was only in small increments, he could feel himself decelerating.
It wasn’t exactly easy to keep himself from spinning like a top as he did so, but he was keeping the gun as close to his center mass as possible, while occasionally making adjustments to compensate when his view veered from one side to the other.
“Jason… are you using your primary weapon to… maneuver?” Tisi’s voice came rather incredulously through his HUD.
The sudden noise, after nearly a minute of total silence beyond his labored breathing, jolted his hand slightly, sending him spinning. A quick twist and a burst in the other direction arrested most of it, but he still felt his heart skip a beat at the near total loss of control.
“Yes,” he said through gritted teeth, ignoring the bead of sweat that ran down his temple. “And I can assure you, it’s not as easy as I’m making it look.”
So please be quiet, went unsaid.
He supposed he couldn’t have been too surprised that Tisi could ‘see’ what he was doing. The Whisker’s sensors were still operational after all.
I can only hope that the Maw’s aren’t as fine tuned, he thought as he finally got on course for landing, watching the surface of the massive ship rushing up to meet him.
A view accompanied by a distinct sensation of vertigo to be sure. He wasn’t a guy who particularly considered himself to be afraid of heights, but the sight sent a shot of adrenaline running though him regardless. Because no matter how you sliced it, he’d been ‘falling’ for the last six minutes.
And now I’m about to make impact with the floor, he thought grimly.
Which was going to hurt. The suit was designed to take some heavy landings, but he knew he was going to be feeling it regardless.
A feeling that was almost immediately vindicated as he slammed into the ship feet first, at a speed more often seen in low speed vehicle collisions than controlled landings.
“Jason? Jason!? Are you ok?”
He barely registered Tisi’s concerned shouts. His focus was predominantly taken up by the aftershock that came with most of his internal organs bouncing around and slamming into other bits of his insides.
“Ow,” he wheezed finally.
“Thank the Empress, you’re alive.”
He straightened up slowly. “Sort of wish I wasn’t right now.”
Of course, he didn’t have long to dwell on that. He needed to move. Quickly.
As evidenced by Tisi’s voice taking on a definite hint of alarm. “Jason, we’re getting an incoming call from Hela.”
He could imagine they were. From the merchant’s perspective, something had just launched from the Whisker and impacted her ship.
“Stall her,” he grunted as he started moving across the surface of the massive ship, vibrations running up his legs with every massive stamp of his mag-locked boots.
“How?” Tisi asked, a little frantically.
“I don’t know, tell her it was just some trash!”
“You think she’s going to buy that?” Tisi asked rhetorically. “That we happened to fire some trash out the airlock? Right now? Trash that just so happened to impact her ship? That changed course mid-flight?”
Jason wracked his brain, well aware that with every millisecond that passed, Hela would be getting more suspicious about them not picking up. It wasn’t like Tisi had anything else that should be taking up her time.
“Tell her it was a… battery!” he shouted, as the idea struck him. “One that was damaged in her initial attack and that we had to vent because it was becoming unstable.”
Which would provide some justification as to why ‘it’ changed course on the approach. Explosive leakage as the battery’s casing failed.
“You think she’ll buy it?” Tisi asked contemplatively.
Jason grunted as he continued moving toward the front of the Maw. “You only have to humor her for… a minute or so.”
Which was still slightly longer than ideal. He was rushing as fast as he could, but his mag-locked boots meant his current gait had more in common with a spirited power walk than a true sprint. Even at his limited pace, and with the suit helping him, he could feel sweat forming on his forehead from the exertion involved.
A click in his ear told him Tisi had cut communications, presumably to bullshit as best she could to Hela.
Which was why he sighed as he barely made it a few more steps before the laser pod ahead of him fired, the normally invisible stream of ultraviolet light highlighted a bright blue in his vision by the advanced sensors in his suit. It lanced toward the Whisker’s aft, melting through the ship’s armor plating in moments.
Even from this distance he could see the explosion that bloomed for just a moment from the ship’s hull as the oxygen within whatever section had been hit ignited under the superheated conditions it suddenly found itself in.
He swore.
Either Tisi wasn’t as good at bluffing as he’d hoped, or Hela had grown impatient. Both options were equally viable. Neither were good.
And everyone should be fine so long as they remained on the bridge, he thought resolutely.
Which they should have been because it had been an option – until that second shot hit the ship. No one had any critical tasks that needed to be completed in other parts of the ship, so they’d have remained on the bridge fearing exactly what had just happened.
Of course, the problem lay in the fact that ships weren’t designed to have holes put in them. They reacted poorly. Which meant that repair teams would need to be sent out now to repair systems as best they could, and more importantly, ensure the initial damage didn’t result in more damage.
Which meant that if Hela fired another shot, there was a decent chance that Kernathu, Yaro, Assisse or Scales could find themselves in the line of fire.
Which is why it’s fortunate she’s not going to get that opportunity, he thought with some relief as he finally reached his destination, sweat pouring off him.
A laser pod was called such because that was what it looked like. A bulbous metal pod embedded in the front of the ship. Barely more than a meter in diameter, it was pretty crazy to think that such a small thing was capable of such destruction.
It was also the Maw’s only remaining intact armament. He’d passed two other pods on the way over, each melted into so much slag by whatever conflict the ship had found itself in before it had arrived here.
Three laser pods seemed a pretty small number of weapons for such a large ship, and in truth it was. He knew for a fact that the massive behemoth could have sustained a number of other weapon systems. Unfortunately for Hela, the law was quite clear on the subject. Only the military were allowed to possess ‘warships’.
What few armaments the Maw did possess flew in the face of that law. Which meant that they’d have to have been hidden. Glancing about, Jason could see latches on the ship’s hull where false plating had fallen away to reveal the weapons.
Which might explain why she was able to get away, he realized. Whoever came after her probably wasn’t expecting the Maw to be armed.
Even if that armament was pretty paltry relative to the ship’s size – a consequence of said weapons systems needing to be hidden.
Gritting his teeth, Jason placed both hands on the metal pod before him, locating the thin seam in the metal plates that protected the relatively delicate focusing lenses within. And once he did, he started to pull.
Despite knowing intellectually that his suit was more than capable of the act, it still felt a little surreal to have metal bend and warp beneath his hands as he pried the pod’s metal casing open, revealing the transparent lens of a laser emitter beneath. Taking a breath he brought the railgun up, firing a burst into the delicate machinery.
In moments, the weapon system became little more than sparking useless scrap.
“Looks like the Maw is now… toothless,” he said triumphantly. Then he frowned as he realized no one was around to hear his epic witticism.
At which point he nearly jumped out of his skin as his comm crackled to life.
“Jason, what did you just do?” Tisi asked. “Hela was halfway through a sentence before she cut herself – and the comm link – off.”
“You guys were still talking?” he couldn’t help but ask. “After she shot at you?”
“Yes,” Tisi said flatly. “She was impressing upon me the need to send you over within the next few minutes. And that she was incredibly skeptical of our claims of a deteriorating battery. Which was why she was just in the act of threatening me with another lance strike when she suddenly cut herself off.”
“Well, I’m not surprised.” Jason grinned. “Given that the Maw has just been rendered toothless.”
Haha, he’d managed to use it after all.
“You damaged her weapons?” Tisi asked, to his muted disappointment as she ignored his clever wordplay.
“More like mulched,” he said, still managing to retain some level of glee at his plan’s success.
“That… that’s great!” Tisi said, relief clear in her voice.
It was. Very great. With that done, the Maw could no longer threaten the Whisker. Now they just needed to…
“If only our weapons were still working,” Tisi lamented, cutting off his triumphant monologue.
“They aren’t?” he asked frantically, feeling like ice water had just slouced through his guts.
Tisi sighed over the comms. “That last shot apparently melted a pretty critical power juncture. Kernathu’s trying to fix it, but…”
It wouldn’t be repaired within the next hour. By which point Hela would be long gone. More to the point, the people he’d been trying to save would be gone too.
“Fuck!” he swore aloud. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!”
His plan was now in ruins. He’d been hoping to have the Whisker damage the Maw’s engines so that it couldn’t jump to phase. That way they’d be stuck here too - until reinforcements from Gurathu – or wherever – showed up.
