Superdreadnought 5 Read online

  “No one wants him dead more than me, but we need to keep him alive until we have Phraim-‘Eh in hand,” Reynolds reminded the warrior. “So keep your fire disciplined and don’t put a hole in him until I order it, understand?”

  The crew grunted their agreement in unison.

  “Good, now stay here and provide suppressing fire,” he told them. “I’m going to run across the street and take up position on the other side.”

  The AI barely gave them time to process the order before he shot out from behind the wall and ran toward the opposite side of the street.

  Jiya leaned out, firing high to ensure she didn’t hit anyone, then adjusted her aim based on what she saw.

  She eased her fire lower, tearing up the wall above the cultists’ heads and raining debris down on them to slow their return fire.

  Ka’nak dropped to a knee beside her and tore up the street in front of them as the cultists moved behind cover.

  Maddox and Geroux held their ground, unable to get in a clean shot without exposing themselves.

  By then, Reynolds had reached the other side and started forward, weapon up and firing to continue driving the cultists back. He could hear their strained voices as they snapped off sloppy shots around the corner, trying to keep the crew back, but it was obvious they weren’t interested in making a last stand in the streets.

  “Push,” Reynolds called when he realized the cultists were retreating, the amount of return fire dropping to a trickle as he imagined Jora’nal making a break for it.

  Jiya, Ka’nak, and Maddox complied without hesitation, Geroux following them to watch their six.

  As a unit, they pushed forward, Reynolds on the right, the rest to the left.

  One of the cultists turned back to fire at them, only to lose both his hand and his weapon to one of Jiya’s blasts.

  He screamed and stumbled into the street, clutching the mangled wreck of his hand. Ka’nak shot him dead.

  Another cultist stepped out as if to pull his companion under cover, but Reynolds rewarded his efforts with a hole in his chest. The cultist flew back, eyes wide, dead before his corpse hit the ground.

  Reynolds reached the corner first, stepping over a cultist’s body to glance around the edge. He caught sight of the remaining cultists as they turned a corner at the end of the alley, leaving the space empty of combatants.

  He waved the crew on as he raced after Jora’nal and his people.

  “On your six,” Jiya announced as the crew sprinted behind him, spread out to make use of the limited cover available to them.

  Once they reached the end of the alley, it was clear they hadn’t needed to.

  Jora’nal was outright fleeing.

  He’d arranged for one of his people to hold his ground down the street a bit, a straggler meant to delay them a few seconds longer while he got the hell out of there.

  Reynolds didn’t oblige him.

  He took the corner at a run and went straight at the cultist.

  A wild shot grazed Reynolds’ shoulder, but that was the closest the cultist got to taking him out.

  The AI snapped off three shots, blowing two holes in the cultist’s chest and turning his face into hamburger.

  The male’s smoking body collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut while Reynolds pressed forward, his crew at his heels.

  He caught a glimpse of Jora’nal’s people as they ran across the street a block away and ducked into a building there, disappearing from sight. Reynolds moved to the edge of the alley and peered at the door the cultists had gone through.

  He snarled, seeing the reinforced steel of it staring back at him.

  They’d found the cultists’ hideout.

  He raised a fist and drew the rest of the crew up short. They positioned themselves safely out of the line of fire and trained their weapons on the building across the way.

  “The rats have holed up,” Jiya muttered.

  “We need to make sure they stay that way,” Geroux added, tugging her sleeve up and tapping at her wrist computer.

  After a quick moment, she grunted.

  “Looks like they were prepared for us,” she told the crew. “This area is a dead-scan zone. I’m not getting any sort of signal from inside that place.” She gestured to the building the cultists had hidden in.

  “Will you know if they reach out?” Reynolds asked.

  She shook her head. “Unfortunately, no,” she admitted. “They’ve got the systems locked down tight.”

  “Does that mean they won’t be able to communicate from within there?” Jiya asked.

  “They most likely still can,” Geroux said. “They probably have a hardline setup that will allow them to reach out to a relay, which will forward the connection from there. It’ll be a little slower than real time, but it’s effective when you want to keep anyone from eavesdropping on your conversations.”

  “Can you hack the system?” Reynolds asked.

  “Already working on it, but with no signal going into the building and no transmissions to latch onto, it’s going to be difficult,” the young tech answered with a shrug.

  Reynolds growled.

  Jora’nal was so close! Reynolds wanted to kick down the door and storm the building, but he knew that was a bad idea.

  But the longer he let the slimy asshole hunker down inside, the more surprises he could spring on the crew.

  Reynolds had to get inside, but his priority was making sure Jora’nal didn’t slip out the back while they stood there wondering what the cultist was up to.

  “I’ve apprised the Reynolds of our situation and told them to keep a closer eye on the Pillar and the surrounding space,” Reynolds advised. “As for us, let’s form a perimeter, one on each corner of the building to make sure our precious little quarry doesn’t slip away from us.”

  Geroux grinned and reached into a bag concealed beneath her outfit. She pulled out a handful of small black circles the size of insects.

  “I have a better idea.”

  Chapter Four

  Aboard the SD Reynolds, Asya paced in front of the captain’s chair after Reynolds’ message, her eyes on the Pillar.

  “Does your fidgeting serve a purpose?” Tactical asked her.

  “It’s that, or I start shooting things,” she replied with a grin.

  She could almost hear the AI personality shrug. “I don’t see a problem with that.”

  “You wouldn’t,” she countered.

  The bridge went silent again, but only for a moment.

  “I just really hate waiting,” Asya admitted, chuckling. “At least down on the planet, the rest of the crew are seeing some action. All we’re doing is sitting on our hands and babysitting an alien spaceship. It’d be nice if there was something for us to do.”

  “Ask, and you shall receive,” XO stated. “It looks as if the Pillar is getting ready to do something. Shields are rising to full, and their weapons systems are charging.”

  “Gravitic shields to full and keep those shitheads in our sights,” Asya ordered in response. “Are they maneuvering?”

  “Engines are idling,” XO reported, “but I’m not seeing any sign that they’re going to turn around and unload on us. It looks to me more like they are adjusting to a war footing, looking to intimidate us more than anything. It’s likely a response to what’s going on dirtside.”

  “Two can play that game.” Asya laughed. “Warm up the ESD. Its energy signature is so unique that the Asparian defense system won’t recognize it, but those bastards aboard the Pillar most certainly will.”

  “You think that’s a good idea?” XO questioned.

  “Scanners aren’t showing any reaction to the Pillar’s escalation by the defense structure, so I’m thinking they have a policy of reaction rather than preemptive action,” she explained.

  The lack of movement by the dock’s weaponry seemed to back that theory up. While none of the weapons already trained on the superdreadnought moved, no additional weapons were targeted on them
.

  “As long as we don’t open fire, we should be fine, since our adjustment is obviously in response to theirs,” she went on, pointing at the Pillar.

  “What’s the worst that could happen?” Tactical asked with a laugh.

  No one bothered to answer the question.

  “Ensign, keep us in place, but I want you ready to Gate or initiate evasive maneuvers at the first hint that the Pillar is going to fire on us, understood?” Asya ordered.

  “Yes, sir,” Ria replied, her focus fully on the console in front of her.

  “Hey, Takal!” Asya called over the comm, opening a channel to the inventor’s lab. “You have those trackers up and ready to go?”

  “They’re cloaked and loaded,” Takal reported back. “They’ll go out amidst the railgun fire should you need to tag them. There are approximately a thousand of the trackers loaded intermittently in place of rounds to ensure at least one of them will penetrate the enemy hull and activate effectively.”

  Asya laughed at the ingenuity of Takal integrating the tracking devices into the railgun system. There was no way in hell the Pillar would be capable of determining there were trackers interspersed among the railgun rounds. They’d simply think they were being fired upon and react accordingly, giving the devices a chance to punch a hole in their shields and go to work.

  “The Pillar’s targeting us with its guns in response to the ESD charging,” Tactical reported, “but there’s still no evidence they intend to open fire.”

  “They want us to go first, so we trigger the Asparian defense system and have to fight everyone all at once,” Asya said, shaking her head. “Not going to happen, assholes.” She laughed, flipping off the onscreen image of the Pillar.

  “Looks like we’ve got ourselves a good, old-fashioned Cold War going on,” Tactical stated. “Don’t blink, folks.”

  Jiya stood guard as Geroux let loose the swarm of miniature drones she’d showed them.

  Each no more than the size of a small cockroach, they darted off, nearly invisible in the city’s shadows. Jiya watched them disappear, marveling at her friend’s ingenuity.

  “How long have you had those things?” Jiya asked.

  “They’ve only been operational for a few days,” she admitted. “They’ve still got a few bugs…” She paused, letting the pun sink in before continuing, “But they’ll do what we need them to.”

  Jiya chuckled.

  “That was bad,” Ka’nak told the tech with a grunt.

  Geroux shrugged.

  Not more than a few seconds later, the mini-drones were in place, taking up residence all around the building and providing a steady feed to Geroux’s computer.

  She showed them the small screen, now split into a dozen viewpoints.

  “They’re positioned so that there’s no way out of the building without being seen by at least one of the drones,” Geroux reported.

  “Above ground, at least,” Reynolds countered.

  Geroux growled, “Damn it! I didn’t think of that.”

  “Who knows how long he’s been working on this place?” Maddox said. “Or how much capital they’ve put into it. Even if they just started on it after they arrived three weeks ago, they could have a network of tunnels underground they could use to sneak out through.”

  “Can you scan the ground beneath us?” Reynolds asked.

  Geroux shook her head. “Not with any efficiency. I’d have to narrow the scan so tight that I’d literally be forced to scan centimeters at a time for any hope of accuracy. There’s no way to do that quickly, or with any real hope of success.”

  “What about your bugs?” Jiya asked. “Can you slip one inside the building to spy on them?”

  Geroux brightened. “I can try.”

  She fished another of the drones out of her pouch and activated it. It hovered silently in front of her as she programmed its commands.

  “I’m setting it up so it can operate independently without requiring a communications stream from my computer,” Geroux explained. “That would make it so it doesn’t immediately become disabled once it crosses the dead-zone threshold.

  “It will have to come out to report to us, but it should be able to cross the barrier and slip inside if it can find an opening.”

  She finished her adjustments and sent the drone on its way.

  The tiny thing shot across the street so fast that it was hard for Jiya to keep her eyes on it.

  The drone darted along the face of the building, seeking an entrance to the interior. It never found one.

  A few seconds later, there was a beep at Geroux’s wrist, warning of a system’s failure, and the drone dropped from the sky. It struck the ground with the barest of metallic tinks.

  “What happened?” Jiya wondered.

  “The barrier,” Geroux growled. “It’s apparently designed to deflect any electronic signal that tries to cross it. They zapped my bug.”

  “Will that affect us if we try to enter the building?” Reynolds asked.

  “No.” She shook her head. “None of your circuitry, or that of our equipment, is so sensitive as to be impacted by it like the drones are. The barrier is set up to keep listening devices and tracers from crossing its border intact, nothing more.”

  “And there’s no sign of movement anywhere around the building?” the AI continued.

  “None,” Geroux replied. “Our target is holed up inside or has another way out, but they haven’t attempted to leave the place in any traditional way.”

  “Asya’s reporting the Pillar is powering up and staring them down,” Maddox commented, “but they haven’t opened up as of yet.”

  “Tell her to stand by and wait them out,” Reynolds ordered. “Jora’nal is trying to split our focus, maybe hoping we’ll rush off and return to the ship because of the escalation.”

  “It does make it clear that he has a direct line out of there, though,” Jiya pointed out. “That makes me think he’s feeling the pressure because he didn’t expect us to catch up to him so soon.”

  Reynolds nodded his agreement of her assessment, but that meant either Jora’nal was trapped inside the building and was searching for a way out or he was simply distracting them as he slipped away.

  Neither boded well.

  Time was up.

  “We need to get inside,” Reynolds stated matter-of-factly. “Geroux, remain outside. Cloak and stay out of sight while you keep track of the drone feeds. If anyone tries to leave the building, it’ll be on you to stop them from doing it. Understood?”

  “Yes, sir,” the young tech replied, moving to the side of the alley and triggering her cloaking device.

  Only the advances of Takal’s tech allowed them to register her as she disappeared from all visual sensors.

  It was an eerie and awesome sight, Jiya had to admit.

  Geroux’s disembodied voice came across the comm. “We’re still secure around the perimeter,” she announced.

  “Then it’s time to go,” Reynolds said.

  “We taking the door?” Maddox asked, assessing the reinforced metal of the portal.

  Reynolds laughed. “I’m thinking the wall.”

  While his scans were ineffective at reaching the interior of the building, they worked well enough to examine the structure, at least on the surface level.

  Jora’nal either hadn’t had time to reinforce the walls or he simply hadn’t bothered, but Reynolds could pinpoint its weak spots, and there were plenty of them. The building hadn’t been designed to ward off a concerted attack of the ferocity Reynolds could muster.

  The AI pointed at a particularly weak area of the wall just to the right of the secure door. “That’s where we’re going through.”

  “I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Jiya warned before Reynolds could start on his plan.

  “Why’s that?” the AI asked.

  “Our scans are being cut off at the door,” she started. “Geroux won’t know what’s going on inside, and we won’t know what’s going on out her
e.”

  Reynolds glanced over to where Geroux stood cloaked, and Jiya could practically see him thinking.

  “This could be the trap he was leading us into the entire time,” Jiya went on. “There’s no telling what’s inside the building. He took the time to defend it against spying devices but he didn’t bother to reinforce anything more than the doors?”

  “I hate when you make sense,” Reynolds grumbled.

  He wouldn’t put it past Jora’nal to be crafty enough to put their trap fears at ease by letting them stumble across him while he appeared frazzled and desperate, then to spring the real trap on them once they were inside.

  “What do you suggest?” he asked Jiya.

  “We need to do some more recon before we commit to anything,” she replied.

  “That means someone still needs to get inside, seeing as how none of Geroux’s drones can,” the AI countered.

  “Then we merge plans. Go with a bit of what they expect us to do, and mix it up from there.”

  She turned to Geroux, who deactivated her cloak to make conversation less creepy.

  “If you were to get a drone inside, could you program it to seek out the communication blocker and shut it down?” Jiya asked.

  “It would need to be deactivated when it went through the barrier and shielded in something,” Geroux said. “Then it might be possible.”

  “So, if I stuff it in my armor and cross the barrier with the drone off, would it make it through?” Jiya pressed.

  Geroux nodded. “I believe so, yeah.”

  “Then get a couple programmed,” she told her friend as she shrugged free of her loose clothing, shedding it to reveal the armor beneath.

  “Is this your way of volunteering to go inside to reconnoiter the place?” Reynolds asked, an eyebrow raised.

  “It makes sense,” she answered. “If this is a trap, then just one of us slipping inside cloaked will make it much easier to avoid getting caught up in a confrontation.” She motioned to Geroux. “It will also make sure we’re not being lured inside and giving them an opportunity to take out Geroux while we’re out of touch.”

  “But you’ll be out of touch still,” Maddox clarified. “As will the drones.”