END of LINE: Humanities Last Stand - part 3 (27 page)

“We're clear, sir.” the nav officer told Zeprik.

“Very well, make your best speed back out of the system. Lets go hide until Mercury gets here. Coms, get me a secure channel to Butcher.” Zeprik ordered
before turning control of the ship back over to the TransCo. Administrator.

In a few seconds Zeprik contacted Jon. “You've got just under two hours Butcher. Go see how much mayhem you can cause before Mercury arrives. Don't forget
to come back for us.” Turning to Eyes who had put his uniform on again and walked onto the bridge, Zeprik ordered, “Eyes, go see if one of our guys can
hack into that thing. I want to have control of everything it does before Mercury arrives and the real party begins.”

As the instalation techs flew back to their base on the surface on Canari Prime one of them said, "Something wasn't right about that last Destroyer."

"What?" his partner asked.

"I'm not sure. Something just didn't smell right."

"It smelt fine to me. Maybe they had just taken their monthly bath."

Far inside the ring of ships surrounding the planet Canari Prime, so named because it was the largest of the rocky planets in the Canari star system, Jon
waited as he worked to keep his attack shuttle hidden from the pirates above them in space. He hoped that the pirates would not be expecting an attack to
come at them from the surface. He was in the perfect location to surprise at least the first three ships he and the other two shuttles planned to attack.
His target was the pirate's engines. A couple of well placed shots would cripple the pirate ships and make them easy prey for the grubs who would come later to
take command of the ships and their crews.

Plotting out his targets, Jon picked the largest of the pirate ships for himself. His shuttle carried a full load of twenty missiles that, if he fired two
at each ship and they hit in the right spots, could cripple ten ships with relative ease. The hard part with so many armed ships packed together so
closely, would be getting between them to take his shots.

As soon as Defiance had cleared the construction docks, using tight beam coms, Jon gave the order and each of the three attack shuttles went into action.
Coming up from different places around Canari, each of the shuttles went after the largest ships in their sectors. Jon's happened to be the largest. A 4 engine,
cruiser with double rows of laser cannon along each side. This meant he'd need to expend four missiles instead of just two, then avoid being blown out of the sky by those cannons, but it could not be helped. That ship would still be lethal with only two engines to power its systems. It was important to disable as many of the big ships as it was to destroy the smaller ones. Coming up at max throttle, Jon yanked the shuttle around and fired off his first two missiles. Then he took them straight up without changing the direction of his shuttle. In other words, he went from vertical flight with the nose pointing up, to vertical flight with the nose pointing forward in seconds and fired his second pair of
missiles into the remaining two engines. The resulting explosions rocked the shuttle as the main drives exploded and became just so much charred rubble
floating in space and the pirate ship was disabled. Continuing up and over the top of the now ruined ship, Jon zeroed in on his next target. This one was a
twin-engine cutter and easily went dark as two more of Jon's missiles impacted her drives.

The ship he had picked as his next target had three engines arrayed in a tight cluster at the rear. He'd seen this engine cluster before and knew that this
target had sharper teeth. It would have aft facing cannon that could fire back at him. He took the chance anyway and after moving to make it appear that he
planned to fly by this one, he dropped the nose and fired directly into the center of the three engines. His missiles slammed into the aim point and
blasted through to the engineering section before unleashing their explosive charges and ripping the entire rear section of the ship away, taking the
engines and the deadly rear facing cannons with it. Both pieces of the ship spun into the atmosphere and burned up taking its entire pirate crew with them.

Checking his racks after several more successful attacks, he saw that he had exactly two missiles left and so chose another twin engine ship. This one was
a small cruiser with rear facing guns as well as a full broadside of plasma cannon. Whoever was on the pirate ship decided to fight, so Jon jerked his
shuttle into a dive and came straight in to deliver his last shots. The pirates tried to hit his smaller ship but all they managed to do was blow away
another of their pirate friends who had the misfortune to get in their line of fire. Jon took advantage of the pirate's foolhardiness and flew his shuttle
in taunting circles around the pirates. They fired every gun they had and ended up being blown out of the sky by other pirates who had been hit by the
smaller ship’s frantic bombardments!

As Jon left the action to head out to the system rim to pick up his team of Grubs a quick check of the aft viewer showed the pirates still firing on each
other and Jon's team of shuttles all heading out to rejoin their own ship. Again, using only the tight beam for coms Jon asked, “How did we do?”

“I got all ten I went after, you should have seen them all light up though when the others started shooting at each other and at them.” Team 2 commed.
“Those idiots will have blown themselves to the Goddess before we get back to take the ships. Most fun I've had in ages.”

“Same here Butcher” Team 3 reported.

“Gee now I feel like I missed all the fun. I only got eight.” Jon told them.

“Yeah Butcher, are you slacking off now that you own another pretty new ship or was it the extra missiles you used on that big bad four engine job with all
of its cannon s blasting away at you as you flew over it?”

“You weren't supposed to see that one Kamioi” Team 3's pilot commed. “Butcher doesn't like it when we catch him doing the heroic stuff.”

Calling the Defiance, Jon told the teams of waiting grubs to be in the hold and ready to board the shuttles as they came in. There would be no time to
pressurize the hold, so the grubs would meet them in their pressure suits and jump into the shuttles as they floated on their gavlifts rather than the
usual full landing and shut down routine. They had practiced this many times and only two of the grubs stumbled when they missed the jump into their
shuttle. Their buddies grabbed them both and tossed them inside. In the zero gravity of space, even a large male in a pressure suit and full battle armor weighted nothing and was easily tossed about when two more large, well muscled males with enhanced nanoid tech in their veins grabbed them and threw them through the vacuum. Stopping the thrown
grub before his flying bulk did any serious damage sometimes became a problem. “Everybody in place?” Jon commed to his grub team.

“Close the door and lets go Butcher!” Rik commed excitedly. He had not even gotten near the battle yet and the adrenaline was already pumping the nanoids
into a frenzy in his body. His muscles were wound up like tight springs waiting to burst at an enemy. Jon hit the control to lock the rear ramp and
throttled up to head back to the inner system and the now derelict pirate ships. Those that had survived the fighting were either still blasting away at
their own friendly ships or trying to escape by running for slipways. Jon had not taken the time to rearm any of the shuttles, mainly because the captured
Destroyer did not carry fresh missiles for them. So this mission would be to simply get his teams of grubs onto the biggest of the ships below. Had there
been any missiles available and had he taken the time for reloading, he would have been better prepared for what happened next.

Space began to swirl into a vortex and the bulk of the Mercury came racing into the Canari system with her guns already hot and her scanners beaming across
the system to better “see” what they had slipped into. The first thing she picked up was a heavily armored Destroyer class ship parked in a high
orbit outside of the slip zone. “This is the Mercury, currently under contract to Peacekeeper Patrol to the Destroyer class ship stationed in orbit near
our entry point.. Identify yourself.”

“This is the Defiance. Currently under the BBITCo flag by right of salvage.” Jinkly told the Peacekeeper commander. “Admiral Connell is not available right
now. He is leading a team of assault troops down to the ships in orbit around Canari Prime. We have evidence that this is the base of pirate operations on
the rim. He and his brave pilots disabled many of those ships and he is taking Peacekeeper forces down to capture the crews before destroying the ships. I
understand that is normal operating procedures on missions such as this.”

“Can you join the fight Defiance?”

“We have a civilian crew onboard. We can try though.”

“Come along side. We will shuttle a combat crew over to you.” The military commander onboard the Mercury commed to the Defiance. Then he called down to
Phillmma, “Wrenches, it looks like your boss has a new ship. You want to lead a combat team over to take command of a Destroyer?”

“How did he find a new ship out here? Never mind. I'll meet the shuttle and head over there.”

The Commander then called Jon, “Butcher, this is Mercury, is your ship still armed?”

“No sir. We used all of our missiles. We are currently transporting the grubs to take the ships we've taken off line.”

“Change of plans Butcher. Have your teams join with our ground pounders on the surface. Let's clean out this nest of vermin once and for all.”

“How long sir?”

“I'm sending a command crew over to your new ship. Wrenches will be in command. Then I'm heading straight in. I'll launch everything I've got when I'm
closer. Make it another thirty minutes and I'll be heading into the fight.”

“Understood, sir.” Having received new orders, Jon told his grub team to relax. They would be slowing and waiting for Mercury to come closer in before
dropping to the surface for a ground attack. They'd be assigned a target as soon as the battle plans were finalized.

Helios King was finally going to see action! So far the most he'd been called to do was guard prisoners as they awaited trials for piracy on the colonies
where Connell had captured them in space with that bunch of grubs under the command of the Crown Prince! He'd joined the Peacekeepers because of Connell
and that lousy Enforcer back on Haven pressing charges against him. Two could play that game with pleading for Option 3 at trial. Now that he was here, he
wanted to make a name for himself. Then came the announcement that changed everything.

They were about to launch a ground attack on Canari Prime! For as long as he could remember, his father had been bringing him here to meet with his uncle
and learn how the family really made their money. He'd be attacking his own family’s estates! Maybe even his uncle's weapons design factories. Somehow,
despite his cleverly hidden spy cameras, he had missed the planning of this attack. Had he known, he'd have gotten word to his family and at least they
would have had time to get off the planet. He’d used his cameras to learn that despite him still playing at being a shuttle Pilot, Connell actually owned
the ship he’d been assigned to. Now there was only one thing to do. He'd sneak away from his unit, something he'd done many times before, steal a ground
vehicle, and get to his uncle before the rest of the attack teams could. If he could not save his uncle, he'd make sure nothing ever came back to point at
his father.

“How did we finally find the pirates planet?” Helios asked another trooper.

“The Colonel said Butcher somehow managed to track a Destroyer through the slipway and followed it here before taking command of it and then attacking the
ships orbiting the planet.” he was told. “He found evidence on that ship about this place being off the star charts and being the base for the pirates
operations on the rim.”

Connell again! Every time he thought things were going to go well for him, that freak Connell managed to steal his glory. This time he'd stolen an entire
ship that was supposed to be run by his family and maybe be given to him to command once he was discharged from the Peacekeepers! Connell was going to pay
and so would that sorry excuse for a Prince! Imagine a Royal playing soldier and not asserting his right to command. To Helios King such a thing was
unthinkable. If he were the Prince, he'd make darn sure everyone knew who he was. They would all be serving his every desire! He would be giving the
orders, not taking them!

Once his team had launched from the shuttles and dropped down to the ground, Helios made sure that he lagged behind everyone else. He knew exactly where
they had landed and also knew it was just a few short minutes to reach one of the slave labor farms. Stealing a vehicle from the farm would be easy once he
removed his armor so the labor enforcers could identify him. Hiding the armor behind some rocks proved to be the easy part. Alerted to the Peacekeeper
presence, the labor enforcers were all jumpy and he was nearly shot several times as he approached the labor camps.

“Will you idiots stop shooting at me!” Helios yelled from his hiding spot behind one of the large harvesting machines. “I need to get to my uncle!”

“Helios!? Is that you boy?” one of the enforcers called out. “What the heck are you doing here? Your father isn't due until next month.”

“I've come to warn my uncle. I'll need a vehicle. That Connell freak found the planet and is leading a Peacekeeper attack against the town. His troops will be in
position soon.”

“Here.” the enforcer said as he tossed a set of keys at Helios and pointed to a land vehicle parked near by. “Take that one. Make sure you bring it back in
one piece though.”

Running off without thanking the enforcer, Helios jumped in the vehicle and tore off toward town and his uncle’s bar. He reached the town limits and never
slowed until he slid to a stop in front of the only remaining tavern in the town. His uncle had removed the only competition when he’d had the other tavern
owner and his family killed. Here was where his uncle oversaw every aspect of his weapons design factories that were located three towns over in a large
city. Large for this planet anyway. The entire population consisted of a few people who made a living at the diners and stores, but most of the people
worked for his uncle at the factory or as guards on the slave labor farms. The weapons that were being fitted to the pirate ships out in space had been
designed and developed there and later tested out on the plains using satellites as launch platforms.