Star Brigade: Resurgent (Star Brigade Book 1) (40 page)

“I’m not getting any ship readings,” V’Korram growled.

“Of course you wouldn’t, you’re not a Thulican,” Khrome said impatiently.

“Reign!” Honaa hissed at Habraum, pointing to the viewport. The Cerc turned and then saw it.

In front of them a flickering energy pattern roiled and rippled. Habraum braced himself. Suddenly, the second ship appeared onscreen. Habraum noted it larger size compared to the
Raider
ship, but bearing the same design. But why this ship dropped shroud in the middle of battle was what struck him and the rest of the team as bizarre. Whatever just happened, Habraum knew not to squander the opening.

Tyris already let loose before the word, “Fire!” left Habraum’s mouth. In reprisal, the new
Raider
ship’s batteries started glowing red and the shimmering outline of its shields began to take shape.

But the
Phaeton’s
photon charges struck first, brutalizing the ship with sizzling intensity. Habraum grinned as Honaa circled all around the
Raider
ship so Tyris could hit its vital spots.
Brilliant teamwork.

A swelling orange plume from the rear marked the destruction of the
Raider’s
engine drives; another bright rupture from its nose signaled the weapons ports’ utter ruin. Tyris finished the trifecta by drilling the shield generator and communications projector dead-on with a low-charged protobomb. The ensuing flare-up on the
Raider’s
portside rocked the
Phaeton’s
shields, but caused no damage.

Somehow the enemy ship managed to spurt off one last z-bomb. Honaa calmly and promptly rolled to port. “Neutrino shots this time, Arcturus,” Habraum ordered coolly. “Modify to disable the Korvenites onboard, too.”

Bluish energy ripped out of the
Phaeton’s
weapons ports, sizzling across the hull of the wounded vessel. Now it floated without direction like its sister craft nearby.

“Wow,” Habraum sighed and slumped in his seat, adrenaline turning the blood in his veins into electricity. Definitely not the way he envisioned his team’s first field mission, but thankfully they survived. And something told him that it was far from over. He glanced around the bridge, taking in his team’s reactions. “How we doing kids?”

Everyone’s response was audible and positive. At this, Liliana started in her seat like one jolted awake. She scurried to the medical station for the medical tools at her disposal and back to the still-unconscious Liddell at helm.

“I’m a perfect 10 now with comm’s back on,” replied Sam confidently as she punched away at her console. “Sent a distress signal to the nearest UComm vessel for assistance.”

Khrome’s eyes were still fixated on the viewscreen, searching for whatever he sensed earlier. Habraum glanced over at comms and Sam. “Can you raise the mining structure?”

“Nope,” she replied. “There are some totally blacked out areas all over the six asteroids. No comms, nothing. But I got a schematic of VanoTech’s mining facility in Barsulae. Sending it to the bridge table now.” Sam crossed her legs and swiveled her seat in one fluid motion to face the bridge table. Habraum, Khrome, Tyris and V’Korram all gathered around, as an identical 3-D wire diagram of the mining station winked into existence on the bridge table’s TriTran. Honaa turned in that direction from his seat at the helm. Liliana glanced over while on her knees treating Liddell’s injury. Several tiny, multihued dots moved all over the diagram, signifying the different species aboard the facility. Adding to this were pulsing regions throughout the asteroid cluster diagram, detailing heavy mining still in progress.

Habraum craned his neck forward. “We got a whole lot of humans, Nnaxans, some Cressonish here and there, plus,” he pointed to the cluster of green dots in the largest asteroid, “twenty Korvenites.”

“Maybe more miners than
Phaeton
can hold,” Tyris said, his cobalt eyes narrowing to slits of black.

“And it’s in one of the blacked out areas,” Sam jabbed her index finger at the biggest dot cluster.

“But can we get them from the station onto the ship without any problems?” Habraum turned to Khrome, who was still staring off at the viewport.

“Not with standard transmatting,” Liliana chimed in, finishing up on a more alert looking Liddell. The svelte doctor hurried from helm control as if its very air was toxic, sliding easily into her seat. “Since none of those miners have UComm combands, the pure sollunium ore will interfere.”

Everyone stared at her. “And here I thought you were a medical doctor,” Sam mused.

Liliana shrugged awkwardly. “I collect rocks as a hobby.”

“It’s GONE!” Khrome suddenly shouted, his metallic timbre catching Habraum off-guard. “Where did it go?” For the first time in memory, Habraum heard fear in Khrome’s voice.

“Khrome—,” Tyris began impatiently.

“Ty, don’t start.” Khrome waved off the Tanoeen’s admonishment with a mitt-sized hand. “I sensed some type of Cybernarr presence out there. Now it’s hiding.”

The room went silent. Habraum stared at the Thulican in dawning horror.
It can’t be,
he thought to himself. Marguliese can’t be here already.
The Cerc noticed the others turning from Khrome to him, puzzled looks on their faces. Everything was happening too fast. He planned on telling them about Marguliese on his terms. Not like this. Not right now.

“Lieutenant.
Focus
,” Habraum barked, as much for the Thulican as for himself. “We have KIF operatives on that mining station.
Not
Cybernarr. It’s another Korvenite trick.” The lie nearly caught in his throat, but somehow Habraum forced it out.

The Thulican seemed to steady after hearing that, rubbing his flat head. “I’m sure I could find a way to punch through the transmatting static sollunium creates. But even for me it would take fifty to fifty-five macroms.”

“Macroms those hostages don’t have,” V’Korram pointed out.

Khrome gave him a hardened look. “Thanks for the PSA, Furball. But there’s a way to get them in less time than what my genius in transmatter sciences can provide.” He sprang from his seat and to the tech station with surprising speed for his bulkiness. Habraum watched calmly as Khrome rummaged through some utility slots of his tech station and pulled out a miniature blue sphere in his hand.

“A teleglobe,” Honaa slapped a hand on the table heartily. It was a weapon used to transmat several sentients at close range to a preprogrammed location, which would be the
Phaeton
in this case.

By the wide-eyed look on Liliana’s face, she already knew how they had to be used. “That means entering the mining asteroid.”

“Yep!” Khrome nodded far too enthusiastically.

Habraum almost refused him outright.
Almost
. This combat team was simply not ready for any field mission. But the hostages on that mining station were counting on his next decision.

“Heatstroke,” Habraum turned to Sam, using her code name. “How soon will the closest UComm vessel arrive?”

“An orv at least,” she said without even looking at her data displays. Habraum could sense her keenness to get on that station from across the bridge.

Skyfather’s cock!
the Cerc almost spat, but caught himself. He observed the mining station display for a moment and turned to his combat team,
his
Star Brigade. “Alright then, everyone grab two teleglobes and get ready. It’s game time.”

Within ten macroms, the team stood fully suited for battle in the
Phaeton
cargo bay. Each Brigadier had on Khrome’s psi-damper earpiece plus two teleglobes in their utility belts. V’Korram found a location on the largest asteroid totally blind to the mining facility’s sensors. That way the Brigade could mask their transmat into the mining facility.

The mix of tension and emotions among the Brigadiers colored the air, no matter how well veiled. Khrome’s eyes still wandered, trying to sense the cybernetic presence. Liliana’s whole carriage was a portrait of fear. Honaa’s steely gaze and thin-lipped muzzle betrayed only determination.

“Liddell,” Habraum said to helm control via the
Phaeton’s
comm system. “Make sure those ships stay put. Drill them with neutrino shots if you see even a twitch.”

“Aye, sir,” the young man answered.

“I’m guessing we shouldn’t damage those mines too much, no?” Sam asked, eager like a kid.

Habraum regarded her coolly. “Unless it helps stopping the KIF or rescuing those miners, I can’t bring myself to care.” He knew full well these mines were the property of VanoTech, the interplanetary megaconglomerate owned by the richest earthborn human family in the Union—the Vanowens. The Cerc reckoned that anyone wealthy enough to build their own private moon would barely sneeze at damages to this minor subsidiary.

Habraum checked his golden gauntlets one last time and sighed, his own worries hidden beneath a steely mask and a familiar rush of adrenaline.
Time to go to work.
“Right, then. Take us down, Ensign.”

Liddell responded with a comm click. The well-lit cargo bay then shimmered around Habraum and his combat team, vanishing into a wash of glittery white light.

For a brief nanoclic, Habraum felt the familiar yet tiresome sensation of transmatting tugging at him.
Or is that just my fears telling me how lollybrained this plan is?
The transmat shimmer quickly faded into walls of obsidian rock and blinking silver consoles. Glancing around, Habraum found himself and CT-1 at the end of a long, wide corridor with similar fortification designs along its darkened stretch. The corridor itself was a four metrid-high circle cutting straight through the asteroid’s stony ore. This particular area looked to be still under construction, explaining why the
Phaeton
detected no working sensors. Sam, Honaa and Liliana all whipped out their corresponding datapad scanners at once, probing for any helpful statistics.

“The hostages are near, as is the stink of death,” V’Korram growled quietly as he sunk into a fighting crouch, sniffing in the direction of the gaping corridor hole.

“I’ll set up a cloaking perimeter around us with my datapad,” Sam whispered, hooking the device back to her belt. “They won’t detect us once we reach any active sensors.”

“Good deal, Heatstroke,” Habraum whispered. “Move forward.” V’Korram took the lead on all fours. The rest of the combat team followed quickly and cautiously through the stony egress. Soon the light of the corridor faded, everyone slipped on their night vision lenses to compensate.

For several macroms, the team moved in silence. Aside from din of drills humming in the background, probably from the higher regions on the asteroid, there were no other sounds.

“I’m detecting around thirty sentients ahead,” Liliana said quietly in the dimness. “Two Korvenites.” Just then an intense halo of light appeared up ahead, now a bright fissure breaking through the darkness as CT-1 moved closer. Habraum silently motioned to V’Korram and Honaa, both the stealthiest on the team. Honaa, rigid in posture, slinked to the lead next to V’Korram as they went up to the crooked hole. The noticeable bristle in V’Korram’s fur told Habraum the sight ahead was not good.

Without another thought, Habraum walked ahead as easily as he could manage and almost fell forward at what he saw. In front of him was an expansive, spherical crater in the middle of the asteroid. Its walls, bejeweled in sparkly cobalt-tinted ore, stretched upward for several hundred metrids into pitch-black gloom. The depression itself was illuminated by several bright bulbous halolights rooted in various parts of the walls. The other side of the crater sported a sizeable rock cleft similar to where Habraum and CT-1 currently stood, but leading into another corridor laden with consoles and technology-grafted walls. As everyone removed their night vision goggles, the scene within this rock depression seized the Cerc’s attention—and revulsion.

About two dozen beings in tattered mining outfits sat shackled in the room’s center, guarded by two armored Korvenites. Not even a whimper escaped the prisoners, all rounded up in four groups of six. Habraum saw the guards and his throat tightened. Golden armor; the mark of a KIF Retributionary. Their deadliness was renowned. One Retributionary circled the captives on foot while the other flew above the prisoners with propulsion boots. Neither Korvenite noticed the seven Brigadiers bunched up in the tiny asteroid fissure to their right.

“HAH! My damper works,” Khrome bragged quietly.

“Shhhhhh!” Tyris’s reprimand cut like a harsh draft.

Something just beyond the far corner made Habraum recoil, a towering bloodied pile of something fleshy, but nothing identifiable.

“Reign,” Sam whispered in his ear. “We need to act soon. Crescendo and I detected several Korvenites two levels above us.”

Habraum turned from the grotesque sight and nodded. He crawled forward, gesturing Honaa and V’Korram toward their targets.

The two Brigadiers exploded into action, leaping at their targets as one. The airborne Retributionary never saw Honaa until the Rothorid was practically atop him. Honaa phased his talons through the Korvenite’s chestplate, fleetingly distorting the atomic bonds binding his foe with excruciating results. The Retributionary stiffened and fell from the air. Honaa yanked his hands out and landed on all fours.