Smuggler's Dilemma (37 page)

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, I yelled, doing my best to keep up. The hallway was only a meter taller than we were and the two of us, not to mention Nick, filled all available space. We simply ran through the first group of defenders who'd hastily set up.

"Blow the lift," I said. We'd covered the hundred meters in short order and the remaining pirates in the hallway had taken cover, poking out to take potshots at us. Nick, who trailed, kept them busy by firing back, but so far their weapons were unable to penetrate our armor.

Marny accepted my recommendation and fired a salvo of explosives. The fascia of the elevator exploded shortly after, exposing the open shaft.

"Cover me," she said.

We'd come to a 'T' in the hallway. I spun down, taking a knee, covering ninety degrees to the port side which included looking back down the hallway. Nick had either taken care of our initial attackers or, more likely, they'd gotten smart and weren't trading rounds with a superior, mechanized force. I knew he'd be oriented just like me on the starboard side. I heard him firing, but didn't spend any effort to see what he was into. If he needed help, he'd say something.

"Got it," Marny said.

"What?" I asked.

"Had to blow the elevator cars," she said. "We're Oscar Mike," and she stepped into the shaft.

She disappeared upward, arc-jets pushing hard. I jumped in behind her and followed her up.

"Move now, Nick," I said.

"On your six," he replied.

Marny hovered for a moment several decks up and pushed her way through the un-armored elevator doors.

"You overshot," I said to her. We were two decks above where the bridge would be.

"Aye. Let's go."

I followed her out. The hallways were empty.

"In here." She pushed her way through a closed door.

"It's like there's no one on this ship," I said.

"Aye. They're short staffed. It's not like pirates grow on trees. Mars Navy took out a whole fleet of 'em. If the other fleet's on patrol, you can bet they took the biggest and meanest," Marny said.

"Trees?" I didn't get what she was saying, but the biggest and meanest thing made sense.

"Never mind. Stay on target," she said. "Blow the floor, I've marked it for you."

I wondered what she had in mind, but wasn't about to ask. We were in combat and speed was important. My HUD showed the location and even showed a suggested explosive load. I raised my left arm and the grenades blooped out in a circular pattern.

"Clear," I said and we all ducked out into the hallway, at least as much ducking as you can do in a two hundred kilogram mechanized infantry suit. Three seconds later, the explosion ripped out most of the walls causing me to stagger, but I didn't fall. The suit held up just fine.

"Same again. Nick, we'll need your explosives too," Marny said, having re-entered the smoldering room.

I followed her and looked into the hole, she'd marked the floor in the next room down. I finally understood her plan.

"This time we'll need more cover," she said and jumped out of the room into the hallway.

I leaned over the cratered floor and dropped the recommended spread as Nick did the same. By my estimation she'd nearly quadrupled the amount of ordinance. Again, I wasn't going to question it, but it seemed excessive.

"Clear." We sprinted back to where Marny had knelt down.

A massive explosion rocked the ship, at least in the vicinity where we were. Black smoke roiled up through the floor.

"Go!" Marny said. I followed her toward the raging fire and jumped through the hole. We fell down, landing on a hard surface.

I looked down and the outline of a large, armored, circular room became evident. It had to be the bridge. We were screwed. All we'd successfully accomplished was to burn away the decking around the bridge on the top and the sides, but it stood intact in front of us.

"Frak," Marny said. "That's no good."

Heavy automatic fire started stitching the air around us and we backed around the corner. They'd brought up some bigger guns.

"Stay down," Marny said. "Those babies can get through the suit."

"Retreat?" I asked.

"Not sure that'll work, Cap. It was a good try. We'll have to fight our way through those guns."

"Frak." The blasters they were firing at us ripped up the walls like they were made of paper. It was only the bridge that was giving us cover.

I peeked my head around the corner to see the advancement of a well-armored squad. They'd anticipated our destination and had set up for us. I sprayed automatic fire down the hallway and launched my remaining grenades.

"Outta grenades," I said.

Nick stepped around me and fired down the hallway. A lucky blaster shot caught his shoulder and it spun him back into the wall behind us. I grabbed him and pulled him back to cover while Marny unloaded automatic fire in response.

"I think this is trouble, Cap. No matter what happens, it's been a good run," she said.

"No time for that, Marny," I said. "Stay in the moment."

Big Pete had told me how to transfer munitions between suits and I locked into Nick's suit and vamped half of his remaining load. I spun and fired down the hallway. The pirates had stopped advancing, waiting for us to run out of ammo.

I switched to three shot and lobbed a smaller grenade at them. Unfortunately, it was batted down and exploded harmlessly in the hallway between us. I pulled back behind the corner.

"Nick, how are you doing?" I asked.

"Okay." It wasn't true, he was hurting. I could hear it in his voice.

We were in big trouble. We sat for a few minutes, which was a terrible thing to do, the pirates would be better able to organize. We needed a new plan, and now. At least Tabby would get away, I thought.

"Liam, honey, can you hear me?" A soft voice asked. It was soft enough I wondered if I was hearing things.

"What?"

"I was wondering if I could convince you not to fire if I opened this bridge door." It was Xie's voice, transmitting over the ship's public address. I was hearing it through my helmet.

"Okay," I said hesitantly. We really had no other options.

The armored exterior of the room we stood next to started to slide around, exposing a more normal looking door. The door opened, but it wasn't big enough to fit through with a mechanized suit.

"I need you to come in here," she said from around the corner, still not visible.

"Don't trust her," Nick said. "It's a trap."

"I don't see a choice, buddy," I said.

I turned my back to provide the best cover, opened the chest of the suit, and climbed out. Free of the suit, I skulked over to the door, trying to stay clear of the line of fire from the front line of pirates.

"See? I told you I could end this," Xie said to the man I recognized as Captain Jakab.

She was seated comfortably in a chair, unbound, with her legs crossed. She didn't appear to be under any duress.

"This is the famous Liam Hoffen?" he asked.

"And you captured him. What a hero that makes you," Xie said.

"You bitch." I couldn't believe she'd successfully played me. Again.

"Now, now, lover, don't be mad. I needed a ride home. Maybe I'll keep you as a pet," she said.

"Hah, that'd be funny. Close the bridge," Jakab said.

"You have another problem, though. Their ship is out there, just beyond the ring. The pilot's going to transmit our location if we don't get her," Xie said.

"Don't," I said, my eyes filling with tears.

"Don't be sentimental, lover. It's not personal."

END OF AN ERA

"Where?" Captain Jakab asked.

"I can locate it, but they have very strong stealth capacity. I need access to the sensors. And, lover, tell your friends to stand down. I'd hate to have to kill them, especially Nicholas." Xie's voice was silky smooth.

"Ensign Cagnina, provide Captain Mie-su access to the sensor station," he ordered.

"Sir? She's not in our command structure," Cagnina said.

"Ensign. That was an order. Captain Mie-su is a well-respected member of Red Houzi command."

"Yes, sir."

Xie pushed the ensign out of her way, pulling his pistol out of its holster as she did. She shot him in the head, killing him instantly.

Jakab fumbled with his side arm, finally pulling it out and levelling it at Xie, who'd placed her pistol on the station next to her.

"Tut-tut, Captain. That little bastard questions my captain in front of me? It's my duty to put him down," she said.

"That's cold." He put his weapon away, but I noticed that his hand shook as he did.

"Now, Liam," she gushed. "I
said
have Marny and Nick stand down. If they do, Captain Jakab will no doubt allow me to take them as my trophy."

"Of course," Jakab nodded, trying to sound magnanimous.

"There she is," Xie said. The outline of the
Hotspur
showed up on the vid screen in front of her.

"Don't, Xie," I said.

"Captain, would you allow me?" Xie asked.

"To?" Jakab asked.

"If you'll give me your code, I'll send a salvo of rockets off to send her along her way. It'd really mean a lot to me."

"0AB55AEC," he said.

Xie punched in the code.

"Captain, we have a problem," one of the three remaining crew said.

"What?" he asked, crossing to look at the vid screen.

Xie winked at me and lithely snaked her way out of the chair, drawing a nano-blade from the waist line of her suit. In a single, fluid movement she deployed the blade and ran it through the surprised Captain Jakab. In that same movement she also picked up the gun in front of her and levelled it at the remaining crew.

"My friends. You have only a few choices here. I've just destroyed the entire base and the
Bakunawa
is now under the control of my franchise. I've removed the head of my rival, in the best tradition of the Red Houzi, and rightfully claim what is mine," Xie said.

"Yes, Captain," they each replied and turned back to their stations.

All hands
, she commanded. "We've quelled the incursion and I'd like to welcome you all to the Blue Heron Franchise. As of this moment, you'll record your loyalty to this clan. We've got a mission of the utmost urgency and will be underway within the hour, please make necessary arrangements."

Xie turned back to me.

"Well, Admiral Hoffen. Your plan worked flawlessly. I hope you'll allow your humble servant to continue to serve," she said bowing.

"Seriously?"

"Well, to be honest, I thought some of the plan was a little rough around the edges, but it seemed to work out like you'd planned overall," she said, smiling widely.

I gulped back a breath. "You're scary."

"True enough," she replied.

"Nick, Marny, you need to come in here," I said after instructing the crew to open the bridge door.

Marny helped the limping Nick through the door, which we promptly closed again.

Xie explained that she knew the bridge would be well fortified. Promotion in the ranks of the Red Houzi was often accomplished by simple assassination. Without a strong show of force, the crew would never follow her. She fully expected there would be attempts to unseat her, but by controlling the bridge, we had a safe place to hunker down.

Safe passage had been granted to the
Hotspur
by Xie and Tabby had been escorted by Nick and Marny, both in their recharged mech suits, back up to the bridge. They'd brought along a crate of food and water at Xie's recommendation.

After a short period of recovery, one of the crew - we'd come to know him as Rhees - alerted us, "Captain, we have a problem."

"What's that?" Xie and I asked at the same time.

He looked between us and decided it was safer to simply answer us both.

"The fleet has returned and we're being hailed. Apparently, Admiral Batista would like an answer as to why the station has been destroyed," he said.

"Tell him there was a mishap with an arms load and that Captain Jakab is overseeing the cleanup," she said.

"But…" The crewman looked to Xie and then reconsidered. He conveyed her words.

"Admiral Batista would like a conference with you as soon as possible," he said.

"Absolutely. Put him on the comm," she said.

"What's going on, Captain? I authorized no change in leadership," he said.

The fleet had returned and consisted of a single destroyer, a corvette and five frigates. Ordinarily a fleet of terrifying proportion, but they looked puny on the holo projector when compared to the
Bakunawa
.

"After Captain Jakab blew up the outpost, I couldn't simply stand by anymore. I am at your mercy," she said, simpering.

"Heave-to and prepare to be boarded," he said.

"Aye, aye, Admiral." She closed the comm.

"What do you think, Liam? We could simply run. They can't do a thing to us."

"I want to end this," I said.

"By your command," Xie said. "Get me a firing solution on that destroyer."

"Sir?"

"Do it or I'll replace you with someone who will," she said.

"Aye, aye," he said.

All hands, battle stations
, Xie said.

I wasn't sure what to expect next. "Will they follow your commands?"

"They have no choice. Once I take provocative action, that destroyer will attack us with everything it has. They'll die if they don't," she said and turned to Rhees. "Fire when ready."

"Captain, they stand no chance. The
Teumessian
can't possibly withstand the barrage," he said.

"Good to be on the winning side, don't you think?"

"Yes, sir. We'll have a solution in twenty seconds," he said.

In all, the battle lasted less than ten minutes. Two of the frigates slipped away, but the other ships were completely destroyed. There was nothing to be done about the frigates, as they'd bolted at the first signs of aggression from the
Bakunawa
.

"Well, Admiral Hoffen. Do you have other orders? I believe the Blue Heron Franchise is the last standing franchise of the great Red Houzi," Xie asked deferentially. Somehow, I'd become the leader of the very organization I despised.