Penny

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

The Highlander lifted smoothly into the air and up towards the open sky. Sayeeda watched through the view screen as the plasma thrusters bathed the piles of offloaded coffee, flaming it to ruined ash. She had managed to reload about a quarter of the original quantity, with the aid of the exosuit Neil had made for her, but without steevedores, salvaging the rest was a bust. She supposed she would have to settle for making it out of here alive.

Almost immediately the comm circuit began to sqwak with demands to put down and threats that the airspace was closed. Junebug didn't respond manually but she keyed the automated codes that Cho-Lan had given them as well as those the Duke's people had provided for the civilian evac, figuring that the confusion would cover them.

"I've locked out the main missile batteries," Taya stated from the third, and usually empty, command seat. Junebug turned on her gimbling seat to regard the girl with surprise. In the excitement of the departure she had almost forgotten about her.

"What? How?" Sayeeda demanded incredulously. Simultaneously with the question she bought up a copy of Taya's terminal in a twenty five percent section of her own holo screen. Tabulated data of some kind, obviously to do with the comm system, but unintelligible to Sayeeda scrolled past.

"I used the microwave transmitor to send the code for a training drone to the sensor head. It switched the program from active to simulation. They can still get a solution on us but if they try to fire all they will get is a simulation complete screen," the girl explained, beaming with pride.

"That's insane," Sayeeda countered,"even equipment on this dustbowl cant be that easy to spoof." Her eyes ran over the text, she wasn't a signals expert but it seemed to bear out some of what the girl was saying.

"There is a way to deactivate the simulator switch over, but it is usually performed during set up and testing. I don't think my fathers men are that thorough." Sayeeda supposed that was true and she was about to ask the girl just how the hell she knew how to do it in the first place when the Highlander shook violently.

"Ta aer be a shakin!" Lonney chimed in, unhelpfully. Sayeeda changed the feed to show the direction pick up from the source of the sound. Long white tracers of water vapor had ripped through the sky moments before, shaking the air with their passage.

"Are they shooting at us?!" Taya asked, clearly worried her clever fix hand't worked.

"No," Sayeeda replied, shaking her head. Another few clicks changed the feed to a magnified view behind them, over the hab in the far distance, dirty flashes could bee seen on a distant ridge, too far away for the crumps of impact to reach them.

"Its outgoing, the bugs must be making their first probe on the city and whatever arty the Duke has is opening up." She looked grimly at the display.

"The invasion is starting for real."

@POOHEAD189

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

Sayeeda fled down the alleyway between the warehouses, clattering down a spiraling staircase that led to another level. They slowed to a brisk walk as they crossed a busier hab floor. The gunfire on the level above was only faintly audible from here, and somehat indistinct over the noise of functioning industrial machinery. A few people gave them a look, but quickly turned away when they saw Sayeeda's still smoking pistol.

"Negative on the assist, there was a bit of a complication but it might work to our advantage, focus on the cryopods but pick up the pace if you can. We are going to lift soonest. Six out." Sayeeda concluded closing the comm circuit.

"Who who were those men?" Taya asked, her voice distant and shocked. The girl wasn't resisting but Junebug had to virtually shove her along to keep her moving in the right direction.

"Mercenaries, maybe the Duke's or more likely one of the other nobles looking to snatch you to use you as leverage," she replied. That would make the most sense the conspirators who had drawn the aliens here needed all the leverage they could get to put the fix soley on Cho-Lan who had seemingly been the most overtly involved.

"I think I killed one," Taya mumbled. Sayeeda remembered the girls panicy unaimed fire.

"Only if we had a miracle on our side," Junebug said, her voice neutral.

Twenty minutes later they were aboard the Highlander and Sayeeda was running through the preflight checks as quickly as she could with Lonney's help.

"Neil what is the hold up?"

@POOHEAD189

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

The warehouse stank of lubricants and rusted metal. It had made a good choice for the meet, seeing as Taya technically owned it though had never visited the hab. It was unoccupied and unlike many of the busier fabrication plants, clearly had been for some time. There was absolutely no reason the daughter of a magnate would choose to visit it in the middle of a full scale war, which made it the perfect lure.

"Are you sure everything is all set?" Taya's voice said in Junebug's mastoid implant, her nervousness evident even with the distortion of semi-mismatched units. It wasn't the first time she had asked some variation on the question, or the fifth.

"Stay of the band, everything is set," Sayeeda responded tersely. If they all survived this mess she was going to have a conversation with Taya about radio discipline. It was unlikely that anyone following her had the sort of SIGINT needed to monitor the low power radio she was using, but that was a poor reason to take the chance. Sayeeda was crouched on an uper gangway over looking the working floor of the factory. The place was a maze of derrick, converybelts and other less identifiable industrial junk. The better to spirit Taya away from her shadows. She would just have to hope Neil held up his end of the operation.

As if summoned by her misgiving, her helmet carroted sound, too dim for the human ear to pick up but detectable to the sophisticated sensors in her commo helmet. Twisting slightly she turned towards the motion dialing up the magnification. A trio of large men were entering the factory floor. THey wore mismatched but functional body armor and carried large mouthed shotguns which were in obvious good repair. That wasn't what any security detail should be carrying. Add that to the fact that the men were here before Taya and had come from a different direction and the conclusion was unpleasant. THey weren't a security detail. They were either a snatch team or assassins.

"I'm coming inside," Taya's voice came over the radio.

"NO.." Junebug began about to tell the girl to abort and head back for the dubious saftey of the palace, but the metal roller door was already clattering open.

"There she is!" one of the men snapped, uncoiling a length of neural shock wire with a snap of his wrist. A snatch team them.

"What is going on?" Taya asked in a startled scared voice, the bulky men silouteed against an opening between vast foundry vats from her perspective. Junebug dropped the stunner she had planned on using and unslung her submachine gun. It was a poor weapon for the task but it would have to do.

"Taya, get down!" she snapped and squeezed off a three round burst from her elevated position. One of the men screamed and stumbled back with a sound like a buzzsaw hitting a porcelain vase, one of the slugs shattering his armor like a fragmentation grenade. The facility woke with echos as the remaining rounds ricochet wildly around disussed workspace, tracing orange sparks wherever they struck metal. Taya was screaming and covering her head with her hands as she lay on the ground. An understandable but unhelpful reaction, to the sudden dire turn of events. One of the remaining mercs was swinging his shotgun towards the girl. Junebug unloaded the entire magazine in a single long burst that sounded like the main truss of a house giving way. A dozen or more rounds ricoched in a cascade of sparks and filled the air with an incredible cacophony. The rounds missed their targets but it accomplished its goal of making both men duck for cover.

"Taya! Go! To your right!" Junebug yelled as she stood and cast aside her sub machine gun, the barrel glowing white and visibly warping from the few seconds of continuous firing. Suddenly she really wished she had bought her plasma rifle, but needs must. She ran along the gangway at full tilt, unsnapping her 10mm plasma pistol as she ran, snapping of a few unaimed shots at her targets. Below a shot gun went off, like a grenade in a glass factory but thankfully Taya was staggering to the side, taking cover behind a large metal console. Sayeeda snapped off tow more shots and then vaulted over the saftey railing to drop the six feet to the top of a large industrial tank, her boots hiting with a clang as she turned the dive into a roll to rob it of its momentum.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," Tanya was babbling in the comlink, but this was no time for prayers. Shotguns thundered and she felt the tank shiver, though the deflection was enough to shelter her as she rolled to her right and dropped catching the lip of the tank with her fingertips for only a second, breaking her momentum before dropping the ten feet to the ground. Her armor dug painfully into her hips as she hit the ground, but she could worry about that later.

"Fire in the hole!" one of the mercs yelled and Sayeeda grabbed Taya, now only a few feet away and pulled her close pressing the girl between herself and the side of the metal tank. There was a dirty explosion and a noise so defeaning that it stunned the former armored captain for a moment. Fortunately reflex supplied the lack of decision and she found herself shoving Taya forward towards a side door to a machine alcove. Dimly she became aware of other shots, smaller calibre pistols cracking behind her and the shotguns roared again. A man was screaming and the air stank of cordite and the vaporized haze of aluminum driving bands. It was Taya's security detail.

"Here! Cover me!" Junebug yelled, mouthing the words with exaggereated slowness and pressed the pistol into the girls shaking hands. Taya only looked at her in white faced shock. Sayeeda reached out and closed the girls hands around the gun and then physically turned her to point her back towards the developing fire fight. It was a losing bet that the girl would help, but it beat her panicing. As quickly as she good Sayeeda unhooked a long cylinder of thermite breaching putty and scribed a quick triangle, about a meter to all dimension on the featureless metal wall behind them. The liquid was dull orange and stank of acrid chemicals. Behind her Taya fired the pistol wildly, a half dozen shots in the rapid crack crack crack of panic fire. Ignoring the girl she shoved a small detonator into one of the joins where streaks of breaching putty overlapped.

"Fire in the hole!" she yelled, from habit rather than any current need, and clicked the detonator in her right hand. The putty lit of in crump of ignition and glowed so bright that it left purple after images in Sayeeda's eyes for a moment. The metal sagged back and a triangular section dropped to the floor with a clang. A fist gripped her shoulder and Junebug spun her fist coming up in straight fingered jab before she realized it was Taya.

"It wont fire!" Taya was yelling, tears streaming down her sallow cheeks. The weapon only held twelve rounds and they had almost certainly all been fired in the few seconds Taya held the weapon. Rather than wasting time explaining she grabbed the girl by collar and belt and through her physically through her impromptu egress point. Bullets cracked of the metallic walls as Junebug dived after the noble. Finding herself in a narrow alley she grabbed Taya and bolted in the general direction of the ship.

"Neil," she yelled breathily, "I have Taya but we have a bit of a complication, pick up the pace if you can!"

@POOHEAD189

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

"The Fornax Navy has lost," Taya corrected austerely. She held an arm forth towards the mercenaries. A smooth metal wristband with dozens of buttons on it encircled her wrist. Biting her lip in frustration she tapped several buttons with a rapidity that suggested long practice. A holographic display sprang to life before her. Sayeeda recognized it as a map of the Fornax system. Large red dots and smaller blue dots flashed along with projected courses and velocity. Neil sighed immediately. Sayeeda cast a side long glance at him, there still seemed to be plenty of blue dots on the screen.

"Its worse than it looks he explained," making a guesture at the velocity markings on one of the naval vessels.

"This is the Star Of Cobani, it looks like its close but its at nearly 0.8 C," he explained. Sayeeda understood, without the aid of the RIP it would take a week long burn to shed that kind of velocity. Even with a period that long it would stress the ship nearly to breaking. It was a rout, but seen in its very early stages as space battles were observed.

"Ok," Sayeeda conceded, "So we have a crazy RIP storm, space filled with hostile ships, dosen't seem like flight is a great option." Taya nodded, not in agreement, but gaining confidence as the conversation began to edge back towards what she had expected. The display changed as she keyed in some commands, shrinking the volume to the localized area of Fornax itself.

"The Magos believes that with the majority of the ships landing on Fornax, the storm disturbing the RIP might be navigable. At least marginally," Taya said calmly. There was an assurance in her voice that led Sayeeda to believe that she had good reason to accept whatever information she had gathered.

"The Duke has ordered it suppressed because of the well justified fear that anyone who had a ship might try to flee and take half the fighters with them." Sayeeda nodded, that did indeed make sense, certainly men like Cho-Lan would flee and take their retainers with them, dramatically weakening the defense the Duke was trying to mount.

"Even if that information is wrong, I've arranged to purchase three Cryo Pods. We can get up to a near lightspeed burn then go into cryo untill we clear the shadow. All information suggests that would take less then two or three months," Taya went on. Junebug was impressed the girl knew her business and seemed remarkably competent for the scion of high nobility.

"I assume both the Duke and your father have people watching you?" Sayeeda asked. Taya nodded quickly.

"Yes, constantly," she admitted, unconciously looking over her shoulder. What ruse had she used to make it to this meeting Sayeeda wondered.

"So next thing to do is come up with a plan to get you and your cryo pods aboard the Highlander."

@POOHEAD189

The Book Club

The Elenium Trilogy by David Eddings.

It's got great characters, magic, evil, high stakes, a complex villainous scheme. Everything you want in a fantasy, to be honest. Check it out if you like Fantasy.

@Silver Carrot

This might be my favorite fantasy series ever. Its certainly the one I have reread the most. Its the first series to ever make me feel genuinely creeped out and to literally cry.

The Book Club

[quote=@NuttsnBolts]

[*]Matthew Reilly: Just gonna list the author cause it doesn't matter what you really read, he's a brilliant writer. His Scarecrow and Jack West series are both great and I need to spend more time reading his work.

[/quote]

I actually met Matthew Reilly when I was in Australia. I've read Ice Station and Temple. I am SHOCKED that Temple isn't an action movie.

The Sunday Group

FBI badge is still whirring forlorn around the carousel.

@Naril

Wow way to TPK the party Naril ;)

The Sunday Group

I'm going to need to know who didn't have time to collect their luggage and a few of the items that were left behind:

For example Ellie didn't have time to collect her bags. Inside were her athame, her pistol and her medical bag.