Breach of Conduct

Seven hundred meters didn't seem that far to walk, even in a sandstorm. Enn realized he was wrong after an hour passed without reaching the drone pad. Despite not being carried off into the sky by the wind, it appeared that he was set against the prevailing current churning around the station.

28 meters, his HUD read out. Two messages from Taga gleamed on the bottom left corner of his visor. He was too far out to come back for anything now. Even if something had gone wrong, she had the crew of the docked ship to help solve whatever issue there was. Right now, they needed to close up the drone pad before it filled completely with sand and required days of digging to clear out enough for the compression jets to spray everything out.

Another ten minutes saw him within actual visual distance of the drone pad. Another five put him at the narrow doorway, the split door itself wedged open enough for someone to squeeze through if they really tried. Enn keyed the access code remotely and the door obliged, opening fully with some effort. He stepped inside and slapped the toggle button inside, causing the door to nearly slam shut in an emergency procedure.

Enn unmuted the external suit mics and was treated to a dull whum of sand blasting against the outer shell of the drone pad at over ninety kilometers an hour. Trying to sleep, it was actually sort of nice, like rain coming down on his home planet, Nt'vikion.

Enn went through the automated cleaning procedures for the interior: a magnetized broom for what ferromagnetic dust there was, and an air brush to blow silica sand out of the seams. An automated duster rolled sluggishly across the floor when he activated it, feeding sand into a collection tray under the floor grates to be emptied manually later.

A red warning light flickered on his HUD as he downloaded the pad's maintenance needs. Drone not docked. Reopen deck. Enn furrowed his brow. There was no way the drone could be gone; the take-off deck hadn't been opened in months.

He opened the drone lift's casing and stared into an empty compartment.

Well. Fuck.

Enn opened his direct chat to let Taga know what the situation was. Her previous two messages came up instantly.

Taga: pirates. two coming. hide. slugs. cloth uni. helmets. short air.

Taga: gu commando. station. 1 crew on ship. dont know u here. hide. hide. hide.

Enn took a moment to take in the first message. Their guests were pirates. Check. There were two coming to the drone pad, but apparently had no idea he was here. Check. They had slugthrowers, regular in-atmos uniforms, and helmets with short air supplies. Check.

That was what held importance at the moment. The rest could wait. He had two lightly-armed combatants coming to his location without knowledge that he was there. He had a combat knife and whatever the drone pad had to offer. Given that they couldn't be less than twenty minutes behind him, he had some time to think.

Taga was probably alive-

Think, Enn. Think. First objective. Decide to fight or run. Second comes later. Fight or run?

He weighed his options. There were at least four, probably six, pirates in total. Two were coming this way. If he could manage to remove them from whatever fight he was going to be in, that would cut their number down by a third. Infiltration crews usually only ran with a handful of members. But was this an infiltration crew?

What was-

First, Enn. First objective. Fight or run? Everything else is secondary.

He pushed the errant thought from his head. Focus. What would an ambush look like here? He could wait in the lift with the casing closed, probably snap out an an opportune moment and take one off guard. If they split up by more than about a meter, he was as good as dead, though. He could surprise them at the door, just as they entered. Maybe slam the door closed as the first one entered and leave the second one outside. He'd have a slugthrower then, and command of the field, but noway to leave without notifying the second pirate to his location.

Unfavorable odds either way. Too many variables.

He looked around the interior of the drone pad, pulling out the rations and water and clipping them to his belt. Digging through the various tools and supplies, he found nothing of use. The closest thing he had to a weapon was a crab-drill with-

That might actually work, he thought with a grin.

Overcharging a crab-drill's pneumatic coil and breaking the safety pin off allowed the spinning titanium drill bits to shoot off several meters from the body of the drill. He'd seen that happen a few times when tools got overused on drilling operations. Larger scale, crab-drills could put a hole through a miner before he had time to react. The hand-held sizes wouldn't kill unless they hit something vital like the neck or an artery, but they did a lot of damage regardless. Enough to disable someone if they didn't see it coming.

He snapped the safety pin off with his combat knife and set the drill to max pneumatic charge, holding it steady for a practice draw. It hummed in anticipation to discharge, coil vibrating the thing in his hand.

Fight it is. Okay. Where to ambush from? The entryway was too narrow for him to get beside the door. The duster had managed to clear the sand from the walkway, returning obediently to its cubbyhole beside the door. It wasn't big enough for him to fit in, unfortunately. A hallway would be the best place for this kind of ambush.

The room he was in wasn't much better, but it did have a space between the wall and drone lift that he could squeeze sideways. The rest of the room was pretty much open to whatever sight line someone entering could have. His only other option was to try to spring out of the tool locker directly in front of the door.

Next to the drone lift it is. Enn stepped up on the footlocker at the end of the small space and tried his best to find a position where he wouldn't be wedging himself in. He slid in and out of his hiding place a few times to see which way was easiest to spring from. Off his right foot. Extend the leg sharply. Left leg ready to catch weight. Bring right arm forward, straight out across the body. He made himself as small and inconspicuous as he could, given the circumstances, and waited.

The exterior door opened after eighteen tense minutes.

Enn felt his entire body tingle from the adrenaline rush. He'd been in a combat situation several times: Synodd, Deleria, Zhitom, Kyusenai, Indica. All of those had been harrowing experiences. But this felt different. He had only a knife and an ad-hoc drill that was supposed to serve as a projectile weapon. He was trapped, unable to communicate with any friendly on the planet, and outnumbered.

Stay calm. Just wait them out. You have the advantage here. Somehow, his inner voice didn't seem to make much sense. Everything about the situation at large appeared to-

The door opened in front of him and someone entered. Gun slung over his shoulder, the pirate turned a scarred face toward his comrade bringing up the rear. A second pirate, this one a woman, said something Enn couldn't hear and inclined her head up a fraction toward the soldier, eyes coming to rest on him.

Enn fired at her neck without hesitating. By the time her head came around to look at him, the drill was already in flight. It struck her in the collarbone just beside her throat, hooking maliciously into her uniform and catching in the fabric. Enn was already springing off the wall, e-suit enhancing his speed and strength by an appreciable margin as he lunged at the man backing away with a firearm coming off his shoulder.

They collided, just in time for Enn slap the barrel of the gun away. His knife sank into the pirate's throat, up through the protective neck guard under his helmet. Blood filled the man's visor as he staggered back. Enn followed him to the ground and managed to stay on top, dragging his knife sideways through opening flesh.

Suddenly, the room was full of noise. Enn didn't know his ears were ringing until he could hear screaming, from both himself and the woman sagging against the wall, trying to free herself from the grasp of the crab-drill head. It continued to sink into her chest, sputtering as blood drizzled through its serrated helix-wound teeth.

Enn grabbed the rifle from its owner beneath him and got to his feet, raising it to the woman gasping for breath across the room. He put two rounds in her chest and then one into the man's head at his feet.

He stood stock still, realizing his training had placed the muzzle of the gun at the door, waiting for someone else to enter. The room was quiet save for his own ragged panting and the dying efforts of the drill to make parasitic progress into its host. He counted to ten before allowing himself to believe things were all clear.

Sweeping the hallway, he found everything in order. Neither of the two pirates had brought any equipment with them except what was on their person. Two rifles, an extra magazine between the two of them, and an old-fashioned canteen of water. Not much, but at least now he was armed.

Enn unloaded one of the rifles and clipped the two extra magazines to his waist. He briefly took his helmet off to eat his newly-acquired ration pack and wash it down with the pirate's canteen. He took the interlude in duties to take in what his situation looked like now.

First objective is cleared. They're probably not expected back for at least another hour, maybe more if they were walking blind. Which I doubt. So what's next?

Enn pulled up Taga's messages on his notepad and read the second one again. gu commando. station. 1 crew on ship. dont know u here. hide. hide. hide. He couldn't hide anymore, that was certain. They'd know he was here after their comrades didn't return, so he had to keep acting. He'd chosen to fight, so there wasn't an option to back out now.

A GU commando. That was the biggest issue now. Those fanatics were about as indomitable as the storm outside when it was at its worst. They stopped at nothing to achieve any objective, realistic or otherwise, and made a pasty red smear of anything that got in their way. A team of them could get into any secured facility in the galaxy, rumor had. And one of them well-equipped was just as dangerous as ten.

He had to do something, the faster the better.

One crewman on the ship sounded like it was a good next step. The soldier put his helmet back on, thanking the design team for the first time as the smell of blood left his nose fairly quickly. He replenished his oxygen reserves from the dead pirates' small air cans and watched his time with clean air rise from two hours to almost seven. He adjusted the air mixture to give him an overabundance of oxygen and put a vector coordinate in to get him to the landing pad.

Feeling refreshed and oxygenated, he started the hard march to his next objective.

------------ Taga Unahu, on Destrec, in orbit around Mi Kho ------------

"Hey man, we didn't sign up for this shit. You wanted a crew to get you here and get you an in for the security system, not a private fucking army," the Carthago Novum's captain growled with impatience. "We're taking whatever you already have and lifting the fuck off."

The commando remained seated at the junk table, working on the drone he'd stolen from the drone pad just before Enn had left to go investigate. It struck Taga that he must have passed Enn by no more than a few meters with all his combat equipment on. She shuddered thinking about what would have happened had they met.

This guy was no joke. He worked in almost complete silence, typing away at a portable console about the size of Taga's head, trying to extract something from the drone's programming. The only thing he had said in the past three hours was 'I won't hesitate to kill you if you disobey me' and 'Sit over there'. She sat exactly where she'd been told since then. Two crewmen and the captain, Donnelly, stood anxiously at the other table, refreshing the console in an effort to find out who else was here.

"Captain, I don't like this. Roy and Nora are still gone. They should have been back an hour ago." The crewman checked his notepad and shook his head. "Nora hasn't even contacted us yet saying they got there."

"What, you saying someone dusted our tech and jack?" Donnelly fired back, throwing a quick glance to the rilo listening on her sofa.

"Fuck the alien!" shouted his subordinate. "Someone just dusted two of us out there! Someone that wasn't supposed to be here in the first place!"

"Can you communicate with the tech?" asked the commando, speaking up for the first time in almost three hours.

"Not now; out of comm range in the storm. We won't know anything until the storm lets up or we get in range of tech's receiver." Donnelly gave a look to the screen on the wall, observing the enormous whirling pattern that represented their current weather conditions. "Not likely, at this point."

"Captain, that's shit and you know it," said the other crewman. This was the first time he'd spoken up at all. "Tech would have been back by now. Even if jack had decided to fuck around, tech has an implant. They should have been back by now."

The three of them exchanged concerned glances. The commando stopped what he was doing and turned his head slightly, just enough so he could catch Donnelly's eyes.

"We will leave when I'm done. Not before." He turned back to his work and continued as smoothly as he'd left off. "If you're concerned about security, activate the deployable turrets. They'll target any unregistered electronics in their firing arc."

Apparently, that was enough to quiet the other three down and they licked their wounds quietly among themselves on the far side of the room. Taga snuck a peek down at her notepad, still attached to her wrist. The commando had apparently thought she was docile enough to leave it, or didn't think she had enough ingenuity to use it unexpectedly.

Thank the Void I've still got this thing. Enn's toast if he comes back armed with a plasma spitter. To her surprise, the rilo found a new notification in her direct chat. It was from Enn, nearly thirteen minutes ago.

She discreetly brushed a finger across the screen, repositioning her hands without raising suspicion. She read Enn's message a few words at a time, trying to keep her eyes focused on which of the three sailors was looking in her direction. Aside from some lazy peeks at her, they appeared more interested in their irritated conversation about what had happened to their comrades.

Enn: Well, things are all clear here at the pad. Coming back soon. Progress is probably gonna be as slow as it was the first time. You know how it is out here. If it gets too heavy in there with all the people, use the spare filter we've been cleaning. I know I wouldn't be mad to come home to some fresh air. Be back in an hour or so.

Taga kept her expression placid. She typed a reply one letter at a time, as inconspicuously as she could.

turrets. no tronics. door locked.

A soft chime drew the commando's hand from his work and he inclined his head toward Taga. Their eyes met and he gave a very slight smile. Both of her hearts sank at once.

"I've located the other one," he said. "It appears he's on his way back from the drone pad."

The three sailors looked surprised, then disheartened.

"So he really did get both of them," Donnelly said quietly. "Who the fuck is this guy?"

"Our hostage alerted him to their presence," the commander replied dryly. "Thanks to her, I've got an estimate on his location. Within a few hundred meters, maybe less."

Taga could see the barely-concealed anger on all three men's faces. To her surprise, it wasn't all directed at her. In fact, Donnelly wasn't even looking at her; he was trying to bore a hole into the back of the commando's head with his eyes.

"You knew and you said nothing," he spat.

The commando nodded. "I needed to use the hostage to ascertain his location. Tech and jack not returned alerted me to the possibility of a second combatant. Given that, I needed a line of communication to triangulate his location. The hostage provided just that."

"Well isn't that fucking dandy," Donnelly spat venomously.

"The turrets are activated, but I doubt he can gain entry into the base without using an access code. I have Carthago Novum set to scramble incoming authorization requests to both entrances and alert us upon use."

"I'm not worried about us, you sociopath. We didn't sign up to be laid upon the altar of echolocation so you could find out where the other fucking soldier is. If we had known, we could have-"

"Done exactly as you were ordered, Captain. Don't mistake sacrifice for waste. If you want to avenge your comrades, then complete the mission to which you were assigned. Stand guard. Allow me to finish. We will leave when I have what I need."

Donnelly fumed, but decided against putting a bullet in the back of the commando's head. He stomped across the room to her and leveled the gun with her head.

"Take the notepad off."

She complied without any commotion, handing over the device in silence. Donnelly dropped it to the floor and shot it twice, kicking it across the room afterwards. The muzzle of his primitive firearm pressed into her ear canal.

"Don't make me return the favor," the commando warned dryly from the junk table. "We still need her for offsite codes."

For a second, the rilo thought Donnelly was actually going to shoot her. A wash of real, vitriolic disgust bubbled up from somewhere inside him and twisted his features. He decided against it though, instead leaving in a fury that Taga didn't think could be rivaled by another human. One of the other crewmen followed him. The third, apparently low enough in station to not include himself in the affair, put his hand to his sidearm and gave Taga a suspicious look.

She watched a bead of sweat go down his face and catch at the end of his chin.

Get the spare filter open.

She knew how to get that done.

------------ Enn Taroth, on Destrec, in orbit around Mi Kho ------------

Enn secured the stun grenades to his belt manually, now that the magnetic coil had been powered down. His suit felt heavy even with the oxygen percentage of air at nearly fifty percent. He felt supercharged and stuck in mud at the same time, though it was preferable by a wide margin to getting filled with holes.

He trudged down the boarding ramp into what looked like orange and brown static in every direction. Sand was already filling up the cargo hold of the ship, the Carthago Novum, at an alarming rate. Enn was beginning to hate it; the stuff got everywhere.

On the ground, he made his way around the left side of the station. The chambered door faced south, toward the landing pad. Another emergency door faced east. To avoid any prying eyes, he went around the west side of the building and stayed just within visible range of it to avoid any undue sensor-tripping. What a waste to have come up with an ingenious plan like this and then get caught before he even got up the ladder.

Thinking of his plan, he could hardly believe he'd decided on this. Go up the access ladder on the north side of the building, somehow gain access to the interior of the building through one of the filters, and then hopefully catch whoever was on the inside by surprise. Originally, it had been the third option. The first was to set the ship's guns to blast a way in and follow quickly enough to take out the occupants.