Or Die Alone

"Stay down," he hissed, the human writhing in pain. He would live. Korza stepped over him and continued on his way. He leapt up another level, now at the highest floor of the structure from what he could tell. This module was full of radio equipment and instrument panels, the broadcasting center that had been sending out orders and transmissions to the traitor army. It seemed to be unmanned now, there was no sign of any operators or PDF soldiers, no bosses. This module was more expansive than the other prefab structures had been, optical lines and power cables extended up towards the ceiling to power the dish and whatever other instruments they had mounted up here, there were a dozen monitors showing readouts of signal strength and the status of satellite relays mounted on the walls.

Korza's first instinct was to destroy the machinery, but he hadn't been ordered to, perhaps the humans could still glean useful information from it. He stalked around the room, checking under scattered tables and behind computer banks, but couldn't find anyone. He lifted his visor briefly, taking in the room's scent. Humans had been here recently, but he couldn't smell the telltale odor of fear, nor could he hear the rapid beating of a tiny human heart. They must have turned tail shortly before the dropship had landed, leaving their PDF cronies behind as a distraction.

His radio hissed to life, the voice of the human commander coming through.

"Gamma leader, what's your status?"

"The building is clear Sir, our quarry was here recently, but they have fled. We have civilians and injured combatants on the second level, advise you send someone to retrieve them."

"Roger that Gamma, have your pack regroup in the courtyard."

"The PDF barracks has been secured, they surrendered after a short gun battle," the comms officer relayed to Captain Stavros as he stood by the bridge window. "The broadcast center has been cleared and is under our control, the PDF there put up more of a fight but casualties were minimal and the ground team was able to take prisoners. The Syndicate bosses weren't there, Captain."

He paced on the deck, his gloved hands clasped behind his back as he considered their next move. The Syndicate were out of options, would they attempt to hide amongst the civilian population perhaps, try to pose as colonists and conceal their identities? Would they try to flee the planet on a spacecraft and take their chances with the Thermopylae? Where were those rats hiding?

"Captain," one of the bridge offers sitting at an instrument panel to his right drew his attention, tapping frantically at his console as Stavros turned to look at him. "Picking up a heat spike on Hades, it's coming from the spaceport."

"A ship powering up? Weapons officer, target that vessel and make sure that-"

"No Captain, it's something else. It's...a superlight engine charging up!"

"The spaceport is too close to the colony," Stavros exclaimed, his attention turning back to the bridge window and the red planet beyond. "Bring it up on the monitor."

As he requested, the officer swiped upwards on his touch screen, his display blowing up and showing on the massive window. It showed a view from one of the carrier's telescopes, infrared cameras tracking a massive spike in one of the vessels that was docked on a landing pad at the port. Did they mean to initiate a jump from the surface of the planet, practically in the middle of the damned population center? Far from being just reckless, the methods used to achieve superlight travel meant that anything in a small radius around the ship would be dragged along for the ride. In open space, where 'close range' meant being thousands of miles apart, accidentally towing other ships or foreign objects into superlight wasn't much of a concern. It was even done intentionally by larger craft in order to assist smaller vessels that lacked drives of their own, it was one of the intended functions of their own carrier, towing cruisers and frigates in its superlight wake.

But to initiate a jump on the ground, in range of a damned city, that would cut a chunk out of the planet a mile deep and a mile wide. It would throw hundreds of innocent colonists, along with their homes and the very ground they stood on, hurtling through the inter-dimensional void to be ejected into open space wherever the ship emerged.

"Those bastards," the weapons officer exclaimed as he tapped at his controls. "I've got the vessel locked Captain, give me the word and I'll put a railgun round straight through her drive core."

"No!" Stavros commanded, waving his hand dismissively. "Those drives draw power from a nuclear reactor, if you breach the containment then the whole colony will be showered in fallout."

"Should I fire an EMP to disable the vessel?"

"No time, a missile would take too long to reach the surface, we have less than a minute before they jump."

Stavros weighed their options, his mind racing as he tried to come up with a solution, his bridge crew awaiting his orders with bated breath. The clock was ticking, they might only have seconds left to act.

"Helmsman, if we were to jump directly into the enemy vessel, what would be the effect on the colony below us?"

The officer thought for a moment, the gears in his head turning.

"The air displacement would create a shockwave analogous to that of a large bomb going off, but the ship is rising off the ground Captain, they must be worried about debris. Not enough to wait until they're clear of the colony, but they're high enough that we could..."

He had understood the plan, and he looked to Stavros for confirmation, who nodded sternly. The helmsman wiped his brow, programming in the coordinates.

"It's going to be close Captain, if we're off by even five hundred meters we're going to materialize inside the planet. Where do you want the enemy vessel, assuming I can make a jump that accurate?"

"Comms officer," Stavros commanded, "clear the midship. We don't need the hangar bay anymore, the dropships can dock in the recesses when they come home if they have to. That's where I want her Helmsman, trap those bastards in our belly. Send a broadcast on all bands and tell the colonists to take cover, this is going to be loud."

The Syndicate vessel rose off the landing pad, its gear stowing in the belly of the craft as it angled its nose towards space. The yacht was small so that it could make landfall, but it was no less a ship of its class, luxuriously furnished and sporting a small jump drive with a nuclear reactor. It was sleek and polished like chrome, top of the line and as compact as it was possible to make such a vessel while still allowing it to house all the machinery necessary for superlight.

The bosses were strapped to harnesses in the crew compartment, the five masterminds of this ill-fated revolution. Pirates, mobsters and crime lords who had risked all in this venture. A few valued lieutenants shared seats beside them, crystal champagne glasses and ashtrays made from jade falling from the ornate coffee tables as the vessel shook, its engine charging for a jump. Now it was over, they couldn't bring down a UNN jump carrier, they had lost their grip on Hades and it was time to cut their losses and run. The pilot's voice came through on the intercom.

"Thirty seconds Don, please make sure you're all securely fastened, we're going to come through on the other side with a cloud of debris and I can't guarantee that some of it won't hit the Ventura."

The man he was referring to wore a fine, white suit, his fat fingers adorned with gold rings as he placed a plastic bit in his mouth. He rolled his jaw, shifting it into position, then hit the intercom button on the velour-lined armrest of his crash couch.

"Get us out of here Stefano, that jump carrier might already have a warhead on its way down."

A man sitting to his right slammed his fist down on his chair in frustration, he was gnarled and scarred with ugly piercings and tattoos on his grizzled face, his hair buzzed short with patterns shaved into it. He wore an armored space suit, a variation of an older UNN model with the organization's regalia removed and replaced with the insignia of his pirate organization.

"You said this was a sure thing," he snarled, "I fuckin' told you hitting the freighter was oversteppin'. That's what brought the fuckin' boys in blue down on our heads. We had a good thing goin' here until you got too fuckin' greedy Don."

The man wearing the white suit turned to scowl at him.

"We will talk about this later, for now put your fucking bit in and shut up, or the void will cut your tongue off before I get the chance to do it myself."

"I don't need a bit, old man. I've completed more jumps than you've had hot dinners."

"That's probably why you've got no brain cells left," one of the bodyguards chimed in, getting a laugh from the other bosses.

"Listen to me Carter," a man wearing a lavish jacket with a furred collar said from his seat across the cabin. "The UNN won't risk firing on a vessel that's initiating a jump so close to a population center. We're getting out of here, and when we do, the first thing I'm doing is dedicating all of my resources to finding that fucking Spook. He's the cause of all this, and if I can't have my colony, I'll at least have peace of mind knowing that his death was long and uncommonly painful."

The pirate laughed at that, exposing a few gold teeth.

"Aye, just don't forget to send me a recording."

The Ventura's hull crackled with energy, her drive charging for the superlight jump, the air around her lustrous hull buzzing with arcs of electricity. The colonists in the sprawling settlement below had no idea what was about to happen, some hiding in their prefab homes due to the ongoing UNN invasion, and others going about their business as usual amongst the markets and stalls that lined the main street.

The sky was suddenly painted with a splash of rainbow colors, a kaleidoscope of shimming, colorful particles that spread in a cloud and glittered in the harsh sunlight. The colonists looked up, mesmerized by the display, like a Van Gogh painting made manifest as a giant spaceship materialized a few hundred feet above the spaceport. There was a sound like a sonic boom, a deafening crack that rang out across the colony like a gong, shaking the onlookers down to their bones. There was a flash of blue light, brighter than the sun for a moment, and then a shockwave of displaced air hit the colony. Stalls were uprooted, their wares strewn about as the blast rolled through the streets, knocking people to the ground and upturning vehicles. A great wall of dust and sand blasted the houses as it was blown away, thrusters along the belly of the enormous vessel glowing blue as it strained to maintain altitude, casting a shadow across the ground as if the foot of some God was about to crash down on them.

The mammoth ship turned its nose towards the sky, great plumes of flames and smoke rolling out from behind it as its main drives flared to life, propelling it slowly upwards as a fresh roar caused the recovering colonists to cover their ears in alarm. The carrier accelerated towards space, vanishing in a layer of grey storm clouds as the plume of black smoke that it rose on faded away.

Stavros gripped the armrests on his captain's chair as the g-forces pressed him into it, his bridge crew strapped into their seats as the atmosphere battered the Thermopylae. The vessel creaked and shook, it wasn't designed for atmospheric flight, it was about as aerodynamic as a fridge. They had very nearly lost altitude during the moments after the jump, when the helmsman had been too disorientated to operate the controls and the autopilot hadn't known what to do. It wasn't programmed for this kind of maneuver, and Stavros wasn't even sure that such a thing had ever been attempted before today.

Finally their enormous engines succeeded in breaking free of Hades' atmosphere, the carrier emerging into space none the worse for wear, besides a new addition to its mass. Stavros felt the ship's AG field secure him to the deck, temporarily thrown off by the planet's gravity, and stood to his feet a little unsteadily.

"Status report!"

"She's holding together Captain," the helmsman said. The weapons officer angled his telescopes towards the planet's surface and blew up the display on the bridge window. There was no mile-wide crater, the colony had been spared. There was chaos in the streets, some damage to property, but it didn't look like any serious harm had been done.

"Few broken bones maybe, Captain," the weapons officer confirmed as he examined the display. "The shockwave wasn't strong enough to shake the prefabs loose of their foundations, so I'm going to call that minimal collateral damage."

"The Syndicate vessel didn't complete their jump," Stavros said, "where are they?"

The comms officer put her finger to her ear for a moment before replying.

"Hangar bay Captain, as you requested, but..."

"What is it, Officer?"

"You'll probably want to go down there and see this for yourself, Captain."

Captain Stavros stepped into the Thermopylae's hangar bay, open to space behind the shimmering force field that contained the hangar's atmosphere, the deck was clear save for a crowd of engineers and flight deck staff who were grouped around something on the floor.

He marched towards them, the crowd parting to let him pass when they noticed him, and Stavros came to stand before the spectacle. Embedded in the floor was the nose of a silver spacecraft, extending maybe a couple of feet from the deck, its silver hull was merged with the Thermopylae as if someone had mashed two clay sculptures together. The metal was bent and twisted, odd spiral patterns decorating what looked almost like a spot weld where the two ships met. The carrier had absorbed the Syndicate vessel when they had emerged from superlight, fusing it with the ship as the two realities had phased together. It looked as if they had come out a few feet higher than he had planned, but that had been enough to completely submerge the enemy vessel below the deck. The engineers back at the drydock were going to have to remove and replace this entire section of the vessel, there was a damned spaceship embedded in their hull.

It had stopped the nuclear reaction and the superlight engine dead, which had been the intended outcome, but this was a grisly sight to behold. Stavros had known the risks, but he had hoped that the crew compartment of the vessel might have survived intact, not that the mobsters had given them much of a choice. They were buried in there, their bones and organs melded with the metal of the Thermopylae, there was no hope of survival.

"Fuck me sideways," one of the engineers whistled. Stavros shot him a disapproving glance, and the man straightened. "Sorry Cap'n."

"That's the end of the Syndicate then," Stavros mused, giving the nose of their vessel a tap with his boot. "There's not much to be done about this until we get back to the Pinwheel, I suggest just putting up some warning lights around it so the shuttles don't hit it on the way in. There's room enough for them to land." He put his finger to his ear and opened a channel to the comms officer.

"Send word to Mu Arae, they're the nearest station with a quantum relay. Report is as follows: UNN control over Hades established, resistance pacified, criminal bosses KIA. Request drydock and refit at Fort Hamilton, have sustained...damage."

"Very good, Captain."

Stavros looked out past the force field at the curvature of the red planet, his gloved hands clasped behind his back as the engineers dispersed to go about their business, and he reached up a hand to straighten his cap. They might have to disassemble the entire midsection to remove the thing, that could take weeks, but for the first time in a long while he wasn't dreading shore leave.

EPILOGUE

Lorza sat on a bench outside a restaurant, a painted sky above her head, greenery and flowers in planters adding to the illusion that she was sitting in some terrestrial street and not on a space station that was spinning through space like a giant wheel. She chewed a sandwich happily, a long sub made from a French loaf that was filled with tuna and mayonnaise, licking the condiment from her furry fingers as she went. All manner of UNN personnel passed her by as she watched them. There were humans in blue uniforms, Equatorials and the odd Polar, along with a few lumbering Krell who towered above the throngs of people that packed the walkways. An artificial breeze blew her white fur, and then she noticed Boyd making his way towards her through the crowd.

Her tail flicked excitedly and her furry ears swiveled to track him as he approached, taking a seat on the bench beside her as she grinned down at him.

"Don't burn through your compensation money too quickly," he chided, "that sandwich must have cost you a fortune. It's the size of my leg."

"I need a full belly," she replied, taking another messy bite of the giant sub. "My bank account is quite full too, they really wanted me to keep quiet about the whole escapade, didn't they?"

"Well, UNNI actions resulted in the loss of your ship and crew, not to mention the emotional damage caused. You're entitled to compensation."

"Of all the things you humans have invented, I think I understand lawyers the least. Not that I'm complaining. What's the situation on Hades? How did your debriefing go?"

"Good news, the jump carrier that was sent to restore order has accomplished its mission, and the mob bosses were killed in an...unfortunate accident."

"Good, it's as much as they deserve."

"Overall the Admirals seemed happy with my performance, considering the extreme circumstances. They accepted my request for a couple of weeks of paid leave too, so we have some downtime to look forward to."

Lorza beamed as she finished off her sandwich, her long tongue emerging to clean her fingers.

"Finally I'll have you all to myself, we have a lot of lost time to make up for."

"They seemed quite interested in you as well, asked me a lot of questions about how we survived together, I left out some of the more...gory details of course. I have a sneaking suspicion that they might ask you to join the UNNI. You survived everything that I did after all, and I'm a highly trained agent."

She considered it, scratching her chin with her black claw.

"Maybe, but all in good time, for now I want to relax and enjoy myself for a while. I've got UNN credits burning a hole in my pocket and a giant space station to explore." She wrapped a furry arm around him and tugged him closer, pressing him up against her pudgy body. "I also have a hotel room with a bed that's a damn sight better than that musty old sleeping bag, there's a shower in there big enough for me to stand in."

"Well I'm officially off-duty," Boyd replied, "I'm all yours for the next two weeks."

She rose to her feet and took his hand in her giant, furry paw, tugging him off the bench to stand beside her.

"Come then Mudak, let's not waste any time," she declared as she led him away into the crowd.

THE END