Wild Space Pt. 04

An engine's harsh metal screech and a blur of dark movement against the blue were all that Sita was able to hear and see, but Edge was already shooting into the air and maneuvering the horse. She had drawn up both legs for a more stable position and was steering the mobile workshop with her foot. In her arms she cradled a chopped down carbine she must have concealed on the side of her coat, strapped around her right arm.

There were a half dozen people flying through the air, strapped into strange looking sleds that allowed them to zip and swoop about at breakneck speed. They slowed down only to fire their weapons at them both. Sita felt the heat of their energy bolts and cowered down into Edge's back, screaming.

"Take the stick!" Edge roared, swiveling about the horse.

"What? I don't know how to drive this thing!"

"It's not hard! Just point it somewhere!" Edge shook her carbine free its strap and nestled its buttstock into the hollow of her shoulder. It looked as if she had been born with it. Now that she wasn't driving she moved much more fluidly, and dangerously. She brought down a sled that dared to hover and take aim at them, exploding it in mid air with such ferocity that tiny, superheated shards of metal pelted into them. One found its way down Sita's collar and she yelped, the horse swerving.

"Don't drive us off the cliff!" Edge barked, eyes scanning the cloudless blue sky, enemy fire raining down around them both.

Sita focused on staying the path. She watched the other woman pump another dozen bolts at a target that was moving so rapidly she couldn't even fathom how any hits could be scored, but sure enough a handful of them struck the blurring fast moving sled, making it smoke and spiral and whirl to crash with a spectacular burst of flame and metal on the jungle floor below.

Edge didn't crow in martial delight or seem to take a grim satisfaction in any of this. She mechanically checked the power levels on her weapon when there was a lull, and then squinted, fired a single bolt and this time a body fell heavily from the sky ahead of them, the sled idling in midair.

One of the sled riders gestured at the others and the remainder of them flew off, towards the Horizon, out of sight.

"They're here," Edge told Sita crisply, keeping her carbine at the ready.

"Who is? Who are these people?" She asked, trying to keep the hysterics out of her voice.

"Them, me. It's all the same. Check it," Edge pointed at the fallen body.

Sita studied it as they went by. The dead man wore a subdued version of a Capital Army uniform, sleeves and pants cut off, with no rank jewel, all of it in muted camouflage colors, a cap that didn't look military issued. He was a heavily built black man, his bare limbs and the bit of chest he was showing were all sculpted with muscle, and he sported a big beard, dreadlocks. If not for the scorched wound that had obliterated his face he would have been in the picture of awesome fitness. He was studded with weapons and high tech gear.

"EDG." Sita said, and shivered.

"We need to get to the ship," Was all Edge replied. "We'll go at nightfall."

******

The Horizon looked undisturbed, off in the distance, as night fell on Mapili. They had ditched the horse two miles back after stripping it of any items Edge thought might be useful, but their situation was grim.

"This isn't going to be easy," Edge said quietly as they hunkered down by an ancient, massive tree, using its thick, gnarled old bole for cover. She hadn't wanted to frighten the other woman too much. Sita was a cop, had seen death, may have even been forced to take a life before herself, but she wasn't prepared for anything like this. The Barrens Rangers hadn't trained her in commando or special recon tactics.

"How so?" Sita was holding the weapon just as Edge had taught her, the muzzle always pointed at the ground, safety engaged until she was ready to fire.

All Edge had thought to bring with them that day for simple repairs was her carbine and luckily a slim, flat pistol that was one of the simplest she owned. Still, there was no telling if Sita knew how to use it well enough to help them. Rangers didn't customarily go around armed, not their rank and file, anyway.

"Were you in any kind of special unit, back on the force?" Edge wanted to know. "Tactical or something?"

"No." The question seemed to disturb Sita. "I was just a body in a plain old uniform. Is it that bad?"

"No telling how many of them are out there," She admitted to the other woman. "They'll have the ship on lockdown, waiting for us to try to get back in. We aren't outfitted as well as they will be."

"Alla also said something about this place being bombed," Sita whispered back. "I guess if this squad doesn't bring us back..."

"Knowing the Centralians they'll bomb us all to oblivion no matter what, even their own people. They've tried to kill you twice already and you aren't even the one they're after."

"Now I am. I suppose I have you to thank for that."

"If you want to face them on your own, be my guest."

"No thanks. Good thing we stripped the horse," Sita said with a soft grin. "Now we can solder 'em to death."

"Cute," Edge said, smirking herself so she didn't smile back, but the levity was much needed. In truth, they had both taken a few tools to supplement their weapons, but with their limited gear and her leg it was going to be a near thing.

"Stay here," She continued to the other woman. "I'll see if I can neutralize a few of them for us before we try to make our way inside."

Edge got down to her elbows and knees, carbine cradled across her arms, and crawled forward slowly. She felt Sita looking at her as she moved away, but whether it was out of amusement at the strange movement or something else she didn't wait to analyze.

The night was alive with sounds from the jungle. She could detect no sounds out of the ordinary, and no movements. These people, her former comrades in arms, were good. They were high speed, but they didn't have her experience. Sooner or later they'd give themselves away. All Edge had to do was wait for them to make a mistake. And sure enough, they didn't disappoint her, but it was still a close thing. If it wasn't for the sharp turn in smell she wouldn't have known the sentry was coming. It was body odor, fresh, the smell of nerves, excitement and fear, impossible to mask.

A pair of boots stepped in front of her, cutting off her view of the ship ahead. Whoever it was shifted from foot to foot, looking about. And then set off again, padding off silently through the shadows. Edge followed as quietly as she could. When she smelled the same scent again she got to a knee, then her feet, slinging the carbine behind her back with the same movement. A sharp knife for cutting bulky metal wires filled her right hand, but she ended up not needing it.

The sentry was the same height as her but from how explosively he tried to fight her off she knew he was a man. It didn't matter once she closed in on him. Her arms cut off the flow of blood to his brain just the same. He didn't have time to make a sound before her forearms garroted him across his carotid arteries. She had been a tomboy as a kid, a star athlete in her early days in the service. Unarmed as she was they stood even less of a chance against her. She wound a foot between his legs, ready to trip him up, but he slumped heavily against her in seconds. Edge eased him down into the dirt.

The wind picked up, and she felt a droplet of moisture prickle the back of her injured leg. The fitful handful of drops soon became a downpour. Thunder rumbled overhead, as if she was in the belly of some great beast, but there was no lighting. Perhaps their luck was turning.

The next one had dashed under a tree, not out of any uncomfortable feelings at being out in the weather, but they had apparently had their wrist mounted scroll out to check the barometer and their position. They shook it free of rain and were in the process of rolling it back up, but the moisture was making that more difficult.

Edge leaped from the darkness, grappled the soldier and vented some frustration by bashing his head into the trunk of the big jungle tree. She did it more than once, but not enough to kill him, she felt. It was a bit louder than she intended, but with the thunder and the rain she went undetected.

Or maybe not. Shots rang out, lighting up the landing pad, highlighting all the fat drops of rain. A handful of soldiers were firing bolts towards the way she had come, towards Sita.

Her boots were scrabbling over the trunk of the tree, as she pulled herself up, the compound and difficult movement taxing her still freshly healed limbs to the limit. She found a spot where she could perch herself, lay out and take the best firing position that she could under the circumstances.

They were still firing at Sita. It was the easiest thing in the world to stroke out a center mass double tap of her own. One of them topped over into the mud. The next that swung her way took Edge's bolt full in the face, reducing it to a flaming horror in an instant, the terrible high pitched death rattle it produced briefly distracting the rest of the killing squad. Edge made them pay for it, dropping her third enemy in less than a minute of firing.

That drew more attention in the form of energy bolts, all of it that remained, a sudden flurry with such volume that she dropped her carbine when she tried to clutch it to her chest. Instead Edge hugged the branch as vegetation went up in flames, melting and dying around her, screaming at them in rage and horror despite herself.

The heavy rifle shots were sputtering off, becoming slower and weaker flashes in the rainstorm, but another, tinier sound, was increasing, becoming more apparent. A pistol going off, shouts being raised. Edge dared to lift her head.

Only one soldier was left, and his rifle had cracked open, its action spitting sparks and smoke. He tossed it aside and glared daggers into the darkness.

Sita stood from behind the tree, aiming her pistol in shaky hands. "Don't come any closer." Her voice was reedy and weak. She pulled the trigger, repeatedly, but the gun was either jammed or spent. She tried to work the action to reset the weapon, fumbling in the rain, caught her thumb on the metal and hissed in pain.

The EDG trooper was nearly a foot taller than her and outweighed her by an immeasurable amount, and he was furious, pumped up on adrenaline, and surrounded by his dead comrades. His long strides ate up the distance between him and his much smaller target, until Edge tackled him low, about his knees.

It was a short, devastating fight. Edge was outclassed so far as size and strength and she knew it, so she had to pick her spot. The soldier hit her in the face, then her chest, and she was able to fend off his remaining strikes, but no more. She tried to twist and knee him in the groin, but his vice like thighs clamped down on hers and put an end to that. He was crushing her from above, and was trying to wriggle up her body to throw his knees onto her arms, to punch her in the face again or throttle her or push his fingers into her eyes.

He was too disciplined to pay Sita any attention as she shouted and threatened, but when she grabbed a hold of his shoulder Edge struck, and they defeated him together. The tool she had slipped into her hand had a weirdly shaped blade, but its handle was easily palmed and maneuverable. She threw off his grasp with a last ditch burst of strength, sat up and roared when she sliced open the side of his throat. When he grasped his neck, shocked, she kicked out from underneath him.

"Give me that," Edge said through the rain and blood to the Ranger, who, seemingly in awe, handed her the pistol. Without a hint of flourish she cycled its power source, making it hum and unceremoniously she blew a hole the size of a tiny fist into the soldier's chest as he kicked in the mud. He twitched, so she shot him again for good luck, as she had been trained. He went still immediately and his gargling screams and the stench of weapons fire and burnt meat were swallowed up in the deluge.

******

"Get me to the cockpit," Edge gasped. She weighed too much for Sita, and could barely help herself be moved. All of the old injuries and new had rendered her nearly unconscious and immobile.

"I'm trying," Sita growled, struggling, but soon they found a rhythm and spilled into the cockpit together. "What's the hurry?"

"SOP, soldier," Edge snapped back as she sat in the pilot's chair and rolled and rolled at the marbles and yanked at the levers on the console. "They'll have a destroyer and an interceptor up there, at least. They're going to bomb the planet and try to destroy us when we lift off. And they'll have an interdictor if we're fucked, and I don't see any reason why we wouldn't be. Finalize the pre-ignition sequence! Co-pilot's console, center switch."

"You want to stop pretending like I'm a badass special forces operator like you?" Sita said, easing into the co-pilot's seat. "I don't know what you just said, let alone how to fly this strange old bucket."

"Just follow my orders and you'll see what this strange old bucket can do," Edge said. "OK, hit it!"

The Horizon rose and rocketed over the treetops, its thrust so powerful that it uprooted a handful of lighter saplings.

"They mean business. They sent the sleds." Edge's eyes were narrowed to black slits. "They're top of the line. Turns a squad of soldiers into an aerial attack force."

"We got past them."

"Say that when we're on our way out of the system!"

"They're in orbit now?"

"Check for yourself."

The Horizon shot up through the clouds and then the layers of atmosphere. There were three Centralian capital ships in orbit. Sita recognized the destroyer, as the Barrens Rangers utilized an older version of it, but the other two were a mystery. Edge cursed lustily.

"Just as I was afraid," She said. She pointed. "The destroyer is the power puncher, the broadsword. The interceptor is the hidden weapon, like a dagger. And the intedictor, the round one? That will prevent us from hopping out of here."

"What weapon is that one like?"

"It's not a weapon, but its the most dangerous one of them all." Edge was utterly focused on her readout and the vessels around her. She yanked on the control yoke.

"If its so dangerous why are you flying us toward it?!"

"We've only got one shot at this. They're deploying the Piranhas, now that we know they're here. We can't be here when they arrive. I'm going to attack the interdictor so we can leave."

"It's unarmed?" To Sita that didn't seem very smart or likely.

"Its weapons are minimal, but they think we're just an ordinary transport vessel. We'll show them. I need you on the gun just in case." Edge ordered. "See those goggles?"

Sita lifted them off the console and put them on. She was blind. "What is supposed to happen?"

"You'll see. And hold on..this is going to be weird."

Sita gasped and tensed in the copilot's seat. It felt as if she had been suddenly teleported on the dorsal hull of the Horizon, but it must have just been a sensor feed. Edge soon confirmed it for her.

"It takes some getting used to, so try it now, we only have a few minutes. You swivel the turret and fire with the joystick. Select your weapons and bring up the reticle with it, too. Go ahead, give it a whirl."

"This isn't like any weapons station I've ever used before." Not that she had much experience.

"It's state of the art." Edge said, and then chuckled. "Well, homemade, to tell you the truth. Little something I've been tinkering with. You'll see, its intuitive."

"I am not going to be able to hit any Piranhas with this."

"We won't be using it for the fighters. Think you can hit that big blobby bastard if you need to?"

"The interdictor?" Sita found that with a great deal of button mashing she could swivel and point the ship's visual scanner to zoom in on the sphere vessel.

"That's the one. We need to destroy or disable it so we can leave. Because if the destroyer moves in close enough to fire or worse the Piranha take to the waters we're done for. Coming up on it now. Any minute they should be-"

"Unidentified vessel, this is the Capital Navy Destroyer K-2. You are hereby ordered to halt your attack run, cut your engines and stand down. Comply or you will be fired upon." The call repeated over and over.

"Little closer..." Edge sounded far away, focused.

"Hey, how do I switch to-"

"Sita, not now." The other woman said tightly. "Shields are up. We're in range. You can fire now, if you like, but I don't think we'll be needing you, thank Ana."

Up close, the interdictor looked like a ball bearing that had broken out in a bumpy metallic rash and then had dozens of comm spires and sensor antennae jabbed into it. Somewhere deep within that seemingly innocuous looking orb a reactor was throwing out enough power to make any faster than light travel impossible for the immediate area. The means to do so, to ensure it had enough energy and didn't overheat, was fantastic. There were merely enough weapons on an interdictor to stave off attackers in a last ditch effort, as it depended upon other vessels to defend it.

As if on cue the destroyer abruptly sliced through the void, and its call to surrender stopped. A klaxon on the console went off stridently, and Sita yelped.

"What is that?"

"Weapons lock."

"Oh, but I didn't do anything."

"I know. The destroyer is locked onto us."

"What!"

"Shhh. Just watch."

And then the Osprey gunboat, flying on low power in perfect, stealthy formation within the Horizon's sensor shadow, suddenly accelerated to max speed, all of its weapons blazing.

There was no time to get a weapons lock on the Osprey when it suddenly appeared on anyone's scopes, or to reinforce shields. Edge's instructors had done their work well, ironically writing their own death warrant. The Horizon was rapidly withdrawing but Sita rapidly craned the turret to their stern just in time to see a metallic chunk of the interdictor go up in flames and then explode. The destroyer had to veer away abruptly to avoid being engulfed in wreckage.

"Woohoo!" Edge shouted.

"You did it!" Sita shouted back in jubilation. "Or, we did it?"

"We haven't done anything yet. Navigation computer is plotting a course out of here now. You can take your helmet off now. Sorry you didn't get a chance to use it."

She saw that Edge was smiling at her when she lifted the helmet off of her head. She automatically smiled back warmly. Then the other woman's face hardened in resolve.

"The destroyer is coming around for another pass. We're out of here. Get ready to hop."

The weapons lock alert went off again, flooding the cockpit with a red light. The Horizon took just a smattering of fire before it hopped but its powerful shields fluctuated and held, Sita saw by the graphic readout on the console. Something deep within the display before her flared out and foul smelling purple smoke poured out of it. Crooked blue talons of electricity suddenly reached out for her with strange feeling, fiery tendrils, crackling, raking her hair and body and face. Sita was thrown back into her chair by the force of it, screaming in agony.

The last thing she saw was the stars bending on themselves as they made their escape.

******

When she came to she was gasping on Edge's bed, still feeling the shock wave pass through her body, jolting her from head to toe. She tried to violently wrench herself off of the bed to the deck.

"No! Sita!" Edge was ungodly strong, even as hurt as she was. She easily held the much smaller woman in place. "It was just the defib! Your heart stopped!"

"What..." She asked weakly, and found herself clutching at the other woman's hands pitifully.