Talon Squad turned towards the disturbance as one unit. Guns raised, they looked at the half-mad Talpidarian sailor. Vanbrook carefully peeled the sailor's hand off his mouth.
"What's going to hear us?" he asked quietly.
"The thunder cloud!" He hissed.
No sooner had he spoken than a crackling, misty cloud rushed out of the jungle. It flooded over Talon Squad's shuttle, obscuring the craft inside a thin, wispy gray. Then a flash and rumbling thunder exploded from the mist, igniting the shuttle. The sailor dove back into the bushes.
"Everyone shed any electronics, now!" shouted Doc.
Talon Squad responded immediately, throwing comms, drones and assorted electronics to the ground.
The cloud rushed towards its next target, which was Doc himself. D'Jarric blasted it with a beam of energy, which caused it to shudder and move towards the Solaran.
"Target it with energy weapons!" shouted D'Jarric.
"Make up your minds!" cried Vanbrook, reaching down for the nova crystal rounds he'd just dropped, unsure if they counted as electronics.
Hrake and Doc fired their energy weapons at the cloud and Reclan directed her drones to harass the strange monster. They spread out in a circle around it, keeping it from focusing on a target.
Raivyn reached out telepathically, trying to find a mind in the cloud. It was strange and animal in nature, but there was indeed a mind. It was angry, and it wanted to destroy anything it viewed as a threat, which currently meant all of Talon Squad.
"I might be able to convince it to leave," said Raivyn. "Keep blasting it, but start opening up a gap it can get back to the treeline through."
The Squad moved together, making sure the opening wouldn't take the creature over the sailor currently cowering in the bushes.
"Okay, keep blasting," said Raivyn. She focused back on the cloud, trying to induce fear in the stormy mind within the cloud. Energy-based beings made easier targets for psychic attacks, and Raivyn was able to incept a feeling of danger into the animal mind, backed up by the constant barrage of energy weapons Talon Squad was firing through it. It moved uncertainly towards the danger for a moment, now that its enemies were all concentrated in one place, but the need to flee danger overcame its bloodlust, and it rushed back into the trees and vines of the jungle, blending into the dark, misty forest.
***
Hours later, the Wingspan had landed in the clearing, and Captain Fenrik got to work establishing a perimeter. The electromagnetic shielding around the ship did attract the cloud beast, but it was too strong for their attacks to damage and it lost interest.
"I think it's just territorial," said Doc as it once more faded into the forest. Talon Squad was helping set up the water line and pumps that would carry water from the streams to the Wingspan's water treatment works. "It's an energy-based being and it assumes other electromagnetic fields are competition of some kind. Electroecologists are going to be studying this thing for generations."
"Not if it fries them all first," said Reclan with a sneer.
Doc shrugged. "I guess water is our first priority here, anyway. Scientific inquiry will just have to wait."
"Scientific inquiry and water will have to take a seat behind general repairs," said Reclan with a sigh. "The Wingspan has a sieve where it's supposed to have a hull. We've got enough tools and material to patch things up temporarily, but the ship needs resources we're not going to find this side of Kirakna."
"Well I might engage in a little scientific inquiry all the same," said Trembi, walking up to the group, Britkrup coming with her. "It is my job, after all."
Vanbrook looked up at her from where he was dragging an intake line, nodding to the scientists.
"Where've you been, stranger?" said Trembi.
"Oh, around," said Vanbrook. "Figured Raivyn might want some down time after her, uh, episode, which meant I needed to lay low, too."
"Well don't do me any favors!" huffed Raivyn, not even looking up from her work.
Trembi looked awkwardly between the two. "Britty, I saw some neat looking plants over on the other side of the clearing, shall we?"
Vanbrook looked searchingly at Reclan, who shook her head and looked back at her friend with pity in her eyes.
***
High Brother Redgone watched the final repairs to his building, sneering at the workers below. Crush, who was now standing beside Redgone, had insisted that the miners who had torn the place apart would put it back together before they left. Not entirely a question of goodwill, she worried that leaving evidence of the riot in their wake would tarnish the FRF’s reputation, which she hadn’t even fully established yet. They were not raiders and pirates; they were respectable mercenaries.
Down below, a large battleship, festooned in yellow, arrived at the docks. The High Brother paled. No sooner had the ship docked on then a corpulent Talpidarian male in full aether gear waddled out of the ship’s airlock and made his way to the control building, escorted by four members of the Xanathous Brotherhood, the PIC’s elite military corps.
From what Crush had gathered, the PIC was governed much like the Ramshackle Collective, with those at the top skimming the cream for themselves. This was evidently true based on the condition of the Xanathous Brotherhood’s armor and gleaming weapons compared to the broken down and broken weapons and armor Redgone had tried to use against the rioters.
Obviously in possession of the codes required to enter the building, the Talpidarian entered without addressing the High Brother, who stood nervously facing the airlock he would soon be walking through.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Shouldn’t you greet him?” asked Crush, annoyed by the fact that she did not understand the tension mounting around her.
The High Brother looked at her as if she had just uttered a heinous blasphemy. “One does not address a brother or sister of a higher station than oneself unless addressed first.”
Crush shrugged. The door opened, and the Talpidarian and his escort walked in.
“High Brother Redgone,” he said, addressing the overseer. “Your impotence has been reported and you are immediately relieved of your post.”
He bowed his head and approached the Talpidarian with a subservience that made Crush’s circuits weary with contempt. “Grand Brother Treskt, please, make yourself comfortable and allow my last act as High Brother of this mine to be serving you a meal in my private dining hall.”
“That will not be necessary or possible,” said Treskt matter-of-factly, “as you broke the window when you, in your shame, jumped through it to your demise.”
Redgone’s face became a mask of horror as one of the Xanathous troopers stepped over and unceremoniously picked up the former High Brother and hurled him through the bullet-proof glass. Crush watched his broken body spin out into the void for a moment before turning to Treskt.
“Are you going back on our deal?” she asked calmly.
“Of course not!” said Treskt. “However, you have not fulfilled your side of the bargain. The position you gave us is certainly in the right direction, but we will need a more current position to justify releasing the miners to your care.”
Crush clenched her fist and looked out the broken window to her fleet. Even from here she could see Tank and Hacksaw calmly and quietly readying for combat.
“Fine,” said Crush, turning back to Treskt. “I should be able to get you more specific information shortly, only give me a day to do it.”
“Done,” said Treskt.
Without another word, Crush turned to the broken window and climbed out of it, using her mag-boots to walk straight down the wall, head held high.
Treskt grinned, his furry face crumpling into a mass of wrinkles. “I like that one.”
***
Grim crawled through the underbelly of the Wingspan. It was time to get out of the ship, but he wanted to wait for nightfall. First, he had a call to make.
"Admiral Gnash, how's your luck?" he asked when he got an answer. Without the aid of ripmed comms, there was a long delay as the messages sped at lightspeed between the two pirates.
"Who is this?!" snarled a voice after a long moment.
"You know who," said Grim with a laugh. "Someone who's very voice can lead you beyond the borders of known space."
"You sound well, for being dead, Grim. I was fine with you that way, too. Why did you summon me out here?"
"Tell me, how has my fleet fared under Crane?" asked Grim.
Gnash sighed. "About as well as you'd expect. We need a certain amount of cooperation to keep the Collective afloat, but he's only out for one robot."
"Here's my proposal," said Grim. "You pick me up at my current location, and I'll split the payday I've got coming to me. Then I get my fleet back."
***
A bit of static flashed across one of Mairen's screens. Her eyes shot to it.
"I've got you now," she said with a grin. Then, into her comm, "Admiral, I need you on the bridge immediately. I can find our spy."
"What?" asked Jasken incredulously.
"The spy, they're sending a message currently," said Mairen, the excitement in her voice palpable. "They're… yes! They're in the lower decks."
***
Grim paused his conversation with Gnash to listen to what was being said on the bridge. His time was up. He needed to move.
"I'll be here, Gnash, and I'll be waiting," he said.
"I still haven't said yes, Admiral," said Gnash irritably.
Grim ended the call and snuck through the belly of the ship until he was under a maintenance garage.
***
"I want a security detail sweeping those decks now," growled Jasken. "Lock down the ship, but do it quietly. I don't want to tip them off. And I want the spy alive if at all possible."
Captain Hunt hopped on his comm immediately to start coordinating the hunt.
***
Grim popped up inside the garage. He had to act quickly but he wasn't sunk yet. The hoverbike was sitting right where he expected it to be. His fingers were a blur as he activated the bike and threw a leg over it. He puttered stealthily over to the door then slammed his fist into the emergency exit button.
***
Vanbrook was still outside working on the piping for the water system when alarms began blaring. There was the whine of a hoverbike and booming, rusty laughter. He looked up and saw a massive robot with a beard of chain barreling in his direction on an assault bike. The laughter was drowned out by the sounds of the bike’s foreguns blasting.
Vanbrook pulled his revolver and fired a wild shot as he dove out of the way, but the bike zoomed past unscathed. A hail of gunfire followed him, but only a few glancing blows landed as the robot rode out over the river, following it upstream.
“That was Grim!” shouted Vanbrook into the emergency comm channel. “Admiral Grim of the Ramshackle Collective just rode out of the Wingspan!”
***
Everyone scrambled to chase the spy, but by the time Kwa-Kwa and her Scouts got their hoverbikes out onto the river, it was anyone’s guess where Grim had gotten to.
“There’s just too many bends in the river,” said Kwa-Kwa over the comms. “I can’t see where he is, and there’s no telling if he just bolted off into the brush. Rahk and I will keep going upstream, the rest of the scouts will hang back and look for any subtle evidence of where he went.”
“Alright,” said Jasken from the bridge. “Keep me up to date.”
“Yes, sir,” replied the Krauqian.
Jasken smoothed his mustache and looked at Mairen, who was looking at her screens despondently.
“You did well, Officer,” he said sternly.
She looked up at him. “Did I? Because it seems like the murdering spy got away.”
“After you flushed him out. I hope we catch him and put him in front of a firing squad, but at least the ship is secure again.” Jasken put a hand on the Communications Officer’s shoulder. “You did well, Mairen.”
***
Jylik watched Gevrok cautiously as the Hrudukite held a firearm for the first time. He was paying close attention to the quartermaster’s instructions, which was good. The warrior seemed fairly intelligent for a worm from a bronze-tech planet.
Gevrok fired into the straw dummy as directed, and it exploded with a puff of dust and splinters. Laughing thunderously, the warrior examined the thorn gun with sheer joy, making sure not to look directly into the business end of the weapon.
“Much more fun than hammers,” announced Gevrok gleefully. “Do I get to keep it?”
The quartermaster looked at Jylik, who shrugged.
“Of course,” said the quartermaster. “Remember: you get five shots. Then it needs a full day to recharge under a sun or other bright lightsource. Other breeds of thorn gun are more advanced, but we felt this was a good first weapon for you.”
Gevrok nodded appreciatively.
Yrinla walked into the room. “Crown Prince?”
Jylik turned to the elderly priestess.
“We are fully prepared for another jump, and we have avoided detection by the Republic,” she said.
“Do we know where they are headed next?” asked Jylik.
“It’s hard to be certain, but only one planet has been detected in the direction the Republic is heading. It appears to be a watery world with a breathable atmosphere. We are fairly confident it will be their next stop. It also may well be within the Cornucopia Cluster.”
Jylik nodded. “Make preparations to jump immediately.”