Chapter Thirty-Eight

Coming in hot.

“I knew that dead spot on the scan was going to be a problem,” Berenice sighed.

The Marshalls were gathered around the scan terminal in the asteroid base control room. They had hoped to find clues about how to approach the next base, but they discovered a problem.

“Orbital Beam Platform,” Cara read the information on the scan display. “What’s it orbiting?”

“It just means it is deployed in space,” Crush told her. “I saw a couple of these during my time in the service. Nasty bastards, you don’t see them coming the way you do a capital ship.”

“Can we take it out with the rail guns before it gets us?” Andy asked.

“No chance,” Crush shook his head. “We take one hit from this thing; we are toast.”

“This is what they were trying to pull the Talon into, right?” Cara asked.

“I’d guess so,” Crush confirmed. “It has shield generators aimed from each station to cover it.”

“Not just shields,” Andy enlarged a part of the scan. “Weapons signatures on both stations—laser arrays, at least. No way to tell if they have kinetics as well.”

“Hands up everyone who thinks we just push this whole asteroid into them and call it a day?” Berenice suggested.

“Despite what our Queen thinks,” Crush chuckled, “Throw an asteroid at it is not the be-all and end-all of problem-solving.”

“Meaning it wouldn’t work,” Berenice said.

“Meaning it wouldn’t work,” Cara said. “The shields alone would take the impact, deflecting the bits away from the Beam platform.”

“Suggestions?” Crush asked. “Or we do it the hard way.”

“The weapons on the bases should be able to shoot from inside the shield,” Cara said. “We could use them to take out the Beam.”

“Unless they shoot us with it first.” Andy countered.

“So, we need to shoot it from there, but after we leave?” Berenice suggested.

“Works for me,” Crush said. “Let's fill our air tanks and head out.”

“Oh, great,” Berenice muttered, “More throwing ourselves into space.”

They checked the captives were secured, and sealed the room they were in with nanites to ensure they didn’t get any clever ideas, just in case.

The jump to the next base was massive, so they decided to cheat a little. In the first few seconds after launching from the asteroid, they would use thrusters to get them up to a high speed and then move in close formation to cover the gap in as little time as possible.

Since Berenice was not exactly a professional at this, Crush slaved her suit thrusters to his implant, allowing him to ensure she didn’t fly off course.

He counted down from five with one hand, and they were off.

The acceleration forces were intense, but the nanites adjusted for it quickly. Yet again, Crush was left to wonder how anyone ever managed to get anything done without them.

With his extensive training and conditioning from a very young age, Crush was used to feeling capable. Drop him anywhere with a breathable atmosphere, and he could do anything from survive to assassinate a leader or win a small war. The nanites, on the other hand, were a force multiplier on an unimagined level. He felt like the super beings they made video cubes about but in real life.

It was wild, and he really hadn’t had much of a chance to test his limits before now.

The little red flashing lights going off all over the base they were hurtling toward suggested he was about to get his chance.

“Look alive!” Crush called over comms, “We’re busted!”

Crush rolled to one side, his thrusters firing to keep his flight controlled. He pulled his rifle up and aimed at the figures pouring out of the airlock on the surface.

The base had taken a couple of pot shots with their lasers—those fuckers looked a lot bigger when there wasn’t a hull between you and them—but they were too close.

“Can we?” Cara asked.

“Combat Mode,” Crush called, and the world seemed to slow down around him. His headlong flight seemed more like a leisurely hop as he squeezed the trigger, sending explosive pulses of laser fire at the tightly clustered figures.

His arms moved, dragging the rifle from one target to another, the distance between him and the enemy seeming to vanish.

Crush flipped over, firing his suit thrusters in the face of an enemy soldier, unable to hear their screams as the heat melted their suit to them.

Then, he was down, boots sticking to the smooth rock easily.

Cara moved past him, slapping a pair of round disks on the inner door of the airlock that had never had a chance to close.

They moved to either side, and their visors darkened for a second as the explosives flashed. Gasses and two more bodies came shooting out of the breach, and then they moved inside.

Inside, the base was a carbon copy of the previous one, except this was all on one level.

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Pressure seals had activated, and the rooms on either side of the corridor were sealed tight, unable to be opened until the pressure equalized.

Crush nodded to Cara, and they moved down the corridor, with him on the left and her on the right. Andy stayed with Berenice, covering her back as she crouched, rifle pressed to her shoulder and aimed at the far end of the corridor. The moment someone appeared, she put them down with three shots to the head in less than a second.

Crush nodded to Cara, and they moved forward. As they passed each sealed room, they took out their nano blades, stabbing them through the door and cutting a long slash in it. Air hissed out, and the indicator went red.

Door by door, they moved on.

When they came to the split in the corridor, they all went toward the control room.

The door was sealed, but another breaching charge reduced it to scrap, and Crush threw a flash grenade into the room.

The squad followed a minute later. They dropped the three crew members inside before turning and guarding the door as Berenice once more seized control of the station.

“Done!” Berenice called, and every remaining door in the place opened, venting the air inside.

“Weapons targeted, delay in place,” Andy called from the weapons console. “Everyone out.”

Cara tossed another explosive as they left, destroying the controls as they headed back out the same way they came in.

“Company’s coming,” Cara pointed as they exited.

Crush looked and saw a destroyer was just docking on the far side of the base. There was no way they would be able to stop the weapons firing without the consoles, at least not in time.

“Forget them,” Crush called. “Prepare for flight.”

Crush waited for the fireworks to start, anxiously watching the airlock behind them. It wouldn’t take them long to find the place was empty.

“Time’s up!” Andy called, and Crush leaped, firing his thrusters just as the laser arrays began to bombard the beam platform. Just as he hoped, the other base returned fire, trying to save their precious weapon.

While lasers flew, Crush and his team took a long swing wide of the fight and approached the final base from behind. They had just landed when the surviving base gave up and fired the beam weapon directly into the fallen base. The asteroid it was on fractured instantly, and the destroyer was holed, left to drift off into space with a small piece of the station still clinging to it.

Debris from the destroyed base and asteroid was sent flying in all directions, overwhelming the remaining shield on the platform and leaving it open to the shards of stone and metal that tore into it.

Gasses vented from it in multiple places, and the lights on it dimmed before flickering and going out. In the end, that had done more damage than just letting the other base fire at it would have.

“I need to use this mode for negotiations,” Berenice grinned. “It feels like I can take on the whole universe!”

“Let’s not try that just now,” Crush said with a lazy smile. “The thirty or so pissed-off and desperate people in this base will be more than enough.”

He wasn’t wrong, and the last base proved to be the most difficult to take by far.

They had disabled the control center and set up in several areas, forcing Crush and the others to fight pitched battles from cover until they finally put the last one down.

“Deactivate Combat Mode,” Crush ordered, feeling a wave of weakness sweep over him for a moment before his body adjusted. Berenice, not having a body used to the adrenaline highs of combat and corresponding crashes, groaned.

“Fuck, I feel awful,” She complained. “What hit me?”

“There is a reason you don’t use that mode often,” Crush said consolingly. “Now come on, let’s call the Liberties in to dock and start searching this place.”

“Can’t we take a nap first?” Berenice complained.

“First, we search this place. Second, we get the captives from the first base; third, we scan the files and make sure there isn’t another base hiding in this ore belt; and then, we search the other base again to find what we missed.” Crush grinned. “After that, we can work on the other list of things to do before we get a nap.”

“That’s not even remotely reasonable,” Berenice said flatly.

“Welcome to the Marshalls, Merchant,” Cara laughed and clapped her on the back.

Way more hours than he wanted to think about later, Crush and his people finally found the datapad with the designs on it. It was locked in a hidden floor safe in the personal quarters of the commander of the last base.

The prisoners had been transferred to the brig on the Taking Liberties, and the Four Cents were arranging for another pair of cruisers to come and assist in recovering all the stored materials from the two surviving bases. It was a considerable hall.

With everything else in hand, Crush sent the squad to get some rest and headed to his quarters with the datapad in hand.

He had quite high hopes for what it might contain, given that they had found no other advanced tech in the bases but was mentally preparing himself for a disappointment.

Sitting at his desk, a cup of HyperDrive steaming next to him, Crush put his feet on the desk and unlocked the pad.

CLASSIFIED

Property of the Imperial Line

Reading any contained information without the permission of your appointed commander will result in immediate contract termination and execution of SEVERE penalties.

CLASSIFIED

Insert authorization card to open files.

The card had been lying in the safe under the pad, so Crush slid it into the slot and waited while it decrypted the files. It took almost a minute, which made the Marshall realize how spoiled they were getting with the blisteringly fast Imperium pads.

He smiled to himself, still hoping that he would be adding something to their technological advantages.

Decoding Complete

Access Granted

Choose a category/Item to view

-Classified Ship Upgrades-

-Restricted Armor Components-

-Advanced Surveillance Mechanisms-

-Fleet Listings-

Crush felt his smile stretch as he looked at the options. At least one of these had to be something they didn’t have. Every single one looked like a gold mine, so he decided to start with the least exciting and work up.

He clicked on Fleet Listings and stared as the information scrolled past.

His cup shattered on the floor as he ran for the bridge.

===<<<>>>===

Nellie was doing her best to try and get a few more hours of sleep before Lucy arrived. It was not like it was going to be an easy reunion to begin with, being exhausted and overtired was unlikely to improve matters.

After almost an hour of tossing and turning, she was finally managing to drift off when her comm icon started to flash and chirp with an urgent message.

“Whoever this is, I want you to know this better be important,” Nellie growled as she rolled onto her back and answered the call.

“Who’s your favorite Marshall?” Crush grinned into the comm pickup with lights dancing in his eyes.

“Crush, I am extremely tired and more than a little bitchy,” Nellie warned. “I do not want to play games.”

“You sure?” Crush chuckled.

“Crush!” Nellie groaned.

“I found the datapad with all the secret stuff on it,” Crush said with a lazy smile. “Lots of new tech, I’m sure.”

“Very nice, good Marshall, go away,” Nellie grumbled.

Crush just laughed.

“Nellie, how would you like a complete list of every ship in the Blockade, along with weapons load-outs, shield strengths, crew numbers, commanding officers, and everything else,” Crush asked.

“I’d have your little scaly babies, Crush; why?” Nellie chuckled sleepily.

“It’s a nice offer, Nellie,” Crush grinned, “But I think Vicky would object, so I’ll just send you a copy over my implant.”

A file pinged, and Nellie opened it, seeing lists of ships, each one with lists of details.

“Ostie,” Nellie sat up, suddenly fully awake. “You weren’t kidding.”

“Now,” Crush cleared his throat. “Who’s your favorite Marshall?”