Chapter 20 - Sea of Venus(12) - Interception

“Team leaders. Status!”

“Diamonds suffered minor burns.”

“Clubs no damage.”

“Hearts have a sore neck.”

All twelve of the men laughed, “How sore?”

“Ah! As sore as a Flare in debt.”

The whole squad roared in laughter through the communications channel.

“We’re two kilometers north of the target. Each team will boost to within three hundred meters of the outer perimeter. We set up blast charges. Boom. Run in. Eliminate. Yeah?”

He looked around at the other men, “Watch out for the silica geysers. They’ll go right through these metal rags. Get in position, move it move it!”

The sound of twelve jetpacks firing up in quick succession made the crater rumble as the sound echoed off its walls. A bright blue hologram with a distance above it was projected into every member’s helmets.

The captain ducked down inside a crater. A large column of molten silica cascaded behind him as he pulled the pins out of an explosive charge.

“Everyone in position?”

“Affirmative.”

“Target locked.”

“Ready when you are.”

The captain smiled; he took spades to the far side of the compound. One of the men in his team screwed a tube onto another tube. The captain shoved the spherical charge down the tube. The mortar operator nodded.

The captain screamed into the communication channel, “Fire!”

A series of four explosions rang across the barren landscape of Io.

*Shatter*

Cracks ran up along the dome that contained the biosphere. Gas and loose objects flew out of the pressurized sphere as it was exposed to the thin atmosphere of Io. The men could feel the breeze blow for a few seconds and then it all died down to an uncomfortable silence.

“Can we get thermal scans?”

“Negative. Io is too hot for thermal scans.”

The captain cursed, “Push up to the compound wall. I’ll count down for breach.”

He crawled over to the edge of the compound. He heard a faint siren sound blaring inside the compound, but the atmosphere was too thin to properly hear it.

“Shit, an alarm.”

A broken voice spoke into the channel, “Hearts has spotted hostiles. At fifty meters.”

“Hold!”

“Copy.”

The captain took a small reflective square and pointed it around the corner.

“Spades are clear. Diamonds and clubs report.”

“All clear.”

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“Clubs spotted Hostile one.”

“Spades and diamonds breach on count. Diamonds and clubs execute hostile one.”

“Yes captain!”

The captain fumbled the square into a pocket and unclipped a blue repeater rifle from his rig, “Three. Two. One. Breach! Breach! Breach!”

The three members of the spades team sprinted out from the breach in the compound wall into an empty opening.

“Deploy cover!”

One of them slammed a white box on the floor and pulled a handle on top unfolding the box into a large riot shield.

“Push push! Fire on sight!”

The captain could hear popping noises from the other side of the compound.

“Hostile one eliminated. No damage.”

The captain smiled, “Clubs and spades breach bunker. Diamonds and hearts on overwatch.”

“Yes captain!”

The captain jerked his head to the side, “Prep the frame breach charges.”

One of the spades pulled a small square package out of a pocket and slapped it on the door, “Breach charge primed.”

“Clubs ready?”

“Affirmative.”

“Breach! Breach! Breach!”

*Boom*

The door caved inwards as the frame of the door was sent flying off into orbit. The captain flicked a light switch and entered the large room. He looked around, no signs of life.

He looked up and saw five red lasers pointed at him from the ceiling. He raised his rifle up revealing five empty machine gun sentry turrets with blinking red lights indicating self-destruction sequences.

“Shit. We’re late.”

*Boom*

“Ahh! What is that sound?”

The girl’s mother held her tightly, “Don’t worry. Mommy and daddy will keep you safe.”

The little girl looked out the window to see the trail of metal debris coming off the last main thruster of the destroyer. Red warning lights flashed through the ship as the destroyer careened through the asteroid belt.

*ding*

“Who is it?”

The man looked at the panel, “Three is calling.”

The mother nodded and walked out of the control room with the little girl.

“Hello three. What is happening?”

On the other side of the call, the sound of popping and explosions could be heard, “Two betrayed us. Save the kid! Take the pods *cough* *pop* *pop* get away! ARGHHHHH!”

The call cut and the man sat in the middle of the dark room in silence. His eyes glazed over as he stared out into the front window of the destroyer. Asteroids zoomed past them like boulders of death. Each second was a miracle.

“Unmarked cruiser. Do you copy?”

The captain stumbled out of the Hornet and threw the firearms into a rack, “Damnit. Three men down.”

“Unmarked cruiser. Do you copy?”

The captain looked up at the screen. Three military cruisers from the empire surrounded the ship just outside the scanning range.

The captain grabbed the panel on the screen, “Hello. This is the Bloodshot Brothers. What is the Empire doing in Republic space?”

“We cannot share operation details. We are looking for a young girl. Five years old. Pure human. Your corvette just took off from the operation site. We are currently conducting a scan of your vessel. Please comply.”

The captain stared at the screen and glanced at one of the men on the command module, “Quick! Look up the description of our target’s daughter!”

Seconds later the identification file for a five-year-old girl with an empty augments list appeared on the screen. The captain stared at the screen in astonishment, “Shit. Quick, wire me up to the channel.”

“Ahem. The target you’re looking for was not at the location we just searched.”

“Is that so?”

“There were no signs of life.”

“And how do we know that you didn’t demolish the building to hide the evidence?”

The captain breathed in and leaned away from the panel, “Should we share it?”

“It’s the damn empire. They’ll fry you if you don’t.”

The captain sighed, “We have a vector trace.”

The voice responded, “Yes. We have already taken that.”

The captain spun around to the person who was manning the computers, “Bring up the mainframe logs! Shit.”

A panel appeared on the big screen showing hundreds of new entries at the last minute. The entries suddenly started disappearing.

“Lock the logs! Isolate the data!”

The captain looked up and the entries stopped disappearing. Only three left. Only three pieces of evidence that the empire had stolen any information. And all of it was built-in music lists.

He leaned back and covered his head, “Fuck! They weren’t scanning but hacking. Damnit. They got it all.”

“Scans completed. We have confirmed what we need. Safe flying.”

“Hold on! Wait! We only need the two parents!”

The Empire cruisers started aligning to intercept along the vector they had stolen. The captain blared into the channel, “Oi! We were hunting them first!”

“No records.”

“Separate mainframe.”

“Send records.”

The captain nodded to a tech by a consol.

“Record received. Affirmative. You may proceed with your mission. Temporary truce?”

“Sure.”

“Inviting to fleet.”

A large orange lettering of “Join Fleet &#@%” appeared on the screen. A short nod from the captain and the old cruiser joined the fleet.

“Sharing objectives.”

“This vessel will comply.”

The captain pressed a few buttons on a consol sending the full report to the fleet channel. Seconds later, a report appeared in front of him.

“You only want the girl?”

“Yes.”

“We only want the parents.”

“Sure.”

“This works out?”

“We request an alteration of unidentified vessel’s objective.”

“Continue.”

“Requesting full data and ether fragment of parents for smoother operation.”

“No promises.”

The leading cruiser continued rotating.

“Locking trajectory. Broadcasting vector. Brace for acceleration.”