Chapter 37

Striker One lay in wait.

Beanie had a thin film of sweat on his upper lip as he watched the gunship slide silently towards his position. It felt a little odd watching it as if it were upside down to him. He had pinpointed the two spots he was to hit, and the targeting system had them locked.

There was no way he would miss the ship from the distance they were from it. He waited patiently. He was an old hand at controlling his impulses, even if he found it nerve-wracking.

“Now, Beanie,” Chris said softly, as his eyes were also glued to the ship on the screen.

Beanie hit the two buttons. They all watched as the two low-yield torpedoes streaked away. The target would barely have time to register that they were being fired upon before the ordinance hit.

Chris eased Striker One forward to clear the asteroid that partially hid them. They would be shielded from any debris as they looped around the asteroid and came up to the rear of the ship they had fired upon. As the Pirate’s ship once again came into view, the team was shocked to see the damage.

“Bloody hell!” Beanie said softly.

His eyes were wide, and the shock hit him hard. The torpedos were supposed to put a few holes in the ship near the engines. However, the explosions they had caused were devastating.

The ship still had its fore engines running, as it was slowing when the explosion ripped the aft engines off. The crew of Striker One could see that the engines had been blown clear of the ship. All sorts of debris were expelled from the compartments that were ripped open to vacuum.

The explosion had shaken the ship and pushed the aft end down. The fore explosion had been delayed. When it happened, it ripped the top engine free of the ship. The other two engines had shut down after the first explosion.

The second smaller explosion countered some of the motion created by the rear explosion. It did slow the ship from the extra added speed, but it hadn’t regained its original trajectory. It was now trying to spin end for end as it continued in a forward motion.

“Shit,” Darla said. “Chris, if anyone survived that, they won’t be alive for much longer. The computer projects that in about fifteen minutes, it’s going to have a run-in with a small group of asteroids that are now in their path.”

“Kay, how soon can we blink?” Aaron asked his vambrace.

“One minute. It’s not going to be easy either. I suggest you all crouch down in a tight group and hold onto each other. You may not have gravity or air, so make sure you seal your suits,” Kay suggested.

They quickly sealed their suits and arranged themselves as she suggested.

“Now,” she said.

The six enforcers found themselves tumbling in a small room. Aaron hit the wall with his back as he released his friends. They all threw their arms out to grab whatever they could.

Once they had righted themselves, Kola headed for the door and found that it was able to slide open. They still had air pressure on both sides, even if the gravity was gone.

Aaron used a spell to propel him through the door. He told the others to latch on to him, and then they headed straight to the bridge. They found their first body in the second hallway. His head had smashed into something, and the result wasn’t pretty. Several of his limbs also hung at odd angles.

Tale used a spell to push away the blood, and whatever else it was that was floating in the air so that they didn’t get covered in the crap. Aaron steered them down the next hall towards the bridge. Kola dropped a spell on the door, and it slid open.

Aaron peered in carefully and then signalled the others to follow. Ten people were on the bridge. Six were strapped in, but the other four were floating. The boarders each headed to a person and checked for vitals.

“This one’s alive,” Que said. She dropped an immobilisation spell on the moaning man and then a healing spell.

Bindy told them, “I’ve got a live one too.” Hers was unconscious. She then used the same spells as Que had.

“Dead,” Michel said, and he left the man floating as he moved on to the next.

He heard Aaron say that his man was dead too, and then Tale said the ‘D’ word. Four of the people who had been strapped in were alive. Two were semi-conscious, but the others were out cold.

The floater that Tale inspected was alive. He had smashed into something, and blood still dripped from his carved-up face. She dropped the healing spells on the man and then immobilised him.

“Aaron, there are six life signs on the level below this one,” Kay told him.

“Bindy, let’s unstrap this lot, and you and the girls blink them back to our ship,” Aaron told her.

The three women agreed, and once they had five people encased in their arms and shielded, Jax helped Bindy blink the group to their ship. Beanie and Darla met them in the infirmary to help them get the people onto beds.

Bindy made sure each prisoner was wearing a magic cuff. She had spelled the cuffs to immobilise the person if they tried to get off the bed until the crew was ready to move them to a cell.