Chapter 6

Brodie worked quickly to organize the raid on the pirates’ asteroid base. The plan was to use Loki’s Mischief to make a stealth approach so three teams of his best fighters could enter the base without giving the pirates too much notice. Each team would have twenty-four men and women, led by Erik, Val, and Aurora. While Aurora wasn’t part of Clan Erikson, Carmichael vouched for her and pushed for her to be one of the team leaders. Brodie and Carmichael would remain on the ship with another ten warriors in reserve. A second wave of ships and men would be on standby, in reserve in case they met stiff opposition.

Brodie had some butterflies because this would be his first leadership test. To make matters worse, Bjorn had called all the clan leaders and their key personnel to brief them on the upcoming mission. The clan leaders hadn’t been told what the real purpose of the gathering was but instead were given the cover story that King Denhardt’s hersir, Sven Haugen, wanted a meeting.

Sven had been one of Brodie’s classmates on Hel and had graduated second in his class behind Brodie despite being 15 years older. Sven was the leader of the conspiracy against Brodie at Hel Academy, so there was no love lost between the two. But Brodie planned to keep everything professional when he laid eyes on his nemesis.

Before that meeting, Brodie got one last rundown aboard Loki’s Mischief.

“Val, you’re in charge while Carmichael and I attend the briefing. Make sure the troops are squared away and have everything they need.”

“Yes, sir,” Val said.

“Loki, are there any issues with our flight to the asteroid?”

“No, sir. There are no other ships in that sector at the moment.”

Brodie’s communicator vibrated. His father’s message said everyone was in the secure area, and his presence was requested.

They had a ‘war room’ where the clans would follow the action. Before they could go in, all communications devices were collected, and everyone was locked in until the raid concluded.

“It’s showtime,” Brodie announced, and he and Carmichael got up to exit the ship.

On the way to the war room, Carmichael had a few words of wisdom.

“In a setting such as we are going into, superior technology and weapons may not be able to help a unit if it gets isolated. Guerrilla tactics can be used to effectively approach and attack with unsophisticated weapons to great effect. Be sure to keep track of your teams and don’t let them charge in without support, or you might lose some troops today.

“Take your time and methodically clear the base. If you do that, you’ll have an easy time of it,” Carmichael said, sharing his experience.

Brodie already knew this from his training, but he’d be a fool not to heed the word of someone as experienced as the Goth warlord. Brodie would be sure to talk to his three unit commanders and have them talk to their troops on the flight to the pirate base. He would have to worry about eager new recruits because they would want to prove themselves and, being young, would believe they were invincible.

Brodie also knew this would be Erik and Val’s first battle. He’d had a long talk with them the previous night to remind them they were responsible for the safety of their troops. They were also to command, not lead by example and get their asses shot off.

When they arrived, Brodie and Carmichael strode into the war room, and Brodie took the podium, double-checking to confirm his communicator was on before speaking. He looked over the assemblage and spotted his childhood friends: Lorelei Gundersen, Johan Callan, Betrina Eike, and Karl Fiske.

He took a moment to give Jarl Gundersen a wink and mouth, ‘Thank you’ before he began to speak. That little interaction produced confused looks on all his friends’ faces, including Elle’s.

“A few days ago, we received intel about a pirate base inside an old mining asteroid,” Brodie announced, causing everyone to scurry to their seats.

He gave Bjorn a quick glance to make sure his father saw Elle flinch. That confirmed their suspicion that the pirates and the Gundersen clan were working together.

Brodie brought up a holo-map of space around Norse with a blinking red dot indicating the asteroid’s location. He then zoomed in to show a closer view.

“What are the blue and gold dots?” Hersir Haugen asked.

“Over time, we’ve neglected maintenance of our early detection buoy system. We’ve hired the Goths to help resolve that issue, among other things. The gold dots show the new sentry buoy system installed around the asteroid. They have weapon systems and AIs to shoot down any ships that try to escape our raid today,” Brodie said and turned to Carmichael. “Do you have anything to add, Warlord Just?”

“Is this a failure in leadership by Hersir Erikson that allows the planet to be open to attack?” Sven asked, interrupting.

This was typical behavior of his former classmate. Whenever Brodie presented something, Sven tried to one-up him somehow. Why would today be any different?

“As you well know, Hersir Erikson was at Hel Academy for the past eight years. I think it’s irresponsible on your part to place blame on Brodie when he wasn’t here and had no control over anything,” Warlord Carmichael said, coming to Brodie’s defense.

“Then, who’s to blame?” Sven asked.

At that moment, Brodie was glad the Goth leader was at the podium because he might have punched the arrogant ass.

“It’s a poor leader who walks in with no knowledge of how this happened and starts looking for someone to blame. What you should be asking is how we fix this. And frankly, there may be a time and place for this kind of backstabbing, but now is not it,” Warlord Carmichael said, looking sternly at Sven.

The crowd chuckled at the verbal dressing-down Sven had received. Brodie decided that after they were done today, Carmichael was getting a bottle of centipede whiskey.

Brodie jerked as his communicator vibrated. It was an urgent message from Val; he quickly read it and announced, “The pirate base has just sent out a distress call on open comms. They’re claiming they’re under attack.”

He turned to the room.

“We need to launch immediately, so if you would excuse us...” Brodie said.

“I’m coming with you,” Sven said.

Brodie froze in his tracks because the last thing he needed was to have Sven Haugen looking over his shoulder. Or, even worse, have him try to pull rank.

“Only as an observer,” Bjorn said with authority, to Brodie’s relief.

Sven nodded, and the three of them rushed out of the room as everyone began to talk at once. Brodie was glad his dad, and not he, had to deal with that chaos.

Once they boarded Loki’s Mischief, reached the command center, and launched, they heard the distress call.

“Mayday, mayday, mayday. Asteroid 926 is under attack from two Yahve phantom-class stealth warships. We currently have them in a storage cavern, but they are doing everything possible to kill personnel. Any ships in the area, please assist in the evacuation since all our ships have been disabled.

“I repeat...”

“Turn it off,” Brodie said.

“Loki, what can you tell us about the situation?”

“It’s hard to get readings because the two ships are deep inside the asteroid. I see reports of damage and casualties from the pirates’ systems,” Loki said.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Brodie asked.

“I would put the probability of those ships being captured in some way at about ninety-five percent. If the AIs are reacting this way, it tells me the pirates made a direct attack on the AIs.”

“How so?” Sven asked.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t respond to your request since you’re not part of the crew or under Hersir Erikson’s command,” Loki said, making Brodie’s day.

“I would like to know,” Erik said.

“It would be highly unusual for the AIs to act this way of their own volition. I can only assume the pirates either tried to shut down the AIs or disable them somehow,” Loki said.

Val and Erik glanced at Brodie with worried looks. He might have to rethink pulling the Yahve AI.

“How do you plan to handle this?” Sven asked.

“I recommend you allow the Yahve ships to clear out the nest of pirates and then let me have them,” Loki said.

“Raise your hand if you think letting Loki have two Yahve phantom-class stealth warships is a good idea,” Aurora said.

No one did, which earned them a rude sound from Loki.

“Can you get them to stand down and convince them to work with us?” Brodie asked.

“Yes, sir. I can get them to work under your command,” Loki said.

“I think they need to be taken back to Mulheim, where we can take the ships apart and study them,” Sven said.

Loki chuckled at that prospect. It was eerie for an AI to show that kind of emotion—or much of any emotion, for that matter. Brodie was glad to see Sven suddenly looking concerned.

“I would rather arrest the pirates and get the two ships to come peacefully. Thoughts?” Brodie asked.

“I recommend we launch the assault as planned. If the pirates surrender, then we deal with the Yahve ships. You want a show of force,” Carmichael said.

“Agreed,” Erik and Val said at the same time.

Brodie looked at Aurora to get her input.

“I would get the assault teams in place and communicate with the pirates to let them know they can surrender and live or they can die. I couldn’t care less which way it goes because they would never show mercy if the tables were turned.”