Chapter 22

We backtracked the path the raiders took from their shuttle. When we found a door that wasn't blown up, because Miley hadn't welded it, we closed it. I still expected trouble from Price's warships. With only the forward shields repaired, having outer-hull hatches secured seemed sensible. We could only hope Engineering would be able to deal with our shield troubles while avoiding the intruders. Nevertheless, my immediate trouble was the rats whipping their guns about in our maintenance tunnel maze. The raiders could come out anywhere in the ship by using the tunnels, and I wasn't going to tolerate that variable. The rest of the raiders were moving to predictable targets where we had some defensive team members.

Nehring wouldn't let me go into the pirate shuttle's airlock. I didn't argue the point; it was best if he thought I was reasonable for the moment when I didn't want to be. He favored the two female crewmen that had performed well in our shootout, so he boarded the pirate craft with them. When they were done and exited back into the Entous, they had blood splattered armor. All three of them lifted their visors to explain the old shuttle was secure. The women looked particularly pleased with the outcome of their little mission. They weren't hurt, which could only mean a hostile or two had come to a bad end.

From there, we hustled after our quarry. We hunted the hunters, and I planned on exploiting their ignorance. Miley provided timely updates on their location, so we dashed from place to place to get near them. Unlike the groups moving against Life Support and Engineering, this group moved timidly. I was convinced the tunnel raiders were either poorly led or very inexperienced in shipboard fighting. If they had been in heavy armor I would have understood their slow movements and seemingly random behavior, however Miley provided video streams of their movements. They had not even shot out the odd camera that they had passed, so I could see they had similar armor to ours. It didn't bother me that we were down to eight people since we all had suitable armor and carbines. Our team seemed motivated and willing to listen, making my task easier and raising my confidence in the upcoming conflict.

The tunnel raiders did present a challenge by going out of a tunnel, looking around the level and then getting back into the tunnel again. I don't know if not finding crewmen was confusing them or if their initial job had been to snatch personnel rather than fight, thus avoiding choke points where security might be present. We had moved most of the crew to the lower decks and they didn't know it. It didn't matter why they had random movements, other than trying to find a place to engage them on our terms. I wasn't sure if my group was convinced that I knew what I was doing, darting down one tunnel to only rush us back to take a different fork when the raiders took an unexpected turn. With their visors down it was hard to get a sense of my group's mood.

Finally, the tunnel raiders changed their pattern and they began to walk a corridor that led to us. I had guessed they'd go down to this level and scout the deck, since they would have a map of the ship from Price; it was a residential floor for single women. I'd remembered a stupid banner that said something like, "You're entering the Kingdom of Women." There had been a lot of jokes about it inside Shore Leave when I went dancing. The sign was in retaliation for some remark Lt. Boorman had made to a group of women, so they had turned the joke around on him. I never did get the story right; all I knew was if the pirates saw the sign, they would be eager to hunt women there.

"Thank Moon Mother for Lt. Boorman's ego," I mumbled.

Half way down the residential corridor was a crossing intersection with a crew lounge and public restrooms. A knee-high, wall painting bot was idle next to a coffee supply bot that was docked in a charging station at the intersection. The gentle hum of the bot recharging was picked up by my helmet mic. A number of fake plants decorated the area, making it look rather welcoming. A social media terminal flashed the ship's alert warning, occasionally beeping to capture people's attention. We deployed near the intersection, out of sight, behind a half-wall in the lounge section. Opposite the lounge, I slapped my hand on a cabin door access-plate, which opened the room. Pointing at all three women we had in our team, I waved them into the room from the doorway. A security camera in the corridor moved and looked at me as I followed my teammates inside.

"Here is the plan. When I yell on our tactical channel, one of you is going to scream like a frightened child. Flip up your visor and shout, 'No, No, leave me alone! Help! Help!'" I explained. "You will be spread out behind furniture, knelling and targeting the entrance. We need to create a crossfire and have some believable bait."

"I'll be the screamer," one of them answered, flipping up her visor.

I put my hand on her shoulder. "We'll have your back."

The three women pushed around the furniture as I left. It wouldn't provide real protection, and we all knew it.

I put another crewman inside the restroom, which had another angle on the intersection.

"Stay in here until the shooting starts, then pop out and add to the covering fire," I ordered.

He complied, waiting in the dark alone.

I made it back to the half-wall with Nehring and the other two shooters, just as we heard heavy footsteps further down the corridor. My movements might have been heard but I wasn't certain.

A quick glance at my men pleased me; their silence combined with their body language conveyed a tone of the utmost seriousness and none of the men looked nervous. Most of my team was average height and build, athletic, but they wouldn't stand out in a crowded gym. Nevertheless, they possessed the weapon skills to put holes in people. I just wasn't sure of their close combat skills.

I suspected we would find ourselves using swords soon, and I hoped they were all up to it. Many of them had no idea the weight that would lie on your soul after piercing a man's body with your sword. "Will they freeze up?" I wondered.

We waited as the raiders slowly worked their way towards us. They were checking cabins, so they must not have heard my earlier movements. It gave me a breather to reassess my strategy. I wanted to prevent pandemonium on the Entous by whittling down the raiders' numbers before they realized that our forces were concentrated. If they sent a few more groups roaming around, they could terrorize the unarmed portion of the crew. Thus far it seemed they lacked a command group; they weren't reacting to what we were doing.

"This is bullshit! The place is a ghost town," a woman's voice protested, surprising me.

"I still can't raise the shuttle, so there is no getting new instructions from the Captain," another woman answered. "Follow the plan."

"The plan. The plan was squashed when we lost the third shuttle," the protesting woman snapped. "Explorer class ships don't have fucking missiles. How did that happen? And how are they jamming our shuttle's communications? I tell you we should have waited at the shuttle longer for new instructions or retreated."

A number of heavy boots squeaked in the intersection, probably moving around the arguing women. Nehring and I looked at each other and shrugged. Neither of us had expected to run into a woman raider. Listening to their comments made me forget to spring the trap.

The gentle hum of a machine recharging switched into an automated start-up warning.

Pressing my microphone at my throat, I whispered, "Now."

We heard a panicked female voice, "Leave me alone! Help! Help!"

"Finally!" one of the pirate women shouted.

We waited. Boots ran.

Carbine bolts sizzled as they hit flesh. I stood up and added my fire as did the rest of my men. The scene turned into chaos.

We saw a body drop at the cabin's doorway and a few raiders backing away. One of them returned fire into the cabin, after dropping to a knee to aim. Three pirates were distracted by the painting bot that was spraying gray paint onto their visors. The coffee bot was ineffectively grabbing at a fat man's ankle with a weak metal arm. A bolt of energy destroyed the little coffee bot. Nehring shot the bot-killing man in the back, taking advantage of the distraction. A pirate pivoted and snapped a shot off at our man coming out of the restroom and dropped him dead. I shot at a female pirate shooting into the cabin; it deflected off her armor. All our carbines were reloading, so I dropped my weapon and drew my sword. Nehring did the same thing. My other men hid behind the half-wall as their guns recharged.

Nehring and I ran at the closest raiders who were covered in paint. One of them didn't see us coming and fired at the paint bot blasting it to pieces. The two other painted men had enough of their visor clear to catch our movements, drawing their own swords. We were on them in that instant. Clang, clang, clang, our swords sang.

Nehring skillfully detonated a roundhouse kick into his opponent's face, lifting him off his feet. My opponent was unbalanced, allowing me to thrust the point of my sword under his exposed armpit. The third raider smashed her carbine stock against my helmet, propelling me into the wall. I lost my sword and I saw stars for a moment.

Nehring was feet away from me dispatching his foe, so he was no help. I bounced off the wall and fought over the carbine with my opponent, even though I felt dazed. My two teammates fired from behind the half-wall at other pirates over by the cabin. My strength overwhelmed the woman and I front kicked her away from me while I held on to her weapon. It's hum ended and I shot her. A pirate in the cabin door shot at Nehring, spinning him around. With my sword under my dead foe's legs, I dropped the recharging carbine and rushed at the pirate, drawing my nanoblade. The raider ducked into the cabin as my shipmates shot at him. I couldn't worry about Nehring, since we had intruders on their feet.