Chapter 34: Interlude: Boneyard

The Rama Bot lowered them to the ground at the edge of the space ship bone yard. Wind howled between the rows of ships and tugged at their suits. The man calling himself Sergei now, could not shake the feeling that they were watched. Some of the ships were clearly alien, perhaps of civilizations that joined and adopted the Common design scheme. Perhaps of vanquished foes with technology deemed inferior. Some of the designs they recognized, some of the ships looked ready to fly others had parts missing, some were literally cut in half, but it all was dark and the weak sun seemed to create more shadows than light.

Sergei masked his uneasy feeling gnarling at the Admiral.” Why stop here? Let your robot carry us where we need to go and then leave this place.”

The disguised Kermac was of another opinion. He would have loved to stay here longer and make detailed records of what was there.

“Because we first need to talk to the care takers and find out where it is stored.” Swybin answered.” You are welcome to go back, take the shuttle and leave this world, if you like.”

Sergei hissed.” Do you have any idea what it costs and takes to get three CIT’s? Or get you of the Gallows alive? My employers have spent considerable resources o you and expect you to do your part. For now we play your game, so lead on.”

Swybar jumped of the robots hand and somehow he managed even to walk like he owned the place, and it looked it was more or less the case.

Sergei had been tempted to turn on the mental control device and cause the Admiral some pain and to remind him of his place. but the Kermac held him back.” Not now associate, we will punish him for his insolence later.”

Something fast, just a hint faster than the Kermac was able to register at first swooped out of an open and dark cargo hatch yawning in the hull of an ancient Saran cruiser. Whatever it was disappeared between the rows of ships before he could really see what it was.

Both men almost ran as they caught up with the Admiral, who was heading for the gray hull of an Ult troop transport, leaning precariously to one side as it had four of the original six landing struts missing. Sergei’s hand cramped around a high powered blaster weapon he carried on his side. “Did you see that fast thing?”

“No I haven’t and neither have you, Petharian Brain leeches move way too fast for most beings to really see them until it is too late.”

Even though neither of the two men ever been across the bridge nor heard about Brain leeches, their name alone did little for the confidence of the two men. Sergei actually pulled the blaster and nervously scanned the area above them in the nearly dark metal canyon of derelict space ships. The Kermac speculated.” Perhaps the ships did not get sterilized before they were brought here.”

Swybin turned.” Oh no, there are strict fleet regulations about that. These brain leeches are genetically and cybernetic enhanced and a horrible weapon, deemed too immoral even by Terrans and one batch ended up here and now guard the place.”

They had almost reached the massive troop transport, Swybin said.” Terrans hardly throw ever anything away, there are 112 Bone yard Planets like this all storage places of surplus weapons, equipment and gear that can’t be sold and deemed it could be useful again one day.”

“Translocators too?” Sergei whispered.

“Don’t be silly of course not. The Translocators are more or less the reason these bone yards exist. Why keep weapons and developments around when you have the perfect weapon? While there is a new development here and there, no real advance or chance was made to Union ship weaponry since Stahl brought this wonder weapon back. Before the Translocator cannons Union Engineers and scientists came up with new and different concepts almost yearly that were developed and tested. I haven’t seen a new weapon concept since.”

The Kermac shrugged.” So, why spend resources on new unproven things when you got the perfect weapon? We have not figured out how they work or how to defend against them.”

Sergei said.” Can it be so hard to develop a similar weapon? You have hundreds of civilizations slaving for you and the Kermac are certainly one of the oldest and species around.”

“Let us not waste time in useless conversations. I prefer to be inside and away from flying Brain leeches.”

Two dark green bulky looking beings with massive jaws and exposed fangs peeled from the shadows. Both wearing some kind of steel mesh and metal belt harnesses, the Kermac had heard of Oromals but never seen them. He whispered.” Are these penal colonists or something?”

Swybin laughed.” Not at all, all Depots are guarded by Oromals. They volunteer for this duty and many do it for generations. Just be careful and don’t call them Orcs that would be a mistake.”

They followed the Admiral past a working air lock door inside the troop transporter. Here Swybin removed his hood and cold mask and the two Oromals saluted.” Admiral, we did not know you would come for an inspection.”

“Life is full of surprises isn’t it Specialist Noxthyxthyazonix? I need to take the Red Dragon back to Development, so please have your men fuel her up and make her ready for take-off.”

“I dispatch them right away. We have installed the Sastra devices as ordered already a year ago, and the Attikan engines have been delivered and completely installed just last month.”

The Kermac hissed quietly as the Oromal rushed to a rugged looking comm. Terminal.” It seems you have planned this for quite a while, even while you were still a noble Admiral.”

“No I haven’t I wanted to show that these depots held more than junk and obsolete things and planned to demonstrate this with reactivating the Red Dragon Prototype and adding a few improvements, but now it will be my instrument of revenge. First I am going to kill McElligott and then this snot nosed Cadet named Olafson.”

--””--

DEMONS

“It was nice knowing you Commander.” I said and authorized the system to release her rescue pod. Her seat disappeared into the floor and accelerated through a short chute. Her voice panicked.” No Eric. Don’t do anything stupid. Losing a ship is not the end.”

My hands flew over the direct input controls and I accelerated the ship, shutting every system down but forward shields and thrust.” They want my ship, they going to get it.”

I held straight at the closest enemy ship. With one eye on the countdown for self-destruct. The Sturgeon now seconds before its end performed like a charm. The white glowing forward shields held and I got some speed out of her. I needed to make contact; otherwise even the biggest explosion would do little good in the vacuum of space. Whoever was on the helm of the other ship realized now I would not change course and tried to evade. I shut the forward shields of, pushed the rest of the energy into the engines and punched my eject button.

As soon as I was in space I turned to look, the Sturgeon didn’t look like a ship anymore, it was a glowing half melted blob, plowing right into the hostile ship and then the antimatter containment was turned off and both ships were swallowed by an expanding bubble of thermal energies exceeding the temperatures of the hottest star.

The escape capsule was more or less a mini space ship. It had rudimentary sensors, communication systems and sub light propulsion with extremely limited range. I picked up the signal of Gwenn’s capsule, just two light seconds away.

Rudimentary sensors in these conditions meant I would know a ship was near when I could almost touch it. Even though there were hostile ships near, there was no chance I would be able to see them with just my eyes until they were very close. Out here was no star for the light to reflect of an object.

If we were lucky the pirate’s sensors weren’t too good either, finding a small object like a rescue capsule without good sensors wasn’t all that easy, that meant that we didn’t do much to attract attention. So I called Gwenn using my PDD. I was certain the pirates would not be able to listen in on that,” Commander Can you hear me?”

“You crazy son of a bitch.” Was the answer she screamed.” I thought you are dead.”

“I just could not lose my first command without taking at least some with me. Just hang tight and don’t activate any external energy consumers such as the thrusters, as long as we drift they might not find us, our ships are on their way and they will be able to home in on our Trans dim Beacons.”

“You scared me. I thought I caused your death.”

“It was not your fault. I just can’t figure out how we ended up here in the first place and so fast. I never heard of a navigational system failure like this one.”

She wanted to say something but I cut her off.” Commander, we do not know how long we have to wait. Let us preserve PDD Energy as much as we can. In a few hours I think we can risk firing maneuvering thrusters to get closer together.”

“Alright, but we will make contact every hour, promised?”

“I promise. I won’t let anything happen to you Ma’am.”

It was a hollow promise of course but I tried to put as much confidence and reassurance into my voice as I could.

“Alright, but next time I would appreciate if you let me in on your plans.”

“There wasn’t enough time for words, now let us conserve energy until we know how long we have to wait.”

She agreed and cut transmission, and as soon as she was off, the rescue pod comm. link activated. “I know you are out there Union Soldier. You killed my brother with your stunt. While I never liked that crazy cut throat, he was family.