Pursue the Past: Samair in Argos: Book 1 (63 page)

              But now he had
this
shuttle to replace the one he just lost.  And his ships were keeping
Fury
busy and as he watched one of his ships blasted a hole through the corvette’s portside shields and then planted a missile into the hole, breaching the hull. 

             
Well now, that makes things interesting. 
He fully expected that, despite his earlier bravado,
Fury
would make short work of those two ships.  They might have gotten in a few good licks, but the corvette probably would prevail over his modified merchant ships.  However, they might be able to keep it busy enough and damage it enough for the other two ships in system to finish it off.  Though, with that big hit, perhaps he might get through this battle with more than one of those ships still functional.

             
Fury
tried to accelerate toward one of the merchant ships, while both of them peppered her with metal slugs from their rail guns.  The corvette’s shields were flaring against the continuous strain from the hits.  A salvo got through a hole in the shields and Verrikoth could see another explosion, this time against the ventral side of the corvette.  It wasn’t a big hit, but his pirate ships were starting to nibble the interloper to death.

              But the Republic ship wasn’t done yet.  Reeling from the hit to her belly, the corvette lashed out at the closest of his ships.  High powered grasers and a hail of rail gun slugs battered the modified freighter, smashing the shields until they collapsed.  The slugs slammed into the hull, tearing a massive hole through metal as though it was paper.  Verrikoth grimaced.  He’d known for a long time that his converted freighters were not warships, but seeing them in action now against a proper warship was disheartening to say the least.  Another salvo from the corvette finished what the first had started, tearing through the hull of the ship completely and blasting out the other side.  An instant later the ship broke apart, the burning aft section of the ship floating free from the dead hulk of the forward section.

              The tide seemed to turn then, as the second of Verrikoth’s ships tried valiantly to attack this shark that had swam into its protected cove.  Laser cannons fired, more rail guns fired and the
Fury
turned to bear down on this annoying fish that was attempting to hurt her.  Just as the
Fury
cut loose with its own weapons, the freighter opened up with a full volley of missiles.  It looked as though the captain of that ship had loosed every weapon he had in his launchers.  A second later, the Republic ship’s weapons blasted the weakened ship’s shields and battered the ship to a twisted hulk, burning and listing to port.  The ship was now dead in space, its atmosphere ignited, power out, crew dead.

              “Damn,” Verrikoth breathed, watching the carnage.  He’d hoped for better from his people.  But then the missiles crashed into the
Fury
’s bow.  A titanic explosion rocked the Republic corvette, an explosion so powerful that the ship was actually blown off course.  When the light from the explosion faded,
Fury
’s bow was both torn outward and crumpled inward.  The explosion had blasted away the controls to the corvette and now the ship was listing badly, slightly turning to starboard.

              “Excellent hit!” the zheen crowed.  Perhaps his second ship’s death wasn’t as big a problem as he’d thought.  The corvette wasn’t finished, but it was hurt, perhaps mortally.  He checked the shuttle’s sensor feeds, marveling at the range and quality of the scan.  He would happily add this ship and its tech to his operations.  But he could see his other two ships,
Hector
and
Ajax
moving up into range.

              The whole forward section of the ship was gone.  Able Spacer Dava Ricks picked herself up off the deck from where she’d been flung by the impact.   She had a cut on her forehead and a goose egg forming there.  As she stood, the corridor swam and she pressed a hand to her injury from where her head had collided with the bulkhead.  Dava managed to stumble into the engineering spaces, where pure chaos reigned.  Chemicals and steam gushed from ruptured conduits, Dava could see three of the engineering ratings laying on the deck, dead, covered in plasma burns from the ruptured conduits.  Alarm klaxons were blaring and the heat from a fire.

              “Anyone alive in here?” she managed to shout. 

              There was a crash of metal.  “Who is that?” a voice called back to her.

              “Ricks!” she bellowed over the cacophony of the maelstrom in here.  “Where are you?”

              “Back here!” the voice came back.  Dava climbed over the debris, trying to keep out of the flames. 

              “I’m coming!  I’m coming to you!” Dava shouted.  She picked over the metal to see Ensign Kal Marcos stuck under a beam.  “Hang on, sir,” she called to him.  “I’ll get you out of there.”  She grabbed hold of the beam and pulled and the ensign pulled his leg free, screaming in pain from the broken limb.  Stooping down, she helped him get to his feet.  Leaning on her, the two of them managed to get clear of the rubble and back into the main area of engineering.  Finding one of the chairs, Dava eased the officer down. 

              “Is… is there anyone else left alive?” Marcos gasped, leaning back but trying to keep his gaze on her. 

              Dava grabbed a metal bar from the debris on the deck and fistful of loose wire and yanked it free from the nearest console.  Kneeling down next to the ensign, she took hold of his calf and then felt up and down his leg for the break.  He gagged in pain, trying desperately not to scream.  Eventually, she found it, mid-thigh.  Taking hold of his calf, she jerked it hard, setting it back in place.  This time he did scream, a sound of pure agony, then he collapsed, limp.  It took a moment, but then he lifted his head again.  “Thanks,” he growled, gritting his teeth against the pain.

              The young spacer grinned.  “Well, shit, sir, if I’d known you liked pain this much, I would have made a move sooner,” she joked.  She made a crude splint from the bar and the wires, quickly lashing it to his leg to immobilize it.

              “It’s against regs,” he gasped as she pulled the binding tight.  “But I’ll buy you a drink when we get out of this.”

              “Deal,” she said, standing up again. 

              “What’s our status?” he asked, his voice sounding a little stronger.

              “I don’t know,” she replied.  Dava turned to the console, which miraculously was still active.  “Okay, according to this… oh no.”

              “What?” Marcos asked.

              “It’s gone,” she whispered.  “The whole forward section.  The bridge.  The living compartments.  Only the aft section is left.”  Dava pressed a few controls.  “Only a half dozen or so life signs.”

              “External sensors?”

              She pressed a few more controls.  “It’s patchy and fuzzed out.  But I’ve got two ships closing aft.”

              “Help me over there,” Marcos ordered.  Dava turned and pulled the chair closer to the console, where he could reach.  He helped by pushing with his good leg, scooting along the deck.  He checked the console himself and then started entering commands on the controls, his hands moving so fast that Dava started to believe that the smoke was getting to her.  She could hear the sound of fuel being cut off to a section nearby and the heat began to die down.  “Closed the fuel lines to this section.  The reactor can manage with only one main power conduit, and I think it’ll take care of the fires.”

              “What about those two ships?” she demanded, her voice starting to panic.

              “Hey!” he said, his voice calm, though clearly he was still in pain.  “Get the extinguisher and try to put out the fire in here.  I’ll take care of those ships.”  She nodded, and moved over to get the gear. 
Exactly how I’m going to take care of those ships, I have no real idea.  But I
will
take care of them.

              He checked the weapons feeds.  Two Sierras left in the only undamaged launcher.  The rail guns were either destroyed when the forward section was caved in, or else the ammo feeds were.  The power lines from the reactor to the graser capacitors were severed, though there was enough juice left in the capacitors for one good shot from the portside weapon.  Not much to work with.

              Marcos heard the spacer using the extinguisher and the ambient temperature in the room felt slightly cooler.  Glancing over, he saw Ricks spraying down the last of the flames with the extinguisher foam.  “Good work Able Spacer!” he shouted.

              “Thanks, sir!” she said, turning back to him she hustled back over.  “What do we got?”

              He sighed.  “Not much.  One shot from the portside graser and two missiles.  We might get one.”

              Dava lowered her head.  “But we can’t get both.”  Then her head came back up.  “So get the one,” Ricks said, her face turning savage.  “Blow the bastards apart.  Kill the bastards that killed us.”

              Marcos nodded, reaching over and clapping his hand on her shoulder.  “Just what I was thinking.”  Then he turned back to the console, hesitating a moment and then began entering commands.

              The shuttle was moving now, as Verrikoth got the hang of flying it.  He checked his scopes and smiled. 
Fury
was dead in space now.  Her engines had flared out and fire was belching out of a dozen huge breaches in the hull.  Sensors were only showing about five or six people left alive aboard that ship, out of a crew of normally over a hundred.  They were done.  All it would take were a couple of missiles planted right in that thing’s hull.  It was a shame really. 
Fury
might be battered to scrap, but there were components aboard that were far advanced to anything that could be obtained out here in the Cluster.  Republic tech was at least three or four generations ahead.  But there was nothing for it.  He couldn’t leave that ship out there.  The survivors might somehow manage to hurt him.  No, better to just kill them and be done with it.

              “Thiss iz Verrikoth,” he said in to the comms.  “
Hector
,
Ajax
: open fire on the Republic sship.  Finish it off.”

              He got acknowledgements on the comm and then sat back to watch.  “Republic pigz,” he spat.

             
Hector
and
Ajax
, two boxy freighters moved up on the decapitated shark.  Its brains and teeth were gone.  It was little more than a flailing carcass now, not even aware it was dead.  And it
was
already dead; it just needed to have its heart torn out to stop the flailing. 

              Weapons ready, they accelerated to make a pass at the ship.  Its power levels were barely registering; the surviving crew must have powered down so as not to overtax the undoubtedly damaged reactor.  For all the good that would do for them.

              Suddenly, the crippled corvette cut loose with all the weapons it had left.  The graser shot rocked the
Hector
’s forward shield while the two missiles crashed in just behind.  The first hit weakened the modified freighter’s shields considerably but only for a second or two, but that was enough as the detonation of the missiles occurred right at that interval.  The energy tore a hole through the shield and fountained through to the hull behind. 
Hector
’s design, unfortunately for the crew, had the bridge directly at the front, and it wasn’t particularly armored. 
Hector
was a cargo ship after all, outfitted with better weapons, engines and shields, it wasn’t intended to fight against a proper warship.  The bridge was a small compartment enclosed by armor glass on three sides, which was a tough substance, but it couldn’t stand up to the detonation of two Sierra missiles bare centimeters away. 

              The bridge armor glass shattered and what little metal was holding it together crumpled inward.  Once it reached the hull of the ship the metal peeled backward as it tore apart.  The atmosphere inside the ship ignited and secondary explosions rocked the interior of the ship.  The crew was killed instantly, screaming as a wave of fire roared through all the compartments, none of which were sealed because the crew believed they were only moving in to mop up an already crippled ship.  The ship suddenly began to roll on an uncontrolled vector, passing well below the wreck of the
Fury
. 

              “Unbelievable,” Verrikoth said, watching the display.  He’d fully expected that the corvette was dead in space and that his ships would simply come out and blast its corpse to bits.  The destruction of the
Hector
was extremely annoying, however.  He had expected to lose two ships destroying the Navy ship, but now three?  Yes, he had others, but now he would get or build more. 

              “Yeah!” Ricks said, jumping in the air and pumping her first.  “Nailed the bastards!  Great shot!”

              Marcos leaned back.  “Yeah, it was,” he groaned, clutching his leg.