The Star Pirate's Folly

Chapter 24: Trails

The Cap City trooper inside the suit died in an instant under Two-Gut Gruce's heel, snuffed out like Dicer on the muddy forest floor beside him. He kicked the suit over onto its back. No glory in a merciful death. Gruce knew if today was his day he wouldn't go out in peace.

"Pluck, I've got our key to the city," Gruce said.

"Moments, dearest," said Pluck, the words tumbling from his mouth with excitement. "Only moments."

On the HUD Pluck's icon came streaking toward him. The squirrelly tech expert leaped onto the dead suit with a gleeful cackle and pulled a long spike from his belt which was connected like an umbilical cord to his suit. He arched his back as he brought the spike over his head with both hands and plunged it into the top of the suit's helmet.

The dead man's suit spasmed as though in agony, writhing in the mud underneath Pluck who howled and whooped as he struggled to hold the suit's arms down.

"Oh, I'm in deep," Pluck moaned. "Still warm, it's all still warm. Everything, everything, give me everything, my love!"

"Boss, we got keys," said Gruce over the private channel to Starhawk.

"Good," said Starhawk. "We'll make a hole. Get inside, get the map, and get to the gate station. My birds are dropping you some fresh grubs. Don't be wasteful."

Gruce watched as the three warships overhead opened their underbelly doors and hugged the treetops. Six more armors stepped out of each craft and plunged into the forest nearby. The ships zoomed off to rejoin the others above Capitol City. Flak clouds blossomed in their path and a trio of sonic booms cracked the air as the three nimble craft dodged away from the city's defenses.

Gruce drew his rifle as he approached the new armors. These were Starhawk's men, not his. Any one of them could have orders to put him down and take over.

"Fresh grubs up front!" Gruce shouted over the common band. "First one in the city gets a quarter of my share."

A raucous cheer went up and several of the more enterprising new recruits shoved their squadmates out of the way to get a head start. Now numbering twenty eight, the armored pirate soldiers stormed the city, zigzagging randomly to avoid being tracked by the city's defenses. When his men in the lead broke through the forest into open grassland Gruce saw more squads of enemy suits deploy from the city. Drones, too.

It would be a bloody advance. Gruce brought up the rear of the formation with his own men, stopping at the edge of the forest. The troopers in the Core weren't used to fighting battle-ready men like his, true killers who fought to win. They'd be a good distraction for his own crew, the real threat. With access codes to the city's entrances they could break inside undetected.

His men in the lead were out in the open now. They didn't have the trees for cover, so they changed tactics—the men took a skier's stance, leaning back while using their boot nodes to push them a few feet from the ground as their palm nodes pulled them forward. At breakneck speed they raced to the city's walls.

"Cloaks up," said Gruce over the private channel to the remaining ten armors from his original crew. "Put some distance between you and every man around you. We bounce high and fast to the city when the hammer drops."

#

Hargrove stuck close behind the recruiter as they made their way toward the elevator to the surface. Every other person in the compact hallway hurried in the opposite direction, forcing them to shoulder their way through at points. They were followed by two Capitol City police officers, their escort to the surface.

"How did you get me out so fast?" Hargrove asked.

"A VCM badge gives you a lot of leverage," Robert626 said over his shoulder.