Incursion Vector

049

[▲] R1 P-62, Lalande Repair Yards

Pressing the muzzle of her pistol against the throat of the man who thought he would be clever and climb in through the drone shaft with a grenade between his teeth of all places, Nim waited until he realized he was caught, then smashed his forehead against the deck and hauled his dead weight out of the tunnel. From the snapping noise that accompanied it he'd broken a tooth or two on his only means of self-defense. She dropped him in a heap beside the six other fools at the side of the pylon where Karda had rigged his grenade pen and let him attempt to regain his senses while the others informed him of where the perimeter was and just what would happen if he crossed it.

"Stat-sec still hasn't gotten their drone systems back from the blackhats that powered through their network," announced Calli as part of her minute-by-minute updates. "Heinlein's picking them off one by one as they're hacked and sent kamikaze. Nothing's gotten through yet."

Nim dropped the deck plate back over the drone shaft and watched it seal back up, examining the grenade she had pulled out of the idiot's mouth. After confirming it was not timed and just a standard-issue Infantry spec she lobbed it underhanded to Karda, who immediately set to re-purposing it for his own arsenal.

"Well the drone hackers are the only ones that got themselves organized, apparently," she said, settling back in to resume watching for heat signatures coming through either the drone shaft below or the slightly wider air shaft above. "You'd think after their first two or three guys go missing in one-way tunnels they'd figure out it ain't such a good idea to keep doing the same damn thing."

"We're in the right," hissed one of their prisoners, a man whose visible skin was starting to blister with white and yellow patches from subzero exposure. "Goddamn pirates need to pay for what they've done, wiping out all those people! Did you see those images out of the colony?"

"No, but I can reenact exactly what they saw at Vespucchi Waypoint provided you donate your frostbitten carcass to be my bullet cushion," snapped Nim. "And just because they paint their ships bright colors does not mean they're pirates."

"When's the last time you saw some bearded scarf-headed bastard not trying to blow himself up and take us all out?"

"When's the last time you did, jackass?" Stalking over to tower over the short man she crouched in front of him and met his gaze without flinching, waiting until his eyes darted to the side out of sheer discomfort. "These guys are the people that are going to help us take back Churaumi while you sit here and whine like a bitch. Or did I miss the announcement where you're grabbing a gun to join us?"

The man stared at her in wide-eyed disbelief. "What?"

"Yes, you just attempted to attack part of the fleet headed out to retake the colony hub," said Keiji with a menacing glare at the line of prisoners that silenced their disgruntled mumbling. "Now either shut it or I will order the Lieutenant to place you back in the air shaft where she found you stuck and freezing to death."

"That's murder!"

Jabbing the man harshly in the chest Nim said, "That's allowing you to successfully complete your suicide attempt."

The revelation seemed to take all the fight out of the prisoners and they ceased whispering among themselves and decided to sit still and accept their current predicament. She hopped back to her feet and joined the rest of their group at the center of the pylon's length, leaving Karda to hang back and keep tabs on where the prisoners were hiding their hands. Out of all of them he was the best at spotting a shifty move by sight alone, though everyone had set their personal computers up to notify them of any abnormal movement patterns or thermal signatures coming from anywhere within the pylon.