Incursion Vector

027

Valkyrie gave him a critical glare, then marched off to join the rest of her wing in the corridor. The red symbol next to her name on his HUD flicked off indicating she had closed their private channel. Keiji followed suit, sidestepping between Vic and Leo at the second bulkhead away from the bridge door they had blown open and waiting just outside for them to rig the door shut behind him.

“Lawman to Red Spider, you get anything?”

“Heat retention and interference are making it impossible to triangulate individuals, and suit locators are still down,” said Calli, still putting up a veneer of calm despite the situation. “Methuselah and Tantalus are to disengage. Commander Ibrahim of MSC Nashi has issued a cease-and-desist warning based on the fact the derelict has hull markings matching those registered as part of an allied migrant fleet.”

Resisting the urge to call bullshit on anyone being able to identify anything other than a blast pattern on the pockmarked hull of the ship he instead asked, “What do we do with the civilians and the gear we managed to patch?”

“CIC has a linkup to the bridge system Riptide and Wildcard rigged,” she replied. “But it's slow going due to all the garbage data. Tags says to lock the civs where they are, hard lock the drone, then both Tantalus and Methuselah are to return to Heinlein for debrief.”

“We're just going to leave them here?” exclaimed Vic. “You don't know they're not still alive down there!”

“If we don't make a show of leaving the fleet will open fire and be perfectly within their rights to do so,” said Leo.

Tanuki's voice entered the conversation even though she was out of sight down the corridor. “Meaning if they are still alive they're definitely going to be dead if this wreck takes any more hits.”

“They're right, Hardcover,” agreed Keiji. “Valkyrie, pull your wing back. Make sure Kingfisher knows what's up.”

“Clear read, Lawman. Kilo, prep the drone for hard lock. Tanuki, Overload, in the chute.”

“On it,” confirmed Kilo as he scrambled ahead to secure the drone.

With a groan to make sure his disgust with the decision was well-known Vic headed back with Leo and Keiji to the boarding drone and packed inside with what remained of Tantalus. Making sure their boots were locked in place they sealed the inner door and opened the outer hatch, then made their way out and over to the area where their fighters were still fixed to the hull of the ship.

Climbing back into his cockpit using the lack of gravity as a ladder Keiji lowered himself in and strapped down. Glancing to his side he tried his best not to wonder if the three empty fighters lined up to his right were ever going to have their pilots in them again. “Methuselah call back green for launch.”

It took half a minute longer than usual, but finally Vic replied, “Hardcover green for launch.”

“Ifrit green for launch.”

“Lawman green for launch.” He switched his channel over to comex. “Methuselah is green for disengage.”

“Tantalus is green for disengage,” announced Valkyrie a few moments later.

“Tantalus you are GO for disengage,” said Calli. “Beach in port hangar of Heinlein and proceed to squad room.”

“Clear read, Heinlein Control. Tantalus is away.”

Keiji watched as the four railguns of Kilo's Haya lifted off the hull of the derelict, shadowed closely by Overload's Abrams as she purposefully put her fighter between the gunship and the Tiaha fleet. Tanuki followed them out on their high six while Valkyrie took off at breakneck pace and eclipsed all of them in seconds in her white-striped Stuka.