A Victory and a Crushing Defeat by M. D. Cooper

Author:M. D. Cooper [Cooper, M. D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Wooden Pen Press
Published: 2019-01-09T16:00:00+00:00

* * * * *

“You have a strange definition of ‘fine’,” Usef said as he opened the Sexy’s port-side emergency exit five minutes later and climbed out onto the hull. He unslung his rifle and swept his gaze around the area, searching through the smoke and fire for any enemies.

Trevor followed after and shrugged as he looked down at the three-deck drop next to the pinnace—which had come to rest a couple thousand meters inside the carrier. “The Sexy’s fine, we’re fine. The carrier’s not fine. Overall, I view this as a whole lot of fine.”

“Except the part where our ship is stuck somewhere inside this ship’s engineering section,” Edgar added as he followed Trevor out. “I feel as though this reduces our combat effectiveness.”

“Unless we take control of this ship,” Trevor said, glancing at Usef. “Like we did with the Britannica. Chances are that the same breaches we used there will work here.”

Usef looked from Trevor to Edgar. “I don’t mean any offense by this, Edgar, but when we took the Britannica, we had several AIs who were expert breachers…. Are you up to fighting off whatever AIs they have aboard this thing?”

As Usef spoke, Trevor stepped off the pinnace’s hull and onto a spar that bowed more than he would have liked under his weight. After taking a moment to steady himself, he walked down its length to an intact section of deck that had pipes running in and out of it.

Damn…we just had to end up in their sanitation plant.

Edgar gave Usef a curt nod before he leapt across the gap and landed next to Trevor. “I believe I am. Iris and Amavia have been teaching me. Before we went to Chittering Hawk, they gave me all their information and tools for breaching AST systems. I can do this.”

Usef sealed the hatch and then eased himself down to the same spar Trevor had climbed across. “OK, then we need to find the closest node.”

“Like that one?” Trevor pointed back down the path of destruction the Sexy had cut in the carrier to where part of a comm node hung from a deck above.

Edgar let out a harsh laugh, and Usef sighed. “Well, one that’s not ruined, but yeah, otherwise, one just like that.”

Suddenly, the carrier lurched beneath their feet, and Trevor grabbed a pipe to steady himself. “Is that failing a-grav, or failing dampeners?”

“Both, maybe,” Edgar said as Usef joined them.

“There,” the Marine said, pointing to a door a few meters away. “Let’s see where that goes.”

Ten minutes later, the trio was bogged down in a wide atrium near one of the fighter bays. Enemy soldiers had pinned them down from catwalks above as well as from raised bulwarks on the far side of the space.

Trevor and Usef were crouched behind a cluster of reinforced fuel lines that the enemy was unwilling to fire on directly. Edgar was a few meters away, tapped into a network trunk line, attempting to take control of the ship remotely.

“It’s no good,” the AI said after a minute.

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