Renegade's Wager: A Space Opera Adventure (Delta Desperadoes Book 3) by Tony Peak

Author:Tony Peak [Peak, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2024-08-06T00:00:00+00:00

15

“If you’re scared of wolves, don’t go in the woods.”

- Russian adage

Nokai Station was a situated on an asteroid that orbited Delta Pavonis between Pavo Dos and Pavo Tres, 97 million kilometers out. The asteroid had originally been named after a Han warlord that’d fought against other cultural enclaves in the Orion Spur’s pre-MEC era, but all that remained of their conquests was the station itself. Built to withstand bombardment, solar flares, Prestige infiltration, and even a nuclear warhead strike, it was a miniature fortress drifting the middle of nowhere.

Yet Nokia had no strategic purpose since there was nothing of value to be mined on the asteroid. Steelgrave supposed it’d been built to satisfy someone’s vanity. Whatever the reason, he was thankful for it since MEC’s fleets hadn’t bothered to storm it yet.

Which meant their warships were at other colonies, doing what they had done to Noia de la Flota.

“You always look so zloy when about to enter the black?” Novaya asked as she walked up beside him in Molly Zero’s airlock chamber. He wore one of Slushie’s spare spacesuits while Novaya wore her exoframe armor.

He’d been staring out the viewport at the asteroid, six hundred meters distant. The distant gleam of Nokai Station reflecting the system’s sunlight made it seem like an innocuous locale where he might find a decent beer and a soy steak sandwich. But he knew better.

“Um…zuh…zloy?” he asked.

Novaya double-checked her helmet oxygen intake valves. “You know, zloy. Ah, no understand. What might call ‘pissed’?”

“Ah, angry” he said.

“Da,” Novaya said. “You not looking forward to seeing my Freelancer friends? I understand. Some do not bathe as much as they should. Water is precious out here.”

“I know the Tucanae Freelancers have helped us every now and then, but what about now?” he asked. “They could have what they originally wanted: this system to themselves as long as it’s trade or merc work for the Colonial Authority.”

Novaya chuckled as if he’d made a joke. “MEC not hire us. I am Rus, so many RusKORP would hire me for muscle? They usually hate Ringers, so that unlikely. But my people have already helped you and that is…how is said? A pyatno upon us. Ah, I remember. A stain on us.”

“I suppose you’re right about that,” he said. “Which means MEC will come after them, too. So we’ll go with that if your people turn us down.”

She grunted. “Turn down chance to shoot MEC marines? Have you met Tucanae Ringers? Ha. They do this for free.”

He looked her up and down “Then why do you look nervous?”

“Because Ringers might shoot us for free, too. Da? Da.”

“Oh,” he said. “Well, shit.”

“Don’t worry, kapitan,” she said. “If they attack, they aim for your head and you not feel thing.”

Steelgrave grunted. “That makes me feel better.”

Novaya tapped her helmet as if to ensure it was sturdy enough to withstand a storm of bullets. “And they might take trophies from body. Is our way, think nothing of it. You tell the other Desperadoes, so they don’t get--”

“Zloy?” he asked.

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