Spinward Fringe Broadcast 11 by Randolph Lalonde

Author:Randolph Lalonde [Lalonde, Randolph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Randolph Lalonde

Thirty-Seven

Raiders

* * *

“This plan is a little crazy,” Noah Lucas said. Minh-Chu only smiled and nudged him with his elbow. “Just for the record.”

“The only difference between genius and madness is the outcome. Something that looks crazy fails, they say ‘he was mad!’ but when a crazy plan succeeds… well, that’s genius! Time for you to get to the hatch.” Minh-Chu didn’t really think Jake’s plan was madness, but it did have more than a touch of daring. The first half depended on Minh-Chu’s flying and Liara launching a script that would launch programs and adjust to a few variables. Minh-Chu had the hard part, as far as he was concerned, but he’d rather hold fate in his own hands, rather than leave the responsibility in another’s.

“Aye, aye, commander,” Noah said, leaving his seat, sealing his armour and opening the rear hatch to the small bridge. He kicked a shard of metal into the door above the hinge so it wouldn’t close.

The counter indicating their emergence from the wormhole was down to three seconds, and Minh-Chu opened a channel to everyone. “Emerging… now!”

He heard the communications panel behind him beep and chime, indicating that their systems were broadcasting, programs were launching, and they had made several connections to different hosts. The station, and Minh-Chu hoped they were connected to the pair of interdictor corvettes that were turning to meet them. The destroyer stationed nearby was behind them.

Streaks of energy shot by them, and Minh-Chu began his evasive maneuvers, struggling with the controls a little. “Sometimes this thing flies like a bus, other times it’s a fighter.” He knew what the difficulty was. They were moving fast, and most of the thrusters were focused on decelerating. The corvettes - snubbed nosed craft with a yawning hangar at the front of each - loomed larger along with the station behind it.

The wisdom that he should turn away from what was firing at him was quickly quashed. “This is the plan, if we turn away now, it’ll cost us time, and then the Order ships that are in the area will get a chance to respond.”

“Everything all right up there?” asked Jake through the comm at Minh-Chu’s ear.

“Sorry, forgot to mute my channel before I started panic-mumbling,” Minh-Chu replied as he turned the ship into three blast hits so he could avoid a dozen or more others. Their shields were recharging fast, but already down to ninety two percent.

“But you’re all right, right?” Carnie asked.

“Of course I’m not all right!” Minh-Chu burst. Three missile lock warnings turned a part of his console red. “We are target practice!”

Minh-Chu saw the wreck of an old starliner and turned towards it, earning them a little more than two seconds of cover before breaking into the open and getting raked by small explosive rounds along the bottom of the hull. His target - the better looking customs corvettes - loomed larger ahead. “When did you say your antivirus program was supposed to start working?”

“It should already be making its way through the ships here,” Liara replied.

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