Chapter 7 Part Two "Checkmate"

I was awaken by one of the men I recognized from Tasha’s lab. He pulled a large metal sheet off of me and was saying something I couldn’t quite understand. My body was a mess, but somehow I managed to stand with the short Caldari mans help. As soon as I stood though, the room started to spin and I doubled over vomiting on the floor in front of me.

I gave an embarrassed smile to the little man and tried to focus on the hanger around me. The far wall where the raiders had been streaming from was gone. It was replaced by piles of twisted metal. The rubble was burning, charring the buckled wall a deep black. It looked like several of our men were scouring the piles looking for anyone still alive.

I followed the little man back toward the pilots briefing room. His mouth was moving all the way there, but I couldn’t hear a word of it. Once we got there I found a chair and slid into it. There wasn’t one part of my body that wasn’t hurt. I don’t think I have ever had my ass this thoroughly kicked. But I was still alive so I guess that was something.

Looking up I noticed the man was still standing next to me. He started to talk again and I tried really hard to focus on what he was saying. “…then of course it blew up,” was all I managed to make out. I shook my head one more time and pulled him closer to me.

“What the fuck happened?” I was only able to make it a whisper. At least it seemed like a whisper to me.

“That is what I have been explaining over and over. Jaxel and I rigged a heavy missile and launched it in the hanger to kill the raiders.” He seemed quite pleased with himself and I was too hurt to get up and kick him in the face so I let him keep smiling. Was he fucking insane? God I hurt all over. Some of my ribs felt broken and my hands had what looked like second degree burns. At this point I wanted to get up, go get podded, and let these crazy people die.

I got up and limped back outside to look at the damage. I guess it could have been worse. My barricade was still in place about 500 meters from the far wall. The doors that the raiders were using were completely gone now. That only left the door to the lower level that needed to be defended. That wasn’t even going to matter as soon as we started the next part of Rod’s plan. Okay, the crazy scientist had managed to do something good.

My communicator vibrated inside my upper pocket. I jumped in response, burnt hands fumbling with my zipper. I pulled it out and put it against my ear hoping I would be able to hear it. Rod’s voice blared out of the speaker and the room spun a little as I yanked the damn thing away from my head. The message was simple; we were to initiate the second part the plan.

Perfect. That meant that it was time to get everyone out of here. I limped across the hanger to my Manacore. I was pretty excited about getting in my pod and not feeling any pain. I looked over the hull from a distance but didn’t do a full walk around. The thing was brand new anyway, what could go wrong? I never keep a ship long enough for it to need a detailed preflight inspection.

In the distance I could see the twenty shuttles lined up ready to launch. Some of the engineers figured out a way to link the shuttles together so only a few pods were needed to fly all of them. Three men were in charge of seventeen shuttles and their precious cargo. I always thought you could fit a lot into a cargo hold of a shuttle. But my experience was based on sneaking small items in and out of places I didn’t want to be noticed. Turns out you really have to work hard to get a large amount of people into the hold.

I nodded at Paul, one of the shuttle pilots, and then stepped up into my pod. It was cocked on, so most of the checklist was already complete. I opted to attach the three bio-interface circuits first instead of the neuro-interface so I wouldn’t be too overwhelmed with the pods output to finish plugging in. After that was done I slid my head back into the headrest and reached back plugging in the neuro-interface.

As soon as the interface made the connection reality shifted. My body was a distant memory, replaced by the low throb of energy flowing through my circuits. The entire cargo compartment filled my consciousness and I could see each person and ship. Data slipped through my processors telling me the status of our systems, negative threat warnings, and that my body was damaged. I pulled myself to the front of my mind enough to be in control but not have to feel my injuries too much.

With a thought I activated the loading sequence. The pod sealed itself as it was lifted to the top of the stealth bomber. As it was placed in its housing, connecting it to the ship, reality shifted again. The overwhelming power of the capacitor coursed through me. Not small like the one in the pod, but huge to power a covert ops ship. The ship was me, I was the ship.

The systems reached out for more data about our surroundings but they were blocked by the massive walls of the station. It made us angry. We like to be able to see. I struggled for control but it was like fighting with someone who knew every move you were going to make. It was dangerous flying a pod when you were tired or injured. There was always a fight for control and you had to be ready for it. I relaxed, trying to feel my body. Finally, I could feel the burns and the bruises. It hurt but it made me aware enough to yank control back from the pod.

The ships were ready. Now we were waiting for the signal to begin the assault. I am always glad when it is time for action. No turning back now. Either we would get everyone out of here or we wouldn’t, but at least we were doing something. I hated the wait.

At least I didn’t have to worry about Tasha anymore. I hugged her and told her I would meet her soon then sent her out in her pod. One of our scouts podded her as she left the station so I could be sure the raiders didn’t get her. It was a good feeling to be ready to fight and only have to worry about myself now.

After a short wait, Rod broadcast across the fleet communications frequency. In front of me two massive Ammar battle ships exited the docking bay. The Apocalypse and Armageddon were heavily armored and ready to take a pounding from the enemy ships. The pilots were two of the relic hunters that stayed behind to help. Neither had spent a lot of time training for this kind of combat but both had amazing battleship and defense skills. They were defiantly best suited for taking the punishment for as long as possible.

“Okay Lakasha, the exit is clear.”

It was my turn next. I sent the command to power up the warp drive and initiated the exit sequence. Power coursed through all of the systems getting them ready for combat as the ship accelerated out of the docking bay. I shot into space and activated my microwarp drive.

Sensor readings flooded my mind. The Blood Rader frigates littered the exit. The two battle ships were now ten kilometers off blowing the hell out of everything nearby with smart bombs. There were so many raiders swarming that it was hard to tell if we had hurt them too bad or not. But the exit was clear so I transmitted the signal to send out the three.

The Avatars remained in position about 300 kilometers off the station. The fleet of battleships maintained their defensive positions nearby protecting the gigantic structures. Maybe I had managed to shake him up a bit. That was good because we needed to keep the exit clear long enough for the shuttles to make their jump.

I interfaced with the targeting control and estimated a fire solution at the speed of thought. Once the data streamed through my mind I sent the command to the fire control and the ship shook with the thunk of a shrapnel bomb leaving the launcher. It sailed out 30 kilometers and detonated ripping into the hulls of every frigate in a 15 kilometer radius of the explosion. Small explosions lit up space as the group of Raiders who were guarding the exit corridor burst into flames.

The targeting tone was already screaming in my head as multiple Raiders converged on my position. I calculated the jump vector and sighed as the energy from the capacitor slammed into my warp drive for the short jump. In flight I gave Omir a little wave in local with no response. However, as I came out of warp 200 kilometers off the station about 40 frigates altered their course away from the station to converge on my ship.

“Oh, for me Omier, you shouldn’t have,” I said laughing over local as I banked hard right and activated the microwarp drive. I lined up on the first Avatar about 300 kilometers away and accelerated out as fast as I could before any of the frigates could get in targeting range. I didn’t have the shields to fight and the only thing I was armed with was a bomb launcher. There was no way could I deal with them. I was fit for speed and covert ops badassery.

I checked on the status of the other ships as I pulled farther away from my pursuers. The three shuttles made the jump to their safes and the two battleships were moving closer to the station. So far so good. I reached out again noting that three of the enemy interceptors were closing in on me fast. I needed to get good separation if we were going to pull this off.

I focused my concentration on the capacitor and the microwarp drive. I gave the command and shoved all the extra power the shielding could take into the thrusters. The extra energy burned into the circuits and I could feel the heat shields groan and begin to expand. I probably had thirty seconds before I needed to pull back power or risk losing the drive.

At 225 kilometers the interceptors were almost in targeting range. I pushed all the extra power I had into the drive. The ship shuddered and the master heat warning alarm sounded. At 210 kilometers the decision to shut down the dive was made for me as targeting alarms when off in my head.

I cutoff power to the drive and activated my cloak before the interceptors got a solid lock. Pushing over the nose I rolled the ship right and pulled hard into a split-S pointing my ship in the direction I came from. Once the interceptors shot by at an absurd speed I pulled left to arc back toward the Titan. The other ships finally made it to my last known location and spread out in a search pattern to find me.

I quickly checked back on the tactical situation at the station. The battleships were holding their own now that only about a quarter of the ships were left at the station. Between the 40 that chased me and the ones that left in pursuit of the shuttles, they might have a chance at keeping the exit clear long enough for the shuttles to jump. If everything went as planned though, that wouldn’t even be an issue.

“You ready to play Omier?”

“I am going to feast on your blood.”

“Fuck you.”

I worked the ship around the arc maintaining 200 kilometers from the first Titan. When the closest ship to me was 150 kilometers away I sent the command over fleet to begin the hot drop procedures. My overview lit up as three cynos dropped into local. Aligning the ship back to the station safe I dropped my cloak and lit a covert ops cyno.

Every sensor in the ship sent warnings streaming into my brain. I set priority to the overview and watched as a majority of the ships on the station jumped into warp tracking toward the cynos in local. The ships that originally had been looking for me changed their vector back to intercept.

As soon as the enemy ships warped, the rest of the shuttles undocked. The way the rigging worked was the navigation computer on each of the tied ships had to get the coordinates and jump command from the corresponding linked pod. Then each ship had to align, power up, and jump. The whole process was going to take about 45 seconds. It was going to take about 40 seconds for the enemy ships to get to each of those cyno shuttles, blow them to hell, then jump back. It was going to be close.

I held my position as the raiders closed. At 20 seconds two of the cynos dropped from my overview. The shuttles pulled away from the station, flanked by the two battle ships now providing protection. At 25 seconds I extinguished the cyno, and engaged my warp engines hurling me back to the station as enemy targeting computers locked my bomber. In warp I engaged the cloak.

My safe brought me out at 50 kilometers from the undock. The two battleships were in bad shape. The Apocalypse had fire venting from its engines and the Armageddon was listing to the right as it tried to maintain position. Skill alone had to be holding them together at this point. The final cyno flickered out on the overview which told me that all of the hostile ships would be inbound at any moment. This was confirmed when Omier’s laugh sounded across local.

At 35 seconds a Raider Apocalypse warped to 5 kilometers off of our battleships and launched its drones. Our wounded Apocalypse blew apart as a linked beam of light chewed into its structure. The Armageddon engaged the enemy and the space around the two ships seemed to burn. The fight didn’t last long though, ending the same as the first.

Multiple ships blinked back into my overview inbound to the station. I realigned my ship to warp to the rally point and waited. I sat there and watched as the warrior drones tore into each of the shuttles. I changed my overview setting and observed as each shuttle exploded sending piles of biomass streaming into space.

After the last shuttle exploded, I jumped to the rally point. Once there, I waited to see who was left. Two pods and one of the cyno shuttles were all that showed up. We silently aligned to the gate and jumped. Omier blabbed something across local but I decided not to respond. The fight was over and it was time to go home.

There were five enemy frigates on the gate when I came out of warp at five kilometers off. Targeting tones went off immediately. I commanded capacitor into the micorwarp drive and ran for the gate. Two lucky shots tore into my structure and the bomber exploded in space around me. I made the gate in my pod and jumped into the next system.

As soon as I came out of the wormhole I jumped to my 200 kilometer safe and waited to see what other ships made it though. Everyone made it and we aligned and continued to the next system. Once we got there we jumped to my deep safe and waited.

After about fifteen minutes the Raider Apocalypse that had destroyed the shuttles jumped to 5 kilometers off my port side.

“Evening Rod. How is the cargo?”

“Doing fine. Packed in tight back there but everyone is safe”

I let out a breath it felt like I had been holding for hours. It was a good plan, but one with lots of opportunity for disaster. Before we undocked, Harrier had taken his men down into the station where the employees had seen the raiders enter. He infiltrated the docked battleship and killed the crew. Then all of the civilians were loaded into the cargo compartment while Rod and a few others who had been around back in the day piloted the battleship.

The guys who stayed behind defending the hanger had stuffed the dead into the shuttle’s cargo holds. Then the rest was all distraction. It could have failed a million different ways, but it had worked.

“Paul is going to scout for you in his shuttle. Now if you don’t mind I would like to take the quick way home.”

“Not a problem Lakasha, it has been a pleasure.”

Targeting warnings went off in my pod. I took a deep breath and relaxed for a second, relived that this ordeal was over. Tasha never made it easy on me that was for sure. Now it was time to get back to Vit and make a new plan. I had a date with Geklov.

Chapter 7 Part One "Checkmate"

The man on the monitor seemed to be maintaining his composure like a champ. If it wasn’t for the furrows along his forehead I would have said he wasn’t concerned with me at all. I stood in front of the display, hands on my hips, and a cocky pirate smile on my lips waiting for him to make the first move. He didn’t look like the kind of man that was use to answering to anyone.

Finally, his eye twitched a bit and he said, “Are you the leader of the sheep to be sacrificed?”

“Yeah, I guess you could call me that.” I stared up at the ceiling as though I was thinking really hard about the right answer, “Come to think of it, that is probably one of the nicest things I have been called lately.” Then I pulled my eyes down to his and asked as disrespectfully as possible, “Who the fuck are you?” smile never leaving my face.

Rods words echoed in my head. “You got to piss them off and scare them Lakasha. Get in their heads,” he had said as he poked me on my head with a meaty finger. The battle might be won or lost with one convo. I had to set the mood for the fight to come or everything was already lost. “Battle is about making the enemy believe and see what you want them too. Sometimes you want them angry sometimes you want them calm but you always want to be in control.”

The Amarrian slammed his fist against the table and stood. I could hear the sound of his chair crashing on the metal floor behind him. The camera took a second to realize his face wasn’t there anymore then it slowly tracked up his black flight suit and centered back on target. He stared at the camera, face tight with rage. Yep, not someone use to a lot of disrespect. I would be willing to bet that getting that kind of disrespect from a woman was new to him too. Rod was a smart man picking me for this job.

“I am Omir Sarikusa. What may I call your corpse?”

My eyes responded to his name before I had a chance to hide my shock. This brought a slight smile to his face. I quickly regained my composer but it was too late, I lost points on that one. Omir Sarikusa was one of the most well known Blood Raider leaders in history. He had taken what was already a twisted blood thirsty cult and turned it into something even more terrifying. They believed the blood of clones to be the most pure for their dark rituals. Since his rise, countless lives were lost as his Raiders spread across Amarr space.

Every time I thought this situation couldn’t get more confusing it did. Why would this sect of the Sani Sabik end up raiding a station that for the most part only held civilians? Why expend this kind of resources for a handful of capsuleer sacrifices? Then of course there were the Titans. There was no way a Blood Raider, even this one, had the resources to field a Titan let alone two.

I concentrated on falling back into the nothingness of the pirate inside me before continuing the conversation. “I am Lakasha Nachtexen, leader of the Hellcats and CEO of Hellfleet Alliance.” Smile now gone, I stared at him with cold eyes. I thought about Geklov, Tasha, and all of the people on the station. I let the anger grow and compressed it into a little ball in my chest. “You have made a grave mistake Omir.”

He grabbed the camera, pulling it to his face. “You are already dead!”


“You know Omir it is funny how fast news can travel. You would be amazed at how large of a fleet you can assemble when you let a few of your pirate friends in on the secret location of not one but two Titans. Even alliances that hate you want in on the kill. So, I tell you what Omir, I am going to go get in my ship come out there and drop the biggest fleet ever seen in this part of space on top of your little toys. I am going to kill every one of your people and laugh over local as your Titans are blown to hell. Thanks for all of the extra time you gave me to get my people ready.”

The screen went blank and I turned and headed back toward the main hanger. The last hour had been filled with sporadic fire fights as raiders streamed in from different directions. Harrier had the men piling up Raider bodies as makeshift barricades along with all of the rubble. Even some of the older kids had guns now and were hunkered down at the fire points each with an adult to supervise.

It was getting bad quick. Each of the attacks so far was a small force to test our lines. But we knew there were at least a hundred more raiders that we couldn’t account for. They were no doubt massing for a multi-pronged assault from the lower levels.

The majority of the men, along with Harrier had moved to the lower levels for their part of the plan. He left a few of the more experienced fighters along with a few scientist and the kids to guard the hanger. Hopefully the hanger would be empty before the raiders attacked in force.

I was walking toward my Manicore at the far end of the bay when I noticed a young girl behind a barricade by herself. I changed direction to go and make sure she was okay just as a laser bolt priced the air where I had been standing. I dove to the floor as the room around me erupted into a fire fight. Shots sounded all around, but I stayed low and managed to pull myself over to the barricade and slip behind.

The girl was filthy and held her rifle across her chest like it was the only thing holding her to the ground. The adult laying on the ground next to her had a large pulpy hole in what was left of his head. Who knows how long she had been in the position by herself. She flinched as a blaster bold ricocheted off the barricade but never dropped her gaze from the man lying on the floor.

I slid the blaster from my holster and risked a peek over the metal beams. Raiders were streaming in from two doors near the maintenance area. I ducked as another laser bolt sizzled into the metal barricade two feet from my head. Putting the blaster back in its holster, I reached over and put my hands on the girl’s rifle. She didn’t move but she let go.

I never really cared for rifles. I love my blaster. The main reason is because I am not a great shot. I am fast, really fast, and I do pretty well on the range. But marksmanship has never been my thing. The blaster is a nasty weapon. Up close it can rip a body to shreds. The farther you get away though, the more dispersed the energy. Sure it will hurt anyway, but at a distance it probably won’t kill. Farther away it will just piss someone off.

I leaned up over the barricade and tired to remember all the lessons my training instructors taught me. Hmmm…breath, heart…um lungs?…ahh fuck it. I pointed at the door closest to me and started shooting one bolt after another at the Raiders coming through. It was actually pretty effective at first since they were not expecting fire from my direction. I took out two of them by luck. Then three more opened fire and I was forced to cower behind the barricade.

I realized it might not have been the smartest thing I ever done when they all started concentrating fire on my position. I have never been one to think these situations through too much. I run in headlong and don’t think about the consequences. I tend to lose a lot of ships that way too. Of course, dying in my pod sends me back to my clone. Dying here…

I looked over at the girl and she was staring at me now, eyes open with fright. It was an accusing kind of stare. I shrugged and pulled my blaster back out. I could hear the raider’s yells over the gunfire getting closer. I slid my back against the metal corner of the barricade and motioned with my hand for her to lie flat on the ground.

The first raider stuck his head over the barricade and my blaster caused his head to disappear in an impressive fountain of blood. I stood as I shot the first one and sent a bolt into the chest of two more raiders before they had a chance to react. Sliding back down to my cover I closed my eyes and tried to visualize where the remaining enemies were standing.

There were at least two more. One was toward the pile of rubble to the left and one ducked behind a steel beam to the right. They had to both be waiting for me. I could probably run for cover but I looked down at the girl, crying on the floor in front of me, and my heart sunk a little. I couldn’t leave her.

I have been close to death a few times in my life. Sometimes when I hang out with the boys at the pub we talk about our near death experiences. Some of the guys talk about their life flashing through their head. Not me though, my mind slips into this peaceful state that is hard to explain.

But today it wasn’t like that. Today I had a young girl next to me who would die along with me, if she was lucky. It made me mad. The people she trusted, and should have been there for her, had betrayed her. Geklov was slime for leading his people to their doom for his own profit. Her parents were no better for being greedy enough to follow. Or just being mindless sheep. Either way it didn’t matter.

For a second I thought about killing her before the raiders could get to her. I blushed with the shame of the thought. Sometimes the pirate in me can get a little too practical. It would be easy sometimes to completely give in and make those kinds of decisions. But then I would be no better than people like Geklov.

It was time to act, so I did. I dove over the barricade in the direction of the last raider I saw. Unfortunately, he was closer than I expected and I my head slammed into his chest knocking us both on the floor about three feet from the barricade. Everything went black for a second and my blaster bounced out of my hand as it impacted the floor.

I shook my head as my vision came back and noted two things quickly. One, I was on top of a large and pissed off raider. Two, I was surrounded by way more raiders than I expected. They seemed as shocked as I was because the barrage of laser bolts stopped for a second as they tried to decide what they should do. The decision was made for them though as several of them fell to the floor taken out by laser bolts fired from the other barricades.

As the raiders around me dove for cover the one beneath me reached up with two large hands and started to squeeze my throat. I tucked my chin down on his hands as hard as I could to try and maintain my airway. After years of training it was second nature. Then I slid my knee up and put my full weight on his groin.

He let out a surprised yell and the pressure on my throat lessened enough for me to get a good breath of air. It didn’t last long though as he lifted me off his chest by my throat and twisted, slamming me on the metal plated floor. He climbed on top of me, sitting on my hips, and used his full weight to try and choke the life out of me. I looked up at his face a mask of rage and hate.

I beat at his sides with my fists but they bounced off like a child throwing a tantrum. I could feel the energy draining out of my body. My neck was on fire but everything else seemed to be getting colder as the seconds passed. As my vision blurred, I thought about my blaster laying somewhere near me on the floor. I didn’t know where it was so I reached out with both arms feeling for it.

I found it to my right. My fingertips brushed the metal pushing it completely out of my reach. My hands dropped and I couldn’t move my arms anymore. This was it, and I didn’t feel anything. My life amounted to nothing, it was doubtful anyone would even notice I was gone, and I didn’t care. My mind wasn’t peaceful like all those other times I faced death. Today I felt empty, and for some reason it bothered me. But that feeling didn’t last long. Everything was a distant echo and the air was gone, somehow replaced by fire.

Suddenly the raider above me let go and the fire turned into lava as air poured back into my lungs. I put my hands on my throat, gasping for air and jerking back and forth on the floor. The pain was almost unbearable and I would have screamed if I could. I rolled left and ran into the body of the raider that had been on top of me.

I needed to get back to the barricade but my limbs weren’t responding yet. Through my blurry eyes I could see as far as the surprised dead face looking back at me. I calmed myself, tried to lie still, and waited for everything to come back into focus. As the rest of the room started to appear I looked back to the barricade to see the girl, standing in the middle of the fire fight, riffle in her hands.

I managed to raise my arm and motioned for her to get back down. She nodded and ducked back behind the barrier. The fire fight was intense around me but the raiders that had been around when I dove out were nowhere in sight. I started pulling my way across the floor toward the barrier, taking the time to grab my blaster on the way. My neck was still on fire but my vision had returned and I was managing to find the strength to continue the low crawl to safety.

I was almost back to the barricade when I heard the strangest sound I have ever heard on a space station. The sound started as a low rumble and quickly changed over to a deafening roar. The air around me hummed and the floor shook. All I could think was the station was coming apart around me.

The sound grew louder and I looked up to see a streak of smoke and light fly over my head. I put my hands over my ears and managed to scream, the pain in my throat nothing compared to the compression wave that struck my eardrums. My voice was lost in the roar and then the sudden explosion that followed.

The shockwave of the explosion threw me up and over the barricade, which was the last thing I saw as I tumbled through the air. Heat seared my exposed skin. I slammed into the floor, debris crashing around me, and everything went dark.