Renegades (The Slingers Trilogy, Book 3)

Chapter 22

Koil's eyes widened when he saw the small blinking and beeping light that was attached to the body of the Elite that was lying on the ground. He quickly ripped it off of the uniform, then threw it onto the ground and crushed it to pieces with his boot. "What was that?" Trace asked. "GDF tracker. It activates when a soldier's heartbeat reaches a certain BPM. It sends a signal to their home base." Andress said, looking solemnly down at the crushed device. No one needed to ask her how she knew about that. "So, I'm assuming that means that they know we're here now?" Elicia said warily, looking around at the group. Dante nodded grimly. "Which means we need to find Nolun and the Piece as soon as we can and get out of here." Andress ran her hand through her hair. Throughout everything that had happened, she had forgotten about Nolun. She hoped he was ok...then, an idea crossed through her mind. She turned to Trace and spoke very quickly. "Trace, Nolun was carrying the Piece when he ran off, right?" Trace nodded slowly. "Yeah. What about it?" Andress grabbed her shoulders. "You have the energy signature of the Dorado Pieces in your database, right? If we can calibrate the Renegade's scanner's to search for that type of energy-" Trace finished Andress's sentence with a huge smile on her face. "We can find Nolun!" Everyone ran into the ship, and Trace began to type out the signatures for the scanner to track. Moments later, the computer beeped, signalling that it had managed to find a source that was similar to what Trace had input. "I've got him!" Trace yelled up into the main cabin, and Andress was already putting in the coordinates. As the Renegade began to lift off, Andress pushed forwards on the boosters, a determined look on her face. Don't worry Nolun. I'm coming.

Nolun stepped out of the cave and back into the darkness, the journal still in his hand, when he heard something in the trees. He ducked back under the waterfall, and tried to cover up the Dorado Piece as best he could in order to hide it's glow. As he hid, he saw two GDF soldiers dressed in all black walk out from the treeline, holding weapons and scanning the area for something. Nolun cursed as he saw the Elites walk towards him. They were most likely looking for the Piece, but they could also stumble upon the cave like he did as well, which wouldn't be good for him. Thinking fast, he grabbed a loose rock from the cave wall, and threw it over to the right of the two Elites. It made a loud thud as it landed, causing the two of them to look over in that direction. Nolun quickly moved out of the safety of the cave, and ran over towards the safety of the treeline. But, before he could reach it, one of the Elites spotted him, and shot his energy weapon towards him. Nolun ducked out of the way just in time and landed behind one of the trees. How the hell did they manage to see me? Nolun drew his repeater and began to fire off a few shots towards the two Elites, who were now raining down on his position with bullets. Before Nolun was about to make a run for it, he heard the sound of booster engines and felt something fly over his head. A large laserbolt shot down from the sky and hit the two Elites, lighting up the night sky with the explosion. Nolun turned his head around to look up, and saw the Renegade hovering above the trees. The sight of the grey ship alone was enough to warm up Nolun's heart, even after all he had been through. It landed next to the river, and the cargo bay door opened, revealing everyone inside. As Nolun ran into the ship, he felt a set of warm arms wrap around him and pull him close, and suddenly he was face-first in a forest of soft red hair. "Welcome home, Treasure Boy." Andress said, quietly.

General Kovak had been getting worried for over an hour now. He had been standing at the communications hub on the bridge next to a technician that had been trying to contact the troops on the ground, but had been unsuccessful. But, when he had tried to contact the squadron of Vulcan fighters that was supposed to be patrolling the area, along with Koil and Andress, he also had no luck. It was like something had managed to knock out all of their communications at once without them knowing. Kovak had asked the technician to hail them on every possible frequency, but there was still no result. He was now standing with his arms crossed, staring out the front window of the Dreadnought, wondering what to do next. Then, he heard another radar technician speak up from across the room. "Sir, I'm getting something strange on our scanners. You may want to come take a look at this." Kovak turned away from the window to see what the technician was referring to. That small act managed to save his life. As soon as he turned away, three large ships suddenly appeared in front of the Dreadnought, each of them chrome and metallic, casting glares across the other ship. Then, all three ships began to fire a hail of laserbolts, making the Dreadnought rock with the sudden explosions. Because of this, Kovak was launched forwards onto a command console. The laserbolts began to crack the window at the front, until it finally broke, it's pieces launching out into space, as well as pulling out anything that wasn't tied or bolted down, including some crew members. Kovak gripped the railing near the console hard, and reached his hand up, struggling against the rush of escaping air. He looked around quickly in order to find the correct button, then found it. He slammed his hand down onto the emergency lockdown button, causing metal panels to come down over the window, and seal off the room, pouring oxygen back in. As the crew managed to regain their breath, Kovak stood up and looked at everyone in the room. "Battle stations. Let's go to work."