Renegades (The Slingers Trilogy, Book 3)

Chapter 24

Kovak was looking over the battle from the bridge, and what he saw wasn't looking good. Looking out the viewscreen, he saw several Vulcan fighters engaging in combat with sleek, black painted fighters that he had never seen before from the GDF. He was unaware of many factors of this fight, and that made things worse for him. "General, we're detecting major losses from the Vulcan squadrons! And our hyrdrogen core's force field is down!" Kovak whirled around, his eyes now wide with fear. That core was the main thing that powered the entire ship. If it went down, not only would they lose the Dreadnought, but the core disruption would trigger an explosion equal to that of over 20 nuclear bombs. Everyone on the ship, along with anything in a 1000-yard radius, would be dead. "Divert all power to the forward shield and the core! We need to keep this ship under control!" Kovak gripped the railing and stared out at the fighting that was going on ahead of him. The GDF cruisers were battering the Dreadnought with laserfire, and although she was a tough ship that had survived things like this before, it couldn't take it forever. Then, kovak saw the black ships launch several small items from their hulls, which looked like miniature cluster missiles. Then, as they got closer, Kovak could see that they were headed straight for the bridge. "BRACE FOR IMPACT!" He yelled, and got down behind cover. The missiles hit all over the ship, but oddly enough, there was no explosion. Then, Kovak saw that one of the missiles had pierced through the hull, and the front was poking into the bridge. The front of the missile then opened, and a GDF Elite dropped out, and immediately began firing on everyone in the bridge. Kovak drew his pistol and leaped up from behind cover, and shot the Elite twice in the head. As the body collapsed, he holstered his pistol. "We've been boarded, gentleman. Alert everyone."

Nolun kept staring at the hatch, quite unbelievingly, confused as to what he was seeing. How could something like this be here? Everything on Hytlia IV was as old as everything else in this galaxy, older than humanity itself. Then, Nolun remembered his vision again, and saw the man he assumed was Merrick Crossman opening a secret passage in the waterfall. Maybe there's more to this planet than meets the eye...Nolun thought, then turned to Elicia. "Andress and Trace fell into a cave system, right? One you said stretched for miles under the planet?" Elicia nodded. "You think that someone might be using these caves to hide the Piece?" Dante asked, and Nolun nodded. "That's the only explanation I can think of." Elicia kneeled down next to the hatch. "Well, let's not waste any time then." She jammed one of her daggers into the hinges, and with the help of Dante's swords, managed to pry them off, the lock on the hatch finally broken. It took all 3 of them to help lift the hatch off, and even then just only slightly off the ground. They pushed it to the side, and saw that there was nothing but blackness inside. Nolun took the Piece out of his bag, then aimed it down the hole. The glowing beam stretched down into the tunnel, and revealed a ladder which led into a small passageway. Nolun slung the bag over his shoulder and began to climb down, Dante and Elicia following close behind. As they finally reached the bottom, Nolun saw that the passage stretched out into a long tunnel that continued, that was only lit up by the light that shone from the cube all the way down the tunnel. Nolun drew his repeater, and Dante and Elicia kept their blades close to them. The 3 slowly set off down the tunnel, hoping to find whatever they were looking for.

Andress was pacing back and forth across the catwalks of the Renegade, looking down at the jungle below, hoping that the 3 of them would return soon. She looked around at her other crew members. Trace was sitting at the computer, trying to contact the Dreadnought, but having no luck, and Bunker and Koil were sitting in the pilot's seats, making sure the Renegade stayed stable. Then, in the medical bay, she could see Mister Zero being diagnosed and patched up by Dewey, their medical bot. Dewey was examining what was left of Zero's eye, and Andress could see the horrible injuries that he had managed to sustain since they had last met. What the hell was happening to him? The injuries that she saw reminded her of...no. She didn't want to remember. Not again. But already, she could feel her mind slipping away, and the terrible memories of that day came flooding back like an ocean's tide...

5 Years Ago...

Andress had finally woken up from her state of unconsciousness that had lasted for almost a day, and she could see Bunker sitting in the chair next to her bed. He was out of his suit, and she almost didn't recognize him. But, when he turned to her and smiled a warm smile, she instantly knew who it was. "Hey there, Lovecraft." Andress looked over at Bunker and coughed a little bit, the smoke inhalation taking it's toll. Bunker moved closer and sat down next to her. "You were out for a while. Sleeping on the job, huh?" Andress looked up at Bunker, and gripped the sheets tightly. "What happened?" Bunker looked at her and sighed. "The official report is that the Resistance managed to ambush us on the planet. Several of our troops are dead, and our equipment is gone. The entire operation was a bust." Andress looked down, and thought about the men she had seen with the several injuries...and her sister....Koil! She bolted upwards, then grimaced in pain when the IV dug into her skin. "Relax." Bunker said, and eased her back down. "W-Where's Koil?" She said, still in pain. Bunker sighed, then the door to the hospital room opened. A man that was slightly older than Andress hobbled through on two crutches, and looked at her with sad eyes. "Hey there...glad to see you awake." Andress looked at Koil with shock, then back down at his legs. Where there had been just stumps there were now metallic, shiny prosthetics with 3-pronged toes. Clearly they had been recently applied, and Koil could still barely stand, let alone walk. Andress put her hands over her mouth, and felt the tears begin to come again. Bunker held her, making sure she was ok. Through her tears, she felt hate. Whoever did this, was going to pay.