He crouched, body concealed by the turning corridor and head peaking around. A few close calls by engineers wandering had confirmed his suspicions. Down the hallway was a huge double-door, that slid open every once and awhile to allow a technician to pass. One the door was simply written "Generator". There was always multiple entries to a power-room, and the best for Zacarias was a maintenance tube, which are cramped service ways that give access to power relays and other hard-to-reach parts of the ship.
An unusual door was off to the side, and Zacarias decided to try it. Crouch-running over, he opened it and was happy to see a small room, with a maintenance tube set in the middle of the far wall. Crawling in, he took the first left, towards the power room. At the end was a door, and Zacarias tried it. He opened it an inch, and looked around. He closed it fast. The room was packed with engineers working over consoles and on power-terminals, tools in hand. To the right was the door he had been looking at earlier, and to the right was a huge generator. The room was two stories, and the generator took up four.
He had to rethink this. An idea came: instead of placing the bombs straight onto the generator, placing them on the major 'arteries', or relays which handled large amounts of power. Looking back, he saw a panel that could detach from the wall. Inside was a humming, bright device. Perfect. Lowering the tote bag to the ground, he took out one of the bricks of explosives. He peeled off the paper, which revealed adhesives. He stuck it to the inside, right behind the relay, and took out the suitcase. He hit both latches and it popped open. He took a detonator and shoved it into the brick. He activated it, and set it to 'stand by' mode. He replaced the panel, and crawled backwards. One down, a lot to go...
About twenty of these stops later, the totebag was empty. Balling it up, he stuffed it in after the explosives. He kept the remote detonator, and put it in his pocket, very careful to make sure the cap was on the button that set them off. He got out of the maintenance shafts the fastest way possible, then started jogging down the corridors.
Something weird happened. Static played across his vision. The world rippled. Everything started... melting around him. Except for him, the world became immaterial... and...
* * * * *
A week previous...
Subverting Zacarias had been harder than Adrian would have thought. His son had will, he had to give him that. After they exhausted the torture techniques, which hardened Adrian's heart for the son he didn't know, he had gotten a message from on of the elders. Telling him to test the new virtual reality technology. They hooked people up to computers which made them actually think what was happening was real, even though they were laying on a bed in a lab, unconscious. It was great for taking out confessions or learning enemy's secrets, as you could introduce them to a 'trusted friend', control what that 'friend' said, and monitor every second of it.
To start the ball rolling, they had wiped his memory of what they had done, and made him think they had just left him to rot in his cell. Then, to speed things up, they had manipulated the leaky pipe to give off the flash code. When he couldn't get to the pad, they had changed the message to the ventilation shaft, which had not been there before. They had added it in to help him escape. All to play around with him, while they led him closer and closer to him getting out and going back to Malta, where he would 'help' Willow with Malta's Planetary Defense grid. Willow would, of course, have forgotten his codes, so he would ask Zacarias to input the codes. Bingo, he seals the doom of his planet.
Carina went wrong. Adrian had not been lying; Carina had gotten off the gunship before it was taken, uploaded to Malta's Defense grid. From there, she had moved herself to Willow's personal computer, and typed out the message: Zacarias has been captured by an Osiris! ~ Carina Of course he hadn't taken that well. The briefcase had gotten back to Esperanza. She remembered the code he had given her, and unlocked it, after reading the datapad attached. Inside was a laptop. It had one program on it: which was a tracer for Zacarias. They could find him!
Needless to say, Esperanza raised hell. She marched straight into Mia's office, and demanded that they establish a strike force and mount a rescue op. Willow barged in a few minutes later, with a laptop in his hands. Apparently Willow didn't like the idea of Zacarias being subverted, as he was one of the few people with the codes to the planetary defense grid. He set it on the table, and Carina popped the same words up. Overwhelmed, Mia gave over. The Giustizia would take on several marines, who would board the Osiris and find Zacarias using the tracer. The Fantasia would come, and so would five flights of Falcatas, seven flights of Sabres, and a destroyer group. Why that many? Because the Grand Master of the Blue Lotus Syndicate chimed in a few minutes after Willow had came in the door. And demanded not only that the BLS be represented, but that it be a large force that goes.
Through all of this, Mia was a bit peeved. Everyone demanded a lot from the 66th, and her. But in the end, the task force got underway.
Aboard the Osiris, the sensor operator stared lazily at the screen. No hostile targets. Then, a blip. Another blip. And soon, the entire screen was full of blips. He hit the alarm, and soon the entire ship was bathed in red. Looking to a side screen, which displayed what the blips were, his heart sank. At the head was the Giustizia, followed closely by a formation of other destroyers, which were flanked by several bombers and Sabres. And the Fantasia. Adrian was on the bridge inside twenty seconds, and he didn't like it either.
"Get the support fleet up here, NOW!" he yelled at the communications officer. Soon, cruisers, gunboats, bombers, and Titans were launching, as well as another Osiris.
The Outcast force hit the Osiris before the reinforcements could arrive. The two huge ships danced around each other clumsily, trading shots hot and fast. However, the Fantasia's initial numerical superiority beat the Osiris back hard. Soon, it's shields were down, and the Giustizia was moving into docking maneuvers. The bottom end of the ship would clamp to the side of the Osiris, and the cutting crews would get to work searing through the hull, while the umbilical clamps would spew soldiers out.
Adrian angrily shouted for arms to be distributed, and for marines to be sent down to repulse boarders.
"Sir, we've lost power on three decks, including C, F, and G!"
Adrian rounded on him, and told him to reroute all emergency power to C deck, which was where Zacarias was. If the power went out there, he would come out of the virtual reality and catatonic state.
"Negative sir. Our emergency supplies are depleted; everything is going into weapons and life support." Adrian cursed, and got the doctor overlooking Zacarias on the comm line. "Pump him with anesthesia, keep him under. We're losing power there."
The doctor balked, saying that the combination of the virtual reality and anesthesia could kill him. Adrian told him to anyway, and closed the comm line. Then he stood there, waiting for reinforcements and simmering.
Zacarias Poncho came to with a jolt. He was on a cramped and hard bed, with things attached to his head. He was fully awake inside a second, and concluded that it had been virtual reality, thus the static and melting when it had failed. And why had it failed? The lights were out. Must have been power loss. He ripped the cords off his head, and hopped up noiselessly. A doctor was over there, preparing something that involved a needle. He walked over, put a hand on each side of his head, and jerked them to the right. A satisfying snap announcing his broken neck.
He had to hope that a rescue was what had snapped the power out, but realistically he prepared for the probability of an accident. He checked the computer for a layout of the ship, and found it. The docking bay was on the bottom deck, towards the middle. Just as he had predicted in his virtual-reality trip. He hoped this time all the hard work paid off... laying all those charges had probably made them reassess their security measures. Maybe why the power went out, though why they wouldn't keep backup power on the machine was behind Zacarias.
He quickly left the room, not even waiting to check the room for weaponry. The Corsairs could check on it at any time.
As the cutters finished their work on the Osiris hull, Esperanza led team one through the impromptu and forced door. It was a ten-man team, and the one right behind Esperanza had the laptop that had been in the briefcase. Esperanza looked to him for direction, and he said that he was on the move.
"Prisoner transfer?" she asked uncertainly.
"Or he could have escape in the attack. Either way, we assume for the worst. They could be taking him to an airlock to finish him. We have to get moving, he's on C deck, heading down."
The team moved fast and silent down the corridors, taking any Corsair they met down with an offhand shot. They didn't have any time to lose.
* * * * *
Zacarias ran away from the corpse of a Corsair, who he had not only relieved of life but of his gun. He didn't need it anymore. He had heard shots hitting the hull, and the way the crew moved it was apparent that a battle was taking place. If there weren't any Titans still in the launch bay, he'd have to hide and wait. Of course, he was hoping it wouldn't come to that and he could get out of this hellhole fast.
He rounded a corridor to see a platoon of Corsair marines facing away, towards an Outcast strike force. Both were trading shots hot and fast. Zacarias decided to help, and started shooting at the Corsairs. A few turned to fire back, but they were cut down first. The rest never even saw him, and all died. He ran towards the Outcasts, and was shocked to see Esperanza. Lying on the ground, blaster shot to the shoulder.
He fell to his knees next to her, and a look of happiness washed over the pain as she saw him. "Go, get out," she mumbled.
"Not without you." He picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, and followed the marines back to the ship.
Outside, things weren't getting better. The Corsairs now outnumbered the Outcasts 3 to 1 (Willow commented on it being a fair fight) and more were flooding in. A Dreadnought was inching its way from Crete, as well as another flight of bombers. The Fantasia was in bad shape, as were most of the capital ships. All but the Giustizia, who was ignored. If it was destroyed, the collateral damage to the Osiris would be astronomical.
Giovanni met them at the airlock, handgun pointed down the hall, a few Corsair bodies strewn about. Apparently he had taken it upon himself to defend the ship from a counter-attack. Zacarias shoved Esperanza into his arms, much to her protest, and charged Giovanni with seeing her safe.
You guys get out of here! I have some unfinished business to take care of Zacarias said. He then asked if anyone had a good Detroit Munitions gun, to which one of the marines handed him one from his holster.
Giovanni was a bit upset. What the hell man?! We just launched a huge offensive to save your ass, and here you are saying you dont want to be rescued?
No, Im saying I have something else to do. Dont worry about me, I can find my own way home. He leaned forward to kiss Esperanzas forehead, then ran back down the hallway, gun in hand.
Willow was standing on the deck of the Fantasia, watching the fire pound the enemy ships. The flak wall kept the nukes and large missiles from hitting the ship, as well as kamikaze pilots, but it didnt stop the enemy laser fire. Several impacts slammed the hull, and the lights flickered periodically. Dammit, what was taking them so long?!
Sir, Giovanni is on line one! shouted the comm man from the side console. Willow strode over and picked up the phone, preferring the privacy it offered.
Tell me you have him, he started without preamble.
We had him he came to give me Esperanza because he was shot. Then he just grabbed a gun and ran back, yelling that he had unfinished business.
Willow cursed loud, which made several of the bridge crew flinch.
Sir, we cant take much more of this! yelled another officer. Another formation of capital ships just took off from Crete!
Willow cursed loud, again. Damn, OK, call all the ships
BRACE FOR IMPACT! was all the warning they had. A huge concussion wave rolled over the ship. Sparks flew from several consoles, and some people were ousted from their seats.
What the hell was that?! Willow demanded.
We just lost a Destroyer, and got caught in the shock wave.
He ground his teeth, then completed the interrupted order. Call all the ships back into a defensive formation, and tell them to have their fingers on the cruise button, course set for the Omicron Theta jump hole. Tell the Giustizia to get the hell outta there.
He hesitated on the next order, biting his bottom lip and glancing at the laptop that housed Carina, sitting on the XOs chair next to his.
And get Project Risurrezione up here, ASAP. Whats the status on the fighter bay?
Were running empty, sir.
Wait another officer started. We have some Templars in storage left from when this thing was with the Bretonian Armed Forces. They never thought to take em when we got it.
Two men wheeled in a hibernation bed modeled off the Hispanias, but with some enhancements that time endowed on technology. They reached down and grabbed bars on the bottom, one on each side, and hoisted it so that it was standing up. Disengaging the locks, the lid fell forward, revealing an Outcast woman wearing Outcast clothes. She had raven black hair, stood at five feet eight inches, and was pretty if not beautiful. This was no ordinary woman.
It had taken years of research, and in the end some help from Zacarias Poncho, to perfect her, but what you see is a synthetic person. Completely undistinguishable from a normal human, the only thing that points her out is a small port, hidden under a detachable skin door, that allows her to hook up to computers via cords. Willow appeared to be praying under his breath, for his eyes were closed, his mouth was moving, and no sound was coming out.
He took the laptop that housed Carina over. A solemn air hung about the laptop, as Willow ran a cord from the laptop to the hookup port on the back of the bodys neck. He paused, and then said out loud: God forgive me, before he plugged it in. For several moments that dragged on, nothing happened. Then her eyes opened. She took a few jerky steps forward and out of the hibernation bed, but then her walking smoothed.
Carina Willow started, and then swallowed. We need you to take a Templar from storage, land on the Osiris that Zacarias is being held on, and save his ass. Think you can do it?
She stared at him blankly for a second before nodding. Of course.
The Outcasts were taking it hard. Yet another Osiris had entered the battle. Willow looked through the view-screen, grim determination etched on his face. It was win here, or give the Corsairs a huge advantage in the long run. Oh, they could change the planetary defense codes, but Zacarias couldnt hold out against torture for long. He could design another Carina for them, with disastrous results.
An officer snaps up from his station, fear making lines on his face. The sensor operator.
SIR, A NUKE MADE IT THROUGH THE FLAK WALL!
Willow dropped the F bomb all over the bridge. Grabbing the PA microphone, he yelled over it: All hands, incoming nuke! Brace for impact!
The lights flickered for a second as the EMP pre-cursor wave hit, then the entire ship rocked. From outside, it looked like a giant had taken a hammer to the starboard (right) side of the ship; a huge dent was clearly evident. Fuel was leaking from hull fissures, and fires were dying as they hit the vacuum of space. A few bodies floated, too.
We have too many nukes incoming for the flak wall to stop them!
Radiation shielding down to 60%!
Decks F J decompressed!
Casualty reports coming in from all decks!
Repair teams deploying!
The babble flew right past Willow. He turned quickly and barked at the comm operator: Redirect Alpha wing to hunt down nukes!
Stalking to the tactical station, he whispered something into the officers ear. The tactical officer smiled. He hit a few buttons, and a small table rose from the center of the bridge. On it were six huge knobs that would turn slowly (to assure no accidents) and then press down. Willow walked down and put his hand on one, starting a short yet vital ceremony. Those knobs controlled the six AQS warheads, each of which had enough firepower to rip an Osiris in half, radiation shielding or no. By custom, this was one thing that a CO cant order. The bridge crew has to have five senior officers agree, plus the tactical officer.
Reluctantly, but fast, five officers ran up and put their hands on the knobs. Willow asked the tactical officer, Targets locked? In answer, the view screen turned to shades of red; six Osirises highlighted in blue.
Were in agreement? Willow asked quietly. Everyone nodded. In unison, they turned the knobs slowly until they clicked, then pressed them down.