The Wench– Ch. 10: Underground

“We’re too late,” Hals whispered.

“Yes,” Li-Cha said. 

Hals turned to her friend, and saw the terror in her eyes. She was staring at the slowly falling drop bunkers as they hit the atmosphere around the station and started to glow cherry red. No one was shooting at them; no one was even aware of what was happening.

“We have to warn them,” Hals said. 

“How? Can you do whatever Redblink did, to take over every system on the station?” Li-Cha asked, sarcasm coloring her voice.

“You know I can’t, but maybe Asendor–”

“We have run, Hals. It’s the only way we make it out of this. We protect our own, and say a prayer for the rest. That’s all we can do.”

Hals bit her lower lip. The skimmer was bringing them in for a landing now, but the drop bunkers hit first. The entire station shuddered as the massive weight of the bunkers impacted the four crescents, cracking the metal streets and then driving in support pylons with tiny explosive charges. They rooted themselves like infectious weeds, Hals thought. A shield around the bunker crackled to life, and then Hals lost sight of them as the skimmer brought them in for a landing in front of Asendor’s shop. 

“Plan,” Li-Cha said as they got out. “I’ll grab anything we might be able to use: trade goods, synthetic body parts, limbs, whatever. You get food and survival gear, and Fifth.”

“Got it,” Hals said. The station shook again as another bunker made its landing. Someone screamed in the far distance. Hals saw distant smoke start to rise, blue and cold. A huge laser bolt shot up into the sky and scattered into the atmosphere. A missed shot, or a warning? She had no time to wonder. 

She kicked the front door of Asendor’s place open using her synthetic leg. It hurt, but the pain was an illusion: just something that her brain was being told to feel by the very intelligent bits of machinery that lived inside her fake bones. She kicked again, and by the third time, the door caved in. Alarms went off instantly, and Hals could hear the security mecha maneuvering to attack her. It might come in handy.

“Deactivate, emergency clearance Halsirena!” she shouted as the whirring machine waddled into the main sales floor. The spinning turret’s harsh whine slackened, and the robot’s eyes blinked from red to green. It then quirked its head to one side. 

“You, get out front and defend us. Anybody comes walking down the street with a weapon, fire a warning shot, then let them eat laser.” The mecha beeped to confirm her order and crab-walked through the door. Li-Cha was already filling her arms with things, barely pausing to look at them. She spotted a large bag of sharp looking tools and dumped it out, filling it instead with her loot.

“Fifth! Where are you?” Hals yelled. She ran up the stairs to the living quarters, taking them two at a time. When she got onto the landing, a blaster was aimed at her face. It was held in Fifth’s trembling hands.

“What’s happening?” she asked. “Why’d you break in? You scared m–”

“The station is being attacked. We need to run. Quick: grab a bag and fill it with anything you can, anything valuable.”

“Where’s Asendor?” Fifth asked, still aiming her weapon at Hals. She ignored the young woman and grabbed her own go bag, pulling it open and rummaging inside to reload her Gobbler with a new power cell. The weapon powered up with a happy noise and Hals pocketed it, then got her slug thrower out. The Declaration, as Asendor demanded it be called. She slipped it over her shoulder.

“Didn’t you hear me? We need to run. Get your shit,” Hals said. Fifth was trembling, and wearing her night clothes. “And get dressed!” Below them a crash echoed as Li-Cha tipped a locked display case on its side so she could get into it. Hals didn’t have time to wait any longer: she slid back down the stairs and got into the kitchen, finding a tight mesh bag and filling it with as many non-perishable food items as she could find in Asendor’s cupboards. Through the open door, she saw Adumon Station’s emergency lights kick on: flashing red-blue-whites. A siren started to wail. Better late than never.

She ran into the back room where the nice new cot was and shoved it to the side so she could get to the wall of specialty tools Asendor kept. She dragged them off the wall and into her go-bag, which was getting heavy and full. And then she saw them, like a gift from the heavens: the blasters she’d taken from the crew of the Golden Esposs. Asendor hadn’t gotten around to selling them yet. Hals gathered the weapons, tossing away one that Asendor had started to take apart. They now had three high-quality laser weapons. Hals ran onto the sales floor, which looked like a small windstorm had torn through it. Shattered glass, prosthetic bones, and advertisements for physical augmentation littered the floor. In the middle, like a conductor of chaos stood Li-Cha. She had three bags at her feet, the third of which she finished zipping up. She caught the blaster Hals threw at her.

“This is some serious firepower,” she said, admiring the longgun.

“Courtesy of the crew I took it from. It’ll help us take their ship, too,” Hals said. The wailing siren and flashing lights outside combined with the snowdrifts and the broken glass reflected the light in an almost beautiful pattern. For a moment Hals felt that she might be dreaming. And then Fifth stumbled down the stairs, her little self-defense blaster still clutched tightly in her fist.

“Take this instead,” Hals said, holding out the blaster carbine. It was the easiest for someone inexperienced to use. Or so she hoped. But Fifth didn’t grab it: she just stared.

“You said we’re going to take my old ship? The Esposs?”

“There’s barely any crew left, and we need a ship to get off this station,” Li-Cha said. “So yes. Take us to it, we’ll commandeer it, and get out of here.”

“I won’t,” Fifth said, shaking her head. Hals and Li-Cha both froze, staring at the young woman. She’d found two of Asendor’s coats in his upstairs closet and put them both on, but beneath that was nothing but her nightgown and a pair of slippers. 

“Why not?” Li-Cha asked. Her voice was calm and cold, and Hals felt a tickle of fear run down her spine. 

“Because you’ll kill them too. I don’t want Jul and Sbarra to die because of me, not like the rest of them.”

Li-Cha stood frozen for a moment, just staring at Fifth. Then, she punched her in the mouth. 

It happened so fast, neither she nor Hals were ready for it. Hals could only watch as the younger girl crashed back into one a display shelf full of different eyeballs and knocked it over. Mechanical orbs rolled across the floor, staring up blindly. To her credit, Fifth came to her senses pretty quickly, aiming her little blaster at Li-Cha and squeezing off a shot. The blast hit Li-Cha square in the chest and dissipated instantly, thanks to her shield. She didn’t even flinch.

“Shoot me again, little girl,” she said, leveling her much larger blaster. “See how well that works out for you.”

“Both of you, stop!” Hals said, stepping between them with her hands raised. She turned her back to Li-Cha, confident her friend wouldn’t shoot her in the back, and knelt in front of Fifth.

“Here’s what we will do. Use this, and call Jul and Sbarra,” Hals said, reaching into her back for the ship’s horn and passing it to Fifth. “Tell them we’re coming and that we all need to get off this station. We don’t want to hurt them, we just want a ride. Okay?”

“And if they don’t cooperate, we’ll fill them full of hot plasma,” Li-Cha added. “Catch all that?”

Fifth’s eyes burned with fury as she stared past Hals at Li-Cha, but she nodded. She took the ship’s horn and pressed it to her ear.

Hals hefted her go-bag and the sack of food she’d managed to grab, then reached out and pulled Fifth to her feet. She was speaking in low tones, hurried whispers to whoever had picked up on the other end. Li-Cha threw one of the bags at Fifth and hefted the other two, and laden with their supplies, they marched back into the street. 

In a few brief minutes, it had been transfigured into a scene of chaos. People were everywhere now, running and yelling to one another, streaming away from the direction where the bunkers had landed, not realizing they were just going to run into another one once they hit the crossroads. In the sky above, ships were firing on Silver’s Culling, their tiny blasters insignificant against the bulk of its shields. Occasionally one of the small pirate ships would explode as the Culling returned fire, and vaporized remnants of a ship would rain down, burning through the skies. Asendor’s mecha was still in the street, and had not had cause to shoot at anyone yet. Hals whistled for it. 

“Follow me and defend us against anyone wearing Centurium armor. If anybody shoots at us, kill them.”

The robot blinked merrily.

“Where is Asendor?” Fifth asked, putting away the ship’s horn. She started to lead them down the road. “We need to get to, uh… Azure Crescent? That’s where we docked.”

“Shit,” Hals said. “That’s the opposite side of the station. We’ll have to go through that blockade at the crossroads.”

“We can shoot our way through,” Li-Cha said, raising her blaster. “But I’d prefer not to get in a firefight. I don’t think the little girl is wearing a shield.”

Hals glanced back at Fifth. “You do have a body shield, don’t you?”

The girl actually blushed. “The crew said I didn’t need one; said they’d take care of me. Protect me.”

Hals barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes. They ran on, Hals leading, Li-Cha taking up the rear and covering them. The mecha marched along, scanning, always scanning. Above them, a large cruiser powered up its black engines attempted to jump into Neverspace. Instantly it evaporated, turning into vapor and screaming hot metal as Silver’s Culling fired upon it. The name now struck her as much more ominous. 

As Hals, Li-Cha and Fifth ran towards the Azure Crescent, Hals couldn’t help but appreciate the brilliance of what Redblink had done. With his ship docked to the station like any normal pirate vessel, it was on the opposite side of the extremely powerful defensive turrets the station supported. Adumon Station could probably take on Silver’s Culling in a fair fight, given their similar sizes and comparable firepower, but the station could no more fire on Silver’s Culling than it could turn itself inside out. A masterful tactic. 

The station’s alarms crackled and shorted out, though the lights continued to flash as they ran, letting the mecha clear a path through the crowd for them. After a few seconds of static, a new voice spoke: not Redblink, but a different man. Someone with the proper accent of the Core worlds.

“Attention please: this is Commander Calig Morit. This station is now under the jurisdiction of the Royal Centurium, on behalf of Queen Magesticanna IX. All citizens of Adumon Station are encouraged to take shelter as we cleanse this place of the pirate scum that has infested it. To the pirates attempting to flee or to attack my ship: your demise brings me no pleasure. Simply surrender to us, and you will be given a fair trial. Resisting arrest will be considered an act of war, and will be met with summary execution.”

The message started to repeat itself. Hals kept one eye on the sky as they ran. No more ships were attempting to slip out. No one else had managed to make it yet, and dying in a starship explosion wasn’t how most folks wanted to go.

“What are we going to do?” Li-Cha called out. “Even if we get to the ship, how are we going to get off the station?”

“Maybe we should just turn ourselves in!” Fifth suggested. “I haven’t done anything wrong, and--”

“You flew with a pirate crew. That’s evidence enough on most planets,” Li-Cha said sharply. A large, wailing man ran into the road before them, a huge cannon in his hands. Roaring, he aimed it at the Silver’s Culling and released a huge, concentrated burst of laser fire that sheared through the station’s atmosphere and splashed harmlessly against the big ship’s shields. He held down the trigger as they passed him. Hals could see he was weeping.

“Besides, Fifth: we’re not exactly sitting pretty with the Centurium,” Hals said. “You can take your chances on your own if that’s what you want, but I still say our best bet is getting on that ship and waiting for our moment. But it’s your life.”

She looked at Fifth, and could almost see her processing the information. She could just turn herself in, or hide out and wait for it all to be over. But that would probably mean a return to the life she’d fled from. And Hals and Asendor had been kind to her; even though Li-Cha had split her lip. The young woman shook her head. “No, you’re right. Better to get on the ship.”

“Glad we agree. Now, let’s hope Halsirena comes up with a novel plan to avoid getting shot to death as we fly away,” Li-Cha said. Ahead of them, Hals heard the sounds of death. Cries of pain, the hiss-snick of lasers, and the billowing gust of evaporating snow. They were nearing where the drop bunker had landed, Hals was sure. There were no people running past them anymore, the streets were emptier than Hals had ever seen them. Even in the darkest part of the night, there was usually someone walking somewhere, or a drunk passed out on a bench, or a working girl soliciting passers-by. But now there was no one, but for the three of them and their mecha. Without speaking, they all stopped. A few hundred meters away, a crater in the ground was releasing a huge plume of black smoke, and beyond that they could see the occasional blast of laser fire. 

“We should probably try a side street. I don’t think– there’s no way we can just pass through the main corridor,” Hals said. “Is there?”

“Not with that thing with us,” Li-Cha said, pointing at the mecha. It was scanning the horizon dutifully looking for threats. “That’ll peg us as people trying to fight.”

“We could leave it?” Fifth asked.

“I have a better idea,” Hals said. She whistled again, and the mecha turned to her. “March forward and kill everybody wearing a Centurium uniform,” she told it. It booped at her, and waddled off toward the smoke and the sounds of battle.

“That thing will distract them, and that might give us a chance to get underground. Let’s go.”

Hals led them away from the main road, keeping an ear out for the sounds of the fighting to change when the mecha engaged. She kept the Declaration tight to her shoulder, watching for movement. It was considered unethical to use a slug thrower, and they were often illegal because they had no non-lethal setting like a blaster did. If Hals was spotted by any of the invading forces, she’d probably just get shot. She tapped her nose ring and it blinked a happy green. Shields at full. Hopefully it’d be enough.

“There’s an underground to the station?” Fifth asked, as Hals paused at an intersection and tried to get her bearings. There was a body lying in the gutter, her back blackened with the fire of a dozen blasters. Not exactly non-lethal, either. Fifth was staring at the body.

“Yeah, of course. This thing is one gigantic spaceship. We just live on its skin most of the time, but there’s a lot of maintenance tunnels and passageways. Normally they’re monitored by the Wazishaki triplets and their security team to watch out for sabotage, but I think they have bigger issues right now.” 

“Right,” Fifth said, still staring at the dead woman. Hals grabbed her hand and dragged her down a dirty road that normally had an informal flea market going. Everything was abandoned now, piles of knitted clothes, handmade bits of jewelry, and even a still-smoking grill. Hals spotted a pair of pants off of a small stall and grabbed them. She thrust them to Fifth, who struggled to pull them over her boots for a few seconds, nearly falling down.

Much closer than she’d realized, she heard someone shout a warning, and then she heard the familiar spin-up whir of Asendor’s mecha. Its laser cannon started firing, a rapid pulse of death. People started yelling and returning fire.

“Hurry. That’s our cue,” Li-Cha said. Hals ran to the end of the road and found what she’d been looking for: a nondescript door with a big wheel handle. She turned it and it didn’t budge. Locked.

“Li-Cha, do the honors,” Hals said, stepping back. Her friend powered up her blaster with a menacing hum, and she held the trigger down. After about ten seconds the door was melted slag. Hals kicked it with her prosthetic leg until it fell into the staircase it had once hidden, clanging down and coming to a stop at the bottom. The darkness seemed to call to Hals inviting her down into it. She took a deep breath, and they descended.

Thank you for reading along! This story isn’t finished, but the rest of it won’t be posted here (at least for awhile) since I’m trying to send it out and get it published. If you liked it and want to read more, subscribe below and you’ll get notified when I publish more (or when I get it published!)