SG Nova Roma, Chapter 4.14

 14 – Attack

(H5D-228 – Shanty Town - Year 3, Day 67, 1602)

Vale had sat down so that he could get a good look at the cage. It was old and rusty, without a solid floor. But there were two of the youngsters watching them, so digging their way out was not an option. But the team did have trick up their sleeve. They were still wearing their spacesuits. Vale knew it was a risk, but he calmly took off his helmet and sniffed the air.

~Bit stuffy, but breathable.~ Then he nodded for the rest of the team to do the same. As he closed his air flow – to preserve what was left in the tank – the others took off their helmets as well. The rest of the team followed his instruction and turned off their air as well. ~Let’s see how they take that.~ He looked at the two youngsters and smiled. The whole thing had seriously freaked them out. They were talking to one another. Then one of them ran away. 

“That got to them,” G’Yal said.

“So, now what ?” T’Zalo said. 

“First, let’s see how they respond,” Vale began. “Then we’ll take it from there.”

The young female who was in charge approached the Vale’s cage. He was alone in his cage, while Porter had a cage of her own and G’Yal was sharing one with T’Zalo. She looked at all four of them. ~She’s surprised.~ He got the feeling that it had been quite a while since she had seen anybody who was not a Hal’Iry. ~Maybe since the fire that killed all those people happened.~ Which had probably happened the day this place had been abandoned. He decided to take the direct approach. 

“It’s been a long time since you’ve seen somebody who is not Hal’Iry, right ?” Vale began. “Maybe since the day this place has been abandoned ? The day of the fire ?”

“You’ve seen…,” She shook her head. “…what was left ?” 

“Yes, we have,” Vale said. “How long has it been ?”

“It has been….” She sighed, clearly the memory still hurt. “….several years. When the mine was abandoned, the guards received orders to kill all the workers. But they refused. So the Hive send a warship and things….” 

“Is that when you ended up living here ?”

“Yes, they hid us here. Just in case.” She paused. “The caves were empty back then. Over the years, we stripped the place of anything useful and build the town. Except the garage, we figured that striping that might set off alarm bells if they ever came back. So, why didn’t we hear your ship land ?” 

“Because we didn’t arrive by ship.”

“That’s impossible. There’s no other way to travel the stars.” 

Vale was about to reply when one of the youngsters came running. He whispered something in her ear hole and her face turned to one of worry. Then an alarm began blaring in the distance. The young lady in charge took out a set of keys and began unlocking the cages. Soon after, several other youngsters arrived and handed them their weapons. Then the leader turned back to Vale.

“My name is Xe-17-H. But everybody simple calls me Xe.” 

“I’m Marc Vale and they are Allisson Porter, G’Yal and T’Zalo. They work for me,” Vale said. “So, what’s going on, Xe ? What does that alarm mean ?”

“We set up a proximity alarm,” Xe said. “It means a ship is approaching,” She turned to Vale. “Did you really not come here by ship ?”

“That’s right.” He turned to the others. “NR-1, move out.” 

They made their way to the entrance. It was trip through a darkening town as the younglings put out the lights, so they had to use the integrated flashlights with their weapons to see. When they got there, the youngsters were setting up to let anybody who tried to enter the place have it. Vale gave several hand signals and the team set up flanking the way in. They could hear people moving around in the garage. Vale signaled for the team to turn their flashlights off, which they did. Xe took up a position next to Vale.

“So, what do you do ?” 

“Explore planets, do science, help people out, gather supplies,” Vale said. “So, who are our unwelcome guests ?”

“Well, officially, they don’t exist,” Xe whispered. “But there are plenty of pirates around. If this were fleet people, you would still be in your cages. The Fleet would drag us out of here and throw us in some horrible state-run orphanage. But the pirates, they’ll kill us all. And that means I need every weapon I can get to defend this place. Letting you go was a major risk, letting them in is suicide.” 

Before the conversation could continue, one of the pirates noticed the entrance to the cave. Soon, his head poked out of the end of the tunnel. Vale blew it off with one shot. There was a ruckus on the other side. Then somebody pulled the remains away. They could hear several more pirates coming down the tunnel. They fired several shots through the opening, but those hit nothing but dirt. There was a pause, before more pirates came through.

“Fire !” Xe yelled. 

There were five pirates, who all found themselves on the receiving end of a wave of arrows. Three of them were dead, while the last two were finished by Porter and G’Yal. Vale and T’Zalo quickly dragged the corpses away. The pirates didn’t just have hand weapons, but were also carrying grenades. Vale collected these, then pulled the pin on two of them. He threw them into the tunnel with all the force he could muster. They exploded on the other end.

“Why didn’t they think off that ?” Porter asked. 

“Because they’re pirates,” Vale said. “If they were smart enough to join the fleet, they wouldn’t be here.”

“There’s that.” 

It was at this point that there were curses heard from the other side of the tunnel. Then a grenade was tossed through the passage. But whoever had tossed it, had been a little to eager. The grenade sailed past the defenders and took out one of the huts. Before they could throw another one, Vale fired a burst into the tunnel. ~We can keep exchanging fire like this forever.~ They needed to break this stalemate. The problem was that the tunnel was the only way in or out.

~Time to get creative.~ Vale inspected the wall around the tunnel. As he did so, G’Yal and T’Zalo fired more bursts into the tunnel. Porter threw several more grenades at the pirates. From the cursing and screams, Vale got impression that they had just taken out several more pirates. 

“We’re down to two grenades, boss,” G’Yal said. “If you have any great ideas, now would be the time.”

Vale was about to say that he had nothing, when he noticed a duct. When a ship landed in the garage, its engines heated the place up. So – to keep the people inside from being boiled alive – the Hal’Iry had installed several ducts to channel the heat out of the room. It was much bigger than the tunnel, but its location made it impractical for everyday use. 

Fortunately, whoever had designed the spacesuits had been a sharp cookie. They had figured that climbing might be required, so there were retractable pins in both the hands and feet. There were also servos and motors to help carry the load. ~Probably for climbing on planets with higher then Earth gravity.~ Using the suit, Vale climbed to the duct. ~Whoever designed this thing deserves a promotion.~ He made his way to the other end of the duct.

Looking down into the garage, he saw that there were four pirates left. They were huddled behind their spacecraft, which was a miserable old rust bucket. ~Looks like a Frankenstein starship.~ The ship had apparently been patched together with whatever the pirates could get their hands own. Between the Frankenstein and the tunnel was a bloody mess that had once been at least four pirates. ~Time to make my move before they make theirs.~ 

There was a circular tunnel that connected all the heat tunnels. Vale ran down this, making his way to a better position. As soon as he got there, he opened fire. The pirates went down before they even realized what was going on. Vale jumped on top of the pirate ship and scanned the room. But he was alone. He made his way to the tunnel entrance.

“All clear !” 

“Yes, sir.” G’Yal replied.

Vale looked at the garage. The place was quite the mess, but at least the youngsters would still around to clean it up. 

(H5D-228 – Shanty Town - Year 3, Day 67, 1705)

While the rest of the locals were clearing up the mess in the garage, Xe had given the team a tour of the shanty town. Simply called Home by those who lived here, the settlement was home to about two-hundred Hal’Iry off-spring. No off-spring had been born there yet and the smallest natives were three years old. This had given them a rough date on the massacre. 

As they had toured the place, Vale had realized that there was more material here then could have possibly been salvaged from the quarry and the rooms surrounding it. He was also suspicious about the timing of the pirate attack. It was too neat, too lucky. As soon as the tour was done, he shared his hunch with Porter.

“You’re thinking it was a test ?” She began. “But how could they arrange for the pirates to show up ? And if they’re in league with them, why let us kill them ? It just doesn’t make sense.” 

“I don’t have all the answers. Just keep your eyes open.”

“You…” 

That was as far as she got before one of the locals came running past. Xe was further down the street, talking to T’Zalo and G’Yal. The other local said something to Xe and the two of them ran off. Vale nodded and the team followed them. Xe and her companion had run into the largest structure in the shanty town. It was the closest thing the place had to City Hall. There were several rooms inside, with the one where they found Xe appearing to be a tactical headquarters.

There was a control panel that was tied into the sensors and the proximity alarm that Xe had mentioned. But what was more interesting, was the presence of what was clearly a beacon-slash-transmitter. ~So, it WAS at test. And that is how they got the pirates here when they needed them. They send a burst, which got the pirates’ attention.~ He gave Porter a look, then looked at the display. It reminded Vale of a radar screen. And that radar screen showed a pair of dots approaching the planet. 

“More pirates ?”

“No,” Xe began. “Pirates have to scrape together their components, so their ships are never that big.” 

“Great, looks like we’re about get some Navy visitors.”

The ships had probably been on the hunt for the pirates when they had been lured to the planet by the burst. ~This is going to be nasty.~ He looked at Xe and saw that she knew what this meant. They were in for a much tougher fight…