Sigil of the Wolf - 27. Chapter 27

R-403 - Ordinance Depot A-IX, Amsus Hegemony

Lauren gaped up at the massive creature looming over her. It was easily a good three feet taller than she was, and was built like a line backer. There were times to fight and then there were times to get the hell out of the way. Lauren chose the latter.

She threw herself to the right, feeling the massive hand catch her by the back of her jacket and snap her back, Lauren dangling a foot off the ground, kicking helplessly as the bristled creature snarled, pulling her close to his fanged jaws.

"Put her down, Professor!" Another man called, setting a foot on the back ramp, rain pouring off of the Raptor's tail and soaking him to the skin.

"Do as he says!" Nazzien commanded, the Orion sliver gun cocked and braced across the Orion's arm as he sighted along the barrel at what he felt would be a particularly tender part of the creature's anatomy.

The creature considered it a moment as Lauren swung in his grip, before he un-ceremoniously dumped her to the deck.

She picked herself up, pulling her clothes back into some semblance of order as she nodded for Nazzien to keep the huge creature covered. She bent and recovered her automatic, removing the safety as she looked down at the man still waiting patiently at the foot of the ramp.

Late fifties, white hair, a faint hint of stubble, and dressed in a dark red leather uniform tunic, an Imperial General's star on the mandarin collar.

The man appeared to be doing his own inspection, his brown eyes creasing a little as he stared at the striking falcons on Lauren's arm and the gold leaves at her collar.

"Commander?" The 'General' shook his head, "I was expecting someone..."

"More masculine?" Lauren asked, frowning again at the large creature still looming over her.

"I was going to say taller," the General quipped, "I would ask you what you're doing flying an Amsus Raptor, but that's kind of a moot point considering that landing..."

A TER-SEC officer came into sight, drenched as well by the torrential rain. "General Riley, sir, we have troopers moving up the road..."

Riley licked his lips thoughtfully, hefting his Imperial pulse rifle to his hip and checking his magazine. "Can this thing fly?" He asked, lifting his eyebrows questioningly.

Lauren shook her head. "No, they clipped us when we dropped a Commando squad over at the command bunker. It's going to take some time to get her airborne... General?"

Riley reached up and touched his insignia, smiling. "I'll explain later," he ducked his head and peered into the rain, "If there is a later, hey," he turned back, "You hiding any more of those Commandos in there?"

Lauren shook her head, coming down the ramp to see for herself. There really wasn't much choice; either they stayed by the ship and tried to make their stand there, or they tried to get airborne. With only the one way out of the schoolyard, running wasn't much of an option.

A bullet ricocheted off of the armour plating as both of them ducked instinctively, Riley's rifle snapping up to return fire. "Damn," he murmured.

"I'll get us up," Lauren remarked, making a snap decision, jogging back up the ramp, again passing the great creature still covered by Nazzien.

Lauren didn't have time to deal with it. She ran to the gangway, pounding up the stairs as Firlotte slid down the ladder from the upper engine space, running with a toolbox. He drew up, seeing the Commander's look of desperation.

"What is it?" He asked nervously, "What's wrong?"

"Amsus," Lauren replied quickly, turning as she unlatched the storage locker and pulled out a red utility vest that she traded for her uniform jacket, snapping the black plastic buckles closed. She grabbed a spare magazine from the locker, and switched her automatic for Darien's PKD, thankful that Darien was anal retentive enough to always leave it on hand.

"That won't work," Firlotte said, indicating the weapon with his spanner, "the electromagnetic storm is interfering with our technology..."

Lauren paused, staring at the young man, "What do you mean the PKDs don't work?" She asked, incredulous that no one had thought of it before they had began the attack. Her mind span, all it would take was one Inquisitor... Marty... she ran towards the cockpit.

Firlotte looked timid as he followed Lauren forward towards the cockpit, staring as the Commander began to hit switches to fire up the engines. "What are you doing, we're not..."

"Damn," Lauren muttered as she looked about her trying to think. They needed to get airborne and they needed to get to the command centre quickly, but if the ship wasn't operating... what would Darien do?

Then an idea hit her. "This is an Amsus ship, that means a triple engine system: jet turbines for atmospheric use, an ion drive for spatial, and a hyperdrive." She glanced over the ships systems; sure enough, the ion drive still held a full charge, unaffected by the damage done to the rest of the ship. "The ion drives, will they work?"

Firlotte nodded. "Yeah," he got to his feet, "Solid state reaction drives, the Raptor is rated for Mach Five in an atmosphere, but he's not designed for ballistic thrust, it's like firing a solid-state booster and praying... You're not seriously thinking about taking us up with just that..."

Lauren gave the techie a short nod. "We have no choice. As long as we don't try to enter the storm clouds, we should be okay." She clambered into the pilot's chair. "Strap yourself in..."

Firlotte shook his head. "If you are gonna try this, you are gonna need me in the engineering crawlspace monitoring the ion drive...with the interference, you are going to have no instruments to monitor any problems, and if something goes wrong this ship will become the biggest firecracker on the planet."

* * *

Gunfire drove the General back up into the body of the Raptor. "A little help?" He called, looking behind him.

Nazzien eyed the creature before him, shaking his head as he hurried past it, dropping to a knee and firing his deadly weapon with a singular precision that felled two of the Amsus troopers as they tried to charge through the far gates and into the car park.

Riley's eyes widened at the Orion's accuracy. "Wow," he murmured. The rest of the Amsus fire team trying to enter was similarly dispatched as the pair began to co-ordinate their fire with the rest of Riley's men. "How are you for ammunition?" Riley asked desperately.

Nazzien shook his head. "They hit our magazine..." he nodded at the shattered area of the cargo bay.

"Damn," Riley cursed again, "this just isn't my day," He slapped in his last clip.

"We can't hold them off like this," Nazzien replied, shaking his head.

"No kidding," Riley replied, trying to think, "If you cover me, I can probably make it to that play equipment." He tilted his head and motioned to the heavy wooden play structure, "Set up a crossfire."

Nazzien nodded down to one of the fallen TER-SEC officers with a captured Amsus assault rifle a few feet from his outstretched hand. "Cover me and I'll go for that."

"Do you no good without the ammunition bag," Riley replied, looking to where Nazzien was gesturing.

"No, but if I go for the rifle, I can cover you going for the ammunition." Nazzien pointed out.

Riley was already up and moving down the ramp again, pouring on concentrated fire towards the gate, as behind him the Orion sprinted for the rifle, rolling across the wet tarmac as he came up with his prize, praying there were enough rounds left in it so that he could do the same for the General.

He felt the heavy Amsus weapon buck in his hand as the staccato gunfire shattered the brick and mortar around the gate as the General grabbed for the TER-SEC officer and dragged the body with him to the play structure. Nazzien ducked around it a moment later.

The General tossed his empty pulse rifle away and accepted the sliver gun Nazzien handed to him.

"You know," Riley commented, swinging about to take a shot and pulling back again, pressing back against the solid wood as he felt the Amsus bullets slamming into it, "It's going to be a pleasure dying with you, Lieutenant."

Nazzien nodded, rising up, using the structure for cover as he shot another trooper. "Buy me a drink when we get out of here."

* * *

Lauren began a quick pre-flight, ignoring the pattern of red that lit up the engineering board. She stared out at the circle of Amsus troopers closing on them. There was no way to radio for help, they were pretty much on their own and they were desperate for a way out.

The rustle at the back of the cockpit caused the commander to turn her head, and jump as the large creature squeezed down the corridor towards her. "Where're the others?" She asked, checking the red and wincing at it.

"Outside," the creature said, rumbling the words. "You need help." The creature observed.

Lauren glanced out of the rain-splattered window, just catching sight of the two figures crouched down shooting towards the gate. What the hell were they doing? There was no way for them to reach the Raptor from that distance, and swinging the ship around to pick them up wasn't an option on the ion drives. She glanced at the useless gunnery console, cursing as she got out of her seat.

"Is that an offer?" she asked, looking into the professor's eyes.

"What you need?" The Professor said, knowing that he was stuck on that ship now, that his life depended on the small human in front of him.

Lauren smiled as an idea suddenly surfaced. "Professor, have you ever flown a ship in an atmosphere?"

The large creature paused. "I think I can fly ship."

Lauren nodded and pointed to the pilot's chair. "We need to take off, circle around and give them some cover fire."

"I'll need to examine your cockpit," The large creature rumbled, already pushing past the Commander.

"Thanks," Lauren said, "Keep us low, and hold on tight," she called, already sprinting back towards the cargo hold. Taking the gangway stairs two at a time, she heard the whine of the Raptor's ion engines powering up. She didn't have much time.

She flipped through shattered crates and boxes in the armoury, thankful that Nazzien had never been one to put anything away properly as she pulled out a case; the surface was twisted and melted, but otherwise was mostly intact. She needed a weapon that worked regardless of the conditions.

She'd received instruction on the weapon system when they had captured a shipment aboard a Pirate Baron's ship the year before. They were used as a means of political assassination back in the early months of the Empire and they'd all become intimately familiar with the specialty Amsus VLR-01.

She pulled the damaged case back towards her, as she looked up again and out into the rain at the fierce firefight. She didn't have time for niceties; the VLR-01 would suit her just fine.

* * *

Back in the cockpit Professor Zahn stared at the strange controls for the Raptor, so small and dainty. He huffed a tight breath in frustration as discordant noises rang around the cockpit as he tried to lean over the seat to reach the tiny controls.

He wrapped a long finger around the stick and mashed a grouping of activation switches with an oversized finger...

The pilot's chair ground into his chest, and in a burst of anger he tore it from its mounting and tossed it back, crashing into the sensor console, the chair crumpling the delicate panel and sending up a shower of sparks.

"I suggest you strap yourselves in," he growled back along the corridor, "The ship appears to be falling apart, your chair just broke."

If the Professor was reading the readouts right, the main engines of the vessel were powering up, but the secondary engines were offline. That would make piloting difficult; the Professor mentally reviewed the physics behind what they expected of him.

"Silly..." He rumbled again, his huge finger flicking across several buttons, bringing the thrusters first to a vertical position and then to an inclined backward.

"Commencing lift-off procedures."

The engines buzzed to life, fuel propellant building up pressure in the ion drive.

With his fingers pinching the stick, he watched the gauges beside him, again thinking that humanity, as a whole, was thoroughly insane... He glanced about him, looking for something he could hold on to as he flicked the control that would cut the engines loose.

The ship kicked forwards and up, releasing all of its thrust, propelling it forward as Zahn slammed backward into the cockpit and swore about lack of appropriate seating.

He wondered if he should tell the annoying human with the leaves on her collar that the extent of his piloting lessons involved an aerodynamics course in university and a cursory tour of a cockpit given by an overeager Orion trader trying to convince him to purchase a pleasure shuttle.

Well the flying part was easy... it was the landings...

* * *

The deck of the Raptor heaved as it ploughed skywards. The Commander grabbed the flat case by the handle and struggled across the cargo bay of the vibrating ship. It was like being aboard the deck of an old sea-going vessel; it heaved and bucked beneath her. She stopped a second to recover a harness from the locker, bracing herself against a bulkhead as the ship dipped as she pulled the gloves on with her teeth and started back again. She shrugged on the harness moments before the ship rolled in a tight manoeuvre sending her sprawling, the case sliding along the deck and rattling across the deck of the main bay.

* * *

Up in the cockpit the stick fought Zahn's fingers, but the massive Professor held it steady, gripping it between his fingers, feeling the rocking and gyrating ship about him and he fighting the urge to be ill.

Another flick of the thrusters reoriented the ship and forced it level as the ship shot upwards, rocketing with a flaming contrail boiling behind it, as the G-forces pulled him back.

Anything not bolted down on the ship shook free and rained down to the deck.

He eased up the acceleration, jerking the stick to the left just in time to avoid hitting a building that lunged out of the rain haze.

"Can we return fire?" He shouted, enjoying himself for the first time since he had surprised his students with an ancient Orion navigation lesson.

Firlotte, climbing along the pitching corridor, hauling himself into the rear engineering chair, bellowed back at him over the din of the engines. "No... no weapons..."

Zahn leaned back on the stick and brought the ship into a steep climb, skimming along rooftops, bullets slamming into the brickwork and glass as Amsus troopers took pot shots at the ship, chips showering against the cockpit's front window.

"Everything is a weapon!" Zahn snarled back.

* * *

She stood up, sliding down the rail to catch the case and heaved it close to her as she knelt. She had to get the weapon assembled; she struggled to push her hair, whipping madly from the wind, away from her face as she fumbled for the clasps as she wrapped an arm through a cargo webbing to keep herself steady. The weapon was disassembled in the case; she cursed, pulling the stock and grip free, switching it to her other hand as she tried to reach the barrel. She wrestled to slot them together with a sharp twist.

She mated the stock to the receiver assembly. She didn't have time... She held the receiver by the front hand guard and gently slipped the barrel into the stock and rotated the stock down onto the 'legs' of the receiver using an arcing movement.

She fumbled to cock the hammer, nearly losing the whole thing as the ship shivered and bucked again. Taking a deep breath, she pulled down on the trigger guard until the hammer snapped into position; she then simply dropped it into the stock.

Visibility was nil. There was howling wind and rain, and arcing blue white flares of power leaping from building to building and from ground to cloud cover.

The miniaturised jump computer went in next, the thumb control snapping into the pistol grip of the weapon.

Lauren watched in horror as the case slid away from her, the weapons magazine and targeting reticule still inside, rattling down the ramp to wedge on one of the pistons. She made a desperate grab for it as the ship power-climbed. She felt the webbing slip from her grip as she slammed into the rear hatch of the Raptor, bouncing down towards the edge, the harness cable snapping taut as the rifle spun from her grip, the sling grazing her fingers as she snapped her hand closed on instinct.

She trailed behind the Raptor, her eyes wide at the billboard sign with Denver's grinning face swept towards her... The Raptor swept up to avoid it, Lauren feeling her feet graze the top of Denver's head as she was catapulted up by the wire, the emergency winch engaging to pull her up and back inside.

She landed on the edge of the ramp, clutching the rifle close to her chest as she offered up a quick prayer to the god that had watched over her. Wrenching the jammed case free, she grabbed the magazine and slammed it home into the rifle, pulling the targeting goggles on.

"Hold her steady!" She bellowed, knowing there was no way they could hear her above all the noise.

It didn't matter; one thing the Amsus could build and build well was a weapon. The VLR-01 was more than a ballistic weapon, it was the first weapon to ever employ a hyperdrive system. The specially-designed cartridges were little more than small one-use jump pods housed within a titanium shell casing. It didn't matter where she pointed the weapon, someone would die. She just needed a visual lock on a target, feeding exact co-ordinates to the jump computer.

Unlike interplanetary travel where visual data was impossible to obtain and the exit point was random within a five hundred mile radius, a short-range jump with direct data was accurate to the precision of a couple of millimetres. It was a weapon designed to be fired from the back of fast-moving, airborne vehicles. She pulled the sling around her, ensuring that she wouldn't drop it again.

The Raptor's thrust slowed as the ion drive shut off, the winged vessel curling up and back as it skimmed the underside of the black clouds, falling back into a hammerhead dive and plunging to the ground.

Tumbling slightly in the air, the ship did a slow back flip.

She slammed across the deck, impacting against the steps; she found herself entangled in the cargo webbing upside down.

The Raptor swooped out of his dive; the ion engines spluttered back to life as the vertical thrusters kicked in to pull the nose up. Lauren was feeling sick from the rapid shifts in motion, her hand grabbed the stock of the rifle...

She fought to get free, lifting the stock of the rifle as she crashed to the deck, feeling yet more bruises and welts from the ordeal.

The Amsus advancing on the two lone warriors pinned down in the schoolyard scattered and fled to avoid the burning rush of plasma fire spewing from the overheating engines.

Lauren struggled to get free of the webbing and sprinted back to the rear ramp of the Raptor, praying as she felt the rush of air tugging at her as she looped his leg through the webbing and knelt again, bringing the weapon up to her shoulder and sighted in using the digital targeting goggles.

She breathed, steadying herself as she zeroed in, the first shot barking out, accelerating into hyperspace as the miniaturized jump drive engaged around the titanium projectile and sent it screaming to impact with the Amsus officer leading the troopers.

He collapsed in front of his troops.

There was a moment of shock, as the Amsus hesitated.

Another died in that hesitation.

The Raptor roared overhead in the raging storm of wind and rain, a dark avenging angel of death, and Lauren was its sword.

She braced herself, reaching out a hand to take a hold of the winch, giving herself some more slack. She felt the rain whipped up by the wind stinging her face as she walked out onto the ramp; feeling the wire go taunt, she leaned then on the sloped ramp. She adjusted her grip on the VLR-01 feeling the wind lash about her, but remaining focused, ready for the next round of manoeuvres.

She trained the rifle again.

* * *

Riley watched the Amsus officer's head explode, looking up at the roaring Raptor screaming overhead, the dark figure on the open back ramp holding onto a long barrelled rifle.

"That's insane!" Riley murmured, looking down at the empty sliver gun in his hands. "How the hell is she managing... A head shot with that accuracy out of the back of a hovering ill-repaired ship. That's an impossible shot!"

"VLR," Nazzien commented, assessing the odd angles at which the shots were hitting, pulling his head down before the Amsus could blow it off, "Special gun..."

"Right, the 'special' kind of special, gotcha." Riley beamed, waggling his eyebrows as the Orion popped his head up and fired their last few rounds. The Assault rifle expended its last bullet, and Nazzien got back down.

"You missed?" Riley said, checking the number of Amsus advancing on them, "Our last rounds and you miss?"

The Orion flashed him a disgruntled look, "I do miss from time to time," he grumbled.

Riley looked up at the Raptor as another Amsus dropped, "I think the pressure of being upstaged by a woman is getting to you..."

"Well, there is that," Nazzien commented, looking at his comrade-in-arms as another Amsus dropped, "As good as a VLR is..." he shook his head watching as the last of Riley's men went down under the Amsus gunfire.

"Yeah," Riley nodded in agreement, knowing they were screwed.

* * *

Several lights flashed red and an alarm klaxon went off. Zahn looked around frantically till a flickering, ill functioning monitor blinked from static to clarity, showing a blinking green dot streaking towards the ship.

Back in the hold, Lauren looked up at the streaking curling smoke trail climbing from the top of a building: a missile. She swore again in the most guttural of Orion fashions - how the hell had the Amsus managed to get a hold of a working launcher? Even if the missile had been shielded, its RADAR guidance system wouldn't function with all the ionisation in the atmosphere... unless it was heat-seeking. In which case, they were in trouble.

"Can I assume this warning light is bad?" Zahn attempted to joke, as he yanked the stick to the right and drove the ship into a descending roll, the ship handled like one of the silly games his students played, just on a more complicated scale, he was guessing trying to keep it in the air.

The missile shot past the front of the ship and Zahn looked on with respect as the target-seeking weapon slowly turned around. The pinging sound of the collision alarm began again.

He flicked off the thrust and let the ship start to fall back to earth.

The missile buzzed overhead for a second time.

He growled, his upper lip curling. "Zat's one big cockroach," he snarled, turning his head to follow the missile arching about again.

He fired the engines back on and drove the ship down into a broad boulevard used by the large trucks hauling Raptor parts from the factory, a six lane affair with a large set of trees running down the middle. He guessed that it looked wide enough to fly along. Sparks and bits of paint went flying off into the atmosphere as the wings crashed through street lamps.

Lauren winced at the sound of tortured metal, as she held onto her safety line for dear life. Smoke and debris whipped into a frenzy behind the ship, pulled along by its thrust.

The missile arced up and then came burning down at the ship.

Lauren looked to the left and saw walls speeding past; she looked to the right and saw the same thing. They were stuck heading straight ahead, with the missile sitting squarely behind them, gaining ground.

"Strap yourself down for this one!" Zahn boomed through the ship in a resonate voice that made no pretence of sounding human. If the missile tracked heat, then the only way to stop it was to make sure there was no heat...

Lauren watched the missile streaking ever closer.

"Oh shit!" she said, expressing what they were all thinking.

With a flick of a switch, Zahn killed the ion drive, the Raptor's nose dipping towards the street as his wingtips ground along the road and began grating along the bottom of the boulevard. No major reduction in speed; the missile was still closing on them. Lauren struggled back up into the hold of the ship, as the rear ramp crumpled beneath her feet. There was a tortured sound as it tore free and bounced along the road behind them. She yelled in shock as she fought to keep her balance.

Ping........... Ping...........Ping......Ping.......Ping....Ping...Ping...Ping. Ping.

Zahn turned on the thrusters, activated the air brakes and brought down the ship's landing gear. The tactical computer struggled despite the electromagnetic interference, demanding his attention, flashing Countermeasures in bright gaudy Amsus green. That colour somewhere between swamp grass and John Deere...

His big hand stretched out to reach for the flashing button. He strained to reach it again, letting go of the controls just long enough to slap the button.

The chaff rockets went off springing up from the dorsally mounted launcher. Lauren, sighting in with the rifle, leapt as the roar of the chaff rockets echoed around the cargo bay. A loud crack caused her to shoot wide as she flinched, her gloved hands trying to muffle her ears as the remainder of the rockets fired.

The missile screamed upwards, slamming into the cloud, exploding as it vaporized a large factory building.

The tiny ship was picked up and thrown out of the boulevard, to spin across the sky, Zahn banking the vessel around and lining it up for the playground again. In all his weaving, he'd been working his way back there. Yanking on the stick as the ship turned around, he aimed it towards the wreckage of his car, good a target as any, and he prayed his insurance would cover acts of Zahn... The Raptor hit the ground with a sharp crunch and skidded down amidst the advancing troopers who were closing in on Nazzien and Riley.

Lauren shook the ringing out of her ears, that deep underwater sound that blocked out all the noise about her. She didn't have time to worry as she surged forward, dropping to her knee, again her rifle lifting and swinging about.

In front of the General, one of the troopers surged forward, bringing his rifle butt around like a club, but suddenly spun away as his head separated from his body. A second shot dispatched another assailant engaging Nazzien hand-to-hand.

Lauren fired a few more times, as she leapt down to the concrete, swinging the rifle up to block a blow aimed at her. She swept it low and kicked the legs out from under the trooper. A single round at point blank range ended his challenge.

"We've got to go... move!" She bellowed loudly and pushed Nazzien towards the hold.

General Riley ran for the gaping hole where the rear ramp used to be on the Raptor, turning and tossing with his hip as one of the troopers made a grab for him. The General came up with the trooper's rifle as he twisted about, opening fire as he backed up slowly to board the ship.

Lauren stepped backwards; wrapping her hand around the winch chord, she gave it a stout tug. The winch, feeling the pull, began to wind in, pulling her up into the ships hold.

"Go!" she bellowed back into the ship.