Chapter 14: Getting From Here To There.
"Pity you folks are leaving already," Ron said. "But thanks again for the supplies."
"We may be back sometime," Mike said. "And if all goes well, we may have a pleasant surprise for you. Good luck, Ron."
"You too. Good flying."
With that, the four of them climbed into their ships and set off away from planet Hamilton. They hadn't gotten far before a squadron of Barracudas began heading toward them. Jake was immediately on the comm asking for backup before they even got in range.
"Eight Barracudas approaching from the east side of the planet," Mike said over the comm. "Can't outrun them, Jake's tub is too slow. We'll have to fight."
Their backup arrived shortly before the enemy did as several small guerilla fighters joined them in orbit. She immediately recognized them as flying Griffons. Kalli broke formation and buzzed in toward the Military ships, maneuvering to avoid hit by too many of their energy blasts. Firing her weapons at them, she flew around the larger ships, making herself a nuisance and a distraction as Mike's violet energy bursts ripped into their shields.
One of the Barracudas' shields fell. Kalli moved in and focused on taking out his weapons. To her right, there was an explosion as one of the guerilla ships blew up. Kalli pressed her advantage fiercely and penetrated the hull of the ship she was fighting. Within moments, it too was torn apart. Bits of debris pelleted her shields.
"Die, Military bastards!" growled one of the guerillas over the comm.
Purple streaked across her screen. There was another explosion, but she didn't look to see whether it was a Military ship or a guerilla that had been destroyed. Kalli focused on circling another Barracuda, firing intently at it. She was being shot at, but her shields held, and most of them managed to miss. With the assistance of the guerillas' Griffons, her target's shields flickered out of existence. Several seconds of steady firing later, that one turned into a short-lived ball of flame as well.
"Bloody Death Dancers," snarled one of the Military pilots. "Break off! They're too tough."
The Barracudas began to retreat, turning and flying back the direction they came from, but continued to take heavy fire from Mike and the guerillas. Another was destroyed in a flash of purple light before they could even get very far.
"Bear on them," said a guerilla. "Don't let them escape."
One of the guerillas was fairly badly damaged and flew down to land on the surface. Kalli bore down on the escaping Military ships, aiming for their engines. The Barracudas were slower and could not really hope to escape this way. They must be hoping for backup, she thought. Her shots struck true. The shields fell, and the ship was torn apart. To her left, she saw another explosion, followed by another shortly after that.
"That's all of them," said one of the guerillas. "Now get out of here before more show up. Good luck."
"Thanks for the assist, guys," Mike said as they turned and headed for the debris field.
"No, thank you. It's always worth it to blow some Military bastards. Farewell."
They made it to the debris field without further incident. "Next stop," Jake said, "Gaytopia."
"Naturally," Mike said dryly.
They entered the jump hole, navigated the volatile gas clouds of New Scotland, and arrived in Gaytopia again. There they ate, rested up, and probably stayed for some other diversions as well of different sorts.
"Do you really think this idea will work?" Jake asked as they loaded the cargo onto his freighter on planet Gaytopia.
"Possibly," Talia said.
"Fine, fine," Jake said. "Alright, from here we go to Darwin and drop Kalli off. I sure hope you can pull this off, babe. From there, we'll head on to the fringe worlds."
"Kalli," Mike said. "If you succeed, I want you to meet us at Dracula Base in the Transylvania system. It should be on your map there."
Kalli nodded. "Alright."
"We all set?" Talia asked.
"That's the last crate," Jake answered. "Let's go, then."
They departed from Gaytopia and made their way to the jump hole to the Darwin system. Kalli again wondered if she really could pull this off. No, how she could pull this off. She had to get in there somehow, but the thing had to be finished and ready to fly before she could really hope to make off with it. That might require hanging around a bit and avoiding being detected somehow. She thought she knew just the plan. Maybe. If she somehow got in as one of the guards or something at the facility, perhaps. That just might work. Maybe.
They landed on planet Darwin again, this time at the Glyphan facility. "Do please give us time to be off the planet before trying anything, Kalli," Talia said. "Just in case?"
Kalli said. "I did a high-altitude scan of the facility on the way in. It's still ways from completion. I'll need to wait for it to be complete before I can make off with it, so no worries there."
"Okay," Talia said. "The rest of us will need to get to the Rath system and see how close this transport is to being sent off. We'll be leaving first thing in the morning."
After a delicious dinner, Mike came up to Kalli's room. "Hey," he said. She looked up from her data pad and gave him a faint smile. "Hard at work already?"
"Analyzing my scans of the complex," Kalli said.
Mike sat down and rested his chin on his hands. "You've never done anything like this before."
"Nope. Never let that stop me before, heh." Kalli peered at the data. "I'd wondered why they were building it outside like that. But they don't have anyplace large enough to have held it at this facility."
Mike leaned over and spontaneously kissed her on the lips. Kalli was startled and blinked. "No?" he asked.
Kalli smiled softly. "Yes."
They didn't really get much sleep that night.