Angels of Eternity Read online

  She popped open a panel on her vambrace and punched in a command. The doors on the warbride side opened to reveal the hatch of the pirate ship. There was no way to see what lay beyond.

  “Bravi?” Shakti asked and the tiny woman ran up and planted the charge.

  “All ready,” she told the others after she stood back from the mine attached to the hatch.

  “Everybody grab something," Shakti ordered.

  All the warbrides found a handhold to latch onto. Bravi grabbed hers while holding the detonator.

  “Blow it open!”

  There was another thud and the flash of an explosion as the shaped charge sent a shock wave inside both ships. The smoke cleared and they could see an opening into the pirate ship.

  As expected, it was a long corridor with few lights inside that provided barely enough illumination to see beyond the smoke. It was clearing on their side. The warbrides released their grips and lowered their weapons as they faced whatever waited on the other side of the blown hatch. Sharp metal and shrapnel littered the opening between the two ships, but it was wide enough for them to step through without any problems.

  “Give me a column of two!” Shakti ordered. The warbrides stepped into their assigned spaces with the shields up front and the halberds behind. Shakti and Durga stood next to them, ready to order the charge. In the distance, they could see movement, but they had no idea what they would face once inside it. There was only one way to discover what it was.

  “Charge!” Shakti yelled and the warbrides ran across the connection into the corridor.

  The first two warbrides, Salina and Lashmi, slammed into a disorganized wall of pirates as they hurled themselves forward.

  The pirates wore body armor, but it was of inferior quality, since they tended to obtain them from whomever they killed. Most didn’t fit that well. Likewise, they held weapons, but few of them were skilled in what they carried. Most pirates were versed in the art of quick raids. They had no experience against trained opponents.

  As practiced, the warbrides pushed the pirates out of the way, back into the mob that flooded from the pirate side of the corridor and continued until they reached the back of it. The two women in front turned and began chopping at everything in their path. They turned and worked their way back the front of the gaggle of pirates.

  Shakti estimated forty pirates on the other side, which was plenty for them to harvest. The corridor sprayed red as the warbrides sent blood everywhere. The pirate’s armor was no match for the weapons wielded by the warbrides and soon their disorganized mob was in full retreat back down the corridor.

  Shakti saw a man in tattered suit armor run at her with a knife in one hand. He wore no helmet. She severed his head in one sweep of her sword. The body continued to fling itself forward as the head bounced off the wall.

  She turned and saw Dharma aim her crossbow and fire as another pirate brought up a knife to the fight. The arrow pinned him into yet another pirate and both went down. In seconds, they were in control of the corridor and stepping over fallen bodies.

  “Watch where you walk,” Shakti warned them. “You slip on a body, it can be fatal. We don’t want to lose anyone on our side. You saw how many they were willing to toss at us, I have no idea how many more are inside this thing.”

  They advanced at a slower pace, but encountered no more resistance. The corridor was a mess, from what they could tell, with trash thrown all over the place. She was glad they had their helmets on as Shakti could only imagine how foul the air smelled on the inside. Kicking the last of the fallen bodies out of the way, the warbrides made their way forward down the corridor and deeper into the pirate ship.

  They saw the occasional movement, but so far, there was no more organized opposition to them. The warbrides explored the tunnels and corridors inside the pirate ship to get some idea of how it was constructed. It maximized the amount of space inside. They were unable to use any kind of map or diagram as the ship was pieced together out of multiple units bought or stolen from salvage yards all over the empire.

  “We need to cover more room in this ship if we are going to clean it out of the pirates,” Shakti told Durga. “I want you to take Lashmi and Bravi and go find the control deck in this place. There has to be one here someplace.”

  “Do we meet up anywhere specific?” Durga asked her. “This ship is a maze of rigging and corridors. I have no idea where I’m headed.”

  “We can stay in touch over our radio,” Shakti told her. “Let me know if you run into any trouble, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to do much. Watch out for any zero-g areas because you know they will be all over this place. We’re inside a spin wheel, but it has to rotate around a common axis and that is probably where you’ll find the control room.”

  Durga left with her two warbrides and moved to the right at the first junction they reached in the main corridor. Shakti took the main party to the left and followed her intuition. They had no clue as to what they were inside, but the place didn’t improve in cleanliness as they went further down the tunnels. Most of the ship was decorated with graffiti and crude drawings. The pirates had a strange sense of humor not shared by anyone else.

  “I think we need to investigate these rooms off to the side,” Shakti informed her warbrides as they found some junctions in the corridor. While one woman kicked open a door, three ran inside. There wasn’t much to see. Personal quarters of the pirates with plenty of garbage lying about and the usual erotic drawings pinned to the wall.

  Fifteen minutes later, they encountered their first resistance since the hatch was blown. Shakti’s group was moving down a hallway, headed for what appeared to be some kind of terminal point, when they noticed a pile of junk blocking the way. The pirates had stuffed every kind of bedding, chairs, or desks they could find in the corridor to halt their advance.

  “Looks to be a real problem,” Chimata said to Shakti. “Too bad Bravi is with Durga right now. We sure could use her demolition material to blow this thing open.”

  Shakti stood in place and watched the barricade begin to move. “I don’t think we’ll need it,” she told her. “It’s going to pop soon enough. Prepare to engage! Give me a row!”

  The warbrides fanned out in front of her and brought their weapons up, ready to use them as soon as Shakti called out a command. Shakti waited in place and watched the barricade tremble and a cabinet fall off the top of the pile. It was going to be soon.

  The barricade flew apart, junk spilling everywhere, as the pirate horde ran through it. They’d used the barricade to buy time and bring up everyone they had behind it, the warbrides would later find out. Suddenly the barricade was gone and thirty screaming pirates ran at them with their sabers held high.

  Of course, this was just what the warbrides wanted them to do.

  The first wave of pirates hit the low shields and smashed flat against them. The warbrides retaliated by swinging blades in huge arcs across their shields to connect with the pirates, who were unarmored and unsuited. They had courage, but no organization. The pirates scattered as soon as they ran into the blades of the warbrides. They fell back, as least those who survived.

  Shakti turned and saw Salina go down with a javelin to her chest. Before she could say a thing, Chimata sent an arrow from her crossbow in return to the pirate who tossed it. She saw a man in flowing robes fall down and not move after the arrow went right through his head.

  Shakti had the women form a cup and slowly engulf the pirates who didn’t flee. They slowly advanced up the corridor and allowed several of the pirates to attack. The pirates fell into the cup where sharp blades on all sides sliced down at them, chopping them to pieces as they fell to the floor. The other pirates saw what happened and began to move back. They vanished down the corridor.

  “We lost Salina,” Shakti heard Tara. “Javelin went right through a joint on her suit armor. I told her to keep that shield up.”

  There was no time to mourn and they pursued the pirates further into the ship.
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  “Do we have any idea how many pirates are on this ship?” Durga asked Shakti as the continued down the maze of corridors. They kept track of where they had been. It appeared the warbrides were making progress toward the command center of the pirate ship.

  “We have no idea,” Shakti replied. “Based on what we’ve seen so far, I think around sixty or more. But there could be a whole army of them waiting around the next corner.” She was looking both ways down the latest corridor.

  “They don’t seem to know much about tactics,” Lashmi transmitted to her cowives. “They share that with the wasps.”

  “Or strategy,” Kamala agreed. “You think they would’ve planned that last assault out better.”

  “I don’t think they have to deal with seasoned troops that often,” Shakti commented. “Consider this, most of the people they raid are merchants and settlers. I don’t think they encounter much resistance. They were surprised we beat them badly. My guess it they’re rethinking what they did and plan to counter attack. So be ready.”

  The corridor they were inside had no doors on the walls. Shakti had them take one to the left as she felt it led to the center of the pirate ship. The gravity simulation changed as they traveled lower down the spinning wheel, which meant they were getting closer. Most interstellar ships of any type had a command center in the middle that did not rotate and worked in freefall. If they took the command center, the rest of the ship would be under their control.

  So far, the pirates had not risked a decompression of the ship by the use of projectile weapons. She didn’t think they would resort to them, as they weren’t fighting in suit armor. If the hull of the ship were breached, they would be the ones in danger of exploding from the rapid drain of air. So far, the suit armor was performing just as it was supposed to and they didn’t need to worry. Shakti glanced at the vitals of the other warbrides and saw everything normal, other than heightened levels of stress. The difference was Salina, whose vitals were in the red. She’d been left behind with the corpses of the pirates, but they would pick her up on the way out.

  “I think I see some movement ahead,” Durga informed her as they passed through a larger room filled with crates. This had to be the booty the pirates looted from their victims. It would be sent back to Terra as a gift for their emperor husband when this was all over.

  By Shakti’s calculations, they were very close to the entrance of the command center. The dim light of the lamps, which illuminated the corridor, cast shadows on everything as they approached a sealed door. There was no writing on it and the door didn’t appear locked. But there were alcoves off to the side of it.

  “Check the left alcove,” Durga said to the warbrides. “I saw something move inside it. I think they may be trying to rally.”

  From both alcoves, a swarm of men exploded at them into the corridor. The passage was filled with a riot of beards, earrings and blades as the pirates charged and swarmed down the corridor. The warbrides snapped into life and brought up their blades as the pirates ran directly at them.

  And, once again, the pirates lacked anything but basic armor.

  “Prepare for counter charge,” Shakti ordered her women. She watched the shields raise and the range weapons move to the back. The crossbow was notched and ready.

  Two seconds before the pirates hit them, Shakti called the counter charge. The force of the pirates broke on the shields of the warbrides as the women dropped their shoulders and ploughed low into the men who were much taller than they were. However, the combined force of the shields striking low to the pirates sent them scattering across the corridor.

  Chimata unleashed her first arrow and sent it right through the eye of the pirate who led the charge and watched him fall to the ground dead. She notched another one and sent it to a large pirate who was hacking at Kamala with a sword. He never sliced through her armor and went down, still holding his cutlass.

  Before the pirates could regroup, the warbrides went to work chopping and stabbing at everything that moved on the other side of the shields. The halberds behind them fell and rose again, each time a pirate dead or driven back. In a matter of minutes, the pirates realized they were out maneuvered as the warbrides pulled back into a cup formation and continued to slaughter everything in their range. The pirates outnumbered them threefold, but the skill level favored the warbrides who used every advantage they had. The last pirates went down with an arrow through him spraying blood across the passage.

  Kamala reared back with her halberd to deliver the final blow. “Let him be,” Shakti ordered. “He’s out and won’t last much longer with that wound. Save your energy for what we may encounter beyond the hatch.” Through her helmet, Shakti could see Kamala frown, drop her ax and kick the dying pirate out of the way.

  The hatch lay directly in front of them.

  “This is what they were defending,” Shakti pointed out to her cowives. “I’m guessing the command center is beyond it.” She put her hand on the hatch and turned the wheel, which sealed it. It was too late to check and see if it was rigged with a bomb. The hatch opened with no resistance.

  “Let’s see what’s inside they were dying to defend,” Shakti said as she stepped inside the room before her. She had a good idea what to find.

  The pirates had not built their command center to take advantage of the absence of gravity; they had incorporated it into the turning wheel of the main part of the ship. Although the floor curved up in front of her, they could still walk and not have to grab handholds to move around it.

  It was definitely the command center of the pirate ship. Screens and panels lined it, but so did more crates and containers. The pirates were practical; they put all their loot in the most secure place in the ship. Shakti motioned for the rest of the warbrides to join her as she entered the command center and looked around. Her helmet display told her the atmosphere was normal, but she didn’t want to risk anything by removing it.

  Kamala went to one of the crates and looked at it. It was marked by a tally symbol and ownership mark of whoever claimed it. Once pirates divided up the loot, no one was supposed to covet any other man’s spoils.

  “Think it’s okay to have a look inside it?” she asked Shakti.

  Shakti turned to see the stocky woman in her suit walking around the crate. Kamala still held her halberd. The crate was sealed and there were ways to find out what it contained, but most of the tools to do it were on the corvette.

  “Is the lid loose?” she asked Kamala. Kamala turned and nodded with her helm.

  “Let’s have a look,” she told her, her boots pounding on the floor as she walked over to the other woman. The rest of the warbrides were exploring the command center.

  The crate contained all kinds of golden bracelets and gemstone plates. They were of similar design, which pointed to a common origin. This was the loot from one of their raids and it was a profitable raid until just now. The yellow metal sent reflection of gold into the rest of the room.

  “It will be sent out with the rest of the booty we recover,” Shakti informed her. “Let our husband decided what to do with it.”

  “As if he doesn’t have enough…” Tara commented through her audio.

  Suddenly a face formed in the middle of the room. Shakti grabbed her sword, but realized it was a holographic image from somewhere in the ship. Apparently, not all the pirates died when trying to defend the control room. She watched it focus into the form of a bald headed man with one gold earring and a smile. He was missing plenty of teeth and the rest looked ready for removal.

  “Congratulations, War Whores,” the face said to them. “I give your husband credit in finding some women who can do more than lay on their back. You do your former profession a great disservice. Instead of providing my men with some amusement and tension relief, you have killed them. But you don’t have all of us. We are in the propulsion system. We look forward to you and your tender ministrations. Come down here and meet us if you really want to see what a real man can give you
.” The image faded.

  Chapter 9

  Kamala slammed her halberd against the wall in anger. “Let’s go!” she demanded. “I want to get this one personally. Bastard thinks he can talk to us this way. We just wiped out his best. Let me go cut off…”

  “No,” Shakti ordered. “He wants us to do that. He wants us to get so mad we’ll lose control. We can’t allow him that pleasure. I want to kill him as bad as any of the rest of you, but dammed if we’ll fall into his trap.”

  “What do we do?” Bravi asked. “Just sit here and wait for them to come after us?”

  “We control the ship through this command center,” Shakti told her. “They are in the propulsion unit and can do some damage, but they won’t have the ship under their control. All we have to do is pull back and scuttle it with them in it. Our corvette is operational. Chimata, can you figure out how this thing functions?”

  “Got it up and running right now,” the small, refined woman said to her from the side of the room.

  She stood over a panel of screens and control units as her gloved hands punched out a sequence. “I guess when you live by terror you don’t worry much about security. Everything in this command center is under our control. I’ve located where they are in the propulsion center. They weren’t making that boast up. They’re down there, but I only see about twelve of them. From what I can tell, it’s all that remains. You want me to shut down the hatches to that part of the ship and drain the air? I can put the image up in front of us and we can watch them burst.”

  “As much as I might like to do that,” Shakti said, “we will not descend to their level of scum. We’ll go down there and clean them out. We don’t know if all of them are with this pirate captain because they wanted to join up or were forced into service. I detected a lack of enthusiasm during their last charge.”

  “Before or after we cut them to pieces?” Dharma asked, as she held her crossbow ready. “They lost their will to fight once we chopped them up. I think the last one I shot still had plenty of life in him.”