We’re closing in on the endgame of The Hungry Stars now. Originally, this chapter was going to involve the hijinks on Samhain, but events elsewhere grew a bit more from what I’d planned. In this chapter, the survivors on Samhain make their final preparations for their bid to escape and the ruin of Lakhesis is discovered.
But one should always be wary of the dead…
For the full chapter and story check out the links above and enjoy!
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There in front of Oliver’s mind’s eye, was one of the large containers drifting amidst the debris field, its image contrasted with an earlier picture taken by one of the sensor drones. One end of the canister, large enough to hold an atmospheric interceptor and then some, had opened. Caught in the light of Fata Morgana’s star and illuminated by searchlights from the destroyer’s drones, was the canister’s contents. It was a round device with a diameter greater than a grown man was tall and studded with rods like a sea urchin’s spines. Oliver didn’t recognize it at first glance, but the black and yellow hazard warnings clearly communicated what he was looking at. That was an antiship warhead, stripped from its chassis and concealed within the wreckage.
We’re in a minefield.
One last spiteful act from a dead ship. There must have been a laser web between certain pieces of wreckage, like the silken strands of a spider’s web. Akar Saga crossed through one of those beams and triggered a response. “Pull us out,” he said. “Slowly.” The destroyer’s shields were up, but he didn’t want to test them against whatever explosives a ship more than a dozen times its size carried. “Guns,” he continued. “Shooting solutions on all nearby debris. Passive targeting only. Fire on my mark only.”
The minefield didn’t have a control net. It was dumb and largely blind, but almost certainly lethal. Disrupting its comm lasers had activated it, but Penderghast didn’t know what would cause further escalation. Aside from sudden movements, energy spikes or weapons fire, of course. Those guesses weren’t safe bets, but no-brainers.
How many warheads were out here? How many bits of wreckage were hiding deadly surprises? His count went to a minimum of two as the destroyer’s other drone found a second warhead concealed within a cylindrical piece of hull. An intact antiship mine was drifting out from within an unknown piece of debris, presumably released from the bindings that had kept it concealed at the same time the cargo containers opened. Sensor contacts slowly increased as the mindless web responded to the intrusion.
It was dead and it still managed to trap us. Oliver couldn’t help but feel a measure of respect for his foe, though it went hand in hand with the chill settling in his stomach. Without even any conscious thought, this thing had been using its own torn body as bait, luring someone in for the chance to take another foe down with it.
“Easy…” he whispered. A droplet of sweat slid down the back of his neck and under his collar before his implants adjusted. “Easy now…” A tangled collection of cables drifted less than thirty meters from the destroyer’s shield boundary as Akar Saga painstakingly backed out of the debris field, meter by meter. Five thousand kilometers from the target. Six. Seven…
It almost made it.
~
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