[Preview]Renegade Ravager Vol. 3 -- Chapter 14

Chapter 14 – 01738.107 AA

“This is a horrible idea,” Xarl grumbled.

“And yet you’re still suiting up,” Iuno laughed.

The old man shook his head. “Someone has to keep an eye on your dumb ass.”

We were in the executive armory. Our suits had already been repaired after the infiltration of Valeur Mineure. Xarl had given me an earful about properly respecting my equipment.

The false, blue enamel had been removed from our suits, restoring the gunmetal gray appearance we were more comfortable with. We had been forced to cast off our old colors, our old allegiances; the unadorned gray seemed appropriate.

Aggy was off to the side, helping Elspeth into her armor. It would be the first time the albino would be going into combat with power armor, but I was confident she could handle herself.

Elspeth Hayes

Health: Nominal

Armor Status: Legion Déité Marques Quatre Power Armor - Heavy Plate (100%)

Shields (100%)

Jump Jets (100%)

Arms Status:

Perdition Magnetic Salvo Cannon (5/5 Plasma Dispersal Rounds)

Republic Navy 10mm Service Pistol (12/12 Rounds)

Breacher Plasma Grenade (4/4)

Outrider Blade

Adjusting the fit on her gauntlets, she checked the power feed before connecting it to her salvo cannon.

“Hell of a field test,” she muttered to herself.

“Just remember your training. Don’t think – just act,” Aggy said sagely.

“Shoot first, think later,” the albino agreed.

Elspeth had upgraded her cannon again, taking advantage of the reactor built into her armor to increase the gun’s firepower. She claimed the solid slugs could punch a hole through ship plating if needed.

I checked my weapons and equipment.

Légionnaire First Class James Browning – [LÉGION SUPPRIMÉE]

Health: Nominal

Armor Status: Legion Déité Marques Quatre Power Armor - Heavy Plate (100%)

Shields (100%)

Jump Jets (100%)

Arms Status:

Custom .60 Caliber Assault Rifle - La Terreur (45/45)

Custom Siege-Grade Stellar Cannon - La Colère du Soleil (100% CHARGE)

Breacher Plasma Grenade (6/6)

Outrider Boarding Axe

The axe was new. After witnessing how effective Balan’s cybernetic limbs were, and how deadly Iuno’s green-bladed glaive was, I had decided that I needed an upgrade.

Balan and Elspeth had helped me break down one of the spare Outrider blades. I had debated a bit on what kind of hand-to-hand weapon suited me best, but I eventually went with a boarding axe.

During my time in the legion, I had often used a boarding axe, especially when raiding enemy ships. The simple, brutal weapon matched my combat style, especially when fighting in tight quarters.

The new weapon wasn’t pretty, the metal head of the axe didn’t line up perfectly with the Outrider blade we had inserted along the edge. It looked more like a tomahawk or a hatchet than anything else, but the improvised weapon had cleanly hewed through anything I had swung it at.

When it came time to fight the Outriders and their minions, I knew it would prove its worth.

I checked the connections tying the La Colère du Soleil to my reactor. The ancient stellar cannon had helped me kill one Outrider, I was betting it could do it again if called for.

The recharge time between shots was painfully long, but no mortal weapon in the galaxy could beat its pure destructive power. The weapon fired a beam of concentrated starfire, utterly obliterating its target.

I was carrying La Terreure as well. The heavy assault rifle felt natural in my grip by that point; I had slaughtered countless foes with the venerable assault rifle.

Xarl and Victor had opted for standard Legion loadout. Iuno, on the other hand, had helped herself to the former empress’s armory.

“I can’t wait to try this baby out,” she said, hefting the combat shotgun.

“Faucheur d'Esprit – Emma came up with that name,” Aggy said. “She said a big gun should have a scary name.”

The weapon was made from some unfamiliar, matte black composite material. It could fire a variety of specialized shells, including anti-armor, incidniary, and flashbang ammunition. Iuno had practically been drolling over it since she found it hidden in a crate.

“Everyone set?” Victor asked.

Aggy set and sealed her helmet once she was sure Elspeth was fully suited up. She was sticking to her usual loadout, including the naval saber hanging by her hip.

I had been surprised to learn that Chercheur de Sang, the legendary sword that had supposedly taken countless heretics and xeno lives was just a ceremonial blade. Aggy never carried it into battle, claiming it was horribly balanced and too heavy for her taste.

“Be on guard, we have no idea what we’ll encounter,” the AI warned us. “Our armor should protect us from most forms of radiation and environmental hazards, but keep an eye on your HUD just in case. When we fought the Outrider last time we were buffeted by all forms of strange energy.”

“James almost died,” Elspeth agreed, her voice sounding small in the comm channel.

Iuno almost knocked the smaller woman over when she hip-checked her. “Hey, none of that. You might not be a Star Ravager, but you’re our battle sister now – or at least mine! And trust me, those alien fuckers won’t know what hit them!”

“It’ll make a good make-believe story at least,” Victor snarked.

Josefine and Balan met us outside the armory.

The Yord woman had set her chitin shell into overdrive, covering herself in armor almost as large and as thick as our own. Zoto had bulked up as well, and I knew he always had his tyrant form available if things truly became desperate for his master.

Balan was wearing her modified EV suit, her four cybernetic limbs once again capped with Outrider blades.

“Ready?” I asked.

Josefine nodded. “A small group of war forms will meet us by the Unfriendly Flier. I don’t want to risk bringing too many of my buddies, we have no idea what the interior of the asteroid looks like, but a few loamers and snappers should suffice.”

Balan took a breath, rattling breath, then nodded.

Aggy conferred with Captain Fernandez and her officers as headed toward the prow shipyard. We’d be taking the Unfriend Flier into the debris field and then landing onboard the asteroid. The Liens Lumineux would maintain a safe distance.

I gave strict orders to the flagship’s crew. Aggy’s pseudo-body gave her a unique, unbreakable bond with the Liens Lumineux, allowing her to maintain constant contact. But, if something happened and communications were lost – they were to wait two hours. If, by then, communications were not restored, they were to obliterate the asteroid with every weapon they possessed.

“Understood, Champion,” the captain growled, deeply disliking her orders.

Nobody onboard the flagship was happy about the idea, but they understood. There might be nothing onboard the asteroid, or it could be a nightmare beyond comprehension. Either way, I would be damned before I allowed something like the Outriders free upon the galaxy.

Josefine and Zoto quickly got her Yord escorts loaded into one of the ship’s cargo bays while we gathered along the expanded bridge.

“They’re still a bit skitterish after that nasty sub-reality jump but they’ll be fine by the time we land,” she promised.

“The flight will take thirty minutes, give or take,” Elspeth informed us as we reached the bridge.

“Be careful. You should give a wide berth to the larger pieces of debris,” Aggy said. “It’s possible someone has left a surprise for us. This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen mines laid in derelict ships.”

“It’s always so much fun, flying with you,” Elspeth snarked.

My HUD queued into the ship’s forward cameras as we launched. For a moment the Liens Lumineux loomed above us, a seemingly endless expanse of armored planting, gun batteries, and shield emitters.

Once we were away from the venerable flagship, I gazed forward, at the asteroid.

In the bleak light cast by distant stars, the asteroid looked even more sinister. We tried pinging it with radar and more direct forms of detection, but the object absorbed them all. It was as if the thing was a black hole, an absolute point of data nihility. For some reason, it still showed up on cameras or the naked eye, but nothing else.

We were effectively flying blind, trusting Elspeth and Aggy to get us safely to our destination.

“At least the debris shows up properly,” the engineer grumbled as she entered a minor course correction, dodging around an ancient UTG ship.

As we passed I inspected the derelict. Though the ship was of antiquated design, it looked far more advanced than the craft coming out of Republican shipyards.

The wrecked ship had likely been a cruiser, but it sported more firepower than a Conquête-class heavy battleship, using compact arrays of high-energy weapons and smartly placed missile launcher tubes. The fuselage was sleek and narrow, designed to foil enemy scanners and detection systems.

“Unbelievable,” Balan whispered, echoing my thoughts.

“The UTG had many flaws, but they were expert shipwrights,” Aggy explained after noticing the focus of our attention. “While they lagged in theoretical designs, like the concepts behind shredder drives, they were masters of practical engineering. The Liens Lumineux was the pinnacle of their craft.”

It was sometimes hard to believe that human technology had somehow declined in the intervening millennium, as Elspeth always insisted, but it was hard to argue against the proof before me.

Elspeth was busy taking readings from the wreckage. I assumed she was less worried about mines and more concerned with capturing data she could use for her engineering projects. Josefine chatted with her, the two sharing their observations and insights.

Iuno had fallen asleep. I could almost hear her snoring through her helmet.

The Unfriendly Flier wove a crooked course through the debris field. I tried to keep track of the ruined ship, but they quickly became a blur. They were from across time and space, Republic and Hegemony ships along with xenos vessels I didn’t recognize.

“No bioships,” Josefine noted.

“Good. No offense, Horde Master, but I don’t need to be fighting the Yord along with anything else this place might hold,” Xarl growled.

The only real commonality between the wrecks was their violent demise. I could see where hulls had been breached by high explosives, or where plating had been seared away by energy weapons. Two ships were wrapped around each other, damned to spend eternity together after they had rammed each other.

Whatever had happened, the various ships had destroyed one another, battering themselves to oblivion.

“Be mindful of your surroundings, trust your cybernetics,” I said. “The last time I fought the Outrider – I suffered from hallucinations – ghosts of the dead. Don’t let them lead you astray.”

I was glad Balan was there. Her extensive cyberization gave her a measure of protection against the Outriders’ influence. Josefine alien physiology also gave her a level of protection based on our previous experience onboard the Liens Lumienux.

Aggy had done what she could to harden our systems, to keep the Outriders’ malign influence at bay, but there was no way to shut it out completely. We were potentially walking into the depths of hells, we had to be ready

The structure carved into the asteroid became clearer as we got closer. We were looking at some kind of cyclopean temple, a truly titanic structure built for creatures that dwarfed human scale. My best guess, the entrance was over a kilometer across and the pillars were nearly that tall.

The huge, irregularly carved pillars had been hewn into the side of the asteroid. They were holding up an uneven ceiling that extended deeper into the rock. Strange symbols, identical to the ones we had seen on Vileur Mineure and onboard the Esprit de Liberté, squirmed along the asteroid.

It was a liturgy of horror.

A painful flashback pushed its way through my subconscious. I had seen the same carvings all over the alien machinery the Outrider had constructed onboard the Liens Lumienux, the tool it had constructed to break out of sub-reality.

Strange, otherworldly colors played across these symbols, a hint of madness in their unnatural hues.

“My scans are still coming up blank,” Elspeth said. “I can see the asteroid, but to the ship, it’s like there’s nothing there.”

“I would argue it’s not safe to land – but when has a légionnaire ever done anything that’s considered safe?” Gregor joked.

I shook my head. Gregor was dead, he wasn’t there.

“Can you set us down safely?” I asked.

“It’ll be a rough trip, but I think I see a spot of open ground just outside the structure’s entrance,” the engineer replied as she slowly guided the ship in.

The asteroid filled our view from our landing cameras.

“It’s good to see you again, brother,” Gregor whispered. “We’ve missed you.”

I grit my teeth against the voices, the whispers of the dead.