Outlaws (The Slingers Trilogy, Book 2)

Chapter 4

It was all a blur to Andress after she had been freed by Nolun. She could faintly remember him throwing her to the floor to avoid the large explosion that had cut off their only means of escape, but apparently Nolun had found another way. He carried her through a small corridor and leaned her against a wall. She looked around as she caught her breath, and she saw a sign that read: "Warning: Only Use in Case of Extreme Emergency" and the words "Escape Module Model 4.40". She smiled and looked over at Nolun. "It'll be a bit snug won't it?" Nolun looked back at her and gave her his trademark grin, which was now more of a reassurance than an annoyance. "Figured you wouldn't mind after being cooped up in here with a few undesirables, you'd rather like being closer to someone you knew." Then, alarms began to blare across the ship, and a robotic voice echoed out. "Attention all crew. Spatial Warp immenent. Strap yourself down immediately. Seal all open doors. Warp in T-minus 120 seconds." Andress's eyes widened. Spatial Warp. That could only mean...She turned to Nolun quickly, contorting her face in pain. "We need to leave. Now." Nloun looked back at her. "Yeah, no kidding. I'm going as fast as I can." Andress moved closer. "No, now! Just program us to jettison and bug out!" Nolun looked at the worry on her face, then nodded, and as soon as they got in, they strapped themselves in, and saw the ship begin to glow around them. The, as they jettisoned, the ship seemed to disappear, and they started to glow too...until the pod began to warp around them and then vanished with them inside.

When Nolun woke, he heard several alarms beeping, and felt a slight spinning sensation in both his head and his stomach. His eyes opened, and he saw Andress lying across his chest, unconscious. He slowly moved her off and tried to moved around inside the cramped cockpit. He looked out the main window, and saw that the ship was steadily spinning around, having been knocked off course, explaining his stomach and head. He tried to correct his trajectory using the propulsion jets and rudders, but everything had been knocked offline somehow. Nolun thought back to the blue glow, and how the ship and the pod had seemingly vanished. Thinking, he keyed his comlink. "This is Nolun to Renegade. Do you copy?" There was simple static on the line. That could mean one of two things. Either the receiving end of the line, the Renegade, had been knocked offline, which seemed unlikely, or they were out of range. As Nolun looked outside at something growing larger in his immediate view, the latter seemed more likely. He saw a large blue planet, what appeared to be one covered in water, spinning around as the pod careened towards it. That wasn't anywhere in the area where the Independence Zero was. Nolun thought to himself. So then how the hell did they get here? The computer readout was still functional, and as he read it, he almost hit his head on the roof as he sat up in surprise. There had to be a mistake. The computer was malfunctioning. Almost everything else in the pod was. But the rest of the readout was working fine. So, if the coordinates really were correct...they were almost 3 whole systems away from where they had encountered the Independence Zero. Nolun didn't have much time to ponder this, as he heard the alarms begin to blare louder as they entered the atmosphere, and the outside of the pod begin to flare up with heat. Nolun strapped Andress and himself in. Wherever they were, he knew that it was going to be a rough landing.

Dante looked out at the empty space where the Independence Zero used to be, and was in awe at what had just occurred. How had an entire GDF cruiser that large managed to just disappear? It made no sense. Then he heard Koil's voice come over the radio. "No...that's impossible." Dante immediately responded. "What? What's impossible?" Koil stammered with his next words. "The cargo...the cargo they were carrying...I thought it was just in the experimental stages...but they actually have a working model..." Dante frowned and gritted his teeth. "Koil. Get back to the Renegade. Now." As the Swift docked in the Renegade's cargo bay, Dante leaped over the railing and began to walk forward towards Koil, as the twins and Bunker watched from the railings. Koil stepped out of the Swift and saw Dante approaching. "Look, let me explain-" That was all he could get out before Dante dealt him a fast right hook to the face, knocking him down to the ground. Dante picked up Koil by his collar and held him in front of his face. "You dirty scum. You lied to us!" As he was about to punch him again, Bunker grabbed Dante and held him back. Koil wiped some blood off of his lips. "You knew, Barton. You knew what they had in that ship. And you didn't tell us. You endangered the mission for all of us. And now Nolun and Andress are God knows where!" Koil breathed heavily, then nodded begrudgingly. "You're right. I did..." Dante looked at the twins. "You know about the three of them, don't you? What they used to be?" Elicia and Edvard looked at each other and nodded. They remembered back to the battle on the Avalon Zeta about how Gottlieb had revealed that Andress used to work for the GDF in front of them and Nolun. They had assumed that Koil and Bunker did too, and after the loss of Andress, they thought it wouldn't be appropriate to reveal that to Dante. But now there was no point in hiding it. Dante looked back at Koil with contempt. "All three of you, then? GDF? I thought as much. There was no way you could have gotten all that information with just being with the Resistance. You've been keeping secrets since Day One." Koil looked back at Dante, now angry. "Well, I guess that makes two of us, pirate." Dante suddenly knocked Bunker back and drew his sword, levelling it at Koil's throat. "I'm nothing like you, traitor." Bunker then cocked his gun at Dante. "Let him go." The twins stepped forward. "Stop!" Elicia called out, and held out her hands. "There's no use in fighting! We need to find Nolun and Andress!" But before any of them could respond, a faint beeping sound could be heard, and the entire ship was rocked with several large explosions.