Justice (2 page)

She dived for
the ground, her elbows scraping the pavement and leaving behind
tatters of skin. Stinging pain shot up her arms as she tucked her
head down, her forehead pressing against the rough dirt.

A blast of
energy careened over her head. The heat rolled over her in a wave
that burned her exposed flesh. The air became so hot that it stung
to breathe, leaving her lungs scorched and a deep ache in her
chest. Sharp tears came to her eyes as she coughed and spluttered,
pushing herself back to her feet.

She hobbled
forward, glancing back in time to see Gus firing at the
super-soldier, drawing its focus. She turned back to her arms, they
glowed red as if she’d been sunbaking for days. The skin pulled
tight, as if it had shrunk in the last few seconds and each
movement made it stretch, sending new shots of pain through
her.

She gasped,
but kept moving. The fear gave her a new burst of speed and she
powered on past broken ruins and smoking rubble. The ancient city
hadn’t been much when they’d got here; now there was nothing left.
The historical structures were either burning or crumbled and there
wasn’t any sign left of the incredible artistry which had gone into
the civilisation. Which only left the question, what was the
Confederacy doing on a planet like this?

In the
distance, highlighted by a number of fires, was Crusader. The
simple ship looked as if it almost belonged here amongst the
rubble, but Nova had never been happier to see the beat-up craft.
The dents, scrapes, and missing paint made her heart rise. She had
a chance. She could make it.

In a group
around Crusader were the other ships. A part of Nova knew that some
of them would never leave the planet; she had seen her companion
Hunters fall to the creature’s bullets. But for now she pushed the
thoughts from her mind. For now all that mattered was getting to
Crusader.

At first the
ship was over one hundred metres away, an impossible distance to
cover with the creature hot on her heels. Her breath burned in her
lungs as her feet pounded on, wheeling in a frenzied sprint. She
looked up again and the ship was fifty metres, ten metres, one
metre… and then Nova was falling through Crusader’s sliding door.
She hit the metal floor hard, choking on the smoke that had filled
her over-worked lungs. Behind her, Crusader’s door slid closed and
the noise of battle outside quietened somewhat.

“
Provide cover fire!” she yelled through her
coughs.

Crusader’s
engines sprung to life beneath her prone body, sending the ship
into the air. The caustic smoke and heat had burned away the lining
of her throat and lungs and they seared with agony. She wheezed in
a desperate attempt for more air as she coughed and spluttered.

She used the
wall to drag her scorched body off the floor, before stumbling to
the command pod. Just as she was about to turn the final corner, a
buzzing sound caught her attention. She managed to step to one side
just before the orb-like robot careened through the air she had
vacated. The robot stopped and whirled around until it hovered
level with Nova’s face.

“
Systems indicate urgent medical attention is required. Please
prepare for scanning,” the Class 4 Labourbot said in a mechanical
voice.

“
I’m fine Cal,” Nova said, waving her hand at him. It was the
wrong gesture, in a single second Cal had grabbed hold of Nova’s
wrist with a thin pincer and his single lens-like eye gazed
intently at the cut. The robot’s inner workings could be heard
ticking and whirring as they analysed Nova’s injury.

She groaned
and rolled her eyes as Cal tisked with disapproval. A panel on
Cal’s side lifted up and another spindly metal arm came out. This
one held a white bandage that he held against Nova’s hand to wipe
away the blood. The bandage was followed by anti-septic and
Second-Skin and in no time at all the cut on Nova’s hand had almost
entirely disappeared.

“
Thank you,” Nova said, feeling the small cut with her other
hand. She flexed the arm and the flashing pain was gone.

She collapsed
into the command chair with a gasp of pain from her burnt skin and
stared out of the front screen through blurry eyes.

On the ground,
Gus and Orion were still fighting. The creature had them cornered
against a building, away from the ships. They fired a stream of
plasma blasts at the creature’s face, but it seemed not to
notice.

“
Get them out of there,” Nova gasped.

Crusader flew
in close and the weapons systems came online. The ship shuddered as
it shot balls of fiery energy at the creature’s back. The ships
weapons were more powerful than the small handguns and sent the
super-soldier stumbling forward.

It turned to
the ship, lifting its weapon.

“
Evasive action,” Nova said.

Crusader
swerved left just as a blue bolt of energy careened at them.

“
Go higher.” Nova watched as the small figures of Gus and
Orion darted out from behind the creature and dashed towards their
ships.

“
There appears to be an anomaly,” Cal said.

“
What?” Nova said, biting her lip as Crusader swerved around
another blast.

“
There is a hole in the creature’s head, not consistent with
the rest of its physiology.” As Cal spoke a grainy picture filled
part of the screen. Obscured by smoke, the top of the creature’s
head loomed up from the rest of its body, and sure enough, a gaping
hole opened up at the top.

“
It’s weird, but I don’t think it’s really important now,”
Nova said, gripping the armrest as a blast caught Crusader and made
the ship drop through the air.

“
Aim fire at the hole,” Cal said.

Crusader
obeyed and the next shot blasted into the creature’s head.

“
What the hell, Cal!” Nova said. “This is my ship.”

The soldier
wavered on its feet, hands reaching for its head. It groaned as its
knees collapsed and it fell to the ground, sending up a wave of
dust.

“
Target neutralised,” Cal said.

“
What?” Nova’s mouth dropped and she turned to stare at the
robot. “Cal, I love you.”

Cal hovered
away from her. “I’m afraid humans aren’t my type,” he said, voice
wavering.

Nova groaned.
“Damn robot. Right Crusader, get us out of here!”

The planet
disappeared below, the black surface glowing with intermittent
fires.

Nova’s black
hair reflected the red glow of the burning planet and her violet
eyes took in the carnage. She sighed as she saw the Hunter ships
that wouldn’t leave the planet’s surface; they had been good
people, mostly.

“
That was unexpected,” a new voice came over Crusader’s secure
communication channel.

The front
screen showed the blackness of space as her small ship careened
through the openness. Usually the video display would have shown
Aart’s face. She wasn’t surprised to see that he had turned it off
in favour of a simple call-sign avatar. She didn’t much feel like
being seen either.

“
Hey Aart,” she said. Her stomach released some of its
tension; at least Aart had survived.

“
Nice save on Gus and Orion.”

“
I seem to remember saving your arse too,” she said, running a
hand through her matted hair.

“
Yeah, but that just makes us even for me saving you from
those slug things on Taive.”

Nova groaned.
She couldn’t face another competition with Aart, not when every
breath burned her lungs like fire.

“
What was that thing?” she asked, changing the
subject.

“
No idea. One tough son of a bitch though.”

“
Got that right,” another voice joined them on the intercom.
Nova recognised Gus’s call sign. “I’ve heard rumours of new
super-soldiers popping up. Guess we just met one.”

“
But where did the Confederacy get it from?” Nova said,
leaning forward in her chair and staring intently at the dark of
space in front of her.

“
Looked human enough,” said Aart.

“
Yeah. I’m just glad we made it out. Dent and Harvey didn’t
make it,” Gus said and a silence filled the intercom.

“
What a trip, right?” said Aart after a few moments. His tone
was upbeat, although he always did seem to be immune to
tragedy.

“
Yeah.” Nova rubbed her tired eyes and only then noticed the
ache pervading her muscles.

Aart, also
known as Artemis Goldson was the quintessential go-getter. His hand
was always the first to go up for dangerous missions and his
foolhardiness was beaten only by his bravery. Aart rarely talked
about his past, before joining the Hunters, but Nova knew he’d had
it tough; as much as he might try and hide it. He and Nova had a
long history; they protected each other like siblings, but they
fought like siblings too.

Their most
recent disagreement regarded Aart’s sudden desire to take up a
rebellion against the Confederacy. For the moment, the giant
soldier had wiped the argument from both their minds.

“
Woohoo! Live to see another day!” Aart cheered through the
intercom.

Nova rolled
her eyes and terminated the connection.

“
Shall we return to The Jagged Maw?” Crusader asked. Like most
ships, Crusader’s voice was soft, designed to instil calm into
passengers. Nova had tried to modify it once before but it was more
work than it was worth and Crusader’s voice had grown on her over
the years.

“
No, I don’t think I can face it there right now. Besides,
we’ve got another job to go to.”

“
To Drigoon then?”

“
Set the course,” Nova said, standing up from the
controls.

All she wanted
at that moment was a warm shower. It felt as if every inch of her
was covered with dirt and blood. Her thick trousers had held up
against the rocky ground and her desperate sprint for survival, but
the singlet she had on was ruined. She ignored her tattered
clothing for the moment and stomped through her ship. Her thick
boots made a loud clunk with each step.

As she washed,
she tried not to think about her fallen comrades; a part of her was
actually glad that they had fallen and not her friends. What if
Aart had died, or Orion? She’d tried to save them all but the
super-soldier was too much, they’d been out-gunned and taken by
surprise.

Nova shook the
thoughts from her head and focused instead on the upcoming job. She
wouldn’t usually take security but this one had been too good to
pass up.

Drigoon was a ‘tamed planet’. It had been hostile to human
civilization but along came Terraform Incorporated and bam, a brand
new planet to live on was born. Terraform Incorporated was the big
name in terraforming, one of the biggest growing industries of the
century. During her background reading, Nova had found that the
head honcho of Terraform Inc. had styled himself as
President
of the tamed
planet. She had to chuckle at the thought.

The next day
was the big ‘planet-opening’ ceremony and everyone who was anyone
in the terraforming business was going to be there. It was
predicted to be an utterly dull affair but the new President had
insisted on external security.

At first Nova had ignored the bounty ad but then she seemed
to be seeing the President’s name everywhere.
Geron Feders, President of Drigoon.
He was definitely making a splash and if nothing else, his
tamed planet, Drigoon, sounded like a blast. It had been populated
hundreds of years ago with plant life, but was deathly toxic to
animals, including humans. It was something to do with the
atmosphere; too much carbon dioxide. She was looking forward to
seeing it; a planet inhabited solely by plants was bound to be
interesting.

She stepped
out of the shower just as Crusader’s engines kicked into full gear
and propelled them towards Drigoon.

Nova woke up
to one of Cal’s thin metal arms poking her in the ribs.

“
Oi!” she yelled, shoving his pincer away.

“
We’re nearly at Drigoon,” Cal said without apology, floating
out of Nova’s sleeping pod.

She sat for a
few moments on her bed, cursing the robot under her breath.
Eventually she managed to push herself up and hobble to the food
generator. She stood for a few moments studying the front of the
machine, still half asleep.

She shook
herself and reached out a hand to rest on top of the appliance as
she gathered her thoughts and decided what, exactly, she wanted for
breakfast. The red cut on her hand stood out against the rest of
her flesh; it must have been worse than she’d thought if it was
still there even after a healthy application of Second-Skin.

“
Muesli!” Nova said as if in triumph. “I want cold
muesli.”

The food
generator sprung to life and Nova’s mind relaxed now that the
decision had been made. She took the bowl and carried it to her
command chair.

“
Let’s see it,” she said around a mouthful of food.

Crusader
obliged and the blacked out front screen flickered into life.
Taking up half the visual was a small green planet, with a few
splashes of colour scattered across it. Swirling clouds dotted the
landscape where storms pounded the planet’s surface. Carved into
the centre of the green mass was a silver dome with long spindles
spreading out from it.