Pixie Hazard, Archibald Bradford [100 best novels of all time .TXT] 📗

to help, the warship’s commander responded in a much less aggressive tone.

“Copy Pixie Hazard, tags received.”

“Jesus, she is coming apart fast.” Davie muttered, her eyes wide as the Stardust began to break in two, the halo of debris around her spreading; “I’m pulling us back, no sense us getting a black eye from a piece of their hull.”

“No complaints from me.” Donnie said sadly as she watched the tragedy unfold.

They’d done everything they could; with no rescue gear to speak of all they were able to do now was watch and wait.

Seconds later Lewanna’s heavyweight cruiser pulled up alongside them and engulfed them in its shadow, its rescue boats already shuttling back and forth from the doomed vessel.

The Stardust was a big girl, but the military carrier was a true behemoth, a moving skyscraper that dwarfed the Pixie Hazard.

Davie appraised the warship looming large in front of them; despite the destruction of the Stardust it was hard not to be impressed.

“She’s a class four Titan, the latest from Frontline Industries. Likely only been in service for a couple months.”

While listening to the pigtailed redhead, Donnie pressed a hand to her cheek where she had impacted the wall, pulling it away to see if she was bleeding before shifting for an aside with Eniella.

“You put the guns away right?”

“I did.” She confirmed, her eyes glued to her fire control screen and still scanning for escape craft.

“Good, hard to do the hero lap if-”

Donnie paused as the Stardust suddenly exploded, her eyes flinching slightly at the sudden light before the Pixie’s glass auto-tinted against it.

She drew in a slow breath.

“Damn. I hope the crew had enough time to get out.”

Eniella nodded slowly; with her back to the glass and her eyes all over her screens she didn’t catch the explosion directly, but she hadn’t failed to notice the rapid shift in the light level around her, nor had she missed the liner’s transponder disappearing from her scopes.

Suddenly she sat up and tapped several times on the interface to lock onto something that caught her attention.

“Andromeda, are you getting this? That lifeboat is heading for the atmosphere way too steep.”

“We see it, must have been one of the last ones launched, likely clipped by some debris from the explosion.” The commander of the warship let out a heavy sigh; “Unfortunately we have our hands full and it’s already well beyond safe retrieval parameters. We send rescue craft for them, we risk losing three others.”

Davie whistled low.

“Woman’s got ice in her veins, but she’s not wrong.”

“Hey! Can we get out of tac-ops yet?” Eva snapped over the coms; “Or are we totally screwed and somebody forgot to tell us?”

“If we were dead I’d let you know.” Donnie said tiredly; “If you’re feeling bored then get off your ass and get me an internal damage assessment.”

A sudden burst of static from the com unit clenched in her fist caused the captain to frown.

“Davie, is someone trying to call us or do I have a concussion?”

“No, I’m reading it too. The signal is weak, wait... holy shit, Eniella?”

“Yeah, it’s the lifeboat! Hang on I’m filtering the frequency.”

Maria and Eva climbed one after another through the hatch into the cockpit.

“Hey Skipper, we can’t get past the drop-pod ready room, everything-”

“Sledge, shush.” Eniella said as she worked.

Taken aback, the blonde stood next to Donnie, any animosity between them forgotten in the midst of the crisis.

“What’s up?” She murmured.

“Don’t know yet.”

Eniella nodded suddenly.

“I have it, boosting the signal now. We should hear-”

The coms crackled to life, filled with static but the voice was still recognizable.

“Um, P-Pixie Hazard! Help! Can anybody hear me?!”

It was Bryan.

“Bryan? Where are you?!” Maria snatched the coms unit from Donnie and replied before anyone else had a chance.

“Escape pod... thing, bunch of us. Spinning really fast.” His strained words came back; “I think something’s broken.”

Donnie whirled around the seat block to face Eniella whose fingers were frantically going over the sensors.

“Jesus fuck Skip! That thing is rotating like a top, no wonder the Andromeda gave up on them! Its current trajectory has it impacting Lewanna’s atmosphere in less than two minutes.”

“Options?”

The fire control officer’s modded eyes flicked up to the captain for a second as silent understanding passed between them.

“Best we can do is follow it down and sort through the debris.” She said quietly.

With the way the escape vessel was spinning it was obviously severely damaged: entering the planet’s atmosphere was almost certainly a death sentence.

Seeing the look of anguish on Maria’s face, Donnie shook her head.

“Not good enough, what else you got?” She snapped.

“Skipper, if we try to nudge that thing off its trajectory it’ll be like sticking the Pixie’s dick in a blender!”

“Pixie don’t got a dick. Now come on Eniella, work the problem. This kind of stupid is where you live! Give me something, I don’t care how crazy. We been through too much to just watch that kid burn up now.”

It was a tense couple of seconds as the FCO tried to do as the captain asked.

Finally she turned and spoke over her shoulder towards her girlfriend.

“Davie! You think that boat has carapace?”

The pilot thought about it for a half second.

“Yeah, should be standard for a liner that size, but it won’t be very thick.”

Her robotic-armed lover was already nodding her head.

“Then I need you to get as close as you can.”

“What have you got?” Donnie demanded.

Eniella’s hands were a blur of motion as she primed one of the railguns.

“A hail-Mary at best: we get close, I clip her with one of the Javelins to try to slow her spin, then Davie can match her trajectory and keep her from