Which doesn't stop them going after traffic leaving Frigga. Anika didn't help by flying at low speed, and 'taking the scenic route'
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Ensconced in the back seat of Anika’s Little Cool Rider, Maico typed onto her wrist mounted keypad. Her fingers flew across the keys.
“Ryan, I’ve got them all! I’m certain the Sabers are on Frigga. Jet all but admitted she’s backing them. It all links up.
Jet Jaguar is Sylia Stingray. I’m not sure if we can prove this beyond doubt, but I’m certain. At the very least, we have her as a backer of the group, and maybe the Charlie for this particular bunch of Angels.
There’re four other women living here, one teenage boy, and three cyber trainees. I’ve got video of the women. I’m in the back of a shuttle right now, but I’ll get them to you as soon as I get to Port Luna and some proper interwave. Frigga’s went down overnight, and this shuttle’s not working too.
If the 3D models match up. We have them. We have everything. “
It sent out through the shuttle’s own lightspeed system. It would take a while for the response to get back to her. A half hour, easily. Time enough to sit and stew and fizz and bubble inside. She’d pulled it off. 77 Frigga was rapidly receding behind her. Safe. Away. Free. She had everything.
She nestled herself into sumptuous padding on the seat. A ship that has every single option in the BAT catalogue ticked, but the interwave link had malfunctioned. Suspicious. Or not. They were pretty far out.
The panel in front of her chirped as a new message arrived, a few minutes early.
“Great work. You get any of their hardware, or did you just get the people themselves? What did she say? What exactly did Jet tell you? You know, once we’ve got them, we can get who’s backing them. If Rhodes and Scott are in on it, you bet most of the top of GJ knows it. And you know Jet used to be a troubleshooter so that puts her right in it.
Never confirmed or denied, of course. But come on, really? We have to get everyone behind this. Knight Sabers are secret GJ bag squad; a squad of mercenaries may be dynamite, but that’s kaboomite right there. Especially given their moves against the UBA now become GJ moving against them. ”
Maico had a vulpine grin on her face as she typed up her response.
“Jet hinted that they were backed by GJ, but somehow I doubt there are, not to that extent. Call it a gut feeling. It sounds more like GJ tolerate them - or turn a blind eye to their activities - rather than actually command them. Maybe GJ’s a regular customer?
Jet talked a little about superheroes. She told me she was protecting them specifically, and was quite happy for me to report that. She’s going to get a hell of a shock when she sees the finished version, but I can’t say I’m sorry. She told me she was protecting them because she was afraid that the Boskone would go after the Saber’s families.... “
Send and wait.
“Is the interwave signal picking up yet?” she asked, yawning.
“Afraid not,” Maico answered, a little too cheerfully. “The pulse amplifier coil is fried. We won’t get a useable signal until we’re pretty close,”
“But of course....” she sighed.
Anika was busy doing something up front, punching away at a sensor display. The response time had gone down a little, she noticed.
“That’s bullshit, Maico. They made the choice themselves when they put their armour on and went to war. If they wanted to be protected, they should’ve been public, they should’ve worked with SHIELD or GJ under public scrutiny. You’ve found a GJ black op’s team. You’ve caught them red handed. You’ve got to tell everyone about them and stop this abuse of power.
And just think what this’ll be worth to you. You’ll have your own shuttle when you’re finished. This is the biggest thing since... well since the Soviet announcement earlier this year. Think of the reputation. Think of the money Maico.”
For the first time, she felt a strange unease begin to gnaw deep in the pit of her stomach. She could be certain it wasn’t hunger. Maybe Jet did,”
“Maico,” Anika brought the convoy of her thoughts to a screeching halt. “Could you check your rear sensors for me and confirm something,”
She stared at the instruments, a little bewildered for a moment. “Rear sensor. Rear sensor,” she mouthed as she searched, “Ahah!” Push a little button, and the glass display in front of her switched over to a nifty holographic representation of the space behind.
Her eyes narrowed.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know,” answered Anika, her voice stretching taught. “But it’s on an intercept course,”
“Intercept?”
“In five minutes, we have company.”
She heard the engines power up behind her, gauges on the panel in front reaching towards their limits. A moment later, the interwave system came back online.
“You deliberately disabled it!”
“It’ll take to long to explain,” Anika blurted out. “But that ship’s not supposed to be there,”
So thay had planned something? And now, somehow, it was all falling apart. She wasn’t sure what she should be more terrified about, the fact that the Friggan’s had planned to do something out here, or the fact that someone was coming along on top of what they’d already planned.
The radio crackled on the emergency channel.
“Hey there sweetlings, cut your engines or we blow you apart.”
It was a gravelly drawl, that conjured up images in her mind of some shaggy, burly space pirate with his boots up on the console. Anika whimpered up front. She was panting hard, her gaze rakeing across the instruments.
Maico did what came naturally to her. She turned her cameras on.
“This isn’t supposed to happen,” Anika snarled through clenched teeth. “This is Little Cool Rider hailing anyone in range. We are under attack. We are under attack by an unknown pirate,”
“Last chance, ladies,” the pirate warned. “Stop or be stopped, it’s your choice,”
“They’re kidding, right?” Maico stuttured out. “Right?”
A pealing alarm was her answer. Anika screamed “Missile!”, hauling the little craft around. Maico braced herself against the cockpit frame, feeling her hearty breakfast coming back up to visit. Turbines whined as stars rolled overhead.
A bright flash of light shot by, an electric spark in the dark.
“One!” yelped Anika up front. The Cool Rider’s turn reversed, throwing Maico against the other side of the cockpit. She had the chance to punch out one last text message, just in case.
“WE’RE BEING ATTACKED!1”
“Little Cool Rider, this is the Rinna Kazamatsuri. We have received...”
The second missile detonated right under the port engine.
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