Hellfire - Treachery: Hellfire, #1

By Simon Goodson

Don't.  Get.  Caught.

 

The only thing worse than fighting a Hellship, powerful starships controlled by entities of pure evil,  is being captured by one!

 

Drake's sister was taken by the hellship Azimuth, dooming her to a life of pain followed by an agonising death.  Unless Drake can save her.

 

Tales of his quest are told across hundreds of systems, but Drake doesn't care.  All he wants is to stop the Azimuth continuing with its reign of evil and keep his promise to his sister.  No matter the cost.

 

Will he succeed?  Grab Hellfire – Treachery today and find out for yourself!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dark Soul Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Oct 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781910586259

Book preview

Part I

1

You said I was special! You said I meant something to you!

There were tears in Jessica’s eyes and her face was red, but she refused to give ground. Drake kept his face impassive, his feelings hidden.

You were, he said calmly. But now you have to leave. You knew when you signed on that no one stays on this ship forever. Everyone has to leave sometime.

Everyone? What about Jacobs? He’s been on the ship at least twice as long as anyone else except you.

Jacobs is a special case.

Special? I thought I was special!

I thought you were too. I hoped you were. But you weren’t. You have to leave the ship.

"Why? Why do I have to go? Why don’t you let anyone else stay? And why do you let Jacobs stay? He’s just the cook for stars’ sake!"

Please. Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be. I’ve made my decision and I never change my mind. You need to leave the ship at this station.

"But I don’t want to leave the ship! I don’t want to leave you! I never want to leave you!"

You need to go now. If you aren’t off the ship in two minutes I’ll have you escorted off. Don’t make that happen.

She stared at him, locking her gaze on his. He stared back coldly. Finally she flung her arms out.

Oh, don’t worry. I’m going! If you want me gone that badly then I’m gone. But it’s your loss!

She grabbed her bag, turned, then stormed out the door. Only when the door slid shut behind her did Drake’s face soften.

Yes, he said softly. It is my loss. Losing you hurts… but it’s much better than the alternative. I can’t let that happen to you.

The Dagger slowly eased away from its docking position, then slipped away from the station. Drake sat in the captain's chair, watching his crew as they adjusted to the changes in roles.

There were seven other crew members on the bridge. Three were doing new jobs and one was completely new. The changes were all needed to fill holes left by those Drake had let go at the station.

Most had left happily enough. The bonus he always paid when people left helped with that. But Jessica’s leaving had cut deeply into his soul. He'd much rather have kept her with him but he knew that was impossible.

Two other crew members had caused scenes, though neither was as extreme as Jessica’s. Both had been persuaded to leave by troopers in full armour. Drake didn’t like having to do that, but had found the overwhelming show of force prevented such situations from escalating into violence.

The bridge crew carried out their tasks well but there was tension in the air. Drake knew what all of them were thinking. They were wondering why he'd chosen those specific crew to be replaced. Some had been with him for many years, while others were relatively new joiners. The remaining crew were wondering when their turn would come, and just why Drake carried out the regular purges of his crew.

They were the same questions the crew always had when a purge was needed. They knew better than to ask him for his reasons, knew he would only glare rather than answer. He had reasons, of course, but they would never be shared with the crew.

Once the Dagger was several minutes away from the station, Drake gave the order to engage main drives. They boosted away at the Dagger's impressive acceleration, heading out for the jump point Drake had chosen.

Once Drake was happy everything was under control he retired to his cabin. He'd found it was the best thing to do after a purge. It gave the crew a chance to release some of their tension, to speculate on the reasons why particular crew had been chosen and why the purges happened at all. He'd need the crew sharp and alert soon enough. Until then, he’d let them speculate.

Reinforce port shields! Prepare torpedo groups alpha and beta. Target enemy blue-three! Come port ten degrees, three degrees down.

Drake barked out the orders, not bothering to specify who they were for. His crew knew their jobs well enough, and in combat wasted words could lead to wasted lives.

The Dagger shook as a particularly heavy barrage crashed into its shields. Then it vibrated from the smaller disturbance of its missile tubes firing. Drake hunched forward, studying the battle around them and the missile spread heading for the most dangerous opponent, the destroyer ahead of them.

The destroyer was the ship which had just rocked the Dagger with fire, but that was to be the last attack it unleashed. It had made the mistake of underestimating the much smaller Dagger and had moved in close so it could unleash its full power.

That had allowed the Dagger to do the same. Defensive fire opened up from the destroyer, trying to target the incoming torpedoes, but they were covering the distance between the ships too quickly. A couple fell to the fire, but the rest smashed home.

The destroyer’s shields had already been weakened by the Dagger’s fire. The first few torpedoes finished the job, collapsing the shields. The rest of the torpedoes smashed into the destroyer’s hull.

The torpedoes would have caused plenty of damage at any time, but Drake’s crew had focused them on one specific area of the enemy ship. The torpedoes arrived in a chain, each digging a deeper hole into the destroyer’s hull until two torpedoes reached their target, detonating right beside the destroyer’s engines.

The energy from the detonating torpedoes was eclipsed by the power of the engines exploding. The explosion tore the destroyer apart, ripping it into several large chunks and many smaller ones.

The rest of the ships attacking the Dagger were much smaller than the destroyer. As soon as its destruction sank in they turned and ran. For a moment Drake considered chasing but dismissed the idea. They were no danger to the Dagger now.

Did we just destroy a hellship? asked Jensen, the only completely new crew member on the bridge.

Drake shook his head. No.

But they were claiming to be a hellship.

It wasn’t a hellship, replied Drake firmly. I can tell. It was a Dark Acolyte ship.

That’s almost worse! Why on earth do those people worship hellships?

Why do people do anything? They are what they are, unpleasant as it is.

Are we going after the others?

No, there’s no point. They aren’t a threat to us. Set course for the next jump point.

Aye, Captain.

Drake could hear the disappointment in Jensen’s voice but let it slide. Jensen was young and new to the crew, eager to please his new captain. In time he’d settle… or be told to leave the Dagger.

As the Dagger changed course something was watching it. The same something had observed the whole battle. The same something that followed the Dagger since the last station.

It wasn't the Dagger it was interested in though… it was there for Drake. The time wasn't right to make contact with Drake, not yet, but soon it would be…

2

Drake studied the screens in front of him, making certain nothing seemed out of place near the jump point they were approaching.

His crew had already confirmed that, but he liked to be careful. The encounter with the Dark Acolytes had set him on edge so he was checking even more thoroughly than normal. It wouldn’t be the first time the Dark Acolytes had left mines in an area to ambush people.

The battle still felt fresh in his mind. The destroyer had only been dealt with forty minutes earlier and he could still feel some of the adrenaline in his system. Finally he nodded.

Alright, let’s do this. Take us through the jump point.

Aye, Captain, replied Jensen.

The Dagger edged forward, closing on the strange area of space where fractures twisted the underlying fabric. The jump point led to a similar one in another location. The Dagger would skip through from one to the other, covering huge distances without any time passing at all. Jump points were what made interstellar travel possible, in any time frame less than a lifetime at least.

The Dagger drew close enough. Jensen looked at Drake, who nodded and gave the order. The Dagger engaged its jump engine and the universe flickered.

Drake blinked his eyes, trying to force his brain to work. His head felt full of cotton wool and his eyes weren’t working correctly. It was the same after every jump, the first two or three minutes was a desperate fight to get the crew’s senses working and their minds processing. That left ships vulnerable when they dropped out of jump space, and there were those willing to take advantage of the fact.

Alarms played out across the bridge and Drake cursed. The alarms were warning there were other ships nearby, the automated systems couldn’t tell whether those ships were friendly or a threat.

Status report, Drake snapped.

I can’t see anything yet, Captain, replied someone. Drake’s ears weren’t working properly and many of the bridge crew were new so he couldn’t work out who had spoken.

The wait for information felt painfully long, as it always did. Drake almost wished for the impact of weapons fire as at least it would confirm the status of the nearby ships. But nothing came.

Jensen was the first to recover. He was the youngest, and had travelled the least on ships, which tended to give an advantage. Immediately after jump whoever was able to react first jumped in to decipher what was happening. The crew returned to their assigned roles once everyone had recovered.

Five ships, Jensen shouted. Approaching fast. Weapons firing… brace for impact.

The Dagger shook as multiple hits smashed into its shields. Drake kept blinking his eyes, trying to focus on the screens in front of him, but while he could make out some shapes he couldn’t see well enough to work out what was going on.

Full power to the engines, Drake said. Get us moving before they try and board.

Too late, said Jensen. There’s a large shuttle just latched on. I’m sorry, sir. I missed it.

Don’t blame yourself, replied Drake. You’re doing a lot better than the rest of us. Now, where did it…

He stopped as everything suddenly snapped into focus. The shuttle was attached to the main airlock. The indicator showed those in the shuttle hadn’t breached the airlock… yet.

Bridge, status check! Drake ordered.

Each of his crew checked in. Jensen was now fully recovered from the jump, as were two others. One, the comms officer Dalesh, was still completely affected but the rest were slowly recovering. That was fine, comms weren’t something they needed right at that moment. The pirates’ intentions were clear.

Bring weapons online, Drake said. Open fire with beam weapons, hold the torpedoes for now.

The Dagger shook as more shots hit its shields, but Drake was less worried now. With the shuttle docked the pirates wouldn’t be interested in destroying the Dagger, only in weakening it.

At the same time the Dagger’s weapons were lashing out, smashing into the closest pirate ship and causing far more damage than would be expected from a ship of the Dagger’s size. The pirate ship soon started to pull back, realising it had bitten off more than it could chew. It was a start but it still left the problem of the shuttle which had latched onto the Dagger.

Drake punched in a command on his console, connecting him to the squad leader for the troopers based by the airlock.

Alpha squad, status check, he barked out.

Alpha leader here. We’re ready, Captain. Any idea how many we’re facing?

It’s a big shuttle. I’d say anywhere from sixty to eighty people, probably in decent armour.

Nothing easy then.

Alpha squad had a grand total of ten troopers, including the squad leader. On paper they were outnumbered at least six to one, but things were never that simple when boarding a ship.

Do you need reinforcements?

No, Captain. We’re set up and ready and Chankov squad is on standby. You might need to send the decorators down when we’re finished, though.

Drake chuckled and signed off. Alpha leader had been with him for nearly four years now, one of the longer serving crew members, and they’d often joked about the poor décor around the airlock. Drake closed the channel.

Status report, he snapped out to the bridge crew. How much damage did we do to those ships?

Sonia, his first officer, replied. We’ve destroyed the ship that dropped off the shuttle, Captain. One more enemy is badly damaged. Two have enough damage to keep them running from us and the last doesn’t seem keen on doing things on its own. We could destroy the badly damaged ship if we hit it now with two torpedoes.

Drake considered for a moment, then gave the order. He didn’t like doing it, but these were pirates. At best they would have enslaved the Dagger’s crew and most likely they would have killed anyone they didn’t think was valuable enough as a slave.

The two torpedoes shot out but a message from Alpha squad drew Drake’s attention away from the fate of the pirate ship.

Captain, enemies have breached the outer airlock. Request permission to trigger the inner airlock and catch them out.

Drake didn’t hesitate. Do it!

Aye, Captain.

Now Drake’s attention was on the airlock and on Alpha squad. A camera showed at least fifteen heavily armed pirates waiting to start their assault, with more visible behind. They were relaxed, not ready to fight yet. They knew their tech still had to hack through the inner airlock door, and obviously thought they had a minute or two more to prepare.

When the doors suddenly hissed open the pirates were caught completely unaware. Some turned, others didn’t even do that, and only two started to raise their weapons. Even they were far too late. Alpha squad was ready and waiting, and the Dagger was set up to repel exactly this type of attack.

Two massive ceiling mounted machine guns opened fire, sending a hail of bullets smashing into the pirates in the airlock. The effect was devastating. Pirates were smashed back off their feet, dead before they hit the floor. The bullets continued to churn through those behind. As the surviving pirates started to overcome their shock they began to fire back.

Part of the reason for the shock was the Dagger shouldn’t have had such weaponry. No civilian ship should. The machine guns were supposed to be vehicle-based and they were military grade. Of course, there was always a black market for such weapons, but mounting them on a ship made it hard to avoid them being discovered.

Drake had gotten around that problem by fixing them to armoured screens which could fold back into the ceiling. To anyone who inspected the ship the airlock corridor was plain and uninteresting. If the Dagger came under threat of being boarded then everything changed.

The members of Alpha squad had handheld weapons, but they were holding their fire. For the moment there was no need to add to the barrage.

With both airlock doors open Drake could now see into the enemy ship. Those pirates who hadn’t been hit had dived for cover, focusing on self-preservation before returning fire.

Then something new came into view as the last of the pirates in the way hit the floor, either by choice or by being swept off their feet by the barrage of fire. Two massive shapes stamped their way forwards, not bothering to avoid crushing any of their comrades lying in the way.

Drake whistled. There was combat armour and then there were paladin suits. Paladin suits were hellishly expensive but worth every penny. They could soak up levels of punishment even armoured vehicles would struggle to withstand. Even the powerful machine guns weren’t making a dent on the paladin’s armour, though the ricochets were proving dangerous to their prone comrades.

Captain, we might have a problem here, said Alpha leader.

I see them. The guns aren’t going to stop them.

We could use the Cannon, but that would destroy them. It seems a shame. Those units are worth a lot. Maybe we can reason with the two of them, make them an offer if they turn on the other pirates.

Drake was tempted, for a moment, but he shook his head. Unless I miss my guess those two are going to be leaders. Who would let anyone else play with a toy like that? Especially amongst pirates where there is always someone looking to grab power.

We could try disabling them.

No. We don’t have the time. I don’t want them reaching you. If they do we’ll have trouble stopping them reaching every part of the ship.

I still think…

The transmission cut off in a burst of static as the paladin suits opened fire. Drake winced as the cameras reset and he saw at least two of his troopers down. He reached out and punched a command in on his board. Several flashing warnings came up and he quickly acknowledged each. Then he gave the final command.

Another section of the ceiling above Alpha squad hissed back, revealing a large metallic tube which disappeared back into the ship. Any official inspecting the ship would have had a fit over the machine guns. This would have sent them screaming.

Is the airlock corridor sealed? Drake asked.

Yes, Captain, replied Jensen.

Good. Alpha squad, hold on tight! I’m firing the Cannon.

Several expletives greeted his announcement, followed by those still alive in Alpha squad grabbing on to anything they could. Drake gave them as long as he dared – just two seconds as he couldn’t risk the paladins opening fire again.

He fired the Cannon. Technically it wasn’t really a cannon, it was a very low-power ship’s beam weapon. The Dagger mounted many which were much stronger, but those were being used to fire across space at shielded ships. This one was being fired within the ship and at people.

The cameras in the area shut down automatically, the massive energy blast would have burnt them out immediately otherwise. When they flickered back on a second later the scene was unrecognisable. Most of the bodies were just gone, vaporised completely. One of the paladins had gone the same way. The other was just a small pile of molten metal that was quickly boiling off in the vacuum it was now exposed to.

The shuttle beyond was mostly gone, a few pieces still hung on around the airlock but most had been vaporised in the same way as the paladin suits.

Shuttles only had minimal shields anyway and they had to be disabled when docking. The Cannon had ripped through the shuttle almost as if it wasn’t there.

The destruction of the shuttle led to the airlock corridor being exposed to the vacuum of space. If the area hadn’t been sealed then more of the ship would have had the same problem, but of course sealing the rest of the ship was the first thing that happened when repelling a hostile boarding party.

Alpha squad, report, said Drake.

All enemies have been dealt with, replied Alpha leader. We haven’t lost anyone out the airlock but we have one casualty and one fatality. We managed to secure them before the Cannon fired.

Damn. Get the casualty to sick bay. And get the airlock sealed, we’re going after the other ships.

Aye, Captain.

I thought we were leaving the others, said Dalesh.

We were, replied Drake. But only because I thought it would be too much trouble tracking them down. Now they’ve killed one of the crew. That makes it personal.

I see.

Dalesh didn’t seem too happy about the idea. He’d been transferred from engineering to the bridge as a result of the purge. This was the first time he’d truly seen the details of a battle.

Remember these were pirates, said Sonia. They were never going to be willing to let us go on our way. They wouldn’t be willing to let the next ships they come across go free either. The captain didn’t want to waste time chasing them down. Now they’ve seen what we can do there’s no choice.

They’re moving faster than us, though, said Jensen. We won’t catch them at this speed.

I know, said Drake. Engage the auxiliary engines.

Aye, Captain.

Hatches pulled back across the Dagger, revealing as many engines again as it normally relied on. Unlike the Cannon and the machine guns this modification wasn’t illegal, but leaving them visible would alert other ships to the Dagger’s additional speed which would defeat the point of having those extra engines.

As soon as the covers were fully open the engines were engaged. Drake felt the shove in his back as the Dagger accelerated. Soon they were travelling significantly faster than the pirate ships.

"Stay on the