Primary City was along the edge of the Aegean Sea, and it was covered by an invisible dome. Each of the Corporations had a home base there, the size depending on their company footprint and rank. The Board building was the biggest, standing like a mushroom in the center of the city.
Luna Corp’s moon-shaped structure was smoking, and Sage’s spire was broken at the tip. There’d been an altercation here, and from the looks of things, it was recent. But only a few ships lingered in the skies, each of them outside the barrier. They appeared to be older transports, marking them Liberty property. A bunch of the smaller, lowest-ranked Corporations had sided with Liberty during their mission to the end of Space Race, and I suspected they’d remained loyal.
Eclipse had likely promised those lower CEOs more power under the new regime. I couldn’t blame them for taking the bait.
“Captain, I’m picking up ID tags from seven of the Primaries,” R11 informed us.
“Show me.” The image showed on the radar. The transports were the ones the CEOs used. “Octavia, is this the entrance to the executive bunkers?”
“That’s them.” Her voice was weak.
“We have incoming,” Jade said, and I spied one of Liberty’s ships moving for our Racer. Varn was closer to it.
“Hold tight, Varn. Let’s see what they say first,” I cautioned Killer.
“Okay, but if things get dicey, I’m taking her down.”
“Communication has been requested.” Jade patched it through.
“Racer, what are you doing here?” a man asked. We didn’t have visual, and that was probably for the best, considering the Lead Chair was directly beside me.
“Eclipse requested our assistance. We came in from the Moon,” I told him, hoping he’d buy it.
“You’re right on time. We’ve secured the city. Wait, aren’t you that SeaTech Racer?” he asked.
“Shoot them,” Octavia whispered.
“What?” I looked at her frowning, hands in fists.
“You saw what they’ve done to us. Shoot them down.”
“Hawk, we can’t let them give us away.” Varn was siding with Octavia, and I had to make a quick decision.
With Luther gone, I used the weapons system from my dash instead. I couldn’t ask Jade or Holland to do it. I fired before the ship could get a notification out to the city. Varn’s Racer blasted the Liberty craft as well, and it exploded, the remains crashing toward the sea below.
“Jade, if you have a patch to get us inside the shield dome, you’d better use it now.” I didn’t wait for a reply as I sped for the city.
“Give me a second…”
I kept going, barely slowing at the barrier. Varn was next to us, and I finally yelled for Jade. “Is it done?”
“Now!” Jade said, and the shield blinked into view. One second it was there, then it was off. As soon as we passed through, it reactivated.
“Will we be able to escape?” I asked.
“Let’s worry about that after.”
That was as good an answer as I would receive.
“Where would your sister be?” I asked Octavia.
“With the CEOs. She’s going to ensure they don’t survive this, or use them as hostages to escape, depending on how things end up,” Octavia said.
“How can you be sure?” Holland inquired.
“Because it’s what I’d do.” She grimaced and pointed to the left edge of my viewscreen. “That’s it.”
“Here’s what’s going to happen.” I had Varn on the comms. “Killer, you’ll locate the shield generator and blow it up. Jinx, reach out to anyone on Earth. Tell them that we have Eclipse cornered and we request backup.”
“Won’t that send a warning to Liberty?” Jinx asked.
“I don’t care. If we have support in hiding, this will bring them out. Tell them to head to Primary City on the double!” I flew steadily toward the Board’s mushroom high-rise, and dropped as I rounded the Sage spire.
“We have company!” Varn shouted.
“Can you handle them?”
“In my sleep.” Varn’s ship veered off, and he raced for the nearest transport vessel.
“Holland, Jade, go put the suit on,” I said.
“Why?” Holland asked.
“Because I have an idea.” The area was swarming with Liberty people. I could tell from the cocky way they strode between the landed ships. Many of them were armed.
“What about me?” Octavia asked.
“You should remain on the ship with R11.”
She peered at the robot. “I’d prefer to come with you.”
“Fine. Holland, help her into a suit,” I ordered.
They began to spread out as I descended to the far edge of the parking pad. “Wait, Octavia, can we access from the top? The landing zone the CEOs used for the Space Race introductions?”
“Sure. I have the codes for the doors.”
I jerked the nose of my Racer up, rushing for the top of the Board building. “They just secured the city, according to that guy we were in contact with outside the dome. That means there’s no way Elise has found the codes yet or changed anything. Go with my crew. Put the spacesuit on.”
She did as I ordered, and I laughed when they were gone.
“What’s so funny, Captain?” R11 asked.
“Here I am, barking orders at the Lead Chair. Six months ago, I was out of a job, hopeless, and couldn’t even afford to repair Capricious.”
“I don’t see the humor in that,” R11 said.
“Coming from the robot who loves a good joke, I thought you could appreciate it.”
“Maybe I’m broken, Captain. I did take a little bit of a beating when they infiltrated my system,” he told me.
“Don’t worry, R11. We’ll fix you up right as rain when this is done.” I rose over the building to find the hovering landing pad unoccupied. There wasn’t a single ship there. I landed as close to the doors as I could and told R11 to stay put. “I’ll contact you with instructions. If Varn asks for help, you’re to assist him, understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
I found the others in the cargo hold, and Octavia looked out of place in the spare spacesuit. It was too large for her, but she didn’t seem to care.
I opened the secured gun lock and tossed everyone a weapon.
