Chapter 584: Messing up the Mess

The rifle barrel ground against Xavier’s sternum. The hulking inspector kept his four crimson eyes locked on Xavier’s face.

“A junk trader without a manifest is a smuggler waiting to get gutted.” Garn tapped his claws against the weapon’s stock. “Take us to your hold.”

Xavier offered a compliant nod and stepped away from the console. He gestured toward the main deck hatch.

Rin and Lyra fell in step behind the boarding party. Xavier focused his mind on the system interface while walking down the narrow corridor. He navigated the Dimensional Store and purchased fifty tons of authentic abyssal scrap.

[Transaction Complete. 500,000 Credits Deducted.]

[Items deposited in Cargo Bay 1.]

The blast doors parted, revealing rusted husks of demon-forged steel piled high across the cargo bay floor. Sparking wires dangled from gutted void-cruiser engines. Garn kicked a broken thruster coil and examined the glowing residue coating his boot. He exchanged a look with his subordinates and turned his weapon back toward Xavier.

“Looks authentic.” Garn rubbed his clawed fingers together. “You scavengers always miss the real tax. Paying the Weaver gets you into the system, and paying me keeps your ship from experiencing a tragic core malfunction.”

Xavier reached into his jacket pocket and retrieved a stack of abyssal currency. He tossed the glowing chits onto the nearest scrap pile. If money solves this quickly, I can avoid replacing hull plating, Xavier thought. Garn snatched the credits and inspected the glowing seals.

“Generous.” Garn tucked the currency into his armored belt and bared a row of pointed teeth. “Since you have disposable income, you can handle a special delivery for the planetary governor. My men will bring a containment pod aboard. You will transport a biological payload to the Dead World.”

Rin crossed his arms and stared at the inspector. Xavier kept his expression perfectly blank.

“We are scavengers.” Xavier held his hands up in a placating gesture. “We lack the environmental shielding for biological cargo.”

Garn stepped right into Xavier’s personal space. “You just bought the job. Rejecting the payload means I incinerate your entire crew.”

‘I should have just let Lyra rip his throat out,’ Xavier thought.

Out of nowhere, a loud clatter echoed from the upper deck where the third demon remained on the bridge. Rapid footsteps pounded against the ceiling grating directly above them.

“Get back up there!” Garn shoved his subordinate toward the stairwell.

The two inspectors rushed up the stairs with their rifles raised. Xavier followed close behind them with his hands dropping to his sides.

The bridge doors hissed open to reveal the third demon standing in front of the supply closet near the rear bulkhead. The creature wedged a glowing crowbar into the seam and pried the metal panel open.

Xavier parted his lips to speak as a blinding flash of cosmic light erupted from the closet.

The golden radiance slammed into the three demons simultaneously as their bone-plated armor dissolving into ash before their bodies even hit the floor plates.

Xalvoria stepped out of the closet. She dusted a speck of ash from her gown and narrowed her eyes at Xavier.

“I warned you about confining me.” Xalvoria stepped over a pile of smoldering dust. “These pests were annoying me.”

Lyra walked onto the bridge and kicked one of the remaining piles of ash. “Well, that solves the smuggling problem.”

Xavier stared at the dust covering the command deck. “Now we have a missing patrol interceptor attached to our hull.”

Rin moved to the communications terminal and began typing rapidly, his fingers flying across the holographic keys. “I am accessing their ship’s mainframe. I can spoof their patrol logs to make it look like they finished the inspection and moved to the next sector.”

Xavier turned to Lyra and gestured toward the ruined floor plates. “Gather this dust and flush it out the secondary airlock. We leave this orbit immediately.”

Lyra dragged her boot across the deck plates, scraping the remaining gray flakes into the disposal grate.

She punched the manual release button, cycling the secondary airlock with a sharp hiss. A brief vacuum sucked the pulverized demons out into the void. She wiped the sole of her boot on a clean patch of metal and walked toward the command console.

Rin stared at the holographic interface while his fingers darted across the glowing keys. He bypassed the patrol ship’s encrypted firewall and linked directly into its flight controls.

Rin brought up a secondary projection of the docked interceptor. “I have their mainframe isolated. I am setting the autopilot to resume the standard patrol loop.”

Xavier stood near the main viewport. He tapped his knuckles against his thigh. “Send it off course. Give the orbital fleet a reason to look the other way.”

Rin typed a new sequence into the console. “Rerouting their nav-computer to a neighboring sector. I will trigger a core malfunction simulation in twenty minutes. The distress signal will pull the entire patrol squadron away from our exit vector.”

He crossed his arms and watched the tactical map update. “Make it look authentic. The fleet will check the flight data before they send a recovery team.”

Rin typed a new command sequence into the terminal. He isolated the propulsion controls on Garn’s empty vessel and activated the autopilot. “The interceptor will resume its standard patrol loop for exactly twelve minutes. After that, the nav-computer will force a sudden drift off course.”

Lyra stepped away from the secondary airlock and wiped her hands on her trousers. “What about the malfunction?”

Rin tapped another sequence into the keypad. “I am programming a primary engine failure simulation. The interceptor will broadcast an emergency transmission and drop all communications. The entire orbital fleet will rush to secure the perimeter around the fake crash site.”

Xavier struck his knuckles against the edge of the console. “Execute the launch sequence.”

Rin hit the final key. The magnetic clamps on the exterior hull released with a loud clank.

Outside the viewport, the dark interceptor drifted away from the Strider. The thrusters ignited in a bright blue flash. The empty ship banked sharply and accelerated into the black void.

Rin brought up the Strider’s main propulsion interface. “The decoy is away. The fleet is already tracking the distress transmission in the opposite direction.”

Xalvoria brushed a speck of invisible dust from her gown. “A fitting end for annoying pests. We must exit this orbit before their superiors realize the vessel is completely empty.”