by Jan Domagala
“Whatever you decide, it had better be quick, while there’s still something of that place left for us to search,” Storm added.
Hawk’s keen eyes then saw something and he pointed over to the far right.
“There, it looks like a landing pad with a shuttle waiting. My guess is Stryder will make for that. So, first order of business is to take control of the pad and the vehicle on it to ensure that when Stryder finds us we have a way off this rock,” he said.
“And what if he can’t get to us?” Storm asked.
“Then we’ll have to find a way to get to him, but first things first, let’s capture that shuttle,” Hawk replied. He unhooked his Remm assault rifle, pulled the lever to prime the battery clip then turned to Storm and smiled, “Time to rock and roll,” he said.
26
Inside the rapidly self-destructing building, Stryder was dodging falling masonry and mini explosions that were erupting everywhere. They were becoming more frequent as time went on.
The information from the computer about the location of key personnel inside the building told him where General Solon was.
The lab had been destroyed along with any workable samples of the serum, so even if any of the lab techs survived this catastrophe the chances of them being able to recreate their findings here would be impossible. The key to all this was his blood. That only left General Solon; he was a danger to the Confederation and his drive to gain an ascendancy over them would push him to do anything. That was something he could not allow to happen. Enough lives had been lost to this experiment and it was about time it came to an end.
It would end here, today, with the destruction of this facility and with the death of General Solon.
* * * * *
The wait for Captain Anders’ team to bring the damned Stryder to him was becoming interminable. Solon used his NI to access the computer to locate Anders but he refused or was unable to respond to his call. What the computer told him brought a chill to his blood. Apparently all Anders’ team were dead and the facility was just less than an hour away from the fusion reactors going critical and destroying not only the entire facility but the surrounding area up to a one hundred mile radius. At least the planet’s population would be spared but this facility would be totally destroyed. It would be a great loss to the Alliance, one they could ill afford.
He staggered from the enormity of what his desire to gain an advantage over the Confederation was about to do to the lives of the people he had hoped to improve. He was about to cause a catastrophe that would rock the Alliance to its very core. The loss of life and this facility was bad enough, but for it to be caused by one of the top ranking Generals was just unacceptable.
The worst thing was that he was powerless to prevent it.
If Anders’ team were all dead then Stryder must be responsible, which also meant that by now he had figured out an escape route. The only way off here was in Solon’s shuttle. Stryder was coming to him.
If he could capture him then perhaps he could lessen the loss of life here, perhaps swing the blame somehow onto him, if his honour would allow him to do that. Either way he needed to take measures to attempt Stryder’s capture.
Using his NI he called all remaining guards and soldiers who were not helping to evacuate, to come to the landing pad immediately. He just hoped there would be enough left and they would get there on time to stop Stryder so they could get away from there before the entire region was blown to atoms.
An idea formed in his mind and he contacted the nearest starship in orbit to inform them of the impending disaster and order them to send a troop carrier down to his location to start a full evacuation of the facility.
* * * * *
Hawk brought up his right hand with the closed fist sign that told his teammates to halt. Palm facing down he motioned for them to hit the dirt. They dropped to the ground as one, face first into the dirt. They all heard the roar of the engines as the troop carrier swooped down overhead towards the landing pad of the military base.
Things had just got worse.
“I love my job,” Cowboy said quietly, yet they all heard through the integral comm units in their battle helmets.
They watched as the troop carrier hovered over the landing pad at the side of the building and then ropes fell out of an open hatchway in the side and Marines started to rappel down to the ground.
“Things just got a little more interesting,” Hawk said as they all watched ten soldiers debark down and take up positions close to the shuttle.
“We have to take them out,” he added and motioned them onwards. “We need to take control of the landing pad and shuttle. That part of the mission hasn’t changed, it’s just become harder but we’ll still carry it out,” he said. Then, crouched low to avoid detection, he led them slowly towards their objective.
* * * * *
Stryder saw his objective getting closer; through his NI he had accessed detailed plans of the interior of the facility and without realising and almost subconsciously, he was plotting his way through the maze of corridors unerringly to his final destination.
He had learned something else that brought him to a complete halt, something that chilled his blood. General Solon had issued an evacuation order to a starship in orbit. A troop carrier had arrived to drop off more troopers to aid with his capture, which made his escape almost impossible. It also made the danger to Hawk and his team that much more deadly.
He was almost at his destination when he stopped to re-evaluate his situation. The only way out of the building was through the entrance to the spaceport landing pad that was close, but by this time well guarded by the new influx of troopers. He would have to get past them and find some form of transport away from there.
That could be tricky.
* * * * *
Norsky had anticipated Stryder’s intentions and got there first. The hiding places were few and far between so he waited in plain sight for him to arrive. Because the serum was taking effect he found his hearing had increased and could hear his approach.
He waited at the last corner of the corridor, behind him was the doorway to the spaceport landing pad.
* * * * *
Something was not quite right. He felt a presence, heard a heartbeat not too far away from him.
He was not alone.
Someone was waiting just around the corner of the corridor he was in.
His objective was around that corner so he had no choice but to follow his course and go around it and face whatever challenge was waiting for him.
* * * * *
Hawk accessed a combat channel via his NI and spoke to Stryder. “Where are you Captain? We have extra troopers in sight at the landing pad of the spaceport. If you’re planning on coming that way let us know when, so we can arrange some sort of diversion for you to slip past them,” he said.
Hearing Hawk, Stryder stopped in his tracks before rounding the corner and replied, sub-vocalising so that no one close could overhear, “I’m close to the exit and am about to approach it. If you can either, engage the troops or give them something else to think about, then it’ll give me the opportunity to do as you suggest and slip past them.”
“Will do, sir, just give us five minutes then make your move,” Hawk replied.
“On my mark then Captain, and good luck,” Stryder said.
“Good luck to you too, sir. We’ll be waiting for you to give you any assistance you may need.”
“Thank you Captain and here we go. Mark,” Stryder said then the connection was ended, his internal clock would unerringly count down the time to make his move. Whatever was around the corner waiting for him, he had given himself five minutes to deal with it and get to the exit of the building. He was confident that it wouldn’t be a problem so he stepped around and saw…
“Norsky!”
“Hello Captain Stryder. My, my, you seem to have been in the wars as they say,” replied the Black Knight as he stood facing him, legs slightly apart with his hands fo
lded across his broad chest. An air of confidence exuded from the man.
The second Stryder laid eyes on him he knew he had been changed and the only way that was possible was if he had been given the serum.
Staring deep into the eyes of the man before him, he knew the task before him had just got much harder and that he might have underestimated the time allowed for him getting to the exit. That having been said, he wanted nothing more than to face this challenge alone. To test his abilities against a possible equal and with that in mind, he placed his weapons down on the floor.
“It seems you’ve proven to be a problem to our forces Kurt, I can call you that can’t I? I feel that I know you quite well by now, brothers under the skin, as it were.” Norsky had a smug smile across his broad, flat features as he watched Stryder place the weapons on the floor.
“Well, if you think having the serum administered to you makes you my brother then you are sadly mistaken. We are nothing alike you and I. We fight for opposite causes. We are opposite sides of the same coin,” replied Stryder, hoping to dent his confidence, rattle him somehow and therefore force him into making a mistake. He had little time and could ill afford to waste it on idle chatter, he had to get past this last obstacle, and fast.
“I should have realised that you would intuit that I had the serum coursing through my bloodstream making you my equal,” Norsky said, unfolding his arms and slapping his own chest to enforce his point.
Stryder stepped forward and punched him full in the face sending him reeling backwards to stumble over his own feet and fall to the floor.
“You talk too much. Are we going to fight or not?” Stryder said looking down at the fallen Black Knight.
Norsky was enraged now. He flipped back to his feet and rushed at Stryder his anger controlling him, wanting nothing more than to destroy the man before him.
Starting with a series of blows aimed at Stryder’s head Norsky attacked holding nothing back. His hands moved with incredible speed and were almost a blur, yet Stryder blocked or evaded them with relative ease. His hands moved with a preternatural ease almost as if they had a will of their own, moving to block before the blow was even delivered as if he knew where it was going to strike before even Norsky.
Countering this barrage would be difficult he knew that. Waiting for the right moment would be the key and could take longer than Stryder was prepared to wait. And then it came.
Frustration began to set into Norsky’s attacks; he was not getting the results he had hoped. He had not been able to land a decent punch, a telling blow onto Stryder. The opportunity came when Norsky threw a haymaker right cross at Stryder’s head. Ducking beneath the blow as it passed by harmlessly, he rammed a right fist into the solar plexus of the man before him. All the air was forced from Norsky’s lungs with an explosive “whoosh!” as he was bent double. Stryder hit him again and again with three rapid-fire blows to the stomach and kidney area forcing him to bend over and frantically cover up that exposed and damaged target area. Then, with his other hand, he hit the point of the Black Knight’s lowering chin with his fist in a tremendous uppercut that lifted him off his feet to land squarely on his back dazed and confused.
Stryder stepped over Norsky’s momentarily inert form as he headed for the exit picking up his weapons on the way.
* * * * *
Not having a great deal of cover hampered Hawk’s team as they approached the landing pad. They had to mount an offensive against the troopers there but at the same time protect themselves, which was going to be difficult.
“Mark,” Hawk said and readied his assault rifle. They were all lying flat on their bellies in a pile of shrub grass, the only cover they had.
“Pick your targets carefully gentlemen and fire when ready,” Hawk instructed firing the first shot.
The troopers were positioned around the shuttle facing away from it, all looking in the direction of the exit of the building. When the first shot was fired, the trooper on the furthest guard position from the shuttle was sent flying through the air as the plasma bolt from Hawk’s assault rifle struck him. As soon as that happened the rest of them took up defensive positions, with half of them remaining facing the exit while the rest turned to face the new threat.
Two more went down before they took shelter behind the shuttle and started to return fire in the direction of the muzzle flashes.
“Try not to damage the shuttle; we will need it to get off this rock,” Hawk said as he continued to fire at them.
* * * * *
Stryder came through the exit and shot the first guard he saw. The plasma bolt struck the guard and blasted him back to collide into the hull of the shuttle. Glancing around, he quickly took in his immediate surroundings. The shuttle was in front of him guarded by the six remaining troopers, some of whom were facing away from him taking refuge behind the shuttle as plasma bolts were striking all around, obviously the covering fire from Hawk and his team. To the right of him was a set of Ground Haulers, huge eighteen wheel trucks used to load and offload shuttles with cargo or personnel.
That was his way out.
“I’ll draw them away from the shuttle. You capture it and come after me, you can pick me up en route,” Stryder said through his NI to Hawk then sprinted off towards the nearest Ground Hauler.
* * * * *
Inside the shuttle General Solon had been monitoring the proceedings and when he saw Stryder leave the building and shoot the trooper he got in touch with the pilot of the troop carrier who had just dropped off the troopers. He ordered him to return to the facility immediately.
He was determined to prevent Stryder from escaping at all costs, using whatever means were at his disposal.
Jumping behind the console in the flight deck he powered up the shuttles engines ready for take-off.
27
Stryder approached the Ground Hauler from the near side. The empty driver’s cab was situated high above the ground sitting in a protected cabin above the engine block slightly behind the front two tyres, each as tall as a man. Positioned just behind the tyres was a set of steps embedded into the walls of the vehicle, which he used to climb up into the cab.
Hawk saw Stryder dash across the gap from the shuttle towards the Ground Hauler then, as the shuttle’s engines burst into life, said to the rest of his team, “Time’s run out, we’ve gotta move, now.”
He brought up his assault rifle as he stood up, sighting down the barrel. Holding it tightly against his shoulder he fired as he ran forward towards the shuttle. The recoil suppressor fitted into the weapon had to work overtime to keep it steady as he fired so that he could both run and keep it on target.
Storm saw Hawk jump to his feet and immediately followed suit, as did the other two members of the team. There was no question of them not following him, they were Recon Delta and they stuck together no matter what, and they would rather die than leave one of their own behind.
Seeing the four, armed soldiers rushing them, the troopers tried to fire at them but had to seek cover behind the shuttle to avoid being hit by the incoming plasma fire.
General Solon saw what was happening outside the shuttle and bellowed at the troopers to stop them. His voice carried through the comm channel directly into the troopers’ brains via their NIs almost causing neural shock from the overload. One of them was spurred into action and was promptly shot through the head by Storm the moment he appeared from his cover, which gave the others more cause for concern.
* * * * *
Norsky came to his senses with a start. Sitting bolt upright he looked around and knew that Stryder had got the better of him, again. This made his blood boil. Getting to his feet he ran through the exit almost straight into a burst of plasma fire.
Assessing the situation he quickly found all he needed to know, tapping into all the comm chatter he learned that Stryder had made his way to the Ground Hauler to his right. As he watched he saw it pull away from the landing pad and with it went any chance of capturing it.
&nb
sp; Overhead he heard a troop carrier returning, he caught a glimpse of figures approaching at a full run from across the open area directly in front of him. He heard the shuttle’s engines coming to life and knew that was where General Solon was. There were troopers hiding behind the shuttle just waiting for the opportunity to return fire on the approaching soldiers but at the moment they were pinned down.
As the Ground Hauler pulled away rapidly gaining speed, Norsky spotted a second vehicle, another Ground Hauler and a plan came to mind as his accelerated thought patterns assessed the situation and came up with a solution to his dilemma.
After a second or two he saw a pattern in the plasma fire and knew he could get across to the second Ground Hauler if he timed it perfectly. Now that he was gaining more and more control of his enhanced capabilities he was confident in his ability to do just that.
Waiting for just the right moment he set off at a full sprint, his legs pumping, his feet pounding the ground and his arms pumping through the air as he covered the ground between the exit and the vehicle in almost record time. Jumping onto the steps behind the front tyre he pulled himself up into the cab and sat himself behind the controls.
“You won’t get away again Kurt,” he said as he started the engine.
* * * * *
General Solon saw the approach of the four soldiers and knew they were here for Stryder. He couldn’t figure out why Stryder was running away from them though.
The troop carrier was returning swiftly and as it was armed he knew he had the best chance of stopping and recapturing Stryder if he was aboard that, rather than on an unarmed shuttle. Leaving the cockpit he made his way back to the exit to wait for the arrival of the carrier.
