by Jan Domagala
“You’d better make this fast, Cowboy, as this bird doesn’t have sophisticated shielding and if we take a full hit then we’re toast,” Hawk said stating the obvious.
Cowboy threw the shuttle into a series of complicated twists and turns to evade the plasma blasts as they neared the Hyperion.
“Commander Park you have my permission to engage the enemy to protect the ship,” Hawk said, wondering why they had not returned fire.
“Sir, I’m under orders from General Sinclair to only engage as a last resort. In my opinion we have not reached that stage yet,” Park replied sternly. Hawk knew that no matter what the commander would obey those orders.
“You are in command of the ship, Commander; I’ll stand by your decision. Make it a good one, for all our sakes,” Hawk replied, placing a reassuring hand on Cowboy’s shoulder and saying, “Take us home.”
The closer they got to the Hyperion, the more intense the firepower from the attacking ships. The shuttle was buffeted from the shockwaves caused by the plasma blasts and it was clear to all those inside that it was just a matter of time before the targeting computers on the attacking ships actually got a firm lock on them and blew them out of the sky.
The docking bay of the Hyperion loomed large in the front viewport of the shuttle as they neared it in preparation to make their final run.
Plasma bolts erupted all around them as they flew in a straight line for the Hyperion’s docking bay. A bolt scored a glancing blow on a rear port side thruster just as they were about to enter the docking bay, which forced Cowboy into some serious flying to counter the change in their trajectory. As it was, they impacted with the side of the bay as they entered and came skidding to a halt not quite where they were supposed to be, but safe nonetheless.
“We’re on board Commander,” Hawk said. On the bridge Commander Park went into action.
“Target those attacking ships and fire, but just enough to discourage any further involvement, then make the jump to hyperspace,” he said, his voice commanding in the confines of the freighter’s bridge.
The crew manning the weapons fired the hastily installed plasma cannons in short rapid bursts targeting the weapons systems of the attacking craft. Then, while they backed off to reassess the situation, the Hyperion made the jump into hyperspace.
As the ship’s trajectory smoothed out the occupants breathed a sigh of relief, all except Hawk.
“Commander Park, what’s our status?” he asked.
“We’ve entered hyperspace and we’ll be entering normal space quite soon, then it’s another short jump to Colonial territory. We’ve detected no ships following us. You can relax a little Cap, you did it,” replied Park, with a smile in his voice.
“I’ll be able to relax once we’re in Confederation space and we did it Commander, it was a good team effort.”
EPILOGUE
The Hyperion returned to Celeron where General Sinclair was waiting. Commander Park parked the freighter in a close orbit and the general came on board alone to debrief Stryder.
Stryder was still dressed in the borrowed uniform when Sinclair came to see him.
“Glad to have you back, Kurt,” he said as he shook his hand.
“Not as glad as I am to be here, sir,” replied Stryder with a half smile. “I can’t thank those guys enough. If it hadn’t been for them I’d still be there.”
“Well, we can go into that at a later date, for now you need to get some rest before you return to work.”
“Excuse me?” Stryder said taking a step back putting some distance between the two of them.
“You’ll return to duty as soon as you’re fit and ready and have undergone a full medical. We need to know exactly what was done to you while the Alliance had you,” Sinclair said.
“I can tell you exactly what was done to me – nothing.”
“Well, you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t take your word for it.”
“That’s your prerogative, General, but let me assure you that is all you’ll get.”
Sinclair looked at him for a long time assessing how far to go with this, wondering what he would do if pushed.
“You know I can’t just leave this like you want me to, don’t you. You have to realise that I have to take you back with me. You’ve become too valuable a commodity to just be allowed to wander around like any normal citizen.”
“Why? You know as well as I do that the experiment didn’t work. So why can’t we just leave it be and move on.”
“But that’s just it Kurt, I do know it was a success, to some degree anyway. The rest I’m sure we’ll learn with some testing.”
“Okay, let’s just say for arguments sake that it was an unqualified success. What would you do?”
“We’d try to reproduce the effects in others,” Sinclair said with an expression of mild surprise. “Don’t be naive Captain, you know exactly what I would do.”
“And then what, invade the Alliance? Let’s just say you could reproduce the effects of the experiment. That the experiment actually yielded the results you’d hoped for. What would be your plans for the Alliance – an initial strike to cripple their military capability for retaliation perhaps? And what would their response be do you think?
“Don’t you see, that would only lead to all-out war with neither side ever gaining an advantage because to defend their way of life they would fight to the bitter end. Maybe even come up with a plan of their own to obliterate as many Confederation colonies as possible.
“How many lives, General? How many lives would it cost to prove the experiment a success?”
“But what would you have me do?” Sinclair asked after a pause. He could see the future that Stryder had painted for them all and in his heart knew it to be true. Oh, maybe not by him, he had the same view as Stryder, but there would be others who would outvote him to make that awful dream a terrifying reality.
“Just let it go. Allow me to resign my commission and report that the experiment was a failure. Everyone who knew absolutely anything about this on Toldax has died, that just leaves Hawk, Storm, Cowboy, Hacker, you and me. I know they’ll keep it quiet, they can’t tell anyone about something they know nothing about anyway. You know I’ll say nothing as I maintain it was an unparalleled failure, which just leaves you General. The ball is in your court.”
Sinclair turned away from him while he thought through what had been said.
The nightmare scenario that Stryder had painted so eloquently was a viable one. The question was, would he sanction it and if he did, could he live with the consequences?
Turning back to face Stryder, just one look into the eyes of the man before him and he knew. His decision had been made.
The nightmare scenario was alive and living inside him and would continue to do so for as long as he lived. Seeing the anguish in that man’s eyes at the horror he could envisage, he knew he could never let that vision become a reality.
“Your resignation is accepted forthwith,” Sinclair said and held out his hand in friendship.
Stryder relaxed for the first time since he could remember and took the offered hand in a vice-like grip.
“Thank you, General, you have no idea what this means,” Stryder said smiling.
“Oh, don’t think I’ve done you any favours my boy. You’re a soldier and as a soldier you will be called upon to act, maybe not in an official capacity but act you undoubtedly will.”
“If I’m a soldier then I’ll be one who serves no master, like the Ronin from Japan’s past, a samurai who served no Shogun,” countered Stryder.
“Ronin ’eh? I like that. Well, I’ll keep a watch on you Kurt. You’ve become more than just a soldier who served under me, you’ve become, and dare I say it, a friend. Look after yourself.”
“Thank you, sir, you take care too.”
“I’ll organise a shuttle to take you back to the surface. Oh and finally, I’d just like to offer my condolences about Hardy; I understand you two were close.”
“
Yes, sir, we were. She deserves to be remembered with honour. She died a meaningless death but should be remembered for being not only a good soldier but a decent human being.”
“We will, I’ll see to it personally, my boy.”
They parted then with nothing left to say. Stryder boarded the shuttle that took him down to the planet’s surface close to his home. The home he had been brought up in, where his parents had lived to a ripe old age and now would be his sanctuary.
As he watched the shuttle leave, he wondered what the future now held for him. No doubt it would be interesting; there would be many adventures to come mainly because he was not the type of person to sit back when he saw an injustice. He remembered a quote, one of his father’s favourites, “For evil to triumph all that is needed is for good men to do nothing”
He joined Col Sec so that evil would not triumph, as his father had wished, now though he would face it alone.
Sinclair had said that they would keep an eye on him, no doubt via the tracker within his NI. With a thought, he turned off the tracker, a little trick he’d learned back on Toldax, he could do it with ease now.
“Try and keep an eye on me now, General,” he said as he strolled back inside his home.
Omega
Omega
A Col Sec Thriller
Book Two
By
Jan Domagala
Copyright 2012 by Jan Domagala.
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Third Edition 2014
Dedication
I would like to dedicate this, as always to my Dad who
sadly is no longer with us, my Mum, my two kids, my big sis and my best friend and partner Joy, who have given me all the loyal support required to keep me going through the bad times as well as the good, thanks guys I love you all.
I would also like to thank all the writers who have inspired me to put my ideas down; Jack Higgins, Matthew Reilly, Clive Cussler to name but a few, the list is endless. Thanks guys for the hours of pleasure I've had reading your work. I just hope I can impart some of that to anyone who reads this. Hope I don't let you down guys and keep up the good work.
Foreword
By the mid twenty-fifth century, after decades of war over the colonisation of planets between the Colonial Confederation and the Elysium Alliance – an alternative to the government of Earth – an uneasy peace was reached and a cold war prevailed.
The events of this story are set a few days after those depicted in Ronin. Things have started to settle down again between the Colonial Confederation and the Elysium Alliance, the status quo had returned.
1
The entrance to the chamber was dark, shrouded by shadows. He’d dropped into the area by parachute and made his way to the chamber overland by foot until he arrived at his destination.
Reporting back to the drop-ship via a combat channel accessed by his Neural Interface he told them he was on station. His mission was to infiltrate the chamber that Intel had told them was the base of a terrorist cell planning on attacking a Col Sec base, then report back on the conditions there so that the squad of Recon Delta marines who were waiting on board the drop ship could be deployed.
Wearing a jump suit incorporating the Rapier battle helmet with a full face visor attached to the jumpsuit’s main breather unit in the back pack holding the retracted parachute, he blended in well with the shadows the night had brought. He had a Mk II Remm assault rifle that he held at high port ready to bring up to his shoulder to sight at any target that presented itself, and under his left armpit was the standard issue Sig P996 pistol. On his left forearm was strapped the Howell combat knife which completed his armament.
His NI had connected with the computer in the Rapier, which gave a HUD that showed all relevant data pertaining to his present mission, such as weather conditions, ground conditions and com. channels which were established before the drop.
The chamber was underground and the entrance before him was left unguarded which he thought strange. Did that mean they were too late and the terrorists had left, or that the Intel was false and they had the wrong location? Or maybe they were walking into a trap.
There was only one way to find out. He had to go on into the chamber to learn the answer.
“I’m going forward into the entrance. Will report back my findings as soon as possible,” he said, sub-vocalising so that he couldn’t be overheard by any concealed mic or anyone hidden from view.
Bringing up his Remm assault rifle to his shoulder and sighting down the barrel he stepped forward into the shadows of the entrance.
The entrance itself was an arch just over seven feet high so he didn’t have to stoop down to get through. Aiming his Remm assault rifle ahead of him he proceeded down the dark tunnel, his Rapier battle helmet automatically switching to night vision so that the ambient light was ramped up and everything seemed to be bathed in a greenish glow.
As he got deeper into the chamber he began to hear what sounded like voices coming from further within.
He advanced cautiously; acutely conscious that he had no cover now that he was in the chamber heading for the main section. If anyone came out towards the entrance they were bound to see him.
Slowing to a crawl, he carefully continued forwards aiming his Remm assault rifle ahead of him ready for any sign of a terrorist approach.
The chamber suddenly opened out before him into a cavernous area. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the reason behind the voices he’d heard.
Before him in the centre of the chamber was a small table set up with a monitor on top of a computer terminal. Around it were various pieces of equipment, which he couldn’t quite make out because of the distance between them. They were being obscured by the two guards with assault rifles who were on a constant vigil over the man between them, who was talking to the face on the monitor screen.
The moment he saw the two guards he dropped to the floor on his stomach with his assault rifle stretched out before him as he sighted down the muzzle. He was confident that his presence had gone unnoticed by the guards. At that particular moment he was more interested in discovering who the third man was.
Before setting out for this base he had viewed all the files pertaining to the terrorist cell he had been told operated from there, and so far he had not recognised the stranger.
Admittedly, at that point he had only seen the back of the man’s head and a partial glimpse of the side of his face, but from the files he knew the size and shape of the main players and, although this man looked and acted like a main player, he wasn’t on file as one.
Even though his Rapier helmet boosted the sound via a directional mic he could still only hear snatches of the conversation.
He had to get closer.
First he had to report in his findings and he had to do it without the guards’ knowledge. Sub-vocalising to prevent them from hearing, he said, “I have visual on two armed guards and one man who appears to be in charge. He is in contact with another via a computer link. No others have been sighted at this time.”
“What action is being taken?” asked the commander of the mission, Colonel De Boer. He stood six feet three inches tall with a strong, lean body honed through hard exercise during his many years in Recon Delta. Blond hair that was almost white and a strong jawline harked back to his Dutch ancestry, as did the steel blue eyes that watched his men avidly from a rugged face that rarely smiled. He was a veteran of the Recon Delta marines and someone who through his career had gained the trust and respect of the men who served under him. Those above too, especially General Sinclair who was in command of all the Recon Delta marines’ missions as well as being the head of the Intelligence Division of Col Sec. Sinclair personally picked De Boer to command this mission and he had also chosen the operative who was on the ground at the moment, at the sharp end as it were, Captain Matthew Hawk. It had been Hawk who had commanded the rescue mission that brought Kurt Stryder back from Alliance space a few days previousl
y and since then he had been back on Earth, filing reports and being debriefed over that particular mission.
This was his first chance to get out of the office and see some action since then.
“None that I can see at this time. The other seems to be talking with someone through the computer link via a monitor. I can’t make out what the conversation is about but it seems important,” replied Hawk.
“Okay, keep me informed of any developments, stay on station while we decide what action to take,” De Boer said and broke the connection.
“I don’t seem to have much choice in the matter just now,” Hawk said to himself sarcastically.
The guards must’ve been using a scanner set on infrared because they suddenly seemed to become aware of his presence near the entrance to the chamber. One of them turned to speak to the man who was talking through the computer link and said something Hawk couldn’t quite hear, but the meaning was explicit, they had found an intruder.
The third man, who was clearly in charge, beckoned for the guards to take care of the situation and they began to advance on Hawk’s position.
“I may have a spot of bother here, I think they’ve found me,” Hawk sub-vocalised through the com. link.
“Do not; I repeat do not engage or give away your position until we have secured the location. We have your back-up routed to your location and will be there in ten minutes, until then you are ordered to stand down. Is that clear?” replied De Boer.
“Perfectly sir,” Hawk said, but De Boer perceived the lack of conviction in his words.
“Don’t do anything rash and jeopardise the mission Captain Hawk. I’ve heard of your reputation, so I know what you are capable of. Follow your orders,” he said.
“Gotta go, got two guards bearing down on me,” Hawk said. Quickly looking around for somewhere to conceal himself from the guards he realised there was nowhere, especially if they had located him with a scanner. Wherever he went they would find him and before the ten minute deadline.
