The Col Sec Chronicles Box Set

by Jan Domagala

“Let me help,” she said.

  “Oh don’t worry, we need every able body we have and from what I gather, you are probably more able bodied than all of us, with the possible exception of Kurt,” Sinclair said.

  Zara’s expression was one of complete surprise. How did he know, who had told him? she thought. “I don’t know what you mean sir,” she said glancing at Matt who wore the same surprised expression as she.

  “We all know what I am referring to Zara but we can discuss this further once this is all over. The time for subterfuge is over I think, don’t you?” Sinclair said looking her straight in the eye, holding her gaze like that of a cobra before striking.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about sir but I agree that you need every hand you can muster,” Zara replied as calmly as she could. She held his gaze, determined not to blink first. She knew of Sinclair’s reputation and she didn’t want to fuel his already loaded suspicions.

  “First things first, as they say,” Sinclair said and Matt said, “I’ll get the evacuation under way sir.”

  *****

  “Get comfortable Able, can I call you Able? Of course I can, I have the gun. Take a seat, it won’t be long now,” Norsky said.

  Able Rand had met most of the high rolling company CEO’s from most of the huge MegaCorp’s from around the galaxy but this man was showing confidence that was unheard of. It was almost like he knew he could not fail, or worse still, he could not be hurt. It was a dangerous character trait for it led him to believe he was deranged, unbalanced. This led to other questions such as what were his chances of survival. He made no assurances to Kurt that he would let anyone go free so what exactly was this man’s plan? After receiving the call from Kurt he knew that rescue was at hand, he just hoped he knew what he was getting into.

  Able sat at the desk and tried to relax. He had been in high pressure environments before, so he knew how to remain calm under duress but never one where his very life was at stake. He found this whole thing stimulating in a perverse way.

  “That’s better; Kurt should be here very soon. He won’t keep me waiting too long, there’s too much at stake here,” Norsky said.

  “What exactly is at stake here, I mean what is your plan? You do have a plan don’t you?” Able asked wondering what was about to happen. If this man was as deranged as he suspected then there could be more to this than just a terrorist attack. He wondered what the motivation was when Norsky called Col Sec HQ and wanted Kurt to come here. Was this just personal between the two of them, he thought not, like he had said, there was too much at stake. But what, exactly, what was about to happen?

  “My plan is none of your business,” Norsky said smiling that slightly manic smile of his.

  “Oh I see,” Able said nodding his head slightly, “You really are in trouble now aren’t you?” he added.

  Norsky’s smile faded as he took in what had been said, he walked over to the desk and as nonchalantly as he could he leaned against it and said, “And what do you mean by that?”

  “Your statement earlier, about your plan being none of my business is usually what someone who has no plan says, someone who has bungled his way into a situation that, at the time seemed like a good idea but when it came down to it, left them royally screwed. Let me guess, this whole thing wasn’t your idea at all was it, you’re acting under orders from someone else who actually holds the power, aren’t you?”

  Norsky pushed himself off the desk to stroll off toward the window. Those words had had a sting of truth in them he found hard to reconcile with. Instead he said, “You have no idea what you’re talking about old man.”

  “Oh I think I do. I think I hit the nail on the head with that one.”

  “You may be right about this not being entirely my plan, I’ll grant you that but I’m still in charge here.”

  “Are you, really? Think about it for a minute, you have to know that what Kurt told you was right. You are not in control here, at best you are trapped with several people here that if injured will bring you life imprisonment in a penal colony. The mere act of how you came here was a violation of so many Confederation codes and laws that you will end up in a penal colony for the rest of your natural life, that’s if you actually survive this. That being said, you have to ask yourself one question, what is really going on here?”

  Norsky’s eyes blazed with a passion and hatred that made Able sit back in his seat. “I’ll tell you what is going on here; I’m going to face off against the one man who has ruined my life, Kurt Stryder. He’s coming here to try and stop me from killing you and whoever is left up here. I couldn’t give a damn about any of that. All I care about is getting to look him in the eye before I take him away and hand him over to those who are running this operation. You were right, I am following orders and who issued those orders are attacking Col Sec as we speak so there will be no rescue, no one will come to help Kurt stop me from doing what I set out to do. Kurt will come willingly with me you see because at heart he is what you would call, a good man. He won’t allow me to harm you or anyone else here so he will unthinkingly sacrifice himself for your lives. My victory will be complete when I hand him over knowing what they have in store for him.”

  Able was speechless for a moment, this had been a diversion all along for the main strike against Col Sec. This was another incident like the Nemesis attack that devastated New York not so long ago. How many more lives will be lost in this new attack, he wondered.

  “Do you feel any better now that you know?” Norsky asked, his smile returning but this time a little more manic and a little more unsteady. It was clear that his grasp on his sanity was a tenuous one at best and Able thought better of antagonising him further. He simply stared at him and hoped that Kurt was prepared for what Norsky had in mind for him.

  27

  Matt had set the evacuation in progress by triggering the silent alarms that were sent directly to the NI’s of the staff working in the HQ. Everyone who had been working there filtered down through the levels to the very bottom where the evacuation tunnels were situated. These were a precaution that had been built into the base after the attack on the Confederation Building in New York by OMEGA. Sinclair thought that should another attack occur then they would need an escape route, one that was easy to access and that took them away from the danger. The system comprised of five tunnels situated on the deepest level of the new base. These five tunnels ran horizontally away from the base for a mile where they ended at a huge elevator that took the evacuees to the surface. Each elevator could hold fifty people and was powered by a series of hydraulic rams that pushed the elevator to the surface where those inside could climb out through a hatch in the roof via a ladder. The elevator would stop level with the surface and a concealed cover over the shaft would slide open revealing the hatch in the top of the elevator. In this way the evacuation tunnels could not be detected by scans from above.

  By the time the staff from the upper levels reached the tunnels those who had been working on the levels below them had already evacuated so there was no backlog. Matt, General Sinclair and Zara along with a detachment of Recon Delta marines who were stationed at the HQ as security were the only ones left there. It was up to them to defend it.

  When Matt was sure everyone in the base had received the signal and were on their way to the tunnels he turned to Sinclair and said, “Sir they’re on the way to the tunnels. There is no one left in the path of the Rover5’s

  *****

  As Hermes and his team of Rover5’s had entered the upper levels of the HQ they had encountered moderate resistance from some security staff armed with small arms and then suddenly everyone just seemed to vanish.

  “Where is everyone, this place is supposed to be teeming with people?” he said. The Rover5 next to him held a portable tracker that he was using to scan for life signs inside the building. “Everyone is moving down through the lower levels toward the bottom,” he reported.

  “Excellent, they’re making it easier for us,�
�� he said with a vicious smile. Through his NI he contacted those Rover5’s left on the surface. He said, “Deploy the device; I want this entire base sealed off. No one gets out, ever.”

  *****

  Colonel De Boer was sitting on the troop carrier, a Hurricane C230 with the rest of the troops he was taking with him from Fort Bragg. He was anxious, because the time it would take to get to the HQ was prohibitive of effectively mounting a defence for it. He knew that, the troops also knew that but they all knew that they had to try. The C230 was the fastest troop carrier in their arsenal, with a top speed of over six hundred miles an hour but it would still take them just under three hours to reach the HQ. An awful lot could happen in that time and that was the basis of his fears.

  They were still over an hour and a half away from their destination and he used his NI to contact the flight commander of Red Wing, one of the fighter wings that were also stationed at Fort Bragg. They had been scrambled the same moment that Colonel De Boer had alerted his men to the attack. They would have used a Wing based at Nellis, a much closer base but comm. links were down in that area, obviously to give the attacking forces more time to execute their plan.

  “Commander what’s the status of your men?” he said using his NI.

  Commander Mark Travis was one of the youngest fighter pilots to ever have earned the command of a flight wing. At age twenty four he had been in command of Red Wing for the past three years. Of medium height he was slim but incredibly fit and his eye-hand co-ordination was still one of the top three in Col Sec. His boyish good looks had earned him a string of admirers amongst the female population on Fort Bragg’s huge complex which he dismissed with the normal self deprecating humour which belied his enormous self confidence. Blonde hair so fair it was almost white was hidden at that moment beneath his flight helmet as his bright blue eyes glanced across the instruments of his F215 Hornet through the visor. His NI was tuned into the flight controls of the plane which helped his already awesome hand-eye co-ordination speed in any combat situation. In a calm voice he replied, “We’re less than half an hour away from our destination Colonel. We’ll soften them up ready for your arrival,”

  *****

  Kurt reached the Penthouse at the end of the corridor away from where Norsky was holding Able Rand in his office. He took off his helmet and placed it on the nearest table, just inside of an office he was passing by. Then he continued toward the far end of the corridor. He could hear voices not too far away and if he tried really hard he could even pick up the sound of heartbeats. Four of them sounded normal for the situation, a little fast maybe but that was to be expected concerning the stress they were under. These were Able; Josh and Jess Rand with Mitch Ryan. The fifth one though, was strong and steady and unnervingly calm considering how much hatred there was in it. This was Norsky’s, it had to be. Only someone with the same abilities as he had could have a heartbeat like that.

  He stopped and waited, the timing for what he had planned was vital, everything had to be in place before he could continue.

  *****

  Jake and the rest of his team were about to drop from the forward section of the Pulsar. The craft hovered over the RandCorp HQ building ready for them to rappel down to the ground. The entire area had been cordoned off by the local Constabulary and armed Constables all lined the perimeter waiting for them to arrive.

  “Okay Artie, you know what to do,” Jake said as he applied the line to his belt and stood facing the interior of the craft in the hatch. Torres; Vance and Cooper all stood next to him ready to drop.

  “I do indeed sir,” replied the AI.

  The Wildfire Team pushed off and rappelled down to the ground, all of them eager to get this mission under way.

  28

  The Lempinski was in stationary orbit above the Nevada desert over where the shuttle had landed at Area 15. They were ordered to remain there should the ground forces needed covering fire until they had completed their mission.

  Artie approached the starship under a stealth shield so that the Pulsar could remain undetected. On the approach the AI had scanned the ship for her defence capabilities and what her armaments comprised of. With all the data compiled the AI dropped the Pulsar’s stealth shield and attacked.

  The main body of the Pulsar was not quite as big as the Lempinski but her battle capabilities far outweighed those of the OMEGA ship.

  The moment the Pulsar became visible on the larger crafts scanners they began to raise their defence shields but by that time it was too late. The Pulsar’s AI had already fired a brace of missiles from forward missile tubes and they were seconds away from impact. The target had been the shield generators and when the two missiles impacted on the hull the resulting explosions tore huge holes in the hull which destroyed two decks, the shield generators and more importantly anyone in the vicinity.

  The Pulsar’s forward pulse cannons raked the side of the Lempinski with high energy pulsed plasma bolts creating further damage to the ship.

  Explosions erupted up and down the flank of the Lempinski where the pulsed plasma bolts struck. With the shields being down the ship was easy prey to the faster, more powerful Pulsar.

  On the bridge of the Lempinski the captain was barking orders out to the crew. “Get those shields up, we’re sitting ducks here. Helm, take evasive action, get us away from that craft. Weps, return fire with everything we’ve got,” he shouted as he moved from one station to the next. Inside the craft with all the explosions erupting throughout the vessel the crew were being thrown around like rag dolls as they attempted to go about their duties.

  Missiles were fired from the Lempinski’s aft missile tubes. The Pulsar’s AI saw them being fired and fired counter measures, a series of small missiles fired from a rotating barrel similar to a Gatling gun from four centuries before. The small missiles targeted the incoming fire from the Lempinski and blew them apart before they had time to get close enough to cause any damage. Once they were destroyed the AI moved the Pulsar around the Lempinski and began firing from a different angle. The engines were disabled with a salvo from the Pulsar’s forward pulse canons followed by a brace of missiles. The resulting explosions almost tore the rear off the starship which put them dead in space.

  Escape Pods were jettisoned shortly after from all down the flanks of the disabled craft which headed toward the planet below. Artie extrapolated the trajectory of each Pod and knew where they were all headed.

  “Commander of Red Wing you have incoming,” Artie told the commander of the fighter wing about to reach their objective.

  Commander Mark Travis’s NI recognised the signal as a Col Sec Priority coded communication so he acted upon it. He immediately warned the rest of Red Wing to watch for enemy action as they all approached the target area.

  The onboard sensors swept the area before them and picked up ground forces that had set up Anti-Aircraft pulse cannons around a shuttle that was parked on the landing pad at Area 15. These would be the priority target, they would have to take these out first so that when the Colonel arrived with the re-enforcements they could deploy safely.

  Suddenly, as they were about to make their first attacking run the sensors indicated a threat from above.

  When Travis saw the threat he knew exactly what the signal had meant and ordered his men to take the appropriate action.

  The entire wing all veered off from their attack run to avoid being hit by the plummeting Pods that slammed into the ground. Onboard inertial dampeners had prevented the occupants from being crushed by the impact with the ground and the Pods opened to deploy a further contingent of clones all armed with Remm pulse rifles. They all ran toward the defence forces that had been set up and began firing at the fighter jets as they turned back to continue their initial attack run.

  Withering fire from the ground struck the first F215 Hornet as it swooped too close. The plasma bolts raked down the length of the sleek craft causing damage wherever they touched. The kinetic force from the impacts threw the trajectory
off and sent it into a vicious spin that the pilot could not control. The small craft was too close to the ground to power out of the dive and it smashed into the dusty desert a few hundred yards away from Area 15 in a fiery explosion that could be seen for miles.

  Travis and the other four pilots managed to avoid being hit from anymore ground fire as they turned away to rethink their attack. Travis spun his F215 Hornet back toward the target area and immediately fired two Hellfire missiles the second the target was acquired by the onboard computer. This act was copied by the rest of the wing and within seconds of them firing, the eight missiles were streaking toward their targets.

  The ground forces tried to lock onto the incoming missiles with the Anti-Aircraft pulse cannons but the Hellfire’s had been equipped with tremblers, a new development by RandCorp which distorted any signal that attempted to lock on to them.

  Three of the missiles slammed into the first of the ground forces defences destroying it in a paroxysm of flame and exploding shrapnel, blood and bone as two more struck the shuttle blowing that apart too. The last three missiles struck another of the Anti-Aircraft pulse cannons with similar effect as the first.

  Travis and his wing came in fast firing pulse cannons at the ground forces that had remained incredibly focussed, refusing to run in the face of utter destruction instead, choosing to remain and fight. Any commander would have been proud of the spirit these clones displayed, they showed true bravery.

  Several of the clones were torn apart by the incoming fire from the F215’s whilst still others fired back scoring direct hits on two more of the attacking jets. These jets were sent spinning off into the desert to crash as their comrade had done earlier. That left Travis and two more F215’s who after reaching a safe distance, once more fired Hellfire missiles at the ground forces. The six missiles soon covered the distance between them and the target destroying what was left of the valiant resistance the clones had put up.