The MinSha tilted his head and tapped the shiny, new silver eagles she wore on her right shoulder with his foreclaw. “Congratulations, Colonel Mason.”
Tara flushed. “This whole arrangement is still a little weird. But, we’ll make it work, I suppose.”
“Very well,” the MinSha’s antennae waggled in amusement. “Then we can get down to work. Please, would you walk with me?”
They walked toward the Victoria Forces main hangar complex, Tara falling in on Tirr’s left out of respect and habit. As she did, his words echoed in her mind.
“We?” Tara blinked. “You said we can get down to work. Are you staying?”
“No, Tara,” Tier replied. “Am I to understand you’ve started a new corporation?”
She sighed. “I needed forces. What else was I supposed to do?”
Tirr waved his foreclaws and laughed. For the first time, Tara realized he was speaking English without a translator. “Please do not mistake my question for sarcasm, I am unfamiliar with that particular nuance of your language. I simply meant you have taken this mission in a way unexpected by myself and the Peacemaker Guild. I believe Jessica would be proud.”
“Thank you.” Tara blushed. The compliment gave her a sense of pride she’d never felt before. “This was almost a great loss.”
“Your kind calls this a Pyrrhic victory. A victory at great cost,” Tirr said. “From what I have gathered, this was not a typical combat operation. There are aspects of their attack that make no sense and are troublesome.”
Tara nodded. “The Cochkala missiles and their skiffs were deadly.”
“And their tactics were duplicitous. They waged a war with unknown superior weapons and could have taken the field, but they delayed to perpetrate a heist of the Cartography Guild forward office.” Tirr shook his head, letting his antennae bob from side to side. “I am uncertain what the intent was.”
Tara squinted. “We believe they wanted a classified server.”
“Why didn’t they simply transmit the data?” Tirr asked.
Tara felt her mouth drop open. “You’re saying the whole thing was a ruse?”
“Potentially,” Tirr replied. “We’ll get to the bottom of it over the next few days. You have some time until your Peacemakers are able to launch and transition to hyperspace. Once you jump away and begin your search in earnest, I will determine what happened to the best of my abilities.”
“Which, I hear, are the best in the business.”
“I am not one to brag, but yes.” Tirr laughed. His face became serious. Tara saw her reflection in his compound eyes. “You cannot put off your mission, Tara.”
“I’m not, Tirr. I have to have the infrastructure here to make it work.” Tara looked around at the soldiers, her employees, moving materiel and clearing the detritus of war from the spaceport. “We have a lot of work to do.”
“Work that doesn’t take all of your force to complete,” Tirr said. “I am reminded of one of your Human generals, an incredible sonuvabitch, to turn a phrase, who said he would take a good plan executed today versus a perfect plan executed in the future.”
Tara sighed and smiled. “Patton. George S. Patton.”
“Was he correct?”
Tara wanted to argue. She wanted to say her infrastructure and business operations on Victoria were more important than the mission to find Snowman, but she knew at her core that Tirr was right. The mission was all that mattered. A business might earn her enough credits for retirement, but her first priority had to be the mission for which she’d been deputized.
I have to find Snowman.
“You’re right, Tirr.” She wiped something from her right eye. “I have to entrust the infrastructure to someone else and do what I’ve been tasked to do.”
Tirr nodded, and his antenna bobbed forward with respect. “You are a credible commander, Tara Mason. You do yourself and your unit proud.”
She met his eyes. “What about these people? These facilities and all this equipment? How do I decide what I can take?”
“The first step, usually, is understanding what options you have for travel. I brought along two ships that are yours if you want them, compliments of Queen Taal, provided I can take Victory Twelve. There is a need for duplicity in order for us to find Jessica’s father, protect the Peacemaker Guild, and eliminate Kr’et’Socae.”
Tara nodded. The ominous figure in the shadows, the disgraced Enforcer, occupied a worrisome place in her thoughts. “Maarg let me know the plan, and I am in agreement. Jessica would be fine with your taking Victory Twelve and Lucille.”
Tirr’s antennae waggled. “You have Lucille aboard your CASPer and Victory Twelve?”
“Yes. She’s the same copy but operating in two different places.”
“I see. We must change that. Download her solely to your vehicles and interfaces. Victory Twelve must be clear for what I have in mind.”
Tara squinted at him. “And what is that?”
“I’m sorry, Tara. That’s need-to-know and protected by Guild Master Rsach. I can assure you Jessica is aware of the mission and will be reunited with her ship soon.” Tirr nodded theatrically. “You and your forces will have more than enough room aboard your new accommodations.”
Tara nodded. “What do what owe Queen Taal for this, Tirr?”
“You don’t, Tara. This is a gift so you can accomplish your mission and help Jessica unite the galaxy against threats from the outside.”
“There are threats from the outside?” Tara asked, genuinely surprised. “I thought the enemies were all around us.”
“Only if you cannot see the forest for the trees,” Tirr replied. “As for your forces, how you handle them is simple. Talk to them. Be the one in charge. They are waiting for you.”
Tirr stopped abruptly and waved a hand toward a group of personnel sitting in a loose circle. Familiar and new faces engaged in the classic soldierly games of telling stories and laughing during a down moment. Seeing them, the young dark-haired CASPer pilot Tara knew as Mata stood and snapped to attention.
Mata took a visibly deep breath and yelled, “Group! Attention!”
Almost as one, the group stood, faced Tara and Tirr, and snapped to attention. Tara flushed with pride at seeing them. She nodded to Lieutenant Whirr, the MinSha infantry commander, who returned the nod with a tap of one foreclaw to her carapace. She saw the dropship pilot, Carter, the CASPer commander, Vuong, and two of his lieutenants she did not recognize. The young mechanic, Morris, recently promoted to second lieutenant, stood with his remaining team members, including a tall brunette named Signes who looked younger than her seventeen years. The veterans of Victoria Forces stood intermixed with several aliens and Humans she’d never met before. In the center, propped up on a stretcher, his head in bandages, lay Colonel Ibson with a smile on his face. That he’d been pulled alive from the rubble of the command center surprised everyone, except him. She hoped to talk him into joining the company when he recovered.
Looks like you pushed my timetable, Colonel. Tara smiled at him. Hope you’ll take the job—I need an operations officer who has their shit together to stay here and keep things running.
In the center of the group stood an Oogar. The three-meter-tall purple bear stood with its massive arms at its sides, and she could see the tips of its claws nearly touching its knees. To the bear’s right was a short, pudgy Human with dark hair and a wicked grin on his face. On the other side of the Oogar was a Pushtal. The muscular tiger analog nodded approvingly at her. Maarg stood with them. The TriRusk, previously believed to be lost, were now returned to the Galactic Union. The secret was out, for better or worse.
Bukk moved out from behind the imposing shadow of the Oogar and tapped his carapace. “Colonel Mason. Your officers are gathered.”
Tara grunted through a smile. “You’re a motley crew if there ever was one.”
A few of them chuckled. Maarg smiled at her. “Permission to be at ease, ma’am? Humans might like standing still, but some
of us would rather move freely.”
The group laughed, Tara included. She waved a hand. “At ease, at ease. I’m not one for ceremony. I like to move freely, too.”
There was an appreciative sigh in the collected group. She paused and looked at them. Expectant faces and respectful smiles stared back at her. She saw potential. What they saw mattered just as much.
“You’ve met Bukk, the company’s Chief Operating Officer. Many of you have met Mister Alison, our Chief Financial Officer. The three of us are happy to have you on board. Knowing Bukk as well as I do, I assume he’s told you our mission. I would tell you something like this hasn’t been done before, but that would be a lie. There’s no secret about what will make us succeed. I will give you everything I have as a leader. I expect you to do the same for me. I will tell you where you stand at all times, and I expect you to keep me from living in a vacuum. I expect you to work together without regard to the characteristics that make us different. I expect you to focus on the thing that makes us all the same. You are part of a unit now—our unit. And our unit has a unique mission, an even more unique story of inception, and two Peacemakers along for the ride. Once Peacemakers Rains and Vannix are medically cleared, I’ll be leading most of you on a search for a man many of you know by reputation alone. James Edward Francis, known as Snowman, is the President and Chief Executive of Intergalactic Haulers. He is the father of Jessica Francis, Earth’s first Peacemaker. We have to find him before the Mercenary Guild does, specifically, a name many of you will recognize: Kr’et’Socae.”
There was a murmur in the group. The Oogar rumbled. “The disgraced Enforcer Kr’et’Socae, Commander? The murderer of Drecht-Four?”
Tara nodded. “That’s the one. But he is not the only threat. We lack full intelligence on the situation, but that cannot stop our search. Those of you remaining here will spearhead that effort while securing this planet from further attack. Our citizens have seen enough war. Those of you on the maneuvering end of this operation will put your lives on the line every day. The Mercenary Guild has decided to make Humans their enemy. Our target is a Human, which makes him one of the most wanted citizens in the galaxy. But, and I want to stress this, we are not bounty hunters. We are a combat operational force deputized by the Peacemaker Guild and employed by the Government of Victoria to accomplish our mission for the betterment of the Union. We are more than a mercenary force, and we will act accordingly. Credits will not be our sole motivator. For there to truly be peace in the galaxy, the Peacemakers need us, and we will support them.”
The portly Human raised his right hand, and Tara nodded at him. “Harmon Gray, ma’am, Commander of Gray’s Goblins. Well, at least what’s left of the Goblins. I have a question.”
The man drawled like Jessica tended to do when she was tired. His accent was from somewhere north of Georgia, but she couldn’t quite place it. Most Southerners sounded the same to Tara’s Plains ears. The man’s name was familiar, though. She’d had an offer of employment from his father twenty years before.
How the galaxy turns.
“Shoot,” she replied.
“Who’s us?” Gray asked, looking at the collected group.
Tara looked at Bukk, Maarg, and the rest of them with a widening smile. Her eyes fell on Ibson who sat up a little straighter.
“Welcome to Force Two Five,” Ibson said. The group let out a roar that echoed off the hangar walls and filled Tara’s heart with joy.
* * *
Temporary Headquarters of the Peacemaker Guild
Location CLASSIFIED
“So, by the time I read this, Force Two Five will have left on their search?” Rsach squinted over the top edge of his slate at Selector Hak-Chet. The older Sidar stood with his hands clasped across his bulbous abdomen. The look on his face was troubled. “And Peacemaker Rains is certain Kr’et’Socae was at Araf?”
“That is the case, Guild Master,” Hak-Chet replied. “It was one thing to have a fugitive boogeyman who stayed out of the limelight and away from directly threatening the guild. It’s another to have someone seemingly playing multiple avenues toward revenge.”
Rsach nodded. “If it were simply revenge, I believe he would have already jumped here and attempted to murder us all for what we did to him.”
“You said an example had to be made.”
“I was wrong,” Rsach said. “We didn’t need to rule the Enforcers with an iron fist. Hr’ent showed us that in his final actions. He served with honor, and we treated him with honor. We threw his protégé to the wolves and punished him severely. We were fools to think he would not seek revenge.”
Hak-Chet nodded. “And what do we do, Guild Master?”
Rsach looked up. “Cut the passive act, Hak-Chet. I need my old friend who threw strange ideas of Human Peacemakers and Pushtal Enforcers at me to push my boundaries rather than someone wringing their hands and acting as if they’ve pissed me off and are waiting for me to order their execution. You have answers. At the very least you have suggestions, and I would hear them.”
Hak-Chet smiled and spread his hands. “Kr’et’Socae is not the only player. The Dream World Consortium also seeks revenge, and they’ve chosen to go after something that doesn’t matter to them but matters, on a personal level, to one of our own. While we must act in the interests of the guild over an individual, we cannot allow a personal attack on our own. I believe the Enforcers must be activated for combat operations at once.”
Rsach’s furry eyebrows rose and a ripple went down his contorting body. “I have been waiting for someone to make that request. You know my position on this.”
“I do,” Hak-Chet replied. “And I am well aware that you will disagree with me for the next ten minutes before eventually agreeing with my arguments. The situation merits an appropriate response.”
“Who? Who did you send, old friend?”
“Let’s just say I’ve sent an associate of our prey and I have a recommendation for someone Kr’et’Socae will never expect,” Hak-Chet replied. “The game is afoot, so to speak, Guild Master. If we can spring the trap, our greatest weakness will be removed just as the drums of war sound.”
“If he acts for the highest bidder, he will be easy to follow. Stopping him may be something else entirely,” Rsach said. “Only Hr’ent was strong enough to physically put Kr’et’Socae in his place.”
“Perhaps.” Hak-Chet smiled. “But there are two actions I need you to approve to make this happen.”
“Those being what?” Rsach leaned forward, genuinely surprised.
“First, I would ask you to be prepared to recall Lieutenant Francis the moment we have a positive lead on her father’s whereabouts. There will be no stopping her if he is in danger.”
“Agreed. Your second request?”
“Allow an old friend to do something audacious.” Hak-Chet smiled. “When the time comes, there is a matter several decades old that bears addressing.”
Rsach sighed. “I assume you know what you’re doing, old friend.”
Hak-Chet laughed. “I do. I remind you that Lieutenant Colonel Tirr and I know what we are doing. As do Captains Kurrang and Dreel on their mission. I’m reasonably sure we won’t have to wait long for results. If Kr’et’Socae really has monitored Jackson Rains’ movement for the last eight months, he has enough data to figure out that our guild has initiated contingency procedures. From there, he’ll simply do the math.”
“He won’t find Snowman first?”
“That endeavor, for him, would purely be about credits. He has a funding source now, and that will make him seriously consider a more dangerous course of action. He’ll search for Snowman, and he stands a good chance of finding him. But that…” Hak-Chet laughed. “Sorry, Guild Master. I channeled Peacemaker Francis for a moment and about called Kr’et’Socae a fucker.”
“Heh.” Rsach laughed. “That fucker would do what, Selector?”
The smile on Hak-Chet’s elongated face faded quickly. He locked eyes with his friend an
d softly said, “He’ll come for you. I respectfully suggest we make ready for him.”
* * * * *
Epilogue
Taal’s Fury
Hyperspace—92.56 hour remaining
Destination: Snowmass
For a TriRusk, Maarg took to the freefall of microgravity with great ease. Moving her mass gracefully through the passages and accessways of the MinSha flagship gave her endless pleasure. Compared to the tight quarters of Victory Twelve, her only other experience in hyperspace flight, Taal’s Fury was a vast open space. Yet, in her hurry, she managed to resist the impulse to launch herself up through the bridge access tube with the spinning pirouette she’d learned from Vannix two days before. As the little Veetanho Peacemaker confided, there was no rule against having fun when no one was looking.
“How close are you?” Vannix’s voice chirped in Maarg’s earpiece. Despite the ship’s vast communications network, the core team maintained a separate interpersonal connection.
“Almost there. The whole intel team is present?”
“Affirmative, except for Jackson. He’s off-shift and resting. I’ll brief him later.” Vannix replied. “Where did you say you found this file?”
“In the Haulers archive. As near as I can tell it’s a voice transcription of an encounter Snowman had on Snowmass fifty-five years ago,” Maarg replied as she passed the halfway point to the bridge. “Once the initial encryption broke, it was the first thing I found.”
“We needed a little good luck,” Vannix replied. “Have you listened to it?”
“No. I think the team needs to hear it together. It might give us a clue for what we’re facing when we get there.”
Maarg slowed her approach to the bridge access portal by touching the walls and exposed handholds of the tube. At the entrance, with her velocity nulled almost to zero, Maarg ducked inside the main bridge and met the eyes of Force 25’s dedicated intelligence team. With the bridge crew excused for the moment, only Peacemaker Vannix, the Oogar Quintaa, the MinSha Lieutenant Whirr and Tara Mason remained.
Deathangel Page 33
