by T. R. Harris
In spite of the haphazard nature of the mission, the one thing the team had going for them was excellent intel. The native Enif were constantly feeding the Humans information about the current crisis, and because of this, Zac knew the location where the hostages were being held. It was the main assembly building for the planet’s government called the Minorial Center, located at the south end of the enormous Endorus Relay Complex. He had intimate details of the building, all the way down to the foundation specs and wiring diagrams. Also, video was smuggled out showing the conditions the prisoners endured, as well as pinpointing the location of the Premier and his Secretaries within the structure. Zac figured that if they could rescue the leader, then the mission would be at least a symbolic victory, regardless of what happens to the other hostages. He still wasn’t anxious to sacrifice his life—or the lives of his team—on behalf of low-ranking, mealy-mouthed politicians who would more-than-likely be voted out of office in the next election.
Fortunately—or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it—Zac was familiar with the area surrounding the admin building. It was at the Endorus Relay Complex where he’d been forced to compete against three Antaere REVs in a maze of death. The contest was broadcast across the Grid and helped to cement Zac’s reputation as a badass Human warrior. Even so, the experience nearly killed him.
The team also had updated reports on where the Ha’curn were stationed within the Complex. They filled the grounds, with approximately forty in the Minorial Center itself. They rotated shifts around the clock on a regular basis with no part of the day or night covered less than the other. The plan called for a quick strike on the main building, followed by a herding of the hostages through a local gate in the surrounding wall to a group of waiting natives who would spirit them away to safety. The city of Nurin had a population of three million and, at the moment, was a chaotic mess of roving gangs of protesters and opposing security forces ready to shoot anyone who looked cross-eyed at them. Once away from the Endorus Complex, the hostages should be safe, since it wouldn’t be practical for the Antaere or Ha’curn to do a hard-target search in such a volatile environment.
The problem for Zac and his team was how to move that many people from the building to the gate without getting their asses shot off. But that wasn’t Zac’s only concern. It was the Ha’curn themselves. They loved to fight, preferring to use their claws, teeth and sharpened headplates rather than their energy weapons. They would welcome the chance to go up against the REVs. And they had no fear. Zac had first-hand experience fighting Ha’curn on Borin-Noc when they invaded the mountain REV base located there. Granted, it was a standard AC-3 REV base, and not one full of naturals. But it was a REV base, nonetheless. And still, the damn killer cats attacked, sacrificing a fair number of their troops to prove they weren’t afraid of the REVs.
The key would be for Zac and his REVs would be to get into the Minorial building—and with a clear exit strategy—before the fighting started. If they were detected prior to that, then it just might turn into a suicide mission after all.
Zac watched with curiosity as a pair of huge, gangly service cranes made their way toward the freighter. They were automated contraptions and were to be used as cover for the team to leave the starship. Zac ordered the cargo hold opened, and soon floodlights and ungodly loud noise filled the ship, as huge grippers set to work removing the cargo from aboard the freighter.
In the noise and confusion, the REVs slipped out the back, sprinting between the towering metal cranes for the cover of darkness at the edge of the field. Their native compatriots were waiting for them at the fence bordering a rundown neighborhood of cluster housing and assorted shacks inhabited by people who had no choice but to tolerate the constant noise and light of the nearby spaceport. At a hole cut in the surrounding wire fencing, a pair of pale-green-skinned aliens in cloaks were waiting for them.
“We must hurry,” said one of the Enif, his voice sounding through Zac’s translation device buried behind his right ear. “The Ha’curn have already killed four of the hostages because of insubordination, as they called it. They broadcast the killings. Vehicles are waiting. Although there is a curfew, we have a safe route detailed.”
The team scurried through the fence before jumping into the backs of two small electric vans. Croft drove one, while Zac took the other, with each of their designated teams going with them. They had small throat mics and earphones for communication.
The lead native leaned into the cab and gave Zac a datapad. “You must follow this path precisely. We are tracking the movements of the security forces. To deviate will result in detection.”
“Understood,” Zac said. “We’ll be taking the hostages out at the Bendesf Gate.”
“That is what we have planned, as well. There are vehicles hidden near the gate with drivers. Even so, that is where most of the Ha’curn are to be found. You must be careful.”
“Careful is my middle name,” Zac said with a grin.
“That is a strange name, and surely a coincidence.”
Zac nodded. “Yes, to both, my friend. Thank you for helping.”
“Your help is what we give thanks for. It has been hard here on Enif recently.”
“Mr. Croft,” Zac said into his comm, “follow me out. Stay close. It’s about ten minutes to the complex from here.”
“Roger, that.”
“Here we go.”
4
Nurin was like all big cities on the major planets of the Grid. Since each of the Colony Worlds—Earth included—were selected because of their compatibility to Antara and to the Antaerean form, most structures were like all the others; boxlike buildings with windows and doors, and streets paved with alien brands of asphalt or concrete. Zac knew there were more exotic cultures in the Grid, but because of their atmospheres, gravity or other features, no one paid them much attention. None were technologically advanced enough to pose a threat; in fact, most were oblivious to the plethora of interstellar activity taking place around them. Zac thought back to the time before the Antaere contacted Earth, knowing that his homeworld was once like that, ignorant to the thousands of years of space travel and interaction that was taking place between alien species living on planets orbiting the stars in the heavens. Although vivid imagination substituted for fact at the time, eventually, the truth became known.
And now Zac Murphy was rumbling down a dark and deserted street, in an alien city on an alien planet, two hundred light-years from Earth. He smiled in the darkness. Who would have thunk it?
Electric vehicles had the benefit of being silent for the most part, and although a curfew was in force in Nurin, a few people were on the street, carrying energy weapons and looking defiant at the small caravan as it sped by. The REVs were in local transports, so they were allowed to pass unmolested. It still made for a very tense ten minutes of travel time.
The Endorus Relay Complex was surrounded by a high concrete block wall twenty feet high. It wasn’t originally designed for security, but rather aesthetics, so there were frequent gaps—or gates—in the barrier, with ornate frames and arching covers. The dominant feature on the grounds was the two-thousand-foot-high wormhole communications antenna rising out of the stacked pyramid control building and towering above the neighboring structures, including the five government buildings placed at the south end of the park-like grounds. The wide greenbelts and elaborate water features had seen better days, once having been a showcase for the Enif people. Three miles away to the southeast was the new Temple of Light dedicated to the Order, as well as the old Temple building that was the sight of the Betrayal, when a supposed peace conference turned into a deadly stab in the back by the Antaere. It was during Zac’s retreat from the Temple that he fell into an electrical generator building and was electrocuted, requiring two months of rehab, which was exceedingly long for his REV-enhanced body.
The two vans slipped along the outside of the border wall until they got closer to the government buildings. The complex was l
arge, and there were Ha’curn patrolling the top of the wall, although there weren’t enough to do an adequate job. Zac parked his van on a side street, out of sight of the wall, and Brian Croft pulled up behind him.
“We’ll scale the wall here,” Zac told the team as they huddled at the back of Croft’s van. Each man wore non-reflective black armor and were armed with the latest M-201 assault rifles with suppressors. The weapons package came with an assortment of add-ons, including a particularly neat smart bullet disk. Each disk carried six rocket-propelled, dart-like cartridges that could be locked on a target and then released. Infrared lasers in the M-201 would paint the target, and then the data would be downloaded to the bullet’s internal sensors. Each dart had seven seconds of flight time and would follow the painted target for that time, going so far as to hunt for the target if direct contact was lost. Even if the target managed to enter a building, the bullet would seek out alternative entrances, such as windows. If there was enough propellant left, it would blast through and take out the target. Each REV was supplied with three of the six-shot disks.
In addition to the rifles, each man also carried a standard-issue .45 semi-automatic pistol and a backup energy weapon good for nine bolts. And no Marine would enter combat without his black-bladed KA-BAR combat knife. Camo utility vests were stuffed with extra power packs and magazines.
It was decided that hand-to-hand combat with the Ha’curn was to be a last resort, although Zac noticed a slight disappointment on the faces of the Alphas when he made the announcement. This would be the first combat mission where the new natural REVs could fully appreciate their enhanced abilities. They were anxious to try them out. Over the course of the journey to Enif, Zac repeatedly reminded them that combat wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and that the Ha’curn were not to be messed with. Even so, the message was a hard sell.
Outside the van, one of the REVs released a miniature survey drone that lifted silently into the air and shot off for the wall, zipping above it, looking for Ha’curn guards. Seeing that the way was clear for a hundred yards in either direction, Zac gave the order for the men to move out.
Zac had been a natural REV long enough not to gasp at the sight of twelve men in full tactical gear easily leaping twenty feet high to grasp the top of the wall and throw themselves over the low rampart lining the top. The men rolled undercover and scooted across the ten-foot width of the barricade to the side next to the complex without being seen or heard. They spread out along the top, with Croft and Zac watching the image broadcast from the drone on small wrist monitors.
An open grassy area about fifty yards wide ran from the wall to the first of the government buildings. The buildings themselves had hundreds of windows that looked down on the top of the wall, although all of the rooms at the higher levels were dark. There was no official business being done in the complex at the moment, so the buildings were vacant except for the Minorial Center and the building to the west where the Ha’curn were barracked.
There was also a small executive spaceport to the west of the row of buildings where a pair of Ha’curn shuttlecraft sat.
The prisoners were being held in the middle building of five beyond the grass park and separated from the others by the same fancy landscaping. They were in a large chamber originally designed as the main presentation/meeting room, similar to that of Congress. The forty—now thirty-six—hostages had been given blankets and crude pads and were spread out around the room with no regard to gender or privacy. They had access to two grooming stations at opposite ends of the huge room.
The Ha’curn didn’t bother with stationing live guards in the room with the hostages. Instead, they relied on closed-circuit cameras and guards posted in the hall outside. The back doors into the chamber had been welded shut, making the main entrance the only way in or out. For meals, hotplates, pans, and buckets were provided, along with jugs of water. Raw food stock was given and the prisoners were expected to cook their own meals. The supplies were intended to last the two weeks of their captivity. If they ran out early, that was their problem. They would either be freed as the rebels surrendered, or they would die at the end of the two weeks. The Ha’curn couldn’t care less which occurred first.
And now with four of the hostages already killed, there was a little more food for the others.
The Premier and his Secretaries were in a separate room on the floor above the main meeting chamber. They were better-guarded, although the provisions they were provided with mirrored those of the others.
Something stood out immediately to Zac and Brian Croft as they watched the video from the drone: The Ha’curn never traveled solo. They either came in two- or four-person teams, which probably was a consequence of their running in packs. This would make it harder for them to be taken out individually, but it did mean they could be attacked in clusters.
The drone zoomed in on the main entrance to the Minorial Center, seeing a number of Ha’curn teams milling about. It was late night, yet there were still a lot of Ha’curn around. Zac had no idea as to the sleeping habits of the aliens; there wasn’t a lot of information on the feline killers, and none of them had been taken captive and interrogated. But from autopsies on recovered cadavers, the biologists concluded they would have excellent night-vision and exceptional hearing, like all cat species.
Then the officers froze.
A pair of Ha’curn bolted from the entrance to the building, one holding an electronic device. Others came up to them, and in a single motion, they all looked into the sky, following directions given by the alien with the datapad.
Zac frantically fingered his wrist monitor, shutting down the feed from the drone after instructing the tiny device to fly off to the west.
“Damn, they picked up the signal from the drone,” Croft said. “There goes our eyes.”
Zac extended a miniature camera bud from his pack and stuck it over the short wall. It was hooked to a direct line, so no electronic signal was transmitted through the air from the unit. He watched the Ha’curn, seeing if the garrison was going on alert. It didn’t appear so. The alien with the datapad was working with his equipment, at a loss as to why the signal disappeared and trying to get it back. It was obvious from the reactions of the others that they considered it a false reading. They began to move off in pairs on their appointed rounds. Exasperated, the pair of techs returned to the admin building.
“Pass the word,” Zac said, “switch to C2 on the comms.” C2 was a weak, limited range broadcast channel that was simply audio, without the need for the extra bandwidth and strength for video. It should keep the team’s communications off the grid.
Before the team left the Valhalla a plan had been worked out to get them into the Minorial Center without having to cross a hundred yards of open greenbelt. Zac now twisted around and looked up at the dark mass of the fourteen-story building nearest the wall. All the buildings in the government cluster were of the same height.
Zac gave the signal, and the REVs began dropping over the side of the wall, landing silently on the grass before sprinting with REV speed for the cover of the nearest building. They made entrance and then bounded up the stairs to the roof. Once there, not a single man was panting from exhaustion.
Padded grappling hooks came out and were tossed to the roof of the adjoining building. The REVs made quick work of the transfer over the gap.
The transition to the top of the Minorial building would be a little trickier. There were Ha’curn on the ground below, and although it was night, one of the two moons of Enif was up and at quarter-phase. The cat-like eyesight and sensitive hearing of the Ha’curn was a problem, so the men went slowly and quietly across the dual ropes to keep the enemy from looking up.
They were now on the roof of their target building.
Zac moved to the doorway leading down. It was locked, but a firm grip of the knob and a twist of his wrist was enough to break the internal mechanism.
The security office for the building was on the fourth floor.
There, the Ha’curn would be watching the prisoners through closed-circuit monitors. Taking out the cameras was the REV’s first priority.
Two of the men—Jim Scaddan and Harry Falber—approached the door to the room and listened with their REV hearing. There was alien talk coming from inside, translator bugs indicating idle conversation. But then the talking stopped. Falber checked the door; it was unlocked.
He whipped it open and Scaddan raced in, his M-201 level and ready. Two Ha’curn were in the room, standing with their backs to the monitors and reaching for the weapons strapped across their chests. They’d been alerted to the REV’s presence, either by sound or smell. The aliens were only a heartbeat behind the REVs as they were pelted with fire from the M-201s, suppressors on the barrels limiting the sound.
The two men then moved to the equipment consoles and began cutting electrical lines with their KA-BAR knives. They were out of the room thirty seconds later and met up with the rest of the team at the stairwell.
“Moss, Hyde and Heuer,” Zac began in a whisper. “Take vantage points on the third floor covering the courtyard in the front. Paint targets and then wait for my order. Lisbon, go to the west side and cover the doorway between buildings. The rest of the Ha’curn are in the next building over; it’s their barracks. Be ready for when they come out after the shooting starts. Mr. Croft, take your team to the main chamber. Gain entry through the back doors and get the hostages up and moving. Lock and I will get the Premier and his people. Okay … go.”
The teams split up.
Zac and Gunnery Sergeant Sean Lock moved down to the second level and then made their way to the other side of the building where the Premier was being held. A quick look around at a corner showed two guards outside the door, hunched on their back legs. One was slowly licking the fur on his left arm while the other appeared to be asleep.
