The Deadliest of Intentions

by Marc Stevens

  “Troop Master, see if you can get this door closed.”

  Klutch started fiddling with it the same as I had done. My frustration must have been contagious because he pulled his shotgun and was going to butt-stroke the device into submission. Tria came up behind us and grabbed the barrel of his weapon before he could make any adjustments to the stubborn control switch.

  Tria stepped close to me. “Do not bother. We are leaving.”

  “What did our friend have to say?”

  “His name is Drillen, and he is a power source engineer. He and his work crew had just been relieved by another engineering team that monitors the asteroid’s power generators. Two shifts consisting of six engineers’ man the reactors around the clock. The other members of his team were going to eat before they retired, but Drillen decided to go to his quarters and sleep. When the containment breach alarms sounded, he attempted to make it back to the security station in the lift building. If he could have made it in time, the high-speed transport cars would have taken him seven thousand feet below the surface where the power plant control room is located. He reports once the building was locked down, the lifts were disabled from below, making it impossible to reach the reactors and safety. On his way to his barracks to find his coworkers, he witnessed them being confronted by Chaalt military forces. He said for unknown reasons they were all shot where they stood.”

  “It sounds like Gredda’s strike team might still be here, and they don’t want any witnesses.”

  “Possibly, but we will not know for sure unless we find them, or they find us first.”

  “I was concerned about engaging Chaalt forces if we encountered any. Now I am not.”

  Tria nodded in agreement. “Drillen recognized the Senior Operative, and she should be able to obtain a more complete debriefing. She says we need to move to a safer location.”

  “Where would that be?”

  “Sael wants Drillen to lead us to the building that houses the lifts for the reactors. They are located in a storage warehouse that is on our route to the shield control compound.”

  “I assume she thinks our portal device will get us into the lift shafts?”

  “Yes, if we can make it below and access the reactor room, we will have control of the shield. That will give us the option of bypassing the shield control room and any Prule forces that may be concentrated at that location.”

  “Did Drillen have any data on the location of the council members?”

  “No, he seemed shocked that we would even inquire about their presence here.”

  Damn! I was hoping since we caught a small break, the gods of war might look down upon us with favor. That thought was just a fabrication of my simple mind; you would think that I would know better by now. Past experiences have shown that when things seemed to be getting easier and going your way, you were probably in for a world of hurt.

  “Nathan, I have convinced Drillen to take us to the location of the reactor room lifts.” Sael interrupted my misgivings. “We can make use of your transporter to gain access to the shafts. Once inside, we can make our way to the reactor and take control of the power supply for the entire complex.”

  Yep, this was sounding easier by the minute!

  “Okay, Sael. Where to?”

  “We go up the transport road to the fourth building on the left. We need to use caution because we will have to cross open ground that exposes us to direct fire from two of the defensive towers. We can limit our exposure by using your transporter to access the buildings on the way to our destination.”

  Now I was thinking piece of cake; things were finally going our way!

  “Klutch, check out the alley between here and the next building.”

  The Troop Master went low out the door and against the building. I covered his back until he disappeared around the corner. Turning around I could see that all my ducks were indeed in a row. Tria was behind me with Drillen hunched over behind her. The Operative was bringing up the rear. She was kind enough to hold her tongue but impatiently waved me forward. She frowned when I gave her the finger. I was smiling behind the horror image that hid my face. She had no idea what the symbolization represented. Tria pulled my hand down and gave me a not-so-gentle shove toward the doorway. The Troop Master bailed me out.

  “Commander, the alley is clear, and I have no movement on either transport lane.”

  “We are on our way, Troop Master!”

  I hightailed it up to the corner of the next building and went prone. I quickly glanced down the alley and saw that Klutch was doing the same. Tria peeked out of the doorway, and I waved her on. She, Drillen, and the Operative ran up the walkway and into the alley behind me. I backed away from the corner.

  “Make a hole, Troop Master!” I called to Klutch.

  The Tibor was really getting into being our portal operator. He jogged up the alley and stopped beside Sael and Drillen. He then gestured for Drillen to move away from the spot he had chosen. I rolled my eyes in exasperation because he could have picked any number of places other than that one. He called out a warning.

  “Cover your eyes!”

  I turned my head away from the bright flash of the device triggering and turned back to see he gotten a good portal on the first try. I bent low and was going to charge right in, but Klutch stepped in front of me, pulling his plasma projector from its clip. Before I could start bitching, he went through. I looked back in time to see Drillen plaster himself against the opposite wall of the alley in disbelief of what he just witnessed.

  I commed Tria. “Wait until you see the portal start flashing before you bring Drillen and Sael through. That should give us enough time to make sure the building is reasonably secure.”

  Tria nodded, and as I turned to go, she slapped my armored ass with one of her hands. I ran through and found myself in a room full of supplies. There were items of every description ranging from mechanical devices to clothing. Klutch was peeking out of a doorway with a fist held up. He commed me.

  “Commander, I think something or someone is on the level above us. It looks like there is a walkway up there that would be a good place to ambush someone if they entered the building.”

  “Have we been detected?”

  “I don’t believe so. The only way to know for sure will be to take a look.”

  “Right beside you, Troop Master.”

  We quietly stepped out of the room and turned around to get a look above and behind us. To our surprise, two Chaalt soldiers wearing heavy combat armor stood next to a large barreled weapon that was mounted on a tripod. They had their backs to us, looking out the windows that ringed the upper floor. Both had assault rifles in their hands. I was going to give Klutch a recommendation as to our next course of action, but he came up with one of his own. He loudly cleared his throat over his external mic.

  “When you Throggs are done pleasuring each other, I want you to throw those weapons down here on the floor!” he called out to them.

  It was a cringeworthy statement and almost funny had it not been for the fact they were both well-trained soldiers. They turned on us in the blink of an eye and opened fire. The bolts of energy from their weapons passed very close over the tops of our heads. Klutch never gave them a chance to correct their errant fire and sent a ball of plasma into them that made a burning six-foot hole through the wall behind where they had been standing. Their upright legs were the only evidence that they were ever there. The shelves loaded with supplies rapidly caught fire, turning the whole upper floor into a burning inferno. Tria, Drillen, and the Operative came running out of the backroom shocked at the blaze consuming the building. One of the legs from the Chaalt soldiers tumbled from the collapsing walkway and bounced to the floor at our feet. Drillen took one look and retched up the contents of his stomach. Klutch seemed frozen in place by the destruction he had just unleashed. I shoved him at a wall that had not caught fire yet.

  “Klutch, get us out of here now!”

  He shook off his daze and ran to
the wall. We turned our backs to the flash of the portal forming. It was a good hole, and I waved Tria through. Klutch picked the engineer up by the back of his uniform and jumped through with the Operative right behind him. I took one last look and jumped. My team was weapons out in a small perimeter with the engineer lying prone in the center. I looked up at the hole Klutch had shot through the wall. Thick black smoke was pouring out announcing our exact location to the entire complex.

  “Make another hole, Troop Master! We need to put some distance between us and the burning building before someone comes to find out what we are up to!”

  Klutch quickly flashed another portal into existence, and I jumped through. I found myself inside a personal residence. It was small enough to see it was unoccupied. I ran across to a door and hit the controller. It slid aside, and I took a peek. This was an apartment complex: Doors lined the hall, and ramps took you to the upper levels. I decided we needed to keep moving rather than take the time to search all the quarters. My team was now holed up in the room behind me waiting for me to move. I ran across the hall and hit the door, leading with my knee. It caved inward, exposing another vacant apartment. I waved to Klutch and pointed to the outer wall.

  “Let’s keep moving!”

  He ran inside and made another portal. I charged through with Tria behind me. We were once again in an alley between buildings. The warehouse was one building over, and I wanted to get there sooner than later. Klutch rushed by and started another portal. If we were not careful when we exited this structure, we would find ourselves in the firing line of the defensive towers. It turns out the towers were going to be the least of our worries.

  My armor sensors detected multiple aerial targets

  “Incoming drones!” Tria yelled out.

  I was puzzled as to why it took so long for the hostile forces to react. The destruction and telltale smoke cloud left in our wake was pointing out our progress toward the shield projector compound. The shield would have been at the very top of any saboteur’s target list. If, for some reason, the opposition overlooked that information, we surely brought it to their attention now.

  Sael instructed Drillen to find someplace to hide and shoved him through the portal. Klutch closed the opening, and we cloaked, taking up positions in the alley and thoroughfare. I again felt the presence of the beast haunting my thoughts and actions. I took a knee at the corner of the alley and readied my beam weapon. Tria was across the transport road from my position and had a better view of the incoming targets. She threw her arm up and sent a beam shot at the oncoming drones. The lightning flash was accompanied by two of the seven targets disappearing from my HUD. The drones dispersed and opened fire on us with energy beams. Apparently, our cloaking systems were unable to keep us from being targeted.

  Pieces of the building structures around us rained down from all directions, prompting us all to return fire. My HUD targeting was operated by Justice’s subsystem. It gave me a target box that intersected with one of the drone’s flight paths. I moved my arm up and left, turning the box green. I quickly sent a beam shot into the distant target marker and was rewarded with the disappearance of the drone from my HUD. Klutch took down another, and to my surprise, Sael downed one with a shot from her rifle.

  I was again thinking things were going our way. Tria fired again, and now there was only one target moving wildly up and down trying to get a firing solution that would not result in its destruction. I got a piercing alarm warning in my helmet.

  “Incoming troop transport!” Sael called out before I could turn around to identify the threat.

  Damn! I was really hoping we could skip the world of hurt this time around! Rolling to the opposite side of the alley, I looked behind us. A large shuttle flying just above the buildings was heading in our direction. Tria was still hunkered down across the road, taking intense fire from the remaining drone. I could see Chaalt combat troops jumping out both sides of the shuttle. Klutch was covering Tria and attempting to shoot down the drone. I got to my feet so I could get a clear shot on the transport. I had a good target box and was going to engage when something detonated on the front of my armor, sending me flying out into the street. The pain in my chest and my double vision informed me I was still alive. I could faintly hear urgent shouts over the ringing in my ears. My eyes came back to focus, and I saw the Operative run to Klutch’s side and pull his plasma projector from its clip. The shuttle was yawing its nose around so the troops inside could fire down on us while the rest advanced on our location. Sael sent a plasma ball into the side of the cockpit and another into the open hatch. The transport was engulfed in flames and rolled wildly over and dove in our direction. Burning bodies and molten metal rained down as it plowed nose-first into the warehouse building right next to us. My team was flattened by the explosion from the shuttle’s impact. I held out little hope that Drillen had somehow survived in the conflagration triggered by the crash.

  I felt myself being jerked along the ground. Tria was on her hands and knees pulling me from the flaming wreckage. I could finally hear her yelling my name over our comms telling me we had to move. To my relief, I heard Klutch calling to the Operative telling her to do the same. Reaching up, I grabbed Tria’s arms and pulled myself up on my knees. I started crawling as fast as my shaky body would let me. Every breath was a painful reminder that the beast and my armor did not make me invulnerable. Tria helped me stand, and I pushed her toward the alley across the street. I could hear Sael calling over our comms; she was taking fire from the street and buildings behind us. That statement was followed up by the Troop Master’s colorful language and a loud exclamation over his external microphone.

  “Eat scat, you traitorous Throggs!”

  I saw a pink glow light up the far end of the alley, and the Operative immediately started cursing in a sentence that ended with, “Put that away before you manage to kill both of us!”

  Flames were flaring more than one hundred feet into the air, and the building on the other side of the alley was fully engulfed. Sael and Klutch came running up out of the blaze, trying to make it back to our position. Sael took a shot to the back and went down hard on her faceplate in the fiery debris. Klutch slowed down enough to scoop her up and throw her over his shoulder. I thought he was stumbling under the weight of Sael’s heavy armor. When his shotgun was blown from its clip, I realized his wobbly gait was from taking repeated hits. Our cloaking systems were proving to be worthless. Klutch dumped Sael and ran back into the firestorm. I was going to tell him there was no point in searching for Drillen’s body, but he ran back out of the flames carrying both his and the Operative’s weapons. The Tibor was a hardcore warrior through and through. The thought of leaving perfectly good weapons in the hands of our enemies must have chafed him in all the wrong places.

  The Operative was not seriously injured and was leaning against the wall of the building we had taken refuge behind. She had a pained expression on her face and slowly stood up. The gravity thruster pack she wore on the back of her armor and one of her prized swords were now scrap. I suspected we were on the receiving end of an anti-transport rifle like the one she carried. She manually released several clamps, and the remains of the wrecked equipment fell from her back. She had a prominent blackened indentation in the back of her armor, but it showed no sign of a hole. My armor had a visible dent from the weapons warhead but nothing more. If it were not for Sael’s thruster pack soaking up the blast of the explosive round, it was hard to say what might have happened.

  An amplified voice called out from somewhere behind the burning warehouse. We went prone weapons out, not knowing what to expect.

  “It is the traitor Gredda Porsha!” Sael whispered to us. “I thought I knew the plans of the traitors, but it seems everyone in this conspiracy is working toward a goal of their own making!”

  “Sael Nalen, are you still alive?” Gredda called out. “If you are, I know you are gravely wounded. I did not want to shoot the Principal Investigator of our people, but y
ou left me no choice. You need to listen to me. The Prule have offered to make the Chaalt people the rulers of this galaxy. They only ask that we share the overabundance of resources that are available to us. If you surrender to me now, you will receive medical attention and the right to willingly serve your own kind. You can take your rightful place as head of our military forces and assume the title of Kala Mor Dee once again!”

  “I suppose I don’t have to guess who is going to be our supreme ruler?”

  “Would that be so bad, Kala Mor Dee?” Gredda responded. “We are cut from the same cloth. The two of us will do what no others have dared. With the help of the Prule, we can make the Chaalt people the dominant race of this entire galaxy!”

  “What of the council? Have you already disposed of them?”

  “In exchange for their lives, they have agreed to go before the Chaalt people and nominate me as the new leader of all the Chaalt worlds. They will also have a place in our government and are only answerable to me.”

  “How are you going to explain your partnership with the Prule?”