by Marc Stevens
My audio pickups detected a rumbling in the otherwise quiet hum of the shield station. The noise gathered in volume until it was felt as vibrations in my boots. Justice was hammering the machine shit out of the Prule and their minions. I tried my best to keep from thinking things were going our way. It had proven to be a faulty philosophy on more occasions than I care to remember. Try as I might to suppress it, I was feeling more upbeat every second the ruckus in the distance grew louder.
“Commander, I request permission to initiate sterilization protocols.”
“You are weapons free, Justice!”
The smile that was on the Operative’s face turned to a cringe at Justice’s call. She knew what was about to happen and surprised me by not saying a word. She may have finally realized that our success so far was pure dumb luck, and we had stretched it to the breaking point. I heard three hissing pops that were followed immediately by jarring booms that echoed across the complex. When there were no more reports, I knew the deed was done. The Prule were going to find that the environment in this place would no longer be to their liking. The beast stalking the peripheries of my mind was snickering because there would be no relocation plan the Prule could fall back on. They would never leave this place.
“Commander, I have suppressed the last of the anti-ship systems defending this complex. We now control the hostile airspace, and I am detecting no movement in your area.”
“Roger that, Justice. We will move outside the shield control complex and await extraction.”
“Affirmative, Commander. I am in route to recover the Daggers and will have a sitrep available for your dissemination once you are aboard. ETA five minutes.”
I pointed at the exterior wall and slapped Klutch on the back of his armor. We moved quickly across the open ground, and Klutch made a hole. Tria ran through with me at her back. The Operative and Klutch stepped out last. We made our way out into the middle of the thoroughfare, weapons out. The five minutes pickup time Justice had alerted us to seemed much shorter. That would be a first, because it was usually just the opposite. Justice swept us up with the tow beam and set us down in the hangar. The combat stress that had gripped me earlier eased considerable.
“Commander, I have taken the liberty of activating Tria’s third-generation Zaen battle armor. I have taken note of the Senior Operative’s battle damage and have determined she will be a liability in combat without fully functional battle armor. If she is to continue the mission, I recommend she make use of the battle suit.”
“Sael, report to the science lab, and Xul will assist you in getting suited up. Justice will make sure you know what you need to and will make the transition as seamless as possible.”
Without comment, the Senior Operative headed out of the hangar. This was a side of Sael that I could come to enjoy. She was not known for shutting up, no matter the circumstances. Her quiet compliance might be a small indication she was finally willing to accept my command.
“Justice, bring us up to speed on everything going on outside of the dome.”
“Commander, before I departed for the Chaalt home world of Athella, I commandeered a large number of IST communication frequencies. I broadcast messages to Chaalt assets that appeared to balk at orders to attack the Legacy. I sent misleading information that indicated the Senior Operative was in charge of a rescue operation supported by us with the intention of freeing the council and eliminating the Prule.”
“Other than Sael being in charge, that doesn’t sound like it was very misleading.”
“I broadcast it from the Operative’s IST and used her voice recordings to simulate her orders to stand down.”
That raised my eyebrows because it was a new angle on getting things done. I had no idea the AI would take matters into its own hands and make the decision to go in that direction. Justice was wargaming at levels that were bordering on disturbing.
“I have to admit, I would like to discuss this with you in detail at some future date, but now is not that time. Out of curiosity, what effect did it have on Chaalt warship movements?”
“More than seventy percent broke off engagement maneuvers and have stationed themselves in a very high orbit above this base. The remaining warships attempted to engage with all available weapons. It necessitated my excursion to Athella and drew those forces away from this location to cover the traitors claiming power. They have declared military law and issued statements claiming we are rogue elements of a coup instigated by Sael Nalen. They are claiming it is our intention to install her as leader of the Chaalt people. The false council has proclaimed Gredda Porsha as the new supreme commander until our treasonous actions are crushed by the military.”
Apparently Gredda’s ambitious plan was the only one the traitors had left to fall back on. It was nice to know something good came out of us wrecking the comms array. The fools that were in charge didn’t have a clue as to what was going on. They were blindly assuming their new partners could handle all comers. That mistake was going to be a big nail in their coffins. If nothing else, the real rebels just shot themselves in the foot as far as their leadership appointment went. When the dust finally settled on this shit stack, the real perpetrators would be easily identifiable. The trick now, would be to save as many of the legitimate rulers as possible, before things stopped going our way. It would be important to show we were only here on a rescue mission and nothing more.
“Is Sael privy to this intel?”
“No, Commander.”
“For now, let’s keep it that way. There is no point in relighting her fuse.”
“I concur, Commander. I have nutritional supplements and hydration liquids for all crew members to consume that will alleviate combat fatigue and renew acuity. The Operative has already ingested the supplements and is undergoing armor acclamation training at an advanced pace.”
“Are you equipping her with full armament?”
“Yes, Commander, she will have a first-generation beam weapon and limited antimatter bombardment capability. I will remain in control of all weapons of mass destruction to limit the possibility of fratricide.”
I flinched a little. I knew the AI spent quite a bit of time in the early days of my combat missions doing exactly the same thing with me.
“I have replacement munitions and repair components for your armor staged in the ready room. When you are ready, we will move to the engineering building and initiate rescue operations.”
We went to the ready room and stepped out of our armor so Justice could start the repair process. Sitting on the top of our lockers was a pitcher of water and what looked like breakfast bars. Klutch had his mouth stuffed full and asked for seconds. I sat with Tria and ate the slightly sweet nutrition bars and chased it down with the water. The pick-me-up was needed, and within ten minutes I felt like I had inhaled a bucket of coffee. I heard a thumping in the corridor and turned in time to see an armor-clad Sael Nalen run past the ready room hatch. Justice was not kidding when he said she was getting up to speed quickly. In the time it took Justice to repair our armor, the Operative went by the ready room two more times, running and using the gravity drives. I would leave it up to Tria whether or not she would let Sael keep the armor. After the amount of weaponry and equipment Sael has given to us in the past, the beam weapon technology would just about even us up.
I kissed Tria then slapped Klutch on the back.
“Let’s settle this scat once and for all,” I said. “We have better things to do than hang around the Chaalt home worlds.”
We armored up and went to the hangar. Sael was standing at the open hangar door looking down on the research station. When she saw us coming, she stepped away from the opening and pulled her rifle from the clip Justice had engineered for it. Klutch took his place in front with Tria and I just behind him at his sides. Sael stepped up behind us, and Justice moved us rapidly across the complex. He stopped us just above the third largest structure on the asteroid. The Legacy was cloaked but could not hide the large opening of
the hangar door. Our presence registered as a non-event with no reaction from below.
“This is the engineering building,” Sael called to us. “The crew quarters are on the top floors.”
I rapped Klutch on the back, and he jumped with the three of us close behind him. The drop was about a hundred feet, and we arrested our fall just above the roof deck. We eased down, and I pointed to a spot on the deck. Klutch wasted no time and gave us a good hole first try. Tria and I went in with the Operative backing us. We landed in a dark hallway with a light at the far end. We moved to the side as Klutch dropped in and closed the portal behind us. A quick sweep revealed nothing, and Klutch gave us another hole in the same location as the last one. This time, things got a little livelier when Tria and I landed on top of the junk piles the Prule were turning out for their army. I cut my gravity drive and landed full weight right on top of the five-foot bio machine. Grabbing onto the machine’s weapon, I wrenched it off of its makeshift feet and body-slammed it into the wall. Jamming my needle gun into the crimson gore cradled inside of the metallic framework, I gave it a burp of hull shards. This did the trick, and it collapsed at my feet. Tria made quick work of her target with her climbing hooks. She pushed the mess away and stood ready to back up Klutch and the Operative as they made well-placed shots on the remaining three Prule soldiers. It was all over in less than two minutes. The hostiles never got a shot off before we overwhelmed them.
Sael sprinted to the end of the hallway and leaned into the drop tube.
“There is movement at the bottom of the lift! I think they are moving the prisoners!”
It would have been foolhardy to use the tube to pursue whoever was down there, so I had Klutch start making holes. The floor below us had two more Prule soldiers standing at the lifts. We sent their scattered remains into the tube, and Klutch moved away from the lifts.
“They know we are coming, Commander. We need an access point that can’t be easily ambushed!”
We moved back to the end of the hallway, and Klutch blasted a door open with his shotgun. The room was a mess and showed evidence of recent occupation. He made a hole, and I jumped with Tria. We landed in a matching room, but it had two mutilated Chaalt bodies dead on the floor. It looked like they had made an attempt to barricade themselves in, but the futile move cost them their lives. The Operative was the last into the room and quickly peeked out the shattered doorway.
“There is a large number of Prule guarding the lift tubes!”
I was going to shake a grenade at her to show my intentions, but Sael had two out and looked at me for acknowledgment. I made eye contact with Klutch and Tria and pointed at Sael. They nodded, and I made a pitching motion at Sael. She threw the grenades down the corridor. The blasts came simultaneously, and I felt the concussion in the hallway on my armor. We charged out into the hallway, opening fire on anything that moved. We got an unexpected surprise as the entire end of the building blew up in our faces. The shockwave and flying debris scythed us down and sent us flying back in the direction we had come from. Some of the upper floor collapsed onto us. I called out to my team and got quick replies. Other than getting the shit knocked out of us, we were unharmed. Sael was pinned under heavy floor supports that we had to move to free her. Her scathing review of the incident was a wake-up call: things could have turned out much different.
“I saw the last members of Gredda’s strike team just before the blast. The fools are scared and set off their trap too soon. They should have waited until we were in the transfer tunnel before detonating the explosives. Your portal device is still an unknown factor, and they cannot come to a consensus on how we are able to appear in such close proximity to their forces. They are starting to believe the stories.”
“Sael, what the hell are you talking about? If they hadn’t screwed up, we would be buried or worse right now!”
“Nathan, I have noted you are becoming adept at constraining the vile creature inside of you, but your aura broadcasts its presents for all to fear. You emanate the deadliest of intentions, and the blackness of your aura makes my skin crawl in repulsion. Tria and your followers seem immune to your horror. All else who feel its presence are smothered by fear and uncertainty.”
There was no doubt my good guy Earth boy image just took a ding. I didn’t know what to say, and decided I would let people think whatever the hell they wanted to.
“Klutch, get us outside of this mess and see if we can still access the tunnel to the labs!”
The Troop Master turned to the nearest door and pulled his shotgun. He gave it a blast of explosive buckshot, turning the door to scrap. We followed him in as he went to the exterior wall and ported us a hole. We jumped through and ran around the edges of the collapsed building until we came to another structure. This had to be the ground floor of the weapons labs. Klutch started working the ground, using his favorite expletives to keep us abreast of his progress. It didn’t sound promising because the cursing was turning into compound words. Tria and I were weapons out and watching his back. Sael decided to work her way back into the debris field and see what she could find on her own. I would have discouraged her from doing that, but I didn’t like sitting out here in the open any more than she did. This was one of the times it paid off to remain silent. The Operative came running from the wreckage.
“Nathan! I think I have found an access point!” she called to us.
We followed her back into the rubble, and she stopped at a spot that was depressed from a cave-in below the location. Just in front of the depression was about six feet of level ground.
Sael pointed at the spot. “Try here, Troop Master.”
Klutch leaned forward and activated the machine. We had a good, usable hole. Klutch gave the Operative a nod, and we stacked to jump. If Sael was correct, I was hoping my deadly intentions preceded me and would possibly scare off anyone waiting to ambush us. I was taking no chances and had my beam weapon up and ready when Tria and I went through. The fall was long enough I had time to hit my boosters before I made contact with the floor. It was pitch black, and my no-light sensors kicked in to give me a look at our surroundings. Sael and Klutch touched down, and he killed the portal. We were on the other side of the cave-in. At our backs was about a hundred yards of tunnel that stopped in front of a large, heavily reinforced door. We moved cautiously toward it and stopped to get a closer look. The door was marked with a lot of warnings saying to stay the hell away. As with most things posted in this manner, it only made you want to be on the other side of the door that much more.
14
I pointed to the side of the door, and Klutch made an attempt that was a no-go. We tried the other side with the same result. It was solid to each side of the door, which probably meant that there was more tunnel to deal with once we gained access. We were left with no other choice but to go up the middle. My butt kinda puckered, because I was thinking that it was going to get messy when we did. They wouldn’t have put this big ass door here without making sure they could secure it. The beast was goading me and wanted to take action. Waiting was not something I was known for anyway, so I made the decision to use a can opener instead of a corkscrew. I waved my team back down the tunnel. They didn’t have to guess what was going to happen, and we all went prone just in front of the collapsed tunnel. Tria and I were to one side, and Klutch and the Operative the other.
“Single beam shot on three! One. Two. Three!”
The tunnel flared into brilliance as the door blew inward in an explosive blast. We boosted from the floor with our gravity drives and flew into the smoke-filled tunnel. My sensors showed wreckage and bodies scattered in all directions. There were three Prule Hunters attempting to right themselves. We cut them down with multiple beam shots that obliterated the check point they were guarding and started a huge fire. The remains of several Prule soldiers were thrashing about on the deeply gouged tunnel floor. Klutch and Sael put an end to their tribulations. I noticed Tria bent over, looking at what may have been a Chaalt soldi
er. I went to her side, and she cleared the image from her helmet. The hurt in her eyes was evident.
“These are the remains of Gredda’s strike team. I will never understand why they have chosen this path. Their auras are so diminished, they have no spirit to renew. They are lost forever for the crimes they have committed against their own people.”
I wanted to say they got what they deserved but held the comment in check. I had no idea what would make these soldiers turn their backs on everything they once cherished. I felt it had to be something the Hivemind had done to them; there could be no other reasonable explanation. The time they spent on the Prule salvage ship must have somehow affected them. It no longer mattered because they would never be able to tell us.
“Incoming hostiles!” Klutch shouted.
My helmet sensors pierced the smoke-filled tunnel and revealed a mass of bio machines boiling out of a side corridor. They quickly filled the tunnel from wall to wall. Most of the targets defied description, and I realized that most were only partially able to move. They were being pushed along by the ranks behind them. The largest of the targets were two Hunters, and it was obvious they were an assembly of scraps. They were pulling themselves along on a single appendage and pushing the others along in front of them with their power whips. I could hear the Oolaran soldier inside of me, barking out orders of death and destruction. I gritted my teeth and took a knee, spinning up my minigun. I sent a nonstop stream of explosive shells into the wall of hostiles. Tria and Klutch joined in, and my sensors became overwhelmed by the flying machine parts and gore exploding inside of the tunnel. When the minigun ran dry, I sent all two hundred rounds of antipersonnel from my launcher tube into the mass of shattered machinery.
