The Deadliest of Intentions

by Marc Stevens

  Klutch turned his shoulder, and the Murlak slammed into it and fell to the floor. The air was forced from his lungs, putting a damper on his screams of agony. He lay groaning on the floor. We had a source of information.

  “Tria, turn the pumps back on,” I ordered. “Coonts, cover the hatch while Klutch searches the Murlak.”

  The alarms stopped their incessant wailing as soon as Tria activated the pumps. Sael busied herself by pulling the dead bodies up onto the maintenance scaffold and out of sight. Klutch stripped the gear off the Murlak and searched him. He stomped the Murlak’s helmet and communicator into scrap.

  “That is what will happen to you if you do not answer our questions,” he threatened the Murlak.

  I shut down my cloaking systems so the Murlak could see who he was dealing with. Kneeling down next to the Murlak, I pulled his face up to my war mask. Coonts was peeking out the hatch and interrupted before I could start my interrogation.

  “I have three Murlak coming this way and they are wearing body armor!”

  If I would have known the pump alarms were going to generate this much excitement, I would have come up with a different plan.

  “Klutch, get the Murlak on his feet and keep him quiet.”

  Klutch pulled the Murlak off the floor and behind the generator. His method for keeping the Murlak from yelling out was simple: he punched him in the gut. The Murlak bent double trying his best to get air into his empty lungs. I cloaked while Coonts waited on the back side of the hatch. A moment later, it swung open and the three unsuspecting soldiers marched in. They were oblivious to Coonts standing behind the door. He pushed the hatch shut and decapitated the last one through with his climbing hook. The first two whirled around completely shocked as their fellow trooper collapsed headless onto them. The Operative took this as her cue to jump off the scaffold. She landed boots-first on the helmet of the leader. He was driven into the floor with a broken neck. Reaching out, she grabbed the remaining Murlak by the front of his vest and drove her armored fist into his faceplate three times in rapid succession. The first blow probably would have been sufficient and given us a second prisoner to interrogate. The other two might have been Sael’s pent-up anxiety over losing the Fury or might possibly have something to do with Klutch laughing at her. Either way you wanted to look at it, there would be no use in trying to talk to him now. I hoped we would get what we need from our remaining prisoner.

  I pulled the prisoner away from Klutch and lifted him off the floor. We heard there was a lot of cringeworthy scuttlebutt being spread by the Murlak about the demon warrior. I wanted the prisoner to get a close-up of my macabre war face so he had no doubt who was asking the questions. His acknowledgment of my identity led to a lot of wasted thrashing and screaming. I extruded a climbing hook and held it to his throat, and he quieted immediately.

  “Where are the shuttle docks?”

  The Murlak pointed at the hatch Coonts was guarding. “At the end of the passage.”

  “Where can I find Eiger?”

  “I would not have that information. I am in charge of maintenance. His shuttle landed, and his security team escorted him away. I do not know where he could be.”

  “How many troops are stationed on this base?

  “Base security has eighty. My maintenance crew has twelve. I do not know how many accompanied Eiger.”

  “Where is the artifact storage chamber?”

  He pointed over his shoulder at the hatch he had come through. “At the end of this passage is the main corridor. Go in the direction of the shuttle docks, and it is the second hatch from the pressure locks. You will know when you get there. The entrance is like no others.”

  I dropped the Murlak on the floor at Klutch’s feet. We had all the important information needed to get this party started. Eiger was here; it was just a matter of finding him. The first thing we needed to do was make sure he didn’t have a ride off this rock. Tria commed me on a private channel.

  “If Eiger is indeed here, we should make sure the Warbringer cannot send additional forces.”

  “We are going to the docks to disable Eiger’s shuttles,” I told her. “I will have Klutch port out and send a message to Justice before we initiate hostilities.”

  “Klutch, get the pirate on his feet. He is going to lead us to the docking area.”

  Coonts was holding the Murlak’s helmet and waved it at me to get my attention.

  “Commander, there is a lot of comms traffic on the Murlak’s communicator.”

  We had spent way too much time in one place. It was a matter of time before someone came to investigate the lack of maintenance reports from the crew we had killed.

  “Rig a remote detonated charge on the generator. Make sure it cannot be tampered with, and then we are out of here!” I told Coonts.

  Coonts tossed the helmet and pulled an antimatter charge from his storage. He boosted up onto the maintenance scaffold. I commed the Operative.

  “Sael, put a grenade outside the hatch and set it for antipersonnel. Give it a ten-second delay, and do the same to our exit hatch.”

  She turned and went to work without comment. Coonts jumped down from the top of the generator and gave me a thumbs up. Sael ran over with another grenade in hand and signaled she was ready to set the second one.

  “Klutch, let’s get moving!” I called.

  The Troop Master opened the hatch enough to peek out. He had no hostiles in sight, so he pushed the Murlak out into the passage ahead of us. I cloaked, and we followed in our combat formation. We slowed enough to give the Operative time to set her next booby trap. She joined up with Coonts, and we started moving. There were four hatches on the left side of the passage, and the Murlak slowed as he came to the first one. Klutch gave him a healthy push for his tardy behavior, and we continued on. The passage was about two hundred feet long, and we could see a pressure door at the end. We had passed the third door when it suddenly opened. A Murlak stepped out and collided with Tria’s cloaked armor. Tria grabbed him in a headlock and slapped a hand over his mouth. She jerked him hard up off the floor and shoved his head backward over her forearm. There was an audible snap as his neck let go. The Murlak’s head lolled over at an impossible angle. Coonts and the Operative charged into the open hatch. We heard a brief scuffle, and then the Operative gave Coonts a “well done” over our comms. Tria threw the dead Murlak inside as Coonts and Sael stepped out. Coonts tossed in a motion-triggered grenade and closed the hatch after them.

  Klutch and I were distracted by the commotion and turned to see what was going on. The Murlak could not see our response since we were cloaked but made the hasty assumption, we were looking the other way. He guessed right and took off running down the passage screaming for help. Klutch spun around and threw his arm up, giving the Murlak an overabundance of hypersonic needles. His calls of alarm were abruptly cut off as his head and upper torso seemed to melt away. The mutilated corpse flopped forward, sliding several feet down the gore-splattered passage. There was no way to hide the mess Klutch had made, so we ran to the pressure door. Looking through the observation window, I could not see anyone inside. The door had a touch pad locking system, and Klutch shook his head negative. He turned and pointed at the Murlak’s corpse. Coonts ran back and dragged it back up the passage. He put the Murlak’s hand to the pad, and the door swished open. Sael was the last through the door and put a grenade under the dead body as a parting gift.

  We found ourselves in a control room overlooking the shuttle docks. We expected to see the five shuttles, but not the small armed freighter that was snuggled up to a loading area. There was a lot of activity going on, and it all appeared to be connected with moving cargo into the freighter. Our intel source stated this was the storage site for the pirate’s ill-gotten gains. It didn’t take a genius to guess what the cargo might be. Tria gave me a heads-up that we were in the dock’s atmospheric control room. She pointed out that the pumps were we screwing with controlled the flow of the atmosphere in the dock. It
was probably where the three Murlak we killed were stationed. At some point they would be missed, and things would start to get exciting. If the Murlak were loading the freighter in preparation of moving their wealth, there was a good chance they got tipped off this location was compromised. All this new data translated to the fact we were behind and needed to step up instead of playing catch-up.

  I would have liked the time to come up with a new plan of action, but Sael upended the bucket of piss that perpetually hung over my head.

  “Nathan! They are retracting the loading ramp!” Sael said.

  I magnified my HUD and saw they were closing the cargo doors on the freighter as well.

  30

  We were running out of time, and like so many times in the past, we were going to wing it. I hated to be rushed, but things were happening at a pace that just wouldn’t slow down. The pressure lock doors that went down to the dock started cycling. Somebody was coming to check on the missing crew. We spread out to both sides of the door and waited to see what kind of crappy hand we were going to be dealt next. The doors parted, and four Murlak wearing atmospheric suits were standing next to a gravity sled with a piece of equipment on it. They were talking among themselves. My assumption that they were checking on the missing crew was wrong because it didn’t seem like they had a care in the world. I gave Klutch a push and went in after him. In quick succession, we gave each a one-second blast from our needle guns at point-blank range. It made a mess out of the air lock, but we were in a hurry. It was pointless to worry over spilled milk. The rest of my team piled in behind us, and I tossed a grenade out into the control room.

  “We need to get aboard that freighter and make sure it doesn’t leave with that cargo!” I said.

  “Nathan, I am familiar with the freighter’s design,” Sael said. “I know where the bridge is located. If we use the portal device to gain access to the command center, we will have control of the ship’s weapons and shields.”

  It was a better plan than mine because I didn’t have one at the moment. There was only one logical thing I could say.

  “Sael, take the lead, and we will follow. Klutch, be ready to make a hole! Let’s move out!”

  Tria cycled the air lock. When it opened, Sael led, and we boosted hard for the upper deck of the freighter. Klutch and I had Murlak blood splattered on our armor, and it degraded our cloaking systems. I hoped everyone on the loading area had better things to do than look over the top of the freighter. Sael set us down on the hull and ran forward to a position between the weapons turrets and the shield emitters. Clearing her faceplate, she got down on a knee and pointed to a spot that had a rescue hatch on it.

  “The bridge command center is two decks below this hatch. We will have to pass through the inner hull maintenance tunnels. There is a chance we may encounter inspection crews since the ship is preparing to get underway,” Sael said. “Troop Master, this vessel is a dated design and is not known for the quality of its fire suppression systems. Please do not use your plasma caster while we are aboard!”

  When Sael was sure Klutch understood, she gave the order to activate the portal device. Klutch leaned forward to make a hole, and we heard a muffled thump. We looked up in time to be showered by the observation windows of the control room above us. A piercing alarm started wailing. The ventilator was officially fouled. I decided we might as well stir the pot a little harder.

  “Coonts! Detonate the charge!” I called.

  The explosion reverberated throughout the docking area. A large section of the rock wall bowed outward and broke away. It fell on the congested walkways that lined the dock, crushing an unknown number of Murlak who were working there.

  “They are retreating to the shuttles!” Tria called out.

  Several pirates were running for the shuttles. That was the last thing I wanted.

  “Weapons free!” I shouted.

  Three of the shuttles were docked below the stern of the freighter, but two were in our line of sight. I fired a beam shot that struck the first shuttle nose-on. The distance diffused the weapon’s effectiveness but still blew out the front view screens. Coonts’s and Tria’s follow-up shots left huge gaping holes in its hull. We shifted our fire to the second shuttle, ripping the hold open and setting it on fire. Our attack did little to dissuade the surviving pirates from trying to board the remaining shuttles. It also drew a line directly back to us. The hostiles now had a location to focus their ire. Light weapons fire lanced up at us from every angle, but the curvature of the freighter’s hull shielded us from most of it. We rained high-explosive and antipersonnel rounds down onto the scattered troops. A lot of it was ineffective, but it let them know their efforts were more of an inconvenience than a hindrance to our wanton destruction. I set an antimatter round for its lowest yield and targeted the long wide ramp that connected the shuttle dock to the asteroid. It went up in a tremendous flash, raining debris all across the hull of the freighter. The Operative ignored the distraction and let the Troop Master know we needed to keep moving.

  “Any time, Troop Master!” Sael yelled.

  The exhaust vents locked open on the rear of the Tibor’s armor. I was glad when he didn’t voice his opinion of Sael’s leadership. He instead triggered the device, giving us an access hole. Sael jumped with the rest of us right behind her. The drop was only about twenty feet, and we landed in a well-lit corridor lined with pipes, wires, and conduit. The maintenance tunnel was not the only thing the Operative had correct. We came down a few feet behind an inspection team. The noise of our landings made them whirl around to face us. We were so close together that they could make out the blood-splattered outlines of Klutch and me. The shock on their faces was permanently erased by exploding buckshot from Klutch’s shotgun. He gave the three-man team a whole magazine, blowing their remains well down the walkway. Sael yelled at Klutch and pointed to the deck. He jammed a new magazine into his shotgun and mumbled something disparaging under his breath. I cleared my helmet so he could plainly see my look of disapproval. He quickly made another portal. Sael took note of my reaction and incorrectly interpreted it as an endorsement of her leadership skills. She grabbed Klutch by his weapons pack before he could jump.

  “We need the control room intact!” she called to us on our group comms.

  Her stating the obvious did not endear her to the rest of my team. She was pushing her luck with the Troop Master and, for that matter, me as well. I was on the verge of reeling her in when she redeemed herself. Her choice of an insertion point was spot on. We landed just inside the bridge access hatch. There was no hiding the sound of our sudden touch downs. The two security guards outside of the hatch spun around to investigate. Klutch and Coonts jammed their shotguns against the Murlak’s armored breast plates and gave each a penetrator slug. They were blown out into the corridor and against a bulkhead. Neither was moving. The twin blasts spurred the bridge crew to action. Those who had sidearms drew them and fired blindly at the hatch opening and at my partially visible outline. I was struck twice, but the low-energy pistol beams had no effect on my heavy armor. I extruded my climbing hooks and used my gravity drive to boost into the Murlak firing on me. I drove my shoulder into the skull of my first assailant and slashed the arms from the other. The command center erupted into chaos. Tria disregarded the free-for-all and kept a cool head. She jerked the Murlak captain out of his chair and open-hand slapped him to the deck, then put a boot on his back to hold him there. Sael, Coonts, and Klutch went medieval on the four remaining command staff. The body parts that littered the deck around the captain and the blood pooling against his face had him retching his guts out. Tria uncloaked and pulled the captain up off the deck.

  “Lock down the ship’s access hatches and activate the shields, or I will cut you up a piece at a time,” she demanded.

  It wasn’t a stretch to guess the freighter’s captain was no longer the master of his bowels. He was blubbering nonsense our translators could not comprehend, but he pointed to a console. Tria se
t him down, letting him gingerly step over the eviscerated members of his crew. He started working the controls with hands that were shaking so badly I was surprised he was able to use them at all. He finished and turned to Tria.

  “It is done!”

  Coonts was working his way around the bridge consoles, examining each of them. He stopped at one in particular.

  “Commander, I have located the weapons console and can target the remaining shuttles with the aft batteries.”

  I had mixed feelings about destroying the shuttles. We had no way of knowing if Eiger had made it aboard one of them or not. I had it in my mind that proper closure of my Eiger vendetta would involve close scrutiny and accurate identification of his corpse. The shuttles were an imminent danger to the freighter, and as far as I knew, the only way for Eiger to escape. Like it or not, they were a clear and present danger that had to be dealt with.

  “One of the shuttles is getting underway!” Tria said, expediting my decision.

  “Coonts, destroy the shuttles!” I ordered.

  An alarm sounded when we started taking fire from the shuttle. Its shields were up, and it peeled away from the dock. The Murlak pilot was concentrating his fire on the freighter’s aft shield. It was flaring a bright white, triggering another alarm on the bridge. Coonts returned the favor, and the shuttle tried to veer away. There was little room for it to maneuver, and the larger weapons of the freighter finally penetrated its weakened shields. It blew apart, sending a large piece of its hull onto one of the docked shuttles. The impact ripped the ship from its mooring and sent it tumbling to the bottom of the docking bay. It exploded in a crash that triggered an impressive fire on several pieces of equipment. The machinery and pumps that maintained the atmosphere were no longer functioning, thanks to the tune-up Coonts gave the generator with an antimatter charge. The smoke from the fires was rapidly filling the entire docking bay.