Discovery

by Jan Domagala

  Kurt, knowing what he was capable of took on the role of guardian to these people. Remembering what his father had said to him that ‘for evil to triumph all that was required was for good men to do nothing’. It had been his reason for joining Col Sec and it was his reason why he would not allow any harm to come to them.

  With these roles clearly defined, they took action as a team.

  Kurt fired his Sig P996 at the creature while it was still in the process of entering the room. Half of its body was in the room with them, so that when the pulsed plasma bolt struck the creature’s head and blew it apart the creature dropped where it was on top of the first dead feline.

  “Let’s hope that gives them something to think about,” Kurt said as the two dead creatures caused a bit of a blockage.

  The AI’s voice made the team start, “There is a hatch in the ceiling behind you that leads to a ducting that runs the length of the corridor. It has many exits and is large enough for you to travel through,” Artie said.

  “Right guys, get moving,” Riley said urgently.

  “You get going, I’ll keep an eye on the door just in case any more of those cats try to get in here,” Kurt said.

  “Coop, see if you can find the hatch Artie mentioned,” Riley said.

  “I’m on it,” Cooper said and within moments he had the hatch cover off. He’d put a chair under it so they could climb up into the ducting.

  “Right people, let’s move it, you first Cooper. Once you get up there help Natasha, then the rest okay?” Riley said.

  “On my way, boss,” Cooper replied as he got on the chair, passed his weapons to Natasha then grabbed the edge of the hatchway and hauled himself up. Once up there he lay on his stomach, his head and shoulders in the open hatchway. Natasha passed up the rifle then Cooper helped her climb up to lie alongside him.

  “Move it people, these things are getting braver by the second,” Kurt urged as he kept his attention firmly on the doorway and the cat creatures moving around in the corridor. The creatures’ deep-throated growls were menacing and jangled on the nerves of those inside the room.

  Suddenly, one of the creatures bounded over the two dead pack members already partly blocking the entrance and straight into the room. It crouched down on its haunches and bared its impressive array of teeth, and roared.

  “We’ve just run out of time,” Kurt said tracking the creature with his Sig. He had the creature head down in his sights, but he had to divide his attention between the predator before him ready to attack and the doorway as he watched for others to join this one.

  Cooper, Natasha and then Vance were all in the hatch leaving Riley, Torres and Kurt to face the creature whilst attempting to join their team members in the ducting and safety.

  The cat stared at Kurt then slowly, with another growl rumbling deep in its throat, it looked at Riley then Torres. It seemed to be sizing up each one as a threat. Obviously, Kurt was the biggest threat as he had already killed two of their pack, so it returned its gaze to him and roared.

  “That doesn’t look good,” commented Riley.

  “Looks like it has a real hard on for you Kurt,” Torres said.

  “You two get to the hatch now, and then give me cover fire when I try to join you,” Kurt said dismissing the comment.

  “I’m not leaving you...” Riley started to say.

  “Get moving Jake, I can handle this, trust me, but you have to move, now,” Kurt argued.

  Riley looked at Kurt trying to read him. Could he trust him in a situation like this? Were the rumours about his abilities true? Did the serum he had been injected with help him achieve the potential the scientists wanted or was that a rumour too? If any of it was true then perhaps some of the abilities attributed to him may have been passed to Riley and the rest of the Wildfire Team he thought.

  Finally, he decided there was only one way to find out.

  “Okay Torres, move it,” Riley said.

  Torres sprinted to the back of the room where she was hoisted up through the hatch by those already inside. The instant she made her move, the cat creature pounced high into the air only to be shot down by both Kurt and Riley.

  “Move, now,” shouted Kurt. Another creature entered the room, followed by yet another as the pack surged forward.

  Riley sprinted to the rear of the large room vaulting onto a tabletop then, using the height advantage, fired behind him at the creatures pouring through the doorway.

  Kurt was backpedalling, firing as he went, killing anything that came at him but even with his hyper accelerated reflexes he struggled to keep up with the speed of the creatures.

  Their feline grace of movement, coupled with their size gave them an inhuman speed so that when each cat creature entered the room it moved, not directly for Kurt as was expected, but rather away from him drawing his aim with it enabling more of their brethren to gain access to the room.

  It displayed an intelligence that bordered on human levels and was, to say the least, troubling.

  Riley reached the hatch and jumped up off the chair beneath it, caught hold of the edge and hauled himself up with relative ease.

  Kurt was still only half way to the hatch and was surrounded by the cat creatures with more pouring through the doorway.

  Firing left and right he calmly shot each creature that came within striking range, managing to keep a perimeter around him that was clear of danger.

  “Come on Kurt, hurry,” shouted Riley as he looked through the hatch.

  Kurt had been firing steadily for several seconds and the charge in his battery clip was almost empty.

  “I need to reload, cover me,” he said and without replying, Riley began firing his Remm assault rifle at the creatures. This give Kurt time to reach into his shoulder holster, take out a fresh battery clip, eject the spent one into the palm of the hand holding the fresh one, then switch them so he could inject the fresh one into the butt of the pistol. He replaced the spent clip into the charging pouch on his holster then jacked the slide on the Sig to prime the clip and he was good to go. Time taken, one point three seconds, a well-practised manoeuvre learned through hours of training with Recon Delta aided now by enhanced speed and reflexes.

  Kurt was still backpedalling towards the exit in the ceiling as he daren’t turn his back on the creatures or they would undoubtedly overrun him. Riley shot a creature in midair to Kurt’s right as it pounced at him while Kurt’s attention was on killing the creature to his left, another sign of their intelligence, working as a group, sacrificing one for the betterment of the group

  They were overrunning his position, with every backward step Kurt made the creatures gained an extra foot or so.

  “You’re not gonna make it,” Riley muttered after a quick mental assessment of the situation.

  “I know,” Kurt replied. Riley was shocked, there was no way he should be able to hear that and yet, clearly he had. Before Riley could comment, Kurt said, “Throw me your knife.”

  Without thinking, he reached for the combat knife strapped to his forearm, unsnapped the clasps then tossed it down to Kurt who, plucked it out of the air without diverting his attention from the creatures around him.

  Pulsed plasma bolts flashed through the air striking the creatures as they ran and pounced at their intended prey. Blood splashed and sprayed from mortal wounds as the high intensity energy blasts struck their targets.

  A claw sliced down Kurt’s arm opening a savage gash down his bicep. The sleeve of his jacket flapped open where the claw had torn both material and flesh.

  Kurt grimaced through the pain but managed to keep hold of his Sig and slashed his combat knife across the throat of the creature that had attacked him as it reared up to attack once more.

  Blood sprayed out from the arterial wound as the creature collapsed at Kurt’s feet.

  The cats got closer and closer with their strikes and Kurt had to duck and weave as he tried to get away

  A claw raked his back slicing open his jacket and he arched h
is back from the sudden pain. His jacket in tatters he quickly tore it from him and threw it into the face of the nearest creature then thrust the knife deep into its throat. The blade penetrated the soft flesh of the neck right up to the knife’s hilt. Blood sprayed down onto Kurt’s hand coating his arm making his grip on the knife slick.

  Riley saw all this and continued to fire down at the eight-legged creatures. He watched as Kurt was cut and brutalised on his way to the hatch, saw his body immediately heal and began to understand the certain skill set he had mentioned earlier.

  Kurt cut, stabbed, slashed and shot his way to the hatch and finally reached it standing beneath it, covered in blood, his Sig P996 in one hand, the combat knife in the other, surrounded by the dead bodies of the creatures. On his way Kurt and Riley, had killed enough of them to cover the floor.

  Kurt was breathing hard from his exertions, which he soon got under control. He looked up at Riley who stared at him in amazement.

  “I’m impressed,” he said.

  “Don’t be, this was nothing,” Kurt replied and after he had climbed into the hatch he added, “Just remember, this never happened.”

  As Riley looked at him, Kurt glanced through the hatch and said, “I loved that jacket.”

  41

  “General Sinclair it seems I owe you an apology,” Tillic said when the subspace com. link was re-established.

  “Why is that General?” asked Sinclair.

  “It seems I wasn’t in possession of all the facts as you pointed out. The operation you mentioned was one instigated by my predecessor, General Solon. As you are well aware of his reputation as a hardliner I won’t bore you with the details, but just suffice it to say that it is not a mission sanctioned by the present regime.”

  “That’s all well and good but where does that leave my men who are out there at present?” Sinclair asked.

  “I will not sacrifice those Alliance soldiers, General Sinclair they are simply carrying out orders.”

  “And I won’t sacrifice my men just because your men are carrying out orders, that are no longer relevant set by a hard lining, ex-member of your General Staff. And what of the official report that’s been in place for over half a century, do you want to shatter that too? Does your government think it could ride out the scandal the truth would cause should it come out, because I know my government probably wouldn’t and I’m not about to find out?”

  “What are you suggesting?”

  “That we combine our efforts to end this in a way that the so-called official story can remain intact.”

  “And what do you want from me?”

  Sinclair looked across at Matt who was smiling and gave a conspiratorial wink before he proceeded to fill in Tillic with what he wanted.

  “IF ALL THOSE CAT THINGS are dead, why are we still crawling through this ducting?” Vance asked, uncomfortable in the confined space of their surroundings.

  “Because I don’t think they’re all dead,” Kurt said.

  “Artie, are those creatures all dead?” Riley asked their AI watcher.

  “No, sir, several of them remained outside of the room and have now moved off. If I’m not mistaken, sir, I think they may be attempting to meet you at a different location,” replied the AI.

  “Sounds like they’re headin’ us off at the pass, boss,” Cooper said.

  “What made you think there were more, were you counting them or something?” Riley asked.

  “You probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Kurt deferred.

  “Try me, but before you go any further I should tell you that we know about the serum they gave you,” Riley said glancing down the ducting they were inside to see if Natasha was within earshot. “General Sinclair has instigated a programme whereby teams would be administered a variant of the serum. The results, so far, have produced enhanced physical abilities, strength, speed, reflexes, eyesight and hearing among others.”

  Kurt looked him in the eye, assessing his words. Even in their cramped location, he could see enough to know he was telling the truth. “Your team’s the first recipient?” he asked.

  Riley nodded his head once.

  “What else have you noticed since receiving the serum?” Kurt asked cagily.

  “If you mean, can we heal like you, I would have to say no, nothing like what you can do. Just what exactly can you do? Is what I saw the extent of your ability or can you do more?”

  “Do me and yourself a big favour and forget what you saw.”

  “You know I can’t do that.”

  “You have to, it’s the reason I resigned from Col Sec so they wouldn’t pursue this research and duplicate it. Can you imagine what it would be like if there was an army of soldiers who could heal better than normal. How far do you think the Alliance would go to obtain that knowledge and put it to good use? It could mean endless war for the entire galaxy. Sinclair must never know.”

  Riley saw the conviction in his eyes along with the great burden he carried and said the only thing he could do under the circumstances.

  “I promise.”

  Kurt smiled thinly, for the moment his secret was safe because he trusted Riley, he did not know why, just an instinct really, but he did.

  He sighed then said, “I heard some of the cats outside the room, it seemed like they were watching and listening to the fight, almost like they were assessing our capabilities.”

  “If that’s true then they have a level of intelligence we hadn’t accounted for and it could mean they’re going to be more trouble than we thought, and they’re bad enough to start with,” Riley said thoughtfully. “Artie, where does this ducting go to, exactly I mean?”

  “It ends on the far side of the corridor in a small closet which opens out into a large courtyard, sir,” replied the AI.

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” Kurt said. “Knowing what we do now about the creatures I would say that sounds like a good place for an ambush.”

  “I tend to agree but I don’t see we have much of a choice,” Riley said.

  “What we need to do is be unpredictable,” Kurt said as he backed down the ducting towards the hatch.

  “Good idea,” Riley agreed. He called to the rest of the team to come back with them.

  Lowering himself back into the room Kurt kept all his senses finely tuned to the presence of any more of the eight-legged creatures. When he was sure the room was secure, he looked up to the hatch and said, “Okay, it’s safe for now.”

  Riley dropped down next to him and asked, “What do you mean, for now, have you heard something?”

  “Not yet, but once those things realise we’re not where they expect us to be they’ll come looking for us.”

  “You’re a cheery sonofabitch, you know that don’t you,” Riley commented as he motioned for the rest of his team to follow.

  “It’s been said before,” Kurt said with a smile.

  “Where to now?” Torres asked as she jumped down into the charnel house.

  “Well, I suggest we get back outside and see if there’s another route, one without all the aggressive transgenic creatures,” Kurt said.

  “Transgenics? So you don’t think these creatures are this planet’s indigenous life forms then,” commented Torres as she stood guard while the rest of the team jumped down from the ducting.

  “I suspect not. I think what we’re seeing here is the product of some half brained experimentation in gene splicing and the reason why this city has been abandoned,” Kurt theorised.

  “You think these things killed this place’s original inhabitants? asked Vance.

  “To some extent, yes, but what I think is more likely is that they found they couldn’t control them and had to leave. If they’d slaughtered them all we’d see some signs of their remains and we still may as we go deeper into the city,” Kurt explained.

  “That actually makes sense. If you look at these things they look part feline, part arachnid, a really nasty mix,” observed Vance.

  “Why would th
ey mix two natural predators like that? Each species are natural hunters, what the hell were they thinking?” Natasha said as she joined the group, she’d been listening to the conversation as she climbed down from the hatch.

  “That’s a very good point,” said Kurt as a thought hit him. “What could they possibly gain from such an experiment?”

  “That’s something to think about later, for now I suggest we concentrate on the task at hand,” Riley said as he walked towards the doorway.

  TARKOVIC OPENED AN encrypted com. channel via his NI and called Marko.

  “We have him but we’ve been intercepted by what appears to be a merc starship,” he said.

  Marko was furious; this mission was rapidly going down the toilet. In the space of a few hours, it had gone from being a normal holding op to an almost full-blown offensive. There was nothing he could do about the secrecy of this op, but what he could do was protect his men. If other steps were required, he would decide when needed what they would be. General Solon had given them carte blanche to act accordingly to secure the planet and he would do whatever was required to fulfil his mission, now though his men took priority.

  “Okay, be ready to move, help is on its way,” Marko said. He was in the Command and Control centre of their base and had been pacing impatiently since he sent Tarkovic down to the planet to find the survivors from the Colonial Queen.

  Keeping this mission a secret had not been easy. When General Solon had sanctioned it, the colony of Outlaws was already firmly established and the idea had been simple, move in, eradicate any threats and take over the colony. Solon had picked Marko personally, something the hulking colonel had taken great pride in. Marko had been given an elite platoon of soldiers, all battle hardened veterans from the Black Knights and his own choice of command staff. His orders had been simple, take command of the Outlaws colony and await the arrival of a team of science officers who would be escorted down to the planet’s surface to conduct certain research.