by Aer-ki Jyr
Halfway down he turned himself into a Fornax transmitter, producing as large a disruption field as he could, knowing it wouldn’t extend up to the rest of his team. Between holding that effort and bracing himself for a hard fall his focus was consumed, with him barely noticing the guards below that were packaging sedated Humans into canisters, ostensibly to be transported off the moon.
David had jumped from this height before in training, but there had always been at least a thin mat at the base. This time there was a hard, concrete floor and he put as much resistance into his legs as he could without locking them…but his momentum was too great and he had to spill part of it to the side, collapsing on his right leg and rolling out of the jackhammer deceleration on his body.
He rolled into one of the guards, who was leaning against a table to remain standing against the Fornax David was still transmitting. As he opened his eyes, struggling to get to his feet on jarred legs while maintaining the Fornax, he heard small puffs all around him, with the resulting paint splatters knocking the guards down as they were unable to return fire.
David pushed the guard next to him away, then pulled out his stun gun and was about to shoot him when a green paintball splashed against his skull and delivered the necessary stun energy to drop him to the floor unconscious.
With the Fornax effort buzzing in his head, David heard Lio’s ‘all clear’ signal and released the effort, catching his psionic breath and panning the area with his stun gun held ready. The others had used their stingers because the height of the room would have made the stun guns inaccurate and diffuse, but in the close confines David found himself in it would work just fine if there was still a live one wandering around the stacks of canisters and medical beds that offered a lot of cover.
From his point of view David saw a connecting hallway on ground level and made his way over to it at a quick run, dodging the various pieces of equipment and forcing himself to ignore the people held inside some of them as he started to feel minds ahead. He held close to the left side of the hall and crept to a halt just before the exit, seeing a conveyor system carrying more of the canisters up and into the wall off to who knows where.
David sent off the ‘get over here’ telepathic signal and ran out into the open, targeting the nearest guard with his stun gun and blowing past him on the run to get to the workers loading another canister onto the conveyor. He shot three of them, then sent a Fornax blast towards another guard that appeared at range. The Archon swapped weapons and shot him as he twitched on the floor, all the while running towards the conveyor and jumping onboard.
He ran up and over the first canister, hurrying towards another on the belt that was almost to the hole in the wall. David tucked his stinger into his belt and jumped forward, landing on top of the canister and grabbing hold, then swinging his legs around to the front and planting his feet against the wall as they came to it.
Using his Archon trained muscles he pushed the canister back and to the side, tipping it over the edge and dropping it three meters to the ground. The conveyor dug into David’s right shoulder as he held himself in place with is feet, then he clawed his way up into a crawl and ran forward a few steps to get to the other canister early and dump it over the side as well.
With me, David told Nathan as he came into view, then mentally directed the others to the pair of canisters on the ground as he ducked into the tunnel the conveyor was pulling through.
Nathan jumped up onto the belt and ran forward, catching up a lot before ducking down and entering the narrow tunnel, letting the conveyor carry him forward. He got a warning from David just before he saw the other Archon leap off the belt on the far side, followed by the faint sounds of stinger whiffs.
Nathan rolled off the conveyor on the opposite side from David, going after a pair of guards on that side that were moving away after his fellow Archon. He tagged both with his stinger, then started peppering the workers in the loading bay as they scattered. Both he and David ran around the large room, ducking in and out of crates and hunting down everyone inside, then they circled back around to the open crates, seeing that there were more Human cargo canisters being stacked inside.
“What the hell are they doing?” Nathan asked aloud as he jumped over a lateral canister and continued on a jerky patrol around the room, knowing that there were connected chambers that had more personnel in them, possibly guards.
“We’ll ask them later,” David said, pulling out his comm. “Red Team, copy?”
“Red Team here.”
“We’ve got a mess we need your help with. The Word is smuggling people out of the city as unconscious cargo. We’ve stopped their packing operation, but we’re pinned down guarding them. We need more hands to secure the area, and they do have armed guards deployed. Come in armor,” he said, tagging the locator beacon set inside the comm device.
“On our way.”
“Stay here,” David told Nathan before he ran off towards one of the cargo exits large enough to accommodate heavy equipment to move the crates. When he got to the large doorway a flurry of minds started popping up on his mental radar and he slowed his approach, tucking in along the wall as a wild plasma blast shot by over his head.
David backed up and tucked in behind the edge of the wall and held position, feeling some of the minds coming closer while the others scurried around elsewhere. He poked his head out briefly, getting a split second view of what was ahead, then ducked back behind cover as several more plasma squeals were heard, with the blue lances shooting through the gap, one of which hit a crate midway into the loading dock.
What David had seen through the doorway was the primary loading dock, which apparently serviced the entire illicit complex. On the deck was a pair of dropships, both Falcon-class purchases from Star Force and painted in Brazilian green and gold. He’d also seen the rooftop hatch that would give them access to the surface, but he knew from the city schematics that the shaft led up through several other industrial levels that were on the local map, disguising the traffic flow by mixing it in with legitimate commerce.
That also meant this was the end of the line, and once loaded onboard the cargo was as good as gone, transferred to other locations on Tyr or off the moon entirely. Star Force could track the dropships, and any ships they loaded onto, but David knew The Word’s typical procedure was to move, then remove their contraband, making the transfers where no one could see.
David growled, and not just at the guards coming his way. He was really missing his armor right now.
Nathan, make like a sniper.
On it, the Archon said, leaping across the gap between crates and crawling up on top of a pair, laying flat on his belly with his stinger pistol held out in front of him. He didn’t like that position, but he wanted to expose as little of his profile as possible, knowing that David was about to become the primary target.
With that in mind, he shunted his vision over to David specifically, not extending telepathic links to the other Green Team members, and allowing his team leader to ‘see’ through his eyes as he held his fire, although he had open shots on several of them, but at a range that he couldn’t be sure to hit with a pistol.
Nathan waited until the approaching guards, some four up front, neared the door, then he released his telepathic link to David and squeezed off a pair of shots, only one of which hit. As that guard stumbled, his leg now numb and unresponsive, David popped into their view took the other three down with a Fornax field as he peppered them with stingers…only to duck back into cover as a series of plasma streaks shot through the huge archway from positions that Nathan couldn’t see.
After that no more guards advanced, but Nathan could see several repositioning in the distance to establish a perimeter where they could fire on the entrance.
Stay put, Nathan warned. They’re setting up for a turkey shoot.
“Damn it,” David swore, tucked up against the inside wall. He knew Red Team couldn’t get here in time, and if The Word had any sense they’d l
oad up the dropships and get what they could out of here.
Status report, David demanded telepathically, linking 5 mental searchlights on each of his team members’ minds then sending out copies of the message to each simultaneously. If he transmitted in the open, every mind within range, including the enemy, would ‘hear’ him.
Picked up another guard, Jet replied, you in a firefight?
Sort of, David replied, sneaking another peak around the corner and drawing more than half a dozen plasma shots coming his way. There’s a hangar that they’re keeping us out of, and short of growing a set of armor we’re not getting in.
Want us to find a back door? Lio asked.
Somebody stay with the bodies. I don’t want them spirited off when we’re not looking. Other than that, cause what trouble you can, but conserve ammo.
Seraph, Lio said, running off to a side exit from the Human packing room they’d stayed behind in. It was the only personnel exit, and led into a nearby chamber on the opposite side that Seraph was keeping his eye on, and it was also the direction the roaming guard had come from.
Seraph popped up onto his feet a moment before Lio got to him and they ran through the short connecting hallway together, making a left turn and coming out into another noisy chamber with a hoard of workers loading baking ingredients into automated foodstuff production units. Seraph pointed left while he went right and the two Archons split up, taking advantage of the work floor din.
Lio worked his way around several crates the workers were getting the ingredients from and came up behind one carrying a box of flour, saving a stinger round via Vulcan neck pinch. The woman dropped the box, drawing the attention of two others that he disabled with a pair of Fornax blasts, upon which he added his sleep touch.
By that time Seraph had already been discovered and a wave of recognition ran throughout the workers, prompting Lio to pull out his stun gun and fire it at a cluster of them. The single shot spread out as the pink energy was notorious for and hit five of them, dropping them all to the ground, though a couple didn’t completely fall unconscious, merely with numb limbs. Lio didn’t worry about them, but worked his way around his half of yet another large room, taking out the personnel and looking for more guards, only one of which materialized…and Seraph got to him first with a pair of green splats to the side of his face and arm.
Lio worked his way around the various pieces of equipment, watching where the workers fled and following them out into another chamber. This one led to a personnel service area and another of the entrances into the secure area that they’d considered breaching, then passed on for it being too obvious. Seraph trailed behind him, grabbing and knocking several other workers unconscious.
Lio pushed through the crowd, not bothering to waste ammo or time on them as they bunched up fleeing out the security door that had taken them too long to open. The Archon made his way through them to the door on the other side that led into a different chamber, hoping to find a way round through that complex and into the loading bay.
With Devin holding guard over the unconscious Human cargo, Jet found a slow way to climb back up to the catwalks and scrambled his way over to the mechanics bay and cut across two more chambers, not bothering to stop and gawk at what was inside. He ran, unworried about making noise, and came to a dead end close to where the loading hangar was.
From there he jumped over the side, clinging to the railing for a moment to lower himself down a bit, then dropped and slid off a piece of machinery down to the floor of a toy factory. From there he found his way into another loading bay and hopped up a conveyor, shooting a guard in the back with a stinger as he passed through to the other side.
He came out into a loading dock similar to the one David and Nathan were pinned down in, but most of the security guards had moved off to deal with them, leaving only a pair for Jet to get the drop on. One he hit with a straight line stinger shot, the other he had to incapacitate with a Fornax blast before jumping out of cover and running over to the man after he’d dropped his weapon, delivering a sleep touch and taking the man’s plasma rifle as he ran over to the large doorway leading into the hangar.
He was too far away to telepathically link with the others, so he flipped on his comm as he took cover, with the workers he hadn’t taken down scurrying off towards the corners to stay out of his way.
“In flanking position,” he reported.
“Stay put,” David ordered. “They’ve got too many guns on the deck. We count at least 30.”
“What’s the play?”
“Ah…don’t get shot.”
“Brilliant strategy,” Jet said sarcastically.
“Are you within Fornax range?”
Jet stretched out his mind, sensing the position of the nearest guards to him on the other side of the doorway.
“Negative.”
“Then we wait for them to come to us. Pick out a nice ambush spot and go camper.”
“And if they don’t?”
“Then Red Team will kick their ass when they get here.”
“How are they getting here, we shut the door didn’t we?”
“I didn’t specify and they didn’t ask,” David said, realizing that could be a problem, except for the fact that they wouldn’t be coming in quiet like and could blow any doors they couldn’t get through, though that would take time. “They’re following my beacon.”
“While we’re waiting,” Jet said, repositioning away from the door and moving over to a corner where he felt two people were hiding. “Any idea what The Word is doing making toys?” he asked before gripping the comm in his teeth.
Jet disabled the pair with a Fornax field before he even came into view, then he stepped in and grabbed each of the worker’s necks, rendering them unconscious as David answered.
“What kind of toys?”
Jet pulled it out of his mouth, camping in the quiet corner while focusing his mental radar to pick up any minds around him, several of which were popping up on the other side of the wall, but they couldn’t get to him, nor him to them. “Action figures and other small stuff. Didn’t get a good look.”
“We’ll find out later,” David said as the whine of mechanics drifted in from the loading hangar.
“Somebody leaving?” Jet asked.
“Two Falcons on deck and the roof is opening…and we can’t do anything to stop it. Stay put and grab what we can.”
“Copy that,” Jet said, wandering out from his lair a bit, about to get a jump on another hiding worker, with many more to follow as he cleaned up the area, keeping keen attention on the hangar for when the guards decided to move back his way.
6
“Who are they?” Derrick-633 asked, standing over David’s shoulder in his silver armor as he pried the casing off another of the transfer tubes that contained a small carbon dioxide/oxygen recycler unit, just powerful enough to keep a sedated individual alive during transit, but not nearly powerful enough to sustain a waking Human.
“Some of them are the Brazilian assault force,” David said, pulling the casing aside to reveal a man dressed in plain civilian clothes hooked up to what was now a standard IV unit. He and the other members of Green Team had already opened dozens of the canisters, as well as attending to the unconscious ‘packages’ that had yet to be closed up. “But some don’t match the IDs we were given.”
David placed the end of a small cylinder against the man’s arm, a piece of equipment that Red Team had brought in with their second wave after the first four Archons they’d sent had made short work of the guards and incapacitated what workers hadn’t fled off into the rest of the city. Two more Red Team members showed up later, bringing with them equipment and ammo from their makeshift armory that they’d set up elsewhere in the city.
Nathan had gone back to don his own armor and grab David’s for him while the rest of the 6 Green Team Archons stayed on site as they sorted through The Word’s leftovers, with their primary emphasis on the unconscious Human cargo they’d recovered.
The other members of Green Team, finishing up their own reconnaissance of other dark zones in the architecture, were heading back to get armored up and were bringing the others theirs, now that there was little point in trying to hide their presence in the city, given the hundreds of fleeing workers running off to tell all of the Archon incursion.
The cylinder in David’s hand analyzed the man’s genetic code, flashing up a negative match symbol, meaning this individual wasn’t on the list of missing soldiers the Brazilians had given them. Matching it up against Star Force’s own database would have to wait, for the small device couldn’t hold that much data.
David pulled the needle out of the man’s arm and detached the primitive sedative injection package that was tied onto his flesh with tape. He put his hand on the man’s head, trying to wake him up as he had the others, but with the same results. The man wasn’t just asleep, but his consciousness was being chemically suppressed, meaning his body would have to flush out the drugs before he’d wake up.
“Deep coma?” Derrick asked.
“Very,” David said, examining the man for any other oddities before reaching down and looping his arm around the body and pulling it out of the tube. Derrick stepped in and grabbed an arm, leveraging the heavy guy out and over to a section of floor where three others were laid out perfectly still. More were in the packaging room on the other side of the now deactivated conveyor belt shunts coming through the wall.
“Looks like we need to commandeer the Brazilian medical corps next?”
“If you could snag a few, it’d help, but we have to make sure these people don’t disappear again.”
“We’re not outfitted for this,” Derrick reminded him. “And the longer we’re babysitting the more opportunity the enemy has to be mischievous.”
