Excerpts Following.
Prologue
We were watching, waiting in the cold, harsh weather of Marzoc. Nevin was to my right. Our fingers were on the triggers, despite them being numbed by the cold. Admiral Cope was in our scopes. We could have fired but instead we held our fire. We followed orders and waited.
The man in charge of the entire UED fleet marched from his gunship toward a larger tent in the center of the camp. Admiral Cope entered the central command tent. Robert followed him in. We waited for the explosion. It didn’t come.
Chapter 11
Special Operations
“Move in,” Ryan whispered.
Nevin, Cassidy, and I entered a service tunnel, while Ryan, Philip, and Max went down a hall. We moved quickly and quietly down the tunnel. We arrived at a door and stacked up. I signaled for Nevin to move in. He acted on the signal and I heard a suppressed burst of gunfire. I followed him in and noticed the dead pirate on the floor.
We were moving in to the pirate base’s command center. Located there should be the pirate leader as well as an Elonian Intelligence officer. The officer had been siphoning sensitive information to the pirate group. His motives were unknown, as well as his identity.
Ryan’s team was moving in to disable the power. With the power off, the command center’s electronic doors would release.
We darted down the next hallway. Several more pirates were neutralized with ease. These pirates were no match for revolutions of high-level training. We had come far from our days back in the Vorgian War.
We arrived at the Command Center entrance. The door was still locked.
“Ryan, James here… We’re at the door.”
“10-4, we are closing in on the generator. ETA well under a minute,” Ryan said over the inter-suit COM.
“Roger that, sir.”
We waited patiently in the barely lit room. Then the lights cut and I heard several machines groan to a stop. I grabbed one side of the split door and Nevin grabbed the other. We pulled it open and Cassidy moved in. Nevin and I followed suit. Quickly we advanced and seized the frantic Intelligence officer. Nevin shouldered his SMG and fired a single round into the pirate commander’s head. He was expendable… and better off dead. As for the officer, we needed him alive. I slipped out a tranq needle and jammed it into the man. Nevin and Cassidy cleaned up the rest of the guards and we were clear to go.
“Objective secured. Prepped for evac.”
“Alright, we’re already closing in on the hangar,” he responded.
“We’ll be there shortly,” I informed him, shouldering the officer.
We needed to get to the hangar quickly. The destroyer Iron Fist was waiting outside to obliterate the base after we were off.
We hurried down the pitch-black halls. We had only our gun-mounted flashlights to guide us with the power off. On the way down the hall we encountered another pirate stumbling in the dark. A simple burst and he was down. Before long the whole base would be put out of their confusion. Within minutes we were boarding a solid black pirate Corsair.
“Good work team,” Ryan murmured as he started the engines.
We rose out of the hangar that had been carved into an asteroid. We could see the Iron Fist just outside the asteroid field.
“Rangers to Iron Fist… come in,” Ryan said over the COM.
“Iron Fist here, we read.”
“Objective secured. You are clear to open fire.”
“Copy that Rangers. Clear to open fire.”
Our stolen Corsair exited the asteroid field. The destroyer unleashed a massive barrage of missiles into the base. Asteroids exploded behind us. We soared into the open hangar bay of the destroyer.
We exited the Corsair, once again successful. We had made habit of success. We truly were the best soldiers the Empire has ever known, surpassing even the original Rangers.
The Fate of Humanity Page 2
