Chaos Tactics (The Reckless Chronicles Book 1)

by Trent Falls

  “Yup, pretty safe to say that he didn’t die from exposure.” The forensic officer noted.

  “Why do you say that?” Howe asked flatly.

  The forensic officer had the scanner held up to Black’s head. “Because there’s a four inch deep stab wound in his forehead.” The officer pulled the scanner up to look at its setting, checking the instrument. “I’d say, based on the entry wound, that someone threw a knife into his face.”

  “John.” Aiyana breathed, almost sadly.

  Howe turned around to look at Ana. She was standing just a few steps behind them in a blue and white hard suit; one of a more slender cut for a woman. Ana also had her eyes fixed on Black’s body. Being a US Government liaison to New Australia for the EEF, the sight of such grisliness wasn’t new to her. It had been a good while since she had seen it but it wasn’t new.

  The group communicated through the radios within their helmets. Being so close to one another, the conversation seemed very clear. Another, more distant signal crackled into their helmet speakers.

  “We’ve got another one six miles northeast of you.” The voice of another Martian Police officer spoke. There was a pause of a few seconds. “Cause of death looks to be multiple stab wounds to the body.”

  “Jesus.” Ana exhaled.

  “Your boyfriend’s handiwork?” Howe asked Ana gruffly.

  “He wouldn’t do this.” Ana walked a few steps closer to Black’s body to get a better look at it. “Not if he didn’t have to.”

  Howe looked at his COO for a moment silently. “So, what do you think happened? These guys shoot the hell out of my city, use a serious piece of military hardware to break this guy out then they end up dead in the middle of the Martian desert.”

  One of the police officers turned to look at Howe and Ana. “Sir, with all due respect, you should leave the police work to the professionals. We don’t know what happened here. Spreading wild conjecture could actually be damaging to our investigation.”

  “Yes, sergeant, of course.” Howe replied coolly. “I wasn’t suggesting how to do your job. All the same, we need to know how to proceed.”

  “We’re going to have to shut down your operation.” The police sergeant noted in an authoritatively certain tone. “At least for a few days.”

  “Yes, we’re still on lockdown. Of course.” Howe agreed.

  “These men are wearing your mining uniforms. And that spider sentry probably came in through your port. Our investigation might take some time.” The sergeant noted.

  “Yes, anything you need, just ask.” Howe agreed. He then turned his helmet towards Aiyana. “You know this means Lance will have to be fired.”

  Aiyana stared back at her boss. Lance Brookings was their Chief Security Officer for Martian Steel. Lance was a good man and a friend, but ultimately Howe was right.

  “How the hell does something like this happen?” Aiyana grumbled.

  “Yeah,” Howe grumbled, “how does it happen? Thirteen police and guards dead. Fifteen injured. Part of Hutchinson City shot to hell. All for what?”

  “This is very serious.” Ana noted the obvious.

  Howe nearly laughed aloud. “Yes, Ana! Very serious! The ESF should be at the city now. I’ve left word for their agent about the whereabouts of these bodies.”

  “He hasn’t cleared prep yet” one of the Martian Police officers stood up to face Howe. “ESF is going to want to come down here and piss all over my crime scene, but I’m going to maintain a proper chain of custody!”

  “I’m going to head back to the city.” Aiyana turned to walk away from the group. Martian gravel crunched beneath her metal alloy boots with each step.

  “What are you going to do?” Howe asked.

  The helmet radios were odd at times. Ana turned around, thinking from her helmet speakers that Howe was right behind her when he was several feet away.

  “The ESF is no doubt going to comb through every inch of Martian Steel. I need to be back there.” Ana explained.

  “Alright.” Howe nodded. “Keep me posted.”

  Aiyana walked back towards the three white Martian shuttles parked a few yards away. One was certainly a police shuttle; very large transport with blue and red lights set at a few points on the hull. The other two were marked with the Martian Steel astorid logo. Ana entered into the side hatch of one of the smaller Martian Steel shuttles. She powered the vehicle up from its standby setting and lifted off.

  Ana had not exactly been honest with her boss. She was heading back to the city to make sure the ESF hadn’t locked it down completely, but she also had other motives.

  The day grew late. The wind had picked up. A weather front was passing through, John guessed. The thick subtropical trees around John were stirred up into long swaying movements with the strong wind. John found himself wishing he had a jacket. He used to never leave Earth without one. It was much easier to remove a jacket in a hot climate than be without one in a cold one.

  John and Alex continued walking. Neither man knew exactly where they were going. There were no paths on the planet, no worn lanes of traffic or trade. They pretty much had to play it all by ear. All they really knew, thanks to Alex’s pocket computer, was the Tequesta’s relative location. Neither man wanted to stray too far away from the ship.

  The path ahead grew more difficult. The roots of trees grew thicker underfoot. Many roots and rocks were coated in treacherous moss. Alex and John stuck to lower and more sure-footed parts of the terrain. The rainforest grew tighter and denser around them. The wind picked up again in a surge, whipping the trees into a frenzy of motion. John knew the wind in the trees would make hearing the approach of enemy foot soldiers more difficult. The wind might also make aiming a bit more difficult too. He was ever alert, ready to snap his M-10 to his sight at the first sign of trouble. As there were no paths whatsoever ahead, Alex and John chose their route as carefully as they could.

  Finally, they broke through a thick patch of overgrowth, only to find themselves staring out across a vast green mountain range. The sight of it was awe inspiring! Breathtaking! The many peaks ahead stretched out for as far as the eye could see; all covered in the same jungle foliage as the trees and plants around them. The wind whipped over a nearby group of peaks in what almost looked like an oceanic wave. The cloud cover ahead was heavy with clouds; pink, red, and amber from the setting Altairian sun far in the distance. Altair looked smaller than the Earth’s sun due to it being much further away from the ninth planet, but it was easily just as bright. The Altarian sun was perfectly set in the parted clouds, as beautiful and lonely as anything John had seen before.

  For a few brief seconds, John’s mind was devoid of fear and doubt. Looking at the setting Altarian sun, John was once again the idealistic youth that had joined the EEF with dreams of going to space. He was that kid from Pennsylvania who daydreamed of the very alien world he was now standing on.

  For a brief moment, he was James Kirk!

  John pushed himself back into the reality of their situation. He walked on after Alex over the rough terrain of the cliff side. John remembered that they were stranded on a relatively uninhabited planet and in Xen space. There were likely Xen looking for them at that very moment. The Xen probably would kill or capture them upon finding them. All of that, and Julie was somewhere out there in space, held against her will by an unhinged mercenary.

  John needed to keep focused!

  “We should turn back north.” Alex observed. “Maybe make camp along the side of that mountain.” Alex pointed to a distant peak covered with trees.

  “We need to find an adequate defendable position.” John noted plainly, looking around at the terrain, then briefly up to the sky. “Though with a Xen carrier overhead I don’t know what a defensible position is.”

  “This is nuts.” Alex grumbled. “Why would Euler have you come here only to have the Xen shoot us out of the sky? It doesn’t make sense.”

  “I think something went wrong.” John observed evenly, still
scanning his surroundings.

  “We need to figure out exactly what we’re going to do next.” Alex turned to look directly at John. It was almost a demanding tone. “We need to get off this planet.”

  John stared back at Alex for a moment. “I’ve thought about that,” John noted in a cold, almost inhuman voice, “you may not like the solution.”

  “What?” Alex looked back at John. “You gonna hunt down one of the Xen? Kill him? Take his ship?”

  “Yeah, something along those lines.” John answered.

  Alex looked back at John with an almost disappointed look on his face.

  “I don’t believe this.” Alex shook his head. “After all this time that we’ve known each other.” Alex paused. “I didn’t know you could be so bloodthirsty.”

  “I’m not, Alex.” John replied sharply. “I’m this way because I have to be this way. Back in New Australia I was a cop, looking out for the interest of the EEF colony. A peacekeeper of a colony world. The war was different.”

  Alex took a deep breath. Clearly he was frustrated.

  “All I’m trying to do, Alex, is get Julie back.” John defended himself. “Black, White, and their men… they would have killed us after they got what they wanted.”

  “I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, John.” Alex noted plainly. “We tried but I think your PTSD was too much.”

  “What are you talking about, Al?” John asked Alex blankly.

  Alex’s eyes took on a supernatural glow. They were bright white as Alex turned fully towards John to look upon him.

  “Do you remember when we became friends, John?” Alex asked John as he stared at him. Alex’s voice trailed off into a massive echoing reverb in his skull.

  John fell to his knees immediately. He was stunned in terror. “Oh my God!!!”

  John was frozen. “I remember….”

  The Xen transport emerged from warp about 300 MSK from Altair Nine. The light from the bright white star of Altair cast the blue green planet in a ghostly white glow. The Xen carrier was visible even at such a great distance off to the right of the planet.

  Euler, who had been sitting in the flight engineer station, stood up to stand between his merc pilots. Euler looked out towards the planet and the Xen carrier and became upset immediately.

  “What the fuck is this?!?” Euler boomed.

  “Looks like uninvited guests.” One of the pilots noted. “Uh… sir? What should we do?”

  “What’s their status?” Euler demanded. “What are they doing?”

  “They’re in a geostationary parking orbit. They’ve launched a combat air patrol and looks like they’ve sent a number of transport shuttles down to the planet.”

  “He’s here.” Euler exhaled, almost with evil satisfaction. “They’ve shot him down.”

  “Sir, uh… they’ve taken an interest in us. We’re being hailed. They got scanning beams on us.”

  “Open the channel.” Euler ordered.

  “Let me handle this.” Lieutenant Zao moved forward to the com.

  The copilot flipped a switch on the subspace radio overhead. He dialed in the Xen combat frequency on a small square touchscreen. An encryption code followed.

  “Xen Carrier Xinglong! This is transport AR-232 with command authority. Authorization twenty one alpha beta tango. I’d like to speak with your commander on a private secure channel.” Zao spoke with authority.

  There was a pause.

  The pilots in Euler’s shuttle were both human. Neither had been in the war but they had seen a little combat. Nothing of the scale of the war. And they certainly had never seen a Xen Command Carrier. The sight of it growing to gigantic scale ahead of their ship was pretty frightening.

  Euler did have one thing helping him; Xen Lieutenant David Zao. Though he detested Zao’s presence he was grateful he was there in that situation. Zao was Xen Special Forces. No doubt he was Shin’s and the Xen council’s fail safe; with orders to kill Euler and his men if things got out of hand. Zao would be also be able to keep other Xen at bay as well if needed. The codes he and Euler possessed would be enough to get them through to other Xen senior officers. They were all aware to give way to anyone possessing Euler’s codes, though none were briefed as to the details of his mission.

  Only Euler, Shin, and the Xen High Council knew the full details; that they were searching for extraterrestrial intelligence and technology.

  “This is Captain Yuri Magnuson of the Xinglong.” A stern aged voice called back over the subspace radio. “Please transmit full authorization codes.”

  Euler stepped forward to the flight computer. He tapped a series of menu commands on the touchscreen to get him to the radio’s secure network. Euler tapped in a long sequence of code, finishing by tapping the red ‘transmit’ icon on the touchscreen.

  Again, there was a pause.

  “How might we assist you, transport AR-232?” Captain Magnuson eventually replied.

  “We were to rendezvous with a transport vessel here. A private vessel.” Euler replied aloud.

  “We recently shot down an intruder over the planet.” Magnuson replied sternly. “They did not respond to hails or orders to be escorted back to our vessel. They ran once our alert fighters approached.”

  “Shit.” Euler exhaled under his breath. All that trouble… and money! “Did you eliminate the target? Was your kill confirmed?” Euler asked in a louder voice for transmission.

  “We have search teams beneath us on the planet’s surface. We believe the ship crashed on the planet and that the crew likely survived.” Magnuson reported. “Their pilot was elite. He flew two of my starfighters into the ground without firing a shot.”

  Euler breathed a sigh of relief.

  “No one alerted you when they came out of hyperspace?” Euler asked urgently. “No one with Xen clearance codes?”

  “No. Nothing.” Magnuson’s voice replied.

  Euler paused in thought for a moment. “Very well. With your permission, we’d like instructions for an approach to your vessel.”

  “We have escort fighters en route to your position. We’ll guide you in on final.” Magnuson responded.

  “Very well. Thank you.” Euler stated finally.

  The com line was closed. Euler looked down and to the left - blankly into the air ahead of him. Something had gone wrong. Euler tried quickly to put what he knew together and envision what might have happened. The Xinglong was NOT supposed to be at Altair Nine. It was a very unfortunate stroke of bad luck. Euler, Shin, and the Xen council knew what their true mission was, but no one below them had a full understanding of the overall picture. Shin’s research team knew they were looking for extraterrestrial artifacts. Shin’s soldiers simply followed orders, not necessarily knowing exactly what was going on. Captain Magnuson and his senior staff on the Xinglong were a different animal to contend with. A man with Magnuson’s rank would demand answers. He would have to be content with the Xen high level security protocols as a stonewall to his questions. Euler being a Terran and being in the company mercenaries wouldn’t make things easier.

  “Black and his team must be dead or captured.” Euler observed aloud.

  “Do you think Carn still has it in him to eliminate your team?” Zao asked directly.

  “In his prime, yes.” Euler answered. “I haven’t seen him personally so I don’t know how age and civilian life has treated him but, yeah, I think he still could, mentally.”

  Euler turned towards the copilot.

  “We need to send a coded transmission to Isis.” Euler ordered. “See if Black or any of his men tried to contact us there. And see if there’s any resources left on Mars. Maybe Black was detained there.”

  “Yes sir.” The copilot responded obediently. He pulled up a touchscreen keyboard out from its mounting arm at his side and began working.

  A few moments later, the subspace radio transmitter antennae mounted atop the AR-232 transport narrowed and turned towards the general direction of 61 Virginis and the planet I
sis. It began a burst transmission. Normally, a subspace transmission was difficult to detect, let alone intercept, without sophisticated equipment. One also had to be skilled in signal transmission to know how to do it and what to look for.

  A triangular-shaped starship, only a few thousand kilometers away, sat quietly in space. It had only a bare minimum of its power supply active. The ship itself was obscured by its own black RF hull shielding.

  Aiyana Rodriguez, in a black flight suit, sat inside the dim cockpit of the Martian Steel scout craft. The only light in the cockpit was the main scanner screen and a few indicator lights. The scout craft was typically used for prospecting, but the advanced radiation and scanning equipment was adequate enough for Ana to grab part of the signal and identify the direction which it was being sent.

  The main hangar bay of the Xen Carrier Xinglong was alive with activity. The Xen transport Scott Euler and his team had used landed on the expanded metal deck. Upon exiting the shuttle, Euler, Lieutenant Zao, and the rest of the mercs were escorted to the lift that would take them up to the command deck of the carrier. A row of several Xen starfigthers were restrained along the side walls. A mechanic team labored over a large tanker vessel.

  As Euler and his men vanished behind the doors of the lift, a number of Xen in olive drab and grey uniforms appeared. They were well armed, all with carbine rifles or submachine guns. There were about forty in total. All marched out in an orderly fashion to four transatmospheric troop shuttles. The elongated flat grey shuttles waited with side hatch doors that were open to expose the passenger compartment, much like an atmospheric helicopter. The Xen soldiers all bore camouflage paint on their faces. They were the Xinglong’s advanced recon team; elite members of their commando force. The forty men broke into groups of ten. The teams split up and entered the waiting transport vessels.

  Once loaded, the side doors of the transports slid shut. The thick doors pressed into the sides of the vehicles and hissed with a vacuum-safe seal. Ready for takeoff, the transports fired up their main thrusters and repulse emitters. They rumbled off the ground, appearing for a moment like some odd amusement park ride before settling into flight. One by one, they floated up into the airtight release chamber of the main hangar. It was essentially a wide opening at the far end of the main hangar leading into a massive launch tube. The tube, actually somewhat rectangular, led to a massive steel door about 100 feet head. The transport shuttles slowed to a near stop as another pair of giant steel pressure doors sealed behind them. Once the doors at the rear were sealed the massive door ahead parted. Altarian sunlight blazed in a widening beam from the parting seams of the door. The star-filled sea of space reached out into eternity ahead.