by A. K. DuBoff
“Dominic, you know me.”
“I knew you, Ellen. But you are no longer the young woman I mentored. Whatever happened on Elusia was not a setback to our plans. You turned against us. When you showed back up here with that bold plan, I suspected you weren’t being genuine with your motivations. Only the chancellor could determine if your intentions were honest, so she read you. And Ellen, you have not been very forthcoming.” Dominic locked her in a piercing stare.
Ellen’s heart pounded in her ears. I thought the Guard would get here before they realized…
She should have known her cover was blown the moment she went to meet with the chancellor. Of course, she’d never get an audience like that, regardless of the plan she had presented. Dominic had been playing her the whole time.
“What happens now?” she asked, realizing it was pointless to resist. Being too obstinate might make them inclined to kill her on the spot, but if she feigned cooperation, perhaps she’d be able to buy herself time until the Guard arrived.
Dominic scoffed. “What do you think will happen, Ellen? We’ll learn what we can from you, and then it’ll end for you the same way it ends for anyone who opposes us.”
Yeah, with that kind of thinking, no wonder people have a tendency to defect. It was a little late for that sentiment. If they had already pegged her as a traitor, she may as well play up that story to make herself seem valuable enough to keep around for a while longer.
“Yes, I was sent here to relay information back to Elusia,” Ellen admitted.
“Ah, finally some honesty.” Dominic perked up.
His willingness to believe the lie revealed a valuable piece of information to Ellen: he wasn’t subverted by one of the aliens, at least not under permanent control. She might be able to slip some little lies through. I’ll see how long I can keep them off the Guard’s trail.
Dominic took a step toward her. “You know, that’s the only reason we didn’t arrest you the moment you walked into my office. There was no way you’d come here completely alone, so it was more advantageous to wait until you directly implicated your co-conspirators.”
“This opposition is bigger than a handful of individuals,” Ellen shot back.
“Then it’s helpful that our definition of victory calls for total dominance.”
Ellen swallowed. “Have you ever taken a step back to ask why? Do you know who you’re working for?”
“That’s why it’s always been such an easy decision,” Dominic replied. “We are such simple, mortal creatures. How could we not answer to such superior beings?”
“They’ve brainwashed you.”
He chuckled. “Oh, no. They’ve been kind enough to show us how much better we can become.”
Ellen stared at him with disbelief. “Is that all that Mysar is now? A planet dedicated to helping some outside race exert its superiority?”
“It’s not like we won’t get anything in return.” He smiled. “We’re so close to being able to turn our simple race into the soldiers we were meant to become. The ancient technology has been there, and they took it and built upon it. With their intellect and our physical forms, we will rise.”
“I think you’re underestimating your opposition.”
Dominic cocked his head. “If they want a fight, then let them bring it.”
— — —
“All right, team, we have everything we need to complete this op without coming under fire,” Kira said while she loaded into the landing shuttle with Ari, Kyle, and Nia.
“Then why do we have the big guns?” Kyle asked with a smirk.
“Because we’re totally going to get shot at,” Ari said loudly while cupping his hand over his mouth to mime a whisper.
Kira chuckled. “You know the drill.”
Nia took the shuttle’s controls next to Kira. “What happens if we get captured?” she asked.
The team didn’t broach the topic too often, even on the riskiest missions. Though there were official protocols on the books, each situation called for a tailored approach, given the relative likelihood of backup arriving, the sensitivity of the information they were sent in to extract, or other factors. They were all prepared to give their lives in the line of duty, but facing that possible mortality was always different than the hypotheticals.
“We don’t get caught,” Kira told the lance corporal. “There’s no reason all of us won’t walk out of there.”
Nia nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
Kira kept her own nerves to herself, knowing that expressing her misgivings about their ill preparation wouldn’t help her team. At least Nico had relayed Ellen’s confirmation of the landing plan. That part was on track, if nothing else.
When everyone was strapped in, Kira powered up the shuttle. “Here we go!”
The shuttle dropped out of the Raven’s belly and then boosted at an angle toward the planet as soon as it was clear of the craft. Its stealth tech would make the craft almost impossible to spot during its descent.
Kira and the rest of her team remained silent for the initial approach, their gazes fixed out the viewports to get the lay of the land.
“It’s so barren,” Nia commented once they were low enough that details in the landscape began to come into focus. “I can’t imagine why anyone would settle here when Valta was an option.”
“To each their own, I guess.” Kira said.
The shuttle set down behind a rock outcropping a kilometer from the capital building. Kira and the team moved to the back of the shuttle and checked their stealth armor.
“Everyone ready?” she asked.
“All set,” the three soldiers acknowledged.
“And you have the…?” Kira prompted.
They all patted compartments on their hips containing a sedative.
“We won’t need it, but we’re ready,” Nia assured her.
Kira secured the shuttle while the others scrambled up the side of the surrounding rock outcropping to get eyes on their destination. She joined them on the lip of the ridge. “How’s it look?”
“Clear, as far as we can tell,” Ari replied.
“Then let’s go,” Kira ordered.
The four soldiers loped across the harsh landscape, keeping to the shadows of rocks as much as possible. Stealth armor or not, there was no need to run right out in the open in case the enemy had some means of spotting them.
They covered the single kilometer quickly. As they neared their destination of the back-entry door, Kira motioned for Ari to take point and scope out their final approach. She waited with the other two members of the team behind a boulder.
“Two guards are posted outside,” Ari reported into his comm. “There’s cover on the approach. We should be able to get close enough for a sonic blast.”
“Do it. We’ll cover you.”
Ari slipped ahead while Kira jogged along several meters back with Nia and Kyle to either side. They darted to the various rocks along the way.
When he reached the boulder closest to the door, Ari took cover and aimed his multi-handgun at the two guards, set to sonic stun. He fired.
The two guards dropped to the ground.
Kira ran forward with her weapon drawn in case additional guards emerged from the building. “Okay, time to find out if that code Ellen gave us for the door works.” She located the access panel and keyed in the code.
Nothing happened.
She tried it again. A red light illuminated.
Shite! She glanced at the other members of the team. “Kyle, think you can crack it?”
He hesitated. “Sure, but what does it mean that this information was wrong?”
More than Kira wanted to admit. “We proceed with the mission.”
“All right.” Kyle jogged forward, drawing the compact device he used to interface with computer terminals. He synced with the keypad.
“I don’t like this,” Ari muttered under his breath.
“This reeks of a trap,” Nia added. She tightened her grip on her weapon.
“We’ll fight our way in if we have to.” Kira pressed her back against the side wall, ready for action.
“Almost got it,” Kyle said. “There!”
The light on the access panel turned blue, and the bolt unlocked with a clang. Kyle swung the door open with one hand while aiming his weapon inside with the other.
Ari ran up behind him, staring down his sights. “Looks clear,” he reported, then paused. “Did you hear that?”
Kira listened. “Shite, they’re coming!”
CHAPTER 19
Kira motioned her team backward around the cover of the building. “Hold your fire.”
She listened to the swift footfalls in the hallway, halting just inside the door.
“Do any of you have line of sight on the enemy?” she asked her team over their comms.
“Negative,” Ari replied. “I can see where they found cover, though.”
Fok, there’s no way to handle this without making a scene. She took a deep breath. “Toss in a flash grenade.”
Kyle glanced at her. “That will give away our posi—”
“Do it!”
Ari pulled out a grenade from his belt and activated it. “Not like they don’t already know we’re here.” He tossed it inside.
The hallway was bathed in white light as the flash grenade detonated. The guards inside stumbled from their hiding places, dazed.
Kira and her team fired into the hall, striking the guards with sonic blasts. Half a dozen guards dropped to the floor.
A volley of kinetic rounds buzzed past Kira.
“Back to cover!” she ordered.
Kyle and Nia took the left side of the entry door while Kira and Ari braced themselves on the right wall.
“This is off to a great start.” Nia assessed the enemy’s positions on her HUD. “Six disabled, another four firing from seventeen meters back.”
Kira confirmed the survey on her own HUD. “We need to secure a position inside.”
“The air is clear when they aren’t firing. They won’t be able to see us in the stealth suits,” Kyle observed.
“Not until we’re right on top of them.” Kira crept into the corridor.
The drywall along the hallway was now pitted from the kinetic rounds. Better the walls than her armor.
She picked her footing carefully around the unconscious guards, jogging between the minimal cover afforded by recessed doorways.
Kira tried the handle on the first door she encountered, but it was locked. All right, straight ahead it is. She advanced, trying each door with the same result. By the time she reached the final door, she was a mere three meters from the four guards hiding in a hallway T-intersection.
There was no way to get a direct shot, but she could see her targets just beyond her sightlines.
“I’m going for it,” she told her team.
Without hesitation, she sprinted forward, firing a perfectly aimed sonic blast into the right-hand hallway as she passed through the intersection.
The four guards dropped to the floor before they knew what hit them.
“All right, that worked rather well,” Kyle admitted over the comm.
“Not exactly a best practice, but whatever works.” Kira edged back to the intersection and looked down. The HUD showed the way was clear. “Let’s find a communication room. The original plan is off. We need to find out what went wrong.”
They made their way down the hallway, scouting for an access terminal. Eventually, Nia spotted a dataport.
Kyle initiated an interface and burrowed into the system. “There’s a communications room about ninety meters away, down a couple corridors to the left.” He sent the map to the team’s shared HUD overlay.
“Looks like a pretty easy route,” assessed Ari.
“That’s our best bet to get deeper into the database,” Nia said. “If we can get to that room, we can likely procure all the access codes we’ll need to get into the chancellor’s chambers.”
“Agreed,” Kira said with a nod. “Reinforcements are almost certainly on their way.”
Not a moment later and the sounds of scuffling footfalls carried down the corridor.
“Shall we?” Kyle held out his hand in the direction they needed to go.
“Let’s test out this stealth tech for real.” Kira jogged ahead of her team.
Twenty meters down the hall, she spotted their opposition. Unaware of Kira’s stealthed team, the soldiers were in the middle of the corridor, leaving a narrow margin along either side.
Kira continued forward carefully, keeping her footsteps silent. Though her stealth suit was invisible to a casual observer, there was still a risk of her solid form casting shadows, so she didn’t want to draw attention from any sudden movements. When she was almost to the soldiers’ positions, she pressed herself into the narrow recesses of a doorway. She waited.
The guards passed her by, leaving a clear path down the hall.
“Like a pro,” Nia said with an audible smirk.
“Get your asses over here,” Kira told her team.
Using her technique, the three other soldiers slipped past the Mysaran guards.
Ari chuckled into the comm. “Poor bastards won’t know what to do when they can’t find us.”
“Let’s not get cocky. This is far from over.” Kira jogged down the corridor along the course Kyle had indicated on the facility layout.
They saw no other people in the halls on the rest of the way to the communications room, but Kira suspected others must be close.
Outside the communication room itself, Kira used the sensors on her suit to look through the wall. “Two occupants,” she told her team.
“Sonic blast may mess with the equipment,” Nia cautioned.
“Then we lure them out.” Kira beckoned for Kyle to crack the security lock on the door.
“What’s your plan?” Nia asked while her colleague worked.
“Stealth tech is great and all, but sometimes to get results, you need to do things the old-fashioned way. Follow my lead.” Kira smiled, even though her team couldn’t see it.
As soon as the door lock clicked open, Kira stomped her booted foot against the door. It flew open. She deactivated the stealth on her armor and pointed her gun through the door. “On the ground!” she demanded over the external comm.
The two occupants dropped to their knees and then lay down, placing their hands behind their heads.
“See? Easy,” Kira said on the private comm channel.
Ari and Kyle grabbed the two techs by their wrists and dragged them into the hall. As soon as they were clear of the sensitive equipment, Ari hit the techs with a sonic blast to knock them out.
“I have to say, I really love this gun.” Ari said.
Nia patted him on the shoulder. “Oh, and you handle it so well.”
Ari cocked his head. “That sounded dirty.”
“Did it? You must be desperate for some attention.” Nia sauntered back into the communication room.
Kira sent a private high-five to Nia’s HUD.
Ari grabbed the two techs and dragged them back inside the room, closing the door behind him.
“Stealth back on,” Kira instructed. “I’ll contact the Raven to let them know what’s going on.”
Kyle and Nia immediately got to work hacking into the system.
Kira opened up a secure connection to their ship using the suit’s comms. She advised the Raven’s captain of the change in plan so he could keep Guard command apprised of the situation.
“Can’t say I’m surprised,” he replied when she was finished.
“Me either, but we’ll adapt. Given that, Nico and the Elusian ship should probably get out of here,” Kira advised.
“I’ll pass on the message. Be careful down there.”
“Talk to you soon.” Kira terminated the connection and then joined Ari in standing guard while Kyle and Nia worked.
“We’re in,” Kyle reported after two minutes.
“Wow, th
ere’s some strange stuff going on here,” Nia observed while she browsed through the database. “Either they have a lot of public infrastructure projects that never get constructed, or there’s some sort of code at play. It looks like there’s a public-facing part of the government, and then… whatever this is.” She pointed at the screen.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Kyle agreed. “There’s clearly a part of the database that’s used for real administration and then another part that’s likely related to the work the Mysarans are doing for their alien overlords.”
“And you say I’m the one with the flare for the dramatic,” Ari commented from next to the door.
“The alien overlords are more real than I’d like,” Kira interjected.
“Holy shite, yeah, they are!” Kyle exclaimed. “Take a look at this.”
Kira read over the text he was pointing to on the screen. “Is that a record of MTech’s research projects?”
“Yeah, it is. And half of these projects are using tech that seems to have mysteriously appeared,” the soldier explained. “Whatever is going on here, Kira, it’s definitely beyond just MTech and the chancellor. The entire government is in on it.”
So much for taking out the chancellor and single-handedly eliminating the threat to this system. Kira took a slow breath. “Okay, so how do we determine which members of the government are involved and who’s doing the normal business around here?”
“Should we assume there’s a distinction?” Nia asked.
“Maybe we can’t,” Kira realized. “I mean, Ellen didn’t know anything was amiss when she was working here.”
“So, maybe all of the administration is being controlled by the aliens, but that doesn’t mean that everyone who’s performing those tasks knows what they’re doing,” Kyle said. “If no one knows any better, anything could be made to look legitimate.”
“We’ll need to vet everyone after this is over,” Kira agreed. “Only a test to look for the TR Leon identified will reveal who’s been completely subverted.”
“Willing collaborators may be worse,” Nia grumbled.
