The four werewolves—Timmons, Sue, Shonna, and Merrit—were eating as if starving. Timmons threw a wrapper on the ground. Terry stared at him until he picked it up and stuffed it in his pocket.
Marcie called when he started to wonder where she was, along with Christina.
Terry nodded as he talked using the comm chip. Char looked up, wondering with whom he was communicating. She didn’t have long to wait to find out.
“Marcie found some Crenellians. She says that she’s talking with the little pricks right now.”
“As friendly and forthcoming as the president?” Char teased.
“That’s my impression. A race of dicks.” Terry kicked at the ground before sitting beside his wife.
“Is it the headquarters we’ve been looking for?” Char took a bite of something and made a face, but continued to chew.
“She used the term outpost, so I don’t think so, but they’ll know where it is.” Terry drank one of his packets of water and opened a meal bar. “We’ll turn that one back over to his fellow Crenellians as soon as possible. If she’s talking with them, then we don’t need what he knows, which I don’t think will be much.”
Auburn joined Terry and Char. Kimber was setting the watch, making sure one group of her people had been fed and were on watch before the second group started to eat. Four of the mechs were open with their people taking a break. The other four were on watch.
Terry didn’t expect an attack at that moment, but being ready was one thing that he trained all of his people for. He ate and drank with his left hand while keeping his right near his pistol.
Always.
Char’s eyes darted around, as did Terry’s, looking for anything that shouldn’t have been there. Just in case.
“Auburn, can you set up the comm, please? I need to report in.”
Auburn stuffed the rest of the food bar into his mouth and chewed as he removed the equipment from his pack. He chewed the entire time he set up the comm system, including activating the Etheric power source to drive the signal across the universe.
Terry and Char were mesmerized. Terry had to ask, “Are you ever going to finish chewing?”
“It’s like trying to eat a clot of dried glue,” he shared as he signaled that the communication system was live.
Terry stood before talking. It was his way. Auburn adjusted the set and gave Terry the thumbs up. He walked away as he continued to chew. Terry couldn’t look at Char because he’d start laughing. He bit his lip before starting.
“Space Adventurer Terry to Leader X, over,” Terry said.
Nathan’s face appeared on the comm screen. “Are we using code now?” Nathan asked tiredly.
“Sorry, Nathan. There’s a lull in the fighting, and maybe we’re a little punchy. No Bad Company casualties. Resupply is complete. We have a Podder with us, but he’s a good one. We’re now in the area of the bad Podders, but we’ve found the Crenellians, even rescued one from the blue Podders, and don’t ask. That’s what the good stalk-heads call the bad stalk-heads. I’m sorry to say that the Crenellians seem to be bad, too. I’m not sure there’s anyone on this planet I like besides the people we brought.”
“Do you have an idea when you’ll be able to wrap things up?” Nathan asked.
“I do not, but we have a better strategic plan now. We’re going to roll up the Crenellians until we find their head shed, then we’re going to drag their dumb asses into a meet and greet with their enemy. We’ll hurt as many of them as we have to until we find someone who will talk. We have eight mechs now and with a full resupply, we can mow down both sides like we’re a harvester clearing a wheat field, but I won’t do that, Nathan. I didn’t sign up for genocide.”
“I would never ask that of you, TH. Genocide doesn’t help the Federation, doesn’t help anyone. We need these two to be at peace and then become contributing members of the Federation. They’re in the buffer zone. The more buffer zone systems we can bring into the fold, the better protected the entire Federation will be. Your job is to make sure no one commits genocide. A happy, loyal, and trustworthy system. That’s what we’re looking for.”
“Happy? Did I mention that there’s a civil war down here? The Podders live underground, so that’s why the Crenellians didn’t know, or they didn’t care to learn. They put themselves right in the middle of it. The group they negotiated the contract with wasn’t the one who occupied the area where they started their mining process. That was the first group’s way to use the Crenellians against their enemies. It was a three-way dick job. Once we shed light on that, I think we’ll be able to end this thing. The biggest obstacle is the civil war, but I have a plan…” Terry turned to Char and winked.
She looked skeptical.
“I’m sure you do. Let me know when you’re able to wrap things up and whatever you do, don’t kill any of the Crenellians. Their checks may be hard to cash after that.”
“They write checks?” Terry blurted.
“Well…” Nathan ran a hand through his hair. “They don’t, but you know what I mean. We trade in gold and rare minerals.”
“One last thing, Nathan.” Terry mirrored the head of the Bad Company’s gesture by removing his helmet and running his hand through his hair. “Christina is doing great. She helped protect the weretigers when they got into a scrape. I’m happy to have her on board and proud of what she’s done.”
“I’m happy to hear you say that. I’ll let Ecaterina know. She’ll be relieved, because of course, we worry. What kind of parents would we be if we didn’t? Anything else?”
“That’s it for now, Nathan. Walton out.” Before the signal could close, multiple railguns barked, and the sound crashed through the confined space of the cavern. Two mechs opened up and the beastly railguns they carried sent a stream of death into the tunnels.
“They’re coming,” Kaeden said, using his suit’s external speakers.
The Empire’s Research & Development asteroids, affectionately called R2D2
Ted looked at the researchers from Team BMW. No one looked spectacular. Bobcat, Marcus, and Tina were talking about a new beer recipe. Ted didn’t have anything to add since he never bothered while Terry Henry was brewing his draughts.
“Hey, Ted!” Tina called, turning and walking toward him. “We heard Terry Henry spent decades working on brewing beer without using hops. What did he come up with?”
Ted shrugged, but the woman was approaching and wanted an answer. “I don’t know. I don’t like beer.” He expected his answer would suffice.
It didn’t. “You what?” she asked in a low voice, before speaking over her shoulder. “Hey, guys, Ted doesn’t like beer.” She turned back to the werewolf. “What do you like?”
“Engineering,” Ted replied without hesitation. “Engineering challenges, most of all.”
“Aren’t you married? Didn’t I see that beautiful wife of yours? How did you manage that if your two top things are engineering?” Bobcat asked, joining the conversation.
“She begged me to marry her, so we came to a mutually beneficial arrangement,” Ted tried to explain.
“You what?” Tina wondered. “How does that work?”
“Her husband died during a Forsaken attack, mainly from old age. She didn’t want to go through that again and I was the only one available. She makes sure I eat,” Ted said matter-of-factly.
“She makes sure you eat? That’s all you get from being married to an ultra-hottie like her?” Bobcat pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows, curious about Ted’s reply.
Ted pulled at the collar of his ship suit, suddenly feeling hot and constricted. He could feel his face flush.
“Tell me you have kids,” Tina pressed.
“Yes,” Ted admitted. “We have three, but they’re back on Earth.”
Ted wondered why he was getting interrogated. He replayed the conversation in his mind, trying to follow the logic. In the end, he determined that next time, if someone asked, he would tell them that he liked beer.
“Thank goodne
ss,” Bobcat said, looking at Tina. “I thought you were a geek like us, but you’re a family man at heart, enjoying regular meals of muff pie and furburger.”
Ted didn’t know what that meant, but decided that he wanted the conversation to end. “Yes, all of that and more,” he offered, just so he could continue on a different topic. “What project will I work on? I hope it’s the miniaturization of the gate drive technology. Is that what it is? I hope that’s it!”
Marcus, Tina, and Bobcat looked at each other. “All that and more, huh?” Bobcat wondered, and then conceded that Ted could have been a dynamo when the lights were off.
Marcus stepped in. “Miniaturization of the gate drive? We already have that, but the issues there are that it is prohibitively expensive and the EI or the AI has to commit suicide if the ship is compromised. If we can fix both those issues, think of how small we could make the universe.”
“But the universe is constantly expanding,” Ted replied.
“Expanding where, Ted? There can only be one constant and that’s infinity, don’t you agree?” Tina suggested.
Ted looked at Tina but didn’t see the woman. He was lost in thought, trying to answer the question that had no answer. Not without more data.
“And next time,” Bobcat started, putting a friendly hand on Ted’s shoulder. “Be more familiar with beer since that is the universe’s number one priority. Some would say the secret to life, the universe, and everything is forty-two, but the right answer is beer.”
Poddern
Marcie stood with her hands on her hips, staring at the man. To his credit, he held her gaze.
“I asked what you did. You can tell me or I start breaking fingers. Or—” She looked at the weretigers. “—I could let them eat you. You’ll see bits of your body disappear into their mouths until you pass out from the pain. Then, they’ll finish you off. You’re barely more than a snack, so they’ll start on him next.”
Marcie pointed with her thumb to the man at the next station.
“I’ll tell you what I do,” the third Crenellian said softly. “I don’t wish to see any of the others injured.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere. Please trust me when I say that I don’t want to hurt anyone. We’re here at the request of the Crenellian president to end this war. We don’t let our clients dictate how that happens, so you need to help us understand the strategic and tactical situations. I think you’re going to find out that we want the same thing you do—finish this and go home.”
The third man down didn’t nod, he only looked at Marcie with his big eyes. The weretigers watched him while Christina continued to straddle the first man, drool dripping on his face with clock-like regularity.
“I understand. I would like to go home. I’ve been here from the start, just like almost everyone here.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kae gritted his teeth and growled as he fired his railgun into the mass of blue bodies. “Would you fucking stop!” he howled through his suit’s speakers. His order echoed with the cracks from the railgun.
His cry fell on deaf ears. They kept coming, wading through a deeper and deeper mass of blue goo, the remains of those who went before. Kelly stood beside him, firing regularly into the bodies. Slugs pinged continuously off the armored suits. The blue Podders marched ahead, relentlessly, until the wall of dead blocked those behind.
Joseph leaned on the Bundin’s shell, talking quickly.
Timmons, Sue, Shonna, and Merrit stood behind two mechs in another tunnel, picking Podders one at a time as they appeared. There was only one blue wave assault, but the Podders underestimated the human defense. The aliens couldn’t draw all the forces away, letting them sneak past. There were no gaps.
“Joseph?” Terry asked as his eyes jumped from one tunnel to the next, gauging the level of the attack, trying to determine if he was missing something, or if it was what it looked like—Podders throwing their lives away.
“He says lead with lights!” Joseph yelled over the cacophony of railguns and slug-throwers.
Activate your suit’s lights, Terry told the company. Only those wearing the powered suits responded. The lights came on, then blared into the darkness.
What’s up, Dad? Kae asked.
Recommendation from Bundin. It has to be better than mowing them down.
I’m willing to try anything else. This isn’t fun and there’s no honor in this, Kae replied.
We can be mercenaries, but I don’t want to ever act like mercenaries. We will always stay true to ourselves, Terry said.
The railguns stopped firing.
They’re retreating, Kaeden finally reported.
“Report!” Terry yelled into the cavern.
“No penetration of the line. None of the Podders made it this far,” Kimber stated.
Timmons walked from one person to the next. His team was unscathed. He waved at Terry. “Nothing to report here.”
Ramses, Auburn, and Cory stood behind the canister, watching the others, ready to help where needed when called.
“Prep a reload for Kae and Kelly,” Terry told Auburn. The eight mechs shined the full power of their lights into the tunnels.
“Since they can operate above ground, I doubt the lights will hold them off for long. Is there anything else our friend can tell us to help us to not kill these people?” Terry asked.
Joseph and Bundin communicated for a while, before the vampire turned away. “Nothing, TH,” Joseph said, his head hanging. He said you’re going to have to kill a lot more of them if you want to make an impression.”
Terry stepped through the rocks and rubble to stand next to the Podder.
“I want to prove you wrong, that we can do this without washing this world in the Podders’ blue blood.”
The War Axe
The situation stabilized enough that Micky was able to sit down and think through what he wanted to do next.
“Open the comm channel to Colonel Walton, Smedley,” the captain said as he leaned back and draped his legs over the desk.
“Of course. Standby,” the EI replied.
The screen on the wall came to life, showing an image filled with static and an inset of Micky. He waited as the company on Tissikinnon Four set up their system. Terry’s face appeared.
“Micky!” he said in a big voice. “You caught us during a lull in the fighting. Thanks for the extra suits. They came in handy. The Podders don’t have a chance against them.”
Terry grimaced at the last statement. Micky understood.
“I’m glad everything arrived intact. Is there any way you can find out how in the holy hell a planet like this has weapons of the sort that they used on us during our last run?”
“Explain that more, if you would, Skipper. Did you get hit during the run?” Concern clouded Terry’s face.
Micky went into more detail than Terry wanted to hear, but the colonel listened politely.
“A cloud of mines that miraculously appeared in your flight path after you juked to avoid being predictable. Pure dumb luck?” Terry waved his hand at the screen. “I don’t believe in luck like that, and I suspect you don’t either. Looking at how the Podders operate, that couldn’t be them. There’s no way they have space travel, even. My guess is that they paid someone, which means there is yet another player in the middle of this mess.”
“Could be,” the captain conceded as he pursed his lips and thought through the options. “Are we sure it wasn’t the Crenellians?”
“What would they gain by attacking the people they hired?” Terry wondered. “We’ll have to ask our favorite aliens all these questions and more. If it turns out that it was the Crenellians, then I will burn the president’s palace down, with him in it.”
Micky nodded approvingly. “And I’ll help.”
Poddern
“We came here in peace, having traded technology for mining rights. We bored a few test shafts, backfilled the ones that didn’t work, and for reference, after we were done, you couldn’t tell
there was ever a shaft there,” the Crenellian added proudly.
Marcie rolled her finger, suggesting the alien continue. He looked at her motion oddly.
“Continue,” she said, having quickly learned that the Crenellians didn’t have the same gestures as humans.
“Well, the Tiskers found fault and reneged on the deal. We figured that out when they killed the mining crew. All of them.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Marcie cautioned.
The man stood and walked up to Marcie. She was unconcerned as the alien was unarmed. He stopped in front of her and leaned his head back to look up at her. “The technology that we traded for the mining rights was advanced weaponry, some artillery, but mainly, an advanced planetary defense system. Of course, we have a back-door code, but everything else is in the control of the natives.”
“Now that’s something I didn’t know and is very interesting,” Marcie contemplated calling her father-in-law, but wanted more to tell him. “What are you doing in here? This looks like a control room, so it begs the question, what are you controlling.”
She looked at the collected group. They were all looking at her, none of them blinking. She couldn’t read their body language and had no idea if they were angry, happy, tired, nervous, or something else in entirety.
“We are running a remote force to attack the flank of the Tisker army,” the small alien said.
“Where are your soldiers?” Marcie asked.
“We don’t have anyone of such low class. We built the machines to do that for us, just like mining.”
Marcie thought for a moment. She needed more time. “Pause everything. Stand down the attack while we wait for the colonel. He needs to hear what you have to say.”
“That is out of the question. It took us the past two months to build the program for this offensive. It is set on automatic at this point. There’s no stopping it.”
“Fuck that. If you can program it to do something, it’s easy to tell it to stop. Stop the attack,” Marcie ordered.
The Bad Company Page 12
