Omega Force 3: The Enemy Within

by Joshua Dalzelle

  “We’ll wait until we’re ten hours out,” Jason said after consulting his display a moment. “That’s just under a half-day for Camdaren-2, and by the time we’re cleared to make landfall the odds are good she’ll have received it.”

  *****

  Sorry to hear you won’t be able to make it home. I’ve been able to save some money this year, maybe I will book passage and come visit you. What is the weather like there?

  “Seriously?” Kage asked as he read the outbound message. “Sorry, Captain, but that’s not all that sneaky. Any intel hack worth his pitiful salary will know this isn’t a letter between relatives just at a glance.”

  “I’m not trying to fool an intel analyst,” Jason said as he sent the message. “I’m trying to keep their computers from flagging it to give to an analyst. I’m sure they’re monitoring all com traffic right now and sifting through for key words.”

  “Maybe,” Kage said doubtfully. “But the computers aren’t that stupid either.”

  “It only needs to fool them for a little bit, or at least confuse them.”

  The pair walked out of the com room and headed back to the bridge. The Phoenix was on its twelfth lap of the planet as Landing Control ran their credentials through multiple databases. They were alarmed at first that their cover had been blown, but a quick chat with the other pilots on the open com channel let them know that every ship trying to land was going through the same rigmarole and none were happy about it. One light-freighter captain was openly hostile towards the ConFed while aggressively claiming his cargo was perishable and demanding to be allowed to make landfall immediately. Instead, he was boarded by a ConFed combat shuttle and had his ship ripped apart by an intel team.

  “OK,” Jason said as the offending ship was ordered out of orbit by a ConFed light cruiser. “Let’s just stay off the com for now.”

  “Did the scan find anything?” he asked Doc after a moment.

  “Negative. There is no trace of the Diligent anywhere in the system. They must have moved her pretty quickly after the initial attack.”

  “Not necessarily,” Lucky responded from his normal post behind and to the left of the pilot’s seat. “From the damage shown on the media feeds it is more likely they made field repairs and flew the ship to another location. More importantly, this also means Crisstof and the rest of the surviving crew are also not in this system.”

  “We had no chance of rescuing him anyway,” Crusher said as he lounged in a seat at a forward station. “The ConFed brought in an insane amount of firepower for tracking down just one misplaced captain. Don’t you think?”

  “Meaning?” Jason prompted.

  “Meaning the seven warships in the system may be the least of our concerns,” the warrior continued. “They’ll also have a significant presence on the surface. That means intel spooks as well as operators.”

  “That’s an unwelcome prospect,” Jason said. Omega Force had had run ins with the Confederation’s Special Operations Section before. They were tough, disciplined, and ruthless. If they were deployed in significant numbers they could be a real handful.

  “Incoming message on our dummy account,” Kage announced. “Saving it off the buffer … closing the connection … resetting the transponder. That should buy us some time if they’re looking for where that message came from or its destination. I’m sending it to your station now.”

  A visit would be most welcome! Wish you were here now, the temperature has been a perfect twenty-six point seven degrees for days.

  “Kage,” Jason said as he re-read the message. “Tie in to the public information network and download all the weather data for the planet. Have the computer find someplace that has had an average temperature of twenty-six point seven over the last week or so. Give me the closest matches and run the background data on each location.”

  “I’ve already been running it,” Kage said. “Like I said … that’s a stupid code.”

  “You said simple.”

  “I meant stupid,” the slicer said distractedly. “It’ll be a miracle if they’re not waiting on the landing pad. I’m routing the data request through that heavy hauler’s transponder, the one above and behind us, in case the message arouses any suspicion coupled with the data grab from the public net.”

  It took the computer a minute to churn through the atmospheric data from thousands of sensor stations to compile a list and spit out a list of likely candidates. The list was mostly for locations in the southern hemisphere along the coastal region of the eastern continent. Once they had a list of matching cities, Kage began running through all the other pertinent data; demographics, recent crime levels, average salary and living conditions … anything that would give them a clue as to where Captain Colleren would have run to on a hostile planet with the ConFed fleet looking for her.

  “There are a few possibilities,” Jason noted as he scanned the list. “But I suspect she’ll have picked the one that makes it the hardest for the ConFed to operate in. Kachamar City is basically a slum with undesirables from all over the planet being dumped there. Oddly enough, it’s also one of the most heavily recruited areas for Camderan-2’s security forces, specifically the infantry.”

  “While that’s all fascinating—” Twingo began.

  “It means that the place is loaded with tough characters with antisocial tendencies,” Crusher interrupted. “You realize that if we assume she’s picked that place, so will ConFed Intel.”

  “I know,” Jason admitted. “But I’m not trying to outsmart them, I’m trying to think like she would. Kellea is a great ship’s captain, but ground operations are completely out of her realm. She’ll have made the obvious choice if she was stressed and hurried.” Crusher just grunted and looked out the canopy at the planet again.

  “We may have an advantage,” Lucky said. “We were never officially a part of Crisstof Dalton’s organization. Assuming our communications have not been monitored, we could likely walk right by ConFed agents and not be recognized.”

  “Maybe not recognized, but you’ll draw attention,” Doc disagreed. “A battlesynth, a Galvetic warrior, and an alien of unknown origin don’t just walk by unnoticed.”

  “True,” Lucky conceded. “But it seems Kachamar City has its fair share of transients. I still think the three of us will be able to operate without undue notice.”

  “Oh,” Kage complained loudly, “so it’s the usual? You three get to go out and play while the three of us wait on the ship?”

  “OK, Kage,” Jason called his bluff. “You’re on the ground team. Crusher, take him down to the armory and get him geared up. It’ll likely be hand-to-hand, close quarters fighting, so make sure he has some edge weapons.”

  “Sure thing, Captain,” Crusher stood with a wicked smile on his face. “Shall we, Kage?”

  “I, uh—”

  An insistent beeping from the com panel saved Kage for the moment as Landing Control granted the Phoenix clearance to begin their entry de-orbit and directed them to one of the main spaceports.

  “Sending the projected flight path to your station,” Kage said, not looking up as he entered the commands. Crusher, smirking at his diminutive friend, sat back down and faced his seat forward to enjoy the atmospheric entry light show.

  Even though the designated flight path didn’t go to their desired destination, the crew made no issue of it to Landing Control and prepared the ship for entry. To argue with the controller would be to invite suspicion and scrutiny. The trick was to get into the atmosphere where they would then be handed off to the planet’s air traffic control system. Then they would request a flight destination change from the ground controller. It was a common smuggler trick, but it was also used by the wealthy to get their private ships down to the surface quicker. It normally didn’t even garner a second look as the two separate control systems only talked to each other during the handoff of ships from orbit to atmospheric flight.

  The Phoenix started to shudder and rock slightly as Jason slowed their f
orward velocity and dipped the nose into the upper atmosphere. Soon, visible plasma streamers could be seen breaking off the forward shields as the friction of their passage super-heated the air. Like nearly every other planet with busy spaceports, the entry lane would bring them down over a large ocean so the sonic booms and potential debris from a ship breaking up wouldn’t disturb (or destroy) a populated area. Only the big heavy cargo haulers were permitted to make a controlled descent with their gravity drives which brought them straight down, as opposed to hitting the atmosphere at speed like the smaller ships did.

  As they slid into the lower atmosphere and onto the designated flight path, Kage contacted the ground controller to begin negotiating a course change to take them to the Kachamar City Aerodrome, a hybrid airport/spaceport that could easily accommodate the big gunship. Now how the hell do I find a spooked captain in hiding who doesn’t want to be found? Jason mused.

  Chapter 7

  “So how do we find her?” Kage asked as they approached Kachamar City.

  “I think the trick is to let her know we’re here,” Crusher said. “Then let her try and make contact.”

  “OK,” Kage said. “So how do we do that?”

  “I’ve been giving it some thought,” Jason spoke up. “Twingo, take a look at this.” The engineer hopped out of his seat and came to look over Jason’s shoulder at one of his displays. He cocked one eyebrow up, an expression he had been mimicking from his human friend, and considered the idea.

  “That’s going to put a lot of stress on the airframe, but not excessively so. Do you think she’ll recognize it?”

  “I believe so,” Jason said. “She’s as familiar with the Phoenix as anyone.”

  “This would be unmistakable to someone who knew what they were hearing. I’ll get the subroutine programmed,” Twingo said as he rushed back to his station. “It’ll be an executable on your main display; activate it and it will set the drives up in the proper configuration so you’ll just fly her like normal.”

  “Care to explain what you two are going on about?” Doc asked.

  “I don’t want to ruin the surprise,” Jason said with a grin. “This is going to be so fucking cool …”

  *****

  “Everybody strap in and prepare the ship for landing,” Jason said as they approached to within one hundred miles of Kachamar City.

  “Strap in?” Crusher asked in alarm. “What the hell are you planning?”

  “Just do it,” Jason said, “I don’t have time to argue about it.” He reached over and double-tapped the pulsing icon on his multi-function display that Twingo had sent over from the engineering station. Immediately the ship began to wallow in the air and a deep rumble filled the bridge as the main engines began to spool up.

  “Oh shit …” Crusher murmured and grabbed his armrests.

  BOOM!

  The main engines lit off with an explosive roar and the Phoenix bucked slightly as the thrust fought against the grav-drive. Then Twingo’s program took over and the grav-drive reversed bias and actually tried to stop the ship while the mains tried to push her forward. The stalemate was carefully choreographed by the computer so the ship maintained forward velocity as the two drives fought each other.

  “Here comes the rough part,” Jason said as the ship bounced its way down to fifteen thousand feet on its initial approach vector. He smoothly throttled up with a grimace, unsure as to what would actually happen. The mains ran to full power and millions of pounds of thrust poured out of the nozzles and hammered the city as the ship flew over. The grav-drive screamed as it tried to hold the Phoenix back. The ship’s attitude was being influenced by the drives, mostly at the aft, which caused stability issues that the repulsors were unable to overcome since most available power was diverted to the two primary flight systems. The result was the front of the ship bouncing up and down at a distance of thirty feet between the rise and fall.

  “YOU CRAZY BASTARD!” Crusher roared as he was slammed against the restraints and then back into his seat over and over.

  “THAT SHOULD DO IT!” Twingo screamed from his own seat. Even Lucky, who normally anchored down to the deck with the mag-locks built into his feet, had to grab onto one of the handles by the bridge entrance. Jason pulled the throttle back and cancelled the special drive program. Almost immediately the ride smoothed out as the grav-drive went back to propelling the ship and the mains could be heard spooling down.

  “Holy shit,” he said when he was able to speak again. The com panel began squawking as Ground Control at the port wanted to know exactly what the hell the inbound micro-freighter was doing running a high-thrust plasma drive over the city at full power.

  “What should I tell them?” Kage asked shakily.

  “Tell them we had a drive malfunction that’s under control for the moment and that we’re requesting an immediate landing clearance so we can effect repairs,” Jason said as he steered back on course.

  “I don’t think they believe us, but we’re being cleared to land directly on our pad anyway,” Kage reported. “Sending you the nav data now.”

  “So … do you think she got the message?” Twingo asked as he began scrolling and prioritizing the list of warnings the computer had spit out during the violent maneuver.

  “I think everyone got the message,” Jason said. “Hopefully Kellea will know what it means. The mains have a distinctive sound that should alert her since she’s already expecting us.”

  “If we’re even in the right city,” Crusher said. “If you’re planning on doing that over every potential hiding spot I’m getting off this bucket right here and now.”

  *****

  Speaking of weather … there was a beautiful storm here earlier. The thunder was quite spectacular though it scared most of the people in the city. It’s been good getting back in touch. It makes me want to go grab a drink tonight and reminisce.

  “Oh come on!” Kage exclaimed. “Seriously? You guys can’t actually suck this bad at this.”

  “Look,” Jason said. “It gets the point across. We’re not spooks, we’re ship captains. Well … she’s a ship’s captain. Anyway, she just gave us a clue as to where we can meet up tonight.”

  “She did? There has to be hundreds of bars near this spaceport,” Kage said.

  “Kellea doesn’t drink. Look specifically for tea houses and list them by distance from our current location.”

  “She doesn’t drink?” Twingo asked. “What the hell do you see in this woman anyway?”

  “You really have to ask?” Kage said before Jason could answer. He then struck his best effeminate pose and ran all four of his hands over his body in his best imitation of an imagined seductress.

  “I’m going to go throw up,” Crusher said as he walked off the bridge.

  “Kage,” Jason said slowly. “That’s the third creepiest thing you’ve done around me. Please don’t ever do it again.”

  “No promises,” Kage said as he hopped back into his seat and began his search.

  *****

  Jason, Crusher, and Lucky were dressed in their non-descript best as they ambled through the port’s passenger receiving area and tried to blend in with the other aliens milling about. They lucked out; there were four charter flights getting ready to depart so the area was crowded enough to allow them to move through the throng separately and meet up outside without drawing any undue attention.

  The first tea house was well within walking distance so the trio decided to go on foot and get a better feel for the area they were operating in. As they had suspected and feared, there were a handful of agents milling about trying their best to blend in. They reached the first shop that took up the entire first floor of a three-story building that was a little over half a mile from the spaceport.

  The term “tea shop,” when roughly translated and interpreted over a few dozen worlds and just as many languages, came to mean many different things. Less than half of them actually served any sort of tea. This one seemed to specialize in some sort
of vaporized narcotic that was fogged into a large glass bowl and then inhaled. Jason stood transfixed as an assortment of aliens sucked in the viscous fumes. The fog seemed alive as it didn’t break up in the air and instead streamed up into the nose, snout, mouth, or proboscis of the patrons.

  “Since she doesn’t drink I’m going to assume she also doesn’t partake in this foolishness,” Crusher said with disdain as he looked around at the near-catatonic customers. He was careful not to use Kellea’s name aloud now that they were in an area where anyone could be an intel agent.

  “No, she doesn’t,” Jason said. He then approached the counter and flagged down the attendant, waving away the proffered glass globe. “I’m looking for the closest tea house.”

  “Good sir, you are in—”

  “A real tea house,” Jason corrected. “As in, someplace that serves a drink brewed by pouring boiling water over some sort of herbal mix.”

  “There is one four blocks down and to the left,” the attendant said with disinterest. “There are much more entertaining options available here, however.”

  “I’m sure,” Jason said flatly. “Thanks for the information.”

  The next establishment was a much more likely candidate. There was dark paneling on the walls and well-dressed customers sipped out of ceramic cups and talked quietly. The strong herbal scent of the shop was slightly sweet and quite pleasant as Jason looked around. Lucky was standing outside as lookout since it would appear a little odd for a synth to be in a store that sold something he had no need for. A quick scan told Jason that Kellea was not in there, so he walked around and pretended to be interested in the artwork that was on the walls.

  He made his way over to the self-serve station and looked over the public announcement board on the wall above it. His eyes were immediately drawn to a folded piece of shiny paper (at least it looked like paper) with “O” and “F” written in large block letters. It was written in English. He discreetly plucked the sheet from the board and walked back out of the shop. Crusher was watching the crowd to make sure nobody was paying them too much attention as they walked through.