Precursor Revenants (The Precursor Series Book 1)

by Cain Hopwood

  Based on its flight path, the gunship would overfly the incoming craft. In fact, the path intersection was so perfect, bogey alpha had to have come from the gunship’s destination.

  The colonel kinked his head at that thought. Then he opened a channel to his gunship. “Gunship four, reduce your altitude to ensure you get a look at bogey alpha as you pass.”

  “Copy that colonel.”

  He didn’t have to wait long, both the bogey and the volantor were doing over Mach two. But, what he didn’t expect was a burst of data and voice from the bogey the moment it was sighted.

  Another data packet popped up on the gunship’s control board. Like the last one, this was also tagged with Moss’s highest priority. The colonel knew exactly what to do.

  “Gunship four, abort mission. I’m designating bogey alpha as your target. Reestablish contact. It looks like Moss’s men are on board.”

  “Copy that colonel.”

  The gunship executed an immediate high G turn, to the point that the vitals on Bakowski’s troops peaked, and one passed out briefly.

  “Sir, that bogey is moving fast, It’ll take some time to catch at our operational max.”

  The colonel didn’t hesitate. “Use everything you’ve got on your engines if you need to. Just get me back in contact with that bogey.”

  Warning glyphs started flashing on the gunship’s control board as its pilot pushed the engines past a hundred and twenty percent. The engines could take those levels of thrust, but only for a short time. Those power levels were typically only used for a few seconds during dust off with a heavy load out. Now though, they’d be running at that level for longer.

  The gunship’s pilot was pushing the volantor to the very edge of its capabilities. VNE Warnings were popping in and out on the control board, and engine heat soak levels were rising. But, after thirty seconds he came up on the bogey’s six, and the colonel got a good look at it.

  It was big, at least by earth standards. Not as large as the Aquina —the ship that lifted the whole company from earth— but not much smaller. Also, it looked rather sleeker, and smoother, than the rather boxy Aquina.

  The colonel frowned. “I’m not getting any comms. Can you move alongside, get a view of the cockpit. If it has one. The signal we got earlier must have come from somewhere up front.”

  “Copy that.”

  The gunship was thrown back and forward as it passed through the wake of the huge craft. But once in clear air, it surged forward. The moment the front of the ship came into view, the colonel’s desk lit up with alerts, and a mechanical voice started playing on repeat.

  “Immediate action required, accompanying data indicates an imminent regimental level threat. Immediate relay to regimental command required. Immediate action required, accompanying data indicates…”

  The colonel acknowledged the data packet, silencing the strident voice. His hand reflexively reached to open the package, but before he could, a second voice interrupted. This one was human, and it sounded like one of Moss’s men. He was coming through on the general hailing channel.

  “Corporal Levin to operations, we have an emergency.”

  The operations officer beat the colonel to the reply. “Go ahead corporal. What’s your situation?”

  “We are inbound at speed, traveling in a captured ship. Alert the colonel and the base that we are not a threat.”

  “You have control of the craft?”

  “Yes, but we have a medical emergency. Lieutenant Gritz is not in a good way. We need a trauma team standing by. We will be putting down as close as possible to the aid station.”

  “Copy that.”

  The colonel quickly made his way across the room and caught the operator’s attention. “Get Moss on the line, I need to speak with him.”

  The operator nodded. “Corporal, can you put Lieutenant Moss on? The colonel needs to speak with him.”

  “Sorry ops, he’s kind of busy. He’s the one flying this tub.”

  The colonel’s eyebrows twitched up, he thought he knew all Moss’s secrets. And being able to pilot extra terrestrial craft wasn’t one of them.

  “Also ops, we need something else.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “We’ve got a couple of prisoners holed up in the cockpit companionway. They’re a bit much for Murdoch and me to handle by ourselves.”

  The colonel nodded to the operator, grabbed a spare console and started issuing orders to have two armed squads ready. In the background, he heard the operator confirming to Corporal Levin that he’d have all the help he needed.

  Meanwhile, the other operator was busy arguing with flight operations. It sounded like they were talking about permissions and clearances, which was good. It meant that the incoming ship with Moss and Gritz actually stood a chance of not getting shot down.

  The colonel listened for a moment. Yes, his operator was trying to explain that they couldn’t make it to a specific landing pad. Good, let those officious twits deal with some procedures not being followed. It would keep them busy, and out of his hair.

  But, just to be courteous he left a message with the admiral’s office, notifying him that there were potential prisoners in the incoming ship, and that he’d secure them. With any luck, the inevitable bureaucratic delays in the admiral’s office would give him time for a little questioning of his own, before he had to hand the prisoners over. Maybe then he’d get some answers.

  Then he marched out the front of the operations center. Dawn was breaking, and there was just enough light to see the outline of the base’s buildings. Off in the distance were the company’s barracks, and he could hear yelling as the staff sergeants mustered the men.

  He looked north and east. There was nothing much to see in the sky, but that was where Moss’s craft and the gunship would come from. Soon, things would get hectic, but right here, right now, everything was calm.

  — 45 —

  The ship allowed Jon to break his meld with it the moment their skids touched the ground. He was at Gritz’s side in seconds. Gritz was slumped on the flight seat and surrounded by a huge pool of blood. Jon hardened his face, he’d seen a lot of blood in his times, but never this much from one person.

  He put pressure on Gritz’s shoulder; it was his only option really. Then he double tapped a tac-link channel open. “Skip, I’ve done my best to make the ship understand that you are the only one it should listen to. If you can’t get a hatch to open, let me know.”

  After that he focused on Gritz. In the background he heard boots thumping on decks, yelling in Galingua, hatches opening, and a single solitary gunshot. Then the cockpit hatch opened and Sandy Lepok was the first through. “Good job Moss, we’ll take Gritz from here,” she said, and unceremoniously shoved Jon to one side.

  Within what seemed like seconds they had him on a stretcher, an IV in his arm and then they were gone. For the first time in weeks, Jon didn’t have somewhere to go, or something to do. So, he flopped down into the flight couch next to Gritz’s.

  His gaze ran idly over the control panel in front of his seat. To his eye it seemed a rather untidy mess of knobs, switches and little trumpets. It was in rather stark contrast to the complete absence of controls on the pilot’s couch up front.

  A set of authoritative sounding footfalls echoed in the companionway, and he turned to see Colonel Whitfield enter the cockpit.

  “Nice ship you’ve stolen here Moss. I hope it’s worth the god awful mess of trouble it will bring us.”

  “Sir, my goal was to avoid an even worse mess of trouble. Did any of my comms packages get through?”

  “Your arrival just delivered the only one with any hard data. But, we’ve been a bit busy, what with this rogue incoming ship.”

  Jon stood. “Come on, I’ll show you what it was all about, though you would have trudged through it in the hold.”

  Jon took a step towards the hatch. “Actually, that reminds me, I’d better secure this ship.”

  He reached across and touc
hed the headrest on the pilot’s flight couch. The background buzz in his head cleared, and he felt the meld take hold.

  ~You-me, good to meld, welcome.

  Jon closed his eyes and thought out loud. “Thank you for delivering us safely ship.”

  ~No thanks required.

  “Well, thanks anyway. Are you aware you contain a very dangerous substance?”

  A sense of trepidation flowed through the meld.

  ~You-me, hold contents, fright-making.

  “Yes, it’s scary. We don’t want this falling into the wrong hands. So, I don’t want you to let anyone other than me meld with you. Is that possible?”

  The ship’s meld seemed to take a more formal tone.

  ~Yes. all possible for preceptor. Confirm meld access lock to current meld.

  “Confirmed.”

  ~Meld access locked.

  Jon broke the meld and turned to the colonel. “Just making sure no one can just fly away with this ship like I did. It was rather easy to steal.”

  The colonel smiled. “Good idea. Now, are you aware of what a regimental level threat usually implies?”

  “I am, sir. And, given my understanding of what this ship is carrying, if there was a higher level threat status, I’d have used it.”

  The colonel’s brow furrowed. “Very well Moss, take me to the hold let’s see what all this fuss is about. Then, I think you need some sleep.”

  Colonel Whitfield did his best to hide his disbelief while Moss had them both splashing around in a fluid that was, apparently, halfway between fissile plutonium, and liquid antimatter. Not that he didn’t believe the potency of the fuel, or explosive, or whatever the hell it was. He’d been exposed to enough Galactic tech to take onboard the concept of a substance that powerful. What he had trouble handling, was why anyone would need so much of the damned stuff in the hold of a transport ship.

  So he’d paid their captives a visit. He’d spoken at each of the two Ka-Li for ten minutes. He may as well have been speaking to statues for all the good it did. Having failed with the Ka-Li, he was on his way to the first of the Marbelites, thinking he had a little more experience with them, when Admiral Katona stalked into the detention center.

  “Colonel, did I not instruct you not to antagonize the northern Marbelites?”

  “You did admiral.”

  “So why is a Gaudin transport outside this building? Did you not think that might exacerbate the situation?”

  “I can understand that it might. Several of my men, the ones you ordered we abandon, commandeered it while trying to get back from the frozen north.”

  The admiral halted for a moment. “Interesting, I expected them to die.”

  “I train my men to survive admiral, not to die. But that is beside the point. They didn’t take the ship to get home, they took it because it represented a serious threat, and they didn’t feel it belonged in the Marbelite’s possession.”

  “That’s seems a rather strategic decision for a junior officer to take.”

  “I also train my men to see the bigger picture, and to operate independently. In this case, they felt they had no choice but to act as they did.”

  The admiral looked Colonel Whitfield up and down. “Admirable, but in this case inconvenient. What is the nature of the threat?”

  “Apparently the ship is loaded with a lot of ship fuel. Fuel of a grade that the Marbelites couldn’t possibly use.”

  “Ship fuel?” The admiral sniffed like a dog, the Ka-Li gesture for doubt. “I wouldn’t consider that threatening. You are aware that ship fuel is a most stable form of energy storage.”

  The colonel started walking toward the ship. “Maybe you can tell us what the purpose of this fuel could be then.”

  Without waiting for the admiral, Colonel Whitfield entered the ship and stood in the hold. The floor was slippery with fuel, and numerous empty containers were scattered about. Even so, there was still a wall of full ones.

  The admiral was standing stock still at the top of the ramp.

  “What’s wrong?” The colonel asked.

  “This cannot be.” Admiral Katona extended a claw to a nearby container. “If the markings on this container are to be believed, this is a grade of ship fuel that has only one purpose.”

  “Weaponry?”

  “No, the energy released would be so intense, that the actuating fields would collapse before a fraction of the fuel’s energy could be released. This fuel can only be used in a star ship.”

  “Too powerful to be weaponized?” The colonel sniffed. “I know a few military contractors who would consider that as a challenge. Regardless of its usual usage, the Marbelite leadership were intending to use it for destructive purposes, and all at once.”

  “All at once?” The admiral stood stock still, thinking. “There is a possibility, but it hasn’t been used for…”

  Abruptly he turned on his heel and started down the ramp. “Your men captured two Ka-Li yes?”

  “Yes, I have them in separate holding cells.”

  “Put them in the same cell. I need to confer securely with the centarch, and I cannot do that here. He will want to know about this development. I will be back later to complete their interrogation.”

  The colonel gave the small nod that the Ka-Li used when acknowledging an order. “Yes sir.”

  — 46 —

  It was several hours before the admiral returned. This gave Colonel Whitfield plenty of time to arrange for a squad of men to assemble the two prisoners in an interrogation room. Though why the admiral wanted them kept together seemed a little odd.

  The room was set up in one corner of the solid rock cell block. Pascale had used two wall barriers to enclose a good sized space. He’d configured one wall to block all light, sound and matter. The other only blocked light and sound in one direction. That way he could have an interrogator in the room with the captives, but have observers and guards outside keeping an eye on things.

  “This arrangement will do,” the admiral said, after looking over the setup. “If you wish to join me, you will learn the only way to get information from Ka-Li prisoners.”

  “The only way?”

  “Yes, I’ll explain as we go.”

  The colonel raised an eyebrow. “It doesn’t matter that the prisoners know what your approach will be?”

  “Not at all.”

  They entered the room, and the admiral gave each of the captives a long sniff. Then he turned to the colonel. “As the centarch suspected, these Ka-Li are not Stetlak.”

  “Where are they from? The colonel asked, playing along. Maybe this whole out in the open explanation was actually for his benefit, or maybe it was the admiral’s interrogation technique.

  “They are Gaudin, which goes a way to explaining the ship your men captured.” The admiral pointed at the larger of the two Ka-Li. “This one is the senior of the pair.”

  “How does this help us?”

  “As they are not Stetlak, there are two possibilities. One, they are hirelings. Two, one of them has a patron who sent them here.”

  The colonel looked at the two Ka-Li. Both were standing as still as statues and staring at the wall. “How does that help? They’re not engaging with us.”

  “Allow me to demonstrate.”

  The admiral turned to the senior prisoner and without even asking it a question, lazily unholstered his pistol and shot the Ka-Li in the head. Blood splattered the wall, and the prisoner’s body slumped down in a scaly heap.

  Colonel Whitfield’s eyes widened. “What the…” he began, but was cutoff by the other prisoner.

  “I am not a hireling.”

  “Clearly,” said the admiral. “Hirelings duck. What is your purpose on Marbel?”

  “My patron and I were training the Marbelites in the use of Galactic technology.”

  “And your specialty is what?”

  “Meld training.”

  “How did you come to be on that ship?

  “I flew it here. A Gaudin starship d
ropped us at the outer edge of the system. The Marbelites summoned me when they were unable to open it after the two…” The Ka-Li looked at the colonel and briefly opened its mouth. Then it waved a claw in his direction. “After the other two of that race took control of the vessel.”

  “So you know the ship’s purpose?”

  “No.”

  “What is the purpose of the starship fuel in the hold?”

  The Ka-Li paused. “That, I also do not know. However my previous patron was not pleased with the assignment.”

  “Why?”

  “The implications are obvious, and deeply dishonorable. Even being involved with finding Marbelites capable of a meld, dishonored my patron.”

  “Knowing how they planned to use those skills?”

  “There is only one use.”

  The admiral stood. “Stay here, I will need to decide how you may discharge your debt. In the meantime, assist the colonel.”

  The prisoner gave a small nod. “As you wish patron.”

  The colonel followed Admiral Katona out. “So you’re the prisoner’s patron now?”

  “Of course, I released him from an honor debt. His patron would never have spoken, it would have brought multi generational dishonor on him. Death was preferable.”

  “What would have happened if they were hirelings?”

  “He would have spoken before I fired the pistol. Then the interrogation would have been more difficult. But we would have negotiated something, hirelings always have a price.”

  The colonel pulled a face. “Mercenaries usually do. I avoid them if at all possible.”

  They’d reached the guard detail that was protecting the Gaudin starship.

  Admiral Katona stopped. “Given what he just said, I will need to confer with the centarch.” He waved a claw to encompass the Gaudin ship. “In the meantime, I shall send a pilot to move this to a more secure location.”

  A barely audible squawk came from the admiral’s com pod. He stopped, then touched it. “Where are they requesting to land?”