Mission: Attack on Europa

by V. A. Jeffrey

  Rychik and I fastened on our masks. I took a deep breath, feeling the thin air canister fastened to my suit in the back vibrate and hiss slightly as my breathing caused its filtration system to begin working a little harder. We were ready to go. This would either end in victory or, well, I didn't want to think of the other outcome.

  “Here it comes,” murmured Rychik. I could hear the engines of the lingflyer powering down as it moved into position to unload its shipment. After about two minutes its outer loading door lifted open. It was dark now except the dim light emanating from the running lights from the lingflyer and the two moons high up overhead. We crept toward the ship. Rychik shrugged deeper into his hood until his eyes were merely two pinpoints of light. He took on a predatory look that was unsettling. It reminded me of the Glia spy I'd encountered at the Hussa mine. I shook that all away mentally. Focus!

  The lingflyer's engines eventually powered off and it was sitting right in the rear landing bay as we all waited quietly in the dark. It looked like a giant, white kite floating in the air. I glanced around. My hearing seemed to be especially sensitive. That and the feeling of wanting to jump out of my skin at every scuttled whisper of wind and every sliding shadow that was blacker than the dark of night. I had to remind myself that we were in a busy city and these things were natural. Including things like lying in wait in the dark to rob someone. Except, we were taking back what was mine.

  As soon as the inner hatch door of the ship opened, we moved into position behind it. If someone was watching we had no time to worry about it now. Tulos and Genevieve sneaked up toward the ship silently with Diamond following close behind. A man came near the open door of lingflyer with a large hover hand truck preparing to load some barrels. He turned to lift up a barrel when Genevieve lept inside, swift as a jack rabbit, her taser in hand. I soon heard a soft thud. He dropped backward and she caught him, staggering a bit against his weight and then lowered him down. Diamond climbed inside and helped her tie him up, gag and drag him deeper inside of the ship. Tulos climbed in and disappeared deep inside and Diamond followed him. I heard a cry of indignant surprise, the sound of a taser jolt, a muffled cry and another thud as someone hit the floor. I saw Diamond's head pop back outside the hatch door. He had dragged a barrel to the door way and with Tulos's help, opened the top of the barrel with a special motor blade device and dumped its contents out on the ground to the side. Tulos came to the doorway and gave a hand signal to Rychik. That was our signal. Rychik then crept forward, rapping on the back door buzzer to the Sigra gang's hideout and then, quick and silent as a shadow, slipped into the lingflyer. I stayed behind the ship, watching the area, my laser dragon poised and ready to fire. Finally, there was a series of short beeps as a door to the hideout lifted slowly and eventually two mechs ventured out to pick up the barrels, to my relief. I wasn't sure what to do if the thieves themselves had decided to come out. It was a possibility we'd discussed. To which Rychik and Genevieve said that they'd be ready for a gun battle. I stayed hidden around the other side of the ship. After a few moments I saw someone come out of the hatch carrying two barrels on the hand truck. They handed the first to the security mech who had climbed the boarding ramp and at first made to simply take the hand truck and begin back toward the loading dock. But after a second, instead it remained standing, studying the loader.

  “Who are you? Where is the-” it didn't have time to finish. As soon as the mech began to power up, even as it was speaking, to sound out an intruder alert, the loader fired a taser right into its chest at full power. The mech spasmed and the loader then tore out a bundle of wires in its torso as its alert died in its throat. It fell to the floor and was swiftly kicked aside and pulled into the ship. I was on full alert now. If this didn't work it would all be over and we would find ourselves in a furious, long and protracted gang war in the next few months, or Rychik would end it all by flying into the hideout and slaughtering everyone. He'd told me so, calmly one night as we'd discussed the heist.

  “I know I told you that I wouldn't kill them. But we must face reality if we are found out. It will be bad for us if we don't deal with the situation immediately. If this doesn't work I will kill everyone inside, if I can.” I had decided not to dispute him on it anymore and the others, especially Genevieve, agreed to it. Certainly not me. But they were far more ruthless than I was. He had some past grudge against them anyway. There was nothing I could do about that and the more I thought on it, the more I felt that it wasn't my business. I just wanted Will back.

  I was silently praying now that the plan would not derail. I slipped my mask off to breathe deeply and stifle my nervousness. They waited for the next mech to come up. It did. This mech didn't seem nearly as advanced like the first one and it simply took the hand truck with the barrels and pushed it inside the hideout. Two more simple worker mechs came out to get the rest and the plan proceeded smoothly once again. Once the barrels were loaded into the dock of the hideout, eight in all, the mechs closed the door. I looked at my chronometer. Rychik was supposed to be hiding in one of those barrels with the gas. I glanced inside the lingflyer. Genevieve and Tulos were busy with an auto-syringe and a substance in a bottle, injecting some type of drug into the crew members to make sure they didn't wake up too soon. Diamond was acting as a look out and also as a crew member, sitting at the controls. I crept close up by the hide-out door hoping to hear something inside. It seemed to take forever. I thought I heard shouts and wails inside but I couldn't be sure, what with my heart thumping as loud as thunderclaps. Five minutes. Suddenly, the doors opened again. Rychik was standing there, heaving and coughing, even through his mask.

  “Come! We . . .cough. . .don't have. . .cough, cough. . .much time! Where's your mask?” He grunted at me in between coughing spasms. I quickly fastened it on. The other three came flying out of the ship and into the building, masked. I slipped my own mask on. As we poured into the place I wondered how we would ever find him and in what sort of condition.

  “We spread out,” he said. “Everyone inside. . .cough, cough. . . is completely incapacitated for now. Won't stay that way long.” Suddenly there was the soft whir of what sounded like an air conditioner.

  “What's that sound?” I asked, alarmed.

  “They have self-cleaning installation systems after all. I'm not surprised. We have ten minutes,” said Rychik. I took a left and went through a doorway that led downstairs. I could see one Glia male curled up, shaking and sweating in a room, one who had attacked me. I could have shot him right there, a dark thought that I immediately erased from my mind. You came here to retrieve Will, not inflict mass murder. Instead, I closed the door and locked it.

  The basement level looked like a huge storehouse. Full of stolen objects, no doubt. I wondered how long they'd been operating like this. Room after room I did a sweep without finding him. As I was turning around and making my way out of one room I noticed a slight humming sound like a hornet or a bee. I caught a sloping shadow on the wall outside in the hall approaching in dead silence. I was alone, separated from the team and painfully aware now how dangerous and crazy this little mission was. My mask, though relatively, quiet made me feel as if I were snorting it seemed so loud to me. Feeling not only a buzz from excitement but fright that not all were subdued and that I was in for a nasty battle, I looked frantically for a hiding place. I didn't have time. I quickly moved and stood right next to the door, waiting for the shadow to present its owner.

  It was a security mech. A very large and powerful one. It reminded me of Magnum. But bigger. Not something I wanted to tangle with. It's sensors were wide, and its eye aperture swept the room. It appeared to be attempting to make a call from a comlink device embedded in its arm. I lowered my dragon toward its torso as it emerged from the corridor. It turned like quicksilver, seeing me. I unloaded a blast right at its torso just as it was reaching a powerful arm out to smash me into the ground. I'm quite sure that arm would have bashed my head in. It put a hole in the wall where I was standing. The
blast caught it off guard and put a smoking hole in its metal but that didn't stop it for long. It stumbled, swinging its powerful arm wide, trying to swipe at me again and in that time I ducked and turned to stand in front of it, firing another volley. Smoke rose as laser fire burned through its metal and sparks flew off from its body but this didn't seem to make much difference. I hadn't hit any vital systems under its armor. It reached out and grabbed me and threw me against the wall. I felt my body crash and stars rounding in rings rose in my eyes as I sank down. It strode toward me ready to finish me off. I dropped my dragon. Reaching for another lasgun in the holster at my left hip I aimed straight and shot a continuous stream of laser fire at the mech's weak spot, right in the middle of its face which made it pause and paw at its eye. I scrambled about three feet and snatched the dragon up and used that to fire again. I could smell through my mask burning metal as the dragon fired a long stream of vicious laser fire, searing a line through its face. I got up as the mech stumbled again and I picked up a chair. I threw it at the mech's head and nearly screamed in pain as the nerves in my back cried out at heaving under its weight. I scuttled from the room, turned and closed the steel door and blasted the lock with my laser dragon. Whatever I'd done it would be busy trying to regain its sensory systems before it could get to me, at least for a few minutes. I heard a jolting bang against the heavy metal door and it was enough to make me jump and spur me on. There was one last room at the end of the hall. I went in and there, I found Will! He was locked up inside some type of tube cage and he had a collar around his neck.

  “Will!”

  “Bob! I'm so glad you found me! These people are idiots!”

  “We don't have much time before we meet trouble!” My back was burning with searing pain and I could feel a rising sickness welling up in me. The sarin gas, though rendered mostly inert was still having some type of effect. We had to get out of here and fast!

  “Bob, I'm fastened to this seat. I'm locked down.” I climbed over to his tube cage and saw that he was tied down by dyraplastic bonds, nearly unbreakable if one tried to cut them. I used my laser dragon and spent up a few laser blasts shooting them to shreds.

  “We'll have to do something about your collar later.” I put the laser dragon right next to his neck and blasted the collar lock apart. The collar was still around around his neck but part of his shoulder was burned with fire from the blast.

  “A good thing I'm not human or I'd be dead.”

  “Thanks! That makes me feel glad I came for you!” I snapped. Will still had the Captain Obvious quality about his personality that drove me nuts. The banging on the locked door beside us was becoming louder and more relentless. In fact, I could hear the rattle of the metal as if the door was coming apart. I heard a voice.

  “What is that sound?” Asked Will as I helped him out of the room.

  “Something we don't want to meet again! Come on!” I heard the sound of someone retching.

  “What. . .I feel sick. . .” I heard someone say just down the corridor and around the corner.

  “Diamond? Is it having an effect on you too? I've got Will-” It wasn't Diamond. As we turned the corner it was one of the thieves, a human. He looked disoriented and he slid against the wall, sinking to the floor, vomiting again. He bent over, putting his head in his hands, sweat pouring. He started muttering and moaning something in Hanga. We crept down the corridor toward him, watching him carefully, my nerves jangling and pain shooting down my back every time I heard that mech pound the door. He sounded as if he had nearly broken it down. The one on the floor didn't even seem to notice the sounds. As he raised his head again I took the dragon and cracked it over his head. He was out once again. We ran upstairs, or rather, both of us limped upstairs.

  “I have him! I have him!” I said after turning on the tiny radio tansceiver on my arm, hoping the thieves were still out of commission.

  “He has him! Let's go!” It was Rychik. I saw his form fleeing outside. I followed him, dragging Will behind me. Genevieve came running followed by Tulos and Diamond. We took off outside and around the lingflyer, still opened and hovering at the docking bay. We saw two figures, lurking around our own carrier as we came around the corner.

  “Get away from there!” Yelled Diamond. One of them pulled a lasgun as if about to challenge him with a blast of fire. Diamond pulled his own blaster and warning shots from Tulos, Genevieve and Rychik as we were running toward the carrier caused them to reassess the situation. They were only two and there were six of us, five of us armed. The scavenger-thieves thought better of it and fled.

  “I think a loose security mech is coming!” I warned. Sure enough, as Diamond opened our own carrier speeder I saw the mech barreling after us. It slowed its stride at the corner, looking around. I'd burned a smoking hole in the middle of its face but it turned its pointed head toward the carrier as Diamond started it up. It was carrying something on its arm. A huge canon laser! It raised its arm, powering up with bright violet light. Rychik whirled around and shot it with his blaster just as the shield of our carrier was powering up. Genevieve followed with two expertly planted shots in its chest. It fell back but recovered and raised its arm to shoot again. Our shield barrier came down on the carrier giving us an extra layer of protection but it was not enough for a laser canon. Diamond was now in the driver's seat and whipped the speeder back so fast that Will, Tulos and I were thrown from our seats to the floor. A large ball of laser fire flew toward us and grazed the tip front hull of the carrier as Diamond maneuvered it out of the way. He flipped it on its side. I wanted to throw up as we sped out and down the road. One more fire ball sailed toward us and missed, instead hitting a small hover car parked just behind us, causing it to explode. Shards of metal and debris bounced and sparked off our shield barrier.

  “I'm so glad you all came for me. They were almost at the point of examining my brain. They would have found out about my hive wire. They were planning to take me apart and sell me for parts!” Said Will.

  “So in other words, they really are idiots.” I mumbled, taking off my mask. The inert sarin gas had a slight effect. But it didn't feel slight at all. In fact, I think all of us were feeling sick. Except Will, who was as chipper as a squirrel with an acorn. I said nothing more. My head was spinning.

  “We're out of there. Now we recover before the real battle begins,”said Genevieve.

  I was trying to not vomit. I was unsuccessful. I heard groans from the others.

  “Looks like I'm gonna have to clean the speeder up too,” she said, looking at me in dismay. I shrugged.

  Mission: accomplished. Now for the real mission.

  11

  I'd come in from a long morning of testing the ships and practicing flying around in an old jetpack around the complex. I was getting the hang of the jetpack after having used it for a few days. I'd actually used one in training back home a year ago so it wasn't something foreign to me and after a few hours I could work my way around, drifting, falling, learning to turn and maneuvering my body through the air on a dime. Almost. As for the fighter ships, it was actually my first time I'd been able to really practice with them. My own technique, while not as shaky as before, still needed work but I could at least fly the dang things, if not very well. So far, they were working fine, my own skill notwithstanding.

  Some captains from the Alliance were arriving this evening to check them out. They would be given to some of the best pilots for them to test tomorrow. Diamond and Genevieve had reserved two for themselves. I felt a growing sense of delirium before the storm, swept up in the excitement and energy. The plans for attacking the loyalist military base on Europa hadn't actually gotten around to many outside the alliance. It was still a secret but people seemed to sense something was going to happen and I experienced their wonder and apprehension as a sharp tang in the back of my throat.

  My throat felt tight and cracked. I swallowed a moisture pill and relaxed against the sensation of moisture flowing down and caressing my dried out i
nsides. This weather, even inside the sophisticated environmental dome, was harsh on the flesh.

  The physical air was one thing but the emotional air of the city was something else entirely. The air of Syzygy was crackling. Everywhere I went even the constant flow of traffic and people seemed more frenetic than usual. In cantinas, on corners, porch stoops, on balconies, in speeders and in the streets everyone was talking about an imminent attack. They thought and spoke of the looming fear of another gorgon attack. And that wasn't altogether out in left field. It remained a very real and devastating threat. We'd destroyed one. It didn't mean we would survive another and who knew what the loyalists were planning? One hadn't happened for about one standard year, around the last time I was in the city. People were waiting for the other gravity boot to drop. It at least kept the gloominess of my dreams, which I hadn't had lately, at bay.

  I finally came in for a break. In my bedroom I made a few notes of new, pertinent information I thought U-net might find useful, such as the existence of Gan Ning. I sent off the note from a datapad, tapping into the communication network in the compound and wondered what Robin, Chip and the Big Boss would make of me finding out the name of the unknown station out there near the Earth moon. And what other kinds of information they could find out about what goes on there.

  Genevieve and Tulos were talking in the lab. That little issue of Will's was being carefully examined. After we had rescued him I eventually informed them that, or rather Will did, that he could only get a buzzing static sound transmitted through the wire. Genevieve then put him under a series of scans and recalibration exercises to find out why and whether she could adjust or fix it. So far, she'd had no success. She'd at least managed to get his collar off.