Hammer's Commandos (Hammer's War Book 4)

by James McEwan

  “Not looking to drink my friend, just a little information,” Thad replied.

  “No drinks, no service that’s the rules,” the bar tender said as he didn’t move a muscle.

  “All rightly then, how about send a round of drinks to my new Ralnai friends over there, with my complements of course,” Thad said with a smile. Thad figured that it was not a bad idea to get on their good side just in case things went sideways.

  The bar tender nodded and poured out two mugs of blood thorn wine and took it to the two Ralnai. He spoke softly and pointed at Thad and Eve. Thad just smiled and waved. The two Ralnai looked at Thad and thought he was strange, but hey, anyone who gave them free drinks could look a little strange. The bartender then returned, “Okay, what kind of information are you looking for?”

  “I’m looking for the crow. I have been told he can be found here most of the time,” Thad said as he dropped another large credit note on the bar.

  The bartender swiped the credit note from the bar and spoke softly, “He is in the back both over there,” he didn’t point, but he nodded his head in the direction of the both. Then he left them to tend to another Masters, who had just sat down at the other end of the bar acting as if he did not know Thad or Eve.

  Thad and Eve made their way towards the back of the bar. As they passed a table of four dirty hard looking men, one of them grabbed Eve by the wrist, “Hey pretty lady why don’t you sit down on my lap and give old Gritty a big old kiss.” Eve could tell from the dust on their clothing they these guys were crystie miners. It made sense this world did have a large crystie mine, crystie being the mineral that powers most starships as well as most things in the universe.

  Eve looked at Thad and gave him a little wink, “You go ahead I got this.”

  Thad rolled his eyes and said, “Okay, but try not to have too much fun. We are working after all.”

  Her face wrinkled up and she gave him a sour look, “Oh, you are just no fun.”

  The miner who called himself Gritty pulled at her arm again, “I’ll show you some fun baby.”

  Thad almost felt bad for the guy, almost. He left Eve to deal with the rabble and continued to the back both. He pulled back the privacy curtain to find a well-muscled bald black man sitting behind a table. On the table were a tablet and some papers. He was not alone. There were two females with him. One, a human woman, sat on his left and had her hands below the table. Thad could guess what her hands were doing under there. On his right was a Lyrain, a humanoid feline race, and she was licking his face.

  “You the crow?” Thad asked.

  The man looked up at Thad, “I might be, just who are you?”

  Thad pulled out a chair from his side of the table and sat down. “Me? Oh nobody really. Let’s just say I am an interested party.”

  The man pushed the Lyrain away, “Interested in what?”

  “I guess that depends on whether you are the crow or not,” Thad said in reply.

  “Let’s say that I am the crow, what would nobody want with me?”

  “If you are the crow I am interested in the next location of the slave market,” Thad said.

  That seemed to get a reaction from him. He grabbed the girl’s hands out from under the table. “Get out, both of you.” He directed. Both woman got the message from his tone and departed the both in a hurry.

  Meanwhile, Eve looked at Gritty and asked, “So you want me to sit on your lap and give you a kiss, do you?”

  “Yeah baby jump right up here and give old Gritty a wet one,” he answered getting excited about the prospect that she seemed to be playing along with his advances.

  “Okay, but remember you asked for this,” Eve said as she did he asked. She jumped into his lap. Her enhanced combat chassis was quite a bit heavier than the standard love bot chassis. The combined weight and the extra energy from the little jump was more than the old chair could handle. The chair collapsed sending both of them to the floor.

  Gritty landed hard and screamed from the pain of hitting the floor. He screamed again as Eve came down on top of him. He unfortunately was a little too excited to have her on his lap. There was an unpleasant crunching sound as his pelvis was shattered along with other parts of him that were crushed under her weight. It was everything he could do to just breathe. And with every breathe he let out a high pitched whine.

  Eve jumped up and place her hands to her face, “Oh you poor man, are you okay?” Gritty just moaned and whined.

  “You bitch you did that on purpose,” one of Gritty’s companions screamed at her. He picked up a beer bottle off the table and rushed her. He didn’t get far. As he swung at Eve, she stepped inside his swing and grabbed him by the back of his head. She then rammed his face into, or more accurately through, the table. She pushed with so much force that his head broke through that section of the wooden table without even upending it.

  In the booth, Thad and the Crow could hear the commotion outside, but paid no attention to it. “I don’t know anything about that,” the man lied.

  “Are you really that stupid? Please don’t insult me or waste anymore of my time. I know you are the Crow and that you are the man who knows and you are going to tell me what I want to know or it will not end well for you,” Thad said in a flat tone that would turn most men’s blood to ice.

  “And say I do tell you. Are you going to drop me off a roof like to you did to Cable?” The Crow asked.

  Thad changed his posture and leaned forward, “If I where you I would worry about what I might do to you if you don’t tell me.”

  Outside the both things were starting to get a little messy. Another of Gritty’s buddies pulled out a rather nasty looking force blade. He clicked it on and came at Eve. It was the last mistake he would ever make. Since this version of Eve was no longer bound by her programing she was no longer constrained from killing. She easily avoided the blow and trapped his arm. She snapped it as if was nothing more than a twig.

  The man screamed as he watched his bone break through his skin. Eve, with the broken arm in hand, forced the force blade into the man’s midsection. The blade passed through with no problem she had pushed hard enough so that the blade severed the man’s spine and he collapsed to the floor in a heap. He bled out from the compound fracture before the bar fight ended.

  The fourth man threw his chair at Eve, who smashed through it as it were made of fragile glass. She up-ended the table and tossed it at the man. It hit him flat on and the force was enough to slam him into the wall. The table acted like a piston crushing him as easy as it would a grape. The man made a nasty splatting sound as he died. The two Ralnai at the bar had stopped their game to watch and laughed at this.

  The fourth man had met his death on the wall next to the booth occupied by Thad and the Crow. When he went splat some of his blood sprayed into the booth hitting Thad on the side of the face. The Crow yelped, “What the Hell?”

  Thad calmly reached inside his coat and pulled out a handkerchief and whipped the blood from his face, “Oh that, I wouldn’t worry about that. That is my friend Eve and she is having a little fun with the locals. But if you don’t want to give the information to me, I will ask her to come and continue her fun.”

  His eyes grew at least two sizes, “You people are insane!”

  “No just a little pissed off,” Thad paused, “Well, maybe, just a little insane, but do you really want to find out what happens when we get really angry?”

  “Fuck no,” he said as he pushed a panic button. The button set off a small charge in the chair that Thad was sitting on. It knocked him over backward. He slammed into the ground hard, his head smacking with enough force to crack a normal human’s skull. However, with Thad’s carbon fiber based bones he just got his bell rung pretty good.

  Outside the booth Masters wanted desperately to get into the fray with Eve, but it was over before he could even get close plus he didn’t know that she was an artificial life form with a heavy combat chassis. He was a little scared when he saw what she
could do. He chose to stay at the bar and sip from his drink while watching the spectacle.

  When the explosion went off and Thad was blown over backwards, Eve rushed to Thad to check on him while the Crow grabbed the tablet from the table and ran for the door.

  Masters waited until the last posable second to act. He stuck out his foot and tripped the Crow. The Crow smashed down on the hard floor, sending the tablet sliding across it. Before the Crow could get up, Masters was on top of him. Masters had him in an arm lock in a couple of seconds showing that his training with Thad was starting to pay off.

  Eve helped Thad to his feet, “You okay? All parts still intact and functioning?”

  Thad swayed a bit seeming a little punch drunk, “More or less, I will be fine in a minute,” he said. He looked around at the mess she had made, “That’s more than I can say for these poor fools.”

  Eve blushed; Thad had never seen that before. “I might have gotten a little carried away.”

  “You think,” Thad said.

  “Maybe just a little,” Eve replied.

  Thad held up his hand and with two fingers he made the sign for a small measurement, “Just a little.” He wasn’t really upset with her for killing them. He was upset that her actions caused him to be sprayed in one man’s blood. “Oh, and you’re cleaning my coat,” he added.

  Their conversation was interrupted by Masters who was getting a little carried away himself. “Don’t move or I will break your fucking arm.”

  “Woah slow your roll there Rod, not yet I still need the information. If he doesn’t give it up then you can start breaking things,” Thad said as he approached the two men while making slow down motions with his hands.

  Masters was putting a lot of pressure on the Crow’s shoulder. Masters didn’t know that the Crow had a previous injury to that shoulder and the pain was more than enough to make this bird sing. “All the information you need is on that tablet,” He said through cries of pain.

  “I thought so,” Thad said. He walked over to pick it up. However, when he bent down to retrieve the tablet, Thad saw the largest Ralnai foot he had ever seen. The middle claw was resting gently on the tablet.

  Thad looked up at the massive Ralnai, who stood almost a foot taller than himself. He was big, really big Thad thought to himself. He looked more like a Thog then a Ralnai.

  Thad could tell from his armor that he was an overseer, the closest thing Ralnai have to police. On his hip was a Ralnai disrupter pistol and in his hand was a Neurotic whip. The chains and shackles on his other hip clanged together when he moved. Thad looked up at him while he looked down on Thad. “You are one big son of a bitch aren’t you,” Thad said.

  The overseer pushed past Thad and went straight to the two Ralnai who had resumed their drinking game. They spoke in their guttural clicking hissing native tongue. Thad looked at Eve and Masters, “Time to go,” he scooped up the tablet. “And bring him with us,” Thad added. They started for the door when the overseer cracked his whip. He had it turned up to high enough to cut a table in half.

  “You will go nowhere until I sort this mess out,” the translator box squeaked out the words in English.

  “Sorry bubba, but we have more pressing business elsewhere,” Thad said in only the way that Thad could.

  “Where?” Was the only thing the overseer asked.

  “Anywhere, but here,” Thad replied with a smile on his face. The Ralnai actually found Thad’s comment funny and laughed. Thad turned his attention to Eve, “See he gets it. How come Ralnai get my humor, and the rest of you don’t?”

  Eve lifted an eyebrow and replied, “And what does that say about you?”

  “Enough,” the overseer barked. “You three are coming with me,” he added as he unhooked three sets of shackles and tossed them towards them. They hit the floor and slid to a stop at Thad’s feet. “Put them on!” It was not a suggestion.

  Thad stopped trying to be funny and looked the overseer sight in the eye, “That’s not going to happen bubba.” The overseer thought that was funny too and he laughed again. Thad shifted his feet into a fighting stance ready to strike.

  The overseer understood what Thad was doing and with a quick flip of his thumb like claw he turned down the setting on the whip to just below stun setting. It wouldn’t stun a human, but would cause a massive amount of pain. He didn’t give Thad a chance to attack as he flicked his wrist and, with a savage strike, the whip landed across Thad’s right arm.

  Thad saw it coming and out of instinct he caught the whip in his hand. The pain surged through his body. Any other human would have collapsed as the pain overcame them. However, Thad had superior genetics and a superhuman pain threshold. That alone would have allowed him to tolerate the pain longer than a normal human, but the things that Thad had gone through over the last couple years had taught him how to block out pain almost all together.

  The overseer was surprised; he had never seen a human who could with stand a hit from the whip, especially not at that setting. “What are you? You are not human,” the words came from the translator box.

  Thad gritted his teeth and answered, “Oh I’m something new.”

  The rest of the humans who were still alive and able to walk ran for the door, except the bartender, who ducked behind the bar. Eve started towards the overseer, but Thad warned her, “No Eve, I got this. Bubba here is mine.” With maximum effort he wrapped the whip around his arm a few times and then he pulled with all his strength. The whip was torn from the overseer’s hand and the second it was the power went off and so did the pain.

  “That was a mistake little man,” the overseer said as he reached for his disruptor pistol.

  Thad wore his coat for more reasons than his keen sense of fashion. It had hidden lasers in both cuffs. Thad pointed his left arm at the overseer and fired. The beam hit the disruptor in the power transfer chamber and it exploded, taking the Ralnai’s hand and most of his forearm with it.

  The Ralnai overseer screeched in pain as his other clawed hand tried to hold the damaged arm. “You will die slowly for that!” He said and then charged. Thad held his ground until the last second. He side-stepped the charging beast just in time. As he did he flicked the whip’s handle up and into his hand. Thad then snapped the whip hitting the overseer in the back just above his tail.

  The overseer howled in pain and leapt forward, his good hand reached for his tail. Thad cracked the whip again, this time it landed on the overseer’s tail. He wailed again and jumped out of the whips range.

  The other two Ralnai decided that they couldn’t stand by and watch as a human humiliated a Ralnai and they moved to intervene. However, Eve stepped in front of them and she waved her finger at them, “No, no, no,” she said. The two stopped and after seeing what she had done to the humans they did what Ralnai never do, they back down and when back to their seats. “Good boys,” she said.

  The overseer wheeled around and faced Thad, he had death in his eyes and as he went primal, he roared and charged again. Thad sent the whip another time, but this time the overseer caught the whip and pulled it from Thad’s hand. Damn it, that’s my trick he thought. Thad tried to move, but he didn’t have the time to whip and move so he had chosen to whip and that gamble failed.

  The overseer hit him like a freight train and sent Thad flying. He slammed into the bar and flipped over the top. He crashed down on the floor right in front of the bartender who had a bottle of whisky in one hand and a shot glass in the other. He had just filled it when Thad ended up on the floor. Thad shook off the blow and grabbed the shot glass from the bartender’s hand. He drank it and said, “Thanks.” Just as he did the overseer reached over the bar and grabbed Thad and pulled him back over the bar. Then, like a rag doll tossed by a misbehaving toddler, Thad was tossed across the room. He smashed through a table and rolled a few times before slamming against the wall.

  Thad should have been a broken mess of jelly after those two hits, but this was Thaddeus Hammer. He bones could take it and h
e healed almost as fast as he was injured. He regained his feet and brushed the dust and wood slivers from his coat and clothing. The Ralnai was stunned as he had never seen a human that could take so much punishment and live, let alone stand. It was hard to tell because of the translator box had been damaged, but both Thad and Masters though they heard, “What the fuck,” from the Ralnai.

  Thad twisted his head releasing the gas that was building up in his neck joints. It made a nice cracking sound. “Okay bubba I’m done playing around,” Thad said as he raised his right arm to fire the laser in the cuff, but it didn’t fire. It had been smashed in the melee. The Ralnai roared and charged again. “Shit,” Thad remarked as he drove out of the way just in time. The overseer smashed into the concrete wall with enough force as to shake the building. Dust from the ceiling trickled down on everyone.

  The overseer stumbled back and made a low grumbling sound, blood oozed from form his mouth as he took two steps before falling flat on the floor. Thad looked at Eve and shrugged his shoulders, “I didn’t see that one coming.” The overseer, still breathing, was still alive. But there was no telling how long he would be out. “Time to go guys,” Thad said.

  Just then the Crow managed to wiggle away from Masters and in doing so he elbowed Masters in the nose. Masters groaned and let go to attend to his nose that began gushing blood. The Crow ran for it and was able to clear the door before anyone could do anything about it.

  “Damn it Rod,” Thad barked. Then he turned to the bartender who had just stood up to see what the outcome of the fight was. Thad pointed to Masters, but spoke to the bartender, “Get him some ice. I will be right back.”

  Thad and Eve gave chase. Once they got outside they could see that the Crow had gotten a good lead on them, but he was panicked and was running down the middle of the road. Thad and Eve could have easily caught up to him on foot, but Thad had another idea. He didn’t have to transmit his idea; Eve seemed to have read his mind anyway. She went straight to the hover car and jumped into the passenger side while Thad slipped in behind the controls.