E. D. F resurgent (e.d.f chronicles)

by Ian. J. Smethurst

  “ Sorry Lieutenant, it’s an emergency, we have to take off immediately.”

  “ Then where are we going?”

  “ Earth, to stop an assassination plot against the president of E.O.C. A himself,” Michael replied.

  General Kalidis caught up with them, out of breath, he wheezed. “You’re going to need me with you, to make sure this bucket of bolts holds together.”

  “ You’re welcome to come along,” Michael replied as he climbed inside the port access hatch.

  “ Think your man enough for it Kalidis?” Vargev asked, then followed it up by simply saying, “click, click.”

  Kalidis frowned at the Russian and climbed onboard, followed by Dalvosh.

  “ Commandoes on me!” Vargev barked out his order.

  The colonel and the remainder of the commandoes climbed onboard also.

  Michael was soon on the bridge, in his somewhat muddied naval uniform. The bridge itself was still damaged in places and still bore many of the scars of the damage the ship had sustained.

  “ Status report,” Michael asked as he took his seat.

  “ We have main power at seventy percent, ninety percent emergency power; all stations report ready,” Kinraid replied.

  Michael noticed that Eldathar was seated in the pilots chair again, “good to have you back ensign,” he said as he placed a reassuring arm on the Solarian’s slender shoulder. “Now let’s get this show on the road!”

  “ Gravitic engines to maximum,” Kinraid said.

  Outside of the ship the grass swirled, whipped up by the force generated by the Liberties powerful gravitic engines propelling the ship skywards, a loud whine became audible as the anti-gravity motors struggled to keep the Liberty airborne.

  “ Retract landing legs,” Michael said.

  Eldathar responded, and the landing legs slowly retracted into their horizontal positions, matt black panels slit into position over them with a gentle creak.

  “ Main engines at one half power, we don’t want to tax them too much just yet.”

  “ Understood captain,” Eldathar replied.

  As the Liberty continued to ascend skyward, Televis, Ericsson and Lataf silently watched from the doors of the tank factory.

  “ Godspeed,” they said in unison as the Liberty flew out of sight.

  “ Status of main engines,” Michael said as the Liberty continued to climb through the atmosphere.

  Kinraid constantly kept his eye on an engineering systems console at the rear of the bridge. “Main engines are okay so far, but at this speed we won’t break orbit.”

  “ Increase power to eighty percent,” Michael said growing tense, the Liberty had to break free from the gravitational pull of Gamma IV, if not they were all doomed, and so was the E.O.C. A president.

  “ Increasing power,” Eldathar replied.

  The ship began to shudder as the gravitational forces and atmospheric pressures of the planet began to take their effect, Kinraid made his way over towards his usual seat and strapped himself in, this was proving to be a rather bumpy ride.

  “ We are approaching the upper atmosphere; main engine at seventy percent power and rising,” Eldathar informed the bridge crew.

  Down in engineering Kalidis and Logameier were working furiously. “Secure that panel” Logameier barked out over the noise. “Keep an eye on the status of the main engine in case it heats up too fast or gets too hot.”

  Solarian engineering crews literally ran from console to console, checking over vital systems.

  The outer hull began to heat up as friction from the violent upper atmosphere of the planet continued to increase, the shuddering and swaying of the ship rose in its violence, flames scorched its outer hull as the atmospheric forces increased in their intensity.

  Some of the plating used to seal the breach of the Liberties destroyed torpedo launcher began to buckle and tear under the pressures exerted upon it. The violent shuddering continued relentlessly as the small ship climbed higher and higher into the upper atmosphere of Gamma IV, sparks erupted from damaged circuits and consoles exploded, sending glass showering across the bridge. Michael secretly prayed that his damaged ship would hold together.

  “ Engines at eighty percent!” Eldathar struggled over the noise.

  The ship continued to race through the atmosphere, finally the forces threatening to tear the damaged ship apart became too much, and the plating around the breach of the torpedo launcher sheared off completely, flames poured into the damaged section which had already been sealed off as a precaution, however now heat was building rapidly inside as super heated plasma from the intense heat whirled around the sealed off section. If something wasn’t done quickly, the bulkheads would collapse and the whole ship could be lost.

  “ Forcefield! Seal that breach now!” Michael shouted over the cacophony of consoles exploding, violent shaking and sparks flying across the bridge.

  A forcefield shimmered into life protecting the damaged section from the ravages of the atmospheric pressure, for now at least.

  “ Forcefield is in place cap’n, but I don’t think it’ll hold for long!” Kinraid shouted back.

  Sweat trickled down the sides of Michael’s face from the rising heat and desperation, “just a few more seconds,” he whispered over pressed lips. The shuddering reached a fever pitch, and just for an instant, Michael, along with most of the bridge crew closed their eyes.

  The shuddering had ceased, it had become calm once again. Slowly Michael opened one eye, then the other, confirming they were still in one piece. All that was visible on the viewer was starlight, they had done it, they had broken free of Gamma IV. He let out a loud sigh of relief. “I would consider that a successful test,” he said.

  Kinraid nodded his approval and a broad smile opened across his features, more at his thankfulness at still being alive than anything else.

  “ Set course for Earth, bearing zero-three-five degrees, elevation zero; best possible speed.”

  The Liberty leapt into plasma drive; destination Earth.

  Ian. J. Smethurst

  E.D. F Chronicles — E.D. F resurgent

  10. Earth race.

  Location: Delta base.

  Date: 18th October 2071.

  Time: 21:44 hours.

  The Krenaran assassin known as Lathiel casually walked towards the vast docking area of Delta base, replete with buggies and carts whizzing to and fro, loading and unloading supplies from ships that had come from all over E.O.C. A territory.

  Although the majority of military vessels were taking part in the fighting around Gamma IV, some were still present providing a defence for the station and the colony world of Orion IV far below, others were undergoing emergency repair work, obviously damaged in combat in some other area of E.O.C. A space.

  The majority of ships docked were transports, carrying vital medical and other supplies to civilians caught up in the huge conflict.

  There was a small warship that the Terrans called a Ghandhi class destroyer, however he ruled out hitching a ride aboard it, it was doubtful he could overcome its crew, and even if he could, he wouldn’t be able to control all the ship’s systems himself.

  A nice, small, inconspicuous transport would suffice for this mission. The trick was getting on-board without being detected however.

  Three E.D. F naval officers walked straight past him, not paying him any heed whatsoever, just a few minutes before he had killed Ensign Butler with a knife straight through the back, nice and quiet, it had allowed him close contact with his body which he touched and then activated his crodes gland buried deep beneath his thick ribcage. It secreted the top secret combat drug known as morphos x, the drug caused him extreme pain as his body altered to take on the form of any humanoid he touched, but he had learned to cope with it.

  He was his races ultimate weapon to bring down the puny Terrans once and for all. His mission was the elimination of the E.O.C. A president, a Terran by the name of James Rushfeldt.

  The hated S
olarians had managed to expose his mission on Perseus; he had barely escaped alive. Worst of all, the Solarian agents had managed to send a communique to Solarian command before he had disposed of them.

  The Terrans would be waiting for him on Terra, he would have to be careful.

  He made his way over to one of the docked transports, being careful not to attract any attention, a lone officer was standing guard at the docking port.

  Transports didn’t have as tight security as the warships of the E.D. F navy, this transport with a crew of only twelve, allowed him to take control of the ship with minimal difficulty. This small oversight was going to cost the Terrans very dearly indeed.

  The young officer addressed him, “eello ensign, what are you doing here?”

  “ Ensign Butler transferring from the E.D.F. S Avenger,” Lathiel replied.

  The officer looked perplexed, “for what reason?”

  Lathiel had to think quickly, “as an engineering assistant.”

  “ Do you have your I.D. card?”

  “ Yes, here you are.” Lathiel produced the I.D. card he had taken from the real ensign Butlers body.

  The officer studied the card, before placing it into a reader to his right.

  He used his Krenaran training to calm his nerves, but still readied himself in case anything should go wrong. After what seemed like an eternity, the officer finally said. “O.K. your all clear, welcome aboard the transport blue-177 ensign.” He handed him back the card, as Lathiel went to embark on the transport, the officer asked. “Where are your transfer documents?”

  Panic gripped Lathiel, “Still being processed, you know how it is,” he replied meekly.

  “ Yeah don’t I, you’re probably right, thanks ensign,” the officer said as he nodded knowingly at him.

  Lathiel inwardly sighed with relief as he quietly stepped onboard the transport, once inside he found the confines tight and uncomfortable for his frail Terran body. The corridors were narrow and for the most part, badly lit. The transport seemed quiet, he surmised that no one else was yet onboard.

  He walked up to a small computer display, the screen was cracked in one corner and the system looked ancient, however he did manage to access the crew manifest.

  The transport was commanded by a Lieutenant Pryce, obviously the E.D. F didn’t place as high a value on its transports as it did its warships, which would be why only a junior officer commanded the vessel, another costly oversight.

  He exited the crew manifest and consulted the deck-plan, the ship had eight decks, four of them were given over to the enormous cargo hold. The remainder of the decks were taken up with the bridge, crew quarters, a small mess area, engineering, and a tiny medical bay as well as the main engines and thruster systems.

  By consulting the deck-plan further, Lathiel noticed that there was a very small armoury located on the third deck, directly adjacent to the entrance to the cargo hold.

  Exiting out of the manifest, he immediately began making his way there, quickly locating the cramped elevator to deck three. Once there he walked the length of the corridor, finally coming upon the door to the armoury on his left. There was a tiny swipe card reader to the side of the steel door.

  Lathiel swiped the stolen I.D. card through the slot in the reader, and hoped it would give him access.

  Success, a green light blinked on and he quietly entered the armoury.

  There in the small room, barely larger than himself, and only dimly lit he noticed a rack of ten dusty looking pulse rifles and two heavy machine guns, together with a dozen or so combat knives.

  It was prudent of the E.D. F to arm their transport crews, especially since the spate of Krenaran attacks on E.D. F transports in the last month, attempting to disrupt E.D. F supply lines. However, this time it allowed an assassin of the calibre of Lathiel to gain the upper hand.

  The Krenaran agent weighed up the weapons, he had learned that the heavy machine guns were more powerful and had a faster rate of fire. However the pulse rifle was more accurate at range, he picked up a pulse rifle and grabbed two combat knives.

  Lathiel had no idea whether he would actually use the pulse rifle or not as he was a master of close quarters fighting and could use those twin knives to devastating effect anyway.

  After retrieving the weapons, he left the armoury as quietly as he entered and headed for the bridge.

  After making it back to the elevator, he keyed in deck 1 for the bridge and was soon on the spartan looking command centre of the entire transport. He could blow the docking latches and launch the ship right now if he wanted, however a renegade ship like that would attract far too much attention and peregrine fighters would be swarming over his bow within minutes, better to wait until the transport gets under way officially.

  As he looked over this dingy excuse for a command centre he noted the different stations, there was the rudimentary ships pilots console, the operations station, and the rather worn captains chair. Around the walls of this rectangular room were some small displays, there was a door to the side of the bridge that read ‘captains quarters’.

  He tried to open the door, however it had been locked out, instead he tried the pilots console, Lathiel needed to know where this ship was going. Hopefully the pilot had already plotted a flight plan into his console.

  Lathiel accessed the console and found that indeed he had, this transport was heading to Barnards star to pick up medical supplies from a small facility there, and would be departing delta base at 09:00 hours tomorrow morning. It’s a shame it will never make it there, he thought with an evil smile.

  The Liberty was hurtling toward Earth at plasma factor 6.5, the ships maximum speed was plasma factor 7, however Kinraid had advised Michael that if they attempted that speed, the Liberties already weakened hull could start to give way.

  “ So, how does this morphos x drug work?” Michael asked Dalvosh.

  “ It is the result of several years of research in perfecting the ultimate assassin. It is secreted by a gland contained within Lathiels rib cage, it causes him extreme pain whenever it is used, but allows him to assume any humanoid form at will.”

  “ So he could walk right into this command centre and change into any one of us.”

  “ Yes, however he would have to have some form of physical contact first.”

  “ Like what?”

  “ A pat on the back, a handshake, that sort of thing,” Dalvosh replied. “However he does have one weakness.”

  “ Which is?” Vargev asked after listening in to the conversation.

  “ His basic D.N. A structure remains Krenaran, and it can be picked up by any scanner capable of scanning D.N. A sequences.”

  “ Like a Solarian scanner,” Eldathar cut in.

  “ Exactly, that was why the Solarians present at Perseus picked him up,” Dalvosh said nodding.

  “ Lucky for us we ‘ave a few of those Solarian scanners aboard,” Kinraid said.

  “ What’s our status?” Michael asked.

  “ The ship’s still in a bad way, te’ damage we took getting into orbit will have to be repaired before we set down on Earth otherwise we will simply burn up in te’ atmosphere,” Kinraid replied.

  “ We’ll have to make repairs on-route, we don’t have time to stop at a repair facility.” Michael said as he pressed a control on his wrist comm. “Alexander to Logameier.”

  “ Logameier here captain, I’m a little busy right now, what’s up?” replied the chief engineer, who was busily strengthening the weakened bulkheads around the destroyed torpedo launcher.

  “ Can you re-configure some Solarian scanners to be usable by humans?”

  “ I’ll have a couple of the Solarian technicians take a look at them. Might I ask what for?” Logameier asked rubbing sweat from his brow, it was still warm in here from the heat build up after leaving the atmosphere. He really didn’t need more tasks right now, it was taking every last minute of his time keeping the Liberty from falling apart.

  “ It’s going
to help us hunt some assassin,” Michael smiled.

  “ I like the sound of that captain, I’ll get some Solarian techs right on it.”

  “ Good man,” with that, Michael ended the transmission.

  “ Anything else I need to know about?” Michael asked, his hopes buoyed a little now that they had a way to track this little chameleon.

  “ Apart from the fact that Lathiel is lethal with both close combat and ranged weapons, and can melt into the background virtually anywhere, I can’t think of a thing,” Dalvosh replied with a hint of sarcasm, he knew the humans were out of their league in dealing with Lathiel right now.

  “ Riiight, nothing to worry about then,” Michael replied, his hopes cruelly dashed again.

  Vargev restrained a slight chuckle, he was actually beginning to like this Dalvosh. However on second thought, nope, he hated all Krenarans equally.

  “ Can’t this thing go any bloody faster?” Michael asked, wanting to vent his frustration at something.

  “ Sorry captain, not without further damage to the ship,” Eldathar replied from the pilot’s chair.

  The Liberty continued hurtling through the star-lit blackness of deep space.

  Next morning Lathiel awoke early, he had stowed away in a dark disused area of the cargo hold, between some unknown crates. This frail Terran body ached from sleeping on the cold, hard floor. He slowly got to his feet, his eyes had developed a kind of crusty, powdery deposit in the corners either side of his Terran ‘nose’. He had no idea what it was but knew that it irritated him, and so he rubbed at them with his finger, at once this annoying deposit had cleared.

  He felt lethargic, and shook his head to release the fuzzy feeling, gradually feeling a little better and slightly more alert.

  Making his way out of the cargo hold, he found that the ships crew or prey as he liked to think of them, had returned as they nonchalantly strode down the corridor past him completely oblivious to the danger he represented. Although his appearance altering drug caused him immense pain, he liked being able to pass unnoticed, being able to slip through virtually any net, all he had to do was kill someone, something which came very easily to him.