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

by Ian. J. Smethurst

  The impostor searched through the bloodied, lifeless body, took the man’s I.D. card and wiped any trace of spattered blood from the card and his knife on the dead man’s coveralls. Silently, he left the ships hold.

  As he made his escape down the ramp of the transport, out across the landing pad and towards the main building a small dark ship could just be seen overhead, trailing smoke. Its matt black hull and wedge shaped design resembled one of his own Krenaran ships, it seemed to be heading for the centre of Prague. However, its main weapon and torpedo launchers were completely different, deep indents in the sides of its hull gave off a bright electric blue light.

  Lathiel recognised the ship as the Liberty, they must know of the plan, he thought, muttering a Krenaran curse; his job had just gotten that little bit more difficult.

  12. A final reckoning

  Lathiel made his way calmly, yet quickly through the ten storey terminal building down the main elevator and out onto the busy roads outside.

  He noticed a line of elaborately painted vehicles across the road. They all had signs above them with just one word, taxi, he wasn’t sure what that meant, yet he needed to secure some form of transport so headed towards them anyway.

  The driver looked at him quizzically, as the assassin was dressed in the inventory man’s dirty coveralls, “do you have a destination.”

  “ The institute of quantum mechanics,” Lathiel replied with a smile, trying to act as naturally as he could.

  “ That’s only a few minutes drive from here, hop in,” the driver said.

  Lathiel did so, and soon the unknowing driver was shepherding the assassin to his target.

  The tall buildings of Prague whipped past like a blur as the battered form of the Liberty descended gradually towards its landing spot in the heart of Stromoika park.

  “ Deploy landing legs,” Michael asked.

  “ Landing legs down,” Eldathar replied.

  Michael had hoped against hope that the landing legs were operational, otherwise the ship would slam front first straight into the park. Thank god for small mercies, he thought as the Liberty gently came in to land.

  They could now see the wide open park, and the huge security cordon which had been hurriedly placed around it. The roads surrounding around the park had been blocked off and traffic had been steadily piling up, already the whole city looked largely gridlocked. The park itself was quickly cleared of any pedestrians, however a large crowd had gathered outside

  its confines to catch a glimpse of the landing of the most famous, or some would say infamous ship in the E.D.F.

  The Liberty slowed almost to a standstill, then gently lowered itself onto its landing legs. It was a tight squeeze, the ship very nearly took up the entire length of the park. With a hiss of vented gas, the ship settled onto its legs and slowly began to power down.

  “ Eldathar, Dalvosh, Vargev, Kinraid, you’re with me, we don’t have much time.”

  Logameier came onto the bridge at the same time, “you might need these.” He handed three Solarian scanners, one each to Michael, Vargev, and Kinraid. “They have been re-configured to be readable by humans.”

  “ Logameier, you are in command until we get back,” Michael said.

  Lieutenant Johnson Logameier nodded his understanding, “good luck.”

  Vargev touched his wrist comm. “Commandoes, green light has been given, form up with us outside the Liberty.”

  The squad of E.D. F commandoes the Liberty had been carrying on its journey were ready. Vargev had briefed them earlier; they were nervous, this was not exactly the kind of mission commandoes were trained for. Nevertheless, Nikolai needed their raw skill and instinct for this most dangerous of foes.

  The taxi had managed to make it to the rear of the institute, the driver turned in his seat to face him. “That’s as close as I can get you, they have set up some sort of road block up ahead.”

  As the driver turned back to check his meter, Lathiel quickly took out one of his knives and rammed it straight through the drivers seat, impaling the taxi driver in the process. He slumped forward onto the steering wheel.

  “ That will be fine,” Lathiel said as he quickly wiped the blood off the knife and hid it back within his coveralls, before exiting the taxi, and walking along the periphery of the institute, trying to fathom some way inside.

  An E.D. F soldier was just coming into view around the side of the building on his security patrol, one hand on his pulse rifle and casting an eye over the nearby streets and tall buildings with their ancient teal coloured domes and tall ornate spires.

  Lathiel made sure he attracted the guards attention, doing his utmost to make out that he was lost.

  The guard approached him, “this area has been sealed off, you shouldn’t be here.”

  Lathiel had checked for witnesses on the guards approach, there were none.

  “ Are you lost?” the guard asked.

  “ Yes I appear to be, I’m looking for a freight terminal, I’m due to pick up a delivery very soon, and I don’t suppose you could point the way?”

  The guard hesitated, thinking for a moment, “There is the…”

  With a flash, Lathiel whipped out a knife and plunged it deep into the soldier’s throat.

  The man toppled backwards, gurgling, gasping and clutching at his ruin of a throat, blood spurted out from the wound, splattering to the pavement below.

  Lathiel relieved the doomed soldier of his weapon, and opened fire at point blank range, ending the man’s misery before dragging the body into a shadowed recess. Once he had dumped the body behind some bins he activated his crodes gland, once again acute pain ravaged his body, hopefully for the last time, he thought, as he gradually took on the form of the now deceased soldier.

  Looking around this recessed area, he spied what appeared to be a fire exit. Using one of his knives, he managed, with a little effort, to push back the latch and open the door. Quietly he entered the institute, gently closing the door behind him.

  Michael, Dalvosh, Vargev, Kinraid, Eldathar and the ten commandoes accompanying them, exited the Liberty and sprinted across the park towards the gigantic glass fronted building that was the institute of quantum mechanics, time was running out, they had to get to the assassin before he got to the president.

  They each pulled out their new scanners as they approached, donated by some of the Solarian crewmembers onboard the Liberty. They were especially grateful, as it would be down to these things to help catch that killing machine.

  Half a dozen E.D. F troops were stationed on guard at the main entrance as they approached.

  “ Halt!” Shouted a young stern sergeant, as the group raced towards him, the guards un-slung and readied their weapons.

  “ This is a secure area,” he said as he looked upon the towering onrushing form of Dalvosh with hate-filled eyes.

  “ Look, the presidents life is in danger, we need to get in there, it’s an emergency!” Michael shouted back.

  “ This is a secure area!” The sergeant repeated, louder this time.

  Vargev came forward, together with his accompanying squad of commandoes. “Oh for gods sake, just let me through! You know who I am.”

  The young sergeant, full of bravado and machismo as he was, would not dare take on an E.D. F commando, as he knew full well their reputation. “Okay let them through,” he said rather embarrassingly.

  Vargev and the rest of the group simply elbowed their way past the guards, as he did so Vargev whispered vehemently to the sergeant. “If that president dies because you have held us up, I promise that no penal facility, no injury will come close to what I will do to you.”

  “ err, yes sir,” the sergeant said, his machismo evaporated.

  The rest of the group all passed their new scanners over the guards, “they’re all human,” Eldathar said.

  “ Where is the president now?” Michael asked.

  “ In the main viewing area about to give his speech,” the sergeant replied.

&n
bsp; Michael turned to Kinraid, “You and Dalvosh inform the president, and watch out, this Lathiel is dangerous, he could be anyone.”

  “ You sure that’s wise?” Kinraid asked, “Dalvosh here isn’t exactly te’ most liked person on the planet right now.”

  Dalvosh nodded his agreement with Kinraid.

  Michael knew the risk, however he also knew that, a Krenaran on earth, helping to save the life of the president himself might go someway to alleviate the intense mistrust and hatred humanity had of the Krenarans. “Yes I’m sure; go,” he replied.

  As they entered the main lobby of the building, Vargev turned to his accompanying squad of commandoes. “Okay I want you to split up; groups of two, I want a floor by floor search.

  The commandoes all nodded their understanding, and began to fan out throughout the building, their heavy armschlagers ready, looking for the slightest hint of suspicious activity.

  Vargev readied his own armschlager and Michael charged his pulse rifle. Eldathar took the lead as the three of them crossed the lobby and entered a narrow corridor. Along its length various types of laboratories split off from the corridor itself, a small party of scientists passed by the group.

  “ All human,” Eldathar said as he scanned them. They continued on their search.

  Lathiel made his way up a long steep flight of stairs, coming across a gantry above what appeared to be a series of gigantic magnets for an experiment of some kind.

  A soldier on patrol casually walked towards him. “Hi” The man said as he calmly walked past the disguised killer.

  “ hi there,” Lathiel replied as he continued walking across the gantry, this opened out into another corridor, as the assassin continued down it he came to a door that opened into a wide, yet small foyer.

  Kinraid and Dalvosh had managed to make their way into the heavily crowded main viewing hall, they could see a large stage with a stand already prepared for the president.

  The crowd gradually turned to look upon the towering form of the Krenaran that had come amongst them, and already the anger building in the room to this icon of hate was palpable. Dalvosh however ignored the insults and abuse hurled at him.

  “ There must be nearly five hundred people in here,” Kinraid said.

  “ The perfect place for someone like Lathiel to hide,” Dalvosh replied looking down at the Liberty first officer.

  Cameras and equipment lined the periphery of the room, reporters spoke into them, no doubt capturing the big occasion for the various news services, some of the cameras swung in the direction of the giant Krenaran, standing head and shoulders above even the tallest people in the crowd. He stuck out like a sore thumb.

  The two of them continued to force their way through the now hate filled crowd, the occasional bottle and other pieces of detritus was flung in the Krenarans general direction.

  “ I am not here to harm you, I am here to help!” Dalvosh shouted to the throng.

  Shouts of, “tell it to the poor bastards you killed!” came flying back at him.

  Eldathar, Michael and Vargev continued their search through the facility.

  “ Wait a second,” Eldathar stopped looking at his scanner. “I’m picking up a Krenaran lifesign.”

  Vargev and Michael checked theirs too, “So are we, a Krenaran bio-sign seventy metres ahead and heading this way.”

  “ You sure we are not picking up Dalvosh?” Vargev asked.

  “ No, this bio-sign is above us, Dalvosh is on the floor below.”

  “ That’s our man!” Michael shouted as the three of them sprinted towards the nearest flight of stairs.

  Lathiel made his way through the foyer, and into a small, dark viewing room. There was a long floor to ceiling glass facade which ran the length of the room and offered a perfect view into the assembled crowd of the main viewing hall far below.

  He un-slung his weapon and prepared the sight. The stage was empty right now, soon his target would take to the stage and when he did, the president of E.O.C. A would be no more. The Krenaran empire would have finally won this war, he would go back to his people a hero.

  He saw that the crowd were jeering another Krenaran present; strange, he thought. Why should he be there? It mattered not; nothing would come between him and his mission, not even this other Krenaran. He put the thoughts to the back of his mind and peered through the rifle scope.

  E.O.C. A President James Rushfeldt gracefully took to the stage dressed in an immaculately tailored suit and flanked by two bodyguards, waving to the crowd assembled in front of him.

  “ This is a momentous day, barely a week ago humanity and the Krenaran race were still locked in a bitter war, and now a Krenaran stands on Earth as a symbol of peace; please, won’t you join me?”

  The lights and cameras turned towards the powerful lumbering form of Dalvosh as he gradually made his way through the throng, every single man and woman who looked upon his towering reptilian form half covered in shining metallic Krenaran battle armour, looked upon it with hate-filled eyes.

  Gradually Dalvosh took to the stage next to the president, who quickly switched off the microphones arrayed in front of him.

  “ I’ve just done you a huge favour, your not here to kill me, you would have done that already. So what the hell are you doing here?” Rushfeldt looked up at the Krenaran.

  “ We’re here to save you,” Dalvosh growled back. “There is a rogue Krenaran agent loose in the building, and you are his target.”

  Rushfeldt froze, “where?”

  “ We don’t know yet, the building is being searched right now.”

  Michael, Eldathar, and Vargev sprinted up a flight of stairs breathing heavily as they did so, Eldathar’s gangly Solarian legs carried him much faster than the others.

  “ Twenty meters,” Michael puffed, “just beyond that corridor.”

  They sprinted for all they were worth, preying they weren’t too late, accidentally knocking over a cleaning woman in their haste.

  Together they burst through the door of the dimly lit viewing room, and were confronted with the sight of an E.D. F soldier pointing a pulse rifle to the viewing glass.

  Eldathar held up his scanner first, “that’s him!”

  Michael was fastest, sprinting across the room he lunged in a desperate attempted to knock the assassin off balance before he got a shot away, just as he was about to press the trigger. Michael slammed into Lathiel as the shot fired, shattering the glass, it was just enough for the shot to miss the president. Instead however, it slammed into the chest of Dalvosh who was thrown backwards by the force of the impact.

  The crowd panicked and began to rush headlong for the exits, people were knocked aside, several were being crushed in the press of people desperate to escape.

  The momentum of Michael’s charge proved too much and Lathiel used his own speed and weight against him, as he pushed him flying through another glass pane; shattering it too as Michael’s body sailed through it.

  Shards of smashed glass rained down on the already panicked crowd below, as the sheer force of people charging towards him flattened Kinraid. Dalvosh lay face up on the stage, the two bodyguards ignored the fallen Krenaran, instead rapidly ushering the president out of the room through an emergency exit behind them.

  Michael desperately clung to a length of steel pipe-work directly below the overhanging viewing room, thankfully the pipe was cool; there he dangled forty feet in the air, his legs flailing wildly as his weapon clattered onto the marble floor some forty feet below. The pain in his arm was excrutiating, he had wrenched his shoulder badly grabbing onto the pipe.

  Vargev and Eldathar confronted Lathiel. Eldathar attempted to tackle the assassin, Lathiel was much faster than the gangly Solarian and without a word flung one of his knives at him. Eldathar screamed out in pain as the blade embedded itself in his arm, sending out a gout of blue-ish blood, the force of the blade pinned the Solarian pilot to the wall.

  Lathiel, angered at having his mission interrupted, menacingly d
rew his second blade.

  Vargev dropped his Armschlager and drew his own combat knife. The assassin and the Russian silently and menacingly circled each other, sizing one another up.

  Lathiel was the first to attack, lashing out with his blade the knife was a blur as it flicked out. Vargev barely had time to dodge the slash as Lathiel pounced again. This time Vargev was able to parry the blow, both their blades locked together. Rapidly bringing up his knee, the Krenaran impostor rammed it into the Russians stomach; he staggered backwards a few steps as pain coursed through his already fragile ribs.

  The assassin swiped at him again, the blade sliced deep into the flesh of Vargev’s upper right arm. The Russian screamed in pain, clutching at his wound.

  “ Don’t make me laugh old man,” Lathiel spat as he viciously spin-kicked Vargev in the chest, sending him sprawling across the hard floor; his knife clattered across the ground.

  For a moment fear began to rise in Vargev, this man was his equal, and may yet beat him. He banished the thought and got to his feet, still clutching his wounded arm.

  “ Huh, still some fight left in you… okay then,” Lathiel said with a cruel sneer, as he tossed the commando back his knife, daring him to fight on.

  Vargev picked the knife back up just as the assassin lunged at him again; barely managing to parry the blow, he was knocked backwards once again.

  Lathiel let out a sarcastic laugh.

  “ I’m still standing,” Vargev shot back.

  “ Not for much longer.” He came at the Russian again, stabbing and slashing, this time Vargev was able to counter the blows, parried the blade and unleashed a vicious head-butt of his own. The imposter cried in pain, stumbled backwards as blood coursed down his ruined nose. As the assassin stumbled backward momentarily dazed, Vargev seized his chance plunging his knife deep into Lathiel’s stomach.

  The assassin gasped; spluttering out a gobbet of blood across Vargev’s face just as the Russian charged, propelling the assassin straight through the broken glass panels, and sending the disguised Krenaran hurtling to the now almost completely empty marble floor far below, slamming into it with a sickeningly wet crunch.