Omega Force: Legends Never Die (OF10)

by Joshua Dalzelle

"Sir?"

  "Just some business, my young friend," Scleesz said, speaking up. "It's nothing to be concerned about."

  "How's it goin', Lucky." Jason found the battlesynth standing in the cargo bay by itself and figured he'd try one more time to get through to it. "I guess I owe you an apology. I haven't been very helpful while you've been going through something that has to be traumatic as hell." He hopped up on a stack of crates that the battlesynth had been standing near. The hold was jammed full of crap at the moment and Jason couldn't remember when they'd taken on so much cargo. At least it was all secured down with netting and locked to the deck.

  "It's been tough on me—nothing like what you're going through, I assure you—and I guess the reason I haven't been as open towards you is I'm scared you might not really be in there. For humans, hope can be a cruel and soul-crushing thing. It pushes us to accomplish great feats, but when hope isn't realized the fall can be more demoralizing than anything. When you grabbed that bomb on Khepri and told your brothers to drag me out of there… Losing you was one of the hardest things I've gone through. I hadn't gotten over it, but I'd accepted it.

  "Then I come home and find out that those two idiots found your brain still intact in what used to be your original body and that they were going to try and put you in a new one. No matter what Tauless or Alocur told me about tempering expectations, I let myself hope again. I guess some part of me thought you'd hop up off that table, give some straight-laced remark about everyone crying, and we'd just go back to the way things were."

  The battlesynth was now staring at him intently, even leaning in a bit now, studying him. Jason could see its eyes roving around his face as he talked.

  "Crusher wasn't much better. We'd all been through so much together and, honestly, I figured the order we'd die in would be me, Crusher, and then you. There's some wiggle room there because it's possible that Crusher and I would kill each other and it would be a tie. But I always alleviated my own guilt at your staying by my side with the fact that I'm very mortal and you aren't. Once I kicked off, you'd be free to find your own way again." He looked up and saw that he still had the machine's rapt attention.

  "Look, buddy… we're heading into a hot one. We'll be taking on a ConFed strike team and not the pansies from Intel Section, a real group of hitters this time. I don't know if all of you is in there, pounding against the wall screaming to be heard, or maybe if it's just a part that carries some memories of your past life. Either way, I could use your help. I have no right to ever ask anything of you again. If you pull through and decide that you want me to fly you to Terranovus to be with your lot mates, I'll do so immediately. But maybe we all pull together for one final mission as a team."

  Jason paused, feeling grubby and ashamed that at the end of spilling his heart out about his lost friend he had tried to cajole the battlesynth into fighting for them. He had no idea why he’d said it, it just came out. Maybe he'd run out of things to say or maybe he was more afraid of the coming operation than he let on, but he certainly wasn't proud of his actions.

  "I've gotta get ready," he said, patting the battlesynth on the shoulder roughly like he used to do. "I'll catch you later."

  "Later… Jason."

  Jason wheeled and stared at the battlesynth, eyes wide, but it had already turned away and was inspecting the lock-downs on the next pile of cargo crates. Had he imagined it? He tried to recapture its attention, but the moment had passed. With a weary sigh Jason trudged off to the armory to begin prepping his gear. They had nine hours before they were in the Thalia system, and he hadn't even given much thought as to how he wanted to run the mission. If he didn't push the distraction of Lucky out of his mind, he'd end up getting himself and his friends killed.

  Chapter 22

  "What the hell is that?"

  "It's prototype armor that Alocur's people made for me while they were bored during Lucky's reintegration," Jason said. "Supposed to be the latest and greatest in Kheprian research."

  "So we're calling him Lucky again? Wait, don't change the subject," Crusher said. "If it's such sophisticated armor, why does it look like a shitty pressure suit with some stuff attached to it? What are those bands? Actuators?"

  "It's not powered," Jason said. "It looks like a shitty pressure suit because that's what it once was. What part of 'prototype' isn't sinking in? They needed something substantial that also already fit me. This is the suit I normally wear on EVA, they've just modified it."

  "That explains the smell. So… what's it do?"

  "I'll let that be a surprise," Jason said. "For both of us. It'll either protect me from energy and kinetic weapons better than my older bulky powered suits, or I'll die when the first shot hits me."

  "That'll be interesting to watch either way." Crusher yawned.

  "Agreed," Jason said as he shrugged into the outer layer.

  The Phoenix was in normal space and about halfway through the system to Thalia Prime and they were both starting to get the pre-op jitters, so the gallows humor the others found so disgusting was in full swing. He looked over as Kage prepped his own gear, the Veran unable to hide his anxiety behind jokes and bluster like they did. Jason needed to engage him without being coddling or condescending. In truth, Kage's growth in his absence was as impressive as it was unexpected.

  "How about you, Kage? Any special toys you're bringing to the party?" he asked.

  "I've got more of those little drone-bombs, a few wide-area munitions, and Twingo and I modified this light plasma rifle with a narrow focus so I'll be able to burn through armor without lugging a heavy around," Kage said.

  "Plasma guns are supposed to be wide-area weapons," Crusher said. "Why not take one of the captain's railguns if you want something light and precise?"

  "I've never used one," Kage said. "I'd rather not start experimenting during a live op."

  "Sensible," Crusher agreed. "Do we know anything new about the objective?"

  "I've tracked his movements on the planet via immigration records," Kage said. "He's now a permanent resident of Thalia Prime and still living under the Venda Seh alias. We know that he immigrated here with three other beings, ostensibly his family, but there aren't any records of their names."

  "That's odd," Jason said.

  "One of the quirks of this planet's bureaucracy," Kage said. "Only family heads are counted when a group arrives together and plans to cohabitate."

  "The house location still concerns me," Jason said. "There's no way to get in touch with Venda to try and have him relocate to someplace less populated?"

  "There is, but I still recommend against it," Kage said. "This is someone who has been on the run under an assumed identity for years. If we come bumbling in and start asking him to expose himself we'll likely just send him to ground. I'd imagine this guy has more than a few escape routes already planned."

  Jason knew everything they were rehashing, but it helped cement it in everyone's mind—especially Crusher's—and it kept Kage focused on the parts of the mission that he was comfortable with and off the fact that he'd been forced into an operational role by necessity. Maybe after this mission, assuming they survived, Jason would look at bringing someone else on to fill the void left by Lucky. Since the decision appeared to be unanimous that they wanted to continue with Omega Force for the time being, he'd have no choice but to fill the large gap in their roster.

  "We're coming up on our orbital insertion," Doc said over the shipwide. "Landing control has us fifty-eighth so it'll be another five hours or so before we deorbit."

  "I'm taking a nap if this is going to take so long," Crusher said, stretching out on the bench in front of his wall locker.

  "Not a bad idea," Jason agreed. "I think I'll grab something else to eat first, though. This has all the earmarks of being a long one."

  The three of them went their separate ways to spend the last few hours before such a dangerous op how they wished. Jason wanted to spend the time getting his mind right and completely focused on the mission. H
e'd been so distracted by the situation with the battlesynth aboard that he was afraid he was approaching this half-cocked and that all the things he could have overlooked would get him and his friends killed.

  "You know the drill, Doc," Jason said into the com. "Put her out in a holding pattern away from the city and tell Ground Control that you're doing a maintenance flight."

  "Copy… we'll be waiting for your signal."

  The Phoenix roared back into the sky after dropping Jason, Crusher, and Kage off near an industrial district. They'd dipped and slowed, using the transit beam to get them and their gear to the ground before the authorities had a chance to ask why a ship was attempting to land in an unauthorized area. They hit the ground hard as it had been just a little over the maximum altitude the beam would work at.

  As planned, they'd inserted at night at a time that the biological workforce in the area would be at a minimum. There were still aliens milling about, largely ignoring them since commercial delivery vehicles used a similar type of transit beam, but it was a reduced workforce mostly there to babysit the factories' automated systems.

  "You like that one?" Kage asked, indicating a generic-looking wheeled vehicle parked near a loading dock.

  "Yeah… it looks like it won't be missed anytime soon," Jason said. "Go ahead and get started and we'll keep watch."

  "I like that we're starting this mission by stealing someone's vehicle," Crusher said enthusiastically.

  "I’m not above a little petty thievery to keep in practice." Jason shrugged. "This is less risky than trying to pay for one anonymously near a spaceport or renting one. I'm not sure the ConFed team will know that they're in a race with us or not, but no point in taking unnecessary risks."

  The commercial vehicle was one of the ubiquitous electric-drive, wheeled types that were on every planet, even those that were wealthy enough to utilize repulsor aircars. This particular one had a large cargo box attached to the frame behind the six-passenger cab. Kage bypassed its security lockouts with ease and within minutes was in the driver's seat and rolling towards Jason and Crusher.

  "You called for a pickup?"

  "Good job," Crusher said, tossing his gear into the rear cab and climbing in after it. "Let's roll."

  The drive from the northern industrial district to the residential area Venda Seh's home was located in would take four hours since they were limited by the vehicle’s speed and needed to stick to the indirect surface roads. Jason had swapped seats and was driving so that Kage could access the local nexus and begin gathering intel on their target as they went. From what he had been able to find, Venda had been very careful about leaving a minimal footprint on Thalia.

  Jason was worried they'd be spotted or that Venda would spook and disappear on them. He'd hidden from the ConFed this long, so it was plausible that he had escape plans in place that would quickly take him out of their sight and beyond their ability to find him again. The one hope he had was that the family they were assuming existed would slow him down enough for them to approach and convince him that they weren't a threat and to trust them. Given the amount of ConFed firepower converging on their position, Jason would have no choice but to go for a quick extraction and get Venda to safety where he could be more thoroughly debriefed.

  "Captain, we have a ConFed warship entering the system," Doc said over the open channel. "The chatter from the ships in orbit is that it's an older battleship named the Solas. There's some talk of a system-wide quarantine being set up, but so far there's only the one battlewagon and her two escort ships."

  "Keep me posted," Jason said. "Any word on our strike team?"

  "Negative. They'll likely be inserting with one of Intel Section's civilian ships."

  "Thanks for the heads-up," Jason said.

  "How far out are we?" Crusher asked through a yawn.

  "Less than an hour to go," Jason said. "We'll make it there just as the sun is coming up. This is less than optimal assuming that there will be an increase in civilian traffic around that time."

  The rest of the trip passed in silence right until Jason rolled the now-conspicuous vehicle down into the narrow streets of the community Venda Seh lived in. Just as Kage identified the multi-family dwelling, a sleek aircar swooped down and they watched as eight black-clad beings dove from the open doors and began taking up position around the residence.

  "Damnit! Hold on!" Jason mashed the accelerator and aimed the lumbering truck right for the aircar that was still hovering just half a meter off the ground.

  "What are you doing?!" Crusher yelled.

  "Denying the enemy." Jason grinned. The aircar had not only brought the team here but was obviously going to be their method of exfiltration once they grabbed Venda. The pilot was too focused on the building and looked up too late as the truck closed in enough to set off a proximity alert. Before they could climb or dodge out of the way, the heavy truck slammed into the tail section, crumpling the drive and powerplant and sending the failing aircar skidding across the ground where it hit two members of the strike team that were slower than their comrades.

  "Neat," Crusher grunted and kicked the door so hard it flew out of the frame and landed fifteen meters away. Before the rest of the ConFed team could figure out if the impact was an attack or an accident, the big warrior opened up with two massive plasma rifles. He had to sacrifice accuracy for speed as he was trying to keep any of them from returning fire while Jason and Kage took up position, but he still managed to take out two more. "Four more left!"

  Jason rolled out of the driver's seat and ran full tilt to the wreckage of the aircar while Crusher laid down cover fire. He quickly drew a bead on two targets that were helpfully standing in a line relative to his position. When he caressed the trigger the railgun's hypersonic round nearly tore both operators in half. The two remaining members of the doomed strike team turned to run, intent on getting around the side of the building to use it as cover. Switching to low-velocity mode, Jason abandoned his own cover and gave chase so that they wouldn't have the time to stop and set up an ambush.

  While Crusher followed after him, Kage ran up to the multi-family dwelling and began working on the security system for the outer door. Jason rounded the corner of the building, his speed surprising the enemy operatives, and took down one more with a quick burst as they were in the process of planting an anti-personnel mine on the exterior wall. The last remaining member of the team was stunned to the point of inaction, giving Jason the opportunity to close the distance and slam a boot into its chest.

  "I really did expect much more from a ConFed strike team… your reputation isn't all that well-deserved, apparently," Jason said.

  "ConFed strike team?" The being on the ground laughed and spit bright purple blood out onto the ground. "We're not ConFed, you moron… we're private contractors here to extract the family before the ConFed gets here."

  Jason looked at Crusher with a slightly sick expression. "Oops," he said.

  "You killed my whole team before even asking who we were? What sort of—"

  An explosion near the front of the building cut off whatever it was saying. Jason wheeled and looked up as pieces of the truck they'd arrived in began raining down onto the neighboring buildings.

  "Damn," Jason muttered.

  "The element of surprise can be a fickle mistress," Crusher said sagely while stepping out of the way of the bigger chunks. "Just think if you hadn't killed all these guys… they could have helped us out."

  Jason looked at his friend and debated shooting him in the foot, but now they would really need all the help they could get. In the distance he could see two assault shuttles coming down towards them, obviously the ConFed troops they were expecting.

  "So… no hard feelings?" Jason asked the alien still sprawled on the ground. It took one look at Crusher and then seemed to shrug, wobbling its head side to side.

  "It's not like they were my friends," it said. "But I think I'll go ahead and make a discreet exit seeing as how you're about to try a
nd fight off an entire strike team with two people."

  As it turned out, it wasn't a ConFed strike team that the shuttles were bringing in. It was two. Both craft stopped a few hundred meters away and began disgorging troops, twenty in total. Jason lined up on the lead craft, switched over to max-velocity on his weapon, and fired three shots. At least two shots hit the shuttle on the nose and it seemed to turn inside out as the hypersonic penetrators tore through the alloy. The small ship exploded, breaking windows and sending some of the slower troops tumbling like ragdolls. The second shuttle pilot was no dummy and yanked his ship over and around a building before Jason could line up another shot.

  "We're in," Kage said. "For all the damn good it'll do."

  "Let's move," Jason said. "Rig the entryway and then let's get to the Seh family."

  "Another last stand," Crusher complained as he began pulling out explosives to prepare a nice surprise for the first breaching team.

  "That's six ships total, the Solas and five heavy cruisers," Twingo said. "Eight if you count the Solas's support ships."

  "So much for the ConFed opting for a discreet interdiction," Doc muttered. "This much Fleet muscle over this backwater planet is going to get people talking."

  "I don't think they care anymore," Twingo argued. "The nexus feeds are clogged with news about the attack on the Eshquarians. This would barely make a blip on the sensors right now."

  "Oh, no," Doc said. "Look up the specs we have in the database for the Solas."

  It took Twingo a moment to figure out the interface at the copilot station, eventually being able to pull up the ship's name from the database Omega Force maintained on known capital ships.

  "So the Solas is not really a battleship, they've just classified her as such because of size and the fact she's the only remaining vessel in a class that was retired from service over seventy years ago," Twingo read from the entry. "The ship is actually a heavy bombardment cruiser meant to… oh, that's not good."