Vengeance (The Kurgan War Book 4)

by Richard Turner

  “Even with a multi-billion credit computer system to keep this place running day and night, you still need someone to interpret what the cameras are seeing. Ten to one, there aren’t enough of them trained to sort through the information coming from the hundreds of cameras placed all over this station.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “When have I been wrong?”

  Sheridan chortled. He was about to rattle off a list when the door to the airlock chamber opened. The room was a mess. Equipment and survival suits littered the floor.

  “What a pigsty,” remarked Cole. “Someone’s not doing their job.”

  After fifteen minutes of digging through the pile of suits, they were able to find two that were serviceable. The problem was that there was only one maneuver unit and it was only one-third filled with nitrogen gas to help them move around in the weightless environment of space.

  “How long do you figure it’ll take us to get to the top of the station, Captain?” Cole asked.

  “With this older model unit it should take us just over four minutes from here to the airlock on the arboretum.”

  “There should be plenty of fuel in the tank for us to get there safely.”

  “That’s not the problem. I’m not sure how we get inside the arboretum without setting off any alarms.”

  Cole held up a master door key. “We’ll use this.”

  Sheridan couldn’t believe their luck. “Where the hell did you find that?”

  “It was on the floor next to the maneuver unit.”

  “I wonder if they’re monitoring all of the airlocks?

  “I would if I were them. If help comes from the outside, they’re going to have to come in via an airlock.”

  Sheridan tapped the watch on his wrist. “Well, let’s hope they work under our suits and help us gain entry unnoticed or this will be for naught.”

  “Amen to that. Come on, let’s get changed, and don’t even think about putting the maneuver unit on your back. I’m older than you and have way more experience at spacewalking than you do. We’ll tether ourselves together, and I’ll pull you along with me.”

  Sheridan brought his hands up in front of him in surrender. “I’d never dream of it. I’m okay with just coming along for the ride. Just make sure you slow down so we don’t go flying past the airlock and keep going into outer space.”

  “Okay, Captain, standby for the best spacewalk of your life. Trust me, you’ll tell your grandkids about this one.”

  “Of that, I have no doubt.”

  “Get dressed, Mister.”

  Sheridan slid a leg inside his survival before looking over at Cole. “What about the station’s defensive gun batteries, do you think they’ll be operational?”

  Cole shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out.”

  “I’m sure this will be one trip I’ll never forget.”

  Chapter 24

  Admiral Oshiro sat staring at the images on the screens inside his operations center. Built three floors below ground, the ops room was expected to keep running even in the event of a targeted attack on the headquarters compound. On one screen was an APC being consumed in flames after being hit in the side by an anti-tank missile. On another were pictures of confused street fighting as Marines, soldiers, and police officers tried to discern who was an enemy operative and who was an innocent civilian caught between the two factions.

  A side door opened. Admiral Parker strode in with a troubled look on his face. He looked over at the duty officer, a Marine lieutenant colonel, and said, “Status report?”

  “Sir, all of the Chosen insurgent assaults on the headquarters have been repulsed,” replied the Marine officer. “The security force under Colonel Bianchi is currently engaged in mopping up operations in the buildings to the west and north of us.”

  On a screen, thermal feed from a UAV showed a combat walker firing a sustained burst of armor piercing rounds into a truck that had tried to run a checkpoint at a nearby installation. The truck disintegrated in less than three seconds. There was no doubt the occupants had died under the torrent of lead.

  “Casualties?” asked Oshiro.

  “Admiral, the reports are still coming in. We won’t have an accurate total until the fighting dies down.”

  “I understand that, Lieutenant Colonel Jacobs. What has been reported to you so far?”

  Jacobs picked up his tablet and scrolled down until he found his casualty tracker. “Sir, we have sixteen dead, thirty-one wounded, and three missing. Most of our casualties occurred during the first wave of Chosen suicide bombers. I don’t have figures for the police or civilians killed in the fighting. Those probably will not be released for a day or two and only after the fire and rescue services have had a chance to sift through the rubble of the homes destroyed during the battle.”

  “Have the other headquarters reported on what is happening in their vicinity?” asked Parker.

  Jacobs brought up a map of the globe on the main screen. On it was all of the ADF Headquarters and major military installations. Almost all of them were tagged with a red circle indicating an emergency event was occurring. “Gentlemen, as seen on the screen, fighting is still ongoing at facilities all over the world. Thankfully, none of the attacks has succeeded in penetrating inside any of our bases. All of the t assaults have been repulsed with significant casualties reported to the Chosen rebels.”

  Oshiro hoped that the reports weren’t overblown and that the Chosen insurgency on Earth had been dealt a blow they would never recover from.

  A female lieutenant stood up from behind her computer and said, “Sir, General Sadir and President Martinez are on the line.”

  “Put them on the main screen,” ordered Parker.

  A second later, Matinez and Sadir appeared on the large monitor. Oshiro could see in their eyes the stress the men were under. “Good evening, Mister President and General Sadir. I am pleased to see that you are both safe.”

  “Same goes for you, Admiral,” said Martinez. The president was a man in his late fifties with wavy white hair. He was fit with a weathered face from his life before politics as a successful eco-businessman. “As the clock is already ticking, Admiral, I’ll get straight to the point. I take it you’ve been briefed up on the current situation on Tranquility Station?”

  “Yes, sir, I have.” Oshiro always liked Martinez’s direct style. It was refreshing to hear a politician speak that way.

  “General Sadir and I have been discussing the situation and have decided to ignore the attacks here on Earth. They have all been contained and will soon be crushed. We both feel that the ongoing crisis on Tranquility is our highest priority.”

  “I agree, sir.”

  “As I have no intention of giving into Kurgan blackmail, I need to know, can your people launch an attack on the station and seize it before they carry out their threat to kill all two hundred and fifty thousand people up there?”

  Oshiro glanced over at a clock and saw that they had thirty-four minutes until Solari expected a response from President Matinez. “Sir, I doubt we could mount an assault in the time remaining. If you could buy me another hour, there is a company of Marines on board the carrier Leviathan. It was due to join the Second Fleet three days from now. They could be dispatched over to the station and make their way inside. The problem is that without any actionable intelligence, we have no idea how many enemy insurgents there could be waiting for our force when it arrives.”

  “There’s no time to worry about such things. Give the order, Admiral. I’ll speak with Lieutenant Solari or whatever her Kurgan name is and buy you that time.”

  Oshiro looked at Sadir. “General, what about the station’s self-defense grid? Can you do something about it? If not, I can’t guarantee how many men will step foot inside Tranquility.”

  Sadir nodded. “My staff have already thought of that. Dorset Station in Canada belongs to the Home Guard and in the event of an emergency it is the backup control center for the spaceport. I’ve given orde
rs for a detachment of soldiers to be dispatched to the base immediately to guard it against any possible enemy attack. Home Guard Command will contact the station’s ops center right away and order them to disable the station’s guns just before your Marines begin their assault. It should be smooth sailing all the way in, Admiral.”

  “Sounds good, General.” Oshiro knew that Sadir was speaking confidently for the president. There was no such thing as smooth sailing when the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians were on the line.

  “Well, that about wraps it up for now,” said Martinez. “I’ve got a press conference in ten minutes’ time. The press and my political opponents are going to rip me a new one over these attacks. I guess that’s why the Kurgs did them. You gotta give them credit. Why fight when you can influence an election and put in power the person you want to end the war on their terms. Time to face the music. Good luck and God bless, Admiral.”

  The screen went blank.

  Parker jumped to his feet and walked over to the communications officer. “Get me the captain of the Leviathan.”

  Oshiro brought his hands up and rested them on the table. He studied the image of the spaceport and tried to visualize how his opponents would defend it from attack. He knew precious little about the Chosen force. How many of them were there? How were they armed? Where were they located on the station? Unfortunately, the first Marine through the airlock would be the one to answer these troubling questions.

  Chapter 25

  Sheridan felt the nervous tension that always accompanied a spacewalk spread throughout his body. Apart from training, he had only ever done this once before. He took the tether line from Cole and snapped it securely into place on his belt. His breathing became deeper and faster as they prepared to exit the station. The unsettling memory of finding bodies floating in a destroyed ship a year ago filled his mind. He closed his eyes for a moment to calm himself down.

  “Okay, let’s step into the airlock chamber,” said Cole into his helmet mic.

  Sheridan nodded and followed him into the room.

  Cole took his key, inserted it into the manual door release latch and turned it. The door leading back the loading bay slid closed. “Depressurizing the airlock,” announced Cole as he pressed a button on the wall.

  Sheridan could hear the air being sucked out of the chamber. He looked down and double-checked that the line between him and Cole was secure. The last thing he wanted was for the line to break and for him to float off into space.

  “Turing the artificial gravity off,” Cole said just before he turned the key farther to the left, opening the outer door.

  Sheridan watched as his comrade activated the thrusters on his maneuver unit and floated out into the vacuum of space. A second later, the line went taut and Sheridan found himself being pulled out of the airlock. The line between them was about five meters in length. For a few seconds, Sheridan found himself looking down at Earth. The bright blue waters of the Pacific Ocean calmed him.

  To avoid being detected by the base’s scanners, Cole flew as close as possible to the side of the station.

  Sheridan turned his head and saw that he was getting too close to Cole as they flew upward. He reached over with his right hand and pushed off. Right away, he floated under Cole and stopped when the line went taut. Although there wasn’t a man in the Corps he would trust more with his life, Sheridan wished he had his own maneuver unit so he wouldn’t feel so helpless as he hung beneath his friend.

  The journey took precisely four minutes and seventeen seconds to arrive at the airlock leading into the arboretum. To Sheridan, it had felt like a lifetime.

  Cole had slowed down their ascent to avoid having Sheridan whip past him as he came to a stop at the entrance. He snapped himself to a latch on the door, pivoted around, and grabbed hold of his friend.

  “Thanks,” mouthed Sheridan, happy to be at their destination.

  Cole nodded, turned about, inserted the universal key into the manual lock, and opened the outer door. Both men hurried to get inside. As fast as they could, they pressurized the airlock before opening the inner door.

  Sheridan drew his pistol from a pouch on his belt and held it at the ready as the door slid open. He steeled himself in case there were any insurgents waiting to ambush them. With Cole at his side, he moved out into the enormous greenhouse. There wasn’t a soul to be seen. Both men dashed for the cover of the trees before quickly unsnapped and removing their helmets.

  “Do you think they caught us on the surveillance cameras?” Sheridan asked.

  “Hard to say, but the door opening and closing won’t have gone unnoticed,” said Cole. “We’d best get ready for company.”

  Harry Williams looked over the shoulder of one of his men as he played back the feed from a camera over the top of the arboretum airlock. He watched in silence studying the way the two intruders moved. His instincts told him who the men were. He smiled to himself. His plan was working perfectly. He placed a hand on the computer operator and leaned forward until his lips were close to the woman’s ear.

  “Keep a sharp eye out for our two uninvited guests,” said Williams. “For now, tell no one what just happened. Understood?”

  The woman nodded. She typed in a command on her keyboard and turned off the feed from the cameras in the greenhouse to all of the computers in the ops center but hers.

  Williams patted her on the shoulder and stepped back to look around the room. Most of the people were far too busy with their own stations to notice the loss of the image coming from the greenhouse on the main screen. He glanced down at his watch and saw that there were less than five minutes to go before the ADF had to respond to Solari’s demands. For the first time in months, he felt fear gripping his stomach, tying it in knots. He wiped his sweating palms down the sides of his trousers and took a deep breath to slow his rapidly beating heart.

  From out of a side office walked Solari with a determined look on her face. She strode out into the middle of the room and placed her hands on her hips. She looked at the woman at the communication console and said, “Open a channel to ADF Headquarters.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” replied the Hispanic woman.

  Williams couldn’t take the tension anymore. He slipped a hand into a trouser pocket and pulled out a crimson armband which he slipped on his right arm. His actions had been watched by several men and women spread throughout he room. They hurried to place their armbands on as well.

  “Miss Solari, hold your call,” said Williams.

  “Why?” snapped Solari with an angry look in her eyes.

  “This is why,” he replied, drawing his pistol from its holster.

  Solari opened her mouth to ask what was going on just as Williams pulled the trigger killing her. He didn’t wait for her body to hit the floor before turning his weapon on the stunned woman sitting behind the comms console. All around the room Williams’ conspirators opened fire, slaughtering anyone without a crimson armband on. Caught unaware, more than two dozen Chosen operatives were killed before any of them could fire back.

  In seconds it was over. The guns fell silent. The only sound came from the moans of several badly wounded people. One by one, they too were dispatched.

  Williams looked around the ops center. “Well done,” he said to the eight men and women still standing.

  A man near the back of the room bent down and put a headset on. He smiled and announced, “Sir, all of our people have reported in. The message is the same—Solari’s people have all been eliminated. We now have control of the station.”

  Williams nodded. On the decks below them, his agents had mercilessly cut down anyone not part of his tight inner circle of insurgents. Less than a minute ago, there had been ninety-three Chosen operatives on the three floors, now there were twenty-one. Handpicked by Willaims, they were as fanatical as he was. He knew down below at Dorset Station, the same thing was happening. The thought of killing fellow Chosen warriors had been repugnant to him, but his path to victory lay al
ong a different one than Solari and her people.

  “Okay, let’s get this show on the road,” said Williams. “Let’s add a bit of mayhem. Stop jamming all of the internal and external communication channels. Let’s allow the people trapped below us to call home.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Now, put me on all the speakers throughout the station and then get ADF HQ on the screen.”

  A man pulled the Hispanic woman’s dead body away from the terminal, wiped away the blood with his sleeve and sat down. He quickly established a link. The image of Colonel Macdonald appeared on the screen.

  “Good evening, Colonel,” said Williams in greeting.

  “Where is Miss Solari?” asked the Colonel.

  “She’s dead. I now speak on behalf of the Kurgan Empire.”

  “And who might you be?”

  Williams tutted. “Please, Colonel, I’ve turned off my security jamming device. I know you’re having my face and eyes scanned as we speak. If it will speed things up, my name is Harry Williams. Your records will indicate that I am KIA. However, as you can see, I’m back from the dead.”

  “Very good, Mister Williams, how can I help you?”

  “My comrades and I want all of the people you are holding as prisoners at the Utopia Isolation Center on Mars released and sent without delay to the Kurgan side of the disputed zone. I also want your word that the federation president has, or will shortly begin, ceasefire talks with the Kurgan Empire. Lastly, I want a jump-capable ship to dock with the station at the VIP airlock three floors below the ops center in precisely three hours’ time. Don’t rig it to explode or try placing a tracking device on it. My people will inspect the ship from stem to stern, and to ensure your compliance, I intend to take several hostages with me. If you act honorably, they will be released unharmed just before we cross over into Kurgan space.”

  “If we meet all of your demands, will you give me your word that you will release the remainder of the people on the station alive?”