"You have?" Kalette asked, clearly surprised.
"You have to understand that even though the ConFed claims to be an umbrella under which we all fall, they more or less allow independent systems to govern themselves, including fighting with each other, so long as it's contained and they continue to pay their taxes," Jason said. "We had a front row seat to much of the underhanded dealings between individual planets while Omega Force was still operational."
"Everyone speaks of this Omega Force as if it was something great," she said carefully. "Why is it no longer something you do?"
"It's complicated," Jason said.
"Most things are," Kalette said, a challenge in her voice.
"This more so than most," Jason said, turning to look out at the green waves crashing against the shore. Kalette leaned forward to climb out of the chair, intent on leaving him with his thoughts, when he spoke again and stopped her. "Omega Force was always something that was balanced on a razor's edge. There had to be trust, desire, and dedication ... if any of those faltered it was doomed to fail, and failure in that business is usually a gruesome death on some godforsaken world nobody cares about."
"Which of those three things was the first to fail?" she asked, sliding back into her seat.
"It's a long story," Jason shrugged, surprised he was talking about this with a complete stranger. He wouldn't even talk to Lucky about it no matter how many times the battlesynth tried to broach the subject.
"It would appear we have some time to spare," she said, her eyes boring into his. Months and months of pent up frustration and heartache suddenly became too much for Jason to hold in anymore. He exhaled loudly as he sat down in the chair across from her, collecting his thoughts.
"Well, it all went to shit like this ..."
30 months prior ...
"We're coming up on the drop off," Jason said. "How are we looking?"
"I've got the confirmation signal from our contact," Kage reported. "Let's go ahead and make one more orbit before our final approach and it will give them time to settle into position."
"Copy," Jason said and pushed the throttle up. He angled the Phoenix over and slid back into a lazy, circular course above the city that wouldn't attract much attention. The settlement was perched up on the top of a mountain and landing spots were at a premium for the myriad of ships that were coming and going. As such, there seemed to be a permanent halo of circling spacecraft and even some aircraft.
The city was important for a few reasons, one of which was that it had been the seat of power for all of the planet's many, many governments. The other was that the supermax prison, De'Moltia, was inside the mountain the city was perched on. An ancient house of horrors carved into the heart of the rock that held some of the most feared criminals from around the sector as well as more than a few political dissidents. It was the latter that was the reason the Phoenix was slowly circling.
"We've just received a coded signal from the contact," Doc said. "We're clear to proceed."
"Turning in now," Jason said, eager to get this mission over with. There were aspects of the mission that he had never been happy about, but he had allowed himself to be overruled by his crew and Crisstof's assurances. He struggled to keep his composure and not come in so hot that it would attract attention.
"Looks like we departed the orbit at a good spot," Kage said. "I see our contact's shuttle now. I'm highlighting it on your tactical display." Jason looked as a red, pulsing ring was imposed over a small cargo shuttle that was settling down on a landing pad which belonged to a logistics business that serviced the city.
"I've got it," Jason said. "Lucky, get down to the cargo bay and get ready. I'm not dropping the landing gear, so as soon as the ramp hits the dirt you're clear to get our package."
"Yes, Captain," Lucky said and strode quickly off the bridge.
"They just touched down," Kage said, watching his monitors. "Shit! They just tossed something out and they're taking off!"
"Stand by!" Jason barked, yanking the nose up and bringing them in on a steep, fast glidepath down to the surface. "Kage, drop the ramp and track that ship."
"Ramp down," Kage said. "Lucky jumped out." They all watched on the monitors as the battlesynth sprinted across the tarmac at incredible speed, checked the large lump that had been bundled in a tarp, and sprinted back to the ship after tossing it over his shoulder. Jason's anxiety was building by the second. He knew for certain that something had just gone horribly wrong.
"Captain," Lucky's voice came over the intercom. "The package is dead and Crusher is nowhere in sight."
"Fuck! I knew it!" Jason roared. "Close us back up! Get me a vector for that ship!"
"Ramp is back up," Kage said. "Tracking arrows coming to you." An instant later two arrows appeared, hovering in Jason's field of view thanks to his ocular implants, and told him which way the small shuttle had escaped. He slammed down the throttle and sent the Phoenix rocketing over the city, drawing the attention of every law enforcement craft in the area.
"They've gone over the edge," Doc said. "Tracking them as they fly down the southern face of the mountain."
"All the better," Jason said, concentrating as he shoved the nose of the gunship over and dropped them off the edge of the city and down the mountain. "Those traffic enforcement skimmers won't follow us."
"It looks like our package has been dead for some time," Lucky said as he walked back onto the bridge. "His body temperature was below outside ambient."
"So he was killed and put on ice until they tossed him out of that shuttle," Jason said, yanking the Phoenix over into a sharp bank to close on the shuttle at an inside angle.
"And no Crusher," Twingo said. "I have a bad feeling this was a message for someone."
"You and me both, bud," Jason said, pushing up his speed a bit as they leveled out into the flats of the desert that surrounded the oddly solitary mountain. "Do you think it's safe to bring that shuttle down?"
"I highly doubt that Crusher is on there, Captain," Doc said.
"I agree," Twingo said. "They likely thought we would be held up inspecting the body at the pickup and wouldn't notice them escaping."
"I think we arrived a bit earlier than they thought as well," Kage said. "Take 'em down, Captain."
"Knock down it is," Jason said. He pushed the throttle up and lined up behind the fleeing shuttle. The pitiful little craft had no chance of outrunning the powerful gunship, and soon it was bouncing around in the air as the Phoenix drew in so close she was disrupting the airflow over the aft stabilizers. "Kage, you're up," he said, squeezing the trigger and holding it for a three-count to let the computer know the copilot's station was authorized access to fire control.
"Watch this, Doc," Kage said as he deployed the Phoenix's point-defense turrets. "Like a surgeon." He fired a single, low-power salvo that he'd assumed would degrade the port, aft repulsors enough that it would force them down in a controlled landing. But Jason had been much too close and the sudden loss of lift, coupled with the Phoenix compressing the air between them, sent the small ship into an uncontrollable tumble. They watched it fall from the low altitude and bounce across the desert floor in an impressive eruption of dust and parts.
"Damnit, Kage!" Jason snapped as he yanked the stick back into his lap and shoved the throttle up. The Phoenix shot up off the deck in a vertical "yo-yo" maneuver with Jason chopping the power at the apex and rolling them around, braking hard so they didn't overfly the crash site.
"I'm pretty sure that wasn't my fault," Kage said as he scanned the debris field. "Look! It had an ejectable crew capsule." Jason looked and saw the forward section of the shuttle had broken away and was sitting on a set of spindly looking landing struts, the retrorockets underneath still belching out smoke and steam.
"I'm putting us down just on the other side of where the fuselage hit. We'll use it for cover," Jason said as he extended the landing gear and raised the nose, flaring just before landing. "Lucky, grab me a couple of guns and meet m
e at the ramp." Once he felt the bump of the wheels touching the hard-packed dirt and the ship's weight settling he popped off his restraints and raced off the bridge without bothering to tell everyone else what he wanted. They knew what to do without him by this point.
"The ejected capsule is just over one hundred meters behind us," Jason said as he accepted his railgun and a plasma sidearm from Lucky. "Our only priority right now is getting Crusher back. Everything else is now a secondary concern."
"Understood, Captain," Lucky said, switching to combat mode as Jason walked over to open the pressure doors and drop the ramp.
"Let's go," he said, jogging down into the dry, cool air of the desert evening and skirting around the edge of the main wreckage. He was shocked to see signs of life as they approached the capsule. One of the pilots had managed to pop the canopy open and was trying to climb out of his seat. Jason lined up on the open canopy and fired a single, low-velocity round from his railgun into it. It only put a small hole in the composite material, but the crack from the round hitting froze the pilot where he was, his eyes wide and fearful.
"Don't even think about moving," Jason said as he approached within ten meters. "Is your partner dead?"
"I ... I believe so," the pilot said. "Why would you do this? We're just delivery pilots."
"Shut up," Jason snapped. "Lucky, check the other one. I don't want a faker shooting me in the back while I question this one. So you're claiming you're just an innocent delivery pilot?"
"I am just an innocent delivery pilot!" the alien claimed shrilly.
"So the loosely wrapped corpse you tossed out earlier is normal for your company?" Jason asked casually. "And the unorthodox high-speed escape you performed afterward?" The alien flinched, dropping his hands slightly.
"This one is indeed dead, Captain," Lucky reported.
"This one is about to be," Jason said, stuffing the muzzle of his sidearm up under the alien's chin. "Talk. We don't have much time before we have to run, so you'll either be here telling this to the authorities later or they'll be scraping your plasma-cooked brains off your canopy."
"I don't know who the contractor was," the pilot said, seeming to deflate and resign himself to his fate. "It was a cash transaction and we were simply told where to be and when."
"Was there any other cargo?" Jason pressed. "Specifically a Galvetic warrior? Or another tarp that was four times as large as the one you tossed out?"
"No. I'd have remembered something like that," the pilot said. "One of the trio that loaded our shuttle was talking on a com unit about 'moving the other one' before we were given our destination coordinates. I'm not sure what that meant. Listen ... I'm in bad shape here. You're going to kill me anyway, could you make it quick?"
"That's the spirit," Jason nodded. "I like realists, even pessimistic ones. But sorry, champ ... you get to sit here and suffer until someone bothers to come see what happened out here. I owe you that much. Let's go, Lucky."
"The pilot will almost certainly die of his injuries before the authorities can arrive," Lucky said as they climbed back up the ramp.
"Not my problem," Jason said. "What is my problem is that I've got a missing crewmate and no leads."
****
"While I sympathize with your situation, Captain Burke, there's not much I can do," Crisstof said, his hands spread wide.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Jason demanded. "Of course there is. Talk to your contact in De'Moltia, the one who arranged for the prison break."
"Unfortunately that contact is no longer viable," Crisstof said. "With the unsuccessful conclusion of your mission she has ceased responding to messages."
"Don't put this back on us!" Jason said hotly, almost in a manic state. "This was a setup from the beginning. That body was dumped as a message to either you or her. Crusher was convinced to go into that hellhole to extract the package and he never came out. I need to know if he's still there or if they moved him as the delivery pilot seemed to think."
"I still don't understand what you would have me do," Crisstof said.
"Go through official channels," Jason said. "You must have contacts on this world. Talk to them."
"And admit that I hired mercenaries to break a prisoner out of their maximum security detention facility?" Crisstof asked incredulously. "Do you really think they'd be inclined to cooperate after that?"
"You and I both know there are ways you could probe around without asking directly," Jason said, struggling to control his temper. It had been six hours since the Phoenix had landed back aboard the Defiant and he was no closer to locating Crusher than he had been when he downed the fleeing shuttle.
"Jason, De'Moltia isn't exclusively owned by the government of Faulli," Crisstof said, referring to the planet they were orbiting. "Not only that, we're right in the middle of a delicate negotiation. While that might not mean much to you—"
"Try nothing."
"—certain considerations have to be taken so as not to destroy years of work, both mine and many others. I'm not at all making light of the fact that Crusher is missing, but you can't expect me to upend the whole project over it." Jason's look plainly said he did, in fact, expect just that.
"I hope you don't expect me not to try and get the information myself," Jason said, crossing his arms. It was mostly an idle threat since he had no idea where to even begin.
"I most certainly do," Crisstof said, raising his voice. "Captain Burke, I hire you as a subcontractor because of your ability, and willingness, to assume risks that my organization cannot. I expect you to honor that arrangement." Jason just stared at the older man for a moment before standing up and walking to the door of the conference room. "We all have responsibilities and obligations," Crisstof said to his back.
"I only have one responsibility right now," Jason said before walking out. He heard footsteps behind him and knew who it was.
"I hope you can understand the position he's in, Jason," Kellea Colleren said, standing just behind him. "It's not that he doesn't care about the fact that Crusher is missing."
"That's the difference between him and me," Jason said with a forced indifference. "To him, everybody is expendable to accomplish his goals."
"If I could I would have Mazer take his Marines and storm the gates of De'Moltia," she said. "But—"
"I know," Jason said bitterly. "We all have responsibilities. We'll talk about it later. I know you have to get back to the bridge and I have to talk to my crew and figure out what we're going to do."
"Please don't do anything rash, Jason," she begged. "We don't know if he's still down there or if he's even still alive."
"We won't make any moves until I've had a chance to talk to you again," Jason promised. "But we can't just sit in your hangar bay forever no matter what we decide."
"I'll see you this evening?"
"This evening," Jason said with a nod before continuing on his way. The Phoenix was once again out of sync with the Defiant since Jason ran his ship on a twenty-five hour day and Kellea operated with a thirty-two hour day, so her "evening" would be early morning for him. Years of being in space had conditioned him to adjust quickly to sudden time changes since they couldn't always predict when they'd reach whatever planet or space station they were going to.
He'd been both surprised and disappointed that Kellea hadn't spoken up on his behalf in their initial debrief with Crisstof. It was expected that the old man would put whatever business he had with Faulli over the lives of a bunch of grubby mercenaries no matter how much he professed to care about them personally. Jason had walked into the debrief thinking he held two aces: Crusher's status on his homeworld as near-royalty, and Kellea's habit of siding with him to convince Crisstof to agree to his demands. He walked out worse off than when he went in since now he'd been expressly forbidden to take direct action. If they did it anyway (which they would) he would not be able to innocently claim he wasn't aware he'd caused any problems.
****
"How'd it go?" Kage as
ked as Jason walked up onto the main deck of the Phoenix and closed the hatch behind him.
"Not well," he admitted. "Crisstof is stonewalling me, I'm certain of it, but the main thrust of it was he won't help and he doesn't want us taking action on our own."
"I find that somewhat surprising given the fact the Guardian Archon of Galvetor has just gone missing on a mission he had convinced him to take part in," Doc said with a frown. "There could be some serious ramifications from that."
"Maybe a lot more immediate than if Galvetor finds out," Twingo said. "Could you imagine what the company of Marines aboard this ship would do if they found out Crisstof left Crusher out to dry?"
"We could—" Kage began.
"Absolutely not," Jason said firmly. "I will tell Mazer when the time is right, if ever, but I don't need them tearing the Defiant apart and getting a bunch of people killed. It wouldn't help anyway. We need information more than anything else."
"Given what I have to work with I'm stuck," Kage said. "De'Moltia is on an isolated network and I'm not able to gain access from here."
"What do you need?" Jason asked.
"A hard line into the prison's administrative mainframe would be fantastic," Kage said. "But barring that I could use the access codes to the Faullian governmental network. From there I could bore into the reports coming out of De'Moltia."
"Who has those codes?" Twingo asked.
"Captain Colleren does," Kage said. "The Defiant has had a constant, high-bandwidth connection to the surface since she made orbit. The codes were provided to her by the Faullian representative that's onboard. Normally I would just slice into the Defiant's systems and ride their connection down, but that would leave too much evidence that I was there."
"She won't give them to me," Jason said.
Omega Force 7: Redemption Page 3
