by Jan Domagala
Kurt glanced at Zara to see if he could gauge her reaction. He was a little worried that she was becoming addicted to using her newfound abilities, which could compromise the mission should she lose control. She seemed fine; her dark eyes were bright with the adrenalin flowing through her body, which was normal. He’d be worried if that wasn’t the case. As she looked at him she gave a little nod and a worried smile, which comforted him even further. She knew the dangers and the risks involved here but she would be okay.
“We’re set,” he told Jake.
“Good, now I don’t have to tell you two what’s important here, you already know what’s at risk. Just be careful across there. We’ll get to you as soon as we can. We’ll get as close to the ship as we can without being detected and the rest is up to you.”
Kurt and Zara looked at Jake, their expressions neutral. Kurt knew that if he appeared worried then it would affect the others in a bad way. He needed to show confidence, if he was worried with all his abilities then what chance would the others stand? Zara followed his lead, without looking at him she knew what he was thinking and kept her expression the same as his.
“Piece of cake,” Kurt said.
Zara added, “Don’t be too long though, you don’t want us to have all the fun now do you?”
Jake smiled, and then turned away from them to talk to their AI. “Artie, what’s our eta on the Cronus?” he asked.
“We are approaching the extreme range of their sensors now sir,” came the reply.
“We’ll know in the next few seconds if this mission will be a ‘go’ or not,” Jake said, his eyes glued to the forward viewscreen.
They all unknowingly held their breath as they watched the huge starship grow larger as they slowly approached the planet.
The Pulsar was a large craft but even she was dwarfed by the sheer mass of the super destroyer. She was like a butterfly floating past an elephant as the latter gave as much notice to it as it would a blade of grass it trampled on its way through the savannah.
Jake glanced at the ship’s sensors on the monitors below, the forward viewscreen, then back up again. Everything seemed fine so far; no warning lights or alarms had gone off. Maybe they would get past the huge sentinel undetected after all.
The super destroyer seemed to fill the viewscreen the closer they got to it until all they could see was its huge bulk. They couldn’t help but be impressed at its sheer size and they were close enough to pick out details on the hull.
On and on it came, it seemed to have no end in sight as they passed by as slowly as a mouse creeps past a sleeping cat.
“We are in position alongside the Cronus sir,” Artie said and they all expelled their long held breath in a sigh of relief.
“Okay, that’s phase one of the plan, now we move on to phase two,” Jake said.
Kurt and Zara reached for the devices on their wrists to activate them. A blinding white light engulfed them expanding until its brilliance filled the flight deck, then just as suddenly it was gone, imploding in on itself. When the light had gone, so had Kurt and Zara.
III
OMEGA HQ, RH426
Matt felt the change in the ship’s engines and knew they had arrived at their destination. It was something he had always been able to do, detect the change in an engine’s note when a starship completed a jump through hyperspace. He could also tell when it slowed down on approach to a planet or space dock even through all the inertial dampeners that supposedly made for a smoother ride.
He prepared himself for what would come next and sat a little straighter on the bed. Before very long the door to his quarters opened and in the doorway stood two Rover5s both armed with Sig P996s each aimed at his chest.
“Your presence is requested,” Apollo said appearing from the side as the two Rover5s backed out into the corridor to give him room to move.
At least they were treating him with a little more respect now that he’d shown them what he could do. He smiled to himself as he got to his feet and strolled casually into the corridor giving Apollo a wink as the latter moved off ignoring the goad. One Rover5 stepped in front of Matt as the other fell in behind him.
“This way,” Apollo said and they went off leaving his small room behind.
From the size of the corridor he could tell that whatever starship they were on it wasn’t a large one. He guessed it was possibly a shuttle type of craft that was fitted with an FTL Drive.
They walked to the end of the corridor where they reached another door. This opened out on to a small flight deck where Tanya was waiting for him.
There was a command chair, a helm and ops stations which were all manned by what appeared to be Rover5s. Two more stood either side of the door they had just walked through so Matt did a quick calculation and counted seven in total. Apollo casually strolled off to stand over by the side of the flight deck away from anyone yet keeping his opaline eyes firmly planted on Matt. They were really taking him seriously.
Tanya turned from the forward viewscreen to glance his way.
“I suppose you’re wondering where you are,” she said in her usual flat tones.
“A little, but I guessed you’d get round to telling me when you deemed the time was right,” he replied as he glanced around trying to appear as if he didn’t care one way or the other.
She kept her eyes on him waiting to see if he would ask. When he didn’t she said, “Well you’re about to enter the place that all of Col Sec has been looking for since my father first attacked you on Earth.”
Matt involuntarily glanced up at her, unable to disguise his interest. Tanya noticed it and as she returned her gaze to the screen she said, “I thought that would pique your interest.”
Matt regained his composure. He didn’t mind his little slip for he knew he would get what he had set out to achieve, locating the HQ of OMEGA.
Part Two.
Hell Unleashed
9
I
The Hyperion
“Okay people it’s time to get ready. They’ve made their move, pretty soon it’ll be time to make ours,” Guardian said when the news of the recent movement of their quarry reached them.
“Let’s make sure the tracking chip is performing properly,” he said and Hacker checked via his NI. He accessed the ship’s computer and then the sensor logs that had been tuned to detect and read a specific tracking chip.
“It’s running as it should boss,” he said.
Accessing the internal comm. link Guardian contacted the captain of the ship, “Right Captain we need to move now.”
Captain Parks, recently promoted from Commander because of the part he played in the rescue mission on Toldax, sat in the command chair of the old freighter Hyperion. It was an old rust bucket of a ship that had seen many years of service in and around the trade routes. What the eye did not see though was the complete interior refit that had taken the ship’s specs up to top grade standards.
Parks heard the call come through and said, “Copy that Captain,” and then gave the command to his helm officer. “Helm, are we locked on to the tracking chip’s signal?”
“Locked on sir,” replied the officer.
“Okay, make the jump, full stealth mode please. Let’s not announce our presence too soon,” he said.
In the Ready Room, Guardian and the rest of the Red Team made their final preparations. When they arrived at their destination, the hours of waiting would soon be at an end and they would move into action.
II
Col Sec HQ, Nellis Base.
General Sinclair was sitting at his desk in his office. There were various forces in play here as he reviewed the mission status of all his players. The game had two fronts and he felt like a chess master attempting to keep three moves ahead of his opponent with both hands tied behind his back.
He felt the familiar tingle of a call being routed through his NI. He waited for the caller to identify themselves. When the voice came through it was clear and distinct and he recognised it
immediately, Senator Mikal Tovaric.
“Greetings General, I trust you are well?” the Senator said.
“Thank you Senator, I am fine. To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?” Sinclair replied, he knew that the call was encoded and no one would be able to eavesdrop on them. He had activated the ‘Privacy’ circuit governing security on his office the second he knew the call was coming in. An electromagnetic field was erected around his office that would scramble any listening device tuned in to that room. They could talk quite freely because when the circuit was activated the room was also locked to prevent anyone just walking in on him.
“I was just wondering if you had acted upon the information I passed on to you earlier,” Tovaric said.
“I think it best I do not divulge any details to you Senator, that way if questioned later you can deny any knowledge with all honesty. What I can say is that I am grateful for your candour in the matter and I hope, like you, this can all be brought to a successful conclusion where we can all live in peace,” Sinclair said, dodging the question nimbly.
Tovaric said, “General, have you ever considered a career in politics, it’s not too late and it seems you have a natural talent for evading the obvious answer to a simple question.”
“I dislike subterfuge with a passion Senator, I use it because I must but that does not mean I like it. Politicians on the other hand seem to know no better, no offence.”
“None taken,” Tovaric said.
Sinclair went on to say, “You made a bold choice of coming to me with the data you provided and in so doing allowed us the opportunity to prevent something from happening. It was something that could have benefitted your government greatly had they succeeded. The cost to the lives of your men was a price you were unwilling to pay and for that I commend you. I would like to think that if our roles were reversed I would act as you did.”
“I’m certain you would have General. I’ve long known you as a man of honour,” Tovaric said.
“If news of this ever reaches the ears of your government you could be branded a traitor,” Sinclair said stating the obvious.
“I’ve long known I have enemies there General, you have no need to worry on my account sir,” replied the Senator.
“You may have enemies in your own camp Senator but you have a firm friend on this side,” Sinclair said.
“I look forward to working with you in the future,” the Senator said and closed the call.
Sinclair sat back in his chair and replayed the call in his mind. The Senator had put not only his career on the line by contacting him, but his life also. It had been a huge risk but one he obviously thought was worth taking.
There was no doubt in his mind that Tovaric was being sincere. He had long known him to be a moderate and had fought long and hard against the proposals put forward by the late General Solon. The late General was a hawk in every sense of the word. He lobbied on many occasions for the military budget to be increased and when he didn’t get his own way he went around his government’s back and procured the money from MaxCorp. All the financial wrangling he had done behind the scenes had almost brought the Elysium Alliance to its knees. Now it appeared he had been replaced by someone with a similar agenda, which made Tovaric more adamant to bring him down.
When this opportunity presented itself Tovaric had no choice but to act upon it.
What Sinclair had in place was risky by nature but again was something that had to be done. He was hoping though to be able to pull it off with the minimum of bloodshed. Deep down though, he knew that was not going to be possible.
This would be the ultimate test of the Wildfire Team and his two best agents.
III
The Cronus
Kurt and Zara appeared once the brilliant white light had vanished, stepping out with their weapons raised ready to fire.
They were on board the huge super destroyer in a section away from the main populace. They had obtained the plans from Able Rand who had the original ones when they designed the ship. They had picked a storage area to arrive in, one that was close to their eventual destination, the shield generators.
Kurt looked at Zara; her eyes were shining as adrenalin flooded her system. She was enjoying the excitement of what they were doing and the prospect of the action to come.
“Are you ready?” he asked, sub vocalising so no one would pick up their voices.
“As I’ll ever be,” she replied with a half smile.
He sensed some trepidation from her, which he regarded as good. He had had more time to get used to his abilities than she had and he still felt fear when going into action. Her trepidation showed that she felt it too. When neither of them felt fear because they knew they probably could not die, then it would be the time to reconsider their role in Col Sec. With that attitude they would take risks that could involve other people getting hurt or worse, killed. Kurt knew he could not live with the guilt if that happened and he hoped that Zara felt the same.
“Right let’s do this, be careful, we don’t want to alert them until we’ve done our job,” he said.
Zara nodded her head that she understood.
Kurt placed his head against the door to the room they had appeared in for any signs of activity on the other side. His enhanced hearing could pick out a heartbeat from twenty or thirty feet away so if anyone were outside that door he would hear something. When he was certain the coast was clear he motioned for Zara to follow him.
Carefully he opened the door and as it slid into the recess in the wall Kurt stepped out into the corridor beyond, his Remm M25 assault rifle up against his shoulder so he could sight down the barrel on any target that presented itself.
They progressed forward towards their destination, which according to the schematics, was on this deck. Zara guarded their six as Kurt led the way.
He heard someone coming and dragged Zara into a room to their side just as three Alliance soldiers marched down the corridor.
“That was close,” she said once the soldiers had passed them by. Kurt had his ear to the door listening to their footfalls as they walked on.
“What was?” asked a voice behind them.
10
I
OMEGA, HQ, RH426
Matt followed Tanya through the air lock from the ship they had arrived in into the docking area beyond. Apollo followed behind with the other Rover5s bringing up the rear.
The docking bay area was a huge, well-lit underground cavern that was capable of having at least three shuttles berthed there. The floor was incredibly flat and free from any form of debris and was covered in plascrete. At the far end was a shaft that pointed up to the roof several hundred feet above. Tanya started to walk in that direction being trailed by the four Rover5s who had accompanied her as they guarded Matt and Apollo, still lagging behind. They all fell in behind her until they reached the shaft at the far end.
They stepped onto a flat panel and spread out, surrounding Matt who stood behind Tanya, while Apollo stood off to one corner of the panel. The sound of incredibly powerful motors reached them from beneath their feet and the panel they were standing on suddenly began to move up the open-ended shaft taking them up towards the ceiling.
“Impressive,” Matt said as he glanced up the shaft.
“It serves its purpose, nothing more,” she replied in her usual flat tone.
The elevator took them into the roof of the docking area and as they passed through a layer of rock several feet thick their journey ended at another cavern, this time it looked like an operations centre.
“So this is Omega Command,” Matt said as he looked around at all the equipment, monitors and personnel who were present. There were huge monitors placed high on the rock walls depicting operations that were underway in several areas around the galaxy. Beneath each monitor was a team of analysts and people in uniforms who looked to be running the various operations.
Several other groups were working on other projects seemingly oblivious to everything el
se going on around them. The number of people in the command centre must have been close to a hundred and when Matt saw it all he realised the scope of the organisation. Their resources were phenomenal and the message that was delivered to him with the plasma bolt through the brain of the original Tanya Wilde came home to him again. ‘Look at what we can do, look at the lengths we will go to, to obtain what we want.’
The message was meant to intimidate, to give pause and, looking across the chamber before him he knew it had succeeded.
“Why am I here?” he asked.
Tanya turned to face him and said, “To observe.”
“Observe what?” he asked wanting clarification.
“This,” she replied with an expansive gesture that was meant to encompass everything as she stepped off the panel into the huge chamber.
“Why?” he insisted. Just then a firm hand was placed against his back and pushed him hard so that he was propelled forward after her. Matt looked behind him to see Apollo with a smirk of satisfaction on his face.
“I want you to understand that this, all this, is a business. My father had an agenda against your organisation whereas I do not. His agenda was counterproductive to the success of this organisation so a decision was made and he was taken out of the equation.”
“You killed him!” Matt said as he walked up to stand close to her, followed by his ever-present guard. Apollo wandered off once more to stand close to the edge of the room, his arms folded across the expanse of his broad chest as he leant against the wall; his laser-like gaze never strayed far from Matt.
“Yes, he was standing in the way of our progress. Don’t get me wrong, he had some wonderful ideas but he was so fixated on the destruction of Col Sec that he could not think clearly. In the end I did what had to be done, for the continuance of the company.”
Matt pointed to one of the monitors and said, “I want to understand, help me to understand. What’s going on there?”
