Reason For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 1)

by Adrian D. Roberts

  People pushed and shoved to get away from the continuing whine of the Pulse Cannons. Over the noise of the crowd, William could clearly hear them firing in time with one another. People fought and clawed to get away and only due to his youth, height and strength did William manage to keep his feet, dragging the much smaller Guido along with him.

  Others around them fell and were swept under to be trampled. William’s foot trod on something soft and he there was no time to react, the crowd forcing him past in moments. A child of ten went down with a scream, only metres from William. The boy’s father, who minutes before had been walking with the boys, plunged after his son and William never saw either of them emerge. A woman clutched at William’s free hand frantically, he had no idea who she was but grasped for her all the same. It didn’t help. She too was pulled under and crushed.

  Still the force of the crowd increased to what could only be described as a tsunami. Desperation infused William’s entire being. He believed this was to be his very last day in the universe. William saw men, women, girls and boys all falling to the ground and trampled underfoot.

  A sharp pain caused William to cry out as something hit his arm and Guido was torn from his grip. Desperately, William turned to search for his friend. He fought those who pushed against him. “Guido. Guido.” He called, hoping to hear Guido call back with the familiar. “Will. Will.” It didn’t happen and the crowd forced him further and further away.

  ***

  The words Red Lion, flashed on a gaudy sign over a heavy metal door, set into an alcove of a grey permacrete building. The long window next to it was dirty and dim, but you could still make out the dark shapes of people at the bar. It was doing a fair trade and yet the sun was still high in the sky.

  A broad shouldered, tall man in his sixties, wearing a dark brown overcoat so familiar here in the Ghetto of Zeus, walked out and the door swung shut behind him. He placed a wide brimmed hat on his bald head and stepped into the street. Wheelies passed him on the busy road, an odd aircar set in hover mode looking out of place among them.

  Turning to the left, the man set off at a casual stroll. His eyes scanned his surroundings constantly. There were good people here, but many desperate ones as well. It paid to stay alert. From the dark alcove of an abandoned shop a woman and man sauntered out. The woman was in her late forties and nodded to the man with the hat as she fell in beside him. The man with her was much younger, in his late teens and almost bubbled with excitement.

  “Mr Baccurin.” He said. “It’s an honour-“ he was stopped from saying anything more as the woman clipped him round the ear. “Hey!” he complained.

  “Shut up, Todd,” she told him as he rubbed his ear. “You don’t say his name in the middle of the street.”

  “It’s alright, Arlene.” Billy Bac, the man in the hat, said. “Have all the cameras been taken care of?” One of her responsibilities, as Intelligence Officer within this Cell of the Rebellion, was to ensure the various security cameras set up by the Zeus police in the Ghetto were destroyed. The local street kids did this for fun. No one wanted to be spied on, but Arlene’s role was to make sure none were missed.

  “We’re clear and we’ve made sure their two informants are busy elsewhere today.”

  “Well then, there are many Baccurin’s. It is a big galaxy after all, no harm done. He’s still young.” Billy turned his gaze to the young man and said in sterner tone. “Just remember not to do it again. Such carelessness can cost lives, including your mother’s.”

  “Yes, sir,” Todd said. “Sorry, Mum. I’ll be more careful.”

  Arlene nodded and smiled at her son. “Isaac.” She said using Billy’s pseudonym for this trip. “We’re exposed here. The cameras may be down, but the drones are up there. All it takes is the right angle past that hat, for them to get a look at your face. Can we please go to the flat?”

  The tall man looked down at her for a moment and sighed. “Very well. I can hardly chastise your son and put us at risk myself, can I?” He waved ahead of him. “Please. Show me the way.”

  “Thank you.” She acknowledged and picked up the pace. Moving ahead of him, she led the three of them down the street.

  Arlene took them to one of the many permacrete, forty storey buildings populating the Ghetto of Zeus. There was little to differentiate them from all the other city Ghetto’s Billy had visited across the Pantheon.

  Unusually, the lifts were working and the crowded car deposited them on the twenty-third floor. The door Arlene headed to was identical to all the others, plain, drab and looking like it would fall over in a stiff breeze.

  The woman tapped on the door lightly twice, paused then tapped three more times a bit harder. The door swung open and she stepped inside, followed by Billy and Todd. Billy found himself in an entrance way made of strong permacrete walls, with a much heavier metal door leading further in. Obviously new, it had all been installed by the Cell. A man armed with a Mag pistol held causally at his side, leaned against one of the walls and presumably it was him who let them in.

  Behind Billy, Todd closed the door to the corridor and only then did the inner door open. A camera overhead let those inside know if it was safe to do so. A good security measure, it would save the Cell a few precious minutes in the event of a police raid, though it would do them little good unless they had a very well hidden back door. Apathy for the threat they posed and staying hidden, was the best defence for the Rebellion. Should the Pantheon forces actually move against the Cell, they would come with everything they had at their disposal.

  “You’re a fool for coming, Billy, but it is good to see you.” A large dark skinned man strode forward and clasped Billy’s hand in a forceful grip.

  “Everyone seems to worry about me.” Billy said as he returned the handshake with equal strength. “I may be old but I’m not senile. Last I heard, I’ve been doing this longer than any of you, Bastian.”

  “True man, but here? On Olympus? The Legion’s biggest base is only a few dozen klicks away. You know what they would do to you if they managed to get their hands on you. Why are you here? Checking up on us?”

  “Not at all.” Billy spied a chair next to a table and lowered himself into it. “You don’t need me breathing down your necks to do a good job. If you ignore the fact you have the biggest, most powerful and motivated police force in the Pantheon ranged against you, you have it pretty easy here.”

  “That’s because you have us doing supply runs and intelligence gathering!” Todd jumped in. “Why can’t we take the fight to them? Hit them where it hurts.”

  Billy expected Todd’s mother to step in again but Arlene stayed silent. He could see the same question in her eyes, in Bastian’s and the three other Cell members in the room. Billy sighed and shook his head.

  “No. You all do good work here. Important work. What you learn and pass on to other worlds does make a difference. We don’t have the strength to strike at them here, where they are at their strongest. We must bide our time, be patient, wait until they are weak and then attack. The Pantheon is too big and too powerful. We must weaken them first. Other Cells are doing that using the information you are providing.” These people knew this, but sometimes they need to be reminded.

  “They killed my father and my sister!” Todd shouted. “I can’t just sit here on my hands like the rest of you!”

  Sitting back, Billy saw the hurt in Arlene’s eyes and cocked his head in a question. Licking her lips the woman gazed back steadily and nodded once. The pain and grief of her loss, mixed with the worry for her son, clear in her eyes.

  “Very well,” Billy said to Todd. “I can send you to one of the more active Cells, if that is what you want. That cannot be here.”

  Eyes widening in shock, Todd stared at the leader of the Rebellion before turning to his mother. “Can I?”

  She grabbed him into a ferocious hug. “Yes. I know you need to do this.”

  As the mother and son moved off to a corner for some privacy, Bastian sat down
opposite Billy. He looked somewhat embarrassed at the emotions and cleared his throat.

  “So why are you here then? Obviously not to instruct us to switch to the offensive.”

  “No.” Billy said and turned to look out of the rooms single window. Another identical building was the only thing visible. In his mind he saw past that to the gleaming and shining towers of the Privileged, stretching up high into the clouds.

  “It’s important for me to come here. To see that nothing has changed in over forty years of struggle. I’m old and I’m tired, but this is what keeps me going.”

  Billy’s mind turned back to the protest. He had never seen his best friend again. Even Guido’s body wasn’t recovered. The government decided, in the interests of efficiency to get the Speedway operational again, the thousands upon thousands of people who died that day would be interred in a mass grave in Sywell Park. Within thirty hours, all of the bodies were collected, a hole was dug and all were buried. The people of the Ghetto were still in shock. It was completed well before any of them realised what was happening. The only sign of the grave, a mound of freshly dug earth. The government did not even raise a monument to those who died.

  It was one of the many things making Billy believe it had all been orchestrated from the start. He learned later, the sound he heard before the police opened fire, originated from a Heavy Mag rifle. No one used Heavy Mag rifles in the Pantheon, not the Legion, the police, the gangs or later even the Rebellion. A Mag rifle’s two main advantages were its rapid fire and low noise. The Heavy Mag rifle cancelled both of these out. Slower to fire and by accelerating the shot to twice the speed of sound, it created a sonic boom, that could be heard clearly anywhere along its flight path. There were other weapons with a greater range and made a lot less noise.

  Billy searched long and hard for that lone shooter, but never found them. He believed the Privileged used that day as an opportunity to rid themselves of all those most likely to challenge their reign. In one mass of humanity, they would have almost every worthwhile activist on the planet, along with others from across the Pantheon. The official story the government released, said the police were only reacting in self-defence to being fired upon by the protesters.

  That day caused the nineteen year old William Baccurin to write his manifesto, the Free People Society. It was the start of the Rebellion and put him on the path to becoming Billy Bacc.

  He turned back to Bastion. “Don’t worry about me. There are plans in place should anything happen. Good men and women are ready to take over and continue the fight. We face people who live for centuries and we must plan accordingly. I knew early on I would not be here to see the end.”

  “Is that the plan then?” One of the Cell members who had stood quietly to one side stepped forward. “We keep scratching at them. Hoping to wear them out?”

  Looking up at the young woman, Billy shrugged. “What else can we do? They have the technology and personnel to crush us the moment we stick our heads out of our holes.”

  “What about the Legion? Only the officers are Privileged. All the rest are recruited from us. They’re not traitors of their own people like the police. They don’t beat and murder us!”

  Pausing before speaking, Billy considered just how much he could say without damaging some of the Rebellion’s current operations. It wouldn’t do any harm to let them know there was a plan. Besides, the other side would know what the Rebellion were attempting, it was the obvious strategy. More importantly, these people needed hope.

  “We have people doing just that, but it is a massive organisation and it will take a lot to get enough on board to make a difference.”

  The woman nodded in acknowledgement and Billy continued. “Don’t hate those men and women who have joined the police.” He spoke directly to the woman while knowing the rest were listening. “They are little different from us. All they wanted was a better life for themselves and their families. Unless we work for the gangs, we cannot hope to earn what the police and Legion are offering. Yes they hurt us, their own people, and so do the Legion. Do not forget, it is only rare they are called in here on Olympus. On other worlds, the Legion is just as much hated as the police, for exactly the same reasons.

  “If you think, when it finally comes down to it, there will not be Manual blood spilled by us, then you are fooling yourself. Like those who have turned their backs on us, we will be killing to better our lives. We will fight them as we must, but do not hate them.”

  “When then?” the woman demanded. “When will we be actually able to make a difference and bring down the Privileged?”

  “I don’t know.” Billy shook his head. “We need a catalyst, something or someone to bring the Legion together and lead them in revolt. Without that, all we can do is keep chipping away at their powerbase.”

  CHAPTER ONE

  The door hissed open on the Legion Space Station Furioso, in orbit around Olympus’s primary moon, and Major Valerie Carter came through into the briefing room. One hundred and seventy centimetres tall with a slim build, dark hair cut to her shoulder and pale skin emphasised by the black uniform she wore. She walked with a clear purposeful stride. To ninety-nine percent of the human population she would look like a very attractive woman in her late twenties, though she was actually one hundred and eight years old.

  “Shadow Company! Attention!” Sergeant Major Bickerstaff commanded and the one hundred and twenty-eight soldiers, Officers, Non-Coms and Privates all came smoothly to their feet.

  “At ease, Company.” Valerie said with a smile.

  She walked over to the screen at the front of the room, along with the two other officers who followed her in, and the Company seated themselves. Valerie indicated the two officers to her troops.

  “This is Major Wilson and Colonel Lieberman. They’ll be giving us the brief on our latest assignment. The short version is we have a target in the middle of a jungle, one hundred and fifty to two hundred hostiles by current intelligence. They have a semi-fortified position, but mostly rely upon staying hidden from the locals as their main protection. They have basic skills and have shown some effectiveness against those locals in the field, with quite a high kill ratio.

  “Our mission is to go in, clear them out and be off planet before the locals know we are there. This is a straight sanitisation.” She saw the Colonel and Major stir out of the corner of her eye but continued. “You all know the drill. These guys have gotten too big for the locals to handle and the Foreign Office has asked us to sort it out. Removing any high tech equipment they may have obtained in the process.”

  Valerie turned to the two officers. “Colonel Lieberman, the floor is yours.”

  “Thank you, Major.” The Colonel replied, with emphasis on her rank. “Shadow Company, you will be leaving tomorrow morning. The Large Cargo Freighter, Eric Blair is already loaded with a Forward Operating Base Module. You will take the Legion Navy Heavy Cruiser, PLN Wishart to Concordia and meet the Blair out at Benson Station, where she will be taking on heavy ores. This will give you the cover to board the FOB Module using your Helos, without being seen and without the knowledge of the crew.

  “It will be a fifty-six day round trip to your destination. The Module is fully equipped for the Company’s thirty-seven day stay.” There were no groans or comments at the news they would all be shut up in such a small environment, but the soldiers of Shadow Company were still human. Valerie knew each and every one of them and she could feel them stir at this news. They’d done it before for even longer periods and they would do it again. It didn’t mean they had to like it though.

  Valerie could see the Colonel was slightly surprised. Neither Lieberman nor Major Wilson had briefed Shadow Company before. They were Legion Intelligence and this was their Operation, they saw the need for it, proposed it and written it. They would have worked with other Special Ops groups or they wouldn’t be here, no matter how powerful their backing.

  Shadow Company were the very elite, the best soldiers the Panthe
on had at its disposal. The Legion, the military arm of the Pantheon, was split into various distinct services. The biggest were the Navy, Army and Commandos.

  The Legion Navy ran the ships, from the massive state of the art battleships, to the tiny courier vessels zipping between systems and acting as the lifeline of interstellar communication. The Legion Army with its big regiments was the hammer on the ground for peace keeping, disaster recovery and occupation. It was also the iron fist keeping the Manuals in check.

  The Commandos were the scalpel; they trained soldiers to a higher level to be specialists. Either Marine’s stationed on Navy ships for boarding actions, or Rangers working with the Army to hit covert targets behind enemy lines. Within the Commandos there was another level; made up of the best of both Marines and Rangers. These were the Devils and within that close knit community of special action teams, Shadow Company sat at the very pinnacle.

  The job was not really that high a priority, but even the sharpest sword needed to be kept honed and this is what this op was. It was still necessary and if Shadow Company wasn’t available another team would be sent. For them it would be a mission. For Shadow Company it was a training exercise. Her soldiers knew this and Valerie was confident it would not make any difference. They would approach this operation as they would their most dangerous, because they were true professionals.

  Valerie and Shadow Company did the most important thing possible in any bureaucracy. They were successful, every time, without fail. Valerie was very aware this could be fleeting and she worked hard to keep Shadow Company’s edge. All it would take would be one failure and in forty-two years that had never happened. Valerie was determined to keep it that way.