Camallay: An Infinite Worlds Novel (Marik's Marauders)

by Joel Babbitt

  The four grav-sleds all began to lift off. “You will follow us and advise on the behavior and resources of Josh Langdon,” the paradroid said.

  “Yes, sir!” Ryker said, putting his hands back on the steering wheel and flooring it again as the four grav-sleds flew north.

  Not more than a minute later Ryker and Rianna felt more than saw a flight of cloaked anti-grav vehicles heading north. ‘That would be the solkin assassins,’ Ryker thought to himself.

  * * *

  Captain Shannon Washington was no damsel in distress. The Colonel had hired her for her staff and operations skills, but she had been a combatives instructor for years before that, first joining Marik’s Marauders when Marik’s agent had offered her a commission after seeing her win the title of top belt for her militia unit in Prexlar’s all-comers competition. She didn’t need a weapon; she was a weapon.

  Titus Brutian was a formidable foe, however; full of genmods and even nano-enhancements by the silvery look in his eyes. Somehow he had survived the quadcopter crash without a scratch, but really he had most likely been wounded in the crash and had auto-healing nano-enhancements to take care of the damage. That wouldn’t be easy to deal with.

  He also had the slightly bulky, large-boned look of a person with skeletal enhancements. That would take most of the punch out of sonics… and so far had made her combatives expertise mostly ineffective. It wasn’t shaping up to be a good day for her or, for that matter, for Specialist Krrrz.

  “Commander Brutian,” Shannon called out from behind their smashed survey truck, holding the gash in her forearm where Titus Brutian’s stiletto had punched through her nano-weave jumpsuit, leaving her arm stunned and temporarily useless. “It doesn’t have to go like this. You can leave right now. I won’t stop you,” she said. She wished she still had her blaster pistol, but her Mk-12 was lying in shattered pieces where she had fought Brutian and been forced to retreat. Taking her linker off her belt, she placed it on the ground near the front of the truck.

  “You mean you can’t stop me,” Brutian said, his voice had a hard, cruel edge.

  “Let Specialist Krrrz go, Commander Brutian,” Shannon called out, the slightest hint of desperation in her voice as she tried to dislodge the side door. “We’ve done nothing to you,” she lied. She pulled with all her strength, but couldn’t dislodge the door with only one arm. The entire frame of the vehicle had been knocked off-kilter by the massive boulder Brutian had rolled down the hillside, smashing the back half of the armored truck.

  “Aha, see, now that’s where you’re wrong,” Brutian retorted, pressing the stiletto a little harder against the thin, articulated bands of carapace around Bug’s neck, causing the kiz’zit to struggle against Brutian’s vice-like hold. “Your imposter tried to kill me on that quadcopter, and now your team is tracking me. Now that I see that you’re from Marik’s Corp, it makes a lot more sense. You’re all sore losers; Stellar Corp has our trade contracts, and there’s no room for you,” he mocked her. “Now get out here so I can cuff both of you or I’ll stick this nano-blade through your companion’s head.”

  Captain Washington could see that talking wasn’t working, so she kept quiet as she made her way around the vehicle toward the backdoor where she could see that one of the doors was wide open. Reaching in, she found just what she was hoping for. Pulling out the folding stock of the T-1, she tried to quietly shimmy the blaster rifle out from under the other jumbled equipment and down her bad arm to where she could get a good grip on it, grimacing with the pain of trying to keep her movements silent.

  “Well?” Brutian called out. “What’s it gonna be? Is it skewered ant, or are you coming out peacefully?”

  “Titus, you don’t actually think I believe you’ll leave us alive, do you?” she sub-vocalized into her situence glasses, her linker at the front of the truck amplifying and clarifying the words as she powered on the blaster rifle and leaned slowly out to see if Brutian was watching her or her linker. It was the linker.

  Lifting the rifle slowly, Shannon leaned out with the rifle raised. Brutian saw the motion out of the corner of his eye, however, and spun around, holding Bug like a shield. A bolt of searing light shot through the air where Brutian’s head had just been.

  “You’re too smart,” Brutian’s cruel voice took on a final edge. With a quick thrust he slammed the stiletto up into Specialist Krrrz’s brain, moving it around in the mass of brains and nerves in the kiz’zit’s head. Pulling his knife out, he let Bug’s twitching body drop to the ground as he dashed toward the front of the truck, dodging one more shot from Captain Washington as he went. Grabbing the passenger door of the truck, he laid both hands on the window frame and pulled it off its hinges. Throwing it to one side, he got up into the gunner’s hatch and powered up the heavy sonic gun.

  While Brutian was doing that, however, Shannon had grabbed a go-pack and began running around the ridgeline. Behind her the heavy sonic gun finished powering up. Then, just as she jumped behind a large boulder, Brutian fired the heavy gun, its hollow, throaty roar ripping up the dirt where her feet had just been, throwing gravel and earth in all directions.

  “One…” Shannon counted as she got to her feet.

  “Two, three…” she muttered as she ran in a straight line toward the next outcropping of rock. “Four, five!” she cried out as she dove for cover.

  The explosion of sonic power that hit the boulder she was behind pushed the mud-lodged rock several inches toward her wide-eyed face.

  “One…” Shannon counted as she got to her feet again.

  “Two, three, four, five!” she cried as she fell flat to the ground. Above her head a wave of sonic energy sheared small branches from the tree she had fallen prone next to.

  “One…” Shannon counted as she got to her feet yet again.

  “Two, three, four,” and then she was around the corner of the ridgeline and running for all she was worth down the slope of the mountain and toward the eastern steppes far below.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  The Solkin Overlords were merciless in their pursuit of what they considered justice. Most of Titus Brutian’s henchmen were clearly recognizable, since their three-pics had been readily available on the local grid before the EMP blasts had taken it down and, unbeknownst to Brutian and those same henchmen, the solkin’s various human agents had carefully catalogued the various leadership positions and those who occupied them. So it had been easy to gather up a few of Titus Brutian’s key henchmen to confirm that, indeed, Principay Colony had purchased the EMP bombs… and a number of other contraband technologies as well.

  As the Paradroid Suppressors flew from house to house on their grav-sleds, incinerator blasts were quickly followed by screams of agony and terror, then the wailing of new widows. As the Suppressors reported back to one of the three solkin ground commanders in their powered armor, High Justicar Tor Chu-Ral watched in satisfaction as Principay’s regime target set quickly dwindled. Within thirty minutes of his arrival, fully seventy-two percent of Principay’s key leaders and their immediate staff officers had been terminated, their carcasses heaped about like so much dung, or their ashes blowing away in the slight morning wind. He smiled at the efficiency of it all. He might even conclude this nasty business by lunch…

  ‘Eminence,’ one of his ground commanders interrupted his reverie with his projected thoughts.

  Looking down at the man in disdain, he read his thoughts. And what he read left him unsettled, for apparently both Titus Brutian and Josh Langdon had fled north. Satellite sensors had shown that Langdon had reached some sort of bunker eight-point-two kilometers north, and that Brutian was clearly headed there as well.

  Tor Chu-Ral stared at his subordinate in disdain, the power of his anger washing over his subordinate. The message was clear; apprehend them, kill Brutian, and bring Langdon for interrogation.

  ‘Eminence,’ the commander’s discomfort coming through his empathic communication as he revealed what he had been reluctant to reveal.<
br />
  ‘Brutian destroyed a team of four of our Paradroid Suppressors.’ Tor Chu-Ral’s eyebrows raised as he looked at the solkin commander in disbelief. ‘Well, certainly you must be mistaken.’

  ‘No, eminence,’ the commander shook his head.

  ‘Then go and deal with him yourself.’

  * * *

  Sergeant Thompson’s dark mood and stormy features matched the blast marks and roaring flames that covered the destroyed survey truck he and his team had found up in the high mountain valley. Captain Washington and Specialist Krrrz had left just after them, but when he heard the distress call... he came as quickly as he could, yet it was too late.

  Standing stock still with his arms crossed in front of the blaze, he barely noticed as Specialist Ya-da-na’s three bodies carefully carried Specialist Krrrz’s limp form past him toward the back of their truck where they had laid out a body bag. The normally vivacious trillo seemed quiet, restrained, solemn. There was indeed a marked change in the mood of the entire team.

  Shaking his head in indignation, Sergeant Thompson pulled his Mk-12 from the holster, reflexively checking the power level and ensuring the overcharge indicator was lit, a setting normally reserved for shooting at armored droids and small vehicles; when he finally found Titus Brutian he wanted to make sure there was no chance of the evil dictator surviving.

  “Bossman,” Jack Wolf’s voice broke into his dark thoughts. “By the bloodspill under the Bug’s head, I say Brutian be gone no more than a few ticks ago, probably only ten or fifteen minutes.”

  Sergeant Thompson looked back at where Triplets was just finishing putting Bug’s body into the back of their truck. “Let’s go,” he growled.

  “Yes, bossman,” Wolf said, dropping the rock he was analyzing.

  Within moments Thompson was in the driver’s seat and Wolfman was watching intently for any sign of their quarry as they pulled out. Up on the pulse laser one of Triplet’s aspects sat on the body of the gun looking through the sights, while the other two both held one of its two handles, their unused eyes wandering about the terrain absently. The trillo only needed one of its pairs of eyes on the sights, while the other two aspects worked in perfect partnership to keep the gun steady and aimed wherever the trillo’s collective intelligence designated.

  “Sergeant Thompson,” Colonel Alexander’s voice sounded gravelly over the linker with the morning air at his altitude. “Turn on your transponder, please. The solkin have charged me with finding Titus Brutian and Josh Langdon. No need to hide from them; you’re working their mission now.”

  Thompson looked sideways at Wolfman, the curiosity in his eyes replacing some of the anger. “Where you at, sir?” Thompson’s deep voice rumbled back.

  At that moment a quadcopter buzzed by the truck, streaking out ahead of them in a gentle arc toward the far side of the mountains. Looking up and out the transparent plasteel windshield, Sergeant Thompson just shook his head.

  “I got you, sir.”

  “Good, now, tell me, why am I only seeing Captain Washington’s vital signs on my situence glasses? Where’s Bug?” Alexander asked.

  “Brutian scrambled his brains with a knife, sir,” Thompson said with a deep scowl.

  “Uh-huh,” Alexander replied after a few moments. “Very well. I guess that’s one more reason, as if we needed any more.”

  “Yes, sir,” Thompson replied as the quadcopter dove down the eastern slope toward the steppes.

  “It looks like Brutian didn’t pursue Captain Washington,” Colonel Alexander continued. “I’ve got a visual on her.”

  Within a few minutes Captain Washington had been transported back to Sergeant Thompson’s truck and was sitting on a rock next to the truck as Sergeant Thompson used his somewhat-rusty first-aid skills on the puncture wound through her arm, spraying plastiflesh on the wound to seal it up and sterilize it until a real doctor could look at it.

  Colonel Alexander was waiting impatiently, listening to Washington’s description of Brutian’s nano-enhancements, genmods, and skeletal enhancements with less concern than the other three.

  “Sir, we’re going to have to be careful. Brutian’s more monster than man,” Shannon said as she stood up and flexed her hand. It worked well enough, though two of the fingers didn’t extend fully. That could wait for a real doctor. For now, she had to get back to the hunt.

  “Brutian has all the fun-stuff,” Alexander said, straight-faced, “but this isn’t my first rodeo; I know how to handle targets that don’t play fair.”

  “Sir,” Thompson’s deep voice rumbled. “What about Far Point Colony?”

  “I think the Solkin Overlord’s arrival has ended that mission. I’m pretty certain the solkin have Far Point in lockdown. Besides, Principay’s management team is disappearing as fast as the Solkin Suppressors can find them, so I doubt we’re going to need to worry about the old regime at all—once we take down Titus Brutian and Josh Langdon that is.”

  Shannon grabbed her go-pack and blaster rifle as Colonel Alexander spoke, walking over to the quadcopter to take a seat behind him as he finished.

  “Ready, sir,” Shannon said as she sat down.

  “Right, hold on,” he said as he pulled back on the verticals and the quadcopter leapt into the air. Within moments Colonel Alexander and Captain Washington were headed north toward Brutian’s secret bunker while Sergeant Thompson, Jack Wolf, and Specialist Ya-da-na followed behind in the armored survey truck.

  * * *

  Now that Rianna had recovered enough to sit up front in the mining cart, her brother Jim Ryker couldn’t help but fidget. He had been waiting for answers—for months!—and waiting was something he did very poorly.

  “Ree,” Ryker began in that tone.

  “Jim, don’t ask,” Rianna cut him off, sister-intuition telling her exactly where he was about to go.

  Ryker huffed. “Come now, Ree, you can’t just stonewall me like that.”

  “I just did, Jim,” Rianna said, her hand held up weakly to fend off further questions, until a quick turn in the gravel trail caused her to hold on with both hands.

  “What possessed you to steal that money from Marik?” Ryker pressed. “Temporary insanity? Momentary greed? You’re not living a lavish lifestyle… so what gives?!”

  “I told you, Jim, I don’t want to talk about it,” Rianna continued to stonewall.

  “Is that why you hit that bank back in Timmok City?” Ryker continued. “Uncle Marik’s money wasn’t enough? You had to go after Stellar Corp’s assets as well?” He was probing, the bank she’d hit was more a records hub than an asset repository, and Stellar Corp’s main records were stored there.

  The way Rianna looked at Jim, he knew he’d hit the spot. After a moment of staring at him, Rianna looked away. “And what if I did?”

  Ryker’s mind was spinning. He knew his sister wasn’t a serial thief. In fact he truly doubted that she had actually cleared out her division’s bank account either—it just wasn’t characteristic of her. That had led him to a desperate theory…

  “You didn’t actually take that money, did you, Ree?” He’d struck truth a moment ago, and so he kept digging. “Ree, what are you doing here on Camallay?”

  Rianna had clearly been caught off guard. “What…? How…? Who…?” she stammered. “Oooo, Jim! You can’t know that!”

  Jim just smiled. “Uncle Marik sent you, didn’t he? Good cover story, that’s for sure. Have Stellar Corp think you’re a disaffected insider, gain their trust, then… whack! Expose their secrets to the Solkin Overlords and they’re done on this planet!”

  “Jim! You can’t know that!” Rianna’s voice was becoming insistent, not shocked.

  “So, you must be the reason the fuses were already set on the EMP bombs in the caribou drones,” Ryker said, his exuberance at having discovered the truth removing all indiscretion.

  “Jim!! You can’t know that!” Rianna’s voice was now a command. “If the solkin find out I was actually working for Marik, it will be
Marik Corp that gets kicked off planet, not Stellar!”

  Ryker didn’t even take notice, however. He was too busy gloating that, yet one more time, he had discovered his sister’s secret plans. It almost seemed like he was regressing to the same obnoxious teenager that had once tormented a much younger version of herself. “In fact, I bet you ‘robbed’ that bank back in Timmok Province just to get at the details of Stellar’s accounts, so you could line things up to ensure Stellar took the fall when these EMPs went off.”

  “Jim, stop the cart,” Rianna said, her insistence put away for the moment, knowing it would only egg him on. “Jim, I feel sick. Please stop the cart.”

  Despite his general sense of hubris and superiority at the moment, Ryker didn’t want vomit randomly sloshing about, so he stopped. Putting the vehicle in park and turning to look at this sister, he was surprised to see her holding up a highly illegal deep memory-wiping device.

  “Rianna, what are…” was all he got out before the light came on and he was transfixed. Not more than a couple of minutes later a dazed Jim Ryker was sitting beside the road wondering where he was and how he’d gotten there. In fact, he was showing all the signs of an emergency deep memory-wipe.

  As the mining cart disappeared over the gravel trail he was sitting beside, he couldn’t help but think that the woman driving it had very pretty long, black hair—just like his sister’s.

  * * *

  Josh Langdon had not been idle. He’d seen the arrival of the Solkin Overlords’ ships both at Principay and in the direction of Far Point far to the north. He hadn’t thought the solkin would even notice the EMP blasts, but he couldn’t be sure that Colonel Alexander and his people hadn’t tipped them off to the event, so when Jim Ryker had mentioned it… he’d run. No one could accuse Josh Langdon of not looking out for the most important person in his life—himself!

  The disaster at Principay had been a huge setback for him personally, and certainly for his employer. Stellar Corp was a cut-throat culture. The revenue loss from the Principay disaster would certainly result in his dismissal, even though it hadn’t been his fault.