Prophet of ConFree (The Prophet of ConFree)

by Marshall S. Thomas

  "Will do, Prophet."

  One of the girls couldn't have been older than about twelve. She lay there in the dark, holding on to the other two like life preservers, her entire body trembling all over – head, torso, arms, legs. The other two were a few years older, whimpering and groaning in pain and terror. I did not want to even imagine what hell the Demons had put them through.

  "What were you doing in the box?" I asked.

  "We – we were hiding from the Demons," one of the girls answered shakily. "They – they…" she couldn't go on.

  "Give her a painkiller," Saka suggested.

  "No time for that. Let Bees do it, we've got to get going," I said. And Bees appeared, shining in her silver armor just like an angel. The teens gaped at her in awe. She was accompanied by Bird, but they couldn't see him.

  "Come with me," she said, soothingly, touching them gently with her armored fingers. They got up slowly, never taking their eyes from her.

  Δ

  "We've got D's," Doggie said, pulling Blackie tightly along. He had Blackie on leash cloaking so Blackie was invisible as long as Doggie held onto the leash. Doggie and Smiley paused on the ramp. It led down to the next level.

  "Where are they?" Smiley asked. The tacmap showed no D's.

  "See that giant pile of junk off to the left – old filing cabinets, safes, looks like discarded machinery? It's a good ambush position. They’re right in there."

  "How do you know?"

  "Blackie is alerting." Blackie was bristling, glaring at a huge disposal area packed with junk. We could see Blackie on the tacmod image, which revealed friendly units, cloaked or not. He snarled, showing his teeth, nose pointed right at the junk site. It was pitch black but the situation was clear to him.

  "They're in ambush, not shielded," Doggie said. "They're somehow enclosed by metal, which is why the tacmod is not picking up on them. It means we're going to have to blast them out and alert the rest of them."

  "Well, let's do it," Smiley said. "I'm tired of standing here in their sights."

  "Do it."

  Smiley let loose with a tacstar micronuke and the junk pile blew apart in a titanic blast, dazzling white hot core, a million glowing tracers spitting shrapnel. Doggie and Smiley then both fired auto xmax, spraying the position non-stop, flash flash flash, xmax ripping and dancing over the glowing riddled junk, revealing one armored Demon who had been off to one side and missed the tacstar party, shields still down, dark blue armor blistered and glowing and smoking, his fearsome weapon falling from his hands. He reached out his arms, croaking, and fell forward but Doggie and Smiley kept firing at him until his armor was chopped to pieces and his blood was spraying like a garden hose. The rubble pile was full of pulverized Demon armor. There must have been several of them, waiting in ambush. But you can't ambush what you can't see.

  "Die, you bastard."

  "All right," Doggie said. "Advance." Blackie was enraged, barking frantically, and Doggie had to forcibly pull him away from the dead Demon.

  Δ

  "Delta, Scout. Nitro and I are entering Arena C."

  "Gotcha, Scout. Arena C. What do you see?"

  "I see exactly what's on the tacmap. It's full of Demons and human females and kids." Arena C was the first major target, a large arena that the D used for stashing their female captives and, probably, amusing themselves with them.

  Scout and Arie had slipped in the open doorway, stealthily tiptoeing past two armed, shielded Demon guards and taking widely separated positions against one wall. The Demon guards' crackling green shielding echoed around the hall, which was bustling with activity. Arie was back to the wall, grasping his E in ready position, almost trembling in anticipation of the mass murder he was about to commit. Icy sweat was trickling down his face, but that wasn't the kind of sweat that his tacmod could handle. Scout was further along the wall to his left. He had entered first. Scout must have blood made of ice water, Arie thought. The man is totally fearless. We're both going to die here – shit, there's nineteen of them in this room and only two of us.

  "Scout, Doggie. Stand by, we're coming to reinforce you, then we'll take them on."

  "Negative, Doggie," Scout replied. "They're sending a squad out the door, A & A, shielding up, looks like – six of them. That leaves thirteen here. We'll handle them. We don’t want a big firefight here, the captives will get damaged."

  "Got that, Scout, we'll terminate those six, then come for you if we can," Doggie replied.

  A mere thirteen of them, Arie thought. Great! Ten of the D's were armored, only three were not. After the armored squad passed out the doorway, the other D's bustled around taking up positions to cover the doorway, as if they expected an intrusion. However, they did not activate their shielding. That would probably be done just before battle. Only the two door guards had shielding up. The three unarmored D's swaggered around, covered in stinking wet fur, terrorizing the captives. The girls huddled in groups around the room. Some were naked, some were clad in dirty shorts and tees. Total of fourteen girls, according to the tacmod. One of the D's snatched a naked subteeen girl from one group and tossed her through the air to another D who caught her none too gently. A female from the group – maybe her mother – shrieked and leaped up. She was hammered to the ground by the D who had taken the girl from her. The Demon who had possession of the subteen forced her to the ground and straddled her. Inter-species sex was evidently a form of recreation for the D's.

  "Nitro," Scout said, calmly. "I'll use autodarts on the two shielded guards by the door to take down the shields, then auto x to blast the armor and finish them off. You start with the eight others in armor, bursts of xmax, try not to hit the girls, I'll be joining you on those targets soon as I get the door guards. When they're all down, we go after the three unarmored D's. We use auto darts for that. Just shred them."

  "Say when," Arie said.

  "When." The two of them opened up. Arie's tacmod had labeled the targets and would guide the rounds to the most vulnerable area, between helmet and chestplate. Target 1, xmax on upper chestplate, flash, tearing a hole in the armor; Target 2, xmax in the faceplate, shredding the helmet open; Target 3, looking around frantically for the hostiles, raising a plasma battle rifle, staggering from auto xmax hitting his faceplate and chestplate, falling to the deck; Target 4, firing his battle rifle, a glittering sheet of plasma blasting into the wall and the wall erupting with giant plasmastar hits all around Arie, who slid lower against the wall as he fired, auto xmax to the helmet/chestplate area; Scout was now firing on the other targets as well; Target 5 going down from Scout's xmax; Arie firing into Target 6, who fired back, now laying down a wild burst of plasma, slicing it around in a frantic search for the invisible enemy. Target 8 ran for another door and Scout chased him down with xmax, gunning him down. Target 7 stood there frozen, as if unsure what to do. Scout shot him in the faceplate with autodarts, a hot hail of hypersonic darts that buzzed like killer bees as they sliced open the faceplate and turned the Demon's head to mush.

  "You all right?" Scout asked.

  "I'm fine," Arie replied. "Some shrapnel hits, all under repair."

  Three of the Demons were unarmored. During the firefight, they had been crawling around on the deck, hiding among the girls. Now they cringed as Scout and Arie stood over them. Scout and Arie had disengaged their cloaking, just so the D's could see who had done this to them. The D's glared at them, sputtering with rage. Scout took out his hot knife, reached down to the Demon who had earlier been in the process of raping the subteen, and castrated him with the knife, slicing off his genitals in a frac. The Demon screeched in agony, spurting a fountain of black blood. Scout tossed the bloody trophy aside in contempt and shot the Demon in the face with a short burst of autodarts. Arie finished off the other two with darts as well. The room was littered with smoking Demon armor and corpses and the walls were splattered with blood and gore and burning from the plasmastars. The girls hardly dared move, huddled on the deck clutching each other for protect
ion, twitching and crying.

  "Bees, Scout. We've got fourteen girls here, some wounded but none too badly. Come and get 'em but check with Doggie about that squad of six D's heading your way."

  "Delta, Doggie. Check your tacmaps. The D's are on the move, splitting up and heading for topsides. Believe they may be attempting to break out and escape. Scout and Nitro set up ambush to block Gate Two. Saka and Prophet set up ambush to block Gate Three. Smiley and I are closing on the squad of six that is almost on us. Bees, Bird, General, defend the civilians."

  "Doggie, Scout, Bees. We've only got three girls and it looks like some of these D's are headed our way. We're going to have to do an ambush and delay evacing those girls from your site, Scout."

  "That's fine, Bees," Doggie said. "Everybody react to the D's that head your way and kill 'em all. That first element is almost on us."

  Δ

  "Delta alert," Dolly said. "Total of thirty D's now present within the installation. They have divided into five squads of six D's each, heading topsides via ramps, all armored and armed and all shields up, safeties off and scanning for the enemy. Please see the tacmap, recommend cloaked ambushes with initial auto hyperdart fire to take out shielding followed by autoxmax to penetrate armor. Remember if you get hit by plasma, run immediately to escape the blast." Good summary, Dolly, I thought. Now there are thirty of them and still only nine of us, not counting Blackie. Not good odds for us, even if we are invisible. Once we start firing, they'll see where we are.

  "Let's get moving, Prophet," Saka said. "We're going to block the primary approach ramp to Gate Three. I'll bet at least one of those squads is going to use that route." We hustled, anxious to get in place. It was pitch black, but our phantom senses cleared it up perfectly for us. We knew the D's could see in the dark as well, with a little help – but they couldn't see fully cloaked Legion troopers, waiting in ambush to slice them to bloody pieces. I blessed our techs. They kept us alive.

  We set up on each side of the ramp, well dispersed but perfectly covering the ramp at a narrow section where the D's might bunch up while approaching.

  "How's this?" I asked.

  "Perfect," Saka said. "Make sure you know where to run if you get caught in the plasma – and fire back as soon as you get out of the plasma burst radius."

  "Will do. Here they come." Six of them all right – six! They looked to be one hundred percent alert. So were we. Honey was already labeling and numbering them for me. My adrenalin was at max. I swear I could taste it on my tongue. I was so hyper I started to shake – just a little twitching, nothing I couldn't handle.

  "All right, Prophet. That's all six of them." The D's were almost on us, sneaking cautiously up the ramp, dirty blue armor glowing with crackling green force field shielding, yellow faceplates, ugly plasma battle rifles pointing almost right at us.

  "Fire on three, one two three." Saka was a man of few words. We fired.

  Δ

  "They're coming right at us," Bird said. "Six of them."

  "They're walking right into our field of fire," the general said.

  "The tacmod is giving us each two targets," Bees said. "So we only have to worry about two each. God, make my aim true and grant us victory."

  The Demons approached warily. It was a fairly open area on the second level that Bees had chosen for her medunit and civilian rally point. Bees was off to one side, further in the rear, away from the others. She did not have cloaking so the D's probably already had her on scope, but were trying to get just a bit closer. If they recognized her Bright armor, they must have been very, very worried.

  Bird and the general fired simultaneously as Bees fired at Target Five, darts, and everything suddenly became slow motion but fast motion at the same time, the darts buzzing and the flickering green force field going down, Bees switching to xmax, the rounds erupting just below the D's helmet, cutting into the armor and a giant horrific burst of plasma knocked Bees right off her feet. She hit the deck and skidded along on her back helplessly, out of the burst radius, scrambled up with her E, tacmap; Target 6 firing plasma, another huge burst and Bees fired autodarts, the plasma hit her a glancing blow and she fell but scrambled up right next to a falling torrent of glittering orange plasma, Target 6, the shield is down, Bees fired auto xmax at the target and her tacmod guided the xmax rounds to the vulnerable point, flashing popping bursting just where the D's helmet met the chestplate. Target 6 staggered and fell.

  They were under very heavy fire, sheets of plasma falling wildly through the smoking air, lighting up the dark, plasmastars erupting, ear-shattering cracks shaking the walls, pressure waves bouncing off Bees' armor, and autoxmax as well, as the D's opened up with all they had. The tacmap was shaking so bad Bees could not see where Bird and the general were but she could hear the buzz of the darts and the rattle of auto xmax tearing through the air. Target 4, still standing! Shields up! Bees let loose on autodart, spraying the D's luminous green force field. Target 4 was firing wildly; he could not see where the hostiles were. Shields down, sputtering away to nothing. Bees fired auto x and the demon was skewered with x from three different angles. Target 2 suddenly appeared, shields down, firing plasma, a huge burst, then auto x.

  "I'm hit," somebody said.

  Bees ran forward, energized, attacking, firing auto x right past a blast of plasma, streams of auto x floating past her as if in a dream. A Demon appeared before her, shield down, turning to meet her approach. Bees could see right into the yellow faceplate, a furry, filthy snarling face, sharp teeth, narrow squinty black eyes, flattened leathery nose, parasite worms sliding over the inside of the faceplate. She fired xmax right at his helmet and Angel found the sweet spot, blasting a hole into that filthy dark blue armor right below where the helmet met the chestplate, and the D's ugly face exploded inside the helmet, blood splattering over the faceplate.

  Silence. Sudden silence, only the cracking of flames as the plasma burnt along the decks and licked up the walls.

  "Who’s the casualty?" Bees asked. She was shaking. She was so hyper she could not even read the tacmap, but it appeared that the D's were all dead.

  "It's Bird," the general said, coldly. "Get over here, Bees."

  Δ

  Saka and I fired simultaneously on the Demons, who were glowing with green shielding. The plan was Saka would take Targets 1, 2 and 3, and I would take Four, Five and Six. The plan lasted about the time it took me to pull the trigger to fire on Target 4. All six of the bastards opened up with plasma immediately, a gigantic blast that ripped into us, first Saka, then me, then it rippled past us since they could not see us and were firing blind. Well, firing blind with plasma is still pretty effective. However, our cloaking did save us, since we were not in the blast for long and emerged from it firing autodart. Plasmastars blasted the wall behind us, peppering us with shrapnel. Target 4 staggered under the force of my hyperdarts and then his shielding popped off. I followed immediately with auto xmax, blasting his helmet and chestplate, and turned my E to Target 5, who was spraying the area with autoxmax. I took some of it in the chest as I directed my hyperdarts to the target. His shielding flickered.

  "Multiple xmax hits in chestplate and right arm, no penetrations, sealing…" I didn't have time to listen. I finished off Target 5 with xmax and Honey was highlighting Target 6. Saka was firing nonstop, just as if he was on the range at Basic.

  A massive blast of hissing plasma crashed down from above and settled over me, the awful glare blinding me. I bolted to the left rear, that was the plan, and a plasmastar blasted me off my feet and on the way down I could feel hot xmax cutting into my armor, ripping at my flesh. I gasped and clawed at nothing in protest. I couldn't tell if I was still in the plasma burst or not, Honey was relaying info on the situation but it was all fading away into a sudden red hot haze and then a suffocating deep darkness.

  Δ

  Doggie and Smiley were in a perfect ambush position, widely separated, good cover, and an excellent view. They were also patient as they watc
hed the six armored D's approach on the tacmap. The D's were proceeding cautiously. They had shields up and knew that anyone who cared was likely aware of their exact position. Doggie and Smiley cared deeply.

  "If we had any useful ordnance, we could save ourselves a lot of trouble," Doggie said. "A couple of tacscyths would put these folks away with minimal effort on our part." The tacscyth was an area mine that could wipe out a whole squad of armored goons.

  "Are you saying the manlink is not useful?" Smiley asked. "Sacrilege! Watch this – they're within range now." Smiley fired tacstars, one two three four five. The stars erupted downrange simultaneously, dazzling micronukes that ripped apart the target area, sent out a tremendous blast and concussion and erased ceiling, deck and walls. When the echoes ceased and the glittering fireballs settled down onto a blackened burning wilderness of melted metal, the six Demons no longer appeared on the tacmap.

  "Now that's the way to do an ambush!" Doggie said. "Good work, Smiley, I take back what I said."

  Δ

  I came back to consciousness abruptly to a searing fiery pain that was running over my flesh as Honey was shooting me full of stims and shouting to get my attention. As my eyes opened, I got a weird slow-motion cloaking sim glimpse of Saka dragging me along the ramp with a swarm of xmax rounds shooting past him. I noted with alarm that some of the rounds were impacting on his armor and some were deflecting off his armor. Then a blazing sheet of plasma hit us both and Saka pulled me out of it in a hail of xmax. I tried to move my right arm but could not. I used my left and found my E, still attached to my chestplate with the lanyard. I realized that I was blacking out again, little black dots swarming over my vision.

  "Your cloaking is shot, Prophet!" Saka shouted. He had dragged me to cover, off the ramp and behind a low curb that was getting shot to hell. He fired back with auto x and I forced my E up to my left shoulder and fired blindly, auto x. I was almost unconscious by then but they had forced us to practice firing with our weak side hands in Basic, and I'm glad they did.