The Return: The Conglomerate Trilogy (Volume 1)

by William S Frisbee Jr

  Leonessa caught up and everyone else paused to catch their breath. The distance was masked in darkness but some areas were lit by glowing moss. Nearby was a wall stretching across the darkness and it had several passageways cut into it. Over a kilometer away, it held the promise of a defensible area. This massive chamber felt like a huge cave, full of shadows and danger. An enemy could come from any direction.

  “The biggest one,” Leonessa said and pointed. Bebchuck nodded and took off, his three teammates with him. The going got much tougher as they had to navigate over the uneven floor and around various obstacles but Bebchuck could find some good paths. Carmichael’s team was now helping Burke’s with the gear, while Doc and his patient fell further and further behind.

  Leonessa expected the bigger paths to go further. Smaller tunnels and doorways would be more likely to go to a dead end. Maybe.

  The horn sounded again, except closer.

  “We are being hunted,” Bebchuck said between breaths.

  “Yes,” Leonessa said hanging back with Doc and his patient. “Look for a defensive position. I want our back to something with an escape route. The tunnel we are heading toward might be good.”

  “Aye Captain,” Bebchuck said taking off again. Leonessa looked back toward where the sound of the horn had come from. She saw movement on the spiral ramp a few hundred meters back, but could not see details. She wished for a good Marine helmet with its optical sensors, range finders, and targeting optics. The only thing they had were shipboard weapons for repelling boarders. The weapons were close range and good enough to pierce most armors without piercing most ship hulls. They were not designed to engage targets further than a hundred meters.

  “Fiddle sticks,” Leonessa said realizing how slow everyone was moving. “We aren’t going to make it Bebchuck.”

  Bebchuck turned to face her and Leonessa looked around. “On top of that pile there,” she said pointing. It was not big but they might fit everyone up there. Half of the pile was a four-meter tall block, and it was about twenty meters long. It would provide a barrier of sorts depending on how big their followers were. A pile of stones and some kind of vehicle leaned up against it, which would provide allow the humans to climb up.

  “Aye Captain,” Bebchuck said and started up.

  Leonessa wondered what her pursuers were armed with and hoped it was not energy rifles, grenades or other specialized infantry weapons. If they weren’t, her people might slip off the back and escape. Hopefully.

  She was the last one up and looked it over. It might work.

  “Everyone down,” She said. “Prone position. Don’t fire unless fired upon. CONSERVE AMMO! What you have now might have to last us a year or two.”

  The crew got down, using their packs and carried gear to hide behind. Everyone looked scared. Bebchuck directed several people to watch their rear and the sides.

  “Lights off,” Leonessa said turning her headlamp off. “Your eyes will adjust.”

  It did not take long for everyone’s eyes to adjust to the gloom and orange light. Stepping in trampled mold Leonessa was glad she could not smell it as she lay down and pushed a couple blackish banana mushrooms out of the way. The strange mushrooms seemed to be taller the further down they went and the temperature seemed to get warmer. She wasn’t yet sure if it was good or bad.

  Something small and bipedal appeared from around a pile of trash where the humans had come from and it had a short spear clutched in its hands. Another one appeared beside it, also with a spear. They had patchy brown fur, two large eyes, and long lanky limbs. Short stubby noses sniffed the air, and the eyes darted around. When their eyes fell on the humans they froze and then they sprinted back the way they had come.

  Leonessa liked to think they recognized all the guns pointing at them but she was not so sure. She had received some of the best training in space assault style combat, but this was pure ground combat with full gravity. It was two dimensional. Leonessa glanced to the sides and rear, the only direction they could come from. It would be impossible for them to go above or below them, nor could the enemy pull back and have their ship shoot her people to pieces. Smiling, Leonessa glared at where they had disappeared. Her crew didn’t have to worry about losing contact with the ship and drifting off into space and a suit breach was not likely to be fatal. The enemy was armed with spears of all things. Spears!

  “Burke,” she said. “Get your people and gear, then start retreating to the large corridor. Bebchuck, you are going to be rear guard. Carmichael, I want you and another on point, the rest of your team helps Burke with gear. Doc, you go with Burke.”

  She listened to them acknowledge her commands and wondered where the aliens had gone. Had they decided the humans were too much of a threat and retreated? She doubted it. They had not been armed with modern weapons which gave her some comfort, but the others behind them might not be as lightly armed?

  “Bebchuck,” Leonessa said. “I want you to hold position until we reach the corridor, if you can. Then move your tail ends. When we get there, we will cover you.”

  She looked toward where the creatures had disappeared. Were they natives of this planet or refugees like the humans? Were they curious or did they mean harm? Too many variables and it was unlikely they could communicate with them anyways.

  She looked at her submachine gun and stared at it. Their weapons were dart guns. In space, they punctured armored suits and then expanded but when they didn’t have to puncture something hard, they only expanded a little and would create a 5mm hole in most soft targets. The tiny hole was not much stopping power. Their maximum effective range was considered a hundred meters although they could reach out further without gravity to slow them down. In space, it was just point and shoot. The round would travel at the same velocity and in the same direction until something stopped it. In a gravity well, other rules applied.

  “Try for head shots if you have to,” Leonessa said. “Our weapons might not have the stopping power we are used to since our opponents are not in armored space suits. We will also have to deal with gravity, rounds will drop.”

  “Shit,” Bebchuck said. “You’re right Captain. You heard her people, head shots, or center mass.”

  “Give me your packs when I get down,” Leonessa said. “I’ll carry them as far as I can. Be ready to vacate fast.”

  “Copy that Captain,” Bebchuck said. Leonessa looked toward the rest of her people, maybe two hundred meters away.

  One of her crew was returning though, Starman Davis, from Carmichael’s team.

  “What are you doing Davis?” Leonessa asked, after letting herself down off the block, opposite where the bipeds came from.

  “Ensign Carmichael assigned me as your buddy ma’am,” Davis said.

  Leonessa wanted to scowl but appreciated the thought. “Then help me carry these packs.”

  “Aye ma’am,” Davis said catching up. Bebchuck dropped the packs off the side and Leonessa caught them. She passed the first two to Davis and took the last two.

  As Bebchuck turned to join his people, a spear flew out and hit him in the chest. Bebchuck staggered and nearly fell back. The spear clattered at his feet.

  “Well shit,” Bebchuck said sounding stunned but unhurt.

  “You okay?!” Leonessa said looking for some way to get back up there.

  “Crap,” said Bebchuck, “Yea. Good hit. Knocked the wind out of me. Didn’t penetrate my breastplate. Get going Captain. I think we can hold back a small group of spear-chucking natives.”

  Leonessa nodded. Then with Davis close behind, she started a steady lumbering jog to catch up with the rest of her crew. She was halfway to the column when she heard a single shot and a yelp from behind her.

  “Keep going Captain,” Bebchuck said. “Another one threw a spear, and we dropped it, or wounded it. Now they know we have bite. They could get lucky and I would like to discourage that.”

  “Copy that Nav, be extra careful,” she said trying to pick up the pace. Her legs were b
urning, and the packs were heavy. Davis seemed to be doing well, and was leaving her behind.

  Yelling and screaming made her turn and look. Bebchuck and his team were firing.

  “Oh shit,” Bebchuck said over the radio.

  Leonessa turned back to see something pink splash on top of the block.

  “Report!” Leonessa said. Bebchuck had not sounded hurt, but he sounded stressed.

  “We’re stuck,” Bebchuck said. “Oh, shit!”

  Leonessa dropped the packs and brought her weapon to bear. She was about three hundred meters away and could not see what was going on clearly, but she saw furry bipeds in scraps of clothes scrambling up to the top.

  “Carmichael,” Leonessa said. “Drop packs and get your team up here!”

  Davis noticed and dropped his packs, aiming his weapon back at the block.

  Leonessa used the zoom function on her helmet and saw a nasty looking biped holding a spear to Bebchuck’s throat. There was no armor there on a standard suit. She took careful aim, but the biped was not pushing it in. Bebchuck lay there covered in pink slime, unable to move. Leonessa couldn’t tell why the biped wasn’t getting stuck.

  “Captain,” he said. “They aren’t killing us but we are stuck in a taffy trap.”

  Leonessa held her fire and the creature holding Bebchuck looked in her direction then began waving his spear, it didn’t look like he would stab Bebchuck just yet.

  A pair of armored figures climbed up on the block and she saw they looked nothing like the smaller ones. They were taller and heavier than a human, and they were wearing armored suits with projectile weapons in their hands. The first one looked over the prisoners, the other one looked to where the biped threating Bebchuck was pointing, and it was pointing at her.

  The second it saw her, the two aliens aimed in her direction and Leonessa dove for cover, Davis wasn’t far behind her and a flash of blue slashed past them to explode against some trash behind them. Definitely an energy weapon. Plasma maybe?

  “Get out of here,” Bebchuck said. “They aren’t killing us. I see more of the armored guys coming up. The smaller ones must be scouts or something. Nothing you can do Captain!”

  “No,” Leonessa said popping up and firing a burst hoping she did not hit any of her people. Davis did the same. More blue flashes slashed the area. One punched a hole several centimeters from her head. Their cover would not protect them for long.

  “GO DAMMIT!” Bebchuck said and Leonessa saw some of the armored aliens coming around the corner.

  She saw one of her bursts hit an alien trooper. He staggered but did not go down. When he raised his weapon, she slipped to the ground.

  Davis screamed as he was hit.

  Leonessa crawled over to Davis who was clutching his arm. He had not actually been hit, more like a near miss, but his arm was scorched. His suit and arm a single burned mass.

  More blue flashes and Carmichael landed next to Leonessa.

  “You called?” she said. She looked nervous but ready for anything.

  “We have to get out of here,” Leonessa said. It was against everything she believed in. Leaving Bebchuck to the aliens but she couldn’t think of anything they could do and their weapons fire was punching too many holes in their cover.

  “We are being disarmed and shackled by these brutes,” Bebchuck said over the radio. “Must be powered armor or something. Shit they’re strong! You get out of here Captain. If we can escape, we will come back here. Leave us a clue!”

  “We will save you Bebchuck,” Leonessa said.

  “Not today Captain. You have saved us on the ship. We aren’t dead yet and they haven’t turned off our radio but there are a lot of them. I don’t think your weapons can pierce their armor.”

  Leonessa felt helpless. She looked at Davis, holding his arm, laying there and looking at her. His eyes looked glazed as the pain medication from his suit pumped into his system.

  “Pull back,” Leonessa told Carmichael. “Get Davis back to Doc. We need to move fast!”

  Carmichael motioned to one of her people to move Davis and they crawled back. Once around another block, they ran.

  “Into the corridor,” Leonessa said trying to hold back her tears. Bebchuck was right. These new aliens weren’t trying to capture her, they were trying to kill her and the rest. “MOVE!”

  What else could she do?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  To Chonka

  Luke watched Brita firing on the range along with Jeremy and Amanda. Brita was by far the better shot, smoother, more calculating, and much more focused. She was also a lot better in hand-to-hand combat according to Musashi. Jeremy and Amanda were merely ‘acceptable’ to Musashi, but even Luke could see they lacked Brita’s drive and determination. Musashi had them shooting without specialized optics to encourage them to hone their form and skill. Optics were good for combat, not proper conditioning Musashi said.

  “If you can hit a target without fancy optics,” Musashi said. “Then you will be downright devastating with them.”

  Musashi paused, looking at his students.

  “Stop ogling each other’s targets,” Musashi said and then smacked both Jeremy and Amanda with his crop, a thin strip of plastic that stung like hell. Something he kept just for marksmanship practice. Properly applied to the back of the head, the small of the back or a leg it could really hurt. Musashi even had the ability to make the sting penetrate armor by using a bamboo stick instead.

  The two yelped simultaneously. Brita ignored them both while firing at any targets making themselves visible in her lane. Luke nodded. She would make a good sniper. He called up her dossier on his InnerBuddy and saw she was Special Ops Sniper certified, that would explain it. Musashi walked up behind her and slipped his hand onto her hip.

  “Want to make love?” he asked gently but Brita’s aim never wavered as the droid’s hand slid along her hip.

  “You are a cold bitch,” Musashi said smiling, but she kept engaging targets, without missing.

  Musashi stepped back and smiled at Luke. “She’s good. You want to try to break her concentration?”

  Brita missed a target and Musashi instantly smacked her on the back of the head with his crop. Luke knew it hurt, but she did not miss the next target.

  “Well?” Musashi asked Luke. Luke shook his head. He did not want to play Musashi’s game. “Want to switch?” Musashi asked. “See if you can make Miss Stone cold killer miss? Run your hands along her body and see if you can distract her?”

  Musashi’s crop lashed out and smacked Amanda for missing.

  Luke scowled at Musashi.

  “Yes?” Musashi said with a smile.

  “No,” Luke said. “We will transit to the Chonka system in a day.”

  Musashi shrugged and turned back to his students, “know your reason.”

  Luke looked at Musashi and knew damn well what his reasons were, but it was inappropriate for a commanding officer to put his hand there. There were things Brita could do to make him lose all concentration. He had been spending a lot of time thinking about her. It was natural, he liked to tell himself. She was the only available woman for light years. He watched Amanda and Jeremy together when not training or otherwise ‘on duty’. They seemed to spend a lot of time up on the observation deck talking and kissing. He had not caught them doing anything other than that, but he knew Amanda rarely slept in her own quarters and when she did, Jeremy was not in his.

  Luke turned away. He did not like that chain of thought and watching Brita was not helping.

  “I’ll be in the CIC,” Luke said.

  “Let me know when you want to work off some frustration,” Musashi said and Luke heard Jeremy chuckle, which was cut short by the smack of Musashi’s crop.

  * * *

  “Am I being a fool?” Luke asked Nelson and Gray when he got to the CIC.

  “In general, or in a specific instance?” Nelson asked cocking an eyebrow at Luke.

  “First warn me before anyone comes in
,” Luke said glancing toward the door.

  “Only if you keep your clothes on,” Gray answered.

  Luke threw Gray a look encouraging him to take a long plasma bath, cleaning his component atoms individually.

  “With Brita,” Luke asked. “You think she likes me?”

  Nelson looked at Luke. “Yes, I’m sure she likes you and would likely bed you if you showed an interest and made any effort to win her over. What is your interest in her?”

  Luke sat in his command chair.

  “Yea,” he said. “That is the problem I guess. Hormones. She is a great woman but. . .”

  “She is no Elena,” Gray replied for him and rolled his eyes when Luke looked at him.

  “Yea,” Luke said looking at the forward view screen. Certainly no Elena. He would never stop comparing her to Elena.

  “Well,” said Nelson. “Elena is dead. She has been for forty-five years. Don’t you think it is time to move on?”

  “We were married for over seven decades,” Luke said looking at the deck. “She is still a part of me.”

  “And?” Nelson asked.

  “I don’t know. She said she will find me, if it takes a thousand years.”

  “That’s a long ass time,” Gray said. “What do you think will happen in a thousand years?”

  Luke shrugged. “I try not to think about it.”

  “Getting weak?” Gray asked. Nelson looked at Gray with disapproval.

  “Yea,” Luke said. “Maybe I am.”

  Gray nodded and placed his hand on Luke’s shoulder.

  “That is what it means to be human,” Gray said softly. “You can’t be perfect all the time.”

  “And droids are?” Luke said looking at Gray.

  “As perfect as our creators,” Gray replied with a smile. “I can only pretend to know what you are going through. I have lots of data and behavioral analysis of humans, and you specifically.”

  Luke looked at Gray and Nelson. Droids had emotions; they were programmed into droids the same way they were programmed into humans. In some ways, they had the flaws of humans, in other ways they did not.