“Justice, what are the odds of Sora’s codes getting us in?”
“The probability is currently 50% based on the unknown factor of whether this vessel has been sighted or news from Outpost 3 has reached this location. If there have been no alerts, the codes will have a higher probability of gaining us access. If Coonts is able to convince the station he is Sora returning, we should have admission within minutes of his communications”.
“It would be a good idea to suit up and test our equipment to make sure everything functions properly. If we need to make changes now is the time to figure it out.”
Coonts body armor was amazing. It did not have a lot of curb appeal because the exterior cloak suit portion was loose and baggy giving us the unintended look of being fat around the middle. The extra girth was necessary to conceal our weapons inside the large side flaps that were held closed with a Velcro like material. Coonts had to use three power sources on Tria’s and my suits to achieve the power level required to cloak so much suit fabric. We resembled overweight sword fighters in fencing garb.
The large ammo pouches on the legs of our suits had the ability when closed to squeeze the ammunition tight like vacuumed packed food back on Earth. It had concerned me that no amount of cloaking was going to cover the sound of our ammo rattling around till Coonts assured me the smart cloth in the pocket would hold everything securely. I decided to give the bull pup shotgun to Tria to back up the AR. I was going to use the pistol and the ten gauge shotgun. Coonts had his Grawl particle weapon and the gravity jack. We had the ability to communicate on ultralow frequencies if we were close to each other but had code words for broadcasting in the open. Most of the code was Earth gutter slang which no one on the station should have a clue what it meant. Everyone got a code name, but I ended up having to change them. Apparently, Sweet Cheeks and Pumpkin Puss were not going to cut it regardless of my many assurances they were popular among my people.
“Justice, if you’re sure the Union warship is gone take us in on the same flight profile Sora would use. I’ll get Coonts ready to acknowledge any hails we might get, mission is a go.”
Justice executed a short jump that did not even make me burp, it just registered as an eye blink. We were heading straight in when we got our first hail. Coonts came on as Sora and claimed to have been severely wounded by predators after a very difficult mission in a ship that was malfunctioning. He was declaring an onboard emergency and needed to land immediately. We were approaching with a tremendous amount of velocity and started braking hard to a still closed landing bay door. Coonts renewed his call for an emergency landing and stated the hold and hanger were full of precious cargo. That did the trick as the door quickly started opening.
“Justice, it might be a good idea to ham it up with a piss poor landing. Take us in and ding some stuff up before we set down. Don’t worry about scratching the hull because I have a great idea for some custom paint.”
Justice took my comments to heart because we started yawing back and forth then up and down to the point I thought we were going to take the hanger door with us. The landing pads touched down, and we continued skidding into the docking area as we plowed into scaffolding and piled shipping crates.
“Justice, I want you to open the cargo bay door so they can see how full the bay is then I want you to shut down the lift tubes and power after we cloak and hide in among the cargo crates.”
A crowd of Grawl was gathered around on the raised walkways and on the hanger floor. They were attempting to hail Sora. Finally three Sitch came lumbering down from one of the big access hatches and climbed the ramp into the cargo bay each picking up a crate of artifacts and going back out to the waiting crowd. The crowd gathered around the crates as they were opened and an excited murmur started growing in volume. It was time for us to sneak out and start our recon of the labs. I leaned in close and tapped Coonts on the shoulder and he took off a little too quickly but slowed when he saw our blue glowing power sources several steps behind him. There was a pretty good ruckus going on by now as the whole crowd moved in mass towards the cargo bay.
We had to be extra careful because we were moving against the flow of aliens and we did not want to collide with anyone. Coonts led us towards a doorway that had fairly heavy traffic a few moments ago but now seemed void of activity. He stepped to one side of the door and seemed unsure what to do. Tria and I kneeled down behind him. I started to lean in and find out what he was up to, but as I did, I could feel myself brush against his hand holding me back. I sat back on my heels to see what he was going to do. The door slid open and a pair of Grawl rushed through headed towards the ship. I saw Coonts pale blue glow go darting through the door so me and Tria went scurrying in behind him. We flattened against the wall and started working down the hallway at a pretty good clip. Coonts darted across the hall towards a big doorway. We played the waiting game in fear of being detected if he made an attempt to open the door with his implants. Luckily we didn’t have to wait long as the door opened and a Grawl with his Sitch came out and headed towards the mother lode waiting in the hanger.
We entered a huge laboratory and started skirting the edge following Coonts who was moving at a very determined pace. We went through a big archway and then stopped. Coonts moved in front of me and pulled me down to his helmet and softly said this was my lab when I worked here. He turned around, and the door opened apparently on his command which I hoped like hell wasn’t logged as Coonts. I could feel tension building as we peeked in and found the lab empty. I was wondering why we came here instead of where Sora might have worked but Coonts went to a monitor and removed his gloves. He waved his small hands over the virtual keyboard in a blur of motion and the monitor came alive. We were looking at the ship in the hangar, there was a huge crowd in the cargo hold digging through my artifacts. The scenes started moving from lab after lab. Coonts was doing a visual search saving us valuable time and exposure to possible detection. He finally settled on a small storage area and started zooming in and out on several clear boxes.
“These appear to be two of the modules Mr. Myers. We will conduct a thorough search of the storage area when we get there.”
As we turned to leave, the door to Coonts lab opened, and a Grawl walked in then suddenly stopped when he took notice of Coonts’s gloveless hands floating in front of the monitor. The suddenness of Tria’s response startled me as the Grawl’s head suddenly flattened on one side sending the Grawl crashing into the wall. I had a sinking feeling things were going down the crapper from this point on.
Tria stepped in close to me and said, “I sense no aura on this Grawl he is heavily poisoned with greed and deceit. I do not wish to kill this sickened beast Nathan Myers. But I know we will be compromised when he awakens.”
Before I could respond, there was a bright blue flash that struck the Grawl square in the face. There was a nasty burnt smell hanging in the air. I was stunned at Coonts actions.
He closed with me and whispered, “If you knew of the pain and suffering this Grawl has inflicted on other species Mr. Myers, you would feel no pity for this animal!”
I decided Coonts answer to the problem did not need a comment on my part.
“Let’s get moving in case someone starts missing this guy!”
Coonts put his weapon away, and we headed for the storage room. We cut back across the large lab when more bad news came in over our comms.
“Nathan, a Grawl named Tril, is attempting to override the encryption key and restore power to the ship. I will be forced to close the cargo bay door and remove the key from my systems. Also be aware our communications are now compromised.”
“Close the ship up Justice, and lock as many as you can inside before removing the key. Keep me updated on the situation. We have located two of your modules and are in route to that location. If you can penetrate their systems go active because I think shit is going to hit the fan any time now.
The time tested age-old mantra stating, no plan stands up to first contact w
ith the enemy, reared its ugly head in the form of a whooping siren. The severely annoying sound must have been from hours of Grawl testing to insure the proper amount of alert, while instilling an overwhelming amount of panic in whoever was unfortunate enough to set it off. I did not think Coonts could get his short little legs moving any faster, but I was glad when he proved me wrong.
“The storage room will be in the next hallway three doors up on our left Mr. Myers. We will be in close proximity to the lifts that access the external docks. The security personnel are located there. We need to be alert for an armed response from that direction.”
“Justice, can you make sure that no one comes down the lifts?”
“Negative Nathan, the alarm has effectively locked down any external interference I would have been able to provide. I am attempting to override some of these systems. Probability of doing so is only 16% unless you are able to terminate the Overmaster who has overall control of the security systems. His location may be known to Coonts if it is a viable option.”
Crap! This operation was going to go into lethal mode in a very short time unless we started recovering some of our wayward luck!
“Listen up! Don’t go weapons hot unless you are fired upon I don’t want to kill a bunch of innocent lab rats because they just happen to be here! If unarmed combatants attempt to impede our progress kick their asses but let’s not make this a blood bath.”
I hoped my slang translated to my team better than the nervous outburst that came out of my mouth. When I did not get a comment from Tria or Coonts I assumed Justice was making sure they understood my jabbering.
As we attempted to enter the hallway leading to the storage room we were stopped by a locked doorway. I pulled my sawed off goose gun from its hidden storage and started to point it at the door when I felt Coonts bump me aside. I saw the gravity jack appear and then the little globe on the end emit a soft glow as the locked door was crushed upwards into its frame then its remains ripped out and dropped to the floor. Coonts was turning out to be anything but a liability!
We rushed into the hallway with Coonts in the lead heading for the storage room door. The term door wasn’t exactly correct. We were looking at a vault not just a storage room. I could see Coonts little pale blue glow moving back and forth with the gravity jack mimicking his movements. The globe on the end of the jack was glowing brightly and getting no results.
Man I could use a break! We were going to have to ask the Overlord to open the vault and we would be on our way no harm and no more fouls. That’s when I caught the first whiff of something kind of sulfur smelly rotten and I started feeling my sphincter start doing jumping jacks.
"WE NEED TO FIND COVER NOW!"
We started turning back to the smashed doorway when a short wide alien a little over five foot tall and close to four foot wide dropped out of the down tube behind us. He was wearing black segmented armor that reminded me of snapping turtle shells. He had two thick short elephant looking legs and equally thick arms that hung below to his knees. The impressive looking armor covered most all of his extremities. I could just make out greenish brown marbled skin through the open visor of its helmet. It had a large mouth but little to no neck under the bullet shaped head. The mouth opened to show off an impressive set of pointy gray teeth. It had holsters on both sides of its wide girth just above its legs. They both had exposed handle grips that were swept back like ancient flintlock pistols. He planted both of his huge hands on the grips of the side arms.
The fire plug of an alien bellowed out. “Cease cloaking and surrender or you will die!”
It looked like he was going to draw when he suddenly crashed into the ceiling and then the floor. This routine repeated four more times and then the creature was deposited into the up tube and released, it disappeared upward. I was just gawking as Coonts ceased cloaking and just gave me and Tria a small shrug of his shoulders.
“We will have to take control of the command center Mr. Myers. It is located on the upper floor above the external docks. We must hurry because we have lost the element of surprise!”
Holy shit! Coonts’s sense of preservation had turned him into a stone cold badass. He left no doubt about who was running this crazy train and who was along for the ride. We went weapons hot, and I leaned in to take a peek up the lift tube. I saw short wide and menacing groping for the upper exit of the lift tube. I stuck the ten gauge in the shaft and pointed it up and gave the trigger a quick one, two, three and felt the vibration and heard the noise of three loud explosions in the shaft. I reached in my leg pocket and grabbed three more shells and slipped them into the magazine of the shotgun.
“Coonts cloak and follow us!”
Before I could step into the tube Tria’s weapons came out and up she went. I quickly followed her hoping no one returned the gifts I had sent up the tube moments earlier. As we neared the top we were greeted with a horrible stench. I started gagging as Tria opened up with both the AR and the shotgun at the same time. As I reached the top, I took a knee beside her. The first Tibor we encountered was laid out prone in front of our position. Tria’s point blank fire blew a hole it the side of the Tibor’s facemask, revealing a massive wound to its mouth or neck. There were two more Tibor knocked to the floor by Tria’s surprise attack. Both were trying to collect their weapons and return fire. The high explosive rounds I sent up the tube may have stunned them just enough to give us the edge when we came up shooting. I let Tria give her undivided attention to the one closest to her, and I swung the big ten over to the other one. My target was on its hands and knees facing away from me. He was going for a weapon almost in his grasp. I gave him two between the stern planes. The twin explosions peppered me and Tria with shrapnel and sent the mercenary violently crashing into the door across from us. I hoped ass shooter was not akin to back shooter like in the old west because neither was a moniker I cared to be labeled with.
The stench in the room was overpowering. I finally figured out I needed to kill the power to my olfactory receptors. The lower half of my target was a blown open purple black mess of assorted innards and yellow brown goo splattered everywhere. The other Tibor Tria had worked over was flopping around slinging the ocher colored goo from its mouth and the hand it was missing. I attempted to kick the Tibor down the drop tube but it was like trying to kick the tires on a large truck. Tibor had incredibly dense body mass. I was guessing the creature weighed over 800 pounds. I took note that all shots to the heavy armored breast plate had been deflected or failed to penetrate. The leg armor on the brute had several .308 caliber holes in places but deflected the much slower 12 gauge explosive slugs. It made sense the Tibor’s armor was much heavier in front than the back and sides, because they never turned their backs to a fight. Coonts came pushing by us and quickly relieved them of weapons and then used the gravity jack to deposit all three Tibor into the drop tube.
We were reloading as fast as possible when I asked Coonts if we could use the alien weapons.
“Mr. Myers most modern weapons are designed so they cannot be used against their owners. Weapon systems similar to these have encryption that with the proper equipment can easily be defeated. We lack both the time and resources to make use of them. I do suggest we take them in case we actually live through this mission.”
Tria was reloading her weapons, and I called to her. “Tria, keep a look out down the lift tube in case we get more company.” I turned back to Coonts who was looking at the security room door.
“Coonts, we need to get this door open now!”
I collected the Tibor weapons and slipped them inside the large storage pocket on the back of my body armor. Whoever was inside was probably watching what was going on. I was pretty sure they were scared shitless after seeing the Tibor get slaughtered.
“Justice, how are things in the hangar?”
“The Grawl attempting to override my systems has failed. There is currently eleven Grawl and three Sitch trapped in the cargo bay. One of the Grawl is Tril, and he is now
attempting to bypass the cargo door locking system.”
“Do whatever is necessary to maintain the ships security. We are trying to get access to the control room. I’m sure you’ll know if we get in. Let me know if things take a turn for the worse.”
I turned back to Coonts. “Coonts is the gravity jack going to work or not?”
“I have failed so far Mr. Myers but there is some small increase in the hatch clearances. We will eventually gain access if we are allowed the time.”
Tria startled me when she yelled out, “Nathan Myers, the stench of Tibor is now increasing in the lift tube. I believe an attack is eminent!”
I ran to the tube and peeked down. I saw the shadow from movement on the floor below us.
“Tria, I want you to lean out as far as you can and see if you can angle a few explosive rounds through the tube opening below us. Make it three rounds as fast as you can then get back in case they return fire. I’m going to drop down the other tube and light them up. Don’t shoot me on my way back up.”
Tria didn’t sound pleased. “Your aura does not make you invincible Nathan Myers. Do not waste your spirit foolishly.”
“We can’t stay here and wait for them to come and get us.”
No sooner had I said that, there were six rapid fire white flashes accompanied by six loud thunder claps. We were showered with a cloud of dust and debris from the lift tube opening.
“DO IT NOW TRIA!”
I saw her grip the sides of the tube with her lower arms and lean out and started shooting. On the second shot I jumped in the down tube. I landed knee deep in Tibor corpses and came face to face with a mercenary that had stepped back away from the up tube to avoid Tria’s explosive rounds. He was standing sideways to me with his head turned looking at me. My sudden appearance would be the last thing the surprised Tibor ever saw. I squeezed the trigger and the 10 gauge round went right through his visor and exploded in his helmet sending it like a cannon shell bouncing off the ceiling then the wall. The headless corpse momentarily stood there as his partner charged in my direction. He let loose with a rushed shot from one of the pistols that struck his dead comrade as he was falling to the floor. The corpse was blown down the hallway with a bright explosive blast. I was knocked backwards into the lift tube full of slain Tibor. That was all the encouragement I needed to return the favor. I was dazed from the flashing blast but managed to put my targeting dot on his legs as he tried to get an angle on me. I put two rounds into his left leg knocking him flat on his face and he lost the grip on his sidearm as it slid against the wall.
First of my Kind Page 20
