“Wont she be too old to mate? That information was loaded 5 or more generations ago?”
Mac nodded. “That’s possible but space travel back then was in its infancy. It could have taken generations to get there. She could be in her 50s or in her 20s. She could be a mother or a daughter. The gene pool combination could give you the possibility but that doesn’t make it real, until you meet her, there’s no telling.”
“It doesn’t feel safe.” He told her quietly.
Mac frowned back at him. “What do you mean?”
“Where ever she is, this new planet, I get the strong feeling she’s not safe. She’s in danger, fighting all the time and there’s a chance I could lose her.” He rubbed unconsciously at his chest. He saw Mac looking at him, realised what he was doing and stopped.
“Send me all your diagnostics since day one, of this occurrence.” He nodded. “And get some sleep, take a trank if you have to.” Hawk nodded again. “I’ll come back to you with what I have after I go over your stats.” She told him and the vid screen blanked out.
Had he found a mate?
***
“Francesca Maria Giovani, get your butt in here and give me your report,” her father bellowed.
Franny cringed from hearing her full name. That was never a good sign. She pushed through the fabric doorway into her father’s cave office. She didn’t know how he knew just when she was around, but he always did. It was annoying as hell! Franny walked through the people milling about, she gave the odd nod to those she knew well.
“Hay Dad,” she called out cheerfully hoping to forestall whatever he had going on, he looked at her steadily, waiting or her report. “We managed to disable the diggers for a couple of hours that was it. I agree with your assessment of my team, being pissed off and angry isn’t enough, you were right, we need better training, starting today.”
Franny watched, as he father weighed up that information. She knew he did nothing on the spare of the moment, everything was calculated. “You’ve been fighting for 10 years Francesca, since you were 14. You know every way to kill a man. After the first four years, you stopped listening, why now?”
Why Now? He’d asked. Because she was sick to the back teeth of this shit, she wanted to scream but that wouldn’t help her, and her father would just get pissed.
“Being on the outside, striking here and there isn’t enough. We’re not making progress and people are getting hurt more and more. The soldiers are becoming more desperate and vengeful. We need to make progress and if that means the whole team comes in for re-training, then that’s what we’ll do. We need bigger weapons, bigger offensives, these small skirmishes aren’t cutting it.”
Her father nodded at her while he looked down at the paper map of the area. “We agree on that.” He told her distractedly. Franny realised how tired he looked and wondered for a moment if he were ill. She hadn’t heard anything, so let it go. He wouldn’t welcome the enquiry. “Join up with Kiumo’s team for the next month. He’s tough but fair, your team will need to keep up, you know you’re not the problem, right?” She nodded absently, she knew her team’s issues. Several of them liked the limelight, just not the work. She knew that had to change if they were going to make it.
She walked over to give her father a hug, then headed back outside to give her team the news. They’d all joined her six years ago when she’d been pissed at her father, for fears of him holding her back. There had been a big falling out. She didn’t agree with his strategy, he didn’t agree with the way she wanted to work. So, she split from the main force and took on the jobs given to them as a team. The same jobs every other team had, but, they did it their way. Franny realised that had been impulsive and wrong, looking back. Her team wasn’t trained like she was and time and time again, it showed. Kiumo would be good for them, she told herself. If they couldn’t cut it, she’d have to bench them and that, wouldn’t be pleasant.
***
Hawks gut clenched, as he fought a mysterious enemy with a determination he’d not felt since the wars. His men were spread out all around him, equally fighting with everything they had. He could sense how close his mate was. His emotions cried out for her, as the battle raged on around him. Trained soldiers fought a civil militia. Hawk instinctively knew which side he was on, the civilians.
The soldiers were strong, fought well but they were human. No match for his skill or Cyborg body. He and his men could take the laser blasts if they had to and their momentum wouldn’t stop.
Not that he wasn’t infallible, he was. All Cyborgs were, they could just take more damage than humans. His nanos would be working hard on fixing what they could, while he kept going. It was a strong advantage in war and battle. Hawk knew only too well, that Cyborgs could lose limbs and still keep going. He’d seen it many times in his lifetime. The wars had taught them many things. The only way to stop a Cyborg, would be to take his head or injure him severely, the damage couldn’t be fixed by their nano’s.
As the male behind a rock, lunged for him firing, Hawk pulled him from behind it and sunk his knife into him, hiding wouldn’t save him. Hawk heard her scream, as he dropped the male, he roared, clearing a path in her direction, his men with him slaughtering anything in their way.
He was coming…….. she had to hold on…..
***
Kiumo hadn’t given them an inch. Franny ached all over and was glad of it. She moaned like the rest of her team but in truth, she knew they needed it. They’d been too many incidences where objectional voices had interfered in operations. There couldn’t be more than one leader and that was her. Kiumo put them through basic again and upped it a notch or four. They were in week three and she was finally feeling fitter, thinking clearer. Strategy and command had been hammered into them again. Derision or dissention was dealt with quickly. Punishment harsh. It was old school and what her grandfather had taught them, along with the other few specialist military that had joined the mission with their families in those early days.
They’d also made them go back to school and had them check their egos at the door. They might have been fighting for years but here, it meant nothing and the instructors made sure they knew it. Franny wanted to up the ante. Start making bombs, blow the soldiers compound and equipment to shit, but she was in the minority. It was dangerous work. Raw ore when cooked down, being so volatile in their basic workshops, they were likely to blow themselves up in making anything from it.
Franny thought it worth the risk, it would give them the edge, but it would also escalate the conflict, and the other side could do what they could and had more mineral. She was frustrated at nothing being achieved, knowing they needed to win this quickly, before the soldier’s decided they were going to win at all costs, and blast them all off the face of the planet.
Franny considered her father naive if he thought they could hold out for much longer, as she did her 10 mile run. Hold out for what? As things got worse, so did their enemies tactics. They gained more ground each year and more people went over to their side. No rescue was coming and if it was, who was to say it wasn’t more Earth Corp? she thought again, as she pounded the miles away.
The attack came out of nowhere. Suddenly all hell broke loose, gun fire was all over them. Franny dived for cover by some rocks drawing her weapon, checking on her people. Some were down, in the open. Shit. That wasn’t good. “Get them in cover.” She shouted out. Franny looked for where the gun fire was coming from. Seeing flashes, she realised they’d been caught in an ambush and pinned down. She crawled along the path, giving her people an encouraging squeeze as she moved passed them, then made her way over to Kiumo.
“How the hell did they find us? We’re pinned,” she shouted over the sound of gun fire. “We need to go around and get up behind them.” She told him. He nodded back at her.
“Take your team, we’ll cover you.”
Franny crawled back the way she’d come, dodging gun fire. Reaching her team, she looked at each of them in turn. “We’re goi
ng up and around them, catch them by surprise. We good?” They all nodded back at her, she looked back at Kiumo and gave him a nod. She heard him say, ‘open fire’ and everyone but her team let rip at the fire raining down on them.
She moved quickly, keeping low, her team behind her. They moved along the pathway of rocks until the troop she’d been with, was long behind them. Seeing no flashes from above them, she started climbing single file, staying low, stopping every few paces, checking no reaction from above and moving on. It took time, but once they reached the top, it was clear. In the distance, were vehicles and men. Franny pointed herself in the opposite direction and kept moving. If anyone saw them they’d think they were getting away. They would go west for a bit, then swing round to the east and come at them from behind, taking out the guards first, then anyone else they could get to. It was a good plan. She hoped Kiumo’s team could hold out that long.
The terrain was hard going. It went from barren rocks to sand to water holes to lush areas. Water seeped to the surface and life sprung up around it. Some was good drinking water, others not so good depending on if the mineral was present or not. Franny knew there were no large predators on the planet, but smaller indigenous animals did exist, they weren’t harmful to humans. The main source of the colony’s food, was what the first colonists had brought with them. All that was now being done by forced labour. The soldiers had tried to starve them out but that hadn’t worked, they stole what they could to keep going and started up their own small resources.
Franny kept going until she thought they’d gone west enough, then turned north east, trying not to disturb the ground around them and making no noise. They moved steadily for half an hour then rested for ten. By her calculations if they moved due south now, they would come up behind the soldiers. She got them moving again, slower this time, it was rocky so it gave good cover, but it also meant she couldn’t see if anyone was hiding in wait. She stopped and spread her people out, the soldier’s vehicles were up ahead on the edge of a dirt track on the ridge. They were still firing down on Kiumo’s people. Franny took that as a good sign, they were still alive and not captured.
She moved her people slowly forward, indicating two to take point. As soon as she could see the guards on duty, she stopped everyone and hunkered down, checking the guard’s routine. They were both checking the path they’d come on doing short circuits. They covered the rocky outcrop behind them once in the rotation. Franny pulled her weapons, her team did the same, she gave a nod and they slowly moved out.
Her two point men, took out both guards while at either end of the rotation. It was quiet and efficient. Two less, crossed her mind as they moved forward towards the trucks. This would have to be quick before someone realised their guard wasn’t coming back. She indicated with her head the trucks and gave the signal for search and destroy. Her team moved forward, staying out of the line of vision of mirrors and eye sight if someone was in them. Moving fast to the back of her truck, she held position until everyone was where they were meant to be, then dropped and crawled under it, listening for any sign of movement or voices.
Looking up and down the row of trucks two of her people were on each side. She scanned ahead. No one was looking back at the trucks, that was sloppy, thought Franny. She gave the signal and her people moved. They rolled out from under the trucks, jumped to their feet, knives at the ready. Her truck was empty, she looked around quickly at her team, they were all indicating the same. All the soldiers were shooting. Franny checked the ignition; the keys were in it. She guessed for a quick getaway. Passing on her plan to her men, she climbed in and signalled for the others to do the same, they were already pointing towards the firing line and it seemed a shame to waste the opportunity. She lifted her hand and indicated 1,2,3, then started the engine slamming it into gear, with the rock her team mate gave her to go on the gas.
Franny jumped clear as it hurtled towards the enemy, followed by four more. They took cover, as soldiers started realising something was going on with the trucks and weren’t stopping. They turned and started firing at their own vehicles. Franny took up firing positions as the men scattered, waiting for the moment the trucks went careering over the edge.
She worried for a moment that Kiumo wouldn’t see the trucks, then pushed it aside. They knew they were coming and would be prepared for a counter attack. Then she opened fire, her team with her. The soldiers were scrambling, looking for cover, the only cover being over the edge with Kiumo who was waiting for them. They were now caught between both of them. Turnabout’s a bitch.
Franny moved as she fired, her team working with her preventing the soldiers from digging in. She could hear the gun fire coming from Kiumo and his team coming towards them. They were climbing. The soldiers suddenly realised they had nowhere to go and started to scatter. Franny jumped up and charged forward, firing as she went. She saw a couple split off and head off into the desert. She headed after them, moving quickly, they were taking cover and firing back at her. Franny pushed on catching one in the leg. He went down hard calling out. Franny took cover and peered over it to see his colleague leave him and keep going. Franny shook her head, they had no honour.
She looked to her team mate who moved up fast behind her and nodded, then moved forward again. They crowded on the downed soldier, as he tried to hobble away. Franny stamped down on the hand with the gun, kicking it out the way, she didn’t see the knife until it hit her calf and she cried out in pain. The shot put paid to any more fighting from the soldier. He was dead. Franny turned to her man. “Thanks, didn’t see the knife.”
“He was laying on it. I’m going after the other one.” She nodded, and he ran off in the direction of the one that was getting away.
Not for long fucker…
***
Franny pulled the knife out, ripped her shirt and strapped up her leg. It was going to leave a mark. Another scar to add to the others, she mumbled, tying the knot over the wound. Fuck, that hurt, she panted wiping the blade and putting it in her belt. She checked around her for anyone or anything else, then made her way back to the fighting. With any luck they might be able to salvage a truck or two, she thought, otherwise, she had a painful 5 mile hike back to base.
As she approached the battle field, it was clear the fighting was over, Franny hadn’t heard firing since shortly after she’d been knifed. Cautiously she moved between the rocks, as she made her way around a large outcrop, until she could see her people milling about and Kiumo giving orders.
Franny smiled. They’d won. She moved out into the open to join them. A couple of her team came towards her in a hurry, she waved them off telling them it was nothing serious as she quickly made her way to Kiumo.
“You ok?” He asked looking down at her leg. Franny nodded. “Hidden blade, got caught off guard kicking the gun away.”
“That been dealt with?” Franny nodded.
“Yeah he’s dead. Blue went after the other one.” They both knew what that meant. He’d track him, till he killed him. Then he’d make his way back to here or the camp if they were gone. Kiumo nodded. “Tell me we have trucks?” She asked him hopefully.
Kiumo looked at her a little pained. “Maybe you should have considered that before you sent them over the top?” Franny rolled her eyes at him. “Your lucky,” he told her, “we have two still working.” Franny grinned. “Ok,” Kiumo shouted at their people, “let’s get moving.”
“Prisoners?” Franny asked, Kiumo nodded. That wouldn’t go well for them if they were the righteous kind, with all the killing they’d done. Franny gave a nod and limped over to the others rounding people up as she went and making their way back down the slope.
Trucks were being righted and engines tried. Gears were moved and thumbs were up. It looked like they’d got lucky. She called over to Kiumo, “have we checked for GPS?” Kiumo gave out orders and people scrambled all over the trucks, they pulled several boxes from them crushing them. Franny watched as Kiumo went over each one himself. Satisfied, he gav
e the order to load up. Franny was helped into the back of one and gingerly sat down, her leg was bleeding badly. Her team joined her sitting with her. They carried a few injuries, nothing major that she could see. They’d been lucky today, Franny mumbled, looking down at her leg. If there hadn’t been good cover, things would have been very different.
The trucks rumbled on, coming to a stop about half way back to base. Blue stood in their path. He’d found them somehow, he had a knack for tracking and projecting where things would be, and had been waiting for them. He jumped into her truck and they moved on again. She wasn’t surprised he had no prisoner with him. Blue’s family had been wiped out in one of the forced evictions. He’d been a child and saw it all from his hiding place. Both his parents and his older sisters were dead. It was a burden he carried with him, like he could have done something about it. He was wrong, Franny knew that. A five year old was no match for determined soldiers with a bulldozer.
Chapter Two
Hawk paced his ship. They were making good time. This world was way out on the fringes. He’d never travelled this way before and he’d been all over this sector of the universe. They still had weeks before they arrived, and the dreams were getting worse. The incoming vid call interrupted his thoughts. Hawk made his way to his office and took his seat, engaging the vid screen.
Hawk Page 2
