by M. Garnet
Turning, the Commander knew something was wrong, but he wasn't sure what had happened. No one was going to point out that he had said his name wrong.
"Get a signal up to the ships that we don't need them right now. Captain, come with me. We can talk in this other truck."
This second truck was huge for a land vehicle. It had been modified, had set down on six sets of struts that lowered as the gravity floaters dropped it to the ground. Because it was still high on its mountings, a side door opened, and steps were automatically lowered. Going in, Keenan saw that the first section was a busy communication workplace, with consoles against the walls and overhead screens and places for workers. The spots were all packed with both male and female soldiers, working and ignoring the entrance of the Commander with his new guests.
Poly was tight against Keenan's back, as it seemed the soldiers were not sure they were going to let the robot into the truck. The truck was a large moveable, and impressive headquarters that was divided by walls with doors for different rooms. The short Commander stomped through a door toward the back that seemed to be an office. He didn't stop, opening another door that Keenan assumed would be the last room, and it turned out to be a personal room.
There was comfortable furniture and what was a corner with a small bathroom. The Commander waved a hand. "Please have a seat and tell that damn robot to stay in a corner. We will have a meal, and we can exchange some information."
Looking around, Keenan chose a comfortable chair. He was not going to sit back on that long couch. He had fucked one Commander, but he drew the line with this one. He didn't care what the male's inclinations were—the short impudent man was not a person of Keenan's taste.
The Commander had been carrying the water bottle the whole time, and now he finished it, dropping it into a recycling unit. At least the fucking idiot didn't begin to take off any of his clothes. There was a knock on the door.
"Come." The Commander's word was an order, not an invitation. What a nice guy. A soldier entered with a large tray that he took to the standard low table between Keenan's chair that sat at an angle and the couch. The young man pulled a couple of towels off the food that included a carafe that Keenan hoped was either coffee or whiskey. There were some rolls and just a big chunk of cheese and some spread of some kind. Okay, this man didn't entertain very often.
The youth poured what was hot steaming into a pair of big cups and then stood to look at the Commander. "That will be all, soldier."
Thinking the soldier was probably happy to be away from the short idiot Keenan smiled.
"Okay, now we can talk." The Commander spoke and walked over to sit on the far end of the couch and pick up his cup.
Chapter Eleven
It was coffee, and thanks to the gods, it was strong. The conversation was primarily Ereck bragging and Keenan nodding. After a few minutes, it became evident that the Commander was trying to entice Keenan into joining the Transformed.
The problem was that Ereck was a poor speaker. He wandered off his subject into bragging about his exploits. According to Ereck, he was a great leader, serving in the next great universal revolution.
Finally, as the morning wore on, Keenan got bored, and he interrupted. "Commander Ereck, I'm sorry, but I am not going to join the Transformed. I'm an independent mercenary. If I can be of service for a particular project, yes, we can talk some fucking business. But for a full-time member, no, you are talking to the wrong guy. So, if you don't have anything specific to offer, I guess my crewman and I will leave."
Getting up, Keenan nodded at Poly, who bobbed over close to her Captain. "If you need me and my ship, you can contact us."
Suddenly, the Commander broke out into a raucous laugh. "I'm sorry, but you have already volunteered. There is no escape from my headquarters. It is bomb-proof. So just sit back down and listen to what will happen next, since the truck is going to start to move."
"Oh, I don't fucking think so." Keenan tried the door, and it was locked. He then looked at the robot. "Poly, make us a hole."
"Yes, Captain."
First, the robot extended several tools and a red fusion tool attached to the side of the room. It had little effect, as they were jostled with the movement of the vehicle.
"This truck will take a shell from a cannon on the side." The short Commander was sitting with a snide smile on his face.
Poly bobbed to the middle of the room, pulled out another tool, and pointed it up at the ceiling. "Protect, Captain."
Stepping back and putting an arm up over his ducked head, Keenan closed his eyes. There was a loud sound of an explosion, and when he looked, Keenan could see a lot of smoke that was clearing. The fresh air was coming from the hole in the roof.
"I pull you up, Captain." Poly was floating upward and holding out a metal hand.
Planting his feet to keep from falling with the vehicle stopping, probably due to the explosion, Keenan smiled at the Commander. The couch and the Commander had been pushed back, and all the food and coffee had landed on Ereck.
"That's okay, Poly. Go on out and clear the hole. I can jump that far and pull myself up." Keenan got under the robot as it moved at his orders above the truck's ceiling.
"Wait," Ereck yelled out. He was struggling and trying to get up, pushing the food and the small table out of his way. "We need to talk. I can offer you a project."
Now Keenan stopped and did a small signal to have Poly wait for him. "Why didn't you say that an hour ago, instead of wasting both of our time? Look, I'm getting out of this truck. Meet me on the outside, and let's talk."
With that, Keenan took a breath, flexed, and jumped. He caught an edge of the roof that seemed to be stable and pulled himself out of the truck. Standing on top, he looked down the length and waved at a soldier who was manning a large gun, pointed in the other direction.
Since the long vehicle had come to a sudden stop, Keenan dropped down to the ground with a grunt. Poly was right at his side with a couple of tools out, probably items that were weapons and dangerous. The bot also threw up a small shield. Poly moved over to give Keenan as much protection as possible, with its small shape and the shield.
The problem was that they might be out of the special headquarters truck, but they were instantly surrounded by dozens of soldiers. All the rest of the cavalcade had stopped, and the troops were unloading and pointing their weapons at Keenan and his small robot.
To save them, the Commander found his way out of the side exit, with the steps folding down to the ground. "Hold up. Everyone stay back. Captain Keenan, we got off on the wrong foot. I do have a project to offer you." The short man stumbled as he tried to hurry across to where the two he needed to reach were waiting.
As he got close to Keenan, they could hear someone talking to him through his wrist comm. When he was close, he halted and spoke to the comm. "Yes, sir, I understand, and I will handle this immediately."
Now with several soldiers following close, he came closer and looked up at the tall man. "There is a special project that would be perfect for you and your unusual ship."
"Speak to me."
"Well," the Commander cleared his throat and looked around. Keenan could tell the man hated to do business out in front of his troops. "There are six of our men who have been stranded on a planet called Duna Plus, and they have a special weapon that we need. If you go in and pick them up with that weapon and bring them back here, we can offer you an award that would make it worth your time."
Deciding to have mercy on the Commander, Keenan took a heel and waited for the man to come close for a quiet conversation. He made a hand signal to Poly for information and soon had bad news about the planet.
"Captain, in the middle war. OOW, heading there. Danger." The answer was inside his ear so that others could not hear the information. But it would help him get the right price for doing the job.
Commander Ereck went down on a knee in the dust and motioned his troops back. He wanted to do the negotiations without having any wi
tnesses. It was a good idea, as Keenan didn't settle for the first or even the second offer. At last, an agreement was reached, and the Commander stood up.
The short man had to save face and nodded and threw his shoulders back as he put a big smile on his face. "Okay, it's done, and we will send information to you through your comm. You will send regular reports directly to me. That is all." He made the final announcement, as if he had control, and turned away.
"Poly, let the ship know that we need to be picked up."
"Affirm, Captain."
Soon, all eyes looked up, and traffic began to spread out as the silver ship began its descent. By the time the Adamant had made a slow drop to the ground, everyone and all the trucks in that area had moved out of the way. Keenan didn't look back as he waited for the ramp to lower to the ground. Both he and Poly entered. The door lock had barely closed when the ship lifted and disappeared into the sky.
By the time Keenan was up into the bridge's area, Thea had the ship above the atmosphere, and they were looking at the dark of space.
"So, what's the deal, Boss?" Bruno was in his support uniform, which meant he was dressed in all black with support panels that would turn away most weapon fire and give him extra strength. His pale face and bald head indicated a male that had spent most of his life either inside ships or satellites, not enjoying natural light.
Thea snorted. "Take the smart idiot's money and blow this system."
Sliding into his favorite chair, Keenan was looking at his comm on his wrist, bringing up information. "Poly set the limited AI and navigator to the planet Duna Plus and stop us far enough away, so no one shoots us out of existence when we get close."
"Yes, Captain. Done."
"Shit, we are going to war." Thea looked over at Bruno, but that man had a smile on his face. That explains why he was in his fighting outfit.
"I need to get this dust off me." Keenan also needed a drink, and it wasn't water. He made his way to his cabin, grateful for the private bathroom. He came out of it later, feeling better from the shower, and pulled on some pants before lying down on the bunk with the bottle he had grabbed. He was shaking, repressing the need to shift. The anger from the fucking Commander and the fact that not getting closer to Macher was building up in him. He hoped the whiskey would tamp down some of the push from the beast.
Knowing that a shift now and then healed so much in the normal body was helpful to the rare Veldan like him. Still, Keenan had so much hate in him for what he was and what his people had done to him. The first big gulp of what was in that bottle burnt all the way into his stomach, and there the heat began to settle him.
It took several days, and a couple of jumps before Poly called him out of his cabin. Going up to find his place in front of the console, he caught Thea's eyes on him, looking at his bare chest.
"Overdressed for war, Boss?" The woman smiled and turned back to move a hand over floating, glowing buttons.
"Don't worry about the Boss." Bruno shrugged. "He has all the weapons he needs, along with maybe too many clothes."
"Okay, you guys have a secret. I won't push you, as long as our big guy doesn't get killed. We need him to get us back home."
"Hey, back to work. What are we seeing?" Keenan was looking at the screens as Poly pulled up the fixed units above. There were a lot of warships off in the distance, around the distant moons, planets, and space or anywhere they could fight.
Ships were doing the dangerous short jumps to try and get close to another ship for firing advantage. This was an active situation, and Keenan began to wonder how long this would last. Usually, fights in space were short, as ships became destroyed or disappeared to patch their damage and hope to come back for a different strike at another time.
In the middle of this, they needed to try to move near the planet Duna Plus. This was a busy star system with eleven planets and too many moons to count, some of which had been settled. It was an old, civilized area, with cities on two planets that had ancient histories. Threading their way through all of these rocks with settlements was difficult enough but add in the battles and warships; it was a puzzle. A deadly puzzle that Adamant threaded like a mouse, running among many dancing feet for that bite dropped on the floor.
But thanks to the builders of this amazing ship—it was made for doing the impossible. In full stealth mode, with Thea and Poly controlling and watching as they moved slowly closer to Duna Plus, they reached their destination. It was being bombed and invaded. Just fucking great were Keenan's thoughts.
"What now, Boss?" Bruno was looking up at one of the screens that showed the damage being done to the surface below.
"We have a location down there where the Commander's people are hiding with a weapon."
Thea was trying to override the ship's navigator and have Poly locate the spot that came off Keenan's comm. Her long graceful fingers were flying over the glowing buttons on the dash. Finally, she grunted, "I got it."
"Put it up, so we know what we're getting into?" Keenan looked at the small town on the screen that was under attack. He used a couple of swipes to enlarge the picture. "There's a couple of hundred buildings in there, and some of them are burning. Others are crumbled from bombs. Where are the Commander's men?"
"Probably dead," stated Bruno in a low voice.
"Yep," agreed Thea. "But we can take back the dead bodies. Easier to transport and still get our reward. Hey, what is the weapon they have? We could use it."
"The fucking Commander didn't say what the weapon was, but it has to be something that the six people can carry." Keenan had a thought. He didn't trust the short Commander. Perhaps the weapon was more important than the six soldiers. "Is there any place you can safely land our ship?"
Waiting for an answer, Keenan looked at the fires in the town they needed to enter. This was going to be a mess. "Belay that. Bruno, you're ready. Let's get a couple of shuttles and go on down. Thea, you and Poly track us, and if necessary, give us coverage."
Making their way out of the airlock door of the bridge and down the slope to the back, the two friends climbed down the steps into the main bay. Going around the crates they went to the side bay and had their choice of shuttles. These were stored in tiers with one large one on the bottom, secured to the metal floor. The rest were hung in different positions and could be quickly brought down to the floor as needed.
Bruno walked to a control panel near the exit door and brought down two of the smallest. At the same time, he opened the outside door. The opening was still protected by an ion screen that shimmered as it kept in the air and let their eyes see out at the distant stars.
The two small identical shuttles could hold up to four people, but it would be tight. When on the ground and in the atmosphere, the clear cover over the top could be retracted, and it looked almost like a scooter. When down near the ground, it would act as a floater or could extend wheels and run on roads.
Relying on the support of the shuttles, they didn't put on any off-ship suits. There were air masks in cabinets inside the small shuttles in case of problems. Setting up a communication that would be private between the two, each man got into a small fancy vehicle and left the small bay.
"Poly, we have left the ship; close it up tight until we get back."
"Confirm, Captain." Her voice was loud and normal in the room as she didn’t need to use the private mode.
Sailing out in the quiet small shuttles, Keenan looked around in the clear 180º view of space, and it stirred his beast. He took a deep breath and enjoyed the deep dark around him as he angled down toward the atmosphere on the planet. This was going to be a long slow ride, as they didn't want to draw attention. The shuttles did have heat shields, but the flame of a shooting star would draw eyes.
The two small vehicles slid in slowly, side by side, with Bruno slightly behind. Bumping into the top of the thin atmosphere, they both knew they would have to go around this world several times to lose speed and drop down into the atmosphere without any heat.
> They had also timed their entrance with a speed that would be close to the rotation of the world to help them get in without too much delay. Just about the time, Keenan was getting antsy; they were able to slip down into the heavy air, skipping over mountaintops and dropping down into the smoke. Eventually, they were able to get to the streets and below the residue of the battles.
Dropping to floating mode and opening and letting the clean shield hiss and disappear, Keenan gave Bruno instructions that they would separate. Now they could come up on the signal where the six soldiers were located, from different positions to take a look.
"Bruno, send out two drones."
"Gotcha' Boss."
"Keep me updated on what you see."
There was silence on Keenan's comm, but there was noise all around him. Small arms fire was everywhere and just as he turned a corner, behind him was a large sound of something larger, a grenade or bomb. He hoped it was all moving away, as another blast was further in another alley.
"Boss, drone eyes say there is a lot of damage, but no fighting or movement outside Extraction Zone."
"Confirmed. Moving in for eyes on the target." Keenan put the scooter down on its wheels and the motor on 'hush' and let it roll over the rough material slowly. He slowly approached the building that came upon his wrist comm with a red light. It was a three-story building with a lot of damage to the two upper floors. The top floor was almost all gone, except for a bit of outer walls that were partially standing. Holes in the walls of the second floor let Keenan see all the way through to the building behind that also received the same damage.
That meant if anyone was in this building, they were either on the first floor or the basement. The first floor was easy extraction, but the basement would be one fucking mess. What Keenan needed to do was convince the Transformed soldiers that he was representing Commander Ereck. He looked down at his black pants and the black leather jacket partially opened. He knew he didn't look like a Transformed soldier in their brown uniforms.
