Omega

by Jan Domagala

  “Understood, sir.”

  “Everyone, stay frosty, we may be outnumbered but we are Recon Delta,” De Boer said to all his men. That was all he needed to say really because they all knew they were the best that Col Sec had and they would perform the job they had been ordered to do.

  “Right Hawk, let’s get this done before we have company,” De Boer said to the man leading them.

  “I’m on it, Colonel,” Hawk said as they arrived at the chamber entrance.

  THE FREIGHTER CAME through the atmosphere and slowed down using its thrusters, but even so the speed of their arrival was greater than any normal freighter. The pilot said to Rygar, “I won’t be able to put her down on the ground where you want to go, you’ll have to rappel down as I try to keep her steady.”

  “Do it,” Rygar replied turning to his team, “Get ready, we’re going in hot and fast. Kill anything that moves.” He fastened his rappelling line to the interior bulkhead adjacent to the nearest hatch and then connected it to his webbing belt. His team followed suit and soon they were all ready for the drop down to the planet’s surface.

  THE CHAMBER WAS JUST how Hawk remembered it, a tall archway over two and a half metres high with solid granite walls. It was just a tunnel entrance to a larger chamber that opened out as they reached the end. This was as far as he’d gone initially. Having secured the clone here he had left not really seeing the need to explore any further.

  Now though, with the possibility of others coming to prevent them from seeing what was here, he found it imperative to go further and find out just what was so important to OMEGA and to Col Sec.

  THE FREIGHTER CAME in hot, swooping in, firing her thrusters at the very last moment to bring her to a deliberate hover over the ATV.

  Ropes were thrown out of the side hatch of the vehicle and within seconds Rygar and his men began to rappel down towards Wilson. Rygar had a Remm Mk II assault rifle in his right hand as he descended and he fired a quick three shot burst at the ATV.

  From inside the ATV Private Wilson had his Remm Mk II assault rifle primed and ready to fire.

  “Colonel, I have several bogeys rappelling towards my position. They are hostile and I am taking fire. At the soonest opportunity I will relocate but before that I must defend this vehicle,” he said through the battle com.

  Colonel De Boer continued walking as the call came through to him. “You have your orders soldier, we’re relying on you to carry them out. Keep me informed of your status, carry on.”

  Hawk also heard the call and he turned to look at the Colonel. “Looks like this is going to get real interesting, real fast,” he said and his eyes showed he was concerned even if his voice didn’t.

  “Let’s just hope this little trip turns out to be worth all the trouble that someone is taking to prevent it,” De Boer said as he walked on behind Hawk.

  Hawk said nothing as he had exactly the same thought.

  INSIDE THE ATV WILSON watched as the ten mercenaries rappelled down towards his position, all of them armed with Remm assault rifles, a few of them already firing at him. He was safe from small arms’ fire inside the ATV as it was a Col Sec vehicle and therefore shielded from anything up to plasma pulse cannon fire, but stationed there he was of little use to the men inside the chamber. He decided on the only course of action open to him and that was to move.

  The engine of the ATV came to life at his touch and he steered it away from the mouth of the chamber as quickly as he could. Plasma bolts from the Remm assault rifles followed him as he made his way along the twisting pathway with little hindrance to his retreat.

  RYGAR PUMPED A ROUND into the chamber of the grenade launcher attached beneath the barrel of his assault rifle and fired at the retreating vehicle. The MX4 grenade left the barrel of the launcher with a soft ‘whoosh’ and soon closed the distance between Rygar and the ATV. It struck the rear of the vehicle and exploded with a force that destroyed the rear doors to the ATV and actually lifted the rear axle off the ground by half a metre, slamming back down onto the uneven ground making it slew across the track. Rygar quickly followed up with two more grenades, which exploded close together destroying what was left of the damaged ATV in a huge fireball.

  Wilson died instantly, before he could call the others to warn them of the vicious attack.

  Rygar landed on the ground and released the rappelling rope, as did the other men in his team.

  “You two stay here and guard the entrance. No one gets in and no one gets out apart from us, is that clear?” he said as he pointed to two of the men in his team. They saluted affirmation of their orders and took up positions on either side of the entrance.

  Rygar turned to the rest of his team and said, “The rest of you, with me,” and he headed into the chamber entrance after the Col Sec men.

  5

  Hawk was searching the chamber frantically looking for something, anything that could be considered important, but was continually coming up short.

  Colonel De Boer stood in the centre of the room watching what was happening and keeping an eye on the narrow entrance waiting for the moment when the mercenaries would come charging down it to invade the chamber.

  “How long before you’ve completed your search Hawk?” he asked.

  “Hard to tell Colonel, I’ll know when I find whatever it is that’s so damn important that a bunch of mercs want to stop us finding it. But I tell you this, from what I’ve seen so far I can’t see anything that would warrant the attention.”

  “Sir!” shouted Johansen, one of the three remaining marines facing the mouth of the chamber, as three loud explosions rocked the walls from the outside.

  De Boer turned to his men and said, “I know.” They all knew that the explosions meant they had lost a comrade and that the situation had just become serious.

  “This is getting beyond interesting Matt, just what the hell is going on here?” the Colonel demanded.

  “This place is linked to the prisoner we captured here and he belongs to a terrorist group we’ve yet to learn anything about. I was ordered here to find out what the captive was doing here. That’s as much as I can say. I’m sorry, but this is classified and the fact that they’ve sent someone to prevent us from learning the importance of this place indicates that there is something vital to learn here, but I’m damned if I know what it is,” Hawk replied, the frustration evident in his voice.

  “Well, keep looking. My men and I will try and hold them off as long as we can; you make sure that you find something. I’d suggest you also try and find us an alternative exit ’cause it looks like we may be blocked in here and I don’t think we’ve the hardware to enable us to fight our way clear of this place. By the sound of what happened outside it seems they’ve brought more to this party than we did,” De Boer said as he divided his attention between what Hawk was telling him and what was happening at the mouth of the chamber.

  “Sir, I think we’re about to have company,” Johansen said without taking his eyes from the tunnel entrance.

  “Kill anything that comes in here,” De Boer said with grit in his voice. He’d lost a man and he would make whoever was responsible pay tenfold. They wanted to get serious; he excelled at serious.

  “Time to rock and roll,” Johansen said as he stole a glance at his two teammates. They all knew what had happened and what was about to happen next, they were about to get bloody. It was what they signed on for and they would not shirk their duty, they were Recon Delta.

  Hawk renewed his efforts with an increased intensity. There must be a reason for the clone being here, something of value to OMEGA, something vital, vital enough for them to want it destroyed; he just had to find it.

  Then a thought struck him, if whatever was here was so vital, why didn’t the clone try to destroy it? Why did he come so easily with them? It was almost as if he had wanted to be captured, but why? What had they gained from that action apart from gaining access to Col Sec HQ?

  Their attempt to destroy part of it was thwarted b
y Hawk, the explosive device they had hidden inside the clone wasn’t powerful enough to do any serious damage to the building and General Sinclair was spirited to safety just in time. What if that was the purpose of the capture all along, just to kill Sinclair?

  If that was the case then perhaps there was no significance to this chamber, but then why send a team of mercs to stop them? Had they been ordered to prevent Hawk from finding out that there was nothing of value here? If so how did OMEGA know he would be returning here? Or were they sent to destroy this place on the assumption that if Col Sec found out it had been destroyed they would think there was something of value here and would then waste precious time trying to find out what, which would divert their attention from what was really going on? Perhaps Hawk and the team being here was an unexpected aspect of this riddle. Perhaps they weren’t expected to be here, or at least not until the mercs had done their job.

  If this was a diversionary tactic, what was the real objective of OMEGA and what was it they were so desperate to hide from Col Sec? Whatever it was, Hawk was certain that it wouldn’t be found in this chamber, but to find it he had to get out of there with his skin intact. With that in mind he switched his attention to locating a possible exit other than the obvious one. They had to get out of there and getting past the mercs was probably not going to happen because, as De Boer had said, they had brought more to this party than his team.

  “We have to get out of here,” Hawk said to De Boer who was surprised by the sudden turn around.

  “You found what we came for?” asked the Colonel.

  “No, and I don’t think I will either. I’m not even sure there’s anything to find. I hate to admit this Colonel but I think you were right in your assumption that this is a wild goose chase.”

  “Then what are these guys doing here, and why did they kill Wilson?” De Boer wanted to know.

  “I haven’t pieced it all together yet, but I don’t think the answers to your questions will be found in here,” Hawk replied.

  “Where then?”

  Hawk shook his head. “I don’t know, but I swear to you that I’ll find out and when I do someone will pay.”

  De Boer saw the intensity in Hawk’s eyes and realised that he wouldn’t like to be the person responsible for this and to have to face Hawk and his retribution. Ignoring the sudden chill speeding through his blood De Boer said, “In that case we’d better get the hell out of here.”

  “Sir, here they come,” said Patterson from slightly ahead. From the marines’ position they had a good panoramic view of the entire lay of the land before them and could see the advance of the mercs as they entered the chamber’s entrance.

  “Get ready men, pick your shots and make ’em count,” De Boer said in encouragement to his team.

  “Hold them off for as long as you can while I try and find us a way out of here,” Hawk said as he went deeper into the chamber. Most cave systems had multiple entrances and exits but the trick was finding one that hadn’t caved in or one that was wide enough for a grown man to crawl through. Hawk said a silent prayer that OMEGA hadn’t collapsed all the other exits when they made this chamber in an effort to make it more secure. The only thing preventing him from believing this was the fact that now he was sure this place was merely a decoy and therefore there would be no need to secure it. Hoping that would turn out to be true, he kept on looking for that elusive exit.

  The three Recon Delta marines waited until the advancing mercs were clearly visible before opening fire with their Remm Mk II assault rifles. With short measured bursts of pulsed plasma fire they struck each man in the centre of their chest sending them hurtling backwards in a haze of blood. Clearly their body armour was not as good at absorbing the blasts as that worn by the Recon Delta marines as they were dead before they hit the ground and before the others knew what was happening. The other mercs made a hasty retreat out of harm’s way until they could gauge the level of opposition.

  “We’re holding them off for now, Colonel, but I can’t say how long that’ll last,” Johansen said through the combat channel, sub-vocalising so that the mercs couldn’t pick up any chatter between them.

  Before De Boer could say anything, Hawk replied, “Still working on it.”

  RYGAR WAS LYING FLAT on his stomach just outside the chamber entrance along with his men. Baring his teeth in a predatory smile he said, “Blow the shit out of that chamber. If they want what’s in there, then let’s make sure they get to keep it for a long, long time.”

  “You got it, sir,” said the merc next to him and signalled to the rest of them who, like Rygar, had grenade launchers fitted to their assault rifles. They pumped grenades into the launchers and fired.

  The grenades arched towards the entrance and landed just inside rolling in the direction of the three Recon Delta marines.

  Johansen saw the first one land, followed by another then another and then he lost count as his eyes widened with the realisation of what was about to happen.

  “Incoming!” he shouted as he and his teammates got to their feet and hurled themselves towards the inside of the chamber just as the first explosion rocked the walls around them.

  6

  Wilde was sitting at his desk waiting for confirmation from Rygar that the chamber had been destroyed. He was getting anxious for evidence that the mission would be a success. He had so much riding on it that he could not afford the slightest failure in any aspect of his plan.

  He had all the information he needed to start the next phase of his operation against Col Sec and he couldn’t wait to get it under way.

  The megacorp that Eisenhower owned held a huge amount of contracts for the military on both sides of the divide. Wilde had often thought that if the CEO had wanted to make a success of OMEGA, he had all the hardware available at his fingertips to provide the firepower needed for any action he chose to take against any government on any planet. It had irked him to the nth degree that Eisenhower had chosen to remain hidden and act behind the scenes rather than take a stand against Col Sec. That was something that he hoped to rectify in a very few hours. He planned to use some of the hardware that they had been holding back in the development stage for Col Sec and the Alliance; new weapons that Wilde was sure they would have no defence against, weapons that he was sure would bring the much-vaunted Col Sec to its knees.

  Using his NI he made a call to one of the Rovers. “Rover 5, it’s time,” he said once the call was securely connected. He didn’t need to wait for confirmation that it had been heard, the NI did that automatically when the call was placed via the satellite, scrambling it immediately so that it couldn’t be overheard. Again this was technology that he had held back from his customers, the military, for his own personal use without the knowledge of Eisenhower.

  Rover 5 was one of several strains of clones that Wilde had manufactured without Eisenhower’s knowledge. He had instigated a programme whereby the clones were engineered with specific abilities. Eisenhower wanted the Rovers just to be the public face of OMEGA, the identity who would deal with the clandestine operations that the group ran, but Wilde saw the opportunity to form a unit of clones who could be the face and also other facets of the group such as the teeth. Rover 5’s were the teeth; they were the warriors. He planned on them being the new breed of team leaders, loyal to him alone, able to be manufactured swiftly and replaced instantly from an almost endless supply, stockpiled in secret, each as lethal as the one bred before.

  He was nearly ready to put the final phase of his operation into play, but first he had to get rid of the one obstacle in his path to ultimate power. Rover 5 would be the instrument by which he would do that.

  He sat back pleased with himself at how things were progressing when the sensor in the door told him that his daughter was about to enter.

  As the door opened and she walked into the room, not bothering to announce her presence, as was her usual style, he was again struck by the resemblance to his dead wife.

  “I thought we were
going to lunch?” she said, with just a hint of the petulance she was prone to. Having grown up in a wealthy family she was used to having things her own way most of the time.

  “I’m sorry, my dear, but I’m a bit tied up at the moment, we’ll have to postpone today. Perhaps tomorrow?” he replied. He may have been a stern master to those beneath him, but with his daughter he was the same as most doting fathers, putty in her hands.

  She came forward to stand in front of his desk, her arms folded across her firm breasts and the expression on her face was that of a spoiled child, pouting almost to the point of looking miserable.

  “But you promised,” she said tapping her right foot.

  “I’m sorry, Tanya, I’ll make it up to you in a few days. I’m swamped at the moment but in a day or two my schedule will be cleared and we can go and do something together, okay?” he replied trying to smooth out her ruffled feathers.

  “I’ve heard that before Dad. Don’t do this, please! You always cancel when we’ve made plans, even for the simplest of things like taking a few hours out for lunch. If you’re not careful I’ll begin to think you don’t want to spend time with me,” she said and paused before smiling her dazzling smile, indicating he was out of the woods and would not be subject to one of her furies, something she had inherited from her dead mother.

  “Okay, this time I’ll let you off, but in a couple of days we’re going to Callistos. We’ll spend some time in the sun, swimming in the clear waters of the ocean, snorkelling, lazing about on the perfect white sands of the beach. It’ll do you good. Promise me. If you make me a promise I know you’ll keep it,” she added smiling hopefully.