Fiction
Scott.2G.Part_#3.txt
Reading preview
Source wording preserved. The original download is available separately.
THE 4.5TH COLUMNISTS
by
Scott Kellogg
- I -
Miakr's eyes nearly fell out as his doctor checked over the
stitched up holes in his abdomen: for just a second, Jietlshaiepr
had bent over in such a way that... Viepchakl, she's...
"You'll live." she snorted, "It's more than you deserve
letting yourself get caught like that. Be glad I didn't find you
before Lt. Jones did. I'd have finished you off. What did you
think you were you doing stepping in front of an advanced combat
rifle anyway?"
Miakr didn't dare sigh his relief. Jietlshaiepr was an
excellent surgeon, but she feigned laziness. She put on a show of
resentment if anyone got her nice clean sick bay bloodied up.
"You've got a tear in your liver that's healing, and your
small intestine was ripped up. Messy surgery. You were lucky.
Remind me to beat the tar out of you when you're recovered."
Miakr felt the hum of the drives, "Where are we heading?"
"Pulling along side the VIXEN. Badly damaged but we're
putting a salvage team aboard. We will see if it has anything
aboard worth salvaging."
- II -
Shtam drank deeply from the Welles brew they'd brought aboard
and mopped his forehead. Hours of salvage work in battle dress had
soaked him in sweat. The VIXEN was a twisted wreck. The jump
drive was melted into a blob of fused alloy, and the maneuver drive
had been smashed off its mounting and completely thrown off the
ship. The number two turret pylon had snapped: the tower was a
broken stalk of celery with long strips of hull plate ripped out of
it. Number one turret was hit along its mounting and, though
nearly undamaged, it could not turn. Number three caught fragments
and was so much perforated cheese. The main missile bay was badly
damaged with three quarters of the missile tubes ripped open or
melted away. The compartments of the fuel tanks were cracked open
like a carton of eggs. They had been nearly empty when they came
out of jump, and when the last few drops of hydrogen fuel bled
away, the VIXEN died.
Shtam shook his head and pursed his lips, "She can never fly
again. She had already exceeded her expected life: VIXENs are not
designed to be used more than once. The hull can not stand the
strain of the full weapons load. The robot ships are meant to fly
a single attack mission and be destroyed. This VIXEN was used
before. She can never be used a third time."
"We found the master robot director was intact." announced
Vole. "The robots on the VIXEN are slave units: not capable of
independent action. With the master unit intact, we can use them.
Without it, the robot bodies are just unguided junk."
Shtam summarized the salvage, "Three robots, probably
repairable, along with bits and pieces of the others. We have five
more high explosive missiles. There are some nuclear missiles
aboard, but they will not fit our missile racks so we grabbed the
warheads and left the boosters. We removed some of the sensor
equipment and avionics, but it is not as advanced as Flamboyant's
sensors, so it can not really help to replace it, and besides we
would have a tough time calibrating it."
"We could sell it." pointed out Miakr looking up from his bed.
Miakr's eyes were heavy as well from the exertion of overseeing
Vole in the salvaging. "The VIXEN is higher tech stuff than nearly
all the planets around here. I'm sure somebody'd pay for it, even
if it's just junk to us. In the mean time, I've got some robots to
play with..."
- III -
Zylath 100233-9
"...arport control broadcasting to incoming vessels. You will
come in for docking on an equatorial course of ninety degrees east
at an altitude of twenty kilometers until reaching three hundred
forty degrees longitude, there come to course niner three and
descend at three hundred meters per minute and land at starport
facilities. Please do not deviate from our traffic pattern.
"Welcome to Zylath. This is Starport control broadcasting to
incoming vessels..."
The recording continued to repeat itself.
- IV -
Gresha shook her head to clear it. The psi-null-drugs would
give her a temporary psi-shield, but the initial headache involved
was tiresome.
She looked up from the holo display, "Picking up another ship
approaching the starport. Small... Five hundred megawatts...
Looks like a scout ship... Hard to tell at this range, but I make
her out as a Ninz class scout... On base leg in the traffic
pattern... Estimate four six minutes till they touch down. Read
transponder as SX-6457 I.S. All Nighter."
Niedrsha frowned. "Imperial registry? A Consulate built Ninz
class scout?"
Gresha nodded.
"Pirate?" asked Jietlshaiepr.
Gresha lifted one lip and shrugged, "No way to tell from
here."
"What about other ships?"
"None. I don't read any activity whatsoever in system.
Zylath must have a pretty big power plant though: high neutrino
emission."
Niedrsha raised an eyebrow, "This system is supposed to have
a strong mining operation in it."
"Then, they're on strike..."
- V -
The Flamboyant settled into the huge elongated hexagonal
hanger of the starport, nestling closely with the All Nighter.
Truly an odd sight: a Consulate built scout with the Imperial
sunburst parked next to an Imperial built gun boat with the
circular Consular crest.
The All Nighter was painted black with a colorful dragon's
head over the nose of the ship. Just behind the left ear of the
dragon was a painting of a nude human female reclining on a
mattress along with the name plate: "All Nighter".
Niedrsha leered at Jietlshaiepr and nodded towards the
Flamboyant's nose. "Our's ought to fit right in. I told ya it was
a good idea."
Flamboyant's nose had been repainted. A young woman smiled
mischievously out at the universe along with the ship's adopted
name: "Miscat Zhje Gorrne." translation: "Target for tonight".
Kfoks and Shtam had produced an excellent work of art, but
Jietlshaiepr was still angry over a certain resemblance.
The hanger door closed and the bay began to pressurize.
- VI -
Chilled stale air crept through the airlock.
The pilot was tall for an imperial, with longish dark hair,
medium heavy build. "Greetings," The word echoed and died in the
crypt of the hanger. The imperial pilot spoke Zhodani formally
with a strange accent, reminiscent of zhodani nobility but with a
strong imperial overtones. His speaking came with some difficulty
and he seemed amused by the novelty of the language as he spoke it.
"I am Jeff Ralampago, pilot of the All Nighter. This is my gunner
Gdeerzorr." The human gestured toward a tall female Vargr with a
black and white coat who stared distrustfully through Flamboyant's
airlock.
Ralampago continued smiling, "We looking around the port and
no one is afoot. I wonder if you may know where people are. I
never have gone through this port."
"I am afraid you are under a misapprehension." observed
Jietlshaiepr studying the pair, "We are not from this system." She
closed her eyes to recite the little story Kfoks had written,
"We're here to conduct some prospecting investigations for Consular
mining cooperations."
"Ah, I see. Good luck. Which cooperation is that?"
"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say, publicity you see...
Don't want to stir people up with false ideas."
Ralampago seemed to have gotten lost in the translation.
Confusion swept momentarily over his face and he smiled politely.
"If you look for some experienced prospectors, my brother has been
operating here for time: Miguel Ralampago. He knows the system
very well."
"Thank you."
Jietlshaiepr came through the airlock followed closely by
Niedrsha, Kfoks, Tuerz, Shtam, and Vole. The hanger holding the
two ships was indeed deserted. A curious silence hung over the
scene as Flamboyant's crew studied the cavernous hanger.
"It appears as though this hanger has not been used in some
time." commented Shtam as he noted a thin layer of dust scuffed
aside by his boots.
"What's the local time?" asked Kfoks.
"About point eight of the local day has past..." thought
Niedrsha aloud, "Call it mid evening... Perhaps they're all out to
dinner..."
"Or out to lunch." growled Tuerz.
- VII -
Steps spiralled down from the hanger airlock through cold,
hewn stone. Heels clicked as the two crews descended.
The stairs emptied out at the southern end of the main street.
Deserted. The avenue stretched the length of the underground
cavern lined with quonset huts and small buildings. Silent side
roads intersected along its length.
No movement anywhere.
Tuerz ears twitched constantly as the group moved down the
center of the empty avenue. The bitter air was heavily laden with
silence. A ventilator began to hiss softly through chilling teeth
far away.
Several of the closer huts were blocked up. Paint peeled back
from the aluminum structures while rags hung from broken windows.
Shtam eyed the surrounding structures "Vole, what is the
listed population here?"
"Nine hundred thirty six."
"When was that?"
"Eighteen years ago."
Shtam looked about at the buildings and nodded grudgingly, "It
looks as though there might have been enough housing here for
that... a tight fit perhaps, but it could have been enough."
They continued down the street, filing past deserted huts in
varying states of disrepair. None showed any sign of recent
occupation. Broken windows stared like dark eyes at the intruders
as though they defiled the cave row of tomblike buildings.
"Looks like a great place to recruit miners." sneered
Gdeerzorr as she looked about studying the place. She walked close
by Ralampago sniffing the air for non existent traces.
Kfoks sniffed at the air also, but more to savor the slightly
musky, sweet scent of the vargr female beside him, "Well, we can
always bring in miners from out system. After all, the tech level
here isn't too high, we'd have to train anyone we hired here."
"I'm picking up some life." reported Vole. "Four three
degrees, range: ninety meters."
- VIII -
SPACE WINDS was the only inhabited place they passed. The bar
had its windows still intact, though its neon sign was flickering,
and several letters were dead. On one side of the sign the entire
word 'space' was out, while the stylized rounded letters distorted
the remaining word into 'WINOS'.
Ralampago entered first, "Hello...?"
No answer came from the decidedly silent clientele. Four of
them stared from where they sat, then they stood and prepared to
leave. No one was behind the bar.
"Well," asked Ralampago, "What do you do to get service around
here?"
Three men stood by the bar, staring coldly, without speaking,
one of them rang a service bell.
"WELL! Well! Well!" the bray shattered the stillness like a
sledge hammer on an ice cube. The bartender appeared out of a back
room, a short, balding zhodani with a long thick mustache, "Welcome
to the old Space Winds! What'll you have? Eh? HAW! HAW! HAW!"
The laugh did not dispel the silence of the place.
"Beer!" called Niedrsha.
"Brandy." said Jietlshaiepr cautiously.
Kfoks tail waved slightly, "Vodka martini, stirred not shaken,
it bruises the gin."
"How about beer all round for the rest of us, just to keep
things from getting too complicated." suggested Shtam.
"Fine, fine..." The bartender bent down behind the bar.
Ralampago smiled at Shtam "I'm much obliged to you all... Ah!
The old Ghost Riders!" He indicated a model Shtelfire fighter
hanging from the ceiling. "Alentzar fighter squadron: stationed
here during the fourth frontier war. The old base's not far from
here, it's abandoned now."
"Oh you know this system, mister...?" asked the bartender.
"Ralampago." he answered, "Well not really, but my brother
told me about it: Miguel. Do you know him?"
The bartender looked confused. "Miguel..."
"Miguel Ralampago. Works around here as a machinist."
"Oh yes of course! Miguel!" he nodded smiling.
"How's he doing?"
"Just fine! Just fine!"
Ralampago smiled and looked back at the model.
"Ah yes," smiled the bartender handing round the drinks. "The
Ghost Riders! Great bunch of folks in the old squadron. The bar is
the only thing left now. The old base bein' a radiation hazard...
We used to be in here every night."
"You were here then?" asked Jietlshaiepr.
"Yes, but on the other side of the bar! Enlisted Pilot,
Flight Sergeant Kiriat, Whezel Kiriat! After it was all over, I
just found my way back and took over this bar!" He gestured the
surroundings.
"Not the friendliest place." whispered Jietlshaiepr. "Oh,
the locals..." breathed Whezel, "Well... they're not so bad,
isolated, bit xenophobic... but nothing dangerous." He winked and
then continued aloud, "So you're here to see Miguel eh?"
"Yup." smiled Ralampago, "Quick visit. I haven't heard from
him in a while. We're getting too far out of touch."
"And what about the rest of you? Relatives about?"
"No, I'm afraid not." answered Kfoks, "Corporation's got us
hunting around prospecting."
Whezel shook his head. "Oh, I don't think you'll have much
luck. Not in this system. Place is pretty well tapped out."
"Well, that's what we heard, but orders are orders. We might
find something, and that might breathe a little life around here."
Ralampago seemed perturbed. "Tapped out? That's not what I
heard..."
"Just a moment." A well-tanned but stony faced woman strode
over and fixed on Kfoks. "I'm Jiel Kerreur, head of the
prospecting bureau. You'll need to process several licenses before
you can do any prospecting and exploitation in this system."
"Oh dear..." moaned Jietlshaiepr, and I was hoping this would
be a short survey..."
Kfoks tail waved again, "Well, Jiel our schedule was only to
put us here for a short while, but we can stay long enough to go
through channels before we begin the survey."
Ralampago turned to Jietlshaiepr, "Well, if you need an expert
prospector just look for Miguel, he knows this system really well."
He looked at his watch, "Well we've got to go find him. Thanks for
the drink. You must let me return the favor soon."
Ralampago and Gdeerzorr stood and headed for the door.
"Good night!" called Whezel.
Wordlessly, three of the locals got up to leave. They took up
their laser drills and followed Ralampago and Gdeerzorr out. With
a tinge of regret, Kfoks watched as Gdeerzorr swayed out.
A sudden thought struck Jiel Kerreur, "Are you just
surveying?"
Kfoks nodded slowly, "Yes, the corporation is more interested
in finding out what's here rather than start mining now, we don't
have the proper equip..."
"We'll if it's just surveying, then you won't need a license.
I don't want to waste your time."
Kfoks bowed and took up her hand, "Surely, you couldn't waste
my time with your company. Now Jiel, will you join me?"
Jiel Kerreur smiled and gave the handsome vargr an appraising
look through the corner of her eye. "Sir, you have the advantage
of me..."
"Not yet," he thought, "but soon..."
- IX -
Ralampago entered the machine shop and called out cheerily,
"Miguel!?" The bay echoed the question, reverberating off the
metal walls like the inside of a morgue.
Light spilled softly from an office door silhouetting the
monstrous metalworking machines that loomed out of the dim light.
Gdeerzorr sniffed the air and listened. Burned lubricating
oil hung in the air, fresher air than the rest of the place,
obviously not as deserted as the main chamber, but no sound...
Wait... Not entirely silent... There's someone walking
around... Several sets of foot steps... Hard to tell with all
this echo...
She motioned Ralampago to silence and closed her eyes to
listen. Her ears flicked around like dish antenna trying to get a
fix on the noises. "They're getting close... Under here!" she
whispered. She caught his shoulder and pulled him behind a titanic
lathe.
Under cover she pulled a snub pistol from beneath her skirt
and rammed a magazine of high explosive home.
"Hold ON." breathed Ralampago. "What's gotten..."
"Jeff, this whole planet stinks!" she growled softly. "We're
being followed, and I say we get back to the ship and blow!"
Four figures moved across the edge of the machine bay carrying
heavy mining lasers.
- X -
"Oh yes," continued Whezel Kiriat, "The mine's mainly had iron
ore but it wasn't very pure. It's really a wonder they ever
started excavation. Anyway, what was there has long been mined
out. They try occasional exploratory blasts but they've never
really found much."
A sharp blast went off in the distance.
A few seconds later a series rang out in an irregular
staccato.
"There, you see?" asked Whezel. "They blast, but nothing ever
comes of it.
Flamboyant's crew exchanged worried glances.
Kfoks turned to Jiel with his head inclined to her, "Are you
ready to go home now?"
She looked unafraid into his eyes, "Yes, let's go."
- XI -
When you're close to me
I can smell you're in heat
I can hear you breathing in my ears
Wouldn't you agree,
Baby you and me
Got a vargr kind of love?
"Vargr Kind of Love" -- The Loonees
Music played softly as the two figures slowly swayed in the
low light of Jiel Kerreur's apartment. Taek's tail waving slowly
with the rhythm as they danced closely. Jiel's fingers played
about his neck feeling the soft fur-covered steel of his muscles.
Gently, with featherlike touches, she worked her way up the
back of his head to his ears, and began to lightly rub. A growling
whimper escaped him as she worked magic on the sensitive spot.
For a delicious moment he closed his eyes and stood there
absorbing it all. The universe existed solely in his ears, and all
that moved was her fingertips. His sigh seemed many kilometers
away.
She inclined her head and pulled him to her.
It started as a soft kiss, but Jiel would have none of that.
Taek felt a warm tongue probing at his lips and running along his
teeth. He hesitated for a split second at this very human kiss and
opened his jaws. Her tongue sank past his sharp canines and
tickled at his own.
She shivered, Taek held her closer, wrapping his silk furred
arms around her and nuzzling her neck. She wrapped her fingers
around his head and pressed him to her. Slowly, with infinite
patience, he licked his way up her neck to her ear.
Jiel began to moan softly at the touch of his long probing
tongue. Her ears, while wet, felt no chill while his hot breath
warmed them, tenderly tickling the tiny hairs on the back of her
neck.
Taek's muzzle was buried in her hair. The scent of her
shampooed coiffure was delightful: not so soulful or heartpounding
as the beautiful, crazy-making scent of a vargr woman, but with a
softer, more gentle appeal.
She gasped as his clawed hands gently swept up her flanks
reaching for the clasps of her blouse. Her sighs echoed in their
ears as his velvet fur tickled lightly over her bare chest.
- XII -
Consciousness felt like the sharp rocks of the airless surface
ripping away at reality. The foul stench of burned fur hung in
Gdeerzorr's vac suit. The laser wound had cauterized itself
preventing too much blood loss, and the vac suit had power to run
the air scrubbers. She could survive for a little while at least
on the surface of Zylath.
Jeff Ralampago was dead. All the indicators on the stolen
suit were red. She shut down the power. She could bury him in the
rocks, but she needed his batteries to run her own suit.
Suddenly, she ducked behind the rocks.
Silently, a G-Carrier was approaching over the wasteland
plain.
She fingered the snub pistol... four rounds armor piercing
and six rounds high explosive left...
- XIII -
Taek was annoyed. The interrogation failed. He made his way
back to the Space Winds with a bad taste in his mouth. True, Jiel
was tasty enough, but what am I doing wandering around with all
these humans anyway? Grah, sure, a little tumble now and then
never hurt anyone, but it seems that's all I've had lately.
Don't want to be alone... But there's no one to *really* talk
to... Gresha? Kaezorr? Pleasant enough, but no real... *Soul*
there. Tuerz? Erf. The little psychopath is kind of light on
understanding... Besides, he's... well... *almost* male anyway...
And in any case, they all look *up* to me. Not even close to an
equal...
The only one with the kind of *soul* I want is maybe
Jietlshaiepr. And she's *human*... Furrrr... And even then,
she's got Niedrsha anyway... Furrr....
Taek banished such thoughts from his mind. Then, unbidden,
Gdeerzorr's scent crossed his mind.
- XIV -
"Whezel Kiriat runs the worst hotel in the sector."
Jietlshaiepr inspected the rented room with a wrinkled nose. The
glassless windows were boarded up with sheet rock and wood. An
wasteful expensive proposition on a world without trees, but it
appeared to have come from the remains of smashed wooden furniture.
The mattress reeked of must and the blankets were misted with dust.
A small sink stood in the corner which gurgled for seven
seconds before producing a thin trickle of orange water.
A knock at the door produced Flamboyant's crew, with the
exception of Kfoks, all with similar stories of their
accommodations.
"I have an urgent report." stated Vole.
"Yes?" Shtam leaned down next to the robotic dog.
"I have been monitoring all the people we have encountered.
With the exception of Jeff Ralampago, Whezel Kiriat, and Jiel
Kerreur all humans have had a body temperature of three hundred and
seven point four Kelvin."
"So what?" asked Niedrsha.
Jietlshaiepr's eyebrows knitted. "Normal body temperature is
three hundred nine... What about Gdeerzorr?"
"Three hundred ten point eight."
"That's normal Vargr body temp." nodded Tuerz.
"Still," Shtam interrupted, "Racial variation and genetic
drift over..."
"No... No... Normal temperature ranges plus or minus one
degree. One point six is much too low... Admittedly, there are
minor human races with lower temperatures, but that results from
major genetic engineering."
Kfoks entered quietly, ears alert, "Well, Jiel Kerreur is
human enough..."
Niedrsha leered and raised an eyebrow, "Oh yeah?"
Kfoks didn't react, "Quite human."
"Learn anything?"
Kfoks shook his head, "Nothing. She didn't feel like talking
much. However, while I didn't learn anything, I did teach her a
few things." Taek turned away and thought to himself, "And perhaps
I learned something about myself..."
Vole spoke again, "I must also point out that with the
exception of Whezel Kiriat, Jeff Ralampago and Gdeerzorr, all
humans thus far encountered have produced no psionic radiations."
"Powerful psionics," thought Shtam aloud, "Were there any
variations in strength?"
Vole considered the question, "Very little. Jiel Kerreur gave
an extremely small psi shadow when I was within sixty centimeters
of her. The others gave no detectable radiation whatsoever."
"It is also of note that all humans except the aforementioned
ranged between one point nine nine, and two point two meters tall.
This is with a measurement error of plus or minus one centimeter.
Eighty percent were measured as being exactly two point one
centimeters tall."
"What on Zhdant is going on here?"
- XV -
Jietlshaiepr woke with a start at the sound of her name.
"Huhhummmmmmm...? What?" she whispered in the dark.
Vole's voice came out of the dark, "Miakr's calling from the
ship."
"Trouble?"
"Maybe."
Niedrsha rolled over. "Huuuuuunnnnnnnnngggug? Wha'sgoin'on?"
Vole's voice was replaced by Miakr's played over Vole's vocal
circuits. "Jietlshaiepr? The exterior proximity alarm woke me.
There are several guys working on the scout ship All Nighter."
"So?"
"I played back the sensor log, one minute there's no movement
out there, then the densitometer says someone just appeared inside
the ship. The main hatch opened up, and the woman you met: Jiel
Kerreur opened the hatch. She's let several others aboard. The
ship's been refueled and the engines are powering up."
Jiet sat up, yawned and gasped for breath to feed oxygen to
her sleep soaked brain, "Any sign of Ralampago or Gdeerzorr?"
"That's just it, they're nowhere in sight."
"Ok. Just hold on, I'm going to try clairvoyance."
Jietlshaiepr concentrated, remembering exactly where she was
in relation to the scout ship. She began opening her mind to the
auras of things aboard the scout. A vague picture of the bridge
built itself up... Foggy images of the consoles came in: no
details... A figure in combat armor entered commands at the
terminal.
Jietlshaiepr shook her head. She wasn't seeing a true image,
it was just an educated guess. Again she cleared her mind and
reached into space...
Fog...
Fog...
"I'm too tired to get an image." she decided. "What's the
densitometer say? Any movement?"
Miakr's voice came out of the darkness, "I read four moving
bodies aboard... with the deck plans on screen... One on the
bridge, two in the engine room and one in fire control... Wait...
Outside pressure dropping... They're cycling the docking bay...
Hold on, now I'm reading three on board. Somebody just teleported
out."
"Has the ship powered up yet?"
"Full power. Looks like an engine test run up... The dock is
opening... They're leaving."
Niedrsha held one finger up in the air above the bed. "Track
'em. Don let 'em get away!" He grabbed onto Jiet's negligee and
pulled her gently, albeit unceremoniously, back down on the bed.
Niedrsha's voice dropped an octave and growled, "Now you," He
pointed at Vole, "Shaddup."
"You," he pointed at Jiet accusingly, but his voice softened
with a tired smile, "Hol' still."
He held her gently and laid his head down on her chest,
quickly finding the comfortable spot.
"Niedrsha?" the sound of Jiet's whisper came strangely, his
right ear hearing it through the air, but his left was planted on
her ribcage.
"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?"
"I... just used my psi..."
"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."
Her hand went to his chest. "I need to be full strength..."
Niedrsha caught up her hand as it started to roam. "Later.
'Kay?"
"Okay." she nodded.
Niedrsha smiled tiredly an nodded, his nose gently brushing
her nipple.
- XVI -
Miakr shook his head. "They flew around the planet and we
lost the densitometer image. Then they powered down to minimum and
flew into the sun." He indicated the sensor playback. They should
emerge right about here but they're just gone."
Niedrsha banged his fist on the bulkhead. "You're sure the
two crew weren't aboard?"
"They weren't in the group that boarded the ship."
"And you lost 'em."
Miakr looked defensive, "Well, we know the ship's still in
system: no sign of any jump activity."
Niedrsha shook his head "What the fuck is going on?"
Shtam studied the sensor tape "Well, it might have been a
captured ship being dropped off to a contact..."
"Meaning Jiel Kerreur is one of them." thought Jietlshaiepr
aloud. "But where is every body? There ought to be a thousand
inhabitants here..."
"It all seems pretty mysterious." agreed Shtam.
Jietlshaiepr frowned and shook her head "Right. This is
getting us nowhere. We've got to find the base. Back to our
prospecting cover."
- XVII -
Although we hunted high and low,
and hunted everywhere,
of the three men's fate
we found no trace
in any time,
in any place:
but a door ajar,
and an untouched meal,
and an over toppled chair. -- Wilfred Gibson
Niedrsha brought the Air/Raft down to rest on the mining hut's
tiny landing pad. The hut was fairly exposed: in the center of a
large crater plain three kilometers in diameter. The dust around
the hut was flattened with foot prints. With no air to stir the
dust, the plain would remain trampled for eternity.
The giant, black petaled flower of a solar array overshadowed
the small bone white hut. The black windows stared eyelessly over
the desolate crater. The outer hatch of the airlock stood mutely
open like the dry mouth of a corpse.
An ATV lay jacked up on its side, where one of the road wheels
was damaged. A tool kit lay nearby. Exploration drilling
equipment was set up in various places.
"Anybody home?" called Jietlshaiepr on her vac suit radio.
Static answered.
She scanned the desolation with binoculars while Niedrsha
climbed out SMG in hand.
"Too quiet." he muttered. "Like a damn crypt."
Cautiously, they approached the hut's lock. "Feel like
knocking?" asked Niedrsha.
"Not particularly. Let's go in."
With clammy hands Niedrsha closed the outer hatch. The
airlock controls lit up automatically. A sudden tapping
transmitted through the floor as Jietlshaiepr hit the cycle button.
With some hesitation, the chamber filled with air. Sensors
registered silently.
"Breathable." mumbled Jietlshaiepr.
Niedrsha cocked his SMG and activated its laser designator as
he undogged the inner hatch.
The door opened on searing black heat. A gloomy red tinge
glowed in the far corner as the tiny green spot of the helium neon
designator laser swept rapidly across the room.
Jietlshaiepr hit the light. Clothes lay scattered across the
floor, a tray of food sat on the table. Niedrsha stepped inside.
"This food's nearly fossilized." a coffee mug sat nearby with
black stain in the bottom of it.
"Somebody left the oven on." nodded Jietlshaiepr.
They left hurriedly.
A mining laser stood by the landing pad with tiny lights
flashing on it. Heavy cable connected it to the solar array.
"Looks like it's still running." thought Niedrsha. He glanced
at the ground beneath it: a neatly drilled hole... several
kilometers deep.
- XVIII -
Gresha stood by over the gig's sensors. The additional ones
fitted from the VIXEN provided a peculiar mix, and they were rather
dubious to start with, but they did add the comfort of a neutrino
detector and densitometer.
Shtam cruised the gig a bare five meters over the rocky
surface. Jutting above the plain, the shattered dome of the
abandoned fighter base hove into view.
The base was in ruins. Prefabricated huts dotted the dusty
surface like cracked eggs. A large antenna tower had toppled
smashing through several huts and strewing pieces over the surface.
Laser rents in the dome wrote the story of the last battle here
twenty years ago while blast marks from shaped charges provided the
punctuation.
"Got a radiation reading..." cautioned Gresha. "High: LD
ninety four outside. Even with the hull armor, we better git and
fast!"
"I am not anxious to get too close." announced Shtam, "Vole,
are you reading any neural activity?"
"Nothing in my range." he answered.
"I got some neutrino activity." declared Gresha. "Radiation's
getting worse. We're too close!"
"From the base?" asked Shtam, "With the high level of
radiation... Well, anything emitting that much radiation will
effect the sensors well.... Estimated power output?"
"Fourteen point two megawatts? Can't tell, radiation's
playing havoc. Levels aren't stable."
"Densitometer?"
Gresha's ears folded flat "Get us out of here! It's LD twenty
Inside ship!"
Shtam growled "Densitometer, DAMMIT! We have to find that
fucking base!"
Surprised by Shtam's sudden uncharacteristic temper, Gresha
refocused on the display, "Urr... No movement... Can't really see
much with this old thing... Not a lot of penetration... I just
can't see anything."
"Vole," called Shtam calmly, "Anything?"
"Negative."
"Right. Now, we go get some radiation serum."
- XIX -
Jietlshaiepr checked the osmotic pressure injector and sent
the dose into Shtam's arm. "Well son, looks like you'll be
alright... Now just relax, the adrenalin in this mix will probably
blow your mind, but the sedative in it ought to knock you out for
a while. You may want to keep an eye on your hair. If it does go,
it'll grow back, but you may be a bit greyer."
"How is Gresha doing?"
"Not great. High blood pressure... Nausea... She's asleep
now. She's gonna be out of it for a while, but she'll make it Ok.
I just hope she doesn't lose too much fur. I never heard of a
Vargr toupee..."
- XX -
Kfoks studied the gig's sensor display as Tuerz flew in a low
orbit five kilometers from the airless surface of Zylath.
"Where the fuck are they?" growled Tuerz.
Kfoks sighed, "I still can't find any trace of neutrino
emission other than what we've found already... They must be using
photocells..."
"What about the active EMS?"
"We can pick out refined metal, it just has to be in pretty
close range. This whole planet is made out of metal ores..."
Kfoks squinted at the display. "Contact."
- XXI -
The mining hut stood half buried under the sand. It's dark
windows looking out at the black sky while the sun beat down
mercilessly washing out all of the stars and peeling the paint off
the sides of the hut. Sand was heaped up high over the structure
to provide extra insulation, and shade from the suns radiation. An
ATV stood close by, parked in the open, its tracks leading off
across the desert plain.
The whole area was beaten down with foot prints leading into
and out of the shelter, around the ATV and out into the plains.
Kfoks and Tuerz crept up to the airlock with guns drawn.
Tuerz's custom laser pistol plugged into a battery back pack, while
Kfoks held his gauss rifle, glad of the weight of the fusion gun on
his back.
Tuerz flattened himself against the bulkhead while Kfoks
reached for the hatch dogs. Slowly, he rotated the hatch wheel.
Through the gauntlets of his battle dress he felt the vibration of
the wheel rotating. Suddenly, the wheel jammed.
Kfoks keyed the bone induction scrambled transmitter in his
skull "The hatch is locked."
Tuerz eyes narrowed. "These huts don't have locking hatches
on the outside. Designed to allow emergency access to the airlock.
Jammed from inside."
"Ok..." Kfoks slung the rifle and braced himself. The wheel
came to the jam and the battle dress strength enhancement servos
came on. The servos keyed up their normal power as Kfoks strained
as the dogs began to creak. Quickly, Kfoks brought up the servos
to full power override and the wheel spun with a snap.
The hatch swung outward and lights came on inside the airlock.
A bent and broken wrench was on the floor matching the bent and
broken wheel of the hatch's inner dogs.
The indicators read that the base was pressurized and...
Kfoks leaped out of the lock as the inner hatch wheel spun.
The hatch crashed open crushing the inside of the airlock
propelled by nearly thirty tons of air. A white typhoon howled out
of the lock, water vapor condensing and freezing in the vacuum.
The radio growled, "Walk through that lock and you're dead."
From cover, Kfoks focused the fusion gun on the airlock.
Nothing moved inside the black cavern of the mining hut.
Tuerz hackles rose inside his armor. "Blast a hole in the
side of the hut, fire a few shots in, and then rush the airlock!"
"Wait, hold on..." Kfoks peered at the open hatch way. A
black hole against a glaring back ground. One step into the door
and you'd be silhouetted.
A radio aerial stood on top of the hut. Kfoks ripped it off
with a blast of the fusion gun.
"All right in there." growled Kfoks over the radio. "Your
radio is down. There'll be no calling to your friends. Come on
out with your hands up."
"Give up?" strained the growing voice, "I've killed too many
of you grsharrks to be afraid of you. Come on. Put your teeth
where your tongue is."
"Gveg?" wondered Kfoks. "Gdeerzorr is that you?"
"What do you think? Now keep back!"
Kfoks switched languages, much better to talk in one's native
tongue. "This is Kfoks of the Miscat Zhje Gorrne. We moored along
side your ship. We were both at that stupid bar."
"What...?" confusion and fatigue sounded in her voice. "Drop
yer weapons and come inside..."
Kfoks thought for a moment. Battle dress couldn't conceal his
weapons, but by itself was weapon enough. He disconnected the
fusion gun and laid the gauss rifle aside.
Once inside the battle dress lit the interior with active
infrared. Gdeerzorr lay on the floor with a gauss rifle leveled on
him. Her vac suit was seared with burn marks and covered with suit
patches. Detonator wires lay at her side leading to the airlock.
"So you're one of them." she growled weakly.
"One of who?"
"Them!"
"Who the hell are they?" growled Kfoks.
"How the fuck should I know?" she shot back.
"Look we came here to do a mining survey..."
"With battle... dress and... fusion guns?" Gdeerzorr's voice
was getting weaker.
Kfoks tensed invisibly, "Who attacked you?"
"Don't know... They just... We tried to find... Jeff's
brother. They followed... fired, and we... got out..." Gdeerzorr
was fading fast.
In a blur, Kfoks was at her side examining the vac suit's
readouts. Pressure low, high carbon dioxide, obvious heavy wounds
under the suit patches, made untouchable inside the sealed vac
suit. "Tuerz get in here, fast."
"...Find brother..." She slumped.
Tuerz appeared. His gun surveyed the room.
Kfoks positioned himself to lift her. "Support her legs.
Gotta keep her immobile. We'll move her to the gig."
"We should secure her limbs to prevent compli..."
"No time. Suit's down to zero."
- XXII -
Once in the gig Tuerz cut Gdeerzorr out of the suit. He made
a quick examination and put her in the emergency low berth. Her
heart stopped fourteen seconds before she went into the deep
freeze.
"That's gonna be one hell of a hospital bill." sighed Tuerz.
"Third degree burns... looks like some small shrapnel in the
chest... I'm not sure but I think she's got an unexploded HE round
in the lower abdomen."
"Handle with care." thought Kfoks aloud.
"She can't sit with that in there. It's gonna have to come
out."
"Can you do it?"
"No. She's dead. To get it out we'll have to raise the
temperature and that'll blow any chance of reviving her without
proper facilities."
"Then she'll just have to sit in cold storage till we find a
good enough hospital."
"With a bomb inside her?" Tuerz ears flattened, "That's crazy!
I say we dump her."
Kfoks fixed Tuerz eye, "No."
- XXIII -
"This is stupid!" sighed Jietlshaiepr. "Why did they attack
those two? They weren't a threat!"
Kfoks thumbed through Gdeerzorr's wallet. "Nothing makes
sense around here. Tuerz went back in the air/raft to see if he
could find anything more."
"Damn right, but where do we go from here?" asked Niedrsha.
"Any suggestions?" asked Jietlshaiepr.
"Mmmm." Kfoks produced a photograph out of the wallet.
Jietlshaiepr took the picture, a short, dark, balding man aged
about forty. "Miguel Ralampago... I think it's time we paid a
visit to the next of kin."
- XXIV -
The tall dark man answered, "Oh, I'm afraid my brother's left
system. Tight schedule he's got you see, I gather he had to make
a payment on his ship. I think he's behind on them, but he's too
embarrassed to tell me."
"So much for the drinks." sighed Jietlshaiepr, "Thanks
anyway."
After they had walked a fair distance Niedrsha breathed
quietly, "Why the fuck would somebody impersonate a simple
machinist?"
- XXV -
Kfoks strolled calmly into the Zylath Solarium. Sunlight
streamed through the huge glass dome overhead blotting out the
dimmer stars in the stellar panorama. Chairs, tables and umbrellas
testified to the desire of humans to lie under a sun whither or not
it was a real beach or not.
Jiel Kerreur lay basking on her stomach, paging though a
magazine. The snow white bikini she wore accentuated her deep
bronze tan.
"You must be the toast of Zylath." announced Kfoks. Then he
thought to himself, "No wonder she popped up golden brown
before..."
"Hello Taek." she smiled seductively. Jiel tossed her hair
over her shoulder and cocked her head. "Is there something I can
do for you?" She rolled onto her back and smiled impishly.
"Why yes, there is..." Kfoks sat down beside her and stroked
his hand across her stomach and up to her full breasts. Softly, he
hooked a finger around the strap of her bikini top as she stretched
to kiss him. "There's something I'd like you to get off your
chest..."
With a quick twist, the brassiere was around her throat as he
garroted her. "...What exactly is going on here?"
Jiel's eyes bulged as her mouth opened soundlessly.
"Speak up dear, I can't hear you."
He was cut short by the butt of a gauss pistol on the back of
his skull.
- XXVI -
Rackan's cabin was deserted. A half empty drink stood by the
bunk and the sheets were mussed up. No sign of struggle, just an
empty room.
Niedrsha stepped into the room surveying it at a glance. "I
checked Kaezorr's cabin: gone."
"Struggle?" demanded Jietlshaiepr.
"None."
Jietlshaiepr shook her head, "But what... Oh shit!" She
turned and ran for the ladder. Sick bay was on the upper deck with
two patients....
Sick bay empty.
Shtam and Gresha gone.
Jietlshaiepr hit the intercom. "We've got problems folks."
She surveyed her ward. At least, here she'd notice what was out of
place.
Patients gone... Instruments still in place... Both I.V.'s
gone... diagnostic records gone... Holo-computer link metabolic
monitors disconnected and thrown aside...
Somebody was in a hurry. Teleports... must be.
But they took them alive...
The ward blurred quickly and disappeared. The cold metal of
her battle dress replaced the soft film of her dress. She nudged
the power switch with her chin and the armor came to life. Sensors
came on line and the dim ship's locker came alive through the holo
projecting heads up display of the armor.
The fusion gun came on line and began to suck power from its
personal cauldron of fire in the fusion back pack.
Quickly, Jietlshaiepr switched the power leads to a plasma
gun. The fusion gun would rip through a bulkhead. If possible,
she'd rather keep Flamboyant in one piece.
Niedrsha and Miakr sat on the floor strapping on the leg armor
to their battle dress as Jietlshaiepr emerged from the armor locker
growling, "Get your ass in gear, they..."
A grenade flew down the corridor.
Instinctively, she jumped and kicked it back to its sender.
Combat armor, Zhodani, tech level twelve, registered instantly in
her mind. Her arm came up wielding the plasma gun.
The grenade detonated back by it's thrower spewing light green
tranq over the passage way. Her finger burned on the trigger of
the plasma gun but Niedrsha was just too close and not fully in
armor. The armored figure dove for cover as Jietlshaiepr drew her
gauss pistol and sprayed the corridor.
Vole leaped down the corridor in hot pursuit in long bounds
with legs driving like pistons, his laser designator fixed on the
spot where the figure disappeared. Suddenly, in mid leap he
stopped and fell to the ground. His heavy metal bulk fell to the
ground in a lifeless frozen statue.
Miakr screamed as a section of his mind shut down, half of his
senses went out like a light switch.
Two grenades came skittering down the passage and splashed
green tranq over Jietlshaiepr's armor.
Miakr's eyes filled with tears as the DMSO and tranquilizer
stung his face and then it suddenly went numb.
Niedrsha felt it hit his sleeves and slowly soak through the
material to touch his unprotected skin. Grabbing his gauss rifle
he rolled and fired a grenade down the passage as the muscles in
his arms went limp. The grenade bounced off the wall as the rocket
charge propelled it onward, bouncing off the walls like a pinball.
A second later his vision was gone as blackness enveloped him.
Jietlshaiepr cursed as she ducked from the blast that shredded
the crew lounge. A second later she teleported into the lounge
with the gauss pistol barking to enforce the shock.
The quarry was gone.
Teleported to where they could...
She glanced back up the corridor to where she'd been.
Niedrsha and Miakr down. Two bastards in combat armor.
Suddenly, she was behind one of them. Her fist, clad in a
bonded superdense gauntlet, crashed through the helmet scattering
brains over the walls and floor. Her gauss pistol coughed spraying
needles into the chest of the second.
Gauss needles splattered around the room deflected by the
contours of the combat armor as the wearer was thrown back by the
impact. It brought up a combat rifle firing on automatic.
Discarding sabot ripped her armor, buckling and tearing the metal
on her right arm and chest and shredding the flesh beneath while
slimy green tranq ended the burst with a sticky sickening thump.
Tranquilizer blocked the pain of the ripped flesh. As
blackness enfolded her brain she fought to focus her mind for
psionic regeneration.
- XXVII -
Almost silently, figures carrying stretchers were hurried out
of Flamboyant's main lock and loaded into a G-Carrier. The clicks
of armored heels distorted in the mutated acoustics of the hanger
to sound like dripping water. The scent of blood wafted like an
icy perfume to where Tuerz froze, hidden under the Flamboyant's
starboard main landing gear wheel bogie. He stood as a statue of
terror clutching the cold metal laser pistol close to his face for
all the comfort it offered. The sickly sweet flavored stench of
blood and explosives tickled his nose as his hackles stood up in
sharp patches of pure hate. Bile rose in his throat as he
recognized the stretcher cases being loaded by human shaped armor
with inhuman precision.
- XXVIII -
...One... no, two leaving.
Tuerz flattened himself against a wall in an alley as two
figures exactly the same height and weight came out of the Space
Winds bar. They walked down the street heading for the docking
bay.
He listened... Only one left inside moving around... A
cough: human, male: Whezel Kiriat.
Tuerz strode in the front door: a picture of seductiveness
wrapped in a black feather boa. The black dress caressed his
bright red fur. It was a strapless affair that showed the deep
cleavage of his two, five millimeter semi-automatic pistols. It
came down far above mid-thigh, just covering the garters that held
two more of the tiny pistols.
"Why hello Miss Tuerz!" boomed Whezel with a smile.
"Hello, Whezel." returned Tuerz demurely. "I'm looking for my
crewmates. I was supposed to meet them here but I'm afraid I'm a
little late. You don't know where they've gone do you?"
"Why uh... no, I'm afraid I don't know where they are... but
now that I think of it, they did say they'd be back soon. Yes
that's right. They asked me to tell you to wait here for them.
They'll be back shortly."
Tuerz tail wagged slightly, "Well then you'll just have to
keep me company won't you?" Tuerz hoisted himself up on the bar
and sat with his legs crossed under the very tight and brief dress.
He inclined his head and motioned Whezel to come closer.
Whezel Kiriat moved his ponderous weight over eagerly and sat
on a bar stool close to Tuerz.
Tuerz leaned his head and shoulders back, both emphasizing and
aiming his cleavage. Whezel took a deep breath, beads of sweat
broke out on his greasy forehead.
"Let's have some wine." Tuerz purred softly.
Whezel jumped up clumsily and hustled around the bar.
"Anything you say! Have some Zilan eiswein around here
somewhere... Nothing too good for...." He continued chattering
nervously as he hunted under the bar, while with one eye trying to
look up Tuerz skirt.
Tuerz just smiled while his tail waved languidly and
alluringly.
Finally, Whezel produced a pair of wine glasses and a sealed
bottle of wine "Fine stuff this is: '53 eiswein, it comes all the
way from over in Aramis subsector..." He fumbled with the seal and
popped the cork sending it flying across the room. Eagerly, he
poured Tuerz a glass and held it out to him in a shaking hand.
Tuerz tail waved stiffly as he flipped the boa around Whezel's
neck before taking his the offered glass. "Do you think it will be
long before my crewmates get back?"
"We have some time. I don't know where they went."
Tuerz sniffed the wine and sipped.
"Are you sure?" He playfully wrapped the boa around Whezel.
"I'm sorry, I have no idea."
"I think you do."
"I...."
The plasteel cable in the boa cut the words off. The cold end
of Tuerz iridium plated laser pistol found the man's nose. Tuerz
tail finally wagged with genuine pleasure as Whezel's eyes went
wide in terror. "So tell me, just where are they?"
- XXIX -
Tuerz sighed as he wiped the scalpel carefully and examined
his specimen. It had started badly. Tuerz was too excited to do
the job nice and slow. Already the fingers had been sacrificed
just to slake some of Tuerz thirst.
Whezel was mostly bald to start with, the tuft of hair was not
a proper trophy even when you included the skin of the bald pate.
But his mustache....
- XXX -
Tuerz began twirling his laser pistol...
Toe bone disconnected from the foot bone...
Foot bone disconnected from the heel bone...
Heel bone disconnected from the ankle bone...
Ankle bone disconnected from the leg bone...
Leg bone disconnected from the knee bone...
Knee bone disconnected from the thigh bone...
Thigh bone disconnected from the...
"I'll talk..."
Tuerz smiled as the laser pistol's target designator flicked
over the next threatened target. He paused to sniff the smell of
the cooked meat of Whezel's right leg.
- XXXI -
The hospital was deserted.
A thin layer of dust had built up by the air filters. Several
florescent panels were out. One was flickering.
Time passed...
The panel flicked...
After six minutes Tuerz ears picked it up: A slight shuffle
as a guard shifted his muscles. Sixteen meters away.
Silently, he slunk down the corridor towards the sound.
Again, he froze.
Four minutes later, he got his second signal: a sigh thirteen
meters away. A quick triangulation: fourteen meters off the side
of the corridor in the third room off the side. 'That sigh will be
the last sound you make.'
Not true, his head sizzled as bone and tissue vaporized under
an X-ray beam while his clothes rustled slightly as he slumped in
his chair. But, in all fairness it was his last voluntary sound.
'Ten out of ten for execution, Five for style: He never had
a chance to suffer.'
Tuerz glanced at the fallen gauss rifle: powerful, but
clumsy, big, and very noisy. He strapped it on his back. A psi
helmet?... could be useful...
- XXXII -
Tuerz walked calmly into the medical lounge. Four physicians,
seven nurses. One looked up and caught a silenced five millimeter
slug on the bridge of his nose. He fell over backward with a loud
crash. Tuerz calmly picked his next target and squeezed the laser
pistol's trigger. The doctors jumped up. But none of them were
armed.
Tuerz teeth shone as he waded into the room flooding the floor
and spattering the walls with blood as he came. He was careful:
not a single wasted shot. At first they tried to run but they were
quickly herded into a corner of the room. Two tried desperately to
reach for communicators but neither lived to lift the receiver.
In panic, the others threw coffee cups and books but none even
came close. Some began to pray as the grinning angel of death sent
them to their reward.
The last physician alive was on her knees crying when Tuerz
simply said, "It's all right, come on."
She froze for a moment with tears streaming down her cheeks as
Tuerz waved his pistol toward the door. Slowly, she rose to her
feet as though in a dream and climbed over the blood spattered
bodies of her friends.
"It's all right," cooed Tuerz reassuringly, "We're going down
to the low berths and get some friends. Do exactly what I say and
maybe I won't kill you."
- XXXIII -
Kfoks could barely sit up in the low berth when Tuerz shoved
the gauss rifle into his arms. Inside the regeneration tank,
Jietlshaiepr began to show signs of consciousness. Tuerz herded
the doctor towards Rackan's low berth with his pistol. Gresha was
too sick to be of much use. Shtam would make it as a walking
wounded.
Jietlshaiepr would be a stretcher case for a while, till her
psionics could get to work.
They'd done some cute work on Gdeerzorr. The slugs and the
grenade had been removed and she was lying in a regen chamber.
Why?
That left Kfoks, Rackan, Kaezorr, Niedrsha, and Miakr at full
charge, reflected Tuerz.
He eyed the doctor carefully as she monitored the revival
phase, "If she keeps working like this, I just might let her
live...
...Nahh."
- XXXIV -
Jietlshaiepr watched tiredly as Tuerz sent the hypo home into
the cephalic vein of her left arm. He scrubbed the spot with
disinfectant and folded the arm up at the elbow. She closed her
eyes and opened her mind to listen carefully to what her nerves
were telling her.
Yes, the psi booster was starting to take effect... Then the
injuries slowly reported themselves. Two ribs cracked... They've
been set and were already half knitted... The serratus anterior
muscle has a rip in it... Just nicked the pectoralis major...
missed my mammary by a centimeter and a half... The armor must
have slowed it considerably, the lung is undamaged...
The humerus is only bruised... but the biceps tissue is badly
ripped and is half missing... Minor damage to the triceps and
deltoid... No damage to the brachial artery luckily... the bullets
must have missed by millimeters...
With a psionic x-ray in her head she began to heal what she
could. Tissue lost would have to be regrown and that's awfully
slow. She deepened her concentration on the injured bones mentally
taking over the process of knitting the bone and healing tissue.
Twenty minutes later she opened her eyes. Niedrsha was
watching her carefully. He caught up her left hand, "Hey babe,
what's the story?"
She smiled weakly, "Right arm's out of order. Psionics can
only accelerate healing so much, and I've just about used all my
juice."
Niedrsha leered wickedly and leaned close, "Well, I'll just
have to give you one of my custom psi boosts..."
Jietlshaiepr smiled as she lifted a plastic vial to her lips.
Carefully, she bit into the straw to start the fluid flowing, and
began to suck voraciously at the fluid contained there. The
regeneration diet supplement tasted bitter sweet as it coursed down
her throat. Regeneration calls for high sugar and protein
concentration to rebuild damaged tissues.
Niedrsha just stared at her teeth.
Kfoks poked his muzzle around the door, "Sorry to break up the
party, but we're double parked outside..."
- XXXV -
The main chamber of the settlement was not in a uniform state
of disrepair. Close to the starport hangers there were a few
buildings which had decent facades. Many of the others had been
ransacked for parts. Some of the buildings were quite large. The
stolen grav ambulance was well concealed in the abandoned building.
Shtam was looking pale as he surveyed the group. Radiation
drugs had taken their toll. It would take time to build up his
strength, but time was not in abundance. "Look," he said tiredly,
"As far as they know, we are in the hospital and only Tuerz is on
the loose. Odds are they got teams out there looking for him.
What ever they are hiding here, they do not need to hide any more.
Right now they must be feeling pretty safe."
"But who ARE they?" wondered Miakr, "WHERE are they? What the
Viepchakl are they hiding? This doesn't make sense. The whole
place is practically deserted, abandoned mines all over the
surface, nobody in town, and the handful in town are a bunch of
zombies."
Shtam nodded, "I've been thinking about that, let me put this
in front of you...
"Suppose you wanted to take over an interstellar government.
How do you do it? If you launch a full scale offensive, you get a
full scale reprisal right back in your lap. But... what if you
come in the back door?... Take a sparsely populated planet... wipe
the population out and substitute them with your forces."
Jietlshaiepr nodded, "The butcher, the baker, the starport
machinist: impostors."
Kfoks thought aloud. "You couldn't kill everyone who came
through. If no ships never came back, somebody'd get damn
suspicious."
"Waitaminit," interjected Niedrsha, "Ralampago... He'd know
something was up. Yeah, that's why they took 'em out. .."
Miakr looked skeptical. "Ok, maybe you're right, but that
still doesn't explain what they're hiding. A secret base? This
place is falling apart around us. And we've checked out just about
everywhere else...
"Except... The old base..."
Shtam shook his head. "It's too radioactive: look what it
did to me. Also, it is in ruins."
Miakr cocked his head, "Well, suppose it wasn't radiation..."
"Yeah, sure right..."
"Wait a minute, I mean suppose it wasn't radioactive slag, but
something else... like a particle accelerator?"
Kfoks nodded, "That ruin is an old fighter base... It might
be in ruins on the surface, but what about in the bunkers?..."
- XXXVI -
The door to the mining colony's air raid shelter had been
deliberately hidden, somebody had wanted it to look disused, but it
clearly had been used frequently. A security measure that had
started with a good idea, but camouflage deteriorates when
constantly disturbed.
The muffled sounds of machinery echoed up from below barely
audible even to Tuerz sensitive ears off the sound proofed walls.
He was on point, forty meters from the team, cautiously edging down
the stairway leading into the bowels of the planet. The floor here
was very clean, and would have clattered with noise if his boots
hadn't been left behind.
Barefoot, he padded softly around a landing when he saw the
shadow around a corner. Definitely human form: unarmored,
fourteen meters away, no sound coming from him. Not even
breathing. Tuerz bit down on the implanted radio in his jaw three
times.
Forty meters up the stairs, Kfoks held up a hand to the
others: DANGER.
Tuerz waited silently. He strained his sensitive ears
carefully tuning out the sound of his own heart beat.
No noise.
Tuerz waited.
No movement at all.
Tuerz waited.... Weird... Humans don't stand like that...
they shift, they make noise, they BREATHE. The group forty meters
away makes more noise than this guy fourteen meters away.
Nothing.
Tuerz took a step.
Nothing.
His own silent steps sounded like a crash of symbols in his
tuned ears. He paused five meters away from the corner to listen
for sounds his steps might have covered... Nothing.
Silently, he edged up to the corner. The shadow seemed to
come from a light set on the wall around the corner. Tuerz guessed
the light to be three meters down the wall according to the way the
corridor was lit. By his shadow, the guard was half a meter from
the light. That's where Tuerz prepared to fire.
He poised to spring,
and jumped.
Tuerz flashed around the corner like a streak of lightning.
The thunder of his laser pistol struck the guard directly in the
forehead.
The crown of his head crackled and exploded in flames.
Burning plastic and metal fell to the floor at his feet as he
slowly brought up his gauss rifle.
Tuerz fired five shots in rapid secession as the remnant of a
human face glared at him hatefully. The arm holding the gauss
rifle fell away as he continued to advance. The x-rays sleeted
through the guard's body as he came on.
Suddenly, the guard froze and fell facedown on the floor with
a loud crash.
- XXXVII -
Niedrsha and Kfoks held the captured gauss rifles at the ready
listening for any sign of reinforcements.
Miakr looked over the remains of the guard carefully.
"Definitely tech level twelve... But it kinda looks like a tech
fourteen design... Like it was copied or something... The brain
is located in the lower abdomen. Aim for that. Head shots aren't
going to do much damage unless you hit in the eyes to blind it."
He picked up the robot's skull and showed it to Tuerz. "You
blew out his hydrogen fuel tank. Lucky it didn't blow up."
"Weird design:" noted Shtam, "the face and arms appear to be
the only thing made to look human. The rest of it is plastic. It
would not even pass a quick glance inspection."
"That's why it's wearing a combat environment suit." nodded
Miakr. "This wasn't meant to be seen without clothes. Put it in
a business suit and you wouldn't be able to tell..."
- XXXVIII -
Davis and Carton were lounging at the computer station. Davis
sighed without patience as he listened to Carton's endless whine.
"Look, we just gotta get a better assignment. I'm sick of
watching the inventory. I just want a chance to *Use* it!"
Davis's eyes rolled and he turned away to speak over his
shoulder. "Yeah, well maybe the Skipper just got sick of hearing
you belly-ache."
Carton failed to hear the annoyance in Davis' voice, "Nah!
They just wanted my brains here minding the store. But I'm bored!
Bored! BORED! BORED!"
Tuerz brightened his day with a sleet of X-rays.
Carton's head exploded in a red mist which drenched Davis.
"Yeach!" bawled Davis as he turned around on Carton in disgust and
annoyance.
Davis just had the time to recognize that Carton's mouth was
shut forever when Tuerz vaporized his face with high energy
photons.
"He lost his head." sighed Kfoks as he glanced in the doorway.
"Good shooting, Tuerz."
Tuerz strode into the terminal room sniffing the aroma of
fried brains. He kicked Davis body from the chair, "All clear.
Looks like this falls in your court Miakr."
Miakr stepped into the room and slipped on Carton's blood.
Kfoks grabbed his arm as he went down and hauled him up. "Please,"
asked Kfoks, "with the computer: no slip ups."
Miakr dropped his eyes, "Right. It shouldn't be too hard.
this guy's still logged in..."
- XXXIX -
Miakr nodded up at the map on screen. "They've moved the ship
over to the base. They kept the damn thing in plain sight. Right
in the ruins." Three icons on the map lit up bright red. "Nobody
could get in there 'cause of the particle accelerator batteries
located up there."
Shtam eyed the screen. "How is the ship?"
"She's been slated for inspection. Seems they're kinda
curious about us... Pretty heavily guarded..."
"The equipment?"
"Locked up in a magazine near the ship... most of it anyway...
Looks like they took most of the robots over to a lab... For all
the good that will do them..."
Niedrsha raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"
"Well, Vole's got so much security protection, they'll never
get him working. I rewrote the PPO2 warbot's command codes, with
the security protection already in place, it could take them days
to just start them." Miakr laughed. "It took me three days to get
inside them, oughta take them a week! The robots from the Vixen
don't have any brains. As far as I can see they left the master
unit on the ship. There is no note that it was removed from the
main computer. And the Tilly's have no brains either, not to
mention that they're built for Vargr operation. No human would be
able to..."
Kfoks grabbed Miakr by the shoulder, "You know where the
Tilly's are?"
"Yeah..."
Kfoks teeth shone in an almost human grin. His voice dropped
to a murderous growl, "Show me..."
- XL -
Tuerz was out on point again, the group strung out along the
corridor to the robotics lab.
Suddenly, klaxun began to blare. "Battle stations! Battle
stations! All hands to battle stations! This is no drill!
Repeat, this is no drill! Unidentified vessels approaching.
"Gun crews man your stations. Crews man your fighters. Stand
by for possible firing orders."
Jietlshaiepr clenched her fist. "Miakr? You still linked in
the computer?"
Miakr checked the stolen hand computer. "Hold on... Looks
like six ships... two one thousand tonners... two eight hundred
tonners... they're running ID... Continent class carriers, two
Broadsword class cruisers... The other two look like scouts...
Yeah... No transponders running... Their heading right into the
particle accelerators... Who the Viep..."
Shtam frowned. "The Domain of Alentzar doesn't have
Continents or Broadswords. They're Imperial designs: tech
twelve."
"Then who..."
Jietlshaiepr drew a sharp breath, "League of Suns ships...
It's gotta be..."
Niedrsha and Jiet caught each other's eye. "Lieutenant Jones
and Ensign Smith."
Miakr shook his head. "Not for long. These guys will blow
them out of the sky."
"What?"
"These guys got some damn good sensors... I doubt tech twelve
stuff can get through their countermeasures. They're gonna get
wiped if they keep coming on the way they are..."
"Can you patch into commo?"
Miakr thought for a second. "No. The account I'm in has no
authorization for communications."
Kfoks pushed the computer down and growled. "With a Tilly, we
won't need authorization. Let's go."
- XLI -
A figure in combat armor with a gauss gun stood motionless
outside the lab. Tuerz and Kfoks listened carefully from around
the junction of a T in the corridor.
"Another robot?" asked Kfoks.
Tuerz didn't look back, "Probably."
"Remember, the brain is in the lower abdomen." Kfoks checked
the gauss rifle, lighting the laser designator.
Tuerz eyed the deadly noisemaker "What the Grrshak are you
going to do with that?"
"Cover you."
"Grah, well don't. You fire that thing and they'll all know
where we are."
Tuerz caressed his laser pistol and crouched down close to the
floor. Never fire from where they expect...
Like quicksilver, Tuerz flowed around the corner and squeezed
off three rapid shots. The acrid smell of vaporized metal filled
the corridor as metal plates from the armor fell with a clatter.
Tuerz finger tensed on the trigger as he assessed damage to
his target.
The armored figure brought its gauss rifle half way up before
the servos froze up. For a moment it swayed and then toppled,
crashing to the floor in a two hundred and fifty kilo crunch that
echoed down the corridor.
In a flash, Tuerz was down the hall. He flew to the side of
the door and waited as Kfoks ran to the other side.
Kfoks head swiveled. He grabbed the gauss rifle from the
corpse and threw it down the corridor to Kaezorr. She and Niedrsha
covered the rear.
Kfoks hand went to the door switch, "You hit high. I'll hit
low. GO!"
The door slid open and Kfoks dove through firing. Six figures
turned and two dove for cover. Combat environment suits came
forward. Kfoks gauss rifle volleyed and thundered.
Tuerz fired from around the door. His right hand shone X-rays
while his left hand jumped with the recoil of teflon coated
caseless.
The figures in armor were unarmed. One grabbed a crowbar and
came after Kfoks. A burst of gauss needles took the arm with the
crowbar off at the elbow. It kept coming.
Tuerz flicked his laser over the robots head. It burst into
flame as liquid hydrogen fuel spilled and then exploded.
The burning robot was smashed to the floor by the blast.
Flaming wreckage flew about the room narrowly missing Kfoks.
Blazing, boiling liquid hydrogen flowed across the floor. A fire
alarm sounded.
Suddenly, the door to the room began to close. Still firing,
Tuerz dove through. The robots continued forward.
Kfoks slammed a heavy burst into the lower chest of one of his
attackers. The needles narrowly missed the brain but disabled the
transmission. It fell, but still crawled toward him.
Smoke and fog began to fill the room as the fire control
system began spewing carbon dioxide.
Tuerz concentrated his firepower on his next target. The
laser swept across its face to blind it while he sought out it's
brain with armor piercing slugs. It fell with a crash.
Kfoks chewed a robots brain to bits as he stitched gauss
needles through it's kevlar cloth.
The fifth robot grabbed a crate to hurl it at Kfoks.
Tuerz shot its feet out from under it.
A bark from Kfoks rifle sent the last robots head off into a
corner leaking flame. It wandered around trying to find its
target.
The downed robot began the slow process of picking itself up
when Tuerz sent a single slug through its back. It froze. The
crawling robot was dispatched equally easily as the headless robot
careened around the room blind and deaf in the rising fog the
automatic fire extinguishers.
The flames of the hydrogen fuel flicked low as the oxygen in
the room was displaced.
Tuerz turned for the door and punched the door release. The
door didn't budge. "Door's locked!"
Kfoks felt his breath growing short. "Grab a tilly!"
The Tillys stood on a large grav pallet along with Vole and
the other robots.
Tuerz pounded on the door and howled.
Gasping for breath, Kfoks trotted across the room and slung
his rifle onto his Tilly's arm. With his head swimming he climbed
in and hit the hatch close. The plates of armor swung into
position and closed him in. A moment later, fresh air began
pumping in. The systems came slowly on line and he dropped off the
pallet and clumped over to the door.
Tuerz lay slumped on the floor choking and gasping for breath.
Quickly, Kfoks put the arm of the Tilly through the door and
proceeded to rip it from the wall. He gently picked up his
murderous friend from the floor and carried him into the corridor.
Free of the smoke and back in the air, Tuerz took gulping breaths
of the recycled air of Zylath.
Seeing Tuerz slowly recovering, Kfoks headed back into the
lab. Carefully, he activated the two remaining Tillys and slaved
their control to his own. Soon the three of them managed to carry
the nearly 400 kilos of deactivated Vole out into the air of the
corridor.
Kfoks checked over the weapons status of the battle suit.
Gauss rifle... RAM grenade launcher... fusion gun... Weapon
systems reported themselves in, all green. Kfoks tail waved in its
armored confinement. Now the odds were just a little more even...
He went back into the lab to retrieve the PPO2 warbots.
- XLII -
Aboard the Neuevo Australia, the sensor officer called out.
"Captain Stuart, we've got a message comin' in from the surface
fer the Lieutenant Jones... Oh wait... We're losing it... It's
gone. Captain, it was a warning.
"Call him to the bridge. And Ensign Smith as well." Stuart
rolled his eyes at the brilliance of Naval Intelligence with it's
operatives. This was Supposed to be a Covert mission!
A moment later, the two intelligence officers came onto the
bridge.
"Mr. Ramsey, replay that message you picked up."
"Aye, sir."
A screech of static played out and then "Attention
starships. This is Taek Kfoks. If you've got Lieutenant Jones
up there, we've found your target for you. You're headed into a
trap. Theirsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss..."
"Lost the signal at that point. Could be jamming. The
signal was awfully low."
"Friends of yours, Mr. Jones?" asked the Captain.
"Not really sir, but if it is 'o he sez, they're not
enemies."
"Recommendations?"
"Can you locate the source o' the jamming?"
"Ah think so, sir."
Smith and Jones exchanged glances, "Then hit it. We know
thure's a pirate base in this system, we just dun't know whare."
"Thot's an act of war!" objected Ramsey.
"We are *already* at war with these pirates." observed
Smith. And if there is a military installation down thare it's
in violation of treaty."
"Very well... Gunnery officer, prepare to fire. Flight
crews prepare for launch. Signal the New Zealand to prepare to
launch fighters. I want the marines on Battleaxe and Machete
ready to drop. Have the scouts Burke and the Shaw maintain high
guard position."
"Jones, you'd better be right."
- XLIII -
The Tilly lurched silently over the vacuum plain of Zylath.
The G-Carrier was closing in on it's position. The armored
figure dove behind a rock escarpment as the range narrowed. An
eerie red light suddenly lit the rock melting away sections of it
as the laser burned through.
The Tilly dodged around the other side of the rock and
sprayed fusing plasma into it's opponent. The plasma flared
silently lighting up the shadows of the grey dusty rocks. It
drilled a hole through the bottom of the G-Carrier and ripped a
section of the roof off from the inside.
Miraculously, it stayed aloft with its hull glowing red and
other spots dripping molten superdense. Slowly, it began to
climb and the laser turned to bear on the concealed figure. A
second bolt of plasma streaked out to lick the underside of the
startled G-Carrier. The plasma nosed through the hull in search
of something interesting. It spattered against the fusion plant
ripping open the containment vessel and loosing the plasma
within. Twenty six megawatts of hydrogen plasma streamed out
into the crew compartment of the G-Carrier.
The G-Carrier's ascent slowed as the power and direction
ceased their input to the grav modules. It flew in a classic
newtonian parabolic arc in the vacuum and low gravity of Zylath.
It rose slowly and gracefully as it silently tumbled over and
then began a slow drop to the surface.
It rotated slowly upside down as it reached lazily for the
ground. The remnants of the roof hit first and crumbled under
the weight of the hundred ton grav vehicle. It silently buried
itself in the soft gray dust.
- XLIV -
Five Swordfish and five Swordfish II's nosed away from the
Neuevo Australia and formed up with the two squadrons of the New
Zealand around the cutters from the Battleaxe and Machete. The
patrol cruiser scanned the surface for the source of the jamming.
It seemed to be coming from a large number of sources spread over
the surface of the planet frustrating attempts to just lock on
one source hostile electronic countermeasures.
Ramsey pointed to the captain's holotank, "Sir! Picking up
a large neutrino source deep below the planet's surface... Looks
like a big plant powering up."
Stewart frowned. "Helm, evasive maneuver sequence juliet.
Weapons officer, sand casters free. Attention all ships, begin
evasive maneuvers, defensive systems free. Redirect laser
systems power to engines."
Ramsey continued, "Could be something big... five hundred
megawatts and rising... One gigawatt and rising... Five
gigawatts and still rising...
Stewart growled. "Flight leaders, begin EMS-Jamming. Get
those marines down."
The EMS-Jammers of the fighters screamed up and down the
spectrum to fend off any active radar systems. But the passive
sensors of the pirates were not the least disturbed.
"Ten gigawatts and still rising... Fifteen gigawatts...
Holding steady at fifteen gigawatts."
A stream of neutral particles came screaming at the Neuevo
Australia. It licked away at her stern and etched away at the
engines. The radiation leaked through the hull and began
blasting away at her sand caster batteries.
"Damage report!" called Stewart, "Mr. Ramsey, did we get a
lock on that firing station?"
"Umm... No sir! The rad sensors got swamped: particle
accelerator. Scanning for it..."
"Damage to maneuver drive! Acceleration down to 3G's...
sand caster battery two is out of action!"
Stewart's jaw set in anger, "Damage control procedures.
Engineering get those drives back up."
"Sir! We're picking up some sort of a fire fight on the
surface. Lasers and a fusion gun." Ramsey flicked the sensor
display to a closeup of the surface of Zylath. Briefly he
replayed the little fireworks display between the Tilly and the
G-Carrier.
Stewart frowned "Well, someone is fighting down there... god
knows who's side they're on."
Lt. Jones frowned at the holodisplay. "Sir, I b'lieve that
th' armored figger down there's... *not* our enemy. It's 'im who
signaled us."
"Mister Jones, do you have any idea *who* the enemy is?"
"Sir," called Ramsey, "Picking up two small craft now. Ten
ton range... Look to be fighters. I make them out to be
Shtelfires. Closing in on the fire fight we picked up..."
- VL -
Kfoks lumbered back toward the dome. The G-Carrier was
finished, he didn't care to stick around to find out what would
follow it. Suddenly, the threat warning alarm went off in his
ears. Instantly, he dropped to the ground and scanned for the
danger.
Several kilometers away, heavy lasers were melting the
ground. The even at that distance, three gigawatts of visible
wavelength laser speckle is a bright and deadly eyesore. The
lasers slashed about as though seeking a target. They were
rapidly approaching his position.
A voice sounded in his helmet breaking through the jamming,
"Vampire! Vampire! Vampire!"
Suddenly, there was a series of tiny flashes up in the sky
as the lasers found a small flying target.
- IVL -
"Missiles intercepted, Sir." called Ramsey. "Kangaroo
squadron is closing on the Shtels."
Jones studied the Holodisplay. "Did ye get through to 'im
on the radio?"
"Don't know, Sir. His transmitter must not be as strong as
ours. He might be able to read us, but we'll never hear him over
the jamming."
"But we can still communicate..." Jones keyed the
transmitter. "Kfoks? This is Jones. If you can't signal us by
radio, les see a blast from that fusion gun of yers..."
Ramsey interrupted, "Sir! New Zealand reports a hit on
their maneuver drive!"
"Did they get a lock on the particle accelerator?"
"Negative, sir it's too well collimated."
"Anything on the densitometer?"
"Still chewing on it sir."
Stewart turned on Jones and Smith. "If your 'not enemy'
down there doesn't give us the intelligence we need we're going
to have to pull it out of here."
Kfoks didn't know Morse, but it took a few microseconds for
the Neuevo Australia's computer to find a translation program for
Gdekgveg as Kfoks hammered away with the Tilly's laser welder.
"Whare in hell is that gun?" demanded Jones.
-B-A-S-E-L-O-C-A-T-I-O-N-O-L-D-F-I-G-H-T-E-R-B-A-S-E-U-N-E-
R-G-R-O-U-N-D-S-T-O-P-P-A-R-T-I-C-L-E-A-C-C-E-L-E-R-A-T-O-R-S-T-
O-P-
Smith turned to Ramsey, "Concentrate sensor scans on the ol'
fighter base. Mayn't be as dead as reports say."
"Aye, Ma'am... Hold on just a sec... Getting something...
GOT IT! Target located, data passing on the bus to fire
control."
Captain Stewart grinned for the first time since they exited
jump. "Commence firing on that target. Pass data link to the
task force."
Three gigawatts of laser energy began licking away at the
shore batteries.
"Permission to load nuclear rounds sir?"
"Mr. Ramsey, how close is our forward observer?"
"Too close, Captain. He's less than a kilometer away."
"Belay nuclear rounds."
As the lasers picked away at the uncovered particle
accelerator, Shtelfires began swarming out like angry wasps from
a flaming nest. The Swordfish leapt to engage.
"Looks like twenty Shtels rising to engage our fighters."
"Then it's even odds. Maintain laser fire on the shore
batteries until you're certain they're out of action. Missile
batteries commence targeting enemy fighters."
- IIIL -
The two robots caught them off guard. With a staccato bark,
they opened up with ACR's as the Rackan rounded the corner in the
Tilly. Sabots pounded on the heavy armor of the Tilly ringing it
like a bell beaten by a burning spastic.
"AMBUSH!" shouted Niedrsha.
Rackan reacted instantly. A long burst of gauss needles
rang out adding to the din. The first robot shook wildly under
the impacts while the second turned to run. The first caught
three needles in its brain and froze like a statue before
toppling to the ground.
Tuerz took off after the fleeing robot. He turned the
corner and caught sight of it. With a quick shot he grazed its
fuel tank. Liquid hydrogen spewed from the tank sheathing the
robot in flame.
It continued running.
Tuerz sensitive ears picked up the sound of approaching
feet... Many approaching feet. He skidded to a stop and
backtracked to the group. Miakr was puzzling over the ACR when
he found them. "More coming."
Jietlshaiepr nodded, "Let's move people. Miakr, send the
PPO2's to fight rearguard. Tuerz, Vole on point. Kaezorr, Rackan
cover the rear. Move *Fast*!"
Tuerz ran by Miakr and flicked the safety on the ACR off.
He sneered at the longarm. "Clumsy weapon. No style. No grace.
Point it and shoot it."
- IIL -
The PPO2's closed in on the sound of approaching feet. The
robots took position at the intersection of two corridors and
waited for the approach. Silently, they hung suspended out of
sight as their targets entered the corridor shooting gallery.
On a quick burst radio signal, the fire team uncovered
itself to open fire. One warbot exposed itself fully while the
others remained under cover taking firing instructions from the
first.
Two of the targets were cut down by laser fire before they
could respond. Four millimeter sabots stitched tiny holes in the
light superdense armor of the exposed PPO2.
The PPO2's continued to methodically cut down their targets
managing to drop three more before the exposed PPO2 took a hit in
the brain that dropped it to the floor with a loud two hundred
eighty nine kilogram crash.
A second PPO2 rotated to expose itself to the withering fire
from the targets.
One of the targets was hit in the fuel tank. Liquid
hydrogen leaked for a millisecond before it touched on the molten
metal of the robot converting the fuel tank into a flame thrower.
The jet of the newly formed hydrogen torch cut into the robot's
fuel cell which instantly exploded.
Four of the PPO2's targets were flattened by the blast and
shrapnel took the arm off of the exposed warbot.
New orders came in on the PPO2's command circuit: "Withdraw
and lead the targets off."
The PPO2's moved down the side corridor continuing to draw
fire from their targets.
- IL -
Five Swordfish II's of Kangaroo squadron screamed in on the
particle accelerator batteries with their anti-ship pulse lasers
licking away at the armored emplacements, gouging scars in the
heavy superdense.
Eight Shtelfires came climbing up the Swordfish II's tails.
A growling note sounded in the pilot's ears as their missile's
seeker heads locked onto the data fed from the Shtel's sensor
arrays. Three missiles leapt from each Shtel toward the wildly
jinking Swordfish II's.
Most of the missiles went wide, but three found their way to
their targets. In a small flash, one of the Swordfish lost all
power and plowed a deep furrow in the ground. A second Swordfish,
wildly evading one missile, veered right into the path of a second
missile and blew the cockpit off. The third missile ripped a
Fish's turret off, taking the fighter's computer systems with it
leaving a plate of twisted metal, plastic and diamond semiconductor
spaghetti: she was maimed, but alive, close enough to the ground
to spit at it.
The three survivors pulled away from the barren surface.
The eight Shtels closed in for the kill.
But the Shtels luck was turning as the five Swordfish I's of
Rabbit squadron bore in on the climbing Shtels.
Kangaroos chased by Shtels chased by Rabbits. The surface of
Zylath was the site of the largest 6G carousel as the three groups
went into a defensive wheel formation.
The Kangaroos laser turrets turned to bear on their attackers
while the Rabbits fired their missiles catching their opponents in
a Shtelfire sandwich. But against the superior electronic
countermeasures of the Shtels computers, the vollies found no
marks.
The Shtels missiles streaked after the surviving Kangaroos but
the pilots were fully alerted to the defensive now, and were ready
for the launch. Not a missile came close to the twisting
Kangaroos.
The fight was too even.
The stalemate was broken as five Swordfish I's of Dingo
squadron blazed in to tip the balance. They swooped into the
circle of fire and lit off their missiles.
The outnumbered Shtels weren't ready for the onslaught. One
Shtel vaporized. Another went out of control as the cockpit
shattered under the force of the blast.
The Shtelfires fired another salvo of missiles on the fleeing
Kangaroo squadron and broke off. The crippled Swordfish II
crumpled under her second hit while another sailed on into the
blackness without power.
- L -
"Grahl, Ancients! Am I glad to see you! I thought cha' were
one of them!" Gresha waved the group into the garage with an
automatic. She still looked ill from the radiation serum, but was
on her feet. "We'll never fit the Tilly's into the grav
ambulance."
Jiet nodded. "Yes. They'll have to ride on the outside."
"Where the gvresh are we going?"
"We've gotta get back to the Flamboyant." growled Jiet.
"She's too well guarded so we go for their armory first and get
loaded for bear!"
Gresha counted and came up one short, "Where's Kfoks?"
"Out on the surface somewhere." growled Tuerz.
- LI -
The Battleaxe's cutter swung low over Kfoks's head and settled
on the surface with the modular bay swung open. Quickly, a Kuum
grav armored personnel carrier dropped out. The cutter, relieved
of it's precious cargo climbed back up at full power.
With no prelude, the APC swung round and bore down on Kfoks
with her clamshell doors wide open.
The Tilly clumped over and climbed into the Kuum's cargo
space, the armored bulk barely fit as the clamshells closed. Kfoks
was jounced as the APC took off in a nape of the ground flight.
"Welcome aboard, mate."
- LII -
Niedrsha slowly lifted the grav ambulance and began guiding
her for the armory. "Miakr? You sure you can get us in the armory
from that account?"
Miakr nodded "No question. This account looks like it
belonged to their main supply officer. Got their whole inventory."
Niedrsha frowned, "Whole inventory... Ummm, Jiet. Just
thought of something..."
Jietlshaiepr, in the midst of examining her bandaged arm,
looked up, "What?"
"These bastards are pretty sore losers, right?"
"Yeah?"
"Suicide capsules, the whole bit." Niedrsha exhaled sharply,
"So, what happens if they figure they're losin'?"
"Mmmm... They'll throw a party and get bombed out their
minds."
Niedrsha nodded. "Well, that's one party I can afford to
miss."
Shtam turned to Miakr, "Can you get into the Flamboyant's
systems from here?"
Miakr checked the hand computer. "Ummm... I think so..."
"Do it. I want the systems running through the emergency
automatic checklist for take off. We may have to get out of here
in a hurry."
Miakr nodded. "Okay. I'm on it."
- LIII -
High in orbit, Lt. Dragoon sat on the bridge of the Burke
sulking. The main body of the task force was down in close laying
orbital fire support, and here she was up in high guard position
twiddling her thumbs.
Nothing on sensors out there, "Damn orders!" she growled.
Great opportunity to get in action, and here she was guarding the
task force from it's own... shadow...
...Shadow? Hmmm... that's the second time that sensor glitch
appeared... She crossed her fingers and grinned. Maybe there
*was* something out here to fight...
Dragoon flicked the toggle safety off the active sensors.
Let's see if anybody's home...
"Energizing active EMS! Targeting... Bogie... Negative...
She's a bandit!"
Dragoon kicked the throttle over. "Burke to task force. Have
identified a Ninz class scout. Closing to engage."
"Gunner! Weapon's free! Ram a nuke down that bastard's
throat!"
Two missiles leapt from the Burke's racks and flashed off into
the darkness. Almost immediately the Ninz returned fire. The
missiles arced across the blackness passing within mere kilometers
of each other on opposite courses.
One of the Burke's missiles flew wide. The second connected
with the onrushing Ninz. The detonation gave Zylath a second sun
for a millisecond as pieces of the Ninz scattered across the high
orbit of the small planet.
Separated from the umbilical cord of guiding maser beams, the
Ninz's missiles sought the Burke on their own power, but without
the Ninz's computer to help them, they were easily sidestepped by
Dragoon's pirouettes.
- LIV -
Miakr looked up from the hand computer. "I've got the
Flamboyant chewing on the checklist. Five minutes 'till power
plant start up. Got ship's sensors going. Looks like about
sixteen of those robots outside guarding her."
Shtam grinned. "Good. Now can you make a data transfer to the
Flamboyant from here?"
"Yeah..."
"Do it: all the data you can get. If a lot of shipping went
through here, we might be able to get an idea of where it came
from, and where it was going."
"Ok..."
Shtam took a deep breath. "With luck we may even find out
where they have shipped Dr. Malenkoviepr..."
An alarm sounded on the ambulance radio. "Alert! Alert!
Enemy troops have breached the starport landing bay! Blazer
Company, divert to landing bay!"
- LV -
The Kuum APC entered the glowing hole in the starport airlock.
She flew over the blasted carcass of one of her fellows as a plasma
bolt streamed by missing by a meter. A second bolt scorched the
APC's armored hull, rocking the thirty seven ton mass slightly.
The APC's VRF gauss gun locked on the source of the blasts and
chewed the plasma gunner in half.
The Kuum's doors swung open. Sergeant Tucker screamed "GO!
GO! GO!" and jumped as two fire teams of marines leaped out and
into firing positions.
Gauss needles began arcing over the scene as Kfoks dropped out
of the cargo bay to join the Sergeant under the cover of the
blasted Kuum.
"I'll lay down covering fire." shouted Kfoks, "You move yer
men up!"
Tucker's helmet nodded.
Kfoks popped up and blazed fusing plasma over the source of
the annoyance.
"MOVE IT! MOVE IT! MOVE IT!"
- LVI -
Eight Shtelfires screamed toward the body of the task force.
Quickly they began unloading their missile racks, sending off
salvoes to the League of Suns ships, concentrated on the Machete.
The mercenary cruiser's lasers swung round to engage the
closing missiles managing to pick off three of the pursuing probing
salvoes. Three more slammed into the Machete's spherical hull.
Her heavy bulk was shaken by three nuclear explosions.
Hydrogen fuel streamed off into the vacuum in a giant cloud of
gas. Fifty tons of hydrogen and bits of lanathnum plasma formed a
freezing, burning sphere around the stricken ship.
The task force quickly shifted targets to avenge the strike.
A fusillade of destruction caught the Shtel's, blowing seven of the
eight from the black skies of Zylath.
In desperation, the last Shtel fired off a second salvo of
missiles at the Machete and ran. The combined batteries of the
entire task force blazed after the fleeing fighter which vaporized
under the heavy abuse.
The second missile salvo, now without guidance from the
Shtel's computers blinked for a second and found the target on
their own. The missile detonated on target. The Machete's
computers were awash in a sea of radiation. The electromagnetic
pulse blew the connections to the diamond semiconductor chips
arcing and melting the systems around it.
- LVII -
The heavy blast door to the armory lifted open to admit the
ambulance. The reunited PPO2's swept into the room while Kaezorr
and Rackan in the Tilly's dropped off the outside of the ambulance
and swung round looking for...
...Nothing?
The armory was unguarded.
"Looks like we had a convenient diversion!" sighed
Jietlshaiepr. The crew climbed out of the ambulance to look on the
stockpile.
The bunker was overflowing with an orgy of ordnance.
Conventional missiles stood in row upon row upon row. Missile
booster stages stood awaiting their unconventional warheads stored
in different safe bins, nuclear, biological, chemical. Death
harnessed and imprisoned in tiny containers labeled with bright
colors and garish designs. All waiting impatiently for someone to
loose their collars.
Racks of gauss rifles stood ready. A plethora of plasma guns,
loads of lasers, rows of rocket launchers, cases of caseless ammo,
mounds of ammunition, heaps of HEAP all competed for space on the
floor of the stockpile.
Shtam surveyed the army of armaments, "There are enough
munitions here to supply an entire invasion. You could refit a
fleet of ships with all this."
"Yeah," agreed Niedrsha, "but who's fleet? And where are they
bound?"
"They will be invading the Domain of Alentzar." answered
Shtam. "Zylath is a good strategic position."
"Somebody's planning a Big party..." Observed Tuerz.
"Nuclear rounds..." Jietlshaiepr raised an eyebrow, "Let's
make *sure* all they do is *plan* that party."
- LVIII -
A team of cargobots edged into the landing bay of the
Flamboyant carrying seven heavy cargo containers. The sergeant in
charge of the squad guarding the ship strode over to them as they
headed for the ship's cargo lock which opened to greet them.
"What's this?" he asked suspiciously.
The robot cargo master did not slow. "Work order niner zero
seven three two charlie. Load cargo containers: delta one, two,
three, four, five, six, seven, eight into docked ship via aft cargo
bay."
"Who authorized this? I wasn't notified."
"Work order niner zero seven three two charlie comes from
Supply Officer Carton."
The sergeant sighed, better not question it. Carton was a
real bastard sometimes: the stupid and officious type. He didn't
realize that Carton was hardly likely to bother him again as his
brains were currently spread over the walls of one of the bunker's
terminal rooms.
"Proceed."
The robots hurried about the task of loading the eight crates.
- LIX -
Miakr opened the crate and jumped out as soon as the cargo
door boomed shut. "It worked!"
Jiet crawled carefully out of the crate with Niedrsha's help.
"Good going. Ok crew. Man your stations. We're getting out of
here."
Tuerz growled mutinously. "We aren't leaving."
"What?"
"Taek is still out there."
Jietlshaiepr eyed Tuerz angrily and growled, "We're going to
get him. We don't leave anyone behind. Now, get to your station
mister!"
Tuerz ears drooped and he retreated, his tail curled slightly
between his legs.
- LX -
"Power is up!" called Shtam from engineering.
Jietlshaiepr sat nervously on the bridge. She watched as
Miakr fed firing orders to the turret computers. Sixteen troops in
the outside bay, six lasers in two turrets. "Ready Miakr?" she
asked.
Miakr continued working "Just a second more... ok... ok..."
He brightened, "All fed in."
Jietlshaiepr turned to her lover at the pilot's station,
"Ready Niedrsha?"
"Checklists complete. Ready for take off."
Jietlshaiepr set her jaw. "Right. Gunnery stations to
automatic control. Commence fire on my mark."
She drew a deep breath and sat back in her chair. "MARK!"
The laser turrets swept round and fired on low power. Six one
megawatt beams of photons surgically removed the targets standing
in the landing bay. It was over in a tenth of a second. The last
was hit before the first had even started to crumple.
Jietlshaiepr grinned. "Ok, Miakr open that door!"
The heavy bay doors began to open sending the air out into the
vacuum in a typhoon.
Suddenly, the doors stopped dead and began to close.
They'd been detected.
The laser turrets swung round and began chewing on the bay
doors. The turrets began to draw their full power and the heavy
armored doors began to puddle on the floor. The glare shields went
up in the flamboyant as one point five gigawatts of energy blazed
away at the doors.
The laser's shut off.
The glare shields cut out.
The crew watched as the glowing metal doors fell slowly to the
ground in the low gravity of Zylath.
Niedrsha grinned and pulled up on the collective as the
Flamboyant slowly lifted vertically and eased out through the hole
she'd carved.
- LXI -
"Captain! Picking up new target!"
Stewart growled, "Identify!"
"Sensors make her out as a Fiery class gunned escort."
"Cud' be th' Flamboyant." Lt. Jones interjected.
"Picking up their masercom."
Stewart raised an eyebrow. "Put 'em on."
Miakr's voice came over the link, "...of Suns task force, this
is the Flamboyant come in..."
"This is Commander Stewart. Go ahead Flamboyant."
"Do your fire! Repeat, do not fire! We're on your side!
Hold on..."
Jietlshaiepr's voice replaced Miakr on the circuit.
"Commander Stewart, if you've got troops down there you'd better
get them out, now! These folks are known for their scorched ground
policy."
Stewart started to speak when Lt. Jones interrupted him.
"Leftenant Jietlshaiepr, this is Leftenant Jones. How are Miakr's
stitches?"
Stewart eyed Jones critically, but kept his mouth shut.
*These bloody intell types!*
Jietlshaiepr hesitated on the line, "Ummm... fine. He
recovered quickly considering... Mind you I had to clean up your
work, but not bad over all."
"Ye' cleaned up *My* work? Ye'..." Jones grimaced, "Yeah,
Commander, it's them. Think we'd better get th' men back 'ere
quick. If there's a bomb, it's a mother of all bombs..."
- LXII -
The center of town was a dead vacuum when the recall order
came. All the air had leaked out through the blast holes from the
fire fight. The defenders were being driven back slowly and not
without cost.
Tucker and Kfoks fazed back covering the retreat back to the
APC's at the landing bay with a wall of plasma.
The defenders had holed up in a large building. At first they
thought the cease fire was another ruse while the attackers dropped
back to switch to a probing attack.
Find the weak points.
It took them some time to realize that their adversaries were
pulling out. Had they beaten them off? Or was it a trick?
A minute later they came out ready to counter attack.
They caught up with the troops loading in their APC's. Gauss
needles splintered off the hulls and cutting down one of the
marines. His combat armor leaking away air and blood.
A bolt of fusing plasma drove the counter attack back
momentarily, but they had seen the marines were in retreat. Now
they could really smash them as they sought to escape.
Suddenly, a new form hovered through the smashed landing bay
doors.
The triangular wedge of the Flamboyant came through.
Jietlshaiepr's voice came over the circuit. "Hey! Kfoks!
You order a pizza?"
Kfoks barked over the radio "GrraSH! Team am I glad to see
you!"
"You want this pizza or not?"
Kfoks barked a laugh, "HARF! Sure! Got my laser designator,
deliver it to this address, and don't forget the anchovies!" Kfoks
laser welder shined over the target where the defenders were
gathering their strength.
"On the way! Flamboyant's delivers!"
The ship's lasers came up again at low power melting away the
rubble and smashing up the cover the defenders needed.
"So long, Tucker!" called Kfoks, "Thanks for the lift, but I
got my own ride home now!"
"G'day Kfoks! Fun workin' w' ye!"
Kfoks clumped heavily across the pad and climbed into the
Flamboyant's cargo hold. Inside, he punched the hatch close and
howled to the bridge. "HAAAROOO! Niedrsha! Get us outta here!"
"On the way!" Niedrsha called.
The Flamboyant lifted, spun around and headed for space.
Coming eventually:
6: Shades of Gray
7: Eve of Destruction
8: For What It's Worth