First Strike (Hammer's War Book 3)

by James McEwan

  The gas was all but gone and he was happy to be alive. He was still grasping the idea that he had just plunged far enough to turn himself into a street pizza and lived when two more green glass balls dropped to the ground, missing his head by millimeters.

  “Ah Shit,” St. Claire exclaimed as he ran for the far side of the stairwell. He had almost got clear of the gas when the blue ball landed. The gas turned instantly to gel and St. Claire found himself caught in mid run, but unlike before he was unable to move. It appeared that one needed much more force than he could generate on his own to overcome the gels hold.

  He felt it when Thad landed, because the gel released and he was free to move again. He continued to move forward and a second later, the gel was gone. He stopped just short of smashing into the wall. He turned around to see Thad standing there in the middle of the stairwell. “Doctor Hammer really did that to you?”

  “Yeah he did, of course he only threw me off a third story building and not some sixty floors, but I imagine I looked a bit like you do now,” Thad said.

  “You could have told me we were going to jump.”

  Thad walked over to his friend and placed his hand on his back, “Yeah, I could have, but would you really have jumped if I had?”

  “Fair enough,” St. Claire answered.

  “Besides, I’ve been dying to do that to someone ever since he did it to me.”

  “You asshole.”

  “You know, that’s what I said too,” Thad laughed.

  “I thought Doctor Hammer was a bit of a straight arrow, especially when it came to his science.”

  “Well my version of Doctor Hammer was a little bit more relaxed about some things. He always told me that science was a serious business, not to be taken lightly… expect for cheap tricks on friends.”

  “Ah,” St. Claire stood there mulling over the idea of the Doctor Hammer he had come to know playing cheap tricks on friends.

  “Come on Dom, we have women to find.” The two men set off down the dimly light hallway looking for the women’s holding area.

  Meanwhile Fiona and Freya had stripped all of the light wire from their clothing and with the help of some of the other women they had stripped off the coating leaving the copper wire bare. They then tied the wire together end to end. Once they had finished that task Freya took one of the emergency lights apart and pulled out the transformer that was used to charge the batteries. It was no longer of any use now that it had been pulled from the wall. She stripped off the ends of the wires that made up the coil and tied them to the light wire they had stripped.

  “It’s ready,” Freya announced. It was getting hotter in the cell and harder to breath and everyone was feeling sluggish. Most of the women had abandoned all of their clothing except for their underwear. It helped a little, but the sweat was still pouring off of them.

  Freya handed the transformer, now turned into an electromagnet, over to Fiona who held it up to the locking bolt. “Okay give it juice,” she said.

  Freya took the other ends of the wires and touched them to the battery terminals. The light wire lit up bright blue and the magnet barring the cell door resonated with a loud clang. Fiona tugged and tugged, but it barely moved. “Damn it, I’m not strong enough to get it to pull open.”

  “Now what?” Freya asked with her hands still holding the wires to the battery.

  “I don’t know,” Fiona replied. She wanted to say something, but before she could, they heard muffled sounds coming from Milkshake.

  Fiona nodded and one of the women removed the gag, “I’m strong enough.”

  “Fine, as long as you promise not to be any more trouble,” Freya answered.

  “I won’t, Milkshake’s learned her lesson.”

  Fiona had to ask, “And just what lesson was that?”

  “Not to mess with skinny white human girls, you bitches are crazy,” Milkshake said as they untied her.

  Everyone laughed at the remark, and a moment later Milkshake was untied and back on her feet. She grabbed the electromagnet and pulled with all her strength. Ever so slowly it inched toward her. She paused to get a better grip and to catch her breath, as it was getting really hard to breath. One of the women in the back cried out, “We’re gonna die, we’re all gonna die in here.”

  “Nobody’s going to die in here, I can do this,” Milkshake bellowed as she grabbed the magnet for another try. This time she planted one of her massive feet on the doorframe and pulled with everything she had. It seemed like forever before the giant lock moved but finally it slid with one big click. It was so sudden that Milkshake lost her grip and fell backwards, landing on two women who were standing too close as they watched.

  The cell door swung open and all the women let out a cheer, except for the two under Milkshake who more or less grumbled. Freya let go of the wires and ran to her sister’s side who was trying to help Milkshake up. The two sisters helped the large women to her feet. “Great job Milky,” Fiona said as she let go.

  “Thank you, now I opened this one you’ll need to figure out how to open the next one.”

  “One bridge at a time,” Freya said.

  “What?” Milkshake asked not understanding the reference.

  Freya was going to explain when they heard the outer door open and a blast of cool fresh air rushed in. They all stood motionless having not expected that to happen. Milkshake put her hand on Fiona’s shoulder, “You’re good.”

  “But, I didn’t,” she answered in bewilderment.

  Before anyone could move or say anything else, two men entered the hallway and stopped in front of the cell. It was St. Claire who spoke first, “Well would you look at that Thad, I think we’ve died and gone to heaven. A whole room full of nearly naked sweaty women just waiting for us.”

  Thad laughed, “Don’t let Kára hear you say that.”

  “No shit really, I think she’d slow roast my man parts on a stick,” St. Claire laughed.

  Some of the women realized their state of undress and ran for their clothing, while others pulled off their tops brazenly showing off their breasts and making catcalls at the men. St. Claire enjoyed the show while Fiona, who was closest to the door, got to Thad first. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him all over his face and neck. Thad nearly fell over when Freya jumped them in a big three-way hug. Thad was happy and relieved to find them both alive.

  After much hugging and kissing Fiona asked, “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

  “The district is under attack from forces unknown at the moment, but they’ve got a hell of a lot of firepower given the fact that they destroyed half the building with what I’m guessing was an orbital strike,” Thad said.

  “Who’s your handsome friend?” Freya asked, noticing St. Claire for the first time.

  “Oh, this is Dominic St. Claire.” Thad paused then turned to St. Claire, “Dom this is Freya and Fiona, again.”

  “Again? What do you mean again?” Fiona asked a bit confused.

  “We need to move, the building is unstable and could come down at any time,” Thad stated.

  St. Claire gave Thad a frustrated glance, “I thought you knew, but we’ve got to get out of here. It has to do with the dimensional shift. I’m sure Thad will explain.”

  Fiona laughed, “There’s always something.”

  “What about the other girls?” Freya said as she tilted her head toward the cell door.

  “Listen up ladies, follow us single file, and stay quiet. We don’t have any idea what’s out there. Got it?”

  The women yipped a bit then quieted down and fell in line with Thad leading the way. St. Claire took up the rear to ensure that everyone got out.

  Chapter 19

  Archie waited until the lift was all the way to the bottom before returning to get Ruby out of the wall. He moved the dresser, “Miss Ruby you can come out now.”

  Ruby climbed out of the wall and wrapped her arms around Archie’s neck, her little eyes filled with tears, “I’m scared Mr. Archi
e.”

  Although Eve had given Archie extensive personality programing upgrades over the last year, he was still not really good at dealing with human emotions. He softly patted her head, “There, there Miss Ruby, it will be okay.”

  Even though Archie’s consoling technique was somewhat jilted and robotic, it seemed to be working. Ruby’s tears dried up and she became much calmer. “What do we do now Mr. Archie?”

  “First we keep you safe, second we try to establish contact with Ms. Eve, she will have better information than we do, then we will try to get you back to your daddy.”

  “Okay Mr. Archie I trust you,” Ruby said with big frightened eyes.

  “Good Miss Ruby, I will need you to trust me because the next few hours might be rather scary, but I will keep you safe. Now we cannot stay here, the enemy will be watching the building waiting for Mr. Hammer to return. We need to leave, but first I must assess all our options and program a plan of action. Please get dressed while I do this.” Ruby nodded her head, got up and went to her closet.

  The Eden had been submerged for a few hours and in that time Eve had been frantically trying to find an open comm channel. She analyzed every band of the electromagnetic spectrum and found nothing but a massive amount of noise. Whoever was jamming the airwaves was good as they were jamming everything, even old unused frequencies. Eve was so frustrated that she finally had to shut down her emotional programs so she could continue without distraction.

  Eve was devoting most of her runtime to signal analysis. The more she devoted the more power she needed to draw from subspace and this meant a buildup of heat within the Eden. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem because she could just vent the excess heat into space. However, under the water if she vented the heat, she would run the risk of boiling the water near the vents and that would leave a trail of bubbles right to her.

  It was early morning and the sun was rising over the Capital District. Carl woke to find himself in a pool of sweat and his cabin heat in the triple digits. “Eve is there something wrong with the environmental systems? It’s like a million degrees in here.” Eve didn’t answer and Carl thought that was a little odd, “Hey Eve, are you okay?”

  “Apologies Carl, I’m incredibly busy at the moment,” her answer was short and curt.

  “What in tar nation has you so busy that you’d let the ship get so hot as to bake me in my own bed?”

  Again, Eve didn’t answer, but a vid screen lit up and played all the newscasts that Eve had gathered before communications had blacked out. Carl stood there watching the videos with sweat dripping down his bald forehead. “I take it the planet is under some kind of attack? So where are we?” A map of the lakes flashed on the vid screen. A red ship icon appeared in the middle of the largest lake. “That is all fine and good Eve, but what is up with this God forsaken heat?”

  This time Eve answered, “Running massive amounts of programs trying to break through the signal jamming. I can’t vent the excess heat due to a possibility of detection. I will try to bring down the temperature in your cabin. I can’t promise that it will be by much.”

  “Thanks, but if you don’t do something you might as well stick an apple in my mouth, drizzle me in honey, and roll me in seasoning, cause I’ll be as good as a roasted pig,” Carl said as he picked up a hand towel and wet it in his bathroom sink.

  Colonel Grunt stood over watch as the last of the preparations to move the Terrain Emperor and his mistress Sasha to a safer location were carried out. The Terrain ambassador had two armored embassy cars parked at his home. The ambassador and his family were crammed into the rear seat of one, while the two marines Grunt had assigned to their protection were in the front. The Colonel gave the order and the car left the compound. He had saved the larger of the two vehicles for the Emperor to use, a six passenger utility vehicle. In addition to the extra room inside, the Colonel wanted this vehicle because of the advantage of running boards and handles that had been added for security personnel to ride on the outside. It didn’t hurt that in the center of the vehicle was a hidden armored copula with a mini power gun as well.

  The marine whose helmet had been damaged in the last fire fight was tasked with driving, while another marine took control of the mini power gun. The Emperor and Sasha were hurried into the back seat and the remaining six marines stood on the running boards holding on with one arm and their weapon ready with the other. Satisfied they were ready to move out Colonel Grunt took the front passenger seat and closed the door, “Let’s go.”

  The driver eased the large vehicle out of the garage and down the driveway to the gate. So far so good. The streets were clear for the moment and overhead in the skyways it was completely devoid of traffic. The last time the sky had been this empty was before humans arrived at this planet to colonize it.

  Colonel Grunt was trying to use his armor’s sensors, but the jamming signal was so strong that it was walking over everything, making his sensors a mess of static and noise. This was not the first time he’d had to work without the advantages of technology. In fact, deep down inside his warrior heart, he liked it this way. It made him feel like a real soldier, raw and unencumbered by tech. He felt a kin to the many generations of soldiers that had come before him that had nothing to rely upon, but their own senses and intuition.

  It wasn’t long before they started to hear heavy fighting in the distance. It was hard to pin point where the sound of fighting was coming from because of the maze of buildings that the sound was bouncing off of.

  The Colonel was leading them to a safe house run by the Terrain Intelligence Service. House was a rather loose term actually as they were really heading for more of a secure underground bunker deep in the under city. The closer they got the more signs of heavy combat were about. The planetary defenders were putting up one hell of a fight. They were greatly outnumbered, but they were making the enemy pay a heavy price for every inch they took. Damaged buildings were smoking and many were still on fire. Burned out vehicles and bodies were everywhere. The strange thing was that they saw Fabian dead as well as Ralnai, Alyn Ru, and others. “What do you think sir? We’re up against a coalition of assholes?” The driver asked as they passed some burning corpses of mixed alien races.

  “It would appear so. Stay focused Marine,” the Colonel replied.

  Not a second later a PML round streaked straight passed the windshield. “Contact left!” The Marine in the copula cried out just before spinning the gun to the left and unleashing Hell. The driver turned the vehicle to the right and stopped to give the Marines on the outside as much cover as he could. The Marines dismounted and the three on the right side took up defensive positions using the vehicle as cover. The three on the left jumped down and ran towards positions that faced the fire.

  The Marines laid down heavy cover fire and after a few seconds when no return fire was received, the lead Marine held up his hand to signal a cease-fire. The Marines stopped shooting and Colonel Grunt dismounted the vehicle, “Check it out.” The three Marines leap frogged ahead and soon disappeared from sight. They were gone only a few minutes before they reappeared. They were laughing as they returned, carrying a PML tube and what looked like a severed arm.

  “Report,” Colonel Grunt said as the Marines stopped to face him. The one carrying the arm dropped it at his feet.

  “Sir, we were almost creamed by a dead man. Turned out there wasn’t anyone there waiting to ambush us, just what was left of this dead guy that fell over just as we happened by, setting off the PML,” the Marine reported.

  “How do you know that it wasn’t us who killed him?” Grunt asked.

  “Simple sir, who every killed this bloke didn’t leave the body.”

  “Alright then, mount up and move out,” Grunt said as he entered the vehicle.

  “Eve dear, I know you’re busy, but you really have got to do something about this heat. I’m baking alive in here,” Carl complained as he sat in his cabin breathing the hot dry air. “I swear you’re trying to remind m
e of Nome, and it’s okay I really don’t miss it that much.”

  “I am sorry Carl, I know you’re suffering some discomfort, but I am monitoring your vitals. If at any time I feel you’re in real danger I will shut down and cool the ship.”

  “Thanks, I guess. I sure could use an ice cold beer right about now,” Carl said thinking about the rumbling in his stomach. “Speaking of which, I could also use with some food, I’m getting awful hungry. I think I’ll head down to the galley and whip me up something to eat.”

  “Again, I apologize, but it’s not safe for you to leave your cabin at this time. To keep certain vital areas cool, like your cabin, I have had to vent the majority of heat into the corridors. If you leave your cabin, you will succumb to the heat in a matter of minutes. I know you are not fond of food replicators, but in this case, it is the best I can do.” Eve said over the cabin speakers. The replicator buzzed then beeped to indicate that there was an order ready. Carl went over to it, opened the door, and found a large bowl of mint chocolate ice cream and a glass of Miss Jenna’s lemonade.

  He retrieved them the replicator, “What happened to that beer?”

  “Sorry, no alcohol right now. I need to keep you hydrated and your electrolytes up. Beer would only hasten dehydration.”

  “My God woman, what are you my mother now?” Carl said as he shoved a large spoon full of ice cream into his mouth.

  “No, but certainly can be if you would like. Now Carl please, I am incredibly busy trying to break through the jamming.”

  The cold ice cream felt great but even though it was thoroughly identical down to the last atom, Carl was completely convinced he could tell a difference between what he was eating and a bowl of real ice cream. As he was eating the ice cream, it did seem to have a cooling effect on him. He felt a little better and he was just thinking out loud, “You know Eve it’s too bad you can’t recycle that heat energy or something.”