Return of The Red Devil

by Shannon Abrams

  Diane then opened her paw hand showing to everyone as empty. Instantly Mal's pistol was in it and she held muzzle up, “You can have this back when we're ready to leave,” and it vanished.

  “Wait! So, where is it now, Witch?” Mal snarled.

  “Awww, shush. Now Malcolm! That's no way to talk...It's in my hyperspace cache for now. You'll get it back later, I promise!

  Oh, yeah, you got pretty eyes too!” Diane was having a little fun teasing Mal.

  “I don't believe in caching to hyperspace! Its impossible! What did you really do with it?” Mr. Easton snapped back.

  “Whether you believe in hyperspace caching or not does not make it impossible,” Diane quipped.

  “It didn't go anyplace, It's right here. See?” The pistol rematerialized back in her open hand once again then flashed back out of existence.

  “Alright, Malcolm, I'll leave it for you right on the table in front of you. You can pick it up after we leave.”

  The pistol then reformed right back in the middle of the table as Diane said.

  Mal made a quick reach for it suddenly but his hand passed right through it as if it were a holo-image.

  “What sorcery is this??

  Witch!!!” he growled.

  “Oh--well, Malcolm. It's right on the table as you can see. But it's molecular structure is not in phase with our time-space. So you can see it, but not touch.

  Not that you could even use it against either of us anyway, but someone else might get hurt.”

  Circe looked on for a moment then paced back and forth a moment, in thought and then sat down at the table, “So, shall we all be serious now? It should be clear now we are not going too rob, harm or kill any of you. We would have done so already, quite easily. I don't suppose I need to warn you to not make any sudden moves.”

  “Oh, well..uhm..I am very sorry about the altercation my friends may have....” Fang started to explain.

  “SHUT UP, FANG! You don't apologize for ME or the CREW!” Kyp spat out angrily.

  “I'm terribly sorry, Madam--.” Fang wilted.

  Kyp continued on icily, “So get on with it, Ms. Smith, you want something from us. Warships, but you don't want to feel like you're taking anything without my, or my crew's consent, Right?”

  “Purchase, rent, borrow, yes. But just even more important, to have an alliance with your systems.” Circe replied.

  Kyp tilted her head, “Well, come to think of it, you might not want to do business with the Royal Kingdom.”

  “No?” Circe raised an eyebrow.

  “No. I am in exile and the Royal Gleise Star Kingdom IS still in a bit of a colonial expansion phase. You may find you have been annexed into their little kingdom, just for -your- own protection as it were. You know?”

  Fang nodded in agreement, “Oh yes, yes. They have been known to do that in the past.”

  “If lend lease is not possible then we would like to negotiate an alliance at least,” Circe continued thoughtfully.

  “If you, Mr. Silverclaw, could send a message to his Majesty that we are the new Republic of Sol-Terra and wish to open full diplomatic relations with the Royal Kingdom.

  We choose to remain a free sovereign federation but do not wish to become Loyal Subjects of the Crown nor will we ever do so,” Circe stated evenly.

  “Yes, Madam. I'll take care of that as soon as our ship and communications are fully repaired. Oh, and another thing, these bugs, you called them? Kin T'haar? ”

  “Yes, that is what they call themselves.” Circe, quipped.

  “Ah,I see, uhm --most disturbing. Ah, are they anything like Army Ants?”

  Circe flicked an ear and shot a quick glance at Diane then answered, “Yes, they are genetically similar to Bullet Ants but utilize a lot of the tactics of Army Ants...Why?”

  “Oh dear --I didn't recognize the name you mentioned but we did have a nasty brush with something like that a couple hundred years ago, I think?”

  Now it was Circe and Diane's turn to be agast, “You WHAT?!”

  Kyp's eyes took on a glaze and Mal's already grouchy expression became a hard chiseled grimace of unmitigated hate.

  Return of the Red Devil

  Chapter Seven: The Ambush:

  Circe could see Kyp’s agitation, “When I am not reading minds I am also an empath, Captain. Let me help you with this.

  I just need to touch your head, if I may. It will be painless.”

  Kyp drew back for a moment then relented, “As you wish.”

  Circe applied one hand to Kyp’s temple and a soft soothing breeze flowed through Kyp’s mind with a slight feeling of euphoria.

  “I know this past experience was extremely painful to relive. We won’t do that. Just let yourself sleep for now. You are in your safe place now.” Circe spoke softly.

  Circe looked at the rest of the group. “She’ll be fine. I need complete silence from you all. Do not interrupt and I will tell her story for you--”

  While Kyp was asleep, Circe watched the memory play out like some kind of horrible nightmare and began relating what she saw to the rest of the group, “Yes...it was a very long time ago.

  The ants had begun harvesting colonists from one of the more distant systems.

  So the king at the time sent in the Captain with full compliment of diplomatic ambassadors and wolverine space Marines for a modicum of security.

  The meeting place was supposed to be in a space station they provided for that purpose.

  Kyp advised his majesty that it smelled like a trap since it was NOT on any neutral turf.

  When the diplomatic entourage arrived at their station, they were escorted through several corridors to the assembly room.

  Kyp, Fang, Mal and their marines eyed them with suspicion.

  They were much like ants but walked on their four rearmost legs, leaving the front two limbs free for handling items. They smelled bad, like a stale worm farm.

  Entering the hall the diplomats were offered seats at the conference table.

  The marines, Kyp and Mal stayed on their feet and sized up the situation.

  “Mr. Easton,” Kyp whispered in the old Jeck dialect, “This place is great for an ambush, did you happen to pack any grenades by chance?”

  Mal responded in kind, “No Ma'am. But I did bring a whole satchel of Det-Packs. I was concerned about fragmentation in close quarters.”

  “Good job, Mr. Easton!” she whispered back in Jeck.

  The marines were passed the word in this native tongue to stay sharp.

  The Kinty looked quizzical and this indecipherable whispering but fell back into their over confident state.

  The diplomats droned on with their blathering opening speeches and finally everything got down to business.

  The ants promised they would leave everyone alone if Gliese would offer an annual tribute to be rendered to them.

  This rankled with Kyp, to say the least. She would never concede to any tribute because she knew it never works in the long game, but held her tongue until she could find out what they really wanted!

  “What will you accept?” the Royal diplomat of Gleise asked.

  The head negotiator for the Kinty said, “Send us, in tonnage, colonists, for our use.”

  “--And what use is that, your excellency?”

  “For feed stock--.” came the answer.

  Kyp went on alert instantly, she and her fellow soldiers felt the ripple of tell-tale motion in the air.

  The diplomat group was oblivious to the airflow and just replied, “That item is not negotiable!”

  It was then horde of the soldier ants flowed in through all the doors, confidently and unhurried. They knew they had the advantage over their quarry and were armed with stun staffs.

  Kyp yelled in Jeck and raised her clenched fist, “Marines! To ME!”

  The marines in keeping with their training, the fire team quickly encircled the small group and raised their weapons.

  With one more fateful command Kyp cried, “Fi
x Bayonetes! Fire at will and clear a path!!”

  The hapless diplomats at the table never had a chance. They were swarmed over and instantly disappeared in a mass of large ant bodies.

  The Marines circled the remaining party and began to fight through the enemy, blasting a path back toward the exit with their pulse rifles.

  Mal pulled out his 1911 and Kyp drew her 1873 revolver and began shooting them from the point, while the platoon of Marines that brought up the rear were burning them down in their tracks with their plasma guns as they slowly made progress to the exit of the assembly room.

  Somehow they fought their way out into the corridor.

  Fang was tossing some dragon flash-stun grenades at them to help clear a path while Mal had his automatic blazing away, knocking them down as fast as he could reload.

  In between times Mal was tossing Det-Packs out into the corridor space to blast more of the attackers out of the way.

  Somehow Mal must have been able to radio the shuttle and warn them so they could start up the preflight sequence for an escape.

  Back at the shuttle the airlock hatch was already under attack as well.

  The Marine contingent stationed at the shuttle had already burned through several power packs by now, fending them off.

  The envoy remnants were still half way to the shuttle when Mal and Kyp ran out of ammo.

  Explosives were quickly depleted soon after.

  Mal used his Kabar in one hand and Wakizashi in the other to tear through them.

  Kyp drew out her katana and began slashing and parrying through them, the smell of burning gun powder smoke mixed with blown up, eviscerated insect bodies was horrific.

  Mal must have lost his right eye about that time, but he was driven on by raw fury because he kept going in spite of it.

  They agonizingly fought the rest of the way to the shuttle hatch with the marines bringing up the rear. They were slashing the enemy to pieces with their bayonets and using their rifle butts as bludgeons, but still they came.”

  Circe paused a moment then began again.

  “The marines guarding the shuttle hatch, had fallen back and parted for the oncoming party and managed hustle all those into the shuttle air lock but there wasn't enough room for the entire group.

  The gunnery sergeant told everyone they'd hold them off till remaining party could clear out of the air lock so there would be room for them to get in and escape.

  The remnants of the entourage hustled in to the relative safety of the airlock. The outer lock door closed, allowing the inner door to cycle open.

  Every one inside hastily staggered out into the the shuttle.

  Then Kyp closed the inner airlock door releasing the safety interlocks to cycle the outer door open and let the rest of the marines in.

  The remainder of marines quickly fell back into the interior of the lock while fighting hand to hand with the crush of bugs pressing them back into the lock.

  Finally they all got themselves inside the airlock and started the outer hatch closing.

  The bugs must have been ready for that because some of them jammed the outer door open with a large piece of hydraulic equipment.

  They figured the shuttle could not undock if the outer door wouldn't close and it would just be a matter of time until the remaining fireteam fell to their attacks.”

  Circe was visibly staggered at the ferocity of the memory,

  and continued again, “Kyp couldn't communicate with the gunnery sergeant with coms, the bugs must have been jamming the frequency at that time.

  So she rapped on the inner hatch door to get the sergeant’s attention.

  The marines were busying themselves attaching what looked like attaching satchel charges to the inside of the outer door while stabbing the bugs with their bayonets.

  Bugs were still trying to force their way in.

  The sargeant turned to the inner hatch window and used hand signals. He put his two clenched fists together and made a convulsive motion as if yanking them apart. 'Disconnect!', it ment.

  “Then he made circling motion in the air with a single finger that led to a long sweeping motion in the direction of our waiting destroyers. 'Go to your assigned rendezvous!' he signaled.

  Kyp shook her head, there must be another way.

  Then he gave Kyp drill sergeant glare like she was some new recruit that had just smarted off in his face and he repeated his hand signal with more urgency, 'Disconnect! Go to the rendezvous!!'

  Then Kyp nodded and gave him the 'OK. Understood' signal.

  His eyes were cold as he snapped her a regulation style salute. Kyp knew she was looking into the eyes of a dead man.

  She returned his salute and began giving orders for emergency separation while she broke open all the safety latches on the inner door to detonate the explosive bolts holding the airlock to the shuttle hull structure.

  The bugs must not have known the shuttle could jettison the entire airlock as a unit in an emergency.

  Kyp yelled to Mr. Easton, 'Number one! Ready on the thrusters for max performance. Translate on Z-axis for thirty meters out to clear the ship, then go to all ahead flank on my signal!’

  Mr. Easton gave her an “Aye, Aye Cap'n!” response.

  Then Kyp gave the Gunnery sergeant the disconnect hand signal.

  She waited till the marines had all thrown themselves to the airlock floor then pulled the final emergency release handle.

  There was a deafening 'BANG' as the ship shuddered and parted from her airlock as she yelled to Number One, 'NOW! GO-GO-GO!!' and threw herself to the floor and bulkhead junction.

  The crushing accelleration hit then as the vertical axis thrusters heaved the shuttle away from the station while leaving the lost airlock module behind. Then the main engines started their burn, slamming everyone all to the rear of the shuttle.”

  --Circe shuddered at what was happening in this memory and paused again a bit longer. It was all too real.

  “Somehow Kyp managed to scramble up to the bridge and get strapped into a seat between thruster burns. Mr. Easton was jinking the shuttle around like crazy on the way out.”

  She asked Mr. Easton, 'Can we raise the destroyers with tight laser com link, Mr, Easton?'

  He said, “Yes Ma'am I already told them to alert the crews to battle stations, all weapons to be made ready, then to get under way as soon as we got locked into our shuttle racks!”

  'Very good, Mister Easton!' Kyp told him.

  Mr. Easton just nodded to Kyp and kept on flying his crazy escape pattern on the way out to the waiting destroyers.

  Kyp got a quick video link from one of the visual sensors facing the rear and I could see the station getting smaller then there was a huge flash where the airlock was still attached to the hull! The marines must have detonated their charges rather than be taken alive, just to be eaten later!

  Kyp couldn't help but yell out, ‘The marines blew the airlock! The station is venting atmosphere now with lot of debris...and bodies...!’

  ‘Damn those filthy bastards!’ was all Mr. Easton said.

  ‘Do you have any further orders once this shuttle is docked, Captain?’

  Kyp was for a moment then responded, ‘Why Yes, Number One! I certainly do!’

  Amazingly enough the bugs had not fired on the shuttle yet. Perhaps they did not expect to run into any resistance.

  We finally made it to our shuttle rack on board SD-2 and got under way on a vector outbound for about twenty minutes to look like we were high tailing it out of there.

  Kyp notified the destroyer captains of what went on during the 'peace talks', about how they killed the diplomatic envoy and of all our Marines that died to enable the escape!

  She asked them if they would like a chance to avenge those who fell at the hands of these bastards.

  The radio calls started coming in.

  ‘Sierra Delta-1, Crew reports at battle stations and ready for action!’

  ‘Sierra Delta-3, We're with you, Cap'n!’


  ‘Sierra Delta-4, Ready to roll, Ma'am!’

  ‘Sierra Delta-5, All stations reporting manned and ready. Just name those targets, Ma'am, and we'll make them go away.’

  ‘Sierra Delta-6, All stations report ready! Looks like we have some special deliveries to make!’