Fight with honor, in a cause worth fighting for.
Initially, she couldn’t embrace the fact that the Force de Guerre had been split up, one half to create the foundation of the FDG, a Federation-sanctioned special military force. The other half was the Bad Company, a mercenary outfit. Fighting for money, but also fighting to expand the Federation.
Each client presented a new opportunity to increase Federation influence and security. Nathan wanted Tissikinnon Four to be at peace with its neighboring system so both planets would expand the buffer to the unknown.
The best part was that the Crenellians were paying the Bad Company to do what the Federation wanted. It made for an economically viable Federation growth strategy.
It also pissed Marcie off that they were in the middle of a bad situation that seemed to be turning worse.
She slowed the group as they approached a cut into a small hill. Marcie stopped and examined the area. She closed her eyes and looked around her using the power of the Etheric. She found a space beneath her feet and there were a number of people there. She saw a small tunnel hidden within the cut.
“Lock and load, people,” she said, checking her railgun. She was low on ammunition and did not have another magazine of darts. “How are we doing on ammo?”
Aaron and Yanmei both gave a thumbs up. Christina returned a thumbs down. The other four shook their heads. Two were carrying their combat knives because their weapons were empty.
“Give those two your thundersticks and packs. Do what you do best,” she said, looking at Aaron, Yanmei, and Christina. They instantly handed their railguns to the two warriors.
Aaron and Yanmei stripped out of their clothes and changed into weretiger form. Christina changed into a werewolf, not a Pricolici. Marcie looked confused. “I didn’t know you could do that,” Marcie admitted.
The werewolf pulled its lips back in a version of the canine smile. She still looked terrifying, as werewolves did. Marcie pointed to two of the warriors. “Up front with me, then you—” She pointed at the Were. “—and then you two bringing up the rear. There are Crenellians in here. They are the ones who hired us, but just in case this bunch didn’t get the word, let’s try not to kill any of them.”
She turned and walked slowly into the cut, looking for the entrance she knew was there. She wasn’t disappointed in how well hidden it was. The dirt had been smoothed over top, blending it with the surroundings.
Marcie looked around her. “Someone did this from the outside,” she said softly. She tipped her chin toward the sides of the small ravine and the two weretigers leapt into action. Aaron vaulted to the hill on the left, ran to the top, and then followed the ridge line up and away from where the others. Yanmei did the same thing on the right side. Christina ran straight ahead, following the ravine’s meandering course.
The others took a knee and watched. The Were soon returned, joining Marcie near the hidden doorway. She couldn’t talk with them in that form, but their body language said that they’d found nothing. Aaron dropped and rolled in the dirt. Christina joined him, filling her coat with dust. She stood and shook, sending a cloud of dirt through the air. Yanmei laid down and watched the antics.
Marcie kicked the dirt away from the hatch that was set at an angle into the hillside. She cleared the door, then spun the handle, surprised that it hadn’t been locked.
The two warriors took their positions next to the door, ready to jump through and to the side as soon as it was opened. Marcie’s muscles tightened and she jerked the door open.
The two warriors dove into a dimly lit tunnel, hit the hard dirt floor, and rolled to both sides. They came up into firing positions and looked down the empty tunnel, lit by a string of lights overhead.
Marcie peeked around the door before walking cautiously inside. She looked for traps, including some of the high-tech devices she’d seen on the ship like lasers or motion sensors. But the walls were plain, carved from the rock.
She worked her way slowly down the tunnel. The two warriors stood and followed, looking over the barrels of their railguns as they moved, taking care to keep their lines of fire clear.
The Were followed Marcie in and the last two warriors stayed at the door, watching the approach within the ravine.
“Hey!” someone yelled from ahead as soon as Marcie rounded a corner and saw what looked like a low-tech operations center. Computers and monitors were arranged in a circle around an open area where a small humanoid stood on a low platform.
He looked at her without fear. None of them seemed to have weapons. Marcie stopped where the tunnel opened into the space. She counted a dozen Crenellians.
“I suspect you are the hired help?” the man in the center said, putting his hands on his hips, assuming a human pose of disdain and dominance.
Marcie instantly didn’t like him.
“I’m Colonel Marcie Walton from the Bad Company and we’d like to have a few words, if you don’t mind.”
“You shut up,” the man said before she finished. “You’ll do what you’re told, what you’re paid for, if the pea brain inside that giant body of yours can register what I’m saying.”
* * *
“Stay there!” Terry yelled before switching to his comm chip. Stay there.
“Char and Joseph, follow me. Everyone else, get those supplies distributed. We’ll rally up here as soon as possible,” Terry explained as he started walking toward the tunnel that Kaeden had disappeared into.
Hold positions. Maintain the perimeter as is. Timmons, rearm your team first and then provide security as the platoon loads up. Build a plan to demo the tunnels to protect our rear and flanks. Terry issued his orders as he walked into the darkness. He hated to do it, but after the first corner, the darkness was near absolute.
He pulled a flashlight from his pack, turned it on, and shined it ahead of him. The tunnels were a combination of natural and Podder-made. They’d built an entire civilization underground.
Terry was hurrying, but slowed down. His own adage was “don’t be in a hurry to your own funeral.”
“What do they eat?” Terry asked.
Joseph shrugged. “I got the impression that they had vast mushroom farms or something that looked like mushrooms. There is water here, caverns filled with crystal clear water. Underground springs and rivers. There’s water above ground, too. We just happened to land in a desert area.”
Terry looked behind him and saw the Podder following. “Did you tell him he could come?”
Joseph shook his head. “He’s free, remember?” Joseph replied.
“I guess it’s okay, as long as he doesn’t reignite his civil war against the blue pod.”
“Now you understand!” Joseph answered with a big smile.
Terry wasn’t sure he understood anything. He didn’t know why the Podder was coming along because he couldn’t speak with the other Podders and didn’t like the Crenellians. Maybe he felt safe with the vampire.
“Don’t let him start a firefight. If anyone is going to make this thing go south, it’ll be me.” Terry looked at Char to find her nodding. She stopped when the light showed her face. She shook her head and made a sour face.
“Nothing of the sort, lover,” she said, trying to sound supportive. Terry turned back to look down the tunnel. He could see Kelly ahead. Her armored suit still had scorch marks from where the canister burned its way through the atmosphere.
Terry, Char, Joseph, and Bundin moved past the stationary mech. Kelly nodded from the other side of her face shield. Kaeden leaned around a corner not far ahead.
“Coming up behind you,” Terry said calmly.
“Don’t get past me. There’s an army up here.”
The four slowed as they approached. Terry called for the group to stop. He moved in behind the mech and leaned around to shine his flashlight and get a look at the tactical situation.
“Well now, that sucks,” he said, seeing the condition of the two Crenellians and the sea of waving blue stalk-heads behind
them.
All movement stopped. Terry looked over his shoulder and saw Bundin standing there. “How can you move so quietly?” Terry wondered aloud. He turned back to the standoff.
“I’m open to suggestions,” he said.
Char and Joseph squeezed in beside Kaeden. Joseph reached out with his mind, but quickly drew back. “There are too many of them. The sound of their minds is deafening.”
“What about our two buddies up front? They speak a language we understand.”
Joseph refocused his efforts. “They’re terrified,” he said as he intently watched the two men. “They’ve been captives for a little under two days. It seems they were taken about the time we landed. I expect the Podders saw our arrival as an escalation in the conflict.”
“It was,” Terry admitted. “It still is, but we don’t need to kill anymore, prefer not to kill anymore, but we will if we have to. Can you convey that to the blue Podders?”
“I cannot. I can hear the Crenellians, but not those who hold them captive,” Joseph replied.
One of the Podders moved forward and shoved two slug-throwers against the Crenellians head.
“What’s it want us to do, Joseph?” Terry asked.
“No idea. Bundin?” Joseph put a hand on the Podder’s shell. “He said the man will die if we do not leave.”
Terry was about to ask how Bundin knew, but the blue Podder’s slug-thrower popped and the man’s head exploded. He flopped to the ground, spasmed twice, and became still.
“Makes me want to kill them all, again,” Terry said. He hadn’t flinched when the prisoner was executed, only drilled in on the one who’d done the execution. He slowly pulled his JDS and aimed. “The question is, can we cause enough chaos to rescue the other one or do we retreat?”
The Podder aimed at the second Crenellian.
“If he kills that one, we will slather these walls with blue blood,” Terry growled, before stepping out from behind the mech and shouting. “I don’t like being threatened.”
Terry took aim at the Podder and walked forward. Kae slapped his railgun as he aimed into the blue mass. Char aimed her pistol. Even Joseph pulled his railgun around the front and prepared to fire.
The blue stalks were frozen like stalagmites as Terry walked forward, his pistol aimed unwaveringly at the alien’s stalk. Terry checked the setting with his thumb. It was still at ten.
At eleven, I could completely clear this tunnel, he thought. He prepared to adjust, should the enemy kill the prisoner. Before the Crenellian’s blood splatters the wall, the blue sea will part.
But the shot did not come. Terry reached the prisoner, grabbed his arm, and pulled him away. The Podder continued to aim at the man’s head. Terry backed up, dragging the man with him. After the death of his countryman, the Crenellian had become a quivering mass. Terry wasn’t certain, but he thought the man may have soiled himself.
He couldn’t blame him. Terry didn’t know if this captive was a miner or a soldier.
Probably not a soldier. The man looked weak and not dressed for war. If he was a soldier, then Terry knew why the Crenellians had hired the Bad Company.
When a job needs to be done right, hire professionals.
Terry rounded the corner and handed the Crenellian to Char and Joseph. They pulled him out of sight of the Podders. Terry dialed the JDS to eleven and braced himself.
“Do it,” Kaeden whispered.
Terry wanted to, but he didn’t want to. There was only one Podder who deserved justice. He dialed it back to a setting of two. “When I fire, you bring the ceiling down right in front of us,” Terry said.
Kae raised his weapon. Maybe the Podders thought they were safe. Terry fired once and blew the entire stalk off the Podder who had executed the captive. Kae instantly zipped one hundred hypervelocity darts across the ceiling. The rumble told everyone that the tunnel was caving in. Terry ran and Kaeden backed up.
Slug-throwers barked, but in moments, it was over. Dust filled the air and the silence returned. The tunnel was closed.
Terry walked up to the Crenellian. He had both his hands over his head. Char shook her head, just a little.
“I need you to tell us what you know so we can end this war,” Terry told the man, pleading for him to come back to himself.
The small man kept his head covered with his hands. He was bald, as had been the other Crenellian. The president had worn a head covering of sorts.
Maybe they were all bald. His size reminded Terry of a twelve-year-old boy. Thin and frail-looking. Head a little bigger than a human’s with small bumps for ears, without ear holes. Terry wondered if they could hear the same low frequency where the Podders communicated.
“Let’s get you back into the sunlight,” Terry told the man. He wouldn’t move, so Terry picked up him. The Crenellian wrapped his arms around Terry’s neck and buried his head in Terry’s chest.
Kelly led the way up the tunnel while Kae walked backwards in case the blue Pod broke through.
In between, Terry, Char, and Joseph were accompanied by two aliens who were at war with each other as well as themselves.
“Can this get any more fucked up?” Terry asked.
Chapter Fourteen
Marcie turned to the warriors beside her. They were still aiming their railguns, but both men only had one target. She smiled knowing that if they pulled the triggers, the arrogant little prick would be blown into next week along with half the wall behind him.
She signaled for them to lower their weapons.
She walked forward casually, taking stock of what she saw on the computer screens until those at the consoles closed their displays, as if afraid to reveal secrets to the enemy. She walked up to the man and loomed over him.
“I think we got off on the wrong foot somehow. Let me…”
“I don’t care what you have to say,” the Crenellian interrupted again. In less than a blink of an eye, Marcie had the man by the throat and lifted into the air.
“You little shit. You’re going to fucking listen,” she growled, giving the alien time to gurgle but not releasing any pressure on his throat so he could talk.
He kicked her in the stomach. She was wearing her ballistic vest and could hardly feel it. Marcie slammed his feet into the ground, lifted him up, and slammed him again. She put him down gently after that, but kept her fingers wrapped around his throat.
She thought for a moment that she could understand the Crenellian as if he was speaking English. She appreciated the technology for a moment, before returning to the matter at hand.
“The landing coordinates you gave us sucked. They had nothing to do with what you hired us for. It appeared that you wanted to use our firepower for the genocide of your enemy. Guess what, cheesedick? Our mission is to end this war, which is what we’re going to do, but we think we can accomplish that by removing your dumb asses since you’re the ones stirring the pot. That’s what I see anyway.”
The weretigers and werewolf strolled into the chamber, casually sniffing each of the Crenellians. The man in the center massaged his throat and watched the beasts closely.
They converged on him all at once as if by design. Aaron bared his fangs and Christina growled. Yanmei opened her mouth above his head, letting cat drool drip onto his bald pate.
He ducked away and wiped his head with an arm, keeping it there to protect his face.
“It’s about time you showed us a little respect. You want us to do your dirty work for you. You have the gall to look down on us? In order to get back into my good graces, you need to tell me who you are and give me a tour so I can see what’s going on.”
“If I refuse,” he managed to rasp.
“Then we drag all your asses into the daylight and throw you into the middle of the Podder army. I see that you aren’t packing any heat. You may not last long.”
“Who are the Podders?”
“You call them the Tiskers, but that’s not what they call themselves. Have you never talked with them?” she asked.
“How were we supposed to talk with them? They don’t speak,” the man retorted, still rubbing his throat but getting his arrogance back. Aaron showed his fangs before rubbing his cat face on the man’s head, putting his scent on him.
“And you had the nerve to call me a dumbass. Of course they speak, just not in a way that you understand. We’ve been able to communicate with them,” Marcie explained, continuing to loom over the alien. “Tour time, dickhead.”
“No.” He crossed his arms and tipped his chin back, looking more like a petulant child than a leader. Marcie nodded to Christina.
The werewolf rammed the Crenellian, knocking him to the ground. She straddled him, growling and snapping at his face.
Dad, we found a Crenellian outpost not far from the cavern. They are uncooperative, to say the least, but I expect they’ll come around before I run out of cards to play, Marcie reported using her comm chip.
“You—” Marcie pointed to one of the aliens sitting at a computer terminal. “Tell me what you do.”
* * *
When Terry returned to the chamber, he found the distribution of ammunition, food, and water well under way.
“Status?” Terry asked Auburn.
“We’ll finish in a couple minutes. Most of the can was filled with rockets, food packs stuffed in between, nevertheless…” Auburn trailed off as someone handed him a pouch.
He peeked inside before passing them to Char. “Extra magazines and ammunition.” She thanked him as she took it and looked for a place to sit to reload her empties.
Terry’s JDS reload was in his pack and he didn’t think he’d need to reload for this operation or maybe the next ten operations. The firepower in that pistol was earthshaking. He appreciated it more and more whenever he thought about it.
He’d keyed it to his hand as well as any of his family. When the next one was ready, he’d give that to Marcie, then Kimber, then Ramses. He had his list of priorities. Not just anyone could fire a JDS. If someone wasn’t careful, the pistols had a way of ripping their arm off.
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