Outcast

by Guerin Zand

  “Yes.”

  “So, please tell me why trouble now seems to follow me everywhere I go? It’s not an accident. It doesn’t matter if I turn right, or I turn left. It’s there waiting for me. This Alacian problem is because of me. That’s why I wanted to stay away. It’s why I left Maria with you. I don’t want the people closest to me ending up in the middle of the shit that follows me everywhere.”

  “But the Alacians were here before you arrived, Guerin. How can you say this trouble followed you here?”

  “I would have thought that you’d understand temporal paradoxes like that better than I do. It doesn’t matter that the trouble arrives in a specific location prior to me. It’s the fact that it is going the same places I am.”

  “You mentioned you had encountered the Alacians during your travels. Do you mind telling me what happened?”

  “Like I said, people out there fear me, or the trouble that always seemed to accompany me. The Alacians never explained why they came after me. They didn’t come looking for me to talk. I hadn’t even heard about them prior to the encounter. Thanks for the lack of information by the way.”

  “We don’t give you a lot of information on the other races out there, Guerin, because we want you to form your own opinion about them. That’s why we sent you to Trogan without telling you everything. So what happened with the Alacians?”

  “We had brought a Trogan cargo vessel to a spaceport on Claorin to sell. We didn’t know they were Alacians. We were contacted by a man, Alrenz Gastroons, who said he was interested. He would agree to our price after he had a chance to inspect the ship and make sure the paperwork was in order. We agreed to meet.”

  “Alrenz arrived with his two synthetic bodyguards. He introduced them simply as his engineer and pilot. He asked to see the paperwork, which Senri handed them, and then requested we escort his crew to various areas of the ship so they could verify the inspector's report. Senri entered the ship ahead of me. As I turned my back to enter the ship the two synthetics attacked. It happened so fast that I wasn’t prepared. I somehow blocked a blow from one of their blades, but the force of the synthetics attack knocked me to the ground. There was just enough distance between us that I was able to pull my gun and fire before they were on top of me.”

  “What happened to Alrenz? I assume he was the true-born in charge.”

  “Yes, he was, and, well, it wasn’t over. Ten more synthetics were heading down the spaceport towards us. They must have been waiting in reserve on their scout ship. I don’t think Alrenz expected to need them. Meanwhile, Senri had recognized our clients for what they were and immediately contacted Sestan and the crew. They portaled down fully armed and tossed Senri and me a couple of assault rifles and packs with extra ammo.”

  “Why didn’t you just use the portals to get out of there?”

  “I think Sestan was worried about losing the cargo ship. When Senri had contacted the Vengeance she wasn’t aware of the synthetic reinforcements on the way. There was a lot of confusion at the time.”

  “The other people near us in the spaceport started to panic when they first heard my gunshots. There was a mass of confusion and panic. People were running everywhere. Those that got between us and the synthetic’s path were being slaughtered. There were families there and it didn’t matter to those guys. The security force from the spaceport arrived and the synthetics were caught in a crossfire between us and the security force. It probably only lasted a minute, but when it was done, we had lost three crew members and the security forces had multiple casualties as well. The ten synthetics were dead. At the start of the skirmish, Alrenz was running for his ship. I stopped him with a shot to the back of his head. That’s when I noticed how the synthetics who were assigned to guard him stayed with his body until the end.”

  Julie nodded. She knew about the Alacians and how they operated. “Besides their genetic expertise, the Alacians have extremely advanced medical science. The bodyguards protect the body in order to retrieve it and possibly revive the true-born.”

  As usual, it was ok to tell me this once I already figured that out on my own. I ignored her, other than the annoyed look, and continued with the story.

  “The security forces were in a panic. They recognized the Alacians and were worried there would be more arriving. They immediately sealed off the area and removed all the civilians. We agreed to help them cover up what had just happened. We took care of our dead, and then we loaded the dead Alacians back on their scout vessel. Senri and Sestan piloted the scout ship out of Claorin space so the spaceport records would show them having left. The two portaled back to the Vengeance and we used a portal to put the scout ship inside of the local star’s gravity well to dispose of the Alacians, leaving no trace of what actually happened to them.”

  “The local security force reported the incident was caused by a dispute between the spaceport officials and the crew of the Vengeance over the Trogan cargo ship’s ownership. The story was, that when security arrived to impound the ship and take me into custody, my crew opened fire. We escaped to the Vengeance and left the system. Of course, we can’t go back to Claorin and the cargo ship was forfeited.”

  “So, the reports from Claorin of the Vengeance crew slaughtering civilians, they were just a part of the cover-up?”

  “Yes. As I’ve told you, a lot of what you may have heard about what happened out there is just rumors, lies, or exaggerations. We stayed in the system for a couple of months to make sure no more Alacians made it to Claorin. That was the deal we made.”

  “That doesn’t explain why the Alacians would come here to Earth.”

  “The only thing I can think of Julie is that they know who I really am, and they suspect I was involved in the loss of their scout ship. Why did they come after me in the first place? Maybe they were aware of the trouble we were causing the Trogans in the area and they considered us a threat.”

  “Well you’ve certainly made a mess of things, haven’t you?”

  “Whatever, Julie. Blame me if that makes you feel better. But let me ask you a question. Why are you not concerned about my plan to take out the Alacians? I would have expected you to protest my decision to use force first.”

  “If humans were as advanced as the Collective races I would be concerned, but you’re not. We don’t have to worry about alien races trying to corrupt our governments or attacking our homes. We have no need to consider violence against the other races. We realize, that for humans, the universe is full of dangers and threats. At your stage of development, the use of force to protect your people may be your only choice. We’d be concerned if you were to use force against others without provocation.”

  “So, you’re fine with what I plan to do?”

  “No. We’d prefer if violence wasn’t necessary, but it’s not our call when humans are allowed to use force.”

  “But that doesn’t explain why you would help us.”

  “No, it doesn’t, but I’d hope you’d be able to figure that out on your own. I think you already have.”

  “Yea sure. I’ve got everything all figured out.”

  “You could also change your plan, Guerin. You did with the Chinese incident.”

  “We have to remove the Alacians. They’re too dangerous to leave in our system. You saw what happened when we didn’t make removing the Trogan agents a priority on Earth. Unless you want to remove the Alacians for us?” I had to ask. Most of the time they refused my requests for this type of help, but not always.

  “We can’t do that, Guerin.”

  “I could probably retrieve Mei without any casualties, but I don’t really think she’s the one in charge. It would only serve as a warning to the Alacians. Then the risks to my teams would just increase.”

  “You think Mei is being controlled by the Alacians?”

  “As someone who’s been dumb enough to make a deal with aliens, I can definitely say yes.”

  “Guerin...”

  “Don’t deny it, Julie. You know very well th
at if something were to happen to me it wouldn’t change the Collective’s plans for humanity. You’ve been busy while I was away. You have Roger, and he’s been building up his team. What if the Alacians convinced me to side with them against you? Would you let that happen?”

  “We wouldn’t stop you, Guerin, but...”

  “But you’d back Roger if he asked you to help stop me, wouldn’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Just like me, Mei isn’t critical. She’s just useful for now. I’m trying to explain to you that I have been thinking about my options. I didn’t just decide to use force as my first and only option.”

  “We know you well enough, Guerin, that you don’t have to explain your reasoning to us. The problem is that you’ve thrown yourself into the middle of the violence happening in the unaligned worlds. You weren’t a violent person when we first met. We don’t want all the violence surrounding you to change that.”

  “You don’t think it already has?”

  “No, but it could, and we want you to remember that. We want you to remember who you really are. Heesa let it change him and you know how that turned out. We want you to know that you can come to us for help if you ever feel that you can’t handle it. As you just said, you’re not critical to our plans. Not so much that you should risk losing yourself.”

  Chapter 7

  The Plan

  The next morning after breakfast, we met in a conference room. It was located in the offices the committee responsible for the Earth project used. I didn’t want the whole committee there, just those that would be leads on various aspects of my plan. We had all the shuttle captains, Sammy, Bart, Cindy, and moi. Steve, Jackie, and Gladys were also there. Julie showed up even though I hadn’t invited her. Milly and my daughter were there as well. Roger and Katie were also present, and they had brought ‘little’ Timmy as well.

  I stood up to start the meeting. “First off, Maria and Tim aren’t needed here so I would like you both to leave.”

  “But we’re going with you. Don’t we need to know what you have planned?”

  “No, Maria. Your captain will tell you what your duties are just like the other captains here will tell their crews.” I motioned her and Tim towards the door.

  After they left I looked at Julie. “You and Milly aren’t really needed here either Julie.”

  “But we’re not going to leave,” Julie replied.

  “I thought that’s what you’d say.” I shook my head.

  “Ok. You’ve all reviewed my logs on my interactions with the Alacians. The synthetics are highly enhanced mentally and physically. From my experience, I’d say they’re as fast and strong as I am. So we need soldiers. Steve?”

  “We have about 150 marines. They have had the basic upgrade, as you like to call it, and have been trained in portal tactics.”

  “Marines?”

  “That’s what we’re calling the members of our space force, Guerin. We figured since they are deployed from ships, marine was the appropriate term.”

  “So I assume your squad size is 13 then?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I want a squad on each shuttle. You’ll be on my shuttle and you’ll lead that group of marines. We need to know how many synthetics we’re dealing with before we can finalize how to deploy the squads. The marines from our shuttle, the Vengeance, will be going down to Ganymede as a minimum, so I want your best people. The other squads will be deployed if and where they’re needed. I want Roger and Katie deployed on Cindy’s shuttle. Your job will be to contain the core worlds, and we’ll only deploy your shuttle into the action if needed.”

  “What if there’s more than we can handle?”

  “Let’s hope not, Roger. I don’t think there will be that many. I would suspect the number is less than a dozen since we haven’t heard any rumors from the colonies. These guys do stick out. As I was saying, these synthetics are enhanced, but there also clones. The all look alike. They have pitch black hair, yellow eyes, and they’re built a lot like Bart. Like fucking brick buildings with no necks. Other than that, they don’t look much different than us humans.”

  That got a laugh.

  “They’re raised in a heavy gravity environment, about 1.3 g. When not deployed, they’re ‘stored’ and train in a high gravity facility to retain their muscle mass. On a physical level, a marine with the basic upgrade is no match going one on one. We need to find them and portal in weapons free. The synthetics are machines, so turn them off. Understood?”

  The team nodded. “What weapons are your marines carrying, Steve?”

  “They all carry the updated .45 caliber pistol and a .308 caliber assault rifle. The modern cartridges contain a propellant that can be used even without an atmosphere. They have recoil suppression for low g environments, but using this reduces the kinetic energy of the projectile. Still, in this mode they have more stopping power than the antiques you’re still using. For assaults in colonies we normally use a lower powered round to prevent over-penetration. I have uploaded the specs and some charts for you to see the comparison.”

  “My weapons may be antiques, Steve, but don’t all your new tech toys use bio locks to disable unauthorized use?”

  “Yes, they do, Guerin.”

  “Then someone could hack those safeguards making your weapons useless. I know our friends could. Are you willing to bet your life that the Alacians can’t? We need to use weapons that can’t be tampered with electronically, that means no electrical components.”

  “We’d have to re-equip all the squads, and they’d need some time training with those weapons, Guerin.”

  “Well, you better start now.”

  “Do they wear body armor?” Roger asked.

  “Yes. Their normal armor is meant for energy-based weapons and lasers though. It was no match for my 45, but I doubt they’re dumb enough to be using that armor knowing what Earth forces carry. I’d assume they have procured the latest tech for projectile armor, whatever you’re using most probably.”

  “And their weapons?”

  “I can’t be sure, Roger. Just like the body armor, they may have switched to human weapons. Normally they have an energy weapon, both pistol, and rifle. They’re basically a taser on steroids. It will kill if it hits center mass or a head shot. If it hits an extremity, you can forget using it for a while. They’re also partial to a blade they carry. It’s used up close, or when they need to work quietly. It’s about the size of a Bowie knife. I’ve uploaded the lethal and effective ranges of the energy weapons to your nodes for review.”

  “What about the true-borns, Guerin?”

  “They look similar, but they’re thinner and significantly shorter in height. They’re not much physically, but they will have armor, and I would assume a sidearm at least. We’d like to take them alive if we can, but don’t take any risks. I’ve never gone against one, so they could be tricky.”

  “Guerin, Tim is the leader of the squad I’ll be bringing with me. Is that why you requested him?”

  “I didn’t know that, Steve. I’d like to keep him out of the action.”

  “He’s not going to like that, Guerin.” Katie was concerned.

  “I’m bringing Maria and Tim with me so I can watch them, Katie. We don’t need a repeat of the Chinese incident. I plan to keep our families safe this time.”

  Roger shook his head. “He’s not going to let his squad deploy without him.”

  “I’m not sending your son down there as cannon fodder, Roger. I’ll send him down with Huiliang to retrieve her mother after the area is secured. Even that’s a risk though.”

  “He’s a soldier, Guerin. He knows the risks.”

  “Fine, Roger. Let’s get the squads re-armed and deployed to their ships. As soon as we’ve done that we need Sammy, Bart, and Cindy to start on recon. We need the outer worlds, moons, and the core worlds as well surveyed to find where and how many Alacians we’re dealing with. The body temperature of all of them is higher than a human’s. A true-born
body temperature is typically 100 degrees Fahrenheit while the synthetics are around 105 degrees.”

  “What if they’re shielded in some way, Guerin?”

  “Then we’re going to have to go down in force and flush them out, Steve. We’ll start with Ganymede.”

  “How do you plan on flushing them out?”

  “If that’s necessary, we’ll fall back to the plan Julie, Milly, and Maria proposed to me at our meeting the other day. I’ll go down with Huiliang to talk to Mei. When they hear I’m coming to talk I’m sure they’ll be there to greet me.”

  “That sounds very risky, Guerin,” Steve replied. Roger and Katie nodded in agreement.

  “I thought it was a shit plan too, which is why I hope it’s not needed. If it is, hopefully, our friends will help. When I went to Trogan with Bart he disabled the guard’s weapons. Maybe they’ll share that ability with us so we can neutralize their energy weapons in our vicinity.”

  I looked at Julie and she nodded that they would help us out with that.

  “Good. That should at least give me a little time to draw them out before you send in the troops. With any luck, they won’t be in too big of a hurry and just decide to bash my brains in or shred me with their blades. The less intel we have on their locations the riskier this is going to be. We do have another advantage.”

  “And that is?” Katie asked.

  “The synthetics are smart, but they follow their programming. They’re not capable of deviating from their assignments without orders. If there are just a few of them, say less than a dozen or so, they’re probably assigned primarily to guard or protect individual assets. If we were to engage one group, the others won’t leave their asset unguarded to help out.”

  “You’re assuming a lot, Guerin.”

  “I know, Roger, but I’ve seen them in action. I’ve always seen two synthetics protecting each true-born. They deploy in groups of 4 for other operations. I’ve seen a true-born killed and his protection continued to protect the dead body. They’re smart fighters and they’ll be tough opponents, but they have no individual command authority. We can take advantage of that.”