POP-POP-SCHPANG!
Two in the chest, and the final one in the head. The bad guy hit the deck, dead.
“You’re on your own, now, Hughes.”
“Understood.”
Alex rolled onto his side and flipped himself to his feet. The room was eerily empty, “Left wall, secure.”
“Watch your six, good buddy.”
Alex spun around and blasted another bad guy aiming his weapon at him. He slid across the table as the bad guy opened fire on him.
Sections of the wall burst apart behind Alex as he reached the other side of the table and yanked on the trigger.
BLAM-BLAM-SCHPANG!
The bad guy recoiled from the bullet and smashed against the wall.
“Good going, Hughes,” the woman said. “Get out of there. Detonator set to five seconds.
“On it,” Alex kicked himself to his feet and made for the door.
“Four… three… two…”
Alex launched himself through the door frame and threw his elbows in front of his face.
“One… and that’s boom time.”
He rolled across the floor and kicked the door shut.
KA-BLAAAAAAAM!
The door contained the blast. Its frame shunted around against the impact. The HUD display showed the timer rocketing forward - 15:09.
“Go, go, go,” the woman said into his headset, “You got family at home?”
“Just a girlfriend,” Alex pushed himself away from the wall and stepped back, spying the length of the corridor, “Walkway secure.”
He paced along the barren corridor. Two doors faced each other on each wall at the end.
“Be careful, Alex,” she said. “One of those rooms is full of civilians.”
“Got it,” Alex turned a dial on the side of his visor. The dimmed image of the walkway turned a fussy yellow, pink and green.
“Switching to thermal imaging,” Alex said. He held the D-Rez in both hands and moved forward with stealth.
“You think thermal imaging will help if you discover creatures in space?”
“I’ll give it a try,” Alex pressed his back to the wall.
Oxade and Nutrene watched Alex work from the viewing gantry twenty feet above the set up.
“Who is this guy, anyway?” Nutrene asked, paying particular attention to the young man’s trim physique.
Oxade caught her ogling and knocked her elbow, “Are you checking him out?”
“What? No,” she protested under her breath. “It’s just that—”
“—Just that you want to give him some extracurricular training, right?”
“Don’t talk lessense, you dummy,” Nutrene felt her shoulder and went beet-red.
Oxade smirked and thumped the railing, “USARIC shipped him over from Minneapolis-Two yesterday. Fresh blood from the American Star Fleet.”
“Oh, he’s fresh, for sure.”
Alex unclipped a flash bang grenade from his belt and tossed it into the left-hand room.
BOOM!
A shower of white light exploded through the crack in the door. He pushed into the room with his weapon drawn. Ten holographic actors acting as bad guys and civilians staggered around within his HUD.
“Be careful, Alex. Not all of them are tangos.”
The white mist evaporated to reveal two bad guys with guns. Alex swung his firearm around and popped both in the head with great expediency.
“Two down,” he turned around and was about to shoot a woman in a red dress. She held up her arms and begged for mercy.
“Please don’t shoot.”
"Get down."
Alex spotted a man grab the woman from behind. His heads up display formed a red line around the bad guy’s body, indicating a fresh target.
The man grabbed the woman in his arms and pushed the barrel of his gun against her temple, “Put the gun down.”
“Unhand her and put your arms up.”
“That’s fifty seconds, Alex,” the female voice advised, “Be careful.”
Alex held his arms out and focused on the wall. A line of traveling dots projected a recoil off the wall and straight into the side of the man’s head.
The man threatened to shoot the hostage, “Put your gun down—”
THRAA-TAT-A-TAT-SCHPLATT!
Alex let out a burst of three bullets. One by one, they ricocheted off the wall and punched through the bad guy’s chest, neck and forehead, respectively.
The civilian woman ran across the room and went to hug Alex, “Thank you.”
“No time for that now, Alex,” Oxade chuckled from the viewing gallery, “Keep moving, my friend.”
“Hostile down,” the female’s voice into Alex’s headgear, “Hostage deactivated.”
The woman vanished completely, leaving Alex to back himself toward the door, “Area secure.”
“Go, go, go.”
Alex bolted out of the room and approached the adjacent door. He slapped the lever down in the side of his D-Rez and aim it skyward.
“Be careful here, Alex. Don’t get trigger happy.”
“I don’t intend to.”
The timer on his HUD read 65:15, “Come on, let’s do it.”
“I’m not stopping you.”
BAMMM!
Alex booted the door open and slid across the floor, aiming his gun at the far wall.
A long metal bridge snaked out to a door fifty feet away. His feet and legs lifted away from the bridge floor.
"Not so tough now, are you big guy?" she laughed into his headgear, "Let’s see how your firearm works in zero gravity."
"Holy shi—"
The circular room rocked to life and revolved around him. Severely disorienting Alex as he clung to the rails. His feet lifted above his head as he aimed his gun at the far door.
“Look at all the pretty stars, Alex,” she attempted to put him off, “Can you defend yourself when push comes to shove?”
“What?”
BOP!
A disgusting alien creature thumped him on the back, knocking him across the spinning tube. The lights from the stars swished around, revealing the creature’s six eyes. Two skewers shot out from its body and clawed at Alex as he propelled himself from the metal bridge.
SWISH-SWIPE!
Alex took aim at the beast as he hung upside down in the air, “Damn it.”
“Don’t shoot it, Alex,” Oxade yelled from the gallery. “You don’t want to blow your hand off.”
“I wasn’t going to—”
SNAAARRRLLL! SNASSSHH!
The creature hooked its two front arms up and around the railings and pulled taught on its back legs, ready, to launch at Alex.
He looked at his belt and unfastened a wire with a hook at the end, “God damn it, "cmon, c’mon…”
Alex threw the hook at the top railing. The prongs at the end fanned out and clamped to the metal, keeping Alex tethered in the air by the wire.
Oxade nudged Nutrene and pointed at the nearby staircase, “Come on, let’s go.”
“Okay.”
GROWL!
The creature revealed its fangs and gripped the metal, throwing itself back on its haunches.
Alex slid a grenade from his belt and flicked the pin away. It spun across the air, headed for the far door, “Come on, you ugly sack of scum—”
WOOSH!
It flew into the air and made for Alex, who bent his knees against his chest and released the D-Rez into the floating void.
SLAMMM!
His boot kicked away its skewers, forcing it to scream in pain. Alex’s fist rammed into the beast’s mouth and down its throat. He released the bomb and booted the creature along the bridge, pushing himself to the exit in the process.
“Go on, get out of there,” the girl said in his ears.
Biddip-biddip-beep-beeeeeep…
Alex darted through the air and overtook the whizzing grenade pin. The panel on the wall grew larger and larger as he twisted himself into a flying position.
He slammed his glove against the panel as the beep from the crazy creature flat lined.
WOOSH! The door opened into a small, black decompression chamber.
Alex took one, final look at the creature and grabbed the door frame, “Bon voyage, you ugly mother—”
KA-BLAAAAMMMM-MM!
The creature detonated in a thousand, messy pieces as Alex slammed the door shut.
His entire body hit the deck as a cloud of gas thrust from the vents in the wall.
“Decompressing now,” the female on the other end of his headgear said. “All good?”
“Yeah, fine,” Alex picked himself up from the floor and held his arms out.
SWISH!
The outer door slid open, releasing Alex into the training compound. His HUD recorded a completion time of 87.7.
“Damn it,” he flipped his visor up and placed his D-Rez firearm on the table, “Two seconds short of my target.”
“But just over two seconds faster than the record, my friend,” Oxade applauded with a distinct over-zealousness as he made his way to the table, “Not bad for your first try. Very well done.”
“I could have been quicker,” Alex removed his helmet to reveal a devastatingly handsome young man with a chiseled jawline and beautiful crystal blue eyes.
Nutrene made the mistake of looking him in the face. She felt her heart flutter, temporarily disabling her ability to speak, “Oh, m-my.”
“Hi, I’m Alex.”
He offered her his hand to shake. She stared at it for a few seconds, trying to decide if something spectacularly embarrassing might occur if she made contact.
Carefully, she took his hand in hers and melted inside, “I’m, uh, Nutrene. Nutrene Byford.”
Alex chuckled and threw her a heart-stopper of a wink. She yanked him forward without warning and ran her hand over his face, much to his surprise.
Her lips pressed against the side of his face, allowing her to whisper something very serious in his ear.
Oxade wasn’t surprised by her actions. Nutrene had a way with her colleagues, not least the men.
“All that time dealing with animals,” he muttered, “And she’s the biggest animal there is.”
“I, uh, don’t know what to say?”
“Then say nothing. Alex Hughes,” she returned the wink and spun around, making damn sure he could see her svelte frame and behind display its perfection.
Oxade sidled up to his new colleague and elbowed him on the arm, “She’s something, ain’t she?”
“She sure is,” Alex blinked.
“She may be a medician. But don’t be fooled, my friend,” Oxade patted him on the back and walked off, “Just as she saves lives, she takes them away. She’s one helluva killing machine.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
A fighter jet opened its landing gears and made its descent toward the air strip.
Oxade, Nutrene, and Alex sat in the back of a white buggy, headed from USARIC’s main building.
“So, Minneapolis Two, huh?” Oxade asked over the noise of the engines.
Alex scoured the air field through his shades. The sun burned brightly, adding to the intense heat he felt within his American Star Fleet suit, “That’s right, captain.”
“How long did you serve?”
“Joined six months ago on the Bering Strait clean-up operation.”
“Right,” Oxade raised his voice over the noise of the fighter jet touching down on the strip, “Getting rid of the commie bastards from our soil? I hear they’re just getting started”
“Something like that,” Alex said. “It’s going to turn into a real bloodbath, soon.”
Nutrene pointed at a spacecraft looming in the distance. Space Opera Charlie. The scaffolding had been removed. The vessel looked ready for action.
“See that?”
“Yes,” Alex widened his eyes.
“That’s going to be our new home as of next week.”
“Opera Charlie?”
“Yup,” Nutrene licked her lips and threw him a coquettish smile, “I’ve heard it gets lonely up in space.”
“Aren’t there five of us going?”
“That’s right, my friend. A reduced service. Skeleton crew, so to speak,” Oxade slammed on the back of the driver’s seat, “Can’t we go any faster? We have a briefing to attend.”
“I’m going as fast as I can.”
Oxade turned to Alex, “See this idiot? You can’t get the staff, these days.”
“Why don’t you leave him alone?” Alex shouted over the roar of the jet engine, “He’s just doing his job.”
“If I had my way, all the lackeys would be fitted with Decapidiscs. That’d make them produce a lot faster.”
“Decapi—what?”
“Decapidisc,” Oxade yelled. “The compliance unit. Take your head clean off if you mess around.”
“Oh.”
USARIC Headquarters
Conference Room
Maar Sheck’s holographic representation loomed over the conference table.
Crain McDormand was physically present next to him. His thumbnail sat at the edge of the table, throwing Maar’s projection into the room.
“Where are they?”
Crain looked at him apologetically, “Hughes has just finished training. They’re on their way.”
“What’s keeping them?”
“Why, do you have another conference to go to?” Crain smirked with sarcasm.
“Very funny, ass-face,” he walked through the conference table and snapped his fingers, “Bring up the recording.”
Crain waved his hand over the table. A paused three-dimensional image of Maar stepping out of the back of limousine appeared above the surface.
The door to the conference room opened. Oxade, Nutrene, and Alex walked in and surrounded the table.
“Hello, Maar,” Oxade took a seat at the end of the table.
“Oxade Weller and Nutrene Byford, as I live and breathe,” Maar spat with contempt at their tardiness, “Where the hell have you been?”
It wasn’t clear which of the two versions of Maar had spoken - was it the paused image, or the transparent one standing in the middle of the table?
“Umm,” Oxade clocked the still image, “What’s this? Why are you see-through?”
Maar walked through the wooden surface and arrived at the head of the table. He nodded at Crain, “This happened thirty minutes ago. Play the recording.”
Crain obliged and clicked his fingers, enabling the playback to proceed. Maar planted his feet on the ground and stepped out of the limousine. Kaoz ushered him toward the entrance to USARIC HQ, “We have the package,” he said into his headset.
“Very good, get him inside, quick.”
WHOOSH-WHOOSH!
A rocketing noise shot through the air from behind them, “Maar, get down.” Kaoz swung his gun around at the front of the limousine.
Before he could open fire, the driver’s head exploded, painting the inside of the vehicle a dark red.
“Get down, now,” Kaoz shielded himself behind the limousine, looking for the source of the attack. He pressed his microphone to his lips, “This is Kaoz. We are under attack.”
“Kaoz,” Maar rolled across the ground and looked into blinding sun, “H-Help m-me…”
A dark object whizzed around and blocked the rays from his face., “What i-is that?”
An attack drone buzzed around in the air. It spun its cannons at Maar and blasted him in the chest, killing him instantly.
“Maar,” Kaoz pointed his firearm at the drone and shot it out of the air. The hunk of metal crashed to the floor right beside Maar’s bleeding body.
A thoroughly befuddled Opera Charlie team stared at the paused image of Maar’s dead body.
“But… how?” Oxade muttered.
“It wasn’t me,” Maar walked around the table, unable to contain his anger.
Security officials dragged the decoy body into the reception area and tore the fake skin away from
the corpse’s face. The man underneath looked nothing like Maar, but was very dead.
“A decoy. His family has been well compensated for their loss.”
“Wow. You really can’t go anywhere, can you?” Nutrene clocked Crain’s thumbnail projecting Maar’s image in the room, “Where are you broadcasting from?”
“I’m not telling you that, you stupid woman,” Maar stopped in front of his new team and folded his arms. “No one can know my whereabouts. It’s for your own safety. Crain, vector scope of Opera Charlie, please.”
“Yes, Maar,” Crain lifted his hand over the surface of the desk. A vector representation of Space Opera Charlie appeared above the table.
Oxade, Nutrene, and Alex leaned in for a better view.
“I’m happy to report that the board unanimously voted to change Opera Charlie’s remit. It is now a search and destroy operation. We’ve selected the most dedicated and, shall we say, less morally-observant members of USARIC to go to Saturn, find Opera Beta and return our property.”
“Your property?” Oxade chuckled to himself.
“Yes, that’s right. Our property. We know they decoded Saturn Cry. Anderson helped them.”
“Anderson?” Alex kept up the pretense, “Who’s that?”
“That dumb animal they took with them,” Oxade snapped and turned to Maar, “What’s the situation with Opera Beta? Last I heard they went missing?”
“They’re still missing. That’s why we’re sending you up. We know they found Opera Alpha and Zillah’s crew. Something seriously awry is going up there, and I’ve had just about enough of it. And so have the board, to be perfectly honest, hence their change of heart.”
Maar nodded at Crain, who enlarged the top third of the vector scope of Opera Charlie.
“We’ve scaled down the ship to the bare essentials,” Crain said. “As there are five of you, you’ll only need the bare minimum. All search and destroy operations are equipped with the latest technology.”
“Five of us?” Oxade looked at Nutrene and Alex, “I only count three?”
“That’s right, five,” Maar said. “Oxade and Alex, can you stand up, please.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
Star Cat: War Mage Page 10