Chaos Tactics (The Reckless Chronicles Book 1)

by Trent Falls

  “So, you’re one of Scott’s boys?” John’s eyes narrowed.

  “Obviously.” Black replied in a snarky tone.

  John took a deep breath. If Black was in with Euler then he was probably in on Julie’s kidnapping. John immediately wanted to kill this man. Killing Black, though, would be a waste if he couldn’t get information on where Julie was being kept.

  “We’re going back towards the shipyards.” Alex observed, looking ahead through the van’s windshield.

  “Very observant, Mr. Scoffield.” Black sneered.

  “Hey, we only need Carn.” White spoke up from the front. “Let’s ditch the black guy.”

  “Good point.” Black agreed.

  “Yeah, let him go.” John added quickly. “You don’t need him.”

  Black looked back at John directly. “I wasn’t thinking of letting him go. Not alive anyway.”

  John stared back at Black for a while, trying to process what he had said. “If you kill him, you won’t get anything out of me.”

  “Really?” Black looked back at John snidely. “You’re going to risk your daughter’s life on that?”

  John was getting angrier. He took a breath, trying not to show that he was getting upset.

  “You already got me.” John forced himself to speak. “Killing Alex would have… repercussions.”

  “What kind?” Black called John out.

  “John, don’t… I’m not worried about…” Alex interrupted.

  “Shut up, Alex.” John stopped him. John gave Black a hard stare. He was silently stalling for time to think. “Euler hired you to look for the Norn, right?”

  “The Norn?!?” Black’s eyes widened. “What the fuck? I don’t know what Euler’s after. I just know his people paid me for a job. Getting your dumb ass off this planet and turning you over to him.”

  “Euler is looking for the Norn.” John explained plainly. “All of this bullshit. All of the resources you’re exposing and burning through to get me out of here… that’s what he’s doing it for.” John paused very briefly in thought. “He’s going to need me AND Alex to find the Norn!”

  Black eyed John for a while.

  “Who gives a fuck?!?” White shouted from the front. “Let’s bring him anyway. We can kill him later.” White was clearly concentrating on driving and was tired of the arguing. “Checkpoint ahead. Hang on!”

  There was a sudden feeling of greater acceleration in the van. Black had nearly been caught off guard by it but recovered quickly. A nasty “berBOOM!” resounded from the front of the van. It had struck the checkpoint gate arm and rammed through.

  The van sped on through the rows of massive freighters and starships parked on the Martian Steel airfield.

  Richmond Howe was walking through one of the white hallways of his office building when his phone chimed. It was the ‘security’ ring tone; three sharp electric tones. Howe was quick to retrieve his phone from his jacket pocket.

  “Howe.” He answered.

  A pause.

  “WHAT?!?!” Howe was immediately upset. “THEY were WHAT?!?”

  The security officer on the other end was briefing Howe as he stormed through the clean white halls of his building. Some workers, seeing Howe’s sour mood, gave him a wide berth.

  “I want Emergency Response at the airfield! DAMN IT! Get extra guards at the Labrea site and make sure it’s secure! And lock down Scoffield’s ship! I think that’s where they’re headed.”

  Howe depressed the ‘end call’ button on his phone. He immediately scrolled through his contact list and called up Aiyana’s number.

  The open rear ramp of the Tequesta was visible ahead. White, noticing two Martian Steel security guards in maroon armor, slowed the white van. He turned next to the freighter parked beside the Tequesta, as though they were servicing that vehicle.

  “We’ve got trouble.” White noted aloud to the back as he parked. White then pulled up his submachine gun from the passenger seat.

  “Shit!” Black took a more ready hold of his laser rifle. He eyed John and Alex.

  John took a breath. He weighed making a move against Black. John thought of the guards near the Tequesta. He desperately wanted them to live and knew a man like Black would soon make them dead. John knew, however, that any move he might make would be futile. If faced with the prospect of being captured or killed, a man like Black would very likely kill him and Alex without thinking twice. He knew he was in a poor position to do anything.

  Black slid the van door open.

  “Get your asses out!” Black waved John and Alex to exit with his laser rifle.

  White opened the driver side door and jumped out. Like a pro, his submachine gun was up at his sights. He bent his knees and walked low quickly towards the ramp. John and Alex weren’t far behind, with Black just behind them.

  White stopped and crouched behind one of the massive wheels of the nearby freighter. Black remained behind John and Alex, using them as visual cover. John knew what was going to happen before it happened. Black was ushering them towards the ramp in a non-threatening manner.

  “Hey! Stop right there!” one of the guards snapped his rifle up to his sights. He took aim on John first.

  The other guard at the ramp was slower to respond. White turned his machine gun up over the large tire and shot the guard that had just spoken.

  Black appeared from around Alex and took quick aim on the second guard. A beam of red light cut through the guard’s chest before he could realize what was happening.

  It was over in seconds. Both guards lay on the ground; dead. John slowed in stride as he looked down on one of the dead guards.

  “Keep going!” Black shoved him forward.

  Their footsteps clanked on the ramp of the Tequesta. Alex, to some degree, entered the cargo area feeling like he was home, though nowhere near safe.

  “It’s a good thing we didn’t off Scoffield.” White noted aloud. “I don’t think I can fly a bird this big.”

  “Good thing you tell me this now.” Black noted agitatedly, turning towards Alex. “Get your shit up to the cockpit and get this thing off the ground.”

  “Where are we going?” Alex asked in a gruff tone.

  “I’ll tell you once we’re in the sky. Now GO!” Black growled.

  White grabbed Alex by the upper left arm. Alex moved towards the cockpit but jerked his arm free of White’s grasp. White responded by shoving the barrel of the submachine gun in Alex’s face. “Get fucking going!”

  Alex complied. He vanished up the narrow corridor towards the bridge. White and his gun were right behind him.

  Black ran back towards the controls of the ramp. He was mindful that he was alone in the cargo bay with John. Black never fully turned his back on John as he walked towards the ramp controls. Black swung open the control box cover and hit the large switch to retract the ramp. The heavy hydraulic arms hummed throughout the rear of the craft as the long boarding ramp closed.

  Black turned back around completely towards John. John, calmly, had sat in one of the molder seats at the side of the craft.

  The main engines powered up. They surged with a mechanical whine like standard jet engines, quickly building into a roar. Not long after, there was a sudden lurch upward.

  The Tequesta was airborne.

  “Don’t try any funny shit with me, Carn!” Black warned. He sat down in one of the identical molded seats of the cargo bay across from John.

  What Black didn’t know was that John had sat down one seat away from his web belt. The black belt didn’t look like a military harness in how it lay crumpled over the seat. If Black didn’t have his adrenaline pumping, if he had been calmer, he might have bothered to check the cabin and the web belt.

  The sheath for John’s combat knife was empty.

  The Tequesta had picked itself up off the deck with combined jet and repulse thrust. Its long blue and white spaceplane form rotated in the air above the airfield with as much grace as its bulk allowed.

 
A security guard with a long-range tactical rifle stationed high above in the geodesic dome catwalk took aim on the Tequesta as it lifted off below. The guard was over a quarter mile away.

  “Secured Explorer transport lifting off!” the guard yelled into his helmet com. He took better aim on the Tequesta and fired.

  The bullet was fairly harmless at that range and missed as the Tequesta surged forward. Other guards stationed around the base ring of the airfield dome and within the airfield itself followed suit. The Tequesta rocketed forward towards the access tunnel of the airfield.

  “They’ll try to seal the tunnel off.” White remarked from the copilot seat.

  Alex was in the command seat on the left side of the Tequesta’s flight deck. His hands gripped the flight yoke assembly expertly. Alex’s concentration was perfect as he flew his ship out of the gigantic access tunnel.

  “They can’t.” Alex replied briefly and indirectly. “This tunnel can’t be pressurized that fast”

  The Tequesta rocketed over the red Martian ground of the tunnel. Each successive force field they passed through felt like turbulence at the speed they were traveling. Spacecraft weren’t meant to speed through the transparent ETFE layered tunnel. The air pressure outside the vehicle grew fainter with each force field they traversed. The tunnel eventually opened up to the broad red expanse of the Martian afternoon landscape.

  The Tequesta roared over the abrasive rust colored landscape and turned up towards the hazy sky, leaving the Port Huron and Hutchinson City domes far behind.

  John looked over at Black for a moment. He couldn’t help but smile.

  Black visibly took a breath of relief. The hard part was over, he silently thought to himself. His eyes turned back towards John. He became agitated as he realized his prisoner was eyeballing him. “What the hell is your problem?” Black asked in a nasty tone.

  “You and your buddy should have switched guns.” John grinned.

  “Why do you say that?” Black asked curiously.

  “Because, you’re not going to discharge a laser rifle in here, are you?” John asked smartly.

  Black raised an eyebrow. His eyes turned for a half second down to his gun.

  John sprang into motion. His right arm flew forward, throwing his 4” blade knife across the cargo bay into Black’s head just above his left eye. Black squirmed for a second then slumped forward to collapse to the cargo deck. In moments Black was dead.

  John stood up. He turned to his web belt and pulled out his other combat knife; one with a 7” satin black blade. Retrieving the knife, John stood up and walked towards the flight deck.

  “Any sign of pursuit?” White asked from the copilot seat.

  Alex checked his short-range screens. “Negative.” His right hand toggled a control button on the right side of the flight yoke. The screen on the center console broadened to a wire-frame model of Mars’ northern hemisphere. There were several dots flying over the half sphere but they were all marked as commercial vessels. “Nothing long range either.”

  “I guess we’re…”

  White was silenced by John’s left hand as it clasped tightly over his mouth. John’s knife stabbed sharply down into White’s right collarbone, into his right lung, then viciously into his heart. White flailed briefly before settling down.

  “WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?” Alex yelled in horror.

  “Calm down, Alex.” John spoke in an even reassuring tone. “I need you to fly the ship.”

  “JESUS!!!!” Alex screamed.

  “Alex! We’re going to crash if you don’t settle down and fly.” John noted to him seriously.

  Alex did as he was told. He forced himself to pilot the ship. He had no choice. This man he knew as his good friend completely stunned him. The routine and simple way in which he had ended White’s life was shocking. This was a side of John that Alex didn’t ever see at New Australia or during their entire friendship.

  John released the five-way locking harness of White’s chair. Alex looked over, once again in shock. John still had the knife in White’s chest! With the lock released John lifted up on the back of White’s body using the knife as a handle. There was blood all over the copilot station.

  It took all of John’s strength to drag White’s dead body out of the chair. White’s feet flopped back over the center console controls. Alex had to force himself to keep White’s legs from kicking the throttle controls.

  “Fuck! Take it easy!” Alex shouted.

  “I got it.” John finally got White’s body out. “Get us outta here. I’ll take care of these two.”

  Alex glanced over his back at John, but then quickly turned his eyes forward again. “What the hell happened to Black?!?”

  “He’s dead too.” John noted plainly, disappearing back through the metal encased hallway with White’s feet dragging behind him. “Keep the nose steady until I give the word.”

  Alex took a very deep breath. The butterscotch haze in the sky ahead grew dark at the top, with the back band of space above.

  John pulled Black’s body into the auxiliary airlock at the side of the ship. The airlock was really designed for a single person to exit the vessel in the event that repairs were needed underway. It was little bigger than a phone booth. For the sake of expediency, John shoved Black’s body inside, then crammed White’s body into the lock. It took a bit of work to get them in but John was eventually able to get both inside. He had to hold White’s body in while the outer lock door slid shut, pulling his hand back at the last moment. Once they were secure John hit the com button in the console embedded into the bulkhead beside the lock.

  “Alright, Alex. Give me a 45 degree bank for a few seconds.”

  “Okay.” Alex replied simply. Clearly, he didn’t like what was happening.

  John braced himself as the Tequesta banked. John looked inside the airlock window as he depressed the outer door release. A pair of yellow warning lights flashed inside the booth and outside, indicating the outer door was about to open. The amber haze of Mars’ atmosphere bled in through the opening seam in the outer door. The wind was clearly whipping up beyond. Mars, with extremely weak air pressure, allowed for a massive pressure difference between the lock and the outside. Black and White’s bodies were sucked outside in the blink of an eye.

  The airlock was empty. John hit the button to close the outer door, then hit the

  com button again.

  “Alright, let’s get the hell outta here.” John noted into the com.

  A massive surge of flame blazed from the main engines of the Tequesta as it shot skyward. Within a few seconds, the horizon of Mars faded into the red and amber curve of the planet. They had escaped the Martian atmosphere, surging forward into the star-filled black ocean of space.

  John returned to the flight deck with several towels. He set them down on the copilot seat. He didn’t clean up the blood, but rather set the towels down to keep from getting blood on his clothes. John then strapped himself in.

  “Sorry about Black and White, but I needed to act.” John spoke indirectly to Alex.

  “Yeah, well…”Alex kept his eyes focused on the stars ahead.

  “I memorized the coordinates Julie was reading.” John noted.

  “I already entered it in.” Alex responded. “I was just waiting to see what your next play was.”

  “Going into Xen space could be tricky.” John stated plainly. “I’ve already asked too much of you.”

  “I’m already in this up to my neck, John.”

  “You can drop me off if you want. I can take it from there.” John looked over at Alex.

  “That’s what you said about Mars.” Alex pressed in a series of commands into the flight computer. “Screw it! Let’s get going!”

  Alex hit the activation switch for the warp drive. The Tequesta flashed forward for an instant, vanishing into the backdrop of the distant stars.

  Chapter 13

  Max Dekker was escorted back to his cell. Though he didn’t seem to have any new bru
ises or scars he was clearly drained to exhaustion. The two mercs leading him back to his cell were practically carrying him. Dekker let out a groan.

  Julie, hearing Dekker and the sound of his restraints clanking together, rushed to the bars of her cell door to get a look.

  Dekker’s legs gave out on him for a moment at the gate of his cell. One of the brown uniformed mercs carrying him reached out for the door. There was a loud buzz followed by a loud clang from the release of the mag lock. The steel bar cell door rolled open.

  “Get back!” one of the mercs spun his head to glare at Julie.

  Julie inched back from the bars but tried to remain close enough to where she could still understand what might be going on. The angle of her cell door from Dekker’s made it difficult.

  The mercs hauled Dekker inside. There was a bit of a jostle for a second or two, after which both mercs emerged casually from the cell.

  “Lockdown Two.” One of the mercs said to the unseen duty station officer.

  Dekker's cell closed and locked down with a few loud clanking and snapping sounds.

  The mercs in the brown BDU’s walked out of sight. Julie returned to her bed and picked her knees up to her chest, holding them anxiously with her arms in a kind of sitting fetal position.

  “Animals….” The sound of Dekker’s voice came through the air vent in the floor.

  Julie and Dekker had discovered that sound traveled relatively well through the heating vent in the floor. Dekker had told her it was an intentional design flaw; that it was to encourage chatter between prisoners. He had warned her that her room was likely bugged. All the same, Julie didn’t care.

  “You okay?” Julie asked in an even voice.

  A few uncomfortable seconds of silence passed.

  “Yeah, I’m okay.” Dekker’s weak voice finally answered. He breathed heavily for a few seconds more. “They want something… something I can’t give them.” He coughed a few times. “Something I don’t have.”