Bombardier - The Complete Trilogy

by SD Tanner

  With the city back under control, he was taking a well-earned break in the home he shared with Tank. Their house was amongst the others to the north of the city, not that they spent much time in it. He spent his days training the Bombardiers and Navigators, working with the Trachan engineers, and learning to pilot the ships. His busy schedule meant he was gone more often than not. Staring around the small lounge, the house was really only four walls with a bedroom and a bathroom. Most Bombardiers took their few meals in the barracks near the surface, so there was no need for a kitchen.

  Leaning his head against the back of the wide chair, he blew out a deep breath. “Tank wants me to kill all of the Dunks.”

  “And you are tired of killing.”

  It was a statement, not a question and he looked at her in surprise. “How do you know that?”

  Sitting at the end of the wide chair wearing a Navigator tracksuit, her long legs were tucked under her peach shaped rear. “You are not a killer.”

  He snorted softly. “That’s probably the worst thing you can say to a soldier.”

  “You only kill when you must.”

  “There are always other ways.”

  “But you do not use them.”

  Tank and Casey saw his war against Dunk as a tantrum between two naughty children. She believed their armies were equally matched, meaning a winner would only be decided after devastating losses on both sides. Naturally, she wanted to avoid that and so did Tank. He supposed he did too, but he didn’t want to concede either. Wrestling with the idea that maybe he and Dunk Two had more in common than not, he was questioning himself.

  “Dunk Two has to go. He’s murdering his own people, plus…” He paused, wondering about Mariana’s people. Turning to face Tiana, he said intently, “I was told that Boms are the next evolution of mankind and that Luki and humans are…primitive.”

  “Luki? The one that can fly?”

  Now the sole survivor of his species, Luki wandered around Tracha like a lost puppy. Mostly he lived in the barracks, acting as some sort of mascot for the army. No one other than his and Tank’s squads knew that Luki had been part of a developing culture and species. He wasn’t supposed to be a lost puppy looking for somewhere to belong. He’d come from a simple culture with a home planet, but Dunk Two had destroyed it.

  “Yeah, there were more of them. They lived in…tribes, I guess. Dunk Two killed them all except Luki. He was going to kill him too, but only after he used his cells to create other living things he could control.”

  “Good to be whole.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Not machine.”

  Giving her an admiring look, he leaned across the chair, tracing his fingers along her thigh. “You’re not a machine.”

  Untucking her feet, she stretched her legs over the edge of the chair. Since leaving CaliTech, he was learning his skills with women weren’t as good as he’d been led to believe. Admittedly, he was seeing one of the female Bombardiers, but they both knew it was only a convenient relationship. Tiana had his attention, but she hesitated to be intimate with someone she barely knew. Being part machine and part biological, Tiana’s people had already lived long lives with more centuries to come. He too could live for hundreds of years. Being almost immortal maybe she was right and they should take their time.

  Moving closer to him again, she traced her fingers along his forearm. “How is the gun?”

  One of the advantages of an exoskeleton was that it worked like armor. Made of thick rope-like strands tightly woven together for strength, when cut the strands would reform, sealing the injury. Like the rest of his body, his forearm was thickset and ridged with dense strands that worked like muscle. It had been Tank’s idea to build a weapon into the exoskeleton on his arm.

  Twisting his arm so that the inside of his forearm was showing, he clenched his fist. Buried in the exoskeleton was a barrel with ten bullets. The trigger was at the base of his palm where he concurrently pressed three points to fire. This was how Tank planned to kill the Dunks. He was to travel with Casey and her trusted henchmen to CaliTech. She believed he was there to negotiate, promising him a safe extract if Dunk Two was uncooperative. In truth, he was going to assassinate the Dunks using the weapon hidden deep inside of his arm. If the Dunks were dead, then Casey had promised to follow his orders, so she would be forced to swear allegiance to him. If she didn’t like it when he killed the Dunks then Tank would have already broken through the Navigator lines, ready to bring hell down on CaliTech.

  “Will it hurt to shoot?”

  She meant the burn of the bullet through the barrel, but that wasn’t how he heard it. Although Dunk Two deserved to die, shooting an unarmed man he’d known since he was born didn’t rest well with him.

  “Dunk Three won’t like it,” he replied with a worried sigh.

  “Will you kill him?”

  It was a difficult question to answer. Tank kept pushing for Dunk Three to be assassinated, but he didn’t have the memories of them growing up together. “I don’t know.”

  “Do not kill for others.”

  “Tank is right in that Dunk has to go, but…”

  “We follow you, not Tank.”

  Narrowing his eyes, he contemplated her solemn face. “You don’t trust Tank, do you?”

  “He has a plan.”

  “What is it?”

  “He lost his friends. Now he is angry.”

  He didn’t know much about the squad Tank had been with before he’d left Earth two hundred years earlier. All he knew was that they had all died, meaning Tank had lost more than just Lexie and Ark. Was it possible Tank was fulfilling a centuries old vendetta against Dunk? Did it matter if he was? He was also angry with Dunk Two, so he understood how fury could warp a man’s ability to think straight.

  Flicking his head at Tiana, he smiled at her. “We all are, Tiana. Dunk has that effect on everyone.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:

  Play List

  (Ark Three)

  “Over a thousand lives were lost on Tracha, plus the two hundred and thirty troops that died in the battle against Casey, not to mention the nav losses on her side.”

  Tank sighed, adjusting his bulky body, which barely fit in the chair inside of the meeting room. “What’s your point?”

  Giving him a look of disbelief, he shook his head in disgust. “That’s a lot of our people dead, Tank.” Hunching his heavyset shoulders, he leaned against the sturdy table. “And the critters are now attacking planets. Why did they target Tracha? Do you think that was a coincidence, or did they know it was defenseless?”

  It was a question discussed and argued by everyone, but no one had an answer. They lacked intel about the critters, operating as much in the dark as they had several hundred years earlier. When Tank didn’t answer his question, he asked, “Have you talked to Casey again? Does she know Tracha was attacked? Has she seen any critters?”

  His barrage of questions, each delivered in a bullet-like way, was met by a blank look from Tank. “How can I have spoken to Casey? I’ve been on this side of the universe with you. I’m not telepathic like Mariana.”

  The lack of intel was irritating him. They were heading towards Navigator territory, no doubt about to engage in yet another fierce fight. Here they were beating the hell out of one another, while the attack on Tracha proved not only were the critters back, they were stepping up their game.

  “This is stupid. We’re wasting lives, ships and weapons fighting with one another when we should be taking on the critters.”

  Tank snorted rudely. “Ya don’t say.” Leaning into the table, he fixed him with a blank stare, sneering slightly as he did. “If you had just killed the Dunks when I said then you’d already be in command of Earth.”

  Unfortunately, what he’d said was true, but hindsight wasn’t solving his current problem. In fighting their way back into Navigator territory, both sides would lose troops and ships, only further weakening their fleet for the real enemy. It was as i
f they were being played against one another, but he’d started this war so he couldn’t see how anyone was screwing with them.

  Ignoring Tank’s obvious irritation, he cocked his head, narrowing his eyes as he did. “Are we being played?”

  “How?”

  “It’s a bit convenient, isn’t it? I mean, we haven’t had a civil war in centuries, yet here we are facing an enemy that damned near destroyed us. Instead of dealing with them, we’re fighting with one another.”

  Tank shrugged. “Maybe we’re just stupid.”

  He shook his head. “This all started over the bird planet…”

  “And your crush on Mariana.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  “Sure it is. Your head was turned by a pretty alien.”

  He shook his head again, speaking more confidently this time. “No, she didn’t start this war. It was the when Dunk Two committed genocide on Luki’s species that I finally said enough was enough.”

  Giving a deep chuckle, Tank smirked at him. “And yet when we were in the medical center you hesitated to rescue Luki. You considered leaving once you had Mariana.”

  It was annoying how Tank could read him so easily. He had almost left with only Mariana, but his stubborn streak had kicked in, leading him to go down another level to find Luki. Maybe rescuing Mariana had been his real intent, but knowing that wasn’t helping him.

  “Give it up, Tank,” he replied, snorting irritably. “You’re missing my point. Have we been played, and if so, by whom?” Narrowing his eyes again, he pointed at Tank. “Is it you? You’ve been angling to kill the Dunks from the start.”

  Laughing loudly, Tank leaned back in his chair. “That’s a public agenda, and if you’d done as you were told then we wouldn’t be where we are now.” Leaning back into the table, he narrowed his eyes only there was a smile playing across his mouth, showing he was more amused than defensive. “I didn’t play you and I didn’t influence your decision to lead the Boms.”

  Their one hundred and forty BattleRigs were forging headlong into Navigator territory. Although Casey was willing to deliver him to CaliTech, she couldn’t stop her Battalions from defending Earth. Playing both sides could mean her death, so he understood her caution. If she revealed her hand then she would be executed on the spot, and no one else would help him get inside of CaliTech. If Tank’s plan worked then just killing the Dunk line would put him in command, leaving him with whatever army was left to take on the critters. Knowing he would lose troops he needed for the real war was frustrating him. Tank was right. Had he killed the Dunks when he’d told him to then they would be in a better place. It wasn’t entirely his fault. Tank hadn’t told him the whole story. Had he known the Bombardier Army were waiting for him on Tracha then maybe he would have killed the Dunks.

  Thinking about killing Dunk Three, he shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “I don’t want to kill my brother.”

  Tank gave a deep sigh, shaking his head as he did. “The Dunks have to die.”

  “Why? Who do you think is going to follow Dunk Three?” He gave a disgusted snort. “Casey? The Boms? You?”

  “CaliTech and the Guild.”

  He waved his hand dismissively. “CaliTech is full of design engineers and the Guild is a puppet government. I’ll have the army so I’ll own the game.”

  “You’re proposing Martial Law.”

  “It’s what they have now.”

  “So, what makes you any better than the Dunks?”

  “I won’t kill people because of their DNA.”

  Tank snorted. “You don’t have the experience to govern a planet.” Now chuckling, he eyed him with an amused look in his eyes. “You barely know how to command an army.”

  Ignoring his criticism, he gave him a wry look. “So, who do you think should govern Earth?”

  “Not you and not the army. Our job is to defend Earth and Tracha from the critters, not to babysit the civvies.”

  He was about to ask Tank just who was qualified to run the Guild when the harsh sound of a horn cut him off. “Now what?”

  Tank was already on his feet, speaking to the Bridge through his headset. “What’s the word?”

  “We have contact.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:

  Well Suited

  (Ark Three)

  His view of the Bridge disappeared until he was suspended in space, watching the ships traveling near theirs. Ahead of them, some twenty-five light-years away, were four thousand ugly Navigator ships. Unlike last time, they were spread widely, creating an array of weapons. If they travelled into the Navigator net then they would be under attack from every angle.

  Seated to his left, occupying the chair belonging to the Weapons specialist, Tank was eyeing the enemy. “We could try going around them.”

  “That net is pretty wide and there’ll be even more ships behind it. I don’t favor breaking our strength.”

  “You split the fleet last time.”

  Casey’s forces were spread far apart in a grid of twenty ships by twenty. He could only begin to guess how deep the line went and how many ships she held in reserve. Sending their ships around the net wasn’t a good option, but he had to find a way through. Scorpions were fast and the Bombardiers virtually indestructible. Casey’s Navigators were ready for a ship-to-ship conflict, making him wonder how they’d deal with troopers in HackSuits.

  The single person suits were one of Tiana’s latest weapons. Instead of mechanizing the Bombardiers from the inside, she’d created a form of robot to surround them. With thrusters on all sides, they used controls in the gloves to hack from one position to the next, earning them the name HackSuit. It was another one of Tracha’s mad mechanical inventions, merging sentience and machine. Tiana had designed them to function like a tiny spaceship, making them hard to see and target. If they got close enough to an assault ship, there was a good chance they could board or at least disable its weapons.

  “If we hit them head on then they’ll marshal resources to that point, so we need to create multiple fronts inside and outside of their ships.”

  “Inside?”

  Ignoring Tank’s question, he began mapping the battle in his head. He needed to disrupt the ships behind the Navigator front line. If ten squads of Scorpions moved forward then each could start a fight somewhere along the front line.

  “A Battle Squad should be made up of twenty Scorpions, with five going into the enemy line. Once they’re through I want them to ram the ships behind the front line.”

  “Seriously, Ark? You want to ram the nav assault ships. What happens to our crew?”

  “They can abandon ship before they hit. They can use HackSuits to fire nanobytes at the nav ships.”

  “But nav ships are biological.”

  “Their weapons aren’t and neither are the electronics.”

  “And what happens to our floating army in HackSuits?”

  “We’ll pick them up later.”

  Tank sounded uncommonly serious when he replied, “You’re using HackSuits as a ground army. You can’t do that. This isn’t a land-based battle.”

  “So?”

  Hesitating, Tank shook his head. “We’re in space. It’s big with lots of nothing. Why don’t we use the ships to fire the nanobytes?”

  “We can do that too, but ships make big targets whereas Boms in HackSuits don’t. They’re not big enough for a missile to lock onto and they’ll be hard to find. Like you said, space is big.”

  Now sounding resigned, Tank asked, “And what will you be doing?”

  “Casey is supposed to pick me up, so I’ll be in a Scorpion abandoning ship with the rest of them. Just scoop them up once Casey has me.”

  “You’re supposed to be launched by automated pod. I’m leading the army to meet up with you on Earth.”

  “Maybe you should wait for me to let you know when the Dunks are dead.”

  He couldn’t see Tank’s face against the backdrop of space, but his contemptuous tone was clear enough. “As if.”


  Standing and feeling slightly confused by the lack of visible floor beneath his feet, he placed his hand on Tank’s shoulder. “See you on Earth.” Leaning closer to his face, he added, “Don’t kill all the navs. We have a bigger enemy.”

  “Oh, yeah, like I’m the one that’s gonna get us killed.”

  Leaving Tank to set up the squads of Scorpions, he walked to the docking bay where thirty Scorpions were already loaded with missiles. Tiana had extended the use of the nanobyte bullets to missiles and guns built into the HackSuits. With their weapons disabled, the Navigator assault ships were only ugly biological lumps capable of space travel. The problem with using the nanobytes was they were slow to infect. It took a few minutes for them to assume control of the onboard computers, but in that short time a Navigator crew could still return fire. His troops would be floating through space in HackSuits, using computerized thrusters to move. It meant they would need to evade enemy fire until the nanobytes disabled the ships.

  In his hand was a communications pulser. It emitted a frequency Casey would use to find him. Tucking it inside of his gear, he opened the door to his HackSuit. It was like wearing a ship, complete with thrusters and built in weapons. With so little biological matter left inside of them, a Bombardier only used the suit to move. Much like a medieval torture device, it opened like a human shaped coffin with arms and legs. Standing with his back against the suit, the door closed over his body. Once inside it took all of his strength to move the thick arms and legs.

  Armed with four mini-missiles fired from the shoulder and railguns built into the arms. The missiles carried a non-nuclear warhead, but their explosion could destroy the armor on a ship. Railguns used nanobyte slugs fired so powerfully they would penetrate a ship, leaving the nanobytes inside of the hull.

  Scorpions usually carried a three-person crew, but wearing HackSuits meant they could only fit two. Knowing she would enjoy the insanity of fighting as a land squad in space, he’d nominated Cardiff as his co-pilot.