Merker's Outpost

by I. Christie

  "Eureka," the captain said under her breath, as she peered into the opened crate.

  "We need something to lift it with. Carrying it between us is going to take too much time," Harriet echoed her feelings.

  "I have a few bots online now," Guardian informed them. A bot rolled out from a storage bay and lifted the canister easily, then wheeled to wait for one of them to open up the sealed door.

  "That will do it," the captain nodded pleased.

  "If you let the bot out, it will find its way to the elevator and to a room on the upper level where I can neutralize the contents," Guardian explained.

  That done, the three turned to their other task with Captain Zohra in the lead. She set a fast pace through the halls and up a stairway where there were no traps set. Maud was waiting for them on the second level where Guardian had told them the group was moving along cautiously and slowly. This slowness did not make sense to Harriet. Were they expecting trouble from them?

  Captain Zohra stepped back a pace when she caught sight of Maud.

  "My twin, Maud. Guardian's assistant," Harriet introduced shortly. "This is Captain Zohra and Carol, Carol-Maud and Capt. Zohra. Last meet you didn't get a chance to exchange names."

  Captain Zohra said nothing, as Maud nodded to the captain, and smiled at Carol. Harriet wondered if Maud and Carol already knew each other. Zohra's voice brought Harriet's attention back to the strategy the captain mapped out, giving each woman a part.

  Captain Zohra had two goals in mind, to capture weapons and take out as many of the soldiers as they could. For thirty minutes, they dogged the group making their movement to the morgue area even slower and full of surprises both before them and behind them. The invading twelve were whittled down to five, with Guardian's bots dragging off the unconscious soldiers once the survivors were out of sight. The remaining soldiers were intent on moving their package towards the storage area with no retreat seeming to be in their list of options. Suddenly, the soldiers split up. Three guarded the weapon while two attempted to escape through one of the panels. One was successful.

  "Guardian, give me a close up of the cannon," Captain Zohra ordered, not daring to peek from around the service panel she had propped open. The other three women were sitting behind their own service doors, pinning the three remaining soldiers down.

  "It's been used," Guardian reported. "The barrel number has come up from my search as scraped from battle. It's probably from one of the late Lord Chaney's business associates who owns a salvage company. I don't want to alarm any of you…but there seems to be a charge on the weapon, which has been activated."

  "Bloody moon!" Captain Zohra cursed then continued with a long line of colorful expletives with impossible species mixes before she became silent.

  "No wonder they are moving so slow," Harriet added softly. "Why would they bring an armed weapon down below? Think maybe they are trying to keep us preoccupied here while they slip something else by us?"

  "There is a passageway, near the morgue that leads to the transportation tunnel," Maud suggested.

  "Hmm. They wouldn't knock out the transportation line so early in the game. For one, there aren't enough of us to cover the line…even if we had a troop of Black Rose at our disposal." Lt. Montran meant that as a humorous poke at the captain. "And two…they have to have this transportation to move their explosives below ground," Harriet reasoned.

  "That's right. So we may find just enough moBots for each city." The captain looked toward Harriet. "Your idea of setting explosives in the other cities looks probable."

  Harriet shifted her weight against the wall and leaned her head back to think. Why are we being kept here? I know it seems like we are pinning them down, but I got this feeling this is to keep our attention. From what?

  "Guardian, is there anything going on around the morgue area?''

  To all their helmets a scene of the morgue appeared. Clips of five guards posted inside the storage area all within view of the other.

  "When the changing of the guard occurred they didn't find anyone to change with." Another scene appeared in their helmets, "More of these soldiers dressed in black, heading your way." Then the scene changed again and a lone soldier was cautiously making his way down the halls. "The one that got away is headed towards the morgue."

  Why? He's one of Alan's soldiers. All those in the morgue are Spartans. Wouldn't he want to march back to his own group of metrasoldiers and get further instructions? Does he have orders to get something from the weapons cache if we are a threat? She had to get back to the morgue.

  "Captain, one of us needs to check out what's happening at the morgue," she hinted to the Zohra.

  "Why, lieutenant, do I hear you volunteering for something?"

  "Yeah. Perhaps the second time in my military career. Hopefully, this one ends better."

  "Go then. We'll catch up with ya when we can," Captain Zohra encouraged, and then added under her breath, "I hope this one ends better too."

  Harriet slipped out of sight into one of the service tunnels. She found a lot of T&T's and an intricate WEB along her way. No wonder Captain Zohra had taken them down the hall. Rather than dismantle them, Harriet slid by them and murmured her thanks to Guardian for the trace elements her helmet was able to pinpoint, and then find a weak spot to slip by.

  "Guardian, what's happening?"

  An image appeared of three of Alan's soldiers.

  "Another cannon Alan's soldiers are bringing down. They haven't moved the other cannon into the morgue area yet. There is another group of soldiers on another level that have just arrived from their ship. Apparently, each group has a different type of explosive with them."

  He showed her the image of ten soldiers just entering the City compound.

  "Can you tell what is in the package?"

  "Trace elements around it show Tricon," Guardian reported not happily. "It would cause a flame out in some of the cities, but the only one that is active is the one Captain Zohra is now dismantling."

  "I think that was done to draw us there. If they have moBots moving the explosives, it could take a few days to reach some of the cities like the Lair, or to another destination. You can't move explosives too fast or the momentum and heat would detonate them. That means his soldiers have not found any other way down to your cities except through the underground transportation line. We need to find where they are storing the moBots to disable them. Do these metrasoldiers only follow orders?"

  "I can only hazard a guess by my recent observations. This is the first time any of Alan's soldiers have visited my outpost. How much of their own ingenuity comes into play would depend on how much the owner had allowed the program to be independent of commands, and as of yet, there has been no action that would require independent thinking."

  "So…depending how psychotic and cryptic Alan was when he gave them their marching orders, they have a set agenda."

  "Yes. But you have to also take into effect the culture of these metrasoldiers which also plays a part in their effectiveness. Captain Zohra said they are from a planet that war is a way of life. Within that framework, how much initiative would they have without a commanding officer?"

  "If that's the case, then these probably are specialists in different war arts. Great. You don't happen to have some information on the species and culture do you?"

  "I am working on it. The Vine's operatives had captured a small group of them being shipped to a metralab in one of Fermin's merchant freighters. One has been recruited to work for the Brotherhood as an agent and the rest have been sent back to their planet. They were quite vehement of returning to punish those responsible for what was about to be done to them, which is understandable. Because their species is from a closed planet, they are protected from outside influence…including social scientists and cultural anthropologist who would like to study their savage cultures by moving amongst them; however, they must keep their observations from the skies out of range of their scanners."

  "Bloody moon, G
uardian. They have nerve to say that, considering the way the Committee has been using it's military forces to keep some of their members in power."

  "Yes, but that imbalance is changing," Guardian pointed out.

  "I'll believe it when I see it," Harriet told him cynically.

  Harriet arrived at the robot's service entrance without encountering any opposition. With her past luck in using the smaller entrances she opted for continuing using them, though more careful since she did not want to trust in luck alone. This time she had in her hand a sidearm, the stunner.

  As quietly as she could, she pulled herself forward on her elbows listening after each pull forward to be sure whatever noise she made was not magnified and heard though the vents. She entertained the thought of using the disappearing ability of the suit, but she did not know what would happen if a light was shinned in the small vent and though they may not see her, would they see a shadow or something unnatural? Not an option to use, she decided.

  Dragging herself to the bot exit, she stopped when a shadow moved across the bot's slatted door. Closing her eyes for concentration, she listened closely at the sounds from the room to get an idea on how many guards were in there. They only saw five on camera but where there be more? Should she use the suit's vanishing capabilities? Why, they could not see her now anyway.

  Guardians voice whispered in her ear. "The one that got away from your ambush met up with some of his group before he arrived here. He returned with them on the second level to speak with a Spartan. The Spartans and Alan's group do not mix well."

  "That's handy to know. What's the total live body count of 'them' on the planet?" Harriet asked softly. Pictures of rooms with soldiers in, both of Spartans and Alan's soldiers flickered quickly. Harriet averted her eyes so as not to get dizzy with the speed.

  "I count about forty, divided between those that are now chasing after Captain Zohra and her team, what is in the storage room and those headed towards you. Captain Zohra deactivated the timer before reinforcements arrived and damaged the mechanism; however, I'm sure they have replacement parts."

  Harriet could hear the seal release. A platoon? We are only facing a platoon?

  "Gunny, they're here," a voice reported. "It looks like they need help."

  "You two go help out. Maxwell, go outside and stand guard…and stay alert! I don't want to add your name to the 'missing persons' roster."

  The shadow in front of Harriet did not move.

  Whatever was moved in sounded like a lot of work was needed as crates were moved around and all without grav lifters by the sounds of the grunts and mutterings. The shadow in front of her moved to assist following someone barking an order. Harriet could hear one deep voice giving short directions on where to move things. It seemed he wanted some equipment in the same general area as the cannon.

  "Move those over here," the deep voice ordered.

  "We've done enough! They are fine where they are!" a voice growled angrily. "We're doing all the grunt work and without grav lifters. We aren't moving those moBots anywhere. They are close enough to your equipment."

  "I said, move them over here." The voice remained low, but the menace behind the words was enough to lift the hairs at the back of Harriet's neck.

  "Ya aren't our CO, and they aren't that far away for your bloody ass buddies to move when it's time. They stay where they are unless you move them yourself. We're here to guard the stuff, not be your bloody slaves and the like. Ya'd think ya were mommies' boys," the voice muttered disgusted.

  There was a sudden sound of bone on flesh and the crash of something heavy falling onto the crates.

  "You may think by pushing us around that it makes you all invincible and important. …but ya can't beat us all… You best be thinking' of the missing Black Rose troop. You keep pickin' us off and you'll have to face them alone. And I can tell ya now, you won't beat them without us."

  Harriet could not hear anything from that response but it did not lessen the tension in the air. Perhaps it was from the helmet's enhanced sensory inputs, but she could smell more than one person sweating from the tension.

  "Says you," the deep voice laughed.

  Suddenly, the seal could be heard breaking.

  They are leaving? That's that?

  "Mickey!" One of the others squeaked out. "You better watch that mouth of yours! They aren't human, man, and they don't care for us that are! Sorry there, Mallin. I mean all sentients. Life is cheap to them."

  The others were also nervous from what Mickey had said and joined in with their comments.

  "They ain't goin' ta beat the Black Rose with or without us. Hades! You guys can't let them treat you like slaves," Mickey returned. "Then they'll always feel they can. You're veteran Spartans! Damn it, act like it. Show some grit!"

  "Mickey, they are metrasoldiers, and the worse kind. Did you see the way they took Ray out? Carved him up alive! He was the only one that could tell what happened on that cruise accident they were involved in. It was suppose to be a simple kidnapping; hold the target family members for ransom somewhere; collect the money, and then let the hostages go. Simple. Ray said they held the entire ship hostage and when the ransom wasn't delivered on time, boom! All gone. No second chances. Like they had it planned that way in the beginning. Man, they are out just to terrorize people. Make everyone feel unsafe even in the most guarded of space lines."

  So, they are behind the hostage game. The Centurion Command thinks it was rogue smugglers …why would Alan's soldier's blow away an entire ship…was it for the fun of it like the soldier said? Is this what to expect from Alan if he's allowed to continue unrestrained? I wonder if he had another reason to scuttle that ship and everyone on board. Hades! I wonder if Guardian has that ship's passenger and crew register…bet he does. Damn, Harriet! You have enough to worry about here! You don't need any more problems to look into.

  "Bloody moons! The news said it was a freak meteor shower that went right through their buffer. I'm getting out of here before that nut, kid Fermin gets here. Maybe that's why Lord Chaney got his uppance; he found out the kid had a hand in that mess up and they had a fallin' out."

  The sibilant hiss of the seal releasing silenced the men.

  "Hey, Mickey, what did you tell those dong eaters? You got hit too? One of them knocked me down and I wasn't even in his way!"

  "Maybe they're a bit upset because the Black Rose is somewhere around here, people are disappearing…and not just our people, and they can't find them," Mickey's voice was laughing. "If the Black Rose is taking in recruits to face these guys, I wish they would take me too. The Black Rose and the kid's group trained in the same compound on Reinier IV. I heard the one that thinks he's a hotshot was whipped in a practice fight with Sgt. Major JG. He fancies himself a real warrior, being a metrasoldier and all. He probably thought he was going to come down here and kick her butt with his buddies behind him."

  The others laughed, letting some of the tension in the room dissipate.

  "Never happen," another voice stated, "even if there was ten of them and one of her. I've seen her square off with five of her own troop."

  "That idiot chief on Spinner's Tale thought the kid was going to give her to him to carve up. I personally don't see anything remarkable about her except she could turn your blood into ice with one of her looks. They're as obsessed about her as the kid and Lord Chaney are about Lt. Montran. It's gotta be something they ate."

  "Bloody moon! Wonder how the kid feels that his special soldiers still aren't better'in the Black Rose, Lord Chaney's soldiers?"

  "Not his anymore. Wonder what they're gonna do now that Lord Chaney's out of the picture. It's not like he owned them…but they're gonna have to find their own ships off this place 'cause them metrasoldiers, they got those three ships up there under their command and they're patrolling the space up there to make sure no one leaves or enters without their knowledge."

  "You mean Fermin's command. They don't think; they just obey orders…so think about this be
ing your lucky day, Mickey. You weren't on the kid's hit list for today." They all laughed nervously. "I think the Black Rose, they'll be wanting to take over this planet for themselves. Since they arrived, they've been studying this place and making detailed maps…and I don't think it was for Lord Chaney."

  "That's probably why the kid wants to render it inhabitable… "

  "That's the part that doesn't make sense. Why doesn't he just take over the place now that Lord Chaney is out of the picture? You would think he's leaving this part of the Galaxy for a while, the way he's planning on setting off these charges."

  "That or maybe a sideshow to something he's doing somewhere else. Damn waste of a planet, if you ask me. It's going to affect the entire area including the jump gate!"

  "The kid didn't ask you. We get a ride outta here for sticking out the last part and a nice bit of pay to boot. That's all we need to know."