War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past

by Conner Walworth

  "I'm counting on you Giustino. The Queen is also counting on you to get Armino's son here," He lowered his comlink. "Tomorrow."

  Giustino leaned back in his chair and put his feet on his desk. Why did she want to see Anlon in person? Did she really think she was going to get answers out of him? Or had he been waiting for her call, intentionally holding back vital information from them?

  It bothered him that Anlon could be lying about how much he really knew. He didn't have much of a choice in this though, the Queen had ordered it. Intentionally not sending Anlon against the Queen's orders would be treason and he wasn't about to be charged with that.

  This case kept taking turn after turn and he was getting nowhere with it, though he couldn't get rid of the feeling that someone else was. It had looked very promising at first, but with no planet or names it was going to be unsolvable. With the line of work Armino had been in, it was impossible for any regular law enforcement to find those guys and track them down. But the Queen, and all the contacts she had, she could easily catch these guys given a few more pieces of information.

  Chapter 8

  Anlon awoke to loud banging on his front door and rolled over to look at the time - 6:00 a.m. Who could possibly be at the door at this time in the morning? He swung his feet over the side of the bed and groggily put some clothes on while walking to the door. The banging got louder on his way down.

  "I'm coming! I'm coming!" he shouted.

  He pulled the door open and took a step back, unsure of who he was going to see in the doorway.

  "We need to talk," Moran pushed his way in. "Are you here alone?"

  "Of course I am," Anlon shut the door and turned to him with a confused look on his face. "Why are you here?"

  "I held some things back from you the other day because I didn't know whether I should tell you everything," he answered. "I've had a change of heart since then."

  "I figured you'd come to your senses and help me out." Anlon grinned.

  "Don't push it kid," Moran warned. "I was afraid you would do something stupid the other day because you're so much like your father. So instead of letting you do something stupid on your own, I decided I'm going to help you do something stupid. That at least gives you some chance of living."

  "What makes you think I'd do something stupid?"

  "Your Dad talked enough about you for me to know what you'd do if I gave you any information regarding Donnchadh."

  "I don't know what you're talking about. I wouldn't have done anything foolish."

  "Really? You want to play this game Anlon?" Moran glared.

  "I don't know what game you're talking about," Anlon persisted.

  "Why else would you keep information from the police? Why else would you come to my apartment to find out more information?" Anlon started to respond, but Moran held up his hand. "Do you want my help or not?"

  "Yes I want your help."

  "I thought you might," he nodded. "Before any of that though, I think you should know about Donnchadh. You were right to think that this wasn't a random murder. Your father and I knew Donnchadh. We knew him very well, to tell you the truth."

  "How?" Anlon asked.

  "Let me start from the very beginning."

  "Alright guys, the Queen has asked us to take out a criminal group that goes by the Deimos Brotherhood," Armino informed. "They don't seem to be a big player in any criminal activities going on throughout Orion as of now, but the Queen and I have a suspicion that they may be behind a lot of the recent attacks and assassinations. We believe they are letting other groups take responsibility for their work. The tactics and precision that are being used are like nothing we have seen before from any of the other groups. The Queen doesn't want to allow the Deimos Brotherhood to carry out any further attacks, whether they take responsibility for them or not. It is our mission to take them out completely."

  "Whooo!" Cheered some of the men.

  Armino held his hand up to quiet them down. "Now just because they're not one of the bigger criminal organizations, doesn't mean that this will be an easy job."

  "Come on they're all easy!" Shouted a black Malak with white markings.

  Armino glared at him. "I'm strongly stressing the precision this organization has shown is like nothing we have ever seen. They go in and out undetected, and from tracking back crimes that don't fit other organizations' tactics, they don't fail. They're the best group of criminals Orion has seen in quite some time and it has taken us several years to find out that they even exist," He clicked a button with a remote and the wall turned into a giant projection of a planet. "This is where we believe they keep their headquarters. Unlike other organizations who have outposts and headquarters on various planets that we have easy access to, they have chosen Plouton."

  "We're going there?" One of the men blurted out. "Every criminal in Orion will be on us within a matter of minutes."

  Armino ignored him and continued briefing. "Plouton will be a little bit trickier to get on because they're a planet of outlaws and outcasts, therefore, don't abide by any of Orion's Galactic Laws. Very little, if any, laws are enforced there, so once where on Plouton we're completely on our own. I believe we can get on the planet without going through the spaceport, but that is only because I believe they have no real defense system established to keep anyone from coming and going freely."

  "What if they do have a defense system set up that we aren't aware of?" The Malak spoke up again.

  "A valid question," Armino walked to the other side of the room. "I have looked for defenses, but I have found none after hours of extensive research. It looks like they let anyone on that wants to come on. I've never seen the Queen's ships try to land, and her ships are pretty easy to pick out from a normal ship, so I'm not sure what their response would be to us. I can give you a pretty good guess though."

  "Why not just use ships that aren't tied to the Queen?" Moran asked.

  "Getting ships like that will take quite some time. We don't have enough time to find ships that of that sort that will suit our mission," Armino answered.

  "They can't detect us with stealth fields," Donnchadh said. "These groups use them all the time to enter and exit planets."

  "And that's what we'll be using," Armino smiled.

  "Alright. Now that we know how we're getting on Plouton, how are we going to take them out once we get there?" One of the men asked.

  "All twelve of you guys, plus another six who will be briefed when they get back, will be going on this mission," Armino started.

  "Eighteen men?" Donnchadh blurted. "That's almost all of the GSOU."

  "This has to be a quiet and quick mission which will require a larger number of us than usual," Armino held up a finger. "Remember that we're on a planet of criminals. If they see us blowing up another criminal's base, the whole planet will be crawling on us in minutes. We have to get into their base and take them out from there."

  "What's the plan?" A big rock man in the back of the room asked.

  Armino switched the image again to an aerial view of the headquarters. "There are three entrances that we can see from the imagery we have received," He pointed out all three entrances at each end. "We will divide up into groups of six and make our way through the compound. Before any of you ask, this is the only picture that I have of the compound. We have no pictures of floor plans or the inside of the building, so we're going to have to be quick on our feet and ready for surprises."

  "Exactly how many men are to be expected in there?" The rock man asked.

  "We have almost no intel on them Ferris," He crossed his hands behind his back and paced. "All we have is a base. We got this information through a captured criminal that has been working closely with the Deimos Brotherhood. After a little persuasion, he told us told us about this compound. He couldn't provide us with any further information. It seems that even the other organizations who have been working closely with them, know very little about them."

  Donnchadh stood up. "We're going here
based off what a criminal told you? Are you insane?"

  Armino turned to Donnchadh. "It is reliable information. Now sit down," he ordered. "We have been watching the compound and we have seen ships from multiple crime organizations come and go. We have never known these organizations to work together, in fact, we know they compete in their crimes."

  "So what? Maybe they decided to come together for a change," Donnchadh said. "It wouldn't be a terrible idea for them."

  "Yes. But why?" Armino asked. "Why would they come together after doing the opposite for so long?"

  Donnchadh shrugged. "I don't know, maybe someone convinced them."

  "Exactly!" Armino exclaimed. "Whoever is running the Deimos Brotherhood has brought all these other organizations together so they can stay under the radar. The other groups are sloppy with the work that they do, but the Deimos Brotherhood likes to be quick and precise. They also don't care who takes credit for their jobs because we have confirmed over a dozen crimes linked to them that four other groups have taken credit for."

  "It makes no sense," Moran said. "These groups take pride in their crimes."

  "No, it doesn't make sense." Armino agreed. "There are four groups we have seen at this compound, and our criminal told us of all four before we knew about them, so it leads us to believe they have some type of deal with the leader of the Deimos Brotherhood. These organizations build rep for crimes they carry out, so it appears the leader has made some type of deal allowing the other groups to gain rep while the Deimos Brotherhood stays under the radar."

  "Why would they want to stay undetected if the other groups go out of their way to stand out?" Ferris asked.

  Armino shrugged. "We don't know why they want to stay undetected. It goes against everything that these groups believe in, but it leads me to believe there are bigger things in store."

  "What kind of deal could the leader have made that would all of a sudden bring these groups that hate each other together?" Moran asked.

  Armino shrugged again. "We don't know. We're only assuming that there's some type of deal, why else would they be meeting at this compound? Maybe there is no deal, we don't know for sure. All we know is that these other groups are claiming crimes that they haven't carried out and that they 're meeting someone at this compound for some reason. We've never seen these organizations work together, or with someone else, so we can only assume the leader of the Deimos Brotherhood has orchestrated something."

  "Well," Donnchadh started and paused. "Who's their leader?"

  "No one knows. The criminal we've been talking to says he never shows his face to anybody, but seems to be a very well educated man who knows a lot about politics and has a lot of connections. That might explain how he was able to bring a bunch of criminals who hate each other together, but we have no idea who he is or why he hides his identity," Armino answered.

  Ferris spoke up from the back. "I've heard enough. This group sounds dangerous. If they've tried this hard to stay hidden from us, we need to eliminate them as quickly as we can before something really bad happens."

  Armino gave him a nod of approval. "Exactly what the Queen and I concluded after looking into this," He turned off the projection. "Not much of a brief for a mission this big, but we really don't have much to go on. This group has tried to stay hidden from us and we're about to take them out," He looked at his men. "This is what you signed up for guys, the dangerous stuff. We've all gone on enough missions to know exactly what to expect and we don't need specifics of every little thing. We're all quick thinkers and problem solvers. We're taking this group out, even if we know close to nothing about them because it's what we do. Now go get some rest and meet me in the bay at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow for departure."

  The men all exited and Armino watched them as they left. He stayed behind in the room and pulled out his comlink to call the Queen.

  "Yes Armino?" The Queen answered.

  "We leave tomorrow."

  There was a pause. "Be safe Armino. I know you will succeed."

  "Thank you Adira. If anything does happen to me, tell my family that I love them."

  "I will Armino."

  Armino hung up the comlink and made his way to his bunker. He made quick calls to the other six men who hadn't been at the briefing and filled them in on what was going to happen in the morning. The men had been in the GSOU longer than him and he knew they only needed to know what time to be in the bay, they didn't care much about the details until the trip started.

  Armino undressed and flopped down on his bed. He could feel all of the stress weighing him down, eighteen lives was a lot to be responsible for on a single mission. One small misstep could mean several of his men's lives and wasn't about to let that happen due to fatigue. He rolled over in his bed, set his alarm for 7:00 a.m., and shut his eyes.

  Armino woke to the sound of his alarm clock and rubbed his eyes as he got out of bed. He walked over to his dresser on the other side of the bunker and pulled open the top drawer to get his gear. A solid black uniform fitted especially for him and his weapons lay neatly folded in the top drawer. He put it on and went to his weapons locker next, pulling out a rifle, pistol, knife, and a few grenades to strap on his uniform.

  When he reached the bay he saw two men already waiting patiently for him. "Morning guys! You ready?"

  "Hell yeah!" Both of them yelled back at him.

  He walked to the rear of the ship and opened the ramp. "You guys can wait inside the ship if you want. I have a few things to check before we head out."

  "Sure thing Armino. They really gave us a beauty for this mission," Moran said, admiring the ship in front of him.

  Ferris shook his head in agreement. "Yeah, man. They gave us one hell of a monster! This thing is huge!"

  Armino laughed at them. "How else are we going to get eighteen men to the outer edges of the Galaxy?"

  Moran made his way in the ship. "Well, I'm glad they were thinking about that when they assigned the ship to us for this mission. I would've been pissed if they squeezed eighteen of us in our usual ship."

  "What'd you have to do to get this ship Armino?" Ferris playfully punched him in the arm.

  Armino shoved him. "Ahhh shut up and get on the ship, you old rock."

  Ferris held his hands up as he walked up the ramp. "I was just playing Armino, don't hurt me!"

  Armino shook his head at the two men and walked around the ship to check for any unnoticed damage. A routine inspection was always a part of his duty. Having ship failures was something that he would not allow if it could be avoided. Getting stuck on a place like Plouton would not fare well for his men, or anywhere for that matter.

  It was definitely a different ship than what he was used to on his other missions; it was able to hold twice the amount of men assigned and had much more firepower than necessary for a mission like this. The ship was a light grey and red with a very sleek design that had rotatable wings protruding from the sides of the ship. There were thrusters on the back of the ship and rotating thrusters on the wings that allowed the ship to move in circular movements if need be.

  He went to the back of the ship and walked up the ramp, seeing a few more men make their way in as he reached the top. He waved at them to board as he continued to inspect the interior of ship. Armino turned the power on and checked all of the readings for the weapons, thrusters, shields, stealth field, and everything else that would be vital to the success of the mission. The thrusters showed one hundred percent, as did the shields, and stealth field. He engaged all of the weapons and insured they all functioned properly.

  Armino glanced down at his watch and read 7:55 a.m. The rest of the men would be arriving very shortly, so he made his way to the ramp of the ship to await them. Once the last race had boarded he started to talk.

  "Alright guys, it's time. I've checked everything on the ship and it's all good. I want you guys to focus on the mission at hand while we're traveling to Plouton," He pointed at Donnchadh. "You're going to be my co-pilot today."
/>   "Ahhh come on Armino! Can't you give me a break?" he joked.

  "Stop your whining and get up here," he ordered. "Everyone else, do whatever you think you need to do to be prepared. When we land you need to be ready to go within seconds, so don't get too comfortable."

  The men all nodded and dispersed throughout the spacious ship. Donnchadh walked up to Armino and stood next to him.

  "Don't you ever do that again Donnchadh," Armino sat in his seat. "You've gotten to lose with me."

  "What?" Donnchadh asked.

  Armino turned around. "Your attitude needs to change in front of all the men. I know you're just playing, but I can't know if they know that. I don't want them to think questioning their leader is okay."

  Donnchadh put his hand to his forehead. "Sir, yes sir."

  Armino held his frustration in. "Let's start up the engines, slowly."

  Armino and Donnchadh started pulling levers and pressing buttons, making the engines roar to life. Armino pushed the yoke forward and the ship moved towards the exit of the bay and off of Hera.

  "Set Plouton as our destination and initiate Sonodrive," he ordered Donnchadh.

  "On it." Donnchadh pulled up a holomap and picked out Plouton.

  "I have an alert set that will tell us when we're fifteen minutes from Plouton. When it goes off, we're going to apply the stealth field. No one will ever see us coming, or leaving," Armino informed Donnchadh.

  "Alright," He leaned back in his seat. "I'm just going to wait here until we get to Plouton, just in case something goes wrong."

  Armino nodded in approval. "I am too. I'm anxious and I can't wait to get this mission over with."

  He shut his eyes and reclined back in his chair, knowing it would be a longer trip than usual. He had never paid attention to how long the jumps took, but guessed this one would be a little longer than usual since Plouton was on the outer edges. His nervousness was gnawing away at him, he hadn't been this nervous on a mission since his first in the GSOU. He had also never gone on a mission with little to no information, or with the responsibility eighteen lives. The two felt like a very bad combination to him, but his options were limited.