by John Walker
“Leonard, can you calculate a course?”
“Um…” Leonard took a moment, also having worked past the end of his shift. He paused. “They jumped out within five meters of where Miss An’Tufal’s ship departed. We don’t have a signature for them so I can’t track where they went.”
“You think they’re chasing Clea?” Adam asked.
Gray shrugged. “It would be just our luck. Fortunately, we’ve been out here for hours so our team has a major head start. I hope they’re ready to defend themselves if necessary.”
“I’m sure they are. Meagan and Rudy are good combat pilots.”
Gray nodded. “Still, we need to get moving as quickly as possible. Agatha, contact the alliance command ship. Tell them we’re on a schedule and we need to get moving. Redding, begin the countdown for a jump. I want us at those coordinates in the next twenty minutes. Let’s get our people back.”
Chapter 11
The wonders in Durant’s workshop shocked Clea. They wondered how he might’ve built such a place all alone but he wasn’t entirely. Robots with fully articulated joints and movement for work, occupied his factory. They brought his visions to life on an assembly line, crafting the communication tower and living quarters as well as all the labs for further research.
Some of them were designed for mining, delving deep into the earth all around the area. The trees came as saplings a short time ago but through chemical assistance and terraforming, Durant got them to grow into a vast forest. It provided a natural deterrent for the heavy winds during the winter months and an endless supply of wood for the foundry.
The minerals they pulled and used were of the highest quality, many of which were used in alliance space vessels. He experimented on weapons and quality of life devices to take away the needs of every day labor. Artificial intelligence drove the machines all night long while he rested and in the morning, he checked the logs to correct any errors.
Over the years, he perfected the systems, creating a working rhythm that allowed him to conduct his research and apply it practically. He showed them some of the weapons labs as they walked, rooms full of guns enough for an army. Many of them required no ordinance and fired beams from packs which recharged within seconds. They were good for a thousand shots but he was aiming for more.
When asked why he would put so much thought into the weapons when he left because of the war, he had a simple enough answer.
“My critics wanted to blame the war on me,” Durant explained. “They protested my involvement and were of the impression that if I stopped designing weapons, the fighting would simply stop. That naivety wore on me. Most of them were young and didn’t remember my work prior to the conflict. If they had, they’d know my focus had always been on saving lives, not taking them.
“I needed a place to work in peace. I want to stop the war, Clea but I couldn’t do so with protestors hounding me every step of the way. So I bide my time…however, I’m not ready to share this with the alliance just yet. There’s still too much to do. I don’t understand the enemy yet. That’s why I study every battle. I’ve made breakthroughs…but not solved the problem.”
“Have you studied the battle I’m here about?” Clea asked.
“I have so many black boxes and storage devices, I’ve barely scratched the surface,” Durant said. “Crandy might’ve told you I haven’t bought anything in months. My computers are processing it all, some of the best technology ever built and even they cannot scour the data fast enough to go through it all quickly. In short, I doubt I’ve seen what you’re looking for yet but if I have, it didn’t contain the epiphany you’re hoping for.”
“I suppose we’ll see.” Clea sighed.
They reached the primary complex, Durant’s living space. The foyer was well appointed and comfortable, with plush furniture and a massive fireplace filled with blazing flames. Clea admired the rustic decor offsetting the hyper technology all around them. It felt homey despite the foundry not even three hundred meters away.
Sound proofing took away all the noise of labor, leaving this place tranquil. Durant led them through the room and down a hallway to a computer lab. Databanks lined the walls and a single terminal with twelve screens occupied the center opposite the door. He moved over and sat down, entering a thirty digit password.
The screens came to life, displaying information on an OS Clea had never seen before. He does everything. No wonder everyone spoke so highly of him. His knowledge is impressive to say the least.
“These storage devices you see around the room are my sorters. They’re linked up to a warehouse on the other side of this wall holding literally countless banks of information. It took three months to index my initial findings and it’s an ongoing continual process. After nearly a year, just about everything is searchable but as far as finding specific bits…that will take a lot more time.”
“Maybe we won’t need it,” Clea said. “Can you relate anything you’ve learned about the enemy so far? Do you understand how they operate?”
“I know what their ships are made of, how they power them and the structural integrity of their shields,” Durant explained. “I wrote a paper on their tactics, both before I left and after. The latter piece will be something you can leave with. Even if I’m not ready, it’ll help your commanders fight the battle.”
Crandy groaned. “I can’t believe you guys are military…”
“Just stop,” Jenks grunted. “Be happy you’re alive.”
“Anyway,” Durant continued, “tell me what you’re after and we can try to find it.”
“We’re looking for a battle involving a ship called the Tempered Steel. You might have the storage device I used to keep my data.”
Durant turned to her, raising a brow. “And what exactly do you believe you’re going to find?”
“I served on the ship on my first tour as a tech officer,” Clea said. “We got into a battle, eight of us against four of them. We lost three ships as did they. I was injured when we took a direct hit and had to evacuate. Frankly, I lost my memory of the entire event until a few days ago when I had a dream.”
“A dream.” Durant shook his head. “A dream brought you all this way?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes. My psychologist warned me my memories may never return or, if they did, it could be through a dream or some other trauma. Fortunately for me, it didn’t involve anything uncomfortable. Anyway, during the mission, I found something during the attack. A signal and I believe it may help us.”
“If that’s true, I’ll certainly devote some cycles to studying the recuperative power of sleep.” Durant began typing, watching one of the screens. “This may take a moment so you’ll forgive me if—”
An alarm went off overhead, causing Crandy and Jessy to jump.
“Um…what is that?” Jenks asked.
Durant tapped something on his console. One of the terminals depicted a shot of space, a satellite image showing a large ship approaching orbit. “We have uninvited guests.”
“Who are they?” Meagan leaned in. “That’s not the enemy.”
“No,” Durant said. “They’re mercenaries I believe. Someone who followed you here perhaps.”
“How?” Clea asked. “We jumped. How would they have sophisticated enough equipment to plot our jump course?”
Durant shook his head. “Silly girl. Pirates have all sorts of black market software. It’s not hard to snatch the coordinates from a computer just before the jump. It’s how they catch merchants who think they can escape.”
A smaller vessel detached from the larger. “That’s a troop transport,” Walsh pointed out. “Don’t you have defenses?”
Durant nodded. “Some of the best but I’m afraid they’re not working. I’m actually very impressed. These scum managed to disable the orbital turrets in record time. Their tech officer is amazing…perhaps I was wrong. They may not be mercenaries. Let’s see…there’s a symbol on the side of that ship. A couple of circles intersecting. I’ve neve
r seen it before, have you?”
Crandy’s shoulders slumped. “I have. They call themselves Orion’s Light.Those zealot bastards visited our bases before, demanding weapons and improvements at half the cost they’re worth…sometimes even bigger discounts. I’ve seen them simply take things from vendors.”
“Who are they?” Jenks asked. “What’s their deal?”
“They’re some kind of psychotic order,” Crandy replied. “A bunch of crazies that are against everyone. Probably taking a page from the enemy you guys are so keen to fight to be honest. They don’t believe in the alliance or any other culture. Their sole purpose is to eventually run the galaxy as a religious state.”
“And yet they consort with pirates,” Meagan said. “Seems hypocritical.”
“They’re also about getting the job done through any means necessary,” Crandy replied.
“I’ve run into them too,” Jessy said. “They’re real scum and they’ll kill anyone. Women, children…whatever they have to do to get their point across.”
“How have you alliance types never heard of them?” Crandy glared at Clea. “I mean, your intel must be terrible.”
“There are far too many fringe groups for us to track them all,” Clea replied. “They can crop up any time and anywhere as long as someone has the resources to fund them. And clearly, they’ve managed to procure some better than average tech people if they got past Durant’s defenses.”
“Anyway, why are they here?” Walsh asked. “Wait…don’t bother. They want the gear.”
“Yes, it would be quite the boon to their cause,” Durant said. “Clea, the system is quite simple to search. I’ll leave you here to find the data you’re after.”
“What’re you going to do?” Clea asked.
“Help your friends defend this place,” Durant turned to the others. “I hope you’re interested in making this happen.”
Arak nodded. “We can do whatever is necessary. Let us break into the weapon stores and we’ll set up the defenses.”
“Very good. You might want to radio back to your ship. Whoever you left behind is probably going to contact you at any moment. Let’s hope we can manage their numbers. This fight is likely to be quite bloody.”
***
Jenks leaned close to Walsh as they followed Durant. “I recognize that symbol they showed us.”
Walsh whispered back, “from where?”
“Think back to the fight with those jerks who burst out on us as we left Crandy’s shop. They had patches on their sleeves.”
“Your attention to detail is pretty sick because I didn’t have a chance to admire their clothes while they shot at us.”
“When I took their stuff, I noticed each of them wore one. They etched it on their guns too.” Jenks scowled. “I’ll show you when we get back to the ship. I don’t think that was random and they weren’t after us. They wanted Crandy.”
“Because he had all those guns in the shop.”
“Maybe,” Jenks agreed. “Or maybe they knew about this place. Same destination as us, different reason.”
“Seems plausible but what timing.” Walsh shook his head. “Why didn’t you tell Miss An’Tufal?”
“I run things by you first in case I’m crazy.”
“Your mental state’s a given but we’ll have to brief her soon. Could be important.” Walsh scratched his head. “I wonder. Crandy did say he’d seen those type of guys take stuff before. I wonder why he didn’t say anything when they attacked us.”
“Probably because, like you, he didn’t notice the patches.”
Walsh nodded. “Good point. Anyway, we should focus on not getting dead. I’d prefer to make it back from this mission alive, if it’s all the same to you.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Jenks grinned. “Besides, that’s what we do, man. We’ve got this.”
“I love your confidence,” Walsh muttered. “Move out.”
***
Rudy met the others near one of the large storehouses located by where they landed. Some of Durant’s robots, absolute tech wonders, carried equipment out and stacked it nearby. Jenks and Walsh went about familiarizing themselves with the different weapons. Arak stood beside Durant, speaking with him quietly while Jessy and Crandy stayed out of the way.
“What’s going on?” Rudy asked. “What’re we doing?”
“Someone seems to have followed us,” Meagan replied. “I’m scanning their vessel now.”
“Shouldn’t we get up there and take it out then?” Rudy gestured to their ship. “Our weapons are pretty nasty.”
“Not a good plan,” Durant interrupted. “In fact, I’m going to place a shield on your vessel so it doesn’t take damage but if they were able to take down my defenses, then your craft won’t be any match for their cannons. No, we’ll make our stand on the ground.”
“Can you arm the robots?” Arak asked.
“Kind of. Some of them will be outfitted with their own turrets but we’ll be controlling them. However, I have a fear about it. My guess is that they found a way to do a precise EMP attack. That’s how they knocked out the weapons above us. If that’s the case, and they have something equally capable for ground engagements, they’ll be able to take out the robots and we won’t be able to adjust.”
“Can’t EMP this,” Jenks said, holding up a large rifle. “I’m digging the idea that this thing doesn’t need to be reloaded.”
Durant nodded. “Yes, I suspect we should be listening to you two on where to setup.”
“The fact is we don’t want them shooting at the storehouse with all the armaments,” Walsh said. “How do your shields work?”
“I’ve got plenty of them but they’ll last roughtly five minutes each and can take quite a bit of kinetic punishment before failing. However, they are also subject to the concern about EMP.”
“No problem,” Jenks said. “These metal containers over here are full of resources, wood and metal. Let’s get them moved out here and use them as cover. I’ll get out there and throw some mines down. You don’t think they’re going to be so brazen as to land directly in the complex, do you?”
Walsh sighed. “They don’t have much reason not to.”
“I’ll give them one,” Durant replied, turning to his data pad. He hit a button and a section of the ceiling opened, revealing a massive cannon. He tapped at it a few times. “There, this is going to make their entry less than pleasant.”
The gun began firing, massive red blasts which vanished into the sky. Rudy wondered if they might be capable of causing damage to the ship in orbit. They had such defenses on Earth now and they were incredibly powerful. He couldn’t imagine a troop transport being capable of taking that kind of shot without going down.
Durant watched his scanner intently and Rudy held his breath, waiting for the man’s report. Meanwhile, the robots helped build some cover and Jenks hurried out into the field beyond the foundation of the complex and planted the mines. Walsh armed Crandy and Jessy, giving them positions further down the line. Meagan took a rifle and found a doorway near the makeshift cover.
Rudy grabbed a gun and one of the larger shield generators. He hurried back to the ship and placed it underneath, engaging a delayed timer. It would turn on in thirty seconds and encompass the entire ship. The projector threw the beans around the vessel in a great dome, touching the ground. It should be safe, at least for the time behind.
That’s our way home so I hope it stays that way.
When he got back, Durant smiled. “My attack’s working. They are no longer on a direct course for my home.”
“Where are they going to land?” Walsh shouted.
“About a thousand meters that way.” Durant pointed. “In the forest. They’ll have to trudge through the trees to get here.”
“Any natural predators to worry about?” Meagan called.
“Not that will deter them,” Durant replied. “They may be tired but that’s all. However many men they bring, and I’ll know the moment t
hey open their ship, is how many we’ll have to deal with.”
Jenks came back, hurrying over to them. “I planted a bunch of mines and threw in some other nasty surprises. There are rocks on top of them, should act as a decent amount of shrapnel if they trigger any. Some are on remote detonators so we can let them rip from a data pad back here.”
“Good idea,” Walsh said. “Jenks and I will do the heavy lifting out here. You guys stick to the doorways and move about to different windows for better shots. Watch your line of fire and avoid this area. That’s where we’re going to cover. We’ll need some grenades.”
Jenks offered him a satchel. “There ya go.”
Robots moved in front of them, each loaded up with a turret on its shoulders. They crouched down, their waists able to rotate, allowing a decent field of fire. Other turrets were setup along the edge of the landing, each one controlled by Durant’s computer. He moved back into the warehouse and closed the door.
“Okay, the old dude’s safe,” Jenks turned to Rudy. “You should work with Miss Pointer.” He gestured to Meagan. “Stay in that building over there. You’ll have the best vantage to shoot guys coming from our flank to the east.”
“On it.” Rudy hurried over to the other pilot and entered the room. She had opened the window and poised her rifle on the edge, peering out into the forest. “They haven’t landed yet but are you ready for this?”
“Not my personal choice for fighting,” Meagan said, “but at least I remember how to aim.”
“I really would rather be in the ship.”
“Me too.”
“Do you believe them about the weapons these guys have?”
Meagan shrugged. “It’s not worth taking the chance. This Durant guy has some pretty incredible technology and our visitors blew right through his outer defenses. I’m thinking it’s better to err on the side of caution this time.”