The Ocoda Chronicles Book 5 Paladonians

by Daniel OConnell

  Orpheus conceals his grin, as he begins acting out his part pretending to be annoyed, he stands next to the Officer, saying, “Then you will do your job by escorting us to this spy.”

  The Officer stands at attention and immediately opens the door leading the two to the main lift, saying, “General, the spy is on the forty sixth floor, regrettably, my clearance will not allow me to enter that floor.”

  Jasmin unconcerned replies, “Today soldier, you have the clearance.”

  The guard, extremely cautious of the two, nonetheless follows them into the lift.

  The three ascend the lift to the forty-sixth floor, where they’re immediately stopped by a squadron of guards. The security Officer with Orpheus and Jasmin speaks up, saying, “This is General Orpheus and his aid. They’re here to see the spy.”

  The lead officer steps forward, asking, “Documentation please?”

  Jasmin passes the data crystal to the Officer who places it into his scanner. A moment passes as he smirks, keeping his head down, saying, “Internal security, very interesting. Especially as the spy we have has similar credential’s. I think we will need to verify this.”

  Orpheus, recognizing that time is not on his side and that his hand may have been played reacts with all the skill and confidence of a Black guard leader. He smiles, looking at the lead officer, saying, “I suggest you open the secure file on the data crystal, password Allie.”

  Jasmin’s eyes go wide, being aware just what Orpheus is doing. She quickly shuts her eyes and prepares for the fireworks to begin.

  The lead officer types in the password, and the crystal instantaneously releases a massive pulse of blinding light and ultra-sonic sound waves that incapacitate all the security guards. Jasmin and Orpheus, however, are unaffected, having been trained to deal with the effects of the device.

  Jasmin, shaking off the effects, says, “Commander, getting out of here is going to be a lot more difficult now than it was getting in.”

  Orpheus takes in a deep breath, saying, “I’ll go find our contact, you go find the scattering field and shut it down.” He hastily turns away racing down the corridor, activating his cloak, and pulling out his weapons. Black guard weaponry is mostly non-lethal, but they do possess some weapons that can kill. Orpheus is expecting some heavy resistance, as he cautiously peers around the corner seeing a dozen guards just standing around aimlessly.

  Orpheus smiles to himself, as he can’t believe his luck, all the security guards appear completely unaware of what had just happened to the guards at the lift. Orpheus pulls out a stun grenade and tosses it over towards the guards stunning them all. He moves quickly down to the doorway where he discovers a sophisticated security system, unconcerned he places a code-locking device on the door. The device quickly decodes the lock opening the door.

  Orpheus cautiously looks in, making sure the room is secure. He immediately sees their contact strapped to a gurney, and being pumped with some type of drugs. He hurriedly studies the room, discovering that they are alone, entering he frees their contact from the gurney. The man is drugged and completely unresponsive, as Orpheus tries to revive him but cannot, quickly discovering that carrying him is not an option either, as the man weighs over two hundred and fifty pounds.

  Orpheus grabs a small oxygen tank near the gurney and straps it to his face. He touches the pad on his forearm opening the dimensional pocket they use to store their gear, pushing the man into it. The dimensional pocket is safe for short a time use, provided he has oxygen. However, null space is not a place where humans can survive for very long.

  Jasmin in the meantime scanned the building locating a major power source coming from the roof of the building. She uses the lift to access the top floors. Cloaking, she is unnoticed by any security personnel and easily reaches the access door to the roof, where she quickly scans the area detecting multiple drones and security personnel all about the roof.

  Jasmin contemplates her limited options. Aware of the drone’s ability to detect motion, even through her cloak, she makes the only choice she has and moves to the floor directly below the roof, which is filled with air filtration machines and backup generators for the buildings massive internal systems. Jasmin silently maneuvers around the Tof security systems, as she continues to search the lower floor, finally scanning the power source directly above her. Quickly grabbing a thermite explosive device, she sets it for remote detonation, tossing it directly under the power source, where it grapples the ceiling, locking itself into place. Signaling Orpheus, she whispers, “Commander, I have the scramblers power source ready to blow, but we may have possible injuries.”

  Orpheus responds, “Regrettable, but necessary, blow the power source and prepare to shift away.”

  Jasmin scans the area, as she waits for the best opportunity to detonate the thermite bomb. She moves herself as far away as she can and waits until finally, she sees an opening to trigger the bomb with minimum injury to Tof security forces. Taking a deep breath, she detonates it.

  The explosive destroys the power source, ripping a huge hole into the roof, as several guards fall through the floor. The injuries are numerous, but thankfully no serious wounds or casualties. Jasmin releases a huge breath of relief, as she checks her scans again and quickly alerts Orpheus, “Commander, the scrambler is down and no Tofs were killed.”

  Orpheus pleased, replies, “Good job Jasmin, now head to the docks, we need to get out of here.” The two quickly shift away.

  Meanwhile, during the time that Orpheus and Jasmin were searching for their captured contact, Habon, Kern, and Dora, prepare to take control of the Tof transport, which is currently preparing for takeoff. Habon turns to Dora, saying, “Dora, I’ll need you to get into the ship's communication systems and shut them down. I want us to have complete control of this transport.”

  Dora unconcerned replies, “I’ll set it up.”

  Habon continues to study the area, saying to Kern, “Kern I need you to place as many holocams throughout the entire ship, we’ll need to see if we have any issues while on board.”

  Kern, studying the ship details asks, “Lieutenant, we may be able to control what they hear and see for a while, but eventually we’re going to get noticed, and then what?”

  Habon hastily replies, “Tof ships are equipped with sedative canisters to be released in case of an emergency, where the crew, and, or passengers may become rebellious. I’m going to access the ship's internal security systems to give me control of this system, should we need to take more drastic steps.”

  Kern smiles as he looks to his sister Dora, saying, “Ok sis let’s go have some fun.”

  The three shift directly into the ship while remaining cloaked. Habon goes directly to the life support room, quickly checking to be sure he is alone and secure before he installs a program that gives him complete control of the vessel's life support systems.

  They each move to their respective targets. Dora moves to the Bridge, which is highly secure with multiple scanners and floor pressure sensors, as well as a dozen guards. She immediately determines the seriousness of her obstacles and sighs realizing there is only one way to bypass all the security. Dora smirks, pulling out a stun grenade, and shifts pass the outer security guards, tossing the grenade out into the center of the Bridge. The device immediately detonates, releasing a massive pulse of light and sound, which completely renders the Bridge crew unconscious. She smiles as she removes her sonic plugs and opens her eyes to see the entire Bridge crew unconscious. Dora immediately reports to Habon, stating, “Bridge is our sir, I’ll start securing the Bridge crew.”

  Habon annoyed, asks, “Could you not have waited until Orpheus and Jasmin arrived?”

  Dora looks over the ship's scanners seeing the reports of the explosion in the cities center, answering, “I’m sure they’ll be here soon enough.”

  Kern meanwhile, places mobile cameras throughout the ship, until he reaches and enters the engine room. He notices only a half a dozen crewmembers visible and scan
s the room to confirm his count. Kern is far more reckless than his sister Dora is, and enjoys using his hands as he quietly positions himself in-between all six men, deactivating his cloak. He stands there for a moment before he is noticed, as one of the engineer’s yells, but before he can finish a sound Kern round house kicks him to the head rendering him unconscious. Smiling for a brief moment, he grabs the closest man and uses him as a support as he wraps his arm around his chest and swings across kicking two additional men to the ground, and before the man he had his arm around can speak, he flips him into the last two standing men, knocking all three to the ground. Not giving any of the six men a chance, Kern quickly places medically treated knock out patches on all six men. These patches were specially created for recovery purposes on earth, allowing the Paladonian the ability to render their targets unconscious. After a few moments, he beams leaving the engineers to their long naps, as he heads off to locate the control center. Kern finds it easily, and begins to install the same program that allowed Habon control of a ship's life support system. Within a few moments, Kern has complete control of the engine room. He contacts Habon, feeling very content as he reports, “Engine room is ours. How’s Dora doing with the Bridge?”

  Habon sighs heavily, saying, “She wasted no time incapacitating the entire Bridge crews.”

  Kern, still smiling, says, “Sis always gets the fun jobs.” Kern suddenly hears a noise from behind him as he spies a shadow moving around the engine room, and immediately realizes that he is still uncloaked. Reacting quickly, he activates his cloak and moves swiftly, shifting to the highest point of the engine room. There he pulls out his scanner and sweeps the engine room, picking up ten distinct life forms, six, which lay unconscious, and four new contacts, one of which is cloaked. The Black guards are equipped with special cloaking and shifting devices that cannot be detected by normal Paladonian scanners. However, the Black guard can easily detect any Paladonian cloaks. Kern quickly determines that either the program he installed in the control center, or his abrupt assault on the engineering crew may have set off an alarm. Upset with himself, he grimaces, as he uses his scanner to locate all four individuals pulling out his weapons. Kern has two customized plasma pistols that he has mastered over the years. He sets both on stun, and hurriedly shift between two of the Tof guards, firing a single shot at both shifting away, all in a single fluid motion, as both men collapse unconscious. The cloaked individual immediately moves away from the last security officer preparing to use him as bait. Nevertheless, Kern can still see him and shifts directly behind the cloaked Tof guard, firing his weapons at both, leaving them both unconscious.

  Kern immediately contacts Habon, reporting, “It would appear that our stealth program may have a few bugs in it.”

  Habon curious, asks, “What makes you say that?”

  Kern looks over the unconscious bodies and replies, “Four down security guards.”

  Habon, now realizing that he himself may be in danger scans his and adjacent rooms to discover several cloaked security officers preparing to rush the room. Habon has little time. He quickly shifts to the Bridge activating the sedative gas. He immediately alerts his team, saying, “Gas masks on, I’m flooding the passenger compartment.”

  Dora and Kern react quickly, as the gas immediately floods the ship incapacitating everyone. Dora, watching safely on the Bridge, which is secure from the effects of the knock out gas, she checks the scanner, seeing the growing number of Tof shock troops rushing towards the vessel. She hastily signals Orpheus and Jasmin, saying, “You have twelve seconds until I have to raise the shields.”

  Orpheus and Jasmin instantly appear on the Bridge, as Jasmin replies, “Let’s move out now.”

  Orpheus quickly opens up his dimensional pocket, retrieving their contact, who is still heavily sedated. Orpheus looks out over the scanners seeing the massive group of heavily armed guards preparing to enter the ship. He yells, “Let’s get this ship out of here!”

  Jasmin races over to their contact who is still unconscious, while Habon sprints to the controls. Dora quickly activates the shields, reporting, “We have shields up and engines at full power.

  Orpheus barks out his orders, saying, “Get us out of here before they have more time to react!”

  Habon pulls the Tof vessel away from the docks, ripping it away from its moorings and away from the security forces, as he hastily dives the vessel down into the watery entrance and down through the cavern. After a few moments, he clears the cavern and begins to build up momentum to break through the icy layer that covers the planet’s surface.

  Jasmin grabs a medical stimulant patch from her kit and places it against their contacts neck, slapping it hard with her hand. Within a few moments, the man begins to stir. He looks up, seeing Orpheus and his team with a Bridge loaded of unconscious people. He groans, saying, “I’m guessing you rescued me.”

  Jasmin, monitoring his vitals says, “Well, we couldn’t let you be captured now could we.”

  The man sits up leaning over his knees trying to catch his breath, saying, “Well, that was very kind of you, thank you, my name is Milopeza of the Valen's, but you can call me Milo.”

  Orpheus curious, asks, “How did they discover you?”

  Milo perplexed, replies, “I don’t really know how, I was sent to investigate the Tof cloning procedures, which they have hidden on this world. I followed all the proper protocols, I shouldn’t have been detected, but one morning I woke up, and there was a room full of security officers in front of me. The next thing I know I’m being dragged across the city in chains. They interrogated me for hours, and whatever they shot me up with, made it so I couldn’t resist answering them. I tried not to, but I couldn’t”

  Orpheus, extremely concerned by Milo’s last statement, asks, “What did you tell them?”

  Milo despondently answers, “Well sir, I served as Benton’s liaison for a few years, I was assigned to Celesta, so they asked a lot of detailed questions about Celesta and her internal security programs.”

  Orpheus sighs heavily, as he reluctantly asks, “What about the Black guard or Allie? Did they ask about them?”

  Milo saddened by his betrayal, answers, “No, they asked me who I was, who sent me, and why. I told them I was sent by General Benton to gain information on their cloning procedures. Once I mentioned who sent me, they focused all their questions on my relationship with him and all the knowledge I had of the Celesta, and then I passed out.”

  Orpheus looks to Habon, who is hastily going through the ship's systems, asking, “Habon anything in the ship’s logs, or records?”

  Habon, studying the ships logs spots an alert, reporting, “We seem to have been discovered as a whole. A report was issued just as we arrived about spies from the other moons having infiltrated the higher echelon within the Tof and Rooke governments.”

  Jasmin notices a few of the ship’s Bridge crew starting to wake. She immediately grabs several knock out patches and places them on the ship’s crew, slapping the patch right after. The effects are immediate, rendering the crewmember’s unconscious.

  Habon sighs, saying, “We can only keep this crew and passenger’s unconscious for a few hours at most.”

  Orpheus, feeling frustrated asks, “Can we contact anyone?”

  Habon looks over the ship's systems and states, “It will take me some time, but once we clear the planet’s atmosphere I should be able to do something with the ship's holocom system to contact someone back home.”

  Dora scans the surface, and reports, “We are approaching the ice layer in four minutes, we will need to be at full power to penetrate the ice covering. Currently we seem to be losing power at an accelerated rate.”

  Habon also noticing the lack of power calls out to Kern, “Kern, I need full power to shields and engines!”

  Kern, studies his data readings, reporting, “We are at full power now, but there seems to be some kind of power drain.”

  Dora scans the ice covering, analyzes the ships curre
nt speed and shield strength. She then reports, “This is going to be real close, we’re losing power rapidly.”

  Habon, still reviewing the internal ships data discovers an anomaly, and reports, “We seem to have overlooked a security backup system. It’s rapidly draining the ship's power reserves. Even if we do break the ice covering we may not be able to reach orbit.”

  Orpheus focuses in on the moment, ordering, “Break the ice, and then focus on getting the holocom working. We can’t do anything while we’re under the ice.”

  Habon charges the ship towards the ice layer, quickly reaching the ship's best speed, they impact it and are just barely able to penetrate the ice. The ship rises above the ice covering as Habon reports, “We cleared the ice, but shields are down to less than ten percent. We have at best four hours of power left.”

  Orpheus attention is pushed to its limits as he barks out orders, “Dora, take over helm control! Habon, get a signal out as fast as you can!”

  Milo then stands, saying, “I’m well versed in Tof systems. Perhaps I can figure a way to stop the power drain.”

  Orpheus shakes his head yes to Milo, as he looks over the unconscious crew, saying, “We have another issue to think of as well. If we can’t get this ship into orbit, then the civilians and crew could be trapped on a dead ship on this toxic planet’s surface.”

  Milo looks over the crew, saying, “I’m sure one of the ship's command crew must have knowledge about this power drain system.”

  Orpheus smiles, he looks to Jasmin who sighs heavily, saying, “I could really make someone sick putting them to sleep and then waking them up again.”

  Orpheus uncaring frowns, as he points to the ship’s Captain, saying, “I don’t really care Jasmin, just wake his ass up, and let’s see if he knows how to override the damn program.”

  Jasmin reaches into her medipac pulling out a stimulant patch, applying it to the Captain’s neck. She strikes it, as she had done to all the others. The Captain immediately wakes, but is unable to move having been earlier restrained by Dora. He panics, yelling, “You’re not going to get away with this!”