Vengeful Dawn

by Richard Patton

  “Loose snow. Hidden boulders. Need I go on?”

  “I wish you wouldn’t.”

  Jackson took her hand. “I just don’t want to spend our vacation in the hospital, y’crazy.” Hailey’s comm pinged. She looked at it and creased her forehead. “What is it?” Jackson asked.

  “Lucky. She’s here.”

  “Here on Light One or here at the mountain?”

  “Here at the lodge,” Hailey replied, looking around the large room. “She wants to talk to us.”

  “Are you OK with that?” Jackson asked.

  “Depends what she has to say.” Hailey finally spotted her ex-handler, Laura Schwartz, codename Lucky. Laura spotted Hailey and began to cross the room.

  “Hello, Comet,” she said, long before she was close enough to shake Hailey’s hand. Hailey and Jackson stood to greet her.

  “Hello, Lucky,” Hailey said evenly.

  “Good to see you again, Jax,” Laura said to Jackson.

  “Likewise,” Jackson answered. The three old friends stood awkwardly together. They hadn’t spoken since Hailey left SWORD.

  “What do you want, Lucky?” Hailey asked.

  “Mind if I sit down?” Laura replied.

  “Sure. Sit down. Order a drink. Then we should all go sit in the sauna and bullshit about the good old days,” Hailey answered sarcastically.

  “Hailey,” Jackson rebuked.

  “There’s only one reason SWORD would send Lucky way out here to see us. They want something. Again.”

  “Comet, I don’t work for SWORD anymore,” Lucky informed her. “Not after what happened.”

  “Really?” Hailey asked, surprised.

  “Yeah. I tried to contact you, but you never answered my comms.”

  “I thought you were still… I thought they were trying to…”

  “Hailey Ramirez, at a loss for words. Now I’ve seen everything,” Laura chuckled.

  Hailey relaxed and smiled. “I’m sorry, Lucky. I should’ve answered you.”

  “Water under the bridge, Comet. I did come here to warn you, though.”

  “Warn me?” Hailey asked, growing concerned. Retired Wraiths only received a warning if they were using their skills and implants to act improperly in civilian society: taking advantage of normal people, intimidating them, or competing against them unfairly for political office or prizes. If a retired Wraith failed to heed such a warning, they could be remotely terminated via one of their implants. There were no second warnings.

  Jackson and Hailey had done no illegal or unfair things in the nine years they had been retired. They lived peacefully on the colony world, Light One, Hailey’s birth planet, and worked as private consultants, solving problems for clients and charging appropriate fees. It was a comfortable life for them, and a free life: they didn’t answer to superiors and they could take off whenever they wanted and visit the ocean or go skiing in the mountains. Best of all, there was no contact with SWORD whatsoever.

  Hailey and Jackson glanced at each other at the mention of a warning, sharing the same thought. “We haven’t done anything that warrants a warning,” Jackson said.

  Laura was momentarily confused, then relaxed. “Oh, no. Not a warning warning. Nothing like that. I wanted to let you know that SWORD is calling in all retired assets, including me. Including you.”

  “You said you don’t work for them,” Hailey reminded her.

  “I haven’t answered the call… yet,” Laura replied.

  “But you will?” Hailey asked. “What’s going on?”

  “There’s a war on. Haven’t you heard?”

  Jackson and Hailey looked at each other again. “We’ve heard. But we’ve done our time. Let younger people take up the fight.”

  “The UOE has never faced anything like this before. The Naldím are destroying our ships faster than we can build new ones.”

  “I’d say that’s a good reason not to get on a UOE ship!” Hailey laughed mirthlessly.

  “This isn’t nexacors, Comet. This isn’t rebels. Those maniacs want to exterminate us. Every human on every planet. And they can do it. We can go sit in the sauna and wait for them to obliterate us, or we can help the fight.”

  “Humans outnumber Naldím a thousand to one. I’m sure the Navy will stop them before they get too far.”

  “It’s not going to happen,” Laura said, shaking her head. “We can’t get through their shields but they can get through ours. They’re attacking dozens of outposts and planets in the Frontier. Our forces are spread too thin. SWORD is deploying Wraiths to all threatened stations.”

  “Great. Then what do they need us for? There should be enough Wraiths to take care of the problem.”

  Laura leaned forward. “Comet, you’re not hearing me. It’s only been two months and we’re getting hammered.”

  “That’s not what they say on the news,” Jackson put in.

  Laura looked at him condescendingly. “They don’t let the terrifying facts out to the news stations. Can you imagine the pandemonium?”

  “Secrets. Secrets. More secrets,” Hailey muttered. “Why not let the population know? Maybe more of them will enlist.”

  Laura sat back in her chair. “Have you lost all feeling for your fellow humans?”

  “We live with our fellow humans now, Lucky. We’re friends and neighbors with them. They’re our clients. We still serve the citizens of the Empire. We just do it locally now.”

  “And we don’t answer to SWORD,” Jackson tacked on. “That bridge is burned.”

  Laura looked beseechingly at the two former Wraiths. She, too, was a former Wraith, but four decades older than Hailey and Jackson. She was past one hundred years old and beginning to slow down. “Well, I’m going to help my species in whatever way I can contribute.”

  Hailey and Jackson had listened to the problems of many clients over the years. They seemed to know what the other was thinking simply by exchanging looks. They accepted cases or rejected them without needing to excuse themselves for private conversations. Just a look, and they both knew what they would say to the hopeful client.

  Jackson and Hailey shared a lengthy, meaningful look. They seemed to go back and forth on the merits of siding with humans and the inconceivable idea of siding with SWORD. Finally, they settled on a decision. Hailey looked at Laura for a long moment. The two women had been friends and colleagues for forty years while Hailey was a field agent. Laura was like a sister to her more than a handler. Hailey didn’t want Laura getting involved in the war; she was approaching her senior years, after all, and was no match for a Naldím. “Two conditions,” Hailey stated. “You only go in as a handler. Our handler. And we go in together.”

  *

  The UOE destroyer Hammerhead dropped out of compression in Naldím space followed by half a dozen ships in its flight group. From a chute in the side of the destroyer, a tiny ship shot out toward a research station the Naldím had planted near the sun of a small solar system. The Naldím were patient researchers. They had spent a hundred years studying the human race and came to loathe them. The Naldím knew almost everything about humans, and humans knew almost nothing about the Naldím.

  But the research station that Jackson and Hailey approached in their tiny ship did not study humanity. Recent intel revealed that the station was a military lab tasked with improving their already-superior weapons and defenses for the fight against the human horde. As much as they thought they knew about humans, the Naldím were staggered by the failure to destroy them on the planet Nossali – what the humans called Dawn Six.

  Using the sun as a backdrop to hide their approach, Jackson piloted the small ship closer to the large space station, undetected so far. “Well, I said I’d believe it when I saw it. I believe it,” Jackson remarked.

  “SWORD always was ahead of the curve in the stealth game. This little ship is fantastic,” Hailey replied. “So, I reviewed the intel on Blizzard and her mission to that ship over Dawn Six. They entered through the graviton beam emitter.”
>
  “The emitter this station is using is more like a harvester. They’re extracting non-heavy elements from the sun’s photosphere, mostly hydrogen, helium, and neon.”

  “What are they doing with those?” Hailey wondered.

  “That’s what we’re here to find out,” Jackson answered. They sat in the cockpit, outfitted in brand new Chameleon Adaptive Armor and a host of weapons in holsters all over their suits. They wore helmets that were five versions newer than the last helmets they had worn in their field work. “I have to say, the upgrades on this suit are nice.”

  “They probably have upgrades for the implants, too, if you’re interested,” Hailey replied.

  “No way. Not going back to the Scabbard for any reason.”

  “Copy that,” Hailey agreed.

  “Monitor that g-force gauge and shields for me, will you?”

  “Got it.”

  “Going in.” They flew up the path of the graviton beam, further shielded from the sensors aboard the station by the beam itself. As they reached the emitter, Jackson piloted the craft skillfully through the channel into the graviton generation chamber inside the space station. Because the generator was in use, no maintenance personnel were present; the human ship steered to an access hatch, undetected still.

  The CAA suits were space-worthy. Jax and Comet left their ship through the small airlock on the starboard side and floated to the access port. Using intelligence acquired from Voyager Dawn and Wraiths who were deployed deep inside Naldím territory, Comet opened the portal, sliding easily through and holding the hatch open for Jax. He closed it behind him while Comet accessed the inside hatch. “Ready?”

  “Ready.”

  The inside door opened. Comet stood on the threshold, out of sight of anyone in the hall, but in a place where her helmet could gather information and report back to her HUD. “Clear,” she spoke into her helmet comm to Jax.

  Silently, the pair made their way toward the main labs on the station. Their HUDs displayed Common translations of Kel’klesh signage as they went. A ping in the rear right quadrant of her head told her that someone was approaching their position from a room off the hall. Their black armor suits were made to hide in darkness. The Naldím space station was anything but dark. The interior was made of pristine, smooth, silver metal interrupted only by small consoles and long channels filled with pulsing green liquid.

  “C’mon,” Jax said, accelerating toward an intersection. They decided to go in different directions to speed up the mission. They talked through comms within their helmets, unheard from the outside. “I found the Protective Skin lab. Probably means Shields. Got six hostiles in there.”

  “Need back up?” Comet asked.

  “I’m good.”

  “I’m heading into the Death Giver lab. Translator’s real cute, huh?”

  “A.I. never had to translate an alien language before. I think it’s pretty descriptive.”

  “Good enough, anyway. I’ll get Weapons while you get Shields.”

  “Copy.”

  Comet counted the life signs inside the lab from out in the hall. Only four Naldím were currently there. Being scientists on a research station that they assumed was unknown to humans, Comet felt certain they didn’t carry weapons. She slipped through the door and nestled up next to a storage locker of some sort. The Naldím researchers were in heavy conversation and didn’t notice the unauthorized entrance.

  Comet watched them converse, curious about how the sounds came out of the gills. She watched their movements and timed her advances perfectly with the small moments when none of them were looking in her direction.

  Stealthy as she was, she was not invisible. One of the researchers spotted her moving from one hiding place to another.

  “Kaltem sikla rot!” he called out to his colleagues. They all turned to look at the intruder. Hailey stood. The stealth game was over.

  “Rot ne U’man,” a second Naldím scientist expertly deduced when he saw the short biped. They backed away from her and her drawn weapon.

  “OK,” Comet said to herself with a shrug. “I’ll take the easy way.” Keeping her weapon trained on the four geeks, she advanced toward the collection of computers on the opposite side of the room and initiated a wireless download of their data.

  The Naldím scientists muttered to each other, looking frantically among themselves for a solution to their current predicament. She hoped their fear would keep them silent and submissive. She hoped in vain. Three of them charged her while the fourth yelled into his comm.

  “Jax, we’re made,” she commed to her partner as she shot the three aggressors in their chests.

  “No shit,” Jax responded. “There’s no getting out quietly now.”

  “Rendezvous at the hatch in… three point five minutes,” Comet commed as the shot Naldím staggered back for a moment, then regained their footing and came at her again.

  “I can do four point two, best,” Jax grunted.

  “Good enough.” She shot the three again, but this time in the heads. That did it. She glanced at the storage device. It showed an estimation of twenty more seconds to finish the download. Comet turned her attention to the single remaining Naldím who held a comm but no longer talked into it. “Thanks a lot,” she said.

  “U’man shi’lesy,” he replied. “Tau n’reia komotal sin’get.”

  Comet’s helmet translated the best it could: Human filth, you no escape happy.

  Happy? Comet wondered. “Yeah, well, you no research happy, pal.” She shot him down and checked the download. Done.

  Stowing the device in her suit, Comet ran for the door. Naldím footsteps echoed through the hall. Concentrating for a second to study the sounds bouncing off the polished walls, she determined that the aliens were coming from the left. She needed to go left to get back to their ship. She waited in the doorway, out of sight. Five Naldím barreled toward the door. They were big, strong, and furious. Hailey crouched down into her skiing tuck and tripped the first two who came in.

  They fell behind her as she sprung up and barreled into the legs of a third advancing Naldím. The legs were reinforced with exoskeletal metal that she couldn’t break, but she could knock him off balance, which she did. A fourth and fifth Naldím cried out in anger as the third one was shoved into them. They let their comrade fall and charged together at Comet. Comet spun to the right, extracting her blade with her right hand as she passed her three o’clock. At her six o’clock she raised the blade to the height of the necks of her current threat. At her nine o’clock, she jerked her head ahead of her arm and made final calculations and adjustments. At her ten o’clock, her blade sliced through the neck of the first alien. As blood splattered on the pristine silver walls, she continued her rotation and beheaded the second alien at her one o’clock.

  She stopped spinning at her six o’clock and faced the first two Naldím who were getting to their feet. They saw the green blood on the black-clad human, on the walls, on the floor, on their fellows. They paused, giving the pleasure of the kill to their comrade in the hall behind Comet. That one yelled a furious curse and flung himself at the Wraith’s back. She whipped her blade up and pointed it over her shoulder. The Naldím impaled himself on her short sword.

  As he fell, Hailey pulled on the hilt of her weapon, but it was stuck fast and got yanked out of her hand behind her. She turned to put her foot on the dead Naldím and pull her sword out. The act of her stepping on their kin riled the two remaining Naldím so much that they sprang to their feet and charged Comet together. She turned back in time to stab one in the face, but the other got his hands on her neck and picked her up off the floor.

  Comet kicked at his crotch, but that wasn’t a weak spot on this creature. She punched at his midriff but couldn’t cause him any pain through the organic armor that protected his core. He pulled her close and seethed at her helmet. She took a moment to study his face. She committed every detail to memory for future use, then reared her head back and slammed it into the alien
’s six tooth-filled gills.

  He dropped her and stumbled back. The helmet had broken something in his face and he bled profusely. He cursed at the Wraith and reached out again to get ahold of her. She swung her blade and cut off the offending hand. He cursed again and reached for her with the other arm. Same result. He stood there, bleeding wildly but not surrendering. Comet put him out of his misery with a bullet to the brain.

  Meeting little resistance after that – and dispatching any resistance she did meet with a swift pull of the trigger – she ran for the graviton generator room. Up ahead, Jax held the hatch open, guarding their escape with his firearm. “You’re late,” he said as Comet arrived.

  “Stopped for milk and bread on the way home,” she sassed.

  He swatted her butt as she went through the hatch, then followed her in and sealed the inner door.

  *

  Back inside their little ship, the Wraiths slowly drifted away from the hatch. The graviton generator stopped abruptly.

  “Didn’t expect that,” Jax remarked.

  “Hammerhead, Ramirez. What’s happening out there?”

  “Agent Ramirez, are you clear?” the comm bridger asked tensely.

  “Almost,” Comet replied. She covered the mic. “Step on it, Jax.” She spoke to the destroyer’s bridge again. “Are you attacking? You’re supposed to wait for our signal!”

  The captain of Hammerhead got on the comm. “Apologies, Agent Ramirez. They called in reinforcements. Six tangoes. Destroyer class. We’re barely holding them off; our shields are almost at critical. We have to destroy that station and bang out a-sap.”

  “Give us…” she looked at Jax.

  “Thirteen seconds,” Jax answered tightly. He entered the graviton emitter channel. Three seconds later they were outside the space station and in the middle of a battle zone.

  “Hammerhead’s at two-three-five point seven-nine-one,” Comet reported.

  “Got it,” Jax replied, turning to starboard and heading for safety.

  “Hammerhead, open bay doors!” Comet ordered. As they approached, the large door rolled slowly up. “We’re coming in too hot, Jax.”