Hammer's Commandos (Hammer's War Book 4)

by James McEwan

  Hammer’s Commandos

  Hammer’s War Vol IV

  By

  James S McEwan

  Copyright © 2017 James McEwan

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 978-1546641704

  ISBN-154664170X

  DEDICATION

  If you are luckily enough to have a friend that makes your world a little brighter just because they are in the room. A friend that challenges you, and inspires you to reach for the stars. A friend that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow. This is a friend that you grab on to with both hands and never let go…

  To my friend, this is for you….

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  There are so many people that had a part in helping push me to get this one finished I just wanted to acknowledge all of you.

  My wife Noel and my kids Seamus and Kaitlyn.

  My best friend Greg for taking the time to edit this one.

  My Dad John McEwan for instilling in me my love of Sci Fi

  Chapter 1

  “Don’t you people know who I am?” Rod Masters demanded. However, his demands fell on deaf ears. Or to be more accurate his demands fell on dead ears. The two men, who were dragging Rod by his arms from the holding area, were no longer men. They had been processed into Necromorph drones.

  Necromorphs were once living breathing people. People who had hopes, dreams, fears and loves, yet now they were just reanimated dead flesh. Necromorphs were first created as a cheap way to reuse fallen soldiers. By using cybernetic implants and some other hardware, the dead were reanimated. The basic motor functions were reactivated by the implants, but the higher functions were controlled by a robotic brain. Necromorphs were nothing more than robots with flesh bodies.

  Banned by virtually all human governments, Necromorphs were considered to be an immoral use of human remains. Yet it seemed that the New Galactic Empire had no such objections. The massive black ship that, because of its purpose converting the living into Necromorph soldiers, had been given the nickname the Vault of Souls, and was the last place that Rod Masters would ever see alive, or so he believed at that moment.

  “Let me go, I am Rod Masters! Intergalactic Holo-Action star!” Rod screamed as he was dragged down the metal plated hallway. “You can’t do this to me!” Again, no reaction from the Necromorphs, they just kept marching forward.

  Rod was taken into a small room that had a Necromorph who seemed to be operating some kind of control panel. There was not much else in the room. The room contained a small table with a few tools and some kind of track in the ceiling. The two Necromorphs stopped next to the small table while the other one walked out from behind the control panel. This Control Panel Necromorph was a female and had once been a beautiful woman in life. But in death, she was horrible.

  "Ah, honey what did they do you?" Rod asked even though he knew she would not answer him. Her once pink and flawless skin was now gray and showed scars from the implants that stuck out of the side of her head and face.

  Rob watched in silent fear as the female picked up a small tool that was a cutting laser. "Hey now, what are you going to do with that?" He asked. Again another question he knew he would get no answer to, but was still compelled to ask. He had seen tools like that before, and he remembered being injured on the set of The Amazons of Belone 4. The medics used it to cut off his pant leg to get to his wound. Now he was watching as the female Necromorph used the laser to cut away his clothing.

  Standing naked and afraid, Rod had little choice but to accept his fate. The female set down the laser and picked up another tool. This one sprayed some kind of black liquid. It reminded Rod of a paint gun as she began to spray him. She started at his feet and worked her way up. When she got to his groin she stopped. Rod had a good physique and even though he lacked personality, he was blessed physically. He was well endowed and, for a moment, the female looked up at him and cracked a small smile.

  Rod was stunned as he had not seen any emotion from his captors and he, like most people, believed that the Necromorphs had nothing left of the person they used to be. Yet that small smile at the sight of his endowment made him think that maybe there was more to the Necromorphs than met the eye. Although none of that mattered to him now.

  The female continued her work and, in a few minutes, had finished spraying his body up to just under his jawline. The black liquid stunk like the entrails of dead Ralnai. Despite its smell, the liquid solidified almost upon contact with his skin. The substance formed into some kind of second skin. It was flexible like rubber, yet breathed like cotton.

  Rod could feel the deck plate’s rumble as the weapon systems fired. They must have entered into some kind of combat, he surmised. Most likely the battle that was planned to help Eve and the others escape from Isis. He wished that he had never come to the Capital planet of the now former Republic of Commerce. Regrets would do nothing for him now as the female Necromorph went back to the control panel. A second later a door underneath the track slid open and a metal rack that looked a bit like a crucifixion cross, glided into the room on the overhead track.

  The two males gripped him by the arms and moved him over to the rack. They spun him around and lifted him up onto the rack. One of them held on to him while the other closed the clamp around his right wrist. Then something happened inside of Rod Masters. He wasn’t sure if it was the fight or flight survival instinct that kicked in or if he had reached deep inside himself and found an ounce of courage. Not that it mattered which one it was as Rod balled up his left fist and struck the Necromorph who was holding him. The blow struck him straight in the jaw and although the Necromorph was unable to feel pain, it caught him off guard and off balance. The Necromorph fell backward and the side of his head landed on the corner of the metal table.

  The metal corner punctured the control implant and he lay on the floor jerking uncontrollably while the side of his head sparked and smoked. The table flipped upwards when it was clipped by the falling Necromorph. The tools went flying and, as luck had it, towards Rod. He was able to snatch the laser cutter with his left hand as it sailed through the air.

  The other male Necromorph tried to react, but Rod’s stunt training seemed to be kicking in and he kicked the dead man in the chest sending him backward into the other door on the opposite side of the room. The sensor sensed an object approaching and slid open just before the male slammed into it. Rod watched as the male tumbled out of sight. On the other side of that door was a massive room with multiple levels and rows of tracks. He seemed to be near the top of the stack. The Necromorph tumbled and slammed into several racks holding people awaiting their conversion.

  Rod looked over at the female who seemed to be standing there doing nothing. It was if she was not programmed to deal with this scenario. She stood there just looking at him with a small tear forming in her eyes. Then the whole ship shuttered and Rod watched as everything in front of him disintegrated. The compartment was suddenly exposed to the vacuum of space.

  Everything seemed to happen in slow motion now. Rod watched as the female flashed a small smile at him before closing her eyes and throwing her arms straight out to her sides. Then she was gone, sucked into the cold of space. He watched in horror as her body drifted into the hyperspace window was atomized from the back to front. Her unprotected body came apart as it was drawn into space where, without special shielding, no matter could exist. Rod himself would have been suffered the same fate if it had not been for his arm being clamped to the rack.

  The total time that the compartment was open to space was only thirty seconds, but to Rod, it seemed like a lifetime.
The atmosphere in the room was sucked out as well and he could feel his blood start to boil. However, before he boiled over, the emergency force fields snapped on and the room re-pressurized in seconds.

  Somehow, through all of that Rod was able to hold on to the laser cutter. After he took a few deep breaths, he turned the cutter onto the clamp. It didn’t take him long to free himself. Now that he was free he wasn’t sure what to do next. He stood at the edge of the force field and watch as the other half of the ship drifted towards the planet. He watched as it broke apart and the flaming pieces were dispersed below the clouds.

  It was the lights flicking that snapped Rod out of his trance he had found himself in while watching the destruction of the other half of the ship. It seemed that the half of the ship he was in was having power issues and he didn’t want to be anywhere near the hull breach when the power failed and the force fields collapsed.

  “Think Rod, think, what would Thad do?” Rod spoke to himself as he tried to figure out how to get out of the little room. The door and hallway where he had come in were now gone so he looked around to see if there was anyway else to get out. It was then he noticed the door that the rack had come through was partly open.

  He gripped the edge of the door and pulled with all of his strength. At first nothing happened, but he kept pulling and soon it creaked and moaned, and finally gave way. Rod pulled it open far enough for him to get through. While it was dark and he couldn’t tell where it led, he thought anywhere was better than where he had been.

  He placed his hand on the right wall and followed it for a while. Finally, he felt something in the darkness that felt like a release hatch. He took a deep breath as he hoped that the hatch lead into the ship and not to the outside. He pulled and it opened. It was a maintenance hatch that opened into a hallway. A wave of relief washed over him. “Not dead yet, so far so good,” he spoke out loud. The emergency lights were on and it still had an atmosphere so he surmised that what was left of the ship was diverting all the power to the life support and emergency force fields.

  Rod didn’t know how long he had before he would be dead, sucked into space or to die from lack of oxygen. He didn’t want to wait around to find out which would be his fate. Armed with the laser cutter he made his way down the hallway. It was scary, not because it was dark but because everywhere he looked there were Necromorphs. They were laying down where they had fallen or leaning up against the walls as they all had been shut off. It was obviously that the mechanism that controlled them had been on the other side of the ship. Rod was grateful for this, but it was still creepy as hell.

  Now in the open where he could see Rod ran for it as fast as he could down the hallway. He had to jump over the occasional body here and there, but he didn’t find any opposition. As he came to a junction, he ran into another live person, a woman. She had blindly run into him and, lucky for her, Rod was fast enough to catch her in a hug to keep from being knocked over. She wore a black uniform. She was a member of the crew he guessed. The lack of hair and her look made him think she was an Ascarian.

  “Hey, where are the escape pods?” Rod asked as he pushed her back by the shoulders so he could see her face.

  There was fear behind her eyes, “This way!” She replied as grabbed his hand and dragged him in the direction of the escape pods.

  They ran hand in hand until they came to stairs. They cleared three flights of stairs faster than anyone had ever cleared them before. She led them to a bank of escape pods.

  As she was punching in the access code, they heard a loud voice off the left of them. “Hey, you cowards! You can’t leave! We need every hand on damage control!” When neither of them answered the voice a large muscled man, who’s black uniform was torn and dirty, walked up to them. He grabbed Rod by the shoulder and spoke again, “I said you are not going anywhere!”

  Rob took the laser cutter in his right hand and flicked it on. He slashed at the big man. The laser cut a deep gash in his cheek that started by his jaw and went up through his right eye. That was the last thing that man ever saw with his right eye as the laser sliced his eyeball cleanly in two.

  The man screamed and let go of Rod to cover his wounds. Rod was not about to wait around for him to recover and counter-attack. The door to the escape pod opened so he pushed the woman through, jumped in next to her and pushed the door controller to close it. The door slid shut and the escape pod door rotated into place sealing shut with a hiss. Above the door, there were five green lights that went out one by one. It was counting down as Rod sat down next to the frighten Ascarian woman and neither of them had time to get strapped in.

  The Pod was shot out of the side of the ship like a bullet out of a gun. Once the pod cleared the artificial gravity field, the two occupants became weightless. The acceleration had thrown Rod against the pod's door and the Ascarian landed on top of him with her hand in his groin. Normally he would have wanted that, and even would have enjoyed having her hand there, but with the forces involved, it was more like being punched in his man missile.

  Rod felt the wind go out of his lungs and as much as he tried to scream only whiny moan came out. As soon as they could, he gently pushed her away and she floated to the other side of the pod. She seemed to have passed out from the acceleration and Rod was thankful that she didn’t witness him curling into a ball and crying like a little girl for the next few minutes.

  Rod had just gotten his breath back and was wiping away the tears when the pod was nearly hit by another ship. He screamed again and this time it woke the Ascarian woman. “What?” She screamed as she came alert again.

  “That ship almost creamed us,” Rod said as he regained his composure.

  “Oh no, hold on to something,” She said and grabbed onto the safety straps.

  “Why?” Rod asked too late.

  The passing ship had opened a hyperspace window and their pod got caught in the wake of the other ship. They were pulled into hyperspace. Rod, not prepared for the jolt of acceleration, was tossed to the other side of the pod. He slammed his head into the hard side of the pod and it made a nice loud cling as he bounced off it.

  On the newly christened ship the Gemini, Thad stood next to Eve who was in the command chair. Eve noted the sensor reading. “It seems that we have pulled something with us into hyperspace,” she said as she ran a more intensive scan.

  “What is it, Eve?” Thad asked looking over the sensor data that was coming in.

  “Looks like an escape pod. Registering two life forms,” Eve answered.

  “Can you snag it with the tracker beam?” Thad asked another question.

  “Already done,” Eve said. “It is being brought aboard as we speak. It will be in the cargo hold in less than a minute.”

  “Shall we go find out who are guests are?” Thad said as he held out his arm for Eve to take.

  Eve stood, placed her arm in his and said to the pilots, “Okay you two you have the ship, be good as I am always watching.” And with that, Thad and Eve left the bridge arm in arm as if headed for gala event.

  It was a quick trip to the cargo hold. Bernard was still busy moving things around and trying to organize the cargo bay when the pod was brought aboard. The pod had just cleared the inner airlock and was rising up through the floor when Thad and Eve arrived.

  Eve let go of Thad’s arm and walked over to the side of the pod while Thad walked over to a weapons create. He cracked it open and pulled out a laser rifle. He slammed home a power cell and switched the weapon on. Eve had punched in the code to open the pod’s door, but it seemed to be damaged and was not working. Eve then grabbed the door by the handles and tore it off.

  The metal creaked and screamed as Eve tore the door free. Inside the two occupants waited in fear, not knowing who had saved them from certain death. They heard a man’s voice ordering them out with their hands up. The Ascarian shouted out, “We are unarmed and mean you no harm.”

  She came out first to face an armed Thad. She looked at him, then at Eve wh
o was still holding the door in her hands. Then Rod popped out holding a quickly growing lump on his head.

  Thad took one look at Rod. “Oh no, not you!”

  Rod saw Thad was now pointing his rifle at Rod’s head, “Hey Thad. Buddy, it’s me, Rod Masters!” as Rod tried to flash his most disarming smile.

  Chapter 2

  Two months had passed since the planet of Isis fell and Earth had gone into a full state of war. Half of the Republic of Commerce, and what was left of the Starguard, were now in shambles and without a central government. Many of the planets had reverted back to planet states. Some systems had fallen into the hands of the corrupt and criminal.

  The government on Thad’s home world of Nova Texas quickly succumbed to the criminal organization known only as “The Organization.” Its leader, the mysterious Mr. Black, ran things from behind the scenes. The planetary president was allowed to keep his job as long as he agreed to be a proxy leader. The “president” didn’t mind as he received three times his old salary and had his pick of any woman from the numerous brothels operating in the seven cities on Nova Texas.

  However on Earth, the Emperor had returned and with the help of Admiral Amanda Hayes, Colonel James Grunt, Dominic St. Claire, Kára, and Mortlock, had cleaned house. The government and the military were gutted and reformed. Anyone who was not loyal to Earth was rooted out. If they had committed any crimes, they were arrested and currently sitting in a special prison awaiting trial.

  Amanda was offered and had accepted the position of Supreme Commander, and was only answerable to the Emperor himself. James Grunt reluctantly accepted the post of Commandant of the Marine Corps.

  Ruby missed her father and her new mom's greatly, but she soldiered on and spent her days in school and her nights playing in different holo-suite programs.