by Marc Stevens
With that last statement, the transmission ceased. The tone of the Operative’s voice made it more than clear she was dead serious. I went back to my cabin to check on Tria and was honestly surprised she had not moved since I saw her last. She did however have her arms crossed and a look on her pretty face that said her patience was being tested. I sat on the edge of the bed and reached out for one of her hands. When she did not acknowledge the gesture, I knew where this conversation was going to go.
Before I could say anything, she said, “I will not claim to be one hundred percent combat-capable, but I am going with you one way or the other.”
There were times when I knew not to argue, and this was one of those times. I came in here with a plan A and a plan B. The determination in Tria’s eyes told me to go right to plan B. I needed it to sound like there was never a plan A.
“Tria, I need you to pilot Eagle Two and make sure we have a ride out if things turn out to be more than we can handle.”
Tria reached out and grasped my hand. She squeezed it hard enough to make her wince from the effort. It was also a hint of her new strength. She pulled me over and kissed me then whispered in my ear, “Was your plan A to come in here and beat on your chest and tie me to the bed?”
Freakin’ Chaalt. I hate it when she does that. Her uncanny ability to know what I am up to was irritating as hell. I needed to be more spontaneous. I threw a wrench into her mind-reading act. “Perhaps when you have healed.”
She threw it right back. “Perhaps I am healed enough now!”
While I did not mind where this was going, it was neither the time nor the place for such pleasantries. “Perhaps if you weren’t the color of a raisin.”
She frowned. I had her on that one. I could tell it irritated her as well.
“You Throgg, what is a raisin?”
“Tria, I have to get prepped for the mission, the Operative is waiting and you know how she loves doing that.”
She threw off her cover and eased her feet to the floor. “JUSTICE, WHAT IS A RAISIN?”
I momentarily stopped in anticipation of Justice answering her, and when he didn’t, I could not help but laugh. I made my way quickly out into corridor and headed for the ready room. When I got there, I noticed there was only Tria’s armor and mine. Coonts and Klutch must already be playing with their new toys. I stripped off my uniform and put on my new suit liner. I noticed right away it felt colder and wetter than the old design. Thinking I would put it down on my suit bitch list, it surprised me by tightening around me and warming to a pleasant temperature. I should have known Justice would incorporate smart cloth technology in the liner’s design.
I climbed up into the back of the armor suit. It was a more than a foot taller and much bulkier than the original Zaen design. The large ammo pack closed over the opening and I felt the armor tighten around me. The limbs moved with almost no effort. It was nice not having a helmet to talk through. With a simple thought, the helmet closed around my head and the HUD came up for my inspection. The display rapidly verified that all suit seals were one hundred percent and the check list disappeared.
I took a few steps and then a couple of hops. Justice was correct —, there was no difference in suit movements. If anything, it was now easier. I danced a little jig and laughed at the ease of doing so. I did it again and added a spin. This was absolutely cool because it was so effortless. I made a third spin and came to a stop, face to face with an incredulous looking Tria.
She squinted her eyes at me. “Nathan, are you well? You appear to be suffering from bizarre seizures.”
I cleared my throat. “I am fine. I am testing the full range of suit motions.”
I left her standing there with a look of doubt on her face. Walking into the hangar, I saw Coonts and Klutch working out with their armor. Xul was to one side in Coonts’ old armor. He was trying his best to imitate Klutch’s combat striking sequences. Even with Justice helping him to manipulate the suit, I could tell his heart was not in it. Coonts and Klutch on the other hand, were moving much faster with each repetition. I was confident with Justice operating the suit systems there would be very few missteps, if any. I could feel the beast in me yearning for combat. This would be a trial by fire, and for some strange reason, it did not bother me in the least. It was go time and I waved my crew mates to the shuttle. Tria walked by us without comment. I knew she was feeling like crap. The way she was walking was a dead giveaway — it was not her normal graceful, fluid gait. She was pissed she could not join in on the mayhem. I really needed her to be in charge of our only means of exit if things went south.
I turned to Xul before I boarded Eagle Two. “I am hoping things will go smoothly. If they don’t, you and Justice need to cover Eagle Two until we can get off the outpost.”
Xul looked nervous as hell. This would be his first combat mission. “I will be ready if you need me Commander.”
I patted him on the shoulder and boarded the shuttle. I commed Tria. “Launch at your discretion.”
Taking a jump seat next to Coonts and Klutch, I gave them both two thumbs up. They returned the gesture. If they were nervous, neither one showed it. They had their helmets in the down position and Coonts looked excited. Klutch looked bored.
I started wondering where the Operative was located. “Justice, have you got a lock on the Operative’s flagship?”
“Yes, Commander. We are currently four thousand yards to port of her position.”
I beeped Sael with a secure IST transmission. “We are launching Eagle Two, Senior Operative.”
She came right back at me. “It’s about time you decided to join the hunt. What is your position?”
“Justice says we are just to port of your current location.”
The channel was silent for several seconds. “Impressive. Our sensors are not detecting the Legacy.”
Tria called out. “Launching now!”
Justice opened the hangar door and spit the shuttle into the void. The Operative called back. “We just got a brief fix on your position. Your new cloaking capabilities are noteworthy. Have the Legacy take up station on the far side of the outpost. We are moving in close for insertion.”
“Affirmative, we will move in close to the target and wait to hear from you.”
I closed my helmet and Justice gave me a forward view from the shuttle. The lack of activity around the station was ominous. The beast inside of me brushed aside my feeling of trepidation. I started getting small shots of adrenaline from anticipation of using my new armor for its intended purpose. Klutch seemed preoccupied with his new minigun and sat spinning up the weapon and pointing it at different objects in the back of the shuttle. Coonts, on the other hand, sat staring at me. It was not hard guessing why.
26
The Operative called over the group channel. “We are in and there is no resistance. It is black as the void in here and the contaminates in the atmosphere have condensed into a thick fog. We are moving to hangar control.”
Tria called down from the cockpit. “Commander, there should be more activity on and around the outpost. This does not look or feel right.”
“Tria, if the Operative did not want to go in, she would have said so. Now that she is in, we are committed. If for no other reason we have to watch her back in case she can’t transport off that piece of scat.”
The Operative interrupted our conversation. “Nathan, we have encountered no one in any of the passageways. Something is not right. We should have run across someone by now.”
“Senior Operative, Tria doesn’t like it either. Pull your team out, can you transport from your current position?”
“Negative Nathan, we are going to backtrack to our starting point and extrac—”
The Operative being cut off mid transmission gave me a feeling of dread, but Tria’s broadcast filled my veins with ice water. “COMMANDER, I just picked up a large detonation on the outpost!”
“Justice, are you detecting any movement on the outpost?”
&nb
sp; “Negative, Commander, I can pinpoint the location of the explosive detonation but nothing else. The area of operation may have been purposely shielded to prevent detection of hostiles and their movements.”
“Tria, I don’t care how you do it, just get us in so we can get Sael and her team out.”
“Roger that!”
Tria nosed the shuttle over and dove for the closest hangar door. Turning at an angle to the big door she hit it with a barrage from the shuttles main weapons. The door and a generous portion of its frame blew out into space.
Justice broadcast a warning. “Tria, be advised I have multiple power sources coming on line. They appear to be weapons batteries!”
As Tria pulled the shuttle out of its dive, I called out. “Tria, drop the ramp, we are jumping from here.”
Tria rolled the shuttle hard over and dove back for the gaping hole in the hangar door. I was going to protest her actions, but she dropped the ramp and the atmosphere explosively burst into the void, taking me, Coonts and Klutch with it. We were tumbling wildly toward the outpost. Our suit systems quickly righted us and we hit our gravity drives. I tried to see where Tria was but she had already cloaked the shuttle and was gone. Klutch took the lead and Coonts came up tight to my side. We shot through the destroyed hangar door and Klutch rapidly changed our vector in case anyone survived the flying debris from Tria’s attack. We sat down behind a huge pile of downed girders from the overhead door tracks.
I was going to call Tria for a sitrep but the outpost suddenly vibrated under our feet. Tria called out, “One weapons battery down!”
The outpost shook again to almost simultaneous concussions that almost floored the three of us. Justice called out, “All detected weapons batteries destroyed.”
Tria yelled another warning. “They are launching missiles!”
Justice came over our comms and corrected her. “Negative Tria, they are launching multiple comm buoys! I will attempt to shoot them down.”
I was not sure what the Operative’s flagship was doing, but my backup was busier than cats covering crap. We yanked our weapons from our packs and Klutch took off toward a pressure door. The controls were junk and it was apparent we would have to shoot our way in. The beast inside of me was screaming out in joy. It was all I could do to give Coonts and Klutch a warning before I threw my right arm up. “TAKE COVER!”
They both dove to the side and behind piles of debris. I gave the door a beam shot that blew it into the airlock. My crewmates peeked over the rubble they were hiding behind to make sure I would not make any follow up shots.
Justice called out again. “Be advised, Commander: I was only able to destroy five of the eight buoys, the rest have transitioned.”
Shit! It was just a matter of time before whoever they signaled would show up ready for a fight. Klutch leaped up and ran into the now open airlock. Coonts ran in front of me and held his arms up. I cleared the image from my helmet and tried to give him a reassuring look. He responded by turning and running into the airlock with Klutch. I quickly followed and found Klutch working furiously on the inner door.
“Commander, I can bypass the safety relay long enough to get us inside without destroying the inner door.”
They both had a look of worry on their faces. I gritted my teeth, thinking my crew could not trust my actions. The beast in me was trying to take over and I wanted to scream out in frustration. I would bend this madness to my will and not let the monster have his way. The door suddenly opened and the rancid atmosphere came bursting in on us. Klutch jumped through the hatch and went right. I was just behind him and went left with Coonts on my heels. The safety relay slammed the hatch shut and we found ourselves in a rolling fog bank of unknown contaminates. My no-light sensors were being degraded by the atmospheric conditions. It was difficult to get accurate readings beyond twenty feet or so. Klutch should have let me blow the door and let the void suck the noxious gases out of this shit hole.
We were at one end of a large corridor and I could make out a hatch up on the righthand side. The rapid decompression and the lower temperature associated with our entry made the atmospheric conditions even worse. There was a good chance we just sucked the worst of the filth in this place right to our current location. I checked my heat sensors and got no active sources. I tried my Backscatter Transmitter and to my surprise got the Operative. We were evidently inside of the shielded area.
“Nathan, one of my recon teams tripped an explosive trap. It cost them their lives. It is no longer possible to reach our entry point. I think this place is set to lure other unsuspecting riffraff to their deaths. We are being forced to go deeper into this scat hole. What is your location?”
“When we detected the explosion and your transmission abruptly ended, Tria took out the hangar door you were trying to open for us. We are in a pressurized corridor just beyond the hangar.”
“You must use great caution, Nathan. That is where my recon team was killed. The trap collapsed a large portion of the overhead onto them. I advise you to find another route.”
“Roger that, we will attempt to go around. Can you hold till we link up?”
“Affirmative, Nathan. Be careful — if you find yourself in a corridor that looks clear, find another route. I think we are being purposely directed to a location of our enemy’s choosing.”
“We are on our way. You will hear us coming.”
Coonts and Klutch had been listening. I pointed at the wall on the opposite side of the corridor. “Coonts, make us a hole, we are staying away from all the obvious routes. We took a knee behind some debris. Coonts selected a spot on the wall with the least amount of wiring, pipes and conduit. The beam shot lit the area like an arc welder. The wall blew inward leaving a bright orange circle of molten metal. He changed the angle and hit it again making it large enough for us to enter. As I started to get up Klutch held up a hand stopping me. He pulled a Chaalt smart grenade from his leg storage and set the friend-or-foe identifier, then threw it through the hole Coonts had made.
Since I did take the time to read up on the weapon, I knew that we as well as any Chaalt would be excluded from its targeting systems. We were surprised when we immediately heard the staccato blasts from the grenades fragments. When we no longer heard any fragments detonating, we got up, ready to investigate. We were almost to the hole when there was a bright flash and a large explosion. We could feel the thump through our boots.
Klutch called out, “That was the core. There must be a nest of Throggs hiding in there.”
Klutch, as a rule, always thought more was better when it came to munitions. He ran to the edge of the hole and threw another grenade into the opening. We stood back, waiting to see what would happen. When nothing did, Klutch’s voice had the sound of disappointment when he called out, “Moving up”
He leaped through the hole and Coonts and I were right behind him. The first thing I could not help but notice was the large assortment of body parts just inside of the room we found ourselves in. There were weapons scattered about the floor as well. Coonts put words to our surprising find.
“Commander, evidently my choice of entry points interrupted an ambush. There are the corpses of many different races, but the majority are wearing Murlak and Scrun armor.”
Klutch had been scouting just ahead of us and came running back. “Commander, I just saw a large group of armed combatants moving away from this location.”
“OK Klutch, we will follow your lead.”
Klutch turned and headed back to a junction in another corridor. Out of the corner of my helmet I saw the Chaalt grenade hovering close to the overhead. I gave it a wide berth and Coonts did the same. We stacked behind Klutch as he cautiously peeked down the corridor in both directions. To our right we could see a big pressure door and to our left a long hallway that hit another junction. The atmosphere in this area was much better than the hangar area we had just left.
Klutch called over his shoulder to us. “Which way, Commander?”
C
oonts commented, “I cannot be sure, but I think the Operative is somewhere to our right.”
The beast in me wanted to chase down every piece of scat we could find and kill them, but Coonts was putting our priorities in the correct order. I pushed the Oolaran beast from my thoughts and reached into my leg storage. I pulled a smart grenade out and threw it as far down the corridor as I could.
“Klutch, see if you can get that door open.”
Klutch went right and started working on the door control. Coonts and I took a knee behind him and covered his back while he worked. I took the opportunity to call the Operative.
“Senior Operative, we took a different route and stumbled upon several enemy troops that may have been heading in your direction.”
“If you are pinned down, we can attempt to find you, but we will be forced to move cautiously. I do not wish to lose anymore personnel in this scat hole.”
“No, we have eliminated the threat. Stay in a defensible position; we are still moving in your direction. I do not want to risk firing on you if we stumble into each other.”
“Acknowledged, we will hold at our current position. Operative out.”
I was pretty sure it was not Sael’s normal game plan to wait on anyone for any reason. She had seen the beast on the rampage and she wanted no part of that action.
“Klutch, how are you doing on the door?”
I had barely got the words from my mouth when the Chaalt grenade hovering near the hall junction, fired a couple of fragments. The results were a low moaning wail. Coonts ripped off a burst of H.E. into the end of the corridor and the noise promptly ceased. I did not like standing around at the dead end of the corridor.
Coonts was thinking the same thing. “Klutch, the opposition is probing us. It would be advisable to move from this position.”
Klutch turned on Coonts but whatever rebuke he was going to utter was cut off by a bright explosive flash on the front of his armor. He was thrown violently against the door he was trying to open. Coonts and I were knocked sprawling to the floor. I had been trying to contain the Oolaran beast, but now all bets on whether I would be able to, were off. I rolled onto my side and sent a twenty-round burst of high explosive to the end of the hall and followed it up with a beam shot that took out part of the side wall and corner of the junction.