by Marc Stevens
To my surprise Klutch rolled into me temporarily disrupting my murderous thoughts. He broadcast out loud in the clear. “SUCK ON THIS YOU COWARDLY THROGGS!” He threw his launcher up and discharged a single round that had my HUD blinking orange. There was a tremendous explosion that tossed us off the deck and back into the pressure door.
My thoughts and worries about restricting the actions of the killer inside of me were forgotten. A seemingly endless barrage of rubble rained down, partially burying us. The true irritation of what just took place finally sunk in. Justice did not issue any anti-matter rounds to me. Before I could start bitching about it, Coonts and Klutch pushed the wreckage off themselves and took off running in the direction the attack came from. I did the same and joined them. At the rate the atmosphere was clearing, it did not take a genius to know this place was no longer airtight.
The Operative decided someone was stirring the pot too harshly and she decided it was me. My transmitter went live with her less than happy voice. “Nathan, cease your destruction before you bring this sewer down on all of our heads!”
I could have sworn I heard my teammates snicker at the Operative’s comment. It might have been a little funny, and I even considered letting the Operative know it — that is until Coonts took a quick peek around the corner and the wall just above his head disappeared in a huge flashing explosion. We were all knocked sprawling a good distance up the corridor we just came down. Obviously, the bastards had bigger and badder weapons to use on us. The bloodthirsty Oolaran in me ruled out most all sensible courses of action. I thrusted with my suit gravity drives so hard that when I attempted to turn the corner I careened off of the wall and then the ceiling of the corridor. The reckless maneuver probably saved my life.
The large anti-ship weapons follow-up shot went straight up the middle of the corridor and through a bulkhead. The entire area violently decompressed with a shitstorm of flying debris. Several of the enemy combatants went sailing by on a one-way trip to eternity. My HUD highlighted the shielded gun platform. My first beam shot brought down the shield. My second blew the weapon from its mount, and my third reduced the whole mess to slag. I had at least twenty enemy targets attempting to escape the area. I gave them a generous dose of high explosive, killing several outright and sending the rest spinning in freefall in all directions.
With as much effort as I could muster, I regained my human sensibilities. I became aware of my comms being overwhelmed by Justice, Tria, Coonts and Klutch all yelling at me at the same time. Justice and Tria sounded somewhat concerned, but everything coming from the Troop Master and Coonts was quite colorful. Just when I thought it could not get any worse, the Operative came on the Backscatter transmitter, squawking something about the outpost breaking apart.
My HUD picked up five targets wearing Zaen battle armor crawl out of the debris in the target area. They all took off with their gravity drives heading in the direction of a large doorway at the end of the passage. I threw my arm up and hit two of them with a beam shot that blew arms and legs from the suits. The rest were blown into the walls and ceiling. I accelerated to maximum to catch them before any could recover enough to return fire. My continued weapons fire had the desired effect of silencing my comms. I could see Coonts and Klutch rapidly approaching from my six. I slowed to let them catch me.
In a relatively calm voice Coonts called to me. “Commander, we will need some of them alive.”
I stopped and hovered in place letting Coonts and Klutch fly past me. Klutch called out. “We have three survivors!”
I saw him extend his fighting hooks and slash at the launcher feed tubes on the Zaen battle suits. When he was satisfied they were inoperable, he waved to me.
Now that it was quiet, I called to Tria. “Tria, do you have a visual on the opening shot through the outpost’s hull?”
Her answer was short, clipped and to the point: “Yes, Commander!”
“I need you to move in close to it so we can transfer the prisoners.”
“Roger that, Commander. ETA twenty seconds.”
Coonts called to me. “Commander, one of the survivors is badly wounded and his suit repair systems are failing. What are your orders?”
The only reason Coonts would say something like that was because he knew we could probably save the Murlak’s life if we tried. He also knew the outcome of our interrogations did not hold a bright future for the pirate piece of scat. The beast in me wanted to speed the process along but the vengeful human wanted him to suffer for what they had done to Tria. The little Grawl must have known what I was thinking. He extruded his fighting hooks and jammed them into the opening the suit was trying to repair, fully decompressing the Murlak. He kicked the corpse away and grabbed onto one of the other survivors. Klutch did the same and they made their way to the breach in the hull.
I could see through the sizable hole that Tria had maneuvered Eagle Two in close to the outpost. She had the back ramp lowered and Coonts and Klutch disappeared into the back with the prisoners.
Justice suddenly called out over the group comms. “Commander, there is a shuttle launching from the outpost. I will attempt to disable it!”
My HUD came alive with the outside view that Justice was seeing. The Legacy rapidly closed the distance and fired on the shuttle with the rail cannons. The shuttle’s shields held up to the pounding, so Justice switched to the heavier point defense weapons. One shot was all it took to blow the rear off of the fleeing target. What remained of the spacecraft was flipping end over end. The Legacy caught up with it and arrested the spin rate and stopped its momentum with the tow beam. I wondered if they were wearing pressure suits because the shuttle was venting atmosphere out of the hull at a fairly good rate. I would find out one way or the other when we were done on the outpost.
27
I set down on the deck near the remains of the cannon the Throggs were attempting to use on us. When my boots touched the deck, I could feel vibrations from explosions somewhere on the station.
I called to the Operative. “Senior Operative, are you making this a competition to see who can dismantle this sewer the fastest?”
“I HAVE NO TIME FOR YOUR MINDLESS CHATTER!”
The transmission abruptly ceased. I noticed some of the vibrations I was feeling were quite jarring. I think the Operative and her team were in it up to their eyeballs.
“Coonts, keep watch on the prisoners. Klutch, get your big ass in here now!”
A blue triangle appeared behind me moving at high speed. Klutch set down next to me sending a flurry of debris rising up around us.
I called for a little help. “Justice, can you pinpoint the location of the detonations on the outpost?”
“Yes, Commander. There appears to be a pitched battle taking place one thousand twenty-two feet to the right of your current position.”
“Can you guide us there with your scanners?”
“I was only able to pinpoint that position due to the high amount of vibration propagations from the area. The battle has yet to breach the scan shielding throughout that location.”
“Give me a target reference point well to the side of the battle.”
“Let’s make a hole Klutch!”
We ducked down behind the remains of the cannon. I snapped off two shots with my beam weapon and Klutch put two more in the same hole. When the wreckage went flying past, we jumped up and ran to the tunnel we had just made. We crawled in and stood up in the next room over. We ran across and took a knee behind some large pieces of equipment. My reference point was a little more to the left this time and I snapped off three shots in a row. We got a rapid decompression on the third shot. Not to be outdone, Klutch grabbed my shoulder before I could stand up and sent three more down the gaping hole. His facemask cleared and he gave me a toothy grin.
“More is always better.”
We ran to the hole and scurried in. We found ourselves in a large open hangar. There was a cargo shuttle sitting in the middle of the bay with two big glowing
holes on the side of it. The hauler was in terrible shape, judging from its appearance, but now it was a wreck. When we cleared the rear of the shuttle we came under fire from an upper boarding hatch. Klutch beat me to the punch and turned the hatch into a ragged hole. I followed it up with a Chaalt smart grenade. I was a little disappointed when it did not go off.
We moved on to a position where Justice gave us another aiming point. We raised our arms in preparation to fire, but the flash of the grenade detonating behind us, made both of us involuntarily duck. We looked back at the gaping wound we had inflicted on the ship and were showered with shuttle parts and alien entrails. Klutch casually flicked something wet and gory from the visor of his helmet. I thought maybe we should find out if there were more hostiles hiding in the shuttle. The Troop Master did not seem to care either way, so we moved on to the business at hand. We had to be close to the Operative’s position because the vibrations from explosions were more pronounced. Sael was giving the opposition hell for the loss of her teammates.
Klutch decided we were a little close to our aim point, so we moved back to the shuttle for cover. I held my arm up to fire and a large hatch to our left opened. Several species of aliens retreated through the door. The ones that held my attention were the Scrun and Murlak troops. They stopped to the side of the door and were setting up a device next to it. The fools were pointing their weapons toward the doorway and were oblivious to Klutch and I standing at the back of the freight hauler. They obviously thought they were in friendly territory.
I slowly dropped my arm with the beam weapon and held up my left arm. A circle appeared around the would-be ambushers and I spun up my minigun. It was not hard guessing what expression was on the Tibor’s face right at the moment. Before I could utter the word “fire” Klutch let the .44-caliber explosive projectiles fly into the flanks of our targets. I did the same, adding a side-to-side motion for finesse. The aliens and pretty much everything around them went to pieces. Klutch’s decision to use the freight hauler for cover was the correct one, because one of us hit the device the Scrun was setting up. There was a tremendous flash that knocked us flat on our backs and sent us sliding across the deck. The hulk of the old shuttle absorbed the brunt of the blast.
I sat upright with my eyes wide when I noticed the old freight hauler was now on its side. It would have been very bad for the Operative and her crew if they had pursued the enemy through that door.
Regaining my footing, I decided to give Klutch credit for the boondoggle before he could hang it on me. “Interesting target selection, Troop Master.”
Klutch cleared his visor and gave me an incredulous look. Before he could spew a toxic retort, the Operative broadcast on the Backscatter transmitter.
“Nathan, check your fire before you kill us all!”
Klutch stood staring at me shaking his head in agreement. I should know by now I would get the blame when shit goes wrong. Since there was no longer evidence to support my side of the story, I dropped any attempt at explaining what happened to the Operative. I could already tell Klutch was not going to be helpful with my plea of innocence. It would be best just to move on.
“Senior Operative, all opposition has been eliminated and we have completed our mission goal.”
The Operative shot right back. “Nathan, unless you have Eiger’s corpse at your feet, you have not completed your mission goal!”
The Operative sounded very testy and I could not blame her. I don’t know what I would do if I had lost one of my crewmates. It is why I spent countless millions of credits so my crew could have the very best protection. I could not afford to lose an ally because I had so very few.
“Senior Operative, we have secured two of Eiger’s clan in custody. We are ready to link up with you and evac the target area.”
“Affirmative Nathan, we will hold our position until you link up.”
It was hard to tell if the Operative was afraid of us firing on them or she did not wish to risk another boobytrap. At this point, it did not matter, I was sure there was more scum lurking on the outpost. It was time to get out of this sewer.
“Klutch, take point and get us to the Operative. I will cover our backs.
When we cleared the side of the freight hauler, we were stunned at the destruction of the explosive device. We would not have to make a door or worry about another explosive device. The wall and a huge section of the deck was missing. There was now a gaping hole weeping contaminates of every kind down to the lower spaces.
Klutch used his gravity boosters to clear the rend and called out, “Commander, there is a lot of dead and wounded hostiles in here.”
I quickly boosted across and saw what he was talking about. There were bodies scattered everywhere and some were still moving. The enemy was in full retreat away from the Operative and was boobytrapping their escape route. I smiled thinking Sael must have been kicking their asses pretty good for so many to be retreating. I looked up when my HUD beeped a warning. Two hostiles in Zaen battle armor jumped up from the floor and ran for an open hatch across the empty hangar.
The beast in me had been quietly biding its time. It was almost like I had no choice in my reaction to the pop-up targets. In a kneejerk spasm of reflexes my arm came up and gave the retreating combatants a beam shot. The beam caught the trailing soldier square in the back, disintegrating all but a boot and part of an arm. The blast sent the lead soldier flying violently into the bulkhead next to the hatch. The battle suit was missing a leg and the decompression proved fatal as the suit bounced from the wall and went prone on the deck.
My lack of fire discipline netted me a less than appreciative response from the Operative. “Nathan, control yourself before this scat hole comes apart under our feet!”
Klutch came up beside me and pulled my arm down. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Klutch said, “Commander, you should take a look at some of the Scrun soldiers. Several are wearing heavy exoskeletons and are much better armed than the others.”
Forcing the Oolaran soldier from my mind, I turned and followed Klutch back to the blast zone of the Scrun ambush weapon. As we approached the body, it was easy to tell what was left was Scrun. The long, gangly arm that was still intact was a dead giveaway. The armor, or what was left of it, was not anything I had seen before. The large shoulder-mounted weapons were reminiscent of the equipment Coram heavy gunners packed around. Glancing around the blast area, we could make out a large number of remains that more or less looked like this one.
Klutch was bent over another and rooting through its gear. “What are you thinking, Klutch?”
“I am thinking this was one of the hit teams tasked with killing us.”
I frowned, “How could they possibly know we would be coming here?”
“They would not, but it is not a stretch to assume that wherever Eiger’s clan is, you will eventually show up.”
I did not like the implications of Klutch’s statement. If the Scrun could predict my actions, then Eiger should be able to do the same thing. We needed to collect the Operative and get the hell out of here.
“Klutch, I am going back out to the hangar and breach the shielding barrier so we can have active comms.” The Tibor gave me a thumbs-up and followed me back across the area of devastation we had created. There were no signs of life in the hangar, so we ducked back behind the wreck of the shuttle and I gave the spacecraft entry door a double tap with my beam weapon.
Justice came over our comms net. “Commander, the area of operation is clear of hostile spacecraft and I have detected no transition signatures. The shuttle I disabled has ignored all of our hails and Eagle Two is orbiting the outpost waiting to extract your strike teams. I am downloading the data from your battle suit and will be standing by.”
“Roger that, Justice. Keep us covered. The Operative is close by and we are moving to that location.”
“Tria, get a lock on my location and move Eagle Two in close for evac operations.”
I was surprised when Coonts came b
ack over the net. “Affirmative Commander. I am moving to your location now.”
I did not know what to think of Coonts talking instead of Tria, but I had more pressing matters to take care of at the moment.
“Coonts, give us five minutes to clear the area and take down the hangar door.”
“Roger, Commander, counting down from five.”
Klutch took the lead and we hauled ass back to the next hangar over and thru the hatch I had killed the two Murlak troopers in. We had not gone more than another hundred yards when Klutch sent a burst of HE from his launcher tube behind some large pieces of equipment and containers. I saw something fly up like a ragdoll and then all hell broke loose. Something large-caliber struck me on my left arm, knocking me spinning to the floor. Everything around us started blowing up. We were being pummeled with large pieces of debris and shrapnel. I had red warning lights on my needle gun and tube launcher. My arm felt numb, like I had hit my crazy bone a solid lick. I started sliding backwards and realized Klutch was pulling me into the corridor out of the ambush area. Since I was still facing the enemy, I spun up my minigun and emptied it in one long burst that brought a lull to the intense incoming fire. Klutch elbowed me aside and stuck his arm out and sprayed out a non-stop barrage of high explosive.
The Operative must have decided that Klutch and I were just screwing around. “Nathan, cease fire! The overhead is collapsing. If you continue your madness, we will be trapped in the debris!”
The beast was on the verge of freeing himself from my efforts to contain its wanton ways. It was all I could do to yell out a warning over the Backscatter transmitter.
“I don’t have time for your bitching! You better take cover NOW!”