The War of Pawns (The Human Chronicles -- Book Three)

by T. R. Harris

  “Goes with the territory, boys. Goes with the territory.”

  The Belsonian Industrial Complex was a large, filthy-looking cluster of 10-story warehouses and manufacturing plants. They refined metal ore into steel here, although of much lower quality and strength than on Earth. The Belsonian government owned most of the equipment, although the Melforeans owned the buildings and the land. It was a complex set up, but it worked for them.

  Adam pulled the transport up to the main security gate, leaning back in the seat so as to keep his face mainly in the shadows. He felt silly with the dangling appendages below his ears, and he could feel them dance around every time he spoke.

  The Belsonians also manufactured parts for Xan-Fi flash rifles in the Complex, but not the entire weapon. Even so, security was very tight entering the area – that was unless you were a Belsonian.

  Belsonia was located eight Sectors in closer to the Core, and as such, not a lot of native Belsonians resided in The Fringe. Those that did either worked for the company, or were criminals or crewmembers aboard large merchant ships, such as how Kaylor had got his start.

  The guard stepped forward, as two more cradled Xan-Fi’s in their arms. Once the guard recognized the appendages, his mood lightened considerably.

  “Greetings. What is your business here this night?” he asked, setting a steady eye on Sherri’s obvious female form in the dim light of the passenger seat. Belsonians were polygamists, and as such considered any female fair game.

  “Just a load of rusty metal for the smelters. So where are you from?” Adam asked.

  “Creeses originally, but I was living in Grymore before coming to this stinking place. What about you…and your fine mate here?”

  “We come from Jelsse,” Adam said, reciting the name of Kaylor’s home town. “We will be returning that way as soon as we make this drop.”

  “Possibly you could delay your departure a while as me and my brothers here mate with your female?”

  “That would be a possibility. Just as soon as we make our drop.”

  The guard quickly stepped back and motioned for his ‘brothers’ to open the gate. They all had satisfying grins on their faces as the transport moved away and into the Complex.

  “I think you really enjoyed pimping me out like that,” Sherri said, feigning insult.

  “Anything for a quick buck, my dear.”

  They proceeded deep into the Industrial Complex, following a map Adam had memorized from an orbital view of the area. Soon they came to the edge of the Complex, where a ten-meter-high wall of concrete rose up before them. But even the height of the wall could not hide the massive dish-shaped antenna that rose to a dizzying height in the field beyond.

  This was their true target: The main communication relay facility for the Juirean Command, the main link between The Fringe and Juir herself.

  Chapter Sixty

  Most of the SEALs and non-SEALs aboard Riyad’s ship had become somewhat accustomed to space travel by this point, but still, the Barrier up close was always something to behold.

  The nebular clouds of gas and debris filled the entire viewport, and the light from every color imaginable painted the pilothouse like a scene out of some psychedelic trip. Riyad allowed the assembled men in the room to take in the view for a few minutes more, before calling them all to order.

  “Let’s get suited up. The trip over is going to take about four hours. Besides, if you think the Barrier is impressive from inside here, just wait until you’re outside.”

  With that, the members of Team Bravo quickly filed out and headed for the cargo bay.

  The eight members of Riyad’s team began to climb into the heavy spacesuits, one helping the other to squeeze in and seal their suit. Chief Rutledge cinched down the last bolt around Riyad’s helmet and knocked on the lens.

  “You all come back now, ya hear.”

  “Aye aye, sir,” Riyad said, flashing his trademark smile. “Just keep us on target. Other than that, it’s just a walk in the park – if your park is a zillion-zillion cubic meters of outer space!”

  “Seriously, be careful buddy.”

  “Will do, Chief.”

  The Team moved to the main exterior airlock for the ship dressed in their bulky suits, yet aided by the reduction in gravity they’d set for this section of the ship. They all crowded in, each carrying with them a bag strapped to their waist belt.

  “Hook up,” Riyad ordered, and they all clasped safety lines to loops in the belts. “Okay, here we go.”

  The door to the airlock slid aside, and Team Bravo found themselves looking out at the brilliance of the Barrier, with only about two millimeters of glass separating them from the great vacuum of space. Even the SEALs, who were used to HALO jumps, inhaled audibly. Riyad had made several free-assaults on spaceships before, so he was somewhat accustomed to this. But four hours in free flight – that would be something altogether new for him.

  Yet this was the only way they could approach the station undetected. The monitoring station was a large, circular platform sitting right at the very edge of the Barrier and looking away into the Far Arm. It would be from here that the first detection of the Human fleet would come, so it was imperative that they take it out.

  But seeing that the station was so important, it was also heavily guarded.

  Riyad had named his ship The Secura, which was the Italian word for ‘free from fear or doubt.’ It was also the middle name of his mother. (Yes, Riyad Tarazi had some Italian blood in him.) The Secura had entered the area in dark mode, and had coasted to within a thousand kilometers of the station. Going any closer would put them in range of the station’s mass detectors, which as Jym had explained, sounded a lot like radar. Riyad, and his tiny band of free-floaters, would be undetectable because of their small size.

  Each suit was equipped with a reactive backpack that would propel them to their destination. Riyad activated his pack, and began to swiftly pull the string of warriors behind him as he set off for the station, still invisible at this distance. His heart rose up in his chest, as Riyad got the distinct impression that he was heading straight off into the vastness of space, a humbling experience if ever there was one.

  The tiny homing beacon inside his helmet kept them on course, however, and after four hours, the Team began to see their target straight ahead.

  The station was huge, measuring four hundred meters in diameter. Except for a small maintenance crew housed at the very center of the disk, the station was fully automated, which also meant that the dozen or so bolt launchers dotting its surface would activate automatically at any approaching threat.

  In addition to the gun turrets, there were now two small Light Quarter-Ships standing sentry about a thousand meters off the station. They had been moved there a couple of weeks before as a precaution against an attack upon the station. The Juireans could not afford to be without their forward eyes, not with the Humans massing for an invasion of Juirean space.

  At the right moment, Riyad signaled for the Team to unhook. Johnson and Krug activated their packs and each set off for one of the Quarter-Ships. The three other SEALs –Krug, Tindel and Weir – fanned out from Riyad, Cohn and Chris, and all six of them shot out for the large structure of the station.

  The Team had practiced maneuvering in the bulky suits around the Juirean battlecruiser. They had learned how to stop their forward momentum, and how to attach themselves to the hull using magnetic knee plates. They had also practiced attaching the limpet mines to the hull of the Juirean ship, just as they would on the monitoring station. But even though they had all practiced their task ad nauseum, nothing compared to the real thing.

  The monitoring station was even larger than the Juirean battlecruiser, and being disk-shaped, it made the whole structure seem as though it went on for an eternity in every direction, once the Team moved in under the platform. Once ‘under’ it, however, their minds did a flip-flop with their perspective, and now placed the metal hull of the station as now appearing b
elow them. This actually helped the saboteurs deal with the immensity of the station much better.

  Surprisingly, Jym had been able to pull up a pretty good schematic of the station off the Library. Just as you can find just about anything on the internet back home on Earth, the station revealed its secrets, so each of the men had their designated location on the hull to which they could place their mines for maximum affect.

  But as they separated, Riyad began to feel his stomach tighten up. He watched each of the other members of his Team fade off to become tiny specks upon the surface of the station, and looking out at the awesome size of the Barrier now above him, he suddenly felt alone and insignificant. But the sooner he set his mines, the sooner he could get back to The Secura.

  Riyad lifted his left arm and referred to the tiny screen on the datapad attached to his sleeve. He had two mines to set, and the screen guided him to the points on the hull with relative ease.

  He approached a thin metal array that rose from the smooth surface by about five meters. It was one of the relay antennas for the station. He opened the bag and removed one of the limpet mines that the SEALs had brought with them from Earth. They were attached to the hulls of ships by magnets, so the mine had no problem attaching itself to the hull of the station. This blast would penetrate the surface hull and enter the main trunk line to the station’s computers. Added to the simultaneous force of all 12 explosions, the station should be effectively crippled beyond repair. The SEALs knew their explosives, so they had no illusions that the station would be completely destroyed. All they were after was to take it out of action. Riyad had been assured that the mines would do the trick.

  He moved on to his second, and final, location. It was an array similar to the first, yet about twice as tall. As he approached, he noticed a small yellow light flashing above a round glass lens. He moved closer to the lens and looked closely at it. It moved!

  “Heads up, people, they may have monitors on the hull,” he said into the ether.

  “Yeah, I saw them, too.” He recognized the voice as that of John Tindel, one of the SEALs. “My light’s turned orange. What about yours?”

  Just then, Riyad did notice the light above the lens turn orange. Something was definitely happening inside the station. “Mine, too. Be on the lookout for any movement on the surface. Johnson, Krug, how you coming?”

  “This is Krug, I’m on my way back to the rendezvous point.”

  “Johnson here, just leaving now.”

  “Oh shit!” It was the voice of Josh Cohen.

  “What is it?”

  “Something that looks like a small tank is coming my way. It’s on metal tracks, with a turret sticking out the front of it. I’ve placed the charge, and now I’m hiding behind the array.”

  “Johnson here again, this ship just began to move. It’s pointing itself toward the station. I think the jig is up, boys.”

  “Are all the charges set now?” Riyad asked. Immediately all the other seven members of his Team called out their affirmatives. “Good. I don’t think the Quarter-Ships are going to fire on the station just to knock us off, but I don’t want any tank-like things to take us out either, or to find the mines.”

  “Rutledge here,” came an announcement over their comms. “All members need to activate their packs and scatter. Use your homing beacons to get back to The Secura. As soon as you’re all a thousand meters away, I’m going to blow the charges. That should only take you less than a minute.”

  “Roger that,” came Riyad’s answer. “Josh, where is the tank now?”

  “Damn, it’s right here, just on the other side of the array. I’m having to move around it to stay out of sight.”

  “I have one coming my way, too.” It was Chris Mullis.

  “Rutledge here. Cohen, use the array for cover and activate your pack. I’m blowing the charges in 30 seconds. Everyone go!”

  Riyad obeyed, and in a second he was shooting away from the station and headed for open space. The packs operated by releasing compressed gas, so there were no trails noticeable from his, or any of the packs from the Team members. He looked toward his feet and watched the station begin to grow ever smaller in his view.

  Just then, a thin, bright flash of white light shot out from the surface of the station to his right. But the flash wasn’t aimed at him. Instead, it zeroed in on a point off the station, and in seemingly empty space. The streak ended at a point, and a small flare could be seen.

  “Josh! Acknowledge!” It was Rutledge on the comm.

  Silence.

  “Cohen, come in.”

  Still nothing.

  “I’m blowing the charges now, before anyone else gets taken out.”

  Suddenly, on the distance surface of the station below, Riyad could see numerous and simultaneous explosions. Like most explosions in space, the flash from the charges only lasted a split second, but the effect was widespread.

  At each point where the mines had been set, the hull of the station was ripped apart. Most of the force from the explosions was channeled inward, however, and when it hit the open voids inside the craft, it expanded out rapidly. There were secondary explosions coming from inside the structure, and large pieces of the station began to blow outward.

  Off to Riyad’s left, he saw one of the Quarter-Ships also showing the effects of the limpet mines. Large amounts of yellow and green gas were shooting out of a large hole in the aft section of its hull, and another hole toward the forward section was expanding rapidly, also from secondary explosions within the ship.

  And then the entire Quarter-Ship exploded.

  Riyad saw large pieces of shrapnel tumbling in space toward him. He steered sharply to his left, as a jagged piece came within a hundred meters of him; he aimed the jets from his pack so that he changed course by 45-degrees. Soon he was clear of most of the debris, and was able to look back at the much larger monitoring station – or what was left of it.

  The mines had done more damage to the station than had been figured. It was now essentially split into three sections, which were all now moving away from each other in what appeared to be slow motion. What lights had been visible on its surface were now dark, the only illumination coming from the brilliant kaleidoscope of the Barrier.

  There came a click in Riyad’s ear. “This is Rutledge. Give me a status rundown, each of you.”

  “Riyad, a-okay,” he said starting the roll call. Soon everyone had checked in, everyone except Cohen.

  “Just a question, but can anyone see his remains?” Rudledge’s voice was low and taunt.

  “I think I was closest,” came John Tindel’s voice over the comm. “I can’t see anything through all the debris.”

  “Yeah, his tracker is offline, too,” Rutledge said. “Okay, let’s just regroup and get the hell out of here.”

  There was just silence on the comm. Riyad found the location of the Secura on his datapad, and steered the pack jets in that direction. It would take him a good four hours to return to the ship…which gave him lots of time to think about their fallen comrade. Their tiny rebel force had just suffered its first casualty – as far as Riyad Tarazi knew…

  Chapter Sixty-One

  Adam Cain pulled the transport up parallel to the outer wall of the Belsonian Industrial Complex. The SEALs poured out the back carrying their extra duffle bags, and began to climb to the roof of the transport. Even still, the top of the wall was a good seven meters above them. Adam and Sherri joined them on the roof.

  “Time to fly, boys,” Adam said with a smile. “Let me show you how it’s done.”

  The maneuver had already been practiced, so two of the SEALs moved until they were facing each other, and joined their hands together. Adam placed a foot in the cradle formed by the SEALs, and they easily propelled him up into the air. It was almost too much force, as Adam found himself easily a meter or so above the top of the wall and in mid-air. He fell back toward the surface, and barely managed to land on the top of the meter-wide wall, balancing there
for a second before dropping to his knees.

  “Dial back the muscles, guys. In this gravity, you don’t need so much.”

  Each of the men wore ear-comms, and Adam could hear a variety of chuckles from his Team. Being physically-assisted in a jump of around 21 feet was something none of them was accustomed to. And they had nearly thrown Adam completely over the wall!

  One by one, the SEALs assisted each other to the top of the wall. Petty Officer Bob Hawkins would stay with the transport and keep guard. The last person to the top of the wall was Sherri, and Hawkins made easy work of her by lifting her from her waist and into the air. Two SEALs on the wall grabbed her outstretched arms and pulled her to the top.

  The Team secured sharp metal grappling hooks to the wall, and lowered a set of four ropes down to the grassy field on the other side. However, they didn’t use the ropes to descend – they would be used for their return trip. Instead, each man – and Sherri – simply jumped from the top and dropped smoothly to the ground below.

  Adam surveyed his Team. The giddy smiles from the jump quickly faded, to be replaced with looks of stern determination. This was their job, and they took it seriously.

  The communication relay loomed above them, climbing to a height of around three hundred meters. It resembled a large satellite dish, resting on a massive base of metal supports which widen at the base to an area covering a hundred meters square. The entire structure was brightly lit by numerous spot lights, both the array itself, as well as its base.

  And there were guards – lots of them.

  Near the base were also a number of maintenance shacks, and even a building that looked like a small barracks. With the importance of the comm relay, it appeared as though an entire platoon of troops had been assigned to protect it. Adam had a fairly good idea as to the troop strength, from the aerial views they’d acquired while in orbit around the planet, waiting for arrival clearance. There were about 40 troops guarding the relay, positioned mainly near each of the four corners of the base.