Gunship

by J. J. Snow

  Chapter 3

  It was dark. She could smell the dirt and water and the acrid smell of something on fire. Everything was muted, although people were moving in front of her in the trench, dirt raining down on them from nearby explosions, laser rounds stinging the air as they volleyed out from battle rifles and entrenched artillery. She saw Chang wave a platoon forward over the edge of the trench. He turned and yelled to her, pointing forward, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying. She tried to move towards him, but a loud buzzing was drowning out everything else. She turned to see what it was, blinded by a light that was getting brighter and brighter…

  She sat up fast, drawing a blaster from a holster hung on the side of her bunk, and blinked. The buzzing noise was the comms mic ringing her room. She stood up and punched the button, rubbing her eyes.

  “Yeah.”

  “Captain, we’re coming up on Arias. Should be there in about ten.”

  “Thanks, Duv. I’ll be up in a minute.”

  Reilly walked two steps over to a metal mirror and studied her reflection, then leaned down to rinse her face and neck from a small basin. The sink had a recycling system that allowed them to continuously reuse water on board the ship after passing it through a reverse osmosis unit and UV unit to remove any impurities. The toilets on board were waterless and compacted the waste into small squares that could be discharged into space or when entering the atmosphere for burn up. On some planets, they could also be sold for fuel. A small wardrobe held a few items of clothing, and a wall rack held the more prominent collection of weapons and tactical gear in her inventory. Reilly had a couple pieces of cheap art on the wall, an Asian-themed print with dragons and an impressionistic painting of a field with orange flowers. An old dart board, a wine label, and some beer cards were tacked to the wall, along with some military patches and a worn photo of a rugged man in fatigues. A workbench which doubled as a desk was on the third wall under the porthole and held a small complement of books, a holo computer screen, some tools, and an old CD player she had salvaged from a trader’s stand for half a credit. The top bunk was full of gear and some boxed rations, while the bottom was set up military-style with a gray wool blanket and white sheets and a reading light complemented by a holster for her blaster. A patchwork pillow and quilt stood out as the only unmilitary items on the bunk. Two more worn photos adorned the wall of the bottom bunk, showing a much younger Reilly and a young man proudly standing next to her in military gear and then a hazy group shot of a family. Reilly finished up at the sink and hung the towel off the end of the bunk as she grabbed her holster and headed up to the main deck.

  She stepped through the hatch just in time to see Arias fill the bridge window with its swirling blue-gray-and-brown pattern. The ship bounced a bit as they descended through the atmosphere to the launch pads nearest Welch’s home and then settled onto the platform with a sigh as the engines spun down.

  “All right. She’s moored. Welcome to Arias!” Duv locked the yoke in place, hit a few switches on the power down, and then activated the proximity detectors. “Area around the ship is clear,” he reported. “Have fun kicking Welch’s ass!”

  Reilly punched the comms mic again. “Ty, Chang. Meet me in the cargo bay in five and ready to roll.”

  “Already there. You want Maude or we walking this time?” Ty asked.

  “We walk. I don’t want to spook Welch in case he figured we wouldn’t be coming back.”

  She hung up and turned to Duv. “I need you to take a look at that tracker and see if you can get it off without blowing up my ship. Or maybe Skeeter can work one of his hacks on it. I don’t care how you do it, but I want it off sooner than later. And be careful.”

  Duv gave his most charming grin. “That’s my middle name. Besides, you know me. When do I ever do anything dangerous?”

  Reilly looked at him as she went back to the hatch. “And keep the motor running.”

  At that, Duv looked back. “Expecting trouble, Captain?”

  “After Vervian, I’m not sure what to expect. Stay sharp, take a weapon with you, and don’t let Seth too far off the ship. We’ll be back soon, hopefully with a good payout and some plans for some R-and-R.”

  With that, she ducked out through the hatch and followed the corridor along to the catwalks and down to the cargo bay. Ty and Chang were waiting, Chang standing silent and still while Ty continued to adjust gear, check his weapons, and pace. They both turned towards her as she entered the bay.

  “Alright gents, this isn’t your first rodeo. While I’m not expecting any issues, let’s just pretend y’all are a couple of Boy Scouts today.” Reilly moved towards the door and stepped out onto the platform.

  “Huh?” said Ty.

  “Always be prepared? The Boy Scout motto?” Chang sighed. “Shoulda figured you weren’t a scout.”

  “Why’s that?” Ty said as they followed Reilly out.

  “Well, let’s see. A Scout is courteous, kind, friendly, cheerful, thrifty, clean, helpful…”

  “I’m thrifty! I always get two-for-one drinks, and I get the free buffet at the Flyers Club. And I’m friendly to the ladies and helpful, I’m helpful too! Last time we were worldside, remember that one gal, her strap broke on her dress and I went over to help her out with that…I think her name was Mitzi or Ritzi or something…”

  “You just made my case.”

  “And how would you know? You’re no Boy Scout!”

  “Yes, I am. I made Eagle Scout in just three years on Raslon when I was a kid. Had to keep up the family tradition my great-uncle started.”

  They were walking through a small stretch of forest now, leading up to Welch’s home. Reilly gave them both a quick glare to silence them and then continued moving forward up the stone path towards the house.

  “Well, I still don’t see how those things don’t fit with the motto. I’ll give you the cheerful bit, ’cause that just ain’t me,” Ty continued in a soft voice, “but I’m definitely clean, you can’t argue that one.”

  Chang leaned in, gave a sniff, then shook his head and turned back to follow Reilly.

  Ty looked at him in disbelief, and then, just to be sure, raised an arm and took a sniff himself. He made a face, shrugged, and followed the other two across a small lawn to the house. They paused as they stepped onto the back patio. The back doors were open to the fresh air, and a breeze was blowing the long drapes around the edges of the doors. Ty patrolled down the left side of the patio while Chang took the right and then returned to Reilly to give the all-clear. She nodded, and they all went through the door into a very modern living space which appeared empty. Chang and Ty went down the hall towards the rest of the house, while Reilly picked up a ledger left open on the desk. Its coding was a match to the ones they had recovered from the Vervian job.

  Chang and Ty cleared several more rooms until they came to a locked door.

  “Looks like we’ll have to break it in,” Ty said.

  “Good idea. I’ll cover you.”

  “Why do I always have to break them in?”

  “Well, because you have the Scout traits of obedience and loyalty, and because I outrank you. Think of it as your good deed for the day.”

  “Good deed my ass.” Ty pushed off from the wall and rammed the door hard with his shoulder. The lock held briefly and then fell inward with the rest of the door. Ty felt his feet slip on the hard floor as he tried to stop himself from falling forward. His rifle sling caught on the edge of the caved-in door, dragging him back down to his knees. He cursed and pulled the sling free, pushing up from the floor with both hands. His hands felt slick, and when he turned them over, the palms were red. He looked around at the room and stepped back, bringing his gun up unconsciously.

  Chang keyed up his mic from the hall. “Captain, you’d better see this.”

  —————

  Duv slung a battle rifle over his shoulder and carried a tool box in his other hand. Behind him, Skeeter followed
with a set of welding tools and some electronic gear. They headed around to the right side of the ship and the transmitter. Skeeter looked around warily. Even with Duv nearby, he still felt uneasy planetside. Duv examined the transmitter at a distance, then placed his toolbox on the ground.

  “Well, there’s a detonator alright, but it looks like a simple circuit. Shouldn’t take too long to defuse. It looks like the transmitter has a laser weld on it, though, so we’ll need to cut it off and patch the hull. That will take a bit longer, or we might want to wait until we hit our next stop to cut it loose.”

  Duv turned to see if Skeeter was paying attention. When he saw he wasn’t, he walked over and pulled the kid back over from watching the woods, then handed him a strange glowing device that looked like a small arch.

  “What’s this for?”

  “You’re going to defuse the bomb.”

  “I am?”

  “Yup. But I need you to focus on what I’m telling you so no one gets hurt. Alright, so take this and set one end here, where the detonator battery is. Now set the other end here on the hull in this sticky goop and wire it up.” He pointed to some clear glop he had applied to the hull, then handed Skeeter a small device that linked into the cables. “This tells you the frequencies that will set off the detonator, how much power the battery has left, and how the circuit works. So click here, and you see the link go red, right? Now hit this button, and…”

  There was a quick sizzle, and the device spewed out some smoke. Skeeter jumped and then looked at the handheld, which showed the device as neutralized.

  “Cool! So I can use this with any detonators?”

  “Nope, just on the simple ones that use basic circuitry or frequencies. More complex ones may have secondary detonators, passive detection systems, or encrypted keys that require more sophisticated equipment. Not too bad for diffusing your first bomb, though!”

  Skeeter grinned and moved to pull the detonator loose from the tracking device. Suddenly, there was a rising roar and the ground trembled. They both looked up to see two well-armed spacecraft break through the atmosphere and start skimming the tree line south of them. It only took Duv a minute to realize what they were doing.

  He turned to Skeeter. “Get on the ship now and get to the bridge. Fire her up so she’s not cold, but keep it so the signature’s still low enough to not draw too much attention. Move!”

  Skeeter was already running. He hit the ramp and ditched the tools, headed for the bridge. Duv cursed. Being away from the ISUs had allowed him to slack, and now they were going to pay for it. He had forgotten about checking for a burst transmission trigger. Deactivating the detonator must have tripped it providing a general location for the tracking ships to start looking for them. Duv grabbed the lightweight welder and dropped some goggles on as he sparked it to life. He turned the torch on the edge of the tracker and began cutting away the hull underneath. At the same time, he clicked his earpiece in place and flipped the mic on. “Captain, we’ve been had!”

  —————

  Reilly’s first sight as she came down the hall was of Ty backing out of a room half covered in blood. She automatically drew her weapons to cover him and Chang, but Chang shook his head and motioned towards the door instead. The view inside was gruesome. The sterile white walls were now splattered with red, spiraling out from a center point in the middle of the room where what was left of Errat Welch hung. Someone or something had thoroughly tortured him over a period of several hours before they finally slit his throat. She stepped into the room gingerly, so she didn’t slip on the blood pooled on the floor, and looked around. Whoever had done this had jerry-rigged the ropes using the large ceiling fan and some furniture to balance out Welch’s weight. The damage was very precise, so either a machine or an experienced interrogator with modern tools. Other than that, the house was untouched.

  “Well so much for getting Welch to fill us in. Looks like we’re going to have to figure this one out on our own.” She paced the room, thinking. “Welch wasn’t deep in the market, didn’t have a record even. And he sure didn’t seem like a man living on the edge, no weapons, no real security.” She jabbed at the useless security system box on the wall with her finger.

  Ty tried to wipe his hands off on his partially blood-soaked pants. “So I guess this means we’re not getting paid, huh? I think Gunny’s right—mucho malo suerte on this one.” When he realized his pants were already soaked, he looked around, then grabbed the corner of a large ornamental rug hanging on the wall and wiped off on it instead.

  “Man lost his horse, so is his luck bad?” Chang shook his head. “I think this is something else, much bigger than what Welch knew or what we know. And I am pretty sure it’s not good.”

  “I could’ve told you that, Confucius!” Ty finished with the rug and looked around uneasily. “I don’t know about you all, but this place is starting to creep me out—I never did like dead people much.”

  “Let’s get back to the ship. I don’t want to be here when the next person decides to come looking in on Welch and finds him like this.” Reilly headed down the hall.

  Ty leaned in towards Chang as they followed. “Is that what they call it nowadays? Losing your horse? Gaww!” He made a face and shuddered.

  Chang rolled his eyes. “See? Definitely not a Scout—you are too irreverent!”

  Ty started to retort as they went by the hallway window but then grabbed Chang and pushed him up against the wall.

  “Are you crazy? You take things too personal…”

  “Shut up! We’re not alone,” Ty whispered urgently.

  “Hey man. I’m not that kinda guy,” Chang wisecracked back.

  Ty snorted in frustration and gestured at the window. Chang leaned in towards the sill and peeked one eye around to look outside. In the woods at the back edge of the house were several men in black fatigues. They sported lightweight body armor and blasters with full headgear, the kind that protects but also provides a heads-up display of your environment. He sighed. Bad news.

  They glanced down the hall at Reilly. She had already loaded the ledger in her pack when she turned and saw them crouched in the hallway. She moved towards the rear door to take a look when their earpieces came on.

  “Captain, we’ve been had!” she heard Duv say as she cautiously peered out the window.

  “Duv, yeah, we know. Welch is dead and we have some body snatchers here outside the house. What’s your status?”

  “We have tracking ships, two of them, entered the area about five minutes ago. I screwed up. There was a burst transmission on the detonator that tripped when we defused it.”

  Reilly swore. “Forget it. Did you get the tracker off the ship?”

  “I’m doing it now, but I had to cut through the hull. I’m only going to have time for a hasty patch. Not sure what that’s going to mean if we need to be turning and burning to get off-world or how well it’s going to hold up once we do.”

  Reilly could see movement just beyond the tree line, something brown and white…cows! Welch had been going on about these stupid cows he had gone and bought to raise for his mother or some such. The things roamed freely around the property since there were no real predators. She could hear the bell on the lead cow as it moved slowly through the woods towards the back field, towards her ship.

  “Duv, get it done and then get ready. We may be coming in hot, but we’re coming.” She clicked off the mic and motioned for Ty and Chang to join her by the far windows. The men outside were holding position and remained motionless, probably waiting for them to exit the main doors. The porch was a full wraparound with views of the woods and one of the field heading down to a small brook. She slowly raised the window and then carefully climbed out onto the porch. Chang and Ty followed quietly. Once they were all there, she pointed to the cows, and they quickly caught on and moved into the herd as it passed through the woods, staying on the side farthest away from the snatchers. Reilly grabbed the lead cow’s bell
collar and, walking stooped behind it, pulled it slightly towards the ship. The cow eyeballed her thoughtfully and then obeyed. Chang walked in step with another cow almost as if he were stuck to its side. Ty crouched in the middle of a small clump of cows towards the back of the herd. They moved into the field, and suddenly the lead cow decided to jog. Reilly hung onto the bell collar as tight as she dared, still pointing the lead cow towards the ship and trying to slow it down, too. The cow had other ideas. Annoyed by the extra weight pulling on its collar, it suddenly stopped, tossing its head and trying to pull out of Reilly’s grasp.

  “Damn cow! Move!” she hissed at it.

  Behind them, a sudden crack was heard. Desensitizers, AKA idiot grenades, had been tossed through the window. The team had tired of waiting them out and decided to go in. At the crack and pop, the cows panicked. Reilly’s cow took off so fast her arm got caught on its bell collar, so she was forced to run with it a few steps. Chang was still stuck to his cow and out in front, pushing it to keep veering towards the ship and the cow pushing back to go the way the rest of the herd was turning. Ty’s cows took off at the exact moment the team exited the house, leaving him briefly in the open.

  Within seconds, three high-explosive rounds all landed where Ty had been. They’d been spotted. The cows, confronted with deadly force, stampeded in the direction of ship once again. Lasers flew overhead and began picking off the cows towards the back as the team ran, returning fire while dodging livestock. Chang made it to the rear doors first and began providing cover fire for Reilly and Ty. Reilly came charging up the ramp, firing over her shoulder. She hit the doors and her comms mic at the same time. Three confused bovines followed her in and took shelter at the back of the bay, quivering and rolling their eyes.

  “Duv, get ready. As soon as Ty’s on board, we fly.” The engines revved in response.

  Ty was dodging and running. He hit the ground, returned fire, and then ducked behind the next cow, but each time there were fewer and fewer of the animals to mask his position. With only a small group remaining, Ty gave up and began sprinting the last hundred yards towards the ship. The cows that were left immediately adopted him as their new leader and ran with him. Chang and Reilly were providing a steady stream of covering fire and had taken out two of the men when the next enemy stepped into view with a loaded rail gun. Reilly shifted her fire towards the new threat just as he unleashed a purple bolt of energy towards the ship. It was enough to cause him to pull the shot. Instead of a direct hit, the rail gun blasted a crater directly in front of the ramp to the ship’s cargo bay, pushing Reilly and Chang back. Ty and his cows caught the full brunt of the blast. The rear two cows were incinerated on the spot, while Ty and another cow were physically propelled into the bay. Chang jammed the emergency closure button with his rifle butt, snapping the blast doors shut behind them as the ramp was coming up.