by M. D. Cooper
Trist crossed her arms. “And I want my mods upgraded. I want a real eye with all of the extra performance and I want a normal-looking hand. Everything state of the art.”
Tanis leaned back and took a sip of her coffee. Stuff tasted like bile. “How much of you is still human?”
“Fifty-fifty, depending on what you count my new secret ingredient as,” Trist said. “Sue would, of course, like her specs upgraded as well. I’ve got the full requirements in a file that I’m sending you.”
Tanis received it and looked it over. It was quite the request, though honestly not even worth mentioning in the grand scope of the Intrepid’s construction, or even the cost of her more basic security enhancements.
“I’ll have to discuss your addition to the roster with the colony leaders. As for the mods, I’ll schedule the surgeries as a show of good faith.”
Trist all but beamed. “I’ll give you the testimony of a lifetime.”
“Just stick to the truth.” Tanis sighed.
CHAPTER 23
STELLAR DATE: 3227284 / 11.27.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: GSS Intrepid, Mars Outer Shipyards (MOS) REGION: Mars Protectorate, Sol Space Federation
“I don’t know how much I like this plan.” Trist fidgeted. “I sort of get the feeling that I’m bait.”
“That would be because you are bait,” Tanis replied. “However, you’ll be very safe bait, especially since you are just their secondary target. They’ll be jumping at the chance to get at me with the minimal protection I’ll have on Mars 1.”
“Yay, so I’ll be secondary bait right next to the primary bait.” Trist sighed. “How did I get myself mixed up in this?”
“I believe it was by leading a life of crime and wrongdoing,” Joe’s tone was caustic.
Trist turned on him. “Yeah, you try growing up on the lower Callisto rings. Either you dish shit out, or you eat it. I chose not to do the eating.”
“She does have a point, sirs,” Williams said. “I’ve been to Callisto; it’s nice up top, the part most tourists and visitors see, but down below it’s a real heap—the classic scenario of the poor maintaining the system for the rich. They could probably run it cheaper with bots, but why fix what they can ignore?”
“Be that as it may.” Tanis checked over her equipment one more time. “It doesn’t change the fact that our course of action is fixed. We’re going to Mars 1 to give our depositions. We’ve got our route covered and while I expect that they’ll attack before we make our destination I don’t think it will be anything a few squads of Marines can’t handle. Mark my words, by the end of this day we’ll have Trent.”
Trist’s expression grew dark and Joe, Williams and Tanis all got a glimpse of a very different woman than the one she had seen recovering in medical.
“Any chance I can get a few minutes alone with him?”
“Probably not,” Tanis replied. “Though for what it’s worth, I echo your sentiment.”
Joe’s expression softened placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s not an easy road you have ahead of you.”
Trist’s expression flashed confusion and mistrust. “I was under the impression that you don’t think I’m all that trustworthy.”
“The jury’s still out on that as far as I’m concerned, but I do know what it’s like to literally have to face your demons,” Joe said. “Just keep a clear head and don’t get in the way.”
Trist opened her mouth to give a retort, but Williams used a Marine sergeant look on her and she shut up.
Tanis didn’t quite know why, but she found herself liking Trist more than she would have expected, and also a bit annoyed with Joe for his attitude toward her. Being in MICI had made her world mostly full of shades of grey. She sometimes forgot that his was likely much more black and white.
No time to think about that now, she put her analysis of Joe aside and got back to the task at hand. “Enough chatting, let’s get this show on the road.”
………………………….
Williams liked Major Richards, which is why he had assigned himself to the team which was her escort detail. One/one had also volunteered to be the escorting fireteam—apparently they had taken a liking to the major as well. He hadn’t often witnessed an officer impressing the enlisted so quickly; especially a Micky officer.
In his estimation it was a shame that she would be shipping out on the Intrepid. The TSF needed more people like her. Even her number two, Commander Evans, wasn’t a bad sort. He certainly had proven his bars in piloting that freighter.
However, Williams did have some misgivings about this venture. The major was walking into an obvious trap—planning to spring it in fact. The last time she deliberately sprung a trap she had ended up on a dock surrounded by nearly a hundred mercs all gunning for her.
His thought process caused him to recheck the route and ensure that all teams were in position. The rest of his platoon would be making a show of patrolling certain areas on the ring. The Mars 1 authorities had raised quite the stink when they caught wind of this venture, but they were brought to heel by the TSF. Preliminary Micky reports indicated M1 security would have their people out in force on the ring as well. Several pundits on the nets were postulating that M1 security didn’t want to garner the reputation the MOS had for shoddy security—or they wanted all the glory for themselves.
Probably both.
Looking at the intel that was coming in from the tactical net, Williams could see the positions Mars 1’s security had taken up; some were decent and others looked poor to say the least. Hopefully they wouldn’t get in the way too much. In his experience killing local cops always made the brass grumpy.
The team left the Intrepid and crossed the dock with no trouble. From there several tubes and a maglev took them to the connector elevator that ran down to the MCEE and then Mars 1. They secured a car and the eight of them rode down in silence, the only movement being the weapon ready checks which everyone except Trist made periodically.
The Mars 1 ring generated its gravity from centripetal force as it rotated around the planet at the geosynchronous orbital distance. As a result the side facing the planet was “up” and the side facing out into space was “down.” The ring’s top level sported a full ecosystem with hills, lakes, even a few oceans. It was larger than the all of Earth’s continents combined and it was also the location of the team’s ultimate destination: the federal courthouses.
Far below, at the lowest level of the Mars 1 ring, the elevator lock cycled open. After sending out probes, the team debarked in careful formation.
Jansen and Lang were in the lead, followed by Williams and Joe, then Tanis and Trist. Cassar and Murphy brought up the rear. The hard stares the Marines were casting cleared a path faster than the presence of their high-powered pulse rifles. Because the ring was not a pressurized system like a standard station, each member also carried a small slug thrower.
In the corridors the team moved through, the twenty-fourth century architecture was nearly something to stop and marvel at. The designers of the ring had added a twist of art deco to their creation. Unlike most stations, which were more utilitarian or very high-tech flashy, Mars 1 was built with an element of garishness. The sweeping archways and overt embellishments of every doorway drew the eye and amazed with the boundless attention to detail.
After clearing security, a process that simply involved a quick check of their ID’s and extensive scowling by the Marines, they entered a maglev station that took them seven thousand miles east around the ring.
“So far so good,
” Joe murmured.
“Oh great…you had to say that,” Jansen said. “Er…sir.”
“Relax, Marine.” Williams scowled. “This won’t be anything we can’t handle, nothing worse than what we’ve seen before.”
“Aye Staff,” Jansen replied, taking a deep breath. “It’s the lack of activity…I wish they’d just attack already.”
“Don’t worry,” Tanis said. “You’ll get your wish. We’ve got to change trains ahead and I anticipate that to be their first probable ambush point. When we debark, stick close to the wall on the right and keep your eyes peeled. When we round the first corner, we may encounter some company.”
“You do have people there, right?” Trist asked Tanis. “And I really wish you’d give me a gun.”
“Yes. No.”
“She’d make a good sergeant,” Cassar said.
Williams smiled and Tanis took it as a compliment. Everyone rechecked their weapons as the maglev began to slow; sidearms were loosened in holsters and extra clips were moved into readily accessible positions.
The station was decidedly upscale with a broad atrium ringed by catwalks, a lavish fountain and a small food court on the far side. It looked empty, strange at this time of day, though nothing was flagged as hostile on the Marine’s systems.
“Let’s do this,” Tanis said and the escort began to move off the train.
Directly into a storm of particle beams.
“Fall back,” Williams shouted at Jansen and Lang who were out front while everyone else took protective positions inside the train. The two Marines jumped backwards and Joe and Williams pulled the doors shut.
“Injuries?” Williams called out.
“No sir, armor appears to have absorbed it all,” Lang said. Jansen reported the same.
An explosion rocked the car and Tanis had a sinking feeling.
“Two on that catwalk above.” Williams called out. “Cassar, Murphy, get suppressing fire on those bastards. I see muzzle flash coming from that food stand at ten o’clock. Jansen, you and Lang move down one car and see if you can’t flank them. I’ll hold their attention.”
“Two more at three o’clock from around the fountain.” Tanis relayed information from Angela’s scan. “One/two is also advancing from where we thought the ambush would be, but they’re under fire as well.”
“Sounds like a party.” Joe took aim at the fountain, blowing off bits and pieces in an attempt to decrease its cover.
“Someone is not going to be happy that you are chewing apart their art.” Cassar said.
“What they get for putting a fountain in a train station.” Williams snorted.
“Time for me to use my new toy.” Tanis began to pull her light armor off. Underneath she wore the glossy black shimmersuit she had appropriated from the assassin, Kris. She issued the command and the suit flowed up over her head completely covering her.
“I feel like I’m suffocating every time it does that,” Tanis said.
“Good look on you though, sir.” Joe grinned from where he was taking cover.
Tanis slid two long blades into the covered sheaths on her arms and with a silent command to the suit, faded from view.
“I’m going right to take out the guys behind the fountain. Concentrate your fire on the left side; your scan can’t see me and I won’t show on combat net—don’t want to give off a signal.”
“Aye, sir,” Williams said and made sure all the Marines knew what to do.
Carefully slipping over the jagged edges of glass in the train car’s shattered windows, Tanis cursed softly, wishing that the stealth suit provided some amount of actual safety. Even though she was invisible, the notion of being effectively without protection in a firefight was unnerving.
A scream came from the catwalk and one of the attackers toppled over the railing, courtesy of Cassar’s heavy repeater. Tanis caught sight of the heavily armored man as he crashed to the ground. It was similar armor to what the attackers had on the night of the VIP party, only a few revisions newer. Specs showed few weak points and Tanis would have to make the best of them.
Slipping around the fountain she saw four attackers, not two. This would be a bit more challenging than she first thought. Carefully observing them, she planned out her moves.
An initial kick to the back of the man on the left would send him sprawling out into the open, where with luck Joe or Williams would finish him off. A rather spirited woman was cursing loudly as she tried to place her shots through the shattered windows of the train car. The other two women were calmer, and consequently more precise in their shooting.
Having worked out the best moves, Tanis took a running jump and slammed her feet into the man’s back. Sure enough, he slid out from behind the cover. Without looking to see if he had been targeted by the Marines, Tanis glanced at the two more controlled women. One had already noticed her compatriot being struck and was looking frantically for the perpetrator. Tanis stepped past her, slid a blade out from her forearm and sliced the throat of the third, more vocal, woman.
Now both of the remaining two were alert, and the screams to her right told Tanis the Marines had taken out the man.
The two women started firing around themselves wildly. Just barely avoiding being hit, Tanis stepped between them. Quickly sliding out the other blade, she reached out and slit both of their throats at once.
Blood fountained across her and she went from being invisible to being the red sticky outline of a person. A cry rang out from the catwalk and shots rained down around her. Grabbing one of the rifles on the ground, Tanis dove for cover in the fountain, the action having the dual purpose of washing the blood from her and giving her some protection.
The red tint left her vision and she peered around the splashing water trying to get the man overhead within her sights. As it turned out she didn’t need to since when he leaned over to get a bead on her someone else filled him full of holes.
Another few shots rang out and a scream came from Jansen’s target, followed by a gun being thrown over the counter and a cry of surrender. Tanis, invisible again, stepped quietly over to the concession stand only to see the final attacker hiding under a candy machine of some sort, a rifle trained on the opening. The weapon he had tossed over the counter must have been that of his dead companion.
Tanis raised her arm and flung a blade at him attempting to hit the creases on his armor’s neck. She missed and it bounced off, clattering to the deck. He spun and started shooting wildly in her direction, forcing Tanis to hit the deck.
“Surrender for real or we toss a grenade in there to do the job for you.” Williams called out.
“You wouldn’t,” the man replied. “Station would throw a fit.”
“I’m a Marine staff sergeant. Do you really think that I give a monkey’s ass what this station thinks? You’ve got five seconds.”
The man didn’t even think about it for two. He was out and on the ground so fast, he nearly landed on Tanis. Williams was securing him when one/two arrived, looking worn, but triumphant.
“Heard you guys needed a hand,” Corporal Taylor said.
“We did,” Jansen said. “What took you so long?”
“Just ran into a few folks who wanted to turn us into sponges.” Taylor grinned. “We showed them how that goes when they try to take on Marines.”
The fireteam gave an “Oo Rah” to that and Tanis couldn’t help but grin. She walked back to the train to retrieve her armor and weapons.
“Good work,” Williams commented. “Make sure all these folks are dead or secure and wait for station security to arrive. We’ll be rolling out as soon as the major’s ready.”
“They’re actually right behind
us,” Taylor said and turned around. “You guys can come through, looks like everything’s taken care of here too. Good thing you were around to not help us.”
“We came as fast as we could,” the man in the lead said. His shoulder patches identified him as a lieutenant in the MSF. “We’ll take over this scene, but we’ll need statements.”
“Those can wait.” Tanis stepped from the train car, once again clothed and in her armor. Trist was in her wake casting uneasy glances at the large body of police officers. At least thirty of them had streamed into the atrium.
“Major Richards?” the MSF lieutenant asked.
“Yes…” She waited for him to identify himself.
“Lieutenant Folsom. I’m going to have to ask you and your forces to lay down your weapons and surrender to us.”
Tanis wasn’t certain she’d heard the man correctly. “You want us to what?”
The Marines had snapped into action the moment Folsom spoke. Raising their weapons they began to ease into positions to cover one another.
“By the authority vested in me by the Mars Protectorate, I am placing you under arrest on the charge of harboring a known terrorist.”
“What known terrorist would that be?” Tanis asked.
“The woman with you: Trist. She is wanted by the Jovian government.”
“Last I heard, we weren’t in Jovian space,” Joe said. “Why don’t you boys pack up and head out before we place you under arrest for interfering in the prosecution of a federal case.”
Tanis saw that Cassar had reached a position offering decent cover. He slowly eased to a knee, switching his weapon to full auto. He had one eye on Williams and the other on the MSF squad. One word and he would have at least ten of them down and out of the fight. Tanis assessed the other Marine’s positions through her recon probes while Angela furiously queried Mars 1 databases, trying to find the origin of Folsom’s orders.