“Shouldn’t we blow the wall before we get to it?” Fordix asked with concern.
“We’re not blowing it, we’re going over it,” Jason said, pulling his com unit out. “Lucky, we’re almost there.”
“How can we possibly—” Fordix was cut short as a battlesynth flew up and over the wall, riding his foot repulsors to a gentle landing right in front of them.
“Captain,” he greeted Jason curtly before tossing him and Crusher both a device that looked like a truss in the shape of an “X” with straps hanging down. Without another word, Lucky grabbed Fordix, startling the warrior into speechlessness, and fired his repulsors again, sending the pair streaking over the wall.
“You think these will work?” Crusher asked.
“Eh … fifty-fifty,” Jason said, sliding his arms through the straps hanging from the trusses. “Twingo was in a hurry when he built them.”
“Here goes nothing,” Crusher said. He was holding the “X” apparatus over his head and squeezed the handles. Four ion jets positioned at each end of the four arms ignited and the device shot upwards, taking up the slack on the straps and yanking Crusher straight up with a startled yelp. Jason watched him streak up and over the wall, hopefully to be deposited safely on the other side.
“I hope that wasn’t the only one that actually works,” Jason muttered, raising his own extraction device over his head. One last look around confirmed they hadn’t attracted any attention yet. All total, their rush to, and over, the wall had taken less than two minutes. He squeezed the activation control and was startled as the truss was ripped out of his hands. The jets accelerated until the straps under his armpits yanked him off the ground with enough force to make his hands numb. The jets flung him up over the wall before they automatically angled over to eventually deposit him two hundred meters beyond on the other side.
The jets began to throttle back and he began slowly descending towards a clear landing zone. Just when he thought the extraction was going to go off without a hitch, one of the jets died. The other three put up an admirable fight to compensate and keep his flight stable and level, but they were in a losing battle. Jason began to swing wildly in the straps as his forward speed increased at the same time as his altitude was quickly decreasing.
Jason looked like a pendulum as the remaining three working jets quickly expended their fuel trying to take up the slack of the malfunctioning fourth. When the second jet failed, the remaining two flared brightly for a second before also cutting out. The good news was that he was only ten meters off the ground, but the angle his body was at in relation to the ground meant he didn’t have enough time to try and get his feet under him before impact.
He smashed into the turf chest first, angling his head back to avoid shattering his jaw, and rolled across the turf. The straps holding him to the extraction device thankfully failed and he heard the truss bouncing across the ground near him as he kept his limbs tucked and bled off the rest of the speed he’d carried into his crash landing. When he stopped, he took stock of his body and, shockingly, appeared uninjured save for the expected bruises and abrasions.
He rolled over and sat up, located the now-crumpled jet truss, and climbed slowly to his feet. “That incompetent, short, big-eared, blue-skinned little bastard,” he muttered as he pulled the straps off his arms and grabbed the hissing device. He checked his position and then struck off to the southeast towards the rendezvous point.
Chapter 14
“So you’re sure we’re clear?” Jason asked Kage for the third time that afternoon.
“Yes,” the Veran said patiently. “The wall breach is now thought to be an accident, and Fordix’s disappearance is being investigated with an eye towards the other inmates.”
“I don’t understand how the wall breach could be an accident,” Fordix said. It was their third day in the cramped safe house and nerves were wearing thin.
“There are explosives embedded in the walls of Casguard,” Crusher explained. “They were put there so that nobody could cut through or try a surgical breach without setting off an entire section and likely killing everyone involved in the escape or assault. It wasn’t a publicized fact, for obvious reasons.”
“Interesting. So your battlesynth placed a charge on the wall to set off the explosives as a distraction?” Fordix asked. He seemed unable to grasp the concept of Lucky having a name and an individual identity. After being corrected many times, both Jason and Lucky had given up. Crusher, stuck in the middle, tried to smooth over the insult, but both his friends had been decidedly cold towards his mentor since the escape.
“And Kage has been able to ensure the sensor logs of the prison show a clean yard to the east,” Crusher said. “It’s like we were never even there.”
“Clever,” Fordix said, seemingly uninterested in the details and unimpressed by their success. “So how much longer will we stay here?”
“We will be leaving Galvetor tomorrow night, Master Fordix,” Morakar said. “With the success of the extraction team, our schedule remains unchanged.” Fordix said nothing, just nodded and walked back into the kitchen area.
“Captain,” Mazer said softly next to Jason, “I’m going out to inspect our vehicle one more time. Care to join me?” Jason knew the soft-spoken warrior had no interest in the airtruck parked in the detached shelter behind the house, as Meluuk was responsible for all the mundane details like that. So, there must be something on his mind.
“Sure,” Jason shrugged. “May as well do something useful while we wait.” The pair walked to the rear exit and, after a careful look around, quickly crossed the lawn to the outbuilding. “What’s on your mind?” he asked once they were inside.
“Am I that obvious?” Mazer smiled.
“Not especially,” Jason said. “But I doubted you really wanted to come out here to inspect the vehicle.”
“No,” Mazer said, looking like he was trying to pick his words carefully. “The atmosphere inside the house is stifling. I mean no disrespect, but does it seem to you that Fordix is not all that grateful that he’s been freed from Casguard Prison?”
“No offense taken,” Jason said. “While we’re being completely honest, I’ve not been that impressed with any aspect of Fordix’s behavior or demeanor.”
“Lucky?” Mazer guessed. Jason just nodded.
“While he runs into this sort of discrimination often, it’s never been from someone whose ass he just saved,” Jason said. “But I agree with your line of thinking … he seems very entitled for someone who should be showing nothing but gratitude. Is he in a position of leadership on Restaria?”
“That’s just it,” Mazer said, now much more comfortable talking freely with Jason. “He’s just one of the dozen or so counselors that will guide and advise an Archon as he matures. He has no official rank within the Legions and is more akin to someone like the Caretaker.”
“While I don’t know him at all and I know even less about your culture, I can tell you that Crusher seems to sense something is off about him as well,” Jason said.
“Lord Felex said something to you about this?” Mazer looked skeptical. “Fordix was one of his closest advisers and friends when he was growing up.”
“He didn’t say anything to me, but I can tell he’s uncomfortable and is going out of his way to try and smooth over the tension between Fordix and us,” Jason said. “That in itself is very unusual behavior for him. For some sick reason he usually enjoys interpersonal conflicts.”
“I would not presume to know the Lord Archon as well as you,” Mazer admitted. “I had only seen him from a distance when I was very young. I will trust your judgment on this, however.”
“So,” Jason said, “the million credit question is: do we ignore it as just poor manners, or do we make an extra effort to stay vigilant until we’re all safely back on Restaria?”
“I would say prudence demands we stay extra vigilant even after we get back to Restaria,” Mazer said seriously. “Especially after.”
&nbs
p; “I like the way you think,” Jason said with a smile.
*****
They were all packed into the airtruck, its repulsors humming loudly with such a heavy load, and making their way to an outlying airfield four nights after pulling Fordix out of Casguard Prison. By the time they were ready to leave, the only person still speaking to Fordix was Crusher, for obvious reasons, Morakar, due to his impeccable manners and sense of propriety, and Meluuk, who was subservient to all he met in the warrior caste.
Jason, Mazer, Lucky, and Kage avoided him at all costs; the latter two wouldn’t acknowledge him even when spoken to. It would be a relief to get him back to Restaria and be done with it. Jason also hoped that anything after this would entail a diplomatic solution between Restaria and Galvetor and that Omega Force’s role in the internal conflict would be over. Best case scenario was the Phoenix was wheels-up within the next three or four days. He sighed inwardly … how he wished he actually believed that.
“This airfield routinely services shuttle launches to relieve crowding at Cessell Spaceport,” Meluuk was saying as he drove along. “It’s actually where the wealthier of Galvetor keep their private craft.”
“I remember it from the intel brief,” Jason said gently, not wanting to throw a wet blanket on his enthusiasm. “So between you and Kage we’re certain that they aren’t looking for Fordix?”
“Quite certain, Captain Burke,” Meluuk said. “The wall was quickly deemed to be a mishap with aging explosives housed within the wall. In fact, there’s talk now of tearing down the rest of the wall and replacing it with something less prone to that sort of thing. The explosion seemed to be the big story and Master Fordix’s disappearance is being speculated as criminal cartel activity inside Casguard Prison. The official line is that they took advantage of the confusion in the explosion to get rid of him and were able to somehow dispose of the body.”
“That doesn’t really make any sense,” Kage said. “I had thought it a bit of misinformation being let out into the public, but every internal memo and communication I was able to get a hold of backed up the official story.”
“Why are they settling on an answer with so many obvious holes in it?” Jason asked. “Like how they got out of their cell and into Fordix’s in the first place, or how they got the body out. There are dozens of reasons that theory doesn’t hold water.”
“It’s the gelten character, Captain,” Fordix said from one of the rear seats. “They don’t want to know what actually happened. They don’t want an unsolvable mystery and they don’t want to admit to their superiors that they lost such a high-value prisoner without so much as an idea as to where he went.
“It’s just one more indicator of the rot at the core of this world. Millions of geltens, all consumed with their own self-interests and unwilling to sacrifice anything for the benefit of all. How is it that Restaria has managed to construct such a precise and focused society with over a million warriors but Galvetor continues to decline further and further when this place has the potential to be a model society?”
They all fell silent after Fordix’s somewhat bizarre diatribe. The only reaction was for Mazer to elbow Jason slightly in the side. He gave a slow, shallow nod to indicate that he, too, found the entire thing to be very odd. Even Crusher looked extremely uncomfortable in his seat next to his old mentor.
“Well, whatever the reason, it works in our favor,” Jason said, breaking the logjam of discomfort that had halted the conversation in the vehicle’s cab. “How much longer?”
“Only a few minutes, Captain,” Meluuk said. “You can see a departing shuttle there just above the tree line.”
“Ah,” Jason said as the ion drive of a small transfer shuttle flared and climbed into the night sky. It took another twenty minutes for them to reach the small airfield and then to drive around the perimeter in order to enter through the private, automated entry gate rather than take the risk of going in through the larger gate manned with gelten sentries.
They would be sure to send out a casual patrol when they detected the far gate had been activated, but the vehicle would be stashed long before they reached it and it was unlikely they’d bother grounding any departing shuttles to satisfy a mild curiosity. That had been the thought of everyone when they’d planned out the mission details. Jason knew that the unspoken truth was that no glorified security guard was going to stand in their way during the final moments of the operation. The loss of life so far had been, thankfully, zero … but that could change at any time.
“There’s our hangar,” Meluuk said quietly. “We’ll drive directly inside and be out of sight from any overly curious patrols.”
“Once we’re in, Lucky and I will clear the interior. You remain here with the repulsors running,” Jason said. “Under no circumstance can Crusher or Fordix be caught here on Galvetor.” Jason saw Fordix stiffen in his peripheral vision and knew he didn’t approve of his casual reference to Felex Tezakar by such an undignified pseudonym. He actually got the impression the older warrior was less than happy about Crusher consorting with what he deemed lesser species since his exile.
“Of course, Captain,” Meluuk said respectfully. He and Morakar had come to hold the human in high esteem after the prison break had gone off more smoothly than anyone could have dared hope. Crusher’s tales of Omega Force’s adventures may have helped some too. While those two were able to accept him and acknowledge his worthiness, Mazer embraced Jason as a friend with enthusiasm. For his part, Jason had to admit he enjoyed the company of the younger warrior, though he was a bit on the high-strung side. Fordix, however, seemed to view Lucky, Kage, and him as useful tools and little more. Still … it could be worse.
The airtruck pulled into the hangar without challenge and the high cargo door closed silently behind it. When the lights came up in the building, Jason was surprised to see their ride. It wasn’t one of the boxy, underpowered rock jumpers he’d seen flitting around since arriving in the Galvetic System. This was a large, powerful combat shuttle complete with shields, an impressive arsenal, and a slip-drive.
“Subtle,” he said.
“We felt that it would be best to be ready for anything at this stage in the operation, Captain,” Morakar said.
“I don’t disagree,” Jason said. “But you may have gone too far the other way. That’s an Eshquarian combat shuttle, and a fairly new model used by their intelligence service, if I’m not mistaken. This beast lifting off from here won’t arouse any suspicion?”
“We’ve taken that into account,” Morakar said. “It will draw no more attention than any other light craft capable of interstellar flight.”
“If you say so,” Jason shrugged. “Lucky, let’s get to it.” The pair quickly exited the airtruck and each began to sweep the interior of the hangar in opposite directions, Lucky with his sensors at maximum acuity and Jason now armed with a powerful plasma rifle.
It took less than five minutes to verify the hangar was empty and another five to climb over the shuttle and ensure it hadn’t been tampered with. Jason boarded the fierce-looking craft and began the pre-flight sequence while Lucky went back to retrieve their charges. At his signal, Meluuk, Kage, and the four Galvetic warriors hurried from the airtruck to the shuttle, quickly finding their seats.
Jason revised his opinion of the craft as he continued down his checklist. It wasn’t just an impressively powerful bit of military hardware; the damn thing was practically brand new. The elapsed time indicated on the powerplant and the engines was negligible, and the slip-drive had only performed six jumps. He knew at least two of those would have been done by the manufacturer. The ship had to be incredibly expensive and didn’t fit into the ragtag image the Order had tried to present when Jason first arrived.
“The airtruck will be picked up by someone else,” Meluuk told him. “The person has no knowledge of who we are or what we’re doing and there is nothing to connect us to the incident at Casguard.”
“Very good,” Jason said. “Well done, Melu
uk. Could you send Mazer up to the flightdeck when you go back there?’’
“At once, Captain,” the gelten said before walking back down the short flight of steps off the flightdeck and into the main cargo area. It was a few moments before the young warrior’s head leaned forward over the center pedestal between the two flightcrew seats.
“You summoned me, my Captain?” Mazer said with a grin.
“Funny,” Jason said. “Let me ask you something … does this seem like a piece of equipment your guys could afford? And if you had a brand new combat shuttle, why were you, your brother, and Connimon skulking around Colton Hub and bumming rides from pirates? You could have easily tracked us down with this thing if you knew where to look.”
Mazer’s expression grew serious and he looked over his shoulder back towards the cargo area. “These are questions I’m asking myself, Jason,” he said quietly. “Things are making less and less sense the further we go.”
“Could you ask Morakar?” Jason could see the warrior squirm slightly before answering.
“It’s not likely he’d know anything, but that’s not the issue,” Mazer said. “He’s a true believer. He would never question the motivations or methods of the Praetores, and if he caught wind that things aren’t what they appear, he may question those things aggressively. I don’t think any of Morakar’s normal reactions will help us here.”
“I’ll trust your judgment on that,” Jason said. “Let’s just all keep our eyes open.”
“Who do you want made aware of your suspicions?” Mazer asked.
Omega Force 5: Return of the Archon Page 13