AMP Private War

by Stephen Arseneault

“I had thoughts at one point of hiring out my services to take them on off-world hunting adventures. It was one of those great ideas that you have that you never follow through on. These guys Sir, they would probably pay for and consider this an adventure. They are as tough as they come too. I don’t know how many times I thought I was gonna get slapped on the back and lose a lung from it. Just about all of them are muscle heads Sir, hard core muscle heads.”

  A week later we were back on the Grid looking to enlist the members of the Gray Ghouls. Their senior officer Colonel Tom Harper had a square chin, high cheekbones and wide-set steel-blue eyes. His broad head sat atop a neck of equal thickness. His wide shoulders dropped down to 20 inch biceps and ended with fists that looked like hammers. His handshake felt like a vice and his voice was deep and solid.

  “So Jeb, what’s this rumor I hear about you needing some help? Someone giving you trouble son? Just say the word and the Ghouls will handle it for you.”

  The Colonel pointed to the skull with fangs that covered the front of his t-shirt. “Just say the word and I’ll rip out somebody’s spine and beat them with it! Hahahaha!”

  Jeb took half a step back due to the intimidation factor. “No Sir, it’s not any trouble like that. It is something that I think you will be very interested to hear though. And I’m sure I can count on you and the Ghouls to be discrete… Sir. Mr. Bumbalee will fill you in.”

  The Colonel looked at me with a mean snarl. “Bumbalee? What kind of a name is that? Malcom-5? Hahahaha!”

  I managed to not flinch as he stared at me for several seconds. He continued, “I’m sorry son, just funnin’ with yah! Now what is it we can do for you?”

  The Colonel took a bite out of an Omega root as he continued to stare me down. Omega root was a foul habit that many in the Grid Marines picked up when on off-Grid duty. It was one of those rights of passage that eventually became habit. The green stains around the edges of their teeth and the foul breath were only two of its consequences, a heightened edginess was another.

  The Colonel chewed on the root as he grinned. I felt as if his breath was beginning to melt the hairs of my nostrils. He then turned and spit a green wad of Omega root down onto the pant leg of the Marine standing next to him. The Sergeant didn’t say a word. I glanced around the room and saw the green stains on a third of the pant legs in the room. It was truly a filthy habit.

  I cleared my throat before I spoke. “Colonel Harper. I’m sure you know that we are close to another Milgari war Sir. And I’m sure it angers you that the politicians on the Grid seem to be oblivious. Some are even calling for a truce and a pact to become part of the Milgari Empire. All of which you know will not happen.”

  The Colonel’s face began to turn red as he spoke. He began looking at his hand as he opened and closed his iron fist. “Don’t get me started on those tools. Every time I think about the idiots that run this place it makes me want to squeeze the dumb-ass out of their pointy little heads. It’s a constant battle with them for us Vet’s to get care for our service injuries.”

  “Jones over there has a re-cast right forearm and hand that clinches up whenever an ion generator kicks on. He’s always in fear that it’s going to happen when he’s in the middle of taking a piss.”

  The colonel went silent with a stern look on his face for several seconds. “Hahahaha! I love telling that one. Never gets old!”

  I pursed my lips and then began to speak again. “Colonel, I’ll get right to the point. How would you…” I pointed around the room. “and the Ghouls, like to kick some Milgari ass?”

  The Colonel began to grin. “And you would be doing it while using Jeb’s guns.” The Colonel’s expression turned to a hideous, evil smile.

  “Son, if you can put one of those shotguns in my hand and a Milgari a couple yards away, you would see a bloodbath like you have never seen before. The first shots would be to blow off those feral glands that they foul up the air with and the rest of the damage I would do with my fist. It’s been ten years since I had a tangle with one of those green tri-heads and that has been ten years too long. Just point us at ‘em son and the Ghouls and I will take care of the rest.”

  As I continued to speak I began to get a smile of my own. “Colonel, I can have a transport here in a week if you and your crew are interested in discussing this further. I would like to take you out to our home base and to show you around. All expenses paid of course; along with a generous pay package should you accept the challenge.”

  The Colonel grabbed my shoulder and squeezed to the point of almost breaking my collar bone. “Generous pay? Son, look around this room… these grunts would be willing to pay you! Hahahaha! You bring a ship now that can handle 44 of us, and if you need more, I’m sure I would have no problem rounding them up. And the Ghouls don’t talk son, so everything you’ve said here today won’t leave this room.”

  The Colonel turned around to the others in the room who had been listening patiently. “Boys and girls! Who wants to get some green guts on ‘em!”

  The group erupted in a roar as the adrenaline that had been dormant in their bodies came back to life. The Ghouls were ready to go to war. The Marine blood was once again pumping through their veins.

  A week later the group boarded our transport. We departed under the guise of heading out on a hunting adventure to an uninhabited world in the little traveled Darvic sector. The Colonel, 37 men and seven women stepped aboard our ship with grins on their faces. Fighting was in their future and they were pumped to get at it.

  After landing on Bullwort the Colonel got immediately to work with a training regimen. His team was tough, but they were in need of polish. Many of them had not served together and as such needed time to get to know there fellow Marine. These were the guys and girls that would have your back. You wanted to know they could be trusted. You also wanted to know how they would react during difficult situations.

  The Colonel was hard on his people, but they thrived under his intense methods. In only a few short months the Colonel came to me with a toothpick dangling from the side of his mouth. “Rex, I think the team is ready when you are. We have practiced our storm assault repeatedly and we think we have a good feel for those weapons.”

  “I’ll have to say, I kind of envy those soldiers who originally fought with those things. Nothing like the feeling you get from that recoil and the sound. Adds a whole level to the game and my people like to play! You get us on one of those Milgari frigates and we will take her down and clean her out. These Marines out here, they are ready to pop a few tri-heads!”

  Several Defender pilots had shown disappointment in not being included on the assault team. They were too valuable a commodity to risk and their talents were needed elsewhere. Barg in particular was a bit depressed. “Chief, I know where my skills lie, but I sure would love to follow those grunts in there for that clean-out.”

  “My Father, my Uncle and both of my brothers were deck pounders and it was always something I wanted to do, but just never did. Makes me feel like I’m missing out on my last opportunity to get in there and fight. I’m trained in hand to hand; timing of the last war just kept me out of it. If you find a way Chief, I am willing to go hard core with the rest of them.”

  I thanked Barg for his letting me know and then sent him on the next run of Tantric ore out to the Prassi. Their fleet had rapidly grown to more than 7,000 ships as their hive mentalities were perfectly suited to manufacturing. Gy had also worked up a few tips for them to apply to their forward Tantric armor. It would cut the damage the Milgari could do from straight on, a position they liked to fight from.

  The Colonel was pleased with the Ghouls training progress, it was decided that we would journey out to the Felgar sector to see what the Milgari were up to. At the same time, if we came across one of the Milgari pickets, we would attempt an assault to take her over. The Marines marched aboard our transport and we were soon on our way.

  The Colonel joined us on the Swift for the ride out. “Bumbalee. Hmm. On
e of my passions back home is genealogy. I can’t recall ever coming across that name. It wasn’t picked up off-Grid somewhere was it? It’s unusual.”

  I squirmed as the question was one that I had not planned for and therefore did not have an immediate answer to. The Colonel dug a bit deeper.

  “Well Rex, aside from your name there is something else that has been bothering me; it’s your face. I see something familiar when I look away, but I can’t quite place it when I am looking directly at you.”

  The Colonel reached out and grabbed my chin with his big hand. As he turned my face from side to side he continued. “I’d say you’ve had some work done… by a real pro. When I look a man in the eyes I can get a good feel for what he’s made of. There is something about yours that is throwing that instinct off a bit. Hmm… I can’t quite place it though.”

  As the Colonel released my chin from his firm grasp I rubbed it. “You really are something colonel. George back there is a surgeon, or used to be one anyway. He took me on as a kind of payback when Frig and I did a number on some pirates that had been harassing their world. I’m sure back on the Grid you’ve heard of Don Grange?”

  The Colonel sat forward in his chair and again grabbed my chin. “Well I’ll be. Hmm. He did a magnificent job on you. But I have total recall when it comes to faces and if something doesn’t seem right to me it’s usually because it’s not. Don Grange… you caused quite a stir back there. Had I caught up to you when that all first broke I’d have probably just snapped your neck right there. Spies are like the lowest scum there is.”

  I pulled back from the Colonel’s grasp. “I can assure you Colonel that I was never a spy for the Milgari. But we did destroy some of their weaponry and for that I was branded as a spy, just so the Milgari supporters on the Grid could punish me for throwing a wrench in their plans. The Grid is covered with spies Mr. Harper, spies that have infiltrated almost every level of our government. I hate to say it, but I am sure there are some in our military too.”

  The colonel rocked back in his chair and spit a wad of Omega root on the deck. “I’ve been hearing stories for a while that just… just make my blood boil Don. Our government is a mess right now and the people are just like sheep being led to the slaughter. I just get a burning rage inside when I think about those who would sell us out for a credit or for some dumb ideology.” The Colonel pounded his big fist on his leg.

  After several seconds of grinding his teeth he looked back at me. “You know I served with your father Don. We were on the same barge for a year before he got reassigned to the Tantilis. I never bought that whole story of mutiny and surrender. I knew too many of those Marines on that boat and it was something that they would not have stood for. That evidence that was presented was a sham, too full of holes.”

  “And your father, I can tell you right here and now that there never was a better soldier, patriot… never a better Human as far as that goes, than that man. He walked the walk and talked the talk. Defense of the Grid was what he lived for.” The Colonel lightly pounded his fist against his chest. “Hurt me right in here when I heard those charges.”

  “But we were in the middle of a war then, otherwise, I know hundreds of other officers that would have stood up for him. He was a hero that one, your father. Chewed steel and spit out nails with the best of them. I often though he might have made Sergeant Major one day. With his toughness and working the intel side of things he was headed for the top.”

  The Colonel reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “John Grange was a good man.”

  Chapter 7

  When we arrived in the Felgar sector, the transport was parked on a large asteroid while we took the Fist and the Swift in to check on the Milgari progress. The base had been abandoned. We signaled the transport and our three ships departed on a heading towards the Prassi worlds.

  During the ride out the Colonel began to tell stories of the 42nd Milgari war. Frig and I listened as the Colonel’s deep voice and hard gestures told of the triumphs and hardships that had been encountered. I was again gaining respect for my father. “Your father once told me that it’s not until a man steps into battle that he knows what he is made of. It was my first time fighting those foul beings and your father was right up front of our squad.”

  “I almost lost it when the Marine next to me got blown in half. Your father reached back and grabbed me, kept me moving, I would have otherwise just stood there like a nineteen year old idiot until I got picked off. The real fight is not something any simulator can prepare you for. But your father, let’s just say I never saw him flinch, even when he was covered with the guts of his own men.”

  “A bolt strike to the chest from one of those Milgari rifles is a nasty, nasty thing. They take about two seconds for a recharge, but they pack a punch like no other. Our G7s have a half second recharge, but they don’t do the damage of one of those ‘busters’ as we called them. We save that punch for our ion grenades.”

  “Speaking of grenades, I can’t wait to roll one of Jeb’s down the hall to a whole pack of those tri-heads, especially if I know there’s not one of those heavy bolts waiting for me. I’m really looking forward to an assault Mr. Grange. I know I haven’t asked yet, but what do you plan on doing with a Milgari frigate when you get one?”

  I turned around to my console to check our location. “I haven’t figured that out yet. For starters though, I want to get Gy and Rita on one, they need to determine why it can take a positive bolt from us from head on. That is something we need to learn how to defeat. Especially if it is also on their big ships, which I suspect it is.”

  I spun my chair towards Frig. “Hey, where did you put that data cube I gave you? I want to know if the Colonel here has ever seen one.” Frig retrieved it from his locker and handed it to the Colonel. “Hmm. I have seen these once or twice. Only spooks like your father had them. How did you get it?”

  I looked longingly at the device before I replied. “My father gave it to me just before he left for that final engagement. He said he wanted me to hang onto it and that someday I would be old enough to know what to do with it. He was adamant that I not trust anyone with it. Up until a short time ago I had no idea of what it was. I got it in my head that it was a brain teaser puzzle of some sort and then put it away for a long time. If you know how it works I believe you would be someone that I could trust with it.”

  The Colonel flipped the small data cube around in his right hand. “I can’t say that there is anything I could do with this Mr. Grange. But we do have a couple spooks on our team. Rachael Searman and Bob Colter may know what to do with it. When we get back to base I can ask them. Until then, I think it best that you hang on to it yourself.”

  We soon arrived at the Prassi worlds to a landscape of devastation. Half of the surface of the smaller of the two planets was scorched black. The massive Milgari cannons had been used to annihilate any ground resistance. The space surrounding the Prassi system was littered with debris from thousands of ships, including what appeared to be the remains of four of the five massive ships.

  The Prassi had put up an impressive fight, but from what we could see they had lost. Frig did several deep scans before coming back with more information. “Sir, the sensors have detected a high amount of debris that has come from Grid hardware Sir. Specifically, ships from Zimmerman’s camp.”

  The Colonel then grabbed me on the shoulder. “Zimmerman? What is he doing out here? Rumor had him as retired. I tried to look him up on more than one occasion, but he was never accessible. And if those are Grid ships then we would have known about them. We have a lot of active connections Mr. Grange. A fight would not have happened without our knowledge.”

  I replied, “Well, Colonel, it’s like this… Zimmerman thought the Grid politicos were overrun with Milgari sympathizers, including some in the military. He has had a side operation for the last couple years, trying to create a stealth fleet that the Milgari are not aware of. They aren’t flagged and they don’t look like your s
tandard Grid ships. Otherwise, you would have heard about several skirmishes with them by now.”

  “We were here the last time the Milgari attacked the Prassi. They had it won, but I guess they got antsy and decided to run before they finished. Both sides had taken a fierce beating. We took some hits and managed to all fly home. We have lost others in our engagements before that.”

  I looked at the Colonel. “I know the pain of losing your men Colonel. So far it hasn’t been something that fades.”

  The Colonel rocked his head. “It’s not anything you get used to. You have to turn that grief into anger Don. Take it out on the tri-heads. It is never easy killing another sentient being Mr. Grange, but when those beings are foul and evil, and when they are bent on killing you, it gets a whole lot easier.”

  The Prassi had either fled or they had been annihilated by the Milgari. The system was abandoned, that is, until we spotted a lone Milgari frigate. “Frig! Get us over to that transport to drop the Colonel! Then lock in on that frigate and let’s go get her. Colonel, tell your men to prepare. It’s time they had that fun they have been training for!”

  We transferred the Colonel to the transport and then made a beeline for the frigate. It was poking around in the largest of the debris fields, probably logging anything that was worth salvaging. We were almost on top of it before it noticed our approach.

  The frigate turned hard in our direction and Frig fired an early shot. Just as it happened to Malcom in the Saxon, the bolt was absorbed into the forward hull and the ship continued to come toward us. I turned hard right and switched the cannon to negative ions. We circled back around coming in behind the frigate. Our first negative bolt dropped their engines offline.

  I spoke, “OK Colonel, we are going to hit those engines one more time as soon as they come back online and following that we will pop that ion bomb on her. Our best guess is that you will have 22 minutes of ion free happiness in there. If you can do it in 15 I would do so.”