The Gates of Hell

by Chris Kennedy

  F’slan’s strange bluish eyes shifted nervously between the two of them, uncertain. He looked around the merc pit, his gaze stopping at the Pushtal, and then the Veetanho. It was obvious he was uncertain.

  “Show us the contract,” Teik said, “and we’ll decide.”

  “I was expecting you to just accept it.”

  “You were expecting us to be fools, then,” Kloot said and shook his head. “Go, hire the Pushtal. They’ll stab you in the back or steal whatever goods you want to protect.” Kloot jabbed a claw at the Pushtal, who looked around as Kloot raised his voice. “Or hire the Veetanho, who’ll just as likely sell your secrets to the highest bidder. Come, Teik, this Kafu has wasted our time.” They both stood up.

  “Don’t be so hasty!” F’slan exclaimed, holding up his little hands and looking nervously from side to side. The pit had gone considerably quieter at the disturbance, making the already agitated Zuparti even more so. “I’ll show you the contract.” He removed a small, securely designed slate from an equipment belt around his narrow waist and slid it across the table to Kloot.

  Teik leaned in closer to his commander so he could see the contract as well. Kloot interfaced his pinplants with the slate and instructed it to render the contract into Aposo, which was the extent of what he could do to the contract without F’slan’s approval. With the nature of the secure slate, he couldn’t copy anything, either. At least not without some cheating.

  The contract was a basic dispute in change of ownership of a planet. The bare minimums of the terms were present. No actual locations or possible adversaries. It did state the required duration, distance of travel, and payment, which was 26 million credits. The payment made Kloot’s whiskers twitch excitedly. Teik was immediately suspicious.

  “More details on the planet,” he immediately asked the Zuparti. “Industrial?”

  “Agricultural,” F’slan replied immediately.

  Kloot linked his pinplants with Teik. “This is an easy meal,” he said.

  “Too easy?”

  “Bah, Zuparti has too many credits and not enough brains. We’ll take their credits gladly.”

  “I’m suspicious,” Teik said.

  “You’re always suspicious.” Kloot looked at him. Teik remained respectful, but persistent. Kloot sighed audibly before asking what Teik wanted to assuage his paranoia.

  Teik wanted to know what race they’d be facing as well as contractual guarantees there wouldn’t be unknown forces or additional funds. He also wanted details on the terrain conditions and world environment. He got everything except the race; the Zuparti didn’t want to volunteer this without a signed contract. Kloot was even more confident. Teik was not.

  In the end, Kloot overrode Teik’s concern and signed the contract. Teik did get the Zuparti to agree to a 15% down payment in advance, and to reimburse transportation to and from the target world to Ap’apal, which was a win in any situation.

  “You’ll have the finished contract in three days,” F’slan said.

  “My factor will review the final version, and we’ll counter sign.”

  Satisfied, the Zuparti left the pit. Kloot wanted a couple drinks of Peef to unwind. Teik was in no mind to join, but had one to avoid insulting his commander. He couldn’t overcome his disquiet over the unrevealed parts of the contract. He was still musing about it when the doors opened and a group of ten Zuul entered. The big canine species, not nearly as massive as the Besquith, immediately noted the seven Pushtal. They all showed teeth and elbowed each other.

  Entropy, Teik cursed to himself as he saw what was coming.

  “The down payment will cover our costs and the deposit going to Ap’apal.”

  Teik nodded and looked for a place to stop his commander from talking to make him aware of the developing situation. He went on and on about what they could do with the extra funds as the Pushtal stood up from their table and approached the group of bristling Zuul.

  Teik wasn’t close enough to pick up the conversation. Truth be told, he didn’t need to hear the conversation. Simply based on the hissing and barking, it wasn’t cordial. Off to the side, the pair of Veetanho were no longer ignoring the other goings on, they were intently observing the ongoing confrontation. One of the Pushtal drew a blade and gesticulated at the Zuul, who snarled in response. Teik finally decided he needed to bring the situation to Kloot’s attention, now. He cleared his throat, and his commander stopped mid-sentence.

  “What, you want more Peef?”

  “No, I thought you should look at—”

  Kloot put a hand to one ear, clearly having trouble hearing what his XO was saying. Annoyed, he looked around behind him, which was exactly what Teik had been trying to get him to do. Unfortunately, instead of becoming aware of the developing situation, the Peef had degraded Kloot’s rational faculties, and the results were sadly predictable.

  “Will you entropy cursed fools shut up?!” Kloot roared at the belligerent group of 17 mercs, all at least twice his size.

  “What did you say, Veetanho?” the biggest Pushtal demanded.

  “Oh, fuck,” Teik said.

  With amazing speed, Kloot produced his laser pistol and shot the Pushtal. Unfortunately, his Peef-dulled senses had distorted more than his judgement; it also threw off his aim. The laser burned a hole through the huge feline’s left ear. The alien responded much like you’d expect; it screamed and pounced.

  Teik, having only had two servings of Peef, had true aim and drilled the attacking Pushtal between the eyes with his own laser pistol. The Pushtal, already in the air, crashed into Kloot and carried the two into the table. Like most merc pits, this one was designed with fights in mind, and the furniture disintegrated from the impact. Pushtal, Aposo, and furniture parts flew in all directions. The surviving Pushtal and the Zuul drew down, and it devolved into a free for all.

  “This is just what we needed,” Teik yelled as he rolled aside. Laser pistol in one hand, he drew a long blade with the other as a pair of laser beams narrowly missed him. A second later, the 20 members of the squad Kloot had brought with him exploded from their table, and the free for all devolved into a full-fledged battle. “Still, this isn’t entirely unexpected.”

  A few minutes later, all three forces were reduced by roughly half their numbers, and it appeared the fighting was beginning to wind down. Kloot had extracted himself from the Pushtal corpse and was urging his surviving squad members to mount an attack.

  “Show the stupid cats we aren’t Veetanho cowards!” he yelled drunkenly. Then a laser bolt bisected his head.

  Teik would never be entirely sure, because you couldn’t tell what direction a laser came from. Speed of light, and all that sort of stuff. There didn’t seem to be any enemy in the direction of the Pushtal and Zuul. However, he did remember the two Veetanho had been slipping out the door when the shot came. Probably wasn’t the best move, insulting the Veetanho when two were skulking around.

  That’s how Teik ended up in command of Lashku and on a contract he’d considered ill-advised from the beginning.

  * * *

  Chapter 4

  “Taluu,” Skep, Teik’s new XO, said in their shared quarters. “Never heard of it.”

  “Me neither,” Teik said. He’d vowed to treat his XO better than Kloot had treated him. In the last week, he’d largely succeeded.

  “We haven’t traveled the Tolo arm often.”

  “Because there isn’t much there,” Teik agreed. “Do you have the update on the mid and lowborn?”

  “We should have left them at Kafu.”

  “I didn’t ask your opinion.”

  “Sorry, Commander.”

  Teik grunted and waited for the report.

  “One of the breeders got into a supply of Peef and drank herself to death.” He held up a hand. “I’ve restricted all lowborn from Peef for 30 days to encourage them to police each other.”

  “They’re like children still in the creche, all of them.”

  “I understand, Commande
r. I have midborn fighters keeping an extra eye on them.” Teik nodded for him to continue. “Births are as expected. The creche mother says there will be 52 more stormers ready to fight by the time we land on Taluu.”

  “That’s better than expected. Good.” The previous three contracts had cost them a good number of stormers. Luckily they hadn’t lost many fighters or shooters. Those couldn’t be replaced on contract; it took training. If any of the stormers survived, maybe they’d be fighters or shooters someday. Some could rise to be planners. The rare, lucky, and smart might even become a leader.

  “We have plenty of fixers, and they’ve been working to ensure all our equipment is ready.” Skep blinked as he accessed his pinplants.

  Teik was lucky enough his new XO had them. Skep was the last planner along with them who had pinplants. If his XO hadn’t had them, things would be more difficult.

  “Arms and ammo are sufficient, as are supplies after we used some of the advance.”

  They’d collected 3.9 million credits from the shifty Zuparti as a down payment on the contract Kloot had signed. Most of it went back to the home world, yet enough remained to resupply Lashku and prepare them for the contract.

  “Good. We arrive in the Taluu system in a few hours. Have everyone ready.”

  “Yes, Commander.” Skep floated toward the exit, but stopped short. “Commander?”

  “Yes?”

  “What do you know of this race we’ll fight?”

  “Simians,” Teik said. “We’ve faced them in the past. They’re nothing special. In fact,” he looked at his XO and showed his razor-sharp teeth, “they’re soft.”

  * * *

  The shuttles landed at the main starport of Taluu. They were met by their employer, F’slan, who appeared excited to see them. He was in a ground car, along with a dozen other obviously nervous Zuparti, who watched the shuttles disgorging Lashku’s forces and support.

  “Welcome, Commander Kloot,” F’slan said.

  “Kloot is dead,” Teik told him. “I was his XO, Teik; I command now. This is my new XO, Skep.”

  “I hope you didn’t kill Kloot to be in charge,” F’slan said, the other Zuparti with him laughing.

  The Zuparti’s tall, thin body made him taller than Teik. It didn’t mean the Zuparti was larger. Teik stared the alien in the eye without comment long enough it looked away.

  “I meant no offense, Commander.”

  “Show us the barracks.”

  “Yes. Yes, of course.”

  Later, in the barracks as their forces were moving in, Skep caught up with him. “I’m surprised you didn’t kill the weasel.”

  “It’s poor form to kill your employer,” he reminded his XO. “There are rules against that in the Mercenary Guild.”

  “That’s unfortunate.”

  There was an immense amount of work to accomplish in the coming week, and Teik found no time to work with his new XO. Like himself, he’d started as midborn, so he would require training to understand his new status. He felt a lot of responsibility to bring Skep up to acting like a highborn, not how he thought he should act by bad example, such as Kloot was. The longer Teik was in command, the more he realized how poor a commander Kloot had been.

  Slowly, as they assumed the planet’s defenses, Teik came to understand the nature of their contact, and how they’d ended up here. Taluu was a medium-sized world of a somewhat uncommon type in the galaxy. It had a rich habitat with abundant life, almost none of it native. Certain types of biospheres lent themselves to being easily adapted to other world’s lifeforms. Some flora, some fauna, some both. Taluu was the latter.

  Sometime thousands of years ago, the world was colonized, only the colonization had failed. The world’s ecosphere, while vibrant, had almost no seasonal variability. This was a problem for many races. The life they depended on didn’t do well, and failed. Thus the colony failed to thrive and left. No records survived from the Great Galactic War, so nobody knew how many different races had tried to make Taluu home. Somewhere in history, it was further discovered the vast shallow oceans were also full of volcanoes. Eruption led to massive tsunamis. This occurred regularly.

  Finally, the planet was relegated to minor mineral operations and some manufacturing. These were located in the mountains some hundred kilometers from the largest area hosting settlements over the years. Huge fertile plains covered the lowlands. Regularly swamped by tsunamis, they were engulfed by sediment. Good for growing, bad for colonizing, terrible for industry.

  Some time in the last century, a conglomerate had a brilliant idea. A species of herbivore grazer was perfectly suited for the growing plains, because they were adapted to a marine environment as well. After a few decades of testing, the animals survived and flourished, and a small caretaker operation was installed, as well as harvesting facilities, because the animals being grown were for another race entirely.

  “Equiri?” Skep asked when he heard about the end purchaser.

  Teik and his XO were in a flyer reviewing ground defense installations. When he’d seen the huge herbivore grazers moving across the grassy plains, he’d wondered who wanted them.

  “Yes,” Teik said. “The Equiri enjoy fresh meat. Like, living. Most of these creatures will be slaughtered and processed to be shipped to their colonies, though some are eaten alive.”

  Skep looked over the side at the animals. Averaging four meters at the shoulders, with necks half that long, they moved in large herds with equally long legs propelling them across the marshy plains. “The beasts are huge; why aren’t the Equiri a merc race?”

  “They don’t like to fight.”

  “Cowards.” Skep sneered.

  Teik shrugged. He wasn’t willing to make such a judgment. He’d met a pair of Equiri Peacemakers years ago, and they were the toughest beings he’d ever seen. Perhaps the Equiri were simply a complicated race? He didn’t know.

  Finally, they were fully set up, and they officially took over from the Lumar mercs who were leaving. The big, stupid, four-armed aliens slouched onto their shuttles and left without a backward look. Teik considered the Zuparti lucky that nobody had tried to take the colony from them before Lashku came to the world. Which brought them to the whole reason for their presence.

  Nobody wanted to take over the food operation. Rather, the colony lease was lapsing. The Cartography Guild controlled lease records of worlds. They held the authority to grant ownership of a world. However, in the Galactic Union, possession was 99% of the law. It wasn’t against the meager list of laws in the Union to simply refuse to recognize a change in ownership.

  When the lease on Taluu expired, the Zuparti were gambling that nobody would be interested in the world. After all, for thousands of years nobody except them had made a go of it. Who in their right mind would try with such a long precedent of failure? The Zuparti even had an exclusive contract with the Equiri to provide the food animals. There was nothing to be gained by taking Taluu by force. Mercs were expensive. Their gamble hadn’t paid off.

  Six days after the Lumar left and Lashku officially took responsibility for the planet’s defense, an enemy merc ship arrived at the emergence point, and the battle began.

  * * *

  Chapter 5

  “How big a force?” Teik asked, entering the command center. Nothing more than a bunker dug into the mountains east of the main livestock plains, it housed all the various orbital and ground-based defenses, which would make it extremely difficult to land.

  “One ship,” a midborn fixer reported. “Not a cruiser, probably closer to frigate in size.” He examined his screens closely for a moment. “Its readings don’t match any design in the GalNet database.”

  Teik’s biggest concern was that the enemy would bring a big transport and land dozens of individual combat shuttles. It would split his forces up badly and force piecemeal engagements. A single small warship meant he might lose his orbitals, but the enemy wouldn’t have a swarm of landing vehicles.

  “Incoming transmission.�
��

  A grunting, yipping voice came over the command center’s speakers. It took a second for the computer to translate. “Taluu, this is licensed Mercenary Company Caudill’s Army, Colonel Caudill in command. Responsible merc force, please respond.”

  “This is licensed Mercenary Company Lashku, Commander Teik.”

  There was a pause. “We were expecting a Lumar unit.”

  “They’ve completed their contract; we’ve taken over.”

  “Is visual comms allowable?”

  Teik nodded to the fixer, and a second later an image of their adversary appeared. They were even uglier than he remembered. Big, round, flat faces with blunt noses, and an equally big, mobile mouth. Two largish eyes with colored irises were high on the face. They were mostly hairless, like a newly born pup, except a patch on top of their heads. This one had some on its jaw as well, which Teik had never seen before. Taken as a whole, the Humans looked weak and soft.

  “Ah, Aposo,” the alien said.

  Was he an idiot? Couldn’t his translator have told him that? “Yes, Human. You wanted to see me, now you do. Go ahead with what must be said.”

  “We are here to take possession of Taluu with a leasehold approved and paid for from the Cartography Guild. Will you yield?”

  “We will not,” Teik responded immediately. “We are done.”

  “There’s no need for this,” Caudill said.

  Teik was taken aback. “What do you mean?”

  “A new legal leasehold is filed. This world isn’t worth your blood. We don’t want to kill you. We’ll offer you safe transit to the stargate.”

  “Why would we abandon our contract?”

  “To survive.”

  “You overestimate your chances, Human. We’ll see you on the field.” He ordered the connection cut. “Prepare for orbital assault.”

  * * *

  They didn’t have long to wait. The Human frigate took a fast approach to Taluu, and for a short time Teik thought they were going to come straight in with their ship. It would have been suicide. All the planet’s valuable assets were on the plains, between the sea and the mountains. If you landed offshore, you’d have to approach over the ocean, an easy target for direct fire lasers. If you landed in the mountains, the missile batteries were located there, and the ship would be killed before it got below 10 miles, the highest a spaceship could legally fire on a planet.