by Mel Odom
Kiwanuka’s sniper rifle reticule centered on the sliver of the bashhound’s face revealed through the raised faceshield. Her voice was calm and steady when she spoke. “Ready when you are, Corporal.”
“It will be just a moment.” Pingasa flicked his fingers and the code vids filled his faceshield again.
Sage withdrew from the tech’s view and concentrated on Kiwanuka’s. She kept the reticule steady as the bashhound came toward them. Eight meters away, Pingasa’s drone flitted slowly, mimicking the insects that flew around it.
“If you don’t get the drone there soon,” Kiwanuka warned softly, “I’m going to lose the angle on this shot.”
Sage made himself relax and remember that Kiwanuka was a better marksman than he was.
Pingasa’s drone flitted and slid sideways as it closed on the guard. The sec drone continued on. Pingasa whispered, sounding hypnotized. “Three seconds, Sergeant. Three . . . two . . . one.”
The small drone swooped just as Kiwanuka’s finger tightened on the trigger and pulled through to fire her weapon. The Pacifier round struck the bashhound at the corner of his mouth and left a yellow dye splotch the size of a demicredit to mark the hit.
At the same time, Pingasa’s drone mounted the sec drone. Sage couldn’t see anything that was taking place there, but the sec guard toppled over and went limp.
“I have the drone,” Pingasa said. Careful of the strand bypassing the sec barrier, he threw a leg over the wall and dropped to the ground on the other side, crouching to show only a low profile. He raced toward the fallen bashhound. Only a few meters away, the sec drone continued on its path.
Kiwanuka also dropped to the ground and took up a support position with her rifle in a kneeling pose. She wrapped the sling around her forearm and waited. Her biometrics never shifted off of normal.
Jahup approached the wall and popped his claws.
“Wait,” Sage ordered. “If Pingasa finishes the foolie, then we go. Until then, we stay here to cover any retreat we may have to make.”
Jahup lowered his arms and backed away from the wall. “All right.”
From his tone, Sage knew Jahup wasn’t happy with the command. Jahup and Noojin were inexperienced at working as soldiers, but they knew the jungle and they knew how to survive. Maybe they didn’t understand tactics in a military unit, but they had a better chance on an op like this than some of the green soldiers back at the fort.
And the few experienced people in the ranks needed to remain there in case another attack took place this morning.
Reaching the fallen bashhound, Pingasa dropped to his knees and scanned the man with the device he held. Sage tracked the sec drone and pinned a distance reference on it and the bashhound. They were now four meters apart and the twenty-meter invisible tether between them was steadily running out.
Sage made himself wait. Pingasa would be aware of the distance himself. Reminding the corporal of that wouldn’t help.
Moving smoothly, as if he had all the time in the world, Pingasa took out another small drone and ran it under the device he held. The sec drone was at sixteen meters. Just before the sec drone hit nineteen meters, Pingasa flicked his hand and tossed the small drone forward to follow the Green Dragon unit.
The distance separating the sec drone from the downed guard hit twenty meters, then twenty-one. Nothing happened.
Sage released a tense breath.
“The second drone is cycling the guard’s biometrics.” Pingasa stood and took small computer chips from his chest pouch that were no bigger than shirt buttons. “It’s programmed to follow the sec drone, which is blind to us now, so their sec system is going to show this area as secure.”
“Good enough, Corporal.” Sage went to the base of the barrier and motioned to Jahup and Noojin. “Let’s go.” He cupped his hands together to make a stirrup.
Noojin stepped into Sage’s hands and he eased her up the wall, then he did the same for Jahup.
While the two Makaum worked their way up the wall using claws, Sage turned his attention to Corporal Dundee and Private Selzler. “You two are here to cover our retreat.” He pointed to the barrier. “Mine that wall so we can drop it in a hurry if we need to. Set up some anti-personnel claymores from here to the river. If anybody comes after us, I want to stop them or slow them down.”
“You got it, Top.” Dundee was an experienced munitions man and he’d picked Selzler after he’d seen her work in training. He and Selzler broke out their equipment and set to work.
Sage cupped his hands for Culpepper.
“Not me, Top. You’re next.” Culpepper shouldered his heavy plasma rifle and cupped his hands. “When I cover your six, it stays covered as long as I’m drawing breath.”
“Copy that.” Sage stepped into the other man’s hands and maintained his balance as Culpepper lifted him over his head. Sage popped his claws, leaned into the plascrete, and climbed. He reached the top, checked Kiwanuka’s vid to make certain the way was clear, navigated the bypass strand, and dropped to the ground, sinking into a crouch immediately and freeing the Roley.
A moment later, Culpepper dropped into position behind him.
Pingasa handed one of the button chips to Jahup, then offered one to Sage.
“What is it?” Sage asked.
A smile sounded in Pingasa’s voice. “A little something extra. These button chips are coded with Green Dragon sec information. Their sec system will read them and assume we’re starport guests.”
“I haven’t heard of anything like this.” Sage affixed the button to his shoulder the same way Jahup, Kiwanuka, and Noojin had done.
“I was not always a Terran Army soldier. I helped my mother with a lot of the design work she did on sec systems. She tells me I am a most apt pupil.”
“Glad to hear it.” Sage opened his pack and took out the cloak to disguise his armor again. “Now let’s go find that weapons cache.” He started toward the starport buildings and pulled up the map of the storage units. The one they were looking for was on the north end.
TWENTY-NINE
Cheapdock
North of Makaum Sprawl
6152 Akej (Phrenorian Prime)
Zhoh watched the countdown taking place on the locking mechanism and remained calm. There was time. There had to be time. He couldn’t get this close to achieving his goal of exposing General Rangha’s unacceptable greed and watch that chance slip away.
“Enter the code again,” he told Mato.
Without pause, Mato did as he was told. He was a warrior and he would obey. All of the other warriors stood with Zhoh. They were spyrl. Nothing would break that. They would only retreat when Zhoh gave the command.
When Mato finished, the countdown continued.
Cursing Rangha’s treachery even in this, Zhoh prepared to give the command to save his warriors. Then another idea struck him. Rangha was not that clever. He had secrets, but they would be simple secrets. He was not a tactician. Rangha was a pampered pet of the Empire.
“Enter the code backwards, Mato.” Zhoh couldn’t back down from the challenge. He wouldn’t walk away and have nothing to show for his efforts.
Mato didn’t question the command, didn’t mention that they were almost out of time, and his lesser hand was steady as he tapped the code sequence into the keypad.
With only four ticks left on the counter, the symbols stopped, winked, and faded from sight.
Ettor had told the truth, but he had withheld a fraction of it. Zhoh’s estimation of the being rose, but only slightly.
Along the storage bay, the light beams winked out.
“Allow me to check for further surprises.” Mato scooped up his bag and walked through the storage bay.
Impatiently, Zhoh watched and waited as minutes passed. Presently, Mato returned and slung his bag over his shoulder.
“Everything
is clear,” Mato said.
Zhoh stationed two of his warriors at the entrance and walked deeper into the storage bay. He surveyed the weapons stacked on shelves and racks around him. Rangha had amassed a variety of ordnance.
“Captain.” Yuen, one of the more seasoned warriors among them, lifted a Vesokan plasma launcher.
The weapon was thick and heavy and took at least four appendages to wield. The Vesokan possessed transmutable bodies contained within shells and could manifest as many limbs as they needed.
Despite their lack of definite shape, they had a propensity to mimic those around them. Some of them had psi abilities that allowed them access to the memories of those they consumed. Offworlders who made planetfall at Vesoka didn’t live to regret that landing. As a result, the Vesokans learned quickly and took to the stars and to war.
The Phrenorian Empire had battled the Vesokans to a standstill, then drew lines that separated them from the other galaxies and the Gates. If the Vesokans reproduced more quickly, they might have stood a chance against the Empire. The Terran Alliance had quarantined the Vesokan system even before the Phrenorians had to beat them back.
“Yes, Lieutenant?”
“This weapon came from Tianyse.”
That caught Zhoh’s attention. Tianyse was one of the outer worlds of the Empire and had suffered tremendously when the war with the Vesokans started. Ten years ago, nearly every Phrenorian on that planet had been killed before the Empire even knew the Vesokans were a threat. Zhoh had been part of the offensive that had beaten the invaders back at great cost, but the glory had been worth it.
“How do you know?” Zhoh asked.
“This is a seventh gen iteration of the weapon, sir.” Yuen was a heavy weapons expert. “The only place we saw these was Tianyse.”
Zhoh didn’t ask if Yuen was certain of that. The warrior knew his weapons.
“General Rangha was also on Tianyse,” Yuen said.
“Not during the fighting,” Zhoh said. He’d interfaced with every combat general on Tianyse. Several of the successful campaigns had been ones he had designed.
“No. General Rangha was there afterward. During cleanup.”
Basking in the glory the Empire gave him as a blooded hero. Zhoh barely restrained a curse.
“I was assigned to the cleanup effort,” Yuen continued. “We catalogued weapons like these. As I said, that was the only planet where we encountered them.” He replaced the plasma cannon on a rack with at least twenty others. “These other weapons, they’re all from campaigns we’ve fought in, sir.”
Evidently Rangha had been building his inventory over the years, so his treachery had been going on far longer than Zhoh would have imagined.
“Make a list of the weapons, Lieutenant,” Zhoh ordered. “We’ll match them up against other campaigns the general was involved in.”
“Yes sir.”
“And take vid.”
“Yes sir.”
Zhoh was torn between emotions as he walked through the aisles of weapons. He was angry that Rangha had gotten away with so much, and he was enthusiastic about finding so much corruption the general was responsible for. The presence of the storage bay filled with weapons was leverage, but he wasn’t certain if it was enough. Bloodline heroes were fiercely protected by the Empire. None of them had ever been toppled.
That thought gave Zhoh pause, but he pushed past it. Simply accepting the lot he had been regulated to on Makaum was intolerable. He would have his victory and his life as a warrior returned to him, or he would die trying.
He was more warrior, more of a champion, than Rangha would ever be.
“Captain,” Mato called from the back of the storage bay. “I have something you should see.”
Zhoh walked back to where Mato stood in front of a climate-controlling unit. He’d attached a PAD to the unit.
“What?”
“I have discovered who has access to this storage bay.”
“Through a climate controller?”
Mato’s pheromones gushed and in a cloud of sweetness. “Climate controllers are programmed through the starport mainframes, triarr. I overlaid an orrach virus I’ve designed into the system.”
An orrach was a small, vicious aquatic predator on Phrenoria that laid its eggs within the eggs of other creatures. The embryos matured quickly in their egg-within-an-egg, ate the other unborn creature, and hatched with poison lethal enough to bring down a full-grown ighttas, one of the thirty-meter-long bottom feeders that scavenged the Phrenorian oceans. They were more deadly as young than they were as adults.
“The virus looks like code that the Green Dragon Corp uses,” Mato went on, “but it gathers in the mainframes and gives me access.”
“What do you have?”
“As we knew from Ettor, Rangha’s personal jolaf, Captain Achsul Oretas, has been visiting the storage bay, but there is also a Terran woman who has come here as well.”
“Who?” Zhoh peered at Mato’s PAD.
“Her name is Ellen Hodgkins.”
“Who is she?”
“I’ll have to do more research on her, but what I see here is that she’s registered with the Hooded Vorol.” Mato flipped through the PAD. “That’s a small, transitory starship that doubles as a space station. A traveling casino that offers sex and drugs.”
“A smuggler.” Zhoh understood at once. Such ships set up in orbit to make a profit sometimes for weeks or months, fleeced everyone they could, then headed for brighter waters.
“Yes.”
“What would Rangha want with a Terran?”
“He could use her as a go-between to sell to Terrans and other races onplanet.” Mato checked through a few more screens. “Hodgkins has a history of criminal behavior and was previously an employee of DawnStar Corp.”
“How long ago?”
“She was released from DawnStar weeks ago by Velesko Kos.”
Zhoh considered that. “Kos was operating DawnStar’s illegal drug factories. Was Hodgkins affiliated with Kos before arriving at Makaum?”
Mato flicked through screens of data. “Yes. She worked with Kos in the Awver system as a strikebreaker. Apparently there are still bounties on Kos and Hodgkins and several of their collaborators in that system.”
“Rangha mentioned Kos when I talked with him this morning.” Zhoh’s angered deepened as he remembered the conversation he’d had with the general at the hidden base, and he wondered if any of the weapons that were supposed to be there were now here in this storage bay. “He all but accused me of favoring the Terran sergeant, Sage, by standing with him against Kos.”
“Perhaps the agreement with Hodgkins was begun with Kos.”
“It’s possible. I want to speak to that female.”
“Getting access to the Hooded Vorol will be difficult. We can’t force our way aboard, and they do not favor Phrenorians with any kindness.”
“There must be a way to get to her.”
“Captain,” one of the warriors called from the front of the storage bay. “A sec team is headed our way.”
Zhoh looked at Mato.
“It wasn’t anything I did here.” Mato unplugged his PAD. “I would have known if I’d tripped any alarms.”
“Get outside. We’ve got all the information we need for the moment.” Zhoh strode to the front of the bay. “Lock this place down.”
The Green Dragon sec team arrived at the storage bay as the door closed. The officer in charge was young and crisp, new to authority and proud of his position. He looked at Zhoh and his warriors.
“I am Lieutenant Fu and I am in charge of security. Who is Captain Achsul Oretas?” the young lieutenant asked.
Zhoh squashed the impulse to split the man with his patimong.
“I am,” Mato said, following the plans they’d made before they’d entered the
starport. “Is there a problem?”
“Your identification seems flawed.”
“There must be some mistake.”
“There is no mistake.”
“I have access to the storage bay,” Mato argued. “Only myself and Ms. Hodgkins have the codes.”
Fu hesitated for a moment. “Please come to my office. We can get affairs straightened away there.”
Zhoh rubbed the fingers of his left lesser hand, letting Mato know that following the lieutenant’s suggestion would be fine for the moment.
“Of course, Lieutenant.” Mato gestured with one of his primaries, getting close enough to Fu to make the young man step back just a little. “After you.”
Zhoh followed Mato and the other warriors trailed after them. The Green Dragon sec men surrounded the group but did not act threatening. Zhoh felt no fear, trusting that his warriors could easily dispatch the sec men if the need arose. Until then, he would see if Mato’s skills could smooth over the temporary setback. It would be better if the Hodgkins female had no warning they had knowledge of the weapons.
THIRTY
Outside Cheapdock
North of Makaum Sprawl
0306 Hours Zulu Time
Sage held his position in the shadows beside the last row of storage bays. Out on the starport, one of the loaded shuttles launched, speeding down the runway for a short distance before leaping adroitly into the night sky and sailing over the trees. Only a little farther on, it arced sharply upward, kicked in the thrusters, and headed for the starry space. The thunder of the engines rolled over the starport.
“In place, Top,” Kiwanuka called. She’d climbed to the top of the building and lay on the roof to provide cover fire if necessary.
Sage checked her vid and swept the aisle between the rows of storage bays. No one was in the narrow alley between.
“Pingasa,” Sage said, “you’re with me. The rest of you grab cover and wait.”
Pingasa joined Sage and they stepped out of the shadows. The cloaks covered the armor for the most part, and evidently Pingasa’s button chips were doing their job because no alarms sounded.