Resurrection

by Jan Domagala

  It was a spacious room with a conference table made of mahogany that took centre stage, surrounded by comfortable leather chairs. Sinclair sat in his usual seat and Kurt and Zara followed suit by finding seats next to him. Each seat had a small monitor linked to the large wall-mounted screen at the far end of the room where any pertinent details were shown. Sinclair logged into the secure computer via his NI once he was sure everyone was ready.

  An image began to form on the large screen; it was the image of a planet. It was a planet both Kurt and Sinclair knew in detail, Kurt more than the General because he had visited it recently.

  It was the planet Tartaran.

  “As you know we recently learned the truth about that planet you can see on the screen, Tartaran. Unfortunately the Alliance did an end run around our presence there and took control,” Sinclair said by way of beginning the briefing.

  Kurt’s expression hardened as he leant forward in his seat. He had his business head on as he said, “Please tell me what we all want to hear, sir.”

  “You are right Kurt, you are going back to Tartaran,” Sinclair said.

  Zara looked from the General to Kurt before asking, “What did I miss?”

  3

  I

  The Hyperion

  “This mission sucks,” snorted John Wayne, call sign Cowboy. He was seated in a chair in the Ready Room of the disguised freighter, his feet up on the table and his arms folded across his broad chest.

  Captain Tony Storm, call sign Guardian and leader of the newly designated Red Team, strode around the room and with a deft flick of his hand swept Cowboy’s feet from the table.

  “Show some respect soldier,” he admonished and from the tone of his voice Cowboy knew he had overstepped the mark. His usual moaning regarding any mission had perhaps gone too far, or was it that Guardian too felt that they were wasting their time.

  “I must say boss, that I kinda agree with Cowboy on this one, just a little,” William Ives, call sign Hacker, said. He too was seated at the table but his agreement with his friend and colleague was due to the fact he was an adrenalin junkie and would rather be doing anything other than what they were doing at present.

  The last member of the team, Josephine Pope, call sign Hellcat, sat quietly watching the interaction between the male members of the team, her new family. She had been inducted to the team a few days earlier and was still getting used to the different personalities involved. Her sparkling brown eyes took in every detail as she watched them. Guardian was like his namesake: tall and broad of chest standing guard over his men like a sentinel. His steel grey eyes never missed anything and he knew his team intimately, which was why he put up with Cowboy’s attitude. The latter, she had no idea where the call sign originated from and knew she must ask the question one day, gave off a surly impression but his sense of humour was quite acute, if sarcastic. He was almost as tall as Guardian and almost as broad, a bit like a younger brother really whereas the last one, Hacker, was the smallest, if she disregarded herself from the equation. Hacker was a relaxed individual but he liked anything that would make his pulse race. He could put up with moments of quiet like this one but secretly longed for something to get his blood pumping.

  She had no idea what the rest of them thought of her; she did know she had been singled out for this team because of her record and abilities and she hoped she would fit in with the team’s dynamics. She unfolded her athletic frame from her seat and stood up to stretch to her full five feet eight height. Her light brown hair was cropped short, almost to her scalp and her olive-toned skin denoted her Mediterranean ancestry.

  “Not you too Hellcat,” Guardian said.

  “I never said a word boss,” she replied holding her hands up.

  “Look guys, Sinclair wants us here to keep watch and if he thinks it’s important enough then that’s what we’ll do, alright?” Guardian said allowing some grit into his voice.

  “You know we will boss, that doesn’t stop this mission sucking though,” Cowboy retorted with a huff.

  “Oh trust me, things will heat up soon enough, they always do,” Guardian said.

  Hacker smiled and said, “Cool.”

  II

  Cordoba

  Matt had arrived at the New San Francisco Space Port on Cordoba, a planet in the Praxima system that was forty-three light years from home. It was the home planet of the late Maxwell Eisenhower founder of MaxCorp and where the headquarters was still located and it was where he hoped to find Tanya Wilde.

  He had requisitioned a pool car from the local Col Sec base, just a basic model nondescript Maxim cruiser and drove to the city. He parked in the underground parking lot of the huge building. There was scaffolding all around the base of the building reaching up to the sky as work progressed on rebuilding the top floors. All of this went unnoticed by him though as his focus was entirely on the job at hand.

  From the parking lot he took the internal elevator to the lobby where he was scanned by the computer’s sensors. He walked by the receptionist, a young woman in her twenties that some would say was employed purely for her looks. She was tall, slim and beautiful with long, dark hair that hung down her back in lustrous waves.

  “Can I help you sir?” she asked as he approached. Behind her desk was a series of monitors that relayed data to her desk from the computer’s sensors about every person who entered the lobby. Matt’s presence had activated an alarm on one of her monitors. She had alerted security silently and they were waiting inconspicuously close to the edge of the lobby.

  Matt had spotted them the second he entered the lobby, his tradecraft meant that he knew details about everyone he saw, details that normal people would not spot. He saw the three burly types in dark suits with their watchful expressions and bulges under their jackets that were obviously weapons.

  He walked over to the desk and smiled at the young woman. “I’m here to see Miss Wilde,” he said.

  “I’m afraid Miss Wilde isn’t in the building today and even if she was I wouldn’t be able to allow you to see her sir,” replied the receptionist.

  Matt glanced at her name tag on a plaque on her desk and said, “And why is that Michelle?”

  “I wouldn’t be able to let you in because you don’t have an appointment sir. I have her itinerary before me and you are not on it I’m afraid,” she replied with a smile.

  “How do you know, you haven’t asked who I am yet?”

  “There’s no need sir, we’ve been expecting you,” Michelle said with a confident look that told him she thought she had the situation well under control.

  She was wrong.

  Matt kept an eye on all three security guards as he moved past the reception desk, much to the surprise of Michelle. She was clearly under the disillusion that having been told Tanya was not in the building and that Matt would turn around and leave.

  “In that case I’ll be upstairs if anyone wants me,” Matt said as he sauntered past her.

  Michelle waved frantically to the guards who also hadn’t expected him to continue and were caught off guard for a second. They looked from one to the other with expressions that said that this was not supposed to happen.

  The lobby had several people milling around going to or from other areas in the building and they were unaware of what was about to happen within their midst. So when Matt strode through them to get to the bank of elevators at the rear of the lobby they were oblivious to his intent or even of him even being there.

  The guards moved to intercept him but Matt was prepared. He had kept an eye on them from the start and was already working out counters to their opening gambit.

  The three guards converged on Matt to provide a blockade to prevent him proceeding any further, but what they did instead was provide him with an easier target.

  “Excuse me sir but I’m going to have to ask you to turn around and leave the building,” the guard in the middle of them said, obviously the leader of this hapless little bunch.

  Matt punched the n
earest one to him, the leader, firmly in the face then as the guard on his right reacted and made a grab for him Matt defended the move. He grabbed the offending arm then twisted it free, forcing the guard to bend over at the waist as his arm was being forced high into the air against the joint. Matt smashed his knee into the downturned face of the guard he was holding sending him flying over on to his back, his nose and mouth spraying blood.

  The last guard went for Matt but he deflected the grab by blocking the outstretched arms with his left forearm then smashed his right fist into the unprotected face of his attacker.

  That was two down, which left just the leader who had recovered slightly from the punch to the face. He had seen his two fellow guards taken out in record time and he knew the man before him was a bit special, so he took drastic measures and reached for his pistol.

  Matt saw the move and went to counter. He placed his left hand on the hand reaching for the weapon, preventing him from bringing the pistol free of the holster. The guard’s eyes dropped to the hand on his own hand as he realised he couldn’t bring his pistol free and then stared up into the ice blue eyes of the man before him. Matt winked an eye at him and smiled mouthing the word ‘sorry’ before laying him out with a thunderous straight right to the face.

  The people in the lobby had witnessed the rapid fight without actually realising what was going on, those that did, made a quick exit through the doors as fast as they could.

  Matt coolly stepped over the unconscious forms of the guards as he walked over to the banks of elevators at the rear of the lobby. He accessed one of them and once the doors opened he entered the spacious cubicle operating the control that would lift him through the lower floors to reach where he intended.

  4

  I

  Col Sec HQ Nellis Base

  “I’d heard about Tartaran in the Academy of course but I never realised you went back there,” Zara said.

  “You have clearance to access the file now that you and Kurt are part of the Wildfire Initiative. You can download it to your NI now and you will be up to speed,” Sinclair said.

  Zara accessed the main computer via her NI and searched through the Gold Security Section until she found what she was looking for. She opened the file about the recent mission to Tartaran and downloaded it to her NI cache. Her NI sorted through the data package and assembled it into an order that the human brain could understand. During this process Zara’s eyes clouded over as her brain assimilated the data from the download, it was almost as if her brain absorbed the knowledge directly from the download.

  All this was completed within a blink of an eye and she was back with them then, fully aware of the events that had transpired on Tartaran.

  She looked at Kurt and said, “Wish I’d have been there.”

  “We could’ve done with your help there, it was quite hairy,” he replied.

  “Well now you will get your chance because you are both going back there. You and the Wildfire Team will be going back to the planet’s surface to ensure that no one ever benefits from any technology derived from the indigenous life there,” Sinclair said bringing them more details of their mission.

  “How exactly are we supposed to do that sir? Last I heard the Alliance had a super destroyer stationed in orbit around the planet. What do you want us to do, take it by force?” asked Kurt.

  “I am well aware of the situation there; I have been monitoring it daily. It will have to be done in stealth. I am not willing to provoke another war between the Alliance and us, not unless it is absolutely necessary,” Sinclair interjected.

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that sir,” Kurt said.

  “What have you in mind sir?” Zara asked, eager to get going. Since they received the call to return to base her pulse had been racing in anticipation of getting back in the field. It was almost like she was addicted to the adrenalin rush that this kind of action gave her. It had always affected her that way, but since her recovery from Toldax the effects had been increased, almost to the point of being uncontrollable. She hoped she had kept this unnerving aspect of her recovery to herself but she suspected that Kurt might have an idea about what she was going through.

  “The mission will strictly be a covert op. I’ll do whatever I can to protect you and the Wildfire Team but I cannot send you any backup, you will be strictly on your own.”

  Kurt looked at Zara whose expression was one of rapt attention then back at the General. He said, “Shouldn’t Jake and his team be in on this?”

  “They have been recalled and should be here presently,” Sinclair said. “As soon as they arrive your final briefing will begin.”

  Kurt looked at Zara then asked, “Is that all sir?”

  “For now, yes. I suggest you return to the quarters that have been allocated to you and review details of the planet to prepare yourselves.”

  II

  Titan

  “You can’t be serious, he wants us back now?” Vance said incredulously. They were in full battle gear: new generation combat suits that doubled as environment suits, Rapier battle helmets and a full armament - a Remm M25 assault rifle held up to their shoulder as they sighted down the barrel and a Sig P999 strapped to their leg. They were about to infiltrate a facility that long-range scans had picked up from a flyby of a freighter heading towards Earth’s orbit. The theory was that it could be an OMEGA cloning facility in which case the Wildfire Team had been ordered to go in and destroy.

  Jake Riley, the team leader, was on the verge of making a run towards the entrance they had located when the recall communiqué came in. He had shared it with the other members of his team, Mack Cooper, Angelina Torres and Joseph Vance. Ever the most vocal of the team Vance was the first to comment.

  “No, I’m not kidding, the order as you heard was from the General himself so it must be important,” Jake replied. They were using the internal comm. units in their Rapier battle helmets so the conversation was private, only the four of them could hear it.

  “Joe’s right Jake, we can’t bug out now, not when we’re so close. If they even suspect that this place is a cloning facility then we have to make sure and shut it the fuck down,” Cooper said angrily.

  Jake turned to his teammates, “Who said we were bugging out?”

  “Cool, let’s do this,” Torres responded.

  They were viewing the facility from a ridge just beyond the perimeter of the facility so they had a good vantage point to view the whole place. It was a long, low building purposely kept low to the ground to evade any sensor sweeps from passing craft. Obviously not low enough or the four of them would not have been there. As they approached they noticed there were no windows or portholes for those inside to view the surface of this, the largest of Saturn’s moons, which meant that any surveillance of the surface must be done via hidden cameras.

  They sprinted across the surface from the ridge overlooking the building to the only doorway they had discovered in their three-day surveillance of it. In that time they had witnessed no comings or goings of any description and they began to think it might have been abandoned. Whatever the reason for the lack of activity they had to learn the true purpose of the facility and that was why they were going in.

  They reached the doorway and Vance quickly got to work circumnavigating the locking mechanism so they could gain access.

  They entered the hatch and the door automatically closed behind them sealing them in whilst the air equalised allowing for them to pass through into the main building. As the inner door opened the lights came on, obviously activated by the opening of the door. This gave some credence to their theory that it could have been abandoned. They began to work their way through the maze of corridors all the time keeping their weapons aimed in front of them and primed ready to fire.

  Jake said, “Let’s see if we can find the C and C.”

  Vance logged into the main computer via his NI and said, “It’s this way.”

  He had indicated an elevator at the end of the corrid
or they were in. Everything they had passed indicated that the place ran on a minimal staff. They saw no crew quarters, no facilities such as a canteen or recreational facilities, nothing to indicate that anyone spent a goodly amount of time there. Of course all these things could have been underground, which they suspected when they entered the elevator and saw how many subterranean levels there were.

  “Just how big is this place?” Torres asked as she counted the levels the elevator could reach, fifteen in total.

  “I have a very bad feeling about this place,” Cooper said as Vance activated the control that would take them to the floor where the Command and Control centre was located.

  “Stay frosty guys, no need to panic though, we’ve set off no alarms as yet which means one of two things either this place is deserted or…” Jake said before being interrupted by Vance who finished his sentence for him.

  “…or all the alarms were silent and they’ll be waiting for us the second we step out of the elevator.”

  “Let it be the first, please let it be the first,” Torres said quietly as they all knew if the second option was correct they would not stand a chance.

  The C and C was situated on the second floor down from the top or ground level. The elevator stopped and the doors opened with a hiss of compressed air. The Wildfire Team had their assault rifles up ready to fire the moment a target presented itself. Their reflexes were working on hyper-drive by this time as the serum they had been given boosted their senses to super normal levels.

  Jake was the first to step forward out of the elevator, but no one appeared to attack them.

  “Clear,” he said and the rest followed his lead.

  “Where is everyone?” Cooper asked when it became more and more obvious that they were alone in the massive complex.

  “Come on, we have work to do,” Jake said as he led them towards the C and C.