by Max Jager
"Are you and Liam all right?"
"Umm more or less, I've got a couple burns from a beam weapon. My helmet is ruined."
"How about across the street?"
"Wait a minute Jezang, Liam and I will go look…Stand by."
"C'mon Liam let's go check…How's your ammo supply?" Liam fumbled with his AK announcing,
"Got one magazine left…Sorry."
"Don't be sorry," replied Matt, "You're still alive. Set the rifle to select fire and let's go."
Carefully both moved up the street then carefully watched for any sign of raider activity on the street, which was now littered with dead. He hadn't noticed it before, bit the house Walter and the Dyson's had been in looked to be burning as well, though not as badly as the one he and Liam had been in.
After watching the street for several minutes, they scooted across the overgrown street making their way towards the back of another run-down house. As he and Liam were watching for any signs of life, a thunderous roar pierced their ears as two fighter craft roared overhead then shooting straight up.
"That's Clath's ship!" Cried Liam,
"Yeah, but that was a raider ship on his ass!" replied Matt. They watched as the raider ship fired dual streams from its plasma cannons at Clath.
"Clath's hit! Exclaimed Liam, "Look at his ship!"
Indeed, it did look as though he had been hit as his ship went into a wild tumble. However, he quickly dropped behind the raider ship and started chasing him.
They watched as both ships twisted and turned disappearing into the clouds then re-appearing. Now they were coming this way. The raider ship was doing everything it could to escape but Clath was hanging on. Suddenly there was an instantaneous flash then thick smoke began to pour from the back of the raider ship.
"He's going to crash!" Exclaimed Liam. It looked as though he was right as the raider ship continued to loose altitude.
"Goddamn! He's going to hit Clath's place!" Cried Matt, "C'mon let's get out there.!" They had just reached the next house when the raider ship, rather than crashing, appeared to be trying for a controlled landing near the crawler.
"Watch it Jezang," he cautioned her over his wrist comm, "There's a raider ship gonna crash near you."
"We see him Matt, "The fool thinks we are his friends, don't worry Tucker and I will deal with this." Cautiously moving towards the now fully engulfed house both he and Liam began to call for Walter as well as Franklin, and Mr. and Mrs. Dyson.
"We're over here Matt!" Cried Mrs. Dyson, Walter's hurt." Quickly locating the location of her voice, the sound of the fighter crashing along the ground reached their ears as well, closely followed by Clath roaring overhead at a very low altitude.
"As they approached a stack of lumber Matt could see Walter sitting up with his shirt off, and the Dyson's treating a nasty burn on his chest.
"It he all right doc?" Asked Matt. Looking up and in obvious pain, Walter replied, "Good thing I had just put on some of that chest armor one of the raiders had on or I wouldn't be here talking to you."
He then held up the horribly scorched remains of some body armor that were still smoking.
"Ahh it looks like I wasn't the only one to get hit," added Walter, "Jeeze, you look terrible Matt. Mrs. Dyson immediately made him sit down as she began to inspect his head wound.
"So what happened with you guys?" Asked Matt, "Where's Franklin?"
"I sent him back to the house for more supplies," said Mr. Dyson, "Now let Chelsea treat that wound of yours." Walter then began to detail the action from their side.
"That "gate" I made worked perfectly there's two raiders still stuck on it. We started hearing shooting from over your way so Franklin took up a position in the front room while I covered the back. Apparently, they learned their lesson when they first tried to come through and got two guys killed by my gate. Then the others tried to come busting in the back door where I caught 'em all with ought and double ought buck. I'm glad that house is going to burn down," he added, "It was a bloody goddamned mess in there. Jeezist Matt, that shotgun of yours sure makes a mess. Matt stared at him blankly as the shock of battle was wearing off.
As they talked, the roof suddenly collapsed in a shower of sparks. Moments later Franklin returned carrying a cloth bag containing medical supplies. Then Tucker came dashing up.
"That ship crashed fairly intact, Jezang and I got the fire out after we dealt with the two survivors, but right now she's searching for information and data on where these fellows are from and what's going on." Before long the crawler slowly approached shutting down just up from where the two houses burned, its turret pointed out towards the open field. While everyone else was congratulating each other, Matt took Jezang aside to get her side of things, most of all how she and Tucker managed to capture the crawler.
"All I can tell you Matt is this. Being androids, Tucker and I have…Certain methods for tapping into computer systems of things like certain spacecraft, and machines like that crawler over there. Once we got it stopped, we were able to hack its computer and get it to drop the rear ramp; the crew could do nothing about it. As to how we dealt with them as well as the survivors of that ship? Just be glad that we were able to and leave it at that."
"Sure Jezang, thanks a lot," he replied, "So what about that crawler?" She gave him a puzzled look.
"What about it? Consider it part of our defense system now, it's your's Matt."
He just grinned,
"What do you know our own tank now!" He also knew better than to push her on how she and Tucker had dealt with the crews of it and the crashed fighter. They were Tharg…Nuff said.
Not long after Clath and his wife came strolling up as if nothing had ever happened. Both Matt and Liam rushed up to him.
"Man! That was some battle Clath, we watched it from the ground," exclaimed Liam. He just chuckled, as he replied.
"Wasn't it now?
"Did the raiders attack Mindia?" Asked Matt. Nodding, he replied.
"I'm afraid so, it's now all gone, but maybe that's a good thing, too many bad memories out there."
"The important thing is that we defeated a rather sizeable contingent of raiders, although I did have a little help, though I'm not at liberty to say by whom. Ircisa and I were just looking over that raider ship and we do believe you now have a power source Matt. Both engines are in decent enough shape to function as your little town's power source. Of course, we'll have to move it somewhere but that should pose no problem. There are also three other craft down in the forest well to the west and north that might offer various parts but at some point we'll have to go inspect them. Oh, by the way, it seems all manor of trouble has broken out here in the solar system. We saw it on the news. Seems the Malhazars have declared total war on the raiders. Apparently they have hunter/killer teams dispersed all over hunting these people down."
'So what's the trading company as well as the Galactic council or whatever they call themselves doing about this?" Asked Matt. Clath shrugged,
"Apparently nothing. It seems that the Malhazars were able to present enough damming evidence against the raiders that they were basically told to get things "cleaned up," which they seem to be more than willing to do." Matt grimaced as he realized that Holliqua was probably right in the middle of things, something he preferred not to think about.
"Wouldn't you imagine that that attractive female that was here who's people we rescued a Malhazar?" By now, his mind was adrift,
"Yeah," he replied. "That was Holliqua."
"Well I hope she's safe," replied Clath. "Well we just stopped by to give you the news, come Ircisa, I'm hungry."
"That dude's just plain weird," commented Liam, "But I kinda like him, his wife is pretty cool though. Say, do you think Holliqua was involved in all that shit he was telling us about?" Matt looked at him and grinned.
"Oh I know she was." Then shaking his head, he added.
"Let's face it, my girlfriend is a stone killer, but what's even stranger is that I'm comfor
table with it." Liam looked at him in surprise,
"Aren't you afraid she'll murder you or something?"
"Naww, not really," Replied Matt, "Now I suppose if I were to start screwing some chick behind her back…"
"Like Ilmi?" injected Liam. Matt gave him a wink and a grin,
"Maybe…But I saw how you two were getting along. Don't get me wrong, I like Ilmi, I call her "Tank Girl," She's cool, and although she won't say, she just might "cap" you if you started "cattin" around, so you'd better watch yourself."
"Those burns still bothering you?" Asked Liam in an attempt to change the subject. Gently rubbing the large bandage on his head, Matt replied.
"Some, right now it just feels like my whole face has a bad sunburn. That Xalmac doctor Dyson put on does a pretty good job of healing beam weapon burns; right now we've got a ton of it. Then Matt paused before asking.
"So Liam, now that you've been in the "Shit!" and now have an idea of what we're dealing with here what do you want to do?"
Liam shrugged as he replied.
"I don't know yet Matt, jury's still out. You told me there would be plenty of adventure, and we've certainly been into that." Matt reached over and patted his shoulder.
"You know Liam; there are times this still seems like a video game to me. I know it's not. There are no health packs lying around to pick up when you are almost dead. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you stick with me on this there will be a lot of bad parts, but they'll pass. Even with all this shit with the raiders I could never go back home. Slowly I'm making a life for myself out here. You and the others can too. It just depends on how much you want to put into it. Well, it's about that time; Mrs. Dyson has invited us to supper so let's go see what's cooking."
Lopa was on the menu tonight, lopa ribs to be more precise.
"I was a real Barbecue "King" back home," exclaimed Mr. Dyson. One of the items brought from home was a big Weber grill the kind that used charcoal, however in this case it was strictly wood. Tucker had told him about "Knob root" trees and the incredible wood that burned practically in the rain as well as making excellent fires for cooking. Tucker also showed Mrs. Dyson all the edible plants in the area.
"Makes no difference to me," he explained,
"Old Jacob was the one that showed me." I told him that being an android I didn't need to eat.
"Well a time might come when you can pass on the information to those that can," was his reply.
As they ate, Matt asked both Walter and the Dyson's if anyone was having second thoughts on staying.
"No," replied Walter, I've always been a fighter, and so I like what I've seen around here. Oh sure the houses need a lot of work, but we just got here. Speaking for myself, I'm glad I came. As soon as this burn heals up some more, I want to get started doing whatever we have to do to get the power on."
"We agree as well Matt," added Mr. Dyson. "Oh sure these raiders have us worried, but Chelsea and I look at all this as a once in a lifetime opportunity. I've always been interested in the old west, wagon trains, settling new lands fighting for what's yours, that sort of thing. We're not quitters, hell! Just living on a new planet in a galaxy far far away, is the stuff of high adventure."
"Well that certainly takes a load off my mind," replied Matt, I'm hoping that any day now the trading company people will show up. They promised me a fully staffed clinic as part of their planetary "improvement" program, kinda like the old Peace Corps if you ask me. The thing that does concern me besides these raider attacks is getting some sort of spacecraft to go pick all the volunteers up Mr. Janson promised me."
"Well is there anyone you know that has a ship that could cart all those people up here?" Asked Mrs. Dyson.
"Not directly, but I've got a lot of friends with connections."
"How about Kaitlyn?" Asked Liam.
"My thoughts exactly," he replied. Of course, they won't do it for free, I told Janson it would cost, but it's certainly a quick way to get a bunch of earth people out here in space, and on a habitable planet to boot. Right now though, we're still kinda stuck until Amber and Gandric get back."
In the days that followed, Jezang moved the crawler into town parking it down near where the two burned down houses used to stand. Clath talked about fitting it with some type of blade so they could clear land and push the remains of the burned houses into a pile. However most of the time they spent examining the crashed raider ship and how its engines could be converted to become their power plant.
Chapter 112
Titan Stand Chapter 112
Matt, Liam and Walter stood silently as they watched the sun come up.
"This place is so weird," commented Liam, "Who ever heard of an orange colored sky?"
"Matt turned to him,
"You guys are going to see a lot of strange shit out here, so I know you just got here and all but have you guys thought about staying?" Walter guffawed,
"I don't know about Liam here, but I'm in this for the long haul Matt, you know that. Mr. and Mrs. Dyson are too. We've got a lot of faith in you."
"Yeah, well I'm thinking about these damn raiders," replied Matt, "I'm pretty sure they've figured out my connection to Holliqua, and therefore the Malhazars. We beat them back this time but what about the next time?"
"I don't think you need to worry about them anymore," came a voice behind them. It was Holliqua, Matt spun around, stared at her for a moment then embraced her as both kissed.
"When did you get here?" He gasped, "I didn't hear you." She snickered, as she pointed to the far meadow.
"My ship is out there, silly, the engines are specially designed not to make much noise." She then turned to Liam with a grin.
"Ilmi is with me Liam, right now she's watching things back at the ship."
"God I was so worried about you Holliqua," exclaimed Matt, "I'm pretty sure the raiders were here to kidnap me in order to get to you." She studied him for a moment then sighed.
"Well, you're right Matt, in fact there's a price on your head. Right now things are pretty crazy out there. I can't tell you what I've been doing other than as you humans like to say, "dishing it out" to the raiders. Right now we've got them bottled up on Tumar-Ju. We pushed them out of the old mining station over Keltrin 7, however many have returned to the Thovan system where Bline-Aichel used to be. Look Matt, we really gave these people a real drubbing, so much so the trading company is on our case, but I came here to tell you to watch your back."
"You say Ilmi is here?" Inquired Liam, Holliqua gave him a wan smile,
"I told yo she was out there at the ship, we aren't going to be here that long, so you might want to go see her."
"Take the "Gator" replied Matt.
Walter could see they had things to discuss, so he excused himself, and wandered back towards town.
Holliqua and Matt sat down on a bench as she frowned.
"We're not going to be here long, there's still a few loose ends to tie up but I promise that soon I'll be back and we can spend more time together." As she said that, Holliqua gently ran her fingers over his face.
"So you Malhazars have basically stirred up the raider hornet's nest pissed everyone off, and now I've got a big red target painted on my back." Instantly her expression changed.
"Now look Matt, we are only doing what we have to do, I suppose you'd do it differently?" He thought a moment then shrugged his shoulders and sighed.
"No…No, I guess not, I suppose if those girls were part of my family I'd get pretty "old testament," too. Thing is, I don't like being the target, Holliqua, and on top of that, my friends got hurt in the process as well."
"On no was anyone seriously injured or killed?" She quickly asked.
"No Walter was hurt the worst, but Doctor Dyson is treating him with some of that Xalmac cream…Seems to work pretty good, he'll be all right. But I'm worried about the next time." No one spoke for a few moments until Holliqua said,
"If you like I could probably get a small reaction team to hang
around for awhile." Matt gave her a puzzled look,
"Reaction team, what's that?"
"Remember when you ran into us on Tumar-Ju?"
"Yeah,"
"That's basically what a reaction team is, although in this case they would probably be armed a little better."
"So what's this involve on my part?" Asked Matt,
Holliqua smiled then kissed him,
"Your in luck dear Matt, because it pays to be the lover of someone with let's say…Influence. It won't cost you a thing, you wont even have to house them. They will land at an inconspicuous spot, set up camp and basically keep an eye on things."