Soldiers of Fortune

by Joshua Dalzelle

  "I'm going to set her down in that clearing we spotted from orbit; the basin that was twelve klicks from the house," Jason announced as he slowed even further and let the ship coast in on the momentum it already had.

  "Copy that," Kage said. "Doc, better ping our contact and let them know tonight is the night and we're already inbound."

  "Right you are," Doc answered, turning towards the console he was sitting at and entering the commands to activate the ship's com array. The crew fell silent once again as the seconds counted down and the tension ticked up. Without warning, Jason cycled the landing gear and brought the nose up, flaring the ship to slow it without needing to apply any retro-thrust. He allowed the Phoenix to settle into a steady hover on her grav emitters over a large, depressed field that he could see through his enhanced sight, but was otherwise completely obscured by the fog and night. He began to incrementally scale back the power being fed to the grav emitters and let the ship slowly sink through the fog until only the tips of the vertical stabilizers were showing as it touched down.

  "Launch the twins," Jason said as he placed the engines in *STANDBY* and leveled out the landing gear. "I need eyes on target before I risk rolling in there." At his command, two panels slid back on the forward part of the hull on either side of the backbone and, with two loud pops, a pair of sleek, autonomous probes launched themselves into the air and zipped off quietly into the night. They were semi-intelligent, but not self-aware. They would hold pattern over the target and provide the team with real-time visual intel as they approached. Once the “twins” were gone, a deathly silence descended over the small valley. "Kage, you have the hot seat. Doc, Twingo; stay up here and monitor things. Also, shut the grav drive down completely. I don't think we were detected coming in, but better safe than sorry."

  "You can count on it, Captain," Twingo said. Kage moved around and hopped into the vacated pilot seat as Jason left the bridge to join the rest of the ground team in the ship's armory. He quickly descended the stairs from the upper command deck and broke into a jog through the galley/common area. Walking down another short flight of stairs and through the engineering bay he found Crusher and Lucky in the armory nearly ready to depart. Actually, Crusher was still mulling over which assortment of weapons he wanted to take while Lucky, whose weapons were integrated into his very body, stood watching and giving helpful suggestions.

  "Just make sure you grab a stunner as well, Crusher," Jason said by way of greeting as he made his way over to his own bench and started stripping off his gray, utilitarian uniform that Omega Force had adopted as their standard attire while shipboard.

  "You know, it would be easier if..."

  "No killing. Remember last time? We need to get in and out without being identified, that means not leaving any unnecessary evidence. Like dead bodies," Jason said firmly. Crusher grumbled, but grabbed a stun rifle nonetheless. The fierce alien was sometimes a bit unpredictable once a fight started, but there was nobody else Jason would ever want watching his back.

  He looked over at Lucky and noted that the battlesynth had adjusted the coloration of his armor plating to a foliage camouflage pattern. Jason was sure it was just so he could feel like he was also a part of the preparations. Although he was an incredibly powerful soldier from the moment he was brought online, in a lot of ways he was quite childlike. Jason marveled as he watched the synth's emotional growth as he found a home with Omega Force and the group of people who looked at him as a part of the family and not just a piece of ordinance. "You ready, big guy?" Jason asked.

  "Of course, Captain," Lucky replied. "In and out, piece of cake." Jason chuckled at that. In their time together it seemed the crew had been adopting a lot of Earth's idioms, probably from the Hollywood movies Jason watched in the common area during long slip-space flights.

  "Ok then... you two are going to be backup for this one. Lucky, I'm dropping you off one klick out. Crusher, you'll wait in the vehicle in case I can't bluff my way in," he said as he pulled on the black uniform of a Corran Internal Security officer.

  "We know the plan, Captain," Crusher rumbled. Then muttered, "We've only been over it twenty times."

  The trio exited the armory through the heavy blast doors that separated the room from the main cargo bay. Sitting in the hold, strapped to the deck with no less than two dozen straps, was a black, wheeled ground vehicle with Corran Internal Security emblazoned on the side along with that agency's crest. Jason, now looking the part of a CIS agent, climbed into the driver's seat while the other two unstrapped the vehicle before climbing in themselves.

  Once everyone was inside, they all sat in silence for a long moment, looking at each other. Jason sighed, got back out of the van, and walked over to the control panel to lower the ramp and open the cargo bay to the night. As he climbed back in he could tell from the stunted silence that they had been laughing at him. He refused to acknowledge them as he engaged the vehicle’s drive and eased down the ramp and into the grassy clearing.

  They had picked this landing zone for a few critical reasons: it offered excellent concealment for the Phoenix, it was close (but not too close) to their target, and it had a path that led to the main road that was traversable by their ground vehicle. The high moisture content in the air meant a heavy dew that evening and the vehicle's wheels slipped and struggled for traction in the grass, but they were soon easing up to the edge of the road without Jason having had to make his friends get out to push.

  After sitting on the side of the road for nearly ten minutes, listening to the insects of the night sing away, Doc contacted them via Lucky's com node and gave them the go ahead to begin the op; their contact had pinged back confirming they were ready. Once they were on the road and up to speed, Jason flipped on the marker lights and tried to drive as if he belonged there. He forced the tension out of his bunched shoulders as he realized they were still fifteen minutes away from their objective at their current speed.

  The trio rode in a relaxed, alert silence as the “van”, as Jason insisted on calling it, rolled down the road on its ultra-quiet electric drive system. He slowed to a little under thirty KPH when they were one kilometer, or "klick," away from their target and signaled to Lucky. The synth wordlessly slid open the side door and launched himself from the moving vehicle, rolling once and coming up in a full run before plunging into the forest and disappearing completely into the dense undergrowth. Crusher looked at him with one raised eyebrow.

  “I know I could have stopped… but you have to admit, that was pretty fucking cool,” Jason said. Crusher just grunted. There was an unspoken competitiveness between the two warriors and Lucky’s leap from a moving vehicle meant that Jason could look forward to something similarly spectacular from his other crewmate in the near future.

  As they rolled up to their target, a well appointed two-story residence with a gated driveway, they could see another vehicle, almost identical to their own, parked in front of the house. There was another non-descript vehicle parked in the shadows further down the street. Before Jason could enter the code he'd been given the gate began to roll aside to allow them entry and a real CIS agent exited the vehicle parked by the house.

  Rolling up slowly, Jason put his uniform hat on and motioned Crusher to stay down in the back. Exiting the vehicle, he was struck at how similar to humans the Corranian were, and it gave him a sudden twinge of homesickness. The relaxed manner in which the agent approached Jason let him know that his cover was still intact and the Corranian thought he was simply the relief shift. "Not a great night to pull swing shift," the agent said, gesturing to the weather. "How are things, Agent..."

  "Burke," Jason supplied.

  "Burke? An odd name. Where are you from?"

  "The highlands of the Eastern Continent," Jason said smoothly. The agent before him froze, however, and stiffened visibly. Jason realized his mistake too late, even though the translator implanted in his head (and likely in the agent's as well) would allow them to understand each other, his mouth movemen
ts made it apparent he wasn't speaking Corran or Jenovian Standard, the accepted cross-system language in that part of the galaxy.

  To his credit, the agent didn't hesitate at all and swung out with his right fist directly at Jason's head. The Corranians were on par with humans in physical strength, but Jason had been enhanced both biomechanically and genetically over the last year and he was more than a match for the native. He jerked his head back and the punch swung wide, missing him entirely. He moved in swiftly and crashed his elbow viciously into the Corranian's temple, dropping him into a heap. He barely registered that the vehicle on the road was approaching rapidly; that was what Crusher was there for. Instead, he drew his sidearm, set to incapacitate, and looked for the second agent he knew would have been with the one that was laying at his feet.

  He saw the far door of the vehicle standing open and knew the agent had fled. One of the twins was overhead jamming com transmissions, but if he was able to get off the property or find a hard line and call for help, things would get very bad, very quickly. He moved swiftly around the side of the house, following the path he knew his quarry must have taken. Viewing the yard and the surrounding woods in infrared, Jason couldn't see any trace of the agent. Shit. He was about to turn the corner and move along the rear of the house when he heard a sharp cry and the sound of a body hitting the ground. Breaking into a run he came around in time to see Lucky standing over an unconscious CIS agent near the rear security wall.

  "He was trying to come over the wall," the synth explained. "I stunned him, but he fell off before I could grab him. He may be injured," he finished apologetically.

  "No worries. Injured isn't dead and we knew there would be some collateral damage. Grab him and let's get around to the front and help Crusher." Jason turned and ran back to the front of the house, the synth easily keeping pace while carrying the injured agent. When they came within view of the front gate they saw their comrade needed no backup; Crusher was leaning casually against their fake CIS van while looking at four neatly lined up agents in full "battle rattle." While the two at the house were your average, uniformed cops, the four in the driveway looked to be the CIS equivalent to SWAT on Earth.

  "Nicely done, boys. I'm going up to the house to make contact. You two range out and check the property one more time, meet back here in ten," Jason said, straightening out his uniform jacket.

  "Let's be quick about it," Crusher rumbled. "I can't say for sure, but I think one of these guys may have gotten a message out before I could hit him."

  "That doesn't give us a lot of time," Jason agreed. "Let's get to it."

  He approached the house warily. Although the people here were expecting him, he didn't want any misunderstandings with a trigger-happy servant. Knocking twice on the door, pausing, and then twice more, he was relieved when it was opened immediately. If he didn't know better, Jason would swear the person standing in front of him was a human male in his late fifties. Incredible.

  "Yes?"

  "Senator Hallis Vongaard?" Jason asked.

  "Of course. What do you want?" Senator Vongaard snapped irritably.

  "Prime Minister Colleston sends his regards, sir." The words had no sooner left Jason's mouth when a look of overwhelming relief crossed the senator's face. He opened the door wide and invited the human into his home.

  "Thank the Creators! I had gotten the signal that tonight was the extraction, but I didn't know what to expect. Who would you be, son?"

  "I'm Captain Burke of Omega Force, we're here to get you and your family out as soon as possible. We received intel that negotiations have broken down and dissidents are to be rounded up soon, and I doubt it's for a picnic." He looked around, taking in his surroundings as he spoke. "Please get your family and get them outside, we'll be leaving in a few minutes." Without waiting for a response, he went back outside to take up a watch of the front gate while Crusher and Lucky patrolled the rest of the property.

  It was nearly fifteen minutes later when Senator Vongaard led out his family: three females, one of whom appeared to be a teenager in a surly mood, judging by the hostile glare she gave Jason. "Captain Burke, I apologize for the delay. You know how it is with daughters... sometimes they don't fully understand the dangers."

  "Thankfully, I don't," Jason said. He hit the transmit button on his com unit to recall his friends and began herding the civilians into the van. "If you would all please pile in and get seated, we'll be on our way momentarily." Things seemed to be going relatively smoothly, so he was hardly surprised when his com unit chirped an incoming signal even as Crusher and Lucky ran up to him from opposite ends of the property. "Go," he said.

  "Captain," Kage began, "you've got to get out of there. CIS is scrambling a fast-response team to your position. Their agents failed to check in so they're assuming the worst, they have orders to kill everyone on site who isn't an agent." Jason was genuinely shocked at that last bit. These guys don't fuck around with their internal politics.

  "We're on our way. Get the ship ready to fly, I want to be in the air less than thirty seconds after we arrive," Jason terminated the signal before Kage could reply. He poked his head into the van, "New development; CIS has dispatched a kill-team to this location to take out everyone on the property that isn't an agent, I assume this means you as well. This may get a bit bumpy." He could see the Senator and his wife blanche at the news while the oldest daughter rolled her eyes and sucked in a breath to express her skepticism. She was cowed into silence, however, as Crusher and Lucky climbed into the van. The interior of the vehicle seemed to shrink considerable as they bunched up into seats that were too small for them. Jason grinned tightly and hopped into the driver's seat, wanting to be well away from the house by the time the fast-response team arrived.

  Wasting no time, he pulled the van out onto the street and stomped down the throttle, but with the additional four people and their sparse luggage, the acceleration was tepid. They had made it nearly three kilometers before Jason began to relax, but it would be short-lived; he could see in the rear-view monitor that another vehicle was approaching at high speed. He had no doubt who was in it, and he also knew he had no hope of outrunning them in the overloaded, wallowing van. "We've got company, boys," he said to Lucky and Crusher. "Do your thing."

  Grinning a feral smile that promised violence, Crusher slid open one of the side doors and leaned out with a wicked looking plasma rifle. Lucky slid open the roof panel and stood up, energizing his integrated weapons as he did. Crusher got the first shots off; three impressively placed blasts that impacted the windscreen and the left, front wheel. The wheel exploded and the vehicle yawed violently before rolling onto its side and sliding to a stop in a cascade of sparks.

  Crusher smiled at Lucky as he slid the door closed, "You need to be quicker on the draw to beat me, my friend."

  "So it would appear," Lucky said as he sat back down. Jason could see his armament was still powered up and appreciated his prudence, no telling what awaited them now that the op had gone to hell. Nearly missing the turnoff, he slammed on the brakes, failing to warn his passengers first, and pulled the van off onto an unmarked path that led into the dark, misty forest. He could see the apprehension on the faces of his passengers as the van bounced over the uneven terrain at a semi-safe speed.

  As Jason rolled the vehicle up to the Phoenix's lowered cargo ramp he could see the engines were glowing a muted red, ready to be engaged at the touch of a button. Her grav-emitters, which ran the length of the trailing edges of the wings, were still dark, however. As he shut the van off he could hear and feel the pulsating hum of the engines. "We need to hurry, folks. Grab your bags and please make your way up the ramp as quickly as you can. Lucky, get up to the bridge and tell Twingo to start prepping for an emergency start of the slip-drive."

  "At once, Captain," Lucky said, bounding up the ramp and into the ship. Jason looked back and could see that the family of the Senator was extremely distressed after the exchange of fire on the roadway. Crusher, being sur
prisingly gentle, was herding them out of the van and up the ramp.

  "Take them up to the bridge and strap them in, Crusher. This is likely to get bumpy. Again," Jason said. Crusher simply nodded and led the four Corranians into the gunship's interior. Jason quickly went about wiring up the van with a series of thermite charges that would reduce the vehicle to a lump of molten slag. He set the remote and walked up the ramp himself.

  Chapter 2

  Senior Agent Caalum of the CIS sat in the passenger seat of the ground vehicle pensively. He was in charge of a two-vehicle convoy that was meant to back up the initial assault team that had been dispatched to the home of the traitor, Senator Vongaard. While he was surprised that the call to apprehend the Senator came at the late hour it did, he was thankful he was on duty at the time. The surveillance team had called in suspicious activity before they had lost contact, then the assault team also went silent, so he decided to move on the house himself.