After that, the Diligent, and much of the Eshquarian fleet, had arrived and took care of the rest. The repeated message Doc had set up had been received, but they had already suffered damage to their own com array before the reply had come back.
"So how is he doing?" Colleston's question snapped Jason back from his thoughts.
"Pretty well, considering. He's still pissed at me. The damage to his ears from being near the business end of the railgun was irreparable. He'll be here for a bit longer while they clone replacement parts and install them."
"Colorful imagery," Colleston laughed. "We've been able to fully treat Lucky's... injury... as well. Witnesses on the ground are saying he was a force of nature, engaging two full loads of Dowarty's mercenaries and still not going down. His damage was really more superficial than functional, luckily we have someone here who can actually work on his kind."
"That is fortunate," Jason agreed. He chaffed at the slow pace, but was happy to be walking, or breathing, at all. "So what was this all about? What would the death of an entire planet prove?"
"It wasn't about proving anything," Colleston said sadly. "It was about leverage. Certain factions within our government would like nothing more than to merge with the Confederation, but it's a losing proposition for us: lose out sovereignty, pay an enormous tax, and for what? The privilege of being governed from afar?"
"Then why would anybody advocate that?"
"Same reason most politicians do anything: personal gain. The ConFed promised lavish rewards to whoever could deliver Eshquaria into the fold. If you hadn't seen Kross on that station we'd have never known where to start in cleaning out our own house," the Prime Minister paused and looked over the well manicured lawn the path meandered through. "We've arrested seven legislators on charges of treason and three others have disappeared, that's on top of grabbing Kross and Dowarty. Apparently the attacks on our shipping lanes weren't getting the job of convincing our citizens we couldn't protect them done fast enough, so they authorized Dowarty to pull off an act of terrorism that could tip the scale of public opinion in their favor."
"Wow," Jason mused. "There are people who would kill millions to get some shiny trinket from their would-be masters? It's hard to wrap my head around."
"It's the rarified air of living in the capital. The lives of the ordinary citizens become less and less significant when compared to their own personal ambitions," Colleston answered. "That's why we're introducing legislation that will require representatives to live in their districts at least ninety percent of the time. Maybe being around their constituents so much will remind them why they're here."
"Good luck with that," Jason said as they approached another pair waiting by an open aircar that was parked on the lawn .
"...look into it. But you realize she'll be almost impossible to track down if she's gone underground," Crisstof Dalton was saying.
"I understand," Doc answered. "Anything you can do. Jason! It's good to see you up and about!"
"You as well," Jason said to his friend, pretending he hadn't overheard part of his conversation. "Apparently without all of your tweaks to my body, I'd have been dead and gone before the Diligent arrived." Doc's answer was cut off as an indignant shout interrupted them.
"I can walk myself! Let me out of this contraption at once!" They all turned to see Crusher being ferried in a hovering medical chair from the building nearest them, he appeared to be restrained. The Galvetic warrior had taken a full blast from the large plasma cannon in the back and then a glancing shot to the chest when he fell. Despite all that, he still had enough fight left in him to hurl a heavy blade clean through the soldier that was about to execute Jason. The medical technician pushed Crusher up to the small group.
"He's all yours," the man said, completely oblivious to his Prime Minister standing right there as he turned and fled before Crusher could be let up out of the chair. The big warrior turned a vicious glare on his friends;
"Do I even need to say it?"
"No, just take it easy and quit scaring everybody," Doc admonished him as he moved around to the back of the chair and popped the restraints off. Crusher slowly stood up out of the chair and stretched his back with a loud pop.
"How're you feeling?" Jason asked.
"Better, now. I should be one-hundred percent in a couple days or so," he answered. Jason knew better than to argue with him, so he smiled indulgently and gestured for them all to get into the aircar.
"So where did Dowarty come from? He was more than just some local organizer," Jason asked once the aircar was climbing up and away from the medical center.
"The best we can tell, he's a ConFed operative. Beyond that, we're hoping the investigation will turn up who was pulling his strings and paying for his operation," Crisstof answered. "I know he's been out here on the fringe for a while running his own little kingdom, so it's possible he went rogue." Jason highly doubted it, but said nothing as the Eshquarian capital city gave way to the outlying industrial areas.
The aircar descended to a soft landing in front of one of the non-descript, albeit quite large, buildings that seemed to dot the landscape. All the occupants climbed out, the members of Omega Force quite a bit slower than the others, and entered through a door that was guarded by two visibly armed Eshquarian Security troopers.
They followed another guard that had been waiting inside to a large lift and began the descent below ground level in silence. After a moment the Prime Minister spoke up, "Are you sure there isn't anything more we can do for you and your crew, Captain?" Before Jason could answer the lift stopped and the doors slid open. His heart caught in his throat at the view; amongst all the scaffolding, and a veritable army of engineers and technicians, was the Phoenix, her burnished hull gleaming under the bright flood lights. Yelling orders and gesturing wildly on the floor was a hobbled, but still feisty Twingo, refusing to sit in a hospital while his ship was being brought back to life.
"No, Mr. Prime Minister," Jason said with a smile. "We have all we need."
From the ashes once again, eh girl?
Epilogue:
"Gunship-class vessel, Phoenix, you are clear to enter the range hot. Proceed when ready."
"Phoenix copies," Jason said, "We're in hot." Pushing his ship into a steep dive, he slammed the throttle down and smiled in satisfaction as she surged through the crisp, cool air towards their objective. They were doing their last few shakedown runs at an Eshquarian military testing range before they finally departed the area.
When Jason had come around in the medical facility, he had been told that when the Eshquarians went to retrieve the Phoenix, they found the damage wasn't near as bad as it seemed. Prime Minister Colleston grandly offered him a choice: a brand new, top of the line ship, or they could rebuild the DL7. It was a no-brainer for Jason, and he suspected that if Colleston had known he would opt for the massively expensive rebuild of a thirteen year-old gunship over simply taking a new ship out of their own shipyards, he would have ordered the older ship scrapped while he still slept.
But, true to their word, the Eshquarians poured money and manpower into brining the ship back from the dead. Not only that, they upgraded nearly every system in the ship to the point where she was better than what was currently flying off of their own assembly lines. New, more powerful drives were fitted. An Eshquarian weapons suite that wasn't even available for outside purchase. A new computer core and sensor package... In every significant way, the DL7 was not the same ship it had been, and yet it was. Despite the impressive new systems, the Phoenix was still the seventh member of Omega Force, was still their home.
After he had completed a series of gut-wrenching maneuvers to test low-altitude handling, the smiles on the faces of his crew confirmed the wisdom of his decision. He let out a short laugh of and yanked the stick back, sending the Phoenix thundering into the darkening sky on her new main engines.
"Have you thought about my proposal?" Crisstof Dalton was sitting in one of the seats to Jason's left and
had taken all the violent maneuvering in stride. As he reconfigured the ship for a nice easy cruise out of the test range, Jason turned to the older man.
"Are you sure you want us working for you? Some of us aren't house broken."
"You wouldn't be 'working' for me," Crisstof corrected, puzzling through the meaning of being house broken. "I'd be sponsoring you. Your ideals, and even your methods are noble, Captain... but surely you've come to realize just how hard it is to operate a warship like this as a privateer. How long until you'd be forced to take a high-paying job that didn't necessarily align with your charter?
"Within my organization, so many small things fall through the cracks and we just can't justify the resources to help only a few people. I'd like you to be my solution to that problem. You'd still be completely independent, but I'd be able to suggest places where you might be helpful, and then provide the needed support."
"And if we want to walk away at some point?"
"You walk away," Crisstof confirmed. "No contracts, no agreements. Just a mutual trust that we're both wanting to accomplish the same thing." Jason gazed out through the new canopy as he contemplated the offer.
"What is Captain Colleren going to think about this?" Jason laughed aloud at the thought of the Diligent's uptight captain having to regard him as a colleague.
"It's something she'll have to become accustomed to," Crisstof said, trying to suppress his own laugh. "But know that your actions on Shorret-3 have earned you a great deal of respect from Captain Colleren. You may come to view her differently after a time."
Jason looked around at his crew, who were all looking back at him just as interestedly. He had already discussed this with them when Crisstof had first approached him and they had made it clear they would trust him to make the final decision. The fact that they still looked at him as the "Captain" after he had nearly gotten them all killed on the last mission humbled and honored him.
"Why not? We can give it a try, and if it doesn't work... no hard feelings." Crisstof looked visibly relieved at his answer. "So... what's our first job?" Jason joked with a laugh.
"I'm glad you asked," Crisstof said, pulling out a data tablet. "What do you guys know about the Tellefor System?"
Thank you for reading Omega Force: Soldiers of Fortune.
If you enjoyed the story, Captain Burke and the guys will be back in:
Omega Force: Savage Homecoming.
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Soldiers of Fortune Page 25