Price of Freedom: Age of Expansion - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (The Bad Company Book 3)

by Craig Martelle

  “Why would I give such a stupid order?” TH whispered back.

  Char raised one eyebrow. “We have to fight the war. You need to let the others fight the battles.”

  “Sounds like someone smart said that,” Terry replied, knowing that was what he’d told her earlier in the week.

  “Something like that.” Char’s purple eyes sparkled before she returned her attention to the spinning globe.

  “Logistics?” Marcie continued.

  Auburn didn’t stand, but pulled a pad from his pocket that looked similar to those the captives from the Alchon mission used.

  “We are pre-loading a number of ballistic cans right now. I’m going to increase the amount of water we send down with you, and the amount in the resupply. What are the temperatures in the hot zone?”

  “Hell. As hot as the Wastelands back on Earth. Daytime temps up to one hundred forty degrees Fahrenheit, sixty degrees Celsius.”

  The Weres cringed. Their nanocytes kept their body temperatures high, so they couldn’t function as well in the heat. Char blew out a long breath. “You may want to rethink who gets suits and where we’ll deploy.”

  Christina winced and her forehead creased as she considered working in the extreme heat. She didn’t know how her were body would respond.

  Terry stood and started to pace, weaving between his family and friends. “First and foremost, we have to stop more of the creatures—the aliens, the devils, whatever we want to call them—from coming through the interdimensional portal.” Terry stopped and shook his head. “I never imagined saying those words. We’re in space, fighting for universal peace. We’re preparing to fight the devil himself, it looks like. And you know what?”

  The group was used to Terry’s speeches, but they listened intently because the words kept them grounded. No fortune and no glory.

  “We’re going to deliver humanity’s single greatest export—a healthy dose of justice. You don’t come to our dimension and start wreaking havoc. Fark these guys!” Terry looked down at the table.

  “Fark?” Joseph asked.

  Terry shrugged. “Give me some credit for trying,” he mumbled.

  Ramses shook his head as he started scribbling in his notepad. He stopped for a moment, shook his pen at TH, and went back to writing.

  Terry stood up straight and resumed the planning session. “We’re going to close the portal first, then it becomes a search-and-destroy mission. All hands will engage in the primary mission before we break into teams to go after them one by one.”

  “What if they surrender?” Joseph asked.

  “A good question, Joseph. I don’t see it, but as General Dwight D. Eisenhower said, ‘In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.’ We will plan, but flex when the time comes.”

  “We can bring them to a central location as prisoners,” Marcie suggested. She sat twiddling her thumbs with her fingers laced as she thought through the issue. “We’ll put them at our landing site, wherever that may be, then hopefully we can hand them off to the Benitons. The last thing I want to do is hop a shuttle with a devil on board.”

  “I can’t stop hearing the song Highway to Hell,” Terry said as he bobbed his head to the music playing in his mind.

  “I thought it was just me,” Char confided out of the corner of her mouth.

  “Dokken, you’re going with us.” Terry’s face turned serious. “We may need your tracking expertise to hunt down the devils if they scatter and run.”

  The German Shepherd contemplated the order. When do I get my spacesuit?

  Terry turned to Auburn.

  “What?” the man asked.

  “Oh, sorry. You didn’t hear. Dokken asked when his spacesuit was going to be ready,” Terry clarified.

  Auburn double-checked his pad before meeting Terry’s gaze. “Probably not before this mission is over. Sorry.”

  “We’ll make do. Next time we have to operate in space, buddy, you’ll be there with us. Can you operate a jetpack?”

  Dokken turned his head sideways before flopping to the floor, putting his head between his paws, and looking up with droopy eyes. Terry had to pace the other way so he didn’t step on the dog.

  He hesitated. “Sometimes you just have to stop and revel in the absurdity of it all.” The others eyed TH. They all had the same question, and he answered it before anyone asked. “Don’t step on the dog, who’s intelligent and miffed because his spacesuit won’t be ready for this mission—a mission where we have to fly a bazillion light years through space to remove and eliminate horned red-skinned devils from the very flames of hell. That’s all we have to do, and it’s not absurd at all.”

  ***

  Sixteen warriors tensed within their powered and armored suits as the hangar bay door opened. They activated the magnetic clamps on their boots before the artificial gravity was turned off.

  “Capples, Kelly, and Praeter, take your squads outside and execute the training maneuvers. My squad, standby,” Kae ordered.

  The squad leaders affirmed the order.

  “Second Mech Squad, portside egress. Follow my lead.” Capples unlocked his boots and floated into the air, and with deft use of his jets he slowly maneuvered toward open space. His three warriors took off and arranged themselves into a diamond formation behind their squad leader. One left, one right, and one bringing up the rear directly behind the leader.

  “Capples’ Commandos are underway,” Kae reported as the first group departed. “Next up, Kelly’s Heroes.”

  Kae had been engrossed in watching old television programming that the new technology made available. New to him, old to others, but still fresh.

  He’d fallen in love with Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, but had only watched the movie. TH had gasped when he had heard that, and told Kae to read the book. Kae hadn’t; he had opted to watch the animated series instead. Rico’s Roughnecks resonated.

  So he had given each of the mech squads a name that would remain as long as the squad leader was in place. The squad’s legacy was tied to the person in charge. If they moved up and someone else took over, the legacy would start fresh.

  Kelly jumped into the air to kickstart her jets, but she almost lost control as the suit rocketed toward the hangar’s ceiling. She tucked, rolled, and landed feet-first, then flexed her knees and pushed off, using her jets to swoop past the other mechs. Her team joined her and the four raced out of the hangar bay, making a wide arc and disappearing to the ship’s starboard side.

  “Praeter’s Predators: let’s see what you got!” Kae called, bad grammar and all.

  “Predators, on my mark. Three. Two. One.” Together they slowly rose into the air, rotated as one, and accelerated toward the black maw of space. As they moved, they spread apart like the petals of a blossoming flower.

  “Very nice, Corporal Praeter. You other meatheads need to see how it’s supposed to be done, so watch this!”

  Three squads chuckled together.

  “Come on, Knights, our turn.” Kae held up a hand, counting down with his fingers. The mechs unclamped and drifted upward, rotated horizontal to the deck, and slowly maneuvered from the hangar bay. Kaeden watched the icons representing the three other warriors of his squad on his heads-up display. They fell in behind him in diamond formation and raced into open space.

  “I’m not sure I like the name, boss. Your name, sure, but Kae’s Knights doesn’t have a ring to it,” Gomez said.

  “I know what you mean. Kae’s Killers? Kae-Cophony? Kae’s Crushers?”

  “What the hell does Kae-Cophony mean?”

  “Cacophony. Discordance of sound. Disruption.”

  “Now I get it, but will anyone else?” Gomez pressed.

  “Damn! You’re a hard man, Gomez, but I like it. Disruption, as in tearing up the enemy without being labeled as killers. Poddern soured me on that one.”

  Gomez, at Kae’s six o’clock—the rear position of the diamond formation—didn’t answer. They�
��d swept downward and were racing along the War Axe’s keel. The newly labeled Kae-Cophony was about to get busy.

  “First stop, the rear engine housing for mock explosives placement,” Kae recited the training mission’s parameters. He was in charge, but each team had its own mission and operated independently. For Kae to reassert control over the other teams, something would have to go wrong or the squads needed to coalesce to mass firepower.

  Something they could have used on Poddern. Fleeter still wasn’t right, although all her limbs and faculties were intact. She was on board the War Axe at her request, but wasn’t required to participate in anything except her sessions with the ship’s therapist—who also happened to be the head chef.

  Jenelope was sometimes handed people who had trouble of one type or another. She’d put them to work in the kitchen, and they’d talk. No one knew if Jenelope had a degree in therapy, and no one cared. She was effective.

  I hope it works out, Fleeter. We want you back in the ranks, Kae thought as his team slowed their approach to the massive engine housings at the War Axe’s stern. He shook off his reverie and focused on the task at hand, knowing that both his father and wife were watching all four teams conduct the training missions.

  The Colonels Walton. He laughed to himself. Why am I having such a hard time concentrating? Dammit! I’m a risk to the mission, so let me change things up.

  “All hands, all hands, training mission change. My suit has undergone a catastrophic failure. You will act as if I cannot move or communicate. This is a training mission change. Kaeden out.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  The sixteen warriors stood in the mech storage area. Their suits had been cleaned, and were recharging.

  Terry, Char, and Marcie strolled in together. Kae nodded to his parents and smiled at his wife. She replied by raising one eyebrow.

  “Don’t tell me this is going to be one of those after-action reviews,” Kae grumbled.

  Marcie punched him in the chest before playfully pushing him aside. Terry and Char stepped into the spot he vacated.

  “Not bad at all,” Char started. “I liked how you stayed in formation during your maneuvers. I liked how you placed your explosives, two squads providing security and two doing the job. I don’t like how long it took, but practice makes perfect. You’ll do more explosives practice on the hangar deck, but you’ll do it with gravity in place. Kae, I liked the added pressure of the dead suit. Well done!”

  Kae smiled sheepishly. Marcie knew his facial expressions, so she suspected he was holding something back. She didn’t have to wait until they were alone to find out.

  What was that look you just gave me? she asked via her comm chip.

  Nothing. What do you mean? he replied.

  Out with it, Kae, Marcie said, wondering if the comm chip properly captured the blend of her wife’s and colonel’s voices.

  I couldn’t focus on the mission. I’m worried about Fleeter. I’m worried about this mission. And I’m bone-tired for some reason.

  Marcie nodded, squeezed Kae’s hand as she leaned against him, and turned her attention back to the debriefing.

  “The suits are going to be our future,” Terry professed. He inhaled deeply, drawing the air in slowly. He could smell the technology, the metal, the ozone, the cleansers. “The firepower at our command is more than just impressive. It can alter the outcome of any campaign. Look at what we have accomplished—flying through space, engaging an ogre-style tank, fighting a dug-in enemy with advanced weaponry, and more. I don’t hesitate to say that with a platoon of these, we can unleash Armageddon on any enemy.”

  “Unless the enemy has mechs too,” Kae said softly, although it sounded loud in the silence.

  “And when that time comes, we’ll be ready. It’s not just the power of these suits. We will always be better because of our training and our minds. All Ten had to do was seal the airlocks and our last mission would have been stillborn. As Timmons and his team discovered, there’s nothing that will render you combat-ineffective more quickly than trying to hang on to the outside of a starship speeding through space. Ten simply didn’t contemplate the possibility of such an attack.”

  Marcie would have walked away to take the floor, but Kaeden leaned more heavily against her until she was almost completely supporting his weight. She tried to look casual as she talked.

  “When we go to war, we are in it to win. I’ve been using the Federation’s extensive libraries to study battles throughout history. We don’t have to kill the enemy soldiers, we just have to eliminate their will to fight. The mechs can tie down an army while we conduct surgical small-unit strikes against enemy logistics and their leadership. When we cut Ten’s umbilical cord, all those men and the ships’ weaponry became useless. After that we mopped up at little risk to our warriors, and now we have added their ships to our fleet.”

  Marcie stopped, unsure how she wanted to complete her thought, and Kae’s eyes rolled back in his head as he slumped.

  “What’s wrong with him?” Terry asked, jumping forward to help carry his son. Char was instantly there, too.

  “Sickbay,” Terry declared after a close look at his son.

  Marcie didn’t hesitate. She heaved Kae over her shoulder and started jogging.

  “Gomez, take over,” Terry ordered over his shoulder as the group disappeared into the corridor. The fifteen remaining warriors stood in stunned silence.

  Enhanced people didn’t get sick and pass out.

  Keeg Station

  “Do you know why they haven’t left yet?” Sue asked. The War Axe held its position nearby.

  Timmons had gone to Sheri’s Pride to oversee the installation of Federation hardware to make the ship compatible with Bad Company operations. The gravitic technology on board needed upgrading as well. The new hardware hadn’t arrived yet, but Timmons was setting everything up for plug and play when it did, while simultaneously trying to show the men how things worked in their new world.

  It had only been two days.

  “The mountain of enlightenment is steep and reaches to the heavens.” Sue put her hand on the window as if she could touch her mate.

  “I think we need to go over there and start beating some sense into those men,” Felicity drawled from behind her desk. A cup of coffee sat in front of her. It was the synthesized stuff, but still better than anything they’d had back on Earth until Terry’s exploits in the Caribbean had made it possible to bring the occasional bean back to North Chicago. “It’s about that time.”

  Sue nodded. The two women weren’t making much progress, but they finally had help.

  “Dionysus, if you would be so kind, please connect us with Sheri’s Pride and stand by to run your first video,” Felicity instructed the AI.

  “I am at your command. May I say that you look simply magnificent today, Madam Director? Radiant as always,” Dionysus replied.

  Sue slowly turned and gave Felicity the hairy eyeball.

  “What? Ted programmed Dion’s stepdaddy, so it’s filling in since Ted is gone.”

  “Ted has never ever in all his existence complimented anyone on how they looked.”

  Felicity smiled slyly.

  “No. Don’t you tell me that!” Sue exclaimed with a grin. “My congratulations. I thought he was untrainable.”

  “It took a while,” Felicity drawled, “and he’s still a work in progress. I think the kids made the difference.”

  “How were you two able to have kids? Werewolves usually aren’t fertile.”

  “Maybe it was just meant to be,” Felicity replied before her attention was drawn to incessant beeping from her computer. “What?”

  “You’re broadcasting everything,” Timmons said in a hushed voice. “Do you really want to talk about bucking bologna pony rides in front of eleven hundred men who have never known a woman?”

  Felicity’s cheeks turned bright red and the color drained from Sue’s face.

  “Good morning,” Felicity said with a smile, working to rec
over her composure. “Today we’re going to start with a video which shows how co-workers should interact. We believe that showing you is far better than trying to tell you. Dionysus, please roll the film.”

  The AI replaced the station director’s image with a video of two male workers with toolboxes in a corridor. They worked on a junction box together, talking through the procedure for replacement. When they were done, one thanked the other and they each went their own way. A similar video cued up next, but this time one of the workers was female. Everything in the video was identical except the second worker’s sex.

  When the clip finished, Felicity’s image reappeared onscreen. The men on the ship were seated at the tables watching her, and an inset on her screen showed what they were seeing. Sue finally moved into view, waving over Felicity’s shoulder.

  “See, gentlemen? That was how an interaction with a female co-worker should go. Treat us the same as you would a male, and you won’t have any problems,” Sue told them.

  Felicity was about to close the link when she saw someone in the crowd with their hand up.

  “You there, with your hand raised… Do you have a question?”

  “Why do women have long hair?”

  Felicity turned to look at Sue, who was self-consciously pulling her long blonde hair back. The director looked back at the screen, resisting the urge to tuck her hair behind her ear. “It’s a freedom that we enjoy. There are men with long hair, too,” she said weakly.

  “Not here. If women want to be treated the same, they should look the same,” the man countered.

  Felicity started to panic. “That’s not how it works. Everyone is different!”

  The man waved his arm to take in the mass of bodies on Sheri’s Pride. “Men.” He pointed at the screen. “Women. And if you want us to keep working, we need women!”

  Sue’s comm device buzzed, and she casually sidestepped until she was out of the camera’s eye.

  Timmons.

  “Yes?” Sue asked quietly.

  “Way to go. You’ve started a riot.” Timmons clicked off.

  “Guards, please reassert control, but don’t hurt any of them. This isn’t their fault.” Felicity turned off the camera.