The Apex Warriors

by Marc Stevens

  Coonts and Sael ran to the hatch and looked into the corridor for more hostiles.

  “Clear!” Sael called out over our group comms.

  The bridge was now quiet as a tomb. Sael closed the hatch and we checked the bodies and recovered the reusable spikes. The Grawl I rammed into the control panel was bleeding out every orifice of his misshapen head. I kneeled next to his body and could see he wasn’t going to make it. As if my thought was his epitaph, his raspy breathing ceased and his bulbous head lulled to one side. Tria was watching my back as I checked the Grawl. I got up and went to her side, shaking my head negative. She pointed to the Grawl she threw into the pilot’s seats, he was still alive. He slowly sat upright groaning and shaking his head.

  Klutch stepped up close to us. “Commander, if you want to interrogate the prisoner uninterrupted, we should secure the outer corridor and the lifts.”

  I thought about that for a minute and put my hand on Tria’s shoulder. “You seem to have a much gentler touch than I do. See what he knows.”

  Tria mumbled something under her breath and gave me a push toward the hatch. I guess she had other plans but wasn’t going to argue about it.

  “Coonts, get to work on the instruments and shut down the ship's defensive systems. I will take Klutch and Sael to spread some goodwill. Comm me if you need anything. I don’t think we can stray very far.”

  Coonts acknowledged my order with a wave of his hand. I pointed at the hatch and Klutch gave me a thumbs up. Sael stacked behind me and I slapped Klutch on the shoulder. He opened the hatch and we went out into the corridor. Save for the body of the Tibor and the partially dissolved carcass of the combat mech, the passage was still vacant. There were four hatches between us and the lifts. We checked each and they were all unoccupied. We moved on to the lifts and Klutch took a quick peek down. Galactic Union gunships of the class that we were on, were similar in size to the Legacy and only had three decks. The bridge level, the crew level, and the lower deck that was comprised of a storage hold, a small hangar for a single armed transport shuttle, and the machine spaces. Klutch signaled Sael and me to hold. He cautiously went down to the crew deck. It was a good thing our cloaking and negation systems were several steps above the tech our adversaries possessed, or he would have got his ass shot up. Waiting on the crew deck was at least thirty hostiles. They were expecting to be boarded and were behind barricades with their weapons pointed into the lifts. The off-color emergency lighting helped enhance our cloaking, but the Troop Master wasn’t going to kick that hornet's nest. He saw all he needed to see and pushed off the wall to the other side of the lift where the gravity flowed upward. He came back up and stepped off onto the bridge deck.

  “What are you thinking Troop Master?”

  “That depends Commander. Let's find out what Coonts can do to distract their attention and I will plan accordingly.”

  I commed Coonts to find out if he could insert some additional trouble into the lives of the hostiles. “What have you got for me, Coonts?”

  “I have good news and bad news Commander. Which do you want first?”

  I hated that he started off with a multiple-choice question instead of a straight answer. “Give me the bad.”

  “I looked at a video feed of the hangar deck. The Grawl we want to question were issued pressurized cloak suits. Purging the atmosphere will not cause them harm, and will only alert the mercs that we have control of the bridge. The Tibor bodyguards have them holed up in a transport shuttle with the suspects from the battleship. They have six heavy combat mechs guarding the shuttle. There are forty-two armored and well-armed combatants preparing defenses to repel any boarding attempts. My guess is they are going to try to hold out until help arrives.”

  Coonts was correct, the news was not good. There was not an easy way to rectify the problem, but we have been in this situation a number of times. Eventually, we would get it worked out to our advantage, but it was going to take bloodshed to do it.

  When Coonts didn’t continue to elaborate, I got just a touch testy. “Are you going to give me the good news now, or do I have to guess?”

  The overmuscled Grawl acted like he was distracted and passed the buck. “Tria will give you the good news.”

  “Commander,” Tria said. “The gunship’s Captain revealed that Nassar is among the command personnel in the hangar. One of the Grawl with Nassar is his personal aid, and the other is the Captain of the Constellation class freighter. He did not know why the Rugerian’s were present but assumed they were Nassar’s personal bodyguards. He also confirms that only Glock and a single unidentified Ilor were rescued from the battleship.”

  “That is good news Tria. See if you can get him to divulge anything else of interest to us.”

  “That is no longer an option Commander. He is only going to be able to divulge his crimes to his maker. Coonts and I will be joining you shortly.”

  It wasn’t hard to guess why Coonts seemed so preoccupied. I wasn’t going to let Tria’s report distract me from my plans to retrieve as many of the hostiles as possible.

  I looked over at the Troop Master. He was having a conversation with Sael on a discreet comms channel.

  “I hope you two have got a plan that won’t involve killing everyone in the process?”

  Klutch finally nodded at Sael and turned to me. “Commander, the Senior Operative has suggested a plan that does not require us to go down and kick the scat out of everyone in the hold. I believe it has merit and we should have a conversation with Justice.”

  I was surprised that Klutch would say something like that. It was my belief that he liked nothing better than kicking the scat out of anyone that was considered our enemy.

  “Okay, let’s hear it before any more mercenaries show up to help them.”

  Klutch pointed at Sael and she stepped forward. “Commander. it is highly unlikely that we will get the individuals we seek to abandon the shuttle without a fight. As the Troop Master has pointed out, the mercenaries defending it, look like professionals that know what they are doing. I trust his assessment that we will have to kill all the troops and destroy the mechs before the occupants of the shuttle will consider surrendering. I have made the suggestion, that if we can’t get them out of the shuttle we should try taking the shuttle out of the gunship.”

  Coonts and Tria joined up with us while Sael was pitching her idea. Coonts cast some shade on the plan before I could comment. “That’s a good idea, but the mercs have disabled both the hangar and cargo hold doors. I was trying to find a way to override them from the bridge. It was a no go, we will have to blast them open.”

  “That’s why I thought we should have a discussion with Justice,” Klutch said. “He should have no problem coming up with a way to get the shuttle out of the hangar.”

  I looked at Sael and gave her a nod. “Excellent idea Senior Operative.”

  She put a couple of fingers to her helmet and tossed off a casual salute. “Only if it works,” She said.

  “Troop Master, get us off this tub.”

  Klutch gave me a thumbs up and we went back to the bridge. He went to the front view screen and pointed at the portal device. I nodded my approval and he activated the device and projected a good hole out of the bridge. As we lined up to follow him out, we had to step over the bodies of the bridge personnel. The captain was the last one we passed. He was missing an arm. The pieces of it were lying at his side. I no longer wondered how Tria got such good intel.

  No sooner than we cleared the bridge Justice scooped us up with the tow beam and put us down in the hangar. “Commander, I have IST comms traffic from your homeworld. Your patriarch wishes to speak with you. I informed him you were on a mission. What are your orders?”

  “There is a shuttle in the hangar of the gunship. If you download the intel from our armor you will have its exact location. It is my hope that you will be able to extract it from the gunship with minimal damage. It contains several of the fugitives we have been looking for. It is my d
esire to speak to each of them should they survive the ordeal.”

  “Affirmative Commander. I am familiar with the gunships superstructure and deck plan. Removing the shuttle intact should pose no problems.”

  We got a beautiful view of the disabled gunship out the hangar door as Justice dropped the Legacy level with it. The four rail cannons that were on each corner of the Legacy’s hangar door, popped out of their enclosed turrets. All four opened fire at a point that was fifty feet in front of the hangar. Huge plumes of debris jetted from the side of the vessel as Justice sawed it apart. The front half of the gunship tumbled away spewing sparks, smoke, bodies, and other assorted junk. Justice latched onto the shuttle and ripped it from the exposed hangar deck. Sending more bodies flying away into the void. The shields of the transport shuttle came up and it engaged its drives. Before it could attempt to fight its way out of the tow beam’s grip, Justice hit its aft shield with point-blank railgun fire from all four cannons. The shields failed seconds later, and Justice sheared the aft section off of the shuttle. It explosively decompressed and sent a number of the occupants out into the void. Justice snatched up five of them and set them down on the legacy’s hangar deck with a total disregard for gentleness. Most took a very unpleasant sounding bounce before coming to rest in a heap at our feet. We could identify them from their pressure suits. We had one Grawl, one Ilor, two Rugerian’s and a Coram. We were a couple of Grawl short.

  “Tria, would you and Sael please retrieve our two missing guests. Klutch, make sure they can get access to the flight deck and watch their backs. Coonts and I will take these others to the brig to join the rest of our guests.”

  Coonts and I inspected the prisoners. The Coram had weapons of every description adorning his armored pressure suit. One of his arms was bent under his body in a very unnatural way. It had to be broken at the shoulder and elbow. If this was the mercenary Glock, I wasn’t going to feel any pity for the pain it must be causing him. I reached down to disarm him when he rolled over and in the blink of an eye, drew a sidearm from a leg holster. I was still cloaked and he could not see me but could hear my boots on the deck. He turned the weapon in my direction and I caught his hand as he squeezed the trigger. The shot narrowly missed hitting Coonts in the back as knelt over one of the Rugerians. To his credit, he pretended not to notice. I gripped the Corams hand with both of mine and squeezed until my power assist servos gave me a yellow warning light in my HUD. There was a very audible pop and Glock’s armored gauntlet flattened and his pistol bent at the grip. He let out a scream that I cut short with a vicious backhand. The shot bounced his helmet off the deck hard enough to knock him senseless.

  Coonts shook his head negatively and turned to me. “This Rugerian is dead. He has a shrapnel breach in his armor.”

  I nodded and hooked my thumb over my shoulder at the open hangar door. Coonts dragged the corpse to the atmospheric retention field and kicked it out into the void. The Grawl on the deck moaned and rolled over. He slowly sat up looking at his surroundings. When it registered in his brain that he was no longer in the shuttle, he bolted for the open hangar door. Coonts caught him as he activated his cloak suit and tried to jump.

  He frisked him for weapons and called Justice. “This Throgg can go to the brig now.”

  Justice extruded an arm from the deck and snatched the Grawl up by his leg. I finished taking all of Glock’s weapons that I could find and told Justice to put him in the brig as well. They were both dragged by their feet out of the hangar and down the corridor toward the brig. They screamed and cursed the whole way. I went to the Ilor and snatched him up by the front of his pressure suit. He had twin holsters on his hips, but there were no weapons in them. Justice cued me in that the Ilor was playing possum. His respiration was at an elevated level and indicated he was awake and alert. The last time an Ilor played me for a fool, it was by Canik. The Throgg did a bloody good job of it too. The thought made me freeze.

  I called Justice on a discreet comms channel. “Can you compare the biometrics of this Ilor to the ones you recorded of Canik when he was our prisoner?”

  “I already have Commander. They are similar in many ways but the Ilor is not Canik. I would however like to point out, that the similarities are so pronounced that the possibility of the Ilor being a sibling of Canik is very high.”

  That was interesting but there was a chance Canik wouldn’t give two shits about his sibling. The murderous bastard didn’t seem to care about anyone but himself. It was something I would throw at the Ilor to see if he would try to deny it. The Ilor was on the battleship with Glock and the only other survivor. If Trantor Lux’s information was correct. That made this Ilor a representative of the Omega Syndicate. He was probably sent to ensure the business of the Syndicate was carried out as ordered. Trantor also said that Brimund Bruns was Caniks emissary. I had a feeling that emissary was not an accurate description of the work he did for Canik. He should be able to validate the information given to us by Trantor.

  I looked over at Coonts and he had stripped the surviving Rugerian of his weapons. Tria, Sael, and the Troop Master passed through the atmospheric retention field and set down on the hanger deck. Tria and Sael each had a Grawl tucked under their arms. I uncloaked and jerked the Ilor up to my war mask. He started shrieking nonsense and thrashing and kicking. I extended my fighting hook and waved it in his face shield. He immediately went still.

  “If you and Brimund Bruns wish to survive what comes next, you better be able to give me accurate information on the whereabouts of your clan sibling Canik. If not, you already know my reputation, and what I will do to you if you don’t.”

  The Ilor went slack in my grip. He didn’t bother denying he was Canik’s sibling and probably knew that fighting me was a waste of time. We took all the prisoners to the brig. They gawked at their fellow inmates as we passed their cells. Justice wanted to make sure our guests could see each other. It should lessen the chances of being misled. Since the Legacy only had eight cells we put the Rugerian bodyguard in with Harlon the suspected assassin. I was thinking they both might be expendable. I put Canik’s sibling in the cell with Pomar’s body so he could contemplate his future without interruptions. Everyone else got a private suite with a view of their fellow criminals.

  “Justice, recall our drones and then make sure that freighter is never a base of operations for the Omega Syndicate ever again.”

  “Affirmative Commander.”

  Justice slowed the Legacy long enough to collect the drones and then headed straight for the drifting freighter. When we were at the optimal range for our anomaly weapon, Justice fired a single shot that hit the ship dead center of the stardrive nozzles. The star bright ball of energy devoured the guts from the ship and more than half of the hull collapsed in on itself and disappeared. The freighter was so large, the anomaly dissipated before it could consume the front half of the ship. A second shot finished the job. Any additional forces that might arrive, would only find a massive debris field from the drone attack and nothing else. I had no doubt it would scare the hell out of the other freighter captains when the wreckage was discovered and the news of its demise spread.

  “Justice, leave some stealth mines in the wreckage and DEHD core Jump us to Alpha base. As soon as we arrive, I would like you to establish an IST link to my homeworld so I can speak with my father.”

  “Acknowledged Commander, launching mines now. I will make the DEHD core transition back to Alpha Base in three minutes.”

  My crew and I walked to the ready room to get out of our armor. I thanked them all for a mission well done. Before I could say anything else, my reality faded away in a dazzling whitewash of energy. When my awareness returned to normal spacetime, Justice put a view screen up on the ready room wall. I put on a fresh uniform and thought I would be having a conversation with my father alone. Tria had other ideas and took my hand and stood close at my side. I smiled thinking she was determined to see my Dad in a meet the parent of my mate moment.

&n
bsp; Justice called to us. “Commander, I have an active IST link to your homeworld and have been informed your Patriarch has been notified.”

  “Roger that. Thank you, Justice.”

  Three minutes later my father stepped in front of a screen that was emblazoned with the presidential seal of the United States. He looked a little ruffled and I suspected he slept in his uniform waiting to hear back from me. His eyes gave away his surprise at seeing Tria. I was a little tired and jumped right in with both boots to establish the reason for the delay.

  “Hello Father, I am sorry I kept you waiting, but you know how it is when duty calls.”

  My comment registered as a small flinch on my Father’s face. It was fleeting but didn’t go unnoticed. It took a few seconds for him to compose himself. When he did, the Colonel in him came through loud and clear.

  “Duty to who? From what I am hearing, not your country.” He said in a brusque tone of voice.

  My return volley was just as curt. “If you are only listening to small-minded individuals, and not the facts, I can see where you might think that.”

  My Father’s face reddened and his jaw clenched. Before he could say anything else I threw down the gauntlet.

  “My duty is to protect my entire homeworld. Not one nation, or one idealism, but good or bad, the entire planet. I also make it my duty to defend races I have come into contact with that were under siege by lawless predators. So, if it makes it easier for you to understand, then no, I will not show any preferential treatment to the country I was born in.”