Casserine (31 page)

“How much more do you have in that addled head of yours, waitingto.”

“Gentlemen,” Peters’ voice interrupted. “I’m in position.” “C’mon, Jake,” Mercer scolded. “Quit fooling around and get your butt in gear. Not everything is about you. What a self indulgent.”

Jake scooped his partner up right off of the ship decking, and propelled him towards the back, with Mercer’s arms and legs churning. “Look Ma,” Mercer quipped. “No hands.”

“Ready Jake?” Dougherty asked. “We’re inches away from thehull.”

Jake waited until Mercer was in position next to the sealed orifice hatch, with his particle beam rifle aimed at the opening. Mercer nodded, and Jake positioned the solvent gun. “Hook her up Tim.”

Dougherty eased the Drop Ship in, and used the field generator to pull them tight up against the hull. As soon as Mercer heard the suction lock, he opened the hatch, and Jake sprayed the solvent all over the area of the Alien vessel hull revealed by the open hatch. They felt the vibration as the Alien ship powered up. Jake smiled at Mercer as the outer coating of the Alien ship hull bubbled and began to run. Mercer’s first blast vaporized the area within the hatch opening. Jake had grabbed up his particle beam rifle, and after Mercer ceased fire, he went through the opening, as the Alien ship shuddered.

Jake headed in the direction of the cockpit, along a darkened narrow corridor, with Mercer at his back. A pulse blast weapon discharged down the way. The blast hit the shoulder of Jake’s armored pressure suit. It knocked him off balance, but his armor held. Mercer fired a long burst at full power, obliterating everything in front of them, including parts of the bulkhead. Mercer crouched on the other side of the corridor, waiting as Jake regained his bearings.

“Thanks, Charlie, I should have been firing, instead of running,” Jake told him. He turned down the power on his rifle. “I’ll go first, steady fire, and you follow me at full power, in case we meet up with anything I don’t get.”

“Engage,” Mercer cracked.

Jake laughed. He rushed forward, hugging the side of the corridor as he kept up a withering stream of reduced power particle beam blasts. Soon, their helmet light beams were the only lighting left. The two men attacked without hesitation, everything around them. As they reached the hatch leading to the cockpit, Mercer let loose a sustained full power burst, which disintegrated the pockmarked door.

Inside the cockpit, three bodies lay mangled on the ship’s deck, where they had been hit by stray blasts during the attack. Sparks and flame shot up from the ship’s control array. The shrieking alarm sounds cut off, as the system generating them went out, and a fire retardant mist blasted out of nozzles all along the bulkheads. The vapor hung thickly in the air, until an exhaust system kicked on, and began dissipating the fog.

“Watch the back, Charlie, and I’ll see if I can find a survivor. You see anything alive on the other side of the hatch, where the first blast came from?”

Mercer ducked back out to look around, while he covered the rear of the ship with his rifle. “There ain’t anything alive out here. I don’t even see any parts left. There’s a hatch at the back, past where we broke through. It may be their living quarters.”

“One of these things up here seems to be moving a little,” Jake added. “You getting all this guys?”

“Yes Sir,” Colonel Peters answered. “Man, that was a little too thrilling for my taste.”

“You okay, Jake,” Dougherty asked. “I saw you take a hit.”

“The armor held,” Jake replied. “Keep an eye on the tail of the ship. If we get into trouble on the way back there, I might need you to throw a burst into there, and take our chances with depressurization.”

“Will do, Jake,” Dougherty answered.

Jake joined Mercer outside the cockpit. “You ready?”

Mercer nodded. “You leaving one alive at our backs?”

“It ain’t moving anything other than its head,” Jake assured him. “It lost a couple of appendages. Let’s throw a long burst, full power, into the back there, and worry about more prisoners later. Some of them could be on the other side of the hatch waiting to tear us out a new one.”

“Sounds good to me,” Mercer agreed. “I was hoping you weren’t planning on any touchy feely stuff with a closed hatch. If they’re by the door, they won’t be happy.”

“Gee, that’s tough,” Jake said. “I.”

The whole ship shook, as they heard what sounded like a weapons discharge.

“That was me, guys,” Dougherty yelled. “I had to throw a MAG50 round at another ship off our starboard side. It was coming on fast.”

“Nice shot, Tim,” Peters’ congratulated him. “The coated shot worked great. I don’t see anything but debris. They must have a base close by, or their planet. I’m scanning now.”

“Charlie and I will hurry this up,” Jake stated.

Both men fired a sustained full power burst at the rear bulkhead, which blew inward with the consistency of dust. They both moved slowly towards the gaping hole, as the ship’s exhaust system cleared out the smoke. Choking sounds came from the direction beyond the blasted hatch. Two creatures stumbled out of the clearing smoke, gesturing weakly. They were approximately the same height, about six feet tall. Their hairless heads were ridged with what appeared to be tendons snaking under the skin, with foreheads extending out over recessed eye sockets. The noses were flat, and spread out, ending just over the thin lipped mouths, which were contorted as the Aliens coughed in the thinning dust cloud. Slim of build, and wearing one piece, slate gray uniforms, the two aliens halted outside where the bulkhead had been. They peered up the corridor, as Jake and Mercer moved their helmets to illuminate the creatures.

“What do you think, Charlie,” Jake asked. “We do have plenty of room on the Drop Ship.”

Mercer shrugged. “If it was up to me, I’d put a thin shot through their heads, and then drag the bodies back. What the hell can we get out of them?”

Jake was already turning down the power again on his rifle. “I think you’re right.”

As Jake raised his rifle, the Alien in front gestured wildly with his arms. “Do not kill us,” he cried out in a bass, guttural voice, his face contorted in what looked like a plea.

Jake lowered his rifle in surprise.

“Gee Jake, ain’t this cozy?” Mercer said, grinning. “Hey, you guys hear that? These things speak our language.”

“I heard, Charlie,” Colonel Peters acknowledged, “but I’m scanning more company coming, and they’re only about a half hour away.”

“Bring them on board, Charlie,” Dougherty added with enthusiasm. “I bet they’d be glad to help us as scouts once you introduce them to Mr. Snappy.”

Both Jake and Mercer laughed out loud at Dougherty’s reference, which caused the Aliens to cringe back against the bulkheads of the corridor. “Let’s get them on board Alpha, Charlie, and then join up with Jas again. We’ll drift away from here a little ways and watch the fun.”

Mercer nodded, and motioned the Aliens to come forward. “Get down on your faces, while I check you clowns out. One move I don’t like, and Jake here will trim you off at the waist.”

The Aliens hurried forward on small, booted feet, dropping forward onto their knees. Using their thin, segmented, six fingered hands with opposable thumbs, they eased face down on the deck, with their long arms splayed out above their heads. Mercer patted them down expertly, as Jake held the particle beam rifle close on them. Mercer had them flip over, and finished the search. They remained unresisting throughout the pat down.

“They’re clean, Jake,” Mercer said, “but it wouldn’t hurt to do a real scan on board.”

“Okay boys, let’s go,” Jake motioned them up, and Mercer guided them through the Drop Ship hatch. Jake closed it up behind them. “Tim, you back at the controls?”

‘Tea Jake, I’m disengaging now.”

The Drop Ship shook a bit, as it released the Alien vessel. They moved away to join with the Command Wing Fighter, and Dougherty switched off the cloaking shield, so Colonel Peters could hook back up with them. Once Peters activated the field control, he powered down, and released control to the Drop Ship. Dougherty reactivated the cloaking shield. He moved them well away from the Alien vessel, and lowered power to a holding pattern.

Jake and Mercer used energy cuffs to restrain the Aliens. Mercer retrieved a personnel scanner, and checked over every inch of the creatures.

“Let’s put these two in a holding cell,” Jake said. “I want to watch what happens when their buddies get here.”

After depositing the Aliens in one of the dozen small holding cells the Drop Ship had been fitted with for Colony policing actions, Jake and Mercer joined Dougherty in the Alpha cockpit. “Any sign, Tim?”

“Oh yea,” Dougherty affirmed, pointing at the large scanner screen on the console. “They’ll arrive shortly. Did you guys ask the Aliens if they had any warning we were near at all?”

Mercer looked over at Jake, who grinned sheepishly. Mercer stood up. “I’ll be right back. I’ll keep the audio up.”

A few minutes later, they heard Mercer ask one of the Aliens if they had detected the Drop Ship on their scanners, or if they had any warning at all. There was silence for a time, and then a weapon’s discharge Jake recognized as a sidearm. A low stuttering grunt, sounding like pain, broke the silence, as both creatures began speaking at one time.

“You hear that, Jake?” Mercer asked.

“I got it. They didn’t have a clue. What happened?”

“For some reason, they were reluctant to discuss the matter, so I burned a piece off the inside calf of the one who spoke to us on the Alien ship. I’m on my way back. Did I miss anything?”

“Nope,” Dougherty answered. “We have your seat saved. They’ll be here in a couple of minutes.”

“You scanning for the origin point, Jas?” Jake asked as Mercer came in and sat down.

“I have a lock on it, Jake, and it’s a planet, unless they make their bases a little larger than Casserine. What kind of stuff do they breathe anyway?”

“Almost the same as us, but with a little more Nitrogen,” Jake answered. “I’m sending the readings we took over to you even as we speak, Jas. Just ignore the fires and smoke mix.”

“Got it,” Peters confirmed. “I’m scanning for details on their solar system here. We’ll be able to take some solid information back with us. We still going for a visit? I sent an information burst back through the Gate, but I told them not to communicate with us. I figured I better warn them, in case this bunch coming at us now, decide to follow where they think we’ve gone. They may be looking for payback after they see what’s left of their other two ships.”

“They’ll sure have a surprise, if they don’t see us,” Jake replied. “We’ll have the surprise if they do.”

“Here they come, my friends,” Dougherty announced.

Three ships, the same size as the two they had destroyed came into view, with a mammoth Gallant size cruiser backing them up. The bodies of the crew who were aboard the ship they had attacked were floating in space, having been sucked out when the Alpha Drop Ship had pulled away. All of the loose debris from the battle hung in a cloud around the crippled ship. Very little of the ship Dougherty had targeted survived the special MAG50 round.

“Man, I hope that big one doesn’t get wind of us,” Jake commented.

“I’m locked on him, Jake,” Colonel Peters said. “If he powers up his weapons array, I’ll blow the crap out of him.”

“Ah, Colonel,” Mercer cut in. “We’re still in the blast radius of one of your big ones, aren’t we?”

“I’m afraid so Charlie,” Peters admitted, “but I’ll try and out run the blast if it comes to that.”

“Relax, they’re heading for the Gate,” Dougherty said.

“I’ll fire off a warning to the Gallant and Intrepid as soon as they get in the Gate,” Peters replied. “There, I’ve warned them. Those boys will be in for a big surprise when they emerge. Sara has five Command Wing Fighters with them too.”

“I guess we’ll stick around and question the prisoners until we hear word back from the other side,” Jake said. “If there’s no other trouble, we’ll be able to take our time, maybe even do a couple of bombing runs.”

‘Tea,” Mercer agreed, “just a little thank you for dropping off those lovely Bug Queens. I’m real interested in how the hell they know our language. Any ideas?”

“Maybe they’ve been monitoring the colonies for quite a while,” Peters ventured.

“Charlie and I will go down and ask them, while you two wait for the results from our side of the Gate,” Jake said, as he stood and motioned for Mercer to follow him.

As they walked back to the holding cell, Jake smiled over at Mercer. “I guess you’ve laid the ground work for this interrogation, huh?”

“They did seem more cooperative after I explained it to them,” Mercer agreed. “You know, of course, they could have learned the language from prisoners.”

“That was my thought too,” Jake admitted. “I want to play it along those lines. We’ll act like we already know they have prisoners, and see if we can get them to tell us how many.”

“Oh, they’ll tell us all right,” Mercer stated, taking Mr. Snappy out of his vest pocket. “We’ll find out where too, along with everything else they ever learned since they were born.”

Chapter 30 

Unexpected Opportunity

Dougherty looked up as Jake and Mercer entered the cockpit with the lead Alien they had talked with before, and who Mercer had removed a piece of with his sidearm. “Tour buddy there looks like he’s in distress.”

“Tea, well Binky here, and his buddy, Stinky, didn’t take to our questions concerning their home planet,” Mercer explained, as he guided a visibly shaken Alien into one of the seats.

“After Charlie had Mr. Snappy discuss the breakdown in communications with them, they decided to be fully cooperative,” Jake added.

“You know, of course,” Dougherty reminded them, as he kept his eyes on the ship control panel, and guided the cloaked ships towards their goal, “we could end up being tried as war criminals. Those devices have been outlawed on every colony in the galaxy.”

“I won’t tell if you don’t,” Mercer replied. “Besides, Binky and Stinky informed us they’ve been hijacking ships for nearly a decade, and now have nearly five thousand human slaves.”

Dougherty’s mouth dropped open as he whipped his head around to look at Mercer, hoping for some indication he had been joking. “C’mon, Charlie, you’re kidding, right?”

“I wish I were, Tim.”

“What are we going to do?” Dougherty asked, looking over at Jake.

“Just as we had planned, Tim. We don’t have enough room to take on five thousand passengers, even if we could rescue them,” Jake said. “Binky here has agreed to guide us, and we’ve agreed not to torture him to death. Once we get this place scouted out, we’ll go back through the Gate with enough fire power to vaporize their planet.”

“I noticed we’re heading out somewhere, so I gather the reception committee took care of business on the other side of the Gate,” Mercer commented.

Dougherty looked at the Alien, and then over to Jake, who motioned for him to proceed.

“Don’t worry, Tim,” Jake assured him. “Binky will not be rejoining his friends any time in the future.”

“Colonel Stavros told Colonel Peters the Alien force was wiped out at the Gate, and they have many prisoners from their main ship, which was disabled and boarded by a Marine force. Colonel Peters told them about the prisoners probably knowing our language.”

“Casualties?” Jake asked.

“Only five killed, and about forty wounded in the boarding process,” Dougherty answered. “They took nearly five hundred prisoners.”

“My ship,” the Alien put in with a shaking voice in his guttural tone, “had many thousands on board. What.”

“Actually,” Jake cut in, as Mercer shook his head in a disapproving manner, which shut the Alien up instantly. “My orders were to not take any prisoners, if there was any doubt as to the safety of my fleet. Someone acted with misguided initiative to try and gain as much intelligence as possible, and to capture the ship for study. You infested our mining colonies with whatever you call those creatures you planted. Thousands of our people were torn apart and eaten. Do you think for a second, your people will not be made to pay for those deaths a hundred fold?”

“We knew.” the Alien said haltingly, speaking at Mercer’s prodding, “.we could not defeat your technology, and we did not wish to chance a full scale attack. Having used the Tattalias horde before on interlopers through the other Gate as you call it, we knew it to be a perfect way to open up resource valuable planets. They had never failed before.”

“Things are going to get awful bad, Binky,” Jake said softly, the menace on his face making the Alien lower his head. “Your people could have contacted us, and we would have dealt with you in open trade. Now, the way we will deal with you will only happen after the unconditional surrender of your planet.”

“But…but this is not fair,” the Alien protested, its face registering the shock of such a punishment. “Many will die in such a war. We can open a dialogue…my people will negotiate.”

“Forget it,” Jake cut him off. “Negotiations are what a race of people do before they try to wipe out another race. Do you control these Tattalias Queens, or do you just drop them off wherever you need them?”

“We can imitate some of the Queen’s more basic commands, but we cannot control them safely. We should never have revealed our presence to you. My leaders became impatient to take over those fuel rich planets. They believed you would never come back if we caused more infestations, and would abandon that quadrant.”

Jake nodded. “So, what do you use our people for on your planet?”

“We have worked on trying to duplicate more of your technology,” the Alien answered, “but we have only been able to capture small commercial ships, rather than warships. Our fuel cell technology has been greatly enhanced, but weapons advancement has been poor at best. How is it we cannot detect the presence of your ships?”

“The same reason we were able to solve your shielding,” Jake replied. “We’re pretty good at peace, but we’re even better at War. You must have gotten our particle beam technology from one of our ships if you were able to figure out how it would dissipate on the Queen’s chamber shield.”

“One of the ships we captured was transporting particle beam weaponry,” the Alien admitted. “We monitored your difficulty with the Tattalias Queen’s shielding, during our first infestation of your mining colony.”

“We hit that bitch with everything short of a MAG50 round, which would have blown us up too,” Mercer agreed. “If Jake here hadn’t climbed on her from above, we wouldn’t be talking now, and we might have withdrawn in spite of the fuel resources. It fits.”

“You two fought during the first Tattalias infestation?” The Alien asked in some surprise.

“Actually, all three of us were there right to the end,” Jake replied. “We learned a few things from that, and now we’ve learned a few more tricks. It’s too bad your people will have to learn the hard way. I.”

“Five minutes, Jake,” Colonel Peters said over the com unit. ‘You’re going fine, Tim. Stay on present course. I’ll let you know when we’re in position for an orbit.”

“Aye, aye, Sir,” Dougherty answered immediately.

“Anyhow,” Jake resumed, “by the time we get done orbiting your planet, we’ll know everything about your people, down to what you eat for breakfast. The only thing we’ll want from you is where the majority of our people are being held, and what kind of fortifications you have keeping them captive. We’ll take it from there.”

“In my place, would you sell out your own people, even under torture,” the Alien asked hesitantly.

“I don’t know,” Jake answered truthfully. “What I can endure, or not endure, has nothing to do with you. Only you know whether you can meet Mr. Snappy again, and keep silent. It would be easier for you, if you realize we will get the information one way or another.”

At the mention of the device, Mercer had pulled his interrogation tool out, to the great horror of their captive. The Alien gestured wildly in supplication, as he leaned away from Mercer. “Please. do not touch me with that again.”

“What’s it going to be, Binky?” Jake asked.

“I will show you where the humans are kept,” the Alien succumbed to the inevitable. “They are kept within a complex of dwellings, inside a walled off section of one of our more barren territories. Very few guards are needed, because there is no place for them to go.”

“What do you keep them for?” Dougherty asked.

“As I said,” the Alien answered, “we strip their ships of weapons and technology, and then we learn from them any details we need concerning your colonies and home planet. We know of the Tarawa Jump Gate, as you call it, from them, which explained how your species reached the contested resource planets. We did not find the Jump Gate, you came through to get here, until just before your people had inhabited the place you call Omaha.”

“Okay, that explains a few things, but you still haven’t told us how you use our people, you still have in captivity, once you break down their knowledge,” Dougherty persisted.

“We have them manufacturing what we find as useful, according to their expertise. Most only work menial, repetitious work, but they are not ill treated.”

Jake nodded. “It would be a good thing if we do not find any ill treatment, Binky. If we do, you will find out what the term ‘Payback’s a Bitch’ really means.”

Two hours later, Colonel Peters had gathered reliable data on the Alien home world, they would have to decipher later in detail, including the whereabouts of their captured people. Although the planet was heavily populated, and numerous off world ships were in temporary dock, orbiting the planet, the Earth ships remained undetected. The Alien pointed out the warships they had on constant patrol, and noted the departure of another task force probably setting out after the first.

“I have just about everything we can get without actually landing, Jake,” Colonel Peters announced.

“I know this will not be popular with you guys,” Jake acknowledged, “but I think we ought to head back and make some plans. If we attacked, we could endanger the people being held. We’ve had a good test of just how well our.”

“Jake,” Peters interrupted. “I’m getting an encoded com burst from the Intrepid. The task force they sent to find out about the first group took a peek, and vanished back through the Gate before they could be engaged.”

Jake looked around at his comrades. “You guys feel like seeing if we can take these boys on their way back?”

“It would really shake them up,” Mercer agreed.

“We’ll have to fire at them while linked together, and then Colonel Peters will have to hustle us back into the Gate before we get caught up in the blast zone,” Dougherty added.

“Tim,” Peters cut in. “I know the safe distance for my weapons. After all, I won’t be using the planet killer size charge I used on that other ship. Why don’t we ambush them half way to the Gate, and get them all before they get home?”

“I like it,” Mercer smiled.

“You’ll have to relay target information for me, Colonel,” Dougherty replied. “The Drop Ship weapons array does not have the distance for that kind of firing solution.”

“I’ll patch us together,” Peters offered. “What do you think, General?”

“I think I’ll get Binky back to his cell, and then we’ll get ready for a little action,” Jake said. “I wonder if we can test out our shielding without getting ourselves killed.”

“I don’t know how safe it’ll be,” Peters cautioned, “but you could materialize in front of them from close up, and take one out. After you take a couple of retaliatory hits, you could then cloak up, and we’ll finish them off together. I can be in a position to really blast them if something goes wrong, but I don’t know what kind of damage you could sustain in the meantime.”

“I’m in,” Mercer stated. “No use heading back without everything we came for.”

“Ditto,” Dougherty added. “I’ll take Binky back, and get into the turret. You’ll have to pilot Jake.”

“What’ll I do,” Mercer asked, “go watch Tim dance?”

“You’ll have to stay up here with me as damage control, in case things go wrong,” Jake instructed. “I’ll start you on the basics of piloting this thing in an emergency.”

“The emergency will be if I have to take over,” Mercer muttered.

Four of the smaller Alien battleships, much like the one they had boarded, appeared on Dougherty’s firing solution screen, and Jake’s monitor in the cockpit.

‘You’ve positioned us perfectly, Jas,” Jake told the Command Wing Pilot. “What do you think, Tim?”

“Disengage the cloak, and I’ll start dancin’,” Dougherty announced.

“Give them another twenty seconds, Tim,” Peters advised. “It will make you guys a closer target, but they’re making a rookie error. Check your screen, guys. They’re flying too close together. The blast may damage more than one.”

“Jas is right, Tim,” Jake agreed. “Nice call, Colonel.”

“Oh man, my mouth’s watering,” Dougherty echoed. “What a bunch of boot camps.”

“It also means they can get a more concentrated burst off at us too,” Mercer cautioned as he looked at the screen.

“Guess we’ll find out,” Jake acknowledged, “five…four…three…two…one, we are visible, Tim.”

The Drop Ship shuddered as Dougherty fired the special load MAG50. One of the Alien ships in the center of the formation disintegrated, showering the two ships next to it with debris. The three remaining ships opened fire with particle beam blasts. Although the new shielding dissipated the retaliatory shots, they found out quickly where the blasts dissipated to.

“Uh oh,” Mercer said, as the monitor and control panel smoked and went black.

“My panels are dead, Jake,” Dougherty announced. “I’m coming up with you guys.”

“We’re sitting ducks, Jas,” Jake called out, as the fire control nozzles sprayed the overheating circuitry.

“On it,” Peters called out.

The Command Wing Fighter powered into life. Peters’ fired a spread of three encased loads from his front tubes, vaporizing the remaining Alien ships. He positioned over the drifting Drop Ship, and locked on. When they were on their way at full speed towards the Alien Jump Gate, Peters generated power into the life support systems of the disabled Drop Ship.

“How you guys doing?” Peters asked.

“As well as can be expected,” Jake replied happily, “thanks to you. It’s a good thing communications are not channeled through the main system.”