Merkiaari Wars: 01 - Hard Duty (48 page)

Eric had no idea, but he had used his time trying to find out, and had learned a great many things. He now knew names in the government secretly dealing with King and helping the Freedom Movement, he knew everything there was to know about the base here and its resources. He knew where all the terrorist cells were located and what their missions were, but he still had not fathomed King’s motivation. It didn’t matter. All that did was Stein’s marines taking King and the other government conspirators out. And they would. As soon as he reported in, Stein would move. Just a matter of time now.

Timing was the thing. He hadn’t reported in yet, because he didn’t have a long term solution to the government’s dithering. If Stein moved now and decapitated the Movement, the underlings would fade away only to re-emerge years later, probably stronger, certainly wiser from experience, but worse than that would be the government’s reaction. He could see it clearly. They would relax; believing the emergency over, they would go back to business as usual. Might even withdraw their application to join the Alliance, probably would because what need now eh? Now the emergency was over and the terrorists taken care of? Foolish to think that way, but Eric had seen it many times. Easy to forget when immediate danger passes. So he held back his data, stalled the marines leaving them in a guard position and reacting to events instead of preempting them. Not something they liked, to be sure. Marines preferred well defined goals... go here, destroy that. Take that hill. They were damned good at it.

“Hey Eric, give a hand here could you?” Reiner said from across the compound.

Eric lifted a hand and went to join him. “What’s up?”

“Got to get this stuff squared away,” Reiner said struggling to drag a crate off the battered loader’s forks. “Goddamned pile of junk ran dry before I finished.”

“Power cell dead again? Should have charged the mother before you started, my man. You know what this heat does to a cell’s efficiency,” Eric said getting a grip on the other side of the wooden crate and lifting. He groaned and cursed for effect, when in reality he could have carried it alone with ease. “Damn me, what’s in it?”

“Ammo,” Reiner grunted, his voice strained. “Over there with the others.”

Eric shuffled in time with the man. Ammo stores was a simple shack with canvas roof, and was stacked high with all kinds of crates; some wooden like this one, others metal, but most were the olive green fireproof plastic cases that told an experienced eye they were out of an off world Alliance weapon’s factory. The codes were in Eric’s database, and the sight of so many RPGs (Rocket propelled Grenades) and SAMs (Surface to Air Missiles) stockpiled here and in the mine had angered him when he first realised how well supplied the Movement was. They were for killing marines and navy pilots, especially the SAMs. Off world backing again. He saw the like more and more

They manoeuvred down a lane left open between stacks for the purpose of moving stuff around, and had just navigated the corner safely when Reiner tripped. Staggering backwards he let go of the crate, trying to keep his feet out from under it. Eric should have held the weight easily, but the suddenly unbalanced load bit into his hands and tipped. Before he knew it, the crate had smashed upon the ground spilling cases of loose rounds onto the dirt floor. Hot blood scolded his palms and he scowled at his hands.

Bloody wooden crates in this day and age. Bloody Border Worlds in the bloody Border Zone, bloody primitives...

He muttered curses as he pulled out the long slivers of wood. He didn’t notice Reiner staring at him, at first. He looked up from his ripped flesh and saw Reiner staring at his hands. Eric looked down again and... oh shit. The synthskin glove on his right hand was ripped and the gold contacts of his weapon’s bus were clearly visible. Dammit, not now! He wasn’t ready. Ready or not, his cover just went bye bye.

“You’re a—” Reiner began, shocked and horrified, but he said no more, and wouldn’t ever again as Eric leapt forward and broke his neck.

Eric held the body sagging in his arms; maybe he could salvage this. He could hide the body; dump it in the jungle as a free meal for passing dinosaurs. The others would miss Reiner eventually, but maybe they would think the wildlife got him. It would be the truth...

A shout, and the sound of running feet had Eric spinning in place, but it was too late. Another man was running for his life and screaming the alarm. Eric cursed, dropped Reiner, and hurried deeper into the ammo store heading for the far wall. He kicked his way through the wall and ran for the wire fence. It was a simple chain link affair, not meant to keep men in or out, just the smaller jungle creatures attracted by the chance of easy food. He chose a blind spot in the fence, a section the sentry guns didn’t cover very well, and ripped it down with his bare hands. He called up his map of the minefield, and started picking his meandering way through, while behind him, men grouped up and began their pursuit.

In a matter of moments he was into the minefield following his safe route. Safe was a relative term, but his sensor sweeps had been thorough. He had everything well mapped and knew his own abilities. He could pass through, but his pursuers would need to turn the field off before they could follow. They must have realised, because they stopped at the boundary and ordered him to stop. He didn’t of course and they fired a warning shot. He kept going.

Eric leapt over the last mines and ducked into the trees just as the enemy finally organised itself and opened up on him. He put the trees at his back and ran. Hard. No one could catch a Viper in flight, but they didn’t know what he was and would try. He watched them on his sensors as they entered the minefield. They didn’t know what he was or why he had killed Reiner, but they didn’t need to. All they needed to know was that he was running away with knowledge they couldn’t let him spread.

Shots rang out unaimed. Surely they must be unaimed with the trees between him and them. They couldn’t see him, but they might get lucky. He couldn’t run full speed. The jungle was too dense. He changed course, heading away at a tangent hoping they would keep going straight. His sensors updated and Eric cursed. Someone was thinking back there. They were following using motion detectors or other sensors.

Nothing for it, he needed extraction and fast. He made the call to Stein using internal comms linked via satellite.

“I’m blown,” Eric panted. “Need extraction fast.”

Stein snarled a curse. “Do you have what we need?”

Eric wondered if Stein would leave him hanging if he said no. He grinned. Good thing he had the data then wasn’t it? “I have it, I have it all.”

“Understood. I’ll have a team cover your withdrawal. Coordinates follow...”

Eric adjusted his route and added the rendezvous to his map. It would take him less than an hour to reach, but the marines would take longer to get there even if Stein had a team on standby. He needed to delay his pursuers.

“I’ll be there.”

“Stein out.”

Eric increased his lead and started to think seriously about using the road. He could really pile on the pace if he did, but the road went the wrong way. He could still use it to lose pursuit, and then double back. No, he didn’t need to give them even more opportunities to find him. According to sensors, they were already breaking up into teams and spreading out. Damn them, now wasn’t the time for them to show some competency.

Eric was so busy watching what was behind and trying to plan an escape, he failed to note what was waiting for him up ahead until it was too late. He skidded to a halt and looked up and up...

“Fuck me,” he whispered, his face draining of colour. “Desmond!” His hand was a blur reaching for his gun, but it was too little too late. The huge dinosaur’s jaws snapped forward. The crocodile like teeth ripping and tearing.

The screaming began.

* * *

ASN Invincible, Northcliff System

Falling…

…Twisting, and falling…

…Down, and round…

Twisting, and here!

ASN
Invincible
staggered and bled away the awesome speed a ship could attain in fold space with a blaze of light, her impossibly fast motion—impossible now she had re-entered real space—was instantly converted to raw energy and blasted away from her into the void. She seemed to twist along her centreline one last time as if shaking off the last traces of fold space from non-existent coattails. The blue energy discharge that always accompanied translation gradually dispersed. That discharge would be alerting beacons and system defence nets of an intruder throughout the system, but not quite yet. The light-speed wavefront, though fast, would still take a minute or three to hit the nearest beacon.

Captain Monroe retched into her helmet and groaned at the smell and burning in her throat. With shaking hands on seemingly boneless arms, she threw the disgusting helmet away and coughed racking her chest with every breath. The steady beeping from the communications consol told her of a beacon query, but no one silenced it. Martin was out of it, and so was the rest of the bridge crew. Groans and coughing came from her left front as Keith Hadden tried to wake from the stupor that fold space had put him in.

Monroe had never,
never
, experienced a worse translation. The speed she had forced out of
Invincible
was the cause, but the emergency translation back to normal space was necessary to save time, and time was in short supply.

The beacon… she thought mushily as her people groaned and began to rouse. She stood on legs gone wobbly and tottered to the communications panel. Keying in
Invincible’s
security sequence, she dumped the prepared message into the queue and transmitted it to the beacon—fleet priority one.

That done she staggered to her seat and collapsed into it. She had done what needed to be done. It was up to the authorities at Northcliff now.

* * *

Aboard ASN Sutherland, Northcliff System

Northcliff was a beautiful planet, Lieutenant Commander Oakley thought, and he was stuck up here in this tin can! He sighed. His work was important, it was necessary and most times very interesting and rewarding, but at zero-three-hundred on the bridge of an Alliance carrier, the only thing rewarding enough would be a long sleep in his rack.

“Sir?” Communications specialist Guauri Kistna said, frowning at her panel.

“What is it Guauri?” he said turning toward her station.

“I have an emergence at the edge of the zone, sir, but no response to the beacon hail. Northcliff Port Control has requested I.D but received no response.”

That’s odd.

“Hmmm, put it up on the threat board and give me what you have on my number two monitor.”

“Yes sir,” Guauri said and did that.

Lieutenant Commander Oakley, third officer of the battle group carrier
ASN Sutherland
turned to the information plotted on his monitor and studied what it showed him. He stiffened when he noted the ship was wandering from the lane. It didn’t appear in control, and
Sutherland’s
sensors reported battle damage.

“Wake the Captain!” He snapped and slammed his fist down on a red button.

The battle stations alarm began wailing throughout the ship.

* * *

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Copyright

Acknowledgements
Other titles by this author

http://www.impulsebooks.co.uk

The Devan Chronicles:

The God Decrees

The Power That Binds

The Warrior Within

Dragon Dawn

Destiny’s Pawn*

The Merkiaari Wars:

Hard Duty

What Price Honour

Operation Oracle

Operation Breakout*

Incursion!*

The Shifter Legacies:

Way of the Wolf*

Wolf’s Revenge

Wolf’s Justice*

Rune Gate Cycle:

Rune Gate

Chosen*

* Forthcoming from Impulse Books UK

First Published by Ebook Heaven June 2004

Published by Impulse Books UK September 2012

PUBLISHER’S NOTE:

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.