Soldiers of Fortune (3 page)

              “I know I could have stopped… but you have to admit, that was pretty fucking cool,” Jason said. Crusher just grunted. There was an unspoken competitiveness between the two warriors and Lucky’s leap from a moving vehicle meant that Jason could look forward to something similarly spectacular from his other crewmate in the near future.

             
As they rolled up to their target, a well appointed two-story residence with a gated driveway, they could see another vehicle, almost identical to their own, parked in front of the house. There was another non-descript vehicle parked in the shadows further down the street. Before Jason could enter the code he'd been given the gate began to roll aside to allow them entry and a real CIS agent exited the vehicle parked by the house.

             
Rolling up slowly, Jason put his uniform hat on and motioned Crusher to stay down in the back. Exiting the vehicle, he was struck at how similar to humans the Corranian were, and it gave him a sudden twinge of homesickness. The relaxed manner in which the agent approached Jason let him know that his cover was still intact and the Corranian thought he was simply the relief shift. "Not a great night to pull swing shift," the agent said, gesturing to the weather. "How are things, Agent..."

              "Burke," Jason supplied.

              "Burke? An odd name. Where are you from?"

              "The highlands of the Eastern Continent," Jason said smoothly. The agent before him froze, however, and stiffened visibly. Jason realized his mistake too late, even though the translator implanted in his head (and likely in the agent's as well) would allow them to understand each other, his mouth movements made it apparent he wasn't speaking Corran or Jenovian Standard, the accepted cross-system language in that part of the galaxy.

             
To his credit, the agent didn't hesitate at all and swung out with his right fist directly at Jason's head. The Corranians were on par with humans in physical strength, but Jason had been enhanced both biomechanically and genetically over the last year and he was more than a match for the native. He jerked his head back and the punch swung wide, missing him entirely. He moved in swiftly and crashed his elbow viciously into the Corranian's temple, dropping him into a heap. He barely registered that the vehicle on the road was approaching rapidly; that was what Crusher was there for. Instead, he drew his sidearm, set to incapacitate, and looked for the second agent he knew would have been with the one that was laying at his feet.

             
He saw the far door of the vehicle standing open and knew the agent had fled. One of the twins was overhead jamming com transmissions, but if he was able to get off the property or find a hard line and call for help, things would get very bad, very quickly. He moved swiftly around the side of the house, following the path he knew his quarry must have taken. Viewing the yard and the surrounding woods in infrared, Jason couldn't see any trace of the agent.
Shit.
He was about to turn the corner and move along the rear of the house when he heard a sharp cry and the sound of a body hitting the ground. Breaking into a run he came around in time to see Lucky standing over an unconscious CIS agent near the rear security wall.

             
"He was trying to come over the wall," the synth explained. "I stunned him, but he fell off before I could grab him. He may be injured," he finished apologetically.

              "No worries. Injured isn't dead and we knew there would be some collateral damage. Grab him and let's get around to the front and help Crusher." Jason turned and ran back to the front of the house, the synth easily keeping pace while carrying the injured agent. When they came within view of the front gate they saw their comrade needed no backup; Crusher was leaning casually against their fake CIS van while looking at four neatly lined up agents in full "battle rattle." While the two at the house were your average, uniformed cops, the four in the driveway looked to be the CIS equivalent to SWAT on Earth.

             
"Nicely done, boys. I'm going up to the house to make contact. You two range out and check the property one more time, meet back here in ten," Jason said, straightening out his uniform jacket.

              "Let's be quick about it," Crusher rumbled. "I can't say for sure, but I think one of these guys may have gotten a message out before I could hit him."

              "That doesn't give us a lot of time," Jason agreed. "Let's get to it."

              He approached the house warily. Although the people here were expecting him, he didn't want any misunderstandings with a trigger-happy servant. Knocking twice on the door, pausing, and then twice more, he was relieved when it was opened immediately. If he didn't know better, Jason would swear the person standing in front of him was a human male in his late fifties. Incredible.

              "Yes?"

              "Senator Hallis Vongaard?" Jason asked.

              "Of course. What do you want?" Senator Vongaard snapped irritably.

              "Prime Minister Colleston sends his regards, sir." The words had no sooner left Jason's mouth when a look of overwhelming relief crossed the senator's face. He opened the door wide and invited the human into his home.

              "Thank the Creators! I had gotten the signal that tonight was the extraction, but I didn't know what to expect. Who would you be, son?"

              "I'm Captain Burke of Omega Force, we're here to get you and your family out as soon as possible. We received intel that negotiations have broken down and dissidents are to be rounded up soon, and I doubt it's for a picnic." He looked around, taking in his surroundings as he spoke. "Please get your family and get them outside, we'll be leaving in a few minutes." Without waiting for a response, he went back outside to take up a watch of the front gate while Crusher and Lucky patrolled the rest of the property.

             
It was nearly fifteen minutes later when Senator Vongaard led out his family: three females, one of whom appeared to be a teenager in a surly mood, judging by the hostile glare she gave Jason. "Captain Burke, I apologize for the delay. You know how it is with daughters... sometimes they don't fully understand the dangers."

              "Thankfully, I don't," Jason said. He hit the transmit button on his com unit to recall his friends and began herding the civilians into the van. "If you would all please pile in and get seated, we'll be on our way momentarily." Things seemed to be going relatively smoothly, so he was hardly surprised when his com unit chirped an incoming signal even as Crusher and Lucky ran up to him from opposite ends of the property. "Go," he said.

              "
Captain
," Kage began, "
you've got to get out of there. CIS is scrambling a fast-response team to your position. Their agents failed to check in so they're assuming the worst, they have orders to kill everyone on site who isn't an agent
." Jason was genuinely shocked at that last bit.
These guys don't fuck around with their internal politics.

              "We're on our way. Get the ship ready to fly, I want to be in the air less than thirty seconds after we arrive," Jason terminated the signal before Kage could reply. He poked his head into the van, "New development; CIS has dispatched a kill-team to this location to take out everyone on the property that isn't an agent, I assume this means you as well. This may get a bit bumpy." He could see the Senator and his wife blanche at the news while the oldest daughter rolled her eyes and sucked in a breath to express her skepticism. She was cowed into silence, however, as Crusher and Lucky climbed into the van. The interior of the vehicle seemed to shrink considerable as they bunched up into seats that were too small for them. Jason grinned tightly and hopped into the driver's seat, wanting to be well away from the house by the time the fast-response team arrived.

             
Wasting no time, he pulled the van out onto the street and stomped down the throttle, but with the additional four people and their sparse luggage, the acceleration was tepid. They had made it nearly three kilometers before Jason began to relax, but it would be short-lived; he could see in the rear-view monitor that another vehicle was approaching at high speed. He had no doubt who was in it, and he also knew he had no hope of outrunning them in the overloaded, wallowing van. "We've got company, boys," he said to Lucky and Crusher. "Do your thing."

             
Grinning a feral smile that promised violence, Crusher slid open one of the side doors and leaned out with a wicked looking plasma rifle. Lucky slid open the roof panel and stood up, energizing his integrated weapons as he did. Crusher got the first shots off; three impressively placed blasts that impacted the windscreen and the left, front wheel. The wheel exploded and the vehicle yawed violently before rolling onto its side and sliding to a stop in a cascade of sparks.

             
Crusher smiled at Lucky as he slid the door closed, "You need to be quicker on the draw to beat me, my friend."

              "So it would appear," Lucky said as he sat back down. Jason could see his armament was still powered up and appreciated his prudence, no telling what awaited them now that the op had gone to hell. Nearly missing the turnoff, he slammed on the brakes, failing to warn his passengers first, and pulled the van off onto an unmarked path that led into the dark, misty forest. He could see the apprehension on the faces of his passengers as the van bounced over the uneven terrain at a semi-safe speed.

             
As Jason rolled the vehicle up to the
Phoenix's
lowered cargo ramp he could see the engines were glowing a muted red, ready to be engaged at the touch of a button. Her grav-emitters, which ran the length of the trailing edges of the wings, were still dark, however. As he shut the van off he could hear and feel the pulsating hum of the engines. "We need to hurry, folks. Grab your bags and please make your way up the ramp as quickly as you can. Lucky, get up to the bridge and tell Twingo to start prepping for an emergency start of the slip-drive."

              "At once, Captain," Lucky said, bounding up the ramp and into the ship. Jason looked back and could see that the family of the Senator was extremely distressed after the exchange of fire on the roadway. Crusher, being surprisingly gentle, was herding them out of the van and up the ramp.

              "Take them up to the bridge and strap them in, Crusher. This is likely to get bumpy. Again," Jason said. Crusher simply nodded and led the four Corranians into the gunship's interior. Jason quickly went about wiring up the van with a series of thermite charges that would reduce the vehicle to a lump of molten slag. He set the remote and walked up the ramp himself.

Chapter 2

              Senior Agent Caalum of the CIS sat in the passenger seat of the ground vehicle pensively. He was in charge of a two-vehicle convoy that was meant to back up the initial assault team that had been dispatched to the home of the traitor, Senator Vongaard. While he was surprised that the call to apprehend the Senator came at the late hour it did, he was thankful he was on duty at the time. The surveillance team had called in suspicious activity before they had lost contact, then the assault team also went silent, so he decided to move on the house himself.

             
When he arrived on-scene, he had found his surveillance team stunned and one injured quite badly by a blow to the head. The muddy tire tracks leading to the property from the west, and leaving as well, left little doubt as to which way the guilty party had fled. A quick check had verified what he had feared; the Vongaard family was missing.

             
"Slow down... what's that?" Caalum asked the agent driving the vehicle. Ahead of them, illuminated by the vehicle's running lights, was an unrecognizable heap in the road.

              "Looks like our missing assault team, sir," the driver said quietly, eyes scanning all around his field of view. When they pulled closer Caalum could clearly make out the van, sitting on its side and showing no signs of activity.

              "Stop here. Squad two, move forward and look it over." At Agent Caalum's command, the troops in the trailing vehicle disembarked and moved forward slowly, weapons ready, to investigate the wreckage. It didn't take long to get an answer.

              "Sir, it's assault team Alpha. It looks like they've got some injuries and are trapped inside, but no fatalities. They're telling me they were in pursuit of another CIS surveillance vehicle that had been fleeing the scene." The report came in over the com as squad two began to help the injured in the disabled vehicle.