AMP Blitzkrieg (14 page)

We continued to gather information from Rodney Turk throughout the day. He was an open book. I had Frig, Gy and Rita in a nearby room devising strategies for ridding the Admiral’s force of Durian influence. When the day had come to an end I called in the council for a meeting. The Colonel spoke first, "I know each of us was excited to some degree about the thought of joining with the Admiral’s force. It looks like we are once again back on our own."

I stood and raised my hand, "I don’t think we are on our own Tom. We need to turn our efforts towards purging the Durians from the Admiral’s force. I’m going to ask Doris to replace the caregiver of the girls with one of her own, she can make up some story of Grid health services or business licenses or something to get the other one out, just in case they are a Durian plant."

"Once we control the situation we will secure the girls and move them off station. Doris can setup a façade so the Durians believe they are still there. Once we have them Rodney here will be working for us. He is going to convince the Durians to move the entire fleet into the Fasture and from there they will conduct a major operation to find us. Only they will not be looking anywhere close to here."

"I have a plan to liberate those ships. We will know the location of each during their hunt for us and as such we can setup a location where we try to hit as many of them as we can at the same time. We sweep them from a cloaked location, fire off a negative ion bomb and then we board and remove any Durian beacons."

"Frig will have an app that can be loaded into their comm system to keep it from sending out any info to the Durians. We will also run a minor field from Yacabucci’s generators to keep any other stray signals from being sent out by other means. George is developing a scanner that will tell us if any officers or men on-board have been altered. With a small team, we should be able to clean that entire fleet in a day."

"After those efforts are complete we will send the Admiral’s fleet to a new location to await orders. Every computer and every automated system will have to be removed and destroyed. The Admiral’s fleet will be out of commission for some time. Our efforts will then be turned towards cleansing OpCon."

"That ship is massive and anything we attempt to do there will be very time consuming. I’m almost of the opinion that we fly it into the middle of the nebula and then waste it. If the Durians come looking for it before we are done I have confidence in our ability to fight in the nebula. It is the one place in this galaxy that we have a distinct advantage."

The following morning a team was sent to the Grid to secure Rodney’s children. I took Rodney in the Wren and waited patiently in Grid space for a status from Doris that would tell us they were secure. The Helix and the Humprey joined us on the ride. When the word came I turned towards OpCon, Rodney Turk would be returning as Admiral Zimmerman.

Rodney talked as we flew, "Mr. Grange, I can’t turn back what I’ve done, I can only move forward. With my children secure this is the first time in a year that I feel like I am no longer under their control. It feels good to not be a puppet Don, and to know I am fighting for the right side."

I replied, "We sometimes get trapped into situations that are beyond our control. What makes the man is what he decides to do at that point. If you can help us pull this impossible task off, you will have done more good than harm. The Admiral’s force will be restored and the Durian influence crushed. And if it helps, you can think of it this way, had the Durians not selected you they would have selected someone else. I might have made the same choice you did given the circumstances."

When we arrived back at OpCon I dropped the Admiral in the landing bay and then immediately left. The less the Durians knew about my ship the better. George had trained Rodney how to detect physical alterations, he would meet with the frigate captain and if he was clean he would order him to never speak of Rex Bumbalee to anyone. With a little luck that name would not fall into the hands of the Durians.

As I left OpCon the Durian destroyer that had become a permanent fixture fired up its engines and headed out in an attempt to shadow us. What the Durians didn’t know was that the Helix and the Humprey were positioned nearby. Once well out of the range of OpCon I turned the Wren back towards the Durian. The Durian captain knew that he had been detected and brought his ship to a halt. I approached slowly, allowing the Helix and Humphrey to move in close. I hailed the Durian captain and just as he returned the hail I fired my ion cannon, crippling his engines.

At the same instant the Helix and Humphrey decelerated next to the Durian and two negative ion bombs were deployed. Breaching tubes were deployed and the 40 Marines from each Raider boarded the Durian ship. The Durians fought fiercely, but the training and experience of our Marines using conventional weapons was superior. The fighting lasted for three hours before the last three Durians we cornered in a hallway.

I boarded the ship and made my way to them to negotiate. "Durians, we know there are three of you left. Come out and we can talk. It’s that or prepare to die." My short speech was met with laser fire. One of the Durians responded, "You have attacked a ship of the Durian Empire. You will surrender or you will pay dearly. Violence will be met with more violence than you can imagine."

I replied, "Well, that kind of threat doesn’t do you much good in this situation. We control your ship and we have superior arms. Give up and you will be treated fairly!" The Durain was quiet for a moment before a Human was pushed into the hallway.

The Durian yelled back, "We have a room full of your people. Leave this ship and we will spare them." I turned to the other Marines, "Hold your fire, let him come out. I believe he is one of ours that they have been holding."

The Human moved nervously down the hall, just before reaching our position he yelled out, "DON’T TRUST THEM!" A green laser bolt came screaming down the hall instantly burning a hole from his back through his chest. He fell to the floor dead.

The Durian again spoke, "That is one of many. Leave the ship or we will begin sending out dead bodies!" I looked at the Marine closest to me, "Hand me a grenade." I pulled the pin, waited two seconds and then tossed it down the hall as we took cover. Booom! The grenade went off exactly in front of the open door. We rushed down the hallway and into the room. The two Durians who had been by the doorway were dead, three Human captives were injured and six others, including Michael Zimmerman were piled on top of the remaining Durian.

I spoke, "Admiral, you are free. Come with me as we have a lot to discuss." The Admiral and the others rose as the Marines took control of the last of the Durians. I turned to the squad commander as I left, "We don’t have anyone who can fly this thing and as much as I would like to keep it I think we need to destroy it. See if you can convince our friend there that it is in his best interest to set the self-destruct."

We had taken down the destroyer without a casualty. Our Marines were good, and they loved the thrill of the assault, they thrived on it. I took the Admiral onto the Wren and the other liberated members of his staff were taken onto the Helix. The self-destruct was set and the Durian destroyer abandoned. We were witness to a spectacular explosion just before hitting light speed. Our trip had yielded an unforeseen benefit. The Admiral was back.

As we made our way back to our base the Admiral opened up, "Who is it that I have the honor of thanking? I don’t believe we have met." I had to chuckle at the thought of a second Admiral Zimmerman. It had taken me several days to explain and show the imposter Admiral our operations. I wasn’t going to do it again without first having positively determined that I was talking to the real Michael Zimmerman.

I replied, "I have a question for you Admiral, it’s personal, but I need an answer before I believe that you are you. Some years ago you had an issue with one of your officers, it was personal, family related, and you handled it off the record. It was something that you would not forget. Tell me about it and I will tell you whatever you want to know."

The Admiral got a frown on his face, "I leave personal at home. The question you asked has only one answer… Tom Harper. I’d rather not talk about that any further if you don’t mind. Ask me anything else if you like."

I nodded in response, "That was all I needed Admiral. Now, I’ll start by re-introducing myself. I believe you know me as Don Grange." The Admiral looked me over, "Don Grange? Someone did a number on reworking your face."

I replied, "Yeah, I had to go on the run after that warrant was issued for my arrest. There was no way I was going to rot in jail over some politician looking to score points. After I ran it seemed that one door opened in front of me after another. Oh, we have the imposter who traded places with you. He is working with us now. We are going to try to take back your force in the coming months. Nothing would make me happier than for the real you to be there running it when we do."

We proceeded on to the Fasture nebula where we would attempt to interrogate the Durian prisoner. He was strapped to a chair in the mess hall on the Humphrey. I landed the Swift in her cargo hold and walked to the mess hall. The Durian was seated with two guards standing behind him.

I sat and placed my hands on the table before him. "OK, let’s keep it simple and start with your name." The Durian remained silent. I looked up and the guard on the left stepped forward and administered a healthy shock from an electronic device. The Durian shook for several seconds.

"OK, we will start again, what is your name." After a moment of silence the guard was again signaled to step up. After the third attempt the Durian broke, "Enough… my name is Faren Ghar." I replied, "Was that so hard? Let’s continue. What is… was your occupation on the destroyer?"

The Durian responded, "I was the cook." I rolled my eyes, "If you were the cook then what was the meal for the day?" The Durian thought for a moment, "We had rigid Moris." I asked, "And how is that prepared?" The Faren gave an angry look, "Heated, with a dein sauce." I pressed further, "And what temperature is it heated to and for how long?"

The Durian again gave an angry look, "It is heated for an hour at 200 of your degrees." I stared at the Durian and then signaled for the guard to against administer a shock. "Mr. Ghar, I don’t believe you are a cook any more than you believe I am the leader the nation that took down your ship. Now let’s just be honest and it will save you the pain and us the effort. What was your duty on that destroyer?"

The Durian hesitated and then replied. I am a guard in the intelligence service. That is why I was in the back of the room with the prisoners. It was my job to keep them in line. I nodded in approval, "Now we are getting somewhere. Given the insignia on your uniform, that was a totally believable story. I would like you to keep this in mind as we continue, if I believe you are not telling the truth, that includes leaving important information out, I will have Malcom, the guard standing behind you, administer another shock. And with each lie he will dial up the voltage to be delivered."

The Durian again looked nervous; I continued with my interrogation, "I would like to add that after we are done here we will be administering a truth drug. You will tell us everything we ask at that time and we will compare those answers to the ones you give us here. I prefer not to make use of the drug as the side effects, well, let’s just say they can be uncomfortable to watch. And how you answer questions here will determine your fate later."

The Durian responded, "I have no doubt you will kill me when you are done. Under those conditions, why would I give any information to those who attacked us? I would only be betraying my own people before I died. I would rather just die."

I nodded before I responded, "I can respect that train of thought, but you are leaving out an important fact. You do not have to die and we do not have to kill you. The Human body can absorb a tremendous amount of pain before it gives out, the mind however will struggle to remain sane. I suspect the Durian physiology is much the same."

"So, your choices are, cooperate and live, possibly pain free, or continue to struggle and endure much more than your mind will be capable of handling. And we are not talking hours or even days of pain. We are talking weeks or months or possibly even years. And all for naught as the truth drug will eventually give us what we want. The choice is yours."

The Durian thought and squirmed uncomfortably, I gestured to the soldier behind him, the Durian cracked, "Wait, I will tell you what you want. My endless life on that destroyer is not worth defending. Ask what you like."

The Durians eyes sank as he knew he had given in. It was something that I knew most Humans would have done when faced with the inevitable. I continued the interrogation, "Confirm to me the location of Methessila." For a moment the Durian looked at me with dagger eyes. I gestured to the guard.

The Durian again quickly responded, "Wait, our world is located in the Bering sector, the sector beyond Delvin. We have several star systems along the outer arm that make up our core. In all there are 68 systems with 82 inhabited planets under our control."

I pressed the Durian as he opened up, "And what of your relationship with the Torrians and the Milgari? The Durian looked at me with hatred, "The Torrians will be no more before long. When we are done with them they will be tossed aside like the garbage that they are. Just as will happen with your species. Many of us grow weary of our rulers games. They seek to enrich themselves at the expense of the empire. Weak species should be conquered and eliminated. The Durian Empire will grow."

I leaned back in my chair, "So, your leaders are squandering time and resources on personal enrichment at the expense of the empire? That sounds familiar for this galaxy. I’ll ask another question, what brought the Durians together with the Torrians in the first place?"

The Durian again stared down at the table, "Your Grid passed us by a decade ago. The Torrians came soon after. They passed through our sector and began to establish themselves in the Delvin sector. From there they spread to the Pollus sector in pursuit of their prize, your gravity drive."

"We saw them as weak of mind, only driven by their one goal. It has taken us years to put our strategy in place. Weaken all species in these sectors and then take control. If our leaders had stuck to that plan we would be finishing them off as we speak. Instead there are only delays and scheming by the few in power. But make no mistake, all of these sectors will be ours. Our technology is well advanced when compared to the others."

I replied, "Interesting, you must be in awe of our abilities then since we were able to take out your destroyer and her crew without a single casualty. Not even so much as a scratch or a muscle cramp."

The Durian responded, "I will admit to being caught by surprise by your primitive weapons. Our laser pistols are few and far between and are only an emergency provision. Your tactics were superior in this instance. I am not sure by what mechanism you were able to suppress our power, but our scientists will overcome whatever technology you used to accomplish that feat. We will gladly test your abilities again at that time."

The Durian continued to spill the secrets of his empire as the threat of the electric shock was brought towards his neck. Their ships were capable of 380 SOL, far outpacing our own. Their weapons were more powerful and their shields unmatched. But the Durians were also arrogant and arrogant people could be goaded into actions that were not in their favor. Another's pride could be a powerful tool when used against them.

When the interrogation had ended the Durian had a dejected look on his face. He had given away the secrets of his people in order to avoid pain. His own weakness had worked against him. In a final cowardly act he bit down on the poison tooth in the back of his mouth. It was the second Durian we had lost in that manner.

The Durian's body was ejected into the nebula and we returned to base with the Admiral. He was weak and in need of medical and nutritional attention, but he would be ready for action after a week’s rest. I kept him abreast of our efforts as we prepared to liberate his ships. Four months passed before we had our crews trained and ships in order.

Our fleet consisted of 280 Raiders and 690 Hawks. Each ship had a two man crew trained in sweeping a ship for signal emitters and a third man to identify imposters amongst the crews. We would fly to a far sector and lie in wait, fully cloaked from view.

When a ship arrived next to one of our positions it was to hold position while we performed a deep scan. Its engines would then be disabled by a negative pulse and its power taken out with a negative ion bomb. The sweep teams would then board the vessel and clean off any Durian influence. Imposters would be placed in the brig until further questioning could be done.

Once a sweep was complete and the crew checked out, the ship would be sent to another grid where it would wait for further orders. When all the ships had been scanned, cleaned and moved to the new grid the scanning process would be repeated. If all went well the automated systems on every ship would be shut down, removed and incinerated.

The Admiral's crews would be taken to the Suppressor while new parts were acquired for his fleet. A large order for those parts had been placed and we had been stockpiling them for the four months since the plan had been conceived. We would have 1,200 of the Admiral's ships operational and Durian free within a week. The others would take longer.

The day before the plan was to take place our ships were all moved into position. Rodney Turk had done as required and moved the entire fleet to beside the Fasture nebula. The Durian spy on-board was nervous and called the imposter Admiral's decisions into question.

Rodney Turk replied, "I'm sorry Mr. Phon, but we must rid this sector of these other attackers. Your destroyer went missing four months ago. I intend to make sure these pirates do not do that again. I have it from good sources on the Grid that they are located in an area near here. I am ordering all ships to that grid to search them out and put an end to their violent actions.

We will remain here, safely on the edge of the Fasture until the job is done. I will not have pirates attacking such important friends of the Grid. There is too much at stake. I understand that it is our agreement that you call the shots, but this is something I feel strongly about, if your superiors believe it to be a poor decision then we can deal with that at a future time.

Rodney Turk leaned over to the mic at his desk, "This is Admiral Zimmerman. You have all been given orders to pursue the criminals that inhabit this grid. Please proceed to the assigned locations to begin your searches. When you arrive at these locations you will be given further orders. This mission is of utmost importance to the protection of the Grid. Please follow your sealed orders precisely when you arrive at your designated positions."

The Durian named Phon again objected, "Admiral, I must protest. This is highly unusual; all orders are to be reviewed by my superiors before they are given to the fleet. This operation is not to our agreement and will not be looked upon kindly by our handlers."

Rodney Turk stood and handed the Durian an envelope, "This is a copy of the orders I have given the men. I placed it in the envelope for a dramatic effect. The written word can be a powerful thing to Humans Phon. I think you will be pleased with the results."

The Durian continued to complain as Rodney Turk stood and walked towards the officer’s mess. The Durian purge would soon be coming to OpCon. The imposter Admiral was all smiles at the thought of it. Phon would be dealt with personally.

The cleansing of the Admiral’s fleet went largely without issue, but there were two imposter captains that refused to follow orders. Those ships had quickly been captured and held in Yacabucci’s ion web. It took several hours of negotiation before the crews would hand over their leaders. Once they had been convinced of the Durian incursions they were cooperative in assisting our teams in performing the cleansing functions. They soon joined the other ships at the secondary rally point.

Back on OpCon a war of words raged between the Durian spy and the imposter captain. When the arguments reached a boil the captain had the Durian taken into custody and locked in the brig. Our sweep teams then went to work on removing the hundreds of beacons the Durians had installed on the Admiral’s station.

Rodney Turk paid a visit to the Durian, "Hello Phon, I see you are becoming accustomed to your new home." The Durian stood, a rage was in his eyes, "You have violated the terms of our agreement. I hope you realize what this will mean for your family."

Rodney smiled, "Oh, I know exactly what it will mean for my family Phon. It will mean that they are once again free citizens and that their father is no longer a traitor to their kind. It also means you and your thug species no longer have a hold on me. Your time has come and your puny, pathetic species will be driven back into the swamps you came out of. You are going to find out how superior Humans are."

The Durian seethed with anger, "I will personally see to it that your family suffers. These transgressions cannot be forgiven. When my people arrive you will pay a heavy price." Rodney Turk pulled his blaster, placing the end of the barrel squarely on the forehead of Phon. Rodney spoke, "Your slimy ass won’t be here to see it." He pulled the trigger…