Hammer's War 1: Forging the Hammer (31 page)

It was then
that Thad remembered his dream about killing number seven.  It finally made sense to him.  All these things were terrible but the one thing that made his blood run cold were the notes about children that failed any part of the training.  The notes stated that the children had been terminated and their bodies burned.

He read his own mission reports and it was so far from the man he had become over the last three years
, he felt sick.  Seeing the pictures of the dead, whose lives he ended, triggered the memories.  Now he knew who the faces were haunting his nightmares.  They were his victims.

It was not that he had killed people
which made him ill, but that he was made, assembled, like a machine, to kill. He had no other purpose than to be a mindless assassin.  This made him want to throw up, but then he found the file with the children’s faces on them.  He remembered this was the mission that made him question, the mission he refused, the reason he went on the run.  He remembered not wanting to kill innocent children for someone else’s political gain. 

“Eve make sure you upload all of this, people need to know the truth.  They need to know what these bastards have been doing.”  The feeling of sickness was replaced
with anger.

“I’m uploading it, so what are you going to do?”  She asked.

“I’m going to put an end to it.  I’m going to burn it all down, and every last one of the people who were involved in this will pay.”  Anger was replaced with a burning wrath.

On board the ship, Eve was busy with the hack and Pearl was busy flying the ship around trying to stay off the radar
as well as could be managed.  The twins were sitting on the bridge, waiting on pins and needles.  Eve stopped what she was doing, “Shit, we have a problem.”

Shocked by her langu
age the twins looked at her with blank expressions, “What is it?” asked Freya.

“It’s a trap
.  I should have seen this coming.  It was way too easy to break the encryption.  I can’t even warn Thad.  I’m cut off and that’s not our biggest problem, they back traced the signal.  They know where we are,” Eve said with concern in her eyes.

“That’
s problem!  Pearl take us into orbit now!”  Fiona yelled at the ship’s AI, but it was already too late.  The ship shuttered violently and pitched to the left.  Fiona was not ready for the sudden change and was thrown from her chair, hitting her head on a panel.  Freya was a little better off, but was still not able to avoid being thrown from her chair.  She at least was able to roll into a ball and end up on her feet.  Eve on the other hand was able to grip the sides of the chair and stay seated.

The ship was hit again and this time it rolled over and over
, pitching towards the ground.  The twins were tossed around like laundry in a dryer.  Eve and Pearl worked in tandem to get the ship under control, finally succeeding just before it was too late to pull up.

A voice came over the intercom system, “Land now and open your airlock or be destroyed.”

Eve had no choice but to do as she was told.  The two shots that hit the ship had knocked out their weapon systems.  The twins were both on the floor, out cold and bleeding badly from head wounds.  As Pearl landed the ship, Eve went to work providing first aid to the twins.

Eve had finished wrapping up Freya’s head wound when men, in the same black body armor that Thad wore
, entered the bridge.  They pointed guns at Eve, “Get on the floor now!”  Eve did as she was told.  She was flex cuffed and left on the floor as they looked at the other two girls.  “Sir, we have three females in custody, two of them are pretty banged up, but the medic tells me they will be okay.”

“Good, Bring them to me, they will be useful,” Thorne said. 

The team leader looked at his men, “You heard the old man, pick them up, and move out.”

One of the men asked, “
Sir, what about the ship?”

He thought a second then answered, “Fly this piece of crap to the
Belt Sea and blow it to pieces.  Just make sure you jump out first.”

“Yes
Sir,” he replied, as he slipped into the pilot’s seat, preparing to fly it manually.  The rest of them departed the ship with Eve walking and the twins being carried out.

Thad was still reading when a panel in the wall silently slid open and Thorne stepped into the room.  Thad was so engrossed in reading he did not notice Thorne approach the table.  “So the prodigal son returns.”  In an instant Thad was on his feet
, a pistol materialized in his hand.

Thorne was impressed with seeing the gun materialize in Thad’s hand, “That is a neat trick.  I look forward to finding out how you did it. 
Nevertheless, you don’t need the gun.”  He motioned for Thad to put it down.

Thad recognized him right away.
  It was not just the picture in the file, he did not need a picture to remember this man, he was the one behind every nightmare he had ever had.  He remembered now, even when he was a child, he would have nightmares with this man in them.  “Well if it isn’t General George Thorne or should I say disgraced General.  Why should I trust you?  Tell me why I shouldn’t just put a round through your head right now?”

Thorne seemed to be strangely comfortable
, even though he had a gun pointed at him, by a man who wanted to kill him.  “Go ahead if it makes you feel better,” he said.  Thad tried to pull the trigger, but for some reason he could not do it.  “Problems?”  Thorne asked as he walked closer and took the barrel.  “Here let me put in my mouth and make it easy for you.”  He placed the barrel in his mouth, but again even though Thad wanted to kill this man with every fiber of his being, he could not pull the trigger.

Thorne pulled the barrel out of his mouth and took the gun from Thad, “Oh that’s right, you can’t hurt me
. It was programmed into your subconscious from the time you were created.  No matter how much you want me dead, you can’t do it.  You cannot hurt or kill me,” he got nose to nose with Thad and laughed.  “What a bitch, I know. However, when one is in the business of manufacturing killers, you have to take some precautions so your little monsters don’t bite you in the ass.”  He stopped and rubbed a healing wound on his chin, “I have to admit, the bomb you sent almost did the job.  This is going scar now, although I should thank you, women love a military man with a scar,” he pointed to the wound.

Thad finally was able to speak, “I’m glad I could increase your standings with the cows you hire.”  That comment earned him a backhand across the face.  He rolled with it the best he could.

“Damn it!”  Thorne said as he rubbed his hand, “You have a face like an anvil.”

“Okay so you caught me, what are you going to with me?”  Thad asked
, as he shook off the strike.

Still rubbing his hand Thorne said, “Me
, nothing.  Your head is far too hard to hurt my hands on, but I have people who will get the information I want from you, then they will terminate you.”

“What, don’t you like to get your hands dirty?”  Thad asked.

He laughed, “Me?  Not unless I have to, and the beauty of being in charge is that I don’t.

“What makes you think I will just go along with this willingly?”  Thad asked.

“Oh I have my ways, but I think this will make you do as you’re told,” he pushed a button on his arm control pad, which looked just like Thad’s.  “Bring her in,” he said.

The door opened
, and a man marched Fiona into the room by her right arm.  Her head was wrapped in a bandage and there was dried blood all over her.  She was also covered in darkening bruises as well as several small cuts.  Seeing Fiona like this angered Thad even more, “What did you do to her?”  He demanded.

“Oh me
, nothing. She had a little trouble with your ship when we shot it down.  Bumped her pretty little head a few times, I hear,” Thorne said.

“If you touch her or,” Thorne cut him off.

“Or her pretty little sister, you will do what?  Oh that’s right nothing, because you can’t.”  Thorne walked over to Fiona and stood behind her resting his head on her shoulder.  He took his hands and ran them over her breasts and down her body to her waist.  “I have to hand it to you, you have great taste, and to get twins, you are one lucky son of a bitch.”

“Get your hands off her!”  Thad was so incensed that he was not sure what he was going to do next.

Cupping her breasts again, Thorne licked the side of her face.  Fiona winced.  “No I don’t think I will.  I think I’m going to enjoy these two little tarts of yours while you tell my people everything I want to know.”  He paused and smiled an evil grin, “Oh, and the best part is my medic says this one is pregnant,” he paused to let it sink in.  “That’s right I’m going to take the little embryo out of her, and when the subject is ready, I will put it through the training so it will become what you failed to become.”

Thad was filled with rage
and helplessness because he was not able to tear Thorne limb from limb with his bare hands.  He spoke with tears in his eyes and lips trembling, “I failed to become what?  A human being with feelings and morals, to be able to think for myself and determine right from wrong?”

Thorne stopped fondling Fiona and stepped around her, “No
, to become the perfect weapon.”

With hatred in his eyes
Thad spoke again, “Mark my words, I will burn you for this!”

Thorne laughed, “What are you going do?  Forget it son
, you’ve lost.  Anything you do will endanger your three wives, so stand down and get ready for your final debrief.”  A dozen more men entered the room, carrying stun sticks.

Thad lost it
.  It was as if something just snapped in his brain. Thad rushed forward and from down deep in his chest he let lose a scream, but not just a war cry, it was more primal.  It was a sound that came from the very dawn of human time.  The cry shook everyone in the room, especially Thorne.  Seeing Thad launch forward, he was beginning to wonder how well the neural programming would work under extreme stress. 

Thad moved with all the speed he could muster, slamming into the group of guards who had closed ranks around the general.  Thorne grabbed Fiona and pulled her from the room.  Thad might not be able to hurt or kill Thorne, but nothing was stopping him from snapping those guards’ necks like twigs.  His attack threw the guards off their game
. He hit them with such speed and force it made them pull their ranks in too close.  The stun sticks were useless, unless they wanted to stun each other.

With the stuns turned off, they were no more than regular old clubs
. The clubs were landing hits left and right on Thad, but they seemed to have little or no effect on him.  Whatever force was not absorbed by the armor, his bones were more than a match for the blows.  Even though hits to his face were tearing open his skin, it healed almost as fast.  This made him damn near unstoppable as he kicked, punched, and fought his way through the guards.  He broke arms, smashed knees, and snapped necks like they were toys and he was a two year old having a fit.  The fight was over in a matter of minutes.  Thad stood in the middle of a dozen broken bodies of the dead guards.  His chest heaved mightily as he caught his breath.

Thorne was pushing Fiona in front of him as fast as he dared without making her fall.  She was running, but she still was able
to talk over her shoulder, “You are in deep shit now, you ass! No one pisses off my man and lives to tell about it.  He will find a way to kill you!  I promise you.”

He shoved her into the elevator, “Shut up!”  She smacked into the back wall and was dazed.  He pushed the B6 button, just as Thad came around the corner of the hallway.  The doors closed and the elevator started to drop.
Thorne let out sigh of relief.

Thad ran to the doors
, but they were already closed.  He wedged them open and looked down.  The elevator was already many floors below him and dropping.  Still not thinking, but acting on instinct, he jumped to the middle of the shift catching the main cable.  Knowing the gloves of his suit could handle the friction, he slid down the cable, using it more to keep him from hitting the walls as he dropped, he barely held onto it. 

Inside the elevator, Thorne thought he had made a clean get away
.  He turned to Fiona, “All three of you bitches will be dead as soon as I’m done having my fun with you.”  Fiona was trying to think of something witty to say when Thad, using the dimensional phase device, passed through the ceiling of the elevator slamming down onto the floor.  Thorne’s heart skipped a beat. He had never seen a human being do anything like that before.  He tried to raise his pistol to get a shot off, but Thad was faster.

Stepping into him,
Thad knocked the pistol aside and grabbed Thorne’s throat, lifting him off the ground. Thad tried to snap his neck but couldn’t do it.  Thorne croaked out, “Do it if you can, come on do it, do it!”  However, Thad couldn’t do it.  He stood there holding Thorne off his feet, trying to override the programming in his brain, but he couldn’t do it.  He dropped Thorne who rubbed his throat.

Fiona said, “Thad get me out of these cuffs and I will kill the bastard.”
Before he could do anything, the bell dinged.  The doors opened and they faced a hallway full of guards, with stunners pointed at them.  Blue light flashed and everyone in the elevator car was stunned and fell to the ground.