Inherited War 1: Retribution (36 page)

Cole and Split were the first ones through the breech.  Cole sprinted through the new opening and scanned the room he was in.  They had come through the hull into what appeared to be a hallway.  He checked left and right before signaling the rest to come through.  “Thalo take your team down the right hand side
.  We will take the left.”  Thalo didn’t respond he just lead his ten man team down the right side of the hall.  Cole started down the left side, hugging the wall in case they started to receive fire.

“
Hal, what’s up with your people?  I need that surveillance.”  Cole asked over his private net to the ship.

“They are working on it, wait one.”  The line went silent and Cole stopped their forward movement.  The seconds dragged onto a full minute then two before Hal got back to Cole.  “They can’t patch it directly to you
, Cole, so I will have to relay.”

“Fine
, whatever, just tell me what they can see and include Thalo.”  He snapped back.

“Here we go.  The hallway you are in runs the length of the station
’s perimeter.  From the schematics of the station you both have a good twenty minute or so run to get to the main inhabited area.”  At that Cole started his team moving again.  “Life sign’s scanner just came online.  The tunnels are currently clear but it appears that there are about twenty life forms gathering at the door to where your hall ends Cole.  Only about five on yours Thalo.”  Cole swore to himself.  In between those two groups I read about fifteen more life forms on that level.   There are in total about one hundred life forms on the whole station and something very odd on the bottom most floor.”  Hal went silent for a moment.

“Define odd Hal, don’t leave us hanging.”  Cole asked.

“Well the bottom most floor is one giant room.  It reads as a solid living mass, except the reading is so weak as to be nonexistent.  I haven’t seen anything like it before.”  Hal genuinely did sound confused.

“Could it be something organic like mold or something?”  Cole asked Hal.

“No, I don’t think so because I detect movement down there, so something is definitely alive and moving in there, I just don’t know what.”

“We
will deal with that when we come to it.  Try and get a video feed or something down there.”  They had been jogging for a bout ten minutes when Thalo reported they were at their end of the hallway.  “Give us a moment and we go together.”  Thalo acknowledged and stood by, waiting for the signal to attack.  Cole finally saw the end of the hallway just ahead and slowed to a walk.

“
Hal, can your people force the doors?”  Cole asked.

“Yes, doors will open in ten…five…three
...two...one.”  The doors shot opened of their own accord.  It took the Esii ambushers by surprise and put them off balance.  Cole’s team had been stacked on either side of the door when it opened and had instantly opened up, with what Cole hoped, was fire superiority.  They had decided to go with high velocity pellet guns for this attack since the goal was capturing prisoners and computer Intel.  Plasma and other heavy weapons would have caused too much collateral damage to be useful.  The bead guns fired a high velocity small caliber depleted uranium round that could punch through almost anything.  It would kill if it hit center mass or in the head but it would only maim or incapacitate if it hit the extremities.  It was an effective weapon for the job at hand even if it felt like Cole was going into battle with a Red Rider BB gun on steroids. 

The targeting systems of their suits had been fed the Intel from the life signs sensors and had all of the twenty targets picked out and labeled before the door had even opened.  The odds were two to one
, favoring the Esii.  It didn’t matter in the end.  The superior fire that preceded the attack cut through the defenders and had over half of them dead and dying in the first few seconds of the attack.  The rest panicked and tried to flee out the only other door in the room.  That was a mistake because it funneled them into a small space.  The fire from the assault team tore into their backs and one shot would go though three or four of them without stopping.  In less than two minutes twenty defenders lay dead or dying in the room.  Only one had made it into the adjoining room, but hadn’t made it very far.

They swept into the room and made sure
every Esii was down and in no shape to counter attack.  Cole scanned around the room and heard calls of “Clear” over his comms.  Finally, Hal linked the schematics of the station to Cole’s suit.  It was a nice wire frame diagram of the whole station and had little green dots representing him and his men and red dots for the unknown but suspected enemy life forms.

Cole quickly divided up the station and sent the info to Thalo.  “This section is yours to clear, and then we meet here.”  He indicated an access hatch that led to the bottom most level.  “Don’t go down there
alone, wait for me if you get there first.”  Thalo acknowledged his orders and Cole took the time to determine his line of travel from this room.  “On me.” 

It took them the better part of an hour to fully clear the upper levels of the living area of the station.  So far they had only seen
Roche guards and no Esii.  There were two levels left to clear and Cole had gotten to the access hatch first, so he set up a perimeter and waited for Thalo and his team to show up.

“
Hal, how goes the hack into the main system?”  Cole asked since he had some time on his hands.

“Not very well I am afraid.  They are using some pretty heavy duty security software and hardware to protect the system.  They think it may be awhile before they crack it.  A
s far as I can tell there is no surveillance at all in the lowest level.  The cameras on the next level down from you have been rendered inoperable.  I think if there are Esii on this station they will be on the next floor.”  As Hal was briefing Cole, Cole was watching the steady progression of Thalo and his team toward the rendezvous.   Just as the door opened to let in Thalo’s team, Cole’s suit went nuts.  He caught a massive dose of feedback that made his ears ring and everything he had on the station flashed then went down.

“
Hal, what happened?”  His voice sounded dull and hollow in his ears.

“Shit
Cole, they got one.”  Hal responded.

“Got one what Hal?  What the hell is going
on?”

“Cole they got one of my people, some hidden defense we didn’t see.  It killed him Cole.”  Hal sounded like he was going into shock.

“Stay with me buddy we need you to help us finish this.”  Cole tried to sound as sympathetic as possible.

“Shit, shit.
Right, okay.  The other AI is trying to disarm the trap.  Once that is done he will have access to the main frame and can reboot the security and life signs systems.  Until then they are closed off to you.”  Hal had regained some confidence and was pushing ahead.

“Thalo we go in blind then.  I don’t want to get funneled in this hatch
.  Cut us a new one.”  Jeth once again removed his bottle of magic and traced out the biggest hole he could on the floor.

“I hope we squish a few.”  He muttered under his breath as he finished his outline.  Again he placed the charge on the outline and stepped back.  Cole gave him the signal and he triggered the electrical charge.  The floor dropped away to clang on the level below them.  All twenty-two of them dropped
down as one.   They instantly spread out and found whatever cover they could.  Working off his memory of the section they were now in, Cole started to advance slowly forward.  They cleared all rooms as they came to them and found nothing.  Finally after clearing the whole level they were at the door that lead down to the odd readings the life signs detector had picked up.

“Well
, they had to have gone down then since they were not up here,” remarked Thalo.

“I always said you were the smarte
st guy in the room Thalo.”  Remarked Split.  “No one can slip the obvious by you, that’s for sure.”

Soft laughter rumbled over the net as the two teams moved forward to breach the door.  As suddenly as it had disappeared the Intel feed came back.  “He is in
, Cole, he has the whole system now.”  Hals voice cried happily over the com. 

“Your people need some names
Hal, but tell him good job.”  Cole sorted through the information streaming to his suit.  The schematic confirmed they had cleared this whole level and that whoever had been on this floor had moved to the lower one because no life signs were here except for his men.

“
Hal, give us a count down again and open the door.”  Hal started at ten again as the two teams lined up to cover the door.  When Hal hit one, the door flew open and the teams filled the room with death.  Unfortunately the Esii that were in the room were already dead.  Cole ordered a cease fire and waited, he looked into the room with all his different vision functions.  He saw nothing moving at all in the room.

He waived Thalo’s team to go first.  They entered the room and spread out searching amongst the bodies laying on the floor for a survivor.  They found nine bodies all with their throats cut and all holding the knives that did it.  To
o late, Thalo remembered there had been ten life signs on that level.  The tenth one dropped from the ceiling onto Jeth’s back.  He rammed a wicked looking knife into Jeth’s shoulder.  The Esii had been aiming for his neck but Jeth had jerked when the weight had landed on him throwing off his strike.  Thalo vaulted over Jeth who ducked at just the right moment and lashed out with his fist.  The Esii was launched off of Jeth’s back and landed on a pile of its dead kin.  Before anyone could jump to stop him, the Esii rammed the knife into his own throat.  He fell forward onto the ground, instantly dead with the tip of the knife poking out of the back of his neck.

Cole ran over to Jeth.  The big Worlder was clutching at his shoulder.  “Let me see it.”  Cole ordered and Jeth obediently bent low so Cole could see the wound.  It was a nasty wound, made nastier since the knife had pulled out of him at an angle widening the wound considerably.  “Thalo take a pair of Worlders and get Jeth to the med station.”

“Cole, I am fine.”  Jeth started to say and stopped when Cole turned to look at him.

Cole switched to a
private channel and stared daggers at Jeth.  “Do you really want to argue about this now?  I think I just gave you an order.”

They locked stare
s for a few seconds before Jeth relented and allowed Thalo and two others to take him out of the room and back up to the
Retribution
.  Cole switched back to the assault channel.  “Everyone, let’s get ready to take the basement.  Hal, do you have anything new on what the life sign’s scanner was picking up on the bottom floor?”

“No.  Sorry, I can’t get a clear image of it but there are either
a lot of them down there or it’s gigantic.  Either option is bad for you.”  Hal sounded a little worried but he continued on.  “Just take it slow and be ready for anything.”

“Gotcha.
  Okay let’s take this door down.”  Cole positioned his teams for a breach into the oversized door.  He set what remained of Thalo’s team up behind the wreckage of the room to provide cover fire and stacked his team up on either side of the door.  Again the magic can of spray paint came out and was used to trace around the outline of the door.  Cole watched intently waiting and hoping Hal would come up with some explanation as to what the readings at the bottom of these stairs meant.  The charge was placed and the Worlder with the trigger was waiting for Cole’s go ahead.  With nothing new coming from Hal, Cole gave the signal and the Worlder hit the trigger.  The newly cut door fell forward and slid down the stairs until it clanged to a stop at the bottom.  Silence followed in its wake.  Cole counted thirty seconds before he slowly poked his head around the corner. 

Nothing.
No movement, no sound, absolutely no reaction to the giant piece of metal clanging its way down the stairs.  Cole turned on his IR vision and peered into, the now bright as day, stairwell.  All he could see was the door lying at the bottom of the first flight of stairs.  He signaled his teams forward down the stairwell.

“Cole, don’t open that door.”  Hal’s frantic voice blared over the open channel.

Cole quickly signaled for a halt and rapid withdrawal.  He got all his men positioned around the room covering the door before he responded to Hal’s warning.  “That came about five minutes too late Hal.  Now what the hell is down there, did the sensors pick up something new?”  Cole was trying to keep calm and not reveal how badly Hal had startled him.

“No
.  Nothing new from the sensors but I dug up an old report from an abandoned Esii freighter that drifted into Nixa space five hundred years or so ago.”

“Okay
, lay it on me.  Stop stalling.”  Cole was having a hard time not being too hard on Hal.

“Your ancestors found out the hard way
, when they first encountered the Esii, on how they ate.”  Hal didn’t have a chance to finish because Cole let out a low moan and nearly collapsed to the ground.  Split was the closest team member and he managed to catch Cole and kept him upright.

Cole steadied himself and waved off Split.

“Cole what is it?  Are you all right?”  The worried voice of Sky came over his private channel.  He was glad she had the presence of mind to ask that discreetly.