Omega Force 3: The Enemy Within (8 page)

*****

“We’re almost to the edge of the city,” Jason said under his breath. “After that it’s a straight shot back to the spaceport.”

“
You think it’ll be that easy?” Crusher asked.

“
Probably not,” Jason admitted before pulling out his com unit. “Kage, prep the
Phoenix
for flight. We’ve made our pickup and would like to leave in a hurry.” He pocketed the unit without waiting for a response.

“
Trouble,” Crusher said. Jason looked up and saw two ConFed troops being led by a light-blue-skinned being dressed in casual clothes that could only be an agent of the ConFed Intelligence Service. The agent looked up and stared straight at the two of them as he continued his measured approach.

“
He’s made us,” Jason said without moving his lips. He reached around like he was scratching his back and the agent’s reaction confirmed his identity as he tensed up, obviously thinking Jason might have been going for a weapon. Instead the human held up two fingers behind his back. Lucky grabbed Kellea when he saw this and left the street, disappearing into one of the shops. “And … now!”

Crusher and Jason broke off in the opposite direction and shot down an all
ey at a full sprint.

“
HALT!” the agent shouted as three sets of footfalls pursued them. The pair ducked down as a stunner bolt whizzed by and splashed against a storage bin.

“
Shit!” Jason said as he dove to the left down a connecting alley. This one was a dead end. “SHIT!” he shouted again.

“
Follow me, I have an idea,” Crusher said. He wheeled around and began running back the way they’d come.

“
This already seems like a stupid idea,” Jason said as he followed closely behind. Crusher ignored him as he listened carefully for the approaching troops. The intel agent had decided to lag behind once they’d lost contact with their quarry. The troops rounded the corner, weapons lowered slightly, just as Crusher accelerated to his full speed and dove into them. The impact was horrific as both soldiers went down hard and stayed down. Crusher, unable to slow his momentum, went flying out into the adjacent alley and hit the ground, sliding to a stop a mere ten feet in front of the agent. He rose slowly with his hands raised as the agent leveled an ugly-looking blaster at him.

“
Who are you and why were you running away from the Sky View Lodge? Is this a local matter, or are you involved in something else?” the agent asked as he held his ground just out of the warrior’s reach. What the agent didn’t see, however, was that Jason had snagged a fallen soldier’s weapons and was standing just around the corner. He lowered himself to the ground and used his toes to push forward until he was just near the edge.

“
Answer me!” the agent said sharply. Jason selected the stun setting and pushed the last few inches he needed before rolling over to his left and lining the agent up in his sights. The agent heard him and also brought his weapon to bear, his set to kill. He also fired the first shot, a wildly-aimed blast that went wide. Jason heard Crusher bellow in pain and squeezed his own shot off, taking the agent full in the face.

The agent didn
’t convulse or flop about like some did when hit with a stunner. He just crumpled like a toy after someone flipped the switch off. Jason rose quickly and fired two more stun bolts into the now-stirring troops before moving to check on Crusher, expecting the worst.

“
Where are you hit?” he asked, unable to see any visible wounds. Wordlessly, Crusher held up one of his “dreadlocks”, which in reality were highly sensitive sensory organs that could detect minute pressure changes and allow his kind to have a full sphere of awareness when in battle. The one in his friend’s hand had a singed end that still had a faint wisp of smoke curling off of it.

“
It doesn’t look that bad,” Jason commented He’d seen Crusher suffer far more grievous injuries without as much as a whimper. He was now making a face like he’d just slammed his tongue in an airlock hatch, however.

“
Let me shoot you in the most sensitive part of your body with his gun,” Crusher said, actually reaching for the agent’s weapon. This made Jason tighten up and squeeze his knees together involuntarily.

“
No need for hostility,” he said quickly. “So what should we do about him,” he asked, gesturing towards the agent. “The troopers won’t remember shit, and probably didn’t know anything anyway, but this guy seemed to be after us specifically.”

“
Kill him?” Crusher asked.

“
I’d rather not,” Jason said. “Not because I have any particular affinity for ConFed agents, but when you kill one, fifty more seem to join the hunt for you. Remember that thing Doc was saying about multiple stunners being able to erase recent memory? Something about overloading the temporal cortex in most sentient species?” Crusher just gave him a strange look.

“
You actually pay attention when he’s blathering on about that shit?”

“
Not usually. But for some reason this stuck,” Jason said. “I think he said there was also an equally good chance it could totally blank both the memory and voluntary body functions.”

“
Damn,” Crusher said. “You’d probably be doing him a favor just to kill him.”

“
Well, at least this way he has better odds,” Jason said and fired two stun bolts into the agent’s head at a distance of less than five meters. The agent’s legs flailed around wildly for a moment and then he went still, the rising and falling of his chest telling them that at least his autonomic nervous system had survived the ordeal.

“
We’d better get moving,” Crusher said as he policed the area for any physical evidence they might have inadvertently left. “I’m sure Lucky got Captain Colleren back to the ship already.”

“
Let’s move,” Jason agreed and tossed the weapon back over near where the original owner still lay. The pair walked casually back out of the alleyway and turned back onto their original course that would lead them out of the city via one of the service roads and not the main streets, which were surely blocked off by now.

*****

Jason let out an explosive sigh of relief when his boots hit the ramp of the
Phoenix
. Even if they were discovered now, the odds were much more in his favor behind the controls of the powerful gunship. As he’d requested from Kage, the engines were running and emitting a low, steady hum as the ship sat primed for flight. He closed the ramp and the rear pressure doors and ran to the bridge with Crusher right behind him.

The rest of his crew, and Kellea, were already strapped in and ready. Four anxious faces looked at him as he climbed into the pilot
’s seat. “Talk to me,” he said as he began verifying his ship’s status.

“
We’re being asked to clear out,” Kage said. “The ConFed ships in orbit want to land some assault boats and need the landing area empty.”

“
You’re shitting me?” Jason asked, elated. “So we just fly off, simple as that?”

“
You wish,” Kage snorted. “We’re being diverted to the main spaceport outside of the capital for a search by ConFed Intelligence before we’re cleared to depart the planet. Our required flight plan just came through.”

“
Hmm,” Jason said. “Still … at least we’ll be airborne. This is still more desirable than trying to tear out of here without clearance. I assume we’re still pinging as the
Lark
?”

“
You assume correct,” Kage said. “We just got our clearance to lift off. Actually we were told, more or less, to get the hell out of the way.” Jason looked and confirmed his navigational data before feeding power to the drive and lifting the
Phoenix
smoothly off the landing pad. He retracted the gear and swung around for a gentle, sweeping climb into the holding pattern where they would stay until directed to fly on to the capital.

Jason looked over at Kellea as he accelerated the ship along their new
flight path. The starship captain looked a bit shell shocked, extremely dirty, but none the worse for wear otherwise. In the mad dash to get to her, he hadn’t had a lot of time to reflect on what he might find out when he was finally able to debrief her. Seeing the
Diligent
spinning in space with heavy battle damage wasn’t something he’d ever expected.

“
Captain! You’ll want to see this,” Doc broke him out of his reverie. “News broadcast from Camderan media sources.” Jason looked at the clock and saw he had a few hours to kill before they made any real decision on what their next course of action would be.

“
Put it up,” he said. Doc turned and fed the video to the projection system that turned the front canopy into an enormous display.

“
Confederation Agents attempted to apprehend the first officer from the warship, Diligent, that had been intercepted days ago. The ship is said to have been involved in the recent violent protests across the planet. The officer, whose name is officially being withheld at this time, was killed during the attempted arrest. The captain of that vessel, Kellea Colleren, is still at large …”
The video cut to a scene outside of what appeared to be block housing in a northern part of the planet. A sheet was covering a body on the sidewalk. The bright orange hair of Commander Bostco could be seen as the wind rippled the thin cover.

“
Oh!” Kellea choked back a sob.

“
Kill the feed, Doc,” Jason said quietly. He was completely enraged. Bostco had been his friend and he had no doubt the ConFed hadn’t tried to arrest him, but had assassinated the easygoing officer in cold blood. Bostco was no warrior, and he wouldn’t have put up a fight when confronted by an armed party.

“
Arrest my ass,” Crusher growled, giving voice to what everyone else was thinking. “What are we going to do, Captain?”

“
We can’t help him now,” Jason said, the feeling of impotence in the face of such an obvious injustice fueling his rage. “First we get Captain Colleren off this planet safely, and then we start trying to piece together what the hell is going on.”

“
These guys are playing for keeps right now,” Twingo said softly. His eyes were wet, but his voice was steady. “We can’t risk taking this ship into the capital. We might not get out and they’ll tear her apart if they even suspect we have anything to do with this.”

“
Agreed,” Jason said. “This damn planet is completely blanketed … what options do we have for getting out of here? Preferably without having to fight our way out through a ConFed blockade.”

“
Running the data now,” Kage said. “I’ll have to slice into the planet’s orbital control system to get current positions of all the ConFed warships buzzing around up there.”

“
Just get it done.”

*****

They were getting close to the stretch of the flight where they would have to make their move. The
Phoenix
was pushing up the coast towards the more populated capital region and was about to get into a stretch of nearly-deserted swampland.

“
Figure anything out?” Jason asked.

“
No,” Kage answered, frowning. “We have good cloud cover at around thirty thousand feet, and the air traffic sensors don’t have very good coverage here, but the ConFed fleet has a stranglehold on this planet. Even if the Camderan flight controllers miss us, it’s doubtful the ships in orbit will.”

“
We could try a ‘Drunken Twingo’,” Doc suggested. “The sensor coverage may be sparse enough to get away, and the distraction may move the picket ships out of formation.”

“
It’s as good an idea as any,” Kage agreed. “We’ll need to execute it in the next five minutes for it to be effective.”

“
Drunken Twingo?” Kellea asked.

“
I’m formally requesting that this maneuver be renamed,” Twingo said irritably.

“
Noted. Denied,” Jason said. “Doc, get ready with the countermeasures. Kage, arm two thermobaric warheads … high-yield.” Jason took control of the ship from the computer and prepared for the maneuver as soon Kage gave him the word.

“
In three … two … one …“ Kage reached over and opened a channel on the com panel. “This is micro-freighter
Lark
declaring an in-flight emergency! We’ve lost main power and cannot maintain altitude! We’re losing stability control! Our position is …” He trailed off and then killed the channel. At the same instant, Jason pulled the throttle back and pushed the nose over while kicking the left rudder pedal. The
Phoenix
wallowed a moment in the air before listing to her port side and falling through the clouds in an apparently uncontrolled tumble.

The ship rolled over twice and shuddered as Jason allowed her to fall naturally through the sky a bit longer. When they passed through fifteen
thousand feet, he pushed the throttle back up and powered out of the stall. He pointed the nose at an open stretch of heavily wooded swamp and held that course for a few more seconds.