Omega Force 6: Secret of the Phoenix (5 page)

After sitting for nearly fifteen minutes, nobody had come by to take their order, which was just as well with Jason. They weren’t there to drink and he was skeptical of the cleanliness of the place. They got some odd looks from patrons, but nobody seemed to be paying them any special attention.

“How do we know she’s even going to be in here anytime soon?” Jason asked, not for the first time.

“I sent the confirmation signal when we landed. She said it wouldn’t take her long to get here after that and she would be able to recognize us,” Doc said.

“We’ll wait for another fifteen minutes and then head back to the ship,” Jason said. “Much longer than that and people are going to start wondering why we’re just sitting here.”

“It would help if someone stopped by to take our order,” Crusher grumbled. “You know, just for appearances.”

“Of course,” Jason said, watching the crowd casually.

“Are you gentleman enjoying yourself in this fine establishment?” a voice ground out from the rear entrance. Jason turned and looked as five tough-looking aliens came sauntering in. He saw all the other patrons stiffen up and begin either moving away or trying to ignore the newcomers.
These must be the local bullies.

“Could be better,” Jason shrugged. “Service is really very bad.”

“Ah,” the alien said as he approached them. “It could be that they’re confused. You see … you’re sitting at my table.”

“You’re telling me this shithole takes reservations?” Jason asked.

“I think you know what I’m saying,” the alien said angrily. “Now if you get out of that seat I may just let you leave by handing over the money in your pockets and that coat.” Jason looked at his friends, incredulous.

“You realize there are only five of you, right?”

“I won’t ask you again! Now if you don’t—” his sentence was cut short by a strangled wheeze as Jason’s hand shot out and grabbed him by the throat. The heavily enhanced human squeezed down, feeling the soft tissue give way and the more firm cartilage-like substance begin to sag. The alien’s four companions were in such shock they were immobile for a moment before clumsily pawing at their clothes to free their weapons. It was far too slow as Crusher leveled a nasty-looking plasma pistol at one and kicked another across the room with such force he didn’t land until impacting the bar with a crash.

The flying tough guy seemed to be the catalyst that snapped the rest of the patrons out of their shock and there was a mad stampede for the door. This was useful since everyone who stayed was obviously associated with the alien Jason was slowly choking the life out of. He heard Lucky switch to combat mode and saw Doc pull his weapon, so he ignored everything happening around him for the moment, trusting his team to watch his back.

“Now,” Jason said into his captive’s ear, “I know you’re used to being the alpha dog here in this little dirt-filled town, but you are not ready for what my friends will unleash on you if you piss us off further. You’ve already likely cost us a lot of money by scaring our contact off, so what are you willing to do to make that up to us?”

“You … will… not …”

“What was that? Oh, right … I’m crushing your throat,” Jason said. He relaxed his grip slightly before continuing, “Now what was that?”

“You will not make it off this planet alive,” the alien rasped.

“Now see, that just wasn’t nice,” Jason said with a sad shake of his head. He stood up and reestablished his grip, lifting the astonished alien up off the ground so he was eye level. “I’m afraid I can’t let a threat like that go unanswered.” He reared back and heaved the alien across the room where he landed in a heap next to his friend that Crusher had sent sailing. The distraction was enough that Jason was able to reach under his coat and bring out his own weapons and for Crusher to reach in and grab his second pistol.

“So what will it be?” Jason said loudly in Jenovian Standard. “Will we all be walking out of here unharmed, or will only my friends and I be walking out of here at all?”

“Drop the weapons! Now!” a new voice said, this one from higher up. Jason craned his head up to the loft over the bar and saw the alien who had been pouring drinks, ostensibly the owner, aiming a heavy plasma cannon at them. The cannon was so large it was mounted to the railing and was probably at one time a crew-served weapon from some long forgotten war. Either way, it was more than enough firepower to blast them, and most of the wall behind them, into dust.

“Lucky,” Jason mumbled as he raised his weapons over his head and nodded for Crusher to do the same. “We don’t want any more trouble,” he said.

“You should have thought about that before attacking my friends,” the owner said, now visibly relaxing as Jason and Crusher slowly lowered their plasma pistols to the table. Doc had already relieved himself of his weapon and looked to be searching for an escape route. “I don’t know who you are, but I can’t let you walk out of here.”

“I’m sorry to hear you say that,” Jason said pleasantly. “Now, Lucky.” The battlesynth had also raised his arms in an apparent move to mimic the others, but in reality it had put his arm-mounted cannons in a better position to bear quickly on the target. He snapped both arms to the loft and opened fire with a blistering salvo.

The high-pitched scream was cut short as the cannon exploded and took out the majority of the roof as well as collapsing the loft onto the bar in a flaming heap. Jason and Crusher grabbed their weapons and again trained them on the crowd. The bar was now beginning to burn quite cheerfully and it would only be a few minutes before emergency services responded.

“Doc,” Jason said, “go secure that rear entrance our friends used. We’ll cover you and then move out once you signal that it’s clear.”

“Right,” Doc said and hustled along the rear wall to the door. The remaining crowd that had stayed to stick up for their leader seemed to now be reconsidering their decisions and were moving to get out the front door before the fire consumed the rest of the building. “We’re clear!” Doc shouted from the door.

“Let’s move, boys!” Jason shouted, squeezing off a dozen shots over the heads of the retreating crowd to keep them honest as they moved quickly to the exit.

Once outside they found themselves in a narrow alley between the Mine Bottom and the building on the next street over.

“This isn’t a good place to be,” Crusher said. “Let’s get one street over and begin trying to get back to the
Phoenix
.”

“Agreed,” Jason said. “Lucky, take point, I’ll cover the rear.”

“I’ll cover the rear,” Crusher said and physically moved Jason in between him and Lucky. “I can hear someone coming up behind me far better than you.”

“Let’s go then,” Doc said, impatient to be off.

They ran hard through the alleys and side streets to put as much distance between the bar and them as they could. Soon they were out of the commercial area and onto what looked like a residential street with tall row houses. They slowed to a walk and tried to look casual as they moved along in the low afternoon light. Doc was panting hard and was holding his side.

“You’re out of shape,” Crusher accused.

“I’m not a tactical asset as you’re so fond of saying,” Doc shot back.

“No, but you could get us all killed by having to wait on your slow ass,” Crusher retorted. “So we’re just getting back to the ship and blasting off this rock, right, Captain?”

“That’s the plan,” Jason said. “Whoever it was that we were supposed to meet will just have to find someone else.” His com unit chirped a moment after he stopped talking. “Go for Burke.”

“
Captain
,” Kage said. “
We’ve got a lot of activity here at the spaceport and it looks like a fire near where you were meeting our contact
.”

“I know, Kage,” Jason said. “We’re trying to make our way back to you now. Prep the ship, we’ll be leaving as soon as we get back.”

“
Did you guys have something to do with the fire?
”

“Just have the
Phoenix
ready to fly when we get there,” Jason said, ignoring the question and closing the channel.

“The authorities will know by now that it was a bunch of outsiders that caused all the trouble,” Crusher said. “They’ll have that spaceport locked down and are likely watching the
Phoenix
.”

“I’ve thought of that,” Jason said. “Let’s just get a little closer and then we’ll try and figure out how hard it will be to get to the ship.”

Jason’s next words were cut off by a large, boxy ground vehicle screeching around the corner and bearing down on them. Looking around, he couldn’t see anywhere to escape to as there was no alley between any of the houses. He was about to pull his weapons when the vehicle veered away and stopped on the street just in front of them. The side cargo door popped open and lifted up out of the way revealing a well-lit interior with bench seats.

“Get in!” a female alien shouted from the driver’s seat.

“Who are you?” Jason demanded, his hands still on his weapons.

“There is no time! The authorities know you fled this direction and are on the way,” she said. “Unless you want your ship impounded and to find yourselves in a holding cell, I’d suggest you hurry up.” Jason turned to his companions and shrugged before climbing into the vehicle. The rest piled in and the driver was pulling away before the door had completely closed.

“Our contact, I presume,” Jason said as she turned down a side street. “You were late.”

“I was on time,” she argued. “However, I wasn’t aware your plan was to burn the bar to the ground if I didn’t show up in less than an hour.”

“It’s not something we normally do,” Jason deadpanned. “We save it for special occasions.”

“I’m flattered.”

“Don’t be,” Jason said. “You have a short amount of time to explain yourself or we will toss you out of here and take this vehicle back to our ship and be long gone before anyone finds you.” He heard her gasp at his threat, assuming she thought he meant to kill her. He had actually meant they would restrain her and dump her on the side of the road, but he decided not to bother correcting her.

“We’ll talk when we’re safe,” she said and concentrated on driving. Jason looked around at the others and could see they weren’t sure they were in a better position now than when they had been on the run. He shrugged and leaned back. There was nothing to be gained by worrying about things he couldn’t control.

Chapter 5

“It looks like you have the correct confirmation code,” Jason said grudgingly while handing the data pad back to their rescuer. “So who are you?”

“My name is Naleem El,” she said. “I’m in need of a fast, capable ship to hire in order to finish my work.”

“Tell you what, Naleem,” Jason said slowly. “If you’re not going to be honest with us from the beginning, we’ll be on our way and you can find someone else.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Naleem admitted, looking confused.

“You weren’t out to hire just any ship,” Jason continued, walking around the cramped room in the basement they were all in. “You seemed to know exactly who we were, how to get ahold of us, and details about our ship we would never put into an open communication. Who are you?”

She stared at him for a moment before exhaling loudly and sinking back into her seat. “Yes,” she said finally. “I’ve heard of you. I was told stories of your exploits by people who had direct interaction with you.”

“Who?”

“The A’arcooni,” she said quietly.

“Whoa!” Crusher said loudly. “How could you possibly know about them? That was supposed to be a strict secret.” The A’arcooni were a species on the brink of extinction that Deetz had enlisted to attack Earth years earlier. As far as everyone who knew of the incident was concerned, they were all still on their homeworld and all interstellar travel privileges had been revoked.

“What interaction could you have possibly had with them?” Jason asked harshly.

“I’ve been to A’arcoon. It was part of my work,” Naleem said. “It’s not important how I knew of them, but what is important is that their leadership told me of you and your crew. They speak of you in reverent whispers: the alien who showed them the true path and gave them back their home. They’re doing quite well, actually.”

“This will go a lot faster if you stop making me drag out every detail,” Jason said wearily. “What is your work, how does it involve the A’arcooni, and why do you need us?”

“I’m an archeologist who specializes in ancient spacefaring races,” Naleem began. “The A’arcooni hit my sensors when I got my hands on a classified report that detailed the way their ships moved through space. They don’t use the slip-drive technology every other species in this part of the galaxy has adopted. Their drive allows for instantaneous jumps from one place to another, limited only by the power source. When I discovered that they were a relatively primitive species themselves, I went there to investigate.

“While they were very gracious and eager for any news of what was happening beyond their system, they were woefully ignorant of how their FTL drives actually worked. Not only that, Crisstof Dalton had confiscated their ships so my engineering team couldn’t examine the real thing. My hypothesis is that the species who gave them that technology, arguably something more advanced than our own slip-drives, may be a direct descendent to an even older species that was flying between the stars when our ancestors were still single cell organisms.

“As for why I need you … let’s just say that not everyone is as enthusiastic about my work as I am. I’m threatening to debunk a lot of evolutionary dogma that every species seems to hold dear. I’m often chased off of sites, sometimes by armed forces. Having a crew of mercenaries and a warship instead of a collection of academics and an underpowered shuttle seems preferable. I also liked the symmetry of you getting involved again after my talks with the A’arcooni.”

She paused and looked around at her audience to see how her story was being taken. Lucky was completely unreadable and Doc looked openly skeptical. Jason and Crusher, however, had actually moved forward to the edges of their seats and were listening with rapt attention.

“There’s also the matter of me being able to safely get you back to your ship,” she finished, leaning back.

“That’s … quite a tale, Naleem El,” Doc said, looking over at Jason as he did. “It’s all very, very light on the details and still doesn’t fully explain why you need Omega Force in particular.”

“I really don’t,” she said with a shrug. “But I’m offering you the job and it pays very well. There isn’t an extraordinary amount of danger involved and you might get the chance to see some incredible things along the way.”

“Let’s get back to the ship at least,” Jason said after a moment. “Then we can decide on the details. You may as well bring your gear, Naleem.”

“It’s in the black transit crates upstairs,” she said, rising quickly. “Once they’re loaded into the ground car we can be on our way.”

****

Getting past the local law enforcement and back to the
Phoenix
ended up being a lot easier than they anticipated. Another vicious dust storm had come in during the evening and drove everyone back to shelter. It was a simple matter of braving the elements and driving the battered ground car (more of a van, really) through the blinding dirt and up to the ship.

At Jason’s instruction, Naleem turned the vehicle around and backed it directly up the ramp until the rear doors were just inside the atmospheric barrier. Lucky and Crusher climbed out and made quick work unloading the cases while Jason supervised. A few moments later and Naleem pulled the vehicle down onto the hard-packed dirt of the landing pad and abandoned it, grabbing her personal bag and walking back up the ramp.

“You’re fine just leaving it down there?” Jason asked. “We won’t likely be coming back to this planet.”

“It’s of no importance,” she said with a dismissive wave. “I don’t plan on coming back myself.” Jason shrugged and hit the control to raise the ramp and close the pressure doors. He could already feel the power building in the main drive as Kage finalized their takeoff preparations. When he walked into the ship through the crew entry hatch, he saw almost everyone was making their way to the bridge except Lucky and Twingo. The pair was heading towards the port engineering bay so that Twingo could thoroughly clean all the grime off the battlesynth.

Lucky had tried to use the crew showers before when something similar had happened, but the mist jets didn’t have the pressure needed to scour his metallic skin and unique joints. Twingo had then devised an ultrasonic cleaner that was so effective it left Lucky burnished to a dull gleam. The harsh sonic waves apparently had some therapeutic effect as well as he seemed to thoroughly enjoy his time in the contraption.

“We’re ready to lift off, Captain,” Kage said as Jason walked onto the bridge. “We’ll want to hurry. I think that storm is getting ready to let up and we’re next in line for inspection.”

“We’ll be long gone before that,” Jason said as he slid into the pilot’s seat. He initialized all the primary flight systems and began feeding power to the grav-drive. The ship lifted smoothly from the surface just as the com began to light up with demands from ground control to put back down and await local law enforcement for a mandatory inspection. Jason just laughed and throttled up, putting the
Phoenix
into a steep climb to get out of the swirling dirt storm. He grimaced as he retracted the landing gear, imagining how much of the filth he’d just trapped inside the ship. “Kage, have the damage control bots go into the cargo bay and begin cleaning the place up,” he said at the thought.

“They’re already at it,” Kage said. “I also have them going through the interior cleaning up where you guys tracked it in.”

“Thanks. Once we get into orbit we’ll push towards the heliopause before—”

“We’ve got inbound craft,” Doc reported, interrupting Jason. “Four targets, accelerating into the atmosphere from low-orbit and they are most definitely moving onto an intercept vector.”

“Let’s see how they like this,” Jason said with a tight smile, angling away from the inbound craft and slamming the throttle down. The
Phoenix
leapt forward and quickly went hypersonic as she screamed out of Yeema’s atmosphere. “Full combat mode, shields up.” He was partially blinded while coming up off the planet’s surface and didn’t want to run flat-footed into a trap set in upper orbit for them. The fact that the four fast movers had been coming down from orbit as he lifted off made him assume he was being flushed out.

“Two light cruisers in orbit!” Doc said in alarm. “We won’t be able to avoid the one directly ahead; the other is low on the horizon but coming at us fast.”

“It’s about what I expected,” Jason said tightly. “Bias the shields forward, we’re going to take some hits.” He twisted the gunship over to put their nose directly on the cruiser that was waiting for them in higher orbit. The tactical computer fed him range and data on the target as they closed on it. The other ship had the advantage as it only had to make minor course corrections to keep the gunship in weapons range while the
Phoenix
had to come out of the gravity well at full power at the same time it was attempting to evade the larger ship.

Jason knew he had no hope of trying to turn and outrun the cruiser. He also knew that if he tried to turn and dive back into the atmosphere the four attack craft below would have the advantage. With his back against the wall, he armed the
Phoenix’s
main cannons and drove the ship straight at the cruiser, trying to get within effective weapons range as fast as he could. For a second he thought about jumping to slip-space, but they were deep within the planet’s gravity well and the enemy ship’s grav-drive was creating distortions directly ahead of them. It was a risk not worth taking as there was a slim but very real chance they would emerge back into real-space as a stream of disjointed molecules.

“We’re within the cruiser’s weapons range,” Kage said. “Why aren’t they firing?”

“They’re trying to capture us,” Jason said. “Or more specifically, they’re trying to capture
her.
Whatever the hell you’re into, Naleem El, you sure as fuck undersold it to us.”

“I told you exactly—”

“Quiet!” Jason snapped as they raced towards the enemy ship. “I’ll deal with you later, if we’re still around to talk about it. Kage, keep a look out for any unusual readings on that ship … you have about fifteen seconds to find out before it’s too late.”

“There is a massive gravimetric buildup near the prow,” Kage said, his hands flying over his displays. “It’s shifting frequencies to match our drive.”

“So that’s your game,” Jason said softly. “They’re going to try and force our drive to reset as we pass. Twingo! I need you to cut power to the grav-drive the instant I tell you.”

“Standing by,” Twingo said from the engineering station. He and Lucky had raced onto the bridge when the weapons had charged and the evasive maneuvers had begun.

Jason reached over and flicked the four switches up that would start the mains and then lined the ship’s plasma cannons up on the nose of the cruiser. At the speed in which they were closing, they would only have a few seconds to coordinate what he had planned.

“Reset the shield bias to even coverage,” he said. “They won’t be firing on the first pass. Be ready for them to open up as we go by though.” He felt and heard the
boom
of mains lighting off and glanced down at his engine management panel to verify they were ready to provide thrust. Heartened by the green indicators looking back at him, he concentrated on lining his shot up and did a silent countdown in his head.

Five seconds after the mains came online, he squeezed the trigger and sent a salvo of plasma bolts streaking for the cruiser and then immediately angled his course to port to make it look like he was going to try and slip by the cruiser in the confusion. The enemy ship took the plasma bolts directly on its prow, the shields flaring and undulating, but the
Phoenix
was still outside its maximum effective range and the shots only degraded the shields slightly. It was enough of a distraction, however, that Jason didn’t think they knew what he was up to.

Keeping a sharp eye on his tactical display, specifically his range, he waited until they were within five thousand kilometers of the cruiser. The ship was now underway and turning to try and keep its nose on the
Phoenix
while also still closing the range.

“Now, Twingo!” Jason barked just as the ship broke the one thousand kilometer range. He shoved the throttle all the way forward and they were all shoved back into their seats as millions of pounds of thrust from the mains launched the ship forward.

“They’re expanding that grav field towards us,” Kage reported. “No effect.”

“They won’t be fooled for long,” Jason said. “Stand by. Twingo, get ready to bring the grav-drive back online.”

“Ready when you are,” Twingo said.

“They’re firing,” Kage said. The ship was rocked as high-powered plasma fire raked their starboard side. Warnings began scrolling across Jason’s displays and he could see that their starboard shielding was degraded by thirty percent, but was slowly recharging.

They shot past the cruiser and were now looking at wide open space, but Jason knew they were still in danger.

“Bring the grav-drive back up,” he said. “Kage, prep an XT5 for our friends. Twenty-five megaton yield, proximity detonation.”

“Grav-drive is back online,” Twingo reported.

“What’s the status on the second cruiser?” Jason asked as he switched the mains to standby and throttled up the grav-drive to send them deeper out into the system.