Omega Force 7: Redemption (3 page)

"Essentially, yes," Kalette confirmed. "I pulled down some of the cargo netting and hid under it in case your cargo hold had active surveillance. I was able to hold out there until we arrived on this planet, though I'm not sure which planet this even is, and then found I was locked in. Thankfully your ship still had water and dried rations in the galley. I had planned to sneak out again when you came back aboard and reactivated main power."

"Well, it sounds like you've had a hell of an adventure," Jason said, leaning back in his seat. "I assume this satisfies the accusations that we were harboring the Avarian Sovereign's daughter?"

"It does," Crisstof nodded. "It may take some time to sort this out, however."

"Not from where I'm sitting," Jason shrugged. "The
Defiant
has lots and lots of space for you to do your sorting. I'm not being deliberately rude but I'm not getting dragged into this."

"Understood," Crisstof said with a curt nod before standing up. "I wasn't inclined to ask you anyway."

"Take care of yourself, bud," Jason said, ignoring Crisstof and holding his hand out to Doc. "Don't let them drag you into something stupid like I used to."

"This is something that we would have jumped on without asking back when Omega Force was still operating," Doc said quietly.

"Those days are gone," Jason said with a forced smile. "No more Omega missions and no more blind charges into suicidal situations. We'll all live longer for it, I'm sure."

"Yes, well ... I suppose there had to be something positive to come from it all," Doc said, nodding to Jason one more time before stepping aside to speak with Lucky. Not really having anything else to do, nor a desire to talk to anyone, Jason descended the steps from the deck to the beach and began walking along in a generally southward direction, trying to blank his mind. When the walk didn't do it, he found a small cantina near the docks where the fishing vessels operated out of that had a lively crowd and a loud band playing. Two hundred and fifty credits later and he had successfully purged his mind of all uncomfortable thoughts and memories.

Jason stood on the back deck, still in his clothes from the previous evening, and watched the surf as he sipped on a mug of tea. Chroot was prohibitively expensive on S'tora, as were most imported goods, and he had not bothered to purchase a food synthesizer. Instead, he decided to subsist entirely on the local fare. It wasn't much of a loss as he'd never been all that fond of chroot; it was just the next best thing to actual coffee. Since neither was an option on his new home he adapted to the local custom and drank a few mugs of high-potency tea each morning.

"Good morning," a voice said from behind him. He turned and stared in slack-jawed horror as Kalette walked out of the house ... wearing one of his shirts.

"What ... how ... why are ... did we?"

"Excuse me?" she said, clearly confused and looking at Jason in the concerned manner one might adopt when trying to speak to a victim as they were having a stroke. "I apologize if I've startled you. Lucky told me I could stay last night. I do not fully trust Crisstof Dalton or know how he is gaining his information about my situation. He also gave me one of your shirts since I have no clothing of my own with me."

"I see," Jason said, both relieved and irritated simultaneously.
Maybe I should have just let him keep calling me Captain. It might have cut down on his making decisions that annoy me.
"You did startle me, but I'm fine now. Please, have a seat."

"Thank you, Jason Burke," she said, curling up gracefully on one of the overstuffed deck chairs.

"So ... there were a lot of holes in that story you told us last night," Jason remarked, sitting on the deck railing.

"Yes," she said without hesitation. "As I said, I do not trust that Crisstof Dalton has conveniently come to this planet at the exact instant I needed him to. So I provided just enough truth to be able to stop the story at a place of my choosing."

"So why trust me with even that much information now?"

"I had a long conversation with Lucky last night after you left to inebriate yourself," Kalette said in an offhand manner that embarrassed Jason somewhat. Was he really that predictable now? "I asked him of this ‘Omega Force’ Jorvren Ma'Fredich had mentioned last night and if they might be able to help me. He told me they didn't exist anymore."

"That doesn't answer my question," Jason said.

"I will eventually have to trust someone," Kalette said with a sigh. "If you and he were really once as he described then maybe you could help me get in touch with my people. I fear all others I have encountered have ulterior motives."

"You're probably not wrong there," Jason said with a nod, finishing off his tea with a slight grimace. The stuff was quite disgusting as it came closer to room temperature. "Although I would be careful about whom you get in touch with within the Empire."

"Why?" she asked, her brow furrowed in confusion. It was a very human-like expression that Jason found adorable on her face. He shook his head to clear away unhelpful thoughts before continuing.

"From the little information you provided last night I would bet heavily that this is an inside job," he said. "The likelihood of someone from within ConFed space sneaking all the way into your territory, and then following along behind you to all the different Avarian-held worlds ... it just doesn't scan. But, someone within your government, or a splinter faction, cooperating with someone outside to grab the netjere ... that's something I've seen more than once."

"You have?" Kalette asked, clearly surprised.

"You have to understand that even though the ConFed claims to be an umbrella under which we all fall, they more or less allow independent systems to govern themselves, including fighting with each other, so long as it's contained and they continue to pay their taxes," Jason said. "We had a front row seat to much of the underhanded dealings between individual planets while Omega Force was still operational."

"Everyone speaks of this Omega Force as if it was something great," she said carefully. "Why is it no longer something you do?"

"It's complicated," Jason said.

"Most things are," Kalette said, a challenge in her voice.

"This more so than most," Jason said, turning to look out at the green waves crashing against the shore. Kalette leaned forward to climb out of the chair, intent on leaving him with his thoughts, when he spoke again and stopped her. "Omega Force was always something that was balanced on a razor's edge. There had to be trust, desire, and dedication ... if any of those faltered it was doomed to fail, and failure in that business is usually a gruesome death on some godforsaken world nobody cares about."

"Which of those three things was the first to fail?" she asked, sliding back into her seat.

"It's a long story," Jason shrugged, surprised he was talking about this with a complete stranger. He wouldn't even talk to Lucky about it no matter how many times the battlesynth tried to broach the subject.

"It would appear we have some time to spare," she said, her eyes boring into his. Months and months of pent up frustration and heartache suddenly became too much for Jason to hold in anymore. He exhaled loudly as he sat down in the chair across from her, collecting his thoughts.

"Well, it all went to shit like this ..."

30 months prior ...

"We're coming up on the drop off," Jason said. "How are we looking?"

"I've got the confirmation signal from our contact," Kage reported. "Let's go ahead and make one more orbit before our final approach and it will give them time to settle into position."

"Copy," Jason said and pushed the throttle up. He angled the
Phoenix
over and slid back into a lazy, circular course above the city that wouldn't attract much attention. The settlement was perched up on the top of a mountain and landing spots were at a premium for the myriad of ships that were coming and going. As such, there seemed to be a permanent halo of circling spacecraft and even some aircraft.

The city was important for a few reasons, one of which was that it had been the seat of power for all of the planet's many, many governments. The other was that the supermax prison, De'Moltia, was inside the mountain the city was perched on. An ancient house of horrors carved into the heart of the rock that held some of the most feared criminals from around the sector as well as more than a few political dissidents. It was the latter that was the reason the
Phoenix
was slowly circling.

"We've just received a coded signal from the contact," Doc said. "We're clear to proceed."

"Turning in now," Jason said, eager to get this mission over with. There were aspects of the mission that he had never been happy about, but he had allowed himself to be overruled by his crew and Crisstof's assurances. He struggled to keep his composure and not come in so hot that it would attract attention.

"Looks like we departed the orbit at a good spot," Kage said. "I see our contact's shuttle now. I'm highlighting it on your tactical display." Jason looked as a red, pulsing ring was imposed over a small cargo shuttle that was settling down on a landing pad which belonged to a logistics business that serviced the city.

"I've got it," Jason said. "Lucky, get down to the cargo bay and get ready. I'm not dropping the landing gear, so as soon as the ramp hits the dirt you're clear to get our package."

"Yes, Captain," Lucky said and strode quickly off the bridge.

"They just touched down," Kage said, watching his monitors. "Shit! They just tossed something out and they're taking off!"

"Stand by!" Jason barked, yanking the nose up and bringing them in on a steep, fast glidepath down to the surface. "Kage, drop the ramp and track that ship."

"Ramp down," Kage said. "Lucky jumped out." They all watched on the monitors as the battlesynth sprinted across the tarmac at incredible speed, checked the large lump that had been bundled in a tarp, and sprinted back to the ship after tossing it over his shoulder. Jason's anxiety was building by the second. He knew for certain that something had just gone horribly wrong.

"
Captain
," Lucky's voice came over the intercom. "
The package is dead and Crusher is nowhere in sight.
"

"Fuck! I knew it!" Jason roared. "Close us back up! Get me a vector for that ship!"

"Ramp is back up," Kage said. "Tracking arrows coming to you." An instant later two arrows appeared, hovering in Jason's field of view thanks to his ocular implants, and told him which way the small shuttle had escaped. He slammed down the throttle and sent the
Phoenix
rocketing over the city, drawing the attention of every law enforcement craft in the area.

"They've gone over the edge," Doc said. "Tracking them as they fly down the southern face of the mountain."

"All the better," Jason said, concentrating as he shoved the nose of the gunship over and dropped them off the edge of the city and down the mountain. "Those traffic enforcement skimmers won't follow us."

"It looks like our package has been dead for some time," Lucky said as he walked back onto the bridge. "His body temperature was below outside ambient."

"So he was killed and put on ice until they tossed him out of that shuttle," Jason said, yanking the
Phoenix
over into a sharp bank to close on the shuttle at an inside angle.

"And no Crusher," Twingo said. "I have a bad feeling this was a message for someone."

"You and me both, bud," Jason said, pushing up his speed a bit as they leveled out into the flats of the desert that surrounded the oddly solitary mountain. "Do you think it's safe to bring that shuttle down?"

"I highly doubt that Crusher is on there, Captain," Doc said.

"I agree," Twingo said. "They likely thought we would be held up inspecting the body at the pickup and wouldn't notice them escaping."

"I think we arrived a bit earlier than they thought as well," Kage said. "Take 'em down, Captain."

"Knock down it is," Jason said. He pushed the throttle up and lined up behind the fleeing shuttle. The pitiful little craft had no chance of outrunning the powerful gunship, and soon it was bouncing around in the air as the
Phoenix
drew in so close she was disrupting the airflow over the aft stabilizers. "Kage, you're up," he said, squeezing the trigger and holding it for a three-count to let the computer know the copilot's station was authorized access to fire control.

"Watch this, Doc," Kage said as he deployed the
Phoenix's
point-defense turrets. "Like a surgeon." He fired a single, low-power salvo that he'd assumed would degrade the port, aft repulsors enough that it would force them down in a controlled landing. But Jason had been much too close and the sudden loss of lift, coupled with the
Phoenix
compressing the air between them, sent the small ship into an uncontrollable tumble. They watched it fall from the low altitude and bounce across the desert floor in an impressive eruption of dust and parts.

"Damnit, Kage!" Jason snapped as he yanked the stick back into his lap and shoved the throttle up. The
Phoenix
shot up off the deck in a vertical "yo-yo" maneuver with Jason chopping the power at the apex and rolling them around, braking hard so they didn't overfly the crash site.

"I'm pretty sure that wasn't my fault," Kage said as he scanned the debris field. "Look! It had an ejectable crew capsule." Jason looked and saw the forward section of the shuttle had broken away and was sitting on a set of spindly looking landing struts, the retrorockets underneath still belching out smoke and steam.

"I'm putting us down just on the other side of where the fuselage hit. We'll use it for cover," Jason said as he extended the landing gear and raised the nose, flaring just before landing. "Lucky, grab me a couple of guns and meet me at the ramp." Once he felt the bump of the wheels touching the hard-packed dirt and the ship's weight settling he popped off his restraints and raced off the bridge without bothering to tell everyone else what he wanted. They knew what to do without him by this point.

"The ejected capsule is just over one hundred meters behind us," Jason said as he accepted his railgun and a plasma sidearm from Lucky. "Our
only
priority right now is getting Crusher back. Everything else is now a secondary concern."

"Understood, Captain," Lucky said, switching to combat mode as Jason walked over to open the pressure doors and drop the ramp.

"Let's go," he said, jogging down into the dry, cool air of the desert evening and skirting around the edge of the main wreckage. He was shocked to see signs of life as they approached the capsule. One of the pilots had managed to pop the canopy open and was trying to climb out of his seat. Jason lined up on the open canopy and fired a single, low-velocity round from his railgun into it. It only put a small hole in the composite material, but the crack from the round hitting froze the pilot where he was, his eyes wide and fearful.

"Don't even think about moving," Jason said as he approached within ten meters. "Is your partner dead?"

"I ... I believe so," the pilot said. "Why would you do this? We're just delivery pilots."