Outsystem (Aeon 14) (16 page)
Read Outsystem (Aeon 14) Online
Authors: M. D. Cooper
wearing your protective armor under your uniform aren’t you?>
The cargo inspector’s AI must have n
otified him of their approach; he turned and gave Tanis an exasperated look. “I’m sorry to have to call you down here, Major, but as per your regulations you are to be brought in on any event of this nature.”
“Indeed I am.” Tanis nodded. “So what have these fine men brought aboard your station?”
“Nothing that’s any big deal,” the pseudo-captain commented.
“They’ve brought a C9 type lubricant onto the ship.”
“What receiver ordered this?” Tanis asked.
“None of yours,” the inspector said. “Manifest has it destined for AR Spec, a systems assembler on the station that handles final assembly of nav controller boards for the
Intrepid
. Except this isn’t what they ordered.” Tanis already knew all of this, but it was best to let the little drama play out.
“So someone shipped the wrong cargo?”
“No, the seal on the container has been tampered with. This cargo was replaced, that’s why I called you down.”
Tanis shifted her hard stare to
the merc in charge. His ID said he was Captain Sundy, but she had conflicting data. Some records did show that the man before her was Captain Sundy, but older ones had the bio of a completely different person, the hallmark of either shoddy work or a rush job generating a fake ID.
“I expect you have full serial records on this cargo?” she asked. “I’ll want to know everything about it, from the moment it was conceived of.”
“Of course,” the captain smiled. “If you’ll step into our hold I can bring the data up.”
Grenwald gave the signal over the Link and t
wo of the Marines from one/two boarded a crawler headed down the length of the dock. It was on a route that would take it very close to Tanis and her team; she hoped the mercs didn’t pick up on the timing.
“I don’t see why that’s necessary. Why don’t you step onto your ship and load the information onto a plas
? That way I can have it handy for my report.”
“I would, ma’am, but our plas interface is down right now. I can let you Link to the ship to get the information, but that’s it.”
“Very well.” Tanis shrugged. She motioned with her head for Joseph and one/one to follow.
Joseph said privately to Tanis.
Tanis sent an image of her avatar sticking its tongue out at Joseph, as they stepped over the threshold into the cargo bay of the small freighter. Even as she did so, her eyes darted up to catch the furtive motion of more than one man on an upper catwalk
that circled the compartment.
She sent commands over the combat net to Argenaut and Lauder to stand on the far side of the hold and cover the catwalk. Tannon and Peters took up positions on either side of the hold’s airlock.
The merc posing as Captain Sundy led Tanis and Joseph to a hard terminal and brought up the cargo’s records. She turned to the console and let it appear as though she was reading it in detail. What she was really doing was positioning her left hand—which the merc couldn’t see—under her jacket and on her pulse pistol.
Angela
had deployed remote nano which provided multiple views of the hold to the combat net; enabling Tanis to watch the merc captain from behind. He paused for a moment, thinking her distracted by the readout, and then slid a hand between two crates.
“I wouldn’t do that, Captain Sundy.” Tanis didn’t turn
as she addressed the captain.
“Do what?”
“Don’t pull that weapon out from there. I’ve got mine trained on you already. Your ship is surrounded and we’re going to have to take you into custody.”
The man gave an ugly laugh. “You’re in error, unfortunately. We’ve got people on the inside. Your little TSF force won’t be able to help you.”
“And yours won’t be able to help you.” Tanis fired. The shot hit him square in the chest. It knocked him back, but wasn’t lethal. He’d be doing some talking
later; lots of talking.
Lauder let out a cry as she raised her rifle and peppered the catwalk with pulse blasts. Argenaut was moments behind her, his laser out, intensity set low—just enough to blister the skin if it made contact. Behind them Peters and Tannon were firing shots back onto the dock as the mercs stationside attempted to rush them. The MOS inspector went down under a hail of projectile fire from the mercs.
The two members of one/two arrived on the crawler and the mercs ended up caught in a heavy crossfire. Moments later they were down. However, Angela’s nano was still picking up four heat signatures on the catwalk inside the hold. Her detail, assisted by Joseph, focused all their attention on that problem.
As she scanned the combat net for the best view of the catwalk,
several explosions rocked the dock outside.
Williams filled her in.
“Seal it!” Tanis yelled. “Commander, take Peters and Tannon and secure the bridge, we’ll finish off our friends above.”
“Like hell you will!” a voice called down.
Using hand signals, Tanis directed the
Marines to lay down suppressive fire. That done, she instructed Angela to lock down the airlock and attempt to get in contact with the ship’s AI.
Tanis looked for the weapon the merc captain had been going for. It was a high-powered pulse rifle. Just what the doctor ordered. She took stock of the situation from everyone’s feeds
; then rolled out from behind her protective cargo and placed three well-aimed shots into the torso of a merc as he rose up from behind his cover to take a shot. Three left on the catwalk.
Angela had gotten the ship’s layout and fed it to the combat net. Jos
eph sent a thanks and informed Tanis that he was almost at the bridge. No resistance encountered thus far.
Jensen got off a shot that nailed a merc in the head and he toppled over the railing to the deck below. Two enemies left.
Re-examining the situation, Tanis climbed onto a crate and pulled herself up some webbing to get a new vantage point. Sure enough, just as a merc leaned over to get his gun around his cover, he came right into view. Two shots to the torso and he slumped over.
“Last man,” she called out. “Care to surrender the easy way, or get beaten into submission?”
A scuffling sound echoed in the hold as a gun was tossed over the railing and the man stood up.
“Good choice, man,” Lauder grinned. “With all of us gunning for you, you’d’ve been pulverized. And wouldn’t that just mess up your pretty merc face
?”
“Secure him and then dose them all. Make sure they are out for hours.”
“Jensen, Lang. Stay down here and keep an eye on that airlock. Lauder and Argenaut, layout is on the combat net and it shows a secondary airlock. Angela has it locked down, but go make sure someone doesn’t poke a hole in it.”
“Sir!” came the chorus of responses.
Tanis followed the route Joseph’s team had taken up to the bridge and queried Angela along the way.
Before Angela even responded, Tanis could feel her AI’s anger.
even remotely connected to being part of an AI subversion would never get another AI implant, and beyond that they would find themselves unexpectedly unable to access a variety of networks at the most inopportune times. Someone was paying these mercs very, very well for them run that risk.
Tanis relayed the news across the combat net.
Grenwald asked.
<
Depends, how do things look out there?>
?>
Joseph was at the pilot’s console and was firing up the ship’s reactor. Normally, when the reactor had been cold for some time, the process
was carefully executed over several hours, but this wasn’t a several-hours sort of situation and he was skipping a number—or all—of the safety procedures.
"Conversation was getting redundant," Tanis muttered and killed the connection; she instructed Grenwald to keep MOS abreast of issues from his position.
Lauder reported in.
