War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past (12 page)

"Alright guys, the Queen has asked us to take
out a criminal group that goes by the Deimos Brotherhood," Armino
informed. "They don't seem to be a big player in any criminal
activities going on throughout Orion as of now, but the Queen and I
have a suspicion that they may be behind a lot of the recent
attacks and assassinations. We believe they are letting other
groups take responsibility for their work. The tactics and
precision that are being used are like nothing we have seen before
from any of the other groups. The Queen doesn't want to allow the
Deimos Brotherhood to carry out any further attacks, whether they
take responsibility for them or not. It is our mission to take them
out completely."

"Whooo!" Cheered some of the men.

Armino held his hand up to quiet them down.
"Now just because they're not one of the bigger criminal
organizations, doesn't mean that this will be an easy job."

"Come on they're all easy!" Shouted a black
Malak with white markings.

Armino glared at him. "I'm strongly stressing
the precision this organization has shown is like nothing we have
ever seen. They go in and out undetected, and from tracking back
crimes that don't fit other organizations' tactics, they don't
fail. They're the best group of criminals Orion has seen in quite
some time and it has taken us several years to find out that they
even exist," He clicked a button with a remote and the wall turned
into a giant projection of a planet. "This is where we believe they
keep their headquarters. Unlike other organizations who have
outposts and headquarters on various planets that we have easy
access to, they have chosen Plouton."

"We're going there?" One of the men blurted
out. "Every criminal in Orion will be on us within a matter of
minutes."

Armino ignored him and continued briefing.
"Plouton will be a little bit trickier to get on because they're a
planet of outlaws and outcasts, therefore, don't abide by any of
Orion's Galactic Laws. Very little, if any, laws are enforced
there, so once where on Plouton we're completely on our own. I
believe we can get on the planet without going through the
spaceport, but that is only because I believe they have no real
defense system established to keep anyone from coming and going
freely."

"What if they do have a defense system set up
that we aren't aware of?" The Malak spoke up again.

"A valid question," Armino walked to the
other side of the room. "I have looked for defenses, but I have
found none after hours of extensive research. It looks like they
let anyone on that wants to come on. I've never seen the Queen's
ships try to land, and her ships are pretty easy to pick out from a
normal ship, so I'm not sure what their response would be to us. I
can give you a pretty good guess though."
"Why not just use ships that aren't tied to the Queen?" Moran
asked.

"Getting ships like that will take quite some
time. We don't have enough time to find ships that of that sort
that will suit our mission," Armino answered.

"They can't detect us with stealth fields,"
Donnchadh said. "These groups use them all the time to enter and
exit planets."

"And that's what we'll be using," Armino
smiled.

"Alright. Now that we know how we're getting
on Plouton, how are we going to take them out once we get there?"
One of the men asked.

"All twelve of you guys, plus another six who
will be briefed when they get back, will be going on this mission,"
Armino started.

"Eighteen men?" Donnchadh blurted. "That's
almost all of the GSOU."

"This has to be a quiet and quick mission
which will require a larger number of us than usual," Armino held
up a finger. "Remember that we're on a planet of criminals. If they
see us blowing up another criminal's base, the whole planet will be
crawling on us in minutes. We have to get into their base and take
them out from there."

"What's the plan?" A big rock man in the back
of the room asked.

Armino switched the image again to an aerial
view of the headquarters. "There are three entrances that we can
see from the imagery we have received," He pointed out all three
entrances at each end. "We will divide up into groups of six and
make our way through the compound. Before any of you ask, this is
the only picture that I have of the compound. We have no pictures
of floor plans or the inside of the building, so we're going to
have to be quick on our feet and ready for surprises."

"Exactly how many men are to be expected in
there?" The rock man asked.

"We have almost no intel on them Ferris," He
crossed his hands behind his back and paced. "All we have is a
base. We got this information through a captured criminal that has
been working closely with the Deimos Brotherhood. After a little
persuasion, he told us told us about this compound. He couldn't
provide us with any further information. It seems that even the
other organizations who have been working closely with them, know
very little about them."

Donnchadh stood up. "We're going here based
off what a criminal told you? Are you insane?"

Armino turned to Donnchadh. "It is reliable
information. Now sit down," he ordered. "We have been watching the
compound and we have seen ships from multiple crime organizations
come and go. We have never known these organizations to work
together, in fact, we know they compete in their crimes."

"So what? Maybe they decided to come together
for a change," Donnchadh said. "It wouldn't be a terrible idea for
them."

"Yes. But why?" Armino asked. "Why would they
come together after doing the opposite for so long?"

Donnchadh shrugged. "I don't know, maybe
someone convinced them."

"Exactly!" Armino exclaimed. "Whoever is
running the Deimos Brotherhood has brought all these other
organizations together so
they
can stay under the radar. The
other groups are sloppy with the work that they do, but the Deimos
Brotherhood likes to be quick and precise. They also don't care who
takes credit for their jobs because we have confirmed over a dozen
crimes linked to them that four other groups have taken credit
for."

"It makes no sense," Moran said. "These
groups take pride in their crimes."

"No, it doesn't make sense." Armino agreed.
"There are four groups we have seen at this compound, and our
criminal told us of all four before we knew about them, so it leads
us to believe they have some type of deal with the leader of the
Deimos Brotherhood. These organizations build rep for crimes they
carry out, so it appears the leader has made some type of deal
allowing the other groups to gain rep while the Deimos Brotherhood
stays under the radar."

"Why would they want to stay undetected if
the other groups go out of their way to stand out?" Ferris
asked.

Armino shrugged. "We don't know why they want
to stay undetected. It goes against everything that these groups
believe in, but it leads me to believe there are bigger things in
store."

"What kind of deal could the leader have made
that would all of a sudden bring these groups that hate each other
together?" Moran asked.

Armino shrugged again. "We don't know. We're
only assuming that there's some type of deal, why else would they
be meeting at this compound? Maybe there is no deal, we don't know
for sure. All we know is that these other groups are claiming
crimes that they haven't carried out and that they 're meeting
someone at this compound for some reason. We've never seen these
organizations work together, or with someone else, so we can only
assume the leader of the Deimos Brotherhood has orchestrated
something."

"Well," Donnchadh started and paused. "Who's
their leader?"
"No one knows. The criminal we've been talking to says he never
shows his face to anybody, but seems to be a very well educated man
who knows a lot about politics and has a lot of connections. That
might explain how he was able to bring a bunch of criminals who
hate each other together, but we have no idea who he is or why he
hides his identity," Armino answered.

Ferris spoke up from the back. "I've heard
enough. This group sounds dangerous. If they've tried this hard to
stay hidden from us, we need to eliminate them as quickly as we can
before something really bad happens."

Armino gave him a nod of approval. "Exactly
what the Queen and I concluded after looking into this," He turned
off the projection. "Not much of a brief for a mission this big,
but we really don't have much to go on. This group has tried to
stay hidden from us and we're about to take them out," He looked at
his men. "This is what you signed up for guys, the dangerous stuff.
We've all gone on enough missions to know exactly what to expect
and we don't need specifics of every little thing. We're all quick
thinkers and problem solvers. We're taking this group out, even if
we know close to nothing about them because it's what we do. Now go
get some rest and meet me in the bay at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow for
departure."

The men all exited and Armino watched them as
they left. He stayed behind in the room and pulled out his comlink
to call the Queen.

"Yes Armino?" The Queen answered.

"We leave tomorrow."

There was a pause. "Be safe Armino. I know
you will succeed."

"Thank you Adira. If anything does happen to
me, tell my family that I love them."

"I will Armino."

Armino hung up the comlink and made his way
to his bunker. He made quick calls to the other six men who hadn't
been at the briefing and filled them in on what was going to happen
in the morning. The men had been in the GSOU longer than him and he
knew they only needed to know what time to be in the bay, they
didn't care much about the details until the trip started.

Armino undressed and flopped down on his bed.
He could feel all of the stress weighing him down, eighteen lives
was a lot to be responsible for on a single mission. One small
misstep could mean several of his men's lives and wasn't about to
let that happen due to fatigue. He rolled over in his bed, set his
alarm for 7:00 a.m., and shut his eyes.

Armino woke to the sound of his alarm clock
and rubbed his eyes as he got out of bed. He walked over to his
dresser on the other side of the bunker and pulled open the top
drawer to get his gear. A solid black uniform fitted especially for
him and his weapons lay neatly folded in the top drawer. He put it
on and went to his weapons locker next, pulling out a rifle,
pistol, knife, and a few grenades to strap on his uniform.

When he reached the bay he saw two men
already waiting patiently for him. "Morning guys! You ready?"

"Hell yeah!" Both of them yelled back at
him.

He walked to the rear of the ship and opened
the ramp. "You guys can wait inside the ship if you want. I have a
few things to check before we head out."

"Sure thing Armino. They really gave us a
beauty for this mission," Moran said, admiring the ship in front of
him.

Ferris shook his head in agreement. "Yeah,
man. They gave us one hell of a monster! This thing is huge!"

Armino laughed at them. "How else are we
going to get eighteen men to the outer edges of the Galaxy?"

Moran made his way in the ship. "Well, I'm
glad they were thinking about that when they assigned the ship to
us for this mission. I would've been pissed if they squeezed
eighteen of us in our usual ship."

"What'd you have to do to get this ship
Armino?" Ferris playfully punched him in the arm.

Armino shoved him. "Ahhh shut up and get on
the ship, you old rock."

Ferris held his hands up as he walked up the
ramp. "I was just playing Armino, don't hurt me!"

Armino shook his head at the two men and
walked around the ship to check for any unnoticed damage. A routine
inspection was always a part of his duty. Having ship failures was
something that he would not allow if it could be avoided. Getting
stuck on a place like Plouton would not fare well for his men, or
anywhere for that matter.

It was definitely a different ship than what
he was used to on his other missions; it was able to hold twice the
amount of men assigned and had much more firepower than necessary
for a mission like this. The ship was a light grey and red with a
very sleek design that had rotatable wings protruding from the
sides of the ship. There were thrusters on the back of the ship and
rotating thrusters on the wings that allowed the ship to move in
circular movements if need be.

He went to the back of the ship and walked up
the ramp, seeing a few more men make their way in as he reached the
top. He waved at them to board as he continued to inspect the
interior of ship. Armino turned the power on and checked all of the
readings for the weapons, thrusters, shields, stealth field, and
everything else that would be vital to the success of the mission.
The thrusters showed one hundred percent, as did the shields, and
stealth field. He engaged all of the weapons and insured they all
functioned properly.