Authors: Andrew Beery

Exploration (26 page)

"Run!"

The young soldier next her was frozen in place. His armor showed signs of heavy abuse. Admiral Cat Kimbridge kicked his shin. The metallic exoskeleton of his battle armor shuddered with the force of the blow. It was enough to get his attention.

"Run?... Yes Ma'am... Good idea Ma'am"

The sound of gun fire was deafening. Smoke and fire made visibility difficult. In the background Cat could hear the sound of Syndicate heavy armor moving in their general direction.

"If we can make it to that ridge I can call in an air strike. How much juice do you have left?" She yelled over the deafening noise of the battle.

The soldier paused as he checked the combat computer built into his Mark Six battle suit.

"I'm down to about twenty percent on my power reserves but my computer is showing only thirty-eight percent combat effectiveness due to damage. If I let the repair systems have the power to fix things up I'll drain my reserves and be dead in the water."

Cat nodded her silver-clad head. Unlike the marines in the squad she had run into, Cat was not dressed in a battle suit. Instead her ultra-advanced Heshe construction nanites had fabricated a second metallic skin. She looked like she was wearing metallic spandex that covered every inch of her body.

Micro-Emitters dotted the surface of her silver skin so that close-up her metallic skin resembled a golf bal
l’
s dimpled jacket. The hyperfield emitters in her 'skin' were able to reflect radiant energy as well as reverse kinetic momentum. The result was armor many times more effective than the Mark Six battle suit but at a cost. The energy for her enhancements came directly from her organics. This meant she burned through inhuman amounts of calories when she operated in a combat environment. Her last meal had been over a day ago. In short, her own reserves were critically low.

She looked around. The buildings in this part of the Modos city of Harromog were thoroughly trashed. Days of mortar fire had pretty much destroyed everything in sight. Each side had taken and lost the city several times in the last weeks. The spaceport where her shuttle had crashed three days ago was now just so much rubble. She could see dust clouds nearing her position as the Syndicate armored lines advanced. Most of the GCP forces had been neutralized. They were quickly running out of options.

Her ultra-sensitive hearing detected the rising pitch of an incoming mortar round as it whistled through the air. The shell would land a few feet away but before it could impacted with the ground, Cat's Heshe enhanced reflexes reacted. She threw her body over the young marine, tackling him in the process. The force of the explosion sent shrapnel flying in every direction. Several pieces struck her armor. The active shielding in her armor warped local physics and reversed the momentum of the objects hitting her. The bounced off her like balls bouncing off a wall. The cost was only a few thousand calories. She was seriously hungry.

Cat queried her embedded AI. "Cal, do a sensor sweep. Give me enemy movement and let me know if there is a functioning power source nearby."

"Enemy movement detected. I estimate your position will be overrun in three point four minutes. A significant power source has also been detected. It is currently outputting thirty-six thousand kilowatts."

"
Perfect... that's exactly what we need. Where is it?"

"Approximately two hundred meters directly below you."

***

SIX WEEKS EARLIER

Admiral Catherine Kimbridge sat once again on the bridge of the
GCP Yorktown
. She rested a hand on the armrest of her chair. The tips of her fingers caressed the subtle black surface and she smiled. 'Her Chair'... It was good to be home.

The
Yorktown
had returned to Sol and was traveling in system at two tenths the speed of light towards Earth. The GCP's flagship was escorting the Suhtian flagship the
SDL Divine Purpose
to a meeting at Orbital One. The World President and the GCP Admiralty Board were eager to meet with both the Suhtian Defense League and the Modos Liberation Front which was represented by her friend Running Stream.

Captain Running Stream formerly of the Modos Syndicate stood
at her side on the bridge. He was
n’
t quite the same man Cat had met those many weeks ago on the MS Bluefin. Running Stream was truly a hybrid being now. His Suhtii partner,
He-Who-Speaks
had recently been augmented with a cognitive prosthesis that enabled the Suhtii to think at a level comparable to his genetically unaltered ancestors.

The Modos portion of the hybrid had been afraid his Suhtii friend would be unwilling to remain a part of their symbiotic partnership once the prosthesis was activated but in fact the opposite was true. The true friendship that had characterized their relationship was now even more fully established.

"I look forward to meeting with the leadership of your Galactic Coalition" Running Stream whispered. "Kidnapping you was the best thing the rebellion ever did."

"I'll grant you points for an unusual way to recruit allies" Cat said.

Lieutenant Zimmerman, the Yorktown's communication officer, tapped his ear glanced at her.

"What have you got Ziggy?"

"Ma'am, I just received a message from Commander
Trifa's shuttle. He and his party will be joining you on Orbital One within the hour. He also said to tell you 'Success' but there is no explanation."

"That's alright Ziggy" Cat said with a wide grin. She tapped Running Stream's shoulder with her fist. "I know what it means."

Commander Trifa was a Hupenstanii. One of the first member races to join the GCP. He, like all members of his race looked like an iridescent green kangaroo with a nub tail. They were affectionately known as
Hoppers
even by their own people. Natural linguists and with a keen sense of cultural interplay; they had proven themselves invaluable in first contact situations.

Commander Trifa had just completed a mission to establish relations with a new race... the Agur. The Agur were collectors. They seemed to have an unbridled passion for archiving information.
They referred to themselves a
s‘
gatherers of wisdom
.
’

As a result they were inquisitive explorers. This activity had resulted the Modos slavers discovering a small group of their scientists at an off-world archeological dig. The GCP Mador under the command of the late Captain William Roberts had rescued the Agur scientists and returned them home.

Captain Roberts had been invited to return once the immediate Modos situation had been resolved. Unfortunately the Captain had died in a subsequent attack.
Commander Trifa had been sent in his stead. Cat's gut had told her the Agur were going to be critically important allies. She had learned to trust her gut.

***

Snatch Bait, the newly elected chairman of the board of the Modos Syndicate watched the animation play out on the holographic projector in front of him. He had watched this particular display a dozen or more times and yet he remained captivated by it.

It depicted the influx of hundreds of thousands of Modos ships into GCP space. This would be the largest mobilization of Syndicate resources in almost a thousand years.
They would crush this so-called Galactic Coalition and add their member worlds to the growing list of slave planets controlled by the Syndicate.

No expense was to be spared. Most of these ships carried entire combat divisions with ground assault fighters, artillery, heavy tanks and the support staff to keep them fighting. It was going to be a glorious victory and the profits derived from the sale of the new slave markets would pay for this mobilization many times over.

He had been debating where he wanted to be while the fighting took place. He was not a brave man but this was a momentous occasion and history would remember him all the better if he could at least claim he was on the front lines.

He made up his mind. He turned to speak to a squat lizard-like slave from some backwater planet the Syndicate had acquired fifty odd years ago. “Have my skiff made ready and inform the Admiral that I will be joining him”

END-OF-PREVIEW

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