Hammer's War 1: Forging the Hammer (33 page)

Fiona laughed at her sister’s comment, “I’m fighting for two now, so I have to be careful.”

Thad was standing in the lab where he had been tortured, the body of the doctor at his feet.  He searched the room and found his body armor in a box on a nearby table.  “I’m done playing nice,” he pushed a button on his wrist control pad.  A green light emerged from his wrist emitter, and a case materialized on the table.  He flipped the lid open to reveal the contents, guns and other weapons.  He took a moment to strap on two pistols, a force blade, and a bunch of loaded magazines.  Thad slung a submachine gun around his shoulder and threw a bandolier of grenades over his other one.  “Time to get to work!”

That
used his x-ray vision mode to see through the wall.  There, on the other side were six armed men waiting for him to come through the door.  He stood near the door and pulled it open making sure he was not in the line of fire.  Laser bolts flew through the open door, burning holes in the wall across the room.  As soon as the barrage of laser fire stopped, Thad tossed two fragmentation grenades through the door, and then slammed the door shut. 

“
Grena...” some poor fool’s scream was cut short, as the grenades exploded with two loud thuds.  The guards were lightly armored and with no cover or any place to run, the grenades did their job.  The grenades tore them apart, shredding flesh from bone, and painting the walls with blood.  There were no survivors.

As Thad made his way through the carnage
, a complete memory of the facility had returned to him.  He remembered he was on the sublevels where the labs were located.  He went looking for the genetics lab where the birthing was done.

The twins were now armed with laser pistols
, started to search Thad or Eve, however they were having a hard time locating either them because it was a large facility.  Not to mention the fact they did not have a clue where to look.  Overhead emergency lights were flashing and a computerized voice was repeating an evacuation order.  The building’s personnel paid no attention to the twins, as they ran for the exits.

Some of
the personal may have thought the lack of security officers was odd, and may have wondered if the security teams were busy elsewhere.

They
would have been right, as they were, in fact, incredibly busy.  The security personal were doing their best to stop Thad who was on a rampage.  A hailstorm of bullets rained down, tearing them apart as they tried to fight back, but the armor Thad was wearing was stopping most of their hits, and the ones it didn’t, were healing so fast, he hardly seemed to notice.  Bodies were starting to pile up and Thad kept coming. 

Fiona stopped and held her hand
up to Freya, “You hear that?”

“Gun fire,” Freya’s face lit up.

“Oh, it sounds like Thad is pissed!  This way,” Fiona pointed in the direction of the gunfire.  They made their way towards the sounds of dying men and knew they were close when they found bodies and blood spattered about the hallways.  The sound of combat had stopped, so they followed the trail of bodies to a large room.  Inside were rows and rows of clear tanks and in them all different human fetuses.

“Oh my God,” Freya was floored to see all the tiny little bodies floating in blue tubes.  They spotted Thad placing explosive charges around the room.  “Thad
, what are you doing?”

“Oh am I glad to see you two,” he hugged and kissed them both.  “I’m getting ready to destroy all of this.”

Fiona grabbed his shoulders and looked right into his eyes, “You can’t kill them.  They have done nothing wrong.  You can’t kill them because their only crime is having been created.”

“
Without the people who run the program they will die a slow death.  Better to end it now before they can feel pain,” Thad said.

Freya held his arm and joined in with her sister’s plea, “No Thad
, you can’t do it. We will find another way.  If we can find Eve, she can get the information out to the local authorities and they can find a way to save them.  We should give them a chance at a normal life,” she paused, “Something you never had.  You owe it to them, in a way they are your family, your brothers, and sisters.” 

While
Thad was listening to the wise council of his wives, the rage he felt was waning, “Okay, maybe you’re right.  Maybe they do deserve a chance at life.” 

Fiona hugged him, “Thank you
.  I would have a really hard time forgiving you if you had gone through with it.”  Thad wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her neck.

E
motions were running high, so high that no one noticed Thorne had slipped into the room.  He took aim at Fiona’s back.  A second later a brilliant flash of light and the unforgettable crack of a laser pistol broke the mood.  The laser bolt struck Fiona, just left of her spine, exiting through her abdomen and hit Thad’s body armor. She cried out in pain. Freya lifted her pistol and fired. The laser bolt grazed Thorne’s cheek, burning a mark across his face. She fired a second time, but he had ducked back into the hallway.

“Oh that really hurts,”
Fiona said, as the strength drained from her legs and she started to fall.  Thad scooped her up into his arms.  He carried her to a nearby table where he lovingly set her down.  Thad looked over the wound and was relieved to see it was not a fatal. He pushed a button on his control pad and a first aid case materialized on the table next to her.  He tore open to grab a scanner.  He ran the scanner over the wound. Freya was standing next him watching their backs as he worked.

Tears flooded her eyes to the point it was hard to see
when Fiona felt where the wound was, “Oh God no, not the baby, please Thad tell me not the baby!” 

Every part of his being wanted to tell her what she wanted to hear
, but the truth was the shot had killed her child burning it right out of her.  He took her head in his arms and placed his cheek on hers. That was all the answer she needed.  She screamed, and then cried, and he held her and cried with her.  Freya knew from the moment she saw the wound, the baby was gone.  Tears burned her cheeks as all she could feel was hatred building in her, like steam pressure.  “I will tear his fucking heart out with my bare hands, I swear!”

Thad pulled his other wife close to him
. He took her hand and placed Fiona’s hand in hers, “I know, take care of her.  I’m going after him.  Trust me; he will pay for this, all of this I swear!” 

Freya kissed him deeply, “Go get the bastard!”

Thad kissed Fiona, “I love you.”  He dropped the submachine gun and pulled one of his side arms out of the holster. 

Thorne was running straight for the flight deck on the top floor, “Jr.
, I need the doors to the hanger opened and my yacht prepped.”  He got no reply from the building’s AI.  “Damn it George Jr. did you hear me?”  The doors to the elevator opened and he ran in, turned, and punched the button for the hanger on the flight deck.  He could see Thad running after him, with his pistol raised.  The doors closed and he could hear the sounds of the bullets impacting on the elevators doors behind him.

Thad had him in his sights
, but as hard as he tried he could not fire. Once the doors closed, he was able to pull the trigger.  He emptied the magazine out of pure frustration.  The elevator next to the one Thorne had escaped in opened.  Ready for anything Thad took aim, but it was empty.  He heard Eve’s voice over the elevator speakers, “Going up?”  He smiled.

In the elevator he had a chance to talk to Eve, “I’m really glad to hear your voice.  Where are you?”  He asked.

“I’m fine and on my way up to meet our dear Mr. Thorne.  I’m sorry it took me so long to get control of the system, but George Jr. was a tough nut to crack.”

“So how did you do it?”  Thad asked.

“He started attacking my code to see what made me tick, so I fed him code, all the code he could take and because I don’t have any problems with power consumption, I just kept pumping him information. In addition to the code I fed him, I sent a little voltage with it.  Each time I stepped it up until he couldn’t handle it anymore.”

Thad laughed, “So you blew his mind
, literally?”

“In a manner of speaking.
It would be more accurate to say I burned it out.  However, that is what caused the problem. Once I had dealt with Jr. the backup system came on line, and it was old and hard to talk with, so it took a while before I had all the systems under my control.”

“The flashing lights and all, right?”
  Thad asked.

If he could have seen her right then she was smiling, “Yep, the first system I was looking for w
ere the locks that were restraining you.  Once I had control, I opened them.  Then it was just a matter of getting the rest of the systems to obey me.”

“Eve, I have a problem.  They programmed my subconscious so I can
’t hurt Thorne.”

“That isn’
t a problem.  I have already slowed his elevator so he will be the last to arrive at the flight deck.  I also have a plan I think you will like.” 

In the
other elevator, Thorne was still trying to get Jr. to respond to him, “Damn it Jr., talk to me!  What the Hell is going on and why the fuck is this elevator going so damn slow?”  Finally, the elevator reached the flight deck.  The doors slid open and much to his surprise, there stood Thad, “What the fuck?”

He tried to push the close doors button
, but Thad stuck his foot in the door keeping it open, “Time for you to come quietly and pay for your crimes.”

He laughed at Thad, “You still don’t get it
, do you?  You can’t do anything to me and besides I’m just the middleman.  The real threat is Ambassador Sexton.  She’s the one who recruited me for this job and she’s the one who sees to its funding.”

“I know
it was all in the files.  Now drop the gun.”

Thorne laughed at him, “What are you going to do?  You can’t hurt me.”

Thad stepped aside and behind him stood Eve and she was pissed, “No he can’t, but I can!”

Thorne knew he was done
.  His shoulders slumped, “Shit!”  Eve took two steps towards him.  She grabbed him by the collar, lifting him off his feet.  Eve threw him across the elevator, his body slamming into the back wall, with a satisfying crunch.  He slid down and sat on the floor, the wind knocked out of him. She picked him up again and tossed his body like a child tossing a rag doll.  He flew out of the elevator and landed hard on the metal grates that made up the floor of the flight deck. 

Thad winced, “Oh that must have hurt.”

Eve rolled Thorne over so she could see his face.  Three short cracks of a laser pistol told Thad that Thorne was still trying.  Eve grabbed the gun and bent it like a toy, “You really are an idiot aren’t you?”  She pounded on her midsection where there were three burn marks, “Armor plated combat upgrades remember.”  He laid there waiting for Eve to end it.

The end
he expected never came, because some of Thorne’s security forces were still alive.  Several of them entered the hanger bay.  One of them spotted Eve about to punch Thorne’s lights out and opened fire.  The laser bolts did little, but cosmetic damage.  However, the grenade that landed next to Thad made Eve jump off Thorne.  She pushed Thad out of the way and jumped on top of the grenade.  It when off with a thud.  The explosion tore the plasta-flesh off her midsection, but did little other damage.  After the explosion Thad jumped back to his feet and ran to Eve, “You okay?” he asked out of habit.  

Eve rolled over exposing the burned hole in her midsection, “Buff out the scorch marks, an
d some new plasta-flesh and I’ll be good as new.”

“Go
od, let’s end this,” Thad said as he held out his hand to help Eve up.  She took his hand even though she didn’t really need the help.

The small security force
started firing at them. Thad pointed both pistols at them and fired.  Eve took advantage of Thad’s cover fire, and in a blaze of speed, ran around the side of the hanger to flank them.

Thorne had also taken advantage of the chaos and fled into his ship
. Once inside Thorne flipped switches as fast as he could.  The fighting outside would not last long.  His men were good, but they were no match for Thad and Eve.  He could not get the override on the doors to work so he powered up the forward cannons.  As soon as they came online he fired.  The cannons ripped a massive hole in the doors, large enough for the ship to pass through. 

Thad continued to lay down suppressing fire, while Eve
was moving closer to the guards.  She was almost on top of them when the exploding doors sent Thad ducking for cover.  Eve was not so lucky. She took a chuck of steel to the arm, which sent her flying sideways.  However, the guards got the worse of it. Because of where they had taken cover they caught the brunt of the shrapnel.  They were torn to pieces, and with guards no longer a threat, Thad made his way through the wreckage to Eve.  She was on her back with her right arm bent at a terribly weird angle.  “That looks painful,” Thad said.

Eve
laughed, “I’ve had better days,” she paused to look at her damaged arm, “Nothing a little bending, and wielding won’t fix.”