Soldiers of Fortune (2 page)

              “He almost kill us again?” Twingo asked, walking onto the bridge. He then stopped, frowning at the crumpled console surface in front of Crusher, who actually managed to look apologetic.

              “It wasn’t that bad this time,” Doc said. “We were almost all the way to the ground before we gave up all hope.”

              “When the grav emitters are charged, set the field for minimum null,” Jason said to Kage, refusing to take the bait. “What are you doing up here, Twingo?”

              “I can monitor engineering from up here,” the short, blue-skinned alien said in a hurt voice. "I'm always stuck down there and everybody else is up here."

              "We're not exactly having a party," Jason said. "But since you're here go ahead and start going through all these warnings the ship spit out during our entry, I can't tell which are real and which ones she's just being overly dramatic about."

              "On it," Twingo said, giving Jason an odd look. The crew had begun to notice Jason sometimes referring to the ship as if it were a person more and more. For six males that were still young for their respective species, they gossiped like old women. Doc surmised that Jason was feeling frustrated since he was cut off from human female companionship for over a year, but he admitted to the others that he didn't know what was normal for human mating cycles. Twingo couldn't help himself as his mouth started to move before his brain could stop it, "You know, Captain... some of the females we've run into out here aren't that different looking from you. I'd imagine all the hardware is compatible..." He trailed off at the look Jason gave him,

              "Twingo," he said slowly, "what in the fuck are you talking about?"

              "We're clear of the sensor net's range," Kage said, saving Twingo from having to give an awkward answer. "Emitters set to minimum null." The minimum null setting would zero out the gravitational pull of the planet in relation to the ship. It allowed them to stay aloft without needing repulsors and reduced the engine output needed to push them along, but since the gravimetric drive wasn't actually propelling the ship they were still hidden from most sensors.             

              "Very good," Jason said. "Ok everyone, tighten it up. We're still in the middle of an op." He looked pointedly at Twingo at that last part. He then realized that he hadn't heard from Lucky since they had begun atmospheric entry. When he looked over his left shoulder the stoic synth was in his usual spot, to the left and behind his captain. "Lucky, how the hell did you stay planted during all that?"

              "I have mag-locks built into my feet, Captain," he said, raising one foot as if to show Jason. "It makes EVA operations much easier." As a synthetic, a race of constructed, sentient beings, Lucky didn't need to go through the rigmarole of suiting up for extravehicular activities, or EVA. He could just walk out the hatch as if he were taking a stroll down the street.

              "Yeah, and you also weigh a ton," Twingo said irritably. "You keep warping the deck wherever you drop anchor when we're maneuvering without artificial gravity. I don't know why you can't just sit in a damn chair."

              "I do not weigh anywhere near a..."

              "ENOUGH!" Jason barked over the brewing argument. It was harmless banter, but it was a dangerous distraction. "You
do
still remember that we're in the middle of a dangerous mission, right? Get serious, and get to work. I don't want to hear another word that isn't related to our target until we're meshing out of this system."

              "Sorry, Captain," the pair said in unison.

             
It's like babysitting a bunch of damn children sometimes
.

              The crew sat in silence as the
Phoenix
pushed north while the terminator crossed over them and the sky darkened. Jason swung the ship west as soon as they crossed their last waypoint and bled off some more airspeed, wanting to keep the noise signature to a minimum as they headed back towards land. He also tweaked the engine configuration, closing the exhaust nozzles down to about twenty percent and putting them into a low-power mode. They would have to pass quite closely to someone to be spotted from the ground while flying thusly.

             
They approached the coast right on target, their goal was a river mouth that led inland from the Western Sea. This particular river not only was close to their target, but it was too small to be used for any real commerce, just the occasional fisherman. The
Phoenix
ghosted up the river at only three-hundred kilometers per hour, her engines almost idling, Jason wanted to eliminate the high-pitched whistle of air moving over the hull that occurred at high subsonic speeds. Supersonic was obviously out of the question; it was important they get in and out without being detected on this job. Fortunately, the night had decided to cooperate and, as the air cooled, a dense blanket of fog had settled over the landscape.

              "Turn off in twenty seconds, fly to the indicators," Kage said.

              "Copy," Jason replied. "Ground team, go suit up and prep the party bus." Crusher and Lucky immediately left the bridge to get ready for the next phase of the operation. After another few seconds Jason banked gently north and climbed up and over the hills that lined the small, muddy river. While his eyes had been improved to see in an expanded spectrum thanks to the nanotech implants that were in him, for now he was piping the ship's sensor feed directly into his visual cortex via his neural implant. The effect was astonishing, if a little disorienting; he was able to look down
through
the hull of the ship and view the landscape as if he were riding in his seat out in the open. Due to the heavy fog, he had chosen long-wave infrared with a false-color overlay so he could penetrate the misty blanket and view the ground as they rushed over it. This was quite necessary as he was flying with their active sensors offline; no radar, lidar, or tachyon bursts to navigate with lest they be detected. He pushed on over the heavily wooded hills, continuing his northerly course as the
Phoenix's
vertical stabilizers occasionally broke through the low-lying clouds like dual shark fins.

              "I'm going to set her down in that clearing we spotted from orbit; the basin that was twelve klicks from the house," Jason announced as he slowed even further and let the ship coast in on the momentum it already had.

              "Copy that," Kage said. "Doc, better ping our contact and let them know tonight is the night and we're already inbound."

              "Right you are," Doc answered, turning towards the console he was sitting at and entering the commands to activate the ship's com array. The crew fell silent once again as the seconds counted down and the tension ticked up. Without warning, Jason cycled the landing gear and brought the nose up, flaring the ship to slow it without needing to apply any retro-thrust. He allowed the
Phoenix
to settle into a steady hover on her grav emitters over a large, depressed field that he could see through his enhanced sight, but was otherwise completely obscured by the fog and night. He began to incrementally scale back the power being fed to the grav emitters and let the ship slowly sink through the fog until only the tips of the vertical stabilizers were showing as it touched down.

              "Launch the twins," Jason said as he placed the engines in *STANDBY* and leveled out the landing gear. "I need eyes on target before I risk rolling in there." At his command, two panels slid back on the forward part of the hull on either side of the backbone and, with two loud
pops,
a pair of sleek, autonomous probes launched themselves into the air and zipped off quietly into the night. They were semi-intelligent, but not self-aware. They would hold pattern over the target and provide the team with real-time visual intel as they approached. Once the “twins” were gone, a deathly silence descended over the small valley. "Kage, you have the hot seat. Doc, Twingo; stay up here and monitor things. Also, shut the grav drive down completely. I don't think we were detected coming in, but better safe than sorry."

              "You can count on it, Captain," Twingo said. Kage moved around and hopped into the vacated pilot seat as Jason left the bridge to join the rest of the ground team in the ship's armory. He quickly descended the stairs from the upper command deck and broke into a jog through the galley/common area. Walking down another short flight of stairs and through the engineering bay he found Crusher and Lucky in the armory nearly ready to depart. Actually, Crusher was still mulling over which assortment of weapons he wanted to take while Lucky, whose weapons were integrated into his very body, stood watching and giving helpful suggestions.

              "Just make sure you grab a stunner as well, Crusher," Jason said by way of greeting as he made his way over to his own bench and started stripping off his gray, utilitarian uniform that Omega Force had adopted as their standard attire while shipboard.

              "You know, it would be easier if..."

              "No killing. Remember last time? We need to get in and out without being identified, that means not leaving any unnecessary evidence. Like dead bodies," Jason said firmly. Crusher grumbled, but grabbed a stun rifle nonetheless. The fierce alien was sometimes a bit unpredictable once a fight started, but there was nobody else Jason would ever want watching his back.

             
He looked over at Lucky and noted that the battlesynth had adjusted the coloration of his armor plating to a foliage camouflage pattern. Jason was sure it was just so he could feel like he was also a part of the preparations. Although he was an incredibly powerful soldier from the moment he was brought online, in a lot of ways he was quite childlike. Jason marveled as he watched the synth's emotional growth as he found a home with Omega Force and the group of people who looked at him as a part of the family and not just a piece of ordinance. "You ready, big guy?" Jason asked.

              "Of course, Captain," Lucky replied. "In and out, piece of cake." Jason chuckled at that. In their time together it seemed the crew had been adopting a lot of Earth's idioms, probably from the Hollywood movies Jason watched in the common area during long slip-space flights.

              "Ok then... you two are going to be backup for this one. Lucky, I'm dropping you off one klick out. Crusher, you'll wait in the vehicle in case I can't bluff my way in," he said as he pulled on the black uniform of a Corran Internal Security officer.

              "We know the plan, Captain," Crusher rumbled. Then muttered, "We've only been over it twenty times."

             
The trio exited the armory through the heavy blast doors that separated the room from the main cargo bay. Sitting in the hold, strapped to the deck with no less than two dozen straps, was a black, wheeled ground vehicle with Corran Internal Security emblazoned on the side along with that agency's crest. Jason, now looking the part of a CIS agent, climbed into the driver's seat while the other two unstrapped the vehicle before climbing in themselves.

             
Once everyone was inside, they all sat in silence for a long moment, looking at each other. Jason sighed, got back out of the van, and walked over to the control panel to lower the ramp and open the cargo bay to the night. As he climbed back in he could tell from the stunted silence that they had been laughing at him. He refused to acknowledge them as he engaged the vehicle’s drive and eased down the ramp and into the grassy clearing.

             
They had picked this landing zone for a few critical reasons: it offered excellent concealment for the
Phoenix
, it was close (but not too close) to their target, and it had a path that led to the main road that was traversable by their ground vehicle. The high moisture content in the air meant a heavy dew that evening and the vehicle's wheels slipped and struggled for traction in the grass, but they were soon easing up to the edge of the road without Jason having had to make his friends get out to push.

             
After sitting on the side of the road for nearly ten minutes, listening to the insects of the night sing away, Doc contacted them via Lucky's com node and gave them the go ahead to begin the op; their contact had pinged back confirming they were ready. Once they were on the road and up to speed, Jason flipped on the marker lights and tried to drive as if he belonged there. He forced the tension out of his bunched shoulders as he realized they were still fifteen minutes away from their objective at their current speed.

             
The trio rode in a relaxed, alert silence as the “van”, as Jason insisted on calling it, rolled down the road on its ultra-quiet electric drive system. He slowed to a little under thirty KPH when they were one kilometer, or "klick," away from their target and signaled to Lucky. The synth wordlessly slid open the side door and launched himself from the moving vehicle, rolling once and coming up in a full run before plunging into the forest and disappearing completely into the dense undergrowth. Crusher looked at him with one raised eyebrow.