Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Reprisal Read online

  Cold, nervous fear began to perk up, and his stomach gurgled in response. There were only two explanations: the video was being spoofed, or his systems were inoperative. Quickly, he switched to another guard post on the monitors. He called for a report through the checkpoint’s comm panel as well as manually opening the cargo doors that led outside to the loading area. He saw the doors open at the same time he saw and heard a startled guard respond through the video feed. So somebody was inside his facility. This would not stand.

  He rapidly keyed a series of commands into his control board, which connected all of his guard posts, barracks, and commissary areas together to his station. Basically, every Callidorian guard on the base except for the secondary Priman checkpoint was tied into him.

  “Uh-oh,” said Loren as he watched the blast doors to the Priman side open.

  “That can’t be good,” replied Garrett.

  “How much explosives do we have left in that bag of yours?”

  Halley paused in her search of the lab and looked thoughtfully at the ceiling as she digested what she heard on her comm unit. Web heard the news as well, but as a pilot he had made a living of learning to multitask and only listened for the keywords.

  “So, we’re expecting company, things are about to go horribly wrong, and we have nothing to show for it yet,” said Web. “Have you called for our exfil yet?”

  “No point in calling Cory and Merritt and our in-system pickup until we have something to report. No sense in blowing their cover, too.”

  Web looked out of the corner of his eye while he still faced the monitor he was watching. “Not going to ask for an ‘out’ until we’ve earned it, are we?”

  “It’s a rough life, Web, but yes, that’s the way it is. So find something soon, or we’re going to end our time on Callidor right here…”

  Lieutenant Castor broadcast over the main channel that covered the base.

  “Listen up! I suspect a breach, either real or a test, at the Secondary Priman checkpoint. We’ll send in two teams down the corridor to investigate. Three teams will patrol outside the building, coming in from the exterior access if need be, and we’ll have two aerial units above for pursuit and surveillance. Your orders are on your datapads now. Any questions?” Without waiting for replies, Castor ended the visual portion of the transmission. Part of him was excited to be doing something meaningful and worthy of his skills and training, while the other part was mortified that there was an actual breach in progress. The only thing for him to do was earn his substantial pay.

  He checked his video and tactical feeds one more time, then gave the go order to his teams.

  Onboard Avenger, Captain Elco was acting uncharacteristically nervous. The bridge crew noticed it as he hovered over each bridge station in turn, asking for information and busying himself with updates on anything he could get his hands on. A transmission from Captain Spiron of the Torino came in and Elco had the Comm officer send it to his station.

  Captain Elco marched over to his desk and sat down, stabbing the ‘receive’ tab with his index finger as he settled into the seat.

  “Captain Elco,” Spiron began. “I was hoping you had some news that I didn’t regarding the extraction.”

  Elco could tell Spiron was getting fidgety as well. A quick glance at the sensor displays behind him on Avenger’s bridge confirmed it. “Looks like you’re as antsy as I am. I see you have your reactor idling pretty high. Just short of hyperdrive capacity, it seems.”

  Spiron chuckled humorlessly. “Just because I can’t see on my sensors what you’re doing doesn’t mean I don’t know what you’re thinking. I’m worried, too. How fast do you think you can get in there?”

  “A few minutes is all we’ll need. We’ll make them angry and pick up our people, you blast whatever you came to blast, and we’ll be out of there before the whole fleet comes after us.”

  Halley and Web were making progress. Web had noticed a series of encrypted files cleverly hidden in one of the storage drives, and was trying to decrypt using Halley’s software. Suddenly, they both heard a low, rolling boom from back where Loren and Garrett were. They looked at each other nervously. This was followed by the sound of several quick blaster shots in the hall outside the lab they were in, the unmistakable report of a Confed issue SSK falling upon their ears.

  There was a knock at the door, it cracked slightly, and they heard Loren’s voice. “Friendlies, coming in.” Loren and Garrett rushed in, then Loren turned to secure the door behind him.

  “I thought I told you not to blow up anything until we got back?” Halley only half jokingly commented.

  “That was before every guard on the base decided to head this way,” replied Loren. “A dozen of them came down the hall, so we blew it to slow them down. I saw security all over the base on the monitors before they cut the feeds. I hope you found something, because our time here is almost up.”

  “I’m afraid that so far we-“

  “Wait!” yelled Web. “I found it!” he exclaimed excitedly as he pointed to the holographic image in front of his desk terminal. “There’s the DNA weapon. It was originally just research, but the Primans weaponized it only recently. Looks like it slowly dissolves the Priman DNA out of the sequences in the body; my guess is whoever gets this dies a painful death over the course of several days once activated.”

  Part intrigued, part horrified, Garrett joined in. “What do you mean, ‘once activated’?”

  “According to the synopsis here, it can gestate for up to six months before going active, and can also be triggered externally. However, it’s reproducing and contagious almost immediately after infection.” Web stopped, unable to continue.

  “If the Priman research is correct,” started Halley, “and I have no reason to believe it isn’t, this means the majority of the advanced cultures in this galactic arm are vulnerable to this weapon. All of us,” she repeated for emphasis.

  “Well, the research is all here.” said Web. “It looks like this is very secret stuff, even from most of the Priman military. It seems like this is the only site where there’s data, though if I read these coordinates and manifests right, there’s either a small station or ship farther out-system where they’re actually manufacturing it.

  “Can we call our exfil now?” asked Web.

  “That’s a very good idea,” replied Halley.

  At long last, the terrible wait was over. A quick message was received from Halley’s communications gear at the comm station of Avenger.

  “Captain,” said the comm officer eagerly. “We have the signal. The team is ready for extraction.”

  “Tell Torino we’re headed in!” replied Elco. “And watch for small transports with the assigned transponder code.”

  Onboard Torino, Captain Spiron received the same message. Whereas Avenger was picking up the team, Torino, with her big surface bombardment guns, was responsible for leveling the facility whose coordinates were embedded in the message. No notes or remarks about collateral damage, just a sharp, concise order to flatten everything contained in the grid. There were coordinates included for Avenger to target as well, something Captain Elco had confirmed and acknowledged in a burst transmission to Spiron to make sure the Torino knew what Avenger was planning..

  As Avenger headed in-system, all twelve Intruders flew out of her hangars and headed towards the hidden space station mentioned in the message, fully armed with torpedoes, autocannon rounds, and mayhem on their minds. Avenger would pick them up on the way out.

  “Well, that’s it,” said Web. “Everything that matters has been sent to Avenger. Now we just need to get out alive.”

  “Alright,” briefed Halley, “we have five minutes before Cory and Merritt show up, so we only need to hold them off for that long before heading to the roof.”

  Having blown most of the corridors to the lab to bits with their explosive charges, Loren was setting himself into position fifteen feet or so back from the door into the lab, where he could cover the opening i
nto the hall with one of the Hammer rifles, and Garrett felt compelled to join him, taking up an opposite position which allowed them to cover the door from angles on each side of the entry. This created a chokepoint, wherein enemy troops entering the room would all have to funnel through the door and expose themselves to fire. If they made it through, Loren and Garrett were angled far enough away from the doors to be in an enfilade position- they could shoot all the way along the wall and through the long axis of the assembling troops while staying covered and somewhat concealed by the large workdesks which they had overturned. The lab was large enough that the team could fall back to the rear of the room in several stages if need be.

  Web ran over to Loren and Garrett to drop off some spare magazines of armor piercing rounds as well as several power packs. They watched as Halley packed up the gear and began to place explosive charges on the ceiling to make a hole for their escape.

  “I’ll admit,” Garrett began, “I wasn’t sure about you Confeds when this first started. Still not sure what I could trust you with, considering your black-and-white approach to deciding what’s right and wrong. But I’ll tell you, you make a hell of a team. I could use some people like you. Well, maybe Web more than you Loren, no offense. I think Web could make a good Fixer if he wanted to.”

  Web was surprised at Garrett’s change of attitude towards him, and the look must have given him away. “I’ll tell you why when we’re up top,” said Garrett.

  “Hey,” interjected Loren, “I know we’re having a great time here and all, but you can’t recruit my guys like this, at least not while I’m conscious.”

  Garrett simply smiled and scuttled over to his position in a crouch. “Note to self,” he said to himself, but loud enough for the others to hear, “render Loren unconscious.”

  Halley was just finishing up with her ceiling-mounted demolition charges when the lab doors were blown off their hinges by a deafening explosion. Through the smoke and debris, Loren and Garrett hosed down the door area with their Hammers, backed up with Halley and Web and their SSKs. While normally a soldier would have just used their shooting glasses and the infrared link from the rifle to spot their enemies through the dense smoke, the high tech glasses were not among the gear that was clandestinely smuggled onto the planet, since the Confed planners had no idea Halley had acquired the Hammers in the first place. Loren and Garrett just did it the old fashioned way, firing off bursts of alternating energy and armor piercing rounds at the door and surrounding walls.

  Halley, however, was able to use the infrared targeting feature of her SSK through her contact lenses, and dropped several guards as they tried to scurry through the door low to the ground. Finally her comm unit chirped, signaling the arrival of Cory and Merritt.

  “Loren, Garrett,” she yelled over the din, “fall back, we’re covering!” On that cue, Web intensified his own shooting, trying to spread his shots out over a wide enough area to keep everyone’s heads down. Halley triggered the explosives, and the shaped charges blasted upwards and through the roof with very little concussion to the Confeds. Seconds later, she saw Cory’s ship swing into place over the roof and drop two rope ladders through the gaping hole in the building. Halley pushed Garrett and Loren towards the ladders first, and Loren and Garrett handed over their rifles to her and Web in passing. Seconds later, Halley slapped Web on the shoulder signaling him to head up as well. He turned to her and paused, and Halley blew out her breath. “Don’t worry, I’m not staying here again. This time, I’m leaving with you!”

  They slung their rifles over their shoulders and clambered up the ladders. As soon as they were all up through the roof, Cory raised the ship and started off, reeling in the ladders from the small cargo bay and in turn winching Halley and Web onboard.

  The ship took a few potshots from the guards as it blasted off, but nothing that could bring it down. The hoverplanes that the security firm had called in were not equipped to follow them into orbit, and soon enough their ship was leaving Callidor behind.

  “I’ll admit,” said Halley to Web as they caught their breath on the floor of the grimy cargo bay. “You do know how to show a girl a good time.”

  In orbit around Callidor, half a dozen things were happening at once. Avenger was headed in, decelerating from a high speed run and preparing to make one high energy pass through low orbit to pick up Cory’s small ship.

  Torino approached from ninety degrees off Avenger’s inbound path on the same plane. The coordinates were already loaded, and her big surface bombardment guns were already traversed to fire down on the surface.

  A half dozen Pulsar class destroyers made a quick hit-and-fade attack on several Priman supply ships anchored beyond Callidor’s moon, just to further confuse the Primans about the real target.

  While Callidor was the seat of the Priman occupation, it was a well enough kept secret that nobody else knew that fact. Even Commander Velk’s personal flagship was holding orbit at low power, attended by several cruisers, but there had been no Confederation activity anywhere near Callidor to cause anyone alarm. Outwardly, his ship was identical to any number of large Priman ships, and nobody on the Confed side thought any more of the matter. Not expecting a fight from Confed for a supposedly out-of-the-way and neutral world, the Primans were caught at a disadvantage. If there was going to be a battle, they had the edge, but all the Confed ships needed was five minutes.

  Cory sat in the cramped cockpit of the little ship she and Merritt had purchased in their guise as newlyweds. In about two minutes, they’d have to run a potential gauntlet of Priman defenses on their way to Avenger, which was already visible to the naked eye. While their cover story with the old ship was a good one, it was essentially blown now, but she had already made a list of things that could be done to the vessel.

  “How’s that number two engine looking?” she asked Merritt.

  “Same as last time you asked. Coolant’s a little hot and the fuel burn is a little high, but it’s doing fine. You seem pretty attached to this thing already. I doubt Halley will let us keep it,” he said with a knowing smile.

  “Maybe I was thinking we should take it out on our honeymoon. A real one, not a cover story one.”

  The look on Merritt’s face must have been one for the ages, because one look at him and she started laughing. “Not trying to scare you or anything, of course.”

  And yet it didn’t sound so crazy to Merritt after all. They were in love, they were fighting a war, and their lives were in danger more often than they were not. Why waste time waiting for some supposedly perfect dream moment or magical sign to take the next step? Often in life, when confronted with a difficult decision, the person knew deep down what should be done, but was just stuck trying to find a way to justify or accomplish the thing that needed doing. Maybe he and Cory were both on exactly the same page, but neither wanted to blurt out something that would scare the other away. But Merritt knew by now that they weren’t going to scare each other off. It was time to stop waiting for something and create the moment.

  “I think that’s a great idea, Cory.”

  “What,” she replied, “fixing up this old bucket?”

  “No, going on a honeymoon in it.” Merritt reached back and hit the cabin door switch, closing the pocket door to the flight deck. The space was now theirs, and he figured he had about thirty seconds before things got interesting. “Marry me.” He looked her in the eyes, and she turned to face him from the captain’s seat. A range of emotions played across her beautiful face, and he held his breath for a second, hoping that he hadn’t been wrong about how he thought she felt.

  Suddenly she smiled, and for an instant her beaming smile was his entire world. Primans, Confed, everything else could take a distant backseat to just the two of them. “It’s about damn time you asked me that,” she said, fighting back tears. “Yes, yes, I will.” She leaned over and he stretched across the center console and they kissed, the sort of passionate gesture that conveyed more than they could possibly have spo
ken in that instant.

  “Now we really need to convince Halley to give us this ship,” she replied. Merritt liked that idea.

  Their escape was less of an event than they had dared hope for. The ship, which Cory had insisted on calling Perfect Moment, after Merritt’s speech about how they should just create their own moment in time (Merritt said should instead be named Pair of Aces), made its’ way into low orbit. Lacking any sort of offensive of defensive equipment, their flight was timed to coincide with the arrival of Avenger and the resulting distraction. Higher up, Avenger came barreling into the planet’s atmosphere, and the Perfect Moment/Pair of Aces went unnoticed as the handful of Priman fighters on patrol worried about Avenger, Torino, and the half dozen destroyers ransacking a nearby supply depot.

  The Confeds had stirred up a hornet’s nest, which suited their purposes just fine. The Moment raced through space as Avenger caught up to it, then Cory swung it behind and under the larger ship and powered forward into the starboard side docking bay. No sooner had the ground crew signaled Cory to cut engines than everyone aboard felt a rumble and lurch as Avenger drastically changed her vector and began a run out-system, enemy fighters and startled picket ships trailing in her wake.

  Still not very familiar with the ship, Cory and Merritt took their time running through the shutdown checklist, securing the ship with the care one reserved for a prized personal possession. Garrett stuck his head through the hatch to check on them.

  “We’re safe,” assured Merritt.