24. Operation Uranus.

Yarina could do nothing but look on as Utia nodded and then collapsed in an undignified heap in front of her door. She immediately checked his pulse and came up with nothing. She took her personal com unit and opened a connection to the guard while starting CPR on Utia. A female voice responded.

"Officer on duty, Lieutenant Hralka."

"Hralka, I need a stretcher down to my location now with a full medical crew. Inform professor Raewon that we need to do the body swap now."

"I do not understand."

"You do not have to understand Hralka. Do what I said. Code Kappa niner niner four."

"Yes ma'am."

The connection died and left Yarina alone with Utia and her feeble resuscitation attempt. In less than two minutes the medical crew had arrived to take over and she just hoped that it would be enough to save Utia's mind. She followed the stretcher up to the surgery where Raewon was waiting with the medical staff.

"Report Ms Yarina."

"Professor, we had just eaten dinner when Utia collapsed with no warning at all. Looks like a heart stop to me."

"That is what the doctors have agreed upon. We will swap him into the generic body immediately and hope that he will be able to fasten in it in spite of his mind alterations. You should go get changed Yarina unless you plan on working like that?"

She looked down at her golden silk dress and back to Utia. She turned to walk away.

"Yarina."

She looked over to the professor.

"We will do anything to save him. You go change and come back. We will have started then and you can't do anything before anyway. Now go on."

The fatherly concern in his voice made her trust that Utia would be all right and she walked off to her room.

###

Brix sweated as much as he had frozen before, now dressed in a full body protection suit and working inside the xithricite roid. His tongue kept prodding the hole that was instead of his lower left molar. That was before the guard found out that he had a gold filing in it. He winced from the pain but kept on working to keep the guards from using his cortex inducer. The roid shook a bit and he grabbed the wall for stability. In the week he had been here it had never moved the slightest, and weighing in at around ninety thousand mega tonne it would have to be an immense force to make the roid shake. He waited a second and was about to start again when the air inside the tunnel started blowing towards the entrance. The small light inside his helmet blinked on and he started protesting loudly at the pain that was about to ensue. Nothing, instead words seemed to be directly forced into his mind as if they were words from God.

"Mr Brix, move forward towards tunnel 9 and then turn right into that tunnel. Walk on until you meet an airlock on he left. Go inside and wait. You cannot reply to this message."

Brix grinned; the path to freedom had been shown to him. He started moving and did as he had been told. The darkness inside the airlock was no worse than the darkness he had seen in the tunnels and slowly he drifted to sleep.

###

The heap of human refuse turned out to be a man in a boiler suit and when Riddik pushed him slightly he gave a large snort and spat something abominable that could probably kill an entire planetary population without even trying, against the bulkhead impacting with a metallic sound. A smell of dust and oil was around the old man and Riddik couldn't help notice the grime that covered his hands colouring them grey.

"Are you okay old timer?"

"Ah hae ne'er felt betta."

Riddik grinned and helped the man up. To his surprise the old man stood as tall as himself and had an air of power around him. The old man smiled slowly and extended a hand.

"Cheers fur helpin me."

Riddik took the hand and shook it, surprised by the strength of his shake.

"No problem, I don't think they would have hurt you but you would have been out of cash for sure."

"Whit, those yoong ones?"

The old man started laughing.

"Those wee shits waur in th' wey o gie gubbed. Ah was bletherin abit ye helpin me up."

Riddik took a step back and looked at the old man again, observing the slight swaying and large grin on him. Then he saw the nametag and the large golden starburst insignia on the neck of his boiler suit.

"Ecka Estenk, commander of The Guild of Free Traders. Yeah, I guess they would have been hammered Sir."

"Twas but a query ay time son. Wanna hae a bevvy?"

Riddik considered for a thousandth of a second before nodding. It was probably not the worst drinking buddy he could scrape off the deck plates.

"Barry. I'll caa aheid an' teel John 'at he is wanted fur serioos skitin'."

Riddik had a sinking feeling that he had opened a particular large and dangerous can of worms but it was too late. Ecka had grabbed his arm and was slowly and only slightly wobbly walking towards the bar area.

"Hae Ah ever tauld ye abit 'at bonnie yoong quine Ah kent in Sedina?"

Riddik decided to just give in and follow. He had heard a lot of good things about TGFT from his time on SCAR; maybe they could help him out. If he at some point deciphered that crazy Nyrius dialect.

###

William frowned; he had found the initial initiation on the CPU after a couple of minutes and use the remaining twenty to search for faults. He had sweeped that sector himself earlier and it came up clean. He had never seen that before in a hive bot. Every time the collector bots offloaded at the hive queen, they were erased and re-initialised to prevent their small systems from overloading. And these two had been initialised in an empty system. His watch beeped, it was time for his patrol and he would have to look into this after it. Besides, he might come up with a perfectly good explanation while he was flying the boring security mission around Tellus station. He sneaked out of the door to avoid waking Janice.

###

"All fighters this is lead. Stand to, stand to. We are GO for insertion, I say again we are GO for insertion. First and second squadron jump initiation in ten seconds on my mark. Third and fourth in sixty seconds on my mark. Mark in ten...five... two, one mark mark mark. All pilot respond receiving mark."

Cat punched the time and ensured she had the correct time. A single string of data acknowledged the commander's order and she readied for jumping in the first wave. A quick look confirmed that all systems were operational and her battery was completely full. The jump engines were primed and ready for jumping upon her command. When the timer reached zero she gave the command via her neural jack and the SVG dumped the stored power of her Ultra Charge battery directly into her jump engine, tearing a whole in reality and forcing her ship through to the other side and Tellus Station. They were committed.

25. OP URANUS

The warning klaxons went off inside Tellus station as soon as the incoming bursts of exotic particles disgorged their deadly cargo. The two vultures on duty attacked immediately to buy time for the larger strike force to launch. No match for the six Prometheus's and six SVGs, they nevertheless allowed the first three Valkyries to launch along with a group of five Seeker missile bots.

As per her orders, Cat let the Prometheus's engage the Valkyries and dove straight towards the station exits with her wingman to keep the next set of fighters from launching. The heavy Itani and Serco fighters engaged and seemed rather well matched until the second wave of Serco fighters arrived with another set of squads. The outgunned Itani tried to draw the Prometheus's away from the station but only lured the initial six after them. The other six of squad two engaged the Seeker missiles and destroyed them with only a single loss on the Serco side.
Cat kept above the dorsal launch bay with her wingman to the side. Another Valkyrie launched slowly through the force field that kept the air inside the station and Cat fired her twin neutron guns directly into the top of the fighter, hitting with every shot. Her wingman did the same to the side of the fighter and when it finally exited and engaged the turbo, it was down to 5% armour. A stream of neutrons covered the distance from Cat's guns and to the remaining armour in no time at all and exploded the Valkyrie around 200 metres from the station. Several red dots on her radar told her that the others from her squad were as successful as her team had been. The second wave of Itani fighters tried to escape to open space with the same result as the first set. Cat counted the Itani losses and came up clean. The forces they had been informed would be here for protection had been killed except for the Valkyries that were having a running and losing battle with the six Prometheus's. The signal for all clear was given and ten seconds later another group of circular expanding ripples in space paved the way for the assault Atlas's that came in towards the station on full power.

It was going to be a cakewalk.

###

William started running as soon as the klaxons went off, moving at top speed towards his Valkyrie Vengeance heavy space superiority fighter knowing that the strike force on duty was launching while he ran. The launch bay was a mess when he arrived with seven out of nine berths showing red light above their empty cradles, meaning that the fighter was destroyed, and two showing amber meaning they were running on 30% operational capabilities. He bolted directly to his fighter and jumped into the seat expecting a go for launch immediately. When it didn't arrive he opened a link to command.

"Tellus command this is Banzai 01 ready for launch. Confirm clearance."

"Tellus command, Negative, no clearance Banzai 01. Stay put, acknowledge."

"Banzai copies, Wilco. Status on strike force?"

"Presumed destroyed. Stand by for new orders Banzai 01."

"Banzai ready, send."

William started to become concerned about the situation. If the Serco aggressors were audacious enough to attack a fully equipped military research station three jumps into Itani space, they had to be after something specific. And that would mean that they probably had a very good plan that took into consideration that he Itani defenders had to launch through one of the three gates. The natural choke points of the station so to speak. He started wondering what he would do if he would attack a space station and tried to come up with countermeasures. He saw several of his Banzai squadron pilots that were off duty, including Janice come running and watched her jump into her own Valkyrie. He immediately opened a private channel to her fighter.

"Baby, you can't launch remember?"

"The station is threatened, what do you want me to do? Bleat like a sheep while the Serco slaughter us? You should know better."

William grinned fiercely inside his helmet at the harsh rebuke. That was the Janice he loved and was going to ask to marry him in two weeks time when he made Flight Lieutenant.

"You just be careful my love, I don't want to have either you or the little one getting hurt do you hear?"

"Yeah, I know. Me neither love. What is happening?"

"I am waiting for orders right now but am in reality thinking options. All options. See what you can dream up beneath those pretty curls of yours that does not involve the launch bays."

"Wilco."

She terminated the link and left William to his own thoughts.

###

At some point, Brix had no point how long time had passed, the outer hatch opened and the air left the compartment with a mighty roar that silenced as quickly as the air exited. The awakening was very uncomfortable indeed as Brix was torn outside bumping into the door on the way out. Two persons in heavy armoured space suits were waiting outside and grabbed Brix like a bag of potato's before unceremoniously dragging him over to a battered and ion-storm corrosion-damaged Centaur Mk I. Once inside the hold of the cargo ship they stripped him of his helmet and placed him on the floor between them, keeping their own helmets on. He looked at the chrome surface of the helmets, trying in vain to see the persons inside. A loudspeaker crackled from somewhere unseen.

"Mr Brix. In a minute we will put a standard Serco mem-corder on your head. If you haven't tried it before I must warn you that it will be rather unpleasant. The process takes ten minutes and after that we can restore you into a clone or any other body as we see fit. When you have been mem-corded you will be briefed and sent on your way. Do you have any questions?"

"Yeah, why me?"

"Because you have a very good reputation among the Serco, as a matter of fact you are known as a Serco Pillar of Society. And that makes you perfect for our mission. Anything else Mr Brix?"

"Nah, just get it over with."

"Very well, the guards will show you where the device is and assist you in donning it. Then you will be on your own until the process is over. Godspeed Mr Brix."

Brix frowned, how bad could this be? After all he had escaped from the Xang Xi prison asteroid and that was right now all that mattered.

###

The assault Atlas hammered into the station impacting on where one of the access hatches ended in an airlock and melted the front of the Atlas into the station surface with a special coating of nano bots that bonded the ship directly to the bulkhead. The massive EVA marines inside the Atlas unfastened their restraining harnesses and hefted their weapons ready for the automated systems to breach the station's outer walls. A metallic clunk and the air inside the Atlas thinned immediately by around 15 percent, the difference from Sol II standard and Eo standard; the station was breached. The first two marines charged into the station to clear the corridor. A set of Itani that were surprised enough about the massive noises from the airlock to linger and investigate were cut in half by the marines' heavy needle gun before they realised that the station was invaded. The squad leader Lieutenant Kelb Prinowalsky watched the remaining four privates and the sergeant move out into the corridor and secure the perimeter. Prinowalski moved out as well and noted the slightly whiter light than on a Serco station, just as had been briefed.

"Sergeant Plimscoe, move out. We are on a tight schedule here."

The sergeant nodded and gave a hand signal to the point man who started to move quickly down the corridor towards their assigned target, the nerve centre of the station, the station traffic command, STC. The point men peeked around the corner with a small camera and stopped.

"Three Itani in combat armour with what looks like crowd control blasters. Permission to engage?"

"Jeez Tranklar, do I have to tell you everything? All Tanis are hostile. Take 'em out."

The sergeant shook his head in amazement over his marines before he remembered that it was their first live mission. The point marine jumped out into the corridor and fired his needle gun while his buddy peeked out at ground level with his 4,7 mm gauss rifle. The twin pre-fragmented depleted uranium slivers from the gauss rifle smashed through the air at mach 9 with a massive crack towards the Itani, impacting on his chest armour and ripping directly through as if nothing had been in their way, taking quite a lot of the Itani along on the other side. The other Itani's were peppered with tiny darts that impacted and stuck in their armour with no effect. They both retaliated with shots from their blasters that hit the Serco equally impotently. A new crack announced another set of hyper accelerated slivers that killed another Itani soldier. The remaining Itani turned to run away but was caught with a set of slivers between the shoulder blades.

"Clear."

"Move out. Double speed now."

The Serco marines started running towards their target to keep the Itani security forces in disarray. The lead Serco turned a corner and was hit by a fusillade of gyrocks, their characteristics Boom-swoosh-Crack-fwump-Gung's spelling the doom for the marine as they ripped him apart. The other marines stopped immediately and brought their weapons to secure the corridor with the second man shouting back.

"Gyrocks"

"Roger. Trank is showing life-status negative, Plimscoe verify when we pass. Heavy weapons team to the front."

"Wilco Sir. Dada and Lumpskin get that mark seven up here."

Plimscoe tossed a spider into the corridor while the heavy weapons team moved up to the corner with their heavy plasma canon and readied it for firing. The spider was basically a small multi-spectral camera on eight legs that was designed to be able to crawl on any surface and relay the data to the tactical squad command net. The spider showed four heavily armoured Itani security soldiers behind some sort of silvery protection screens. Probably moveable xith screens with shock absorbers to take the deadly javelins from the gauss weapons that was the Serco standard. Prinowalsky nodded, a very good tactics that would cost his squad a lot of casualties if they had to assault it frontally. Unless the Serco had a Fusigon mark seven that is. Designed for fighter combat, the plasma canon was basically a downscaled version of the same weapon that could be equipped into a heavy weapons slot on a fighter but with a single shot in its battery. Weighing in at 250 kilo for the weapon and 190 for the battery, it was the only weapon that needed two Serco to operate. The two heavy weapons soldiers sent a ready signal and Prinowalsky gave the go. The helper hefted the gun on the tripod and moved it sideways into the corridor with the gunner holding him and the bulk of the gun behind the corner. As soon as the gun cleared corner the gunner fired the Fusigon and created conditions otherwise only found in the insides of a star among the Itani soldiers, vaporising the lot along with their shield, the bulkheads to the sides and the door behind. The back-blast melted the tiny spider and left the Serco blind again. The point man peeked out into the corridor.

"Clear."

"Move out and take the target. Leave the mark seven here."

The Serco moved out into the corridor and crushed the glassy remains under foot as they advanced, encountering no further resistance. The STC was full of smoke and the nine Itani inside were too shocked to resist the marines. Double taps to the head ensured that they would make no resistance at any time and Prinowalsky moved into the STC. He pointed to the large grey box to one side and watched as two gauss equipped marines reduced the station mainframe to so much scrap. Prinowalsky opened the higher command net and sent a message.

"Mission complete. Going for secondary objective."

So far the mission had been a huge success and with the destruction of the STC they had just ensured that the Itani could make no co-ordinated opposition. Time for the real mission.

"We are GO for insertion, repeat GO for insertion."

Whytee! No! You know that you don't say repeat on a radio unless you're calling for a fire mission to be repeated! ;)

Happy?
You are right though... Good thing my tactics teacher isn't reading this:)

26. Think out of the box

The drinking was heavy, very heavy. Riddik could not recall anyone drinking an amount remotely like that before and still neither John Eldritch or Ecka seemed worse for wear. Riddik had turned his liver's ethanol filter off out of politeness but considered really hard turning it on if nothing then just for a couple of minutes and get the worst of the ethanol out of his system.

"So the rent-a-cop stops me before I stagger into my Behemoth, looks very concerned at me and asks; "I notice your eyes are red Sir, have you been drinking?” Since I was going to fly my 150 tonne ship loaded with reloads to swarm missiles and had been drinking heavily all day with Neagoth I decided that a slightly cheeky answer was the best solution. I tried to stand as still as I could and squinted a bit before answering, "I am sorry officer, but I noticed your eyes are a bit glazed, have you been eating donuts?""

Ecka roared with laughter and clapped John on the shoulder. The very attractive blonde with braided pigtails and mini-skirt that John somehow had managed to attract and who had been almost glued to his side, laughed with a high nasal laugh that was a little too loud and shrill. Riddik chuckled and decided to leave the filter off for now.

"Then what happened?"

John turned to Riddik.

"I bribed him naturally and flew the ammunition to Sedina without incident."

The blonde looked at John with a look that would have made a Barbie doll look intelligent and the most popular nude model in known space look innocent before sipping her colourful drink. Riddik shook his head in amazement.

"Man, you guys are a nasty bunch. Here's to you."

"Wa dornt ye join us?"

"Naw, I am Serco. And not welcome back home right now."

"We hae room fur aw fowk in TGFT mate. An' we can help ye wi' yer status in Serco space."

"Let me think about it. I need to talk to Keria first and she needs to agree."

"We can set it up mate. We have a SSCU here in Aeolus Trading Prefect. And good connections with the Serco military and administration."

"I would like that John, I would like that a lot."

"No problems, let me give the guys a shout and then we can go as soon as I finished this pitcher of white Russians, okay?"

Riddik nodded. The offer was tempting if Keria could accept it. Or even better if he could get her to come along.

###

William tried to contact the STC with no luck.

"Bill, I keep getting static. I think we're alone now."

William nodded before realising that Janice could not see him.

"Yeah, there doesn’t seem to be anyone around. The outside looks pretty hostile as well. I think I might have an idea."

He eyed the Itani Border Guardian, or IBG that was parked next to his Valkyrie and decided to chance it. He spun his ship up and turned the heavy fighter around to bear his weapons on the IBG. He fired a trio of shots at the left wing shooting it off. He then shot the right wing off thus reducing its width to around a metre and a half. It would handle like crap now, but it would be sufficient for what he had in mind.

"What are you doing Bill?"

"Relax Janice, I have an idea. Bear with me and stay in the Valk. I might need your help and need it fast."

He got out of his Valkyrie and ran over to the IBG, boarding it and ignoring the blisters he gained from the searing heat from the shorn off side panels. The IBG was fully operational apart from the side thrusters that William just shot off, and equipped with twin neutron guns. He activated the anti-grav engine and moved the small ship down the corridor, into the station. It was Serco-hunting time.

###

The warning klaxons were silent inside the operating room where the surgeons were finishing transplanting Utia into his new body. The procedure was routine and it was only the lumps of extra growth that made it somewhat a challenge. Still, the transplant had succeeded and the patient was slowly awakening inside his new sleeve. Only minor bone mending was taking place and that was easily done with the help from a specialised dose of nano bone grafters. Yarina was dressed in a set of green surgical trousers and an equally green shirt while holding Utia's hand, a concerned look on her face. She had noted the assault on the station and knew what she had to do if the project was compromised. That is why she had inserted the device earlier to make sure. The device would go off on her verbal command or if her body dropped its temperature to below 25 degrees Celsius, a certain sign she was dead. She heard gunfire outside the operating room and assumed that the Serco was looking for Utia in particular. The doors to the room were torn open by a marine in a fully protective red EVA suit carrying a very large weapon. The single golden stripe on his chest probably meant something but Yarina didn't know what. She raised her hands and bowed her head in submission.

"I am his nurse. Allow me to tend to him."

The marine moved over to Utia and swiped a machine over his head. He hesitated for some seconds while Yarina stood absolutely still until his voice box spoke in accented and clipped Standard.

"You come along. Push the stretcher. Flinch and you die."

He shot the other medical personnel inside the room, efficiently with single gauss slugs through the head before grabbing Yarina. She flinched but as the marines didn’t kill her, she nodded and did as she was told. They still had a chance. Surely the Itani high command was notified and was scrambling everything. The Serco marine tossed something into the room after they left and pushed her and Utia out to the other five marines in equally bulky imposing red suits. The Serco with the golden stripe tossed her two translucent plastic bags large enough for a person. She grabbed them and looked puzzled.

"Emergency spacesuit. We are leaving."

He pushed Yarina forward and she moved with Utia towards the outer skin of the station passing her own corridor on the way. She searched for and found the mental strength to keep on going even while plotting how she would get Utia out of the grasp of these Serco. Dead or alive that is. There was no chance that he was allowed to be brought to Serco space, not even dead.

###

William steered the IBG with great difficulty around the bend in the corridor. He cursed silently but only for show really. Whoever designed this station had never dreamt of having a light space fighter moving inside the corridors for sure but it was actually possible. He had only met the signs of the attackers so far, slaughtered Itani that had been deliberately terminated with shots to the back of the head even after they had been body killed earlier. He ground his teeth and followed the trails of the carnage, only smiling once when he saw a single Serco EVA combat suit that had multiple suit breaches and was lying in a heap. At least they had killed one of them.

"Bill, a couple of the squadies has done the same as you. They are looking for an auxiliary airlock to exit and take the fight to the Serco and buy enough time for a set of Valks to launch."

"Stand by on that Janice. Good initiative but we need to do this co-ordinated or not at all. Find the airlock and wait for my signal. If my IFF goes dead you have command."

"Wilco. We are ready to launch all remaining nine Valks on your command."

William eased the forward throttle a bit, he could see the light flicker on and off further ahead and didn't want to charge directly into an ambush. Especially now they had a plan that might work.

###

The security guards that were supposed to keep everyone away from the Omega had been heavily equipped with gyrocks and fully enclosed body armour. That had not helped them in stopping the Serco EVA marines from gaining access to the most secret facility in Itani space. Their crushed and dead bodies were a testament to the ferocity and skill of the Serco assault team that had secured the entrance with only a single loss to them selves. The four Itani civilians inside the facility were gathered in one side of the room and the commander walked up to the faraday cage that guarded the Omega from the outside, or rather guarded the outside from the Omega.

Lieutenant Huing looked past the metal wires at the obese dwarf inside the cage and shook his head in wonder. How something so powerful could look so pathetic was beyond him but the results did not lie. He motioned for the transportable faraday cage to brought forward and opened the larger one. Immediately after opening the cage a presence was felt inside his head. Something vast and unfathomable that trickled with raw power and lived of the fears and demons inside his reptilian hindbrain. The feeling of nakedness under the gaze of this being was horrible but it was at the same time alluring to be the focus of such powerful being's attention. A voice manifested itself inside or rather all around his own being.

"Such hatred. I will not let you take me."

The lieutenant tried to respond but found that he could not. The dark shapes that had been hinted at inside his mind grew in size and shape until they had formed into true and abominable forms. Slowly so as to relish in the experience they started tearing his mind apart, bit by screaming bit.

The trooper that had brought the portable faraday cage up to the Omega tried to contact Lieutenant Huing. Failing he remembered directive number three and shut the cage to the Omega shutting it inside the mental prison. The lieutenant collapsed to the floor, his vitals flat-lining.

"Sarge, the Lt is out of it. Looks like a viral attack."

"Roger, Lindt use the tranq gun on that freak. Asmin, see what you can do for the Lt."

Sergeant Pourdon swore under his breath. Why the hell had the Lt opened the cage before they had tranquillised the freak as they had been told? Now he was left with the shit detail of getting it out to the Atlas. Lindt shot the dwarf and they waited for four minutes until they were sure it was unconscious. Lindt then took the portable faraday cage, basically a double mesh of xith wire and with the help of Pourdon stuffed the freak into it. They helped each other in getting a seal bag around it in case of decompression. Pourdon looked over to Asmin who sent a no luck signal back. Pourdon cursed once more and walked over to put a gauss slug through the hindbrain of his former squad leader. Even the EVA marine's tough powered armour was no match for the slugs and the faceplate was blown clean off taking most of Lt Huing's head with it. It was standard operational procedure to deny the Itani the possibility of re-hosting the mind and thus getting a valuable prisoner. The GESTEBO was not entirely sure how long time after death the Itani could revive a person and it was better not to take any chances.

"Right, squad, the Lt is a goner. Asmin and Lindt, you carry the object. Nails and Tudero, you have point. De Assis, you guard the prisoners. Move out. Double speed."

27. Getting even pt II

Lieutenant Prinowalsky received the news of the death of his fellow squad leader with the kind of stoicism born of several identical situations where his fellow academy classmates had died. At least it looked like the other two teams had succeeded in their respective missions to get the primary objectives. Now they just had to secure the test Valkyrie to claim complete success for this mission. He looked at the schematics via his brainpal and found the optimal route to the smaller launch bay where they assumed the ship would be. He sent the information to the other team members mentally counting the received notes from their brainpals.

"Plimscoe, move out. We need to haul ass, the other teams are already exfiltrating as we speak."

"Roger Sir. Right, you heard the Lt, Dada you are front with Lazerre, Lumpskin with me, Kroke and Roeburn take the rear. Move out."

The marines moved with the efficiency born of years of training coupled with a sense of inevitability and invincibility from their first encounter with the Itani. The main opposition had been taken out; the worst they could encounter right now was station security and small arms, no match for the heavy armour and weapons carried by the EVA marines. The corridors were blacked out at this time but that was only a minor nuisance really with the brainpals showing the corridors as they would look in broad daylight to their internal eye. No hotspots were detected in the corridors; the remaining Itani were clever enough to stay inside. It was almost too easy, almost boring.

###

William activated the twin neutron guns and watched the power plant trickle the remaining energy into the battery until it was completely charged. That would give the guns at least twenty shots continuously. He was parked, if such a word can be used about having a four-ton space ship hovering on its side, in a side corridor to the main corridor leading to the auxiliary launch bay, and from where he had seen the flickering lights. He wanted to boost the ship out into the corridor right now and get stuck in the action, but he needed to get maximum effect and that meant waiting until the enemy was gathered in the long straight corridor. He counted to thirteen and engaged the bottom thrusters slightly, pushing him out into the corridor and immediately after pushing he top thrusters stopping the ship in the middle of the corridor. The Serco troopers stopped dead in their tracks and started firing at his IBG, the gauss rounds impacting on his armour like single shot popcorn guns. He grinned, they would have to fire for at least a minute to penetrate his armour, way too long. He dropped the targeting reticule on the front Serco and depressed the trigger, slowly twisting the ship to spray the corridor with massive beams of neutrons.

###

The point man stopped in confusion at what looked like the wall expanding into the corridor and effectively making progress in this direction impossible. Slowly it dawned upon him that this particular bulkhead had a shape he had seen somewhere else before. A crack boomed from behind him and he saw the twin gauss rounds impact on the wall, followed by the rest of the squad's guns as well. The connection clicked and he realised that the bulkhead was a Centurion on its side however unlikely that was.

Lieutenant Prinowalsky grinned hard while thinking "Point, set and match Tani scum." He sent a mission failure message back to the command network just in time before the one centimetre circular streams of neutrons tore him and his squad to pieces like a plasma torch through butter. As an attest to the resilience and toughness of the Serco and their EVA suits, the marines kept firing even after having circular holes punched through them, not ceasing fire until their arms or heads had been disintegrated by the powerful neutron gun. The corridor was filled with a fine pink mist that painted the IBG a deceptively cheerful colour as William moved forward to search for other Serco marines.

###

Brix piloted the Behemoth into Supay Outpost with all the care he could, docking with only a slight click to indicate that he had landed. The manifest of his Behemoth had been studied meticulously before he had been allowed to dock in Supay Outpost and it was only because of his Serco POS status that they had considered it even though he was only moving synthetic gems. The station was busy with the strike force out in large numbers keeping the normal traders away from docking. Ten minutes ago the station had been attacked by a very disruptive piece of software that had infested the mainframe and forced the station commander, also known as the Legate, aboard the station to shut it down while the computer system was being scrubbed. In the meantime the revival facility, that was the single most important department in the entire system, worked on off their own mainframe until the station systems could be restored. Firm believers of triple redundancy, the Serco had installed a tertiary back-up system for the station mainframe and the medical mainframe under armour so thick that it would take a nuclear warhead hit to disable it. Still, with one system down the Serco Legate took no chances and only allowed POS personnel to dock, and only because State law demanded it. Nobody but the most paranoid would have thought about having a person that was Serco POS bring a thermonuclear device into the station, especially not a device known as an EMP pumper. Brix stayed in the Behemoth waiting while the clock ticked down to zero and annihilation. He would live in another clone somewhere with a different name and a different DNA profile. And even if the Itani bastard lied, he would have hit back at the Serco while getting away from the prison roid.

###

The technician hummed an old military march while thumbing through the latest issue of "Female Fighter Pilots", fresh from Dau and the Waldoze distribution centre. He opened the centre fold and admired the girl and her Prometheus with a nod and a soft whistle. He turned to the other technician on duty who looked at the picture and did a thumbs-up with a toothy grin behind. It was a slow day even though they had to run everything away from the station mainframe. They both scanned the boards quickly, all green lights across. The other technician went over to grab a couple of caffeine-enriched soft drinks and took careful aim to toss one over. He never got that far. A massive sound so deep it was not heard but rather felt, resonated in the floor plates that shook as if an earthquake had hit the station, the floor buckling in a single ripple across and tossing both technicians to the floor. The light went off and all the monitors died along with their neural implants including the brainpal they had used since it had been inserted in pre-school. They both started screaming with the pain of malfunctioning implants enhanced by sensory depravation in the now completely dark tomblike room. If it weren’t for the complete lack of power inside the station, all the control lights would now be red for critical malfunction. More than two hundred and ninety million mem-cordings, sixty something million clones and the current hundred and forty eight revivals had been erased or died in the blast and resulting power out. The Itani had hurt the Serco war effort badly, and with a UIT pilot driving the Behemoth that contained the device, had put the blame squarely on the ones responsible for the terrorist act in Cantus.

###

Riddik looked over John's shoulder while he punched the address into the SSCU. A confused looking young man opened the channel, frowning as he saw John and Riddik.

"What, who, whem...How did you get this number?"

John grinned, he loved this part.

"Indecent Proposal six-three Alfa."

"Excuse me?"

"Check in your codebook son, Indecent Proposal six-three Alfa."

The young man looked doubtfully at John before nodding and pressing a button that made John's screen go black. A minute later he re-appeared on the screen.

"Councillor Eldritch, what can I do for you?"

"Get me Keria Willenium CIT ID (omitted for security purposes) online on this SSCU please. It is a priority Alfa-Z."

"Yes Sir. Standby Sir."

The screen went black again

Three minutes later a red-faced and puffing slender woman gathered her wet and bright red hair in a ponytail as the screen went online again, her confusion about being here very obvious. She turned to the communications tech.

"Is this on?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Keria!"

She turned and grinned fiercely at the screen.

"Riddik baby."

"Keria."

John looked at Riddik and cleared his throat.

Riddik almost blushed at that point but managed to suppress it. He turned to a broadly smiling Keria.

"My love, how are you? Are they treating you good?"

"Riddik, you didn't call me for that. I am good, they are treating me good. What do you want baby?"

Keria finished gathering her hair and wrung it, letting the water drip all over the floor and focused on the screen.

"Well, I missed you? Or rather, I miss you. I called you to tell you that I have been offered a spot with TGFT."

"That sounds good. Do you want to?"

"Yeah, they are kinda cool. I have a spot for you as well baby."

"Aw, that would be awesome but I can't. You know I can't and especially not now."

"What do you mean baby?"

"SCAR is dying Rid, and I am helping in twisting the knife. Besides, I cannot leave my home and my people. But you should do it and then we can move to Pyronis or Helios for both our needs?"

"Yeah, I will. Listen, you go and do that thing, and I'll join TGFT. I have been told I can reach you on this one at all times, so we'll talk. Love you."

Keria smiled and leaned close to place a kiss on the screen.

"Right back at ya love. Next time, a little less priority on the call, okay? Then maybe I can finish my shower before running to the SSCU."

She extended a hand towards the controls and the screen went dark.

"Guess I am in John."

"Not quite mate. We have a small initiation rite that you need to participate in. I'll book a time for you."

Riddik looked in amazement as John started cackling like a madman. What the hell was he getting into?

28. Counterattack

William could not twist the ship into the corridor leading to the STC and decided instead to go for the nearest airlock. Sure enough, the airlock was cut open and some sort of ship was docked to the airlock blocking access to space. A plan started to hatch and William opened a secure line to Janice.

"Where are you?"

"No matter Jan, are those two pilots ready?"

"Yes, they are waiting for you command."

"Sweet, link the squad into this secure line and call me back. I got work to do."

Janice cut the line while she waited, giving William a bit of quiet time to fine tune his plan. It was going to be a gamble but as with most such things the gamble would be worthwhile if it paid off. He locked his neutron guns on the access door to the ship that was attached to the station and waited.

"Banzai 01 this is Banzai 02. All Banzai present and accounted for."

That meant that his entire team of the elite Itani Swift Wind squadron were present. Probably the top twelve fighter jocks the Itani military had to offer and the Serco did not seem to be aware of their presence. That was why the plan might work, they would have surprise on their side.

"All Banzai call-signs, listen up. We are going to do as follows."

###

Pourdon had guided his squad to the Atlas and managed to get them all onboard with their valuable cargo. They closed the airlock and secured themselves for high-speed manoeuvres including the thing in the cage. Something had happened to second squad that had prevented them from taking the last objective, but that was not mission-critical. They had the mission critical item in his Atlas and the first platoon had already boarded and was disengaging as his squad stripped in. They would need maybe another thirty seconds to succeed completely. He looked around to make sure all his troopers were securely fastened and met the gaze of each and every one of them. The grins said it all, they had succeeded above and beyond the wildest expectations. Pourdon nodded and hit the all-clear signal, informing the Atlas driver that they were ready for disengaging. A slight change in gravity signalled that the nano bots had been given a self destruct command and ceased securing the Atlas to the station. They were now back under the ships gravity drive. Pourdon relaxed slightly, it was now out of his hands. He opened a channel to the command net

"Lead this is marine three bravo. Target secured and stowed. Handing over command."

The reply was swift, their leader had been waiting for this moment.

"Roger marine three bravo. I assume command. Good job men. All assault teams disengage, I say again disengage."

The Atlas lurched sideways as the pilot engaged the turbo disregarding the damage the three metre flames would do to the surface of the station. Time was essential and they needed to get away before the Itani could reinforce from the other stations in Cantus.

###

Yarina kept her head down to keep from giving her thoughts away. She had heard of Serco face recognition software that could read your most likely thoughts from facial expressions only and even though she had received training in negating such intelligence gathering devices, she had no idea how sensitive it would be. And it would be a disaster if they could read her mind right now. She had three options right now. She could wait it out and hope for rescue, she could get close to Utia and detonate her bomb or she could just explode the bomb and hope that the explosion took the ship out as well. In reality though she couldn't use option three as it had too much chance of the Serco surviving with Utia and that was not an option. She had to decide what option to use before the Atlas jumped out of Cantus but as long as the Atlas was anywhere in Cantus there were still a chance of rescue. After all, she didn't want to kill Utia and especially not when it meant killing herself as well. She kept averting the gaze of the Serco marines and played her mind games silently as the Atlas roared outwards.

###

A large explosion that ripped the third Atlas apart heralded the counterattack. William had fired his twin neutron guns directly into the ship through the open armoured gate at the back wall of the cargo compartment tearing through the lightly armoured wall and tearing the safety covers on the battery to shreds before shorting it. The explosion pushed his own IBG back into the tunnel and shredded the front armour but cleared the route into space. He thumbed the turbo and roared into space on a pillar of flame like a vengeful angel of death. That was the signal for the other two IBG's to break out and engage the two SVG's that were guarding the launch bay. William twisted his own ship and roared with satisfaction at getting a targeting solution on the nearest SVG. He fired a long streak of neutrons into the dazzled Serco and tore the light fighter to shreds before the Serco had a chance to avoid the shots. The other Serco boosted down and away from the station almost directly into the path of the two other IBG's that had just exited through the air locks. Caught from three sides the Serco pilot hit the turbo to escape the cross fire but too late. The six neutron guns from the IBG's reduced the SVG to an expanding fireball and William gave the GO signal to the remaining banzai callsigns. This was not over yet.

###

Cat saw the Atlas launch and readied for the extraction. It had been fairly boring so far, precisely how it should be. The large explosion on the other side of the station changed all that. She focused on the launch bay ahead and waited for something to exit while listening to the curses of the two pilots that were guarding bay one. The disappearance of the SVG's on the screen and the new hostiles could only mean that the Itani had somehow broken through the barrier that the strike force had set in place. She twisted her ship and moved towards the now unguarded exit. It was spawning Valkyries at a faster rate than she had seen before; these were not rookie pilots for sure. She felt a knot form in her stomach as the three IBG's accelerated towards the Atlas that had only just launched and she boosted to intercept them. Within four hundred metres she had the rear most in her sights and depressed the trigger spewing neutron death into the lightly armoured rocket shaped interceptor, destroying it easily. The drain on the battery forced her to jump out f turbo and the enemy surged ahead. The lead IBG closed the distance to the Atlas and punched holes all over the left side of the assault ship. A normal Atlas would have exploded under the withering fire but the extra armour had been worth every extra kilo. The Atlas continued as the lead IBG fell behind with the same problem she had just had. Cat smiled a predatory smile that would make herds of cattle stampede to get away. The shooting that the Itani scum had just done had in effect sealed his fate. She boosted at half battery towards the IBG and as son as it was within reach she poured the remaining power into her guns hitting with every shot. The interceptor exploded violently and she screamed in joy. Now she just needed to kill the last IBG before it could hurt the Atlas further and she boosted after it. On the radar she could see the remaining SVG's and Prometheus's engage the by now nine Valkyries that had appeared in rapid succession from the station. The Itani were outnumbered two to one and the Serco only had to fight until the Atlas's had safely jumped out of the system.

###

The message popped in on Fletholm's screen and was about as welcome as a twenty pound turd. If it weren’t for his extreme laziness he would have spilled his koffee, now he merely swallowed and summoned his Itani and Serco specialists. Eggert was the first to pop his head in, his boyish nerdy features sporting a wide grin.

"I knew it, or rather I knew they would do something like this."

"Spill it Eggert."

"Seems like we were framed Sir. A UIT trader named Brix," Eggert smirked and looked at Fletholm," heard of him?, escaped from the Xang Xi prison roid yesterday. Found some of his own stash and drove a Behemoth loaded with a nuclear device into the primary Serco revival facility and detonated the contraption. apparently he killed the entire revival facility in one stroke. If I may put in my two creds worth, this smells like Itani secret service so badly that I am willing to put a months pay on it."

Fletholm nodded and indicated the message on his screen.

"This is from the Serco Diplomatic Corps asking us kindly to explain why a UIT citizen would do that."

"Maybe it has something to do with the little thing we sprung on the Tani Sir? You know, the thing on Eo?"

Fletholm almost told Eggert what had happened but remembered that it was for him only.

"Maybe, but how do I wiggle out of this one?"

"That is why they pay you that exorbitant amount of money Sir."

Fletholm frowned and nodded while focusing on the screen again.

"Yeah, I get to earn my pay these days for sure."

Eggert grinned and left the office leaving Fletholm to solve the trouble. Sometimes it was good to be the smallest fish in the pond.

29. Defeat is not an option

William was throttling the turbo on and off in small fast steps to keep the speed up and close with the Atlas. He was almost there with 1004 metres to go when he detected the very distinct energy spike of a battery being emptied into the warp drive generator. He throttled to maximum and tried to close before the Atlas jumped out. His HUD indicator lighted up.

"Targeted ship jumping to D-2. Activate warp drive to follow."

William grinned fiercely and hit the warp drive immediately, looking down at his battery read-out when he didn't jump at once. He cursed loudly and checked his rear facing radar to see where that chasing SVG was; almost two klicks behind but closing fast.

As soon as the engine had trickled the required 25% power into the battery he hit the warp drive again, feeding the power into exotic material that made up the jump core and forcing the IBG through the small rift in space into sector D-2. The Atlas was 832 metres away in open space and getting ready to jump again. William resisted the temptation to close and fire instead using the power plant to feed the battery with power.

"Targeted ship jumping to M-12. Activate warp drive to follow."

This time William was ready and engaged the warp drive immediately jumping at the same time as the Atlas. He exited 493 metres away from the Atlas in a small roid field. Several red radar echoes flooded his screen but he chose to ignore it focusing on the Atlas. He hit the turbo, closed to 240 metres and aligned his guns.

The SVG that had followed him before had jumped in previously along with a set of Proms and were closing on his ship so he needed to make it fast. He fired his guns into the Atlas, tearing the remaining armour plating off and punching into the vitals. The ship exploded violently with two part ejecting, one large than the other; life buoys. He sprayed the large buoy with neutron beams and tore it completely apart slagging it violently into an expanding ball of plasma.

His ship lurched violently as neutrons peeled armour off on his rear; the SVG had closed with him. He started a random dodge that took him over towards the remaining buoy but had to swerve out of the way as the SVG pilot had anticipated that and was covering that direction with a torrent of fire. William hit the turbo and boosted outwards, the SVG hot on his tail.

The two Proms guarded the remaining buoy and the rapidly cooling ball of plasma. He grinned and made a long and wide turn back towards the roidfield at maximum speed. The twin Proms opened fire with their Gatling turrets but were apparently out of flares as William had hoped and calculated with. He dodged the turrets easily and went directly for the buoy. For no more than a split second he had a clear shot and took it. The buoy exploded as had the other buoy and William shouted a victory scream across the ether.

The single flare remaining on the rear most Prom almost took him out at that time reducing his ship to 2% effective armour and tossed him around almost colliding with a particularly nasty looking roid. The SVG hammered circular holes into the roid all around him but he managed to dodge the lethal beams. He once more boosted for open space with all warnings blaring inside the smashed up IBG. As he hit the 3k mark he had more than three hundred metres to the SVG and decided to chance it. He hit the jump switch and felt rather than saw the neutrons from the SVG hammer through space all around his ship but missing.

He entered the Tellus control sector and kept on going as fast as possible for a docking bay. He needed a new ship and come out to fight the remaining Serco.

###

Cat cursed as she saw the IBG dodge her streams of neutrons and jump safely out of the sector. That had been one seriously gutsy pilot and he had known how to fly as well but it still annoyed her that she had missed him. She kept flying out and opened a channel to the two Proms.

"Any survivors from the Atlas?"

"Nothing larger than a grains of sand in the two clouds. He smashed it up completely."

"Roger, wait for the medic Atlas and secure that. Let him scoop whatever we can salvage up if he can. I am jumping after him, I'm gonna nail that Tani good."

"Wilco Cat, good hunting."

"Yeah."

She closed the channel and jumped for the rendezvous point finding it a complete mess of red and green echoes. She went for the closest red echo and boosted within fighting range engaging the unsuspecting Valkyrie from the beneath the rear hammering a well placed set of shots into the thinner armour around the engines. The Valkyrie, already weakened by the fight with the Prometheus took the safe choice and broke combat running towards the main Itani force. Cat grinned and followed the faster ship intent on killing it. After all, she had not been hit once today and most of the enemy were in the red.

###

Yarina felt the familiar sinking feeling in her stomach when the Atlas jumped out of the sector and then again and again. The heavy vibrations from the engines ceased and gave way to the relative silence of an active ship. None of her Serco captors said anything to her or among themselves. She focused on the slow and regular breathing of Utia II and tried to recognise any features, the small twitch he usually made in with his left eye, the slight downturn of his lips in the left side or anything really. She looked around the Atlas but was careful to keep her eyes no higher than at knee level of the marines. A hard sound of metal against metal shocked her and she peeked up at the sound. One of the marines had punched his hand into the wall, looked like it was in anger. She almost smiled but kept it from spreading to her features. The marine leaned closer to Yarina and grasped her chin in his armoured hand forcing her face upwards.

"Don't get your hopes up wench. We still have you and the pilot and that will be enough. The Lady will triumph after all."

He pushed her away with such force that she fell backwards and hit her head on the bulkhead. The pain almost made her faint and she had lights flashing on the backside of her eyelids. She kept her eyes closed and touched her neck gingerly. She brought her hand in front of her eyes and opened them. The fingers were bloody. The marine on the other side saw the blood as well and smiled broadly at the damage he had done. She realised that that she didn't count in this equation and that they would eliminate her as soon as they had qualified medical personal on hand. She smiled a sad smile at the marine and nodded slowly. She extended her hand to touch Utia II's ever so softly. She couldn't quite say it but formed the words with her lips.

"I love you unknown soldier. Another life."

She looked back up at the marine that had observed her pain with glee. She smiled a sad smile again.

"For Akan."

The small device she had inserted detected her vocal command, detected that it was her voice and fulfilled its parameters. The miniaturised containment field that was the main bulk of the device and was storing zero point nine grams of anti-protons, stopped the power feed. Within a millisecond the remains of the containment field had malfunctioned catastrophically and the device detonated with about as much force as two hundred kilo's of high explosives. The effect on the Atlas was devastating; the innards of the ship were torn completely to shreds with multiple secondary explosions melting the remains to a cloud of mixed elements. The remaining part of the Omega project ceased existing.

###

Janice twisted her Valkyrie away from the incoming fire and boosted for the main group of Itani fighters. That Vult had appeared from out of nowhere and hammered her engine section into the red. The Itani were winning slowly but surely. The elite Swift Wind squad had already evened the odds and the Serco pilots were outnumbered slightly now. The turning point had come when the last Prom had used all of its flare ammunition and was at that point reduced to a Gatling turret for weaponry. Not really a challenge to a halfway decent Valkyrie pilot, and these were the very best. She held off for a minute and tried to see who needed her help. That Vult from before seemed to be deciding for her, going at top speed towards her own Valkyrie. She grinned and started her dance of death with the Serco pilot the intended victim.

###

The wormhole streamed exotic particles, the indication that something was defying normal space and transcending the vastness into Deneb. The Itani Battle Commander sighed and moved his icons on the command screen. The twenty or so triangles that were shown in red around the wormhole were quickly swarmed by his triangles of blue assisted by the blue squares and pentagons from further away, eliminating them one by on. It took maybe two minutes and the red triangles had all disappeared. He had lost a couple of triangles himself and a single square. He counted his geometric shapes and decided that he could still fulfil his mission parameters. As he had done nine times now.

In real space the twenty Serco fighters piloted by new pilots recruited by SCAR had entered the wormhole with not much other than patriotism for help. Given a barely adequate training that allowed them to fire their weapons and hit training bots while piloting out-dated ship models, they were expected to do precisely what they achieved. Buy time for the Serco defence forces to mount a credible assault force and take the wormhole back. The twenty fighters exploded one by one in a gesture of futility, destroyed by the Itani pilots almost as derived of feelings as the Itani Battle Commander; it could just as well have been bots.

Some of the Itani pilots had been flying Combat Space Patrol (COSP) for more than 70 hours now with the aid of combat drugs and could look forward to another 40 hours of COSP at least. A large assault force was being assembled to take the fight to the Serco by invading Geira Rutilus and destroying the station on the wormhole exit. It had been debated in high command whether to try and take the station with marines but since the Serco marines outfought the Itani by a factor of five to one; the complete destruction had been seen as the rational choice.

Swift Wind eh? Best Itani pilots you say? Niki could take the whole squadron on! Yarina must have read Vehement's book.
Great stuff as always, Whytee.

I have no doubt Niki could. But Niki is hard to reach in game and I do not use characters if I haven't had a chance to ask them:) Policy and all. And thank you:)

30. Orders

William crashed the IBG into the docking bay hitting the cradle with enough force to melt the ship into the latches normally used for securing the ships. That ship was not going to fly anywhere and the cradle was going to be completely refurbished before it could be used again. William recovered from the impact and jumped out of the wreckage sprinting for the Valkyrie that sported a large Banzai 01 below the cockpit. He vaulted into the cockpit and hit the launch button before the system had powered up. Nothing happened and a red light popped up instead telling him that a message was waiting and needed to be answered. He swore and punched the receive button.

"Banzai 01, what do you want?"

"This is Colonel Masatinha. I need you for a special mission."

"Sir, with all due respect I need to go and lead my pilots against the Serco."

"Negative. I have someone that needs to be escorted off the station now. And I need a pilot for that vessel."

"Honestly Sir, I am needed in the fight."

"No. Get over to the transport Atlas and do as you are told. Masatinha out."

William punched the radio hard cracking two knuckles on his left hand. He pushed the tactical frequency and called Jan.

"Banzai 02 this is 01."

"Go for 02."

He heard the strain in her voice and winced, she had to be in a fight right now.

"Baby, I have been re-tasked. I cannot come and help you."

"Crap, we could use you. Stand by."

William winced as he could hear the impacts on the Valkyrie through the radio."

"Crap he is good. We'll take them my love. 02 out."

William put his hand on the radio with the affection he could muster. He needed to be out there, not flying a crappy support vessel. He got out of the Valkyrie and ran over to the Atlas that was opposite in the launch bay. He pushed the power button and opened the pre flight coded destination. Deneb; cargo two passengers, both frozen. What the hell was so important that they couldn't wait? He launched and opened his radio on the tactical net. He checked his weapons load and was moderately satisfied. The mega-positron and flares suited his combat style fine, not that he was going to do anything on this flight. Besides, with all the medical facilities in the cargo bay of his ship he was so heavy that he could not dodge if they paid him.

He launched and turboed immediately for the jump point.

"All Banzai, 07 is down. Pod active."

That was lance corporal Tatting, the freckled kid from Divinia. William wished him well as he chucked away towards the jump point.

###

Janice shouted a curse at the pilot in the SVG as the ship dodged stream upon stream of neutrons. She dodged the incoming rays herself as well, but maybe once per twenty shot the neutron beams tore armour off her Valk. The SVG moved in once more in a forward barrel roll and Janice fired a stream where the SVG would be in half a second. But it wasn't, once more dodging her shots and sniping a single pack of neutrons into her own front. The SVG danced outwards again no doubt setting up for another run.

"All Banzai, 08 and 04 are down. Pods active."

The enemy was down to four Proms and two SVG's, one of them the one she was fighting. A large explosion signalled the end of another Prom and they were now equal in number. She focused on the SVG again and tried to compensate for the dodging. There was a tendency to dodge down and left every time and she set her strafe up to compensate. The SVG moved in again in a forward barrel roll and Jan fired a stream of neutrons where she believed the smaller ship would be. She was rewarded with twin hits on the SVG but was hit by another stream herself. She glanced at the armour status and winced at the 2% she had left. Another explosion, this time a double removing a Prom along with a Valkyrie, lighted space in flames of red.

"All Banzai, 03 is down. Pod active."

The SVG danced inwards again, this time dodging in a diamond shape pattern almost straight at Janice. She disabled the auto aim function and sprayed the area with neutrons hitting the SVG again and at the same time dodging the incoming fire. The SVG rolled slowly and strafed closer and closer to Janice's Valk eventually hitting it. The life support pod detected the impending danger and launched her sideways while the fireball expanded slowly like a flower opening to the morning sun.

"All Banzai, 02 is down. Pod active. 05 assuming control."

Janice was not aware, she had lost conscience when the pod was ejected and she would not wake up again before being picked up by the recovery ship.

###

Cat flew through the expanding ball of debris, ignoring the life support pod and targeting a new Valkyrie, this one fighting a Prom. A well-placed set of shots exploded the heavy fighter and she targeted the next Valkyrie. Only two of the Itani left now and she called for the recovery Atlas. She sent the prom off to assist the other Prom and went to help the SVG's that were deep in the red both of them. The Valkyrie saw her close and dodged to the side at the cost of a hit from one of the SVG's. Slowly rolling and boosting up, the Itani pilot repaid the kindness with a twin hit across the wings of the lead Vulture, exploding it. The dance of violence continued with streams of neutrons marring the space all around the ships. The last two Proms exploded with 0.1-second delay, the force from the destruction of one spilling over and destroying the other.

A new wormhole exit spawned the recovery Atlas along with a SVG and the surviving Valkyrie boosted hard to intercept it and deny the Serco to rescue their own pilots.

"Cat this is Kael. Defend the Atlas at all costs."

Cat was reassured that the Serco commander was still in charge and broke off her engagement to intercept the Valkyrie before it could harm the Atlas. The Itani pilot managed to fire several shots into the recovery ship before Cat came into range, but broke off and turned to Cat's SVG. Cat dodged hard left and down while rolling slowly, defeating the auto aim on the opponents ship. The Itani knew of this tactics however and countered with a slow backwards roll as well while keeping the fire up criss-crossing space in front and to the sides of her with powerful neutron streams. A flashing of red in her HUD indicated a hit on her left wing and she dodged right and up almost as per reflex avoiding the long burst of neutrons that followed her. Cat disabled the auto aim function and depressed the trigger spraying a burst in a small cone around the Valkyrie. One of the shots hit true and the larger fighter exploded to a victory shout from Cat.

The other Itani ship had exploded as well finally succumbing to the two SVG's. She opened a connection to the Atlas and queried the amount of pods. Satisfied that her fellow soldiers had been saved, she flew over to the other SVG's to provide protection for the recovery ship. At least something could be salvaged from this crap mission.

"Cat this is Kael."

"Go for Cat."

"Bad news Cat. I just received our new orders."

"You’ve gotta be kidding, are we going to attack the station again?"

She glanced at her damage readout and frowned at the 37% left. Not a good start for an assault.

"Worse. I received orders from the highest authority to eliminate all Itani pilots."

"So what, we already did that."

"No Cat, the pods."

Cat felt bile rising in her throat; that was so wrong. You didn't kill unarmed and chanceless pilots.

"Roger Sir. Is that an order Sir."

"Don't be like that Cat. I'll send you a copy. It is signed by Grand Inquisitor Ahriman himself. Sorry about this Cat, but you are it."

Cat almost spat at the screen but remembered that she was wearing a full-face helmet.

"I'll go to the secondary sector and the station sector. You eliminate the ones here. That is an order, acknowledge."

"Wilco Kael. Or should I say Asteroth?"

"Yeah, whatever. The Lady be with you Cat."

He disappeared along with the other SVG leaving her alone with the Itani life support pods. She grimaced and sent a small prayer to the Lady as she aligned the first pod in her targeting reticule.

"The Lady's peace to you Itani."

She depressed the trigger tearing the Itani pilot to pieces along with the pod. Eight to go.

31. Descent into hell

"Nooooooooo"

William saw in horror as the emergency pod indicated that it was getting hit and then stopped sending vitals. That was the second pod in less than thirty seconds and meant that someone was deliberately killing his squad’s life support pods.

"Tellus control, I am ditching this mission and am going to intercept the pods of the Banzai call signs."

No response, static. He turned the Atlas away from the course towards the system wormhole and engaged the turbo once more boosting for the jump point to the sector where the emergency pods were, where Janice and their unborn baby were. Another pod winked out and William punched the screen hard cracking it and making him remember the two smashed knuckles.

"Aaaah stop it you fucking maniac!"

Another winked out before William could jump into the sector. A single SVG that was rather damaged flew from a small piece of wreckage towards another pod. He opened the inter sector hail.

"Stop it Serco. For the sake of Eo, stop it."

"Sorry Tani, orders."

He saw in horror as the SVG destroyed another pod and shouted impotently in rage. He boosted directly for the SVG intent on it destruction before it could destroy the remaining five pods. The SVG ignored him and likewise boosted hard for one of the pods. William checked the readout and winced. Banzai 07, Tatting, the new kid was never going to have a chance to invite that girl from the Baked Onion out on a date. The SVG destroyed the pod and the life behind with too little effort switching target immediately. William found Janice's pod and moved to block access to it. The SVG destroyed two more pods making William nauseous. It was his best friends that were getting executed there and all he could do was watch. The SVG turned towards William and the two pods that were behind his Atlas. It moved in a slow barrel roll forward until it was within 800 metres of the Atlas where it hit the turbo and surged forward at great speed. William fired a spread of flares and mega positron beams at the SVG but due to the unexpected burst of speed he overshot and missed. The SVG fired a set of neutrons that William dodged easily. He was however not the target and the pod behind him didn't dodge taking the beams head on. It was completely destroyed leaving one pod left; Janice's.

William focused on the SVG as it twisted out of his reach setting up for another run. It rolled slowly inwards but he kept his fire. Suddenly it accelerated and he shot a single flare towards the SVG firing the mega positron below the light fighter. It evaded upwards but still sniped off a set of neutrons. William dodged into the shots and took them head on.

"How long can you last Tani?"

"Longer than you bitch."

He knew that one solid flare hit was enough to kill the Serco pilot and kept the pod behind him while aiming carefully. Apparently the Serco pilot knew it too and kept outside of the 800 metres that was the effective range of his mega positron gun. That kept her safely away from the pod however since neutron guns only had a range of 600 metres. William punched the Itani defence channel.

"Any pilot this is Banzai 01. Need immediate help with single Serco Vulture."

"Roger, this is Oscree Garden strike force, inbound your location in one minute."

William focused on the Serco, he just needed to keep it away for one more minute and then it would be swarmed and killed. The Vulture made another forward rolling attempt at closing to Janice's pod and William fired another flare just above the Vulture with several beams of positrons underneath it. The Vulture twisted and dodged out to the side firing a set of neutrons at the pod. William dodged into the beams and winced when he saw the damage readout turn to 66% left. A set of expanding rings of exotic rays predated the arrival of a set of Vultures.

"Banzai 01 this is Oscree 11 and 12, we will take over from here."

"Negative Oscree 11, I'll stay on station and guard the pod."

The two vultures started chasing the SVG and William focused on the pod. It was still showing full functionality and he considered dumping his cargo and scoop Janice up instead. He didn’t know what was inside the medical pod he was carrying but he was certain that it would kill the two “passengers” inside if he dumped them and that would be the same as murder. The three twisting vultures moved closer to William and he focused once more on the SVG ready to take any shots that were fired at the pod. The SVG moved with its rear to William and made an ass-over-head move while sniping yet another set of neutrons towards the pod before twisting back to dodge and engage the strike force. The strike force pilots used the manoeuvre to fire several strings of neutrons at the SVG but missed. William was ready and dodged into the SVG shots taking the hits on his armour but missed the beams of the strike force, one of which tore into the pod. The life status indicator flickered from green to yellow to red in two seconds. William looked at the display in shock trying to understand what just happened. He sobbed one loud despairing cry before his voice broke and became a keening. He hammered the sector wide radio button.

"You incompetent pieces of shit."

He fired a flare directly at the strike force vultures disregarding the IFF that prevented his flares from detonating, hoping that the presence of the SVG would trigger the detonation. It did and the three Vultures flew apart damaged by the flare. The two strike force vultures were now designated as enemy on his radar, the direct hit overriding the IFF. He pumped another flare into the Vultures strafing them with mega positrons at the same time. The SVG boosted off and ran for the jump mark. William ignored it for now and proceeded to smash the two strike force Vultures to bits. The hails that cried for cessation of fire were ignored as he killed first one pilot and then the other, ensuring their demise with a mega positron shot to the rescue pods. He was alone in the sector with only the holed pod that contained the dead Janice as company. A large warning sign blinked on and off on his HUD telling him that the Itani government now saw him as their enemy. He had been labelled KOS. William frowned and thought for a second.

"If that is how you like it, so be it."

He ejected the cargo and scooped Janice up instead. Through tears he boosted for the 3k mark and deep space. He needed to be alone and figure out what he was going to do now. He had been betrayed by his own people. He had failed Janice and their baby by blindly following orders from the same people. Someone was going to pay for this.

###

Kalimenshae Kael aka Asteroth jumped away from Tellus station after fulfilling his grizzly task and met up with Cat.

"Finished?"

"Yeah. Had some problems with a Tani in an Atlas but the stupid strike force finished it for me."

"Can you make your own way out to Helios?"

"Yeah, I'll just lay low for a day or two until they get tired of looking for me."

"Roger Cat. Sorry for that last task but it was directly from the headquarters. I'll be seeing you in grey, ja?"

"Yeah, sure."

He watched her jump out and turned for his own escape route. He would have to take the long route with the Itani still in command of the Geira/Deneb wormhole, but at least then he would get some time to think the scenario through and figure out why it had gone so spectacularly wrong.

###

Admiral of the Fleet Otestrom sat in his command chair with closed eyes and received the news from Tellus, all of it bad. Not only had the Omega been destroyed along with the unfortunate Captain Utia Taerow and the entire team been killed, but it looked as if the Serco had succeeded in killing the entire Swift Wind squadron as well. And not just disabling it, but pod killing it to a man and woman.

"We have a theory that William Cutting, the squadron leader, helped the Serco invaders. He is accused of at least two kills on the station guards from Oscree, the two brain-frozen in his custody and finally we believe that he killed his girlfriend as well Sir."

Otestrom opened his eyes and stared at the intelligence officer in front of him who immediately stopped speaking. Sweat started emerging from pores on his forehead and a slight trembling forced itself out into his hands. The intelligence officer stammered on.

"Ehm, we, that is ah, the recovery vessel recovered the recovery pod. No, eh the medical transportation pod that he was carrying, sorry Sir. But the prolonged exposure to vacuum had destroyed the contents Sir, ehm thus finally killing professor Raewon and one of his people. Eh, I do not have the name here Sir."

The Admiral leaned forward and folded his hands.

"Are you telling me that William Cutting, winner of the Deneb Star with golden leaves and stars for bravery, the Divinia Commander's seal for valour in combat and last but definitely not least the Itani medal of Heroes in gold with swords and Oak leaves, top scoring ace of his class and incidentally my nephew deliberately killed his team mates he himself had trained for three years and then killed his girlfriend of five years and their unborn baby merely months before they were getting married?"

"Ah, Sir if you put it like that."

"I do. Maybe you need to dig a bit further into that before flinging theories around. How much exists of the Omega project."

"Absolutely nothing Sir. Three low level techs is all. We can attempt a mind reading on the remains of professor Raewon but that would take an executive order from you Sir. Since he is dead he is effectively beyond our reach."

"And I shall honour that. You may not mind read him. Understood?"

The Intelligence officer looked shocked but managed to stammer his understanding across. Otestrom frowned; it had been a high price to pay for the restoration of the status quo, now he had to persuade his Serco opponent to stop these mindless killings of pod'ed pilots.

"Give me the head of the counter intelligence team up here and now. The rest of you, leave us."

He had a plan but it would be risky.

32. Taking back what is ours

The Itani battle group was placed around 1200 metres from the wormhole to Geira Rutilus with a set of fighters parked on the wormhole itself. They had thrown back nine assaults during the last week so far and were still at 80% combat efficiency. The last three attacks had consisted of between fifteen and twenty fighters of obsolete designs and they had been destroyed easily within minutes of them arriving in-system. When the sensors were initially showered with exotic particles no-one expected it to be different this time but after a minute of continuous radiation the tech's in the Itani command ship started sweating slightly. The wormhole had disgorged no fewer than three Tridents, two HAC's and 60 fighters. Of these fighters, 12 were the newest Prometheus design and were marked with a large [ONE] on the side. The battle group pulled further away leaving control of the wormhole to the overwhelming Serco force and called to Deneb command for help while dispatching its fighters to create a screen for the capital ships.

###

Keria hated the large bulky Prometheus but knew that it was the best ship she could use for this mission. The other eleven members of the new Serco military guild flew at her side in identical Proms, silent and deadly. It had taken her some work to establish, but with the help of three of the better Serco pilots, Vehement, sheffield and Aelius she had convinced Skycommand to accept the new guild as a responsible and powerful part of the Serco military. And this re-taking of the wormhole was going to prove precisely that. She set out for the nearest flight of Itani and designated targets across her squad. A literal wall of flares sped across the ether and impacted all around the IBG's, tearing three apart immediately and damaging two others. The other squad had done roughly the same as she and sheffield had agreed upon earlier with not quite as devastating a result but that was expected, after all the other squad faced a squad of Valkyries. The remaining Itani boosted on still, they knew they had to take the fight to the Serco. Within a second the opposing fighters merged in a furious melee.

Keria hammered Gatling fire into the flanks of a desperately dodging IBG and destroyed it completely, shifting target as fast as her fingers could press the button. The initial Itani screen had been smashed and the secondary was inbound. Keria checked her squad and noted with a small smile that they had only taken slight armour damage. She frowned as she saw a SVG from the Serco Defence Force engage an Itani life pod and hailed the pilot immediately.

"Pilot, belay that. We are Serco, we fight with honour."

"Just doing to them what they did to us."

"Last warning pilot. Belay that and return to your position. Just because the enemy doesn't have honour does not make it necessary for us to loose ours."

"Yes ma'am. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry, just don't do it again. For the Lady."

"For the Lady."

She saw the pilot return to his position and smiled. This was the right way of fighting. The second Itani wave entered the 2k-kill zone and the capital ships started firing gauss canons at them. Keria gave the go and her squad surged forward to max. speed before launching another wall of flares at the enemy. The result was not quite as good this time but then they would at least get some fighter vs. fighter combat. Keria grinned, she only hoped Riddik was having as good a time as she was.

###

The light reflected in the mirrored sunglasses of the slender man that sat slowly thumbing through his newspaper in the fashionable cafe "Heart's Desiré". They reflected the warm glow of Dau's yellow sun, the asteroids that had been placed in a pattern outside the station, a testament to the power of UIT, and the slightly pudgy face of Fletholm as he seated himself opposite. The man smiled and removed the glasses revealing the deep blue eyes behind and showed Fletholm that the smile did not reach his eyes. This was no social call after all.

"Mr. Fletholm. I m glad you could make it."

"And you would be...?"

"Not important Sir, I assure you. Call me Utia if you must assign me a name."

"Very well Utia. I received your somewhat strange message and am here. What do you want?"

The man smiled at Fletholm's discomfort. The message had consisted of Brix's personal items and a meeting place.

"I want you to help me."

'I don't see why I should do that? As far as I can see you caused me a lot of trouble."

"Well, tit for tat I guess Mr. Fletholm. "

"I have no idea what you are talking about Utia."

The man smiled broadly and leaned forward.

"Lies Sir. When I said my name was Utia your pulse increased by six percent, a slight reddening of your neck and a minuscule twitch of your left eye gave you away. You are very good at hiding these emotional responses but not good enough. You know precisely what I mean."

Fletholm was no longer in doubt who he was talking to by now.

"How?"

"I need you to ensure that the Serco Diplomatic Service receives a message without any chance of anybody else getting it."

"I see, we can probably do that."

"No, you will do it. There is a slight difference."

"Yes there is. We are even then. This message?"

He indicated a small envelope in the table. The man nodded.

"Yes, we are. Back to business as usual."

Fletholm rose and grabbed the envelope. He stuffed it in his jacket and walked away without further niceties.

###

Asteroth docked his Warthog II in Helios Outpost and gathered his kit bag from behind the cockpit. He had dumped the SVG in Pelatus at the Ineubis station and bought the Warthog instead. That had allowed him to escape the obligatory pirates haunting Sedina and Odia with little more effort than pushing the turbo toggle to on. He was tired, dead-tired. After leaving Cat deep in Cantus he had boosted immediately for the Jallik wormhole dodging strike forces at every wormhole before running the gauntlet around the Itani nation's border, always a challenge in a SVG. Still, it had taken him more than three days to get out of Itani space. Once out, he had flown aligned for grey space and immediately boosted for Pelatus and a little bit of rest. When he had landed a message signed Skycommand popped up in his HUD informing him that his presence was requested immediately in Helios B-7. He had downed a couple of quick-me uppers with a large mug of caffeine enriched koffee and moved out almost immediately.

A couple of Skycommand Military Policemen were waiting for him, large MP signs on their collars, as he crawled out of the ship.

"Captain Asteroth?"

"Yeah, that is me."

One MP swiped the surface of Asteroth's hand with the DNA scanner and nodded to the other.

"Sir, I must inform you that you are as of this moment a prisoner. You have not been accused at anything yet Sir, but we must insist that you follow along without any problems."

Asteroth sighed tiredly; this was the reason he had hurried home?

"Whatever. Is the Diplomatic Services informed of this?"

"Yes Sir, a certain Mr Beria is going to visit you shortly."

"Right. Well, I hope you have a bed wherever you are taking me. And a shower."

The two MPs walked with Asteroth without forcing him but in such a manner that it was impossible for him not to comply.

33. Mutually Assured Destruction, business as usual

Keria's face beamed with pleasure when the window opened. Riddik's heart was instantly filled with joy at seeing her and especially at seeing her so happy.

"Riddik baby!"

"Keria my love."

"Miss you."

"Miss you even more."

Keria grinned; this could become the longest conversation with fewest words very fast.

"We kicked the Tani out of the wormhole sector Rid, we kicked them out good."

"How so my love? With SCAR?"

"Nah, screw them. They are at best an anachronism by now, an appendix to real warriors. I started a real guild now with sheff, Aelius and Vehement, called the Big Red One."

"That explains the uniform and the strange insignia."

Keria grinned even more now.

"I am now officially an Admiral."

"Congratulations love, I can see you are having fun."

"You know what could be more fun?"

"Ehm, not on this public channel."

Keria blushed and looked down before flashing him with eyes shining with mischief.

"Yeah, well that aside. If you came and joined us baby."

"Can't do that. I was initiated into TGFT two days ago. Still hung over."

"Well, nothing to do about that baby. We'll just have to, you know... have more fun? Helios Outpost in an hour?"

"Leaving as we speak."

Riddik grinned like a pimpled teenager that had just been offered a year’s lodging at the Playboy Mansion and shut the SSCU off. How the hell he was supposed to make it to Helios in an hour he had no idea. But he would make it, no doubt about it.

###

Beria entered the small cubicle where Asteroth had used the last ten hours sleeping soundly like a dead person. He nodded to his commander and closed the door after him, the loud metallic sound informing them both that it was locked as well. Asteroth got up on one elbow and smiled at Beria.

"Ast, I am not here for a social visit."

"I kinda reckoned. Spill the beans."

"The powers that be holds you responsible for the failure of operation Uranus."

"Yeah, well no surprise. Did they mention anyone else?"

"No, there doesn't seem to be a list of persons that participated in it. You must have kept it a very tight secret."

Asteroth grinned, Beria must have anticipated that this would have happened and deleted everything. And now Asteroth was set up to take the fall, or rather immense plunge for all of them.

"Well, operational security and everything."

"You know that you will be charged with war crimes right? Why the hell did you do it?"

"Did what? You bloody well know why Beria."

"No, why did you kill all the pilots?"

Asteroth considered informing Beria about his orders from Ahriman but decided against. He looked straight into Beria's eyes.

"They were Tani scum. Besides, they had killed a lot of my people."

Beria saw the facial features betray the words and slowly nodded.

"I see, any last words before you’ll be taken away?"

"Yeah, take care of my cat will ya?"

"Your cat?"

Asteroth grinned.

"Ah, your Cat. No problem, I am on it as we speak."

Asteroth nodded and rolled over in his bed. He would not be condemned to death, of that he was reasonably sure. After all, he protected some pretty important persons, but he would probably be tossed out of Serco space. It could be worse. He closed his eyes and saw the pods being ripped to pieces again and again until he fell asleep once more.

###

The Grand Admiral of Skycommand received the message from the Diplomatic Service labelled Ultra Secret, GA eyes only. He activated his neural protection software and inserted the chip. The chip acknowledged the identification of the Grand Admiral and decoded the message into the main memory. He assimilated the information and immediately set in motion the signs that would indicate agreement. He agreed with the Itani Admiral of the Fleet. It was time to revert to the good old times of MAD where the two nations could exist in relative peace with only major actions going on in Deneb. After all, MAD was a good principle when everybody had the capacity to destroy everyone else. The Lurkers would have to be withdrawn, but with the current combat losses they were but a shadow of their former selves, no big loss to the state. Naturally this would have to remain secret. And that meant rooting the persons responsible for the current quagmire out of the Serco military.

###

William let the cargo crate slip away from his ship and watched it as it silently glided into the very outer regions of Cantus Prime. He stayed motionless, seated in his cockpit crying silently as the love of his life along with his unborn baby slipped away to the fiery burial in the sun. Only when he had not been able to see them for more than an hour did he pull slowly away and boosted for Jallik and the border. He was going to make them all pay for this. He was going to cut them all, he was gunna cut them good.

###

Cat received the message from Beria and frowned. Why had she been fired from the Diplomatic Service? And why had he paid her ten million credits? She wanted to ask a lot of questions, but the message had been very clear. No answers were forthcoming and the only thing she would gain from asking would be a plasma shot in the back of her head. She docked in Aeolus trading prefect and walked up to the residential area. She had better find herself a new place to call home.

###

Kassad touched the grey marble slate with the rows upon rows of stars and bowed his head in remembrance. He had fostered her like a daughter and had been as proud as he had been scared, the first time she went on a field assignment. She had done way above what was expected of her, naturally even identifying her own limits before her handler. In the end she had ensured that her mission was not compromised, the anti-matter explosion was an attest to that. Unfortunately nobody would know what she had done, how she had done it or even who she had been, however that was the way of Akan. Unlimited devotion to the people coupled with extreme secrecy. But he would remember her every time he stood in front of the memorial slate. He would remember which star was the one that was representing Yarina Oselasis. He would remember her name. He would remember......

Right, that is it. Hope you enjoyed it. If I have slighted anyone, pls let me know and I'll change it. Note that the SCAR of my story has NOTHING to do with the SCAR of today's VO.

Thank you, come again;)

As usual the entire story can be downloaded on
http://whytee.dk/the_pit/stuff_from_vendetta_online/

I must apologize for the lateness of this reply, however.. you name Veracity as one of the ONE founders in your last two posts- it was not him but Vehement.

"Note that the SCAR of my story has NOTHING to do with the SCAR of today's VO."

That much was obvious from very early on -- SCAR hasn't done anything resembling ass-kicking since before you started playing, Hortan. :P

Awesome. But what happens to William after this?

He throws his top hat in with a bunch of reprobates known as KAOS as immortalised in the Bard's previous work...

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/7/19013

Playboy mansion...... i could live with that :P

Aww man, you mean I have to reread that story just to find out?
I read that one mostly at night hours when I was falling asleep so I dont remember very well. Just something about some bad dude getting kung-fu'ed by Tohasandra Chi or something like that.

Could somebody please post a link to the exact chapter in the story? Thanks.