AMP Private War (17 page)

"You OK Sir? Not sure what I was thinking. Meyer is gonna be pissed that we left you back here. I’ll be taking some lumps for this one."

I stood, my combat suit dripping with Milgari blood. "Geez Sir, looks like you went through a meat grinder!"

I attempted to brush the blood from my arm with my glove. "I’m fine, almost took a round in the thigh, but it’s just a scratch. And don’t worry about Meyer, she owes me one and I’ll be happy to cash it in."

We continued on to the next room as Meyer came from down the hall. "Grange! You are killing me here! Every time I turn around you are in trouble! Take a break and go clean yourself up. We can handle this hallway."

I pulled a Milgari uniform from a rack and used it to wipe off my boots. "If it’s all the same Sergeant, I would just as soon continue to clear this hall. If it’s not me standing here it will be someone else and I don’t want that on my conscience."

Meyer looked me up and down. "You are one odd bird Grange. You have me baffled as to how you got where you are, but I’ll give credit where it’s due. You keep coming out on the high end of these bad situations. There has to be a reason for that. I’m just not sure what that is exactly."

Meyer turned and barked orders at her men as she proceeded back down the hall. Another nine rooms were cleared before we had an encounter in the tenth. As Dell rounded the corner an alien attacked him with a knife. Before he could react the half meter long blade was thrust through his heart.

Ak-ak!

The alien fell backwards onto the floor; two 7.62mm rounds had penetrated his chest.

I stepped in with my AK trained on him. "We are Humans! We are here to liberate you from the Milgari. Why did you attack!" The male breathed heavily. "I’m… I’m sorry… I didn’t know. I was only trying to protect myself. All the fighting… I was confused."

The alien sat up and then folded over in pain on top of Dell’s body. I reached for his shoulder to offer a hand. He then spun around violently, slashing at me with the long knife as he pulled it from Dell’s chest.

Ak!

A round to his shoulder put a stop to the attempted attack. I placed a boot on his forearm and the barrel of my AK to his forehead. "Why did you do that? We came to help you!"

The alien smiled in a hateful way. "Help us? You attack our ship and try to steal the wealth of our empire and you call it help? You humans are a foul species and one day our galaxy will be rid of you.

I pressed harder with my gun. "Are you saying you are part of the Milgari Empire?"

The alien spat blood and then laughed. "The Milgari Empire? Hahahaha! I am Torrian!"

He then winced and fell silent. Meyer was standing behind me. "Geez... not Dell, what happened?"

I turned towards her. "Looks like the Torrian here was hiding in that storage locker. He jumped Dell before he had a chance. I shot him twice in reaction. He feigned that his attack was a mistake and that he was sorry and confused."

"Then he grabbed the knife and tried to attack me. But none of that's what's important. It’s what he said there at the end that has me worried. He made it sound like the Torrians were willing partners with the Milgari. And then the strange part. He laughed when I referenced the Milgari Empire. It was as if the Milgari were some kind of a joke and someone else was pulling the strings. I don’t think that rumor has ever made it into the mill. If that is so we…"

I jumped up and pushed Meyer out of the doorway. I sprinted back down the hall and then through the breach tube and onto the Helix. When I entered the conference room the guard lay dead on the floor, a steel chair leg jammed through his skull. I sprinted to the officer of the deck and put out the alarm. Three Torrians were on the loose on the Helix and they should be considered armed and dangerous.

We moved from room to room looking for the enemy who were now loose on our ship. The Marine in front of me opened a door and received a blaster bolt to his chest. I took position just around a corner and waited for the Torrians to come out, my blaster now in my hand.

When the first Torrian entered the hallway I sent a bolt into her back. Her ribcage exploded in a violent rage. Missa and the remaining Torrian darted back into the room. We secured the hallway, effectively cutting off any exit. I moved up close to the door.

I spoke, "Hey, Missa, I know you can hear me. You are now our prisoners. I’m going to give you two options. Number one, you throw out your weapons and come out with your hands where we can see them. You will be treated fairly as a prisoner of war. Number two, we seal that door and pump a nerve agent in. Now I can’t guarantee your safety with that one as I have no way of knowing what it will do to a Torrian, and frankly at this point I don’t really care."

I then turned to one of the Marines behind me. "Bring that jar of bugs that Daniels likes to use."

He hurried off and returned in less than a minute. "I do have a third option."

I rolled the jar in front of the door. "Our little critters here like to eat, and they will eat anything, including live flesh. We have a large bin down on the lower decks that we use for waste disposal. Drop anything in there and it eventually comes out through a tube as a black slime after the bugs in there are done with it."

I continued, "I’m really leaning towards the slime option myself."

The room was full of whispers for nearly a minute. "OK, we are coming out. Here is my weapon!"

A blaster slid out into the hallway. I waited several seconds before I replied. "There are a dozen of us out here. That other blaster that you are holding, it’s not going to do you any good. Toss it out and we can talk!"

The whispering once again ensued. Shortly thereafter, a second blaster slid out into the hallway. The two Torrians then slowly emerged.

A Marine yelled, "Down on your knees! Hands on the wall!"

The Marines quickly had them cuffed and headed for a makeshift brig. Daniels then walked down the hall. What’s the commotion?" He then spotted the jar. "Awe, and who had my babies?"

He was soon filled in about what had transpired. I asked if he had seen Meyers. He had. She was with a team doing a continued sweep of the freighter. The Bridge had been secured and as soon as the ship was deemed clean she would be sent to the Delta collection point. Much of the day had passed before the freighter was on its way.

With the main struggles under control I made my way back to the Swift for a shower and a change. Frig was waiting. "Sir! What happened? Is that dried Milgari blood? You are completely covered in it."

I looked down and then back at Frig. Just bumped into a few unfriendlies that’s all. I’ll fill you in after I clean up."

With the casualties encountered from the freighter raid and with the significant haul that it was, I ordered the Hunter and the Helix to return to base. Several weeks of rest and recuperation were in order before crews would be refreshed, resupplied and once again sent out to harass the Milgari. Two new Raiders were now at the ready.

The decision had been made to divert the freighter loaded with gemstones to Jarhead where it would be placed in orbit. Daily shuttle flights were then made to slowly transfer the cargo to the planet’s surface. A bunker complex was dug into the rocky surface where the gemstones would be stored until sold.

The haul from the freighter was estimated to contain enough wealth for the financing of almost any planet in the galaxy for several years. George would get his automated space docks and our terraforming of Jarhead would be accelerated. We would also increase our pace of building Raiders and hiring the crews to run them. The Grid had a large contingent of retired military personnel to draw from, but many were no longer fit for service.

Two months later the Colonel returned from the Grid with another load of 1,000 Defiant Marine recruits. With the new Marines in training he had a decision to make, did he want to capture and convert a new cruiser? Or, were ten new frigates in order. Capturing was our only method of obtaining such large ships as the automated space docks that George would be purchasing would be many months in the making.

In the following weeks the Hunter and the Helix returned to duty along with the newly commissioned Harrow and Harlot Raiders. With the loss of the Tantric ore and the massive gem ship the Milgari had pulled back their fleet to better protect their supply lines. Our newest Raiders would not be enjoying the same easy scores as had the early runs.

My efforts since returning had been to gather information about the Torrians. Our two captives had clammed up and refused to even discuss the time of day. I attempted to coerce them with Daniels creepy bug tactic, but they for whatever reason, were no longer in fear. George had been tasked with finding a drug that would loosen their tongues.

Torture was frowned upon by most civilized worlds, but each planet and their government made their own rules. We would not use any method that caused long term physical harm. All other methods were on the table as they were deemed a necessary step to prevent death or damage to our people and our assets. This was war and we were the victims.

While on Omrin, George procured a compound whose name effectively translated into Dutellium. I thought it a joke when I first was told of it, but I was also told that it was highly effective when used properly. We would need to do a blood test on our subjects to set up the proper dosage. I was eager to proceed, George was hesitant.

I stood and patted George on the shoulder, "Absolutely we want to proceed. I want to know if the Milgari are in charge or if they are just working for someone else. The ramifications of this could be mind-blowing. What if there is another species out there pulling all the strings?"

I continued, "For a thousand years these Milgari goons have been relentless in their pursuit of us. We have captured thousands, but we have not had any luck getting even a single one to talk. It is like they are just full of rage and it is a barrier we cannot get beyond. The data stores on their ships contain minimal information on any culture or really anything at all about them. We have yet to find any way of reasoning with them."

"But here we have this new species. A species that we can communicate with and a species that acts, at least initially, like the Milgari are not in charge. If this drug works, we may have our first insight into why we are being chased around this galaxy. What if there is a species that can be reasoned with that could put an end to this war? What if they can be convinced to just leave us alone?"

George made his way over to the prisoners and drew the blood samples he needed. The following day he returned to my office. "I have the dosage for the Dutellium. Whenever you are ready we can administer it. It takes approximately six hours to saturate the brain and lower the barriers that a conscious mind constructs for protecting information."

"There is one possible problem that I do not have the equipment to test. How will this affect the Torrian brain? And what other possible side effects will this compound have on them. On humans, and on a number of other species, it has tested out clean, but we are all different and sometimes even a subtle difference can have an impact that we cannot foresee."

I pressed a comm button on my desk and asked that the Torrian named Bezith be brought to my office. When a guard entered the room with Bezith in tow I had him cuff her to a chair and then leave. George administered the prescribed dose and we sat back and waited.

An hour after the injection the Torrian passed out in the chair. At two hours she was again awake, the normal scowl on her face was gone. At three hours she seemed euphoric, she stared endlessly at the patterns on the ceiling while she smiled.

At hour four she began to talk incoherently, George had a level of concern on his face. By the fifth hour the Torrian woman started to convulse, drool ran from her drooped open mouth, snot from her nose and her eyes were constantly rolled back into her head. Shortly thereafter she stopped breathing. We attempted to resuscitate her by the normal means, but nothing made a difference. The drug had overwhelmed her systems and George soon declared her dead.

George spoke, "Sorry Don, there is not much you can do when the brain shuts down like that. I would recommend we drop the dosage in half as between hours three and four she looked like she might just talk to us, that is, before she started babbling."

I paced the floor as the body of the Torrian was removed. "We only have one of these prisoners left. I don’t want to risk losing them. Since we are not under any immediate need for this information, I think you should dial that dosage back to one tenth the strength. See where it takes us. If it’s not enough we can always try again with a slightly higher dose, you know, just work our way up until it works."

George agreed and the second Torrian was brought in. Missa sat cuffed in the same chair where her cohort had just died. "I have some unfortunate news for you Missa. Bezith is dead. We attempted to give her a drug to loosen her up a bit and I’m afraid it turned out to be a bit too much. I’m telling you this to give you the opportunity to talk with me before we attempt to use the drug on you. No need to risk your life unnecessarily."

Missa then looked up at me and grinned. She spoke her first words since arriving on the Suppressor. "Obviously your pitiful attempt at drugging her failed. We do not have your disgustingly weak Human physiology. And I can only reason that you brought me in here because you were unsuccessful in gaining any information. You are wasting your time. I have nothing to tell and if I did I would take it to the grave with me before telling it to you."

Missa laughed a sinister and evil laugh until George brought out the needle. She then returned to her normal scowl and stared straight ahead. The diluted compound was injected and we again waited for it to take effect.

I paced back and forth, occasionally stopping to look out a window at the planet below. The normal barren rocky browns had turned to massive rain storms giving the atmosphere a gray billowy complexion. I was told the storms would begin to dissipate once we stopped the de-orbiting of space ice. According to Frig our attempt to terraform Jarhead was moving along on schedule.

An hour after the shot had been administered Missa was still awake and scowling. At two hours it was the same. By the six hour mark she was fast asleep. Several hours later the drug began to wear off and she came to. She was groggy, but she was in no mood to talk.

George had left the room to attend to other business. When he returned he offered his opinion. "Well, she survived. I think we better give at least 24 hours before attempting this with a higher dose. I can continue to do this in her cell each day until we reach the required amount. As you said, there is no big rush on this and she is our only contact. If at any point during the process she doesn’t look good I can extend the time between trials."

I again stood at my window, looking down at the gray, cloud covered planet below. "Take her away, but the instant you think she is ready to talk have someone come and get me. The anticipation is going to be driving me nuts. I’m already nuts enough as it is!"

George smiled. "You are a good nuts Don. Just look around. Completely sane men would never attempt to build something such as this!"

Missa was taken back to her holding cell and George left the room to attend to his other duties. It took five days to bring her to the dosage level that made her talk. When I got the word I rushed to the cell to listen to the Colonel's best interrogator do his work.

The interrogator spoke, "Your name is Missa, is that correct?"

Missa replied, "Yes."

The interrogator continued. "What can you tell us about your world, Torrus?"

Missa opened up and began to answer every question that was asked. Torrus was a world of deep green forests and clear blue waters with majestic white buildings that rose as spires up to the heavens. It was a world beyond wealth and power. Its empire was made up of over 200 worlds that all paid a heavy tax to the empire.

The Milgari were the military force for the Torrians. Their species had been enslaved in the early years of the empire by the use of a drug administered at birth. It gave them an undying loyalty to the Torrians and a rage, which was unstoppable, against all other races. Only a few hundred Torrians were ever off the home world of Torrus at any time, tasked with overseeing the delivery of taxes, advising the Milgari military or for diplomatic relations with other empires.

Of the off world Torrians there were only a few dozen that were military advisers to the Milgari campaigns. Humans had been a particular irritant as the Torrians desperately wanted the technology behind the gravity drive that allowed their repeated escape. With the gravity drive technology the Torrians would be able to accelerate their goal of controlling the entire galaxy.

The 200 or so populated planets that they controlled made up only a small part of the arm of the spiral galaxy that we inhabited. This particular galaxy had four such arms with many worlds to be controlled and conquered. By the Torrian scientific estimates, out of the billions of stars in the galaxy, there were more than 300,000 populated worlds that were just waiting to be dominated.

Aside from the Humans they chased, the Torrians had many enemies. Their current empire-wide truces with the Mu Darker Expansion and the Nillian Conglomerate were tenuous at best. Constant border clashes kept their diplomats busy settling "minor" disputes with payments of one sort or another.

Out of the more than two million Torrians it was rare that more than five hundred were ever off planet at any given time. The life of a typical Torrian was one of leisure and luxury. When the Teldaki had been conquered, many had been enslaved and worked as servants on the world of Torrus, their own world having been overrun with their cities pillaged and burned. Those not taken into slavery for mining or as servants to the Torrians had been exterminated.

The Milgari were an early rival. Torrian spies infiltrated their birthing centers and small doses of the drug administered over a fifty year period, gave the Torrians complete control of the Milgari population. The Milgari were a docile species, they had no interest in expansion beyond their star system. That changed with the introduction of the Torrian drug. Since taking control, the Torrians were all too happy to let the Milgari do the dirty work of empire building while they sat back and collected the spoils.

When Missa revealed the drug information I immediately turned to George. "What are the chances that the drug used on the Milgari can be pulled from a blood sample and an antidote of sorts created? Think about it, the entire military wing of the empire that has chased us for a thousand years, suddenly no longer wants to fight. This could bring an end to the war, possibly without firing a single shot!"

George rolled his lips as he thought and then spoke. "That is certainly something that can be looked into. We'll need several Milgari prisoners, but the Raiders should be able to provide that. This has been quite the eye opener as far as information goes. All this time it has been another species bent on Human destruction."

We continued the questioning of the Torrian. I was sure more revelations were to come. The Mu Darker Expansion controlled 246 star systems with 119 populated planets. While their citizens were under dictatorial rule from the Mu Darkers, they enjoyed lives that were much closer to normal, unlike the slaves of the Torrians and Milgari.

The Mu Darkers had a fleet of largely autonomous fighting ships. Wave after wave would attack, controlled by an unseen master ship that guided the course of the battle. They were powerful, but they were only an even match for the Milgari hordes.

The Nillians controlled the largest known empire in the galaxy arm. They were industrial capitalists and boasted a free conglomerate of 387 planets. Once a planet became a member of the conglomerate they received all the trade and defense benefits that its members enjoyed, but they could never leave; once a member, always a member.

The Torrians were a tall slender race with an alabaster skin and small beady eyes. Their long face and narrow, turned down mouth gave them the appearance of a snooty old woman. Missa, although previously silent, continued to spill her guts.

The Milgari were indeed organized as warlords over each sector that was taken under their control. A milder dose of the drug since birth had given them the wit and ability to make decisions on their own. Those decisions however, were always loyal to the Torrian cause.

I asked why the Torrian population was so small. Missa replied, "It has always been viewed as more for the rest of us. When the empire reached a hundred planets we were more than five billion strong, those in power did not see any reason to have that many bodies consuming the riches of the empire."