AMP Private War (8 page)

The Colonel yelled, "Listen up people! Close those external ports and flip on your rebreathers. We don't want any distractions while those tri-head Marines are still on the loose! Now, keep moving towards those stairs, let's get this deck secure!"

The remainder of Deck-2 was empty of Milgari. Becket was assigned to stairwell two as the rest of the team moved down to Deck-3.

On Deck-3 Billings rolled a bar down the hall past the first two doors. A video feed had been attached to each end and still snapshots of each room were returned. Frig quickly perused through them pulling out the ones with the highest amount of information. Two Milgari Marines waited around the corner of each door with sharp objects, ready to charge the first invader they encountered.

Billings stepped slowly forward. "Tuvor and I have this Colonel."

The two men stopped short of the doorways and fired repeated rounds through the walls. The interior walls on the frigate were thin steel panels filled with foam. It was standard construction on most ships.

Ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak!

Four Milgari fell to the floor, riddled with lead from the AK-47s. Rosen followed up with a shot to each dead Milgari's head as a safety precaution. As Billings moved up to pick up his video cylinder a sharp steel poll came ramming through a hallway panel, impaling him through the kidneys. Billings turned and emptied his clip through the wall beside the poll as he slumped to the floor.

Ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak!

He grunted and winced as he started to talk. "Sorry Colonel. Should have seen that coming."

Tuvor stepped up and emptied his clip into the wall on the opposite side. Another Milgari could be heard dropping to the floor. Rosen cleared both rooms with two more precautionary shots to the head. Billings head tilted backwards as he passed from this life into whatever was coming next.

The Colonel barked out another command. "Get him off that poll and put him back by the stairs. We'll collect him when we are done. Let's get your heads on straight people. Keep sharp. I said these things don't play fair. Billings just got the worst example of what to expect. Let's keep pressing forward!"

As two of the Marines moved Billings body back towards the stairwell the Colonel spit a wad of Omega root onto his pant leg. "God be with you kid." Several of the others followed suit as his body passed by.

Five more Milgari were cleared from Deck-3 before the team descended to Deck-4. Tuvor took point and eased his way down the staircase. Three Milgari were waiting in the hall with sharp metal polls that they used as spears. The first two spiked through the front of the staircase and the third entered Tuvor's left ankle, shattering the bones and staking him to the staircase.

"Arrrgh! Ghaw!"

Ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak!

Two of the Milgari fell silent after they turned to run. The third rounded the corner into a room on the left side of the hall. Malik and Jefferson hurried past Tuvor down into the hallway and took up firing positions while the others worked to free Tuvor.

Tuvor spoke, "Colonel. One of them got away. He went into the room on the left."

The Colonel grabbed Tuvor on the shoulder and then gave him a few pats. "You feel up to watching this stairwell son? We have a ways to go and I get the feeling we are going to need all our resources on this one. These tri-heads don't give up."

As one of the three trained medics finished bandaging the ankle and giving Tuvor a shot for pain, he nodded to the Colonel. "I got it Colonel. I can't move with this ankle so at least I can make myself useful."

The Colonel stood and then spit a wad of Omega root onto his pant leg. "We'll be back soon enough."

Tuvor nodded and smiled a pursed smile.

The Ghouls worked their way down the hallway on Deck-4. Another four Milgari had dates with hot lead before the teams came to the doorway onto the bridge. The Colonel spoke, "Listen up! These doors are hardened. But I happen to know where the weak points are. Place those plasma charges here, here, here, here, here and here. And place an extra on this lock mechanism. I've seen these doors blow back and get wedged."

The plasma charges were placed and the hallway emptied of Marines. Seven seconds later the charges went off and the doors blew open.

Bbbbooom!

As the first two Marines stepped back into the hallway they were met by a large group of Milgari Marines wielding knifes.

Ak-ak-ak-ak-ak!

"Colonel... arrgh."

Boom! Boom! Boom!

"Ghaw!"

Boom!

The melee turned into an all-out hand-to-hand brawl with the occasional .45 caliber shot mixed in. The Milgari were fierce fighters, but the Human Marines had strength on their side. The Colonel jammed his knife into the side of a Milgari skull as he barked out orders. "Watch those claws and teeth! And punch up under their arms to those scent glands. Gives off a nasty smell, but it will disorient them long enough for you to ram a blade in their skull!"

Ak-ak-ak-ak! Ak-ak!

Tuvor did his best to keep any Milgari from making it to his end of the hallway. By the time the fighting had ended, four of the 26 Milgari Marines who had stormed out of the Bridge lay dead at his feet. Rosen did the rounds with his shots to the heads of the fallen Milgari.

The Colonel spit a wad of Omega on the forehead of a dead Milgari. "What's our count?"

Harmon spoke up. "We lost King and Garner Sir. Martin and Houser are pretty chewed up. They will make it, but they won't be joining us for the rest of this fight Sir. Other than a few other gashes we are in good shape!"

The Colonel continued, "OK, boys! Let's take that Bridge! Groover and Sanchez you got point!"

Just as the team began to step though the doorway to the bridge the power began to come back on. With it came ion bolts from the Milgari rifles. Groover's chest exploded from a blaster shot before he could take cover.

"Swift! This is the Colonel, they have power! See if you can do something about that for us!" Bolt blasts started to come across the room in an almost continuous stream. Shrapnel blew off the walls as the energy from the bolts expanded into them. The Ghouls were quickly forced back into the hallway before a second ion bomb exploded just outside of the frigate’s hull. All power again went dormant as a momentary orange wave swept through the ship.

The Colonel yelled, "OK, let's hit that Bridge hard people! And remember, we want to fly this bucket out of here so keep your shots focused on those soft targets in there!"

The Ghouls once again stormed onto the Bridge. The Milgari they encountered were not the hard Marines they had been fighting, they were technicians, navigators and other general crew found on a ship. The Ghouls cut through them hard and the Bridge was overrun in under a minute.

The remaining two decks were cleared of stragglers. All Milgari on the frigate were dead except for a single pilot who had been shot, once in each leg. The Colonel stepped up to interrogate him. "I know that with that translation chip in your head that you can fully understand me. We have taken your ship and the only reason for you to live now is if we have a use for you. Give the codes to fly this thing or I'll splatter your brains all over this deck!"

The Milgari sat silent, snarling for several seconds before responding. "There is a..."

Boom!

A .45 caliber slug ripped through the Milgari's head, exiting the back of its skull with a sizable portion of its brains in tow. "Bah! Swift! This is Harper! Get your engineer over here to fly this bucket. We are going to want to get out of here ASAP as I'm sure these tri-heads in here blasted out a distress call with the few seconds of power they had. We need to get a move on!"

We made the transfer and just as Frig stepped onto the Bridge the power once again began to return. The injured Marines were stabilized as Frig worked to decode and override the Milgari flight console. Another 20 minutes passed before the captured Milgari frigate’s ion engines shuddered and began to push the ship along. We had our prize. We would now have to figure out a use for it.

Back on Bullwort the Gray Ghouls were in a celebratory mood. The liquor flowed as well as a small amount of blood from enthusiastic head butts gone awry. I asked the Colonel about those that had been lost. "Colonel Harper, is this customary after losing some of your comrades?"

The Colonel looked at me for several seconds. "Son, those boys died fighting for their people. Tuvor and a few others have permanent injuries and may not be able to return to fight. But they all freely accepted the risks involved and to a man they would do it all over again, including those that died."

"We don't mourn the loss every time a soldier goes down. We celebrate the victory, we celebrate their sacrifice and then we go out there and do it again. If you spend your life feeling sad and gloomy every time someone dies you are going to spend your whole life feeling sad and gloomy, everybody dies son, each and every one of us!"

"We choose to celebrate that they lived instead of mourning that they died. It's not a path that is for everyone. It is however, the path chosen when one becomes a Marine. So, come celebrate the lives of those men we lost out there. Their sacrifices are ones that will probably never be known, so, we honor them in celebration the best we can."

The Colonel threw his big arm around my shoulder. "Bartender! Set a couple up for me and my friend!"

The celebration lasted late into the night. The following morning Frig was knocking at my door. I slowly dragged myself out of bed and unlocked it. "Sir, I think I figured out the new Milgari shield. They have a large charge well up forward and a number of sensors spread across the external nose of the ship."

"The charge well is a negative pool Sir. When the sensors detect an incoming positive ion bolt the charge well is coupled to the forward hull, essentially canceling out the ion bolt before it has a chance to expand outward through the metal structure. If they are experimenting with negative ion wells, it may not be long before they translate that knowledge into building a negative ion cannon."

I was tired; I was hung over from the night before. "Tell someone who cares this morning. I appreciate your work but I'm not interested at this time. I need my rest Frig. Come back tomorrow." The door closed behind him and my blissful sleep continued.

That afternoon I was back in the hangar. The Colonel had his crew there, all seated in one corner. He walked over and addressed me. "Don, we were just discussing our options with Gy and Rita. Both are interested in taking a look at that frigate to see if we can make it into a fighting tool for our team. Frig stated that he knows how their new tech works so the ship itself should be available for our use."

"I was thinking we could add some storm ports on the side where we don't have to go extra vehicular to blow holes in a ship we are assaulting. If we can beef this frigate up enough we might be able to cruise right up to the next one and take her down before they know what hit 'em. Heck, we could charge all six decks at once!"

"These guys sitting over here, they are warriors. It's what they are trained for, it's what they thrive on, it's what they are happiest doing. That assault we just did, we took some hard hits, but not a one of those Ghouls over there would trade that half hour of fighting for any holiday they have ever had! Let us convert that frigate into an assault ship, that is, after we fumigate her. Hahahahaha!"

The frigate had been parked on a small uninhabited planet in a nearby system. It was a half days travel, but we did not want to bring any attention to our base at Bullwort. She was disguised by blowing dust up on her from the planet where she rested. All systems were powered down and ion sweeps were done to stop all battery powered devices that she carried. Frig rigged up several signal inhibitors to mask any errant signal that she may send out. She was left abandoned, quiet and waiting for our use.

I gave the Colonel the go-ahead to begin his work on the frigate. His people weren't designers or ion techs, but they knew how to follow orders. And the promise of an assault ship they could call their own... well, that was an extreme motivator all on its own.

Without the Prassi to take our extra Tantric ore it was piling up. Gy was given the go-ahead to use whatever he wanted to harden the captured frigate. Rita would update its engines and drives while George purchased new flight computers to run her systems. Even with the new purchases our bankroll continued to grow faster than our expenses. I set aside five million credits as a widows and orphans fund for the Gray Ghouls. It would give them one more sanity handle to hold onto during our fight with the Milgari.

After a month back at Bullwort we decided that we needed intel on the whereabouts of the Milgari. Were they now constructing ships for an attack on the Grid? Had they moved into the abandoned Prassi space? These were questions that we needed answers to. I was soon touching down on the Grid with George's newly beefed up flier.

"Proceed to Alpha bay C-12 and welcome back to the Grid Mr. Bumbalee." I acknowledged the controller and settled into C-12. As usual, Frig stayed with the flier as I went for a visit with Dearest Kreed. When I arrived and knocked on the door of her apartment there was no answer. When I turned around there were two men standing behind me.

"Can I help you fellas?"

One of the men held out a SCore badge. "You will need to come with us for a few minutes Mr... ?"

I replied, "The name is Bumbalee, Rex Bumablee. Can I inquire as to what this is about? Is Miss Kreed in some kind of trouble?"

One agent looked at the other and then back. "Just come with us please. We are going to need to ask you a few questions Mr. Bumbalee, nothing to be alarmed about, just routine stuff."

I turned to walk with the men in an attempt to not be suspicious. "Am I in some kind of trouble? SCore? Is that the name for the Grid police department?"

One of the men smiled and chuckled to the other. "You could say that Mr. Bumbalee. We are investigators who have been assigned the Kreed case. You have just entered that case by knocking on her door."

The men took me to an office just off the main Beta section hall and into a room. "We'll get right down to it Mr. Bumbalee. I'm sure your time is valuable as is ours. What business did you have with Miss Kreed?"

I fumbled in my pocket for a paper. "I have a correspondence from Miss Kreed about her being a reseller of some garments that my company makes. The Grid is a big market in a condensed space. If I can get a line moving here it should provide good margins. Miss Kreed was a buyer for the store she worked. Is there something about her that I should know?"

The agent replied, "We are just checking up on things Mr. Bumbalee. Since all Humans in this sector came from the Grid, you should be somewhere in our database. I had a moment of panic before I responded. "Well, it's not something that I'm proud of, but my parents were settlers out there."

"I didn't know my last name because they had changed theirs. I was abandoned just after we moved there. The colony died off and a Malcom woman sort of adopted and raised me."

The lies were coming out as fast as I could make them up. The two SCore agents sat back in their chairs, taking in the story as it came out of me.

"I have been to the Grid a couple times on business. I tell you, it is nice to be around others of your kind. But I don't have the means to move back here and establish myself, so I keep on trying to build the business so that it is one day a possibility."

One of the agents leaned in. "You know Rex. We have repatriation programs available for those who want to settle. We still have about 20% available for expansion before population curbs set in. I'm sure we could get the paperwork started if you are interested."

I looked down at the floor for several seconds before responding. "I looked over the paperwork on my last visit. When I move to the Grid I don't want to be hooked on some government handouts. I've managed to survive and largely take care of myself out there and I would want to do the same here. I'll be back, but it will be when I'm able to cover my expenses. From what I hear there is a large dependent population here now."

The other agent then leaned forward. "You are right about that. Dependency has done nothing but grow under this administration. Almost half of the people on the Grid don't even work now. Makes it tough for others to get ahead..."

The first agent put his hand on the other agents shoulder and pinched. "Now, I'm sure Mr. Bumbalee isn't interested in Grid politics. And from the information we have available to us it seems your story checks out... at the moment. We have your biometrics now Mr. Bumbalee. Just make sure you keep your nose clean in that business of yours and watch out who you associate with."

The agent gestured for me to stand. "Before I go Sir. Miss Kreed... was she in some kind of trouble? Was there an issue with the company she worked for? I guess what I'm asking is, do I need to start looking for a new business contact?"

The agent looked me in the eye as he stood. "I'm afraid Miss Kreed is no longer with us." I glanced at the other agent and he made a slicing gesture across his neck with his open hand. "She was murdered under unusual circumstances. We have the guy in custody for it. We are just trying to tie up some loose ends that's all. We thank you for your cooperation Mr. Bumbalee. You are free to go and remember... SCore is watching."

I left the agents office and made my way to the closest bar. I had a drink and some lunch before I headed out to the retail shops along the main hallway. I attempted to make buyer contacts in several of the larger stores, but those efforts were unsuccessful. I knew I was being tailed so I had to feign a look of disappointment with every turn-down.

By late afternoon I headed back to George's flier and left the Grid. My contact was gone, no doubt murdered by her handlers over their suspicions about her possibly being a double agent. Without that contact we had no way of knowing where to look for the Milgari.

Our arm of the galaxy was immense. We could spend years searching sectors without finding a clue. On the ride back to Bullwort I wondered if it was not time to finally confront Zimmerman about the Cortes rendezvous with the Milgari. I was sure he knew where the Milgari could be found as he knew of and had fought alongside the Prassi.

When we arrived at Bullwort I called everyone in to discuss it. "We have two options here. We can go out to the Felgar sector and see if we can pick up a tail, or the Prassi system for that matter, or we can attempt to make contact with Zimmerman and see what he can offer. You all know as much as I do so I'm looking for opinions one way or the other."

With the addition of the Gray Ghouls our ranks had swelled to almost 90 patriots. I looked around the room and wondered how long we could keep our little war a secret. George had heard mumblings from some of the residents of Bullwort about the amount of traffic we had moving in and out of the system. They worried about drawing attention to a place that had finally achieved peace and quiet after the extended war with the Gresshans. I could hardly blame them for their worry.

After a half hour of discussion the team came back with their decisions. The Gray Ghouls were happy without the inclusion of Zimmerman. They wanted the freedom to make their own decisions without being pushed in one direction or another by anyone associated with the Grid military. Zimmerman was a rogue, but they valued the freedom that came with acting alone.

The pilots, engineers and our facilities people all had the same recommendation. We had done well getting to where we were and they all liked not being associated with any government. I was proud of the team we had assembled. They were hard core patriots and dedicated to the cause. The decision was made to remain on our own. We would begin our scouting missions the following day.

The frigate, newly named the Slaughter, would not be ready for trials for several more weeks. Our latest technologies had been added to her, including 32 layers of Tantric laced with Aquamarine. As a frigate she would be able to take a hit better than any ship we had ever known.

Her twin ion cannons now packed a punch that was twice that of a Milgari battle cannon. With the addition of power that could be switched to negative ionics she would be formidable in any one-on-one fight. The ships armory was loaded with blasters and conventional weapons, a compliment of ion bombs were at her disposal.

Rita was hard at work attempting to convert our blasters to the same negative power, but the goal was elusive as the circuits and feeds needed for that function could not be made that small. I was also uncomfortable with the idea of a negative blaster falling into enemy hands during a raid. The self-destruction of a ship was an easier task than taking down a vessel that had not been rigged for such. I asked Rita to instead focus her efforts on making what we had better.

I called upon all eight Defenders to participate in our scouting. We would move from sector to sector in an attempt to pick up a tail on a Milgari vessel. From there we would follow it to its destination. During our scans of the sectors we would drop matrix probes that would record any ship movements in their area.

The probes would all record and then broadcast a single burst each day of what they had detected. The burst would be directional with all probes pointing to the same location. A single probe placed at that location would then send information to a small moon in our sector. From there the signal would be relayed to our hangar at Bullwort. We would take no chances with leaving a trail back to our location.

I sent the Fist to lay probes in areas that would tell us of an attack coming on the Grid. I held little hope of their effectiveness as whatever ships passed them by would arrive at the Grid before the signals reached Bullwort. It's only merit would be of a warning of a fleet that was massing for an attack. Frig programed the final probe to broadcast that information to the Grid if a massing was indeed taking place. We could only provide a week of warning at best, the Grid would have to make due.

After two months of scans we had our first hit on a Milgari ship. It was a cruiser and two frigates moving through the Wasky sector. The Frost had detected their signature and had broadcast a signal back towards our single probe with their location and trajectory. The frost had then gone on to tail the three ships.