Omega Force 7: Redemption (16 page)

"I think you're being wildly optimistic," Crusher shrugged. "Air support?"

"The
Phoenix
will be on hot standby near the city, but not in flight directly over it," Jason said, holding his hand up to ward off the argument he could already see brewing. "Think about it, Crusher ... this ship is loud and unique on a planet like this. By the third lap whoever is holding the netjere will be well aware that an attack is coming."

"Sounds like a blast," Crusher said, forcing a smile. "I'll meet you in the armory."

"What was that all about?" Twingo asked when Crusher and Lucky had left. Jason almost blurted out that he thought Crusher was nervous since it was his first mission since the De'Moltia debacle, but he stopped himself just as he opened his mouth.

"I'm sure he's just excited to get going," he said instead. "It's been awhile since he's had any action and the last ass he kicked belonged to me."

****

Jason watched as the
Phoenix
lifted off, raising the ramp and extinguishing her running lights as she climbed away into the night. Doc had dropped them off near the outskirts of the city, whose original name was long forgotten, and would be repositioning the ship in a lightly forested area fifteen kilometers away where he would leave the engines running and the weapons charged, waiting for word from the three-man strike team.

"Just like old times," Crusher said as the sound of the gunship receded into the distance.

"Let's hope we do a little better this time," Jason said as he checked the charge on his plasma rifle. In addition to the standard infantry weapon he had two sidearms, a large molecular-edge knife, and his trusty railgun secured to his armor's back. He also carried a light pack with medical supplies, water, and two days’ rations attached to anchor points on the armor. Crusher carried a similar, loadout while Lucky carried a pack of his own with more extensive medical equipment and some other specialized tech that would be of use if they actually found the Avarian princess and she was injured or otherwise unable to move. "Lucky, you have the best sense of direction and sensors so you take point. I'll bring up the rear. No unnecessary risks or contact with the locals. We'll move with the intention of bedding down before morning and resuming the next night. We'll reevaluate if we're making good time."

"This way," Lucky said and walked off towards the dim orange glow of the fires reflecting off the rotting skeletons of the city's buildings.

The trio made quick progress by skirting up a few back alleys and avoiding the clusters of boisterous toughs that were hanging out in front of the main entrances to what were once beautiful buildings that reached the sky. There was also a lot more debris along their path than Jason would have thought. Much of their time was climbing over substantial chunks of building that had fallen down or had been blown off during one of the wars for control of the planet.

They ran into a few independent contractors in the early part of their mission, single operators who weren't affiliated with any particular gang, feeling they were better off trying to steal from the few stragglers they would catch out at night. One look at a battlesynth, Galvetic warrior, and one other heavily armored biped, however, was all it took to convince them to wait for the next potential victim. While the interactions were almost humorous, Jason was concerned about the attention they were attracting. He knew they must stick out as not at all belonging to a local crew, and so must the group holding onto the netjere. It wouldn't take an especially intelligent being to figure out that the two groups were related somehow and try to sell information about one to the other.

The first major obstacle came up only two kilometers into the city. They had heard the sounds of heavy, sustained fighting when ducking down a side street that paralleled a main road, but they were all surprised at the extent of the firefight. There were at least two hundred combatants dug in behind crude fortifications for at least the next four city blocks.

"Son of a bitch," Jason swore as he crept up behind Lucky, who was peering around the edge of a collapsed entryway to the building next to them. "We'll have to backtrack all the way down to that first cross street and try to come up behind all these morons."

"This is a full-fledged battle," Crusher said quietly as they watched energy weapon fire blaze back and forth. "They can't go on too much longer like this."

"But how long are we willing to wait?" Jason asked, popping up his facemask. "Damn, this thing is a piece of shit compared to the last one I had."

"I do not see any way to wait for this to clear and still maintain our schedule," Lucky said. "We will have to find another way."

Jason slammed the facemask back down in disgust. "Let's go ... no point in wasting time watching the yokels," he said, reversing their column order and taking point. He led them back down the way they'd come and was consulting the map he had projected on his facemask when the proximity alarm on his armor sounded. Up ahead to the right was just a sliver of something much hotter than the surrounding buildings peeking around a corner and showing up on the thermals like a bright flare. He keyed the team channel and made sure the others spotted what looked like someone lying in wait. "You guys see that up ahead, right?"

"
Yes
."

"
Affirmative
."

"Let's close up ranks. I want you both close enough to grab or blast them if they try anything when I walk by," Jason said and slowed down so the other two could crowd up behind him. It wasn't a smart tactic, as a single explosive round or trap could take out the whole team, but Jason thought it was a minimal risk for the thirty seconds it would take to see what was hiding up ahead.

As soon as he walked by he could see a shadow try to press itself even further into the corner before Crusher, apparently having formulated a plan of his own and neglecting to tell the others, shot his arm into the corner and pulled out a squealing, struggling little Veran.

"You'll want to be quiet unless you want us to toss you into that melee behind us," Crusher said. The Veran stopped struggling immediately, but Jason could see the two smaller arms moving up as he thought Crusher was too distracted to notice. He walked over and pushed the plasma rifle against the alien’s midsection.

"We know all about your smaller arms there, friend, and how sneaky you can be with them," Jason said. "Put them down or we'll kill you here and move on."

"I wasn't doing anything," the Veran protested. "I had an itch."

"Looks like all Verans are sneaky, underhanded little thieves," Crusher said, pulling his captive in close and baring his teeth.

"No need for that sort of prejudice or threats of violence," the Veran protested, still struggling a bit. "You grabbed me, remember? I was just trying to get back home without getting caught up in the fighting."

"Is there somewhere we can talk that isn't out in the open?" Jason asked.

"Yes! Good idea to get off the streets right now," the Veran said enthusiastically. "Just through that sub-basement entrance. It's where I was actually heading when you interrupted me."

"Lucky, you first," Jason said. "Crusher, keep a tight grip on our new friend."

They carefully moved back across the street to the short, narrow flight of stairs that led down to the dark maw of the basement entrance. Lucky moved confidently down the steps, stopping at the door and reaching around to grab something before they heard a sharp
snap
.

"I have disabled the antipersonnel trap that was set up in the doorway," Lucky reported. The Veran began to wheeze as Crusher squeezed his throat at the news. "I will clear the rest of the room. Standby."

It was another forty-five seconds before Lucky called the all clear and they moved the rest of the way into the basement. Jason could tell right away that this wasn't where the Veran was calling home, but it also looked like it didn't see much activity from anyone else.

"So where is your home?" Jason asked. "Nobody has been staying here for quite some time." All he heard in response were some wet gurgles. "Go ahead and give him enough slack to breath, Crusher. Actually, just drop him ... if he runs go ahead and shoot him." A moment later there was a light thud and some fevered gasping.

"You have a strange way of saying 'hey, thanks for the help,'" the Veran complained.

"Oh, was that doorway mine you led us into supposed to be helpful?" Jason asked.

"Helpful to me," the Veran muttered before getting kicked by Crusher. It wasn't a hard kick, but for the diminutive alien it still elicited a sharp grunt.

"What's your name?" Jason asked, waving Crusher back a few steps and offering the alien one of his water bottles.

"Why?" the Veran asked while suspiciously sniffing the water before taking a drink.

"I'm going to be honest; we could use a local guide right now," Jason said, deciding to go for broke. "You seem to have been able to thrive down here by yourself so I'm sure you know every corner and crack in this city."

"Why should I trust you?"

"We have a Veran on our crew," Crusher said. "He could vouch for us if you'd like."

The Veran stared up at Crusher as if he were completely dense. "What the ... so you assume that I'll just take the word of some random Veran you happen to have with you? That's more than a little offensive ... your Veran could be a complete lying ass head for all I know."

Jason choked off a laugh at how his implant had decided to translate that for him while the others simply nodded in agreement.

"He does have a point, Captain," Lucky said.

"Forget about who else is on our crew," Jason said. "What do you want that you think we'd have for trade?"

"When you say 'crew' I'm assuming that you have a ship nearby."

"Possibly," Jason said evasively.

"I want passage off this planet," the Veran said, folding both sets of his arms across his torso.

"That's not practical right now for a few reasons," Jason said. "Could we work out a trade for the promise of future payment?"

"We might be able to work something out. If you leave supplies and a transponder I can use to contact you with the promise that you'll find a way to get me off Vyrt, I'll be willing to provide some limited tour guide services, but the quality of service will be proportional to what you're willing to give. My name is Jer-An, by the way." He pronounced it more like 'Jur-Ann' but Crusher couldn't help making the obvious comparison.

"Jerran the Veran," he said, laughing as he deliberately mispronounced the name. Jason even had a small chuckle himself before he looked and saw the livid expression on Jer-An's face.

"NOBODY CALLS ME THAT!!" he screeched before running up Jason's back, climbing with all six limbs, and launching himself through the air and landing with his legs on Crusher's shoulders, straddling his face. He was holding on with his two smaller arms and raining blows down on Crusher's head with the other two.

Crusher, his voice muffled by the small Veran body covering his face, was flailing about the room trying to dislodge Jer-An while the smaller alien was still wildly punching and screaming unintelligibly. Jason just stood there, dumbstruck, as a scenario he couldn't have possibly predicted was playing out in front of him. Lucky, logical as always, walked over and pulled one of Jason's sidearms off his belt, making sure it was a stunner and not a plasma pistol, and shot the still-berserk Veran in the back. The caterwauling stopped immediately and Jer-An fell off of Crusher's shoulders to land in a heap on the floor.

"Nice catch, champ," Jason said with disgust. "We still need him."

Crusher looked over with a wild look in his eyes and rushed at him. Jason braced, ready for another fight, when Crusher pulled up short and snatched the water bottle from his hand. He was spitting and making gagging noises while using the entire bottle to flush out his mouth and nose. Still retching, he handed Jason the bottle back.

"What the hell? You used one-third of my water to wash your mouth out?" Jason asked.

"You stick your face down there," Crusher snarled, pointing at Jer-An. "I don't think he's bathed in years and I don't even want to think about what horrors those pants have seen."

"You should not have opened your mouth to scream," Lucky pointed out.

"Let's just drop it," Crusher said with one more gagging sound and a shudder. Lucky handed Jason his stunner back as Crusher continued to stomp around and mutter curses.

"Why didn't you just use your own weapons?" Jason asked.

"Why should I use my own energy when you're carrying a perfectly workable weapon on your belt?" Lucky asked. Jason just rolled his eyes and reattached the weapon with a metallic
click.

"What happened?" Jer-An asked, slurring his words as he sat up and rubbed the shoulder where he’d landed.

"We had to stun you," Jason said. "I apologize for that, but you attacked my friend over there and didn't seem to be calming down anytime soon."

"I attacked him?" Jer-An asked, completely confused. "That doesn't seem very smart."

"What's the last thing you remember?" Jason asked. With any luck, the side-effects of the stunner would have smoothed over the entire incident.