The 4.5th Frontier War
Raid on Enoc (Part 4)
or
Is that a gauss rifle in your pocket,
or are you just glad to see me?
By Scott Kellogg
- XVII -
It was late morning when Dr. Malenkoviepr got back to the
ship. It had been a hard morning: first explaining to the
marine commander that no his ship was not going to blow up at
any moment, and no it was not a danger to his men, and second...
Well... perhaps he didn't like saying good bye to Dr. Lorain
Messandi.
"All right, everything is ready, all that remains is to get
the weapons into the dome." said Malenkoviepr tiredly, "Any ideas
on how to do that?"
"Security seems a little tight to try smuggling it in."
sighed Shtam. "I would rather just try to sneak into the dome."
"I never did like the idea of going there unarmed that way."
agreed Niedrsha.
"Yes," agreed Jietlshaiepr, "We would have to subdue at
least two marines in battle dress without alerting the rest of
them. That's a bit much to ask."
"Ok, we can sneak in and ambush the guards when the bombing
starts." interjected Miakr excitedly.
"All right, this is how we do it." began Malenkoviepr, "I'll
scan the place with life detection to see where the area is
clear. Then, Jietlshaiepr will teleport in with the PGMP to
supply covering fire while we get in, if we need it. If we open
up prematurely, we will have an entire platoon of marines
breathing down our necks. We fly in through the windows in
groups, and with luck, take them by surprise. We move out at
0640."
- XVIII -
Jietlshaiepr leaned over her patient, still nothing. Yet
the instruments read perfect perfect health. Still, no
measurable brain activity. "Dr. Malenkoviepr?"
"Yes?"
"Can you read anything in Drert's mind?"
Darkness... Dark... Darker... Darkest... Silence...
Down, down, down... The fist, still closed... Massive... The
fist: larger than it was... Clenched tight... But... It is
opening... slowly...
- XIX -
"All right, we are a hundred meters from the dome. Shtam,
you and Niedrsha stay together, Once Jietlshaiepr teleports
inside you two will be the first to follow. I go next. Miakr,
you and Vole will follow once we are inside. If any one of us is
spotted we will all go for the dome. We will have to hold it
till Oddball gets here with his cavalry. 0640. Let's get
moving. Make sure you stay under cover."
They moved out to the sand mounds surrounding the dome for
cover. The early morning was quiet, the little wild life of the
desert having already settled back into their holes.
A few marines were scattered around their camp in the full
spectrum of alertness. Some sunning themselves, some in full
battle dress.
Malenkoviepr closed his eyes, "Two marines, five meters from
the entrance. About ten to twelve out in the surrounding area.
They seem to be on patrol. Jietlshaiepr, you ready?"
"All set."
"Niedrsha? Shtam?" queried the doctor.
"Right."
"Check."
"Miakr? Vole?"
"We're set."
"Ok, Jietlshaiepr, 0653. Go!"
Jietlshaiepr vanished.
A moment later her scrambled radio sounded. "All clear."
Shtam and Niedrsha flitted out. They skimmed over the
surface as low as they could from sand mound to sand mound.
Finally the two reached the base of the dome and swooped up and
into the window.
"We're inside."
Dr. Malenkoviepr flew flat out over the broken terrain.
Three mounds of sand provided cover. Stay low.
Suddenly he caught sight of figure out in the dunes and
dropped to the ground. Did he see me? Blast.
Slowly Malenkoviepr rose looking for the man he'd seen.
Just peek over the top of this mound. A marine, looking the
other way. Good. Stay that way.
He dropped lower and was off again. He came to the base of
the dome and rose slowly again looking for the marine. Can't see
him anywhere. He flew into the dome.
"All right Miakr, come on, and watch out there was a marine
out in the dunes ninety meters to the right. It is 0655."
They went up first scanning with all the sensors they had.
The marine was gone. They flew over hard and fast and reached
the base of the dome. Again they rose, scanning the landscape.
Gauss needles glanced off Vole's armor and slammed into the
side of the dome.
Vole and Miakr turned instantly on the firing marine and
opened up simultaneously. Gauss needles tore through metal
knocking the figure over in a tumbling heap that rolled down the
side of the dune.
They turned and swooped through the window.
- XX -
The giant fist opened like a flower.
- XXI -
"You idiot!" Jietlshaiepr leveled her plasma gun at the
door. Footsteps were coming fast: metal footsteps. The
sentries peered in through the door into the blackness adjusting
their IR gear.
Suddenly one was blinded while the other ceased to exist. A
plasma bolt ripped through his chest section ripping him in half.
The other marine jerked and tripped as Niedrsha introduced him to
a gauss needle. His dying act was to grab his shredded crotch.
"Miakr, take Vole and cover those windows!" shouted Shtam.
Malenkoviepr already had that idea and was set up watching
the marine camp. Five marines coming this way. "Five more
headed for the door. Twenty seconds to go." "Viepchakl!" he
thought, "Two of the marines have fusion guns!"
Malenkoviepr opened up with the rifle set on full automatic
spraying the group. One fusion gunner caught it on the shoulder
he spun around and fell unmoving. The other's leg was hit and he
fell to his knees. The weapon went off in his hands and hit the
ground ahead of him. The ground exploded and leapt skyward in a
great cloud.
The smoke cleared and four marines were on the ground. The
fifth was still running, and the platoon was beginning to swarm
out of the barracks.
"Take cover!" shouted Shtam.
Then the world exploded.
The barracks, the head quarters, and the motor pool with the
parked grav tanks all erupted in sizzling flame as four batteries
of seven hundred and fifty megawatts worth of lasers sliced
through them.
The shock knocked Malenkoviepr from his perch and he
struggled to regain control with his grav belt. He came within
centimeters of smashing into the ceiling but swung away in time.
Vole and Miakr were similarly occupied as the dome shook under
the barrage of laser and missile fire.
Two marines burst through the entrance. One carried a gauss
pistol, the other carried a plasma gun in her arms. They were
disoriented from the sound of the barrage that shook the very
foundations of their eardrums. Both almost completely naked.
The plasma gunner was hit twice as she squeezed off a shot.
She spun around off balance and crumpled.
The plasma bolt hit the ground a meter from Shtam. He was
thrown several meters and landed in a heap.
The second marine stumbled, fired blind and wild. Niedrsha
twisted and fired as the shot grazed his shoulder.
- XXII -
The giant hand reached out.
- XXIII -
A needle went through the marine's arm just before a plasma
bolt hit him square in the back. The body exploded.
Suddenly, Drert's battle dress appeared in the dome. He
strode up behind Niedrsha and clamped his hands around his
wounded shoulder.
Niedrsha suddenly felt a tickling sensation in his shoulder
of hilarious proportions. He jerked and spluttered with mirth.
He started to collapse gasping for breath as Drert's touch
tickled him to helplessness.
Jietlshaiepr looked on unbelievingly at the incongruously
bizarre scene. But only for a moment when she realized Shtam
wasn't moving. Shtam's leg looked bad. The blast had cracked
the seals of his right leg piece. The exposed flesh had third
degree burns, and large sections of the calf muscles had been
inexpertly and roughly removed exposing the tibia and shattering
the fibula. She was in for a tough job later, but even
amputations could be regenerated. She quickly injected a mixture
of fast drug and no-shock sending Shtam on a long ride up a
purple river under an orange sky.
When she looked up, Drert was bending down holding out a
glowing blue crystal. He picked up Shtam in one hand and
vanished.
Malenkoviepr stood covering the entrance scanning. Six life
forms coming... Deafness... Disorientation... Panic... A
psionic scream... blackness as it became five forms coming.
He waved over his remaining crew. Niedrsha walked over
dazedly and knelt with his gauss rifle at the ready.
Three forms in battle dress burst through the smoke and dust
thinking they had reached cover. They dived for the floor in the
spider's parlor.
Vole's bite is far worse than his bark. His laser welder
focused on the neck piece of one marine, burning leaving a
smoking hole, while his gauss rifle widened the gap sending the
helmet and it's occupant spinning across the floor.
Malenkoviepr fired into one of the cowering forms. It
jumped and was still.
Niedrsha took the third which had fallen at his knees. The
shot was never felt: a brain has to be there to receive a
message.
The remaining two: a fusion gunner and a rifleman, jumped
in witnessing the carnage of their fellows. They grabbed for
their weapons.
A plasma bolt from Jietlshaiepr blew the legs out from under
the fusion gunner and out the door. Miakr's gauss needles
smashed his helmet in as he fell where his feet had been.
Malenkoviepr took the rifleman out with a well aimed blast,
but not before he had fired wildly.
A stray needle caught Miakr in the abdomen, and he crumpled.
Jietlshaiepr was on him in a flash. Clean puncture wound
possible damage to the kidneys but far enough from the spinal
column.
Miakr began a long, slow trip through a hot pink asteroid
belt.
Suddenly, the thunder outside stopped.
Silence... Ears ringing... It's over?
Radio crackle: "Hey, any youse guys order a pizza?
Oddball's delivers!"
"Sausage and onions for me, Oddball." quipped Malenkoviepr.
"Hey, hey, hey! What's up Doc?"
Malenkoviepr scanned for life. "Looks like there are about
three of them: Ninety meters north by northeast of the dome."
"Gotcha!"
An plasma bolt, explosion... another...
"I tink dat wraps it up. Yo Broadsword! Adder! All clear!
send down da cutters."
"What ship is the Adder?"
"Dat's dere's: da battle cruiser."
The grav tank came to rest outside the dome. "Hey, ya all
right in dere?" Oddball bounced over to the entrance and glanced
in at the carnage, "Hey, youse guys don't mess around. Good
work. Maybe dat shows ya something 'bout yer teacher."
"Miakr!" Gresha yelped as she recognized the recumbent form
of the Kliemoshie's steward. She rushed forward.
"My, my, Gresha, what big teeth you got..." mumbled Miakr
incoherantly.
"All the better to... Oh, forget it. He seems to be
allright." managed Gresha haughtily.
Jietlshaiepr activated a lock on Miakr's battle dress
locking all the joints so he could be transported easily. "Vole,
take Miakr back to the ship. Strip him and prepare the place for
surgery. Gresha, go with them. I'll follow in a moment."
Vole and Gresha activated Miakr's grav belt and flew him
out.
"All right, Niedrsha let me see that shoulder."
Oddball turned to Malenkoviepr and guestured to the weapons
dropped by the marines. "Nice work Doc, but I'll warn ya now, if
ya want any of these swell toys, you better hide 'em. I got
orders to hand over any I find to the Ine Givar. We got sixteen
minutes."
"We may need replacement parts for the battle dress."
suggested Niedrsha looking at the hole in his own armor.
"Viepchakl! Stop moving, I'm examining you." growled
Jietlshaiepr.
"How is he?" wondered Malenkoviepr remembering suddenly.
"Disgustingly healthy. Not even a blasted scar to teach the
bastard. What did I tell you about getting in the way of a
bullet? You're going to pay for this mister!" spat Jietlshaiepr.
"I'm off. Grab me a fusion gun if you think of me." She kissed
Niedrsha and flew off.
"So, anything interesting around this dump Doc?" asked
Oddball.
"Not much, but this should be interesting to examine."
Malenkoviepr shot off a piece of the Diamond glass. "I want a
sample of this stuff though. It is harder than diamonds but is
workable at high temperatures. The rest appears to be just
junk."
"Cool! cool!"
Niedrsha grabbed one of the suited marines that wasn't to
damaged, strapped a fusion gun onto it and flew off with it.
"Da Ine Givar are gonna fire a nuke: Scorched ground
policy."
"Viepchakl." "This idiocy is worthy of SORAG." he thought.
"Hey, some of these marines are naked!"
"Happened during the bombardment. Explosion must have blown
their clothes off."
- XXIV -
They managed to grab enough equipment from the wreckage to
complete two suits of battle dress and repair their own suits.
Weapons total: one fusion gun, two tech fourteen plasma guns,
four gauss pistols, ammunition for their rifles including several
RAM grenades.
- XXV -
"Quite a little haul." commented Oddball appreciatively.
"Too bad about Gresha. I hate filling out casualty reports. I'm
gonna miss her." He handed Gresha her pack. "Here's your stuff
girlie, keep in touch. I won't be workin' for those twits
forever. Take good care of her Doc."
"Why will you fill out a casualty report?" wondered
Malenkoviepr.
"How else am I gonna explain how her armor, rifle and fusion
gun disappeared?"
- XXVI -
The Adder's pinnace landed next to the dome and it's crew
swarmed out. The terrorists were a motley assortment of humans
armed with every thing from sub-machine guns to FGMP-15's.
Roland T. Gunner and his psi-shield stepped out and surveyed the
situation. "Ok, Doctor, what have you got for us?" he asked in
his threatening monotone.
"One hitherto unknown crystalline compound harder than
diamonds."
"Interesting. Any weapons?"
"None."
"Well, we'll take what we can get. Men, start stripping the
corpses. What sort of artifacts?"
"Nothing, it is a pretty bare site for that sort of thing.
It would appear that the entire base was subjected to an enormous
amount of heat some time after the base was abandoned. It melted
what was here."
"Shit! This operation cost us."
"Yes, I'm disappointed to. But there is nothing here of
value except the structure itself. Just a bunch of fused and
slagged puddles of metals."
"What kind of metals?"
"Aluminum, copper, gold..."
"Nothing of value?"
"No, I am afraid we will learn little, but..."
"Leave that for our science operatives. I'm not interested
in what we learn. How much gold?"
"What do you mean, you're no... Oh, twenty or thirty
kilograms total, it is mixed in with other metals in puddles
inside the dome. It is probably the remains of computers."
"Good."
"What do you mean you are not interested in what we learn?"
"We're fighting a revolution. Knowledge isn't my first
priority, weapons are. This crystal, can you make armor out of
it?"
"I doubt it, you would have to synthicize it first, then
there is the problem of the fact that it has a relatively low
melting point. As protection, you could do better with stuff
more available. But for special applications it might be
extremely useful, saws, cutting tools, or in this case, windows.
Right now we don't know enough about it to start thinking about
applications."
"Bullet proof windows... I'll leave that for the science
operatives. Where's the gold?"
- XXVII -
"How's the crew Jietlshaiepr?"
"Well," she began, "Niedrsha is completely healed. Miakr is
too, but he's not quite out of the drugs yet. Shtam's leg had to
come off. Regeneration should be no problem. Actually, unless
I'm mistaken it has already started. I know he is shielded, and
may know awareness, I never asked. But, considering the shape he
is in, I would say he is not doing it himself. I've got him
sedated. Viepchakl! If this continues, Drert is going to put me
out of a job. Inducing regeneration is no mean trick."
"Agreed." commented Malenkoviepr, "It requires advanced
knowledge of both awareness and telepathy. And we all saw him
teleport. What else can he do."
"Well, when I came in, he was reading."
"So?"
"He had the ship's library tape running at fast forward. He
sat there with a completely blank face holding that crystal. Now
how did he get it."
"He teleports..."
- XXVIII -
Malenkoviepr opened the safe in his stateroom. Roland had
agreed to one hundred thousand compensation for Shtam's and
Miakr's wounds. Two hundred and fifty thousand to be returned.
That stupid guerrilla, he didn't even want to learn anything...
Weapons!... Ha!... What does he know about science?... No, if
you can't understand it, blow it up!... What's... that...
smell?... Tranq!
In one move he threw the money into the safe and whirled
around. He stopped but the room continued to spin.
A man in a filter... Move it!...
Malenkoviepr jumped for the door but his feet wouldn't
cooperate. He slipped and crashed to the floor. He struggled to
get up but his arms wouldn't hold him. The last thing he
remembered someone was taking off his battle dress.
- XXIX -
The Adder's pinnace lifted off.
Niedrsha hesitated. Hold on, the doc was going to give them
some credits back... Something's up.
He punched the radio circuit in his battle dress, "Dr.
Malenkoviepr, come in... Doc? Jiet, come in, the doc doesn't
answer, something is up."
"He's in his stateroom."
"Well, check on him will you?" He waited anxiously. "Vole,
can you run up the engines I think were going to have to move,
and fast. They talked about nuking the place."
"I'm on it." answered the robot.
"Niedrsha!" shouted Jietlshaiepr, "The doc's been taken.
His room is full of tranq gas and his armor is on the floor."
"Right. Jiet, we need Miakr and fast. Is he coherent?"
"This is Miakr, I'm feeling closer to reality, I can see it
from here."
"Get to the engine room and crank those engines. We have to
leave five minutes ago."
"Take off power will be up in four minutes ten seconds."
reported Vole. "Full power about five minutes after that."
Niedrsha turned to the ship's radio. "Enoc Spaceport, this
is Kliemoshie, over... We are under attack... come in..."
"This is Enoc Spaceport," drawled a voice slowly, "Come in,
repeat, come in..."
"This is Kliemoshie, we are under attack, repeat we are
under attack... the ancient archeological site is being over run.
we will be lifting off as soon as we have power... in five
minutes thirty seconds... Please give us clearance immediately."
"Kliemoshie, this is spaceport control, repeat message..."
"Well," thought Niedrsha, "at least they won't blame this
raid on us now."
- XXX -
"Ok, everybody hang on." Niedrsha pushed the throttle up.
The Kliemoshie shook and lifted slowly. Low power makes for long
lift offs. Rock crags came up reaching for the fleeing courier.
She swung around them drunkenly.
"Engine room, keep that power coming."
"Point nine G's and climbing..."
"We'll need more than that."
It's coming... one G and climbing."
The Kliemoshie limped clear of the surface and into the sky.
Now all we need is altitude and distance.
Gresha looked up from the scanners. "That pinnace has twice
our top speed. and a damn good head start: range two thousand
kilometers."
"Drert, get in the turret."
"They've got missiles, and a battle cruiser with nuclear
missiles beyond that."
"They also have Dr. Malenkoviepr. Drert, commence fireing."
The lasers fired.
The pinnace flew on unhindered or hit.
"They've fired their missiles."
Miakr broke in on the intercom, "We have full power."
"Good boy, Miakr!"
"Missiles closing... ten seconds to intercept."
"Hold on to your shorts, folks, here we go!" called
Niedrsha. The Kliemoshie swung around in a waltzing corkscrew.
She responded slowly. Creaks and groans ran through her frame as
she scrambled for her life.
"Three... two... one... zero..."
Three missiles streaked by and headed toward the surface of
Enoc.
"Good work Niedrsha." Gresha sighed. "The Adder is closing
in for rendezvous with the pinnace. We'll be in range of their
guns in five minutes. Range to pinnace now two thousand five
hundred kilometers. Range to cruiser fifty five thousand
kilometers. Rendezvous of pinnace and cruiser eighteen minutes."
The lasers fired. The pinnace continued to fly unhurt.
"They've fired again. Assuming we disabled her engines now
we couldn't intercept it for another nine minutes."
"Drert, cease fire." ordered Niedrsha, "We can't intercept
now without taking on that fucking battle cruiser. Sorry Doc,
but the battle's lost already. We'll getcha back somehow."
The Kliemoshie turned and ran at full acceleration.
- -----
We now return control of your TML to you, until next time when the control
cursor will take you to: The 4.5th Frontier War.
The crew of the Kliemoshe will return in:
The Search: or Is there a Doctor in the Sector?