Copyright (92) All rights reserved. So there!
THE 4.5TH COLUMNISTS
by
Scott Kellogg
- XL -
Tuerz was out on point again, the group strung out along the
corridor to the robotics lab.
Suddenly, klaxun began to blare. "Battle stations! Battle
stations! All hands to battle stations! This is no drill!
Repeat, this is no drill! Unidentified vessels approaching.
"Gun crews man your stations. Crews man your fighters. Stand
by for possible firing orders."
Jietlshaiepr clenched her fist. "Miakr? You still linked in
the computer?"
Miakr checked the stolen hand computer. "Hold on... Looks
like six ships... two one thousand tonners... two eight hundred
tonners... they're running ID... Continent class carriers, two
Broadsword class cruisers... The other two look like scouts...
Yeah... No transponders running... Their heading right into the
particle accelerators... Who the Viep..."
Shtam frowned. "The Domain of Alentzar doesn't have
Continents or Broadswords. They're Imperial designs: tech
twelve."
"Then who..."
Jietlshaiepr drew a sharp breath, "League of Suns ships...
It's gotta be..."
Niedrsha and Jiet caught each other's eye. "Lieutenant Jones
and Ensign Smith."
Miakr shook his head. "Not for long. These guys will blow
them out of the sky."
"What?"
"These guys got some damn good sensors... I doubt tech twelve
stuff can get through their countermeasures. They're gonna get
wiped if they keep coming on the way they are..."
"Can you patch into commo?"
Miakr thought for a second. "No. The account I'm in has no
authorization for communications."
Kfoks pushed the computer down and growled. "With a Tilly, we
won't need authorization. Let's go."
- XLI -
A figure in combat armor with a gauss gun stood motionless
outside the lab. Tuerz and Kfoks listened carefully from around
the junction of a T in the corridor.
"Another robot?" asked Kfoks.
Tuerz didn't look back, "Probably."
"Remember, the brain is in the lower abdomen." Kfoks checked
the gauss rifle, lighting the laser designator.
Tuerz eyed the deadly noisemaker "What the Grrshak are you
going to do with that?"
"Cover you."
"Grah, well don't. You fire that thing and they'll all know
where we are."
Tuerz caressed his laser pistol and crouched down close to the
floor. Never fire from where they expect...
Like quicksilver, Tuerz flowed around the corner and squeezed
off three rapid shots. The acrid smell of vaporized metal filled
the corridor as metal plates from the armor fell with a clatter.
Tuerz finger tensed on the trigger as he assessed damage to
his target.
The armored figure brought its gauss rifle half way up before
the servos froze up. For a moment it swayed and then toppled,
crashing to the floor in a two hundred and fifty kilo crunch that
echoed down the corridor.
In a flash, Tuerz was down the hall. He flew to the side of
the door and waited as Kfoks ran to the other side.
Kfoks head swiveled. He grabbed the gauss rifle from the
corpse and threw it down the corridor to Kaezorr. She and Niedrsha
covered the rear.
Kfoks hand went to the door switch, "You hit high. I'll hit
low. GO!"
The door slid open and Kfoks dove through firing. Six figures
turned and two dove for cover. Combat environment suits came
forward. Kfoks gauss rifle volleyed and thundered.
Tuerz fired from around the door. His right hand shone X-rays
while his left hand jumped with the recoil of teflon coated
caseless.
The figures in armor were unarmed. One grabbed a crowbar and
came after Kfoks. A burst of gauss needles took the arm with the
crowbar off at the elbow. It kept coming.
Tuerz flicked his laser over the robots head. It burst into
flame as liquid hydrogen fuel spilled and then exploded.
The burning robot was smashed to the floor by the blast.
Flaming wreckage flew about the room narrowly missing Kfoks.
Blazing, boiling liquid hydrogen flowed across the floor. A fire
alarm sounded.
Suddenly, the door to the room began to close. Still firing,
Tuerz dove through. The robots continued forward.
Kfoks slammed a heavy burst into the lower chest of one of his
attackers. The needles narrowly missed the brain but disabled the
transmission. It fell, but still crawled toward him.
Smoke and fog began to fill the room as the fire control
system began spewing carbon dioxide.
Tuerz concentrated his firepower on his next target. The
laser swept across its face to blind it while he sought out it's
brain with armor piercing slugs. It fell with a crash.
Kfoks chewed a robots brain to bits as he stitched gauss
needles through it's kevlar cloth.
The fifth robot grabbed a crate to hurl it at Kfoks.
Tuerz shot its feet out from under it.
A bark from Kfoks rifle sent the last robots head off into a
corner leaking flame. It wandered around trying to find its
target.
The downed robot began the slow process of picking itself up
when Tuerz sent a single slug through its back. It froze. The
crawling robot was dispatched equally easily as the headless robot
careened around the room blind and deaf in the rising fog the
automatic fire extinguishers.
The flames of the hydrogen fuel flicked low as the oxygen in
the room was displaced.
Tuerz turned for the door and punched the door release. The
door didn't budge. "Door's locked!"
Kfoks felt his breath growing short. "Grab a tilly!"
The Tillys stood on a large grav pallet along with Vole and
the other robots.
Tuerz pounded on the door and howled.
Gasping for breath, Kfoks trotted across the room and slung
his rifle onto his Tilly's arm. With his head swimming he climbed
in and hit the hatch close. The plates of armor swung into
position and closed him in. A moment later, fresh air began
pumping in. The systems came slowly on line and he dropped off the
pallet and clumped over to the door.
Tuerz lay slumped on the floor choking and gasping for breath.
Quickly, Kfoks put the arm of the Tilly through the door and
proceeded to rip it from the wall. He gently picked up his
murderous friend from the floor and carried him into the corridor.
Free of the smoke and back in the air, Tuerz took gulping breaths
of the recycled air of Zylath.
Seeing Tuerz slowly recovering, Kfoks headed back into the
lab. Carefully, he activated the two remaining Tillys and slaved
their control to his own. Soon the three of them managed to carry
the nearly 400 kilos of deactivated Vole out into the air of the
corridor.
Kfoks checked over the weapons status of the battle suit.
Gauss rifle... RAM grenade launcher... fusion gun... Weapon
systems reported themselves in, all green. Kfoks tail waved in its
armored confinement. Now the odds were just a little more even...
He went back into the lab to retrieve the PPO2 warbots.
- XLII -
Aboard the Neuevo Australia, the sensor officer called out.
"Captain Stuart, we've got a message comin' in from the surface
fer the Lieutenant Jones... Oh wait... We're losing it... It's
gone. Captain, it was a warning.
"Call him to the bridge. And Ensign Smith as well." Stuart
rolled his eyes at the brilliance of Naval Intelligence with it's
operatives. This was Supposed to be a Covert mission!
A moment later, the two intelligence officers came onto the
bridge.
"Mr. Ramsey, replay that message you picked up."
"Aye, sir."
A screech of static played out and then "Attention
starships. This is Taek Kfoks. If you've got Lieutenant Jones
up there, we've found your target for you. You're headed into a
trap. Theirsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss..."
"Lost the signal at that point. Could be jamming. The
signal was awfully low."
"Friends of yours, Mr. Jones?" asked the Captain.
"Not really sir, but if it is 'o he sez, they're not
enemies."
"Recommendations?"
"Can you locate the source o' the jamming?"
"Ah think so, sir."
Smith and Jones exchanged glances, "Then hit it. We know
thure's a pirate base in this system, we just dun't know whare."
"Thot's an act of war!" objected Ramsey.
"We are *already* at war with these pirates." observed
Smith. And if there is a military installation down thare it's
in violation of treaty."
"Very well... Gunnery officer, prepare to fire. Flight
crews prepare for launch. Signal the New Zealand to prepare to
launch fighters. I want the marines on Battleaxe and Machete
ready to drop. Have the scouts Burke and the Shaw maintain high
guard position."
"Jones, you'd better be right."
- XLIII -
The Tilly lurched silently over the vacuum plain of Zylath.
The G-Carrier was closing in on it's position. The armored
figure dove behind a rock escarpment as the range narrowed. An
eerie red light suddenly lit the rock melting away sections of it
as the laser burned through.
The Tilly dodged around the other side of the rock and
sprayed fusing plasma into it's opponent. The plasma flared
silently lighting up the shadows of the grey dusty rocks. It
drilled a hole through the bottom of the G-Carrier and ripped a
section of the roof off from the inside.
Miraculously, it stayed aloft with its hull glowing red and
other spots dripping molten superdense. Slowly, it began to
climb and the laser turned to bear on the concealed figure. A
second bolt of plasma streaked out to lick the underside of the
startled G-Carrier. The plasma nosed through the hull in search
of something interesting. It spattered against the fusion plant
ripping open the containment vessel and loosing the plasma
within. Twenty six megawatts of hydrogen plasma streamed out
into the crew compartment of the G-Carrier.
The G-Carrier's ascent slowed as the power and direction
ceased their input to the grav modules. It flew in a classic
newtonian parabolic arc in the vacuum and low gravity of Zylath.
It rose slowly and gracefully as it silently tumbled over and
then began a slow drop to the surface.
It rotated slowly upside down as it reached lazily for the
ground. The remnants of the roof hit first and crumbled under
the weight of the hundred ton grav vehicle. It silently buried
itself in the soft gray dust.
- XLIV -
Five Swordfish and five Swordfish II's nosed away from the
Neuevo Australia and formed up with the two squadrons of the New
Zealand around the cutters from the Battleaxe and Machete. The
patrol cruiser scanned the surface for the source of the jamming.
It seemed to be coming from a large number of sources spread over
the surface of the planet frustrating attempts to just lock on
one source hostile electronic countermeasures.
Ramsey pointed to the captain's holotank, "Sir! Picking up
a large neutrino source deep below the planet's surface... Looks
like a big plant powering up."
Stewart frowned. "Helm, evasive maneuver sequence juliet.
Weapons officer, sand casters free. Attention all ships, begin
evasive maneuvers, defensive systems free. Redirect laser
systems power to engines."
Ramsey continued, "Could be something big... five hundred
megawatts and rising... One gigawatt and rising... Five
gigawatts and still rising...
Stewart growled. "Flight leaders, begin EMS-Jamming. Get
those marines down."
The EMS-Jammers of the fighters screamed up and down the
spectrum to fend off any active radar systems. But the passive
sensors of the pirates were not the least disturbed.
"Ten gigawatts and still rising... Fifteen gigawatts...
Holding steady at fifteen gigawatts."
A stream of neutral particles came screaming at the Neuevo
Australia. It licked away at her stern and etched away at the
engines. The radiation leaked through the hull and began
blasting away at her sand caster batteries.
"Damage report!" called Stewart, "Mr. Ramsey, did we get a
lock on that firing station?"
"Umm... No sir! The rad sensors got swamped: particle
accelerator. Scanning for it..."
"Damage to maneuver drive! Acceleration down to 3G's...
sand caster battery two is out of action!"
Stewart's jaw set in anger, "Damage control procedures.
Engineering get those drives back up."
"Sir! We're picking up some sort of a fire fight on the
surface. Lasers and a fusion gun." Ramsey flicked the sensor
display to a closeup of the surface of Zylath. Briefly he
replayed the little fireworks display between the Tilly and the
G-Carrier.
Stewart frowned "Well, someone is fighting down there... god
knows who's side they're on."
Lt. Jones frowned at the holodisplay. "Sir, I b'lieve that
th' armored figger down there's... *not* our enemy. It's 'im who
signaled us."
"Mister Jones, do you have any idea *who* the enemy is?"
"Sir," called Ramsey, "Picking up two small craft now. Ten
ton range... Look to be fighters. I make them out to be
Shtelfires. Closing in on the fire fight we picked up..."
- VL -
Kfoks lumbered back toward the dome. The G-Carrier was
finished, he didn't care to stick around to find out what would
follow it. Suddenly, the threat warning alarm went off in his
ears. Instantly, he dropped to the ground and scanned for the
danger.
Several kilometers away, heavy lasers were melting the
ground. The even at that distance, three gigawatts of visible
wavelength laser speckle is a bright and deadly eyesore. The
lasers slashed about as though seeking a target. They were
rapidly approaching his position.
A voice sounded in his helmet breaking through the jamming,
"Vampire! Vampire! Vampire!"
Suddenly, there was a series of tiny flashes up in the sky
as the lasers found a small flying target.
- IVL -
"Missiles intercepted, Sir." called Ramsey. "Kangaroo
squadron is closing on the Shtels."
Jones studied the Holodisplay. "Did ye get through to 'im
on the radio?"
"Don't know, Sir. His transmitter must not be as strong as
ours. He might be able to read us, but we'll never hear him over
the jamming."
"But we can still communicate..." Jones keyed the
transmitter. "Kfoks? This is Jones. If you can't signal us by
radio, les see a blast from that fusion gun of yers..."
Ramsey interrupted, "Sir! New Zealand reports a hit on
their maneuver drive!"
"Did they get a lock on the particle accelerator?"
"Negative, sir it's too well collimated."
"Anything on the densitometer?"
"Still chewing on it sir."
Stewart turned on Jones and Smith. "If your 'not enemy'
down there doesn't give us the intelligence we need we're going
to have to pull it out of here. Fast."
Kfoks didn't know Morse, but it took a few microseconds for
the Neuevo Australia's computer to find a translation program for
Gdekgveg as Kfoks hammered away with the Tilly's laser welder.
"Whare in hell is that gun?" demanded Jones.
-B-A-S-E-L-O-C-A-T-I-O-N-O-L-D-F-I-G-H-T-E-R-B-A-S-E-U-N-E-
R-G-R-O-U-N-D-S-T-O-P-P-A-R-T-I-C-L-E-A-C-C-E-L-E-R-A-T-O-R-S-T-
O-P-
Smith turned to Ramsey, "Concentrate sensor scans on the ol'
fighter base. Mayn't be as dead as reports say."
"Aye, Ma'am... Hold on just a sec... Getting something...
GOT IT! Target located, data passing on the bus to fire
control."
Captain Stewart grinned for the first time since they exited
jump. "Commence firing on that target. Pass data link to the
task force."
Three gigawatts of laser energy began licking away at the
shore batteries.
"Permission to load nuclear rounds sir?"
"Mr. Ramsey, how close is our forward observer?"
"Too close, Captain. He's less than a kilometer away."
"Belay nuclear rounds."
As the lasers picked away at the uncovered particle
accelerator, Shtelfires began swarming out like angry wasps from
a flaming nest. The Swordfish leapt to engage.
"Looks like twenty Shtels rising to engage our fighters."
"Then it's even odds. Maintain laser fire on the shore
batteries until you're certain they're out of action. Missile
batteries commence targeting enemy fighters."
- IIIL -
The two robots caught them off guard. With a staccato bark,
they opened up with ACR's as the Rackan rounded the corner in the
Tilly. Sabots pounded on the heavy armor of the Tilly ringing it
like a bell beaten by a burning spastic.
"AMBUSH!" shouted Niedrsha.
Rackan reacted instantly. A long burst of gauss needles
rang out adding to the din. The first robot shook wildly under
the impacts while the second turned to run. The first caught
three needles in its brain and froze like a statue before
toppling to the ground.
Tuerz took off after the fleeing robot. He turned the
corner and caught sight of it. With a quick shot he grazed its
fuel tank. Liquid hydrogen spewed from the tank sheathing the
robot in flame.
It continued running.
Tuerz sensitive ears picked up the sound of approaching
feet... Many approaching feet. He skidded to a stop and
backtracked to the group. Miakr was puzzling over the ACR when
he found them. "More coming."
Jietlshaiepr nodded, "Let's move people. Miakr, send the
PPO2's to fight rearguard. Tuerz, Vole on point. Kaezorr, Rackan
cover the rear. Move *Fast*!"
Tuerz ran by Miakr and flicked the safety on the ACR off.
He sneered at the longarm. "Clumsy weapon. No style. No grace.
Point it and shoot it."
- IIL -
The PPO2's closed in on the sound of approaching feet. The
robots took position at the intersection of two corridors and
waited for the approach. Silently, they hung suspended out of
sight as their targets entered the corridor shooting gallery.
On a quick burst radio signal, the fire team uncovered
itself to open fire. One warbot exposed itself fully while the
others remained under cover taking firing instructions from the
first.
Two of the targets were cut down by laser fire before they
could respond. Four millimeter sabots stitched tiny holes in the
light superdense armor of the exposed PPO2.
The PPO2's continued to methodically cut down their targets
managing to drop three more before the exposed PPO2 took a hit in
the brain that dropped it to the floor with a loud two hundred
eighty nine kilogram crash.
A second PPO2 rotated to expose itself to the withering fire
from the targets.
One of the targets was hit in the fuel tank. Liquid
hydrogen leaked for a millisecond before it touched on the molten
metal of the robot converting the fuel tank into a flame thrower.
The jet of the newly formed hydrogen torch cut into the robot's
fuel cell which instantly exploded.
Four of the PPO2's targets were flattened by the blast and
shrapnel took the arm off of the exposed warbot.
New orders came in on the PPO2's command circuit: "Withdraw
and lead the targets off."
The PPO2's moved down the side corridor continuing to draw
fire from their targets.