Reton Read online

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  COPYRIGHT

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Reton

  Stryker Team Book 7

  By Frank Carey

  COPYRIGHT

  Copyright © 2017 by Frank Carey

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  League Tale #48

  CHAPTER ONE

  It was a typical day in the Talot Asteroid Belt. The Ventosian Cruiser Mekla watched over her brood of research ships as their science teams measured the space around them. The Talot star system was directly in the path of League expansion, so a survey was in order so see what the first wave of colony ships would find on the way to their new homes.

  Normally, a research flotilla would not be accompanied by a war ship, but this situation was special. The Talot system was reported to be the home of a group of pirates known as the Claus Collective. These pirates were rumored to attack any ship that passed close to the asteroid belt, so the Mekla was dispatched to the area to keep an eye on things.

  The commanding officer of the Mekla, Captain Martia Menos, pounded three times on the door to the Marine's billet before walking in. "Atten-shuh! Captain on the deck!" Sergeant Mersa, a basili, barked. The other members of the team, including their commander, Lt. Colonel Titus King, came to attention and saluted.

  "At ease," she said while returning the salute. "Titus, it’s been awhile."

  The colonel nodded. "Too long. Esmeralda misses our bridge nights."

  "How is that wife of yours doing?"

  "Great. She loves living on Degreb."

  "Excellent. So, how about introductions?"

  "Of course. Captain Martia Menos, this is Captain Kalana Grenor, my second in command."

  "Ma'am," Kalana said.

  "I've heard a lot about you, Captain."

  "All good, I hope, Captain."

  Martia smiled. "Better than good.

  Titus continued. "This is Sergeant Mersa, our weapons specialist."

  "Ma'am."

  He continued with introductions until he came to Parker, their newest AI addition. Today, she was wearing a biped battlebot suit.

  "Are we going to war, Parker?"

  "Training aid, ma'am. The strykers need some live-fire time, so I volunteered."

  "Live fire...?"

  Kalana, Private Marcus Wen, and Private Nana Tor, transformed into their stryker forms--armor and built-in weapons created by the nanorobots coursing through their bloodstreams. "Yes, ma'am." Kalana explained. "As an artificial intelligence, Parker is impervious to our weapons, so she can drive any suit in real-time. This allows us to test new settings and systems without having to worry about harming the driver or dealing with latency in the data streams."

  "Does she shoot back?"

  Private Marcus Wen, a genetically engineered life form, or GELF, unconsciously rubbed his left breast plate. "Yes, ma'am."

  "Does she pull her punches?"

  "Not usually, ma'am," Private Nana Tor, the team's other GELF, said while rubbing her arm.

  "Wuss," Parker muttered.

  Nana glared back at her.

  "Hopefully, this is all the action you will see this trip..." Captain Menos started to say. She was interrupted by alarm klaxons sounding.

  "General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battle stations. Set condition one throughout the ship. This is no drill. Captain Menos to the Bridge!"

  The captain walked over to the wall and punched the intercom button. "This is Menos! Report!"

  "Ma'am, sensors show a rift forming 100,000 clicks dead ahead and something is coming through it."

  "Specify?" she demanded as her tail threatened to take-out a bystander's eye.

  "Unknown, but readings indicate it has a quantum spin signature from this universe."

  "Order the research ships to get the hell out of here. We'll cover them. Go weapons hot; safeties off. Prepare log buoy one for immediate launch. I'm on my way. Colonel King, with me!"

  "Aye, aye Captain. Captain Grenor, with us. Mersa, take charge of the team."

  "Aye, sir," Mersa said to three retreating backs. "You heard the man! Move!"

  Upon arrival, Menos sat down at the center chair while King and Kalana took flanking positions behind her. "Report!" she ordered.

  "Ma'am, it's a ship, a big one," the science officer reported. "Data coming in now... Two miles long, a mile across at its widest. Ma'am, it's under power, but I am reading no life signs aboard... Wait a minute... There's internal weapons fire..."

  "You're telling me that there's nobody aboard, but they're exchanging weapons fire?"

  "Yes, ma'am..."

  "Captain, twelve ships just appeared from inside the asteroid belt," the weapons officer reported. "Configuration and energy signature confirmed. They’re Claus Collective frigates, Mangler class. They have claimed salvage rights to the behemoth and demand our immediate withdrawal."

  "Communications! Connect me with the Collective commander. First Officer!"

  "Ma'am!"

  "Warn the visitor! All frequencies and tie-in the universal translator."

  "Aye, ma'am."

  "I have the Collective commander, ma'am. She's gloating."

  "I hate it when they gloat. Put her on."

  The image on the screen split. On the right was the behemoth completing its entry into League space. On the Left, A Clausian admiral. "This is Captain Menos of the Ventosian Cruiser Mekla. Who am I speaking to?"

  "I am Admiral Rall of the Claus Collective. We claim salvage rights to the derelict. Stand off or be destroyed."

  "Admiral, you can have it, but I must warn you, there's something going on with that ship. We are detecting a pitched battle..."

  The commander cut her off.

  "Why that...!"

  "Captain, ten of the Collective ships are approaching the ship while two are taking position between us and it... No, that can't be right..." The science officer leaned over and peered at her readouts.

  "What is it, Marcie?"

  The young lieutenant tapped a control. The image on the screen zoomed in on the side of the large ship. Large hangar doors opened followed by large devices rolling out. "Ma'am, the computer identifies those as grappling hook launchers!"

  The massive ship turned so that the open bays faced the incoming frigates. "No, no, no! Comm!"

  "Go!"

  "Collective Commander, get your ships out of there! That thing is about to fire grappling hooks at them..." Too late, ten hooks, each the size of a public transport conveyance, shot out from their launchers and headed directly toward the incoming frigates.

  "Weapons, lock on to those hooks and fire!"

  The ship shook as its four massive rail guns fired in rapid succession. Four streams of 100-kilogram slugs traveling at hypersonic speed headed directly toward the grappling hooks.

  "We've been targeted," the defensive officer announced. "Two grappling hooks inbound. Impact in fifteen seconds."
<
br />   "Helm, evasive maneuvers! Fire decoys. Shields to maximum. Weapons, fire anti-missile missiles."

  The Mekla shook as its massive engines moved her laterally in an attempt at avoiding the hooks. Meanwhile, four missiles shot from their launchers and headed toward the incoming threats at maximum speed.

  "The two frigates watching us are attacking the ship. They're launching nukes."

  "Status of incoming hooks?"

  "One destroyed by missile fire. Number two is still inbound. Impact in five seconds."

  "Location?"

  "Aft of the bridge!"

  "Stryker Team One to the Bridge," King ordered. "Kalana, stryker-mode. Weapons hot!"

  "Aye, aye sir!" she said as armor formed around her body while pistols appeared on her hips and crossed swords formed over her back. Meanwhile, King switched his rifle's safety off and set it to full power.

  "Sound collision alarm," the captain ordered. Sirens sounded

  "Three... Two... One... Mark!"

  The ship lurched as sparks and smoke filled the bridge. Suddenly, a wall blew out as something large and robotic walked into the room. King and Kalana fired on it.

  "Security to the Bridge," Menos ordered. "All hands, intruder alert. Repel boarders. I repeat, repel boarders," she said as she watched the two Marines engage the much larger bot. "Engineering!"

  "Ma'am!"

  "We've got a grappling hook in us just port and aft of the bridge. Disconnect that thing!"

  "Aye ma'am"

  "Weapons!"

  "Ma'am!"

  "Full salvo at that ship. Fire when ready!"

  "Aye, aye, Captain. Full spread on my mark... Mark!"

  The ship lurched once more as enough ordinance to destroy a planet left the Mekla and headed toward the behemoth.

  Ignoring King, the thing walked over to engage Kalana. Seeing her energy weapons having no effect, she switched to arm-mounted rail guns which she used to tear chunks of armor off the robot's body. It slowed and tried to grab her as a second robot entered the bridge. Just then, the bridge door opened followed by Stryker Team 1 entering with guns blazing. Menos gasped when the last team member entered and roared. It was Glean in full Boss mode. Seven feet of angry transformed Weck ran over to the second robot, picked it up, and tore it in half, then used the pieces to beat the first bot into a pulp. As more robots entered the bridge, the other members of Team One let loose with energy bolts, rail gun projectiles, and laser beams. Using a path opened in the bot's ranks, and with cover from an enraged Glean, Mersa flew to the opening and threw in two grenades.

  "Fire in the hole," she yelled as Glean put himself between her and the explosion. When the smoke cleared, Glean stood up and smiled. "We have run out of toys," he growled.

  "Engineering to Captain Menos."

  "This is Menos, report!"

  "The cable has been severed. We are free."

  "Science?"

  "No active robot energy signatures aboard, ma'am."

  "Status of attacker?"

  "It's... It's..."

  "Spit it out, lady!"

  "It's gone. No trace within one light-year of our position. Ma'am, we're alone."

  CHAPTER TWO

  Kalana and Team One split up into two groups--Kalana, Nova, Glean and Trent in one and Mersa, Nana, Marcus, Murphy, and Parker in the other. They split up and patrolled the ship in search of any stowaways from the behemoth which may have been missed during the ruckus. Teams from the ship's security contingent were also patrolling.

  "Glean, you seem to have gotten the Boss transformation down pretty good," Kalana noted. "Thanks for the help." She saw the bandages on his back. "You do know Mersa is wearing battle armor and her wings are blast proof, don't you?"

  The Weck gave an embarrassed smile. "I forgot. I lose track of things when the transformation hits."

  "Captain, scans are clear," Trent reported. "Did you want me to get into the network and take a look around?"

  "Hold that thought for now. Let's give their information techs a chance to look around first. You can go dig around when they're finished. Parker?"

  "Ma'am?"

  "You've been from here to there in this universe. Have you ever seen anything remotely like that ship?"

  Parker looked to the ceiling for a moment before looking at Kalana as if she remembered something. "Nope. I've got nothing. Ghost ships I've seen, but not ghost ships with robots and giant grappling hooks."

  Her answer bothered Kalana. Parker, Murph, and Nova have existed since before the Earth formed, so her not recognizing the ship meant that it was from someplace very far away.

  Kalana's earcomm bleeped. She tapped it. "Go for Grenor."

  "This is King. Have ST1 assemble in the aft dorsal docking bay. I'll meet you in route. We found something floating out there, and it isn't from the collective."

  "We're on our way. Grenor out." She tapped the earcomm. "Mersa? Its Kalana. Do you copy? Over."

  "This is Mersa. I copy. Over"

  "Meet us in the aft dorsal docking bay. They found something."

  "Something?"

  "You know they don't tell me anything. Kalana out." She tapped her comm, killing the link. "Let's go, people! They're waiting for us."

  ###

  The team arrived at the bay just as the large, overhead door opened and a tractor beam dragged an object gently into the bay and set it down on the deck. ST1 ran up and surrounded it with guns drawn and set to full power.

  Glean looked at it and tilted his head. "A robot."

  Mersa ran a scanner over it. "No comm activity. No computer activity. There is power, though. Lots of power."

  "Source?" King asked.

  "Mersa tapped the scanner, then shook it. "This thing must be broken..."

  Murphy held out his synthetic hand. "May I?"

  She handed the misbehaving instrument over. Murph placed his hand on it and closed his eyes. "Ah, I see the problem. There, fixed." He handed it back to Mersa. It was unable to show the power source because such a source cannot exist in this universe."

  Kalana looked at Murph with crossed arms and raised eyebrows.

  "Ah, yes. The robot is powered by a total conversion power source."

  "That's not possible," Nova said as she looked over Mersa's shoulder at the scanner's readout. "Shit."

  "What is a total conversion power source?" Nana asked as she joined Nova.

  "In this universe, you always have inefficiencies. You can't cool a room by opening a fridge door because the fridge produces heat when it pumps the heat from inside the fridge to the room around it. The entropy of this universe always increases due to these inefficiencies. A TC drive allows you to create energy from mass without waste. This allows a very small power unit to supply a great amount of usable energy."

  The captain walked up with a security contingent. "I heard your explanation, Sergeant Murphy. If we could reproduce it, such a device could be a boon to the League. I will have this mechanism taken to our Engineering Lab for analysis. Meanwhile, I've got a conference call with the League in twenty minutes. Titus, I want you to sit in on this one."

  "Yes, ma'am. Captain. Continue the sweeps of the ship."

  "Yes, sir," she replied. "Come on, team. Back to work."

  ###

  Sarah and John, two senior engineering techs, flashed their badges at the officers standing to either side of the lab door. After a brief examination followed by a check on their terminal, one of the guards placed his hand on the door's biometric scanner, opening it for the two techs to step inside. "Let us know if you need anything," the other guard said to the pair as they walked past.

  Once inside, John activated the room's sensor systems while Sarah grabbed a tape measure and a notebook. "I hear Ranna and Saul are an item now," Sarah noted as she took measurements of the robot’s extremities.

  "Yep. They had their first date last night, and he's already talking about fixing her lunch." Their tails moved around in amusement.

  "How do humans do
it?" she asked.

  "Do what?" he asked while initiating a full-body, high-precision scan of the bot.

  "Date for years before popping the question," she replied.

  "Our cousins don't have tails, so they go through life love-blind."

  "Noooo. That's crazy talk."

  He shook his head. "My cousin's a history major and she says that things came to a head in the first part of Earth's 21st century. It was then that long courtship rituals became the norm."

  "I'm surprised the docs on Cora haven't found a way of growing tails on humans to help them out. We are related, you know."

  "I wouldn't doubt they're working on it. Hey, I'm getting something odd on the scan."

  She walked over and peered at the scanner's large display. "What's the problem?" she asked as she went all professional.

  "Energy flows. It looks like the body is absorbing energy from the room and shunting it someplace near the center of the thoracic region. I just can't find..."

  An armored hand reached between them, extended a metal-clad finger and tapped the screen with it. The view shifted to a pair of small devices which were gathering up the energy streams like dry sponges thrown into a sink-full of water.

  Slowly, carefully, the two elves turned to look at the robot standing just behind them. As they watched, a caricature of a face with human eyes appeared on the bot’s mirrored faceplate. It leaned over and stared first at Sarah's face, then John's before its cartoonish eyes became elf-like with slit-shaped pupils. It then smiled at them. "Better?"

  Both techs screamed as they ran out the door, hitting the panic button on the way. With sirens and alarms sounding around it, the robot hummed an alien tune as it turned its attention back to the terminal.

  CHAPTER THREE

  With Kalana in the lead, Stryker Team One arrived at the lab where they found Captain Menos and Colonel King waiting for them. Once she had the others in place, she hurried over to where the officers stood. "So, what did I miss?"

  King hooked a thumb toward two visibly-shaken elf technicians being attended to by medical personnel. He relayed their story, then pounded on the wall. "We're pretty sure it can't get through this."