Vendetta (Olly versus the Mechanoids Book 1) Page 2

  "Margaux, what's on the schedule today?"

  The ship rocked as something explosive hit their hull.

  "Not that. We're under attack," she said as she brought the shields and weapons on-line. "Minor damage to ventral docking bay doors. Affecting repairs."

  "Scanning," Olly said. "Got'em. Switching feed to your number two. Recognize it?" he asked.

  "Yep, it's the invader, and he's really angry."

  Olly fired two focused EMP missiles at their new friend while setting course to deep space. Iona did her best work outside the atmosphere. Olly watched as the missiles hit the invader, but they had little effect on the enemy ship except to make it angrier. "Nellis actual, this is Iona. We've engaged the invader and are taking him to the weapons testing area, over."

  "Iona, this is Nellis actual. Be advised that the Nordican and reptoid forces have bugged out. Something about not having a dog in this fight, over."

  Olly said something in a language spoken only by the gangs of New York.

  "Iona, we didn't quite catch that last transmission."

  "Never mind, Actual, I'll explain later. I'm entering the range now. Activating all range weapon, target, and decoy systems. Setting them to react to anything moving." He felt Margaux watching him. "Yes, they will target us, but they'll be targeting the invader as well. We know these systems, so we can dodge."

  "Strange, weren’t we here only in simulation? I hope you're right. I just had my body polished," she replied. "Depressurizing ship and locking all bulkheads. Structural integrity at 110%."

  The ship rocked as another volley of fire hit it. Olly rolled and pitched the ship end over end so that the Iona was aimed directly at the invader. He primed the port-side cannons while opening the starboard covers. At the last possible moment, he jinked starboard so that she ran down the invaders port side. As the Iona passed by the larger ship, the port side weapons arrays opened fire with a multi-megaton broadside. The invader lit up like a star going nova.

  "That'll wake the neighbors," Margaux said. "That maneuver is definitely not in the protector handbook. Where did you learn it, Olly?"

  "Watching old movies." He swung around and let loose with another broadside, this time from the starboard weapons. The invader reacted by dropping vertically so that the missiles flew past harmlessly while the invader let loose with a broadside of its own. Olly rolled starboard and hit the gas, but was late. Several of the invader's missiles hit along the starboard side.

  "Starboard emplacements are gone. One dorsal emplacement is gone. Shields are at 50%"

  The invader fired more missiles and Olly returned fire with anti-missile missiles. A gigaton of ordinance went off between the two ships like a small sun. Meanwhile, both ships were hammered by the range emplacements floating around them.

  "We're down to a few nukes, boss, and the invader is turning back toward the planet. She's activating her self-destruct system..."

  Olly did the unthinkable, he activated the FTL system and dropped into hyperspace long enough to pass the invader. In less than a microsecond, the Iona went from following the massive alien ship to standing directly between it and Earth. He looked at his ordinance inventory and saw he had something called a sunflower missile aboard. The symbol was surrounded by a large, 3D skull and crossbones. Olly shrugged and fired it at the incoming behemoth from point blank range. As the missile left the rails, automatic systems outside Olly's control ejected Margaux. Olly followed a fraction of a second later. As his capsule left the ship, the universe around him exploded in light. His last wish was that he had killed that thing once and for all.

  The universe blinked.

  ###

  Margaux paced the room as Area 51 Director Conrad Curtis and his assistant, Gretchen Morris, tried to keep out of her way. The three were camped out in his office as they awaited word from Search and Rescue.

  "How the hell do you lose an escape capsule?" Margaux demanded. "It's eight feet long, three feet wide, and festooned with emergency lights, not to mention the twelve redundant EPIRB transmitters. It's not like it’s a set of car keys!"

  "Margaux, calm yourself. Olly is in no danger. His capsule has already put him into temporal stasis the moment it left Iona. Even if he's injured, he can't get worse because time has basically stopped for him. We'll find him. Now, what's the status of Iona and the invader?"

  She sat down in a reinforced chair. "The invader was vaporized by the sunflower. Those things are designed to destroy rogue planets, not little, tiny ships. Due to her size, the resulting shockwave basically bent Iona, but I was able to get her back into the hanger. It will take years for the auto-repair systems to fix the damage."

  "Margaux, how are you doing?" Gretchen asked.

  "Me? I'm fine, though I never want to experience anything like that again. Now, can I go help look for Olly? The moron did just save the planet."

  "Yes, go," Conrad said. "There's a hover transport waiting on the roof for you."

  "Thank you. I want to know the moment you find him," the mechanoid said as she hurried out of the room.

  Neither Conrad or Gretchen would ever see Olly again.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Elf Marine Expedition Force Stryker Team 1 entered the ancient weapons range in single file, then prepared for their three-day proficiency test to start. Their commanding officer, Colonel Titus King, drank in the view while the rest of the team checked their weapons and packs. "I love the desert in summer," he said as he tied a bandanna around his head.

  "It reminds me of Nest," Mersa said, referring to the city on the Sokuhl home world that all basili called home. "The heat shimmering around the city square. The sunshine attenuated by the force shield. Damn, I think I'm tearing up."

  "Isn't Nest sitting in a nuclear wasteland?" Trent asked.

  "No. We faked that. We were kind of reclusive," Mersa reminded him. "That all changed when Kellen Hardy and Sheila Minty showed up. Since then, we have been nothing but gregarious."

  "You used to be a recluse, ma'am?" Corporal Nana Tor, one of the team's two GELF strykers asked.

  "Well, not me, but my parents were. My generation learned the joys of interacting with other species," she said with a quick look at Glean, the team's Weck scout and her barely-secret boyfriend. He blushed and smiled back.

  "That's what it's called," Kalana said as she tied her long, blond hair in a bun before putting on her bandanna. Captain Grenor loved to poke fun at her friend from time to time. Being the team's elf stryker meant she didn't have to worry about Mersa shooting her.

  Glean smiled again while it was Mersa's turn to blush and self-consciously rustle her wings.

  "Look what I found," Marcus said. He held up a rattler that had wrapped around his arm.

  "You do know that snake is poisonous, don't you?" Staff Sergeant Trent informed him.

  "My basili genes and nanobots would render any poison inert. Right, Gunny Mersa?"

  "That's right, corporal. Basili are viper-proof."

  "Damn, I love being a genetically engineered life form," Marcus said as he released the serpent in the shadow of a large rock.

  Standing off to the side were the team's three necrue members, each operating a new and improved synthetic power suit. Murphy, Parker, and Nova watched the others getting ready while marveling at the personal interplay.

  "Why does Mersa continue with hiding the fact that her and Glean are dating?" Murph asked. "Everyone, including the colonel and Queen Lansing are aware of the pairing."

  "You are such a guy," Nova observed. "She's afraid of jinxing things.”

  "You know, Big Guy, you really need to date more," Parker observed.

  "Someday, perhaps. For now, I have other priorities."

  "And those are?" Nova asked.

  "Teaching our friends without them finding out we're teaching them."

  "I was wrong," Nova noted, "you do know why Mersa does what she does."

  "I think we're being played," Parker noted.

  "Team 1, listen up
!" King announced. "We are spending the next three days having our desert survival skills evaluated." He pointed upward. They all looked and saw several small drones hovering overhead. "Those little guys will record our every move as we're presented with various tasks and crises. At the end of the exercise, we will be scored and evaluated both as a team and as individuals. Any questions?"

  Marcus held up a lizard. "Are we allowed to snack?"

  "Maybe later. For now, we'll stick to nutribars. Any other questions? No? Then we should get moving. Gunny?"

  "You heard the colonel! Off your asses and move out!"

  Glean leaned over and whispered in Kalana's ear, "Isn't she incredible?"

  "That's one way to put it," the captain said with a smirk. She put on her sunglasses and fell into formation with the rest of her team with a beaming Glean bringing up the rear.

  ###

  The three teenagers stood inside the cave entrance while getting flashlights and scanners from their packs. Ranging in age from fifteen to seventeen, the two guys and girl--an elf, a human, and a draco--were beginning a wonderful career as artifact thieves specializing in early twenty-first century Earth technology, specifically that from the now mothballed Area 51. Once the stuff of legend, the land around the labs was a mecca for collectors and Johnny-come-lately conspiracy theorists alike.

  The three friends put on hard hats, head lamps, and gloves in preparation for a journey into the cave. Each of them wore heavy jeans and coat to protect against the cold and sharp rocks. "Nico," the draco girl, Daphne, said to the elf boy, their leader, "are you sure about your information?"

  "Of course, he's sure," Karl, the human boy, answered, "aren't you, Nico?"

  "Absolutely," Nico replied as his tail danced behind his back. "I got the straight dope from Balthazar, who heard it from his boss--a Goranthi fence--who got it straight from the lips of an Erdexi trader. Hidden somewhere in this cave is a piece of alien tech which has never been seen before. It was part of that ship that exploded in space near the end of 2020."

  "That's the part of the story that bothers me," Daphne said. "I've checked the database and no alien ship exploded in orbit during the twenty-first century. I checked databases from Earth, the League, Ith, Ventos Prime, and even Degreb, and none of them mention a ship exploding above Nevada at any point during Twenty-One."

  "It was buried by OffSec..."

  She tilted her head. "Checked it. I called in a favor and had Rita check the OffSec archives."

  "Who's Rita?" Karl asked.

  "Rita Irithyl. You met her at the party last month. Her dad's Nels Irithyl and her mother is Grendel Tavish. She's got that blue crystal embedded in her chest?"

  "Oh, yeah, she's that elf-Logash chick who cracks cyphers like a tree rat at a Christmas party. She's kinda cute..."

  Daphne cuffed him.

  "Ow!"

  "Wuss. Focus! Rita got into the database and found no mention of any explosion. Oddly, any search for 'explosion' and 'orbit' came up blank."

  "Wait a minute, didn't a North Korean satellite explode in 2019?" Karl asked.

  "Yep. It's experimental power source shorted out three days after establishing orbit. This is common knowledge, yet it isn't in the database."

  "I told you!" Nico exclaimed. "They're covering it up, and a piece of it is hidden in the cave!"

  Daphne arched an eyebrow as she checked the charge and power setting on her pistol. "Do we really need that?" Karl asked.

  "Yes. We do," she answered while putting it back in its shoulder holster. "A girl can never be too careful."

  Karl shook his head while taking a scanner from its belt pouch and activating it. He panned it around the room, then stopped. "Got something."

  "What?" his companions asked while hurrying over to where he was standing. "What is that?" Daphne asked as she peered over his shoulder.

  "Money!" Nico said. She cuffed him.

  "It’s a power signature, but one that's not in the database." He pointed down a tunnel like structure. "It's close, maybe two hundred yards in."

  "Why didn't we pick it up outside?" Daphne asked.

  He waved his hand to indicate the cave walls. "Gold and silver deposits. Not enough to mine, but enough to attenuate the signature. We can only see it because we've got a clean line-of-sight."

  "Let's get going," Nico said. He headed down the tunnel with the others following close behind.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The three explorers (tomb-robber-wannabes) made their way carefully down the opening in the rock. "This isn't natural," Karl said as he scanned the walls. "It's like a lava tube, but there's no sign of magma or volcanic activity." He stopped and took a closer look. "I think this was cut by a laser drill, but I've never seen one this big before."

  "Come on, slow poke. Time's a wasting," Nico said.

  The tunnel opened onto a large, spherical opening. It was jet black and so large that their lights didn't reach to the other side, assuming there was another side. "Our target is 100 yards in that direction." He pointed into the dark.

  Daphne reached into her pack and pulled out a pair of hover flares which she activated, then threw into the pitch-black darkness. The flares activated five seconds later revealing a large spherical cave. Leaning against the far wall was a cylindrical-shaped tube. "That's the source of the power signature," Karl said.

  Daphne pulled out her comm.

  "What's up, Daph?" Nico asked.

  "I left a crate of lightbots in the conveyance. You do want to see in here, don't you?"

  "Damn Skippy," he said.

  She typed something into the comm, then put it away. After a short wait, two dozen robot spiders with large white abdomens ran past them and into the cave. Moments later, the volume was filled with soft white light as the bots crawled to the ceiling and activated their light sources.

  "Damn!" Karl said. "Cousin, where do you get this stuff?"

  "I have connections," Daphne replied. "I even know guys who bake cakes." She looked around then pointed off to their left. "Is that a trail?" she asked.

  Nico and Karl looked. "Yep. Let's give it a try."

  The three companions made their way down to the cave floor then to the cylinder itself. "What the hell is it?" Nico asked as his tail formed a question mark.

  Karl ran his scanner over it while Daphne read several stickers plastered over its surface. "Rescue... Emergency Hatch Release... Utility Connection... DANGER-Explosive Bolts... Lift Here... I think this is an escape capsule," Daphne said.

  "I think you're right," Karl said as he placed his hand on his friends' shoulders and gently pulled them away from the cylinder.

  "What's your problem?" Daphne demanded.

  "There's an active temporal stasis field inside, and I'm reading life signs..." One of the lightbots malfunctioned and dropped on what looked like a control panel on top of the cylinder. Strobes fired around the cylinder as their comms sounded alarms. Nico grabbed his and stared at the screen. "Multiple EPIRB signals detected. Authorities have been contacted? What the hell..." He stopped when a hatch on the cylinder blew off and landed on a stalagmite, twenty feet away. The three watched as a figure slowly stood up, stepped out of the pod, and slid to the cave floor.

  ###

  About twenty miles away in Margaux's, Nevada's oldest roadhouse bar and grill, a customer was expressing his opinion of the day's blue plate special.

  "This is not fit for consumption by any being either living or dead," the Tralaskan sightseer yelled for all to hear.

  "Shut the hell up, Taylor. You are not getting us kicked out of another eatery, dammit!" His wife, the Lady Jessica Stromb, yelled back at her half-in-the-bag husband.

  Too late, the swinging doors leading to the kitchen violently swung open as a chrome robot wearing a chef's hat and apron ran through them. "Kayla!" it yelled to the hostess. "Who just said that disparaging remark?"

  Kayla pointed to Taylor, then went back to taking reservations.

  The robot strode over to Tay
lor's table, placed its hands on its top, and slowly bent over until its head was level with his. "I'm Chef Margaux. What seems to be the problem."

  The blood drained from Taylor's face. "The Beast isn't at the right temperature," he squeaked out.

  Margaux held her metal hand over the plate and read the temperature with her built-in scanner. "You're Tralaskan, right?"

  He nodded.

  "Please note species on the ticket!" the chef yelled so that everyone could hear. "Sorry about that." She switched the scanner to a heating unit and used it to bathe the meat in infrared. After a few moments of exposure, she read the temperature. "It is now at your body temperature. Try it."

  He did as he was told. A smile grew across his face as he chewed. "Perfect," he noted. "Thank you, Chef."

  "You're welcome," she replied. She stood up and walked back to the kitchen, stopping at the hostess station in route. "Kayla, comp them a desert and remind the staff to note customer species on all tickets. Tralaskans have a higher body temperature, so they prefer certain dishes to be warmer than most other species."

  "Got it, Chef," the hostess replied. Margaux stopped talking and moving, as if she had heard something. "Chef, is there something wrong?"

  Margaux tore her hat and apron off. "I've got to go. Get Maurice in here and tell Lorelei I've got a family emergency to attend to."

  "Family? Chef, you don't have a family... Damn," Kayla said as Margaux ran out of the restaurant."

  ###

  Team 1 rounded a corner and came to a complete stop when their comm units emitted warning tones. "EPIRB!" Mersa yelled. "Distance one mile on a heading of 228 degrees relative. Ident United States Air Force Pilot Oliver Wilson... Sir, this code is over 200 years old."

  "Maybe it's just a piece of wreckage..." Trent started to say, but stopped when he saw the number of EPIRBs involved. Then he saw the air craft designation. "Sir, how many mechanoids do we have in the League?"

  "I thought we had only one and his name it Reton" Titus said as he read his comm screen. "These EPIRBs belong to the pilot of the Mechanoid Protector Iona out of Area 51. The United States Air Force was dissolved when Earth adopted the world government over a century and a half ago. Murphy! Nova! Parker! Trent! Front and center, and turn all those alarms off!"