Interloper (The Askirti Chronicles Book 1) Read online

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  Corridor after corridor, the marines were met with light resistance, though it was unorganized and resulted in few injuries and no fatalities, on their side at least. The other platoons were having a similar experience, though there was one fatality in the third platoon.

  Along the way, they took prisoners, a lot of them. So far, they rounded up approximately six hundred pirates, but only what seemed to be two dozen slaves, all young women and children. They found a lot of unarmed fresh kills, slaves recently executed. Jackie grimaced, supposing the pirates did it because the dead tell no tales.

  The three platoons cleared out three sections of the facility, all linked separately but leading to where the command and control were thought to be. The shielded doors to that part of the facility were at least twice as thick as Jackie thought necessary. But that did not stop them. The marines slowly but surely cut through them in a coordinated fashion.

  Once the locks were cut, they planted explosives on the thick hinges for the final push.

  “Everybody on three!” Rick shouted. “One….two…”

  BOOM…

  “Send ‘em presents!” one marine called out.

  Half a dozen of them tossed grenades in at various angles, followed up by as many explosions along with some screams.

  “Marines! Move move move!” cried out Rick.

  The entire platoon moved in.

  “Don’t want to live forever, do you, Campo?” Rick said with a manic like smile while motioning to follow him.

  They quickly were greeted by a scene of absolute chaos. The entryway fed into an auditorium, and Jackie could see the other two platoons feeding on either side and taking cover as fast as they could.

  The light resistance they had before was gone as the conflict turned into an all-out battle. There were gunners nests and barricades all along the opposite side. Marines were setting up cover to counter the pirates who already had cover established. Unfortunately for the marines, the pirates had a few PAUs in the mix and were tearing up the good guys. These pirates were crazy! Those PAUs could not only take out the marines but could damage the integrity of the building itself! Not that it mattered to Jackie and her crew, all using armor that doubled as vac-suits, but there were bound to be more slaves. More innocents that needed rescue!

  Breath Jackie. There has to be a way, she thought.

  “Commander Amori,” she addressed him more formally on the battlefield. “I can rid you of those PAUs. There are only three. Think we can kill those lights?”

  He did a double take at her upon hearing this.

  “Let me check with my engineers.”

  Jackie could see him talking but couldn’t hear him as he was on another channel, presumably speaking with his engineers.

  “Yeah, but the setup is redundant. Assuming these guys are not total losers, the power will come back on in twenty seconds,” Rick said.

  “Give me half a dozen sticky grenades set on a twenty-second timer and have your men cease-fire for those twenty seconds.”

  “Crap lady, you just want all the glory!” Rick joked.

  He spoke silently again, setting a timer on his HUD he shared with the company. He then opened a channel to everyone explaining the desire to rid themselves of the enemy PAUs, and what they must do to make it happen. Just as he was finishing up another marine ran up to Jackie, presenting a small bag to her.

  “For you, sir.”

  She opened the sack, noting the six sticky grenades she had asked for were in there.

  “Nice to know marines do take-out,” Jackie said.

  The few around her laughed.

  Jackie noted the countdown on her HUD. There were two of them. The first was the countdown to the lights going off, and the cease-fire on the marines’ part. The second was the estimate to when the lights would come back on.

  From their position, the PAUs were well protected. Jackie had a plan to take care of them though. When the lights went out, a little confusion would set in, and that would create her opportunity. At least that was her plan.

  She stood some distance from the end of the small hallway, one of many that led into the main auditorium. With the action taking place in the central area, no one noticed the little gathering of her merry band here.

  Five seconds.

  To the surprise of the marines with her, she took off in a sprint. To the outright shock of some, they thought they saw her change, where there was a running armored figure was now a black blur. The lights went out a second later.

  Jackie ran silently into the auditorium as fast as she could, her invisibility giving her some last second protection from being seen at the end of the hallway as she came in. While ordinary people needed night vision goggles for the dark, being Askirti, she could see quite well.

  Her invisibility lasted barely enough for her to reach her first victim, for which she drew her katana and eviscerated with the pirate who let then out a blood curling scream, grabbing his torso and falling to the ground. The second victim was more of the same as she sliced open his middle section. More intestines and more screaming.

  The pirates were in disarray. Between the lights going out and the screaming, that started a sense of confusion in the room that was palpable.

  She reached the first PAU. And with one fluid movement reached into the bag and pulled out two sticky grenades, attaching one to the head and the other on the back. She ran to the second one but had to jump to the left at the last second as these guys were trying to get a feel for their environment without the lights on. They were obviously not trained in the art of “switch quickly to night vision.” Too bad. She attached two grenades to this guy as well, this time both to the head.

  Before she reached the third PAU, there were two more pirates, firing wildly at the earlier sounds of screams. With her katana, she sliced horizontally high this time, beheaded the first one, then for the second one she thrust it into his neck, ending his life in a toe-curling gurgle.

  With her path cleared for the last unit, she attached two sticky grenades to his head as well.

  With the grenades attached and time running out she re-engaged her invisibility and ran as fast as she could back towards the hallway from which she came. When the lights came back on, Jackie was back in the hallway standing amid several dumbfounded marines.

  Two explosions went off, back to back, then a third, and all the pirate PAUs were no more.

  “Now! Take it to them now!” Rick shouted.

  The marines flooded the auditorium, rushing it at seemingly every angle. The remaining pirates were quickly defeated. The command center was just off the auditorium and was quickly overwhelmed. Rick entered what was left of it with Jackie by his side.

  “That was some trick you pulled back there!” he said.

  “Just a upsized version of a childhood game,” Jackie responded.

  What she thought of were the many times she did that in Orlando as part of the resistance. PAUs were everywhere, and it was so difficult to get close to them. Wherever they went, they murdered indiscriminately, using their power to crush the innocent, so Jackie learned to defeat them.

  “Think you can hack it?” Rick gestured at one of the consoles, fresh blood dripping down it.

  “Give me a minute,” Jackie said as she reached into a recess in the leg of her armor and pulled out a tiny device, inserting it into a port in the console.

  A few years back, Jackie felt she needed to make herself indispensable. When an opportunity came up to train in cryptology, she jumped on it. While her career path was command, it never hurt to “broaden her horizons” with complementary skillsets.

  After going through a few sequences lasting no more than five minutes, she informed him “We’re in.”

  “Download their whole net,” Rick said.

  “Gotcha. I know the drill, boss,” Jackie laughed.

  Ten minutes later it was all done. Jackie was packing it up when a marine came running into the room.

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br />   “Commanders, I think you both should come quickly,” Lieutenant Amy Bowman said.

  With a sense of urgency, they followed the young marine.

  “We found a hidden wall, sirs,” she continued.

  As she brought them to what looked like another hallway, they could see where a movable wall was set aside on its sliders. Down the hall, marines were lining the walls. Not one of them had dry eyes. A few had removed their helmets, having puked in them.

  “This way,” the lieutenant gestured to a door on the right.

  What they walked into was an unbelievable scene from hell. There was a large room, filled with devices of every sort. Many with young women, even preteen girls, strapped in them, none wearing a single piece of clothing.

  Jackie was very familiar with this scene, having been a victim trapped in one of those machines, restraining her from being forcibly…

  Breath.

  She noticed several marines, all female, freeing the ones still alive. Most of the dead had been stacked on the side of the room by the pirates, though others had passed away while still restrained in the various devices. All had many, many scars.

  After appraising the scene, Jackie removed her helmet, turned to Commander Amori and quietly said: “it may be best if you wait outside.”

  The commander was very pale. Not as pale as Jackie and her fair skin, but pale for him.

  “Yeah,” he spoke out of gritted teeth and walked out.

  Just as he walked about, another female marine walked up to her. “Sir, there is something else that needs your immediate attention,” said a solemn voice.

  Jackie followed her to the back of this hellish room to an open door.

  God, do I must see another unforgettable scene?

  When she walked through it, her heart broke.

  This room was half the size of the first room. She figured there was around one hundred and fifty women and children. The youngest looked maybe five years old. They were all naked. They were all filthy. They were all half-starved. They were all bruised, burned, and cut. They were all terrified.

  Jackie thought quickly about what to say.

  These people need hope.

  “My name is Commander Jacqueline Campo of the Westerly Federation,” she said in an overly gentle voice. “We have killed most of the pirates who were keeping you, and have captured the rest who will now await Federation justice. All of you are safe now. You will be clothed and fed. We will attend to all of your injuries.”

  At least the ones we can see.

  Chapter 8

  WFS Colt

  The Kapa-Gamma-4 System

  Sitting in the ready room, Jackie considered her report.

  Should I tell the captain how much I enjoyed killing bad guys? Or tell him the horrors I saw were like a bitter homecoming.

  She shivered thinking about what she saw in that torture room. She had spent time in a room like that before, a lot of time.

  They think I don’t care. They believe the suffering doesn’t bother me. It just hurts too much to remember how much I cared. How it felt to love and to be loved by my husband, my children. It was all taken away. My life was reduced to chattel. But how will I speak for them if I give in to my emotions? Push it down, push it away.

  Captain Jeri De Vitis entered the room.

  “Hello XO. Enjoy your field trip?” he asked.

  “Captain, the operation could have gone smoother. We lost seven marines, and have twelve more were seriously injured. We ended up capturing almost seven hundred pirates and killing at least three times that many.”

  “Wow, that is quite something considering how many marines you went down with,” Jeri responded.

  “The bad guys were not well equipped nor well trained. They ended up having three PAUs, but we made short work of them.” She made short work of them.

  Jackie sat there silently.

  Finally, Jeri told her, “Out with it. What else.”

  “Sir,” Jackie said, “there were slaves, a lot of slaves. They were treated….poorly.”

  “I heard some of the preliminaries, but what is the scope?”

  “There were two hundred and twenty-two found alive. Over nine hundred dead. Many had died before we came, not all at the same time. Many were executed after we arrived,” Jackie replied. “Captain,” she continued, “why am I here? Why have I been recalled before we were done with the cleanup there?”

  “We found something, and I need my XO here. I’ve recalled half of the marines. Commander Amori said he could spare them with the pirate base now secured. One of the probes has found a cruiser, Century class.”

  As far as ship classes went, the Century outclassed them. But as a light cruiser, it wasn’t a behemoth compared to the Colt. The specs for the cruiser were better than their old destroyer. Bigger, more lasers, missiles, point defense, and four more Smitz drones.

  “God. How long? And what do you want to do about our extra travelers?” Jackie asked, referencing both the survivors and the pirates they captured.

  “The ship is about ten hours away, clear on the other side of the system. We may have space for the survivors. We do not have space for the pirates,” De Vitis said.

  “So what’s the plan?”

  “The plan,” Jeri said, “is to leave half our marines to keep the facility secure and the survivors safe. Then we take out that cruiser. If it’s in good enough condition afterward, it will be our prison transport,” Jeri finished.

  She whistled.

  “Pretty ambitious. A cruiser, are you sure? We could take our marines and the survivors. Destroy the base! The pirates don’t even deserve that easy of a sendoff!” Jackie said with a little heat in her words.

  “Commander,” Jeri responded using her title, “it is our responsibility to make this sector safe. Those ex-slaves were captured and transported here by some means. It was probably that cruiser.”

  At this point, Jackie was looking down at the table, blushing. After she had given a similar speech to Commander Amori, she knew to cut and run was not what they were here to do.

  “It’s okay. I know what they deserve, and concur,” the captain continued. “But that old cruiser was not maintained by our navy. While they may have one or two tricks up their sleeves, it’s old junk compared to us. And that’s saying something!”

  The XO snorted.

  “Okay, you lead, I follow. You needed me, here I am, ready to ride into battle with you, sir.”

  “There is time. We need to use it wisely and get our rest. I promise you those guys are more concerned about their ‘loot’ than preparing for battle. Go get some rack time, and come back when you’re fresh.”

  “Yes, sir!” Jackie said.

  ##

  Back in her room, she had time. Time to reflect, time to ponder, time to remember. She could not stop trembling and crying. She had showered and was about to get dressed for bed, but was so overcome by what she saw she could not even manage to dress.

  Down on that pirate base, it was Orlando all over again. The summary executions, the starvation, the torture, the reduction of living humans to the status of a thing to be abused by the perverse.

  She was hyperventilating when she reached for the needle.

  It is Highlights for tonight.

  The injection was messy, took her three times to hit the vein. Afterward, she sat there sobbing, weeping like a baby, wishing someone, anyone would hold her.

  Finally, she stopped shaking. In the following half hour, she calmed down and relaxed, reflecting on the past, on what she had lost. And finally, she fell asleep sitting on the floor, naked as the day she was born.

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  “Captain on the bridge!” the marine called out.

  Jackie got out of the captain’s chair and went to her console.

  “XO, report!” the captain said.

  “The cruiser is bearing down on us, ETA is two hours,” Jackie said.

  “Any response from hails?”

  “Only ‘prepare to
die’ and ‘we’re going to kill you all.'”

  “Okay, reduce speed and engage stealth for as long as it holds. Deploy the spare Smitz drone, configure it for stealth, but set it to have the stealth appear to malfunction while it spoofs our signature. I doubt these guys are smart enough to see through our ruse, so if our stealth holds out, we should get the drop on them. As they position themselves to take out the drone, we position to take them out.”

  “If our stealth hold out?” Jackie asked.

  “Alexie promised.”

  They both laughed. The destroyer was older than old. The stealth system’s problem was the newer tech had been overlaid on an old hull made of old materials. It was a hack job getting the stealth functional by semi-modern specs, more art than science, and one piece of art that had their chief engineer, Alexie Popov, puffing his chest out in pride.

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  “Drone had been launched, setting course, and ‘flakey stealth’ program,” Lieutenant Shepard reported.

  “XO, get your crew and get to the CIC now.”

  Unlike so many captains in the navy nowadays, De Vitis believed heavily in using the CIC as a temporary bridge so if the main bridge had been destroyed, the ship had a chance to keep fighting.

  With a cruiser bearing down on him, he would not forego what he saw as such a necessary procedure.

  “Yes, sir!” Jackie responded.

  Jackie called up the bridge alternates to meet her in the CIC and went ahead to meet them.

  ##

  The pirate cruiser was taking the bait and vectoring to attach the drone, not knowing it was a simple decoy.

  The tension on the ship was palpable as they were clearly outclassed and desperately needed to get the drop on the cruiser.

  “Captain, we are entering missile range….now!” Emilia announced.

  “Fire.”

  All at once, thirty-two missiles erupted from the dated destroyer and raced towards their prey.

  “Launch the drones and prepare for incoming fire,” the captain said.