Children of Steel Read online

  "Shit," I swore to Hess over the com as we slipped in new clips, "Too bad these heard us coming, I think we only got about fifty this time!" I looked around quickly then and headed off towards a group of low buildings spread out to the east of our position. Marko tossed an incendiary grenade into the second building and followed up behind.

  "Just in case there were any hiding inside," he smiled.

  "Good thinking!" I said and stopped to shoot somebody I saw diving into a window.

  The buildings ahead turned out to be more living quarters, but not barracks like on the edge of the field. These were more along the lines of single and double residences. Probably where the instructors and staff lived. I bypassed the first twenty we came to running as fast as I could, the squads behind us could handle those. Then I stopped and ducked into the nearest one, signaling Hess and Marko to take another.

  I shot some old guy as he was still putting on his pants, he looked surprised to see me, and even more surprised as I put a round through his heart. I looked around quickly for anything worthwhile, saw a folder, and stuffed it in my backpack. I then went next door and repeated the process. This guy was a little smarter and had his pistol out as I came in, he shot me then jumped on me screaming. The armor deflected the shot fortunately, and I quickly broke his neck and continued on.

  The next hour was pretty much the same thing, go into a house, shoot anything that moved and grab anything that looked worthwhile. After the first few houses I rarely ran into anyone, most were fleeing before us. Every once in a while a small group would try to make a stand and while Hess and Marko would exchange fire, I'd sneak around behind them and charge right in.

  At one point I ran out of ammo, and rather than change clips I just waded in and used my knife, killing the two left standing in close combat. It felt good.

  "You okay sir?" Asked Hess running up.

  "Just having a little fun!" I laughed back at him and he looked at me kind of strange for a moment, then went back to work.

  By the time we had run out of buildings and hit the perimeter, I got on the radio to John and asked if he needed any help.

  "Nah, things are going pretty easy over here." I heard a burst of autofire through his radio, "I got a report of a group holding out at the command center, why don't you drag your people over there and see if you can help?"

  "Sure, where's it at?"

  He gave me the coordinates and I looked at my wrist unit and figured out the direction.

  "Come on guys," I said turning to the other two, "Break’s over, everybody back on their heads!" and led the way to the center.

  We ran into a few small firefights on the way. The people we were coming up against now were definitely better armed, some were even in armor, but they were still disorganized. I was scavenging ammo now from everybody I shot; I only had six clips left and was trying to save those.

  Coming up on the command center we could hear the fighting from several blocks away. I switched frequencies and got the Lieutenant, who was now running the attack.

  "See if you can find a way in from the rear," came the order, "I think we've got most of them drawn to the front. But play it safe, I've got a squad with an artillery piece on the way over."

  "Where did they get that?" I asked as I led my half squad through a courtyard.

  "Found it on a practice range of all places! Even had a round in it, I've got more people scavenging for ammo, so I don't think this place is gonna' hold out much longer."

  We came up to the back of the building then. It was a large four story structure, made from reinforced concrete. There were no windows on the first three floors, those on the fourth were just mere slits and there was a mini gun on each of the corners of the roof. If we had brought some armor along it wouldn't have lasted ten seconds, of course we hadn't though.

  "Any suggestions?" I growled as I looked over the back of the place, I just knew there were a lot of people worth killing in there, and the idea that I might not get to was driving me crazy.

  "How about we strip off the uniforms of a couple of those corpses back there and just try and run right in?" Suggested Marko grinning, "All of our troops are on the other side right now, and who knows? They just might buy it!"

  I was still full of bloodlust, the fighting had been way too easy to satisfy me. More of a slaughter actually.

  "Let's do it!" I said and sprinted off to find a dead body.

  "Hey I was only kidding!" yelled a shocked Marko as they followed me.

  I came to the last group we had shot, and started stripping the biggest one. "Damn, I'll have to ditch the armor!" I mumbled as I changed clothes as quickly as possible. "At least he has a helmet."

  "Sir have you lost your mind?" Marko was eyeing the bodies with visible distaste, they were all very bloody.

  "I don't think either of you will fit in any of those either," I said as I wrapped my tail around my waist and pulled up the pants of the uniform. I stuck on the helmet. "How do I look?"

  "Like a leopard covered in blood and shot to hell. It'll never work sir," he was pleading now.

  "Why?" I stopped and looked at him.

  "Your feet and hand's are dead giveaways, one look and they'll know for sure!"

  I thought about that a second and an idea came to mind.

  "Listen; chase me all the way up to the back door, taking cover just out of range of the mini gun's, if they see you shooting at me they might not stop to look at their monitors or view ports too closely. Don't forget, these are humans, they have lousy night vision.

  "Now let's go!" and I took off. I saw Hess grab my pack then and follow.

  When we got to the killing ground around the center, I kept my head down and just ran for the door. There were bullet's flying all around me, but at least they weren't hitting. I didn't see the stairs until I stumbled over them; I still had my head tucked down so only the helmet showed. I stumbled and crawled all the way up and as I made the rear door, it opened and somebody grabbed my arm and pulled me in. I buried my combat knife in his chest without even looking up, then I looked around to see who else was there.

  The guard manning the door controls took one look at my face as my head came up and went for his gun. My knife was still in his buddy so I used my claws and teeth on him instead. It was messy, but it was quick and I got a lot of personal satisfaction out of it too. There was nobody else around, so I retrieved my knife and used one of the guard's guns to wedge the door open. I had lost mine coming up the stairs.

  I couldn't find the fire controls for the rooftop guns here, so I looked around. Luck was with me then, for I saw the fire exit and setting off the alarm, I pushed through the door and into the stairwell. I ran up the four flights as quick as I could and using the other guard’s pistol, blew the roof accessway open. I tossed my last grenade into the access hatch on one of the rear guns, then ducked behind an outcropping as it went off destroying it.

  Next I crawled up behind the other one, and using all my strength I rammed my knife into the belt feed for the ammo. The carbon alloy steel went right through, and suddenly the gun jammed. I stood up and waved to Hess and Marko, who charged across the grounds to the door.

  I headed back to the stairway stopping only long enough to strip off the bloody uniform I had on. I didn't want to get shot by my own side now! I went down one floor, and it took all of the remaining rounds in the pistol to get the door open. I kicked the wreckage out of the way and dove inside.

  When I stopped rolling and stood up, I noticed I was in an empty hallway. Going down it, I started looking in rooms as I went along. They were all empty offices, nothing much of interest. I moved along faster and started listening and seeing if I could pick up any fresh scents. I had turned a corner and was going down a second corridor, when I suddenly heard a noise coming from the room at the end of the hallway.

  I charged the door and hit it feet first, breaking it open and flying into the room. I rolled across the floor as somebody put a few rounds where I had been just a mom
ent ago and grabbed the first thing that I went by and threw it at the sound of the gun fire.

  I heard a few more shots, and felt a burning in my arm as I was hit. The chair then made contact and I jumped at the man with the gun, knocking it aside before he could shoot me again. He put up a pretty good fight then, for a human that is, but it still didn't matter.

  "Well what have we here?" I leered down at him. I was sitting on his chest pinning his arms with my knees, the claws of my left hand grabbing his throat. "Cat food?" The excitement of the battle was burning in me like a fire and I was beginning to remember the things I had learned on Pharaoh.

  "I won't tell you anything, you animal!" he snarled.

  I looked at him puzzled, "If that was supposed to be an insult I'm afraid I missed it." I looked around at the room then, "Well what's all this now?" I wondered out loud. I got up dragging him to his feet with my good left arm, which still had him by the throat. My right arm hurt pretty badly, but I just ignored it for now.

  The table was full of papers and memory modules; he had been stashing them in a large burn barrel when I entered.

  "Unfinished business perhaps?" I grinned at him.

  "I'm not telling you anything!" he spit at me, "and you can't make me either!"

  "But I don't want you to talk!" I smiled at him slowly showing my fangs, he suddenly looked very scared. "Lunch isn't supposed to talk!"

  Hess and Marko were the first to find me, about fifteen or so minutes later as I was stuffing all the papers and modules in a garbage bag to carry out.

  "What's that stuff?" Marko asked pointing to the bag.

  "File's they were trying to destroy," I said calmly, "I figure it's important."

  Hess was looking me over, "How much of that blood’s yours?"

  I looked at the crude bandage I had made out of a shirt. "Enough I guess, I lost my gun and had to do some hand to hand."

  "What happened to him?" Marko said pointing to a pair of very bloody legs that where sticking out from the burn barrel.

  "He gave his all for the movement," I said picking up the bag in my good hand and leaving. "Come on, I want to get my gear before our pickup comes."

  I passed the Lieutenant as we headed out. The building was secure now and they were deciding what to do with the prisoners. I handed over the bag and went off to find my things. My rifle was still where I had dropped it, and Hess had stashed my gear in a bush before going in. I got dressed, and then headed off to the recall site. Any of the locals left alive had all run off by now, so we really didn't have any more trouble.

  I did make one slight detour however; I stopped in some house's bathroom and puked my guts out, retching heavily into the toilet for a good five minutes. I was surprised to find that what I had done back in that room was starting to bother me. In the heat of the moment it had been easy of course, but now as reason began to take over I found I didn't like what I had done. Guilt flowed through me and I knew what I had done was wrong, maybe not on places like Pharaoh, and maybe not for my enemies, but for me it was; Herza, Balizar, and especially Cassy would have been mad at me.

  I realized then that the burning anger was finally gone, replaced with a cold determination. I still wanted to kill the enemy of course and get my revenge, but I felt that I finally had a grasp on my temper, and myself. What I had done back there in the room was the lowest I had ever sunk in my life, even lower than on Pharaoh. I was going to find the bastards and make them pay of course, but I knew I would never try and eat somebody, especially while they were still alive, again.

  The trip back up was quiet. We had twenty wounded counting me, six of which were serious, plus another five dead. Not too bad considering I guess. It was less than ten percent and four of the dead were less experienced troops like me. With the way I had been behaving down there I was lucky that it wasn't six dead instead.

  I was treated quickly and released from the small sickbay on board the ship, which was operating at full drive to get us away from the two picket ships, which were now coming after the Falcon. By the time I had finished cleaning and racking my gear, the pursuing ships had given up the chase, realizing that they couldn't catch us, and gone to offer what aid they could back at the base.

  Everybody was then debriefed on what happened and who did what. I told of the slaughter that I had engaged in at the beginning, which I found out was pretty much par for the course. Nearly everybody here had been picked because they had a score to settle. Then I recounted how I got inside the bunker and received a few strange looks from both Captain Johnson and the Lieutenant.

  "Well it worked!" I said guiltily.

  "I think you're going to have to get a medal for that one," smiled Captain Johnson, "even if it was kind of dumb."

  "I'd brain you for stupidity myself," growled the Lieutenant, "But we were running out of time so I guess the Captain's right."

  "Well in that case I think you should give something to Marko too," I smiled nodding at him, "It was his idea."

  They both laughed at that, and Marko visibly preened when he saw he was going to get some of the credit.

  The files we had grabbed were all encoded, so they'd have to go to one of the company's larger installations. It would probably be a while before we got any intelligence from the data.

  When it was all over I ran into the Lieutenant in the corridor.

  "What in the hell do you think you were doing running into that bunker like that! Are you trying to get yourself killed? The Captain may think it's all fine and dandy, but I have not invested all of this time and effort in you just so you can get yourself killed in some stupid attempt at low grade heroics!"

  For the second time in my life I was impressed at just how much anger and authority a person could express without raising their voice above a whisper.

  "It was stupid, careless, and the act of a total idiot," I agreed. "But I think I've come to face with my problems, and finally laid some of my personal demons to rest." I smiled and looked down at the Lieutenant, "Now I think I'd like to lay somebody else too!"

  Then I reached down and picking up the Lieutenant carried her off to the quarters we had been sharing for several weeks now. But then, she had ordered me to.

  "Damn it Raj, I'm not off duty yet!" she laughed.

  I set her down inside and saluted.

  "Okay," she said pulling off her rank tabs and tossing them on the desk, "Now I'm off! Where were we?"

  We were pretty frantic that first time, and the second and third as well. Coming off of combat does do that to you, and my prior celibacy just added to it I guess. When we showed up at the mess twelve hours later for breakfast, we had our tails tightly wrapped around each other as we ate.

  "I think all of your discipline problems just had heart attacks," I smiled at her as we walked back to the room. Everybody was off today of course as it was the day after a strike. So the Mess had been packed.

  "Oh? And why's that?" she asked smiling back.

  "Because now that you've tamed the maniac, they figure you'll be sending me after anyone who gets out of line!" I chuckled.

  "Why should they be afraid of you?" She asked puzzled.

  "Oh come on, I know you heard the rumors about what I did to Marko and Hess when I took over. After what I did dirtside, people are really going to talk."

  "Well, people did think you were a little strange, I admit." she giggled. "After I changed your room assignment, they were even taking odds on whether I'd bed you, or you'd kill me!" She laughed at the expression on my face then.

  "What were the odds?"

  "Dead even," she purred.

  "What! Even! I'm supposed to be a homicidal maniac!" I laughed as I open the door.

  "Yes," she purred, and then quick as a wink tripped me up and jumped me on the floor while kicking the door closed, "but I'm one tough female!”

  "See, I told you I wasn't wasting my time!" she purred much later.

  25

  Our next stop was a deep space rendezvous with a fast p
acket ship. We turned over the worthwhile stuff for the intel people to analyze and they handed over a new set of sealed orders. We were briefed two days later, after we entered jump, on what our next assignment was.

  "Okay people, settle down!" Aruba said taking charge of the block while we waited in the hold. "Attention!"

  Everybody immediately snapped to.

  "At ease everybody," said Captain Johnson entering the room.

  We all relaxed and watched as he made his way to the small podium at the front of the hold.

  "Okay everyone," he began turning to face us, "I've gone over our orders with the Captain and here's the scoop. Our next stop is a planet called Darby Six." A chart appeared on the screen behind him showing the Falcon's flight plan in, as well as the layout of the facility.

  "Darby Six is a mining installation owned and operated by one of the smaller companies that has been helping to fund the humanist movement and their attacks on Tri-Star. This attack is going to be a conventional assault, so we'll be meeting up with a Transport, which will be launching an all out invasion on the installation. Our part will be to go in secretly and infiltrate the outer defenses. Once we have either neutralized or taken over key points of the installation's defenses, the main assault will take place.

  "The installation isn't a very rich one, so it isn't heavily defended, but we will be attacking with a large force. That combined with the element of surprise should allow us to quickly overwhelm the local forces. Lieutenant Aruba and I will be handing out assignments to the squad leaders later on tonight; you can ask your questions then. Dismissed!"

  Everyone waited for the Commander and Lieutenant to leave the room, and then we filed out ourselves. The next few weeks were fairly busy, preparing for the mission and going over our orders. This one wouldn't be a hit and run, so timing was going to be important.

  I did get to talk with Dave a few times during the planning sessions; he was still on the opposite shift from mine, and living in the ship’s crew area so we didn’t get to mingle too often. Block members were not allowed up into that area without orders from the Ship’s Captain, Captain Avera, or the Executive officer. The Block’s Captain, Captain Johnson, and Lieutenant Aruba were the only exceptions to this rule.