Minutes Later. December 17th, 2267. 13:09 Vosture Prime – John’s Homestead
Elias stood up from his chair and pointed at John. His emotions were running wild. Nearly the whole team he brought with him to this world, along with one of the sleeper cells, were killed in this world. He couldn’t handle seeing a ship of theirs destroyed.
“What did you do?” Elias growled.
John shook his head at Elias as he patted the gun on the armrest, “Sit down and chill out. I didn’t do anything at that time, that came like a week later.”
Elias snapped back to reality and did as he was commanded. But what the hell was this asshole planning to do? Their shuttle had numerous safety measures preventing anything from happening to it. The fusion core would be jettisoned immediately if it detected any instability in it, especially around one of their capital ships.
He broke out into a cold sweat as he was coming up with scenario after scenario. John didn’t offer Elias any life measures either as he simply sat and watched the telemetry quietly. Second after second passed by slowly. And each second Elias came up with a new scenario.
“The only way I can think of you destroying that vessel is to open a slip space rupture on top of the dreadnought.”
John nodded, “Yeah, but in a civilized war we don’t do that for obvious reasons. The first person who does that is going to win a battle but ultimately is going to be hit with slip space weapons shortly thereafter. I think you can accept how bad an idea that is.”
“Besides there are safeties built into our system to prevent that from happening,” Elias said, “Unless they were tampered with.”
“Well, I could roughly tell you how I could manage that in one of our ships, but the number of overrides I’d have to do is kind of a pain in the ass.”
“You didn’t manipulate the safeties on it?” Elias asked curiously.
John shook his head, “I couldn’t get that far with your systems for the short duration I was with them.”
“That also eliminates you creating a reactor overload in its core.”
John nodded, “Correct. Besides, your cores are not great at creating explosions. The additional safety systems you’ve built into them are both excellent at what they do but also limit core explosion damage.”
Elias then understood what John had done, “You loaded an explosive in our shuttle. There aren’t any stored on the surface that could do anything to a ship.”
“Two. Absolute pain in the ass to get them too. Although I did thoroughly enjoy scaring the absolute bejesus out of the E-4 mafia that was manning the security station,” John grinned, “And you are wrong that there aren’t any explosives large enough to do anything to that ship.”
“What did you steal?” Elias said frantically as he instinctively pulled his tablet out.
“That won’t do you any good,” John smirked, “If I could shut down your firearms then shutting down your communications is a cakewalk in comparison.”
“WHAT IS IN MY SHUTTLE?”
“Well, we’re going to find out how well armored the interior of your ships are,” John leaned back in his chair reached over to the table to his right, and grabbed his Glencairn glass, “I acquired the fusion cores of two Mark Six torpedoes’. Each one is capable of overwhelming the armor and shields of one of our cruisers and damaging much larger ships with relative ease.”
“No no no no, this can’t be happening. There’s only one hangar in that ship.”
John grew a large smile, “Oh dude, I forgot about the extra gear they brought with me to finish off that slip gate of yours. What are the odds that they prime the cores in those modules? Or if those fusion reactors have the same safeties as your ships.”
Elias held his head in his hands as he stared at the floor. His mission was already a failure due to the loss of life. But with this ship potentially being killed in enemy territory, his failure would be complete. On the off chance that he escapes, there’s nowhere for him to go, he would most assuredly be excommunicated for his failure.
“Please, for the love that is holy, do not damage the ship,” Elias said quietly.
“Yeah, I’m really vested in seeing how them torpedoes fuck up that ship,” John said with a smile, “My guess is she’s gonna get split in two. But there’s probably a sound argument to see the ship break up due to a multitude of explosions. Either way, though it’s going to be an interesting light show.”
“Why did you murder Linus and Alberic out in the open?” Elias said as he began to rock in the chair nervously, “Did you just not care anymore?”
“Oh, I did care, but I felt that I could accomplish more by making it just a blatantly obvious double murder.”
“A terror attack in other words.”
“And it worked. You had that building boarded up in no time at all. Which blinded you to my machinations.”
“That was when you made entry into our shuttle…” Elias correctly surmised what had happened, “You had us wrapped around our finger. From day one you knew how to get to us.”
“No, I didn’t know where you were when I got here. And rather annoyingly you had already gotten into the communications system and locked that down. You controlled all of the network traffic, which made it difficult for me to do what I wanted to do,” John shrugged, “But once I located your first base, it was just a matter of time.”
John paused to take a drink, “Ok, that was being a bit too cocky. I still needed to uncover just what in the hell you were doing, that took over two months, and even then, I didn’t have a great deal of understanding of what all the void industrial orders were about.”
“How did you pull that double murder off,” Elias said, “At least explain to me how I failed my people so spectacularly.”
“You were up against the best, failure was the only outcome available to you,” John said confidently, “Now then, that was about five or so days later, wasn’t it?”
6 Days Later. December 5th, 2267. 09:45 Norda Heights, Unit 305
John yawned as he looked at the surveillance video. None of the group of aliens had left their latest building in nearly a week. This was the part of the job that he hated, the waiting.
From what he was able to see inside their building there were two new faces added to this enemy crew. Their mannerisms were much more like the people of the colony. That could only mean they were already on the planet.
“Sleeper cells,” John said to himself, “Eve, make note of that and alert Naval Intelligence when you can send a message that these fucks have sleeper cells. If they have them here it stands to reason that there are more elsewhere.”
“I will do that. I’ve been observing outbound communications and there appears to be a small window to send out official communications. Military channels are freely available but the traffic, however encrypted, would be visible to them.”
John nodded, “When I overtly act against them, send the message. At that point whether they know of me or not is immaterial.”
“Understood.”
“Now back to the waiting,” John said as he stood up and walked into the kitchen.
One of the problems with his squatting in this unit is that not everything was installed. Shades were installed, but the only appliances in the kitchen were a fridge and microwave. John would have preferred to cook his meals but having them delivered was handy as well.
This was a very good neighborhood for that too. The first two to three floors of virtually all buildings on this side of the street had businesses in their units. This ranged from tax services to attorneys to game stores and numerous restaurants.
The Chinese place he had ordered from the previous night was quite average. The fried rice was excellent, but the orange chicken was less than impressive the night before. He wanted a breakfast burrito this morning, but two large scoops of fried rice and what was left of the orange chicken would have to suffice for this morning.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
John then opened up the microwave and set the plate inside. He hit the reheat button and walked back to the terminal. He rubbed his stubbled chin as he watched the video feeds.
“Eve, when was the last time that anyone left that building?”
“No one has left that building in the last four days. Based on my limited review of the video feeds there hasn’t been anyone that has left that building in at least six days, possibly seven.”
John just stood there and thought about what he could do. Or rather, what he should do. They were building something in orbit, that much was clear. It was a big metallic ring, something straight out of a sci-fi film from the twenty-first century. He couldn’t do anything about that thing now.
How could he spur some action inside? Shooting into the building would do the trick, but he didn’t want to randomly shoot into the building. The attack needed to do some damage to their personnel, not just frighten them. There were several windows that he could take shots into, but none gave him good opportunities to shoot anyone.
It’d be better to do that on the other side of their building, but there’s a river on that side and not much cover. Even if he had a boat for a quick getaway, there was the issue with the boat rocking and not being a great platform for steady shots.
His thoughts shifted to breakfast when the microwave rang. He walked back into the kitchen and quickly washed the lone fork that was in the condo. Then he got his food walked back to the terminal and set the plate of food down.
As he ate John programmed in some parameters for Eve to review the footage in the last four days. He was hoping these people were creatures of habit. Perhaps they felt safe at home and didn’t randomize their movements. At least, that was what John was hoping to see. That would give him some insight into when and where he could attack them.
John speared one of the orange chicken bites and ate it, “Oooh, this stuff is better as a leftover than fresh.”
He hastily finished his breakfast and set the plate to the side. Eve had run through the video he had recorded and did find some patterns, but it wasn’t as precise as he had hoped. Sniping anyone would be a very difficult shot, despite the short distance. The angles of sight into their building were just too small.
“So, if I can’t shoot into the building my options are to assault the building, but we don’t know what kind of defenses they have inside nor do we know the kind of weaponry we have,” John said to himself, “I’d have to go back to the safehouse and get the power armor.”
Eve then interjected, “The suit does not have the thruster pack, so you’d have to suit up in the bed of your truck.”
John sighed loudly, “That would create a situation I’d like to avoid, especially if any of them would get away, I need them all dead or at the very least contained.”
Eve said nothing in reply.
“The shell holding company that purchased this building was the same that purchased the previous two, right?”
“No, it only purchased this building and their previous building. A separate shell company purchased the first. But an investigation into various companies buying properties suggests this is their final building.”
John nodded, “Based on the actions we’ve seen them take, what is their most likely option if they were attacked?”
“If they were attacked in their base, it stands to reason that they would disperse into the colony. They have sufficient credits available to them to rent multiple buildings.”
“What if we attacked members away from their building?”
“Their past actions suggest that they’d hole up in the building, possibly fortify it. They have received communications of an unknown nature from non-Confederate sources.”
“Presume they are not from the Alliance nor Mercantilist sources?”
“That seems to be true unless the other powers have recently changed their communication protocols.”
John shook his head, “That isn’t likely.”
“One of the messages didn’t seem to travel as far though.”
That statement concerned John. If the message appeared to come from a source closer to the system then that strongly implied a ship. Reinforcements, John could kill this team, but he wasn’t going to be able to single-handedly eliminate a ship.
He stood up and paced back and forth. He needed a way to lure one or two members, ideally two, out of their base to kill them. To send a message to them. But now things had changed.
“Oh shit,” John said, “The ring thing, you said it has no power source?”
“That is correct. Four points around the ring appear to be hookups. Presumably for power and some command structure.”
“That’s what the ship is for, they are going to finish that thing,” John then stepped back to the terminal and began typing at the terminal, “Eve, can you cross reference the alien archives, did they mention any systems that were preternaturally calm in slip space?”
Eve’s icon appeared on the screen and indicated it was searching, “Yes, they were central transportation hubs.”
“Sonofabitch, they connected these systems somehow, tunneled through the roiling slip space from system to system. They branched out from there. These weird fuckers found a way to do what the ancients did.”
“Analysis of the ring is not conclusive to how that is accomplished. Perhaps the attachments are the key here.”
“How do I draw them away…” John paused and began thinking, “Their shuttle. Is there a way to trigger a warning to their crew? And if so, can you find a way to suppress any such warnings?”
“Checking,” Eve said as nothing else of interest was happening around John, “Yes, the ship has an automated alarm system. Once I detect how the signal is transmitted, I should be able to block any future alerts.”
John stood up and walked into the bedroom. He knelt by the large pelican-style case and opened it. Inside it were two pistols and a submachine gun. He grabbed a shoulder holster for the pistol and made the pistol ready loading a magazine and racking the slide. A spare magazine was placed into the holster as well.
The submachine gun was less easy to conceal. He did have a small backpack that he could use to hide it while the sling was attached to him. Anyone who spent any amount of time seriously looking at it would know it wasn’t legit, but John was hoping no one would bother giving him and his bike a second look.
John then grabbed his leather coat from the floor and brought all the gear out into the living room. He put on the shoulder holster for the pistol and threw on his coat. He slipped the submachine gun’s sling across his body. The backpack’s magnetic straps locked onto his coat completing the sleek look.
“Eve, trigger the alarm. Monitor the traffic feeds and guide me to where their car is,” John said as he strode out of the condo.
10:27 Skybridge Way
True to his estimations the reaction in the Xenuian base was near instant. Three minutes after the alert was triggered a car containing two individuals rushed out of the building. From the dossiers, John believed the pair to be Alberic Geta and Linus Augustus. The latter was the higher threat and was the driver of the car currently.
They drove to the shuttle hangar where their ship was being stored. Unlike most private shuttles, which are docked at the sky bridge, the Xenuians opted to land on the planet. Thanks to that detail John was now able to scramble their alert codes, making them none the wiser about his machinations against them. At least those related to the shuttle. It’d be far too late for them to do anything about that if everything went as planned.
As for the two individuals in the car, well they weren’t going to live long enough for that to occur. He was biding his time for the ideal break in traffic. John wanted the car to be the first car at a stop light. From there he’d roll up and spray the vehicle with gunfire. Not elegant or inconspicuous, but every bit as deadly as needed.
Traffic wasn’t cooperating though. He needed them to be first so the other people, who aren’t aware that they aren’t his targets, wouldn’t absolutely freak the fuck out when he enacted his plan. It was all but a certainty that they would freak out and endanger his life. John very much wanted to get away from this hit unscathed.
The light changed to green and slowly the traffic moved forward. And once again they were stuck in traffic purgatory. Inching towards their destination slowly and each window of opportunity to attack them shortened.
Then the unexpected happened after the next light. The car Linus and Alberic were in struck a gnarly pothole, damaging the tire. It wasn’t a slow leak either. The tires were an old cheap variety made on the planet but didn’t have the run flat technology that was commonplace. John thought that was a bit of an irony because the roads here in this world desperately need repairs.
The car’s right-turn blinker began flashing, John asserted himself as much as a motorcyclist could, and moved into the lane ahead of them. He then slowed down gesturing for them to turn in. Alberic waved out the window and then the car took a right at the next street.
John, ever the predator, followed them into the side street. He stopped in front of their car and looked back at them. Linus shook his head as he saw the damage to the tire.
“Please tell me there’s a fucking spare in the trunk.”
Alberic looked at John.
“Can you I help you?”
John shook his head no. He reached back and pressed a button on the backpack causing it to open. The gun was then drawn with his right hand, his left grabbed the foregrip and pulled the gun forward.
Before Alberic even registered what was going on the machine gun began firing. But not at him. Fully automatic gunfire was sent downrange at Linus, who was not at all paying attention to what was going on. Several rounds zipped in front, behind, and above him. Those rounds struck the buildings or trucks on the road. But more than a fair few found their target.
John wasted no time and reacquired his other target. Alberic made a quick dash backward, but it was too late, the gun was already trained on him. The remainder of the magazine was fired in his general direction. Unlike the rounds fired at Linus, the missed rounds here were of no threat to any. They all struck the car.
With the two suspects down and dying. John disconnected the sling to the submachine gun and tossed it to the ground. He zipped down his coat enough to draw the pistol. From there he walked around to the back of the car and found a seriously wounded Linus struggling to hold on to life.
John fired a single round to put the man out of his misery. He did so with the same cold logic that a farmer would put down a dying animal. There was no emotion or anger behind the act, it was his duty to do just that. He replicated the feat one more time to ensure Alberic was dead. He holstered his pistol and got back on the bike.
Then he sped off. Several blocks later he ordered Eve to disable the street surveillance systems so he could enact a quick getaway. He would drive to a storage locker not far from where the Xenuians were currently living. There his gear and the bike were locked away to never be seen again. He rode out of the unit with different colored gear and a different type of bike altogether.
The stakeout would continue, but on this day, John scored multiple wins. Two more of his enemies lay dead at his hands, and more importantly, he possibly discovered a way to disable or even destroy an enemy vessel. Or at least the means to that end. He still needed to acquire explosives large enough to successfully do that, but he knew where he could find those.
That would have to wait though. If an opportunity arose where he could attack the remaining members of the enemy camp, he would do just that. But he couldn’t take advantage of that if he wasn’t observing them.
He’d bide his time for a few more days. Soon this mission would be at an end, the sooner he could leave and go home the better. John had questions about whether or not he would even be welcome back home. Those concerns he buried deep down, for now, he had been ready for the unexpected. He was going to end this mission victorious.