BORN OF HEROES

— by Jeff Karamales

Chapter 45
 

Lieutenant Randal Mercks triggered three rounds from the 30 millimeter grenade launcher mounted to his armored forearm. The trajectory of the rounds didn’t deviate in the slightest as they sailed down the boarding tube. All three detonated with little pops as they struck the overhead plating of the corridor at the end of the tube, filling the breeched section of the enemy destroyer with a potent cocktail that dispersed in a lighter-than-air aerosol. No sooner had the grenades dispersed their contents, a combination of tearing agents and regurgitants then Randy entered the tube, kicking off at the last second so that he floated through and ‘up’ to the other ship. Another tap with his armored foot just before reaching the end changed his direction slightly so that he seemed to pop up and land solidly as the other vessel’s artificial gravity grabbed him.

  Thuds on the deck plates informed the wolf that the rest of his team had crossed over as they followed in his wake. He didn’t have to look to know that they were arrayed to cover both directions of attack in the corridor they found themselves in. The other three SPO’s called “Clear!” out in order.

  “Primary targets are bridge and engineering,” the wolf ordered. “Stunners where you can, but lethal force is authorized. Beta Team take engineering. Delta, you cover here. Gamma Team has security on the Righteous. Alpha Team on me.”

  The two teams split off in different directions as they moved out to carry out their assigned tasks. The thudding of the power armor suits drew some attention, and no sooner did Legion crew members appear to investigate then they were put down by discharges from multiple stunners. The squad only paused long enough to make sure each of the unconscious rogues were properly bound for later retrieval and there were no other hostiles. Where it was impractical to sweep all the areas where hostiles might be hiding, the members of the assault team tossed gas grenades in and sealed those sections.

  The boarding operation was fairly easy until Alpha Team reached the junction that would allow them to access the next deck where the bridge was located. From covered positions the mercenary crew let loose a withering rain of fire as soon as they saw the armored SPO’s.

  “Well, we know where their combat troops are,” Corporal Delian, a tigress that had been with the SPF for three years said as she checked her weapons. “I don’t think they want us here.”

  Randal ignored the monologue. It was a way for her to deal with the stress, and as long as it didn’t distract others and botch the operation, he didn’t mind. “Del, can you cover me for a moment?”

  “What do you have in mind, Sir?” the female asked. He could hear the grin in her voice.

  “I need to get to the other side of the intersection. I’d prefer to do that with as few holes in me as possible,” the wolf said.

  “On three?”

  Randal agreed. “On three.”

  The tigress put her back to the far bulkhead and held both weapon laden arms pointed forward.

  “One.”

  Randal lowered his center of gravity.

  “Two.”

  Leaning forward slightly, the wolf nodded in his helmet, though his counterpart couldn’t see it.

  “Three!”

  Side hopping, Delian sent streams of return fire from the dual ten millimeter autorifles attached to her armor as her commanding officer leapt forward, hitting the deck and sliding on his breastplate to the other side of the corridor intersection. As he recovered and turned around, he saw the armored form stagger as Del slumped against the bulkhead. In the center of the black faceplate was a hole as big around as his thumb. Even as he brought up her suit’s telemetry on his heads-up-display Randy knew she was dead, the flat indicator lines of her vitals only confirming the obvious.

  As the leader for the team, Randal Mercks had items that the others weren’t authorized to carry. He brought a stubby, pistol-gripped tube with three barrels up from where it had been attached to his leg armor. “Fire in the hole!” he snarled angrily. Reaching around the edge of the intersection corner, he discharged all three barrels at once and dropped to his knees.

  Two of the blue banded grenades hit the deck before exploding, the third actually struck one of the Ganlin mercenaries in the chest first and detonated a meter off the deck. Concussion grenades were meant to disorient and disable hostiles with a thunderous clap and pressure wave. In the confines of the corridor, the blast was reflected back by the heavy bulkheads and magnified. The overpressure wave contained by blastdoors and heavy hatches became exceedingly lethal like the hammer of God. In the confined space it turned organs into jelly and shattered bone, tossing bodies like a child in a tantrum would throw dolls.

  “Form up,” the wolf said, his voice resuming its normal calm monotone, though he felt anything but.

  Tyra Delian had been one of his students when he was an instructor at the SPF Academy and the tigress had been a firm believer in the mandate of the SPF. He remembered her as always being positive and never afraid to try and cheer someone up if they were having a rough time. She’d joined the Spatial Police Force because she had too much compassion in her and felt that the best way to make the Alignment a better place was to join an organization that was there to help others.

  She’d been his friend, and for a short while after her graduation they’d been lovers. Del had been happy for him and Lena, and it had been a pleasure to serve with her. If they got another Q-ship after this operation, Randal had been thinking seriously of having Del brought on board to take another friend’s position that had died doing her duty. She would’ve been a suitable replacement for Melise Rains.

  When Randal rounded the corner, he moved like a force of nature, completely unstoppable, his target the pressure hatch to the next deck. He reloaded the grenade launcher as he walked, his steps vibrating the very deck. The door was sealed and even the manual override was disabled.

  “Cabot, open it,” the wolf ordered.

  Scrambling to do as he was told, a young human on his second deployment trotted up. He reached into a pouch attached to his thigh armor and removed what looked like a tube of caulking sealer with a squeeze grip and lined the edges of the armored doors with a sickly, green looking paste. As soon as he had a line of the goo all the way around the hatch, he stuck a small silver device on the substance and pushed the large actuator button.

  A small blue LED on the box blinked on and off five times, once for each second, then turned red. The paste flared brilliantly and in less time than it took for a heart to beat twice it burned through the metal and ceramic sandwich of the hatch panels.

  There was no one on the other side to impede their progress and the boarding team continued. They burned through the hatch leading to the bridge and the doors were helped along in their fall to the deck by Randal’s armored foot. A small caliber round spanged off of his armored shoulder and he triggered a burst from the stunner mounted on his right arm instead of the ten millimeter autorifles. The cheetah that had fired at the wolf fell like a marionette that had its strings cut, clipping the side of his head on the captain’s chair on his way down.

  “SPF! STAND DOWN!” the external speaker of Randal’s suit blared.

  The rest of the Team piled in behind their leader, their weapons ready as another cheetah, a tabby and cougar threw their hands into the air.

  “Cabot, secure the prisoners,” the wolf barked out as he kept an eye on the bridge crew. He toggled his radio to the frequency of the other Teams. “Beta, status report.”

  “We’re rounding up the last of the engineering crew. Should be secure in less than two minutes.”

  “Copy that. Delta, status check.”

  “We had some hostiles try to push past us. They’re all sleeping at the moment. We thought we heard an explosion your way. Everything copacetic, Sir?”

  “Negative. One casualty. Send a medical team for Corporal Delian.”

  “Yeah. ‘Cause I got a serious headache.”

  Randal spun around and saw Del with her personal weapon and light body armor from her ditch kit over her duty overalls. Her head had a long laceration that had matted her blonde hair with blood and some of it had run over her face.

  The tigress grinned at her superior officer and friend. “Down but not out, Randy.”

  “How…”

  “Anti-materiel rifle with armor piercing round. Went through the face plate, nicked me and took out most of the electronics in the back of the integrated helmet.” She seemed as if she was going to say more when she turned her orange and black striped head to her right. “What’s this?”

  The wolf turned to see what she was looking at and saw two females, a lioness and skunk hooked to the bulkhead by chains that were attached to collars and neither of them had a stitch of clothing. They cringed as Del approached.

  “Hey, it’s okay. We’re here to help,” the tigress said in a soothing tone. She moved forward to the two females, pausing when they flinched back, eyes wide with fear, their postures extremely submissive. “Whoa. It’s okay, girls,” Del said again as she slung her weapon.

  It took several minutes of coaxing to get the females to relax enough that the tigress could get any closer. Randy called for an electronics team as well as another detachment of boarding troops to assist in a sweep of the ship before contacting the bridge.

  “The ship’s mostly ours, Captain. I’ve got teams scouring the rest of the vessel. We did find…well, I guess they’re slaves,” Randy informed the fox. He then gave details on the state the two furs were in.

  “Typical Legion,” Elias replied. “Females aren’t even second class citizens. They’re property. The higher one’s rank, the more females he has… access to. It’s a disgusting method of motivating the more ambitious and the young. If a female actually joins the fighting ranks it’s because she has proven herself ‘worthy’ to be considered male and actually gets to collect females as well. Lem’s on his way to you with a medical team. Treena’s coming with an intel contingent.”

  “Copy that, Sir. Mercks out.” He watched as his other two team members marched the bridge crew out into the corridor, Cabot carrying the unconscious jaguar under his left arm like a sack of grain. “You good, Del? Medics are on their way along with the intel team.”

  “Yeah. I’ll meet up with you at the boarding tube. I want to see if I can find something to cover them with,” the tigress said.

  Randy looked around and saw an emergency locker. Instead of trying to work the latch with his armored gauntlets, he simply pulled the door off with a squeal of rending metal. There were some light but effective blankets inside of an unwholesome yellow and he grabbed two and handed them to the corporal. “These should do. I don’t want to leave anyone alone until we’re positive we got everybody.”

  Tyra took the blankets and covered the females but paused before she unhooked the chains. The collars weren’t standard restraints and she took a closer look. As she inspected them, she stifled a small gasp and stepped over to the wolf. “Uh, Randy, I can’t take the collars off. I think I should stay here for the moment.”

  “What? Not until we secure every section of the ship,” he countered.

  Del shook her head. “The collars have small explosive charges,” she whispered. “If I try to take them off, I might just lose a couple of fingers, but the girls…” She let her sentence hang.

  The wolf was silent for several seconds before the external speaker clicked on at its lowest volume setting. “An ordinance engineer is on his way as well. I’ll keep everybody back, but stay here.” He paused and though his face was hidden his next words were fairly thick. “We thought we already lost you once today. I don’t want to go through that again.”

  “Don’t let Lena hear you talking like that,” Delian said with a wry smile.

  “Hey, she counts you as a friend, too, and would cause me a great deal of pain if I let something happen to you.”

  “Yeah. She would. That’s one tough bunny.” She looked over her shoulder at the cringing captives. “Go on. You still have a job to do. Once all this mess is over we’ll have a detail collect my armor.”

  Randal agreed and reluctantly rejoined the rest of the team.

— NEXT CHAPTER —

Unless otherwise noted, all material © Ted R. Blasingame. All rights reserved.