Omega force the human fa.., p.8
Omega Force: The Human Factor (OF8), page 8
“I am simply relaying to you the instructions that must be followed to allow this mission to proceed,” the alien said, its face as unreadable as ever. “If you or your crew are seen roaming the corridors of this ship it could jeopardize the agreement we have with … those that are coming.”
“And who are they?” Marcus asked, knowing he wouldn’t receive an answer.
“Heed my instructions,” the alien said after a moment before turning and walking back the way it had come.
Marcus swallowed his indignation and turned to make sure his team was up in one of the forward compartments away from the aft airlocks. He found them up in the forward lounge, playing cards, messing around with tablets, or napping in one of the recliners.
“Commander,” Russ Johnson nodded. “From the bucking of the floor I’m guessing we’re either under attack or we’re close to the rendezvous.”
“The package is being prepped for transfer,” Marcus nodded and went to grab a mug of coffee.
“I still don’t like that we’re running around shooting up strangers based on what these Skinnies are telling us,” a square-jawed man with an olive complexion said. He was sitting by himself reading an actual paper book, his black hair falling down over his eyes.
“What would you have me do, Abiyah?” Marcus said carefully. “We have our orders, and those orders come from people who are familiar with the negotiations with these … people.”
“The Skinnies aren’t people,” the man named Abiyah insisted. “I follow orders, but it just seems that being flown somewhere to shoot up a bunch of amateurs and kidnap a scared kid is a bit suspect.”
“Meaning what?” Russ asked.
“Meaning I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re being set up for something,” Abiyah shrugged and went back to his book. “Hopefully when the shoe drops it’s just us who suffer for it and not the entire species.”
Marcus was more bothered by his teammate’s words than he let on as he sat down and idly observed the game of Spades being played at the table. Abiyah, a man whose origins and last name were both a mystery, didn’t talk much and when he did Marcus discovered it was important to listen. It had been assumed that the man had been a member of the Mossad when he’d first come to the unit, but Russ had found out he had actually been Mista’avrim.
The Mista’avrim were a secretive, elite force within the IDF that conducted daring undercover and infiltration operations throughout the Arab world. When Russ had brought the news to the rest of the team, which was primarily made up of NATO Special Forces operators, there had been some pause. While it was true they had all been called upon to do things that could not be discussed in polite company, there were rumors within the community regarding the ruthlessness and brutality employed by the Mista’avrim to accomplish their mission that made some wonder if Abiyah would be a good fit for their operation.
So far there had been no issue, but they had also just been recently activated and they’d yet to really be put in harm’s way. Marcus had argued to his superiors to simply transfer his entire SEAL Team over to the new command, but it had been made clear that not only was service completely voluntary, it was also very selective. Not everyone on his old team would have been qualified to travel from Earth for the new posting.
“Here we go,” Steven Olber said when a soft thud echoed through the Coronado, signifying that another ship had made hard-dock. Marcus looked at the ex-Delta operator for a moment, wishing he’d been given more control over the makeup of his team. While everyone had been more worried about how Abiyah would react in certain situations, Olber had proven himself to be a liability.
“As soon as this is done, we should be free and clear to make our move on Jason Burke,” Marcus said with confidence he didn’t feel. “After that we can clean up whatever mess he’s created and then be on our way back home.”
“Sounds good to me,” Olber said. “I thought I hated the tin cans you Swabbies bobbed around in the ocean on, but at least you could go out on deck. This feels like a flying coffin.”
“So … you know where Burke is hiding out?” Russ said softly to Marcus when he flopped down on the couch next to him.
“I have a feeling our lanky friends have a pretty good idea where he is, but they’re not going to tell us until they feel like it,” Marcus said just as quietly.
“That could be a problem,” Abiyah said conversationally from across the room, causing almost everyone to give him a strange look. “I doubt Sergeant Burke will make things easy for us, and if accurate intel on our target is being held hostage by the Skinnies it could be a very long time before we get our hands on him.”
“We’ll find him,” Marcus said, glaring at Abiyah.
“I’m just saying,” the Israeli insisted, “he could literally be anywhere, and likely the last place we expect him to pop up at.”
****
“I wonder what they’ve named it,” Jason said as he looked at the long-range image scans of the fourth planet orbiting an unnamed G-type main sequence star.
“Looks like a nice place,” Kage said, reading the spectral data. “The atmosphere is right there in the sweet spot for most species and it has a fully developed eco-system of flora and fauna. If it wasn’t for the fact that they’ve sent out a team of assassins to kill us it seems like a decent place to visit.”
“They just want to kill the captain,” Crusher argued. “We could still go and have a good time.”
“True,” Kage said, earning a glare from Jason.
“If you’re about finished, let’s go ahead and lock everything down,” Jason said. “We’ll cold coast silent for now and collect as much data as we can with the passive array. Once we get a better threat assessment we’ll light the fires and go in for a closer look.”
“Deploying auxiliary passive sensor array,” Kage said. “Main drive secured and emitter shields extended. Someone would have to pass very, very close in order to detect us.”
“Good,” Jason said. “Let’s do this by the numbers. I’d rather not have to engage a human ship if we’re discovered and forced to defend ourselves.”
The Phoenix drifted through the system towards the only habitable planet for the better part of two days without encountering any resistance or detecting any sign they’d been spotted. As they approached, however, they were able to begin receiving and breaking down the radio traffic coming from the planet. When the intelligence was stripped off the carrier signals Jason was relieved to find that Carolyn Whitney hadn’t steered them wrong. More importantly, she hadn’t set them up either. They’d all half-expected to pop back into real-space to a reception of a few warships waiting for them.
The radio traffic, at least the stuff that wasn’t encrypted, was in English and seemed to be just routine instructions for aircraft and ships in orbit. The computer was busy working on the encrypted traffic they’d intercepted, but Jason had his doubts about anything truly useful going out over the air. The intel he was really after, the traffic to and from Earth, would be going out over a slip-com node and the Phoenix didn’t have the ability to listen in on that.
“Contact!” Doc’s call startled Jason and Kage. “Slip-space signature detected at the heliopause boundary. Resolving now.”
“Get me a rough vector,” Jason said. “Send it to my terminal.”
“Data retrieved, Captain,” the computer said before Doc could get his hands up to perform the task himself.
“While you’re being so helpful, pull up the navigational data we have for Earth and plug the tracks in,” Jason said. “Let me know the probability the ship originated from that system assuming the most direct route.”
“You think—”
“Probability confirmed at ninety-two point four percent,” the computer cut Kage off. “Would you like me—”
“Learn some manners, Phoenix,” Jason returned the favor. “Don’t interrupt any of the crew unless it’s an emergency and don’t assume tasks without being asked.”
“Apologies, Captain,” the computer said.
“Are you all still as in love with the new interface as I am?” Jason gushed.
“I’ll admit there are some growing pains,” Kage said. “The sarcasm doesn’t help. You probably hurt its feelings.”
“The ship doesn’t have feelings, Kage,” Jason said. “Now, what were you saying?”
“What? Oh, right! I’m assuming you think this new ship is from Earth?” Kage asked.
“Yes,” Jason said, watching the passive sensor data. “More specifically, I think that ship is from here and is ferrying people and material to and from Earth.”
“That makes sense, Captain,” Doc said. “Analysis of the slip-signature shows the ship to be using engines that are out of date by at least one hundred years. Active sensors seem to be single-burst tachyon type, not much good for anything other than collision avoidance.”
“This ship probably won’t be armed, either,” Jason mused. “I’d guess they use tachyon ‘pings’ to rough in a course and then use radar for any fine corrections.”
“Confirmed,” Kage said. “The passives are picking up continuous-wave RF in the ten-gigacycle range.”
“Just as I’d expect,” Jason said. “Phoenix, wake the rest of the crew and have them report to the bridge after they’ve had a chance to grab some chow and get cleaned up.”
“Acknowledged, Captain.”
“Kage, go ahead and bring the main drive back online,” Jason said. “Low-power mode for now.”
****
“Pretty,” Twingo remarked, looking at the blue and green planet that now dominated the view through the canopy.
“So … now what?” Crusher asked. Everyone on the bridge turned to look at Jason.
“To be honest, I didn’t really think Carolyn was shooting straight with us,” Jason admitted. “So now that I’m looking at a confirmed human settlement I’m not entirely sure what to do about it.”
“We’re safe here for a while,” Doc said. “All of the traffic, what little there is, seems to be concentrated in an equatorial orbit.”
When they’d approached the planet Jason had opted for a high polar orbit to allow them decent visibility while minimizing the risk of being spotted. There were high-power ground-tracking radars that the Phoenix could easily remain hidden from, but he didn’t want to take the chance the gunship eclipsed a light source behind it and an optical tracker set off an alarm. From what he could tell the technology on the surface seemed to be a bizarre, haphazard mix of alien tech that didn’t originate from any Traveler ship and human engineering.
“Keep collecting all RF emissions and tracking local orbital traffic,” Jason said. “We’ll take a pause here and figure out our next best course of action.”
The Phoenix sat above the planet, her engines at station-keeping and the passive sensors listening to everything coming from the planet for almost four hours. Jason had to admit he really didn’t know what to do next. Part of him wanted to broadcast a message to the ground from orbit and throw them off a bit, force them to play his game. He was fairly confident they didn’t have anything that could hurt his ship, but he also wasn’t sure he wanted to give up the element of surprise. At the moment they weren’t likely aware that he knew that they were after him.
“Screw it,” he said finally. “Kage, get me a course down to the surface. We’ll do a little low-altitude snooping.”
“Is that really such a good idea?” Doc asked. “There isn’t likely to be anything down there that we couldn’t find out from orbit.”
“I may want to land as well,” Jason said to a chorus of groans. He ignored them and switched his primary flight systems to ‘normal’ and pushed the nose over.
The Phoenix entered the atmosphere smoothly, following a southeastern trajectory over the second largest ocean towards a city-sized settlement along the coast. Jason had picked it because it looked like it had a fairly well-developed industrial capability from what they were able to make out from orbit before the clouds moved in. He wanted at least one high-resolution scan with the active sensor of something significant, something that might give him a clue as to who was helping humanity along.
He leveled off around five hundred meters and pushed the throttles up. They’d not detected any satellites that were capable of scanning the planet surface, just a handful of communication satellites and one that was giving off faint slip-energy readings. Jason assumed that was their long-haul com system to talk to Earth, but he couldn’t imagine why they were putting it up in orbit since it would work just as well on the surface.
Without a comprehensive network of down-looking satellites he wasn’t worried about the ship being spotted on infrared, so he pushed up into high-supersonic speeds, wanting to overfly the city before the sun came back up over the horizon.
“We’re getting some weak tracking radar hitting the hull,” Doc reported. “Countermeasures are dealing with it.”
Jason frowned, but said nothing. They were still not within line-of-sight of the coast yet, so where was the radar coming from?
“Origin?” he asked after a moment.
“Unknown,” Doc said. “Best information is above and behind us. The signal was so weak I don’t think we were being actively tracked.”
“Maybe it was from a ship in orbit,” Kage shrugged.
“New contact!” Doc barked before Jason could answer. “Coming down from orbit and coming fast!”
“Same radar signature?” Jason asked as his threat board populated with the new contact. Doc was right, whatever it was it wasn’t lacking for speed.
“Negative,” Doc said. “We’re being tracked and targeted by modern sensors, at least as good as ours. Pulsed tachyon array, tight beam.”
“Shit!” Jason swore at his own carelessness. He knew that there was at least one advanced party helping prop up this colony and yet still he flew down into the atmosphere casual as ever. He pushed the throttle up and angled the nose down, diving for the deck. “Kage, we’re only going to get a single pass. I need all the information you can give me about this city coming up.”
“Go full active on the sensors?”
“Full combat mode,” Jason ordered. “All tactical systems to full power and everyone get into their restraints.” The craft that was chasing them began to slow down and fall in behind them, matching velocity and seeming content to stay just outside of what it must assume was their maximum effective weapons range. Unfortunately, they made a good guess and without doing something drastic Jason didn’t think he could take an easy shot on his pursuer … not to mention the odds were even that it was a human piloting it.
“Settlement coming up dead ahead,” Kage reported. “There also seems to be an airbase just to the northeast. Nothing coming up from there to meet us yet.”
“Got it,” Jason said. “I’m going to put you directly over top of that industrial area to the south. Stand by.”
****
Margaret Jansen walked out into the oppressive equatorial heat, refusing to run like everyone else at the sound of the general alarm. She had been sleeping on the couch in the operations building since the air conditioner in her quarters was not up to the task and the idiot that ran billeting refused to replace it.
The general alarm was only sounded in the event they had a launch, or a recovery, go awry and there was the risk of a dropship missing the landing pad or going off course during the ascent. Since there was nothing coming or going for the next ten days she had to assume some moron in the tower slipped and hit the button.
“False alarm?” she asked when her least favorite person walked up. She said it more as an acknowledgement to his presence and wasn’t actually interested in his opinion.
“No,” the CIA agent said simply. “Something is coming.”
“How can you be—” Whatever she was about to say was drowned out by a thundering roar as something streaked overhead. Never had she heard anything like it since agreeing to come to this godforsaken planet. “What the hell?!”
“He’s here,” the agent said simply, standing calmly with his fingers in his ears. Margaret looked up and could just make out the faint outline of a sleek ship. It looked like it could be a fighter, but it was much too large. She’d only ever seen images of it before, and now, standing under it as it wheeled about and came at them again, she felt genuine terror. She knew it. Somehow Marcus Webb had gotten himself captured and led Jason Burke straight back to them.
“He’s going to kill us!” she cried, her dignity forgotten as the black ship pulled up sharply and turned back towards the Nansau Ocean. A moment later brilliant gouts of red fire erupted from the ship, intersecting at a point that exploded brilliantly over New Panama. Even as the sound from the weapons fire and the resulting explosion reached her the ship turned and flew back over the base, overflying them in a long, slow circle before coming to a dead stop just over landing pad two, the nose of the ship pointed right at them.
For just a moment the black ship hung there, engines whining softly as she imagined Jason Burke at the controls, hand hovering over the fire button. Just when she was almost to the point that she wished he’d just get it over with the engines wound up to a dull roar and the ship sat up on its tail and accelerated up into the early morning sky so fast it seemed like it just vanished.
The speed and ferocity of the attack unnerved her greatly. She had been so confident when she ordered him hunted down and eliminated as a loose end. Now she wasn’t so sure.
“Impressive, wasn’t it?” the agent asked, still looking up into the early morning sky. Margaret was supremely annoyed that he seemed so blasé about the whole affair.
“I told you not to underestimate him,” he went on. “You saw that ship in action over Earth years ago, had time to study the footage. He has a ship that even back then would have been able to reduce our pitiful little fleet to slag within the span of minutes. Seeing it now, it’s obvious that he’s made some upgrades since then.”
“Aren’t you just so helpful?” Margaret spat after finding her voice. She knew she sounded petty and felt diminished for losing her composure in his presence. “Given your experience with him, what would you suggest?”
