The Bad Company Read online

  “I guess I was thinking that, too.”

  “Good effort trying to play nice, but I don’t think these guys have much control. I see this group as a bunch of ultra-loyal programmers. We have yet to meet the knucklehead in charge,” Terry said.

  Auburn gave the thumbs up.

  “Smedley, my man, what’s the haps?”

  “I’m sorry, Colonel Walton, has your brain been injured?” Smedley replied through the communication system’s speakers.

  “No, I’m fine. We have the Crenellians’ computers in this outpost and was hoping that you’d be able to tap into them, learn some stuff, like where the headquarters might be, the access codes to shut down the planetary defense software. If that doesn’t work, we’re going to have to incrementally destroy every piece of the Crenellian war machine, no matter who is operating it, the dickheads or the stalk-heads.”

  Char elbowed Terry in the ribs, hitting him below the edge of his ballistic vest. “I mean the Crenellians or the Podders,” he corrected himself, while picking up the comm panel and pointing it around the space.

  “Punch some of the keys and let’s see if we can see what kind of digital footprint this thing leaves.”

  Terry complied. Then started punching specific buttons at Smedley’s request. The others left to go outside. Marcie remained behind with Auburn to search the space. There were a couple doors that they had not opened.

  ***

  “The Crenellians sold the hardware to the Podders that caused a great deal of damage to the War Axe,” Micky started explaining as soon as he saw Nathan’s face.

  Nathan Lowell took a long, slow drink of Pepsi. He closed his eyes and smacked his lips when he finished.

  “Sounds like a system that we could put around Keeg Station, as well as some of our other high-value planets. Can you get the tech details for us?”

  Micky twisted his mouth around. He wanted Nathan to be angry, not look at the damage to the War Axe as a technology demonstration. He could see the cold logic, but he wanted to be angry. He snorted as he understood why TH didn’t want to call.

  “I don’t know. Terry is on the planet right now, and I think they’re discussing the meaning of life with the Crenellians they’ve found.”

  “He knows not to kill any of them, right?” Nathan said, suddenly concerned.

  Micky shrugged. “Smedley, can you tie us in with Colonel Walton, please?”

  “I have him online already, let me patch him in,” Smedley replied. A split image appeared on Micky’s screen with Nathan on the left and Terry on the right. Terry was poking at a screen.

  “I’m hitting the fucking button, you half-baked ass monkey! These stupid symbols on the screen aren’t doing anything. Come on, fucker!”

  “Terry?” Micky asked.

  “Oh, hey! There you are,” Terry said, wiping his hand off on his pants leg. “I’ll get you for this, Smedley.”

  “Where are the Crenellians?” Nathan asked.

  “We took them outside while we tried to patch Smedley into their system. We’re still working on that.”

  “I gathered,” Nathan replied.

  “I am pushing the one on the right. No, my other right. Fucking Smedley!” Terry continued his monologue, then looked up in surprise. “Smedley’s in.”

  Terry Henry turned to face the communication system, listening intently as Nathan started to speak.

  “We could use that orbital defensive system the Crenellians sold the Podders, and anything else they have. Try to get schematics and programming for all of it, TH.” Nathan had leaned forward and was looking intently at the screen.

  “I understand, Nathan. I think we can leverage this mission into something far more than a few bars of gold. If we have those weapon systems, then we’ll be better equipped the next time we run across them. I doubt Poddern is the only planet they’ve been sold to,” Terry said before he looked over his shoulder and saw the screen scrolling and flashing as Smedley tore through the Crenellian programming.

  “What’s your status, Micky?” Nathan asked.

  “The worst of it is we lost our main weapon on the starboard side. We can’t open our hangar bay doors, but we didn’t lose anyone. All personal injuries have been fixed by the Pod Doc. Structural repairs continue,” the captain reported.

  “You can’t open the hangar bay doors?” Terry said, seeing his mission getting extended because the War Axe couldn’t recover the drop ships.

  “Not yet, TH. The doors are our number one priority. Commander Lagunov assures me that we’ll be able to recover you and your people whenever you call for pickup. You’re not calling for pickup right now, are you?”

  “Micky! That’s a good one, but no. Not yet. Once Smedley finds us the Crenellian headquarters, then we’ll be able to move this along a little more smartly. I suspect we’ll be using all our rockets shortly and may need another resupply, though, if we’re to take on more of these roaming automated combat units.”

  “We can’t resupply you for a few days. We have one more canister partially finished, but all resources have been allocated to ship repair. As long as that defensive system is still in place, a return high-speed pass could be problematic,” Micky replied.

  Terry pursed his lips before answering. “We’ll make do. Fix our ride, because the next time you come back, it’ll be to pick us up. We’ll figure this out, won’t we, Smedley?”

  Nathan and Micky watched as Terry turned back to the monitor and Smedley’s work with the system. From off-screen, the men heard Marcie’s voice. “Hey, Terry! We found something.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Poddern

  Kaeden’s armored unit ran at a ground-eating pace, jogging in the daylight, which allowed them to recharge more power than they were using.

  Capples was bringing up the rear and carrying the power supply. It was large enough that he had to use two hands and run with an ambling gait. He held it in front of him, using the suit’s sensors slaved to the others in the unit to make sure he knew where he was stepping.

  The delay in not being able to run at max speed was worth it, in Kae’s mind, because he had almost redlined his power when he received the colonel’s call to arms.

  The last thing he needed was to spend another long night on the ground outside of a dead suit.

  Kae waved his arms, signaling the unit to spread out. He had the point, Capples was directly behind him while three each spread out to the sides. They all saw the unit up ahead. Kae raised his hand, palm forward to slow down. They walked while their eyes, suit sensors, and micro-drones collected information on their target.

  “Holy shit,” Kaeden whispered as it came into focus.

  A massive tank, the size of a small spaceship, sat unmoving. It bristled with weaponry, missiles, gun tubes, radars, and other protrusions. The size of a football field or a soccer pitch, it sat and dominated the landscape.

  “Ideas?” Kae asked.

  “Not sure our rockets will do anything to that beast,” Cantor suggested.

  “The Beast. How in the fuck did they get it here?” Praeter asked.

  Kae shrugged and started walking toward it. An energy beam plowed the earth in front of him. “RUN!” he yelled.

  He didn’t mean from it. He meant to it, and that was how the warriors responded.

  Capples dropped the power supply and spooled up two rockets as he zigzagged slowly, building the distance between him and Kaeden.

  The others spread out and accelerated, jigging erratically as they ran. The Beast’s weapon systems fired repeatedly, but the targeting couldn’t keep up with the mechs.

  Kae led the way and leapt as high as the suit would take him. He contemplated using the jets to boost his height, but decided against it. He didn’t want to fly over the tank. He wanted to land in the middle of it.

  An energy beam grazed the suit. He could feel the heat, briefly, and then it was gone. Two red lights appeared, flashed twice, and turned back to green by the time he landed. Once on the tank,
he crouched and looked for a target, but found that he had time. The tank’s weapons were aimed outboard or upward. The designers hadn’t contemplated an attack like the one that the Bad Company had just made.

  One by one, the others vaulted to the top of The Beast. They cheered for Capples as he brought up the rear. Once the others were safe, he accelerated and jumped. A beam weapon hit him square in the chest and threw him back to the ground.

  Kaeden didn’t hesitate. He scrambled to get off the tank and staying low, ran to his teammate. He picked him up and threw him over one shoulder, then ran back to the tank. Beam weapons pocked the ground around him.

  Railguns opened up, destroying each of the weapons that fired. One by one, they fell silent. Kae took three last steps and jumped, landing on the back of the tank. He walked up the glacis until he was on the vehicle’s flat back, where he laid Capples on it. Kae could see through the visor that the man was alive and groaning.

  “Talk to me, Cap,” Kaeden encouraged.

  “Singed…around the edges…slammed around…just like in training,” the man managed to say.

  Kae helped him to a sitting position and propped him against a bulbous projection. “Hold the fort. We’re going to see if we can get inside and find the off switch.”

  ***

  Marcie pointed into the space behind the control room. “What do you think of that?” she asked.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Terry wondered.

  Auburn went inside, before quickly returning. “It is, but not for us. Who would have thought they would build an executive bathroom for this small crew? Showers, hot tub, sauna, sweet soft-seat toilets. Too bad everything is child-sized. The showerhead comes to my waist.”

  “So close. It would have been nice to cycle everyone through the showers. Oh well, they’ll just have to wait until they get back on board the ship.” Terry looked forlornly at the bathroom that was grossly out of place as part of an expeditionary warfighting outpost. “Maybe the Crenellians are more cultured than we gave them credit for. Anyone who builds this—” Terry pointed into the bathroom. “—to support this—” He pointed into the control room. “—has their priorities in the right place. If they only had a coffee maker…”

  Marcie opened the door to the next room.

  Terry peeked around the corner. There was no coffee, but he saw a well-stocked kitchen. He couldn’t recognize any of the foods and didn’t bother sampling them. The third and final room was austere, consisting of four bunkbeds and gray walls.

  “A kitchen, a styling bathroom, and all the rest is work chic.” Terry shook his head. “Smedley!”

  “Yes, Colonel Walton. I am always on the edge of my seat as I await your bellowed summons.”

  Marcie and Auburn snickered.

  “What did you find out?” Terry asked, confident that Smedley’s evolution to becoming sentient was nearly complete. Terry wondered why the target of the EI’s humor always seemed to be the colonel himself.

  “I have everything I could recover downloaded and am analyzing now. I have to replicate a few of their interfaces so the data makes sense. Imagine pulling a graphics file up in a reading program. It doesn’t work unless the program knows the file type. It shouldn’t be long. I expect to have a full analysis within a day,” Smedley replied.

  “Sounds great, Smedley, but a day isn’t going to work for me. I want to get off this rock now, but I can’t do that as long as there’s still a war. To end the war, I need you to tell me where the Crenellian headquarters is.”

  “I have that information. Let me display it for you.” A map appeared on the screen that they’d been using.

  “Son of a bitch,” Terry grumbled. “How far away is that?”

  “One thousand, four hundred kilometers.”

  “We’ll use the drop ships,” Terry replied definitively. “Thanks, Smedley. One more thing. What kind of defenses do they have protecting it?”

  “That is what will take another day or so. I will call you sooner if I have it.”

  Terry nodded and closed the comm channel. He quickly packed the gear. He thought he heard the water running in the bathroom. When he checked, he found Marcie washing her hair.

  “Since I was here and you were still on the phone.” She pulled a neatly folded towel from the stack and dried her mid-length blonde hair before bunching it back under her helmet. “I feel like a new woman.”

  “I’m sure Kaeden will appreciate your efforts. Have you heard from him?”

  ***

  “Fire in the hole!” Kae yelled as he slammed a grenade through a small hatch he’d been able to pry open. He stood on the hatch to hold it closed in case anyone tried to escape.

  The explosion bounced him into the air. When his feet hit the tank, he ripped the hatch open and shined a light inside. Unless he left his armored suit behind, there was no chance of getting inside. Even with his suit off, he wasn’t sure he’d fit.

  “Fleeter. Kelly. You’re the two smallest. I need one of you to ditch your suit and climb inside this thing, see if you can find a way to shut it down. I’d go, but I won’t fit.”

  “I’ll do it,” Fleeter said softly. “What the hell. No guts, no glory.”

  She walked across the top of the tank to join Kae outside the hatch. Fleeter parked her suit, the back opened, and she climbed out. She stretched in the open air, before catching herself and looking around.

  “First time out of the suit?” Kae asked.

  She thought for a moment before answering. “Yes.”

  “Disconcerting, isn’t it? One second, you’re indestructible, and then you’re bare-ass naked before the world, the epitome of vulnerability.”

  She had her clothes on, but understood what he was saying.

  “Exactly that,” she replied, while still crouching close to her suit. “It’s really loud out here.”

  Kae had set the suit to share sounds that he thought he needed to hear. He changed the filter setting to ambient. “Holy crap! Is that an engine spinning up?”

  The tank lurched and Kae almost lost his balance. Fleeter grabbed her suit to keep from falling. “Get in there and shut this thing down. Here, take a couple motivators with you.” Kae handed her two grenades.

  She didn’t take them as she held up a single finger. Wait one.

  Fleeter climbed through the hatch, finding it a tight squeeze until she was through, then she could see narrow and low passageways. One going forward and aft, while one headed to the other side of the massive vehicle.

  “Grenades!” she yelled through the open hatch, and Kae handed them down. She hooked them over her belt. She pulled her combat knife. The mech’s railgun was too large for her to carry. She looked at it hanging from her parked armor, and then looked back to Kaeden. “See you on the flipside, boss.”

  He gave her the thumbs up. The other mechs started firing their railguns. Kaeden rushed away to find out what was happening.

  ***

  “He won’t answer,” Marcie said, looking confused.

  “Get our friend back in here so he can tell us what’s going on out there. Has their remote weapon system engaged?”

  “Get the other Crenellian back in here!” Marcie yelled down the tunnel.

  “I could have done that,” Terry said as he watched Auburn pack and stow the comm gear.

  Terry stroked his chin and started to pace. Marcie let him go. Dokken and Christina were with the alien. He looked at the screens and back to Marcie. He didn’t say anything.

  “Please pull up the status of the weapon system that you turned loose. We want to know if it has engaged anything,” Marcie demanded.

  Emotionlessly, the Crenellian sat at the computer and started to work. “What have you done to my system?” he asked after a few heartbeats.

  “We had to copy some information out of there. Just do what you need to do to pull up the system status.”

  “It’ll take some time. I need to reboot.” The alien went through the system, conducting both soft and
hard boots of it. He went from station to station, before working his way back to where he started. Terry continued to pace. Dokken watched him as each time the colonel reached the large German Shepherd, he reached down and scratched Dokken’s ears.

  When the screen finally came up, Marcie breathed a sigh of relief. She half-expected the system to be dead after its conversation with Smedley. General Smedley Butler could be demanding at times, as well as not very gentle.

  “The system has fired its plasma beam weapons, its projectile systems, the laser systems, but it has not fired any missiles. Wait a moment. It has taken significant damage. Ten percent of its armaments have been neutralized. Make that eleven percent.”

  “That’s why Kae isn’t answering. He’s tearing that combat system a new asshole,” Terry said proudly.

  Marcie smiled. “Can you show what the combat unit looks like, please? Is it modular, a fleet of vehicles, mechs, or what?”

  The alien tapped his screen and The Beast appeared. “It is a self-contained, single combat system, optimized for open terrain worlds like Tissikinnon Four. We had it on standby, just in case the Tiskers failed to keep their side of the bargain.”

  “Walk softly and drive a big tank,” Terry whispered as he studied the weapon. “That looks like an Ogre.”

  “We call it Ground Assault System Four—Open Terrain.”

  “You call it GASFOT? That would be funny if we were in New York, but my son’s out there fighting with that thing. There has to be a way to shut it down.” Terry put his hand on the alien’s small shoulders. The Crenellian looked at the hand, but didn’t do anything about it.

  “There is not. Our systems are built with a failsafe that the weapon will continue the assault without instruction, in case the operations center is destroyed or otherwise compromised.”

  “That’s fucked up,” Terry said, scowling darkly. “That’s terrorist-level bullshit. Final solution, your knucklehead leader said? That’s really fucked up. I think Char was right. You fuckers are the galaxy’s douchebags. Every planet has them, and it was inevitable that the galaxy would have them, too. It sucks that it’s you, and we’re working for you, but that is an issue in my control that I aim to resolve forthwith.”