Merkiaari Wars: 04 - Operation Breakout Read online

  “Aye, aye,” Barnes replied and started detailing off the men.

  Perry nodded and stepped away to a cleaner part of the deck. “Assault Two, report status.”

  “Engineering intact and secure, sir. We found Astron’s engineers too. They were being held in one of the generator rooms. I think we killed all the hijackers. None surrendered but I have the men running a security sweep in case we missed one.”

  “Casualties?”

  Barrass sighed. “Six wounded and two dead. I should have used the AAR sooner but—”

  “Don’t second guess yourself now, Paul. There will be time enough for that later during debriefing. I need to contact Warrior and find out how things are going out there. Continue your sweep of engineering, and then expand it. Let’s check out the other decks, just in case. Send your wounded and dead back to the shuttles. I’ll get them to Warrior as soon as I can.”

  “Yes, sir. Assault Two out.”

  Before Perry could contact the ship, he received an update request through Lieutenant Ricks aboard Warrior. He took a deep breath and prepared to explain how he had lost Major Appleford and six good marines.

  * * *

  3 ~ Investigations

  Aboard Assault shuttle, on route to Jean de Vienne

  The ride to the raider ship gave Colgan time to dwell on all that had happened here in Helios and what he would put in his report. The near calamitous collision upon system entry, Tait’s threats and the battle, victory aboard Astron tempered with the news of Major Appleford’s demise, and then the brief spat upon Jean de Vienne when Tait threatened to scuttle his own ship along with Captain Perry’s marines rather than surrender his bridge. That had been a bad moment. If Tait hadn’t been subdued by his own fearful bridge crew, the outcome would have looked very different right now.

  Tait had been one crazy sonofabitch, and Colgan was glad he was dead, but being dead made it very hard to question him about what they’d found in one of his boat bays. There was evidence of blown ships and jacked cargoes in there. Colgan hated to think how many dead crews it all represented, certainly enough to ensure the remnants of Tait’s crew would spend many years on a penal station or colony. Hopefully more than that. Murder was punishable by mind-wipe.

  Captain Perry’s marines had killed almost all of Jean de Vienne’s crew aboard Astron, though he hadn’t known that at the time. A Banshee class destroyer in navy hands would have been crewed by three full watches, plus a full complement of marines to handle boarding actions as well as crew the ship’s weapons in local control when necessary. In the region of three hundred and fifty men and women customarily crewed such ships. Perry had expected heavy opposition, but when he went aboard to secure it, he found it almost abandoned. Tait had been running only a single watch, and of course they doubled as his boarding party. All told, Jean de Vienne had been crewed by less than two hundred individuals. It was little wonder the ship had been so badly handled when more than fifty percent of its crew wasn’t even aboard.

  The fighting was over, and it was time to deal with the clean up and ramifications of what they’d found. Colgan had decided to see the cargo himself in an effort to estimate its worth and origins, but he already knew his report would light a fire under some of the brass. The Red One Alert had yet to be relaxed, despite no sightings of the Merkiaari. Ships and personnel had been consolidated in key systems in anticipation of an incursion by the Merki that hadn’t arisen, and that had put the navy under pressure in other areas. Warrior’s current anti-piracy patrol wasn’t unusual, but the size of its responsibility was. His ship was the only navy asset in a sector normally patrolled by a task force. One ship instead of eight. He couldn’t be everywhere he needed to be, so he’d done the only thing he could. He spent most of his time in foldspace, randomly jumping to each of the systems he was responsible for in an effort to keep would-be pirates guessing and wary.

  Something had to give, and soon.

  If the evidence aboard Tait’s ship was at all representative of other sectors in the Alliance, then incidences of piracy was way up. He saw no help for it despite his personal knowledge of the Merki danger. The brass would have to rescind the Red One and begin patrolling the Border Zone aggressively again. The waste of it all grated on him. The Alliance should be concentrating upon the fight that was coming with the Merkiaari, not diverting resources to combat their own miscreants, but he was a realist. People never changed. War and piracy within the Alliance would always be a problem, history proved that.

  The Border Zone grew year on year, expanding outward in unplanned unregulated jumps as corporations and individuals took advantage of untapped resources found in systems far away from Alliance oversight. The core worlds grew in number gradually absorbing the oldest Border Worlds, but the absorption was far slower than the Zone’s expansion, and that stretched navy resources to the breaking point. The stability and civilising influence of living within the core was a proven phenomenon. Armed conflict was rare within the core, but the Merki threat meant the military could not simply be based within the Border Zone. The navy and other branches of the military had to protect the greatest concentration of people, and that meant the Border Zone was often left in a totally lawless state.

  He was a firm supporter of properly regulated expansion of the Alliance. Growth was important to the Human spirit, and nothing proved it better than the near stagnation the Alliance experienced following the Merki War. The Survey Corps had been the council’s answer to the chaotic unregulated expansion of the Border Zone, and Colgan had been proud to be part of it. The idea had been to survey systems and worlds to target resources on the very best candidates for new colonies. No longer would it be left to chance. Funds would follow to create colonies that from the beginning would emulate the core with industry, law and order, and even navy protection guaranteed from the start. In essence, the Council wanted to create core worlds on the edge of the Border Zone in hopes that such nodes of core world civilisation would spread and have a civilising impact on nearby systems.

  “It could have worked,” Colgan said to himself and frowned. “It would have worked given enough time.”

  “Sorry, sir?” Anya said. “You said something?”

  “Just thinking aloud.”

  “About?”

  He shrugged. “Survey and how the Council’s colony plan would have worked given time.”

  “Ever visited the Kalmar Union?”

  “Ow! That was a sudden turn in the conversation. I think I have whiplash.”

  Anya grinned. “If you look at Kalmar in the right light, you could be fooled into thinking the Council based its colonisation plan upon the Union.”

  Colgan frowned. “You sound as if you think that’s a bad thing, Anya.”

  The Kalmar Union was one of a few multi-system political entities within the Alliance. It was the largest such member, and used its power by voting as a block. There were other parties that did similar things, not least the Border Worlds Party whose members were Alliance worlds scattered widely around the periphery of Alliance space. They were sandwiched between the core worlds and the Border Zone and as such weren’t truly border worlds but chose to call themselves such. Unlike Kalmar, they weren’t united spatially, or economically, or militarily, but they were philosophical and political allies.

  “It isn’t a bad thing, but it could go wrong.”

  “Explain.”

  Anya puffed out her cheeks, obviously wishing she’d kept her mouth shut. “Well, here we are in Helios. It’s a nothing system that only has a navy presence because of the gas mine and refuelling station.”

  “Go on.”

  “Let’s pretend the Council thinks Helios III is a very nice touristy kind of planet that would make a great colony.” Anya grinned at his snort. Helios III was a barren rock. The system had no habitable planets. “The Council pumps money into the system, a core world is born. What happens then?”

  Colgan frowned. “The idea is that it becomes a stabilising influence
... I get it. Like Kalmar stabilised the members of its Union by uniting them under its government, you think your hypothetical Helios would do the same.”

  “Right, and on the face of it that would seem a good thing, but what happens when my Helios Union decides it doesn’t want to be part of the Alliance anymore? What happens when it sets up its own rival Alliance, the Helios Alliance? Perhaps they don’t like our taxation policy, or the amount they have to tithe to the navy. You see where I’m going.”

  “Fragmentation,” Colgan murmured uneasily. “But that could have happened at any time in our history, and it hasn’t.”

  “The Alliance is young, Skipper. It was only created to fight the Merkiaari two centuries ago. Human history is thousands of years old and is full of empires that rose and fell. And anyway, what is the Kalmar Union if not a mini Alliance? We don’t see it that way because it’s benign, which is just another way of saying it’s on our side. There’s nothing stopping any member world breaking away and setting up shop, except self interest. Give my Helios Alliance enough advantages, and why should it tow Earth’s line?”

  “It’s not Earth’s line,” Colgan protested automatically.

  “But that’s how the Border Zoners think, sir. Old Earth, old world thinking. You’ve heard them. I know you have.”

  Colgan nodded. People choosing to live way out in the Border Zone were a special breed. They didn’t really want civilisation, not the civilisation that the big six and other core worlds represented. They valued their freedom above everything else and that included safety. Given a choice between living on the edge of survival or being fitted with a simcode implant, they would choose the former every time.

  “Point taken, but what’s the alternative?”

  Anya shrugged. “What’s wrong with what we have? So okay, expansion is slow, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing as long as we do expand. New worlds grow into membership rather than being born into it so to speak. They have to want membership and strive to achieve it. I think that’s better. Slower, but better long term. If the Council wants to help things along, then that’s fine, but it shouldn’t pour resources into a few systems that in the future could become nodes of unrest or future rivals. The Alliance should spread its efforts by supporting Survey Corps and lending help to the start ups, but it shouldn’t build ready made clone-like colonies and just hand them over.”

  “You’ve really thought about this.”

  “Some. I come from Last Chance... Flotsam,” she rolled her eyes at the name that had become popular because of Zelda’s show. “You can believe me when I say that I know how Border Zoners live and think, Skipper. When I joined the navy and saw other worlds I couldn’t believe it. Sheep, I used to think. Worlds full of sheep doing what they were told the way they were told to do it, as long as the credits kept flowing. It’s not politically correct, I know—I’m a tactical officer not a politician—but that’s how we view Core Worlders. Border Zoners pride themselves on their self sufficiency. They do what they like, think what they like, and don’t like being told how to live. They have pride in building something from nothing and surviving on their wits. I think that sort of thing will make stronger colonies and people in the long run.”

  “You might be right. Not many marines come from the big six, and percentage wise, few come from the older core worlds.”

  Anya shrugged. “Core worlds have their own militaries. The navy and the marines recruit from anywhere.”

  That was true. The Border Worlds didn’t have the credits to fund proper militaries, and so aspiring recruits turned to the Alliance marines and navy.

  Colgan felt the shuttle slow. They were on final approach to Jean de Vienne. He’d read Perry’s initial report regarding what he’d found, but he was impatient to see it himself. He had to finish this business and jump outsystem. With Warrior the only ship in this part of the sector, who knew what catastrophe was looming just waiting for his arrival? Colgan grimaced. He was turning paranoid.

  The shuttle made a soft landing in the bay and Anya went to open the hatch. She checked the tell-tales for pressure in the bay and then opened it. The familiar stale air wafted in smelling of old ship, fuel, and hot synthetics. Standard for any ship with time on its clock. Knowing his disregard for polite inanities where ceremony was not only unneeded but got in the way of real work, Anya preceded him out of the shuttle and down the ramp. Colgan followed her down.

  Captain Perry met them at the bottom of the ramp. He didn’t salute, but Colgan saw his hand twitch and start to rise. He smiled inwardly. Had he cared for ceremony, and had he been arriving on a navy ship and not a captured pirate, Perry would have stiffened to attention and saluted. Here it was not appropriate, but Colgan appreciated the thought. He had wondered whether Perry blamed him for Major Appleford’s death, but couldn’t ask. By Perry’s demeanour, Colgan didn’t think so.

  “Welcome aboard, Skipper,” Perry said and flushed a little.

  “Thank you, Captain. I’m going to send Anya off to the bridge while you show me what you’ve found. I want her to download the logs and any other data we can mine before we blow this wreck to kingdom come.”

  “Ah... about that. The scuttling charges are all in place as you ordered, sir, but I have concerns about using them.”

  Colgan’s eyebrows rose. “You do?”

  “Yes, sir. I can show you why...?”

  Colgan nodded and turned to Anya. “You know what I’m hoping for, Anya. Get to it.”

  “Aye, sir,” Anya said and hurried off.

  “Okay, show me,” he said, wondering what could possibly be good enough to prevent him destroying the ship.

  Perry led the way to the boat bay that Tait had been using to store his loot. Upon entering the bay, Colgan noted his crew gathering evidence. Everything was being recorded, and he could have waited to view those recordings on Warrior, but he felt better seeing it personally. It would all be reduced to space dust along with the ship soon. Wasteful, but without her fusion plant, Jean de Vienne couldn’t move independently. He couldn’t leave her adrift and a hazard to traffic. Besides, out here in the Border Zone she might well be repaired and sold. A few months down the road he could be facing her guns again under a new name and management. Cynical much? Absolutely. If Perry managed to convince him not to destroy it, he would have to devise something to prevent the ship falling into the wrong hands. He didn’t want to. He just wanted to be done with it, off load his prisoners, and get back to work. He couldn’t imagine what Perry thought he’d found that might change that. He supposed he was about to find out.

  Pallets of cargo were stacked everywhere he looked. Neatly too, and well secured. His crew were recording shipping tags to learn the contents, and if tags were missing they were using pallet loaders to move them out of the stacks so they could be opened. Without looking closely, Colgan couldn’t begin to guess what they contained. Packing crates and shipping containers were pretty much generic except maybe when they contained munitions. These didn’t. They were all dirty white not the drab green used by Alliance weapons factories.

  Perry turned aside and Colgan frowned. They were entering the maintenance hangar, an area off the main bay where shuttles could be dismantled and repaired. There were cargo containers here too. No shuttles. Tait had probably sold them if he’d had them to begin with.

  Perry crossed the hangar ducking under a crane’s hook that had been left too low, and stopped beside an open shipping container. It was one of the bigger ones, about 3metres square and about half that tall. Perry glanced inside, and then back to Colgan silently.

  What the hell was the secret? Colgan marched up to the container feeling a little peeved with Perry. He didn’t want to feel that. The marine had performed in exemplary fashion as his report would show, but this silence was annoying. He reached the container and looked inside. He blinked, and looked up at Perry, before looking down again.

  “Well... damn.” Perry was right; they wouldn’t need the scuttling charges.
/>   “That’s what I said, sort of, sir. I’ve sworn Deacon, that’s Sergeant Churchill, to silence. His squad too. They found it... him. The thing is, it will leak out eventually, sir. Marines talk. They won’t mean to disobey, but...” he shrugged.

  “Understood. Is this the only one?” Colgan looked around and noted the other containers were still sealed. They all had cryo units mounted to them, as did the open one. That didn’t mean they all contained the same thing, but he had a feeling. “Get Deacon and his men back in here. Let’s crack them all and record what we have. The scuttling charges… get someone to remove them all. I don’t want any accidents.”

  “Yes, sir,” Perry said and stepped aside to make his calls.

  Colgan glared down at the frozen Merkiaari male with loathing. Where did you come from? Why are you dead? Why and how are you here? Question upon question piled up in his thoughts. This find was huge no matter the alien was dead. Where had Tait found it? Wherever it was, it must be within human space; somewhere he would have visited looking to steal or jack something—somewhere in the Border Zone.

  Colgan used the comm in his command wand. “Anya?”

  “I’m still working on it, sir. Paranoid suckers. They passworded the helm controls!”

  “Understood. I’m suddenly extremely interested in this ship’s jump log. Extremely. Are we clear?”

  Anya was silent for a few moments. “Extremely is understood, sir. I’ll make that my priority.”

  “Good.”

  Colgan turned to witness a squad of marines enter. They looked worried, and well they should. An incursion had been expected, a Red One Alert was in effect. They were, despite appearances, at war with the Merkiaari. The enemy had failed to show up, until now, but what if they had? What if, out there somewhere, the Merki were cleansing a Border World and the news had simply failed to escape the system? It could easily happen. It had happened during the last war more than once. This find could be the warning the Alliance needed that an incursion was already underway.