Different Paths (27 page)

“Nope. My raptors will be doing all the hunting
and the work, no way. I’ll give you twenty percent.”

DJ snickered. “Do you realize what Spartan would
do to me if he found out I was even talking to you?”

“Yes, I suspect I do. And I think I will send him
a copy of this conversation if you don’t take my offer.”

“Give me at least twenty-five percent!”

“Done!” Captain Dixon leaned in. “Now where and
when?”

“We are due to enter orbit around Mars at 0620
hours, if your fleet is there waiting…”

Captain Dixon rubbed his hands together in
anticipation. “Then we will have the Nemesis trapped.”

“Don’t underestimate Spartan!” DJ said, “He’s a
canny adversary!”

“True.” Captain Dixon rubbed his chin in thought.
“I tell you what, if you were to somehow disable the engines on the Nemesis, I
will up your portion to thirty percent.”

Quickly looking around, a gleam filled DJ’s eyes.
“For thirty-five percent I’ll disable her shields and engines. A small EMP
grenade in the engine room would do the trick.” Holding a grenade up for
effect, he continued, “Once we arrive, I’ll drop this baby in the engine room,
jettison myself in an escape pod and join you to collect the bounty. How does
that sound?”

Captain Dixon clapped his hands together.
“Excellent. You do your part and I’ll make sure you are rewarded. Dixon out!” 

Checking his chrono, Captain Dixon signaled his
com-center. “Recall all pilots and have all squadron leaders in my ready room
in thirty minutes!”

*   *   *   *   *

The vid-screen went black as DJ leaned back in his
chair and placed his hands behind his head. With a large grin covering his face
he asked, “Well…how’d I do?”

Everyone of his companions were smiling, except
Xerxes but then no one is sure when or if a mantis could smile, nevertheless DJ
thought he saw a sparkle in his large compound eyes.

Moving forward, Jay slapped him on the back. “Outstanding!
That was an Oscar winning performance if there ever was one!”

Talia and Iaido both said in unison. “A what?”

Shaking his head, Jay waved off their question.
“Nevermind. It’s a Terran thing from the 21
^st
century.”

DJ swiveled his chair to face Iaido. “Okay, I’m
not sure why but the JDL should be in orbit sometime around 0600 hours. Care to
explain?”

“Simple. If the Major has laid a trap for us,
which I am positive he has then the arrival of the JDL raptors should upset his
plans.” He nodded his head toward Athena. “According to our latest intel, we
know that when he went AWOL he took the Agamemnon with him.” He paused when he
noticed Talia’s bewildered expression. “Yes?”

“Awol?” she asked in a soft voice.

Iaido grinned. “Absent without leave…AWOL. It’s a
rather serious charge in the military. It means that he abandoned his post
without proper authority.” Seeing her nod, he continued his explanation. “According
to UNCF records there have been no sightings of the Agamemnon since her
departure but Athena dug up something interesting.”

Athena picked up the briefing. “According to Fleet
records, the Agamemnon was a Harbinger class battlecruiser. They were widely
used during the war; a total of one hundred and fifty were constructed between
the years 2175 and 2190. UNCF records state that one hundred and twenty seven
were lost in combat, twelve lost to natural mishaps, seven mothballed in the
Orion Shipyards, and visually accounted for by shipyard personnel I might add,
three missing-in-action and presumed lost with all hands, and one stolen…the
Agamemnon.”

Jay quickly did the math. “Okay. That’s one
hundred and fifty ships. All accounted for, so what?”

Athena flashed him a crooked smile. “The
Praetorian Guard has listed as an asset one Harbinger class battlecruiser, the
Romulus.”

DJ caught on. “So if all the Harbingers that were
manufactured by the Coalition are accounted for, where did this mysterious
Romulus come from?”

“Exactly. The Romulus must be the Agamemnon.”
Setting down a holo-crystal, Iaido flicked the switch to activate the display
of Mars. “Since the destruction of the Mars University, only two new habitats
have been built on Mars.”

Iaido pointed at the dark spot on the northern
pole of Mars. “According to the Coalition files, this is an automated
monitoring module that is studying the possibility of using some new
terra-forming technology to convert the polar icecaps to change atmosphere of
Mars to an M-class.”

Iaido shook his head. “I don’t believe this is the
Major’s home. It is too small and too recent; it seems to only have been put in
place two years ago.”

DJ pointed at the only other dark spot. “Simple
process of elimination.”

“Enhance.”

At Iaido’s command the image tightened and
expanded till the shape of the buildings were visible.

Built from the red rocks of Mars on a hilltop
overlooking the ruins of the university, the Roman style influence was
immediately visible with its large pillars and numerous statues. From the
companions’ overhead view the barrack looked like a veritable fortress.

“May I present Cohors Praetoria.”

Chapter 23

Once the Nemesis left Haven and made the jump to
hyperspace, all that was left to do was wait.

Everything that they could foresee had been
planned out and prepared. Since time began and wars fought, every soldier
discovers that the waiting before battle was the worst. There is always the
nervousness and excitement of the impending battle that quickens the blood but
as the waiting stretches on, the high wears off. Next come the worries and
questions. Will I live to see another sunset? Will my courage hold? Will my
buddy next to me die? These questions and many more plague the soldier, wearing
him down. Most veterans find something to do to fill the time; gambling, games,
sleep, sex, something and anything.

Iaido usually spent the time in meditation but
with the increased number of crew came new difficulties. Jay and DJ were in the
galley playing cards, an old soldiers’ favorite pastime. Athena was different
and only time would tell at where their relationship stood.

So, Iaido found himself wandering the passageways
of his ship with questions and doubts plaguing his mind. It wasn’t the fear of
the upcoming battle but the questions of his past which haunted him. Something
significant happened during Operation Lodestone and he didn’t know what it was.
In his line of work, proper intel was essential. Anything less and you were
guessing.

Finding himself outside of med-bay, Iaido knocked.
As the Captain of the ship, he could enter any compartment without permission
but proper manners dictated otherwise.

“Come in,” came Talia’s musical voice.

Iaido expected to find the compartment in the
sterile, pristine condition he had left it in but obviously, Talia had other
plans. She had lowered the ambient light in the room, had several candles
burning and a black cloth draped over the surgical table. She was standing near
the door dressed in a dark mesh robe with the cowl pulled down low over her
head, casting her features in dark shadows.

Talia pointed at the table and whispered, “Remove
your clothes and lay face down on the table.”

Iaido hesitated.

Talia asked, “Do you wish to know more of your
past, especially the mission where you lost your brother?”

Iaido nodded. “Yes.”

“Then, do as you are told and we shall make the
journey together.”

Not completely understanding what was to come but
wanting answers, he complied.

Moments later, he heard her begin to chant in an
ancient dialect of Sylvan and caught a glimpse of her bare feet when she moved
up beside him. Then, he felt her bare skin on his back as she climbed on top of
him. A cold chill moved up his spine as she began to spread some sort of liquid
on his back. After a few moments, she stopped chanting and leaned in to whisper
in his ear.

“Close your eyes and let your mind wander. Do not
think…dream… dream of the past.”

Iaido couldn’t help but notice the feel of her
breasts on his back. His mind and body was anything but relaxed until she
poured some warm, scented oil on to his back and began to massage his muscles.
First, she started on his lower back; probing and kneading the muscles. She had
also begun chanting again. As she continued her work, he felt himself falling
asleep. Somewhere between the shoulder blades and his neck, Iaido was out.

*   *   *   *   *

When Iaido woke up, he had no idea where he was. He
was standing in a fog bank, naked and the ship was gone. He could feel the
roughness of the ground; however it felt like hard-packed dirt. He could even
feel a slight breeze on his face but the impenetrable fog remained. Sensing
more than seeing any movement behind him, Iaido dropped into a fighting stance
and waited.

When Talia moved into view, he felt his pulse
quicken at the sight of her naked body. She had painted black stripes
diagonally across her body which both enhanced and hid her breasts and crotch
area. The streaks also broke up the loveliness of her face. Stopping before
him, her eyes looked him up and down. That’s when he noticed that he too was
striped. Curious, he reached down and ran his fingers through the band across
his chest.

“Don’t!” Talia reached out quickly and grabbed his
hand. “The henna protects us. When it wears off, we must return to our world.”

Iaido looked around. “Where are we?”

“We stand at the threshold between the Spirit World
and your mind. We are about to travel through your memories. Nothing can touch
us in here, only you and I are real.”

“Okay. What do we do now?”

“We? Nothing. You…everything. You need to think of
the last memories you have of the missing mission. Concentrate on that and
watch as the tale unfolds.”

With a nod, Iaido thought back on the memory
fragment he discovered when stuck in the gun turret. The Major in a panic, the
cold mannerisms of Aeneas, the conversation with Curtis the shuttle pilot, the
flying engine block….

*   *   *   *   *

Pushing myself to my knees, I instinctively scanned
my ARC suit’s HUDs.

First priority was personal survivability.  All
readings on my suit showed green; power, integrity, environmental and weapons. The
second precedence was the mission. The objective was to infiltrate and retrieve,
or assault and destroy, an ancient artifact hidden inside a secluded Lemurian
Fortress.

Since I was alive, the mission must proceed. It
was my duty to complete the mission or die trying. 

Every ARC suit was equipped with a transponder
signal which updated its location constantly to the rest of the team. With a
thought, my HUD showed the layout of the land, the location of all team members
and their combat status. Unfortunately, only eleven positions popped up. Perseus,
one of my brothers was gone. Ignoring the loss for now, I pulled out my THAB-Mk3,
engaged my chameleon program and began moving toward the target.

*   *   *   *   *

Iaido watched as the armored memory of himself
moved through the alien landscape like a ghost. Turning to Talia he said, “This
is very weird. I am both there and here.”

Talia gave his hand a gentle squeeze. “Yes but
don’t fight it, let the memories flow. As the memories get stronger, you will
remember other things than just what you experienced.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You will begin to recall information and facts
that you were told or things you assumed happened. Not everything in here is
the truth. Only you can truly decipher the facts from the half-truths.”

“Any hints?”

“Only that you should trust your own judgment.”

Iaido turned back to watch himself pause at a cliff,
take one look at the thousand foot drop, make a slight adjustment to the
inertia compensators and leap into the air.

*   *   *   *   *

Even as I made progress toward the target, I saw
that the rest of my teammates were making their approach also. A few had paired
up as they gotten closer and I noticed that one marker was vectoring towards my
current path. With a thought, I highlighted the marker and all pertinent
information popped up. It was the Sgt. Major.

It wasn’t long before I saw him.

Even with the chameleon program active on his ARC
suit, it couldn’t fully hide his bulk in the alien foliage. The chameleon
program was designed to shift the colors and thermal signatures of the suits,
blending them in with the surrounding areas. Since the Sgt. Major stood at an
even six foot five but weighed every bit of three hundred pounds of solid
muscle, his suit was huge.

Now that we were within line of sight of each
other, verbal communication was allowed. The ARC suits could broadcast through
a built-in laser tac-net that was nearly impossible to detect.

“Greetings Sgt. Major.”

“Achilles. Good to see you made it down safely.”

Unconsciously, I rubbed the dent in my helmet made
by the flying engine block. “I don’t remember much, other than the shuttles
getting blown apart.”

“Not much to remember. We were toast the moment we
came out of hyperspace. The lizards had some way of tracking our ships.”

“True… but that doesn’t change our mission… or
does it?”

The Sgt. Major’s shoulder-flaps popped open and
closed. Since the ARC suits didn’t allow the normal non-verbal communication
that people use; the shrugging of shoulders, nodding or shaking of the head,
other non-verbal cues had been developed. Although the shoulder flaps were
designed to regulate the speed and gain some control during a free-fall, the
opening and closing of them while on the ground was the same as shrugging your
shoulders. In other words, the Sgt. Major hadn’t received any official word on
the mission but suspected that something was going to change. They had both
been with the military too long to expect that the mission objective would stay
unchanged after the debacle of our insertion.