Storm' Fury: The Shenkar War (28 page)

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it seems one particular squad had requisitioned three times the normal amount of weapons and explosives. There were also a couple items that really do not fit for what they were requesting them for. When I explained they were not authorized to take everything I was then threatened with bodily harm.”

“Bodily harm?”

“Specifically, I would get to see what I ate for lunch firsthand by having my head stuffed up my…..”

Liam, held up a hand, cutting off the officer before he could finish.

“Yes, I get your point, take me to this squad.”

The flustered officer led Liam to a bay where several shuttles were berthed. His suspicions of the guilty individuals were confirmed upon entering the hanger bay. The troubled men and women he had put together to become an elite group of
Praetorians
were moving in and out of one of the shuttles. Another flustered middle aged non comm was shifting between the men and women making his best effort to stop the unloading of the shuttle. However, anytime he would manage to get anything back into the shuttle it would quickly be removed again…..it was a losing battle yet the man never gave up.

Liam had managed to close the entire distance to stand next to the unloaded equipment before Eddie Graniar, one of the squad members, noticed Liam and snapped to attention.

“Attention, officer on the deck!”

At this, the Warrant officer gave Liam an exasperated look, clearly annoyed at not being acknowledged as being a superior officer.

Liam waited until the men and woman assembled before him before he spoke.

“I have been informed there has been some disagreement regarding the requisition of equipment.”

At this point the Warrant officer hurried forward to hand Liam his datapad.

“You will the items in question have been highlighted. I think if you study them you will see my point.”

Taking the datapad, Liam studied it before he looked up at his assembled team.

“Robinson, it says you requested the Em-5 energy cannon as your personnel weapon?”

“Yes, sir, that is correct.”

“That is not possible, the EM-5 energy cannon is designed as a stationary weapon set upon a tripod with its accompanying power generator….the complete system weighs one hundred and eighty four pounds!” interrupted the officer.

Liam held up a hand to silence the officer before he turned back to Sergeant Robinson.

“I am sure you are aware of the weight, so could you explain how you plan to effectively wield this weapon in combat?”

James removed what looked like a harness from a pocket and walked over to the power generator. The generator was roughly two and half feet long by one and half feet wide.

Kneeling down he secured the harness in various areas. James, then picked up the generator, secured the harness over his shoulders, which in turn secured the generator in place on his back. James then removed another strap from another pocket, secured it to a point midway along the cannon, then ran it up and around the back of his neck to come back down to secure to the back end of the cannon.

Once all the straps were secure, James stood up, easily hefting the cannon in his hands. Casually, he walked over to stand roughly twenty feet from a pile of empty crates. In one smooth motion James leveled the cannon at the boxes and depressed the trigger. Swinging the cannon side to side he quickly obliterated the piles of crates. Once completed James turned back to Liam.

“Not a problem sir, would you care for another demonstration?” James asked as he leveled the cannon onto the Warrant officer.

“No, I would say that was an effective demonstration.”

Smiling, Liam turned back to the now sick-looking officer.

“I do not see the issue with Sergeant Robinson’s choice of weapons. Shall we agree on this?”

The officer quickly glanced towards the cannon once more before nodding his head.

“Ok, so now let us look at the next item you have highlighted.”

The Warrant officer took this opportunity to study the datapad as he collected himself before he spoke again.

“Well, there is a request for four sniper rifles yet there are only two snipers in the squad.”

Liam looked at the datapad then looked up to spot his two snipers.

“Dewitt, Henderson, please clarify for the Warrant officer the reason for your request.”

Henderson looked at Dewitt before he stepped forward and spoke.

“Sir, if the Warrant officer will take a closer look he will see that we requested two different rifles each. One is the Barrett M82A1 and the other is one of the new M93 energy rifles. Do I need to explain any further?”

“I am pretty sure I know your reasoning but for the Warrant officer’s sake, please explain.”

Henderson turned to face the Warrant officer.

“As you can clearly see, one weapon is a kinetic weapon and the other is an energy weapon. Our mission will take into combat situations that none of us will have been in before. Dewitt and I felt we would be better prepared if we had both a kinetic weapon as well as an energy weapon. We figure our targets might on occasion have protection from one form of attack but possibly not both types. We like to have better odds at eliminating or targets.”

The Warrant officer just stared at Henderson for a few moments before he just shook his head.

“Okay, I guess I can accept that.”

              Liam waited for Henderson to rejoin is squad before speaking.

              “Is there anything else or can I let my men and woman continue unloading the equipment?”

              Now, looking slightly defeated, the officer once again examined his datapad. Finding what he was looking for he puffed out his chest and thrust the datapad forward.

              “Yes, if you look at line twenty through thirty one you will see a requisition for an exorbitant amount of explosives.”

              Sighing, Liam took the datapad once again, quickly looked at it before turning back to his squad.

              “Reuban, Graniar, would you care to explain the reason for requisitioning so much explosive materials?”

              Graniar didn’t even exchange looks with Reuban but instead stepped forward.

              “Well sir, the thing is, we like to blow shit up.”

              Then the jolt of what he said hit him and he quickly continued on.

              “We figured we will be taking the fight to the Shenkar and didn’t want to run out of explosives. It is better to be safe than sorry.”

              “I can accept that,” Liam stated.

              “But sir, the amount of explosives is beyond….” began the officer but Liam cut him off.

              “Will you be accompanying us on this mission?”

              “Well….I do not see how that matters…” stammered the Warrant officer.

              “Just answer the question,” demanded Liam.

              “Well, no I won’t be. I am just supervising the transferring of equipment and supplies.”

              “Then I suggest you keep your opinion to yourself. I would prefer to have a little extra boom along in the event we need it. Do you understand me?”

              Before the Warrant officer could answer, Liam heard Anthony Caprenni whisper to someone.

              “Is it really wise to upset the most powerful Templar knight? I mean, can’t he just like mentally pick him up and chuck him out the nearest airlock?”

              The officer must have heard the whisper because at this point his face took on a sort of sickly green hue.

              “Umm…Yes sir, I was only trying to be thorough. If it is okay with you I will just leave your men and woman to the unloading. I think we can just forget about the rest I have highlighted.”

              With that, the Warrant officer saluted Liam and quickly retreated to another section of the hanger bay. The non comm, who had been trying to stop the unloading when Liam had arrived, now began to help the unloading of the shuttle.

              “You really do have a way with people, don’t you?”

              Liam turned to see Steve standing next to him.

              “I mean, did you see how quickly that guy ran away? You would think you threatened to throw him out an airlock or something. What did you say to him anyway?”

“Nothing, is there something I can help you with?”

Steve looked at the Warrant officer skeptically for a few moments before turning to Liam. Steve hesitated, as he seemed to be trying to look for the right words.

“Uh…yeah, I was sent for you. It seems your friend Dr. Johansin has taken a turn for the worse. I am sorry, but they don’t expect him to survive much longer.”

Liam’s chest tightened at hearing the news. His feelings for the man had grown from mutual respect to viewing him as a father figure.

Liam took off a jog as he weaved his way through the passageways to the hanger bay where his fighter was. Without even thinking, Liam vaulted up ten feet from the deck to land inside his cockpit. Several members of the crew stopped what they were doing to just stare at what Liam had just done but Liam didn’t care. Normally, Liam would stare down anyone until they looked away but now he only had one concern on his mind. Donning his headset he keyed opened the channel and spoke.

“Flight control, this is Necro one requesting clearance for takeoff.”

Not waiting for a response, Liam immediately began cycling up the fighters engines. The whine of the engines immediately sent men and women retreating to a safe distance. His maneuvering thrusters had already ignited before flight control responded.

“Necro one, this is flight control, you have clearance for takeoff.”

Liam maneuvered his fighter into place and ignited his afterburners. As his fighter shot forward into open space all Liam could think was he prayed he wouldn’t be too late.

January 14
th
, 2014 1:43pm

Olympus
Base
, Hospital

Liam burst through the door to Milton’s room, startling the doctor and nurse that were present. Liam moved forward to stand beside the bed. To look at Milton in his current condition was heartwrenching. It was clear by his wasted appearance that it would be unlikely he would survive much longer.

“How long?” Liam asked softly.

“He is not likely to make it through the night. I am sorry, commander, I know you two are close,” said the doctor.

“He has been like a father to me. Could you leave us alone? I would like to be here with him when he passes. I will call you if he needs anything.”

The doctor nodded, before he ushered the nurse and himself from the room. Walking over to the door, Liam opened it slightly to make sure the doctor and the nurse had in fact left. Satisfied, he wouldn’t be disturbed he quickly closed the door and returned to Milton’s bedside. Leaning over he whispered into his Milton’s ear.

“I know you asked me not to interfere but I will be damned if I will let you go when I can save you.”

Liam pulled back the bedcover then withdrew a scalpel he had hidden in a pocket. Pulling back the hospital gown to expose his chest, he then made a small incision in Milton’s chest, right over his heart. Quickly, Liam then made a similar incision on his palm and pressed his palm to the incision on Milton’s chest.

He once again repeated the process he was quickly becoming accustomed to. Directing his nanites, he set forth on his task. His nanites quickly spread; first he positioned a pocket of them around his heart in the event they were needed to restart his heart. He then began seeking out and destroying the cancer that presented the most danger. Once a pocket of cancer was removed he also set his nanites to repairing any damaged tissue. Liam was thorough in his search for all cancerous cells. Once he was satisfied that he had eliminated most of the cancer and Milton was out of danger, Liam withdrew most of his nanites, leaving some behind to finish destroying the cancer. The instructions were to slowly destroy the cancer at a rate that would suggest he was responding to treatments. Once he was cancer free, the nanites would self-destruct, destroying all evidence of their presence.

Once the incision was repaired, Liam then replaced Milton’s hospital gown and bed covers. Grabbing a nearby chair, Liam pulled it up next to Milton’s bedside and then sat down. Looking at the clock he noted that almost two hours had passed. Sweat covered Liam’s face and he felt like he hadn’t slept in days.

Rubbing his eyes, he sat back and looked around the room. There were a few cards and flower arrangements on a nearby table but not really much that showed he had had a lot of visitors. In truth, Milton hadn’t been very popular with his coworkers. He had been known as a task master and always demanded the most of people. It was only over the last couple months that he had changed. Liam liked to think that he had something to do with this. Milton had begun to spend less time in the lab and more time with Liam and Leah. On several occasions, Liam had overheard people saying how the Grinch’s heart had grown.