The Tactics of Revenge (2 page)

Through his panic and confusion, Poul could now see two large piles of bodyguards, completely subduing the killers. But then a blood-covered blade suddenly shot out of the back of one of the guards; it quickly receded, only to appear a breath later out of the back of another of the guards. In the meantime, one of the massive guards in the other pile went flying into the air and landed face up in front of Poul. The guard’s eyes were closed, and although Poul could see no wounds, he instinctively knew the creature was dead.

And then the two assassins exploded out of the piles of now-dead guards, standing with fierce, wild looks in their eyes, blood dripping down their faces and staining their clothing. As Poul lay on the bed of creatures who had fallen with him, he looked at the face of the male assassin, and then at the image looming behind him on the wall. Except for the lack of horns and fangs, the creature standing before him was a
Human!

The stampede had begun, and Poul struggled to regain his feet and make his way to the exit. Yet before he could, the female Human shot past him at an unbelievable speed, crashing through the panicked crowd to place her back against the double exit doors, preventing any in the room from escaping. The Human male then jumped effortlessly to the top of the table, where only moments before the five Juireans had sat. He threw off his blood-soaked cloak, and swung a Xan-Fi flash rifle from around his back. He lifted the deadly weapon in his hands and sent a bolt into the ceiling.

Almost instantly, the room became deathly quiet, as all eyes fell upon the Human. Holding the flash rifle as he did, the image of the savage Human killer was now complete. This was the enemy – and the enemy was right here, on Poul’s own planet!

The Human waved the rifle to his left. “All of you move to this side of the room – hurry!” But then the creature pointed the barrel of the rifle directly at him. “All except you.”

Poul nearly fainted, and his nin-arms began to click and quiver uncontrollably. He used his mid-arms to place the nins in his pockets, just to still them, and then rose weakly to his feet. The Human was still staring at him.

“You seem like a peaceful creature,” the Human said to him. “Why do you want to fight against us? Our war is with the Juireans, not you.”

Poul was surprised that words could still emanate from his throat, even though they cracked as they did so. “I don’t want to fight you. I just need the credits to support my pod.”

The creature nodded at him. “I can understand that.” Then the Human looked behind the table and down at the boxes of Juirean credits sitting on the floor, the source of the signing advance most of the recruits were to receive that evening. He turned to address the room.

“My name is Adam Cain: remember that, you will be asked. We Humans are at war with the Juireans because they came to our homeworld and killed over a billion of our people. We were no threat to them, yet they attacked us anyway, purely out of fear and evil intent. But you can be assured that we will not rest until every last Juirean is dead. You can join them – and die. Or you can remain neutral, and you will not be harmed. The choice is yours.” Then the creature looked down at Poul. “Come here,” he commanded, as he jumped off the back of the table.

Poul did as he was told. The Human bent down and scooped up a large handful of credits from one of the boxes. He reached across the table and began to stuff the chips into a pocket of Poul’s robe. The blood-strained creature repeated the process three more times, until Poul’s pockets were bulging with easily a year or two worth of income! His heart was pounding, and he was growing light-headed.

“All of you in this room will receive a share of the credits the Juireans brought with them. Use them as best you can. When Humans win this war – and we will –trade will not be restricted among the worlds, nor will we horde the secrets of technology. You will be allowed to start businesses and to prosper as never before.” The Human – Adam Cain was his name – looked again at Poul. “You only have to fear us if you join the Juireans. If not, then we will leave you in peace. Now you, come over here and start passing out these credits for as long as they last.”

And then the Human winked an eye at him. Poul was at a lost as to the meaning associated with the gesture, but he sensed that he and the blood-soaked beast had just shared a moment, a connection of some sort. Yet a heartbeat later, the creature was gone, dashing from the hall, with the female close behind.

For a moment, no one in the room moved, and then suddenly there was surge toward the table where Poul stood. Whether it was out of a sense of duty, or of survival, Poul quickly began to place stacks of credits into the eager hands of the other occupants in the hall. He continued to pass out the chips as fast as he could, his actions maintaining a delicate balance between hysteria and panic within the noisy crowd of wide-eyed creatures.

These credits would help, Poul thought – for a while. But then he would have a decision to make. He could continue down his current path, or he could try to find another line of work, one not associated with Juireans or the weapons of war. In light of the encounter he’d just had with the Human beast, the latter path seemed like the most-sensible – and healthy – to follow….

Chapter 2

Adam Cain and Sherri Valentine barreled their way through the angry and confused crowd of aliens outside the hall, heading for a back alley they’d scouted earlier. It wouldn’t be long before the authorities would arrive and put an end to Adam’s Robin Hood-like generosity with the Juirean credits. But in the meantime, the quest for the free credits would turn the once-passive crowd of potential recruits into a raging mob of desperate individuals. If they were lucky, it would be hours before peace would be restored, and by then the two Humans would be well on their way off the planet.

The killing of Juireans was always a dicey affair, and there was the possibility that all traffic off the planet would be halted once the killings were reported. So the day before, Adam had had the small shuttle craft they’d acquired from General Angar placed on the back of a transport truck and driven to an open field not too far from Lann Hall. Adam couldn’t risk leaving the shuttle at the spaceport. Locating it in the nearby field, away from any formal flight restrictions, would give them an opportunity to get off the planet, even if all the spaceports were locked down.

It was well into Day18 by the time they made their way to the field, but there was still plenty of light from the nearby streetlamps, as well as from the three moons of Hyben. The shuttle was sitting to the far left edge of the field, looking conspicuous and out of place, and as they sprinted across the field, Adam began to notice that the shuttle didn’t look quite right. As they drew closer, the reason soon became apparent.

The main hatchway for the shuttle was missing, as were the rear chemical jet ports; even the electronic code box for the entry hatch was missing, with only bare wires dangling from the opening. The craft itself was sitting cock-eyed on the ground, with one landing gear unit missing. And to top it all off, there was even some graffiti sprayed on the surface of the shuttle.

The craft had been stripped and tagged!

The two Humans entered the shuttle to find even more disappointment inside. The entire pilothouse was one cavernous room of missing modules and orphan wires – even the pilot and co-pilot seats were gone.

Adam and Sherri stood in silence, shoulders slumped, mouths agape. Here they were on a planet in Sector 16, two hundred light years from The Fringe, and their only ride off the planet was now an empty hulk of useless metal. And to add to that, they had just killed five Juireans, along with an untold number of their bodyguards, and soon the entire planet would be looking for them.

Sherri looked over at Adam. “Here’s another fine mess you’ve got me into,” she said, half-mockingly.

He returned her gaze and flashed a wide smile. “Look on the bright side: we still have our health!”

“Yeah, but for how long?”

Adam just shrugged, and then the two of them quickly moved to the aft section of the shuttle, to the ship’s sole berthing quarters. Fortunately, most of their clothing was still there; apparently, the shrimp-like Hybens had no need for Human-tailored clothing.

After quickly changing out of their blood-soaked cloaks and tunics, Adam and Sherri searched the shuttle for any of their back-up weapons, but found none. The thieves had done a very thorough job. Adam was mentally kicking himself for letting this happen, although he knew he had locked the shuttle’s hatch when they departed for Lann Hall earlier that afternoon. Yet the economy on Hyben was tough these days, and the natives desperate. This desperation only added to their resolve.

“What now, my Captain, my Captain?” Sherri asked, as she checked the power charge on her MK-17. She had two surplus power packs, and that was all – except for her lethal projection blade. Adam had a blade of his own, plus an MK with four packs, and the flash rifle with two extra power packs. None of their weapons would last long in any prolonged battle.

“It’s obvious we have to find another ship to get back up to the
JU-224
. And the Hyben and Juireans will be watching for any ship trying to depart—”

“And since you announced your name for all to hear, I think the
J’s
will be quite anxious to get their hands on
you
,” Sherri added.

“Yeah, that probably wasn’t such a good idea.”

The name of Adam Cain had circulated rapidly throughout this side of The Expansion, which was all part of the propaganda campaign the Humans had devised a couple of months back. Already, there were three other teams doing exactly what Sherri and Adam had done that evening: infiltrate Juirean recruiting meetings and strike fear in the hearts and minds of the potential recruits. During their strategy meetings back in The Fringe, it had been concluded that the Juireans would definitely have the resources to produce a sufficient number of warcraft to go up against the Human fleet, but if they couldn’t find recruits to man them, then their numerical superiority would be nullified.

Already, Kroekus’s spies in the other parts of The Expansion were reporting that Adam’s strategy was having an effect. The Juireans were finding it extremely difficult to secure recruits from the more affluent Members of The Expansion, so recently they had begun to concentrate their efforts on the poorer worlds, ones where the risk of going up against the Humans was outweighed by the need for financial survival. Hyben was one such world.

Yet with all the success of the propaganda campaign, it did require Adam and the other teams to travel deeper into Juirean territory, far away from any support or possibility of rescue should any unforeseen events take place –
such as having your shuttle stripped by alien gang-bangers!

Adam knew the Humans could never survive going up against a unified coalition of Expansion planets, so their only hope was to keep as many of the Members as neutral bystanders as possible. And even though the strategy was working, Adam also knew that his tactics would soon have to change. The Juireans were traveling with more and more bodyguards these days, and as his terrorism activities continued, the Juireans would continue to increase the security surrounding the meetings until infiltration would become impossible. Adam and his Raiders would then have to resort to more indiscriminate methods of disrupting the meetings, such as bombings. Yet that would surely cause civilian casualties, which would jeopardize the relations the Humans were trying to forge with other Members of The Expansion.

Adam was walking a fine line between his role as a terrorist and as a soldier. His only salvation would come with quick and decisive Human victories against the Juirean fleets. If so, then the simple reality of the situation would go a long way to deterring any mass volunteer efforts to man the Juirean ships. The recruits would be simply too scared to volunteer – no matter how much the Juireans were willing to pay.

It would be then that Captain Adam Cain, USN, could return to waging war the way he had been trained – straight up and in your face – and not with all this clandestine shit.

Kroekus, the Silean crime lord, had proved to be a very valuable asset for Adam and his Raiders. He had contacts throughout this side of The Expansion, and he would relay the news of any mass recruiting meetings he found to General Angar and his Fringe Pirates. The pirates would then send word to Adam’s base on Viemon-2, after which the teams would be dispatched.

Kroekus, for his part, had profited handsomely for this association with the Humans; most creatures like him usually did, able to capitalize on just about any situation.

His current fortunes had changed when the value of Juireans credits began to plummet at the onset of the conflict. With the impending war – and the loss of the Juirean Fleet off the distant planet of Earth – all the trillions upon trillions of beings within the Expansion began to wonder what would happen to their currency if the Humans did manage to win the war. This caused the value of the credits to crash to nearly half their original level in some of the outer Sectors, those closest to the Far Arm. And the Fringe was the first to fall.

Looking for a more stable asset to tie their economies to, the various planets in the Fringe – and elsewhere – began to resort back to their pre-Juirean currencies, which mainly revolved around precious metals of some sort. Seeing this early on, Kroekus began to buy up nearly all the gold supplies he could find. Once he controlled the market, the imaginative Silean began to issue his own gold certificates, which soon developed a thriving underground acceptance as legal tender across a hundred worlds.

The further the Humans advanced, the more his certificates began to supplant Juirean credits. Soon, Kroekus of Silea was the richest being in half the galaxy. And if the Humans did manage to topple the Expansion…Kroekus only hoped he lived to see the day.

Adam and Sherri had only been on Hyben for two days, which should have been just long enough for them to drop down to the surface, disrupt the recruiting meeting, and bolt back off the planet. At least that had been the plan.