The Tactics of Revenge (21 page)

The team joined up in hallway and began to move toward the forward section of the ship. They knew that about ten meters further up would be the entrance to the starboard crew quarters, so they proceeded with caution.

The entrance to the berthing quarters was wide and open; on impulse, Riyad tucked his weapon under his cape and casually stepped inside. The room was open bay, with thirty sleeping modules forming three long rows. Each module consisted of a large, rectangular box measuring about three meters tall by about four meters long. Doors were slid to the side, revealing the interiors of several of the units, where a number of aliens of a variety of species sat on padded cots, each engaged in idle activities. The Juireans in the crew would be housed in more luxurious accommodations in the forward section of the ship. These quarters were for the non-Juireans.

The aliens seated on their beds looked at Riyad with no apparent curiosity. His orange and green recharge uniform stood out, but no one seemed to be that concerned with his presence there.

He backed out of the room without incident.

The rest of the team quickly slipped past the door and toward stairway leading upward on their right, with Tobias leading the way and Tindal bringing up the rear.

Another alien appeared at the top of the stairway and began to step down. He looked up and noticed the team, a blank expression crossing his face. Tobias jumped, scaling half the stairway in a single bound. He was upon the alien in a second, his knife drawn. He spun the alien around and slit its throat in a quick, smooth action and then tossed the now-dead alien down the stairway and into Riyad’s waiting arms. The blood from the alien stained the front of his uniform as Riyad stuffed the now-limp body into a corner under the stairway and then joined the rest of the team at the landing above.

Another flight up and they were on the same level as Medical. A wide glass window on their left showed they were in the right place and the team moved quickly, entering the room beyond. There were six aliens inside, and they all looked at the odd menagerie of uniformed aliens as they entered.

There was also a Juirean here, a green-maned Guard who seemed to react faster than the others. With their respirators and goggles now off, the faces of the Humans were fully exposed. The eyes of the Juirean grew wide and he dove toward a comm unit on the wall. Rutledge cut him down with a short blast of the MP7, the rounds literally cutting the alien in half.

The others in the room then panicked, scrambling away in all directions. The Humans had no choice; they all opened up, the 4.6-caliber rounds easily ripping through the thin flesh and bones of the variety of aliens. Their blood and shattered flesh sprayed around the room, leaving a scene of utter death and devastation rivaling any to be found in a Freddie Kruger movie.

Tobias and Tindal sprinted across the room and through a doorway into the area where the quarantine cells were located. They looked through the small window into the first unit. It was empty.

They moved to the next one and looked inside. There, sitting on a cot, staring straight at the window, was a smiling Captain Adam Cain, USN.

Tobias stepped back, and not bothering with trying to figure out how to unlock the cell, blasted the controls with his weapon. The metal shattered; Tobias reached into the hole he’d made and pulled, ripping the door open.

Adam remained seated as Tobias and Tindal entered the cell.

“It’s about time you got here,” Adam said, his smile growing even wider.

“Better late than never, sir,” Tobias said, returning the smile. He unhooked another MP7 he carried on his left shoulder and tossed the weapon to Adam. “Care to give us a hand?”

“Love to. It’s been a couple of months since I killed any aliens. I think I’m having withdrawals.”

He rose from the cot and joined the other two SEALs at the door to the cell. Sherri and the others had moved up, and when she saw Adam, she pushed her way through the crowd and embraced him passionately. They shared a hard kiss and then stared into each other’s eyes for a tender moment. There were tears in Sherri’s eyes.

Tindal leaned over toward the Chief. “Fucker not only gets rescued – but he also gets the girl. I think we’re doing something wrong.”

All the rest of the team then spent the next ten seconds patting Adam on the back and shaking his hand. After that, Tobias put a stop to the reunion.

“Enough of this mushy shit,” he said. “Now we have to disable the ship, and from the inside out.” He turned to Adam, “You ready to exact some revenge on these stinkin’ bastards, Captain Cain?”

“More than you can know, LT. The J’s are all forward of here. Let’s start there.”

“Lead the way, Mr. Cain.”

Chapter 40

The plan called for the team to disable the ship from the inside so that it wouldn’t be able to pursue them during the getaway. Ideally, the damage would be so extensive that even communication links to the outside would be affected. There were still a large number of official entities, both on the surface and in orbit, what wouldn’t take to kindly to a Juirean ships being attacked in their jurisdiction.

One of the simplest and most direction means of attaining that objective was to kill every last alien onboard. If that wasn’t possibly, then at least a high enough number of them to scare the shit out of all the survivors.

First, they would have to find the bridge and destroy all the controls. The Class-3 also had an auxiliary control room located near the aft generator rooms. They would take this out on their way back to meet up with Kaylor. But first they had real live – at least temporarily – Juireans to contend with.

The Juirean compliment of a Class-3 battlecruiser was usually around twenty-five out of the total crew of ninety-five to a hundred. They would all be Guards, trained military professionals, and once the assault team was discovered, they would be the first to react.

The team moved out of the medical center, past the horrific scene of death they had caused only moments before, and as they entered the main corridor, their luck ran out.

Suddenly sirens sounded, and a voice came over the ship’s 1-MC system.

“Alert! Alert! The ship has been breached. All security forces converge on the Medical Facilities region. All crew to be armed immediately.”

The SEAL team moved up the corridor, Tobias and Adam in the lead, Tindal and Rutledge at their six, with Sherri and Riyad in the middle. At an intersection, a force of six Juireans, all armed with Xan-Fi flash rifles, met up with them. The SEALs opened fire before the Juireans could get off a shot. Three of the Juireans were torn to shreds, while the remaining three opened up on the Humans. Juireans do not rely on computer-assist for aiming – just like the Humans – so their shots were more accurate. But still the initial bolts were fired in haste and missed badly.

Adam dove forward, sliding on the metal floor. He rolled to his left, bringing the weapon to bear on the three Juireans hiding around the corner. He opened up and the bullets ripped into the flesh of the Juireans as if they were made of cardboard.
This was more like it
, Adam thought, watching the Juireans be torn to shreds.
It’s good to be back in the shit!

The team moved past the intersection, weapons glued to their cheeks.

Just then a blaze of bolts came from behind. One of the bolts struck Riyad in the back and he fell forward, his body alight with a blue electric glow. The aura quickly faded as the rest of the team sent a deadly and deafening shower of metal in the direction of the attackers. They could hear the screams of pain as some were hit.

Riyad regained his feet and moved up next to Adam. “That’s my one mulligan,” he said to the SEAL.

Adam looked at the orange and green uniform Riyad wore. “Are you all wearing the diffusers under the uniforms?”

“All except you. Be careful. We didn’t come all this way just so you could get yourself killed.”

“I’ll make sure I don’t disappoint you.” The two shared a smile, and then dropped to the floor as another barrage of bolts passed way too close over their heads. “Did you bring any grenades?”

“Of course,” Tindal yelled out. “Never leave home with them.”

“Well, how about tossing one down the corridor?” Adam ordered. “That last barrage nearly took my head off.”

For an answer, Adam heard the small, puck-sized grenade go sliding down the metal floor. In a second, the ship reverberated from the explosion and smoke billowed up from behind them.

“Move out!” Tobias ordered. “Tindal, take up a position at the next intersection and cover our six.”

“Roger that.”

The other members of the team moved up the corridor, encountering two other brief pockets of resistance from the aliens. No other Juireans were seen. Adam had been to the bridge of the Class-3 before, so he knelt down on one knee as its entrance came into view at the end of the corridor. “Let’s not take any chances. Blow it.”

Rutledge stepped forward and tossed a grenade at the door. The thunderous explosion ripped the doorway open, sending two Juireans in the bridge area to the floor, covered in their own blood. The Humans surged forward, laying down suppressing fire as they entered the room.

They were met with a force of twelve Juireans, crouching behind the consoles that dotted the large room. The SEALs – along with Sherri and Riyad – dove for cover themselves, and began to send hot metal in the direction of the Juireans. The MP7 ammunition also did a number of the control consoles themselves, shredding the boxes into pieces of sharp, flying shrapnel. The Juireans began to fall back, with some moving away toward another exit to the room.

Just then, an errant round struck the forward viewport, penetrating the thick glass. A section of port blew outward, sucking the atmosphere in the room with it. Any loose pieces of paper, metal or plastic rushed into the emptiness of space; a Juirean flew out as well, as all the others grabbed onto anything they could find to keep from following him.

Instantly, a cascade of sealing foam filled the section of the bridge near the viewport. An unfortunate Juirean was caught up in the thick, yellowish goo, and as it began to harden, his head and upper torso were crushed, blood, guts and gore squirting out of where the Guard’s head had once been – like toothpaste from a tube.

The outward flow of atmosphere was stopped and pressure quickly restored to the room. The SEALs were on the move again, sweeping through the bridge blasting any of the remaining aliens.

And then everything fell silent.

Adam moved toward the far doorway. This corridor led to the captain’s quarters and to the second long hallway that ran back down the length of the ship. He saw the door to the captain’s quarters slide shut – someone had just entered.

The rest of the team began to shoot up all the consoles on the bridge, being careful this time that none of their rounds came near what was left of the forward viewport.

Adam left them there to do their work and slipped in next to the door to the captain’s quarters. He reached up and activated the door control. The panel slid open, and as it did, three quick bolts flared out of the room, impacting the opposite wall of the corridor.

Adam covered his face to shield against the random static electricity coursing through the air. And then he jumped into the room, rolling to his left and sending out a pattern of burning metal from the muzzle of MP7. The Juireans inside the room – two of them – ducked for cover, but before they could regain their orientation, Adam was upon them. He pointed the barrel of his weapon at the first Juirean and depressed the trigger. The evil rounds tore a gaping hole in the alien’s chest; Adam spun around and leveled the compact MP7 at the other Juirean.

It was Senior Guard Jydle Ga Liplun, his green mane now in disarray, with part of it standing on end, while another crop was plastered across his sweating forehead.

The Juirean went to raise his weapon; Adam shoved the hot barrel of his weapon under the chin of the Juirean. “Don’t do it, Jydle.”

The Juirean hesitated, and then let the Xan-Fi fall to the floor. He leaned back against the side of his desk, looking up into the emotionless blue eyes of his former prisoner.

“Now what, Cain?” Jydle asked. He looked past Adam as other members of the team moved into the room, their weapons sweeping from side to side.

“I got this, Andy.”

Tobias stepped up next to him. “A friend of yours?”

“Let’s just say this guy has a real sadistic streak in him. You wouldn’t want to be a houseguest at one of his parties.”

Tobias placed a hand on Adam’s shoulder. “Make it quick, Captain. We still have a lot of work to do.” He ordered the rest of the team out of the room.

Adam continued to stare at the green-haired Guard with undisguised venom. Jydle pursed his lips and then said to Adam, “I suppose there is no chance of taking me as
your
prisoner?”

“Not a chance, asshole,” Adam said. “And the funny thing is you’ll never know how the war turns out. But I believe after today, you already have a pretty good idea.”

“Then get it over—”

Adam sent a short, three-round burst into the head of the Juirean, the skull exploding in a rain of blood and flesh. Adam stared down at the now-headless the alien, feeling no remorse whatsoever. Instead, all he could see before him was the vision of the charred skeletal remains of his wife Maria and daughter Cassie superimposed over the wash of blood and grayish flesh.

There would never be enough Juireans to kill, not enough to erase that horrific image from Adam’s memory. But with each one he did kill, he whispered softly, “That’s for you, Maria. That’s for all of us.”

Adam left the captain’s quarters and met up with the team, who were presently engaged in an intense firefight at a nearby intersection of corridors. He heard Lt. Tobias on his comm. “Tindal, meet us at the second corridor. ETA, thirty seconds. We’re just cleanin’ up over here.”

“Roger that. On my way. Resistance is dropping on my side.”

Adam knew that a ship this size carried a crew of about one hundred. They had already easily killed a third of that number, and now they would begin the move back toward the auxiliary control room.