Total Betrayal (Deep Space Endeavor) (49 page)

Chapter twelve

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              Jesse walked out into the crisp early evening air and took a deep breath. The sun was just beginning to set and the shadow of Donara's two moons could already be seen. At this time of day, they were in a position where one overlapped the other in a way that was reminiscent of an old photo's double exposed negative. He looked up at the incredible picture as Admiral Jameson jogged over to him. "Prime Minister," he called.

             
Jesse looked at him and smiled. "Please, it's just Jesse when we're alone; you know I hate titles, Tobias."

             
"Alright, Jesse, can we talk?"

             
"Sure, walk with me," he answered as they began walking.

             
"I'm here by myself, my girlfriend didn't want to make the trip, neither did my brother or mom. I'm not sure I'm the best choice for Admiral. I don't even really have my private life in order at this point."               A gentle breeze was blowing as they walked and it carried the sweet smell of the Toffan trees in the park with it. There always seemed to be a gentle breeze in the evenings on Donara and Jesse thought he could get used to it really quickly. He stopped walking and looked him in the eye before replying. "Tobias, if I'm good enough to lead this whole crazy undertaking, you are more than qualified to be an Admiral. Still, I won't force you to be. Take a couple days to think about it, if you decide you still don't think it's right for you, your old position of colonel will still be waiting for you, no questions asked."

             
"Thanks, Jesse, I will think about it."

             
As they continued to talk, some men were getting into position around them. Jesse recognized a military action when he saw one and quickly directed Tobias behind a half wall in front of the central tower. Just as Jesse had gotten to cover, several shooters began to open up on them. Jesse and Tobias immediately had their blasters out and returned fire. Unfortunately, the men were armored. Thankfully, Jesse had brought the side cannon. It wouldn't be able to take out all of the attackers, but it would hopefully hold them off until help arrived. Since the city center was not yet opened, there were very few people around. Still, it would only take one to report that their leader was under attack before help began to flood in.

             
Jesse fired his blaster several times in an effort to slow their advance, but this was an extremely well trained group. They were definitely not Conglomerate, he was leaning towards some sort of mercenary special force. Three of them charged up the main walkway towards his position and one shot from his side cannon took down all three. That gave the rest of the men pause as they couldn't figure out how his blaster was so powerful. They also spread out so he would be unable to hit multiple targets with one blast again. This was already a step up from the Conglomerate soldiers.

             
"We need to get back inside the building," Jesse called over to Jameson. Jesse looked back to the central tower. It was just over sixty meters away and there was another half wall thirty meters closer to the building. There were also six stairs, one every ten or so meters. He wasn't sure if that could technically be considered a stairway, but it didn't really matter.

             
"I don't have anything that can get past their armor," Jameson replied.

             
"I'll cover you, then."

             
"No, you're our leader, they're after you. Give me the blaster and I'll cover you." Jameson argued.

             
"I wish I could, but it's keyed to my DNA, it'll only work for me. We go together." Jesse nodded and he and Jameson made a break for it. Jesse fired twice more, taking down two more attackers as they made it to the next half wall. They were now only thirty or so meters from the main entrance, and he hoped Manny and Josiah were on their way out. He counted over fifty attackers still standing and wondered how many they had. Suddenly, blasterfire rang out as Admiral Sonnadall and Jonu were exiting the building. They quickly retreated back inside and saw Jesse and Jameson pinned down by the first wall. Sonnadall was on comms to the
Vengeance
instantly.

             
"I need four full shuttles of our best warriors; the Dark Brigade is attacking our Prime Minister." He barely waited for a reply before he had commed General Kelly, Josiah and Manny. “Jesse is under attack by a highly skilled, ruthless band of mercenaries called the Dark Brigade. I have soldiers on the way, but if you have any that can get here sooner, he will not last long. They are heavily armored and quite efficient."

             
A moment later, Josiah and Manny were racing for the door, side cannons drawn. "Those will do you no good, their armor is thick." Sonnadall called.

             
"Jesse designed these, they've got more of a kick than you might think," Manny said as he continued forward.
Endeavor
along with four shuttles of Special Forces Marines were minutes out. Manny and Jo exited the building firing. They made it to Jesse's position, each taking a shot in their battle suits. "Sonnadall says these guys call themselves the Dark Brigade. Apparently they're feared in this galaxy."

             
"They do seem to know what they're doing. Do you think we can make it to the building and wait them out?" Jesse asked.

             
"Jameson isn't wearing armor, it would be a tough run, they have us pinned and the open space from here to the door is a kill zone. We might not even make it back." Manny replied as Josiah stood and took out two more with his side cannon followed by several regular shots to keep them from advancing. Manny followed suit taking out three, but he still saw several coming. Suddenly, explosions started happening around them.

             
"Explosive rounds, we've got to go." Jameson yelled.

             
"No, they're trying to flush us out." Jesse replied, but Jameson didn't seem to hear him; he made a break for the door and was cut down halfway there.

             
"No," Jesse yelled as he popped up and took out three more. He was down to his final shot. Manny and Josiah each took out a couple more and once again, the advance slowed. Jesse wondered how much time this 'Dark Brigade' thought they had that they were coming this slowly. Maybe they were just trying to instill fear before their kill.

             
"I'm out," Manny called as a chunk of the wall they were behind exploded. They tried to make it to better cover, but Manny was hit six or seven times and at least two of the shots had burned through his battle suit. He wasn't moving and the Dark Brigade was no longer concerned with him.

             
"There's no way out, Marcos," A voice yelled from behind the first half wall. "You have fought well, even better than we expected, but you are beaten." Jesse and Josiah each popped up, taking out two more attackers and drawing an intense barrage of fire."

             
"I'm out, Jess." Josiah whispered.

             
"Me, too," he replied.

             
"Surrender now and no harm will come to you." The voice yelled again.

             
"Maybe I should go out there and stall them. Our people can't be more than another minute or so away."

             
"I don't think it's a good idea, Jess." Josiah shook his head.

             
"We have to get Manny to Suzy quickly, Jo, what else can we do. We're out of ammo and there's still at least forty of them." Jesse put his weapon on the ground and began to stand.

             
"What's he doing?" Nina cried as she watched from a window, praying their men would get here soon.

             
"I think he's trying to end this quickly so we can check on Manny and Tobias." Suzy replied with a sense of dread. The rest of the council was still inside with General Kelly and Admiral Sonnadall guarding the door in case any of the attackers got past Jesse and Josiah. They were not wearing battle suits and had only regular blasters, so they couldn't help outside, but they would most definitely be on protection mode inside.

             
Jesse stood and walked out from behind the wall. "I surrender, now what?" Blasterfire filled the air as several shots hit him at once and sent him flying almost five meters. He was thankful he had worn a second long sleeve battle shirt under his battle suit because the added layer of protection had probably saved his life. Still, he was gonna be really sore in the morning. He quickly made his way back to the wall as the blasterfire started up again when he started moving.

             
"How'd that work out for ya?" Josiah joked.

             
"Not as well as I'd hoped. These guys don't mess around." Jesse winced as he moved.

             
"Who do you think sent them?"

             
"I have no idea, could be the Conglomerate again. I can't imagine Tovanoras hired humans, but it could be him or any of the alien planets that lost their fleet and shipyards after the battles for Kaldor and Ginderbar. I guess it could be a fairly long line." Jesse replied a little sadly. "We might need to start looking for a new leader," he joked.

             
"You have good armor, Marcos, but it won't save you," the voice called out again.

             
"My people are almost here, leave now and they might let you live." Jesse yelled back.

             
"Come now, if you had people to protect you, they'd already be here." Jesse could see his enemies advancing confidently, having figured out that Jesse and Josiah were out of the heavy artillery. Tenger relished the thought of being the man that killed the great Jesse Marcos. Jesse and Josiah were backing away, but they really had nowhere to go. Suddenly, three shuttles de-cloaked in front of the Dark Brigade and six dozen Marines deployed led by Maria, Damon, Lieutenant Lennox, Tanna, Reece and Xanu. Each team was backed by a dozen warriorbots. They quickly began to open fire on Jesse's attackers while four men pulled Manny and Jameson out of harm's way. The bots quickly had the Dark Brigade on the run, but they found there was nowhere to go as four Hyperian shuttles pinned them in. Reece turned the bots off as Hyperian soldiers poured out of the shuttle armed with heavy weaponry and took no mercy on the attackers. By the time they laid down their weapons, there were only four left.

             
Jesse stood painfully over the leader and said, "So this is the vaunted Dark Brigade, huh. I really was expecting more. What should we do with them, Jo? When I surrendered, they lit me up like a Christmas tree." His analogy seemed lost on his Kalephi friends, so he continued. "Now that he has surrendered, do you think I should return the favor?" He dramatically pulled his weapon and relished the look of fear on his overconfident attacker's face as he waved it around.

             
"Nah, I say we let the interrogators at him." Josiah replied.

             
"What about after? Our city doesn't have any prisons." Jesse continued his ruse.

             
"Do what you wish with me," Tenger replied unafraid." I'll tell you nothing." He looked at Jesse trying to hide his pain and laughed at him. "The great Jesse Marcos, I'm not that impressed."

             
Jesse took two quick steps and hit him hard across the face, dropping him to the ground. "That's for shooting at me when I surrendered." He roughly grabbed Tenger by his bloody chin and looked him in the eye, "We'll get everything you can tell us out of you and then we'll turn you over to whoever you have ticked off the worst and let them have a crack at you. How does that sound, tough guy?" He shoved Tenger's face as he turned and walked away.

             
Tenger's smile was gone as the blood slowly ran down his chin from his split lip. He looked up at Jesse in disdain and smiled. “He won't stop until you're dead." He laughed again and then Lieutenant Lennox’s men led him and his remaining three men away.

             
Jesse walked over to Suzy as she was preparing Manny for transport. "How is he?"

             
"He'll be fine, but I'm worried about you."

             
"Me, I'm fine. A few more bruises, one of them on my injured rib, but I'm fine."

             
"No, you're not. Jameson is dead and I know you're going to blame yourself, but this is our fault, not yours." Suzy began.

             
"What are you talking about, Suzy?"

             
"We should have had a protective detail ready for you when we asked you to lead. Especially given how many enemies you've made while helping Hyperia, Kaldor and Ginderbar. You're our leader, and we have to protect you. Jameson died because we as a group were unprepared." Suzy commed Dr. Stevens and let him know Manny was on the way. Then she quickly commed Zoe and told her where to go. Jesse just looked at her, thinking about what she had said.