The Evolution of Vaughn, page 10
“Experimental Craft Halle, do you have any weapons aboard or materials hazardous to the station to declare?”
“We have a complement of Imperial Plasma Cannons.”
Halle muted the conversation, and interjected, “Sir, I’ve arranged the standard weapons authorization forms, and inserted them into the Hall of Imperial Records.”
“I’m sending my Imperial Fleet Adjunct authorization right now,” Vaughn continued.
“Experimental Craft Halle, please hold your pattern for verification.” Several minutes passed, and then, “Halle, welcome to Loe. Please dock at Station Five, dock 189. And, Captain Troupe, It’s a pleasure to have you. I was in Fraleek Nagar, Bruth.”
“Glad you all got out safely, Commander. I was just doing my job.”
Halle guided them through the orbiting crafts. Station Five was a newer platform, built after the E’Clei attacked Loe. There had been ten, but towards the end of the war, the E’Clei unfolded one hundred anti-matter bombs outside of Loe. Only two stations survived.
Station Five was essentially a cylinder. At over three kilometers across and one and a half kilometers high, it could dock up to five hundred vessels, depending on their size. Above the cylinder were six rings, connected by long vertical lines that housed the lifts. Dock 189 was on the second ring on the exterior. Halle slid up to the docking ring and extended her clamps to the station.
“Station captured, Sir,” she reported.
“Well done, Halle. Thank you.”
Loe was a planet run on the fringe of the law. The Empire didn’t police the planet, and in turn, the people of Loe provided a hefty tribute to the Emperor every year. The result was that anything anyone wanted could be bought and sold on Loe. Drugs, identification, citizenship, slaves and sex were all for sale right next to fruits, vegetables and canned goods.
Fully two thirds of the planet was covered in one major city. The planet was ruled by The Loe continuum, a garaldinian who, eighteen hundred years before, settled on an unexplored planet at the outskirts of The Fogerian Empire’s range. No one knew if it was the same Geraldinian, but Vaughn was convinced that the leader continually cloned himself every five or six years, because he never seemed to age.
Nine percent of every transaction went into The Continuum’s coffers. In return, they provided security, the space ports, and infrastructure. The massive city and readily apparent wealth of the people was a testament to the volume of currency traded on Loe. Malika used to always say, the streets of Loe are paved with gold, but the sewers overflowed all over them.
Vaughn and Fresia stepped out into the massive docking ring. The ring was almost sixteen kilometers around. It was unnerving to some, the massive curve and uniform markings made it feel like the passageway went on forever. The secret was to know where the nearest elevator to the station was, and watch for it along the outside walls.
The lift carried the pair down to the station. The shuttles to the surfaced departed from bottom level, but the lift stopped at the upper most.
“Clever design,” said Fresia, stepping out into the din of the busy station. “Forcing everyone to walk through the market…” Her voice trailed off as she slowed, but didn’t stop, at a jewelers stand to admire the display of necklaces.
“It’s not just for marketing. If an invading force wants to get to the surface, the only way is in one of their shuttle craft.” Vaughn nodded in the direction of several patrons of the market place. Each was dressed as a civilian, but their manner was familiar to both of them. Casually, they were browsing the wares of various shops but each of the men moved from one stall to the next on a rotation. “Those are station guards. For each of the obvious ones we can see, there are a dozen more. At times, half the crowd in the station is security.”
“How do they pay for it all?” she asked as they walked down the long aisle.
“Half of the people in the galaxy can’t get clearance to go to the surface. Their only option is to buy on the station, where the prices are massively inflated. Nine percent goes to the Continuum, and then there is a fifteen percent surcharge for a stall on the station. Nearly a quarter of every sale goes into their coffers. “
They walked at an easy pace, browsing the stalls. Fresia pulled Vaughn up short in front of a slaver’s stall. The two of them watched as a hrenfi man picked two nude Humans out of a lineup and started negotiation.
Vaughn reached out and put her hand on his arm. “Easy, Fre. Nothing we can do here.”
“It’s fucking disgusting,” she hissed.
“We can’t buy them all. And if we did, there would be more the next day. I hate it too, but nothing we do here is going to change anything. We need to keep walking.” It took them nearly two hours to work their way down to the next level. The stairs and elevators to each level below were all placed randomly throughout the market, and were routinely moved. By the time they reached the shuttle docks, they were exhausted and on sensory overload.
Vaughn paid for two tickets to the surface, and they climbed into their shuttle. It was still two hours until they left, but they both needed some quiet time away from the market. For Vaughn, who’d spent the majority of the last ten years on a planet that had two other inhabitants, it was especially taxing.
His training as a soldier had him constantly on watch for possible threats, and in a place like the Station Five market, his senses were always tingling. There were hundreds and thousands of people to keep track of. The purple guy with the head tentacles was at the stall three stops ago. The three boobed woman with brown pants has been browsing exactly opposite them for the last twenty minutes.
His mind subconsciously kept track of the comings and goings of everyone around him. By the time he got to the bottom, he could predict who he would see when he walked around the corner. He knew that ten minutes from now, the guards would switch positions and the Fogerian woman who’d been admiring Fresia’s ass all day would round the corner.
He was grateful for the chance to relax. With a cautious eye, he picked a seat at the back of the shuttle where he could watch both doors, folded his hands in his lap, and fell sound asleep. Fresia laid her head on his shoulder and followed soon after.
About thirty minutes before the shuttle was to leave, Vaughn opened his eyes a fraction. Seconds later, the front door of the shuttle opened, and the largest Geraldinian he’d ever seen walked in. At least four meters tall and made of solid muscle, the huge man couldn’t straighten to his full height in the shuttle. Just behind him, another, slightly smaller Geraldinian stepped through in a matching black suit. Like all males of their race, they had three dark ridges that ran over their head from ear to ear. The ridges were solid bone, and harder than steel. Both of these men had pointed steel spikes embedded in their ridges.
The pair walked towards the back, shaking the entire shuttle with each step, and sat down in the seat across from Vaughn. As the larger of the two sat, his coat gaped slightly, revealing the hilt of a weapon.
Vaughn bristled slightly, an involuntary twitch of his shoulder, which woke Fresia up. She gently tapped his leg. He acted as if he’d just woken up.
“Oh, hey fellas. Any idea when this thing takes off?” Vaughn asked conversationally.
“Shouldn’t be too long,” the larger one rumbled. His voice was low and throaty, something you felt as much as heard.
“Thanks, friend. What takes you to the surface?” The best way to judge the intentions of an enemy combatant was to engage them in conversation.
“Business,” the Geraldinian rumbled, not looking very friendly.
“Ahh,” Vaughn replied.
“We’re on our honeymoon. Jeft here promised to buy me a jamari slave for the housewarming. Isn’t that the sweetest thing? I’ve always wanted one; they’re so sexy. I’ve heard their tongues are over a foot long, do you think that’s true? Maybe I’ll get to find out, huh?” Fresia babbled on and on about the most inane, stupid conversation she could think up. “Jeft, do you think we could get two? Then we could both have one. How fun would that be? Maybe they could match. What’s your name, by the way? I’m Genessa Flavia. Maybe you’ve heard of my father?” Fresia stuck her hand out towards the Geraldinian.
The huge man enveloped her hand in his massive, four-fingered hand and shook it. “Daog Draxil,” he rumbled, looking completely unamused.
“It’s nice to meet you, Daog. Have you heard of him? My father? He’s the voice of Justice for the Andarian Federation. He’s a pretty big deal.”
Daog and his companion looked at each other, stood up, and shook the entire shuttle as they moved to the farthest possible corner.
Fresia patted Vaughn on the leg. “Down boy,” she whispered. “Just a couple of harmless business men.”
She laid her head back on his shoulder and closed her eyes. She didn’t stir again until the shuttle landed on the surface. Vaughn watched the two men, waiting to stand until they’d exited the ship.
Chapter 16 Bruth
Date: 413rd Year of Emperor Valek Foger XXVI
Vaughn and Holdan, just outside of Fraleek Nagar, chewed their tak bars slowly, savoring the moment of relaxation almost as much as they hated the flavor.
“How much further is it, Lieutenant?”
Vaughn flipped the cover on the armor of his forearm and a small display projected upwards. There was a blue dot indicating Vaughn’s position, and a red dot indicating the first enemy emplacement. Vaughn reached in with his other hand and spread his two fingers in the projection. The holographic image zoomed in.
“We’re only about ten kilometers, but we have to go over a mountain. And we have to eyes on in twenty-five minutes. Toss that water back, it’s time to roll.” Vaughn pressed a button on his bracer. The screen disappeared, the cover closed and his face-mask dropped into place, sealing the outside atmosphere out. It wasn’t toxic to Humans, but it was extraordinarily high in carbon dioxide, the humidity was one hundred percent, and the outside temperature was over a hundred and twenty. Their suits kept them oxygenated and cool as they took off running towards Fraleek Nagar.
Vaughn ran through the brush, plowing ahead, despite the scraping sound the small thorny branches made against his armor. The suit was powered by a small Argimonium core, aiding his muscles as he ran, in addition to protecting him from enemy fire. The entire suit was negatively charged, which helped to reduce the impact of plasma weapons. Vaughn’s rifle was in a sling at his chest, and a blackened visor covered his face. Tiny cameras mounted all over his body projected onto the inside, giving him a much wider field of view, overlaid with infra-red and thermographic imaging. The planet was full of life. At any given time, the enhanced view of his visor showed him a dozen small animals.
Vaughn and Holdan vaulted over a rock, leaping off the top towards a low-hanging limb. They bought caught it at the same time, and used the spring effect of the branch to vault over a small river. “Five kilometers to go. We gotta pick up the pace, Hold.”
“Race ya,” Holdan replied, accelerating up the hill. Vaughn upped the pace to keep up, and the two of them ran up the mountain bounding over obstacles. When they reached the top of the mountain, Vaughn slowed a step behind Holdan. “Stop, we need to get a vie…” he started, but stopped as Holdan went sailing off a cliff. Vaughn stopped short, and looked over the edge. Holdan was laying eighty meters below, bent backwards over a rock.
“Holdan! Talk to me, buddy,” Vaughn said, firing a small grappling hook from his forearm embedding the hook into a rock. He tugged two good times to check that it was secure, and then leapt head first over the edge of the cliff. “Hold! Don’t give up on me, brother. Stay with me, I’m coming.” As he fell, he looped the cable through a hook on his back, and pulled it taught with his arm, slowing his decent. His feet hit the cliff face, and he ran as fast as he could towards his best friend. When he got to the bottom of the cliff, he disengaged the repelling filament and ran to his friend.
He hit the button on Holdan’s forearm, and then manipulated the holographic projection to show his life-signs. He had a weak pulse, multiple fractures in his legs, and a broken left clavicle. He had some internal bleeding.
Vaughn worked furiously on the display. He stretched the legs a bit, popping the bones back where they belonged, and then inflated the balloons inside the armor to stabilize them, and apply pressure to the wounds. The clavicle was tough. According to the display, it was shattered. Vaughn moved the left arm to his chest and locked it into place, using the armor as a cast.
Once the broken bones were in a semblance of order, he injected his friend with hormones to stimulate bone grown, pain killers to dull the agony he was going to be in. Satisfied that Holdan would survive; Vaughn picked up his friend, threw him over his shoulder, and took off at a run.
Three kilometers out from Fraleek Nagar, Vaughn called his ship. “Lieutenant Troupe reporting in. Reetus, are you receiving?”
“Lieutenant, this is Captain Forg, what is your status?”
“Lieutenant Jackstone is injured, currently incapacitated. His life signs are weak. I’m in position, and ready to begin survey.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant Troupe. When you complete your survey, try to make Lieutenant Jackstone comfortable. His armor will sustain him until we are able to send a recovery crew.”
Vaughn set Holdan down and propped his head up on a rock. “Holdan, I’ll be right back. I’m going to make a circuit around the city.” He activated his camouflage, and his armor went from black to the same greens of the plants around him. The pattern was constantly shifting, and made him almost invisible as long as he didn’t move.
He took off, anxious to get the intel his ship needed and get back to his friend. The city was big, at least as far as those on Bruth were concerned. Bruth was full of very large species of animals, both predators and herbivores. The native sentient population lived inside walls for their entire existence, and even though they were now a space-faring civilization, capable than faster than light travel, they chose to live behind protective walls rather than exterminate the animals that made their planet unique. Vaughn respected that about the people of Bruth.
Fraleek Nagar was no different. The walls were between fifteen and twenty meters thick, and often twice that in height to protect itself from the planet’s ferocious animals. The gnarg, one of the most valuable animals in the galaxy, was delicious. Its skin was one of the toughest naturally occurring materials in the galaxy. An angry gnarg could smash rocks with its head. If it decided it wanted to come through a stone wall, it did. Thus, the walls around Bruth cities had to be immensely thick. Fraleek Nagar had four entrances, one in the middle of each wall. These days, the gates were force shields, powered by massive Argimonium generators. That technology was actually the reason the E’Clei wanted Bruth. The shields were a closely guarded secret of the Bruthi people. It was something no other species had been able to figure out.
Apparently for the E’Clei, destroying an entire planet’s population was easier than throwing some money into research and development. Technologically, they were far superior to the Fogerians yet they never learned to do anything on their own.
Vaughn hit the wall at a run, and bounded up the first two of the massive stone layers, before hooking his fingers into the mortar cracks. Milliseconds later, his armor shifted to the grays and browns of the wall. After that he slowed down significantly, climbing the wall from crack to crack, pulling himself up slowly, until he was at the top of the wall. He peeked over the edge, and when it was clear, hefted himself over and dropped down in the corner. There wasn’t a single guard on the wall; that wasn’t good. Vaughn ran across the top of the wall and signaled the ship. “Lieutenant Troupe reporting in. I’m in position. Reetus, are you receiving?”
“Signal received, Lieutenant, good work. Where are the E’Clei emplacements?”
“I’m marking them on the map now,” Vaughn said, placing waypoints on his forearm map.
“Received. Move on to Kinto Nagar. You have seven hours.”
“Captain, request permission for more time.” Vaughn knew the Foger captain wouldn’t give it, but he had to try, for Holdan.
“For what reason, Lieutenant? Are you unable to cover the distance? It’s three hundred kilometers. Do I need to send in a different team?”
“No sir. I am uncomfortable leaving Lieutenant Jackstone. There are massive predators in the area.”
“Lieutenant Holdan is a liability. If you leave now, you can succeed in your mission.”
“Understood, Sir. I will check in from Kinto Nagar in Seven hours.”
“Good luck, Lieutenant. Reetus out.”
Vaughn looked over the edge, back to where he’d left Holdan. He couldn’t leave his friend behind. It wasn’t a choice. Inside the city, he could see a landing pad with a vehicle on it. This city was in an uproar. E’Clei soldiers moving house to house, biting people, infecting them with parasites, turning the Bruthi people into Bruthi-E’Clei. There was no fighting it. Once infected, the change was inevitable.
He made up his mind, there was no other choice. “Fuck me this is going to hurt.”
Screams of terror filled the night. Vaughn ran along the wall until he was directly across from the closest building. Without missing a step, he lept across the gap, a distance over six times his height. He sailed across the void, over forty meters in the air. He caught the edge of the roof with his fingertips, and hoisted himself up onto the roof. He ran along the roof, but stopped when he heard screaming.
Vaughn fired his rifle three times at the roof between his feet, and then jumped on the weakened spot. Thermal imaging showed four people inside, and two outside a door. Vaughn pounded his feet as he jumped up and down, finally breaking through into the room below. He crashed, rolled and stood in one smooth motion and activated the external communication. “I am Lieutenant Vaughn Troupe of the Imperial War Command. I’m here to rescue you.”
“They’re at the door!” One of them cried.
