Hell's Hoplites - Book 1 - Thebes - 9 - Chapter 8

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Chapter 8 -

Sol System - Earth - Tokyo, Japan

August 15th 2535 AD - 18:05 GMT

A side street somewhere between Tokyo International Spaceport and Kawamura Industries Corporate Headquarters

The receptionist let out an explosive grunt of pain as her shoulder impacted with the underside of the dash. The impact must have hit a nerve cluster as her hand popped open and dropped the snub-nosed .357 on the front seat of the car right in the puddle of puke.

After tromping on the brake and throwing the car into a slight sideways skid Samuel threw the car into park and snatched up the .357 from the passenger seat as the woman tried to grab it back up with her other hand.

“Awfully big gun for such a little lady; and where the heck were you hiding it anyway?” Samuel commented

“You are under arrest,” Patricia said flipping out a badge also seemingly from nowhere. “Agency for the Investigation and Security of Corporate Business Practices Special Agent Patricia Reed,” she said giving him a defiant look.

“Wow that’s a mouthful. Did you practice in front of a mirror so you wouldn’t slip up and say it wrong?” Samuel asked popping the cylinder of the revolver open, pushing on the ejector rod causing the 5 .357 Magnum rounds to drop into his hand and he tossed them out the window. Setting the revolver on the dash within reach of them both he gave the women on the passenger floor his full attention.

Patricia gave him a smoldering glare. “You and your friends have just ruined a five year long investigation into the illegal business and possible terrorist activities of Kawamura Industries,” she growled.

“Gee I’m sorry for ruining your investigation, so let me apologize. Not. Because your investigation does not mean shit after the death of a close friend that usually kinda makes me not care about investigations all that much,” Samuel said sarcastically.

The comment made the woman pause and she blinked her eyes for a second. “That still doesn’t excuse the fact that you broke into a high security corporate facility and killed or injured several dozen people,” she told him.

“Gee and who’s the one that let us in?” Samuel looked at her pointedly.

Patricia’s mouth opened and closed several times like a fishing trying to pull oxygen through its gills. “That is beside the point; I was only doing what my cover story allowed me to do,” she told him.

“Sure,” Samuel said. “Let me ask you this? If the investigation has been ongoing for the last five years why hasn’t anyone been nailed to a wall yet; especially that psycho Edgar Rice? I’m sure by this point you have gathered quite a bit of information for your bosses,” he asked.

“Well yes but they want to pin every one of his crimes on him as well as the board of directors…,” Patricia trailed off what she was saying as a light dawned in her eyes.

“Shit,” the expletive made Samuel jump slightly as the woman turned the interior of the car blue for the next half minute tracing the ancestry of her bosses and handlers back to the garden of Eden where they were doing unnatural things with wombats.

“I think I’m in love,” Samuel said smiling and putting the car back into gear heading towards Tokyo International Spaceport with Patricia still cussing as she climbed out from under the dash board and buckled herself into the passenger seat totally ignoring the pool of vomit. After her tirade she pulled the revolver off the dash and slapped a fresh speed loader into the gun and put it away.

Sol System - Saturn Orbit Near Titan

Haven Station - Privately Registered Vessel - New Edo

August 20th 2535 AD - 17:15 GMT

“So someone has attacked corporate HQ,” Rice mused as he sat behind his desk on the New Edo.

“Yes, Sir,” Colonel Pendlman told her boss.

“Any clue as to who was responsible?” Rice asked.

“We only recovered a few images of the intruders,” the female clad in black combat armor handed over a data chip.

“Why were there only a few images recovered?” Rice asked.

“The IT Department crashed the whole computer system including the security system to keep the intruders from getting away with more data than they already had,” she explained.

“And have they discovered what data they had gotten away with?” Rice asked.

“They are currently working on it but at this time they think they may have copied files concerning the Olympus Mons Operations,” Pendlman explained.

“Interesting,” Rice said and slid the data chip into the side of the console in front of him. “You may go Colonel,” he said dismissively without even looking at her.

“Yes, sir,” the former UEF Army Colonel left the cabin and headed for the cargo bay that had been turned into a troop bay holding a platoon of former military personnel now loyal to Rice.

Clicking on the touch panel Rice flipped through the images on the data chip. From what Pendlman had said one of them had been killed and immolated, he flipped through the images until he got a full facial view of one of the ones posing as a technician.

Rice paused as he studied the face and then his fist came down hard on the console cracking the touch panel with the strength of the strike.

The face looking out of the image was that of Jack Sikorsky; a person who he thought was dead and buried ten years ago. “Seems I’ve made a mistake,” Rice said grimly to himself.

Sol System - Saturn Orbit Near Titan

Haven Station - Safe House Of Sarissa Hermanez

August 20th 2535 AD - 17:15 GMT

Sarissa finished her set of fifty push ups standing from the floor she did some stretching exercises before sitting down on the weight bench behind her and toweling off the sweat.

She had been lying low for almost two months now and had watched with disgust as Edgar Rice followed through on his power play and took control of Kawamura Industries.

She really couldn’t do anything to stop him. After the death of the New Edo’s crew Rice had surrounded himself with a platoon of heavily armed and armored guards. She was stuck on Haven till she could find a way off.

Clicking on the TV on one wall Sarissa flipped to a news channel to see that someone had invaded the Kawamura Industries Headquarters and done massive amounts of damage. A hungry grin split her lips as she started moving information around in her head. Soon she’d be able to do something about Kawamura Industries and Edgar Rice.

The grin was still on her face as she shut down the TV and lay back on the weight bench and started lifting.

Sol System - Mars - Several Miles Outside Of San Kapolla

Privately Registered Vessel - Hoplite II

August 21st 2535 AD - 02:35 GMT

Different people deal with loss in different ways, with military personnel it’s the same.

Ren dug into his study of the girl to try and figure out why she wasn’t responding to any of his treatments. He was also incredibly confused by her cybernetic implants. While cyber ware wasn’t that uncommon, modifying a girl of this age so heavily was odd, plus the implants were more sophisticated than anything else he had ever seen.

While Ren had only been trained as a combat medic he had also at one time before joining the Martian Marine Corps spent a couple of years in medical school.

Fuji being much simpler in mind than his brother once they had returned to Mars he’d set up a small range for knife and axe throwing. He’d carved a Kawamura Industries logo on the targets and proceeded to tatter the targets to shreds with various edged weapons from his pocket knife all the way up to the knives from the kitchen.

Samuel tore apart every weapon in the armory and cleaned them, reloaded them, and then zeroed them in on the ship’s digital shooting range.

Jack for his part plotted and planned and tried to figure out their next move while they all waited for Oz to decrypt the files.

The other two somewhat members of the crew didn’t do much of anything, Steve pretty much sat in his cell whining about not getting any orange juice and Patricia dug through her files that she had put together concerning Kawamura Industries and Edgar Rice.

Patricia slowly began to realize that her superiors were in the back pocket of Rice or at least Kawamura Industries.

Sol System - Mars - Several Miles Outside Of San Kapolla

Privately Registered Vessel - Hoplite II

August 22nd 2535 AD - 00:00 GMT

“Jack,” the AI said quietly into the dark room.

“Yeah Oz,” Jack said equally quietly in his cabin.

“I’ve decoded the first of the files that we got from Kawamura’s servers,” Oz replied.

“What did you find out?” Jack asked.

“First off Rice is responsible for the death of your parents and your aunt as well as all the people who were present at the Olympus Mons Dig Site in 2495,” Oz informed him.

The frame of the bunk creaked quietly as Jack sat up in it and focused on the screen that had come to life on his console. Images and files flicked across the screen rapidly. “The actual attack was carried out by fundamentalists that were part of the Silver Way To Enlightenment Group led by one Asic Al Arary, and before you ask no, they are not a Muslim fundamentalist group,” Oz answered.

“I don’t care about their religious reasons for mass murder, are there any of them still alive?”

“Al Arary is still alive but after the Olympus Mons incident the Martian Federal and Military forces cracked down on Al Arary and his followers scattering them. Current intelligence shows that Al Arary only has about two hundred followers currently in small cells scattered across the system.

“Where is Al Arary himself?” Jack asked.

“Last known location was somewhere on IO,” Oz replied.

“Nothing more specific than that?” Jack asked.

“No Jack.”

“Well one thing at a time then,” Jack said flicking the light on. “Anything else on those files?” He asked with a sigh.

“The only other thing I was able to decrypt was a location on Olympus Mons that was buried underground,” Oz said.

“Oh really,” Jack said. “Looks like we need to pay that location a little visit; Let the others know that we’ll be leaving at 09:00 hours and to gear heavy,” Jack told Oz.

“Yes Jack.”

After the screen popped off Jack shut the light back off, laying down again as a list of weapons and equipment running through his mind quickly, it took at least another hour for him to finally drop off to sleep.

Sol System - Mars - Several Miles Outside Of San Kapolla/Olympus Mons

Former Archeological Dig Site/Memorial Museum

August 22nd 2535 AD - 09:00 GMT

Jack made the decision to take Taki with them; the others weren’t too happy about the decision but they needed to find some way to help her. All of them were still grim and quiet as they loaded gear into the back of the SUV.

Supposedly after the incident of forty years ago the area around the old dig site at Olympus Mons had been cordoned off due to radiation from the low yield nuke that had been set off by Al Arary’s followers. But the evidence that they had unearthed from the files Oz had decrypted showed that the bomb had been a clean one supplied by Edgar Rice to the fundamentalists.

After forty years Kawamura had pretty much stripped the site of any technological advances found there and had built a small museum/memorial for those who had died there outside the blast area.

“Where exactly is this site?” Fuji asked as Jack drove the SUV.

“Maps and data indicate that the facility was actually buried approximately 10,000 years ago and unearthed approximately five years ago, the only way to get to the original entry to the facility is through the basement of the museum,” Oz told them over their comms.

“Are we going in hard or soft?” Samuel asked.

“Soft, but we’re taking as much firepower as we can conceal,” Jack told them. “And if we need it heavier firepower will be in the SUV,” he continued.

“Let’s just hope we don’t need it inside the facility,” Fuji said.

“We are going in soft due to the fact that Taki is still in a walking coma basically,” Ren explained to the others.

“Yeah otherwise she’d be a liability in a major firefight,” Samuel said.

“From what the records Oz decrypted say Kawamura has pulled most of the security personnel and there is only maybe half a dozen staff and security onsite for the memorial museum; we shouldn’t run into any problems as long as we avoid them,” Jack explained.

They had actually moved the Hoplite II to the Olympus City spaceport and had made one last stop before heading up the paved road to the museum.

The five of them were dressed touristy with Ren and Fuji in loud shirts and shorts with camera’s hanging around their necks. They had picked up a wheelchair to put Taki in and the two of them jabbered away in Japanese to add to the effect and constantly snapped pictures even in the parking lot as they approached the museum entrance.

“How are you folks today?” the receptionist asked politely as they maneuvered through the entryway.

The museum’s lobby was dim and cool; the recessed lighting reflecting off the red and pink veined Martian marble that had been used to build the majority of the facility. Tasteful photos of the dig site and the people who had worked and died there were strung along the walls and information kiosks were set discreetly into the corners.

“Oh we are fine today,” Jack had to grit his teeth as Ren and Fuji nattered away and the click whirr of their cameras bounced off the marble lobby. “I’ve got a couple of friends in from Japan that wanted to take a look at one of the most important archeological finds in mankind’s history,” Jack told her motioning to the two men.

“Well we appreciate their interest,” the receptionist said smiling and then spotted Taki in her wheelchair. “Did you need any special assistance or a guide?” She asked.

“No, we’ll be fine, my friend’s daughter is currently undergoing cancer treatment at the Olympus Hospital and is still tired from it so we decided this would be a nice quiet place for her to relax as well,” Jack said using the same excuse Kawamura had used to explain the girl’s odd behavior.

“That’s a shame,” the receptionist said sadly.

“Well she’s responding well to the treatment, just a little tired,” Jack explained gritting his teeth and resisting the urge to slap the cameras out of Ren and Fuji’s hands.

“Well that is good to hear, is this your entire party?” the receptionist asked.

“Yes it is,” Jack told her.

“Well five adult tickets will cost you 120 credits and we’ll let the girl in for free today,” the receptionist said smiling.

“Thank you very much,” Jack said smiling back and thinking how much Rick would be all over this woman if he were still alive. The receptionist said something to him. “Sorry,” he said focusing his attention on her once again. “Sorry I didn’t catch what you said and was just doing some wool gathering,” he told her apologetically.

The receptionist just smiled again and took his money and handed back five tickets and a free pass for Taki.

“You gentleman and lady have a nice day,” She told them and pushed a button under the desk and the inner doors swept open for them.

“Thank you,” Jack said.

Ren pushed Taki’s wheelchair into the main part of the museum and they spent a boring hour looking at pieces of artifacts recovered and dioramas that depicted various scenes from the dig site.

They finally came to the memorial that had been erected for Dr. Erskine Sikorsky and his colleagues on that fateful day forty years ago. The memorial was a polished Martian marble obelisk about six feet high and two and a half feet on a side coming to a pyramidal point at the top; the names of those that died were inscribed on the front.

“Alright Oz, where exactly is the entrance at?” Jack sub-vocalized into the throat mike of his comm.

“It is directly beneath the memorial for the dig site,” Oz told him.

“Why am I not surprised?” Jack muttered.

“What was that?” Samuel asked.

“The entrance is under the memorial obelisk,” Jack told him.

“Pricks,” Samuel said.

Jack just nodded and turned to Ren. “See if you can find a switch or sensor, or something to open it up,” Jack ordered him.

“Gotcha,” Ren said pulling open the back of his camera he pulled out a small sensor detector disguised as a battery pack.

“Fuji once he gets it open I want you to carry Taki,” Jack ordered.

“Roger,” Fuji acknowledged and went over to the girl undoing the waist strap that had been holding her in the chair.

It took several minutes and at least one guard rotating through the room before Ren found the sensor switch. Thankfully he had the forethought to keep his camera in the other hand pretending to take pictures of the obelisk and giving a running commentary on the mating habits of badgers in Japanese

By the time he found it Jack had a more than passing knowledge of the mating habits of Badgers and wasn’t really sure he wanted it.

“Okay found it,” Ren said and then whistled.

“What?” Jack asked.

“Bastards triple encrypted,” Ren told him.

“Can you break it?” Samuel asked keeping an eye out for anymore guards as he nonchalantly examined a diorama of the archeologist’s base camp.

Ren snorted. “Of course I can break it, what I look like a schmuck?” He asked.

Fuji started to open his mouth.

“Don’t answer that,” Ren said giving his brother a glare.

It took another fifteen minutes of fiddling and taking the rest of the hidden tools out of his camera before Ren was finally able to tap a code into the sensor scanner. There was a slight grinding noise and the memorial obelisk slid back from the entryway to the underground facility.

Lights flickered to life down the steep stairwell revealed and the obelisk came to a halt. “Alright,” Jack almost whispered and then cleared his throat. “Fuji grab Taki; Samuel hide the wheelchair over there behind those display cases, Ren you take point I’ll be right behind you and Samuel can take slack,” Jack ordered.

Words of affirmation and nods answered his orders and they all unlimbered the weapons that they had been able to conceal on their persons; Ren had a wicked little Steyr machine pistol, Fuji had a Colt GM 2511A1 in .44 magnum, Jack had his pair of FNs which he only currently had one out.

“Judas Friggin Priest,” Jack exclaimed looking at the huge pistol in Samuel’s fist. “Where the hell did you get a Wildey at especially one chambered in .475 Wildey Magnum?” Jack asked.

“Graduation present from my grandmother,” Samuel told him with a grunt and Jack could only shake his head as light reflected off the 8” stainless steel barrel.

Ren cleared his throat. “If you guys are done comparing, ahem, barrel lengths can we please get going,” he interrupted.

Jack just nodded and Samuel scowled at him.

Ren stepped down on the first step the others following as they walked down a spiraling enclosed staircase when it finally ended it felt like they were several hundred feet under the surface of the planet and held up a clenched fist to bring everyone to a halt.

Jack moved up next to him to see what the problem was. Using sign language Ren communicated that he could see a guard moving down the stairs on some sort of patrol and then they moved back up the stairs a bit.

“Samuel take Taki. Fuji do you think you can take that guard out quietly?” Jack asked.

“Sure no problem,” Fuji said handing the unconscious girl off to Samuel.

Fuji moved past the others quietly opening the door he saw that the guard was several stories down and moving further downwards. Looking up towards the stairwell’s ceiling Fuji examined something and then pulled his shirt up and unwound the length of climbing rope and a small grappling hook that had been concealed there.

Playing out a bit of the rope he quietly swung the rope and threw the grapple upwards where it sailed through a steel eye-ring holding the entire stairway up. The rubber clad prongs made no noise as they grabbed onto the ring and Fuji tugged it tight.

Stepping up onto the railing Fuji clenched one of his leaf bladed throwing knives between his teeth and then stepped off at the end of his swing he pulled the knife out and attempted to nail the guard in the back of the throat only to miss and swing past behind him with a quiet whoosh.

The guard for his part paused looked around, shrugged and kept on walking down the stairs.

“Oh, my god,” Ren said in disgust.

Jack groaned palming his face.

Samuel had to bite his tongue almost hard enough to draw blood to keep from laughing.

What they hadn’t noticed was that Fuji’s return arc brought him behind the guard again but somehow the grappling hook had worked loose of the eyelet and he found himself falling down the center of the stairwell. With an amazing feat of dexterity and timing he was able to grab on to a piece of the stairwell several stories under the guard who hadn’t even noticed him falling past.

“Wait here,” Jack said quietly and pushed the door open. Cat footing down the stairwell he pulled a silencer from his back pocket and screwed it on to the end of the FS, once within range of the guard he put a three round burst into the back of his skull splattering it and his cap on the wall. The only sound in the stairwell was the clack of the slide cycling and three almost silent chuffs of air.

“Way to go Ninjerk,” Jack told Fuji as he pulled him back up on the stairs.

“Okay so maybe the dramatic approach wasn’t the best one,” Fuji grunted as Jack pulled him up.

“Gee Mom and Dad would be so proud of your skills, not,” Ren told Fuji as he and Samuel came down the stairs.

“That’s probably the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time,” Samuel chuckled quietly.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” Fuji said wiping some dirt off the front of his shirt.

Jack shook his head. “Alright enough fooling around, let’s go find out what’s in this facility that would be worth killing hundreds of people over a four decade time period,” Jack ordered as they hurried down the rest of the stairwell as quickly and quietly as they could considering one of their number was carrying an unconscious person.

At the bottom of the stairwell they were confronted by a huge portal made of a copper hued metal set into the actual red stone of the mountain of Olympus Mons.

“So any clue as to how we get in?” Samuel asked gesturing to the portal.

The only other things that were on the wall was a sign in English stating that this facility was off limits to an personnel under class 7 security clearance and another panel of the copper hued metal about twelve inches on a side.

“Maybe that’s some kind of control panel,” Ren said motioning to the plate.

“Only one way to try,” Jack said and walked up to it. As he brought his hand closer characters welled up from the panel in a neat five by nine character grid and he could feel a slight warmth coming from it. “Well any suggestions?” He asked.

The others just shrugged so Jack pushed what he thought was five random characters in and then a lyrical voice said something in a language he didn’t understand and the huge portal slid open.

“Okay that was an incredibly lucky guess,” Fuji said.

“Yeah, maybe I should start playing the lottery,” Jack replied. Although something about the situation felt oddly familiar as if he had done it before.

“Doesn’t matter let’s get inside and see if we can help the girl,” Samuel said shouldering past the others and into the facility beyond.

Jack just shrugged and followed behind with Ren and Fuji bringing up the rear.

The interior of the facility was composed of the same copper hued metal and the first room they found themselves in was seemingly a large airlock big enough for probably close to a company of marines in full battle rattle.

“They didn’t believe in doing things small did they,” Fuji said moving towards the door on the opposite wall. Like the last room this one had another sign in English stating that anyone below class 7 was not allowed entry, and another copper hued panel.

“Maybe they were giants,” Ren said as he did a quick check on Taki who was slung across Samuel’s shoulders in a fireman’s carry.

“Well let’s see if the same code works on this door,” Jack said moving up to the panel and brought his hand near; glyphs once again rising from it and he repeated the sequence once again.

They were rewarded by the huge portal sliding open before them; the voice once again repeated what it had said earlier.

“Wonder what its saying?” Ren said.

“Could be calling people to chow time or telling us the facility will self destruct in five minutes,” Samuel said.

“Mmm, food,” Fuji said rubbing his stomach.

“I thought we told you to eat before we left,” Jack said giving him the evil eye.

“I can’t eat when I’m nervous,” Fuji whined.

“Here,” Ren said handing his brother an energy bar.

“Thanks,” Fuji said and practically swallowed the bar whole.

“I hope you get a stomach cramp,” Jack told him.

“Yeah well I hope you get mono,” Fuji retorted back.

WHAP! Fuji’s head jerked forward once the others entered the room ahead of him. “I hope you get mono?” Ren said after smacking his brother in the back of the head, “What kind of come back is that?” He questioned.

Fuji just shrugged and followed his brother who was still shaking his head.

The mercenaries found themselves in a pretty much featureless room shaped like a half circle the only feature in the room was an obelisk shaped structure also made of the same burnished copper metal as the rest of the facility seemed to be made of and there were a dozen doors radiating off of the room.

“Wonder what that is?” Samuel said nodding to the obelisk.

Jack snorted in disgust and walked up the obelisk. “Jeeze, some more constructive questions or even answers would be a little more useful,” he said waving a hand over the obelisk and watching as characters once again swam to its smooth surface and he entered the same code as he had before.

Nothing seemed to happen and Jack started to turn back to the others to ask what door they should try first. “Which door do you think?” He asked them.

There was a slight pulse of light behind him and the others were staring open mouthed at something over his shoulder. Turning around he saw a woman standing next to the obelisk, she had golden red hair falling in ringlets to her shoulders and wore a skintight tan and gray one piece outfit that seemed to have attached boots with military style soles and two bracer type bands were around her arms that seemed to have small screens and buttons on them.

“Where the hell did you come from?” Jack asked the image.

His answer came back to him in the same voice and lyrical language that had been heard at the two different entrances this time it had a questioning note to it as it repeated itself several times.

“I think she’s asking us our destination,” Ren guessed.

Jack moved closer to the figure slowly putting a hand out to touch her and finding no resistance as it just went right through the image causing a tiny ripple where his hand passed through the figure’s shoulder.

“Advanced holographic system,” Ren commented musingly.

“That’s all well and good,” Jack said pulling his hand back and rubbing the fingers together as a slight tingle ran through them.

“Let me try something,” Ren said and stepped towards the projected figure and pointing at Taki. “Prior location of Taki,” Ren questioned and received no response.

“Well that didn’t work,” Samuel grumbled.

“There has got to be some way we can figure out where they found Taki,” Jack mused aloud.

At Jack’s mentioning of Taki the figure said something and then a three dimensional map appeared showing them their current location and then a red line grew along a pathway that led further back and down into the facility.

“I think she likes Jack,” Fuji said poking Ren in the ribs.

“It’s a hologram Fuji, I probably just didn’t phrase the question right,” Ren said with a sigh.

“She’s still hot,” Fuji said staring at the holographic woman.

“What, are you channeling Rick now,” Samuel growled.

“Guys focus we’ve got a path to find out where they found Taki, so let’s take it,” Jack said moving to the door set to the furthest right of the room.

The path that they had to take carried them along numerous copper colored passages passing by even more doors that had English signs stating that they were unable to be opened, other doors that had been opened had a file folder in a plastic holder under each sign with a ream of papers listing all the items found in that room.

Jack and the others found navigation fairly simple once they realized that a red stripe that appeared as they approached and disappeared as they left an area was actually navigating them towards their final destination.

One of the doors they passed was humongous with numerous scuff marks on the giant portals. Jack paused to read the file folder in the plastic holder on the wall. “Heh,” Jack snorted reading the page that was in the folder.

“What?” Samuel asked.

“Seems they weren’t able to get this door open even after using a 15 kilo composition 25 shaped breaching charge,” Jack said holding up the piece of paper.

Fuji let out a low whistle and Ren just stared at the door in wonder.

“I’m sorry did you say 15 Kilos of C25?” Samuel asked calmly.

“Yeah seems they started out with a three kilo charge and stepped it up from there at half kilo intervals,” Jack explained.

“Are they out of there fucking minds, fifteen kilos of C25 would not only collapse most buildings but would obliterate them as well,” Samuel ground out.

“Yeah it would have, but I guess they really wanted to get into this room. The report says they believe it is either a lab of some sort or possibly an armory,” Jack said as he read aloud from the document.

“I’d say armory from the size and weight of those doors,” Samuel said touching one finger against the light scuff mark on the door only to see it rub away leaving a clean surface.

Their final destination was shut off by an unassuming portal that looked just the same as the others in the numerous corridors that they had been following. Once again when they reached the portal Jack passed a hand over the copper colored plate next to it and entered the seemingly all powerful pass code. Entering the room they found it populated by a lone console and a clear armored glass cylinder that had a metallic plate at the top with hoses and wires springing from it and connecting to another metal plate recessed in the ceiling and a thick copper hued collar connected it to the floor.

“Uhm, so what now?” Fuji asked taking the girl from Samuel so he could get a rest from carrying the heavier than expected young woman.

“Uhm, I don’t know maybe you asking more useful questions,” Jack snapped.

Fuji started to open his mouth glaring at Jack.

“Whoa, whoa, guys chill,” Ren said stepping between them. “Jack why don’t you see if you can get this control panel to work like you did the others?” Ren suggested turning Jack towards the console to try and defuse the situation.

Jack gave Fuji a last glare and then turned to the console moving a hand over it to bring the glyphs to the surface of the panel. He once again tapped in the same code he had used before and an invisible seam split up the middle of the cylinder the two portions of the seemingly single piece cylinder opening.

As the others watched a waist high railing rose from floor of the cylinder. “I guess we put her in there,” Jack said and with Ren’s help they set the girl against the railing.

“Hey I never noticed this before,” Ren said pulling a jack from behind the girl’s ear trailing a thin wire.

“Wasn’t it on any of the scans you did?” Jack asked.

“No it must have been inside some scan deadening material that was able to mimic bone,” Ren said looking at the railing.

“Is there some place to insert it?” Jack asked.

“Hold on, hold on,” Ren said crouching down and running a finger around the underside of the rail stopping abruptly. “Got it,” he said and slid the plug into a socket on the underside of the rail with a small click.

“Okay, get out of there and we’ll try my ü ber code again,” Jack said walking back over to the console and staring down at it. Entering the code he had used numerous times before, his entry was answered once again by the female voice speaking the unknown lyrical language, but the tone of the words sounded negative.

“Okay that didn’t work,” Samuel said.

“Not helping,” Jack said.

“Okay I’ll just stand over here pretending to be useful then,” Samuel said moving back towards the door they had come through.

“Try it again maybe,” Ren suggested.

“No, no, hold on a second,” Jack said. “Let me try something,” he said standing in front of the console he closed his eyes concentrating on slowing his breathing he went into a half meditative state and started slowly pushing the glyphs at first then began to speed up by the time he was done a string of over a hundred characters had been typed into the console.

“Jack, Jack,” Fuji said shaking him back to consciousness.

“What?” Jack practically shouted shrugging the shaking hand off.

“Somehow you managed to pull it off, I don’t know how though,” Ren said gesturing with one hand at the cylinder in the middle of the room.

While Jack had been in his semi-trance the doors had slid shut the chamber having filled with a golden-amber fluid with golden motes seeming to spark and dance over and around Taki as she floated in the middle of the cylinder the same motes of light continued to dance and sparkle throughout the cylinder as they watched.

They waited motionless for almost fifteen minutes before Fuji pulled out a deck of cards. “Anyone for some poker?” He suggested.

“Ah, okay, I guess we really don’t have much else we can do until this thing cycles through whatever it is doing,” Jack said glancing at the control panel that had some sort of indicator showing a graduated line moving steadily but slowly across the edge of the console.

Almost three hours later found Jack, Samuel, and Ren nearly broke as Fuji shuffled and then had one of them cut the cards.

“He’s gotta be cheating,” Samuel leaned over and whispered to Jack.

“Really, I hadn’t noticed, considering he can make several dozen knives disappear on his person it really wouldn’t surprise me that he would be able to cheat at cards,” Jack snorted back.

They were saved from losing all their pocket money by the lyrical voice saying something the motes of light slowly fading away as the cylinder drained the golden-amber fluid and Taki slowly settled back to the floor of the chamber as the doors slid open a few seconds later.

“I’ll carry her this time,” Jack said picking up the girl and slinging her gently over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry.

“So should we explore more of the facility or get out of here?” Fuji asked his eyes showing what decision he would make.

Jack sighed. “I suppose we can do some exploring,” he told them. Not used to Taki’s weight he brushed against the console bumping one hand along the glyphs on its surface.

At Jack’s unintentional touching of the glyph’s deep in the facility a half dozen eyes opened, clamps releasing with a thunk, dropping heavy booted feet to the floor.

“Okay so where to first then?” Fuji asked rubbing his hands together.

“That’s up to you guys,” Jack said.

“Let’s go a bit deeper into the facility,” Ren suggested.

Jack just shrugged his shoulders following the others out of the room and deeper into the facility. Some of the doors that Kawamura had been unable to open yielded to the code that Jack punched into them; most of the facility seemed to be given over to living quarters and literally hundreds of labs of varying sizes.

One of the sections they weren’t able to get into was where the heavy marble walls and ceiling had collapsed in one of the passages that would allow them to travel deeper into the facility.

“Okay, we’ve pretty much looked the whole place over,” Jack said glancing at his watch seeing that it had been five hours since they had entered the museum overhead.

“One last place,” Samuel said. “We haven’t checked out that supposed armory yet,” his eyes gleamed with the thought of playing with new weapons and explosives.

“Why am I not surprised,” Fuji whispered to his brother.

“It’s Samuel,” Ren just replied equally quiet.

“Well we need to make it quick then,” Jack said. “We’ve been down here way longer than I intended and that receptionist might be getting suspicious about the fact that we haven’t left the museum yet,” Jack told them.

“It’ll only take a few minutes and it’s on our way back to the museum anyway,” Samuel said.

“Alright, alright,” Jack gave up. Hopefully the receptionist just thought the Japanese tourists were taking a ton of pictures.

They had just reached the vault like doors of the supposed armory and Jack had just keyed them open when they heard the heavy tread of booted feet moving down the corridor towards them.

“Shit, they must have found the dead guard,” Ren cursed.

Jack was just about to say something when three figures in close-fitting tan and gray one piece outfits and wearing heavy combat boots of an unfamiliar design came around the corner. “Oh I have a bad feeling these aren’t the security guards from the museum,” Jack said.

Upon sighting the five person group the figures sped up into a loping run that covered the distance very quickly.

Jack handed the girl off to Fuji shoving him through the door they had just opened and keyed the door shut again. “Once we draw them off get the girl out of here,” he shouted through the closing crack.

“Come on fall back,” Jack said the three friends racing backwards in leap frog fashion to the room where they had found the console and cylinder.

“Do we open fire or not?” Samuel demanded as he ducked to one side of the door frame.

“We…, oh shit,” Jack cursed interrupting himself.

“What is it?” Ren asked ducking behind the console.

“There’s only two of them where’s the third one,” Jack said.

“He must have broken off and gone after Fuji and the girl,” Samuel said.

“I just hope these fuckers don’t have the access codes to that room,” Ren yelled as he opened fire on the first of their attackers.

“Well we’ll just have to see,” Jack said adding his own firepower to that of Ren’s as they concentrated on the lead person.

Or not lead person, Jack thought with a curse as the figure just shrugged off his and Ren’s fire like a swarm of gnats. “Samuel?” Jack shouted.

“I’m on it,” Samuel said targeting the figure’s head with his massive hand gun and emptying the entire magazine of .475 Wildey Magnum rounds into the figure’s head.

Jack thought that wasn’t even going to stop him but the man faltered and fell to the ground a few steps from the room but the danger wasn’t over as the second figure plowed through his dying comrade and right into the doorway. With a swift sweep of his arm he sent Ren flying across the room to impact against the back interior of the cylinder and then latched onto Jack slamming him against the console hard.

Jack felt the pop of at least one rib and then the sharp jab of broken bone against an internal organ as he struggled to rip the man’s hands free of his shoulders before they could do any more damage. It was futile though the man’s fingers and hands were clamped down like a pair of vise grips on his shoulders and he could feel his shoulder sockets and blades creak under the pressure that the man was slowly but inexorably increasing.

Ren felt something pop in his back as he impacted with the back wall of the cylinder and then he slid limply down the interior to land in a pile at the bottom. Trying to get up his legs didn’t respond and he watched helplessly as the tan and gray clad figure slammed Jack against the console. The impact must have activated something because the doors in front of him slid shut and he heard the shush of ducts opening as the cylinder started to flood with the golden-amber fluid with motes of light already starting to spark in it.

Trying futilely to move again the only thing he could do was hold his chin up as high as he could until the fluid flooded his nostrils and mouth after that he lost consciousness as he lungs filled with the strange liquid.

Jack didn’t dare risk taking a hand off of one of the steam piston like arms to reach for another weapon to defend himself with; he knew as soon as he did even with the little bit of strength he was able to exert against the man he was still keeping him from clamping down even harder or shifting his grip to Jack’s neck.

When the man had charged through the door he’d also knocked Samuel to the side hard enough to daze him causing Samuel to lose his grip on the Wildey pistol. Samuel slowly swam out of the daze to find his hand empty, Ren lying on the floor of the cylinder, and Jack being inexorably crushed against the console in the middle of the room.

Still somewhat dazed Samuel groped around for the gun and was finally able to close his fist around the onyx grips of the hand cannon and bring it up; as did so he saw that his hand was shaking and he was unable to focus properly. Closing his eyes Samuel inhaled and exhaled deeply knowing that if he took too long to steady himself his friends would die and him along with them a few minutes later. Finally reopening his eyes he found his hands were rock steady as he lined the pistol up on the man’s head and pulled the trigger. Instead of a deafening blast of sound he was rewarded by the simple metallic clink of the hammer falling on an empty chamber. Samuel had forgotten that he’d emptied the magazine into the first man’s head; the slide must have popped forward either by his own hand as he’d been hit or by the impact with the burnished copper floor making him think that he had reloaded.

Grunting with the pain it took to get off the floor Samuel moved swiftly across the room the spent magazine dropping from the butt of the gun and clanking against the floor as he scrabbled under his shirt for the spare magazine in the pouch there. Nearly dropping the magazine as his hands started shaking again causing him to pause long enough to steady himself and slide the magazine in place jacking the slide back he let it snap forward chambering the huge hollow pointed slug.

Jack felt his attacker jerk repeatedly as a chain of echoing booms made it’s way through the swirling pain he was in but the hands clenching tightly to his shoulders didn‘t relinquish their grip. Jack finally felt one of his shoulder blades snap under the pressure; the intense pain blurred his vision and he felt more than saw a shadow cross his vision. The shadow was soon followed by a deafening roar and one of his eardrums collapsed from the proximity of the pressure, heat from the muzzle scorched his face, and burning cordite flecked his cheeks after that the pressure released and he slid painfully down the side of the console making sure not to jar his broken shoulder blade.

Samuel had emptied all but one of the magnum’s rounds into the back of Jack’s assailant then finally staggered around to the front of the man practically sticking the still hot barrel against his eye and pulling the trigger. Expecting a welter of hot blood and bone fragments he stared astonished as the round entered the eye socket and then a divot of something appeared at the back of the man’s head.

However the round had managed to take the attacker out and release Jack who slid painfully to the floor.

“Where’s Ren?” Jack asked through pain clenched teeth.

“He’s…,” Samuel started to say and then stopped as he looked at the now filled cylinder where Ren floated lifeless his eyes rolled back in his head.

“He’s gone,” Samuel said quietly and slid his last magazine into the pistol as he crouched over Jack.

“Dammit,” Jack screamed slamming his fist repeatedly against the copper alloy until it was bloody. “I didn’t want this,” Jack said squeezing his eyes shut and a pair of tears tracked down his face. “I didn’t want anyone else to die, we already lost Steve and Paul before this started, Dave is paralyzed from the waist down, Suzanne is still missing; now we’ve lost Rick and now Ren. It’s all my fucking fault for wanting some revenge,” he practically howled.

“Belay that bullshit Sergeant Major,” Samuel growled. “They were my friends too; you lost your aunt and mother to this clusterfuck as well and they were like family to me, they sure as hell treated me better than my own and we still have Fuji and Dave is counting on us to take these bastards down and maybe we’ll even find Suzanne,” Samuel ground out in the longest speech he had ever made.

“Heh, heh, heh,” Jack said and then coughed up a bit of blood as a broken rib jabbed into a lung causing him to groan in pain.

“What’s so fucking funny?” Samuel asked.

“That’s probably the most words you’ve ever said at one time,” Jack slid a little further up the console. “Now go help Fuji before he get’s himself and the girl killed,” he ordered.

“Shit,” Samuel stood up quickly racing out the doors with the Magnum in hand.

Back in the control room Jack slipped his belt off and used it to immobilize his shoulder. The task was rather difficult with only one hand and he had to make sure not to make it too tight putting unwanted pressure on his ribs.

Sol System - Mars - Olympus Mons

Unknown Facility Beneath The Olympus Massacre Museum

August 22nd 2535 AD - 17:11 GMT

Fuji went sprawling into what was an armory just as they had guessed and barely managed to keep from dropping the girl as he gently set her down in a corner as far away as possible from the door leading from the hallway.

Looking around he saw racks upon racks of unfamiliar weapons as the room expanded off into the distance. At first the pounding he heard didn’t registered to him but soon it became more pervasive and he pulled out his .44 slowly approaching the doors.

The pounding on the door stopped and then he blanched as he saw the two portions of the door split apart slowly fingers and then hands slowly moving into the gap pushing it apart.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Fuji griped emptying the .44’s magazine into the tan and gray clad figure that stared at him without any expression.

The door ground slowly and inexorably open the figure came through the door lunging extremely quickly at Fuji.

Stumbling backwards Fuji’s wrist smacked against the edge of a rack and the .44 went spinning of into the depths of the armory and Ren tried to stop his backwards totter by latching on to one of the racks; the only thing he managed to do was bury himself under the pile of weapons that fell on top of him.

Sticking his head up out of the jumbled mess he saw the figure slowly treading towards him it’s booted feet crumping hollowly against the burnished floor as its outstretched arms came closer.

Scrabbling through the pile of weapons Fuji closed his hand over the first grip he could find and hoped that he was pointing it in the right direction and pulled the firing stud on the weapon.

Sol System - Mars - Olympus Mons

Unknown Facility Beneath The Olympus Massacre Museum

August 22nd 2535 AD - 17:15 GMT

Samuel heard and felt a loud explosion the overpressure wave almost knocking him from his feet; he had only been a few dozen meters from the armory when the blast wave hit him.

Choking back worry Samuel advanced through the doors to find a lower torso in form fitting tan and gray clothing on the ground and Fuji looking bug eyed at the large blocky weapon in his hands.

“Leave it to you to find the most destructive weapon you can find to swat a fly,” Samuel said holstering the Wildey under his shirt and helping Fuji dig himself out of the pile of weapons.

Fuji was shaking as he stood up. “That was close man, way too close,” he said while Samuel supported him.

“How the hell did he get in here?” Samuel asked. “Did he know the security code?” He asked in surprise.

“Hell no the bastard just stuck his hands in the crack of the door and pushed it open,” Fuji told him hysterically.

“Calm down Fuji,” Samuel said turning around to look at the chunk of body lying on the floor.

Sol System - Mars - Olympus Mons

Unknown Facility Beneath The Olympus Massacre Museum

August 22nd 2535 AD - 17:15 GMT

After getting his shoulder immobilized Jack stood back up weakly and leaned against the console his eyes falling on Ren’s lifeless body as he floated in the cylinder. Closing his eyes he forced the tears back down and felt along the control panel with his hands. Eyes still closed he tapped in the sequence that had become disgustingly familiar to him.

The cylinder split open after Ren’s body had floated to the bottom. Using just his good arm Jack drug Ren out of the cylinder and laid him out on the floor closing his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest. That task done Jack turned his attention to the two attackers.

While the others had thought the men were members of the museum’s security staff they were neither; neither security guards or men that is. Jack was on his knees next to one of the bodies examining the exploded head of the first one that Samuel had downed; chunks of silver and crystalline circuitry were pulverized and shattered by the heavy duty slugs and the head was pretty much gone. Wires and other bits of high tech also lay shattered around the two forms.

When Fuji and Samuel returned with Samuel carrying the girl Jack was still leaning over one of the bodies examining it he realized their return when Fuji let out a cry and ran over to his brother’s body cradling it against him.

“We have to get out of here,” Jack said tiredly to Samuel.

Samuel just nodded resettling the girl’s weight across his shoulder and waved one hand at the grieving Fuji.

“Get a head start, I’ll take care of this,” Jack told his friend waving him out the door. Walking over to Fuji he laid his good hand on the man’s shoulder.

“Get your hands off me,” Fuji snarled pushing away the hand.

“Fuji, we can’t stay here,” Jack said quietly.

“I don’t care,” Fuji said his voice choked with anguish.

“Fuji if you stay here Rice’s men will find you and kill you,” Jack told him equally quietly.

“I don’t care,” Fuji repeated tears streaming down his cheeks and falling into his brother’s hair.

“Fuji do you think Ren would want you to die like that?” Jack asked hating himself for using the dead brother as leverage to save the still living one.

“Bastard, bastard, this is all your fault,” he sobbed.

“Yeah, I’m a bastard and it is all my fault,” Jack told him tiredly.

“We’re not leaving him here,” Fuji said standing up.

“Can you carry him?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, I can. Ren always was a bit lighter than me,” Fuji said leaning over he picked his brother up arranging him over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. “Let’s go,” he said quietly and followed Jack who had drawn one of his FN pistols with his good hand.

It took almost three times as long to get back to the surface as it did to reach the bottom and Samuel was waiting for them at the top of the stairs directly under the memorial obelisk.

“We ready?” Jack asked looking at his two friends burdened with the dead and the unconscious both nodded their readiness.

Jack tucked the FN into the waist of his pants using his now freed hand to push the button that they had used earlier to close off the hidden stairwell. With a slight grinding noise it slid away and somewhat fresher air spilled down the stairs pushing away the scent of the dead guard’s voided bowels that lay further down the stairwell below them.

Pulling the FN loose Jack stuck the barrel and one eye over the frame of the stairwell checking the room they had left behind more than five hours ago. The lights were now dim; the soft music that had been playing before had been shut off and there was no one in sight.

“Anything?” Samuel asked in a low voice avoiding the hissing noises a whisper would produce.

“No, it must be after hours the place looks deserted, light and music are pretty much shut off,” Jack told them as he slowly rose from the stairwell keeping his gun leveled at the archway that led into the room.

Samuel and Fuji carried their burdens the rest of the way up the stairs and into the room, Samuel set Taki down on the marble floor as gently and quietly as he could while Fuji unfolded the wheelchair they had hidden earlier and put his brother’s body in it.

“Should I scout ahead a little?” Samuel asked. On the way up the stairs he had relieved the dead guard of his Glock pistol and it was now held tightly in his hand.

“No, hell with it,” Jack grunted in pain. “We’ll make a mad dash for the doors and mow down anyone that gets in the way,” Jack tried to say nonchalantly.

“Sounds like a good enough plan to me,” Samuel said and gently picked Taki up again.

The three of them with their burdens raced through the halls of the museum and just about made it out through the front doors when an old white haired security guard stepped out of a doorway.

“Ah shit,” Fuji said.

“Don’t do it, don’t do it,” Jack repeated under his breath but saw it was pointless as the man dropped his cup of coffee to spill on his pants and shoes scrabbling for an old revolver in his holster.

“What now,” Fuji yelled.

“Samuel,” Jack barked.

“Yeah, can I kill him?” Samuel asked with brutal nonchalance.

“He’s probably got grandkids,” Jack commented.

“Roger,” even with Taki’s weight burdening him Samuel moved swiftly and grabbed a name plate off the top of the reception desk flinging it stiff armed at the guard.

The old man had just snapped off the thumb restraint and was pulling the revolver free when the heavy wood and copper name plate blasted him in the center of the forehead. The impact knocked him back a few steps and he crumpled into a heap against the wall a large gash bleeding freely above his brows.

“Try subtlety much,” Jack asked pulling the old Chief’s Special loose of its holster and dumping out the five rounds it held.

“What you want me to ask him out on a date or something,” Samuel commented with disgust.

“No just a little less bloodshed, and hopefully he won’t have a concussion,” Jack said placing the seat cushion from the reception desk under his head.

Samuel just glared at Jack and they used the guard’s keys to unlock the front doors. Out in the parking lot their SUV was the only vehicle in sight as they quickly piled in with Samuel driving, Jack was in the passenger seat, Taki was laid out on the middle bench and Fuji cradled his dead brother in the rear bench.

They returned to the Hoplite II that night and then headed once again for that lonely spot outside San Kapolla where they had landed twice before.

Sol System - Mars - 20+ Miles Outside Of San Kapolla

August 23rd 2535 AD - 00:00 GMT

It wasn’t easy in the Martian desert to find wood but Fuji and Samuel gathered all that they could scrounging the wasteland for several miles around and brought it under the front nose of the Hoplite II building a sizable funeral bier for their comrade in arms.

Fuji cleaned his brother’s body and dressed him in his best yukata arranging his weapons around him on the wooden pyre as well as several personal items.

Jack and Samuel watched as Fuji knelt by his brother saying a quiet prayer in Japanese that drifted softly on the wind to them and the desert. When Fuji had completed his prayer over his brother’s body he stepped back and accepted the torch that Jack handed him, when he and Samuel had built the bier they’d seeded it with small amounts of thermite-25.

The three friends watched as the oil and chemically soaked wood roared high consuming their friend’s remains in less than half an hour.

“To this fire; the giver and taker of life we commend our brother in arms to the waiting souls of those who have passed before, may he find peace in the next life that he found naught in this, and if not may he do unto those before they do unto him,” Jack finished the short military prayer they had been taught in the Martian Marine Corps.

Over the ships external speakers Oz played taps being rendered by bugle, drums, and bagpipes.

By this point Jack was sweating heavily from the pain of his shattered shoulder blade and had was using all of his willpower to keep from swaying as they watched the pyre burn down to ash. The stamina and adrenaline that he had been running on finally gave out as they were walking back up the airlock ramp though.

I’m falling, he thought dazedly to himself as he felt his body bounce and roll down the ramp.

“Shit,” he heard Samuel say far away.

“Stubborn fool,” Fuji hollered as their feet clattered down the ramp after his limp body.

Before he lost consciousness he felt hands on his shattered shoulder and an intense flare of pain but didn’t have the energy to so much as grunt. “Dammit his entire shoulder blade has been crushed,” he heard a voice say.

Samuel and Fuji stood over Jack’s unconscious body. “I didn’t realize he was that injured,” Fuji said looking at Samuel.

“I suspected but he’s not one to complain even about the worst injuries,” Samuel explained.

“Did he get hurt this bad when Ren was killed?” Fuji asked.

“Yeah, he was fighting one of the things off by himself, I don’t think he even realized that Ren was dead just injured and was trying to keep its attention on himself,” Samuel explained as the two of them picked Jack up being careful not to jostle the injured shoulder.