Daria 5 Page 5

  Without much ado the Pirate vessel settled onto 55 Cancri e in the middle of the reclaimed mine site, disgorged its members and went promptly to work establishing a parameter guard and a Firebase, all in the rain of course. Not a task that is anything but miserable in the wet and cold and inhospitable environment. We made no move, just observed and monitored all communications between the Pirates themselves and to off planet sources. The Alien reptile/human hybrids were very bitchy about the cold as it slowed them down considerably. By the end of the first day of them being on 55 Cancri e they had a very acceptable Firebase coming along nicely. We rewarded them with a massive thunder and lightning storm. The electrical discharge was spectacular even from our vantage point never mind from sitting in the middle of it. Volar ensured that their ship was hit repeatedly. I was reminded of the power of planetary weather forces.

  Two of the preliminary points on our strategic list of tasks which needed to happen to the Pirate ship were the disabling of its engines and the frying of all of their communications channels. Volar and his severe lightening took care of these first two items with little difficulty at all. Two brutal lightning strikes hit the Pirates ship simultaneously and the multi-million volt electrical surge damn near all but set the ship on fire. I swear the lightening hit their ship hard enough to lift it off the ground. The spray of sparks and blinding light was so great I wondered if the ship exploded. We could see the smoke coming off the ship after the hit and all their comm channels went dead. If any of their members were using communication equipment or electrical equipment when the electrical hit occurred they would have surely been electrocuted and killed. It was an excellent start for the combat campaign!

  When the thunder and lightning storm passed but still in the rain, we sent out our sonic drones in stealth mode so they could not be spotted. We used a frequency of 6000Hz as it is very annoying for humans and really buggered up the reptile/human mutant hybrids senses, even caused them to stumble in movement. I tried a sample of the frequency and it made me taste metal in my mouth and set my nerves on edge. In addition as a special feature for the humans we presented them with ongoing sonic samples of human screams of agony. Not too loud, but always there and causing sensory contaminations and making the pirates very uneasy and irritable.

  It seems we were correct about the possibility of the lightning strikes killing anyone using electronic gear or communications. The Pirates buried two of their members today, fifteen more to go.

  Chapter 12: PSYOPS

  There are many ways a man can die, old and quietly slip away in the early dawn. And there are terrifying ways a man can die. Ways that make observers scared to death and sick to their stomach, ways that invoke horror and terror in the survivors. That was what we wanted to invoke in the Pirates.

  The next stage of our guerrilla/terrorist/PSYOPS campaign called for a sentry or two to be killed by Beast and a sniper shot to the head of a Pirate while standing in a group of peers within the camp. The sentry should be butchered in the night without a sound and laid out as a specimen for the remaining Pirates as a demonstration, an offering if you will of our superiority and their helplessness. The head shot was also to be a public demonstration of assassination capability. I wanted maximum gore and shock to bring the Pirates to their knees. I wanted it to haunt their minds and leave them shuddering in horror.

  Throughout the whole time the drones must keep up the sonic bombardment of 6000Hz squealing mentally numbing sound attacks, complete with human screams, howls and pleads.

  Beast was keen to get at it, but I insisted we approach their Firebase with extreme caution and use our thermal capabilities to map each Pirate position. We had no capacity for mistakes, so we spent a good long time surveying from the drones, from the ship sensors, and from our quad copters as we moved and circled the Firebase. Beast wanted to have a run at one of the reptile/human hybrids but I nixed that idea as this was not the time or place to attempt an unknown. A regular human Pirate, suffering from lack of food, sleep, anxiety, nerves and under significant duress would be more than enough to send the appropriate message to the rest of the miscreants.

  “This guy here is human, he is a parameter sentry keeping an eye out for attacks, and he should do very nicely. You can set down, move in to his position, kill him and slip away back to the copter unnoticed unheard like the ghost you are. I’ll be on over watch with the Pulse rifle and I have your back if anything goes sideways. And Beast, these guys know what the hell they’re doing so be aware of booby traps, trip wires and all manner of non-electronic warfare.”

  “Got it boss, I’ll do my best.” xmits Beast.

  I position my copter about 200 meters out and through the night vision and Pulse rifle scope I can see the Pirate clearly. He is one sorry looking son of a bitch, like an escapee from a Psych center and off his meds and a drowned starved rat.

  Beast sets his copter down about 50 meters from the sentry and begins his stalk. I know there has to be trip wires in front of the sentry as that is how I would rig the field of fire in front of my position. But Beast is not human; he is a very high end predator with skills far beyond what humans have managed even with our technology.

  “You’re correct boss; so far I have found two trip wires, a punji stick pit, and a scattering of pressure sensitive mines. This sucker was not about to get snuck up on by most creatures.”

  “Excellent Beast, take your time with the kill and watch yourself on the way back out as we don’t want to set off any of the traps. They have to know and fear that you can reach them anywhere undetected.”

  “Got it boss, here I go.” xmits Beast

  Through the scope I can see Beast crouching within feet of the sentry. In a flash Beast is on him, bites, shakes his head violently, and drags him out of the foxhole and using his rear foot spur opens up the sentry from chest to crotch like a bag of cement. Viscera spew out onto the ground and the thermal view blooms with the sudden heat. Beast holds him down until he is sure the sentry is dead. Then he gets up, looks around and calls for his copter to come in, attaches with the self-activating magnetic latch and lifts straight up quietly into the night.

  “Clean, done, and out, fourteen to go.”

  “I’m impressed Beast, I sure as hell don’t want you after me.”

  “Thanks boss, I appreciate that.”

  “Let’s circle around to the other side of the Firebase and see if we have another target of opportunity.”

  We move silently outside the rainfall zone up about eighty meters in the air, floating along watching the thermal images and their positions, checking their spacing relative to one another and paying particular attention to the reptile/human hybrids. I have reserved those sons of bitches for my Pulse rifle and decapitation. Pretty much opposite the sentry we killed on the other side of the firebase we find another sentry a bit more remote than some of the others who looks like a prime target. We check the surrounding areas very closely for remote munitions, snipers, but find nothing.

  “I think that’s the optimum target boss, but how about I winch down from the copter just behind him instead of climbing and dodging his booby traps?”

  “Yup, I think that will work given I am on over watch so I don’t see any increase in risk. Whenever you are ready.”

  I’m on the scope set to wide angle and I know where the copter should be but I’m damned if I can see it. My helmet display shows Beast’s position relative to the sentry and he is lowering down within three yards behind him. Beast is on the ground unlatches, crouch’s and moves forward in the stalk, sets his feet and with movement too fast to follow is on the sentry, bite and shake violently, hold him, then drag him out of the foxhole and open him up, guts spew everywhere. Beast walks over to the winch line auto connects and is quietly winched up into the night to the copter.

  “Thirteen to go.”

  “Jesus Beast, you are one dangerous son of a bitch.”

  “Of course I am, I’m a wolf and my mother was a bitch and I’m dangerous by de
sign.”

  “Good point Beast, good point well taken.”

  We swing around the camp again looking for the right angle and opportunity for a head shot on a reptile/human hybrid. The Pirates have rigged a couple of plastic tarps to keep the water off and have a small fire burning. Four pirates are crouched under the shelter trying to dry off, warm up and grab a coffee and smoke. One of them is a large reptile/human hybrid. He has his back to my position which makes it even better as his brain mass will splatter over all the others under the tarp.

  “I have a shot Beast, standby while I do my thing.”

  “Got it boss, area’s clear”

  It’s not much of a shot really a mere two hundred meters or so, well two hundred and thirty seven to be exact. I get the Pulse rifle settled and a good cheek weld, relax my eyesight, settle the cross hairs on the back of the Pirates head just above where the neck ends and the skull takes over, slowly increase pressure on the trigger “cough”, “thwack” the alien’s head disappears in a cloud of red blood, white skull fragments, grey brain mass, all spewing out into the faces of the remaining Pirates. The alien body keeps pumping blood out all over everyone as it slowly topples over and rolls into the fire, causing steam clouds to billow up. The Pirates are shouting and screaming and flopping around on the ground wiping the blood, brain and skull spew off their faces, pandemonium grips the camp with others coming out of the ship to see what the hell is going on and causing the confusion.

  “Twelve to go Beast”

  “Nice shot boss, sure scared the living bjesus out of the rest of them didn’t it?”

  “That it did Beast, let’s head for home and call it a night. A night’s work very well done.”

  Chapter 13: Air Strike

  We discussed the booby traps the Pirates had set so they could not be approached without them knowing about it. Of course we had proved to them that the technique was utterly useless by moving right past the traps and butchering a couple of sentries. I had this notion that the traps could be used against them in this war of minds and nerves. If we triggered the traps in the night it would cause the Pirates to assume they were under attack and they would rush about to form a defense. Of course there would not be any attack, we just triggered their traps and sat back and watched them go hysterical thinking the war had started. Perusing that line of thought we had some hand lasers of decent power in our arsenal of weaponry and I wondered if they might have enough voltage to heat the trap trigger wires enough for them to melt thereby triggering the explosives. The anti-personnel mines we could search for on our sensors and trigger them with the Pulse rifle. If we could find them we could set them off.

  We spent the rest of the day refining our equipment, testing and getting ready for the nights nefarious activities. The Pirates were gonna have all sorts of excitement.

  Around midnight we load up, latch into the quad copter harness and head over to the Firebase. I brought along a bag of grenades as I had this nagging idea in my mind for additional terror and mayhem. The lasers worked like a damn to soften and break the trigger wires on the booby traps and when they blew up the concussion touched off the anti-personnel mines. So for the next two hours we hassle the Pirates by setting off their booby traps, watch them run to form a defense, then move over to the other side of the camp detonate the booby traps and watch them run back across the camp to the other side. In that process I have several opportunities to head shot two more of the alien reptile/human hybrids. That made my evening for sure. Ten to go!

  To round out the evening of torture for the Pirate miscreants I used the fragmentation grenades. I am quite proud of this action concept as it has to be one of the most terrifying events a soldier can endure. So far this is how my theory of operations would work. I move into position above a sentry, and I calculate the height to be some one hundred meters give or take a bit. I pull the pin on a frag grenade and drop it on top of the sentry. Now the fuse delay is in the four to five second range and I just need the grenade to be close enough to the sentry to kill and maim. Of critical importance is that I am far enough away when the damned grenade goes off so I am not tagged with shrapnel. Anyway that’s my theory. Talk about ruining an evening for a sentry, wow.

  The first one was tense I have to tell you, but boy did it work. I’m steady over top of the sentry one hundred meters up, I yank the pin and drop the grenade and count one, two, three, four, Boom. The grenade must have gone down into the fox hole with the sentry as his bloody body was thrown straight up and out of the fox hole.

  “Holy shit, did you see that boss.” xmits Beast.

  “I did and I didn’t get tagged by shrapnel either, so I’m really impressed.”

  So we cruised around looking for sentries that were clear of trees and bushes that the grenades could drop right on top off. The first one was the most impressive; the next four grenades came down real close but not right in the fox hole. Never the less we killed three sentries outright and severely wounded two more. It was a grand evening of work. Five to go.

  Chapter 14: Sarin Gas

  We were getting down to the nitty gritty survivors now. Hardened soldiers who knew what was coming and welcomed the experience. Consummate gunman that did not have a fear of death and for that reason alone were twice as dangerous as the others.

  There were no sentries on duty at the Firebase, nor were there any Pirates around the remains of the camp fire. Nor were there any in the Firebase that we could see or sense. Hence no one to snipe with the Pulse rifle, or drop grenades on, or for Beast to stalk and butcher. As far as we could see the remaining five Pirates had retreated back inside their ship. No doubt mining and booby trapping the hell out of the surrounding area. Maybe leaving a few Automated Sentry Gun Units behind to torment us when we show up.

  To be sure we moved in above the Pirate ship and dropped grenades all the way around its parameter to setoff whatever ordinance they might have setup to trap us. We did get a number of secondary explosions but not what we expected. It was beginning to look like they had run out of stuff to go bang. It also looked like they were inviting hand to hand combat within the ship. Something that was not about to happen in my game play book as that was sure death.

  We collected our drones as they had done a magnificent job of harrying the enemy to death. And returned to our ship for a council of war. My objective was to kill the remaining five Pirates, dig up the buried ones, clean up the area and throw all the junk into the Pirate ship, attach a lift device to the ship and lift the mess into space and with a few well-placed explosives turn the whole thing into pile of garbage set on a path to interstellar deep space where it would never be found. But to do that we had a few problems that needed resolution.

  “Muther, can you go through the wiring diagram of the Pirate ship and open the loading bay ramp? If you can then I can fire in several canisters of Sarin Gas, you button the ramp back up and keep it closed and we gas the rats in their holes. Perhaps you can even ensure the gas is circulated through their HVAC system so everyone in the ship gets their fair share.” I ask.

  “I don’t see that being a particularly difficult request, though I would like to get within say five hundred meters as I can get much better schematics and have much more absolute control of their ship system.” replies Muther.

  Poe lifts the ship up out of the canyon and we move across the valley to hover close to the Pirate ship. Meanwhile I collect my Sarin gas canisters and my modified M79 grenade launcher that I will use to fire the Sarin canisters in through the loading dock opening.

  “Ok, I have the schematics and control of their ship. When you get into position let me know and I’ll crack open the loading dock ramp a couple of feet and you fire in the canisters.” says Muther.

  “Splendid Muther, we’ll be ready directly.” I reply.

  Beast and I are strapped into our respective quad copter harnesses and we exit our ship and move into position close to the Pirate ship.

  “Everything cool to go ahead Beast?”
<
br />   “Anytime you are ready, boss” xmits Beast.

  It’s dark, pissing rain, I’m cloaked, Beast is cloaked, our ship is cloaked things cannot get much better, but I am still feeling exposed this close to desperate Pirates fighting for their lives.

  “Ok Muther crack open the ramp please.”

  With a clank and bang the ramp begins to rumble open. I stay at an oblique angle to the ramp opening so I cannot be fired at.

  “Clunk, the first canister hits the ramp and drops into the ship, Clunk, the second canister, Clunk the third canister bounces into the Pirate ship.

  “Ok Muther seal that son of a bitch up.”

  “You got it.”

  The ramp rumbles shut just as a whiff of gas escapes. I hear the clank and thump of the locking dogs.

  “Sweet, have you got a thermal scan of those guys Muther?”

  I do and they are very desperate shall we say.”

  “Let’s let them cook until tomorrow and we’ll check on them then. In the meantime let’s do yet another very high resolution scan of the Firebase to ensure there are no surprises for us when we are boots on the ground tomorrow. I don’t want any of us injured in the cleanup and I don’t want any of Volar’s creatures stepping on an unexploded anti-personnel mine and having a leg blown off.”

  Chapter 15: Cleanup

  There is no great hurry, the longer we wait the longer the Sarin gas has a chance to kill these Pirates as dead as a stick. So we have a nice breakfast and see to maintain our gear and getting the endless lists of “need to do” done.