Garin and the Empire - 1. Chapter 1 Halon and Dirt Balls

Chapter 1

Halon and Dirtballs

Garin stood in the edge of the brush land looking down into the arid valley below. "Why would the Waldies want this dirt ball anyway…" he mumbled under his breath.

"Its none of our concern why, you wanker; and keep your voice down I'm picking up a power source. It could be sentinels." The gruff voice of Marlow, the unit commander answered him.

Garin had served in this unit now for a couple of standard years. He'd been recruited during his mandatory service. His hope for spending his life in the Government Diplomatic Corps was replaced by the call of adventure and camaraderie of the elite force. At 25 the danger was part of the thrill, the last statistics he'd heard had given his corps a life expectancy of about 4 missions. This dirt ball was his tenth.

The Shadow Corps was one of the Talurian elite units, their missions were always espionage and guerilla in nature. They would slip onto one of the Waldian out worlds, gather intelligence and then cause as much trouble as they could, ideally recruiting an indigenous resistance movement. The goal was to create a situation in which the Waldian Empire would need to spread itself thinner so the main Talurian offensive could succeed. Pretty thankless work really the glamour was all with the fly boys and their big battle cruisers fighting big elaborate space battles.

No one even remembered anymore what started the war between the Talurian Alliance and the Waldian Empire, it had dragged on now for a century, sometimes hotter than at others; there'd been more cease fires than anyone could count, all failed in the end. To Garin he supposed it was about credits and power, at the center of the Alliance was the Credit Management Corporation; the Dumas, the legislative body of the Alliance, didn't function without its approval and the great houses that governed the worlds making up the Alliance needed the Corporation to fund development of their natural resources and hold onto control. The houses sent representatives to the Dumas and the Corporation held a quarter of the votes through its governance of a number of worlds, most classed as gas giants, rich in mining resources but poor in colonial potential. At the pinnacle of the government was the Security Counsel elected directly by the Great Houses and the Corporation's Board, itself made up of members of the Great Houses and also of representatives from the largest of the Industrial complexes in the Alliance. People at Garin's level in society had little voice in their government except by way of their ruling House, most of which were hereditary fiefdoms or appointments by the Security Counsel.

Garin was brought from his revere by the light touch of his commander who whispered, "Ok Lieutenant, follow this line of scrub around to the east, see if you can find cover all the way to the valley floor and the road. Keep your eyes and ears open for sentinels that power source is still nearby."

Garin touched his left shoulder with the first two fingers of his right hand in salute then adjusted his synoptic camouflage suit. The tight fitting garment and hood had a very low voltage power source which sent a current through the embedded crystals in its skin causing them to emit colors synchronized to the surroundings. Garin pulled the hood up over his close cropped copper colored hair and adjusted the veil over his face. He flipped the switch and to those standing around him his body immediately transformed into a pattern of seer greens and golds perfectly matching the brush surrounding them.

Garin moved through the brush effortlessly and with little disruption to his surroundings, he edged his way toward the valley floor making the best use of cover always keeping one eye on the small monitor screen embedded in the left palm of the suits glove. The screen gave a running output of his surroundings looking for energy outputs incompatible with natural sources.

Romero, his bond mate, had flown their Varlet lander into this world's atmosphere under the cover of an electrical storm and brought it down on a rugged mountain side on the opposite end of the continent from the only Waldian city. It had taken them three weeks to make their way to this valley where they would pick up the main road into town. The indigenous natives were humanoid and quite docile. The limited contact they had had, proved that there wouldn't be a resistance here, so that meant Garin's outfit would need to do as much damage as possible to the Waldian industrial complex.

Garin used an arroyo for cover and approached the road, he could see the low wall that prevented the sand from blowing across the plazteel surface. He froze as the screen registered an energy source approaching he closed his hand over the screen and palmed his disrupter with the other. Using the karmactic discipline he'd been taught in training he slowly turned his head scanning from side to side, he looked like a chameleon with his slow rhythmic head turn that allowed the camouflage to adjust. He was flat against the packed sand and stone wall of the gully and he could hear the whir of an approaching sentinel. They were semi-androids that had limited intelligence but were dogged once locked on a target. A trickle of sand on his right shoulder told him the sentinel must be above him on the ledge, he concentrated on the discipline and slowed his breathing and heart rate the suit would cover his body signals to the sentinel he would appear as a small animal. The whir commenced again and a shadow passed over him as the sentinel hovered momentarily then proceeded over the arroyo and out into the desert along the road. From its movement Garin could tell it was following its patrol navigation. He let his breath out naturally and when the screen in his palm was once again green he moved toward the road. He stopped and listened and noted the green screen then raised up and looked up and down the deserted road.

They had been sure this road lead to something from the city, it wasn't a space port they had noted that from long range scanning on this dirt balls closest moon. It had to lead to an industrial complex; no one used plazsteel for a trade route, heavy equipment was running over this.

Garin tapped the inlaid buttons that surrounded the screen and the route he had taken was automatically transmitted to the commander's unit. He returned to cover and waited. Soon enough the company of 12 men, slowly came into view up the arroyo. The Commander settled beside Garin and said, "Report Lieutenant."

"The road sir is Plazsteel, well maintained, I found that sentinel you were sensing he passed on his programmed patrol, all lights green." Garin said.

"So wanker, what do you make of that road?" The Commander asked.

"Sir, not even the Waldies make a road going nowhere out of plazsteel, there's something important at each end." Garin spat the dust out of his mouth and took a shallow sip from his mouth pipe that led to his hip canteen.

"You Mahmet," the Commander asked one of the others, "How far to the city from here?"

Mahmet, who was small with an olive complexion, looked into his palm screen and tapped away. He looked up and said, "20 standard miles due North, Sir."

One of the other men who had slipped up to the road and placed a small button like object on the road and tapped at his screen, returned to the group and said, "Sir, we've got rhythmic vibrations being passed along the plazsteel, I make it a large vehicle moving this direction from the South."

The commander smiled a crocked grin and said to Garin, "Well Lieutenant this must be our lucky day, put a disrupter pad in the road, will break it down and take a look at what its carrying."

Garin went back to the last man and dug through a back pack until he found the coin size silicone pad that was a near match for plazsteel, he rummaged until he found a small container of paints and selected a duller gray and sprayed the pad. He inched to the road and looked both ways and listened. Hearing nothing and his screen green he inched out into the roadway and dropped the pad in the center. He flipped a port open on his left index finer and touched it to the pad and programmed it to detonate when the vehicles mass covered it. He rejoined the group and they spread out into the arroyo and what cover it offered.

The sun beat down making Garin sweat under the tight suit he knew the ventilation system was shot but it'd have to wait til they returned to the lander before he could repair it. The whine of the vehicle at first faint became a low roar and the large container carrier moved down the road and into view. On its' levitation fields the remote sensors kept the vehicle in the center of the road. When the huge vehicle covered the silicone pad there was a sharp electrical buzz and the vehicle drifted slowly over to the side of the road and slammed into the retaining wall. The wall collapsed like it was made of paper instead of stone and the vehicle careened into the arroyo coming to rest nose down in the sand and was silent.

The Commander said loud enough for the troop to hear, "Ok you slaggards, the sensors say this pile of metal is an automaton, but the sentinels will be here double quick, everyone take a section of vehicle and see what you can learn. Mahmet, you stay here and watch for Sentinels." The troop moved over the vehicle systematically they threw sand into the video feed to blind the pilots, and looked it over. The Commander motioned for Garin to meet him in the rear.

The Commander pushed up on the release and the tail section of the vehicle opened. "Halon,' He muttered as the purple plazsteel containers were picked out in the sunlight. "There must be a mine back that way." He laughed and looked at Garin, "Understand why the Waldies want this dirtball now?"

"Yeah, I do." Garin muttered as he looked at the neon purple containers. Halon was the main ingredient in the propulsion systems of space travel. You take a small container and fill it with Boron and then flood it with Halon and you got a major chemical atomic reaction that basically pushes the ship to light speed and beyond. Garin wasn't a physicist so that was about the extent of his knowledge of space propulsion. What he did know was that both the Alliance and the Waldian’s were locked in a race to acquire all planets in this quadrant that scanned positive for Halon, making the rare element a tactical objective.

Mahmet signaled with his left hand then pointed down the road. The squad immediately formed up and faded into the surrounding scrub moving up the arroyo back towards the ridge. They soon could hear the drone of a lander as it passed overhead and hovered than sank to the road bed near the container carrier. The squad was using all the cover available to them as they slowly snaked up the gully and passed into the scrub and fanned out. Garin, who was bringing up the rear of the column, paused in his progress sipped from his mouth tube and looked down into the valley. The container carrier was swarming with figures and he could pick out the Waldian troopers as they fanned out in formation around the sight. Garin heard the warning whine of a Sentinel and turned he picked the android out in time to see the air around it dance with heat then it dropped to the ground and was silent.

The low buzz of his communicator hummed in his ear he touched his throat and said softly, "Sir?"

"Lieutenant, get up here at once we're coming under Sentinel attack."

Garin silently but quickly moved up, he was stopped by the sudden burst of flame from what had once been a bush, Garin hugged the dusty ground palmed his disrupter and scanned for the sentinel, he picked it out as it drifted from behind a boulder. He pointed his disrupter and activated it, the sentinel buzzed faintly then dropped to the ground. Garin moved quickly toward the sound of laser fire and soon caught up with his squad, the Commander was clutching a shoulder.

"I've summoned the Varlet, we're aborting this mission and getting off this dirtball before we loose anymore men."Garin passed his right gloved hand over the Commanders shoulder and watched on the screen as the scanner picked up the massive damage to the joint, "Damn it…"

"Yeah its busted up pretty bad." The older man grinned. "When we get onboard the Varlet I'll be going into Cryo, you'll be taking command."

"Ay, Sir," Garin said then looked around he touched his screen and picked out the remaining men he circled to the left and found two men crouched over the bodies of two more they were back to back firing at sentinels that hovered just out of range. Garin plucked a small black plasteel lozenge from his belt activated it and tossed it at the sentinels, the sentinels were surrounded by heat waves then dropped to the ground.

"Gather up the living, men, the Varlet is 3 minutes out." Garin said touching the dead cheek of one of the men on the ground.

He returned to the Commander who was only semi conscious, he rummaged in one of the abandoned packs and pulled out a scanner, he plugged it into the Commanders suit and checked the read out, he rummaged again in the pack and brought out a medic pack and followed the screens directions, loading the commander up with pain killers and cardio stimulants.

He was interrupted by Romero's voice in his headset, "Damn it, Commander come in…"

Garin palmed his communicator to the commanders channel, "Romero, Garin here, the Commander is out of action. What's your status?"

"Two Waldian landers are approaching your position, you boys will need to help me get on the ground."

"Roger, Romero, we'll take care of them, give me the coordinates where you'll pick us up." Garin looked at the screen then said, "Got'em, see you in 5."

OK men take those field packs of disrupters and lay them in the center by what's left of our boys. Garin set a sensory detonator for the Waldian signatures and signaled to move out. The group of 4 men with 3 wounded slowly crawled into the bush and made toward their Varlet's location.

Garin watched his screen and could hear the landers approaching, he waited then heard the buzz followed by a crash. He scanned ahead and could see Romero drifting down to the landing site. They all ran for the Varlet and managed to get the hatch closed before the next wave of sentinels attacked. Garin headed for a weapons bay and slid into the firing station. He called up the surrounding field and started setting coordinates for rapid fire. The weapons pod started its automated firing at the sentinels and the fireworks it caused would've been something to see if he'd had time. As it was he slapped the communication control and asked, "Romero we in launch sequence?"

He could hear the canned voice in the cockpit say, "Launch sequence in 5, 4, 3.." "Yeah Garin, we're nearly there, have the guys hold on its gonna be a hot launch." Romero replied.

Garin, thumbed the intercom, "Prepare for G's!" then he was pushed back in the seat as the lander's booster kicked in and the antigrav units fired up. The Lander would hit 0.48% of light speed in the hot sequence. He could feel the G's subsiding as the antigrav's negated the force. He scanned the area and set the fire sequences to the remaining Waldian lander that had risen behind them and was closing. He heard the rest of the troop in the intercom as they set their weapons to auto fire as well.

He left the weapons bay on auto and went to the commander who was lying on the deck near the rear bulkhead. He got Mahmet to help him carry the commander to a cryo tube and they pealed his suit off. The shoulder was scorched and blackened but wasn't bleeding. When the Commander was down to his shorts and the tubes and wires attached they cycled the tube shut and began the cryo sequence. The Commander would be put into Cryogenic sleep until they could get to either a full sick bay on a cruiser or to a base hospital. His metabolism would be slowed to just above death to increase his survival chances.

Garin made his way to the flight deck and settled in the Commanders seat behind Romero. He could see the landscape of the continent they'd been on flash by and could tell by the navigation chart that they were headed for the main ocean on this dirtball.

"How long before you take us up to the main fuselage?" Garin asked.

Romero tapped a spot on the chart about mid ocean, they'd be just below the horizon line of the Waldian city. "I make it about 10 minutes, we got the other lander. How's the Commander?"

Garin sighed, "Not good he's in Cryo. You signaled the Main Fuselage yet?"

"Yes, the Parthex has already signaled the abort code to base and has begun the cycle up to docking. It should meet us at the rendezvous point." Romero replied.

Parthex was the computer system that controlled the two parts of their saber class reconnaissance ship. The main fuselage which housed the crew quarters and the translight drives and the varlet which was a lander and the flight deck when the two pieces were assembled. When the Varlet undocked Parthex took control of the fuselage, shutting down all non essential systems and basically staying under cover. When signaled it would power up the translight units and cycle the life supports back on.

Garin saw the landscape below suddenly disappear as the Varlet went vertical for its run to orbit. "The Waldies have any heavy firepower to worry about?" he asked.

Romero shrugged, "Last report I received this morning from Parthex was that the immediate system was clear of military traffic. You said that carrier had cargo on board, might be a convoy coming in…they'll have support."

"Well maybe we'll get lucky." Garin said and went back to check on the crew. They were pretty beat up all in all, but the commander's cryo report was stable and the varlet was undamaged. Garin was helping the crew finish stowing their gear when Romero signaled. Garin returned to his seat on the flight deck.

"Well we're not as lucky as we planned. The Parthex just sent me a coded signal with a new rendezvous, seems there's a convoy with a cruiser in tow in the system making for this dirt ball. We'll meet up with the main fuselage in low orbit on the farthest moon." He reported.

Garin cleared his throat, "How long?"

Romero checked the chronometer, "I make it just under 8 hours at current speed."

Garin thought a moment, "We have any timed orbital mines left?"

Romero grinned, "You thinking about a welcome for that convoy?"

"Yeah and maybe a little time for us, without the main fuselage and its firepower we're sitting ducks for a cruiser. The Waldies are sure to have alerted them about us. My guess is the cruiser will stick with the convoy until they're on approach then turn for us if they spot us. If we can mine one of the convoy ships the cruiser might just stay with them long enough for us to get a running start."

Garin and Mahmet met up near the hatch. They muscled a small knee high cylinder into the airlock and Garin tapped the coordinates and detonation distance into the control pad on its side. The panel went green and he stepped back as Mahmet cycled the hatch closed and the exterior hatch opened. Garin watched through the airlock porthole as the small cynlinder suddenly levitated, turned on its side and then torpedoed out the hatch. He went back to the flight deck and resumed the command chair.

Romero smiled and held out his hand as he settled in. "You launched the mine?"

Garin held his hand for a second and lightly caressed the swarthy face of the man he was pair bonded with. He focused on his console tracking the mine. "Yeah its on course for a parabolic high orbit, it should intersect the path of the lead cargo vessel in about 10 minutes.

“Hope they don’t detect it.” Romero sighed.

Garin watched his monitor and picked up the convoy coming into an orbital approach. He picked out the Cruiser as well tagging back and to the flank of the convoy. He waited mentally calculating the distance from the mine. The monitor suddenly blossomed with a bright point of light just off the starboard side of the lead cargo ship. He noted the vast bulk of the ship twisting up and away from the blast, suddenly the following cargo vessel plunged into the stern of the careening vessel and became a tangled mess.

“Woo Hoo!” Romero yelled, “Good call Garin. That’s got their attention, we’ll have the closest moon between us and them in 10 minutes.”

Garin saw the pinpoint flash of light from the cruiser’s side. “Prepare for impact he said into his communicator.” The hylex missile from the cruiser was launched at sublight speed but went above light almost immediately. The Varlet’s shields buckled with the atomic explosion and the external hull breach caused decompression. The emergency face masks deployed from the crews battle stations but the temperature was quickly dropping. The last thing Garin was conscious of was the lifeless stare of his lover, and the growing image of the cruiser as it approached the Varlet. “Coming in for the kill, big boy.” He muttered to himself.