The door swished aside automatically as the three men approached, gliding silently open on well-greased runners. Inside, Mindi the receptionist looked up from her terminal to the three newcomers. The first was a short, stocky man with dark skin and darker hair trimmed short in a spacer's buzz. The second, looked similar to the first, almost enough to be brothers, but was much taller and thinner. The last of the three was a taller, well built man, pale of skin and blond haired. All three walked with a purpose.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen, welcome to Joritech. How can I assist you today?" Mindi asked as the three reached the desk.
"Hi," said the shortest of the three, the one who had lead the trio inside the office block, "I'm here to see Rallo Yuvari."
"Just a moment, I'll see if he is available," replied the Rodian receptionist.
As she made the call, she saw the other two men looking around intently. They seemed as if they wanted to see everything, all at once. The bustle of people outside, the clean, white gloss of the paint adorning the walls, the cheap modern-art pictures interspersed upon it. Even down to the inexpensive, moulded plastic chairs in lines around the edges of the marble floor.
"Hello, Mr Yuvari? There are three gentlemen here to see you," Mindi said when the Director of Operations had picked up the comm. at his end.
"Yes, I see them on the monitor. Do send them up, dear," he replied in a low, almost growling voice.
"Yes, sir," she put down the comm. receiver and turned back to the man standing, leaning over her desk, "You're to go right up. Forty-third floor, last office on the right."
"Thank you."
* * * *
Sergeant Major Stonefish tapped on the transparisteel window. Inside the secure cage, Sergeant Untaro looked up from his datapad. Scowling slightly, he put the slim device down on the counter and made his way over.
"Sergeant Major," he said over the small intercom system built into the transparisteel panel, "what can I get for you?"
"Time for some target practice with the new equipment, Untaro," said Stonefish, looking around the ranks inside the secure cage, "You can get me an E11/C and two power packs."
"E11/C and two juice boxes coming up, Fish," Untaro turned away and walked over to a rack on the far side of the cage, selecting one of the compact carbines stored there and retrieving a pair of power packs from the charging unit beneath, "Okay, I'll just need you to give me an ID now," continued the Sergeant as he returned to the window.
Stonefish took off his glove and pushed his thumb against the reader on the counter in front of him.
"Okay," Untaro smiled, placing the weapon and ammunition into the transfer box, "That's great. Good shooting!"
"Thanks," replied Stonefish retrieving the equipment and closing the transfer box.
* * * *
Outside, traffic buzzed past, leaving a weaving tracery of yellows and reds against the darkening skyline. Within the office, fluorescent lamps cast sharp shadows on the neutral grey carpet. Three figures, one short, two tall, stood on one side of a desk, with another slouched in an executive chair on the other side. After the door had closed behind them, the short man spoke.
"You have our payment?" he asked, flatly, of the man slouching on the other side of the desk.
"Have you any idea how hard it is to get paper money now?" came the reply, the man's blubbery jowls set to wobbling after his question.
"I don't care how hard it was to acquire. I asked if you had it," the short man stalked forward and placed his fists, knuckles down on the desk, and leaned over, "Now have you got it, or not?"
"Yes, yes," replied Yuvari, apparently unfazed by this display of aggression. He leaned forward and pulled a wide attaché case from under his desk, and placed it on the polished surface, "It's all there."
The short man flicked the locks open with his thumbs and lifted the lid to the case up to vertical. He took out a wad of old-style paper notes and ran the end across his thumb, flicking through to check they were all as they seemed. He put it back, and selected several other wads to undergo the same treatment before a small smile played across his heavy features.
"Happy?" asked Yuvari, a small waver in the end of his question giving away his nerves to the short man as he closed the attaché case once again, snapping the locks closed.
"Yes," replied the short man, "We will contact you when we have what you want."
All three turned and walked out of the door, taking the case with them. Once the door had swished closed again, Yuvari let out a sigh and mopped the sweat from his brow with a kerchief.
* * * *
Stonefish pressed a button on the side of his rifle, and the drained power pack popped clear. As he set it down on the counter in front of him, the screen on the left of the bay flashed up his scores.
"Not bad," commented a voice from the rear, "for an old guy."
Stonefish turned to see Colonel TJ pull a set of ear defenders from his head and offer a smile to the Sergeant Major. He set the carbine down on the counter, next to the two empty power packs and removed his own ear defenders.
"What do you mean, 'old guy'? I'm not up for retirement for at least fifteen years yet," retorted Stonefish, returning the smile. He turned and looked at his score on the small screen, surprised at how far his accuracy had dipped in recent years.
Maybe I am getting too old for this, he thought, wearily, "So, what brings you down to the workers yard, Teej? Too much paper on your desk, or did you feel like doing some real work for a change?"
"No, and no. If you're down here, you probably haven't caught the latest holo bulletin," replied TJ suggestively.
"Oh? What's new in the galaxy?" Stonefish picked up the dead power packs and the blaster carbine and walked back toward the secure cage.
"Some nutballs have taken a bunch of research scientists hostage up in the mountains, demanding the Emperor's ransom for their safety," continued TJ, following after, "Normally this wouldn't bother us, but the scientists in question work for Norvai Industries, the company who are prototyping our new thermal fusion generator. We don't want that prototype getting out into the wild, so we need a small crew to go in after it, and clean up the mess these
Snow Leopards have made."
"Snow Leopards," said Stonefish, arching an eyebrow, a smile dancing across his lips briefly, "You can't be serious."
"Yup, that's what they call themselves."
Stonefish paused then, and cleared his weapon and empty power packs back through to Sergeant Untaro, before continuing back toward the barracks with TJ.
"So," Stonefish began, "what's the deal here."
"This is a small team operation. Get into the base, eliminate the terrorists, secure the hostages and get out."
"What's the catch?"
"Two catches, I'm afraid. Minimal collateral damage, and there must be no casualties on the staff, or we lose our deal with Norvai. High Command is absolutely insistent that we keep this deal. Heads will roll if we don't, and you, me and the rest of the line up to Fury will be on the chopping block if this gets screwed up."
"Great. No pressure then," Stonefish shook his head.
The two men paused outside the bar as Yillis flew out of the door, closely followed by a shout from the staff about his being barred again. The Corporal pulled himself slowly to his feet and staggered off down the corridor muttering to himself.
"Must have a word with that boy," TJ said quietly before continuing, "Anyway, Fish. We need you and your squad to move out ASAP, by which I mean your shuttle leaves in," he paused and checked his chronometer, "thirty minutes. So get to it. Your squad is already aboard and waiting."
Stonefish muttered a curse quietly and began running to the locker room.
* * * *
"What do you mean 'no'?!" Yuvari demanded of the holo-comm.
"Exactly what I said, how many more ways can I say it?" growled the voice on the other end, "You're not getting your precious plasma unit until you provide two billion credits to the account I have already given you."
"That wasn't the deal!"
"That's right, I'm changing the deal," the holo-comm was cut from the other end.
Yuvari stopped and gathered his wits before planting himself back down in his chair.
* * * *
"Are you sure about this, Harri?" asked his taller brother, "I mean, we made a deal with Yuvari to deliver this unit. Our reputation will be in the recycler after this."
"Who cares? If we can screw Yuvari, and the morons at Norvai for the money we're asking, we won't need to do any more jobs. We'll be set for life!" replied Harri.
"How do you know they'll pay?"
"Oh, they'll pay, Leyn, Norvai will pay if they value the lives of these good people, and Yuvari well, you saw how desperate he was," he gestured to the kneeling forms of the dozen or so scientists scattered around the canteen, each with their wrists and ankles bound, and wearing gags.
* * * *
"Okay," said Stonefish against the whine of the shuttle engines, "we're heading to a small research base up in the mountains, here," he gestured at a small complex on the map spread out on the top of an ammunition crate in the shuttle cargo bay, "The intelligence I have says these guys are well equipped, with fairly modern detection equipment, so we're making a HALO jump into this adjoining valley and hiking the rest of the way."
"Sorry, Sergeant," asked Inferno, raising a hand, "a HALO jump?"
"High Altitude, Low Opening. It means we jump out of this shuttle at around fifty thousand feet, and free-fall until about one thousand feet before opening our parachutes. It helps avoid detection, if anything, the sensor operator will think we're debris, or meteorites," Stonefish informed him, before continuing with the briefing, "Now come the downsides to this operation, we don't know exactly how many terrorists there are, but there are at least three. There are fourteen scientists stationed at that base, presumably all are being held, though it may be that one of them has sold out. We cannot afford
any civilian casualties, and I have been ordered to ensure minimal collateral damage. So breaching charges, and concussion grenades only. And I'm afraid that also means we leave the squad repeater in the shuttle."
"Aww, man," said Alasse, putting the large repeating blaster back in its rack, "I was taking a liking to that!"
"Any questions?" asked Stonefish, receiving minimal response, he continued, "All right, we'll be at the drop zone in forty-seven minutes, use that time to memorize this map, the layout, and the holos of the station staff."
Stonefish sat back, and closed his eyes.
* * * *
"..and that's where the transmission ends, sir," said Karan.
"All right, we've got a day to come up with something. We are not giving in to terrorists. Not now, not ever!" said Tyric Jolaro, CEO of Norvai Industries.
"Yes, sir," replied Karan, diligently.
Tyric turned to the holo-comm and tapped in an address from his memory. The screen flashed for a moment, before confirming the encrypted status of the line.
"Surface Marshal," he said, "We have a small problem."
"Another one?" came the response, "You know I cannot contact my team any more, don't you? Radio silence?"
"Oh dear," replied Tyric, "I hope they'll be all right."
* * * *
One by one, the seconds ticked down on the wall-mounted chronometer, the red digits silently changing, ever smaller.
"Secure your masks," ordered Stonefish, checking on his squad while ensuring that the breath mask was firmly strapped to his own face before thumbing the hatch release.
The air rushed out of the cabin, quickly equalizing the pressure, before the thin, icy wind from outside began gusting in. Stonefish looked back to the timer.
When it reached zero, the panel began flashing solid green.
"All right, we have a green light. Go! Go! Go!" he called to his squad, pushing Inferno out of the shuttle first. Alasse quickly followed him, before Stonefish himself jumped out into the dark, cold, thin air and began falling.
It had been a long time since he had done a real parachute jump on a mission, but it quickly came back to him as he plummeted into clouds. As he exited the bottom of the cloud, he spread his arms and legs, and used his hips to direct his fall. He saw the mountain range far below, and recalled the map. Turning slightly, he angled further north and toward the target zone. He hoped the others would not land too far away.
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SL/SGM Ramon Stonefish/3SQD/2PLT/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/Tadath/VEA/VE [IH] [BC] [RoT] [RCoD] [CotE] [SoS]
-=Nightstalkers=-
+ Advance Recon Commandos {ARC} +