19. Beria
Asteroth finished uploading the brainpals to his own system and stored their memories for further interrogation. He then took the mem-crystal from commander Fletholm and inserted it in the small data port behind his left ear alert for any forms for attack programs. Instead a simple rundown of the facts regarding the Phantom ship appeared with a position of the assumed command centre. Asteroth realised the importance of the data and switched into command mode opening a direct interface with the commander of the joint Serco intelligence services, Marshal Tuttle. The immense black egg that crackled with lightning energy appeared on the horizon inside Asteroth's brainpal and the translator software immediately replaced it with the fat spider it was programmed to.
"Speak"
"I have the target for Operation Uranus."
"I see. Send the data and I shall immediately take action."
"Slight problem boss, I am in kinda a fix here."
"What do you want this time Asteroth?"
Asteroth sent a picture of mock horror from his own slug like avatar.
"What, as if I always want something? Well, now that you ask I have a couple of things really. I'll send them with the data."
"Agreed. Ready your teams and standby for orders to go."
Asteroth severed the link and alerted his strike teams to be ready within five minutes. They had been ready for a week now except for the last pilot. The favour he just asked should take care of that as well as a couple of other things. He sent a message to Beria and informed him of the situation expecting him to work his usual magic.
###
Taerow got up from the chair slowly and stood on uneasy legs.
"And you are saying that it will only get worse doc?
"Yes Utia, the necrotic patches on your internal organs are slowly but steadily growing. We expect that your body will fail within a month with minor fallouts along the way. As a matter of fact I would like for you to start dialysis tomorrow to take some load off your kidneys and liver. We can ready a gene clone for you and insert your self into it along the way but I really believe that we need to work with your mind as well. The new growths inside your brain seems to impact massively on your parasympathetic nervous system with the body suffering as a consequence."
"So basically I am going to be swapped again and again as long as I work the Omega?"
"Yes. As a matter of fact I think it would be in your interest for as long as you work with the Omega that you do not have a host body but rather just work it as a mind."
"That is why you are you and I am me, doc. I'll hold on to a host body for now thank you. I am flying again in two days, can you make the swap after the flight?"
"Not a gene clone, but we have a generic clone or even a foreign host body for you. Only temporarily off course."
Taerow sighed, this was not how he had envisioned his career in the Itani Defence Force when he signed up but he had also signed a pact that said he would do whatever was needed.
"Very well, I expect I can just as well go on a drinking binge since this body will be dumped in a week. And here I was getting attached to it."
He tried a smile but didn't succeed, instead getting hit even harder by the sinking feeling that he was about to submit himself to yet another bout of combat with the Omega in the back of his mind. Maybe death would not be as bad in comparison.
###
Beria entered the consultancy with two very large Serco that were carrying a stretcher between them with Keria on top of it. The consultancy was sparsely inhabited with almost half of it containing stacks of paper and books in a glorious chaos. The single glass door that lead further into the office was closed with a sign proclaiming "Surjery In Progrez" written in bad handwriting fastened with tape to the handle. Beria shook his head, of all the quacks they could have gone to this one was particularly inept. He walked over and opened the door not really expecting anything. He was still surprised when he saw Dr. Nick and Lebermac sit in two chairs side by side each with a bottle of Teh Killa playing "Roid Bumpers 4" on the large medical diagnostics screen on the end wall quite ignoring Riddik who was slowly being stitched up by Cat using what skill she retained from boot camp. She saw Beria enter and rose.
"Sir, you have no idea how glad I am that you are here. I think Riddik here has some neurological damage that I am not skilled enough to repair."
Beria ignored her plea and walked over in front of Riddik. He extended his hand and they clasped wrist in the warriors greeting.
"I have your wife here along with a medical team. I owe you my thanks for rescuing Cat here and I am willing to pull some strings to allow you back in the embrace of Our Lady again."
"You can have her, I am done with Serco. My wife on the other hand will probably want to go back to join Our Ladies military but I am out of it."
"That is a sad thing to hear but I hope you will come back to the people after you have tried not to be a member. The orders for Keria's immunity from GESTEBO are moving through as we speak but I am afraid we can nothing to the SCAR command in that regard."
Riddik nodded slowly as if he was considering a reply but didn't. Beria turned to Cat and handed her a mem-crystal.
"Your orders Cat. You are in a hurry so leave Riddik and move along. We have the remaining GESTEBO members under observation and they should pose no problem. Dismissed."
Cat received the crystal and inserted it in her brainpal before nodding to Riddik and leaving. Beria turned to the two very drunk persons in the comfy chairs.
"If any of you break my station-wide record I am going to let my bodyguards break all of your bones starting with the pelvis."
He nodded to Riddik and walked out of the room. He had business to do.
###
Ruteli Vielio docked his Vulture Mk III towards Tellus Research with the usual care. The computer logged the time since he had last docked for work and alerted the head of security while asking for a DNA scan. Ruteli put his hands into the machine and allowed it to take the skin sample that was needed to determine his identity. It came up clean and welcomed him back to work before releasing his arms again. Ruteli received a summons immediately after he entered the station but ignored it instead moving directly over to the launch bay where he knew a special Valkyrie was held. The two guards on duty greeted him, they knew him well, and allowed him to pass into the area. He considered his options and decided for the easiest solution. He turned and shot the two guards in the back of the head with his silenced handgun before walking over to the two cowering technicians at the Valkyrie.
"Give me the launch codes."
He pointed his gun at the head of the youngest technician and looked at the elder. Not getting a response he fired, blowing the rear portion of the man's head away. He pointed to the other technician.
"Choose now."
The man closed his eyes and Ruteli acknowledged the choice with another slug. A klaxon went off in the bay and the blast door behind him closed.
"Intruder, put down your weapon and surrender peacefully. We wish you no harm."
Ruteli smiled and decided for option two. He took the large thermal device he had in his backpack and tossed it into the cockpit while activating it with a ten second delay. He then looked up at the camera that was observing him.
"We, the Movement for Rights for the Deceased protest about the misuse of government funds. Long live the revolution, long live MRD."
Ruteli jumped up into the pilot's seat, took the gun up to his head and pulled the trigger. Mere seconds after that the thermal charge went off inside the cockpit reducing it to melted plastic and fused wires in seconds with the fire burning everything organic inside including the remains of the corpse that had been Ruteli once.
###
William Cutting tossed his Valkyrie-X in yet another ever-expanding search spiral searching for the Serco presence in the nearby roid field. His squadron had been searching for them the last two weeks but so far had come up short. The extended range ship scanner that was equipped instead of the middle flare launcher made the job possible but did nothing to make it less boring. A set of hive bots appeared and he mentally wrote the sector off as a dead end. No matter how crazy the Serco were, he didn't think that they would make a base within a system with Hive activity. Bored beyond comprehension he turned his Valkyrie around to engage the two Hive bots, one Dentek and one Kannik miner. Approaching in a slow barrel roll designed to foil the bot's targeting computer he noticed the sluggishness of the bots before slagging them with a torrent of accelerated neutrons. The Kannik dropped a CPU and he scooped it up into the cargo hold. You never knew if it might come in handy. He frowned at his mission but realising the importance he soldiered on and jumped to the next sector.
