20. MRD
Alhambra, the second largest city on Eo was a rather rich city with only the parts on the eastern side of the river Granada in various states of disrepair. Originally created as a factory area to fabricate concrete for the growing population on Eo, it had been rendered obsolete by the advent of nano bot building and was abandoned until it would be useful to use the city again. That time was not close and the buildings were mostly allowed to decompose and rust. Some of them had been taken over by people who could not afford to live in the city proper, people who distrusted the government and people who wanted to stay away from the attention of the city police.
Within an hour of the attack on the specially modified Valkyrie the Special Weapons Anti Terror team of Alhambra, surrounded the building that had been originally built for the manufacturing of steel girders and now taken over by a small group of people that called themselves the Movement for Rights for the Deceased. The SWAT team had called on everyone since they didn't know how much opposition they would meet and had moved in with extreme force. The six confused and vomiting people that they pulled out of the teargas-filled building provided no resistance at all and the team leader handed the prisoners over to the Itani State Police. At least that was what they called themselves; in reality it was a specialised branch of the counter-intelligence service that dealt with extraction of mental information. It was not a popular department, the process was guaranteed deadly to the subject and was only used in matters of utmost State importance. Like how the hell MRD had found information on the Omega project, especially how they had found information that allowed them to sabotage the project and set it on hold for two weeks.
###
Green text on black background.
“.... noinput.parameterlocked.contactextern.override"
Silence.
"Init.Entit.Keria.Default"
"Enter.Code"
"Init.Entit.Keria.Full"
Light, dim as seen through closed eyelids with the small flashes of light that was provided by synapses firing erroneously or hard radiation impacting on the nerve endings. But light, different from the complete darkness of unawareness that was just moments before her brainpal was told to wake her gently. The slow rhythmic sound that was halfway felt as well as heard slowly manifested itself as her own breathing. She opened her eyes to the sight she wanted to see more that anything else; Riddik.
"Hi babe."
She smiled and reached her arms up towards him and received a fierce hug in return. She pushed him back after some seconds and touched his face with her fingertips as gently as she could tracing the stitches on his cheek.
"What happened baby?"
"Long story. It ends with us being here and me no longer welcome in Serco space at least for a while."
Keria noticed the torn and flossed fabric where his SCAR rank insignia had been and looked at him questioningly.
"Not important, you are back with us now and that is all that matters."
Riddik turned to the neural interface technician and nodded a curt awkward nod in thanks. The lock that Keria had on her brainpal could only be unlocked by the commander of SCAR and herself. It was installed to prevent vital information to fall into the hands of the Itani in case of capture but it had kept her in a state of coma that had resisted all normal revival techniques. The interface technician had used some special Diplomatic Service program that didn't exist officially and after some work with the brainpal he had persuaded it to wake in default mode to allow Keria to enter the code and wake up. Riddik took the binder on he table next to Keria and handed it to the technician.
"I believe you have your orders here. Thank you buddy, I owe you one."
The technician took the binder and after nodding to Keria as well, he left the room.
Keria noticed the noise in the room and sat up to identify where the roaring came from. The left person looked back over his shoulder and winked to her before returning his attention to the large screen. He took a large swig from a bottle and grabbed the controls to play on. She rolled her eyes and looked back at Riddik.
"Baby, you brought Leebs? You better tell me how we got into so much trouble."
###
The Itani ship jumped out and Lothion turned to the duty officer.
"Sir, we have clear space again. Do you want to retrieve the bot shells?"
The Serco marine lieutenant shook his head slowly and grabbed another piece of jerky that he scoffed like a starving man.
"Nah, maybe it is a trap. We'll stay low and get some other shells. The only thing that matters is that the Itani missed us completely even after snooping for hours and hours."
He emptied the bag into his mouth and tossed the empty remains into the recycle bin wiping his hands on his uniform. He grinned a meaty grin to the passive sensor operator.
"Time for lunch, don't you think? I'll send some down to you. Good job Loth."
Lothion smiled and returned to his duties, closing his eyes once more to concentrate on the information fed directly into his visual centre. Food could wait; after all he did not have the immense bulk that the EVA marine lieutenant had to provide fuel for.
###
Beria finished the brief and looked around at the soldiers. Even though they were all clad in identical brown flight suits Beria could identify what their jobs were just by looking at them. The massive EVA marines, the slender fighter pilots, the stout pathfinders and the ones that passed as human norms. Soon a lot of them would be dead but with typical youthful self-delusion, they all expected that to happen to the mate next to them. Beria remembered vaguely how that had felt and grimaced remembering the times he had been one of them. Especially remembering all his buddies that had been the ones next to him and hadn't made it back.
"Soldiers of Our Lady. Tonight we embark on a mission of utmost importance to the Serco nation and people. Some of you will not survive and that is why you have all been backed up last week. I am aware, as are you that it may mean True death to some of you if the back-up fails but that is a chance we are all going to have to face. Some of you will work alone, some of you will work in groups. None of you will get any thanks for what you are about to do. But all of you can go forth knowing that you fulfil your duties to Lady Serco and take comfort therein. Dismissed."
The soldiers walked out to their assignments without a word among them but Beria knew that their brainpals were exchanging data at a rapid rate. The exchanges were coded and it was considered bad form among Serco to try and intercept other group's communications. Beria was in a business where bad form was the norm and opened his de-cryption centre to take a sample of what the troopers felt.
"Ole Man pompous face... How hard can it be? They are only Tani's after all... We better grab lunch first"
The last remark made him smile; it must have been from one of the EVA marines. They were ready and morale was high for sure. And they had called him names, just as he had called his instructors names. He gathered his papers and sighed. He wished he was going too.
###
Fletholm was busy solving the game of solitaire he had on his screen when the door opened. Not even bothering to hide the game he looked up and saw the worried face of Eggert.
"Good news or go away."
Eggert grinned and moved into the room, closing the door behind him. Fletholm sighed and grabbed his cup of now cold koffee, sipping a bit from it before putting it on the table again in disgust. He leaned back and folded his hands behind his head.
"Sir, we have had an incident on Tellus."
Eggert sat on the chair opposite the table and waited. Fletholm closed his eyes and sighed deeply.
"Why do I have to drag it out of you Eggert? You have something to say, say it please."
"Right Sir. There was an explosion on Tellus station yesterday with three dead at least. It has been covered up as an accident with flare loading but I do not buy that. Today the Alhambra SWAT team detained a splinter group called the Movement for the Rights of the Deceased. At the same time the defence around Tellus has been beefed up quite a bit."
"And this means?"
"I believe that the Serco have made an attack on the phantom Valkyrie somehow. And I spoke to the Serco analyst who agrees."
"I see. Very well, continue and keep me informed."
Eggert got up and practically stormed out to his desk to find more information.
Fletholm continued his game of solitaire. The analysts were probably right; after all he had delivered the information to the Serco including the use of MRD as scapegoats. They had been involved in killing one of his agents last year and while he was not a petty man, he liked getting even sometimes. He looked at the koffee and decided he could do without. They say that cold coffee made you beautiful but cold koffee just made him hurt inside.
