Aberrant: Children of Quantum Fire - Working for the Man: The First Contract [Fin]

[Dan Hawkins]

Bullets chipped away the rocks that were serving as his cover. This mission was supposed to be covert, no witnesses, in and out before anyone had the slightest idea. Fucking dog. In the end the entire thing had gone straight to hell because of one of the most basic and effective countermeasures against intruders.

Some idiot in the contingent of men sent by the employer had eaten something, or bathed. The dogs, accustomed to certain scents outside, keyed to it. They found the dumbass, Simmons, if he remembered correctly. He wouldn’t be going home. A torn out throat was enough normally to make that a reality. The alarm went up, For all of two seconds before He managed to isolate the program and disable it.

Fuck. They did get a message out, it was likely automated. They didn’t have a lot of time left to get in and get the physical drive. Any other time he’d have just set off a mother of an EMP and fried it all, but supposedly the drive was shielded against it, as was the entire compound. Thank God their firewalls and programs weren’t half so thought out. Against most anyone else, they might have been an issue. They weren’t for him.

He got in, detailing the men he’d been shackled with to deal with stragglers and secure the perimeter. The Shrieks he heard in the night told how they did. Barbarian bastards. It might be war, but terror wasn’t a way he enjoyed waging war. Still this data was supposedly very incriminating, and the employer had offered enough money to get someone even higher up the ladder to go on this. There were no takers, and he understood why. The idiot brigade he’d been saddled with were turning this into an atrocity.

He made his way down to the vault, and a short application of power later, was tucking the Harddrive into an Impact pouch. It was a handy little design, no bigger than a large ammo bag, built to take a tank shot head on and survive once, maybe twice. He took a moment to make sure it was attuned, best to not lose what he came here for. That’s when he felt it. Damn. The distinct presence of another nova.

He began his exit from the grounds, only to see the bolt of electricity coming. He ducked and rolled, his own defensive shielding flaring to life around him. He brought the assault rifle up and fired, The enemy nova obviously sure of his defense. The spray of blood as the tungsten round went through his shield and then his shoulder made him smile. Dumb fucker. Another blast of Electricity flowed around him, and he grit his teeth. It didn’t hurt, obviously this guy was new, or at least not all that powerful yet.

He moved with astonishing quickness, reaching out as power flared around his arm and leg. A quick sweep took the other nova’s feet from under him, and using the momentum he brought his fist down like an axe impacting the other nova’s solar plexus and driving the wind from him. He heard several bones shatter, and sighed. This was too easy.

The enemy nova was down, and He shook his head. Topside was too quiet. Everyone else was dead. They were too dumb to be hiding. He hid behind the doorway, looking out, looking for something. He heard the faint electric whine of a timer. “Motherfucker.” He dashed out of the tunnel down into the bunker complex, and no less than six guns opened up around him. Focusing on running and dodging the shells, the explosion of three kilos of C4 in a shaped charge barely merited notice, even if it was close behind him. His shield would hold, or it wouldn’t. A dozen shells ricocheted off his shields, in at least one case hitting an attacker, from the way the scream sounded surprised. These weren’t his real enemies though. An instant born of unholy battle awareness, something no baseline and few novas could do, he drew his pistol, putting a round between the eyes of three of his attackers, and his other hand coming up with an archaic weapon few recognized, a trio of kunai sailing out in impossible throws to impact the throats of three more. Gunfire still poured onto him, at a much lessened rate. Then he felt the heat.

He leapt forward, behind a pile of rocks for cover. In the air, grandstanding was a nova he knew well from the files they kept. Firestar. Jannissary Eilite, flame manipulation. Partnered with… It was then the rock pile reformed into a man of earth and metal, his massive arms encircling him and making him gasp for air. Golem Ore based powers, Jannissarie. The Electrial nova had to be dynamo, which meant Chill was nearby. They were a young team of Janissary elemental Elites.

“What do we have here? A little Rat escaping with the cheese? Squeeze him harder Golem. I want to hear him squeak.”

“Fat Fucking chance.” The vise like arms grew tighter. Golem was a lot stronger than he was, and his shielding couldn’t hold forever. He wondered idly if the younger nova would survive what he was about to do. Reaching out, he sought the metal in the ore that comprised him. Iron. If there was an easier metal nearby, he didn’t know of it. Reaching out, he pushed, and Golem exploded as every bit of Iron within him was magnetized, and hit with a similarly polarized pulse, blowing it into every direction, blasting Firestar with metallic shrapnel. None of it got through his defenses. So much for luck. A split second later he launched himself airborne before a pillar of ice a dozen meters high erupted where he’d been held. “You KiLLED HIM!” Chill was a real ice queen, but she’d always had a soft spot for Golem. He was a freak like her, and about the only man who could touch her and not suffer frostbite.

He shook his head. “gave me no choice.”

Blasts of ice and fire came in at him, and he simply allowed himself to fall backward out of the attack path. He landed on the ground, drawing out the special knife he’d had made. The press of a button and he knew it was ready.

“I’m going to gut you with by bare hands.” Chill’s threat belied the great Ice sword in her hands, much as Firestar had crafted a heavy axe. “had that happen before. Still here, yer gonna have to do better than she did.” The Ice maiden doven in at him, with Firestar coming from an oblique angle. Settling back into a defensive stance, he caught her sword hand with his empty hand , bringing his knee up into her gut, even as he twisted around, Kicking off of her by planting his other foot at the base of her spine, Even as he let fly with the knife. It was called a whip sword, though his was more compact. Still, the way it slit the side of Firestar’s neck open made him admire the craftsmanship of the molecular edge.

The flame-themed nova screamed in agony, as the secondary effect, over a hundred thousand volts of electricity, channeled down the line nearly electrocuting him.

He landed and pulled the sword blade back, snapping into place, Even as he ran forward Jumping and planting his Knee in firestar’s face. The heat made his pants start to smoke and smolder, but he followed with four punches to the head, two from the empty hand, and two with the pommel of the knife. Firestar’s Eyes Rolled back into his head as he went unconscious.

Aware that chill wasn’t getting up, he looked at her. His kick off had snapped her spine. Without moving he drew his pistol and put a micro explosive tipped round into Firestar’s head. Removing himself from that mess, he walked over to Chill. “Quick, or Slow?”

“Bastard!”

“Slow it is.” She was awake, but she couldn’t use her powers well, the pain was immense, and she couldn’t move. There was a sharp searing pain in her back as he plunged the knife in. Chill screamed and began to cry. “If you tell me your client, I will make it quick.”

“You..you…”

He twisted the knife. “Yes, I know who and what I am.” He jumped back at full strength, even as he released the pair of HE and WP grenades, pins pulled, as a great column of ice erupted around her, meant to trap him within.

Three seconds later, both grenades went off, leaving nothing more than a singed puddle on the ground.

He landed to find no further gunfire, no heat signatures. He was the last thing alive. A quick check showed incoming enemy units, about ten minutes out. They were very confident in their Elites. They shouldn’t have been.

He moved quickly into the jungle, after hitting the whole area with a massive EMP. His own gear, including the sat phone, was shielded and attuned for good measure. Knowing that his extract was waiting, he smiled. “This is Delta One. I have the target, mission accomplished. I’m waiting at the rendezvous point.”

A guttural voice answered. “Roger that Delta One, Rho One will be onsite in ten-ess. Casualties?”

“Heavy. Will debrief later.”

The warpgate opened, and he stepped through, into another time zone, since it was daylight here. Four jumps later, They were at the client’s designated pick up point, in Siberia, North of Lake Baikal.

“Codeword please.”

The Small asian man sitting there smiled. “Remember, Rember, The fifth of November.”

Delta nodded, removing the drive from its pouch, intact.

“Impressive. “

“You paid for results, we provide them.”

“My men?”

“Dead, all of them. Four enemy novas has that effect.”

“Four? I didn’t think they were that established? You are unharmed I trust.”

“largely. They thought quantity better than quality.”

“Ahh. That’s always been a problem in Asia. We have many bodies, so few though that are worthy. I expect you want further compensation for the added difficulty?”

“No. Though an added annoyance, we negotiated in good faith. The amount we settled on is all I require.”

“A mercenary refusing more money? I have seen everything.” The Asian man smiled. “You are a rare man. I will keep my eye on you. I will have work for you in the future.”

Delta nodded. “I look forward to it, just no more canonfodder. I work best with either professionals, or simply alone.”

“I’ll remember that.” The warpgate opened again and Rho and Delta were gone, back in South Africa at the DV main camp there, after another half dozen jumps.

Thousands of miles away, The asian man nodded as he picked up the drive. “Yes, Major Hawkins, you and your partner Hideyoshi are men to watch, to learn about, I look forward to seeing exactly how events unfold for you both. I can certainly make use of both of you.” Kaien Hirota smiled. In the next room a pair of pawns on the chess board at the center of a pattern of three dozen flared, each emblazoned now with the likeness of the two novas who’d just left, even though they’d not uncovered their faces. Four other pawns vanished from the boards, representing the 4 novas Delta had killed.

"Yes Daniel, you will aid my plans."

[Quantum Fire]

End of Thread

XP: 2 Baseline