Special Police DekaOps

7

Dan faced the wall of the gym with a look of determination of his face as he started boxing his shadow. Before he arrived the Major told everybody to stay out of his way when he started doing this. A point he nailed home when he bit the head off of somebody wanting his signature on a report a couple of days ago. Now they gave him as wide berth that was possible, even his own team mates. He might have found the guy and apologized if most of free time his mind was occupied by one thing, Mexico.

“Penny for your thought?”, somebody said. He turned his head sharply ready to chew somebody else out. His expression soften a bit when he saw it was Michelle.

He returned his attention to his shadow, “You’d be overcharged.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. Look Cap… Dan, I know you’re upset about what happened in Mexico…”

“Why,” he cut her off, “would I be upset by the fact we were tricked like a bunch of rookies?” He stopped boxing and grabbed a towel. Michelle offered him a bottle of water that he thanked her for. “But that’s not what’s bothering me,” he finally admitted.

“So what’s really bothering you then?”

Dan sighed before answering, “My family is career military, for as long as I can remember it’s been drilled into my head that the enemy could be anybody. Five missions with this unit and I’m already expecting the enemy to not look human.”

“Well to be fair, the target your sent after aren’t exactly human.”

“I still should have checked out Artega, or whatever the hell it was before it left.”

“Hindsight is twenty-twenty,” Michelle told him. She looked at him for a bit. “You know, from the stories the Major told me about you, not once did you seem like the self pity type.”

He turned away, “Yeah, well the Major doesn’t know everything about me.”

“Well that’s going to be a bit of a surprise to the Major,” she said walking around so she could look him in the face. “According to him he is the foremost expert on all thing Daniel Stevens,” she had a straight face but her eyes were smiling. He smiled despite his mood.

“I’ll burst his bubble some other time.” Dan sat on a bench and she joined him. “I guess I need to get my mind off the whole mess huh?” She agreed. “So how are things on news info front?”

“Things have quieted down a bit after Rescue saved their area and the actual DekaRed,” she elbowed him lightly in the side, “was cleared. Inside Extra on the other hand…..,” she trailed off.

“Still trying to figure out who we are right?”

She nodded, “This one ‘reporter’ they have, John McGee, seem obsessed with it.”

“How obsessed?”

“He’s camped out in town.”

“Good thing it’s a big city.” Dan finished the last of the water, “Well, if you will excuse me there’s a speed bag over there with my name on it.”

“Do you want a sparring partner? Or would you rather do some private one on one?”, she asked with a wicked little grin.

“Are you ever going to stop that?”

“Are you ever going to take me up on it?”, she shot back as she got up and left. Dan watched her leave wondering how cold the showers around here got.

***

Ace was enjoying her time away from OpsBase. Of course if the Major knew she was on the lookout for parts for the Hounds he might have thought twice about letting her out. And she already had an eye on a couple of special parts as it was. There were about five things on a mental list she was making for Michelle to check out. She knew they would work no problem, but like her Dad said it never hurt to double check. Now she just had to figure out a way to sneak the proper forms onto the Major’s desk.

A familiar looking red head in a yellow T-shirt caught her attention. She recognized the blond haired woman with him as his fiancé. He showed everybody her picture enough when he first arrived at base that she should know what she looked like. She was going to go in the other direction to give them some “couple” time when Boomer spotted her, “Hey Ace!”

“Hey,” she waved weakly as they came up to her. She had SPD special training and yet she couldn’t think of a way to get out of there.

“What are you doing out here Ace?”, Boomer asked.

“Just getting a little air.”

“Same here. Oh crap, I nearly forgot. Lisa,” he turned to his fiancé, “I like you to meet Trish Fieldman.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you Ace,” Lisa said. Ace was a little taken aback then she remembered that Boomer called her by her nickname.

“Same here, Bobby talk about you a lot.”

“I’d bet he does,” she said, lightly punching him on the arm. “He tells me you’re the pilot.”

“Ah… yeah,” Ace tried to keep the confusion off her face.

“And second in command too. I got to tell you that’s so cool.”

“Huh?”, she shot a look at Boomer. He did not tell her everything about them.

He noticed and started to sweat a little, “Ah yeah, were did you want to go eat again honey?”

“That can wait,” she told him, “how often am I going to get a chance to meet one of your Ops team mates?”

“Ops?!”, she threw her left arm around his neck and started squeezing. “What part of covert operations do you not understand?”

“Gak!” he choked out. “Cap said you couldn’t touch me!”

“He said I couldn’t hit you, he didn’t say anything about putting you in a headlock.”

“The Major knows I know,” Lisa said suddenly.

“Nice try lady,” Ace told her. “His wife doesn’t even know he’s involved.”

“No really, Bobby made me promise not to tell anybody.”

“Even D.E. family knows what he does,” Boomer got out. “You can check with him.”

“You better believe I’m going to check this story out.” Her License went off, without letting go of his neck she pulled it out and switched it to phone, “Ace here.”

“Ace,” Cap voice said, “we got a case so you better get back here ASAP.”

“Right, Ace out.” She let go so Boomer could answer his License.

“Ace look,” Lisa started, “I haven’t told anybody, not even my own family. I would never betray Bobby’s trust like that. My God, I can only imagine how fast my family would be calling that Inside Extra crap if they knew.”

“Ok, I’ll take you word for it,” Ace said after a moment. “But if there’s a leak anywhere you are top of the list.”

“Would you relax Ace,” Boomer said, “I don’t think Cap would get that paranoid.” He turned back to Lisa and got a really dopey look on his face, “I’ll be back as soon as I can sweetie.”

“I’ll be waiting,” she said. “Now you be careful, I don’t want my little Boom-Boom to get hurt.” Ace turned around so they wouldn’t see her stick her finger down her throat.

***

“All right troops, listen up,” The Major ordered. Ace and Boomer returned to base and got changed in near record time. Boomer kept glancing at Ace for some reason, but there be time later to figure out why. “Word has it a new type of weapon is being pushed on the streets.”

“Another version of the rifle?”, Dan asked.

“No this one a little closer to home.” A picture of a blue frog type alien appeared on the screen. “This is Professor Gremlin. According to reports he discovered a way to mimic SPD technology, specifically the D-Magnums.”

“Now that’s hitting below the belt,” D.E. said.

“I don’t have to tell you but the last thing SPD needs is copy cat tech out there in the galaxy.”

Michelle spoke up, “It’s important you keep his computer intact. We need to know exactly what he was able to duplicate. And more importantly if he sold any of it yet and how many.”

Rev said, “If he was able to make a duplicate of the Dekametal the Alienizers would be much harder to stop.”

“That goes without saying,” the Major replied. “We already know what happened on this planet when they got a hold of SPD tech. Put that on a galactic scale and I don’t even want to think about it.”

“Are the other Deka units up to speed with this?”, Ace asked.

“Yes, and they’re already keeping an eye out for any sign of the copy cat tech.”

“I’d say it’s a safe bet that every Agent on the planet sent some bots to protect him,” Dan said.

“We don’t have any official confirmation of that,” The Major said. “But I wouldn’t bet against you.”

Michelle changed the image on the screen to a small island off of Hawaii, “Intelligence points to here as his location, his most likely location any way.”

“Most likely?”, Dan said in disbelief.

“Reports about Gremlin are sketchy at best. Everything says he’s avoiding any area with a Deka unit covering it.”

“But Hawaii is part of the US,” Boomer said. “Everybody knows DekaRail covers this area.”

“True,” the Major answered, “but there had been scattered reports of a human sized blue frog being sighted. I don’t like going on rumor but right now it’s the only lead we got.”

Dan nodded, “Like you said, I love to fill in the blanks.”

“Then you’re going to love this assignment. You people know the drill, move out!”

“Rodger!”, they saluted and headed for the ready room.

“Somebody remember to pack the sun block,” Boomer said as he exited the room. Dan stopped just long enough to shake his head. He reached the door and gave the Major and Michelle a handgun shooting motion as the door closed.

“Now the part I hate,” The Major said as he headed for his office, “the waiting.”

Michelle took her seat at the table and started tracking down any piece of info on the island she could find, “You and me both.”

***

“I can’t believe all you did was make her apologize,” Boomer complained to Dan. They arrived on the island a half hour ago. He decided it would be best to split up into two groups to check out the sightings. Ace and Rev went north of their landing zone to check things out while he, D.E and Boomer went south. Of course Boomer decided then would be a good time to let him know about the headlock. Dan knew his team well enough that making Ace apologize would be more effective than anything else he could think of. Not that he let Boomer know that.

“You should have told him you cried or something man,” D.E. told him.

“I am not going to tell him I cried!”, he shouted. Dan turned around and clamped a hand over his mouth.

“Keep talking and I’ll tell Ace she can take off the kid gloves, got it?”, he told him. Boomer nodded. He shot a look at D.E. who put up his hands. Letting go of Boomer he turned back around and kept going. Both of them kept quiet for a long time while he concentrated on his surroundings. Dan would have done this part by himself but it wouldn’t have been smart in this situation. Something caught his eye and he immediately held up his left hand. D.E. and Boomer stopped as ordered as he knelt down to get a closer look. A couple of broken twigs were barely hanging on to a bush. It looked pretty fresh too. Dan looked around and saw a couple of more a little further up. He drew his SP-Shooter and the other did the same. Waving them on he cautiously moved forward. A very loud crunch made them stop. D.E. was about to accuse Boomer of making the noise when Dan held up a hand.

A blue frog in a white lab coat came into view, “Hello, hello yes, yes. SPD you be I see.”

“How dumb is this guy?”, Boomer asked.

“He ain’t the dumb one kid,” Dan informed him.

“We walked into one didn’t we?”, D.E. asked as he looked around.

“Yes, yes,” Gremlin said and stomped the ground with his foot twice. The ground under them fell away and they dropped about fifteen feet into a rectangular room. The ceiling closed back up and the overhead lights came on. They only way out appeared to be a sliding door. Gremlin voice came over a hidden speaker. “Black badge is new, think information should be worth something to right person.”

“That frog’s on my last nerve already,” Dam muttered. “Change standby. Emergency! DekaOps!” they pressed the button on top of the Ops License revealing a black badge inside. Nothing happened, “What?”

Gremlin could be heard laughing with glee, “So happy that worked, very rich it will make me yes, yes. Figured out DekaMetal activation sequence, but more fun this way. Very, very rich”

“We got to get out of her now. Get that door opened now,” Dan ordered.

“Only open from the other side yes, yes. Hmm, SPD only travel in packs of more than three, means more out there.” They looked at each other, Rev and Ace. Dan started pulling at the doors edges. “Think guards should play with them a bit yes, yes.” A click could be heard from the speaker and things went silent.

“That looks like it might be an access panel,” Boomer pointed out, too bad there were no visible screws or anything.

“Take aim,” Dan ordered. They pointed their SP-Shooters at the panel, on his word they all fired. The panel fell off but nothing but circuit board were on the other side of it. “Where’s Michelle when you need her?”

“Too bad the D-Hacks are in the hard pack with the DekaSuits,” D.E. said. “We could probably use them right about now.”

“Worry about it later.” Dan switched his License over to phone, “Ace come in.”

“Ace here,” she answered. Dan relaxed a bit, at least Gremlin didn’t block this function.

“We fell into a trap…”

“Me and Rev are on our way.”

“Hold it, Gremlin’s on his way to you. He found a way to keep the Dekametal from forming. Suit up now if you can and concentrate on him. We’ll figure a way out of here in the meantime.”

She hesitated before replying, “Rodger, Ace out.”

“Now how are we suppose to do that?”, D.E. asked. “Boomer might be able to blow the door open but we got no place to take cover.” While they were talking Boomer was studying the circuitry in the panel. Before either of them knew it he was taking off his pack and hooking up his comm. gear to it. “Trying to boost the signal?”

“Not exactly,” he said concentrating.

“Now how is you communication gear suppose to help us out of here then?”

“I’m going to use it to communicate with the door. If I can get the right frequency I might be able to open the door.”

Dan looked at D.E. ,”Should I be scared now, because that made perfect sense.”

“Cap,” he said, “you just had your Boomer moment. Don’t worry we all had it.”

After working on it for fifteen minutes the door suddenly slid open. Boomer was grinning ear to ear, “And there you go.”

Dan clapped him on the shoulder, “Kid, I take back every nasty thing I ever thought about you,” and headed out into the hallway.

“Than… hey, wait a minute.”

***

“Trish are you all right?!”, Rev yelled out. Both of them were hiding behind a set of boulders. Good thing Cap told them to activate the suits when he did. Five minutes after he contacted them she took the most hits from a barrage of fire from the tree line. Before they scrambled for cover she was able to see a set of gray humanoid robot, a design she never seen before, being led by an Igadroid coming in their direction. “Trish!”, he called out again a little more urgently.

“Had the breath knocked out of me,” she called back. She looked over the rock to see a couple of the gray robots form a black version the Hybrid Magnum, or something like it. “Not good,” She and Rev jumped out from hiding firing their D-Shooters and traded positions. One of the gray robots went down but another one came out of the blue and took it’d place. “Son of a bitch.”

“I believe somebody is playing a game of cat and mouse, is that the right term?”

“Yeah, and we’re the mouse.”

“Wait,” the Igadroid commanded. “Professor Gremlin wants to prolong this.”

“Yes, yes,” Gremlin sat in his control room watching the entire thing unfold. After the guards were done with them he would let them take pot shots at the ones he captured earlier. As he gave an order to the hidden guards to circle the Deka officers he would have to remember to thank Agent Chatrox for supplying him the parts to build these new model droids. If they worked as well as he predicted he would be very rich indeed.

Ace and Rev found themselves pinned down for a long time. Any time either of them tried to move a hail of bullets forced them back to where they were. To make matters worse Cap and the others weren’t responding to her hails, so she had no idea if they were able to get out or not. Then she saw some movement in the forest behind them. Looks like a lot more cats were getting ready to come out and play. Ace looked over and made a quick couple of hand motions to Rev who nodded and they unhooked their D-Shots from their packs. If this was it they might as well go down fighting.

“Now!”, Ace shouted and they turned and fired behind them. Sparks could be seen as the slugs made contact. The Igadroid was about to order as about to order them to fire when two of the gray robots next to him went down. D.E. appeared behind them, somehow able to get his hand on a set of the copy cat D-Magnums and was firing away. Ace and Rev took the opportunity to fire in the Igadroid’s troops direction.

“No, no,” Gremlin said as he started pressing button and pulling levers on his control panel. “Not possible, not possible. Should not be out, impossible. Take them out now!” Suddenly the gray robots he designed stopped functioning and stood there. “No, no!”, he looked around and saw a black box fixed to one of his computers. A black and yellow clad figure was operating it as a black and red one stood by his side pointing a weapon at Gremlin. “Not possible, not possible!”

“Boomer?”, Dan asked.

“Base is getting a clear signal and diving into his data banks now.”

Ace, Rev and D.E. had the Igadroid surrounded. She and Rev locked their License into the D-Shots as D.E. connected the Hybrid Magnum together. They pointed their weapons at the Igadroid as Ace shouted, “Strikeout!” and all three of them fired. The Igadroid was obliterated moment later, “Got you.”

Gremlin tried to run but they cut him off. Dan pointed his D-Shot at him and waved him away from the control panel. He glanced over to Boomer, “Why don’t you take this one kid. You earned it.”

“Right,” he held out his License in Judge Mode and said, “Target orders.” The area went black as a red X and a blue circle started flashing in front of Gremlin. The alien frog started fidgeting after a minute and the red X shined brightly. “Eliminate target.” Boomer and Dan hooked their License to the D-Shots and pulled back the grip, “Ready.”. Inside the weapon energy started traveling through it into the front barrel, “Strikeout!”, they pulled the triggers and two blue energy shot out and Gremlin was deleted. “Got ya!”, Boomer cried out.

***

Michelle went over the information she was receiving with great interest. “Good news Cap, we got just about everything,” she said over the line. “How are things on your end?”

“We located all of the copy cat tech on the island and have stockpiled it in his base. Boomer’s getting ready to blow it up when you give the word. Michelle did you discover what he did with the suits?”

“I made that a top priority in my search. We got lucky, he apparently just figured out how to do that today and tried it out in you. He didn’t tell anybody about his discovery yet.”

Dan let out a sigh of relief, “Thank God for that. Any idea who’s on his buyer list?”

“If you’re looking for names, or Agent locations for that matter, I can’t help you. All I’m finding of a bunch of random numbers that could be Agents or buyers. There’s one here that’s been crossed out recently.”

“If it’s an Agent it might be the one DekaRescue took out.”

“That’s what I was thinking. I’ll send a copy of this to the other Deka units and to SPD command to see if they can help figure this out. So when are you guys coming back home.”

“As soon as we’re done here. But Ace and D.E. are trying to convince me to extend our stay for a bit.”

Michelle started to smile to herself, “So the Shepard’s engines are acting up huh?”

“I didn’t say…”

“Don’t worry I’ll let the Major know that Ace is going to need a couple of hours to fix the problem.”

Dan started to sound upset, “Now wait a….”

She didn’t give him a chance to finish, “You owe me one Cap. I’ll let you know how you can repay me when you get back. Oh and while you’re down there pick me up something nice, nothing too flashy now. Base out,” she quickly closed the connection and leaned back into her chair.

Ace, who was close enough to hear the whole thing said, “I’m gonna find me a dumb surfer boy.”

“But I got to get back to Lisa,” Boomer whined

Ace didn’t even turn around, “Stuff it Boom-Boom.”

Dan just looked at his License in total confusion, “What the hell just happened?”

***

Chatrox stepped out of the machine and unhooked himself from the various wires and tubes then looked at his hands. With a bit of concentration he was able to turn his blackish gray scaly hands into disgusting human pink and back again. This phase of the plan was done, now on to the next part of it.