Special Police DekaOps

17

The hallways of OpsBase were pretty quiet compared to the day time. Then again he usually wasn’t here at night. Fortunately Helen didn’t press the matter when he told her something work related came up. Pierce hated lying to her about what he really did, even if he did give D.E. and Boomer permission to tell their family and fiancé respectively. He did tell her he was part of SPD, only as a military advisor slash negotiator. Maybe he would get up the nerve to tell her what he really did with them one of these days. Pushing those thoughts aside he walked the rest of the way to the last door on the right of the field team quarters hallway. He knocked three times, loud enough for him to hear. After several moments, and a couple of muffled noises, the door open and Dan stood there, “Major?”

“I’m sorry to wake you Dan,” he took a look at him. Dan was trying to stand in a way that he was blocking the doorway a bit. “Are you alright? You look a little… flushed.”

“Perfectly fine,” he answered quickly. “So what up?”

“Not good news I’m afraid,” he replied. “Rumors are starting to spread that another version of that alien rifle is being sold.”

“You’re kidding me,” Dan said as he lowered his head. “I guess it was a little too much to ask that after we took out the factory that would be it.”

“You should know better than that Dan, especially in our business.” He nodded in agreement. “Seeing how the rumor’s still fresh we’re getting first crack at it since nobody knows where the new factory is. I thought I give you a heads up seeing how that why you were originally assigned here.”

“Right,” Dan said. “I’ll let Michelle know right away so she can get looking.”

“I’ll tell her,” Pierce told him, “her door’s right over there.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Dan said quickly, then looked at a loss for words.

“Why not?”, Pierce asked raising an eyebrow.

“Because…”, he trailed off while his eyes glanced back into his room, “she… told me it was a really bad idea to wake her up in the middle of the night. I’ll wake her… she might go easier on me.”

“I’ll take my chances,” the Major told him as he continued for Michelle’s room.

Behind him Dan stepped back and waved Michelle out of his room. Quickly and quietly she made her way to the woman’s restroom door and tried to act like she was just coming out. “Major Pierce, I thought I heard you out here. Is there anything wrong?”

“I’ll fill her in,” Dan quickly volunteered.

“Right,” he said slowly. “I’ll be in my office for the time being.”

Dan gave him a quick salute while Michelle nodded her head. Then she made her way over to him and softly said, “Do you think we fooled him?”

Before Dan could answer the Major called out from down the hall, “Not for a second.” Both of their faces went red as Dan started to scratch the back of his head.

***

Once again he hated this god forsaken planet. It was bad enough he had to be assigned here, now his bosses told he him to check out the new weapon factory set in the coldest part of this miserable country. Wrapping his cloak around him even tighter Chatrox could still feel the cold. He for one would be extremely glad when they would hopefully decide his punishment was over. Locating the building he knocked on the door twice. A panel slid open and a pair of inhuman eyes peered out, “what’s the password?”

Why some of them insist on doing this, he would never know. He always hated this part of things and was one of the few things he actually missed about being part of SPD. “Glory to the bosses, may they run things now and forever,” he replied. The door open and he walked in. Several guns, many manned by humans surprisingly, were pointed at him. And again he cursed Stevens for destroying his own personal Igadroid. “Don’t trust I am who I say I am?”

“I know you,” said a slug like being with those inhuman eyes. “You’re part of SPD.” A few of the rifle holders started looking like they wanted to pull the trigger. He sighed, he knew this was going to happen eventually.

“Not any more in case you haven’t heard,” he told them.

“You tracked me down and destroyed my operation.”

“I was suppose to delete you too if you remember, yet here you are,” Chatrox countered. The slug didn’t seem to have an argument for that. Looking around the ‘factory’ he sarcastically said, “Impressive.”

“It’s hard to get parts up here,” the slug said as he kept his weapon trained on the Agent. “Especially after that rumored black badge unit supposedly took out the first one and the supply depot.”

“Unfortunately they are not a rumor,” Chatrox said distastefully. “I know from personal experience they are quite real. Which was why I was sent here. The bosses realize if they discovered the first one chances are they could locate this one as well.”

“So what do we do?”

“’We’ do nothing,” Chatrox told him. “I on the other hand am to check over the factory and determine what it needs so it doesn’t suffer the same fate as the last one.”

“Are you looking at this dump?”, the slug ask. “I don’t think we can afford the bare minimum to get the security it needs.”

“Then you have nothing to worry about,” Chatrox informed him. “Sales of this particular rifle are very important to the bosses and they are footing the expense for the security upgrade. You have, to use a Earth expression,” saying that left a bad taste in his mouth, “a blank check.”

***

As soon as she got dressed Michelle was immediately at her station and started searching. Using the information they gathered from the rifle D.E. took apart she looked for anybody ordering similar parts. Whomever it was better at covering their tracks this time around. But not good enough to stump her, not with this equipment at her fingertips. It took a while and she had to look past several dummy companies but she found a possible location, an old fishing town on the coast of upper Alaska. Not as definite as she would have liked but it was a place to start.

They walked into the town more or less unnoticed, although a few were giving Rev a curious look. The real strange looks were being directed at Boomer, who was dressed in full winter gear, pulling up the rear. “Guys wait up,” he called after them.

“How long do you think we can get away with ignoring him?”, Ace asked.

“And it’s cold in case you haven’t noticed.”

“It’s like fifty degrees and you look like a Sherpa,” she shot back.

D.E. agreed, “Like I said my family from Oklahoma but even I think you look ridiculous.”

“So much for some support from your friends,” he frowned.

Rev yawned for the fifth time since leaving the Machine Shepard. “You get enough sleep last night buddy?”, D.E. asked.

“I believe so Terry,” he replied. “I think the climate might be affecting me some how. My planet does not have a section with this type of temperature.” He yawned again, “My apologies Captain, if I suspected this…”

“We’ll worry about it in case it becomes a problem,” Dan told him. “We’re still here to find out if this place has the factory or not. Keep an eye on your scanner and ask the locals if you have too. Somebody bound to have seen something if it’s here. Ace, take D.E. and Rev and check out the pier and factories on the waterfront. Me and Nanuck of the north here will check out the center of town.”

“Cap you too?”, Boomer sounded hurt.

“You’re the one dressed like that,” Dan told him as he walked away.

“He just so spared him from further ribbing by us,” Ace said to no one in particular.

“I was thinking the same thing,” D.E. told her as he zipped up his jacket a little higher and stuck his hands in his pockets. “It is kinda chilly though.”

“Wuss,” Ace teased him as Rev yawned behind them.

***

Based on the reaction Rev was getting earlier she was surprised at how many aliens there were in town. Then again there were several polar like planets out there and the inhabitants would have found this comfortable. A couple of them nodded and greeted them as they passed. Every so often they stop and ask a person on the street if they saw anything strange. This part was tricky, trying to ask if anything suspicious was going on without raising suspicions at the same time. Luckily she thought of a pretty good cover story. “Pardon me sir?”, she asked an older gentleman standing in front of a store.

“What can I do for you young lady?”, he seemed kind enough.

“I know this is going to sound really strange, but I’m a news reporter. I’m new and I think the station I’m working for just sent me on a joke assignment just to see if I’d actually do it.”

The guy laughed, “You have to pay your dues some how little lady. So why did they have you come all the way out here for?”

“Well they told me that there were some strange things going on up here, but they didn’t tell me what.” She gave him a pleading look, “I don’t suppose you’ve seen anything out of the ordinary?”

“Sorry,” he told them. “Outside of the deer running across Main Street a few days back the place has been pretty quiet. I think there pulling the wool over your eyes.”

“I’m starting to think you’re right, thanks any way.”

“Do you get the feeling the deer thing is like the biggest news this town seen in awhile?”, D.E. asked after they walked down the street a bit.

“It does seem like a popular topic so far,” Rev commented as he stifled another yawn.

“Rev would you quit it, you’re starting to make me sleepy,” Ace told him.

“My apologies Trish,” he said.

“So what do you think”, D.E. asked, “is this a dead end?”

“Unless we pick up something or Cap and Boomer get a lead it might be,” she agreed. “Let’s keep checking though just in case.” They nodded in agreement. Then they noticed a little girl standing near by staring at them.

“Excuse me,” she said as she got a little braver, “but are you the reporters?”

“Yes we are,” Ace said as she got down to a knee.”Do you have a name sweetie?”

“Amber,” the girl answered.

Ace smiled at her, “Hi there my name Trish.” Amber shot a scared look at Rev. “Don’t worry about him, he’s not a scary as he looks. And my alien friend is pretty cool too.”

“Funny,” D.E. said sarcastically.

“Do you have a story for us?”, she asked ignoring him

“My big brother,” she said. “He went into the old factory and disappeared. They said he ran away. But he wouldn’t do that, he wouldn’t,” she started to tear up.

“I believe you,” Ace said trying to calm her down. “I’ll look into it for you, free of charge this time around. But you’re going to have to show me where this factory is, ok?”. Amber agreed and took Ace by the hand and showed them.

“I’m not sure if this is a wise decision Terry,” Rev said as the two of them hung back a bit.

“It’s the closest thing we have for a lead,” D.E. told him. “Besides if we can help her find a lead to her brother it’s has to be a good thing.” Rev silently agreed.

Amber took them to where she last saw he brother, an old fishing factory that looked like it hasn’t been used in years. If Ace was going to pick a place for a secret factory, it would have been something like this. If this was the place the big question was what did the inside look like? Ace had them hang back a bit while she scanned the outside as best she could. Before long something on D.E’s back started beeping. Looking at Amber she asked, “Do you remember where your brother was at?”

While Amber was pointing that out D.E. stood behind Rev and checked the scanner on his OpsLicense. After a moment Ace looked back at him and he said, “Same reading as the first time.”

Nodding she returned her attention to the girl, “Amber I want you to go back to town for now.”

“But my brother…,” she started to protest.

“We’ll look for him,” Ace assured her, “but I don’t want you getting hurt in the process because that place looks dangerous. Go back to that store where you first talked to us ok. We’ll let you know what we found out as soon as we can.”

“You promise?”

“I promise,” Ace told her and crossed her heart. Reluctantly she did what he was told and left them. Ace wasn’t sure what they were going to do if they didn’t find a trace of her brother in there. A thought for later as her License beeped too, “Ops5 here.”

“Ace,” Dan said over the line, “we think we found out where they might be selling the rifles, or at least storing them. Boomer and I are going to check it out. How soon do you think you can join us in case things get hairy?”

“I’m not sure Cap,” Ace replied, “because I think we just found out where they’re building them.”

“We’re on our way.”

“Cap wait,” she said quickly. “Let’s try to take both of them if we can.”

“I don’ think that’s a good idea Ace. After that last time security bound to be beefed up.”

“And if we go after one the other one is going to take what they have and get away,” she countered. “If we have a chance to get both points we should do it.”

After a few moments of silence Dan said, “Alright, but be careful. I want to hear back from you one way or the other.”

“Rodger, Ops5 out.” Looking back at D.E. and Rev she said, “You heard him, let’s check it out.”

***

As they got closer they noticed that while the building looked abandoned there were a few paths in the ground that look rather new. Especially one that lead to a particular steel door. So somebody been going inside recently. She motioned for them to bypass the door and find another way in. A broken window that was around the corner looked promising. Remembering how toxic the building process was the last time each of them activated the filter mask that folded out and covered their moth and nose and went inside. D.E. and Ace both drew their SP-Shooters as they entered. Rev check the air quality, “It is not as bad as the factory but still dangerous if breathed in for extended periods.”

“Right, keep them on for now,” Ace ordered. Pointing at the door D.E. nodded and quickly checked the other side before giving the all clear. Entering the hallway she wished she had some Cap’s recon gear with them. D.E. found a lock door while he was checking the various doorknobs they came across.

“What do you think?”, he asked. She nodded and told Rev to watch the other direction. D.E. stepped to the side of the door and shot the doorknob. God that sounded really loud. “They really need to look into silencers for these things,” he whispered to himself.

He pushed the door open and Ace and Rev pointed their weapons inside. They saw a teenage boy huddled in the corner looking really scared. She and Rev went to him as D.E. guarded the door. “I don’t suppose you have a little sister named Amber do you?”, she asked feeling hopeful.

“Yeah,” he said before he started coughing. Rev immediately ran on scan on him. “What… what’s he doing?”

“Just checking you out,” she assured him. After a few moments she looked at Rev, “Well?”

“He is starting to show sign of lung damage from the fumes, but it is easily reparable at this stage.” Opening one of the pockets on his pants he pulled out a small med kit. Choosing the right liquid he loaded it into a hypospray and placed it on the boy’s neck. A small hiss later he said, “That should start to heal the damage and neutralize what’s already in his system.”

“Right,” she said feeling relieved. Looking at the boy she asked, “What are you doing locked up in here?”

“I kept seeing things going on but nobody believed me. So I snuck in to find proof I wasn’t lying. Then this slug thing caught me and threw me in here.”

“This is the right place alright,” Ace said. “Rev do you have a spare mask on you?” he said he did and pulled the pieces out of another pocket and handed them to her. “Listen, I need you to stay here for a little while longer. We’re going to find the slug you told us about. But it’ll probably be safer if you stay in here.” He agreed as he took the pieces and put them on. Ace reached up and activated the mask which surprised the boy. “My friend said there’s something nasty in the air so this will filter it out. We’ll be back for you as soon as we’re done.” They closed the door and continued their search.

“I am so pouring salt on that slug,” D.E. said out loud, she agreed.

It wasn’t long before they found the main area of the building and the apparent construction site for the rifles. What surprised them was the actual number of humans working on the weapons. Willingly, judging from the lack of guards in the room. The slug, on the other hand, was in plain view. “Come on you low lives work harder,” it ordered. “Every one of you have said this town has been going to hell since the factories closed. Are you going to blow this chance I’m giving you to bring it back to life?”

“I’m starting to get an idea why nobody believed that kid,” D.E. commented and she had to agree again. They noticed Revs’ head start to drop slowly, D.E nudged him with and elbow to wake him up and he agreed as well.

At her command they jumped out of their hiding spot and aimed their SP-Shooters at the slug. “SPD,” Ace shouted, “freeze!”. The slug laughed as a few of the humans pointed a completed version of the rifle at them. “What are you doing?”

“We don’t want you here!”, someone shouted.

“We need the sales of these rifles,” said another. “Our town will go down the crapper even more without it.”

None of them expected this to happen as they waved their SP-Shooter around trying to cover everybody. Then some Batsuroids came out of a couple of grenades holding the rifles as well. The slug laughed even louder, “Looks like you’re outnumbered, better put those peashooters down.”

“Ace,” D.E. said with a bit of worry in his voice.

“You heard him,” she said with a small smirk as the mask folded away. They dropped their weapons and she said, “Change standby.” They grabbed their OpLicense from behind their back. “Emergency! DekaOps!” A quick digital flash later and they were in their Dekasuits.

“Shot ‘em!” the slug yelled. The Batsuroids fired immediately, the humans started firing a few moments later a bit unsure of themselves. It was so much they had to dive for cover and return fire with their D-Shooters.

“Tell me you have a plan B,” D.E. said as he ducked a shot that barely sailed over his head.

“Pick a bot and shot the gun,” she told him.

“But the weapon will…,” Rev started to say.

“I know what’s going to happen.”

“It’s crazy,” D.E. said, “But I love it.” He took a quick peek and spotted a group of Batsuroids without any humans around. Lowering his head slightly he started breathing slowly as Ace and Rev continued to fire back. He looked up, took quick aim and fired at the center of the group. The bullet flew and hit the rifle in the power source. As expected the weapon exploded taking out the Batsuroid holding it and a couple surrounding it. In turn the weapons they were holding started to explode too in a chain reaction. The humans with the slug dropped to the ground as soon as that happened. Slowly they looked up after it was over.

“What are you low lives doing!?”, the slug shouted. “Shot the bastards!”

One of the humans looked at the gun in his hands the spot where the Batsuroids were. “Fuck this shit” he said dropping the weapon to run. The other humans quickly joined him.

“Get back here you worthless hairless apes!”

“Ahem”, Ace coughed to get his attention s D.E and Rev took out the remaining Batsuroids.

“Hey wait a second,” the slug said while backing away. “Maybe we can make a deal.”

“We don’t make deals”, she told him and held out her License. He reached for a lever behind him but a shot from D.E. stopped that.

“Slagging Agent,” the slug spat. “He said he have this place ready before you would show up.”

“Target orders,” she said and the area around them went dark. A red X and a blue circle flashed between them before finally settling on the X, “Eliminate target.” D.E and Rev stood beside her and locked their License into the D-Shot and took aim. “Strikeout!,” three blue energy streams hit the slug and deleted him.

***

Amber waited anxiously , hoping the lady the lady would keep her word. She as starting to think they weren’t going to show back up. Then she looked down the street and saw the lady wave at her, then she saw somebody else. “Hank!”, she cried out happily as she raced toward them.

“I’ve never been so glad to see you, you little pain in the butt,” he said as he scooped her up. Ace and Rev broke away as a crowd started to form around them.

Dan got their attention as they walked away. “How did you your end go Cap?”, she asked.

“Caught him with his pants down,” he told her. “How about you?”

“The factory’s taken care of. D.E. covering it now in case some of the locals come back. I’ll explain in my report.”

“Right, Rev show Boomer where the factory is so he can take care of the rest of those rifles.” Rev said he understood and told Boomer to follow him. After they left he looked at the crowd that was starting to split. A few were shooting Ace some nasty looks and a couple could be heard saying she ruined our town. “I get the feeling I know what’s going to be in that report. I also get the feeling you guys went outside the mission little bit.”

“I take full responsibility for that,” Ace told him. “D.E. and Rev were following my lead the whole time. If anything comes down, it should come down on me only.”

Dan looked her in the eyes, then looked at the reunited brother and sister. “I think we can let this one slide. But we better cover Rev and Boomer. Some of these guys look like they might want some payback.”

***

“I still don’t believe it,” the Major said as he put down the repot on the desk. He looked right at Dan who was setting across from him, “Using a town own desperation to get them to help build this thing. How low can you go?”

“Some of them didn’t seem to care that what they were doing was illegal or even life threatening, they just wanted their town back the way it was.” Dan leaned back a bit, “But there bound to be some health problem now for the guys working on the rifles. And the way Ace and them described the place a few not involved in this might have been affected without knowing it.”

“Which is why SPD is secretly supplying some medical aid for the town. They told the local doctors what to look for and how to treat it. Thanks to Ace and the other’s report the local police were able to arrest a few that were involved. I’m not sure how many more they’ll get though.” Dan agreed and started to leave. “Just a second, I want to talk to you about what happened last night.”

“Here we go,” Dan mumbled as he dropped back down.

“I don’t know why you two felt you had to sneak around. You know as well as I do that there no regulation in SPD that say two officers can’t have a relationship. Of course with some of the nuts around here I can kind of see why you thought you had to.”

“Yeah, but I also know how you feel about the whole premarital thing.”

“True, I do believe a man and a woman should wait for marriage before having that kind of a relationship. But I’m also aware that you and Michelle are two grown adults capable of making you own decisions.” He took a deep breath, “I also realize that sometime a couple might want to mix things up a bit and get a little adventurous. So I’m only going to say this once,” he tapped his finger on the desk with each word, “not in here.”

Dan blinked a few times totally not understanding what he said, “What?”

“Not in here,” he repeated. “You two can do it in your quarters, her quarters, in med bay. If you can sneak on top of the Sheapard without Ace finding out more power to you. But not in here.”

Again Dan blinked and said, “What?”

“Do I make myself clear?”

Dan looked around the room, “I… guess.”

“Good, I’m glad we had this little talk.” Dan left the room and every so often he would look back at the door leading to the Majors’ office. That was the weirdest conversation he was never part of.