Special Police DekaOps

30

“EXternal Operations?”, Michelle said out loud as she did a check on the computer systems. She only decided to do so after she noticed some space on their hard drive was mysteriously taken up. A thorough search, and some “special” software she created, gave her the name of this particular file. She couldn’t go any further because a password she couldn’t crack was preventing her from getting into it. “What the hell is this?”

“I told them you’d notice,” Major Pierce said as he entered the Control Room. “But then again they don’t know you as well as I do.”

“So what is it?”

“Something Dan and the others are going to need once they complete their training. Which is hopefully soon.”

“Training?”, Michelle asked. She was hating the fact the information officer was apparently out of the loop. The Major took a deep breath before explaining the situation to her. “Why didn’t you tell us about this?”, she said in a state of shock.

“I was under orders not to,” he explained. “Direct from Commander Scorp. I hated keeping all of you in the dark but I didn’t have much of a choice.”

“So where are they going?”

“Some place Dan knows pretty well,” he said. He walked over to her station and pulled up the file. Then he imputed the password, “Since the proverbial cat is out of the bag I might as well let you in on what I know. It’s not going to totally make up for how I was acting, but hopefully it’s a start.”

Michelle eyes were transfixed on her screen as information and schematics flashed by, “Holy shit.”

“So do you think they’re going to enjoy their new toys?”

***

Over the horizon a second sun started it’s accent in the morning sky. The Machine Tiger flew over the canopy of the jungle heading for a complex in the distance. The autopilot landed the craft on a landing pad not far from the main building. The rear hatch opened and a ramp lowered as they walked out onto the alien planet. In their black field uniforms they looked around. “Nagasus 7”, Dan never thought he’d be back here again. Movement in the jungle caught his attention while Rev looked in the same direction. “Did you hear something?”

“Yes Captain,” Rev replied.

With his fingers Dan told Target and Rev to head to the right and for Ace and Boomer to go left. Drawing his SP-Shooter Dan headed for the middle. He didn’t go far before he realized where he was in the jungle. That open area was too far away but there was a small patch that would work just as well. The being stalking them targeted him first knowing exactly what he was capable of. He lost track of the human momentarily and kneeled to listen to the environment around him. A rustling to his left caught his attention. The human’s hat disappeared behind a large brush. He was disappointed, that was sloppy of him. He went to the far side of the brush to ambush him. Waiting for the footsteps to get closer he jumped out of hiding. A hairy bipedal beast stared lazily at him while it chewed on some leaves. Alright that was clever. He wasn’t surprised he felt something poke him in the back. “Perhaps the Commander wasn’t aware that was the second oldest trick in the book,” Dan said.

“Perhaps not,” Mynx said with that guttural chuckle of his. He spun around quickly to catch him off guard. He took the weapon from Dan’s hand and was surprised to see a stick instead of a gun.

Dan raised his SP-Shooter, “And that would be the third.” He smiled a bit before lowering the weapon as Mynx laughed again. Holstering his Shooter he took out his OpsLicense and switched it to phone, “Stevens to all units, target is a friendly. Return to the Tiger.” Ace and Target both replied in the affirmative. “It’s good to see you back on your feet Commander,” Dan said as they headed back compound. “You were in pretty bad shape when I saw that video.”

“It took me a while to heal from Waven and his group’s attack. But I’m tougher than Duranium hull plating. It’s a shame we had to lose Tony and his unit as a result.” Both of them lowered their head, Dan nickname for the tiger stuck fast with the others. “I heard they targeted you after that.”

“They did,” Dan said. “It took longer than I would have liked but we got them.” Dan looked around remembering all the crap he went through on this planet. “To be honest I’m surprised anybody is still here. After the Alienizers found out about it I was positive it’d be abandoned.”

“I thought we would have to relocate too,” Mynx agreed. “But every intelligence report says the Alienizers stopped having any interest in this sector soon afterwards. But Command is playing it safe in this case. We have sensor satellites throughout the system. As well as various droid ships flying around tracking any Alienizer satellites and feeding them false information.”

“Sounds like something Scorp cooked up,” Dan commented.

Mynx grunted, “You know him all too well it seems. I get the occasional report about you and your unit. Trytan was very impressed about the way you handled that particular situation.”

“I couldn’t have done anything without my team.”

“Spoken like the leader I’d knew you be.” Mynx stopped and held out his hand. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to surrender your License.”

“Can I ask why?”

“Scorp’s orders,” he answered. “Your unit will have to surrender theirs as well. They well be returned to you after you complete the program. And none of you will leave until all of you have passed. I hate to tell you this Dan, and again this comes from Scorp, but you cannot assist your team in any way during the training. Nor can any of your team mates help each other.”

“That makes no sense,” Dan said. “We function as a team and we survive as a team.”

“I know but Scorp wants everybody to pass this on their own.”

“Scorp was behind a desk during basic too wasn’t he?”, Dan asked not even bothering to hide his annoyance. Looking at his License Dan handed over to Mynx. “Never let it be said I don’t know how to follow orders.”

“Good. Come Captain let’s go to your team so I can explain the program.”

“It can’t be any worse than my original training here.”

***

“Blasted plasma storm,” the Captain of the Iczian battle cruiser said to himself. This was going to set the timetable back a bit. “You,” he pointed to a Crystaline, “make sure there’s no leak in the starboard power coupling. The freeze cannon won’t function at peak efficiency if it is.”

“Is there a problem Captain,” A male voice behind him said. The only other Iczian crew was a husband and wife team who previously failed in an attempt to bring civilization to the planet known as Earth. This mission was their shot at redemption.

“Nothing we can’t fix sir,” the Captain replied. “These plasma storms have a tendency to play a little havoc with the inner workings of the ice cannon.” The cannon was actually a dish on the underside of the nose of the ship, but it worked in much the same way. “I’m getting a spike that’s well within safety range but I thought it was better to check it know before we got there.”

“Oh I agree my good Captain,” he said. “It would be downright disgraceful if we get there and the savages get a chance to put up a defense before we can even fire a shot. Take whatever precautions you think are necessary. My wife and I will fine tune our attack strategy in the meantime.”

“Very good sir,” the Captain said.

***

Mynx examined them as they stood at attention. He told them as of now this was as back to basic as they could get. Each of them wore nothing but their black pant, boots and a plain grey T-shirt. “I heard the stories about the Ops unit from Earth,” he said in full drill sergeant mode. “And let me tell you low lives right now it doesn’t mean a damn thing. You might have thought you were hot stuff back home. But you maggots are in my world now. You want anything you are going to have to earn it. Is that understood?!”

“Sir yes sir!”, they replied.

“Now I’m sure Captain Stevens told you about his previous experience here. But what I have in store for you is totally different than what he went through. You will learn to fight an enemy in any condition where you find yourself weightless. You will learn the tactics necessary to perform at maximum efficiency in those situations or you will not leave. Is that understood?!”

“Sir yes sir!”

“I can’t hear you.”

“Sir yes sir!”, they shouted.

“Excellent.” He stood in front of Rev, “And I will not stand for anybody holding the others back. Is that understood?”

“Sir yes sir!”

“Good!” He started walking in front of them staring at each one of them. “This experience will change the way you think in battle. Now this program is designed to teach you how to move and fight in a Zero G environment. Now this might be the only time you have to use this particular set of skills. But they claim humans are very creative so it is possible you may discover a different way to use these skills I am about to pound into you.” Looking at Dan a moment longer than the others he added, “Because I am in a generous mood and I know a good soldier hates surprises I will tell you that you will be walking away with more than this training.

“I pray you maggots are smart enough to realize that external means outside. And outside a ship’s protective hull is all sorts of cosmic radiation and your standard Dekasuits won’t be able to protect you fully. A protective shell will cover you to protect your worthless hides.” Standing in front of them he looked at each one like he was trying to gauge the depth of their souls. “Your training begins now. Double time it to the complex!”

“Sir yes sir!”, they turned and ran for the building. Mynx held back and studied them one more time. They were Stevens’ unit aright. Now here’s hoping they’ll be able to live up to expectations.

***

“This is unacceptable,” Chatrox nearly exploded. The blob like holo image he was talking to didn’t immediately respond. This was somebody high up in the organization, the image gave it away. They were paranoid about any transmission being intercepted they spent million of credits for their image filters to hide their identities. Occasionally you thought you could pick out a familiar voice in the distortion but it was rare. “How long have we worked to get a foothold on this miserable planet?!”

“You hate Earth Chatrox,” the image said, “or so I have been told.”

“It’s the principle of the matter,” he argued. “How many billions of credits have been poured into this operation? Are the bosses just going to let that go down the drain? The Iczians can go ‘civilize’ some other worthless planet.”

“Unfortunately the Iczian don’t sit down and have a reasonable conversation with anybody they consider beneath the. Which apparently is everybody else in the galaxy.”

“They probably won’t consider a bribe in this situation I suppose.”

“We tried in the past,” The image said. “No once they target a planet they consider it theirs. The fact it really isn’t is only a matter of formality.”

“So we’re suppose to just drop everything and leave?”, Chatrox demanded.

“I figured you would be happy about that.” He could almost see the smirk on the other side of the transmission.

“Like I said it’s the principle of the matter. I may have clients, well paying clients, I may not get back if I am forced to relocate.” Besides he still needed to be the one to end Steven’s miserable existence.

“According to our leads SPD has a plan,” the image said. “Right now we’re telling our Agents to get off planet until we see how this plays out. But,” it continued slowly, “if an Agent with a particular set of skills should just happen to sneak aboard the Iczian ship and inadvertently help whatever plan SPD has…”

“It would be a suicide mission,” Chatrox snorted.

“Perhaps, but the bosses would be very grateful. Not enough to assign that agent to another planet, seeing how precious their cliental is. But I am sure they would be rewarded with a very large monetary sum if they survived. It is something to think about.” The image faded away and left Chatrox fuming. Help SPD, how humiliating. He shouldn’t have complained, after the Iczians took this miserable planet he’d finally be free to go elsewhere. But then he would have to lose his dream of plunging the blade of his knife into Steven’s still beating heart.

***

Mynx had told then there were basically two stages to the training. And none of them would were going to see stage two until all of them had completed stage one. After three days most of them were practically dancing around the Zero G chamber. And after three days they were still stuck at stage one because Rev was still having problems without any gravity. It was frustrating because all of them had an idea or two in how to help him. But because of Scorp’s inane rule they couldn’t go over there and discuss it with him. He even ordered they be bunked in separate parts of the compound so they couldn’t say anything after hours.

During a break period Rev sat rejected on a bench away from the others, his antennas drooping. All of their hearts went out to him, if they could only head over there and give him something other than words of encouragements. Dan went over that rule in his head again and again. He thought he might have found a way around it. Rules were rules, but once they started to mess with his team’s effectiveness then all bets were off. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ace scratch her arm. He stopped himself from smiling when she gave him a quick hand signal. He wasn’t the only one who thought of a way around that rule. Giving a quick signal back as he stretched she walked over to him. “You worried about Rev?”, she asked.

“He’ll get it,” he answered. “I know he will. I’ve been watching him though, his antennas are flying wild when he’s in Zero G.”

Ace nodded, “I noticed. He told me once they help with his balance. That might be what’s throwing him off. If he concentrated on keeping them flat against his head or something it might help.”

“It’s a pity we can’t tell him.” Rev started to look their way before Ace scratched the back of her head and gave him a quick sign. He twitched his right antenna, he understood. Dan cracked his neck as he got up. That order said he couldn’t discuss things with the rest of the team about a particular member. If that teammate just happened to overhear that conversation… oh well.

***

He came in seeing his wife hard at work at her assigned task. Walking up behind her he started messaging her shoulders, feeling how tight the tension was making them. She moaned slightly as his fingers took some of it away. Studying what she was going over he asked, “How is it going darling?”

“Tediously dear,” she answered. “We needed the intelligence we have now the first time. We might have tried to accelerate the schedule.”

“I heard this planet was over flowing with ruffians hiding behind those badges.”

“I wouldn’t say overflowing,” she chuckled. Leaning forward she manipulated the globe hovering before her until it grew in size. “But they do have more than their fair share I’m afraid. From what I can tell there were at least nine other units planned for this planet. Most of those planned either stalled or disappeared altogether. There were a couple of minor ones like a DekaRail I believe it was called that were stationed here,” On the globe the image of the United States flashed briefly. “Then there was the orbital station here,” it flashed it’s current position. “It serves as an immigration post if I heard right.”

“How disgusting,” he shivered, “all those savages in one place. Where are the main units darling?”

“The main DekaRanger unit is located here,” Singapore’s position flashed. “The ones I think were called DekaRescue are here,” The United Kingdom flashed next. “DekaSquad has a mobile base according to all reports but are generally in this area,” half of Europe and Russia was next.

“And the ruffians who attacked us?”

“That we do not know,” she admitted. “They appear anyplace that doesn’t have a unit. But we do have some conflicting reports that they appear in this part of the world rather frequently. “The United States flashed one more time.

“A pity I was hoping to start with them first.” Smoothing out some of his fur he said, “I know it appears unbecoming of a gentleman darling, but those savages ran us out of our house.”

“I know dear,” she patted his hand. “I did work out a battle plan I think you will approve of. I locked in the coordinates for the two main units. So we target those two first. The third we can lock onto once we reach firing range.”

“Excellent Darling, just excellent,” he kissed her on the top of the head. “Although I think we should target the orbital station as well. Just in case they gave it a bite as well. You can never tell with these so called officers of the law.”
“Wise as always dear.”

***

What a difference a day made. It took Rev a little while to learn to concentrate enough on keeping his antennas steady but he did. He was amazed the answer was so simple that he didn’t even consider it. At the moment he was following Dan in a Zero G version of follow the leader, flying through blue holographic rings. Dan curled up and somersaulted forward so his feet would hit the wall. He only stopped long enough to get a fix on the next ring and push off. Rev repeated the maneuver. His trajectory was off a bit as he went through the ring itself. Dan grimaced as he saw it change from blue to red. He didn’t have time to dwell on it as he headed for the next ring. Before long he grabbed a rail on top of a platform near the ceiling and hit the button on the wall. Rev joined him a moment later doing the same. Dan looked down, out of twenty rings three of them were red. “I think you passed Rev.”

“I believe I did,” he said as gravity returned. They slapped hands as the platform started to descend.

“Who taught you to do a high five? Well high three in your case.”

“Michelle showed me after I originally arrived at OpsBase,” he said looking at his hand. “The gesture never seemed appropriate until now.”

Before the platform hit the ground floor the other were already there to greet them. Ace jumped on and hugged Rev around the neck, “I knew you could do it Rev.”

“Way to go buddy,” Boomer told him.

“Great job Rev,” Target added.

The celebration ended as soon as the doors opened and the Commander walked in flanked by a couple of his men. They immediately got in line and stood at attention. “At ease,” he said as he walked over. “It looks like the weak link of the team got a little stronger.” Walking over toward Dan he said a little softer, “And might I add a fine way to get around that bureaucratic rule.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what the Commander is talking about,” Dan said not betraying a thing. Mynx walked away chuckling.

“It’s my pleasure to announce that all of you have passed stage one. Stage two will take you into some more advanced tactic.” Snapping his fingers his men walked forward carrying what looked like a mockup of their backpack, but modified to be a little bigger and had orange dots of various sizes in different places. “Stage one taught you how to operate in Zero G conditions. Stage two will teach how to do that with a little extra propulsion. As well as some strategies in how to use that knowledge in combat. Is that clear?”

“Sir yes sir!”

“Just what I wanted to hear. Grab your gear because stage two begins now.”

***

It had been a week, their deadline and they didn’t hear anything. Pierce tried not to let his anxiety show as he hovered around the Control Room. He nearly jumped out of his skin as Michelle’s console beeped, “SpaceBase sensors are picking up an unscheduled vessel jumping into the system in between Earth and Mars.” All of them have been jumpy all day whenever they alert went off. “Downloading sensor reading from that sector now.” The distance made the download take longer than usual and she was getting irritated. “Come on, come on, come on.” Finally she got the reading. “Profile is too large to be them.” The “them” in question being their absent teammates. “Profile fits an Iczian battle cruiser.”

“Get me Meng Yeow and Gyoc Row,” Pierce told her. After a moment their images appeared on the screen. “Just a heads up we have a possible positive sensor hit. ETA is,” he looked at Michelle’s screen, “roughly twenty five to thirty minutes.”

“We’ll do what can” Row said. “I’m still not sure if we can get the robos into space in time with these thrusters but we’ll do what we can.”

An alarm went off, Michelle quickly went back to the readings. “We have a new sensor profile,” she announced. “Smaller vessels have broken away from the larger one. I’m picking up a hundred and counting.””

“Fighters,” Pierce said. “Apparently they learned a new trick.”

“That’s a new wrinkle,” Meng Yeow said, “we weren’t expecting. We were going to have a hard enough time with the battle cruiser.”

“If we’re going to go down them let’s go down fighting,” Row told them. “I already contacted the SpaceBase and the Jets. They should be able to stop some of that fleet.”

“Fighters are approaching fast,” Michelle announced. “They’ll be here in under ten minutes.” She was quiet for a second. “What the hell? Sensors are registering explosions going through the fighter’s formation.”

“Get those ships back in formation!” the Captain shouted through the controls. “What is causing those ships to explode?”

“I told them they should have more test on those contraption,” the male said to his wife. “They should have never left those ships leave the yard. Whoever approved of this should be flogged!”

“Now now dear,” she said while rubbing his arm, “there’s no need to heat yourself so. So what if a few ships malfunctioned. We have more than enough to weaken and tie up their defenses while we get into position.”

“As always darling you are right,” he squeezed her hand. “That was nothing more than a bump in the road.”

What nobody was seeing was what was causing those ships to explode. A cloaked vessel was flying through the metal icicle like ships firing it’s blaster at anything in it’s path.  That craft quickly broke through the field and headed for the Iczian ship. Ignoring the disc the craft headed for one of the still open hangers, landing in it before it sealed itself off. A shimmer effect was the only thing that betrayed it’s presence as the pilot exited.

***

The Major silently watched the fleet of dots quickly came closer. He should have brought Helen here. At least that way he would have known she would have been momentarily safe. “New ship incoming,” Michelle said. “It’s coming up behind the Iczian ship. We’re getting an incoming transmission, it’s on an SPD frequency.”

“Put it on,” he ordered immediately.

Dan voice came through the speakers, “Hope you didn’t start the party without us?”

Neither of them was so glad to hear anybody in their life. “Can you not cut it so close?”, the Major told him.

“Now where’s the fun is that?”, Dan asked. “We’ll get back in contact after it’s over.” Signaling for Boomer to cut the transmission he looked at the data they were receiving. “Slight change of plans,” he told them. “We’re going to thin out that herd a bit first.”

“Works for me,” Ace said as she pushed a lever foreword and the Machine Tiger jumped foreword.

“What the blazes?”, the Iczian Captain said as the new vessel shot past them.

The black and white ship quickly caught up to the rear of the fighter who did nothing to acknowledge their presence. “There’s no transmission coming from the ships,” Boomer said.

“Sensor indicates crystalline based pilots,” Rev announced.

“Then I won’t feel bad about this,” Dan stated. “Lock on.”

“Locks acquired,” Target said as multiple green lights highlighted her screen.

“Fire!”, four panels, two above the wings and two below, opened up. A split second later four missiles shot out. A few seconds later the missiles split apart firing off eight missiles each that took a sizable chunk of the fleet.

“That got their attention,” Boomer chimed as he started to pick several transmissions from the remaining fighters. Ace punched the engines to go faster as Target changed weapons as a pair of blaster emerged from the wings. They made a path through the fighters as Ace avoided the return fire and debris floating around. A couple of Iczian fighters made their way behind the Tiger. Target hit a switched and a turret lowered from the hull. It quickly turned around locking onto the fighters destroying them.

“You’re friend loaded this thing for bear,” Target told Dan.

He smiled, “I like to think he gave it claws.”

“Clearing the field,” Ace announced as they past the fighters. Running ahead of them she banked the ship tightly to the left and headed back in. Target quickly got another lock and fired off another round of missiles as they made their way back through. Ace saw the reading in front of her and quickly corkscrewed the ship out of the way as two Iczian ships crashed into each other. “Is it bad I think I’m cheating on the Shepard?”, she asked nobody in particular.

“Fifty-five to sixty percent of the Iczian fleet has been neutralized,” Target said. “Are we going to take out some more with another run?”

Dan really wanted to, but their primary adjective was getting closer to firing range. “It’s going to have to do,” he said. “The units planet side have a better shot now. We’ll leave it to them while we take on the main ship.” Still firing the blasters the Tiger punched through the field again and headed for the Iczian ship. A few lasers were fired at them but Ace easily dodged them. She flew past he ship before turning around and matching their flight path. Flying close to the hull Ace turned the ship on it’s side and matched their speed. Carefully she placed the bottom of the Tiger hull to the other ship and magnet clamps reached out and attached to the Iczian hull bringing both crafts tight together.

“Machine Tiger is secured,” she announced. “We’re ready to begin boarding procedures.”

“Right,” Dan said as he unlatched himself from his chair and floated toward the boarding hatch and the only spot of gravity on the ship. The others did the same and reached for their OpsLicense. “Change standby.”

On the Iczian ship Crystaline started to come out of the elevators and headed for the sector the enemy craft landed. They stood by as the white wall suddenly had two red dots that quickly burned a rectangular shape into it. A small explosion blew the section into the hallway, smashing some of the Crystalines in the process but they started reforming soon after. “Emergency! DekaOps!” A quick digital flash and five individuals in Dekasuits rushed in.

“Man I hate these things,” Boomer said as he pointed his D-Shooter at a Crystalines.

“Mow them down,” Dan ordered. They headed in direction of the engine room Rev and Ace smashed them with their D-Rods as fast as they could. Boomer and Target fired away with their D-Shooters.

“Just like shooting fish in a barrel,” Target quipped.

“Except these fish come back,” Boomer told her.

Dan found himself surrounded as he kicked one Crystaline into another and unlatched his D-Shot. Priming a shot he quickly turned around and blasted through another one. Kicking the head off another one something whizzed past his head. Looking back he saw a familiar looking knife sticking out of a Crystaline’s face. He shot it and quickly looked back. For a brief moment he thought he saw something shimmer as it turned around a corner. “What’s he doing here?”

“Savages!” he was so upset his wife couldn’t even calm him down. “Captain activate defense protocol.”

“At once sir,” he quickly isolated the sector they were in and activated the command sequence.

The lights in the hallway turned red. At the same time the Crystalines feet started to change and cling to the grating on the floor. “Looks like that’s our cue,” Dan said. They drew their License and raised them above their heads. Pressing the button in-between the lights the faceplate popped open revealing the black badge inside, “EXO mode!”

In the red digital field Dan lowered the OpsLicense and held it right in front of him. A grid came from the badge that quickly covered him. The grid started to change, expanding into a new shape. Dekametal came from the digital field and starting filling in the grid with black armor plating round his hand, feet arms, legs and torso. Two rocket like devises appeared on his backpack while smaller ones appeared in his shoulder armor and on his waist. On the lower half of his helmet a breathing device appeared going up to the lights on the sides. A red one burned into the left side of his chest. He slotted the License into the right side of his chest, “Ops1 locked in!”

In the blue digital field Target lowered the OpsLicense and held it right in front of her. A grid came from the badge that quickly covered her. The grid started to change, expanding into a new shape. Dekametal came from the digital field and starting filling in the grid with black armor plating round her hand, feet arms, legs and torso. Two rocket like devises appeared on her backpack while smaller ones appeared in her shoulder armor and on her waist. On the lower half of her helmet a breathing device appeared going up to the lights on the sides. A blue two burned into the left side of her chest. She slotted the License into the right side of her chest, “Ops2 locked in!”

In the Green digital field Rev lowered the OpsLicense and held it right in front of him. A grid came from the badge that quickly covered him. The grid started to change, expanding into a new shape. Dekametal came from the digital field and starting filling in the grid with black armor plating round his hand, feet arms, legs and torso. Two rocket like devises appeared on his backpack while smaller ones appeared in his shoulder armor and on his waist. On the lower half of his helmet a breathing device appeared going up to the lights on the sides. A green three burned into the left side of his chest. He slotted the License into the right side of his chest, “Ops3 locked in!”

In the yellow digital field Boomer lowered the OpsLicense and held it right in front of him. A grid came from the badge that quickly covered him. The grid started to change, expanding into a new shape. Dekametal came from the digital field and starting filling in the grid with black armor plating round his hand, feet arms, legs and torso. Two rocket like devises appeared on his backpack while smaller ones appeared in his shoulder armor and on his waist. On the lower half of his helmet a breathing device appeared going up to the lights on the sides. A yellow four burned into the left side of his chest. He slotted the License into the right side of his chest, “Ops4 locked in!”

In the pink digital field Ace lowered the OpsLicense and held it right in front of her. A grid came from the badge that quickly covered her. The grid started to change, expanding into a new shape. Dekametal came from the digital field and starting filling in the grid with black armor plating round her hand, feet arms, legs and torso. Two rocket like devises appeared on her backpack while smaller ones appeared in her shoulder armor and on her waist. On the lower half of her helmet a breathing device appeared going up to the lights on the sides. A pink five burned into the left side of her chest. She slotted the License into the right side of her chest, “Ops5 locked in!”

“Special Police DekaOps!” Dan floated there slightly with Ace and Rev on his left and Target and Boomer on his right. Pointing a finger at the Crystalines Dan gave one command, “Do it!” The jets on his backpack came to life and shot him foreword. He crossed his arms in front of him and smashed through the Crystalines. A quick mental command caused the smaller jets to turn him around and brought him to a stop as he aimed his D-Shot. Magnets in his boots stuck him to him floor as he fired at the reforming creatures. “Now if they only gave us something that would keep them down.”

Ace and Target used those magnet boots to run up the wall and down the hallway blasting Crystalines with their D-Shooters. Ace was grimacing behind her helmet as she said with each shot, “I! Really! Hate! These! Fucking! Bastards!” Both of them jumped and headed for the other wall as they continued to fire. At Ace command they slotted their OpsLicense into the D-Shots and took aim. “Strikeout!” Twin blue beams shattered the Crystallines in it’s path. A crackling sound signaled they were reforming.

“How did you keep these things down last time?” Target asked.

“Blind luck,” Ace admitted.

Boomer and Rev were doing things the old fashion way as they smashed the Crystalines directly. Getting fed up with this Boomer reached into his back and pulled out a small disc with a small metal spike on one side. With an angry grunt he slammed it into the nearest Crystaline’s chest. It beeped before for a moment before steam started coming from the contact point. In moments the creature was a puddle floating in the air. Boomer watched as absolutely nothing happened. ”Yes! It’s staying down!”

“Do you have enough of those devises to take care of the rest of them Robert?”, Rev asked.

“Thank you for killing my buzz.”

“Get to the engine room,” Dan ordered. “These things are just wasting our time. A display in their helmets showed them the location of the largest power source and they headed for it at full speed, Smashing through any Crystalines that tried to stop them. They hit gravity and none of them lost a step as they continued on. Crystalines still tried to stop them but they barely paused long enough to confront them. They found a sealed door blocking their way, “Boomer.”

“On it,” he quickly placed some charges around the door and blew it open. Dan and Target secured the opening first before waving the others in.

“Again with the destruction of private property,” They looked around and saw the Iczian came in from a separate direction. “Oh your outer layer is different may be different but you are the ruffians from before, of that I have no doubt. Captain if you will.”

He hit a panel and more Crystalines started to come out of the Ice panel surrounding the room. Target took quick aim and fired several shots at the panel. The Crystalines stopped moving, with some getting stuck halfway in the ice. “You never should have showed me that,” she told them.

“Ruffian!” he roared. “Leave before I contact your so called superiors. They told you to leave us be.”

“They did give you a free pass last time,” Dan said removing the License from the slot. “It was a one time deal. Target orders!” The area went dark as a red X and a blue circle flashed between them. After a minute the red X shined. “Eliminate target!”

“You savages wouldn’t dare!”

“Watch us. D-Cannons!” Reaching back with their left hand on of the jets split open revealing a bazooka like devise the raised up. Lowering the barrels they aimed them at the Iczian. “Sight up.” a targeting reticule appeared on their visor turning green when it landed on the Iczians. “Strikeout!” Energy traveled from the OpsLicense through the chest armor and into the D-Cannon. Five massive blue energy beams shot out and deleted the Iczians immediately. “Got you.”

Boomer wasted no time in setting charges around the engine room. “We got ten minutes to get the hell out of here. I set the charges to explode in case anything tries to tamper with them.”

“Right let’s get going,” Dan said. The trip back to the Tiger was more or less uneventful outside of the occasional Cyrstaline they came across. Listening to that voice in the back of his head Dan pulled his D-Colt and aimed it down a connecting corridor. Chatrox materialized into view. “I knew it was you.”

“Is this any way to greet somebody who helped you human?”, he sneered.

“Why are you here?”

“Don’t get the wrong idea human,” he walked into the hallway they were in. The barrel of the D-Colt tracked him the entire time. “I am simply following orders. It would be bad for business for me and several of my associates if we had to relocate to another planet. Credits would be lost and more credits would be spent in restarting operations. I did it for my profit margin and nothing more.” Dan never took the Colt off of him. “I did save you human, or did you forget that with your shiny new suit.”

Slowly he took the D-Colt away from him, “I’m not deleting you, we’re even.” Chatrox nodded and turned away fading from view again. Dan stood there kicking himself.

“Cap you’re going to let him go?”, Target asked. “Just like that?”

“We’re on the clock,” he said more to convince himself than the others. Deep down he really didn’t want that lizard holding something over him. “But I’m not trusting him. Target, watch our backs. Ace…”

“I’m already checking the readout for the Tiger,” she said looking over a pad she took from her pack. “Reading are all green.” When they got the entry point she stopped and nearly dropped the pad. “That son of a bitch.” The boarding hatch was closed and wielded shut.

“Sorry Ace,” Dan began, “but Boomer crack it open.”

“Won’t that damage the integrity of the ship?”, Rev asked.

“I rather take our chances out there than in here,” Dan told him.

***

Several minutes went by and the Iczian ship started to fluctuate as the Machine Tiger finally freed itself from the hull. Then the engines and the rest of the ship exploded. The fighters stopped and drifted in space. Planet side the few Crystalines that were able to get to the ground suddenly stopped, crumbled and quickly melted. In places like Singapore DekaYellow cautiously tapped a puddle she was just fighting with her foot. She looked over to DekaRed who just shrugged, “That special strike Sir was talking about must have worked.”

“We’re getting reports from all over the planet,” Michelle said. “Iczian forces are stopping and making a very wet mess.” The Major could hear the concern in her voice. He was feeling it too. They still haven’t heard from them.

“Looks like we won,” he said but he wasn’t feeling it, he didn’t want to think about the possible cost for this one. “Come on guys,” he whispered, “I didn’t think you were going to let us down before don’t disappoint me now.”

Almost like he was heard they got an incoming signal, “Machine Tiger to OpsBase.”

“Yes!”, Michelle jumped up and hugged him around the neck.

”You going to give this old man a heart attack and your girlfriend is going to kill all five of you.”

“The explosion messed with our communication for a few moments,” he explained. “And we had to blow our way into the ship and that caused more damage. Long story short we got a heavily wounded bird and Command is going to be pissed.”

“I’ll gladly take the heat Command throws this way,” Pierce told him. “Are you going to need any assistance?”

“Ace thinks she can limp her back to the orbital station but it’s going to be close.”

“Understood, Command has a small support staff waiting just in case. I’ll see you when you get back. OpsBase out.”

“Major I have incoming transmissions from both Meng Yeow and Gyoc Row,” Michelle said.

“Give me a minute to compose myself,” he told her. “I’m ashamed to say I was starting to think I wouldn’t get the chance to make up for how I misled them.” She nodded and made up a quick excuse. He leaned against the railing. He knew his people were good, now he’d get the chance to tell them.