Star Man 1: Star Bourne Read online

  He said, “Colin, I would like to introduce you to my sister Kari. I’d planned to bring you to meet her when we made planet-fall here but clearly this is not to be the occasion I hoped for.”

  I, of course told her I was pleased to meet her and she replied the pleasure was hers or something along those lines. Just then some shots rang out and one of the Troopers dropped to the ground. In the blink of an eye, chaos reigned. The training I’d been undertaking on the ship must have taken hold far better than anyone could have imagined because time seemed to slow down for me. I began sprinting towards cover in an erratic pattern as I searched for the shooter. Another shot rang out and a round hit the ground just behind, in a place I’d been only milliseconds before. Now I knew where the shooter was and that I was in his sights. I also knew he wasn’t a particularly good shot. I continued my random direction and speed changes as I raised my weapon. I aimed at the shooter and squeezed the trigger twice in a double tap. I saw the shooter go down but kept moving till I reached the cover I was aiming for. As I lay there I felt both winded and amazed at what I’d just done. I thought, where the hell did that come from, I am way too old for this, someone my age shouldn’t be doing this stuff.

  Behind me, the Troopers began to react as soon as the first shot was fired. Like the well trained soldiers they were, some started to move towards the threat, both Ani and Shasi were headed in my direction and the remainder quickly shepherded the civilians to cover. Suddenly, the air seemed to erupt in gunfire. Clearly, someone had a lot more personnel and for that matter, firepower available than we did. They’d clearly decided to finish our expedition for us. This appeared to me to be the ambush we were half expecting ever since we landed. I asked myself why, what do they have to gain by this. At first I couldn’t understand what they hoped to achieve, or for that matter, what the benefit was for them, but as I continued thinking my way through the problem, I realised FNS Destiny may be in danger. If they could pin us here, perhaps they thought they could force Destiny to delay in orbit while they bought ships in to take a shot at her. I looked around for Shasi and Ali and saw they were safe near me. It was clear that whoever our attackers were, they were focusing on the bulk of our party who were all on the other side of the street. It seemed to me, they’d either lost track of the three of us or simply didn’t see us as a threat. As I lay behind my cover assessing our situation, it quickly became clear to me that the bulk of the enemy fire was coming from the same side of the street as me, but further down in an area the Troopers hadn’t reached yet.

  By then, our Troopers were returning fire. While I now know how good the Federation Troopers are, at the time, it seemed to me they could not win this engagement, not unless someone took drastic action and quickly. It also seemed clear to me that Ani, Shasi and I were the only ones in a position to do anything about the situation we were all in because we were out of both their direct line of sight and fire. The place we’d taken cover was in front of a building that’d had the front blown out when the pirates originally attacked the settlement. The rear wall looked like it was still intact but till then, I hadn’t really looked because my back was to the building’s interior. I looked behind me and saw a doorway exiting out to what appeared to be an alleyway or street behind the structure I was hiding in. I motioned to my companions to let them know where I was heading and started to move. I made it to the doorway in the rear and was about to exit when Ani stopped me.

  Quietly I said to her, “I’ve been thinking. We need to end this as quickly as possible and get back to Destiny as fast as we can. I think she may be in danger. I think these guys want to use us to get her into their sights,”

  Ani motioned for me to wait while she deployed a fine remote sensor through the bottom of the doorway then whispered to Shasi and me we had company on the way. We took up positions and waited until the approaching hostiles were within our kill zone. When they were where we wanted them, my companions launched two grenades, one each into the middle of the enemy group. The grenades exploded and decimated their ranks. It was then that Shasi shouted “Run” and dived out through the door into the alley way. Ani and I followed and had just cleared it when an explosion echoed through the room we’d just vacated. It seemed the people we’d just stopped managed to launch at least one grenade in our direction just before ours ended their charge. I realised we were very lucky, Shasi had seen it come in through the window and shouted for us to run.

  By now of course, my adrenaline was well and truly pumping. I could hear gunfire from out the front of the building but also from the alley we were in. I looked up to see someone firing in our direction from near the suspected pirate nest. One of the bullets clipped the side of Ani’s armour and the impact sent her to the ground. I fired off a snap shot and managed to drive the sniper into cover. Thankfully, Ani was not injured though her armour sustained some minor damage. I realised I would not have been so lucky if the round clipped me instead. Ani quickly climbed to her feet and the three of us looked at each other very briefly. It was almost as if we were connected by some sort of telepathy because without any of us saying a word, we simultaneously turned and charged up the ally towards the hostiles. When we reached the maximum range, Ani and Shasi launched 2 grenades each into the hostiles cover. The grenades blew the cover to pieces and our gunfire finished the job for the hostiles who were still left in the alley. Once we arrived at the location where the pirate barricade had been, we quickly realised we now had complete control of the pirate flank. We took a few seconds to catch our breath then my companions launched their remaining grenades in a carefully controlled pattern among the pirate’s main force who were mostly still shooting at our forces in the street.

  The pirates had made the stupid mistake of bunching up most of their number in a relatively small space. The grenades exploded and either killed, disabled or disoriented all the pirates in there. Once that concentration was neutralised, it was going to be relatively easy for our other Troopers to mop up the remainder. Ani, Shasi and I dove in yelling for them to surrender before we started to shoot anyone who didn’t immediately drop his weapon. Of course, our assault from their flank completely surprised the pirates and immediately took all their attention away from our Troopers. A few minutes later, the rest of our team came in from the other direction to finish securing our prisoners. Finally, once all the outlying pirates were neutralised and the prisoners all secured, Olin called the all clear.

  Olin made his way through the bodies and other debris till he arrived at the location where I’d taken cover. He said to me, “What just happened? How did you do that?”

  I just shrugged and then he turned to Ani and asked, “What have you been teaching him? I have never seen anyone move like that before.”

  Ani replied, “I will admit to teaching him to shoot but I’ve never seen anything like that before either, especially from someone new like this. Shasi and I could barely keep up with him, and he seemed to know exactly what needed to be done then just went ahead and did it. I felt is if he was teaching me how to fight and up till now, I thought I was a fairly good soldier.”

  Olin shook his head then said, “We need to get off this rock. I feel danger and I think we need to get out of here. This situation needs far more fire power and more troops than we have available.”

  Ani replied, “Colin said something similar to that just after these guys started their attack. He thinks they may be using us to draw FNS Destiny into some kind of a trap.”

  I called to Olin, “I agree with you about going back to Destiny but we need to be careful. There may be more of them between here and the shuttle. We need to go into this expecting an ambush.”

  Olin stopped and stared at me for a full minute then replied, “You’re right of course. Colin, when we are back aboard FNS Destiny, you and I need to have a long talk. I need to know what your real capabilities and your plans are.”

  I had no reply for this, not then, so I just nodded in agreement. I’d surprised myself with the way I’d re
acted when the bullets started flying and had no plans beyond surviving in the Federation and eventually finding my way home, preferably with the blessing of the Federation authorities. If you’d asked me what I would do in this situation before recent events, I would have told you I’d hide behind the nearest cover till it was all over.

  One of the other Troopers came over to us to announce they only had three live pirate prisoners, at least they only had three who well enough to be moved. Olin decided he wanted us to take them with us for interrogation after we made it back to FNS Destiny so they were manacled together for the trip back to the shuttle. When everything was ready, Olin issued his orders for our return to the shuttle. Two Troopers were placed a little way to the front, out on point, with the rest of us strung out behind. A rear guard of another two Troopers lagged a little behind our party. Our column formed up before we all headed back towards the shuttle. Ani, Shasi and I stayed with the civilians and prisoners mainly because I didn’t have any armour.

  I went over to one of the prisoners who happened to be human. I looked at him and asked, “Do you speak English?”

  He looked at me and nodded before asking in English, “Who are you?”

  I replied, “We can discuss that when we get back to our ship. For now, you need to understand that I will not hesitate to shoot any or even all of you if you cause us any trouble. Oh, I will not shoot to kill, not at first, just to inflict pain. Remember, I have seen what you and your friends did here so I will not hesitate. Make sure your companions know it as well. Just remember this, piss me of and your worst nightmare will seem like you were dancing through the daisies compared to what I will do to you.” He looked at me, saw the look in my eyes, and he appeared to be genuinely frightened by what he saw. In fairness, that was a trick I’d learned while guiding my teenage son through to adulthood.

  Ani asked me what I said to him so I told her. She didn’t seem concerned, actually, she seemed satisfied with this answer so when we were out of earshot of the prisoners, I asked her, “What will happen to them?”

  She replied, “It depends. Often these pirates are slaves who were captured by other pirates. They are brutalised and convinced that their only hope is to join their captors. Some, with the right treatment can be recovered, others though, become completely irredeemable, particularly if they live among the pirates for too long. These three will be interrogated to find out what they know as well as where they fit within this spectrum. The ones who we think can be recovered, go to training camps where we try to retrain them to be useful, contributing members of Federation society. The rest, well some go to prison for a very long time but the really bad ones are simply executed. There is no point keeping them alive, not if they can’t be rehabilitated. Our interrogation methods will identify where these belong, they won’t be able to deceive us, not for very long.”

  I thought about what she said for a while then nodded. Her description of their fate seemed fair enough to me. I had a lot more questions I wanted answers to, but understood we really needed to finish making our final preparations before we headed back to our shuttle so I decided my questions could wait till later. Not long after our battle in the settlement with the pirates came to an end, I’d heard weapons fire coming from the direction of the shuttle so now I was worrying about what we would find when we reached it. As we started our trek back to the shuttle, I hoped we still had a functioning shuttle to return to.

  As we made our way back, we didn’t come under any sustained level of attack but we did have a few problems with snipers. Whenever a sniper took a shot at us, a small team would deploy and try to capture or kill him. Of the three sniper attacks our Troopers captured one of the snipers, another human, and killed the other two. The new prisoner was bought down and manacled to the other two. While this was being done, one of the prisoners dived towards a Trooper trying to take his weapon. I reacted immediately, without thinking, and shot the prisoner in the shoulder. He screamed as he fell back to the ground. As soon as the Trooper finished his task I told Ani and Shasi to cover me then handed them my weapons.

  I walked over to the prisoner I spoke to earlier and said,” I warned you what would happen. Get this piece of garbage on his feet and keep him moving. If he slows us down, I will shoot him in the gut and just leave him to die a slow and painful death. Do you understand me?”

  I was furious. As he looked at me, I think he could see this because I saw genuine fear in his eyes as he nodded his understanding. He said something I didn’t catch before his companions helped him get the wounded pirate to his feet. After that we had no more problems during the rest of the journey to the shuttle.

  When we arrived back at the shuttle, we found one of the Troopers we left on guard there was wounded. They were attacked by multiple hostiles but managed to repel the attack. The hostiles broke off and melted back into the countryside when they realised the shuttle was too well defended. The two wounded Troopers, one from the settlement and the other from the shuttle security detail, were loaded onto the shuttle first, followed by the civilians then the prisoners, then me, Ani and Shasi, and finally the remaining Troopers boarded. The armour the Troopers were wearing is very sophisticated. If a Trooper is wounded, it senses the location of the injury and tries to pump a gel like substance to the wound. This substance acts as an anesthetic to help with the pain, a coagulant to minimize blood loss and has antibiotic properties. The net result of using the system is that the wounded Trooper receives immediate first aid on the battlefield usually without tying up any of his comrades. A secondary benefit is that quite often, a Trooper with only minor wounds can still remain effective, even after sustaining the wound meaning the team’s firepower often does not decrease significantly if at all.

  The shuttle was quite cramped with the additional passengers but the civilians, prisoners and I were strapped into seats and the Troopers were mostly strapped either to bulkheads wherever possible or the floor. The wounded Troopers were simply strapped to the floor so they didn’t become missiles if the shuttle went through any violent maneuvering. As soon as we were all ready, the shuttle took off and started to claw for altitude as we headed back towards FNS Destiny.

  The trip back to FNS Destiny was somewhat more eventful than the trip down. First, the shuttle pilot was not being overly concerned about stealth on the way out because the pirates already knew we were there, so he just blasted out of there, gaining altitude as quickly as the shuttle could manage it. Second, whoever the hostiles on the planet were, they had surface to air missiles which they were happy to fire at us when we left. Why they didn’t try to shoot us down when we were inbound is a mystery to me unless they didn’t know which direction we were coming from. As it was, the shuttle crew had to use every available countermeasure and maneuver violently to dodge the incoming missiles before they could fly us clear and on towards FNS Destiny.

  By the time we’d outrun the ground based missiles, we were heading in the wrong direction to make a quick rendezvous with FNS Destiny. This meant the pilot had to undertake a considerable amount of maneuvering before we were once again headed in the right direction for a rendezvous. The net result of all this was that by the time we arrived at the ship, she was already boosting out towards the outer system, trying to give herself adequate maneuvering room in case pirate vessels were preparing an attack. Ultimately, both our shuttle and its cargo of people were expendable when it came to the survival of FNS Destiny. Our shuttle had to chase her out of the gravity well for some way before we were finally able to dock.

  When we did finally dock, Olin supervised the unloading, prisoners to the brig first, followed by the wounded, then the civilians who we’d rescued and finally the rest of us disembarked. There was a flurry of activity around me when I boarded Destiny from the shuttle. Those with injuries had already been transferred directly to the medical bay. The rest of us were to return to our other duties. As I had no duties really, and with the adrenalin rush already dissipating and fatigue setting in, I felt confus
ed and unsure of what I should do. I was beginning to feel very hungry so I decided to go clean myself up before going to the mess for some food, perhaps followed by sleep. I felt both tense and hungry so thought a shower, followed by food would help me relax because I have always been a bit of a comfort eater.

  I went back to my cabin where I removed the equipment I’d been issued prior to departure for the planet and unthinkingly dumped it on the bed. I noticed the weapons and thought at the time I really needed to take those back to the armoury as soon as I finished cleaning myself up. My clothing came off next and went on top of the equipment, obscuring it from view. At the time I didn’t notice, or even think about what I’d done, being focused on a shower, food and sleep, in that order. I cleaned myself up then pulled on fresh clothes never even looking at the pile I’d dumped on the bed. I left my quarters and went straight to the mess for food. When I arrived there, some of the refugees including Kari were already eating. I chose a selection of food before turning to find a seat. I saw Kari beckoning for me to come over to join her and the other refugees. I sat near her and she thanked me for all I did for them on Zafar. I explained that where I came from, we couldn’t stand by and watch innocent people be enslaved, tortured or murdered. I admitted to her I was still pretty angry with the pirates for what they’d done to the colony.