Reve Read online

  She’d lost someone close to her. His anger spiked again. He would not allow that to happen again. He connected with navigation. Get us on the ground now. Deployment options. Secure that underground section and find me a way in.

  Affirmative. The Cyborg Empire had arrived, and he’d make damn sure it was felt.

  ***

  “Can we trust them?” Zhai asked.

  Bren turned back to him from where she’d made a drink. Wishing it was something stronger. The conversation with Roberts mother had not been easy. Truth be told, she was still shaken by it. “The information was good right?” she wanted the confirmation he nodded. “Then I guess we can trust them as much as anyone else. Give me community wide communications.” He turned and pressed some buttons then gave her a nod. Another explosion hit them. Bren held on to the console covering her drink. FFS! “People listen up,” she gritted out. “We appear to have military support from Old Earth on our door step willing to help us in our hour of need. I don’t know how helpful that is going to be, so everyone stays on their guard until we know for sure. Remain at your posts until the all clear is given. Bren out.” She turned to Zhai. “Can we get the camera’s up outside, I’d like to see what’s going on.”

  Zhai worked the keyboard and the cameras came back on line. She had a nice view of the enemy waiting to attack them. Brenna sneered at them. Bastards. Then the pulse cannon fired again….. Whoever the hell these new comers were, they’d better hurry the hell up....

  ***

  Scans of the ground complete.

  Put them on screen. Reve told him. Images of the surface came up. Focus on buildings and agriculture and any large group of humans.

  The computer flew several images across the screen and eight different images came up. Seven were buildings, animals, farming, manufacturing and little hamlets. The biggest number of humans on the surface belonged to the aggressors surrounding a ground pulse ranger weapon. That’s our target. Landing party to the loading dock. Reve got out of his seat and headed in the direction of the landing bay. How many targets are we facing? He asked over his net.

  203

  Reve gave no indication of what he was thinking as he made his way to where he needed to be. His troops were outnumbered. He knew his crew were some of the best. The numbers didn’t mean anything. Three squads. Loading bay now.

  Affirmative.

  ***

  Bren turned away from the screen finishing her drink as her nurse come into the room. Suzenn. She was needed again. “You take it from here,” she told Zhia. “Keep an eye on them, take no chances.” He gave her a sharp nod and left. Turning to her friend she couldn’t miss the shocked expression on her face. She guessed hers had looked like that too. She was looking at the frozen image of the Captain on the screen. They’d all worked closely with Robert over the years. “How many more?” Brenna asked needing the distraction, needing to do something useful. She guided Suzenn back the way she’d come. Roberts lookalike could wait, her patients couldn’t.

  “22, With varying injuries.” She looked at her with concerned. “You ok?”

  Bren nodded scrubbing up. A new cap went on. New coverall and lastly new gloves. “Worst first.” She told her keeping it all business. If she thought of Robert…. Suzenn nodded and walked out into the triage area.

  Brenna could hear her organising people to be brought in next. She smiled at Sineta. “You ready to go again?” she asked her as she fixed her gloves. Sineta cricked her neck.

  “Yep. Times a wasting.” Brenna smiled. Her best friends never let her down.

  He looked so much like Robert…. How was that even possible? Crept into her mind. She was more rocked than she’d like to admit. He looked… really good. And that edge…. He was harder that was for sure. But still, the similarities were striking… Her first patient came through the door on a stretcher. Work…..

  Brenna cut everything else off that was going on around her and concentrated on her patient. “Chopin,” she called out and the music started to play. A full music play list had come out with the first colonists. She personally liked to work to Chopin, so dramatic in places and intricate in others, it seemed to reflect the intensity of her work. The patient was laid on the table and put out. She waited for the nod from Sineta. “Ok ladies, let’s do what we do best.” Bren went to work.

  ***

  Reve held back at the loading ramp. His men behind him ready to deploy. As the ship moved in to land, he was already waiting. His systems lit up at how eager he was to engage the enemy. It had been a long time since he’d been so enthusiastic to meet an eneny. That made no logical sense. He had a job to do nothing more and yet he was deriving an unusual amount of pleasure from doing it. The green light was given, and he engaged the ramp to descend. It hit the ground at the same time as the legs of the off-worlder engaged on solid ground. He was already half way down the ramp before it hit.

  Spread out. Point men in every direction. I don’t want anything catching us unawares. Move out on the target.

  He’s men spread out in their troop formations. Scans indicated no enemy stood behind them. They would converge on the enemy from three sides and take them as quickly as possible. Ships systems continued to relay updates over his neuro net on the taking of the two ships in orbit and ground information on the combatant’s whereabouts. Optimum outcomes were set. Information given on tactical advantages flew across his optics.

  Move out. I want that gun out of action.

  ***

  Brenna wasn’t sure how long she worked. She was one of several Doctors that had been trained on their world. Some had wanted her to give it up as soon as she took over leading the community, but she couldn’t, wouldn’t do that. It was still her vocation. Her first love. And Robert and continued to do both. So engrossed in her work, she barely noticed when the bombardment had stopped as the need for her work carried on.

  ***

  Reve cut the male in half and watched him go down, scanning around him as he did so. The male had made the mistake of coming at him head on. That, had been stupid. Too full of his own self-importance. That was another mistake. They’d tried diplomacy as directed by the Admiral, but it had fallen on deaf ears. Had he hoped for that? Part of him knew the answer to be yes. Since he’d first seen that female, worn down and under duress, he’d needed to act. He’d burned to do something. His own rage boiled within him. Vengeance. Justice. It was all the same and wouldn’t be sated until he had her within his sites and could verify she was unharmed and well. He’d roared his triumph at taking down the other male. The humans of his kind now stood around him far more wearily, no longer so confident. As they should be.

  A Cyborg was hard to kill, and it would take better men then these to do it and now they knew that too. His men were engaging the enemy all around him. The ranger had stopped firing as he’d slashed through the cables. It had been his priority and he’d made a bee line for it. It wouldn’t be firing up again anytime soon. Satisfied, he knew the signs of flight when he saw it. Corral them. Some are about to take flight. Prevent that. They have crimes to answer for and we need answers.

  Affirmative, rolled through his neuro net.

  “Now,” he roared out. “Who’s dying first?”

  And it was over as quickly as the Cyborg attack had begun. Without the pirate reinforcements from orbit, the party on the ground were severely out skilled and not Cyborgs. Their communications having been cut off, they were on their own and soon realised it. The fact that two ships were working together in a group intrigued Reve. It went against all they originally knew about the pirates. They were primarily buccaneers, isolated ships with Captains who ran their own shows.

  The one and only time they had formed an alliance and attacked the Space Station, it had ended badly. This didn’t happen often, but it was becoming more common. It was possible that the Cyborg Empire was changing the dynamics of how these pirates worked and their tactics had evolved to tackle it. It was a logical answer, and in any event, he looked
forward to finding out how that had occurred.

  It was a new tactic for these pirates and the Empire needed to know if this was a new way of working or just another one off and either way, to understand it.

  Just then a splinter group made a bolt for it. Then another in a different direction. Reve tried not to show how pissed he was at the predictability of it. A couple of his men groaned around him. Reve chuckled over his neuro net. Did you expect something else? Go get them. Two groups of his men split immediately and went in hot pursuit.

  The rest, gathered up those that had surrendered. Some pleading innocence. Arguing this was all a mistake. Reve didn’t believe it, but it wasn’t his place to judge. That would be done by the Intergalactic Judges. His role was to hand them over for their crimes. Reve smiled. If they survived capture that was. Looking over the land he zeroed in on the structure to the underground base. The female was there. His data was confused. Ships scans had shown there to be three of these structures. Each at an entrance. And two engagements. Here and a smaller force at another. He’d never seen anything like it.

  He connected back to the ship. Give me schematics to the structure in front of the underground entrance at my position. Send a Troop to converge on the second entrance and secure it.

  Affirmative. Maps of the area and outer edges of the structure filtered into his optic.

  Why can I not see it all?

  Magnetic metal causing interference on the scan.

  Reve didn’t like hearing that, but it was a good tactic if you didn’t want your enemy scanning your defences. What are the odds of randomly finding the entrance at this position? he thought and was immediately given the answer. He didn’t like those odds at all.

  It looked simple enough but from what he could see, it was ingenious. Zooming in with his optic of the mapped structure he noticed some of what looked like kill zones. Dead ends, literally. The fake exits and blocked passageways. He pulled the 3D image up. The walls averaged 12ft high throughout the structure. Razor wire on the outside walls and across the top in a canopy. No one was dropping in on that and living. If he had to guess, unless you knew how to get to the entrance, you weren’t getting in. Reve smiled. He liked that a lot and the challenge it posed.

  Plan a route in.

  Unable to comply. The shielding makes that impossible.

  Something that stumps a Cyborg? It had been a long time since that had happened. He activated his neuro net once more to connect with the ship. Connect me to the community. I wish to speak with their leader again.

  Affirmative.

  Redd, his second passed him some water. Reve noted Redd had blood on his armour. It didn’t smell like his, so he ignored it and took the water from him drinking deeply. He watched as his men secured the weapons and cleared the field. Those injured, or captive would go back to this ship for treatment and holding.

  Your request has been denied. The leader is busy. Came over his neuro net.

  Reve raised an eyebrow and removed the bottle from his mouth. They are too busy to speak with the people that just saved their asses? The logical response would be to thank them. Reve registered his anger spiking. That annoyed him. Had the female blocked him? Had they been wrong about this world?

  Tell them I want safe passage through the structure and to meet with the female now.

  Affirmative.

  Reve wondered if he’d get it. His emotions told him he had a strong desire to see her. Had he got it wrong? The female wasn’t in charge? He was sure she was and that she’d be glad to have the pirates gone. Who was stupid enough to make such decisions when faced with the Cyborg Empire? He didn’t think it was her. She looked too …… in control. Even with seeing him and confusing him with someone else. She didn’t lose that strength. Reve suddenly had a strong urge to go to her. To make sure she was unharmed from the bombardment. It was all emotion and it attacked his logic.

  His neuro net pinged. Denied Captain. They state they cannot interrupt their leader and the leader is the only one who can give permission to allow us through the ‘Maze’.

  I see. Reve gritted his teeth. He was done playing games. Patience wasn’t his forte. Or any Cyborgs. But they did tend to defer to the local customs and permissions, was a reminder that passed through his data display. Not this time. Tell them I am sending in my men to map it manually. If they open fire, I will blast them into space. Cyborgs didn’t lie and yet, he’d just made a threat he had no intension of seeing through, his logic told him. Reve gritted his teeth. Too much logic, his mind murmured. His data supplied its own answer. Too much emotion. He couldn’t argue with that.

  Affirmative.

  ***

  Brenna stepped outside medical and stretched, removing her mask. That last one could have done without the internal bleed. A simple procedure that had turned into a nightmare. There were far too many of those, she reflected. She wasn’t sure she’d caught it all but staying in would have caused more damage. They would do another scan later and wait until the patient was stronger if they had to go back in, she would. Sineta patted her on the back. “Good job in there. That wasn’t easy.” She nodded and sighed, straightening her back taking a deep breath. God she felt exhausted….. Then registered she could hear banging, vibrating though the tunnels. What now …

  Brenna removed her gloves, quickly washed up and walked back into the command room looking for Zhia. “What the hell is going on now?”

  He pointed to the screen and she came over to look at it. “They wanted to speak with you and I told them they’d have to wait. Then they asked for a map of the maze and I said no, cos you couldn’t give permission, so they mapped it themselves and are banging on the door for entrance and a meeting.”

  Brenna looked from Zhia to the screen and back again. Too tired to hide her pissed off expression. There were around 20 heavily set and armed men at the blast doors. Not again….

  “Did you not tell them I was busy?” Zhai gave her a bored nod. “Get me communications with whoever’s out there.”

  Reve’s neuro net pinged. We have communication from inside.

  About bloody time…. He lifted his wrist datapad. He didn’t bother hiding his annoyance. His men had been careful, but several had still been injured getting to the doors. The female lit up the screen. Reve felt immediately better seeing her. It showed the female in medical clothing she had blood on her again. Reve frowned, why was she always covered in blood? She looked as pissed as he was as she ripped the cap off her head and ripped the coverall off.

  “Are you completely mad?” she shouted at him leaning forward into the screen. Reve’s eyebrows rose. His anger evaporated, seeing how much he’d upset her. “What are you,” she continued accusingly. “ – Children? You were told I was busy, but you couldn’t wait could you? No of course not. I was busy trying to save lives actually. Speaking to you was way low on my list of priorities and what do you do? You go rampaging through our defences with no fucking idea what you’re doing, and I’d bet you now have injured”! She threw her hands in the air. “Our,” she used air quotes, “fucking saviours’ are idiots!” she told the room. There were several chuckles from the people around her.

  Reve blinked at a very pissed off female. She was glorious. He stood transfixed as she breathed heavily staring at him. “Well, what’s so fucking urgent? Someone dying?” she demanded.

  “I err, wanted to say hello and meet formally.” He stammered. Then re-grouped realising she was right, he sounded like an idiot. “We cleared away the aggressors, it was important to establish communications in person.”

  “That’s it? You make this scene, scare the people half to death having already been through a sickening raid, and demand my attention because you want to say,” she used air quotes again, “hello”? She hadn’t missed a thing and ignored his quick recovery, dismissing him with her hand in disgust. He couldn’t miss it and nor did anyone else. “Go home Cyborg, we thank you for the assist, but we don’t need you. I need an adult not a child.” He watched
her walk away and saw the Asian male shake his head and smirk.

  He’d fucked up. Reve’s confusion turned to anger. “Do not walk away from me female, we are not finished here,” he roared.

  She stopped and turned half turned back to him. Her face a picture of thunder. He was glad his men could not see it, then remembered his link was still open and groaned. They’d all have seen it. “I told you before. You do not make demands here. You are our guest. For as long or how little WE decide. Make a nuisance of yourself and it will be bloody short.”

  Reve stood in defiance, her words were illogical. Her challenge called to him. Accepted, him mind screamed. “You cannot mean to take us on female? We are Cyborg. You’ve seen what we are capable of. You will lose female. It is irrational.”

  She laughed and gazed intensely at him. “You, know nothing,” she told him and drew a finger across her neck. The screen went blank. Reve exploded. His roar was enough to rock the foundations once more, his emotions of the chart.