Chapter 14: Green Hell Claims Two More

The two Mercenaries had left Desolate a few hours ago and arrived via shuttle on Green Hell. They both were Pertharian. They had accompanied Ms. Yeager to the prison colony and now their mutual employers wanted them to make an initial survey of this world. Neither of the Pertharians believed there was a planet in the universe they could not survive, especially with the nice equipment their employers got them. All these stories about Green Hell were made by weak and fragile humans of course and now even human teenagers frolicked in the local jungles. The whole idea to get a native rescued from a prison planet was ridiculous to them. If it were up to them, the whole affair would be over by now.

But neither of them really cared much. Even though they belonged to one of the physical strongest and toughest races ever discovered in two galaxies, it had not been easy for them to establish themselves as free agents and mercs.

It was the blasted reputation of their four armed species, to be among the most loyal and law abiding Union species.

The Pertharian / Union war was over for over 70 years now and after the Order of the Arcane Ages had been removed from power and the Pertharian were finally free again, they had applied for membership and now tried hard to prove that they could be as loyal and as trustworthy as they were fierce and strong. They both secretly hoped not to run into any of their brethren, Pertharian were not very gentle to what they considered traitors.

Even though ninety nine percent of their race were elated and happy Union Citizens, a small percentage of less than one percent were those that belonged to the old Order of Arcane and survived the war and the great purge after, by hiding or fleeing.

Leris Brathan and his partner Choler Horem had been born into the Halls of the Arcane Order as part of the very last generation of Arcane Guards to take their place among the ranks of the Correctors. Of course it never happened. The Arcane Order was swept away. Leris and Choler were still freshly indoctrinated and had no intention to join the new Freedom. To them everyone embracing the new was a traitor. Now seventy years after the war and the Purge, not many of the Arcane Order supporters remained; Leris and Choler were two of those.

Leris looked almost identical to Choler, both prime samples of Pertharian Warrior strength, both had four strong arms and were 350 cm (11’-6”) tall. Their bodies covered in a tough armor like skin with dull gray and red spots.

Leris stepped off the shuttle right after Choler and took a deep breath, while looking from the shuttle landing platform on the apex of the Ant Hill Dome over the vast lake and the jungles in the distance. “It is just a dull garden world, with some animals scaring the weak humans, that’s all. That lake looks nice, maybe I’ll have a swim.”

They both had CITI implants identifying them as Pertharian Employees of a Slide Belt Service Company that opened a service shop on Green Hell.

GH-SBS-Inc. was there for over thirty years, that they have not serviced a single slide belt or did do any real business with anyone had not been noticed by anyone; except for Green’s Slide Belt Service and they didn’t complain that their only competition didn’t really compete.

A stocky broad shouldered human greeted them, wearing a dark blue Coverall with the GH-SBS Inc Logo on chest and back, the same colored suits the Pertharian wore. “Welcome to Green Hell, I hope you had a good trip. Did you bring the technical specs for the SB342?”

“We have the specs for the SB342 and Supervisor Marco says hello.”

This was the final check, after exchanging these phrases they knew they were meeting with the right party.

Both Pertharian followed the man into an Inter City Freight Mover. Two Pertharian were too big for the regular lift that could accommodate maybe one.

The green skinned individual said, “I am Marco Adams by the way.”

Leris sneered with his rock gravel voice. “You are but a tool human. We are not here to socialize with weaklings. Has our equipment arrived?”

The man growled “Be careful who you call weak, Barnacle Face. I am from Hoffman’s World. Because I value my life and respect our employers I leave it at that.”

Choler said, “Matters little from where you from human, answer the question.”

“Your Battle Armor is here.”

Choler was satisfied. “We will take our first trip tonight then. I doubt we need those armors anyway.”

The elevator had reached the last level, deep underground and Marco led them through a corridor where the walls were unpainted Ultronit and service pipes were installed in the open. Strong logistics robots rolled by with shipping containers.

Barrels, crates and boxes stacked next to the roll doors of a variety of small companies. Marco said, “You will need the armor trust me and I don’t think it is wise to go out after dark.”

Leris laughed, “We are Pertharian, we can see well at night. We have six eyes, not just two as you inferior humans.”

Marco said, “We inferior humans sure kicked your rocky asses from Leenco all the way to Pertha. Must have been quite an eye opener for all six of them to see that, eh?”

Leris growled in anger. “You are moments from a painful death, human!”

“And you are even dumber than they say you are. Hurt me and our employers will deal with you. Kill me and the local Ranger will deal with you.” He stopped at a steel shutter door, boxes with slide belt parts stacked on each side. A barrel with twisted metal scrap and a few buckets of silicone grease completed the organized mess, making the place look busy and blend in with all the other similar looking businesses. The door squealed as metal rubbed over metal.

The inside of GH-SBS-Inc didn’t look much different from the jumble outside.

Shelves held more parts. Tall red self-propelled robotic tool boxes lined one wall. A big metal press and a huge remnant roll of slide belt material hid most of the other side’s wall. There was a yellow painted Yale Brand cargo handler standing before an office box. There were posters, stickers and advertisement signs of tool companies, Slide Belt manufacturers everywhere. A second blue coverall dressed man was revealed by the opening gate closed it right behind them. “Now we are secure and can talk.”

Leris said. “We are not here to talk. Give us our suits and we will march to the mountains and back and then we can collect our bonus and be done with this.”

Marco said disapprovingly, “These two were this insulting since I picked them up.”

The man who had not identified himself said with a cold smile, “Well then why don’t we get these gentlemen outfitted and outside, right away? There is an old Marine out there, in an unprotected Farm. I want you to march there and raze the place. If you do that and come back alive and without being caught by the Ranger, I’ll personally triple your bonus.”

The Pertharian liked the sound of that and the two men opened two big shipping crates marked “Slide Belt parts” and revealed two Armageddon Type Battle Walkers, complete with SII Fafnir Bolter Gatlings and the best civilian shields. Both walkers were able to accommodate a Pertharian.

The Pertharian laughed, “With those we could take on an entire regiment of those cursed Cerberus robots!”

Marco said nothing, but grinned as he knew the Pertharian would not have to face a whole regiment, but one of those for sure; if they made it to Mr. Brown’s farm.

The two Pertharian mercenaries crowded the small freight flyer to its capacity. Marco was at the controls. He was a spy and a worked for Kermac Intelligence for almost thirty years now and had been on Green Hell almost as long. He was not a Greenie but he knew the stories were anything but exaggerated. He had seen what happened to the last Pertharians that went out.

Yes, true the others did not wear Armageddon Suits, but as fancy as the name was for those tin suits, these were civilian legal export approved suits. Yes good SII technology but at least two tech levels below the current stuff.

Marco contemplated leaving Green Hell right after he dropped the Pertharians.

He was against this sledgehammer method. Too much could go wrong and thirty years of careful planning could be destroyed, not to mention him ending on the end of a rope.

Ever since the Peace Hawk debacle, Union Officials dealt with spies very harshly and swift.

The owner of Green Hell Slide Belt Service Company was a genuine Kermac, surgically altered and a member of the Ministry of Information also didn’t like the sudden urgency and speed. GH SBS Inc was a success and a careful hatched plan to obtain the secret of Translocator Cannons was taking shape and with patience they would find that Saresii ship. The Old Saresii working for them had combed the jungles for 300 years. It was that Saresii who had found the old Log book element in the first place and started the whole thing.

The log book contained a detailed manifest of what the ship had in its hold. Among other things four crated Seenian Transpatial AntiMatter Cannons, or in other words the lost Saresii ship from the First Age of Knowledge carried the same stuff Stahl brought back with the Devastator, the same weapons that virtually guaranteed the stellar rise of the Union; the secret of Translocator Cannons.

Excavating a ship wreck directly under the noses of the Union would have been tricky anywhere, but here on Green Hell it was nearly impossible.

The prize however meant the end of Union predominance and the Kermac once again taking their rightful place as rulers of the Galaxy.

Marco was not a Kermac but a genuine Union Citizen and he was simply a traitor for very mundane reasons at first.

He sighed and put the armored flier down at a wide pebble beach called razor fish bay, because the water of the lake was quite shallow and the big Snakes generally preferred the deeper areas. This area was almost exactly on the opposite site of the lake from Ma Swenson’s. That would give the Pertharians an additional 150 miles to cover but hey they were really tough and here no one would see them.”

The two Pertharians bent the exit hatch as they squeezed their battle frames through into the open.

The Air lock hatch did not seal and unknown to Marco an angry patch of Killer Moss agitated because half of its organism was crushed by an armor suit boot; squeezed itself through before Marco lifted off to return to town.

Leris laughed as his left armor fist spewed plasma fire in an arc clearing a wide path into the dense underbrush. “This is going to be even more fun than I expected. There is nothing out here that could stop us in these suits.”

Choler was already a little less confident and he said. “Conserve your energy, we still have to cover 300 klicks and we don’t want to show up on any sensors either,”

“There aren’t any sensors! We are deep in Union Space, nothing in Orbit. He kicked a tall stump like structure and didn’t see the swarms of Ants that crawled out the broken nest and up his legs.

Choler brushed a drop shaped cocoon of Buzzsaws aside as he stepped into the smoking breach his partner created with his Gatling.

They were about twenty meters inside the jungle when Leris stumbled and fell over, his left leg armor failing.

Choler wanted to help him and see why his friend fell, stumbling was nearly impossible in these marvels of technology as the Computronic assisting, would compensate automatically.

As he saw the tough material of the Armageddon melt away like butter from the legs of his partner, all the stories they heard about Green Hell no longer felt so ridiculous. “Activate your force field!” He yelled as he activated his.”

Leris yelled back. “There is something inside my suit. I can feel it crawl all over!”

Choler wondered what it could be, as Leris should not be able to feel anything as long as his outer Pertharians skin was intact. Then he saw tiny dots. Crawling inside the rim of his helmet.

Leris managed to get back on his feet and fired his weapon in all directions, even hitting Choler. His shields protested and flickered.

Choler decided to go back to the shore and call the human back. They managed to walk about two kilometers. To his horror he noticed green plants moving over the charred ashes of their slash and burn approach.

The Pertharian evaded a large spider thing and doing so his forcefield entangled with an almost invisible spider net. Blue energies sizzled and his suit reported strong electric discharges.

As he stepped back he lost the footing and started to sink into a mud bog. Scaled coils of something large appeared only for a moment. His shields strained now trying to burn tons of water and soil and the suit recommended to deactivate the shields so Arti Grav could be activated, energy reserves for both were already limited.

Leris saw his friend run and leave him alone. His legs failed again, this time it was his own, not the suit. He felt a burning sensation as if dipped in liquid lava from his hips on down. He hit the emergency release struggled out of the suit. He needed to get rid of those insects that crawled all over him and whatever they secreted dissolved the tough Alloy of the suit and his own Pertharian skin with equal ease.

He stumbled forward as a dozen Razor bush branches slashed across his face gouging one of his eyes, his left arm stuck in a yellow substance covering a tree. The oozing yellow sap was stickier than anything he knew.

Trapper Palm crawlers and ants competed against each other over the now helpless Pertharian. The last thing he saw was the rest of his armor suit swallowed by the ground and a human woman in a green dress.

Choler was now to his shoulders in the mud and he opened the Comm Link. “Marco, come back. Get us out of here! Everything is true, we are dying!”

Choler managed to divert enough energy to his Arti Grav and slowly rose from the muck. If he could gain altitude he might make it. There was hope as he kept rising and almost reached the tree tops when he noticed a large inflated thing hovering in the dark sky. The next heartbeat he fell, back to the ground, after a terrible bolt of lightning had vanquished the last remnants of his suit shields. He crashed hard on the jungle floor. The fall was high enough to hurt him, but he barely felt the pain of the fall, the tiny dots in his helmet now gathered all over his mouth and in his eyes and nostrils. He could feel them crawl inside; the cursed suit didn’t let him reach his own mouth. He had four arms and yet he could not reach his own mouth. In utter panic he opened his helmet not noticing he was brushing a plant with little red pods showering his face with a fine white powder.

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