Chapter 13: Raiders

I walked out of the shuttle to pipes again and sighed. This time the admiral and his staff were at attention waiting. I crossed the hanger deck and returned his salute. He grinned, “Welcome aboard Captain English.”

I smiled sourly as I glanced around, “It is a pleasure.”

He laughed and turned towards his staff, “I am afraid its your own fault. Awardees of the Alliance Sunburst are very, very rare. In fact you are the only human to every receive it. In fact you are the only one to be awarded it and live.”

I grinned at him, “believe me the Helos soldiers tried to fix that.”

He grinned and turned to start introducing me to the senior officers I would be working under. Colonel Beal was the Marauder commander and my regiment commander. He walked through the ship with me and glanced at me several times, “there is a couple of rumors about you Captain.”

I smiled, “There are a lot of rumors about me sir. I am ten feet tall and made from battle steel. I eat bullets and shit demo packs. Bullets are afraid of me. None are made that can kill me.”

I looked at him as he frowned, “it is all bullshit sir.”

I held up my right sleeve, “this shows I am more then capable of being wounded and I came close to dying more times then I would like to remember.”

He snorted and then nodded, “I understand.”

I glanced at him as we turned in and a Marauder came to attention. He sighed, “They say you have a death wish or at the least do not care if you live.”

I smiled, “Not true, I do what my duty tells me to do.”

We stopped in front of a junior captain who saluted the commander, “Raiders prepared for inspection sir!”

After reviewing the company I walked into the company commander’s office with Junior Captain Tracy and Lieutenants Johnson, Perry and Maldive. I nodded to Top Sergeant Brenda Davis who was grinning, (I had asked for her personally).

I looked at the officers as I locked the hatch and sat behind the company commander’s desk, “we have a mission straight from the Alliance. We are going to hit Helos.”

They looked at each other and I leaned back, “They sent one company to Zanaz so the Alliance has asked the Emperor to send one to Helos and we are it. Our mission is to terminate their emperor and his counsel. This is a pure search and kill mission.”

They grinned and I glanced at Brenda, “you will need to brief your NCOs.”

She nodded and I slipped a slim data stick into my desk comp. A holograph appeared above the desk and I began to brief the four officers. The four stealth shuttles drifted in orbit above Helos. I looked up from the bridge holograph as the Captain Denver walked in. She grinned as she crossed to me, “ready to play soldier Author?”

I smiled, “Since I wore my work clothes I guess we can start the dance.”

She laughed as she sat in her command chair, “Comm ... relay to the strike force. Time to dance, follow us and damn anyone that gets in the way.”

She nodded to the pilot who turned the shuttle and we accelerated as we dropped. I turned and jogged towards the drop bay, “Pendragon to all Raiders, time to earn our pay. Keep your markers on and do not leave anyone behind.”

I caught the almost elegant rifle Brenda tossed as I continued all the way to the drop ramp. I nodded to Tracy, “Ready George?”

He grinned, “charged up and ready.”

A moment later the ship was bumping and jerking before it tilted and then the drop ramp was going down. I jogged off the shuttle and lifted my rifle to fire through a fancy battle suit moving towards us. The 14mm round punched through as if the suit were made from tissue.