Chapter 4: Lone Scout

I dressed carefully in my class C dress uniform and glanced back at Golden lying in the bed, “I am going to miss this.”

She grinned, “You are the one that accept the admiral’s offer.”

I shrugged, “True, but that does not mean I will not miss you.”

Golden slid off the bed and walked to me with a sexy sway to her hips, “Corporal England, you have a mission and so do I.”

She caressed my chest, “If and when we meet again.”

I hugged her and then turned and bent to grab my kit bag, “Learn to duck.”

She laughed as I walked out and headed towards the tram and the waiting ship. She was right, I did accept the admiral’s offer, they were always short Scouts for fringe worlds. The station I was heading for was located in another quadrant and would take a few weeks. This time I was traveling on a civilian transport ship.

The first few days were spent setting a routine. The one thing I had not wanted to do was surrender my weapons but on a civilian ship that was not an option. There were a few smart mouthed fleet officers and arrogant business men but I stayed away from them. They could not understand the ship’s captain inviting me to dine at her table every night though.

On my last day I put my formal uniform on for the shuttle to Spectra Station. The captain met me at the boarding area as the officers snapped to attention. She smiled and kissed my cheek, “Give them hell son.”

I nodded and saluted before turning to board the shuttle and a steward set my EQ and weapon’s bags in a seat beside me. When I walked aboard Spectra a sergeant met me. She ignored the medals and grabbed my EQ bag, “I hope you are as good as they say.”

I grinned, “I try to be.”

She nodded as she slipped onto a moving tram and I joined her. She glanced at me and looked me over, “Why the flash?”

I smiled and glanced back towards the shuttle bay, “Some officers were irritating me and I could not shoot them.”

She stared at me and then started laughing. That was how I met Sergeant Tracy Talent. She was the one to work me through their train up course. She never said anything about my Swift either. Gecko was a seemly nice world, it only had a few small towns and one small starport. Scouts were different than scout recon, they dropped onto a fringe or colony world alone and reported on what they found.

My insertion had been quiet and easy and I moved to my first target. Everything looked normal for a small rural town on a fringe world. After a couple of days I moved to the next town. Two weeks later I hit trouble. The small sea side town was much more than that. I counted three small armed space ships and after one slow check knew I had found a pirate nest.

I pulled back and opened my pack for my radio. I still had over a week before the small fleet scout ship returned but it had left a repeater sat in orbit. I encrypted my report and sent it before waiting. Ten minutes later I had my reply, the second regiment was training in a system close by and would here in two days. I set up a small observation post and tried to relax.

I could see men moving around and some women but they all wore some type of collar and the men led them on leashes like dogs. It was early the next morning that a larger ship came down. I swiftly scanned and checked its ident number and sent an update to my report. It was after the ship had landed that I knew I would have to do something.

A line of men and women were led off the ship and some wore fleet uniforms. I updated my report again with a report that I had to act and packed up. I slipped into the edge of town and carefully moved towards where everyone was gathering. When a pirate laughed and kicked a fleet commander to the ground before pulling a pistol I lifted my rifle.

A rating dove in front of the commander and the pirate snarled and shot him. That pissed me off and I lowered my rifle and started walking as I drew my Swift. Two men glanced at me and the laughter faded right before I shot them. I shot two more before I reached the edge of the crowd, I shot any man that held a weapon or a leash.