Chapter 10: The Berlin Martial Arts Extraction

Guido had just arrived with his old Volkswagen Beetle at Altlandsberg, north of Berlin, where he wanted to meet an old friend. Having friends and keeping his contacts alive was important for the job Guido was doing. Suddenly his cell phone rang.

“Hello Guido, this is L’ielit.”

Before Guido could say ‘who?’ he remembered the name. Very tall, black, from Ethiopia. It had been a long time. Guido got few calls from those who had left Earth. “Is it really you?”

“Listen Guido, I don’t have much time. Are you still in the same business?”

“Yes, I am. Where are you?” Guido asked, still puzzled.

“Guido, listen carefully and don’t ask questions now. Grab all of your women and come to the Max Schmeling Hall at 15:00.”

“The German Martial Arts Championship? I tried but couldn’t afford the tickets.”

“Doesn’t matter. Be there, near the building. The nearer the better. You know the procedure. Don’t call anybody else except for your people.”

“Yes I know.”

Click. Guido was in a daze. He was an underdog. Son of a brothel owner. When his father retired he gave the business to his son. Guido hated that type of business. Then the aliens appeared. Average Joes. Everything changed. Guido got a CAP card early. He scored 6.1. Damn, no escape. Male concubines had few chances in a pick-up. But then he had an idea. His father hated it. Guido started to send people to pick-up locations. He had a good nose for that. He started to collect the left-over’s of pick-ups, helped them over their losses, ensured them that they were not useless left-over’s. Women that were left behind at a pick-up usually were emotionally in very bad shape. At the time he met L’ielit he had a loose network of friends who sent women and, in rare cases, men to him. Today the network was much bigger. Guido had spent all of his money long ago. His father had died. His father had hated his activities until the end. No chance for reconciliation. Guido was making contracts with all of his fosterlings so he got their property when they managed to leave Earth. But most of them weren’t rich. Guido was working on a day-to-day basis. There were currently one-hundred-and fifty-nine women in his asylum. 15:00. He had no idea how to carry them all to the sports hall in time. Half of them were stalking assumed sponsors. 15:00. He had to concentrate. He called Tina, his secretary. Tina was a former whore; age sixty-five, far beyond fertility, no chance to leave Earth. “Tina, listen. Call all girls to meet me at...” He furiously tried to remember a location close to the hall that would not attract other people’s attention. “Subway station Schönauer Allee! Tell them to meet me there at 14:45. Then take all the girls currently at home and lead them to Schönauer Allee. I know several of them are not yet prepared but it’s a chance. I’ll try to be there in time but it’s quite a bit from Altlandsberg. If I don’t manage to be there at 14:45 lead the girls to the Max Schmeling Hall. Don’t wait for me or any missing girl. There should be enough sports fans around to cover your approach. Do you understand?”

“Sure boy, I’m not stupid. Fred and Jonathan are here, they’ll help with the calls.” Guido heard the clicking of Tina’s fingernails on the computer keyboard. Tina repeated his orders. “Ah, here’s the timetable of the subway. We’ll leave the house at 14:15. Then we’ll be at the station at 14:41. See you later!”

Guido arrived at 14:43. He parked his Volkswagen Beetle in a no standing at any time area and ran the last hundred meters to the station. Tina was currently counting the women. “There are seven missing,” she said.

“Damn. Okay, we have time enough. Ladies, relax. Please follow Tina to the hall, to the martial arts sports event. Wait at the entrance for me. I’ll check the station for the stragglers.” Guido watched them crossing the street. They didn’t look that suspicious, just a bunch of ladies on their way to a big sports event. Guido went downstairs and checked the tracks. He found five of the missing girls looking around, not knowing where to go. 14:51. Another train arrived. The doors opened. There were the last two girls. He waved for their attention and happily they spotted him immediately. He signaled to run. He led his small group upstairs and then the shortest way towards the hall. They would not reach the main entrance in time. The side wall had to be enough. 15:00. They were all out of breath but they had reached the hall in time. Then, less than ten meters away, the interdiction field appeared. They were inside.

L’ielit had tracked Guido’s cell phone. The AI had mentioned the risk a call like that could mean for the whole extraction. She ignored it. She gave Guido the shortest possible time to reach the sports arena. Earlier that day, her team had checked the whole building for bombs and hidden weapons. L’ielit and her team had taken over the security of the sports event. The Marines had been downsized to around 185 centimeters to match with the average people’s size. Those subordinates who were now at the main entrance, scanning everybody for weapons, informed her about a big group of women who had arrived and were now waiting outside the hall. L’ielit checked the location of Guido’s cell phone again. Less than five-hundred meters away. He had made it. When the AI announced that the signal was now at the hall’s east wall she gave the order to engage the interdiction field. The AI had counted nine hundred and forty-four possible sponsors and over six-thousand possible concubines. Unfortunately nearly four thousand were male. All of Guido’s women had a good chance to leave the planet. The remaining three thousand spectators were youngsters, most of them between ten and thirteen years old.

L’ielit had taken part in the second of the freestyle pre-fights as a late filling, giving the audience a good show. She was wearing pink leggings and a dark blue sports bra and thong. Her opponent was a medium skilled Taekwondo fighter. L’ielit had the advantage of her superior range and almost full Marine augmentations. She had the disadvantage of having to organize her troops at the same time. L’ielit’s hand-to-hand skills were hard learned lessons of survival. Her opponent was totally unfamiliar with her type of fighting. L’ielit had to ease up so as not to kick his private parts within the first two seconds of the fight. With the order to engage the interdiction field she had sent her opponent to the mat. “Stay down, please. I have another job to do that you will definitely like, mister Confederacy sponsor to be.”

Her opponent blinked and then relaxed and signaled surrender.

L’ielit walked toward the stadium speaker who was announcing the initial fights. She asked for the speaker’s microphone, showing her Confederacy ID card. On her bra the word ‘Confederacy’ appeared in big white letters.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you may not have noticed yet, but this is an extraction. My name is Centurion L’ielit Debir of the Confederacy. Please stay in your seats for a moment and relax, there is no need for hurry.” L’ielit looked for immediate signs of hassle but found none. She noticed that the markings on the shirts of her men turned from ‘security’ to ‘Confederacy’. “If you look around, you’ll see a lot of big bulky people with the word ‘Confederacy’ written on their back and chest. They are helping with organizing this event. Troublemakers, be warned. They know their job very well.” She didn’t say that in addition to the one-hundred-and-fifty Marines with tee shirts over their skin-tight body armor there were another two-hundred Marines among the spectators. They had all been downsized to blend with the crowd and would disperse in small groups among those who had to stay on Earth. The upper stand would offer an excellent overview. Eighty drones were hovering below the ceiling, armed with heavy stingers. In case of a mass riot they would paralyze everybody involved.

“People who don’t want to leave the planet OR kids under the age of fourteen without a parent present OR people beyond their age of fertility OR people who actually don’t carry a CAP card. Everybody who fits in one of these categories, please go to the upper five tiers or leave towards the southern lobby. The lobby is the place where you won’t be disturbed by what’s about to happen in the main hall.”

There was a temporary disturbance when a man pushed other spectators out of his way violently and shouted “I left it in the car, Dammit!” A nearby Marine stunned him with a stinger. The scene was stage-managed.

“Sorry, that was an example of really stupid behavior. There are far too many people here with a basic understanding of martial arts to allow somebody to start a fight. Now he’ll sleep for a few hours and have a really bad headache when he wakes up.” The big display panels of the hall replayed the scene several times. Two Marines carried the man away. The incident had the desired effect. At least no one tried to act stupid.

Other Marines were leading those in the main hall who had been waiting outside of the hall. L’ielit spotted Guido in that group and smiled at the newcomers.

“Those of you with a CAP score of 6.5 and above, please come down to the center of the hall. Identify yourself to one of the Marines and show them your CAP card. If you have a pre-pack or offspring, bring them with you.” Six Marines had informed the fighters in the locker rooms who were now entering the hall. A fair number of them were sponsor level. L’ielit repeated her orders two times and watched the people organize.

In the lower stands people had started to strip. L’ielit spoke up again. “Hello you prospective concubines in the lower stands. I’d like to sort you to make this extraction a little easier. Male concubine prospects please go to the western stand. We have here quite a few female sponsors here, so don’t drop your hopes too early.” She pointed in the direction. “Female concubine prospects please go to the eastern stand. There you can strip as some of you already have done.” She pointed at the opposite grandstand now. “People with children under the age of fourteen, no matter if they are here or not, please go to the northern or southern stand. Please keep your families together. Thank you those that are behaving so politely.”

People started to move around the grandstand again. This time it was the vast majority of the audience, so they needed a while to organize.

“Sponsors, please give me your attention for a minute. You know your CAP score and know the number of concubines you can select. If you don’t, please ask one of the Marines.” There was a laugh among the sponsors. “Now there is a little special today. You are allowed to select one more concubine if she is a mother with two or more children under the age of fourteen OR with a maternal sub-score of 7.5 or above. The Marines will show you how to read the sub-scores on a CAP card. OR you are allowed to select another additional concubine if you select a couple with a minimum three children altogether. Couples, be aware that if you are selected and agree to be concubines, you are instantly divorced. Your main partner will from then on be your sponsor and your sponsor only.” L’ielit continued to explain the basic rules. There were a few people who left the lower stands. “I want to remind those who have the chance to be a concubine but have decided against it that there is currently a riot building outside the interdiction field. THEY know that the Sa’arm are coming and are trying desperately to enter this building ignoring the fact that the interdiction field will never drop before an extraction is over. You are free to change your mind again and try to attract a sponsor.”

The sponsors now started to interview prospective concubines. L’ielit handed the microphone to Lieutenant Timmero, who repeated the rules once again. L’ielit walked toward the upper stands of the northern grandstand where she had spotted Guido with the help of the AI.

“I remember you were one of the most pitiful cases but then you were taken in the very first pick-up. You look damn good now.” Guido shook L’ielit’s hand and didn’t let go afterwards. “Centurion means seven-point-something?”

“The military rank is not fixed to the CAP score, but yes, I scored that high after three years. I’m still with the sponsor who selected me. We have a combined household. Tell me Guido, when did you go for a CAP test the last time? Your scores don’t reflect what you are. How many did you help over the years to leave Earth?”

“I don’t remember. Maybe eight thousand? I’ve never repeated the test. I’m not a military man. I have decided long ago that my work here is too important to leave.”

“What would you say if you could continue your work but with the support of the Confederacy?”

Guido laughed. “That would be damn nice. I don’t know how to pay my bills. Every year it gets worse.”

L’ielit led Guido to a quieter place. “We don’t spread this information too often but when you volunteer you can set some conditions. The AI might accept or decline. It’s a matter of negotiating and cost-benefit for them. You can ask for exactly the same job you are doing right now. When the Sa’arm arrive the Confederacy will try to rescue you. All you have to do is to re-test and volunteer.” L’ielit left Guido in deep thought and returned to her job.

An hour later the pick-up was in full swing. About one hundred sponsors had already been transported to the ship, mostly those with a pre-pack. The padded fighting rings were filled with fucking people. A hall cleaner had the splendid idea of handing out tissues and towels. Twenty marines were especially observing this place for trouble from rejected prospective concubines after a test drive. Until now it had been a remarkably quiet extraction. Only five people had to be paralyzed. Four of them were men rejected by female sponsors. The Marines had the most work with the couples when sponsors walked in to get the wife only and the man saw his chances dropping dramatically. Until now none of them had to be stunned. The Marines talked to the people, often convincing the sponsor to take both, since the man didn’t count against their allowed number of concubines. It was a hard time for the male concubines to be who had to suffer a lot of humiliation to check their obedience.

The situation outside of the interdiction field was totally different. Germans normally don’t carry weapons. But a large extraction was a magnet for every armed idiot and even more unarmed people who were stupid enough to not flee when the shooting started. Very few listened to the public address announcement to leave the area. L’ielit had brought three companies of Marines for this situation. It had been her plan not to use standard Marine procedures. Instead, they were using the extraction as a honey trap for an ambush. Sharpshooters on the roofs of the surrounding buildings were taking down armed attackers with a special long range stinger rifle. The AI tried to identify sponsor level people who were trapped in the area and task force groups got them out of there, holding them in a secure sublevel garage. L’ielit had changed into light battle gear and had left the hall through a tunnel that had not been sealed by a force field. Now she was standing before thirty-six people. Twenty-two were sponsors, the rest were concubines of pre-packs.

“Ladies, Gentlemen. Please calm down. I know it’s a really bad thing to be outside an interdiction field. You are lucky, since I’m a benign extraction leader. The Marines will now double-check your identity and CAP ID and then you will be led into the building through a secure tunnel.” She was interrupted by a loud explosion.

<Shoulder-launched surface-to-surface rocket. Most probably a heavily armed Earth First cell, > the AI informed L’ielit.

“Okay, I have had enough. Flood the area with stinger pulses. Increase the radius to three-hundred meters. Anybody with a weapon is handed to the judges.” L’ielit had spoken loud. The frightened people did not move or make a noise. L’ielit looked at them. “Does any of you not want to join the Confederacy?” They all answered the question negatively. “Then please follow the orders of the Marines and have a nice pick-up.”

“Any casualties on our side?” L’ielit asked sub-vocally when she was on her way back into the sports hall.

<We have three injured Marines. One of them was knocked off the roof he was standing on by the exploding rocket. He’s in a med tube and stable. The other two have returned to the ship on their own for medical support. We have also taken five police officers who were badly injured to the med bay. Our scan radius is now three kilometers. There seem to be no more heavy weapons. The local police are helping to sort out the armed people now that the shooting has died down. They also rebuilt the roadblocks that had been ruptured. Allow me to note that the local police are still pretty well organized despite being thinned out by previous extractions.>

“Very good. How many casualties among the civilians do we have from the shooting?” L’ielit asked.

<There are sixty minor injured, that are now paralyzed. The task force groups rescued twelve badly injured. They are currently on their way to the nearby hospital. Two people are dead. All casualties were hit by bullets from armed terrorists. Our observations were already sent to the local police.>

“I hope that was it with the shooting.” L’ielit entered the hall again.

<Centurion, this is Sergeant Scochance speaking. I have a borderline case here that you need to decide. I’m at the upper tiers of the northern grandstand.> The AI led L’ielit to the exact location of the Sergeant. It was an interesting scene she walked into. There was Sergeant Scochance, showing no signs of bother. Before him there was a young girl wearing martial arts fighter clothing and a black belt. She was holding an adult male in a save grip while an adult female was sitting in a seat with a blooming black eye. The Sergeant quickly explained. “This young lady is Daphne Ostagel who scored second place of the juniors in the tournament last year. She’s thirteen years old.”

“Tomorrow is my fourteenth birthday,” Daphne noted while holding the struggling man.

Sergeant Scochance continued to explain. “The woman there is her mother Agata. They both talked to me about possibilities to get Daphne to the stars as a sponsor. She definitely has the potential but lacks the age and a CAP card. Then this man, who is Daphne’s father, Uwe Ostagel, walked in with some refreshments. When he realized what the two were doing he dropped the paper cups and hit his wife in the face. I would have stunned him but the little lady was faster than me.”

L’ielit looked at the three and then turned toward the man. “Was it your plan to not volunteer as a couple to get off Earth and let your daughter test her score on board a colony ship?”

“There will be better chances. Daphne can save us all when she’s fourteen.” The man panted. “Could you please let me go, Daphne?” His daughter refused.

“L’ielit sighed.” You know, you are running out of chances. This is most probably the last big extraction from Germany. The opposition of armed idiots like Earth First is becoming too strong. Today they used a damn rocket launcher to kill the mood.” The face of the mother visibly lost its color. L’ielit had an idea.”AI, what time is it in Tokyo?”

<It’s 0:42 AM Sunday, third of August local time at Tokyo> The AI used a speaker at the Sergeant’s gear to answer the question.

“Okay. One problem solved. Congratulations on your fourteenth birthday, Daphne.” L’ielit smiled at the girl. The AI didn’t object. “If you had a CAP ID and the score to volunteer, would you take your father with you?”

Daphne looked at her father. “Definitely not. He’s hitting mom way too often.”

“Then why don’t you hand him over to the Sergeant who will lead him to the room where we temporarily store the troublemakers?” Daphne let go of her father and pushed him towards the Marine who walked the man away.

“Can I take my mother with me?” Daphne asked.

“If you had a CAP ID you surely could.” Daphne looked disappointed. L’ielit continued, “Here’s the deal. You go up to our colony ship and immediately get CAP tested. Your mother needs to come as an unassigned concubine with me. I’m the owner of all unassigned concubines on board since I am the leading Civil Service officer. When you pass the test, you can get her from me. Now here is the bad news. If you fail, your mother will be an unassigned concubine already. You can decide to stay as an unassigned concubine too or we’ll send you back to Earth where you will be alone with your father. Unassigned concubines can be taken by any sponsor who’s short on concubines. Your mother wouldn’t have a say in the decision. Neither would you if you fail the test and decide to stay on board. Are you willing to take that risk?”

Agata rose from the seat and stood beside her daughter. “I’m willing to take the risk. I believe in my daughter.”

Daphne gulped but held the gaze of L’ielit. “I’ll take that chance. If I fail I deserve to be a concubine. Now where is that transporter I have to step onto?”

L’ielit smiled. “Not so fast. This was a test of confidence and self-confidence that you both passed. I would not separate a daughter from her mother. Now take your time and search for a second concubine plus a mother or a couple with enough kids. As we don’t know your real CAP score we’ll temporarily assume a score between 6.5 and 6.9.” L’ielit called for a Marine to escort Daphne. “Your concubines need to accept the same conditions as your mother. They will join the pool of unassigned concubines until you come out of the test. One last thing. No sex that includes penetration until midnight middle European time. Understood?”

Daphne nodded and then happily walked down the stairs with her mother and a Marine private following.

Harald Muller was one of the fighters in the tournament. With his thirty-nine years he was by far the oldest. Under normal circumstances he would have given up karate tournaments years ago. But with the Sa’arm coming he still had chances since the best fighters tended to be caught in pick-ups. So instead of searching for a better paid job he continued to serve hamburgers, lived in a small cheap apartment, continued his martial arts training and spent the rest of his time in the university’s library studying. His initial CAP score of 6.9 rose over the years to a remarkable 7.7.

Harald knew several nice girls from his job and one of the librarians was also a very nice lady he would have liked to rescue. Unfortunately none of them were at the Max Schmeling Hall today. Harald looked around. He liked children. He had trained children for martial arts. So he turned his attention to the group of concubines with children. He ignored the first tiers where people were practically fighting for the attention of a sponsor. Instead he looked for the people in the middle tiers who seemed to be uncertain or frightened. He sat down next to a couple that looked to be in their early thirties. “Quite a show, isn’t it?” he asked.