Chapter 19: Vengeance Two

Ted looked down at Shawn, and said, "Raise construction dock one, I want to talk to the Commodore Thompson in person."

"Aye-aye, Captain." Turning the com on again, he said, "USS Oregon to Space Dock One."

"This is dock one, Ensign Vincent Hubber speaking. How could I direct your request?"

"Ensign Hubber, Captain White needs to speak with Commodore Thompson ASAP."

"I will transfer you to his office."

Shawn quickly replied, "Thank you."

"Commodore Thompson's office, how may I help you?"

Turning on the com again, Shawn replied, "This is Lieutenant Commander Shawn Edwards on board the USS Oregon, Captain White wishes to speak with the Commodore ASAP. Make it visual."

"Right away sir."

The image of the planet shifted to show John Thompson sitting at his desk. "Captain White what may I do for you?"

Ted sighed and wished it was not him, as he said, "Sir I have some bad news for you."

John looked at Ted and his eyes narrowed, as he asked, "What has happened?"

"Sir, your daughter has been shot in Bogotá, while on a rescue mission. Someone blew up a children's hospital. Jenny landed her shuttle and started rendering aid. While she was attending to the wounded, someone shot her with a fifty-caliber weapon. Her shield stopped the first few rounds, but the last one hit her. She is in critical condition and being airlifted to the ship. I thought maybe that you would like to come and be with her just in case. Your wife and my sister will be here in an hour." Ted said as he saw the man go pale under his tan, and he continued, "Sir, I'm so sorry..."

John stood up and looked into the screen, and said, "Ted, knock it off. It's not your fault. Remember, you're her husband, but you're also a Captain with five thousand people looking up to you. So act like it, you could not have prevented this. I will be there in twenty minutes and we will talk more later. Thompson, out"

The screen went black and Lisa stepped up, and said, "Ted you need to hear this, it's a phone call between Carlos Fajardo and another man identified as JW.

'Hello.'

'Its done, one bitch dead. The target is flattened.'

'Good job JW, I will authorize the rest of the payment of one million American to your account.'

'Good, I'm getting out of dodge. If you need me again, you know how to get a hold of me.'

'All right my friend, but we have a new target for you in Fort Hood, one of the targets there is doing the same thing. We want you to deliver the merchandise. Will the same amount be satisfactory?'

'Yes, it is. I will contact you when I get to Texas.'

'Talk to you soon.'

John guided his VW bug down the mountain roads, behind him the smoke still billowed up from the ruined hospital. As he dove, he heard a rumbling noise and he stopped and got out of the vehicle and looked up. In the sky a huge ship broke through the cloud cover, lightning dancing along its hull as it came to a stop, high above the city.

'Oh fuck, what have I done?'

Looking at the ship, he saw hundreds of smaller ships dropping from the hull.

'Oh, well. Nothing I could do about it now.'

Getting back into the car, he looked at the cell phone on the dash and grabbed it. Looking at the phone and the ship flying over, he tossed it out the window. Turning on the radio, he heard that the Army has been called out and that all was under control.

"Ya right! Those piss-ants couldn't control a classroom of kindergarten kids," he said as he got the car back in gear.

Passing over the mountain passes, he quickly passed through the small roadblocks that were going up and got on the road to Tolu and his boat sitting in the harbor. Looking at his watch, he estimated he would be there in about five hours.

Looking in the mirror he said, "Good luck, Carlos, I think you're going to need it. I'm going to disappear for a while."

Carlos Fajardo looked out the window and he could see the huge ship floating over downtown Bogotá. Opening the window, he looked down at his men milling around.

"Juan, ready all our men, we are going into the hills." Walking back to his desk he picked up his laptop, and went into his bedroom to change clothes. Quickly changing he walked into the gunroom and picked up his Desert Eagle pistol and the weapon belt that went with it. Standing there, he looked at the weapons in the gun racks and picked up two rifles, a Barrett single shot sniper rifle with a powerful scope, and a MP-5 submachine gun. Placing the Barrett in its case, he quickly picked up a bandoleer of clips for the MP-5 and lifted the MP-5.

Walking down the stairs he walked out to his camouflaged Hummer, he placed the rifle in the back seat as his men gather around.

Looking at his men, he said, "We're going up to base camp three. No radios, I think we are going to be attacked."

Climbing into the vehicle his men scattered and climbed on board the two-ton trucks and hummers. The vehicles headed down the road and turned onto the paved road. The convoy headed up into the mountains. Thirty-five minutes later, they pulled into a large cave that was stacked with weapons and drugs. The men scattered around the cave while Carlos watched.

"Juan, have the men set up some XM214's. I want two by the entrance and four more up on the face of the cliffs for an overlapping field of fire. Also, set up claymores, and RPG nests. While you're doing that I'm going to make a call to Senior Alveraze and see if we could borrow some toys."

Ted ran into medical as Doctor Jonathan Hinkle came in another door, straddling Jenny's body doing CPR as the Marines carry her in on a stretcher. Jumping down from the stretcher, they lift her body up and onto the bed. Jonathan started doing more CPR on her as he said; "I need an injector, heart repair nanobots, and blood nanobots. Now!"

Molly Hinkle grabbed the injector as she rushed by and saw Ted standing there. Looking at Louise she said, "Louise, get Ted out of here now!"

"I'm losing her, where's ... thanks Molly," he said as the injector was slapped in his hand. Pressing the injector against Jenny's chest, he ripped the shirt open to see the damage. Her right breast was literally shredded where the large round came out.

Ted stood there in shock and felt an arm turn him and pull him out of the room.

"Come on Sir, let's let them work on her."

As they go out the door, he heard a voice say, "I'm losing her." Ted turned as the door closed. Tears were running down his face as he shrugged the hand off his shoulder. "Lisa, come here."

Lisa appears in a sparkling mist. "Hi, Ted. I'm so sorry. Is she ... Oh God no!" Holographic tears started dropping down her face as she thought of her longtime friend.

"Lisa, you mentioned a name a Carlos something. Who the fuck is he?"

"Carlos Fajardo, second in command of the Fajardo cartel, they have a few homes outside of Bogotá. Do you want Marines dispatched there?"

Ted shook his head, and said, "No, prepare my Lancer, jungle camouflage, I'm going down there. Upload pic's of the major players, and where I could find them." Ted turned and walked towards the nearest replicator.

"Replicator, this is the captain I need a Mech suit in my size."

The requested garment appeared and he started walking towards the transport tubes.

Lisa followed and said, "Ted you cannot do this. Calm do..."

Ted whirled on his baby sister.

"Don't tell me what I can and cannot do," he snarled, causing Lisa's face to turn white.

Turning he stepped into the transport tube, and he said, "Mechbay."

As the transport shot him through the ship, he stripped and pulled on his mechsuit. When it came to a stop outside the mechbay, he exited the transport tube, and walked into the bay.

Walking over to his Mech, he climbed in, and started hooking himself up. Within a minute, the Mech was fully operational and he stepped up to the jet packs racks. He activated the automatic systems, which quickly installed the jets to his back. Stepping over to the hatch, he opened it and stepped off. As he fell, the jet pack came on as well as a three hundred foot wide chute that popped open. He started drifting down towards the surface.

Activating his Mech's computer, he got a lock on where he wanted to go, and turned his Mech in that direction. Thirty-five seconds later, he touched down on a paved road and headed up the road to a huge mansion, simply dropping the chute.

Ted activated his sensors and detected forty to fifty humans running around the enclosed house.

Activating his external speakers, he said, "Carlos Fajardo, come out with your hands on your head. Resist me, and I will level your house, and everyone in it. Anyone who works for this scum can drop their weapons. You can walk away, or you can die. It's your fuckin' choice."

Luis Fajardo was running a computer destruct program on his laptop when a voice ordered him to surrender. Walking to the window, he looked out and did not see anything. Picking up his Colt python, he walked to the door and looked out as Hector Garcia came running into main parlor.

"Hector, what is out there?" he said.

Hector came to a stop and looked up at Luis, and said, "Senor, it's a giant robot, it's ordering us to throw down our weapons. What do we do?"

Luis looked at the man as if he was an idiot, and replied, "Do what I pay you to, you have guns and rockets! Blow it up. It is just a stupid American, we are the bulls of the mountain, destroy him. Send me three men, but take the rest out and destroy it."

Hector nodded his head, "Si, Señor, right away, Señor." clutching his AKM-74 assault rifle he headed back outside. Pointing to his men, they scattered to their posts and started setting up their weapons, as the giant robot stepped into the compound. They opened fire on it. Ten RPG's flew across the compound and exploded just before they hit the giant robot. The two Russian KPVT heavy machine guns opened fire, and tried to hit the body with 14.1 mm rounds; but they were stopped short, also.

Ted flinched as the first of the RPG's hit his shields and then looked down at the men firing at him and activated his machineguns and started stitching round around the compound. The sixteen fifty-caliber weapons literally rip the gunners to shreds.

Activating his external speakers, he snarled, "This is for my wife you motherfuckers."

One of the cars exploded in a fireball, as tracer rounds punctured its gas tank. The 2004 Jaguar flipped over and landed on its roof.

Stitching more rounds that shredded the front of the house his scanners detect the men hiding at the windows with weapons. Several of the guards were still alive and they started firing at him with the heavy machineguns again.

Luis heard the high-speed buzz saw sounds of the Mech's gatling guns. Before he could move, the bullets ripped through him and hurled him back from the desk and the laptop.

Checking his scanner again, Ted detected three figures huddled in a small room on the second floor, and he narrowed the scan and saw that they were children, so he turned the weapons off and looked at the carnage. The front of the house at ground level looked like Swiss cheese, and he grinned.