Chapter 21: Vengeance 3

'Vengeance is mine, ' saith the Lord.

Not this time, my Lord.

Aboard Space Dock One, Commodore John Thompson walked out of his office and headed for his personal shuttle. It was docked in one of the many launch bays on the twenty-mile long space dock. Walking through the concourse, he looked out at the USS Ark Royal. He saw the ship was almost completed. The command tower was going up as he watched. He picked up the pace and entered the shuttle bay to find his aide standing there. Lieutenant Susan Blake ... all of four foot nine inches of her, with her midnight dark hair in a ponytail ... stood there, with her computer pad in one hand.

"Lieutenant Blake what are you doing here?"

Smiling up at her boss, she said, "Sir, you didn't think you could slip away without me? Where you go, I go. That is what aides do. Now we best get onboard, so Capitan Harding can start the liftoff, and get you to your daughter. I assume something important has happened to her."

John looked at her in surprise and just had to ask, "How did you know about Jenny? Yes, something has happened to her."

"Sir, you filed the flight plan to the Oregon so logically that means something is wrong with your daughter. If it had been the Washington, I would have assumed it was your wife. I do not see you running off at the drop of a dime on your son's behalf. Therefore, I must assume something has happened to Jenny. It's not the baby, is it?"

Shocked, John looked at Sue and said, "What baby?"

Sue was startled at John's question and responded, "Oh my God! You didn't know? She is four months pregnant!"

John was staggered that he was going to be a grandfather, and then realized he might lose both.

"No, Sue, I did not know. Jenny was shot. She is critically hurt. She may not make it."

John started to collapse. Sue jumped forward, and caught her boss. She guided him up the ramp. Sitting him in one of the plush command chairs, she pressed the intercom pad.

"Kinisha, take us out. Get us to the Oregon as fast as possible. It's life and death, and this is NOT a joke."

Walking over to the replicator, she said, "Scotch three fingers."

The glass materialized. She carried it over to John, and handed it to him.

"Sir, drink this."

John took the drink, and drained it in one gulp.

He handed it back to Sue, and asked, "How did you know she was pregnant?"

"Sir, I initiated an Alpha program on all your kids, so I'd know if something was wrong. I figured as your aide, I should have that information to give you if you needed it. I would not have told you, but you hit me by surprise that she was hurt. Beside I love you, and I ... Oh, damn! I just fucked up." Looking up at John she said, "Sir, after you see to your daughter, I request to be transferred. I should not have said that. I know you love your wife, and would never hurt her with an affair, or take another wife. I will go away," she said as she turned away to hide her tears.

Stunned, John looked at the nineteen old women. He reached up, and took her hand.

"Sue, I don't know what to say. I will not transfer you. Let me think on it and talk to Martha, before we do anything hasty. Now what's the status of the Yamato?"

Turning she smiled at her boss as she pulled her datapad out of her pocket and brought up the data on the USS Yamato and started to report to John when the engines fired up.

On the flight deck, Kinisha, hit the ramp closure button, and fired up the engines. Having already gotten lift off permission she turned the shuttle around, headed for the open bay, and out through the force field. Coming around the giant dock, they passed over the USS Yamato and lined up on Terra. Throwing the throttles to emergency speed, she hurled the ship through space at fifty thousand miles per minute. The inertial compensators strained under the maximum burn. Kinisha checked her computers and saw it was going to take fifteen minutes to get to Earth. Turning on her com, she contacted the small space station in the Earths orbit and she said, "Homebase, this is Builder One I'm inbound to the USS Oregon, ETA to Terra is fifteen minutes."

"Roger Builder One, ETA one-five minutes. The Oregon is over the city of Bogotá at six miles. It is rendering assistance in a terrorist bombing incident, a hospital. I'm relaying your flight plan to them now. Homebase, out."

Ted sighted his plasma rifle on the Black Eagle tanks, while moving quickly so they could not get a lock on him. He switched the cannons to individual fire, and fired the top mounted plasma cannons first. The first round slammed into the tank on the right. The round slammed into the turret and it was blown off the chassis. It traveled for a few more feet, and came to a dead stop. The second round splashed against a boulder as the second tank quickly went into reverse and fired another round that pulverized a forty-ton rock next to Ted's Mech. Rock debris rained over the Mech as he ran up the side of the slope to the cliff face.

"Rita, missile action, full spread enemy tank," Ted ordered.

"Acquiring target ... locked on ... firing."

Fifteen missiles leaped from his missile pack, flew the three hundred yards and slammed into the tank. One of the missiles lost its lock on the target tank, and acquired the damaged tank. The missile plunged into the crew compartment and blew the remains across the battlefield.

Ted checked his damage screen and saw his legs could not take another hit, so coming to a stop he said, "Spiders, repair legs and shield generator."

Standing there, he watched the spiders go to work on repairing his legs as he scanned for any sign of movement. Turning up the audio sensors, he listened for anything he couldn't see and detected someone moving up the canyon. Swiveling the torso of his Mech that way, he brought up the telescopic sites. The crackling of the fire from the burning tanks could be heard as he focused on the boulders where he expected the person was hiding. Aiming his plasma cannon at the location, he turned his external com speakers on. He fired one burst, just behind the boulders, and spoke into the com.

Francisco Pena hated his job, just because he was the new person, did not make it right for him to have to crawl along the ground looking for whatever blew up the tanks. Hearing a crackling he looked back at the flames shooting up from the tanks and shook his head. Moving his hand quickly, he made the sign of the cross, and started crawling again.

Francisco yiked as the ground exploded behind him and looking back, he saw the ground was burning. The flames were burning so brightly that they hurt to even look at them. Shading his eyes from the flames, he noticed they burned a holy white, as if the angels were upon him. Suddenly a voice said something in English. Then he heard it repeated in Spanish.

"Whoever is behind the rock, the next burst will shatter it, and you. Therefore, I advise you to come out with no weapons. If you comply, you will live. If you don't you WILL die!"

Still staring at the flames, Francisco saw the rock was literality melting and he dropped his AK-47, stood up with his hands over his head, and stepped out.

"Please, Señor, don't kill me."

Ted stared at the man who stepped out from behind the boulder and noticed three things. One he was scrawny; two, his face was bruised as if someone had been beating him; and three, he had pissed his pants.

"I said I won't kill you. What is your name? Tell me where Carlos Fajardo is."

Francisco gulped as he looked up at the towering metal monster with the strange spiders like creatures crawling all over it. He noticed that they seemed to be repairing it, and he stammered in fear.

"Francisco ... Francisco Peña. I'm a new guard," he said. Turning he pointed at the way from which he had come, and continued, "Boss is that way in big cave with many weapons."

Seeing the thing move, he dropped to the ground huddling there as he prayed and crossed himself, muttering over and over, "Don't kill me."

Ted looked down at the worm and wished he could just step on it, but he had promised he wouldn't.

Ted snapped out, "I said I won't kill you. Now start walking towards Bogotá, when you get there, turn yourself in to the first police officer you meet. You will confess your sins to your priest and to the police, or so help me I will find you and stuff you out an airlock at fifty thousand feet with no parachute. Am I clear?"

Francisco started nodding his head so hard that it hurt when he stopped as he muttered, "Yes, Sir! I see police, I tell them everything."

Ted quickly said, "Now run!" as he pointed his plasma cannons at the man.

Francisco looked up at the giant weapon, pissed his pants again, and took off running down the road as fast as his skinny legs would carry him. Looking back, he saw the strange robot start moving away, as he ducked into the trees.

Ted watched his spiders work on one of the side screens, and saw that the armor plate had been restored. Turning on his com, he said, "Spiders return."

Re-powering his legs he started walking up the canyon. Turning on the external speakers, again, he started playing Ride of the Valkyries. Passing over the rough ground he poke into the external com system.

"Carlos Fajardo I'm coming for you. You shot and killed my wife you son of a bitch, I have killed your brother, and now it is your turn. Tremble in fear, and know your death is near," he said.

Stepping around another bend, he saw the opening of a large cave and he rotated his torso and let loose with his first barrage of missiles that slammed into the cliff face. Explosions blasted out of the wall, one of the five-foot missiles actually went inside, and a large explosion detonated out of the cave as one thousand pounds of explosives stacked on the truck detonated as the missile hit the truck.

The cab of the truck was hurled out of the cave opening. The explosion demolished a five thousand gallon tanker truck filled with diesel fuel. The resulting explosion hurled rock and car parts everywhere and black oily smoke billowed up into the air. Two men staggered out on fire and Ted watched them burn, with no feeling in him.

Moving up he started scanning for more life and detected them around the bend scattered in the canyon.

"Come out, Carlos, I want to play kickball with you. If you make me dig you out of your nest I'm going to be really pissed off."

Carlos listened to the loud music that he recognized as Wagner, and then the voice started talking, telling him what he was going to do to him. Walking over to his Hummer with the last two duffle bags in his hand, he tossed them onto the seat. He grinned as he thought of the two hundred and fifty million in United States currency inside them. Climbing into the Hummer, that he had left running in the cave, he started driving down the escape route. Behind him, another large explosion detonated as he went deeper through the mountain and came out on an old dirt road. Stopping at the entrance, he waited and listened for more explosions as he pulled out a small box with a button on it and pressed it.

Ted stepped around the bend. He spotted the second cave, and lined up on it. Suddenly, his shield started flickering as five mini-guns opened fire. Before he could react, twenty RPG's had streaked in and hit his shields. Walking forward Ted fired his plasma cannon and blew one of the mini guns off the cliff face and the other went silent. Sweeping his remaining machineguns around he stitched three men who had popped up armed with RPGs. Taking another step, his foot came down on the antitank mine, and the footpad disintegrated under the compact explosion. Six claymores detonated around him. Thousands of steel ball bearings hit his shields and they crashed down.

"Son of a bitch. Missiles action front saturation spread."

Firing his missiles directly ahead of him, they were set to explode every five feet apart. The entire cliff face exploded outward and tumbled down, burying two of the mini-guns and twenty other men firing on him. Swiveling his Mech's torso, he took the last mini-gun under fire. The twin blasts of his plasma cannon blasted the hidden gunner out of his hole, where he had been reloading.

Juan Santiago shook his head, climbed to his knees, and looked out of his gun position. He saw that the robot was firing his weapons on several men armed with RPGs. Climbing behind his mini-gun, again, he sighted on the robot. He could see the massive damage it had taken. Its hull was pocketed with hundreds of divots where the mini-gun fire had impacted on it. Checking his ammo belt, he saw he had about two hundred rounds left. Pressing the firing button, the barrels start twirling and he let loose with a continuous stream of bullets that tore into the robot. An explosion detonated from the thing's shoulder. Stitching the fire down the body his rounds start ripping into the chest area and then his gun went quiet. It turned to face him and he dropped and started scrambling away from his empty weapon.

Ted watched the man burn to death under the fire of an exploding star. When it flickered out, there was nothing left of the mini-gun or the gunman. More rockets impact his Mech. He swiveled the torso some more and let loose with his machineguns and plasma cannons. The fifty caliber rounds shatter the rocks the men are hiding behind and blood sprayed out and covered the cliff wall as his plasma cannon fired and hit among five men running away blowing them up and scattering their remains all over the canyon floor.

"Sir, I have an electronic signal from inside the cave ... it's counting down."

Ted started turning towards the cave entrance when another mini-gun opened up, the rounds started ripping into his Mech, his remaining missile pack exploded, and then the rounds walk down the hull ripping into the torso. Critical systems started flashing, his storage compartment, with 3400 rounds of fifty caliber rounds, exploded. The Mech staggered back as he leveled his plasma cannon on the target and let loose. The mini-gun went flying out of the bunker.

"Warning."

Ted punched buttons on his consoles, and said, "Shut the hell up. Detect for life scans."

"One life sign thirty feet from last target," a few seconds pass, and it continued, "Warning hydrogen reactor failure."

Ted shut the audio down, and said, "Shut the hell up, initiate spider repair." Turning his Mech, he started staggering towards the life form and saw a man crawling behind the boulders. Suddenly the man popped up with an RPG and fired it at him. Activating the tractor beam, he yanked the man up off the ground and turned the external com on.

Juan Santiago crawled along the floor of the fighting position that the men had made. Going around a corner, he headed down the small incline when he felt the heat blossom behind him.

When he looked, he saw his mini-gun go flying out of the bunker, and said. "Damn that was close."

Passing several dead bodies, he avoided the pools of blood, and continued on. Peeking over he saw the robot standing there and he quickly ducked down under the edge of the boulders. Grabbing an RPG that was loaded he popped up and fired it at the robot as he flew up into the air.

The missile slammed into the open compartment that stored the spiders. The explosion hurled them out of the compartment and scattered their broken remains all over the ground.

Juan heard the voice say, "Hey, fuckhead, where's Carlos? The motherfucker killed my wife, and you have five seconds to tell me, or I smash you into the cliff."

Looking up at the robot, Juan said, "Fuck you, she was a puta."

Ted fumed at the stupid Columbian, and slammed him into the wall of the cliff. Yelling in the com unit in English, he snarled, "I told you what would happen. Do you want to try again?"

Juan hung there, seeing stars, and shook his head. He realized the man was speaking in English, and replied, "Put me down gringo, and we fight man to man. I will kill you so you can join your whore."

Ted grinned at the request, and said, "You want to fight hand to hand? Okay, it's going to be your last mistake, you shithead."

Ted opened the door and climbed down the ladder. Looking up at the Lancer, he said, "AI, lower the man until he is five feet off the ground and then shut the tractor beam off."

The tractor beam shut off and the Columbian dropped to the ground. "Okay fuckhead you wanted hand to hand you got it."

Juan shook his head and whipped his dagger out, and said, "I'm going to give you a Columbian necktie, then I'm going to cut your prick off and stuff it in your mouth."

Ted looked at the man, and asked, "What's your name?"

Confused Juan looked at the man and said, "Why you want to know my name gringo? It won't do you any good. You're going to die."

"I want to know, unless you're scared to tell me," replied Ted.

Juan slapped his chest and said, "I not afraid! My name is Juan ... Juan Santiago! I have killed fifty gringos like you, and I will kill you, and take your robot as mine. Then everyone will fear me."

Ted reached down to his left boot, and pulled out his twelve-inch bowie knife out of his boot sheath and said, "No, shitface. First, I'm going to cut your hand off that holds your dinky knife. Then I will cut your balls off, then your feet. Between each cutting, I will ask you again where Carlos is. If you tell me I will kill you quickly, if not, I will skin you alive.

Juan swung his knife and missed the gringo. He was aiming where he had been standing, then he saw that the gringo was now to his side. Swinging around, he lined up and swung the blade again, as he snarled in his broken English, "You're fast gringo, but I will get you."

Ted looked at the man and all he saw was slime, as he replied, "You're slow and old, I don't believe you killed fifty people. I think you lied about it."

Juan charged the man and swung his knife but the man was suddenly gone and he felt a foot hit him in his ribs.

"Oooff!" he exploded, as the breath went out of him.

He flew through the air and landed five feet away with a bone-jarring jolt. Rolling to his feet, he picked up his knife and took a deep breath refilling his lungs, and snarled, "You're good gringo, but I'm better."

Ted walked towards the man, and replied, "Juan, just tell me where he is, and I will let you live like I did Francisco. Don't and I'm going to really hurt you."

Juan bent his knees, separated his feet, and slowly moved towards the gringo, as he said, "Francisco was a coward. After I kill you, I will find him and his family and kill them. However, before I kill him I will have fun with his wife and daughter. Their deaths will follow yours to hell."

"No, I don't think so." Ted said as he stepped in, and faked a kick and then punched Juan in the face when he dropped his arm to block it.

Juan staggered back, then came right back at the gringo swinging his knife. He saw it catch the gringos left arm, ripping the clothes and blood spurted from the wound.

"You're dead, gringo."

Stepping back Ted checked the cut and saw it was deep on his forearm.

"No, I don't think so. You see I was playing with you, now you die."

Stepping in Ted blocked Juan's next attack. He brought the blade down and around Juan started screaming as his hand dropped to the ground. "You still have a chance, I can help you regenerate the hand, just tell me what I want to know."

Juan staggered back and fell to the ground, tucking his bloody wrist into his shirt he reaches behind him for the pistol he kept in his waistband, and snarled, "Die gringo!" Whipping the pistol out and around he started to raise it.

Ted watched as Juan brought the gun out and he hurled the knife in an underhand throw. His enhanced strength hurled the knife across the ten feet and it buried itself to the hilt in his chest.

Juan felt a sharp pain in his chest. Looking down he saw the gringo's knife buried to the hilt in his chest.

"No! I should have killed..."

"Stupid fuck."

Yanking his knife out, Ted turned and walked towards his Mech.

Carlos jerked the wheel over the rough terrain of the canyon and finally lined the Hummer up with the dirt road. Reaching over to the passenger seat, he flipped the remote over and saw there was twenty-five seconds left on the countdown.

"Bye, bye asshole, better luck next time."

Ted started climbing up the ladder mounted to the side of his Mech. Passing a single spider working desperately to repair the Mech; he shook his head at the stupidity of men. Going in the hatch, he sat down and as he was strapping himself into the chair, an explosion detonated from the cave hurling pulverized rock and machinery out of the tunnel.

Looking out the cockpit at the smoke, he said, "Son of a bitch, I hope that bastard wasn't in there."

Ted waited for the remaining spider to do the minimum repairs when he saw the AI's light flashing.

Reaching over he turned it on and said, "Sorry, Rita, you have a report for me?"

"Yes, Sir. The Mech is critically damaged, and you're down to one repair spider. I suggest you return to the ship for repairs. Also I have scanned the debris. No one was in the cave or the tunnel behind it when it collapsed."

"Son of a bitch, this guy has more lives than a cat. Scan for any vehicles."

"Scanning ... I have a single vehicle heading down the mountain at seventy miles an hour, one person inside. I advise you wait five more minutes for repairs before you go after him or her."

"What ... Why wait?" ask Ted in surprise.

"Sir, the chest cavity is open to any incoming fire and the slightest damage could hit the hydrogen reactor and cause this unit to explode, also your Mech's leg is damaged and must be repaired."

"All right. Five minutes, no more."

Stepping the Mech away from the shattered spiders, he aimed his plasma cannons and fired a single burst to melt them down.

"Why did you do that, Sir?"