GalTech and the Shadow Warriors: Growth of a Star Empire Read online

  GALTECH AND THE SHADOW WARRIORS

  GalTech Series Book One - Growth of A Star Empire

  BY MAGNUM INDIANA

  Copyright © 2017

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

  Disclaimer

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed or used in this novel products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real people or incidents or groups is purely coincidental.

  This is the first book of the GalTech Series.

  Contact Information:

  Email: [email protected]

  Twitter: @MagnumIndiana

  Acknowledgements and Dedication

  I have to thank my wife for putting up with a husband buried in his office filling pages with imagination and perhaps an occasional fact. My daughters were great inspirations, proofreaders, content critics and project cheerleaders.

  I also thank the wonderful people of my AR (Advanced Review) team that volunteered to be a reality check. They tell me what they do or do not like about the advance copies I send. Thanks in advance to the people that read this and email me comments that do not necessarily need to be about the book. Those I am fortunate enough to touch in some fashion enhance the quality of my life and the joy I find in writing.

  The Writer’s Association, an Internet-based group created and headed by the late William Rieser, taught me how to have fun with writing. Bill and they also introduced The Chicago Manual of Style, multi-national chat room sessions, satire, some wonderful people and me to editing. I dedicate this to Bill’s memory and to Sandra, the sweet and talented wife who loved him fiercely.

  Contents

  Acknowledgements and Dedication

  Chapter 1 – Attacked

  Chapter 2 – Med Bunker Changes

  Chapter 3 – Eva and Attitude

  Chapter 4 – Will’s First Test

  Chapter 5 – GalTech Is Born

  Chapter 6 – An Unlikely First Employee

  Chapter 7 – When the Plan Goes to Hell…

  Chapter 8 – Flashback to Shoot ‘n Scoot

  Chapter 9 – Employee Number Two

  Chapter 11 – The Recruiter

  Chapter 12 – Kat / KITTY and A Bit of Whoop Ass

  Chapter 13 – Brief Insights

  Author’s Comments

  Chapter 1 – Attacked

  Eva did not have time to observe the niceties of form. She slammed her elbow into the big man’s throat and then used him as a shield while he fell. It gave her time to draw her CNT and put a charged needle into each of the three men who were starting to pump silent energy-release rounds into the assailant she held in front of her. She did not have time to watch the grisly effect as her CNT's needles passed through a small intense energy field as they left her gun, turn into marble sized balls of plasma before hitting a body, and explosively converting fist-sized chunks of the body into a sickly colored steam and bits of ash.

  She looked back down the corridor of the palace. Whoa, bother and cra…this is a long hallway! It was hard to see the end. It was easier to see the six men running down the hall toward her. She seemed to be the last person alive between the Emperor and the bad guys (BAWs in the parlance of the Shadows, the elite insurgency and counter insurgency mercenaries of the Teaman Empire. BAW stood for Biological Ass Wipe.) If the BAWs nailed the guards in the defense center too, they had put down twenty-one of the Emperor’s best guards.

  The last transmission had a count of forty-four BAWs dead and ready to fertilize future Tulips. There had to be lots more dead outside judging from all the gunfire. Now she understood why they had insisted that ten Shadows rotate into the Emperor’s Personal Guard every two years. This shambles had to be an inside job, or at least based on inside information. Part of her brain thought it funny how the mind could reflect on things like that while she was tactically falling behind the corpse she held in front of her as a shield.

  She flicked on the holo-site on her CNT and pressed twice. That not only gave her an enlarged view of anything she pointed it at, it also filtered out anything that was not biologic by sensing body heat, aura, heart and fluid audio, and both macro and micro movement. Whatever she pointed at filled the six by six by six inch holo cube projected on top of her gun and the aim of the weapon was highlighted as a bright yellow blinking dot on that target. She dispatched four of the assailants and was surprised when the other two literally exploded before she could aim at them. Then she saw why.

  "Damn it! Your Highness, Sir, get down! Stay there. I will come to you." Oh whale dung! The emperor is probably going be as big a problem as the BAWs. At least he can shoot. I hope he doesn’t think he needs to protect a woman. He is the one guy that I can’t pound to a pulp just to assure him I can take care of myself and anyone else in the area.

  The Emperor had hidden beneath one of the decorative tables that lined the corridor. The heavy, decorative, draped material that overhung either end hid him effectively. After the six would be assassins ran by him, he rolled out from under the table and picked off the last two with a heavy-assault version of a sonic disrupter.

  As the last two dead assailants thudded to the ground, Eva reached the Emperor and grabbed his hand. She hauled him up to his feet with a strength that shocked him in spite of all he knew about her from her file. As she pulled him behind her she said, "Come on. We have to get out of this corridor before somebody uses something really nasty on us."

  She blew the locks off the first door she came to and kicked it open. With one smooth movement, she pulled the Emperor inside while scanning the room’s interior. Satisfied the room was empty, she motioned the Emperor to get down while dropping to the floor and peering back down the hallway.

  Just then the telecom implant imbedded into the back of her jaw came back to life.

  "Major Quan, do you copy?"

  Eva recognized the voice of Colonel Juan Garcia, a retired Shadow Colonel. Colonel Garcia was coaxed out of retirement to head the Emperor’s personal guard. She replied by shifting her lower jaw to the side until she heard the soft internal click.

  "Quan here sir; we are in room C-21. I have Emperor Jasper with me. He seems unhurt. Should I blow the outer wall and move him outside?"

  "No. Stay put. There is more to come. The security scrubbers are still flying. They not quite finished neutralizing a massive dose of imported viruses. It is a nasty combination. And it just gets more interesting."

  Eva did not like the word interesting when applied to a mission or action. I am sure this news is going to be all Skippy and joyful.

  "It looks like the BAWs left a fail-safe in case they needed it. Just outside the contaminated area, we reached three cages of treebarbs in the back of a repair vehicle in time to stop the timed charges from opening the cage doors. We were too late on three other cages. Mannie guesses that there were three to a cage and we have about nine loose on the grounds. You have to assume that they have been sensitized to smell and have been taught to hate the Emperor’s scent." The Colonel realized that he may have just told Eva how she was about to die.

  Eva mentally cringed. She knew that treebarbs were born with a bad attitude. They were one of the few predators that would kill for motivations other than hunger or protection. Putting them in a cage and poking them with sticks that smelled like someone you wanted killed was an effective was to "sensitize" them to the hapless target.

  "I blew the lock
to get in the door to C-21. Against angry treebarbs, a lock would not have mattered anyhow. I will try to set up a kill zone in this room. Is anyone coming to help me?"

  Eva knew there would be people desperately trying to reach her to help. She really was asking if there was any chance they would make if before she got acquainted with the treebarbs.

  "I have ten left alive with weapons. Only four are Shadows. Mannie is leading those four your way. There is a Shadow company in the air but at least fourteen minutes away."

  She understood. A treebarb was about the nastiest biological killer man had yet run across in the Universe. It was a cross between a Terran Ape, a Cheetah, and a Raptor of early Terra. They were fast, strong, hunted in threes, and were perpetually angry. The three, three-inch, retractable claws in either hand were razor sharp near the tips.

  They learned incredibly quickly when it came to killing. If they found a gun, they would probably just use it as a club. Unfortunately, if you used one to shoot at them, they quickly figured out how to use it to shoot at you. She did not need someone in those coming to help that did not have the enhanced reflexes of a Shadow. Even a Shadow might have his gun taken away by a treebarb and used against her. However, if a Shadow shot at a treebarb, she was confident of a hit that would kill or slow it. Mannie, like Colonel Garcia, was ex-Shadow and stayed at the top of his form.

  She clicked her jaw in the opposite direction twice and said, "All guards, this is Major Quan. We are in C-21 and the door is blown. If you are not on the team Colonel Garcia has assigned to help, stay away from this area and do not shoot at a treebarb except in self-defense. As for any assisting Shadows, do not enter without identifying yourself. I will shoot at any movement through the door. Announce yourself with the call sign for this hour. Out, but acknowledge."

  While turning to the Emperor, she heard a chorus of acknowledgements and a position update from Mannie.

  "Your Highness, we have a problem. Several treebarbs, possibly nine, are on their way here. The BAWs probably tormented them with objects bearing your scent. If that is the case, they will definitely want to rip you to shreds. I have to get you into the corner and protect you as much as I can. We need a killing field, so I have to move some furniture. Can you cover the door with your cannon while I do it?"

  "Sure. I can help, Eva. I know your mission is to protect me, but we can at least team up on this."

  She was a little taken by his use of her first name. Taken and flattered. Too bad that she probably would not live to be suitably impressed about it later. Though never officially told, she knew the Emperor had received Shadow enhancements and training. Unfortunately, a highly trained Shadow just finished with boot camp, was no match for Eva and certainly no match for a treebarb.

  "Sorry sir, but my mission is to protect you, not the other way around. Against treebarbs, you need really fast reflexes. Mine are on the high scale even for a Shadow."

  "Yes, I know. On paper, they are about as fast as mine, Eva," he said while shoving a massive table against the furniture pile growing at the doorway.

  She stared at him in surprise. "Do you use them every day?"

  "I work out at least an hour a day and spend some of that time at max speed. Not that we will live to worry about it, but that information is supposed to be highly secret."

  It was the Emperor’s turn to be impressed. Eva was under as much stress as he could imagine and she was still calm, sexy and attractive. He mentally kicked himself for taking that turn of thought at a moment like this.

  She shrugged. "That’s Skippy. If they get me, you may still have a chance. There may be nine or more of them. They hunt in teams of three. We have to assume someone had some object of yours to give them your scent and then beat or tormented them each time they let them smell it. They will be coming directly for you as soon as they get your scent. I am betting that their anger will override caution. Their attack will probably be fast and frontal," she said as she shoved the last ornate chair to the pile at the door.

  They built a wall in front of the door that the treebarbs would have to go over. She turned some tables and a desk over at the far corner of the room to give her and the Emperor a shooting blind.

  "Major, uh, Eva they are going to be coming for me no matter what. Why not set yourself up on the side and pick them off when they come at me?"

  Okay, now she was indeed impressed. Either he did not know a lot about treebarbs or he was trying to protect her at his own expense. Eva did not feel like a beautiful woman. Enough people told he she was that she assumed it was true. Attracting a man was never a problem. However, relationships never seemed to work out. Damn. A man I could really like and an impossible relationship. It is going to be hard trying to save his ass if he insists on being honorable.

  "It won’t work, Your Highness. They hunt in threes. It is genetically encoded. Even angry, one will try to be a diversion while the other two come at us from other angles. Our best bet is shoulder to shoulder. By the way, where did you get that canon?"

  "Oh, the family has used those tables in the corridor for more than decoration for many years. Panels in the bottom hide weapons. Do you think we will need these?" He held up two small grenades that were painted yellow and red.

  She smiled and said, "Oh yeah." Then she reached for one of them.

  Just about then, they both saw a fuzzy head and two sharply slit eyes at the corner of the pile of furniture at the doorway. Without thinking, Eva twisted a grenade twice to shorten the fuse time. She threw it with her right hand while pushing the Emperor down to the floor with her left hand. She threw herself on top of him at the same time two of the treebarbs launched themselves over the barrier. The blast hit both treebarbs in mid-air. Shrapnel tore them apart and knocked their third hunt-mate back over the barrier. Splinters and small pieces of shrapnel also made a mess out of Eva’s left leg, which, fortunately, protected the Emperor’s head and neck from the blast. The leg still had movement but seeped blood.

  They both managed to get to their knees when the third treebarb launched itself back over the barrier. Eva shot it a half a second before it could dig its outstretched clawed fingers into the Emperor’s neck. She hit it in both arms and in the head. It collapsed before reaching wide-eyed and surprised Emperor William Jasper. Will knew he was fast but could hardly believe the speed of the treebarb or of Eva.

  As they looked up, three more treebarbs launched themselves at the stunned pair. Eva shot one in mid-air. One was caught by Will’s disrupter long enough to die. Eva’s turn to be surprised at the reflexes and skill let Will hold a disrupter long enough on the treebarb to kill it. It was like hitting a humming bird with a squirt gun enough times in succession to drown it. Okay, so it wasn’t just bluster to impress the blond. Skippy-do-dah, the guy is fast! Where is that last treebarb? Oh, damn!

  The last treebarb caught Will’s shoulder with its claws momentarily before being batted aside by Eva’s punch and by Will’s back kick into the treebarb’s stomach. Will’s shoulder bled profusely from three deep claw slices. As he turned to face the enraged treebarb, he slipped on the blood of the first dead barb. While he fell to his knees and elbows, he felt the remaining treebarb land on his back. He vaguely remembered thinking that nothing should hit that hard and that fast before falling unconscious from fist and elbow blows to the head and shoulders.

  The treebarb’s blows stopped abruptly as Eva grabbed the treebarb’s neck and tail and threw it straight up in the air. That gave her time to throw several hard kicks and punches into a confused animal that was somehow able to block all of them except the last one, which broke its left leg. Enraged even more, it forgot about Will and turned its fury on the female that hurt it. It grabbed a table top with its outstretched claws and flung itself at Eva. It landed a glancing full fist blow to Eva’s left shoulder before Eva ducked away from the extended-talon swipe that followed. When the treebarb landed, the pain in its leg made it scream. The scream ended in death as Eva’s right foot crushed the tree barb’
s throat and her right thumb drove through the tree barb’s eye into its brain. Shots in the corridor accounted for the remaining three treebarbs.

  "Percolate, I repeat password is PERCOLATE," yelled Sergeant Major Denny Dennis through the door a moment before he and three other Shadows dove through the door. They quickly cleared the room, put make-sure rounds through the both the twitching and the inanimate treebarbs, and hurried to the Emperor and Eva.

  "Lordy Major, you sure do make a mess when you play," quipped Denny. He motioned for Corporal Zak to blow a hole in the wall to the outside to give instant access to the medical team hovering in the air above room C-21.

  Eva glanced around to make sure Will was still breathing. She felt a strange wave of reassurance about Will run through her. Somehow, she absolutely knew he was all right. Well, I will never carp about full speed workouts again. From this point on, I think I will spar against as many people at one time as I can. A few bruises will be totally acceptable if it can help me prepare for something like this. Too bad that going a few rounds with Will will never be an option. He is socially way above my pay grade. Just as well. It would be a giant mistake on several levels.

  Will regained consciousness in time to see them loading Eva onto a stretcher. She was covered with blood. He stood up and put a hand up to stop the administrations of bandages to his remaining minor wounds by the facility medics who survived the attack. He walked stiffly over to Eva’s stretcher and put a gentle hand on the only place that looked like it was unwounded; her hair. He too somehow absolutely knew that she would be all right. That must be coming from my symbiont.

  "Hey lady, I hope most of this blood belonged to the treebarbs."

  She smiled up at him weakly. Her painkillers were kicking in.

  "Eva, you saved my life…more than once. I will never forget that."