Have a lot of fun

Blimey! 

Patra was having a frustrating time. They had closed with the raiders, who had evaded to attack from a different. It was like a limbering freighter being nipped by agile fighters. Surprisingly, the raiders contented themselves with popping at the PEM with small arms. If just one the three stopped for long enough to drop off someone with a missile, PEM2 would be in trouble.

Patra used the autocannon firing short bursts at long range without apparent effect. She grimaced.
"Ever have the feeling we're being kept away?"  Bora grunted and threw the PEM into what was supposed to be a tight turn in order to keep one of the raiders from being able to attach the vulnerable rear of the PEM. Patra fired off another burst, which caused a raider to veer off.
"I swear, I'm tempted to try a missile." PEM2 carried missiles, but they were of the artillery type rather than the anti-vehicle type. They would make a big bang, but a nimble raider could probably be well away before it impacted. Besides, they only carried four and there were no spares in this star system. Bora grunted again.

"Stop!" Patra ordered. She looked at the screen. They were over 10 miles from PEM1, which was almost directly behind them.
"Reverse. Back up. We're going to rejoin PEM1. Just keep our nose pointed at the raiders. "
"Good call." Bora threw PEM2 into reverse and the big vehicle began to shuffle backwards. The raiders fussed around, staying carefully out of autocannon distance.


Stine was digging her third hole. Breen was on her fourth. Rese was showing increasing irritation, the gesticulating getting wider and more descriptive. Sean was close now. Janey could see that his vehicle would be with them in just a few minutes. A sense of relief flooded over her. Her drone was flying circuits round PEM1, whilst Firz's drone kept an overview of PEM2's battle.

Firz had just noted PEM2's slow reversal when Stine popped up from her hole and waved. Rese ran over and knelt as Stine pulled a box from the round. Janey estimated it to be maybe three feet long, and maybe a foot deep and wide. Rese grabbed the box and opened it. Presumably it had no lock, or Rese had the key.  From the box, she pulled a white sheet – a cloth. As Stine and Breen knelt before her, she shook. The white cloth caught the eye and looking out her port Janey could see it had something written on it – "Purity".       
 
Reverently, Rese refolded the flag and put it back in the box., The box she put in the long bag. As Stine and Breen began fillign the holes they had dug, Rese walked slowly towards PEM1, bag in hand, satisfied smirk on her face.

Fifty yards from the PEM, Rese laid down the bag and unhurriedly opened it. She pulled a single shot missile launcher from the bag and deliberately aimed it at the cockpit of PEM1.

Sean was too late. He knew he was too late. He watched in horror as the missile struck behind the cockpit of PEM1. A bright explosion and the cockpit disappeared.

Sean was out of the vehicle, charging towards Rese.
"Steady Marine." Alder's voice cut through his rage. He slowed his run, finger white knuckled on his gauss rifle. His breath came as sobs, and his hands shook. He was only dimly aware that Alder and Rowan had peeled off to engage Stine and Breen in a firefight. Sean was totally focused on Rese who waited for him, arms raised, a smile of her face.
"I'm unarmed. Please don't shoot me." The tone was mocking. Rese pirouetted so that Sean could see she carried no weapons. "I think your girlfriend may be a little bit dead. Oops."
The fire on PEM1 crackled and Sean's attention was momentary drawn to the sound. Rese moved like a greased snake. She slapped the Gauss rifle away from her, and moved to grab Sean by the arm, spinning him around and throwing him to the ground. She followed this with a vicious kick to the head, the effect diminished by Sean's Marine helmet.
Sean rolled and came to his knees. He caught the foot aimed at his face and pushed. Rese fell back, but was up on her feet immediately. They circled like wrestlers, Rese smirking and taunting the young Marine.
"Your bed's gonna be very cold. Not like your girlfriend. She's really hot now." Rese laughed at her own joke, and Sean moved in, feinting a jab, but changing to a kick aimed at Rese's knee. Rese turned so the kick landed on her thigh. Painful but not damaging.
"Got to do better than that Kid." She mocked. "Did you know your girl and that dog were at it?" She laughed again.
Sean launched himself at her. If she was expecting another feint, she was wrong. He leapt at her, hands wrapping around her throat, body pressing her backwards. For the first time Rese's confidence faltered. She beat at Sean's ribs, but his armour took the blows. She tried to scratch at his face, but his elbows were well spread so she couldn't reach. She tried to knee him in the groin, but he grinned mirthlessly as her knee met armour.
Rese began to panic as she began to feel consciousness fading as Seans fingers pressed deeper into her throat. She fell backwards and the sudden movement caused Sean to lose his balance and he fell with her. She sucked in air as his grip released and fought to control the fight. She struck his face with her elbow and again and again and again, repeatedly until his nose broke and his eyes filled with blood. His vision blurred and his body seemed to lose strength. She rolled and rose to straddle him, a knife appearing in her hand.
"Pathetic." She snarled. Through blooded eyes, Sean saw Rese above him, knife in hand, farmed by the burning PEM1. He watched as if detached as the knife rise waited for the final strike. It didn't come. Instead Rese's chest gouted blood. With a surprised look, the archaeologist toppled off Sean and not the dust.

Firz spat at the corpse. Her clothing was burned and torn to shreds. She was covered in blood and her fur was charred and smoking in places. She held a shard of debris from PEM1 in both hands, ready to strike again if necessary, but seeing that Rese was in fact dead, she allowed herself to collapse.   

Buon viaggio! Where are you going? We are not long back from a trip to Genoa and Turin.

Smita entered the medic bay. Exe lay in the bed, still as a corpse except for the eyes that watched every move of the young doctor.
"I don't want you." She hissed. Smita was taken somewhat aback. "I want the other one. Not you."
"Oh. Of course. May I ask why you don't want me to tend you?"
"Because " Exe spat "you are one of them."
"Them?"
"The unnatural ones." Exe pointed at her head. "The ones who are wrong up here. Manipulators and deceivers ... unnatural." She coughed. A trail of drool ran unheeded down her cheek.
"You mean people who have psi abilities?" asked Smita quietly, reflecting on her recent change of heart on this matter.
"When Purity rises, you and all your ilk will be wiped away ... and all the degenerate beasts ... the dogs and the lions and the ... " Exe's eyes were bright with fervour, fanaticism. "wiped away, so that decent humans can live unafraid."
"What makes you say I have psi ability?"  Smita retained her professional manner with difficulty.
"I can smell it on you." The tiny professor sneered.
"Really?" Smita cocked her head in question. "Perhaps you have some psi ability yourself." With that she turned and marched from the room, hoping Exe wouldn't see the shaking that was taking hold of her body.


Janey pulled the drone into a final circuit. Once Firz had launched her drone, Janey would land hers for recharge and relaunch. They had been travelling for some hours. As far as Janey could tell they were travelling in a straight line, headed directly for who knew what.  The terrain of Eric rolled by in flat greyness, broken by clumps of clumps of exotic flora. Some of these plants were big enough to hide threats in, so Janey and Firz had to fly their drones close enough to investigate. It was tedious and boring work, demanding high levels of concentration.

Occasionally Janey would tilt her drone to see far behind the PEM. A vehicle was behind them, catching up fast. Sean was there. He was coming.

"Stopping in one minute." Bora's cheerful voice came over the intercom. Janey idly wondered why Patra never used the intercom. Either Patra thought it beneath her or she really hated Janey. Alternatively, Janey thought more charitably, Patra had delegated the task to the youngest member of the crew as a vital function.

Janey wheeled her drone ahead of the PEM. The seemed to be heading for one of the enigmatic high level trackways that had stood on Eric for many centuries. There were a few clumps of the huge plants, but otherwise their destination seemed nothing special.

"Up." Firz was confirming that she had launched her drone. Janey put hers into a landing profile.

The door behind them slid open and Rese was there again.
"Keep the drones flying. This is dangerous territory." Janey wondered how Rese made that assessment. They weren't that far from the Town's new sensor network, besides which Warspite was probably tracking them from orbit. She had no time to respond before Rese had slammed the door shut and was gone.

As her drone was charging, Janey watched as the three archaeologists dismounted from the PEM. Stine and Breen carried rifles and shovels; Rese hefted a long bag. What that could contain, Janey had no clue. They seemed to be very casual about operating in dangerous territory. They did not wear armour and their weapons were slung over their shoulders. Rese seemed to be consulting a screen, pointing and waving and stamping about until finding the required spot under one of the legs of the trackway. Stine and Breen laid their rifles aside carefully, and began to dig.

"Contact." Firz was professionally cool reporting the potential threat. "Three fast moving vehicles, twenty miles out. Heading straight for us." Janey clicked on the intercom and repeated the information. She watched Rese stand and put a hand to his ear as if listening. Crafty Rese had taken a remote headset with her.
"PEM2. Detach and engage." Rese ordered.
"No!" Janey new that the PEM was not a combat vehicle and a single PEM module would be no match for a determined enemy. The fight in the Town had shown how vulnerable a PEM module was to even the lightest of infantry support weapons.
"Stand down PEM1. I have command. PEM2 proceed as instructed."
"Sorry PEM1." Bora sounded genuinely apologetic. "Detaching."
Janey felt the shudder of decoupling, and PEM2 trundled through the high legs of the trackway.  Now, she felt alone. She tilted her drone to see how far away Sean was, and as dismayed to see how far behind he still was.
   

Smita had been looking at the history of the Purity Cult. She had watched so many scenes of attacks, riots,  murders. Scenes of barbaric executions, of terror attacks and unmitigated massacres. An old man had his brain surgically destroyed because he had won the lottery twice, so was accused of being prescient. A species of gentle tree dwellers poisoned because they were deemed to be too close to achieving higher cognitive abilities because they had constructed bridges between their trees. Vargyr children torn apart by ferocious dogs in what Purity considered to be a fitting irony.

Smita shut off the images. She tried to sleep but the images came back to her interspersed with the voice of Exe saying they would be "wiped away". Could this happen again? Could Purity rise? She found herself in the medic bay. Exe was asleep. Unbidden, Smita's green glow flared then died as she sought control. She looked at the tiny body. She could see the pulse in the throat, the chest rising and falling in deep regularity. She reached out with her mind. She felt the pulse. She went under the skin to the carotid artery. Gently she pressed on the artery, felt it depress. Shocked, she withdrew her mind, and found she was panting, clammy skinned, exhilarated.  The image of the bloody muzzles of enraged dogs came to her, and she reached out with her mind again. This time she reached her mind to the skull, through the temple to the brain. She dived deep into Exe's brain, her fists balled and then moved apart as if tearing ... and in Exe's brain an artery twisted, strained and tore. Exe grunted in her sleep but did not wake.

Enjoy it.

Oooooooo...

Lucky you Alexander !!!

Janine and Smita had been slowing reducing the medication that had kept Professor Exe unconscious. Rese had sat by the bed for days; sleeping there and having Stine bring her food. Rese sat as if on guard, her attention rarely on the patient, ever watchful and suspicious of the ministrations of Janine and Smita.

Rese made sure she was present when the Professor's eyes fluttered and then opened. Her lips moved. Rese pushed Smita roughly away, and bent her head to catch the Professor's words. Smita's hands glowed, but Janine put a restraining hand on her arm, and waited patiently for the bodyguard to move away.

"You sure?" Rese asked Exe roughly, then stalked from the medic bay, calling for York.



Firz plonked herself down on her deeply padded chair in the cockpit on PEM1.
"I have a maintenance issue to report."  Janey paused in her checklist and looked at her co-pilot. The Vargyr's ears were erect. Firz was excited.
"Yessss?" Janey asked suspiciously.
"Well ..." Firz sat forward, hands on knees ".. I have discovered that the intercom in the cabin has a fault."
"Yesss?"
"And whatever the indicator is in the cabin, the microphone is always switched on in the cabin. If we switch it on then we can hear everything they say.  As long as we disengage our microphone then they won't know we can hear them." Janey looked disapprovingly at Firz through narrowed eyes.
"You " she said pointedly "are a naughty, naughty Vargyr – and I wish I'd thought of it first." If Firz hadn't been a well tutored Vargyr she would have wagged her tail.

"One more thing ... what do you know about Purity?"
"Well,  " considered Janey, "Sean and I have done a lot to rid me of mine ..." Firz essayed an eye roll.
"No, no, it's with a capital P ... like a ... " she was calling up information on her screen, reading quickly. "... oh."
"What?"
"I found a badge in Rese's bunk. It just said 'Purity', but had a decapitated Vargyr head on it ... like this ..." she turned the screen to Janey.

The Purity Cult had existed for centuries. It was an extreme pro-human movement which believed that only humans should be allowed to exist. "Lesser species", including Vargyr, should not be tolerated or better still eradicated. Furthermore, they thought that psionics was evil and a degeneracy that also needed to be expunged. Their fortunes had ebbed and flowed, sometimes they held sway on certain worlds, prosecuting vicious campaigns against non-humans. Other times they were limited to terrorist activities, assassinations or just protests which turned into riots. About a hundred years ago, a concerted effort had largely crushed the Purity Cult, and it had been driven deep underground. Suspicions remained that the Purity Cult still existed, and was just waiting to rise again.

Some time later, Janey and Firz watched as the pinnace from the Warspite set down, and the archaeologists Rese, Stine and Breen followed at some distance by the crew of PEM2 disembarked and made their way to the PEM.

The door to the cockpit opened and Rese stood there, glaring at the crew.
"PEM2 will lead. I want two drones up at all times out to the front and flanks. I don't want to be surprised." Rese was impatient, motivated.
"Check." Answered Janey. "Where are we going?"
"That's been told to PEM2."
"How long will we be travelling?"
"Until we stop." With that Rese slammed the door to the cockpit.
"That's us told." Murmured Janey. Firz had basically tried to fold herself into the background when Rese appeared, and slowly sat up, ears folded back and twitching in her distress. She got up and moved to the cockpit door, locking it.

Bora's voice came from PEM2.
"PEM2 leading off. You OK back there?"
"We're fine Bora. You have lead. We're putting up drones."

Janey switched on the intercom, ensuring her microphone was disabled. For some minutes all that was heard was the sound of the archaeologists moving gear and settling in for a long drive. Then there were the sounds of drinks being poured.
"So glad to get off that damned ship." This was Rese. "I felt they were watching me all the time, listening to everything."
"The Professor?"  It could have been Stine or Breen, they sounded alike.
"She gave me the final piece. We're heading there now. Purity will rise." There were intakes of breath as if something that had been bottled up could finally be said out loud.
"Purity will rise." One of the others repeated the phrase, savouring it.
"How is the Professor?" Someone asked. Rese barked a laugh.
"Who cares?  She had served her purpose. We will find what we seek." The archaeologists were obviously well versed in speaking cryptically.
"And the message?"
"The message went with the courier. Whoever returns will be with us."

Janey turned to her comms panel and hoped she could contact the Warspite.



Sean, in full military gear, stood to attention in front of York. Quillam lounged behind him, leaning against the wall.
"Sir, I have a request" Sean barked. York looked at Quillam. Quillam shrugged.
"Relax Sean. We're not in the services any more." The young man, tried, but failed to relax his stance. York looked at Quillam who made "carry on" gestures
"OK Sean, what is your request?"
"Sir, I request the use of a ground vehicle."
"On the ground?" The Marine faltered slightly.
"Err .. yes Sir."
"And, presumably, you'd like the use of a pinnace to get the ground vehicle to the ground." A moment of consternation flitted over his face, but he recovered his Marine stance.
"Sir, yes please Sir."
"Why?"
"To catch up to the PEM, because I believe there is foul doings afoot."
"Foul doings afoot? Is that something they teach you in marine school?"
"No Sir, but I believe Janey ... the crew of the PEM is in danger and I wish to provide what succour I can."
"Sean," York sighed, "There's a pinnace ready with an ATV loaded. Rowan and Alder are in it, waiting to go. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go fly the damned thing because my other two boat pilots are wounded." He got up and left.

Sean stood for a moment, processing, then he turned to rush after York.
"Chief," he said to Quillam "are you coming?"
"No Son. You've got this."

Thanks chaps!

(Not sure how I missed those. Presumably the tank tracks are fairly generic in size and not monstrous or tiny. (I'm thinking Pz III and IV here...)

Cheers!