MERCS: Crimson Worlds Successors by Jay Allan Read Free Book Online Page B

everything back to the Nest, Dr. Sparks can get a lot further than we can out here.”
    Cain stared silently across the table.  He could see his officers all agreed with Falstaff.  Cain had always found it difficult to give up on anything.  He’d inherited his immense stubbornness from his father, who had long been the most pigheaded Marine in the Corps.  But Darius knew when to rely on the few people he trusted for perspective.  And if someone was beginning to fuck with the Eagles, the sooner he could identify them the sooner he could blast them to atoms.
    “Do you all agree?”  There was a half-hearted chorus of yeses around the table.  Cain’s people didn’t like disagreeing with the commander they all idolized.  But Darius hadn’t assembled a weak-willed corps of yes men to lead his beloved Black Eagles.
    “Very well.  We will leave in 48 hours.”  He panned his eyes down the table.  “But I want one last intensive search.  If there’s any debris out there bigger than a molecule, I want it collected.  And I want every potential refuge within fifty klicks checked out.”  He paused.  “Understood?”
    “Yes, sir,” they replied, almost as one.
    “Then get to it.  All of you.”
    Everyone in the room jumped up and snapped off a salute before racing to the door.
    “Not you, Erik.”
    Teller stopped and turned toward his friend.  “Darius?”
    “We need to be considering the possibilities if someone is targeting the Eagles.”
    “Who would dare to come after us?”
    Cain looked up, his eyes finding Teller’s.  “I don’t know, but that platoon didn’t just vanish.  Maybe it’s some freak thing we’ll never be able to answer…”  His voice trailed off.  It was obvious he didn’t believe that.  “But a powered armor equipped foe?  Could one of the other companies be coming after us?”
    “What company could take us?  Or convince themselves they had a chance?”  Teller was shaking his head, but he stopped abruptly.  “But what about an alliance of companies?  With the Eagles gone, the way would be open for them to scoop up the best contracts—jobs that go to us now.”
    Cain nodded, his face twisting into an angry grimace.  “Maybe…”  His voice was deepening.  “But why just a company?  Why hit us in such a small way?”
    “Testing us?  Or trying out their tactics?”  Anger was creeping into Teller’s voice too.  “We’d better be on our guard, Darius.  If somebody is coming after us, the next time they will hit us a lot harder.”
    Cain glared into his friend’s eyes.  “Oh, we will be ready.  If someone comes at us again, they will regret it…I don’t care if it’s every mercenary company in Occupied Space all together.”  His hands were clenched into armored fists.  “By God, they will regret it.”

 
    Chapter 4

 
Inner Sanctum of the Triumvirate
Planet Vali, Draconia Terminii IV
Earthdate:  2317 AD (32 Years After the Fall)
     
    “We must accelerate our plans.  The Triumvirate must complete preparations for the New Era as quickly as possible.  I fear we have little time left.  We must accelerate our harvesting operations on Earth.  I propose we double all bounties.”  One stood hunched over the end of the table, holding himself up with frail arms.  His face was pale and spotted, his skin hung loose and sallow.  He was thin, wretchedly so, and his eyes were clouded and old.  To any observer, he appeared to be well past his hundredth birthday, though in fact, he was only 36.
    The Inner Sanctum was a large triangular room, ten kilometers underground, cut from the solid stone of Vali’s deep crust.  The ceiling soared thirty meters above gleaming granite floors, and the center of the room was dominated by a massive table, also a triangle, carved from a single block of polished green stone and bearing the three interlocking rings that symbolized the Triumvirate.  There was a large door on each of the chamber’s three sides,