Hunters Ch. 04

"Hey! I amproud to be here! Nothing pleases me more than to serve my government!" she said loudly. Max could hear her shift in her seat to face him, but he kept his eyes closed and took a deep breath.

"I'm proud of the ends, but not the means of my missions," Max said plainly. He was starting to fall asleep again. "Achieving the goals that we did violated almost everything that I hold sacred and made me a worse human being."

"But your missions," Anders started. She paused for a second. "Because of you, the Syndicate didn't get itself established on Titan. Because of you the Syndicate wasn't able to reform at any where near its former power."

"Because of me, we might have just started a war with part of Earth. Because of me, we don't have one major Syndicate to take care of; we have three," Max said softly. "Because of me," he started again and stopped. "Because of you," his voice said inside his head, "your family and everyone you cared about is dead." Max sighed deeply and shut his eyes tighter. "Because of me, people have died. Lots of people died, as a matter of fact, and not all of them were bad."

"But. . ." began Anders. Max's eyes flashed open and he turned his head.

"But what! I bled and fought and nearly died for my government so many times that I can't remember them all anymore, and after all of that, what did I get? A pat on the head and I was told that nothing I would ever do from that point forward would ever be official again! Not even my death! My government disavowed my existence and used me as a tool to get its own schemes going and to keep them going. And let me tell you something, missy; if you think you're any different than me, you're dead wrong. You're a fucking tool. All you are is another cog in the machine.Your government didn't care about you so much that they sent me to come get you and it's been a trap every step of the way. As a matter of fact, the only reason I have to trust that you are who I was told you are is because you didn't kill me when I was passed out," Max said, his face a mask of fury. Anders opened her mouth to say something and then shut it, turning her head slowly forward again, her eyes staring out the front of the pod. She looked like she was going to cry, but much to her merit, she didn't. Her lip quivered, but Max noticed not one single tear roll down her face. The two rode in silence the rest of the way to the Desert Brigade.

Max noted that the old man had only added to the collection of junk in his yard. More vehicles had been added, a few old tanks, and even what looked like old missiles or old space boosters. He had added quite a collection of old pods, and it looked like his new collection was sitting on about 10 acres of new land.

"That's it. Land us by the small hanger with the rusting out doors," Max said quietly. They landed and Dire ran out to meet them. Max saw him as the dust settled, a handkerchief tied around his face to protect his nose and mouth from the dust and his Oakland Bruisers cap was on backwards. He was also wearing a Bruisers jersey, and Max couldn't tell if it was the same one from a few months ago when he was out here or if it was a new one. As always, he was wearing his cheap black-framed sunglasses.

"Hey Dire, how's your Bruisers doing?" Max asked, stepping out of theTwilight. Dire's jaw was just about hanging on the ground. Anders killed the engines and got out. She cast cross, sideways glance at Max when she came around to the other side of the ship. She stood silently, her arms crossed tightly across her chest.

"Well, you know us Bruisers fans," Max said, grinning sheepishly. His eyes kept running up and down theTwilight's hull. Max just imagined it wasn't just the lines on the ship that he was checking out, but those on the pilot as well.

"Same as always then," Max laughed.

"Yeah," the Lieutenant said breathlessly and ran his fingers along the hull. "So what do you want done with her? You know the old man is better with these mono-ships," Miles added and looked back at Max.

"Yeah, I know," Max said and started to pat himself down looking for some cigarettes. Then he remembered; he left them back in the locker with his spare clips. "Hey Dire, you have a, wait, no you wouldn't. Damnit. Anyway, all we need is the transponder taken out and anything else that's giving off odd radio signals. Engine's fine, she runs like a champ. We could use some more ammunition though," Max continued. He climbed up on theTwilight and grabbed his flight suit. "We need this done like it was done yesterday, Dire," Max added. He looked over to Anders. She was still pissed off, her arms folded, her head down watching her boot toes move in the dirt.

"Anders over there needs a shower, too. Got any hot water?" Max asked.

"We're in the desert! All we have is hot water!" Dire said laughing. He walked around theTwilight to the pilot seat and got in. The two Marines walked off to the main hanger, with Anders following slowly behind Max. When they were clear, the Lieutenant assistant fired the engine of theTwilight and lifted her off the ground. Max turned around and watched Miles move her gently into the small hanger they had parked in front of. Max continued to the hanger with Anders and showed her where the bathroom was. He managed to track down a clean towel and gave that to her before she got in. Part of Max really wanted to sneak a peek, but another part didn't want to violate her like that.

Max poured himself a cup of coffee and wandered out to the hanger. Dire had theTwilight hooked up to a diagnostic machine.

"What's the verdict, doc?" Max asked and slowly sipped his coffee.

"You have a military aircraft here that's not decommissioned. Again. Steal this one, too?" Dire asked as he read the diagnostics equipment.

"Nope, not yet. Mission is still active," Max said smiling. Dire laughed. "Bruisers aren't playing today?"

"No, they lost the last game for the play-offs. It was so close this time, too! If only they'd sent in the relief goalie! Murphy's good, but he's getting old, he can't defend for 3 periods straight anymore!" Dire said emphatically. Max just shook his head and laughed slightly. "Well, I can tell you that you have an ELR transponder sending out a constant signal," Miles said, grunting as he crawled inside theTwilight. "You didn't really want that, did you Morgan?"

"Nope, can't say that I do," Max said and swallowed the last drop of coffee. There was the sound of shorting out electronics and a crunching sound, followed by a power drill whirring to life and dying in a quick cycle. Max watched a handful of screws fly out the cabin of theTwilight and then Miles backing out with the Transponder in hand. He set it down on the bench and removed the power source, setting it aside. Max smiled and listened to its faint hum go down into nothing. "So they know it's here?"

"Probably not. The sun let lose a huge solar flare a couple days ago and the magnetic storm hit Earth today at about noon and has been screwing with communications all day. There was even talk of shutting down the gate because of some concern, but the gate company said there was enough shielding," Dire said, shrugging. "This baby was it though, no more signals coming from her," Max added, slapping his hand down on the transponder.

"Ammo and gas?" Max asked, leaning against the starboard side Vulcan cannon.

"Yeah, yeah," the Lieutenant said smiling and unlocked the ammunition magazines. He gave a low whistle. "40mm penetrators! The old man's gonna hate me if I don't charge you for these things. You ever see what happens to a ship when they get shot with these?" he asked excitedly. Max's mind immediately went back to the Syndicate ship he saw a couple weeks ago. That thing had been shredded by 40mm penetrators, and Max suddenly had a very bad feeling that gave him a very unhappy outlook on the future.

"Dire, was this transponder sending out a coded frequency?" Max asked cautiously. Miles shrugged and plugged the power source back into it. The transponder powered back up and Miles went to the diagnostic equipment and turned some knobs and flipped some toggle switches. The diagnostic computer started to beep slowly but rhythmically. Max's eyes got wide. "Shut it off!"

Dire jumped to it and pulled the power source. The slow beep died faster than the transponder's gentle hum.

"Communication wasn't cut off on the planet, was it. Just off planet."

"Right," Dire said. "The atmosphere protected almost anything Earth based."

"Lieutenant, we have to get this thing out of here right now. Have anything disposable that can fly fast and far by itself?" Max said, grabbing the transponder and the power source.

"Nothing that's cheap," Dire said and pointed to the main hanger. Max took off running for it and Dire followed suit.

"Hook this thing up, and gas something up that'll make it into the gate. Whatever we use it needs to have an accident in hyperspace," Max said looking around the shop. There were half a dozen things that would probably work, it was just a question of what Doohan wouldn't steak Miles down in the middle of the desert for blowing up. Max saw an old police cruiser in the back. "What about that?" he asked pointing to it. Dire nodded and they ran over to it.

"I'll plug in the transponder, you get this thing programmed," the Lieutenant said. They both crammed into the cruiser's mono-pod and Max powered it up and moved it out of the shop. He set it down again and Dire jumped out. "You're all set, Morgan!" he yelled and backed off toward the main hanger. Max punched in the coordinates for the gate and programmed it to have a thruster "malfunction" 15 minutes into hyper space and veer to port, effectively turning it into a quantum anomaly that would be traveling forever between hyperspace and normal space. When that was set, Max turned on the sirens and the flashers and jumped out, shutting the pod door on the way off the cruiser. He got himself clear of the craft as it thrusted up and out of the atmosphere. If it were night, Max would be able to see it almost the entire way to the gate. Both of them breathed a sigh of relief.

"There's still a chance someone will come looking for me," Max said after a few seconds. Dire nodded and they walked back to the small hanger with theTwilight in it.

"I'll be sure to tell Gunny," Miles said. "He might be getting old, but the old man can still throw someone a beating like you wouldn't believe." They both laughed about the thought of watching the old Irishman working over a couple of Syndicate members. Max was somehow certain that his vision wasn't too far from the truth of the matter, if it ever came down to it. For being almost 70, Gunny was one of the toughest men that Max had the pleasure of knowing.

After reloading the magazines on theTwilight and refueling her tank, the two men walked back to the main hanger where they found Anders asleep on the couch outside of Doohan's office. Max took a second to look at the image of beauty before him.

The Corporal's tall, lean Martian body was draped gracefully over the couch, her head snuggled against one arm rest, her left foot resting on top of the other arm rest, the right tucked between her and the back of the couch. Her face was cradled in her arms, her blonde hair was draped over her arms, but her small ear was sticking through the curtain of silk She hadn't put her clothes back on, but instead she had found Max's flight suit and put it on. Max, in all his life, had never seen a flight suit look so good. Her body wasn't exactly hour glass, but she had shapely hips, a small and trim waist and then her body flowed up to her bosom. It seemed that her legs stopped at about her neck. Max was staring for he didn't know how long. He was brought out of it by Dire pushing him a little; Max was so taken in by Anders' body that he had to catch himself from falling over. Max stood straight back up with a sheepish grin on his face. He was sure he was blushing slightly. The Lieutenant just laughed softly and they walked quietly back into the office.

"Now, for the cost of the cruiser, I'm gonna need 10. Ammunition for that thing isn't easy to come by and she needed a pretty good amount of fuel, so we'll charge you 1 for that. 11 mil is your total today, kind sir," Dire said softly. Max nodded and they set up the transaction. It was processed within seconds and both men shook hands. Max realized it was a huge sum of money, but desperate times in a supply-side environment were never cheap, even among old friends.

"A pleasure as always," Max said smiling. Dire smiled back. "We gotta get going," Max added. They walked out of the door and Max stood several feet from the couch. The Lieutenant walked out of the hanger. "Corporal Anders," Max said clearly. Anders snapped to attention and was almost standing before she knew what was going on. Her brain caught up with her body and she looked at Max.

"Morgan," she said, the word rolling out of her mouth like poison.

"We need to be somewhere else," Max said and started walking out the door. Anders caught up to him and they headed to the small hanger.

"I don't care where you're going, I just want to go home," she said, the spite still thick in her voice. Max stopped in his tracks and looked that theTwilight gleaming under the lights of the hanger. A smile crossed his lips and his eyes clouded over in nostalgia.

"Home," he said softly and the two of them walked to Max's ship.