McLain's Misfits Ch. 05

Three days later we landed on Wolf Three, posing as bounty hunters. It caused quite a stir in the local population as we marched our captured pirates to the local Peacekeeper's station. After that, as we were sitting in a local café scanning the crowd and the new wanted posters we had downloaded, we noticed all the hostile looks we were receiving from the local population. It seemed as though piracy may just be a normal form of business, around here. That would explain how one of the local big shots would come to be holding the ambassador's daughter.

We were just sitting there, finishing our coffee, when three large men came into the café. After scanning the customers, they opened up on us. Luckily, Cyndi was paying attention and flipped the table on the side in front of us just before they opened up with us diving behind it. It wasn't ten seconds later when all three of the large men were down.

As we were marching our prisoners back to the Peacekeeper's station, Mike said, "It looks like someone is not happy with us being here."

"It is starting to look that way, isn't it? At least it looks like Tom is going to make some money off this deal, and we'll get the info we need. What's really surprising is that the gang holding the ambassador's daughter is not led by a man, but instead by a woman named Esther Howard. She's the widow of Matt Howard, who was a local crime lord, until two years ago. He was killed by a rival gang. She operates off her large estate, which is well guarded and fortified."

Mike then asked, "Okay, we know where the girl's being held. How do we go in and get her?"

"Let's take this easy. We should go scout the estate, after dark, then return to the 'Luck of the Irish' to make our plans on the rescue."

"Okay, people, here's the plan. From our earlier scouting of Ms. Howard's estate, we know that the eight foot high wall surrounding the estate it is wired for both motion sensors and closed-circuit video surveillance. There are six roving guards on the exterior grounds, and two guard posts on each end of the main building. We don't know how many are inside. I figure there is a surveillance monitoring room somewhere inside the main building. They usually set it up close to the main entrance. It probably will be manned by between one and three guards."

"Wiz, I need you to tap their surveillance system, and put it into a continuous ten minute loop. That should make their surveillance system useless."

"Mike, I need you and Cyndi set up a sniper post with the long range needle rifles to take out targets of opportunity, and to cover our asses. Just remember to try and keep it non-lethal, in case the ambassador's daughter is not there. If that is the case, we will need some prisoners."

"Jackson, you and Tom are with me infiltrating the estate while the others cover us. We are going to tranquilize everyone in hopes of gaining access to the main house before they can set off any alarms."

Tom spoke up and said, "Commander if I may make a suggestion? We have six more of the Gilly gas limpet mines in the number one cargo hold ready to go plus a case of Gilly gas grenades. It would make the house much easier to take if everyone inside was sick."

"I forgot all about those mines your wife developed. It's a good idea and should make taking the house much easier. Although I don't think the ambassadors daughter is going to be too happy about it since it will make sure just as sick as the others."

"I think if she has a choice between remaining a prisoner, or being a little sick; she'll choose sick, any day."

We were just getting ready to kick off the rescue mission when my communicator chimed, and Mike said through my ear-bud, "Commander I have a vehicle approaching the house from the southwest."

Watching to the southwest I saw a vehicle pull to the front of the house. Two important looking man exited the back of the limousine, along with two Peacekeepers from the front. Seeing this new development, we held off entering the grounds, and were watching through IR scanners.

While watching the heat signatures of the men as they entered the home, we saw what was obviously a prisoner being brought to these men in the front room. Thinking that this might be the ambassador's daughter, we decided to hold off on our assault of the grounds. We would take the car, as soon as it left the estate, as quietly as possible."

We're trying to think of how to disable the limousine as quietly as possible, since in all probability, the limousine would be armored. Then Tom spoke up while showing us a small box.

"This is another of Desirée's inventions. It throws a directional electromagnetic pulse which should kill any electronics within fifty meters. That should cause the limo to simply shut down, for no apparent reason."

"Jesus, Tom, your wife is a gold mine with all of these inventions! She's going to have all the Techs in weapons and shipbuilding drooling to get their hands on her inventions and ideas. They'll offer her anything she wants, to get her to come work for them."

"That ain't going to happen! Desirée has her own ideas on how she is going to spend her time! That's with me and the raising of our family. I'm sure she won't mind sharing her ideas with the Empire, though. However, I don't think she would willingly leave me just to work for them."

"I hope you're right. They can be very persuasive, and they think everyone has a price."

"I doubt it will get very far trying to persuade Desirée. She pretty much has what she wants. Plus, she can be very bullheaded. Whose idea do you think it was for her joining me in bounty hunting?"

From the distance we saw the men exit the house. The peacekeepers followed, dragging a young girl between them as they got into the back of the limo. After the limo had left the estate grounds, Tom activated the electromagnetic pulse, frying the limo's electrical systems. As the driver and both peacekeepers exited the limousine to try to determine what was wrong, we quickly darted each of them and captured the limousine. Upon opening the rear of the limousine one of the gentlemen said, "Do you have any idea who I am?"

"Yes, Sir. You are the man who is under arrest for piracy and the kidnapping of Ambassador Timmons' daughter."

"You're making a big mistake! Here, I am the head of the planetary peacekeepers, and my associate is the liaison to the Lieutenant Governor's office."

"I think the mistake is yours. You are both under arrest for piracy, and kidnapping for ransom. I am Commander McLain of the Imperial Guard, and my associate is Imperial Peacekeeper Tom O'Connor. We are in touch with our ship, and have already sent for a company of Galactic Marines to maintain order on this planet. We will conduct a full investigation on what is going on with the sanctioned piracy here."

After the prisoners were locked in their cells, on the 'Luck of the Irish', it was decided to go ahead and capture Ms. Howard and the rest of her people on the estate. This went off without a flaw. The exterior guards were quickly neutralized with the tranquilizer darts. The Gilly gas made everyone in the house too sick to put up any resistance, so everything went off smoothly. Within seventy-two hours, we had a full company of Galactic Marines holding the planet under martial law, until it was determined how deep the corruption was in the planetary government.

Things were pretty well wrapped up when I held out my hand for Tom Connor to shake.

I said, "It's a nice working with you, Tom. I hope you came out okay on the bounties. I know you're going to get a lot of attention from the weapons and shipbuilding departments. I hope you come out ahead on that, too."

Shaking my hand Tom, said with a laugh, "Well I think we did okay. All told, the bounties ended up to just under one hundred million Galactic credits. However, the big thing is, while I didn't know it at the time, Desirée had patented all of her inventions! It looks like if the Imperial Government wants to use them, it is going to cost them dearly, since at the time of development not one of us worked for the government. Desirée, although she doesn't mind helping the government, refuses to work for it. So if they want to use her designs, they will have to hire her as a private contractor, and not as a government employee."

"Damn, that's going to really cost them!" I said, laughing, "I thought they'd just try to hire her. That way they can get her ideas at a minimum cost to the government."

"Nope! I think they're going to discover that my Desirée is no dummy! She knows exactly what she wants, and she goes after it!"

"So what kind of plans do the two of you have for your newfound wealth?" I asked, as Desirée approached us.

Desirée said, "We are going to build a new home. We'll have a large workshop for me built on the land next to where the family salvage yard once was. My brother has started a new business, there, converting military scout ships to yachts. This will give us a home for our family, when we are not living on the 'Luck at the Irish'.

"The government representatives have pretty much given me carte blanche to develop any ideas I have. Although they reserve the right of first choice on any new developments, they are offering full support. The first thing I will be working on, is Wiz's idea of interfacing fembots and/or androids with a ship's AI. They are actually to be used as additional crew. The research representatives are shipping me ten of the new fembots, along with extra memory, processing modules, and AI interfaces. I'm going to see about using them for non-lethal combat situations, along with doing a lot of the ship's 'grunt' jobs, instead of automations. I'll be using our ship as a testing vessel. It should also make Tom's job as a bounty hunter and a peacekeeper much safer."

"Like I was saying, Tom, it's been great meeting the two of you. I hope we can work together again, soon."

The End

Edited By TeNderLoin & The Old Fart