Precarious Balance
Kithrak was seated in the shuttle’s lounge playing cards to pass the time while the auto-pilot flew them to their intended destination. He looked up from the hand of cards he was holding. “Got any fours?”
“Go fish.” The Omni Hunter-Killer droid replied.
“Five minutes to our destination master.” The Omni-Admin Guardian droid spoke over the shuttle’s intercom.
Kithrak told the Hunter-Killer droid to put the cards away as he made his way to the pilot’s seat at the front of the shuttle. When he got there the Guardian droid was in the co-pilot’s seat, monitoring the autopilot. “Master, the autopilot says the landing area is right ahead but I cannot locate any beacons to guide us in.”
“That’s because there are no beacons.” Kithrak took out an encryption module and plugged it into the communications panel. The comm display came to life as it began to send an identification signal. After several minutes they received short audio reply. “Land at coordinates 1560 by 237 by 120.”
The administrator turned off the autopilot and flew the shuttle towards the coordinates manually. When they got there, the landing area was little more than a forest clearing. The shuttle made an uneventful landing. As he was powering the shuttle’s systems he told the Guardian droid. “I want you to stay here with the shuttle until I return. This won’t take long.”
On his way to the main hatch he pointed to his Hunter-Killer droid. “You, follow me and watch for trouble.”
The Hunter-Killer droid quietly sheathed its katana and followed the administrator out the main hatch. They were met by a person in full Omni-Pol armor with a corporal’s rank insignia. Behind him were five Atroxes dressed in the plain work clothes worn by Omni-Tek Notum miners. The corporal spoke first, with a snicker in his voice. “Welcome to the resistance.”
Kithrak arced a brow. “Tierce, you’ve greeted me with that same line every time since this whole project started. Will that phrase ever cease to amuse you?”
The corporal pretended look hurt. “Me, a brainwashed Omni drone have a sense of humor? Hah, wouldn’t the Clanners be tickled pink to hear about us talking like this?”
Kithrak growled lightly. “Knock it off; the Clan terrorists have launched another sustained attack on the citizens of Omni-1 yesterday.”
“How bad was it?” Tierce asked as they made their way to a picnic table to wait while the Atroxes unloaded the shuttle.
“The terrorists were slinging bullets and obscenities the whole way and nothing the entire division of Omni-Pol troopers stationed there can do to stop them.” Kithrak sat down on the bench.
“That bad huh?....” Tierce trailed into silence.
For a while neither the administrator nor corporal spoke as the Atroxes continued to unload crate after crate from the shuttle nearby. Tierce looked over his datapad of the freighter’s manifest and whistled lightly.
“You giving up on the Clans already? There are enough weapons here for a small army.” Tierce muttered.Shipment Manifest CCM-002B
Source: ** data corrupted **
Destination: ** read error **
Item Quantity
Nova Flow Mark I 48
Omni-Flamer Mk IV 24
Omni-Tek Crowd Unit XI-Autotarget 12
Yatamutchy X-3 Counter-Sniper Rifle 12
Assult-Issue Omni-Pol Battle Suit 20
Assult-Issue Omni-Pol Elite Battle Suit 10
Omni Carbonum Plate 15(set)
Omni-Tek Steel-Ribbed Armor 10(set)
Nonpartisan Armor 10(set)
Bullets 100,000
Energy Weapon Ammo 50,000
Flamethrower Ammo 25,000
Kithrak chuckled to himself at the thought. “No old friend, not yet anyway.” Then his expression turned cold. “It was a contingency plan, in case Phillip Ross is really in trouble. The Loyalists could….”
He stopped; bitter memories and resentment from dealing with upper management came rushing back. The countless times he pleaded his case before his superiors to change their policy of ‘shoot first and if anyone is left, shoot them too’. It had been bad PR for the company he argued. Each time, his request was rejected by upper management citing the high costs of retraining Omni-Pol and Omni-AF as being ‘prohibitive’.
“The Loyalists could, and?” Tierce asked, wanting to know just what he is getting himself into.
“….and rescue Ross, by force if necessary.” Kithrak finished.
“With or without authorization and funding? You know your plan is treading awfully close to what most could consider ‘disloyal’.” Tierce arced a brow at the administrator’s plan.
Kithrak nodded gravely. “It is all relative corporal. If Ross is really threatened by rogue elements within Omni-Tek, our actions would be loyal. If Omni-Tek truly has displaced Ross we will figure out what to do when the time comes.”