by Trent Falls
“We are working together on an expedition. One that is of great importance to humanity, both Terran and Xen.” Euler explained.
“What kind of expedition?” Dekker demanded. “Some level of cooperation like this certainly would have made interstellar news. And it would have to be approved by Earth leaders at the least.”
“We’re searching for the Norn.” Euler noted back to Dekker with a childlike grin. “From what I understand you may have knowledge of their whereabouts.”
“The Norn?!?” Dekker laughed visibly. “The Norn are a myth, Sergeant Euler!”
Euler smiled, staring at his old C.O. for a moment. “I beg to differ, sir. We believe the Norn are real, or at least they once were, and that they were a vastly superior civilization.”
“The Norn!” Jensen chuckled. “I seriously can’t believe you’d turn your back on your own people, let alone commit manpower and resources, to an idea as dumb as going out to find the Norn! You may as well set out to look for fucking Santa Claus!”
Euler turned his eyes to Jensen, still with an amused expression on his face. “Quite entertaining, Major Jensen.”
“You can’t be serious.” Jensen chuckled again, turning his aged eyes to the Xen officer standing next to Euler. “You, sir.” Jensen addressed the Xen officer directly. “With four dropships in the sky you probably have at least a Xen destroyer up there.”
The Xen officer in the long coat remained silent, eyeing both Earthlings as he waited patiently.
“Are you their Captain?” Jensen asked the Xen diplomatically. “You understand that harming my people may be considered an act of war?”
The Xen officer blinked, thinking for a moment. “The benefits, in this instance, far outweigh the risks.” The officer spoke plainly.
“I’m going to need you to come with me…Colonel Dekker.” Euler noted aloud to his former superior officer.
“I’m not going anywhere, Sergeant.” Dekker replied defiantly. “Especially not with the likes of you! A Xen conspirator!”
“You’re coming with me, by force if necessary.” Euler pushed.
Jensen stood nervously, cradling his rifle at a 45 degree angle to the ground. He wasn’t sure if he’d even be able to get his rifle up to aim at Euler’s head before one of the other Xen would gun him down. The pressing case of his own mortality was terrifyingly at the front of his mind.
It was a near Mexican Standoff. Both sides stood at the ready, deadly quiet.
“I’ll ask again, Colonel.” Euler shouted. “You don’t have any idea of the firepower trained on this house! I know you know where they are.”
“I don’t know anything about any damn Norn, Euler.” Dekker shouted back. “Get back on your ships and go home!”
“I’m serious, Colonel.” Euler yelled back. “I’m not leaving here without you.”
Jensen took a step forward. “You don’t have any right…”
“Kyle!” Dekker cut Jensen short with an extended hand, keeping his attention fixed on Euler. “If I go with you, you would spare my people here?”
“You have my word, sir.” Euler grinned.
“Why don’t I believe you?” Dekker replied.
“What choice do you have?” Euler shouted back.
One of the Xen dropships wheeled past overhead with a loud rush of wind. Its forward cannons were trained down on the scene
“It’s a waste, Sergeant. The Norn don’t exist. I don’t know anything about them.” Dekker argued.
“We’ll see.” Euler responded with a grin.
“Time’s up.” The Xen officer noted to Euler.
Euler nodded in response. The Xen officer raised his right hand.
Jensen knew what it meant. His rifle shot up to his sights. Before he could squeeze the trigger a yellowish-white glowing beam cut across the open field from the woods far in the distance. The beam cut Jensen’s rifle in half and separated his left arm from his body. A second beam just a moment after pierced through the old soldier’s body. The dropship opened fire on the gun tower, hammering the concrete and stucco structure with flashing red plasma bolts. The other gunships followed suit, tearing into the hacienda home with incendiary plasma rounds. Soldiers positioned within the gates opened fire but only let loose a few rounds before the assembled Xen fire team could take them down from outside. The Xen soldiers rushed the building with practiced efficiency.
Dekker remained where he had been standing. He was shaking! The body of his friend, Kyle Jensen, lay burning and cleaved by laser fire by his side – dead.
“Take him into custody.” Euler ordered a group of Xen commandos, gesturing towards Dekker.
Dekker looked up at Euler as Xen soldiers surrounded him. The former Colonel was stunned and enraged.
“It didn’t have to be this way.” Euler said in a somewhat disappointed tone.
“You bastard!” Dekker glared in a shaky voice, almost in tears.
Euler motioned with a turn of his head for the Xen soldiers to take Dekker back towards the dropship. The sound of gunfire continued on over the growing sound of flames. Euler looked towards his Xen counterpart, Captain Quan Shin.
“Now he knows how far I’m willing to go.” Euler looked towards Dekker, who was now several paces away.
“I hope you’re right. If he knows nothing of the Norn, this would be a serious error.” Shin noted.
“I know he’s lying, Captain.” Euler replied with certainty.
Dekker was loaded onto one of the dropships at gunpoint. Once onboard, the ramp platform was raised, sealing the troop compartment shut. The drop ship lifted off through the growing column of smoke.
Euler and Shin walked off towards the remaining troop transport. Euler looked over his shoulder towards the hacienda. He knew there was still fighting going on inside. Dekker’s men would be loyal to the last, especially against Xen soldiers.
Euler raised his wrist com to his mouth and spoke. “This is Euler. We’re on command two. Notify us when the grounds are secure.”
“Yes sir.” A voice replied, with the sound of gunfire somewhat clear in the static laced transmission.
Several miles away near the tree line a patch of grass and earth tilted upward from the ground. A rifle barrel with a suppressor emerged from the opening, quickly pointed out from the hatch. The area was clear, apparently, to the former marine holding the rifle from within the escape tunnel. The dark-haired soldier climbed out of the hole, still training his rifle out towards the surrounding woodlands. He took up a secure station on one knee at the top of the hatch, his eyes looking intently out over his rifle sights.
“Come on, ma’am. We need to move fast!” the marine noted in a low tone.
“Oh my God! I can’t believe this is happening!” Mary Dekker crawled out of the hatch, still wearing the same khakis and carrying a fair sized pack.
“Ma’am, I need you to keep your voice down!” the marine, Jon Petersen, spoke to her in a hushed, yet forceful, voice.
“What the hell happened?!?” Mary asked in a loud whisper. She finally got up out of the manhole hatch and looked out from the tree line, back across the field to where she thought she might see her home. They had walked for what seemed like miles down a damp dark access corridor. Far in the distance, Mary could see the column of thick smoke accented by the light from the large white moon of Cassius. The orange and amber of burning fires at the home were but a small outline in the haze.
“My God! Max!” Mary spoke in a nearly broken, wavering voice.
“Ma’am! We have to get moving!” the marine urged her.
“But my husband!”
“You’re husband wants you to stay alive, ma’am! Please! Follow me!” the marine demanded.
Mary forced herself to look away from the sight of her home burning in the distance. She followed Petersen cautiously. The former marine stayed low, staying a couple of paces ahead of Mary, who eagerly kept closing the distance.
“Your husband is a very resourceful man, Misses Dekker.�
�� Peterson noted in a hushed tone. “He thought something like this might happen and hid a transport in the mountains.”
“What about Max?” Mary asked.
“My standing orders for this situation are to escort you to the ship. We have to wait out the Xen and….” Petersen stopped. “Wait!” the marine held a hand up.
Mary knew what it meant. She kneeled low to the ground as Petersen did the same. He toggled the sight thumb switch of his weapon, toggling the short tube sight system fixed to the top of his gun to a violet on black light-enhanced image. The night vision gave him the image of the upper body of a soldier on the nearby hill.
Petersen trailed his sight after the night-vision’s violet image of the soldier walking perpendicular to his position down the hill. The image of the soldier in his sights was one of a fairly thin man in a form-fitting bodysuit, draped over with a partial Ghillie Suit. Another soldier, standing still, entered the field of view. The first soldier was walking down to his compatriot. They each carried an elongated rifle. Snipers! Petersen adjusted his arms, keeping his crosshairs on the sniper he had followed down the hill. He didn’t want to kill them, as eliminating them could draw attention to themselves. Petersen hoped they would clear off and leave the area.
No such luck. The first sniper talked with the second for a moment, pulling back the hood of his Ghillie Suit. Both snipers wore tight-fitting hoods with a partial black facemask over their right eyes. A sight interface lens covered their right eyes, making them look somewhat like asymmetrical cyborg machines. The snipers seemed to talk for a while. One then produced a set of binoculars. The binoculars were really hand-held multi-filter scanners, offering not only optical but thermal, infrared, electromagnetic, and even sonar scanning. The sniper raised the binoculars to his eyes and began scanning the area
Fuck! Petersen didn’t want to kill them, but the binoculars were nearly turned their way. He could only hope that there were no other enemy forces in the area. Just as the sniper caught sight of him, Petersen pulled the trigger. The head of the sniper jutted back. Petersen fired three silenced rounds into the other sniper before he knew what had happened.
“Lie down! Wait here!” Petersen ordered Mary in an audible whisper.
Mary complied. Petersen ran in a low crouch towards the fallen snipers. The second one was on the ground but still alive, reaching out for his laser sniper rifle. Petersen put a round through the sniper’s head to finish him off. He then scanned the area quickly.
No other soldiers were in the area.
Petersen could see that the first sniper had fallen on his side. He had fallen in a fortunate position that allowed Petersen to remove the Ghillie Suit from his body quickly. Still looking out over his sights, Petersen retreated back towards Mary.
“Are they….” Mary asked as Petersen drew to within a few feet.
Petersen didn’t answer. He instead tossed the Ghillie Suit cover over to Mary. “Here, put this on.”
“It’s heavy.”
“A little. It’ll keep your outline fairly safe though.” Petersen noted. “If we run into any more trouble, I want you to drop to the ground and hide, okay.”
“Okay.” Mary whispered back.
Still quite alert from the incident, Petersen swung his rifle around, keeping one eye in the thermal scope. There were still no other units in the area.
“Come on.” Petersen led Mary away from the area where the snipers had fallen.
Chapter 2
It was as real as it could get.
John Carn, a Sergeant in the Earth Expeditionary Force Marine Corps, sat in the open cabin of an RH-88 Kestrel; a combination repulse and thruster jet driven troop carrier that was a sort of rotorless helicopter. Carn’s fatigues were set with a tan, light brown, off-white, and black digitized pattern. His fellow soldiers were dressed in the same battle dress uniforms. His M-10 rifle was pointed down to the deck between his legs. His fellow soldiers sat in much the same fashion. There were eight in total in the front two benches; pairs of four facing each other. A third bench across the back held two more soldiers; heavy gunners with large repeating plasma cannons.
A pair of auto turrets extended out from the upper sides of the transport. A limited AI on the Kestrel’s flight computer controlled the weapons, training the cannons out to possible targets along their flight path. Beyond the guns were the tubular thrusters of the Kestrel.
A massive blazing hot desert stretched out below. Much like the desert in the American Southwest, there were many large peaks spread out along the expanse. Stretches of sand were not as common as solid earth, dotted with several patches of small weak brown shrubs. Large cracked riverbeds hinted that there was once much more water in that region of the planet. Many jagged tan spires of rock accented the inhospitable landscape.
John looked to the open side of the transport and out to the open desert. It never ceased to amaze him how many place in the galaxy looked like Earth. It was strange to think that his home was about sixty light years away.
The planet was called Phaedra. The story behind its name was that that one of the original explorers of the planet was a big fan of Tangerine Dream and was listening to their album, “Phaedra”, as the original survey work was being done. John had listened to the album once at the firebase. He imagined the original surveyor, likely some earthy nouveau hippie type, trekking tediously across the unforgiving arid planet whilst listening to the ambient electronic music. Or perhaps he or she had been locked in some tiny cramped cabin of some transport and had spent the two months of travel time listening to the record, likely zoned out on Delta 9; tablet-form THC that was popular throughout the colonies.
John looked around to his men. Like him, they kept their helmets on despite the heat. They were dirty. They were marked with sweat and grime. They were members of the 32nd Marine Expeditionary Unit. The Kestrel and the one flying nearby in the wing position were carrying members of Carn’s fireteam. The Xen had been trying to establish a foothold on Phaedra. Carn and his men had stopped them from advancing about a hundred and fifty kilometers south. They had spotted an armored column while on patrol. Vastly outnumbered, they were able to mark the column from a distance while it had stopped for some unknown reason. The Air Force had pummeled the shit out of them, destroying six walking tanks, four mobile artillery cannons, and a pair of semi-trailers carrying parts for what might have been an anti-orbital rail gun. After the Air Force starfighters melted them to slag the Kestrels had come in behind to extract John’s team.
The ride was to be a safe one home. The EEF had air superiority over that region of Phaedra.
Phillips, who sat near the outside of the cabin, looked over at Carn. Phillips was chewing gum and had a broad smile on his face. He extended the pack of gum at him.
“Gum?” Phillips shouted the question at Sergeant Carn over the loud rush of air outside.
John stared back oddly at Phillips with wide eyes. John pointed to the side of his own helmet silently in response.
“What?” Phillips shouted back.
“I can’t hear you!!!!” John again pointed to the side of his helmet, his words barely audible.
“Oh!” Phillips raised his right hand and toggled the power setting of his com headset beneath his helmet shell. He again extended the gum to his sergeant. “Gum?” his words were clear over the unit LAN.
Carn looked to his right. Scott Euler, his fellow Sergeant and friend, looked back at him; smirking.
“No thanks!” Carn shouted back to Phillips, holding his right hand up in a no-thanks gesture.
There was a sudden rush of wind, climaxing in a deafening and thunderous blast. The unwelcome force of inertia slammed Carn back into his seat. His left hand took a death grip on the pipe framing of his seat; his right hand was firmly clenched on his weapon. Philips screamed as the Kestrel was flung on its side and yawed left, causing the soldier to fall out the side of the aircraft. Bascom’s outstretched right hand was too late to catch and save Philips. Klaxon alarms fro
m the pilot’s cabin cried out desperately.
“SHIT!” the pilot swore, trying to keep hold of the aircraft.
It was bedlam. The remaining soldiers were pinned by the centrifugal force. The air smelled of burning oil. A whipping vortex of smoke rushed into the open cabin.
The force of gravity could almost contain the next breath in Carn’s body, which he exhaled as he awoke.
Terror held his thoughts. His mind continued to play out the horrific scene, even as his conscious thoughts regained control. He wanted to cry out. He wanted to break out in tears. His breathing was quick, still pushed by terror. His own heartbeat was nearly painful.
The room was dark. The incident on the Phaedra desert, he remembered, had occurred over twenty years earlier. John could still hear the machine guns in his head. The explosions. The silent room he slept in only had the ticking sound of an old clock and darkness.
A narrow wedge of light grew in the room. John’s narrow eyes strained to look through the bright blinding light.
“Uncle John.” An uncertain female voice called out. The voice paused. “You okay?”
“Jules?” John’s weak voice replied. John stirred in the bed, turning to look at his teenage niece.
The girl stood in the doorjamb, dressed in a long nightshirt and shorts. She was about eighteen, nearly six feet tall with long strait blonde hair. Clearly, she had just woken up as well.
“Jules, I told you not to come in here.” John strained to look at her in the blinding wedge of hallway light behind her. “Especially if I’m sleeping.”
“I’m sorry.” Julie replied. “It just sounded like… you were in trouble.”
“I’m okay sweetie.” John stirred. A part of him wanted to go back to sleep; to get some real sleep. “What time is it?”
“Five thirty.” Julie answered.
“Go get ready for school. I’ll be up in a second and make some breakfast.”
“Okay. I’m chatting with Jill in my room. Big test today.” Julie smiled back. “You want me to make you some coffee?”
