The mission was once again changed and the Marines at the factory were given new orders. They would remove all the EDs that had been planted and store them in empty rooms near the plasma chambers. One squad would remain in the factory at each of the observed 38 assembly lines. They were given the task of planting an ED on each new Black Pearl that was produced.
The reasoning was that if we could detonate the EDs on the Black Pearls while under attack, it might give us a brief advantage, an advantage that could be used for either an attempted assault or a hasty retreat. With the new mission underway, two squads were sent back into the factory to continue recon while the remaining Marines drifted safely off towards a pickup point. Zack and his squad would remain on the planet’s surface investigating the mines.
When the first Black Pearl arrived in the plasma chamber we waited nervously for the cycle to be complete. When finished, the Marine squad would drift aboard, plant the device and then slip out again. As an added method for gathering intel the first ED was equipped with a camera and QE comm. We would be watching whatever happened on what we believed was the bridge of the vessel for signs of an alien pilot.
Moments before the first ship launched our video device offered a clue as to who the pilots were. It was the same utility robots that moved about the factory and down in the mines of the planet. They were similar to those of the Kurtz only each had six legs and moved about like a spider. Each leg was multi-jointed and each joint had appendages that offered varying types of tools. The main body was a thin black tube.
Because of the obvious similarities we began to refer to the six legged robots as spiders. The first Black Pearl had a contingent of eight spiders operating various stations on the bridge. After what we assumed was a system’s check, a gigantic door opened into space and the ship moved out to join the others.
As we watched the Black Pearl pull away on our monitors I took note of the single green blip on-board. The squad leader reported in that a split second decision had been made to send one Marine out with the first ship. The hope was that he would be able to drift from ship to ship once inside the orange glow of the matrix. It was a recon opportunity that some on my staff had recommended and when the squad leader asked for volunteers several Marines had jumped at the chance.
Corporal Morris was soon exploring the ship with his BGS set to a level that provided gravity, but kept him from being detected. I was ever-so-happy to have a team of staffers who sometimes thought outside the box. With every new encounter my confidence in them grew.
As the staff focused on Corporal Morris I turned my attentions back to Zack and his squad. Under each spaceport were a series of tunnels. Zack and his team split into two units with one taking the leftmost tunnel and Zack's sub-squad taking the one on the right.
The tunnels themselves were nothing more than tubes that had been hollowed out from solid rock. Zack's team began their journey down a tunnel with the knowledge that the other end of it was more than two kilometers away, and almost 1,500 meters underground. I watched as the team did a micro-burst to send themselves drifting down the tube.
The rock was similar to granite with the occasional marbling of quartz. As they drifted along one of the Marines asked for the attention of the others. They were moving through a quartz vein that had a thick seam of gold in it that stretched on for nearly half a kilometer. The seam alone would have at one time been worth billions of Dollars on Earth. But those days were long behind us.
Shiny trinkets were of little value to a race that was under expansion. Gold was a luxury item and man had gone through such a transition from the years of war, that those luxuries were no longer so highly sought after. But one day the war would be over and societies and cultures would turn back towards their norms. I was sure there some Human that was monitoring the broadcast and was taking notes of locations... all of course for future reference.
Just before reaching the end of the tunnel the team performed another micro-burst, bringing them to a stop. With their BGS suits on minimum for the final hundred meters, they made their way on foot. When they reached the tunnel end it opened into a vast underground chamber. A quick scan told that the planet had huge deposits of Rubidium ore.
Chatter picked up between our science teams as the Rubidium find was dissected. Further information was needed from the space factory to determine just how it was being used. If for the creation of the black hole it was something that we desperately needed to know.
Soon after their observation had begun the team dropped into the chamber as an ore car was heading towards their tube. With the light gravity setting of their BGS suits they drifted slowly to the floor of the chamber. Once down they scrambled for a safe area as the spiders were drilling and using gravity pulses to break up the ore, followed by an ore car which swept along pulling the ore up into its hold.
As the team moved towards the safety of a distant granite area an ore car moved backwards unexpectedly. The last Marine in the squad was caught off-guard and quickly pinned to a wall. Before he could set his BGS to full his active skin was overwhelmed and his power pack compromised.
The sudden explosion that occurred sent ore flying in all directions and drew the attention of the spiders. As the remainder of Zack's team made their way to safety the spiders swarmed the area of the explosion. But there was nothing to find as the compromised power-pack incinerated the Marine and everything within close proximity.
The spiders were soon back to work mining ore. With nothing else to see the order was given and Zack and his team moved behind a rock pile before micro-bursting back towards the tunnel. Seconds later they were on their way back to the surface.
The second team reported similar results and joined back up with Zack's team on the planet's surface. From there they burst back towards the space factory to once again meet up with the other Marines. They would be sent out into the factory with the mission of determining what the Rubidium was used for.
With our recon of the Por Hollis factory well underway I turned my attention towards the politics of the day. The Borten were pushing hard for recognition as a superior species who would once again claim dominion over the Kurtz. A meeting was called and I stepped in immediately to offer my opinion as an edict.
The Humans would stand as the superior race, but only by vote in the Council of Governance. Each sentient species would receive five positions on the council with the Humans always maintaining one more seat than half. As it stood, the new council would be made up of five Borten representatives, five Kurtz, five Barhoo and 16 Humans. There were grumbles, but it was the new law of the land and as such all would abide by it.
We continued to allow most of the decisions within each member species to be made at their local level. But it was my intent to slowly introduce Human laws and Human concepts to each member with the underlying purpose being a smooth transition to an elected way of governance. The royal family hierarchies that had existed within the Kurtz and Borten peoples would slowly be pushed towards democracy.
As the meeting was coming to an end I had the sudden urge to rename our fledgling empire. The Human Empire had been a spur of the moment call while trying to impress on the Kurtz that they were a part of something bigger, something stronger than the Frekkin Empire. But the name had always bothered me in that at some point it might cause contention amongst our non-human members.
I had toyed with a number of ideas and always returned to one name in particular, the Alliance of Major Planets. A.M.P. It was a neutral name that would not give superior significance to any one species. I was definitely pro-human, but I knew that specifically saying so was a bad idea. An idea that would cause the others to resent Humans as the empire continued to grow.
My own staff was unprepared for the decree and they were looking at one another and wondering what had just happened. They had grown fond of the sound of the Human Empire and suddenly I had thrown them a curve. When the meeting adjourned I asked my staff to remain connected and told them of my reasoning. Ag
ain there were a few grumbles, but nothing that would cause concern.
With the decree in place the orders soon went out to change all logos, tags and even BGS uniforms to reflect the new name. Redesigned BGS suits would be issued to every member of every species. Humans would retain our silver suits, but would have an additional thin red stripe added to the blue. The Kurtz BGS would be a golden color with an additional yellow stripe and the Borten of course insisted on a suit with a blue tint and a second blue stripe. The Barhoo, for obvious reasons, remained suit-less.
With the meeting adjourned and the trivial tasks of governance taken care of I settled back into my command chair and continued to watch as Zack's recon team moved about in the giant factory. The minutes of watching soon turned to hours of boredom as nothing of significance was being discovered.
After seven hours of room after room of nothing to see other than storage and machinery I left my chair for my quarters. I was soon fast asleep with the order given to wake me immediately if anything of significance was to happen. For the next 12 hours nothing did...
Chapter 13
When I returned to the bridge in the morning, in the time we called morning, Zack's team was still moving from room to room and floor to floor in the space factory. They had been active for 36 hours straight. My instincts told me it was time for a rest, but I knew with the BGS and its regulated stimulants the 36 hour haul was easily handled.
Our training had shown that 72 hours shifts had no ill side effects, other than mental fatigue if an assignment was boring. Scouring the massive alien structure was anything but boring if you were the one that was doing it. Watching someone else doing it was another thing altogether.
After several hours of switching back and forth between the team planting the EDs and Zack's squad, the boredom finally broke. Zack's squad had moved through a wall into a cavernous room full of thousands of reactors. As his team looked on the reactors all turned full on and a ring-like structure on the ceiling of the room began to glow.
As the glow began to increase a magnetic pull was slowly unleashed in the surrounding room. The Marines had to quickly secure themselves before being pulled up from the floor. As the glow grew, magnetic waves began to emanate from the ring structure tugging ever harder at the Marines.
In an instant the magnetic pull increased exponentially and it was everything the Marines could do to maintain their position. Each had their fingers pushed through a grating on the floor with their feet fully extended, stretching upwards towards the ring.
The orange glow began to glow blue with small fingers of lightning bolts shooting outwards to the rooms walls. Again in an instant the room went bright white until a small portal opened on the ceiling in the center of the ring. The magnetic and whatever other energy being produced was sucked up into the portal and within seconds the room went silent.
The reactors returned to their standby state with only the faintest low hum telling of their being on. Zack and his team flopped to the floor as the magnetic field dissipated. Signal analysis from their suits sensors showed a massive amount of energy leaving the room down a magnetically shielded conduit to the plasma chamber of the Black Pearl assembly line. We had our answer as to where the plasma field was originating from.
Zack's team was then ordered to proceed in a direction perpendicular to the power room to see if there were more rooms like it. They dialed up their suits and performed a micro-burst in the assigned direction. For several hours they drifted through one power room after another. It was soon estimated that the factory likely contained 30,000 rooms just like it.
The ED team's sensors had detected the plasma influx coming from six directions when the Black Pearl was receiving its pea sized black hole. The quick math told that 5,000 black holes could be created at once. Again, the scale of the operation was nothing short of spectacular. The only thing the AMP had that would one day be in close comparison to the scale of the factory was the active Sodium skin being constructed to surround the Earth.
For the next 30 days the teams on-board the factory continued at their tasks. The 310,000 Marines that had drifted back away from the factory were in the process of being picked up. The Black Pearl matrix numbered nearly 3 million strong. It was decided that it was time to take action.
The fleet staff had planned to drift 15 transports from behind the rocky planet with programming to fire their BHDs and blink in inside 15 of the power rooms. Each would then deposit a nuclear device with a timer. The two Marine squads would board one of the transports which would then activate its skin and BHD back towards the rocky planet. The other 14 transports would do the same only in 14 different directions. They would also leave their BHDs running while the Marines drifted silently to safety.
If the Marine transport was detected or for some reason the fleet's position compromised, the EDs aboard the Black Pearls would be detonated. The plan was solid and I found myself eager to see it implemented. Our days of recon had done nothing but raise my anxiety levels.
When the transports arrived they each deposited their nuclear cargo and then awaited the Marine squads. As the teams entered the power room with the closest transport they were greeted with an open door and a ready ride. As they walked towards the transport they were all smiles. They were heading back to the fleet.
Half way across the room to the transport, a door opened on the far wall. A sudden stream of spider robots rushed through the opening firing gravity pulses at the Marines. Zack quickly gave the order to blink out and micro-burst through the floor to whatever room lay below. Three seconds later they blinked in on the floor of a Rubidium storage area.
As the team went over their options, another door opened and two more spiders came in. The Marines cut loose with their weapons sending the autonomous robots flying back out through the doorway before they had a chance to fire their own weapons. Zack ordered the team down two more floors with a similar result.
The next order sent them to the base of the space factory. Their only remaining option was to leave the massive structure and drift down to the planet's surface. Seconds later the team was on its way.
Eight of the 15 transports were damaged by the alien spiders and were unable to fly, but the remaining seven activated their skin and burst out into space seconds later. The nukes that had been planted had active skins so the spider robots were unaware of their existence.
When the transports sped off into space outside the factory the Black Pearl matrix came to life and began to spin. In less than a minute it was in pursuit of the first transport and with a burst of speed that was unexpected it quickly overtook it.
For another hour we watched as the giant matrix spun and annihilated the transports one by one. When the last transport went silent it turned back towards the factory. Zack and the two squads were still drifting towards the planet. The matrix swirled in beside the factory and hovered for several minutes. It then turned towards the fleet, still hidden behind the remains of the rocky planet, and started towards it.
The order was given to leave immediately and the fleet powered up and turned away. The matrix was soon in hot pursuit and gaining ground. Throttles were at full, but the Por Hollis drive technology seemed to be superior. The fleet quickly passed through light speed, but the matrix continued to pursue.
Zack and the Marines were half-way to the planet's surface when the nukes went off in the factory. I watched through Zack's camera as the immense structure seemed to explode in slow motion. Large pieces of debris were soon heading towards the Marines.
With the matrix of Black Pearls in pursuit of the fleet Zack gave the order to do a full burst for the surface. Seconds later they were landing at a space port with weapons drawn. As the spiders poured out of the port shafts Zack and his Marines began a firefight like I had never seen. The spiders were seemingly coming out in limitless numbers and his team was dispatching them as they ran towards one of the shafts, blasting everything as they went.
At the same time huge sections of the spa
ce factory were de-orbiting and would soon be crashing into the planet's surface. Zack was trying to get his team below ground. The spider numbers were overwhelming and Zack had to give the order to blink out and head underground. They would have to drift through solid rock in search of a tunnel.
Meanwhile the matrix continued to gain on the accelerating fleet. When it became apparent that they would be overtaken the order was given to detonate half the EDs that had been planted aboard the Black Pearls. Our Marine volunteer on-board the cube was sacrificed.
In an instant the great matrix of ships slowed as evidence of explosions could be seen through the bright orange glow. When the fleet's lead had increased to a distance considered safe they performed a 90 degree turn, heading in a new direction. The matrix continued in a straight line and was soon off the trail of the fleet. They had escaped.
Zack's team soon found their tunnel and once inside they blasted the walls with the hopes of creating a barricade, in a bid for time. They needed time to ride out the rain of factory parts that were screaming down to the red planet's surface, and time to form a new strategy.
When the tunnel they were in was sufficiently blocked they turned to make their way into the chamber at the other end. When they arrived at the opening they were greeted by another onslaught of spiders. Again, a fierce fire-fight ensued.
My fingers dug into the padding on the arms of my command chair as I pulled myself from side to side in attempts to dodge gravity pulses that were not actually coming my way. The holo-screen had a way of tricking the mind into believing you were there. Zack's Marines fought valiantly before the first of the squad was knocked from their position and quickly squashed beyond recognition. The fierce fire-fight continued.
SODIUM:5 Assault Page 13
