With that, our team immediately headed to get into our power armor. It had been improved in several ways, yet attempts at neural interface had still failed consistently. We entered the armor fitting bay and to my surprise, found Spc. Wheaton standing by the armor with a grin.
“Hello Rangers, nice to see ya again,” he said in delight.
“Likewise,” Ryan responded.
We quickly equipped our armor with Wheaton and Phil’s assistance.
With armor out of the way we headed for the armory. The SF-42 was only stored in two of the ship’s many armories. One was a deployable armory, much like a drop pod, while the other was the heaviest armory in the core of the ship. Chances of immediate deployment seemed low, so we went to the nearest armory, with only the basic weaponry.
“Everyone on station, we are dropping out in ten!” Captain Baker stated again.
I was actually slightly nervous. This strange task had so many unknowns… it didn’t feel consistent. I felt a slight whoosh as we reentered normal space for the first time in over a week.
“Multiple contacts,” a cautious voice said over the intercom.
“Hail them, keep the intercom going for the crew,” Captain Baker ordered.
“Roger that,” the COM officer said.
“This is Captain Lawrence Baker of the Elonian ship Procyon.”
There was an ominous pause with no reply.
“This is Admiral Ronald Cope of the United Earth Defense. We have laid claim to this planet, Marzoc,” the COM responded.
“We are seeking fugitives from our nation. One of their starships has entered this system. A man known as Rigel Korth was in command… on a ship called the Hornet.”
“Fugitives? I am uncertain of what you are referring to. The indigenous people of this planet have a single ship of the same name. So too is their leader named… Rigel Korth. But they welcomed us here with open arms,” Admiral Cope announced.
Again there was a pause. I looked over at Ryan and Phil.
“So Korth’s here… but he has some cover going and now he has these… these aliens guarding him?” I asked.
“Honestly, it’s beginning to look that way James,” Phil said with a look of awe still in his face.
Then Baker began to speak again.
“I see. Well they are not native to this planet. They retreated from a disastrous war several revolutions ago. We are here to take them back, and find out what they were doing out here.”
“Well you see, um, Lawrence… That’s not how this will be going down. We would prefer you stop lying to us, and return to wherever you come from.”
Phil had a worried look on his face. “Guys this first encounter is not lookin’ good,” he murmured.
“Admiral. Perhaps you don’t understand. We have traveled for weeks to get here, and our course took us through a black hole belt. A journey like this cannot be disregarded, or failure easily admitted,” Baker pleaded.
“Lawrence. It is you who do not understand. We have a clearly superior force and have asked you kindly to depart our lovely ice-covered planet.”
“We are getting what we came for. All units! Prepare for deployment planetside,” Baker ordered.
“Very well. The choice is made. Not the preferred meeting of gentlemen I had expected Lawrence,” Cope said in a disappointed voice. “Open fire.”
“Not what I was expecting,” Max said.
“Yeah, we need to get to the hangar bay. If anyone is going to make it planetside, it needs to be us,” Cassidy commented.
Looking toward her, I nodded. Then I hastily grabbed some grenades, ammo, and my SR-4. We ran down the narrow halls of the Procyon, heading toward the hangar. Suddenly, there was a tremendous rumble, and the ship shook. Max lost his balance a moment, stabilized, and continued.
“How are our shields already down?” Phil exclaimed in shock.
“We don’t know what we're up against. I’m not so sure we really know what we are getting into,” Ryan stated.
As we reached the hangar door and swung into the large open room, the intercom spoke again.
“Attention ship personnel. I have grim news. We need to abandon ship immediately. We attempted deployment of the warp beacon as to summon reinforcements, however it was destroyed immediately after release. The enemy’s missile systems have devastated our shields, and our hull integrity is diving. The bridge crew is already en route to the life pods,” Baker spoke solemnly.
Another rumble battered the ship, and static came through the intercom. Then his voice came back, somewhat difficult to hear. “Deployable Armory Alpha is locked in place… We need someone to unlock it so that we may—”
Again static came through. Max skidded to a stop.
“Guys, we need those weapons. I’ll go unlock it. Then find a lifepod, or ride it down.”
“Max… er… Alright. Go. Good luck,” Ryan told him.
He swiftly took off down the hall to try to perform something heroic. Something he never would have done during the Vorgian War.
The rest of the Rangers proceeded to one of the Corsairs parked in the large hangar. Ryan entered the pilot’s seat in front and we prepared for a rough journey to the surface of the planet.
The main gates to the hangar were halfway open but seemed to have stopped opening, presumably due to damage to the ship. Our Corsair slowly approached the gates, Ryan being cautious to fly straight through. We flew out and immediately headed toward the white-coated planet below.
A mere thirteen seconds after our escape from the hangar, a tremendous explosion propelled our Corsair. Checking the rear video feed, the Procyon had been reduced to rubble… Likely with Max still on board.
“Dang,” Ryan said plainly. “This is not how this was going to go down.”
“I would consider this a serious snag,” Nevin said with a solemn face.
Our Corsair, lightly armed, alone, and with limited air descended quietly to the surface. Inside, we had a small survival pack, our personal preference in weapons, and our power armor.
“How many do you think got off?” I asked.
“Not as many as we brought, I can tell you that much,” Ryan commented. “What the…”
I walked into the small cabin to see what he was looking at. An immense metal structure shimmered with a spectacular light down on the planet. Looking up, I saw another of the structures above the planet.
“What are those?” I asked curiously.
“You expect me to know?” Ryan asked.
Phil pushed his way in and took a look of his own.
“Uh… Yeah, that is different. My best guess is some sort of heat provider or something to further warm the planet. But the planet is covered in ice, so if that is its purpose, it doesn’t seem to work,” he said intelligently.
“Do you… Do you think Korth built that? Or these UED guys?”
“I couldn’t see Korth having them built, and we don’t know enough about the UED. It will take some observing planetside to make a solid hypothesis,” Phil told us.
Our lone ship entered the planet’s thin atmosphere and came out into a snowy wasteland. Then a startling alarm sounded from the Corsair.
“Missile lock, we have multiple bogies on our tail!” Ryan called out as he swerved the Corsair hard. One of the missiles still nailed our rear engines, spinning us out of control.
“Hang on guys!” Ryan yelled as he managed to regain control and lift back up. He slid in behind one of the fast planes and unleashed a salvo of missiles. The missiles flew quickly after the fighter, barely gaining on it. Our Corsair quickly fell behind, due to the incredible speed of the fighters. Abruptly, the fighter rolled, then pulled up and over. It barreled straight at us and began shooting a machinegun and more missiles. The Corsair’s windshield cracked and shattered in some areas as the bullets pounded into it. I ducked down as a blast shook the starboard side of the dropship. The whole ship felt as if it tipped heavily, toppling us to the floor. Then it began to balance out in a rapid descent
.
The event made me think back to my first mission, when we were shot down onto the planet’s surface, trapped in enemy territory. At last we slid into the snowy ground, sliding quickly, while sinking deeply. The dropship came to a hard stop when it met with a rock.
I heard the fighters fly overhead, but their sound began to grow distant shortly afterword. We were alone.
“I think they’re gone. We should move… somewhere,” I announced.
“I agree. I don’t know what they have out there, but we should go find out, and see what we can do to them.”
“They have a clear advantage with numbers and firepower. We’re going to have to use guerrilla tactics,” Cassidy pointed out.
“Yup. James, you get a recon position on top of that cliff. We’re going to go over to the other side and take a look,” Ryan ordered.
“10-4,” I responded, taking off up the hill with my SR-4 gripped tightly in my hands.
We had landed in a deep snowdrift, with the front of the Corsair submerged purely in snow. Fortunately, its crash cleaned up a path leading up to the cliff side. I ran through the path and then began treading through the deep snow on the cliff. It did not take long before I was atop the cliff, peering out at a massive landscape of snow-covered valleys and several small structures made of stone. Though the view was vast, I saw no sign of life amongst the snow. I clicked the COM link on my helmet.
“Ryan, this James. I have eyes on an expansive, snowy, wasteland with a few structures as points of interest. Over.”
“Solid copy, James. You wanna check out the structures?”
“Yessir, they may be some sort of shelter.”
“Alright, we have nothin’ of interest on this side, but we aren’t as elevated as you, there may be more over the next hill, but we’ll regroup on you anyway.”
“Roger,” I said, glancing out at the team powering through the deep snow on the other side.
This place was cold, even with our power armor on. I hated to think about how the Marines from Procyon felt in this, granted any survived.
Ryan was the first to arrive at the top of the steep hill. Peering down he saw the same structures as I had.
“Now that is interesting. You ready?” he said.
“’Course sir,” I replied.
I was the first to begin carefully sliding down the hillside down into the valley. Behind me was Ryan, who had his pistol in one hand as he proceeded.
The trip down seemed long, but likely was fairly short. From here, the distance to the first structure looked much larger than from atop the cliff.
Realizing the distance we had to cover, we moved as quick as we could, but the snow hindered our movements.
“What do ya think those structures are?” Cassidy asked.
Of course, Phil was the first to respond.
“I suspect they are some sort of survival shelter for the inhabitants of this planet, be that Korth’s men, the UED, or some other form of native.”
“Are you saying that there may be some other species here as well? Even another faction besides us and the UED?” Nevin questioned.
“It seems logical. If there are others, I hope they’re on our side. We have enough enemies as is,” Phil said wisely.
We continued the trek through the snowy wastes, and grew ever nearer to the ominous structures that loomed over us. The structure was round in shape, like a sort of tower, rising out of the ground. As we came within several meters of it, the snow began to pick up off the ground, and a sort of snowstorm began. We instinctively picked up the pace and slid into the dark interior of the structure. There was a spiraling staircase that passed all around the walls, and there was a metal hatch at the far end. Besides that, the entire room was bare.
“Well then. This is basic,” Nevin commented.
“It seems to be little more than a shelter. Perhaps we should check out our paths. You know, the stairs and the hatch?” Phil suggested.
“Right. James, you take your team down the hatch, I’ll head up the stairs with Phil,” Ryan ordered.
We split into our familiar teams, but without Max. I moved closer to the hatch and grabbed its handle. I pulled it up revealing a wooden ladder that seemed to descend for a great distance.
“Well, I’ll go first,” I said uneasily as I stepped down onto the first rung.
Slowly I descended down the rickety ladder, hoping that it would hold us in full power armor. The ladder seemed to keep going for much longer than I had initially expected it to.
When I finally reached the bottom the room was lit with strange glowing orbs on the walls. There was a long hallway in one direction, while the side behind the ladder had a stone wall. I pulled out my H-81 and clicked on its under-barrel flashlight. I advanced quickly down the hall. At the end was a door of solid steel. I grabbed its handle carefully, and as I entered the room I kept my pistol pointed forward. There was a series of symbols carved into the wall, several desks and electronic equipment, and three men standing there. I hesitated, completely clueless what to do.
“You! Who are you?” one asked, grabbing a pistol off one of the desks.
“Uh… I’m James. Staff Sergeant James Ross. Who are you?”
The man glanced behind him then looked at me nervously.
“I’m Dr. Jake Thomson of the UED Research and Discovery Corps. To whom do you affiliate yourself?” he responded.
I steadied my gun, unsure if he knew about the recently initiated war across the stars.
“Elonian Rangers. Special Forces. I’ve been tasked with retrieving Rigel Korth and Robert Washington from this planet.”
He started backing up again toward the desk. I caught eye of a handheld COM laying on it. His hand quickly darted for it. In response, I let off a shot, shattering part of the device. The man then shot me, hitting a hardened part of my armor. I unleashed a flurry of carefully aimed shots at all of the men, just as Nevin and Cassidy bounded into the room with their guns raised.
“Um… What did you just do?” Nevin asked.
“Well, these guys just tried to kill me. But they’re… they’re human. At least they look human. They said they were UED. How could the UED be human like us?” I asked.
“We need Phil,” Cassidy said blankly.
I activated my COM system.
“Hey Ryan? James here,” I said.
“Yeah, what’s up? Find anything?” he asked back.
“Yeah, did you?” I asked.
“That’s a negative. We’ve climbed a ways and found some windows with nice views. That’s about it though. We’re nearin’ the top. I think.”
“Alright, well when you guys get a chance, we have some interesting markings down here, and… well the UED appears to be a human race just like our own. They had scientists down here.”
“Okay. That is a bit unexpected. We’ll report back to you when we reach the top. See what you can do until then,” Ryan ordered.
“Copy that sir, we’ll see what we can do.” I clicked off the COM and approached the computers.
I observed the markings on the wall, and then looked at the computer screen. To my surprise, I was able to read everything onscreen. It had some sort of matrix running on one, rapidly flashing thousands of words and letters constantly, while on another there seemed to be a sort of science log.
1 December 2197
We’ve been studying this rock structure for while, thus far, with little luck. O’Brien had a minor success when he translated a few of the cultural notes. Apparently, this planet was known as Marzoc by some race known as the Tredecim. They were the indigenous people here, and had some sort of empire going for an extended period of time. The story details the construction of some super-computer, perhaps an AI, known as the Beholder. After its creation it essentially became their god.
-Dr. Jake Thomson
UED RADC
7 December 2197
Jackpot! We ran across a sort of Rosetta Stone for this language. It has allowed us to dig deeper into their c
ulture and beliefs. They seem to have only been quasi-advanced, yet the Beholder appears well beyond them. We believe the Beholder is located in a massive complex underground where their capital was located. It honestly seems as if they had a golden age, then fell into a dark age from the sudden drop in advancement and technological use. Some time before the Beholder’s construction they created Facticius Phoebus Platforms. They were an array of machines meant to act as the planet’s suns, considering the planet was out of range of any star, which in itself seems an impossible anomaly. The planet does appear to have a higher than average temperature near the core, which may be part of how these species survived. The deeper they go the more heat it provides. These platforms were intended to provide a light and heat source to the planet with their tremendous energy emission. I’m astonished that they worked, and that these Tredecim even had starships to get them into space. So far we haven’t found much out as to why they are no longer present on the planet. In truth, they may still be here, just hidden in some underground network that we have yet to find.
-Dr. Jake Thomson
UED RADC
13 December 2197
Intel came in from Cope that there might be hostile personnel in the area. He mentioned it was unlikely that they’d show up here, and that most are likely dead, but apparently we’ve made a new enemy. Perhaps the Tredecim have emerged and are attempting to combat us. He said they were going by “Elonian” though, so it may be some other alien race. Exciting!
-Dr. Jake Thomson
UED RADC
I looked back at the bodies lying on the ground. It seemed odd reading what they had written mere days and hours before we killed them.
“Well, this place is fairly strange. Interesting information on that terminal,” I said.
Nevin, looking up from having read it himself, nodded in agreement.
“Tredecim,” he murmured.
“Yeah, I think this would fascinate Phil to no end,” Cassidy pointed out.
Once again clicking the COM, I planned to inform Ryan of our new intel.
The War Across the Stars Page 13
