The alien attacking Alex had just been killed and there was no one attacking him for the moment, so he looked up. The aliens exiting were falling into positions just like the previous batch. He looked around and realized someone was down. He rushed towards the person and realized it was Yusuke Matsumoto.
He turned him around and saw a deep gash in his abdomen with frozen blood around. He looked bad. He could not tend to his wounds but could fix the suit. He took Yusuke’s foam hanging from his belt and applied it liberally to the puncture on the suit. Alex quickly turned him around to check if there were any more punctures. There were none.
Alex then touched his helmet glass to that of Yusuke’s and it activated the interface to give him the display coming from Yusuke’s HUD. He checked the suit atmosphere and that was stabilizing, but his pulse rate was not.
He didn’t know the effect of the foam on open wound, but he had deliberately applied some on the open wound before sealing the suit in the hope that it would stem his blood loss. There was nothing more Alex could do for Yusuke right now till the battle was over, so he let him lay there and turned his attention back to gathering aliens.
All the charging aliens of the first attack had been killed or were in their now familiar death frenzy. There were two more humans who were down, but not seriously. There were people who were applying foam on the injured. “How is he?” Asked Jorge as Alex was standing up over Yusuke.
“Bad but might make it if we get him back to base fast, but we cannot spare the shuttle yet. Hell the medic is also here right now fighting, so there is no one to treat him back in base. Let’s get back to fighting and get over this fast.”
Cheng came over to where Alex and Takamori were standing and said. “I estimate that there are less than half the numbers there compared to the ones we just fought.”
“Yes.” Alex replied. “I am hoping that this is all there is left in the camp and hopefully these are the technicians and the cooks coming out to fight. These guys are not charging, but seem to guarding the entrance. Let us go ahead and meet them and get this over with. Yusuke doesn’t have much time.”
They put Yusuke on the snowmobile and slowly started advancing on foot. The shuttle proceeded over the top of the bunched up aliens threw two grenades and the aliens scattered, then opened up with the machine guns from top, while the advancing soldiers were well within effective range also started firing as they walked closer.
The alien line was thrown into confusion and belatedly decided to charge at the advancing humans. This helped closing the distance so that the civilians also opened up. These aliens seem to die a bit faster, giving credence to Alex’s ‘technicians and cook’ theory.
Some of the aliens still managed to reach the advancing humans, but by now everyone was well practiced in their routine of defense with their shield. No one panicked and held off the charge and gave time to the shuttle to finish them off from top.
It was a slaughter this time. The humans suffered no more injuries worth mentioning while killing each and every alien who had come out.
As soon as the last alien had become ineffective, Takamori signaled the shuttle to land. They loaded Yusuke and a soldier from the Leanna’s platoon who had suffered severe injury and frostbite on his arm. The medic went along with them and the pilot.
Three of the four gunners disembarked, Daniel was one of them. The fourth gunner was the soldier with severe back injury from the previous battle, and was considered ineffective on foot. The pilot was instructed to deliver the passengers to the now deserted camp and return back as soon as possible.
The camp only had one occupant right now, Mr. Gupta who had undergone a field amputation as best as the medic could perform. It was his first amputation but he had done a fair job. Mr. Gupta was considered to have a fifty-fifty chance of survival.
When the shuttle departed, they proceeded according to plan. They knew from their previous recce, that the camp had four entrances on four sides. One snowmobile each was placed on each of the entrances with a two man fire team on it. They were to try and prevent anyone from exiting. They could radio the shuttle once it returned for backup, and if even that did not help, they could just flee on their snowmobiles. They left Mischa and Violet outside to get on to the shuttle once it returned and act as the fire team on it along with the injured soldier.
The remaining eleven people slowly descended down the same entrance that Cheng had entered. This was the passage they knew best. No point in trying a new experiment. This time they did not want to be out of radio contact, so they had carried small repeaters that they would place every 100 meters. They also carried torches with them. Cheng noticed that the passage no longer looked so intimidating with the brighter lights of the torches.
It took them four hours to thoroughly comb the alien habitat and they found six more aliens inside hiding individually in niches dug such that their bodies fitted neatly into them. They did not have any suits on them, and the naked aliens did not put up too much of a fight.
They tried to capture a few of them alive. Sasha had carried electrical wires in the hope of restraining one alive and they did manage to tie up two of them. There had been intense debates about taking Shaitan prisoners. The issue was about risk of them triggering some self-destruct mechanism bringing the alien habitat down on them.
They decided, that if the alien wanted to bring the habitat down, then they would have done it by now. It was worth the risk given the tremendous potential gain possible. Still as a measure of ample precaution, they dragged the aliens to the central corridor of the habitat and tied them there, where they thought it least likely to have a hidden trigger mechanism.
The aliens had been wiped out of the face of Titan and the solar system for now. Their assault on the alien camp ended with some excitement though. They had found something that looked vaguely like it might be a computer. They searched for their specialist, the person who was in Titan for the express purpose of cracking alien communications, and in this case trying to crack the alien computers.
It was time their computer expert earned his pay, if he had not done so fighting already. They rushed towards him in panic when they heard the frantic shouts of Dr. Srinivasan from one of the chambers of what they had started calling the catacombs. They rushed to see Ramesh hacking away at an alien they had killed previously.
Jorge was surprised because he had known his friend half his life and had never seen his friend act violently or impulsively. He had never heard his friend curse. A few rare colored remarks maybe, but never a curse. Right now he was hacking away and shouting. “Survival of the fittest you motherfucker! Survival of the fittest!”
Chapter 35
Warmaster’s report
This is the full and final report of Warmaster Scent of Carnage from the bright star system of Kalshuk’s 6th planet, and the second of the two gas giants of this system. The migration ship 12-09, of which I am the Warmaster, is fatally wounded and currently orbiting the largest of the moons of this planet.
The complete war report along with the astronomical data of this system is attached with this report. Since the earlier failed scouting mission to the system had incomplete data, this data should give much insight into the layout of the system.
We had made many erroneous assumptions, based on the partial data from the earlier scouting mission. This has unfortunately cost us the success of this mission. I take full responsibility for the same, and will be going out to meet my destiny as a redemption for myself and all of my Warrior caste.
In hindsight there are many things we could have, and should have done differently. I have put a full set of my recommendations as an addendum to this report. For now I shall concentrate on the facts, as it has played out since the start of this mission.
As we approached the edge of the system, we made a minor course correction to target the 5th planet of Kalshuk and the largest gas giant, as was the mission plan. Close to 24 cycles after our course correction, as the various bodies orbiting
Kalshuk could be distinguished more clearly, something started feeling wrong.
The mysterious whisper across the void was still present, although now it was a loud cacophony, but it was not coming from the 5th planet as was assumed from the analysis of the scout report. It was coming from a different angle within the system, where we could not see any gas giant!
It took us a few cycles with tasting of radio frequencies to find out the source of the signal. It was coming from a rocky globe, orbiting the star directly which was the 3rd planet to the star, and it was not orbiting any gas giant!
This befuddled us, because this was not thought to be possible. After a cycle of consultation with the few beings of the curious caste present on this vessel, it was decided that a detailed survey of each and every object in this system would be undertaken for not more than 16 cycles, during which the curious caste would study all the data and come to their conclusions.
When the conclusions came, it was proven beyond doubt that almost all the signals were coming from the 3rd planet, with a few coming out of a small globe circling the third planet, which was even more surprising, since this small globe did not have any air!
There were a few signals coming from apparently nothing floating in space within the system. On zooming in with extreme magnification it was thought that the signals were perhaps distress signals coming out of lifeboats.
But it made no sense, why would so many single lifeboats be floating around the system, when there is no sign of disaster or rescue? They were too small to be void vessels, and if they were void vessels, why were they communicating using radio frequencies that could not be focused and hence could be picked by anyone?
It was theorized that these were the frequencies that our beings had used in ancient times ourselves, when we were innocents and knew too little about the universe. Many of the signals were also coming from small lifeboat sized vessels orbiting the 3rd planet.
These may be fulfilling the same functions our satellites do, but for the anomaly of using radio frequencies that can’t be focused and hence heard by anyone. The full report of the curious caste is attached with the report.
According to the curious caste members, it has been theorized in metaphysical debates that Ka can conjure such wicked magic, that the spawn of Ka can exist even without a dim star or a gas giant. The work of such evil magic seem to be working in this system.
The 3rd planet moves in a stable orbit at such a distance that it is exactly the right distance to spawn beings. The chances of this happening in any system is very remote. Even this is not enough.
Most planets moving so close to such a massive star are gravitationally locked with the star, or are nearly locked rotating very slowly, so that they face the same side towards the star all the time. The 1st and the 2nd planet of the star are this way. This would have baked one face of the planet while freezing the other making it impossible for any being to exist. This 3rd planet however rotates at such a speed that it evens out the temperature.
Even this would not have been enough for the stability of the orbit, but the planet has a large satellite globe rotating around it, giving it an extremely stable spin. The chances of all this coming together is so remote that it reeks of the evil designs of Ka.
Further the curious caste reported that both the gas giants in the Kalshuk system had a lot of moons, but none that was reasonably suitable for easy life for our beings. The only exception to this is a moon on the 6th planet and the smaller of the gas giants.
This moon surprisingly has too dense an atmosphere, more than what our beings are used to on our planet of origin, and nearly one and a half times as dense as our home world. This in itself would not kill our beings, although they would feel uncomfortable and their senses would degrade and disorient them without their suit.
The air is not harmful but lacks the gas essential for life of beings, so a suit would be required. However the biggest problem on the moon is the temperature. The moon is not large enough to have its rocky core exposed. It has internal heat, but deep down near the core. As a result the surface is frozen hard with ice. So beings like us cannot find refuge and habitat in the warm rocks on the surface as we are used to.
Neither is the heat of the gas giant sufficient. Although the moon is gravitationally locked to the gas giant, as is normal order of things, the gas giant is small and does not produce sufficient heat, which is an alternative to our beings.
The temperature is such that an unaltered being would perish within a few mili-cycles. Even an altered being as created by the builders over many generations cannot last more than a cycle without a suit. The only suitable place in this system for our beings to survive is on the 3rd planet, where the spawns of Ka lived.
The report has also gone into why our scouting mission got its data and analysis so wrong. We now have the orbital data of all the bodies orbiting this bright star Kalshuk. Using this data they calculated back to the time when the scout vessel entered the system.
At that time both the 3rd planet and the 5th planet were on the far side of the star from the direction which the scout was approaching. As a matter of chance, both the planets were lined up straight along the line of sight of the scout vessel. Since the signals being monitored were on radio frequency and hence not tightly focused, the scout could only get the general direction from which the signals were approaching.
Since the 5th planet was directly in the middle of the general direction, and our current doctrine dictates that beings can only exist on bodies orbiting gas giants or dim stars. The scout mission incorrectly assumed that the 5th planet was the source of the signal. We lost the signals from the scout subsequently, so we cannot be sure whether the scout realized its mistake later or not.
Now I had a difficult decision to make, for which I wish I had the counsel of the seers, none of whom unfortunately I have on this vessel. Do I continue to the 5th planet? What do I do when I reach there? There is no place to migrate there.
Do I change course to the 3rd planet? The place is habitable, but what evil and trickery lies in a place created by Ka? The spawns of Ka should be easy to exterminate. They have not even mastered the void properly, and look fairly primitive.
But what curse will befall us from Ka in such an impossible place, obviously held together by Ka’s magic. Wouldn’t Ka simply turn off its magic on the planet the moment we exterminate their spawn and turn the planet into a lifeless rock as it normally should be?
Then there was the option of going to the moon of the 6th planet. The report had made it clear that a sustainable habitat could be constructed there although life will not be easy outside for our beings.
The moon was normal and natural in the order of things. There seemed to be no trickery or magic of Ka holding the place. It was un-inhabited and hence uncontested. While the first was not really an option, I discussed the second and the third options extensively with elders within the warrior caste on this vessel.
All of them were cagey about living in a place that was not natural to the order of things and held together by the magic of Ka, as was I myself. Thinking like warriors, we decided that we need to scout the place from a distance to get more knowledge about the place, and seek counsel from the seers, perhaps the council of seers themselves before we decide to move to the 3rd planet.
And so it was decided unanimously to set up a habitat on the moon of the 6th planet, while we sent a detailed report home, seeking the counsel of seers on how to proceed. We could make detailed observations from the habitat and the migration vessel orbiting the moon, and build up intelligence on the workings of Ka here.
It would take about fifty cycles for a response back from home, but that will be time well spent in the data and intelligence we gather about Ka. We were in no danger of any contact or trickery from the spawns of Ka either, since they had not sufficiently mastered the void.
The primitive void vessels sent to hunt down the scout would be noticed from far if any approached. This migration vessel wo
uld have no problems in swatting such a primitive vessel out of the void, if it ever approached our habitat.
With that decision made, we changed our course to the 6th planet. The configuration of the planets at that time was the most inconvenient one, since the 5th and the 6th planet were almost at the opposite ends of their orbits and added over a hundred cycles to our journey.
After we went into a stable orbit around the moon of the 6th planet, we took a few cycles to confirm and refine our data about the moon and the 6th planet, ensuring that all our calculations and requirements for the habitat were correct.
The builders all went below to the moon, assisted by many warriors and started setting up the habitat. Once most of the habitat was set up, all of the beings were woken up from stasis and transferred there, leaving only the warriors and the builder castes required to operate the migration vessel.
The beings below in the habitat continued expanding the habitat and setting up lower priority functions, while we in the vessel proceeded as per warrior doctrine to ensure that the migration vessel was refilled fully with fusion fuel as fast as possible.
We approached the nearby gas giant with caution, since we did not know the detailed atmospheric conditions on the upper atmosphere of the planet. It has a ring, which is not uncommon in gas giants and it had storms raging in its atmosphere which was also expected.
Beyond those observations, we had no experience on this planet, so we decided to approach it with caution, descending slowly towards its gravity well, stopping frequently to ensure there are no nasty surprises thrown at us by the planet. It all went smoothly albeit slowly.
If any of our beings were to refill here again, it could be done much faster, because till now the giant had been as serene as harvestings go. We finally approached the upper atmosphere thick enough for us to harvest and started what every warrior knows as a very dangerous task. We lowered the harvesters and settled for the turbulence and constant adjustment of thrusters necessary for maintaining orbit while harvesting.
The Battle of Titan Page 56
