by Richard Orr
“Aye, aye, sir.” Gunnery Sergeant said and snapped off a quick salute before trotting back out the entry way.
One of the members of the expedition approached hesitantly. She was wringing her hands, clearly frightened. “What are we going to do, Commander?”
Jonigan tried to smile and look self assured. He frankly had no idea if he could control the creature once he woke it back up. But, it didn’t look like he had any other options. The members of the expedition, including the naval personnel, were clearly outmatched by the landing party dropped by the Pax.
“I guess we will see what this here artifact can do for us.” He patted the surface of the artifact, trying to look confident. The good doctor had only just revealed to him that he had any special talents at all. Jonigan had no idea how far these abilities extended for him.
Jonigan reached out with his hand and mind and made contact with the artifact. He could immediately see what had been unseen only moments before. The artifact seemed to once again unfurl and stretch out, its tendrils once again spreading out and passing out of sight. One made contact with the creature lying in the central hall. As soon as the tendril reached the beast itself, it began to fade from view. A moment later Jonigan could hear the gasp that escaped from the people gathered around him as the creature manifested in all its horrific glory, standing only a few feet from the artifact.
“It’s okay, it won’t harm you. Everyone please step back. I have it under control.”
Almost as soon as the creature solidified in front of Jonigan, it once again began to fade from view. This time it was bending light around itself to hide. The crowd surrounding him sighed with relief. They didn’t realize that it was still standing there, hidden from view.
“I’m going to send it out to scout among the Pax.”
The things Jonigan could see through the eyes of the creature were astounding. It was as if he were an internal passenger, like he wore the creature as a suit of armor. He could feel the creature’s stealth abilities settle upon it. Nothing would be able to detect its presence as he pushed it to leave the pyramid and find the Pax.
The Pax. Humanity had faced the Pax and their irrational desire to rid the galaxy of all vermin for 22 years. It was the blink of an eye in the timespan of interstellar empires, yet in that time they had wreaked havoc across the stars of the Imperium. Jonigan wasn’t sure if he would ever ride a horse again. The similarities with terran equine species was uncanny. Upon closer examination, the differences were pronounced and could never be mistaken for a horse from Earth, but the shape was very similar. The Pax had a long, almost triangular head, the two eyes, however, were more like a predator then a horse, facing forward and used for binocular vision. They were quadrupedal, but could stand on two legs if needed, making them rather tall and imposing when they stood. The forelegs doubled as tool-using arms as well. There were three finger-like appendages attached to each end. This actually helped them to be very agile runners, enabling them to control their direction of travel much better at high speed than any earthly horse. A horse would weigh more than a Pax, but not by much, and the horse would never be able to carry the massive projectile weapon that was the bane of human infantry. The only consolation the human would have was that the Pax were entirely white and highly visible. They didn’t believe in hiding and bore their native coloration with pride.
The sentries Gunnery Sergeant Thorsen had placed at the edge of the pyramid were not aware of the creature as it passed their position. It quickly traversed the path the expedition had taken earlier to get to the pyramid, making its way up and through the gap leading to the camp. Jonigan could see through the creatures eyes that the area was still deserted, the Pax had not yet moved in with their ground pounders. He could almost think that everyone was still asleep in their tents, oblivious to the night’s events.
The beast stood silently, waiting for the new interlopers to come, content that its new master would unleash violence soon enough.
The Resolution was designed as a warship to lurk, she was meant to be stealthy, at least as stealthy as a large starship could be made to be. She still occupied a place in space and affected the space-time around her. The systems aboard her made detection very difficult, but she could still be found with sufficient time and patience. Her captain was very mindful of the possibility as she held position on the far side of the third moon. She also had another advantage that the Pax lacked, they didn’t know she was still in the system and she knew exactly where they were.
The Captain watched as the four dropships were released by the giant unknown vessel that had accompanied the battlecruisers into the system. He knew that something was going to have to be done or Jonigan and his people were going to be crushed by the Pax on the surface. Surprise was his greatest advantage. He would have to start the attack before the dropships reached the surface and found the expedition’s campsite.
“Mr. Call, I need to know if it would be plausible to send a pair of missiles into those battlecruisers without using propulsion or active targeting. Can it be done?”
Lt. Commander Call paused for a moment and then said, “I’m sure it could be done, sir. It’s really just a matter of making the right calculation and disabling the right software. We could even launch them from here and assuming that the Pax don’t change position, it would just be a matter of time.”
“Excellent. How long do you think it would take?”
“I could have the software disabled in ten minutes, sir. Then they would be immediately ready for launch.”
“Make it happen, Mr.Call. We don’t have much time and I want them to be completely surprised. We might have a chance at this if we hurry.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
Moments later the Resolution was poised and ready. Two missiles had raised their deadly snouts from inside the starship.
“A quick blast of acceleration from the onboard propulsion systems just as they launch will give them the velocity they will need to reach the Pax ships. I would suggest that we follow quickly behind in order to take advantage of the surprise.”
“My thoughts, exactly,” the Captain stated. The Resolution would have to close quickly with the undamaged ship to take advantage of the chaos caused by the missile attack.
The Captain looked over his well trained and capable crew. He knew that each of them would do their best.
“Heads up, everyone. Let’s keep this simple and sweet. I realize not everything survives contact with the enemy, but I know that we’ve set this up just right.” He paused for a moment and then gave the command, “Execute.”
The missiles roared from their slots within the starship. She was still positioned on the far side of the third moon and the bulk of the rocky planetoid kept the bright acceleration of the missiles unseen. The Resolution accelerated behind them at a more sedate pace. By the time the missiles cleared the limb of the moon they had achieved a massive velocity and shut down their engines.
The deep voices of the Pax landing party reverberated through the trees surrounding the camp site. There was no doubt now that they knew the expedition was there. Jonigan doubted they had found the landing craft that had brought them to the surface. When everyone had begun evacuating to the pyramid he had ordered the shuttles to hide themselves in a canyon complex below the campsite’s horizon. He could see through the creature’s eyes that the Pax were beginning to gather at the edge of camp boldly standing in full view of those they assumed were still there. Several of the aliens looked to be carrying their version of a gatling gun, a weapon feared throughout the Imperium for the vicious use the Pax put it to. It could tear through a company of lightly armored infantry like a knife through soft butter. Yet, the aliens approached the camp carefully, fully aware of the specialized high velocity weapons the Imperium had developed in response.
Jonigan waited until several squads of the Pax had moved closer to the camp before letting go of the creature with the iron grip he had on its mind. It dropped its stealth capability wit
h what Jonigan thought was an utter disdain for what it faced. Several of the Pax immediately dropped their weapons into position to the side of their long bodies and let loose with a fiery stream of projectiles. Jonigan actually flinched in anticipation of being hit before he realized he felt nothing. To the creature his mind inhabited, it was merely an irritation, to be endured for a moment. Its carapace shielded its head and the upper part of its body, but it didn’t seem to be needed. In no way had the creature been threatened by the small amount of firepower the expedition had used against it in the pyramid. The projectile fire tapered off as the Pax realized their efforts were in vain, the creature hadn’t moved from its position. Then with an explosion of power it leapt at the nearest alien, flashing to where it stood almost instantly. A slash of its knife-like arm and the Pax was decapitated. Jonigan was shocked at the brutality of what he had just unleashed. It took only moments for the beast to tear through a Pax squad. Deep cries of fear replaced the earlier echoing sounds. They turned and ran as their numbers were decimated.
Missiles streaked silently through the dark of space, mostly undetectable by their intended targets who sat like giant waterfowl upon the ocean of night. They flew on, oblivious to their imminent destruction. Neither vessel detected the small weapons before they smashed into each one, warheads causing even greater destruction. One of the battlecruisers limped on for a few moments before the containment on its power core lost integrity and blew. The other simply broke in half, trailing smoke and sharp flashes of light. It would probably be lost as it disintegrated during an involuntary entry into the moon’s atmosphere.
The Captain watched all this on his display as the Resolution followed the path its missiles had earlier taken, now decelerating to match the remaining Pax ship. There was no return fire from the giant vessel.
“Get our active sensors on that ship, I want to find out what she’s doing. Why hasn’t she returned fire?”
“Aye, aye, sir,” came the response from Lieutenant Anderson.
“Scans report that there are no active weapons system, that we know of. It appears to be a non-military vessel.”
“The Pax have those?” The Captain asked.
“Yes, sir, it would appear this is one of them. I will continue to scan for any signs that would indicate otherwise.”
“Very well then. Keep me apprised,” came the order.
“Aye, aye, sir.”
“Get Commander Jonigan on the horn. I want a sitrep.”
The wristcom on Jonigan’s arm began to beep as he stepped to the top of the hillside overlooking the campsite. The landscape was stained with the results of the creature’s handiwork. He shuddered with the realization of what he had unleashed. The creature stood silently overlooking the scene, once again oblivious to what surrounded it. Jonigan could feel a slight sense of something, almost like satisfaction, emanating from it as it stood there.
“Commander Jonigan, reporting.”
“Hello, Commander. Glad to hear your voice.”
“Glad to hear you too, sir.” It was clearly an understatement and yet Jonigan was greatly relieved to hear his captain’s voice.
“How’s the situation down there?”
“Sir, you’re not going to believe what I’ve found down here.”
Jonigan reached out and placed his hand on the surface of the Elder artifact, its surface glowed faintly in the spreading morning light. Down below, the creature slowly began to fade from view, disappearing into some strange and different place.
“Are you still under attack?”
“No, sir. We’ve taken care of the Pax.” Jonigan paused for a moment, unsure of how he was going to explain what had happened to his commanding officer. “We had some help.”
“Help? From who?” the Captain asked.
“Well, sir, you’re not going to believe this, but Dr. Baxter was correct about there being something on this moon left here by the Elders. We found it and I think it’s going to make all the difference.”
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