by Ben Winston
“No it won’t, but just so you know, we are getting very close to the line here. I’m not very comfortable with that,” Mary said.
“Everyone here, is very aware of your feelings on the matter, my dear. Even if we do decide to take offensive action, we know that you will object strongly to it. Any such action will go on record as strongly opposed by you, and that you will not be considered a party to that action,” Mark replied. “There is precedent. You will not be held accountable for it.”
The two guards they had watching from the upper decks climbed down into the sub then, and moved to the rear so as to stay out of the way.
Mark nodded to them. “Swap out your weapons and packs for underwater combat. Once we get in position, I’ll want you two outside in case we do get attacked.”
Both men nodded, and bobbed their heads. “At once Highness.”
Mark turned back to Gloria. “Okay Gloria, let’s do this.” He walked the woman through the release procedures, and how to drive the sub to where they wanted it. Once they entered the tunnels a few yards, the data feeds almost immediately cleared back up enough for Mary to accurately track the team, as well as Gunny Skaarsgard.
“John, we have a positive lock on all of you. Gunny is in a stasis module twenty meters to your front. He cannot be reactivated until the stasis is broken,” Mark called.
“Understood. We are encountering heavy, but disorganized resistance. I don’t think all these Lizards are fighters,” John replied.
“That should make this easy for you then,” Mark said grinning.
“Yeah, now that we know where Gunny is, we can do something about it. Mary, we’re going to have a few wounded soon,” John said.
“I’m surprised no one has gotten wounded already. But, aside from that, why do you say that?” Mary asked.
Instead of answering her, John simply began issuing orders to his teams.
John saw that the tracking information on his visor suddenly clear up, and he saw that the minisub had been detached from the barge and moved into the tunnels. He wasn’t happy about it, but he could see the need.
“What is that crazy bitch doing?” Chloe asked just before Mark called John with the new information. He did hear Chloe’s question, but he also knew she would figure it out. She was a smart woman. “Okay folks, now we know where our missing brother is, it’s time we did something about it. Full combat rush, teams leap-frog in sequence. Secure the stasis module, and eliminate all hostiles with extreme prejudice. It’s time to show these Lizards why the Marines are feared.”
“Hoo-Rah!” everyone replied.
“Team One, ready?” John asked.
“And eager, sir!” Chloe replied. “And may I add, about fuckin’ time!”
“Stow it!” John replied, but it was clear he was smiling when he said it. “Go!”
While teams two and three fired continuously at the enemy positions, team one ran down the hall towards them. As soon as they stopped and began firing, John sent the next team that ran past the first, and closer to the enemy. They actually ran right up to the first of the defending lizards and shot them at point blank range. Five Lizards were killed, but one of Johns troops fell to the floor, the woman’s leg was missing from mid-thigh down. She screamed in pain for a second until the armor drugged her and began first aid measures.
The lizards were so shocked by the violence and sheer ferocity of the rush, that some of them broke and ran back into the darkness as the third team of Marines began running towards them. The laser fire was so intense that parts of the hallway were beginning to glow from the heat. Team Three used the Lizard’s panic against them, and cut down the retreating beings without hesitation. It was little more than a slaughter, but it had to be done. In a matter of minutes, all of the lizards were down, and most were dead. The fighting had stopped.
The last remaining Lizard, the largest one, which told John it was the commander, was sitting, propped up against a wall as it waited for its death. John walked up to it, and removed his helmet. On seeing his face, the Being’s eyes got large.
“You! You are dead!” it said in rough English.
“It was a ruse, High Lord. May I know your name, honored enemy?” John asked showing the Lizard respect as was the way of the Lizards.
The Lizard coughed up green blood as it tried to laugh. “Not warrior caste, Lord Major. No respect is needed.”
John shook his head. “You fought as a Warrior, and die as one. That is the reason for the respect, High Lord. Your caste is not an issue here.”
“Hisskess, Lord Major. Thank you for the honor you grant me,” the being said. “You do not seem to be the demon I was told you are, though you fought like one. For that, I will give you something in return.” It paused as it coughed up more blood and its breathing got worse. “You have three of your hours to save her again. I did what I could to save her, may she forgive me for my actions.”
John looked confused. “What are you speaking of, High Lord?”
“Planet killer. My orders are to murder this world.” It coughed again. “Time set for three hours, so you could stop it.”
John suddenly realized what the being was talking about, and his pulse quickened. “Thank you for this gift, High Lord. I am certain Gihya will forgive you, and welcome you home. I regret I will not be able to return you to her at your home. Will the abyss suffice?”
The being nodded, but was coughing. Finally it replied. “That will be fine, Lord Major. My fate and hers will be the same. What is the human term? Good Lust?”
“It is ‘Good Luck’, High Lord. May Gihya guide you, and welcome you home,” John replied knowing its time was short.
“And you, Lord Major.” It could no longer hold its head up, and it slowly slumped to the floor as it died.
“Chloe! We have class nine problem on a timer!” John called.
Mark had Gloria move the sub up to the moon pool, and had the two Marine guards help with recovering the wounded so Mary could look them over, and treat them as well as she could under the circumstances.
Her guards had just helped her out of the moon pool, when John came running back.
“Mary! Do what you can to stabilize these guys, get them on the sub, and get your ass back to the flyer!” he turned to the two guards. “Do either of you have a pilots rating yet?”
“We both do, Major,” one of them replied.
“Outstanding. Get the wounded, Mary and Gloria back to the Flyer, load them up, and get the hell off this planet,” He touched his communicator before Mary could protest.
“Mark, the Lizards do have a destruct device, and it has been activated. We have three hours before it detonates. Can we get anyone off this rock before then?”
“Not really, John. I’ll get the fleet moving, but we’re talking days at least until they are on station. What’s wrong? I thought you had them under control?” Mark replied.
“There is a demolition device, and it has been activated. The head lizard told me about it, and also said he gave me three hours to try to save the planet again. He didn’t get the chance to tell me where it is, or how to deactivate it, but at least he told me it was there. I’m sending Gloria, Mary and the wounded back to the flyer with orders to get the hell out of here,” John said. “The rest of us will try to stop the bomb.”
“So much for Intel’s theory about the Lizards not destroying planets!” I’ll do what I can, but I can tell you right now, there is no way in hell we’ll get everyone off planet in time.” Mark said. “Hang on a sec, John.”
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Mary asked in the lull. “I’m not going anywhere without you and Chloe!”
“Wrong, you are leaving with the wounded. They need you, and since I have the opportunity and the ability to get you and Gloria out of here, you’re going. That is all there is to it. If I have to, I will order the Marines to restrain you. So what’s it going to be?” John said giving the young woman a very serious look.
“You’re a bas
tard, you know that?” Mary said with tears in her eyes.
“I’ve been told that before. Look, I understand why you want to stay, but I need you to go someplace safe, and set up an aid and refugee station. We need someplace to send the people we do get off this planet, and they are going to need someone to tell them that everything’s going to be alright. I need that person to be you, understand?”
“At least send Chloe with me?” Mary asked.
“I can’t she’s the tech expert. I need her to defuse this monster when we find it. Mary, I love you too, but the bottom line here is that I don’t have time to argue this with you. This is the way it has to be. Please, just go with these Marines, and do what I’ve asked of you?” John said.
She grabbed the open neck of his armor and tried to pull him down for a kiss, but since his augmentation was still on, she basically climbed him, and kissed him passionately.
“John, we’ve got other issues. From all appearances, the invasion has begun. The Tammerain battle fleet hasn’t jumped yet, but they are on the move. From all indications, they are heading right for you,” Mark finally replied. “I’m ordering a full mobilization of the sector. I will also be placing the rest of our forces on high alert. Once those Tammerain ships cross the border, we’ll be at war again.”
“Lovely, do you have an ETA on them?” John asked.
“Not until they jump, if they jump in the next hour or so, you’ll looking at less than two days until they drop out of hyperspace, then another day to get to Bethel from the outer system. So at the least, you have three days,” Mark replied. “Our fleet will be there in four and a half. So the longer those enemy ships stay in real space, the better off we’ll be.”
“Well, we know that they won’t be getting any messages from here! All the Lizards are dead, and I sure as hell don’t plan on sending them anything!” John replied. He looked to Mary and the two Marines that were waiting for her. “Mary, please get moving. Get with Mark to figure out where to set up that refugee center, then get there, now please.”
“If you get dead again, I’ll kick your ass!” Mary replied. She turned then, and pointed to one of the wounded. “Take her first, I want to make sure the others can handle this.”
“Understood Doc,” one of the Marines said as they replaced the woman’s helmet prior to moving her.
“Mark, the fleet is your issue, I need to go find a big fuckin’ bomb before it destroys this planet,” John replied.
“Understood, Second Fleet is jumping to hyperspace as we speak. I’m redirecting the Sixth and Ninth Fleets to your sector. I’ve also issued a general alert,” Mark replied. “You take care of that, and I’ll do what I can on this end.”
“So much for retirement!” Alice mumbled over the team command channel. “Fuckin’ Tammerain!”
“John, I need you in the command center,” Chloe replied. “Marker set.”
“On my way,” John replied. He caressed Mary’s arm, then turned and ran back into the base.
Chapter 16
Due to the importance of the ‘package’ that the fleeing Saurians carried, the Tammerain Admiralty ordered three cruisers to jump to the Bethel system to escort the package and the techs back to their space. As a contingency, the rest of the fleet had orders to move forward, but not to cross the border.
Acting on those orders, three cruisers jumped to the Bethel system, while the rest of the fleet headed toward the border of Terran space at sub-light speed. They would remain in sub-light for twenty-four hours, then jump to the border themselves. Unknown to them, the Saurians had already been killed, and a Terran fleet was on the way to greet them.
It was not the intent of the Tammerain commanders to start the war yet, which is why the fleet was to hold position before crossing the border. However, by sending the three cruisers to Bethel, they directly violated the armistice between the two Empires. The hope was that the cruisers could accomplish their mission before they were discovered, and return safely to Tammerain space.
The Tammerain were gearing up to resume hostilities with the Human race, but their plan wasn’t quite ready yet. In the last war, the Humans had been greatly outnumbered, but proved to be an incredibly resilient race. The Tammerain saw Humans as a virus on the universe, parasitically bleeding worlds of all their resources and killing the planet before moving on to the next and doing it all over again.
This time, the Tammerain plan was to build their forces to vastly superior numbers, and place them strategically in order to make quick strikes of overwhelming force and drive the smaller race before them until they were dead.
The Tammerain did have, what they felt were far superior numbers; numbers of ships as well as ground forces, but had not yet reached their goal according to the plan. However, if the Humans discovered the cruisers, and pressed for war, the Tammerain felt they had some nasty surprises in store. However, the Tammerain knew the forces of the Humans were weak, and would do everything they could to avoid such a war – even overlooking those three cruisers if they were discovered.
Whatever risk they had to run would be worth it to discover what the Humans had done to their Marines in order for them to fight so well. The information had the highest priority for the Tammerain Command, and they would risk everything to gain that knowledge.
When John arrived in the Command Center, he found Chloe and Alice intent on one of the consoles.
“What did you two find?” he asked stopping next to them.
“This is the main command console, I think. That snake left the control program running, but I have no idea how to input the code – if this is really the shutdown code, Chloe replied holding up what looked like a piece of paper.
“So what’s the issue, you know how to read Saurian don’t you?” John asked.
Chloe shook her head and frowned. “No, neither of us have that module onboard. We were hoping you did since you live here,” Chloe asked.
“Have you done anything yet?” he asked as they switched places letting John at the terminal.
“No, I didn’t want to take the chance there was a failed attempt failsafe device,” Chloe said.
John nodded. “Good plan. The Saurian language is kinda tricky. Instead of upper and lower case, they have three - low, mid, and upper. There are three keys for each set instead of the shift key we are used to.”
“Damn good thing I didn’t try then, I had no idea,” Chloe replied.
“Yeah, but the problem is with the device itself. We need to locate it and make damn sure it shuts off, as well as can’t be reactivated once it is,” John said. “I’ll work on this, you two go help look for it.”
Alice nodded, and ran out of the room. Chloe put her hand on his shoulder, initiating a private channel. “Mary, and the others?”
“On their way back to the Flyer to get the hell out of here,” John said. “I sent two of the kids back with them as a guard and pilot.”
“Thank you, she’s a sweet girl,” Chloe said and followed Alice.
John watched her go, and wondered once again about the female animal. You’d think after five thousand years, he would have at least started to figure them out.
He turned back to the task at hand, and began working out the complex code to turn off the device. He would have had the powerful computers aboard the barge/minisub help him, but it was out of range now, and he couldn’t contact it.
“John?” William called.
“What’s up Will?” John replied.
“We found the device, at least the part of it we can reach. Chloe is on her way, but from what I can tell it’s a simple thing, but scary as hell,” Will said. “I don’t read snake, but my sensors are telling me that this console controls a containment field. I also got a warning about the presence of exotic matter.”
“Send me a visual!” John said feeling sick to his stomach.
Will complied, and for a moment, he could see through Will’s eyes. He was looking at a control console. “This is the console in question. You see an
ything?”
“Yeah, and you were right, it’s a field containment control unit. That readout in the upper center indicates the stability of the exotic matter pile.”
“Whatever that means, there is also this.” The view shifted to what looked like a shielded access door to a shaft of some kind. “I don’t know how far down it goes, since it’s shielded, but it would have to be at least through the mantle of the planet. Unshielded exotic matter in a planetary core? They’d have trouble finding dust particles of this planet.” The vision stopped then, but before it cut off, he saw Chloe arrive.
“Chloe here, I’m on station. Will’s right boss. This firecracker could destabilize the whole damn system.”
“Okay, we need to get that out of there, somehow. I’m ready to shut it down from up here, but before I do that, I’m going to share my Saurian language module with you two. So find a nice place to sit for a minute,” John said.
“Can’t you just come down here after you’re done there? This shit never seems to go very well,” Chloe commented.
“I hate to agree with her bitching, John, but Chloe is correct. The last time we tried to do that, Alice had to go in for controller service, and Holly was sick for a month,” William said, as always he was the pragmatic member of their group.
“Okay, you guys are right. I think once this is over, we all need to let Mary do those upgrades she was talking about,” John said frustrated with the situation.
“As long as we’re not at war again,” Chloe said. “Don’t forget we have a duty to perform for a friend.”
“Thank you,” William said softly.
“Alice! I have a job for you and that smart assed husband of yours,” John called.
“Alice is here with me, whatcha got, Bossman?” Carl replied.
“We need comms. Take the kids, and figure out a way to make it happen,” John hit the equivalent of the ‘enter’ button for the command while he spoke. “I just shut down the timer, and I’ll be on my way down to the bomb. Let me know when you got it rigged.” As he stood, he looked at one of the two marines that had been with Chloe and Alice during the search that had remained behind when they left.
