by Terry Frost
“Gordo, try to make contact,” Allen said to his helmsman/communications officer.
Gordo tried to raise the Perseus for a long thirty seconds and got no response. “Admiral, I got nothing, sir.”
“Allen to Dubois.”
“Dubois.”
“General, we’ve lost contact with Perseus. Assemble a team and make ready to go down to the planet. Have your team take a hornet along with them for overwatch and tell them to report back the instant they find the Battlecruiser.”
“No need for that, Admiral, as I’m going down to the planet with them and will give you the report myself,” the general disconnected before the admiral had time to talk him out of going on the mission.
General Dubois and his rescue team only had the last coordinates of Perseus’s position prior to losing contact with the Battlecruiser, so the general was wasn’t sure how far the ship had flown after losing contact.
Major Hoser and Captain Teasor had inspected what they could see near the bottom of the ship and found it had lost its left landing strut and had a multitude of deep gouges running from the landing struts to the midsection.
The ship had footholds built into the ship’s frame that allowed maintenance personnel to climb to the top of the ship. Captain Teasor had climbed to the top and saw the fin-shaped communication array missing. When he saw it was missing he thought how the hell did that get knocked off? I guess the hard jolt we took while landing could have jarred it from its mount.
He began to climb down when he and Major Hoser heard the familiar sound of ships breaking into the atmosphere. Major Hoser said, “Here comes our rescue.”
Less than a minute later the Marine shuttle was hovering close to them, then slowly sat down in the grass about fifty-feet away. The hornet, piloted by Lieutenant Stern Baffy, the Perseus’s weapons officer that didn’t make the trip with Perseus’s team due to other duties previously assigned to him by General Dubois, stayed airborne to watch over his comrades on the ground.
As soon as Dubois saw the Perseus he called Admiral Allen and told him they found the ship and would give him a situation report as soon as he had the details on the ship’s condition. By the time the shuttle had landed everyone was outside of the ship except for Captain Sokolov.
When the general stepped off the shuttle he was greeted by Major Hoser and Captain Teasor. Dubois said, “Hell of a nice day on this rock, but you gentlemen had to spoil it by allowing Captain Sokolov the crash the damn ship, huh?”
“No, sir. The Captain and I had nothing to do with it. We ran into a wind anomaly that made us crash, General.”
“What kind of wind anomaly, Major?”
“We had no indication of any type of storm coming at us when we were slammed by hurricane-strength winds, sir. The strangest damn thing I’ve ever seen, General.”
Dubois walked over to the ship and ran his hand along one of the deep gouges running along the middle of the ship and said, “Where is Captain Sokolov?”
“He’s still inside the ship running diagnostics, sir.”
Dubois noticed the right landing strut had been damaged and said, “Holy shit. We are going to have to have a maintenance crew come down to fix that. Can you tell me if the ship can be flown out of here once we fix the damn strut?”
“Let’s see if the captain can answer that question. Follow me, General,” Major Hoser said.
Dubois found Captain Sokolov underneath the control panel using a hand-held laser that formed over bond over a strand of wires. The general dropped to a knee and said, “What’s it look like, Captain. Think you can get the bird to fly?”
The captain pulled himself out from under the panel, stood up, and sat in his chair and said, “We are about to find out, sir.”
He went through the normal ignition steps and the ship started up the first try. “Well, damn. I guess I put the correct wires back together. I think she will fly, but we won’t be able to land unless we can fix the landing strut.”
“I’ll get on the horn and get a maintenance team down here to fix the strut. Meanwhile, everyone needs to stand guard near the ship until we get in fixed. We haven’t seen much of this planet and don’t need to wander off until we’ve properly checked it out.”
The general contacted Admiral Allen and told him the situation and what was needed to fix Perseus. Allen told him he would get the maintenance team together but would need time for those men to fashion a replacement strut, which might take a couple hours. He said when they completed the task and were ready to depart he would let him know, and until that time came he ordered the general and his Marines to stay with Perseus and her crew.
The engineers completed making the strut in less than an hour, loaded up, and headed for the downed Battlecruiser. Everyone was standing outside and were enjoying the beautiful day that had plenty of warm sunshine and light winds even though they had an uneasy feeling not being able to see anything around them because of the five-foot-tall grass. Everyone was glad when they heard the sonic boom the shuttle made when it came through the atmosphere.
A minute later the men on the ground became quite anxious as they heard what they guessed to be sounds coming from some type of alien creature coming from several different directions. The vocalizations were high pitched, then switched to a low guttural sound, then back to high again. None of them were familiar with the sounds and Sergeant Givens immediately ordered his Marines to form a perimeter around the Battlecruiser with their weapons at the ready.
General Dubois said, What the hell was that? Get inside Perseus and close the ramp.”
Lieutenant Baffy, flying in the hornet called the general and said, “General, I have six very large animals coming to your six from different directions. They are huge and look mighty dangerous. I’ll try to down a few of them before they get to you but I can’t take them all in time before they reach your location.”
The creatures were as big as rhinoceroses but without the prevalent horns, short tails, and didn’t have heads. Their thick necks extended from their broad shoulders and ended where a head would normally be, into a large gaping mouth full of dagger-like teeth. Instead of ears and located where an animal's ears would be located on ahead, were two inverted openings. They had two large yellow eyes, one attached to nodules located on each side of its neck close to its mouth very similar to the eyes of a Hammerhead shark.
Baffy brought the hornet down and began firing at two of the creatures closest to his position. If the men on the ground weren’t so close he would have used one of the hornet’s small tactical nukes that would have killed them all at once. Baffy knew he wouldn’t be able to eliminate them all before they reached Perseus.
“I can’t get them all in time, General. Order your men to take shelter in the shuttle, sir,” Baffy said.
The maintenance shuttle had no weapons, and all the men on board could do was watch the onslaught that was about to take place. General Dubois yelled at Sergeant Givens and told him to get himself and his men into the shuttle.
The sergeant and three of his Marines made it to the shuttle but the remaining two Marines didn’t have time to get there and tried to stand their ground. They didn’t stand a chance, as each man was grabbed by two of the creatures. Caught in the animals huge mouths they screamed as they were shaken like rag dolls, then bitten in half.
Captain Sokolov ordered Captain Teasor to take control of the ion cannons. Teasor put a volley into one of them standing directly in front of them. The impacts hit the creature and he exploded, throwing large chunks of its flesh onto the viewing window of the Battlecruiser.
Lieutenant Baffy had killed two of the six and was coming around for another target when he saw the exploding creature killed by Captain Teasor. Following the explosion, the remaining three creatures turned and ran from the scene but not soon enough to keep Baffy from killing one more.
The lieutenant made sure the last two were beating a path far away from his comrades before giving General Dubois the all clear. Still somewhat rattled, the men
took their time exiting the ship.
By the time they came out, Sergeant Givens and four of his Marines took to the gruesome task of gathering they're the remains of their dead comrades, at least what they could find of them. The maintenance crew heard the Lieutenant’s all clear and landed next to Perseus.
While the maintenance crew worked on replacing the landing strut, General Dubois called his Commander. He gave Admiral Allen the short version of what happened and told him he would brief him fully when he returned to Colossus.
Allen said, “It’s a damn shame, a damn shame. As soon as Perseus is ready to fly, I’m ordering all of you back to Colossus. I’ll not have any more of my people killed on the ground. When you get back, you and I will get together and discuss plans for your men’s services. After their service, I will continue evaluating the planet, but we will only perform the mission in the air.”
Chapter 28
Colonel Hammer and Commodore Jeeves on board the Aborian Predator had made it to their assigned planet and were about to wind down their survey of it. It turned out to be a world that would be eliminated for colonization. It was by far one of the strangest planets surveyed throughout the almost five years of searching for a new home for Humanity.
While in space the planet seemed to have plenty of potentials as the sensors showed it had breathable air and mild temperatures. It had dark blue oceans but after making a few orbits was determined to have very few landmasses. Of those masses, only ones with tall mountain peaks remained above the water.
Commodore wanted to take the Predator down into the atmosphere anyway, to the objection of Hammer. But without arguing with Jeeves, which he knew would do no good, he relented to the Science Officer mainly because, as he was reminded several times in the past, the commodore held rank on matters of science.
Once in the atmosphere, it didn’t take but one orbit to realize to continue their scanning would end up a waste of time and fuel. The oceans were a continuous wave of monster size tidal waves, some registering over ten-thousand feet high. That explained why the only visible land were the tall mountain peaks.
Speaking to the Aborian Commander Sulin, the commodore ordered her to set a course back to Colossus’s location. Jeeves was disappointed in the planet but was anxious to get back to the mothership to analyze the recording to see if he could determine why the ocean’s waves were so enormous.
Twelve hours had passed since leaving the dark blue planet, which Colonel Hammer named Sulin One, after the Aborian Commander. It pleased her immensely that Hammer gave her that honor. Other than thanking him for the name designation she commented, “That is an excellent name for the planet, Colonel. It takes after me, somewhat.”
“How is that, Commander?”
“Well, to the point, if you are the unlucky one to piss me off, I will roll over you like those giant waves,” Sulin said with a half evil grin. Colonel Hammer laughed, but Jeeves didn’t find the humor in her comment, but since he wasn’t quite on top of humor yet, it figured.
When Commander Sulin dropped out of FTL, Colonel Hammer notified Admiral Allen of their return and asked if he wished to be briefed about the planet. Allen asked if he had good news and when Hammer told him it was not good he said the briefing could wait.
Before signing off, Allen told him about the tragedy that unfolded on the planet. Upset that he wasn’t part of the team that went down to survey it, which was Hammer’s nature, he expressed his sorrow for the dead Marines and broke off the communication with the admiral.
****
Caid Maalik and Science Officer Faadin stood on a viewing balcony of the royal palace positioned at the top of the palace. Sorrow filled both of their eyes as they looked out at what used to be a wonderful floral garden. In its center was a small pool with a statue of King Gaakin standing by a waterfall.
Everything was dead in the garden and the king’s statue was missing a hand that originally held the Daakie’s preferred hand-held weapon known as the Singa. A week before Maalik and his small band of people returned to Planet Daak, several liberated survivors had removed nearly a hundred dead Daakie citizens killed by the Hive and had cremated their bodies, which was the Daakie way.
Looking out across the capital city the two Daakie could see an abundance of destroyed buildings, including several large personal homes of affluent citizens. When talking to a survivor, Caid Maalik was told the rich were the first to be killed and eaten.
Was that a sign that the Hive regarded individual wealth as a status not allowed in their society? Maalik asked himself that question, then thought since they are insectoids there are no individuals with entitlements, other than their queen.
“It will take many periods to replace all the damage they caused on our world, Maalik. It will take generations of our kind to reach the numbers we once were,” Faadin commented.
“Agreed. It does no good for us to dwell on what the Hive did, so let us begin in earnest, to strengthen our capabilities to defend ourselves, and we must start with learning the secrets to those tall tower weapons,” Maalik said as he pointed at the two towers standing several kilometers apart.
“I will take some of our best minds with me to that tower over there and begin. You must get our factories ready to begin constructing identical versions of the upgraded Zurguts we built with the help of our Aborian friends,” said Faadin.
“Agreed, but with one exception. We must ask our engineers to design a fast, undetectable escape craft for our king and queen. Should we find ourselves being attacked again I wish to not lose our royals to our attackers. Come now, we must begin to begin again,” Maalik said.
The Daakie had lost over half of their population to the Hive. Rebuilding was going to be a herculean task but was doable. The only fear silently running through the minds of Maalik and Faadin was, will we be given enough time to replenish our military before the Hive return.
Maalik was elated that so many of the Hive had been destroyed, but he didn’t feel his kind, nor those that had experiences with the Hive in the past, were rid of the vicious horde entirely.
Chapter 29
Colossus’s executive staff and the ship’s Marines had held services for the two Marines that lost their lives to the monsters that had attacked those on the ground of the planet waiting for the Perseus to be repaired. Admiral Allen held off on resuming the exploration of the planet until the next day beginning at 7:00 a.m.
Allen had ordered the Perseus to sit this one out because he wanted the ship’s electronics and wiring to be checked out. While that was being addressed he ordered his metal fabricators to tear off the damaged skin and replace it. Perseus would not see further action for at least a week.
The Striker was ready to be put back in service and the regular team of Colonel Hammer, Captain Slain, Commodore Jeeves, and Lieutenant Cargon were on board. Cargon would be commanding a group of three hornets and ten combat wasps during the Battlecruiser’s mission of continuing the exploration.
The Striker had just flown over the area of the attack and was forty miles from the range of eleven oddly spaced mountains Captain Sokolov and his crew were heading to before the wind anomaly had forced the Perseus down.
Now twenty miles out from the westerly most mountain, the open plains turned back into forest covered ground. The group of hornets and wasps had been released as soon as the Striker penetrated the planet’s atmosphere. Lieutenant Cargon in his hornet along with the remaining two were flying out in front of the Striker, as the group of combat wasps trailed the Battlecruiser.
The only sign of life was a large flock of birds the size of crows flying from the east heading southwest. Colonel Hammer called Lieutenant Cargon and asked if any of his team were picking up any other signs of life besides the flock of birds they had detected.
“No, sir, nothing has registered on any of our sensors. Uh, wait One, I see something odd about five miles out, Colonel. We are going to drop down to a thousand feet so we can get a better look, sir.”
“Explain what you mean by odd, Lieutenant.”
Cargon didn’t immediately respond so Hammer said, “Lieutenant, how you copy?”
“Well, I be damned, Colonel. I’m just now reaching what I saw and it looks like an abandoned fort of some kind, sir. A damn big fort, Colonel.”
“A fort? Stay over it, we will be there in less than three minutes, Hammer, out.”
Cargon ordered his combat wasps to spread out and survey everything within a couple miles of the fort to the east and west. Captain Slain dropped the Striker down to fifteen hundred feet and was now above the alien structure.
The walls of the fort were fifty feet tall and the entire complex was built of wood from its neighboring forest. There was a clearing of trees around a hundred yards from the fort and stacked into a pile were logs that had their branches cut off and seemed to be ready to use somewhere on or around the fort.
Neither the hornets or the Striker were detecting any movement on the interior or exterior of the huge fort. Commodore Jeeves became excited and notified Colonel Hammer he was going to contact Admiral Allen and ask permission to land so they could check out the fort on foot.
Allen was perplexed about the seemingly abandoned alien fort and allowed the Striker team to inspect the complex, but ordered them to keep the hornets and wasps in the air to provide overwatch on them.
Slain set the Striker down in the area that had been cleared of standing trees. Colonel Hammer ordered Captain Slain to stay with the Battlecruiser while he and Commodore Jeeves took the only Rover on the ship out to do the inspection. Slain obeyed Hammer’s order but didn’t like it one bit that he was not allowed to participate in the inspection.
The first detail the away team noticed was a multitude of crude carts with two large wheels strewn about. Some were by the pile of logs, others were near the wall of the fort and several were turned over, or on their sides.
The side the Rover was approaching from looked to be the main entrance into the complex. The entry was accessed through wide doors nearly thirty feet across. Jeeves estimated it would take a dozen average size men to open or close the massive doors.
