Solbidyum Wars Saga 4: Too Late for Earth

by Dale C. Musser

  “Excellent Verona, I would like for you and A’Lappe to take turns learning the language while the other continues monitoring the communication console. In the meantime, I’m going to recommend that the rest of us take a break and make use of the program. Let’s meet back here in an hour, at which time we will try to contact the Chinese base again.”

  When we returned an hour later Kerabac announced, “We’re being scanned from the Plato Crater, but there has been no attempt to try to communicate.”

  “What kind of scanning are they using?” I asked.

  “Radar, mostly. They also are targeting us using an invisible laser beam that I suspect is part of a weapon's guidance system. But I’m not getting any indications of any weapons being activated.”

  “It sounds like they are playing possum to me,” Captain Slater said. “Hoping we will not detect them and go away.”

  “Playing possum?” Commodore Stonbersa questioned. “Is that some sort of Earth game?”

  “Playing possum is a term from my part of Earth that refers to an animal called an Opossum that pretends to be dead if it is threatened? However, if they perceive that their act isn’t working, they can be quite fierce. They have very strong jaws and teeth and can easily break a bone in a finger with a bite.” I answered.

  “So you’re saying that the people down there are trying to make us think they all are dead and hope we go away, but if we don’t, they will attack?”

  “Possibly, we don’t know for sure, but we’re about to find out.” I replied... “A’Lappe, open a communication link on all broadcast channels.”

  “Channels open,” A’Lappe replied.

  “Attention Chinese lunar base located in the Plato Crater on the Earth’s moon.” I began in Mandarin “I am Thibodaux James Renwalt, a citizen of the Galactic Federation here on a mission to lend aid and assistance to any survivors of the asteroid that impacted the Earth. Please respond.”

  I waited, but nothing seemed to be happening. After about two minutes I repeated the message again. “Attention Chinese lunar base located in the Plato Crater on the Earth’s moon, I am Thibodaux James Renwalt, a citizen of the Galactic Federation here on a mission to lend aid and assistance to any survivors of the asteroid that impacted the Earth. Please respond.”

  “Tibby, I am getting indications of weapons being activated in the crater.” A’Lappe reported.

  Just then a weak voice accompanied by static came through on the speakers. “Please help us, don’t leave. We are prisoners here. Ming is killing us.”

  “Tibby they appear to be preparing to launch some sort of missiles,; there are panel doors in the crater opening and we are detecting rockets inside that appear to be about to launch.”

  “Attention lunar base, if you fire upon us we will take your actions as an act of aggression and we will be forced to return fire. We only wish to talk to you at this time. Please respond.”

  “Please do not leave us, help us,” the voice on the speakers replied. “Ming is insane, he will attack you, but you must help us.”

  I looked at Captain Slater and he said, “That would sound about right from the information we received earlier, before the communication stopped over a year ago.”

  “Tibby, the missiles are firing from the surface, we will have an impact in about seven minutes.” Kerabac reported.

  “Is there any chance of damage to us?” I asked A’Lappe.

  “None at all, the RMFF will handle it easily.”

  “RMFF? What is the RMFF? Captain Slater asked.

  “Watch and see, Captain.” I replied.

  As we watched we could see five missiles rising from the Moon and heading straight at us. Slowly they grew in size until we could see more than just the flame and smoke trail of their rockets. As they drew closer, they appeared to speed up, and I could see Captain Slater and his fellow Martians cringing. For a moment, I thought the Captain was about to duck just before the missiles hit the RMFF shields. Suddenly they seemed to explode in a blaze of fire, and electrical energy, like lightning, flashed across the surface of the RMFF shield. Inside the ship all was calm; there was no sensation or sound of impact or explosion.

  “WOW,” I heard Lt. Stevens, exclaim. “I thought we were goners there!”

  “That was amazing,” Captain Slater said. “How does it work?”

  “I’m afraid for now that will have to remain a secret, Captain. Perhaps in time we’ll tell you more. Now, let’s see if the Chinese are willing to talk.”

  “Lunar base,” I began again. “I hope you are now aware of the futility of your efforts, I am disappointed that you chose to attack us when we come here as friends with desire to help you.”

  “Please help us, Ming doesn’t want you here, he wants to keep us slaves. He will kill us all now that we have talked to you. You must…” And then there was the sound of gunfire and a few screams and the speakers went silent again.”

  I looked at Stonbersa and Kerabac and said. “I guess that does it, we will have to go in the hard way.” I turned to Marranalis. “Get three 30 men squads assembled; they will need to be suited up for vacuum combat. I’ll meet you all in the briefing area next to the hangar bay in about 30 minutes. Commodore, activate the cloaking and move us about 22 degrees and 50 kilometers from here. I want 10 cloaked Mirage Fighters launched in about an hour; I’ll be going down with Marranalis and the squads at the same time as the fighters leave.”

  “A’Lappe, what can you tell me about the base?”

  “Our sensors are only able to penetrate about 100 meters below the surface, but there seems to be a rather large facility beneath the exterior. Multilayered, but I can’t tell you how deep. I think it is reasonable to assume that each level will be laid out similar to the one above; I can give you a schematic of the first layer. I’m not detecting anymore missiles, but you can expect the occupants of the base to be armed, most likely with projectile type weapons. I would recommend that you take some drones along to send ahead of you so you don’t walk into a trap.”

  “Drones? We have drones?” I stammered.

  Kala was beside me shaking her head and holding her right hand against it. “Tibby, you really MUST learn more about your ship and what’s on it.”

  “Captain Slater,” I began as I turned facing him with some embarrassment. “I do apologize. I know this looks most strange that I don’t know what the capabilities and equipment are on my own ship, but I fear it’s still all quite new to me, it’s just so damn large!”

  “No need to explain Tibby, I’m simply amazed that you know what you do. May I accompany you on this mission?”

  “I’m sorry Captain, but at this time I don’t think it would be a good idea. I would appreciate if you and those of your team interested in what goes on down there follow the action from one of the conference rooms that we have set up as command centers on the ship. Things here on the bridge may be rather active, and I would prefer that no one is on the bridge that might detract or get in the way.”

  “Understandable, Tibby; will we be able to communicate with you while you are down there?”

  “I’ll arrange it so we can communicate, but the others will have to pass anything through you they might wish to communicate. I ask that you keep communication to a minimum and only use it if you have important information to add that might help us.”

  “Understood.” Slater replied.

  “Marranalis, I want us to use stun weapons if we are attacked, I only want deadly force used if there is a serious threat to the life’s of any of our men. I think we will go in as a visible unit sending drones ahead of us. If we are fired upon at any time, I want everyone to cloak and start knocking out anyone they see. We don’t stop until we have this Ming individual in our custody. We may end up knocking out a few friendlies in the process, but I rather have that than having someone on either side getting killed.”

  “I’ll alert the security team to the details.” Marranalis replied. “Hangar bay in one hour?”

 
“Right I replied.”

  An hour later I was in the hangar bay with Marranalis and my security teams as they boarded transports to the surface. The fighters had already disembarked and were occupying space around the crater. As my men were boarding the ship, I noticed one individual that was smaller than the rest with two very conspicuous swords strapped to their back. I reached out and grabbed the shoulder. “And just where do you think you are going, Jenira?” I asked.

  Immediately Jenira turned to face me with a determined look on her face. “You need me down there,” she signed rapidly.

  “For what exactly? What single service can you provide that my team of 90 men can’t?”

  Jenira hung her head a moment and then looked up and signed, “I need to go to protect you.”

  “No, you need to stay here with Kala and protect her. I have a small army with me to protect me, plus I am wearing body armor and have a cloaking device. There is little chance of me being harmed. Now please go back and stay with Kala.”

  I could see Jenira’s face redden and I thought for a minute she was going to argue with me more, but she slowly turned and went to the airlock and back into the ship.

  “I’m glad she’s not going, Tibby, but I have to admit I admire her spirit and determination,” Marranalis commented.

  Our trip to the surface was uneventful. A’Lappe had located what he believed was an airlock at one location on the crater, and even from our location in orbit we could see what looked like footprints in the lunar surface where men had come and gone into the side of the crater. There was a much larger space and door in another area of the crater that looked to be a landing zone. A larger door cut into the crater wall that we assumed was a hangar for small shuttles. We had decided not to try to gain entry there as it was too obvious a location. We arranged with three of our Mirage Fighters to uncloak and hover above the landing pad about the time we landed near the door we planned to use for entry. As we were setting down outside the crater rim we hoped that the occupants of the base would not be able to see our ship and that they would be focused on the fighters over the landing area.

  The Mirage Fighters no sooner emerged from their cloaking, than Stonbersa’s voice came through the speakers in my helmet. “Tibby, they are arming some weapon system to use against the fighters. It appears to be some sort of laser weapon system.”

  “Thanks for the information, Commodore. I think our fighters’ armor will be able to absorb their energy with no danger.” Just as I was saying this, we could see flashes of light shoot up at the fighters, hitting them, but doing no damage. Had the lasers the Chinese were using been of the type and strength of those used by the Federation it would have been another matter. I found myself wishing we had a way to power RMFF shields for the fighters but A’Lappe had still not been able to figure that out.

  “”I’ve located the airlock,” Marranalis said. “It looks to be a very simple manual device to open the door.”

  “I’m hoping the chamber inside is depressurized or it’s going to be very dangerous to try to open.” I said.

  “No problem there Tibby, we’ll burn a hole in the door; if it’s pressurized on the other side the air will rush out through the hole until pressure is equalized and we can open it safely. Once inside we can close the door again and use a quick sealing tab to patch the hole and pressurize the airlock. That’s assuming they have controls in the airlock to pressurize, and that the controls are not in an adjacent room.”

  A few seconds later, with a hole in the door and no air escaping, one of Marranalis men opened the door and entered the airlock.

  “We’re in luck.” He announced, “The controls are in here. The airlock is large enough to handle about 15 men at a time, so it’s going to take six turns to get everyone inside.”

  “We need to move quickly. I suspect there will be at least a few guards nearby and we need to secure this airlock for our continued use once we are in. I suspect that our opening this lock has already triggered an alarm someplace and armed men are rushing to this area, so let’s move in quickly.”

  Marranalis signaled to his man inside, who along with 14 other men, closed the airlock and cloaked before opening the inner door. From there they sent a drone into the next chamber. No sooner had the drone entered the room than we got a report back from the group leader. “Our drone has been shot down by multiple fires from several sources. I’m sending three cloaked men to find and neutralize the sources of fire.”

  All was silent for a few minutes and then his voice came back. “Area secure-- we have cleared the airlock, second team may enter now”. Marranalis and I entered with a part of the second group of 15, and moments later we found ourselves inside what seemed to be some type of storage area/laboratory. “Send out another drone,” Marranalis ordered.

  The second probe made it about 200 meters before it encountered anyone. This time we saw three men moving somewhat stealthily toward the drone while looking back frequently. When they saw the drone, they dropped their weapons and raised their hands. My security team immediately moved forward to take the men prisoners. “Please, get us out of here quickly,” one man said as he kept looking back over his shoulder. “Ming will have us killed if he finds we have surrendered.”

  “How many people are here on this base?” Marranalis questioned.

  “There are only 113 of us left.” Just 20 are loyal to Ming, the rest of us just want to get away. This place is hell. Ming is the devil. Please take us away.” The man appeared to be terrified as tears were running down his face. I looked at his companions and saw they were trembling and crying also. As I examined them, it was obvious that these men were suffering from malnutrition.”

  “Take these two men back to the shuttle and have them guarded,” Marranalis said to two of our troops. “I need you to come with us.” He said to the third man.

  The third man began shaking and crying… “Please, no, please, I’ll go with the others. Please. I don’t want to die. Please… he will kill me!”

  From down the hall sounds could be heard of men running. Marranalis pulled the prisoner to the side out of sight, and quickly our team cloaked. I heard a gasp from our prisoner in surprise as we vanished. Moments later five armed men came rushing in, and seeing the prisoner, began shouting at him.

  “What are you doing? Where is your weapon… why are you there looking so terrified? Ming will have your liver, coward!” The speaker suddenly stopped in shocked surprise as members of our security team began uncloaking around the five armed lunar soldiers. Seeing they were surrounded by 15 armed men each with a weapon pointing at them, the five quickly dropped their weapons and surrendered.

  “Restrain them and take them to the shuttle.” Marranalis said to one of his men.

  By now all the assault team was inside the lunar base and lined up ready for an all-out assault.

  “I need you to take us to Ming.” I said to the one man we were still holding prisoner.

  “I, I can’t.” The man trembled and cried.

  “Yes, you can. We’ll see to it no harm comes to you.” I answered.

  “But I can’t. I’m not allowed near Ming. His guards will kill me before I can get inside his chambers. Even if I did, Yǎnjìngshé would kill me as soon as I entered the room. You will never be able to get to Ming. Please, please send me with the others. Take one of the other men whom you just captured. Their leader can take you to Ming.”

  “Does he have access to Ming?” I asked.

  “Yes, yes… he is one of Ming’s lieutenants; he can get you in.”

  Marranalis quickly called to the team removing the prisoners and had their leader brought back to us. I noticed as they brought him in that he appeared in better health than the others and looked to have been well fed.

  “You will take us to Ming!” I said.

  “Ha, you’ll never get close to the Emperor.” He sneered.

  “Emperor! Ming thinks he is an Emperor?” I probed.

  “He is the Almighty Ming!” You
will see.

  “Take me to him. NOW!” I shoved the man away from me. He looked at me a moment, weighing his fears, then he turned stiffly and began leading us down a long corridor that slanted deeper under the Moon’s surface.

  I motioned to two of my men to come up close to me while we followed our captive guide. “Cloak and race on ahead of me and make sure we are not headed into an ambush.” Instantly the two vanished. The width of the hall was sufficient to allow my men to pass our guide, and though they didn’t touch him, he reacted as he sensed their passing, either by sound or by air movements; he appeared disoriented for a moment but then continued on. Moments later the corridor turned, and we found two of his fellow guards lying on the floor unconscious. Our guide gasped when he saw them. It was evident that he had expected to see us ambushed by them and not to find them as we did. Further down the hall and around another turn we found two more guards laid out on the floor. Finally, we arrived at two large doors where two of my team stood guard, while at their feet two more unconscious Chinese guards were lying.

  One of my troopers said, “Do you wish us to enter, or send in a drone?”

  “Open the doors and send in a drone; I’m curious to see what happens.” I responded.

  One of the men opened a door and our small drone flew in. From outside the room we could see what was going on inside, displayed on a vid screen attached to the back of one of my men. Inside about a dozen men stood guard around a golden throne on which a man, better fed than any I had witnessed since landing on the Moon, sat. When I say better fed, I mean he not only appeared to have been better fed, he was by any standard overweight; not to the extreme, but definitely overweight when compared to everyone else on the Moon, or even the Mars colony. On his right side stood a woman with an appealing figure and a porcelain ivory complexion, but while she had very attractive features, there was a cold and cruel look on her face. She and Ming stared at the drone a moment before the guards by Ming’s throne shot it down.