by Joe Crouch
“All hands, report to your stations, this is not a drill. I repeat. All hands report to your stations, this is not a drill,” came the call over the ship's intercom system. As the two turned to leave, the nearest object began to glow and pulse a blood red, providing an ominous warning to every onlooker.
“This cannot be good,” Baz declared. The pair charged back to the observational window and peered out, what they saw would change everything. A red streak of lightning exited the craft, the heat of the energy could be felt against the huge window they were stood at. They watched as the ‘projectile’ moved across the empty space to it's target - The main shipyard of Earth. Cracks and pops from the bolt could be felt against the pane of glass as it raced towards its inevitable destination. The station never stood a chance as the bolt impacted centrally on the structure, the metals and polymers contorted turning the entire section into slag as explosions ripped out across its surface.
“No!” screamed Sean, slamming his fist into the window, “How many people were in there?” he asked, unsure if he wanted to know the answer. With this, the other craft lumbered about, pointing their prows towards the already damaged station, the view was spectacular, albeit heart wrenching. Thundering red bolts of lightning fizzed across space between them and the shipyard, too bright to stare at for too long. They felt helpless at the fact that all they could do was watch, the imminent destruction of the orbiting platform and loss of thousands of souls was a foregone conclusion. Multiple projectiles slammed into the station synchronously, sparks from the released energy travelled and discharged in the upper atmosphere of Earth creating a light show for all on the surface to witness. The impacts melted most the outer hull and exposed its innards to the vacuum and harshness of space. Atmosphere vented out in large plumes of gas, escaping through the breaches, which were multiple, leaving the crews aboard the station with nothing but hope and prayers. The once huge, unwieldy structure, which served most the Terran’s fleet, was now a disfigured pile of scrap in orbit over Earth, providing nothing more than being a shadowy reminder of this day for future generations to witness.
“How? Why are they here? What do they want?” Baz whined.
“The hell if I know,” replied Sean, “But we had better get to our stations, not that I think we’re actually going to survive this.” Baz looked at him, shaking, gasping for a steady breath to calm himself down. The pair raced through the panicked hallways towards their armoury, they couldn’t help but crash into crew who rushed about, each as unsure of the situation as the other. This was the first time the Arrakis and her crew had been in a real fight, let alone against an opponent which just obliterated an entire shipyard in mere moments.
As they rushed towards the armoury, the build-up of power within the ship was palpable, the static made the hairs on Sean’s arms stand to attention as the energy rushed from the fusion reactors towards the subsystems. They felt the Arrakis building momentum as the engines kicked into life with a roar, the grav plating underfoot compensated for the sudden burst of thrust as it kept them stable. The distinct hum of the weapon capacitors charging was a comforting, but terrifying proposition, we’re actually gonna try and give them a fight Sean thought, attempting to reconcile everything that seemed to have happened in the last few moments. Baz and Sean crashed through the door looking for their squad mates. The team was there, already strapping on their armour and applying final charges to their weapons. “Where in God’s holy name have you two been?” the sergeant shouted across the room, leaving a brief ringing sensation in everyone’s ears.
“We were up on the observation deck, sir!” Sean saluted back, looking his CO in the eyes, “Have you seen what's out there, or what they’ve just done?” Every head in the room snapped towards him in unison, at least for a moment. “The shipyard is gone sir, obliterated, the craft out there fired some sort of energy bolt towards it.”
“That station’s armour and shielding had survived everything, hell, even a super-freighter crashing into it,” the sergeant growled. People in the room looked for guidance from the sergeant, they had been through a lot together, riots, incursions, splinter groups, Squad nineteen had seen it all, but this was something new that no one knew how to deal with. “First things first,” the sergeant shouted, “Everyone get their load outs and report to shuttle bay six, just in case we have to go meet a threat head-on.” One and all they nodded their heads in agreement and quickly returned to getting prepped. Sliding his Mag-15 into its holster, he was stopped in his tracks by the intercom system.
“All hands, prepare for firing sequence.” Seemingly without hesitation, the deck-plating began to rumble violently as the muffled booms of the Mass Drivers rang out around the cabin. The drivers accelerated rounds from an electromagnetically powered set of rails at speeds far in excess of thirty km per second, often higher depending on the energy exerted on the device. While technically a Mass Driver, people often used the more common ‘Railgun’. Vibrations from the guns increased as additional weapons were brought online, seemingly at higher velocities, as clothes fell from their hooks and any loose items left on the floor jumped across the decking with every boom. The sergeant, James, turned around to face everyone clapping loudly. “Looks like we’re at war boys and girls, look lively and prepare to move out.” James didn’t show any signs of nerves, and his strong voice didn’t crack once, but inside he was afraid, cautious of this new foe. His short, greying hair showed any casual onlooker that he had experience in the world and its colonies. “Alright! Form up on me, let’s get to the shuttle bay and wait to see if we’re needed.” The squad stacked up, two-by-two in formation behind James as they marched down the hallway towards the bay, making sure not to impede the opposite flow of foot traffic.
* * *
“Mr Harrison, Mr Smith, sirs, we have to exfiltrate the area now and get you both to safe locations, your survival is paramount,” general Hagen exclaimed, ushering along the two well-suited men. The auditorium had cleared after the initial scare; the attendees were ushered out as the institute helped to deal with what it was classing as an industrial accident. The floor was left with only a scattering of workers that helped to put away chairs and clean up the mess that had been left from the sudden wave of people that had wanted to escape the area, feeling targeted and unsafe in one of the world's most advanced centres.
“What’s going on, general?” inquired Lawrence Harrison, unaware of the situation that was unfolding in the space above them. They walked through the clean, pristine white hallways in the general’s wake, they didn’t have a sterile feel to them, but one of extravagance and a class most private companies could not begin to dream of affording. “I was the lead designer on that station,” Lawrence whispered, “Unless an asteroid impacted its shields, or it’s under massive attack, nothing would cause damage like what we saw.” General Hagen stopped to face them both and took a deep breath, not out of nerves, but out of dejection, having to tell the two standing in front of him that their pride and joy had been attacked was inconceivable.
“You’re right as always Lawrence,” the general replied, dropping all formalities now the cameras were gone, “Unidentified craft have entered the system right in the middle of our orbiting fleet. They proceeded to open fire on Hades station, a damage assessment is being drawn up aboard the TEF Vanguard as we speak.” Smith and Harrison looked at each other in shock as the implications of what had happened sunk in, their eyes became hollow and soulless, remaining speechless they motioned for the general to continue moving.
They arrived at the garage, it was a large underground structure that housed land and air vehicles, massive concrete pillars took the weight of the ceiling as symmetric red blinking lights led out towards the exit as if it were a runway. A sizeable platoon had gathered to meet them and with a nod, a pristine looking soldier opened the side door and snapped to a crisp salute. “Sirs, we arranged this car plus escort to take you to Delta base where you will be greeted by Brigadier Mason.” general Hagen nodded
to the professional soldier and held out a hand, letting the two institute board members enter first.
“Delta base?” asked Ryan Smith as his well-fed body sunk into the comfy leather seat, “Is that the large base north of here, or the pathetically small station on the continent. You army lot are always the same, we deserve the best,” he demanded. Lawrence glanced over towards his friend with a raised eyebrow, he wasn’t surprised by his outburst, it was common after all, especially when under stress, but it was interesting to see his behaviour towards the general.
“We’re heading to neither, Mr Smith,” replied the general, his tone was stoic but the use of formalities showed he was anything but passive to Ryan’s outburst. “You may have certain privileges in times of peace, but with this attack, I can only assume the conclusion is that we are now in a state of war.” Ryan opened his mouth and raised his finger to make a further point, but Lawrence saw this coming and nudged his friend in the side, shaking his head. While they were working partners with the military, their relationship was always caught between mutual respect and loathing.
The land shuttle flew over the city, belying its name, and headed towards the mountainous region in the East. Looking down through the transparent flooring, Lawrence could only contemplate what had happened. Deep in thought, concern for the people working on the station was a prime worry for his compassionate mind. “Have we heard anything about casualty numbers from the station, general?” Lawrence asked, but before he could receive an answer, the radio within the vehicle sparked to life.
“General, the fleet has engaged the enemy with the Arrakis opening fire with a salvo from its mass drivers, we cannot get accurate damage reports at this time but it seems that our weapons are only partially effective,” the crewwomen on the radio trailed off, awaiting a response. The general listened intensely, nodding after she had finished he paused to think for a second before answering.
“Thank you,” he answered, “Can you inform brigadier Mason we are twenty-five minutes out and will want a general assessment of our active and reserve fleets readiness as well as operations room two cleared and prepped.” There was a slight delay before the crewwomen replied.
“Yes sir, I will let him know sir.” The radio went silent as everyone in the vehicle wrestled with the demons that had suddenly captured their thoughts, the remaining journey went smoothly and silently.
The shuttle came to a hover as dust kicked up from the repulsors kicking up the loose sediments from the ground, they lowered gently until they touched down with a thud, the grav plates powered down as the shuttle’s weight was settled onto the landing struts. The shuttle lowered as the landing struts retracted into the hull and hydraulics lowered the vessel closer the landing pad. “Welcome to Delta base general Hagen, it’s a pleasure to have you here,” brigadier Mason beamed, even in the current situation, “I just wish your return were under better circumstances.”
Stepping to the side, the brigadier waved for his men to secure the shuttle and take it down into a hangar. While walking, Ryan and Lawrence couldn’t help but notice how hot it was in the desert landscape they had landed in as sand licked the facility walls, the heat distortion bent the air every direction they looked. As they approached a small grey grating, inconspicuous to anyone not looking for it, the brigadier activated a program on his wrist computer, the grating retracted to one side, disappearing into the thick surface under the veneer of sand to reveal a set of stairs. Lights flickered on all the way to the bottom as they trudged down the steps. Turning a corner revealed a wide, open room, computers sat on desks that lined every inch of wall space, a large overhanging set of monitors shaped in a hexagon hung in the middle of the room with a table projecting holographic information just below it. They positioned themselves around the dark, metallic table as the brigadier wiped the information off the holographic display with a swipe of his hand.
“Ok,” the brigadier huffed while wiping away a bead of sweat that rolled down his brow, “We can drop formalities in here, general Michael.” He looked over towards Lawrence and Ryan, “I’m brigadier Stephen Mason, please just call me Steve.” Nodding, they held out their hands to make the introduction official. Steve keyed in commands as a terminal rose out from the table, positioning itself so everyone could see. “Display current signatures surrounding Terranus Prime, friendlies as green and mark all unidentified signatures red.” The army preferred to use the designated ‘Terranus Prime’ instead of Earth when in operations, they felt it reduced sentimental attachment and made people more objective.
Glimmering into existence the holographic display flicked on, the lower quarter displayed a visual representation of Earth, the space surrounding the planet began to populate as spherical signatures were recognised and colour coded, their estimated power outputs displayed next to the spheres. “So,” sighed Michael, “We have seven unidentified craft right on top of a portion of our active fleet, Hades station has been made inoperable for now and the Arrakis has opened fire on one of the craft, is this correct?” Steve turned his gaze from the display to him and nodded sombrely, Michael nodded and returned to the image. “Do we have a more detailed analysis of our first few salvos, their estimated damage and any armaments the enemy combatants appear to have.”
“Damage from the Arrakis seems to be minimal, but not completely ineffective as one round impacted the enemy's hull and plasma was seen venting into space,” Steve replied, “For now, the only weapon they have used was on the station, and that appeared to be a form of concentrated high energy. We’re not sure just how controlled it is as reports have it crossing space as an arcing ‘lightning bolt’.” Everyone in the room turned their heads to Steve and raised an eyebrow simultaneously, shaking their heads they returned to the display. “I know, it sounds like I’m making it up, but it is what has been reported to me, don’t shoot the messenger.” Lawrence raised a smile and began to speak.
“This weapon, do we know exactly how much energy was exerted?”
“Not exactly, but the shielding on Hades station was certified for energy impacts up to 2 petajoules, and it offered little to no resistance.” Silence descended upon the room, the shielding on Hades station was the pinnacle of defensive technology to come out of the Harrison & Smith institute, they were working on bigger and better iterations of the technology, but for now, it was the best they had.
They listened intently as the brigadier carried on with his briefing.
* * *
“Alright everyone, stand down here and await further instructions,” sergeant James Collins barked, “We have no idea of the foe we are up against and no idea when or even if we will be needed.” Squad nineteen stood aimlessly in the hangar bay, people played with their armour straps to find anything to distract them from the situation. Sean leant against the railings and peered down onto the action happening below, crewmen were scurried around either preparing SF-4’s for launch or taxying prepared fighters into launch bays.
“Hopefully the boys do us proud out there,” Baz whispered from behind Sean, startling him, “You heard anything?” Sean knew he was just trying to calm his own nerves by making idle conversation.
“Not really, I hope they aren’t having to deal with those lightning pulse weapons,” he replied, “We won't stand a bloody chance.”
“You don’t think so?”
“I don’t think so at all, Baz, we just aren’t equipped to fight something like this, we’re equipped to fight each other.” Baz let his shoulders drop, disappointed with the blunt answer. The squad continued milling around, watching as the SF-4’s engines spit out blue flames as they built up speed to exit the launch tubes. Without warning the ship rocked violently to aft, each person in the hangar bay was thrown to the floor, a flood of screams filled the air as a distant explosion rang out from engineering.
“We’ve taken fire!” a pilot shouted from below, “Fuck, we’re under attack!” The pilot had lost his composure and ran towards an escape shuttle, his commanding officer grabbed
him by the neck and punched him so hard the impact could be heard on the platform above. Alarms began to screech and everything was bathed in a red hue as emergency power came online. Sean kept his eyes trained on an engineer as he ran towards a terminal, as he put his hand on the computer the engineer was thrown backwards as energy spiked and arced out of the system, causing it to explode and throw debris across the room. A piece of sharp metal impacted a nearby crewman, shaving the top of his head clean off, a silent scream captured Sean as the decapitated body crashed to the floor as blood pooled around his lifeless corpse.
“Christ! Did you see that,” he pointed, turning to face his squad. Four of his friends laid on the floor badly injured and writhered in pain, “Oh no,” he whispered. He quickly fell to his knees and gave the wounded mouth-to-mouth in a futile attempt at revival.
“Leave them…” Baz pulled at Sean’s shoulder.
“I’m not going to fucking leave them, Baz,” a ship-wide communication that blared out from the walls interrupted their bickering.
“Under the authority of Admiral Green, the order has been given to abandon ship, I say all hands abandon ship.” Frenzied panic spread across the bay as crewmen rushed in every direction, unsure what to do or where to go. Sean peered out through the shielding of the launch tubing as it rippled and distorted his vision, what he saw left him speechless. Closing into the ship, he watched as a tendril snaked towards them and before anyone could react it wrapped itself around the outer hull, sticking to it like a cephalopod limb. The ship was ‘lifted’ causing everything not bolted down to spiral and crash towards one side. Sean flailed about, managing to grab onto a railing. He watched on as Baz fell away from him and impacted heavily on the tube shielding which was now below. His limbs contorted into unnatural positions as the snap of bone rang out. Creaking and cracking as more and more pressure was applied, the hull’s integrity began to fail. He glanced up above him and watched as the hull began to bow inwards. Thinking quickly, he pulled himself up and balanced on the railings as he made his way towards an escape shuttle. Loud cracks and bangs rippled across the outer shell as the hull began to give way. Knowing there wasn’t much time left, Sean quickly slipped into an EVA suit.
