The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell

by Douglas Howell

  “Can this loader load this cryo-chamber onto a shuttlecraft?” La’jyn’eu asked Parker.

  “Yes why?”

  “Because we need to do something to the clone first, before we put it on the shuttlecraft.”

  “What are you going to do to it?”

  “You need to stop asking stupid questions Parker.” Mynik’ny’nuta told Parker.

  “Yeah but…” Parker started to say.

  “Parker! Shut up!” La’jyn’eu snapped back.

  La’jyn’eu then got up, took the clone out of the cryo-chamber, and placed it on a table on the right side of the cryo-chamber. He then said something in his native tongue to Mynik’ny’nuta. La’jyn’eu then looked guilty at Parker. Mynik’ny’nuta then went up behind Parker and held him. La’jyn’eu then put a gag in Parker’s mouth. Mynik’ny’nuta then put handcuffs on Parker. La’jyn’eu then proceeded to severely beat Parker up. When he was done he took out the gag in Parker’s mouth, while she un-cuffed him. Parker then dropped to his knees crying.

  “Check him.” La’jyn’eu told Mynik’ny’nuta.

  “Wow. You really did a number on him.” She said, looking Parker over with the skilled eye of a doctor.

  “So what did you find?”

  “A broken nose. Three broken ribs, two on the left side, one on the right. And he has a collapsed lung. Like I said… ‘a number’.”

  La’jyn’eu then helped Parker to his feet. He then injected Parker with medical nano probes. He then scanned Parker with a nano probe analyzer.

  “Come on. Come on.” La’jyn’eu was saying to the analyzer.

  “What are you waiting for?” Parker struggled to asked him.

  “Got ‘em!” La’jyn’eu said.

  La’jyn’eu then quickly grabbed an industrial nano-extractor and used it on Parker. The nano-extractor removed all nano probes very quickly from Parker’s body. La’jyn’eu, with his left hand, very quickly put the extracted nano probes into Parker’s clone, with his right hand he shoved Parker into the cryo-chamber and then rapidly shut the door. As soon as Parker fell asleep inside the chamber, La’jyn’eu then opened the door and used the nano-extractor on Parker. Then, using his right hand, he grabbed Parker and threw him out of the cryo-chamber, at the same time with his left hand, he put the extracted nano probes into Parker’s clone. He did all of that very quickly. He then quickly grabbed Parker’s clone and placed it into the cryo-chamber and shut the door. Mynik’ny’nuta then walked up and looked at the Bio-Reader on the door.

  “Damn you’re good.” She said being amazed that the Bio-Reader misread Parker’s clone as Parker.

  “Parker… I’m very sorry to say this but there is something that you need to understand about that HIDSO tactic.” La’jyn’eu said. He really did felt sorry for Parker.

  “What?” Parker said. He was in a lot of pain and agony.

  “When I used that Nano-Extractor it created microscopic tearing on your internal organs. I’m sorry to tell you this but… depending upon your health… your life span has been reduced by ten years.”

  Parker cried when he heard that, as Mynik’ny’nuta was treating his injuries.

  “I hate to mentioned this to you Parker…” La’jyn’eu continued. “…but I can’t reuse the medical nano probes on you.”

  “Why?” Parker was on the verge of crying when he heard that.

  “Because it would do more harm than good.”

  With that Parker broke down and cried. He finally reached the point where he was starting to give up. The point that told him that he must have made a terrible mistake. In a small way he wanted to go back to his life in Project 21, but he knew that he couldn’t back out now.

  “Parker.” La’jyn’eu continued. “Tonight you can take off that uniform and do what you like with it. If Mynik’ny’nuta says that you can, take a hot bath, relax and get plenty of rest. For tomorrow, sometime around 11:00, the mafia will come and take you away to your new life. After that, you probably will never see this moon ever again. But until then… for god sake, please do as you are told.”

  Parker nodded his head in agreement. Parker then sat down to rest and to recover. La’jyn’eu asked Parker how to load the cryo-chamber onto a shuttlecraft. Mynik’ny’nuta spent the time cleaning up. When they were done, all three of them headed to the Security Division: Communication Area of Project 21 HQ. As they were leaving, La’jyn’eu put a silencer on two handguns and held them in both hands. He then took the lead.

  At one point La’jyn’eu heard someone coming down a hallway to his right, pushing a cart. In a split second, La’jyn’eu shot the person in the head. La’jyn’eu then had Mynik’ny’nuta put the body in the room that the person came of. La’jyn’eu then took a sign off the cart that read, “Chemical Spill Do Not Enter,” and placed it on the door. They then headed on over to the evaluators.

  Double Shock had Parker use the Biometric Reader and then pushed the button for the Security Division. When the evaluator doors opened, La’jyn’eu step out, quickly looked to the right then left, holding both guns out to his sides. They then headed to the Communication Area.

  As they were approaching the restrooms, a guard came out. La’jyn’eu, once again in a split second, shot the guard in his right temple. As La’jyn’eu was passing by the dead guard’s body, another guard came out. The guard saw Double Shock, reached for his gun, and was shot dead by La’jyn’eu before he could touch his gun.

  When La’jyn’eu got near the lounge area, two guards came out of the lounge area. Double Shock then used both of the guns he had, and shot both of them dead. Neither one of them saw it coming. He than moved quickly and quietly over to the lounge area, staying focus on whether or not there is anyone in there. There was a guard in the lounge who heard the bodies of the two dead guards hit the ground. The guard stood up, turned to face his killer, and was shot dead in a split second.

  When they got to the Communication Area there were two people sitting in front of some monitors talking to each other. Double Shock quietly walked up to them, carefully took aim at the back of their heads, and shot them both dead. He then erased all security data, sabotage the communications and the fire alarm. They then headed back to the evaluators. When one of the evaluator doors opened, a guard started to step out, he saw La’jyn’eu, and before he could react, La’jyn’eu shot him dead. Parker and Mynik’ny’nuta went into the evaluator first. Mynik’ny’nuta held the evaluator door open while Double Shock pulled the dead guard’s body out. They then headed over to Parker’s office. Luckily for the people at the Project 21 HQ, La’jyn’eu didn’t see anyone while they were headed there.

  “Hey Parker… come here.” La’jyn’eu said.

  “What?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Before Parker could say anything, La’jyn’eu turned and shot him in his left leg, seven inches above his knee. The bullet went in at an angle, exit and went into the carpet. Parker dropped to the floor and started to cry in pain. He was also crying out of the frustration of constantly being injured by someone who is supposed to be helping him. La’jyn’eu calmed Parker down and apologized for shooting him.

  “Don’t worry Parker…” La’jyn’eu said in a calm soothing voice. “…that WILL be the last time that I will hurt you.”

  “Then why did you do it?” Parker said, crying in pain while Mynik’ny’nuta was treating him.

  “Project 21 needs to be afraid of something far more greater than you – a massive EOD conspiracy on this moon. It has to be strong enough to distract them from your misdeeds. That you are nothing more than an innocent victim caught up in that conspiracy. You don’t appear to be the type who would allow yourself to go through what I put you through. Your personality dictates that you would never agree to something like that. Project 21 should know that through your psychological report. And therefore you are nothing more than innocent victim in the eyes of Project 21. And that should buy you enough time to get away from them.”

  “Oh… now I get
it.” Parker said, feeling a little better.

  Parker finally realized that his plan was doomed to fail from the start. That in all likelihood, he would have been caught by Project 21 long before he had the chance to join the EOD. Parker realized that he was too blinded by his hatred for Roscadia to see it.

  “Hey Parker.” La’jyn’eu said.

  “What?”

  “Where is your favorite poison?”

  “It’s over there. In that cabinet. It’s called Martian Whiskey.”

  La’jyn’eu got the bottle, and a couple of glasses, went over to Parker and poured them both some of the whiskey. When La’jyn’eu tasted the Martian Whiskey, he turned to Mynik’ny’nuta and spoke in their native tongue. She was surprised to hear what he said.

  Parker watched as La’jyn’eu took a metal trash can, dumped everything out, put it in the middle of the room and asked for all data concerning Task Force ZH-3C’s mission on Golden Hyperion. Parker then told him that Admiral Lowenthal had a copy of the report.

  “I kind of figure that she did. But please… tell me where the report is.” La’jyn’eu said.

  “In my desk. Top drawer, left side.” Parker informed him.

  La’jyn’eu then took the report (which was on a PDA) out and dropped it into the metal trash can. He then took out his handgun and shot the PDA to pieces. He then took some paper from Parker’s desk, put them into the trash can, poured lighter fluid on the paper, and then sit it on fire.

  “Hey Parker… have you ever heard of something called a ‘Cobra virus’? Virus as in computer virus.” La’jyn’eu asked him.

  “No.”

  “Oh. Maybe you humans might call it by a different name then.”

  “What’s a Cobra virus?” Parker asked.

  “When software was invented back on my home world, the HIDSO did research on a creating super-hackers.. What they called a ‘Ghost Hacker.’ The first two steps in becoming a Ghost Hacker is this: one; you have to be an expert computer programmer, and two; you have to be a computer forensic scientist. Then using a HIDSO technique, you have to create the Cobra virus. Actually, it’s not a virus, worm, Trojan, spam, mini-program, AI, GA or even a Neural Net. But what it is used for is to assist the Ghost Hacker in infiltrating a computer system. What’s more there can more than one of them assisting the Ghost Hacker. The problem is: the Ghost Hacker has to micro-manage them. The Cobra virus turns a average hacker into an expert. But it can turn a expert into a super-hacker. As for me, my skills are average. So do you humans have anything like that?”

  “Not by a long shot.”

  “I know. I did research. And that’s why you don’t have to worry about Admiral Lowenthal having a copy of that report. Now… if only I can get to her.”

  With that the three of them left and headed over to the shuttlecraft with Parker’s clone in it. Because they went down the secure route from Parker’s office, they did not encountered anyone. They boarded the shuttlecraft and left. When Parker realized that they were not headed to the Starbase, he asked why. La’jyn’eu responded that it is a lot harder to get on, especially since they are on red alert. Parker didn’t say anything further in the matter. He was too afraid to know. Especially knowing what the motto of the HIDSO is.

  “This is starting to bring back memories.” La’jyn’eu said, he was in deep thought.

  “Of what?” Parker said out of curiosity.

  “How the Tylkuoply hive may have come into existence.”

  “And how’s that?” Mynik’ny’nuta said being deeply curious.

  “Six months before, and up until the outbreak of the hive at Ty’nys’tu (tee nis to),… that’s the name of the small town where it all started, I was stationed there. The HIDSO was investigating the possible criminal activities of Bru’dyno (brew die-no) and Vyni’no (vee-knee no). They were the businessmen who was found dead at the laboratory near the small town.

  Both of them were former members of K-BIGA. The Kase’hyn’nkk Bureau of Intelligence Gathering and Analysis. Bru’dyno was an expert on the Hun’narlians and spent time there. Vyni’no was an expert on the Yxxk’nuos, spent time there and helped them crushed a minor rebellion. Both of them was well like in those governments. With the Republic of Kase’hyn’nkk, it was so typical of them back then that government contracts were far more important than their sovereignty and national security. So it’s not all that surprising that both Bru’dyno and Vyni’no were businessmen trying to secure some type of a contract without thinking about the consequences.

  I was sent there to investigate them on the possibility that they were breaking interplanetary law, by smuggling bio-weapons and equipment into Kase’hyn’nkk. If so… my orders were to kill or capture them. I also had to gather any intelligence on those bio-weapons and equipment.”

  “What did your investigation turned up?” Mynik’ny’nuta was dying to know .the answer.

  “Don’t you know?” Parker asked her. “Since you have that symbiote in you.” He added.

  “No. Didn’t you read that report… that you had me read?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you should know that the Ty’nys’tu cell was destroyed. So I have no way knowing. Please continue La’jyn’eu.”

  “Yeah… what a tragedy. The Kase’hyn’nkk Army destroyed the only source of intelligence on what happened, and who’s responsible.” La’jyn’eu said a bit disappointed.

  “Yes… but no matter. What’s done is done. So please continue.” Mynik’ny’nuta said.

  “My investigation turned up nothing when my insider died. She died roughly four days before the first incident occurred at Ty’nys’tu. After that I went home. There was no way I could carry on my investigation without her. Without support from the HIDSO, there was no way I could get inside that facility. So I left in the nick of time.

  But despite that, I was able to piece together some meager amount of truth. When I was back at the HIDSO headquarters, I decided to analyze the data that was collected from our other field agents. And this is what I pieced together: Vyni’no smuggled the biological samples, and Bru’dyno smuggled the equipment into Kase’hyn’nkk. Most likely it ended up at that laboratory. But that’s all the information that we had.”

  “Was there any other type of connection to Kase’hyn’nkk?” Mynik’ny’nuta asked.

  “They had the money. They had the contracts. And they were hyper-incompetent. The HIDSO ruled them out as being directly involved in creating the hive. But they couldn’t rule out SAW.”

  “Why? SAW’s intelligence community was mediocre at best.” Mynik’ny’nuta mentioned.

  “Because its SAW. Don’t forget our saying of them: ‘Be weary of a friend from Waldaxx.’ After the fall of the Khin’kyn’ko civilization, they became nothing more than an after thought in world history. They had the means and the motivation to indirectly create the hive. But what would determine that, is what would K-BIGA do.

  From the very beginning of its creation K-BIGA was a joke. During our Second World War K-BIGA supported dissentient groups within the Hau’rino Empire and its allies. The problem was, those groups were either infiltrated by, or run by, a HIDSO agent. Thousands of people were sent to their deaths by K-BIGA both during and after the war. Because of their incompetence, K-BIGA started to turn to mind control techniques. Despite international law, K-BIGA was still running some form of mind control up until the outbreak of the Tylkuoply hive war..”

  “Why would they turn to mind control techniques when its so obvious that they have a problem with procedures?” Parker asked.

  “Because they’re hyper-incompetent.” Mynik’ny’nuta responded in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

  “Right.” La’jyn’eu continued. “But K-BIGA never would have created something like the hive just to control people. They wanted information not slaves. But SAW was different.

  They were ashamed of their past, minus the part on the Khin’kyn’ko civilization. Although they no longer practiced slavery, they still had a slave
holder mentality. In effect… they acted like an emperor who was dethroned, but still act like an emperor. They deeply resented the rise of the Hau’rino Empire and their own mediocrity. Hence the cultural wars as seen in their movies. Their culture told them that we were weak-perfect slaves. But we proved them horribly wrong throughout history. At the beginning of the Tylkuoply war… we were strong and formidable… and they were weak and NOTHING. And then there’s the other thing.”

  “What? What other thing?” Mynik’ny’nuta said being very curious.

  “Oh… nothing much. It’s just that my insider said that there is a SAW double agent in that Ty’nys’tu laboratory. And she strongly believes that he is either directly, or indirectly, running things there. And that’s all that I know.”

  “So you’re saying that SAW basically created the hive? What… because they wanted to rebuild a long dead empire?” Parker asked being confused.

  “No. SAW never would have intentionally created the hive.”

  “Then what are you saying?” Parker asked him, being far more confused than before.

  “I’m saying that intentionally no they wouldn’t. But unintentionally... yes. The data that they were receiving from the laboratory was incomplete and inaccurate. I learn that from my insider. She said that some people were withholding valuable data from one another. In short, the hive was dropped into the laps of SAW. A little information here that looks promising. And then later… a little bit more. All the while being blinded by greed, power and ignorance of consequences. Everyone in the laboratory knew what the consequences are… but they were pushed by their superiors to proceed. My insider kept on complaining about that.”

  Roughly five minutes later, the alarm on Parker’s watch went off. La’jyn’eu and Mynik’ny’nuta stood up (both were wearing their spacesuits) and put on their helmets to their spacesuits.

  “How are the two of you gonna keep up?” Parker asked them.

  “Inertia.” La’jyn’eu responded with a smile.