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

by Douglas Howell

  “Alright.” Bondsteel responded.

  “Do you have someone who can pilot that drop-ship?”

  “I can.” Dolores R. Greene said out loud.

  “Alright, you guys can leave and we’ll stay. The passageway to the drop-ship is safe.” Vosler said.

  “I need to activate the auto-guns.” Eberhart said. He went to a computer console and activated the guns. The guns will not target any EOD personnel. Vosler didn’t know it at the time but Eberhart saved his life when he activated those guns.

  The scientists then left and headed to the drop-ship. And just like Shannon said, when Dawson shot those hoses just like she instructed him to, the drop-ship crashed into the gravity lift destroying it. Shannon left and headed back to Conference Room, she didn’t feel like waiting for Vosler to return. When Shannon got to the Conference Room for some reason she felt sick. After a few moments she felt horrible about something but she didn’t know what it could be over. She was absolutely certain that it has nothing to do with the deaths of those scientists. Then she realize that it has something to do with her past. And now she understands why it is best for her to forget her past.

  After the scientists left Vosler and his team went down five flights of stairs to where the security was. As before the door had a glass window on it. Vosler looked in and saw three security guards. He then went inside and introduced himself. Vosler had one of the guards leave and tell the others what he said. After that guard left Vosler motion for one of his teammates to shoot one of the guards. Both Vosler and his teammate pulled out a pistol with a silencer and shot both of the guards in the back of the head. Vosler then saw on the video monitor that five security guards were coming (along with the one who left). He then had two of his men drag the two corpses out. Vosler and the rest of his team moved into a defensive position and waited for the guards to come in. When the guards came in Vosler told them to leave and do what they need to do here before all of them must leave. As the guards were leaving Vosler and his team shot all of them dead. Because they used their rifles they had no other choice but to rush the rest of the guards. But when they got into the room there was only two guards. They shot and killed one of them but the other one ran to a computer console.

  “See you in hell.” The guard said after he pushed a button.

  “You first.” Vosler said. He then shot the guard in the back of the head.

  “What the hell are you doing!? You fucking idiot! You just killed us all!” The male voice screamed through the intercom.

  Vosler could hear through the intercom that the rest of the guards were using their Electros. From the sound of it, it sounded like they were firing wildly at something. Whatever it was sounded like some type of an animal. Vosler and his team then heard the guards screaming and then there was silence. It had a chilling effect upon them. But they had to go and take a look. They had to destroy whatever the EOD was working upon.

  Vosler and his team left and headed downstairs. When they got at the bottom of the stairwell they saw two auto-guns pointed at the entrance of a metal door. After they went inside the room they saw that it was a huge cloning facility. From the looks of it, it appeared that the facility could make an army of clones. Each of the clones was in varying stages of development. All of the clones shared one thing in common: whatever the clones were they were huge, roughly nine-to-ten feet in height. As Vosler and his team went deeper into the facility off-and-on they would hear something. There was someone or some thing in the room with them. Then they realized that whatever it was there was more than one of them. What scared them the most is that they could tell that they are surrounded. When they passed the cloning vats they came across a section of cages. Each of the cages where big enough to hold whatever was being created. There was also trucks that could extract the cages and transport them. Vosler could also see a large elevator for transporting the trucks to the surface and from the looks of it, it appeared to come up near the gravity lift. He also saw a map of the facility.

  “Which one of you are alpha male?” The strange computerized male voice said. Vosler could not tell from where it came from.

  “I am!” Vosler said out loud.

  “Since you let us out… you saved for me.” The computerized male voice said.

  “Who are you!?” Vosler said.

  “They call I alpha male.”

  “What are you!?”

  “They call us Demon Xs. Are you scared?”

  “Should I be!?”

  “You will be.” The alpha male said. He then let out an eerie howl/growl.

  Vosler was no idiot nor some mindless gung-ho hell-bent on leather soldier, he knew what to do. He yelled out “Retreat!” at the top of his lungs. As all of them were running as fast as they could out of the facility, one of Vosler men was jumped at from the side by a Demon X. The Demon X was on top of the soldier eating him. As Vosler came near, the Demon X looked up at him and growled, Vosler then shot the Demon X in the head three times killing it. Vosler, surrounded, looked around only to see that the Demon Xs were ignoring him. He then turned around and saw the alpha male and what appeared to be the alpha female (both had cybernetic implants) standing several feet behind him looking at him. It was like they were saying, ‘Thank you for letting us out of our place of torment.’

  When Vosler got near the exit he saw that one of his female personnel was standing there providing cover fire for every one. As Vosler got a few feet from her he saw a big black shape come from his left side. When Vosler passed her he heard her scream. She was still screaming when he got out the door. He ran up the stairs with the rest of his men not far behind him. Before they got up the first flight of stairs they could hear the auto-guns shoot constantly. As soon as they went up six more flights of stairs they heard those guns no more.

  “Move you sons-of-bitches! Move!” Vosler yelled at the rest of his team.

  Everyone was running on pure adrenaline and fear. They could hear the auto-guns up above shoot at the Demon Xs. Off-and-on they could see out of the corner of their right eye a Demon X climbing up the side of the opening in the stairwell. The Demon Xs was ignoring them and going for those auto-guns. When they got up twenty more flights of stairs they heard those guns no more. It was far more likely that those guns just ran out of ammo. From that point forward anyone with a hand grenade took them and blindly threw them over the edge of the railing. The rest took their rifles and pointed them downward over the railing and started to shoot at the same time they were running up. Off-and-on a Demon X came up from behind (a few came from up above than no more) on the stairs. Five of Vosler men never made it. They would hear a Demon X coming up from behind them, they turn and started to shoot, and was either overrun or turn to run back up the stairs after they kill the Demon X, only to die. Vosler made it up to the hallway that led to the crater with only five of his teammates, including both Viper and Corporal Harris.

  The last several flights of stairs was the most difficult for them. They were physically exhausted and fatigue from running up all of those stairs. When they were halfway through the corridor the auto-guns started to shoot, they stopped when Vosler and his team was several feet outside. Dawson was shooting any Demon Xs that came out of the door, but there was too many of them. Vosler and the rest of his team was so tired that off-and-on one of them would fall out of exhaustion. And then it happened, the elevator door for those trucks came up with Demon Xs. Dawson was too focused on the entrance to the underground cloning facility to noticed that the Demon Xs where coming up from the elevator. Vosler, his team, and Durante, was shooting at the Demon Xs that were coming from the elevator.

  “I’m out!” Dawson yelled. He then took his rifle and starting to shoot at the Demon Xs.

  Both Durante and Dawson kept on shooting after Vosler and his team got into the building. They kept on shooting up until and a little afterward, Vosler who was out of breath, said that they made it into the elevator. Durante ran to the Conference Room to get Shannon while Dawson ran to t
he elevator. The elevator with Vosler and his team in it got to the floor before Durante and Shannon got there. Dawson, standing in the doorway of the elevator, asked Vosler what were those things and Vosler told him. As soon as Durante and Shannon got there they all left the building.

  “Sir, there are two more gravity lifts out there. Both of them have a elevator for trucks. And sir, they go down to that underground cloning facility.” Vosler said when they got to the bridge.

  “Oh shit. Alright understood. Let’s hurry it up and get out of here.” Durante responded.

  Durante, Shannon, Dawson, Vosler and Corporal Harris got into one truck, with Dawson driving, and the other four got into another truck. Their trip back to their base was a perilous journey with Demon Xs either jumping at their vehicle or charging at them. Whenever a Demon X would charge at them whoever could would shoot at them. Twice a Demon X managed to jumped on top of the truck with Durante in it. Those two Demon Xs was able to rip off the roof of the truck. It only made it easier for everyone in the truck to shoot at the Demon Xs. When the truck with Viper in it got near the natural rock bridge a Demon X jumped down from the bridge and landed on the hood of the truck causing it to flip end over end. Dawson narrowly avoid hitting it but he couldn’t slow down. When they got several yards from the wreck vehicle they heard the truck explode. Somebody in the truck must have survived and found a hand grenade in the truck and then used it.

  When they got back to the y shaped crossroad, instead of taking the route Durante had Dawson go straight over the rocky embankment. As they approached their base Vosler called the Security Station and had them activate the outer defenses. Durante ordered them to board a drop-ship and leave without delay. Shannon mentioned that before they leave they need to prepare a drop-ship for departure for them. As soon as they got into the base some of the Demon Xs made it into the base but was cut down by the gun emplacements. Nobody watched as the Demon Xs jumped at the electric fence until a gap opened up in it. By the time they got to the drop-ship they could hear the gun emplacements shooting until they too were overpowered and destroyed by the Demon Xs.

  “What are you doing?” Durante asked Shannon.

  Shannon was piloting the drop-ship with Durante in the passenger seat. She was hovering the drop-ship thirty feet above the ground. Demon Xs were all over the ground trying to jump at their drop-ship but it was too high. Some of them would jump off a drop-ship on the ground and come within inches of their drop-ship. But still Shannon wouldn’t budge. It was starting to unnerve everyone. Shannon was constantly looking at each of the monitors viewing the actions of the Demon Xs.

  “Put on your straps NOW!” Shannon said in a demanding tone of voice.

  “Why?” Corporal Harris said.

  “Just do it!” Shannon snapped back. With that everyone put on their safety harnesses.

  Shannon then rotated the drop-ship to the vertical (very dangerous for a ship about to take off), took off and went 400 feet up. Still watching the actions of the Demon Xs, she then dropped two of the fuel tanks (extremely dangerous), whipped the ship 180 degrees bringing the nose down, shot the fuel tanks before they hit the ground, did another 180 and blasted off into space like a rocket. When Shannon shot the fuel tanks they were only a few feet from the ground. The explosions from the tanks destroyed the rest of the drop-ships and in return killed all of the Demon Xs that was there. (Both the alpha male and the alpha female went into a nearby building when all the Demon Xs were jumping at the ship before Shannon took it up 400 feet.)

  “Which ship is Esters on?” Shannon asked when they got into outer space.

  “That one.” Durante said pointing it out.

  Shannon then used the thrusters to point the drop-ship towards Esters’ ship and then she turned off the engines. Everyone was looking at her like they couldn’t believe that she did that without getting them killed. Her actions not only proved that she was a pilot in Space Core but one of the best. Vosler then had the look that it all reminded him of something but it was on the tip of his tongue.

  “I think that I’m going to be sick.” Shannon said. She then undid her straps.

  “How come?” Durante asked.

  Shannon didn’t say anything she only got up and went behind her chair. She then set down in the floor, took off her prosthetic legs and curled up into the fetal position and started to cry. Durante got up, held her in his arms and told her that it will be alright.

  “Oh my god now I remember.” Vosler said out loud.

  “Remember what?” Durante asked.

  “There was a pilot in Space Core during the war with the Necro-Mystics who did something very similar to what Shannon just did. The Captain of the ship that the pilot served upon was Alexis M. Garrett. I remembered it because I always wanted to meet the pilot and asked them how did they do that.” Vosler responded.

  “So why did I… err, the pilot, did that?” Shannon asked. She was visibly shaking.

  “You don’t want to know.”

  “Just tell me, please.”

  “There are some things that are better left forgotten.”

  “Please tell me Robert. I need to know.”

  “I’m sorry… but I can’t.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t want to.”

  “Just tell me.”

  “It’s better left forgotten.”

  “Captain. Tell her.” Durante ordered him.

  “Yes sir. Captain Garrett never mentioned it to the crew, said that it was only cargo, but those drop-ships had Necro-Mystic children on board. The crew, however, found out despite the Captain’s effort in concealing it. The proof came in the form of the ground forces who documented it. Since the Necro-Mystics never target human children, the crew knew what would happen if the truth got out. There was a rumor that the crew was either fixing to mutiny or agreeing with the Captain to bury it. There was also a rumor that the pilot of that drop-ship ignored a warning that a Necro-Mystic attack ship was approaching. Whether that is true or not the Necro-Mystics did attack while the crew was deciding upon what to do with the Captain. I know all of this because I was on board the ship that found the survivors of the attack.” Vosler responded.

  “What happened to the crew that you rescued?” Shannon asked.

  “Our Captain was soft hearted, so he decided that since the crew had no valuable intelligence they will be release.”

  “You’re not lying are you? I know what the EOD does to captured enemy personnel.”

  “No I’m not lying ma’am.”

  “Shannon, he’s right about his former captain being soft hearted. Besides, the EOD would have cared more about any intelligence that the crew could have provided and not the crew themselves. Trust me on that.” Durante said.

  As they approached Esters’ ship Shannon put her prosthetic legs back on and piloted the ship into the cargo bay. After they docked Shannon went to her and Durante’s quarters and went to sleep. Durante had the drop-ship refueled and sent a team down to destroy the last remaining gravity lifts. But as luck would have it, those gravity lifts were small enough to take, but they could only take one of them. As they left and headed to Andromeda all of them was thinking about one thing: not about what the EOD will do, but rather what they did to the EOD. For roughly 300 years the EOD has never suffered a blow like it just did. And it was done by those who served it.

  (5)

  “Ma’am… it’s us. We’re in a EOD APC and we’re bringing a guest. And ma’am, we’ve lost Venito.” Nakada said over the com system when they got near enough to use it.

  Green Team was still recovering from the lost of Venito when they got back to base. Yes they were grateful that Colonel McIntyre was still alive, but it was not easy recovering from the lost of Venito. It reminded them of the consequences of not getting their act together. It was worse for Caparzo since he saw her fall. Every time he tried to go to sleep he could hear her scream.

  After Blackburn’s forces attack their position, Vaistll made the
decision to find another building to act as their base. After reviewing the map of the area for more than an hour, Vaistll picked a hotel that was near a parking garage, a freeway and the beach. She started to think that it was a bad idea to come to Golden Hyperion without any intelligence. But all of that changed when she saw Colonel McIntyre.

  “So when does my drop-ship gets here to take me home?” Colonel McIntyre said. He was sitting at a table debriefing the senior officers of Task Force ZH-3C.

  “Anti-air guns are preventing us from leaving.” Hayes said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

  “I thought that they were supposed to be destroyed before my team gets here.” McIntyre said.

  “Those particular guns that Hayes is referring to has camo-netting.” Taylor mentioned.

  “Do any of you have any ideas where they are?” McIntyre asked.

  “No. We were hoping that you would.” Vaistll responded.

  “I’m afraid that I don’t. So who’s commanding the ship that brought you here?”

  “Captain Mad Dawg Burton.” Taylor responded.

  “Really? So what is the ol’ Dawg up to?” McIntyre asked.

  “He went mad and we had to rebel against him.” Hayes blurted out which caused McIntyre to snicker.

  “Actually we gave him back command of his ship and…” Vaistll was saying.

  “Why?” McIntyre asked.

  “It’s a long story and…”

  “You know what, I’m not interested in hearing long stories. So if you can either keep it short or move along I’ll appreciate it.”

  “Alright then, let’s just move along.” Vaistll said. She was too embarrassed to tell McIntyre the truth. Except for Hayes (who would have told him if he’d asked) everyone felt the same way.

  “So, what Intel can you provide us with?” Taylor asked.

  “Apart from what you already know, plenty. Where do you want me to start?” McIntyre responded.