“That is all that was recorded from Woods Expedition One, the military assumed from that point on the volcanic activity had gone critical, and Charles Woods was never seen or heard from after that last transmission.”
“I was only five years old when that happened, I remember military people coming to the house, I remember my mom crying, and that I’d never see my dad again,” I say, my eyes misting up as I remember the thought that my dad was gone forever.
Syreena says nothing; all she does is walk up to me, throwing her arms around my waist.
“We encourage people to stay indoors while we try to understand why this is happening. Please stay tuned for more updates on the matter, Merissa Wilden out,” the Holo-Projector winks out of existence as the transmission cuts out.
“I’m sorry honey. General Anders called me and my whole squad in for a briefing on this whole matter. I know we should be leaving for our honeymoon soon but maybe after we sort out this whole mess and once we figure out what these objects are we can still do that,” I say, not wanting to leave my wife. I’m a military man, unidentified objects scanning the planet and cities only mean one thing. We both know it. We just don’t want to make the moment harder than it should be.
“Go, I’ll be here when you get back,” she says as she stands up on her tiptoes to kiss me on the lips.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise,” I say, kissing her again before picking her up and twirling her around. I put as much meaning into that one hug as I ever could, reassuring her that I’m going to be back. Soon.
I walk into the bedroom to put on my clothes -good thing I have extra T.A.R. shirts- I glance into the mirror that’s above the dresser, my dirty blond hair is all messed up from sleeping. I quickly walk into the bathroom and wet my hand under the tap so I can fix my messy hair. Satisfied with the results I grab my gear bag and head down the hallway.
Syreena was waiting for me at the door that leads down to the speeder bay. I look into her face, completely forgetting that I’m in a rush.
Dark green eyes stare back at me sadly.
“I love you, I’ll be back. I promise.”
She says nothing as I give her another long hug. I brush away a single tear off her cheek as I stare back into her eyes and kiss her gently on the forehead before turning away and heading down through the passage to the bay.
I try my best not to look back as I pass through the lower level doors. My need to reassure her gets the best of me though as I look back and give her a warm smile.
I open the door to the Speeder bay, scouting through the speeders in the bay, my eyes find my prize. I walk towards the center of the room, ignoring the other speeders. I stop in front of my Hot Rod Red speeder, opening the side door to jump in the front seat. I scan my thumb print and retina to prove that it’s the right person trying to access the speeder.
“Welcome Mr. Woods. Where can I take you?” It chimes when it finishes scanning my thumb and eye.
“T.A.R. Headquarters please.”
“Accessing mainframe and calculating travel time… two minutes and thirty one seconds, depending on Air Traffic Conditions time may vary.”
“Yes, I understand just go,” I say curtly, that was the best part about this technology, you could be as rude or nice as you could and it wouldn’t care, as long as they didn’t understand your emotions you were fine. I could care less how smart they made technology, just as long as humans remained the dominant of the two. Droids would eventually want to be in control, artificial intelligence was a bad idea altogether. Voice commands on the other hand were completely different, it made life simpler, not necessarily better, just simpler.
My eyes drift to the window plating. I peer through the skylanes and skytowers. We have only been on the Terra for twenty years, and yet we already made it look identical to Earth. Although we did restrict some of the rain forests on this planet to preserve them, as a precaution.
Earths massive rain forests had been destroyed by global warming, places like the rain forests had dried up; other places like the great deserts had been completely blown over by snowstorms, making Earth a giant uninhabitable rock.
Too cold or too dry to even bother trying to live on. Although some people did try. The ride through the stars from planet to planet had taken almost fifty years. In that time we got transmissions from Earth, giving us updates on how well it was improving.
Some people even wanted a vote whether to turn around, but decided against it when the atmosphere gave way and all the air extinguished instantly, along with all the remaining inhabitants.
We will not make the same mistake again with Terra.
My thoughts suddenly shattered when an explosion rocked my speeder into an oncoming lane, reacting as quickly as I could I hit the manual override that would allow me to steer the speeder. I swerve to the right and back into my lane as an oncoming AirBus passes within only meters. I hit hover mode on the speeders interface. I look back out the side window, searching for the cause of the explosion.
My eyes open wide in horror as I watch one of the skytowers collapse under its own weight, the middle of the tower’s been completely blown away from some sort of energy cannon. At least now we know for sure that we’re under attack from those strange objects. If that was the kind of firepower the scout ships have then I didn’t even want to know what kind the larger ships would have.
Two towers had once stood side by side; the one still standing is the Power Skytower, the one that’s falling is a office building that holds several corporations. I peel my eyes off the falling tower, hitting the ‘resume flight’ button on the console interface.
“T.A.R. Headquarters is directly ahead. Have a nice day Mr. Woods,” the computer says as it pulls up to the T.A.R. HQ speeder pad.
I open the door to the speeder and step out into the fierce wind that this planet often has. The wind must be blowing in my direction. I can smell smoke from the tower from here, good thing the HQ and the office tower are not too close together.
I rush up to the steps of the building, taking four at a time with my long legs.
Opening the doors to the main entrance, I pull out my dog tags from around my neck and show them to the security officer behind the desk. He nods at me, reaches his hand behind the desk, and unlocks the magnetically sealed door, allowing me to pass through.
I continue to hurry through the hallways looking for briefing room BR-6. I finally locate the door and I press my thumb up against the scanning pad.
“Lieutenant Colonel Woods reporting for briefing as ordered.” I say into the wall mic. I hear the door unseal with a hiss as the magnetic locks disengage.
A tall man sitting at the far end of the table stands up, raising his hand to straighten his greasy cropped grey hair.
“You took your time to get here Colonel,” General Anders says.
“Sorry I’m late Sir, an office tower took a hit from enemy mortar, as well as the Power Skytower. I stopped to evaluate the situation as quickly as I could,” I say.
I always hated being figuratively cuffed on the ear for doing something that was meant to be seen as good. Although I guess I did hold up the briefing.
I sit down on one of the chairs, parallel to other members of T.A.R. squad. I give a quick nod of acknowledgement to the others before bringing my attention back to the general.
It surprises me that the General didn’t bombard me with questions about the tower. “Don’t you want to know more about what happened out there General?”
“The tower? I’ve already been briefed quickly about the situation down there Colonel. I’ve already sent a team down to investigate.”
Well then, I guess that answers my question. He just seems calm about it all though. He almost made it seem like he doesn’t care about the death of all those people.
“Well then, let’s get started shall we? Here’s what we know so far. We think that those small crafts are just scout ships because the bulk of their fleet is still a couple cycles out.
Whatever engine drives they’re using are far less advanced than ours, what takes them cycles takes us only half that time. We have had no communication of any kind with them so far, so we don’t even know who they are or what they want,” he looks around the room to make sure that everyone is still following him.
“How many of those ships are in our airspace?” Captain Ravenson asks.
“So far we’ve only counted thirteen,” the General stops talking as the top of the glass table blinks and comes to life. Revealing folders and folders of mission files, briefings, debriefings, etc…His eyes quickly skimmed through the data. He looks up from the table after only a few short seconds.
“My examination team that was sent to the building sent off a transmission before they went MIA. What we can decipher from that file is the blast residue from the building was Thopium. Now, it was either our visitors or we have just begun war with one of the countries on this planet, which shouldn’t be happening, especially under these circumstances. We also have reports of unauthorized movement inside the Power Skytower.” He takes a sip from the glass of water beside him, “as far as we know we had evacuated everyone from the building only minutes after the other tower was hit. Now, either we didn’t get them all or we have intruders wanting to get information from the Power database.”
“Now, the four of you will be led by Colonel Woods into the building to potentially evac anyone you come across. Your primary objective is to locate the aliens and find out what they are there for and eventually neutralize them. They made their first contact with us hostile, we will treat them the same. Am I clear?” The General asks, eyeing us all down with his x-ray like vision, as if trying to burn a hole in our heads.
“Sir Yes Sir!” The four of us reply as one.
The General looks down at the table readings to check the time. He lets out a barely audible sigh. He’s one of the older military personnel on base; he’s probably old enough to have lived on Earth at some point.
“I’m not sure how you young people deal with these cycles, why can't we have good old weeks and months?”
“Still not used to the forty-two day cycle Sir?” Major Lorid asks.
He shakes his head, “I don’t think I ever will be.”
I return my attention back to the table and quickly scan through the mission details. I’ve worked with this unit before, hopefully that made the mission easier. Unlikely though.
I break the silence.
“Alright. Now, I will move in through the eastern part of the building, Captain Ravenson, you will go west. Major Lorid will go northern along with Sargent Terein. We received word that the southern entrance is blocked off, so you have nothing to worry about there. Alright, head to the barracks, get prepped and get to the building. Double time it people! Recon team moving out! Let’s knock some heads!” I bark at my unit.
“Hoorah!” They all yell back at me.
One by one, we file from the room down the corridor and into one of the lifts.
“Armoury floorm” I say, the lift chimes in response.
“Well, that was pleasant, how long has he been in command for?” Ravenson asks.
“That’s not our concern at the moment Captain, focus on the task at hand, understood?” I say.
“Yes Sir, sorry Sir.”
“Alright, prep up with all the latest gear. We don’t know what we are walking into and what these things are capable of. We might be outgunned and outmatched, or we might be able to just pop them out of the sky like flies.”
“Looking forward to it Sir,” Sargent Terein barks out, hatred radiating from his eyes.
“Something wrong Sargent?” I ask.
“Thousands of people just died Colonel, what do you think is wrong? We don’t even know why any of this happened.”
“I know how you must be feeling, but the mission objective comes first, if we come across any of them don’t go trigger happy and don’t compromise the mission, got it?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Good, now let’s go get geared up,” I say, walking through the lift doors into one of the smaller hallways, leading my men I take the first turn to the right, into a hallway marked with AMY.1-12.
I stop in front of the door marked AMY.1, pressing my thumb against the scanner, I wait patiently for the scanner to recognize my print. I hear the hiss as the door opens.
“Wow, that’s a lot of tech,” Major Lorid says.
“What, you’ve never been in an armoury before?” I ask.
“Nope, my missions were always undercover, none of this fancy stuff.”
“Well then, this should be fun for you,” Ravenson adds.
“Gentlemen,” a voice says behind me, “I assume you are here for mission departure?”
I spin around to see a young man. Pure raven black hair flows down to his shoulders, tucked behind his ear though was a pure white stripe. The white hair really threw me off for a second. Similar to a birthmark, instead of the discoloration of the skin it was discoloration of the hair. His facial hair made him look older than he probably is; it looked like he hadn’t shaved in days either.
“Who are you?” I ask.
“I’m the one that your military has to thank for all these weapons. The name is Jayon Cofield; I’m the one that has been transportin’ all of these goods from base to base on a ‘need to’ basis.”
“Then why are you here? If your job is only to transport this gear, why haven’t you left?” Sargent Terein asks.
“Well, I’m the one that the General assigned to show you the entire collection of fancy new tech we just received. You see, after transportin’ all of it around for years, travelin’ from place to place, you tend to pick up a few things about your cargo.”
“Well, enlighten us then.”
“Alright, the latest assault armour we have over here is called s.m.a.r.t armour. I know it might seem kinda cheesy. It stands for Sophisticated Manned Armoured Receptacle Technology. Very handy in a tight spot, it’s designed to repel knives, heat, cold. It’s basically a second skin if you will. If you are lucky it might even absorb some of the energy from the Thopium rounds you use in your weapons. The armour plating is made of Graphite, hardest stuff there is out there, well, at least on this planet. The stuff is strong, but very light. Another great addition about this armour is that it’s assisted. You can maneuver in it like a normal human would when it’s offline, if it’s online though that’s a whole other story. You can run and fight faster, jump higher, well; you get the point, it basically enhances all of your normal abilities.”
I eye the body suit, looking at it with awe.
He picks up a long barreled gun, “over here we have a compact Sniper Rifle. Light weight, up to three thousand meters, anything past that and the energy either dissipates or it loses its accuracy, most likely both though.”
“Got any close range weapons?” Ravenson asks.
“Why yes we do, we got the P-thirty-one right here, yet again, light, compact, has the range of seventy five meters, mainly used for close range though. Very accurate and very deadly, if you like hand guns this is the one I would recommend. Also, I forgot to mention, if you like knives there is a custom built short notched blade in the left gauntlet of the s.m.a.r.t armour, all you have to do to unsheathe it is to snap your wrist back. The blade itself is about fifteen centimeters long.”
He went on for several minutes describing the different software that uploaded itself into the HUD, along with the difference to the actual physical aspect of the armour.
“Oh, and one last thing, make sure you grab one of the assault rifles, that one will make your teeth rattle like crazy. Enjoy gentlemen, and I wish you good luck on your mission,” he says, turning around and walking back out through the door.
“Alright, let's suit up,” I say, picking up one of the sniper rifles to test how heavy it is; just looking at it makes me think how much damage it could do, a huge childish grin splitting across my face.
****
It didn’t ta
ke too long to suit up and grab as much gear as would be needed to complete the mission.
I hear my breathing reverberate through the inside of my helmet; it must have been fresh off the assembly line seeing as the inside still has the ‘new helmet smell’ that soldiers tend to love. They had grown to realize that it was a good smell; it meant the helmet was new, and less likely to fail on you in the middle of battle from excessive use.
Some helmets lasted years -at least from the previous helmet models- and other lasted only minutes depending on the amount of damage it would receive and where. I saw a person once get hit just seconds after he jumped off the gunship. A high impact round shattered the front of his helmet, passing right through. Blood was everywhere. That was only a few short years ago, back when the scientists hadn’t quite perfected Thopium technology. That one image will be saved in my head for years and years to come.
“Everyone move out!” I bark through the helmet comm system.
We exit the armoury one by one and head down the hallway back to the lift. I can feel the continuous thumping of my unsteady heart, I always get nervous before the start of every mission, not knowing what was going to happen or if it would be my last mission.
We all pile back into the lift, this time with difficulty seeing as there are four completely geared up soldiers, all trying to fit into a small cubicle.
“Dropship pad,” Sargent Terein says.
The lift chimes again, I feel as the repulsors beneath my feet fire up and start to accelerate.
The lift doors open, revealing an enormous well-lit bay, with a low cut ceiling, large sleek matte black ships that were big enough to hold a dozen soldiers filled up the cavernous room.
Siege of Terra (The Mavrik Woods Series, Book 1) Page 2
