“Where are you sending them?”
“I will get into more of that specific information at this meeting. I didn’t brief all those soldiers like I am going to be telling you and the Captain. You two have personal experience in combat with these Hakorians, that gives you and edge; and that makes you the best logical choice for the harder missions.”
My heart drops, I would basically never be allowed any leave while these aliens inhabit our solar system, and it was going to be a very long war in that case.
“Understood Sir,” it was all that I could say safely, without further arguing with a very powerful man, powerful in the totem pole for the military, in reality the man was a blob with a thin greased mustache.
The door opens abruptly and T-Rave walks in.
“Sorry General. Am I interrupting anything Colonel?” T-Rave says, giving a small salute.
“At ease Captain, the Colonel and I were just having a discussion about his further need in the military. Now, let’s get started,” he says, taking his gaze off me and focusing it at the table in front of him, which lights up at his touch and streams information.
“Alright gentlemen, I’m not sure how informed of the situation you are, so let’s start at the beginning.”
“Our satellites have spotted dozens of small mining operations. At least by the looks of it they could be mining operations which are all around the planet, seeing as these photos were taken only hours ago.” He hits an icon on the table. In response the tables mirror image appears on the wall in front of us, “now, look at this top image, it’s different from the rest, this one has kind of a circular base of operations, while all of the other ones just have -what looks like- drills. This top photo clearly shows buildings. Now, I know for a fact that this area was empty just days ago, so there is no chance that this is a photo of a settlement, this area of the planet was virtually empty.”
“Sir, isn’t that the Kelownial Rain Forest?” I ask, remembering my conversation with the person that called in last night.
“Why yes it is, and this is going to your mission, but before I get into that I need to know if you two are prepared, and willing to be my liaisons to these Hakorians.”
That caught me off guard.
“For what purpose General?” T-Rave asks.
“Yeah, we already tried to negotiate with them; it didn’t work out so well, if I need to remind you then you should look outside to those buildings that blew up.” I say, backing T-Rave up, I was willing to fight to protect my planet, but not to negotiate with them, it just wasn’t in my forte.
“No, you tried to negotiate with a small band of them,” the General corrects us, “this looks like it's their main base of Operation, which means that their leader is most likely there. I want you two to do your best if the opportunity arises to make a deal with them,” he says.
“I need to know now gentlemen,” he urges.
“Alright, I’m in, if we are going there to blow shit up we might as well try to negotiate if the ‘blowing up’ plan fails,” T-Rave says.
Now all the pressure’s on me, “sorry General, I will be your foot soldier, but not a representative, T-Rave can have the job.”
“I was only trying to be polite son, you don’t have a say in the matter, I’m ordering you to be a liaison with Captain Ravenson.
I sigh, what the hell is the point in someone asking if you want to do something, and when you say no they make you do it anyways? What was the purpose? Why bother asking in the first place.
“Alright Sir,” I say, my feelings towards this man getting worse and worse with every conversation.
“Ok, now that that is sorted out we can go over the mission.”
It’s going to be a very long day, especially with him in charge.
“As I was saying before, this top location seems to be their main base of operations, I have dozens of teams going through similar briefings right now, and your mission will be a little different though. Captain Cofield, I’m sure you met him, I sent him down to the armoury during your previous mission.”
So, that’s why the man had been so persistent in talking to us.
“He’s the best pilot within five thousand kilometers. His freighter -the Comets End- has been outfitted personally with some of the latest tech our engineers have been able to create. We didn’t want his ship to be equipped with all this gear but he made that part of the deal. He usually runs cargo missions to settlements and has been attacked by bandits a few times, so he wanted to be able to defend himself again.”
“A civilian is going to drop us off? Doesn’t that seem a bit risky?” T-Rave asks.
“As I said before, he is the best pilot we can get, better than any trained military pilot,” the General says.
“When do we leave?” T-Rave asks.
“Whoa, slow down there Captain, I was just getting started.”
“Sorry Sir, just excited,” although he didn’t look it.
“Indeed. As I was saying, Captain Cofield will be dropping you boys off, just a few clicks out from your destination; from there you will make your way to the proper coordinates, which will be provided when you depart. Once you land you will make your way towards the main base, from there you will take explosive devices and plant them in key locations. We are not exactly sure where a good place would be so that they go critical, their technology seems to be a lot more advanced than our own.”
“How come they are still cycles out though? If their technology is so advanced how come it will take so long to get here when we can do it in half the time?” I ask.
“We don’t know for sure why their ships are so slow; maybe they are here for the Thopium because it can help them in those areas,” is the Generals answer.
“Hmm, that doesn’t make sense. I mean; I’m no scientist, so I don’t know the potential that Thopium has, but I do know that if it’s refined it can be used as power. To what ends though I have no idea, it might be capable of stuff we haven’t even thought of yet,” T-Rave says.
“I will get a science team to look into it more, but in the meantime can we focus please? Right, where was I? Ah, once you get the explosives planted back off and try to find the one who is in charge.”
“Wait Sir, you’re telling us we can’t attack them the first chance we get, just so that we can peace talk with them?” I say.
“That’s right; we need to know for sure that we can't negotiate with them before we go out into all-out war.”
“But Sir, they attacked us! They forced our hand to defend ourselves! Why would we go to them willingly when we could just nuke them?” I say, on the verge of standing up and shouting.
“Watch your tone with me soldier, I tell you to do something and you do it, understand?” The General says irritably.
“Yes Sir.” I say, my knuckles whitening under the desk from clenching my fist.
“Now, if the plan to negotiate goes badly then blow the facility up, it’s just that simple.”
“With all due respect Sir a plan is never just that simple,” T-Rave says.
“I understand that Captain, but you two are going to make it that simple.”
T-Rave looks at me, a look of ‘you’re joking right?’ on his face.
The General obviously gained his rank through military political acts, not being in the field and being under fire. You couldn’t just ‘make a plan simple’ they trained me to think that every mission could fall apart unexpectedly; every mission was easier said than done in my opinion.
“Understood Sir, when we do leave?” I say, before T-Rave or I do something stupid that we know we’ll regret later.
The General raises his eyebrow, noticing my change in obedience. “Now, Captain Cofield has already been briefed and is awaiting you on the flight deck. He also requested a technician to accompany him in case he needs assistance with his ship. We only have one person qualified on base that can repair the tech that he has installed, so Chief Engineer Aakia will be tagging along for the ride.”
I hear T-Rave sigh, louder then he probably wanted to, seeing as the General heard him.
“You have something that you want to add to that last statement Captain?”
“No Sir, it’s just that we know this Engineer, our recent encounter with her has left its mark on us,” T-Rave says.
“Us?” I say, “no us, just you pal,” I grin, quite a mark indeed that she’d left.
“Captain Cofield is on flight deck C, good luck gentlemen, dismissed,” the General says, standing up and scanning his thumb to exit the room.
“Who put this guy in charge?” T-Rave asks as soon as the General steps out of the room.
“I don’t know man; he clearly has never been in any real combat, ‘make it simple’ heh, the idiot,” I say, making sure that the General isn’t in ear shot, regardless of the door being closed.
“Alright Captain, let’s go, all I want to do is get home, the sooner we complete the mission the faster I can do that."
I stand up before T-Rave can ask any questions about why I’m in a rush.
First things first; head back and grab all our gear.
It takes only minutes to retrace our steps to the Service room. I open the door and almost leap back in surprise. Krystil Aakia standing only a few centimeters away from me, she’d obviously been opening the door and was about to walk out when I came in.
“Oh! Sorry Colonel Woods. I didn’t know you were there,” she says.
“Is our gear in good condition?” I ask.
“Yep, I cleaned it all up and fixed some of the circuits in your helmet. I couldn’t fix all the dents in your back plates though, I took out all of the shrapnel, but the scars will remain there, unless you just replace all of the plating.”
“No, no, that’s fine, as long as its airtight and combat ready.”
“Indeed it is.”
“What about my armour and weapons,” T-Rave asks.
“No promises.” She says, walking away and out of the room.
“What does that mean?” He asks, his voice quivering.
“I will see you boys on the ship,” she yells down the hallway.
“I’m sure she was just joking, it’s her job to make our gear in pristine condition. If a soldier dies because she didn’t fix something then she’d be in serious trouble. A very wise man once said to me, Think before you act. You should consider doing the same.”
“Just keep her away from me.”
I find the shelving units in the back, all are marked with names in alphabetical order.
I skim the units for W; surprisingly there are quite a lot of W’s in the military.
I open the unit where the name Woods is, my armour lies inside, beckoning me to take it out. It’s a rather large unit, able to fit all of my armour and my weapons. By the look of it the unit just happens to be one of the largest in the room, most soldiers probably didn’t get their whole attire cleaned and repaired at once, as well as their weapons.
“Finding everything alright Colonel?” T-Rave says, he’s only a good meter from me.
“Yeah, everything is here,” I say, already taking out my armour.
It takes only minutes to don our armour. The feeling of being completely submersed in it is wonderful, as if nothing could penetrate the strong plating.
I grab the weapons from the top shelf of the unit, holstering my pistol and shouldering my Assault Rifle. My Sniper Rifle however belonged in my hands; by far the best weapon to use against the Hakorians. You needed distance to take these aliens down; if they got up close then you would end up like the poor Sargent.
“You ready Captain?” I ask, casting a glance over my shoulder towards T-Rave.
“Ready as I will ever be,” he says, sealing the neck clip on his helmet, it lets out a small hiss as air is pushed out.
“Let’s move out then,” I say, walking towards the entrance.
T-Rave follows behind me as we walk towards the lifts.
“Flight Deck C,” I tell the lift computer.
It takes only seconds to get to the proper level; the doors open and the computer wishes us to have a good day.
Massive; the only word that I can use to describe the Flight Deck. However, it looked smaller with the large ship taking up most of the room space.
The outer hull, a dark blue hue, with two massive engines protruding from the back, large blast doors on both sides of the hull, -most likely for storing and loading cargo- a wide belly that narrows down near the front of the ship, which is where the cockpit must be located. It was rather hard to tell where stuff could be inside the ship when you were outside.
Right beside the viewports near the front of the ships the words Comets End are plastered on the side of the ship.
“Good! You young lads are finally here!” Comes Jayon Cofield’s voice from across the pad.
We walk towards the ship, marvelling at its beauty.
“What do you think of her?” Jayon asks.
“It looks like a rock,” T-Rave says bluntly.
Jayon didn’t seem to be taken back by the insult, he actually looks rather pleased.
“Of course it looks like a rock; it’s a cargo ship, not a fighter, although it could give any other ship a run for their money with all the military hardware installed into her. The outside might not look to pretty but the inside is where it’s pure elegance,” he says, face beaming with pride.
“Your ship is impressive, I’ll give you that, but why don’t we get on with the mission eh Captain?” I say, it was a marvelous ship, despite T-Rave’s statement.
“Right, come on then, let’s get this tub outta here,” Jayon says as he heads back to the ships main boarding ramp.
The ships interior isn’t as gloomy as I would’ve judged it to be. Mainly from the look of the exterior of course. The inside of it surprises me further, radiating white light. Everywhere. Surprisingly clean for a cargo ship, almost everything has a transparent look to it; like it’s something you would watch in the futuristic Holo-Movies.
“Alright lads, the bridge is this way,” Jayon says.
“Bridge? You have a bridge on this ship?”
“Well, not exactly a bridge, more like three chairs and some controls. I like to call it a bridge though, makes me feel more like a Captain,” he says, a smile on his face the entire time. He relished in showing strangers his baby.
“Ah, and over here we have our escape pods, well, they don’t exactly function like normal escape pods, but I think they would do the trick.” He opens a hatch into the middle of the ship, where two small ships lie.
“Those are escape pods?” I ask.
“Sure! Why not?”
“They have mounted cannons on the side!” T-Rave objects.
“Well they would still function as an escape pod in case we went down now wouldn’t they?”
“You and I,” T-Rave says, “have very different point of views.”
“Well then leave it at that, those ships are meant for close range aerial combat. I have flown in them before on my previous ship, I needed to use them as, um, escape pods,” he says, diverting his gaze from the room.
“Why did you need to escape?”
“My last ship got attacked by pirates, that mission did end up successful though. You see, they attacked and boarded me after I had dropped off my cargo. After that, they decided that I was a waste of their time so they flew to safety away from my ship and started firing. Luckily I managed to get to the ship bay and blast out of the side of the hull before the ships engines overloaded and exploded,” he says, his cheery smile turns into a frown as he recalls the loss of his former ship.
“Well, let’s hope that we don’t have to do what you had to do. Are we expecting any pirate attacks?” I say.
“Well, reports say that they have moved out of the area, so the only ships that we have to worry about are those scout ships. We should be fine though; I can outrun and outmaneuver anything.”
“How come you didn’t do that last time?” I say.
“Because they merged our airlocks, it made it impossible for me to escape their grasp,” he says.
I believe him to, if General Anders said that he was the best pilot on the planet then he probably is.
“Alright, let’s get out of here then, you’ve seen all that you need to see,” Jayon says.
We head towards the ‘bridge’, weaving our way through the glowing white corridors.
Jayon presses his palm onto the pad on the side of the cockpit door, the door hisses open to reveal the cockpit.
“Welcome gentlemen to the brain of the Comets End. Now, if you will please take a seat so that we can take ‘er away,” Jayon says.
Only three seats lie in the cockpit, one up front that could easily access all the controls, and the two other ones sat right behind it parallel to each other.
I look through the viewports in the cockpit, nothing to really look at, just the inside of the hanger bay.
Boot steps echo off the hallway leading out the cockpit, Krystil Aakia walks inside the cramped room.
“Ah, everyone is here now. Let’s hope we can leave soon then. Captain?” She says, peeling her eyes off me to look at him.
“What is it Ms. Aakia?” He asks.
“I finished the preliminary engine check, everything checks out to be good.”
“Ah, thank you my dear!” He says, waving his arms around, he’s definitely a cheery fellow.
“Well, that’s what I am here for.” She says.
“Oh, how rude of me! Mavrik, can I call you Mavrik?” Jayon says.
“I guess so.”
“Mavrik, and Thomas is it? This is Krystil Aakia.”
“We know; can we just get on with this?” T-Rave cuts in.
“Oh, I guess you have already met then. Sure thing, seeing as there is only three seats I would ask the lower ranking officer to step outside and enjoy the ride in the mess hall. There are also the guest quarters which are just located down the hall and to the right,” Jayon says curtly, I guess it wasn’t his first time to be ignored from people like T-Rave.
Siege of Terra (The Mavrik Woods Series, Book 1) Page 8
