The Icarian Legacy Collected Edition: Brave Souls - First Strike (Volume 3)

by Kocho Trajchevski

  Anaya’s voice answered them.

  “You have a go One. I say again you have a go. Be careful and watch your shots.”

  “We will.”

  Evans and her wing mates turned towards Sedna and aligned. They choose a small hill on the planet.

  “Ok let’s see what these babies can do.”

  She received cheers from the other pilots, and seconds later they started firing. Small rail gun rounds crashed on the rock of the mountain. Huge chunks of rock were blasted where the rounds hit. And then, all four fired their main weapon. The Viper had three canons. Two rail guns on the wings, and one plasma canon on its nose. As the plasma rounds impacted with the rock the mountain simply exploded.

  “Man this is cool.”

  “Yea, it is. I told you before Harry. They are fucked when we meet them again.”

  Cheers came from the rest of the pilots as they returned to flying.

  Ellis looked at Harrick and Bradley. The marines knew why they were called.

  “I guess we get the escort duty.”

  “Yes you and your men will accompany the scientists and the rest of the people that will go back with the Demetrion. Don’t worry the journey will be quick and you’ll be back before you know it. I will need you for the next mission.”

  “Is it true major?”

  Ellis turned and looked at Bradley.

  “What Lt?”

  “He wants to know if it’s true that the cap is planning a mission through the warp point. Is it true that we are going out there?”

  Ellis turned and looked at Fillip who was standing behind him. As he looked at him he smiled. But then his face took back his stern look.

  “I can’t confirm that Lt. And you damn well know that. But let’s say that the days that follow will be filled with excitement.”

  Both marines smiled and looked at each other.

  Ellis knew what that look means. He knew that the secret was out.

  “Go and prepare your men. Now it’s O five hundred. I want you in the Aurora in thirty minutes.”

  “Sir, yes sir.”

  “You are dismissed.”

  Both marines saluted and hurried away. On the radio Ellis could hear their orders. He smiled as he saw Fillip watching him. He was older then the colonel but never the less he felt admiration and respect whenever he saw him. And it wasn’t just because of the fact that he knew about his missions and accomplishments. The respect was there from the first time he saw him, from the day when he saw how the other soldiers were watching him. He knew that Fillip deserved his respect. And he knew that the feeling was mutual.

  “I told you.”

  “Yea you did. You know I sometimes think that you have to be a marine in a disguise. You know us to well.”

  Fillip smiled.

  “Not my fault Arnold. You never change.”

  Ellis stopped and looked at his friend.

  “You really think so?”

  Fillip grinned.

  “Well even twelve thousand years old AI agrees with that. If you could before, there is no denying it now. No chance at all.”

  Ellis shrugged and the smiled.

  “We are a silly bunch aren’t we?”

  “Yea you are. And I’m the same.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Cause I spent too much time with you. You are contagious.”

  They both continued to smile as they slowly went through the hallway.

  “Do you want to grab some breakfast?”

  “Yea we might do that. Damn now I know why you are a colonel.

  Fillip looked at him.”

  “O and why is that.”

  “Cause you always think of the important stuff.”

  They both smiled.

  Ellis stopped and turned on his radio.

  “Manning…”

  “Sir…?”

  “You are in charge in the next half an hour. The colonel and I are going to grab some chow.”

  “Good luck sir. Hope you find something good.”

  “Hope so too Lt.”

  After this they both went straight to the Deadalus. With the ships systems activated it was easy to reach the hangar and the Deadalus.

  An hour later both of them accompanied Jennings as he escorted the crewman and the rest that transferred to the Demetrion. The platoon of marines was the first one to load. When the scientists and the crewmen boarded the shuttle Anaya activated the shield and opened up the hangar doors. The shuttle moved easy and exited the hangar fast. The trip to the Demetrion was fast.

  Five minutes later they were met in the cruisers hangar by another AI. Aria had a smaller figure then Anaya. She had blond hear, green eyes and small thin lips. She had a slender figure. The AI greeted its guests with great enthusiasm. She quickly gave them a short briefing about the capabilities of her ship, and then she allowed them to relax a little.

  Same as Anaya she also enjoyed the company of the marines. It didn’t take long for the platoon of marines to adopt her as one of their own.

  Two hours after the Aurora dropped its crew on the Demetrion the cruiser activated its sub light drive. The AI had the total command of the ships movement and trajectory. It plotted the course towards Earth and after submitting its report to Jennings and Anaya she activated the max burn on her engines.

  The cruiser accelerated rapidly and it quickly faded away, and it could only be seen on the sensors

  As it speeded away the ones that stayed behind continued to gather data.

  They gathered the needed information’s and peacefully awaited the arrival of the cruiser…and they silently started preparing for their next mission.

  3 May 2018 13:12 hours

  Earth orbit

  The trip that the Deadalus needed almost a month to pass the Demetrion passed it in less than three days. And the AI that had the control of the ship didn’t use the max trust for more than an hour. While the speed of the Deadalus was just 7500km/s the Demetrion traveled with a speed of 90000km/s.

  When the small crew asked the question about the maximum sub light speed Aria smiled at their reaction when she told them that the maximum speed is 140000 km/s. She received all the needed information about the new command and about their new mission. The AI was astonished at the report for the short battle with the scout force of the Dacarians. Considering the current human technology she knew that it was a great, but lucky victory and from the small conversations that she had with the crew about it she knew that they were aware about that. But as Anaya told her she could see their determination not to fail at the task that they had and to stop the invasion. And just like the more advanced AI she also knew that she will give everything she had to help them in that task.

  As the ship approached Earth the small crew started gathering and in groups heading towards the bridge. The AI’s avatar appeared on it several minutes before they arrived. All the AI’s were in fact copies of the brains of the smartest people that were represented in the Alteran society. They were rarely aware of that fact, but sometimes the respected scientists who chose to have their brains scanned gave their permeations for the AI to be informed about the person or persona that it represented. Aria was one of those lucky few. She was an older model than Anaya and her owner died in the opening stages of the last war. But before that she chose to give Aria her real name and rank, and chose to allow her to know everything she wanted about her creator. Aria Wan Hassen was a brilliant astrophysicist one of the best in her young generation. The AI remembered the mind link even today, and she remembered the young joyful women that gave her everything she ever dreamed of. It was extremely rare for an AI to keep the same name as the person that donated the brain scan. But the AI decided to keep it in the memory of her. And she also kept the same physical look that she found on the net from the days when Aria was younger.

  The avatar was that of a slender blonde woman, with deep green eyes, white tan, and small lips that formed a lovely smile that everyone found inviting and as the marines that
were now on her decks said brought joy to their hearts. Same as Anaya she was also appearing in the white dress that all avatars usually chose to wear. She remembered all the stories about how beautiful Earth looked from space. And now that she had a chance to see it for herself for the first time she almost gasped. A thin smile appeared on her face.

  “They are right. It’s a rare jewel.”

  Her smile grew deeper as she noticed the looks of the people she carried. Their looks were the same as the looks on a child when it sees something amazing. There were tears on some of their faces. And she knew that her last crew had those same looks on their faces as well. And even she would have it to. This blue jewel was the home world of the human race, the world that was the birthplace of her creator’s race and in some way, even to her as well. She was an artificial being but even she could feel the power, the magic and the beauty of this world.

  “You were right lieutenant. It is beautiful.”

  Bradley smiled and turned towards her.

  “I told you. And it will look even better every time you see it.”

  The AI raised an eyebrow and looked at him.

  “And I guess you are speaking from experience.”

  “Well yea. It is after all my second time.”

  His comment drew couple of smiles.

  As they approached the planet she received calls from both the space station and from NASA.

  “Demetrion this is ISS Freedom. Welcome home.”

  The AI smiled at the comment. In a strange way she was home.

  “Thank you Freedom. It’s good to see you as well. Waiting on the landing coordinates.”

  “I’m sending you the coordinates now. There is a big crowd down in Nevada waiting on you Demetrion. Have a safe landing.”

  “Thank you.”

  Aria smiled as she set the landing coordinates. The cruiser slowly turned toward its new heading and started descending in to the atmosphere.

  “If you can everyone should take a seat for the landing. It would be safer.”

  Everyone on the bridge was seated even before she gave the comment a reaction she knew came from the primitive shuttles they used previously.

  As the cruiser entered the atmosphere it trembled slightly. But thanks to the inertial dampeners no one inside it felt anything. And the activated shields protected the hull from the heat that was generated during the reentry. The cruiser descended fast and as it broke through the upper atmosphere it started reducing its speed rapidly. As it broke in the lower attitudes dozens of fighter planes joined it and provided an escort. The ship headed towards the most infamous place in the US. Towards the place called Area 51.

  The remote military base was a remote part of the Edwards Air Force Base and it was centered in the southern portion of Nevada. It was the testing ground for most of the US Air Force top secret projects and it was thanks to the many conspiracy theories the most known air force base in the world.

  The US government denied the official existence of the base until the 29 September 1995 and until the incident in the Mediterranean never actually conceded to any of the theories or demands for civilian opening of the base. That only increased the public interest in the base and the simple fact that the base never appeared on any government maps only fueled the conspiracy theories and mysteries about it. And even after the news about the invasion reached the public the official policy of the government was to still deny and ignore any comments about the base. As the ship came closer to the base its escorts turned toward the nearest base and left it to the ten Black Hawks that appeared and took their place.

  Even though the government never really admitted anything the simple fact that most of the scientists that were involved in the research and reverse engineering of the equipment of the alien ships came from this base meant that at least some of those theories had merit. More than two thousand people were now gathered in the base. Most of them were scientists, but there were also plenty of engineers and people that came from the Navy as well as a good number of pilots that were chosen as the best in their class for starting of the training on the marvelous and agile fighters that were reported by Jennings. And most of them were standing outside. Plenty of civilians were present on the cliffs that surrounded the base, accompanied by members of the press. Even though the alien menace was now a known the policy of not allowing entrance for the press stayed in power. As the cruiser appeared everyone gasped. Even now twelve thousand years since the day it was activated, even with all the scars from the battles it fought, it still looked amazing.

  Dr. Paterson gasped as the ship appeared on the horizon. And the reaction of the group of military officers beside him was the same.

  The cruiser was almost fifteen hundred feet long and almost three hundred feet wide. Massive gun ports were visible on its ventral hull and smaller gun ports were visible on both sides. It had a rectangular frame. The hangar bay was placed on its right side. As the ship descended he noticed the shimmering of the light around it. He recognized it as the effect of the active shields that reacted to the air and the speed. As it descended it was obvious that the large frame was no obstacle for the landing. When it came above the place where it was supposed to land the ship stopped in the air and as it did that the landing gear extended. It hovered and slowly dropped to the ground. As it did it raised clouds of dust that spread in all directions. Paterson could hear the thrusters as they were shutting down. Both he and the rest of the scientists were amazed by the technology they were seeing. He knew that the derelicts that the navy gave them at Norfolk and in Macedonia were more advanced than this ship. But they were ships that were nearly totally destroyed in the fighting and even with all the discoveries it was obvious that they were missing so much more. And the ship before his eyes, even with all its battle damage that was obvious to the naked eye, even with the groaning of its hull from its age it was still a functioning ship, a ship that could give them the pieces that they couldn’t see and could only guess. He could feel the tears that appeared in his eyes. They were tears of joy because now he knew that humanity had a chance, a real one. He wiped them away as the dust cleared and together with the rest of the men headed toward the ship. As they were closing in the hangar bay opened up and two strange looking planes came out. They were flying just several meters above the ground. They were moving slowly, it almost seemed like they were hovering. They passed them as they looked at them with astonished eyes and headed towards one of the open hangar bays of the base. As they flied by the reporters turned after them forgetting for the moment the huge ship. After the plains left he could see the small ramp descending below the ship and the people standing on it. He recognized all of them. Most were scientists although he could see several soldiers as well. He recognized all of them considering the long time they all spent preparing for the mission under NASA’s careful eye. The soldiers were wearing normal military clothes. He guessed that the armor was in their quarters on the ship. The scientists were talking with excitement discussing something between them.

  As the two groups closed in the soldiers stopped and saluted. The officers in his group stopped and returned the salute.

  Paterson just walked over and shook hands with the closest scientist.

  “Welcome home Christopher.”

  The astrophysicist smiled at his older colleague. So did the others.

  “It’s good to be back. She is a beauty James.”

  Both of them turned and looked at the ship.

  “Gentlemen if you are finished we have a lot of work to do. I believe that there are some things that we should take of that ship. I would like your help about that.”

  The group of scientists turned towards the waiting admiral. Simonson smiled as the group of scientists turned toward him. He was several years younger then most of them. The scientists watched him and the other officers and soldiers carefully.

  “You are right admiral. Everything that has to be taken of the ship is in the hangar bay. The rest of the soldiers are there.” />
  One of the officers, this one wearing the ribbons that identified him as a general, waved with his hands at the people in the distance and several vehicles started moving towards them. Most of them were large trucks. A large group of soldiers and base personal was coming as well.

  “We need to do this quickly so that the first group of passengers can board the ship.”

  “Yes general.”

  The older general saluted to the admiral and started forward towards the ship.

  As he did that one of the soldiers stepped forward.

  “Sirs before they start I believe there is something you need to see.”

  The general stopped and turned. The admiral and the rest of the officers turned as well.

  As they did that they noticed that the scientists lowered their heads.

  “And what that might be Lieutenant?”

  Bradley just looked at the group of officers and so did the rest of his soldiers. The look they gave made both the admiral and the general quiet.

  “Lead the way Lt.”

  Bradley inhaled.

  “Yes sir.”

  As he turned so did the other four soldiers. They slowly went toward the ramp. As they started forward Dr. Paterson left the group of scientists and joined them.

  As they entered the ship they noticed two more soldiers waiting for them. They quietly passed through several hallways and stopped as they approached a closed door at the second deck. Two soldiers stood guard there. When they saw the general and the admiral and their staff approaching they saluted.

  The Lt. turned toward the general and with a serious face nodded toward the door.

  “They are here sir.”

  The group went forward. As they approached one of the soldiers pressed his hand on a button on the wall and the door slid open. It revealed a large room far larger then any other they saw on the way there. And as the officers stepped in they saw that it was filled with hundreds of coffins.

  “My God… There are hundreds of them.”

  The general just nodded at the words of the younger admiral. They all took of their hats.