“Question is where do we start?” Rana asked.
Gengei led the two EDF teams to a computer station near the rear of the bridge. A large projection of the surface of Foicanta appeared. It depicted the more temperate region of the planet where lakes and vegetation could be found. Several cities were scattered throughout, some of them were new to Rana.
“Let’s set up shop here at Hope city,” Kasidey said, pointing at the small city on the projection. “Should be a decent-sized human settlement there still, right?”
“Right and EDF-7 should be there as well,” Gomez said. “We can spread out to the dangerous regions afterward, who knows, maybe the locals know something we don’t.”
Gengei nodded in agreement. “Very well, I will arrange two transports for your two teams to use.”
EDF outpost Hope city, Foicanta, Proxima Centauri system
Human refugees from Earth moved out to this world after landing on Lejorania Sanctum in hopes of setting up a second location for them to live under the watchful eye of Radiance. The Celestial Order wasn’t too keen on the idea of humans coming to Foicanta to set up a base and city, thus the infamous ambush broke out targeting EDF-1 and -2 as they scouted the landscape.
Hope city was founded sometime later, a small human settlement located in a region of Foicanta between its dark side and scorching light side. On this side of the planet, the star of Proxima Centauri appeared as if it were in the process of setting for the evening, only it never truly set, it hung in the horizon never moving. Temperatures here remain stable enough for liquid water to flow unrestricted and plants to grow. Unlike the dark side which was cold and devoid of light, and the great desert which was too hot. At the edge of the city lay a small EDF base where it stood guard and protected the human interests on the planet, and stood awaiting the transport ships from the Abyssal Sword as they descended from space to land.
Dust from the seldom used landing pad kicked up in the skies as the two transports landed and their doors lifted open. A haggard man wearing an EDF officer’s uniform greeted the two emerging EDF teams as they leaped out of their transports. Colonel Derek Irons, the commanding officer of the base.
“Good to see you all again,” Irons said as they all exchanged salutes.
“Likewise, Colonel,” Gomez said.
“As much as we’d like to chat and see what you done with the place,” Kasidey said.
“Of course, right this way,” Irons said, then led the two teams into the two-story building. “We’ll get you guys set up. I’m not going to lie I’m glad you’re all here with this assessment.”
“Why’s that, sir?” Gomez asked him.
“We’re a little stretched thin here.”
They entered the base; Rana saw exactly what the Colonel meant. At least sixty percent of the base’s staff was Radiance lending a hand to fill the positions EDF personnel was unable to fill. Still, it was nice to see the two sides working together, as Rana recalled a similar situation was brewing on Earth where Radiance and UNE shared cities, resources, and bases.
“With all due respect sir, aren’t we all?” Gomez asked. “There were only so many humans that could have been jammed aboard the Explorer.”
“Yes however, the problems here on Foicanta are much larger than the ones you face on Lejorania Sanctum. I’ve been asking for a more EDF teams to come here and give us a hand, but . . .”
“I understand sir.”
“Colonists are vanishing,” Irons said.
Both Rana and Gomez stopped moving. Irons’ message meant only one thing. Their efforts during their encounter years ago were in vain. “I thought we put an end to that when we fought the order a few years ago?” Rana asked Irons.
“It’s happening again. The issue comes then goes away, then comes back. Our previous disappearance was almost a year ago. Then two days ago we had a whole family vanish. We haven’t had a disappearance in a year, but I fear more will start to vanish soon because of that. I don’t have the manpower to look into it. Here’s the kicker,” Irons said as they all began walking again through the hallways. “The Abyssal Hammer was always in orbit when the reports of missing people were filed.”
“That’s creepy as fuck,” Rana said.
“We’ve been doing what we could to keep an eye on that ship,” Irons said. “But since we don’t have ships of our own out here.”
“I see, not an easy job,” Gomez said.
“We did however manage to track the Hammer leaving the system almost two months ago, they came back about three months later, that was two days ago.”
The period of two days. It got Rana thinking about the head start Nodevar got. “Doesn’t sound like they were that far off then. The Hammer must have picked up his transport, then dropped them back off in the system just before we arrived.”
“You see why I’m happy you’re here now?” Irons said. “Your mission might help us solve this mystery, the backup we needed.”
Small bunks were provided to the two EDF teams to rest in as they day went on and they got settled at the base. Though on a world like this, it was hard to tell when night and day came where the setting sun never set. They were briefed the next morning on the situation regarding the missing human refugees living in the city.
People typically vanished in their sleep with no signs of a struggle or someone breaking into their homes. Surveillance equipment always went haywire during the time the victims went missing adding to the mystery. It was suspected that perhaps a psionic performed these acts as a strong one could use their mind to disrupt security devices then teleport people away without anyone witnessing it. However there was no proof to support such a theory, only another psionic could detect a teleportation provided they were scanning the area in question. EDF lacked those naturally and the Radiance teams assisting EDF at the base lacked psionic personnel. Radiance wasn’t going to send such valuable assets like that to help EDF due to lack of staff.
Kasidey and EDF-3 boarded a transport that was sent to move out toward the desert where EDF first encountered the Celestial Order in hopes of finding a base of operations, and perhaps a camp where they might be holding kidnapped humans. EDF-2 boarded a transport that circled around Hope city, on patrol keeping an eye out for shady activities, bright flashes of blue light and the likes while EDF-7 patrolled the streets below.
For three, fucking hours.
The sight of the sun teasing a sunset, shining its deep red light down upon the city below got old fast. “Don’t think I could ever live on planet like this,” Rana said as she looked at the horizon from the open transport door.
Cooper smiled at her. “Where the sun never sets?”
“This is just crazy. Lejorania Sanctum was bad enough with a sun rising while another sets. But at least that was a seasonal thing; night time came eventually as the months go on. But this?”
“Planets like this are common place in the galaxy from what I heard since there are so many red dwarf stars out there,” Cooper said, joining her at the view. “I kinda like it, no shortage of romantic sunsets.”
“Yeah man, there ya go!” Gomez said from behind.
Rana quickly realized the awkward situation she and Cooper were in, the two gazing at a sunset together, Gomez cheering his buddy to make a move on her. “Oh, please,” she said to Gomez.
“How long have we been up here for?” Sergeant Tatiana Stepanovich grumbled from her seat in the back. Her question was also the only words she said since coming out of cryo, and therefore the first time she said a word in over five months.
“Couldn’t tell you, the sun hasn’t moved,” Cooper said.
Gengei’s holographic projection appeared upfront in the cockpit, he and the Linl pilot talked briefly before summoning Gomez to move up front to speak with him.
“Captain, I hope you have some good news,” Gomez said to his hologram.
Gengei said. “Our shipboard psionic has detected a small teleportation jump. A site to site teleportation to be exact.”
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“Location?”
“That is the interesting part; it originated from the city you are above.”
Everyone turned toward the cockpit, their eyes lit up at the new reveal. Finally a lead, Rana thought.
Gengei’s hologram continued. “They ended up somewhere on the dark side of Foicanta. We will be transmitting those coordinates to you now.”
Dark side of Foicanta, Proxima Centauri system
Rana saw the light from Proxima Centauri fade into obscurity as their transport crossed into the darkened region of the planet. The temperate trees and lakes were replaced with permanently frozen mountains and valleys that never saw light other than the stars and other celestial objects in the skies. The pilot carefully guided them toward a rugged snow-draped landscape, the location of the psionic teleportation.
The transport’s searchlights were deployed as it came to a stop, hovering above the location. The four humans aboard watched in anticipation to see what would be unveiled from the darkness as the search continued. The searchlights stopped moving as they zeroed in and shined its bright light upon a large cave inside an icy crevasse carved deep into the land. There was a transport parked inside.
“That’s not suspicious at all. Nope,” Gomez said half-jokingly.
Rana looked at the transport closer. Its hull was painted a dark purple and blue. “Doesn’t look like a transport Radiance would use.”
“How come we didn’t pick it up from orbit?” Gomez asked the pilot. “That’s a Hashmedai transport.”
“Its main power has been shut down,” he said. “And its close proximity to the landscape probably helped mask its presence. Let’s not forget this is the dark side, nobody comes out here even the Celestial Order, they always operate on the light side.”
“Any chances they found us?”
“Not that I can see, their systems are all powered down,” the pilot said. “But remember it was a psionic teleportation that led us here.”
“And they’re probably inside and sensed our presence,” Rana added.
“Let’s check it out,” Gomez said, addressing his team. “Stepanovich overwatch from our transport, Farhadi and Cooper you’re with me.”
The transport remained idle, hovering fifty meters above the land as Gomez, Rana and Cooper leaped out of it into the crevasse. Their MRF kicked in reducing their mass as they used the jets on their protect suits to guide their bodies closer to the cave in question.
Stepanovich as ordered remained aboard, her sniper rifle aimed toward the cave, ready to shoot anything that posed a threat to the three as they surrounded the Hashmedai transport. The three made no sounds as they approached; their bodies still were still mass reduced due to the MRF. Gomez’s hand signals instructed Rana to circle around and check out the forward windshield, she saw nothing inside; it was time for a closer look.
P-4 explosives were placed on the side of the Hashmedai transport door and exploded, blasting a gaping hole inside as they stormed in with their modified magnetic rifles drawn. They saw nothing from among the smoke and plasma burned remains of the door.
“Clear,” Gomez said as he finished checking the cockpit.
“Well that was anticlimactic,” Rana muttered.
There was one section left unchecked, the rear cryo chamber. The three charged in but the targeting scanners of their rifles display reported zero contacts amongst the vacant cryo tubes. There was however something that caught Rana’s attention, blood on the floors, Hashmedai blood according to the information her rifles scanners displayed across her HUD. The trail of old dried blood had led toward a blood stained cryo tube. Whoever was dragged into it at the time was bleeding badly.
“Cooper,” Gomez said to him. “You’re the computer whiz, see if you can get this shit working.”
Cooper walked in front of computer terminal attempting to activate it. “Bad time to ask if any of you are experts on Hashmedai?” He asked as the device powered on along with the rest of the transport. “Hashmedai don’t normally use data crystals either. I have no idea how we are going to get a copy of this ship’s logs.”
“One of the psionics aboard the Abyssal Sword should be able to access it with their mind,” Rana said. “Hopefully they can read their language as well.”
“Wanted to avoid asking for more help from Radiance, but looks like we ain’t got a choice,” Gomez said. “I’ll hit them up.”
“Whoever teleported out here, left pretty quickly,” Rana said, looking at the half-eaten food rations on the floor. “Probably on foot, since no other teleports were detected.”
A psionic from the Abyssal Sword appeared minutes later after Gomez contacted Gengei, unveiling their findings to him. The psionic proceeded to connect their thoughts with the transports data banks, accessing its log then transmitting their findings upward in space, toward the minds of other psionics aboard the Abyssal Sword.
Abyssal Sword, Foicanta orbit, Proxima Centauri system
EDF-2 along with Gengei and several bridge crew members stood in front of a hologram which displayed the data that was psionically recovered from the Hashmedai transport and transferred to the ships computers. The earliest logs from the transport went back to a time before the invasion of Earth. One particular playback showed Nodevar, two female Hashmedai assassins and a male psionic were aboard. Later the male psionic and one of the female assassins teleported out.
“Those were the three assassins that attacked me on Earth,” Gengei said. “This must have been the transport they were operating on.”
“They didn’t fuck around either,” Gomez said, looking at their equipment. The video moved forward briefly, Nodevar and a female assassin stripped down to have some rough zero-g sex. “They did however fuck.”
Earth burning in the aftermath of a plasma bombardment from the imperial fleet appeared later in the playback, it caused all four EDF members to cringe. “There’s a sight I’d rather forget,” Rana said. She still had frightening dreams of being separated from her family during the attack, only to end up lucking out and getting selected to flee Earth.
More footage from the transport’s databanks played, Nodevar and his mate had left, and the passengers of the transport became a new group of individuals. “A Linl? Wait,” Rana said pointing at one of them with dark skin. Upon closer a look, she corrected herself. “No, he’s human.”
Gengei pointed to a young Hashmedai woman with pale skin and platinum hair who appeared alongside the newcomers to the projection. “She is princess Kroshka of the empire, that human man however, Major Vaughan said of him.” Gengei paused as his four eyes shut, trying to remember the man’s name. “Jake Johnson.”
“I vaguely remember her talking about some guy that was clashing with her during that time and working with Hashmedai,” Gomez said, staring at the projection of the lone human amongst Hashmedai. “Guess that was him.”
“We never figured out why he allied himself with them,” Gengei said. “Just that he assisted the Major in escaping the command ship before we destroyed it.”
“That might explain it,” Cooper said, directing everyone’s attention back to the playback projection.
Nodevar in it was seen dragging a female Hashmedai assassin onto the transport after everyone had left sometime later. She was ejecting large floating orbs of blood out from her chest, no doubt the source of the blood stains they found earlier. A male Hashmedai psionic stormed in. The transport’s security camera shook several times as the psionic and Nodevar fought each other in the cockpit. Earth was seen spinning in and out of sight from the windshield; the transport was tumbling out of control, ready to crash into Earth.
“Infighting among the Hashmedai,” Gomez said as he watched the footage play. “Looks like not all the Hashmedai were on the same side.”
“And Nodevar was clearly on one of the opposing sides,” Cooper said.
“The Hashmedai always had an anti-religion stance,” Gengei said. “But if a group were to support the heretics who do believe in
religion . . . It would cause conflict, not just because they support the order, but also because it goes against their laws.”
“Maybe that Jake guy figured something out the rest of us didn’t,” Rana said. “There were two sides of Hashmedai on Earth.”
“The heretics were on Earth during the invasion,” Gengei said. “A member of my team was secretly one of them.”
The playback continued and the transport nearly crashed as the psionic teleported out. Nodevar returned to the cockpit’s controls and forced the craft to make a last minute recovery, launching it upward and back into space. Later they saw him enter a new course and the transport entered sub light speed. Nodevar returned to the dying female assassin and quickly placed her in a cryo tube then later himself.
The projection had sped forward weeks later as there was nothing of interest to be shown. According to the flight data its location was outside of Sol in which it began to run low on fuel and slowed down. Proximity alarms began to sound as a Radiance cruiser approached it from behind, the Abyssal Explorer. The transport was swiftly picked up and guided inside the Explorer’s hanger bay via tractor beams.
“Son of a bitch,” Gomez said.
New video playback was shown, revealing that the transport was secured inside the Abyssal Explorer as the doors to it swung open by force. Veinea floated in and headed toward the rear cryo chamber and avoided the floating gobs of blood. She revived Nodevar from cryo and guided him out of the transport.
“We were all in cryo during this point,” Gengei said.
Several other personnel from the Explorer’s crew floated aboard after Nodevar’s revival. Gengei’s face leaned forward and tried to take in a closer look at the group. “Wyuei,” he said pointing to one of them wearing a Radiance doctor’s uniform. “He was one of the doctors of the Explorer.”
“These people were clearly with the Celestial Order,” Cooper said. “Where’s the Explorer now?”
Equilibrium of Terror: Part 2 Page 29
