“Combat robots!” Anamesh murmured, with a questioning look in his covered face.
-
Deadly energy beams were firing from the combat robot’s formation. Over five hundred of them were advancing against the enemy platoon, outnumbering them in twenty to one. Beam after beam cut through the enemy powered vacuum suit as if they weren’t using them.
The Thuban warriors took cover behind pieces of stone and debris left by nukes.
A few barrages of grenades exploded within the robot’s formation, ripping them apart. Thubans kept firing their energy weapons non-stop when they realized they were surrounded.
A combat robot engaged in closed combat one Thuban warrior. In rapid movements, both were hitting each other violently. The warrior was using his standard retractable sword, finding it hard to damage the mechanical being.
The robot hit the lizard in the chest, throwing this one over five meters in the air leaving the warrior remaining still on the red ground.
Rapidly, more combats were occurring with identical results.
◆◆◆
“Retreat!” Anamesh ordered. He was frightened as the robots were deadly. He found, for the first time in his long life, an enemy even deadlier than him.
Over twenty warriors opened the path of retreat with their grenades and energy weapons. It was a mistake to land troops without heavy support. Anamesh expected human resistance, not indestructible automates.
Vegans had hidden assets, once again.
“Keep running!” Enoki shouted. He gazed back just to see how another warrior fell on the floor with a cauterized huge hole in his chest.
◆◆◆
In space, Third Commander Dracko watched intensely the images of the ground battles. Everywhere in the planet was the same result. Combat robots annihilating his troops. “Fire the energy beams against the robots!” he ordered with an infuriating gaze.
“Third Commander, we might kill our own troops if we fire upon their positions,” Krigi stated, working fervently in his console.
“Do it now!” Dracko replied, holding a stunner gun in his hand aimed directly in Krigi’s head.
Krigi remained still for half a second, knowing if he didn’t fire the energy beams, he might be stunned and them spaced through an airlock. “Beams firing.”
◆◆◆
On the ground, bright white flashes begun to appear on the sky. Anamesh, who was pushing Ebadan inside a shuttle, knew they would die if they were to remain few more seconds on the surface of Mars. Once everyone was inside the shuttle, the energy screen of the vessel activated, leaving the bright impacts of the robots’ blue energy beams glowing intensely against the shield.
The shuttle accelerated rapidly when a powerful energy beam shot from the Behemoth Ascending, impacted the area, cleansing over five hundred square meters around. Instantly, more beams kept falling from the sky with identical results. Almost every robot was now destroyed.
◆◆◆
“Shuttles are back, sir. Reports said over seventy per cent of casualties,” Tactical Officer Krigi informed.
“Sterilize the planet,” Dracko ordered in anger, his fangs crunching each other till purple blood was visible.
Act immediately, over one hundred cluster nuclear warheads were shot from the Behemoth Ascending and the Ascendant Ripper. The missiles travelled across the planet’s orbit and then, they began falling into Mars. Each bomb contained twenty-five tactical nuclear warheads in the fifty-kiloton range. Two thousand and five hundred nuclear detonations engulf the planet, liberating a huge number of radioactive isotopes such as Xenon and Krypton into the atmosphere. Mushroom-shape clouds were visible from orbit around the whole red planet.
CHAPTER TEN
Commander Padis, Governor of Mars, was in his quarters alone. He was deeply submerged in his thoughts, suicidal ones.
“How did we arrive to this,” he wondered, his face covered by torrents of tears falling down his cheeks. “It seems everything coordinated. The pirate attack in Syrius and this cruel invasion. I think the Thubans paid a huge amount of money to the pirates as a diversion. It worked for them.”
He was holding an old model pistol from the period of the great catastrophe in his homeworld. He rose the pistol, changed the weapon from safety to fire and stuck it inside his mouth.
Suddenly, a familiar voice screamed in horror, it was Vera. “No!” she said, “Don’t do it!”
Padis felt ashamed of the situation as he didn’t expect that Vera was monitoring his quarters. He took out the pistol from his mouth and crumbled. “We lost everything! There is no future!”
“You are still alive, and I am still here, therefore, there is a future,” Vera stated with visible tears falling in her virtual cheeks. “You are the great Commander Padis! If you are alive, our people will have a future. You save a lot of lives today as you saved them in the past!” she pointed out.
“A million people died today, a lot of good pilots and personnel. How can I live with that pain?” Padis knelt himself in front of Vera’s legs.
“Convert that pain in something useful. Divert that energy into one thing; vengeance!”
◆◆◆
A nearby comet was passing by in closed approach to Terra. It was a regular visitor every few hundred years. The comet was over ten kilometers width, a planet killer.
Down in Atlantis, Consul Atlas, Commodore Valentis and Sensor Operator Allumin were the only three survivors in Atlantis. They remained at the Government Palace as they though it was the right thing to do. If they were meant to die, they would do it as men and not as a coward. The rest of personnel had been evacuated hours ago in shuttles. Combat robots were holding positions against Thuban warriors just outside the Palace. Some reports from underground shelters informed of enemy soldiers killing thousands of innocent civilians that found refuge beneath the city.
“Mars has fallen, Consul,” Valentis reported, his voice showing defeat. “The planet has been nuked and sterilized.”
Atlas remained silence for a moment. He had one more surprise for the lizards. “Activate the Doom Plan, and Commodore, you have to go, the same as you Allumin. There is a shuttle waiting in the garden.”
“There is no way I am leaving now, Consul,” Valentis said infuriated. “I am the Fleet Commodore; my duty is to die in here!”
“Leave now!” Atlas shouted. “You will be useful to our people in the future. You must survive!”
Valentis remain quiet, thinking about that proposition. If he were to leave, he would make sure of take the revenge in the future if his plans were put in place. “We’ll leave, sir. It was an honour to serve with you.”
Act immediately, both men, Commodore Valentis and Allumin left the situation room.
◆◆◆
In the Raman city of Andhakas, Amma was screaming of pain when the reptilian alien teared apart some of her right leg skin. He administrated her adrenaline, which he supposed to consume for the battle, as that hormone in reptilians made them feel no fear, just to keep her awake and intensifying her suffering.
“Kill me, you son of a bitch!” Amma said in agony, all her body trembling as the adrenaline invaded her nervous system. She could die of a heart attack or drained off. She just wished to end, the sooner, the better. The alien nailed her in the temple’s wall, making her body to resemble a cross.
“This is just the beginning,” he said in joy and excitement.
◆◆◆
The close quarter battle against the robots had been devastating. Ebagesh had suffered over fifty per cent of casualties in his ranks. They numbered the enemy forces in just a hundred and they have managed to annihilate over a thousand of his warriors. If there were just a thousand robots, he wouldn’t have survived in the first assault. Luckily, he amended that mistake by ordering orbital bombardment and reinforces arrived shortly after that. The city was in ruins, just a huge palace in the center of the ringed island remained intact. In that building, one life detection was still shown in the
scanners.
“Begin the assault,” Ebagesh ordered. He wanted to capture that human.
“Sir, I got report of underground shelters were found with thousands of civilians. Third battalion had massacred them. No survivors left,” Second Officer Trexin said excitedly.
“Very well, we’ll become rich today!” Ebagesh replied with a grin in his face. “Attack!”
◆◆◆
The Thuban warriors, wearing their battle armored suits, shot their rocket launchers against the wall that surrounded the Government Palace. Huge explosions detonated carving holes in the wall. Smoke and debris were falling when, from the interior, blue beams begun bursting the reptilian warriors.
A small hover tank was shooting its deadly payload of energy beams against the fortified palace. It was shown previously that the tank could tear apart an Atlantean killer robot.
Suddenly, a robot appeared holding with its hands something over its left shoulder. A chirpy whistle broke into the air and small missiles were incoming to the hover tank position. The missiles were flying in circles, making them hard to target. In a moment, a colossal detonation destroyed the reptilian tank, sending everyone around it into the air. A twenty meters crater appeared when the smoke vanished.
-
Ebagesh was on the ground, his battle armored suit sparkling as it was damaged. He attempted to stand but a deaf pain in his abdomen prevented that. Slowly moved his head down to see the problem and with his right hand touched the area. When he rose his hand, a purple liquid was covering his claws; it was blood.
“Damn it,” he groaned, his breath quickened and his body shaking aghast. “I can’t die now.”
Around him there was only dead. More warriors were being systematically annihilated when a strange noise begun sounding in the city. It was an alarm. The sound penetrated in his ears, making them to sting. Then a voice in Atlantean language began speaking. “Self-destruction activated. Ten minutes for self-destruction,” the message kept repeating itself every few seconds.
Ebagesh attempted once again to stand when a metallic foot held him on the ground, his eyes lighted in fear. He struggled in vain to freed himself from the enemy combat robot that kept staring at him with its red lights as eyes. The robot shook his head a bit and aimed Ebagesh head.
“No!” Ebagesh said but it was too late.
The robot shot his energy rifle and killed the reptilian officer.
◆◆◆
Inside the situation room, Consul Atlas just had one more thing to do; pressing the red bottom of his table. He was about to die and once again, Atlanteans were on the brink of extinction.
“How big is that comet?” Atlas asked to the computer program in charge of the system, fearing he was about to commit a terrible error, one that could bring a massive extinction event to the planet, but he was blinded by his desire of revenge after losing his daughter in the battle over Terra.
“Just over ten kilometers, Consul. It’s a planet killer,” the computer said in its monotone voice. That wasn’t an AI, but it got a good intelligence program.
“Will we be able to bring the whole comet down?” Atlas said.
“No,” answered the computer. “Perhaps a big piece of it. Our ground missiles will tear it apart partially, but we haven’t got enough firepower to change its trajectory.”
“That would be enough to make the planet uninhabitable for the lizards, at least, a thousand years. Temperatures will be plunged abruptly, and the geography of the planet will change. Let’s hope that some people survived in Mars and the people we saved in the shuttles will come back by then better prepared,” Consul Atlas added, looking at the countdown in its last seconds. “It was a pleasure to serve this world. See you in the other side, my loved daughter.”
Act immediately, Consul Atlas pressed the red bottom on his table.
◆◆◆
On board of the Thuban Executor, High Commander Enki watched in shock through the cockpit window of his Command Center, an enormous mushroom-shape cloud rising from the city of Atlantis and another one over Poseidonia. He couldn’t believe that these Vegans acted in that manner.
“According to our visual reports, the Vegans activated a self-destruction nuclear device in the twenty-megaton range, annihilating both cities and all around it. Sixty per cent of our troops have perished,” Second Commander Marduk informed, working at his console fervently.
“Damn Vegans!” Enki shouted in wrath, hitting an officer that was sitting next to his position.
“High Commander!” Sensor Officer Okyd said alarmed. “I am picking up missiles launches from the surface, four hundred signals detected and rising.”
“What?” Enki moaned in disbelief, his eyes widely opened. “What are they targeting?”
“Most of them are heading to that comet,” Ynnie pointed out.
“And the rest?” Marduk intervened, thinking they were the target.
In that moment, almost hundred nuclear missiles began its parabolic manoeuvre and commenced descending to the planet in different locations.
“They are targeting the planet in every location we sent ground troops,” Okyd reported.
◆◆◆
Amma was semi unconscious as she lost a lot of blood. The reptilian was skinning her slowly and drinking her blood to get high. The alien was a vicious creature and it was in that moment when Amma understood the reason why the locals called them evil ones.
Unexpectedly, the alien stopped his malicious torture and began speaking through its comm device. She could hear a low voice in Thuban language, which she understood perfectly. Then she laughed out loud.
“Did you really think you could have this planet again? Now you are going to taste some of your own medicine, son of a bitch,” Amma said, laughing at the frightened alien who left the place running.
A second after, over the city of Andhakas, a nuclear detonation swept across and razed every inhabitant and alien in it.
◆◆◆
It was too late for the Thuban fleet to intercept the missiles targeting the comet. They were simply too far out to reach it. Once the missiles left the planet’s atmosphere, the mini sub-light drives they were equipped with, went online and in a matter of a few short minutes, they found their target.
The comet exploded in a bright light, tearing it apart in many big pieces and leaving another one over six kilometers continuing its trajectory. A few of those smaller remaining pieces entered the atmosphere, the bigger one being over one kilometer. The planet was still under nuclear fire and multiple mushroom-shape clouds could be seen from the Thuban Executor.
“They won,” Second Officer Ynnie said in a low voice, almost whispering.
Everyone was watching in shock and anger how many pieces of the comet were entering the atmosphere, being one much more visible than the others.
“Report impact course of that big chunk!” Second Commander Marduk ordered, breathing rapidly.
“Northern ice cap, Commander,” Sensor Officer Okyd reported.
Over twenty impacts of different sizes and magnitude hit the ice cap that covered most of the northern hemisphere. The reaction was horrendous. Bright lights emerged from the planet. Pieces of ice the size of a little mountain arrived at the stratosphere and then fell again into the surface. Trillions of gallons of water were instantly evaporated and a tremendous amount that was melted, enough to fill up the Mediterranean Sea, poured into the ocean and continents coastal shores. The tectonics plates couldn’t resist the energy released after the comets impacts on the four kilometers thick icecaps and rotated a few degrees south, triggering a catastrophic chain of events. Volcanoes erupted all over the planet, mega-tsunamis rose in every ocean razing everywhere. Soon, ash and pollutants from the nuclear bombs would submerge the planet in a nuclear winter that could last for hundreds of years.
The Atlanteans, before surrendering and leaving the planet in a plate to the invaders, preferred to destroy it and leave it uninhabitable for as long as possible.
High Commander Enki couldn’t believe what had just happened.
Shortly after that, a few remaining Atlantean shuttles left the planet from the southern continent of Antarctica and once free from the atmosphere, they entered hyperspace.
The city of Atlantis, what it was left, was swept across by a one-thousand-meter tsunami. The sea level rose over hundred and twenty meters worldwide in just twenty-four hours.
Atlanteans had been defeated this time, but they would return one day.
EPILOGUE
High Commander Enki was in his way back to Thuban. The Atlanteans had submerged the gold planet in a nuclear winter and the climate was so adverse for his race that he decided to leave that planet, for now.
“The Council will be furious about our defeat,” Second Commander Marduk said, fearing this travel, would be the last one he was about to do.
“We haven’t been defeated!” Enki grumbled, looking for a long moment the bright colorful lights of hyperspace. “We are going to return and then, we will conquer this planet forever.”
Marduk remained silence for a moment. “What if no humans have survived on the planet? Who is going to extract the gold?”
“We will bring slaves from other planets to do that job,” Enki replied. “For now, let’s get home and deal with the Council. It is our time to rise in power.”
Enki had glorious plans for his clan, and for himself and nothing would stop him to accomplish them.
◆◆◆
Vera, the AI in charge of the Titan Project, was in certain shock when she saw in some viewscreens beside Commander Padis, the destruction occurred on Mars and the apocalyptic end of Terra. Atlantis, Poseidonia, Agartha, Triton, Cepheus and Ceres were destroyed. All mining operations in the planet were annihilated, finishing like this her mission of turning once again Mars into a garden, at least for now. She wasn’t human, but she was designed to feel like one and develop her own feelings with a limit; she couldn’t harm any Atlanteans, only traitors to her race.
Solaris Fall: A Behemoth Ascending Novella Page 7
