The Syndicate's Journey
Page 27
“When we shoot this, we will jump on your back and run out as fast as we can, okay?”
The Snargde moved their heads down, showing that they understood what he said.
“You ready for this?” Major General Solbrig asked.
“What’s the plan?”
“Well, one shot from the HPD produced a hole this small if we were to shoot at it multiple times, maybe it would cause the explosion?”
“That sounds right, I wonder how deep the Azuard is.” Major General Reingle asked, “Would the depth matter?”
“Of course, it does! It’ll definitely take more shots than one.”
“So?” Major General Reingle asked, “Is that a bad thing?”
“Well, no. I mean, it’s not a one-shot and done sort of thing though.”
“That’s alright. These HPD’s shoot pretty fast anyway, right?”
“Yes. They are automatic, so that’s a nice thing.” Major General Solbrig responded and looked behind them. “You realize if we get some warning, we are going to have to run for it, right?”
“Yeah... I hope not, but we’ll see what happens.”
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
They pointed the HPD’s at the Azuard and looked at one another one last time then looked behind them to make sure the two Snargde were still there. They were on all four legs awaiting their orders. Then the Major Generals started to hold down the trigger and fire the HPD’s at the Azuard. Flashes of light emitted from the barrel of the gun into the Azuard. It seemed as if the Azuard was absorbing the blasts from the HPD like before. Major General Reingle yelled over the blasts.
“How long are we shooting for?”
“As long as it takes, Reingle!”
They continued to shoot the HPD into the Azuard, and suddenly they stopped when they noticed that the Azuard was moving almost like it was alive. It swayed back and forth, and the cave rumbled.
“Time to go!”
“You’re right!”
The Major Generals stopped shooting, turned around, and jumped on the Snargde’s backs. The Snargde ran on all fours while the Azuard was boiling and swaying. Rocks started to fall from the ceiling, and the ground was shaking. The Snargde were swift and nimble and ran through the cave, dodging the falling rocks that appeared right in front of them. They ran up the side of the walls and back down it. The cave shook tremendously. The Azuard blew up the cave. Bigger rocks fell onto the ground, and the Snargde carrying the Major Generals made it outside of the cave just in time. A few seconds later, they would have been buried underneath all the rubble.
J’uhleesa and the other Snargde were standing outside of the cave. They watched the cave explode and congratulated the Major Generals when they arrived towards them. The Major Generals hopped off of the Snargde and stood in front of J’uhleesa and the Snargde.
“That was incredible! You should have seen the explosion!”
“Seen it? We were in it and almost did not make it out!” Major General Solbrig exclaimed.
“It was definitely one that I would not want to do again, that’s for sure!”
“You should have seen it! Rocks were flying everywhere, Azuard spewed out of it. It was a sight to behold!”
“Like a volcano?” asked Major General Reingle.
“Vuhl-cane-oh?” asked J’uhleesa.
“Uh, we have rocks like this on Nuwurth, and they blow up by themselves.” Major Gen Solbrig explained. “Hot liquid comes out of it.”
“Oh. Volcano... that is interesting.” J’uhleesa looked at it and spoke again as he smiled. “This is Azuard Volcano.”
Major Gen Solbrig smiled. “Now that we blew the cave up, how long did the Azuard cube in your hand take to harden?”
“Oh, it wasn’t long,” J’uhleesa responded.
“That’s a good thing.” Major Gen Reingle remarked.
J’uhleesa looked up in the sky. “But, a storm is coming.”
“How do you know?” Major General Solbrig asked.
“We smell the air changing, and the wind is picking up speed.”
“What kind of storm?”
“One that we hid from earlier,” J’uhleesa stated.
“Why did you hide from it? We watched all of you hide in the sand from there.” Major General Reingle pointed at the Drakdel.
“You watched us?” he asked. “How?”
Major Gen Reingle pointed up at the Drakdel. “That is the ship that we talked about earlier.”
“Oh! We had no clue what it was. It is rather intimidating.” J’uhleesa confessed. “We waited here and watched to see if it would move, but we had to hide underneath the sand because the storm was nearby.”
Major Gen Solbrig asked. “Why do you hide in the sand?”
“We hide in the sand for two reasons. One to cool ourselves down from this heat, and two so the storm passes us, and we do not become caught in it.” J’uhleesa explained.
“So then why not hide in the cave?” Major General Reingle asked.
“You’d think it would be that simple, but no. The storm from earlier was so powerful that it was hard to move. Going into a cave was hard enough; that is why we decided to burrow underground.”
“I suppose that’s logical.” Major General Solbrig admitted.
“We better move quickly. Look over there.” J’uhleesa held out his hand and pointed at the sky. The clouds turned yellow from the sandstorms coming. The wind picked up speed and was blowing their way.
“We should get out of here.”
“Yeah...but, wait, how will we be able to contact you again, J’uhleesa?” Major General Reingle asked.
“You know where we stay.”
J’uhleesa bent down and got on all fours and ran over to the Snargde and jumped in the air and burrowed underneath the sand. The Snargde followed his actions and burrowed underground as well. Major Generals Reingle and Solbrig watched as they burrowed.
“The Snargde left, we better leave too!” Major General Solbrig shouted over the wind.
“I feel bad for leaving them here.”
“Why? They left us here! They should be the ones that feel bad. Come on, we have to move! The storm is coming!
Major General Solbrig ran towards the Drakdel, and Major General Reingle followed him. From their southeast, the wind was blowing, and sand began to hit them. Major General Solbrig turned around and yelled. “Too bad the Snargde couldn’t give us a lift, huh?”
Major General Reingle shook his head. When they reached the Drakdel, Major General Solbrig ran up the ramp and pressed the button to open the door and ran inside and stood by the doorway. Major General Reingle ran in, and Major General Solbrig pressed the button and closed the door. The Major Generals were catching their breath as they unhooked the OBAs off of themselves and sat down in their respective chairs. As they sat down, they looked out the window and saw the sandstorm was now raging across where they just were at.
“Good thing we left when we did.” Major General Solbrig admitted.
“That was close.”
“This whole day was a close call. Do you realize how lucky we were today?”
“Luck?” Major General Reingle asked, “I’m not sure if it was luck or fate.”
“Fate? You think it was fate that we met the Snargde today?”
“I do. You hinted at it yourself.”
“What? How did I?” Major General Solbrig asked.
“Don’t you remember? You said it yourself yesterday, about creatures returning to their habitats.”
“That is true. I didn’t think over the course of a few hundred years they would still be here, though.”
“What if it was hereditary?” Major General Reingle asked. “What if that is their breeding grounds?”
“That could be possible. I mean animals back on Nuwurth have the same kind of rituals or habits…But this is another planet we’re talking about, millions of miles away, Reingle!”
“You don’t think animals and creatures all inherentl
y have some of the same survival tactics?”
“I do...but I also don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“Because like I said, we are on a different planet. The Snargde seems highly intelligent. Look at J’uhleesa! He is as intelligent as we are! He was aware, he knew how to talk and organize a group of them!”
“Queen bees do the same thing, Solbrig! Look at wolves! Two different species of animals right there. Both are aware, and both communicate.”
“I mean... they can’t talk to us, though.”
“Look at lions, they have a leader. Bears, too.”
“Reingle, I get your point.”
“It isn’t uncommon, though!”
“No, it isn’t uncommon, but on an alien planet, who thought that was going to be the norm?” Major General Solbrig asked.
Major General Reingle raised his shoulders and shook his head. “Never thought that we would actually get to encounter them.”
“Neither did I. I thought the Snargde might be real, but to encounter them was another thing...I was afraid of them when we met.”
“So was I!” Major General Reingle laughed. “I didn’t know if they would be friendly or not!”
“! I thought for sure they would not have spoken our language.”
“You actually think they did?”
“How else would they communicate with us?”
“Hm. Good point.”
“Do you think that these OBA’s do more than just an external breathing apparatus for us?”
“That is possible. Maybe we should call General Deschner and find out?” Major General Reingle asked.
“We’ll wait until he calls us next.” Major General Solbrig placed the OBA down on the table. “We don’t want to seem too adamant in knowing. He can wait a few more days.”
“Hmm. If you say so.” Major General Reingle spoke. “I just don’t want him to worry about us.”
“Trust me, he’s not worried about us.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
General Deschner is leaning back in his chair with his legs propped on the table. He swipes his hand, and his INH opens. He tapped on “Contacts,” then he scrolled down to “Brigadier General Maruo, Rosha,” and he pressed “Call.” His INH appeared with the words:
CALLING BRIGADIER GENERAL MARUO
He waited until the screen flickered, and then Brigadier General Rosha Maruo was on the screen.
“Oh, hello, General! How are you?” he greeted with a smile.
“Oh, I’m doing quite well.” He stated. “How are you doing on Nuwurth?”
“I’m doing alright. You know how it is, production never ceases in MOD!”
“Oh, I am well aware. Do you like being in charge while Lieutenant General Armitage isn’t there?” General Deschner caught him off-guard, and he wasn’t sure how to react to the question.
“Well, I uh...” Brigadier General Maruo stammered. “It’s okay, I guess. I miss Lieutenant General Armitage, but I know he is up there in the USV Valkanaut, helping you with some things.”
“You know about that?” General Deschner snapped.
“Uh...”
“What did he tell you?”
“W-well, he mentioned that he is working on something and for me to keep it a secret…” Brigadier General Maruo trembled. “I didn’t realize you were involved.”
“Of course, I am!” General Deschner demanded. “Who do you think told him to ask you for help?”
“He didn’t mention that you were involved at all with the project, so I assumed you weren’t.” He admitted.
“Of course, I am! He probably forgot to mention that!” General Deschner explained. “Lieutenant General Armitage right now is busy with some plans I gave him, he must’ve forgotten.”
“Oh, that is probably why,” Brigadier General Maruo admitted. “He seemed very rushed and concerned to be honest.”
General Deschner was leading him into a trap. He knew precisely what Lieutenant General Armitage was doing, he had bugged the USV Valkanaut and had spied on him. General Deschner knew that by pressuring Brigadier General Maruo that he could get the information that he needed out of him.
“The weapons that Lieutenant General Armitage told you about...he told you what we needed, right?”
“Well...don’t you already know, General?”
“Of course, I know, Brigadier General. I just want to double-check what he told you.” General Deschner ordered.
“Oh, right. Of course! Lieutenant General Armitage explained to me that he needed some sort of weapons fueled by Antimatter.” Brigadier General Maruo admitted bashfully. “He said he wanted four of them and fast.”
“Oh, really? Did he say exactly why?”
“Well, no. I assume it has to do with the Major Generals?”
“Yes, that is exactly why we need four of them.” General Deschner responded. “Of course!”
Brigadier General Maruo looked at General Deschner a bit confused but did not act upon it. Lieutenant General Armitage would typically call him, so he knew that something was wrong.
“Did Lieutenant General Armitage say anything else about these new weapons?”
“Well, no, not really anything else.”
“Have you made these new weapons yet?”
“Yeah, I started to..” Brigadier General Maruo admitted. “Would you care to see the diagrams?”
“Of course, I would!” General Deschner exclaimed. “Show them to me.”
“Alright, I’ll send them your way.” Brigadier General Maruo swiped his hand and tapped, then moved his finger downwards and tapped again and swiped to the right. “Alright, General, I just sent them to you. You can open them up so I can walk you through it.”
“Sure, alright.”
General Deschner’s screen appeared the words overlapping the call.
FILE RECEIVED FROM BRIGADIER GENERAL MARUO
OPEN? YES OR NO
General Deschner tapped “Yes,” and the schematics of the new weapon appeared before his eyes.
“This is a modified HPD, General. We modified it to suit the needs of Antimatter.” Brigadier General Maruo said proudly. “The middle part that you see is supported for the Antimatter vials.”
“Oh, I see that.” General Deschner replied, “What will these be used for?”
“Well...instead of the HPD disintegrating anything in its path, I reconfigured its program to use the Antimatter instead.”
“That’s nice. Did you use the same body as the HPD?” asked General Deschner.
“Of course. I wanted it as lightweight as possible. In fact, I actually shaved off a few centimeters and increased the length of the barrel by a few centimeters.”
“How did you do that?” General Deschner asked.
“Well, I ran a lot of tests on it, and I concluded extending the barrel a little bit would help the accuracy and precision of the blasts. That way, the Antimatter would become more accurate.”
“Hm, I see. Is the barrel ribbed at all? Does it have ridges?”
“Nope. It is as smooth as can be. When Antimatter fires, it needs to be as even as possible.”
“That makes sense.” General Deschner agreed. “What about the heat that it produces? How are these new HPD’s combating against that?”
“Well, for one, they aren’t HPD’s anymore. These are High-Frequency Antimatter Fusion Pistols or HAFR for short.” Brigadier General Maruo moved his hand as he spoke and smirked as if he was proud of the name. “The HAFR is one of a kind...er well four of a kind. Lieutenant General Armitage told me that Drakdels were using Antimatter as a form of energy and explained to me that we should have weapons that way, too.”
“Hmm, yes, that is a brilliant idea. Antimatter is the future, after all. How long until these HAFR’s are ready for production?” General Deschner inquired.
“Honestly? I can do some last-minute tests and get them out to you by today.”