by REM
Later that night, when Josh had finished playing cards, he returned to his room and was surprised at hearing raindrops tapping at his window. The closer he got the louder they were. It’s really coming down out there. First time having it rain out of the entire time I’ve spent on this planet.
Josh got undressed and lay back on his bed with a book hand. Should make for some good reading, he thought, listening to the sounds outside. It was nice and warm in the room, but he knew it was probably freezing outside.
Nearly twenty minutes had passed when Josh heard loud thunder rumbling. It sounded like the storm was directly above Pax’s facility. There was a flash of light from the window he knew to be lightning. Josh lay the book on his chest, listening to the heavy rain. He did so for a spell until getting up and walking over to the window.
He peered outside. Everything was nearly pitch black, aside from random areas of the courtyard where dim lights shined. Hell of a night, he thought, as loud thunder rumbled through the skies. Lightning flashed. Then again. Josh gaped at the sight of a lone Mercen—standing right outside of the courtyard gate and staring directly up at his window. He felt his body jolt uncontrollably with fear, gazing hard in the brief seconds of visibility, which felt like a lifetime in confirming what he was seeing.
The night changed back to darkness. Josh turned from his window, slid on some shoes, and ran out the door. He rushed down into the courtyard, opening the tiny shack and grabbing his blaster in the process. He entered the gate code into a panel, then pushed the door open with his gun aimed straight ahead. He swung the weapon to the left, followed by the right, creeping farther out from the facility—but the Mercen was nowhere to be seen.
Where’d he go? thought Josh, wishing he’d brought a flashlight. He listened carefully, but the rain was all he could hear. Then he noticed an object on the ground in the exact spot where the Mercen had been. Could be an explosive, he thought, moving his gun and scanning around some more.
After a closer inspection, Josh saw it was a device with a bread-sized screen that was playing video footage. He knew it could still possibly be an explosive, but picked it up anyway. Fuck it. Once the device was in his hands, Josh darted back to the side of the facility and ducked down behind some empty crates. He stared at the screen with his brows furrowed and a feeling of familiarity.
The footage appeared to be from a body cam. It took only a second more for him to see himself dashing out from behind a striker and firing shot after shot at whoever was doing the recording. This is the shootout from my previous trip to Skurier, in the far eastern jungle. The Mercen must’ve been recording… And this Mercen found the feed. His eyes brightened as a message appeared on the screen in big red letters: “YOU DIE!” it said.
Josh kept staring at the screen, feeling a rush of adrenaline from head to toe. Then, instinctively, he flipped over the device. A small cube had been attached to the item. There was a red light blinking from it. Bomb! thought Josh, stepping out from behind the crates and chucking the device as far from the facility as possible.
Boom! There was a loud explosion at the same time as thunder cracked from the sky. Josh was almost certain the thunder had drowned out any possibility of someone in the facility hearing the blast. That bastard waited to hear me coming out from the facility, then activated the timer, giving me just enough time to view his message before detonation. If it was remote-controlled—I’d already be dead.
Josh scanned the canyon from the side of the crates. It was just too dark for him to see where the Mercen could’ve gone. He knew there was a flashlight in the shack, but instead of grabbing it, Josh locked the gate and went back inside. Better notify Pax, he thought, in case that bastard tries to break in.
After informing Pax of what had happened, Josh led him and Skirm to the spot of the incident. Both assured Josh they would handle the matter of security and welcomed him to return to his room. Josh did as they’d suggested, but peeked out from his window from time to time to make sure everything was okay. Once a little over an hour had passed without anything bad happening, he decided to get into bed to retire for the night.
That Mercen had to have seen me here sometime this week. Or maybe it was in the far eastern jungle where he saw me. Josh thought more before thinking, I wonder if it’s the same humanoid I saw earlier, atop the canyons. The possibilities were many. Before long, Josh had fallen asleep.
He woke up at nine A.M. and stared hazily toward the light coming in from the window, while remembering all that had happened last night. Wonder if anything went down after I fell asleep. Josh continued gazing in the same direction. Suddenly, he shot up to his elbows with his eyes wide. What if… he thought.
Josh threw back the covers and rushed to get dressed. When readied, he hurried out the door and down to the courtyard nearest to his room.
Searcher One was sitting on a bench smoking a cigarette, but stood upon seeing Josh moving with such haste. “Where you going? What’s going on?”
“Nothing for certain. I just want to check on something,” said Josh.
“I heard about the incident from last night. Do you want me to go with you?”
“No, it’s probably nothing. I’ll be fine.”
Josh strode to the shack and slipped his blaster into the holster at his thigh, then hurried out from the facility. Searcher One watched him the entire time.
There was a slope leading atop the eastern side of the canyon that Josh had seen a few times when flying back from their expeditions. He made his way up it and hiked the dry flatlands for about a quarter mile, till reaching the location he’d seen the humanoid from his window. Somewhere around here, he thought, scanning the ground for evidence or clues. There were scattered pebbles amongst the dusty dirt. Nothing unusual presented itself. No human or vehicle tracks, he thought. The wind or rain must’ve covered them.
Josh peered around for any structures or habitats that might not have been visible from his window. There was nothing but dry flatland for miles on out. Figured this might be a waste of time. I’ll search about a hundred-yard radius for any sign of tracks, just to be sure. Then I’m taking my ass back to the facility.
Josh started his secondary investigation by heading north, though he stopped after only a few yards when feeling a quaking of the ground. He stared around while remaining in place. First tremor I’ve felt on any of the planets I’ve visited since arriving to the Void Zone. I hate Creston quakes!
The shaking persisted. It took only a brief moment for Josh to realize the ground wasn’t actually moving—his boots were. He kneeled down and checked the tiny, colored indicator lights on the bottom of his shoe tongue. His eyes grew. Mercen genetics detected… changes in solid ground.
Josh stayed low, scanning the ground for any signs of a lever or switch. Then he saw it. There was a rocky handle that looked very much like a normal rock. It was massed with a noticeably higher concentration of pebbles and stone, a camouflaged square that would generally go unnoticed. Josh took a few crouched steps over to the handle, inspecting it closely.
He grabbed it with his right hand and tried sliding it in one direction, then another. It didn’t budge. How the heck does this work? he thought, staring at the handle, before eventually feeling a round, carved button on its underside that gave way to a pressing of his index finger.
There was a rather quiet sliding of a lock, after which Josh felt the handle become easy to move. He slid open the hidden top to reveal a laddered tunnel going straight down about eighteen feet into the ground. There appeared to be some sort of lair at the bottom.
Josh waited a moment to make sure he’d not been heard. He then drew his blaster and proceeded slowly down the ladder with his gun aimed toward the bottom. That filthy Mercen could be in here, he thought, trying his hardest not to make a sound.
At the bottom of the ladder he scanned the small room. It was round and had a diameter of about fifteen feet. There was a narrow bed, plus a food supply cabinet. A short tunnel connected the room to a
nother of the same size. The shape reminded Josh of a peanut’s. He heard some computer sounds coming from the far end and felt certain that someone was there.
Clink, clank, clank! Josh kicked over a can of metal chips he’d not noticed on the floor.
“Aaaaught!” sounded from across the tunnel. “Aaaiieee!” The Mercen charged into view and rushed into the tunnel, firing its gun.
Thoot! Thoot! Lasers flashed past Josh, who managed to dive out the way while letting loose a wild shot of his own. His blood pumped heavily, knowing the Mercen was about to pop into the room at close proximity. He fired frantically at first sight of enemy movement. The Mercen ducked back in to the hole—then stuck its arm around the side and squeezed off multiple blasts.
Sparks flew, as Josh rolled out of the way. The shots were awfully close for the Mercen not being able to see him.
The Mercen burst into the room. “You die!” Thoot! It fired a blast that came so close to hitting Josh’s head that Josh could smell the burning of his short cut hair when firing a counter-shot that tore straight through the center of the Mercen’s forehead. “Urgh!” it let out, crashing dead to the floor.
“No, you die!” said Josh, still holding his gun in the Mercen’s direction with a two-handed grip. He stood carefully, keeping his aim on the corpse until feeling certain he’d killed the alien. After that he moved into the other room to see what was inside. Yep, a computer station, he thought, looking over the equipment.
There was a curtain about as wide as a doorway. Something was obviously being hidden behind it. Josh drew back the drapes, revealing a small window that allowed him to peer into an armed silo. That’s the nuke, he thought. Clint’s intel was correct, again. Right under our noses… The missile defense system at Pax’s facility would’ve been useless against a weapon this close.
Josh hustled back to Pax’s facility, then returned to the Mercen lair with Pax, Skirm, and Searcher One. All were standing at the silo window when Josh said, “What do we do now? There’s bound to be another one of these secret chambers set up somewhere else on this planet.”
“Commander Clint will have a hacker team and a nuke squad sent here. Chances are high these computers will give us the data needed to locate any other silos on this planet,” said Searcher One. “In the meantime, this lair is going to need to be constantly guarded.”
Pax nodded, adjusting his glasses. “We’ll keep this site secured.”
Skirm glanced at the older man as if it were going to be a burdensome task to keep the site safe.
Now let’s just hope Hoss and Maya’s crew found the nukes on Torp.
Chapter 10
It was late evening by the time Josh arrived on the M.N. Rampage with Searcher One. They had stayed on Skurier longer than expected to help guard and investigate the lair. A Creston hacker team and nuke squad had reached the planet before their departure.
Josh shook hands with Searcher One upon exiting the north flight deck. “It was good working with you, Simon. Again, I’m so sorry about your friends.”
Simon smiled with his lips closed and said, “It was a pleasure working with you too, Josh. See ya around the ship.” He turned to leave.
Josh headed for the third unit. When walking down one of the quieter corridors, he saw the backside of a standing woman, sticking out from a gap in the wall. It only took a couple of seconds more for him to realize it was Maya, even with a hoodie halfway over her head. He saw thick arms reach out to place hands at her waist, and knew right away that it was Hoss she’d backed into the gap and was now kissing.
“Erm-erm,” said Josh, clearing his throat louder than normal when nearing the pair.
Maya turned in his direction before pulling down her hoodie and smiling. “Josh,” she said. “Welcome back.”
Hoss stuck his head out to have a look.
“When did you guys return?” asked Josh, figuring their mission would’ve taken longer than his.
“This morning,” said Maya. “We didn’t find anything.”
“Nope,” said Hoss, stepping out into plain view.
“What about you and your team?” said Maya.
“We found an armed silo. We’re guessing there’s another somewhere on the northwestern side of the planet, near the human town.”
Hoss and Maya looked alarmed by the news.
“Damnit, we thought for sure the intel was probably bogus. That means there could still be nuclear devices on Torp,” said Hoss.
“That’s precisely correct,” said Officer Rolly, who had overheard Hoss’ assessment while rounding the corner into their corridor. “The location of the nuclear devices on Torp have been discovered by hackers sent to the Mercen lair on Skurier. Commander Clint has already dispatched teams to the planet. He wants all enemy weapons of mass destruction on Skurier and Torp taken out of play before morning.”
Wow, thought Josh, feeling surprised, and pleased. “What will happen once all of the nukes have been disabled? Will we attack the Mercens in the Cosmolis?” He thought Maya and Hoss seemed eager to know too.
“That’s up to Clint,” said Rolly. “But in the meantime, I want you and the rest of the squadron on high alert. Something could pop off at any moment.”
“Yes, sir,” said Josh, along with his crewmates.
“Carry on,” said Rolly, marching off toward another hall.
Josh looked at his friends, breathing out through his nose. “Never a dull moment in deep space.”
“You can say that again,” said Maya, at the same time Hoss said, “That’s right.”
The three of them spent some time at the bar on the north wing, then headed to the unit to retire for the night.
The following morning, Officer Rolly came to the third unit extremely early, two hours before the standard wake-up time. He knocked on each pilot’s door and waited in the lounge for everyone to come out. Even Tor joined the group, since his status had been upped to reserve.
Josh took one look at Officer Rolly’s clenched jaw and barely blinking eyes and knew the briefing wasn’t going to be a good one.
With the third squadron gathered around, Officer Rolly got straight to the point. “Get ready for battle!”
Josh felt a sudden rushing of adrenaline in anticipation of what the news could be. Have the Mercens fired a nuke? Did we disarm them all? Is something else happening? he thought.
“Thanks to our hacker team’s work on Skurier, we have discovered information that has helped to finally crack the Mercen tablet Josh and Hoss brought back from the liquid planet. The base we previously discovered on the Deeter moon in the Cosmolis is actually a Mercen cruiser docked in a rocky valley, along with a small hidden platform of additional shadow fighters. We have to attack it now!” said Rolly, clenching his fist. “Our squadron, along with the 1st squadron, will be joining up with the southern cruiser and its strikers in waging war against the Mercen stronghold on Deeter—cruiser versus cruiser. We’ll have the numbers for a short moment before Mercen reinforcements arrive, but the few surface-to-air cannons they’ve set up will probably keep the fighting balanced. Their cruiser’s shields have relatively the same durability as ours, so it’s going to take somewhere around a thousand shots to break it—possibly less if some of our cruiser’s heavier cannons are able to land. I shouldn’t have to tell you that protecting our cruiser’s rear is key; as that’s the weakest point.”
Officer Rolly stopped for a moment, staring all of the pilots in their eyes. “This is basically a race! Whoever gets the other’s cruiser shield down first is probably going to win the battle. This fight is extremely risky for us—considering most of Creston forces are tied down to the Hard Line buildup. If the southern cruiser falls, the Mercen world will almost certainly retaliate against an underdefended M.N. Rampage. Thousands of lives are on the line in this battle. We have to win!”
There was a few seconds of silence until Ace asked, “Sir, are we sure it’s worth it to try hitting the Mercen cruiser?”
Josh was eager hear th
e answer to Ace’s question, and saw Nate nodding out of the corner of his eye, as if he too wanted to know.
“Absolutely!” said Officer Rolly. “According to our new intel, a major Mercen offensive on either the southern cruiser or M.N. Rampage is imminent. Better we strike them first!”
Josh couldn’t help wondering if he had truly joined the Creston space force at the worst possible time, or if incidents of this magnitude had been going on for years. He glanced at Jill’s tight lips and focused eyes, and thought she was holding up fairly well, till he saw her trembling hand hanging at her side. Some of us are going to die, he thought, switching his sight to Maya and Tor, then young Kyle, and feeling gut-wrenchingly awful. It’s going to be too hard to keep tabs on everyone in a showdown of this scale.
“You’ve got ten minutes to suit up, ten more minutes to be down at the north flight deck.” Rolly raised a hand to the corner of his forehead. The pilots did the same. “Fight hard—win this battle—and make it back to this ship.” Rolly saluted.
Josh and the others returned the salute.
Officer Rolly left.
The pilots scrambled to get ready.
The timeframe Officer Rolly had allotted the squadron went by just as fast as Josh had expected. In what felt like almost no time, he and the 3rd squadron were blasting out from the north flight deck, and were joined by the 1st squadron. Reserve pilots Franklin and Womby were with them, to fill in for Reena and Tor. All strikers fell into a route formation behind Ace and Tomlin.
It wasn’t long before the Rampage fleet was zooming in to the Cosmolis at three-quarter speed.
“There they are,” Tomlin transmitted.
“Copy that,” said Ace.
Josh gazed out to space for many miles at his two o’ clock. In the distance, he could see the Creston cruiser roaring through space, its void strikers flanked all around the vessel. He thought the magnificent ship to look somewhat like a slightly smooshed torpedo, with a rectangular segment covering three fourths of its bottom, and another covering one fourth of its top. That is one sexy starship.
