Sara looked from Foss to the map, which showed a real time image from orbit of the derelict ship and the research camp. There were a lot of fires and plumes of black smoke from the fighters’ attack. She needed to get the ship out of harm’s way, but also needed to get these researchers off the planet.
How can a core from an old ship be this important? These Elif were a mystery most of the time, but she had a hunch that they were keeping humans in the dark for some reason. She slammed a fist onto the table, sending ripples through the projected map. “Fuck. How long do they need?”
Grimms looked at his tablet. “According to Dr. Hess, the lead researcher, they are attempting to gain access, but it seems like the internal defenses of the ship are somehow still operational. He is afraid that if they go in, the core might be damaged in a firefight.”
“So, Dr. Hess has no clue how long it’s going to take. What if we send down some Marines to help with the defenses?”
Foss spoke up. “The High Command wants us to stay clear of the wreckage, Captain.”
Sara looked at him, her eyebrow rising. “Well, High Command is not in charge of this ship, the United Human Forces are, and they gave me an order to get those researchers off planet before the Teifen kill them. If they won’t go until they have this core, then I will do everything I can to retrieve it and get them off planet. Is there something the High Command doesn’t want us to see down there?”
The Ambassador’s cheeks reddened slightly, but he gave her a conciliatory nod. “Of course, Captain. You must do as you see fit. Anything you see will be for the best, if the researchers are saved.”
Sara nodded and turned to Grimms. “Have a squad suited up and ready for transport to the surface. Let them know I will meet them in the hangar.”
“Ma’am, you’re planning on going to the surface?” Grimms asked, a little surprised.
“I am. I want to see what the big deal is about this core. We have a few hours at the least. I will be back long before that becomes a problem. We will get this core and be back in two hours. There won’t be anything left here but bits of that carrier burning up in the atmosphere when the Teifen reinforcements arrive.”
Chapter 21
Sara entered the hangar as Baxter was organizing the troops and equipment. They were loading the stack of equipment beside the shuttle’s ramp with quick efficiency, and everyone was already in their Aetheric armor, weapons strapped to their backs. Sara approached the sergeant major and nodded to him.
“Captain. Are you seeing us off?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.
“No, Sergeant. I’m coming with you. I’ll suit up and be right back. I want to be out the hangar doors in five minutes,” Sara said, turning and heading to the equipment dispensers.
Cora spoke up after Sara had placed her thumb on the pad, as her suit was cycling to the door. “I don't know that you should be heading off-ship when the enemy could show up at any moment. It’s irresponsible.”
“We have a few hours at the least, and the quicker we can get this core, the quicker we can get out of the system. It’s a matter of time management. I understand that I should be on the ship, but I also understand I’m the most powerful mage in the system. They may need me to force this. Besides, if we can't get the core, I will be in a much better position to convince the researchers to get off-planet if I'm there in person,” she said, opening up her suit and stepping in.
“A few hours is relative. What if the Teifen already had a second ship on the way? They could be here any minute, if that’s true,” Cora said, frustration thick in her voice.
“You know the chances of that are next to nil. This is the fastest way to accomplish the mission, and you know it.”
“Fastest isn’t always best, Sara. You have people on this ship counting on you. Are you also planning on taking Alister? What was your plan for that; just expose him to the elements?”
Sara looked down at Alister as he watched her climbing into the suit. Her view was cut off momentarily as the suit closed, and she sent a shot of Aether into it to power it up. When her vision returned, Alister had jumped onto a bench beside the locker door. He cocked his head to the side.
“Shit. I forgot about taking him with me,” Sara said, hanging her head. How can I go into a potentially hazardous situation with him completely unprotected?
“Yeah. I figured you would not have thought of that. This is exactly what I’m talking about; you go into situations with half a plan. Luckily you have a genius sister who did. Check your suit’s hip pouch,” Cora suggested. Sara could hear her eyeroll.
Sara opened the small pouch on her hip and found a small, black, cloth suit with a round little helmet inside. She realized it was a battlesuit for the cat, with its own pressure helmet. She marveled at the construction.
“How did you get this made? It looks like it will fit him perfectly,” Sara asked, holding the little suit up for Alister to examine. He gave it a sniff, cocking his head at her.
“I scanned his dimensions, then had the printers make it while you were sleeping. The hard part is going to be getting him into it,” Cora said smugly.
Sara looked at the suit and then at Alister. “Uh, hey, buddy. You need to put this on. I’m just going to help you out, okay?” she said, stepping toward him. Instead of running, like she thought he would have, he just held up a paw for her to slip the sleeve over.
He actually helped her out, contorting in just the right ways to make the suit easier to get on. He was fully encased in the fabric, with the small glass dome over his head in no time. The helmet was large enough that his ears were able to swivel around without hitting the glass.
Cora's voice was a little disappointed when she commented, “Well, that was easier than I thought it would be.”
“He’s a pretty smart little dude.”
Alister meowed in the helmet in response, his voice muffled by the glass.
“All right, buddy, up here,” Sara said, patting her shoulder.
He jumped up and was able to grip the fabric of her suit with little abrasive pads on the paws of his suit.
Sara again admired the design. “Thanks, Cora. I owe you one.”
“You owe me more than that, sis. But this one is free. Be careful, and get back here as fast as you can. I don't like that we are out here in the open while you’re not onboard.”
“You’re not completely defenseless; the ship is armored, after all. And you can always run, if the heat is bad. And I know it is not ideal in any way but Grimms can give commands.”
“I can't run very fast, with two of the reactors down—unless I warp us, and that is chancy without you to direct me. Grimms has a lot of experience, and he is better than nothing, but without you we would be fighting half blind with an arm tied behind our backs. My reaction time is cut in half without you acting as my eyes. I can't see everything from in this tank, you know. I have a lot to manage, and, frankly, it’s giving me a headache.”
“I’ll hurry, I promise.”
Sara approached the shuttle as the last of the supplies were loaded and the rest of the squad got aboard. Baxter gave her a wave, and she came up the ramp. He hit the button to close it while she was still only halfway up. She ducked as she came the last meter or so and grabbed hold of a railing. The dropship was fairly large, but most of the space was for strapping down equipment in the center. There were rows of bench seats along the hull, and handrails coming down from the ceiling. Around a hundred people could sit, and a few hundred could be packed into the empty space in the center. The ten soldiers, including her and Baxter, seemed small in the open space.
“We’re cleared for launch, sir,” the pilot said over the radio.
Baxter looked to her, and she indicated that he should take the lead. “Punch it,” he ordered.
The ship rocked to the side as they lifted from the dock, and slid sideways out the shield holding in the atmosphere. Sara ducked down and looked out one of the small round windows that ran down the hull. She co
uld see the ship with its two blackened scars falling away as they made their way toward the planet. The damage looked pretty bad from out here, but she trusted the crew and Cora to keep the ship running. She watched the blackened holes in the hull till she couldn't make them out anymore, hoping this trip to the planet wasn't just another missile waiting to hit them when they weren’t ready.
The Ravens new scars made her face the fact that she wasn’t fully prepared to captain this ship. She needed to figure out how to fully connect with Alister, if she was going to keep everyone safe.
Alister leaned his body into her in consolation, as she watched her failure diminish to nothing more than dark spots on an otherwise perfect ship.
Chapter 22
Sara gripped her handhold as the ship was buffeted in its rapid descent. The windows glowed an eerie yellowish orange as the ship plummeted through the thickening atmosphere. Her suit kept the turbulence to something manageable, though she was sure the ride would be rough for anyone not in powered armor.
She glanced over at Alister, and her suspicions were confirmed: the cat was spread-eagle on her shoulder pauldron, holding on for dear life.
She reached up with her free hand and plucked him off to cradle him in the crook of her arm. After thirty seconds of flaming entry, the ship slowed enough for the flames to die down, and a sonic boom rumbled through the air around them. She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that they were only a few hundred meters above the surface. The pilot must have let them drop almost the whole way.
“I guess that’s why they call it a ‘dropship’,” she mused out loud.
“What was that, Ma’am?” Baxter asked, looking up from his arm tablet.
“Nothing, Sergeant. What’s our ETA?”
“Ten seconds to touchdown, prepare for exit,” the pilot’s voice cut in.
She counted out the ten seconds in her head, and right on cue, she felt the landing skids make contact. The ship rocked slightly as it settled into the sandy ground.
Baxter hit the button to release the ramp, and it shot open with pressurized force. As soon as the ramp was down, the troopers were up and grabbing cases of equipment. Sara and Baxter stood to the side and let them work.
She was surprised at how bright the sun was, when she finally made her way down the ramp, and was glad that the battlesuit would keep her cool. She hoped that Alister's suit was equipped with the same cooling system.
She let the cat go, and he scrambled to the ground, shaking his paws with every step in the loose sand. Eventually he got fed up with the soft ground and leapt for Sara's shoulder, but the level of gravity threw off his trajectory, and he hit her in the chest.
She snatched him up before he could fall and placed him on her shoulder. “Careful, Alister. The increased gravity is going to take you some getting used to.”
She looked around at their immediate surroundings and noted that they had landed near the research colony’s main building. The half-covered, hulking remains of the derelict ship were on the right. It was huge up close, and she knew that it was only a small section of the ship that had survived; several kilometers of it had been turned to rubble and buried in all directions.
Baxter had his troops form up and head toward the building, where several tall Elif in breathing masks came out, wearing layered white robes to keep the sun off their delicate skin. They had hoods up, but Sara could make out the small bulges where their long elfin ears fought with the fabric, making her want to itch at her own ears in sympathy.
One of them took the lead and headed their way.
They met halfway between the dropship and the building. Sara noted that the building had been hit in the recent attack, and the back half was in ruins. There were fires still raging, even hours after the invasion.
“Dr. Hess, at your service. I was told that you wouldn't be sending people down to the wreckage,” the tall Elif man said from behind his mask. He offered a thin fingered gloved hand to shake. It was a very human gesture from the Elif, who would normally embrace in greeting.
“The situation has changed, doctor,” Sara said, shaking the offered hand. “I’m Captain Sonders of the UHS Raven. We need to get you and your people off this rock. There are Teifen on their way, and we don't have the firepower to fight them all off. I need you and your people to get on this ship as soon as possible,” Sara said, gesturing toward the dropship. The wind whipped between them, swirling dust and smoke in every direction.
“I am sorry, Captain, but we cannot leave until we have the core from this ship. The war itself could depend on it.”
“I was afraid you would say that. Is there somewhere we can talk, out of the wind and sand?”
Dr. Hess pointed back the way he had come. “Our headquarters has been hit, but the fires are out, and we still have partial power. Come,” he said, turning and heading that way. The two Elif with him fell in behind, and Sara gave Baxter a shrug before following.
They entered the structure, and immediately the absence of wind and dust made the wrecked building seem inviting. The researchers removed their mask, hanging them on hooks on their belts.
“The air is breathable, but a little heavy. We wear the masks to keep the dust out, more than anything,” a female Elif researcher said, removing her hood and indicating that they could remove their helmets.
Sara reached up and pressed the release for her helmet, and it split open then folded back, reassembling itself to lie flat between her shoulder blades. “Thanks,” she said to the female researcher, taking a deep breath of the heavy atmosphere and tasting copper. She turned to Dr. Hess. “What’s the fastest way to get you off this planet? In your report, you said something about the defenses being active in the ship. How can that be possible? Isn't this thing like a thousand years old?”
“More like tens of thousands of years old.” The doctor indicated a holo projector to his right, and a wire frame of the ship appeared. Details began to fill in as he spoke. “We believe this was a Juggernaut from the, uh, previous owner’s navy. When it was complete, it was close to ten kilometers long and a kilometer wide. It was incredibly well armed and has armor several meters thick across the entire hull. We can't cut through it, and even if we could, it wouldn't make sense to do so. We need to get in through the passages that have been exposed where it was broken.” He indicated the rough edges where the ship had been torn apart before continuing.
“The problem is that when we got to the central section that contained Engineering, we noted that the power was still on. We assume the fusion reactors are self-repairing; with the ship not using the hydrogen fuel to power the engines, it has plenty of the stuff on hand to keep them going for, well, nearly forever. Our reactors can sustain for several thousand years with the fuel onboard, and I can only imagine that the fuel storage of this ship is far beyond anything that would be needed to maintain fusion for as long as it has.”
“So, there is power, and you are afraid there is automated defenses, as well?” Sergeant Major Baxter asked, looking at the holo model.
“We know there are automated defenses. Two of our researchers were mowed down by laser fire as soon as they stepped onto the engineering deck,” the female Elif informed them.
“Do you not have any mages on your research team?” Sara asked.
“Despite what you may think, mages are very rare among the Elif. We are all adept at Aether manipulation, but a true mage is a status that takes our people years to attain, and even then, only a small percentage can actually split their minds. Plus, with this ghastly war raging, all the available mages have been conscripted.”
“Well, I can help you out, there, doctor. We have three mages here that can shield your people while we go in and retrieve the core,” Sara said, as Alister stood tall on her shoulder, eyeing the Elif through his little helmet.
Dr. Hess noticed the cat for the first time, and drew in a breath in shock. He looked from Alister to Sara. “You have a familiar?”
Sara nearly staggered
in surprise at the doctors recognizing what Alister was. She took a step forward and grabbed the doctor by the shoulders in excitement. “You know about familiars? You need to tell me everything you know about them. Right now.” Sara was gripping the Elif with armored hands, and only when Baxter grabbed her arm and shook her did she realize she was hurting the thin man.
“I’m sorry. I need to know what you know about the familiars,” Sara said, holding her hands up in a sign of surrender.
“It’s okay, it’ll just be a bruise. I will make a deal with you: you go in and get that core for us, and I will tell you everything I know about them,” Dr. Hess said, rubbing his arms where Sara had held him.
“Fine, let’s go. We need to get out of here as soon as we can. I’ll rip that ship to pieces if I have to, but we are leaving here with that core. Then you will have a tale for me and little Alister, here.” With that, Sara walked out of the building and headed for the wreck. Her helmet came up and covered her face, just before the first blast of sand and grit washed across it.
Chapter 23
Sara made it to the wreck first, but had to wait for the researchers in the party to catch up and direct the way through.
On their course through the ruins, the group came across a few other researchers, huddled around displays teeming with data, but most of them didn't even notice Sara until the rest of the visitors followed. Only then did the researchers fall silent as the ten humans in Aether armor stalked by.
The ship was huge, but everything was built to human proportions. The corridors were three meters tall and faded white paneling, with doors that hung halfway off their tracks, revealing rooms full of sand. Exposed wiring hung like vines in a technological swamp, but there was temporary lighting set up in the ever-darkening corridors, obviously put there by the research teams.
War Mage Chronicles- Part One Page 13