The Sakkara

by Donald Nicklas

  The serpents pulled back against the walls and willed their scales to match the background and they became invisible. The humans took cover and pushed the Saltic prisoners behind some furniture. The Saltic outside were joined by several others and they began to approach the doorway. They could see the body of the serpent and were confused as to what it was. They had never come across these aliens and wondered why they were attacking them. They knew there was an attack on the ships in orbit and one of them got away to bring help, but they thought those must be humans, since ships were getting lost when visiting the human colony of Heimat. Now they were confronted with this new type of alien and were unsure as to what they were dealing with. They did not approach too close but were able to examine the alien from a short distance and there was no indication of either weapons or body armor. It was clear these aliens had to be close to fight and the Saltic were determined to stay back.

  The Saltic squad leader ordered two of his troops to look into the opening but stay back from the door to not get close enough for the aliens to attack them without having to exit the dwelling. This way the Saltic could use their energy weapons to take them out before they engaged. The Saltic stayed about a meter back from the door opening and then carefully looked around the edge of the opening. Without warning, they suddenly dropped dead and the remainder of the Saltic squad pulled back from the door. They looked at their troopers and could see that each had a hole in their head area. This pierced their secondary brain, resulting in paralysis but not loss of consciousness. They were aware as they bled out. What frightened the Saltic was the fact that there was no sound and no blast associated with the deaths. It appeared they just dropped dead when a hole formed in them. The Romani had shot them with their pistols, which had both silencers and flash suppressors for covert ops. It never dawned on the Romani that the Saltic had no knowledge of projectile weapons, since they only used energy weapons. If they had projectiles in their past, it must have been the distant past, since none even suspected them.

  “We have to get out of here before they decide to throw an explosive in the door. Ebner, ask the Saltic if there is a back way out of here.”

  After a short exchange, the former High Priest reported, “There is a back door that opens into a narrow way. I think he means an alley.”

  “That will do. Optio, we need to get out of here.”

  “Sss. All troops pull back and follow Captain Slone.”

  The serpent and human troops did a tactical withdrawal and moved to the back of the dwelling. As they did this, the Saltic decided to charge into the door. Three more were dropped by pistol shots and the remaining two were split open by serpents. A quick check revealed there were no more Saltic for now, but the carnage did not go unnoticed, and the Romani knew there were more forces coming. Alaya found the back door and looked out. The Alley was empty but it did not open to the dome wall, but rather took them deeper into the Saltic outpost. As Alaya questioned the wisdom of going deeper into the outpost, more enemies must have arrived at the front door and tossed in an explosive of some type, which detonated and brought the ceiling down. Apparently, they did not even consider rescuing the Saltic in the house. Alaya got the feeling they did not do much ground combat, but relied heavily on their technology, since bringing down the ceiling of the dwelling and dropping the contents of the second story totally blocked their ability to enter the dwelling and left only the back door as a way in or out. “Let’s move,” Alaya said. “It won’t take them long to run around the building and close off that alley. Kill any worms you see.”

  “Serpents forward and blend, Humans forward,” The Optio ordered.

  The Serpents moved rapidly along either wall of the alley, blended into the background, and disappeared. The humans with their prisoners moved towards the end of the alley. When they were almost to the exit of the alley, Saltic guards suddenly appeared and Alaya took one out with her pistol as she ducked behind some containers. They suddenly found themselves in a firefight they were not going to win as more and more Saltic guards began showing up.

  Alaya activated her comlink as one of the human Special Forces went down wounded. There was no way the serpents could help with this as long as the Saltic stayed clear of the alley itself. To run out and attack them would be suicide for the serpents. What they needed was a diversion. “Tavia, bring the ship up invisible and fire on the domes of the colony.”

  “Right away, Alaya.”

  Tavia raised the Mary Rose high enough to look over the hills and to look into the adjacent valley holding the Saltic outpost. “Deadeye, target the domes and fire on them.”

  “Sss. Yes, Lady Tavia,” Deadeye said and activated the pulse cannons in the turrets. She then started to fire bolts of energy at the domes covering the inhabited areas. If this had been an airless world, destroying the domes would result in the death of everyone in the outpost. However, these domes were meant to shield the Saltic from the normal weather of the planet, which was damp and rainy, but not cold or that uncomfortable. Neither humans nor serpents would have domed an outpost like this one. This spoke volumes about the Saltic. They were softer than expected and that was good for the Romani. Unfortunately, there was nothing soft about their technology and a stray shot took out another serpent and an aimed shot a human.

  As the energy bursts started to hit the five domes that made up the base, the glass in them began to shatter and the metal matrix forming the globes began to melt. As the domes started to take damage, the Saltic attacking the Romani involuntarily rotated their eyestalks upwards. That was all the Romani needed to see. The Optio let out a series of clicks and whistles and the serpents shot out of the alley and tore apart every Saltic they could reach. Two were ordered to pick up the prisoners and three more serpents picked up the wounded Romani and the dead. There was no way to recover the body of the serpent killed in the entrance of the dwelling. The humans led the way back to the dome wall, which was partially split open from the bombardment, which was still going on.

  “Tavia, cease fire and land near our entrance point to pick us up,” Alaya ordered.

  “Yes, Captain.”

  The Mary Rose became visible and landed just outside one of the shattered domes. The turreted pulse cannons were aimed to cover the return of the Special Forces with their prisoners. The serpents went ahead and the humans acted as a rear guard, since they carried the ranged weapons. Tavia sent Blue Scale down to the lower deck airlock to let the troops in. As soon as all were aboard with the prisoners and the dead, the corvette lifted off and went invisible. They landed on the flight deck of the Tempestas without further problems. The dead were taken care of and the prisoners were just being taken off the vessel as Christopher Slone arrived on the flight deck. He looked at the Saltic prisoners, surrounded by Romani and Serpents. Even though their appearance was more alien than even the serpents, their fear was palpable. It was obvious that they would not face death heroically and the Romani knew that without their technology, they were cowards. Slone had to remind himself that they didn’t board the Hayden until the entire crew was unconscious. This suggests they don’t want a straight up fight.

  “Take them into the Sakkara and find out how we either get that drive working or how we can install the one from the captured ship. Captain Shegai and Commander Hammond, I would like you and Eugen Ebner to interrogate the Saltic captives. Time is of the essence. I also want a tech crew to remove the drive on the other ship and bring it over here. If we are attacked here, we could lose that drive as well.” After issuing the orders, the Slones went up to the Captain’s cabin at the foot of the bridge ramp. When they were settled into their living room, Slone asked his wife, “What happened down there?”

  “It started out great. We entered their dome and got lucky finding navigators in the first dwelling. By the time we got things sorted out, we found ourselves in trouble. There were more guards than I would have expected for a simple science base. I think there is more down there. We finally had to destroy their domes
to get out of there. I meant it only as a distraction, but they are much softer than we thought. We noticed that the ones we captured suffered outside the domed areas and I am sure we hurt the others still under the domes. We also had to leave a serpent body behind.”

  “Any idea what they might be hiding down there?” Slone asked his wife.

  “Not a clue, but since we’re stuck here, I think we should find out. As far as I’m concerned, the Saltic declared war on us when they destroyed the Hayden, and by us I mean the human race.”

  “I agree.” Slone reached over and activated his comlink to the bridge, “Tom, put me through to Centurion Marshal.”

  After a few seconds, Tom Gardner indicated the line was open and Slone said, “Centurion Marshal, come to the Captain’s quarters.”

  “Yes, sir,” The response came back.

  After a few minutes, the door chimes rang and Slone ordered the computer to allow entrance and Primary Centurion Bill Marshal entered. “You wanted to see me sir?” He said as he stood at attention and saluted.

  “At ease, Bill. Have a seat.”

  “Thank you, Captain.”

  Alaya then said, “Have you had a chance to debrief the Optio from the Mary Rose?”

  “Yes. She told me about the events on the planet.”

  “What do you think about the number of armed guards for a science outpost?”

  “For us it would be overkill, but we don’t know how the Saltic think,” Bill Marshal said.

  “Let’s assume they think like us, or at least have some logic similar to ours. What would the amount of protection mean? And remember they also had four armed ships protecting their science vessel,” Slone reminded him.

  “That does seem like a lot for a science station. I think the place deserves another look, if that’s what I’m sensing?” The centurion said.

  “Since we’re stuck in this system, and may end up having to build a life here or nearby, we need to find out what is going on. Bill, I’d like you to take the first cohort down to the planet and find out what’s in that base.” Slone ordered.

  “Yes, Captain, how do you want me to handle the Saltic?”

  “With extreme prejudice.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The centurion left and ordered the first cohort to be ready to deploy to the planet in a half hour. The first cohort consisted of the standard six centuries, three human and three Serpent, for a total of 600 troops. When the time came, they entered their drop ships and left the hangar bay, headed to the planet and landed near the base. The drop ships were the standard Romani type, numbered a total of six with a century in each, which also carried a hover tank and an antiaircraft hover. As they neared the ground the tank and the antiaircraft hovers dropped off the back of the ship and then the cohort was dropped off. As soon as the troops were on the ground, the main part of the drop ship took off again and used its missiles and turreted Gatling gun for air cover. As the cohort formed up and awaited orders, the drop ship carrying the first century of the cohort sent up four drones, two cadence drones and two camera drones. On the bridge of the Tempestas, Slone sat in the captain’s chair and watched the monitor in front of him. The same images were projected on Roger Umgabe’s monitor, since he was also in charge of monitoring ground operations. Slone and Umgabe could cycle through the drones and the helmet cams of the troops. This was only possible for the human troops, since the serpents did not wear helmets. Slone had control of one of the camera drones and Umgabe of the other. Slone aimed his drone camera at the nearest dome. From the air, this was the one most damaged by Tavia’s bombardment and this was the dome they would enter. The bridge was also monitoring the battle channel and could hear all of the orders given by Centurion Marshal and any of the other centurions.

  Bill Marshal pressed a button on his chest armor and the cadence started being broadcast over the entire area. It was set to advance speed and the cohort moved forward as a unit in double time. As they approached the shattered dome, they began to see movement in and around the dwellings. Marshal halted the cadence and the cohort stopped as he pulled out a monocular spyglass that fit in the palm of his hand. He placed it in front of his right eye. It was voice activated and he told it to magnify 100x. Instantly he was able to see a hundred fold increase of the dome. As he looked, he could see Saltic guards forming up behind makeshift barricades to mount a defense. This time they were prepared and had on some kind of body armor. He ordered the magnification doubled to 200x and now he could make out more detail. They were definitely wearing armor and carrying some kind of weapon. There also seemed to be some fixed gun emplacements mixed in with the defenders. There was still a half kilometer to cover before the cohort reached the dome and they would be totally exposed for that distance. Since the enemy had not yet opened fire, the centurion assumed that their weapons were not accurate at that range or perhaps were out of range. That would change, as they got closer. He put the spyglass away and restarted the cadence at attack speed. This was triple time and caused the cohort to jog the last half kilometer with shields up for protection and to maintain formation. At the quarter kilometer mark, the Saltic opened fire. Since only the human Romani carried ranged weapons, the cohort was arranged so that the first three centuries were human with the last three centuries consisting of serpents with 25 armored males in the fourth. This was the formation of 100 abreast and six deep that rapidly advanced into the incoming fire.

  As they held their shields up and ran towards the enemy, the energy bolts began to find their marks. The Romani quickly realized that the shields reacted differently to the energy bolts than they did to projectile weapons. When the energy bolts hit the shields, they melted the area and in many cases put a hole through it. This made it less effective and useless if it took enough hits. Centurion Marshal realized they had to close the gap as fast as possible as several legionaries dropped when hit directly in the face. Bill Marshal pressed another button on his armor, the cadence went to charge, and the cohort broke into a run for the last few meters to the dome wall. The cohort had suffered a few casualties, but most were only wounded. The medics would have to wait until the firing stopped, since it was assumed that the Saltic would not abide by human rules concerning the red cross on their helmets. The cohort was now under cover at the base of the dome, which sat on a wall of concrete high enough behind which to hide the legionaries. Centurion Marshal said, “Tanks and gunships, move up.”

  As the tanks moved up, the Saltic fired large, pedestal-mounted energy cannons similar to the ones on the Mary Rose. There were two of them and on the first shots, they took out two of the six hover tanks. In one, the bolt burned right into the driver’s compartment and took out both driver and gunner. The second tank lost one of its repulsors and could no longer maintain its hover, but could still fire its cannon. “Tanks and gunships, take out those guns and the enemy line.”

  The five remaining tanks and the gunships opened fire on the dwellings sheltering the enemy as well as the gun emplacements. Bill Marshal knew if they used the same crystals that they found on the methane moon, then they could not maintain the rate of fire of Gatling guns. The cannon barrage took down what was left of the dome and the legionaries had to protect themselves with their shields from falling debris. The gunships gained altitude and starting taking out the rest of the domes and bombarded the dwellings. The Romani were trying not to take out children, but had no idea if there were any. The Romani were not even sure what they would look like. “Cease fire,” Centurion Marshal ordered. “Cohort, enter the dome but keep sharp.”

  Marshal entered with the first century and he was followed by the other centuries. They fanned out under the dome and made sure all of the resistance was at an end. The Saltic had retreated under the bombardment, but there were several bodies strewn about. One of the blast cannons was still mounted but the other had been destroyed. Marshal knew enough that the Romani would want to examine any technology they could find here. That was assuming they found a way home. Before moving
on, Bill Marshal ordered the support personnel to gather the small arms of the Saltic and remove them to the landing zone. There were some small support buildings there with supplies for the mission. The blaster cannon were too large to dismantle until more personnel could be brought down. When Slone heard about the salvage available, he too realized the importance of capturing hand held energy weapons and ordered a landing shuttle staffed with weapons techs to the surface for retrieval. While this was going on the first cohort restocked their ammo and moved deeper into the outpost. Their goal was to secure the area and discover what was hidden under a sixth solid dome located at the center of the five glass geodesic domes.

  “Captain Slone, resistance here is stiffer than thought. It appears the combatants outnumber the non-combatants. Request permission to bring down two more cohorts,” Centurion Marshal reported.

  The response was quick in coming, “Whatever you need, Centurion.”

  Then over the battle channel, Bill Marshal said, “Second and third cohorts deploy to the landing zone now.”

  “Yes, centurion, both primary centurions reported.”

  Fifteen minutes later the additional cohorts were down on the planet and Bill Marshal’s forces were tripled in all aspects of troops, tanks and hovercraft. The primary centurions of the second and third cohorts entered the shattered dome to confer with Centurion Marshal. There were two exits out of the shattered dome to the next two domes. The first cohort would enter the dome on the right and the second and third cohorts would take the dome on the left and then split the remaining two domes. Marshal decided to secure the entire base before entering the metal dome due to the fact that there might be many more guards protecting what was hiding in the base. He also did not want to leave any Saltic in his rear. The cohorts moved out and continued clearing the shattered dome as they moved into the adjacent domes. There was little resistance in the shattered dome. The few Saltic who remained were killed. As they penetrated further into the outpost, resistance again became stiff. It soon became apparent that there was a large military presence in the outpost and it was not the small, scientific outpost they were led to believe. As the three cohorts secured the residential domes and were ready to engage the solid dome area, it became evident that there was an entrance into the central dome from each of the larger residential domes. As the cohorts cleared the residential areas, the Saltic did a controlled retreat into the central hard dome. Short of using a nuclear bomb, they would have to cut their way into the central dome. Centurion Marshal ordered the legionaries to pull back from the central dome entrances.