Bill Marshal was a thoughtful man. He knew he had good troops and they needed a plan to take out the Saltic. He also had no idea what was inside the central dome. The more he looked at it the more it looked like a bunker of some kind. There were five entrances but he only had three cohorts down. He wanted one to enter each opening. The first thing Centurion Marshal did was order cohorts four and five to land and take up positions in the residential domes not occupied by one of the other cohorts. Thus far the three cohorts who had seen combat had approximately five percent casualties. This meant they were still at acceptable levels for the task. Once all five cohorts were in position, Romani techs examined the entrances to the bunker. The chief tech reported to Centurion Marshal, “Sir, we have examined the doors and they are pressure locked from the inside. We can’t push them open; we will have to use explosives. I am just not sure if they will work. These are built like blast doors.”
Marshal looked at the doors to the bunker, and then he looked at the dome of the bunker. He then turned to his tech, “Is the roof of the bunker also build like the blast doors?”
“It doesn’t look like it. Scans suggest that is just armored, sir.”
“Very well. Carry on,” Marshal said and the tech returned to her job of removing the blaster cannon emplacements. Bill Marshal then activated his com link. “Captain Slone, we have to open the bunker but the doors are blast doors. The roof is only armored. We need something to punch through the roof. Any ideas?”
“Roger, show me a view of the outpost.”
Umgabe put up an image of the outpost on the inside of the bridge bubble. Slone had a look at it. He then looked in the direction of Tom Gardner, “Tom, call Diana to the bridge.”
“Yes, sir,” Tom Garner said and contacted his wife, who was working on the Sakkara and called her to the bridge. She shortly arrived and saluted Slone. Alaya was also standing on the bridge, since there were no scouting missions. Diana nodded to Alaya.
“Diana, have a look at the projection of the Saltic outpost. We need to penetrate the roof of the central dome. Any ideas?”
Diana Gardner took a long look at the dome and studied the sensor readouts of the structure. “The dome is just armored, about as much as the battleship, so our cannons can punch trough it. However, it depends on what you want to preserve inside the dome. Is the intent here total destruction or do we just want to enter an intact interior?”
“I’d like to keep the interior intact.”
“Any surface blast that cracks the dome could project into the interior and destroy what is there. In addition, just cracking the dome does not get you in, since we have no idea what is within and the troops would have to rappel down. The doors are blast doors but the walls between the doors appear to be just reinforced concrete. If we attack the walls with our hover tanks, we should be able to punch through.”
The battle channel remained open to allow Centurion Marshal to hear the discussion. Slone now spoke to him, “Did you get all that, Centurion?”
“Yes, sir. I am having the hover tanks repositioned to attack the walls next to each door. We will commence the attack immediately.”
“Carry on then.”
When the communication ended, Centurion Marshal ordered the tanks to commence fire. After several rounds of armor piercing shells, they switched to high explosive shells and the walls began to crumble. “Cease fire,” Marshal ordered. The Centurion then went over to examine the hole nearest him. “Captain, we may get through this wall in time, but it will be a long time. Not sure, what they make their cement out of, but it’s like granite. This bunker is a lot tougher than we thought.”
Diana Gardner watched the progress on the bridge monitors. “Captain, that’s not granite, its heavily reinforced concrete with some kind of additive from the looks of it. Scans cannot identify the additive. We need someone to bring a piece of it up here.”
“Did you get that, Centurion?”
“Yes, sir. One of the techs is taking a piece we chipped off to a transport. It should be up there shortly.”
Diana went down to the hangar deck and took the piece of concrete to the engineering lab on the lower deck of the ship. It took several hours to analyze the material but she finally identified the additive as a very hard metal that was susceptible to heat. She immediately got onto the communicator, “Captain, heat will melt the metal binder and the cement should crumble. We have thermite charges on the Mary Rose for mine scouting, they should do the trick.”
Slone turned to his wife, “Alaya, take the Mary Rose down to the surface and see what your crew can do with thermite charges.”
“On my way,” Alaya said and signaled Diana to come along. She then activated her com unit, “Tavia, we need to take the Mary Rose down to the planet. I’m on my way to the flight deck.”
“We’ll be ready.”
Alaya reached the flight deck in a few minutes and the bridge crew was at their stations and the Special Forces were aboard if they were needed. “Do we have thermite charges aboard?”
Raul Cortega, who was in charge of ordinance, immediately responded, “Yes, Captain, we have several crates.”
“Good we have some rocks to crack.”
The ship left the flight deck and headed down to the planet to land near the dome they shattered on their first visit. The scouting crew exited the ship and brought two crates of thermite charges. These generate a large amount of heat in a small area and they will apply star-like temperatures to whatever material they are set against. Alaya and Diana went over to Centurion Marshal and Alaya said, “We have the thermite charges. I also brought Diana along to make sure they are placed correctly.”
“Do we have enough to open more than one breach?”
Diana answered this one, “I am hoping we can dislodge the pressure door. If it works then we can pop each one, if not then I can only give you one breach.” Centurion Marshal nodded and Diana and Raul went over to the pressure door opening to the dome and examined it. The overall impression was that the door was designed to withstand energy blasts and explosions. Diana was not sure if the Saltic knew about thermite, but she felt that if they knew about it, they must not view it as a weapon to be used in combat, since the system was designed poorly. The frame of the blast door was not made of blast resistant metal. The more Diana thought about it, the more she felt the Saltic were not the great warriors they tried to project. They relied completely on technology to overcome their opponents. One would think that the use of their EMP device would teach them that technology could be defeated. Perhaps, Diana thought, their electronics are not affected by electro-magnetic pulses. “Alaya, I think we can take this frame out and force the pressure lock on the blast door.”
Alaya saw what she meant and said, “Ok, let’s do that then. If it works here we will pop the other four and come in from five sides.”
Diana and Raul set the charges and moved back. They activated the thermite and it began to burn white-hot. As the heat became increasingly more intense, the metal doorframe began to glow red. “Everyone take cover, the blast door is under pressure,” Diana shouted and everyone moved away from the door and took cover behind some of the rubble from the houses. As soon as the doorframe glowed cherry red from the heat, the ledges holding the blast door became soft and the door suddenly blew outward and flew across the open area to hit the wall of a dwelling across the way. They would have to wait a bit for the frame to cool down. They then went to the other four doors and performed the same actions. As a result, in a short time they had all five blast doors open. As the frames cooled, no energy blasts came through the doors.
“All cohorts enter now,” Centurion Marshal ordered and sent Serpents in first since there was no evidence of light inside the dome. As the cohorts entered the dome, they were entering a circular area just under one hundred meters across. As the cohorts came in from five directions, they could see a dimly lit area containing several workstations. The stations had some kind of recliner where the aliens sat. The termin
als themselves had an alien appearance with keyboards that were undecipherable to the Romani. There were no Saltic in the area. “Secure the area and find a way down,” Centurion Marshal ordered. Since they were down on the planet anyway, Alaya, Tavia, Diana and Raul followed the legionaries. They carried thermite charges with them in case they were needed. The top level was quickly declared clear of enemies and in the center of the floor, surrounded by the workstations, they found a way down.
Due to the peculiar anatomy of the Saltic, they used a combination of ramps and very long steps to move between floors. Fortunately, this worked well for both humans and serpents. The fifth cohort was left on the top floor in case there was another way out for the Saltic. The other cohorts went down the stairs with their shields and weapons ready. The stairs were circular with a steep drop on the ramp portions. What made them dangerous was the fact that they were not enclosed. This meant the Saltic on the next floor could fire at anyone on the staircase. As soon as the first cohort was half way down to the next floor, energy bolts began to come up from below. The stairs were designed to be impervious to the bolts, so those that missed the mark did no damage to the stairs. The same could not be said about the ceiling or the Romani. Several human and serpent troopers were hit and two humans fell to the floor below. The cohort crowded away from the edges of the stair/ramp and placed their shields such that their sides were covered. Centurion Marshal could see that the bolts were coming from groups of the enemy on either side of the stair/ramp. “Smoke, Flash bangs, Grenades,” The centurion said and the forward centuries of the first cohort threw smoke grenades at the nearest cluster of enemies. They followed these up with flash bangs that disoriented the Saltic and then they threw the fragmentation grenades whose shrapnel tore into the soft bodies of the worms. As soon as the last grenades exploded, the cohorts ran down the rest of the stair/ramp and both the human and serpent Romani killed any living Saltic they found. This was an annihilation operation and all knew it. No matter what happened in the future, they could not leave any Saltic alive in their rear. On the second level, they found more workstations with unknown symbols on them. They also found what looked like offices, but they were filled with alien furniture. It soon became more and more apparent that the Saltic were even more alien to human lifestyles than the serpents were. The next level down was empty of Saltic and appeared to be more offices. So far, there were no living quarters and the Romani assumed the workers and guards must live in the residential areas under the geodesic domes. The stair/ramp ended on this floor and the only way down seemed to be some kind of elevator that they had no idea how to activate. There were now three of the five cohorts on the floor and no way of knowing how to get further down.
Alaya and her group had been following the first cohort and they were on the level with Centurion Marshal. The centurion looked at her and said, “We think that is an elevator against the wall to go down to the lower level or levels, but we are powerless to activate it and there does not appear to be a stair/ramp down. Do you think the thermite could punch a hole in the floor?”
Diana stooped down to examine the floor. It appeared to be made of the same hard metal their ships were made of. “This is made of their ship metal. We know our blaster cannons on the Mary Rose can penetrate it, so the thermite should. The only problem is, if we use thermite on the floor, it will be too hot to walk on for several hours around the area melted.”
“Well, I’m open to other suggestions. However, I don’t see us being able to use their elevator, nor would I want to trust any of us to use it. Set the charges.” Centurion Marshal ordered all of the cohorts on his level to move back up to the previous level. Raul and Diana set three thermite charges away from the center of the room and on the side opposite the elevator. Since the hallways around the offices were narrow, the heat would be pulled up the office walls and dissipated. As a result, it was decided to start with three thermite charges. They put a remote detonator onto the charges and moved half way up the stair/ramp. From there they could look over the offices, which did not have ceilings and were more like cubicles, and see the effect from the thermite. When all were clear, Raul pushed the detonator and the thermite charges activated. Thermite does not explode, it burns, first red for a short few seconds then white hot from the exothermic reaction of the oxidized metal with the non-oxidized metal. As the heat intensified the floor beneath and even the surrounding metal walls began to soften and to run as the metal liquefied. Alaya was not sure what was happening on the ceiling below, but the floor at their level was starting to crater and then suddenly melted through. Some of the thermite dropped down to the next floor as the hole in the floor increased in size. Alaya could already see that the hole was not quite large enough to rappel down and defend those rappelling. Besides, the hole was a bit snug for the serpent’s armored males. Raul and Diana went down with six more thermite charges and set them around the hole. They were careful not to get too close, in case some energy bolts would come through. They set a ring of thermite charges around the existing hole to widen it. When it was finished, it would extend the entire width of the corridor. After returning to their overlook, Diana nodded to Raul who pressed the detonator. After the thermite charges were finished, the opening in the floor was more than large enough to allow entrance. The next question was how far the drop to the floor below? It would have taken hours for the metal edges of the hole to cool; therefore, they sent to the Mary Rose for cooling gel. This was used when taking ore samples with thermite and they needed them cooled quickly. Once the gel was propelled from its canister onto the hot metal, the floor was cool enough to walk on within five minutes.
Centurion Marshal sent one of his Special Forces serpents down to have a look. Sending a serpent had two advantages. The first was the fact that they could make themselves blend into the background and become invisible. The second was the ability to see perfectly in the dark. The serpent went down to the edge of the hole and changed the lower scales on her head to blend with the view above. This allowed her to slowly move her head over the edge of the hole and look down. She did this and saw many things. The room below was cavernous and the floor was at least thirty meters down. Not even the serpents can jump that far. However, the serpent also saw a huge machine in the center of the room with cables extending to the walls. One of the cables was strung under the opening. She could also see a large number of guards pointing their blaster weapons at the hole, which they thought was empty. She could count at least 12 guards below the opening. The serpent pulled her head back quickly, but the movement was noted and a few energy bolts came through the hole and hit the ceiling. She went over to Centurion Marshal and reported her findings in serpent speak.
“We are going to have to clear the room of guards,” the Centurion said and ordered five armored males to come down and take positions near the opening. He also ordered five legionaries to accompany them. Even though the serpents did not wear armor, when they were part of a cohort, they were required to wear the bandolier with grenades. This was necessary for the tactics used by the legions. A mixed group of legionaries made up the five that now moved to the opening. All stood back so as not to give the Saltic guards any targets. Centurion Marshal was with them and ordered first smoke then flash bangs into the hole. First, the smoke grenades went down and filled the downstairs with smoke. The flash bangs then went down for disorientation, though no one knew if the Saltic could become disoriented. After the flash bangs, Bill Marshal nodded to the serpent males who then opened fire with their Gatling guns. They saturated the area with bullets and then stopped. Suddenly energy bolts came out of the hole and took out two of the males. One fell backwards, wounded, and the other fell into the hole and down to the floor below. It was clear there was no easy way down.
“First cohort, prepare to rappel against resistance,” Centurion Marshal ordered. The first cohort came over and prepared to rappel down to the floor below. Since they expected immediate resistance, they would rappel down with their shields up and wea
pon’s hot. The 32nd century rappelling harness was designed for speed and all conditions. The humans of the first cohort took the ends of the harnesses and simply touched them to the metal floor and pressed a button. The flat plates at the ends of the harness cables fused to the floor with a weld that was permanent. The cable was very thin but very strong and attached to a strong metal clasp on the back of all standard legionary armor. Since the front and back armor plates went over the shoulders and they were cinched on the sides and between the legs, they formed a harness capable of supporting the legionary and allowing for a quick release. The legionaries would rappel down in groups of five. When they released their cables, they were automatically reeled up and the next group went down. With well-trained troops, the next group would jump down within 15 seconds of the pervious group releasing the cable. When the first group was ready, the centurion gave the signal and they ran to the edge of the opening, shields forward. They then quickly turned around jumped backwards into the opening, allowing them to face outward in all directions.
The Sakkara Page 16