"I expect nothing, Sir, but I intend to be ready for anything."
Laska nodded in appreciation, as the first few shuttles came into view and increased speed as they soared towards the planet.
"What do you think you’ll find down there, Sir?"
Laska shook his head.
"I have absolutely no idea, Captain, but I hope it is a new world for us to inhabit."
"Why, Sir?"
"Because we can, and that is Human nature. We will not stop exploring, expanding, and colonising anywhere that will sustain life."
"And maybe that will be our undoing some day."
"How do you mean?"
"Alien contact almost destroyed us once."
"Yes, and our second interaction led to our saviour, but I can see you're not too fond of non-Humans?"
Santos shrugged, and it was clear he was at least indifferent, if not hostile.
"I'm just glad this is an all Human operation for a change, Sir," he added.
It took two hours before the shuttles were finally getting through the atmosphere and heading for the surface, but not one of those on the bridge could take their eyes off the new world.
"First shuttle is preparing to land," said Egland, and they all watched from the camera feed on the front of the craft. The surface was dry and craggy with deep craters and tall canyons.
"Sir, drone three has identified an artificial construction."
Laska spun around in total amazement.
"What? What kind of construction? Get me an angle on that."
"Yes, Sir."
The screen changed to another feed, and they watched the shuttle soar over several canyons for over a minute. Then they caught sight of the anomaly. Three metal pylons stuck out of the ground and merged into one to form a perfect triangle, something that could only be manmade.
"Have the drone hold position to not approach any further," added Laska.
The camera feed stabilised as the shuttle came to a perfect hover, and they all stared at the object. It stood fifty metres tall.
"What on Earth is that?"
"Sir, I must insist that my combat drones investigate from here," added Santos.
"Yes, you do that," replied Laska without turning away from the sight.
Santos raised his arm and pressed a button on the console attached to the forearm of his uniform. A heads up display appeared before him showing a map of the area. He reached out and pressed an area of the artificial display.
"Alpha deploy here, Bravo here, deploy Falcon to two hundred metres here," he commanded, outlining the deployment.
"Give me eyes from those drones," ordered Laska.
The screens quickly split to show views from two drones from each squad and the aerial drone. The squads moved almost like Humans, but were entirely mechanical. They were humanoid in size and shape, and even carried their rifles like a Human soldier would. The Commodore watched them disembark down a ramp onto the surface and begin closing in towards the target. He looked then to the Falcon aerial combat drone edging closer to the mysterious object. As it drew nearer, they could see on the surface beside the tower-like pylons a shallow dome fifty metres wide. It barely protruded above the surface and almost blended in seamlessly with the terrain, if it were not for its perfectly machined construction. It was coated in layers of dust and appeared as though abandoned.
“All units hold,” ordered Santos.
Laska turned in surprise and waited for some explanation.
“Sir, we’re still half a klick out, are you sure you want to investigate this?”
Laska was in utter shock and surprise, but soon he could not contain his excitement.
“Captain, we have waited years to get here, and upon arrival have found something none of us could have expected, something potentially life changing. We came here to explore, and I intend to do just that.”
“And if this artefact presents a threat?”
“Then you have the means and skills to defend this fleet against any potential threats.”
Santos was not convinced, but Laska wasn’t ready to start throwing his rank around quite yet. He stayed calm and looked to Jones standing behind the Captain.
“Lieutenant?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“New world, and a new discovery. What do you do? Investigate or leave it be?”
“Sir, it would not be my place to comment on operational matters. I am here to aid Captain Santos and act as an observer only.”
“I’m still asking, Lieutenant, what do you think?”
Jones looked to Santos for permission, and the Captain was quick to give him the nod.
“Sir, I would investigate all potential areas of interest.”
The Commodore smiled, but Jones continued, “However, when faced with the constructions of an advanced civilisation, I would recommend gathering data from afar and returning with greater strength. As the Captain says, I like to be ready and prepared for anything.”
“Understood, Lieutenant, but we have one of the most powerful ships of the fleet and are more than a match for any potential threats. Captain Santos, proceed.”
Santos grimaced for just a moment but went back to his display screens. He controlled the drone movements by hand gestures now on a projected display while the rest of the crew watched the screens. The drone was moving in a hundred metres ahead of the infantry.
“What do you think? Something abandoned from the Aranui?” Breckinridge asked.
Laska shook his head. “If they’d had any presence on this world, they would have told us when they assisted with the setting up of the gateway. I don’t think any one of the four races has ever been here.”
The pylon tower began to glow green at its base, and they could only stare in amazement as that energy began to rise up the length of the structure. It took just a few seconds for the energy to reach the peak, and then burst out towards the Falcon with such immense speed that nobody had time to react. The drone burst into flames, and the camera feed went blank. Many of the crew of the bridge gasped in horror.
Laska yelled, “Get our drones back!”
But it was too late. Alpha Squad was already in plain view as they made their way towards the tower, and bursts of energy hurtled towards them. Two of the drones were blown apart instantly, and the others took cover in the craggy landscape. Bravo had already gone to ground, and the tower could no longer find targets.
“Get them out of there now!” Laska ordered.
Santos was ordering Bravo back when they could see from one of Alpha’s cameras that five objects were rising up from the surface of the dome. They were spherical and with a frame of engines around their centre. Some kind of canopy appeared as if it were part of the roof of the dome. They were each two metres wide and moved quickly towards Bravo as they made their retreat. Energy surged from these new fliers and strafed the drones and several were cut down.
“Alpha Squad, open…”
“Do not fire on them!” Laska interrupted the Captain, “We cannot risk an incident here!”
“We already have an incident here, Sir. There is an imminent threat before us, what are your orders?”
They turned back to the video feed. They were looking through the eyes of the leader of the squad who was looking out from the cover of a rocky outcrop and tracking a target with its rifle, waiting for confirmation to fire.
“Sir, Alpha Squad can’t stay put, and they can’t run. They have to fight. Do I have your permission to engage?”
They watched the drones duck down for cover as the ground around them ignited from the bursts of energy hurled at them.
“All right, do it!” Laska shouted.
“Alpha Squad, engage targets,” Santos quickly ordered.
They watched the drone soldiers opened fire. They hit one of the targets with a burst of gunfire and seemingly caused it to change course, but had no other effect. Energy bolts crashed into their position, and the drones continued to return fire. A flash of light encompassed th
e display screen before it went black. They all knew what it meant, but Santos stated the fact anyway.
“Both squads are lost, Sir.”
Silence overcame the bridge. Laska tried to come to terms with what they had seen, and everyone else looked to him for answers, but he remained frozen. Breckinridge broke the silence.
“Sir, I suggest we gather all data from here and leave before we find anymore trouble.”
“Yes, yes. Okay, Commander, get it done.”
He was still in shock.
“Sir, I’m getting interference on the scanners,” stated Egland.
Laska seemed to snap out of his daze.
“What is it, Lieutenant?”
“Sir, I think a gateway is opening up.”
“What? We’re the only ones with access to this location.”
“It’s not our gateway, Sir.”
“Put it on screen!”
They watched lights flash, and a gateway opened up before their very eyes. Eight metallic objects broke out of the swirling energy of the gateway. They formed a circle that was more than ten times as wide as the length of the Human vessel. They were evenly spaced and clearly from the same vessel and were slowly becoming more visible. They appeared to resemble a creature more than a machine, but the construction was artificial. The craft was just a ten klicks away from their position.
“Run scans on that thing. Tell me what it is and where it came from!” Laska ordered, “Have the De Ruyter and Triglav move half a klick forward of us. Put them in a flanking position between us and whatever that thing is,” he added.
They watched the tentacle-like objects stretch further from the gateway, but then an egg-shaped metallic structure appeared at its centre. As the craft came further into view, they could see it was three times as long as its enormous width. The structure was a flat and dull black, and as the gateway’s light began to fade, the ship appeared like a vast shadow in space. There were no lights of any kind on the structure, and only the light of the planet below formed the outline.
“What is that? Krys?” Breckinridge asked.
“No, I’ve never seen anything like it. It isn’t one of the four races. Send out the first contact protocol, and begin an open channel on all frequencies. Let’s try and see if we can get through to who or whatever this is,” ordered Laska.
“I’m getting some kind of transmission, Sir,” said Egland.
“Put it on screen.”
The display went black. Laska looked back to the Lieutenant, but she had nothing to add. He turned to see a slight glimmer of movement in the darkness, and then two small red lights began to glow like eyes watching them.
“I am Commodore Laska of the United Colonies. We come in peace.”
The small lights grew brighter, but no response came. After a few minutes they could hear a faint hum that grew louder, almost like a growl.
“Sir, I’m getting a massive energy reading.”
The transmission was cut off and returned their view to the hulking vessel. They could see energy pulsing at the centre of the ship, and it started a slow climb along the lengths of the eight pincer-like structures. It was just like the tower on the surface.
“Shields up!” Laska yelled.
“They saw a glimmer on the two friendly vessels before them as the shields activated. The energy reached the tips of the imposing ship, and they burst out to join one another, finally surging towards the De Ruyter. The shield flashed as it was struck, but appeared to offer little resistance to the immensely powerful energy that cut the frigate in half. Debris was scattered through space as the crew of the Bulwark watched in horror.
“Target that ship. Open fire with everything we’ve got! And begin jump gate sequence. Get us the hell out of here!”
The ship began to bank, but the view screens stayed fixed on the deadly vessel. Lights flashed as the weapon systems of the Bulwark opened up. Railgun shots and missiles impacted on the surface of the ship, and yet appeared to have no effect. A volley of smaller energy pulses flew from the craft towards the Triglav. The shielding absorbed the first few, but the three that followed smashed into the hull and tore holes in the structure as if not slowed by the armour at all.
The frigate was returning fire, but none of their weapons appeared to be causing damage.
“We aren’t gonna make it to the gateway! We can’t take that kind of punishment!” yelled the XO.
“We could drop an EMP. It could be our only chance!” Santos yelled.
“They hit the EMP vessel, and we could be left floating dead out here,” replied Breckinridge.
“And if we don’t we’re dead, anyway!”
“Do it!” Laska ordered.
Breckinridge rushed to a console nearby and put in her authorisation code. The others watched as the torpedo-like EMP vessel flew into view and rushed towards the alien craft. They could see the energy building at its core once again as it powered up its main weapon. They all knew that neither ship could survive its devastating effect.
“Twenty seconds until ignition! You know we’re gonna lose shields when this goes off, Captain?”
“Not like they’re any use right now, anyway,” added Santos.
The countdown reached five seconds when the main weapon of the mysterious craft fired once again, and they watched in a terrified silence as the Triglav was blown apart. Just seconds later the EMP was triggered, and the guns of their ship stopped instantly, as did half of the screens and lights on the bridge, but they still had enough displays to see the enemy vessel had lost power.
“Status?” Laska asked Breckinridge.
“We’ve lost shields, targeting systems, life support on two levels, and a lot of auxiliary systems, but we still have engines.”
“Then get us out of here, now!”
“Shouldn’t we pick up survivors?” Jones asked.
Laska stopped for a moment. He was a little ashamed that the thought hadn’t occurred to him, but even so he knew there was nothing they could do.
“We’ll be lucky if we survive this, Lieutenant. Let’s get out while we still can.”
“Gateway sequence complete, Sir,” said Egland.
“All power we have to the engines. Everything you can get.”
They were closing the distance now, and many of the crew watched a small screen to their side showing the gateway they were heading for. The start up sequence was complete, and they were on course. But Laska still stared at the shadow of the alien vessel that had torn their small fleet apart. He looked at the ship as if expecting it to once again come to life, and Santos was close by doing the same.
“Sir, I’ve got something incoming from the target,” said Egland.
They looked over the screens but could not make it out, but Egland brought up a camera that was tracking the unknown object. It looked like nothing more than a small tube that was tapered at either end, and only emitted the smallest of light from whatever propelled it through space.
“What is that? A weapon?”
“No idea, Sir. I am getting no readings of life aboard. Almost ten metres in length, and it is approaching us at speed.”
“Can we reach the gateway before it intercepts us?”
“No, Sir.”
“Have we got anything that can shoot it down?”
“We can’t track something that small manually. There’s nothing we can do,” replied Breckinridge.
“Are they going for our engines?” Jones asked.
“Negative, Lieutenant. We’re already on course for the gateway. Even if we lost all propulsion, we’d still make it through. There’s nothing left for us to do but hope we can survive whatever damage that thing does. How long until impact?”
“Thirty seconds, Sir.”
They watched the screen now as the mysterious alien object rapidly approached. They saw it come alongside, and it turned and plunged through the hull at the rear of the Bulwark, not far from the engines. It disappeared from view as if it had passed through thin air.
The XO was already at the control screen and closing off sectors to ensure they maintained pressure. Everything fell silent while they waited for an explosion of some kind, but it never came.
“Get me a feed of whatever that thing is,” said Laska.
The screen cut to a broad engineering corridor where the alien object rested peacefully on the ground. But before any of them could get a word out, they could see rods expand out from the object, and were soon joined by more. The device formed into what appeared like a ten-legged metallic spider. It stood almost two metres tall and quickly took flight. None of them could believe what they were seeing, but Santos was quick to leap into action.
“Enemy combatant aboard, all officers to their stations. Deploy Charlie and Delta squads to engineering.”
“Sir, something is overriding our engines. Reverse and bow thrusters are firing. We’re coming to a stop,” said Egland.
“Well, stop them!”
“I can’t. I’ve lost all control. Somebody must be accessing them directly from engineering.”
“We’re seconds away from escaping certain death. I won’t be stopped by…whatever that thing is!”
“I can help,” said Jones. He was the only person in the room in full armour and equipped to fight.
Laska nodded in agreement, and Santos was quick to put him to task.
“Get down to level three. Take drone squad Delta with you, and find that thing.”
“And when I do?”
“Disable, kill it, I don’t care. Just get rid of it!”
Jones nodded in approval and rushed out of the bridge with his rifle held at the ready.
“Delta Squad, on me at level three,” he ordered over the comms.
He rushed down the ramps to the entrance to the third floor and found the squad of twelve drones were awaiting him.
“You two take point. Target is hostile. Orders are to kill or disable by any means necessary.”
Two of the drones rushed onwards as he had ordered, and he took up position amongst them. It was a relief to have a shield of sorts around him, but he still had no clue what they were facing. They quickly reached the entrance to engineering and found three bodies scattered on the deck. One had been decapitated, the other two impaled by a large object. Jones knelt down to the two, but they were long gone.
Battle Beyond Earth Box Set Page 2