The Artemis Trap

by DN Farrell

  Meanwhile the chief minister just sat there. The chief liked chicken, but had felt like telling the senior rebel to tell the guy holding his right shoulder, to let go and the guy with a rifle pressed into his back to stop pressing it, but then again the president of the committee on energy, raised a similar request an hour ago, only to get a lecture and a blaster shot in his head, from the afore mentioned senior rebel; so Chief Minister Habok Haute, felt it best to pass on the chicken, besides it looked far to greasy and would probably not go down well with his stomach ulcer anyhow.

  "You know chief, I could get to like this place." Heshal said while smiling as he looked out of the chief minister’s window. Heshal was a good looking man, in his early twenties, with an amicable looking facial expression, but somewhere along the way he had got mixed up with the Vis Yar cult and now he had, like so many before him, had turned into a self-righteous asshole, the chief thought, while he sat there and just stared at the back of Heshal's head.

  The turning around to face the chief once again, Heshal would speak to the chief for the last time this evening. "Hey chief don't worry we'll protect you, we won't let any of those marine type's take you away or anything like that. Stick with us chief, we will get some concessions and take you and your senior staff to some far away constellation at the other end of the galaxy and we can all drink Pina Colada's." Heshal said with a brimming smile as he finished his sentence, with a passing look between the two men, giving away the reality that when this was all over that Heshal would leave no survivors, this was not the Vis Yar way.

  But the chief was no longer interested in conversation, he felt his head was swimming in a sea of immense stress. He knew that Heshal meant to use him as a negotiation piece and once finished with him he would throw the chief and his staff straight out of the nearest airlock, once they got into deep space. After a while the chief decided to stop thinking and start praying, it might do him better in the long run and with that he began quietly to say to himself under his breath, "Oh ancient one, great destroyer of all evil and balancer of all celestial events please watch over me, watch over me, watch over me..." Over and again he would repeat this prayer and by the end of the night he would be happy that he had stuck to it, his faith all that much greater than when he began this ordeal a week earlier.

  Down the Street from the Civic Buildings, City of kal

  "Colonel the rebels are shouting down the end of the street about negotiations, what do you want to do about them?" Queried Captain Furrow with a frank expression on his face.

  "Get somebody to go down and give them some flannel, tell them that your senior officer is out and about and that in half and hour he will be back to negotiate, got it." Said Kell back to him. Furrow looked over to one of his men and nodded towards him, indicating that he should run down the road and pass this message onto the rebels.

  "Okay Furrow, look I'd like to join in with the celebrations but as Battalion head, I have to hold back, so of you go and execute the plan which we discussed, then call me in when you’re done." Kell said frankly. Furrow looked back at him and saluted while saying, "Sir" and with that he took his helmet and put it back on.

  "Just wait until your man has pacified the rebels and give it five then execute, got it." Said kell with a concentrated, concerned look spreading across his big face. Furrow just nodded and then slapped down the visor on his helmet and then ran over to two other marines, who were also ready in their biomechanical suits. Then all three walked off into the darkness. Meanwhile Colonel Kell watched anxiously at his reading tab, so as to see how things were progressing.

  The private who Captain Furrow had sent to talk to the rebels passed on his message, then once the rebel appeared to be happy, he walked off one way and the rebel walked off in another direction. Night had now settled on the city and the rebels appeared to be getting themselves ready, in case of any assault by the marines. Meanwhile Captain Furrow engaged his many small drones and placed them into strategic positions, within several feet of each rebel, then he hit a button on his tab device, which immediately directed a subtle energy discharge from each small drone, which directed a sudden blast of energy towards the hearts of the rebels, whom they had been directed to observe. The result of this discharge, was a massive heart attack, which killed most of its recipients and left a few alive, but in critical condition. For a normal observer, one second all rebels where standing in their respective positions, next second they simply slumped over or fell over with one or two yelling a cry of pain before hitting the deck.

  The Chief Ministers Office, Civic Buildings, City of kal

  Meanwhile inside the chief minister's office, the four rebels were quite intact, but they were shook, when they heard a yell from the rebel guarding the door, but they would not be undisturbed for long!

  Chief Minister Habok Haute heard the yell of the man in the corridor and a chill immediately went up the length of his spine, as the cry of the man outside was obviously a death cry. The chief minister turned his head to his right hand side, so as to look at the door and his two guards did likewise. Meanwhile another man stood behind the two guards and directly opposite the chief minister, sat Heshal who now dropped his third chicken breast of the evening into the beautifully blue carpeted floor, of the chief minister’s office, before gabbing a blaster rifle and taking a protective position behind the large table.

  What happened next came as a big shock to everybody, as they were expecting somebody to kick the door in, but instead there was a sudden blast and sparkles everywhere, as a stun grenade was teleported into the room, directly behind the chief minister’s chair. The guard holding a rifle to the chief minster’s back was blown up in the air and thrown forcibly down to the ground, by the blast, which went off beside his right foot. Whereas the chief minister was thrown against the table, the second security guard was also thrown against the table. The rebel who stood behind the guard, who had gotten himself blown to the floor, got blown against the wall and finally Heshal had got thrown back onto the floor.

  A second later two marines materialized near the back wall of the room and immediately they discharged their weapons, instantly killing the chief’s two guards and the third man who was slumped against the wall. Heshal struggled to get up and get of a shot, when suddenly he felt an intense discomfort, as the wall directly behind his seat gave way, as a marine in his biomechanical suit, walked straight through the wall, the man had actually materialized directly behind the wall and the wall only been made of plaster, would be easy to walk through. It was not a true wall it was just a partition, but Heshal didn't know that. Bits of plaster board rained down on top of him, stunning him some more, until finally the right hand of the marine came down in a chopping action, hitting Heshal in his right shoulder blade, immediately snapping his right clavicle like a twig, to the immediate discomfort of Heshal, who yelled a "Grrrhhh" sound, then he promptly vomited and momentarily passed out for a few seconds.

  Two marines grabbed the minister and hauling him out of the room, they quickly checked him over, but he looked alright, just dazed. Minutes later Colonel kell materialized on the scene and with his helmet of, he leaned over towards the chief and addressed him. "Chief, chief can you hear me?”

  The chief nodded, still feeling sick and disorientated and now with a terrible headache and his ears still ringing, but he also felt a great relief to see the GFAS logo on the marines armour. "I’m okay Colonel, I've felt better but I'm okay."

  "Great chief your free now, we'll do a clear up operation on your planet, it will be one hundred percent rebel free within a few days."

  The chief just nodded a little back at Kell, who had a beaming smile on his face. Then walking into the chiefs main office, he saw lying beside the desk a youngish man, who had some kind of shoulder injury and Captain Furrow standing over him , also now with his helmet off.

  "Heshal chief rebel, kell." Captain Furrow said.

  Kell looked around the office, it was a mess with three corpses, and an entire wall
taken out.

  "One of my men broke his collarbone on the way in." Furrow said and kell just nodded and then said while looking down at the man who looked like he was in a state of considerable discomfort, "Well that explains the pained look."

  A curious faced kell addressed him, "Hey buddy you hear me?" He questioned, then he put some smelling salts under his nose, which appeared to raise him up a little. "Hey mister what’s your name?" he asked.

  "He..." he coughed a bit and then finished off his name, "Heshal, Heshal is my name."

  "What Heshal remain anonymous is it?"

  "No." Heshal replied with his eyes closed, but looking very irritated, as this was the first time in Heshal's short life that he had ever received a serious wound of any kind and it was hitting him badly.

  "Heshal suck ass at been a rebel, is it?"

  "No." Again Heshal replied, but this time opening his eyes and staring back angrily at Kell, for disturbing him with this silly teasing, while he was lying injured on the chief ministers beautifully blue carpeted office floor.

  "Okay buddy just letting you know that the games all over for you, intelligence will want to ask a few questions and then you can take up your reservation at the nearest salt mine, but I just thought I would remind you that you just killed over fifteen hundred marines and at least five hundred naval personnel, at least five hundred maybe more!" kell started yelling and then standing over the rebel, he took his size seventeen biomechanical boot and started to press down on the man's chest. The man made a "Whhhughhgh", sound as Kell started to crush his ribcage and then a crack and then a pop sound emerged, as his ribs started to snap under the immense pressure. Heshal looked like he wanted to ask something, but Kells heavy biomechanical foot was putting an end to any questions been asked. Kell had a look of absolute rage on his face and Captain Furrow could tell that he was just a few seconds away from over reacting and squeezing the life out of their main intelligence lead.

  Of course what kell was doing was absolutely illegal and against all GFAS rules and regulations. But out in the field shit happens sometimes and on occasion the men and women of the marines react rather than respond. Furrow knew this, which was why he turned a blind eye, then he reached over and gently touched kells shoulder and said softly to him, "Hey big guy I know he's thrash but we need him for intelligence." Kell immediately stopped squeezing and then with his foot still in place he leaned over and spoke to the man, who was under his foot, "Hey rebel enjoy intelligence, they'll have you singing like a bird man, like a bird!" And with that he let go and the sick man made a relieved, "Grgg", sound before falling temporarily back into unconsciousness again.

  "Get a medic to look after this man straight away." Kell said and Furrow nodded, before shouting out an order for an immediate beam in of a medic.

  Kell looked around the chief minister's office, "tasteful" he thought to himself, "very tasteful". Kell was then immediately drawn to the large window, which lay next to the big table, where he could get a scenic view of the city of Kal's civic buildings, "beautiful indeed". Kell felt a certain sense of exuberance mixed with a desire to go and tear some heads off, as this time he had not been involved in the action, which irked him. But he couldn’t just magic up some rebels to fight, as Furrows plan had worked well and the nearest rebels where kilometers away. A good fifteen hundred to two thousand men and women had died trying to liberate this planet. As he looked across the city, he felt that it was worth the lives of fifteen hundred marines and another five hundred navy personnel on the Virgil, if it meant that the millions of citizens of this wealthy and beautiful planet could go about their business as free agents, then it was worth sacrificing two thousand to save five million, wasn't it?

  Then again the loss of so many personnel was a direct result of poor intelligence and someone somewhere high up in the expeditionary force was leaking Intel out to the Vis Yar rebels, which directly resulted in the slaughter on the planet Exugenes. This gave Kell an ache in his belly and a feeling of great anxiety.

  Kell just stared out at the city for the next fifteen minutes or so, while smoking a couple of his success cigars, as he liked to call them. Whenever an action went well, he would smoke a large cuban styled environmentally healthy, cancer free cigar. He huffed and puffed for a while, as he was now in a deep and philosophical mood, after a week of utmost stress. He would continue to stare out the window and smoke for some more time to come, attempting to make sense of what happened in his own mind.

  Chapter Two – The Planet Artemis 11

  The Bryant - Phazeball Court – One Week Later

  "Hit it!... hit the ball!" Exclaimed Lieutenant Chandrima, as she stood on the side line, watching the two men in the Phazeball court.

  The man whom Lieutenant Chandrima addressed, was Commander Jack Trellon, second in command of the super cruiser "The Byrant". Trellon was a fair haired young man with an athletic physique, and while he was good at Phazeball, today he was been outmatched.

  His opponent, one Colonel Henry Kell, of the space marines, who was faster and stronger than Trellon. Phazeball was sort of like playing squash, but with a sentient ball. The ball was bright blue in colour and while Trellon tried desperately to hit the ball, it was moving so fast, after kells last hit, that it zipped by Trellon at over three hundred kilometers per hour.

  Bouncing of off the Plexiglass screen, which lay at the back of the court, the ball immediately bounced hard and then shot back of towards the floor of the court. Then it bounced at a right angle and next thing it hit the court ceiling, only to come bouncing down against the whitewall of the court and then still at high speed, it came back toward Trellon. Trellon went for a backhand movement, only to be out swung by Kell, who swished his racket in front of Trellon at speed, thus hitting the ball and making it fly off again, this time hitting the white wall of the court and giving Kell a point in his favour.

  The small crowd of supporters gave a yell of appreciation for kells considerable Phazeball skills, while Trellon just looked a little confused, while his friend Lieutenant Chandrima continued to support Trellon, in her own inimitable way.

  "Jesus...just hit the frigging ball Trell!" She shouted and with that Trellon once more attempted to hit the bright blue ball, which continued to ricochet around the court. Finally Trellon managed to hit the ball and get it to impact the white wall at the other end of the court, thus giving him a point. Seventy seven to twelve, the game would end when one player hit a score of a hundred, so Trellon had a lot of catching up to do.

  Kell gave him a serious look, which told Trellon that he wasn't going to accept any competition, so with all his might kell who had obviously been holding back a little, now applied all of his strength and with that his huge six foot three inch frame, he started swinging at the ball with everything he had in him. With each stroke kell made the ball go faster and faster, until it was rocketing around the court, at over four hundred kilometres per hour.

  Trellon looked totally confused and befuddled, as he chased blindly after the small blue ball, until he stopped to get his bearings, only to suddenly feel a hard smack, as the little bright blue ball hit his nose at full force, throwing him to the ground. The ball was of an incredibly light construction, so it didn't' hurt half as much as one might expect, but it still resulted in Trellons nose spluttering into a nose bleed.

  Kell stood over Trellon, feeling kind of bad and within seconds various onlookers had come inside the court to provide medical assistance.

  "Jacky, you know you're supposed to stay within the blue squares, if you want to avoid getting hit." Kell said, while Trellon just looked up feeling slightly dazed.

  And so ended the semi-finals of the Naval Expeditionary Force's annual Phazeball competition. It looked like Colonel kell would once again become the undisputed champion, if today's results where anything to go by.

  The Bridge

  "Captain, we're coming up on the planet Artemis 11, ETA one hour and fifteen minutes." Lieutenant Pylor, the Communications Officer
stated, as he looked over his instrument panel.

  The captain, Captain Jobi of Elongira simply viewed his information tab instead of taking a look at the Hollow Tube. Lines creased his brow and grey hairs sprouted from his balding head, all of which gave away Captain Jobi’s advancing years.

  "Lieutenant Pylor, please ask the away team to assemble in briefing room 2 and tell them I will be there shortly." Ordered the captain, with the usual dour look on his wrinkled face.

  "Aye captain." Responded the Lieutenant and with that the captain buried himself in some research notes regarding the planet Artemis 11.

  Briefing Room 2

  Trellon was gently rubbing his nose, where the Phazeball had hit it earlier that day. Looking around him, he noted Doctor Caskew and Science Officer Jebelt. Caskew and Jebelt were very busy going through their itinerary of IXSZ1, the drug which they were about to deliver to Artemis 11, which would treat an outbreak of Comarin’s Fever.

  "We have one hundred and eighty six cases of IXSZ1, are you confident that this will be enough?" Queried Science Officer Jebelt, as she looked over at Doctor Caskew.