War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past

by Conner Walworth

  Armino jumped awake to a rapid beeping noise coming from his warning dash. He quickly straightened in his seat and let out a sigh of relief when he saw it was just the alert that he had set to warn him Plouton was closing in. He applied the stealth field and waited patiently.

  The ship exited Sonodrive with a big lurch and he knew that that would alert all of the men that they'd arrived at Plouton. He saw Donnchadh wake up in the chair next to him through the corner of his eyes and glanced over.

  "You ready to go to work?"

  Donnchadh raised his eyebrows. "I've been ready since we left."

  "Good," Armino said. "Apply thrusters to max power. We're moving in quick."

  Donnchadh applied full power to the thrusters and the ship raced towards Plouton, breaking through the atmosphere with no resistance. Armino pulled up the local holomap on the cockpit window of the ship and started examining it.

  "Okay. We're here," He pointed to Donnchadh. "We need to get here."

  Donnchadh nodded and shifted the ship towards the Deimos Brotherhood's headquarters. Armino kept alert for any signs of detection from any threats that may have caught sight of them. To his relief, it didn't seem like anyone was aware of the ship flying above them.

  Armino saw men gathering up near the ramp of the ship as they neared the enemy base.

  "We'll be there in a couple of minutes," he informed them. He pointed out a spot close to the headquarters that would fit the ship. "Land it there Donnchadh. No need to try to hide from them, they'll know we're here soon enough." Armino got up from his seat and lowered the ramp of the ship while Donnchadh was landing it. "Alright! Groups two and three can go in now to your entrances! Group one waits!" he yelled over the wind gushing into the ship.

  The two groups jumped off of the ship to their designated entrances of the compound and left the other one behind.

  Armino turned to the remaining men. "Once Donnchadh lands completely, the rest of us will go in."

  As soon as the ship touched down Donnchadh jumped out of his seat and joined the group. "Let's go!" he yelled.

  The group ran towards the front door of the compound. Moran and Ferris pulled out sonic grenade launchers and fired them at the door, blowing it off of its hinges, and the men rushed inside of the unknown compound. Armino immediately felt that something wasn't right. They had run into the compound and made their way down the hallway to a huge circular room where they saw the other two groups standing as clueless as him. Armino looked around the room and saw the only other two hallways to go down were the ones that the other two groups had just traveled down.

  "Let's take a look around and try to find some type of secret entrance," He ordered his men.

  They walked around the room, but none of the men had any luck finding a secret entrance. Armino stood in the middle of the room with his arms crossed, fuming inside at the deception. Looking down at his feet in frustration, he noticed something odd in the spot of the floor he was standing.

  "Moran! Get over here!" He yelled across the room. "I may have found something."

  Moran quickly ran over. "What is it Armino?"

  "It looks like this part of the floor moves somehow. Look at the crevice that goes in a perfect circle."

  Moran studied the floor. "I can blow it away with my sonic grenade launcher. If there's something beneath that, we'll surely find it."

  Armino smiled. "Have it at. Just don't blow the entire place up with us in it."

  Moran and Armino stepped away from the center of the room. "Alright guys, stay away from the center of the room and take cover! We're about to blow a hole in the floor," All of the men stayed back as Moran pulled out his grenade launcher and aimed at the hole. "Fire in the hole!"

  Moran fired his weapon two times, causing the compound's walls to shake and concrete to sprinkle down on their heads. Armino and Moran moved towards the newly made hole in the floor and looked down.

  "We got stairs men!" Armino pointed at the hole in the floor. "Let's get down there!"

  The men started filing in a line to descend down the stairs leading underneath the compound. Armino and Moran lagged behind to be the last two to go down.

  "Looks like you were right about them wanting to stay hidden Armino. If it's not the Deimos Brotherhood, there's someone trying to hide something here," Moran said. "My guess is they're definitely not friendlies."

  "I still don't like it very much," He stayed alert as he walked down the stairs. "It just doesn't feel right. We should've faced some type of resistance by now."

  "I don't like it much either," Moran agreed. "There's only one way out if things go downhill, but that goes for both sides, if there is someone down here."

  Armino and Moran reached the bottom of the stairs and met up with the other men who were standing in a group.

  "This is a pretty big door," Donnchadh pointed out to Armino.

  Armino looked at the massive steel door blocking their way. "It looks thick, but I'm sure we can get through with enough explosives."

  Moran smiled at the word explosives. "Just say the word."

  Donnchadh pulled out his thermal grenade launcher. "I get to do it this time Moran. You don't get to have all the fun."

  Just then, the mechanisms on the door started retracting. The men instinctively jumped back towards the stairs and readied their weapons for whatever was about to emerge.

  Armino put his hand up over his head. "Hold your positions men!" He pulled out his laser rifle. "Get your weapons ready to fire on my command!"

  The door finished unlocking and it hissed open, revealing an empty room on the other side. Armino peered through the door and motioned his men to move forward after seeing nobody on the other side.

  "Moran and Donnchadh. We're going to be the first three who go in. I don't want everyone to be stuck inside if it's a trap."

  Donnchadh let out a faint fake laugh. "If it's a trap? They just opened the door and invited us in! Of course it's a trap!"

  Armino glared at him and Donnchadh held up his free hand. "I'm not complaining. Hell, I'm going to be the first one to go in that room," He walked forward before Armino could say anything else.

  Armino shook his head and looked at the other men. "You all stay back here until we come back. We're going to do a quick scout to see if we find any traps. If you hear me yell at you all to get out, do it without any hesitation. Don't worry about us, just get out."

  Armino went in the room behind Moran and saw multiple other hallways that lead to other parts of the compound.

  "Which one do we choose?" Donnchadh asked.

  Armino contemplated for a moment. "Let's take the one directly in front of us."

  Moran and Donnchadh nodded and alertly walked down the hallway, ready for any type of traps that may be waiting for them. After they had walked ten steps down the hall, the entrance they had just come through sealed off, making their only way out straight ahead.

  "Uh, I think that was just one of the traps," Donnchadh said. "The other is our only way out of here."

  "Let's move forward quicker," Armino ordered. "I don't want to be trapped in this narrow hallway if we get ambushed."

  The three men quickly ran down the hallway and entered a big cafeteria type room that was empty, except for the benches to eat at. The room had obviously been used earlier in the day because the aroma of food still lingered in the air.

  "Look for any type of exits," Armino ordered.

  Donnchadh pointed towards the front of the room. "Look! There's two exits at the front."

  "We'll take the one on the right," Armino told them. "Keep your eyes peeled for anything suspicious."

  "The place is deserted," Donnchadh said as they walked forward. "Do you see how spotless it is?"

  "No it's not," Armino replied in a hushed voice. "If it was, that first trap wouldn't have gone off sealing us in here. Someone knows we're here and they're toying with us."

  Moran shook his head. "They want us to be here in this room. That's the only reason w
e've gotten this far."

  "Well, what are we waiting for?" Donnchadh moved quicker. "We wouldn't want to get them angry now, would we?"

  "Quiet down! You're going to get us killed," Moran hissed. "This isn't the time for your immaturity."

  Armino peered around the entrance of the door and went through after confirming it was clear.

  "That hall looks like it may take us back the way we came," Donnchadh pointed.

  "Could've been the hall that was on the right," Moran agreed.

  "Or it could lead somewhere else entirely," Armino suggested. "If it does lead back, we don't know if it sealed off when the other one did."

  "I don't want to go back, so let's go straight," Donnchadh told the two, as he continued straight ahead. "I want to see what else is down here."

  Moran pulled at Armino as he was starting to follow Donnchadh. "He's treating this mission as a joke Armino. He's going to get us killed being so careless."

  A sound of rushing footsteps stormed towards them before they were able to catch up to Donnchadh. They both turned to look at Donnchadh, but he was already halfway down the hall and walking right into the enemy.

  "Donnchadh get back here!" Armino shouted.

  It was too late. Armino saw a group of six hostiles running down the hallway towards them, weapons drawn and ready to fire. Donnchadh pulled his out, but was too slow in responding to the threat and was shot. Moran pulled Armino through the door that they had just been talking about before Donnchadh had foolishly left them. Moran fired his laser pistol at the approaching men and Armino reached for the concussion grenades he had strapped to his belt.

  "Start going down hall!" Armino shouted above the sound of raining gun fire. "I'll be right behind you!"

  Moran nodded and started running down the hallway. Armino activated all three of the concussion grenades at the same time and tossed them all down the hallway before running after Moran. He heard the explosion of the three grenades, but couldn't be sure how many enemies he had knocked out, if any at all.

  "It leads back to our men!" Moran shouted from down the hallway.

  Armino had almost made it to the end of the hallway when it started to seal off like the first one had. He pushed his body forward and slid on the floor, barely making it underneath without being crushed. He quickly raised himself from the floor and faced his men.

  "Get back up the stairs!" he shouted. "We don't want to be cornered in this room to be target practice! We need to regroup and think up a better strategy. The enemy has been alerted of our presence and has their attack plan well thought out."

  The men ran up the stairs to see that the room was no longer the same as when they had arrived. There was little light streaming into the building, as all of the windows had been blacked out. The smell of gunfire lingered in the air, but not a single fire had been shot yet.

  Armino looked down the hallway that they had come down. "I can see a little bit of light from the doors that we blew down. Let's make our way back to the ship, I don't like the feeling I have right now."

  Armino turned around to the sound of stone rubbing against stone and saw the wall in front of him moving upward, revealing five warbots standing ten feet tall. Their weapons were raised and were pointed right at his men as they exited.

  "Get out of here!" Armino shouted to all of his men. "There's warbots ready to take us out!"

  The warbots immediately started targeting in on Armino's men and firing a variety of weapons. Explosions rocked the building and the circular room lit up with flashes of red and orange from the impact of the weapon rounds.

  Armino pointed at two men. "Moran! Ferris! Fire your sonic grenade launchers at them!"

  The two men fired their weapons at the warbots, but they didn't go down on impact. After realizing their weapons were useless against the bots' armor, they redirected their fire to the feet of the warbots, creating a cloud of dust that gave them temporary cover from the pursuing warbots.

  Armino pointed to the hall he had come down with his group. "That's our way out! Go!"

  All of the men started running down the hall while Moran and Ferris continued firing at the warbots that were now quickly closing in on them.

  "Go get the ship ready for take-off Armino!" Moran shouted.

  "We can hold them off while you get it ready to get out of here!" Ferris urged.

  Armino ran down the hallway and was relieved to see that he had been correct about the sealing door being broken from their explosives. He got on the ship and fired up the engines no sooner than arrival of Moran and Ferris.

  "Our weapons are useless on those things! Their armor is impenetrable!" Ferris yelled exhausted as he entered the ship, still firing uselessly outside.

  Armino rotated the ship to face the entrance of the building just in time to see the warbots emerging. He locked in on them with his sonic cannons and fired them along with his laser guns on the nose of the ship. The warbots exploded in flames immediately.

  "Nothing is impenetrable Ferris," Armino said.

  He quickly stopped laughing as five enemy ships approached them from all directions, firing upon seeing them. "That includes us," He strapped himself in his seat. "Moran get in the co-pilot seat!" He started lifting the ship off of the ground. "We're getting out here now!"

  Moran jumped in the seat and immediately applied the force shield around the ship to stop the enemy's weapons from damaging the ship and taking them down. "Sonodrive is ready as soon as we are off of Plouton."

  Armino nodded while applying the thrusters to the maximum level. He got on the com of the ship. "Take your positions in the turrets and keep those ships off of us!" He ordered his men. "Start fending off these enemy ships. It looks like there's eleven of them now." He told Moran.

  Moran took over control of the weapons and started firing the cannons and guns at incoming enemy ships. Armino could see enemy ships exploding and going down all around him, but it seemed like there were always others to replace the fallen ones. Though they were heavily outnumbered, he knew their ship could take the beating temporarily until the exited Plouton. This ship was much faster than the pursuing fighters and he wasn't going to let them take his ship down.

  As soon as he piloted the ship out of Plouton's atmosphere, he initiated Sonodrive. "We're safe now," He leaned back in his chair and let out a deep breath.

  Moran rubbed his hands down his face. "It's like they knew we were there before we were even there! They just waited for us to be at our most vulnerable before attacking!"

  "I was just thinking the same thing myself."

  "Did everyone make it out?" Moran asked, turning in his seat.

  "Donnchadh is the only one I know of that didn't. Go take a head count for me."

  Moran got up from his seat to check up on all of the other men. Armino stared out of the cockpit window in disbelief at how wrong the mission had just gone. He had never had any mission go this bad, and it was his first failed mission in years. He reclined back in his chair and closed his eyes.

  He had known that the Deimos Brotherhood had committed over a dozen crimes with precision he had never seen from a criminal group, but he never thought they'd be able to defeat his squadron with such deception. They were just common criminals, how could they be better than the Queen's Galactic Special Operations Unit?

  Moran interrupted his thoughts. "Donnchadh was the only one that we lost. There are a few injuries, but everyone else made it."

  Armino didn't reply and stared out of the window into space. Moran took a seat next to him and prepared for the long journey back to Hera. He had been fighting alongside Armino since joining, and they had lost a few men, but they hadn't ever failed the Queen this miserably before.

  Moran looked at Anlon. "That was the last time we ever saw Donnchadh," He looked down at the floor. "Your father saw him gunned down with his own eyes."

  "But how did he survive?" Anlon stuttered. "Why did he kill my Dad? They were friends."

  "We don't know how he lived,"
Moran put his hand on Anlon's shoulder. "He became one of the Deimos Brotherhood's members though, that is obvious," He removed his hand from Anlon's shoulder. "From recent reports, he has become one of their best and we were hunting him down."

  "You knew?" Anlon exclaimed. "How long have you known he was one of them?"

  Moran sighed. "We found out about a year later. We caught an image of him on a security camera. We were skeptic at first that it was him, but when Armino saw, he knew without a doubt."

  "But I thought that they stayed hidden and let other groups carry out their stuff. Quick, precise, and undetected."

  "That's how they used to be, but after we tried to take them out they stopped hiding from us. They started taking credit for their attacks and recruited members from the other organizations before eliminating them completely."

  "I don't understand," Anlon started.

  "There's a lot you don't understand right now Anlon, but you will in time. Donnchadh is a traitor, but we never thought he would go after any of his old brothers, especially like this. But now it's time to get him back, we won't let him get away with this."

  "How?" Anlon asked.

  "I've brought two people to Gaea to train you how to survive and kill. You will learn both just like Donnchadh."

  "When do I get to start training?"

  Moran put his hand back on Anlon's shoulder. "Tomorrow. You will meet Ferris and Emer." He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. "You will train at my place. Put this combination in the elevator and you'll be taken to your training room."

  Anlon pocketed the paper. "What about weapons and a ship? I'll need those too if I'm going after these races."

  "We'll worry about all that other good stuff later," he replied. "For now, you need to train and that's all you need to worry about. When you're ready, I'll show you your weapons and take you to your ship."

  "You already have them?"

  Moran smiled. "Finish your training and then I'll answer that question."

  Moran stood up and walked to the door. "This is the only way I can help you Anlon. The GSOU won't allow me to go on any rogue missions, but you're not a part of the GSOU. You'll be trained like one and there's no stopping you from doing what you want once you've completed training."