by Richard Sosa
She leaped back against the trench wall from her sitting position and kicked at the ground almost standing up and now careful not to expose her head out of the trench. She tapped the time code on the message, rolled on all fours and started to laugh. The relief came through as her laughter turned to tears. She sat back up and looked away again but this time she saw the bright star high in the sky again. It smiled. Her eyes caught streaks of rockets flying toward the ground and striking the SS’s directly. A female soldier jumped in the trench, “shit almost broke my ankle,” and inspected Iris’ face, “you O.K. Tears? There’s no crying in the 7s,” the female marine smiled but still gave her a harsh inspection.
“What? No. I have a promise to keep and it looks like I am going to get a chance to keep it.”
“Oh, a guy.”
Iris smiled.
White light as if a light bulb blew out popped for an instant and sparkles and showers of hot metal plumed over the site as Striker ships were exploding.
“Intel says that those rockets fired from the air are finding targets,” The female marine said and smiled bitterly, “and we’re giving the Orbs some payback.”
Iris peered through her scope. The landscape was dotted by explosions when the rocket penetrated the CS and exploded inside. “That primary Orb,” Iris said without taking her eye away from the scope, “is taking several direct hits and I think it wants to leave town.” They both watched it rise in the air, as more rockets hit its surface like pins points and the carnage inside the ship was massive. Scythes attacked the defenseless CS Orb head-on and released a cascade of rockets that trailed exhaust like copper heads smacking the Capital Ship’s surface with a small explosion. As the Scythes banked and scattered into the sky, the shell on the Orb splintered and broke open with an exit explosion. The CS was riding a black carpet of smoke billowing from its underside. A black viscous oily substance poured out like poached egg yolk and ropes of flames climbed up and down the dangling tentacles.
Chapter Fifty-one
Iris reached over to shake hands, “Iris.”
“Corporal Torbig-3.”
They gave each other a quick business handshake and regarded each other for a second. Both covered in black tar-like material, dirty, Iris had a make-shift bandage on her arm. Corporal Torbig-3 had dirty and melted metal bits in her hair then realized Iris’ rank and gave a salute. “Sir didn’t see the bars.”
Iris looked at her dirty shoulder. “No worries just got them in the field.”
The scream of the Scythes joined by the Raptors caught their attention. They could see the fiery exhaust of hundreds of Flyers swooping low in waves, releasing rockets at the alien ships on the ground. The SS’s were in disorganized groups and stopped. Neutron bombs lit up the night, exploding in rapid succession. Then they heard the delayed explosions that echoed in the darkness. A small concussion wave passed over them. Iris pointed. “Look, that primary Orb is sitting on the ground smoking away,” she blinked as another rocket hit it with a blinding flash and a shower of sparkles filled the air like fireworks, “that one shot gave them a new asshole.” The sound of the explosion followed.
“Oh man, I hope we’re winning now,” Torbig-3 mused and frowned as the Flyers backed around again, “those Scythes are cool, I am going to learn how to fly someday.”
Iris smiled. “Be careful what you wish for.”
They both slid down with their backs against the barrier and looked skyward. The sound of the blasts echoed in the valley. The night sky was rolling in an angry red color with flashes of white light, streams of falling objects appeared for an instant and burned out, others trailed smoke and then silently puffed into smaller and smaller points of light. Further, in the sky, Iris saw smaller pinpoints of light in formations move rapidly across the sky. “Gods, I hope we’re winning now too.” Iris stayed awake all night, but Torbig-3 fell asleep.
“Get up soldier, we're moving out.” Iris padded Torbig-3 her on the shoulder as the Corporal stood and Iris gently pushed her along. The entire line was climbing over the trenches and moving across the charred ground, stepping over bodies, broken machines, walking toward T Sector 89. In the distance, the charred Pills were silent, smoke rising from them, some broken apart. In the further distance, a battle was still being fought. Flashes of light and intermittent explosions were coupled with silence. Everyone moved forward with their weapons ready.
The suns were rising, and Iris noticed the chill in the air. She hugged herself. She saw a group of people huddled in a trench and recognizing doctor Megs with a contingent of soldiers and scientists crouching down in a trench closest to the largest Orb, she approached.
Iris and her team moved over to Megs’ group and she inspected them. “Doctor, what the hell are you doing here with all these unarmed science types?”
“Research.”
“Megs, should we be this close to those things?” Iris wondered.
Megs noticed Iris’ wrapped arm and pointed. “What happened to your arm?” Iris shrugged. Megs re-focused on her work. “We tested for radiation. Unless you know something, I don't.”
Iris assessed her team. “Secure the area. Be ready.”
“Ok, marines are here so let’s move in, keep your instruments reading, radiation, anything toxic,” Megs spoke on COM to her team, “watch for movement, the droids. Anything.”
Megs and her team moved slowly following Iris' troops on point toward the ship, inspecting, looking around, carefully stepping over debris. When they were close, they crouched down and waited. A scientist examined his hand-held unit. “Doctor, there's movement inside this one. I can't confirm this reading positively, though.”
Iris stepped forward, pulled her pulse rifle in front of her and signaled the troops behind her to move in. They stopped a few meters from the burned-out Striker and Iris looked over at a trooper. “Can we pop the hatch?” Iris thought to herself, if Ra was here, I wouldn’t have to ask dumb questions, he’d know what to do, she redirected, “Can we? You know get that door open?”
The trooper searched his IARI and then hunched his shoulders. “We can blow it open; I think.”
“Smartass, O.K. do it. Megs get your team back into the trench, these things tend to explode when compromised.”
Both military and science teams scooted into the dilapidated trench, while the trooper set charges at the door and walked casually back to the trench. Iris and Megs braced for the blast. The trooper entered commands on his hand-held unit, put on his ear protectors and stood behind a hardened observation shield. Then he called out. “On my mark. Set, on three, cover your ears, two, three.”
A deafening explosion pushed dirt out from under the ship. The Cascades of dirt fell from the sky and into the trench and a large billow of black smoke rose in the air. A moment later stones showered down on the marines in the closest trenches. The ship was untouched. Iris rolled to her back and looked over at Doctor Megs with a defeated expression. “Ra could get this bitch open with his... Oh shit.” She hung her head, collected her thoughts, struggled to keep from crying, “Damn it.”
“What's wrong?” Megs peered at her face concerned.
“Nothing. I forgot.”
“Forgot? What did you forget? Any detail may help us. Don’t hold back.”
Iris shook her head ‘no’ and said. “It’s not that important, besides we need to focus on the job here,” she looked away.
Megs pushed back. “Look, everything in this environment now is important, share what you recall, and we’ll extrapolate. Don’t hold back, that’s a science protocol order.”
Iris turned to Megs in tears. “Ra is dead. I forgot he’s dead and I was still going to call him in to help us. I forgot he’s dead. Damn it. My best friend in life is dead. Are you satisfied? Is that enough damn information for you to extrapolate? Conclusion, I am a dumb ass? My best friend is dead, period.” Her rifle fell useless to her side and she sat like a small child lost at the mall.
Megs blinked at her. “No, he’s not
. He’s badly burned but not dead by a long shot.”
“What? I saw him die, I saw it, Rik and I both…”
Megs typed a data search into her pad and showed it to Iris. “Medical facility Twenty, Field Hospital Six, burn unit,” then she frowned, “he may be getting transferred to a cleaner unit so that’s a hopeful sign. Yep, very much alive.”
“Gods, I thought I lost him,” Iris was immediately happy, “I thought I lost him...”
Megs thought, “pulse cannon with a beacon. That'll do the trick.”
Iris returned to the task and agreed, smiling. “Yep. Let's blow this shit wide open. I need to kill whatever the hell is inside,” she called on her wrist COM, “Silo 74 do you read?”
‘Go ahead.’
Iris continued, “This is JaensAt from four twenty-one, we have a situation requiring a cannon. Lift a working pulse cannon and get it here, grid... let’s see,” she checked a virtual map on her thumb unit, “seven, four B, that's ‘B’ like Blast.”
“Roger that.”
Everyone sat around silent in the heat, finally, a troop transport craft glided over their position and spun around to position a hoisted cannon. Dust flew up from the ground as the transport ships’ jets kept it positioned with the heavy load as it spun in the air and lowered into the trench. Troopers used guidelines to land the cannon pointing in the right direction as it gently sat on the ground. Troopers piled on the cannon getting it ready to fire as the transport ship banked away and returned to base. A trooper stepped up to Iris and Megs. “We’re ready here.”
“Roger that,” Iris said sitting up.
“Iris,” Megs rubbed her palms, “if we can capture the creature inside alive—”
“What?”
“I am just saying, that would be mission valuable information. Needed to understand its anatomy functioning.”
Iris paused and looked at her team. They were dirty, some bandaged and their faces were tight from the experience that would haunt them the rest of their lives, Shit, Iris thought and then said, “doc does it have testicles that you can use to our advantage when you torture it?”
“You’re being funny. If it’s going to cost lives to capture, then kill it.”
“It probably knows what we're up to, I wish Rik were here to advise.”
Megs’ smile was kindly. “You're doing fine. Stop second-guessing yourself.”
“Thanks for the intel about Ra,” then she stood up and spoke with a new stronger voice, “Marines, get ready, load the damn cannon. You,” pointing to a trooper, “place a beacon on the hatch. Let’s get this done.”
The trooper quietly and carefully approached the craft, while others covered his approach, removed a beacon from his nap sack and gently placed it on the door of Orb, it attached with a ‘thump’ sound and he put up his hands as if he wanted to silence the sound. The pulse cannon came online with increasing high-pitched noise. The barrel moved in different directions, with robotic quick sharp moves and adjustments, then rested on the beacon. The Trooper adjusted his ear protectors and completed a final round of checks. “Ready here.”
“O.K. everyone needs to get as low as you can in the trench because at this range there’s going to be a lot of chards coming off that thing,” Iris ordered and scanned her troops, “cover your head and ears,” she glanced at the cannon operator and when she had his attention held two fingers raised and shouted, “two blasts.” Then she connected to all on her COM. “I want everyone up and ready to fight anything coming out of there. On my mark, three,” she inspected the line, then crouched down into the trench, “one, two, three.”
A high-pitched buzzing sound followed two ear drum-shattering blasts and Iris felt the concussion force move the air out of her lungs both times. The laser drilled into the Orb at close range. Its outer shell exploded, and debris flew into the sky, with dust, smoke, metal, and sparks littering the ground around the ship along with sharp glass-like shards that bounced on the ground in a fanned-out pattern. Immediately, pulse rifles blasted at the door, lasers ricocheted into the air, striking the ground around the trenches, Iris and Megs dove to the floor of the trench again. Iris ordered on her COM Unit shouting, “Hold your fire. Hold your damn fire. Dumb asses, what part of ‘coming out’ did you not hear? Geez, you want to kill each other. You’re embarrassing me in front of Science.”
The ship sat silent. Megs' team continued to monitor their equipment. No sound. Iris lifted her head over the trench rifle ready. The ship's hatch was blown through and its silver coating blackened with a black stain. Cracks radiated outward from the destroyed hatch. Shards of glass-like material covered the ground and there was an opening large enough for one person.
Megs grabbed her equipment and signaled a forward motion to her team. “This is where science takes over. I'll go through first.”
Iris held her back. “Hold on there, miss smarty doctor geek pants, you’re not going anywhere, not while I am here.”
Megs removed her arm from Iris’ hold. “Let me do to my work, I am old enough to be your mother, you better settle down.”
“Sorry, I go in first, that’s my job,” pointing to the pulse rife that Megs was holding, “can you use that or are they making you carry it for decoration?”
Megs looked down at the rile as if it was diseased, "yes".
“Then let’s go, but me first.”
Iris and Megs with both teams moved slowly toward the Orb while walking sideways near the hatch. Troopers kneeled behind them; weapons ready. Iris bent slowly down and peered into the ship, then straighten up frustrated. “Gods damn it. It's dark. It’s damn dark in there,” Iris said to her team, “use your night vision face shields.”
“What? You thought they were going to leave the lights on for you? Sweetie,” Megs said and smiled at her.
The suns were slowly rising on the horizon, a purple haze was cast over EpDaaRa in the distance. Iris put her helmet on, closed the face shield, bent down again and stepped into the small opening. Another trooper followed and then immediately Megs followed and bumped Iris’ shoulder as she stood up. Megs looked around as other troopers entered. “This ship is a long tube, look at the dimples on the inside walls covering every surface.” Tube tentacles dangled from above and lay on the floor in wet tangles and toward the back of the machine, cylinders with technology sitting in front of them, like a pistol cylinder, dripped with an oily fluid. Megs pointed at the technology. “This is what Rik told us, these can rotate for a particular purpose,” she inspected them closer, “they are covered in a thick viscous substance. We’ll need to examine this; it’s reading as organic.” The fluid globed on the floor like glue. Doctor Megs smiled as she inspected around the area and took out a sensor. She raised an arched eyebrow at Iris and the group moved slowly, sidestepping the dangling wet tentacles to walk deeper into the ship. On the walls were complex storage racks where the droids were housed, tangles of cables and organic material roped around them. “What an ingenious means to store all the droids,” Megs walked up closer to inspect, “there must have been possibly hundreds of droids in these small Pills, they are folded together on those racks like origami.”
Iris pointed her rifle at something on the floor, “Look at this.” Megs and the troopers stepped forward. A crush of dead aliens was on the floor in a tangle of bodies. Their claws open as if frightened and the domes on their heads were collapsed into concave depressions. The gills under their domed heads-like structure were gray and hardened, unlike the red feathery soft color in the invasion images from Rik’s recorder. Iris regarded them disdainfully. “They sure are ugly mothers.”
Megs continued to watch her reading, “Is that a scientific observation, dear?” she didn’t look up for a response.
Iris made a sour face as she turned her head to get a closer look at the aliens. “Correction, they sure are ugly ass alien mothers. That’s my scientific assessment.”
Megs smiled to herself. “So noted,” then she became serious, “appears as if they suffocated
. Maybe their life support was compromised during the neutron drops.
“That would be good information to know.”
Megs agreed. “Yes.”
“Doctor,” a trooper scanning the area said, “it looks like you have your work cut out for you.”
Iris stretched her back and ordered. “O.K. fan out and secure the rest of this ship. Keep your scanners on and search everywhere. If you detect anything harmful call it out so we can get the hell out of here before radiation poisoning or something.”
She waited with Megs. “Why are you excited? You’re almost jumping up and down like a little kid in a candy store.”
“I never knew I would have this kind of an opportunity in my career,” Megs said, “to learn anything about another species. A species from another galaxy, worlds we don’t anything about.”
Iris looked off at the pile of them on the floor. “Emphasis on how to kill them.”
After a long wait, a trooper shouted out. “All clear.”
Iris let her rifle dangle from its shoulder ‘clip’. “Megs I am going to leave you to your work here. No live ones today but maybe that's a good thing. I mean it when I said to figure out how to kill these things. If they come back, they have some overdue payback coming.”
Megs returned the best civilian salute he could execute. “Yes, mam. Roger that. I'll manage fine from here. My people are going to set up outside and then we’ll rotate short periods working inside the ship until we have complete confirmation on safety.” She inspected her rubber gloves as she pulled them on and then bent down and pulled an alien from out of the tangle to drag it away. It flopped around as if made of rubber. She rolled it over and used her finger to probe the gills looking up as if trying to connect what she was feeling to what she knew about anatomy. “Humm, that is different.” She reached over and opened a box. Iris was intrigued but was quickly becoming grossed out by the examination. Megs rooted inside the box as if searching for some specific tool.