The Black Planet

by J W Murison

  Stevens hand reached out but Charlie caught it; his eyes were cold. ‘I’m sorry Stevie, my friends are fighting and dying out there right now. These people just aren’t giving up.’

  A short struggle ensued but Steven quickly realised it was futile struggling with a man whose arms were bionic. Steven tried to appeal to his humanity as he watched the oxygen levels drop. ‘For God’s sake Charlie; there are females out there, children.’

  ‘I can hear then in my head Steven. They have no wish or desire to stop fighting. They are more than willing to fight themselves. Their only thought and desire is to capture one of us alive so they can go on living. They are organising groups to rush our men. Overwhelm them with numbers. Did you know, right now there is a group of technicians who are getting the processing plant ready? I received flashes, pictures of these things, do you know what they look like Steven, what they are?’ Steven took a step back and Charlie saw it clearly. ‘You do don’t you? Bloody great blenders Steven and they put men women and children into them alive back on their home world. I saw it in the mind of a technician. They are planning genocide, this is a lot less.’

  Steven took another step back his head dropping, ‘I can’t do it Charlie.’

  ‘I can Stevie. Just keep out of my way.’

  Stevens head came back up and he looked Charlie straight in the eye, ‘that isn’t fair on you.’

  ‘Maybe one day I will stand in a dock and tell the Universe that it was my duty to do so.’

  ‘Only if you were ordered to do so Charlie.’

  ‘I know.’ Charlie glanced at the readouts and turned to De ‘Beer, ‘Bear!’

  His commanding officer looked up from the map he was studying, ‘what is it Charlie?’

  ‘Tell the men in sector 21 that the oxygen levels are dropping fast. If anyone has a damaged suit or helmet they may want to consider linking up or doing repairs.’

  ‘Right,’ De’ Beer gave the orders to his signal man and went back to his map.

  Charlie went back to his task switching off alarms and overriding safety procedures while Steven stood helplessly by.

  Ten minutes later the radio operator called out, ‘sir the men in sector 21 says the enemy have been incapacitated and they are heading for their objective.’

  De’ Beer barely glanced round, ‘right, tell them good work.’

  Ten minutes later the operator shouted again, ‘sir sector 21 reports all the Albany in that sector seem to be dead.’

  ‘What!’ he looked up, ‘Charlie, what the hell happened there?’

  Charlie turned, ‘I switched off their oxygen supply.’

  The De’ Beer was silent for a moment, ‘how the hell did you know how to do that?’

  ‘Long story, not the time for it. Anymore sectors we are having problems with?’

  De’ Beer thought it over for a while, ’17, 28, 91,’ he glanced down at his map, ’72 and 61.’

  ‘I can access 17 and 28 from here but we will have to move to access the others.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Some kind of safety protocol. You can’t shut down the whole damn ship from one place.’

  De’ Beer was having a war with his conscious. ‘OK shut down what you can from here and we will move on.’ Charlie set back too it. Within half an hour sections 17 and 28 had also been cleared. What he never told anyone was that he had also cut the oxygen to the residential areas in those sectors.

  Eddie appeared, ‘Bear, there are thousands of the buggers out there.’

  De ‘Beer looked over, ‘Charlie, can you help from there?’

  ‘No the oxygen flow to this part of the ship is in auxiliary control room 52.’

  ‘There’s no bloody way we will be able to fight our way out from here.’ Eddie added, ‘they have some of those barriers and are getting closer.’

  De’ Beer turned to Steven, ‘can you beam us all out of here?’

  ‘Could do yes.’

  ‘That’s what we will do then. Hand out those discs to all my men will you and put us to our next objective.’ Steven went over and studied the map.

  Charlie went out to help Eddie while some of them planted explosives. Fifteen minutes later they were back on the upper deck of the city ship. Charlie had just cut a hole in the deck and punched in the metal plate. Steven stepped onto the hole with him. He managed a wry smile and shrugged, ‘here we go again Charlie.’

  ‘Aye Stevie, once more into the breach.’ He fired his rifle and both men dropped through the hole.

  Chapter 69

  Three hours later they were getting it down to a fine art. Steven was switching off what defences he could and Charlie was cutting off the oxygen supply to whatever area he could. Their numbers were beginning to dwindle. From the thirty odd men that they had started with the numbers were now down to eighteen. Eddie was leaning against a wall smoking a cigarette while Charlie patched him up. Eddies helmet lay at his feet all scarred and burned, but it was his arm that had taken the full brunt of the fusillade of shots that had greeted them as they approached their objective.

  ‘I can still fight,’ Eddie growled.

  ‘Bollocks,’ Charlie replied, ‘you canna even move your bloody arm let alone hold a rifle. You’re going back.’

  Eddie cursed under his breath for almost a full minute. Eventually he gave up, ‘OK but let me finish my fag first.’

  Charlie sat down with a sigh; took off his own helmet and delved into a pouch. He produced his own cigarettes and lit up.

  Eddie took a deep drag and let the smoke out slowly, ‘Oh man that’s good.’

  ‘Aye Charlie agreed.’

  ‘At least I’m no bleeding to death,’ Eddie summarised his wounds.

  ‘Aye these energy guns leave a nice wee cauterised wound don’t they?’ Charlie agreed.

  ‘Still I wouldn’t mind a fifty cal as back up,’ Eddie scratched his chin with his good hand thoughtfully. ‘It would scare the shit out of these buggers I’m thinking.’ Charlie found he had to agree.

  De’ Beer appeared from somewhere, ‘you pair slacking off again.’ He slid down the wall with a sigh and removed his helmet. His face was as lathered as Eddies while Charlie still looked quite fresh. He sniffed, ‘god I hate the smell of cigarettes.’

  ‘Put your helmet back on then,’ Eddie spat at him unsympathetically.

  ‘Don’t talk to me like that Eddie or I will boot your arse out the nearest airlock.’ The three men laughed easily together. De’ Beer sighed, ‘you fought well Eddie and were an inspiration to the troops.’

  ‘Aye and then I got bloody shot.’ They laughed again. ‘What’s the big picture sir?’

  ‘We have most of this sector disabled. There are a few guns still firing. Their shields are almost none existent at the moment. Most of their troops are now wearing space suits so Charlie’s trick isn’t working any more. The destroyers are working hard slipping in and out taking out guns where they can. Trouble is the remaining auxiliary command centres are being heavily defended like this one. We can’t get near them, we have become bogged down. I have been in touch with Admiral Baxter, he thinks it’s time to change tactics. We pull quarter of the troops away and attack the gun emplacements from above. The rest can keep them occupied from here. So far our ships within the shields have remained undetected.’

  ‘Why not use the ships to take out the guns, or deploy explosives sir?’ Eddie asked.

  ‘If they fire their guns they will be spotted immediately and they have little defence against the weapons this city has. They also believe beaming in explosives the way we want them to could also compromise their position. It’s got to be done by hand the same way we took out the shields.’

  Eddie sniffed, ‘to hell with that. They know we’re here now. Looks like you’re gonna get killed Charlie.’

  Charlie laughed, ‘go fuck yourself Eddie. I’d rather be out there than down here in this rat hole being ambushed every ten seconds.’

  Eddie grinned painfully, ‘you know what they said about
those guns Charlie. If they discharge close to you they can compromise your suit. Blow its circuits with the discharge.’

  ‘The pain beginning to hit you is it mucker?’

  Eddie stubbed out his cigarette, ‘we bit.’

  Charlie took out a small pistol like thing from one of eddies pouches and shot it into his good arm. ‘Time for you to go bud.’ Charlie pinned a silver disc to Eddie’s suit and a few seconds later he disappeared.

  ‘You up for this Job Charlie.’ De’ Beer asked.

  ‘Oh hell aye, bring it on.’

  ‘There are still seventy guns in this sector Charlie. Once they are down they will be able to begin the landings.’

  ‘We need to get a shift on our arses then Bear.’ Charlie stubbed out his cigarette and put his helmet back on.

  Twenty minutes later he and Steven were racing across the rooftops. They stopped at the far end of a building and contemplated the leap ahead. Steven shook his head, ‘there’s no way I can make that Charlie.’

  ‘I’ll manage Stevie.’ Charlie took of the pack he was carrying and carelessly shoved a packet of explosives under his belt. Slinging his rifle he took a run and leapt for a ledge on the super structure across from them. He misjudged it and slammed into the wall, almost bouncing back over the ledge. He teetered for a moment.

  ‘That looked nasty Charlie, you OK.’

  Charlie laughed, ‘aye Stevie, I’m fine.’

  One of the largest cannons was in sight just quarter of a mile away and about a hundred feet above their heads. Charlie’s eyes examined the route he would take. There was just enough protrusions to get him there. Charlie took off as fast as he could. This time he never made a mistake. Leaping high he managed to bounce from one spot to the other until he reached the massive gun. He placed the explosives to where one of the double barrels protruded from its housing. Taking a chance he ran along the length of the barrel and leapt for the nearest building. He landed and rolled. As he came to his feet he felt eyes on him. His eyes focused quickly. A few buildings away two creatures stood at a window pointing at him. Instinctively Charlie aimed and fired. The two figures disappeared out of sight and Charlie was sure he had hit them.

  ‘What are you shooting at Charlie?’

  ‘Someone spotted us Stevie,’ Charlie answered through his communication link. ‘Better inform the Bear, we could be compromised.’

  Steven switched to the different frequency and told De’ Beer what was happening. Steven listened to his reply then warned Charlie. ‘De’ Beer says we have over fifty of them mined and he is going to blow them now. Get the hell out of there Charlie.’

  ‘On my way Stevie.’ Charlie leapt from building to building until he reached Stevie. They raced away in the direction of their next target. It was almost seven minutes later when De ‘Beer set off the explosives. ‘That should bring the buggers up,’ Charlie thought aloud.

  ‘It didn’t before,’ Steven mused.

  ‘No because we went down after them. They will realise now we aren’t going for the control rooms.’ A dozen destroyers suddenly appeared and began firing at the remaining guns. The two men skidded to a halt and took cover. Charlie peeped up above the edge of the building they were hiding on. One destroyer was hit multiple times and began to limp away unable to slip. The others quickly hammered the remaining guns into silence.

  ‘That’s the last of them,’ Charlie announced. ‘Give it a few seconds and the landing craft will start hitting this thing.’ He looked at Stevie, ‘looks like that’s your job done Stevie.’

  ‘I want to stay with you Charlie.’

  Charlie shook his head, ‘sorry Stevie, this is all grunt work now. De’ Beer will pull in what’s left of the Battalion and we will mark the landing areas. Your job is to get us there, then the bloody wounded out of here.’

  Steven smiled slowly and reached out a hand, ‘would you like to join us Charlie.’

  Charlie shook it, ‘if you can get me a posting. I have almost done my twenty two years and the government owes me a bloody great pension.’

  Steven laughed, ‘I think I could beat that. It’s been great spending time with you Charlie.’

  Charlie looked up to where huge ships were beginning to arrive, ‘why is it every time we get together Stevie some bugger is trying to do us in?’

  They were still laughing when they dematerialised.

  Chapter 70

  The commander of the Albany City Ship fighter force listened to the report from his subordinate in disbelief. ‘The whole of our command structure is wiped out.’

  The officer stood staring at a point far out into space. ‘Completely sir. There is a hole from one side of the ship to the other. I think it went straight through the command centre. There is no one in command. I ran into others on the same mission. The humans are attacking all of the auxiliary command centres in the third quadrant.’

  ‘So no ones in charge.’

  ‘From what I hear you are the senior commander sir.’

  The news made him reel, ‘have the humans been captured?’

  ‘From what I can make out the humans have been wining sir. Most of the auxiliary command centres have been destroyed throughout the ship. The humans have suffered severe casualties and they believe they have been halted for now.’

  A thought occurred to him, ‘what about the main command centres, have they been attacked?’

  ‘As far as I am aware sir, no human has gone near them.’

  ‘What about the auxiliary command centre in this sector?’

  ‘You would already know sir. It isn’t far from your own command centre in this section and on the same level.’

  ‘Round up as many armed personnel as you can, quickly.’

  Fifteen minutes later a heavily armed force made their way to the auxiliary command centre in the fighter wing section. Their communications arrays were still intact and he sent a message to the high command at home. It took them almost half an hour to make a decision.

  He felt a thrill run through him. He was now acting supreme commander. The codes were changed and he felt power rush through his fingertips as he put in his details and the command was transferred to him. He had only one chance of regaining full control and that was from the main control room. There was no report of fighting in that area at all. The problem was it was full of the contagion and he had human DNA. It wouldn’t kill him but it could make him and those of his command who were immune to this solar system very unwell. He gave orders to purge the whole building and open it to space. They were about to leave when an operator grabbed his attention.

  ‘Sir you have to see this.’

  ‘What is it?’ He snapped.

  ‘Sir it is on the news.’

  He was on the point of bawling the man out for watching it when the man played the scene back. Instead he shook his head, ‘what was that?’

  ‘I think it was a human sir. Outside on the hull after one of our guns.’

  ‘Can you zoom in a little?’

  ‘Yes sir.’

  The operator played the scene again. They watched the human race across the superstructure then leap high. He reached the gun in a few bounds. Did something to the barrel of the gun then run along it and leap to the nearest building. The human reappeared briefly then there was a green flash. The news feed was cut. He found it hard to comprehend what he was seeing. ‘Is there sound, what were the reporters doing?’

  The operator played the whole thing back with sound this time. The reporter was giving an overview of the battle so far, or as little as they knew of the situation. They reported that the shields had been damaged and that they believed there were human’s on board the ship somewhere and their forces were involved in a deadly battle. Up until that moment they had seen no evidence themselves of the battle, only rumour; as yet there was no sign of a human fleet. It was then the camera man had spotted the two figures leaping across a gap between two buildings. He had brought the reporters attention to it and they had speculated on who or w
hat they were seeing. The green flash had ended their lives. He had never truly faced fear until that moment. He didn’t recognise the symptoms at first. A strange taste invaded his palate and his throat had gone dry.

  ‘When was this taken?’

  The operator checked, ‘I believe I saw it live sir. Barely minutes ago.’

  His mind unfroze and began to work properly, ‘there must only be a small force of humans on board. Somehow they got past our defences, they must be trying to disable the guns in the third quadrant for a landing there. They have been attacking the auxiliary command centres and trying to shut down the grid in that sector and then destroying them.’

  ‘How did they know not to attack the main command centre sir?’ An aid asked.

  ‘I don’t know and don’t care. The simple fact is they do know. They also seem to know the layout of the city and how to disable our guns and shields. The only place we can regain control from is the main command centre. From there we can override everything they have done so far. We need to move fast.’

  He judged it would take them at least half an hour to reach it and take complete control of the ship again. He considered staying where he was for a moment but then the thought of a creature like the one they had just seen busting through the door made him shudder. The humans obviously had a plan and that plan included taking out the auxiliary command centres. He had little doubt that this one would soon become a target. It was just a matter of time. The only thing he was certain of was that they had shown no interest in the unshielded main control centre and that was where he wanted to be. Once they activated the shields surrounding it the humans would have a hard time regaining any kind of control.

  ‘It won’t be long before their main landings take place. Tell the fighter squadrons to stand by. They will attack the troopships and landing craft. Order visual observation points and the squadron commanders to attack as soon as they are sighted.’

  The race was now on. He realised most of his guns had been taken out manually and this was the humans attempt to take out the guns that were left in that quadrant so they could effect a successful landing. The thoughts of thousands of those creatures leaping about all over the ship made his skin crawl. Someone would be taken to task for this. They had been led to believe the humans were small and weak creatures. The creature he saw on the newsfeed may have seemed quite small, but it was anything but weak. How had it seen the film crew and how had it been able to hit them at such a vast distance.