by Isaac Stone
STARSHIP PARADISO
(Helltroopers Book 3)
By Isaac Stone
Contributions by Timothy Mayer
Copyright 2017 by Isaac Stone
CANTO: Introduction
In the early 1300’s a man named Dante Alighieri crafted his masterwork, in the form of a narrative poem Divine Comedy, detailing an exhaustive journey through the Inferno, Purgatory, and Heavenly realms. The Helltroopers trilogy is a sci-fi remix of this mighty work, and follows a squad of space marines and a mysterious android as they take the harrowing journey through those reimagined realms. The novels remain faithful to Dante’s work, and so be warned that they do not follow the typical narrative structure one might expect from an average story, but instead adhere to the structure of the original Divine Comedy.
Strap on your power armor and get ready to fight like hell.
1
The barren face of Mercury retreated in the distance as the electrostatic engines of the starship Paradiso kicked into full power. They would need a good five thousand mile distance to be truly effective. Only when they were far enough from any habitation could Ash Wednesday afford to have Simon Haddo begin the sequence to start the jump drive. Then they would know if it even worked or not. In truth, the jump drive was tested many times before the Paradiso was stashed in the crevice on Mercury.
The remainder of the Team Omega, Ash’s security company, stood on the deck of the starship and watched the retreating from of Mercury in the viewports. The bright face of the sun was nearby and filtered to be watchable in this close distance to her. In the distance, solar prominences danced across the surface of the burning gas face of Sol.
Now Paradiso accelerated at fifty percent of its capacity toward the next destination. The internal rotation of the starship allowed them to feel the effects of simulated gravity and stand normal inside the massive ship. Built to hold several hindered space voyagers, the starship had a crew of five right now. Ash, his pilot Makulah, and the rest of Team Omega: Kris, Costa, Theo and Jack. The artificial human Barbara Ann was destroyed by an attack from mercenaries loyal to employers unknown, though likely from rivals within EAC itself. The man they had been sent to capture, Simon Haddo, was with them and gave orders to the AI, which controlled the ship. Their own AI, Char, was contained in a box on Theo’s belt and by all accounts seemed glad to have some company for a change.
“We won’t need the jump drive to get us to Venus,” Haddo explained to them. “This ship can do it on its own. We’ll be coming up on the first Hell Gate soon enough and Paradiso will take good care of it.” Still wearing his black coat, the shaven head Haddo stepped back from a bank of instruments. He appeared pleased with what he saw.
Four hours ago, Team Omega entered the starship determined to capture Haddo for the reward money. They’d lost one companion in the process and taken wounds along the way. After descending through all the strange levels of the former military base, they found the lone form of Haddo inside the starship. He proved to them, at least to a degree, that the corporation after him had nefarious plans for the human race. They’d built beacons across the solar system to summon demonic creatures from beyond the abyss. EAC, the corporate sponsor for Team Omega, had placed slip stone crystals inside the new power pack batteries they sold across the system. At just the right time, divined by whatever strange magicks Haddo and the rest of the EAC inner circle used, the crystals would activate and open the Hell Gate to the Other Side.
Now they had to destroy the beacons before the corporation found a way to activate them. At some point, enough of the cursed power packs would be in operation to power the Hell Gate. No big deal, just a mission to save the whole of reality.
“Was there supposed to be any deliveries after we arrived?” Costa asked Ash after he noticed something odd on the scanner. “We have a bunch of new arrivals headed our way. Were they scheduled to make a delivery or retrieval?” He made a few gentle adjustments, as the design of the scanner was not familiar to him.
“Nobody from the corporation mentioned one,” Ash called out. “But they fed us the information they wanted us to have.” He missed Barbara Ann already, even though she was not technically human, so used had he grown to her helpful, even if at time infuriating presence.
“Let me have a look at those readings,” Haddo asked him as he lumbered over to where Costa stood. He stopped at the panel and looked at the data as it came across the screen.
“I thought you ditched science years ago,” Costa snipped at him as he moved out of the way.
“One doesn’t have to be a scientist to believe in the tools which make it up,” Haddo shot back at him as he stared at the screen. He closed his eyes for a few minutes and concentrated.
“Attack ships,” Haddo told them. “The corporation has decided you aren’t with them any longer, so they don’t want to lose me or this ship, at least that is a safe assumption. Don’t worry; the Paradiso is built with a broad spectrum of armaments. The builders didn’t know what it might encounter outside the solar system.” He walked over to another panel inside the huge control room.
“Viktor,” he informed the AI systems which monitored and controlled the star ship. “We are under attack. Please take evasive action and keep us informed of the results.”
A head formed in the space above him. It had North African features and wore a distinctive head wrap. It took Ash a few seconds to realize the face was that of a New Kingdom Egyptian Pharaoh. The head floated over to Haddo and stopped in front of him.
“I register four annihilator class attack ships,” it told him. “I have attempted to contact the ships, but they are refusing to talk with us. I believe the ships are in the employment of some rogue faction within EAC. They talk to each other on a secure transmission frequency outside of the standard military ones. I request permission to engage and destroy them as they are now considered enemy combatants.”
“That’s what I like about you AI chummers,” Haddo said to the head. “You make the most ghastly things sound so normal. I give you permission. Take no prisoners and all that.” The head vanished.
“What do you expect the ship to do?” Kris asked Haddo.
“The Paradiso is armed with four Electro Magnetic Pulse cannons, amongst many other things,” he told her. “The designers knew she might run into danger out there and wanted to make sure she had offensive abilities. In a few minutes, we may get to see them in use if the attack ships from the corporate goons refuse to break off their assault. “
The crew stood back and watched the attack ships sent out by the corporation, but did very little to assist. The Paradiso was under the control of the AI’s. They were able to calculate the movements of the attack ships faster than any human mind. All Team Omega needed to do was sit back and watch. Periodically, the head would re-materialize and advise Haddo on the outcome of a particular maneuver against the corporate attack ships.
Ash watched a large sphere materialize in the middle of the control deck as the ship’s cybernetics tracked the movements of the enemy when they made contact. It was obvious to him that the corporate ships were out classed. However, it was always possible for an experienced fighter pilot to do the unexpected and beat an AI. It was one of the reasons that AI’s had not completely taken over control of the military. Of course, the fact that their human builders didn’t trust them had something to do with it too.
On the 3D diagram, the four attack ships came in at a crescent pattern and tried to envelope the starship. It was a classic maneuver used by navies centuries ago back on Old Earth. It almost worked against the Paradiso. When they were just in range, the two lead ships on either end of the crescent horns released
a salvo of missiles aimed right at the starship. At which point it was obvious to everyone that the enemy had no intent of taking prisoners.
The Paradiso waited until the main thrust of the missiles was at maximum. It then powered up the plasma cannons. Located just below and above the main body of the Paradiso, they were built with asteroids and cosmic debris in mind, but a human attack ship worked just fine as a target. The first two cannons unleashed their charged particles in the direction of the missiles and burned them instantly. Since the attack ships fired first, the starship had no issue as it turned the full power of all four cannons on the four attack ships.
Ash couldn’t understand why the attack ship symbols changed color on the screen. Then he realized it was the AI’s way of letting them know the damage each ship took as it was struck by the cannons. He watched the images shift from green to yellow. After a few minutes of an intense red glow, all four hostile symbols went blank.
The head rematerialized again and floated down to Haddo. “All four targets destroyed,” it told him. “There are no further hostile forces in this sector. Do you wish us to undertake a deep navigational scan of the space around this ship?”
Haddo yawned and gestured to Ash. “My good friend Ash Wednesday is now in charge, via Protocol 87, which I enact now of sound body, mind, and of my own free will Viktor,” he told the head. “Please take your instructions from him henceforth.”
“Do a complete scan of the space around us,” Ash instructed it. “Search for any signs of aggressive actions. Scan for five million miles. Change that, make it six million. Report to me if you see anything unusual.”
“I’ll let you know right away,” the head told him and vanished.
“So why call the AI Viktor?” Ash questioned Haddo. He still found it an annoyance to talk to a disembodied head even after all the years he was forced to do it.
“You can give him whatever name you like,” Haddo responded. “I chose Viktor, after an old friend.”
“We’ll stick with Viktor,” Ash told him. “I’ll remember the name and it saves me the trouble of coming up with a new one.”
“The battle didn’t last very long,” Theo mentioned. As with the others, he’d stood and waited to see how things would turn out.
“It was some kind of suicide attack,” Haddo commented. “Who ever tried that maneuver had no experience against a ship of this size. Right now, those Hell Beacons under control of the corporation have disturbed the aether that surrounds this reality and universe. I expect we’ll see more of this crazy, unplanned behavior each time we locate a Hell Beacon.
“Aethers?” Kris asked. “What are you talking about?” She’s seen enough not to assume there was a logical answer for every phenomena, but not so stupid as to except blind explanations from Haddo.
“There are thirty aethers which surround the physical universe,” he explained. “Each one is controlled by a different angel. When the corporation began to install those Hell Beacons, they radiated a form of energy out into the universe capable of influencing and over time controlling the fundamental building blocks of this reality. If they activate the entire Hell Gate, this solar system, this universe, this reality, will no longer exist as we know it. It’s why they want to stop this ship so bad they’ll launch a suicide charge against it.”
“This is all sounding so mumbo-jumbo,” Jack grumbled. He scratched his face and looked at the projected sphere over their heads as the star ship tried to scan for any more hostiles.
“It doesn’t matter whether or not you believe,” Haddo explained. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s real or not. What matters is who believes in it and how they’ll react. As far as I can tell, those cosmic aethers, which are on the other side of the Hell Gate, are merely a map. It’s because our pathetic minds can’t conceive of anything else.”
“And you’ve spent a lifetime on this?” Makulah asked him. “Sounds like you have a lot of knowledge about the great beyond.” He was serious.
“Too much knowledge,” Haddo responded as he looked at the panels in front of him. “I decided to explore areas where people lose their minds. I didn’t lose my mind, at least I don’t think I did, but I learned a lot while I was out there. Sometimes I think I would’ve been better off without this knowledge. But there is no going back and I’ve seen too much to forget.”
“And for this the corporation wants you dead,” Ash said to him. “It seems a little bit insane.”
“Nothing in this universe makes sense when you really look at it,” Haddo responded. “But, yes, this is one of the reasons they want me dead and gone.”
“Just so long as it’s understood I am in charge of this ship until we take out the last of those Hell Beacons,” Ash told him. “I won’t have you pulling out at the last minute and abandoning us somewhere near Pluto.”
“My dear lad,” Haddo laughed. “I’m sure you have every reason not to trust me. I wouldn’t trust myself if I believed any of the nonsense the corporation has spread about me. They had to do that to have someone to blame for all their problems over the years. The corporation doesn’t want to admit that they’re a big part of the reason so many disasters befell humanity as the planets were opened up for colonization.”
“Attention, Ash,” the floating head announced as it materialized over them. “There is a bit of news you might find useful. You did ask us to scan for anything hostile to the ship.”
“Are we under attack again, Viktor?” he asked the head as it hovered over him. “Have they already assembled another squadron?” The rest of the crew looked up at the head with him.
“No,” it told him. “We have received word the corporation decided to expand its power pack program, based on cycling keyword searches I plucked from your conversation. Apparently, they were able to get more produced from the factory here than we thought. Or perhaps they have other production facilities in other places. It’s a little hard to tell from the transmission we received. Would you like me to broadcast the transmission on a screen?”
“Let’s have the bad news,” Ash told him. “I’m sure it won’t get any better.” He looked up to see a sphere form in the air over them.
“…announced today the new power pack will be given out free in the initial stages,” a large face on the sphere proclaimed to everyone. “EAC claims this new power pack will solve most of the system’s energy needs in years to come. The free power packs produce enough electricity to run most home appliances and are equipped with a monitoring device to see how well they perform.”
The image turned to one of people who lined up to receive their free powered packs. “Already crowds have formed at the major distribution centers across the settlements and colonies. It is estimated that Old Earth will be the first to achieve more than thirty percent of its electrical requirements from the use of these packs. In other news…” The sphere faded.
“They have to know we are after them,” Ash concluded. “Guess this was Plan B if those attack ships failed. When we took them out, it was launched. Good and fine, I expected a response on this scale, but not so direct.” He turned to Haddo. “Where is the first one of these Hell Beacons?”
“Right behind us,” Haddo explained. “On the south pole of Mercury, buried about three hundred feet below the surface. We need to get out far enough before the Paradiso could have room to fire and be certain to hit the target.”
2
Paradiso swung around the inner orbit of the sun and lined up for a direct shot on the Hell Beacon beneath the surface of Mercury.
It took a few hours for the starship to find the correct angle to hit the target. The Paradiso needed enough room for the Electromagnetic Pulsar to charge so the hit would count. The EMP weapon was located near the plasma cannons, but was much larger and easier to fail. The little cybernetic devices they used to maintain the ship swarmed over the EMP array, which resembled a barbell extended out from the main body of the ship. Once it had enough power from the sun, it would fire and leave a crater the size
of a lunar meteorite strike on the surface of Mercury. Haddo was convinced it could be done in one shot, but Ash wasn’t so sure.
“I’m starting to feel useless,” Jack told him as they watched the panels dedicated to the EMP illuminate and begin to show power levels and targets. The danger in using a modified EMP was that it could destroy any electronics in a close range to the impact point.
“There will be a need for rifles eventually, of that I’m certain,” Ash told him. “Right now it’s Viktor’s game. I’m going to let him coordinate it all. I’ll give the final word.”
Once more, the sphere formed over them. The watched as the location of the beacon was indicated on it. A scanner probed through the ground and found it. Information on its size and location was sent back to the ship. They watched as Viktor and its cluster of lesser AI companions calculated how much energy would be needed to destroy the Hell Beacon.
“Pulsifiers at capacity,” Viktor informed him. “We have an eighty percent confidence rate the discharge will destroy everything associated with the beacon and turn it to molten metal in the process.”
“What if you miss?” Ash questioned.
“Then there is a ninety percent chance the pulse will take out all electronics at the former Purgatory surface base and kill all the inhabitants.” Viktor waited for a response.
Ash gritted his teeth. “Do it,” he informed Viktor. “We have to destroy those Hell Beacons or there won’t be a universe to save. Everybody in that base either wishes they were dead or would if they had full awareness of their situation.”
He watched as the lights on the panels flashed and went to green. The EMP gun fired, but there were no loud noise. Ash wished someone would build sound effects into these things. A noiseless battle didn't seem real to anyone.
He watched the screen overhead as the surface point on Mercury above the Hell Beacon glowed, then began to bubble. The intense pulse destroyed everything at the impact point and created an artificial volcano beneath it. Lava flowed to the surface as rocks, which had withstood the direct rays of the sun for millions of years, became molten. He saw fountains of lava burst loose from the depths of the planet and spout into the air.