by Terry Frost
Hammer remained guarded while Jeeves seemed to be his normal, non-plussed self while being in his Science Officer frame of mind. The reason for Colonel Hammer’s guarded frame of mind was obvious to anyone other than Jeeves.
A telling sign that whoever lived in the fort had designed the exterior ground level in thoughts of repelling someone or something from getting access to the walls of the fort from ground level to a dozen feet high.
Logs six foot in diameter were sharpened on one end resembling spears and were facing out all around the entire fort. Many of them were covered with a dried yellow-green goo, but there was nothing indicating what had left the material on the spear-like logs.
“What the hell is that stuff on those logs?” Hammer asked.
“If I were to hypothesize I would say it is an alien creatures blood. I would also suggest it isn’t the blood of those creatures that attacked the Marines, as it isn’t similar in color.”
“Well, whatever lived in the fort installed the spears in a defensive capacity.”
Colonel Hammer drove the Rover right up to the wide doors and stopped. They both exited the Rover and walked up to the doors and quickly saw they were not latched or closed. Jeeves took both his hands and pulled the door on the right open just enough for them to get inside the fort.
After seeing how huge the area of the fort was, Hammer decided they had better bring the Rover in as it was too big an area to walk. Jeeves agreed, remembering Striker’s scan registered it to be three square miles in size.
There was a lookout tower on each corner of the fort. Each tower was accessed by six-foot wide rows of stairs. There were hundreds of different size and shapes of buildings in the fort spread throughout. The majority were located along the interior walls, many of them looked to be habitats where the aliens took up residency.
There was a large blacksmith shop containing anvils, metal cooling vats, and a large number of forging tools lying on the floor of the shop. It was as if the shop had been ransacked and there were many tables, shelves, etc. that were covered in the yellow-green goo.
The further Hammer and Jeeves drove around they saw the goo was practically everywhere. Jeeves said, “Colonel, I believe the aliens living in the fort had been attacked by whatever owns the goo, as you call it.”
“I concur. But why aren’t there any skeletons or bones lying around? Do you think whatever it was that breached the fort hauled the remains of those here off?”
“Highly probable, Colonel. Let’s just hope there aren’t any of the offenders still in this place,” Jeeves said.
“I’ll agree with that. I’m going to stop here to check out inside one of these homes.”
They got out of the Rover and walked up to the door and Hammer pushed it open. What they saw inside the home gave them their answer to where the majority of the inhabitants or remains must be.
In the far corner of the home were four skeletons. They had heads larger than any known Human, about a third larger. Two of the four was half the size of the adults, which to Hammer indicated they might have been the offspring of the two larger ones. It was easy to tell which of the adults was the male, as its skeleton was half again as big. Both had a silver dollar size hole in the middle of their skulls and the hole went all the way through. The smaller ones had been decapitated and their skulls were missing.
Jeeves bent down next to the male alien and after a few seconds turned his head, looked up at Hammer and said, “Colonel, the hole in its head is perfectly round and I have seen this before.”
“Where was that?”
The Commodore stood, then walked over to one of the headless young and began examining the area where the head left the body and said, “I had my suspicions when we saw the log spears covered in the yellow-green alien blood. I saw those holes in several of the Putu’s young killed by the Evil Eater back on Commodore’s Moon.”
“Time to go. I need to call Dubois. From your explanation of the Evil Eater, it would be in our favor not to run into a horde of those things. We can continue the exploration when we have scanned the entire planet before proceeding with our discoveries on the surface.”
They headed for the door and as they walked, Jeeves said, “You mean to say you aren’t going to contact Admiral Allen first?”
“Nice try, you walking hard drive. You just want to see me get my ass reamed by Dubois if I don’t respect the Chain of Command. And for you’re information, I’m trying hard to respect that.”
Chapter 30
Colonel Hammer contacted General Dubois and they both agreed that the expedition force needed to return to Colossus. A strategy session was needed. Hammer told his general that any return to the planet needs to encompass a wider, more thorough exploration instead of targeting one area and he would give him his thoughts as to why in the forthcoming meeting.
The strategy meeting had just begun and Commodore Jeeves was telling the executive staff about his suspicions of who he was convinced had done the wholesale slaughtering of the big-headed aliens that lived inside the confines of the massive fort.
Once Jeeves had given his thoughts, Admiral Allen asked Colonel Hammer what were his thoughts on calling off the mission.
“The Commodore and I agreed that the attack on the fort was achieved by a large number of the Mantis species. In order for us to gain knowledge of the Mantis’s attack force I felt we needed to explore more of the planet to see if there are any more of the big-headed race living on that planet.”
“If I may sir,” Jeeves asked. Allen gave him a nod to proceed.
“Colonel Hammer and I agreed we should look for survivors of the species that call the planet their home so we can communicate with them about their attackers, and gain knowledge of the population of the big-headed species.
“It is my personal opinion, based on my discovery of the Mantis and his wrecked ship on Commodore’s Moon, that they might well be another species similar to the Hive that feeds on the warm-blooded. I believe the ship I discovered on the moon was a scout ship.”
“Fantastic. Another new menace,” Vice Admiral Petrov said.
Discussions went on for another hour, then Admiral Allen said he had heard enough and ordered General Dubois, Colonel Hammer, and Commodore Jeeves to formulate a plan to safely explore the world of the big-headed species.
“Our top priority is to explore, for the time being, the planet from the air. And secondly, try to locate surviving populations of any and all aliens living on the planet. Gentlemen, I want your strategy by 3:00 p.m. today. Dismissed.”
3:00 p.m. came and Admiral Allen had the strategic plan in his hand and was looking it over. The plan details included scanning the entire planet at an altitude of 3,000 feet. There would be no foot traffic by any exploration team during the scans.
All participants were to document any signs of life, or habitats of any aliens, mark their locations, and immediately report to Command upon the discovery of such. Since the Perseus was still out of commission, the plan would implement the use of the three Aborian Predators, the Striker, a group of hornets, and two squadrons of combat wasps. Colonel Hammer would be in command of the mission.
8:00 p.m. in Colossus’s mess hall sat Hammer, Slain, Sokolov, Teasor, Hoser, Baffy, and Cargon. Hammer wanted to talk to his subordinates about the most effective way to go about using all the spacecraft to get the biggest bang for their buck.
Everyone agreed to scan in a widespread formation using all ships traveling in the same direction while staying close enough to each other to visibly see the ships or ship next to them. No one would be allowed to break formation for any reason.
If discoveries were made by any team member other than those on the Striker they would call their findings into Colonel Hammer. Hammer would then call General Dubois so he could document the location of the discovery. Before the conversation ended, Captain Sokolov brought up a subject no one else had considered.
“Something nobody has talked about was the chance of another one of thos
e wind anomalies. If one of those hit ships the size of the wasps or hornets, they would be tossed around like a leaf in a windstorm. And depending on how long the anomaly persists, we could lose many of our fighters.”
“Damn glad you thought of that, Captain. Right at this moment, I can’t figure out why the subject didn’t come up at our meeting,” Hammer said.
“Would I be correct in saying you didn’t have any warning of the anomaly, Captain?” asked Captain Slain.
“Correct. One second we were smooth sailing then it hit us broadside. It was so strong, Perseus almost flipped upside down,” Sokolov explained.
“Well, hell. I’m going to recommend to Dubois that we don’t use our smaller ships, and before you say it, yes, the mission will take a hell of a lot longer to accomplish, but we can’t afford to lose any of our wasps or hornets, and besides, what else do we have to do?”
Hammer knew the planet’s objective had changed from the discovery of Humanity’s new home to an investigation of a new menace similar to the Hive. He thought until we figure out what the Mantis species is all about and where they came from, no one is going to choose this planet for our new home.
Colonel Hammer reminded General Dubois about the wind anomaly and was pissed that he had forgotten to bring it up at the meeting as well as Hammer, he talked it over with Admiral Allen and they decided to not use the smaller ships. Allen contacted the team working on Perseus and told them to light a fire and get the damn Battlecruiser back in service.
At 7:00 a.m. the exploration group left the confines of Colossus, along with the three Predators, minus the wasps and hornets, and began their mission, which they named Operation Mantis. Since there wouldn’t be any of the smaller ships flying the mission, Major Hoser, Captain Sokolov, and Lieutenant Baffy would be riding along with the Predators. Colossus would play a large part in the mission as she would be using her powerful scanners to scan from space as well.
As the mission broke into the planet’s atmosphere it looked to be an excellent day to begin. The ships settled down to 3,000 feet with each ship spread ten miles apart. They began their mission over the fort and continued towards the mountain range.
Within five miles of the range, the surface changed from forest to a landscape of large boulders, some of them weighing several tons apiece. The boulder-filled landscape continued right up to the base of the mountains. The mountains were covered with trees up to the higher elevations then turned into solid rock until they disappeared into the clouds.
The group turned sharply and headed down the range flying from west to east. The Striker and her crew, which was situated in the middle of the four ships were the first to see a herd of animals with long necks, not as long as giraffes back on the Earth, but about half the length, running on the edge of a forest in an open area. Hammer called their sighting into General Dubois, then continued on.
The group flew nearly fifty miles on their headings when the Predator Major Hoser was in, and positioned as the far west ship, flew over another fort similar to the first one they found on the first day of exploration.
This time the fort looked to have been burned as nearly every structure inside was nothing but piles of charred wood. Major Hoser called Colonel Hammer to inform him of his discovery. The rest of the day hadn’t produced much other than registering a large herd of animals similar in size and shape of the African Impala, grazing on fields of short grass.
Shadows were beginning to cover an extremely large forest and Colonel Hammer marked their location then ordered everyone back to Colossus for the remaining few hours of daylight. The team would continue their search the following day. Hammer wanted to discuss what they saw in reference to the burnt fort with his superiors.
Chapter 31
Back on Planet Daak, King Gorvik had ordered his military to search the planet for more Daakie survivors lead by Caid Maalik and had been searching for three days. Science Officer Faadin and his group of scientists had discovered the secrets to firing the two tower weapons.
The weapons were particle beam weapons and more powerful than anything the Daakie had seen before. They came to the conclusion that the Hive was far more intelligent than first believed. Knowing that gave the Daakie High Command pause about coming back to their homeworld as soon as they did.
When the discovery came to light, Faadin tried to convince King Gorvik that at least he and Queen Junal should return to Planet Abor until a time he felt they could protect him and his queen.
Gorvik said, “I will not run to safety while you, Caid Maalik, my military, and my surviving subjects stay here to face whatever comes this way. Do not question my resolve on this issue, Science Officer Faadin. But know that I understand your concern for our safety and do appreciate your desire to protect your king, and his family.”
Faadin left the palace and continued other tasks requiring his attention. An hour later Caid Maalik was standing before his king.
“So, Caid, what news do you have for me this day on your efforts to locate more of my subjects?”
“Your Grace. We have only been searching for three days and still have much of our world to search. I am pleased to tell you that we have found a few thousand that took to hiding in the vast caverns on Mount Dormor.
“Unfortunately, most of those are females and their offspring, but we did manage to find among the population, two hundred fighting-age males. After talking to one male in particular that served as a member of our ground troops, I was informed that most of the men whose families fled our main cities and villages sent their loved ones to the caverns while they fought the attacking ground forces of the Hive.
“Sadly, Your Grace, we lost several thousand of our best Daakie soldiers in those battles. Many of the survivors are malnourished and in dire need of medical treatment. I had our transports load them up and take them to a large infirmary near our manufacturing facilities.”
“I am saddened to hear about the loss of our brave fighters and am hoping it's not too late for the malnourished. I expect you will order the search to continue.”
“Yes, that is ongoing as we speak, Your Grace.”
“Good. You look tired, Caid. I command that you take time to rest. I can’t afford to lose you due to your exhaustion. You are dismissed. Thank you for your report. Now go rest.”
“As you wish, my King.”
Maalik was as tired as he could ever remember being in his whole life and he had every intention to do as his king had ordered, but not until he checked on his king and queen’s fast escape ship he commissioned to be built as quickly as Daakie possible.
The ship’s design was one of a diving falcon with its wings folded next to its body, which aided the predator’s ability to create fantastic speeds. The ship was black as coal and had two silver stripes running from the ship’s bridge back to either side of the short fins running vertically from the far end of the ship.
The fast escape ship was just under two hundred feet in length and forty feet wide. It had a range of weapons, all controlled by the three pilots of the craft on a bridge that housed nine Daakie that performed a variety of functions. Just a few inches along the bottom of the bridge was the name of his creation and that name was Gaakin. His past king and, King Gorvik’s father.
Chapter 32
The planet was near the end of being scanned by the Humans and had taken eight days to complete. Colossus’s scans showed there to be nothing on the northern side of the mountain range but an ocean that continued for thousands of miles.
Perseus had been put back in action and combined with the Striker and Predators the exploration team had uncovered a total of eight forts and eight cities. Half of them were constructed the same as the first two forts. The remaining habitats had no walls and were open to the areas surrounding them.
When the scanning mission completed on the eighth day, a meeting was called by Admiral Allen to discuss the plan for more close up exploration using ground teams. Allen let General Dubois begin the meeting. He was standing
next to the big screen showing slides of many of the areas scanned.
“As you were already informed Admiral, of the sixteen habitats, our teams found no sign of the alien species we named BigHeads, alive. Several had a wide range of animals foraging within the open cities. Commander Sulin and Lieutenant Baffy recorded a major lumber mill near the largest city, and that is this one,” Dubois said as he pointed at the city.
Dubois brought up the next slide that showed a large scorch mark and six deep impressions, three on opposite sides of the marks. “We do not know what made the impression and I would entertain the idea of inspecting it to see if we determine what it is. We found three more of those impressions near an open city and the other two were near two forts. That’s all I have, for now, Admiral.”
“Thank you, General. Commodore, do you have an opinion on the impressions?”
“My opinion is the impressions were made by extremely large and heavy Mantis vessels, sir.”
Several at the meeting were surprised at Jeeve’s opinion. No one, except Hammer and Jeeves, had thought of the impressions being caused by spaceships. But after thinking about it, it was plausible.
“If I may, Admiral,” Colonel Hammer asked. Allen gave him his consent to proceed.
The Commodore and I discussed the possibility of the impressions being made by Mantis ships. It would make sense because they are all in open areas and close to their intended targets. We need to inspect those impressions as General Dubois expressed. Personally, sir, I think the ships were carrying some other aliens or creatures that aided in their slaughter of the BigHead species.”
“What makes you come to that conclusion, Colonel?” Admiral Petrov asked.