COLOSSUS: A New Menace

by Terry Frost

“We found no remains of whatever leaked its innards or blood onto the spears on the exterior of the fort the Commodore and I inspected. Whatever died on the spears was removed for reasons I can’t determine yet. But I have a suspicion the Mantis didn’t leave any of them around and probably because they control whatever helps them attack their targets, but may also be a food source for the Mantis as well.”

  “What kind of creature would aid in the attacks while knowing they would be eaten by their companions in the attacks?” Petrov asked.

  “Maybe they have a much lower level of intelligence, Admiral. Of course, at this point, it is nothing more than a guess, but I’d love the opportunity to find out if I’m correct. And if that turns out to be the case then I’m going to make another bold suggestion.”

  “By all means, Colonel, tell us,” Allen said.

  “If those impressions were made by Mantis ships, and recalling the Commodore’s description of the “Evil Eater” on that moon, combined with the size of the impressions, if they were made by their ships, they are huge, but not so huge to carry enough Mantis to kill the entire population of BigHeads on that planet. They had to have brought along a horde of alien monsters to help them.”

  “Well, I have to say that is an intriguing idea, Colonel. I guess there isn’t much else to do than to formulate our strategy for a ground assault. General, you and Colonel Hammer shall work the strategy and have it to me by 5:00 this evening. If no one has anything to add, then you are dismissed.”

  General Dubois and Colonel Hammer’s strategy was for their ground teams to work each fort and city together. There would be no separation of teams for reason’s of security and numbers, should they run into any kind of threat to the team.

  The Striker would conduct overwatch of the location being inspected by the ground team. It had been decided to keep all smaller ships out of the explorations due to the wind anomalies, even though they had only experienced the anomaly once the risk was too high.

  The hornets and wasps were removed from the bay of the Striker to make room for six Rovers and their teams. Colonel Hammer, Commodore Jeeves, and Major Brik Hoser would be in the lead Rover while the other five Rovers would consist of Marines, with Sargeant Lick Givens as their commander.

  The Rovers were fitted with nuclear grenade launchers and had their projectile cannons removed for the mission. Operation Mantis was scheduled to be at the usual start time of 7:00 a.m. and was approved by Admiral Allen.

  Later in the evening Colossus’s two admirals were having some of Allen’s prized scotch and talking about the situation that had occurred in their best estimate of many years ago to the BigHead species.

  “What do you think is the percentage of us finding members of the BigHead species still alive down there?” Petrov asked.

  “I wouldn’t have a clue, Anatoly. But I would say zero percent. I hope I’m wrong because the value of finding some of them alive would be extremely important to have a better understanding of what killed them.”

  “Are you suggesting they might not have been attacked by the Mantis?”

  “No, I’m not suggesting that, because Commodore Jeeve’s conviction about the holes in the BigHead’s skulls being identical to the ones made in many of the Putu’s offspring’s skulls, gives his argument weight that the Mantis is, in fact, the perpetrators. But the attacker's identification could be positively defined if we could ask a living BigHead.”

  “I agree with your guess of zero percent, Arvin. It’s a damn shame that an entire species was eliminated by something as vicious as the Hive. I am wondering how many times are we going to run across life in our galaxy that only exists to prey on others.

  “Let’s pray that there are much more like the Daakie and the Aborians in the galaxy to attack and kill the hideous species out there. While were are at it, let’s pray the mission comes up with some answers.”

  Chapter 33

  The ground mission started off where Hammer and Jeeves had to abandon searching the first fort type structure they found. While Sergeant Givens took his teams inside the structure to begin searching for clues, Hammer, Jeeves, and Hoser went to the area of the impression so they could analyze it.

  After locating it, the first detail they found was the impression wasn’t continuous as it looked to be through the recording. Instead, it was made by six three foot by three-foot squares spaced four feet apart and within the area scorched.

  “Colonel, I believe those are landing struts and lie deeper than the bottom of the ship’s structure. I postulate that the ship’s landing retros fired and scorched the ground making the outline we saw from space.”

  “I don’t believe there will be any prints, Major. This slaughter took place possibly thousands of years ago. But it won’t hurt to look while we are here,” Hammer said.

  After close inspection, they found Colonel Hammer’s suggestion to be correct. Satisfied they wouldn’t learn anything about the ship or those on board, they returned to the Rover and proceeded to the entry of the fort.

  The caught up with their team and began searching through the maze of buildings. Sergeant Givens had found a large single story building and discovered hundreds upon hundreds of dried animal carcasses and their bones. The skulls of the animals had not been punctured like most of the BigHeads.

  Givens called Hammer and asked him to bring the Commodore to his location for an analysis of the animal carcasses. As soon as Jeeves walked into the building he went straight to the carcasses as everyone else stood back and watched Jeeves do his analysis.

  After a minute Jeeves stood and said, “This gives credence to Colonel Hammer’s theory that the Mantis brought along a species of creature with them. I have arrived at the conclusion that these animals were rounded up and put in this building solely for the purpose of feeding their partners of the slaughter.

  “Why the Mantis wouldn’t eat the animals themselves is something I can’t define, at the moment. But I do have another theory that I will share once we have done a thorough inspection of the fort.

  Sergeant Givens had walked around the pile of carcasses prior to their arrival and commented after he heard the Commodore’s explanation and said, “I agree that this area was a dinner table for something. If you will notice there are large petrified droppings all over this building.”

  “Ah, you are correct, Sergeant,” Jeeves said as he picked up one of the droppings, which was the size of an apple, and put it in a pouch he had in the satchel he had hanging from his left shoulder.”

  Looking at Major Hoser, Givens asked, “What the hell is he going to do with that, Major?”

  “Well, Sergeant, since the Commodore doesn’t require food, I would suggest he is going to analyze it for content.”

  “Well, enough, gentlemen. We still have a lot of ground to cover so let's get to it, “ Colonel Hammer said.

  After looking into every building that served as family habitats, the group came away with the knowledge that the BigHead species were basically simple farmers. They found homemade shovels, picks, an abundance of rakes, a warehouse full of handwoven bushel baskets, just to name a few items.

  All the time Colonel Hammer had been searching, in the back of his mind, he wondered how the hell did the BigHeads protect themselves from those walking mouths full of teeth that attacked the group while waiting on Perseus to get fixed. Other than the picks and a few crude butcher knives, the group found no weapons.

  Some four hours later the group had finished their search and other than finding clothing made of burlap in many of the homes, there wasn’t anything worth reporting to the admiral.

  With every Rover collected and parked near each other, Colonel Hammer ordered the group to the next fort some twenty miles away. His only order was for everyone to stay alert and on their toes.

  The trip to the next fort had been a hard road to get there. They had to traverse through gorges thirty feet deep, one raging wide stream, a mile long stretch of forest that had hundreds of trees laid over and anoth
er field of large boulders.

  Commodore Jeeves said he thought the forest was damaged by one of those wind anomalies, which later would become the only reason Admiral Allen would decide to abandon the planet as their target for a new home.

  Fort after fort and city after city the group found the same results. Nothing alive, feeding rooms full of animal carcasses and not a single bit of tangible evidence proving the BigHead’s demise was done by the Mantis.

  When the Operation Mantis team finished their ground exploration, Admiral Allen called an end to the planet’s exploration. Fortunate to have found out a new menace was active in their part of the galaxy by exploring the planet, Allen made up his mind to move on to another star system.

  Not extremely pleased with his subordinates relating to the planet as BigHead, Allen entered a different name into the ships logs. He named it Planet Extinction. Admiral Allen’s initial plan was to explore the Helo System prior to learning the system was the homeworld of the Hive.

  Even though the Hive was thought to have been eliminated, for the most part, Allen didn’t want Human’s new home existing anywhere near a Hive homeworld. After studying the star chart, Admiral Allen and Vice Admiral Petrov chose a system known as the Coba System, forty-eight light years from the Jovan System and deeper into the Perseus Arm than they had ever been.

  The trip to the Coba System was going to take several days to get to, so many of the tired explorers appreciated the time off. Colonel Hammer and Commodore Jeeves spent time sparring, which never was too much fun for Hammer, and working out in the officer's gym.

  During the first evening of travel, Admiral Allen and Vice Admiral Petrov managed to spend some alone time with their respective ladies while Captian Slain took his first shift ever as commander of Colossus until shift change at 6:00 a.m. Kenner was excited when Admiral Petrov called him for the duty. The task wasn’t very demanding because there wasn’t much that needed to be done as the whole time on his shift the ship would be in hyperspace.

  After his workout, Hammer went to his quarters and made a video message to send to Empress Katin. He had been experiencing the familiar desire to get an opportunity to be with her for a few days. Jak knew the desire was manifesting itself like it usually did when she was needing him. It was his hope that the video message might sway her somewhat from increasing her seductive powers over him for a few more weeks.

  Jak knew Aborian Commander Sulin stayed in frequent contact with High Mage Cina while she and her two other Predators watched over Colossus. So he was fairly certain his lovely Katin was being informed of his location and any important actions that had taken place.

  In his message, he told her how much he missed and needed her. He asked about their baby and reminded her of his desire to be by her side when it was time for her to deliver. That day would be an exciting day for Jak, but he had no idea of how important a part the child would play in his heart and mind in the future.

  Chapter 34

  The Mantis species had eliminated the BigHead race more than a thousand years ago. The Mantis and Hive had fought for superiority in the Perseus Arm for thousands of years. At one point the Mantis came close to being eliminated themselves by the Hive. The two insectoid races competed for food sources mostly in the outer rim of the Expanse and neither’s presence were known until the Hive forced the Mantis to flee the outer rim and move into areas of the galaxy further into the mid-section of Perseus.

  By 2250 the Mantis rebuilt their populations by staying secluded on worlds covered with heavy forests that kept them hidden. They had grown to vast numbers along with their capabilities to defend themselves with new ships and weaponry.

  The Mantis was ruled by a queen and sub-queen. Female Mantis were much larger than the species' males. Male Mantis was responsible for breeding, providing protection for the females, and help with Mantis offspring. That offspring was the answer to what helped the adults during their attack on other species but had to be constantly fed as they grew from their larval stage.

  Still many systems away from the Humans, the Mantis was presently searching a world in hope of locating large populations of food while working in the general direction of the Coba System. It was inevitable that Humans and Mantis would be meeting each other in the not too far away future.

  When that day presented itself the total elimination of the Humans would depend on the size and numbers of the Mantis. Were the Mantis traveling with only exploration numbers or did their species travel with its entire population in tow? The question remaining would be if the Mantis only sent out teams to locate food sources and a team or teams found a food source, would the insectoids send for a sizable attack force from their homeworld, and where was their home?

  ****

  Colossus, her two Battlecruisers, and the three Aborian Predators dropped out of FTL on the edge of the Coba System. Coba was an extremely large star and it had domain over many planets and their moons. The system included three gas giants and nine rocky planets. As far as star systems went, Coba was tenth in the number of rocky worlds within its system, just behind the Helo System, which Allen declined to explore because of the Hive. Allen’s intuition had never failed him and he wasn’t convinced he had seen the last of the insectoids.

  Colossus’s executive staff had their orders to be present in Room Forward for an exploration meeting as soon as they reached their present location. Admiral Allen asked for Aborian Commander Sulin to attend the meeting for the first time.

  But after only a few minutes of dropping out of hyperspace, Commander Sulin received a message from High Mage Cina ordering her and the other two Predators back to Planet Abor. Sulin contacted Allen and informed him of her new orders.

  When asked why they were being ordered back, and concerned something was amiss on Abor, Sulin assured him nothing was wrong on Abor. She told him her High Mage wanted her and her ships to return for broad ship maintenance and some well deserved down time for the three Predators.

  “Did the High Mage say anything about you returning at some point?” Allen asked.

  “Negative, Admiral.”

  “Oh, okay. Be safe on your trip back and express our gratitude for the loan of her Predators to Empress Katin for me.”

  “I will do that, Admiral. It has been our pleasure to aid in your search. May we speak again in the near future,” Sulin said then signed off. After only a few short minutes the Predators jumped on their way home.

  Allen had become accustomed to the extra firepower the Predators could have provided should his ships run into trouble and losing them left him uneasy. But he thought oh hell, Arvin, you knew they were only temporary, besides, Colossus and my two Battlecruisers are more than capable to see us through.

  On the onset of the exploration meeting, Allen informed everyone the Predators had been ordered back to Planet Abor. The news didn’t sit well with his staff and Allen heard a few groans but didn’t acknowledge their disapproval because he did the same thing when he was told by Commander Sulin. He did reiterate his own earlier thinking and told them they did alright on their own so far and would continue to do so. The Admiral had always known how to motivate his subordinates and this was no different.

  As they had done previously on several occasions, they would pass the gas giants and begin by scanning the first rocky planet that was deemed to be in the favored Goldilocks Zone. Allen said they would continue with the same protocol he ordered a while back, meaning all three ships would work as a team while scanning one planet at a time.

  The real reason Admiral Allen changed the protocol from one ship scanning a planet by themselves was his fear of losing one of his Battlecruisers if attacked while being at great distances from Colossus. He shared his concerns with his second in command, but neither would share that concern and continued on with their subordinates being told the new protocol was for the expediency of completing each planet’s total scan.

  Colossus’s first target was a large gray planet similar to the color of Earth’s Moon,
that sat on the border of not too cold and not to hot. The gray planet had no moon or moons and when they came within range of their scanners they found the planet to be too cold with wind velocities too extreme, so they moved to the next planet further into the system and the second planet on the list.

  Chapter 35

  By the time the Human ships dropped out of hyperspace and moved closer to their target for exploration, the planet was mostly dark due to them arriving at a time when it was under an eclipse provided by another planet lined up with the star Coba.

  Admiral Allen decided to wait on exploring the planet until the eclipse was over with and one half of the planet was bathing in the light coming from Coba. As he waited he received notification that a message from the USC had arrived.

  Allen handed over the controls to Petrov and went into his Ready Room to view the video message. When video began the face he saw was that of Ambassador Harvick, Chairman of the USC.

  “It was great to see your video message, Admiral. The USC is extremely excited to hear of the wondrous discoveries Colossus has made. I have two items I want to inform you about and the first one is we have been building two state of the art Starships that we have named Trident and Hercules.

  “The Starships are heavy cruisers and they are commissioned as warships made of a newly discovered blend of metals that come as close to being invisible as our technology will allow but will not be labeled as having stealth capabilities. We will perform several test runs when the ships are totally built to determine how much of a signature they broadcast while being scanned.

  “The second item I want to inform you of is there will be a vote by those of us living on Mars to lose our distinction as Earthings and adopt the label of Martians. Many of the population agree on a need to make the change because we no longer live on Planet Earth.

  “I realize this may seem trivial to you but the change is for the sake of generations of our kind who will live their entire lives on Mars unless all our dreams come true and you and your team manage to find us all a new home.