Logameier looked at the sad figure, and a profound sense of embarrassment came over him, “sorry, sir.” Was all he could think to offer.
Michael nodded silently to him as they walked.
After a slow walk of perhaps half an hour, they had reached the second set of blast doors, this place is incredibly well built, Michael thought, they can section off parts of the base in the event one part is damaged, much like starships can.
Eventually the small group came to a gigantic control centre, the lights from dozens of consoles flickered off the dark walls. This room at least gave Kathryn a warm feeling, this was where she and Rachthausen had shared that tender moment, when he had kissed her. It was then that she knew the sergeant loved her, and, even though she had been fighting it, loved him too.
The accompanying commandoes took up a guarding position at the doors as Logameier peered over the controls, studying them much as he had done in the smaller auxiliary control station. He watched the power levels build up in the spinning collider. Incredible, he mused; that collider is spinning at over twenty thousand revolutions per second. It is spinning so fast, that anything a similar size made by the E.D.F would have spun itself to pieces virtually instantly.
After spending a few moments hopping from console to console, looking over all the controls, he announced. “Right! I think I have it, with the occasional difference here and there; it is similar to the process used to shut down the Solarian power core on the Liberty.”
He eyed one of the consoles intently, the language was based upon Solarian script, he had come to recognise many of the flowing, delicate symbols in his time aboard the Liberty, and was able to equate many of them to their English language counterparts. This was somehow different, altered slightly, the symbols instead of depicting peaceful iconography, like the Talula leaf, which symbolised life or beginning in the Solarian language, were replaced with harsher, jagged, aggressive counterparts.
His finger hovered over one of the controls; doubt began to cloud his mind.
Finally, Lieutenant Johnson Logameier bit the bullet, pressed the button, and held his breath.
The station let forth one final, almighty blast of intense energy, far in excess of any other, bright enough to be seen for miles around. It was so bright and so intense, that it set nearby plant life alight, creating a number of fierce, yet short-lived wild fires.
This last, furious release tore its way through the planets atmosphere with all the force of a high power sniper round tearing through its targets body. This was the eye’s swansong, its final farewell to the galaxy that had created it, and what a swansong it was. It shot past the E.D.F fleet, illuminating every single ship in an intense fiery glow.
“Holy mother of crap!” Kinraid replied from the captain’s chair of the Liberty, as he had to turn away from the viewer to avoid being blinded by the massive flash of light.
The beam continued past the five ships in close orbit, and shot forth through the Auriga system, then out into deep space on an endless journey into the vast starlit void beyond.
Logameier breathed a sigh of relief, he had chosen correctly. The remaining energy stored inside the collider read zero, it had completely discharged all the energy contained within, and could now be shut down safely.
He made his way over to another complex looking console, discharging the built up energy was just the first part, now he had to shut down the collider itself, if he guessed wrong, that enormous spinning structure could very well spin itself into oblivion.
Slowly he traced his finger over a rectangular touch sensitive control, it was lit up in increments, figuring this was the speed setting for the revolutions the collider was spinning at, he traced his finger along it, the green increments slowly winked out as he did so. Johnson had to do this slowly and carefully, too fast or too jerky a movement could seize the entire thing, tearing it to pieces within seconds, and Michael had told him the E.D.F wanted this thing intact, so future scientists could study it and perhaps find a way of using it.
The final increment slowly winked out, and gradually the collider came to a standstill, now all he had to do was lock it down, and the shutdown process was complete. He realised he was sweating, not because he was hot, though it was warm in here, more from an intense, nervous concentration.
The weight of responsibility he had felt throughout this process had been huge, akin to the time when he had first took up his chief engineer responsibilities on the Liberty. There was so much at stake, the entire E.O.C.A was counting on him to have this place secured.
If he didn’t get this right, not only would the E.D.F lose a potentially vital new source of power; entire star systems rested on this one outcome. If the Dracos did manage to capture this facility, like they are intent on doing, and do become as powerful as they once were, not only were the Solarians at risk, but nearby E.O.C.A colony worlds as well, he was damned if the Dracos would stop here, he had to lock this out and he had to do it right.
Taking a breath, he calmed himself, and swallowing his nerves, he walked over to a third console, finding that this was the control panel for four giant magnetic interlocks that clamped onto the side of the collider in order to hold it secure, thus preventing it from being activated, even accidentally. In their haste to abandon this place, the Dracos must have skipped this step all those years ago, just one simple step that could have avoided everything that had happened here.
He punched in the four controls, and slowly four massive twenty metre diameter rectangular clamps, emerged out from the aperture wall toward the smooth circular collider itself. Each one must have weighed twenty tonnes. They were imbued with a heavy magnetic charge, and extended inexorably outward until magnetic attraction took over, and they slammed down on the collider with a resounding, dull thud.
Not one man, one single person uttered a word while Logameier worked, they simply stood watching in silent awe as he went about the process, willing him on, because they knew as much as he did, that so many lives rested upon it.
He eventually stopped and turned towards his captain, “structure is shut down, and locked securely, sir.”
Michael smiled with warm pride at his chief engineer, “good job, lieutenant.”
“Thank you, sir.” Logameier breathed a sigh of relief as he shook Michael’s hand.
“Now let’s get out of here shall we, we still have one last task to perform,” he said as he smiled in Kathryn’s direction.
“Captain, looking at these plans there is a quicker way to the surface, through the emergency hatch,” Logameier suggested.
“We tried looking for it, but couldn’t find it ourselves.” Kathryn replied.
“Can’t hurt to take another look, besides this time we are not running for our lives.”
The team slowly continued along the remainder of the floor, eventually coming to the elevator, which had quickly returned to their level after detecting their approach. They all piled in, and were automatically whisked to the floor above, where they disembarked and immediately began searching for the hatch opening.
“It has to be here somewhere, it’s noted in the plans,” Logameier cursed as he searched the place.
Kathryn tapped the bottom of her cane on the corridor walls, listening for any hint of a hollow, eventually she came across one, “over here!” she shouted to the rest of the group, all busily searching.
Their collective torchlight illuminated a large panel, certainly large enough to crawl through, slowly Nikolai and Michael unfastened the metal panel from the wall and laid it down to one side.
There were small rungs leading up to an incline all the way to the surface, Nikolai took up the rear, closing the panel shut again behind them. The group all crawled single file up these rungs toward the surface. Kathryn had to stop frequently as the constant crawling was difficult on her newly operated on leg, the pain was severe. Nevertheless, she limped onward as best she could, as she knew as well as anyone that there wasn’t enough room to carry people in this dark
cramped shaft.
Michael was at the head of the line, and was first to come upon the hatch exit. His torch revealed a small two button control panel, he quickly figured that it was there simply as the means for opening the hatch, and, after pressing one of the controls, found he was correct as the hatch slid noisily open; covering him in a thin mist of dirt and the occasional piece of dead vegetation in the process. Wiping the lenses on his breathing mask in order to see properly, he stepped out onto the harsh windswept surface once again.
He helped Kathryn clamber her way up, who took a break sat upon a nearby rock, as the accumulated pain from the climb had become almost unbearable. Gradually, as she rested, the pain came back down to tolerable levels again.
Nikolai, Logameier, and the rest of the commandoes all followed soon enough, and Nikolai sealed the hatch shut behind him.
“It is a shame we had to blow the hatch open in order to get access earlier!” Nikolai shouted over the howling winds, which had picked up somewhat from when they had landed.
“Why!” Michael replied.
“Because we cannot seal the place shut a hundred percent, that’s why, not without an engineering crew down here to fabricate a new cover to go over it.”
“We could ask for a systems engineer to input an E.D.F encryption algorithm into their main computer, so even if the Dracos do try to re-take this place, they won’t be able to use it without our codes, and with the language being so vastly different it’s unlikely they’ll be able to break it anyway,” Logameier suggested.
“Good idea, I’ll add it to my mission report to submit to Admiral Montrose, when we get out of here,” Michael replied.
He turned to Kathryn, who had now recovered sufficiently to be able to walk “Let’s get back to the shuttle, so we can bury your friend like he deserves to be, shall we?”
Kathryn smiled warmly and nodded despite the pain, she walked the rest of the way, a little over three kilometres with little fuss. In-fact, other than the bitingly cold winds that constantly harangued this place, the return journey was rather a pleasant one.
The team all took some shelter in the shuttle itself, and a brief moment in which to warm up a little from the cold conditions outside. Took out some rations and began eating while this latest storm surge passed over them. Once they were sufficiently warmed up, hunger was staved off, and the storm had largely passed, they set forth to brave the elements again to bury the late Sergeant Rachthausen.
Nikolai, Michael, Logameier, and one of the commandoes bore the zipped up body of the sergeant on a stretcher at shoulder height as they would a coffin. Kathryn carried some of his more mundane personal effects with her, as she led the procession, the others like medals, and any personal items such as payment cards, would be sent to his next of kin. Kathryn wasn’t even sure he had one; he had never even mentioned it in the brief time she had known him. E.D.F command would no doubt see to that side of things, if he did have a mother or a family, she made a mental note to visit them as soon as she could.
The solemn procession slowly marched without a word, as a mark of respect to the fallen sergeant, to a spot Kathryn selected near the giant alien structure. The other commandoes all dug a shallow grave and gathered together a prodigious amount of rocks. Including a giant gleaming boulder of quartz, which would serve as a fitting headstone. The quartz itself was heavy and had to be rolled into position, its various facets glinted in the light from the twin Aurigan moons. She smiled as it reminded her of the light that Rachthausen carried within him, the goodness of his soul. Once the digging was finished and the grave prepared, Kathryn began the eulogy.
Her voice was cracked and choked with emotion, Nikolai, Michael, Logameier, and all of the commandoes bowed their heads in silent respect.
“Here lies Sergeant Heinrich Rachthausen, of the 69th Sicarian guards infantry battalion, a proud leader of men who fought with valour and honour, far beyond that expected of him.” She stopped to wave away a tear.
“But what people didn’t know, was that besides his great physical strength, he was one of the kindest and gentlest men I ever knew. Always putting the needs of others around him above his own needs, and…in the end….he made the ultimate…..sacrifice,” Kathryn could no longer hold the emotion within her, and she began to break down. Tears began to flow down her gentle cheeks, her shoulders drooped, and she began to sob, before with one last ounce of courage summoned up the will to say, “so that others…....may live.” She wept openly, finally overcome, her resolve gave out as she remembered his final moments in stark clarity.
Michael took her place as Nikolai consoled her, “and now we commit this brave and noble soul to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, may you rest in peace.”
Kathryn placed her hand softly on his personal copy of the holy bible, and rested it onto the chest of the body, “goodbye, my love.” She whispered under tear stained cheeks.
They all worked together to cover the sergeants body with the earth they dug out earlier, and then to lay the assortment of rocks, in a simple but fitting tribute to a great man.
Nikolai took out a small piece of chalk, and drew a large white crucifix on the glittering headstone, before placing the blood spattered helmet atop it, Logameier took out a tube of high strength adhesive, and carefully attached the chin strap onto the rock face so that it would not blow away in the wind.
Finally, Kathryn placed his sergeant’s stripes in the centre of the crucifix, and taking great care not to get any on the fabric itself, Logameier attached them in the same way.
The entire group took a minutes silence, heads bowed low, before stepping two paces backward.
“Present arms!” Nikolai called out.
Snapping into action, the commandoes immediately held their weapons aloft, the muzzles pointing skyward.
“On my mark, three rounds….fire!”
A blast of armschlager fire rang out loudly amongst the desolate, empty surroundings.
“Fire!”
A second blast of gunfire, tore through the silence.
“Fire!”
The third and final blast of gunfire seemed to echo even louder than the previous two over the windswept flatlands, the sound travelled for miles around. The three gun salute to a brave soldier was complete, the arrayed commandoes all stood silently to attention, clasped their weapons to their sides, brought their hands up and gave a long silent salute.
Nikolai, Kathryn, Michael, and Johnson all did likewise, it was a simple, but fitting tribute to such a kind, gentle and brave man, who made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that Kathryn now lived.
13. Eisenhower down.
Taneth, Kallos, and the other two Kallan warriors, now fully armed, left the armoury as quickly and as quietly as they entered. One of the group gently shut the metal grate behind them, as they skulked through the air ventilation ducting towards the elevator stop within the Jefferson class heavy cruiser Eisenhower.
They grinned at the naval officers and soldiers running to and fro in a vain attempt to find them, little realising they were passing by right above their heads.
Kallos and Taneth both knew that the third phase of their plan was by far the riskier. They had to make their way, silently and unnoticed, to the ships command centre, a full twenty decks above, which they planned to take over then fly this crude contraption through the atmosphere and transport them to the surface, so they could once and for all finish this hunt.
Making it back to a room very close to the elevator itself, they dropped back down inside, surprising a technician in the process, the panicked crewman went to bring up his sidearm, though a casual swipe from Taneth’s wristblade silenced the man forever, as a great arc of blood shot forth from the man’s neck, the young crewman’s body fell to the floor, quickly followed by his severed head.
There was a slight, nervous pause, as the four Dracos readied themselves for the inevitable dash toward the elevator.
“Go, go, go!” Kallos shouted, and in one
swift movement, all four Kallan sprinted full pelt, out of the room, and into the open corridor.
Their sheer speed surprised two naval officers who were in the process of searching for them nearby. Kallos let loose with his eviscerator pistol as he ran, firing half a dozen of the razor sharp discs at the hesitant crewmen trying to bring their weapons to bear.
Three hit home, slashing one of the men’s cheek, another embedded itself deep into his chest, and a third tore open his stomach, exposing his flailing bloody innards. He fell in a wet crump to the floor, screaming in agony as the intensely strong acid began to take its effect slowly melting through his face, and eating into his chest and stomach.
The disparate screams were awful to hear, but unfortunately loud. His partner died quickly as a larger eviscerator disc, fired from a rifle whipped through the air, and slammed into his forehead, there was little blood, just the nauseating stench of flouro-antimonic acid slowly dissolving his brain matter.
The four warriors dived into the elevator; others would come quickly, attracted by the dying man’s screams, they had to get off this deck.
“Command centre!” Kallos barked out his order.
“Destination confirmed.” The elevator replied as the doors closed painfully slowly to the sight of three E.D.F soldiers sprinting around the corner of the corridor. Quickly seeing the dead naval officers, and then running towards the Kallan, their weapons rising, the doors fully closed, and the elevator rocketed the inhabitants at over three hundred miles per hour, to their destination.
“Reports of weapons fire; deck twenty one, two casualties near the elevator stop,” Maddox announced turning to Fontain; the commander looked worried.
“They’re going for the bridge, have all troops converge upon this room, arm yourselves.” Fontaine said, nervously brushing an errant strand of auburn hair from her gentle features.
E.D.F Chronicles : Eye of the Dracos Page 21