Even on his escorted walk there were scientists and engineers making their way to the hangar bay for the day’s work. Most personnel would shuttle out to one of the other stations that had been placed somewhere specific on the planet. Once there, they would go about their daily routines of checking atmospherics, planetary mass, gravitational shifts and potential sites for accelerated plant growth. There was one ship however that most definitely was not a station. It maintained a geostationary orbit around Alpha and constantly monitored everything. The side of its hull read; UDC HAMMER.
Roland found the name ironic as that was exactly what it was. As a class C battleship it was close to the capabilities of the Hyperion and the Centurion, but was still capable of hammering down a hundred kinds of hell to slag any planet or ship. It also happened to be his destination.
He estimated that he couldn’t be in that much trouble, since the beefcakes escorting him hadn’t taken away the LX 14-02 strapped to his thigh. Although, it might just be that they didn’t want to try and take it, but he wasn’t sure which idea he preferred.
Thinking about his gun he realised he hadn’t changed his uniform yet. Having finished his twelve and a half hour shift, he had immediately headed for the Arc-bar without stopping by his cabin. He was still comfortable though as the undersuit, which reminded him of a wet suit, had a controlled environment inside keeping him at a constant perfect temperature. The tactical vest he wore over the top was light, since he didn’t have the need to carry half the gear it was designed for. The heaviest thing he had, aside from his boots, was the flat square on the back of the vest which carried essential medical equipment. The polycrete armoured plates that covered the different muscle groups and kneecaps on his legs weighed less than his sidearm. He knew from basic training decades ago, that the whole suit had been made to allow for agility and speed in combat. Even if he had full armour on his torso and arms, it wouldn’t slow him down much; it just took a while to put it all on.
He soon found himself strapped into a Light Raptor that shuttled them from the Arclight up to the Hammer. The view was dull and uninteresting with a grey landscape as far as the eye could see. They still had at least another five decades before terraforming would be complete; he hoped his punishment wouldn’t last that long though. The air space around the triangular hub was busy as the late shift took over from the day staff, but the Light Raptor avoided it all by flying vertically up towards the atmosphere.
With no real atmosphere yet the transition from planet to space could easily be missed. There was no missing the Hammer though. It was all angles and dark plating with lights dotted around the hull. He heard the pilot give the access code before they passed through the membrane into the main hangar.
The journey up to the command centre was short with the use of the executive lift in the hangar. The journey might have been more comfortable if it wasn’t so cramped with the augments he was travelling with. The door slid open to reveal a slightly larger command centre than normal, though this size was standard for this type of expedition. Pipes lined the ceiling, flowing down the walls and disappearing under the floor with a bundle of wires. There were at least a dozen crew members standing and sitting at their various posts, poring over technical readouts from around the ship and the planet below. The monitors and holograms would have been enough to light up the whole room but Roland could still feel the heat from the spotlights above. The centre chair was occupied by Captain Fey, who sat examining the image projected by the holographic emitter fixed into her armrest.
Everyone knew this was a retirement job for her. Despite looking no more than forty-five with her auburn hair tied into a bun, she had served the UDC for nearly a century, even as captain on the Centurion for a time. She would see this out for another five years and then retire to some cushy estate on Mars or one of Saturn’s moons.
He stood before her with the two muscle men taking up positions behind him. He loathed protocol but knew her wrath would be worst if he broke it; instead he stood there and waited to be spoken to.
“Have you forgotten how to salute, Commander?” She asked, without taking her eyes off the hologram. He sighed before giving a half-ass salute. She flicked her eyes to the corner of the image and the emitter closed down the hologram. “Three fractured ribs, two fractured noses and one fractured arm...” She let her words hang in the air for a moment. He didn’t care. Medical would have had all three of them back to full health before he had even reached the bridge. She dismissed the two guards with a look before continuing. With the activity around them it was unlikely any one was listening.
“What am I to do you with you, Commander North? You’re lucky I don’t involve the Commodore in our weekly encounters. We limited your bar activity to once a week and now instead of five or six incidents a week I get one, like clockwork.” She surveyed her bridge crew for a moment. “I’ve seen your file, Commander, and I know this type of work isn’t what you were trained for.” He knew she was lying, just throwing her weight around. In reality he knew she was nowhere near the required clearance level to see his file, she was just going off a hunch. No doubt when he had been transferred with the new batch of security personnel, the Commodore and Captain Fey had received orders from the top. He imagined the orders were vague about his reason for being sent here and his record must have looked down right bizarre. It would indicate that he went from nothing to Commander overnight, with no record of previous achievements or rank. But this was his punishment.
“I was hoping that after six months with us you might have acclimatised to a new form of security work. But you seem determined to make trouble.” He could tell she was trying to worm some detail out of him regarding his past work in the UDC and the reason he had been exiled to Alpha. Since she hadn’t asked a question yet, that wasn’t rhetorical, he remained silent trying not to yawn. “I would confine you to the brig if I thought it would teach you anything. Instead I’m going to make use of you, Commander.” That didn’t sound promising, but what punishment could be worse than being sent here in the first place?
She stepped down from the podium and moved to stand by one of the forward bridge crew.
“Are we still offline, Lieutenant?” Captain Fey asked the young cadet behind Roland.
“Affirmative, Captain. But we still can’t tell which relay is down, it could be the closest, it’s unlikely to be all of them.”
“I want you to take a shuttle with a team of technicians to the nearest relay and see what the problem is.” He was wrong, his punishment could get worse.
“What’s wrong with the relays?” He looked at the monitor, not really interested, while stroking the stubble he hadn’t bothered to shave in a week.
“We’ve lost contact with Central Parliament and The hub. The relays have worked perfectly for six years and now... nothing. I don’t like being out of contact. The initial feedback from the Hammer’s sensors shows no discernible faults, but that clearly isn’t the case.” He had been briefed on the relays on his original journey out here. They were deployed from the Hammer at predetermined points on the first flight to Alpha. The ship would have dropped out of sub space to set them up, but once all of them were active they had a straight line of communication to Earth.
“What if it’s a problem on their side?” He didn’t much fancy the idea of visiting every relay between here and Earth. It had taken them nearly two weeks in sub space just to get here.
“Then we have to hope they’re investigating it as well, dismissed.” She replied.
The captain obviously didn’t care that he had just come off shift and hadn’t slept yet. With the shuttle being almost entirely automated, he really wouldn’t have much to do anyway. He was already planning on picking up the eggheads and finding a comfy chair in the cockpit to fall asleep.
With another half-ass salute he turned to leave the bridge and head straight to the hangar.
“One more thing, Commander North,” he felt an idle threat coming his way. “If you break any mor
e bones I’ll give you a vac suit and a mop and you can clean the Hammer’s hull for a month.” He indulged in a quick fantasy in which he took one of the Heavy Raptors in the hangar and just flew back to Earth. He could make more money freelancing in a year than he would in half his career with the UDC.
“Yes, Captain.”
The hangar was busy with crew and hover-bots working on various Raptor’s and shuttles. It was quite a cluttered hangar, with multiple work stations running down the centre of the bay. Most of the engineers he passed looked like they had spent a week inside one of the Raptor’s engines with grease smeared over their faces. The data on his wrist touch pad directed him to the correct bay. The eggheads stood out in their stark white lab suits and bulky equipment.
Before he could go over and ignore them, the general alarm broke out across the hangar. Red and yellow lights flashed along the walls as different crew ran to their posts. Captain Fey’s voice broke over the alarm.
“Attention all crew, this is not a drill; I repeat this is not a drill. An unidentified ship has dropped out of Solar Drive on the port side, man your posts and standby for orders.”
He ran over to the hangar membrane with other curious crew. He wasn’t really sure what he was looking at. In his time he had seen every kind of ship, whether it was UDC, separatist or commercial. But he had never seen this.
The distance made it hard to judge but he guessed it was at least twice the size of the Hammer. Blue ice crystals were ejected from the four large engines either side of the ship. Every ship produced the crystals after Solar Drive; it was a by-product of igniting the Solarcite. If they were indeed the engines they were bigger than most UDC vessels. The main body was long but chunky looking. He did recognise one similar design though; the scorpion-like tail that arced over the rear section of the ship. He had seen that design on only one other ship; hell everyone had seen that design. That particular ship had been found on Pluto’s moon Charon four hundred and twenty-one years ago.
This was different though. It was much bigger and far more intimidating. The hull was a polished silver, reflecting the light of the distant star.
Like wasps leaving a nest, smaller ships could be seen heading down to the planet, with some breaking off in the Hammer’s direction. The Captain’s voice sounded over the speakers again.
“Every able man and woman, arm yourselves immediately. We are about to be boarded...” He could hear it in her voice. The ship’s sensors had probably told them what he already suspected, they weren’t dealing with humans.
Soldiers poured out of the various doors around the hangar, each one heavily armed and wearing full gear. He had to hand it to them, they mobilised faster than he thought they would. Leaving the stupid engineers to gawp through the membrane Roland was already making his way to the nearest Heavy Raptor. He found what he was looking for almost immediately. He entered the code into the weapons locker and retrieved a few of his favourite tools, lining his vest with shock and tungsten grenades, flat sticky mines and a good old fashioned knife, he checked and loaded an SM72 which he slung round his back. It was more primitive than a rail-gun or the LX strapped to his thigh. It wouldn’t fire charged proton particles but its explosive rounds would make a bloody mess of everything. Ensuring he had enough clips in his belt, he turned to leave before something caught his eye. A black box tucked under the weapons stand with the letters LX 14-02 stamped on the side.
Protocol was strict on the use of LX calibre weapons, only one per band five personnel. Due to the volatile nature if misused, he understood the reason for caution. In his previous career he had been allowed to choose his own load outs with no protocols restricting him, but he had never had the opportunity to use two photon weapons at once.
He strapped the extra holster round his thigh and charged the weapon before slotting it into place on his leg. He was very good at calculating the odds, it came with the experience. His initial assessment of the new ship instantly told him they were outgunned, in numbers and weaponry. Crew survival was minimal, most didn’t have the training he had, but even a rookie knew the basics of ship-to-ship combat: take the bridge.
Descending the ramp of the Raptor he made a bee-line for the executive command lift. The membrane cut around the first craft as it entered the hangar with predatory intent. Two were able to fit in at once with space to manoeuvre. They were definitely not of human design. Being the same polished silver as the mother ship, they were all curves with a sleek finish to them. The cockpit windows were narrow and blacked out, preventing any view of the new intruders. Two cannons dropped out from under the belly of each craft as the hangar erupted in gun fire and explosions. The UDC soldiers didn’t wait to be attacked. It was all useless though, everything was repelled by the dense hull of each craft. Roland had already suspected this and saved his ammo for the real show.
It was the invaders turn to attack, only it wasn’t what he expected. Each cannon rapidly unleashed its alien ammunition upon the hangar. It sounded more biological than mechanical. It wasn’t firing projectiles or some kind of energy-based weapon. Every surface they hit was covered in giant globules of green goo. He saw two soldiers running in the opposite direction when the cannon hit the floor behind them. It exploded on impact coating both men from head to toe in the thick green gel. As they fell on all fours, the goo made a cracking sound as it solidified around them holding them in place. One of them was completely covered but the other was stuck in a crouching position screaming for help.
New assessment: they want prisoners.
That was both interesting and disturbing to Roland. The nearest craft opened up from the bottom, he counted eight targets drop in quick succession from the ship. He couldn’t believe the height they were dropping from until he saw them hit the floor. Each one slowed down right before their feet touched the ground with a visible distortion under their boots.
Taking cover behind the closest Raptor, he took a moment to examine this new enemy. They had spread out into a similar formation to UDC tactics. His immediate realisation was their shape. Bipedal like him, they had two arms and legs. A particular part of his brain was already making the assessment that they must have hinge joints, easily broken. They were of the same height averaging at about six feet tall. They didn’t look particularly bulky or stronger than him, their armour looked impressive though. They were fully covered in shiny black armour with sleek helmets that curved round their whole face. He flagged a potential weakness that they may require something other than oxygen to breathe.
Taking a closer look he could see the gaps in the armour, where a padded undersuit was visible. Now he knew where to aim. Their weapons were long with a stock at the back for better aiming. Each one had multiple lights and dials along the side which led into the long barrel. The one in front of him flicked an unseen switch and a small scope popped up from within the gun. The side of each weapon had a blue hologram emitting an image with various read outs.
His three seconds of examination was up.
Time to skip to the good bit.
Pulling both pistols from their holsters he lifted them to each ear, listening for the chirp to signify they were fully charged. Before he could reveal himself an enraged UDC soldier emerged from behind the crates beside him. He fired his own SM72 at the invaders, screaming a useless war cry as he did. The retaliation was swift and precise. Three quick flashes of blue light struck the soldier burning through his armour and bursting out the other side. Roland could smell ozone steaming from the body. This changed things, they were obviously happy to kill a few who couldn’t otherwise be captured.
It made no difference to his reaction though.
He deftly span one eighty round the Raptor and dropped to one knee as he brought his weapons to bear. He was able to get two shots off before they reacted. Both shots hit their mark with the lead intruder dropping to the floor, a charred hole between his helmet and shoulder plate. The second target was propelled into a nearby crate, as the gap between his knee-pad and the
armour around his thigh burst apart, separating the two. The alien’s shots went wild into the air as he crumpled to the floor.
Hit and run was the best tactic when dealing with groups. Create confusion, split them up and get stuck in. Before they focused their aim he dived to the side, aiming for the cover of a technicians’ work station. To keep them off balance he continued to fire in their direction with only a general aim. He saw three of his shots reach the target, but to no effect. Their armour was tough if a photon-based weapon could only make them stumble. Staying ducked down behind the station he inspected the levels on each gun. According to the levels on the side they had already started to cool down.
Time to scatter, boys.
He pulled a tungsten and shock grenade from his vest, priming the shock grenade to maximum with the meter on the side. Using his mouth, he pulled the pin from the tungsten grenade and felt the vibration in his hand. He knew there were only three vibrations before it would explode. After the second he threw both of them over his head behind him. He heard the mad scramble of booted feet before the metallic clinks of the grenades touched down.
Smoke and debris flew over the top of the station, along with an alien foot. Still in the remains of the boot it reminded Roland of a ninja’s foot with the segmented line down the middle rather than accentuating the big toe. Their blood was red with tiny sparkles glittering in the light. Aside from the crystal-like feature, it was very much like human blood. To that end he assumed they could breathe oxygen and the helmets were just for protection.
He knew for sure he had killed three out of the eight so far, five more to go. Going round the other side of the station he stood up to survey the damage. The ground was charred and smoke hung in the air. The two closest targets were banging on the side of their visors. No doubt the shock grenade had knocked out whatever electronics they had inside.
Intrinsic: Book One of the Terran Cycle Page 19