Sam calculated the CSMO’s approach vector to the landing zone and then jammed the throttle forward on the control panel, “Increasing speed to 45,000 KPH. Arriving at landing zone in 6 minutes.”
Tucker and the rest returned from the landing bay, “Captain, ETA on landing this crate?”
“We’re just a few minutes from setting down, Commander,” Sam looked over at Dillan, “Open the lower doors to expose the cutters.”
Dillan reached for his console and pressed the commands, “Cutters are open, lowering landing pads.”
“Firing braking thrusters...slowing to 100 meters per minute...we’re nearly in place now, Commander...all stop!” Sam yelled, as she pulled back on the throttle. “We’re lined up on the landing beacons.”
“Good work, Captain,” Tucker nodded. “Ready to fire the anchors?”
Dillan pressed more controls and then looked over to Tucker, “Ready now, Commander.”
“Sam, are you planning on hovering all week?”
“Firing mooring anchors!” Sam frowned. “Direct hit...bring up the cable slack...and confirmed, we have a solid lock at 1000 meters above landing zone.”
“Excellent, Captain,” Tucker again nodded, “Take us down.”
“Aye, Aye, Commander,” Sam said, gently nudging the thruster control, “Z minus 1000 meters at 16 meters per second. Commencing 1 minute descent.”
Tucker tapped his headset, “Captain Hargrove, do you read? How you coming on the jump ring?”
“Hargrove here, Sir. I’m almost in network range now. I’ll report back as soon as I’ve established a connection.”
“Very well, Captain. We’re about 30 seconds from touchdown. When you’re done with your survey, head back to the CSMO.”
“Roger that, Commander. SSV-7 out.”
“Ready all stations,” Sam reported, “Entering the asteroid’s gravity well. Setting down in 5...4...3...2...1...contact...firing station keeping thrusters.”
Dillan again pressed more commands from his station, “Engaging cutters and extending treads now...we have a solid lock on our cutters, Captain. We can throttle back the main engines and transfer over to the tread drive.”
“Acknowledge, ready to transfer to tread drive,” Sam set the control stick to idle, “Powering down main engines. Transferring controls to the drive section. Landing sequence is completed.” Sam sat back in her chair and let out a big breath.
“Nice job, Captain,” Tucker praised.
“Hargrove here. I’ve established connection with the jump ring computer. She’s all ready to go, Commander. We were the last ones to activate it, and our last coordinates are still in the program buffer. We can jump to 52 Europa as soon as we go finalize our new plans, over.”
“Affirmative, Captain. Come on back to the CSMO and meet us in the galley. Dillan is going to cook us a meal before we depart. We can finalize our plans then.”
“I’m on my way back. ETA is 25 minutes.”
“We’ll have the landing bay ready to receive you, Captain,” Dillan added.
“Thanks, Dillan. I’ll report when I’m in position, SSV-7 out.
* * *
CSMO 253 Mathilde-2
Location:
Asteroid 253 Mathilde
Earth Date: 10/22/2065 07:00
Mission Objectives:
DEPLOY CSMO AT ASTEROID 253 MATHILDE
JUMP ASSUALT TEAM TO 52 EUROPA
INFILTRATE ALIEN NOOSPHERE
RESCUE HUMANS
COLLECT ALIEN CORE
DESTROY NOOSPHERE COMPLEX
“Mmmm, Mmmm,” Hargrove said coming into the CSMO galley. “That smells wonderful.”
Dillan smiled as he glanced at the Captain, “Thanks.”
“Whattya call it?”
“It’s a special family recipe, so I can’t tell you everything about it.”
“Well now,” Tucker nodded, “We wouldn’t want you to give up your family recipe, but we’d kind of like to know what to ask for next time.”
Sam sat with the Sergeant at one of the ship’s tables, “I for one don’t care what it’s made out of. I just wanna eat.”
“Well, fortunately the asteroid has some gravity. Without that, we’d be forced to use those jell packs of goodness,” Tucker said. “You fellas have it good on these CSMO’s.”
“It’s just one of those nice perks, believe me, Commander,” Dillan answered, “Duty on these mining ships is no picnic. It’s very hard and laborious work.”
Hargrove nodded in agreement, “It is hard work. Remember, Commander? I served for six months.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m sorry I put you through that, but it turns out that it was a good thing you were there.”
“I won’t deny that, Commander.”
“Okay then,” Tucker said, clapping his hands a few times, “Listen up. Here’s what we’re going to do.”
“I thought you wanted me to plan it, Sir?” Hargrove complained.
“I knew you were busy, so I came up with this plan.”
“Tucker has a plan?” Cass smirked.
“Well, yes. Why do you find that so hard to believe?”
Cass simply returned his stare.
“What?”
“Just tell us the plan, Colonel?” Sam begged.
“Okay, well since Slavena’s ship is down, we’ll have to split up the marines on Hargrove’s ship. Hargrove,” Tucker pointed, “You take Samantha and three marines. You’ll also take the extra Nuke from the Dash-6. I’ll take Cass, the Sarge, and two marines. The Salvage-5 will go through the jump ring first. Then Hargrove’s team will follow 30 seconds later. When the Dash-5 reaches the reverse burn point, we’ll launch a recon satellite. At that point I use one of my AMP pens to mask our signatures. We’ll fly a close pass to the asteroid crash site to check its status. Then we transmit a signal to the satellite. Once that signal is bounced to Hargrove’s ship, they’ll fly in and land on the crashed CSMO. Our ship will follow. The two teams will make their way to the core where we’ll recover our men. Get as many as we can take, but keep in mind, there’s only room for three extra on each ship.”
“Five if we cram them in,” Sergeant Samuels added. “We could rescue ten if we find that many.”
“We’re not really sure how many survivors there will be, but we’ll take as many as we can find. Hargrove’s team will deploy two of the nukes and we’ll deploy one.”
“The nukes will be on a timer, so I don’t recommend any scenic routes or sightseeing tours,” Hargrove added.
“Yes, ten minutes after we hit the button,” Tucker wagged his finger, “Ten minutes...that’s all.”
“We bug out and return to Earth,” Hargrove finished.
“How do you expect to prevent the cyborgs from detecting us?” Cass asked.
“The AMP charge will be all we need. We also have devices that you wear as a headset that will mask your being there.”
“You’ll be virtually invisible,” Buster smiled.
“Yes, but you’ll have to give your headset up for any survivors, that’s how they’ll make it to the ship. We’ll have to fight our way out if we’re detected.”
“Sounds like an okay plan, Tuck,” Cass said.
“It’s an okay plan? Really?” Tucker shrugged.
“Well, it has a couple of flaws.”
“Okay, Major, what would you do?”
“First of all, you don’t want both of your best pilots on the same ship. You should have Sam pilot Salvage-5, and I’ll go with Hargrove. Salvage-7 should have all three nukes and focus on their deployment. That’ll leave Dash-5 free to retrieve any survivors. Otherwise, it’s pretty solid.”
“Humph, pretty solid?”
“Well, yeah, I’d say so,” Cass smiled, “Come on, Tuck. You have to compromise a little here.”
“Fine, fine...if you really think that works better, then you can go with Hargrove.”
“I think that really is the best course of action, Commander,” Samantha agreed.
&
nbsp; “Okay, but,” Tucker said, pointing a stern finger at Hargrove, “You keep an eye out on the Major, okay?”
“You got it, Commander.”
“Buster, I want you to stay behind...”
“Ah man...why is it always me that gets left out?”
“I need you to be in charge of the CSMO and assist Slavena with getting Dash-6 space worthy; we still have to fly it home.”
Buster hesitated and shook his head.
“It’s a really important mission, Lieutenant,” Cass said, reaching across the table with a reassuring shoulder pat. “Besides, we may need you here to come up with some technoscienterrific miracle if we get in a jam.”
“Well, alright. If you really think this is the best place for me, then I guess so.”
Slavena smiled over at Buster, “It is best place for you. Trust me, you don’t want to get close to those cyborgs.”
“Yeah, they’re pretty scary alright,” Buster nodded. “Okay, we can start work on your ship in the morning.”
“Alright everyone, let’s eat,” Dillan said, serving the crew his version of corned beef hash and eggs.
“Okay, we’ll get packed up and ready to depart in two hours,” Tucker ordered.
* * *
Chapter 7
Salvage-7
Location:
Asteroid 52 Europa
Earth Date: 10/22/2065 11:00
Mission Objectives:
DEPLOY CSMO AT ASTEROID 253 MATHILDE
JUMP ASSUALT TEAM TO 52 EUROPA
INFILTRATE ALIEN NOOSPHERE
RESCUE HUMANS
COLLECT ALIEN CORE
DESTROY NOOSPHERE COMPLEX
“Reverse burn termination in 3...2...1,” Hargrove counted.
“Full stop!” Major Phillips ordered.
“Aye, aye, powering down thrusters and we are 5,000 kilometers from the asteroid and holding position.”
“Any signal from Tucker’s recon SAT?”
“Scanning the sector now...yep, I’m receiving the beacon,” Hargrove pointed to the green light on his console, “There...he’s amped and the message is that they are hiding within the CSMO debris field.”
“Setting course to the remains of the CSMO and the crashed Falcon,” Cass reported as she pressed several buttons on her display. “Course is set. Increase speed to 52,000 KPH. ETA for landing configuration is 6 minutes.”
“Increasing speed to 52,000 KPH,” Hargrove reported, inching the throttle control to the proper setting.
“Alright, Captain,” Cass smiled, “I’m going back to check our payload.”
Hargrove turned in his seat, “Our Marines are capable of doing that, Major.”
“Eh, let ‘em rest. They’re going to need it. I got this, no worries.”
“Okay, Major,” Hargrove answered, and then he returned to his console as Cass floated out of her navigation seat and headed to the cargo bay.
A couple of minutes passed without incident and then Hargrove was startled by a weapons discharge.
“What was that?” Hargrove demanded. Pulling back on his controls he deviated from his flight path and set the controls to auto-pilot. He quickly unbuckled his harness and traveled back to the cargo bay, “What’s going on over here?”
Cass was holding a rail gun and a dead Marine floated free in the cargo bay, “Captain, I caught him messing with the warhead settings,” then she holstered her weapons and grabbed the marine and turned him around. She pointed at a chip implant on the back of the dead man, “He was chipped...I had to kill him! It looked as if he was going to detonate our Nukes.”
“Wow, Major. Good job! If you hadn’t gone back to check, we could have all been toast.”
“Yeah, right,” Cass answered. “I just double checked and confirm all three warheads are ready. Fortunately, he never got to them.”
“Yeah, fortunately is right.”
“You can resume course, Captain.”
“Um, don’t you think we ought to check the others?”
Cass pointed at Hargrove, “Good point, Captain. I’ll check the rest, you get back and resume course.”
“You sure?”
“That’s an order, Captain.”
“Fine, Major...you don’t have to be that way with me, you know.”
“Sorry, Captain. I didn’t mean anything by it...wait.”
Hargrove paused, “Your neck?”
“Oh, you think I’m chipped?”
“Just checkin’.”
“Fine, fine...go ahead and examine me.”
Cass floated over to the Captain and ran her hand down the back of his neck and then turned him around for a visual check. “Okay, you’re good.”
“Thanks.”
“We good now?”
“Sure...we’ll land in short order, Major.”
“Thanks. Oh, and Hargrove, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t mention it, Major,” Hargrove gave her a faint smile and returned to the cockpit.
Just as Hargrove fastened his harness, Cass interrupted him once more by poking her head through the hatch, “We’ve got a bigger problem, Captain.”
“What’s wrong now, Major?”
“He killed the other two Marines. I found them both dead in their bunks in back.”
“Oh great! What else can go wrong?”
“Yep, both of their necks were snapped. It had to have been the chipped Marine.”
“We’ve got to get word to the Colonel and let him know. There might be others in his ship that are chipped too!”
“No!”
“What?”
“No! I mean, no, we can’t break radio silence. We’ll have to tell him after we land.”
“Okay, Major. You’re in charge on this ship, whatever you say goes.”
“Thanks, Captain. You know how much I appreciate you, right?”
“Well, I used to think so.”
“Yes, I do appreciate you following my orders. You’re doing a great job, Captain.”
Hargrove smiled again, “We’ll be landing in 3 minutes. Tucker’s ship is right behind us now and will land 30 seconds after us.”
“Excellent, Captain,” Cass said, returning to her station.
“Look,” Hargrove pointed out the front window, “There it is.”
The two looked at the wreckage strewn across the asteroid. Parts of the Falcon stuck out of the CSMO’s drive unit. The entire scene was being consumed by the alien growth all around it.
“Not much has changed since our last trip here,” Hargrove noted, “Still looks as eerie as all get out.”
“Looks like the Falcon slammed straight down and plunged clean through to the alien Noosphere below,” Cass added.
“But we’re still clear for each of us to land on the gear drive section. From what I can see, it’s unobstructed. We should get a good hard seal there.”
“Gee, looks like they left the welcome mat out for us,” Cass snickered.
“Not funny, Major!”
“Sorry, couldn’t resist.”
“Right...okay, lining up on the hatch now...and in 3...2...1 we’re down.”
Cass turned to her display, “Confirming hard seal.”
“Powering down engines to idle. Gonna keep them warmed up for a quick getaway.”
“Good idea, Captain.”
“We’re in the gravity well of the Asteroid now, so make sure your legs don’t buckle, Major.”
“Yeah, I felt that familiar pull on my body. Thanks for the warning though...confirmed, we have hard seal established. We can make our way inside the gear drive now.”
Hargrove unbuckled his harness once more and climbed out of his seat. “Tucker’s just landed. After you Major,” Hargrove motioned.
“Right, let’s just get this over.”
“I couldn’t agree more, Major.”
Cass entered the cargo bay at the hard seal and opened it. She peered down into the blackness. “Guess it’s not Motel 6, they didn’t leave the lights on for us.”
&n
bsp; “Don’t think they were expecting company then, right?”
“Now that was funny!”
Cass snickered as she strapped a light to her head, “I try my best.”
Cass climbed down the ladder to the CSMO drive section and looked up to Hargrove, “The Commander is just now opening his hard seal. Pass me down the first Nuke.”
“You got it, Major,” Hargrove gingerly passed the Nuke to Cass, who took care as to not bump the device.
Tucker climbed down the ladder and greeted Cass, “Nice to see you again, Sassy.”
Cass smiled as she grabbed a second Nuke from the hands of Hargrove. Hargrove poked his head down through the hatch, “Colonel. We’ve got a problem, Sir!”
“What is it, Captain?” Tucker looked up at Hargrove with his green colored eyes.
“One of our Marines was chipped.”
“What?”
Cass turned to Tucker, “Yes, I went back to check on the Nukes and to make sure we were ready for their deployment when I caught one of them messing with one of the devices, so I planted a round in his head.”
“That’s not all, Sir,” Hargrove added, “Apparently, he killed the other two Marines before Cass interrupted whatever it was he was doing.”
“Wow, not good!” Tucker exclaimed, and then he tapped his headset, “Sam, I need you down here ASAP!”
Tucker heard her reply in his ear, “She’ll be right down. Now, our plans are going to have to change slightly.”
“We can still do this, Commander,” Cass said. “We still have your two Marines and Sergeant Samuels.”
“Okay, Sassy, you seem to have all the answers,” Tucker said, placing his hands on his hips, “How should we do this?”
“You take the Sarge, and we’ll take the two Marines...”
“After we check for chips,” Hargrove interjected.
“Yes, after we check them out,” Cass agreed, “I take Captain Hargrove, and the two Marines to deploy these devices, you take your team to the DNA extraction room and find all the survivors.”
“That’s just about what we were going to do in the first place, Cass,” Tucker argued.
“I know, but we’re just spread out a little thin with three dead now. But I’m confident that we can still pull this off.”
Salvage-5: Another Mission (First Contact) Page 6