“I’m getting the same report from the other units,” replied Marken, uneasily. “Something is wrong. No one is reporting seeing any of the station’s crew either.”
Wade was getting a sneaking suspicion, and he hoped that he was wrong. “Lieutenant Jeffries, I want you to take several squads and check a few of the domes where the crew lives, let me know what you find.”
“Yes, Sir,” Jeffries replied. “We’re on our way.”
“Major, you need to come and look at this,” Private Dawson spoke, sounding distressed. “You won’t like it.”
Wade followed Private Dawson over to an open hatch and glanced inside. He froze at the sight in front of him. Half a dozen humanoids were lying on the floor, their bodies already partially decomposed.
“What happened here?” asked Wade, turning toward one of the Kiveans who had followed him into the room.
The Kivean turned around and vomited, retching loudly. After a moment, he turned back and shook his head. “It was the Kleese,” the Kivean responded. “All the humanoid races that crew the station are implanted with a small device under the skin that contains a deadly poison. If an individual displeases or fails to do as a Kleese asks the device is activated, allowing the poison to spread throughout their system. Death is almost immediate. The Kleese prefer that method of control for the station crew rather than the explosive collars worn by their military conscripts.”
“What about your race?” Wade demanded. “Do you have the same poison implants?”
“We did,” the Kivean admitted. “But we discovered how to deactivate them and then we removed the devices as soon as we reached your solar system.”
“Let’s head on to the Command Center,” ordered Wade, backing out of the room and shutting the hatch.
A few minutes later, Lieutenant Jeffries contacted Wade. “We’ve checked the first habitation dome and everyone inside is dead. Evidently the crew has some type of poison device inside of them that has been activated.”
“That’s what it seems like,” replied Wade, fearing that the Kleese may have wiped out the entire crew of the station after learning of the escape of the Humans and the Kiveans. It was hard for Wade to fathom how a race could be so callous and insensitive.
After taking a rapid transit vehicle to the center of the station, they finally reached the Command Center, and for the first time Wade saw a group of living beings. Standing in front of the hatch were ten conscripts in
Type Two battle armor.
“RG rifles!” Wade ordered as the conscripts spotted Wade’s squad.
Almost instantly, the corridor was full of ordnance as both groups opened fire. One of Wade’s marines fell as several rounds penetrated his chest armor and exited out of the back of the suit in a spray of blood.
“They’re firing armor piercing rounds!” Wade warned taking cover behind a bulkhead as rounds stitched the deck just in front of him leaving smoking holes in the floor of the corridor.
“Private Dawson, hit them with explosive rounds!” Wade knew the more powerful explosives of their RG rifles should quickly eliminate the opposition.
Dawson stepped out into the open and fired two rounds down the corridor. He suddenly yelled in pain and fell, grabbing his leg.
At the same moment, two resounding explosions echoed down the corridor. “Use your energy lances,” Wade yelled as he drew his and charged down the corridor with the rest of his marines right behind. The corridor was now full of smoke, making it difficult to see.
Upon reaching the hatch to the Command Center, they found only three of the conscripts still standing and they seemed to be dazed. Wade and his marines made quick work of the three with their energy lances.
Turning, Wade saw Private Dawson limping toward them. “Where are you hit?” Wade asked with concern. Dawson had been with him even before being abducted by the Kleese.
“My leg,” Dawson replied with a slight groan. “My suit has it under control.”
Wade nodded. He had lost two of his marines, and Dawson was injured. He wondered what else awaited them in the Command Center. Turning, he looked back down the corridor where the Kiveans were waiting. They had stayed back in the other corridor during the brief battle.
Seeing that everything was clear, they hurried up to where Wade and his remaining marines were standing. Taalon stepped forward and entered a command code on the control panel next to the hatch. Nothing happened.
“The controls have been overridden from the inside,” he informed Wade as he stepped back away from the hatch.
“We thought that might be a possibility,” Wade responded as he gestured for Private Foster to come forward. He knew Nicole was carrying some special explosives.
“Blow the hatch?” she asked as she stepped up and examined it carefully.
“Yes,” Wade replied. Nicole had been trained in demolition and was an expert when it came to small explosives.
“A few well placed charges should suffice,” she said after a moment.
Nicole removed a small satchel attached to her side and took out four small explosive charges. She carefully put them in place and then inserted remotely controlled blasting caps in each one.
Wade watched her carefully and then motioned for the Kiveans to step back. He also noticed that Sergeant Sterns had arrived with her squad of marines.
“Everywhere it’s the same,” she reported nervously. “They’re all dead. The Kleese must have wiped out the entire crew after we escaped.”
“We’re going to have to blast our way into the Command Center,” Wade informed her. “As you can see, the hatch had guards in front of it when we arrived. There may be more conscripts inside, so we need to be prepared for a battle.”
“Just be careful where you fire your weapons,” Taalon cautioned. “Some of the consoles and equipment in there could easily be damaged. We’re going to need the computers.”
“I’m ready,” Private Foster reported as she inserted the last blasting cap.
Wade had his marines move back a few yards and then nodded at Foster. “Set it off.”
With four resounding blasts, the door fell inwards into the Command Center. Instantly, Sergeant Sterns leaped through the door, her energy lance drawn.
“Damn, she’s fast,” uttered Private Russell as he quickly followed her.
Wade and the rest of the marines entered through the hatch and found the battle was already over. Four more conscripts in battle suits were lying dead, cut into by Private Russell and Sergeant Stern’s energy lances. Sergeant Stern was holding her arm as if in pain. There were a dozen Kleese in the room, and the rest of the marines quickly moved to dispatch them. After what they had seen on the station, asking them to surrender never entered anyone’s mind.
“What’s wrong with your arm, Sergeant?” Wade asked with concern in his voice.
“Just a stinger, Sir,” Jamie replied in a voice filled with pain. “Damn RG round hit the outer armor of my suit. It didn’t penetrate, but it hurts like hell. The damn suit is just ignoring it since it isn’t showing as an actual injury.”
Wade nodded and turned his attention to Taalon. “What’s the situation on the rest of the station?”
“We’re checking now,” Taalon replied. He had already sent a message to Marken informing him that they had taken the Command Center and to send the rest of the Kiveans that had been assigned to this part of the operation. Sergeant Perry and his squad would be escorting them.
“Private Russell, take four marines and set up a guard outside the hatch, let me know immediately if you see or hear anything.”
“Yes, Sir,” Russell replied as he quickly called out four other marine’s names and moved to follow Wade’s orders.
“Lieutenant Williams, have you secured the Flight Command Center?” Wade asked over his com. He hadn’t heard from Beth for a few minutes.
“Yes, Sir,” replied Beth, sounding slightly out of breath. “We had to fight our way in. There were half a dozen conscripts in battle suits waiti
ng for us outside the hatch. I lost two marines, but we have secured the Flight Command Center. There were four Kleese inside, and they’ve been taken care of.”
Wade didn’t need to ask what taken care of meant. “I want you to start sending teams out with Kiveans to the auxiliary Command Centers. If there are any surviving Kleese on the station that’s where they will attempt to go if they want to regain control. Warn your marines to be aware there might be more conscripts waiting for them. We don’t have the marines to search the entire station due to its size, so we have to take over the key control points.”
“Yes, Sir,” Beth replied. “I will have teams on the way shortly.”
“Lieutenant Jeffries?” spoke Wade, assuming that the lieutenant was listening in on the command network.
“Yes, Sir?” Jeffries replied.
“What have you found so far?”
“We’ve checked two habitation domes, and all the humanoids inside are dead; we’re on our way to the next one now.”
“Nix that,” Wade ordered. “I don’t think we’re going to find anyone left alive on this station other than the Kleese and whatever conscripts they’ve kept for their personal protection. I want you to send a squad each to Engineering and the six main fusion reactors, which power the station. I don’t want the surviving Kleese to be able to sabotage anything.”
-
Two hours later, Wade stood next to Marken on the Command Pedestal in the Command Center. Main Engineering, the Flight Command Center, the two Auxiliary Command Centers, and all six fusion reactors were all safely under control of Wade’s marines. A few more conscripts in battle armor had been encountered and after several short battles, had been eliminated. There was also a small group of Kiveans with each squad in case their technical expertise was needed.
“Any idea how many Kleese may still be on the station?” asked Wade, worriedly. He didn’t like the idea of still having live Kleese roaming the station. The problem was there was a good chance they still had conscripts in battle suits with them as protection.
“Unknown,” Marken replied as he studied the controls on the main console in front of him. “Normally I would say a couple of hundred, but most of them might have been staying on their ships due to the conditions in the station.”
“Why didn’t they clean it up?” asked Wade, feeling confused. He was beginning to realize just how alien the Kleese way of thinking was.
“I suspect they were waiting for the new crew to arrive,” Marken replied. “From what we have found in the station’s computer logs the Kleese enacted this complete kill of the station’s crew immediately after our escape. They also eliminated most of the conscripts that were present, only keeping a few of the most trusted ones for personal guards. The new crew was to arrive in two more weeks.”
“What about our military in stasis?” Wade asked suddenly, concerned that they might have been eliminated also.
“Still in stasis,” Marken replied. “I suspect that if the Kleese had been able to remove them from the stasis chambers they too would have been eliminated. It probably would have been one of the first things the Kleese would have ordered the new crew to do.”
“Why not just kill them in the chambers?” Wade asked.
“The long term stasis chambers are very expensive,” Marken replied. “The Kleese obviously didn’t want to risk damaging them.”
“How soon can we get underway?” Wade wanted to be gone from this section of space before the Kleese returned with reinforcements. They had been lucky so far, all things considered.
“Shortly,” Marken replied as he pressed several buttons on the large control panel in front of him. He checked several small data screens and then spoke to Taalon. “All the assault ships except the ones returning with the Armageddon have docked. We’re already powering up the station’s Space Fold drive.”
-
In space, Commander Michael Kirby watched as the massive space station suddenly accelerated away and then jumped into Fold Space. He knew it would take four weeks for the station to make it to the solar system.
“Time to go home,” he said, looking over at Colonel Stehr. There were two assault ships that would be returning with them.
“I just can’t help wondering if we started a war today,” the colonel said in a quiet and worried voice.
Michael looked over at Stehr in surprise and then replied. “Colonel, we have been at war since the Kleese destroyed Earth. I strongly suspect that the battle today is only the first of many remaining in our future.”
Moments later, the Armageddon and its two escorts vanished into Fold Space. The first shots in humanity’s war against the Kleese had been fired, and the first battle had been won.
Chapter Eighteen
Mason was in the Control Room on Vesta staring at the main viewscreen in amazement. General Mitchell, Pamela Cairns, Drake Thomason, and Ethan Hall were all standing next to him. The screen was showing the massive Kleese space station going into orbit midway between the Earth and the Moon. The video was being broadcast live from Holbrook Station.
“How big is that damn thing?” Drake asked his eyes wide in disbelief at what he was seeing. The station seemed to fill the entire screen.
“The entire station is one hundred and twenty kilometers across and twenty four kilometers thick,” replied General Mitchell, watching the viewscreen and recalling the last time he had seen the station. “It has numerous habitation domes measuring anywhere from five to twenty kilometers in diameter.”
“How many people can we put on that station?” asked Pamela, realizing that here might be the solution to saving the survivors down on Earth as Marken had indicated earlier. She was breathing heavier as she realized that here might be their salvation.
“We can put two million just in the habitation domes,” Mitchell responded with a relaxed smile. “They are all set up for humanoid species so our people should be able to move right in. Not only that, we can grow food crops in the domes as well so sustenance should not be an issue.”
“How many people were normally on this station?” asked Mason, finding it hard to fathom how something so large could have been constructed. It must have taken the Kleese years to build something so large.
“From what Marken has told me, there normally is a crew of one to two hundred thousand on one of these stations, with an additional ten to forty thousand conscripts to carry out Kleese combat missions.”
“Where are we going to put the rest of our people?” Pamela asked her eyes still glued to the screen.
“There are barracks and training centers inside the station where we can house more people,” Mitchell replied as he continued to explain what he knew about the station. “It won’t be really comfortable, but we can easily cram ten million survivors on that station until we have the new habitats on the Moon, Mars, Vesta, and the other asteroids ready. The station also has a tremendous manufacturing capability. We can use it to build literally anything we need, including new spacecraft.”
“Are there additional assault ships on board?” Ethan asked, his eyes lighting up at the possibilities.
“Yes,” General Mitchell replied with a bigger smile. “There are close to two hundred assault ships inside the station’s flight bays. All are armed and ready for combat; they just need crews.”
“We have a fleet,” Mason stated as he realized the possibilities. Not only did they have a way to defend the solar system, they also had more than enough lifting capacity to move the survivors rapidly off the Earth. He felt as if a massive weight had just been lifted from his shoulders.
“Yes, we have a fleet,” General Mitchell responded.
“What’s the current situation on the station?” asked Mason, looking over at Mitchell. He knew from the report that Michael had turned in a few weeks back, when the Armageddon and the two assault ships had returned, that it wasn’t good.
“The station itself is intact, but the crew was killed by the Kleese. Major Nelson reports that they have encount
ered a few more Kleese on the station during their journey here. The ones they encountered had conscripts with them wearing Type Two battle suits. There were several pitched battles on the station over the past four weeks. We still control all the key areas.”
Mason only shook his head. He had seen the battle suits demonstrated and he could only imagine what the fighting on the station had been like.
“We need more troops on that station,” Drake said with a frown. “We can’t send any civilians up there until that threat has been dealt with.”
“We’re already in the process of sending two thousand additional troops to the station,” responded Mitchell, recalling the orders he had already issued. “We will search the entire station from end to end as well as begin the necessary cleanup operations. Give me two weeks and the station will be ready for its first occupants.”
“How soon before you’re leaving for the station?” Pamela asked. She knew that General Mitchell would be going there to take over command.
“In the next hour,” Mitchell replied, anxious to get to the station. “I have an assault ship waiting.”
Mason nodded; at last they had some good news! Staring at the viewscreen and the vast space station it was hard to believe all that had happened in the last year. Perhaps now they could finally begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
-
Captain Stevens was outside his command bunker staring in wonder at the large alien ship that had landed between his bunker and the numerous barracks that surrounded the Jornada spaceport. He was vastly relieved that these aliens were friendly. Two massive power lines had been connected to the assault ship’s fusion reactor, which had completely alleviated their growing power problem. For the first time in months, they had an excess of power and could adequately heat all the large tents and barracks that housed the Human survivors. What was also amazing was that very little snow and ash was falling. He knew that situation wouldn’t last long, but it was nice to be able to see more than just a few feet.
Galactic Empire Wars: Destruction (The Galactic Empire Wars) Page 29