The Cassini Mission

by Rob Colton

  I heard Bradley clear his throat over the comm channel. “Commander Bradley. Check.”

  Private Frost double-checked his pad, then confirmed it and shoved it into his pocket.

  I glanced around and saw Bradley step out from behind a tall cargo container in the back corner. He was followed by a smug-looking Corporal Green, who tugged up the zipper of his uniform, then adjusted his package.

  Villanova opened the weapons locker. He grabbed pistols for those of us who normally were not armed. I took the phase pistol from Villanova and put it into the holster on my belt. He moved down the line and handed Kenji and Bradley their pistols.

  “How come we don’t get armored suits like the Marines?” Kenji asked as he holstered his pistol.

  Villanova smirked. “They don’t make armor in ‘runt’ size.” He finished his words with a slap on Kenji’s ass.

  Kenji jumped out of his skin and turned seven shades of red. Muttering under his breath, he quickly hurried away.

  I turned to watch Privates Frost and Thomason loading cargo crates into the shuttle, overseen by Green and Robertson. We were nearly ready to head down to the surface. I flexed my fingers and took a couple of deep breaths, wanting to settle my nerves.

  Captain Yoruba strutted in followed by Ensign Yates and Dr. Nikhil.

  “We are ready for go, Captain,” Sergeant Willis called out as he stood at attention.

  The entire away team grouped closer together as Yoruba moved out front to address us. I felt a large man slide up behind me, standing just a little too close to be casual. I didn’t need to look back to know it was Kane.

  Yates and Nikhil broke off from the captain and joined the rest of us.

  “Ensign Yates will be joining the team as the Cassini liaison. Dr. Nikhil will provide medical assistance if necessary. The Cassini will return in three days after we complete our delivery run. Good luck.”

  Willis clapped his hands together. “Let’s go, Marines!”

  The Marines climbed up the shuttle ramp in formation while the rest of us straggled behind. When I stepped into the shuttle, Kane’s hand on my back guided me to the first jump seat on the port side. He strapped me in and then took the seat next to me. Facing me, Bradley strapped himself in. He looked between Kane and myself. Something about his expression annoyed me, as if he didn’t like that Kane and I were… whatever it was we were.

  I really didn’t care what he thought. It wouldn’t affect my job performance. And frankly, it wasn’t his business. At least I wasn’t giving out blowjobs in the cargo bay.

  Private Asmar adjusted Kenji’s seat straps and Kenji elbowed his hands away with an annoyed grunt. Asmar just laughed it off and continued down the line, tugging on everyone’s straps. Razix moved up to the shuttle cockpit with Ensign Yates.

  A male voice announced over the comm: “Cassini to Shuttlepod Alpha. You are cleared for take-off.”

  Willis called out to Razix, “Take us down, Raz.”

  “Sir, yes sir,” Razix responded automatically.

  I turned my head and looked up at Kane. He looked down at me and gave me a lop-sided grin. He had an air of excitement about him as if he couldn’t wait to get down there where the action was. All of the Marines did. But I could not shake the bad feeling I had. I glanced at Kenji, and I knew he felt the same as me. His foot tapped a rapid staccato on the deck plate. He was practically chewing his bottom lip off.

  As the ship took off and dove into the atmosphere, I grabbed the seat’s harness straps. The pressure was intense and I concentrated on drawing oxygen into my lungs. I squeezed my eyes shut and white-knuckled the straps so tight I thought my fingers were going to snap off.

  Once we broke out of the atmosphere, the ride smoothed out and I relaxed a bit.

  I heard a soft groan coming from Kenji. He was looking a little green and I couldn’t help but worry about him. After he blinked a couple of times, he squeezed his eyes shut. Breathing in and out, nice and slow, he seemed to get his nerves under control.

  When I looked at Kane, he was staring straight ahead. His entire demeanor said he had gone into soldier mode. Realizing that I was watching him, he returned my gaze with the slightest hint of a smile. He gave me a friendly nudge, tapping his shoulder against mine.

  Even though I knew we were just screwing around casually, I couldn’t help but feel a little tug in my chest when he looked at me like that.

  Yates was on the shuttle’s comm, attempting to contact the research station, but he was getting no answer. He repeated his transmission several more times before giving up.

  “I’ve locked onto the colony’s beacon,” Razix announced over Yates’s voice. “Prep for landing.”

  Once Razix landed the ship on the colony’s docking platform, we prepared to disembark.

  “Prep your teams, corporals,” Willis ordered Kane and Green. “Green, take point. Head directly for the bunker’s blast doors.”

  “Sir, yes, sir,” Green answered as half of the Marines assembled around him.

  After I unstrapped myself, I pulled my standard issue eye goggles over my head and tightened the strap. I double-checked that my pistol was secure and my comm link was firmly set in my ear. My breathing unit was clipped to my belt in case I needed it. Hopefully I wouldn’t hyperventilate. I was as ready as I was ever going to be.

  The Marines drew their weapons and Willis ordered the ramp open. Half of the Marines followed Green down the ramp, with me, Kenji and Bradley in their wake. Kane led the remaining half down the ramp, sandwiching us in between.

  Between the low light level and the harsh winds, it was hard to focus my senses on anything, either visually or aurally. Kenji and I pulled out our comPads and began running scan sweeps of the area.

  “Can’t see for shit,” one of the Marines griped over the comm channel. His voice was clear, but had a tinny quality to it due to the noise canceling technology that filtered out the sound of the wind.

  The docking platform was located next to the main bunker, a large building that served as the colony’s hub. The bunker contained the colony’s living quarters, operations control, medical bay and the galley. The research lab was a separate building, far larger in size, located behind the bunker. They were connected by a covered, fortified breezeway.

  Typical of these types of “pop-up” colonies, the buildings were created directly from the starship that transported them here. The hull had been fashioned into the walls. The engine cores were modified to serve as the power plant.

  I tapped my pad and activated the bioscan sweep for lifeforms as I moved to the front of the group. The main lab building didn’t register on my scan—it appeared as a curious black void. It obviously had some sort of shielding that prevented internal scans.

  I let out a decidedly unmanly squeak when I was abruptly yanked backwards. Kane had grabbed the back of my uniform and he didn’t let go until he had pulled me back behind him. When I opened my mouth to protest, he shot me a look that told me to do what he said. Something told me that now was not the time to be stubborn. Instead, I nodded at him, submitting to his authority. I decided to chalk it up to his “enhancements” and let it go. He couldn’t help himself and there was no use arguing about it, especially in front of his colleagues.

  Trailed by the rest of the Marines and the two Cassini officers, I followed Kane towards the bunker’s outer blast doors.

  “I’m not detecting any humanoid life-signs,” I said into my comm mike as I continued to use my pad to run bioscans. “The bunker’s power is running in emergency mode.”

  When we reached the blast doors, Green slapped his hand on the door control but nothing happened. He placed his hand on the security scanner. The plate display turned red and made a sharp noise. “Corporal William Green; access denied.”

  He held his finger on the door’s comm control. “Corporal W. Green, UMC Unit A07, requesting permission to enter.” When he didn’t get an answer he mumbled to himself, “Fuck this shit.” He turned to Private Frost. �
��Open the door.”

  Frost looked at the controls, and then tapped a sequence until it displayed a diagnostic screen. “We still got local power,” he said. “But it’s secured. Give me a minute. I can get it open.”

  Bradley pushed past Frost, who was about to tear open the control panel to hot-wire it. Bradley pressed his right hand on the security scanner. The scanner chimed and turned green as it announced: “Commander Bradley Brimley; access granted.”

  Kenji turned around and gave me a pointed look. I gave him a shrug.

  Frost and Green’s group backed away from the blast doors and readied their weapons. When the seal broke, the outside air rushed in with a hiss as the doors slowly slid apart, metal and gears grinding until they stopped with a large clang.

  A gargantuan eight-foot tall robot stood in the middle of the doorway, blocking our path.

  Made of a metal alloy, it was shaped like a humanoid, with two arms and two legs. It had a domed head with two slotted eyes, but no mouth. The head sat directly on a broad inverted-triangle torso. It looked to be very solidly built and heavily armored. The thing was seemingly powered down.

  “What the hell is that?” Frost asked as he took a step back.

  I had never seen anything like it. I tapped and swiped my fingers over my pad, scanning the robot. When I stepped to move closer, Kane’s arm swept in front of me.

  “Stay back, Aron,” he growled.

  Kenji moved up next to Frost and scanned it with his pad.

  “It’s a cyborg,” Kenji said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  I furrowed my brows as I read the scans. “A cyborg?” I didn’t quite understand what I was looking at.

  “It’s a robot,” Kenji continued. “But it has biological implants. I’m not exactly sure… This is strange… No one has ever been able to successfully graft living organs and tissue with cybernetics before.”

  “Is it… uh… dead?” Green asked, his rifle at the ready, his eyes never moving from the robot.

  “I don’t detect any energy signatures at all,” I replied. “It looks offline.”

  “No,” Kenji said. “It’s definitely got power running through it.”

  Kenji held up his pad and I could see the red pulses inside a graphical depiction of the cyborg body on Kenji’s screen. I held up my pad and showed him my empty, dark scan.

  While staring at his pad, Kenji stepped back from the cyborg, putting some distance between them, then moved back in. “It’s got some kind of energy dampener.” He turned around. “Bradley? You’re the cybernetics expert.”

  When I saw the energy signature spike on my screen, I looked up at the cyborg. Its “eyes” suddenly lit up bright red and I opened my mouth to warn them, but it was too late. The cyborg’s right hand slammed into Frost’s head. He slumped to the ground, his eyes wide open and lifeless; gray matter spilled from the gaping hole in his skull. I screamed as Kane grabbed me and pulled me back.

  All hell broke loose.

  “Get the fuck back, Lieutenant!” Kane screamed at Kenji.

  As Kenji tried to fall back, he held up his phase pistol with a shaking hand. Before he could fire, the cyborg turned and snatched Kenji’s pistol from him. He swung the pistol at Kenji’s head, throwing him backwards onto the ground.

  “Fire!” Willis yelled. “Take him down!”

  Dr. Nikhil jumped forward and linked his arms under Kenji’s shoulders and dragged the man’s limp body away.

  The cyborg stepped forward as the Marines opened fire. The particles from the phase pistols had little effect on its armor. Villanova shouted for everyone to move back. He fired the phase cannon at the cyborg repeatedly until its neck plating cracked open. It took every Marine firing constantly into the small neck opening until its head separated. Its body then fell forward, still twitching as its hydraulic systems tried to catch. The Marines blasted it until it stopped moving.

  When Villanova stepped forward and aimed his weapon at the thing’s head, Bradley yelled, “Stop! We need the head.”

  “Fuck that!” Villanova spat. “Did you see how much fire power was required to take that fucker down?”

  “Sergeant Willis,” Bradley called out. “Tell your men to stand down.”

  Willis reluctantly relented. “Hold your fire. Let him have it.”

  “Get it,” Bradley ordered Green.

  Green narrowed his eyes at Bradley’s barked command, but nodded and followed his order anyway. He grabbed the cyborg head and tossed it into a cargo crate.

  “We’ll get the rest later,” Bradley stated as he gazed into the crate.

  I looked back at Kenji’s body and began to tremble. Dr. Nikhil knelt down by Private Frost, then looked back at Willis shook his head before he moved back to Kenji.

  I couldn’t look. I had to turn away.

  Kane came up behind me and put his arm around my chest. He leaned down his head down and whispered into my ear, “I’m sorry about your friend, baby. He died in the line of duty. You should be proud of him.”

  Blinking back tears, I reached up and squeezed Kane’s forearm to silently thank him. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, but I searched the crowd for one particular set. I pushed away from Kane and looked Bradley square in the eyes. I didn’t have time to grieve because I was beyond pissed off.

  “Did you know?” I demanded. “Did you know that thing was there?”

  “No! Of course not!”

  “You’re lying.”

  I didn’t believe him. He was one of the Union’s foremost cybernetics experts and there was no way he wouldn’t know about a cyborg this advanced. Anger boiled over in me. “What else are you keeping from us?”

  “Nothing,” he said while trying to maintain his calm, but he was growing increasingly agitated. “I don’t know any more than you do. I suggest you stand down, Lieutenant.” Bradley pushed his chest up against mine. I fisted my hands, but didn’t back down. I wasn’t a fighter, but I would defend myself if I had to.

  Kane and Green stepped in and separated the two of us.

  “He’s not dead,” Nikhil interjected, his voice flat and emotionless. My head whipped to the doctor, who held a cloth to Kenji’s head. It was soaked with blood and my stomach lurched at the sight. “Please leave the diagnoses to an expert. Lieutenant Kanataka has suffered a severe head wound and a concussion. He will eventually wake on his own if I can get this cut treated.”

  I raced to help the doctor. Private Thomason was standing nearby, so I grabbed his arm. “Help lift him up. We need to get him inside.”

  The spiky blond-headed Marine slung his rifle over his shoulder. He bent down and gently lifted Kenji while the doctor kept pressure applied to the wound.

  “If you know anything, I suggest you let us know right now,” Willis said to Bradley. “We lost one man and another is out. I don’t plan on losing anyone else.”

  Through gritted teeth, Bradley snarled, “I told you, I don’t know anything.”

  Willis regarded Bradley for a moment, then said, “Let’s proceed. Head to Ops.”

  As soon as we were all inside, Bradley shut the bunker’s blast doors behind us. When the doors slammed closed, the sound of the howling wind stopped. The sudden change in pressure made my ears feel like they were underwater and I shook my head to try to clear it.

  The first thing I did was to yank the goggles off. God, that felt good.

  Inside the bunker, the power was running in standby mode. The interior lights were off, save for the emergency lights. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the low-light condition.

  As soon as we were inside and the doors were secure, Thomason lay Kenji down on the floor. Nikhil cleaned the gash on the side of Kenji’s head, then pulled a laser suture from his med kit and closed the wound. He then gave Kenji a hypospray injection. “This will take care of the pain and infection. I can do some cosmetic work once we get back to the ship, but this will do for now.”

  “Thank you, Doctor,” I said with a sigh of relief.<
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  Green moved close to Bradley. He wrapped an arm around the scientist’s shoulders and gave him a quick sideways hug. “You okay?” Bradley shrugged his arm away with an under-breath curse, then pulled out his pad and began scanning as they proceeded deeper into the bunker with the first squad.

  “Let’s move,” Willis ordered.

  “Stay behind me,” Kane whispered to me. I was too busy scowling at that heartless worm Bradley to process Kane’s words. He grabbed my arm, forcing me to focus on him. “Stay behind me.” When he added a whisper for my ears only, “Please,” I finally refocused my attention on the mission.

  The bunker was completely silent, a sharp contrast to the howling winds outside. It seemed too quiet to me. My heart pounded in my chest as we began to move forward through the main corridor.

  Bradley raised his fist up over his head and everyone stopped. “I think there’s two more around this corner,” his whispered voice filtered into my earpiece. “Blocking the door to the Central Operations Center.”

  Willis’s voice quietly gave his orders and the Marines advanced.

  I stayed back with Yates, Nihkil and Kenji. Villanova rounded the corner and blasted the head of one of the cyborgs before they could react. The Marines concentrated their firepower on it.

  The other one had come to life and was already advancing on the Marines, forcing them to split their attention between the two. This cyborg had a particle weapon built into its arm. Private Asmar was unable to dodge the deadly beam in time and it drilled a hole clean through his head. He was thrown backwards to the floor, dead.

  Doctor Nikhil rushed to pull the green Aquilan back away from the fight, despite the fact that blood was pouring out of the hole in his head.

  Before Villanova could take out the cyborg, it fired one last shot directly at the doctor, hitting him square in the chest. The doctor flew backward from the impact and went limp.

  “Goddamn it!” Willis cursed. “Asmar and Nikhil are down!”

  Villanova and Razix made sure that both cyborgs were out of commission as Green led the team into Central Operations. I moved over to Asmar and felt for a pulse, then did the same to Nikhil. I looked at Willis and shook my head. They were both gone.