Task Force Night, Asteroid Weapons Platform, Gliese 876, February 19, 2021
“One more-fuck!-wire to connect,” commed Sergeant Hopper. The Drakuls were pushing in again, and his suit’s nanobots were running full-out trying to repair the continued damage he was taking. He was going to have to go to emergency override to get any more painkillers; the suit said that he had already received his recommended daily allowance in just the last 10 minutes. Even with all of that, the laser burns still hurt. A lot.
He continued to do the best he could to ignore the pain. They needed the cyborg; he had to get it running again.
“There. That’s got it,” said Hoppy. “How do you feel—” His voice cut out suddenly.
“I’m good,” Staff Sergeant Randolph replied. He turned to see three Drakuls coming down the left passage. Two of them had the standard large Drakul laser rifle; one had a weapon with a larger tube that he was reloading. Randolph killed the Drakul carrying the tube with several well placed rounds. The other two Drakuls fried off some more of his combat skin while he killed them. The enemy taken care of, Randolph looked down at Sergeant Hopper and saw that the tubular weapon was some sort of flechette thrower; Hopper had four large metal slivers that protruded from both the front and back of his suit. Two more were stuck in the lower part of Randolph’s left leg, but they were not impinging on anything critical. Randolph was fine; Hopper was dead.
* * * * *
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Shuttle 02, Asteroid Weapons Platform, Gliese 876, February 19, 2021
“Hey, Exit,” Foxy said, “do you see that Drakul up there in the window?” He pointed up to a large window that overlooked the hangar bay.
“I do now,” Exit replied. “That’s gotta be the hangar bay control room. What do you think he’s doing?”
Foxy watched him for another few seconds. “No idea. I’d shoot him, but the laser won’t aim high enough for me to target him.”
“That sucks,” Exit said. “I doubt he’s doing anything to help us.” He saw motion out of the corner of his eye. “Shit! The hangar bay doors are closing!” The aviators looked back up at the window. The Drakul was looking back down at them. When he saw that he had the Terrans’ attention, he began waving.
Task Force Calvin, Asteroid Weapons Platform, Gliese 876, February 19, 2021
“Calvin, Exit,” the pilot commed, “there is a Drakul in the hangar bay control room, and it looks like he just started closing the hangar bay doors. Should we stay in or get out?”
“Stay in,” Calvin replied. “Give me a second.” He ran into the airlock control room. “Hey, Smetlurge, are there backup power systems for when the main engines receive battle damage?”
“I don’t understand,” said the Hooolong.
“I’m about to blow the main engines,” said Calvin. “Are there backup systems to provide life support if I do?”
“Yes, of course there are,” Smetlurge said. “It would have been dumb to build something this large without them.”
“Master Chief, Lieutenant Commander Hobbs,” Calvin commed, “I need you to detonate the explosives on the main engines, right now! All hands, brace for shock and prepare for dark!”
“Roger that, sir, I’d be happy to,” Master Chief replied, ducking a flechette round as he pulled out the remote detonator. “Going dark in three, two, one, boom.” He pushed the button, and a massive jolt was felt through the asteroid, knocking several of the aliens and a couple of the Terrans off their feet. They had to pick themselves up in the dark as all of the lights went out. It also got quiet as the life support systems cut out, eliminating the background noise of the air handlers.
After five or six seconds, emergency lighting kicked on in the passageways, and the sound of air moving could again be heard. “Exit, Calvin,” Calvin commed, “did that kill the doors?”
“Yes it did,” the pilot confirmed. “The doors are still open far enough for us to get out. The bad news is that the Drakul that was waving at us just left, so I’m guessing it went to go get help. I’d sure appreciate it if you could get here before he comes back.”
Task Force Night, Asteroid Weapons Platform, Gliese 876, February 19, 2021
“Captain, Wraith, I just met up with BTO. We’re at the airlock.”
“Great,” commed Night; “be right there.” He jogged up to the front to find Calvin waiting for him.
“Hi, sir,” said Night. “Funny thing happened on the way to our ride home.”
“No kidding,” Calvin replied. “Did you get everything set up?”
“Yeah, we’re good,” Night said. “Thanks for turning out the lights. They were about to pin us down, and it let us break contact. We’ve already lost Hoppy; we need to get moving before they regroup.”
“Master Chief!” commed Calvin. “Get ‘em moving to the hangar bay. You’ve got combat ops. Master Gunnery Sergeant Kinkead, you’re our shepherd; make sure our guests make it in one group.”
“You heard the man,” Master Chief said, “let’s get moving. Wraith, you’ve got point with Yokaze. Get us there as quick as you can. Wall, you’re in the middle to provide fire support for the aliens if we get jumped. Randolph, Zoromski and the Gordons, you’ve got rear guard; keep ‘em off us. As the boss would say, the liberal use of high explosives is authorized. Move out!”
Shuttle 02, Asteroid Weapons Platform, Gliese 876, February 19, 2021
“Shit!” said Exit, and Foxy felt the ship come off the ground. “They’re trying to sneak around behind us.” He spun the shuttle around in time to see three Drakuls setting up a crew-served weapon.
It was the biggest weapon Foxy had ever seen. “Master Arm is on, laser’s hot,” he called. He brought the anti-missile laser to bear, but the Drakuls were faster, and a shot went just over the cockpit glass.
“Holy shit!” Exit said. “That laser’s huge! Shoot ‘em! Shoot ‘em now!”
Foxy fired, hitting the ammunition bearer in the chest. He blew backward in several pieces. The gun fired again, hitting the poly-glass right in front of Exit. He could see the bolt drilled a hole part of the way through it. “No, shoot the gunner! Shoot the gunner!”
Foxy retargeted and fired, hitting the gunner in the head. The Drakul fell backward as his head exploded in a spray of blue. The Drakul gun fired again, but its aim was off as the gunner fell backward. The assistant gunner pushed the gunner’s body out of the way and grabbed the firing mechanism, but he was not fast enough; Foxy shot him in the chest. Foxy fired several more times into the gun, hoping to render it inoperable.
As he ceased, they heard a noise from the top of the shuttle. “You don’t suppose there’s one on the roof, do you?” asked Foxy.
“I thought I originally saw four of them,” Exit replied. “How many did you kill?”
“Three. Shit.”
“Yeah, shit,” said Exit. “Flip you for who goes out to try and shoot him off?”
“No,” Foxy replied, “we need you to fly this tub. I’ll go.” He unbuckled his harness and got up to go to the back.
“Wait a sec,” said Exit, “I’ve got an idea. Besides, we need to check out the hole that they almost put in the window.”
Foxy slid back into his seat and began strapping in as Exit flew the shuttle out of the bay. “I don’t think any of them had suits,” Exit said. “Let’s find out.” As the nose started through the force shield, several yellow lights started blinking on his dashboard. “Must go faster,” he said, feeding in more power. “The bastard must have some sort of cutter or blowtorch; it looks like he just cut some of our steering.”
As the shuttle cleared the force shield, Foxy asked, “So how long do you suppose the Drakul can last in vacuum?”
“I don’t know,” Exit replied, “but I’m willing to give it several minutes to find out. I think a human can do it for a minute or so, as long as he doesn’t try to hold his breath.”
“There’s no telling how long a Drakul can hold its breath,” said Foxy. “I’d give it five
minutes, just to be sure.” Exit rolled the craft twice, hoping the centrifugal force would throw it off. “That’ll help, too,” Foxy added.
Task Force Calvin, Asteroid Weapons Platform, Gliese 876, February 19, 2021
“I’m in the hangar bay,” Wraith commed, “and there’s no sign of the shuttle. There are some dead Drakuls scattered around, but no shuttle.” They had made good time...only to reach the hangar bay and find that the shuttle had disappeared without a word.
“Shuttle 02, Calvin,” he commed, “where the hell are you guys?”
“Calvin, Foxy” the WSO replied, “sorry, we had a Drakul on the shuttle, and we took it outside for a breath of fresh air. It cut up some of our controls, so we were testing them. We’re on our way back.”
As Calvin entered the hangar bay, he heard explosions behind him. The Drakuls had been pressing them harder as they got closer to the hangar bay. Turning back around, he saw the shuttle entering the hangar bay. It was noticeably wobbling. “Is that thing flyable?” he asked.
“Yeah, barely,” Exit replied. “I don’t want to have to wait around any longer, or I’d call for the other shuttle to come and get you. If there was any way to transfer the passengers in space, I’d do that, too. As it is, we’ll just have to make it work.” He brought it in to a stop, and the boarding ramp came down.
“Load ‘em up!” Calvin yelled. “We’re out of here as soon as everyone’s aboard.”
“Hey sir,” commed Sergeant Zoromski, “you’re gonna want to hurry. There’s a whole pile of them back here, and they don’t seem to be taking ‘no’ for an answer.”
“I heard him, sir,” called Master Gunnery Sergeant Kinkead. “We’re going as fast as we can.” She shook her head, watching the menagerie of different aliens board the shuttle. It wasn’t quite like Noah boarding the animals two by two...but Noah only had to worry about rain, not 10-foot monsters that wanted to eat them.
Calvin saw the last aliens heading up the ramp. “We’re loaded. Fall back to the shuttle. Foxy, cover them with the shuttle’s laser.”
“Got it, sir,” replied Foxy.
The Gordon brothers came through the door, followed by Sergeant Zoromski. Staff Sergeant Randolph was the last through the doorway. He had borrowed Staff Sergeant Dantone’s Hooolong pulse rifle to go with his Mrowry auto cannon and paused to fire both of them for nearly five seconds on full automatic, sending over one hundred 20-millimeter rounds down the corridor. He turned to see the other soldiers running toward the shuttle and began lumbering toward it, as well.
The shuttle laser fired, and he turned back around, ready to defend himself.
“Sorry,” the shuttle’s WSO said. “I was just doing a ranging shot to make sure I was on target.”
Randolph turned and ran the rest of the way to the shuttle, shaking his metal head. As he climbed the boarding ramp, the door opened, and two Drakuls came through. Already on target, Foxy shot them as the shuttle lifted off, turned and wobbled its way out of the hangar bay.
As they rose above the asteroid, the shuttle jerked as a counter-missile laser hit its right wing.
“Shit,” swore Exit, “I forgot we weren’t invisible anymore.”
“Just a second,” replied Foxy. He turned the stealth generator off, waited a couple of seconds, and then turned it back on again.
Exit turned the ship hard to the left, and the laser missed with its next shot. Several other lasers began firing, but they were aimed in the shuttle’s original direction and also missed. Exit applied full power, and the shuttle left the asteroid behind.
Calvin came up to the flight deck. “Impressive light show,” he noted, watching as the computer showed where the lasers were firing. “Happily, I can do something about that.” He switched to his comm system. “Master Chief, blow the asteroid,” he ordered.
“Yes sir,” replied Master Chief. “Detonation in three...two...one...” Fire from the asteroid ceased as the nuclear warheads detonated. Although the battle station’s metal covering was thick and built to withstand a tremendous amount of damage, it was shaped to repel damage from the outside, not to withstand a 200 megaton blast from inside the station. With an enormous flash, the metal covering the asteroid fractured, exploding violently into thousands of large pieces and millions of smaller shards. The asteroid itself shattered into billions of rocky pieces that rocketed outward in all directions.
Exit smiled. “Thank you, sir,” he said. “That’ll help.”
* * * * *
Chapter Thirty
Shuttle 02, Returning to the Vella Gulf, Gliese 876, February 19, 2021
“I can’t fly like this,” said Exit five minutes later. “We’ll never make it back.” After the asteroid had been destroyed, the shuttle’s flight control system had become progressively worse. Exit wasn’t sure what happened, but it felt like something else had failed in the spacecraft’s control system.
“What’s up?” asked Calvin, who had been called back up to the cockpit to discuss the shuttle’s problems.
“I can’t turn right,” replied Exit. “Something’s cut or jammed in the flight controls. In order to go right, I have to turn left and come all the way around to the heading I want. If I miss the heading, I have to do another circle. I’m never going to be able to dock with the ship like this.”
“Got any idea where the Drakul was when the flight controls were damaged?” Calvin asked.
“Yeah, he was not too far behind the cockpit up on top of the shuttle,” said Foxy.
BANG!
“What was that?” Calvin asked.
“That was a piece of the asteroid,” said Exit. “We haven’t been able to fly fast enough and straight enough to avoid the debris field. Some of the pieces are still flying around out there.” He moved the stick. “Shit! Whatever just hit us finished off the flight controls; now they’re not working at all. Someone’s going to have to go up top and take a look at it. Got any mechanics in the back?”
“I don’t know,” Calvin replied, “I can go see.”
“I hope you’ve got a couple; if not, we’re not getting back any time soon,” said Exit. “What’s worse is we never planned on bringing back this many guests, or we’d have brought extra oxygen. We’re going to be running pretty thin on air before long. I’ve commed the ship, but we’re a long way out. It will take two and a half hours for the other shuttle to get here.”
“How much air do we have left?” Calvin asked.
“Two hours.”
“I’ll go find a mechanic.”
“Thanks,” said Exit, “that’d be helpful.”
Shuttle 02, Stuck in Space, Gliese 876, February 19, 2021
“There’s the problem,” commed Staff Sergeant Randolph. With the death of Sergeant Hopper, the cyborg had more experience with mechanical things than anyone else in the platoon. He was also less likely to be injured than the 100% biological humans, so he had led the way to the top of the shuttle. Corporal Lawrence was assisting him, as she also had mechanical experience, having designed her own DNA sequencing machines. She was carrying the tools, while trying to stay behind the cyborg; each of the troopers had seen several pieces of the destroyed asteroid whip past.
“What’s the problem?” asked Exit.
“There’s a panel cover missing and some torch marks,” replied Randolph, “as well as a spray of blue. Looks like your Drakul bought it in the end. Oh, yeah, the writing around the panel says, ‘Caution, Flight Controls.’ I’m in the right spot.”
“Can you tell what’s wrong with them?” Calvin asked.
“Not at the moment,” Randolph said. “I’ll have to move the rock that is sitting on them first.”
“Rock?” asked Exit.
“Yeah,” said Corporal Lawrence, “a big rock. Looks like part of the asteroid. It would probably weigh several hundred pounds in standard gravity.” She moved out of the way. “Stand by; we’ll see if the big boy can lift it out of the way. Staff Sergeant?”
Randolph braced himself and
pulled, and the rock went flying off into space. “The rock wasn’t stuck,” he said. “It was just sitting on top of the panel, and I was able to move it.” He looked down. “Ouch,” he continued. “Yeah, I see what the Drakul did. It made a mess of the wiring. I think I can temp fix the cables that the Drakul cut, but it’s going to be a really sloppy repair. There will probably be a lot of extra play in the flight controls.”
“That’s fine,” said Exit, sounding relieved. “Just get me a little bit of control back, and you’ll be my hero.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” Randolph commed. “You haven’t seen how awful the repair is going to be. Between not being able to hold onto the cables very well and the small area that the wires have to run through...just don’t thank me yet. We’ll see how it goes. Corporal, let’s start with a pair of wire cutters.”
“How is the repair coming?” Exit commed 15 minutes later. “We’re getting to where I’m going to have to make some hard decisions.”
“Doing good, sir,” replied Staff Sergeant Randolph; “in fact; I’m just finishing up. Two minutes.” He finished installing heat-shrink tubing over the solder joint. He just needed to heat it, and he’d be done. “Hand me the heat gun, please,” he said without looking up. His hand remained empty. “Today? Kinda like to get out of here, and it sounds like the pilot is getting antsy.” Corporal Lawrence still didn’t reply. Randolph looked up in annoyance. “Could you PLEASE hand me...” Corporal Lawrence wouldn’t be handing anyone anything ever again. A two-inch wide sliver of metal from the asteroid was protruding from her facemask, which was rapidly filling up with blood. A thin red mist sprayed out into the vacuum from where the metal breached the facemask. As she slowly spun to the side, Randolph could see that it protruded from the back of her helmet as well. “Shit,” Randolph said. “The thrusters are fixed,” Randolph commed, “but we just lost Corporal Lawrence.”
Theogony 3: Terra Stands Alone Page 23