by Tony Teora
“What about the base’s particle weapons?” asked Mahan.
“I now know the base better than anyone. Been in it twice. I think I can sneak the Beta-Ray around the lasers and get it over the main city reactor, which is where you want it to go. I can then drop the cargo and try to get out before it detonates.
“You gotta keep it low,” said Savage. “Those short range laser cannons systems will have you in their sights, and God knows what else they got. The place is buzzing with laser activity. Some are new. Something’s going on here, sir. I can’t figure it out.”
Webb spoke. “Our team cleaned out a ton of robots and then they started to retreat, except near a few elevators and caverns. It looks like they want to protect the underground facility or are trying to lead us underground, I’m not sure. This base is twice as big as the briefing says it should be, plus there’s that underground Dream Land facility. I didn’t want to spread our men too thin. And Captain Savage is correct, there’re some new short range lasers and some kind of drone saucers. They chopped up a bunch of our men. We had to use a couple of the R3P3s to blast out pellet rounds to take them out. This place is a hornet’s nest.”
Savage spoke. “We can’t fail. That bomb needs to get dropped off somewhere over that city, preferably over the city reactors. Manpower had us put in a ten-minute automatic detonation, so should you crash—you explode the nuke. You got that, sir?”
“I wouldn’t expect anything different. As a Big Gun, that’s how we roll.”
“I kinda figured that, sir.”
***
Earlier … at a time before the tractor beam locked in on the Aurora.
Captain James Vilante heard the earlier transmissions about the Beta-Ray being in distress. He knew things would get sticky back at Kabbalah, and even though he had orders to bring the GateStorm back, he just couldn’t do it with the feeling that he was needed back on Kabbalah.
Without breaking orders, Vilante ordered the ship to stop and pull back close enough to launch their only real weapon, a small weapon ship called the Patton-2. It was mostly fast engines and missile weapons. It carried four of the new Cruise-7 missiles, two of which were nukes. Vilante had begged the Space Navy to bring this along just in case they met an issue where the GateStorm had to assist. Those strict conditions had not exactly been met, but Vilante and his weapon’s officer, Alex Wells, were on that ship coming around the back side of Kabbalah, looking for the Beta-Ray.
Earlier transmissions said it was disabled, and Vilante knew that only a smaller stealth-type craft had a chance at saving it amidst all the laser cannon weapons fire. He looked over toward Wells. “Do you have a reading on the Beta-Ray?”
“No, sir, but you’re not gonna believe this. The Aurora appears to be stuck in some type of magnetic beam. It’s going down in the atmosphere. I’ll put it on Screen Two.”
“Can we knock out the source with a C7?”
“No, it’ll take too long to get dirtside, no chance.”
“What about a C7N? If we explode it near the beam?”
“It’s magnetic, it might disrupt the focus. A nuke throws out all kinds of EMP. If we calculate it right, and blow it up below—and we don’t blow up the Aurora in the process—that might work.”
Vilante pulled on his grey beard. “Well, I’d say let’s not miscalculate. Have the ship’s computer control the launch and explosion, and do it soon. The Aurora’s going down and we can’t let that happen.”
Wells typed in the parameters. The computer didn’t even take a second to think. It launched the C7N, or the nuclear loaded C7. It swooshed smoothly out of the center missile tunnel. Both Vilante and Wells watched as it approached the Aurora. Once it was between the beam and Aurora, and at five miles below, it exploded in a bright flash of light.
***
Karr saw the bright flash of light and thought the Aurora was finished. A percussion sound rattled the bridge as if everything around him had exploded from structural damage. But the large, exploding flash from the outside actually blanketed the Aurora viewscreens with static discharge. The sound came from the blast wave that hit the ship—a nasty blast, but just far enough away to avoid structural damage. The explosion pushed the Aurora out of the grip of the tractor beam. The confusion tricked everyone, including himself, into believing the ship had bitten the dust.
“What happened?” asked Karr, sitting up in his seat, realizing they had not exploded.
“We broke loose. Some kind of nuclear explosion below us cut the beam.”
“Move us away from GEN-6 and away from that beam. Get us into orbit and make it quick!”
“Already on it, sir. We should be out of range now.”
“Who stopped the beam? Did it come from Manpower?”
“I don’t think so, sir.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Well, sir, let me patch in to the captain who wants to speak with you.”
A captain? On the screen came the face of Captain DemianVilante, sitting in the Patton-2.
“I thought you had orders to go back to Earth, no U-turns?” asked Karr carefully.
“Karr, that was not the order. The order was to send the GateStorm back to Earth, and she didn’t do a U-turn, just let go of some unnecessary cargo. I heard some earlier SATCOM messages about the Beta-Ray being in trouble and wanted to assist, but never expected to see my friend Ozias Karr in such a mess.”
Karr smiled. “Demian, our whole ship sends its thanks. If you can get in range, we’ll pick you up.”
“Can’t. Sensors are saying we’re too close to that damn beam site. It could get a lock on us and bring us down. No can do. I’ll fly around the planet and catch you in about two hours, or if Manpower needs assistance, we can go dirtside and see what kind of mess he’s in.”
Karr chuckled. “You’re a real piece of work, Captain. Really appreciate the assistance. I’ll see you in a couple hours when you swing around. I think that Manpower will be fine without you. And thanks again. We owe you the world.”
“You mean you owe your unscathed asses to an old salt who doesn’t listen very well. You’re welcome, Captain. Stay out of harm’s way. We’re counting on you. Vilante out.”
Karr was both elated and embarrassed. He needed to be a lot more careful. The aliens almost had him, twice. Maybe the Space Navy knew Vilante would watch his back, or maybe they really thought the Aurora was expendable and that Vilante was the one they had to protect if there was a second battle. Vilante was definitely sharp. Taking on the magnetic beam was risky, and Vilante knew that. Karr wondered, like all captains, if he was making the right decisions. Battles were unforgiving and he couldn’t afford any more mistakes.
“Comm, open a line to Manpower.”
“Sorry, sir, his line is down and our SAT is offline, being repaired. We lost it in a blast. Need a couple of hours for repair.”
Shit, thought Karr. Hope Manpower and Archer have the situation under control.
***
Back to present …
“We’ve made it half way to the GEN-6 base center,” said Ace, zigzagging through the alien night city. An occasional laser tracking light would flash by, but there was no lock or hit to the Beta-Ray. The Beta-Ray was sluggish compared to an X-Vulture, but it was a Marine craft and did have that special roughness about it. As Ace rolled to the left, he received a call from Hiro.
“The robot Ivan sent is working real good. Ivan completed his mission,” said Hiro.
“Is he okay? Where is he?” Hope you’re okay, buddy …
“Not sure of his current location, but I did broadcast a signal of his new LZ coordinates. There was a lot of activity in his area, so I think he temporarily shut down all RF and comm systems.”
That made sense. “If you pick up another transmission, let me know. So where’s the tin man?”
“He’s in some kind of protected elevator shaft. He’s relaying off an open base channel. Not sure how long it will stay up.”
“Do we have any
intel on the underground reactor cores?”
“No, but the robot is sending back mapping data. There’s an outside elevator that I think is near a MACH-6 reactor and another generator transmission line. I think that’s close to where you should drop off the package, sir.”
Kiya nodded. “The alien told me that this race would build a device that must be destroyed. That must be it. We have to stop them from building the device in that area.”
“What device?” asked Jimbo, monitoring the weapon’s screen.
“I’m not sure. He died before I could get all the information. But whatever it is, we need to stop them from completing it,” replied Kiya.
“Okay, I got the coordinates,” said Ace, typing them into his flight path. Over the comm line, the team overheard the robot speaking Japanese. “Ai shite iru yo! Ecchi, ecchi, ecchi.”
Ace called in through his comm. “Is that robot working alright? It said something in Japanese, something about ecchi ecchi. The robot’s horny?”
“It’s the porn gaming chips, Ace,” said Jimbo with a chuckle.
“It’s the only ones that would work,” said Hiro, defensively. “I have the gaming chips controlling it, but sometimes they just fire off stuff. Not a big deal. Only activates some voice patterns.”
“Wonder if sex with a robot’s any good?” asked Ace, laughing.
“From the rumors I hear, that’s the only kind of sex you Big Guns deserve,” said Kiya with a wicked grin.
Jimbo laughed. “I think she may have your there, Ace man.”
Maybe she’s right, thought Ace. One-night stands were great, no doubt about it, but afterwards there was a feeling of emptiness. Or was it just the hangover? Kiya was a bright, beautiful person, but sex with her might mean settling down. Ace knew nothing about that, but he had to admit to himself, after seeing eight years of death and destruction, the thought had recently crossed his mind.
Kiya looked over and smiled. “Cat got your tongue?”
“My life’s all good,” said Ace, smiling and rising slightly above the outskirts of the GEN-6 base. He looked in awe at the fluorescent green, blue, and orange lights that lit up various buildings like a Christmas tree. A gold stream of light ran up and down generator poles, creating an almost Casino-type feeling in other areas.
As Ace approached the center of GEN-6, the lights were more controlled, as if they all had some kind of meaning or purpose. Some flashes of light were almost hypnotic. Ace never noticed this before from the ground. The center area was like a city at night, and more. Red and green tracer-type lights were lighting up the Beta-Ray. Flashes of deadly laser cannons were now getting close.
“Be careful. Go south at twenty six degrees and then cut back north. I see too many energy fields up ahead. It’s too dangerous,” said Jimbo.
Ace changed course and dropped down lower as a green tracer light flashed across the front of the Beta-Ray, Ace quickly banked right, down lower, but yet again another red light scanned his underbelly.
“An inactive laser cannon just got turned on. It’s directly beneath us,” said Jimbo.
Shit! Bad location! A beam shot up and caught the Beta-Ray. The Beta-Ray continued moving along, but circuits shorted throughout the ship. Controls became erratic. Ace was only two clicks away from the desired location.
“We should try to get closer to the drop zone,” said Kiya.
“We can’t. We won’t make it. This is a bunker-buster thermo neutron-enhanced system. It should do the job from here. We’re only one and a half clicks off.”
“It would definitely take out the city reactors and anything within a fifty-kilometer radius from the drop point,” added Jimbo.
Ace’s systems showed they’d barely make it out. “Savage, I’ve been hit. I’m still able to maneuver, but controls are sluggish. I’m going to drop the package at sector D9 and bug out.”
Karr answered. “Do it!”
“Captain, is that you? Are you guys okay? What happened?”
“I’ll explain later. Just blow this place to hell!”
“Yes, sir,” said Ace, hitting the bomb deployment switch. A red error button lit up. Disengagement Failure.
“Shit! The blast must have damaged the bomb bay control.” Ace frantically tried a backup—no luck.
“We’ll need to land and manually roll the bomb out,” said Jimbo.
“I sense too much trouble. There’s something nearby. We won’t have much time,” said Kiya.
“We don’t need much time,” said Ace.
After finding a somewhat quiet section of the southern base area, Ace and the crew landed near a storage building above a different elevator shaft. He set the nuke timer to five minutes and opened the Beta-Ray bay doors. After disconnecting the cable straps, he and the team noticed a hole in the ship. The laser had cut fiber lines, but fortunately missed the bomb.
As Ace and Jimbo rolled the steel encased bomb toward the ground, a mass of robots started marching in their direction. They looked like zombies marching for dinner. Their reddish eyes glowed in the dark, while red, green, and orange GEN-6 base lights reflected off their metallic bodies. It looked like something from an old Michael Jackson Thriller video, another old retro favorite of Ace’s antique music collection. But these zombies weren’t Michael Jackson—they were crazed robots!
“I think it’s time to go,” said Jimbo, pushing harder.
“You got that right, big guy.” Ace did the final push and the one megaton bomb rolled onto the dirt. Ace clicked the timer and it started counting.
“Wonder if those tin heads can fuck this up?” asked Ace.
“Naw, the protective casing should prevent the robots from breaking into it. Also, any tampering on the timer would trigger the bomb early. All they could do is accidentally explode it early and—” Jimbo shut up and quietly stared at Ace. Ace stared back at Jimbo.
“Close the doors, we gotta get moving!” Ace ran up to the pilot seat while Jimbo hurriedly closed the small bay door.
As Jimbo watched, the arms of two oncoming robots thrust through the bay door. Jimbo took a nearby gun and shot one arm into pieces while the other got crushed by the closing door and fell on the inside floor, its fingers still moving for a few seconds.
“We okay back there?” asked Ace as he started the Beta-Ray engine.
“I think we’re okay now,” said Jimbo on his comm. Jimbo picked up the broken robotic arm, looking at the fingers as if they were dead worms.
The Beta-Ray slowly lifted, but Kiya looked concerned. She was staring near a wall and looking up. “I think I hear a weird sound on top and it’s not the engines.”
Jimbo walked over. “I think hear it, too.”
As the Beta Ray lifted, the sound changed. It sounded as if something was sliding or moving above the center cabin.
Ace put the Beta-Ray into full speed on a direct course out, away from GEN-6. He’d take his chances with the laser guns, as time was ticking, and who knew which stupid robot would trigger the bomb early?
Jimbo and Kiya sat in back and listened. The sound stopped for a few minutes. Then it started back up. “We may have trouble back here, Ace. Me and Kiya are hearing something in the mid cabin section. Could be a hitchhiking robot.”
Ace was flying at full speed and had reached about three kilometers out, but they needed another five of so for safety. “Jimbo, I’d try to shake him, but I need to focus on getting a little more distance.”
Jimbo and Kiya watched as something started cutting a hole in the back cabin roof. A metallic hand then punched through and was now ripping out metal!
“We got a stowaway!” yelled Jimbo, aiming at the ceiling and firing away.
“Looks like a robot must have attached before we lifted off,” yelled Kiya, grabbing a gun and shooting.
“See if you can take care of it while I try to shake him.” Ace swerved up, down, right, left, but he couldn’t shake it.
Then there was a bright light of the thermo-nuke. Ace tried to get lower to a
void the oncoming blast, but he was too late. The three hundred plus-mile-an-hour wind pushed the Beta-Ray into a wooded section on the outskirts of the city. It crashed. Ace’s face smashed into a broken front console that lifted up from damage. But at least he was okay.
“Are you guys okay back there?” asked Ace, getting slowly out of his seat.
Kiya lay unconscious. Jimbo was under a heavy beam. Jimbo looked over at Kiya. “I’m stuck, but I’m okay. Kiya’s bumped her head. She’s unconscious. Can you pull me out?”
As soon as Ace walked into the cargo bay, a rattling sound came from the outside. Ace hoped it was just loose metal. Then, through the clear front plasmoglazic window, a robot appeared. Its head was loose and part of the chest metal was opened up like a tin can. The seven-foot-tall, broken robot was a model he hadn’t seen before, but it was still operational. It stared at Ace with one operational red eye and then started to swing its heavy metal arms at the plasmoglazic glass. Each fist cracked the glass a little more. Ace knew his time was limited.
“Help me outta here!” said Jimbo. “I can help.”
Ace pulled up a heavy beam. His super strength helped. As Jimbo tried to stand, he fell in pain.
“Fuck, my leg’s broken.”
“Take a seat, big guy, and watch Kiya for me. I’ll take care of this one.”
Ace looked for something to fight with against Mr. Big Robot, but he had nothing except some useless tools. There was something similar to a plastic tire iron, but that would be as effective as a four-year-old boy hitting his father with a frozen Twinkie. Ace tried to radio for help, but that was damaged, too. The constant bang … bang, from the robot hitting the plasmoglazic glass was a dark reminder that the robot would eventually enter.