Hunmoos also came from Equinox, a giant with wide shoulders and a heavy, violet-colored chest armor. He had taken a seat between Atilla Scott and the Progonaut Zedos. Hunmoos looked at the Merinian repeatedly with grumpy looks while showing his teeth, which had its reason.
According to the Neo-Sapien mentality, Hunmoos was firstly a warrior, only then a scientist. Hunmoos was regarded as a specialist for initial contacts with alien civilizations. Atilla Scott had made a little joke at the beginning of the flight to loosen up the tense mood somewhat. He had openly speculated that all first contacts had probably run away when seeing Hunmoos’ Neo-Sapien ancient chest armor. Since then, there has been an irritating ice age between the two. Apparently, the humor of both men was incompatible.
Zedos of Atlantika, whom Vasina personally had assigned to the team, belonged to the Royal Bodyguards and acted as Tranos’ deputy. Zedos sat silently on his seat since the start and didn’t seem to mind the two team colleagues. He came across a little arrogant which was probably based on his Progonaut pride. Atilla Scott, however, suspected that this behavior was due to a deep uncertainty. Zedos probably didn’t know how to act when facing representatives of other species on this mission. He was simply not accustomed to such an assignment. At least in this respect, Atilla Scott and Hunmoos were ahead of the guardian.
As the team, advanced deeper into the moon’s thin atmosphere, Hunmoos finally decided to react to Scott’s joke, displaying his teeth before saying, »If you wouldn’t have these swimming-skins between your fingers, you could be mistaken for a Progonaut because of your eye color. But this way, I ask myself all the time, what are you really? A man or a fish with two legs?«
Hunmoos had hardly pronounced the sentence, which he had been thinking about for several minutes, when he leaned back and let out a roaring laugh. The Neo-Sapiens apparently found his remark so hilarious that he could only calm down with difficulty.
Atilla Scott rolled his eyes for a moment, nodded slowly, and said, »Touché. Perhaps, you will be amazed, but you’re not far off with your humorous contribution.«
Zedos slightly wrinkled his nose and looked at the two men indifferently, »Humans and Neo-Sapiens are undoubtedly close relatives. The only difference which reveals itself to me, and also when I’m listening to you, is your body hair.«
»You seem a bit stiff to me, Zedos. I’d advise you to take the stick out of your spacesuit,« Hunmoos said to the Progonaut. »It might prevent you from swimming.«
Both the Merinian and the Neo-Sapiens laughed aloud. Zedos didn’t seem to understand the joke and raised his nose offended.
»Okay, then,« Atilla Scott grinned and got ready.
»Talking about swimming,« Polamus said. »We’re two thousand feet above the sea level of this moon. These antennas protrude from the water at the same height of about one kilometer. I haven’t found any place that isn’t occupied by these strange antennas. We remain better on this side of the moon, which is always facing the ice giant. Thus, Atlantika can intervene more quickly if problems occur. Also, a repeated scanning of the moon didn’t show any changes. Therefore, the name Watermoon is a good name.«
»What else do the scanners tell us?« Scott wanted to know, pointing at the visible artifacts. »Are there any underwater activities? Did the energy scan already yield something? Is this moon inhabited, as improbable as it may seem?«
»If our Queen hadn’t ruled out, with absolute certainty, the existence of active defense systems under the sea or even on hidden ships, we wouldn’t have started this exploration mission,« Zedos commented calmly. »Good men are not senselessly sacrificed under Progonaut command. The Atlantika has a lot of possibilities to probe this moon accurately.«
»With good men, he probably means himself,« Hunmoos laughed again, poking Scott so hard with his elbow that he gasped for air.
The Merinian coughed briefly before he could answer, »Then there’s only one question left open on this trip. Why are we here if there are no opponents?«
For the first time, there was something like sympathy for the Merinian in Hunmoos eyes.
»The moon seems to be abandoned and dead. I don’t detect any energy activities, except the moon-encompassing heat source, which could have natural causes,« the pilot said fleetingly. »Perhaps, someone lived here a long time ago.«
»I’ve been thinking about the heat source since we started,« Zedos suddenly remarked. »Taachlar Mar moves around the ice giant just before the Roche limit, so it is always exposed to strong tidal forces. The continual push-pull action on its crust releases energies that probably prevent the moon’s core from cooling off. It may have a liquid core and the heat at the bottom of the ocean results from volcanic activity.«
»Whatever the reason,« Polamus interrupted, giving the three men a brief sign. »We’ll dive into this ocean now and see for ourselves.«
The Duckbill ship softly landed on the water by means of a gravo cushion. When Polamus deactivated the hovering state, it fell like a stone and sank deeper. The already very weak and gloomy light conditions, fed only by the scattered light of the ice giant, immediately deteriorated with the immersion into the unknown ocean. There was absolute darkness after a few meters.
»I activate the exterior lighting, but it won’t give us much visibility. We have to rely on the scanner images,« Polamus explained, moaning astonished when he saw the water analysis data.
»We’re swimming in oxygen-rich, salty water, enriched with traces of various sulfur compounds and dissolved carbon dioxide,« Polamus reported. »The average temperature is almost seventeen degrees Celsius – the surprise of the day.«
»Overall, this sounds like life-like conditions,« Atilla Scott said stunned. »What I didn’t expect is the high proportion of dissolved oxygen. Are you sure, Polamus?«
»As surely as the northern ice-nymphs stun their prey with their shrieking singing sounds,« Polamus replied calmly. »I deliberately landed near one of these antennas and dived at its side. This ocean is eerie, there’s an oppressive silence and darkness. The external microphones don’t pick up any sound. There are so far, no signs of life, whether we are talking about simple or complex forms of life. This sea is sterile, but I’m sure it has something to hide. I can feel it.«
»I’m going to transfer the first deep-sea scan of this underwater region,« Polamus announced. »Activate your info holos, there you can see all the data.«
»These antennas are widening with increasing depth,« Hunmoos muttered, analyzing the first data.
»Anything that protrudes the water surface seems to be only the tip of the iceberg,« Atilla Scott concluded. »On closer inspection, however, we are not dealing with antennas, but with spirally tapered towers, which seemed to be anchored at the bottom of the ocean.«
»There are about five thousand meters to the bottom of the sea,« Zedos said. »What are the purposes of these underwater towers and why were they built?«
»We’ll find out,« Hunmoos growled. »Anyone who makes such an effort to build on a remote moon must have good reasons.«
As the first holographic depth probe picture was displayed, all three men held their breath.
Only after Atilla Scott took in the picture for a few seconds, he could say something.
»This is absolutely incredible!«
Hunmoos hummed deeply.
»In case you don’t trust your eyes, I can assure you, I see the same.«
»What shall we do now?« Zedos asked anxiously. »This scanner picture changes everything!«
»Well, what do you think?« Scott asked amused. »We dive deeper and take a closer look!«
Kargash
The landing craft dived into the strange ocean a few seconds ago. As discussed, Polamus has switched off the identification of his ship and any radio traffic shortly after the start, to minimize the risk of detection by the carrier. Therefore, we can no longer detect the landing craft with the passive scanners and must rely on our exploratory team. They have three hours, then they mu
st return at the latest. I am curious what our team will find on the water moon.
A sharp alarm signal ripped Vasina out of her thoughts.
Hellas twitched briefly in his command seat.
»One of our surveillance drones has reported an increase in energy from the surface of the second, large moon,« the scanner section kottan reported.
»Tactical analysis, quick!« Hellas shouted to his command central crew and activated the second defense field layer of the battleship at the push of a button. The commander had so far refrained from the complete deployment of the defensive systems to save energy and reduce detection. An active energy signature from the second moon changed everything.
»We’re not alone in this system! Let’s get ready!« the commander’s voice sounded over the intercom, and every crew member could hear him.
»It’s still there,« Nexus Tor commented dryly.
»Of course, it’s still there,« replied Hellas. »It must have landed on the second major moon and has almost completely deactivated all systems. So, we couldn’t find it on our arrival. I know the tactics of the Dark Brotherhood from earlier days. The ship must have found one of our surveillance drones and begins to react. It probably assumes that there are other Redmane cruisers here. Huh, that’ll be a surprise!«
»It assumes?« Nexus Tor inquired. »You mean the crew of the ship?«
»This ship has no crew, at least not as you might expect. There’s only parasitic technology on board. It infiltrates the entire ship. Former individuals have been taken over.«
»The carrier is flown and controlled by a transformed Kokradian,« Nexus Tor concluded.
»It’s always an amalgamation, not a takeover or assimilation,« Vasina corrected the Hybrid. »From a Kokradian or any other being and the spores of the parasitic technology, something new arises. This fusion takes place at the lowest level of the organism and occurs at the core of each cell. An infestation is irreparable and can’t be reversed.«
Nexus Tor nodded slowly.
»Except with our friends, the Neo-Sapiens, it doesn’t seem to work.«
»This plague will have a tough time with us!« Kulatos laughed hoarsely.
After the laughter of the Neo-Sapien had calmed down, first surface images of the second large moon were displayed on the central display. It was a dusty, rocky world, covered by large impact craters, and in its appearance, not unlike the planet Mercury. An unusually large and conspicuous crater was located near the northern pole. Bright stripes, which pointed radially outward from the center of the crater, indicated an earlier comet impact. In the center of the crater was a black and eerie structure.
»The carrier,« shouted Vasina. »Star-shaped with eight points, 760 meters from tip to tip. Ships of the same type attacked my home-world. It must have been transferred to our universe together with the Sacrificial Suns.« Vasina drew a heavy sigh before she continued, »Battle Commander Hellas! I’m ordering you to destroy the enemy ship!«
»Order understood, Egemena,« Hellas acknowledged. »Deactivate the FTL drive!«
Nexus Tor thought he hadn’t heard correctly.
»Then only the conventional drives remain. A tactical retreat isn’t possible then.«
»I usually won’t discuss my orders, this time, I’ll make an exception because you’re not familiar with Progonaut battleship operations and because the enemy has not yet started from its landing position,« Hellas muttered. »There will be no tactical retreat. My order is precisely formulated. The tachyon drive must be deactivated, as the malicious gnome on board the carrier would, otherwise, teleport an overloaded plasma bomb directly into the drive. A method and capability which had been the demise for many Progonaut ships.«
Nexus Tor raised his hand conciliatorily.
»I understand. The Kokradian uses the tachyon shielding field as a counter-pole and sets up a mental portal, over which he transfers a plasma bomb. If the drive is off, he has no point of attack.«
»There’s another point of attack,« Vasina warned. »The Kokradian could decide to personally attack and penetrate our ship via the portal room and then take over the crew mentally. It has already worked in the past, he could try it again.«
»I’m going to send a team to the portal room,« Nexus Tor said firmly. »If the gnome tries to get into our ship, he will regret it.«
Vasina nodded contentedly.
»Please, tell your team to act with extreme prejudice and not to show mercy. Extinguish the gnome’s life aura when he starts a takeover attempt. The Kokradian is long dead. Your team would only free his soul.«
»Hostile carrier just lifted off from the moon and is quickly seeking a low orbit around the ice giant. Our surveillance drones have just been destroyed,« the kottan reported.
»The enemy already knows we’re here and also knows our position. The carrier is trying to dive into the planet’s no-detection zone and then surprise us. However, this plan won’t succeed. The enemy will have a surprise,« Hellas said in a deep voice. The commander looked calm and ready. His sovereign attitude took over the rest of the command central crew. Although the enemy attempted to use the ice giant as a detection shield, the tactical hostile symbol didn’t disappear from the console display.
»How is that possible? How can you still see that carrier?« Nexus Tor whispered to Tranos.
»As soon as we arrived, Hellas deployed numerous surveillance satellites into different orbits around the ice giant. These are especially disguised tracking satellites. Even if the carrier can detect and destroy some of these satellites, it won’t be able to escape. A simple routine measure which now pays off.«
»Strong energy development on the other side of the ice giant. Two consecutive series of explosions of at least four plasma space mines were detected,« the scanner section reported.
Hellas laughed loudly, »The mines will have damaged the carrier and force it to move into a higher orbit where its superior energy efficiency can no longer be played out.«
»Space mines!« Nexus Tor said surprised.
»They are similar weapon systems of those which were used to seal off our home-world,« Tranos replied. »The mines drift inside the pre-determined space sector and are self-steering toward a possible target. A very treacherous weapon. Hellas immediately deployed these mines after our arrival. These weapon systems only react to ships with a particular signature.«
»Attention! The carrier is changing its orbit as predicted to escape further damage from the minefield,« the kottan shouted and activated the target tracking computer. »The enemy ship is within range of our guided plasma weapons!«
»The Kargash has begun!« Hellas exclaimed enthusiastically. »Let’s celebrate it like the battle commanders of the olden times!«
The brief euphoria was immediately interrupted by Hellas when he commanded his weapons master, »Guided plasma weapons, four times, ripple two! Maximum spread, one percent.«
The bright blue, plasma spheres left the guns of the battleship only seconds later and disappeared after two more seconds behind the planet’s horizon.
The battle has begun! It’s still being fought over a great distance, around half the planet. Our guided weapons follow the planetary shape and will hit the carrier with precision and further weaken it! Hellas will fight the battle in our favor, Vasina thought while following the battle on the central display.
»Tracking satellite XII reported the launch of unknown self-propelled weapon systems from the carrier, then the satellite was detected and immediately destroyed. Our attack is being executed over the poles of the ice giant! Contact in twenty seconds!« the surveillance kottan shouted into the room.
Nexus Tor looked up as if an attack would rain down on the Atlantika. In principle, it was like that, if, one disregarded that the question about above and below, since, in space, it was always a matter of the reference point. In this case, the ice giant, with its axis of rotation, determined what was above or below.
»Fast frontal approach of self-guided plasma weapon
s! We’re under fire from two sides,« the next message sounded. »Impact of both weapon groups simultaneously!«
Hellas increased the energy for the ship’s bow and rear shields, and at the same time instructed his navigator to initiate evasive maneuvers. Although Hellas knew that such tactics were futile, he still executed them. On the one hand, to show the crew that defensive action took place, on the other hand, perhaps it could reduce the force of impact.
»Initiate countermeasures!« Hellas commanded to the weapon systems kottan, who immediately activated the deck guns.
A swarm of small, bright plasma spheres left the Atlantika, aiming at the enemy charges that had crossed the pole of the ice giant and were now clearly detected by the scanners.
»The approaching weapon system is not an energy weapon! Segmented warheads have separated, multiply several times, increasing the number of approaching weapon systems. »Our countermeasures are insufficient!« space surveillance reported. Then more reports came in.
»Our own plasma charges have just arrived at the carrier ship! Penetration of enemy shields and ship armor 70 percent! Attention! Incoming enemy plasma weapons! Contact with our defense shields in … two … one, impact!«
The Atlantika was heavily hit at the bow. A jolt shook the ship, and the first defense shield layer collapsed almost instantaneously but was still able to compensate for part of the plasma charge. The second defense shield flickered dangerously and allowed discharge energy to flow across the ship’s hull. A bright, extremely hot flash of energy hit the bow area and burned the top layer of the armor. The main computer took over control immediately and redirected the energy of unaffected defense shields to the bow sector shields.
»The second defense shield layer of the deck area has collapsed! Bow shields are stable again! Our countermeasures are only 60 percent effective! Battleship fires on incoming individual objects! Second wave reaches us at this moment!«
NEBULAR Collection 7 - Guardians of the Continuum: Episodes 31 - 34 Page 39