Condition Zero, page 11
part #6 of The Earth Saga Series
“Ten friendly ships reporting in, multiple enemy ships identified.” A tech replied.
“Ten?” Varus took his seat, then turned to look at the tech. “This fleet has fifteen ships!”
“Only ten are still registering, Sir.”
“Identify enemy contacts.” He sat back into the old chair, a smile on his face. He’d quickly dispense with this little Alliance threat, then go back to the business of managing the system logically and methodically.
“Sir, below the planet’s southern pole.” The tech paused. “There is a ship in close orbit.” Another pause. “It’s massive.”
Varus smiled. Not to worry. Back in command. He looked down at Sajoba’s body. Not a care in the world. “Bring it up on the main viewer.”
It took ten seconds, an eternity in combat, but an image was finally displayed on the viewer.
“It’s not possible.” Varus said almost under his breath. “It can’t be real.”
“Sir, the enemy ship is measuring just over twenty kilometres in length and has a primary weapons system that has already destroyed three ships.”
“Mother of…” Varus trailed off. The Fleet Command Ships were ancient beasts built during the height of the Empire. There were initially over a dozen of them, but nobody had seen an Alliance FCS in almost seventy years.
“Orders?” The Ship Master asked, his hands grasping the command chair. “What are your orders?”
48-The Seven
“Power is dropping off.” Reported the tech.
Ship Master Yakari looked over from his command chair. “Understood. Focus power on the main cannon.”
Joe was standing next to Admiral Taark and Master Grade Kol Fine. He looked at Fine, cocking his head to one side. “What did he just say?”
“The ship is losing power, for some reason.” Fine replied in his usual dry tone.
Joe dropped his right hand down to the blaster on his hip. “Great.” He hated being an observer, unable to participate in the fight.
“Status on Barrier Generator?” Taark asked.
“Still holding.” Replied a tech.
“Come on Keegan.” Joe said under his breath.
“Sir, we are missing a ship.”
“What?” Admiral Taark barked, spinning around to look at the technician.
“The Five is not on my scope.”
That got Joe’s attention. “What did you say?”
“The Five is not registering.” The tech repeated.
Taark looked at the closest communications station. “Open up a channel to the Five at once.” He ordered.
The technician went about his tasks, then raised his head. “They are not responding to hails.”
“Send a sub-space transmission back to Traxis.” Taark ordered.
“On it.” The tech reported.
Joe walked over to Taark. “What is going on?”
Taark looked at the human, then back to the communications station. “Report.”
The tech shook their head. “I’m not able to raise the Five. Traxis station is reporting that they jumped when we jumped.”
Taark looked at Joe. “Probably nothing. Wrong jump coordinates could easily be the explanation for this.”
Joe nodded. He wasn’t convinced. Rhea was on that ship. That was mattered most to him.
49-The Five
Rhea had a blank look on her face. “Why didn’t we jump?”
The Ship Master shook his head. “No idea.” He looked over to Navigation. “Status?”
“All systems in the green.” The Navigation officer reported.
“Are you sure this time?” The Ship Master asked.
“Yes, Sir.”
“Thank you.” Replied Ship Master Jalei.
“All hands, this is Jalei, prepare to jump.” He looked at Rhea Stokes. “Time to go and rescue your world.”
Rhea smiled. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Don’t worry, Doctor.” V-Lar said. “This is probably the safest place to be. You and your child will be perfectly safe.”
“I know.” Rhea said, looking at the attractive alien from Sabir.
“Jumping in five!” The speakers in the massive bridge reported.
Taking a deep breath, Rhea watched the main view screen, waiting for it to fill up with Earth; instead, a shimmering blue light started to envelop the ship. It danced around the hull, almost like a wave of blue clouds with lightning around the trim. Rhea had never seen anything like it before a jump.
“What are those colours?”
Before V-Lar could reply, the Ship Master was screaming for the jump to be cancelled, but it was too late.
“IDR! IDR!” Screamed one of the technicians at the science station. “IDR!”
It was clear that something was wrong. Rhea just wasn’t sure it was. The blue light dancing around the exterior of the hull wasn’t a good sign, and the screams of IDR were clearly sending panic through the bridge crew. They were wild-eyed, and even the Ship Master Jalei looked nervous.
“Shields! Make sure the shield are up once we jump!” The Ship Master yelled.
“Jumping!”
It wasn’t like any other jump Rhea had ever experienced. The blue cloud that started to envelop the ship suddenly penetrated the hull and moved through the massive twenty-kilometre long vessel from bow to stern in a nearly slow-motion effect. When it reached the bridge, it was like a wave that you couldn’t run from as it moved towards Rhea. Even if she had wanted to move, she felt as if her legs were stuck in mud. Her mind wanted to say something, but nothing came out of her mouth.
When the wave was gone from the bridge, Rhea regained control over her faculties, and shook her head, clearing the momentary haze. Looking over at V-Lar, she could tell there was a concerned look, boarding on fear, on her face.
“What is an IDR?” She asked.
The alien let out a sigh. “Inter-Dimensional Rift.”
Rhea shook her head. “I’ve never heard of that.”
“Because they’re not supposed to be able to happen.” V-Lar replied. “We’re taught about the concept in training, but they are just theoretical.”
“Then maybe it wasn’t that.” Rhea said, trying to salvage something positive from what just happened.
“No.” V-Lar answered, pointing towards the view screen. “Look.”
Rhea looked towards the front of the bridge and the view screen that had been filled with stars just a few minutes ago. Now she was staring at a massive grey orb hovering in space in front of the Five.
“What the hell is that?” She asked out loud.
50-Ft Riley
“No air support?”
“No, Mr President.” General Wilkinson replied. “Ever since the EMP blast hit us.”
President Bednarik nodded. “So, when can we get over there.” He pointed to the west.
“I would want to wait a little while longer, Sir.” The general cautioned.
The sound of the 1/5 Field Artillery M109 Paladin’s was thunderous, even when it was four kilometres away, the sound reached the party standing atop the three-story division headquarters just over ten-seconds later.
“Are your boys in contact with the enemy?” The President asked.
The General nodded. “They should have made contact a few minutes ago.”
“Zach, what do you think?”
The National Security Advisor stepped forward. “I think that we wait here until we know for certain that the site is secure, and only then do we move in.”
“Agreed, Mr President.” Chimed in Nick Beaudrot, the Chief of Staff. “We need to let the army do their thing before we interfere.”
John Robert walked up beside the President. “We do have a line of communications open with Star Guard Hulo.”
President Bednarik looked at the Canadian who was casually smoking a cigarette. “And you are?”
John Robert smiled as he looked at the President. “You know who I am.”
The President nodded. “I do. I should have you shot on the spot.”
John Robert shook his head. “I’m not quite sure that your authority extends that far.” He waved his cigarette in the air. “Then again, these are extraordinary times.”
Boom!
Everyone’s eyes shot skywards.
“Oh my god!” Was all the President managed, his mouth wide open.
Descending towards the surface was a three-hundred-metre long warship, its laser batteries firing wildly at targets that were on the ground, surrounded by a swarm of smaller craft that appeared to be shooting at the larger vessel.
“This isn’t good!” Zach North shouted, bringing a flask to his mouth.
“Do you have anything to shoot at that?” The President asked, eyes locked on the grey coloured ship as it continued to slowly descend towards the Kansas countryside.
“We don’t have any ADA units here.” The general said.
“ADA?” The Chief of Staff asked.
“Air Defence Artillery.” The Commanding General replied. “So, to answer your question, Mr President, we do not have any weapons designed to engage air targets.”
“And you can’t get your planes in the air?” The President asked.
“Helicopters, and no Sir, we can’t.”
“This is great.” Zach North commented.
51-Hvolsvöllur
“Start!” Anna screamed at the quad-bike. She knew she was well behind the rest of the village. If she was committing to the transport to the Faroe Islands, she needed to leave. Now. “Start you fucker!”
“Mommy look!” Thor yelled.
“Not now, baby.” The quad-bike had always started smoothly in the past. She wasn’t sure what the hell was giving it trouble now. All she knew was that she needed to get her son 270 kilometres to the east as fast as possible.
“Mommy. In the sky.” Thor said, a joyous tone in his voice.
“What?”
That got her attention. There hadn’t been a plane in the sky in weeks. She looked up and scanned the horizon. “I don’t see anything, Thor.”
“You have to look higher, mommy.”
Anna looked at her son, who was pointing straight up. Shaking her head in annoyance with the bike, she looked straight up and gasped. The sky above Iceland was ablaze with dancing lights and explosions. Whatever was going on above them wasn’t good.
Turning her attention back to the bike, she tried to start it again, finally getting the machine to turn over, the engine coughing to life.
“Time to go, Thor!”
52-Epsilon
“Dropping down into the atmosphere!” Rais reported from the front of the bridge. “We’re lucky we got through that gap.”
“How much damage did we take?” Ranix asked.
It took a minute for Master Engineer Sulvan to report from the rear of the ship. “We’re good. Nothing penetrated the hull.”
Ranix looked over to the Detection Tech. “What’s the status on the shield?”
Dec Tech 4th Class Jonas was on his systems quickly. “The shield is fully operational. The Master Star Pilot managed to slip us through, but right now, nothing else is getting through.
“Other than that cruiser below us!” Ranix barked.
“Sir!” Jonas replied. “The cruiser is dropping through the atmosphere, towards the Barrier Generator with a swarm of friendly fighters buzzing it.”
Ranix shook his head. “Curv.” He looked over to the ship’s gunner. “Do not fire upon that ship.”
“We haven’t yet.” Gunner First Class Curv might have been the newest member of the crew, but he knew that firing at the ship would jeopardise the friendly fighters.
Ranix changed the comm channels and got Santini on the line. “Ready?”
The former Delta operator had his team of American’s paint their armour red, white, and blue for the mission. Nothing clandestine about it. Master Sergeant Santini had a long conversation before they left Traxis with Master Grade Kol Fine about the older traditions within the Dynamic Operations teams for painting their uniforms in lively colours before critical operations. Clearly, the American had taken his words to heart.
“Blue Team is ready.” Santini reported.
“MSG, that cruiser is directly above the Barrier Generator. We need them to move before we can drop you on target.” Ranix reported. A sense of frustration in his voice.
“Leave the cruiser to me.”
The voice was cold, menacing, and to the point.
The Sentinel Commander had been online since the ship had left Traxis. When the Epsilon had reached Earth, he had exited his holding pod and made his way to the hangar bay. The fifteen members of Blue Team were kitted up in full armour, weapons at the ready. They might have been trained by a Dynamic Operator, and they might have been good, but the Sentinel Commander was still revered for his capabilities.
Walking through the hangar bay, the humans made way as the machine marched towards the bay doors. The sudden rush of air and light got everyone's attention. Reaching the edge, the robot looked down. The enemy cruiser was over two thousand metres below them and dropping fast.
“Hey.”
The SC looked up at the human.
“Master Sergeant.”
Santini stuck his head out of the bay and looked down towards the planet’s surface. “Long jump.” He ran the numbers. “Twenty-two hundred metres. Don’t think I could make that.”
If the Sentinel Commander could smile, he would have. Readying his weapon for combat, he looked at the Blue Team leader. “You’re only human, after all.”
Santini let out a laugh. “I am only human.”
“I’ll deal with the cruiser. Once it’s clear, drop.” The Sentinel Commander instructed. “And Santini.” The machines tone shifted just a fraction. “Good hunting.”
The machine took one step forward and disappeared.
Santini watched the war machine drop away from the Epsilon towards the Coalition cruiser. It seemed that everything that Colonel Hunt put in his briefing about the SC was right. The big guy was not only shockingly human, but he was also an arrogant bastard.
The information on his HUD was pin-point accurate, allowing the Sentinel Commander more than enough time to understand the current tactical situation he was dropping towards and act accordingly. The immediate concern was the Coalition cruiser that was falling towards the Barrier Generator to assist in repelling the ground assault. Luckily for the Epsilon, the cruiser had slipped through a tiny hole in the shielding around the planet, allowing the Alliance vessel to sneak in behind it.
Scanning downwards, the Sentinel Commander monitored his distance to the target as he continued to drop unassisted. The swarm of Alliance fighters were darting around the large warship with brightly coloured laser fire raced to and fro.
He needed a clear pathway to the ships hull. It wouldn’t do him any good to crash into a friendly fighter on the way down, but as he watched the melee continue to unfold beneath him, he quickly came to the realisation that he would arrive unimpeded.
“Epsilon, about to make contact with the enemy cruiser. I’ll have her out of your drop-line shortly.” The machine killed the channel, he didn’t need to hear Ranix’s response.
Checking his distance, he readied himself for impact. His legs were capable of handling falls from great heights, maybe not these heights under normal conditions, but luckily the circumstances were in his favour, as he had calculated, the enemy ships rate of descent was such that the impact for his landing on the top of the hull would be mitigated. Marginally.
The instant the SC’s feet hit the upper hull of the enemy ship, he rapidly ducked down, then rolled to his right, trying to absorb as much of the impact as possible. Coming to a halt, the machine brought its giant rifle up, and quickly scanned the top of the hull. There were several laser batteries, but none of them was able to get a clear shot on him. He very much suspected that the crew of the ship would have detected his impact upon the hull, but unless they were going to send forces out to counter him, he would remain unmolested.
On the drop-down, the Sentinel Commander had already gathered all available information on the enemy ship. It was an LGR Cruiser that came with a fatal flaw in their design: the fusion reactor was built in the middle of the three-hundred-metre long vessel beneath the engineering department, and the engineering department was located on the top deck of the ship, making a significant enough detonation in that section of the ship terminal.
Reaching the middle of the ship, the Sentinel Commander found the exhaust shaft that he was expecting. Kneeling down, he checked that the heat coming up from the engineering department were within his safety parameters, then pried two of the slits open just wide enough for his high explosive grenades. He popped out two from his sternum compartment, armed them, and dropped them down the exhaust shaft.
Picking up his rifle, the SC sprinted to the front of the ship, and once he was almost to the nose, he activated the grenades. The explosion was muffled, but his AI registered they had detonated, and just seconds after they had gone off, a wave of fire shot out of the exhaust port, and almost instantly after that, the ship started to lose power. Looking over the bow of the vessel, the SC could begin to see the shielding around the Barrier Generator, still several thousand metres below them.
“Ship Master Ranix, you are cleared above the surface.” The SC reported.
“Understood. Do you require extraction?” Ranix asked.
The robot looked up at the Epsilon which he was starting to drift away from. He knew that if they were going to get the Blue Team on target, they didn’t have time to grab him.
“I am just where I need to be.” The machine replied.
Looking towards the ground, and the LGR’s current rate and path of descent, he calculated that he’d hit the ground somewhere near Salina, depending if the ship had any emergency thrusters functional. He wasn’t worried about surviving the crash himself, his chassis was more than sturdy enough. “I will see you on the ground.”
