4 – THE DEFIER OF DEFEAT
It had been less than an hour since Lime Squadron had departed, and already Hearts was getting a teamwide COM request from Yellow Command that demanded they meet over a highly encrypted frequency. This did not bode well in the least, and Hearts hoped it had nothing to do with the members of his team in the other universe. He straightened up from the kitchen table and began making quickly for the communications room. Though Yellow Base spanned kilometers of underground tunnels, the kitchen was, fortunately, relatively near the communications room, and only a few minutes later Hearts reached it.
Inside he found Tom and Deryn, already standing around a holographic console in the center of the room. Brian was nowhere to be found, but Hearts gave that little thought. The over-caffeinated ex-Blue was probably still in his quarters gassing himself out on helium or something stupid like that. Hearts had never understood the logic behind Bradley's decision to allow Brian into the Yellow Army; the former Blue might be good at staying alive, but survivability and usefulness were two very different things, and Brian had not yet proven himself to possess the latter. At least he hadn't become a liability...yet.
"Hey," Deryn greeted Hearts. "Where's the ex-Blue?"
Hearts shrugged. "Does it matter?"
"Good point," said Deryn.
Tom held his hand over the COM switch. "I can connect us to the Lord High Commander General as soon as you're ready, sir." He then proceeded to stand there. "Are you about ready?"
"Yes." Hearts crossed his arms impatiently.
"Alright, then," said Tom pleasantly. "Initiating communications link now." He depressed the switch.
A giant holographic representation of Bradley's helmet, practically four feet across and just as tall, appeared quite literally out of thin air. Hearts and Deryn jumped back in surprise while Tom continued to stand silently. Once he had regained his composure, Hearts addressed the huge massless disembodied holographic floating head with what he hoped was a calm voice. "Lord High Commander General."
"Hearts. Good to see you again. We're trying out some new holographic transmission technology," Bradley replied. "How's it working?"
"Fine, sir," Deryn replied. "Unorthodox, but…fine."
"I'm worried the camera isn't moved in close enough, but maybe you should tell me."
"Not a problem, sir," Tom said. "Not a problem at all."
"Yeah, you definitely don't need to move it in any closer," Deryn commented.
"So, you can see me fine, then?" Bradley asked. "This refraction technology is a bit unpredictable. It's hard to tell from this end."
"Well, we can see your helmetfine," Hearts answered. "That's for sure."
"Ah," Bradley resolved. "No matter, I can have that taken care of later. Thanks for the info. Should help refine this hologram projection technology more."
"Is that the only reason you called us here?" Deryn asked. "Over an encrypted channel, none the less?"
"Oh, no, not at all," Bradley replied. "Just needed to get a few odds and ends with this tech figured out first. Kill two birds with one stone and all. Here, let me take a step back." The holographic helmet image shrank and resolved into an entire Yellow-clad soldier. "How's this distance?"
"Perfect," said Hearts. "Now then, what did you have to tell us?"
"Bad news. This came in just now, and seems to be in some way related to the portal activation just an hour ago. The portal design used primarily Green technology for its frequency refining mechanism, understandable considering who built it, and apparently someone recognized that frequency and came to investigate."
The others took a moment to figure out what the Lord High Commander General was talking about. Eventually Hearts postulated: "So, when the portal sent out this frequency, which would be recognized as a top-class Green Army bandwidth, someone important picked up on that and has come here? Is that what you're saying?"
Bradley nodded. "Not just anyone. Scans have tagged the arrival as a formerly Green capitol ship called the Avant Garde, and it entered this system less than ten minutes ago."
"Former?" Tom quired.
Recognition sparked in Deryn's mind, and she searched her memory for where else she had heard of that ship. Eventually she settled on: "Wasn't that one of the ships the Greens lost during the Battle of Roster Teth?"
"That's what the Greens initially thought, and what our comm interceptions told us." said Bradley. "However, despite its absence after the battle, no wreckage from it was ever recovered. It had simply vanished without a trace. The same is true for one of the Purple's highest military commanders."
"Really?" Tom asked. "I thought all the Purple's commanders were all accounted for after the battle."
"Well, a fair number of them were," said Bradley. "But of course, it's impossible to find all of the bodies left over from ship to ship space battles, since incineration is obviously common. Therefore it is impossible to account for everyone, and consequently allows would-be POWs to fake their apparent demise and escape."
"Yeah, I understand," Hearts nodded. "Hell, Lemon pulled something similar back before Patton joined up. But where, exactly, are you going with all of this?"
"Nowhere good, I assume," Deryn muttered.
"Ever since the revolt at Roster Teth and the Purple Army's resurgence to power, both I and the Green's Grand General have been trying to find a reason for how they were able to come back from total defeat so forcefully," Bradley explained. "To accomplish what the Purple Army has, and in so little time, is a feat that only an expert leader could plan, let alone coordinate. Or more accurately, a leader with a record for being near infallible, and possessing unparalleled determination."
Light bulbs simultaneously winked on in the heads of the three soldiers in the communications room.
"Oh hell..." Deryn whispered.
"You're referring to the inventor of Vorennian-Style battle strategy, aren't you?" Tom asked rhetorically. "Yeah, I suppose it does make good sense."
Hearts shook his head and leaned down, setting his hands on the table and sighing. "He's back. Are you serious?"
"Of course I'm serious!" Bradley shot back. "Do you think I would ever joke to you about this? The strategies the Purples have used to retake Roster Teth and its surrounding systems is enough for confirmation, but now we've gotten solid evidence as well. From none other than the Grand General, I might add. It's become official: Admiral Hathrow Vorennius has returned, and he is leading the Purple Army."
"He's come back from the dead again," Deryn thought aloud to herself. "Goddammit, this war just keeps getting better and better: the Reds have already placed the entire universe in peril, and now we also have to deal with another foe who is known for his ability to turn basically any battle around from the jaws of defeat using strategy alone."
"And that he has most definitely done," said Hearts. "Nearly every Purple on Roster Teth was unhappy with the Green occupation. A person like Vorennius, he would easily have been able to recruit a secret army, and then launch it as soon as the Greens were least expecting it. He wouldn't even need that big a force, he'd just have to deploy it correctly, something he could do quite easily. This is how the Purples got back in the game; it all makes sense now."
"Vorennius was enough of a threat before the Battle of Roster Teth," said Deryn. "Even though it was technically another Army's victory, I almost cheered when I heard that Vorennius was presumed dead. But now that he's come back, when both us and the Greens have our hands full with the Reds, the Blues, and the Oranges, not to mention the threat to all of existence…" She trailed off.
"Vorennius is a major threat and must be dealt with ASAP," Hearts stated. "Preferably permanently."
"This is where the three of you come in," said Bradley.
Everyone in the room turned their attention back to the Lord High Commander General.
"What do you need us to do?" Tom asked.
"Taking out Vorennius means we need a small strike force to get onto the Avant Garde and do what must be done before the Purple's leader can discover what's going on," Bradley stated. "The Avant Garde is, unsurprisingly, currently stationed at the edges of this planet's gravity well, giving Vorennius a near instantaneous escape time. If we brought in any of our own navy, Vorennius would flee before we have a chance to do anything. So, a stealth insertion is the only way."
"Sounds nice," said Tom. "It been a while since we've had to go in quiet."
"We haven't yet figured out how to get anyone onto the Avant Garde without any of the Purples noticing," Bradley elaborated regretfully. "That's the problem with ships: unlike land bases, in order to get in you need some kind of mobile craft, and Vorennius will certainly have thought of countermeasures for that. So I don't yet have an op planned for you. But as soon as we do find some way to get you on that capitol ship, I'll send you."
"Whenever you do, we'll be ready," said Hearts. "Just tell us when."
"I know you will, and I'm counting on it," said Bradley.
"Good day, sir," Tom said to the Lord High Commander General.
"And to the three of you," Bradley said as the hologram faded into nothingness.
Hearts stood up again turned to Deryn. "Any idea how much lemonade we have left? Because I need a hell of a drink."
"Yeah, me too," said Deryn. "And I think we have a lot. Thank you supply drops."
Hearts nodded. "Good." He then looked over at Tom. "Shaw, you coming?"
Tom shook his head. "No, I'm fine, thanks. I'm gonna look up anything I can on Vorennius and his ship. See if I can speed up our op preparations."
Hearts and Deryn nodded, then left the room while Tom stayed behind to ponder what he had just learned and begin planning how to deal with it.
Brian had a skip in his step and pomp to his stride as he whimsically sojourned across the canyon to see what was going on at Green Base. After Lime Squadron had departed through the portal, things had gotten boring again, and since Brain doubted anything important could possibly happen back at Yellow Base, especially not with three rather mean-seeming Yellows there, he had decided to explore the area around Green Base, mostly for the fun of it. Who knew? Maybe he'd find some important item that the Greens had dropped, and then he could return it to them as soon as they came back through the portal. And if not...well, he'd never really been over to the Green side of the canyon.
It was such a wonderful day. The late morning sun shone down upon the canyon, casting everything in a radiant glow. Off in the distance he could see butterflies fluttering about. And then, of course, there was the giant bomb.
The constant replay of the words "spiked kittens" could be heard from a distance of several tens of meters. Within that radius sat a giant metallic box with a smiley face on it, which was called Happy the Giant Bomb. Happy was capable of speech and was apparently sentient, and according to what Brian had heard, the bomb wasn't supposed to get to happy, or else it would explode. This was going to complicate Brian's attempt to make friends with it, but the former Blue nevertheless had high hopes. He'd had friends who were sad before. He'd just have to be happy for both of them.
As Brian neared the bomb, he could see another, smaller object hovering close to the bomb. It was a metallic orb, maybe a little smaller then a beach ball, which had a singular bluish eye. Brian remembered that the orb was called Master Chief. He also remembered that the orb could supposedly create basically anything out of mid air, which was awesome. Brain decided that it would be a good idea to make friends with the orb too, simply because it seemed like the kind of friend everyone should have. That, and it might help if relations with the giant bomb went awry. Though considering that the giant bomb was named Happy, Brian couldn't think of anything that could possibly go wrong with getting its attention.
Now quite close to the bomb and Master Chief, Brian noticed something intriguing between the two of them: Master Chief was just staring at Happy, and the bomb would every moment or so reply as though the orb was talking to it. At the moment, the bomb was in the middle of jovially ranting an answer to one of Master Chief's silent questions.
"Of course I'd love to tell you about myself!" the bomb exclaimed proudly. "I was created by the Red Army, obviously, because they wanted a new friend. Or at least, I think that was why they made me. I can't really think of any other reason. And you're right; the Red Army does have in its possession a giant hand. But I don't know about the device you're talking about. I never overheard anything about a device that could destroy the hand. They never really mentioned anything like that when they were building me. Now, this could be just my take on things, but I don't think they really wanted the hand destroyed."
The orb continued to stare at the bomb, and that was when Brian had the idea that Master Chief was digitally, not verbally, communicating with the bomb. Considering that they were both artificial intelligences (presumably) that meant that they could talk just by transmitting words, kind of like an email chat. Yeah, Brian liked that idea. It seemed to have sense to it and also made him feel smart, so therefore it had to be correct.
The orb continued to stare at the bomb, and eventually the bomb replied: "Well, in theory, if you had a parallel plate capacitor with that specific power-up artifact in between the plates, and then applied that contraption to the energy source of the hand, it should overload the hand's reactors and cause it to self destruct. Quite violently, I would assume. Now, that's my take on it from the information I've been programmed with, but then again I'm just a bomb. But if you can find a parallel plate capacitor ‒ I think there might be one in the Avalanche Weapons Facility's secret lab, from what I've been able to gather from Green Base's information ‒ and if you can also get your hands on that power-up we've been talking about, then you should be able to make something that can destroy the hand. Um, can you spawn a parallel plate capacitor, by any chance?"
The orb shook itself.
"Huh," the bomb said slowly. "Not one of the types of things you can spawn, is it?"
The orb shook itself again.
"Ah well," the bomb replied again. "Best of luck to you. I'd try to help if I could, but I think I'm so large that I might just get in the way. And in any case…I don't know how to move. Which would be problematic if I did mean to come with you. Well, I suppose you could carry me like you did that other time. But still there's the fact that I'm larger than the weapons facility. Sorry. Anyways, best of luck to you! I hope you find everything you need to save the universe. It's been so nice talking to you…"
The orb flew away from Happy as the bomb trailed off. It noticed Brian and flew over to him.
"Hey, Master Chief!" Brian said. "I saw you talking to that giant bomb over there. Something about a device that can destroy the hand and save the universe?"
The orb nodded.
"And how do we do that?"
Brian then felt something lift off of his utility belt. He looked down to find a pencil floating in midair. Master Chief wanted to use it, apparently. Brian helpfully pulled out a piece of paper and set it on the ground. Master Chief moved the pencil about the paper for a moment, drawing out a picture. The former Blue scratched his head when he saw the finished product.
In the picture, a radiant sphere sat in between two lines. One line had a bunch of plus signs along it, and the other line had a lot of minus signs along it.
"I don't know what this is," said Brian plainly.
Master Chief looked back down at the paper and added something to the picture. When the orb had finished again, the picture now had several arrows moving from the plus sign line and going into the minus sign line. In the middle, the radiant sphere was shown to distort the path that the arrows took, having them bend around itself as they moved from one line and into the other.
"I still don't understand," said Brian.
The orb shook itself back and forth in annoyance, then looked back down at the picture. As Master Chief was still figuring out what more to add to the picture, Brian suddenly had an epiphany. The arrow's field lines reminded him somehow of warm melted cheddar cheese flowing down a hallway. The memory was from some incident that had happened a long time ago when he was living at Blue Base Iota. He couldn't remember the exact details, something about a giant block of cheese and a microwave dish, but right now that was unimportant, because he finally had figured out what Master Chief was trying to tell him. "It's a cheese sandwich!" the former Blue exclaimed.
Master Chief looked up at him slowly.
Brian continued to stare at the orb, certain that he had figured it out.
Master Chief seemed about to shake itself again, but then suddenly changed its mind and nodded instead.
Brian jumped straight up in the air. "Yes!" When he landed, he said to the orb: "So, we can save the universe by finding a cheese sandwich. A really awesome cheese sandwich! I'm not sure how that's supposed to work, but if you do then that's great."
The orb nodded.
"Well, time for an adventure," Brain exclaimed jovially. "I'm ready when you're ready. Lead onwards, to the cheese sandwich!"
The orb turned and began drifting towards the eastern canyon wall, with Brain trotting behind like an enthusiastic puppy.