7Seven Secret Space Guppies
Hi and welcome back to already the tenth chapter. Time goes by. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter, let's go!
Chapter 10: Fight for Furnerius
"Greetings ETS, or what's left of it. Take a quick seat, the briefing will be... brief." Laurent said.
"Where is Valen? I saw him one hour ago." Nonny said.
"Commander Valen was called back to the Earth HQ for a very important talk with mister Richardson. I'll replace him temporarily. Don't be concerned, I'm aware of the operation." The crab with the glasses said.
"Well, then let's start." Deema said. All sat down. Laurent activated the holographic projector.
"This is the Furnerius base of the OD. A highly defended fortress. 2 walls surrounding a rectangular metal base that's 20 meters high. And just under the surface... we suggest it is a large elevator-platform going down."
"And all the way down is a prison?" Goby asked.
"Our satellites only scanned the outside shape of the outpost. It doesn't look like a prison, I don't see rows of small rooms as prison cells anywhere..."
"We'll see when we're there, anything else we must know?" Nonny asked. At that moment, a lobster entered.
"Ah, already busy? I'm late, I guess..." Sergeant Flynn said.
"Sergeant Flynn will participate too. He'll operate on the surface, covering your infiltration. Sergeant, if you'd like to continue..." Laurent sat down.
"Okay, I'll go there with a space infantry battalion and provided air support. We'll try to cause as much chaos as possible so that you can sneak to the platform. I'll regroup with you with a small squad, too. To get there easily and quick, we'll be using the newly developed gravity bombs."
"Gravity bombs?" Deema said being confused.
"Yep! First, we'll bombard the outpost into ruins. Then we throw gravity bombs. These things make a maximum amount of debris and pieces of metal levitate away. Real science right here! Like that, the platform will be exposed. It's at the centre of the base, just a couple of meters under the surface, so it won't be impacted by our strikes."
"But won't those debris fall back at us at some point?" Nonny asked.
"Of course! But not straight away, let's say after... enough time to reach the platform haha! When that's done, you find Corporal Sonic and bring him back, simple as that." The hologram disappeared.
"This plan sounds crazy." Goby whispered to Nonny.
"Any questions before you leave?" Laurent asked, looking around the table.
"Do I participate in the air attacks, as co-pilot of Corporal Gil?" Zooli asked.
"The ETS is lacking personnel, so you'll accompany the rest of your teammates." Laurent said. The group and Flynn stood up and left.
"So you're the new leader?" Flynn said to Nonny.
"Indeed, temporarily..."
"We'll see what you're worth on the battlefield as leader, and not just as tech-guy. But it's still your job, don't forget that."
"Uhuh, thanks... Sergeant?"
"What now?"
"How can you only have the rank of, Sergeant?"
"Hehe, you're one of the few that dare to ask that! I have the reputation and the authority of a General. It appears that I don't have a real rank. Everyone just respects me, and they let me command anything because they trust me."
"I see..."
"Ranks are worth nothing. It's the trust and your reputation. A famous quote from, Sergeant A. Flynn. Remember it." The 2 finished their conversation and went to the assigned hangar, to the transport ships.
"Nonny. We were waiting for you. Let's leave." Goby said, pointing his head out of the retractable door on both sides of the ship.
"Is Molly okay?"
"We just checked her, she was sleeping... Now come!" Deema reached out to her friend. And he took her hand.
"Taking off. Arrival at Furnerius crater in 30 minutes." The pilot said. 3 transport ships left the Hannibal.
Furnerius crater, south-east on the Moon
"Is everyone equipped for the mission?" Nonny asked, forcing himself a bit. As leader, he had to talk to his soldiers. He stood up and looked at his friends, sitting in front and next to him.
"I've my weapons and equipment." Goby responded.
"Got my radio." Deema added.
"I have everything too." Oona said.
"I received this brand-new laser hyperblaster. Most recent development." Zooli added.
"Good..." Nonny sat back down.
"10 minutes before landing." The pilot said through a loudspeaker.
"Nonny, it's almost time for the action, I hope you're ready?" Flynn said via radio communication.
"Yes, Sergeant. We will fulfil our mission..."
"Good, because our scouts noticed there were more enemies than they thought. The first airstrike will happen soon and take out the AA-guns. The outpost will be kaput when we arrive. We regroup then the gravity bombs arrive, we go in, we go out, and we leave. Sergeant Flynn, over."
"Okay..." Nonny answered. He already retracted his suit. Something felt wrong. The rest followed his example.
"Missile detected! Releasing flares... And fuuuck! The flare system is down!" A violent shockwave hit the ship, making it lose control. The Guppies were shaken in all directions in their seats.
"Error, losing control. Error, losing control." The system said.
"Hang on!" Deema shouted. And the ship crashed between Moon dunes.
"Nonny, do you copy me? Nonny! Respond now!" Flynn said through the radio. Nonny slowly woke up under the noise. He pulled his arm to his head to respond.
"We crashed, Sergeant. But we survived, the space suits..." He said struggling.
"Your squad is required in the operation. The gravity bombs will arrive in a couple of minutes. Hurry!" Flynn said and broke the communication.
"What a butcher..." Nonny removed the seatbelt and stood up to examine the damage. The cockpit was completely ripped off, same for the left sliding door. He turned to his teammates now.
"Oona, wake up. Deema! Goby!"
"Oush, are we in heaven?" Deema asked.
"With this headache? Probably in Hell." Goby said. They all stood up too.
"Hmm, Zooli is offline. Get our equipment back together, I'll try and fix her." Nonny ordered. The rest nodded and started gathering their stuff. It was all around the place.
"Ooh, that flew away," Oona said, seeing a laser rifle outside the ship, "that's my weapon I think. Uh? Ohoh..."
"Where's the reset button now?" Nonny said complaining. He bent her to look on her back. "Here you have it."
"Oh merda my head!" Zooli said, standing up.
"Why do you insult in Italian?"
"That prototype must have some bugs after the crash, oh well..."
"Sssjt, guys..." Oona whispered. Nonny raised an eyebrow. Oona pointed outside.
"OD soldiers!" Deema said.
"They come to check if we're still alive, stay ready to retaliate. Zooli, Deema, go to what's left of the cockpit and flank them when they saw us." Nonny ordered. Everyone went to their position.
"Impossible that they survived this crash! Have you seen how hard the ship went down?" An OD lobster said.
"They survived many worse things, like the space station that just got destroyed. I could barely escape, too. I got assigned here now, I hope to revenge my fallen brothers and sisters." Another one said. They were half a dozen.
"Silence you 2!" The officer said. "Enter that ship and bring me their corpses. The rest keeps an eye on the surroundings, it's war after all..."
The transport ship was tilted a bit. Nonny, Goby and Oona were laying down, waiting to see a space suit appear. Deema and Zooli were hiding behind the pilot chairs. Nonny looked to his left and saw a fire extinguisher. It gave him an idea.
"Goby..." He whispered. Goby looked. Nonny tried to explain with sign language that Goby had to put a detonable explosive on the extinguisher. Goby understood. Nonny passed him the anti-fire tool. The voices approached. Nonny counted down with his fingers.
"Let's hope they're still th..." Goby threw the makeshift bomb and let it explode. The 2 lobsters were confused.
"My helmet is full of white powder! I can't see anything!" One of the 2 said.
"This is the moment." Nonny whispered. The 3 stood up and fired at the enemies, eliminating the 2.
"Ambush! Ambush!" The officer shouted. She was shot at in the leg.
"Enemy coming from the right, Zooli watch out!" Deem said. The 2 girls turned around and fired at another soldier. The 2 soldiers left fled the area.
"Hey! Come back now! You will be executed for desertion!" The officer shouted. Her weapon was broken too.
"Where is Gil? Where do you hide him?" Nonny asked.
"Hahaha! You think I'm going to say that? How cute." The officer replied.
"You leave me no choice then, lady..."
"Go on! Shoot me then!" Nonny looked at the rest. They hesitated too. In the end, they attached her to a seat of the transport ship, and left. The group climbed over a Moon dune, revealing the crater, the outpost, and the battlefield. A squadron of fighters flew just above their heads in the direction of the outpost.
"Sergeant, when will the bombing happen?" Nonny asked.
"As I said, more enemies than thought, more enemy air force. The gravity squadron won't attack until there is no air superiority. Too much risk to get shot." Flynn responded.
"Then we'll go in without the strikes."
"You can try, but it sounds as suicide to me. It's too highly defended, with anti-personnel turrets surrounding the outpost. You won't get past the inner walls."
"What do we do then?"
"You see the outpost, right? The outer wall has been damaged already, and the anti-personnel turrets all have been neutralized. The area between the 2 walls is massive. In that zone, to the East, is a sort of giant hatch. A spaceship hangar. Every time we shoot one down, another appears out of that hatch. They have a lot of them in stockpile. Reach that structure and destroy all the ships inside, Flynn over."
"Is that his plan? That's suicide too!" Deema said.
"What do we do then? Wait here? Don't forget Gil." Nonny said. Deema was silent.
"Sigh, we can try..."
"Okay, let's go." And the 5 jumped off the dune, running across the Moon battlefield.
"Reaching the outer walls alive, done. Zooli, can you tell us how big it is?" Nonny asked.
"Let me scan with my vision... 2,5 meters."
"Are explosives strong enough, Goby?"
"Mine won't be enough. We must find another way."
"We can use our propulsors..." Deema proposed.
"Good idea, let's do that. Deactivate your gravity modules first." And up they went. The squad stopped at the top of the wall and slowly looked around.
"No enemies in the proximity, let's go down." Nonny said. They climbed over the wall and reached the Moon surface again. Our group was in enemy territory.
The area was flat, mostly Moon surface, but there were metal walkways and road. Here and there was a building, a gate, a pipeline coming out of the ground or a heli-pad, and other structures. The giant hatch wasn't too near the ETS, they hid behind a pipeline and looked from a distance.
"The hatch opens..." Oona whispered.
"Look look! Behind the hatch is a runway that they use to fly away." Zooli added. The whole 'space port' was surrounded with a smaller fence and almost against the outer wall was a checkpoint and a gate for vehicles to drive through it. Nonny took his binoculars.
"Hmm, we can't take the risk to be detected. Someone has an idea?" He asked.
"Behind us! A transport buggy is coming. We could steal it and use it to pass the checkpoint." Deema said, pointing behind her. The rest turned around.
"They will see our space suits aren't OD coloured." Nonny replied.
"That doesn't matter. They will probably doubt it, and see us, but we can quickly eliminate them from close."
"Okay, let's go with that then..." Zooli was ordered to stand on the road, blocking the buggy.
"Hey robot! Get out of the way? What are you even doing here?" The pilot said. Zooli shot him with her hand laser.
"Nope, only materials, it wasn't a transport personnel buggy. Guys, come over quickly!" She said. Everyone regrouped. Zooli took the driver's seat, Nonny sat next to her, and the rest went in the back. After some driving, they approached the checkpoint.
"They make a sign that we must stop. Approach them and buy time so that Goby, Deema and Oona can get out and sneak behind them." Zooli nodded. She slowed down. A guard approached her.
"Since when do robots drive? What are you transporting?" The space suit asked.
"Just the basic materials, you know, metal, tools euh..." The 3 Guppies from the back carefully jumped out. Another OD guard was inspecting the right side of the buggy.
"Be ready. He's coming." Oona whispered. The guard appeared and got shot.
"What was that? A shot!" The guard, busy with Zooli shouted. Deema leaned to the left and shot the other guard.
"I think they were only 2. I'll open the gate." Nonny said via radio. Nonny got out and approached a panel next to the gate. Zooli drove through it and everyone regrouped next to the hatch.
"How do we open this? I don't see another way through." Nonny said.
"Maybe if we stand on it..." Goby tried it.
"Alert! Intruders detected! Deploying an SGR!" A loudspeaker said.
"Thank you Goby..." Deema replied, crossing her arms.
"What the Hell is an SGR?" Zooli asked. At that moment, the hatch opened and on the platform was a 3-meter robot, in dark metal with a red light on his head. His right arm was a laser blaster, his left arm was a robot hand.
"Dispersion!" Nonny shouted. He dived to the left, dodging a shot of the robot. Everyone ran in opposite directions. Deema shot the robot.
"Our weapons are worthless! We need another plan! Woahh." Nonny hid behind boxes and shot the robot too.
"She's right, our bullets are confetti on that thing." He thought. The robot turned to him and started shooting. He melted the boxes and almost Nonny too. He could escape by using his horizontal propulsors.
"Guys! I'm getting tired of running around! We must take it down quickly!" Oona shouted from behind the buggy. The robot turned to her and pushed the vehicle away.
"Oona! Don't touch her!" Nonny rushed to the robot, but before he reached it, the robot hit Nonny with his hand and projected him back. He flew against the wall at high speed.
"Oh God, Nonny!" Goby said. He rushed to his friend. Oona could change positions thanks to Nonny's distraction.
"Is he okay? Oush! Bullet dodging isn't easy!" Deema shouted. Zooli sprayed on the robot too.
"There must be a stronger weapon for this tin can." She thought. unexpectedly, the hatch opened and the platform went up. An OD spaceship wanted to take-off. Zooli had a bright idea. Just on time, she shot the one of the two engines on the back and rushed to the cockpit.
"What's thi..." The OD pilot looked around and got shot by Zooli.
"Okay, how does this work? It still works, that's already good. Hmm, I hope this ship can still turn with 1 engine. It does!" The spacecraft started turning and aimed at the robot.
"Ahhh! I'm getting tired of this dodging and running and dodging!" Deema shouted. The robot sprayed at the Guppies, who were running around the buggy, diving behind a nearby pipeline or pile of boxes.
"Nonny is unconscious! We must evacuate immediately!" Goby shouted back.
"Look out! An enemy ship too! Where is Zooli?!" Oona screamed, asking.
"Laser beam! They have that here. Charging, oh Gosh..." Zooli thought.
"Goby! Come replace us!" Deema yelled.
"I can't leave Nonny! He's in a critical state!" Goby shouted back.
"50%..."
"We will all die if you don't come!" Oona screamed.
"75%..."
"Aaah! My arm is wounded! Goby!" Deema shouted. Goby hesitated, and went in.
"90%..."
"Hey! Heyy! Shoot at me! I'm fresh!" He said to the robot. The machine turned his attention to Goby and shot at him. Oona helped Deema to where Nonny was.
"Oh no, Nonny!" She said. His head was bleeding and he still didn't move.
"95%... Goby! Get that machine in my aim!" Zooli said through her radio. Goby looked behind him, still dodging the rapid-fire of the robot. He couldn't speak, and rushed to Zooli.
"99%... It's now or never!" The robot started shooting the spacecraft. It wiggled a bit, but resisted.
"100% SHOOT!" Zooli released a highly charged energy beam at the robot. The beam hit its torso and all his metallic limbs fell off him. The remainings exploded.
"Zooli! You saved us!" Deema shouted. She joined the rest, standing around Nonny.
"Cough, cough... W, what's happening?" Nonny said, opening his eyes slowly. Oona started crying.
"I thought you were gone forever!" She said hugging him.
"Those suits sure can tolerate a lot of damage." Goby added. Nonny stood up, he had a bit of headache.
"We have no time to lose, let's get to the hatch." He said. Everyone obeyed and stood next to the hatch. When it opened, they jumped on the platform that transported the planes. It went down.
"Look at this place." Deema commented. They entered a giant rectangular room. Behind the platform they stood on was a large travolator that transported the planes who were all stored next to it.
"There are the spaceships... No pilots around, weird." Zooli said. Several dozen were stored in lines.
"Goby, if you detonate your explosives on them, it will create a chain reaction. Go place them." Nonny ordered. Goby quickly ran and put his bombs in between the planes. Zooli and Deema helped him to speed up the process.
"Okay, let's get out before everything blows up." Nonny said. The 5 flew up, back on the Moon surface. Goby was ready to detonate. Nonny nodded as permission.
"And BOOM!" Goby pressed the detonator button and a loud explosion could be heard. Some particles of it even came through the hatch.
"Sergeant Flynn? No more fighters for the OD." Nonny said.
"Good job. Time for the mission to really start. Air superiority will be achieved soon, and then we'll strike the outpost with the gravity bombs. Be fast when they got dropped. I'll see you at the main platform. Flynn, over."
The chapter started to get a bit too long again, I had the same problem in my previous story haha. For chapter 10 I think. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you in the next one.