Starship Eternia
Galactic Spiral Arm
Z MINUS 28 HOURS, 7 May 2017
It took the better part of the day to get to the habitable moon, park into a stable orbit, and begin mapping the surface. Finding the immense structure the homing beacon emanated from took close to four hours. Although once found, Ace found it hard to believe they couldn't locate it to begin with. That may have had something to due with centuries of growth on and around the structure. Jo-jo marveled at the visible construction. It reminded her of the temples discovered in Mexico. Sensors showed the entire structure was approximately twelve times the size or the largest pyramid in Egypt, and less than a quarter of that poked above the trees.
Ensign Comorov had a drop corridor plotted and ready as Colonel Markson's command made final preparations for drop. All stations were on alert and preparing for the Horde ships they knew were almost certainly following. They got lucky dropping those mines in the hyperspace corridor. This would be a slugging match. Surprise could be made to work in their favor, but over if they got the Combined Forces unit away and the starship hidden before the enemy arrived.
A beacon was dropped into geo-synchronous orbit over the ancient structure. That would be the communications relay between the ship and Markson's team. After dropping the beacon, Ace maneuvered the ship into an orbital attitude for the release of the dropships.
"Time to drop?" Jo-jo queried her Weapons Officer.
Lieutenant Denton touched a control on his board. "Thirty-five minutes."
Jo-jo stared out the transparent canopy at the alien moon spinning sedately below. She could see the numbers falling in her head, and prayed they would get the mission launched and then hidden before company arrived.
Down in the launch bay, atmospheric turbines cranked up. The pilots' weapons officers ran through their checklists using electrical power from the running engines. Quad support struts lifted the dropships high enough to allow the payload bay doors to open. The doors swung downward and retracted up into the sides of the bay as twin sets of magnetic clamps lowered and spread apart.
The assembled Guardians still marveled at the massive armored carriers designed for a heavy drop like this. Two carriers rolled out of the vehicle bay directly behind the idling dropships. The carriers rolled along on four massive solid rubber tires. A twin barreled plasma cannon was mounted on a turret at the back. Not only could it traverse in a three hundred and sixty degree arch, the twin barrels could elevate to an angle of nearly thirty-five degrees. The driver sat on the left, same as an automobile, and a powerful twin mini-gun turret was fitting in the right side. The passenger compartment was set up to allow a command and control console for direction of the squads in the front quarter, the bench seats for two squads. Weapons were mounted at each position so a trooper to move quickly without fumbling for his or her weapon from a common storage rack. The overhead cage assemblies were for ammo boxes, medical kits, and various other supplies. The rear area ended in a ramp that was the primary deployment point, though soldiers not armed with bulky rifles or mini-guns could debark through the side stair hatches set a few feet back from the driver's compartment one on each side. The vehicle had the vague overall appearance of the machines from the movie Damnation Alley, which was probably the basis for the carrier, but this one was a lot more functional, and could cruise easily at 65 mph and handled like a sport utility vehicle.
It was also armored. The hull was a nearly four inch thick composite alloy capable of stopping all small arms fire and most forms of rocket-propelled grenades. To test that theory, Army took a prototype out to a firing range and took shots at it with an M-1 Abrams tank. The carrier stopped many of the rounds until impacts stacked up on the same spot. The first actual penetration occurred when four hyper-velocity rounds struck the same impact point. Punched full of holes in this fashion, and being hit by one hundred and fifty-seven rounds, the Army figured while it was durable it was too badly damaged to continue functioning. They were utterly stupefied to see the engine fire up and the vehicle drive away, albeit with a grinding clanking noise coming from the drive train.
Both the Army and Marine Corps bought hundreds of the machines.
That durability coupled with the firepower of the cannons and mini-guns, and speed, made it an ideal assault carrier for the Guardian force. The shear firepower alone of the dropships made them the ideal vessel to get the carriers to the battle zone, and provide air support once on station.
In the armory, two privates worked diligently at loading pulse rifles, laser rifles, and assorted side arms and special personal weapons. Privates Dietrich and Frost personally examined their fifty-caliber rifles. Though they were not using the standard sniper weapons, they would not allow anyone but each other to examine their weapons. Battle armor lay stored away in personnel lockers waiting for their owners to don them. All had been checked thoroughly for any defect, which could endanger the wearer in the heat of battle.
Thirty minutes to drop, the two platoons filed into the armory and began donning their battle armor. As usual, the inter-service rivalries floated to the surface as the troops readied themselves for the coming battle. The ritual was nothing more than a diversion to avoid thinking about things that had yet to happen.
"All right, people," Staff Sergeant Apone, said. "The Air-babies got us here. Now it's our turn. This is what we trained for. We come here. We are going to conquer. And we are going to get some. Is that understood people?" Affirmatives drifted to him from all parts of the room. "That's right. We are going to get some. ARE YOU MEAN?"
"YES!"
"ARE YOU MEAN?"
"YES!"
"WHAT ARE YOU?"
"GUARDIAN FORCE!"
"WHAT ARE YOU?"
"GUARDIAN FORCE!"
"Get on the ready line people!" Apone shouted. "GET ON THE READY LINE!"
Privates Johnson and Road handed out weapons as people sprinted past the sergeant into the drop bay. The platoons split up as they hustled to the side bulkheads where they lined up facing the APCs carefully positioned below the idling dropships.
"Aaaaahhhhhh. Absolutely bad-asses!" Apone positioned himself at the aft ramp of the APC on the starship's starboard side. "Let's pack 'em in! GET IN THERE!"
Two platoons filed into the carriers taking up their assigned seats from back to front. Captain Takamora took command of dropship number one with Colonel Markson riding shotgun, and Captain Adrian Vasquez took command of number two. Sonya, Brad, and Jeromy entered APC two via one of the forward boarding stair ramps as Adrian, Jake, and Sorceress entered number one. The arrangement ensured that should something go wrong, three would survive to get to the armor.
As the platoons settled into combat seating, the magnetic clamps swung into to lock onto the metal wheel hubs and lift the carriers into the belly of the dropships. Once nestled into place, the bay doors lowered and closed around them. The quad landing struts retracted and the drop bay doors beneath the ships opened. Magnetic lifting arms lowered the dropships into them where metal platforms took the tremendous loads of the assault ships with ease.
Several people at the back groaned as the carrier shook unexpectedly. Sorceress hid her nervousness well. No one had ever done this before. Jake and Adrian exchanged knowing looks when Sorceress wasn't looking. Their concern wasn't for themselves as much as it was for her. The rowdiness among the troops grew as the anxiety over their first combat drop grew proportionally to the imminent time to drop.
"Confirm cross lock and drop station secured," Pilot Alexis Feril called over the tactical net.
"Confirmed," Hohiro replied, "all drop stations secured."
"Markson to bridge. Bad Karma One and Two requesting permission to drop," Colonel Markson said.
Captain Majourny checked her status displays. "Time to drop window?"
Ace checked his boards. "Coming up on thirty seconds. Flight synchronized with dropships."
"Permission granted," Jo-jo answered. "Happy hunting."
"Don't worry, captain. We'll save some of the action for you," Markson grinned. "Just keep them off us long enough to complete our mission."
"No promises."
With fifteen seconds remaining, the drop bay doors opened. Puffy white clouds and bright light flooded the bays and the dropship cockpits. "Standby, ten seconds," Alexis advised. She and her weapons officer checked their instruments one last time. All indicators were green. Flexing her right hand, she gripped the flight stick on the right arm and announced, "Standby release sequencer on my mark. 5…4…"
Unable to resist the irony of their present situation and that of a popular movie they watched a month ago, Private Bobby White proclaimed, "We're on the express elevator to Hell. GOIN' DOWN!"
"2…1…MARK!"
Bobby hollered gleefully as if he were riding a roller coaster as the platforms dropped releasing the dropships into freefall.
Eternia continued in its sedate orbit while the pair of dropships screamed into the upper atmosphere on blazing space engines. Ceramic composite hulls protected the ships from the extreme heat of re-entry, but the ride was far from smooth. Once low enough in the atmosphere, the air-breathing engines fired up to take over as primary thrusters and the space engines went to standby. Alexis announced they were in the pipe and on course. That was followed a minute later by another announcement of rough air ahead. While the flight crews kept busy staying on course for the target area located in the tail of a departing storm system, the passengers could do nothing but weather the bumping, jostling, and stomach-churning negative-G bouncing. No one said much because they were busy trying to keep their stomachs in place. All except Jake and Adrian who annoyingly slept the ride away.
Five minutes into the flight, the ride smoothed out as they drew closer to the target area. Alexis and her counterpart in the second dropship activated their weapons pods. In response to flipping a few switches, twin pods on the sides of the ships began to move. The forward pods slid upward while the rear pods slid down. Once they reached their full traverse, ten-foot support struts smoothly slipped out horizontally away from the sides where they rotated further away to a rough forty-five degree angle. The effect formed an X-pattern when viewed from the front or rear. Addition panels rotated open in the forward section of the fuselage where the bomb racks were located.
Apone, Colonel Markson, and Captain Takamora examined a bank of monitors displaying the vital signs of every trooper and the view from their helmet cameras immediately below it.
"Frost, check your camera. There appears to be a malfunction," Hohiro said over the tac net. The ebony-skinned man promptly slammed his helmet – the camera – against the bulkhead. The static on the monitor cleared up in response. "Good." He nodded to Apone.
"All right, people. Gear up. Two minutes. Get on it!" Apone commanded. "Somebody wake up Rockwell and Cobretti," he added.
Restraining cushions were unlatched and pushed upward. Frost retrieved his fifty-caliber rifle from the weapons rack at the rear along with Privates Vasquez and Blake unlocked powerful plasma rifles from their mounts and positioned themselves near the ramp. Though there was not a lot of space to move about, the soldiers did it as if they had been doing so in their sleep.
Adrian and Jake joined Sorceress at the bank of monitors. She, the colonel, and captain watched an external camera intently.
"Good morning, gentlemen," Colonel Markson replied without looking. He didn't dare show them his slight smile. "Glad you two could join us."
Sorceress, however, showed her bemused look. "Enjoy your nap?"
Adrian nodded. "Yes. Much."
Jake added, "Very refreshing."
The scene on the monitor drew their attention. The storm still had a grip on the area in the form of a steady pouring rain. Not too uncommon considering the area the massive pyramid-like structure rested in was close enough to the equator to make rain showers an everyday occurrence. A slate-gray shade slowly materialized in the misting rain. The top thirty feet of the pyramid loomed like an indistinct ghost. Ancient stepped gray stonework slowly materialized in the raining gloom.
The screen below the live camera image displayed sensor readings of the structure. Despite the powerful energy wave continuing to beam into space, there were no detectable power sources. No noticeable defenses, and nothing living within twenty meters of the pyramid base. As the dropship continued to orbit, a clearing became visible around the base. Approximately twenty meters wide, it was a no-mans-land were nothing could creep up without being seen.
Colonel Markson thought he'd seen a covered path leading up to the structure, but the trees and undergrowth made it impossible to be sure. Confirmation came from the other dropship when they discovered the other end ten kilometers to the northwest. They orbited over a twenty square-mile field that would be the likely battlefield when their Horde pursuers finally arrived and located them. Again, the only detectable forms of life where those native to the planet. And none of it went closer than around thirty meters to the pyramid.
"Makes me wonder what they know that we don't," Hohiro commented, as the colonel gave to order to drop in the field. "Feril, Joackson; immediate dust off when clear, and stay on station." The dropship pilots confirmed the order as they lined up their approach vector.
Quad landing gear lowered and locked into position and the ships circled to line their cargos up with the covered path leading to the pyramid. Bay panels flipped open and slid smoothly up the interior sides of the bay. Magnetic clamps extended as the ships flared out for the final descent. Quad landing struts and solid rubber touched down with barely a jolt on the rain-soaked plain. Maglocks released the moment the weight settled, and the APCs roared away.
"Down and clear," Feril responded over the tac net. Then she and Jackson roared off into the raining gloom to keep and weary eye out from above.
Powerful lights snapped on as the carriers aimed for the natural corridor in the tree line. The corridor turned out to be only wide enough for single-file travel. Bad Karma One took the lead with all sensor systems searching the gloom for any signs of a hostile presence.
"All right," Apone snapped. "I want a clean dispersal this time. Ten seconds. Look sharp!"
The armored carriers burst forth from the forest, and ground to a halt fifteen meters from the pyramid base. Aft boarding ramps dropped and armored soldiers piled out rounding the vehicles to the left and right sides by squads. They advanced on the silent stone structure in rapid cover formation. Once they reached the wet stone, the slit off by squads to search the surrounding area. Charlie and Delta squads commenced their survey of the base tracking out from opposite directs, which would allow them to met in roughly the same place on the back side.
Alpha and Beta squads secured the immediate area and searched for a way into the structure. While they identified what appeared to be the front of the structure facing almost due east, they could not find any visible means of opening the pyramid. What they required was an archeology team fully equipped to examine the structure. Since they didn't have that, they would have settled for the Eternia's powerful sensors, but they didn't have that either.
With the rain starting to abate, the decision was made to fortify their position and start setting up a defensive parameter. All the ordinance of the two carriers was unloaded at the tree line fronting the field. Anti-personel mines, claymores, flares, and assorted plastic explosive charges all placed liberally among the trees. They wouldn't stop an approaching army. The placement was designed solely to slow them up. Give the defenders time to group and bring their considerable firepower to bear. All this depended upon getting into the pyramid and taking possession of the battle armor waiting patiently within.
Carrier number two transported three squads to carry out the ordinance placement with Alpha squad protecting carrier number one. The spirits that had been running high from the start of the mission waned as the inability to gain access to the silent stone structure outside continued. Some started to think the trip a wasted one better spent on a more constructive venture.
Sorceress ignored the goings on around her as she huddled in a blanket trying to dry out and warm up. After eating a meager portion of the MRE (meal-ready-to-eat) she settled back, closed her eyes, and concentrated on becoming one with the flow and eddy of the magical currents of this unknown planet. Much to her surprise, the degeneration plaguing her was, temporarily at least, in remission. Could Doctor Carter's theories about her armor be true? It sure started looking that way. This temporary reprieve allowed her to slip into the magical currents and follow it around the planet. After only a few minutes, which seemed to last hours, Sorceress' expanded consciousness returned to the pyramid.
She moved about it at will without concern for the falling drizzle, which did not affect her anymore than the cold in this state. Though it was full dark, she could see the stone clearly. Her wanderings finally brought her up to the east face. This was indeed the entrance as they had suspected. This was where she felt drawn. Curiously enough, even her heightened magical sense could not penetrate the structure with any more success than the technology they carried.
On a hunch, Sorceress simply pushed her disembodied presence into the stone. Where there should have been a moment of intense cold and the need to force her way through a physical barrier, there was surprisingly none. The darkness within was near absolute, yet Sorceress could see clearly. Interior corridors looked little different from the exterior. She quickly discovered the passages were laid out like a virtual maze. The falcon-woman explored as much as she dared without getting totally disoriented before returning to the carrier and the warmth of her physical form.
Sorceress was abruptly awakened when the carrier was in sight. Spirit and physical forms snapped together dizzyingly as her concentration shattered. No longer was she sitting with her back against the bulkhead. Rather, someone had laid her out on the bench seat, placed a folded blanket under her head, and covered her with an extra blanket.
Sorceress raised her head, blinked blurred eyes at Colonel Markson. "I think I've found a way in," she replied, still sluggish and a little dizzy.
"That's good," the man replied grimly. "Because company has arrived."
Starship Eternia
Galactic Spiral Arm
Z MINUS 16 HOURS, 8 May 2017
After releasing the dropships, Captain Majourny completed two more orbits to be sure there were no problems with the drop before ordering Ace to break orbit. With the beacon in place, Eternia flew off to her place of concealment behind the inner most of the moons; an orb nearly as large as earth riddled with volcanic activity. Ace eased the starship into a stationary position just outside the moon's gravitational influence. After making sure the sensor platforms released periodically along their flight path into the system were functioning normally and the signal relay nominal, Eternia went cold and silent.
Skeleton shifts started as soon as they were on station to allow as many personal as possible time to sleep and prepare for the coming battle. The main engines were kept on a hot standby making them ready for near instantaneous use as opposed to a cold start using up precious minutes warming them up. All offensive and defensive weapons were double checked and placed on standby. There was no telling how long it would take for Markson's unit to enter the pyramid and acquire the armor. Not telling how far behind the Horde pursuers were. One thing Jo-jo did know was when it finally hit the fan it would be fast, furious, and very, very ugly.
Regular updates were passed back and forth from the habitable moon via the beacon. So far the news from Markson had not been good. They had been on station readying defensive positions and laying surprises for six hours, but there was still no progress in finding a way into the pyramid. Jo-jo wondered is Sorceress' friend could let them in, and even thought of dispatching a message, but thought better of it. She vowed not to meddle in their operation with 'armchair quarterbacking' or 'micromanaging'. Protecting the Eternia was her job. Seeing the gound-pounders came home alive was Markson's when his unit was off the ship.
Hours continued to drag as the same boring reports continued to be passed back and forth. Everyone was becoming painfully aware of time; United States Eastern Standard Time, to be exact. With sixteen hours remaining to the deadline, it looked like they may not make it. Soon President Alexander would have to appear before the World Council and President Roshenko to explain the launch of the Eternia. If they didn't have the mystical armor in their possession by the deadline, their mission would be recalled. Even if they did make it, there was no guarantee they wouldn't be recalled.
"Captain," the ensign manning the senor console suddenly spoke up. "Passive sensor drones are picking up what appears to be an anomaly consistent with a starship exiting hyperspace."
"Confirm," Jo-jo ordered, sitting up a little straighter in her chair.
After a few seconds of rechecking his displays, the young man answered, "Confirmed. Six vessels identified. Configuration and mass unavailable at this distance without going active."
"Leave the drones in passive mode. Keep an eye on them. How long until they reach the system?"
"Approximately seven hours around the time of local dawn on the moon."
"Very well." Jo-jo composed and personally dispatched a message to Colonel Markson, then killed the communications relay. The bridge crew eyed her actions suspiciously, but none dared ask why she was cutting the colonel's unit off from them.
Unknown Moon
Galactic Spiral Arm
Z MINUS 14 HOURS, 8 May 2017
Colonel Markson replayed the message for the benefit of his entire command. Captain Majourny's message was brief and to the point. All further communication would end after receipt of the message. This was an arrangement she and Markson agreed upon to in an effort to surprise the Horde forces. It was the only option available with the best chance of success. The unit would just have to hold on as long as possible until the armor was secured and the Eternia defeated any and all forces left in orbit to prevent a breakout.
Beta, Charlie, and Delta squads were dispatched to the firing line set up two hundred meters from the tree line on either side of the road leading to the pyramid. While their technology has been increased in the past two years, it wouldn't be enough to turn back a hard press by Horde forces. All they could really hope to do was fight a delaying action until the armor and the Eternia were brought into play. Then the battle would turn into a slugging match to see who would become the figurative last man standing.
One thing they knew for sure, even without the translations from the data stolen from Rongar's warship, was that Horde technology had also increased. Not quite as much as their own, but it seemed likely the Horde would pinpoint the defensive positions with little effort. Having a couple warships backing you up with their powerful weaponry was also a good thing.
About all the Guardian Force had going for it was the Horde was more interesting in finding out what they were after than simply destroying them. That in turn gave them an edge, which would not last more than another couple engagements before the Empire decided it would be better to simply destroy them and be done with it.
While the squads prepared for their first real fight as a unit, Colonel Markson, Captain Takamora, Alpha squad, and the Guardians followed the Sorceress to the spot in the pyramid's east wall where she believed the entrance existed to see if they could gain entry.
Unknown to any of them, there were forces at work watching their every move, and laying in wait for them within the ancient stone structure.