Ten
Former United Nations Building
New York City
United States, Earth
Z MINUS 9 HOURS, 8 May 2017
Things were getting tense the closer the time got to Zero Hour. A special closed session of the World Nation Advisory Council got underway at three o'clock eastern standard time. President Alexander and General Eugene Hammond along with the United States ambassador sat in attendance. The topic for the day was the Horde Empire. Almost from the start arguments ensued for or against allying with the power empire. Much to the dismay of President Alexander and General Hammond, those in favor of an alliance outnumbered those against it. Those in favor thought unkindly of President Alexander's launch of the Eternia mission. They felt it would jeopardize whatever fictitious good standing they might have had with the Horde.
President Alexander did come in on a few points regarding reasons not to trust the Horde. The points cited were grounded in facts from dealings two years ago as well as some of the decoded information released from the mass of intelligence stolen from General Rongar's warship. Information easily discounted as possible propaganda purposely left for them to find.
As the closed meeting wore on, General Hammond could practically see the I.Q.s dropping around the room. True Horde intentions had been placed within a conceivable lie. President Alexander's allies knew it, recognized it, but being in a minority, could not get the other members of the World Council to see it.
While the political wrangling continued, General Hammond hoped the Guardian Force was making infinitely more progress.
Unknown Moon
Galactic Spiral Arm
Z MINUS 9 HOURS, 8 May 2017
Five hours of near fruitless searching wore on everyone's nerves. Sorceress' inability to remember her way did not help. She found the holographic projection concealing the entrance quickly enough. Once they entered and came to the first 4-way intersection, however, everything in her memory grew fuzzy. Sorceress tried to feel the pull from the armor, but the direction within the pyramid was vague and indistinct.
"Is there anything you remember? Some kind of mark. Damage in a corridor. Anything?" Colonel Markson asked, trying to keep his impatience down. He and Takamora were aware something was not quite right with her; something serious enough for her to be closed-mouthed about it.
"All I remember for sure is two sentries standing guard outside the entrance to what I believed to be the central chamber," Sorceress replied. She shook her head. That was all she could positively remember.
Briefly, Sorceress described the sentries in amazing detail. Over eight feet tall, constructed of something resembling rock, and looking extremely powerful. She could not remember seeing any visible weapons, but that didn't mean they weren't present.
Alpha Squad spread out in a search pattern gear toward exploring the corridors leading deeper into the structure. Sorceress was certain that's where the armor waited. So that's where they tried to go. After another hour of near fruitless searching, Colonel Markson considered calling off the search and taking their chances against the approaching starships.
Markson joined the Guardians at the primary corridor hub. "This is getting us nowhere. Six hours and we haven't found a thing. It's as if someone or something as changed their mind. Eight hours left to the deadline. Horde forces will be landing out there any at moment. I have four platoons to think about. I'm sorry, Sorceress, but I'm going to have to call it quits."
Sorceress didn't object as the man signaled the members of Alpha Squad. But before he could say a work, Private Johnson's voice broke over the tactical net. "Uh, Colonel, I think we found it."
"What do you mean 'think'? Either you have, or haven't."
"We found it," the private answered with more confidence. "And man are they ugly. The Wicked Witch of the West's got nothing on these two."
"Stay well away from them," Colonel Markson ordered. "We're on the way."
Within ten minutes, Alpha squad and the Guardians arrived in a corridor all swore had not been located before. It was as if events had to happen at precisely the right moment, and someone was seeing to it history unfolded that way. The group gathered ten meters from the hulking behemoths not wanting to venture any closer until they knew what they were potentially dealing with.
Ugly was right. The stone figures made gargoyles look like beauty queens by comparison. Standing ten feet tall, make of solid rock, or what appeared to be rock, two tree trunks for arms and legs, and head a mother would have double-bagged for the duration. They guarded a triangular-shaped doorway from which streamed white light. Because of the faintness of that light, it was hard to judge the dimensions of the chamber beyond.
"Now what? Someone go up and knock?" someone at the back of the gathering commented.
Adrian, Jake, Jeromy, Sorceress, and Colonel Markson exchanged uncertain looks. "Why not?" Adrian replied, breaking from the group and walked cautiously in the direction of the stone sentinels.
Markson ordered him back, but it was too late. Jake and Jeromy followed by the remaining Guardians trailed Adrian as he made his way toward the chamber entrance. Markson's vehement curses echoed in their ears through the boom mic earpiece, but he ordered his people to hold their ground. He wasn't psychic, but the colonel figured if those stone sentries were alive in some bizarre way, only a Guardian could pass safely by them.
Adrian stopped twenty feet directing opposite the guarded entrance. The light here was much brighter, but still not enough to make even wild guesses about what lay beyond. Still no reaction out the sentinels, so Adrian made to walk slow and casual through the gapping portal. Part of his mind screamed at him to know just what he thought he was doing. In truth, Adrian really had no idea. He was simply rolling with his instincts.
At fifteen feet, the stone guardians took no notice of him. At ten, nothing changed except the size of the monsters and the keen certainty either of them could smear him on the stones with just one swipe of their stony fists.
At two meters red slits blazed suddenly like ruby fires in what passed for their heads. Joints that had not moved in ions cracked as they moved. The stones underfoot rumbled like a localized earthquake when one stony foot hit the ground.
The behemoths came alive as if a switch had been thrown to the ON position. They closed blocked the path to the chamber beyond the portal, and locked their blazing gaze on Adrian Cobretti.
Horde Fleet
Unknown Moon
Galactic Spiral Arm
Z MINUS 8 HOURS 30 MINUTES, 8 May 2017
Zarin stared at the moon with barely restrained disgust. The mottled greens, blues and puffy white clouds swirled outside the view port in a pleasing sort of way to eye. To Zarin it was ugly. All he saw were kilometers of forest, choking masses of rainforest, and despicable fresh air.
I'll take artificial structures and recycled air any day, Zarin scoffed to himself. He wanted this over a done with so he could get back to the comforting bleakness of the Fright Zone on Etheria.
"Captain, we have detected a satellite in stationary orbit," the robot trooper manning the sensor boards reported tonelessly.
"Any sign of the Eternia?"
"Negative. They may be hiding deeper in the system."
Not likely, Zarin surmised, viewing the sensor readings for himself. Why leave what looks like a communications satellite in orbit only to go hide somewhere else? No. They are here, and close by. That satellite means they have already landed a force on the moon. "Where is that satellite located?"
The robot manipulated his controls. After a minute, it reported, "Northern hemisphere about three hundred kilometers from the equator. Sensors are picking up what appears a stone pyramid-like structure almost completely screened by the forest."
"Life-signs?"
"Massive. There is definitely something alive down there. Impossible to separate humanoid forms," the sensor trooper responded.
Zarin did not like this. No starship detected, and impossible sensor readings. From a tactical sense splitting his force was not a good idea. Circumstances left him with little choice. If he didn't send down a landing force to investigate the pyramid, the humans would retrieve whatever it was they were after and get away. If he tried to discover what they were up to, they might still succeed by virtue of the head start they had. Worse yet, they may have already recovered what they sought.
Zarin turned to the commander of his ground forces. "Launch grounding operations. We will support you with this corvette, three destroyers, and all the fighters on the three ships." The humanoid creature nodded its acknowledgement, and set off to carry out the orders.
"Begin landing operation," Zarin ordered the robot pilots. "He watched silently as the planet shifted and started to draw closer. All the while, his brain milled over the unknowns awaiting them on the surface.
Starship Eternia
Unknown Moon
Galactic Spiral Arm
Z MINUS 8 HOURS, 8 May 2017
Captain Majourny watched the video relay from the recon satellite placed in polar orbit of the moon concealing her ship. Four Horde warships broke orbit and entered the atmosphere. One corvette and a destroyer stayed behind to catch anything attempting to leave the surface. Once the four warships traversed safely into the lower atmosphere, fighters, heavy landing craft and troop transports disgorged from their mother ships, and fanned out over the forested terrain.
Ace shook his head at the size of the force deploying against their companions on the habitable moon. There wasn't enough weapons and ammunition in the Eternia's armory to handle even half of what they faced. His eyes turned to the passive sensor readings of the Horde ships. The fighter pilot in him began analyzing the enemy for likely blind spots, vulnerable points, and other places to deal crippling blows.
As it happened, Lt. Denton was thinking along similar lines as far as the weapons available in the Eternia's arsenal. Probable warhead yields and combinations for the reaction and plasma torpedoes. There also swarms of fighters, assault gunboats, and breeching pods to take into account.
All of which could be effectively employed to devastating effect on them. It all boiled down to the element of surprise. That alone could even the odds if they destroyed one of those warships before they even realized the Eternia was there. Then go toe-to-toe in a slugging match with the remaining ship. If they survived that, they would have four more ships to contend with within the moon's atmosphere where their maneuverability would be limited, but still deadly in the amount of firepower they could bring to bare.
Regardless of all the plans they made, none would survive the opening volley. The best-laid plans never survived contact with the enemy. They didn't have the brute force to win through, so they would have to be cunning devious, and outright bold bordering on insanity. Unpredictable. If there was one thing the Horde hated about humans, it was their unpredictability and that gave them an exploitable edge.
Unknown Moon
Galactic Spiral Arm
Z MINUS 8 HOURS, 8 May 2017
Four pulse rifles snapped up and tracked the stone leviathans as they moved to block Adrian Cobretti's path. Colonel Markson waved them off. Nothing they had would hurt these sentries that had stood the test of time. Probably created by magic, it seemed unlikely they would be easily destroyed by primitive technology like ballistic weaponry.
Sorceress, Jake, Sonya, followed by a reluctant Brad and Jeromy gathered around Adrian. Twin ruby beams swept over the nervous humans as they defiantly stared down the stone behemoths. It didn't hurt, but each would later swear it penetrated their bodies. Some kind of extremely sophisticated genetic scan.
IDENTITY CONFIRMED. THE CHOSEN HAVE ARRIVED. YOU MAY PASS.
No one could tell where the cold, toneless voice came from. It seemed to echo in their minds as well as their ears. The truth of the statement was undeniable, however, as the stone sentries stepped aside allowing the six a clear path.
"Colonel, return to your command. There is nothing more for you to do here," Sorceress spoke into her boom mic. "It's unlikely you would be allowed to pass, anyway. They will need all of you outside to hold off the Horde until we get the armor out."
Colonel Markson tried to hide his apprehension, partially succeeding. "I could leave a couple people here just in case."
The most serious Jake Rockwell had yet to be since signing on to this mission, he replied, "Get out there, colonel. You know that's where everyone is needed now. We'll be all right."
Sonya, Brad, Jeromy added their voices to that of their companions. Unable to deny the truth, Markson nodded once, and wheeled about issuing orders over the tactical net.
Adrian led the way into the vast inner chamber. Vast turned out to be an understatement. The only wall they could see was the one now behind them, but one got the feeling of an enormous space. The light beaming down on the six immobile suits of power armor had no readily discernable source. The overall effect seemed anti-climatic for such a momentous occasion.
"Not very imposing, are they?" Brad commented idly.
"From thirty yards, you aren't very imposing, either," Jeromy pointed out.
"Welcome, Guardians. The time for the revival of the armor is at hand," a tall woman dressed in flowing white silks said from the shadows to the left. "But first there is a question you must answer before you will be allowed to take possession of the armor."
"Allowed? By who?" Sonya demanded. To her, it looked like no one could stop them. The Sentries let them pass, and there was only this one woman who didn't pose much of a threat.
Kodec regarded Sonya the way a teacher might regard a rough-edged pupil with great potential. "The armor. The suits will not allow you to use them unless they are sure you are capable." She held up a hand to forestall Brad's coming remark about their months of physical training. "It's not the physical part, Mister Johnson. It's the will and the desire to use those suits as they were intended. They are weapons of war designed and built with but one purpose in mind: to destroy. So you must ask yourselves one question. What are you prepared to do?"
"We are sworn to protect our world by any means necessary within the bounds of our laws," Jake replied, displaying an unusual insight he took great pains to repress.
"And then what are you prepared to do?" Kodec asked again.
Adrian countered with a question of his own. "Who are you?"
Sorceress stepped close to her mentor. The recognition on her face did not go unnoticed by her companions. "Why is this question so important?"
Kodec sighed. They don't understand, and I'm not sure we have the time for them to find out. "You stand at a crossroads, one of many in your path. What you do here, what you decide here will have repercussions for years to come."
"We still don't understand," Adrian declared. "We have sworn to get Horde Prime by whatever means available. What more do you want? We are not sure how to do this. Are you offering your help? Or have you been helping us already?"
Adrian's questions caught Kodec off guard, but she recovered quickly. "You must fight fire with fire. If Horde Prime's minions pull a sword, you pull a gun. If they send one of yours to the infirmary, you send one of his to the junk pile. That's how you get him. Once this armor appears Horde Prime will recognize it. He will know the significance of it, and the danger to him. You will be the primary obstacle to his plans for total domination of the galaxy."
Sorceress reiterated what had already been said. "We have sworn to use any and all means within our power and within the boundaries of their laws."
Kodec sighed again, walked a few paces away. "Well, it's a start, I guess." She walked back to the group and held out a hand palm down. Without thinking, the others placed their hands on hers. Adrian hesitated where Sorceress did not, but didn't buck the trend. "You are all aware of what a blood oath is?" Six heads nodded their understanding. "Good! You just took one."
Unknown Moon
Galactic Spiral Arm
Z MINUS 7 HOURS 47 MINUTES, 8 May 2017
Horde landing operations began shortly before local dawn. Hundreds of Mark I Troopers and shock troopers disgorged from the transports grounded in the clearing Colonel Markson's unit used in his landing. Grounded transports littered the massive one-mile diameter clearing while more hovered in the air waiting for their turn to land and unload their cargo. The entire operation was carried out smoothly with areas blocked off for specific items to unload.
Troopers gathered to the north and circled around to lead the charge into the forest. The command center was set up at the far western perimeter. Heavy weapons like armored carriers and tanks were off-loaded to the south. Coordinator robots, identified by their crimson domes, began organizing the assault forces into lethal combinations of troopers, tanks, and previously unseen special invasion weapons. All the while fighter squadrons roared overhead searching for the enemy they knew hid from view in the forest or pyramid.
Colonel Markson and Captain Takamora observed the activity from the deep in the forest via remote cameras set up in concealed places to watch the landings and deployment patterns.
"Looks like they aren't holding anything back," Hohiro observed.
"They have held off the bombing runs. That's a plus in my book," Markson said. He manipulated a control on one of the monitors set up inside the pyramid entrance. The adjustment moved a camera view to bring the heavy weapons into sight. Tanks and a few artillery pieces maneuvered into their assigned positions. "That artillery could probably hit us from there with ease."
"Definitely at the top of the list," Hohiro agreed. He turned to a laptop computer and began typing commands into it. He assigned targets to their surprise attack plan as the colonel identified them. This attack would use up their distance striking power, but, then, they knew they couldn't last long right from the start even before they began spying the enemy.
The dropships transported the armored carriers to small clearings several miles to the north and southeast five hours ago, then found places of concealment for themselves where they would wait until summoned. The surprise attack would be launched from the carriers in the form of missile salvos. Missiles armed with powerful plasma warheads would descend on the enemy forces in an attempt to take out those targets specifically identified that could hurt them the more. The missile magazines contained enough weapons for two salvos of twelve missiles per carrier. Enemy counterattacks would destroy the empty vehicles in short order. Losing them would not hurt them too much as all the weapons, ammunition, and equipment had been stripped from them before being moved to their launching points.
As the pair watched, scouting parties formed up and broke away from the main force and headed for penetration points in the forest. Four soldiers from Alpha Squad, at a gesture from Colonel Markson, typed furiously on banks of four laptops. These were the remote consoles for the sentry guns strewn through the forest behind the line of anti-personnel mines. After a few moments tapping away on each keyboard, the four nodded to their commander.
The guns were armed, and the missiles were warming up.
Markson opened his com to his entire command. "They're on the move. All units stand by. Remote guns are armed, and missiles will be ready to fly in thirty seconds. Watch your fire and check your targets. Conserve ammo as much as possible. We hold the line no matter the cost."
Private Road leaned over to whisper to his companion Private White. "You think they hit the mines yet?"
Distant sharp explosions rippled across the forest ripping apart underbrush, trees, and the unlucky trooper. Rolling thunder rumbled for a full fifteen seconds before dying down.
Private White, blowing at bubble from the wad of gum he chomped on until it popped, replied, "Yip."
Road grimaced. "Smartass."
"Yip."
Colonel Markson looked back at Hohiro, whose right middle finger lay poised over the EXECUTE button on the terminal that would launch four-dozen plasma rockets. Hohiro's eyes were glued to the sensor displays showing the enemy's progress. Horde troopers were steps away from entering the lethal range of the eight robot sentry guns. He snapped his gaze to up to meet the colonel's.
"Fire."
Hohiro jammed the key down brutally.
Captain Zarin watched the deployment of his forces with disdain. They were taking far longer than they should have getting down and organized. The longer they took lent more time for the humans to find whatever it was they were looking for. Zarin paced the bridge impatiently willing the robot troopers to speed things up. Finally after an interminable amount of time, which he vowed to do something about when the operation was finished, Zarin ordered the command troopers to move out. Ranks of scouts bore down on the tree line and the trail. Long minutes passed, then explosions rippled across the landscape as the invaders happened upon the cleverly concealed mines. Damage to trees and underbrush proved more severe than to the metallic invaders, though many were damaged or destroyed.
Zarin expected the tactic. He even though they might have sentries out there somewhere waiting to start picking individual robots off in an attempt to incite confusion. He looked again at a monitor displaying the heat traces concentrated in and around the pyramid. Those traces were growing larger as the sun continued to rise raising the ambient temperature.
It was now or never.
"Artillery units standby to begin bombardment," Zarin ordered.
Robots manning the mobile artillery pieces loaded their powerful weapons, and waited to order to fire. That order was on Zarin's lips when alarm bells suddenly wailed around the bridge.
"Incoming fire!" One trooper shouted above the cacophony.
"Missiles inbound. Backtracking to launch point," another reported.
Out the bridge view ports Zarin spotted the telltale signs of multiple missile launches to the north and southeast. As the first volleys tracked toward the robot army, another volley rose into the early dawn sky. Point defense weapons began filling the sky with blistering laser fire in a vain attempt to shoot down at least a few of the incoming missiles. However, Horde thinking did not consider small one-man fighters or small missiles to be of any threat, thus, all the weapons got threw.
The missiles slammed their hardened nosecones into the soft dirt. Once forward momentum ceased, the explosive charge detonated setting off the plasma warhead. Plasma matter vaporized the few feet of soil encasing them and boiled outward as the reaction consumed everything in its path. Dozens of plasma globes rippled up across the fielded army. Zarin watched in horror as his vaulted artillery cannons were the first consumed in fiery energy approaching the heat of the sun. Hundreds of troops and roughly fifty tanks also ceased to exist; their matter fueling the reaction. Once the original material, plus the consumed metal, soil, and other debris reached their limit, the globes dissipated as quickly as they appeared leaving the battlefield littered with craters, many of which overlapped.
Zarin seethed at the hellish scene below. Smoke billowed out from were a full quarter of his forces once stood. "Find those launch points and annihilate them," the humanoid hissed. "Regroup the remaining forces and press the assault. Forget capture. Destroy them for their arrogance. Send in the combat drones. Kill Everything!"