Guardians of the Galactic Sentinel 1: The Deimos Artifact (2 page)

Freeport, capital city of the Haven colony, Barnard's Star, June 17, 2676.

{...It is five minutes past midnight. An elderly man, gasping for breath, runs unsteadily down a nearly deserted street in one of the seedier areas of the sprawling city. He runs in a desperate panic, looking over his shoulder frequently, as though terrified that whoever is following him must soon catch him. He'd left his ground car on the other side of the street in the middle of the next block. If he can make it to the car, he should be able to get to safety but he can hear footfalls behind him. To his immense relief, whoever it is doesn't seem to be gaining on him but the old man knows he is running out of time. He doesn't hesitate at the curb before rushing headlong to cross the wide, nearly deserted street that separates him from the safe haven of his car. As he runs into the street, he instinctively looks both ways, a precaution that is prudent but ultimately inadequate to save him.

As the old man strides from the curb, his breath coming in ragged gasps, an aircar parked just a short distance down the street silently rises up a half meter above the pavement. The car shoots forward under full acceleration and attains a velocity of more than a hundred kilometers per hour before it plows into the old man just as he crosses the centerline of the street. The meeting of car and human is brutally one-sided and final in its intensity. The victim suffers massive internal injuries from his initial impact with the heavy vehicle, but there isn't enough time for his mind to register any pain. He is killed a hundred microseconds later by the violent contact between his head and the unyielding pavement of the street.

The aircar makes no attempt to stop. Instead, it continues to accelerate as it rises into the sky, leaving the grisly scene behind. If there had been any observers, they would have reported that the aircar appeared to have been empty...}

Chapter 1.
Zack.

United Federation of Planets New Slovenia Colony, Wonderland Star System, June 25, 2676.

It was in the very early hours of the morning on the colony world of New Slovenia. Marine Corporal Zachary Lynton, clad in a set of battle armor and armed with a plasma pulse rifle, was following just behind the deliberately slow advance of the Federation armored hovercraft that he was assigned to. He was fanned out a few meters behind the hovercraft along with five other personnel from his unit and another forty or so infantry from the local militia. Their objective: a sizable village just over the hill ahead. Their orders were to secure the village, take prisoners if they could but to avoid losses to their own dwindling forces as much as possible. Zack's unit was coordinating with another five Federation hovercraft units that were approaching the village from positions arrayed all around the intended target.

The latest generation of Federation Military hovercraft were formidable machines, fitted as they were with a twin-mount, two hundred gigajoule plasma pulse turret along with an array of grenade launchers and smaller pulse weapons. Machines such as these had replaced the tanks that had been used so effectively by the various factions of Mankind to exterminate one another for several centuries prior to the present day.

Until only a week ago, Zack had been in command of the very hovercraft that he was now deployed alongside. He had been reprimanded and demoted for disobeying a direct order from a superior. That the order -- issued by a newly-transferred, inexperienced lieutenant who had been ten kilometers away from the action at the time -- had been stupid, even suicidal, didn't matter. An order was an order. A hearing to decide Zack's fate could occur almost anytime during the next two weeks or so, whenever it could be scheduled. In the meantime his unit, whose numbers had been gradually whittled down by a month of steady fighting with no reinforcements, needed all the able-bodied men available.

Even those whose future in the Marine Corps was up in the air.

Zack knew there would be no engagement with the enemy until sometime after the hovercraft to his right crested the hill they were climbing, a process which should take a good five minutes or more. In the brief lull before the action began, Zack found his mind returning unbidden to the events of the previous week...

His hovercraft and four others had been involved in an engagement against yet another of the rebellious villages on this godforsaken planet. The five combat units were arrayed in a standard attack formation and advancing as planned on the target village when Zack had a feeling in his gut that something wasn't right.

It was way too quiet...

In each of their previous engagements, the enemy had begun firing on the advancing Federation units as soon as they came within range of the rebel weapons. This time around, the enemy had been uncharacteristically holding their fire. This unexpected change in tactics was profoundly disturbing and Zack's every instinct screamed at him to launch a preemptive attack now, before the enemy played his hand. Who knew what they had in mind? What if they somehow managed to do some real damage to Zack's forces before any of his units could even fire a shot? The last thing he wanted was for his first command to wind up as an example for other inexperienced commanders of what not to do.

As the commander of the lead hovercraft of the group, one of his tasks was to relay orders from HQ to the other hovercraft commanders. He had keyed up the new lieutenant back at HQ to report his concerns and to request a change in plan.

"Zebra Central? This is Stripe One."

"Go ahead, Stripe One. You'd better have a damned good reason for breaking radio silence."

"That's an affirmative, Central. We're within two kilometers of the target and the enemy has not yet opened fire."

"And you think this is a problem?"

"They haven't used this tactic before and I'm afraid they're up to something. Request permission to launch a full spread of Brimstone missiles at the enemy's front perimeter."

"Negative, Stripe One! Do you think those things grow on trees? We've only got a few dozen of those assets left. You know damned well that your village is no more than a secondary target. Under no conditions are you to launch missiles. You are ordered to continue with the original plan!"

"Aye, Aye, Sir," Zack had reluctantly replied. The unproductive interaction with the absentee commandant had only served to make his apprehension worse. Surrendering to his instincts, he made a decision: Being prepared to fire missiles was not the same thing as actually firing them. He contacted the other four hovercraft commanders using the tightband laser communications system that linked all of the hovercraft, "All units prepare to fire all Brimstone missiles at my command." Zack knew he was in a grey area but, technically, he hadn't violated his orders.

At least not yet...

Less than two minutes later, the enemy launched a devastating attack. From two source points on the enemy front perimeter, pulse beams from powerful projectors lanced out at the Hovercraft formation. The enemy had waited until the Federation forces had drawn so close that they couldn't possibly miss, and then they had coordinated their gun crews to concentrate the combined fire from both of their weapons on the hovercraft deployed on Zack's extreme left flank.

The craft's shields would normally have been adequate to protect it from a pulse strike but this time something was radically different. The tough outside armored shell of the hovercraft remained more or less intact, but the turret was launched violently upward on a column of flame. Jets of fire shot out of every opening on the hapless craft!

With only a moment to think, Zack realized that those pulse bolts carried the blue signature characteristic of the latest Soviet technology. The damned Soviets had somehow supplied these guys with Matsukov pulse projectors! Beams that powerful were a complete game changer. While Zack struggled to overcome the shock of this new development, it occurred to him that even now the enemy was almost certainly shifting their aim to their next target: another of the hovercraft in Zack's unit! He had no idea which one it would be. It could be his own craft or any of the four that remained. Another shock jolted through him as he realized that, with those weapons, the enemy could take out his entire force within the next few minutes. His formation had rolled directly into a very effective enemy trap!

He had to do something and fast!

He immediately got on the lasercom to his remaining hovercraft, "All units! Open fire on the enemy front perimeter. Prepare to launch all Brimstone missiles on my command. Inform me immediately when you are ready to launch!"

The one remaining hovercraft unit to his left and the two on his right immediately began raking the enemy front perimeter with rapid-fire pulse beam bolts from every one of their formidable array of weapons. Overhead, he could feel and hear the pulse projectors from his own craft adding to the mayhem. Zack waited in a near panic for the announcements from his partner units that they were ready to launch missiles, all the while dreading that the enemy would be able to successfully target another of his hovercraft and destroy it in the meantime.

Within the next ten seconds, he had gotten indications from all units that they were ready to fire missiles. Knowing that he was going against orders and knowing that going against them was absolutely the right thing to do, he gave the order, "All units; fire missiles!"

A barrage of the deadly Brimstone missiles, four from each of the remaining hovercraft, slammed into the enemy perimeter at a range barely sufficient for the missiles to arm themselves, utterly destroying everything in their path, including the deadly pulse beam weapons that had been so effective against Zack's hovercraft formation. After the devastation dealt by the unauthorized missile attack, the rest of the battle had been anticlimactic.

The real fireworks had begun when Zack and the remaining hovercraft got back to HQ...

Zack forced himself back to the present; the Federation attack formation had reached the crest of the hill. Some twenty meters to his right, the pulse beam projectors on his hovercraft began to fire at various prearranged targets in the village. At the same time, the hovercraft also quickened its pace. Zack and the other soldiers on foot hunkered down and pressed forward, knowing things were absolutely going to get more intense now that the actual shooting had begun.

Though many of its members would deny it, the various factions of the Human Race had been at war among themselves since the dawn of recorded time. Granted, there had been occasional lulls in the action that had lasted for a few years now and then, but a dispute of some kind inevitably intervened to violate the short-lived peace. This current conflict was just more of the same.

Federation troops had been called in from off planet to put down a rebellion by the citizens of the village that Zack was currently advancing upon as well as several others in the near vicinity. The rebels were having some kind of dispute with the planetary government regarding the annual fees paid by the villagers for Federation protection. They had reportedly been able to amass a pretty formidable array of weapons and had, so far, proved to be more than a match for the local planetary militia troops during several previous attempts to put them down. The Federation forces that Zack was assigned to had been called in to re-establish planetary government authority.

The village Zack's unit was currently attacking was considered to be the most formidable of those involved in the local rebellion and The Brass figured that if they could break this one, the others would soon fall in line. Unfortunately, the revelation that at least some of the rebel forces could be armed with high-quality Soviet weapons had the potential to derail those plans. The Soviets would, of course, deny any involvement but they seemed to be doing their best to keep things stirred up. Zack wondered what their game was.

Forces within the fortified village began to return fire. A pulse from a powerful plasma beam weapon flashed overhead and tore into the hillside a half kilometer behind them. The powerful bolt blasted out a sizable elongated crater and flung a deadly splash of debris extending a foreboding distance beyond the rear of the smoking trough. To Zack's dismay, the pulse bolt bore the signature of another of the dreaded Soviet weapons.

Fortunately for the Federation forces, having powerful weapons didn't mean that the enemy knew how to make the best use of them.
That was a mistake
, thought Zack. This time the Federation forces were expecting the Soviet weapons and a tactical officer in one or another of the five attacking hovercraft would be able to instantly trace that pulse back to its source, have his gunner target it and destroy it. Zack heard the soft whirring of the turret machinery in the hovercraft to his right as the gunner realigned the projectors. The turret stopped its rotation and Zack could hear the softer whine of the projector elevation system as the gunner fine-tuned his aim.

Zack's eyes were protected by the self-polarizing faceplate in the helmet of his battle armor, but he turned his head slightly away from the hovercraft and closed his eyes anyway. It wouldn't do at all to allow his eyesight to get dazzled during a night battle. A second later, the gunner fired. Up till now, the projectors on Zack's hovercraft had been firing single pulses, as though testing the enemy defenses. This time the weapon fired a full series of six pulses in rapid succession. The pulses were all concentrated on a small area nearly in front of Zack. The gunner must have located some kind of important target because at least one of the pulses struck something that exploded spectacularly.

Scratch one enemy pulse beam projector, thought Zack, with some relief, as they quickened their pace again. Within a few minutes, they were ready to enter the village. The rebel forces had attempted to fortify their position by dragging ground vehicles, farm machinery and whatever else they could find and piling it all up into a makeshift barrier. These meager attempts at defense were no match for the Federation forces. Any fire detected from the barrier was immediately answered by powerful and deadly strikes from the pulse weapons of the relentlessly advancing hovercraft.

Zack's hovercraft entered the village through a gap in the makeshift barrier that the craft's pulse cannons had created just a few moments before. Zack and the rest of the infantrymen came pouring through the gap directly behind. A man to Zack's left went down from a pulse that originated from somewhere to the left and Zack, going to one knee, immediately targeted the spot with his rifle, and swept the area with rapid-fire pulses. Keeping his weapon centered on the area where the enemy fire had originated, he fired a grenade from the launcher slung under the projector of his pulse rifle. There was a satisfyingly intense explosion accompanied by the cries of wounded and dying enemy.

The enemy managed to take out one of the Federation hovercraft and damage another with the remaining Soviet pulse cannon in their possession. In so doing, they had revealed the cannon's position and the remaining hovercraft quickly concentrated their fire and took the emplacement down with a fusillade of pulse bolts.

The relentless advance continued.