Talosian Chronicles 2: Star Dancer (34 page)

“Let me see what you’ve got, Simmons,” The burly Admiral asked as he hustled into the command center, deep inside Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado.

The man pointed to the big screen and hit a few keystrokes. The screen changed to show the northern hemisphere with a short trace that was still over the ice, albeit very high over the ice. “They are just starting to enter the upper atmosphere Admiral.” He typed a moment and the view zoomed in to the point where the single trace split into multiple ones. Red dots appeared indicating the craft in question. Eight smaller ones surrounding four slightly larger. “Current speed is Mach twenty-six, and slowing as they also drop altitude.”

The Admiral nodded. “Any idea where they’re going?”

“If they maintain this profile, they will arrive in New Mexico in about ten minutes, Sir.” The man replied.

“Fuck me! White Sands?” the senior officer asked.

“That’s what it looks like Sir. Of course, that’s only if they stay on profile,”

“Canadian Air Defense Command has launched two F-15s and is scrambling two other squadrons,” another man said. “The fighters are on full after burner for the intercept, ETA two minutes!”

On the big display, the two Canadian fighters appeared, moving painfully slow compared to the inbounds.

“Let’s get our fighters on alert to back them up. Let White Sands know there are going to be attacked by ET in ten minutes. Communications, I want to hear those Canadian pilots,” the Admiral ordered.

...”Time to intercept now thirty seconds and closing. Attention, inbound ships. You are entering restricted Canadian airspace! You are ordered to slow down, and alter course to...” a burst of static filled the room until someone shut it off. On the screen the two F-15s flashed red, and faded out.

“Sir,” the original man added. “They could also be coming here.”

“Fuck! Scramble the fighters! Get everything we have in the air now! Someone get me the President!” the Admiral said, he was
not
a happy man.

––––––––

T
alos, New Mexico

Earth, Sol Sector

Combat location:
Eden

––––––––

T
y ran to the command center while issuing orders over his communit. All of his combat teams were headed for the locker room to get their armor, their weapons, and vehicles before heading to the surface through the tunnels made for that purpose. The teams had been drilled in this, and they moved with practiced efficiency.

On the surface, people looked at each other in shock and fear as the attack siren began to wail. For a moment, they froze, not sure of what to do. Then they began to move. They knew that when that siren went off, they were supposed to get to the bunkers. But they also had to make sure their families made it to the bunkers as well, and many of the people took off to search for children or other family members. It was chaos.

Alan took one of the heavy six-wheeled utility ATVs and headed for the front gate. Just inside the gate, there was a series of trailers, all hooked together, stacked high with cartons of pulse rifles. The rifles were already programmed with the destruction commands, they only needed to be activated, and that would be the last thing Alan would do before he left them to the Colonel and his troops.

He hooked up to the first trailer, and felt the ATV bog down under the weight, but it began to move. The guard had already opened the gate for him, and the guard called out as Alan went by, “Pick me up on your way back!”

Alan gave the guard a nod, and headed for the Colonel’s command center, almost a kilometer away. The guards, used to deliveries from the compound waved him through without challenge, and he drove straight to where he knew the Colonel would be.

When he arrived at the command tent, Alan got out of the ATV and back pressing his thumb to the containers of rifles, activating each case. The Colonel had heard him pull up and came out of the tent, smiling. “What did you bring us today, Agent Smith?”

“Sir, do you remember that story I told you? The one that made you think I was crazy?” Alan replied.

“Yeah, you mean that bullshit about alien technology? Yeah, I remember it,” the Colonel said shaking his head. “What about it?”

“They’ll be here in just under ten minutes. I brought your people some toys that will at least give you a fighting chance,” Alan said, knowing the Colonel still didn’t believe him. “Man-portable rail guns. I’m not sure if we’ll be facing human slaves, or actual Caldarians, but either way, your weapon won’t even dent the armor they’ll be wearing.”

“Son, I don’t know what kind of chemicals that you’ve been sniffing in there, but there ain’t no such thing as aliens. If there were, why would they come here?” the man said, no longer smiling.

Alan turned and hollered at a few nearby marines. “You men, come over here and give me a hand!”

He got the Marines started unloading the trailers and staking the boxes along the side of one of the big tents. Just as he was about finished activating the weapons, several sonic booms could be heard. Alan glanced up and to the east. He pointed at the distant specks.

“Colonel, those are Caldarian assault carriers, and they are coming here with a battalion sized force. I doubt the whole thing is infantry, and there is nothing I can do about that, but these weapons will give you the ability to at least penetrate their armor. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more,” Alan finished.

The Colonel did look, and he saw the distant specks, but they were so far away, they couldn’t be identified. “Son, that’s just a flight of our fighters out on maneuvers. Not aliens. Why don’t you come inside, get out of the sun for a bit. You’ll see I’m right.”

Alan opened a case, and pulled out two of the weapons. He handed one to the closest Marine. “Corporal, this is a high-power, rail gun. It’s accurate out to two kilometers. When you look through the sites, you’ll see a small red dot. That’s where the round will go when you pull the trigger. It has less recoil than your current rifle, and an automatically refilling magazine of ammo. Don’t ask how it works, I couldn’t tell you even if I knew.” He looked around and saw a rock up on a bluff about a kilometer away. “You see that rock, up on the bluff about a klick out?”

“Yes Sir,” the Marine replied.

“Could you hit it with your current weapon?” Alan asked.

“Probably, but not with any accuracy,” the Corporal replied.

Alan nodded. “Use this, go ahead and shoot it.”

The Marine looked at his commander who nodded permission, then raised the weapon, took aim, and fired.

Instead of the normal shot sound of a rifle, there was a strange, whooshing/clapping sound as the hyper-sonic round hit large round rock, and shattered it into dust.

“Holy fuck!” the Marine said, then blushed. “Pardon me, Sir.”

“Well said, Marine,” Alan replied. “You can keep that. Trust me here, you’re going to need it.” He spoke so the Colonel could hear him. “This technology is still very top secret, so we can’t have you all keeping these forever, and wandering off with them. In twenty-four hours, they will stop working, and dissolve. This fight should be over by then, either way, you’ll at least have time to get the hell out of here if you need to.” He turned to the Colonel. “I have duties I need to get back to, Colonel. I appreciate your concern for me, I really do, but I’m not insane or sun-struck.”

About that time, the assault craft were close enough to start firing missiles, which they did. Everyone dove for cover as the whole area began to explode around them.

“Good luck, Colonel!” Alan yelled as he ducked and ran for the ATV and the empty trailers. He drove around the large tent that was the command center, and opened the throttle on the ATV headed for the front gate. He pulled inside the gate, but stopped to wait for the guard who sealed the gate, and came running for the ATV. Inside the shield, it was much calmer as the missiles hit the shield and not the ground.

“Cutting it close, Sir! I was beginning to think you were going to stay out there with the Jar-Heads!” the Guard said grinning as Alan headed for the Security building.

“Nope, I couldn’t let you walk home alone. It’s getting dangerous out here.” Alan replied as they bailed out of the ATV and ran for the doors. They took the lift down in silence, and headed for the locker room. At the door, they turned different directions.

“Be safe out there Sir.”

“You too Private, keep your head down,” Alan replied, and opened his locker to begin putting on his armor. ‘This is going to be a long, long day,’ he thought to himself.

––––––––

S
ince Alan didn’t have an assigned place in the Marines, he headed for the command center, to see what he could do to help Ty.

When he entered the Command Center, the first thing he noticed was the complete chaos displayed on one of the monitors for the surface. Another, larger monitor showed a topographical map of the area outside the compound. The area occupied by the Marines was marked in Yellow, the compound itself was in Green, and there were two other areas that were marked off in a faint reddish color. One of those areas overlapped part of the Marine area.

“Hey Ty, What’s going on?” Alan asked.

“ETs coming back, and he’s pissed.” Ty pointed to the map. “There are two places we think they could deploy in. Of course, they could deploy just about anywhere, but these would be the most beneficial to them...”

Suddenly, the area in front of the compound, the one overlapping the Marines pulsed red and remained solid, and the other area faded out completely.

“...I guess that answers that. They’re coming down on top of your Marine friends out front. The weakest part of our shield is the front gate area, so that’s where they’ll concentrate the heavy fire power,” Ty said.

“Those Marines are going to be annihilated,” Alan said sadly.

“Maybe, I hadn’t planned it this way, but this landing area is also in the middle of the best covered area we have for heavy weapons emplacements. We’ll be able to help, but not a lot. The hardest part will be keeping our Marines from running out and helping them,” Ty said.

“Yeah, I can understand that, I’m one of them. I gave Colonel Petrie the rifles, and showed them how they work. We can hope that’ll be enough help to keep at least some of them alive. Can I call the Colonel and warn him about the Enemy LZ?” Alan asked, indicating the Landing Zone overlaying the Marine area.

Ty nodded. “Go ahead, I’m sure he believes you about the aliens by now.”

Alan snorted, “I don’t know about that, but he does believe we are getting attacked.” Alan put his hand on the shoulder of one of the two controllers in the room. “Can you patch me into the Marine’s Command frequency?”

The man nodded and typed in a command on his terminal, then pointed to Alan. Alan already knew he was on, because he could hear the communications on the channel. When it was over, He spoke, “Colonel Petrie, this is Smith. Those assholes are coming down right on top of you. I suggest you pull back toward the compound so we can give you more cover.”

“Smith! How the hell did you get this frequency? Never mind, yeah I can see where they’re landing. I was already ordering my troops into position to protect you. You all might want to think about getting the hell outta here, you know!” Petrie replied.

“Far too late for that, Colonel. There is also an airstrike in bound, but we are trying to stop them before they get into range. The Enemy you are facing could be human slaves, like I said, or they could be seven foot tall, blue, walking coat-rack looking things. Just as a warning, a head shot will only piss them off.”

“You still stuck on the Alien angle?” Petrie asked. “I thought you said this was a secret?”

“In a few seconds, Colonel, every one of you will know they aren’t human. Good luck.” Alan replied.

“Thanks Smith. Same to you,” he said. Alan had the controller cut him out of the channel.

“All units, this is Ty, No ground troops are to leave the shield! However, all fast attack craft are authorized to go out and harass the enemy in order to cover the Marines if they retreat to the shield. Do not let them in the shield, but cover them so they can get close.” Ty turned to his friend. “Alan, take Charlie-One and head out to the gate. When our folks need to come back in, it’ll be up to you to make sure
only
they get through.”

Charlie-one was a reference to Charlie Company, First platoon. The shield, at the gate, was one-way. Out-bound traffic could leave, but nothing could enter. Ty was asking Alan to go monitor the gate.

“On my way,” Alan said, and called the platoon to meet him at the front gate.

––––––––

S
ix fast moving hover craft followed by six land rails sped out the front gate and circled around the Marines to engage the landing Caldarian strike force. The land rails, without orders, cut in front of the Marine lines, and dropped their small drones.

Those drones, immediately started making a maze of fox holes and trenches for the Marines. With six of them working the first set was completed quickly, and the marines ran forward to them. The drones moved back a hundred meters and began another set. On the floor and the sides of the fighting positions, the drones had placed explosives to destroy the small makeshift bunkers when the Marines had to fall back.

The fast moving vehicles caused so much damage to the landing forces that the assault ships themselves began trying to target the vehicles. One of the land rails was flipped over by a near miss, but its shield kept it from taking any serious damage. The crew flipped the buggy back on its wheels, got back in, and returned to the fight.

One of the Talos hover craft took several direct hits by the ships and exploded in a fireball. The remaining five hover craft shot in close to one of the ships and fired all their missiles into the open assault bay the troops were deploying out of. Three of them took hard hits on the way out, but otherwise made good their escape. The assault ship, didn’t fare as well. The missiles hit something important inside the ship, and it slammed into the ground hard. It slowly rolled a few degrees to the left as the troops it had been carrying picked themselves up and once again ran for the battle.