The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell (120 page)

  “What about our own goals?” Dr. Costa asked them.

  “After you give us what we want…” It was Lenkov, he continue. “…you can leave. Head to the third planet in this system. It is a Supply, Storage, Industrial & Manufacturing world.”

  “Why there?” La’jyn’eu asked him.

  “No dropship, from this world, can reach it.”

  “What about the people there?” La’jyn’eu asked him.

  “Look… the entire Omicron Ultra star system is robotic controlled. Most of those robots are under Sayaka’s control. And that includes that world.” Lenkov informed him.

  “And what is it that you want?” Dr. Costa asked him.

  “Build your civilization in this star system.” Lenkov responded.

  “Why here?” Dr. Costa asked him.

  “As soon as you are no longer technically on Golden Hyperion but actually are on it, then you will understand. Please continue on with your work.” Lenkov responded.

  They just couldn’t wait to get off that ship. And when they did their concerns was fulfilled. As they suspected some of that Liquid Death was missing (not a lot) and the symbiote was tampered with. It was still okay. And when they got back to their ship they learned that some of the Hau’rino DNA was missing. It was not known whom was taken. Nobody famous. Nobody that would naturally would be missed. So why did they brought over both the jar of Liquid Death and the symbiote? If you say no to The Hammer of Doom, than you will only say yes to it’s guns. And if your skills are not as good as Sayaka, than you would wish that you said yes from the get-go. And then later they realized that there was another option – the option to say no. Besides, they were not getting anywhere and desperate times calls for desperate situations. One day they will learn who was taken and when they do they will not care. As a matter of fact they were some what relieved.

(12)

  Ensign Karl Russell with a detachment of 100 personnel finally outflanked the new beast army. He was not detected by that army nor did they realize that anything or anyone was there. Russell and his detachment was not ordered there, he just up and left with them. When Grumett found out she didn’t care. What’s the point she would have said if anyone would ask her. It’s not like they would. Why would they? Everyone is just trying to survive the best way that they can.

  Russell decided to go old school, using early 21
st
century techniques that is. Which meant, don’t use the helmet intercom system, it can be hacked. If the helmet is not hacked it can be disrupted. What’s the point in using it then? Don’t use a microphone (which is what Taylor and Ramirez is forced to use) or you may get interference. Why a microphone? There’s one in the helmet in case the helmet is too badly damaged that it can’t be used. So what are you supposed to use then? Same thing that they did back in the early 21
st
century – a radio and hand signals. Of course Grumett would figuratively rolled her eyes if she’d heard that. A radio can be listen in on if you got one (yeah if you got one) and you can’t see hand signals in pitch black.

  Russell was sitting up booby traps all over the place that he could. He wanted chaos on the rear flank and the right flank but not the left flank. (That was not necessary because of the river that was there.) Once he gave the signal to attack, and the enemy took the bait, he got what he wanted. He was a force multiplier and the enemy was caught off guard. He attack, he lured them, he killed them. He kept the pressure going without mercy. Keep up or get left behind. And those who get left behind then it will become kill or be kill for the enemy will not take prisoners. All day long and way into the night, both him and his forces kept on going. It only ended when the enemy finally killed them all. It was Russell who died last. But it wasn’t easy to kill him for he saved the best booby trap for last.

  “Jesus fraudulent Christ! What the hell was that!? Did someone set off a nuke or what!?” Coté yelled out when she saw the huge mushroom cloud in the distance. She was no Christian and it showed.

  “Ellis! Find out what happened!” Ramirez shouted.

  “I’m on it!” Ellis shouted back. Everyone was as nervous as hell. They started to think that the lab complex was destroyed. Dawson won the day. Lenkov lost his mind. They went wild as they waited “patiently” for Ellis to respond.

  “Alright… listen up everyone!” Ellis was informing them. “What we just saw was the death… and I guess the heroic death of Ensign Karl Russell. He used a torpedo that he smuggled out of The Hammer of Doom as a booby trap behind enemy lines.”

  “My god. What a fucking madman. He’s more nuts than Dawson.” Wexler mentioned.

  “Really.” Ramirez responded.

(13)

  “What?” Captain Iverson asked his second in command.

  “It’s true sir. Someone set off a torpedo on Golden Hyperion.” His second in command responded.

  “Jesus! They’re trying to destroy that world.” Iverson responded. Everyone on the bridge was just absolutely shocked when they overheard that.

  One single torpedo is like a hydrogen nuclear bomb it has to weaken down a ship’s shields. It is the sole reason why all torpedo’s have a self-destruct mechanism on it. When a ship targeting systems fire one, it does not fire and forget, rather it fires and predict. And the most significant prediction of them all is that once the torpedo leaves a certain distance from the ship last known coordinates, or comes a certain distance to that of a celestial body with people on it, it simply self-destructs. This mitigates the collateral damage that will arise when two or more ships are fighting.

  “Sir the robots are back.” One of the bridge officers mentioned five minutes later.

  “Any updates?”

  “Same as the last two.” The officer responded.

  “Fine. Take us back to the fleet. I can’t take this heat anymore.”

  “Yes sir.” The officer responded quite enthusiastically. They all couldn’t wait to leave.

(14)

  “So what are we looking at?” Mazzinghi asked Grumett.

  “71 megatons sir.” She responded.

  “That’s not what I’m talking about.”

  “Lake Russell.”

  “What!?”

  “Take your radiation pills and you will die another day.”

  “I am so sick and tired of…”

  “Look sir, if the radiation don’t kill us, then what will?”

  “What’s the fucking status of the enemy!?” Mazzinghi yelled at her.

  “Irradiated! Like everyone else! Get use to it! Sir!” Grumett yelled at him and then walked off.

  Mazzinghi just stood there taking it all in. Looking at the radiation ash falling from the sky. His own death was starting to get to him. He was the last of the overseers. (Shackley was the other one.) He also knew that neither Lenkov nor Omori would send him to his death. Grumett outburst finally convinced him of what he is dealing with. Death or victory.

(15)

  The beast that is once was Captain Dawson woke up in a abandoned house and started to watch the news. He knew that both Lenkov and Omori saw the media as a mouth piece for the politicians. And so he knew that he will be watching both disinformation and misinformation rolled up into one. But there was no way one could hide the fact of what just occurred at the lab complex. A 71 megaton torpedo was detonated at the site. Dawson knew that Lenkov would never do what the media is opining about. As strange as it may be, Dawson’s humanity started to return. Despite his injuries and despite his drunken stupor he started to see everything differentially. As he listen to the media opining about his own humanity it forced him to re-evaluate his own humanity and thus his salvation. But his nightmare is about to begin anew. He will learn the hard truth that real salvation can only occur when there is real sacrifice. Maybe he should have learn to listen to Sayaka.

(16)

  Chief Petty Officer Jaime Alvarez led the assault against the remaining enemy forces. Although there was only one third of them left they were still a formidable force. Nevertheless he could only get about fifty personnel to join him. His assault resulted in very little. Everyone including himself died in the so called “surprise assault.” Both his death and his assault did resulted in a bonus. The enemy made the stupid mistake of a counter attack. They were too disorganized and confused to have ever launch a true successful assault upon the lab complex. Chief Petty Officer Patrick Eckersley died in that assault. He didn’t hesitate when he saw the enemy approach. He was good. It was as if he did saw combat before even though he never did. Their sacrifice gave the defenders the chance that all of them was patiently looking for. But it wasn’t enough.

(17)

  Lieutenant Commander North was just ordered to Captain Iverson’s ship. The reason: his own safe keeping. But he was not alone. The entire engineering staff of The Hammer of Doom was with him. At that point in time The Hammer of Doom was basically a ghost ship. But nobody could explain why either Lenkov or Omori would act that way. To make matters worse a couple of ZXC type of heavy attack ships with a ship that specialize in infiltration was entering into the system. All three were under the command of Lenkov but it was hard to say how they would react to all that was going on. Lenkov himself was not certain of their loyalties. These ships could cause a great deal of trouble should they decided to. The crisis point has just arrived and it’s about to get worse.

(18)

  “So what are we going to do now?” Mazzinghi asked Grumett.

  “Now is the time to choose between death and honor sir.” Grumett responded.  She was drunk and she didn’t care what Mazzinghi had to say or think.

  “Look I’m just trying to keep people alive and…” Mazzinghi was saying.

  “Bullshit sir! You are just looking out for yourself and now you know that you may die!” Grumett yelled at him. It was a truth that Mazzinghi knew was true but didn’t want to admit it.

  “Look… I now see the error in my ways and I need your help.” Mazzinghi mentioned. It didn’t work the way in which he’d thought. Instead it only made her more angrier with him.

  “Oh you got to be shittin’ me!” Grumett responded. She was very upset with him.

  “I want you to take up a defensive position at our center flank.” Mazzinghi ordered her. Grumett left without saying a word.  She had deep hatred in her eyes for him and she wanted him dead. She was about to make a decision that will change the course of the war without realizing it. It is now up to the one person who is not able to make any combat decisions whatsoever – Mazzinghi.

  Valeria knew what she was going to do the moment she got to the center flank. And needless to say Mazzinghi will not be all that too happy. At first the enemy was just probing the defensives. It was on the third probe that they figured out that the center flank was the weakest and that is where they made the decision to throw the bulk of their forces. Grumett held her ground as long as she could but as soon as it became apparent that she was going to be overrun both her and her forces (at least 500) decided to retreat. They later collectively decided to go AWOL.

  “Sir our center flank just collapsed.” The Crewman just informed Mazzinghi.

  “I have eyes Crewman.” Mazzinghi responded.

  “So what do we do now sir?”

  “Hold our ground you idiot!”

  “But isn’t that suicide sir?”

  “Look, I don’t fucking care. We can’t let them take this facility.”

  “Why sir? What’s so special about this place?”

  Mazzinghi didn’t want to respond so he didn’t. He, along with Lenkov and Omori, knew what was under that facility and they knew that Captain Dawson knew it as well and neither one of them will tell anyone what is there. Everybody was right when they suspected that it was just more monsters. And nobody wanted to know what type of monsters. Why in the universe would they even ask? Because they were afraid to given the fact that Dawson was now a GET-ME. It is Lenkov, Omori and anybody else who is an intellectual who knows the real truth – it’s just Dawson’s insanity. As a matter of fact he never even cared what was in the underground lab complex because it’s just old experiments that has no value to him (not even as a GET-ME). But it is the human need to create rumors, and the human imagination, that over-inflate the dangers at the lab complex by implying there is far more within the underground part of the lab complex than what there actually is. It’s not surprising why so many would go AWOL. If Lenkov was there he would have put a stop to those rumors. He knew how destructive a rumor can be and the urgency in crushing them. Mazzinghi however, does not realize it and he is about to make a horrible mistake.

  “Sir, the enemy is now in possession of our center flank and the robotic guns in that sector has just been neutralized.” The Crewman just informed Mazzinghi.

  “Understood. Are they advancing?”

  “No sir.”

  “Make certain everybody stops them from further advancing.”