Theogony 3: Terra Stands Alone (21 page)

“
Hey, Staff Sergeant,
” commed Havildar Ali Buzdar, “
How long are we going to wait?
”

“
As long as the boss tells us to Ali,
” said Staff Sergeant Burke. “
Now shut the hell up and be patient.
” Fat chance, thought Burke. The Pakistani sergeant was the
least
patient man he had ever met.

Before Buzdar could say anything else, the door they were standing by began opening. The outer hatches moved first, opening from a seam that went down the center and then rotating up and out. Once they had finished moving, another set of doors began moving up and out. Each a foot thick, they would have been a bitch to try to break into, thought Burke.
It was very hospitable of the Drakuls to open up the doors for the Terrans.

Two creatures came up the stairs from inside the asteroid. The first looked to Burke like some sort of overgrown caterpillar, moving along in an upside down “U” like an inchworm.
There were four arms? legs? that extended from the caterpillar’s body from both the front and back parts of it. The creature would probably have reached six and a half or seven feet tall if it stood straight up. Before Burke could study the caterpillar any further, a second suited creature followed it up the stairs. As big as the monster was, it could only have been a Drakul. The thing was immense, topping well over 10 feet. The Drakul was about four feet wide, barrel-chested and easily weighed over 300 pounds. No, it was probably closer to 400, thought Burke.

The Drakul would
take a
lot
of killing to bring down.

The path to the laser mount had a 90 degree bend.
As the caterpillar turned the corner, Burke and the other four soldiers that were waiting had a clear shot. They fired as one, and the Drakul dropped. The two laser beams to the chest might not have killed it, but the three that penetrated its helmet certainly did. He dropped, surprising Burke with how long something that big took to fall. The 3/4 gravity played a part, surely, but only a part.

Sensing the Drakul had stopped following him, the caterpillar turned around to find out what had
happened. The creature’s four purple eyes widened in surprise to see Calvin standing over the dead Drakul, holding up both hands to show they were empty. The creature raised up on its back pad and slowly swayed back and forth, turning around in a full circle.

After completing the circle, the creature dropped down to both pads and shuffled over to where Calvin stood.
The caterpillar put its faceplate against Calvin’s so that the sound would travel and asked, “You came here with only 38 troops? 36 biologicals and two more that are robots? Cyborgs? Please tell me there are more I can’t see.”

Calvin stifled a tremor. As if having four purple eyes inches from his face wasn’t creepy and disgusting enough, the creature’s mouth was on top of its eyes. Up close, he could see that the creature’s four arms each had four talons, with two opposing talons on each side of its ‘hands,’ somewhat like a bird of prey. It was as alien as anything he had ever seen.

Calvin’s suit translated the creature’s speech as high Hooolong. “How did you know there were 38 of us?” he asked. Of all the things he could have said, he realized that was one of the lamest.

“
Sonar,” the creature said. “You probably want your shuttle to move half a mile aft, too. The Drakuls are currently performing maintenance on the radar system, but when the radar comes back on, the Drakuls may see the shuttle where it is waiting.”

“Um, yeah, I will do that,” Calvin said. “Thanks,” he added
. Lame again.

“We’re going to be missed befor
e too long,” said the creature, “especially when it doesn’t check in,” he added, indicating the dead Drakul. “Is this supposed to be a rescue, an assault, or did you just get lost on the way to a costume party?” It paused. “If this is a rescue, I am ready to leave.”

Calvin
took a deep breath, refocusing himself. “This is an assault,” he said. “We are here to stop this fortress from making it to the front lines. The Archons are worried about the effect the battle station will have on the balance of power.”

“As well they should be,” said the creature. “This station was built with one purpose and one purpose only, to break into
Archon space. Although there is a design flaw in having the lasers permanently extended, as you have noticed, this was done to allow extra missile space inside. This station’s armor is layered and several feet thick. It protects the Drakuls against both blast and radiation damage, and will shrug off most mines, missiles and lasers. For all intents and purposes, the asteroid is indestructible once it shuts all of its doors.”

“How do you know all that?” Calvin asked.

“Simple,” said the creature. “I designed it.”

“You designed
this fortress for them?” Calvin asked. “Why the hell did you do that?”

“I didn’t design
it
for
them,” clarified the creature. “I designed the battle station to be used
against
them. However, I was captured by them, and they can be quite...persuasive...when they want you to tell them something.”

“I’m Lieutenant
Commander Hobbs from the Republic of Terra,” Calvin said. “We’re here to destroy this thing.” He paused and then added, “But we’d also be happy to take anyone off that wants to come with us.”

“I would like very much to leave this place,” said the creature. “
As for who I am, unless you have sonar, my name is unpronounceable in your language. You can call me Smetlurge.”

“Smetlurge it is,” Calvin said.

“Just a second,” said the creature, closing its eyes. “You must hurry,” he said when he opened them again. “I was just contacted by the dead Drakul’s lieutenant, who wants to know where it is. I told the lieutenant its radio was inoperable, and we would be finished in a few minutes’ time. Judging by the lieutenant’s reaction, it intends to kill me and eat me. Whenever beings are selected to help its section, they never come back.”

“Any chance you could lead us to the operations center?” asked Calvin. “That would help us get out of here
faster and would increase your chances of getting off the asteroid, too.”

“I will help,” the creature said, “under
two conditions. The first is that we must stop and kill the lieutenant. Not only does the Drakul deserve to die, but if we don’t, it will start looking for the soldier you killed, and will raise the alarm when it can’t. The second condition is that we rescue any of the slaves here we can.”

“
We need to get in and out of here quietly,” said Calvin. “If killing the lieutenant helps maintain our secrecy, I’m all for it. As far as a rescue mission goes, our primary mission is to place our bombs in or near the operations center and destroy this station, but if there are others of your kind onboard that we can take off without compromising the mission, we will.”

“Fair enough,” the creature agreed. “I see
the two metal members of your group are bigger than the others. I would recommend using one of them to pretend to be the Drakul soldier when we go through the airlock. Your suits are similar to theirs, and I think that we can get everyone through, but we will need to make two trips. I will say that I left a tool on the surface, which is why we have to go back. We will continue the deception that the Drakul soldier’s radio is out.”

* * * * *

The plan to get them inside the asteroid worked. The Hooolong slouched down to make Staff Sergeant Dantone seem taller, and the
airlock technician from Central Control that looked at them in the airlock’s camera hadn’t noticed the difference. He had also believed the story that Dantone’s face shield was blacked out, due to the same malfunction that had fried his radio. The process had taken a few minutes, but they were all inside and camouflaged.

The Hooolong didn’t seem to care whether they were visible or invisible to normal sight; with his sonar, he saw them just fine.
Calvin knew that was a flaw in the system he would have to address when they got back. If they got back. No, he thought,
when
we get back.

As they rounded the first corner, the Hooolong came face to face wi
th a Drakul going the other way, and the platoon got its first good look at a Drakul. It was the stuff of which nightmares were made. Standing over 10 feet tall, the monster was a dark tan in color, and even stockier than the one in the suit had appeared. The Drakul was probably over 400 pounds, thought Calvin, and it had incisors in its upper jaw that were too long for its mouth; they extended several inches. The Drakul was one of the ugliest things Calvin had ever seen. As they were previously described to the Terrans, the creature
did
appear vaguely frog-like, with a white throat and big, red bug eyes on its flat head. Calvin would never have thought it possible, but he found that he preferred looking at the four-eyed Hooolong to looking at the Drakul. “Where is the technical sergeant?” the creature asked the Hooolong in a deep rumbling voice.

“He went to get a replacement for the radio in his space suit,” Smetlurge replied. “He told me to come and report to you.”

“Yes,” the Drakul agreed with an evil grin. “There is something in the control room we need your help with.”

Calvin didn’t know whether
Smetlurge was acting or whether he shivered because he was scared, but Smetlurge gave every indication of being afraid. He cowered on the floor and didn’t appear to want to move.

“Come on,” the Drakul said. “I have something I need you to assemble. I’m not going to eat you...unless you don’t come along right now.”

Smetlurge immediately began moving forward, once again reminding the Terrans of a giant inchworm. As they walked down the corridor, another Drakul came down the hallway in the other direction. The Terrans flattened themselves along the walls, but the Drakul following Smetlurge made a hand motion to the approaching Drakul, who turned and began walking alongside the first. Calvin saw the newcomer had the same insignia on its uniform and decided it was another lieutenant. Apparently the junior officers’ buffet was about to open.

The procession stopped at a door on the right side of the corridor with a metal plate to the right of it. The first lieutenant unclipped an identification tag and swiped it along the plate. The door opened
, and the lieutenant motioned for the Hooolong to precede him into the room. Smetlurge inched forward into the room, brushing up against Master Gunnery Sergeant Kinkead, who tried to sneak in while the Hooolong entered.

Smetlurge fell to the right and rolled around on the floor. “Sorry, sir, very clumsy of me,”
the Hooolong said. He continued to roll around while the two Drakuls laughed, allowing several other soldiers to enter the room. Finally, the lieutenant reached over and palmed the plate, shutting the door.

“I have not tried one of these before,” said the new lieutenant. “Is
the creature as tasty as it looks?”

“Yes,” the fi
rst one replied. “The best part is that there is an artery on both ends, so that we can both feed at the same time.”

“You said you wouldn’t eat me!” cried Smetlurge.

“I lied,” the first Drakul said. “Now come here and don’t make me chase you, and maybe I will make this painless for you.” It laughed. “Then again, maybe I won’t, but at least there’s a chance...”

Calvin saw
on his display there was a cyborg behind each of the Drakuls. “
Go!
” Calvin commed.

Before either Drakul could
move, both of the cyborgs punched the Drakuls in front of them. As their hands moved forward, both extended a spike from the center of their fists. Over 10 inches of steel entered the Drakuls’ brains, killing them instantly.

As they fell to the floor, Smetlurge inched forward and spit a blob of orange goo on the first lieutenant. “
Let that be a lesson,” he said. “Never trust a Drakul.”

Master Chief checked to ensure both Drakuls were dead. Look
ing up, he saw that Staff Sergeant Dantone was looking at his spike, turning his hand over slowly. Without facial expressions, it was hard to know what the cyborg was thinking, but just the way he moved indicated puzzlement. “Is there something wrong?” he asked.

“Yeah,” the cyborg replied. “My spike won’t retract.”

“Hoppy, get over here and take a look,” Master Chief ordered.

Sergeant Hopper
walked over to the cyborg and inspected the cyborg’s hand. “This’ll just take a sec,” he said. He sprayed the area where the spike came out of the cyborg’s hand with a bottle that he pulled out of a pocket. The bottle was inside two separate containers. He counted to 10, and then he sprayed it with another bottle.

“What is that stuff?” asked Master Chief.

“Flesh eating bacteria,” Sergeant Hopper said. “Don’t get any on you; the bacteria will tear you up. My research showed that most combat ‘borgs get deadlined from biological matter getting wedged in their crevices. Bone fragments are the worst. The bacteria I applied will clean any sort of biological material out, but then you have to spray the antibiotic to kill the bacteria. You
don’t
want that shit running around. Nasty stuff. If the government on Earth ever finds out about it, the bacteria will be illegal faster than you can say ‘lawsuit.’”

“Where did
—” Master Chief started.

“Don’t ask,” Hoppy cut him off. “Long story.” He surveyed the cyborg’s hand, frowned, and sprayed some lubricant he pulled from another pocket. “Try it now.”

The spike retracted silently.

Calvin surveyed the room while
Night went to the door and let the rest of the platoon into the room. The laser control room was a 40’ diameter circle with 16 operator stations along the wall. Each group of four had another station behind it. A command chair sat in the center of the room, overseeing the four supervisors. It appeared to be on a swivel so that it could face in any direction.

Calvin turned
to look at Smetlurge. “So, what is this place?” he asked.

“This is the forward laser control station,” said Smetlurge. “Each cluster of four stations controls the main lasers for a quadrant of the battle station. Th
is group controls the lasers on the port side of the station,” he said, pointing at the group on the left. “These others control the lasers on top of the station, its starboard side and on the station’s bottom,” he added pointing at the other groups in turn. “Each station controls 16 lasers, each group of four controls the quadrant’s 64 lasers, and the whole forward laser center controls 256. There is an aft laser control station that controls the 256 main lasers on the back part of the ship. The counter-missile lasers are controlled from defensive stations scattered throughout the ship. There are also a forward and an aft missile control station as well as counter-missile missile batteries scattered throughout—”

“
That’s great,” Calvin interrupted smoothly. “Any chance we could take out the battlecruiser that is flying alongside this asteroid before it gets a chance to respond?”

“Of course there is,” Smetlurge agreed. “Remember, I designed this station.
I have called others to come help. There are not enough of you to do everything that needs to be done.”

“What do you mean?” asked Calvin. “We need to blow up the control center. There are enough of us to do that.”

“If you like one-way missions, perhaps,” Smetlurge said. “I, however, have spent enough time on this rock and would like to leave. That entails disabling the battlecruiser that is alongside...unless you have something that can do that...no? I didn’t think so. This mission is the worst planned event I have ever seen. It is even worse than my sister’s wedding, which is really saying something.”

“OK, great, you’re going to kill the battlecruiser,” Calvin interrupted again. “Thanks.”

“Yes,” continued Smetlurge, “I also intend to disable this station’s offensive and defensive weapons, so that we can get away in your shuttle. Unless you have a plan for that, which you haven’t shared with me yet? No?”

“We
are working on that,” Calvin said. “The most important thing is to destroy this station. Our civilization has a lot riding on it. Completing our mission is more important than all of our individual lives.”

“
You can still destroy the station,” Smetlurge said, “but my life is more valuable to me than your lives apparently are to you. I haven’t kept myself alive this long just to die in your botched assault. You need to think bigger. Let us help, and we can also rescue a lot of the hostages held here. We’ll also get ourselves away, which I don’t think you are going to be able to do on your own.”

There was a soft knock on the door.

“They’re here,” Smetlurge said. “What’s it going to be?”

“We’ll follow your lead
, as you seem to know the station better than we do,” Calvin agreed. “What do you suggest?”

Smetlurge didn’t respond for a moment; instead, his eyes closed
, and he began swaying side to side slowly. Calvin motioned for Night to open the door, and a collection of eight aliens entered the room. Although most of them were Hooolongs, there was an Archon who was missing his wings, and something that looked uncomfortably like a five-foot tall spider. Night shut the door behind them.

One of the unit’s medics, Corporal
Lawrence, went over to the Archon and began talking with him in a low voice, looking at his wing stumps.

Smetlurge’
s eye stalks opened, and his swaying changed to a nodding motion. “Here is what I would recommend,” he said. He indicated the spider analog. “Bzzzeedlezzzzz is an excellent computer programmer, and the rest of my countrymen are weapons technicians. They can run the laser stations here.” Four of the worms moved to stand near a weapons station in each of the four groups, while a fifth went to stand next to the command chair. “I would recommend leaving three or four of your troops with them to provide security. They are unarmed and don’t know much about personal combat.”

Calvin
turned to Master Chief. “Pick four to leave as security,” Calvin said.

Master
Chief consulted his mental roster. “Sergeant MacKenzie, Corporal Hall, and Corporal Jones,” he said, “with Staff Sergeant Burke in command.”

Calvin nodded. “Make it so.” He turned back to Smetlurge. “What else?”

“I think we’d be best served by splitting up,” the alien said. “My son will lead one group to the operations center,” he said, indicating the last Hooolong that had come to stand by him. “I will lead the other group to the airlock control room, where we will begin facilitating our escape.”

“
What do you think?
” Calvin commed Night via laser link.

“
It’s as good of a plan as we have,
” Night replied. “
At least this way, we have a guide to take us where we need to go. I’ll take the Space Force with both cyborgs to go destroy the ops center, if you want to go take and hold our exit.

“
Agreed,
” Calvin said. “Captain Train will go with your son to the ops center,” Calvin said to Smetlurge; “I will go with you to the airlock.”

“They should go first, then,” Smetlurge advised. “They have further to go.”

Night nodded and moved to the door. “Wraith, you’ve got point,” he said to Sergeant Park. She moved to the door and went invisible. “Lead the way,” Night said to the Hooolong. “We’ve got your back.”

The Hooolong went through the door, followed by the rest of the
Space Force. Each went invisible as he or she went through the door. Finally, just Night was left. “Hold the airlock for me,” he said; “I’ll be right back.” He went invisible, and the door closed quietly.

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Kinkead, are you ready to go take an airlock?” Calvin asked.

“I am, sir,” she replied. “It’s the only way to get off this piece of shit rock.” She turned to the remaining members of her squad. “Zoromski, you’ve got point. Don’t let anyone eat the Hooolong.”

Smetlurge nodded, which for him was a bend at the ‘waist.’ “The Hooolong
in question would be very thankful for that.” Smetlurge moved to the door.

Zoromski went invisible and opened
it. Smetlurge followed him out, and the rest of the squad went invisible and followed. The Archon followed the last soldier out the door. “Keep them safe,” Calvin said to the four troopers that were staying behind to guard the command center. “Captain Train will get you on his way back. If anything else comes through the door, blast it.”