Ilox Saga 1: Eris Monroe: More Than Human (23 page)

“Starlifter, come in. This is Omega. We are in need of immediate evac at entry point coordinates. Do you
copy?” His entire squad was two kilometers below the surface and the radio signal was being blocked by trillions of tons of rock.

“Run for the elevator!” shouted Arnav. He waited as everyone in his crew ran past him.
Creatures swarmed up the one remaining platform ramp as others climbed the mangled and blasted remains on the other end. The things were only meters away from him when Arnav began running back through the long corridor to the elevator. Sprinting as fast as he could while encumbered by his heavy durasteel plated combat armor, Arnav finally made it to the elevator car. His entire strike team was waiting for him. The sounds of heavy breathing came through his helmet link. As the elevator doors began closing, four gray scaled hands attempted to keep them from shutting.

“
Garcia, get these doors shut!” Arnav shouted as he leveled his assault rifle at point blank range and pulled the trigger, firing repeatedly. The computer voice from the elevator soothingly called out in a feminine human voice from hidden speakers.

“Elevator doors are ajar. Please keep hands and feet from the entrance. Thank you.”

The creature collapsed in a heap. Isabella Dulac’s armor continued to smoke from where the creature had vomited on her.
Trygve Fasjovik fired his assault rifle at the second creature holding the doors apart and blew him back out. The elevator car doors finally shut as Matthew Sekibo and Ichiro Tokushima pushed on them. One of the creature’s arms lay twitching on the floor of the elevator. As Arnav Malik punched the shattered controls – the elevator began rising.

“Isabella
– get out of that armor now!” yelled Ryan Blake. Wei Zhang began to help Dulac to remove the armor, unbuckling the connections holding the rigid breastplate in place. Removing the final clamp that held the armor in place, he tossed the smoldering breastplate to the floor. Holes began appearing on the inside of the breastplate.

“It’s ok, it’s off now,” said Zhang.
Isabella rested with her hands on her knees, bent over as she gulped in air. She was wearing a thin polyweave under-shirt and began looking for signs it had been penetrated. Garcia had a medi-kit in his hands and began to look for wounds. He found nothing; her skin was unblemished and untouched.

“That stuff melted right though durasteel armor plat
ing!” exclaimed Andre Jackson. He was looking over his armor to see if any of the vomitous goo had splashed onto him.

“Just think what it would have done to her flesh if we hadn’t taken her breastplate off…” said Jessica Taylor
with an ashen look on her face.

“Anyone else hit?” asked Matt Sekibo. The tall man exuded a calm commanding presence though he seldom spoke.

“Starlifter, are you receiving? This is Omega squad. We are in need of immediate evac at entry point coordinates. Do you copy?” Arnav tried again to reach Arneson. The emergency elevator was roughly half way back to the top level – in another few minutes it would arrive.

“Omega, this is Starlifter
, I’m reading you. What’s your situation, over?” Kyle Arneson’s static filled voice came through their link as his face displayed on their HUD’s. Arnav breathed a sigh of relief.

“Starlifter, we require pickup from prior drop-off coordinates.
Over.”

“Omega, roger that. I can be there in
forty-five minutes if I kick in the afterburners! I’m doing so now - Starlifter out.”

“Jessica, can you move?” asked Arnav sincerely. He was worried she had suffered internal injuries. She glanced his way with a worried expression.

“Yes… I can walk anyway. LC…those things – they used to be human, didn’t they?” She was holding her midriff with her left hand and looked vulnerable without her breastplate armor.

“I don’t know.” He glanced at the arm lying on the elevator floor. “
Garcia, pick up that arm. I want Doctor Xinhao to examine it when we return to the Sparta.” The elevator arrived at the top most level, back where they had started from, with a soft chime. The doors began to open. Ted Garcia picked up the arm and looked at it with disgust.

“I have to carry this
arm
the whole way back?” His face betrayed his emotions.

“Well, at least I don’t want you carrying the whole damn body back,” replied Malik half in jest.
“Squad, move out. We’re heading back the way we came. Back to the emergency airlock double time. Anyone see those creatures, blast them to hell.” The combat team moved at a sprint, taking the same path they had used to get to the elevator. It wasn’t long before they came to the airlock.

“We set up our defenses here. Now we just ha
ve to wait for Arneson. Jackson, Blake - set up your bipod gauss rifles five meters from the airlock entrance. Zhang, Barton, Tokushima – take all of the M120’s we have left and put them down the tunnel at fifteen, twenty-five and thirty-five meters. We’ll remote detonate if any of those things come down the tunnel. Fasjovik…launch a drone and position it at one hundred meters distant and keep watching its feed. We have one chance to get this right – everyone get to it!” He looked over his crew as they busied their defenses. He saw Jessica doing nothing.

“Dula
c! Get your ass in gear! There are emergency suits in that airlock – get in there and put one on. Did you forget about the outside atmosphere?” Isabella Dulac snapped out of a haze, looked at her commanding officer and briskly set to work cycling through the airlock. After opening the lockers holding the incident suits, she found there were ten suits in all, with space for fifteen, though five appeared to be missing. Just as she sealed the suit, she heard the distinctive sounds
of an M120 grenade exploding. She quickly took up her assault rifle and exited the airlock back where the squad had made their stand. Having abandoned her combat suit, she couldn’t listen in to the encrypted link frequencies her team-mates were communicating on. Moreover, she had lost her helmet HUD and ability to see through smoke and darkness. Figures were stirring in the distance. More explosions from M120’s partially deafened her and the shockwave knocked her to her knees. Looking up, she saw four of the creatures shambling towards her. Before she could fire, they were cut down by the combined fire from Privates Jackson and Blake with their bipod mounted heavy assault gauss rifles. She would have to hold her fire until she had a clear target through the drifting smoke.

For fifteen minutes the squad beat back waves of attacking creatures. So many infected were killed that the corpses piled on top of each other, partially blocking the tunnel. The creatures were still coming for them when Lieutenant Commander Malik signaled the squad to leave through the airlock. Arneson had arrived
with the Starlifter.

The last to leave the airlock was Malik, who offered covering fire so his
marines could exit cleanly. When the last soldier was gone, he hit the control panel to close the inner door and cycle the outer door open. He had rigged the last two of his M120 grenades to explode on signal from his internal neural comm implant. As he settled into the co-pilots seat to the right of Arneson, he blew the airlock. A fireball was seen on the aft camera as the Starlifter sped away and towards Platinum City.

Chief Engineer Hasephrey Saephan rested his hands on the rail overlooking the projected display of the system Ekaph. Sparta was depicted as a white triangle flying through the seven planet system. She was closest to the second planet orbiting the largest star of the trinary system. A red triangle orbiting the same planet, but on opposites sides of the world, indicated an enemy ship – the Alliance battle-cruiser Agamemnon.

“
Helm, bring ship to heading one seven one Z fifteen,” Saephan ordered. “Plot intercept trajectory to fourth gas giant planet of system. We must refuel jump drive hydrogen fuel tanks.”

“Aye aye sir,” replied Kizzarra who sat at the pilot’s station.
She had added several glimmering decorations to her fur, and she shimmered as her hands moved over the controls. The antigravity pulsar engines accelerated the ship to tremendous speeds, but the artificial gravity field never strayed from the normal one gee standard. To Saephan, the gravity on the ship was weak. The homeworld planet of the Orvod, Hron, was a heavy gravity planet, consisting of one-point-four standard gravities. Distance from their current position to the gas giant was roughly four astronomical units or four hundred and fifty million kilometers. After three hours and thirty five minutes the ship rendezvoused with the massive hydrogen planet designated Glos. The planet spun rapidly on its axis once every four and a half hours. The Sparta took up position in orbit – a speck against the vastness of the swirling red and yellow clouds below.

“Hydrogen skimming port
is open. Magnetic scoop field is active,” Kizzara said, glancing at the readouts. “Sparta is ready to descend five thousand kilometers.” The magnetic field that emanated from Sparta created a
conical
net
one kilometer in length and half a kilometer at its base. The field would collect tons of hydrogen as Sparta flew through the upper reaches of the gas giant. Within twenty minutes time, the fuel tanks that fed the jump drive would be completely full.

“Fill her up,” ordered Saephan.
With Kizzara pushing the control yoke forward, the ship began to descend into the upper atmosphere. Drag steadily increased on the spacecraft as the emptiness of space was rapidly replaced with a hydrogen atmosphere. The large Orvod was keeping track of two separate displays. Hasephrey watched as Sparta slowly
scooped
in a ton of hydrogen per minute from the upper atmosphere of the planet as the other display showed the Alliance Battle-cruiser in a parking orbit over Furnace.

“Engine room, increase speed
to flank—want to finish refueling ten percent faster.”

“Yes sir,”
replied Alix Rhose, third in command of the engineering section of the ship. There were no visuals, only audio. An amber circle of light appeared over the Alliance Battle-cruiser. It was moving its position above the planet.

“Computer, project trajectory of Alliance Battle-cruiser Agamemnon
on display.” Saephan wanted to know where it was heading. The computer displayed a green line showing the probable course of the enemy vessel. The path intersected directly over where Omega team had set down hours before – Long Junction.

“Raise
both ground teams on link. Apprise them of situation.” Saephan believed in being thorough.

Communication specialist Jalen Riehl spoke.
“Sir, we’re in stealth mode. Even with our tight beam links, it’s possible the Alliance could pick up our signal and figure out they’re not alone in this system.” At the glare the giant Orvod gave him, Jalen then attempted to contact Omega team for five minutes with no success.

“Sir, there’
s no answer,” said Jalen with exasperation edging his voice.

“Keep trying.” Saephan ordered.
Hasephrey put his thumbs and forefingers together into a triangle and stared at the ever changing display. He was deep in thought and the tattoo patterns on his bald head changed shape and colors frenetically. He spoke his thoughts where everyone on the bridge could hear him. “What is Alliance doing? Why position over inhabited structures on planet?” Agamemnon had angled her nose down, pointing at the surface of the planet.

“It’s possible they are too far below the surface of the planet. They are not equipped with quantum links
in their combat armor. If they’re over a kilometer deep, none of our signals will get through to them.” Jalen continued trying to raise Omega team on the secured link channel.

“Alliance battle-cruiser is engaging
its linear accelerator. Agamemnon is firing,” said the computer with an emotionless inflection. The linear accelerator on a capitol ship of the line has the destructive capabilities of a small tactical nuclear weapon…without the radiation.

“Ajura!
They’re targeting Long Junction!” Kizzara said with an alarmed edge to her voice. “We have to get our team out of there!”

“Calm yourself Evene. If Omega is deep inside planet, they are safe. If not…” Saephan did not want to state the obvious.
“Computer, monitor situation. If Alliance ship stops firing, changes target, or moves from current position, let me know.” He squared his massive shoulders and cracked his knuckles.

“Helm, bring ship about and plot trajectory to second planet
in system. If we can get close to Agamemnon a few well placed shots will cripple their engines. We don’t want them bombarding Platinum City, especially with Alpha team down there.” The Orvod’s tattoos began pulsing red and morphing to circular rotating patterns. “Engine room, set fusion core to maximum output and increase pulsar thrust to one hundred thirty percent.” He grimaced showing rows of sharp incisors. “Raise Captain Monroe and inform her of Alliance actions. Is possible that Platinum City will be attacked soon.”

“Sir, it will take
at least forty-five minutes to reach Furnace, even if we accelerate to maximum thrust velocity. We shouldn’t jeopardize our element of surprise by broadcasting on tight beam link to our ground parties.” Specialist Jalen wasn’t giving up…he wanted to convince the chief engineer that it was foolish to send comm signals from this distance.

“Hmm…
perhaps you are right. It
is
much too risky. Discontinue link transmissions.” Hasephrey’s gaze swept the CIC. “Pilot Kizzara, bring Sparta smartly right behind Agamemnon at your earliest convenience.” He began to walk to the aft part of the CIC. “I am returning to engineering deck to sweet-talk more power from engines. Kizzara, you have temporary command here. Contact me ten minutes before Sparta is in firing range of the Agamemnon.”

“Aye
, aye sir!” Kizzara’s hands flew over the holographic controls and the ship leapt at her commands. Hasephrey did not feel entirely comfortable being responsible for making life and death decisions. He felt sure of himself in engineering…surrounded by the machines he knew and loved. Taking the elevator down to deck four took only a few minutes and he met several crew members on his path. They were busy going about their duties and he didn’t talk to them. Inside engineering he quickly found Elizabeth Qian, Naunet Joubert and Merrick Dunne all performing their duties at the main control console.

“Technician’s
…let us see if we can’t coax antigravity thrusters to increase output one hundred and fifty percent.” He smiled at all of them. They knew that smile and they knew he was serious.

“Sir…is that even possible?” asked Elizabeth Qian. She queried with an incredulous look on her face.

“Is not possible if you don’t do
exactly
what I tell you!” laughed the Orvod. “Now come…Qian.” His eyes fell on Merrick Dunne. “Dunne, you too. I need both of you to help.” Saephan had expanded his micro tools that he always carried with him and was turning to the starboard part of the engineering deck…where the bulk of the antigravity pulsar engines were installed. Naunet Joubert looked stricken. “Sir…don’t you need my help?” Naunet was smaller than the other techs and the top of her head just barely came to the mid-point of Hasephrey’s chest.

“No…you stay and monitor gravimetric flux of thrusters at main console. Inform me if
readout exceeds one hundred and fifty-eight percent.”

“What happens if that happens?” she asked, not fully comprehending what he was planning on doing to the engines.
The Orvod’s head tattoo’s clashed with a mix of colors and patterns.

“Ship likely to explode…” He
paused a beat and looked at his subordinate expectantly.

“What? Are you kidding?" exclaimed Naunet incredulously.

“Hah! Yes, just joking,” Saephan said. “I want you at main console for manual shut down in case of error on my part. Nothing to worry about.” Saephan with Qian and Dunne in tow walked into the starboard engine compartment through the open iris door. With force spanner in hand, Saephan crouched at the antigravity engine pump and began to open up the main panel covering the machinery. He was at one end, and the techs were at the other end four meters distant from him. His muscles bulged as he worked to loosen the bolts. The multifold cover they were working on was made of durasteel plating and was exceedingly heavy. When all of the bolts were removed, he stood up.

“Now together we lift…
me at my end and both of you at your end,” He said. “Be careful!” The cover section lifted and they placed it on the corrugated metal floor with a heavy
clang
. The hum of machinery became louder. Saephan remembered Gavrul engineering school back on Hron and the faces of his friends as he first showed them how this trick was done. He could still hear their laughter and scorn at his claims.
How they didn’t believe
.

“What are you going to do?” asked Elizabeth Qian.
“What’s that yellow thing sitting on top of the main regulator? I don’t recognize it.” Dunne was silent but hung on every word, breathlessly waiting to find out what the great engineer had in mind.

“Yellow thing is
Supercharger
I installed before leaving DSD. Never finished…much like null field generator…” He kneeled down over the exposed machinery and used several of the micro-tools while Qian and Dunne looked on, taking notes. Within a few minutes he had performed the necessary adjustments and clasped his hands together. He felt the same satisfied pride he had back at Gavrul when the laughter had stopped.

“
There…is turned on,” he said with a smile as he activated his internal comm implant with a silent mental command. “Engineering technician first class Naunet Joubert…what is gravimetric flux readout showing?”

“
Instrumentation is showing one hundred fifty-four percent throughput readings on the flux, sir.”

“Excellent, that’s what is
shown here as well. So…let’s see if we can sneak up on Agamemnon faster now.” Hasephrey turned to return to the main engineering compartment. The multifold cover was lying on the deck and the exposed guts of the machinery were still exposed.

“Sir, why didn’t you perform this procedure when you first came back onboard?” asked Merrick Dunne. “Getting that kind of efficiency is just…well, it’s insane.”

Saephan looked at his subordinate human engineer with a glum expression. “Had many things on mind. Forgot. Am only Orvod after all.”

He began collapsing his tools and putting them back on
to the harness he wore. Qian and Dunne then helped him replace the multifold cover back over the antigravity engine housing. When the last bolt had been tightened, Saephan walked back to the main engineering compartment. As he did so, he instructed his comm implant to create a link to the CIC. Kizzara’s face appeared in front of him.

“Pilot Kizzara, increase
thrust output to one hundred and fifty four percent over maximum.”

“Sir?”
Kizzara answered in bewilderment. “Sparta
cannot
do that!”

“Just nudge
thrust controls forward a notch, a little bit at a time. You’ll see…” Saephan watched as Kizzara’s face broke out in a smile.

“Ajura!
Engines are increasing thrust beyond maximum…velocity is accelerating,” said Kizzara in jubilation. “Recalibration of time estimate shows us coming into firing range of Agamemnon in twenty-one minutes.”

“Good.
Perhaps enough time to keep them from attacking more outposts on the planet.” The Orvod seemed very pleased with himself.

“Computer, what is time needed for Agamemnon to maneuver to firing position over Platinum City?”

“Fifteen minutes thirty seven seconds,” answered the ship’s computer.

“Is the Agamemnon continuing to fire on Long Junction?”

“Yes, their mass accelerator main weapon has been firing continuously for the last two minutes.” The computer voice was calm – just stating facts.

“
We must allow Captain Monroe the opportunity to finish her mission.” Saephan turned to his subordinates as he wiped his hands on his uniform. “Alliance must not bombard Platinum City. We will disable Agamemnon with strike on engines and powerplant. Destroy perhaps. There is always possibility.” A gray smudge of grease was evident where his fingers had left a track. “I am headed back to CIC. Inform me if anything…
bad
…happens.”