SODIUM:4 Gravity (11 page)

As we sat on station observing our foe, nearly two months had passed. The alien fleet continued to sit idle with the only activity being a number of fighters on patrol. During our daily discussion Randy spoke of how much enjoyment he would derive by being aboard one of the alien ships in our new BGS. I switched on my QE comm and made the suggestion to Command. To my surprise the order came back to use my discretion.

We talked out the possibilities of getting on-board. We could not drift with our ship as the aliens knew how to detect us. Shepard soon came up with a solution. We would fly our GAF in the direction of the Moon where I would exit the rear door and begin to drift.

She had worked out the calculations and angles needed for me to use the Moon's gravitational pull to slingshot around towards the alien fleet in my BGS. It would take 22 hours of drifting in space to reach our foe. I would only use my glove hand BHD when I had arrived at the alien fleet, to stop my forward progress.

There was one big drawback to Shepard's plan. If I missed passing through one of the big ships I would have to continue drifting for five days before I could be safely picked up. I didn't hesitate to punch in the waypoint numbers and set the speed of our GAF to that which Shepard had derived.

I then rose from my chair and changed out my power, food and filter packs. I took a second full power pack and slid it into a zippered pocket on my right thigh. Shepard did a thorough scan of my suit and weapon as a last check of preparedness. Both were in perfect order.

I turned command over to Shepard and moved to the rear hatch. A low buzzing sound on the holo-display told us when the time had come. The active skin of the ship shut down, the hatch opened and I stepped out into the void of space without a tether. As the rear hatch closed I looked longingly at my team and at my ship disappearing when the active skin re-enabled.

The hours floating seemed endless as I watched a counter ticking down on my helmet display. But the lonely hours soon passed. I could feel the pull of the Moon's gravity with the active skin of my BGS set at its lowest level, where mass and inertia still had an effect.

When I rounded the Moon an alert flashed in my helmet display that it was time to set my active skin to full. I now had 17 hours to drift before reaching the fleet. I entered seven hours of sleep into my suit parameters and was soon unconscious.

When the stimulants kicked in I was wide awake in seconds. I had ten long hours left to contemplate my existence. I thought of my grandfather and how he and my parents were now safe from the invaders. I thought of what I might do when I reached my target. I wondered what carnage I could bring forth when face to face with our enemy.

I then thought of Zack and what being in his arms might feel like. The hours passed quickly as I drifted and dreamed. The counter ticked down and I soon had a visual of the enemy fleet. As I floated ever closer I began to get nervous about what might come.

Would I somehow be detected and crushed before reaching my target? Would I be captured and the BGS and QE comm technology compromised? Would I float inside one of the ships and then freeze up not knowing what to do? The questions kept coming as my anxiety level rose.

I prayed hard for the strength and determination to perform to the best of my abilities. The ships were immense and crowded with the enemy and I was but one soldier. I determined that I was aligned with the lone cruiser as its dark gray outer walls quickly approached.

I passed through into the interior which was lit brightly with the bright green color of seawater. I was in a giant hangar that had row after row of the small alien craft floating at the ready. The occasional squid swam past on their way to perform some daily task. I continued to drift inward towards a bulkhead and whatever may lie beyond.

As I looked about there were sub-tugs pulling long chains of containers. There were workers moving about and there were thousands and thousands of the alien fighting craft. I was then startled when a squid swam through me from behind swimming in the same direction as I drifted.

It was a graceful animal in its habitat and its bright green skin and brown spots gave it a friendly if not cartoonish appearance. I wondered if our foe could one day be our friend. I wondered if they could be persuaded to leave in peace. I then patched my QE comm through to Command and back to Shepard on-board our GAF.

I sent a message requesting a download to my suit computer of the latest translation work from our linguistics specialist. I had no intention of talking to the enemy, but I wanted to be prepared if I needed to know what they were saying. When the download was complete I switched on a passive audio sensor and listened for any sounds in the waters around me.

I was soon enthralled at attempting to discern the meaning of a broken conversation by two squids as I drifted nearby. They were talking of battle and of the wonders they had seen. They talked of the richness of our oceans. I imagined it was much like a conversation our own troops might have had if the rolls of our species had been reversed.

As I passed into and through the first bulkhead I was startled at what lay beyond, thousands upon thousands of sleeping squid. They were bunched together in pods of more than a dozen each. I had the sudden urge to start blasting, but I thought the intel being sent to Command over my video link might be a better use of my time.

I soon came to another bulkhead and when I passed through I came into an aquarium teaming with sea-life from our oceans. I then had no doubt that they were studying our planet for occupation. Once through the aquarium the next section was set up for industrial work. The squids in this chamber moved about carrying materials and assembling the beginnings of what looked like more of the skimmers they had used in their assaults.

The chamber that followed had aquarium after aquarium of strange sea creatures and kelp like forests. The creatures appeared to be two distinct types of fish. One moved slow and was fat with big bulging eyes while the other, eel-like in appearance, squirmed about in massive pods darting from one location to another.

As I watched, a bale of the kelp plants was released among the eels followed by a pod of eels being released among the slow fat fish. I reasoned that I was witness to the alien's food chain where the fat fish would soon be made into meals for the squid masses.

When I then floated through a bulkhead to the next chamber I was aghast at what moved into my view. Row after row of glass bubbles lined the walls of this chamber and in each bubble was a human. My psyche was again shaken when one of the human captives moved.

I was now faced with a dilemma. If I was to start blasting squids would they retaliate against their captives? And, if I were to reach the inner workings of the reactor core of the cruiser would I have the nerve to try to destroy it knowing these men and women would perish by my hand?

In a moment of panic I verbally asked the question of Command "What should I do?" Until that moment my communications with Command had been digital texts silently sent across the QE comm. But, my voice was anything but silent and soon drew the attention of every squid scientist in the chamber.

They were soon swimming circles around my location while looking at what appeared to be electronic gadgets of some sort. One of them uttered a word that I could only imagine was an expletive as they all turned at once and fled.

With my cover blown I enabled my BHD and headed towards what I expected to be the center of the ship. After a short BHD micro-burst I again drifted silently, now in a new direction. The next chamber was a corridor with yellow lights flashing on the walls in either direction. Groups of squids swam quickly past carrying some type of small arms weapons. I was sure they were being scrambled to the research lab to deal with my detection.

I drifted through the wall of the next chamber and again encountered something unexpected. It was a large room filled with air. I checked my sensors and it was breathable, but with high levels of sulfur. The smell would be repulsive like the volcanic steam vents found on Earth, but it was breathable none the less.

A humanoid type alien then entered the room with five smaller but similar creatures in tow. It was over two meters in height with a yellow scaly skin and six bright white eyes. The smaller creatures hopped and shoved and squealed at one another in a high pitched tone. It was evident they were offspring of the larger creature.

The yellow humanoid had an anxious appearance to it as if worried. My conscious thoughts told me that it indeed should be worried, worried that its life was at an end, worried that its children would not survive the wrath of the intruder that had infiltrated their ship.

As I looked around the room it appeared to be opulent, adorned with shiny bobbles and soft cloths. The humanoid was dressed in bright red apparel. Its long shining golden hair protruded from the multitudes of bumpy nodules on its head. The adult then herded the youngsters into a corner area, sat in a blue chair and looked downward at them.

Two more of its kind then entered the room. They had a gruff appearance to them that spoke of soldiering. Each had a bright blue uniform and carried a weapon in their hands. A gold belt that stretched from the right shoulder down around the left waist was adorned with what looked like medals on the chest. The belt held several shiny hand weapons at hip level that looked ornamental but sharp and deadly.

The humanoids then spoke in a language unlike that of the squids. The verbal sounds were guttural, made with grunts and hisses. I soon passed through the room and into another corridor, again filled with sulfur filled breathable air.

The corridor was occupied by several more of the humanoid soldiers and a squad of squids with the bubble helmets stood at attention in front of them. The soldiers were busily barking orders at their bright green underlings.

I drifted through the next wall into a much larger room about the size of a school gymnasium, rows of displays filled the room with light and beeps and buzzes with sound. The displays were manned by helmeted squids as a dozen humanoid taskmasters walked about pointing and giving commands.

As I drifted a voice soon came over the QE comm from Command telling me to open fire. Our Tacticians and Battle Planners had determined the room to be a vital target. I immediately let loose with a gravity pulse gun in one hand and a small coil gun in the other.

Debris began to fly in every direction as pellets from the coil gun ripped through their targets. The gravity pulse weapon smashed into the countless terminals sending squid bodies high into the air of the simulated gravity aboard the alien cruiser.

Only seconds after my assault began it came to a quick end. The alien cruiser began to move sending me backwards through one bulkhead after another. I contained my firing just as the ship moved out away from me, leaving me floating in the dead of space.

The cruiser was followed by the remaining alien fleet and was headed back towards Earth. Ten minutes after I had begun my assault, the alien fleet screamed downward through Earth's atmosphere, stopping just short of the ground near Jackson, Mississippi.

I watched the tactical screen on my helmet display as I aimed my BHD glove back towards Earth and began the long journey home. I was soon met by my team and brought back aboard our GAF. We were heading back into battle.

The guns at Jackson were overwhelmed by the thousands of alien fighters. The alien mega-ship, cruiser and two destroyers unloaded their cargoes and the squids once again began their ground assaults.

More than 200,000 skimmers moved outward from the ruins of Jackson and soon turned northward. The more than 5,000 remaining alien fighters were backed up by another 5,000 from the alien mega-ship. As the fleet began its move northward the mega-ship used its long range capability to take out our coil gun emplacements half a state away.

Again, everything human was smashed and destroyed as the aliens advanced. This time the cruiser and destroyers joined in the fight. Their long range weapons taking out coil gun emplacements to either side of the advancing army.

I accelerated to full and soon came down over east Alabama near my grandfather's farm. The aliens were a state away and moving northward. We were told to join an air-wing of 72 fighters in the ruins of Atlanta and await orders. Again, I had difficulty holding back the urge to race into battle.

As the alien fleet annihilated everything in its path, two dozen green blips appeared on our tactical screen. They were racing towards the alien fleet. Just as suddenly as the blips had appeared they went silent. The mega-ship hovering just above and behind the ground assault was taking out every threat moving in its direction.

The advancing army stopped just short of a now flattened Tupelo, Mississippi. The mega-ship moved up to 50,000 meters and began firing its ultra-powerful gravity weapon to the southwest. Within an hour Birmingham, Alabama lay in ruin from a weapon fired from nearly 250 kilometers away.

Word soon came from Memphis of a similar attack. On our tactical screens the alien ground forces were dispersing to the east and the west forming a skirmish line. Soon after Memphis lay in ruin the alien assault resumed its trek northward crushing everything in its path.

The alien cruiser and 14 alien carriers moved in tandem with the mega-ship from the center of the skirmish line. The two destroyers took up position near the line ends and were firing their gravity weapons continuously destroying everything for 50 kilometers out to either side. The thousands of circling fighters were flying cover for the advancing force.

We then received orders to move all Defenders and GAFs to Indianapolis. As we lifted off I took note of other activity on our tactical screens. The Tacticians and Battle Planners were attempting to use the same stealth nuke strategy that had been used at Martinsdale.

The stealth nukes were being placed every 20 kilometers in a line stretching from Jonesboro, Arkansas to Dyersburg, Tennessee. Evacuations were well underway. When we arrived at Indianapolis we were joined by a force of more than 400 Defenders and 12 GAFs.