Solbidyum Wars Saga 4: Too Late for Earth (23 page)

“I’ll alert the security team to the details.”  Marranalis replied.  “Hangar bay in one hour?”

“Right I replied.”

An hour later I was in the hangar bay with Marranalis and my security teams as they boarded transports to the surface.  The fighters had already disembarked and were occupying space around the crater.  As my men were boarding the ship, I noticed one individual that was smaller than the rest with two very conspicuous swords strapped to their back.  I reached out and grabbed the shoulder.  “And just where do you think you are going, Jenira?”  I asked.

Immediately Jenira turned to face me with a determined look on her face.  “You need me down there,” she signed rapidly.

“For what exactly?  What single service can you provide that my team of 90 men can’t?”

Jenira hung her head a moment and then looked up and signed, “I need to go to protect you.”

“No, you need to stay here with Kala and protect her.  I have a small army with me to protect me, plus I am wearing body armor and have a cloaking device.  There is little chance of me being harmed.  Now please go back and stay with Kala.”

I could see Jenira’s face redden and I thought for a minute she was going to argue with me more, but she slowly turned and went to the airlock and back into the ship.

“I’m glad she’s not going, Tibby, but I have to admit I admire her spirit and determination,” Marranalis commented.

Our trip to the surface was uneventful.  A’Lappe had located what he believed was an airlock at one location on the crater, and even from our location in orbit we could see what looked like footprints in the lunar surface where men had come and gone into the side of the crater.  There was a much larger space and door in another area of the crater that looked to be a landing zone.  A larger door cut into the crater wall that we assumed was a hangar for small shuttles.  We had decided not to try to gain entry there as it was too obvious a location.  We arranged with three of our Mirage Fighters to uncloak and hover above the landing pad about the time we landed near the door we planned to use for entry.  As we were setting down outside the crater rim we hoped that the occupants of the base would not be able to see our ship and that they would be focused on the fighters over the landing area.

The Mirage Fighters no sooner emerged from their cloaking, than Stonbersa’s voice came through the speakers in my helmet.  “Tibby, they are arming some weapon system to use against the fighters. It appears to be some sort of laser weapon system.”

“Thanks for the information, Commodore.  I think our fighters’ armor will be able to absorb their energy with no danger.”  Just as I was saying this, we could see flashes of light shoot up at the fighters, hitting them, but doing no damage.  Had the lasers the Chinese were using been of the type and strength of those used by the Federation it would have been another matter.  I found myself wishing we had a way to power RMFF shields for the fighters but A’Lappe had still not been able to figure that out.

“”I’ve located the airlock,” Marranalis said.  “It looks to be a very simple manual device to open the door.”

“I’m hoping the chamber inside is depressurized or it’s going to be very dangerous to try to open.”  I said.

“No problem there Tibby, we’ll burn a hole in the door; if it’s pressurized on the other side the air will rush out through the hole until pressure is equalized and we can open it safely.  Once inside we can close the door again and use a quick sealing tab to patch the hole and pressurize the airlock.  That’s assuming they have controls in the airlock to pressurize, and that the controls are not in an adjacent room.”

A few seconds later, with a hole in the door and no air escaping, one of Marranalis men opened the door and entered the airlock.

“We’re in luck.” He announced, “The controls are in here.  The airlock is large enough to handle about 15 men at a time, so it’s going to take six turns to get everyone inside.”

“We need to move quickly.  I suspect there will be at least a few guards nearby and we need to secure this airlock for our continued use once we are in.  I suspect that our opening this lock has already triggered an alarm someplace and armed men are rushing to this area, so let’s move in quickly.”

Marranalis signaled to his man inside, who along with 14 other men, closed the airlock and cloaked before opening the inner door.  From there they sent a drone into the next chamber.  No sooner had the drone entered the room than we got a report back from the group leader.  “Our drone has been shot down by multiple fires from several sources. I’m sending three cloaked men to find and neutralize the sources of fire.”

All was silent for a few minutes and then his voice came back.  “Area secure-- we have cleared the airlock, second team may enter now”.  Marranalis and I entered with a part of the second group of 15, and moments later we found ourselves inside what seemed to be some type of storage area/laboratory.  “Send out another drone,” Marranalis ordered.

The second probe made it about 200 meters before it encountered anyone.  This time we saw three men moving somewhat stealthily toward the drone while looking back frequently.  When they saw the drone, they dropped their weapons and raised their hands.  My security team immediately moved forward to take the men prisoners.  “Please, get us out of here quickly,” one man said as he kept looking back over his shoulder.  “Ming will have us killed if he finds we have surrendered.”

“How many people are here on this base?”  Marranalis questioned.

“There are only 113 of us left.”  Just 20 are loyal to Ming, the rest of us just want to get away.  This place is hell.  Ming is the devil.  Please take us away.”  The man appeared to be terrified as tears were running down his face.  I looked at his companions and saw they were trembling and crying also.  As I examined them, it was obvious that these men were suffering from malnutrition.”

“Take these two men back to the shuttle and have them guarded,” Marranalis said to two of our troops.  “I need you to come with us.” He said to the third man.

The third man began shaking and crying… “Please, no, please, I’ll go with the others.  Please.   I don’t want to die.  Please… he will kill me!”

From down the hall sounds could be heard of men running.  Marranalis pulled the prisoner to the side out of sight, and quickly our team cloaked.  I heard a gasp from our prisoner in surprise as we vanished.  Moments later five armed men came rushing in, and seeing the prisoner, began shouting at him.

“What are you doing?  Where is your weapon… why are you there looking so terrified?  Ming will have your liver, coward!”  The speaker suddenly stopped in shocked surprise as members of our security team began uncloaking around the five armed lunar soldiers.  Seeing they were surrounded by 15 armed men each with a weapon pointing at them, the five quickly dropped their weapons and surrendered.

“Restrain them and take them to the shuttle.” Marranalis said to one of his men.

By now all the assault team was inside the lunar base and lined up ready for an all-out assault.

“I need you to take us to Ming.”  I said to the one man we were still holding prisoner.

“I, I can’t.”  The man trembled and cried.

“Yes, you can.  We’ll see to it no harm comes to you.”  I answered.

“But I can’t.  I’m not allowed near Ming.  His guards will kill me before I can get inside his chambers.  Even if I did, Yǎnjìngshé would kill me as soon as I entered the room.  You will never be able to get to Ming.  Please, please send me with the others.  Take one of the other men whom you just captured.  Their leader can take you to Ming.”

“Does he have access to Ming?”  I asked.

“Yes, yes… he is one of Ming’s lieutenants; he can get you in.”

Marranalis quickly called to the team removing the prisoners and had their leader brought back to us.  I noticed as they brought him in that he appeared in better health than the others and looked to have been well fed.

“You will take us to Ming!”  I said.

“Ha, you’ll never get close to the Emperor.”  He sneered.

“Emperor!  Ming thinks he is an Emperor?”  I probed.

“He is the Almighty Ming!”  You will see.

“Take me to him.  NOW!”  I shoved the man away from me.  He looked at me a moment, weighing his fears, then he turned stiffly and began leading us down a long corridor that slanted deeper under the Moon’s surface.

I motioned to two of my men to come up close to me while we followed our captive guide. “Cloak and race on ahead of me and make sure we are not headed into an ambush.”  Instantly the two vanished. The width of the hall was sufficient to allow my men to pass our guide, and though they didn’t touch him, he reacted as he sensed their passing, either by sound or by air movements; he appeared disoriented for a moment but then continued on.  Moments later the corridor turned, and we found two of his fellow guards lying on the floor unconscious.  Our guide gasped when he saw them. It was evident that he had expected to see us ambushed by them and not to find them as we did.  Further down the hall and around another turn we found two more guards laid out on the floor.  Finally, we arrived at two large doors where two of my team stood guard, while at their feet two more unconscious Chinese guards were lying.

One of my troopers said, “Do you wish us to enter, or send in a drone?”

“Open the doors and send in a drone; I’m curious to see what happens.”  I responded.

One of the men opened a door and our small drone flew in.  From outside the room we could see what was going on inside, displayed on a vid screen attached to the back of one of my men.  Inside about a dozen men stood guard around a golden throne on which a man, better fed than any I had witnessed since landing on the Moon, sat.  When I say better fed, I mean he not only appeared to have been better fed, he was by any standard overweight; not to the extreme, but definitely overweight when compared to everyone else on the Moon, or even the Mars colony. On his right side stood a woman with an appealing figure and a porcelain ivory complexion, but while she had very attractive features, there was a cold and cruel look on her face.  She and Ming stared at the drone a moment before the guards by Ming’s throne shot it down.

“It looks as though Ming isn’t in the mood to receive visitors today,” I said.

“What do you suggest we do, Tibby?”  One of my lieutenants asked.

“I think we need to knock a little harder.  Toss in a few flash-bang grenades; see if that makes them more receptive.” Flash bang grenades in the Federation were more evolved than those of Earth in my day.  In addition to a deafening and disorienting bang and a blinding flash of light, the Federation grenades also emitted a paralyzing nerve gas that caused anyone who breathed it in the first minute to lose all muscular control for several minutes. The gas was more effective than tear gas and disabled without causing physical distress.  After one minute the gas broke down quickly, and anyone who inhaled it would not be affected.  Those who did inhale it suffered its effects for about eight minutes, during which time they were fairly helpless.  My men opened the door a little and two men quickly tossed the grenades inside.   There were some muffled shouts just seconds before the grenades exploded; the force of the explosion caused the doors to the room to swing open for a second before they immediately swung shut again.  In that brief second we were momentarily blinded by the flash though the condition only lasted a few seconds for us, as we only caught its reflection.  During the minute we waited for the gas to dissipate, we could hear moaning inside the room.

I nodded, and motioned to my men; they quickly rushed into the room isolating and immobilizing all the guards nearest the door.  The remainder found themselves staring at several guns aimed at them as their vision slowly returned.

“Guards... kill these intruders!” Ming mumbled as he sprawled helplessly on the floor as he saw us enter.  But none of them made any attempt to follow his orders, as most had dropped their weapons when the grenade when off and they were still trying to get up off the floor with no muscle control.  Ming was trying to crawl back into his chair as the effects of the gas began wearing off and he was struggling to get himself fully seated again but with little success.

“How dare you enter my throne room without invitation or order?”  Ming said pathetically.  I nearly laughed at his comical appearance as he tried to look commanding and dignified, but the effects of the gas still had him slumping and he could not get his head erect and it rolled about his shoulders like the head of a new born infant.

“Frankly, Ming, I could care less about an invitation.  From what I have seen so far, this is not a kingdom-- it’s slavery, and you’re a despot, and I have no regard for either. Now if you will cut out the crap, I have an offer to make you.”

“Why should I deal with you, after you destroyed the Earth by pushing the asteroid into the it.  I would have conquered all of it if you had not destroyed it!”  Ming sneered.

“Wait... What do you mean if I had not pushed the asteroid into the Earth?  You think WE did it?”

“Who else but you could have done so?  We have seen your ships return here many times to observe the damage you have done, and we have watched you seeding the fire and smoke on Earth with something to reduce the toxic elements to make it habitable once more.”

“What?  Someone has been coming here since the asteroid hit Earth, and they didn’t try to rescue you?”