Theogony 3: Terra Stands Alone (30 page)

Calvin knocked on the doorframe to the ship’s chapel, interrupting Father Zuhlsdorf who was cleaning up something on the altar. He looked up in surprise
to see Calvin standing in the doorway. “Come in, come in,” he invited. “Are you still struggling with who you are, and who you think you should be?”

“No,” Calvin said. “For the first time since the war with China,
I think I’m finally at peace with myself; my problem today is more of a physical nature.”

“Yes?” Father Zuhlsdorf asked.
“What is it?”

“We are about to try to capture a replicator and
a ship from the Drakuls,” Calvin replied; “however, the platoon is a little thin. Heck, we’d be a little thin if we tried to do this with a full battalion; the ship alone is over two miles long. On our last mission, you helped out in combat against the coatls...I wanted to ask if you’d consider coming with us to help out with the assault. We need everyone we can get.”

“The Lord
works in mysterious ways,” said Father Zuhlsdorf. “I was due to be replaced prior to this cruise, but the replacement chaplain ended up with an appendicitis and was delayed. As it turns out, I still have all of my gear onboard. I can be ready in 15 minutes.”

“OK,” said Lieutenant Phil ‘Venturi’ Ventura, the shuttle’s WSO, “that’s the plan. We fly down, try to avoid detection for as long as possible and then land in this valley 12 miles outside the capital city. Lieutenant Finn will egress and place the bomb
, while the security team provides cover from any wandering Drakuls in the area. Surveillance shows the area to be clear, but we’re still a long way off. Once the bomb is set, Lieutenant Finn will call for egress, and everyone will board the shuttle. At that point, it is up to Boom Boom, I mean Lieutenant Sean Ventura, the pilot for the mission, and I to get us safely back to our rendezvous with the
Vella Gulf
. Once we’re outside the blast radius, you can detonate the weapon. Any questions?”

“Do we know anything about their defenses?” asked Boom Boom
. Although an aviator, he had picked up his call sign in Afghanistan on a detached duty. The locals started calling him “Boom, Boom” after the sounds his boots made as he ran across the roofs of buildings, trying to chase down mujahedeen infiltrators.

“Yeah,” said Venturi, “I just got the download from Intel. It looks like the Drakuls are there to stay. They have set up a planetary defense center as well as several orbital command posts.
They’ve also got a shitload of missiles, lasers and other defenses. Intel didn’t know if the orbital command posts would be able to penetrate our stealth shield. They didn’t think so, for what it’s worth.”

“
That’s great,” Boom Boom said with a snort. “I feel safer already.”

“
Yeah, no kidding,” Venturi agreed. “Regardless, we won’t know until we get there. If we lose the stealth module, it’s going to take a great crew to get the shuttle down in one piece. Don’t worry, though. We’re the best. If anyone can do it, we can.”

“For our part,” Corporal
Craig Cuillard said, “we may not be quite as good as the Terran operators at special forces missions.”

“We may not have all of the experience that the rest of the unit has,” said Corporal
John Stump.

“But we
can
do this,” said Corporal Weldon Owens. “We
will
keep the Drakuls off of you long enough to get the bomb set up, and for us to get back in to the shuttle. If you can get us down, we’ll do the rest.”

“We’ll be ready in two minutes,” Master Chief said, scanning the controlled chaos that was the platoon’s
gear room. Similar to a sports team’s locker room, each of the soldiers had a cubicle in which to store his or her combat gear.

“
You recommended moving Sergeant Zoromski up to replace Master Gunnery Sergeant Kinkead?” Calvin asked.

“Yeah,” said Master Chief, “I d
id. He’s the senior person in the Ground Force now that Staff Sergeant Randolph’s been detached to the other squad.”

“Everyone’s talking about me like I’m dead,” said Master Gunnery Sergeant Kinkead from the door
way. “Is there some reason you’re giving away my spot when it’s obvious the troops need my leadership so desperately?”

“Besides the broken ribs and other various injuries that have the medibot saying that you
’re confined to your quarters?” asked Calvin.

“It sounds like this is
pretty much an ‘all hands on deck’ effort,” Kinkead said. “I’m a hand, and I’m on deck. I’m coming.”

“Well, there’s no doubt that we need your leadership,” agreed Calvin, ducking as one of the Xanths glided by.

The Xanths looked like smaller versions of Earth’s prehistoric pteranodon, with leathery wings and skin, although they didn’t have the pteranodon’s crest. They stood slightly less than three feet tall, with wingspans just under 10 feet. The Xanth landed at the cubicle the three of them were sharing, Staff Sergeant Burke’s. They were going to wear an oxygen mask in the assault shuttle, but would take it off once they made it onboard the replicator so they could fly.

The two Depsips were standing at the lockers of the two medics. Each was
large enough to need a locker to itself. No suit ever made could contain the spidery Depsips; they would also wear specially-made masks in the shuttle.

What a mess, though
t Calvin, who didn’t feel like he knew enough about all of the aliens to command them in battle. Although he had talked with the Xanths and the Depsips for a few minutes, he barely understood their capabilities and limitations. He knew he couldn’t count on the Hooolongs for combat support. While the race had once been warlike, that time was centuries past. They promised to operate the ship’s systems if he could get them onboard, but driving the creatures along in their inchworm-like pace was somewhat like trying to herd cats. They were slower than cats, but more prone to stopping and looking at something suddenly. Just watching them ‘walk’ was disconcerting. At least all of them had implants so they could talk to each other. He had the platoon on one frequency and the extraterrestrials on a separate frequency so they didn’t compromise the combat capabilities of the squad.

Hearing a whirring sound, Calvin turned to find Bob ‘Danger’ Jones, the combat cameraman, filming their preparations.
He was using a digital 3D camera, so there was no need for the noise. Danger just liked the sound because hearing it made him feel like an old-time war correspondent. He was dressed in combat gear, although Calvin didn’t see a weapon on him. “Hi, Bob,” Calvin said to the combat cameraman. “As you can see, we’re a little thin today. Any chance of getting you to be more ‘combat’ and less ‘cameraman’ today?”

“I guess I can,” said
Jones, with his award-winning smile, “especially if it’s what’s needed to get the story back to my public.”

“Good,” replied Calvin. “Go see Master Chief and have him issue you a laser rifle.”

“Hey, uh, sir,” Jones said, putting out a hand to stop Calvin as he turned to leave, “I’ve always been more of an explosives kind of guy. Can I get one of those tridents instead? That way, I don’t have to be quite as accurate.”

“That’s fine,” agreed Calvin
. “Just don’t shoot it near me.”

“Both shuttles launching,” said the communications officer.

“Roger, both shuttles launching,” Captain Sheppard repeated. “Good luck, boys and girls...”

* * * * *

“A little further to the right,” Azrael said, pointing. “See that hatch? That’s where we want to go.”

“Got it,” said the pilot, Lieutenant Rob ‘Thing 1’ Mees, “Couldn’t pick an easy one, huh?” The hatch was in a recessed area where it would be hard for the pilot to ‘hover’ the shuttle.

“Nice and easy,”
advised his WSO and cousin, Lieutenant Paul ‘Thing 2’ Mees. “It’s just like the third simulator flight in flight school.”

“Yeah, except that the simulator flight didn’t have live Drakuls that would come pouring out to shoot at you if you clanged the shuttle into it,” replied
Thing 1. He worked a couple of minor corrections into the controls. “OK, this is as close as I can get. Send them in.”

Thing 2
pushed the button to put down the ramp. He could see from the camera that Thing 1 was holding the shuttle less than a foot above the replicator, despite his earlier comment. “
Gluck ab!
” he commed to the troops as they stepped down onto their objective.

“
Shit!” said Venturi. “I don’t know how they did it, but they’re onto us.” He paused, looking at his scope. “Yeah, they definitely know we’re here. All of their command posts just went on high alert. I’ve got missile systems warming up in orbit and on the planet.”

“
Hold on in back,
” commed Boom Boom to the troops in the cargo bay. “
It’s going to get rough.
” He began a series of evasive maneuvers as he pushed the nose of the craft down toward the planet to hasten their descent.

“
At this rate, we’re going to exceed the recommended heat limits on the nose of the shuttle,” said Venturi.

“Yes, we are,”
agreed Boom Boom, “probably by quite a lot.” He jerked the shuttle to the left. “If I can get us down and back in one piece, though,” he said, “they can bill me.” In counterpoint, a laser beam from one of the orbital defense stations flashed through the space he had just vacated.

Within seconds, more lasers
were firing, and it wasn’t long before the ground lasers began firing as well. The shuttle took a glancing blow from one of the large orbital lasers, and their stealth module failed.

“We’re visible,” said Venturi. “On the good side, the stealth module absorbed some of that last
shot, so we took less damage. On the not-so-good side, you’re now going to have to fly the shit out of this thing.”

“No
kidding,” Boom Boom grunted as he wrenched the shuttle around to the right.

“
Let’s go, ladies,
” growled Master Chief, using his suit to look behind him while he ran. “
Try and keep up.
” Tasked with capturing the dreadnought, his squad was sprinting toward the replicator’s docking tube to the warship. At least he didn’t have the worms slowing him down. The only aliens that had been added to his squad were the three flying ones, and they could keep up, even if they were hard to control since they didn’t have suits on. The high ceilings were helpful for one thing; they gave the Xanths room to fly above the middle of the squad, since they were too small and light to be good shock troops. Of course, the pain in the ass photographer had also been added to his squad, but at least he could keep up. So far.

Wraith had the lead, with the two kuji in close pursuit. Although they had other failings,
when they put their heads down, they could run for long periods. Master Chief was right behind the kuji, and the rest of the platoon was spread out behind them. The two that worried him the most were the squad’s cyborgs, Staff Sergeant Dantone and Staff Sergeant Randolph, who had been added to his squad for the assault. Built more for combat power than speed, they kept falling further back.

Before he could order a halt, Wraith rounded a corner and
ran headlong into a Drakul that was approaching from the other direction. Running with their heads down, the kuji ran full speed into her, tripping and going face first into the rest of the Drakuls that were spread out across the passageway. There were five Drakuls returning from some errand or work detail.

“
Contact!
” Master Chief called, drawing up short of Wraith. His laser rifle was already in transit to the firing position as the rest of the squad started to bunch up behind him.

Lords of their domain, the Drakuls had no need for weapons and were unarmed. Although they initially drew back
slightly in surprise from the invisible creatures that ran into them, they immediately began moving forward again, and the Drakul in the front reached down to grab Wraith. Lying back on her hands and feet, she spider-crawled away from its grasp. Before it could grab her, Bob, one of the kuji, leapt forward. Too close for his rifle, the miniature tyrannosaurus rex had several rows of sharp teeth inside his mouth that he could use, and he clamped his jaws shut on the Drakul’s forearm. The Drakul roared in pain.

Master Chief shot the closest
Drakul to him between the eyes, momentarily blocking the passageway. As the Drakuls behind it pushed the slumping Drakul out of the way, the three Xanths flew overhead, screeching their hatred. Although they blocked the firing lines of some of the back members of the squad, the Xanths had great angles of their own, which they used to shoot the other Drakuls that were in the back of the pack. They only had laser pistols, but they also had great aim. All three were down before they could get close to the Terrans.

The last Drakul continued to roar as it swung
the invisible kuji back and forth at the end of his wrist. Bob’s teeth shredded the skin and meat at the end of the Drakul’s arm as Bob was thrown from side to side. Seeing the impact Bob was having, Doug leapt forward, fastening his teeth on the other forearm of the Drakul. The weight of the second kuji overbalanced the Drakul, and it was pulled forward.

Feeling itself drawn
down, the Drakul leaned forward to bite whatever had fastened itself to its arm. It opened its mouth, but only got a mouthful of Wraith’s laser rifle as she jammed it between its jaws and pulled the trigger. The laser fired, the bolt frying the roof of the Drakul’s mouth and continuing upward to boil its brain. The Drakul twitched a couple of times before falling forward, dead.

Bob spit out the arm he had been chewing on and then
vomited out several pieces of flesh in a blue spray onto the dead body. “That is the
worst
thing I’ve ever tasted!” said Bob, who was known to like everything, even the
Vella Gulf’s
version of food. “That’s even worse than swamp rat.”

“Nothing’s worse than swamp rat,” Doug replied. He spit out a piece of Drakul flesh.
“Bleh. Except Drakul.”

“If you
two food critics are done,” Master Chief said, “we still have a ship to capture. Wraith, if you’re OK, lead on.”