War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past (13 page)

Armino glanced down at his watch and read
7:55 a.m. The rest of the men would be arriving very shortly, so he
made his way to the ramp of the ship to await them. Once the last
race had boarded he started to talk.

"Alright guys, it's time. I've checked
everything on the ship and it's all good. I want you guys to focus
on the mission at hand while we're traveling to Plouton," He
pointed at Donnchadh. "You're going to be my co-pilot today."

"Ahhh come on Armino! Can't you give me a
break?" he joked.

"Stop your whining and get up here," he
ordered. "Everyone else, do whatever you think you need to do to be
prepared. When we land you need to be ready to go within seconds,
so don't get too comfortable."

The men all nodded and dispersed throughout
the spacious ship. Donnchadh walked up to Armino and stood next to
him.

"Don't you ever do that again Donnchadh,"
Armino sat in his seat. "You've gotten to lose with me."

"What?" Donnchadh asked.

Armino turned around. "Your attitude needs to
change in front of all the men. I know you're just playing, but I
can't know if
they
know that. I don't want them to think
questioning their leader is okay."

Donnchadh put his hand to his forehead. "Sir,
yes sir."

Armino held his frustration in. "Let's start
up the engines, slowly."

Armino and Donnchadh started pulling levers
and pressing buttons, making the engines roar to life. Armino
pushed the yoke forward and the ship moved towards the exit of the
bay and off of Hera.

"Set Plouton as our destination and initiate
Sonodrive," he ordered Donnchadh.

"On it." Donnchadh pulled up a holomap and
picked out Plouton.

"I have an alert set that will tell us when
we're fifteen minutes from Plouton. When it goes off, we're going
to apply the stealth field. No one will ever see us coming, or
leaving," Armino informed Donnchadh.

"Alright," He leaned back in his seat. "I'm
just going to wait here until we get to Plouton, just in case
something goes wrong."

Armino nodded in approval. "I am too. I'm
anxious and I can't wait to get this mission over with."

He shut his eyes and reclined back in his
chair, knowing it would be a longer trip than usual. He had never
paid attention to how long the jumps took, but guessed this one
would be a little longer than usual since Plouton was on the outer
edges. His nervousness was gnawing away at him, he hadn't been this
nervous on a mission since his first in the GSOU. He had also never
gone on a mission with little to no information, or with the
responsibility eighteen lives. The two felt like a very bad
combination to him, but his options were limited.

Armino jumped awake to a rapid beeping noise
coming from his warning dash. He quickly straightened in his seat
and let out a sigh of relief when he saw it was just the alert that
he had set to warn him Plouton was closing in. He applied the
stealth field and waited patiently.

The ship exited Sonodrive with a big lurch
and he knew that that would alert all of the men that they'd
arrived at Plouton. He saw Donnchadh wake up in the chair next to
him through the corner of his eyes and glanced over.

"You ready to go to work?"

Donnchadh raised his eyebrows. "I've been
ready since we left."

"Good," Armino said. "Apply thrusters to max
power. We're moving in quick."

Donnchadh applied full power to the thrusters
and the ship raced towards Plouton, breaking through the atmosphere
with no resistance. Armino pulled up the local holomap on the
cockpit window of the ship and started examining it.

"Okay. We're here," He pointed to Donnchadh.
"We need to get here."

Donnchadh nodded and shifted the ship towards
the Deimos Brotherhood's headquarters. Armino kept alert for any
signs of detection from any threats that may have caught sight of
them. To his relief, it didn't seem like anyone was aware of the
ship flying above them.

Armino saw men gathering up near the ramp of
the ship as they neared the enemy base.

"We'll be there in a couple of minutes," he
informed them. He pointed out a spot close to the headquarters that
would fit the ship. "Land it there Donnchadh. No need to try to
hide from them, they'll know we're here soon enough." Armino got up
from his seat and lowered the ramp of the ship while Donnchadh was
landing it. "Alright! Groups two and three can go in now to your
entrances! Group one waits!" he yelled over the wind gushing into
the ship.

The two groups jumped off of the ship to
their designated entrances of the compound and left the other one
behind.

Armino turned to the remaining men. "Once
Donnchadh lands completely, the rest of us will go in."

As soon as the ship touched down Donnchadh
jumped out of his seat and joined the group. "Let's go!" he
yelled.

The group ran towards the front door of the
compound. Moran and Ferris pulled out sonic grenade launchers and
fired them at the door, blowing it off of its hinges, and the men
rushed inside of the unknown compound. Armino immediately felt that
something wasn't right. They had run into the compound and made
their way down the hallway to a huge circular room where they saw
the other two groups standing as clueless as him. Armino looked
around the room and saw the only other two hallways to go down were
the ones that the other two groups had just traveled down.

"Let's take a look around and try to find
some type of secret entrance," He ordered his men.

They walked around the room, but none of the
men had any luck finding a secret entrance. Armino stood in the
middle of the room with his arms crossed, fuming inside at the
deception. Looking down at his feet in frustration, he noticed
something odd in the spot of the floor he was standing.

"Moran! Get over here!" He yelled across the
room. "I may have found something."

Moran quickly ran over. "What is it
Armino?"

"It looks like this part of the floor moves
somehow. Look at the crevice that goes in a perfect circle."

Moran studied the floor. "I can blow it away
with my sonic grenade launcher. If there's something beneath that,
we'll surely find it."

Armino smiled. "Have it at. Just don't blow
the entire place up with us in it."

Moran and Armino stepped away from the center
of the room. "Alright guys, stay away from the center of the room
and take cover! We're about to blow a hole in the floor," All of
the men stayed back as Moran pulled out his grenade launcher and
aimed at the hole. "Fire in the hole!"

Moran fired his weapon two times, causing the
compound's walls to shake and concrete to sprinkle down on their
heads. Armino and Moran moved towards the newly made hole in the
floor and looked down.

"We got stairs men!" Armino pointed at the
hole in the floor. "Let's get down there!"

The men started filing in a line to descend
down the stairs leading underneath the compound. Armino and Moran
lagged behind to be the last two to go down.

"Looks like you were right about them wanting
to stay hidden Armino. If it's not the Deimos Brotherhood, there's
someone trying to hide something here," Moran said. "My guess is
they're definitely not friendlies."

"I still don't like it very much," He stayed
alert as he walked down the stairs. "It just doesn't feel right. We
should've faced some type of resistance by now."

"I don't like it much either," Moran agreed.
"There's only one way out if things go downhill, but that goes for
both sides, if there
is
someone down here."

Armino and Moran reached the bottom of the
stairs and met up with the other men who were standing in a
group.

"This is a pretty big door," Donnchadh
pointed out to Armino.

Armino looked at the massive steel door
blocking their way. "It looks thick, but I'm sure we can get
through with enough explosives."

Moran smiled at the word explosives. "Just
say the word."

Donnchadh pulled out his thermal grenade
launcher. "I get to do it this time Moran. You don't get to have
all the fun."

Just then, the mechanisms on the door started
retracting. The men instinctively jumped back towards the stairs
and readied their weapons for whatever was about to emerge.

Armino put his hand up over his head. "Hold
your positions men!" He pulled out his laser rifle. "Get your
weapons ready to fire on my command!"

The door finished unlocking and it hissed
open, revealing an empty room on the other side. Armino peered
through the door and motioned his men to move forward after seeing
nobody on the other side.

"Moran and Donnchadh. We're going to be the
first three who go in. I don't want everyone to be stuck inside if
it's a trap."

Donnchadh let out a faint fake laugh. "If
it's a trap? They just opened the door and invited us in! Of course
it's a trap!"

Armino glared at him and Donnchadh held up
his free hand. "I'm not complaining. Hell, I'm going to be the
first one to go in that room," He walked forward before Armino
could say anything else.

Armino shook his head and looked at the other
men. "You all stay back here until we come back. We're going to do
a quick scout to see if we find any traps. If you hear me yell at
you all to get out, do it without any hesitation. Don't worry about
us, just get out."

Armino went in the room behind Moran and saw
multiple other hallways that lead to other parts of the
compound.

"Which one do we choose?" Donnchadh
asked.

Armino contemplated for a moment. "Let's take
the one directly in front of us."

Moran and Donnchadh nodded and alertly walked
down the hallway, ready for any type of traps that may be waiting
for them. After they had walked ten steps down the hall, the
entrance they had just come through sealed off, making their only
way out straight ahead.

"Uh, I think that was just
one
of the
traps," Donnchadh said. "The other is our only way out of
here."

"Let's move forward quicker," Armino ordered.
"I don't want to be trapped in this narrow hallway if we get
ambushed."

The three men quickly ran down the hallway
and entered a big cafeteria type room that was empty, except for
the benches to eat at. The room had obviously been used earlier in
the day because the aroma of food still lingered in the air.

"Look for any type of exits," Armino
ordered.

Donnchadh pointed towards the front of the
room. "Look! There's two exits at the front."

"We'll take the one on the right," Armino
told them. "Keep your eyes peeled for anything suspicious."

"The place is deserted," Donnchadh said as
they walked forward. "Do you see how spotless it is?"

"No it's not," Armino replied in a hushed
voice. "If it was, that first trap wouldn't have gone off sealing
us in here. Someone knows we're here and they're toying with
us."

Moran shook his head. "They want us to be
here in this room. That's the only reason we've gotten this
far."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Donnchadh
moved quicker. "We wouldn't want to get them angry now, would
we?"

"Quiet down! You're going to get us killed,"
Moran hissed. "This isn't the time for your immaturity."

Armino peered around the entrance of the door
and went through after confirming it was clear.

"That hall looks like it may take us back the
way we came," Donnchadh pointed.

"Could've been the hall that was on the
right," Moran agreed.

"Or it could lead somewhere else entirely,"
Armino suggested. "If it does lead back, we don't know if it sealed
off when the other one did."

"I don't want to go back, so let's go
straight," Donnchadh told the two, as he continued straight ahead.
"I want to see what else is down here."

Moran pulled at Armino as he was starting to
follow Donnchadh. "He's treating this mission as a joke Armino.
He's going to get us killed being so careless."

A sound of rushing footsteps stormed towards
them before they were able to catch up to Donnchadh. They both
turned to look at Donnchadh, but he was already halfway down the
hall and walking right into the enemy.

"Donnchadh get back here!" Armino
shouted.

It was too late. Armino saw a group of six
hostiles running down the hallway towards them, weapons drawn and
ready to fire. Donnchadh pulled his out, but was too slow in
responding to the threat and was shot. Moran pulled Armino through
the door that they had just been talking about before Donnchadh had
foolishly left them. Moran fired his laser pistol at the
approaching men and Armino reached for the concussion grenades he
had strapped to his belt.

"Start going down hall!" Armino shouted above
the sound of raining gun fire. "I'll be right behind you!"