Resurrection (The Inherited War) (33 page)

“Two planetary gravity collectors.”  Split pointed to the container on top.  “Two stationary shield generators.”  He pointed to the container on the bottom.  He pointed to a third container.  “Miles of insulated power filament.”

“Is that enough?” West asked coming up behind the pair.

Split grunted out a laugh.  “Just one of those generators could power a large city.  Both powering the shields will keep us safe from anything the Esii have left.  With plenty to spare to power everything else we find.”

“Shit, sounds good to me.  Second question is, how does it work?”

“Split can u get it up top and hooked into the shields?  I want it to enclose the plateau and make a dome at least fifty feet at its highest.”  Cole said never taking his eyes off the equipment.

“These shields are meant to protect planets.  They will have to be reprogrammed to cover a small area, but yes, I can do it.” 

“West get some forks over here and get these four containers up the shaft.  Send a four man team up with Split and have them take a few crates of those rockets you found a while ago.  Once he gets that shield up I will send more men up to help unload the rest of the goodies we found.”  A smile had found its way onto Cole’s face as he spoke.  They just might pull this off after all.

Over the next few hours, while Split got the power on and the shields up they found everything they could ever need to survive for an extended period.  They found containers of starship food, portable air scrubbers and water recycling unites.  Every trade good imaginable was there to be found.  In all total they spent nearly two days without stop bringing everything they found to the surface of the planet.  They had food for at least two months and water to match.  They had power for lights and the air recyclers were cleaning the atmosphere trapped in the shield.  A massive air cooling device was up and running and the empty containers were serving double duty as living quarters.  They found a two pairs of automated portable medical stations and a whole container of combat rated Second Skins.

Just as the clock rolled over to their forty-ninth straight hour of working, a scream reverberated from off to Cole’s right.  It came from the direction of the door he and Split had first sealed upon entering the storage facility.

“Damn it.”  Cole swore under his breath.  He knew things had been going to well.  He armed himself and ran in the direction of the scream.  He saw a woman sobbing on the floor in front of the still sealed door clutching her hand.  His suit instantly picked up the massive heat signature radiating from the door and surrounding wall.  The molten lava had finally caught up to them.

“Attention,” he had turned on the group band so everyone could hear him, “stop what you are doing and head to the exit shaft.  Use the last of the containers prepared to go up to get everyone out of the room now.  We have time so no panicking or shoving.  But move with a purpose.”  He switched to a private channel to speak to West.  “Bring a lifter over here fast.”

“Roger that.”  West responded and arrived a few moments later with the requested lifter.  The door was glowing a cherry red.

“Let’s move a few containers in front of the door.  It might buy us some time.”  They managed to get three containers stacked in front of the door.  “Alright let’s get back and get people moving.”  Pushing the lift between them, they double timed it back to the exit shaft.  There were still a couple of hundred people waiting to go up.  It took an hour or so but finally Cole hopped on the last container to go up.  He could see the angry red glow of the lava as it flowed down the aisle between containers.  He didn’t bother activating his helmet this time when the doors opened.  The air scrubbers and cooler had been working for long enough now that the air was safe to breathe and wasn’t too hot.  As his container cleared the ground and moved out of the way, Split activated a smaller shield module that would keep any noxious fumes from the lava flow that that was filling the chamber below from getting up through the door.  They had also rigged a few cryo bombs to go off and cool some of the flow down.  Cole wasn’t sure if the whole room would fill, but he doubted it and spent little time worrying about it.

He stepped out of the last container and watched as final preparations for their hopefully short stay finished taking place.  The last of the empty containers was moved to the barracks area and filled with cots, while crews organized and stacked the last containers that had been hastily brought up and set down in an effort to expedite the evacuation.

“When was the last time you ate?”  Anastacia’s voice came from over his shoulder.

“What year is it?”  Cole replied with a weary grin.

“Join a lady for dinner?”

“Why not?  Nothing else to do at the moment.”

They walked to an empty container set away from the rest.  It had some makeshift tables and chairs with two packs of spacer fare laid out and ready to eat.  Cole flopped onto his seat across from the astronaut. “I hope this taste better than it looks.”  He said as he tore the packaging open.

“Don’t count on it.”  Anastacia replied.  “It’s not even meant for humans remember.

Cole groaned as he remembered some of the foul things Sky and the other aliens who were his closest friends used to eat and drink.  Then it hit him.  Sky.  Things had been so hectic and busy since his escape, he had forgotten about Sky.  God he missed her. He wanted nothing more than to curl up behind her and sleep for days.  Unknowingly, he let loose a big sigh.

“Besides the obvious,” Anastacia quirked, “what’s wrong.”

“Missing someone is all.  And no I don’t want to talk about it.”  Cole shoveled a mouthful of the grey slop into his mouth and choked it down.  “Well it’s better than grits.  But then again, that’s not saying much.”

She gave him a puzzled look.

“A southern U.S. food.  I always hated them but the Army loved to serve ‘em.  It’s not important.”  They both continued eating in silence.  Over the course of their meal a small crowd began to gather outside of the container.  Cole could feel the intense gaze of the crowd on him while he ate.  No one said anything or bothered him until he was done.  He finished the last mouthful and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.  He turned and looked at the crowd.

“What?”  He asked with a tired mumble to his voice.

“Umm,” someone he didn’t recognize began, “we know you are tired but now that things have settled down, we want to know what’s going on.”

Split forced his way through the crowd and turned on them. He opened his mouth but Cole stopped him.

“They have the right to know.  Hell, I would want to know now if I was them.  I will have time to sleep later.”  Cole flipped on his group com.

“Alright, story time.  I will give you the short, short version first.  You and I were all abducted from Earth by aliens.  I was abducted by different ones than you, at first.  Shortly after that abduction the aliens who nabbed you all destroyed the Earth and everything left on it.  I saw it with my own eyes.  I recruited some alien friends and we found a lost treasure trove of ancient ships.  We manned those ships and hunted down the ship that destroyed Earth.  We defeated the Esii, destroyed a large part of their fleet, and the ship that destroyed our home.  I was captured in that battle and brought here. I escaped, broke the men out, and finally the women.  I believe we are all that remains of humanity.  We are currently waiting for my friends to come and rescue us.  We have done all that we can to help to that effect, and now just have to wait.  I hope it won’t be long but who knows what is going on in the rest of the galaxy.”  Cole turned and drug his seat out into the open.

“Now for the long version.  My name is Cole McLeod and aliens have been experimenting on me since before I was born…..”  Cole spent the next few hours telling his tale as best as he could remember.  He told them about their ancient ancestors and the war that destroyed them.  He told them about his allies and the ships he had found.  He left nothing out.  When he was done he wished everyone would take some time and reflect on what they had learned here today and he would answer any questions while they waited for rescue.

Cole trudged away from the silent crowd and fell into the first cot that he found.  He slept for nearly twenty-four hours.  When he awoke he found a lot of people with a lot of questions.

CHAPTER 25

Thalo brooded on the bridge of the Justice.  His glaze had settled over his eyes as he watched the motionless forms of the bridge crew as they sat connected to the ship.  He had been sitting in his watch chair for an hour now, dread hooking into the ship.  It would be the same as yesterday.  No movement, no shifts of ships, and no relief in sight.  Thirty days now since they had returned and were nearly blown out of space.  The Kin had been parceled out to the rest of the fleet and the assassinations and sabotage had dropped away to zero.  More inbound ships that didn’t know what was going on were destroyed and nothing was making it out of the system.

Sure the five ships of the human fleet could leave if they wanted, but all that would do is create a weakness that could be exploited by the Esii.  He had been unwillingly promoted for his heroism and foresight in bringing back a legend from the grave, and given to Captain Drea as his XO.  For his heroic achievement of bringing new allies to the cause and running the Esii blockade, he was rewarded with babysitting the defense fleet of his homeworld during the skeleton watch.  The dead of night as far as the fleet was concerned and since the lack of anything resembling open hostilities for the past two weeks had made the job boring and tiresome.

Thalo straightened his back and made the connection.  Instantly his awareness jumped from his body and onto the virtual bridge of the Justice.  He was grateful for the fact that his captain, like most others, preferred to use the V-Bridge and that made his life a little easier.

“XO on the…” the third watch mate began to say before Thalo cut him off.

“I told you to knock it off, no one cares that I'm here.  I just sit and watch you watch the readouts.  Continue on with your jobs and let’s hope the next seven hours pass faster than they did last night.”  Thalo had the ships AI bring up a map of the system.  Thousands of tiny red dots flared to life just outside of the range of his guns.  Cowards, he thought to himself.  What were they doing out there just sitting and waiting for us to surrender?  No the Esii were too brutal for that.  They can’t beat us, yet they haven’t left.  There was something deeper here, but he couldn’t figure it out and neither could anyone else.

It still grated on him.  He loved puzzles and prided himself on having the type of mind that could see around all sides of a problem.  Not this one.  He had looked at it from every angle he could think of, yet it made no sense.  They couldn’t starve us out; we have two planets who already supply food and energy for themselves.  Eventually someone else out there would realize what was going on and start sending ships and might even try reinforcing us. 

The other weighty question was why so many, but no combat ships.  Pirate frigates, freighters and transports made up over half the total ships in their fleet.  The oddest part was they were all full.  They weren’t ready to take on booty and slaves.  They already had a mishmash of life forms on board.  He was just about to send the image of the system away and pick up where he left off on his word puzzle game when he saw a slight shift in the red dots.  He was adjusting the filter of the image before the scanner tech had even reported the change.

There were an hundred or so heavy cruisers breaking formation and heading out system.  Thalo watched as they hit the leading edge of their jump range and disappeared into warped space.  “Oh well, not my problem” he thought to himself.  They could send off five hundred ships and they would still have enough to hold us here.  One hundred one way or the other isn’t going to matter.  Thalo was lost in thought about what the Esii were up to when he suddenly found out.

There was a sudden massive distortion of light just a few hundred miles to their front.  Sixty Esii heavies suddenly reverted to normal space well within the range of both sides guns.  Forty popped back into reality just inside the other worlds perimeter.

The Justice reacted faster than Thalo.  Alarms began to ring all over the ship and the fleet as general quarters and battle stations was sounded.  Thalo began giving orders as fast as he could.  Their shields
were always up, so that didn’t bother him, but his weapons were trained out to maximum distance to be able to engage a standard assault.  No one could have predicted that they Esii had figured out how to jump so much deeper into gravity well than thought possible.  Hell, this ship would balk at jumping in so close.

Even though orders passed at the speed of light on this virtual bridge, the Esii had the drop on them and already had firing solutions in their weapons computers.  Every ship within range of the sudden attack, brought the encroaching fleet into their targets.  The Esii got off the first volley.  Plasma, missiles and projectile guns filled the empty space between the fleets with deadly beauty.  The human ships could easily withstand everything these ships could throw at them.  Thalo soon realized they weren’t the targets.

“Helm, change heading to interpose ourselves between the Esii and our Worlder Fleets.  We need to take as much of the incoming as we can.  Relay to Vengeance and revenge.  Orders as follows.  Protect the Worlder fleet priority.”  Thalo made a connection with the Justice’s hanger bay.  “Is the Quick Reaction Wing ready for deployment?”

“Affirmative.  Bonded and ready to go.”  The wing commander responded.

“Launch, launch, launch.  Weapons hot.  Seek and destroy.”  He switched again.  “Med bay prepare for wounded fighter pilots.”

“I am ready here, Thalo.”  Sky’s voice was energetic and awake.  “Remind them to eject their minds before the connection is lost and they won’t have to come see me.  That goes double for my sister.”

“She knows, they all know.  It has been a few days but this isn’t our first dance.”  Thalo retorted.

“Yea that’s why I don’t ever have pilots come in here who thought they had a handle on their ships.”  Her voice dripped with sarcasm.  “Med bay, out.”

All those conversations took place in the matter of seconds.  The first of the incoming hadn’t even hit yet.  But Thalo was still too slow.  His three ships could move fast enough to impose their bulks in the way of that fire and they couldn’t get their return fire out there fast enough.  Thalo saw twenty-four smaller blue dots detach from his ship and race off towards the enemy.  ‘Give em hell.”  He thought to himself as he silently envied them in their small nimble fighters.  Moments later the opening salvo slammed into the less advanced ships of the Worlder fleet.

A dozen flared up and vanished from the screen.  Four more were dead in space and a dozen others took minor damage.  The Esii were not as fortunate.  When the combined fire of the three human ships hit the formation of Esii it tore through their ranks like a scythe mowing down grass.  Fully half the formation was destroyed in the first volley.  Another quarter were badly damaged and the last fifteen were too busy dodging the newly made junk field to effectively return fire.

“I am marking one enemy ship with a green beacon.  I want that ship disabled only.  Do not, I repeat, do not destroy it.”  Thalo spoke before he even had real plan in his head.  He heard the voice of Captain Drea behind him.

“Have an idea?”

“We finally have the chance to capture some of them alive.  We need the intelligence.  Do you want your seat?”  Thalo said as he turned to look at his commander.

“No, continue.”

“Aye, aye sir.  Helm, turn us into the enemy and full ahead.”  He switched to the marine contingent onboard the ship.  “Colonel, get your men suited up and ready to deploy for a boarding action.”

“Recommended number of personnel?”  The Marine asked back.

“All of them, and have them meet me on the transport hanger.”

“Meet you sir?”  The Colonel asked incredulously.

Thalo was already turning to his Caption, but before he could speak, Drea stepped forward.

“Go, do what you need to do to figure this out.”  Thalo smiled at him and shot him a quick salute before disappearing from the bridge.  The Captain retained his vacated seat and put himself in command of the situation. 

“Get us close enough to launch the Marines and cover for them in transit.  Send word to rescue one and two.  We have sailors floating around out there who need to be picked up.”  The Captain settled his virtual butt back in the virtual chair and put his mind to the task he was most suited to in life.  Defeating the enemies of his people.

~

Thalo stood at the front of the transport and watched the highly trained Worlder Marines as they filed onboard the transport.  Barring doing a boarding action with Cole, Thalo couldn’t think of better company than his peoples Marines.  The Worlder Navy had been patrolling their shipping lanes for thousands of years and the Marines had been along for the ride.  All of these Marines had participated in boarding actions before, and all had boarded some of the derelict Esii ships since the blockade had begun.  This would be the first time any had boarded an Esii ship with live bodies still on board.

The last Marine to board closed the ramp and signaled the ready to the pilots.  He then walked down the aisle and inspected each of his men and offered a word or two of encouragement.  The Colonel took the last open seat right next to Thalo.

“Sir, can I request a private moment with the XO?”  The Marine asked in a gruff way that brooked no refusal on Thalo’s part.

“Yes, Colonel.  Join my private channel please.  There was nowhere on the small ship they could speak alone so they would have to settle for raising their helmets and opening a private channel, which they did.

“No offence Sir, but do you really think you should be coming on this mission?”  Thalo could hear the slight tinge of worry edging the Colonels voice.

“Why do you ask Colonel?  Is it because I am a naval officer.   A bridge officer for that matter.  One who has no obvious reason for coming along?  Someone who might get in your way perhaps?  Enlighten me Colonel, please.”  Thalo was glad for the helmet; it was currently hiding his smirk.

“With all due respect Sir, yes.  All of those reasons are good ones.”

“Let me enlighten you, Marine.  First off, why I'm in the navy is no concern of yours but know that I am where I am by choice.  Second, I was one of the few who were given the chance to wait and prepare for the arrival of the humans back to our galaxy.  I may have more combat experience than most of your Marines.  Lastly, I have been onboard more Esii ships than anyone else available to go and know what to expect and what to look for.”  Thalo tried his hardest to look through the Colonels helmet to gauge his reaction to his words on his face. No luck.  But he also didn’t want to piss this Marine off.  “However, I know your Marines have never trained with me so I will remain behind the main thrust and offer my advice and wisdom as I see fit.  I will not interfere, if I do not have too.”

Silence followed his last statement as the Marine chewed over his words.  “Aye, aye Sir.  Glad to have you aboard.”  With that he turned off his helmet and focused his attention back on his men.

Thalo was pleased with himself on his handling of the situation.  His private celebration was short lived, however.  Moments later, a solid clang of the transport as it snugged up against the Esii ship echoed throughout the ship.  Helmets snapped into place as the order went out to prepare for boarding.

The Colonels voice rang out through everyone's radios.  “Un-sling and ready weapons.  Single fire only, no fully auto, and medium power.  Adjust as necessary.”  Fifty grunts of affirmative rang through Thalo's ears.  It was nice to be working with professionals.  The Marines turned and faced the rear hatch.

“Go.”  The Colonel ordered.  The hatch popped open and the lead Marines were out and into the vastness of space.  The lead team had the cutters and explosive charges that would be need if they couldn’t find an airlock that could be accessed easily.  They had scans of the ship to go off so they made
good time to what was hoped would be an access point.  It was and the lead team made short work of the door.  Thalo was the last one in the ship.

He had forgotten how much he hated the Esii ship design.  The damn ships were not designed with the comfort of their crews in mind.  The halls were cramped and narrow.  They zigged and zagged in a completely random way as far as Thalo could tell and there was very little to almost zero light.  The light gatherers in his helmet made up for the lack of illumination but still with everything inside being black, it was hard to see sometimes.

“Remember Colonel, I want as many prisoners as possible.  Both Esii and whatever they have on board for food.  If it’s not too far gone.  Standard procedures for any zombies.”  Thalo got a quick aye, aye back from the Colonel as they moved into the ship.  Thalo was good to his promise and stayed in the rear of the formation as they worked their way in ever deeper.  Twice the Marines came under fire, and twice they emerged victorious.  Unfortunately the Esii took their own lives as soon as defeat was evident.  All told it took a little over two hours to clear the ship.  In true Esii fashion, suicide was the preferred option and the Marines never came close to capturing one of their hated enemies alive.  But, as Thalo would come to find out, they got extremely lucky in the end.

They caught the, for lack of a better term, cooks, before they could kill their onboard food supply.  Twenty imprisoned beings from around the galaxy were crammed into a small space and living in their own filth.  They ranged in health from zombified to nearly untouched by the Esii. The Marines did their duty and put down the five unfortunates who had been fed on too long by their cruel masters and rendered medical aid to the rest.