Theogony 1: Janissaries (29 page)

Bridge,
Wanton Killer
, Gliese 832 System, May 25,
2019

“30 segments to gate activation,” called the helmsman.

“Shields up!” ordered Captain Sssseth.

“You don’t really think there are enemies in the Tau Ceti
system, do you?” sneered his executive officer. “The other ships didn’t
activate
their
shields prior to going through the gate. You’re not
afraid
,
are you?”

Captain Sssseth bristled. “I don’t have time to kill you now,
but if you call me ‘afraid’ again, I will make the time.” There was no worse slight
for a warrior than for someone to say that he was a coward. Obviously, morale
was slipping badly if his XO was not afraid to challenge him on his own bridge.
Sssseth made a mental note to fix that at his earliest opportunity. “The other
ships can do as they please, but regulations state that shields are to be
raised before passing through a gate. The officers on the
Emperor’s Sword
were probably drunk and forgot to do so, and the idiots on the
Bloody Dagger
followed suit so that they wouldn’t look bad. We, however, will follow
regulations and raise our shields. Shields
UP!
”

“Shields are up, sir!” replied the shield technician.

“Activation!” called the helmsman.

As the
Wanton Killer
emerged, and the systems
recovered from transit, Captain Sssseth looked out into a scene from the third
level of hell. The
Emperor’s Sword
was in three pieces and was spilling
crewmen and systems from all three of them. The
Bloody Dagger
had a
gaping hole near its engineering section and was venting atmosphere and fluids.
It didn’t appear to be mortally wounded...until another 215 megaton mine blew
up next to its ammunition storage. The blast from the mine, in conjunction with
the secondary explosions from the ammunition detonating, broke the ship in half.
It was finished too.

215 megaton mines? Where in the seventh hell had they come
from? Before he could say anything, the screen dimmed as a mine blew up
alongside the
Wanton Killer
, shaking the ship like a dog with a bone.
Although he knew that the ship was damaged, it was not as bad as it could have
been; had the shields not been up, they would now look like the
Sword
and
Dagger
.

“Move closer to the
Emperor’s Sword
and continue in
the path they were heading,” ordered Ssseth.

“The area is mined!” the executive officer screamed. “We
have to go back!” He looked around the bridge to gather support from the other members
of the bridge crew.

“No,” replied Sssseth walking behind the XO, “we
have
to do our jobs. It is obvious that the scientists are under attack, and we must
go to their aid. We
will
follow the path of the
Emperor’s Sword
and hope that they cleared a path through the mines.”

“But it’s too dangerous...” the XO’s sentence stopped as nearly
a meter of steel erupted from his chest.

“I should have done that a long time ago,” muttered Sssseth
as he slid his former first officer off his sword and onto the deck. He looked
around the bridge. “Anyone else want to turn around and run?” he asked. All of
the bridge crew found something interesting to look at on their screens.
“Good,” said Sssseth. “Someone get this traitor off my bridge.” He paused, as
if in contemplation. “If nothing else, it looks like we’ll have fresh meat
tonight.” A small cheer greeted his words; it had been a
long
time since
they had fresh meat.

The
Wanton Killer
sidled over to the remains of the
Sword
and then began to move forward again. As the
Killer
moved past the
Sword
,
Sssseth saw at least three bodies and a large piece of what looked like an
anti-ship missile bounce off their shields. The enemy would pay for this,
Sssseth thought.

“
Contact!
” yelled the sensor operator suddenly.
“There is a ship orbiting the moon of the fourth planet!”

“Let me guess,” said Sssseth, “it is of Eldive origin?”

“Our classification system shows that...yes, it is of Eldive
origin,” agreed the sensor operator. “It is a heavy cruiser of the
Falcon
class. The records...” The sensor operator’s voice was lost as the power went
out, and the
Killer
rocked as a mine detonated close aboard. The bridge
went pitch black.

After a few seconds, the emergency power kicked in, and a
dim light suffused the bridge. “Mine detonation off the starboard stern,” said
the damage control technician. “Both engines went offline in automatic shutdown.
We also lost our aft sensors, and I am showing faults on missile stations
20-26, lasers 40-52 and our aft countermeasures stations.”

“How long until we have main power back?” asked Sssseth, mad
enough to spit.

“Engineering says they need one cycle to ensure that there’s
no damage before they restart the engines,” replied the technician.

“They have half a cycle,” the commanding officer noted, “and
then I want the engines back online. If they can’t do that, I’ll have their
hearts for dessert.”

“Engineering says they’ll be able to meet your time frame,”
said the technician after a moment’s discussion with the engineering officer.

“I thought they might,” replied Sssseth. He was not known
for making idle threats.

* * * * *

Bridge, TSS
Vella Gulf
, Tau Ceti ‘d1’ Orbit, May
25, 2019
“The first two battlecruisers have been destroyed,” reported
Steropes. A small cheer went up on the bridge. He continued, “The third one has
sustained damage to its engineering section. Power levels indicate that it is
operating on emergency power only.”

“Any idea if they’ll be able to get the main power back?”
asked Captain Deutch.

“It is not possible to know,” replied Steropes. “They had
their shields up, which minimized the force of the blast. The mine operated as
designed and detonated near the ship’s engines. It was successful in knocking
them out, but the lizards might be able to get them back at any moment.”

“So going out there to finish them off might not be the best
idea?” asked Deutch.

“I think that it would be ill-advised. The
Emperor’s
Sword
-class battlecruiser is nearly twice as long as the
Vella Gulf
and can out-accelerate us by about 115 G’s. We have 18 missile tubes; they have
44. They have a similar advantage in lasers, plus theirs are bigger. They also
have more counter-missile missiles and lasers than we do. In a stand-up fight
at full strength, the
Vella Gulf
would be destroyed before we even
breached its shields. They might not be a full battleship, but as far as we are
concerned, they completely outclass us. It is my opinion that it would be
better to rearm the
Vipers
for an anti-ship strike prior to attacking
the battlecruiser,” replied Steropes. “That’s the only place where we have an
advantage.”

The CO turned to Bullseye, who was sitting in the air wing
commander’s chair. “Rearm the Vipers and prepare to attack the battlecruiser.”

“Aye aye, sir!” said Bullseye, who immediately began comming
orders to his troops.

Under the Ssselipsssiss Base, Tau Ceti ‘d1’, May 25, 2019

As the platform descended, Havildar Rajesh ‘Mouse’ Patel
came face to face with a Ssselipsssiss. The lizard technician had received a
fault warning on the laser and had come to fix it; he was unprepared for the
short, dark human riding down on it. As the maroon lizard recoiled from him, the
Indian shot him through the head with his laser. The Ssselipsssiss fell to the
ground, twitching.

Trained at the Indian Army’s elite Counter Insurgency and
Jungle Warfare School in Mizoram, Patel wasn’t scared; he had extensive
guerilla training, and he was in his element. A veteran of over ten years of
guerilla warfare against a number of militant Communist groups, he was an expert
at reconnaissance, gathering intelligence and tunnel warfare. The seven foot
tall lizard didn’t frighten him; at just over five feet tall, he was used to everyone
being taller than he was.

He fired another bolt into the lizard to ensure it was dead
and, as it stopped twitching, he looked around at his surroundings. The laser
turret had dropped down into a long, five foot wide tunnel that had turrets
placed every 100 feet or so. The laser turrets formed a defensive ring around
the base, so the tunnel curved out of sight in both directions. Seeing movement
from the next turret down from him, he leveled his laser but held his fire when
he saw the movement corresponded to the icon of Good Twin.

“
Top, Mouse,
” he commed over the squad network. “
I’m
good in the tunnel. One hostile killed. I’m going to link up with Good Twin,
and we will advance from down here.
” As he finished transmitting, Good Twin
jogged up.

“
Roger that Mouse,
” Top replied. “
We’ll link up
inside the base.
”

“
Let’s go,
” Mouse said over a private link to Good
Twin. “
I’m used to tunnels. I’ll lead.
” The two soldiers started down
the tunnel.

“
Dude,
” Good Twin replied, “
do you know where
you’re going?
”

“
I know where the base is,
” said Mouse, “
we’ve
just got to find the cross tunnel. As the lizard I killed was a little closer
to the left side, the odds are that he came from that direction. It’s a 50/50 chance
either way.
”

“
Cool,
” Good Twin said. “
Lead on.
”

Approaching the Ssselipsssiss Base, Tau Ceti ‘d1’, May
25, 2019

The Ground Force made its way to the hangar building that
dominated the landscape of the crater. The only building in sight, the way down
into the base beneath the surface of the moon had to be there.

“
It’s locked,
” commed Staff Sergeant Jim ‘Shuteye’
Chang, the first one to reach the hangar building.

“
You sound surprised by that,
” replied Top. “
Were
you expecting the lizards to welcome you in with open arms?
”

“
Well, it would have been nice,
” said Shuteye.

“
Top, I’ve got some large covers on the ground,
” reported
the German soldier, Sergeant Hans Fleischer. “
I can’t tell where they lead,
but they might be a way in. The doors slide into recessed areas, so there is no
way to open them except for cutting through them.
”

“
OK,
” replied Top, “
I want both of you to start
cutting your way through the doors. When we get them open, we’ll go through
both at the same time. Hurry! We don’t have a lot of time.
”

Bridge, TSS
Vella Gulf
, Tau Ceti ‘d1’ Orbit, May
25, 2019

“The base is trying to contact the battlecruiser,” said the
communications officer. “They said that there is an attacking force burning
their way through the doors, and they are asking for help.”

“Good,” said Deutch, “the platoon must have reached the base.
Keep jamming their transmissions.”

Under the Ssselipsssiss Base, Tau Ceti ‘d1’, May 25, 2019

“
We
found the passage leading into the base from
the defensive ring,
” commed Mouse. “
We must be getting close to the main
part of the base because we’re starting to find doors.
”

“
Roger that,
” commed Top. “
Don’t leave any of the
lizards alive to hit you from behind.
”

“
Got it,
” commed Mouse. “
Which will work out well,
”
Mouse said over a private channel to Good Twin, looking at the two doors in
front of them “
unless we open a door, and there are about 100 of them behind
it.
”

“
No kidding dude,
” agreed Good Twin. At ten feet
wide, the corridor into the main part of the base was larger than the laser
turret access tunnel had been. He looked at the two doors, one on each side of
the hallway. He shouldered his trident and drew his laser. Seeing Mouse looking
at him questioningly, he said, “
I’d hate to blow up something important.
”
He looked at the doors and continued, “
I’ll take the right if you want the
left.
”

“
Fine,
” replied Mouse. “
1...2...3,
” and they
both kicked in the door in front of them. Mouse charged in to find the room
empty. Not just devoid of lizards, but completely empty from wall to wall.
There was a dark spot of in the corner that might have been a blood stain, but
that was all. Hearing firing behind him, he turned and charged back across the
hall. Three lizards lay twitching on the ground. As he entered, he saw the one
closest to Good Twin whip him with its tail, staggering him. Mouse and Good
Twin fired at the same time, and it stopped moving.

“
Stupid lizards don’t know when they’re dead,
”
commented Good Twin, kicking the one that had tail-whipped him. “
Next time,
you take the right, dude.
” He began walking toward the door.

“
Just a second,
” said Mouse. Unlike the earlier
technician, the dead lizards in the room were dressed in some sort of golden
armor. It covered their arms, legs and torso. Looking around the room, he saw
it was full of screens showing views of the surface of the moon, with some sort
of consoles ringing the room’s outer walls. On one screen he could see what
looked like the other squad of Terrans on the rim of a crater. “
I think we
just found the control room for the base’s defenses. I’ve got an idea.
” He
switched to the platoon frequency. “
Top, Mouse. I think we just found the
control room for the laser defenses. Would you like us to wreck them?
”

“
What do you think, sir?
” Top asked Calvin, who stood
next to him while they waited for the troops to finish cutting a way in.

“
Go ahead and blow it
,” Calvin commed.

“
No problem
,” Mouse commed back. He looked at Good
Twin and nodded at his trident. “
What’s the normal setting for a hand
grenade size explosion?
”

“
Five nanograms is the same as a normal hand grenade,
”
said Good Twin.

“
OK, come with me.
” Mouse led him to the room across
the hall. “
You fire a 25 nanogram shot into the other room across the hall,
and I’ll slam the door once you launch it.
”

Good Twin set the dial on the trident appropriately. “
Ready,
”
he said.

“
Go!
” said Mouse. Good Twin fired, and the round
arced through the door and into the back of the other room. Mouse slammed the
door and fell against it. The antimatter grenade detonated with an earthshaking
explosion. Even though the shape of the other room contained most of the blast,
Mouse was pushed back six inches by the residual force of it. “
Twenty
nanograms might have been enough,
” he said, rubbing a bruise that was
already starting to form on his shoulder. The armor and physical upgrades were
all nice, he thought ruefully, but they didn’t make a physical blow hurt any
less.

The two soldiers walked across the hallway and looked at the
control room. “
Well dude, I’d have to say it’s pretty trashed.
”

Mouse saw one console that had somehow survived unscathed.
He fired his laser into it several times and was rewarded with an eruption of
sparks as the console shorted out. “
Now it’s trashed.
” He switched to
the platoon-wide frequency. “
We’ve destroyed the defensive control room. It should
be safe for the other squad to come to the hangar,
” he commed. “
Now let’s
go see if we can find the rest of the platoon,
” he said to Good Twin.

* * * * *