When the Gods Aren't Gods: Book Two of The Theogony (29 page)

“Let. me. go,” said Dantone. “I. don’t. have. to. be. mobile. Use. me. as. a. fixed. defense.
” He paused. “I’d. cry. but. even. that. is. denied. to. me. Please. Let. me. go.”

“Hmmm,” said the medibot, reconsidering. “The lack of ability to display emotions is one of the major causes of cyborg malfunction, especially in primitive societies. If this is an issue, I will temporarily certify him for combat with the condition that he report to sick bay when you return.”

“I will,” promised the cyborg. “Wait. What do you mean by ‘malfunction’?”

“In primitive societies, like your own, there is a high rate of cyborg
malfunction during the conversion process,” replied the medibot. “Many primitive races are unable to deal with a lack of emotions and the loss of some of their senses.”

“What happens?” asked Calvin.

“They go crazy,” answered the medibot, “and have to be terminated.”

* * * * *

Asp 01
, Ross 248 System, August  24, 2020

“
Vella Gulf
, this is
Asp 01,” radioed Supidi. “
The lizards are launching their shuttles. Request permission to fire.
”

“
Permission granted,
01,” replied the
Vella Gulf
. “
You are cleared to destroy the shuttles
.”

The WSO
looked across the cockpit at his pilot. As one of the most senior crews, they had been the first to transition from the Vipers to the Asps. “
It’s obvious that they don’t know we are here,
” he commed. “
It’s overkill to use a ship killer missile on them, but it is better to do it now then wait for them to get close to the Mrowry ship.
” He fine-tuned the targeting information on his display. “
Both targets are designated,
” he said. Supidi moved the arming switch to ‘on.’ “
Weapons are armed; you are cleared to fire.
”

“
Yeah, their sensors must be out,
” agreed Guns. “
Sucks to be them...but not for much longer. I still owe them for the last time out.
” They had flown past the lizard battlecruiser, and it was holed in many places where missiles had hit it. He had stopped counting at six; the number of laser and graser holes were beyond counting. It was so badly shot up that most of the spaces that were open to vacuum weren’t venting any more. Everyone must be in suits...or dead. The key hole was where engineering used to be. Whatever had hit it there must have caused the motor to overload. There wasn’t much left of the aft end of the ship. Hitting it with a couple more anti-ship missiles would just be putting it out of its misery.

Obviously,
some of the lizards still had some fight left in them, as the two shuttles finished turning and began accelerating toward the Mrowry ship. “
Fox One at the lead shuttle,
” Guns commed, thought-clicking the button that launched the weapon. “
Fox One at the trail shuttle,
” he added, launching a second missile.

The shuttles had no idea that they were even under fire as the missiles streaked toward them.  The
Terran missiles were equipped with a variety of electronic counter-measures to help them defeat jamming and decoys; none were needed in this case. The missiles tracked in on the shuttles, and twin 215 megaton blasts ensued, completely destroying both shuttles.

“
I know it had to be done,
” commented Supidi as he watched the balls of expanding plasma, “
but there was little honor in it.
”

Shuttle
02
, Ross 248 System, August 24, 2020

“
Five minutes to touchdown,
” commed the weapon systems officer, Lieutenant Faith Ibori. “
We will be docking at the aft end of the ship. The Mrowry will meet us at the entryway and get you pointed in the right direction.
”

“
Copy that,
” replied Calvin. “
Hey, Faith, are you in communication with the Mrowry ship at the moment?
”

“
I spoke to them earlier,
” replied the WSO. “
Do you need something? I can call them back.
”

“
Yeah,
” answered Calvin. “
We’ll be packed like sardines if we all go in the same place. Call them back and tell them that the boarding force recommends dropping off one squad where they previously indicated and the other squad at the front of the ship. We can then meet in the middle and trap the lizards between us. Also, let them know that we have two lizards in our force, but they are a different species and will be wearing our suits.
”

“
Stand by
,” said Faith, “
I’ll give them a call.
”

“
That’s a better idea,
” said Night. “
Do you want the front or the back?
”

“
I’ll take the back,
” replied Calvin. “
You have more experience with busting into places. Why don’t you take the Space Force to the front after dropping off the Ground Force with me at the back?
”

“
Works for me, sir,
” replied Night.

“
Hey, I’ve got a question,
” said Master Chief Ryan O’Leary. “
Did we ever find out if our new lasers would penetrate the hull of a ship?
”

“
Umm...
” Calvin thought about it. “
I passed your question up the chain of command. The special projects people were supposed to do some tests to find out, but I’m not sure if they ever did.
”

“
Great,
” replied Master Chief, “
so we don’t know if we’re going to put holes in the side of our new friends’ ship every time we fire?
”

“
I can’t imagine they’re strong enough to go through in a single shot,
” said Calvin. “
Probably not even in two shots. They’d probably go through a bulkhead in a couple of shots, but the main hull? No, I think we’re OK. The big ship-borne lasers don’t always go through in one shot. I think we’re OK to fire the lasers at will. If you find yourself damaging the ship too much, dial it back a little. We don’t know what kind of armor the lizards will have, either.
”

“
Two minutes,
” Faith commed. “
The Mrowry said to do as you see best. There won’t be anyone to meet you at the front of the ship, but there are airlocks that you can use. The ship’s commanding officer said to let you know that the lizards are holding the front of the ship.
”

“
That’s just the way I like it,
” replied Night. “
A target rich environment. Space Force, let’s get some!
”

“
Gluck ab!
” the troopers chorused in the platoon’s battle cry.

There was a bump as the shuttle’s pilot,
Lieutenant Steven ‘Not Me’ Jackson brought the shuttle into contact with the ship. “
Sorry ‘bout the bump,
” he commed, “
All of the automatic systems are out, and I had to do it the old fashioned way.
”

“
Ground Force, let’s go!
” yelled Master Sergeant Aaron ‘Top’ Smith. “
What are you waiting for, an engraved invitation?
”

The Ground Force stood up behind Calvin, ready to go out the door.

Calvin watched as the shuttle crewman attached the docking collar to the ship. Through the boarding tube, Calvin could see several of the Mrowry waiting in a large open area. They were all about six feet tall and had some sort of combat suit on, but had their helmets off. As he looked at the felinoids, he realized that he was going to be the person that made first contact with an advanced race. Again.

Any excite
ment at that thought was dashed as he entered the Mrowry ship, and all six of the felinoids leveled their rifles at him. He slowly put his hands in the air and said, “Is this how you always greet people that you request assistance from?”

“When we don’t know them
, and they might be trying to take advantage of us,” answered one of the Mrowry, “yes.” He looked Calvin up and down. “Unfortunately, we have learned the hard way recently that no one can be trusted in these times.”

“
What’s going on?
” asked Night from behind him.

“
I’m not sure,
” Calvin replied. “
Stand by.
” To the Mrowry he said, “Well, you invited us here, and we came like you asked. If you don’t want us here, we will leave.”

“The timing of your arrival is suspect,” one of the other Mrowry noted, “just in time to finish us off. How do we know that you are not in league with the lizards?”

“Aside from the fact that we just blew up two of their shuttles?” asked Calvin. “I don’t know, but I’d be happy to show you if you’d just get out of our way. They killed a lot of my men on our last voyage, and I would like to return the favor.” Calvin shrugged, emphasizing it so that it could be seen with the suit on. “Or we can leave. Your choice.”

The Mrowry who had initially spoken brought his rifle back into a carrying position. “I truly hope you are here to help,” he said, “because we need it. We are doomed without your assistance.
Thank you for coming.” At some unspoken signal, all of the rest of the troops brought their rifles back to a carry position as well.

Calvin came the rest of the way into the bay and motioned the rest of the squad to enter. “
We’re good, Night,
” he commed, “
go get ‘em. We’ll meet you in the middle.
” He took off his helmet and said to the one that seemed to be in charge, “I’m Lieutenant Commander Shawn Hobbs from the Terran Spaceship
Vella Gulf
. How can we help?”

“I am Lieutenant Rrower,” the Mrowry said. “I am in charge of our security forces. The problem that we have is that we had
so many casualties in the space battle with the lizards that we’ve had to use some of our engineers as soldiers to fight the lizards that boarded us. We don’t have enough people to both hold off the lizards and fix the engines at the same time. Using everyone that is able-bodied, we have just enough men and women to stalemate the lizards that made it onto the ship. If we pull anyone back, they start advancing again. We’ve got to get the motors fixed or we are going to be drawn into the star. If you can take over for some of the engineers that are currently on the front line of the battle, that will let them go back to fixing the damage the lizards caused.”

“No problem,” replied Calvin. “Just take us to where we need to go. If you can give us schematics of the ship, that would help us as well. My other squad is going to go to the front of the ship and hit them from behind.”

“Just a second,” Lieutenant Rrower said. His eyes went unfocused for a few seconds as he communicated with someone. He refocused on Calvin and asked, “Did you hear that?”

“No,” replied Calvin. “Whatever was said, I missed it.”

“No offense, but can I take it from the age of your ship that your implants are similarly outdated?” asked the felinoid. “It never occurred to me to ask, but do you even
have
implants?”

“We do have implants,” answered Calvin, “but honestly, I don’t have any idea where they are in relation to galactic standards. I know that the Psiclopes were getting some types of tech upgrades for a period, but I don’t know if that applied to implant technology.” Calvin noticed that the Mrowry made a face when the Psiclopes were mentioned, but wasn’t familiar enough with the felinoids to know what it meant.

“I am going to have my computer try to contact you via implant,” said Rrower.

A communications window opened in Calvin’s mind, displaying
a cartoonish picture of a tiger’s paw. In the middle of the paw was a mouth that moved in time with the transmission. “
Lieutenant Commander Hobbs,
” said the paw, “
this is the artificial intelligence for the
Emperor’s Paw
. I have spoken with the AI onboard your
Vella Gulf
and believe this to be the right communications protocol. Are you receiving and understanding me?
”

“
I am,
” replied Calvin, “
do you have some schematics for me?
”

“
I do,
” answered the paw. It changed into the picture of a paw holding a roll of blueprints. “
You will understand, of course, if some of the more sensitive information is left off.
” The paw set the blueprints down and pretended to erase something from one of them.

“
I understand,
” said Calvin with a smile at the AI’s antics. “
As long as it shows the floor plans where we will be fighting, that is all that I am worried about. Will you be sending it to all of my soldiers or just me?
”

“
It will go to everyone,
” replied the AI.

“
Thanks,
” replied Calvin. Switching to the platoon network, he commed, “
Ship schematics inbound from the ship’s AI. The ship is named the
Emperor’s Paw,
and the AI uses that as its name.
”

“
Paw, Lieutenant Commander Hobbs,
” Calvin commed, “
can you mark friendly and enemy positions on the schematics, and keep it updated as the battle continues?
”

“
I will do what I can,
” replied the AI. “
To say that I have a lot that I’m currently managing is an understatement. I also sustained a lot of damage before the Ssselipsssiss came aboard, and they are systematically destroying my sensors as they move around.
”