Authors: Max Feinstein
The ground
shook underneath them more intensely this time, causing General Stelle to reach out and grab the edge of the Combat Coordination Table to steady himself. This second barrage had landed right on top of them, targeting the mountain they were under directly. As flakes of dust fell on the holographic table before him, Brinek wondered whether the enemy knew they were hitting the main Command and Control Center for the entire military contingent on the planet. Judging by how much they were throwing at the base, the answer was somewhat obvious, but brought with it many more questions.
Brinek looked up from the display and up to the ceiling, from which the layer of dust had fallen. The shockwaves passing through the mountain from the detonations had been strong enough to crack the reinforced shell covering the Command Room
. Even as his eyes focused on the dark ceiling, however, the cracks had almost completely disappeared, having been self-repaired by the syncrete. He could see some of the larger cracks filling up with a foam-like material released from the structure itself and instantly harden to its original strength. The entire base had been constructed from the material and could heal itself, within reason, should the need arise. Satisfied that the shell would not collapse on top of them, General Stelle looked down to study his CCT once more.
The holographic display showed a complete rendering of the surrounding area, including the mountain side housing the base itself as well as the surrounding area into which his ground forces had deployed to reinforce the perimeter. Brinek had two entire combat divisions, over twelve thousand men and women, assigned to the Command Headquarters and a majority of those troops had already been deployed. There were other company and battalion sized units
strewn around the countryside, which had been on training maneuvers when the hostilities had begun. These units had been recalled as soon as the laser data network had come online. They would join their comrades in defense of the base if the need called for.
“Sir, they just hit the entire TLaR network. We registered five direct i
mpacts, but one system is still online. That relay is half blocked by debris, however,” reported the Colonel as he leaned closer to one of the large displays.
“Well, that didn’t take them long,
did it?” sighed General Stelle as more aspects of his defensive preparations deteriorated. “Did you get the message out to all forces?”
“Roger that sir, CON Red-Charlie was the first message we got out.”
Another shudder ran through the facility and kicked up the dust that had collected on the CCT. General Stelle shook his head and blinked quickly as some of it attacked his eyes. He ran his hand through his shortly cut hair at the same time and wiped away any debris particles that might have coated his scalp. As he opened his lacrimating eyes and focused once more on the holographic image in front of him, Brinek instantly realized that something was very wrong with the picture and took a double take. He was sure that no more than seconds ago there had been many more units on the map than there were now. This was confirmed when his neural implant read his thoughts and called up previous unit locations, marking them with representative icons, which featured every units designation and statistics. These units had seemed to simply vanish from the planet’s surface.
“General
, we just registered multiple surface impacts and detonations along the entire perimeter, both length and width. We lost contact with the 48
th
, 12
th
, 335
th
, and the 572
nd
. Half of the remaining units reporting mass casualties from ten to fifty percent. We got hit hard sir, very hard.” Stated Colonel Lakler as he got direct updates from the communications station.
“They knew just where t
o hit us and how to do it right,” the General acknowledged in a surprisingly calm voice as he studied the map in front of him closer.
“Sir, we also lost contact with Colonel Slaige’s team
.”
The map rotated and changed as he instructed
, focusing on the area that had received the greatest amount of punishment. It was also the area that had contained the highest concentration of military might. The bombardment seemed to have cleared a fairly defined path through the security line leading straight to the base itself. This realization hit the general like a driver to the head.
“Colonel, deploy all remaining reserves to Sector Alpha! Lock this base down
and prepare for an assault.” Even as the last words of this command left his mouth an alarm sounded throughout the base and his two body guards instantly unbound their weapons, holding them at the ready while facing the large blastdoors that separated the Command Room from the rest of the base.
“We got reports of enemy soldiers inside the perimeter, sir! The 85
th
found what look like orbital drop pods less than four hundred meters from base entrance.”
“They used to the bombardment as a cover for the drop pods. Well
at least we know they aren’t stupid,” General Stelle took a moment to admire their tactical sense just as another shockwave passed through the base, closer this time than the one before it, knocking loose some syncrete from one of the walls.
“New detonations along the perimeter and flanks, sir.
I believe they are trying to slow down the flow of reinforcements from the other sectors,” Colonel Lakler relayed as he read the unfolding situation before them.
Whoever these hostiles were, thought Brinek, they knew exactly what they were doing and how to do it. They were going after leadership targets quickly and with full force in order to disorient the rest of the military forces on the planet, making it harder for them to put together a cohesive defensive strategy. The enemy had already disabled most of their communications network and would soon take down this base. Being an optimist all his life, it was hard for the general to admit this failure, but it stemmed from reality. He simply did not have the
resources present to stop this very attack. The enemy had surprised the hell out of everyone and he had to give them credit for that.
The General took a deep breath and turned to look at Gustauf, who had the same feeling as Brinek. “Colonel Lalker, dump all the information we have obtained into the Couri
ers and dispatch them to Tesa.”
“Hostile forces have entered the base! Repeat, hostile forces are inside t
he base!” shouted the soldier manning the communications station. “Sensors are tracking them spreading out all over, but the majority is converging on this location. They are moving quickly and appear to be breaking through all checkpoints.”
Brinek keyed in the security cams on his CCT and took a step back as the image appeared. It was of one of the large hallways stretching throughout the base. At the bottom edge of the feed was a group of four armed soldiers crouching behind a pair of
Tactical Shields, which were designed to stop incoming projectile and laser fire while at the same time allowing soldiers behind them to fire through special slots. They were made from almost completely transparent metallic alloys and surrounding by a small forcefield to stop laser weapons.
Just then, at the top of the screen a door exploded
from the side of a wall and slammed into the wall opposite it. Through this forced opening jumped what seemed like an orange mass of armor and beast. Whatever it was bounced off the opposite wall on four legs almost like the armored door had done, before accelerated towards the soldiers standing at their post in the hallway behind their shields. Behind the creature more enemy soldiers appeared, all running through the door on four legs with their heads, or what he assumed to be their heads, pointed down. Laser and projectile fire seemed to splash and impact all around the first creature, but it was hard to notice if any damage was actually done because the thing kept on coming in almost a blur, a testament to their speed.
Brinek noted that all of the hostiles seemed to have what looked like a small cannon attached to their back
s. Just then the camera feed broke into a static for a few seconds. When the display cleared, two of the soldiers behind their barrier were on the ground, dead or dying. A flash filled the screen as something exploded and the first creature was thrown back against one of the walls with a deep crater in its underside. There was no time to celebrate the minor victory as the rest of the enemy force was upon the checkpoints. They didn’t even slow down as they crashed head first into the barriers and knocked them back as if they were made of foil. The remaining soldiers were thrown into the walls with the same force and trampled over as they got in the way.
He shook his head a little and let the camera feeds cycle again
watching the image change one room or corridor after another. The base was a massive underground construction, but the base’s Restricted Artificial Intelligence showed only the areas in which enemy troops had been detected or were expected to come through. The first few images were corridors and rooms blocked off by soldiers, but the rest were scenes of battle and defeat. One image was a string of feeds following a squads retreat from one room or corridor to another. They were losing men along the way, but none of them broke, conducting themselves with extreme professionalism in what was a losing battle. He couldn’t be more proud of his soldiers than he was at that moment. Brinek also couldn’t be sadder at this moment. These men and women were all like his kids and he was like a father to them. He had raised all of them since they had been eighteen year old kids on their first deployment. The thoughts were quickly shut out of his mind. He would think about them all later, but not at this moment.
Another image
quickly replaced the last just as one of the enemy soldiers landed in the midst of another group of security personal, slamming into one with its head, sending the man or woman flying before spinning around to smash the others against both corridor walls. Some of the other images only showed groups of the hostiles running through empty dark hallways as they made their way towards the Command Room.
“They are here sir….” One of the soldiers remarked and trailed off nervousness in her voice just before the last camera feed switched on just outside the Number 1 Blastdoor.
The image showed what seemed like a platoon sized group of hostiles mulling around on the other side of the massive door protecting the Command Room. Under their limbs were the bodies of a dozen dead soldiers that had been tasked with guarding the blastdoor. Whatever these things were, they seemed to be very anxious, or at least it looked that way to the general. He really had no idea what kind of emotions of mannerisms these creatures had since they were not where new human. What he did recognize, however, was that they were splitting into two groups on the other side of the entrance and making a path for something big.
“Tilt that cam up. What are they doing at the other end?” Instructed General Stelle as he looked up from his CCT towards the large blastdoor across the room.
The blastdoor was made from some of the densest and most resistant alloys in production, allowing it to withstand assaults from almost all ground weapons known to mankind. It was designed for the purpose of giving those inside the containment room just enough time for help to arise and alleviate the situation, but not as an indefinite protector. There was also nothing human about these aliens and it stood to reason that their technology, weapon and otherwise, wouldn’t be either. This made the general wonder what sort of weapon they would use to breach the blastdoor.
Brinek looked down at the display and waited for the camera to move into position. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his two protectors moving themselves between the blastdoor and him. Just then the camera locked into position in time to see what looked like a missile propel itself from a launcher. His head bolted up
to look at the blastdoor, while his body braced for the impact that would surely happen.
There was no detonation, however. As he looked at the slab of alloy separating him from the enemy horde outside, his eyes grew with surprise as a shimmering object appeared in the middle of the Command Room and dropped to the ground. The general opened his mouth to speak when an ear splitting high pitch shriek filled the room, causing his eyes to shut quickly and his hands to reflexively cover his eyes. None of this helped, however, as the sound intensified, making him drop to the ground in agony. The pain stopped him from making any conscious decisions. As he rolled on the ground all he could think of was for the pain to stop
and for all this to be over.
General Brinek Stelle never saw the explosion that destroyed the blastdoor. Nor did he witness the large chucks of alloy shatter and accelerate in all directions, shredding through anything that got in their way like shrapnel from a fragmentation grenade. All the general noticed was being picked up off the ground as the pressure wave spread throughout the room. There was a moment of weightlessness before him body slammed into something hard and immobile. As he fell back to the ground the general realized only one thing before the darkness surrounded him, the pain was over.