The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell (146 page)

  “So where are we supposed to go then?” Vaistll asked.

  “Stay here or go back to your old base camp. Someone will come by later and pick you up. But they have no idea as to when.” The acting captain responded.

  “We will be waiting at our old base camp then.” Vaistll mentioned.

  “Alright I’ll inform them.”

  When Task Force ZH-3C disembark they noticed that their Quad-Walkers was still there. Although the crew of the cargo ship wanted to offload some vehicles the team said no. They wanted to walk back because it brings back memories of their fallen comrades. After two hours of traveling they got to the house that Ellis, Wexler and Moriarty was at when Ellis wanted to wait out the storm when the three of them first arrived  What took them so long was their desire to take pictures and/or videos.

  “Hey Ol’ Man, isn’t it kind of strange that it’s too quiet. We should be hearing the sounds of nature. You know… like birds or something.” Ellis said to Wexler. Actually there were sounds of nature. It was still in the middle of the day. Life returned there at some point.

  “Maybe it has something to do with that orange colored cinnabar.” Wexler responded.

  “What’s cinnabar?” Ellis asked with a smile of fondness.

  “Vermillion.” Wexler responded.

  “What’s vermillion?” Ellis asked.

  “A different shade of sarcasm.” Wexler said. It caused Ellis to chuckle as he was missing their so-call chauffeur (Moriarty).

  When they got across the river and back to the boat house that they were once at, they decided to wait awhile. They were looking into the distance knowing that as soon as they can see the sky glowing that another Golem had just been destroyed. They knew that they didn’t have to wait that long for it to get to it’s destination. It’s height, roughly one thousand feet, should give it a walking stride of at least 250 feet. But because of what it is comprised up of, and given the terrain, and the distance, it still shouldn’t take it that long to get anywhere. But once it gets into water… who knows. What’s more everybody is both intentionally and unintentionally slowing it down.

  “And there it goes.” Ramirez said after fifty minutes have passed. They all left without saying a word and headed back to their old base camp. One more Golem to take down, and Jaguar 42R is the man with the plan. He just hasn’t told anybody what it is yet.

(9)

  The factory Golem was at the rendezvous point and it was trapped. Drones took the anchors of ships and hooked it into the Golem. Then, when enough was attached, they simply just sunk the ships. The Golem was not able to move in any given direction. They also made certain that everything above it’s chest was above the waterline.

  “Do you think that it will work?” The Crewman asked.

  “The torpedo or the tactic?” The comrade asked.

  “Either.”

  “Actually the tactic will work but as for the torpedo…”

  “What? What about it?”

  “This torpedo originally had a 20 megaton warhead and…”

  “Originally?”

  “Yeah. Apparently the counter measures on Ma Duce struck it and it lost some of it’s kick.”

  “What!? Like how much?”

  “Ninety-nine point nine percent.”

  “So what, it’s now basically has the equivalent of a 20 kiloton warhead?”

  “You got it. So let’s just fire the damn thing and get it over with.”

  As luck would have it, it was the tactic and not the yield that always worked. When the Golem is in the water, make certain that your nuclear detonation occurs in the water and by it. As soon as everyone could see what was left of the Golem it became obvious to everyone that it too was no more. What was left of it had pieces fall off periodically. (It did had one arm up in the air.) When it became obvious the Kronos Golem was no longer interested in KEV 74 the crew of the cargo ship that Task Force ZH-3C was on left and headed to a more safer secure port.

  As the Clown, err, Kronos Golem was headed towards it’s rendezvous point people would shoot at it just for the hell of it. (Even in the water it could make people laugh at it for every single time that it try to say Kronos it sounded like it was saying Bro Knows. Which would cause some of the pilot gunners to laugh and say “Yeah the bros knows. And what we know is that you are no mo.”)

  “Goddamn that stupid mother fucking piece of shithead garbage bag rat fucking scum sucking trash whore of the universe!” Jaguar 42R angrily shouted out over the radio.

  “What’s wrong?” Vaistll asked him. She was glad to hear that he was still alive. (And the fact that he had earlier reconnected his helmet to the com system.)

  “That damn clown whoring dickhead deuce-bag won’t incorporate the wreckage!” Jaguar 42R said. It was apparent to all the he was piss as shit.

  “So what are you going to do?” Vaistll asked him. Hoping for the best response but fearing the worse. She really did not want to lose him.

  “Say, who’s piloting the dropship? It looks like a… Marine dropship.”

  “We are.” Vaistll responded.

  “Were did you get a Marine dropship?”

  “Will you tell me what you are going to do with that Golem?”

  “Of course I will.”

  “At some point after we landed upon this world, and permanently left the area, Mad Dawg sent us this dropship. I knew it was him, he’d left us a note.”

  “Really. What does it say?”

  “It says that he is sorry for what transpired before and that he does regret both his poor judgment and his behavior. He also stated that he had not abandoned us he just has other problems that he is working out. And then he added that we should keep our heads up and keep up the fight.”

  “Have you ever encountered this class of Dominator before?”

  “No.” Vaistll responded pondering what he will say next.

  “You are aware that it does have torpedoes on board?”

  “I never heard that before, so no.”

  “It has three. All low yield. Each has a 10 kiloton warhead. But they can only be fired upward not downward. Which means that we have no other way to use them other than…”

  “Wait! Why not just land and let someone take them out?”

  “I already thought about that. Captain Peterson along with Wilcox said that it wouldn’t work because of the safety measure incorporated into each one. Each one would have been automatically disarmed if we attempted it. And then they would need to have been taken back to the factory that produced them. But there always was another way to use them… but it’s risky.”

  “How risky?” Vaistll asked feeling a little heartbroken.

  “Me and Viper could theoretically die.”

  “What do you mean ‘theoretically’?”

  “I could easily program it on a flight path. Viper could program when the torpedoes detonate. It does have an escape pod. But there is a catch.”

  “What sort of a catch?”

  “Although we still have limited control over the Dominator after we eject, it’s not for long. But that shouldn’t be the real problem that we will face.”

  “So what will?”

  “This Dominator is old. It’s been setting in a hangar for maybe fifty years. We think that there could be some sort of critters living in it. Look, let me put it to you simply – it’s a flying rust bucket. Even if the escape pod works there is still two problems. At one point it’s thrusters will fire in order to get the two of us as far away from the explosion as fast as possible. And then it will eject us and hopefully we will be able to parachute down to safety. So you tell me how many things could go wrong?”

  “So you are thinking about flying it near the Golem and then detonate the torpedoes?” Vaistll said with a very heavy heart.

  “Maybe.”

  “I’ll miss you so very much.”

  “You’ll get over it.”

  “Please I want the two of you to live.”

  “Why? We can’t breed. We’re the last of our kind.”

  “If not for hope… than do it for… me.”

  “Goodbye my friend. It’s been nice knowing you.” Jaguar 42R responded.

  “No.” Vaistll cried when she said it.

  “Ma’am… look! They ejected!” Ellis nearly shouted out.

  Vaistll watched as the escape pod left the Dominator (it was already a long way away from it), and then she saw it’s thrusters fired. But there was a blinding light where the Golem once was. She then had to wait for her helmet to allow her to see again after the nuclear detonation. When she was able to see once more she saw that their parachutes did in fact opened and they were slowly coming down into the water. She was overcome with joy.

  “They did it! Oh my god they did it! They killed the Golem!” Coté shouted out. Everybody looked and couldn’t believe it. It was finally over… for everyone upon that world.

  “You ejected. Why?” Vaistll asked both Jaguar 42R and Viper 33X. When they got near enough to pick them up out of the water.

  “Both of us kept on struggling over which plan to use… but it always kept on coming back to one.” Jaguar 42R stated as he was being pulled into the dropship.

  “We chose you. Or rather your team. You gave us hope.” Viper 33X stated when he got in. It caused all of Task Force ZH-3C to cry when they heard that.

  “ Other than that, why us?’ Ellis asked through tears.

  “Because you made it this far. So we said… why not?” Viper 33X responded.

  All of Golden Hyperion, the whole of the human race, was celebrating! The most evil institution that the human race ever created was defeated! Multiple time over no doubt! And what made it all possible was the fact that they could never conquer the human heart and soul! And then it happened. Once more another shock to everyone. La’jyn’eu Ikkry’o came to free them from the Golems! And the ship that he was on! That alone was another shock to everyone! La’jyn’eu Ikkry’o had no other choice but to stay and watch over Golden Hyperion. But look at who and what he had on board!

  Task Force ZH-3C decided to head back to Fort Conti to meet up with their old friend Mad Dawg. They also made certain that all the surviving Marines was there. They spent their time there enjoying each other’s company and thanking the gods that it was all over. A few weeks later after they arrived they got another unexpected gift. The Hammer of Doom with Lenkov and Omori finally returned back to the system! When both Lenkov and Omori came to visit the group everyone was overcome with joy at seeing them once again. The time that both Lenkov and Omori spent in that new universe change them into something new. Even The Hammer of Doom was changed. It look like… heaven in some odd sort of way. With everyone seeing Ziin’lyi’tols (EOD Ultra Class M1) and then later The Hammer of Doom, it proved that the EOD never had a chance upon that world.

  As The Hammer of Doom made it’s goodbye and head off to Andromeda, it had on board all those who wished to returned to that world. (Which was it’s former surviving crew.) It also had on board Mad Dawg and his surviving Marines, McIntyre, Jaguar 42R, Viper 33X and what was left of Task Force ZH-3C. Everyone wanted to meet up with Dark Phoenix and exchange stories. It then returned back to Roscadia so that Vaistll could, not only debrief her superiors, but also pick up her family. And then they all headed towards Andromeda. They all will call it home. And as for Jaguar 42R and Viper 33X? Back at Fort Conti both Lenkov and Omori introduced them to a new species: what they are a Dragon Clone! Both of them will take a wife and have a large family on Andromeda!

(10)

  “Let me say one thing before I leave this beautiful world of yours.” Vaistll was informing the people of Golden Hyperion before she, and The Hammer of Doom, left that world. “For what I am about to tell you comes from my old Hyyuk’ma holy book. And goes as follows, quote:

‘
Do not fear the darkness that looms on the horizon;

For your strength allowed you to vanquish the evil that seemed greater than God;

For you have endured the pain of the ages, and stood firm;

And despite your moment of weakness, when you felt that you could not go on;

You put your fate into the hands of God and found your salvation;

Indeed the evil tested your heart and soul to the breaking point;

But your faith in God was stronger, your sense of justice as equally as strong;

Although the evil tried to deceive you in all of its diabolical ways;

The goodness in your heart triumph with the love and grace of God by your side;

Evil is never vanquished so easily, for it will try to consume you;

What it desires is for you and it to become one and the same;

Then it seeks to slowly destroy your heart, your soul, your life;

To take you down the dark pathway, for which, there is no return;

In the end your only reward is your own damnation that you so deserved;

Then you will discover that your consciousness becomes your tormentor;

Calling into question why you should be allowed to go to heaven;