The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell (47 page)

  The other thirty-five crewmembers with a symbiote in them were too important for the hive to send off without micro-managing their survival. One cell, the first (of the group) to be created, was the hive equivalent to the HIDSO. The next cell would become the equivalent to that of the Pentagon. The third would become the Tylkuoply R&D cell. The Necro-Mystic home world would become the fourth. And so on. Each cell devoted to the long term survival of the hive.

  Ten years later in 2299, the hive was preparing to expand throughout the galaxy. But it didn’t. Instead it decided to consolidate it’s power by connecting all the cells (through technology) into one. Then it wanted to evolve itself into something that would prevent itself from being destroyed by some type of a cure. Perhaps one cell could be lost, but not them all. The same goes for any poisons used on it. It wanted to take advantage of the Darwinian concept of: only the strong will survive. That no matter what is used upon it, some of the cells will still survive.

  The hive realized it’s mistake on the Wol’ga’con home world was that it wanted to consume all. Too fast, too soon, too much. But this time around it would show greater patience. To think more clearly and sharply before it consumes anything. To put it’s massive brain together to figure out how it could consume the whole galaxy if not the whole universe.

  The hive will pay a high price for not seeing the threat that Commodore Parker posed to it. When he realized that Mynik’ny’nuta betrayed him, he told the EOD about her and the Tylkuoply hive. After the EOD created it’s safe guards to protect itself from the hive, the EOD went in search of the hive. They wanted a symbiote and/or a cell intact to learn anything of value from it. But that was easier said than done. They eventually settled on capturing a symbiote. It took them thirty-three years to do it, but they did capture a person with a symbiote in them.

  The EOD had to narrow down where the hive was and they had to start from somewhere. And the first place they had to look was Roscadia. Because Parker knew the system well, and he was the first to know about the hive, the EOD sent him (as a Captain) to Roscadia. But he had to take on a support role for another captain. No revenge for Parker. Someone else will get the chance to strike the blow against the hated Roscadia.

  New Horizon was still stationed at Roscadia along with a support ship. Both New Horizon and Dark Star (the ship that Parker was supporting) was destroyed in the fight. New Horizon support ship was too heavily damaged to stay in the fight and had to retreat. Parker’s orders were crystal clear from that point forward (the order was given to him before he got there): DO NOT DESTROY STARBASE 231 OR THE PROJECT 21 HQ. The EOD knew how much he hated that system and they are not going to let him ruin their objectives in that star system. He had to sit there and do nothing.

  What Parker didn’t know was that the EOD needed a distraction and both he, and the captain of Dark Star was that distraction. The EOD sent in a Infiltration Unit to infiltrate both Starbase 231 and Project 21 HQ looking for information on the hive. When it was over 245 people lost their lives with 3.6 times the number being injured. When the Infiltration Unit was finished, they left and return back to Parker’s ship. Parker’s orders told him to leave and return back to base.

  Parker had to leave the planetary system that he hated so much. He wanted to destroy Starbase 231 and/or Project 21 headquarters and he couldn’t. He wanted a promotion and got none. Over the course of the next five years, the EOD sent Parker on a wild goose chase looking for the Tylkuoply hive. Not once did he got a promotion for all the trouble that he went through, throughout that long time period. He started to realize that what he was doing is worse than the time that he spent in Roscadia. At least with Roscadia he had a home, he could go to a night club, or even see a prostitute. But he could neither do, or even have any of that. His spirit became crushed over that long time period as he slowly started to succumb to his fate. If Parker stayed at Roscadia, learned to do his job, swallow his pride, and did as he was told to do, he would have been promoted out of Roscadia. What’s more, he would have been a lot more happier than what he is.

  At the end of Parker’s wild goose chase, he finally got a lucky break. He found a cell. But not just any cell. He found the science cell. The very cell that was devoted exclusively to R&D. The very cell that was created to give the hive far superior technology. To vastly improve its chances at survival. For whatever reason, Parker made the decision to destroy the cell. He knew that it would be suicidal for him to do it, but he did it anyway. In the end, the cell, Parker and his crew (minus one) was killed in the conflict. It would take fifteen years before anyone in the EOD High Command would learn of the sacrifice of him and his crew.

  Parker was posthumously promoted to the rank of Fleet Captain. The rank that he always loved. He was also posthumously rewarded the EOD highest medal – the Consular Medal of Sacrifice for the Good of the Community. But since he had no family or dependants within the EOD community, all of his benefits was turned over to the EOD community that he was assigned to. They became the only people who will always remember his sacrifice.

  Parker’s sacrifice struck a major blow to the Tylkuoply hive. His death stop the hive from becoming a technological hyper-power. A hyper-power that would have become impossible to stop. But he died a forgotten hero. It would take centuries before his sacrifice would become public knowledge. And only then would he receive his just reward in acknowledgement of his sacrifice.

  Despite any wars that the EOD fought, no matter how hard the fight, no matter what the losses were, no matter what type of defeat, the EOD over next thirty-five years attack and destroyed any cell that it found. The EOD became what General Ydxx’od’omaa became to it – its destroyer. The EOD went so far as to create a new type of ship – the Tylkuoply Hunter-Killer, or THK for short. Each time that any of the new class of ship confronted the hive, the EOD worked out any flaws in the design of the ship. The THK Class kept on hitting the hive harder and harder. The EOD kept the hive in a constant state of being punch-drunk.

  The war that the Tylkuoply hive had with the Necro-Mystics was endless and brutal. Whole worlds were destroyed in the onslaught between the two. The death toll was innumerable. The war sapped the strength of both of them reducing them to a shadow of their former selves. With their enemies seeing a huge weakness within both of them, they attack, which further the collapse of the Tylkuoply hive and the Necro-Mystics. It was the Necro-Mystics who ultimately imploded. But throughout the time period they still remained a huge threat.

  But with the Tylkuoply hive it had a great deal of resiliency. It was more like a profusely bleeding rash that won’t go away. It appeared to have been crushed, and then it springs back to life. Each time around it becomes even more stronger, smarter, harder to kill, longer to crush, something that may win and consume all. It became the personification of the monster Bulnik’no.

  Without the crew of Galactic Prime knowing it, they were about to create a snowball affect on Golden Hyperion. It would come in the form of a famous man and woman, and what they helped to create. It was something that the crew would have to face eventually. Once that snowball gets rolling down that mountain, the avalanche that it will create will engulf the EOD. The only thing that the crew has to do, is to do the impossible – survive.

(8)

  17 October Starship DTS, early in the morning. Vaistll was in her quarters praying. She did, and she did not believe that that day was cursed, but she didn’t want to take any chances. She was trying her best to remember the purification rituals for the day. Eventually she did remember the rituals, but she realized that she doesn’t have all that she needed. She then heard her doorbell rang. It was Ramirez.

  “Come on in.” She said to him.

  “Ma’am… what are you doing?” He asked.

  “I was trying to do a purification ritual since today is supposed to be a cursed day.”

  “Ma’am… no offense, but you seriously don’t believe that… do you? I mean we had at least on… um… three occasions had a mission that started on this day. And other than the obvious, nothing really happened. So I wouldn’t call this day a curse.”

  “So why did you come here?”

  “Mad Dawg sent me to inform you that he found something of interest and he wanted to check it out.”

  “So what is it that he found?”

  “He didn’t say. But he had to alter course. Whatever it is, we should be there in about roughly ten hours or so.”

  “Strange.”

  “How’s that ma’am?”

  “I just had this strange feeling that what we went through over the past three weeks would seem trivial in comparison to what we are fixing to go through.”

  “I’m certain that it’s nothing.”

  “Yeah… I sure do hope so.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” Ramirez said with a smile.

  In truth she couldn’t help but to worry. After all that day is suppose to be the day of curses, bad luck, bad omens, Murphy’s Law, etc. How could she not worry? She just couldn’t help it. And then for no reason whatsoever, Mad Dawg popped into her mind.

  Could Mad Dawg have something to do with her feelings? If so, then what? Will he jeopardized their mission? If that’s the case then it would already would be over for them. The whole crew would be lost. They are in a  EOD star system after all. Mad Dawg can’t be that… mad.. Could he? God, she wished and hoped that it truly is nothing but her worrying over nothing, like Ramirez said. But still…

Golden Hyperion

(1)

17 October, 2288, 16:57 hours, Starship DTS, Galactic Prime has finally made it to the outer region of the Omicron Ultra star system. Even though they are not yet there, Task Force ZH-3C mission on Golden Hyperion has officially started. Several hours earlier they detected the remains of a Marine gunboat and EOD Robotic Fighter Drones. Approximate total number of Marines killed: 54. It was a rude awaking for the crew of Galactic Prime.

“Tell Captain Adnrwal that we are here.” Mad Dawg told one of his Marines.

“Yes sir.”

As they were traveling at slow speeds through the star system, they detected more dead EOD Fighter Drones and a Marine gunship. Then it repeated itself again. It repeated six times. Eventually they came across the remains of a dead EOD Robotic Starbase. The starbase was design for those Robotic Fighter Drones. They also found what was left of a Marine Fast Attack Ship. Total number of crew: 350. In all, approximately 650 to 700 Marines died trying to destroy that Robotic Starbase.

“Now you know why… our training is so important.” Vaistll mentioned on the bridge. Nobody said anything.

“We need to collect intelligence on what we are dealing with.” Mad Dawg said.

“You assemble the team… and I’ll ask Ramirez to lead the way.” Vaistll responded.

“Yeah… okay.”

Ramirez and a small group of Marines left by shuttlecraft. They were wearing their spacesuit.(minus the pilot). All of them knew that what they were about to do is highly dangerous, but they had to do it. They needed what little intelligence that they could collect.

The pilot slow down when they got within five minutes of the Marine ship. But those minutes felt like an eternity to them. Off and on they would hear something small hit the shuttlecraft. Sometimes it was a small piece of metal, other times it was something soft and frozen. Nobody said anything. A couple of them look at the direction of where they heard the object hit the shuttlecraft. They knew that they were in no danger. And they knew what had hit the shuttlecraft. But they had to look. At one point the pilot cried out, “Holy shit!” When everybody looked out of the pilot window they saw a corpse hit the window. Once again, nobody said anything.

When the pilot got close enough to the ship, she could neither dock, nor land on the ship. Instead she orbit near the closest, non-damaged airlock, to the bridge. She then activated a plasma door, since they were going to do an EVA. Ramirez and the Marines then left. Ramirez started to think about what it must have been like when Vaistll’s brothers did the same thing, when they headed to the EOD ship of when they first got to this galaxy. Ramirez, like those Marines, has the training. Vaistll’s brothers did not. Nor did they know their way around.

When they got inside Ramirez check to see if the EOD left them any surprises – they didn’t. When they got to the bridge the engineers hooked up a power cell to the computers and then extracted the Captain’s log. With that, they headed back to Galactic Prime.

After 40 minutes of analyzing the Captain’s log, Ramirez and Second Lieutenant Murphy (Chief of Security of Galactic Prime) finally got the intelligence that they were looking for. They then informed Vaistll and Mad Dawg that they were done. Vaistll and Mad Dawg then called their senior officers to the conference room for a debriefing on the intelligence.

“First of all…” Ramirez was saying. “…the EOD is protecting this star system as if though it was their Central Command & Control Headquarters.”

“Do you know what is located here?” Vaistll asked.

“No.” Ramirez responded.

“The captain of the Fast Attack Ship was on a need-to-know orders.” Second Lieutenant Murphy added.

“Are there anymore of those Robotic Starbases in this star system?” Mad Dawg asked.

“Yes. There are seven in a cartwheel fashion surrounding this star system.” Ramirez responded.

“They are destroyed… aren’t they?” Mad Dawg asked.

“Yes.” Second Lieutenant Murphy responded.

“So how are they controlled by the EOD on Golden Hyperion?” Taylor asked.

“They’re not. They’re controlled by one of the moons on the farthest planet in this system.” Ramirez responded.

“Then how are they controlled when the planet is at the most distance from one of the starbases?” Mad Dawg asked.

“The captain didn’t provide any insights on that. But she did implied that we might learn that on the Robotic Control moon.” Second Lieutenant Murphy responded.

“What is the name of the moon?” Taylor asked.

“OU-dash-seven-P-forward slash-five.” Ramirez responded.

OU is the acronym of the star system. 7P refers to the seventh planet and the five refers to the fifth moon in the planetary system.

“What type of defenses does the moon have?” Vaistll asked.

“Unknown. The captain did mentioned that a Space Core Fleet was headed there to deal with any threat.” Second Lieutenant Murphy responded.

“What is the fate of the fleet?” Taylor asked.

“Unknown.” Ramirez responded.

“Alright. I guess we’re gonna have to go there and check it out.” Mad Dawg said.

They then left the conference room, went to the bridge, and then headed over to the planetary system. Everybody was on edge. Nobody said anything. They were too focused upon doing their job and not letting the EOD get one on them to talk about anything.

When they got there, they saw something that came straight from a war movie. A Destroyer that was destroyed. A Star Fighter Carrier that was scuttled. The remains of ninety Star Fighters and hundreds of Robotic Fighter Drones. Every moon in the system was part of a EOD Robotic Fighter Drone base. The sixth-to-eighth moons had massive plasma gun turrets on them. Which explains the destruction of the Destroyer. There was another ship (broken into three parts) that was so heavily damaged that they couldn’t tell what type of ship it was. It probably was another Destroyer. The approximately number of loss of life: ten-to-twelve thousand. Combine with the approximate number who died destroying the Robotic Starbases: eighteen-to-twenty thousand.

The fourth moon in the planetary system has a very large EOD Robotic Fighter Drone base on it. The third moon has a Robotic Repair Station on it. The second moon has a robotic R&D Laboratory on it. The first moon has a power/fueling station on it. The entire planetary system is self-sustaining. From the looks of it, it only needed a small human presence. No more than one hundred. The only way to take the planetary system is by brute force. Anything less would be suicidal.

The first moon mined helium 3 from the gas giant. The moon acted like a anchor and the station acted like a giant pumping station. There was a huge hose that ran from the station to the atmosphere of the gas giant. In effect, the pumping station worked by creating a low pressure to force the gas up the hose. The same thing is created when a person sucks on a straw to force a liquid up it. Whether the EOD sold the helium 3 as rocket fuel or not, they have centuries of fuel. This is not the type of a star system that needs fuel. It can export it for hundreds of years, if not thousands. The seventh planet in the Omicron Ultra star system has turned the entire star system into the 23
rd
century version of Saudi Arabia and OPEC combined and multiplied by a factor of ten thousand. It is ridiculous beyond comprehension to think that a fuel embargo could starve the whole star system of fuel.

Ramirez and a much larger group of Marines left and headed to the Robotic Control Center of the fifth moon. Because of the size of the installation, and the fact that it was design for temporary human occupation, it would take up to three days for them to search the place and acquire the intelligence that they needed. After they got there, as expected, there was no resistance. Supplies was then shipped to them for the three day search. They also had to set up a wired connection to the drop zone because that was the only way they could communicate back with Galactic Prime.

(2)

“See sir… there it goes again.” The Private informed the officer on duty.

The Private was in the Sensor Relay Room and he’s been noticing that every so once in a while the sensors would detect an EOD ship in the Omicron Ultra star system. But before the sensors could get a lock on the ship, both the lock and the ship disappear.

“Did you check the anti-virus and firewalls?”

“Yes sir. Everything is fine according to them.”

“Has the anti-virus and firewall been corrupted and/or compromised?”

“No sir. They appear to be working just fine.”

“Did you check to see if anyone intentionally deleted the data?”

“Yes sir. There is absolutely no chance that it is either someone from within, or outside, this ship who is responsible for it. It is strictly software related.”

“Okay. I’m gonna to have to speak to Lieutenant Murphy about this. Keep on monitoring it for any more changes. Report back to me if it causes any changes to our system.”

“Yes sir.”

That ship that they were referring to is their missing EOD ship. But as to why would Double Shock go there to that particular star system is anybody guess. On the day that Double Shock killed the mayor, he Ghost Hacked Galactic Prime to hide the EOD ship from their sensors, but only 24 hours after their sensors are destroyed. He then Ghost Hack New Horizon and sent a copy of the intelligence report on Golden Hyperion to the EOD ship. He then erased the logs on New Horizon that showed that he did that. No one suspected a thing.

“You mean to tell me that we have a fuckin’ spy on this ship?” Mad Dawg asked Second Lieutenant Murphy.

“No sir. I’m saying that…”

“Then how do you explain what happened?”

“I can’t sir. It’s probably some new type of a virus and hacking technique.”

“Are you saying that the EOD finally outsmarted our software engineers?”

“Sir… it is probable that they did.”

“Bullshit! Have they ever outsmarted our software engineers?”

“Sir… like I said…”

“Have they!?” Mad Dawg demanded.

“No sir.”

“That’s right… they haven’t. And therefore there is only one explanation: we have a sleeper agent on board this ship.”

“Sir… I don’t think they would do a thing like that.”

“Oh so you don’t do you? Bullshit you bullshitter! I’ll shit all over you, ya shithead! You know that everybody’s experience with the EOD is to expect the unexpected!”

“Sir…”

“How do you know that we don’t have a sleeper on board?”

“I don’t sir. But I…”

“That’s right you…”

“Sir I seriously don’t think…”

“You don’t think what? Look at what it took to take that goddamn Robotic Fighter base!”

“Sir…”

“I said you look at goddamn it!”

“Sir… I was in the shuttlecraft. I seen it up close.”

“Then you should know what the EOD is willing to do to defend this star system.”

“Sir…”

“Now you listen to me…”

“Sir may I speak freely.”

“No! Look at what they did to us at Roscadia. Now… can you safely say that they wouldn’t put a sleeper on board?”

“Sir I think that it would be extremely difficult for…”

“I said you answer the fuckin’ question Lieutenant!”

“No I cannot sir.”

“You cannot what?”

“I cannot safely said that they put a sleeper agent on board sir.”

“That’s right you can’t. Now I want you to arrest each member of Task Force ZH-3C who is a former member of the EOD, then interrogate them.”

“Sir I cannot do that.”

“Can’t… or won’t?”

“Both sir.”

“You listen to me you little shithead… you better stand down… RIGHT NOW! And that’s an order!” Mad Dawg yelled out.

“Sir… I will not comply with your orders until you provide me with proof of their guilt.”

“Their guilt!? They’re fuckin’ former members of the EOD!”

“Sir… that’s not good enough proof to me.”

“Are you going to stand down or not?”

“No sir.”

“Sergeant!”

“Yes sir.” The Sergeant responded.

“Place the Lieutenant under arrest. Then, I want you to round up each member of Task Force ZH-3C who is a former member of the EOD and place them under arrest.”

“Yes sir.” The Sergeant responded.

Not one person under Mad Dawg’s chain of command is a former member of the EOD. His paranoia was reflected upon the fact that the EOD really did a number on him when he defended that laboratory so long ago.  When he was confronted with what Double Shock did back on Roscadia, combined with the loss of life under his protection, it all pushed him over the edge into his paranoia. And he is going to pay a high price for it.

“What in the fuck are you doing arresting my people!?” Vaistll yelled. She was seriously pissed off at Mad Dawg for what he did.

“I’m getting to the heart of their loyalty.” Mad Dawg responded.