The War Across the Stars (18 page)

             
Another day dragged on as the
Procyon
flew through a miniscule version of space. 

             
“Attention all personnel.  This is Captain Baker.  We are entering the Black Hole Belt.  Be on station and prepared for emergency.  Let us hope we make it through safely,” a voice announced over the intercom.

             
“Phil?  Risk assessment?” Ryan asked.

             
“Well, this has never been tried by us before, so I don’t know what to expect.  The singularities may disrupt our Ultradrive, dropping us into normal space… in which case our ship would be swallowed by a black hole in seconds.  We could also we pulled toward one of the miniature black holes, but that seems unlikely considering their gravitational pull will be greatly diminished,” Phil explained.

             
“Yeah, uh, that is unlikely right?” Max questioned.

             
“I honestly don’t know.  This has NOT been attempted,” Phil replied.

             
I pondered what was going on in the bridge.  There was a distinct possibility that disaster was coming down on us, and that the bridge was trying to sort it out.  The thought of the ship being consumed by a black hole, and us, the Rangers, dying quietly on a ship in the Ontario Belt… it simply didn’t seem right. 

             
We waited, soaring through Ultraspace for days.  The sheer distance we had to have covered was mind-boggling. 

             
At last, a week into our journey, our captain’s voice came onto the intercom.

             
“Attention personnel and strike teams.  We will be dropping out of Ultraspace within the hour.  We do NOT know what to expect, and the possibility of Korth having established a considerable force here is not out of the question.  With that in mind, we need pilots in their ships, and soldiers locked and loaded.”

             
With that, our team immediately headed to get into our power armor.  It had been improved in several ways, yet attempts at neural interface had still failed consistently.  We entered the armor fitting bay and to my surprise, found Spc. Wheaton standing by the armor with a grin. 

             
“Hello Rangers, nice to see ya again,” he said in delight.

             
“Likewise,” Ryan responded. 

             
We quickly equipped our armor with Wheaton and Phil’s assistance. 

             
With armor out of the way we headed for the armory.  The SF-42 was only stored in two of the ship’s many armories.  One was a deployable armory, much like a drop pod, while the other was the heaviest armory in the core of the ship.  Chances of immediate deployment seemed low, so we went to the nearest armory, with only the basic weaponry.

             
“Everyone on station, we are dropping out in ten!” Captain Baker stated again. 

             
I was actually slightly nervous.  This strange task had so many unknowns… it didn’t feel consistent.  I felt a slight whoosh as we reentered normal space for the first time in over a week. 

             
“Multiple contacts,” a cautious voice said over the intercom.

             
“Hail them, keep the intercom going for the crew,” Captain Baker ordered.

             
“Roger that,” the COM officer said. 

             
“This is Captain Lawrence Baker of the Elonian ship
Procyon
.”

             
There was an ominous pause with no reply.

             
“This is Admiral Ronald Cope of the United Earth Defense.  We have laid claim to this planet, Marzoc,” the COM responded.

             
“We are seeking fugitives from our nation.  One of their starships has entered this system.  A man known as Rigel Korth was in command… on a ship called the
Hornet
.”

             
“Fugitives?  I am uncertain of what you are referring to.  The indigenous people of this planet have a single ship of the same name.  So too is their leader named… Rigel Korth.  But they welcomed us here with open arms,” Admiral Cope announced.

             
Again there was a pause.  I looked over at Ryan and Phil.

             
“So Korth’s here… but he has some cover going and now he has these… these aliens guarding him?” I asked.
             

             
“Honestly, it’s beginning to look that way James,” Phil said with a look of awe still in his face.

             
Then Baker began to speak again.

             
“I see.  Well they are not native to this planet.  They retreated from a disastrous war several revolutions ago.  We are here to take them back, and find out what they were doing out here.”

             
“Well you see, um, Lawrence… That’s not how this will be going down.  We would prefer you stop lying to us, and return to wherever you come from.”

             
Phil had a worried look on his face.  “Guys this first encounter is not lookin’ good,” he murmured. 

             
“Admiral.  Perhaps you don’t understand.  We have traveled for weeks to get here, and our course took us through a black hole belt.  A journey like this cannot be disregarded, or failure easily admitted,” Baker pleaded.

             
“Lawrence.  It is you who do not understand.  We have a clearly superior force and have asked you kindly to depart our lovely ice-covered planet.”

             
“We are getting what we came for.  All units!  Prepare for deployment planetside,” Baker ordered.

             
“Very well.  The choice is made.  Not the preferred meeting of gentlemen I had expected Lawrence,” Cope said in a disappointed voice.  “Open fire.”

             
“Not what I was expecting,” Max said.

             
“Yeah, we need to get to the hangar bay.  If anyone is going to make it planetside, it needs to be us,” Cassidy commented.

             
Looking toward her, I nodded.  Then I hastily grabbed some grenades, ammo, and my SR-4.  We ran down the narrow halls of the Procyon, heading toward the hangar.  Suddenly, there was a tremendous rumble, and the ship shook.  Max lost his balance a moment, stabilized, and continued. 

             
“How are our shields already down?” Phil exclaimed in shock.

             
“We don’t know what we're up against.  I’m not so sure we really know what we are getting into,” Ryan stated.

             
As we reached the hangar door and swung into the large open room, the intercom spoke again. 

             
“Attention ship personnel.  I have grim news.  We need to abandon ship immediately.  We attempted deployment of the warp beacon as to summon reinforcements, however it was destroyed immediately after release.  The enemy’s missile systems have devastated our shields, and our hull integrity is diving.  The bridge crew is already en route to the life pods,” Baker spoke solemnly.

             
Another rumble battered the ship, and static came through the intercom.  Then his voice came back, somewhat difficult to hear.  “Deployable Armory Alpha is locked in place… We need someone to unlock it so that we may—”

             
Again static came through.  Max skidded to a stop. 

             
“Guys, we need those weapons.  I’ll go unlock it.  Then find a lifepod, or ride it down.”

             
“Max… er… Alright.  Go.  Good luck,” Ryan told him. 

He swiftly took off down the hall to try to perform something heroic.  Something he never would have done during the Vorgian War. 

The rest of the Rangers proceeded to one of the Corsairs parked in the large hangar.  Ryan entered the pilot’s seat in front and we prepared for a rough journey to the surface of the planet. 

The main gates to the hangar were halfway open but seemed to have stopped opening, presumably due to damage to the ship.  Our Corsair slowly approached the gates, Ryan being cautious to fly straight through.  We flew out and immediately headed toward the white-coated planet below.

A mere thirteen seconds after our escape from the hangar, a tremendous explosion propelled our Corsair.  Checking the rear video feed, the
Procyon
had been reduced to rubble… Likely with Max still on board.

“Dang,” Ryan said plainly.  “This is not how this was going to go down.”

“I would consider this a serious snag,” Nevin said with a solemn face.

Our Corsair, lightly armed, alone, and with limited air descended quietly to the surface.  Inside, we had a small survival pack, our personal preference in weapons, and our power armor. 

“How many do you think got off?” I asked.

“Not as many as we brought, I can tell you that much,” Ryan commented.  “What the…”

I walked into the small cabin to see what he was looking at.  An immense metal structure shimmered with a spectacular light down on the planet.  Looking up, I saw another of the structures above the planet.

“What are those?” I asked curiously.

“You expect me to know?” Ryan asked.

Phil pushed his way in and took a look of his own. 

“Uh…  Yeah, that is different.  My best guess is some sort of heat provider or something to further warm the planet.  But the planet is covered in ice, so if that is its purpose, it doesn’t seem to work,” he said intelligently. 

“Do you… Do you think Korth built that?  Or these UED guys?”

“I couldn’t see Korth having them built, and we don’t know enough about the UED.  It will take some observing planetside to make a solid hypothesis,” Phil told us.

Our lone ship entered the planet’s thin atmosphere and came out into a snowy wasteland.  Then a startling alarm sounded from the Corsair.

“Missile lock, we have multiple bogies on our tail!” Ryan called out as he swerved the Corsair hard.  One of the missiles still nailed our rear engines, spinning us out of control.

“Hang on guys!” Ryan yelled as he managed to regain control and lift back up.  He slid in behind one of the fast planes and unleashed a salvo of missiles.  The missiles flew quickly after the fighter, barely gaining on it.  Our Corsair quickly fell behind, due to the incredible speed of the fighters.  Abruptly, the fighter rolled, then pulled up and over.  It barreled straight at us and began shooting a machinegun and more missiles.  The Corsair’s windshield cracked and shattered in some areas as the bullets pounded into it.  I ducked down as a blast shook the starboard side of the dropship.  The whole ship felt as if it tipped heavily, toppling us to the floor.  Then it began to balance out in a rapid descent. 

The event made me think back to my first mission, when we were shot down onto the planet’s surface, trapped in enemy territory.  At last we slid into the snowy ground, sliding quickly, while sinking deeply.  The dropship came to a hard stop when it met with a rock. 

I heard the fighters fly overhead, but their sound began to grow distant shortly afterword.  We were alone.

“I think they’re gone.  We should move… somewhere,” I announced.

“I agree.  I don’t know what they have out there, but we should go find out, and see what we can do to them.”

“They have a clear advantage with numbers and firepower.  We’re going to have to use guerrilla tactics,” Cassidy pointed out.

“Yup.  James, you get a recon position on top of that cliff.  We’re going to go over to the other side and take a look,” Ryan ordered.

“10-4,” I responded, taking off up the hill with my SR-4 gripped tightly in my hands. 

We had landed in a deep snowdrift, with the front of the Corsair submerged purely in snow.  Fortunately, its crash cleaned up a path leading up to the cliff side.  I ran through the path and then began treading through the deep snow on the cliff.  It did not take long before I was atop the cliff, peering out at a massive landscape of snow-covered valleys and several small structures made of stone.  Though the view was vast, I saw no sign of life amongst the snow.  I clicked the COM link on my helmet. 

“Ryan, this James.  I have eyes on an expansive, snowy, wasteland with a few structures as points of interest.  Over.”

“Solid copy, James.  You wanna check out the structures?”

“Yessir, they may be some sort of shelter.”

“Alright, we have nothin’ of interest on this side, but we aren’t as elevated as you, there may be more over the next hill, but we’ll regroup on you anyway.”

“Roger,” I said, glancing out at the team powering through the deep snow on the other side. 

This place was cold, even with our power armor on.  I hated to think about how the Marines from
Procyon
felt in this, granted any survived.