2288: The Skotadian Experiment Read online

  (2)

  Captain Maxwell came into the lobby on the Hammer of Doom and it was obvious that he was drunk. Both Lenkov and Omori went there to do their own drinking. Because of the intense stress of being a police detective, combined with being a perfectionist, Lenkov was a heavy drinker. As he neared his forties he started to change and become more of beer/wine drinker. Right before he joined the military he totally quit drinking hard liquor. After he met Omori she picked up his drinking habits and now the two of them drinks hard liquor only under emotional duress. As for Maxwell? He drinks like a fish—always looking for an excuse to drink.

  “The cat is out of the bag sir. Everyone knows that Sakura is in the TIA starbase. And that it is basically dead in the water. What’s worse, our long range sensors have detected a Skotadian fleet coming.” Captain Maxwell informed his Fleet Captain who only nodded and then took a slip of the beer that he was drinking.

  “What about the news from Task Force ZH-3C and the Dragon Clones?” Omori asked him through her drunken state.

  “First of all I’m having Lieutenant Commander North take a look at the data. And it suggested that the object in Ishtar’s atmosphere is some sort of massive EMP weapon that can cripple our ship.” Maxwell stated after he took a long hard slip of the booze that was on the table.

  “Fine. We need a tactical deterrent. Inform Captain Burton what we need his ship to act as that tactical deterrent. Inform him that we will do what we can to save his ship but we cannot make any guarantees. We must expose, and by any means necessary, eliminate this threat. There can be no . . . Dark Core upper hand on this.” Lenkov stated in his stern commander look that he can give at times. It signified a true great leader. That tough no-nonsense type of an individual that can get the job done no matter what the cost. An individual who balances a strong sense of duty with that of his heart but never allows his heart to trump his decisions.

  (3)

  “Ma’am . . . we finished with our mop up of the facility.” Jaguar 42R informed Vaistll. She was feeling very melancholic concerning the news about the TIA starbase.

  “Casualties?” She asked not wanting to hear it but knowing that she must.

  “We have thirty-five killed and twelve wounded.”

  “What? Why so many killed and wounded?”

  “Have you ever fought Skotadian clones before?”

  “Not in hand-to-hand. And never in a actual gun battle.”

  “If you did then you would understand our losses. And ma’am, before the Hammer of Doom drifted to the back side of this world they informed us that a large group of Fiends is headed our way. They also stated that they won’t be able to provide any support until they are back in orbit on this side of this world.”

  “How large of a force?”

  “A regiment.”

  “Good god no. Alright. Do all that you can. Dismissed.” Vaistll responded. She was no longer melancholic but depressed.

  (4)

  “What is she doing? Is she trying to send me a message?” Omori was saying to herself. She was looking at a monitor that was showing something that look like a dream that her beloved friend was having. She was quite touched when she realized that her friend was trying to communicate a solution to her.

  “Ma’am, the LMPG . . .!” Lieutenant Commander North was saying to Omori. He too was in the server room trying to protect them from a possible EMP burst.

  “The what?” Omori asked him.

  “The EMP weapon! It’s leaving orbit and is powering up!”

  “Shit. Is it coming for Sakura?”

  “I don’t think it’s coming for her. It’s coming for us!”

  “Alright, do what you can here. I think that I’m needed on the bridge.” Omori said. She then left and while she was in the doorway she stop, and turned back to look at the video on the monitor. If a solution is not found quickly enough she may have to ask someone to put her friend to sleep (kill).

  “Now here this! All engineers to your stations! Ship is at Threat Level 4!” The ship’s AI informed the crew. Threat Level 4 denotes that an event may occur that is non-enemy (or possible enemy) related that may do serious harm to the ship. Threat Level 5 denote that the ship could be destroyed. And with the Hammer of Doom that could only occur with a battle with a fleet of ships.

  “Tell them to watch their damn fourth tactical position!” Maxwell hollered out at the Ensign. He was referring to the crew of Galactic Prime. Fourth tactical position refers to a simple coordinate system that spaceships uses. When a spaceship is in orbit above a world it’s equator becomes zero point, it’s north pole the 10th point, and it’s south pole negative 10th point.

  Both ships was moving in such a way as to get the LMPG to aim at one and then that of the other. Neither ship could simply leave orbit because they were still in the gravity well of Golden Hyperion. Which means that they have to circle it before they can break free from the gravitation pull of the moon.

  “Why don’t we just blow this damn thing out of the water for Christ sake?” A Marine on Galactic Prime said over the ship communications.

  “Why don’t you try it and find out?” A Ensign on the Hammer of Doom responded.

  “Yeah go ahead.” The acting captain on Galactic Prime mentioned.

  Since neither Lenkov nor Maxwell said anything the Marine fired a rail gun shot at it. The LMPG not only moved out of the way it also zapped it with an EMP burst. The shot then traveled harmlessly into Ishtar and detonated in the upper atmosphere.

  “Let’s see you take a 55 megaton!” The Marine said out loud.

  “Marine! Use the smallest yield!” Lenkov ordered him.

  “And why’s that sir!?”

  “We might need that yield later! And besides . . . it’s a waste if it doesn’t work!”

  “Understood sir! Using our ten!” The Marine responded. And yet again the same thing happened as before but this time around there was a mushroom cloud that came from Ishtar’s upper atmosphere.

  “AI!” Maxwell called out.

  “Ready.” The ship’s AI responded.

  “Get me Lieutenant Commander North.”

  “Go ahead.” North responded.

  “Do you think that we can fire a volley of torpedoes at that damn thing?”

  “Not from what I gathered. But it may reveal a hypothesis that I have that it is drawing it’s power from Ishtar’s magnetic field.”

  “Marine helmsman!” Maxwell said.

  “Yes sir!”

  “Fire off a volley of shots! Multiple yields! Including using your rail guns!”

  “Yes sir.” The Marine responded with quite the enthusiasm.

  As before nothing came about other than the waste of ammo. Ishtar was glowing bright from the multiple warheads that detonated in it’s upper atmosphere. But as luck would have it Lenkov noticed something. Unfortunately he had to do something very dangerous to both his ship and to Galactic Prime.

  “AI!” Lenkov called out to it.

  “Ready.” The ship’s AI responded.

  “Get me Lieutenant Commander North.”

  “Go ahead.” North responded.

  “I noticed that every time that a torpedo detonated under the LMPG, in Ishtar’s atmosphere, it either forced it into, or caused it to go into a higher altitude. And then it appeared to have lost some of its EMP power.”

  “Yeah, I noticed that too.”

  “Do you think that if we got close enough that we could fire off a volley of shots . . . and force it into a much higher altitude? One where it would lose most if not all of its EMP power?” Lenkov asked him. Everyone turned and looked at him (or at one another) when he asked that. They all knew what he was suggesting.

  “Sir . . .” Lieutenant Commander North was saying.

  “Go ahead.” Lenkov responded when North didn’t continue.

  “It may be the only way to defeat it.” North responded.

  “We’re going to need Galactic Prime’s help.” Maxwell stated.

  �
�Waiting for your orders . . . sir!” The acting captain of Galactic Prime stated.

  “Be advise that before I give the go ahead that I need . . . no, I must state the following. When it comes to Dark Core . . . never underestimate their brutality or their cleverness. I regret that we may be walking into a trap. Let us not forget that a Skotadian fleet is on it’s way and we have no idea as to what their attentions are. We are trap by fate and this may be the only way to exfiltrate ourselves from part of it.” Lenkov mentioned.

  “Sir . . . no offensive, but there’s no need to give a speech. We’ll go where you tell us. I may be a Marine, but I’m proud to have serve under you. And sir, we’re ready to be in their face with all guns a blazing at your command.” The acting captain of Galactic Prime stated. In the background several Marines could be heard saying, “Semper Fi! Do or die! For the Marine Core!”

  “Take ‘em down.” Lenkov responded.

  A few of the Skotadians let out a Aztec death whistle. Although technically it is just that, Skotadi adopted it, and used technology to incorporate it into the breathing mask of their infantry. For the Ensigns they only had a “whistle” that made the Skotadian war cry[23]. The Aztec death whistle is a “human skull” that when you blow into it, it sounds like a human screaming.

  “Goddamn that always creep me out!” A Marine helmsman stated after he heard the death whistle.

  “Well . . . that was easy.” The Marine helmsman stated after the LMPG was forced into a higher altitude. It then started to spin out of control and appeared to be self-destructing. Parts of it was breaking off and was scattering all about. Being as large as a space station it was creating a great deal of debris but none was heading towards either the Hammer of Doom or Galactic Prime.

  “What the . . .!?” The Marine helmsman shouted out. A large part of the LMPG fired a beam at Ishtar.

  “Get us the fuck away from here now!” Lieutenant Commander North shouted over the intercom. Both helmsmen of the Hammer of Doom and Galactic Prime tried to do as he said but it was too late. The LMPG does not fire a EMP at it’s target, it gets the host planet (or moon if it has a strong enough magnetic field) to do it’s dirty work.

  “Goddamn spider to the fly tactic.” Lenkov stated after both the Hammer of Doom and Galactic Prime got caught in Ishtar’s EMP burst.

  “Red Alert! Red Alert! Threat Level 6![24]” Both of the ship’s AI mentioned.

  “Abandon ship now!” The acting captain of Galactic Prime shouted. The ship automatic self-destruct system then fired off all it’s ordnances at Ishtar. Although none of them was armed a black “stain” will be upon the face of Ishtar for sixty years. But as for Galactic Prime because of it’s size, and because of it’s proximity to Golden Hyperion, it was in the state of de-orbiting at the negative 5.6 point. No more than 105 hours later Galactic Prime will be burning up in Golden Hyperion’s atmosphere crashing into a sparsely populated area causing no more than a few hundred deaths. Most people were excavated but they will never be able to return back to their community since the ship landed in a very large lake and the radiated steam will guarantee that no one will return back for the foreseeable future. As for the lake? It was wiped off the map.

  “My god. They’re de-orbiting. What about us?” Omori asked.

  “As luck will have it ma’am . . . we’re just drifting into deep space.” The helmswoman responded with a heavy sigh.

  “What systems are affected?” Captain Maxwell asked.

  “One moment please. Sir . . . our servers are fine! It appears that . . . only our shields are permanently down and most systems are reporting that we are in acceptable limits!” The helmswoman responded.

  “One tough ship. Thank the gods for the Andromeda civilization. They gave their life so that we may be victorious upon this day.” Captain Maxwell said.

  “AI!” Omori called out to it.

  “A bird in the bush is worth . . . Warning all systems nominal! Alert! Red . . . attack!” The AI responded.

  “Why am I not surprised? Helmswoman! Shut that goddamn thing off! And then get me Lieutenant Commander North.” Omori responded.

  “Yes ma’am.” The helmswoman responded.

  “Ma’am, I know what you are going to ask. There is no way, and let me be absolutely clear on this, there is no way to get our shields back up. And let me be clear on this, the only way we can have any meager amount of shields is to link up with the TIA starbase. And there is no way I can give you an approximation how much shielding we will get. At least not until we merge with the TIA starbase.”

  “Understood. Get it done.” Omori responded.

  “Hold on sec! There’s no way this ship can move with something of that size attach to it! We need more power. How about the LMPG?” Lenkov added.

  ”I agree. But if we link with the LMPG then we will have no maneuverability and our speed will be reduced to that of a tugboat.” North responded.

  “Fine. Get it done.” Lenkov responded.

  Dark Core had just scored a titanic victory on that day. But it was bitter sweet for them. It was Infernus who came up with a major plan which was to revamp Dark Core. None of the other three like it or took it seriously but they agreed that the very possibility that Dark Core may indeed be finished needed a serious consideration. Infernus was the only General of the group as well as being the only five star General within all of Dark Core. He was also extremely ambitious and was seriously suffering from delusions of grandeur. He was the most brutal of all the Dark Core members but he was also very cunning. The others didn’t trust him, with good reasons, but they needed him.

  (5)

  “What the hell is going on up there?” The newscaster asked.

  “Well . . . it appears that Dark Core emerges as the victor upon this dark day.” The guest responded.

  “Listen up! I’m currently en route to the supposed crash site of Galactic Prime!” The newscaster in the helicopter was saying. Unfortunately for him in the background there was a green screen. He then turned and looked out the window and said, “I can see a great deal of destruction!” The green screen then gave way to children having a snowball fight. “Oh my God I can see . . .!” He was saying.

  “Bill . . .!” The newscaster back at the station was saying.

  “. . . what appears to be . . .!” Bill was saying. The green screen then showed a fat guy wet tee-shirt contest.

  “You’re in front of a green screen!” The newscaster yelled at him.

  “. . . human corpses on the ground! What did you just say!?” Bill responded. The green screen then showed video footage of the Keystone Cops.

  “Bill you moron! You got hacked!” The newscaster yelled at him.

  Why should Skotadi, or Dark Core for that matter, care about freedom of the press when they are stupid enough to use technology in that way? Who’s interests does it truly serves? Conspiracy theorists? They are the ones who are having a field day. Every wacko in the universe is giving their opinion about this or that. And the news media is willing to give these people coverage. So why should anybody believe the news? Lenkov, who was in the Conference Room drinking beer, was thinking as he was watching the news. The strange irony about him is that he is a news junkie who acts like he doesn’t like them. Both Lenkov and Omori is too old to care and yet they always got drunk for no other reason than because they do care.

  (6)

  “Come again?” Captain Maxwell asked Infernus.

  “You don’t trust me.”

  “Should I?”

  “No I guess not. But you don’t know what I know. Nor do you know what my assets are upon this world. I would like to make amends . . .” Infernus was saying.

  “Oh bullshit!” Maxwell with contempt responded.

  “Then fight my assets. My legions.”

  “Monsters?”

  “You find out soon enough.”

  “Let me talk with Fleet Captain Lenkov and then I’ll get back to you.” Captain Maxwell then put the call on hold, got up and went i
nto the conference room. He then explain to both Lenkov and Omori all that Infernus told him. “So what do you think that we should do?” Captain Maxwell asked Lenkov and/or Omori.

  “First of all, he doesn’t have any legions. It’s obvious that he wants something. Why else would he turn to us?” Lenkov responded.

  “Trying to get us fall into a Dark Core trap?” Maxwell asked either one of them.

  “Not likely. They have too much contempt for their subordinates. None of them cares too much about the monkey-fuckers, their words not mine, known as the people[25]. He wants something from us and it’s more than likely to save his own worthless hide. I will admit that it can still be a some type of a trap, but we can still use him in some way or that of another.” Omori responded.

  “So what do you propose?” Maxwell asked.

  “Tell him we want access to his so-call legions and we want him turn over control over his support-droids. He if does that than we will strongly reconsider trusting him more.” Lenkov responded.

  “And if he refuses?” Captain Maxwell asked.

  “Then we know that it is a trick.” Omori responded.

  “I’ll go and see what he has to say.” Captain Maxwell responded. He then left to talk to Infernus. He then return and informed both of them that Infernus agreed without a single objection.