2288: The Skotadian Experiment Read online

  (7)

  “I thought that I’d find your punk ass here!” Sanchez yelled at Caparzo. He was laying in the alleyway outside a local bar that sold drugs.

  “Ma’am I . . .” Caparzo was weakly saying.

  “Did you OD!?” Sanchez yelled. She then kicked him, causing him to throw up.

  “I’d feel better . . . if I got some . . . head,” he chuckled.

  “I can’t believe that I just saved your perverted ass!” she yelled back. She kicked him again, causing him to cough.

  “I didn’t know that you . . . liked it rough. You’re my . . . kind of bitch,” he chuckled.

  “Your ride is here!” she yelled and then kicked him again. Security personnel didn’t get fined for doing what she was doing. If she had killed him, that would be different.

  “I want him in fast detox,” Sanchez informed the medical robot.

  “Damn bitch,” Caparzo mumbled as he was being picked up.

  Sanchez was a good officer, but her prime problem is that back when she was serving in Space Core, the regiment that she was in encountered the Skotadian military and learned quite ruefully why their motto is: “Nobody is harder. Forever Number 1.” To add insult to injury Skotadi wasn’t interested in her regiment since they had more important tasks to take on. It was the sole reason why she could be too rough and hard.

  “I’ve got to keep my people alive!” Sanchez snapped back.

  “Yeah whatever,” Caparzo responded as he was being loaded into the ambulance.

  (8)

  Warrant Officer Bryce was talking to another Australian about life back home in the land down under and what he missed. Being in Logistical Arts, he knew how important it was for him to have everything needed for the mission. However, not having any combat experience, he was more reliant upon the advice of others. Although he was no coward, he wanted to avoid any combat since he didn’t want to take any chances. He had a wife and a five-year-old daughter that he wanted to get off of the Earth. He also grudgingly knew that if he died, then hopefully his wife would leave.

  “So do you think that we’ll need any bio-suits?” Bryce asked.

  “On a basic Intel run? Naw. You’ll need food and water more. Trust me. But look, you’re the one in logistics, so I’m leaving it up to you,” the Aussie responded.

  “Alright. I better go and get our supplies.”

  “Godspeed and good luck.”

  Without Bryce realizing it at the time, his decision would have major implications much later on Golden Hyperion. He decided to bring three bio-suits. Only Sanchez openly supported his decision, while the others either didn’t say anything or acted like it was a bad idea. Sanchez said that with Skotadi, “it’s the unknown that gets you.” Right or wrong, it was the captain who had the final decision, and Vaistll left it up to Bryce.

  (9)

  Galactic Prime, a Marine fast-attack vessel with slightly more than three thousand battle-hardened Marines commanded by Captain Thomas “Mad Dawg” Burton, had just arrived on the border of the Valkyrie rebel system. The rebels, used to all Skotadian dirty tricks, no longer trusted a single ship entering the sector. They would not hesitate to fire on any ship who came into the system. Only Galactic Prime would dare it.

  “Sir, rebel fighters closing in!” the Marine at the helm shouted out.

  “Debernardo, VERM their ass!” Mad Dawg shouted out.

  “Yes sir,” Staff Sergeant Debernardo responded. She then went over to her station and jacked in.

  Because of her SIN she did not need a keyboard or mouse. All she needed to do was keep her hands on her chair’s armrest and a soft blue light would appear in her hands, allowing her to “connect” to the ship’s computers. The only drawback to what Rebecca was doing was that it left her vulnerable to a counter-hack. No matter how large they were, ships were too small to have a Dark Id installed within them. The Dark Id’s tower is 14.48 miles (23.3 kilometers) tall with a circular base that is 14.48 miles in diameter and 5.53 miles (8.9 kilometers) underground[3].

  Rebecca made a mistake that silver-star VERM agents never would. Always assume that you are walking into a trap, because chances are, you will. She was able to achieve her objective without incident (sabotaging their impulse engines), but as she was leaving she got “zapped” by an automatic cyber defense. Another thing that a silver-star VERM agent would never do—assume that an easy entry equaled an easy exit.

  “How did it go Rebecca?” Mad Dawg asked her. He then noticed that something was wrong with her.

  “Sir, the enemy ship is punch drunk,” the Marine at the helm mentioned. The phrase “punch drunk” referred to when a ship had lost altitude due to a malfunctioning impulse drive. It could also deal with multiple failures within the impulse drives, although that was rare.

  “Sir . . . I um . . . they were amateurs and . . .” Debernardo was saying. She took a step and her body began to twitch a little.

  “Medic!” Mad Dawg cried out.

  “Please state the problem,” the ship’s AI stated.

  “Debernardo’s SIN is corrupted,” Mad Dawg responded.

  “Understood. Deactivating her SIN,” the AI responded.

  “It was my first time doing that,” Debernardo mentioned as she was being taken away by the medical robot.

  “Yeah, and it showed,” Mad Dawg responded.

  “Sir, rebel junkers closing in!” the helmsmen responded.

  “We have you now! You Skotadian wretch!” the rebel commander called out over the ship’s intercom.

  As Galactic Prime went into the gas giant’s south pole upper atmosphere, the rebel ship was able to cripple the stern impulse engine. Galactic Prime, having problems in “staying the line,” was able to maintain its course. But without someone like Staff Sergeant Debernardo, they had no way to protect their computers.

  “Alert! Alert! Hack detected!” Galactic Prime’s AI mentioned.

  Mad Dawg, in an effort to save his ship and crew, “jumped” to the helmsmen’s position and had the ship’s rear guns fire at a perceived enemy’s position. The explosions told all that he guessed right at their location.

  “Alert! Alert! De-orbiting!” Galactic Prime’s AI was stating repeatedly. The ship was being pulled into the planet’s core.

  “Time to backfire on them,” Mad Dawg responded.

  He then had the ship do a one-eighty, bow over stern, and then a one-eighty belly roll, and came at the enemy at point-blank range. And when both ships saw each other they fired at each other, Galactic Prime crippling its pursuer. The rebel junker was pulled into the planet’s core and was no more. Mad Dawg, because he wasn’t strapped in, was thrown against a console when the ship did it’s “backfire” maneuver, and got a cracked rib. Nevertheless, the ship was able to leave the system without further incidence.

  (10)

  Colonel Douglas “The Steel Cage” McIntyre and his unit arrived at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Bordeaux, a medium-sized city on Golden Hyperion. He had with him 177—109 Space Core, 18 Special Forces, 50 Marines, and no wounded. They were north of the city and heading toward it. Once there, after they meet up with their contact, they would be taken to a safe house so that they could plan their next objective. His prime objective was to collect Intel for Project 21—one reason why he had a large force with him—and then to head to the extraction point.

  “Sir, look.” A Space Core personnel pointed into the sky at the helicopter gunship that was approaching. Within a few seconds four more came into view. Although McIntyre and his team were in an open field, none of the pilots made an attack run on them. Something very serious was going down in the city of Bordeaux, and whatever it was, McIntyre and his team would be walking straight into it.

  (11)

  Ramirez was using his free time to access the Dark Id to look for any Intel related to his mission on Golden Hyperion. He knew that the information would be old given the time delay, processing new information, scanning for viruses, malware, et cetera. But he had to loo
k just in case someone missed something.

  “Sir, what are you doing in here?” Ellis asked Ramirez.

  “Looking for Intel.”

  “Pardon me for saying it sir, but I think that’s a load of bullshit. You’re looking for her. Using any excuse to jack-in in order to find her.”

  “Is that why you are here . . . to berate me?”

  “I got bored so I figured that if I hung out with you I could kick some VERM assholes and have a good time while I’m at it.”

  “Well . . . in that case . . . welcome aboard.”

  Despite their history, they were having a good time together. Both were considered to be a silver-star at anti-VERM tactics and counter-tactics. Over the course of time both became far closer as friends and comrades in arms. In their first encounter on opposing sides Ellis realized that something was not right with this Skotadian. It was as if he didn’t want to injure his enemy. That his heart was not in the fight. Ellis then took a risk and let his guard down. Ramirez stabbed him and left. Ellis would later find a note on him that read, “Not everyone is your enemy.” While Ellis was on the roof waiting to be extracted, he overheard a sniper state that he had Ramirez in his sight. Ellis told the sniper to let him go. When the two saw that they were on the same side in Task Force ZH-3C, both acted more like friends who hadn’t seen each other in years as opposed to what they once were. From that day forward they became close friends.

  “Sir . . . VERM agent!” Ellis shouted out. He nearly took a hit from the corrupter emitter that came from the dark agent.

  Before Ramirez could get into the fight, the VERM agent sent four assault drones (orbs to be more precise) to deal with Ramirez. The only rule in dealing with them is, “Be quick or be corrupted.” For five minutes Ramirez dealt with those orbs while Ellis had to deal with an advanced gold star VERM agent. At the end of the five minutes with neither side losing ground, both Ramirez and Ellis switched sides.

  “Come get me,” the VERM agent responded. The voice was an electronic female voice. She took off into the clouds like a thunder-clap. With Ramirez giving chase he would not let this vermin scum get away.

  “I have you now!” the VERM agent yelled at Ramirez. She then turned around in the sky with her arms and legs outstretched as three dozen orbs came toward him. He then had to lead them to the ground so that he could find some system to deal with them. Using a “shield,” he could go through a “building” with no problems. Although doing that would create computer glitches for whoever the so-called building represented.

  “Sir I have your point!” Ellis stated after he’d defeated the orbs.

  “You can’t protect all your people Alex,” the female agent stated, and then she left the Dark Id, leaving Ramirez perplexed.

  “Well that was far easier than normal,” Ellis mentioned when he got to where Ramirez was standing at.

  “I know what you are going to say but I seriously believe that agent was Maria.”

  “You thought that I would have told you that you were losing your mind and that you should get over her.”

  “Have you ever been in love before?”

  “No. Couldn’t never find the right type of woman. And yes, I do understand what you must be going through.”

  “Come on let’s get out of here,” Ramirez responded. And with that both of them left the Dark Id, not knowing if it truly was her or not.

  (12)

  Galactic Prime finally arrived at its destination, and what he found was a team that in all likelihood was given the wrong assignment. Bryce, in Mad Dawg’s opinion, was the only one who was the most prepared. Mad Dawg liked the notion of bringing some bio-suits. His attitude with Skotadi is: either you are prepared for everything or you will be sorry.

  The rest had to be rounded up. Even the captain was no different. She likes the notion of her people given the chance to rename N-Reserve Ziin’lyi’tols which is Wol’ga’con for “A New Life”. “Okay captain . . . now shut up about it and get on the ship,” Mad Dawg thought out loud to his Chief of Security, Murphy.

  “You guys like wasting my time or what?” Mad Dawg asked Task Force ZH-3C. He had them line up so that he could inspect them.

  “Creeps?” Mad Dawg said to Caparzo.

  “Don’t ask sir. It’s long story,” Caparzo responded.

  “Lieutenant Sanchez, Jessica. Handle: Da Bitch,” Mad Dawg said as he got to her.

  “What!? Who in the hell changed my handle!?” Sanchez yelled out. Ellis chuckled in a way that said that it was him.

  “Alright listen up . . .” Mad Dawg was saying to Task Force ZH-3C. “. . . the only reason why I took this job is because my friend Colonel McIntyre is on Golden Hyperion and is waiting for me to arrive to pick him and his team up. So I don’t want any trouble from any of you . . . especially from our love birds Creeps and Da Bitch.”

  “Captain can we speak in private?” Vaistll asked him.

  “Sure. So long as you don’t bring up the fact that Skotadi allowed your people to . . .” Mad Dawg was saying.

  “Do you know what my people went through on my home world?” Vaistll interrupted. She didn’t care for a response any more than she cared for a perceived lack of understanding.

  “Your species is not the only one pushed to the brink of extinction. Should I be glad that your people were taken in by Skotadi?”

  “So where should we have went then? Nowhere?”

  “So what did you want to talk about?” Mad Dawg asked her.

  “I just wanted to talk about any Intel that you may have,” Vaistll responded.

  “So what you are saying is that you don’t trust your own team?”

  “That’s not what I’m implying!”

  “I thought that it was a basic Intel run. Anything that you know, I know as well. Secrets come with a price with our paymasters . . . you know.”

  “Fine. I guess there is nothing else to discuss,” Vaistll responded. Maybe it was her age or maybe it was something else, but she always wanted to break the ice by getting to know another captain.

  (13)

  Commodore Parker, stationed at the colony Roscadia (a compression of the three space colonial companies that established the colony) that encircled the gas giant Vegas, had just received a rude awakening. Necro-Mystic war birds and colonial ships were coming, but it was not invasion force. According to the Necro-Mystic governor, they (numbering on the order of slightly more than 78,000) were stopping there because it was the nearest world to Golden Hyperion. After transferring all of their technology, data, samples, notes, and equipment over to Skotadi, they agreed to live on Oasis and to live there peacefully. It was stated to Parker that after the war, although it concluded several months beforehand, it took them awhile to collect their people since they were scattered. They were all that was left of the species, and they were eternally grateful for the mercy that Skotadi showed them. For without that mercy, none of them would have survived.

  Parker was quite shocked and couldn’t wrap his mind around the thought that Skotadi could be so merciful. Is it a trick? If so on whose part? Parker thought to himself. Over the next three days, Parker would gradually accept that it was no trick. But the worst part for him was to know that Galactic Prime was heading there. What would the Necro-Mystics, or Mad Dawg for that matter, do? He spent those three days trying to learn if it was a trick, and then he had a lot of people to contact. He made the decision to tell Mad Dawg last.

  (14)

  One reason why Commodore Parker informed Mad Dawg last about the Necro-Mystics is because of Mad Dawg’s reputation for doing insane things at that time. Knowing full well that the rebels in the Valkyrie system would be on high alert after his little stunt, he decided to go back through it. He had a simple reason: it would save a week of commute time. Besides, it maintained his reputation and that of his ship. But this time around he wouldn’t be able to rely on Debernardo since her SIN hadn’t fully been repaired.

  “Alert! Alert! Hack detected!” the ship’s AI menti
oned.

  “That’s okay. I’ve already won. They just don’t know it yet,” Mad Dawg said out loud, with bravado that was more for the crew then a part of his personality.

  Galactic Prime then found that it had three rebel junkers coming after it. They were lying in ambush and were able to get off multiple shots from their crude rail guns, taking out one gun turret on Galactic Prime. Galactic Prime, however, was able to get off three shots using a “smart” rail gun system. (The shell can do limited course correction while at the same time the ship’s Weapons Control System chooses the targets. Only a silver-star VERM agent can, in theory, cripple it.) The shots that came from Galactic Prime did far more damage but not enough to cripple either one.

  “Holy shit . . . we were close,” the Marine at the helm stated. It caused Mad Dawg to chuckle. When Galactic Prime flew past the three rebel ships, all four ships fired at one another, almost at close range. (This is why Galactic Prime lost a turret.) Although Mad Dawg did not plan that, he created the impression that he did.

  Galactic Prime then headed to a nearby gas giant that had rings. He was hoping for one like that of Saturn but got a planet whose rings were too thin, although they could temporarily “hide” him from a pursuing ship. Once there, he flew under the rings and then straight into the planet’s upper atmosphere. None of the rebels followed since their ships would not be able to overcome the planet’s gravity. Coming from the planet’s south pole, Mad Dawg fired multiple rail gun shots and two torpedoes at one of the rebel ships. Having crippled one ship, he was more than able to leave the star system with the other two chasing him out. Galactic Prime’s counter-measure would protect it from the other shots.