OK everyone, form here on this si where all my Seaportian Chronicles shall be posted. I'm re-writing it into not a large story, but a single storyline with a bunch of short stories intertwining. Hence, Seaportian 'Chronicles'
Here's one of them.
Note: the following words before the title below is not to be considered part of the book, this is an explanation of what's going on. The book is in an alternate earth, where a country called Seaport exists. After a disastrous world war III, the emerging victor, Seaport, forced the remaining shattered nations of earth to yield to its power. But, instead of ruling over them, Seaport dissolved them. The countries, no longer countries, united under Seaport as a single, planetary power. The reason for the small, country's success over the much larger factions, was due to advanced technology. You see, Seaport had formed as a country, a thousand years in advance of any other countries; therefore, they advanced ten times faster than the competition. But, they were limited in advances due to their nation's small size. However, once they has united the nations of earth with themselves, they had access to all the required resources and more. Blueprints were quickly put to use, as technology started leapfrogging ahead. Anti-grav generators, stasis fields, energy based weaponry, light bending cloaking devices. But the biggest invention came in the year 2347, when scientists Mark Lawrence and John Fisher created an advanced sub-light engine capable of half the speed of light. This led to a wave of colonists to mars. Previous colonists traveling to the red planet had been limited and small, because trips took six months minimum and previous fuel had been titanicly expensive, so only the rich could escape the rapidly swelling population of earth. By the time of the Lawrence/Fisher engine, the population of earth was over twelve billion licensed citizens, with another roughly two billion homeless and/or un-registered people, so the populating of Mars helped greatly. Around the same time, energy deflector shields were created eliminating the threat micro-meteoroids posed to colony vessels. This protection, along with the new engines, allowed the populating of other, much more distant celestial bodies such as the Jovian moons (Moons of Saturn and Jupiter) and Ceres, and other large bodies in the asteroid and Trojan belts. Then, in the year 2443, the Translight mass accelerator and line attachment system was created, allowing vessels to plow through an alternate dimension known as JumpSpace, to reach destinations thousands of times faster than previously had been possible. But, this alternate universe was not empty. It was populated by many sentient and advanced species, some hostile, some peaceful. Though there were not many races discovered at this point, the realization of hostile races resulted in a large navy being built by Seaport. The Earth Stellar Control, or ESC, was formed to handle all galactic military matters. By the year 2531, The Seaportian Confederation, protected by the ESC, was one of the strongest military forces known to the galaxy. This book is a Chronicle of an ESC marine during the League wars, in which the Seaportian Confederation fought a race called the Thral League. Enjoy.
The Seaportian Chronicles: The contender part one
An alarm sounded in the distance. Conner Herons rolled in his sleep, trying to plug his ears, trying to make the alarm go away. It grew louder, mingling with a voice.
"Conner, wake up man, League hit us and they hit us hard! Get your butt out of bed or we are dead, man!" Conner finally came to, emerging from his deep sleep and sitting up. He looked around, blinking away the harsh red emergency lights flooding the hall.
Emergency lights? He was immediately wide awake, and he jumped up, finding his friend Leonard in his face, screaming.
"Get up man! Throw on some armour and grab a gun, a League gunship hit us hard and now we've got Thrals pouring in from everywhere!" Reality dawned on Conner's mind as he looked his friend in the eye and spoke.
"Let's go." He punched the button to open his locker. He grabbed the chest armour, undid the magnetic locks and clipped and locked it into place around his torso and abdomen. Strapping on his leg guards and arms protectors, he jammed his helmet down onto his head activating the Tactical View Display, (TVD) which displayed his health and shields charge, which read fully charged. He reached into his weapons locker and grabbed a plasma carbine, an ailon pistol, and a couple of grenades. He fitted an energy bayonet to his carbine's muzzle and activated it. A burning white blade six inches long snapped into place. All of this in an impressive thirty five seconds. He ran out the door of his quarters and checked his carbines battery charge. Full. Perfect.
He had hoped that it would not come to this. After being transferred to a simple barge to serve with a small garrison of fifty Seaportian Marines as the barge's skeleton protection, he had not expected a League assault, not for a ship transporting nothing but food and engines. Oh well, time to get to work. His motion tracker was showing a mix of hostiles and friendly's mingling in close quarters around the next corner. To prove his point, the sizzling of ailon beams and thudding of luent rifles was getting quite loud. Taking a risk, Conner whipped around the corner.
A fierce firefight was in progress between a squad of marines and a boarding party of the reptilian league Thrals. The marines where holding them off, but just barely. The eight foot aliens where slowly advancing, taking cover in doors, even using corpses as meat shields. They were all looking at the hard pressed marines, and didn't notice Conner and Leonard behind them. Conner lifted his carbine, letting the targeting reticule on his TVD align on the target, It settled on his victims head, and he started squeezing the trigger. The rifle buckled seven times, and seven bottles of compressed explosive super heated ionized gas blasted into the creatures head. Its shields flared five times, and the last two rounds blew its head clean off. Some of the other Thrals turned to meet this new threat, and were blown away by a volley of rounds from Conner and Lenny. The other Thrals turned and opened fire on the duo. Burning red shots blazed by, three hit Conner in the chest, dropping his shields to a quarter. A shrill warning a screamed at him, warning of the energy barriers near collapse. He rolled behind the wall as another, lethal volley of rounds blew past, tearing apart a chunk of the behind him. Lenny was firing an ailon rifle, the brilliant green beam sizzling as he concentrated a series of shots at a particular Thral. The alien warriors shields overloaded, collapsed, and the next round burned a three inch hole in his chest. Then, another viscous round of luent energy hit him in the head, followed by three more. The air around him popped as his shields collapsed, causing him immediately to join Conner around the corner. Conners shields had fully recharged now, and he whipped around the corner to resume firing. He had just opened up, when a marine of the opposite fire team ****ed his arm and threw an orange sized sphere pulsing fiery orange. It locked onto the arm of one of the league soldiers, who saw it, and began to utter an alien scream when the grenade detonated in a brilliant white flash, vaporizing all seven of the aliens. Conner waited for the smoke to clear a bit, then stood up and walked across the hall, followed closely by Lenny. The remaining marines also rose from behind various makeshift covers, and walked over to them. One of them walked forward, and His insignia flashed across Conners TVD, twin bars, the initials of a marine captain. Conner and Lenny snapped to attention.
"Sir!" the spoke together. The officer waved his hand at them.
"At ease soldiers." The pair slumped their shoulders and relaxed. Conner asked timidly.
"Sir, what is going on here?" The captain sighed and scratched the back of his neck.
"I only know a little more than you. From what I can gather, a League gunship caught us as we came out of JumpSpace, blasted us, knocking out our Jump abilities and communications. They boarded, god knows why they would board a rundown freighter like this junk, but whatever they're looking for, we can't let 'em find it, if it's this important." Conner asked another question.
"Well sir, uh, is there any orders you have for us?" The captain frowned, as if working on a complex equation. Then he replied after what seemed like an eternity.
"Yeah, get with me and my boys, the skipper has given us orders to defend this boat at all costs, and I'll need all the help I can get. From what I gather, the sent in landing craft through the shuttle bays, and spread out from there. We hold the interior of the ship, so we've got all the important stuff. But they've inserted some sort of hacker AI; it's trying to get through our security. If they do that, they could flush the atmosphere, so our current objective is to locate the terminal where the AI was located, and destroy it, 'fore it destroys it." Conner asked.
"Sir, why don't we just destroy it through the system?"
"Because, it overwhelmed all of our security. It hasn't managed to unlock the programs operating life support and power supply, or the self-destruct system, but it's only a matter of time before it does." Conner nodded, reviewing the situation mentally. The officer continued.
"So, we've got to get to the connection port on deck Theta, lavender section. Got that marines?" The weary replied came.
"Sir yes sir."
"Good, then let's move out. Jenkins, you're on point, Herons, you cover our rear." The squad moved into a group, Jenkins ran to the front, and brought his pulser assault rifle to bear. Conner moved behind, and hefted his plasma carbine. They group moved quickly down the corridors, smothered in the glaring red light of emergency lights, and surrounded by the blaring klaxons. Conner checked his battery charge, eighty seven percent. Good, he had only two extra batteries, so he needed to make every round count. He checked the motion tracker on his TVD, it showed that there were twelve friendly contacts around him, no hostiles, no wait; two red blips appeared on the screen, he was about to issue a warning of the hostile contacts, when the faded away, like ghosts. Conner frowned, that made no sense. Things didn't just fade away, unless they had been killed, but there was no gunfire of sounds of fighting. It was almost like they'd disappeared, or became...Conner stopped and went rigid as his brain finished the thought.
...invisible. Conner immediately opened up TEAMCOM.
"Guys, I think we've got a Farrel pair behind us, invisible." The captains voice came back immediately.
"Ok, tango squad, turn around, we've got company. Smokey, throw a M-4 out." One of the marines tossed a cylinder down the corridor. It landed, rolled a ways, then stopped. Orange, thick smoke started to billow out. Conner, and the other marines automatically strapped on penetration goggles, which enabled view through the murk about five meters. Conner searched the lazily drifting smoke, there! He saw a disturbance inside the smoke. He yelled out.
"Contact!" And opened fire. Five plasma bursts erupted from his carbines muzzle and hit the thing in the thick fog. Two hit, disrupting the natural light bending ability. A strange, multi armed reptilian, snakelike animal appeared, hissed through its elongated head, and grabbed a strange looking weapon from its hip, and fired. Conner got out of the way as the gun fired, sending a series of yellow, viscous quills, which impacted on the marine behind him, exploding, popping his shields. He staggered back from the impact, until one hit his neck, stabbing deep in. The soldier gargled, hit the ground, gasped, and expelled his breath, dead. Farrel porcupines fired a super dense needle made of explosive material which detonated violently on impact with hard surfaces, but when it punctured, it released a deadly venom that killed in seconds, a corrosive substance, it burned through all the tissue in two feet almost immediately. Already, the soldiers neck was coming apart, letting blood gush out onto the floor. Conner turned away, sickened. He opened up with his carbine, hitting one of the alien mercenaries seven times, blasting away part of its armour. It jumped out of the way, and started to aim its porcupine, when the high pitched chattering of a pulser assault rifle caused it to turn. It was still turning when it collapsed, half its abdomen burned away by the pulsers rapid fire laser pulses. Conner swung around, eye and rifle searching for the other alien. The flurry of fighting had caused the cloud to partially disperse and get swirled around, making it impossible to spot the aliens anymore. The marines of Tango squad looked around, squinting, and trying to locate their adversary. Jenkins whispered.
"Think they're gone?" He was quickly rebuked by Smoky.
"Don't be stupid, their code of honour dictates that they never back down from a fight. He's still here, somewhere." As to prove his point, a barbed blade grew out of Jenkins chest like a gruesome flower. The young marine looked at the bloody implement emerging from his torso with a look of astonishment written all over his face, then, he eyes rolled back into his head, and he sank to the floor in a bloody pool. Time was frozen for a moment, and then it all tumbled apart into a blend of chaos and terror. Conner and all his squad members looked around frantically, trying to spot the hidden menace. Suddenly, Smoky seemed to levitate of the deck, struggling for breath. The Farrel appeared, fully visible. Conner was horrified by its sinister appearance.
The creature was eight feet tall easily. It was snakelike in body, but its lean frame rippled with muscles. Its head resembled that of a lizard, but with a murderous looking beak which split vertically to form a means to speak. It had several arms, all hooked with viscous, retractable claws which delivered a deadly toxin. The arms, were long and flexible, and most of them possessed a knife, long, barbed affairs, they resembled four half blades, cut in half vertically, joined together at the cut side, to make a four edged barbed weapon fifteen inches long.
It hissed, holding the deadly weapon an inch away from Smokies neck. It gestured for the soldiers to drop their weapons. Conner, Lenny, and the others did not do so. The alien started to press the blade against Smokies neck, who managed to gasp.
"Get 'im!" These two words gallivanted the soldiers into action. Immediately twelve pulser rifles opened up full-auto. The Farrel staggered back, armour flaring, and then went invisible. Conner swung the rifle around, looking for the elusive enemy. He was moving cautiously toward the spot it had been, then stopped at a terrible sight. A knife plunging at Lennys back. Conners mind went blank, except for the singe, thought to get in between the blade and his. Throwing caution to the wind, he charged with a wild yell. This must have startled the creature, for the blade stopped in mid-air, a centimetre from Lenny's neck. Conner turned on his energy bayonet, and slashed at where the creature would have been. He was rewarded with a yowl, as the solid energy blade stabbed deep into flesh. Conner jerked it up and out, causing the Farrel to uncloak. The beast collapsed to other ground, beak clacking wildly as it gasped vainly for air. Conner bayonet has entered the abdomen, slashed up and through its left long, and severed the left upper arm, which was laying a foot away. The intense heat of the blade had cauterized the blood vessels, so the alien would not bleed out. The marines, very relieved, relaxed their grip on their weapons. A mistake. Without warning, the dying Farrel lunged with deadly speed at Conner, knife extended.
The knife smashed into Conner, point first. The same time the alien attacked, all the soldiers started to shoot, but stopped, for fear of hitting their comrade. The pair rolled around on the deck, trying to throw each other off. The knife had shattered on Conners shields, but the kinetic force had shattered them, they were down for awhile. Conner had his hands on the ailon pistol, and was struggling to get it to a firing position, for the Farrel had pinned his arm holding the gun to his side, rendering it useless. The alien had an arm on his throat, and the other two were holding his arms down. The only reason Conner was alive was because the alien was badly weakened by the bayonet attack. It knew it would not survive, and was ordered by its code of honour to go out fighting like a warrior, capture, was the ultimate disgrace and mark of cowardliness. Still, its strength was fading fast, while Conner was by and by uninjured. He managed to gain the upper hand, and rolled them into a wall, slamming the alien first, loosening its dying grip. He crawled up, kicked the warrior off, and pulled up his pistol. Selecting the maximum power setting, he charged it, and fired at the Farrel. The white beam of heat and energy splashed over the animal, and effectively vaporized it. He re-holstered the weapon and backed up. Lenny was still recovering from his near death experience. Lost for words, he stuttered a little, and then his thoughts poured out like a faucet.
"Whoa, dude, thanks! Thank you so much! I mean, like, that knife was like, right at my, you know, and, holy crap man, you friggin' saved my life! Thank you thank you thank you so very very much!" Conner grinned slightly, watching his friend babble away.
"Calm down man, 'course I saved ya. If, who else would I yell at? 'F you were dead, I wouldn't be able to gloat when I get promoted." Lenny was about to reply with a sharp insult, when the captain broke it up.
"Good going guys, now we don't have time for chit-chat, we've gotta move it and get to the terminal. Lenny, get on point. Now squad move out." The chatter ceased as Lenny moved up to the front of the squad, ailon rifle at the ready. The team of combatants slowly advanced down the corridor. Conner was still shaking from his close encounter with death, and nudged one of the marines close to him. He whipped around, pulser raised. When he saw who had touched him, he relaxed.
"Sorry man, ya scared the skin out of me. Thought you were one of those Farrels, or a Thral, those guys are sneak ya know. Anyway, whatcha want Herons?" Conner whispered, still shaking.
"Could ya pass me a relaxant? That fight shook me up real bad." The marine, a stocky guy with black hair, brown eyes, and a couple of freckles splatter on his face, stuck his hand into a little compartment on his belt and dug around for awhile. Then he yanked something out of his belt compartment and stuck it into Conners waiting hands. It was a small pill, shaped like a tear drop and maroon in color, about the size of a push pen. Conner enveloped the pill in his palm, and popped it into his mouth, swallowing it in a gulp. The pill slid down his throat, dissolved into his bloodstream, and his nerves immediately calmed down as the drugs worked their magic. He closed his eyes momentarily and sighed, enjoying the relief the drugs brought. His TEAMCOMM system in his helmet crackled, and the captains gruff, weary voice shook him out of his chemical induced stupor.
"Tango squad, listen up. We've got to take the gravity lift down to Theta level. From there, we've got thirty yards until we get to lavender section, got it?" The COMM crackled with several different scattered, weary 'yes sirs' from the marines. The captain spoke up again.
"Okay then, let's go marines. Oo-rah!" The captain shut off the COMM and stepped over to the gravity left. He opened up a small panel beside it, and typed in the destination. A beeping confirmed his request, and he stepped into the invisible warped gravity beam. He immediately started a rapid descent down the shaft. One by one, the other soldiers followed their commander into the grav-lift. Lenny first, then Smoky, then all of them, with Conner going last.
Conner didn't like the grav-lifts, because for unknown reasons, whenever he went on one his stomach felt like a hand and squeezed it like a sponge. Doctors told him it was probably his confused brain sending wrong messages, but Conner didn't believe it. The floated down the shaft, it felt like falling in slow motion. Finally, he reached Theta level, and the lift deposited him on the deck with the waiting members of his squad.
"Alright squad, form up! Leonard, get on point, Herons, cover our rears. Lavender section is around the corner, so this is the plan. There most definitely be guards in the vicinity, but we don't know how many. I'll send a RCON probe around the corner to check out their strength. For now, set up positions and get ready to hold off possible hostile forces." As Conner and the others prepared their weapons, the captain pulled what appeared to be a baseball sized metal sphere with a lens in the centre. He held a small remote activator to the lens, and pressed a small black button. The probe immediately started humming, and lifted up off the ground. The captain pulled out a small remote controller out of his pack and started fiddled with it a bit. The probe rose to a height of five feet, turned around the corner. A small two by two inch screen was projected into the air by the controller, showing the live footage of what it was recording. The footage was a bit grainy and miscoloured, but still quite recognizable. The picture was showing a medium sized room with a circular table. The walls were battleship grey, and devoid of materials except for a two by two foot computer terminal. Inside the room were four League Thrals, and another creature, much larger than the Thrals clustering around it. It was as tall as the room was high, taller actually, but was forced to bend down. Covered in plate like armour, and with a massive phenton cannon locked onto its right arm.
It was an Enforcer. Conner saw the huge alien on the screen, and nearly ran in the opposite direction then and there. He was terrified! Enforcer! Enforcers were deployed by the League as mobile artillery, used to smash heavy fortifications. Their armour was impenetrable by standard small arms, and the massive phenton weapons would vaporize a marine, shield, ballistic armour and all. Even Hornet shock troopers or the deadly Next Generation Troopers, (NGTs) thought twice before engaging these behemoths. Movement! On the projected screen, the enforcer has turned its head, and saw the probe. It raised its arm, the massive cannon glowing blue as it charged, then it discharged. The captain swore, and tried to scramble the probe into safety, too late. There was a blue flash and then static as the probe was vaporized. In the corridor, the marines heart an explosion as the weapon fired. The captain cursed again, and then tossed the controls away. He rubbed his helmet with his hand, mumbling incoherently to himself. Then, he got up, straightened up, and spoke up.
"Okay boys, we've got ourselves little situation. We need to take out that big fella 'fore he takes out us. Since we lack any heavy weapons, we're gonna go with what we've got. The plasma grenades. We'll lob one each into the room, it'll take out the Thrals, and stun and hurt that enforcer. Remember, their vulnerable areas are the neck and head. Armours weakest at the abdomen and lower back as well, so concentrate your fire on those regions. That cannon takes a couple of seconds to recharge, so take full advantage of that, and don't stop moving. There's no cover in that room so if you stop you're a dead duck. Now, let's roll!" Conner tried to swallow the lump in his throat, and shook his head to chase away any dizziness. He and the rest of tango squad pulled out a plasma grenade. Conner reached to his belt, and grasped the metal ball. He brought it up to his face and checked the trigger, to make sure it wasn't armed by accident. Confident it was good to go, he got behind the door to the console room. He waited until the captain armed his grenade, and kicked open the door. He hurled his in, followed shortly by the other soldiers. Conner hit the trigger on his grenade, and ****ed back his arm. The explosive was starting to glow orange as it heated its surface melting an out hard layer which when warmed up became very adhesive and stuck to anything. He finished ****ing his arm and hurled the grenade into the room. Then, he slammed the door shut as the last man chucked in his bomb. There was brief pause, then a series of explosions that rattled the teeth in Conners head. They waited a second, then the captain yelled out.
"Go, go, go!" The squad busted down the door and opened fire all at once. The air was immediately thick with the blue flashes of pulsers and green stabs of ailon beams. Conner charged in, his fear left behind in the rush of battle. He raised his carbine and started pulling the trigger madly, running at the bleeding enforcer. Conner was still firing when he heard an unearthly sound. He looked around for the source, only to realize it was coming from his own throat. He decided to continue his scream, and fought on.
Captain Mark Lawrence led his soldiers through the door into the shattered room. He looked around, absorbing the situation while he fired his pulsar assault rifle. The Thrals were all dead, torn to charred bits by the explosives. The enforcer was dazed, but alive. Its stomach armour was torn open, revealing leathery brown flesh. He started to fire at this weak point, but the creature moved, it moved very fast, recovering very quickly. He shifted his fire at the new position, and his rapid firing laser shots blasted into the creature's stomach. Unfortunately, all of the high powered energy pulses hit the armour around the wound, leaving the alien monster unharmed. Suddenly, the enforcer whipped around at him and charged. Lawrence started to retreat, firing as he did so. The alien ran smack-dab into the stream of energy without flinching. Lawrence suddenly realized it was getting to close, and began to turn to run. It was too late, the alien swung its arm, hitting his side and sending him flying through the air into the far wall. He hit the wall with 'oof as the air left his lungs. He scrambled up, gasping for breath, his shields completely down, and his helmets alarm shrieking in his ears. He groaned, staggered to his feet, and looked up. The bright blue pulse of a phenton cannons was the last thing he saw. The last thing he felt, was a wave of intense heat cross his body and consume him in a flash.
Conner looked in shock as his captain was enveloped in a phenton pulse which completely vaporized him. Then, he saw the monsters un-protected back. He, and every other marine in Tango squad opened fire, full-auto. The wave of energy blasts hit the aliens back, causing him to stagger forwards. He tried to turn, but the over whelming blast of heat blew apart his lower back armour plating. He collapsed to the floor as the beams and pulses of ailons and pulsers burned away his back and cutting through the spine. The enforcer moaned, and died as the attack burned it clean in half. A final round was fired then silence. Conner was rather shocked at the fact he was alive, along with most of tango. Then, Lenny broke up the silence.
"Well, at least that's over, but what do we do now?" Conner was about to call him an idiot for not knowing, but before the cutting phrase left his mouth, he thought. What did they do now? The captain never told the, just that they were gonna 'destroy the enemy AI.' He had no idea how to destroy an AI though, he was just a Private First Class in the Earth Stellar Control Marine Corps, the techies and navy swabbies knew how to fry an AI, and he knew how to stay alive, keep others alive, and use weapons, not to destroy a highly complex alien computer system. Then, one of the surviving marines cleared his throat, and spoke up.
"Uh, guys? I ain't a computer geek, but I took some limited cryptology training at the Jovian moons academy, and from what I know about League hacker AIs, the most powerful ones need a small base of operations, a physical one. So, the boarders insert a chip into the computer, and leave it there. But when this chip is pulled out or destroyed, the AI loses its power source, and gets weaker, eventually, it'll get week enough for our security programs to destroy it. So, look for a little computer chip sticking out or something like that." Conner thought that made sense, as did everyone else, as no one raised a protest. Conner crossed the room to the terminal, and checked its smooth surface.
There, a small stick, about the size of his thumb was sticking out of the surface. He bent down a bit, and closed his hand around it and jerked it out. It was black, smooth and glossy, like most league materials. He tossed it in the air once, checking its wait. Not that heavy. He drew his pistol, and switched the power setting to three. Then, he tossed the chip in the air and shot it. The bright green beam flashed, then was gone. The chip was hit, flared white, and fell to the ground smoking. Conner sheathed the pistol, and muttered.
"Well, that's over. Now, I'm gonna check out what it was that those aliens were so excited about." He turned on the terminal, and a turquoise screen flashed to life. White words flickered onto the screen, giving him several options. He touched the one which said, 'ship inventory.' The screen turned blue, and demanded a password for further access. Conners fingers flashed across a keyboard, typing in a codeword which marines had been given upon entering the ship. It was an ESC priority alpha bypass code, designed to bypass all security on this vessel in case of emergency and immediate access was needed to any part of the ship. Conner, like all the troops on the ship, laughed when they were briefed and given the bypass. 'Like any emergency would happen on this crate' they'd thought. Ironic, this backwater assignment should have been a break from combat, a chance to wind down. The system beeped as it confirmed the bypass, and data started appearing on the screen. Conner checked out the inventory, looking for a reason the League would have ambushed a rundown freighter. Some weapons, a Tarantula Main battle tank, a wing of dragonfly attack fliers, and lots of food and water. Nothing of real opportunity here. A thought crossed his mind, maybe it was all coincidence that they were attacked, they just happened to be there at the same time. No, that was to big coincidence. It was like gambling the universe created itself. He continued scrolling through the inventory. Nope, nothing of value here. Just more food. He was about to back up and check out another option when he saw something at the bottom of the list. It was a file labelled 'Priority Assets.' Conner selected it, only to have another password demanded. This perked him up; whatever required two passwords was obviously very important. He typed in the bypass, and it let him through. There were only two files, one read 'message,' and other said 'Contender.' Conner selected the message, and waited for a second as it loaded. Then, a simple text document appeared on the screen. Conner, and the others crowded around the terminal to see what it said.
SEAPORTIAN CONFEDERATION SPACE COMMAND PROTOCOL 905867A-4
ENCRYPTION CODE: RED
PUBLIC KEY: FILE/ FIRST LIGHT/
FROM: FLEET HIGHCOM CENTRAL NAVAL INTELLIGENCE SECTOR SIX
TO: ADMIRAL PRESTON SCOTT
SUBJECT: CLASS ONE CONTENDER ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE
CLASSIFICATION: RESTRICTED, EYES ONLY
/start file/
Dear Admiral,
I know you're probably wondering why in the stars I pulled you from frontline duty, to commanding a crate like the one you're in now. Please, sit back and let me explain my actions, though as I am CNI director, I shouldn't have to. I am putting you in charge of a project so top secret, the section two spooks haven't heard a word about it. That tub of yours ain't carrying the standard crap. Inside the ships hardware, is a class one contender AI. As you probably know from sector five propaganda, the contender project was designed to create an AI capable of commanding large fleets with pinpoint precision, thousands of times better than humans could. You also know, or at least, you think you know, that the project was abandoned. But in reality, section zeroes been continued working, using cloak and dagger tricks to keep it under priority alpha-one wraps. But know, the project has created success. The contender is on your vessel, and in a dormant state, the techies are still finishing the system, but other than that it is fully operational. Your orders are to deliver it to Fleet admiral Drake ASAP. They are priority one and cannot be reversed by anyone except myself or FLEET HIGHCOM Head Admiral. If the vessel is attacked, and the capture of the contender is imminent, you are to destroy it. However, to help prevent that, I have given you a special defence asset. You have clearance to break every regulation if need be to ensure the AIs survival. Remember Admiral, if you successively deliver this construct, it could very well turn the tide on the fifth front.
Godspeed
/end file/
Conner was speechless. A contender AI? This was amazing, very good news. If the fifth front was won, the entire seventh fleet would be freed up. And what was this special defence asset? Sixty marines were special enough for a single transport. Unless, no, they wouldn't. One of the remaining five marines still alive spoke up.
"So, uh, whadda we do now?" Conner turned around and faced him.
"Why you asking me that? I ain't boss."
"Uh, technically, you are sir. You're a Private First Class, we're all privates. So, you are the ranking officer." Conner rubbed his helmet and groaned. For the first time since joining the forces, he didn't want to be the leader. He wanted to lead a platoon of famous soldiers, not half a squad of rag-tag grunts. Thoughts jumbled in his mind, and he tried to sort them out, looking for one that was a good idea. He was still searching when an explosion blew open Leonards stomach.
Conner ran for his friend, while the other marines raised their rifles at a team of Thrals coming through the door. Conner checked Lenny's vitals. They were erratic, all over the place. A smoking hole three inches in diameter had torn through his armour plating and his abdomen, square in the middle. His face, rapidly going white and pasty, was shocked. His mouth tried to move, and Conner urged him to speak.
"Come on man, what it?" His voice was thick with emotion, while a cold lump built in his stomach. Then, words escaped his dying mouth.
"They got me." Then he was gone. Conner checked his vitals, they were completely flat lined. He cursed bitterly, and then a sizzling energy bolt knocked him out of his consuming misery. He rolled away, therefore n evading another shot. He pulled his carbine to his shoulder and aimed at an attacker, rage and cold fury replacing sorrow and grief. A volley hit the Thral, knocking him to the ground. Conner finished him off with another ten shots, blowing it to pieces. A whine sounded and he looked at the battery charge, completely dry. He popped it out, and pulled out another battery. He pushed it in, and locked it with a satisfying click. He was about to fire upon another invader, when out of his targets chest, a white hot blade speared. The Thral collapsed immediately, a sizzling hole in its chest. The blade of white hot light started moving in deadly patterns, cutting down the Thral group. Two survivors looked around, warbling in their guttural tongue, searching for a target. Then one of them shot at the blade, missing it. The burning bolt evaporated in midair, like it hit a wall. The 'wall' however, started to contour, looking like heated air in the desert. This moving, rippling patch of air moved like lightning though, and speared the assailant, slashed out and cut the other one in half. The blade disappeared as the Thral halves collapsed, and then something took the place of the shimmering air. Conner didn't recognize it at first, then realization dawned upon him.
"Oh my gosh!" He exclaimed. In front of him, was an armour clad figure. Encased head to toe in TROY battle armour was an NGT. They were the confederations best soldiers, trained form infant hood in the arts of war. Injected with chemical ****tails which made them smarter, bigger, stronger, faster, and tougher than any other soldier, they were the ultimate killing machine. In his right hand was an energy sword, a blade of solidified superheated plasma, capable of cutting through the toughest of foes. He turned the blade off and clipped it to his utility built. He walked over, seven and a half feet tall, and spoke up.
"Marines, who is your commanding officer?" Conner was about to point to the captain, when he remembered that he was CO now. He stood forward, saluting.
"Me sir, PFC Herons." The NGT nodded, and replied.
"I am taking command here, you and your soldier answer to me now. So listen up marines, our orders to abandon this ship and capture the league vessel, with it we can leave." Conner spoke nervously.
"Uh, sir? We have orders from HIGHCOM to secure and contender class AI on this ship."
"Those orders are now invalid, I have the AI. Now, follow me, stay sharp. Herons, get on point."
As the marines filed into formation, the NGT Tyco was troubled. He had John had spoken as they approached the soldiers, and reached an uneasy conclusion. Tyco had considered the marines, as weaker, less capable soldiers, something to protect, not rely on in a firefight. However, the AI John had said all the firepower available would be a luxury. So, they agreed to take the pitiful marine squad with them. He moved at point with Herons, forcing himself to move slow enough to keep up with the marines. He pulled a Type-One phentonic SMG of his belt, the latest in weapons technology, the type one shot phentonic energy blasts at a high rate of fire. Phenton which was one of the most deadly and punishing known energy sources, made the weapon deadly in the close confines of the freighter, proven by the trail of dead Thral patrols he had left in his wake, torn apart by the Type-one, or slashed apart with the energy sword. After Tyco had secured John, what the contender AI insisted its name was, he was about to board the League gunship when he saw the beleaguered marine squad get attacked by the Thral team. Now, with four of them at his back, they were heading to a translocation platform. The enemy gunship had lowered its shields to detach its boarding craft and fire its weapons. According to John, they were still down; therefore a translocation jump platform could transport them all over to the gunship. That is, if all went according to plan. And in battle, it never did.
The translocation platform was just in the next room. As Tango squad got closer, Tyco activated his combat camouflage system, bending light waves around and rendering him completely invisible. He held the Type-one in his left hand, the sword in his right, un-activated. He told the squad to stop, and then checked his motion tracker. A cluster of hostiles was in the room, a warm departure. He told the squad to stay out of this fight, and crept into the room. Yep, there was seven Thrals inside the room, already for a fight. Well they would get one, as short as it may be. He took pointed his sword at the closest Thrals chest and activated it. A blade of white hot energy materialized seemingly from nowhere and stuck the Thral through his chest. It died with a horrible gurgle. Immediately the others in the room turned their weapons on the blade and opened fire in Tyco's general direction.
Most of the shots missed him, but a couple hit him, disrupting his camouflage and revealing him. He fired his type one at one Thral, blowing through its shields and armour, burning it to crisp. Then, moving with deadly speed and cleared the ten foot distance between him and the other group in a split-second, cutting on in half and cracking the Type-one over another's head, breaking its neck. This left three remaining targets, all circling and firing the weapons. His shields, actually a shaped anti-matter barrier, reflected the shots but were draining fast. He fired at one, taking it down and was about to shoot the others when a sizzling energy bolt blew the type-one out of his hand. With only his sword, he turned to face the two who had both charged him from different angles. He raised the sword to cut one down when the alien barrelled into him, grabbing both arms and sending the sword on a whirling ark through the air, stabbing into the wall. Now he fired both of his knees into the Thrals abdomen, weakening the grip on his arms. He tore his arms free, and ducked, dodging a volley of energy blasts aimed at him by the second assailant. With two lightning fast punches, he broke the Thrals shields and caved in its skull. It went limp as its life energy departed, and he used the fresh corps as a meat shield to absorb another hail of burning energy. He threw the corpse at his attacker and knocked it to the ground. Without hesitation he jumped on top of it and knocked its gun away and grabbed its arms and snapped them. The alien snarled and tried to head butt him. He absorbed it, then pulled it up and crushed in its chest cavity. He threw down the body and walked over to retrieve his sword. John started to comment.
"You're very good at- His sentence was interrupted by a sudden movement as a Farrel uncloaked and charged, all hands with knives. Tyco whipped around, ducked and knocked its legs out from underneath it. It fell to the ground, but the NGT grabbed it in mid-fall and broke it neck. He hurled this addition of bodies to the mound in the center of the room, and then pulled the sizzling blade out of the wall. As he deactivated it and put it away, John finished his comment.
"You're very good at killing things. I'm impressed."
"Thanks." The NGY mumbled, and then he called in the marines.
"Tango squad, come on in. Rooms clear." The marine squad walked in cautiously, and stared at the mound of bodies at the floor, then at the NGT super soldier. Then they lined up and went to attention. Tyco saluted.
"At ease marines, now listen up. The plan is to board the League gunship and capture it. This is a must since out ships engines are all fried, so the gunships our only route home. So we get on board, neutrilize resistance, and get to other bridge ASAP. Do you understand?" They replied wearily.
"Sir yes sir."
"Good, then let's get going. John, our contender AI, has already locked the coordinates to the ship, so we just got to get into position. Let's move." The marines saluted and walked over to the Jump pad. Tyco followed them and activated the 'Transport now' button. A brilliant blue light enveloped the marines and his line of vision until all he saw was a blue-white shine. Then quick as it came, the brilliant light faded. Tyco looked around and checked their surroundings. One Thral was watching them and started to give warning. Quick as a flash Tyco activated his sword and ran him through. He collapsed silently. Tyco caught his as he fell and gently placed him down to avoid a sound. He then checked out the room. It was made of polished black metal and illuminated by a luminous blue lights in the ceiling, traveling in bands down the ceiling. The room was barren, other than the Thral corpse. And what appeared to resemble a camera. Tyco prayed it wasn't, but to make sure, he slashed it with his sword and sent it up in sparks. The marines were still reorienting themselves, and were shocked by the sudden change. Tyco was about to order them to fall into formation, when from behind them, a blast of energy hit Tyco in the back. He turned around, firing his type-one and downed the Thral. He checked for more, and saw what appeared to be a large group heading down the opposing corridor, straight at them. Must have been a camera after all. He yelled at the marines.
"Marines! Battle formation, we've got company!"
To be continued in
