Chapter 14

“Admiral, the alien vessels have begun to move again,” a Detection Officer informed him and Captain Muln.

“Heading?” Toolos enquired.

“The planet. Also we detected several small vessels leaving the landing ships and heading back to their fleet which is beginning to pull back!”

“Do you think they are suiciding?” Muln asked Toolos.

“Wouldn’t surprise me; we forced a draw,” Toolos replied.

“Can we stop them?”

“Not all,” a Tactical Officer replied.

“Can the forces we have aboard stop some of them?”

“Unknown.”

“Contact the on-board Commanders; tell them the options.”

“Sir!”

“Warn the planet. This could get ugly.”

“Healer Kiria, you have a call from Commander Gust,” the AI informed me.

“Put him through.”

“Prefect Kiria, well done on your penetration to an enemy processing centre.” Was the opening statement.

“Thank you, sir,” I replied. “I had very good subordinates to assist.”

“Nevertheless, well done. They’ll all receive some sort of citation.”

“Again, thank you, sir.”

“Unfortunately I have another job for you. The vessel you’re on is now heading towards the planet and looks likely to crash land with the usual consequences of something of that mass hitting a planet. We believe we have the location of the grav-drive power plant, if our scans are correct. We want you to go and turn it off or destroy it.”

“Yes, sir. How accurate are our scans?”

“Pure guesswork based on energy emissions.”

“Surprise, surprise,” I chuckled grimly. “Consequences of failure being a big hole in the planet and the death of everyone here?” I finished with a question.

“Yes. That’s why it’s a request, not an order.”

“I’ll give it a shot, sir,” I replied as the schematic came up.

“Thank you. Your rank will be raised to sub-Commander ... should you survive ... or posthumously.”

“I’ll get on it,” I nodded as I called over Liovol. “Prepare to advance in formation. I want this wall cut down and we proceed in that direction looking for a way down.” I ordered him.

“Yes, sir!”

The wall was soon down and we set off in the same formation we’d used before, though with a lot more enthusiasm as the Troopers knew the ‘mincer’ worked. Finding ways down though wasn’t easy. The aliens used grav-tubes linked to what we thought was an AI and naturally they wouldn’t work for us. That said, we all had a grav-pack and soon, after a stiff fight against some surprised (I believe) aliens, we cut through to one that headed down in the direction we wanted.

“Cut through here,” I ordered when my suit AI told me we were down to where Command believed the power plant to be.

“Yes, sir!” sub-Monitor Saart replied, producing a hyperbeam pistol.

“Rest of you get ready. We do not know what’s down here.”

“You heard the Officer! Ready polearms, we go in quick and nasty!” Liovol emphasised the order.

The cut-away bulkhead fell inwards away from us and the Troopers with polearms led the way into a minor little fight as a small swarm of aliens tried to prevent us from accessing what looked like a service corridor. Fortunately the experience we’d gained in our previous fights stood us in good stead and I was quickly able to heal and get back on their feet the few wounded there were.

“Form up, move out,” I ordered when the fight settled, pointing the way.

“Very different down here, sir,” Liovol observed.

“Yes, looks more finished, unlike the upper part of the ship,” I agreed.

“Wonder if this was built and then they grew the rest?”

“It’s a possibility, though we still don’t really know anything about them,” I replied after a thoughtful pause.

“Wonder if we ever will,” he nodded. “Here they come again!”

This time there were no casualties on our side as we were in formation from the start and the Troopers all had a healthy respect for the aliens’ strength and fighting ability. Hence it was all stab and chop before moving on to the next alien. This was all helped naturally by the aliens inability to flank us due to the narrowness of the corridor.

“I don’t think there’s a controlling intelligence behind them anymore,” I stated. “These attacks are just too piecemeal.”

“Have to agree, sir,” Liovol replied as he stood by my side and we observed the ‘mincer’ in action. “They should be trying to swarm us under.”

“Well, we’re approaching what Command think might be the power plant for the drive so the aliens may be getting serious and setting some sort of trap,” I chuckled grimly as the last alien went down.

“Always looking on the black side, sir,” Liovol chuckled.

“With this lot it’s to keep us all alive.”

“Can’t fault that attitude, sir.”

“Progress report on the Troopers taking out the landing ships?” Toolos asked as he observed the destruction of the last of the ones his ships had missiles for.

“Troopers are progressing well. They seem to have adapted to fighting with those spear things they have to great effect,” Muln replied.

“Do we have a feed of them in action?”

“Yes, sir. AI bring up the feed on the fighting aboard the closest landing ship.”

“Good heavens! That’s a Healer leading them,” Toolos stated, quite shocked.

“Yes ... Healer Prefect Kiria. Apparently she showed the Troopers how to take on the aliens and win when they advance in small groups rather than in a large mass,” Muln replied after a quick check. “She’s in her first year as an Officer too, rapid promotions and reckoned to be very professional and efficient as both Officer and Healer.”

“She’s only seven?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good grief, look at her! She just seems to exude competence as well as being damned good with a sword.”

“Yes, makes you wonder how she ended up choosing Ground Force. Her records show she’s upper level.”

“Astonishing, but good for Ground Force. They’re going to need people like her. More than they need people like me or Fleets like this.”

“Surely you jest, sir?”

“The Fleet has had billions of Royals spent on it. In the last war we were unbeatable; this war we’ve barely scratched our enemy. But this time, the Ground Force, made up mostly of so-called gutterscum, lower level nobodies, is carrying the fight to the Empire’s enemies. Tell me we do not need the lower level people to fight for us?”

“Yes, you’re right sir, these are the people we need.”

“We do indeed.”

“Any idea what this is, only it doesn’t look like what I’d expect a power plant to look like,” I said out loud whilst also relaying the query to Command.

“We’re setting up the sensor nodes now, sir. We should have answers soon,” Liovol informed me, staring at what, at first glance, looked like a fungal growth.

“Either way, find a way to switch it off or begin planting explosives.”

“Yes, sir! You heard the Officer. Find an off switch or blow it up!” he ordered the assembled Troopers.

Other than those on guard, the Troopers hurried about examining the structure as the sensors began their scan of it and brought up a few surprising results.

“An organic fusion reactor?” Liovol asked out loud. “Sir,” he finished off, realising he’d not followed protocol.

“Semi-organic. Looks like they grow the bloody things. The power output is those ... erm cables there,” I pointed at what could easily be considered pulsing veins coming out of the side of it.

“Clinna, sever those ... things. We’ll leave the plant running for now,” Liovol ordered a female Trooper carrying a backpack of what I presumed were explosives.

“Yes, Monitor!”

“AI, any other targets of opportunity nearby?” I asked as several Troopers gave Specialist Clinna a hand to plant explosives around the ‘veins’.

“There are several unknown structures nearby worth looking at, if you are so inclined, Healer Kiria,” the AI replied in its harsh tones.

“Time until this ship reached the atmosphere?”

“Two hundred and thirty-seven rotations.”

“Time enough,” I murmured quietly as Clinna set off the explosives and the throbbing of the power plant stopped.

“Vessel is slowing,” the AI informed me.

“Form up! Time to go exploring!” I ordered.

“You heard the Officer. Hurry it up, you lazy shleckers!” Liovol emphasised the order. “Which way, sir?”

“Through that exit there,” I pointed. “Leave a tri-dee cam here. I’d hate to think that shlecker might just regrow itself.”

“Yes, sir! Plazey set a cam up, then move out through there!”

We all formed up and began to move in the direction suggested by the AI and ordered by me. Again we were met by individual or small groups of aliens who would only drop what they were doing when they spotted us.

“Definitely no central control of them now,” Liovol stated on the common channel.

“Doesn’t make them any less dangerous,” I answered, with a warning. “Keep vigilant and in formation.”

“Yes, sir,” came a series of replies.

We entered a large chamber that looked like it also had been grown, but had what might be deemed a huge ‘ganglion’ suspended by various tendons to the walls, floor and ceiling.

“Set up the sensornet,” I ordered.

“On it, sir,” sub-Monitor Saart replied.

“Any thoughts, sir?” Liovol asked.

“Not really,” I told him. “Could be their AI core, or just a power transfer relay.”

“Any news on stopping this thing?”

“We’ve dropped its speed in half. There’s another team fighting their way down to another supposed auxiliary plant that kicked in when we stopped the last one,” I replied, after checking the command feed.

“So we may have saved the planet, sir?”

“Not stopped yet, but promising,” I replied.

“Sensornet is up ... scanning the object now,” Saart announced.

I looked at the data flowing past from the strictly medical perspective that my AI allowed. What I saw was a jumble of information showing the thing had definitely been grown and was likely built for growing other creatures, both swiftly and in a place where they could get outside. The squad had discovered a holding area as well as a tunnel/ramp that led directly to the outside. The only problem being that we couldn’t figure out, as yet, how to open it, though I suspected it might be like muscle tissue and just needed an electrical impulse applied to the correct place.

Further good news was to follow as we felt the internal grav fade away and the application of a gravitic ‘tractor’ beam from Fleet which began to slow the vessel and take it into orbit. The sensornet then informed us that the ‘ganglion’ was indeed a growth chamber, possibly for the larger well-armoured aliens we’d fought on Trenta but which we hadn’t met here as they were too big to fit in the corridors.