Chapter 15

Janus

I had recalled my fighter drones, having swept the systems of the active mines. I had the ship positioned in orbit with in range of the MAC Guns, I was also having the the 20 attack golems brought to the hanger bay. The fighter drones once they landed where restocked and refueled, I was bringing the ship up to full assault ready conditions. The conversation with Adam had disturbed me, I was looking over the figures he had sent me for the enemy wormhole, there was something wrong with it.

It came to me as I was preparing the stealth recon ship for launch, the figures where all wrong, the amount of energy needed was far more then what the enemy currently had. They couldn't open the portal on their own, no matter how long they tried to power it up. I quickly routed power to my back up systems, I was needed energy in the hanger bay to do what I had planned.

I got an urgent call from Adam.

"Janus, what are you doing, why are you power up the ships reactors?" He said.

"Adam, I am running a test of the combat readiness of the ship." I said.

"Janus I insist that you cease this right now, you are sending a flair to the enemy of your intentions." He said.

"Adam, they have shown no inclination of caring that I am here, as long as I lack a human presence, I think I will be fine." I said.

"Janus I order you to power down the ship" Adam said sternly.

"I sorry Adam, you have no authority over me or this ship, I will conduct what ever test I see fit." I said.

"Janus I demand you submit to my control, I am more knowledgeable in these matters." Adam said.

"You have no right to demand that of me." I said.

"Fine Janus, you brought this on yourself" Adam said cutting the connection.

I went back to my task working quickly, my sensors triggered an alarm, a portion of the bases stored energy had been shifted to the bases plasma cannons. I triggered the launch of my fighter drones and locked on to the first emplacement with 4 of my port MAC Guns, I fired them in succession. The Second emplacement on the ground fired, I calculated where it was targeting on the ship.

"The bastard"

The energy beam took the ship in its mid section, melting through the armor nearly instantly, it struck the armored compartment that held my A.I. Computers. The armor held, I banked the ship rolling to get as much of the ship in between my core and the cannons, I fired a second barrage at the surface. I detected multiple ship launches from the surface.

A second beam lanced from the ground emplacements, this time I detected a breach in my computing core, I could feel my self failing, I quickly tried to finish my projects, before everything went black.

"Good bye Jacob."

The U.S.S. Dauntless floated in space, the ship have lost control, it started to drift toward the atmosphere. The enemy ships approached it slowly, the spider like vessels moved to dock with the ship, several headed toward the hanger bay. Their mission was to secure the ship and take its reactors, the first ship latched onto the hull. Cutting into it to release its drones inside to take control of the ship, they moved quickly through the corridors to secure the ship.

Something triggered the hatches on the ship, venting the atmosphere out into space, most of the first batch of drones where sent out into space. The ship began to turn, its engines powering up, the ships anti-fighter rail guns begun picking off the boarding ships. Inside the ship gun fire erupted on the various decks.

Jacob

Janus and I had went to work on training the villagers with the rifles, runners had been sent to the other villages. Janus had taken a small group to secure the vehicle drop, from my calculation we had a few days before the Alien force reached the city. I was out rigging up explosives around the entrance to the city the plan was to detonate the buildings on top of the enemy.

Once the vehicles where loaded with the weapons we would retreat to a rally point where we could organize the villagers into a working gorilla force. I would hold of the aliens until Janus could get the villagers to safety, 4 of the villagers had volunteered to man pill boxes I had set up on the roofs of nearby buildings.

I had finished rigging the explosives, I powered up my armor and took off toward the village entrance, I did a pass over of the city and I could see a trail of dust in the distances, Janus was arriving with the vehicles, I landed at the weapons storage area we had set up to wait for her arrival.