Chapter 3

I smelled smoke, I woke up on floating in CnC, the light where off I could tell there was no power in the room. My Golems vision could see in total darkness, I engaged my thrusters located in my body to right myself in the air, the magnetic system in my feet engaged locked me to the floor, I walked to the nearest console to try and turn on the back up systems, I got nothing.

"Great"

I walked to the door, I had to pry it open with my hands, if I had not been operating a golem it would have been useless, when I got the door open the atmosphere in the room sucked out into the hallway, there was a vacuum in the corridor, which meant a hull breach. I walked through the long corridor to the ship, luckily CnC was located on the same deck as the reactors, hove ever they where located all the way in the rear of the ship. I walked swiftly through the empty hall, debris floated about weightless in the vacuum.

I eventually reached the engine room, the door was a blast proof, the entire area was designed to be hardened from a nuclear strike, I had to operate a hand crank in the side of the wall in order to open the blast door, when I got it open enough for me to fit I detected an energy signature inside. I entered to find the reactors all where functioning, what greeted me was not what I had expected.

Janus stood in the room looking distressed, her hair was a mess and her eyes where blood shot, I saw them widen when she saw me, she ran and lept into my arms hugging me, she openly wept as she squeezed me.

"Janus what happened."

She was silent as she held me, she took a moment before she spoke.

"Jacob I am so glad to see you, I didn't know if it would work. Sir the ship came out in the middle of what appears to be a mine field, we took 6 direct nuclear hits."

I shuddered, I knew the ship was designed to take a nuclear strike, but 6 of them was pushing it, Janus continued.

"On analysis of the impacts I calculated that they where all aimed at the life signs and the power sources of the ship, So I put both at the minimal level that I could. There are haul breaches through out the ship, but fortunately we seem to be structurally intact."

I frowned.

"Janus what does that mean minimal level?"

She looked at me.

"I lowered the reactor's to the point that we can only fire the emergency thrusters, also the everyone in stasis has had their vitals lowered to near death ... I didn't know if you would still be functioning at this level"

I nodded, she had done the right thing.

"What was the plan Janus?"

She let go of me and stepped back.

"Sir we are drifting through the field now, I did not detect any ships in the system beyond the mines, I was able to fire the thrusters in the right direction, several of the mines have latched onto our hull, I detected a signal coming from one of the planets in the system, it seems to be controlling the mines. I was going to try and get to the source and destroy it, I was going to risk powering up the MAC guns and doing an orbital strike."

I shook my head.

"Janus the mines on the hull would detonate if we did that, we need to get to the surface and disable it from there."

She looked at me, I could see that she was thinking.

"The ship is slowly approaching the planet, we have 5 devices latched to our haul, if we could disable the source of the signal controlling the mines we might be able to shut down the mine field." Janus said.

I nodded.

"Janus we have the orbital insertion gear for the other Golems correct?"

She nodded.

"We have a full complement of combat equipment for them." she said

I smiled.

"So, it looks like I am going to be traveling" I said.

She shook her head.

"Sir if we cant get the signal disabled we may not be able to retrieve you from the surface." She said, concern written all over her face.

I caressed her cheek with my hand.

"Janus its the only plan we have, if I take one of the fighters that might activate the mines, I have to take a drop pod down to the surface, they are mostly un-powered."

She nodded, putting her hand on top of mine.

"Jacob, it will be an unguided landing, you could end up anywhere on the planet, it could take you weeks to find the signal, and there is no way of knowing if there are hostiles, I don't know if I will be able to communicate with you on the surface"

I nodded at that.

"Ill just have to be real careful, Ill take the recon gear, Ill have to be stealthy" I said.

"Jacob, Ill stay here and work on repairing the ship, I think I can safely activate some of the repair drones, we should be able to stay in communications" she said.