RM2-ch18:Influenced-edited

Ch 18 Influenced

While the platoon wasn’t equipped with Destroyer suits, the shields of the SENTINEL- Mk 119L were still top-notch military grade.

The sudden attack and the APC screaming towards the ground had caught them by surprise, but Roy’s sense of danger warning them a few heartbeats before the weapon impact was enough to activate the shields.

Still, the weapon impact disabled the sprinter and threw the marines inside the troop bay around like dice.

While their ride was an Army APC it differed little from the version Marines used. It was a tough piece of Union Military hardware. To disable and damage it like that took serious firepower.

All this went through Roy's head as he and his platoon braced for the impact.

The impact never came.

The rapid descent of the wounded APC was suddenly halted and reversed.

Roy’s sense of danger was still in overdrive so to speak, his mind also told him that there was only one thing that could explain the sudden halt, a tractor beam.

His suit sensors confirmed the projection field of a graviton manipulating device.

“Platoon, attention.” He barked in his command channel. “Situation is unclear. Prepare for imminent battle action against unknowns.”

He looked around in the smoke-filled troop compartment and signaled Corporal Whitesheet. “Corporal, blast that damn hatch. We need to get out of here.”

A gruff voice came over their official GalCom channel complete with the accompanying command code of a Union Marine Captain. ”Marines, stand down. This was a live-fire exercise. Power down shields and weapons, you will be received and debriefed.”

Everything in Roy’s stomach told him that this was a trap, the command code was genuine. The premise of the test and the odd sequence of events so far made no sense to him, but is subject to surprise exercise and orders that made no sense wasn’t exactly something new to him.

The Union Marine corps was the finest fighting force in the known universe, there was no doubt in his mind, but the upper brass always had a component of bureaucrats and career pushers.

His platoon sergeant clearly had the same ideas, and Roy was certain this seasoned grunt didn’t need a sense of danger to tell him something was wrong.

Dunn looked at Roy with a big question mark in his face.

Roy nodded frustrated. “Stand down.”

Moments later, a strong force ripped the rear hatch open. Roy and his men marched onto the hangar deck of a large ship or installation. It was clearly Union and nothing alien or foreign. The second Army Sprinter; the one with the Army Colonel and his echelon was right next to theirs. Both crafts showed serious damage.

They were greeted by a Marine captain, accompanied by six marines. The group also included several Union Fleet officers.

The captain saluted correctly and everything appeared genuine, the hangar, the uniforms, the six marines in genuine Sentinel suits. Yet Roy felt there was something wrong.

“Lieutenant Masters, this is a top-secret operation. There is a briefing as soon as you have been fully received.”

Roy acknowledged the orders. This appeared to be a high-level intel operation. Nothing made sense and a marine OA platoon completely out of place.

Roy was also certain they were aboard a Union battleship. The layout, the distinct armored landing bay doors made it certain they were on a ship and not a base or station of some kind.

The Marine captain was apparently a Stellaris, judging by its flex metal skin and distinct differences from an X101. Despite their outward appearance, and unlike Sentmacs, Stellaris was Terran human-based and had all the characteristic human behavior patterns, that translated beyond marine inducted norms. To Roy, the captain appeared awkward stiff and bare of emotions. His voice was as flat as the shuttle deck floor. ”You are with me Lieutenant, have your marines follow my men to the shower facilities.”

The Marine Captain simply turned and walked towards one of the doors. Roy followed and was surprised to find a mobile auto dresser right behind that hangar door.

The captain pointed at it. “Board Duty Uniform. Lieutenant. High ranking individuals already standing by for the briefing.”

As he stepped into the dresser, and the system disassembled the Sentinel suit he was wearing, his sense of danger suddenly became intense as a shower of hot water. He slapped the emergency release of the dresser, still partially covered in blue SLIME. His eyes caught the external program readout of the Auto Dresser, it flashed the word. “Prisoner Containment Suit”

The Marine Captain was still there. At first standing there like a powered down robot. Now reacting to Roy jumping out of the machine. ”Lieutenant, resume the dressing sequence!”

“Not before you explain the PCS sequence.”

“How did you know and stop the dressing process?”

Roy’s actions obviously surprised the Marine Captain and somehow that man did not know about the panic release option all Auto Dressers had.

Roy said loudly. ”System recognize Masters, Roy.”

“USS Walker, Main system disabled. Unable to comply.”

A cold hand cramped around Roy’s stomach. This was one of the rogue battleships.

The Marine Captain spoke in an odd way while taking his service blaster out of the holster. “After all this time we have you now Roy Masters.”

And with that Roy remembered the time when he was a teenager and had been abducted.

The way the Marine Captain spoke and acted, pointed to someone else controlling the marine officer,  back then the Marines and a host of officers even within NAVINT were controlled by Kermac using a nasty little parasite, he knew as the Smilak. Did the Whakey have similar abilities?

Roy acted faster than he could think. His Green Hell honed reflexes were still as effective as when he roamed the deadliest known jungles.

He was butt naked, the remaining SLIME had dripped off his body and pooled around his feet. He spin-kicked the half-raised weapon out of the other Marine Officer’s hand.

Roy still completing the almost dance-like martial arts move, followed up with a jaw-breaking fist blow to the side of the captain’s head.

He faced a trained marine, he was certain the Captain was genuine, but thankfully none of the tougher species or even a Petharian. While a Stellaris was originally designed to work and act in deep space without a cumbersome spacesuit, it was more or less human. Roy’s lighting attack had cut the officer’s lights. The metal skinned officer collapsed to the floor.

His men! They were disarmed and placed in Prisoner suits at this very moment. He took the officer’s service weapon and then redialed the Auto Dresser sequence. These machines retained personal items that did not match the breakdown sequence. In a regular sequence, these items would be returned to the user and in this PCS sequence, such items would be retained to be collected by someone else. Like all marines, Roy received prisoner handling training. Auto Dressers designated for brig and detention facilities did not have the Panic release option. But this was a standard mobile battle dresser.

At first, it had struck him odd, why they would use a mobile system, but now it made sense, the main system was disabled.

The machine did not accept his choice for a Destroyer suit. The system displayed there was no connection to the armory. It too made sense of course. The request for a destroyer suit also needed ID verification and authorization.

Roy knew he lost precious seconds, he was not even able to restore the SENTINEL suit, as it too required authorization that was either disabled due to the ships Computronic being down or because his authority was not recognized. The only option other than Prisoner Control Suit was Standard Board Duty uniform.

Seconds later he jumped out of the machine, wearing SBD. Dark blue intellifab two-piece jumpsuit, with an added ballistic protection layer and an emergency helmet initiator collar in case of sudden life support loss.

The best part, of course, was the fact that the system returned his personal items. In his case an old Mark 7 open draw holster with his own TKU 12.

He quickly stuffed the dazed Stellaris into the machine and completed the PCS sequence.

What to do next? He was aboard a Union Battleship full of rogue and Kermac controlled personnel. He had no idea where the ship itself was. It could be thousands of lightyears in any direction from Sigmar Base.

He didn’t receive any battleship operations training, of course, that was Navy and not Marine corps. Still, he wondered how the ship could attack two APCs and take them aboard without being noticed.

Roy knew the ship was full of Union secrets that could change the outcome of the war, but why was it not deep in Kermac space?

The entire war started because the cursed Paper skins tried to retrieve an old Saresii space ship buried beneath the surface of Green Hell. An ancient ship that, in their hope held the secret to Translocator cannons.

Now they had everything they wanted. He clearly recalled the Klack officer’s words. These stolen or somehow diverted Union Battleships were fully armed with translocator cannons, Loki torpedoes, and the latest shield technology.

He also knew the USS Walker had two TLTs aboard. Translocator Technicians of the FORGE. Two individuals knowing how Translocators work, down to the last part.

His first duty above all else was to prevent all this to fall into the enemy's hands. How much of it they already had or why they were still in Union space was a mystery to him.

He was one little Marine Luitenant, with a TKU against an entire Battleship and thousands of personnel.

Roy needed to improve his odds, and somehow find his platoon.

The room he was in was some non-descript and except for the auto dresser empty chamber.

At first, he wanted to interrogate the Stellaris, but the man was controlled and nit himself. So he bonded the PCS with the wall, rendering the Stellaris inside completely helpless and peeked out the door and into the wide corridor behind the hangar ring of this Union giant.

Thousands of decks. Refined and well-tested intruder containment systems. Energy curtains and armored hatches everywhere.

Yet the corridor was empty, none of the corridor barrier doors were closed.

He slipped into the corridor, wondering which direction to go. Without the ship's Computronic, the info panels were dark. The non Computronic signs told him exactly where he was, and as a Marine, he could read them of course, but that did not tell him where he needed to go.

Did these cursed Kermac or Whackeys already turn his platoon?

This was one of the Hangar deck corridors. According to the static pictogram attached to the bulkhead right next to the door, he just left behind this was the Hangar Corridor segment 77, Deck 200, Starboard.

The enormity of this ship's size became truly apparent to him as he chose to follow the corridor segment numbering downward. Each corridor segment aboard a capital Union ship was 100 meters long and had a sealable security door on each end. These doors could be reinforced by energy walls. If full Lockdown was ordered, all doors closed and thus created many thousand compartments. This meant in case of catastrophic hull failure caused by weapon impacts, for example, other segments of the ship remained under atmosphere. Lockdown also hampered or restricted enemy boarding action and could be used to contain intruders.

None of the doors were closed as he transitioned to corridor segment 76.

The walls were slightly curved and narrowed towards the deckhead. Lumi-elements in regular intervals shed bright indirect light of the same visible wavelength as a standard GIIIa star. There were manual Computronic access panels every ten meters and the recessed hand and footholds in case of gravity loss.

In drawer compartments near the floor, emergency equipment could be found such as emergency spacesuits, Yellow Nano foam and basic damage control tools as well as first aid equipment and survival kits.

Roy knew of no other spacefaring society that took the details of space ship construction to such heights.

Everything was color-coded, had visual and tactile identifiable labeling.

This corridor was ten meters wide and featured a simple two-directional slide belt system in the center. The belts were not active.

The floor cover was a mustard yellow rubbery spongy material, that silenced foot noise. Despite that, he felt more than he heard a heavy footfall behind him. Something big and heavy was coming this way.

He feared they were sending Cerberus robots. Not even his TKU 12 would do him much good against fully shielded battle robots.

--“”—

The Army Officer was quite surprised by the Marine Colonel’s question. He was the Army Intel officer for this region.

General Tapio, had been with the Union Army all his adult life, but he respected everyone who wore the uniform of any service branch and he was a proud Union Citizen.

Tapio had just completed a Region Situation Conference this time held aboard the enormous USS Normandy.

The general attended via secure Avatar and physically remained at Fort Carmador, the Army regional headquarters for the entire Upward sector.

The questions asked by Colonel Whitedoor were actually quite disturbing. As the regions assigned Intel officer, he should have been abreast of any Army/Marine joint mission.

He too never heard of any such joint Intel mission that included the participation of a regular OA Marine platoon.

While joint combat and recon missions were not uncommon, such cross branch activity never included just one platoon and without any information for the Company commandant.

The whole thing felt wrong.

General Tapio, a standard human, a native of Bueno planet marched into the office of the Sector General himself, a five star General only second in rank to the Commandant of the Army,

Sector General Naktrem, a Botnaar by species, but native to Fort Carmador looked back over the history of nine generations of his family all of which lived and died in Union Army Service.

There was no doubt in anyone's mind, Naktrem would be the next Grand Marshall of the Army. While Akron Naktrem was not an immortal like the senior admirals of the Spatial Navy, his deep family ties to the Army made him synonymous with this branch of the Union Armed Forces.

Ever since General Pompous of the Pan Saran legions and General Tzo of the United Earth Army argued for a Union Army branch before the then brand new Union Assembly, the Union maintained an Army. It was substantially smaller and much less important to the Union than the Spatial Navy or even the Union Marine Corps.

But over the many centuries, it had established itself as a solid branch with well-defined tasks and responsibilities.

Unlike many Army officers. General Naktrem did not hold open or even hidden grudges against the other branches. The General was as stiff and Army traditions encrusted as could be, but he was known as honorable as the Immortal Warrior himself and approachable.

General Tapio considered the old ‘Granite Face’ as the Naktrem was unofficially known as a friend, but only after hours or off duty.

The massive Botnaar, wearing his immaculate uniform crouched behind his enormous desk in the most rigid posture a Botnaar could attain. The desks surface displayed the Upward sector and all Army garrisons, forts and outposts highlighted. To the right, a carefully stacked pile of leather-covered Botnaar sized PDD pads. To the left a small GalCom unit in a beautiful polished Stonewood case.

The Botnaar’s assistant had announced the human General and after propper military greeting. Old Granite Face motioned to the visitors' chair, that automatically changed to accept a human form.

“Let me have it, Pedro. You would not come to me like that otherwise.”

“Indeed, Sir. I was informed about a joint Army-Marine mission involving a Marine OA platoon and a Special Operations Army Colonel and his team. No one was notified, not the Marine Company commander, nor the regional Army Intel Officer, namely me. Before coming to you I checked with our colleagues of the Marines. Other than a Lt.Col Niskash of Advanced Spatial Intelligence, no one seemed to know anything about it.”

“Niskash,” the Botnaar repeated the name slowly. “I actually recall that name. General Warwick mentioned the ASI and this Marine officer in a meeting a few months ago.“

General Naktrem lived up to his reputation, never to trivialize the concerns of a subordinate and his legendary ability to remember minute details. He turned to his GalCom terminal. ”SUN TZU what do you know about General Warwick and Lieutenant-Colonel Niskash?”

SUN TZU was the Union Army’s Central AI, a system similar to the Navy’s NELSON. The Army AI responded right away. ”General Warwick, current Commandant of the Experimental Warfare System program has a close working relationship with the Commandant of the Advanced Spatial Intelligence Xeno tech division Lt. Colonel Niskash. The details of this cooperation are classified Blue-Blue-red and have been moved to an independent AI system.”

General Naktrem raised his voice just a little, but as he was a Botnaar enough to make the small Gal Com vibrate an inch over the mirror-smooth surface of the desk. ”Independent system? Who authorized that?”

“General Warwick.”

To the present General, the Old Granitface said. “I get to the bottom of this, Pedro. I agree, there is something odd about all this. I will personally inform you.”

Tapio knew this was an indirect dismissal. Naktrem wanted to talk to this Warwick in private.

General Tapio got up, saluted the other General and turned to the door.

Naktrem said. “Don’t go far, Pedro. I give you an answer as soon as I know details.”

--“”--

Roy knew he could not outrun Cerberus robots, and there was nothing in terms of cover. He steeled himself for a fight he was certain to lose.

In this tense moment, he wondered why his sense of danger was not in overdrive.

A heartbeat later he knew why. Sergeant Eugbenzi, the towering Lortor came into sight. Accompanied by Robert Dunn and most likely the only Non-Corp ever to complete Marine Boot camp, Sergeant Nine-Nine-Two.

All three were armed with SITKUs.

Roy said aloud. ”Sergeants, are you still you?”

Dunn lowered the SITKU. “How about you, Sir?”

“Still me, but everyone else seems to be under the Psionic influence of something non-Union.” Roy trusted his instincts and somehow knew these three men of his unit were indeed without alien influence.

Dunn rushed closer. ”Sir, I am glad you are still yourself. We are aboard the USS Walker.”

“I know. What about the others?”

Eugbenzi’s enormous shoulder’s sagged. ”I am not sure, Sir. They placed most of our platoon in prisoner control suits. When they tried it on Nine-Nine they weren’t prepared for a Non-Corp and whatever Psionics they use did not affect him at all. He escaped and freed the Platoon Sergeant. I didn’t fit in the Auto Dresser and also realized that there was something really bad happening. I smashed my way out and then we followed Dunn, who wanted to make sure we free you before everything else.”

With all his concerns and the more than the dire situation, Roy felt a pang of warm sentiment towards these three beings. Officially his subordinates, but in reality also his friends.

“Guys, our top priority, even above all our safety is to make sure this ship will not end up in Kermac hands. We also need to find out what the hell happened and where in Qaroniel’s name we are.”

Nine-Nine said. ”We are still on Sigmar, as far as I can tell, but that is about all I know for certain, Sir.”

Dunn pointed to the ceiling. “The Ship’s AI is inactive, without it there isn’t any FTL. How they managed to disable the AI is beyond me. On one hand, whoever is behind all this has planned this in great detail, and on the other hand, they made some very strange mistakes and seem to have overlooked some very basic conditions.”

Roy knelt down. “If they sent Cerberus robots or turned Marines in Destroyer suits we are toast. We need to act fast, Nine-Nine can you leave the ship in your energy form and inform command at the base?”

“I am not certain, Sir. Without containment suit, I can stay coherent outside of an energy environment only for a short time.”

Dunn said. ”I somehow doubt they have access to Cerberus, robots. They are immune to Psionics and Battle robots are stored in the same armory vaults as the weapon components for Destroyer suits, inaccessible without an active AI and propper Command codes.”

Roy made up his mind. ”Let’s find out what they did to our platoon, then we fight our way to engineering and see if we can disable this ship.”

Eugbenzi pointed into the direction they had come from. "Our men are back there, Sir.”

Dunn checked the energy reserve of his SITKU. “Won’t be easy, Sir. They don’t have Cerberus or Destroyers, but they have lots of crew and genuine marines.”

“Union Marines under an alien influence.” Eugbenzi added.

Roy swallowed hard. ”I know, we might have to kill our own, but we can not let this stop us. I don’t know why they're still here or how they managed to stay undetected, but we must make sure and at all cost that this ship stays out of the enemy's hands.”