Eric Olafson, Fleet Cadet 12

Chapter 12: Annapurna Port Interlude

Peter had put his ship down on the leveled landing field of Annapurna Port. There was a small collection of stone and wood buildings. The energy signature came from the largest building in the little town, the local exchange.

He checked his gun, a copy of Wulf’s Tri Blast and made sure his shield belt was fully charged and operational and then left the ship. As soon as he left, his shield locked and activated the purple shimmering Para Dim Shield.

It was about thousand meters to the town and about the same distance to the metal building of the exchange.

He only walked about half the distance when he found a terribly disfigured body of a woman lying face down on the ground. Whatever it was had ripped her in half.

The garish find reminded him of an event so long ago in New York City, back then a group of bio engineered Xunx monsters terrorized the unsuspecting city. He defeated the monsters, but he was with Wulf and Cloud back then. Wulf who was a Terran enforcer from an alternate time line commanded technology advanced even for current Union Tech, had given Peter a copy of his battle suit and in situations like this, he was glad he had it. Cloud, his mysterious god like friend had left them even before the Ascent but he promised to return one day.

He could have activated the cloak and be invisible to most sensors and eyes, but he wanted to be seen and hoped there were survivors.

As he approached the open sided warehouse that was the Exchange, he saw the space ship parked underneath the roof. It reminded him of a silvery potato, but no species known to him had ships shaped like that.

In the same instance a powerful energy beam hit him and threw him several meters back. A second beam emitted from that craft and slammed into the shields of his ship.

“Shields down to 50 percent said his suit system, he drew his blaster dialed it to max discharge. A loud voice thundered across the field.”You impress me human. You should be destroyed, but you will not survive another attack. Therefore you must surrender.”

“Surrender my ass.”

--””--

Huhgavh

The first thing I saw was dirt, leaves and slug like animals at extreme close range. It was not very bright and the world seemed upside down. At first I thought I had been thrown out of the cat, but then I realized I still was connected to the Virtual sight gear. I severed the connection and tried to assess the situation. Something had turned the Crawler on its roof and a huge metal torn hole gapped at the front left side. It smelled of singed metal, plastic and the pungent odor of the jungle. Narth and Olia were lying right next to me and neither showed any signs of life. Galmy and Wintsun had been wearing their seat restraints and both struggled to get free. Limbur seemed unhurt and stared at me and pointed at the Lieutenant lying on his back in a puddle of dark liquid, he was closest to the hole and his seat was damaged as well. The main interior lights where off and only red light sources provided illumination.

“What happened?” I asked touching my head probing for the wound that trickled sticky blood down my face.

Limbur shook his head. “I don’t know. One moment Narth and I watch the sensor read out and then the entire cat starts rolling and bumping, something hit us and part of it got the Lieutenant.”

Galmy lowered herself: “I was driving up a steep incline as the Lieutenant ordered when the entire hill came loose in a sudden explosion and I think I saw the trail of a missile just before we got hit.”

Wintsun also managed to get clear from the seat.” I think we got attacked.”

“We can figure out later how it happened exactly.” I said. “Wintsun check on the Lieutenant. Galmy get on the Comm. and call for help. Limbur see what we got for weapons.”

I crawled to Narth and checked for life signs and found none at all. I could not feel him in my mind either Just then Olia came about with a groan and sat up. She had a bad cut across her arm and burns in her face.

Wintsun said with an urgent tone: “Limbur get the Med Pack. The Lieutenant is in really bad shape.”

Galmy’s voice was shrill:” Eric, the Comm. Unit is not working, neither the diagnose cycle nor the self repair mode protocols respond.”

“Don’t panic, Galmy. Go down the list of actions just as we trained. Check the emergency power. If you can’t get power, see if you can access GalNet with your Implant and run a reboot cycle the Nanite repair module.”

Narth stirred and his gloved hand found my arm. “Eric, I am not used to this corporal existence. This body is severely damaged, if it can’t be repaired in time or I am able to transfer myself, I will cease to exist. I do not know how much time I have. I want to let you know that you made me understand the concept of true friendship and for that alone I am thankful and made all this worthwhile.”

“Narth don’t talk like this. What needs to be done to repair your body or can you be transferred somewhere?”

“Repair can only be made by Narth. Transfer can only be made if there is another Huhgavh.”

I held his arm tight. “What is a Huhgavh? I still don’t know enough about Narth. But I will do everything I can to save you. Do you hear? Everything.”

“Narth are not corporal as you. We occupy...” He struggled and his voice faded for a moment.” We occupy physical bodies to interact with this reality. The Huhgavh is my true vessel of being, but without the proper vessel I will dissipate.”

“Transfer it into me. Will that work?”

“It was never done. You will be violated and there is much pain involved. It could kill you or erase your personality.”

“Narth you are my friend. I gladly lay down my life for you. If this will save your life, then do it. I must do it. Don’t die on me.”

“Remove my hood. Make sure no one else can see my face. It would be harmful to them.”.

The others were too busy to look. So I pulled his hood and stared into the face of a god. At first it appeared human, but no human was so perfect. It was neither female nor male. No words I knew could describe it. Warm golden light made the skin glow and the light became more intense and engulfed me. The light was everywhere, drowned everything else. Then there was pain, as if a sharp object was slowly pushing and turning at the spot between my eyes. The pain increased and it was nothing like I ever felt before and it kept intensifying. I threw up, I barely noticed. I bit my tongue but it was nothing compared to the withering pain I experienced in my mind, and I heard a sharp crack as one of my teeth splintered. The pain was everywhere, the light no longer golden but blinding white ... and then it was all gone.

Narth’s body before me now looked like a wilted mummified body of a thousand years old skeletal corpse with brownish leathery skin stretched over it. I felt weak and noticed I had soiled myself. No I felt the pain of my swollen tongue and the broken tooth.

Wintsun approached me. “Eric are you alright?”

“I don’t know to be honest, but I am alive. We can sort things out later. How are the others?” I barley recognized the babbling voice as my own.

“Everyone has minor cuts and bruises, but the Lieutenant is comatose and I don’t think he will survive. His pulse is barley there.”

“This is a landing Crawler don’t they come with Space suits?”

“Yes it does. Let’s get the Lieutenant into one.”

It was quite difficult to dress a limb body in this confined compartment, but we made it.

“Narth is dead?” Limbur wiped tears out of his eyes.

“Let’s put his body in a suit too. He is not human maybe the Narth can still do something for him.” I said. I knew I should be devastated losing my best friend I could not think of him as gone.

Limbur handed everyone a Standard Navy Blaster he had retrieved from the Emergency Locker.

I checked the energy level and the green indicator showed a full charge and said. “Galmy, Olia and Wintsun you continue to try repairs. Limbur and I will go outside and check the area. Someone has fired on us and it is possible they are not done with us. So we need to find them first.”

We crawled outside and scrambled to a fallen tree. Looking back I saw that our crawler had been hit two times. One hit destroyed much of the rear tracks and the second had hit us right at the cockpit area. After two hours of carefully scouting the area we found the empty starter platform of an old automated Area Denial Drone launcher. It was not fleet issue. Limbur checked it over. “That is a Telemann Missile Monitor. Those are often dropped by the hundreds from air or orbit to control an area without deploying troops or expensive robots.Its not Union issue, but private military grade.”

“Who would drop something like that here?” Was all I could say.

“Maybe left over from some war exercise and simply forgotten. These are not very effective against shielded targets.”

“It was enough to kill Narth and destroy our crawler.” I pressed between my teeth and all is my fault. I was manning the thread sensor.”

“No it was not your fault. Telemann’s are camouflaged against sensor detection and the crawler doesn’t have any Mil Grade Sensors, just basics.”

We returned to the Crawler and told them what we found. Neither Galmy nor Wintsun were able to get contact to GalNet via their Implants.

Galmy pounded the console “Rotten Liver of Dildur, cursed demon of all that’s rotten. I am not getting anything.” This was the first time I ever heard her curse that way.” It is as if we were hit by an EMP.”

“That is not unlikely. One of the missiles hitting us could have had an EMP warhead component.” Limbur said.

“What are we going to do now?” Olia asked.

“Do you have a map available? Isn’t there a homestead, a farm around here somewhere?”

She nodded. “Before we rolled over, we where about 25 clicks away from that place, I think.”

Olia showed me the place on a hand held.

“Alright, this is what we are going to do. Galmy, Limbur and I will go to that farm. Olia you take that Comm. unit apart and see if you can fix it. Wintsun you stay with her and help her, but mostly keep an eye on the wounded, if we aren’t back with help within ten hours. You will have to go as well.”

We equipped ourselves as good as possible: Water, Vibro Machetes, Blaster Guns and food rations for a march through rough jungle terrain and without further delay went back outside.

Under normal conditions and level ground one could make 5 clicks an hour. But the jungle terrain was not level and we had to use the vibro machetes quite often to cut a passage into the dense foliage. It was incredibly humid and I was trenched in sweat after only ten minutes. We also had to be careful not to run into Millipede-burrowers, the life form Narth and I encountered on our first night on this world. The possibility that there were more Telemann Missile Monitors could not be ruled out.

Despite all this, we made steady progress; Limbur seemed as fresh as when we started. Galmy’s long hair stuck like glued to her face, and she too suffered in the moist heat, but kept up fine.

We had to fire twice at large animals but otherwise the march was strenuous but uneventful. Limbur saw it first and stopped.

“We made it.”

We reached a large clearing in the jungle surrounded by a tall shock field fence. The area behind the fence was cleared from jungle vegetation and we saw a group of buildings in the distance and an agro bot slowly rolling over a field nearby. The Shock fence was 14 meters tall and there was no way to climb it without getting shocked.

Limbur walked to the next fence post and used his vibro machete to slice through the metal. The monofilament blade vibrated at a rate of 60,000 cycles per second, anything short of molecule compacted Ultronit was cut like butter.

The post fell over and created a gap in the shock field. We barely made it through the gap when the Agra bot swung around and approached us at high speed. “Intruders. You are trespassing and caused property damage. Cease all activity, authorities have been alerted.”

“Robot. I am Eric Olafson of the United Stars Navy. I am a lawful citizen of the union. Human lives are in danger.”

Every non military robot was required to be base programmed with the three laws and I invoked his prime program by identifying myself that way.

The robot stopped approaching and snarled. “State the nature of the emergency.”

A hover jeep screamed from the distant buildings and reached us fast. Two men were sitting behind the controls. The hover jeep had a transparent wind deflector but was otherwise open. Both men were armed and they both pointed their energy blasters at us. They where human, one older with gray hair and the other much younger with brown hair. The older one jelled:” What is the meaning of this?”

“Sir I am Midshipman 3rd class Eric Olafson. We are from Camp Idyllic and we had an accident twenty clicks from here. There are wounded and we are here to get help.”

“Not here you don’t. I don’t know how you made it out alive, but now turn around and leave at once. I have no desire to help you.”

“Sir, we have two comrades that are seriously wounded. Please use your comm. unit to contact the base for help and we will be on our way.”

“I wanted the Jungle to kill you, but I think I have to do it myself.”

The man fired. The bright energy beam slammed only a few centimeters away from my foot into the dirt. Clumps of hot dirt, Smoke and steam showered me. He yelled: “Turn around and leave my land. I won’t repeat myself and I will shoot to kill.”

I was prepared for anything but that. His weapon was real enough and the crater before my feet was still smoking. Why did he want us dead? Who was he?

“Sir, I must insist on your assistance. I have not many options.”

He fired. But a heartbeat before knew he was about to shoot, and just before he pressed the trigger. I jumped by pure instinct to the side, still not fast enough to completely escape the sun hot blast. The beam came so close it scorched my shoulder. I heard Galmy scream and turned to see with horror Galmy falling to the ground.

I had enough of this. I was getting really angry. The gun he held suddenly flew in a wide arch out of his hands, I had no idea why it did that, Narth was no longer with us but I used the chance, pressed my gun to the shoulder and aimed. “Sir, cease all hostilities now or I will vaporize you. No further warning will be given.”

He cursed and called me names some of them I had never heard before, but he raised his arms. I yelled:” Limbur get him.”

Limbur jumped and his powerful leg muscles used to three gee propelled him in a high arch onto the jeep’s hood. He reached for the two men and yanked them with little effort simultaneously out of their seats and threw them to the ground. I pointed the muzzle of my gun directly at the old man’s nose.” Pray to your god’s old man. Pray that Galmy is alive.”

He shivered and ground his teeth.

Limbur jumped down, rushed to Galmy and said. “She is alive, Eric ... The blast didn’t hit her directly, but she got burned pretty badly. She needs attention soon.”

I was about to kill the man. Just then I heard the robot rolling closer.

“Emergency channels are open.”

“You are going to pay for this cadet. I have you court-martialed. I have you hung for this. Do you know who you are dealing with?”

“With a lunatic obviously, Sir. I have no time to discuss the situation with you any further, but I have a good mind to search your place. Your violent reaction leaves only one conclusion, you have something to hide here.”

“You will be hung.” he screamed.

When he screamed at me I got a strange vision. It was as if I could see right into his brain and there was hatred towards me. I saw Cadet Swybin’s face. I also saw rows of white Plasti containers hidden in a room under the homestead. The Plasti containers held clear cylinders with a white powder and I knew it was something illegal.

The vision faded as sudden as it came.

I used the robots Communications Equipment and reached Camp Idyllic without problems. After I explained my situation and gave them directions I was assured help is on the way.

Help did arrive only forty minutes later. Narth’s remains, Lieutenant and Galmy where rushed to medical and I was arrested. Two marines and a Lieutenant Commander I haven’t met before approached me and told me I was to be arrested until the investigation was completed. No one told me what the actual charges were, but I was stripped naked searched and put in a transparent, prisoner control suit and locked up in a holding cell.