Chapter 22: Home Again

Chapter 22: Home Again

Roy stopped his own impulse. There were simply to many of the Kermac elite commandos on the platform and there were a few civilians and innocents as well, not to mention the 200 plus Kermac already in the City. He also did not forget Cara who had remained on Desolate, tied up in the office of a fat man he had only briefly seen. He was certain Cara would die if he could not do something to get her rescued.

It was better to gather more information and then he could try to contact Uncle Sam and with him the Cerberus Robots. He was no longer under the influence and ability to think. He could not explain who that voice was, however, it was a familiar one and something that was on his side.

Phil, Riddick , Celyciia , and even the Spy woman who most likely was Cherubim were completely surprised by the sudden and total Kermac dominance. Men and women looking like normal Union Citizens turned out to be heavily armed Kermac operatives. Riddick groaned. “Not again, please don’t let it be true!”

Celyciia was not even as surprised this time as she was during their first time.

The Kermac disguised as a Terran Business Woman said. “Listen up, I am Kermac and this Planet is now under our control. We have occupied the GalNet Center and the Post Office and we are in Psionic Control of most of the citizens here. There are a few, like you four that resist Psionics, Anyone we see attempting to communicate anyway we will eliminate right away. Anyone trying to flee outside ... please be our guests. This is Green Hell after all.”

He made an all-encompassing gesture. “The only reason you are still alive is that we might need hostages at some point. Perhaps a few of you have knowledge of Union technology we seek and you will be useful a little longer.”

Phil said. “I am a Federal Police Officer and you realize that this is a declaration of war.”

“I hoped for Fleet Officers, not useless cops.”

Cherubim whispered. “There are only one or two Kermac, the rest are surgically altered Hugwag and Plato Slaves .”

Celyciia hissed back. “Makes no difference, it looks you spooks screwed it all up. Instead of arresting the bunch you enabled them and now they getting Union shields and whatever they want. The only good thing is they are going to kill you and that might be a good thing.”

The Kermac Commandos were as professional as a Special Forces Unit should be. The Kermac were neither fools nor children and managed to pull the Union tiger’s tail for as long as the Union existed and despite many setbacks and their continuous decline of influence and power, they were still the second most powerful society of this Galaxy.

They secured the hands of seven passengers. Celyciia, Ruddick, Phil and the blonde woman they all suspected to be none other than Cherubim herself and two other passengers who turned out to be Bio scientists that had been on Harper’s for a long weekend. The Galactic Chronicles Soldiers scanned everyone and collected PDDs and then one of them said to the Kermac. “None of them wears any cyber enhancements or Data Heads, we are secure.”

The Kermac turned and with a bright flash and a loud explosion the SII GalNet Repeater Tower tilted of its base and tumbled sliding over the dome of the city.

Two Kermac Commandos pushed the Shuttle pilot into the open and threw him to the ground, just seconds before one of them shot the helpless man at almost point blank range. The killer said. “He tried to use the Shuttle GalNet. Let that be a lesson to you all. Comply and you might survive to see the glorious rise of the Kermac and serve the Masters.”

The Shuttle lifted off all by itself and as soon as it passed through the Forcefield membrane, the invisible tractor beams guided by Kermac Commandos, cut off and the Shuttle fell into the Big Lake.

A larger Kermac ship descended moments later, barely finding room on the landing platform, even more Kermac, in Battle armor unloaded boxes and equipment.

It was clear they still believed Roy under their control as the lead Kermac put on a heavy Armor suit and said to Roy. “Your job is to find the maroon cave, as that is the place we know the ship is hidden.

As they went down to the main level of the city, the real extend of the Kermac invasion became apparent. There were dead bodies everywhere!

Sam

Charles the Robot came to the North field where Sam was working once again at one of the Agra Bots and said. “Master, all GalNet connections to Anthill has been interrupted and an explosion has been registered via acoustic tremor sensors consistent with a 4000 gram demolition charge. Subsequent scrambled Myon pulse radio signals and approaching forces of twenty armored Flyers with active weapon signatures suggest an imminent attack on this compound.”

Sam got up wiped his hands and said. “Sounds a little much for a Califerm raid.”

“Threat analysis concludes it is a major, most likely Kermac attack. Weapon signatures are consistent with Kermac Weapons.”

“ETA?”

“I estimate 16 Flyers to arrive within twelve minutes. They ran into Lighting Dragons and three Flyers and occupants are no longer a threat.”

“Activate your buddies and get me to the shed so I can heat up our Baby Tiger. Let’s welcome the Kermac Marine Corps style!”

Charles grabbed Sam by the belt and flew him to a lean to next to the main house. Sam disappeared behind the wooden doors while Charles sent the Activation signal to the nine other Cerberus.

Like Zombies clawing to the surface, the nine Cerberus broke through their buried transport containers and ten feet of dirt.

Sam inside the fragile looking lean to said. “It’s time to wake up Baby Tiger. Activation Code Leviathan. USMC Master Sergeant Brown, verify Biometrics. Code key present.” A deep mechanical voice responded. “Activation Authorization verified and accepted.”

A dirt covered hatch popped open and Sam climbed down. The lean to was completely destroyed as an old but fully functional USMC Tiger Battle Tank rose with a powerful rumble equaling a minor earth quake.

The Integrated Auto Dresser assembled a USMC Quasimodo around Sam while he linked to the Cerberus robots and said. “Go to full Infantry Mode, targets on threat sensors.”

Ma Swenson

Ma Swenson and Clarion sat in the back of their store, tied up with Memory tape up to their necks. Three Kermac soldiers had arrived this morning, killed their son Gary, and tied them up. The Kermac were sitting on one of the tables and looked relaxed and in total control. One of them said. “This planet is not even half as tough as they said it would be. Our strike force will have reached the simpleton farmer by now. What a waste of resources sending that many to kill just one old marine.”

Ma Swenson as tied up she was wasn’t completely unable to move and had edged herself closer to the Force field controls. She rather wanted to die by Green Hell life forms than these cowardly Kermac.

She had almost reached it when one of the Soldiers saw her and he got up, smacked her across the face and said. “What are you trying to do? Your GalNet terminal is destroyed and all the weapons in here are out of reach.”

A second Galactic Council Alien and Kermac servant, a muscular big being got up as well and said. “She tried to reach these controls. I think they are for the Energy Fence.”

The first soldier laughed. “We are here for two days and I was outside. You realize we are wearing the latest in Kermac Armor?” He gestured across the displayed Armor suits. “Not this substandard civilian Union trash!”

The third Soldier was just admiring the latest SII manufactured Armor and said. “Well some of it isn’t trash.”

“Be silent Brokesh. We are Krthar and the strongest of all Galactic Council. I hoped to meet Pertharians or Nul not these weak humans.”

The three soldiers returned to their seats, but not before kicking Ma Swenson several times and pushing her away from the controls. Despite all the horrible treatment the soldiers could not break the Swenson’s spirit. Ma Swenson said. “You won’t leave this planet alive, no matter what you are, you didn’t bring enough soldiers. Green Hell will prevail!”

“Oh be silent stupid woman. We have ten Kermac Battleships arriving soon and we will orbital bomb this place to ashes.”

Neither of the Kermac soldiers noticed the Klack technician who had managed to hide on top of the shelves. He used the distraction and angled for the H&K Raketen Gewehr that the Swenson’s had kept in the shelves as Roy had almost paid for it and they never considered selling it.

The H&K accepted his targeting program after his sensor painted the three Kermac, and then he fired. Three micro missiles hissed across the room and detonated.

Two of the Kermac soldiers were killed outright, the blast toppled shelves and caused a fire, and the Klack tumbled with a load of spare parts off the shelf and broke three of his six fragile legs. He crawled wounded to Ma Swenson who smiled at him, from her blistered singed face. “I wondered how long it would take you”

The Klack did not speak, his voice box had come loose and the human ears would not understand his ultrasonic range voice, but he managed to find a sharp object and cut her loose.

Ma Swenson jumped up more agile than anyone would have thought and grabbed her Shrap gun from under the counter and aimed it at the last surviving and wounded Kermac soldier who just regained his bearings. The missile had damaged his suit but it had protected him better than the other two. She said. “Get out, get out of my store!”

He coughed and said. “I had time to call for reinforcements. So beg for...”

Ma Swenson fired and the super accelerated steel shrapnel shredded the Soldiers right arm. “You got plenty of limbs and a head I can shoot if you don’t move. Now get out!”

The soldier stumbled and cried in pain as she kicked him in the rear and through the door.

Roy

They had not reached the Main Flyer bay of the City, where the armored flyers docked and got decontaminated when Roy knew something went wrong with the plans of the Kermac already. One of the muscular broad shouldered semi humanoid warriors no doubt one of the warrior and enforcer Thrall species of the Galactic Council stomped running across the concourse and skidded over the marble floor in his heavy armor suit, stopping only a few inches before the Kermac leader and he said something in a language Roy did not understand but the Psionic link between him and the Kermac still seemed to exist, even though he was completely under his own control, as he understood what the armored giant said. “We lost contact to the Strike group that was supposed to take care of the Marine farmer.”

“Send the second strike group and if they don’t report in, commence orbital bombardment and liquefy the continent as soon as the battle ships are here.”

“It will be done.” The big alien said with a wondering tone. “Master, can you see those tiny dots crawling all over my hands too?”

The Kermac barked annoyed. “If you sniffed Gartlun while on this mission I’ll have you skinned alive! Now see to your orders and do not delay me!”

The giant shrugged and walked off still looking at his hands. Roy wondered how Buzzsaws made it into the city. He of course had seen the tiny dots and he knew what they were.

The Kermac pushed him through the air lock into a waiting landing tank of alien design. The Kermac was too busy to talk to the pilot; he didn’t notice his strong warrior collapsing just before the doors closed.

The Kermac sat down as the landing tank detached itself and started to climb into the sky. Roy noticed six more of these following in a loose formation, and firing indiscriminately at lightning dragons and surfacing water snakes. Every time they used the energy weapons there was laughter and joy among the Kermac and sneering comments about Green Hell and the Union unable to cope and conquer Green Hell.

Again the voice inside Roy spoke. “My Child all Qaroniel is your weapon. Say and I will cleanse the intruders on the surface.”

Roy now remembered who Qaroniel was and he answered in the same silent way. “We have to do it slow and try to alert the fleet. We can defeat them down here, but we can’t do anything against orbital bombardment and they have battleships coming.”

“You are my warrior and Qaroniel will follow your lead.”

The Kermac

The Kermac Commander Funfnacsecx of the Kermac Strike force was as confident as the Ministry of Control wizard who was running this entire operation. The Wizard of the Military had warned that sending such a strike force so deep into Union Space was suicide but they slipped past the Union Border Controls hitching a ride on Union Tiny Tim Transporters. It was so easy to use all the tools such a foolishly free society provided. Something like this would never been possible in Galactic Council controlled space. They did not allow lesser species to act on their own and nothing happened without the Ministry of Control knowing about.

A few months ago a branch of the Slide Way Servicing Company opened a Freight Forwarding business on Pico’s Colony, a little Union Colony in the fringe regions of the Spinward sector. They had no problems hiring five Tiny Tim Freighters, the largest civilian ships crisscrossing the Union by the million with genuine Union Transponder signatures. Funfnacsecx did not want to admit that he was deeply impressed when he saw the five Flatbed transporters show up. These particular ones were used to transport Space station parts. Two Kermac Battleships fit on the platform and once secured and powered down they had no problem traversing half the Union without being detected. The freight company was told these were prototypes of new space ships to be tested and he was surprised how few questions they actually asked, especially since the freight bill was paid in advance.

The Tiny Tims had unloaded them in an unoccupied neighbor system and so deep in Union space there were no scanners and no Fleet Patrols.

Now he arrived at the Maxwell System and his first task was to take out the GalNet terminals and Buoys. To do this the Nul had developed a weapon that homed in on the unique energy signatures of these devices. Funfnacsecx also did not want to admit that all Kermac did was copy the Nul weapon; they were not able to develop something on their own. That the Kermac had not developed anything other than their PSI enhancers in the last 10,000 years was something Kermac Thought Police called subversive and negative facts that no one was allowed to think.

He had no qualms releasing a swarm of these missiles, causing tremendous damage and killed many thousands on Harper’s Junction, including all passengers of a just departing space bus.

Extensive intelligence gathering by their man on Green Hell had told them the expected traffic and he knew no Clipper ships or Post Ships were expected for the next three days and Maxwell System was not a major traffic hub, his force should be able to destroy anything civilian that came unscheduled.

The Devi

The man, called the Eternal Warrior, the Fist of the Union and many other names simply went by Richard to his friends. He had spent a long day going over reports. He was sitting on his desk covered with print outs and PDD’s. He was from Earth and from a time when human kind did not believe in Exoterrestial life, when the thought of traveling faster than light was considered impossible and man fought man in endless meaningless wars. While he had access to the most sophisticated AI machines, while he counted Mother Machine among his personal friends and of course Centron the Alien brain deeply embedded in the Devi utterly loyal to him alone, he preferred to read reports on a piece of paper

Instead of having them filtered, condensed and direct neural fed into his brain as it was often done nowadays.

Even his desk and the green brass lamp were anachronisms, just as the two folded flags standing in corners behind him. One was the Flag of the United States and the other was the old United Stars Marine Flag. Both forgotten symbols, both still utterly dear to him.

In general he was not sentimental but there were things he missed about the old days and some of the things reminded him why he was still doing all this after 3000 years of service to Humankind and the Union.

A few days ago he had heard that Phil an old friend had been killed, only to hear from Phil himself that he was alive and fine and on a big case. The initial news of an Immortal dead was somewhat disturbing. He knew Phil for a long time; Phil was even older than him. The old Detective did not receive his immortality from the Guardian as he did, but Phil Decker, Peter Baker, Wulf Starr and a strange fellow named Dark Cloud were immortals of Earth never the less. He knew the Detective well and liked that old gum shoe, who was as steadfast and true to his cause as they said he was. Phil had never wanted to stay in the lime light or be famous. Few knew he still existed and was still doing the same thing he did so long ago in the Streets of New York. Being a police officer and really living by that simple yet so meaningful credo: To protect and serve...

Stahl smiled as he pushed the small message print out aside and returned to the main problem on his desk, the pirate raid on the Silver Swan. This was much more serious than he told the passengers. The brazen pirate attack was anything but a random act. Pirates did not act so precise and did not risk all this to raid a cruise ship. They could have raided much more profitable targets, it was clear there was long term planning behind and someone knew details only a handful should have known. First the assassination attempt on the president, only a chosen few knew the President would meet the Wurgus on Harper’s Junction. Even fewer knew that the Wurgus declined to fly their own ships to Pluribus and did not want to come aboard the Devi. That they decided to board a cruise liner was known to even fewer officials. Many thousand cruise ship trips were made every day in the Union. To know where the Silver Swan would be and that it was her who had the Wurgus delegation aboard could only be done by someone who had access to all this information. Stahl looked up to stare in the half darkness of his room. “I dislike that ghostly woman with a passion, but Cherubim is right. We have a mole and one that is far up the chain.”

Out of the dark a womanly voice said. “I came as fast as I could, it was a long trip even for me.”

An inhumanly beautiful woman stepped into the circle of light. She had shining silver white hair much like a Saresii but she was not of that race. Her name was Alycia Lichfangh and only Stahl knew her true nature and her true form. Her large green eyes rested on the square face of the Admiral and any observer would have had no problem to see the deep love shining in them for that man. “I think it is time I accept your suggestion and I will help your PSI corps to find the spy in your midst. I am a Union Citizen now after all.”

She surrounded the desk and put her hand on his cheek. “I have missed you Old Warrior.”

“I have missed you too Alycia.”

“You don’t think this Cherubim will catch whoever is the mole?”

“Oh she will; she has never failed in these regards, but she puts Earth first and still runs her TSI even though it is supposed to be disbanded. We are the Union; Earth is just a part of it.” He made a sweeping gesture. “This ship is filled with beings from all corners of the universe and I am so proud to see them all work together and each brings different talent and a different story to the great epic that is our Union.” His voice rose ever so slightly as he went on. “I was born on Earth but I have fought alongside Ult and Shaill and Klack and I saw them die and bleed and give their all to defend all this. I believe we have a chance, this Union is the real answer against whatever this Universe is throwing at us.”

She kissed him on the cheek. “You even fought for me and almost died defending a monster.”

He did not respond to that, and said. “I am glad you are on our side now.”

He got interrupted as Centron the Ship AI said. “Admiral, we are getting a long range GalCom burst with a fifty year old code, identified as coming from Green Hell and a Master Sergeant Sam Brown.”

Captain Asmara Dana Tengku was very proud Admiral Stahl had picked her to be the 63rd. Captain of the USS Devastator. She still remembered the horror she felt when Stahl picked her out of the blue, while she still was a Midshipman and made her Acting Captain of the Devi and now she was in Command. She nestled with the pin that held her tightly head scarf in place and stared at the immense main screen with one eye while she looked over the bridge watch roster with the other.

She had never seen the Admiral run, so she was quite surprised to see Stahl come running to the bridge. “Captain, lay course to the Maxwell system and get us there as fast as this boat of ours goes.”

“What is the matter Admiral Stahl?” She asked.

“I just got a call for help from an old marine friend. He is on Green Hell and they are under attack by the Kermac.”

“At best speed we are three days out, Sir.”

“Alert Fleet Command and send anything that can shoot and is closer than us to the Maxwell System. Then raise me Harper’s Junction.”

One of the Comm. Officers said. “There is no connection possible, no GalNet receivers in the Area respond.”

“Step on it, Captain. Red line her I have a bad feeling about this. Give me a direct line to the other Old Man. I think we are at war again.”

There was strange light in the eyes of the Ancient Warrior as he said to no one in particular and more to himself. “Cry Havoc! and let slip the dogs of war, that this foul deed shall smell above the earth...”