CHAPTER 16 - IRON FIVE
We come out of our jump and the most visible thing in sight, is a planet that is, according to my screen, fifty thousand kilometers away. It is nothing but a monstrous ball of white and green, hanging in the middle of nowhere and based on the information being fed to us, this is Aaram.
We are in the Armenese System and from memory it is a very remote one. Ten thousand light years from Sol, its location in the Galaxy allows for obscurity, because the only access to it is by System Gate or Xaris, the Capital System of the Galactic Nine.
We approach the planet on its day side at twenty thousand miles per hour and after an hour and a half, and fighting the waves of nausea from our magnetic deceleration, we enter atmosphere and follow the co-ordinates given to us from Nalas.
“Condor…” The com comes alive “…Nest has you on approach, take it to angels twenty two and auto-dock on pad eight, nine.”
“Condor copies twenty two thousand feet and dock to eight, nine...”
Aaram’s mountain ranges become clearer, spreading off in every direction and as we get closer, grooves and crevices and cliffs suddenly become menacing. Like jagged arms outstretched and begging us to come near, the granite edges shimmer in the sunlight, casting long shadows down their barren sides. Beneath Aaram’s pale green and white sky, the planet maintains a surreal appearance, like soft colors in hazy memories of childhood days back on Earth.
“Condor…Slow to two hundred and go auto.”
“Copy…Condor is on approach, slowing to two hundred, we are now on auto...”
“Nest has you Condor. You have guidance on link. Welcome to Aaram.”
At twenty two thousand feet, our flight path takes us between many peaks and rock faces that stand like heads on the shoulders of titans. As the scenery drifts by, I imagine what it might be like to live here. The air is a hundred percent breathable, making Aaram the only planet in this system like it. However, there are no cities on this rock, but settlements can be found at the bases of many of these mountains where the rivers run clean and clear and disappear below surface.
In times long gone, Geologists had paved the ways to large lakes in caves, deep underground, but few make the journeys now. Flash Flooding has forever been a danger on Aaram.
The ship veers to the left and we round another precipice. This reveals a large complex built into a massive mountain near its peak dead ahead. Eversteel buildings, runways and landing pads at many different levels which have been embedded into the surrounding nature, make up the strange sight; latched into the rocky incline like a parasite.
Within ten minutes we are docked at a landing pad on one of the upper levels. Our escorts lead us through a series of tunnels by way of Airvan and after an hour, my team and I are now standing in an expensive office, in the presence of Keden’s leader, Al-Raadein.
“Sit, Gentlemen…Ladies…” We take our seats quietly and he continues “…Our efforts have been successful, thanks to your selfless service to Keden…”
Selfless service? His definition of selflessness and mine are entirely different
“…However, our spies have relayed new information. A Cyclone unit has recently been stationed at a Raiku base on Jakta.”
“Jakta? That’s four hundred Lights from Sol.” I add.
“Intelligence has confirmed that it has gone to rendezvous with an army of Dragons, the Dynasty’s equivalent to the Cyclone project. With Raiku battleships awaiting our invasion, it is safe to believe that Terrier will be leading the Dragons to intercept us in Earth’s atmosphere.”
“Then we’ll be ready for them.”
“That you will captain. The Galactic Nine has sent more Dogs to our aide and Earth’s older Cyclone regiments are already engaged in combat as we speak.”
This is a relief. During my military training, we learned of the high tech battle gear of the Raiku, but little information about the Empire’s top secret program had given way to more speculation than fact.
“When this is over, we will strike the Raiku menace at their heart, and you will be among those of us leading the way.”
I was wondering when we would get around to this. If the Dynasty fell, the first galactic power to lay claim to its wealth would have a permanent foothold among the stars. I’m beginning to have second thoughts about helping these people. What is there to stop them from going to war with Earth if they took control of the Raiku worlds?
********
The meeting lasted for an hour before we were dismissed. It will take Keden’s combined forces with Earthfront and the Galactic Nine, eighteen hours to arrive in Sol. If their calculations are correct, we should exit hyperspace around five hundred thousand kilometers from Earth; close enough for a successful assault and atmospheric entry.
According to Al-Raadein, the armadas on Aaram will not be ready for launch until midday tomorrow. That is twenty hours from now, so in the midst of all this mess, there will actually be some downtime and without wasting any of it, Akita is off and on the prowl. Hound and Maria were last seen deep in conversation around a stripped down engine in the hangar and Pitbull was left chatting up a busty brunette in the cafeteria.
…As for me and Mirana…
“It’s not King’s Brew, but this is nice.”
I smile at the way she says it with a sigh; a steaming mug of coffee in her hand. We are on an open, stone patio, part of a riverside restaurant in a village at the foot of one of the mountains a few miles from Base. It’s beautiful here, even without plant life. The clear water coming around a bend not far away, flows past us and disappears about a quarter of a mile downstream. The constant gurgle of it, relaxing, and everywhere no matter where you go on this planet, smells like freshly cut stone.
I follow the scars on her face. Some might say they make her unattractive, but she is beautiful to me. Her red hair is let down and I like that. I don’t think I have ever seen her wear it this way on purpose and as our conversation lasts well into the evening, her eyes shimmer in the dimming light.
A green and white glow has now spread across the canyon. On the opposite riverbank, the smooth rock face that lines the shore reflects the sunlight and glistens like one very large precious stone.
“How does all this affect you?”
I look at her without any idea of how to answer and she continues
“I mean Iron Five and your life as a soldier?”
“I don’t know. If Earth is not the way I want it to be after all this, then it’s hard to say. I don’t want to work for the Keds, and Galactic Nine is nothing but a spy network…not my thing really…”
“I know…Black Ops is your, thing...”
“Is that what you really think? Is that why you hated me?”
“I didn’t hate you…I found you to be arrogant and disrespectful. It’s normally that way when a woman is in any position above a man.” She pauses “I’m not saying that it’s that way with you now, but I’ve seen my fair share of pig heads so forgive me if I once placed you in the same category.”
“None is taken, and it was never about your position as a woman. I just hated Keden and I let my emotions get the better of me.”
“Well your hatred for the place got me to not like you.”
“And now?”
She goes quiet. Our eyes arrest each other again
“I like you a little bit.”
We both laugh.
The afternoon turns to night. Stars light the clear sky and one of the planet’s three moons illuminate the valley, causing rocks here-and-there to cast glints of reds, greens, blues and purples. I stand and walk to the stone balustrade at the edge of the terrace and Mirana joins me in gazing out at the colored rocks all around.
“When this is over, where are you going to go?”
It is a question that I had been meaning to ask her for some time now. She leans on my arm and rests the side of her head on my shoulder. It is an unexpected move, but I keep my cool and put my arm around her.
“I’m not sure. I doubt that I’ll fit in on Earth, it’s been too long…” She sounds tired “…to be honest, I’ve grown quite attached to Keden…”
“Keden?” I didn’t see that coming.
“Yes Keden. It’s not as bad as you think.”
“So you’d live where…in Dunan?”
“No, I’m not a city girl. I can though, see myself settling down in Marasa…”
“The town on the Minera?”
“Yeah…”
“What would you do there?”
“Tourism…yes…” She continues before I can say anything “There’s a market for it there. I’ve envisioned it for some time now. There are so many islands on the lake and everyone sees them by air. I’d like to provide some good old boat tours.”
“Sounds like fun, and it makes sense now that I think of it. It’s just that I pegged you for a lifetime in the military.”
“Don’t get me wrong Huski, I love my job, but there comes a time, especially after surviving two invasions, when one has to re-evaluate life and where to go in it. What about you, where would you go?”
I want to tell her, wherever she goes, but I know I am not going to ever settle on Keden and besides, I doubt that I would ever be able to leave the team.
“Maybe I’d like it on Keden…”
“You, on Keden?” She laughs “I know better than anyone else how much you hate it.”
“I could love what’s on it…”
The moment of silence is awkward but I ignore it.
“And what will you do there?”
“That’s the tough part. I don’t know anything outside of my life as a soldier. It’s all I’ve ever known and dreamt of.”
“Then live your dream…”
There is another moment between us. I wish that we were headed down the same path but it is obvious we are not. What will I do without the team? Iron Five is everything I know. Could I actually let it all go and settle down…on Keden?
“Live my dream?”
“Yes...you only have one life...Alpha...”
I fall head first into her eyes. Her waist is heaven as I slide an arm around it.
“Alpha...”
Her body, warm and perfect against mine, enchants me
“...what are you doing?”
Her voice is soft, I drift in it.
“Living my dream...”
And with her hands slowly finding their place around my neck, the soft heat of her lips connects with mine. I am complete.
And the night wears on. After a walk through the lively village filled with bonfires, food, drinking, music, happy voices and another out-of-this-world kiss we get to the port and board a shuttle that will take us back to base.
The chemistry is definitely here, but the uncertainty of our immediate future hangs like a rift between us and takes root where intimacy should be. I want more of her and she feels the same, I can tell by the way she held my hand and returned my gaze but now, back on base and alone in my room; I am not sure where we go from here. I close my eyes and after God-knows-how-long, drift off to sleep.
********
Aaraman Desert
1330 Hours Aaram Time
According to my computer, the time is thirteen thirty hours and we are in the Condor awaiting launch. From our position we have a good enough view of the Aaraman Desert as it is called by the locals, fifty thousand miles from the nest. Akita’s voice is the one most heard in the cockpit as he drones on about his latest love; the sexy mechanic who had connected our ship to the base’s maintenance equipment when we arrived here; he never ceases to amaze me.
In a half of an hour’s time, midday on this twenty eight hour world, eighty thousand ships; Battle cruisers, Dreadnaughts, Carriers, HAWC’s, Command Centers, Invaders and more, will launch from every military installation on the planet. The fleet would be rendezvousing with a System Gate known as Chronos One; the only Gate in the vicinity with the power to jump such a large force.
Mirana is strapped in not too far from me, but a conversation here is a conversation with everyone so I remain silent. We had a great evening yesterday and although our paths seem to go separate ways, I know that if we are alive after this whole ordeal, then the gap which keeps us apart might somehow be bridged.
The coms crackle to life and Akita closes his mouth
“God-fist…” It’s the name of our fleet “…Nest has you ready for launch in ten minutes…go auto and sync up...”
The moment has arrived. We are engines rumbling and hearts pounding as the armada, as far as the eye can see, quakes the dry plains and fills the air with dust, revealing flat rocky surfaces beneath the dirt. Our Magnatech takes over, lifting us slowly…twenty feet, forty feet, sixty…a hundred. Every ship, in every direction floats above ground at a hundred feet right now. The cockpit vibrates with the force of thousands of engines that pound the planet surface. Wild winds whip up and spin into dust tornadoes and the world beneath us cracks and splinters as the count down from ten seconds reaches zero and God-fist begins to accelerate.
With tremendous force and incredible noise, our ships defy Aaram’s gravity and climb to ten thousand feet and still rising. The rumbling grows deeper and the skies darken. Twenty five thousand feet. I’ve never seen anything like this; thousands of ships of all sizes and classes ascending at the same time.
The coms flash on again.
“God-fist…you are a go for vacuum. Bullet to Chronos in fifteen, prep for high-light.”
Our angle of ascent has changed from horizontal liftoff to a vertical climb. The planet and its deserts along with all of its mountain ranges now lay behind us and the black of space becomes more and more visible with each passing minute. Fifty thousand feet. The fleet is now moving at six times the speed of sound and as the computer signals the fifteen minute mark, the scene outside our windscreen warps and stretches as we jump through the solar system.
As though time flew by in a millisecond, we come out of Hyper Light and instead of blurred lights, the eighty thousand ships that are now headed to Earth, fill our view. Chronos, one of the few manned System Gates in existence, is a half circular, gunmetal-grey station with a rail so large, it reads at ten miles wide and fifty long. The power this thing generates must be astronomical in order to throw eighty thousand battle ships into hyperspace at once; Sol Technology at its peak if you ask me.
“God-fist…Chronos has you on link. You are cleared for hyper to Sol. Maintain sync and flight pattern, jump is a go in forty, thirty nine, thirty eight, thirty seven…”
The time has finally come. There is no turning back. The massive rail is a dazzling sight as arcs of pure white electricity ripple along its length. I prepare my mind for the split second shock to come but the anticipation of it still gets my heart pumping. Yet I have questions I cannot shake.
Our enemies know we are coming. How big is the battle group awaiting us on the other side of this jump? Are we going to survive this? After all is said and done, who among us will still be alive? What happens to Mirana and me afterwards? Is there an “afterwards”?
“…five, four, three…”
I feel the tug on my senses as I am squashed into my seat.
“…two, one…jump initiated…fly Brave."
We lurch forward, the arcs of electrical currents split apart, reaching out to every ship in the fleet and with a wicked shock to my system, we enter the slipstream at eighty three point three-three-three light years per hour, and everything goes black.
FACT
Mercury is one of our solar system’s harshest mining planets. Yet even as technology struggles to make its soaring temperatures and equally destructive frigid nights bearable, over a thousand ships visit each week. By way of Magnatech and Sol Combustion, powerful corporations and government contractors extract iron ore and precious metals from mining facilities built deep underground. With no atmosphere, Inter-System Barges and Deep Space Haulers touch down on Eversteel landing pads daily, as Mercury is one of the few solid bodies in Sol whose space station is surface-side.
Workers on mercury often run on twelve hour shifts and are housed in subsurface facilities beneath both poles, the only places on the planet that have frozen water.
SCARECROW
System: Sol
Planet: Earth
Location: Sahara Desert
Time: 0730 Hours - Local
A hover truck entered an Earthfront military base built into a sand dune that looked more like a small mountain. Descending rapidly and whipping up clouds of sand and dust, it leaned hard and fell into place over an Eversteel landing pad. Captain Akata Kumasi and three teams of five coalition pilots jumped from the back of the rugged vehicle and made their way across the tarmac. Raiku ships had broken atmosphere and by the look of it, he would in no doubt be up to his eyeballs in combat within the hour.
“Get to your gear gentlemen, briefings will be on the go!” The resident Flight Director shouted when they dismounted their vehicles.
Akata ran to his Mecha and the cockpit opened while the machine lowered itself with his approach. He climbed into the seat of his Scarecrow, effortlessly maneuvering over and around its instruments and instinctively tightened his stomach as it lifted him thirty feet to standing position.
“Scarecrow flight…” The Director’s voice filled his ear “Pyramid has you ready for launch…Systems…check. Weapon’s…check. Countermeasures…check. Right arm…left arm…check. Sync up…you have green light…happy hunting, boys.”
The gunmetal-grey monster, armed with two Yoruba auto-cannons and four Hades class rocket launchers came to life and immediately jumped into the evening sky.
“Pyramid to Scarecrow...enemy flight of eighteen, in-bound...five hundred miles northwest at angels twenty...co-ords uploaded…you have full clearance.”
At the speed of thought, Akata scanned the skies and his computer flash-printed the approaching enemy Mecha, four hundred and ninety five miles away into his mind. Tiny pinpricks, like hundreds of microscopic needles walking across his brain, stabbed him bearably as his briefing and target information passed flawlessly between machine and man.
“Scarecrow flight...bullet to angels twenty five…let’s welcome our guests.” He spoke to his team over their secure channel.
A collective agreement of aye-ayes, yes-sirs and copy-that’s in three different languages flooded the airwaves for a moment and then all was silent as they ascended to twenty five thousand feet. Among the group of walking/flying battle tanks, seven were from the recently united (given the circumstances) Middle Eastern Coalition, six were from the Russian Air Force and the remaining two, Akata included, were what was left in this sector of the U.K.A. or Yuka as it was known, the United Kingdoms of Afrika.
Four days had passed since Scarecrow’s base of operations exploded into oblivion, and the memory of this bold-faced act remained freshly embedded in his mind. In the middle of the night, without warning, Raiku Stealth and Hunter Mech had struck them. After three weeks of working together, a brother-hood of sorts had been born, and though they were not friends of old, this cause united them.
Now he was out for blood.
“Scarecrow Flight…Engage on sight!”
Akata acknowledged the Director’s command just as his secure com lit up.
“Scarecrow lead…I have contact.” Erol, the only other survivor from his previous team, spoke into his ear with controlled excitement.
“Contact confirmed. Here we go, keep it loose!”
Akata dropped from twenty five thousand feet toward his prey while the Raiku bandits stayed their course to intercept, and gunfire lit up the sky. Bullets pinged off the cockpit glass and explosive tracer rounds left balls of smoke and fire where none had hit their marks.
Akata fell toward the danger, slid off his enemy’s line and spun with the momentum of the maneuver. Careful to keep the target in sight, he squeezed the trigger and the cockpit shuddered as four missiles left his launchers. Accelerating in order to stay within range of the evasive Mech, the Scarecrow followed through with a stream of cannon fire that tore into the shoulder plating behind the Raiku machine and a ball of expanding fire erupted as Akata flew past the burning patch of sky at almost a thousand miles per hour.
The onboard A.I. imprinted images of three incoming missiles into his skull and he rolled over, demanded full power from the machine and deployed a flash of MD’s.
The magnetic decoys did their jobs, attracting the incoming artillery guided by Magnatech and detonating them safely away as he fought against forces that pulled at his consciousness.
Akata tore out of the high G turn, rotated to face another incoming target, brought his arms to bear and opened fire. Four more missiles left him and his auto-cannons came alive, carving a swath of death and destruction across the sky where it ended in a blossoming cloud of flames and debris.
More bullets assailed him but the Scarecrow had speed and agility to make up for its lack in heavy hitting firepower, and in a world where a split second meant the difference between life and death, Akata used it to his advantage. He wove an intricate trail around his enemies, dodging and rolling until he descended upon another helpless foe, baring his teeth in a mad assault of guns and glory.
Location: Hall of the Royal Assembly - Ethiopia
Time: 0930 Hours - Local
The assembly hall was bustling with men and women keeping track of the events going on in atmosphere and over Afrika. Digital images in the middle of the massive, triangular room provided a three dimensional view of the battle above Earth while live-footage of other happenings were being streamed via all Digital Eyes.
High above the crowd, a group of armed men dressed in heavy armor escorted a woman along an open mezzanine. Her blood-red cloak fluttered in her wake and long strides from leather-covered legs took her quickly across the floor. She hated these pants but given the circumstances, ignoring the discomfort of the bodysuit was doable along with the hope that this meeting would be fruitful. She stopped beside an elevator, entered it and then descended for what felt like too long, to a reinforced bunker deep within the very foundations of the building.
This meeting was unnecessary, she thought. There was nothing to be said here that couldn’t be discussed digitally, yet the Kings had demanded it and she alone could do little to sway them. Gathering in the same location was risky. She remembered her late husband’s words…Never place all your valuables in one pocket…words derived from an old saying he often quoted, but he was gone now and she continued in his footsteps.
Her demeanor was flawless and even in the midst of a global invasion; her composure was not a show. She had seen her fair share of war and catastrophe, and had stood on the frontlines of many rebellions and uprisings. To her, death was simply a means to a glorious end, and whenever they were destined to meet, she would not go with it easily.
The elevator doors opened and gave way to a corridor that surrounded a triangular room. Beyond its Everglass walls, a table of the same shape stood at the center with richly decorated, cushioned seats, two along each edge.