Bit later than promised, is the Part 2 (version 1.1) of rewritten chapter 1. Mastermue is ill and has not been able to proof read this last addition of the chapter, so be prepared to see some strange usage of English language.
Anyway, here is part 2, enjoy and let us wish Mastermue a speedy recovery!
PART 2
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“Couldn’t we just restrain him? Tie him up or something”, Erich said.
The situation in the camp had in few tazuras deteriorated from initial optimism to the present gloom, as the increasingly more aggressive captain demanded that the cyberborgs finish with fixing the communication equipment.
The other cyberborgs knew that something fishy was going on, forcing Erich and Buck many times to deflect the questions about why the work on the communication equipment was taking so long. Most must have figured out that the corporal was in it too and nobody snitched to the captain their suspicions about Erich and Buck.
That did not surprise Erich. He would give anything for his buddies, even his life, and they would do the same for him. Such loyalty did not extend to the captain, an outsider in the eyes of the cyberborgs.
While Erich could predict the behavior of his fellow buddies, the reasons behind captain’s behavior eluded him.
The man seemed possessed. He would every few minutes ask Buck or Erich about how the work progressed. And when he got the negative answer, he criticized their training. Then few moments later, he would ask again and entire procedure repeated itself.
The soldiers in his company must have loved him, Erich cynically concluded.
The two men had stalled it as long as they could, but now the captain was planning on going to a expedition to the High Peaks
* emitter or even the Donahue City.
Therefore, alone in the jungle, three cyberborgs were now plotting a death in order to prevent more deaths, including their own.
“No, there is no way to predict how settlers will react to his arrest. Perhaps they will see the reason, perhaps not. My guess is that captain will declare us mutineers and order us hanged… Our platoon will support us, but settlers, will they? I am not the one who can shoot women and children… “, the corporal said dismissing Erich’s idea. He took another stim, the third so far, something Erich and Buck had never seen before.
The corporal saw the question in their eyes, but he ignored it and instead continued,
“I think that you two should report to him that the equipment is working and volunteer to help him tonight with his broadcast. Then when you are alone…”
Erich did not like what he was hearing. The captain was clearly a nutcase, but talking about murdering a man because of that and so lightly, made him question their own sanity.
“Why would he do such stupid thing? Doesn’t he see the risk of sending out a broadcast?” Buck asked, nervously looking around, almost expecting MPs to arrive and arrest them all. Erich could see that Buck too was uncomfortable.
“Look at him,” corporal pointed at the camp below. Every morning, last four tazuras, Buck, Erich and the corporal met at a spot in the jungle and discussed what to do. From there it was possible to observe the camp unnoticed and more importantly, to see if someone had followed them. Right now, they could see the captain walking below, talking to himself, clenching and unclenching his fists. He paced quickly around in the circle, stopping sometimes to look at the sky above him, before continuing his pace again. Other soldiers took a wide detour around him, avoiding any eye contact with the captain.
“What’s wrong with him?” Erich asked. The corporal was silent few moments, looking at the jungle around him. Buck, waiting for the answer was crushing a dry twig between his reinforced fingers.
“You ever heard about the space battle station Vaasa
*? Captain served there when it went to hell. My guess is that he is afraid something like that will happen here” corporal finally said.
“Vaasa battle station, Sir? I am afraid I never heard about it, Sir” Buck said. Erich nodded, for him too the name was not familiar.
“What, they didn’t teach you about that in Basic Theory
*?” corporal asked surprised. “Well I guess some “vampire” is still frightened that Vaasa affair could ruin his carrier”.
A
“Vampire” was Armed Forces’ slang for the admirals because of the blood red stripes on their uniforms.
“I heard about it from one intelligence officer my former company rescued from a mine in Split territories few jazuras ago. Vaasa was a middle-sized space battle station, intended to serve as an outpost for logistic support - for those expeditions in Xenon space our intelligence keeps sending all the time.
Two men nodded. Of course they had heard about those expeditions. The TH games and films were made based on famous exploits by scouts on mission in Xenon space.
“Somehow, Navy managed to build entire structure in a dense asteroid belt in some Xenon sector. The station was almost complete, when the Xenon blocked the asteroid field. Nothing could get in and nothing could get out. Xenon did not discover the station but their scanners easily discovered any ships attempting to leave the asteroid belt and promptly terminated any idiot attempting to escape. Station had only enough provisions for 30 tazuras. The problem was that the blockade lasted for one and the half jazura. Under that time, 1300 strong crew turned on each other, slaughtering each other, navy against the army and first floor against the second and so on…”
“They turned on each other!?” Erich asked horrified. Now he was sure that he had never heard about Vaasa - he would remember a story like this!
“Yeah, they turned on each other. You know, hunger does strange thing to people.”
“I understand that sir, but why did they start killing each other?” Buck asked. The corporal looked around, checking once more to see if anyone was nearby before continuing with silent voice,
“They were deep space trained. All 1300 of them”.
The deep space training, discontinued for some time, was notorious special training given to the special exploration and infiltration teams. It was infamous because it was rumored that, with help of intrusive psychology, men were trained to eat everything, including dead comrades if the need arises. Both soldiers were speechless. Wide eyed they waited for corporal to continue. Corporal watched their reaction with smile on his face. He had seen too much blood in his life to be emotionally affected by such things as cannibalism.
He continued with low voice, “So of course, with weapons in their hands some of the less mentally stable soldiers (and anyone volunteering for service deep in Xenon space is mentally unstable) and with such training, didn’t wait for their friends to die so they could have a meal. So all out mini war broke out. After a jazura and half, Xenon simply left and rescue operation could commence. What they did found were some 57 men left, half of the station scorched and plenty of human bones with gnawing marks on them. When this Intel officer heard that I was to be assigned under the command of our captain he told me that the captain was among the 57 men they rescued”
One ape-like creature jumped to the tree crown above them, startling the men below. It broke of one branch and started to cleanse it of leaves, looking curiously at the soldiers below.
Asserting that no danger threatened, the corporal continued speaking with now grim face, “So my guess is that the captain is thinking we will go all cannibalistic and to prevent that he will invite Xenon to afternoon meal. In other words he is planning, without our consent, mass suicide…”
Far fetched theory, Erich thought skeptically. Yet, the consequences of the captain’s actions if he managed to send that message would be the corporal predicted, whatever the captains motives were in first place…
“We don’t have much time. It is now or never. Either we terminate him or he terminate himself and all of us”, corporal said looking at the camp.
Erich cursed his luck and wondered how happy he would have been if the corporal had chosen someone else for this dirty work. The casual way the corporal suggested the murder of the captain scared him. He noticed that his stress implants worked at the full capacity to keep him calm. Yet he felt a knot in his stomach.
Sensing Erich’s doubts corporal looked in Erich’s eyes and asked him directly, “Are you with me soldier?”
Erich’s instincts told him that this entire situation was wrong, but to his shock, his mouth moved and he heard himself saying, “Ok, I am with you sir”.
They planed how they would do it and finally they drew straws to decide who will do it. Erich drew the longest straw. Walking back to the camp, Erich wondered if he would be able to kill another human being.
Three men walked together, but alone in their thoughts, saying nothing to each other. The only sound was of their boots against the wet ground.
The captain almost jumped upon hearing that the equipment was finally repaired. He dismissed them immediately and started enthusiastically work on the recording he would emit to the fleet. He made several versions, until he was finally satisfied.
When the night approached and they saw that the captain readied himself, Erich and Buck volunteered as planed. Since they were the nearest thing to a tech on this planet, he readily agreed.
As they climbed to the spot where the captain planed to set up his antenna, Erich looked at the jungle under them. The system’s sun had just set and the jungle, which was bustling with sounds at day, was quiet now. Now and then few shrieks from, for them, unknown creatures could be heard. The planets two moons were beginning to show themselves on the horizon, one huge and white, the other small and red. Air was clear, without pollutions typical for the more populated worlds and the first stars appear on the night sky.
Finally, after 15 mizuras, they reached the place captain felt was fitting for his needs. Buck and Erich helped him set up the equipment, large antenna and an emitter. Then the captain, who until now was silent, told them, “I assure you that our hardships soon will end”. Saying that, he turned to the equipment and Erich saw his chance. He quickly approached the captain, took the captains head with his both hands and turned it quickly 180 degrees. His reinforced arms gave him tremendous strength and within one hundredth of the sezura, a snapping sound was heard. The captain was dead; his last feeling, the surprise, was forever frozen on his face.
Erich too was surprised. While Buck was throwing up, Erich was unaffected, not even feeling guilt for killing another man. Actually, the killing calmed him somehow, but he had no time to ponder more about this because the time was luxury they did not have.
After some mizuras, Buck came back to his senses and then two men quickly hid the equipment in nearby cave.
Erich quickly searched captain’s body for DS disk that captain worked on entire tazura. He found it, scratched and bent.
“Do you think that you will be able to extract info from it?” Buck asked.
“We will see,” Erich answered, straightened DSD somewhat and putting it into his own pocket. If he killed a man, at last it would be proper to know why the man had to die.
Then they returned to the camp with body and feigning the shock, which in Buck’s case was real, convinced others that a terrible accident had happened.
Settlers quickly gathered around the dead body of the captain, full of questions of how it could happen. With every new arrival, Erich and Buck had to repeat their story about how the Captain climbed a three so he could see survey the surrounding area and then he fell.
In the fall, he broke his neck along with the communication equipment he carried. Other cyberborgs looked strangely at Erich and Buck. They of course knew that something more serious than a simple accident had taken place. Some of them may even have noticed that Buck, Erich and the corporal tended to disappear at same time. The other soldiers did not worry Erich. He knew that in the end they would stick with their brother in arms and the corporal. They were like family.
Settlers on the other hand, might not buy into Erich and Buck’s story… Erich realized that for all their planning they had not thought of the risk of a doctor or medical student being among the settlers. Major oversight, Erich thought. Such people could see that the deceased’s body damages did not correspond to the ones a fall from a three would cause.
He should not have worried. To their luck, there was no medical staff among crowd.
Settlers believed them, having no reason not to. The corporal nodded them the sign of approval.
Next mazura passed quietly, except for few Xenon aircraft passing them at high speeds. Buck’s sensors gave them enough warning ahead, so they had every time enough time to hide in the nearby caves. Erich, Buck and the Corporal never again spoke about the murder of the captain. Other soldiers were eventually let in on the secret by the Corporal. They accepted, easily killing of the captain as necessary. When thinking more about it, Erich realized that during their training, due to the nature of cybernetic platoons, individuality was discouraged. Captain was outsider, self-appointed commander of the group, while corporal was one of them, a cyberborg himself, with CCI implants and everything, a man they were supposed to follow to Hell if necessary…
Above the planets equator, bullet-shaped spacecraft observed the world it had left so many centuries. Ground units and Xenon recon flights had detected pollution on the surface, a potential threat to Xenon existence. Several groups, bipedal species that the spacecrafts CPU knew were bent on destruction of the Xenon Network wandered around. Those threats were easily terminated casing minimal damage to Xenon. However, spacecrafts CPU calculated the chances of more, undetected, Homo Sapiens Sapiens groups on surface of the planet. The result was too inconclusive to justify any reaction. Usually the spacecraft would have forwarded this information to the higher instances in the Network; however, this sector was too far away from the Connected Systems so that in reality spacecraft’s CPU was independent for time being. After contemplating for entire 0.0012 microsezuras it decided to wait.
Settlers and soldiers passed their time scavenged the food from the jungle, mostly brown papaya like fruits and green eatable apple like fruits. By hunting the local apelike creatures, they even managed to get some meat now and then. The meat itself was better then agnu beef but the children did not like eating it because apes reminded them of the most popular toy figure among the children, pink hero ape Hakidashisan. As the time passed, settlers were less and less dependent on soldiers.
The solder’s priority in this time, beside assisting the settlers, was to find out the location of the Xenon ground signal they had detected upon their arrival. After some time, trough triangulation of the signals, soldiers located its position. It was closer then they liked, only 4.5 km away from the camp, but in planet’s dense jungle, 4.5 km was like 450 km on the Argon Prime’s plains. Still all settlers and their children were warned of traveling in the jungle without guide of the soldiers. By analyzing the signal source, they found out that no traffic was leaving or approaching the location. It was speculated that the signals were just a PCPU unit talking to some kind of Xenon base and the base answering back. Xenon experts suggested that PCPU was unit in charge of coordinating the ground troops of Xenon on a planet’s surface. No one knew how such machine looked like or if it even existed, however Argon Intelligence services were sure of its existence. Xenonlogy experts suggested that such unit was probably very mobile, capable of both interstellar and atmospheric flight.
Soldiers were worried because of the fact that such Xenon unit was present on the planet and speculated on the significance of such presence. The signals itself was in an ancient code, used before the discovery of quantum communications. However, without a computer with cryptanalytic software, the soldiers were without means to decrypt the messages they listened to.
The corporal also let in the other men, except the four engineer soldiers, in what had happened with the captain. He took one by one soldier to the side and explained them the truth behind the captain’s demise.
After wozura of repairing the damaged DSD, Buck and Erich had managed to bring it into shape that the DSD reader would read. Waiting until nobody was around they started the DSD reader and listened to message captain had meant to send. Most of it was garbled but some part could be heard,
This is …. speaking. I am… for ten tazuras now…
The admiral … not …. because of the Xenon attack… Evidence is aboard the carrier in my cabin, hidden…
It has to do with… Vaasa…Unbelievable wealth…Senator…
Vaasa is still…
Buck shook his head, “I don’t get the meaning of this”
“It is three mizuras audio file and we only got few sezuras of speech,” Erich said analyzing the readings.
“Sounds like madman’s talk,” he added taking the DSD out of the DSD reader.
“Perhaps of the damaged parts?” Buck suggested.
“Nah… Madman’s talk, I tell you. You heard him mentioning the Vaasa and some senator,” Erich said tossing the DSD into the jungle.
“I guess you are right,” Buck conceded.
Tazuras passed until with planet’s summer season nearing its end, when one tazura they received a transmission coming from the now abounded settlements radio tower. The only received words were “transmission out” before the channel went silent again. Hopes were high among soldiers when the news broke out. Someone suggested that a message should be sent back, but the corporal advised against it.
“If it is a rescue party they would constantly send the message, day and night. Anyway the message will be probably repeated tomorrow and then when we will know the content of it. Then we will answer”, the corporal said. When he saw how much his words depressed the soldiers, he quickly added, “But I am sure that those are our men sending. Who had ever heard the damn Xenon speak the beautiful human language?”
This last remark cheered them up somewhat. They all awaited the next tazura with excitement.
Next tazura every soldier found some excuse to hang around the corporal’s cave where communication equipment was hidden. Everybody hoped that the message would repeat itself one more time and they all wanted to be around when it arrived. Settlers noted that soldier’s spirits were uplifted and that they all gathered round corporal’s cave, which to platoons amusement led to accusations from the young settlers that the soldiers kept some booze hidden in that cave. Soldiers could not inform the settlers about the message since it would lead to questions about communication equipment and captain’s death that they did not want to answer. Not yet, at least.
Around midday, they heard the message again:
“Sending… Does anyone hear me out there? Please help us! Out of 290 people most of the older one had died of the hunger. Disease had taken another 120 people. You must help us! ... Soldiers have raped some of the younger women…. They are completely crazy; some of them even had started to eat dead people! I and Betty, that’s my wife, made our way back to the settlement. She is pregnant and is in ninth mazura. What would we do if something went wrong during the birth? Please someone help us! I have little battery left and I don’t know how to repair the generators… Transmission out”
Everybody in the cave was stunned. Some even started to cry.
“That transmission will attract Xenon to the settlement. They will find that poor man and after they had killed him, machine heads will make some extrapolations which will make them assume that there are more of us around,” corporal finally said.
“Transmissions from that Xenon base are going high wire”, one of the soldiers announced. Everybody went silent again. After few moments of silence, Buck asked the corporal, “Why did they resort to cannibalism? The jungle is full of food”
“Another proof of our captain’s idiotism. He gathered all survival experts in one group of settlers, his own. So while we have excess of 32 survival experts other groups have none”, corporal answered visibly angry on the now dead captain. Erich remembered that this indeed was what the corporal suggested the captain was afraid off - cannibalism.
Transmissions continued for one more tazura, before the settlement’s com went silent. Soldiers assumed that the Xenon finally ended the plight of the settler and his pregnant wife.
Three tazuras later Buck stormed in the corporal’s cave where Erich and the corporal played a party of Triskele. He looked nervous, “Corporal, the oxygen levels are falling dramatically. From the normal 21.5 percent oxygen level for this planet, oxygen level has fallen to present level of 18.7 percent.”
“Why don’t we notice anything?” Erich asked, knowing that such reduction should have affected their breathing rate.
“Entire platoon had the oxygen filter\buffer
* installed in throats. Just in case of Argon – Paranid war breaks out and we have to invade Paranid’s planets,” corporal said and than he asked Buck, “How about settlers and the four engineers we have?”
“All of them have trouble breathing. What should we do, sir?”
“Nothing kid. We can just sit and wait for them to die”, corporal said with a tear in his eye. He wiped it rapidly away and then asked them:
“What is toleration level for your buffer?”
“Eight percent for 100 percent functionality”
“Well mine is 12 percent, older model I guess. You don’t know about yours do you Erich?” corporal asked while looking at the groups inventory list.
“I didn’t look at the papers when they were finished with me. I was just glad it was over.” Erich answered somewhat ashamed that he did not know such things. After they have done operating on him and he wake up from the narcoses he could not properly see let alone concentrate at the list of the implants doctors gave him. He knew the active ones that he used every day and he knew that he had some passive ones inside himself, but he never bothered reading entire medical journal.
“Well I guess your buffer couldn’t be worse than mine. Gather around men. We will attack the Xenon base. We will set of immediately. ”
“Shouldn’t we inform the settlers what is happening with them?”
“Ignorance is blessing. They will feel headache and desire to sleep. Then the oxygen percentage will drop even further and they will not wake up. Ever. What do you think telling them about it will achieve?” corporal said quietly, his eyes downcast, avoiding the eye contact to the two soldiers standing in front of him.
“What will an attack on Xenon achieve, sir?” Erich skeptically asked, doubting that the oxygen-reducing machine would be on the surface of the planet.
“Nothing. Or perhaps something. I am not waiting here for oxygen level to drop to level too low for my oxygen filter/buffer to handle. How much time do we have?”
“11 stazuras before levels drop below what your oxygen f/b can handle.”
“Okay, take any lasrifle and solid shot rifle you can take your hands on. Leave the PMDs
* behind; they are too unwieldy and with too small caliber to have any impact on Xenon machine heads. Erich did you take your SFRL with you when we left Donahue City”
“Yes, sir”
“Excellent, take it with you. Also tell men to take with them any provisions they can carry.”
In thirty mizuras time, everything was ready and small group of soldiers sneaked out of the camp and proceeded to coordinates where they assumed, from the previous triangulation of Xenon signals, a Xenon base would be. They left four engineer soldiers behind. Non-cybernetic soldiers had by that time felt very tired and did not show any interest in what was happening around them. Nothing could be done for them.
The jungle, usually a noisy place, was quiet; animals were too weak from lack of the oxygen to make noises. It took small group six stazuras to reach the spot. Corporal ordered two soldiers with jamming implants installed to switch them on at his command. They surveyed the place. It consisted of four buildings with two large crablike and ten smaller spiderlike machines outside. To Erich the machines did not seem like war machines but more like advanced gardening machines. On the top of the one of the buildings four Xenon NTP spacecrafts were parked.
“There is our ticket out sir”, one soldier said.
“You are wrong soldier. Those babies will lift off when the first shot is fired. Erich take them out with your SFRL at my signal. After that you will provide support for advancing elements”
“Command understood sir, SFRL primed and waiting”, Erich said and aimed his SFRL. SFRL, short for Solid Fuel Rocket Launcher, was a short-range rocket launcher with a simple double shape charge in its warhead. It was used as platoon level support artillery and had an inbuilt receiver in the missile that received information from a transmitter implant in Erich’s right shoulder, which sent signals relayed from Erich’s targeting module. The missile was guided to the target Erich was looking at, adjusting its course as the Erich refocused his eyes. Normally two men crew was required to operate a SFRL, in the cybernetic platoons one man was enough. Corporal’s plan, hastily made, consisted of simple head on assault with three elements, consisting of eight soldiers each, advancing and engaging the machines. Fourth element was in reserve and in charge of protecting the Erich’s SFRL and Buck’s 42 mm GL
*, key elements in defeating, according to corporal, large crablike machines.
“Ok everybody ready?” corporal asked looking around to see if it was the case.
“Jammers on, SFRL fire!”
Erich fired his SFRL but it overshoot by large margin. He had forgotten that the jammers interfered with his own signals to the rocket. Erich cursed to himself for such rookie mistake and reloaded. Next shot hit dead on. NTP’s shields were switched off so the spacecraft was quickly engulfed in flames. The other NTP’s did not move so Erich assumed they were switched off and that jammer blocked the PCPU, planetary central processing unit that run entire planet.
Advancing elements had hard time. Lasrifles had almost no effect on the Xenon machines and the crablike machines showed ability to spray the acid. Eight soldiers melted with horrible screams when the spray caught them in one moment when they were exposed. The cybernetic platoon might be stronger then entire non-cybernetic battalion but they lacked experience and died in unnecessary high numbers. They advanced all together instead of providing cover for each other. The machines weak spots were unknown to the soldiers so their fire was ineffective.
Erich concentrated on taking out the crablike machines first since they seemed largest threat to the soldiers. He hit easily the first one but his second missile missed the body of the second crab, hitting its legs instead. Although immobilized it still could wreak havoc. Erich fired again and this time he hit. Now he was out of the ammo, not that it mattered. Spiderlike machines were too fast and in addition, too near other soldiers so SRFL could not be used. He grabbed a lasrifle and adjusted the strength to maximum. It would take long time before each shot but at least it would cripple every machine he hit. The soldiers that guarded Erich and Buck until now, raced ahead of them to join the battle and help their comrades. Buck and Erich combined their weapon’s strengths to make most of theirs firepower. Firing his lasrifle Erich would cripple one of the machines, slowing it down sufficiently to Buck to engage it with his own rapid firing 42 mm GL
*, destroying the machine with each hit. They dispatched three more machines this way before surveying the now empty and silent battlefield. Entire battle has taken under 18 sezuras. Twelve machines including one NTP light transporter were destroyed. Thirty men died, only one remaining were Erich and Buck, both men being part of the support element. All of those that fought in close combat were killed. Corporal himself got his head torn off at the very start of the battle when one of the spiderlike machines jumped at his head and cut it off with its razor-sharp front legs.
“Bloody affair Erich”, Buck said looking around at his dead comrades with disbelief.
“Yeah, Buck. And those were only terraformers not war machines”, Erich said, he too in shock. In only eighteen sezuras thirty men died, many of them good friends.
After some mizuras they gathered themselves enough to start thinking rationally again.
“Those NTPs could be our transport home”, Buck commented.
“Well, Xenon had dropped cockpits from theirs designs hundreds of jazuras ago”, Erich commented skeptically while looking for some way to climb to the top of the building without going trough the building. For all he knew the building could be full of Xenons waiting in ambush and he did not feel like he or Buck were in condition to take on some more machines.
“I worked at my uncle’s spaceship shop at Argon Prime before joining the Armed Forces. We had rewired plenty of Xenon hardware in our time. Xenon use simple reprogrammable logic in their circuits, and if we remove the missile bay and cooling unit and then rewire controls to cargo bay, we would have enough space in there to squeeze us two.”
“Listen Buck, you would be flying without instruments or life support system. Our Oxygen f/b doesn’t cope with radiation or vacuum”
“I saw three space suits in inventory list at our camp. Someone decided those things would be useful when we fled the settlement. They will last long enough for us to fly out of the system. I will use my gravidar and radar in my pack for the navigation. You have blind flying training, don’t you?”
“I don’t even have the flying certificate Buck and don’t bother commenting on that. We don’t have time for that. Xenon reinforcements could be here soon”
“Doubt that, jamming field is still in place”, Buck said looking at the bodies of the two dead soldiers with their implants still working.
“Ok, how long time will it take?” Erich asked hoping Buck was right about the Xenon reinforcement. The PCPU or whatever Xenon was on the other end of the comlink, could easily send in some forces only to check out why the base was silent.
“Depends, maybe a stazura. Those NTP are ancient models”, Buck answered.
Eventually after some search they found the way to climb to the roof of the building and they began to examine the NTPs.
Buck was talking constantly about the observation he was making, Erich guessing it was some kind of self therapy for the battle shock he had received half stazura ago,
“Those NTP’s are elongated versions of the Xenon N scout class ships. But look at their hull, the paint have almost faded and the corrosion! Those ships must been here for jazuras. If we are lucky this ship is one of the old versions where Xenon put same drive engine in both theirs M5 and M4 class. It would give us speed necessary to escape from the L heavy fighters and modern Xenon M and N fighters”
The work took longer than planned. Buck and Erich managed quickly to remove missile bay module but the cooling unit for the CPU was more difficult. They had to rip it apart, however all this work made them more and more tired and lack of the oxygen rich air was taking its toll. Buck’s short time memory was the first thing to be affected. He kept repeating himself and forgetting things he had done just mizuras ago. Finally, after two stazuras of hard labor, they finished their work.
“What now Buck?” Erich asked not sure if he had asked question before and perhaps even got the answer to the question.
“Ehh…Oh yeah. We turn the engine on.”, Buck said with obvious strain to answer such simple question.
“Wouldn’t that result in the conflicts with both you and Xenon ships CPU both telling ship avionics what to do.”
“Oh…No... Lack of the cooling unit would cause the CPU to overheat and melt. I have isolated it enough so that the meltdown would not cause cascade damage to the core controls. Then…Then we would turn the engine off and then turn it on once more. This time we would be in total control of the ship.”
After turned the engine on and waited few sezuras before turning it off again. Next time they turned it on and left it ignited. Buck tested all controls of the ship to see if he has made right wiring and to see if they were in total control of the ship.
Satisfied, he took the ship to the camp. There Buck and Erich saw that people did not die peacefully as the corporal predicted but rather slowly and agonizing. What is worse some of them were still dying when they arrived. They did not have time to help anybody. Quickly they found the space suits and put them on. Fresh oxygen gave them new strength both to their bodies and to their mind. Immediately they took off, and before long, Buck’s gravidar showed two Xenon Ms on intercept course. However, Ms were slower aircraft, even more so in the atmosphere. When they reached space, Buck and Erich could not believe their own eyes. Single Xenon K was patrolling the system with few squadrons of fighter spacecrafts. Surely the task force could easily defeat such Xenon force.
Trip to the nearby gate was uneventful, Xenon Ns tried to intercept but surprisingly this older Xenon N, TP sub variant, was faster than modern N-class scouts.
Erich was however more and more concerned about Bucks mental state of mind. His friend, after the episode with the captain, began more and more to behave strangely. You could not exactly say his brain was gone EVA, Erich admitted to himself, Buck have after all fixed and modified the NTP all by himself. He kept muttering something to himself all the time but he flew the NTP steady and stright. Erich asked Buck about the range to the gate.
“12.1 km and closing fast. Erich, do you remember the faces of the people when we flew away? I think some of the children were still alive”
“No Buck, I checked, they were dead. There wasn’t enough oxygen in the air for them to breathe”, Erich said. In fact, he did not check to see if anyone was still alive. Whether any settler was alive or not by the time Erich and Buck flew back to the camp was irrelevant. The spacecraft they flew could only take two people. Erich did not feel any guilt about making this decision. He wondered why he had lost all the feelings towards people around him. Death of the children should have disturbed him more. Then he heard Buck saying, “Entering the wormhole.”
The sezura they arrived on the other side of the gate, hell broke loose. Lasertowers positioned around the gate had their targeting mechanism programmed to fire at anything coming out of the gate. Buck had enough sense to take two 90 degrees turns in horizontal plane bringing the spacecraft in fastest possible time out of lasertowers line of fire. NTP was fast, but it was not fast enough; the ship shuddered when two laser beams found their target, depleting their shields and causing serious breaches in the hull. NTP was disintegrating around them and without EVA suits they would be already dead for sure. Bucks last command to the ship was to order cargo door opened. They left the NTP and began to accelerate away from it. Three sezuras later, fired from one of the lasertowers that had turned sufficiently, beam struck the NTP once again. This time hull reddened for tenth of a sezura before finally engines exploded.
Buck and Erich were safe for now. Lasertowers were usually instructed not to target anything smaller than M5 class spacecraft or anything slower than a missile. Space suits checked on both categories. Now they faced another problem. They were in some sort of the nebula, where signals were jammed. They could not communicate with each other and line of sight stopped only few meters in front of each other. They soon come apart.
Erich remembered the general direction of the gate and flew towards it, hoping that some patrol ships that were bound to investigate the reports from the automatic relays inside the lasertowers, will spot him. He flew for stazuras but he no longer was sure if he was flying in right direction and his oxygen reserves were quickly reaching zero. He became more and more desperate, changing direction every few mizuras before finally his fuel reserves were empty. Erich realized that he was lost and that he will suffer same fate as those settlers they left in the camp. Once he understood that all hope was lost he felt calm. He thought about his mother and father who died mazura before he joined the Forces. After some time the oxygen run out and after few painful mizuras, his mind blissfully sunk into the darkness.
Erich woke up. He could not feel his legs or speak. Fearing the worst he slowly raised his head to see if the legs still were there. Both legs seemed fine. He tried to lift his right leg. After what seemed like an eternity to Erich, he managed to lift his right leg centimeter or two. The strange thing he did not feel the weight of the leg. Then he lost the conscious again.
Later when he awoke again, Boron doctors told him that he was in Boron Hospital station in the Great Trench and that he had severe brain damages caused by the lack of the oxygen. The Borons assumed he was a trader, a casualty from big pirate raid on Argon Armed Forces supply convoy that was taking place at the same time Buck and Erich flew trough the gate. Apparently, boron freighter that was supplying nearby Boron research station found him. Montelaar’s hospitals were overstretched and overworked by casualties, so the Boron, experts at regenerative medicine brought him to the Great Trench sector’s Royal Hospital.
The Borons did not think his implants were strange. To them Argons were hairy, smelly and strange creatures. They assumed it was from former damages and since Argon bodies were known to have least regenerative capabilities of all known races it fitted to what they already knew about Argon’s dependence on cybernetics.
After seeing that he had not any physical damages, after his brain surgery they put all the implants back without studying them as it was Boron custom to not pry in other peoples things.
It took some time before Erich could walk properly again. He had problems speaking and he did not remember any letters but he was otherwise fine. Borons supplied him with hologram DSDs from Argon Prime, specially taking care to obtain copies of last months space soaps episodes and news broadcasts. Other boron patients loved space soaps but Erich felt that his brain was degenerating every time he saw one. News broadcast became more and more important for him as he regained his memories. He searched for any information about Buck and Argon Pride operation. Then one tazura he found the broadcast he was looking for:
“… Special investigator announced today that the scandal around local senator was getting bigger as they it was revealed that he had yet another, third wife in Light of Heart system.
In Montelaar the strange man who claimed to be part of Argon Pride expedition admitted today that perhaps his story was a product of his imagination. Psychologist who examined him claims that he is in trauma because of unknown causes and that he has an imaginary friend. Truly a sad story. This man’s claim caused anger among Argon Prime senators who accused him of giving false hopes to grieving relatives of the 85.000 settlers that died. Two senators even demanded prison sentence to the man but it was rejected as it was revealed that the man was a previous patient at Argonia Mental Health Institution.
Yesterday pop singer’s Kuiles dog was hurt …”
If Erich could remember how to, he would scream at that moment. Only weak sounds came out of his throat. The other patients looked strangely at him; they did not understand his reactions, his wild gesticulations meaning nothing in their Boron cultural frame. Doctors decided to sedate him so he would not hurt himself.
He woke up many stazuras later. It was night by station local time and lights were turned off. His anger and shock had passed. He did not know in whose interest it was but for someone it was very important that people thought that no one survived on the planet. He did not understand what it meant, but his instincts told him that he would better be of if he never mentioned name Erich Campbell again. Loss of speech, something that was immensely irritating to him at first, was actually a blessing preventing him from giving away his identity.
When he joined the Argon Armed Forces, he was 19-year-old kid. During the Argon Pride disaster, he mentally grew tens of jazuras, and now he realized that he had some more growing to do. Someone out there did not wish him well and Erich had to disappear.
Next tazura, waiting until most of the station slept, he sneaked out of the room and broke into the archive room. Searching for few minutes he found the list of names of pilots that were reporting missing on the pirate raid.
Wozura later, when he had relearned few simple words, he presented himself to Boron doctors as Maxim Dugajevitch, an independent trader from Argon Prime system. Since he lacked any identification papers and he could not travel without them, local boron authorities issued him a temporary ID along with a 500 credits banknote from local charity fund. He bought the ticket to Argon Prime and left his former life forever. Officially Erich Campbell was KIA, in what now was known as Xenon Sector 1051.
Continue to chapter 2 
