Theogony 3: Terra Stands Alone Read online

  “I’ve had enough of that mind reading bullshit for a lifetime, sir,” said Master Chief. “What ever happened to keeping your thoughts to yourself?”

  Calvin laughed and nodded to the other group of Domus humanoids. “Those three are the ones coming to the platoon. Lieutenant Contreras spoke very highly of them. He said they are his star pupils.”

  “I talked to Captain Smith while we were there,” replied Master Chief. “He said that Mister Contreras called them ‘the Three Caballeros.’” Despite being a career SEAL, Master Chief O’Leary had never been a big fan of authority, especially ‘colorful’ authority, and Contreras was as colorful as they came. “He also said they were hard workers and would make good additions to the unit. From left to right they are Corporal Craig Cuillard, Corporal John Stump and Corporal Weldon Owens. Like most of the humanoids here seem to be doing, they all took Terran names when they signed up.”

  Seeing everyone looking at them, Corporal Cuillard said, “We are the Three Caballeros.”

  “Gluck ab!” they all yelled simultaneously.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Master Chief said. He looked at Calvin. “Can you please add Lieutenant Contreras to the list of people that need to be shot when we get back?”

  Platoon Gym, TSS Vella Gulf, Domus Orbit, January 1, 2021

  “Good to see you back in the gym again, sir,” Master Chief said as Calvin walked in. “It’s been a while.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Calvin replied. “It’s good to have some time to myself so that I can get back into working out again.”

  Calvin looked out over the gym floor where the platoon was exercising. Many of the faces were still new to him. The platoon had come back from the previous mission with a lot of holes in its manning. Some of the holes had been because they left personnel behind as security forces and trainers on a couple of the planets they visited; others were due to the combat that had occurred there, too.

  It had taken a while for the Board to meet to replace them. It hadn’t met until the end of November; by the time the results were posted, it had been the first week of December. Most of the new recruits hadn’t even been onboard when the Gulf went to help defend the stargate, and it had been a scramble to get them onboard, implanted and modified before the cruiser left for Archonis.

  The Psiclopes had given the Terrans a variety of upgrades in return for the Terrans’ help in getting them back to their home planet. In addition to the implants that allowed them to download training and communicate via a mind-to-mind radio system, the Vella Gulf’s medibot had been qualified to do a variety of things, like making their vision sharper and their reflexes faster, as well as making them stronger and giving them better endurance. It was a standard part of coming to the platoon now. Check in, visit the medibot and get your implants and modifications.

  “Checking on the newbies?” asked Night as he walked in.

  “Yeah,” said Calvin. “I’m trying to put names to faces, but am coming up blank on a few of them.”

  “Well, let me help you,” Night said, turning to look out over the expansive gym floor. The Vella Gulf had originally been built by an avian race called the Eldive; they had used the room as a place to stretch their wings. It was large enough for most of the activities that the platoon needed to practice. They had even been able to put in a small pistol range.

  “How about the guy on the pistol range with Corporal Sanders?” Calvin asked. “He looks familiar, but I can’t quite place him.”

  “He ought to look familiar,” replied Master Chief. “His brother was in the platoon during the war. Do you remember PFC Trevor Hall? That’s Corporal Patrick Hall. He’s Mad Dog’s brother.”

  “Is he as good a soldier as Mad Dog?” asked Calvin. “I didn’t get to know him very well, but he seemed like a good guy.”

  “Yes and no,” hedged Master Chief.

  “What’s that mean?” Calvin asked with a laugh. The soldiers on the pistol range put down their weapons and pressed the buttons at their stations that would bring their targets back to them.

  “Well, he’s got the eyes of an eagle and the reflexes of a Mrowry,” said Master Chief. “Also, his personnel reports indicate that he was an excellent pilot and an expert with edged weapons, even before he got implanted.”

  “So what’s the problem?” asked Calvin looking over Corporal Hall’s shoulder as he pulled his target off the line. The target was almost new, with only a few holes in the outer rings.

  “It doesn’t matter what type of ranged weapon you give him,” replied Master Chief. “He can’t hit the broadside of a barn. It’s a good thing he’s an expert with bladed weapons; I hear that he’s the worst shot in all of Africa.”

  “Hey! I’m working on it, Master Chief!” Corporal Hall exclaimed.

  Master Chief looked pointedly at his target, a look of utter disdain on his face. “Keep working,” he said.

  “I think you already met the new Ground Force Leader, Master Gunnery Sergeant Joan Kinkead, right?” asked Night as the group moved away from the pistol range. The platoon was broken down into two ‘forces,’ a Ground Force and a Space Force. Although both concentrated in their area of expertise, they also cross-trained in the other area so that they would be ready for anything.

  “Yeah, I met her a few days ago when she checked in,” replied Calvin. “I told her that we get all of the hard missions, and she just laughed. Her comment was, ‘Try being a Marine Corps drill sergeant while raising eight kids. That’s hard. This shit’s easy.’”

  Master Chief laughed. “That sounds like her,” he said. “I knew her from before; our paths crossed a couple of times. The person who she’s talking to is the new Squad ‘B’ Leader, Staff Sergeant Michael Burke. I don’t know him, but he seems like a good leader.”

  The conversation was interrupted by a tremendous noise from the firing range behind them. A cyborg had come in and stood at the range with one foot behind him as a brace. The eight-foot tall half-man/half-machine had old-fashioned pistols in both hands and was firing them both simultaneously. The pistols looked bigger than normal and sounded like cannons going off. Each also had an extended magazine that looked like it could hold about 50 rounds. The speed at which he fired them made it seem like they were automatic machine pistols, even though Calvin could see his fingers working the triggers. He finished and brought the target back. Unlike Corporal Hall’s, the entire black part at the center had been shot out, leaving a hole in the center of the target.

  “Nice shooting, Staff Sergeant Dantone,” Calvin said. Also known as ‘The Wall,’ Staff Sergeant Dantone had been mauled by an extra-terrestrial (ET) during their previous mission. The medibot had not been able to save anything except his brain and some of his spinal cord, so it had turned him into a cyborg, encasing the brain in a robot body. The cyborg turned around and Calvin could see that he looked very different from the last time Calvin had seen him. The red-haired wig that he was wearing was especially noticeable.

  “Thank you sir,” said the cyborg, “but I’m not The Wall. My name is Staff Sergeant Steve Randolph. I used to be a combat engineer, specializing in demolitions; unfortunately, my partner made a mistake one day a couple of months ago. They couldn’t save most of my body, but my brain was still good. One of my doctors knew that the medibot on the moon could do a cyborg conversion, and they offered it to me. With a choice between being a 100% disabled vet and being able to kick ass, I chose to come and kick some ET ass, sir!”

  “Welcome aboard,” Calvin said.

  “Thank you sir,” the cyborg said.

  “What are you shooting there?” Calvin asked.

  The cyborg handed one over to Calvin so that he could see it. “It’s a modified Israeli .50 caliber Desert Eagle. I never had the strength to one-hand it effectively before.” He smiled. “Now I do.”

  Calvin could see what he meant. The pistol was huge. He chuckled. “You’ll fit in just fine, I think,” he said, handing the pistol back to the cyborg. “We’r
e big fans of overkill here.” The cyborg turned back to the range and began refilling his magazines.

  “Oh, there’s The Wall,” Calvin said, looking around the room. The other cyborg was standing to the side of one of the practice areas with his right arm in the air while someone Calvin didn’t recognize worked on some part of his mechanical body. The cameraman that they had picked up on Domus was standing nearby taking photos. “Who’s the guy working on him?” Calvin asked. “He seems a bit...older...than the rest of the group.”

  “He is a bit older,” Master Chief replied. “He started out in Grey’s Scouts in Rhodesia when he was younger, but he’s still in great shape. He’s one of those ‘jack of all trades’ kind of guys that every unit needs. He’s also the best cyborg mechanic there is going. When he got out of the military, he went into robotics and now has about a million degrees in robotics and that ‘cyber’ word that means robotics.”

  “Cybernetics?” asked Calvin.

  “Yeah,” replied Master Chief, “that thing. With two cyborgs in the unit now, I’m glad we got him. If they break, hopefully he can fix them. His name is Sergeant Mark Hopper. He goes by the name ‘Hoppy.’”

  “Someone went way out on a limb for that call sign,” Calvin noted.

  Master Chief shrugged, “He said that’s what he’s always been called, even before he got into the army. I guess his friends weren’t very imaginative.” He looked at the cameraman. “Was the photographer your idea? Not getting enough TV time?”

  “No,” replied Calvin. “I’ve had all of the publicity I need for this lifetime and several more. His name is Bob Jones; he goes by the nickname ‘Danger.’ I didn’t know we were getting him until we were on Domus. There was a combat cameraman doing a show on the new members of the Terran Republic, and the Domans hired him to do a ‘real Terran news show’ on the war.

  “Wonderful,” grumped Master Chief. “We obviously didn’t have enough distractions already, what with cyborgs, baby dinosaurs and talking cats walking around. We needed to have a movie camera for all the boys and girls to preen for, too. Just fucking wonderful.”

  Night cleared his throat. “If Master Chief is done, you can also see the two new medics we got working out with swords over on the other mat. The woman is Paige Julia Lawrence, and the man is Ray Jones.”

  Calvin raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes, that makes three people named Jones,” replied Night. “This one is easy to remember; he goes by ‘Doc.’ Both he and Lawrence had prior careers they gave up when the Drakuls showed up. Lawrence had been working on biowarfare defense, doing some sort of DNA sequencing shit that’s way over my head. Jones was working with SWAT, but was also a prior Marine corpsman. Both have some interesting side skills.”

  “Cool,” said Calvin.

  “And that just leaves the three corporals over at the bench press that you already met,” said Master Chief, “Corporals Stump, Cuillard and Owens. Cuillard is the one working out on the bench.”

  “Don’t you mean ‘the Three Caballeros’?” asked Calvin.

  Master Chief growled. “Sir, please don’t start that shit, too; it only gives them big heads.”

  As Calvin looked over, he saw that Cuillard was doing presses with 225 pounds, and the other two were counting. With a shock he realized that they were in the 90s.

  “94...95...96...97...98...99...100.” The man set the weights down. He didn’t seem fazed or tired in the slightest. Corporal Owens took his place and began pumping out the repetitions.

  “Not bad,” said Calvin. “Obviously they got some pretty good endurance modifications from the medibot.”

  “They ran out of something they needed to do the bio-modifications on Domus,” said Master Chief. “Those three got their implants but didn’t get their mods; they get them next week.”

  “Really?” asked Calvin. “Holy crap!”

  “Yeah,” agreed Night. “They’re brutes.”

  Bridge, Drakul Ship Destruction of Olympos, COROT-7 System, January 3, 2021

  Captain Bullig stretched. If he was going to die, he thought, at least he was going to do it in style. Although the Overlord still obviously bore him a grudge, even the Overlord had seen that Bullig needed more firepower to break into the new system and had given him one of their new dreadnoughts to use as his flagship. Built in the 54 Piscium system by some of their feeder races, the ship was made for Drakuls. Built on the Mrowry dreadnought design that was in the replicator they had captured, the feeder race had expanded it so that the ceilings were 15 feet high. Unlike the Mangler, he could move about freely without crouching everywhere he went.

  Although he had disagreed with the Overlord’s policy of allowing limited freedom for some of the members of captured species (he had only disagreed to himself; disagreeing with the Overlord publicly tended to decrease one’s lifespan significantly), this was one example of where they were helpful to have around. Drakuls were warriors and didn’t have time for things like building.

  He couldn’t wait for the rest of the fleet to be assembled. This was going to be fun.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Eight

  Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, WASP 18, January 6, 2021

  “When do you advise turning on the stealth package?” asked Captain Yerrow from the view screen. The ships were close to the stargate that would take them into the Ross 248 system. It was possible that the enemy waited on the other side.

  Captain Sheppard looked at Lieutenant Finn, whom he had asked to join him on the bridge.

  “Oh! You can turn them on at any time you’d like,” answered Lieutenant Finn. “The only problem is going to be fuel consumption. They eat helium-3 like it’s chocolate.”

  “I do not know what chocolate is,” replied Captain Yerrow, “but I have seen how quickly a space fighter’s stealth module consumes its fuel. Still, I think it would be prudent to turn it on prior to going through the stargate, in case there are any Ssselipsssiss on the other side. It would also be good to ensure they are operational prior to that.”

  “I agree,” said Captain Sheppard. “Why don’t you turn your system on for five minutes, and we’ll check you out. Then you can do the same for us.”

  “That is a good plan,” agreed Captain Yerrow. “We will do so. Yerrow out.”

  The screen blanked and then became an image of the Emperor’s Paw, paralleling them five miles to starboard. As the crew on the Vella Gulf watched, the Paw shimmered and then disappeared.

  Captain Sheppard nodded. “All systems try to find the Emperor’s Paw,” he ordered. “Let me know if you have any success.”

  The offensive systems officer and defensive systems officer both looked but were unable to find the Paw on their systems. A tight smile began to creep across Lieutenant Finn’s face.

  “Ummm,” said Steropes, who was manning the science station.

  “Yes?” Captain Sheppard asked. “Can you see them?”

  “See them?” asked Steropes. “No, I can’t see them.” He paused. “However, I am getting some sort of weird gravity transient. It’s like there is something periodically there, but I can’t lock in on it.”

  Lieutenant Finn looked crushed. “That has been a recurring problem,” he said. “The stealth system is really good on all forms of energy, like radar and laser. It produces a field that drinks them right up. Gravity is different, though; there’s no energy to absorb. It’s one of the four fundamental forces, and the only one that acts on all particles with mass. I’ve worked to try to make the shields provide a buffer against it, but it is wildly imperfect. It is rather like trying to play baseball with a soccer ball; you can do it, but it doesn’t work very well.”

  “Perhaps it might have been helpful to tell us that prior to now,” chided Captain Sheppard. “We might have been able to work something out.”

  “Oh! I did report it to my superiors at Department X before we left,” said Lieutenant Finn, “but they said the mission had to go, regardless, so it didn’t matter. I’m sorry; I thought yo
u knew. Just don’t get close to any of the enemy ships, and it shouldn’t matter. You have to be fairly close to the stealth ship in order for them to see the gravity transient.”

  “How close?” asked Calvin.

  “If you are outside of 50,000 miles from a stealthed cruiser, it is unlikely that you’ll see it,” replied Lieutenant Finn. “A stealth fighter can’t be seen from more than about 10,000 miles.”

  “So,” Captain Sheppard said, “as long as we don’t let them in close, we’re OK?”

  “Yes,” said Lieutenant Finn, “we should be.”

  Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, HD 40307, January 11, 2021

  “I guess this is where we’ll find out how well your system works,” said Captain Sheppard.

  “Yes,” said Lieutenant Finn, who was uncharacteristically quiet as his big moment approached.

  His system had worked as intended, with two small glitches. The first of these was that the system had dropped for about five seconds when they entered the Ross 248 system from the WASP 18 system, due to the mechanical disorientation caused by going through the stargate. Happily, there hadn’t been any of the Ssselipsssiss in the system to see it. The other problem they would have to deal with was that the stealth system did nothing to prevent the signal associated with a stargate activation. When a ship entered a system, the stargate emitted an electromagnetic pulse. The magnitude of the pulse was proportional to the speed and mass of the ship going through it. The faster or larger the ship was, the bigger the pulse it gave off. If they entered the system going any faster than their slowest speed, the Ssselipsssiss would know that something had just entered the system, even if they couldn’t see the ship. Going that slowly would leave them vulnerable to any of the enemy’s weapons and especially vulnerable to mines.

  As planned, the Mrowry had transited into the HD 40307 system first, with the Vella Gulf following them 10 minutes later. As they had feared, there were Ssselipsssiss in this system, as two of their battleships, eight battlecruisers and eight cruisers were positioned around the system’s other stargate into the 83 Leonis system. Although the star system had several planets, none were habitable, even if the system hadn’t been a war zone.