Chapter 12
Five day later.
“Colonel Taylor to the bridge. Colonel Taylor to the bridge.”
Ah, great, he thought.
“Looks like they’re after your ass once again,” Parker said.
“Aren’t they always?” he jested.
He headed right for the bridge, and Jafar was with him as usual. It was hard to shake the alien.
“Don’t you ever have something you want to do on your own?” Taylor asked as they approached the bridge.
“What is there to do?” he asked, “I live to fight. There is no one to fight, so I serve my duty of protecting you.”
"And that doesn't ever bore you?"
He shook his head.
They reached the bridge to find Huber nowhere to be seen.
"Captain Vega, where is the Admiral?"
"He has requested your presence in his private quarters, Colonel. Just you!" Vega emphasised.
He carried on without Jafar and stepped through into Huber's quarters. He found him slumped at his desk. He looked troubled and exhausted; far from the figure of joy and celebration he had been upon news of the planet discovery.
"What can I do for you, Sir?"
"Taylor. When we found this planet, the only person in the whole damn fleet that was sceptical about it was you. I thought you a fool."
"What is the problem, Sir?"
"Nothing as imminent as an enemy with a rifle, but so many small problems that are mounting to make me...uncomfortable. Perhaps you tempted fate."
"I don't believe in fate, Admiral. That would suggest someone else is pulling my strings, and I don't accept that."
"Is that why you have such a problem with authority?"
"Perhaps, but I have never done anything that is not in the best interests of us all."
"Or what you perceive is our best interests?"
"I can only work on my gut."
Huber smiled. "If it were anyone else, you'd be in long-term stay in my brig, Taylor. And yet no bars seem to hold you back, and no man can ever fully command you. But I will not make the mistake of locking horns with you, as so many before me have. As Admiral of the fleet, I must make use of every asset at my disposal. You're not perfect, Colonel, but you are invaluable."
"Thank you, Sir."
Huber went silent and slipped back into deep thought. Taylor could not help but feel the situation was bizarre.
"Sir?"
He looked up, seemingly surprised and waited for a question.
"The planetary issues you mentioned?"
He nodded, taking a drink of water from the glass beside him and wiping his tired eyes.
"It is not one big problem, more a collection of a great many smaller ones."
"What do you mean, Sir?"
He picked up a tablet device and started scrolling through a list.
"I've got reports of engine failures, sickness among various members of both the civilians and military personnel down there. Sightings of strange things in the nights, screams from marines who say they saw ghosts or dreamed of their death; heavy storms that are destroying equipment. Whatever is going on down there, it's a mess, and a mess I want you to clear up. It's almost as if the planet itself doesn't want us to step foot there."
"Sounds crazy, Sir?"
"Yes it does. But for whatever the reasons are for all this nonsense, I will not risk any substantial deployment until I know what we're dealing with, and why. This may just be a case of fear and uncertainty playing tricks on the mind. There may be a perfectly reasonable answer to it, but I want to know for certain."
"I'll get right on it, Sir."
"Yes, good. And be sure to take your own air supply. Do not breath the air. Do not drink the water or make physical contact with any object. People are going crazy down there, and I don't want you following them."
"What kind of deployment would you have me make?"
"You take enough that you can deal with any kind of trouble that might arise, but not so much you leave this ship undefended."
Great, deliberately vague.
"I'll take a hundred of my people. That will leave you with more than enough, Admiral."
He nodded and waved as if to accept whatever Taylor had to say. Mitch turned to leave when the Admiral made one last passing comment.
"This is a problem I don't need, Taylor. Do whatever you have to do."
Taylor carried on without another word. He found Jafar waiting at the door, with two of the Admiral's guards standing uneasily in front of him.
"Looks like we finally got some real work to do."
"Who do we have to kill?" Jafar asked.
Taylor patted him on the back.
"Nobody I know of, but who knows? You might have an opportunity yet."
An hour later, he stood before the hundred of his own unit that had been assembled. Lieutenants Matthews and Anders, as well as Parker. Three platoons awaited his orders, and Morris stood beside him, knowing nothing more than any other of them.
"You all know by now that we have discovered a planet our experts believe is habitable," he began, "For now we are calling this newly discovered world Atlantis. A fitting name for such a remarkable discovery, if it is indeed what we believe it is."
Many of them seem surprised by his scepticism.
"Don't get me wrong. I want this planet to be all we hoped it to be, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. The Admiral has had marines and teams of experts on the surface for several days now. They have as yet not met any resistance or enemy presence, but there are many unexplained occurrences that are making people uneasy and scared. We are going there to resolve whatever we have to. I don't know yet what that will mean, but as ever, we improvise and overcome. Any questions?"
No one said a word.
"Lastly, the 50CMG, you have all now trained on it, and we have one per platoon. Tripods will be issued, as well as the modified shields for fireteams."
"Sir?" Watkins asked.
"Yes, Private, what is it?"
"Are you really expecting us to lug those lumps of pig iron about?"
"You’re damn right I am. They're big old beasts, but they also pack a hell of a punch. Next time we come up against some heavy armour, I want to see you punching holes in it, you hear?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Now, Reiter has reduced the weight and size of our 50CMG as much as is possible. We've got shortened barrels and reduced heat shielding. We'll lose a little of the range and accuracy over distance, and they won't stand up to sustained fire over prolonged periods. But they'll at least be a little easier for you to lug about and get into action. Pig iron? I like that. They are a pig to lug about, and that's what we'll call them. Any more questions?"
"What are our intentions when we reach the surface, Sir?" asked Parker, "What are we aiming to achieve?"
Taylor shrugged. "At present, I just don't know enough to say. What I can guarantee is that from what Huber tells me, it is one big cluster f*ck. So we'll have to deal with the situation as it unfolds."
"But what is our purpose? Are we there to fight, as security, or what?"
Taylor shrugged once again. "No idea, Matthews, that's for us to find out. You can keep framing the same questions in new ways, but the simple fact is, I don't know any more than I have already told you."
In actual fact, he did, but he didn't want to spook them. The last thing he wanted was for his own people to be infected with the same hysteria he had heard about before they even reached the planet. He wanted them to form their own conclusions, based on their own experiences.
"Well, okay then, load up and move out!"
He watched as Watkins and Abbot headed for the 50CMG and hauled it onto their shoulders. May followed after them with the tripod. It was a clumsy piece of equipment, but he like the thought of having some big guns at his side.
"Really are a pig," muttered Abbot.
Taylor strode aboard the Mercury that awaited him and noted the name on the side, 'Gerty'. He could see from the repairs it was indeed the same ship they had been in for the mission to the space gateway that nearly ended in their deaths. As he stepped inside, he found Rains already in the pilot's seat.
"You got her going again?"
"Yes, Sir, the old girl is back."
"Don't you think the fact she almost killed us first time out is reason enough to leave her on the bench?"
"What are you talking about, Colonel? How many died on that mission?"
"None."
"And how many wounded?"
"None."
"So what you’re saying is she got us all home safe and sound, and she was the only one that got hurt? Sounds like our guardian angel to me."
Taylor shook his head.
"You’re a funny son of a bitch, you know that?"
"Hell, yes I do. You gotta keep smiling, Colonel. Enjoy life while we still have it."
It wasn't long before they were lifting off, and even sooner, they were landing aboard the Valentine. It was almost two days’ journey to Atlantis. Taylor's first glance at the planet was through the cockpit of Gerty. Oceans spanned almost half the world. That alone made it inviting to the human eye.
"Looks familiar, doesn't it?" Rains asked.
He was right. It did look a lot like Earth from afar. But as they passed through the atmosphere, they could see much of the surface was dry craggy land.
"Is that..." started Rains.
They were looking at the layout of a city, and yet only remnants of the foundations remained that told them so.
"A city? Looks like it was a hell of a long time ago."
"So something lived here?"
"Or still does," replied Taylor.
They put down half a kilometre south of the edge of the old city where they found a compound that had been built by the first teams to reach the planet. Nobody came to greet them as they landed, but they could see various personnel about the site. Taylor was first out and looked up at the sky and at the ground all around him. It was not unlike parts of North Africa where he had fought Demiran. He could feel the heat rising from the ground. The rays of light from the sun were so strong; he could feel his eyes stinging from the intensity. He immediately activated the UV filter and dimmed the mask of his helmet.
"Doesn't look half bad," said Parker.
"And yet none of them look to happy to be here," added Lieutenant Anders.
Taylor looked to Jafar for information, but it was clear he had none. He looked up to a guard tower overlooking their landing zone. Even from afar, he could see the body language of the woman on duty. She looked lost and sick. It was a look of loss he would expect to see in a soldier after days of brutal combat.
"What aren't you telling us, Mitch?"
"All I know, Eli, is some strange shit is going down here, and it's our job to find out what."
"So what now?"
"You are to stay on base, Anders, and investigate here. Talk to whoever is in charge, talk to anyone who will do so. Find out whatever you can."
"I am no detective."
"No, you're a problem solver with a gun. Get to it. The rest of us are heading into the remnants of that city. I figure whatever is going on here, it's probably got something to do with that place."
"But what is going on here?"
He ignored Parker’s question.
"Anders, you have your orders. Everyone else, on me."
He carried on walking right out of the base without a word to anyone in it.
"I don't like this at all," said Parker, "We're just wandering around with absolutely no idea what we're doing. What was really our purpose of coming here?"
"The Admiral didn't say it. But I believe he is concerned a force is at work here that threatens our plans for colonisation."
"Force? What force? All I have seen is a few pissed off and bored marines. There's nothing new there."
They carried on across the open plain towards the remains of the city ahead. It was a bizarre experience. Taylor almost felt as if was in a dream. It was almost like Earth, but he knew it wasn't.
"Sir?"
"Go on, Watkins."
"Well, Sir, it's like this. The aliens came to Earth because they wanted our planet, right?"
"Yeah, so I'm told."
"But this one seems pretty good to me. Why did they fight us for ours when they could have had this one, no trouble?"
Taylor grimaced. It made him think of all kinds of possibilities in his head, and none of them were good.
"Jafar, you said your people call this death space, or whatever. You want to shed some light on that? It could well explain the Private’s concerns."
"All that I know have told you. The Krys know that those who venture here do not return."
"The implication that something dwells here that doesn't like you too much?"
"Yes."
"And you thought that being human we'd just be okay?" Watkins asked.
"It was a logical gamble, as you say."
Watkins suddenly tripped and stumbled, dropping the barrel of the pig as he tumbled rather ungraciously into the dirt.
"What the hell?" he asked.
He got up and went back to the gun. He noticed something metallic sticking out from the ground that he had kicked and scraped. Taylor had seen it, too, as the sun glinted off the surface it had revealed.
"Well that's not natural."
Watkins knelt down beside it and scraped away the sand and dirt off it as the others looked on. He stopped when he revealed the shape of a metallic hand and forearm.
"Krys..." said Taylor.
Several of them were spooked and looked around half expecting trouble to come their way, but nothing happened. Jafar knelt down, got a hold of the object, and pulled it out from the ground. It was just the gauntlet and forearm from Mech armour. There was no sign of living remains inside. Jafar looked at it curiously and with suspicion.
"What is it?" Taylor asked.
"This armour, it is Krys, but old, and maybe five hundred of your years. I have only seen such armours used for the guards of honour to the Lords of Worlds."
"How long do you think it's been here?"
"Some time at least."
"What does that mean?"
"Right now, Watkins, it means shit," replied Taylor.
He looked to Jafar.
"You've really told us everything you know of this place?"
"Until now I did not know of the existence of this planet."
That was enough for Taylor. He carried on and followed what loosely resembled a road into the city. The surface had long been covered over with sand and dirt and not a single wall over a metre tall still stood.
"What do you think happened here?"
"I'd say someone went all out and flattened it, Parker."
It made sense, but it was just a guess. They paced through the ruins, looking for a sign of anything. Something that might tell them who and what lived there, and what had caused their destruction. Taylor suddenly noticed a small buzzing noise behind him. He turned to see a tiny flying object, not more than a couple of centimetres wide floating before him. It glinted in the sun and appeared to be mechanical. There was distortion all around it by what appeared to be the motion of wings or fans.
"What the hell is that?" Parker asked, raising her rifle at the ready.
It floated right in front of Taylor as if it were studying him.
"Is that...a machine?"
"Looks like it, Parker. Nobody move. Whatever it is, we give it no reason to react."
"Come on, Colonel, it's a f*cking insect!" Abbot laughed.
"We don't know what it is or isn't, but it is certainly curious about us. My guess is it's some kind of drone."
"So someone is controlling it?" Parker asked.
It turned away from Taylor and flew around the group, as if checking and logging every one of them.
"Maybe, or at least someone monitoring whatever it sees."
"What do we do?"
"Nothing until we have reason to do so, Parker."
Finally, the bug-like object reached Jafar and stopped dead. Something opened and rose from the centre of its body.
"Not good," said Taylor.
It flashed on top and something suddenly darted towards Jafar. He raised his shield just in time as the little dart of light struck and exploded in a flash. It took a chunk out of the metal.
"Bloody hell!" Abbot hollered.
Three more shots zoomed towards Jafar, and he held his shield up so they impacted on the surface. He rushed forwards and swung his Assegai to strike it, but the nimble little thing darted out of the way and fired two more shots. One struck his shield and the other the chest plate of his armour, burning a few millimetres in. It banked around trying to strike his back when Taylor slammed in a web round magazine and fired at it. The drone was engulfed by the web and dropped down to the ground. Jafar rushed up to it and raised his leg to stamp on it.
"No! Wait!" Taylor yelled.
It was too late. Jafar's foot landed square on and crushed the drone flat to the surface. He stepped back so that Taylor could take a closer look, but Taylor was more concerned with what was coming next.
"Spread out! Take up positions!"
They all looked confused but did as ordered.
"Whatever that was, your face pissed it off!" Taylor shouted at Jafar.
"You think there are more of them?"
Taylor looked at Parker. "I think that was just an observation drone, and whoever owns it ain't gonna be too happy we just crushed their toy!"
The ground around them began groaning as if they were about to experience an earthquake, but to their surprise the ground twenty metres away began to open. But it did not split as if being torn apart. It opened in a clean fashion similar to a door.
"What have you done?" Taylor asked.
From the hole a huge metal robotic looking monster arose on an escalator until it was level with the surface. It stood three metres tall and glistened in the sun. And yet it looked nothing like Krys technology. There were few harsh lines to the armour or crude components. It looked as though crafted by an aerospace engineer. It was humanoid in shape, but with a head recessed and small in scale compared to the body.
"What on earth is that?"
"I don't know, Eli, but I'm guessing it's not friendly," said Taylor.
Lights on its head and at several points in its body lit up, and it panned around as if scanning the area. It stopped when it pinpointed Jafar, just as the little drone had. It raised its right arm and what looked like an underslung weapon built into its arm flashed. Jafar leapt quickly out of the way as the impact landed where he had stood, blowing a metre-wide crater in the ground.
"Open fire!" Taylor ordered.
He took aim and held the trigger down. His shots strafed the body of the robot but barely scratched the surface. He looked back to Jafar who was doing the same.
"Run!"
Jafar leapt into a full sprint as another explosion burst out behind him. Taylor looked to Abbot and shouted, "Get that gun firing!"
But he could see they were already rushing to get it mounted on the tripod.
As Jafar ran, the robot raised the other arm and fired with both weapons. Explosions ignited all around him, one finally striking his shield, and Jafar disappeared into a ball of light and dust. His shield had disintegrated but managed to save him. He was flat on the ground and clearly stunned. Taylor could see he was struggling to get up. He took his shield off his arm and launched it with both his hands. It flew through the air with immense speed and struck the head of the robot so hard, it caused it to stumble back a step and its shot missed Jafar by several metres.
Taylor immediately leapt into a sprint towards the robot, and it now fired on him. The shots missed him by a fraction. He jumped and used his boosters to launch himself up into the air and land atop the huge metal beast. He got a good hold onto the side of its shoulder armour and drew out his Assegai, plunging it down into the head. He stabbed it three times, but it reached up and grabbed him with an iron grip and threw him off.
He flew through the air, and his boosters had no time to break his fall. He landed hard and tumbled over several times before coming to a stop. He got up in time to see the robot take aim at Jafar once again as he was trying to get to his feet.
"Hey!" Taylor shouted.
The creature turned its face enough to look at him without moving its guns.
"Fire!" Taylor ordered.
The two 50CMGs opened fire on full auto, and the heavy rounds smashed into the creature, knocking it back as if it were being punched by something its own size. Holes were ripped into its armour, and then a single shot went right through the head. It went limp, collapsing to the ground.
Nobody said a word for a moment as they tried to take it all in. It was Abbot who finally spoke.
"Got you, you mother f*cker! Woohoo!"
But as he said it, the ground rumbled, and two more hatches opened. Robots like the first one rose up from the ground. Taylor staggered over to Jafar and helped him to his feet before standing ready with their Assegais.
"Well, this isn't good."
They waited for the robots to make the first move, but they did nothing. It was a standoff for ten seconds, and Parker whispered, "What are they waiting for?" They felt a smaller rumble in the ground that they could only imagine were more of the same giant robots coming to kill them. Instead, the ground a few metres from Taylor seemed to collapse in an organised manner and formed a stairway down beneath the surface.
"This city isn't dead," Taylor said, "Only question is, what the hell lives here?"
They waited anxiously, but did not take their hands off their weapons.
"We can't survive against many more of those things, Mitch," Parker said quietly.
"I know."
Three figures appeared from the stairway. They were as tall as Jafar but slighter built. They wore body-hugging clothing like the Mechs did beneath their armour. But this clothing seemed to be augmented with ultrafine plating and appeared as if armour that was skin fitting. Their heads were uncovered, their skin black as coal. Despite this, their facial characteristics had more in common with humans than Krys, except for flatter skulls and a much more defined and strong jawline. They seemed both terrifying, and highly intelligent and advanced at the same time.
"Who the f*ck are you?" Abbot asked.
"Shhh," said Taylor, as Parker shook her head at him.
The creature at the centre finally spoke.
"This world is ours, and no other may lay claim to it. You may leave unharmed, but not that," the creature said, pointing at Jafar.
"We don't mean you any harm!" Taylor shouted.
"Then leave peacefully."
"I won't leave without my friend."
"Friend?" the creature asked in an inquisitive voice.
It seemed more surprised than anything else. It went silent as it looked at the two of them and thought.
"You stand beside them? Then you are our enemy, and you must suffer the same fate for stepping foot on this world!"
The robots’ weapon systems began to power up, and visors arose out of the aliens’ armours that encapsulated their faces so that they were now fully contained. Lights flashed on their forearms, and semi-translucent shields projected from a device on each of their left arms. Gun systems much like the robots used unfolded from their armour, and they took aim.
Oh, shit, thought Taylor.
He dropped the web round magazine from his rifle and slammed in a fresh regular one. He reached down for his shield and took up a stance ready to fight them, but he knew they were in deep trouble. As they were about to fire, they heard an almost deafening roar overhead as a gateway opened within the atmosphere, and a Krys vessel appeared before them.
The three aliens looked up in amazement just as they did. The ship was coming down almost right on top of them. As it did, hundreds of Mechs leapt out as its descent slowed and came down to land as Taylor's people did using assisted boosters. They landed around their position and had them completely surrounded. The aliens before them looked to Taylor as if he were the cause of it.
"You see those things? Those are my enemy!"
The creatures looked confused.
“Those are the reason we are here! We have been fighting them for years now, and we just lost our world to them!”
“But you fight alongside one?”
“He’s a one in a million. They’ve come here to make us extinct. They are not our allies!”
He holstered his Assegai and picked up his rifle. The rest of his unit opened fire at the incoming troops.
“Kill them all!” he screamed.