Temple of S.A.R.A.H. 5: Debug Mode (6 page)

“We really need to be careful up here. It would be far too easy for someone to wander off and get lost. At least its summer time and we don’t have to worry about how cold it gets up here,” the Captain outlined. “The Marines will be dropping further into the interior, but we don’t know exactly where these aliens are going to come down yet. Intel says they’ll hit the ground first though.”

“What are our rules of engagement?” the First Sergeant asked. “Do I need to make sure I have space for prisoners?”

The Officer nodded. “Yes, in fact we have been ordered to take as many prisoners as we can, as well as capture as much of their equipment as we can. However, you won’t have to hold any for long; the Sergeant Major will be setting up a more permanent facility in the village to handle anyone we capture.”

The First Sergeant nodded. “Like I didn’t see that one coming! When can we expect the spooks to arrive?”

John laughed. “You’re too young to be so cynical, Bill!”

The older man just snorted. “Yeah, so when do they get here?”

“They’ll arrive once we have the town secured, like normal.”

The men had to stop talking then as soldiers arrived to tear down the tent and get all the gear loaded.

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W
ilderness Area

Northwest Territories

Canada

Planet Earth

Sol System

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“O
kay kids, we’re going in. This area is swampy and about half water. Be sure to use your jump packs to keep from getting bogged down. IFF modules are to be used at all times. We don’t want anyone wandering off and killing all the Aracs by themselves!” He’rsree said.

Shortly after her people responded to her order, the hatches opened and dropped the Marines into the open air high above the surface. She felt her pulse quicken as it always did during a combat drop.

“All units be advised, there are slow moving aircraft heading our direction. We have them listed as cargo craft most likely carrying troops and equipment. Several atmospheric fighter craft have also been dispatched, but will not arrive in our areas until well after we are on the ground. Terran troops will arrive during our landing. We do not know what their orders are so it might get messy for a little while. Sort it out as quickly as you can and remember, we are not to hurt any of the Terran soldiers,” the Colonel passed along on the battalion channel.

As they fell through the thick atmosphere of the planet, He’rsree watched her speed and altimeter. Her speed stabilized at just over two hundred klicks but shortly after that the gravity engine in the suit kicked on to begin slowing her down for impact. Normally, she would hit at just over fifty klicks, but since the ground below her was soft, the suit would slow her considerably further in an attempt to keep from getting bogged down in mud.

At one klick from the surface, AI Honor told her she was launching one of the scout drones He’rsree was carrying. She watched the little ball shoot away from her and arc down toward the surface under its own power.

Impact.

The grav engines had to have slowed them down a lot more than normal since she hardly felt the touchdown at all. From the chatter on her unit command channel, she knew that a good share of her troopers had landed in water, and two had become mired in the more shallow areas.

“Use your damn grav engine to blast out of there! What? Are you a newbie or something?” He’rsree called. “Quit yer bitchin’ and get moving!” She switched channels to Command. “Vulpas on the ground, moving.”

Not expecting a reply she was about to switch back to her own command channel when the Colonel spoke to her. “Vulpas, be advised. You’re going to have Terran company. The shuttles are circling around and will be down once they finish their scan of the area. Until then, try to ignore them.”

“Understood, we had a lot of wet landings, Colonel. If the Terrans have the same issue, they could lose some people. Do you want us to assist?”

“Only if you can do so safely Vulpas. If it looks like they have it under control, leave them to it, but don’t pass up someone in real need,” the Simonian replied. “Mired in a swamp is no place for a Marine to die.”

“Will do and thanks Command. Switching back to unit channel to issue the order. Vulpas out.” He’rsree replied and switched channels to relay the orders.

It turned out to be a good policy. Several of the Terran Marines had indeed landed in the water and quickly became stuck. Although, in most cases, their comrades did come to assist, in several instances Alliance Marines had to assist their Terran brothers.

In one case, the Marine had been pulled under water and was drowning. Although there was already two Terran Marines there, they could do little to help. Using their gravity drives and sealed suits, two Alliance Marines quickly moved out over the water and dropped in.

One of the Marines gave the drowning man their auxiliary oxygen feed while she began working disconnecting the man’s chute. The other Marine began working getting his legs free from the muck, but was having little success.

Once the Terran Marine realized just who had come to help him, he started to panic, but quickly relaxed when he saw that these ‘aliens’ were helping him. Once he calmed down, the two Marines grabbed hold of him as gently as they could and slowly pulled him out of the mud on the bottom of the small pond he had landed in.

They got him freed and while one of the Alliance Marines took him to the surface and over to his friends, the other gathered up the gear he had dropped, including the now useless parachute and brought all of it to the shore as well.

As the Alliance Marines touched down on the shore of the pond with their burden, the two Terran Marines pointed their weapons at them. “I don’t know if you can understand me Alien, but you are under arrest. You are ordered to return with us to our camp for interrogation.”

The woman looked at the Marine who spoke. She replied in clear, flawless English. “No, we’re not Corporal. We have a job to do out here and we really don’t have time to play with you guys.”

“What did you do to Meyers?” the other Terran Marine asked.

“They pulled my ass out of the mud and kept me from drowning, that’s what they did to me! Jesus Samuels, are you fuckin’ blind or something?” the man they saved replied.

“You were down there longer than you could have held your breath Meyers. You should be dead. So I ask again, what did the two of you do to him?” the second Marine asked without lowering his rifle.

“I gave him my secondary air. What’s the big deal? Look, private, this suit is sealed and has its own atmosphere controls so we can use them in space.” She pulled the auxiliary line out again so the two Terrans could see it. “If one of our guys gets damaged, we have to be able to render assistance.”

“So, why did you help Meyers anyway? You have to know we are here to arrest all of you, and failing that, kill you,” the Corporal replied.

The woman just nodded her head. “Yeah, we had a pretty good idea what your orders would be in regards to us. Because of our technology, you can’t hurt us, but we also know you have to try. We don’t want to see any of you hurt, so we’ve been ordered to assist you if we find you in trouble from the landing. Once you guys are all safe, we’ll be on our way.”

“Look, uh, what do I call you anyway? Do you have a name?” the corporal asked.

The woman grinned. “Sergeant Bethany Bennet, Alliance Marines, this is what you would call my ‘battle buddy’ Private J’Cars Hedreans. The Private doesn’t speak English so he’s letting me do the talking since I’m from here.”

“From here, you mean Earth?” the private asked.

Bethany nodded. “Born and raised in Minot, North Dakota. But not all of my fellow Marines are from Earth, nor are they all human, but we all do have the same job; to protect this planet.”

“Put yer gun down Jacobs,” the corporal said. “We can’t shoot them for rescuing Meyers!”

“But we can’t let them go either, can we?” Meyers asked as he gathered up his gear. “Fuck, even my spare clothes are soaked!”

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The corporal didn’t get a chance to introduce himself before someone obviously called him on the radio. He smiled sadly at the sergeant as he put a hand to his ear and turned away slightly. “Yes Sir!”

“Corporal Marcelli, I see you have two of the aliens in custody! Good work! We’re sending reinforcements to your position before the rest of the aliens can move in to rescue them,” his company command said.

“They are not in custody, Sir. They came swooping in from nowhere and rescued Private Meyers from drowning Sir. We were just about to get into the water to try to get him, but we knew we couldn’t get there in time. Before we could even drop our gear, these two ‘uh’, Aliens, show up and rescue him. We were just attempting to take them into custody Sir, but it sure is a hell of a way to thank them,” the corporal replied.

“I can understand your feelings on this son, but orders are orders. Arrest them and get them back here. Look, we’re only a couple hundred meters away, just keep them there until we can surround them,” the officer ordered.

“Understood, Sir. But just so you know, one of them isn’t an Alien at all; I have a Sergeant Bethany Bennet, from Minot, North Dakota. She tells me that the other man is from another planet though.”

“She came from space, she’s an E.T. Marcelli, don’t forget that. Besides, she could easily be lying. Just keep them there. Command out.”

“Sorry about that Sergeant, Command wanted to know what we’re doing out here. I’m Corporal Marcelli by the way, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Marcelli said offering the woman his hand.

Bethany nodded. “I know; I monitored the frequency you used. It’s nice to meet you as well, but we won’t be here when your company commander gets here. Just remember a couple of things, Marcelli; we have no need to fight back, especially since we are not here to take over or fight you. You all saw that fight in space the other day? Well, there are at least two sides to every fight, unless your commanders think we were fighting ourselves? We’re down here to protect the planet from something far worse than your leaders can even understand.” Bethany said as she nodded to the other Alliance Marine to get moving.

“Wait, what is it your down here to fight then?” Marcelli asked.

“Spiders, Corporal. Really big, really smart spiders. Semper Fi Marines,” Bethany said as she and her partner seemed to float away into the woods.

Nudging his two fellow Marines, all three of them pointed their rifles into the air over where the Alliance Marines had gone and fired several times, making it look like that were trying to stop the ‘E.T.s’ from leaving.

“Command, Marcelli, the E.T.s escaped Sir. They moved off to the northeast,
really
damn fast!” the corporal reported.

“We saw that, thanks Corporal! We’re shifting our advance in that direction,” the captain replied.

“We’re going to make sure Meyers gets back to the medic and we’ll be right behind you,” Marcelli reported.

“Understood and good work, Marcelli. There are three other teams making for the command area. Wait for them and bring them out. You’ll have command.”

“Will do, Sir.” Marcelli said and grinned at his two friends. “You heard the man, gents! Let’s go.”

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T
emp. Command Post

Alliance Marines

Northwest Territories

Canada

Planet Earth

Sol System

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S
everal incidents of his Marines rescuing Terran Marines were reported and handled very well. In none of the interactions was anyone hurt and although there had been injuries, several Terran lives had been saved. The big Simonian colonel looked down on the large holographic battle board so he could see the operational theater. So far, everything was going to plan, now if they could just find the thrice-cursed hive entrance before a Terran Marine tripped over it!

“AI Honor, this is Colonel Cren’lith.” He called.

“What can I do for you, Colonel?” the AI replied.

“A query only; has the area now occupied by the Terran troops been checked yet?”

“Negative Colonel. My search routines have been focusing on the area between your current position and the landing site of the seeding pod,” the AI replied. “It was believed that the highest probability of success rested in this area. Do you now disagree with this?”

“Call me paranoid, but if the Arac hive is in the Terran Area, it will be for them as though dinner has been served. Can we spare a drone to quickly check these two areas?”

“Your request is not unreasonable, Colonel. Drones reallocated. Launching. Requested scans may take longer than anticipated Colonel, there are considerable wildlife dens and small burrows in this area. A good portion have been filled in with water,” Honor replied.

“That might not necessarily preclude it from being a hive, AI Honor. The Aracs cannot breathe under water, but they do not fear it either. Properly constructed, such an entrance would be well camouflaged,” Cren’lith replied.

“Your suggestion has merit, Colonel. However, several cannot be rechecked at this time, they are simply too far away. They can be rechecked when the probe returns,” the AI explained.

“Understood. I would request that the probe schematic be loaded into our field replicators in the future so we may create more if the need presents itself,” Cren’lith said.

“Request noted in mission logs for later review, Thank you Colonel,” Honor said closing the channel.

“If the hive has not been located by nightfall, please have the shuttles placed in defensive array Beta Four, I want all investigation teams returned by seventeen hundred local,” Cren’lith said addressing his aide.

Noticing one of his combat teams moving directly towards the far Terran encampment near the village. He put one thick finger on the icon and the table increased magnification. “Captain He’rsree…” he said quietly.” I have a bad feeling about them.”

“Sir?” his aide asked.

The big Gorilla sighed deeply. “Nothing Lieutenant, just an old soldier letting his fear whisper lies into his ears.” He tapped the screen icon and it zoomed back out to the full area. “Who do we have on standby?”