The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell (144 page)

  The three of them stood there incapable of moving. Although they were in harm’s way from falling wreckage, they just couldn’t bulge. They had to watch the action. And then they saw a transport land and offload the Renegades. They were completely flabbergasted at the sight especially noticing that the Renegades noticed them. (A Demon X actually gave them a thumbs up as it ran by.) And then another transport came and landed nearby and standing in it’s doorway was Ramirez.

  “I heard that you guys ordered a pizza.” Ramirez responded with a smile. As the rest of Task Force ZH-3C came out Ramirez motioned for Taylor, Nakada and Coté to come on board and get their slice of a pepperoni pizza.

  “Oh my god this is just so delicious. Thank you sir.” Coté mentioned.

  “Where’s the captain?” Ellis asked.

  “She’s tracking a Golem that headed in a south-by-southeast direction.” Nakada responded.

  “Look like the other captains were right. It’s headed off to the base data center.” Wexler mentioned. Shrapnel struck him in the back but did no damage because of his suit.

  “What do you mean ‘the other captains’? What happen to Captain Maxwell?” Taylor asked.

  “The other ships from RTF Group Tactical SC-15 came back to start trouble because of the Founder. Dark Phoenix was near destroyed in the ensuing battle. Thank god that Captain Maxwell was onboard because he saved the day. But they had to leave given the damage to the ship. Three of the captains from the Group Tactical came down to join us.” Ramirez responded.

  “Hey, let’s get outta of here and go get the captain.” Ellis mentioned. The action was getting a little too intense for his liking.

  “That goddamn mother fucker! Get him off my ass!” Wexler cried out as he was shooting at one of the Golem protectors (He was manning the 50-cal plasma gun in the APC.)

  “This is Captain Red. I got him.”

  Wexler watched as Captain Red’s crippled helicopter gunship crashed into the protector. Destroying the protector and killing Captain Red. (Technically it didn’t kill him but he chose death over finding some helpless victim like Captain Dawson would have.)

  “Blast the door open to the facility! We got to get inside!” Ellis shouted out.

  They then had to stop when a small group of protectors got in front of them and the opening. Before anyone could act five Demon Xs jumped out of a helicopter gunship and started to attack the Golem’s protectors. One of the Golem protectors then took to flight in an effort to take out the gunship. But a Demon X jumped upon it’s wing and the protector felled down crippling it and nearly killing the Demon X. The fight lasted for eight to ten minutes and the pilot, seeing that the Demon Xs were killed, made a suicidal plunge into the protectors destroying or seriously damaging the rest. Jaguar 42R who was in the APC with Ellis, finished off any protectors that was left. After that they were able to enter the facility.

  “Keep driving!” Ramirez shouted out.

  It was dark within the corridors. Each hard turn caused the APC to smack hard against anything in the corridors. Off and on Wexler had to shoot at the protectors who was coming from everywhere. At one point they could hear (and feel) the Golem coming for them. Because they were in a heavy APC which had extra guns, both the team and the protectors were tearing up the facility.

  “Head to the right! Be careful because of a two thousand foot drop!” Ramirez shouted.

  The Golem came right through a wall in front of them, lost it’s balance, and started to fall over the chasm. Both Wexler and Jaguar 42R then shot the Golem causing it to fall down the chasm. As luck would have it, the Golem didn’t destroy the railing that the APCs were on. The protectors then headed down the chasm to assist the Golem.

  “Stop! I just got the captain’s signal!” Ramirez shouted out. He then jumped out to track down his captain and his friend. He’d quickly caught up to her gave her a new helmet and both of them quickly headed back to the APCs.

  “Oh dear god we finally made it.” Coté responded with a sigh.

  “Jesus, this place is huge.” Ellis mentioned.

  “So now what?” Wexler asked.

  “I finally figured out what to do with Kronos. Given what the captain said about the Golems if we could encrypt the data that they are after using Kronos, combined with Sayaka’s virus, the Golems in due time, should theoretically figure out that Kronos is the bigger threat and go after it’s source. And thus the upper echelons of the EOD becomes the greater threat to the Golem.” Ramirez responded he was somewhat relieved to have finally figured it out.

  “So just how are we supposed to get it off of this world?” Taylor asked.

  “There is all of that space junk in orbit from all of those destroyed ships. Sanders did mentioned that part of a ship landed in the ocean nearby where he went missing.” Ramirez responded.

  “Oh no… you mean that we have to lead that damn thing all the way back there?” Coté asked with a very heavy sigh.

  “I’m afraid so. But once it leaves this world our job is done.” Taylor responded.

  “Okay then, let’s do this. Give it Kronos and then let’s lure it back there.” Vaistll mentioned.

  “And what about Wilcox’s, err, Lenkov’s forces?” Ellis asked her.

  “They got their job to do and we got ours. I’m pretty much certain it’s what Lenkov would want us to do.” Vaistll responded. In a small way she, like them, missed both Lenkov and Omori.

  They waited for quite some time for the Golem to return. They had to show to it that they were still a major threat not to be taken lightly. For some reason it had no protectors with it. They wanted to trick it into running into a booby trap (Normally they wouldn’t have set it given the enormous size of the Golem.) all in an effort to get it to “think” that they are trying to stop it from achieving it’s objective. With a little effort, and the Golem rumbling from what sounded like it is getting upset, combined with them occasionally shooting the computers (creating the impression that they are trying to destroy them which they weren’t), the Golem took the bait and came for them.

(30)

  Captain Brunner was outside the house of the most powerful and the most influential (and the most corrupt) EOD official on Golden Hyperion. Like a mafia boss he was surrounded by, not only other individuals like him, but also a armed gang of hired thugs. It was nighttime when Captain Brunner arrived and already he could tell how it will go down. Like he said from earlier, blood is for spilling and he realized that a lot of it will be spilled. In the distance he could see a police helicopter heading to the house. And he saw a missile take it down. The fire from the down wreckage was setting the forest ablaze but there was nothing that he could do other than inform the fire department. As he got nearer to the house the defenders was trying to snipe anyone who came out of their vehicles. Those snipers was quickly taken down by highly skilled police snipers. And then it happened. A police mobile battling ram was struck by a missile crippling it.

  Fifteen minutes had passed before a tank came and blasted a large hole in the wall. They could see the house in the distance and the armed thugs waiting for them. The tank than fired three shots trying to make the hole in the wall much larger when a missile struck it. It did very little damage but it did took out the left tank tracks. As the car that Captain Brunner was in came nearer a round went through the windshield killing his driver. As the car came to a stop, and as Brunner was getting out, a round went through the door nearly killing him. Without him knowing it, the round struck his side arm damaging the weapon. It took another eighteen minutes before those with the missile launchers were all killed. It was indeed a war zone with the defenders choosing death.

  Twenty-four minutes later Brunner finally made it to the house. His people fought long and hard just trying to flank the front of the house so that they could come in from multiple directions. Twenty-two minutes later both the front and right wing was secured. Brunner on three occasions was almost killed and still he pushed on. Once the police helicopter with the SWAT team members landed on the roof it started to become a real blood bath. In an effort to get around the left wing and rear of the house a APC had to run over any wounded thug who couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. Ten long minutes had passed before the mega mansion was surrounded.

  Fifteen minutes later the police was able to secure the lower levels of the front and left wing. A fire broke out somewhere in the right wing. Spread to cover a large part and was eventually put out by the house fire control system. Because of the speed of the fire, and the length of time it took for the fire control system to turn on it was strongly suspected that it was started intentionally. It also made it harder for the police (because of the smoke) to gain control the right wing.

  Off into the distance behind the rear of the house, there was a large explosion. Brunner was no idiot for he did his research upon the house (Finding anyone with insider information that is.) and knew of a secret exit which as soon as it was discovered he wanted it destroyed. It was at that point, just three minutes later, that the defenders went berserk. For they all knew that they had no way out but death. As Brunner came into the last stronghold within the mansion he tried in vain to pull out his gun only to be killed by one of thugs. Nevertheless, the rest of the thugs was quickly killed off.

  His death had meaning for it told the rest of those EOD crooks that either they must leave that world or they will be next. They all got the message and didn’t care. They will of course stay but the shadow of Brunner will hang over their heads until they too are next. It will take time for the rest to go down. But none will go down without a fight.

Darkness Vanquished

(1)

  The airbase was finally destroyed from the sacrifice of the Renegades. Not one of them survived for all of them was killed. The death of Brunner brought little comfort for the people of that world but at least they did appreciate his courage and his sacrifice. Brunner could not bring any of Lenkov’s forces with him because he knew that they were needed at the laboratory complex and the area immediately surrounding the facility. However, if he did brought them far more people would have gotten killed because, as good as Lenkov’s forces are, they’re not ground forces.

  “Although the factory that was… producing all of… monsters… Hey Bill, do you feel that rumbling? What do you…?” The reporter was saying. She then turned around and saw the Golem in the distance. Her eyes grew wide with dread and fear.

  “The Golem! The Golem is coming!” Some other reporter shouted in both horror and disbelief. It was at that point that the defensive turrets that was sat up starting shooting.

  It was still nighttime and behind the Golem was Ishtar rising. This Golem was understood to have been the factory one. The one who was understood to be capable of producing all sorts of monsters and machines. It was also the one who contained the KEV 74 clone. The apocalypse has now came to this once peaceful world. A thousand foot monstrosity that has no known weaknesses. Not one. What was not known by the people of Golden Hyperion was that practically everyone in the Milky Way galaxy was watching including alien civilizations.

  Everything that everyone had was thrown at the Golem. When something was blasted off the Golem “grabbed” it with it’s nanites and reattach it. EMP bursts were more effective but it would adapt too quickly for the EMP burst to have much of an effect. Everybody could hear it groan and moan through some strange mechanical noise that it would make. And this is despite the sounds of battle just trying to take it down. (As luck would have it the Golem walked slow enough. It appeared that it had trouble in walking.) The scene was just too surreal with air vehicles flying over it dropping explosives. While another air vehicle would drop a EMP bomb upon it. All automatic weapon systems was rigged to blow in case it tried to incorporate it into itself. (But only when the weapon was inside it or attached to it.) Long range artillery (all robotic) would fire non stop.

  “For some godforsaken reason the damn thing just stopped!” A reporter nearly shouted. It was four o’clock in the morning when the Golem finally stopped. But it only stopped for no more than twenty minutes. And then it started to shoot at everyone. But it was not a good shot.

  “The Golem from the airbase had just made it’s debut! We will now try to leave this airspace…” The reporter in the helicopter was saying before the Golem at the airbase shot it down.

  “There are unconfirmed reports that the communicational Golem had just made it’s debut near Lake Russell!” Another reporter, shouting over the noise in the background, mentioned.

  “Are you safe?” The newscaster asked.

  “Come on… let’s get the fuck outta here.” The reporter mentioned to their camera operator forgetting that he is live on TV.

  “We now can confirm that, yes indeed the communicational Golem has made it’s appearance. Also I would like to apologize to the people watching this for me dropping the F-Bomb on our audience. I was just too anxious to get out of there and quite frankly I was scared shi… I was scared out of my mind.” The reporter mentioned.

  “We’re just glad that you are okay. And…” The newscaster was mentioning.

  “Oh my god!” The driver shouted. He then swerved in order to avoid hitting something only to roll the news van over. There was darkness but everyone could still hear the audio. The audio suggested that they were still alive but the camera was damaged.

  “You numnutz get the fuck outta here!” A unknown military voice shouted at the news crew.

  “Oh my god did you see that? He had no left arm.” One of the news crew mentioned.

  “Oh god… I think that I’m going to be sick.” Another news crew mentioned.

  “What’s going on? We can’t see anything here?” The newscaster asked.

  “Not now! It’s headed our way!” The reporter responded.

  There was a loud explosion and everything went silent. It took eight hours before the news room got the confirmation that the news team survived. As strange as it may seem, but apparently the Golem did not like reporters that much. Either that or the news reporters kept on being too close to the action and ending where they shouldn’t.

  “Fucking hell! It’s breaking off pursuit of us!” Viper 33X angrily mentioned.

  “Where is it headed!?” Taylor asked.

  “It looks like it’s heading in the direction of the other Golems!” Wexler mentioned.

  “Fuck! We got to figure out a way to get it to follow us! We got to get it off of this fucking world!” Ramirez nearly shouted.

  “I have an idea.” Jaguar 42R mentioned after five minutes.

  “Go ahead I’m listening.” Vaistll responded.

  “Not too far from here there is an old abandoned airstrip  In one of the hangars is an old somewhat broken down Dominator. I know how to pilot it and Viper can act as my gunner.”

  “’Somewhat broken down’?” Taylor asked.

  “Yes sir. But it won’t take too long to fix it.” Jaguar 42R responded.

  “How long will it take?” Vaistll asked.

  “A few hours tops. That’s the best answer that I can give.”

  “I don’t know. We can really use the two of you.” Vaistll responded.

  “Ma’am… we are running out of options. We are fixing to face mission failure if we can’t get the Golem to follow us.” Ramirez mentioned.

  “Are you sure that you can get it operational?” Vaistll asked.

  “I’m fairly certain that we can.” Jaguar 42R lied to her.

  “Yeah alright. Go ahead. Let them out.” Vaistll responded. She knew that something was wrong but she didn’t know what.

  Roughly twenty minutes after nine o’clock both Jaguar 42R and Viper 33X made it to the airstrip. By fifteen minutes till eleven o’clock they finally got it working. When everyone saw the old Dominator coming and knowing who’s piloting it, it boosted everyone’s morale. The old Dominator classification S18-PN (unlike the newer ones) were as big as either one of the Golems. What’s more it has on board three low yield torpedoes. (Unfortunately they can be fired upwards and outside a planetary body and not downwards towards the ground.)

  The Dominator S18-PN was pounding the airbase Golem relentlessly. (It appeared to have been the weakest.) At one point it could no longer pull itself together. The other Golems tried to protect it but to little avail. Seeing a great opportunity unfolding, the ground forces open the gates of hell on that one Golem. The whole sky appeared to have lighten up with intense artillery bombardment. It lasted for hours before the Golem was finally destroyed. Nobody could believe it, but it was true. At that point the Golems finally took the Dominator so seriously that it started to become obvious that the last three wanted it destroyed. They will follow it wherever it may go.

  “It finally took the bait! And this time let’s hope its for real!” Coté mentioned loudly.

  After fifteen minutes of pursuit it finally became obvious that yes, it did took the bait. What was left of the first fallen Golem received a heavy dose of EMP bursts, and pretty much anything else that they knew would kill those damn nanites. And then it was watched for several hours to make certain that it would never rise again. When the cleanup crew got there all last remaining traces of those nanites was finally removed and destroyed. Although it was not necessary to have performed those actions, no one wanted to take any chances.

  “Those damn things are determined to take us out!” Coté mentioned.

  “Isn’t that what we wanted?” Nakada asked her.

  “It’s a classic chess move. Kill the king.” Wexler added.

  By 20:00 hours they finally made it to where the battle between Ghost Killer and Night Stalker versus Inferno of Terror 154T took place. They stayed there for roughly half an hour being refueled, eating, rearming, and generally taking a break. At 20:50 hours, as they were leaving, the peace and quiet got them to finally hear an emergency beacon from a friendly force, it was coming from a small nearby church. Everybody got out in order to go and investigate. At the altar was the lifeless body of both Ghost Killer and Night Stalker. Both was holding hands and at the podium was a bible that depicted all those who got married in that church. Both of their names where written in it. And written on a piece of paper was the following: “I know that who ever may find this may think of us as monsters. But please understand that we never asked of this fate to be who and what we are in the flesh. We both chose to end our lives in order so that our soul may be set free of this cruel fate.” Laying on top of the piece of paper was a crucifix.

  “Let’s give them a decent burial.” Ellis mentioned with a heavy heart. He was on the verge of tears. Each of them knew that what Ellis was saying was too risky for the Golems was coming. But they all wanted it done. It was the decent thing to do.

  While they were outside burying the bodies of Ghost Killer and Night Stalker they could hear some bird chirping it caused each of them to cry. Despite that, in the distance, they could (if they look up in the direction of their APCs) see the Golems coming.

  “Hold up for one moment.” Wexler mentioned as everyone was getting into their APCs. Nobody said anything even though the Golems was so close that they could hear it.

  “Did it just say what I think that it said?”  Coté asked about the Golems.

  “Kronos! Krrrrooonoooos!” One of the Golems said. In the distance, at a safe distance, the media was buzzing around it. They too heard it. And they were televising it – live! Throughout the galaxy!

  “Come on… let’s go!” Wexler shouted as he got back into his APC. He then gave the bible, the note and the crucifix, to Coté.

  At 22:28 hours they could see Wolf Creek in the distance. Up above they could see the Dominator S18-PN blasting the living hell out of each and every one of those damn Golems. Although they could not use the bridge, their APCs were amphibious. Once they got to the southern part of the Vegas style strip they waited and waited for the Golems to catch up.

  “They’re confused! You guys got too far!” Jaguar 42R mentioned.

  “Fucking hell!” Ramirez shouted out of anger.

  “Alright. Let’s go back and get those dumb motherfuckers.” Vaistll responded.

  It was easy for anybody to spot any one of those Golems. All the people of Wolf Creek had to do is to look to the south and spot the glowing sky. It seemed as if the Golems were constantly glowing from the bombardments. As soon as Task Force ZH-3C got back across the river, reinforcements finally got there and was crossing with them.

  Everybody stood their ground trying to protect as many people as they could. It was getting harder to damage any one of the Golems. With each of the Golems being a such poor shot their rounds would go everywhere. The destruction to property, and to life, was growing wildly out of control. Vaistll then got the call that she was dreading.

  “Hey ma’am.” Jaguar 42R was saying.

  “Go ahead.” Vaistll responded.

  “Do you really think that it is wise to let these damn things off of this world?”

  “Well we don’t have much of a choice, now do we?”

  “So what about the lost of life outside this world?”

  “It would be the upper echelons of the EOD.”

  “Not necessarily.”

  “Explain.”

  “Look at this world for instance. How many could have been considered ‘the upper echelons of the EOD’ as opposed to the rest?”

  “I don’t like the way in which this conversion is going.”

  “Why not? Does it have something to do with me and Viper being the reincarnation of a Vikyyard? For if that is the case then for the good of the people you should let us go.”

  “What are you two… suicidal!?” Vaistll almost shouted.

  “Ma’am like you, we are just trying to do our job and keep people alive. Even if it means our death.” Jaguar 42R responded.

  “I can’t allow it.” Vaistll said almost under her breath.

  “Ma’am, you don’t have much of a choice. Over and out.” Jaguar 42R responded.

  “Jaguar!? Viper!? Respond!” Vaistll called out. All she got was the code that said that both of them disconnected the helmet-com from the communicational system. It brought her to tears and she sent a message to them saying that she’ll miss them.

  At 23:10 hours the most intense part of the battle began as everyone was trying to stop the Golems from crossing the river into Wolf Creek. Although they were forbidden, the civilians came out to help saying that it was their town and that they will defend it. Eleven minutes into the battle each one of the APCs that Task Force ZH-3C was in was badly damaged. They then struggled to get back across the river. Vaistll at one point (after she just crossed the river) look up and was watching the Dominator S18-PN with the hope that they will not sacrifice themselves. But she also didn’t want to dishonor their memory nor their sacrifice should they do that.