The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell (45 page)

“I’ll tell you what we are going to do.” Vaistll said.

She turned and look at Captain Henderson and said the following. “Get your ship repaired. Defend this star system. And ask Admiral Kirkpatrick for assistance. And send a coded communiqué to the CCO informing them of what happened. Also tell them of my and Mad Dawg’s decision.”

She turned and look at Mad Dawg and said the following. “I don’t know about you. But I’m looking for some payback. Let the EOD know who they are dealing with. Let’s go to Golden Hyperion and kick some EOD ass.”

Mad Dawg nodded his head in agreement and said. “Alright. Let’s go.”

“I’m going to ask you again later when you are sober.” Vaistll told him.

“That won’t be necessary.”

With that the three of them left to inform their crew. When Vaistll informed her crew, if any of them wanted to go home they didn’t show it. When she finished telling them both her, and Mad Dawg’s actions, they quietly accepted the fact that they will be going to Golden Hyperion.

Parker’s treason changed the outcome of that day. If it wasn’t for his treason, it is possible that Task Force ZH-3C would be facing a mutiny. If they mutiny, then everything would have went downhill and the mission to Golden Hyperion would have been scrapped. Even if they didn’t mutiny, they probably would have been sent home anyway.

Wherever the human race is (minus the EOD), part of the military is being recalled back to the Earth to provide assistance. Only those on the front lines, with the Necro-Mystics staring at them, are the exception. Parker’s treason and all that he did on that week, save the day by causing two Captains to make the decision to fight evil than to run from it.

(15)

Mynik’ny’nuta and Parker woke up in each other arms. It was her way of controlling him. She knew he had no value to the EOD and she knew that is something that he could never accept. Value comes from within, not in what you have. Yes she could kill him. But there was something inside of her (it’s the symbiote, but she won’t admit it) that couldn’t do it. She didn’t know what she wanted. She was being subconsciously controlled by the symbiote. Like Parker the symbiote didn’t like the Vegas star system. And like Parker it wanted to get away from that star system.

Both her and the symbiote strongly believe that the symbiote within La’jyn’eu controlled him. But it didn’t. Whether it had a soul or not, it no longer matter. What it was to La’jyn’eu was nothing more than a body part. It becomes something that could be kept, or removed like a cancer cell. But that is something that neither Mynik’ny’nuta, nor her symbiote wanted to believe.

They got a call from a Mafioso who wanted to check to see if they are there. The Mafioso mentioned that they were about five minutes away. Mynik’ny’nuta sat up and started to jerk off Parker. She then stop after he became hard enough.

“Before we meet again… you will learn what your value is to the EOD. Do not fear… for we will meet again. Then I will be able to finish that. So hold it for me.” She said to Parker.

She then got up, put on her nano-suit and went into the living room. She heard a knock at the door and she answer it.

“Who are you?” The Mafioso asked.

“Little John sent me to give Parker a good time. Parker is in the bedroom getting ready. Little John mentioned that his favorite statue has a key in it. He said that he wanted someone to take the key and go to One World Union Bank, ask to speak to Susan Baruch and asked to see the safety deposit box with the number V-212. In it, there is information on why Little John has to leave.”

“Do you know when he will be back?”

“I have no idea. He never mentioned it. I’m just the messenger and one who gives pleasure. Well I love to stay and chitchat but I have to go.”

Mynik’ny’nuta left and headed over to the ferry that went to Roscadia. The Mafioso went inside the hut and got Parker and then the two of them left. Parker kept on thinking about what Mynik’ny’nuta told him about why she can’t go with him. Things just didn’t add up and it confused him. It gave him doubts on her. But he didn’t have time to think. The Mafioso gave him something else to think long and hard about. Not by talking to him, but by turning on the radio. Parker heard over the radio that he has been killed. He stop thinking about her and started to think about his new life.

While Parker was on a ship that was taking him to an EOD base (not Golden Hyperion), he finally realized that she lied to him. When he got there, feeling deeply hurt and betrayed by her, he told the EOD recruiter everything he knew about the hive and her. Like Project 21, the EOD would create a special order that dealt with any contingency on running across her or the hive.

When Mynik’ny’nuta got back to Roscadia she went directly to Starbase 231. As soon as she got there she acquired a maintenance spacesuit. After she put it on (luckily for her, spacesuits can readjust for taller/shorter people) she access a computer console. She was looking for a ship that was leaving within the hour. She found a freighter with a crew of 139. She then ghost hacked the computer.

“You’re not the only one who can ghost hack a computer Double Shock. Whereas your skills are average… mine are advanced expert.” She said in a voice that was different.

She went to the nearest airlock to the freighter, went outside and headed over to the freighter. She then started to talk in the symbiote voice with those dark yellow eyes.

“It’s time for Mynik’ny’nuta Ydxx’od’omaa to sleep. But do not worry my little ones… mamma is coming. Mamma is coming to… free you from your wretched disease. Your wretched disease called… free will and pride. No more pain. No more greed. No more suffering my little ones. Mamma will take the pain away. Always remember my little ones… mothers are gods… in the eyes of their children.”

(16)

Vaistll was sitting in the conference room on Galactic Prime. She just finished with her message to her family. Before she sent it to them in Roscadia, she sat back in her chair and prayed that she will return. After she sent it, she look at the crew manifest of her team to see if all of them were on board – they were. Ramirez asked for permission to say his goodbye (in person) to Maria Sadowayj and Vaistll gave it. Sanchez and Caparzo arrived at the same time on the same shuttlecraft. Commander Taylor was the last to arrive. He was making sure that everybody makes it on board. They all knew one thing: as soon as the ship is repaired, they will be on their way to Golden Hyperion.

Vaistll order up something to eat. Seven minutes after she got her food, a Ensign came in and told her that they were ready to leave. She nodded her head in response. With that, they were now on their way to Golden Hyperion, and they were going there blinded. Without the debriefing by either Commodore Parker or Admiral Lowenthal, valuable intelligence on the moon is lost. They could send a request to the CCO headquarters, but it would be a fourteen month round trip. Everything that occurred on that Wednesday and Thursday told them that the mission couldn’t wait that long. They have to go and they have to go now.

Getting Ready To Roll

(1)

Saturday, both the crew of Galactic Prime, and Task Force ZH-3C, was trying to readjust to life on a starship. For the crew of Galactic Prime they are, and they are not, use to it. It’s hard for anyone to live on a any starship (except for luxury liners). No view no windows. If there were windows on a starship, than the only view would be stars and nobody really wants to see that. On some starships officers get the luxury of a video window. Galactic Prime is one such ship. For the crew – nothing.

If the view wasn’t bad enough, the calendar is just as equally as bad if not far worse. Starships have their own calendars, which are different than that of any particular moon and/or planet. Mars is a prime example. Mars’ year is two Earth years long. So how many months should it has? How many days in a month should there be? You can’t go by a Earth year on Mars. If you did, than your current date and time will be wrong. Martian year: 687 days long. Too long to be an Earth year, too short (by 43 days) to be two Earth years long. And as for the time? A Martian day is half-a-hour longer than a Earth day. So what would be consider a simple, practical solution? You got it. Don’t go by a Earth day and time. Which means it allows everyone to come up with their own calendar and clock. At least with starships they have only one type of a calendar and clock: exactly 24 hours per day, 35 days (five weeks) per month, and 12 months to a year. Total number of days per year: 420.

Yes it is Saturday, but only by the Vegas star system standard. When Task Force ZH-3C’s mission starts on 17
October it is by Starship DTS (DTS - Date/Time Standard). But they left Roscadia on 23 August, Vegas DTS. But Golden Hyperion is three weeks away. What all of that means to Galactic Prime is that the crew’s biological clock is running on Starship DTS, while Task Force ZH-3C is not. What the crew of Galactic Prime calls the afternoon, Task Force ZH-3C calls 11 hours later. But that’s not the worse of it. Task Force ZH-3C ‘s members who are below the rank of Lieutenant (which there are thirty of them) are stationed in the crew quarters – dubbed the barracks by the Marines. The crew quarters are divided into sectors, and Task Force ZH-3C is surrounded (not literately) by Marines. The total number of Marines on Galactic Prime is 3,535. So how many is in the barracks? Too many by those Task Force members who are stationed there.

With some of the Marines having a chip on their shoulders for their buddies dying on that EOD ship, combine with them getting on the nerves of those Task Force members stationed in the barracks, it is a recipe for disaster. Both Mad Dawg and Vaistll will be severely tested by their personnel. In time they will get to Golden Hyperion. But until they do, someone is going to have to defuse both sides before it explode and jeopardize the mission.

(2)

“Why in the fuck are you guys one hour fuckin’ late?” Ramirez asked some of his teammates.

“Sir…” Master Chief Petty Officer Kim (Chinese) said.

“I expected more from you Master Chief.” Ramirez said.

“We’re sorry sir. It’s just that we couldn’t sleep because those Dog Pukes was keeping us awake with their music.” Kim said.

“Sir we asked them to turn it down, but they wouldn’t listen.” Crewman Sanders (who’s black) said.

Ramirez put his left hand over his face. They could see that he was under a lot of stress.

“Understood. I’m going to have to talk to them. But each one of you NEED to make up for lost time with your training. Get it done.” Ramirez mentioned. As Ramirez left they started to grumble. Both Kim and Crewman First Class Weng (Chinese) said something in Chinese.

Ramirez left and headed down to the barracks. He’s been on Galactic Prime for a few days and it seems almost like a daily ritual with him. The behavior of the Marines is disrupting the training of his teammates, and he has to discipline them for it. The stress of the past few days of doing that has finally caught up to him.

  “Private Esterline. I should have known. You always seem to have a bad habit of irritating my people. And I’m getting sick and tired of it.” Ramirez said.

  Ramirez is right. Private Esterline is either getting on the nerves of Ramirez’s teammates, or it seems that he is trying to pick a fight with them. If it’s not one thing with him, than it’s another. Esterline’s behavior is partly to blame for Ramirez’s stress.

  A couple of days before, Ramirez was complaining to Mad Dawg about the attitudes of his personnel. Mad Dawg written it all off. He said, ‘Aw. My crew is like a shark that smells blood. And they smelled it.’ Looking at Esterline, told Ramirez what Mad Dawg meant: the Marines want blood. Not to ferry Task Force ZH-3C to some place, and then to watch them kick some ass.

  As Ramirez was leaving, and walking down the corridor, he heard a commotion going on back in the barracks between Private Esterline and two of Ramirez teammates: Crewman Bernstein (Israeli) and Crewman Robinson (British). The argument sounded like it was on the verge of fisticuffs. Ramirez, with his stress levels rising, stormed back into the barracks.

  Ramirez went in and chewed them out. He was pissed off. He was not interested in justice. He wanted silence. Private Esterline was complaining that he was trying to get some sleep (it was 23:00 Starship DTS), and both Bernstein and Robinson were playing their music too loudly. As Ramirez started to chew one out, another one would say something than another. Ramirez had to chew each one out. Out of stress and anger, Ramirez put both Bernstein and Robinson on double duty. Ramirez than left and headed back to his quarters for lunch. He went there for some peace and quiet.

  While Ramirez was eating his lunch someone rang his doorbell. Ramirez had a mouth full of food. He tried to chew faster, but the person rang the bell again, twice. When Ramirez was finished chewing his food, he had to drink something to wash the rest down. While he was drinking, the person rang his bell again. Ramirez, upset and annoyed, got up, went to the door, pushed a button opening the door, and yelled ‘What.’ He then saw that it was Vaistll.

  “Oh geez… I’m so sorry ma’am. I didn’t know it was you. It’s just that I’ve been under a lot of stress and…” Ramirez nervously said.

  “We all are under a lot of stress. I just came here to give you the duty roster for tomorrow.” She said.

“Hey ma’am. I’ve just thought of a really good name for our mission on Golden Hyperion: boat load of obscenities. I figure that it applies to this ship… since that’s all we seem to do.” Ramirez said. She didn’t say anything, she just left.

(3)

  In the morning of the next day, Vaistll went to the bridge to talk to Mad Dawg. She was trying to lesson the stress on everyone. When she got to the bridge, everyone looked at her as if though she didn’t belong there. She approach Mad Dawg who was eating his breakfast at the Captain’s chair. When she got to him, he was sipping on his cup of coffee.

  “Mad Dawg we need to talk.” She said.

  “What’s on your mind?”

  “We need to seriously alleviate the stress on everyone. Why don’t we station your officers in the barracks?”

  “Now hold on a minute. You mean you want MY officers to give up their quarters for YOUR people? Out of the question. What you need to do is to have YOUR people sleep when my crew does. Problem solved.”

  “We already tried that back when we first left Roscadia and it didn’t work because YOUR boys…!”

“My boys?” Mad Dawg said with a smile.

  “And your girls. You know what I meant when I said your ‘boys.’ Like I was trying to say, your crew kept my team awake and that’s why it didn’t work. My team and I need to get ready for our mission on Golden Hyperion. Which means… we need our sleep… and we need OUR TRAINING!” The stress was catching up with Vaistll. You could hear it in her voice when she said that.

  “Why are you yelling at me like I’m in some galaxy far away? I’m right here, no need to shout.” Mad Dawg said which only irritated her.

  “You’re pissed off because of what that infiltrator did to your ship. Aren’t you? What… mad because he got away? You know… it’s still up to me to decide whether or not to let you and your crew fight the EOD on Golden Hyperion.” She said in a calm manner. Mad Dawg wasn’t fazed one bit by what she just said.

  “Say what you will girl. This is MY ship. And I’m not ordering MY officers to give up their quarters for YOUR people.”

  “Then can’t you tell your crew to keep it down so that my people can get some sleep? My crew is tired and exhausted from their training. They need the rest.”

Mad Dawg then turned to his second-in-command and said. “See… this is what happens when you let women run things. They start to mother their people.”

  “You sexist pig!” Vaistll snapped back.

“Their boys… err girls… start to act like a bunch of pusses. You know… captain… when you are in the combat zone, sometimes it takes a couple of days to sleep. Sometimes you only get four hours of sleep.” Mad Dawg said which only pissed off Vaistll.

“My crew is fuckin’ exhausted from their training! And because… YOUR people is keeping them awake… MY crew has to make up for the lost time! Some of them has to pull double duty!” Vaistll yelled back.

“My ship. My crew. My rules. You know… I’m letting YOUR people discipline my crew when they misbehave.”

“Then why don’t YOU help by confiscating their RADIOS!? Then my crew can get some sleep.”

“Why don’t your people do that?” Mad Dawg said in a calm manner. He remained calm throughout the conversion with her.

“Because you never gave them the authority to do that!”

“Maybe I would have if you asked nicely. But you and your people acted like this is your ship by never asking for permission in the beginning.”

“We shouldn’t have to ask for it!”

“My ship my rules. Is that all?”

With that Vaistll left and headed down to the VR Training Room. She went there because she wanted to left off some steam. Ramirez always wanted to see her when she gets that angry. Now is his chance. But he won’t get the chance to see it. Even if he did see her, he wouldn’t care. There’s too much stress going around on that ship.

Mad Dawg never said anything about why they didn’t change their sleeping habits back on Roscadia. There is a three hour difference between the Vegas DTS and where Task Force ZH-3C came from. Not that many of Mad Dawg’s crew got the chance to enjoy their shore leave. They needed it. They already were stressed out from their duties. When Double Shock stole that EOD Ultra Class ship on Thursday, it only added to the stress.

Mad Dawg is acting just like his crew, they can’t believe that 35 people can take on the EOD forces on Golden Hyperion. They still remember what happened to them when they were sent to defend that laboratory. Mad Dawg had at least a hundred times more people at his disposal than she does. Look at what they had to go through just to protect that laboratory. When Double Shock did all that he did on that Thursday it was yet another painful reminder to the crew of Galactic Prime. Double Shock deeply injured their pride and now they wanted blood – EOD blood.

When Vaistll got to the VR Training Room her crew thought that they were in deep trouble. Some of them pulled the visor up on the VR helmet of their buddy and pointed to her. Nobody said anything. When she noticed them, she told them that she wasn’t mad at them. She mentioned that she came there to let off some steam. Warrant Officer  (Type Engineering) Cole (Canadian) mentioned that each one of them came there for the exact same reason. She then put on a VR suit, hooked herself up to the VR gyroscope and put on her helmet.

“What the fuck?” She said when she pulled down the visor and noticed how poor the graphics are.

“God! These graphics look like they’re from the mid-21
st
century.” She said.

“Ma’am… when that EOD ship knock out the sensors, the engineers had to take out the VR video graphics card in order to repair the sensors.” Crewman Hoffneisten said.

“Fine. Load the… um… defend the fort in a forest. I want you guys to defend it and I’ll come to you.” She said in a disappointed manner.

“Yes ma’am.” Ensign Liebowitz said.

“Why in the flying fuck is it taking so long to load this piece of shit?” She said out of frustration.

“Ma’am, the memory for this particular type of VR video graphics card IS a piece of shit.” Crewman First Class Nguyen (Vietnamese) said.

Vaistll held the VR gyroscope with her right hand, put her face on her right arm, and then started to laugh out of frustration.

“Fine. Add a city between us, with a river that I have to cross. I also want you to add a regiment in the city as well.” She said with the look of one who is tired from stress.

“Ma’am. Are you sure? That would take like… 10-15 minutes for it to load.” Ensign Liebowitz said.

“Yes. Waiting for it will help me calm down. You know… I think Ramirez is right. Maybe we should rename our mission to Golden Hyperion, ‘boat load of obscenities’.”

(4)

Roughly one week after they left Roscadia, Galactic Prime got a distress call from a freighter. The person who sent the message mentioned that, ‘strange creatures,’ and ‘the crew is rebelling for some unknown reason.’ Because Galactic Prime is on silent run, and because a freighter sent the message, no one on Galactic Prime took it that seriously. If they did, they might have discover what Mynik’ny’nuta did to the crew of the freighter. Once Galactic Prime discover what IS on that ship they would have destroyed the ship and thus, the Tylkuoply hive would have been destroyed. But sadly, it is not to be. The person who sent the message never raised any red flags.