The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell (53 page)

  Valkyrie never fully recovered from the war. Neither Sayaka Omori, nor the EOD, would lift the Grip of Doom off of Valkyrie. The EOD perceived it as part of their punishment for rebelling against them. Their capital was razed to the ground. (Not by Lenkov’s hand. Razing a city is the one thing that he never did.) The economy slipped into a severe depression. Their currency failed.

  Although Lenkov never commanded a ship before, the EOD decided to give him command of one anyway. Some people wanted revenge for Valkyrie, so they targeted him. They figured (wrongly) that he may be a very good ground commander, but he is not all that good with ships. The ships that came after him never told of their tales with him.

  Everybody on Galactic Prime know and fear Sayaka Omori and Joseph Lenkov. But neither Project 21 nor anyone on Galactic Prime know that both of them are on Starbase VXN-2212/O. If they did, it would have change everything. Namely they would have sent an armada out of fear and overreacting to any threat that Omori and Lenkov would pose. And what do both of them have in store for them on Golden Hyperion? The Flip Jumpers and the Dragon Clones.

  Task Force ZH-3C will confront the Dragon Clones first. If they survive their encounter with the Dragon Clones and make it to their destination, an EOD facility, and survive any encounters with the Dragon Clones, then they will find out who and what the Flip Jumpers are. And when they do, they will get the shock of their lives. God help them. One and all.

(3)

  “Red Team Leader… what is your PAA-FOR status?” Ramirez ordered Lieutenant Hayes. PAA-FOR stands for “Present And Accounted For.”

  Lieutenant Hayes called out the names of his team who then responded in the affirmative. His team is: Senior Chief Warrant Officer Ellis, Petty Officer Wexler, Crewman First Class Trivelli, Crewman Guerrero, Crewman Blumenthal, Crewman Moriarty and Crewman Bernstein.

  “Blue Team Leader… what is your PAA-FOR status?” Ramirez ordered Lieutenant Sanchez.

  Lieutenant Sanchez called out the names of her team who then responded in the affirmative. Her team is: Chief Warrant Officer Martinez, Chief Petty Officer Coté, Crewman First Class Nguyen, Crewman Kaminski, Crewwoman Van Hoven, Crewman Hoffneisten and Crewman Sanders.

  “Green Team Leader… what is your PAA-FOR status?” Ramirez ordered Senior Ensign Nakada.

  Senior Ensign Nakada called out the names of his team who then responded in the affirmative. His team is: Chief Warrant Officer First Class Chu, Warrant Officer Brewster, Master Chief Petty Officer Kim, Crewman First Class Caparzo, Crewwoman First Class Venito, Crewman Choy, and Crewman Anderson.

  “White Team Leader… what is your PAA-FOR status?” Ramirez ordered Ensign Liebowitz.

  Ensign Liebowitz called out the names of his team who then responded in the affirmative. His team is: Warrant Officer Cole, Warrant Officer Bryce, Senior Crewman Behlmer, Crewman First Class Mendoza, Crewman First Class Weng, Crewman Lucarelli and Crewman Robinson.

  “Ma’am… everybody is present and accounted for!” Ramirez said.

  “All teams… gear up and board your designated drop-ship! ” Commander Taylor ordered.

  “Sir yes sir!” They all responded.

  Each of the teams then went to the Gear Retriever & Loader. The Gear Retriever & Loader gives each of the team members their gear. The gear was already packed by the Logistics Team earlier. They then went to the Weapons Retriever & Loader to grab their weapons. Because of security concerns, each of the team members (including officers) had to have their ID Tag scanned.

  “Lieutenant Sanchez. Handle: Da Bitch.” The female computer voice said.

  “Goddamn it! Who in the hell changed my handle!?” Sanchez cried out.

  Everybody was trying not to laugh when they heard that. They knew and suspected who did it, but nobody said anything. Ellis was already in the drop-ship when she said that. He had the look that told everybody in the drop-ship that it was him.

  They left after everybody boarded their drop-ship. Red Team left first, followed by White Team, then Green Team and finally by Blue Team. The drop-ship with Vaistll, Taylor, Ramirez and extra supplies, followed closely behind the Blue Team drop-ship.

  Their trip to Golden Hyperion was uneventful. As vulnerable as they are, the EOD did nothing. It’s not that unusual since the Marines and Space Core gave the EOD hell earlier. But everybody on all five of those drop-ships were constantly reminded of that hard fought and hard won battle. The single greatest apprehension that all of them had, was not knowing what waited for them when they landed. If they knew who was on that starbase, they might have chicken out.

(4)

  “Hey beautiful… what’s up?” Lenkov said to Omori with a smile. She turned to him and smiled.

  “Five fat cows are coming to their steak party.” Omori said.

  “Cool.” Lenkov said with a smile.

  “Hey hon’… are you responsible for that?” Sayaka said. She pointed to a video monitor that showed Galactic Prime. She was referring to the fact that Galactic Prime gun ports were destroyed.

  “You know… I think that it might be that special agent who was at Roscadia.”

  “What special agent?” Sayaka asked.

  “It’s one of those privileges of having two insiders at Roscadia.” Lenkov responded.

  “What insiders?” Shackley asked.

  “One of them is in the mafia. We needed him to be our eyes and ears on the street. He disappeared about three weeks ago. Right about the same time that Galactic Prime and New Horizon’s gun ports were destroyed.” Lenkov responded.

  “Is it possible that our insider destroyed those guns ports?” Shackley asked.

  “Sure… ‘bout as likely as me pulling this starbase from my ass.” Lenkov responded.

  Shackley learned early on that it won’t do him any good to commit on their rudeness towards him. They didn’t like him because he’s too much of a politician for their blood. When Lenkov was a police detective he witness what politicians can get away with that no one else can. With Omori it was her cynicism over politics and politicians. Both were too deeply burned by politicians

  “Do you have any idea who did it?” Sayaka asked.

  “No. But I wish that I did. It would be nice if we could get him to work for us. Right sweetness?” Lenkov said to Omori with a wink and a smile.

  “Yeah that would be nice.” Sayaka said with a smile.

  “Who was the other insider?” Shackley asked. It caused both Lenkov and Omori to laugh.

  “We learned from our mafia insider that Commodore Parker wanted to join the EOD. One night Parker invited him over to his house. Our insider knew that we had another insider there at Roscadia but he didn’t know who. Knowing that there was someone over at Parker’s house, and thinking that it might be the other insider, Little John our mafia insider, went over to his house. After that, he called up his contacts and told them to help Parker join us. Little John gave them all the contact information that they needed to help Parker join us. Little John also said that he needed to contact an EOD agent on Roscadia. After that he disappeared.” Sayaka mentioned.

  “So who did he contacted?” Shackley asked.

  “No one because he didn’t, and couldn’t have known who the other contact was. But let me tell you this… if the mafia can’t find Little John… they will come after Parker. We had a safety deposit box opened at One World Union Bank with information in case Little John disappeared. It told the mafia how to contact our other insider. It told them to spray paint a sign on the ground outside of Project 21 headquarters, and then put all the information that they had on Little John’s disappearance in a safety deposit box at One World Union Bank.

  Because of the value that Little John had to us, he was under strict orders not to go anywhere without some form of protection. And I don’t mean a gun. After she reviewed the information she immediately contacted us. We then ordered her to tell the mafia that Parker lied to them, and that he is responsible for Little John’s disappearance.” Sayaka mentioned.

  “So… what will the EOD do then, since the mafia wants him… and he wants to join us?” Shackley asked.

  “It all depends upon his value. If he has no value, and since new urgency has been place on the value of Roscadia, we WILL turn him over to them without hesitation. Our insider at the Project 21 HQ said that he has none… except for one possible value.” Lenkov said.

  “And what value is that?” Shackley asked.

  “EOD Ultra Class M1 arrived at Roscadia with the family of Captain Vaistll Adnrwal on board. Her and her family is an extraterrestrial that comes from another galaxy. Captain Adnrwal is a Project 21 agent that has been with them for over two centuries.” Sayaka said.

  “What!? You mean they captured an EOD Ultra Class ship!? Why didn’t you tell me earlier!? I need to tell the EOD High Command about that!” Shackley said.

  “Relax. There’s more.” Lenkov said.

  “Like what?” Shackley asked.

  “It came from the future.” Sayaka said.

  “All the more reason to tell High Command!” Shackley said.

  “Listen hear you baka… they already know.” Sayaka said.

  “That’s right. Do you know what Standing Order CM, zero, lower case x, parenthesis, lower case d, end parenthesis, zero, lower case x, parenthesis, lower case c, end parenthesis, is?” Lenkov asked.

  “No.” Shackley said, afraid of the answer.

  “CM is an acronym for Candyman. And Candyman is an enforcer of the Council of the Elders rules. What the rule is basically saying is: the ship does not exist, you will forget about it, failure to comply means that the Candyman will come and give you some copper coated candy.” Sayaka said. It turned Shackley’s face white.

  “Don’t worry about it Bill. Our insider also told us something far more important than the existence of that ship.” Lenkov mentioned.

  “And what could that be? And who IS that insider?” Shackley asked.

  “That’s the funny part. Parker’s secretary is the insider.” Sayaka said with a smile.

  “Listen Bill… she said something that if it is true… and Parker confirms it… then we are going to have to send a couple of ZXC type of heavy attack ships and a infiltration unit to Roscadia.” Lenkov mentioned.

  “Confirm what?” Shackley asked.

  “Something that Parker’s secretary called a hive. The only thing that we could get from her is that it was on the EOD Ultra Class M1 ship in the form of a person. She said that person was in a biohazard cryo-chamber, but that person is no longer in there. Someone let that person out, but it is not known whom. Right now we are waiting to see what information Parker can provide us with. That information will determine his true value to us.” Lenkov said.

  “She said that if the rumors are true this so-called hive mind could destroy the EOD and all of our allies. Not just us and them, but also ALL civilizations within this galaxy.” Sayaka added.

  “Oh my god. So why did they stop?” Shackley said pointing to a monitor that showed the drop-ships with Task Force ZH-3C in them.

  Lenkov looked at the screen for several moments trying to figure it out. And then it hit him.

  “They have no Intel here. They’re going in blindly.” Lenkov said with a smile.

  “I thought that they did have Intel on Golden Hyperion and our resistance.” Shackley said.

  “Apparently not.” Sayaka said.

  “You know… whoever did it… is going to be trouble for us.” Lenkov said.

  “We can handle him.” Sayaka said with a smile.

  “He brought that Ultra Class ship here to this star system.” Lenkov mentioned.

  “What!?” Both Omori and Shackley said together.

  “What are we going to do about it!?” Shackley demanded.

  “We’re not going to do anything about it.” Lenkov said.

  “And why not?” Shackley asked.

  “Don’t… forget standing order CM. That ship DOES NOT exist. And that order comes, not from the High Command, but from the Council of the Elders. And that means… the three of us is supposed to forget that ship is there. Besides… I already told them about it. And they said, ‘Understood. Standing Order is still in effect.’ Our hands are tied.” Lenkov said.

  “Do you have any ideas why that ship is there?” Sayaka asked.

  “Not really. When Galactic Prime first arrived in this star system they went to our robotic moon. I guess the captain of Galactic Prime went insane or something. Some of the crew members, along with Captain Adnrwal, mutiny. I know this because she sent a coded communiqué to Lieutenant Ramirez, a former EOD Special Forces agent. He then sent a message to the Ultra Class ship and they went to help out. But the thing is, whoever did it on the Ultra Class, most likely doing an EVA with balls as big as Ishtar, they destroyed the rest of the gun ports of Galactic Prime. But here goes the interesting part, the Ultra Class was so close to Galactic Prime that their sensors should have detected it, but it didn’t. The only logical reason is that, someone hacked Galactic Prime from that Ultra Class vessel and stopped them from seeing them. Which means: they’re better than you Sayaka.” Lenkov said.