It's just a routine raiding mission on a Zwilnik base, but Jet Jaguar and the Panzer Kunst meet one enemy they can't ever hope of being able to defeat.
Note: Not intended to be Canon Fenspace. Just something that sparked off IRC and was a little bit of fun to write.... and is hopefully some fun to read. I mean, adding one of these to Fenspace may well lead to you-know-Who appearing.
Also, I did this in about three hours.
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Note: Not intended to be Canon Fenspace. Just something that sparked off IRC and was a little bit of fun to write.... and is hopefully some fun to read. I mean, adding one of these to Fenspace may well lead to you-know-Who appearing.
Also, I did this in about three hours.
Quote:Jet gave the usual briefing in the common room at Grunthal.________________________________
"This is 21963 Badwolf, in the Main Belt. Intelligence received by Great Justice Headquarters suggests that Zwilniks have established a weapons research base, possibly around some crashed ship or device. Our mission objective is to land on the asteroid, destroy or take possession of whatever technology they're working on, take possession of whatever design and testing information is in their computers. Capture of enemy personal alive is preferred....."
For some reason, that always raised a few smiles.
"We can expect they've locked this down tight," Jet continued. "So the only way in for us is using the Nova. They receive food supplies on a fortnightly schedule, all we have to do is take the place of that transport, and deliver something a little less friendly than crates of tootsie rolls and fruit. Now, how're we going to do this?"
It was, nothing out of the ordinary. Jet and Five other Kunstler planned the assault, as they'd planned any number of similar mission over the last two years. It was routine. Each Kunstler was assigned a target to take down within the base, power, command, sensors, with priority assigned based on mission parameters, and how well guarded the base was.
Use the Destiny Nova as a Trojan Horse. Hit power and comm's systems first, followed by sensors. Then go for command and control. If anything gets in the way, make it regret it. It didn't take too long to put together.
----->>
"Still no response," said the pilot, staring at the screen in front of her. "Their transponder answers on automatic to our codes, so their comms are up."... something the Senshi double checked once more as she was speaking, "The lights are on but there's nobody home,"
"Think we've been made?" Gant asked.
Jet looked at him. "I'm not sure..." she spoke slowly. "My first instinct is that it's a trap. But... something doesn't add up," She stared at the radar plot, her face a picture of concern. "Maybe the want us to land, and to take us on the ground.... but why no voice then?"
Not to mention what everyone knew. It would be far easier to blow them out of the sky, than to take them on in hand to hand.
"Well they ain't shooting at us," said the copilot, her accent sounding like it belonged in a little larger. "That's always a plus."
"We'll go in as planned. If it's a trap, then we're going in with our eyes open."
"And if not?" questioned Gant.
"It might've already been abandoned." But why leave the transponder running? The obvious answer was a simple cock-up. The worst-case answer was a trap... somebody wanted them down on the surface of that rock. For what nefarious reason?
Did they think they could take them alive?
Unless they were hiding something. But going to full active sensors could give the game away. Jet decided that she had to know for certain.
"Give me an active scan. One ping only,"
"Active scan shows nothing. Just the target." answered the copilot, reading from the screen "Power levels appear to be at a minimum. No internal radio chatter. Electromag is low, but active. Thermal radiation shows signs of internal heating. No other objects within range... "
"It really does sound like someone forgetting to turn out the lights after they left," commented Gant.
Jet took a deep breath, trying to clear her mind. Booby trapped then?
"We won't land the ship. We'll disembark to space. "
------->>
The Destiny Nova braked onto a course parallel to the asteroid, decelerating at a rate of nearly a hundred g. Her four thrusters flared a bright hot blue, pulling her alongside a few hundred meters above the surface of the rock.
21963 Hartnell was small enough, as far as asteroids went, a few hundred meters long. Just large enough to hold small settlement. The lights on the dome still shone bright in the darkness of space.
Looking at them with her own eyes, just made the place seem all the more peculiar to Jet. It looked alive. But the only answers they got from anything was automated. For some strange reason, it reminded the Kunstler of Serenity.... the film. There was a certain wrongness to it that she couldn't quite place... what a good warsie might call a ‘bad feeling'.
Jet made an easy landing, touching down with only the merest flash from her feet. The others landed moments later, kicking up small clouds of dust. Then.... peace.
"Where's the welcoming committee?" Lenneth wondered aloud, her voice betraying her uneasyness. The cyborg scanned around with her thermal sights. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary....
That just made her feel a whole lot worse.
"Alright. Proceed to our objectives. Take it slow and easy. Open comm at all times."
"This seems too much like a damned Aliens movie," Jash commented.
"Definitely," said Tiegel with a nod, "You wouldn't abandon a place and leave it like this, if you abandon it on purpose."
"Perhaps they had some sort of accident," Lenneth suggested, almost sounding hopeful.
"If it can kill everything on an asteroid base, it makes me nervous," Gant commented.
"Radiation?" Jet looked to Tiegel.
"Geiger counter is normal background cosmic," he answered. "That leaves chemical and biological agents,"
"None of which can affect us," Jet said, trying her damnedest to sound calm. "Check in every five minutes. If we get to their computers and control room, we can find out what happened. We're not Space Marines, we're Panzer Kunst.... whatever it is, we can deal with it."
Why did she feel like she had just signed her own death warrant?
Jet made a specific point to radio the Destiny Nova and tell them what was going on.
----->>
"Engel One Two," Gant radioed her. "I found another body. Same as all the others."
That made twenty by Jet's count, including the one's she'd found herself. They all looked like they'd just dropped where they were... in the middle of a corridor, against a door. Like their life had just been turned off mid stride. A few days worth of decomposition had set in, but none of the bodied actually looked like they'd been harmed. No wounds, no burns, no broken bones. And the ones who'd been carrying gasmasks, still had them clipped to their belt.
Some appeared to have been running. Some, hiding. None were harmed physically. They were just dead. Like a puppet who'se string had been cut.
Jet felt her skin crawl. And with most of her skin being a solid handwavium ceramic metal composite, that was some feat.
"Engel One Three, I'm at the main lab." Jet heard Tiegel take a deep breath, "There was one hell of a battle down here. Looks like they were trying to keep something in.... " a pause. "I can't walk anywhere without stepping on spent cartridges. It didn't do them much good.... at least twenty, dead like the others. I'm going inside."
Jet winced.
"Engel Three One. Standby. Do not enter the lab. I repeat, do not enter the lab,"
She'd be damned if she hadn't seen this movie, and how it would end. Tiegel copied, sounding a little surprised.
"Engel Four One. Are you near three?"
"One Four, I am," Lenneth answered. "He's just around the corner."
"Four One. Help Three search the lab. Cover him,"
"One Four, wilco. This place is giving me the creeps too,"
You could hear her shiver as she spoke.
"Engel One Two," Gant cut in. "I'm at the computer room.... the door's been smashed in, but everything seems to be running. Two casulaties, same as the others. One of ‘em's curled into a ball under a desk. i'm going to try pull their logs"
"Engel Two One. Get those logs... and watch your back."
With a bit of luck, the answer to the mystery would be in there, and not waiting around the next corner.
Jet wanted nothing more than to take off, and perhaps call up Noah Scott and ask him if he just happened to have any Kaboomite to spare. Kaboomite the site from orbit, only way to be sure. Whatever this was, it wasn't something she wanted to get out.
Jet's natural instinct said ‘berserker'..... but berserkers didn't leave human bodies so horribly intact. A berserker would be easy... Jet turned the corner into a new corridor, and nearly tripped over the wreckage of one.
A yelp of fright nearly sent her launching through the ceiling, but it took less than heartbeat for her to realise that it to was dead.... same as everything else. Just turned off. It's joints had locked right in the middle of an attack, and it just toppled forward.
Something that could do that to a berserker. Whatever this was, clearly outclassed the five of them. It was an unfamiliar and unnerving position for Jet to be in.
"Engel One All. Berserker, my location. It's dead. Just like the humans here. And if whatever's in here can do this, I don't want to know what it'll do to us. If you come across anything at all, do not engage... repeat... do not engage."
5 voices answered in the affirmative. This really was turning into a bad horror movie. But Jet had to grit her teeth and keep going... she had to make it to that control room. Somehow, she knew she'd get an answer there.
"Engel One Two, I've got their logs." Gant radioed.
"Two One, Good, Fall back to the airlocks. Secure our escape route,"
Jet spoke quickly, her voice betraying the very real fear that was rising deep inside her. She could almost feel herself being hunted. She passed by a canteen of some sort... food still waited to be eaten on the few tables which hadn't been tossed out of the way as the people inside made a desperate attempt to escape.
They didn't get far.
"Engel One Three, I'm in the Lab with Four." Oh thank Christ they're alive. " It looks like they had something chained up in here. There's a lot of power tools, heavy cutting equipment.... even some acetylene torches.... and it looks like whatever it was just ripped the chains clear out of the wall. "
Jet heard him curse under his breath in his native language.
"Engel Three One. Fall back to the airlock. I'll catch up in a few moments."
"Copy that," he answered. His tone of voice seemed to add ‘Thank God,"
"Engel Five One," she radioed Jash' "I want the tunnel down from the main airlock rigged with charges. Rig it to collapse and seal this section off,"
Whatever was in there, was going to stay in here for a good long time.
"Wilco. I'll have to depressurise it first but it's doable. Gimme five minutes at most."
Jet wasn't far from the control room, by her own reckoning. She walked forwards, her body tense and ready to leap into a hard run to safety. Part of her began to wonder how far she'd get before she too was turned off. She promised herself she'd use her main engines if she had to...
A few wisps of water vapour snarled around a corner up ahead. A broken main? An arrow on the wall told Jet that if she wanted to get to PRIMARY CONTROL, she'd have to go through it. No... she told herself. How many horror protagonists had died because they didn't know when to turn back.... when to just run away?
But... she was close to that control room. She was too close to turn back... she had to at least know what happened. The more information they had, the better for taking it down when they came back. Bracing herself, she turned the corner and saw it.
Through the steam, she saw its bulk, mechanical form, standing upright in the centre of the corridor, looking at the ruptured pipe throwing billowing clouds of hot steam. A dark shape which for a brief moment reminded her of a novelty fridge, or a pepperpot. Two manipulators seemed to extend from it's mid section, working at the pipe, while a third device extended from the top of its domed head.
It looked almost like a.... The stupid bastards... they couldn't have. Could they? Who in their right mind would?
As if hearing her thing, it swiveled its dome towards here, fixing her with a staring, shining blue spotlight. Jet guessed immediately that it was looking her right in the eye, analysing her. A pair of white lights flickered on for a moment, and Jet heard it speak one single blood chilling word, in a synthesised, staccato voice.... a voice that Jet knew, truly was inhuman.
EXTERMINATE!!
------>>
Three months later
"A Rockhounds spokesman today released a statement regarding the propulsion failure during the towing of asteroid 21963 Hartnell into Earth orbit. They have assured the public that the asteroid poses no further danger to Earth or Venus at this time, and is expected to harmlessly impact upon the sun within the next three days,"
Jet turned the television off. "Thank God," she said, breathing a deep sigh. Just as he'd suggested.... it was gone.
Ford Sierra gave her girlfriend the most peculiar look for a moment. "It was never really any danger anyway. Besides, Doctor Who is on...."
------->>
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
![[Image: The%20Thing%20from%20Kalaan.png]](http://web.ncf.ca/fm536/fenspace/The%20Thing%20from%20Kalaan.png)
