The Best Is Yet To Come - 10: Second Wind
01 Sep 2023CrazyGolm
Second Wind – August 3309The flight deck of Golm’s Kitchen had never been so busy. Crew, security, and Agency personnel were marshalling on board the carrier.
CrazyGolm met Commander Clixer on his way from the hangars.
“Clixer, you’re my brother and I need your help.”
It was then that he noticed Clixer wasn’t alone.
“Dad, you’re here too?”
“I thought I’d bring him along.” Clixer replied.
“I’ve always wanted to see you in action,” Golm and Clixer’s dad said cheerfully.
“Dad, this is serious. A group representing the Club, yes, the actual Club that I told you about, tried to kidnap and kill me. I let them take a remote-controlled decoy instead.”
“And now that they think you’re dead, you’re going to strike back?” Clixer agreed.
“This isn’t just about me. Someone needs to stand up to them.” Golm expressed bravely. “My crew’s traced the telepresence stream to the Lu Yupik system.”
“Sirius Corporation? Makes sense.” Clixer replied.
Golm was apprehensive about his dad joining in. “Dad, these guys are dangerous. They manipulate humanity. I don’t want you getting hurt in my fight. You don’t have to do this.”
His dad was resolute. “If these lot are as bad as you say, then it's everyone's fight. We’re coming with you, Golm.”
Golm realized there was no dissuading Clixer and their dad. “Well then, let’s get ready for launch. We’ll take my Cobra, the Crux.”
"I'll modify your ship transponder for anonymous access, so they won't know who's on board." Clixer said.
“And you’ll need this.” Clixer handed Golm an electronic card of some sort. “They call this a super-breach. It looks like an e-breach, but it’s so much more advanced. Plug it in to a mainframe and it’ll give me full access.”
Clixer was a genius with computers, but sometimes it was almost frightening.
“I’m not gonna ask where you got this.”
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Oswald Penal Colony was at the south pole of the rocky moon Lu Yupik A 3 F. The Milky Way shone a strange brown in the twilight above. Golm was right to remember that the facility had gravity, but it was only 0.1g.
The Crux dropped out of orbital cruise, shrouded under the cover of darkness. In its cockpit, Golm controlled its glide, and Clixer took the passenger seat, a robust Duradrive on his lap. Their dad stood behind them, one hand on each seat. The enemy didn’t know they were coming, so they had the advantage of surprise, and for the moment, anonymity. A quick flyby into the trespass zone revealed that the base was heavily fortified with anti-air and anti-ground turrets, a hazard to their ship and any surface vehicles.
But those turrets weren’t configured to target infantry.
“Clixer, take the helm. You’re going to have to drop me.”
Clixer shifted over into Golm’s command chair, while Golm exited the cockpit to prepare for landing.
Clixer turned the ship around for another flight over the facility.
Golm grabbed his Executioner sniper rifle, and locked and loaded. There was a sense of irony in the weapon's name, given that he had not long survived his own execution. He also grabbed his Tormentor plasma pistol.
“Alright, “Mr One-man-army”, you’re up! We don’t have long.” Clixer said over the radio.
The Crux’s landing gear deployed as the ship slowed to a hover. Golm walked through the airlock door and looked out from the steps. The ground was about one hundred metres down.
“Here we go.” he muttered to himself.
He took the plunge.
Using his jetpack to control his fall, Golm dropped through the vacuum slower than a feather in said vacuum would fall without said jetpack. Above him, his ship retracted its undercarriage and boosted away, closely followed by anti-ship gunfire. He braced and landed just a little uncomfortably on the frozen ground. Not quite like Frontline Solutions, but it would do.
Golm got his bearings and began looking around for an entrance to the facility.
“Congrats, Golm, we are now wanted for trespassing.” Clixer dryly remarked.
“How do you like my ship?” Golm quipped.
“It’s not bad. Boosts like a racer. Wish it had better shields, though.”
“It’s good!” Golm’s dad piped up.
Clixer gave a status report. “I just cleared the perimeter. Be careful down there, Golm. So far we’ve been on anonymous access, but it doesn’t mean they don’t want to kill us.”
Golm had just spotted some sort of entry point, when without warning, very large drones burst out of the ground in front of him.
“Skimmers!”
Golm fired up his shield and darted for cover. Not happy with his trespassing, the skimmers sprayed an assortment of lasers and bullets in his direction. He took refuge behind a weapons emplacement, and began to return fire with his plasma rifle. One by one, the skimmers fell out of the sky and exploded with a pop.
His suit’s shielding had held well under fire. He had modified it to Grade 4 standard. He would need it for what was to come.
Golm made a dash for the entrance before any more drones could attack him.
Making it to the door, he cut it open with his Arc Cutter. He took a deep breath, and stepped into the breach.
He was inside.