Episode 76, Erasure
30 Jun 2024Xochitl Khae
Episode 76, Erasure
_____________________________
The settlement assault plan was simple. Create enough of a diversion at the far end of the facility while Lianna would launch in the Taipan ship-launched fighter to cover Tara as she landed near the main building, offloading me in the Scorpion vehicle first, as security. Meanwhile, both Nyx and Dr. Jansen would race inside the building and start collecting everything needed. Tara would then take off and support my efforts from above. The rest of the Coterie would fly race-track patterns above, engaging any security personnel.
It sounded simple when going over it in my head, but my first-hand experience with them had me questioning that assumption. Unbeknownst to Tara and the Coterie, I had made a detour on my way to get suited up to chat with Captain Akio and Chief Mahmoud about what I needed to ensure the nightmare at that settlement would be laid to rest once we had accomplished the doctor’s snatch-and-grab. Mahmoud himself would pilot my Krait Mk II, waiting in orbit above.
I felt a brief tug from my seat’s restraints as the vehicle hangar lights changed from green to red. The pressure in the hangar bay was now equalized to that of the moon as Tara guided the Python into its hypersonic descent from its orbit above to the targeted settlement below. Checking the left-hand panel, I could see the distance to the target along with the position of each of the Coterie’s ships. They were ahead of us and starting the distraction phase of the operation.
As the Python neared the surface, Tara’s voice came over the comms. “We’re approaching the drop point. Get ready.”
I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me, and tightened my grip on the Scorpion’s controls. The vehicle bay doors began to open, revealing the desolate lunar landscape. I could see the settlement in the distance, its structures outlined against the dark horizon.
“Dropping in five,” Tara’s voice counted down. “Four, three, two, one—go!”
The Scorpion’s restraints released at the same moment the Python’s landing gear touched the surface, and I felt the vehicle drop. The lunar gravity cushioned the fall. As soon as the Scorpion hit the ground, I accelerated towards the main building, activating the vehicle’s weapons systems. “Clear,” I announced, seeing and feeling the impacts from the Coterie’s diversion, as high-energy plasma and cannon rounds impacted the surface of the settlement at the furthest point away from our position.
“Copy that,” Tara replied. “Nyx and Dr. Jansen, you’re clear to move in.”
I watched as Nyx and Dr. Jansen bounded from the Python towards the main building, their forms barely visible against the lunar surface. They disappeared inside, and I focused on keeping the area secure.
Lianna’s small Taipan fighter flashed overhead, heading towards the other side of the facility. The comms crackled again, this time with Nyx’s voice. “We’re inside.”
Tara did not know how or why, but her body moved on its own, remotely linking to the settlement as the voice inside assured her that all would be well. In her mind, she could see the facility in its entirety, through all of its sensors. She could sense where everything was located, including a ship in high orbit above. It was out of range of their sensors but was detected in the system’s navigation logs when it entered the system, its course tracked to this solitary distant moon.
‘Your companion has made arrangements,’ the voice inside said in an amused tone.
“Some of the equipment has been destroyed, but we have the secured data container and are returning,” Nyx transmitted as the Python descended without any input from Tara.
“You’re clear,” I responded.
I watched the Python land 100 meters away as both Nyx and the doctor reappeared, bounding in the low gravity towards the ship. I began a slow, reversing withdrawal in the Scorpion, keeping its weapons pointed at the facility. “Once we are clear, all others break for high orbit. Lianna, begin your docking procedure once we are above 2 km from the surface.”
“Roger that,” Lianna replied, her Taipan fighter swooping in to provide cover as Nyx and Dr. Jansen boarded the Python.
As I continued to back away, I saw movement on our side of the facility.
Damn it, they must have seen her landing…
“Heads up, we’ve got movement. Looks like we company.”
Tara’s voice came through the comms, calm and focused. “Copy that.”
The Scorpion’s rotary plasma repeater had no real accuracy until it spooled up to full rpm, and then its stream narrowed, producing a waterfall of plasma bolts. I turned the cannon from side to side, sending a torrent of superheated bolts downrange, striking several of the security personnel multiple times, melting and blasting their ranks, but they just kept coming.
The Scorpion also had an Aculeus missile launcher that worked well against ships and could lock onto individual ground targets as well. I selected the nearest guard, the missile tone in my headset letting me know it saw them too. I thumbed the controller, sending the penetrating explosive rocket into its center mass.
The guard was sent flying, their smoking and blackened armored environmental suit wrecked. I switched targets to the next in line, spinning up the plasma repeater once again.
Lianna’s Taipan appeared behind them, its twin beam lasers enveloping one of their numbers, burning through their suit in several places while superheating the wearer. They staggered, falling to one knee. Their helmet tilted up to look at me, part of its faceplate was missing. What I saw was horrific. I couldn’t call it human. It was something more vile, twisted, and grotesque. The twisted features and soulless eyes showed nothing but pure rage.
Before I could speak, two large plasma bolts flashed over me, impacting the same target, and immolating it. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw that Tara had already lifted off again, with both Nyx and the doctor onboard.
“There’s more…” Lianna cried as Tara almost deafened me, shouting on the comms. “Get out of there!”
I kept the Scorpion in reverse, backing away and firing with everything it had, barely stemming the tide, as the Coterie joined in, melting, blasting, and scorching everything in front of me.
Keeping a steady reversing pace, I keyed the Scorpion’s communications. “Mahmoud, you there?”
“On your word,” came the reply.
“You’re up early. Get down here and make it shake.”
“Inbound.”
I turned the Scorpion around, pouring all of its power into its engine and twisting the accelerator handle full.
“Tara, retreat to 1 kilometer for pickup. Coterie, rendezvous in orbit.”
As I sped across the surface, away from the settlement, I saw Mahmoud, high above in my Krait Mk II, descending towards it.
Tara was in a low hover as I drove under the Python’s open vehicle hangar bay. Even a kilometer away, the epicenter of the man-made moonquakes rocked the Scorpion, telling me that Mahmoud had started his work against the facility. Rocks on the surface were skidding and shaking as I did my best to get into alignment with the Python’s magnetic vehicle retriever. Tara made minute corrections from the cockpit, trying to assist me as the ground underneath vibrated and bounced.
The magnet restraints finally grabbed my Scorpion, pulling it towards the open bay below as I let off the accelerator handle, keying the vehicle's communicator.
“Mahmoud, is it having the intended effect?”
A hiss of static came over before clearing as Mahmoud replied. “Yes, they can’t keep their footing, and large fissures have already started forming, collapsing several of the buildings. I am gaining position now to rupture those.”
The lighting changed to that of the ship as the Scorpion was locked into position. Before the hangar doors had fully closed, I could feel the acceleration of the Python’s engines as Tara pointed its nose to the stars above.
“What is he doing down there?” Avariel transmitted as I began disconnecting myself from the Scorpion’s cockpit, waiting for Tara to make orbit so that I could move to the bridge more easily without struggling on the magnetic plating against the ship’s velocity.
“He’s ending the experiment and making sure that no one else has to deal with its fallout,” I replied as Tara relaxed on the Python’s thrusters, ascending above the lunar orbit, allowing me to make my way to the bridge, one magnetic boot click at a time.
“Keep a high overwatch position on the moon until Mahmoud makes his escape,” I said, entering the bridge and making my way to one of the jump seats behind Tara. Lianna turned in her seat, with a worried expression on her face.
“What is he doing down there alone? Don’t we need to go down and support him?”
“No,” I said tersely, looking at the back of the pilot’s seat. Tara was unusually quiet. I expected her to ask, but she said nothing, positioning us in a location where we were far enough from the moon to not be affected but near enough where we could monitor Mahmoud’s progress.
Inside Tara’s mind, she noted the settlement’s sensors failing as the structures collapsed into the crevasses opening under the facility. Everything and everyone on its surface fell into the opening below as the last operational sensor showed the Krait repositioning itself above before it too failed.
Several minutes passed as static filled the comms channel once more. “On my way,” Mahmoud said with a calm, flat tone.
There was no atmosphere to register the catastrophic failure of the settlement's hydrogen fusion reactor, but every instrument on the bridge sounded an alarm as a bright pulsing light appeared where it once existed.
“What the…” Avariel’s voice sounded on the comms as Tara turned in the pilot’s seat to look at me, a smirk on her face and a wicked look in her eyes.
“Nothing survived that,” Tara said as Lianna turned in her seat.
“What just happened?” Lianna asked, a shocked expression on her face.
“That was the breach and catastrophic failure of the facility's hydrogen fusion reactor,” I replied, recalling the face I had seen and knowing that there was nothing to be saved—on the contrary, everything other than whatever they were needed to be saved from them.
I turned my head, noticing Nyx looking at me with a deadpan expression, but I didn’t care. I looked at the doctor, who kept his eyes low. He knew what I had seen, even without me telling him that I had. Whatever those creatures had become, they were now scattered sub-atomic particles.
“Verify its erasure,” I said, turning back around in my seat as Lianna brought up one of her panel’s displays to reference what the sensors were detecting.
“A large superheated crater. No existence of anything man-made is registering. Under the moon's micro-gravity, it will take several days for the dust to settle.”
I knew nothing could survive that but I needed to hear it. Tara began moving us away from the moon, positioning us for our jump back to the carrier.