Illusions, Trepidations and Shade's of One's Soul

The Bridge Burners: The Planetside Legacy
The Sanctuary War, Part 1: Illusions, Trepidations and Shades of One’s Soul

The world shimmered blue and green, the crystalline biodomes which contained the world’s inhabited areas seemed almost as natural bubbles rising from the ocean floor. The grassy plains and the forests were virtually untouched by the hand of man, a simple grid-work of fences divided the land into 100 square mile blocks, with small processing facilities linked by a road network leading to various dockyards. This was one of the Terran Republic’s agricultural planets, a source of some of the finest meat and fish products in the quadrant. Heavy freighters would regularly carry produce by the 100,000 tons to outposts and stations in all corners of the Republic.
But there was different traffic in orbit this evening. The 30-mile long Republic flagship sat in orbit with its 40-ship battle group, the Rialtine Fleet- an allusion to the glory days of some ancient Earth empire. Any mere captain didn’t command the flagship, nor even could an admiral claim such an honour. The flagship was under the command of an Executor, one of the council of 20 Grand Cardinals who ruled the Inquisition, the most feared religio-military divisions within the TR.
On the bridge of the flagship the young Executor stared with calm, focused eyes at the image of the planetary Governor as he sweated uncontrollably in his air-conditioned office on the planet below.
“I swear to you, Executor,” he pleaded, “the men you are seeking aren’t here. Their shuttle touched down briefly in one of the paddocks but they fled the world as our retrieval craft approached. We tracked them leaving the system. They weren’t here for more than a few hours. Please, Executor, you have to believe me, they are not here.”
The Governor was talking fast and the Executor’s patience was wearing thin, “You are aware of the penalties for harbouring insurgents,” his voice was cool as ice, every word was calm and measured. The Governor tried to speak but the Executor raised his hand to silence him, “The penalties however pale in comparison to how you will suffer if you do not desist with this pathetic charade immediately. We are holding the shuttle in our cargo bay. There was no one on board and all life pods are accounted for, and the logs were set on a recursive loop to wipe themselves every fifteen minutes. Slick set-ups getting the autopilot AI to plot random courses and then wipe its navigation memory after each jump. Under other circumstances I might be impressed.”
The Governor was visibly quivering on the huge display in the middle of the cavernous bridge, he looked like he was on the verge of passing out. The coup d’etat in this little performance was a secret that the Executor was not about to share, a secret that few knew outside the Inquisition; every commercially traded craft manufactured in the Republic had a single chip named Overseer implanted on their stardrive. A single memory chip that anyone with Seraph level access could dial into and download a log of every movement the craft had ever made. Backtracking any craft was a matter of accessing a database and running the numbers.
“We know that the traitors never left this planet, so I am going to give you two options. Either you turn them over to us now or else I will have every single person on this backwater hovel arrested and shipped off to the Inferis Hold. Decide quickly, Governor, I’m sure there are few in your colony who relish the thought of being gang-raped a few thousand times.”
The Governor fidgeted like he really had any choice in the matter, “Ok, Executor,” he caved, “Ok. They are still here. I’ll turn them over to your forces.”
“That won’t be necessary,” the Executor smiled with grim satisfaction, it had been a gamble as to whether or not the dissidents were here. The shuttle had been running on a custom made hypercore, hence no Overseer. The flagship had been chasing a dissipating ion trail for days before they happened upon this planet. “I want you to transmit this message to the dissidents: To those who would serve the Renegade Bagdh Dearg, know that we have captured your leader and he is already en route to a short lifetime of hard labour on the Eltauri Asteroid Mines. Your fight is over.” Eltauri was one of the lesser known Hells the Republic called a penal colony, “Transmit the message.”
The Governor did as ordered, knowing that he was betraying a group of brave young men who wanted nothing more that to set the Republic free. “It is done, my lord. I apologise for misleading you, and in the interests of my people I accept sole and full responsibility.”
“By Order of the Grand Council of the Inquisition, and by directive of the President Inherit of the Terran Republic I am commanded to perform the duties of Executor and cast Judgement untainted.”
The Governor had heard rumours of this spiel, horror stories, and visibly panicked on the holo, ‘Hadn’t he listened to me’ he wanted to scream to the crew, ‘Didn’t you hear me?!’ he wanted to yell until his lungs burned.
“Please…” was all that he could mutter weakly.
“By the Power vested in me by the Grand Order I pronounce Judgement Revelation.”
The Governor screamed, “NNNNOOOOOOO-“ and the transmission was terminated by the first officer.
The great fleet of grey and black warships was illuminated as though a new sun had been born as they rained blasts of plasma upon the cities and farm buildings. The great crystal domes buckled and cracked as they caved in upon the people below, soon fire rained upon their homes, upon the markets, upon the hospitals, upon the schools. A blast finally tore through the hull of the largest city and it began to upend as water rushed into the compartments within. Slowly it tipped up on its side until finally it was dragged under in a bubbling froth. The bombardment continued until all 18 cities lay at the bottom of the ocean, and then the fleet turned its attention to the transport craft in the water, even the small two man rowing boats off the coast. Within but a few minutes all the human structures had been obliterated bar the grid-work.
There was silence on the bridge as this took place, no one in the crew relished in what they were forced to do. Finally the first officer spoke to the Executor, “Revelation is complete, all human habitation is destroyed.”
The Executor clenched his jaw, he wasn’t looking at the planet below he was looking at his own reflection in the viewport and for the first time in his life he saw something in his blue eyes- regret, and disgust. For one so young he had destroyed so much for what he was led to believe was the greater good, “Unfortunately my friend,” he said softly, the doubts were flourishing in his mind, he wondered what greater good this could possibly serve, “I have further orders.”
“Sir?”
“Burn it.”
The first officer stood silent for a second, “Burn it?”
“Burn it all.”
After a few moments the first officer finally turned and gave his orders. Within minutes the fleet was launching thousands of bombs loaded with one of mankind’s oldest and most effective weapons- napalm.
The Executor watched as the world burned before him, he saw the reflection of the fire in his eyes, the flames dancing over the surface of this once lush world consuming everything in their rapine. He felt clenched in his guts, a choking feeling gripped his throat, but more than that he would never forget the look on his own face as every last piece of green was scoured from the world. He wondered how he could ever look a decent person in the eye again. And yet now there was a woman standing beside him. She was beautiful, he knew her, yet somehow he didn’t. She watched the world burn and slowly drew him in, holding him close.
“I love you, no matter what you may have done in the past, I love you.” She whispered softly in his ear, a new sensation washed over him, “That man who burned worlds is not you anymore, the good that was in your soul, the good that you see in your eyes has taken over. You are free now.”
He looked across the surface of the lake, the sun shone brightly in the sky overhead. Twin moons hung lazily on the horizon and he felt at peace. This was a good place, he knew that, yet didn’t. He was lying on his back, blades of grass tickling his ears, and the woman knelt over him, her long dark hair falling over his face. She looked so gentle, so tender. They kissed passionately.
Wind whipped around him pulling at his uniform as the roar of the shuttle engines became louder, eddies of dust spun about his feet. The woman was crying as he stood on the boarding ramp.
“You don’t have to do this,” she called after him, “this isn’t your fight.”
He didn’t want to leave her, he loved her so much. He’d learned so much on this planet, how to fight with honour, how to love unconditionally, how to feel free. For the first time in his life he was free, and for the first time in his life he knew what his purpose was.
“I love you,” he called to her as the roar of the shuttle engines built to a crescendo, the ramp was retracting and the shuttle began to rise into the air. He wouldn’t close the hatch so long as he could see her.
“I love you,” she called though he could barely hear her. As the shuttle rose higher he saw her place her hand on her abdomen and let her eyes fall to it, and then the hatch closed automatically.
It all began to fade quickly, as a blue jewel appeared before him, images became fuzzy, less defined, for no matter how much of a story remains to be told the dreamer must eventually wake.
*****
It was a beautiful morning on Sanctuary. The sun beamed down from a near cloudless sky upon grass still glistening from the night dew. The men and women of the Vanu Sovereignty slowly filtered out of their barracks and villas, heading this way and that to take care of whatever tasks lay ahead for the day. There was a relaxed mood about Sanctuary lately, it was now nearly six months since they’d resecured Amerish from the New Conglomerate, and apart from one minor skirmish with the TR on Hossin fighting on Auraxis had been at a minimum. NC morale was low, the VS were tied up with rebuilding their decimated bases, and yet through a bizarre twist of fate the Terran Republic had been unable to capitalise on the situation. A minor earthquake on Searhus had the unfortunate effect of triggering a massive eruption that wiped out the three TR bases in the crater, the inevitable outcome of the most effective demonstration of TR short-sightedness.
*****
Dekov swung a hard left hook, his fist smashing into his target before he spun his right leg hard around. He landed 3 swift kicks in rapid succession before grabbing upwards and ramming his knee hard into the punching bag. He dropped and gave 2 swift right hand jabs before slamming home a heavy roundhouse kick. The sweat glistened on his back as he entered the second hour of his morning workout, a rigorous new routine he’d planned specifically for when he had time to get to the Sovereignty’s training centre. Sultan and Mashed had accompanied Dekov down and were currently sparring on one of the mats in the corner.
Painted, Mikey, Damius, Vastian, Loveless and Grizzly had quickly grabbed the jacuzzi and were now languishing in the bubbles drinking fruit smoothies. The conversation was jubilant, though Dekov couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying, the sole focus of his attention was this punching bag which he fully intended to kick the shit out off.
“You’re going to hurt yourself,” Staceh said as Dekov landed another hard right hook on the bag sending a small puff of dust from its seams.
“Five more minutes and my session is over,” Dekov panted between blows.
“Well, watch yourself,” Staceh said as he threw his towel over a handrail and stretched out his hamstrings.
“Hey, Staceh,” Painted called from the froth, “room for one more, mate.”
“No thanks,” Staceh replied as he stretched his back, “need a workout first, then I can play footsie with Damius.”
Through the ensuing laughter those in the hot tub didn’t notice another figure enter the gymnasium, a figure that moved unnoticed until Painted and Mikey felt their shoulders clasped by two powerful hands. Those who could see the figure looked visibly worried, Staceh’s eyes never left the figure. Painted and Mikey started to pale.
“Tell me that isn’t-“
Suddenly they felt themselves being slid apart, and a huge hairy leg slipped slowly into the water followed shortly by the inevitable huge hairy body. He slipped in between Painted and Mikey; the hot tub now felt very crowded as they made room for this huge muscular body. Vastian and Damius glanced from side to side trying not to make contact with the dark, focused eyes across from them. Vast was regretting that the only bathing suit that he’d been able to find was a black thong that seemed to be permanently in his sock drawer.
“Where’s Shrikeh when you need him,” Loveless said in a hum to no one in particular.
The figure simply grunted.
“I can understand the choice in silverback, I can even understand making him 400lbs,” Grizzly voiced, “but was it really necessary to make him gay?”
Bubba put his big hands around Painted and Mikey, drawing them into a big uncomfortable hug.
“That’s, just… wrong,” Vastian said, wide eyed.
Suddenly a klaxon blared throughout the facility, Painted and Mikey practically jumped over Damius and Vast to get out of the tub.
“Oh shit there’s the alarm,” Mikey said with very little mock annoyance, he was too relieved, “ah well, guess its an emergency an’ all.”
“Yeah,” Painted called over his shoulder, “sorry Bubba.”
Loveless was disturbed to note Bubba checking out Painted’s butt as he trotted towards the changing rooms. The others looked at each other, then at the big ape sitting opposite them.
In unison they dived out of the hot tub.
*****
The Bridge Burners officers, dressed only in fatigues and vests, trotted to the command centre of the nearest HART terminal, they passed squads of VS jogging to the barracks to get into gear. A galaxy roared overhead and in a tight sweeping arc it set down outside the terminal.
The pilot, Shinya, opened the cockpit and called out to his fellow outfit members, “Guys, hop in. We may have a problem.”
When the galaxy was airborne Staceh leaned into the cockpit, “Shinya, where are we heading?”
“To the Command Centre, there’s a problem in the Apothricon.”
“What kind of a problem?”
“One of the labs has been broken into.”
Staceh thought about that. There was still one issue unresolved from their operation on Amerish, someone had tipped off the NC that Mekala would fall under attack from the sea. There was a traitor in the Sovereignty, and he was still at large.
“Any ideas which lab was hit?”
“No, I was just hanging around the villa when the Regent contacted us looking for you, he told me to get a gal and get you to Command ASAP.”
The purple-tinted glass Towers of Artistic License came slowly into view. Today the normally breathtaking towers made Staceh feel apprehensive.
“The Regent himself sent you?” This was bad, if the Regent was summoning his Triumvirate then this was a serious affair. “Dekov, when we get to the Towers take the guys down to the Apothricon, find out what’s going on.”
*****
On Amerish Deuldiebob was just finishing up a patrol in his magrider, the hovertank drifted across the lagoon back towards Mekala. In the months since the resecure the base had went from being a mere Tech Plant to being the principle armour R&D centre in the Sovereignty, the new hub of Vanu development. Latex in particular had opted to move her labs here from the battered ruin that was Ikanam, not out of security fears as some would believe but because the construction complex beneath Mekala was far superior, and with Azeban close by there could be no shortage of lodestars.
“God I’m bored,” Bob commented as the mag drifted towards the shore on autopilot. After a few seconds without a response he spoke again, “Shrikeh, you haven’t fallen asleep back there have you?”
“Sorry, Bob,” Shrikeh said from the gunnery compartment, “I was listening to the comms chatter. There’s something going on at Sanctuary, it sounds like they’ve got an intruder alert.”
“At Sanctuary,” Bob scoffed, “I doubt it.”
*****
Dekov leant against the doorframe, this day was getting weirder and weirder, “I don’t get it. This isn’t even a research lab; it’s an archive. Why would anyone break in here? If they wanted to learn about any of these technologies all they would have to do is loot our corpses.”
Technicians in dustsuits moved silently through the lab scanning all the data racks for foreign particles or trace energy signatures, so far they’d found nothing other than footprints.
“What about AT?” It was Loveless who’d questioned.
“No, “ Vastian replied from beside Dekov, “the NC and the TR have access to the same Ancient Tech as us, there’d be no point in breaking in here for that.”
“What about the stuff that your lab works on?”
“Is now stored in a secure vault along with the Melded Tech,” Vastian sighed, “but even before those new measures were instigated that data was never stored in the standard archives, they didn’t want to risk it leaking onto the lattice. This just doesn’t make any sense.”
Dekov was trying to work this one out logically. Someone broke into this lab, this archive. Why? They didn’t take anything, they didn’t access any files, they didn’t even seem to have touched anything. What was their purpose here?
“Do you think that maybe the alarm could have spooked them?” Grizzly asked.
“No,” Vastian replied with certainty, “the labs run silent in the event of penetration, whilst the rest of the base goes haywire this is the calm little centre of the universe. Its designed specifically so that intruders don’t get spooked, whilst they think that they’re in the clear the entire facility is being locked down.”
So they weren’t scared off. Dekov was pondering the possibilities. They weren’t scared off, which meant that they knew how the Sovereignty’s alarm systems functioned. But that still didn’t answer the primary question, why break in here in the first place?
Eventually Dekov exhaled long and hard, “Guys, no matter how I look at this it feels like a diversion.”
“But for what purpose?” Painted mulled the idea over, “there have been no other alarms tripped have there?”
“Or more importantly,” Mikey began, “if an alarm has been triggered does the system have to be shut down when its reset?”
“All the labs in the Apothricon run on separate circuits,” Vastian replied, “when one alarm goes that room can be isolated and reset without affecting any of the other circuits.”
“Vastian is right,” Dekov let his arm slide from the doorframe, “this just doesn’t make sense.”
“Unless they weren’t looking for anything in particular,” Grizzly suggested, which drew looks from the others, “what if they were trying to get a layout of the facility, they came across the archives and broke in to get an idea of what kind of storage facilities we keep? Or just what we keep records on?”
One of the technicians came to Dekov, they’d finished their sweep and had to report to the most senior officer present, “Colonel. The intruder entered, and moving counter-clockwise around the lab they passed every rack. There’s no evidence that any of the equipment has been tampered with and all records are accounted for. It was definitely a person using infiltrator technology, and the UV scans show that at no stage was the equipment disengaged.”
“I see,” Dekov frowned, “anything else.”
“No, sir.”
“Very well, you’re dismissed.”
As the technician turned to leave he stopped and turned to face Dekov once again, “Colonel, it may be nothing, sir, but at first glance these appear to be New Conglomerate energy signatures, but I don’t see how that is possible.”
“Well, thanks for filling us in anyhow,” Dekov waited until the technician was out of earshot before turning to Vastian, “New Conglomerate?”
“I don’t see how it’s possible. Latex and HoaX have been trying to break SancLock for years, but never with any success.”
“What about a One-Shot device?” Mikey asked, “Could they have built one of those?”
“The One-Shot was conceived and realised at Sanctuary, the plans never entered a hackable lattice. Even then the One-Shot still used the standard warp energies, bending the rules more than actually breaking them. We tried to hit the NC Sanctuary originally, that was Bob’s first plan when he learned what Latex could do, but when we tried to fire it up the device simply wouldn’t connect with the string. It seems that the Sanctuary continent-worlds have a different warp signature to the other Auraxis worldlets.”
“Could the NC have found a way to beat the SancLock though?”
“This is HoaX and Latex we’re talking about here. If they can’t do it I don’t see how the NC could.”
*****
Triplex and Diss traipsed back into the Bridge Burner villa at the North West of Sanctuary, it had been a long day scouting the new TR constructions on Searhus. Since the last eruption the TR had established a series of monitoring stations and outposts along the crater rim, it turned out that they were also adding a new anti-air platform based on a scaled up version of Colossus anti-air technology. They’d reported back their findings and were ordered to recall, it wasn’t said but they knew that this mission was now going to fall to the Sabres.
The villa was a standard Vanu design, similar to the larger specimens of Roman aristocratic housing of ancient Earth. A large courtyard welcomed guests to the main building, behind which was an atrium containing a small training area frequented by those trained in gun kata.
Inside the outfit had all the facilities they would need bar the enormous lab complex that set apart Ikanam. The villas had been constructed to make small coastal towns around Sanctuary, an effort to boost the sense of community amongst the VS, something for the soldiers to hold on to when they felt the weight of the world bearing down upon them.
The Bridge Burners’ villa had lain more or less unused until the siege of Ikanam, but now since those events it once again served as a fully functional outfit command post, at least until they got re-established on Amerish.
Trip strode through the common area, pausing to pick up his copy of George Orwell’s Animal Farm and glance at the graphics on the cover of Shrikeh’s copy of the other Animal Farm. When he raised his head he thought that he saw movement, a passing shadow, but when he rubbed his eyes it was gone.
“Damn, I need a rest.”
“Hey, Trip!” Diss called from the prep area, “Did we miss an all action alert or something?”
“Why?” Triplex started towards the room, and when he saw inside he saw the reason for Diss’ line of questioning, “Jesus, what a mess.”
Bits of armour laying strewn about the floor, lockers hung open with weapons and gear dumped unceremoniously on the floor. The guys must have been in a real rush to just grab what they needed and leave the rest in a heap.
“Nothing’s missing,” Diss stated finally.
“Well, I didn’t think that we’d been robbed.”
“No, I mean that nothing is missing. Look in Staceh’s locker, or Dekov’s, or Painted’s, they’re all the same. Their armour is all still there, the lockers have been pulled out but the guys haven’t geared up. Somebody must have been looking for something.”
“What did they expect to find in our lockers?”
“Faye’s underwear?”
Trip couldn’t help but laugh, “Best call it in to Staceh, we’ve had a lingerie raid.”
*****
Staceh, Enrico and Kimber sat in the Regent’s chambers, a second intruder alert had been called; this time at the aircraft maintenance facilities, a machine shop had been forcibly entered. That added to the archives alert and the break in at TBB villa had forced the Triumvirate to realistically look at the possibility that they may have an NC presence on Sanctuary.
The Regent was weighing up his options, this was an unprecedented threat to Sovereignty security. “General,” he finally addressed Staceh, “our first priority is to ensure that we have no further penetrations. Have your outfit lay as much CE around the warpgates as possible, we need to fortify our position.”
“Agreed, I’ll get my men on it,” Staceh said as he typed a tell to Dekov into his wrist communicator, “What will we do about our present guest?”
“Enrico, I want you to take charge of the base searches, start with the Towers. Lock everything down until you’re finished your sweep. Check every cupboard, broom closet, pantry and sock drawer on this continent.”
“Roger that.”
“Kimber, get every mosquito available into the air, I want every inch of Sanctuary swept.”
This was a major operation and it would take a long time, but there was nothing else for it. Sanctuary had to come under the microscope.
*****
HoaX stood at the rim of the Searhus crater, the wind whipped around him, tugging at the thermal camo he wore over his infiltrator suit. A pool of magma bubbled and popped in the region that once held the continent’s capitol facility, there wasn’t a trace left of the three bases that once inhabited the area.
Painted crept along the loose rocks at the rim, being extra careful not to slip and fall onto the steep slope, a one way trip to the magma below. He crouched next to HoaX and looked back over his shoulder at the final missile base, the new facilities along the rim had all been rigged and awaited only the word from HoaX.
“That’s the last of the charges set,” Painted wrinkled his nose, “can we blow this place and get out of here, this smell is turning my stomach.”
The pungent rotten-egg smell of sulphur didn’t particularly bother HoaX, before the Betrayal he’d been stationed on Searhus almost permanently and through the natural course of time he learned to ignore the odour. He liked Sear at this time of the evening, the sun was just dipping towards the horizon and its light scattered this way and that in the volcanic fumes causing a spectacular red and blue evening display.
“Right,” HoaX said as a gust of smoke rose from the crater, “blow it.”
A series of blast rang out, the demolition charges blew one by one along the crater rim and the bases disintegrated into a landslide heading towards the bubbling pool of lava. In a few moments it was all over, and if the area was clear as intell suggested then the TR would simply believe that the rim had given way.
A little way off Mikey sat perched on a wraith with the rest of the Sabres, he was reading an intelligence report that had just been dispatched to the unit.
“Command suspects there to be a large number of NC forces on Forseral, they want us to check it out and see what’s going on.”
“Okay guys,” HoaX threw his leg over his wraith, “time to go play in the woods.”
*****
The door to the commissary slid silently open, the lights in the room came on one by one revealing Vastian, Aven and Bagdh to be standing in the doorway, lashers making sweeping arcs. Vastian’s eyes glowed an eerie green from the darklight implants running, it was his turn to act as spotter whilst the others let their neuro-energy recover. It was a simple plan, one person swept a room with darklight whilst two others were able to keep an eye on the entire room unhindered by the darklight haze, then when they were clear they would switch D/L users and move to the next room.
“See anything, Vast?” Bags asked uncomfortably, he adjusted his collar between the layers of REXO armour. Even in the thermo-regulated suit he could feel a cold sweat breaking out on his back, “Vas?”
Vastian finished his sweep, “No, we’re clear.”
Bagdh let his shoulders slump a little, he was a bit more relaxed now.
“Bags, you okay man? You want to take a break?” Aven asked seeing how uncomfortable Bagdh was.
“No, I’m fine.”
“You sure? Maybe you should sit the next one out.”
“I’m fine!” Bagdh snapped, then realising what he’d done he apologised, “I’m sorry Av, its just, I can’t forget Ikanam.”
“Hey, no one’s asking you to forget,” Aven placed a hand on Bagdh’s shoulder, “I can’t begin to imagine what having your throat slit feels like, but I know that it can’t be easy for you.”
“Yeah man,” Vastian said as he retrieved 3 cups of steaming coffee, “we were all there, we’ve all been affected by it in some form or other. The best that anyone can do is march on and try to remember the good things that we’ve seen in our lives.”
A rumble filled the air and the room started to shake, nothing major but it was enough to make jars rattle in the kitchen and cutlery to jump in it’s trays. A jar of sauce fell from it’s shelf and smashed on the floor. And then it passed.
“Those tremors are getting stronger,” Aven commented, lowering his lasher.
Bags removed his helmet and accepted the coffee Vastian offered, “I guess we can have a quick break.”
*****
The clouds whipped by the cockpit of MrSubliminal’s mossie, at least that’s how he was trying to imagine it. In reality it felt like the clouds were actually overtaking him, the same two cattle had been walking under his craft for the past 20 minutes, and they’d been stopping every once in a while to graze. The Regent wants thorough, the Regent gets thorough. Subs’ flight group consisted of 30 mosquitoes spread in a straight line moving down one section of the Sanctuary grid, his group was just one of fifty groups making sweeping patterns across the sky, that was the entire Sovereignty airforce in the air.
“Subs,” Staceh was calling from the Towers, “the base sweep hasn’t uncovered anything yet, tell me that you have something.”
“Sorry, Boss,” Subs sighed, doing a quick check of his scanners, “we haven’t detected anything outside. Can I suggest destroying some medical terminals?”
“Why?”
“Bored.”
Staceh laughed, “I’ll take that under advisement. Keep me informed if you get anything.”
*****
Bazon placed his final spitfire outside the north eastern warpgate, the device beeped once to confirm the activation of its proactive search and destroy program.
“Dek, that’s the last of my spits activated, we’re secure against ground forces.”
“Roger that,” Dekov responded from the other side of the continent, “are you ready to begin anti air duty?”
Baz climbed into the gunnery compartment of his waiting skyguard, “I was born ready.”
Aside from the CE each warpgate was also surrounded by a ring of skyguards for any assault would undoubtedly contain a number of Galaxy dropships and Reavers. It was only a matter of time before the main invasion force arrived.
*****
They’d been forced to abandon the wraiths and creep the rest of the way, there were too many NC forces in the area to risk them hearing the quad engines. HoaX had never in all his years seen an NC force of this magnitude, this was insta-poplock force, all balls to the wall invasion.
A legion of Vanguards rolled past the crouching Sabres, their gunners sitting proudly astride their turrets, this was to be the New Conglomerate moment of glory.
“We should call this in,” Painted whispered, “HoaX?”
HoaX wasn’t listening, he was watching what appeared to be a modified Vanguard, but rather than a turret it sported some sort of folded crane-like device. At the end of the folded grid-work three great black plates were attached by pistons.
“What the hell is that?” Mikey asked as the device rolled past the other Conglomerate forces out of the woods and came to a stop outside the warp bubble.
The Vanguard engine roared as the crane unfolded to full height along the surface of the warp bubble, and like some giant mechanical flower the plates blossomed out until they reached full extension some 15 metres above the surface. The crane tipped slowly forward until the plates touched the warp bubble, conforming perfectly to its curvature. Anchoring struts shot from all around the Vanguard base to ensure that the device remained perfectly stable, then the rear of the tank opened to reveal a sophisticated control centre.
“This isn’t what I think it is, is it?” Painted asked HoaX, who had remained silent.
Four years of research had yielded nothing, and now the NC had triumphed where he had failed. HoaX was angry yet curious at the same time, had they really managed to create a device to break SancLock?
A Conglomerate CR5 hopped out of an idling Thunderer and strode over to the device, the driver stood next to the control console. “Its time to make history,” he said proudly.
Another CR5 joined him and placed a hand on his shoulder, “I’ve got to hand it to you, Dumas, you’ve planned this to a tee. If this works you’ll be held in the greatest of the honoured among the New Conglomerate.”
Dumas, or Bluestar, had achieved the coveted Command Rank 5 nearly five months prior, and in that time he had slaved over his masterpiece, the ultimate plan for bringing about victory for the New Conglomerate.
*****
“You know, since this all began I’ve been thinking,” Vastian took another sip of coffee, “it may be nothing, but how many men do we have involved in this search?”
*****
There was a hum filling the air, the device seemed to shimmer or vibrate in reality. A hatch opened in the tank roof and a crystal was raised out of the compartment to plug into a socket in the crane.
*****
“I don’t know,” Aven replied, wondering where Vastian was going with this, “all of them?”
*****
“That’s a core crystal!” HoaX almost gasped, “A warp crystal. The only way they could have got hold of one of those is to have destroyed a geowarp.”
*****
“So it would be kind of hard to walk in and capture Sanctuary,” Vast said pointedly.
“Unless they brought a large enough force,” Bags responded, “NC forces outnumber us 2 to 1.”
*****
Bluestar looked back over the legions of tanks and BFRs waiting for the big moment, it was close, so close.
Sparks danced around the black plates and ripples began to spread over the surface of the warp bubble.
*****
Staceh sat with the Regent and the rest of the Triumvirate. So far things weren’t going well, neither the air or surface forces had detected any sign of the intruder. They knew that time was running out fast. Staceh had sent the Sabres to check out rumours of a large NC force on Forseral and as yet they hadn’t checked in. He couldn’t shake the feeling in his stomach, there was no better place for the NC to attack from than a TR home continent.
*****
“I keep thinking about something Subs and I overheard Bluestar saying in Ikanam, about how it would be easier if the VS and NC were allies, if we weren’t in the picture.”
*****
“It’s time,” Bluestar shouted, “everyone, saddle up!”
The great New Conglomerate force roared with the noise of hundreds of engines powering up. Slowly they began to move inexplicably forward, entering the warp bubble.
“Quick,” HoaX said rising, “lets go.”
As a Peregrine passed HoaX leapt out and caught a strut on its leg; he climbed up and found a secure spot along its weapons racks. He rocked back and forth to the ponderous movements of the huge hunk of metal gear he rode. Slowly it entered the warpgate and began to phase out of existence.
*****
“Well,” Aven pointed out, “after Cyssor I don’t think that there’s much chance of the Vanu Sovereignty and the New Conglomerate being allies.”
“Exactly,” Vastian said, “but they don’t really need us to be allies to keep our forces distracted, do they?”
*****
The Regent sat watching Staceh pale, the leader of his Sabres unit was checking in, obviously he must have found the NC force, and it was bad news. In a snap decision he began sending emergency tells to all of his outfit commanders, it was time to prepare for invasion.
Klaxons blared all over Sanctuary as armoured divisions scrambled to get into gear.
*****
Dekov listened to the alarms, he contacted Bazon, “Baz, you see anything?”
“Nope, all’s quiet.”
“Well, stand ready, it looks like the NC are on their way.”
*****
“What are you saying, Vast?” Bags shouted over the alarms as they ran from the commissary.
“Well, our forces are all tied up looking for this cloaker…”
*****
Staceh sat wide eyed; he was breathing deeply trying to calm his thoughts.
“Cancel the alert,” he said at last, the ramifications of today’s events and the future were still going through his mind. “The New Conglomerate have just invaded the Terran Republic Sanctuary.”