SWNOVELS Chapter 11
ABOARD THE PLANETARY WATCH STATION, NUMBER 2; THE ASTEROPIA REGION…
“…This is not a practice-run…Watcher 2 personnel, man your stations…This is not a practice-run…Watcher 2 personnel, man your stations…”
The automated alarm of Watcher 2 turned the whole interior of the asteroid-sized station into a blaring red facility!After so many minutes, the masculine auto-voice stopped, but inside the entire station the red lighting remained the duration of whatever emergency the station faced.This was a standard operation aboard all seven of Sol system’s planetary watch-guards; even Watcher 7, which was based on Pluto’s largest moon, Charon.The hexagonal, planetoid-like station also flashed red on the outside, should, for whatever reason, the soldiers stationed on nearby asteroids or those flying in their tactical ships missed the transmitted alarm!
“Sentient,” Director Robert Baptise addressed the station’s computer nerve-center as he rushed to his own station, “make sure all of this is recorded!Bosses at Pacificalis made it a point to ensure that we get better images of our enemy…we can’t know how to defend ourselves from them if we don’t know who and what we’re dealing with!”
“Yes, Director Baptise,” the Sentient responded; the same voice as that of the alarm.
Director Baptise quickly looked around the command suite, making sure everyone was stationed at their position.Standing at his terminal, he, then, engaged its telemetry.The command chamber was filled with officers relaying information to each other and to the director on the trajectory of the Visitors, how many troops were available for the battle, and how many of the space-issued Centralized Colliders were at the director’s fingertips.
“Director,” one of the officers in the communications section called out amid the flurry, “Commander Assan from the Asteropian auxiliary base is on-comm!”
“Open,” Director Baptise commanded while bringing up relevant data on the situation.
The projected image of the commander of the Governance’s headquartered-base within the Asteropian asteroids was small.The contact was meant only for Director Baptise.
“Robert,” the young woman said perfunctory; her head swiveling as she talked, due to her base’s own activities, “they’ve already taken outhalf our Colliders!”
A few officers working close to Baptise’s station glanced at one another with absolute fear!
“Bloody hell,” the director responded; freezing on the spot for a few seconds.
“They just flashed into Asteropia out of nowhere and broke off into what I can only call teams,” Commander Assan stated as she gestured commands to her officers that were out of the line of sight.
“That’s what the first report on them out of Pluto said they did.I’m activating the whole damn field troops, Etnah…and Etnah—both of our teams will have to throw the whole house at them, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll go ol’ Morning Glory on them…you got that?”
“Understood, Sir,” the commander said; her voice clearly not sounding enthusiastic about the likelihood of having to self-destruct her base!The comm-line was then cut.
Those same officers working nearby Director Baptise were also not thrilled about the ‘Glory’ option, either.Baptise could see it out of the corner of his eyes, but he had a job to do.
“Cornwell,” the director called out to his second-in-command; whom was at the weapons bank, “all those Colliders set?”
“Already synchronized and tracking those bastards, Sir!”
Baptise snapped his head out of approval.He, then, punched into his communications to broadcast to the entire planetary Watch station.“All personnel manning Colliders are to strike Visitors upon immediate detection…should our defensive posture not work Watcher 2 will engage Morning Glory option…Baptise out!”
As soon as the director closed off his communications-link to the entire station, the sounds of high-powered guns were heard loading photonic-missiles!
Even in the heat of battle, everyone in the command chamber froze.And all eyes were on Director Baptise…two of those officers that worked adjacent to the director, whom showed disapproval in his commands, each had those guns trained right on his head from behind!
During the complete silence, the comm-system still blurted out other soldiers’ communications within Watcher 2 and those out in the field inside their fighter spaceships.Some were awaiting a response from Director Baptise.He slowly turned around to see who was causing the confusion.
“Tauch, Voltma,” he said after a sigh of disappointment.“Come on, guys…you see what we’re up against!Look, when we all signed up to join Governance’s military we all knew that the Glory option was—“
“We are acting on behalf of Respect Hausa,” Commander Marcus Voltma threw out to him.
There were reactions of gasps and disgust throughout the command center.For a ‘Respect’ was a person of the highest authority within the Tellmondonian culture!Plus, Respect Hausa’s politics were well-known throughout Governance-space and they were antithetical to the solar system-wide government!In a word, Lieutenant Claudia Tauch and Commander Marcus Voltma were old-fashioned spies for avery old enemy in the chess-game of solar system-wide politics!
“Why are you Governance people so anxious to risk blowing up parts of the asteroid field and send a storm of debris that would killhundreds of thousands of our people?For that matter, thousands of Governance citizens, too, since we’re so close to Mars!”
“Commander Voltma,” Director Baptise came in, forcefully, “or whoever the hell you really are, do you understand the magnitude of our enemy?”
“The Respects of Advisory and their scientists have also been tracking the Visitors, Director Baptise,” Voltma informed.It had, in fact, caught all the Governance officers off-guard!“And so far, the only thing we know for certain about Them is they have not killed a single person up to this point!Not your people in the Pluto region; not your special ops crew from The Justifier; and they won’t kill us now…”
Despite themselves, the Watcher 2 station officers and Director Baptise seemed to be coming around to the spies’ point!Indeed, the reports filed by the Governance officials did not officially list the Governance personnel as deceased.Just missing!
This time, Lieutenant Tauch came in; lowering her gun slightly; her face bright in countenance.“Look, there’s no need for Commander Assan and her people in the auxiliary base—nor you—to kill yourselves over the blessed Visitors because you don’t understand them!”
Many of the officers in the command chamber glanced at one another with alarm!
“Excuse me,” Director Baptise said tersely.
Voltma, apparently the one in control between the two—even though Tauch had a higher position within the Governance’s structure—held out a hand.“We don’t have time to explain this to them, my Sister…Director Baptise; I’m asking you to please tell Commander Assan to stand down.I promise you, you’ll see you have nothing to fear.”
The director looked around the command center at his crew as the comm-link went wild with Governance soldiers trying to figure out why they could not reach their leader!Some in the chamber shrugged; some were a bit more apprehensive.
Voltma looked at Tauch, gave a quick nod with a smile, and they both dropped their guns and held up their hands in surrender.Director Baptise took a few more seconds of thought, then nodded to his communications team to contact Commander Assan.At first, she protested, but then relented upon hearing Baptise, himself, assuring it was true.
There still were voices coming over the comm-line.Most of them, now, were cursing due to the change in course!
“The Visitors will be here soon,” Tauch warned as she looked between the director and her cohort.
The director decided to put out the fire before it spread.“Open comm, Burke…station-wide!”
The young cadet pushed a couple of buttons.“Comm’s yours, Director.”
“Baptise, here…we’ve had unexpected information come our way…be advised and stand by…all ships, hold your positions…all personnel manning Colliders, stand down—from what we’ve heard in the office, they don’t seem to do any good against the Visitors, anyway…await my orders.Baptise out.”