The energy in the room puzzled him. All of the commissioned officers were scurrying around like a platoon of recruits before their first bunk inspection. As the other non-coms filed in, he took his usual seat in the back and waited for the briefing to begin.
Perhaps this would be amusing, he thought.
Just as the last sergeant got into the room and got himself situated, the officers at the front of the room all stopped moving, looked toward the door, and saluted. Vladimir turned, and when he saw who was coming into the room, he stood and saluted as well.
CLANG
THUMP
CLANG
Strolling into the briefing room, came the highly-decorated General Williams. Hero of Alpha Centauri, Protector of the Pleiades, and the Butcher of Saturn.
The ivory-colored steel of his prosthetic leg clashed with his ebony skin and the sound of it connecting with the metal floor reverberated through the crowded room. He took his time getting to the front of the room, looking over the assembled men with his good eye. Once he reached the front, he turned sharply and faced the men.
“At ease,” he said. Everyone stopped saluting and took their seat silently.
What could be so important that the general himself is conducting the briefing?, Valdimir thought.
“Two hours ago, our scanners caught a Reptilian fleet in orbit around the sun. They have not moved since. In four months, Earth's orbit will intersect with the fleet.”
The men murmured among each other. The Reptilians had not directly assaulted Earth yet and the news that the hated enemy had penetrated so deep into human territory had them all unsettled.
“Based on the tonnage of the fighters and support ships, our orbital defense would make short work of them. However, the Lizzies brought something with them,” the general continued as he motioned to a view screen which showed a standard Reptilian troop transport attached to a ludicrously large engine. The size difference reminded Vladimir of old photographs of hot-air balloons. A tiny basket for the people and the huge balloon that propelled it.
“This ship us the largest single space-faring object ever constructed. Luckily for us, scans show no weapons aboard. Any questions, before I continue any further?”
From his slouched position, Vlad raised his hand. The general scowled, not used to being questions by non-coms, but allowed him to speak.
“Sir, why don't we wait until this battle group is in range of our orbital defenses? They'll tear up those Lizzie bastards and we won't have to break a sweat.”
The general looked to a prematurely-balding lieutenant with spectacles whose body langauge screamed REMF. The man stood up, and addressed Vladimir.
“Corporal, the Reptilians can move through a few seconds through time with their ships. As you know, the principle behind this time travel is unknown to us. If a standard-sized ship with a standard-sized engine can travel a few seconds through time, what could a standard-sized ship attached to an engine of that size do? We theorized that the ship has tethered itself to the sun's gravity, so it can travel back in time, before the orbital defenses were constructed. Or before we knew of their existence? Or even before we had weapons capable of fighting them?”
Vladimir imagined drop pods full of Reptilian warriors landing in a World War I battlefield. He shuddered.
The lieutenant continued,“Furthermore, we suspect that it costs much more energy to travel through time and space at the same time, which is why they got into position first. If our predictions are correct, they already have a date picked for the time travel, so that Earth is right there in its yearly orbit. I-”
“They just came out of FTL, so it will take them a few hours to fire up that monstrosity. I do not intend to give them the opportunity to activate it. Additionally, the Science Division wants their hands on that engine. Our mission is to stop it from going to the past and capturing the transport,” the general interrupted.
General Williams launched into the specific plans to launch enough fighters to distract the transport's escorts, while dropships full of marines would assault the transport in multiple locations simultaneously. Vladimir's squad was one of the squads responsible for distracting the alien warriors while the combat engineers secured the engine and prevented it from time traveling.
After dismissal, Vladimir went to the squad's ready room and relayed the information from the briefing that the general had given. The wide-eyed looks of astonishment from his squad mates betrayed their fear. Vladimir drew and twirled his mono-molecular blades from his wrist sheathes, reminding them of how he got his nickname, 'Vlad the Impaler'.
“So the Lizzies got themselves a big ship. So what? Most of that ship is engine; the rest is standard troop transport. How many transports have we hit, Deadye?” he asked.
A short, squat man cradling a rifle as long as he was tall, looked up at Valdimir. He shuffled a piece of chewing tobacco around his gums before responding.
“Well Corporal, if we count the Alpha Centauri incident as two, today will make it seven troop transports.”
“See? This will be a routine sweep and clear. We've all done it before. Only difference is that this ship has a rear like Nate's wife,” Vladimir said with a smirk.
And we will do seven more and seven more, until we are dead, or the Reptilians take Earth, he thought.
Everyone, even PFC Nathaniel Robinson, laughed. A little levity before a mission diffused tension. Soldiers that laughed were less likely to crack under the pressure of battle when the body parts started flying around.
Once more into the breach...
PART I | PART II | PART III | PART IV (COMING SOON)
Picture Credit: "UEE marine defending his Vanguard Hoplite on moon Daymar" by Glenn Batuyong is licensed under CC by 2.0. I cropped the picture and resized it.
