Chapter 1: Nerus Conner Howes lazily climbed out of his bunk, and walked over to his sonic shower. Then he thought, "What's the point, I'm just going to get dirty in five minutes anyway." So, he slowly walked over to his cupboard and grabbed a Morian Gourd for breakfast. Sitting at his table, he turned on his receiver to watch the local current events. Dully, he watched as an anchor reported: "Two more mining guilds have been taken last night by the Confederates. The Kel-Morian Combine was brutally beaten as the Confederacy closed in on all sides. The death toll is estimated in the thousands as every man, woman, or child who dared to oppose was slaughtered."
"Which colonies?" Thought Conner.
As if it had heard him, the receiver stated, "The Confederacy is not yet giving information as to which colonies were attacked as of yet. But, these two small mining operations are believed to be on the planet of Moria."
Just then his comm beeped. He picked it up and grumpily said, "Yeah? This is Conner speaking, now who are you and what do you want?"
The screen of the receiver flickered and displayed the image of a man who sternly replied, "Conner, you ever talk to me like that again, I'll come over there personally and kick your butt out of here!"
In surprise, Conner quickly changed his tone, "Jack! How are you doing man? You call me to say something or you just trying to interrupt my perfectly quiet morning?"
Jack, the man who dispatched the miners and made sure the jobs got done, was Conner's long time friend, even though he was a good twenty years older. "Nope." Replied Jack, "I'm calling to tell you the Boss wants you to search for some more mineral deposits instead of mining today."
Conner's face turned to disgust as he yelled, "Why? He wasn't going to look for more until we were finished here!"
After a brief pause Jack continued: "Have you been watching the news lately? The Confederates have raided two more colonies, Fresno and Yorktown! The Kel-Morian Combine is stationing some reserves here! Instead of mining today, you'll be sniffing out minerals in the Narrows."
"The Narrows!" protested Conner.
Before he could finish, Jack cut him off, "Yes, The Narrows, you scared or something? The latest information from satellite sweeps suggests a large deposit in that area; the boss just wants you to check it out. I suggest you hurry, he wants you back at o' six-hundred hours tomorrow morning."
"Okay", Conner answered dryly. "What does he want me to take?"
"A Vulture." Jack replied with a grin.
"Wohoo!" Conner yelled, "Oh yeah baby! This is going be so sweet! I'm tired of driving those slow SCV's on prospect missions!"
Jack cut in, "You crash that Vulture again and you'll never be able to drive one of them till you buy your own!"
In a somber tone, Jack finished: "Oh, and uh, be careful out there, The Boss wants you to take an 8mm C-14 Gauss Rifle."
Conner's jolly mood came to a screeching halt, and his smile quickly faded as he said, "Dude, that's a Marines gun! I'm not a soldier, he should give me a smaller gun!"
"Screw your head on man! You always talk big, but when it comes to business, you start to cry! This is your chance to prove yourself; didn't you want to do that? What makes you think if they find you they won't shoot you too? Anyway, the Gauss Rifle is the only
rifle that's able to penetrate any type of armor!"
Conner lifted his head, even though he still felt the cold fingers of fear. He'd known that the Confederates were coming, that someday he might have to die, but he never expected it to be-today! Suddenly it became harder to breathe.
"You don't suppose I'll have to fight them do you?" keeping his chin high.
Jack's face turned sympathetic and upbeat, as he said, "Of course not. How hard is it? If you see them, you shoot them. Just keep your head screwed on tight okay kid. I promise, everything's going to be all right, and when your back, you'll realize that they were unnecessary precautions. Besides, I'd feel pretty safe with a rifle like that in my hands!" He said with a sparkle in his eye.
Conner heard a beeper go off. He watched as Jack reached above the comm camera and shut it off. He looked at Conner and said, "I got a meeting in five minutes, so I got to go, remember, the boss wants you out of here by o' eight hundred hours, and he wants you back by o' six hundred hours next morning. Good luck kid, you'll be fine."
Conner felt a reluctance to see his friend leave, but he said, "Your right, I'll be fine, and, thanks for everything." With that, Jack gave a nod and terminated his comm uplink. The news flickered back on, and Conner reached across the table and shut off the receiver.
***
Jack, a middle aged, short stocky man with bags forming under his eyes and hair thinner than he'd like to admit, terminated the connection with Conner, and got out of his seat with a feeling of remorse in his heart.
"He's a good kid, not to many brains though." Jack chuckled to himself, "No, he's got the brains alright, he just doesn't have the experience. yet." With that in mind, Jack slowly lumbered toward the door. At the door, he paused, and turned around to look at the empty room.
The room was empty because every able-bodied man was either in the armory preparing for the onslaught that would surely come or they were loading the last bunch of minerals into the remaining three dropships.
With communications jammed the dropships were also the final source of contact with the rest of the universe, if the Confederates didn't catch them first.
Jack walked toward the large windows knowing this might be his last view from them. He could see the huge domed command center that served as the mess hall and entertainment center for the miners and few colonizers. Beyond the dome sandstone cliffs surrounded all but one side of Nerus and the small valley it was in. Just above the cliffs and saw bright meteors streaking the sky with light.
"Here they come" Jack thought to himself, "and we don't have the ships out yet."
Rushing back to his station he pushed the button that activated the comm system throughout the complex and spoke into the mic. "Attention! Attention! All miners, civilians, and especially, armed men! I've spotted meteors in the sky, I've counted more than twenty of them, get the drop ships out of here now and report to the armory!"
Shutting off the system he got out of his station and raced out the door knowing that it would be hopeless to try and fight, but it would buy them some time, hopefully enough for the Combine to arrive with reinforcements.
***
Conner sat at the table still, gazing at his palm pad, which lay in his hand. The Pad displayed a picture of a planet thousands of light years away, a planet from which his ancestors were forced to leave, a planet he considered his home world, a planet called Earth.
"What's it like?" he thought, "Does it still exist? Or has humanity blown it up like in an ever so familiar episode of Korhal? Blown up in a nuclear holocaust, or worse? Blown up by humanities petty infighting? Are we the only humans left, if so, are we the only intelligent beings that space-time has to offer? Sixty thousand light-years away from Earth, and we're still the only intelligent life we've encountered." Suddenly his alarm beeped and he jumped at the sound cursing softly under his breath. Walking across the room he flipped the switch and checked the time. "O' seven-thirty hours, crap!" he muttered, "I got to get my butt out of here!"
Conner walked over to one of the chairs that was placed clumsily around his table and pulled his black leather jacket off from around the chair and put it on. He buttoned up the jacket as walked over to his gray storage box lying on the floor against the wall next to his closet. Squatting down to a kneeling position he lifted the lid. Inside were keepsakes and things handed down from generation to generation to the first-born son in the family. He carefully began to take things out and place them on the floor as he searched for a small black rectangular case.
When he found the case, he hastily put the things he'd set on the floor back in the storage box and closed the lid. He got up and sat down on top of the storage box with the case in his lap. Before opening it he examined a golden tag in the lower right hand corner of the box with the words, "Marcus Jay Howes, Lt. Commander for the Kel-Morian Combine" engraved upon it.
Conner ran his index finger over the script and reached to the sides and flipped up the latches that held the case closed. Slowly opening the cover he carefully lifted a silver semi-automatic 4mm Duschene Hand Gun that had been stored almost lovingly in the black case surrounded on all sides by grayish black foam. It fit perfectly in the holster that hung by his side. Under the bottom layer of foam were four seven shot clips that he put into one of his pants pockets. He'd have to get the bullets at the armory. Next he walked over to his table and slipped a five-inch throwing knife into the sheath that hung on the side opposite from the holster.
Walking over to his mirror he thought, "I look so sweet. Now all I need is a woman by my side." Except that all the women in the colony were all too old or too young. He hadn't spotted a good-looking woman in almost a year! Turning to the door he walked out probably for his last time.
***
The armory that served as a machine shop that repaired broken vehicles and housed the spare parts was jammed with people all bustling around gathering their issued equipment. To Conner's left people were putting on their CMC-300/400 Powered Combat Suits that were painted an evergreen color and had the "K" over "M" symbol of the Combine printed on the right shoulder guard.
There was a taint of nervousness in the atmosphere, people walking by Conner nodded to him without smiling and returned quickly to their business. "The comm just said they were landing," he thought. "It didn't say they were going to attack today. It takes a couple of days to prepare to attack doesn't it? I guess we all have the right to combat jitters."
Conner thoughtfully turned right towards the ammunitions station and pulled the clips out of his pocket as he was walking. He stopped at the counter where a man, with white balding hair holding a palm pad in his hand, sat waiting to issue the "spikes", the nickname given to the Gauss Rifle's ammunition because they fired at hypersonic speeds.
Conner had seen the man around, and most of the miners called him "The Doc" because he'd saved more than one life in mining accidents. Conner leaned on the counter and said, "Hey Doc, think you can give me the right ammunition for these?" he gestured to the clips he held in his right hand and lay them on the table in a stack.
The Doc stopped what he was doing and set the pad on the counter, and replied, "Well, that depends upon what type of ammunition you need." The Doc responded factually.
Conner looked him in the eye and gestured to the clips, "I need twenty-eight 4mm bullets loaded into these."
The Doc picked them up off the counter. "Four millimeter you say?" The Doc asked, as he walked towards the back of the small station.
"Yep" Conner replied.
"Well you're in luck we've got one box left." He pulled a box off a shelf and walked to the counter where he set them down in front of Conner and began loading them into the clips.
Conner watched for a minute, as the Doc loaded the bullets into each of the four clips. When the Doc was through, he stated, "You'll need to pay for these, since they aren't standard issue to the Combine."
Reaching into his back pocket and Conner pulled out a credits card and handed it to the Doc. The Doc swiped it through a machine and handed it back and said, "Thanks a lot and be careful out there, the Confederates will swarm on you like flies on a carcass."
Conner replaced the card and said, "I will, and thanks."
He was about to leave when Conner remembered he'd forgot his Gauss Rifle and a box of spikes. Looking at the Doc who was still watching him he asked, "Oh, uh, I forgot to ask you for my rifle and box of spikes." There was a brief pause before he added, "Could you get them for me?"
The Doc said, "Son, anytime you ask. Just give me a second or two."
The Doc walked to the back again as Conner pulled his hand gun out of it's holster, loaded a clip, and shoved the others into a pouch on his belt. The rest of the box he slipped into the loops around his belt. When he was finished the Doc came back to the front with a big green metal box containing the spikes and set it on the counter. Then, he reached under the counter and handed Conner the rifle. Conner gave an appreciative smile and swung the gun's strap around his shoulder so that the gun was positioned behind his back.
"Thanks again." He said, and hefted the ninety-pound box off the counter. "Judas Priest!" Conner complained, "I've got to work out more!" He heard the doc laughing behind him as he struggled to keep his balance. Regaining his balance walked toward the vulture storage area on the other side of the armory next to the bay doors.
The armory was a high-ceilinged structure. Morning light that came through the open bay doors mixed with artificial light and gave it sort of shadowy feeling. Huge robotic arms with welders and various sorts of tools that were attached to the ends were next to the assembly line, which sat idle, for there was nothing to make. Nerus was not a military base, it was a colony and it had no need for heavy defenses, until now. The assembly line was used mainly to repair things or make SCV's.
When Conner reached the Vulture storage area he set down the box on one of the Vultures with a sigh of relief. He panted for a second and leaned against the machine. After he was rested Conner climbed onto the cycle, leaned over the seat and looked at the console to check the number of percussion grenades that were loaded. It read one thousand. "This must not have been used much yet, it's still full! I wonder how many mines there are left in here." Conner said as he began to look toward the console again when he heard a deep voice say, "Three. I loaded it for you earlier this morning."
Conner turned around and saw Elias, a tall burly man in his thirties, all tricked out in a firebat's combat suit. The visor was up, and Conner could see his curly dark hair and brown eyes. Elias was holding an obviously homemade cigarette in his left glove because since the blockade nobody had received supplies of anything and all the cigarettes were gone.
"Elias!" Conner exclaimed, "How you doing man? Say. You look pretty tough in that suit!"
"Yep" Elias said coolly, "now instead of being a miner, I'm an Armored Assault Trooper equipped with a CMC-660 Heavy Combat Suit and plasma-based Perdition Flame Throwers Mounted onto the sides of my arms."
Elias took a long deep draw from his cigarette, held it in for a second, and exhaled it slowly.
"Hey, I thought you were going to quit smoking those." Conner said with a frown.
Elias looked at the cigarette and said, "It don't matter if I do or don't anymore, I could walk out in the field any time now with two hundred pounds of pure gas strapped onto my back. All it takes is the right shot, and I'll be blown clear to Tarsonis!" Elias chuckled and coughed like a donkey.
Conner waited for him to stop coughing and shook his head, "Man, if you don't quit today, I'd say you'd be pretty lucky if you got blown to hell or Tarsonis, or anywhere!" Then, he added, "You'll be alright, more than half of the Confederates can't shoot a straight bullet to save their lives anyway."
Elias smiled sadly and pulled out a data disc, and pressed it in Conner's hand and said, "If I don't make it, would you transmit this to my wife on Mar Sara? The coordinates are in the disc."
Conner's expression was blank when he asked, "Is it that serious?"
Elias nodded, and Conner continued, "I mean if it is why aren't I staying back here and fighting? Doesn't it make more sense that I stay behind and help, rather than go on some bloody prospect mission? We aren't even going to be around to mine the narrows after this!"
Conner took the disc, and Elias seemed relieved.
"How the hell am I supposed to transmit this? The colony could be gone by the time I get back! I'd be made a Confederate prisoner!" Conner began to pace back and forth nervously.
Elias heaved a heavy sigh, "I don't know all the reasons your going out there, but if worst comes to worst, be here when the Combine's reinforcements arrive, even if the dropships don't make it back, the Combine will notice we aren't sending transmissions regularly. You could transmit it then. Just don't fail me please!" Elias said with desperation in his voice.
Conner stopped pacing and looked Elias in the eye, "You know I won't." Then, he gripped Elias' hand, shook firmly and repeated what he said, "You know I won't."
"Thanks for loading this up for me." Elias nodded, and ruffled Conner's hair with his big glove as he said, "Now go on, and get the hell out of here before you cry." Both Conner and Elias grinned like Cheshire Cats while Conner walked over to the Vulture and heaved the box of spikes into a storage compartment into the back with his rifle.
The Vulture rocked stiffly as Conner stepped into the seat. Once he was settled in he reached into his chest pocket, and pulled out a pair of black sunglasses and put them on slowly. Looking over his right shoulder he nodded at Elias and pushed the ignition button. The Vulture's jets roared as Conner thrummed the throttle.
Releasing the brake Conner yelled as the sudden acceleration of the bike squashed him against the seat. As the bike screamed through the bay doors he thought, "This is going to be something to remember!" He had no idea just how right he was. This was going to be something he would always remember, something he would wish he couldn't remember, but he will remember, for the rest of his life.
