As the data was sent to the flag ship, the battle plan was formed and implemented. The four destroyers were Whitefang, Blackbolt, MS-Avenger and HS-Marker. While the six lancers are Immaculate, Fireball, HS-Ferret, Dragonfoot, Cheetah and Redtail. The destroyer Avenger will be paired with the lancers fireball and redtail, they will be the left arm of the pincers.


Then Blackbolt with Cheetah and Immaculate will be the right arm. They will be the two points of the pincers attack. While Whitefang joined by HS-Ferret and Dragonfoot will do the forward direct frontal attack with the flagship MMS-Defiant, following behind. The destroyer HS-Marker will clear the part for others to follow behind. After receiving the defense set up from the Max Neo through the flag ship, the HS-Marker, with its thrusters igniting, moved towards the Cluster, its weapon ports all opened and hot.


Just then multiple missiles were launched from the destroyer heading for the dense stones. The missiles are the type fondly called “Iron head “ because the missile explosive warhead is encased in an armored shell. When the missile hits a target, the armored cone head bore deep into the target, releasing the warhead deep within the target then causing it to explode. But in this case the warhead within these missile are plasma explosives, instead of blowing up the rocks and causing them to disintegrate into small pieces that still have potential to damage vessels, the plasma explosive will flash with a photon light that will vaporize the rocks instead.


Brilliant sparks and flashes of lights appeared as the missiles hit their targets and a path within the densely packed rocks was created. The HS-Marker slowly moved through the route it was creating taking vigilant readings on the positions of the space mines it will encounter as soon as it clears the rocky area.


As soon as the lead destroyer got out of the Cluster, the inactive drone-mines became came alive as their passive proximity sensors came online. Going on secondary assault status, the SAD drones unleashed the missiles locked within them. Each of the drone-mine has two FLS-anti armor missiles powerful enough to cut through the hall of a medium corvette battleship.


The missiles might not be strong enough to breach the cover of a destroyer but they can still cause serious damage with enough repeated hits. The drone-mines, about a thousand of them deployed their missiles on the targeted destroyer. Thousands of missiles were swiftly heading for the HS-Marker. Within the destroyer proximity alarms and multiple target locks warnings were going on.


Halfway to the missiles target, the destroyer responded by bringing all available batteries to bear on the targets. These are 50cm cannons firing plasma and heavy lazer bolts. The guns are fix on flexible joints with a rotation angle of 160° and spewing out huge kilojoule of energy a second. Those batteries are hundreds of them scattered around the destroyer to give it a complete covering fire. Thousands of plasma and lazer bolts intercepted the coming missiles and blowing them out of the way. In about thirty seconds all attacking missiles have been destroyed.

Going through another series of data showing on the tac screen before him he continued. “The seismic node just landed on the surface and has sent its data. On the surface are scattered Multi-Explosive Cluster – MEC bombs and Pulse Energy Cannons – PEC, these are the defenses that should bother use most, if we successfully scale through the mines field we may be hard pressed to avoid these.


“One thing about all these is strange concerning the asteroid itself. There are three areas giving off high energy heat readings showing that factories and building facilities are located, possibly where their purported ships were built. The unusual thing detected is that there appears to be a huge Inertia Drive Propulsion engine buried within the Omiron 09 asteroid itself. “


“What does that mean? “ Marvel asked dreading what the answer will be.
“That the asteroid as a whole can moved. “ The cyborg answered, his electronic voice betraying no emotion whatsoever. “It would seem to suggest that this was not the original location of the asteroid but it was moved over here from a previous place. “


“So how the hell did they get that huge rock through the tightly packed stones of the Cluster? “ Hardwire asked turning from his pilot chair to face them.
“That is impossible to determine at this moment. “ the cyborg replied.
“Alright send everything you have to the flag ship MMS-Defiant so they can pass it on to the other ships before they make their move. “ Turning to Hardwire, Marvel ordered, “Activate the camouflage mode and take us to the asteroid with all weapons activated and ready to fire. “

“I recommend a spy drone be sent out at this time. The space mines areas pointed on the map given to us from the MMS-Defiant can’t be relied upon. It was not based on real Intel but an assumed points where the mines can possibly be planted around the asteroid Omiron 09. We need to know the make, type and ability of them, before we venture any closer. “


Turning to Hardwire on the pilot chair, Marvel ordered. “Release the skylark spy drone SSD-MK 40. Guess that it’s what it is here for. “
“ADA, I want you to integrate your memory module into the storage compartment of the skylark to give full analysis of data received. When at the asteroid, disengage its seismic analyzer node, drop it on Omiron 09’s surface for complete sonar and seismic examination. That should help us have a rough idea on the outline of that place. “


The hologram image of the Artificial Defense Assistant came on with its blue light imagery, replacing the clothing of a corporate office secretary to that of a full combat camouflage uniform. “Yes sir. “ she said simply then vanished.
By the side of the Max Neo, a small device detached itself, it was about three meters in length, cylindrical in shape with a tapered front and twin short wings at the aft, with a single silent thrust, it pushed off, easily evading the huge stones around. Since it’s size is small and it was covered with the camouflage metal, it didn’t register at all when it got within the mine area around Omiron 09 but passed undetected as it recorded all in its path sending back the much needed data to the mini cruiser


After taking a while to study the readouts been sent from the skylark spy drone, cyborg turned to Marvel his cold voice loosing a little octave in the sound of his voice as if sad. “Getting to Omiron 09 won’t be that easy. For us, it may be possible using the camouflage mode. The first array of defense are the mines surrounding the place. But they are not really mines but defense drones. They are the Smart Automated Defense – SAD drones. They are armed with lazer and missiles with low yield nukes. They also have magnetic clamps that allow them attach to any ship that get close by and then explode. Their greatest advantage is that they are mostly dormant and gives no readings of any kind so vessels getting close won’t detect them till it’s too late, then they become active and blow up the ship. “

“Alright guys I’m not one for long speeches, “ Marvel said looking at those assembled before the Max Neo. “We are going in to that asteroid to grab two criminals, I’m sure you already have their images sent to your helmet’s HUD. I know you are all professionals and are accustomed to taking orders. So the chain of command goes like this, I give the orders to lieutenant McCain and he passes them to you. We go in fast and hit hard. Our targets can be taken dead or alive, so you don’t have to risk your skin just to keep them alive. They give your grief, you blow ‘em away. Personally, I’d rather just kill them and have this over with. So any questions? “ When after fifteen seconds with no one saying anything. “Alright then welcome to the Max Neo. “


Marvel turned back in as the marines followed him in a single file, taking their places in the fixed benches in the Max Neo storage bay. Marvel headed to the forward area of the mini cruiser to the control deck. Hardwire was already on the pilot’s chair, the Mole was sitting behind him. Cyborg was over the navigation console so Marvel took the co-pilot chair, though it was a bit of a tight fix with his Augmented Armored suit on.


Powering up the Max Neo, he engaged the antigravity control, lifting the mini cruiser from the deck of the dreadnought. The ship bay was at once a beehive of activities, as the attack boats started getting filled up with pilots and personnel, the vessels getting revved up for movement. Getting the needed clearance, Hardwire taxied the mini cruiser towards the opening bay door, then engaged the thrusters and drove away from the gigantic ship as the shield was dropped.


With careful control under the guidance of the invisible presence of ADA, Hardwire taxied the mini cruiser towards the packed rocks of the Cluster then headed towards it. The safe path plotted through the place came up on the tac screen, giving constantly changing figures, rerouting to avoid predictable collusion with moving stones.


They haven’t gone five minutes into the cluster when their first near miss collusion happened, it was a quick move by ADA’s underground control that took them out of the part on time. This forced Hardwire to cut down more on the speed of the Max Neo, taking careful calculations and watching the sudden zigzaging angles of unexpected meteors crossing their path. After several dodging acts, the cyborg turned his head to Marvel’s direction.

Looking out through the visor of the suit was strange a bit but was better than anything the space marine combat armor would have offered. He saw the Mole looking at him with his head cocked to one side, he was in full, all body combat vest, with the combat webbing overlaid on it, heaving several types of grenades hung on it, a big handgun locked in a waist holster.


He was carrying his ever trusty big plasma rifle. Something was jutting behind him. From the reading Marvel could get, it was a DNG-MK 112 combat assault rifle. A projectile weapon that fires armored flintsteel bullets. A drum clip of a 200 rounds attached to it. Several clips were hanged on pouches on the combat webbing.


Cyborg’s look was as impassive as ever, even with the Augmented Armored suit, he was still a head taller. Hardwire came to stand before Marvel with a look of pride on his face, he just couldn’t resist coming to touch the chassis as the helmet’s visor pulled up and Marvel’s face stared at him.
“Let’s get this show started. “ Marvel moved to the door leading outside bay area. “Our tag along passengers are ready to move. “


As the door opened, standing before the Max Neo in the gigantic ship bay of the dreadnought filled with Attack gunships, Javelin dart boats, armored troop carrier and a huge frigate, were twenty people in the space marine camouflage combat armored uniforms. The dreadnought ship is capable of housing about eight thousand personnel at once and more than a hundred attack boats, support ships and troop carriers.


The marines were in three lines of six each and ahead of them were two, with their helmet held by their sides. One of them was lieutenant McCain and the other was Jade. Marvel felt uneasy seeing Jade standing among the marines. She is not a marine personnel but is added to them because she is a spy. Spy always gives Marvel a skin crawl, he can never trust a spy no matter what that is why he doesn’t always like it when he has to work with her. He can as well do without her but it’s out of his power. Though Marvel is forced to admit that Jade is competent in her own way but he can’t have her to stand behind him. The other marine troops all had their helmets on with visor down. But the faces of Jade and McCain was looking up to him.

✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴
Later in the Max Neo, Marvel was already on the Augmented Armored Suit, having completed several virtual testing using it. He was already familiar with combat armor having used the ones that are adopted by the space marines armored infantry combat division. But this is different. Where the space marine combat armor serves as a covering and protection, this one is an enhancer. It takes what he can do and increases it.


The feeling of power from the neuro-cybernetic connection was intoxicating. It made Marvel feel all but invincible. That was one of the weakness Hardwire had warned him several times about the suit, that feeling of invulnerability can be deceptive, so he has to watch it.


“Virtual session completed. “ Hardwire said as he touched some control buttons on the panel connected to the virtual reality machine with several wires linking it to the Augmented Armored suit. The wires were disconnected and the VR head gear pulled off from the suit’s helmet. “You can move away from the machine now. “


Marvel willed himself to move and the suit responded to all his mental commands instantaneously. The size of the suit will need getting used to. He walked out of the virtual machine, each step sounded with heavy thuds. Standing before others in the bay area of the mini cruiser, they came to watch him as he took more steps, flexed his arms and fingers, turning his head around with perfect coordination. He checked the optical display on the helmet giving him a perfect 360° view . There’s IR, night vision, heat sensor, range finder, 3D holo compass, 150 times optical magnification, with telescopic and microscopic sight, an X-ray vision. The abilities on this suit are overwhelming and will take some time getting used to.

“And surprise is what we really need at the moment. “ Leyland took over from admiral Makushiba. “That is necessary because we don’t know the amount of ships they have, their classes and capabilities. “
“Seems you don’t really need me anymore, since it appears you can go through the Iron Belt Cluster without me verifying the safe route. “


“There you are wrong Marvel “ Leyland faced him again.” Sorry to inform you now but I will have to add a bit to your contract, your standard fee and payment will be included . I want you to bring Dalmar and Jeffery to custody. I believe they may both be holing up in that place. At least I need to get one of them. So this is what I need you for. While we do the frontal assault to draw them out, I want you and your team to land on Omiron 09, unseen and locate them. “


Taking a while to think about it, Marvel said. “Ok I can do that. With the necessary cover, but I’m not promising to bring them back alive. “
“Oh well, if captured alive, that might help my investigation more and lead to better exposure of corruption, the politicians will like that and it will help us locate their mole in the earth government. “ Shrugging with hands raised, “But if they get terminated along the way , it saves me a lot of paper work and brings this whole issue to a swift end. Either way it’s a win win for us. “


“Alright then. “
Facing the floating grid lines again, Leyland pointed at the three yellow ones. “These are the attack angles we want to use in coming against Omiron 09. While this dreadnought acts as the flagship and stays behind, the Destroyers and Lancers will be split into three, a Destroyer and two lancers in each group and one Destroyer at the arrow head point. We will use a delta formation tactics. “


Taking his cue from Leyland, Makushiba picked up. “The MMS-Defiant has the capability to cut a path through the Iron Belt Cluster, howbeit slowly, with the use of any of our six available heavy duty High-powered Particle beam cannons, or shoot several AA Wildfire missile, our Bunker blasters, into the stones to blow them apart. But if it gets to the worst, we can use the main armament of this dreadnought battleship, the Full Photon Cannon. But we won’t use that at first so the people in Omiron 09 won’t know we came equipped with that. “


Smiling widely, Marvel shook his head with mild amusement. “If they know you are coming against them with a Full Photon cannon, they will surrender without a fight or just shoot themselves. “
“What’s the fun in that. “ the admiral said joining in the low laugh with Marvel.
“Alright then, let’s wrap this up. We will need to stay in radio silence till the blasting starts. Wish us all luck. “ Leyland said with a smart salute.

Marvel shrugged helplessly looking at the Mole at his side who just maintained an easy but undecipherable look.
“Alright Leyland, this is your show. Tell us how we proceed from here. “ the admiral said pensively.


“Marvel and his team will go through the Iron Belt by the safe route he already have, but it will be under the cover of a ship bombardment. “ Leyland started by plugging a data cube to a tiny terminal before him with a touch of a button, the 3D image above the table was replaced by a grid of white lines, with several read dots filling the place. A green erratic line passed through the red points to somewhere in the middle of the grid. Three curved yellow lines close to each other appeared to pass in a pincer kind of movement.


Pointing at the dots, the general continued. “Looking at those red dots, you notice they are of two types, the big ones that are the more numerous ones are the dense rocks of the Iron Belt Cluster, the smaller ones are the places we suspect the orbital mines planted around Omiron 09 are located. Of course you’d have guessed by now that the green line is the safe pass through there but looking closely you will see that the green line intersects the smaller dots severally. “


Leyland turned to Marvel, coughed a little with a kind of look on his eyes. “Well that simply means, since that is the route you will take Marvel, you will be blown to pieces by the mines. “
“Well I’m sure sir that you didn’t call me here to send me on a suicide mission. “


“Definitely not Marvel. We will give you all the covering we can. But remember that our ships are too big to easily maneuver through those rocks as well as your smaller cruiser will. So our mobility will be greatly hampered. “ This time he turned to face the admiral.
“Never worry Marvel, the orbital space mines shouldn’t bother you at all, we have a way of clearing a path there. We can even cut a path through the dense rocks, if need be but we will definitely be sacrificing stealth and surprise advantage if we go that way. “

General Leyland followed him calling on Marvel to join them and this time he indicated that Marvel should bring all those with him. Marvel followed him with the Mole and cyborg trailing behind, Hardwire was at the Max Neo putting finishing touches to their preparations for leaving. This time they were led to a much larger meeting room that has a long metal table with about twenty chairs on each side facing a small holo display before each of them on the table.


Behind the head chair by the table is a huge holo display that covered the whole wall. Floating some meters above the table is a 3D image of a star map identical to that on the bridge of the ship. They were all told to take a seat. As usual cyborg remained standing by Marvel’s right hand side, because the chair can’t accommodate his size and weight. The Mole was by Marvel’s left.


The chair after the cyborg was occupied by lieutenant McCain, further on sat general Leyland. The admiral was by the head of the table but his sitting stance showed he was impatiently waiting for something or someone else before he can call the meeting to order. Just then, the door leading to the meeting room slid back showing a lithe person on full space marine camouflage combat armor complete with helmet and a closed visor escorted in by two armed naval officers. With a slight nod, the naval officers backed out of the room as the door slides shut.


The admiral indicated a chair by his left for the new comer to sit. “You can take off your head gear now. “
As the helmet came off the new comer, Marvel was taken aback by the face it revealed. “Thank you sir. “ the new comer said to the admiral before she turned to face the bounty hunter briefly with a sly smile.
“Trust me Marvel, she is really part of this and have done a lot of field work on this mission to be very valuable as it comes to a close. “ Leyland said to Marvel as he saw his looks when he noticed the new comer was Jade. Though on her placid looks it will be hard to tell that the admiral was her uncle, although there seem to be a subtle resemblance between them that can only be noticed if you already know about their relationship.

For just a second, Simon would have been worried about who their intending attackers are that requires this massive deployment but when he has been shown the yard of where the newly built ships were parked, he had been amazed at the level of achievement the mega corporations had gotten to right under the noses of the earth government.


He is confident that no matter the strength of the coming attackers, what is here in Omiron 09 is capable of taking them on. He just silently wished that Marvel will be among them so he can have the opportunity to kill him personally. Icicle had to take over another ADMEC from the previous owner while Uthega will be the one to lead ground troops. Standing before his own ADMEC, looking over the black painted machine form, the guns, cannons and missile ports giving him an idea of its destructive capabilities, he just smiled, Well we are going to have some exciting times, he thought.


✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴


The MMS-Defiant came out of Hyperspace few hours later accompanied by the Destroyers and Lancers. The hyperspace route plotted took them to the edge of the Iron Belt Cluster. From the holo display feed on the bridge, Marvel was able to see the Iron Belt Cluster, thousands of kilometers of densely packed rocks, each several kilometers in length floating in space all held together in an elliptical shape by the weak gravitational pull of each stone.


High sensor readings were being taken by the naval personnel at the ship’s bridge. Data, schematics and general layout were being read and passed to the admiral. Marvel watched the efficiency of those handling the ship’s controls on the bridge and was impressed, these are seasoned and experienced hands which gives Marvel a sense of confidence.
“Maintain maximum sensor range, order the Destroyers and Lancers to stay put till further notice. Will get back to you ASAP. “ the admiral said as he got up from his chair, telling the navigation officer who doubles as the ship’s XO to take care of things and he walked out of the bridge.

✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴

Simon Omega’s feeling of excitement and elation swallowed what would have been a surprise of a sudden change of hierarchical channel of communication. Right from his rescue from the Afterlife, his orders have always come through Cedric and he passes them down to those with him. But since they came to this remote place, Cedric has not been seen, the common rumor is that he didn’t come here and has other stuff to do.


After their somewhat successful raid on Nuterra, they have remained here, just resting and practically doing nothing. No one has come to say anything to them till now. The order have come from the big boss himself, there is red alert and all should prepare for engagement. But the exciting thing is that he will get to use his specially made ADMEC machine. He has done the virtual training on this machine and a bit of life testing , that is all he has engaged himself with since after coming back from Nuterra, no other things else to do here.


Walking out of the rec room heading towards the weapon and staging area., followed closely by Icicle and Uthega the only two still left from the original four with him from the Afterlife. The lift that took them up to the staging area stopped opening the door for them to get off. The place was as wide as trice the size of a gravity ball field. Most of the former inmates of Afterlife are all here, checking on their weapons and loading them, they are still more than hundred. The personal security troops of the Omiron 09 were also here getting loaded up on artillery.


In all they make up the size of several companies of infantry like fighting men. Behind them, Simon Omega can see the huge sizes of the ADMECs, the five from the original ones that had survived but something else beside them, the prototype ADMEC that was specifically designed for him to use. This was the prototype that was made after the initial ten were completed. This ADMEC prototype is twice the height of the average one, though bipedal and humanoid in form, it has four instead of the usual two arms. The extra two arms ended in wide cannon muzzles. That is another thing about the prototype ADMEC, it has twice the fire power of the other ADMECs and it’s all Simon’s own to use. At the further side of the staging areas are gun boats being prepared for deployment.

The screen went off as the call was terminated. Dalmar spent the next few minutes making calls and issuing orders, most of them to those on Omron 09, to lift the security level to full red alert status. In all these, he didn’t fail to hear the silent move of the door into his quarters being opened. Only one person in the whole of Omiron 09 have the override code to open the door when locked. But turning he was surprised to see the figure that was standing silhouetted at the open door.


“How? “ was all he could say as it seem that shock would have paralyzed his vocal cords.
“Oh don’t get too worried, as I would have definitely been surprised seeing myself this way too. “ As the shadowed figure walked into the room was shown to be Jeffery, standing on his two feet without the aid of his customary power chair.


“Surprised is the least of my feelings right now. How did you do it? “ Dalmar asked after he allowed the sudden shock to pass out of his system.
“Well that’s the miracle of modern science. “ Jeffery smiled condescendingly as he came to stand before the sitting corporate head. “I borrowed and improved on two inventions from our erstwhile employee, Dr. Guthrie. His nano tech bots created for medical application became the means of curing my ravaged infected tissues after a slight modification. I programmed the nano machines to locate and destroy all the infected parts of my body, eliminating about eighty percent of my body and the infection it self. It destroyed all infected organs, tissues and cells because no cure for that disease exist. But to save me from dying, each destroyed part was replaced by synthetic flesh, something my company is proficient in, as you know. The destroyed bones were replaced by silicon-fibre. For my backbone and nervous system, Dr. Guthrie’s cybernetic-neuro circuitry dif the trick. Now I’m cured and stronger than I ever was. “


Dalmar took a while to view his colleague standing in his white lab coat and light blue pants, amazed at such ingenuity.
“I've Seen the sudden red alert on the whole place. Trouble? “
“There’s a likely possibility that we will be having unwanted visitors. “
“Marvel? “
“Likely but he might be in the company of general Leyland. “


“Damn, why doesn’t he just die. “ Jeffery cursed with clenched teeth. “I thought we really had him on Puerta del Cielo. How the hell did he survive that? “
“Still a mystery. “ Dalman was pensive as he addressed Jeffery. “The report of his survival was hard for me to accept when first I heard it. “
“ What level of threat are we expecting? “
“A task force made up of a dreadnought battleship, four destroyers and six lancers. “
Whistling loudly, Jeffrey said. “That is pretty high, we may have ticked someone badly. “
“Yes, so get ready we may have to move at a moment’s notice. “

Amazed at that, Dalmar spoke so low a little above a whisper yet the holo screen audio receptors picked it up. “That is really smart of the general, goes to show he truly earned his military rank. “
“Unfortunately true and at the moment he is not answerable to his military superiors in the marine command. As the present head of CSC and Earthwatch, only the president and the senate can call him to order. Right now the senate are in panic over terrorist attacks so have given the president emergency powers which he has conferred on Leyland. So no way of getting to him that way. “


After another brief pause the speaker continued. “Just try and delay him as much as you can if he shows up there, while on this end I will try and get some senate and legal backing to send a counter task force to restrain him. “
“Will do that.” Dalmar said as he readjusted his chair back to a straight sitting position. “But you will have to admit the senate is a huge stumbling block to us and need to be eliminated. “


“That’s correct. “ agreed the speaker. “With the senate out of the way quickly we can sideline the president for the few moments the confusion of them disappearing will give us to mount a silent coup that will enhance our base of political and military power. “
“Do you now agree that we put in motion the last contingency place to neutralize the senate? “


“Of course, this is the perfect time. With the senate out of the way, the president will be weak, then General Leyland will be arrested and brought on trial for war crimes and terrorism. The Earthwatch will be disbanded, the CSC will be conscripted into either the Earth Defense Force or Global Security Police. Then for the bounty hunter, Marvel, if he survives this encounter, will be sent to the Afterlife. The cyborg confiscated into government or mega corporation property. I think that about brings us back to plan. “


“Just in time for the implementation of Alpha project. “ Dalmar smiled a bit now relieved.
“How ready is the senate neutralization preparation? “
“All in place, my agent is on stand by and the equipment ready all awaiting my order. “
“Good. You can give the go ahead. I will have gotten the counter task force order by then before your agent gets here. “

“Not in the time we have left. Our facility here on Omiron 09 was build to last, we are deeply rooted here believing that discovery won’t be a problem for the next couple of years. And quick evacuation is out of the question, it will take us several days to pack up and be ready to move. “
“What about the defenses you have in place over there? “
“Again a dreadnought, four destroyers and six lancers? “ Dalmar chuckled bitterly. “It will only delay the inevitable. “


“Can the newly built ships stop them? “
“Some problems with that exist. “ Shaking his head in sad denial, Dalmar replied. “Though the ships are well armed, but we have very few people that can pilot them in combat. Against that task force, nothing good will come out of it. Our best bet is for the Iron Belt Cluster to slow them down and force them through the bottle neck provided by the safe passage, there we can use to hit them hard. “


“You work on that and let me see what angle I can use here on earth to stop that move politically. “ A few seconds passed before the holo screen speaker continued. “There have been several secret meetings between the president and Leyland, which no one has been made privy to, not even the senate arms committee the president answers to. That is why I couldn’t see the sudden move of Leyland with a secret task force coming. The president has been so secretive as if he suspects every one in the senate chamber. Though his move on this task force is not legal, there is no legal knot to tie him down with. He is pushing the boundaries of the senate pressure on him to stop the crisis by all means. Legally, neither Leyland nor the president can come after you but neither do you or the other corporations with you have an official presence in the Iron Belt Cluster, so Leyland is not legally coming after you. “

Chapter Twelve

“ There might be a problem. “ pronounced the faceless silhouette on the holo screen. The secured call came by powerful hyperspace relay drones, cutting it from the general instantaneous comm sat units located on every star system humans have colonized. The relay drones uses only one comm secured line, so that gives the user ultimate privacy. “Rabel have dropped out of sight. “
Taking some moments, Dalmar mused over that for a while before responding. “That isn’t unusual in its self is it? “


“Normally that won’t be, but since his resignation from active piracy, he has always been seen. Though we know he did side jobs once in a while, that takes him out of view shortly but he always appears again. “ The speaker paused for a while allowing the import of his words to sink in. “But this time, it is different. He went for his side illegal trade as usual but hasn’t shown up since then. Him, his cargo and ship all just disappeared. “


“Could it be an accident, a trade disagreement or a pirate rival wanting to get revenge? “
“No, that is not the case this time, else at least his cargo would have come up in the black market for sale and the remains of his ship cannibalized by scavengers. “
“Any need I should be seriously concerned beyond the reason that he supplied us the safe route through the Iron Belt Cluster? “ Dalmar asked setting his chair in his private quarters to recline as his mind worked over several possible implications.


“I think the Earthwatch might have gotten hold of him. “ the speaker on the holo screen said. “It became more obvious now as your people on Nuterra just informed me that Leyland has left Nuterra’s orbit and I don’t think he is returning to earth. “
“Considering he is with a heavily armed naval task force, he may be headed this way, if we assumed that Earthwatch has Rabel in custody. “ Dalmar cracked his right knuckle on his left palm weighing his options.
“Any way this can be avoided? “

“Yes sir. “ the navigator replied. “Course set and sent, sir. “
“What’s the count down on the fusion drive? “
“Twenty seconds and counting down, sir. “
“Alright all get ready for hyperspace insertion. “
Instinctively Marvel’s mind ran the count down as a long time past training has taught him to. When the count down got to five, alarm started to sound all around the ship with a disembodied voice saying. “stand by for hyperspace. “ At one second count down, all the overhead lights in the ship’s bridge went off and in their place came in the read colored emergency light.


“Hyperspace fusion drive engines engaged. “ said the disembodied ship’s voice. This is one part of hyperspace travel Marvel never fails to pay attention to. His eyes were focused on the transparent view ports on the bridge. The black background of space were pinpointed with millions of stars winking as if from a stationary point. As the ship went into hyperspace, the pinpoints of the stars lights stretched and elongated as if they were elastic, appearing like long lances of light. Then they disintegrated all together as the multi hued lights of hyperspace filled the view port.


And the sense of a no-being that characterize the initial entering into hyperspace kick at Marvel’s mind, held it a bit and let go. Hyperspace travel has come a long way. Centuries passed when hyperspace travel first started, men had ran mad from the initial sensations of having your body being pulled out of normal space, seeing nothing, not even the stars and blackness of space, but the multi clashing colors of no-space. But that was in the past. Now the inconvenience of hyperspace travel is just relegated to the background of the mind and seen as the minor inconvenience of space travel.

Hi guys, sorry for the delayed updates. Had issues with my phone. For now it's fixed and I hope permanently. **




** “That I’m aware of son, “ the general laughed again. “I’m not sending you the regular space marine troops but the Space Marine Force Recon Squad. “
“Oh, “ was all Marvel could say. The feats of the Force Recon marine are legendary. Marvel has been one of them before. They are an elite fighting force personally handpicked and specially trained by general Leyland himself. They are the cream of the sol system space marine force. Trained in all terrain combat methods. And they are also proficient in the commando style guerrilla fighting tactics . Their standard issued uniform is the unique chameleon camouflage combat harness. They are good, even among the best in all the military arms of the Earth Defense Force.


“I can see you approve. I will be sending you twenty of them, all under the competent command of lieutenant Terrance McCain jr. They have been ordered to follow your every instructions and be subordinate to members of your team. “
“Ok sir, When are we leaving? “
“We are leaving planetary orbit immediately. “


Back at the ship’s bridge, the admiral was sitting at his command chair, while general Leyland was given a chair close by with Marvel sitting near him. Every other person was sitting with their crash belt all hooked except the cyborg that couldn’t get a chair his size can fit in. His feet has has magnetic clamp that fastened him to the bridge’s floor and all movable part of him frozen rigid by the realignment of the metallic parts.
“Power up the hyperspace fusion drive. “ admiral Makushiba ordered.


“Hyperspace fusion drive powered up. “ said a female who appeared to be in her early twenties, in a crisp naval uniform on the control chair, close by to a younger man who was on the navigation seat.
“Set preprogrammed course for the Iron Belt Cluster. “ the admiral addressed the young navigator. “Send the preset course to other ships, let them be advised. “

lonewolftzar25:

You haven't bro.
You're one of the reasons I decided to create a nairaland account.

Ok but I recall sending to u. Anyway check ur email box again

lonewolftzar25:
Me too apollux

I think I have responded to both of you, check you emails.

Xavier5:


Apollux, Nice and Wonderful story you got here. It's absolutely mind blowing, intriguing and screen gluing. Unfortunately, Thanks to the Anti Spam Bot I never got to see the concluding part of the blockbuster.
Apollux, please help a Fan and Brother in need. I know it's coming late that's because I discovered this GEM late also. Please send the concluding part of this story starting from where you stopped in this Thread To my E-mail so that I can read it. Here is my E-mail, preciousuweh@gmail.com.

Thanks In Anticipation.

#XAVIER.

Just send me a message on my email address, so I won't make mistake on ur address.
BTW, have you seen the part 2 of this story? It is still ongoing. Check it out, you will like it.

“Which means they might be expecting our coming. “ added the admiral.
“Any idea the amounts of warships they have ready or the likely kind of defenses or resistance they can put up? “ Marvel asked.
“No to both questions. “ Leyland replied. “We couldn’t decipher any other thing from the data sent to us by Dr. Bryant. “


“I now have a better understanding of the security set up around Omiron 09.” The cyborg said suddenly. “Though reconstruction of the lost and damaged data haven’t been complete, still some reliable information has been coming up. Omiron 09 has orbital like defense network set up. There are anti-ship mines scattered around the space between the single rock of asteroid that is Omiron 09 and the surrounding dense debris. “


“Simply put, we will need a small craft to navigate safely through the mine field surrounding Omiron 09.”
“Yes Marvel, your craft is definitely small enough for that. But you will need to know the nature of the kind of mines and security network in place around there so you don’t tick them off. Your cruiser can’t stand up to a warship no matter how ill-equipped the warship is. “


“Of course general, that is why cyborg will be going with me and besides my mini cruiser have other resources that are available and will come in handy in completing this job. “
“Why am I not surprised. “ Leyland laughed quietly. “I must admit you've got quite a team, very efficient and effective. “
“Thank you sir, “
“Ok while on this, I would want you to take some of my men and add to your team on the first insertion on Omiron 09.” Leyland told Marvel.
“General my team is closely knit, adding regular marine solders to us will destabilize the strong synergy we have been enjoying so far. “

“We are successfully tied down from arresting or investigating Dalmar and his conniver Jeffery until we can get an authorization from the Global Civil Court which will only be given when we present convincing evidence to support such demands. “ Shaking his head sadly, the general concluded. “They have been very smart in making sure that all their tracks are wiped clean so we have nothing solid to hold them with. My move is not an officially sanction one against them. I left earth on the premise of showing this star system that the earth government have the capacity to protect and keep them safe. “


“The good thing about it is we have some amount of flexibility to extend that order from the president. “ the admiral spoke for the first time since the meeting started. “With your latest Intel, we can go after Dalmar directly without an official backing with a bit of technicality. Officially, neither Iris System Securities nor Syntech has any registered facility within the Iron Belt Cluster, so our going there will be on a response to an intelligence tip off. Since that place doesn’t officially belong to the people whose legal injunctions stops us from investigating, we are technically not violating any law. “


“Sounds like a good plan sir. “
“Yes it is and should be, “ Leyland replied instead. “Since that is the only viable plan we have at the moment. But there might be a snag. “
“What will that be sir? “
“We have taken Rabel out of sight. If Dalmar has been watching him as much as I suspected, his sudden disappearance might raise suspicion. My arriving at Nuterra might have been sudden but wouldn’t be unexpected considering all that have been happening. But if I leave Nuterra’s orbit and it was discovered I didn’t return back to earth, they may put things together and form a picture. “

The gravity of the situation muted Marvel for some seconds. This is unprecedented, no one has ever been able to build warships on their own. This act will change everything. Now, the potential for interstellar war among humans is inevitable. This is what the earth government have been fighting hard to prevent. No wonder this massive quick response.


“There is no how something this big could have gone on for such length of time with out a single slip up. “ Marvel said thinking aloud.
“Quite true, that has lend more credence to the possibility of them having some sympathizers deep within the hierarchy of the earth government. Their tracks were well covered and even in the areas where we might have discovered their works, no real evidence is available that we can hold them on. “


Holding on a while before continuing, Leyland changed the display on the holo screen to a footage that seems to be a holo vid news cast. Several people who appearsed to be protesters, carrying placards with hologram writings, screaming words that were inaudible through the screen. Their numbers are in some thousands before the main gate to the senate building on earth.


“To make matters worse, the mega corporations have been waging the PR campaign against the government on earth. Secretly sponsored protests have sprung up suddenly on earth. Anti-earth government slogans are becoming popular now in the solar system. They are gathering sympathy for themselves in other to tie us down and get us busy so we can’t come after them. “


“We have been having something similar here on Nuterra too since after the attack on Trans Terra tower. “ Marvel added after watching the clips for a while. “Though very few protests and fewer riots attacks at CSC command posts. Though nothing as major as what I’m seeing on earth. “

Lol nice concept arts.. Accurate too

Pausing for a while, Leyland touched a control button on the table close to the holo display, which showed a sheet with names, having many of them crossed with red lines.


“We got several hits after investigating the list of corrupt officials given to us by Dr. Bryant here. Though I handed over the list to the president, he authorized me to investigate them, though lightly and secretly because lots of people on that list are senators and top government officials with heavy political clout. That was were we discovered that Dalmar have been using these people, without them even knowing to procure fusion fuel for himself. And he was smart enough to hide his involvement. Till now there is no way we can tie him to even a single of those purchases. And we can’t openly investigate these senators or officials because of the political backlash that will come out of it. Also we are sure most of them are not even aware they are been used as puppets in this conspiracy. Son this is really bad. “


“Any idea now what they are hoarding fusion fuel for? “ Marvel asked.
“Yes son. At the moment they have millions in metric tons of fusion fuel. “ Leyland shook his head in disbelief. “That is almost like two percent of the total at the disposal of the earth government. What is available for use for earth and the entire solar system in the hand of one person. The implications are outstanding. “
“But what will they use it for? “
“The obvious thing. They need it for the warships they were building. “


“What? That is impossible. No one or more mega corporations have the resources to do that. Even if they did, there is no way they can do that in secret without the earth government knowing. “ Marvel almost jumped out of the chair.
“My sentiments exactly but the new available facts proved otherwise. “ touching the key again another image replaced the sheet on the holo display. It was of a man in his late forties. “That is Stephanous, one of the people used by Dalmar as a sleeper agent in the staff of a senator that is a prominent member if the senate arms committee. Jade caught him on one of the investigation. It was from him we got to know that some mega corporations on Nuterra are building warships in secret. He couldn’t tell us more as his head exploded after making that initial confession. A cranial implanted bomb that was meant to explode when triggered by some words if uttered by him. We couldn’t get much but at least we got all that. My guess is if you go to Omiron 09, you will be greeted by well armed corporate owned warships. “

“At ease son, you are no longer required to salute me, since you were discharged from the commission. “ the admiral said. He was a man who locks like in his early sixties, with tiny eyes, flat brow with silky silvery hair shot through with black lines and a well shaped silver gray mustache. His dark blue naval uniform was crisp as well as the emblem of rank on his right chest and epaulets.


“I know you weren’t expecting me here in person at this time. Well things have taken a sudden turn which necessitated all these. My movements has to be all hush-hush. Still I doubt if I left earth without leaving a trail. “ Pointing at those that came with Marvel, Leyland continued. “ I want to talk this over with you, but not here. You will have to leave your buddies behind here, only Dr. Bryant will be allowed to accompany you. Then I and the admiral are all that will be involved in the discussion. “


Marvel went with the general and admiral after explaining the situation to the others and the cyborg trailing behind him. They were brought to a small room with nothing but a round metallic table with a holo display in the middle, then five chairs surrounding it. Cyborg’s coming made the room feel a little too claustrophobic. While Leyland sat close to Admiral Makushiba, Marvel sat with the cyborg standing as the chair seems too small for him.


“Son we finally figured out what the beta project on the data you sent to me is. “ Leyland said leaning away from the chair to rest both his hands on the table. “That was why they needed fusion fuel desperately. But they were hampered by the restrictions and controls put on by the earth government for the sales and procurement of fusion fuel. Adequate records had to be kept and strict regulations and rationing of it have to be followed. So the mega corporations couldn’t just come out and buy the actual amount of fusion fuel they need without drawing suspicious attention to them and having earth government pounce on them. But they have succeeded by using other means. They have been able to acquire huge tones of fuel by fronting so many dummy companies, buying through them. And my surprised is their purchases were authorized without thorough investigations made into the background of those companies. “

“Welcome Marvel good to see you too son. “ The general smiled, he came down from the low pedestal the captain’s chair was on, walking close to the bounty hunter and held Marvel up in a tight embrace. Marvel felt his tightly held emotions cracking up. Despite the façade they both kept, somewhere deep within them there is a strong bond of love both of them shared. Marvel had known general Leyland all his life, as a kid when he usually cone to visit their home. A secret most people now won’t know is that Leyland and Marvel’s father were close friends.


“You are looking good. “ Marvel whispered into his ears.
“Not as good as I’d want to be son. “ Breaking the hug he looked Marvel over on the face before turning away sadly. “Wished we were meeting under a better circumstance though. “
After taking the time to welcoming the rest of Marvel’s team he turned back to him. “Seem Dr. Guthrie isn’t coming with you on this? “


“Yeah, he has other personal stuff to take care of. “ Marvel looked behind the general at the person occupying the ship captain’s chair. “Besides the doctor is not a combat person. “
Seeing Marvel’s look, Leyland led him to the pedestal. “Come let me introduce you. “
“Here is the one who runs this little show, Admiral Tsu Itsuki Makushiba, he heads this special task force. I am just here on an advisory capacity, discreetly of course. “ Leyland said bringing Marvel before the chair. “Oh and I see you noticed the resemblance, that’s not a coincidence either, he is Jade’s maternal uncle. “
Marvel saluted as smartly as he could recall.

Just then Marvel heard the conversation between the dreadnought ship and his own craft. As Hardwire gave the clearance codes given by the general they were allowed to dock their craft on landing bay 12. The true dimension of the dreadnought ship became more obvious when the Max Neo got closer, the massive size swallowed the smaller craft. The Max Neo getting to the landing bay 12 was like a fly approaching an elephant.


The mini cruiser came for a landing and as the door slid apart, Marvel and his group saw themselves flanked by a security detail made up of space marines on their chameleon camouflage uniforms, all armed with standard military issued lazer rifles . They were led by a lieutenant, who saluted Marvel smartly. He introduced him self as lieutenant McCain, led them out of the wide landing bay that had several javelins and attack gun boats being worked on by military mechanics. The landing bay was a maze of activities.


One of the doors leading out of the place had two space navy personnel guarding it, allowing Marvel’s group and their escorts to pass without questions. Taking them to a wide lift that accommodated them all, they got to the desired floor and the door opened. Lieutenant McCain took them through a long corridor that had armed guards on navy uniforms either patrolling or standing at every bend. They stopped at a door which seems to lead to the bridge of the ship. Four armed marines and navy personnel were standing before it but they were allowed in.


The bridge was a big one, almost half the size of the Max Neo. Rows of chairs occupied with naval personnel all facing several display monitors. At the center of it is a giant 3D rendering of a star chart covering the whole areas of space occupied by human colonies. The view port which was definitely made of hardened reinforced transperisteel, has figures and shapes made of lights showing on them.


They were taken to the area the ship’s captain is. Standing by the captain’s chair was general Leyland, in his full combat camouflage uniform. Marvel hadn’t seen him in years except through vid screen. The general still looked strong for one his age. The passage of time had taken its toil on him, as his faced was covered with the lines of sagging skin, still his eyes blazed as fiercely as ever.

Vulcanheph:
Dear apolloux.....i have been reading your story from book one and so far i Love it , your writing style, the Diversity of your characters(let us not Forget that the Mole is actually a Yoruba man) and your level of imagination, but i have some things to say.
1. If humans have been able to Explore the Galaxies there is a possibility that they might have Encountered intelligent life forms with more advanced technology.
2. You never explained how inter planetry communication is possible between planets that are light years away fron each other.
3. The reason behind Mole's Loyalty to Marvel, since we know he is a wild card.
Moreover i still think it's a good story and i can sense Chemistry between Marvel and Jade....please don't be Offended by my input, i'm just a huge sci-Fi fan, i Recommend some these Favourite movies of mine for u to use as case study incase you ever have writers block.
Star wars, star Trek, Valerian and the city of a thousand planets and the expanse.(Which has a similar storyline with marvel)

I'm quite happy with your inputs,nice meeting a fellow sci fi fan. Now to ur questions... If I can answer them...


For your 1st question,... Let me not let the cat out of the bag yet. (but on a side note if you read through this story very well, you will get subtle hints. Well there is a 3rd part of this story so let's wait and see. But remember space is a big place and humans just started space colonizations in about 4 centuries)


2. Interplanetary communications is basically not a big deal since hyperspace travel is possible. There is the hyper comm links, then there is the sat comm and web net satellites linking colonized star systems with the solar system. They control all electronic communications, news feed, holo vid calls and 3D messages.


3. Well there are a lot of things that are past events that I haven't touched yet( deliberately though) some are, Marvel’s past life as a marine, his problem with colonel James, why he was discharged from the military, then his friendship with the Mole and a whole lot of others. Which I may touch later on or on the 3rd part of the story arc.

As for the suggested movies, I have watched all star wars movies, they are the best as far as sci fi space adventures are concerned. I have read lots of star war novels, at least 20 or more of them. I have watched some star trek movies too and read few of their novels. I have seen Valerian and the city of a thousand planets too. Watched Jupiter rising too and most sci fi movies available. Except Expanse that you mentioned. Will definitely check it out

In less than five minute , the Max Neo broke through the sky canopy cover over Nuterra, getting to the upper orbit. Space as usual was dark with stars twinkling. The massive size of the gas giant Nuterra orbits dwarfs the moon, and just peeping behind the gas giant glowing like a jewel amidst the blackness of space is the bright light of the Proxima Centauri star with its dark orange color tints.


Few minutes later the massive size of the capital ship which was their destination appeared on their view port. The battleship the general is in is a dreadnought class type. A huge vessel easily more than three kilometers in length. It is one of the biggest class of ship on the fleet of the earth’s space navy, only smaller than the super dreadnought class, which is more than twice the size of the regular dreadnought class.


The dreadnought battle ship here is the MMS-Defiant, it is a capital ship, a control mother ship to coordinate others in a battle field. Its shape is a form of cylindrical ovoid, whose smooth metallic surface was spoilt by the protruding bulging angles of its huge gun ports, conical communications towers and the extremely huge eight fusion thrusters at the back, each the size of an average skyscraper.


Beside the huge battle ship are other smaller vessels , that are battle ships too but of smaller sizes. Marvel could easily tell the difference between the Lancer class ships and the Destroyers, four destroyers and six lancers, all in conical triangular shapes. Marvel still felt cold shivers running down his spine at what he is witnessing. This is a massive major offensive deployment , what could have happened to have justified a move of this scale, the bounty hunter couldn’t help himself not thinking that again.


Or could the earth government have gotten tired of the annoyance of the mega corporations' obstinacy and decided to take direct control of the colonies themselves, like he has always feared? It is a well known fact that, though it may stretch them thin, the earth government and the solar system have the power to take over all the colonies with minimal resistance from the mega corporations. But will general Leyland allow himself to be used in something of such moral disrepute? Not from all that Marvel has known of his erstwhile commanding officer. Then what other explanation exist?

“You sure you can handle this baby on the first time around? “ Marvel put the question to Hardwire.
“It’s really nothing hard. I’m not the one actually piloting, all controls are being done by ADA, who is a much better pilot than I am, I’d admit. My being here is just for the human input. “
“Alright take us up then, we need to meet with general Leyland in orbit. “


Powering the mini cruiser, then ADA running the preflight diagnosis and system check caused the Max Neo to lift gently from the floor after all systems showed green. The mini cruiser floated several meters above the floor on anti gravity propellers, heading for the tunnel leading out of the space it was packed in. As soon as it got into the tunnel, the huge doors behind it clamped down, was locked air tight. The tunnel led to another door, that looked dense and heavily armored, the door opened as the floating vessel got close and automatically locked it self again as it passed.


This time the Max Neo was in a wide shift that was just a little larger than it. Just then the floor slowly pulled apart and water started pouring in. As the floor widen enough for the craft to pass through, the Max Neo dipped down into the rushing water, coming out of the shift which its opening led through a high part of the bottom of the Imra lake. Piloting the craft under the deep waters of the lake, Hardwire headed for the part of the shore close to the dense forest to evade detection because that area is most of the time devoid of people and normal vehicular activities. Once there, the Max Neo burst out of the waters, its fusion thrusters ignited, it moved heading for space.

The screen went off and Marvel, swallowing up his doubts turned to the others, “You heared the man, let’s go. Hardwire, pack the AAS suit along with its customized weapons, we are taking it with us. Cyborg you will be going with me and the Mole. Dr. Guthrie you will unfortunately stay back, you have your personal stuff to take care of. “
“Yes that is correct. “ The doctor replied. “I just got some patent right signed on some of my domestic use inventions. All ready I have thousands of pre-order requests I have to pay attention to. This is the best time for that. “


“Good idea, you make money while we go fight a war. “ Marvel chuckled. “Alright, let’s load up, we are going on the Max Neo, so Hardwire, you get to pilot the mini cruiser on its maiden flight. “
The Max Neo felt bigger inside than it looks outside. Getting into it, Marvel could tell how much more bigger it is from the Max 2. It has four levels, the engines and power area is below. The quarters and rec area takes the middle levels, the top is for the cockpit and a conference room. The weapons control are located in the cockpit. It looks like the arrangement on a mini ship. The pilot seat located directly opposite the transparisteel view port, with the co-pilot by its right side. The left side is the seat for the navigator, facing a tac screen, a space map of the charted parts, floating on a 3D display, spherical and divided into four quadrants.

Further left by the navigator is the weapons control seat, with a tac screen also, scanners and power control buttons. Then by the entrance is the chair made for the captain which Marvel is occupying at the moment. Despite all these, the Max Neo cockpit didn’t feel cluttered, it has a wide open space in the middle. Hardwire was sitting at the pilot seat with the Mole Occupying the co-pilot one. ADA’s holographic image is seen before the navigation seat and the Cyborg was in the weapons control area.