Chapter 6

“How are we going to get past Sir” asked Dennis.

“I don’t know, got any grenades?” Greeny asked, peering round the corner of the building he was leant against.  They were just a few meters away from the entrance to the training areas, but there was a large group of pirates guarding the door.

“No Sir, we weren’t issued them for the evacuation as they decided that collateral damage would be too much of an issue,” he paused as his eyes wandered over the burned and ruined city streets “Though I suppose it really wouldn’t have made that much of a difference”.

Greeny gave a small smile. “Ok, well there are twelve of them and only six of us, so I think we can take them, but, hang on, where is Jamming?” Greeny asked, becoming increasingly worried about their situation.

“He was right behind us a minute ago” replied a still groggy Mustysohi.  Greeny leaned around the corner again.

“None of you were watching him?” Greeny said, “Oh, never mind, lets just find him.”  Greeny stood up and started to edge away from the pirates, but was almost knocked from his feet.  His head spun. “What’s happened?” He shouted steadying himself.

“Looks like they have blown out the door to the training areas” Said Dennis, looking round the building.

“Damn, ok well we should be able to avoid them if we...”

“Sir,” shouted Dennis “It’s Jamming, he is talking to the pirates!”

“What?” Said Greeny angrily.  He moved to the edge of the building and watched Jamming moving towards the pirates.

Jamming was angry, why were the pirates attacking without his permission, he was after all the lord of the pirates.

“What are you doing you scum?” Demanded Jamming as several of the pirates raised their weapons.  “Don’t point those at me, do you know who I am? I am Jamming, Lord of all the Pirates, you will do as I say or you will face the consequences”.

Some of the pirates looked confused, others started to laugh, in their own races unique ways.  One of the Genus Pirates stepped forward.

“Oh master Jamming” He said mockingly, “If you are the lord of the pirates, why are you wearing a Terran Security Force uniform?”  The question didn’t seem to even register with Jamming.

“Don’t mock me”, he said angrily “I am the lord of the pirates, you should fear me!  Now do as I say or…”  But he never got a chance to finish that sentence, as the pirates had become bored with him.

Jammings death was not completely pointless however, Greeny saw that the pirates were now facing away from the door to the training areas, and decided to make his move. 

“Ok, on my mark jump out and start shooting” he said the four remaining Terrans that he had with him.  “Ok…Mark” Greeny said.  They jumped out and began to fire, seven of the pirates went down before they even knew what was going on whilst the other five dived for cover.  ‘That evens the odds’ Greeny thought to himself as he continued to fire at where two of the pirates were taking cover.  One of the pirates held his gun up and started to fire in the general direction of the Terrans.  Greeny took careful aim and shot the pirates hand, he dropped the gun and started to scream.

At this point there were only two pirates left, including the injured one.  Greeny signalled for the team to advance.  The uninjured pirate stood up and fired a shot off straight into one of the Terrans head, and he fell down dead.  Dennis finished off the pirate with a quick burst to the chest.

“Don’t kill the last one” Greeny said “I want to talk to him.  Go inside and find one of the weapon storage rooms, I will be down in a few minutes.”

“Yes Sir.” Dennis said, signalling for the remaining two Terrans to enter the tunnels.

Greeny walked over to the pirate who was crouching on the ground, cradling his ruined hand, the man was a young Plexxan.  Greeny walked up to him.

“Why is Cold Fire attacking us?” Greeny asked angrily.  The pirate didn’t respond, instead he spat at Greeny.  “I am going to ask that again” Greeny said, wiping the saliva of himself with his left hand whilst keeping his pistol pointed at the man with his right “Why is he attacking us?”  Again the man didn’t respond, so Greeny shot him in the right ankle.  The Plexxan screamed and tried to scramble away from Greeny, but Greeny slammed his foot down on the mans injured ankle, the man screamed again.  “Tell me!” He shouted.

“I don’t, I don’t know” shouted the man between screams.  Greeny took his foot off the man.

“Ok then, how did you defeat our planetary defences with such a small fleet?” Greeny asked.

“I don’t know, I wasn’t in the main fleet” Moaned the man “Please, I don’t know anything, let me go” he pleaded.

“I believe you” Greeny said, as he shot the man in the head.

Greeny ran down the corridors of the training areas until he came across Dennis’ team.

“Sir” Dennis said with a slight bow “This weapons locker needs a councillor’s fingerprint and iris scan.”

“Ok,” Greeny said, brushing his hair out of his face.  He leant foreword and put his eye against the iris scanner, whilst he put his hand on the fingerprint scanner.  The door opened and several lights were activated.  Greeny walked over to the weapons racks and picked up a Pulse Cannon, he gave it to Mustysohi.  “This is a powerful rapid-fire weapon, but it’s not very good against heavy armour, so aim for vulnerable spots.”  The Terran nodded.

“This” said Greeny, picking up a large weapon “is a Microlauncher.  It’s basically a small rocket launcher that can fire multiple rockets at once. Don’t fire it inside, it’s mainly used to take out tanks and other vehicles, so we might need it later” Greeny said handing it to Dennis. “And here are some grenades” Greeny said giving two to each man “I don’t think collateral damage is that much of a problem anymore.  Now I am going to put some armour on” Greeny said, gesturing at his ripped and burned night clothes. 

Greeny looked around, it had been along time since he had worn the standard armour of a Terran so he decided to go for the lighter armour, as it would slow him down less in combat.  He then started to pick up weapons and examine them.  His favourite weapon was the Disintegrator, but these were far from standard issue to Terrans so he decided to go for the both the Assault Shotgun and the Strobe Laser.  He strapped the Strobe Laser onto his back.  “Ok” he said, “Let’s go”.

Greeny looked up through one of the holes that had been blown through the roof of the tunnel.  The Sun had risen and he could see several squadrons of Terran fighters, probably G-47’s harassing an Invincible, and a few smaller pirate ships attempting to land.

“I don’t get it” Greeny said “Fleets a hundred times as big as this one have attacked Sol before and failed, why did this attack succeed?”

“I don’t know Sir, but these pirates must have some sort of plan, because they wouldn’t have got this far without one.”  Responded Dennis.

“We need to get to the Imperial Palace” Greeny said “I don’t understand why one of the fleets hasn’t got here.”  Greeny signalled for the men to follow him and began to run down the corridors.

“Sir” Said Mustysohi catching up with Greeny “There is a tram system nearby which will lead us directly to the Palace”

“Lead the way” Greeny said, slowing down to allow the young Terran to go in front.

Greeny looked out of the window on the tram, they were heading towards the Palace now, and he knew that he wouldn’t like what he found there.  By now most of the shields protecting the city would be down, millions would be dead.  The Tunnels were almost totally empty in this area, as it was only used during training and was kept locked the rest of the time.  As they passed into the area that wasn’t locked, Greeny felt his heart sink, there were thousands of Terrans, many injured, huddling together.  Dennis’ hand rose to press the button to open the door.

“Don’t” Greeny said, “If you open that door they will flood in.  Most of them won’t have any military training and none of them will have weapons, they will be killed in the first battle we get in.”

“But Sir” Said Dennis, slightly angrily “If we leave them here all they can do is wait for death.”

“It’s better than seeking it out.  Don’t touch that button Captain, that’s an order.”  Greeny said sternly, whilst raising his weapon slightly.

“Yes Emperor” He said, bowing slightly and turning away.

Greeny knew that Dennis was right, one stray torpedo or fusion cannon blast would kill all of these people.  But they would slow him down, and the longer he delayed the more people would die.

Dennis was angry, these people would not live much longer, and Greeny didn’t seem to care. 

“Wait!” Greeny shouted “Open the doors”.  Dennis responded immediately and slammed his fist into the button.  The tram slowed rapidly and the doors slid open.  Greeny raised his weapon.  “Ok, everyone listen to me, stay back or I will have to shoot you.  Captain.” Greeny said, pointing into the crowd at someone who Dennis couldn’t see “Come here”.

“Emperor!” Said Chad, as he got to Greeny “What are you doing here?”

“Never mind that, how much of your squad is left?” Greeny said, pointing his weapon at one of the Terrans who was slowly advancing towards the tram.

“All of us.  We were helping with the evacuation of this area, but the tunnel behind us collapsed.  We tried calling for a tram, but communications are down.”

“Yeah I know” Said Greeny.  At that point several Terrans tried to run into the tram.  Greeny fired a shot into the air “Get back, or I will kill you”.  The Terrans stopped and Dennis stepped out of the tram to help, he raised his weapon and stood next to Greeny.  Greeny looked at Chad again “Get your squad in the tram now, Captain”.

“Aye Sir” Chad signalled for his squad to approach.

“Ok get on” Greeny said, and then he looked at Dennis “When they are in we will move backwards into the tram, as soon as you can shut the doors and start us moving.  If anyone tries to get in, shoot them”

Dennis looked away from Greeny “Yes Sir”.

“Three, two, one, now” The pair backed into the tram and Dennis slammed the button again.  The doors closed and the tram started to move off.

Greeny looked at Chad “We are heading to the Imperial Palace, hopefully we will be able to figure out what is going on from there”.

“Aye Sir, by the way who is attacking us?” Chad asked.

“A pirate” Greeny replied “Named Cold Fire”  Greeny looked out of the window again “He is no ordinary pirate, and that is why we are headed to the Palace, to find out what we can about him.”

The tram information console alerted them that they would be arriving at the Palace in one minute.  Greeny readied himself and instructed the others to do the same.  Then the doors slid open.

Narses looked up from his console at the Lieutenant who had just entered his office.

“Sir” Said the Lieutenant “Greeny has entered the Palace”.

Narses eyes widened and he stood up.  “Thank you Lieutenant” He said, as he ran out the door.  He ran into the Command Room and collided with J0E0NE.

“Greeny is in the building” he said, picking himself up “Use internal transporters to get him up here.”

“He has a group of Terrans with him” J0E said, his fingers flying around the console.

“Bring them up as well” Narses replied.

Greeny looked around and smiled “J0E, Narses what’s going on?”

“We just beamed you out of the tram station” J0E replied, rising from his console.

“I know that” Greeny said, “I mean what happening in the City?”

“Well,” Narses said “All four shields on the northern side of the city are down, the south side is not being fired upon at the moment, mainly because we have destroyed most of Cold Fire’s fleet.”

“Wait,” Greeny said, confused “How do you know his name?”

“He contacted us and told us to surrender or die, naturally we told him to shove it” Narses said with a smirk “But anyway, I did some research, and there is no mention of anyone called Cold Fire in any of our databanks, however, there is a reference to a Project Cold Fire.”

“Go on.” Greeny said, looking out of one of the windows at the burning city.

“Well, there isn’t much data on it, it seems that most of it was erased.  But about ten years ago at an institute in England there was an experiment to make some sort of super soldier, the details are sketchy.  But apparently it was to have the speed of an Orfine, the strength of a Genus, etc.  Y’know, all the best bits form every race.  But for some reason the scientists stopped the experiment and tried to kill all the specimens.  However that day a cargo ship in the area was stolen.  That happens all the time so its nothing special.  However several of the witnesses said that they saw a ‘Monster’.”

“And you think that Cold Fire may have been made there?” Greeny asked.

“I don’t know, I would suggest that we try to find a way to get there.  But I doubt we would find much, that lab was turned into a reactor room for the Torchwood weapon.”

“Ok, well I think the first thing we need to do is find a way to get back into the fight.  How many Pirates are on the ground?” Greeny asked.

“At least two hundred thousand” J0E said gravely.

“What! How in Müller’s name did they get that many down in so few ships?” Greeny was suddenly very worried that they would lose this battle.

“We have no idea Sir, but we think it may have something to do with the long range transporter on the Pride of Terra.” Narses said, avoiding Greeny’s gaze.

Greeny suddenly felt very ill, “We have to stop them” he said quietly “Get me my armour and weapons.  And tell every Terran capable of using a weapon to get ready to fight back.  The Terran Empire will not go down without a fight.”  He said, as he walked out the room to his living quarters.