After completing the circuit of the broken starship, clambering over broken tree trunks and branches, they found a second large hole in the port side of the starship. As with the starboard side, the port thruster was also missing, lost over the prairie somewhere, the area around this hole was badly burnt and was also pushed outwards. Both of the holes were caused by an explosion from within their craft, it was obviously sabotage that had caused them to crash into the forest.
The three officers stood staring at this second hole in their vessel, and had the saboteur been there, in front of them, they would have gladly torn him limb from limb.
“There is no point staring up at the hole and wishing for vengeance Robert, Don.” Captain Larson said. The way things were he could not see the point of speaking formally now. “Let`s check over the cargo, see how much of it has survived the crash.” Captain Larson said glumly.
They returned to the rear of the starship, luckily it was laying in open prairie, and calling on all of the colonists and crew, they opened the massive rear doors that led into the hold. The first thing that they unloaded were the many two person tents, for these would be the initial homes to the colonists, until they built their simple log cabins. The cabins would be their homes for the first part if not all of their life upon New Caledonia, to be improved but only replaced when time and material allowed it. However, even these would have to wait until after they had their farms up and running.
The sun was already near to the western horizon, their first night on New Caledonia was fast approaching, so he had half of the colonists begin to set up the tents alongside the river on its northern bank. Captain Larson now checked on the other items, and he found that miraculously almost everything seemed to have survived intact. He now had a portion of the food supplies and other essential items unloaded by the remaining colonists; this gave his crew the opportunity to set up two of the water purifiers alongside the river with two of the solar powered photovoltaic panels to power them. Having checked on the essential cargo he now sent a message back to Earth telling them of the crash, the cause, and that the crew, the colonists and most of their cargo had survived the crash. Thankfully the ship`s communication centre had survived with enough back up power to enable them to use it until a power supply was attached to one of the solar powered photovoltaic panels. A roster of the crew was drawn up to ensure that someone was detailed to stand by the Communications Centre at all times, ready to take down any messages sent to them from Earth.
Earth`s reply later that evening was that the crew would have to wait for their lift back to Earth, which could take sixteen weeks or more to arrive, the Church of the Universe would send a second starship, a freighter, and it would bring further supplies to supplement those already on the planet. On Earth a full investigation was underway, the chief suspects being the followers of the Genesis cult.
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Slowly approaching the planet New Caledonia, but still days away, First Officer Karin picked up the message sent from Earth.
“Captain, Earth is replying to an earlier message sent by the colonists, one we missed, it is telling them that a rescue craft will not be here for at least sixteen weeks, maybe even longer, it seems that the colonists have also suffered some mishaps on their voyage, they have crash landed.” Karin said joyfully.
“Nice of them to inform us of the delay, Johan, I am sure that Commander Lu-Song will be very happy when we bring him up to date.” Commander Leander replied with a smile now on his face, one that had been missing ever since they fell out of hyper space near to the neutron star.
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On their first whole day on New Caledonia, Bishop Vernon Marley and his wife held the planet`s first ever religious meeting, thanking God for seeing them safely down upon their new world. During the first day following the crash landing, the rest of the solar-powered photovoltaic panels were taken out of the vast hold of the Ark and set up in a temporary site, thereby giving the colonists much needed electrical power, they also unloaded the remaining water purifiers and the personal possessions of the crew and the colonists. The twenty mining couples were checking their equipment and making preparations to leave within the next few days for the hill country, just a morning`s drive through the forest before they split up into five smaller parties. A drone was sent up to survey the land around the downed starship in preparation for the setting up the small farms of the farming couples, each one near to one of the many branches of the many small rivers that exited the forest in this part of New Caledonia. The settlers’ cabins would be set up in groups of four, with the four couples sharing one solar-powered photovoltaic panel.
On this the second day in their new home world, hunters were dispatched to provide fresh meat for the colony, and the farm vehicles were checked over to ensure that they had not been damaged in the rough landing, for they planned to set up the first of their farms the very next day.
Chapter Three
New Caledonian
The special operations starship North Wind was finally approaching the planetary system that contained the planet P1056, their designation for New Caledonia. Commander Leander decided that as Commander Lu-Song would be in charge of the remainder of the operation, he should be brought out of stasis and apprised of the current situation.
Five minutes later and a still groggy Commander Lu-Song was standing on the bridge, watching as the North Wind landed on the smaller of the two moons of P1056, from here Commander Leander scanned the planet which hung in space above them, a multi-coloured and very beautiful sight which none of them took the time to notice. Moments later and they were looking at the Ark, and they could see that it would not be leaving P1056 ever; it was lying in its death bed. After being told about the problems that had occurred on their trip to the planet, Commander Lu-Song looked grim, but this turned to a smile of relief after hearing of the colonists` tale of woe.
“With a rescue ship some sixteen weeks or more away it will surely make our task all the easier Captain.” Lu-Song said.
Leander now asked the commander a question.
“Commander Lu-Song, have you any requests, as you are essentially in charge of this part of the operation?”
“One, Captain, should I require it can you target their communications relay?” Commander Lu-Song queried.
“Of course, Commander.” Leander replied.
“Good, then I may contact you from the planet`s surface, to ask you to do just that, should it become necessary after we have commenced our attack, it would be to prevent them from sending out a distress message.” Commander Lu-song replied. He was still smiling, for he saw the coming days as nothing more than a training session for his team.
“Captain, should I actually need you to take out their communications relay, would you please have your 1st Officer use the ship`s translator to reply to every call that Earth may send to the colony, he is to tell them that everything is fine. Maybe he could intersperse his messages with some bursts of interference, so that any mistakes in grammar that the translator makes will go unnoticed.” Commander Lu-Song requested.
“Of course Commander, is that OK, Johan.” Commander Leander said turning to his 1st officer.
“Yes Captain, I am looking forward to playing with the earthmen.” 1st Officer Karin replied.
“Now, Commander, when and where would you like us to land your squad?” Commander Leander asked.
“Please take us down one mile to the north west of the colonists` encampment, at the edge of the forest, and make it four hours before the sun rises, assuming that your vessel can land that near without wakening the colonists.” Commander Lu-Song replied.
“Oh this ship could land in amongst them without them noticing our arrival.” Commander Leander replied. He then contacted engineering “Li-Ching, you have ten hours to play with your engines, after that I will need to use them to land Commander Lu-Song and his men down on the planet.”
Commander Lu-Song then left the small bridge to see to his men, he mea
nt to bring them out of Cryogenic stasis immediately so that they could ready themselves, and their weapons, for the coming action. When they were fully awake he led them through to the holding area where the main air lock was located. It was here that the soldiers would strap themselves in when the time came for the craft to descend through the planet`s atmosphere. After his men had eaten a meal he told them how he planned to kill the majority, maybe even all of the colonists, before any of them had even woken up.
“Ok men listen up. Their tents are in ten neat lines near to a small river, so they are making it easy for us. We will move in quietly four hours before dawn, after we have disposed of any guards we will enter their tents in pairs and slit the colonists` throats, and then move on to the next tent. With luck we may be able to wrap this up in time for breakfast.” Commander Lu-Song said and smiled as his men broke into laughter.
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The time had finally come when they would make the descent through the atmosphere of P1056, Karin, who was doing a last minute check on conditions that they would encounter, noticed that a large amount of air turbulence was building up, starting at 30,000 feet. It had completely covered their chosen landing area; on top of this if they waited for the turbulence to clear, assuming it would, they would encounter another problem. A large area of freezing air was moving down from the north that would soon meet an even larger warm weather front moving up from the south, when the two collided all hell would break lose down on the planet . Unknown to either the Aldebrans or the colonists, at this time of its year these were regular weather events, ones that they would have to get used too if they aimed to colonise the planet. When he had double checked the data he spoke to his captain.
“Captain, we have yet another problem, have a look at this.” Karin said sending the data over to Leander`s computer.
On looking at his screen Leander contacted Commander Lu-Song and put him in the picture, the soldier looked very unhappy as he digested this latest problem to hit his mission. “Captain, we cannot delay our attack on the earthmen, we are already three days overdue, and our emperor will have had to indefinitely delay his party while he waits for us to start our attack. If we wait around for the conditions to improve, we will be delayed indefinitely, if the Emperor was not involved then it would not matter, but he is involved so it does matter. If we commence our descent now, we can launch our attack this morning, and that way you and I will not be stripped of our commissions and we will not be sent to one of the gulags on our return to Aldebra.” Commander Lu-Song declared grimly.
“Ok Commander please return to your seat and strap yourself in, we are in for a rough descent.” Leander replied calmly.
Leander was in full agreement with what the commander had said, even so he was worried, their luck so far on this mission was almost nil, he just hoped that the fates would now come down on their side. With Lu-Song back in his seat Leander prepared for the descent.
“This is the captain speaking, we are about to enter the planet`s atmosphere, our instruments have detected a fair amount of air turbulence covering much of this part of the planet, unfortunately we cannot wait for it to calm down as two large weather fronts are due very soon and they will violently collide over the area of the planet where we are due to land. There is no way of telling how long we would be delayed if we delayed our descent through the planet`s atmosphere, so please ensure that you are all strapped in, because if you are not then god help you.” Leander said over the intercom.
Immediately after his warning Leander received a call from engineering. “Captain, I cannot answer for the systems if there is too much turbulence, they might all blow again.” Chief Engineer Li-Ching Yung warned.
“I am sorry Li-Ching, but with the Emperor awaiting word from us that the attack has finally commenced, and the delays that we have incurred on our trip to P1056 means that we have no other option, just nurse the engine through the descent the best you can.” Leander replied grimly.
The sleek special operations starship now dropped down through the New Caledonian atmosphere, Commander Leander opening up the small atmospheric wings of the craft to make the North Wind more manoeuvrable when they hit the turbulence. However, as it passed through 30,000 feet the craft hit a massive amount of air turbulence, one much greater than Karin had forecast. This caused Chief Engineer Li-Ching Yung to panic as he was bounced about in his seat, his safety belt digging into his side, but without it he would have been thrown around the engineering department. Sparks began to leap from the relays that he had only just repaired and he feared for the repairs that he had made to the motherboards, all of them were only held together with spit and a prayer, and they began to jar loose from their connections. Then the North Wind was struck savagely by a particularly violent patch of turbulence, and one of the relays, which Chief Engineer Li-Ching Yung had repaired with more spit and many more prayers, blew apart with a large bang. Startled by the noise Yung swung round to look for the source, swearing when he saw the smoke curling away from the relay which was hanging lose and swinging crazily over other sensitive parts. However, before he could see to that relay, another blew on the other side of the room, and the craft took on a drunken list. Yung watched as Manchu tumbled to the floor, having taken off his safety belt to see to yet another relay that was threatening to take others with it. Yung watched as Manchu then slid towards the port interior wall with no way to stop his downward trip; Yung had only been saved when he had taken off his own safety belt as he had managed to grab hold of one of the work stations and regain his balance. Although they finally flew clear of the turbulence, a problem with one of their microprocessors meant that their atmospheric engine was now only working intermittently at full power, dropping down to less than a quarter power which then began to look as if it would be the norm, and they were falling from the sky.
On the bridge of the starship, Leander attempted to compensate for the loss of power by using the vertical thrusters, these were mainly used only in landings and take offs, however the strain on the relays sending power to the thrusters proved to be too great and they now also blew. The planet`s gravity was pulling at the nose of the craft, and with no vertical thrusters to compensate the craft now went into a slow spin, and the ground was coming up fast. It was now that the artificial gravity device aboard the North Wind began to play up, it was being starved of power, and everyone aboard the starship found themselves being thrown forward, everyone now feared that the end had come, and some began pray to god to save them.
In engineering, Yung struggled over to the other end of the room and opened the panel that covered the power relays to the thrusters, here he desperately attempted to find the faulty one and then to repair it, but then the lights went out.
A diagnostic system had already told Manchu that the lights were about to go out and he had almost completed his own task, working in the dark he managed to insert the newly repaired electrical relay and said thank you went the lights sprang back to life.
For a moment all went well, for Yung now had light, and moments later he replaced the faulty relay with a more robust one and got the vertical thrusters working again.
The North Wind had been hurtling down towards the hard unforgiving ground all the time that Yung had been struggling to repair the damaged starship thrusters, it was now almost down amongst the trees of the forest that covered much of the planet at this northern latitude. With the vertical thrusters working again Leander and Karin managed to level off the craft and then to keep it flying straight. They were just above the tree-line now, moving south-east through the night sky towards the downed colonist starship. They soon left the forest behind them and were moving across the massive open prairie, although they were still a long way from the area in which the colonists were camped. Finally, their atmospheric engines were operating at something approaching peak efficiency, they skimmed across the prairie heading towards their own planned landing site, it was near to where a section of the large forest protruded far to the south.
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Commander Lu-Song and his men had screamed when the North Wind went into free fall, now they were back on an even keel they slowly recovered from the panic that the sudden loss in height and orientation had caused. None of them had been badly hurt due to the fact that they had all been strapped in, but the retaining straps had dug into their bodies and the bruises on them would be graphic evidence of their near brush with death. Still badly shaken by their ordeal, Commander Lu-Song calmed his men down, and after singing one of the victory songs of the Special Forces, they were once again looking forward to the operation, looking forward to slaying the enemies of Emperor Taluk Ki-Chek.
With his death seeming to be so very close Commander Lu-Song felt a terrible feeling of guilt build up within his mind, blotting out anything else. He had been reminded of the deaths of so many innocent people who had died at their hands, especially those that he had witnessed. As the chance of dying grew so did his belief in an afterlife, and he feared that his afterlife would be a terrible place where he would be made to atone for what he had done during his mortal lifetime. Sweat began to break out upon his forehead as his fears increased, but he could not ask god to give him the chance to change, his duty to his emperor stood in the way.
The two men on the small bridge did not foresee any further problems arising in their mission, but they should have known better, for the relays that Chief engineer Li-Ching Yung had just repaired began to play up yet again, sparking and working only intermittently now because of a faulty power cable. This caused one of the port thrusters to stop working all together, and the special operations starship immediately slewed sharply to port. Yung and Manchu were thrown to the floor and as with soldiers were forced to hang on tight. The soldiers packed within the craft began to cry out in fear once again, brave as they were; in the special operations starship they were powerless to affect the outcome of this battle, unable to do anything to protect their lives, except to pray that is.