Plot Bunny by Adam T (though it’s been bent if not tortured)
Prologue
Hidden Scolux Laboratory
Far side of Luna
Earth year 2018
“Squad Leader Tron what’s your report?” Platoon Leader Coron of the FRA’’JILL Expeditionary Forces had asked his subordinate as they stood in the main room of the captured Lab.
“Yes, Platoon Leader?” What now? Tron wondered.
Both soldiers had been fighting for enough cycles, on many different planets and moons, so that the slight gravity of the moon they were now standing on was barely noticed. Neither seemed to be bothered by standing in a relatively small room that was at least five times their height
“Have you obtained any information from the computer?” The Platoon Leader asked. If you haven’t, why not? Coron questioned his subordinate to himself.
“Not yet sir. You can‘t expect me to have found anything in five minutes; the fricking Scoluxers tried to destroy the facility before they fled the Lab. Luckily we managed to get into the station and defuse the explosive devices before they could detonate.. It was a very poor attempt at destroying the station in my opinion; and it certainly wasn‘t a very effective defense of the place either.” Tron reported to his commander. Even Scoluxers know how to self destruct a facility better than this.
“Given enough time, I should be able to figure out what they were doing here. It will take a lot of work to find the data, break security codes, crack the encrypting system, translate from Scolux, and, hardest of all, understand their scientific jargon. While I might be a whiz at computers, my grades in the sciences weren’t the best of my birth group.” Tron reported.
“I won’t promise to get all of the information, but I should eventually know why the Scoluxers risked escalating the war by building a station in a system claimed by the FRA’’JILL Consortium.” Tron had continued his report.
“No one on either of our planets has ever been able to understand why the Scoluxers do anything. Just find out what they were doing that required such an extensive scientific base as quickly as you can. How many soldiers from your squad will you need to accomplish your mission?” Coron asked. It had better not be all of them, the Platoon Leader had thought to himself.
“As long as we aren’t attacked; two should be plenty.” Tron replied to his superior officer.
“Then pick the two JILA you want and I’ll take the rest of your squad, along with the 2nd squad, and we’ll make sure there are no more Scoluxers in this system. Can you tell how many Scolux scum were at this location?” He’s been fighting for years longer than me yet he hasn’t risen any higher in rank than squad leader, that has to mean something.
“I think that there were only two, the scientist and his soldier escort; if they were following normal Scolux staffing patterns for non-military installations.” stated Tron.
“Sir, I think that this base must be a part of the Scolux war effort. They’re losing the war with us, according to the information we get from home, so they were probably trying something desperate. That’s why they hid it here in one our systems.
There’s plenty of scientific equipment in this lab, but I haven’t seen anything obviously military so he must’ve been trying to develop some biologic weapon.” The Squad Leader stated confidently.
“Don’t get ahead of your information, you don’t know that was what he was doing, I need facts not guesses.” snapped the Platoon Leader.
Deciding that he needed to change the subject so that his superior would forget about his jumping to conclusions Tron had started another line of conversation.
“It’s a good thing the guard was another Scoluxer, if it had been a Trelongory, we would still be fighting to get into this facility. After 20 years of fighting, in this war, I would’ve expected even a Scoluxer guard to put up more of fight than this one did.”
As his second in command was talking Coron thought that it was a good thing that the Trelongory couldn’t work together in groups larger than three since if they could do so they would probably rule the galaxy. No soldier that had lived after fighting the Trelongory denied that the six-armed, four-legged monsters were the best warriors in the known part of the galaxy.
“Tron I don’t need to tell you that it’s very important that we figure out what the Scoluxers were trying to accomplish here. Are they developing biologic weapons or a new Space Drive or just new killing devices?” The Platoon Leader had told his under officer.
Both JILA couldn’t help but think about the basic problem with the FTL drive used by all the space faring species. That the Faster Than Light Drive killed any female and 75 % of the males that traveled in a ship using it plus any male that survived was sterilized. That no race had been able to truly colonize a planet orbiting another star since the colonists couldn’t reproduce themselves and none of the Home Worlds had a big enough population to continually send settlers to a colony. That the killing effect was constant with all of the space faring species had amazed scientists of all the known planets. Since the drive had such a harmful effect all the species were actively trying to develop a new FTL drive; all of them hoping that they would be the only one to do so since that would be a tremendous advantage over any enemies.
“If you’re through day dreaming we need to get back to work.” Coron had snapped at the Squad Leader partly to cover up his own day dreaming.
“I‘ll come here to get your reports every 10 days or so. It‘s a pain in the hindquarters that it‘s easier to cloak a ship than it is to hide transmissions since cloaking a ship isn‘t really that easy. It surprised me how lax the Scoluxers were with their communication beam. We probably wouldn‘t have found this base if they hadn‘t been so sloppy.”
“Like I said earlier this whole situation just doesn’t seem right. Maybe the Scoluxers are setting a trap for us.“ It would be just like those giant insects to set a trap instead of fighting out in the open like any honorable species would do.
“It would be a very expensive trap for them though Tron. Now that we’ve taken the base they have to know that we’ll destroy it before they could recapture it. I’ll leave escape pods for you and your JILA in case I’m wrong and it is a trap, but make sure you do destroy this base if you have to abandon it.” I shouldn’t have to make such an obvious order but it never hurts to be extra careful. This operation could push me up the promotion ladder but only if it’s successful.
“Yes sir, we’ll do our duty. My JILA will set up a self-destruct option before they do anything else. I’ll start working on the computers as soon as you leave. Do you want me to send a message if I find anything of real importance before you return.”
“Not unless it’s extremely important. I trust your judgment on that.. We don’t want to give away our position to any of our enemies who might be in this system or to the natives on the planet below.” I have to trust your judgment whether I really want to or not.
“Hopefully our capturing of this station will lead to victory in the war.” Tron had stated with patriotic fervor.
“I couldn’t agree more.” I just hope that this old JILA really is as capable as he thinks he is.