Troopers - Book 1

Faster Than Light

It was close to forty minutes of travelling in winding tunnels before Thorne lowered his palm. He dropped to his knees breathing heavy.

                “Sir?” oakham asked.

                “We’re here” Thorne said his voice sounding dry and cracked.

                “We’re at the base of whatever contraption they have; I followed the sense of plasma bugs, this tunnel exits into a much larger one in about a hundred meters.” Thorne clicked the comm. over to just the sergeant “I’m no use for the next five minutes, how long would Aasiths reconnaissance be?”

                “A few minutes” Oakham replied, listening to the strength drop completely from Thorne’s voice he understood now what was turning the Major’s hair grey.

                “Aasith, reconnaissance, find out what we’re up against. Morrigan, Medb, we’re going to need to get higher try and see if there is a tunnel going up. The rest of you, eyes and ears open. Move out!” Thorne ordered his voice with some measure of strength forced through.

                “Yes Sir!” The reply from the unit and they all moved out with purpose. Eastre moved down to beside Major Thorne

“Do you need anything Sir?” She asked drawing her med kit round

“Not that you can supply me with.” Thorne replied hoping the smile carried through the comm. Eastre put her hand on his shoulder and nodded, then stood and moved off scanning the tunnel. Oakham moved to within his vision and tapped the side of his helmet. Thorne switched to signal channel between himself and Oakham.

“Well done sir. Not sure if you see this as a compliment, but somehow they all see you as one of them. A Trooper.” Oakham said, he still had his reservations but so far the amount of command he has given was increasing and Oakham’s trust in him was growing as well.

“That is most definitely a compliment. Thank you sergeant” Thorne replied, his voice coming back to normal. He saw the grey-white shapes of two troopers coming up. Their forms identical using night vision. Thorne nodded to Oakham who returned the gesture.

“Major Thorne!” Morrigan called

“Morrigan, report.” Thorne replied, he started to feel himself now, the prolonged use of his sensing skill wearing off, he could feel his legs again which was a bonus.

“No tunnels exiting this one other than the one where Aasith has gone or back to the surface sir” Morrigan replied

“Sir. I have a way up and I have seen their contraption. You’re not going to believe your eyes” Aasith stated through the comm.  After a brief exchange the entire unit moved to Aasith position into the central chamber.

The area was gargantuan. There were no bugs moving around the area, but as Aasith pointed out there were three rows of one-hundred plasma bugs all dug into the ground with only their firing end exposed. The marvel was what was in the centre, three sections of perfectly clear crystal; two shaped like a diamond and the third a sphere in the centre with four equal distanced projections, each terminating in a flattened sphere. One diamond was point up with the central sphere balancing on that and then the other diamond with its point on the sphere. This was held in place by a ring of metallic ore that had various bridges attaching it to the walls. The area was open to the sky, it was the central canyon of the mountain they were within and it had been remodelled by the bugs to be a cone shape within, the base being the point.

“I’ll be completely honest. I have never seen anything like this in my life.” Oakham said into the comm.

“I doubt anyone has, I think we can turn night vision off” Thorne replied