The shuttle skimmed the surface of the ocean headed toward a small island off the coast of Florida. Terri, Jonathan, Brad, Mike and four of the people they rescued were along for the ride. The four people had opted not to say and to return to their duties. Andie currently had them all in Main Medical giving them a physical and a nanite treatment.
Terri was smiling as she flew over the water, even humming to herself.
"Proud of yourself aren't you?" Jonathan asked from the co-pilots seat.
"Looks like," Mike said.
Terri nodded.
Jonathan rolled his eyes, "It's not the first argument I've lost to you."
"Yeah, but it's the first argument you have lost to a holographic woman," Mike said.
"Hey Mike," Jonathan said.
"Yeah?" Mike said.
"Why don't you be quiet and monitor something?" Jonathan said.
Mike snickered.
"It seems my brother just can't win when it come to women, no matter if their real or not," Terri said. She turned and winked at Jonathan.
"Hey! Watch where you're going will you. I really don't want to crash into something," Jonathan said. He reached out like he was looking for something to grab on to and flailed around uselessly. He knew the computer systems were locked in training mode so that if something happened the auto-pilot would kick in. "Besides, it's hard to argue with a computer, especially when it's a woman."
Terri turned her head back and looked at the sprawling ocean in front of them. Today it was calm and the water gently rose and fell. Terri grinned as she yelled, "Oh my GOD, a tree, HOLD ON!"
Jonathan's hands whipped out and grabbed the sides of his chair, expecting a sudden swerve, even though the inertial dampeners would have prevented them from feeling anything. Jonathan's eyes snapped to the look out of the window, all he saw was ocean.
"Oh, ha-ha. Not funny," Jonathan said as he let go of the chair's sides.
Mike chuckled as Terri snickered quietly.
"Hey chuckles, monitor something," Jonathan said. "She doesn't need you help. It's hard enough to argue with a woman let alone one that is a computer. Once they get something in their mind, no matter if a hologram or not, it's all over but the crying."
"Commander, no matter how much you flutter your eyes at me or flirt with me, when you're wrong you're wrong," Atlanta's voice said.
"What?" Jonathan said. His face colored slightly as he spoke. "I didn't flirt with you."
Terri tried to cover her mouth to muffle the laugh.
"Uh huh, at least you didn't deny you fluttered you eyes," Atlanta said.
"You know, I can shut you up pretty quickly. All I have to do is turn the speakers off," Jonathan said in mock anger.
"I'll just speak through your nanites then, you can't escape me, Commander Hunter," Atlanta said. She made voice sound like Darth Vader including the breathing.
Jonathan threw his hands up in surrender, "Great now I have to listen to a stubborn computer no matter how much I don't want to. Just what I needed a woman inside my head, what next?" Jonathan muttered.
"Give me some time and I'll come up with something for you," Atlanta said. There was a hint of amusement in her voice.
"Women!" Jonathan said. He huffed and slouched in his chair and stuck his bottom lip out.
Terri couldn't control her self anymore and joined the already laughing Mike. She reached up and switched the shuttle to auto-pilot and broke out laughing so hard tears were pouring out her eyes.
"Live it up, I'm still your commanding officer," Jonathan said under his breath.
This only made Mike and Terri start laughing harder.
By this time Brad had come to the cockpit to see what was going on.
"Oh great, the third stooge is here," Jonathan said as she slumped down more.
This only made Mike and Terri break out in renewed laughter.
Thirty minutes later Mike sat up a bit straighter in his chair as they approached his compound. He did a secondary check to make sure the other five cargo shuttles and one personnel shuttle were still shadowing Terri. This was the hardest part, knowing what to say. He was like Jonathan in that regard, he hated public speaking and his brother was even worse. They had always left it up to their advisors to write up a speech and now he was going to have to wing it.
"I'm going to place the call so everyone is ready when we arrive. Terri land behind the main house," Mike said. "That will put us close enough to the storage areas and main entrance."
"Roger," Terri said.
Mike connected to the tower and 'called' Marc Anders office. Marc Anders was the compounds commanding officer; he controlled who came and went and the security of those people while they were out. He was Force Recon and had seen to much action in his life. Now he looked forward to a little peace and quiet and this job did just that. Nothing much really went on around the compound that his second in command couldn't handle and it gave him the free time he wanted.
"Captain Anders," a deep voice said.
"Marc, this is Mike," Mike said.
"MIKE! Where the hell have you been? You didn't report in and I got worried. I've been sending out search and rescue parties looking for you. Are you and your brother ok?" Marc asked.
"Yes, were ok. I'll explain everything when we get there. I need you to gather everyone in the auditorium for a meeting. I also need you to start Operation Ground Cover," Mike said.
Operation Ground Cover was something that they had come up with so that they could move quickly incase of a serious breech. Most of the supplies were stored in such a way that they could be moved quickly. All the computer data would be copied and purged from the main frames. Then the entire compound would be blown sky high. They had set charges in specific points to make sure nothing would be left behind that could be used.
"What's going on?" Marc asked. The seriousness of his voice carried over the connection.
"Nothing, everything is ok. Better than ok really, we're moving the corporation to a more, uh, secure location," Mike said. Mike looked back at Terri, "How long before we land?"
Terri pulled up a hologram of the surrounding area and tapped a few buttons. A small display popped up with some readings on it. Terri looked back over her shoulder, "About twenty minutes at this speed."
"Is twenty minutes long enough? I need everything on the lawn behind the house and ready to go," Mike said.
"We have a few people no at the compound right now. It would be a half a day before they could get back. But, as far as the supplies and such, yeah we can be ready by then," Marc said. He started giving orders to people in the background.
"Ok, we will be landing in some, uh, strange ships. Just hold off questions until after the conference," Mike said.
"Ok, I'll have everyone assembled and ready by then," Marc said.
"Oh, Marc," Mike said.
"Yeah?" Marc said.
"Make sure you're the only one on the lawn when we land. I don't want to have any delays. You know how Frankie gets," Mike said.
The word didn't escape Marc; Frankie was a key word to say everything really was ok. Marc relaxed a bit, "Yeah, I wouldn't want him going nuts."
"See you in twenty minutes," Mike said.
"Ok, be safe," Marc said. He started shouting orders in the background before the connection was terminated.
Twenty minutes later seven shuttles landed behind a large mansion. Standing out in the open was a large man wearing a black tee shirt and camo pants. His dirty blonde hair shifted slightly in the afternoon breeze as he watched the strange vessels land. Around his waist was a gun belt that held a .45 Desert Eagle. He had his arms crossed across his chest and his feet slightly spread.
Mike and Brad stepped out of the shuttle first to greet Marc. Marc let a grin split his face as he seen the two were unharmed.
"Hey Marc," Brad said. Marc shook Brad and Mike's hand as he let out a sigh.
"Man we thought you two were being held for ransom or worse dead," Marc said. "You have no idea how relieved I am."
"Were fine, we can take care of ourselves. We didn't put ourselves though all those long hours of training for nothing," Brad said.
Marc's attention shifted as Jonathan and Terri exited behind three people in Coast Guard uniforms.
Brad turned to the three people and spoke, "As you have rejected our invitation now you are now free to go. The marina is over that way, you'll find several boats there take which ever one you want. We won't need them anymore."
Mike spoke up, "One more thing, you won't want to be here in for very much longer. I would suggest you leave this island post haste. It's going to get very nasty here shortly."
One of the three turned to Jonathan and held his hand out palm open, "The clips to our weapons."
"Nope," Jonathan said.
"You promised to give us our weapons back if we decided to leave," the woman of the group said.
"Yes, you're correct I promised to give you your weapons back. I never said anything about your ammo or clips," Jonathan said.
The man who had asked for the clips back got red faced and bowed up to Jonathan, His voice was dripping with venom as he spoke, "Look here kid, I've just about had enough of this. We're the authority here and I demand you give us our clips back. Or so help me I'll toss your ass in the deepest darkest brig I can find and then loose the key." He was so angry he was almost spiting in Jonathan's face.
"No," Jonathan said in a calm voice.
That did it; the man broke and took a step towards Jonathan the rage on his face unmistakable.
That was when Terri stepped between the man and her brother and extended her hand in greeting. She smiled at the man and spoke softly, "Hi, I don't think we have met; you're..."
"Pissed!" the man shouted as he came up short. Jonathan's eyes narrowed as he absently rubbed his chest to make sure he was still wearing his armor. They all were Jonathan ordered it, just in case.
Terri smiled and curtsied when the man didn't take her hand, "Hi, Pissed. I'm Terri fourth degree black belt in Aikido and Karate. That's my brother you're fixing to assault, now I love him more than life itself. It would be a shame for him to get hurt. I don't think I would much care for that."
Marc snicker, he knew what Terri was capable of. He had spared with her a few times.
"Yeah, what do you think you're going to do about it!" the man shouted.
"Whoa! That's brutal," Terri said as she waved her hand in front of her face. "Someone get this man a tic-tac."
The man blinked for a second as his face turned another shade of red, "Get out of my way! I don't want to hurt you little girl!"
Terri's narrowed her eyes and stared into the man's eyes as an evil grin split her face. She spoke calmly to the man but with a voice that left no doubt, "I promise you if you lay a hand on him. I will personally rip your arm off and beat you with it before I shove it so far up your ass you won't shit it out for five years." Terri then stepped to the side and out of the man's way.
The man sputtered as he watched Terri step to the side. The man then looked at Jonathan, who had a neutral expression on his face, then back to Terri. He considered for a second and took a small step towards Jonathan. However, Marc, who was shaking his head no, caught his attention. The look Marc was giving the man told him this was over.
The woman chuckled then spoke up, "Girl you have some spunk, I like that. Can I change my mind?"
The man turned and looked at her and shook his head as though he couldn't believe what he just heard. He turned back in the direction of the marina and stormed off as he tossed his rifle on the ground. The other man followed him almost having to job to keep up with the man.
"Yes, I told you if you changed your mind you were more than welcome to stay," Jonathan said.
"Come on lets get this over with," Marc said. He turned and walked towards the entrance to the underground Auditorium.
The small group followed close behind as Jonathan contacted Atlanta.
{Atlanta, what's the status of the incoming battle fleet?}
{The battle fleet is getting in range of my sensors. Estimated time of arrival is thirty hours four hours until I can scan them.}
{Alright, have the drones start loading the supplies on the cargo ships. Let me know if anything changes with that fleet.}
{Yes, Sir.}
{Thanks. Andie, what is your status?}
{Well, with Bill's help we have gotten all seventeen crew members scanned and inoculated with nanites. Two of them had cancer, but the nanites have already neutralized those cells, they should be fine. The three with cracked ribs are healthy enough now thanks to the nanites to move around. We have two nurses and one doctor, they're already studying and learning what they can as fast as they can. Seven of them have decided to they want to continue being grunts and they're learning what they need in that field. One of them was the mechanic he's in engineering right now. Three are cooks; they're in the Main Galley now looking through it. The last three were bridge officers; I have no idea what to do with them so I was waiting for you to come back.}
{Nice, let the cooks know we will be inbound with food shortly. As far as three bridge officers, have Atlanta log them as Ensigns and then Bill can take them to the Command Room. Have him figure out where their specialty lies or what they're interested in and have them start learning about that. The grunts can be logged at Corporals, same for the engineer. The rest can all be assigned the rank of Ensign too.}
{Ok, that sounds good.}
Jonathan stepped into the Auditorium and was stunned, there were at least a hundred and fifty people seated in the room. A low roar filled the room as that man people held conversations.
{I have to go convert some people now. We'll be back in less than two hours.}
{Be careful.}
{I will be, oh Andie have Atlanta lock down any weapons and armor we don't need anyone getting any bright idea's while there is only two of you there.}
{Already done.}
{Good girl, Jonathan out.}
He cut the link in his head as they all stepped up on to the large stage. The room suddenly got very quiet as all eyes turned to them. Suddenly, Jonathan was very nervous. Their future might hinge on these people; Earth's future might hang on these people. Atlanta had told them the base had defenses and ground to space weaponry. Now they just needed people to help hold the base and get it ready for what was coming their way. If the Invaru fleet was small the four ground based Polaron Cannons should be able to hold them off and from what he read about the cannons they were nasty.
The cannons worked by distorting the magnetic fields in a target. It basically twisted any metal, which over time weakened the area and would eventually rip chunks out of targets. But it also piggy backed high density particles which attacked the shields of a target and then the structure. The particle end of the weapon would punch a hole through fifteen foot of neutronium composite, one of the strongest metals known. The idea was that the particle part of the cannon knocked the shields out and then punctured the hull then the magnetic distortion could reach the insides of a ship. It was a very effective weapon in ship to ship combat. Even the fighters they had used a lighter version of the weapon.
Jonathan took another look out over the people as Mike stepped up to the podium to speak. He tugged at his armor, which suddenly felt to tight. Terri noticed him fidgeting and lean up against her brother.
"Relax, it will be ok," Terri whispered.
"Easy for you to say," Jonathan whispered back.
Terri just smiled at him and patted him on the chest.
Someone in the audience shouted, "Thank god you are ok." This started a rumble of agreement through the auditorium.
Mike held his hands up motioning people to be quiet. Once he had them quieted down he spoke, "Yes, as you can see Brad and I are just fine. We have come back here to pack the compound up and move our operations to a better secured location."
That started another rumble through the crowd.
Mike held his hands up again, "You're going to be given the choice if you want to go or not. I'm going to turn the floor over to Commander Hunter and he will explain everything."
"Here I go," Jonathan muttered as Mike stepped back and motioned to him.
Marc said, "Commander?" Looking over at Jonathan, who gave a crooked smile and shrugged as he stepped up to the podium.
Jonathan cleared his throat which echoed through the auditorium. This caused Jonathan to blush a bit as he apologized. This got a few chuckles from the audience. Jonathan organized his thoughts as he started speaking.
"Hello, I'm Commander Jonathan Hunter; everyone can just call me Jon. I'm Commander of Atlanta Base. This base is located deep beneath the ocean in a secret location. We discovered it by accident when our boat had a small malfunction. What we have learned since being there is just a tip of the ice berg. It has almost everything we need, except food," Jon said.
That got a few more chuckles and a few, I don't believe what I'm hearing, stares.
"This base was left by a highly advanced civilization and we are now the care takers of this place. The base's AI, Atlanta, put me in charge. Not that I'm real wild about that idea, however that's a different story," Jon said.
The chuckling stopped in the auditorium and all eyes were on him. He felt like a turkey on Thanksgiving in a room full of hungry people. The people in this auditorium had been with the corporation since it was founded. Most of them were picked because of their ability to see the realm of possibilities.
"AI? You mean Artificial intelligence?" someone shouted.
"Yes, a living thinking computer," Jon said.
"By living and breathing, do you mean it's self aware?" a woman yelled.
"That is what I mean. Please let me finish," Jon said. When no one else shouted anything he continued.
Jonathan stepped around the podium and placed a small disk on the floor. He figured this was going to be the best way for people to understand how serious he was. He activated the small device and stepped back as Atlanta appeared.
"Commander," Atlanta said.
Gasps of astonishment and even some ooos and ahhhs come from the audience.
"Atlanta, how are you today?" Jon asked.
"I'm fine what can I do for you?" Atlanta asked. She already knew but her and Jon had decided this would work better.
"What is your primary function?" Jon asked.
"I'm the base's controlling AI, I control the day to day functions of the base and bots," Atlanta said.
"How do we know this isn't prerecorded, a clever trick?" someone asked.
"You can ask her a question if you would like," Jon said.
"Ok, how long has this base been on Earth," the same person asked.
"On Earth three thousand four hundred years, not including construction time," Atlanta said.
"What is the purpose of the base?" someone else asked.
"Originally it was a research and development base. However, due to the outbreak of war it was converted to a repair and defense base," Atlanta said.
"What war?" someone asked.
"The Eutharan people were, or are, at war with a race called the Invaru," Atlanta said.
"How long has this war been going on?" the same person asked.
"To answer that question would require me to make a guess base on if I think the war is still going on or not," Atlanta said.
"So guess," someone said. "You can guess right?"
"Certainly, three hundred and four years if it is still not going on. If the war is still ongoing the Eutharan people have been at war for over two thousand three hundred and four years. Give or take a day," Atlanta said. She smiled at the person who had asked the question.
"Was that humor?" someone said loud enough for Atlanta to hear.
"Yes," Atlanta said.
A few people chuckled as someone spouted off another question, "Why were they at war?"
Atlanta looked at Jon as she spoke, "That is a rather involved tale."
Jon just nodded.
"However, the Commander has given me permission to tell the tale," Atlanta said.
"Four thousand years ago a great empire policed the galaxy in an attempt to maintain peace. The Manseesa Empire was able to unite over twenty different species, building what was later to be called the Galactic Senate. The Manseesa were an advanced civilization who was happy to share their technology with any who became part of the Senate. They were a passive race that hated fighting. Highly advanced in every aspect, they were the most advanced civilization besides one, the Eutharan Empire.
"One of the things that drew the different empires together was they were allowed to exist under their own form government. Each empire was allowed to appoint a delegate to the Galactic Senate. The Senate was created to solve disputes between empires and their word was final. Empires flourished under the watchful eye of the Senate but there were always some border disputes or fighting that called for attention.
"Three thousand years ago, the Invaru petitioned the Senate for entry. The Senate debated their petition for months. The Invaru were known for their hostility, they had been raiding the boarders of several of the members for years. Some of the senators thought they should be allowed to join, they saw this as a way to stop the border raids. However, through the persuasive arguments of the Eutharan senator the petition was declined. The Eutharan were one of the strongest and largest Empires that belonged to the Galactic Senate.
"The Eutharan people were known for their telepathy and technology. Most Empires followed their lead while a few were jealous of them. The Buranis were one of the most militaristic of the members they held key places in the space that the Senate ruled over. They were known to be a large supporter of the Eutharan. They were strong allies working well together a mixture of might and technology that was close to unstoppable.
"Once the Invaru heard of the rejection they attacked the Eutharan Empire, destroying most of their core worlds before the Senate could move to protect them. In a major battle outside their home system the combined might of the Senate's fleet and the whole of the Buranis home fleet, the Invaru were stopped. The victory was great, the empires of the Senate suffered minor losses and the Buranis were untouched, what happened next crushed the Galactic Senate. The Buranis turned on the Senate's fleet no ship survived; over two thousand ships were destroyed.
"The Buranis had received an ultimatum prior to the battle. Join the Invaru and reject the Galactic Senate or their core worlds would be destroyed. The Invaru had sent most of its fleet to the home systems of the Buranis and only a small portion to the Eutharan home world. The Buranis had no choice they reacted quickly crushing the Senate's fleet and blockading the Eutharan home world. Later the President of the Buranis signed a treaty with the Invaru that effectively made his whole race slaves.
"The Invaru moved quickly, they disrupted the trade routes and blocked planets until they empires belonging to the Galactic Senate surrendered. With the support of the Buranis fleet, it took less than two hundred years to conquer the galaxy. From that point forward the Eutharan Empire fought against the Invaru and their allies."
Jon stood up and spoke, "Thanks Atlanta that will be all."
"Yes Sir," Atlanta said as she faded from view.
Jonathan bent down and pick up the small device as he spoke, "We're moving you to that base right now. We're running out of time there is an Invaru Battle Fleet on course to Earth. They might just be passing by or they might have decided it was time to enslave the Human race. We're going to stop them if it's the latter one. This is your last chance to opt out, if you don't want to go to the base stand up now and wait in the reception room. We will make arrangements to get you back to the main land. Remember, for the time being this will be run like a military operation, I'm in command what I say goes. Those people holding a higher rank than you are your bosses, so choose wisely there is no going back."