Ch 3 Exon 12

Jess the ships AI, dropped out of warp above the asteroid currently being mined and known as exon 12. Mike pulled up scans immediately thinking fingers crossed that this facility was still operational. 110 life signs showing, and heat signature suggested fully operational.

A signal challenge coming in Mike announced Jess .

Exon 12 to unidentified visitor acknowledge.

Exon 12 this is spaceforce patrol doing a security check do I have permission .Over.

Spaceforce you have clearance to land at dock 1 security will meet you there. Out.

Copy Exon

Jess cloaked the ship as soon as mike and Ragnar flew the lander from the dock , no point advertising in case other visitors showed up.   The landing dock was exterior to the main facility, so mike suited up left the patrol ship with Ragnar at his heals and headed for the airlock entrance. This facility was a twin to the previous one mike had recently visited except this one was fully lit. Still eerie as all these asteroid facilities were.

The airlock entrance opened and they stepped inside and were pressurised and decontaminated before the inner door slid open. Mike was met by armed security officer Patricia Newland as he entered the facility, His quantum Id had already been checked whilst still in the secured airlock so Paticia Knew who he was.

Hi said mike holding out a hand. Patricia replied holding out hers as well. She smiled “Trish if you like.”

“Mike” he smiled back.

I have just come from exon 10 are you aware of what has transpired there. said mike.

We haven’t had any long range communications for a week our spacelink antenna was damaged and only just been rebuilt. Yours was the first signal. Good timing. Who is boss here I should probably report to them asked Mike. That’s Corey mine manager he should be in his office follow me. Cute dog by the way android, I guess. Ragnar barked in greeting. Trish smiled.

 Corey and Trish both paled as they listened carefully as mike laid out what he had discovered at Exon 10. Outside interference had never been an issue before so security’s main concern was stopping the miners from settling issues which could occur when you packed people up on a black asteroid for 3 months at a time. The security team was 4 strong on rotating shifts. There was an Ai defense cannon which watched and would activate if an unauthorised approach was made.

I need to get onto head quarters. I assume they know what’s happening said Corey. Guess so by now said Mike.

Anyway, I am glad to see everything is fine here said mike and in that moment, Jess came in on his coms. Mike a very large vessel has just dropped out of warp and discharged two landing craft which are headed your way.

An alarm sounded at the same time as the facility Ai defense system kicked in locking down the base and giving a warning shot across the bows of the first lander as it entered the air above the facility. A flash from space and the cannon was gone in a massive explosion.

I suggest you evacuate immediately said mike as another blast took out the power plant and the whole place went dark. Luckily it was procedure that all staff wore a life support suit at all times when on duty as meteor strikes were very common. The building suddenly depressurised . Mikes suit had a built in helmet which activated immediately and so did Trish. Corey wasn’t so lucky he wasn’t suited up being over comfortable in his office and was dead in seconds.

Everything was happening very fast come on he said to Trish let’s get back to my ship. She shook her head, the base. I can defend it better from the air , said mike we don’t know what we are facing yet. They headed for the entrance to the dock just as the first craft landed at dock 2 on the other side of the facility. It disgorged ten eight foot high creatures which were definitely not human having tails and were armed with long guns of some variety. They were heading for that docks entrance.     

Mike Trish and ragna barely secured the loading hatch when a blast hit the ground beside the patrol craft.Its defense shield immediately activated as it was also hooked up to Jess and before even mike could drop into the chair it was taking off. The second craft landed where mike had just lifted off from and two more appeared in the sky above the facility. Mike took one out with the lazer cannon and then his shields were hit from space and he knew he was in trouble they had his frequency set the next shot would take him out. He cloaked and ran they didn’t follow. The base was their soft target.

 Jess guided the lander into the still cloaked dock.

What have we got here jess said mike as the three of them headed for the control deck. There are aprox 80 hostiles on mine site the power plant, defense system and coms have all been neutralized and life signs of mine staff have just vanished. This is done ,I suggest we get out of here before they lock in on us exclaimed mike and Trish at the same time. Poor bastards didn’t have a chance.

We are going to need reinforcements to tackal this reptile problem.

Trish sat at the mess table a cup of steaming tea with more than a generous slosh of brandy added, was in a state of total shock. Her world had changed in the blink of an eye. Friends and work colleagues gone, dead or captured by a horde of lizard beings. She had only just started this three month rotation on exon 12 after a month off on Earth . Trish had taken on this type of work 2 years back. The money was great and it got her away from her crazy family.

Mike had just sent a report back to Mars base requesting any updates and orders . There were no other transports in the secta so it looks like he would have an unofficial offsider for a bit till something could be worked out. The remainder of the facilities were in the process of evacuating until what ever this could be was sorted. He joined Trish in the mess grabbing a cup for himself.

How are you he said. Testing the waters.

She looked up murder in her eyes.

This one is a she Wolf mike thought.

What the hell were those things, where did they come from.

Draco’s said mike.

No body has heard or seen them for a hundred years it was thought that they had been wiped out. Mean bunch from historical reports. They were originally the soldiers of a race called the Aldrenabaren a race who liked to conquer worlds with tribal cultures and play at being gods. They would genetically modify the species to become slaves to mine the planets resources. Eventually over time the locals would evolve and work it all out and rebel. That’s where the dracos came in. Man flesh was their favourite food, so they were low maintenance enforcers. They don’t mind living underground and they look after their own food.

Why haven’t I ever heard about this Trish said.

I majored in history at college, all the earth wars were my thing and nothing ever about this.

Top secret, said mike. A lot of dodgy politics occurred at that time on earth, I guess what the general public didn’t need to know was none of their business and that included the version of history that those in charge wanted recorded.

Well, I think people are going to be finding out about the draco in the worst possible way now, Yes said mike. This seems a lot more like something else. Usually they would infest a planet and use cloaking to fly under the radar subverting the political and leadership to play their game.

This raiding seems more like piracy.

What exactly is Exon corp mining on these rocks asked Mike.

Trish responded its above my pay grade I really don’t know. We set up facilities and start sinking shafts the debree is dumped on the other side away from camp. The shaft boring is slow apparently as the rock destroys the boring heads. It has taken 6 months to travel 600m. On my previous posting they stopped just short of that packed up all the crew and moved them to the next location. Only a recently arrived science crew and a special security force remained. As a matter of fact, the crew had just broken through into a cavern not an hour before you arrived. The order to pack up and standdown operations had been issued.

Very mysterious. I think they are looking for something rather than mining ore she said.

So, a long forgotten race suddenly reappear, and attack two mining asteroids owned by the same corporation and leave no survivors. Not counting us of course. Seems a bit of a coincidence. How would they know which one to attack, these asteroids are scattered everywhere in this secta.

I think we need to sneak back and take a look, I would like to see what is at the bottom of one of these shafts.