The Planet 3.1

3.

3.1 Landing

The Shuttle Craft hit the landing gears while it hovered at twenty feet above the surface. The craft was twenty eight feet in length with a twenty by thirty feet in area was trying to keep it height with the rushing storm that was blowing hard on it sides. The shuttle craft was a rectangular shape with the pilot compartment that resembled a bug shaped design. The shuttle was fully automated and registered strong resistance to its structure during the landing. It began swerving in random direction and was bobbing down the descent.

“Compensating for the wind velocity.” The onboard system voiced out while the craft compensated for the wind condition. On the side of the craft, stabilizer fins protruded out and the craft compensated its elevation.

“Landing coordinates updated.” The craft went into a slower descent with the retro engines kicking it to slow the descent. It then stabilized to hover over the landing area. The winds had then slowed down to a breeze which was the unusual condition of the planet.

“Landing pylon launched.” A series of steel mesh pylons shot out of the sides of the craft and embedded into the surface. 

At the end of the pylon, it dug deep into the surface and then it flared out to secure the hold. Once that was in place, the shuttle craft was lowered to the ground. Once it was secured to the surface, the side wall of the shuttle craft slide open and a six wheeled surface vehicle rolled out on a side roll. The six wheeler was similar in design to the landing craft but it measured only fifteen feet in length and eight feet in width. The wheels rotated on its frame that allowed it to roll out diagonally. Once the vehicle had exit from the shuttle, the wheels rolled back into forward position and then gunned up its engine and then began rolling towards the mining plant. The front of the vehicle then lit up its six high beams that gave it coverage of fifty feet ahead and twenty feet across. The wind condition then changed from its breeze to a higher velocity at fifty miles an hour. The surface temperatures were high and coupled with the strong wind, we were not sure which will take place first; the wind tearing off our flesh or the heat melting it off.

“Moving to coordinates.” The onboard system on the vehicle lurched forward across the rough terrain. It was a short drive to the production plant. At about a hundred feet, the vehicle swerved to avoid an incoming laser beam that hit its front.

“Incoming attack! Compensating.”

The landing vehicle was fired on by the defense lasers system mounted on the eight towers on the perimeters. The lasers were system operated to fire on anything that was not recognized by its controllers. The vehicle defense system kicked in. It was a personnel tracker with a set of double cannons on the top.

“Weapons not activated.”  

“I thought we were cleared.”  Machete screamed out. “I hate to be shot like a hound here.”

“Nothing like a normal day for me.” Peggy One leaned back in her seat. She smiled while pulling at her seat straps. Her rifle leaned in between her legs while the Commander was in his seat trying to work out the codes that will prevent them from blasted to bits by the laser. The vehicle was still compensating for the attack with its evasive maneuvers but some of the shots were hitting the mark. The shield coating was holding well against it but the energy blasts were shorting out the vehicle controllers. One of it hit the stabilizers and the vehicle went bumpy on it ride.

“Damned!” Commander Duggan cursed and then slammed his fists on the control panel. “Those codes they have here are not working. We need to manually control the cannons.”

“Peggy manned the cannons.” The Commander gave the order. Peggy unbuckled the strap and placed her rifle on her seat. She then stepped over to the weapon console and hit the stick there. It held the trigger to the double mounted cannons on the top of the vehicle. She punched in the codes to override the system and then took over the double cannons. She looked at the display screen on the console. It showed the targeted laser beams cannons.

Peggy aimed and then pressed the trigger. She was good but with her implant bionic right eyeball, she was better. The double cannons began shooting the projectiles at the target. There were three lasers mounted on the tower marked ‘Five’ in a triangle layout. There was a gap of five feet in between the lasers.

“Hit the lasers on Five.”Commander Duggan hit the pedal and drove towards the tower. He hit the brakes at twenty feet before the tower. Peggy hit the trigger and took out the upper laser first before she shot the other two lasers. With that laser shot, there was a gap between the lasers, and there was where the Commander headed for. He stopped the vehicle at the tower.

“Jettison the drive.” Commander Duggan was out of his seat while grabbing his gears. “We got to get in before the lasers compensate for targeting.”

All of us rushed out through the rear exit of the vehicle which was lowered by the Commander. The wind had picked up then and the running was tougher than we thought. Duggan slipped but Peggy grabbed him by the left arm to pull him on. We were constructs and hence had the extra strength to run through the wind. Nguyen was struggling but he held hard to my back pack for leverage.

 We ran towards the perimeter tower and there the winds died down. It was the outer perimeter shield which prevented the wind from hitting us. It gave us some respite and that allowed us to pick up the pace. When we reached the tower, Machete went for the control panel there. He pried open the metal plate and then tinkered with the circuitry.

“Model G2025. The state of the art in their days but I am better.” Machete had to gloat whenever he went to work on the systems.

“Clam it, Machete. You got seconds to get us in.” Duggan called out.

“Hold your thruster there.” Machete soon got the circuits sorted out, and all the adjacent laser beams in between the towers dropped off. We did not wait for the command and rushed to the main production plant. There was a doorway there and Machete went to work again on the door panel. He got it working and we were in the plant.

“Close the damn door.” Duggan shouted to Machete. “It’s bloody hot without the heat from outside.”

The place was warm although such plants were mostly for it was mechanical and equipment. The lightings were all turned on at the plant but the cooling vents were turned off or the temperature controls were off their target. Most times in a battle, we expected the temperature to be unbearable but it was still bearable. We proceeded on past the doorway and found the place was littered with cables and conduits. . In some places, the cables were torn off their holdings. It was either a poor design or the engineers were in hurry.

“The cables were pulled out.” A sound observation from Machete but we just ignored him. He had the knack of making smart remarks and assuming all of us were his nitwits borne of his wedlock. We took our way onto the corridors and came to a halt before the corner of corridor. Three droids had appeared from around it. The droids were battle droids. They were the same models I encountered when I was with Mark. They stood twelve feet high droids which designed to look like menacing quarterbacks with then bend forward stance but instead of menacing biceps, these droid held a twin set of six barrels roller cannons. All of us pulled up our weapons and aimed it at the droids. The droids were programmed not to harm human beings as part of their core programs but we were not taking chances. We had our experiences with droids during other conflicts; they were non-participative in the fights but there were the other grades of these droids. The nasty ones were the battle droids like those hich were designed to be menacing and dangerous.

We knew that from others DOD Suzuka battle and other battles.

“Battle droids!” Machete called out the warning but we were battle experienced. All five of leveled our rifles and fired in unison. The firepower of the new rifles PH375-2 was double in penetration force and that includes its impact on those new projectiles. The combined shots tore the droids were not down in seconds. Well, it was supposed to do so but we can’t fault the designers. The droids were also upgraded. They took the shots on the chest and only staggered.

“Aimed at their limbs.” Duggan called out and we went to target aiming instead of point blank shoot out. I leveled my rifle at my targeted droid and fired off the loader limb before I took out the shooting limbs. I turn to the other two but noticed they were taken down by the others.

“Move it, you clowns.” Commander Duggan stepped up to the damaged droid which I shot. He aimed his rifle at the head and blew it off the droid chest.  “We got work to do.”