Chapter 28

Year 3, Day 311, Endeavour, Terra Prime

"The time-table we've got is unlikely to still be accurate" Clayworth said from his seat near Alexander's desk, the big four, as some of the more contemporary people of the community had taken to call Alexander and his three top advisors, had reconvened in Alexander's office to discuss and plan.

"Why do you say that?" Viriathus asked as he poured a round of drinks and handed them out.

"Because" Clayworth paused to sip at his scotch, "because, someone blew one of their colony worlds to hell and back; only a moron wouldn't assume the worst and alter his plans to compensate"

Alexander rolled his eyes, "Let it go Mark, you're just pissed I didn't take you with me." He nodded his thanks as Viriathus passed him a bourbon and coke, "but I see your point"

"So you think they'll have brought it forward?" Matt asked from his seat on the couch.

Clayworth shook his head, "or pushed it back, or scrapped it entirely, can't know for sure from here"

"They wouldn't have scrapped it" Alexander said firmly, "even if they have only half an idea of the strategic advantage a world like that gives them, there is no way they'll pass it up"

Clayworth held up a hand, conceding the point, "Either way, we need more intel" he said giving Alexander a pointed look.

Year 3, Day 316, Solitude, Terra Prime

Alexander had a grim expression on his face as he looked at the equipment laid out before him. He wasn't looking forward to his mission, but he understood the necessity of it all. He was dressed in a skin tight white body glove, which apart from the 'plumbing' connections showed off far too much of his body for comfort. He was really glad there was no-one around to see him getting dressed.

His armour was in sections waiting to be put on. Picking up the right gauntlet first he slid it over his arm, and tapped the seal command into the wrist mounted computer. The armour section hissed slightly as it contracted and became almost skin tight around his forearm. Next were the lower leg sections, standing like a pair of knee length boots. He stepped into them, wincing slightly at the squishy feeling of the inner lining before again triggering the seal command.

Next he placed he attached the right and left upper leg sections, fumbling a bit to get them into position, the suit could be put on alone, but it was better done with help. Not that Alexander wanted anyone to see him in the body glove. Finally he got them on and he moved onto the tricky bit, the 'codpiece', he wasn't sure if it had a real name or not, he hadn't bothered to look it up; Wincing as he jostled the plumbing connections, he set it in place and sealed it to the lower sections.

He made quite a sight, half dressed in his armour. He picked up the torso section, the entire thing was designed to be as lightweight as possible, but even with his enhanced strength it was a struggled to get it on. He likened it to putting on a straight jacket. He slid his arms into the open sections and jerked his back to slide the entire thing into place, holding an awkward pose as he triggered the seal command yet again.

Just the arms and gloves to go, that was accomplished easily. The upper arms were open at the back like the legs, and the gloves just slid on like normal. He didn't bother with the helmet, that could wait.

Finally with everything in place he took a deep breath, making sure to hold it, and triggered the activation command. The entire armour hissed and clanged as the different sections attached themselves to each other, forming an airtight whole. He grimaced as the artificial muscles activated, pressing against his own muscle mass though the body glove.

Turning slightly he looked into the full length mirror, it wasn't vanity, but rather practicality that made him have one in his armoury, he needed to be sure everything was connected correctly, and though the onboard computer said it was, it never hurt to double check with a visual inspection.

He'd gone all out for this mission. It was unlikely that he'd actually face any combat, but given his luck he wasn't leaving anything to chance. He'd 'repainted' his armour, using the 'smart' paint; the entire thing was a gleaming white, except for his gloves, helmet, shoulder pads, and a small patch of his torso, which were bright bloody red. The patches on his chest were three jaggard swipes of red, each about fifteen centimeters long, forming a triangle.

In the dominate Kromagg culture white was the colour of death, and the red splashes represented a vengeful spirit according to one of the major myths. Psychological warfare at it's finest.

Turning away from the mirror Alexander walked towards where he'd set aside the rest of his equipment, careful not to overextend himself, it was always hard at first to get use to the armour, and he didn't want a repeat of the first time where he'd slammed head first into a wall after trying to walk a few feet. The first thing he put on was his equipment harness, made from a ridiculously expensive synthetic material Alexander couldn't pronounce.

Alexander picked up his sidearm, a DL-44 heavy blaster pistol, modified to remove the targeting scope, the weapon instead relied on his onboard targeting software. Alexander had also practiced with it outside his armour, just incase he ever had to ditch and rely on his own wits. He checked the charge and slid it into the holster on his right hip, along with six spare power packs, enough for just over a thousand shots. The DL-44 had enough kick to be considered an anti-armour weapon, at least according to the advertisement that came with the weapon, Alexander had his doubts, but it had served him well.

Next Alexander picked up his vibroblade, hideously expensive as it came with a cortosis weave allowing the weapon to be used against lightsabers and other energy blades. It wasn't his only knife, in fact he had three he normally carried, but the others were nowhere near as deadly. It had a thirty centimeter long blade, almost making it a short sword, and was capable of cutting through a starship's hull given enough time. It went into the sheath at his left hip. He picked up and repeated the process with his boot knife and his smaller combat knife, which went into a sheath on his torso harness.

He snatched up a series of grenades and other small objects and began stashing them on his harness. It was a good mix, enough to deal with any number of potential threats. It included basic frag, thermal detonators, and 'noisemakers', the Star Wars equivalent of FLASH/BANGs, amoung others.

Alexander moved onto to his 'basic' kit, which was general items that might be useful, everything from a first-aid kit, to a section of wire. Nothing glamorous, but all potentially useful.

The young Australian finished checking his harness, and satisfied he had everything, he picked up the final item, his A280 Blaster-Rifle. Highly modified over the stock standard weapon, this one kept the integrated scope, but had it's barrel and charge chamber configured to allow for an obscene amount of shots to be fired from it before needing to cool. Alexander only bothered to pick up three power packs for it, enough for six hundred shots on a good day. It wasn't a lot, Republic Troopers had often carried more than a dozen power packs, however the other major modification to the weapon had been adapting it to use his armour's onboard power plant, which theoretically gave it millions of shots, assuming of course it didn't melt down into slag first from the waste heat generated.

Finally finished Alexander rolled his neck and picked up his helmet.

"Show time"

Year 3, Day 316, South America, KMI-301-961-M-14

The world resolved back into focus and Alexander snapped up his weapon, scanning for threats. Normally Alexander had a good idea of where he was going to land, but today was a 'blind' jump; Alexander had selected the capital city of one the larger Kromagg worlds. Over six billion people called it home, if you counted Kromaggs as people that is. The world's population was split sixty-forty, with human slaves making up the vast majority of the population.

M14 was an old world, one of the first worlds the Kromaggs colonised after being expelled from their homeworld centuries ago. Once again Alexander was struck by the dichotomy between the Sliders TV show and reality; he postulated that he was looking at one of an infinite number of possible Kromagg empires infesting the multi-verse.

The would-be King had landed in the middle of a large open air market, his stealth field at full strength; he winced as he saw dozens of human slaves going about their business. Unlike the other Kromagg world he'd visited, these people had been born slaves, their parents, and parents parents as well. They didn't have the look of free people forced into collars, but rather people who knew nothing else.

Alexander itched to draw his weapon and start gunning down the Kromagg guards overlooking the market. It wasn't just the cultural hatred he had for slavery, it went deeper than that. Every time he saw the face of a Kromagg some part of him screamed 'KILL. INVADER. FIGHT.', he'd dealt with Aliens in a dozen universes and some of them had been truly Alien and he'd never felt anything like the deep revulsion that the Kromaggs sparked in him.

Shaking his head, Alexander lowered his weapon, still keeping it close at hand, and brought up his wrist mounted computer. He called up the passive data scan mode and settled in for a wait. It could take a while. The computer technology he had access to could smash it's way into any Kromagg network in seconds, but that was just plain stupid, any hack, no matter how advanced, could be detected. Passive hacking on the other hand was virtually undetectable.

The basic idea was comparable to eavesdropping on a conversation, you 'listened' to every bit of data that was flying around the area's wireless network, waiting for what you wanted. In this case Alexander wanted a map of the city. No civilisation, no matter how militarised, could have cities this size without maps showing utilities and attractions.

In the end it had taken less time than Alexander had expected, only half an hour or so, before someone had called up a local tourist information site on the Kromagg version of the internet. Unfortunately from what he could work out using the highly sanitized map the Kromagg version of the Pentagon was twenty two kilometers away as the crow flew, and Alexander didn't want to risk any more transits than he had to.

***

Three hours later Alexander was about ready to scream, even with his enhancements it had been a long walk, but that wasn't what really annoyed him, it was seeing all the humans around, bowing and scraping to the hideous freaks of nature that had enslaved them. He'd even seen one old woman begging forgiveness after a Kromagg walked into her. It made his blood boil.

Attempting to keep his cool, knowing that letting his anger get a hold of him was bad for the mission, Alexander looked over the Kromagg Military Headquarters, it was massive, easily as large of the Pentagon, only done in the architectural style Alexander had become accustomed too from the Kromaggs.

Alexander didn't know much about architecture, but the style of the Kromaggs wasn't nearly as Alien as they were themselves. Oh it was different alright, short squat buildings, all sharp angles and brown stone, showing an obvious martial bent, with slim murder-hole style windows; however it wasn't any different than a human city to Alexander. What struck him the most was the large of skyscrapers, the largest building he'd seen, at least height-wise, had been at most twenty stories tall.

He knew from his reading of the Kromagg database, or at least the portions that had been analysed for him, that the Kromaggs prefered sprawling underground complexes for their lower classes; the few cultural and social scientists he had at the ESRO suggested it had to do with their violent history with humanity on their homeworld, or perhaps some other quirk of their society.

Shaking his head Alexander strode resolutely towards the main entrance.

***

Sometime later Alexander, his wristed mounted computer still set in passive scan mode picking up every scrap of data it could, followed a Kromagg officer deeper into the sprawling complex. It had obviously designed to confuse and disorientate any invaders, what purpose that served Alexander could only guess at, any force this deep inside the building had already won in Alexander's opinion.

Alexander was bemused at the ostentation of the Kromagg uniforms on display, they looked more like peacocks than military officers. He knew from his reading that the 'Nazi' style uniforms they wore on most worlds weren't their standard uniform, rather a complex psychological warfare exercise; on worlds without Hitler and his thugs they often picked uniforms from historical human monsters. Idely Alexander considered a Kromagg dressed up in full Hunnish regalia and he fought to hold back a snort.

The normal Kromagg undress uniform, as worn by most of the officers and NCOs he'd seen so far, was a loose fitting deep purple tunic and pants combination, with the colour and symbols on the shoulder boards denoting branch and speciality.

If Alexander recalled correctly from his reading, the officer he was following was a Lt. Commander equivalent in the Kromagg Navy, specialising in intelligence work.

The Kromagg officer turned a corner and came to a halt in front of a large vault like door. Alexander smiled ferally as he took in the reinforced concrete walls studded with metal, if that wasn't a secure room he was a wombat, and it was just what he was looking for.

Sticking close to the officer he ghosted past the guards and into the room proper. It appeared unoccupied, but far larger than Alexander expected, it looked more like a file room than a secure conference room. Large file cabinets and open storage racks dominated the back of the room.

Puzzled Alexander looked around, barely noting as the Kromagg officer quickly walked towards one of the large file cabinets and ducking out of sight.

Something was twitching at the back of Alexander's mind and he felt his pulse rate jump as the door behind him slammed shut with a massive clang. There was grinding as locks engaged. He snapped up his rifle as a dozen Kromagg shock troopers rushed out from between the file cabinets, their weapons held high, all aimed so that anything between them and the door would be hit by any fire.

'How the fuck' Alexander started to think as another Kromagg officer stepped out from between the stacks. The would be king felt his blood run cold as he took in the pure white epaulettes with blood red silk trim.

"Psychic" Alexander hissed. Contrary to the TV show Kromaggs were not all psychic, in fact it was an incredibly rare gift, with less than one in fifty thousand having any usable skill in it. But those that did have it were a threat in the extreme.

The Kromagg officer raised one gloved hand and pointed right at Alexander. The soldiers snapped their weapons at the exact position he occupied. Alexander didn't even have time to think as he threw himself to the right, just as the room turned into chaos. Bright red particle blasts filled the air as the Kromaggs opened up.

His armour reported a dozen strikes. Thanking his lucky stars as none of them appeared to have done any damage at all, but the warnings about sustained contact worried him.

The Lord and Master of Terra Prime snapped up his rifle, mentally dismissing his stealth field, and lunged to his feet. "Die you feral freaks!" He screamed as he opened up on the Kromagg soldiers with his blaster.

His weapon spat fire at an incredible rate, bucking in his hands he gunned down the first Kromagg, the soldier's body turned into super-heated chunks of meat as a dozen bolts of energy impacted on him in the space of second.

Ignoring the weapons fire all around him Alexander turned his weapon at the Kromagg officer, only to have the Psychic dive out of the way of the burst of fire with reflexes that would have done a Jedi proud.

The Kromagg officer screamed an order as half his remaining force took cover between the stacks and the rest raced towards Alexander. They'd obviously decided that continuing to fire at someone who can shrug off enough damage to slag a tank was a bad idea.

Alexander didn't have time to think as five soldiers slammed into him, driving him back to the wall. He blaster fell from his fingers as he struggled against the Kromaggs. Falling back on instincts and training from his childhood, Alexander pulled tight against himself, covering his face from the blows raining down upon him.

He slammed out with elbows and knees, each enhanced blow eliciting a scream as it broke bones and ruptured internal organs. Finally he got enough room to move his hand down to his combat knife and he drew it and struct in one smooth move, the advanced metal vibrating as a ridiculous speed cut through the Kromagg armour and flesh like they weren't even there.

Blood drenched him from head to foot as he hacked and slashed his way out of the corner, more shots suddenly started impacting against him again and he saw one of the Kromaggs get struck by fire from his own comrades.

'I guess he got sick of waiting' Alexander thought as he finished off the final trooper and threw himself away from the wall of fire impacting against him.

He hit the floor hard, and rolled, knife in one hand, his rifle tangled in his combat webbing as the Kromaggs moved to adjust their fire.

'Fuck that' Alexander thought as he snatched a flash bang off his webbing, activated it, and pitched it high into the air.

His own armour was automatically filtered out the light and noise, the Kromaggs were not so lucky. The Psychic screamed the loudest, Alexander was pleased to note. Not bothering to attempt to untangle his weapon, Alexander activated his stealth field again, and drew his sidearm.

His first shot was to the head of the Kromagg Psychic, turning the product of generations of selective breeding into charbroiled tripe. With careful precision he repeated the process on the remaining Kromagg troopers, one at a time, dealing death with cold fury.

'Time to ditch this place' Alexander thought as he pulled up his fall back transit, as his finger moved to tap the transit macro a blood red warning coalesced into view on his HUD.

WARNING - WARNING - WARNING

ACTIVE TRANS-DIMENSIONAL JAMMING DETECTED

WARNING - WARNING - WARNING

TRANS-DIMENSIONAL TRAVEL NOT RECOMMENDED

WARNING - WARNING - WARNING​

"Fuck" Alexander screamed as a dozen more Kromagg soldiers rushed into the room.